Saturday, March 12, 2011

A Marathoner's Idea of "A Lot of Exerice"

The thing about marathoners is that we tend to eschew the normally accepted definiton of what's considered a lot of exercise.  We are the kind of crazy that people find both inspiring and a tad annoying.  Never could this be truer than today.

I went to bed last night with a belly full of pasta and every intention of running 17 miles from the Bob Roncker's Newport store.  However, something kept bothering me.  I got an email earlier in the day from one of the training program coaches that vaguely indicated that some of the 10:30-11:00 minute pace group runners were considering starting out earlier than the 7:00 start time.  Upon reading that, I thought to myself, should I go and try to meet them at 6:30?  What if I show up and it's only the runners who are slower than me?  Then I will be running all by myself.  Should I wait and see who shows up at 7:00?  Again, if all of my pace group met earlier, I'd still have to run all by myself.  And while I try not to rely on pace groups too much, I still like the safety of knowing there's someone in front of me and someone behind me.  Like a running sandwich, if you will.

I woke up with the intention of going to the Newport store at 7:00 and just seeing what happens.   I knew that the Ohio group (also meeting at 7:00) would have plenty of runners who would be both slower and faster than me, but they were running a little less mileage (16ish) and running a route with which I was unfamiliar. Still, I wavered.  I started to drive to the Newport store, but I made a last split-second decision and passed the exit and headed up to the Ohio meeting spot.

The run from Ohio turned out to be a good choice.  I felt so good toward the end of the run that I tacked on some extra mileage to make it a full 17-miler, which is what the Newport gang was doing.  I headed home with a smile on my face, proud that after way too much flip-flopping, I finally made a decision and that decision produced a great run for me.

Getting back to the point of this post, it appears I forgot to mention that after my little 17-mile jaunt, I had agreed to participate in a Zumbathon for charity at 5 p.m.  Yeah, not my best decision, but I made it through it with no problem.  I taught two songs, which the organizers mercifully placed toward the beginning (thanks Danielle!), and I taught and danced for about an hour before calling it a night.  While it certainly didn't kill me, the way my legs feel right now is definitive proof that the human body is not meant to run 17 miles and follow it up with an hour of high-impact aerobic dance.  But I'm a marathoner, so I'm kinda crazy that way.

Long story short, it's wine time:

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are definitely hardcore!! And I am glad your running group worked out the way you wanted. I all about the running sandwich too! I don't like to be last but I prefer someone ahead of me too. Good job on the long run and zumbathon!!

homemom3 said...

Wow, you are doing excellent. I'm no where near that but can totally understand the need to have someone running in front and in back just in case...it is just safer that way. Sounds like even though it was a workout, it was fun at the same time.