Runnin'!

Pretty much every year for my birthday and Christmas I get some cash, and since the two are only a month apart, I customarily hoard the cash until after the holidays so that I can figure out the best way to spend it and not ruin somebody else’s gift plans. This year, after much deliberation, I decided that I was going to invest in some running shoes. I had never, in my life, owned a pair of running shoes; in my mind, this made for a perfect excuse not to run. I was reasonably athletic and owned both court shoes and cleats, so I figured I was good.

Over the last year or two I’ve been inspired by multiple individuals who have done all kinds of cool (or, in my parlance, “crazy”) things as runners. One of them won an ultramarathon while climbing a volcano on Maui. Cool points for winning, cool points for winning on a volcano, crazy points for climbing 10,000 ft. over a 35-mile stretch. Other friends have dropped significant amounts of weight by taking up running. I, on the other hand, was not dropping significant amounts of weight; I was dropping significant amounts of chocolate chip cookies down my gullet. I like to do this. I don’t think that will ever change. Therefore, I needed to come up with a solution that would allow me to continue to feast on cookies and cake (keep in mind that this isn’t just any old cake, either) without becoming a candidate for the Biggest Loser. Given the inspiring feats of my friends, I figured I’d give running a shot.

I eventually bought the shoes and, after a false start with a sore foot, began running when the weather began to be tolerable, around April. When I bought the shoes, I thought maybe I’d take on the Bolder Boulder, but I didn’t really give myself enough time to train for it (I blame the stupid long winter, actually), so that was a non-starter. I ran my first 10K distance on July 2^nd, and two days later ran in our Ward’s 5K fun run. It was, in fact, fun.

After the 4^th of July, I began to think seriously about running a race. I started looking on line for training programs and figured out that I was, serendipitously, on track to train for a half marathon. After finding the two Colorado Half Marathons that don’t happen on Sunday, I determined that I was on pace to compete in the ADT Half Marathon on Labor Day. My parents live in Colorado Springs, so it seemed like a good race to make my first as we could stay the night down there. I did all of the training that Runner’s World online told me to do, though I was never happy with how slow I felt I was doing the long runs. I did enjoy the taper week, when I got to run shorter distances (at faster paces).

Race Day came with a nice crisp morning, but really the weather was perfect for a long, morning run. The most I had run in training was 11 miles, so I really didn’t know how 13.1 was going to pan out. My plan all along was this: I was going to latch on to the designated 2:00 pacer (that is, the guy that committed to pacing racers to run the race in exactly two hours) and see how long I could hang with him. If I was successful in keeping up with him, then I would hope to break away near the end so that I could come in under two hours.

I had absolutely no problem keeping with the pacer (seen in the photo holding the flag). I ran about 20 feet behind him for the first half of the race, then ran right behind him or right next to him from mile 7 to mile 12. We actually conversed for probably three miles, as other runners had gone on ahead or fallen behind. At mile 12, I got excited when I saw the mile marker, looked over to the pacer and realized that I was a few steps ahead of him. This was no doubt the adrenaline, but I figured I’d open it up and see what I could do over the last 1.1 miles. This was, without a doubt, my favorite part of the race. They say you learn something with every race. I learned a ton, but this one point stands out above any other: I really like passing people. Up until that point, all of the training and preparation was basically a competition with myself. While I found my personal improvement and goal setting to be quite satisfying, I must say that there’s a certain je ne sais quoi in smoking someone who’s been running ahead of you. I must have run that last 1.1 miles in about 8 minutes flat, because I beat the pacer by 1:20 and he finished right at a 9:05 pace. That was tremendously satisfying (though it made me wonder how much earlier I could have broken away).

Another point worth mentioning is that my family was hanging out at a park through which the course ran at miles 4.5 and 8.5. This was huge. Seeing them along the way was a big boost--David and Sarah even ran along with me for a minute or two. They were near the finish line waiting for me as well, and David ran with me for another minute or so.

Here’s the most astounding thing about the race: It went exactly according to plan. I envisioned myself keeping with the pacer. I envisioned myself breaking away toward the end. I envisioned myself running the race in 1:58ish. My final time was 1:58:04 (exactly a 9:00 mile pace), and it wasn’t chip-timed, meaning that even though it probably took ten seconds for me to even get to the starting line, that time counted toward my overall time.

The only anticlimactic moment came at the finish line, because I was confused as to where the exact finish line was (in retrospect, I think it was a strip of red tape on the ground)! In the video I raised my arms triumphantly not because I was crossing the finish line at that moment (which, apparently, I was), but because I heard somebody announce my name over the speaker system. Then I saw people stopped ahead of me in the chute and I realized "Oh, I guess I'm done".

My mom and wife were surprised that I didn’t even seem tired after the race. Make no mistake, my legs were sore after the race, but I think I was on such a high from the accomplishment that I didn’t seem drained.

The Saturday after Labor Day, folks from the Parkview Ward held a 5K in which I ran. Even though my legs still were pretty heavy (that lasted about two weeks) from Labor Day, I was thrilled with my time (3 minutes better than I ran the 5K on July 4^th), and I really, really loved passing people. Especially younger people. That’s when I knew I was hooked.

Looking forward, I’d like to run some more races (and pass some more people). I think maybe I’ll do a 10K this fall, then set my sights on smokin’ the Bolder Boulder. After that, who knows? Right now I’m thinking maybe another Half Marathon (Georgetown to Idaho Springs in August?), then maybe doing the ADT again on Labor Day, but this time possibly as a full Marathon. That would involve more training, but I wouldn’t rule it out. At any rate, I’ve got the bug. I’m not going to go insane with it and run ultra marathons or anything along those lines, but for now, I’ll keep on runnin’.