Celebrating Who I Am Today

Today is my 31st birthday.  I decided to change a little the way I celebrate my birthday this year; I decided to celebrate WHO I am today, who I have become: a runner.

In the past year, year and half, I have joined several running groups here in Richmond, and have become good friends with some fellow runners.  While out on a mid-week run with some friends a few weeks ago, one of them mentioned how much fun we had back in April when we met for a run along the James River one Sunday morning.  I knew that I wanted to celebrate my birthday in a different way this year, not just the same dinner and drinks with friends, so when this runner friend mentioned that it got me thinking: hey, my birthday is coming up in a few weeks, and it's on a Sunday.  Wouldn't an easy run with friend be a great way to celebrate?

So this morning, 6 of us met at Tredegar for my birthday run.  We started the run by jogging across the suspension bridge to Belle Isle, then ran the trail that loops around the island.  We regrouped at the end of the loop, and after throwing some ideas around about where to run next, I decided that we would run back across the suspension bridge, then head to Brown's Island and along the canal walk.  The boys decided to continue on to The Dairy Bar Restaurant (where I had decided we would meet for a post-run breakfast), so us girls continued on.  It was a gorgeous day: sunny, warm (but not hot).  Once we got to the end of the canal walk, I was going to suggested turning around and going back, but then Becky mentioned the pipeline, so I decided that we should head there.  I have not run the pipeline in about a year.  For those Richmonders that have never done it, you should, it's really cool.  You literally walk or run on top of the pipe that runs above the James River; when the river gets high, the pipeline is closed off because it is under the river.

As we got closer to where the railing on either side of the pipeline ended, I noticed that a heron was sitting on the pipeline, just chilling.  We crept closer and closer.  We were able to get quite close to it, about 5 or 6 feet, and then it flew off.

Once we got to the end of the pipeline we had a dilemma: the river was still flowing over the pipeline at the part closest to Brown's Island, so we decided it was best to just turn around and head back the way we came.  We walked back along the pipeline, then jogged back along the canal walk back to our cars.

After the 4.6 mile run, we headed over to The Dairy Bar Restaurant, which I had heard has great breakfast food (and milkshakes, which unfortunately I can't have).  When we arrived at the restaurant, we saw that it was closed.  There was a sign on their door that said that they were closed all weekend due to the the Memorial Day holiday.

After some discussion, we decided to head to Galaxy Diner, since Brian was set on getting milkshakes.  We all enjoyed a delicious post-run breakfast there, and discussed who's birthday is next so we could plan the next birthday run and the start of marathon training, which starts in 1 week (eek!).

Thank you Amy, Becky, Brian, Mike, and Sandy for joining me on my birthday run.  What a great way to celebrate my birthday and who I am today!!

Starting from Zero

Before starting this blog, I debated with myself whether or not I should.  The main reason that I was hesitant about starting a blog is that I am a shy, private person; I don't feel comfortable sharing my deep thoughts and feelings.  However, in order to truly document my entire journey, I must be brutally honest.....about the good AND the bad.  If at some point, my honesty helps someone else in their journey, then going out of my comfort zone is worth it.

Brutal Honesty

So why did I title today's blog post as "Starting from Zero"?  Because I am back to square one mileage-wise in my running.  As tends to happen to me between times when I'm officially training for a race, I fell off the wagon and stopped running.  Some of it is due to just life getting in the way (I had a sinus infection during/after the Monument 10K which put me out of commission for running for about 3 weeks, then things at work got hectic as I was preparing for being out of town for 4 days and missing 2 days of work because of that); but the major reason I tend to fall off the running wagon between race training seasons is that I don't have that structure that I have during training.  While I have learned a lot in the almost 2 years since I started running again, I tend to second-guess myself when I have to decide how many miles I should run and I'm not as motivated to run as I am when I'm following a plan.

Yesterday morning was really the first time I had run since the Monument 10K on March 29, 2014.  I had gone for a run with some friends along the pipeline near the James River on April 13, 2014, but I had just finished the antibiotics for my sinus infection and the pollen was still raging, so thanks to my asthma I ended up only running about 10% of the distance that we went; I walked the other 90%.  What finally kicked my butt in gear yesterday is that marathon training starts in 3 weeks, and I haven't kept up my mileage, so I'm scared that I won't be ready when the training starts.  Yesterday morning I worked out at the Pocahontas Middle School track with some other runners, as part of a group that meets the weeks between training seasons to work on keeping up with running and increasing core strength.  This group was started by Coach Dan Blankenship, who is the Head Coach for the Sportsbackers' 8K and 10K training teams.  While we call it a bootcamp, it's not your typical boot camp; we usually run a few laps around the track, then go through a circuit of core exercises and lunges, then run some more laps, and then do the core exercise circuit.  Because I have not kept up with running, my running stamina has decreased a lot; therefore, my leg muscles are super sore today from yesterday's run.  My goal over the next 3 weeks is to run 3-4 times each week, about 3-5 miles each workout.  The closer the days get to marathon training starting, the more nervous I feel.

If the shoe fits

Today I did something else in preparation for marathon training: I went to Lucky Foot, a local running specialty store here in Richmond, to make sure that the running shoes I have been wearing so far are the correct ones for me.  One of the gentlemen working there today, Blair, spent over an hour helping me (turns out that Blair is one of the Marathon Training Team coaches).  Blair first took a look at my current running shoes, at the wear pattern on the soles, and my orthotics.  Then, he put me in a pair of neutral shoes and had me run on the short track behind the wall in the store so he could see what my feet do as I run (assess my gait).  First he had me run without my orthotics, then with them.  Blair was happy to inform me that my gait is very neutral, and that I was pretty much wearing the correct shoes, but he wanted me to try one some other shoes to compare.  Turns out that my current shoes are no longer being sold by Asics (I have been wearing the Asics Gel Cumulus 14), and their latest version (the Gel Cumulus 16) was a bit narrower in the toes.

So I tried on some other shoes; some I like right away and others I didn't as soon as I took them for a quick run around the store.  The shoes I ended up liking the best, to the surprise of Blair, were the Mizuno Wave Rider 17, because in those I felt the most cushioning, even under my toes, whereas in the other shoes that I tried there was similar cushioning but not in the toe area.

Blair not only helped me find the correct shoe for me, but also answered any questions I asked:
What is a neutral shoe? (it has to do with the support under the arch on the sole of the shoe)
How many pairs of shoes will I need throughout marathon training? (about 3)

While I didn't buy any new running shoes today, I now know which shoes to buy next so that I can start budgeting for it (and share it with my family since my birthday is in 2 weeks).  Here's to hoping that I'll be prepared enough in 3 weeks for marathon training!