Ahhhh It’s Monday, and Monday’s ALWAYS arrive too quickly
after a weekend. I’m sure we all hear
that every Monday, but it’s true J
I’ve realized I slacked a little bit towards the end of last
week on the blog, so I have some catching up to do. I have been on a running spell, so it’s been
nice to feel like I’m getting somewhere with all this.
Wednesday-
I had this day off of work (Due to a state holiday in WV)..So I was excited to
be able to run at a different time in the day to switch up my routine. However, I got myself out the door around
9:30am and it was already HOT (I believe temperatures topped around almost 100
degrees this day)…. So a battle of the
heat was on. Mom said I was crazy when I
was talking to her on the run, however when she told dad he didn’t pick a side
of who was right (Me or Mom) about running at the time…he knows better by now
to pick sides. J I ran about 6 miles today just for the pure
mental power of saying I ran 6 miles in heat of that sort. (Yes I’m well aware some refer to that as
stupid)
Thursday-
I held off running till later this evening to beat the heat for 2 days in a
row. I didn’t add the extra “Loop” this
evening so the run was probably only about 5 ½ miles.
Friday- I
took this day off… honestly I have a knee issue that still tends to act up at
times from a stress fracture in college…so I don’t want to flare it up this
early on and it was really bothering me this morning, so a little ice pack it
is. (Oh the college injury excuse) J
Saturday- Back at it…and ran about 6 miles and looped
around to get the mail down the road a bit to add a little bit more to this
run. It was another little bit hotter of
a day, I suppose it makes you feel like your accomplishing more with the extra
challenge.
Sunday- Brock road the bike with me today so I was
hoping to get just a little bit more in today with the extra time we had. It’s funny when I find myself talking to
myself in my head about wanting to turn around and then making myself go “one
more tree” up before turning around just to think I pushed myself a little
further than I first thought. I ran
probably between 6 ½- 7 miles today.
I promised myself on the cold days
I wouldn’t complain about the hot days…so I’m zipping my lips. I suppose that’s one blessing of living in an
area of season changes…with this journey taking time, I’ll be battling the best
of all seasons. I have to laugh…there
are many moments I find myself in a “head game” with my own self. I think I wanted to run during the not recommended times of the day
sometimes just to prove to myself I did it even when it was a little hard. Dad always said (and many other famous people/quotes)
You never know what race conditions will be one day, so you have to train for
all elements. Now, me saying the word “race”
scares me a little bit. I’m trying to
tell myself to complete this marathon, not race it…..as soon as it becomes real
competitive I know I can obsessively get involved with it to want to be the
best and for this, I’m just wanting to focus on the journey. I guess I still feel a slight panic as if I
won’t be ready…as if this race is coming up next week. I even get nervous seeing the ticker on the blogger
page and even though it says 131 days till the race, I feel like it’s coming up
sooooo soon. I feel like I should be
running 15-20 miles each day already.
I remember when we were in high
school and a group of us decided to run the Parkersburg Half Marathon. With cross country being in season many told
us not to “race it”…just “get the run in”.
So we decided we’d pretty much run the race together…but we wanted to
embrace the atmosphere as if we were “fast”.
We kept sneaking up further and further into the mile pace time at the start
of the race to see if we could get close to the Kenyan’s who were the race winning
contenders (and to try to make it on TV).
I think we goofed off part of the race just enjoying the miles. At one water stop I remember us laughing
about something and some lady being mad and saying if we had that much energy
then we should pick up the pace and run faster.
(I think she was just hitting a wall at the time maybe) J Most other runners whom we were running next
to would strike up a conversation and ask where we were from and exchange a
little conversation before moving along.
I do have to say, I’ve always loved
the “runners world”. I’ve played my
share of sports, and it is within the world of runners there is an unspoken level
of respect. We may be competing against
one another, but to be at the stage of competing against one another we realize
how hard we both had to work to get to that level. I think when it was runners vs. runners I pretty
much was friends with the groups who was usually in the packs with us (high
school as well as college). Now
basketball…. Not so much J In high school basketball was a bit of a rivalry
a little bit and some players seemed to not like the others no matter what as
much….but in college I think it’s safe to say my coach would tease and tell me
to use my running ability to run the other way from a few rivalry’s between
schools and player positions.
It’s all in good humor, but running is what
taught me the most self discipline. I
know if I didn’t log my miles, it would be myself that would suffer the
most. Getting up earlier in the morning
on vacation to get your run in before the day activities got started (as well
as the heat), morning runs, late night runs.
There were always sacrifices to be made, but you had to determine first
what we wanted to achieve out of life and make the sacrifices according to
that, otherwise maybe it isn’t worth it to you.
Dad had lots of those talks with me through high school. There were many times there was something I
thought I was really missing out on because I had a AAU tournament or game one
weekend, but I realize everything always worked out and there was a good
balance of goals and play. I’d met some
of my best friends through AAU basketball who had a lot of the same dreams I
had and a group of girls that were going through the same sacrifices as me that
helped me understand it is worth it.
So thank you dad, for helping me
realize that my life wouldn’t end because I missed something at the time I
thought was the biggest event ever J Values change over time, but we keep learning
things from each stepping stone. I’ve
realized so much through this that not every tiny thing has to be perfect….because
in life…..things could always be worse, I just wish it didn’t take this battle
you fight every day for me to realize it.
Some people never realize just how good they have it till they realize
someone so close to them has it so much worse.
I think twice now before I complain about something to second guess if
it’s really worth complaining about.
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Dad with some of his high school football teamates at a reunion...Sherman High School
(Dad is the one on the far right 2nd row, blue t-shirt)
Dad went on to earn a scholarship to WVU to play football as well as later transferred to Glenville to play Football & Baseball on a scholarship.
Through high school dad made many sacrafices to get to practices etc so he could give himself the opportunity to attend college and play sports. |
