Running Wild

It was a dark (as night is wont to be) and stormy-ish night. It was a slightly lighter, but much stormier morning. The morning of the Crazy Legs Classic dawned full of rain, lighting and thunder. The four of us running woke up and those who drink coffee had some; I had peanut butter toast and water. We dressed and we determined how to put on our single use timing chips on our shoes. We watched the rain pour like so many monsoons. "Are we really doing this?!" "yes."

We drove to downtown Madison and parked. Where we parked made it a 5 or 6 block (long blocks) 'walk' to the capital building. The race started at capital square. We hopped awning to awning to avoid the deluge. "Are we really doing this?!" "yes."

We hunkered in the State Capital building, doing our stretches and taking our potty breaks. The boys found the sweat truck. We were dripped on by many wet racers and spectators as we sat for 20 minutes debating if we were heading outside. "Are we really doing this?" "Yes."

Finally, it was time to go outside, drop the extra clothes bags at the 'sweat truck' and find our place in line to run. The line was long...19000 runners. One of us was running in wave 'S'. The rest of us started in 'll' (yes, they were going through the alphabet for waves, and yes it ended at 'nn', so what!?) It was only drizzling. Then it was only dripping, Then with a "CRASH" and a flash, it was a deluge again. Three of us (those starting later) were able to hide under an awning. our "S" companion was not so lucky. Wet him, lucky us. "Are we really doing this?" "YES!"

Finally, after 30 minutes of starting wave after wave (start of race to us) we are up to the front. No more hiding in the Capital, no more hiding under the awnings. Our shoes are tied, gosh we hoped our timing chips were working. The nice UW atheletes have given us high fives, and there was the start. "Are we really doing this??" "YES! Here we go!!!"

The race was on. Our rain jackets stayed on, because it rained the whole time. The lighting flashed over the lake, the thunder rolled, the pitter-patter of 19,000 pairs of feet running 5 miles teased the thunder, taunted it. It rained harder. Down little hills, up a big one, around the path, and amidst the croud we ran! A few brave souls stood in the rain to cheer us on, mostly race volunteers or Greeks. Those who had houses w/ porch covers were more brave. Some had music. I heard the Rocky Theme played a few times, as well as other songs. The most memorable Rocky Theme came right at the end, with my favorite quote of the race, "Let me see your Rocky Arms!!"

At last, the Stadium! Up a small hill, and down, and around and in. Look - there we are on the Jumbotron! "Ready? Let's finish this!" and across the finish line, hand in hand, we went. The two boys had finsihed long before. Did we care? NO!

The goals: Finish, not be last. We finished..in the hoped for 1 hour time. We were not last We finished int he 10,000s of 19,0000. We were wet. We were cold. We were....triumphant!

Ah, Spring at last

I'm still not feeling 100%, though my 'sick' post was almost 2 weeks ago. I think, now that I look at the calendar, that yes - normal people do take sometimes 2 weeks to get over an upper respiratory thing. Grrr. I hate being normal people! Usually I am sick, and then better, or not sick. It has been a while since a true upper respiratory something whacked me! The chest is still tight, and I think I'll use the inhaler for a while yet before working out. It just makes sense.

I did sign up for the Crazylegs Classic in Madison next weekend (the 25th). Have I been running much in the last two weeks? Nope! Stupid cold! I did try on the 6ths and have a horrid horrid case of hives happen. This past weekend, being Easter, didn't make for much working out. Still, I have a week and one weekend, I'll get in at least 3 more runs of various lengths before the 'big event'. At least I have gone the distance recently, and know I can. Slow and steady may not win the race, but it gets it finished, and (hopefully) without a giant case of hives during!

Tonight is the official start to summer sports, with the first softball practice. We'll be playing on 1-2 softball teams this year, and one golf league. Additionally there will be climbing 2 nights a week (or on the weekend), and perhaps even some waterskiing. Also the yardwork. This makes for lots of time spent in the out of doors, not a bad thing. SOMEWHERE in all that I'll need to make my 12 times a month at the Y. Daunting, but I should be in good shape by September! The last two weeks have been slacking off w/ the eating healthy and the working out at regular intervals. I'd blame Easter and being sick, but those are just conditions, symptoms, whatever of my underlying problem. In a nutshell - I'm tired. I need to recharge the batteries. Adding new activities, while it will make my body more tired, means I'll be outside again, and that always makes me more energetic. It also means less time at home, and with the friends who don't participate in said activities, but I'll work to make time, be in on 'free' nights or weekends, so I don't lose touch. I'll have to fight the urge to just hide on nights where nothing is going on...but I'll work on that, too.

Starting in May, I need to ramp up my studying for my professional certificate. So...if there is anyone out there who likes going to coffee shops, bookstores, or just setting up study nights, let me know!! I need encouragement, and someone else being there, working on something else - with occasional breaks will help. I can't study ALL my sessions in that fashion, but I can definately do some. I'll be testing in October/November timeframe, and by the end of august I'll be studying 2 nights a week and part of a weekend. Plenty of opportunities :)

Sick

This whole being sick thing - does NOT agree w/the training schedule. I'm doing the Crazy Legs Classic w/ Karin on April 25th weekend. This means I should be running at least 3 times a week...have I been this last week? NO! I've walked twice, and climbed once, but no running. Why? Because I'm sick. The achey, stuffy head, sore throat kind of sick. The worst part is I have had no day I can take a sick day for this kind of sick. I would have in a heart beat if I had no meetings (b/c I am rather not happy to be feeling this way and want to sleep and get better). Unfortunately I had a meeting each day that was a 'miss only if you are dying, near death, or so contagious everyone will hate you' type). Therefore, to work I went, and by the end of the day, a serious workout was not going to happen.

Tonight I took the night off of working out. Did some training with the boys (see their site) and made dinner. Now, I think I'm to bed!