5Ks and other fun stuff

Well I forgot how much fun running can be!

I know, I know. That probably sounds a lot like, "Wow, I forgot how much having a root canal with no anesthesia can be!"

But it's true. When everything "clicks", running is just...joyous. I had completely forgotten that in all the chaos of the past eight months or so.

Last week, when I was into my 2nd week of my couch-to-Bay-To-Breakers-12K program that I made up for myself, I was seriously wondering if I had completely lost my mind. I have been starting slow, doing run/walk intervals. In my past running life, that meant run 2 miles, walk a minute. My new goal was to simply run for three minutes, after which I would reward myself with 30 seconds of walking.

Oh, and that run? Yeah. It was at a 5 mph pace, which is a 12-minute mile. That's my former "I'm dilly-dallying" or "I'm running 20 miles today so I'm taking it easy" pace. (Whine!)

Was it a "taking it easy pace" last week? Heck no! It was almost an all-out, do-it-or-die sprint!

That's how fast you lose your running mojo. Three months and wham, I'm back to being a beginner.

But wait? What glimmer of hope was that? I ran a 5K one day, and 4 miles two days later.

I know, I know. I had to walk 1 1/2 minutes of every darned mile, but I did it. I put in the mileage.

Fast-forward to St. Patrick's Day. Despite it being a "Baby Gymnastics" day, I didn't dare take Karalyn to the YMCA child care center. She was still too sick. So I had to wait until Kent got home, at which time I dashed off to do a quick hour on the treadmill.

See what I mean? An hour on the treadmill. And I'm treating it like a "quick hour" running.

That's how fast the running bug bites you.

So anyway, I realized that if I intended to get everyone fed and to bed on time, I really only had about 40 minutes, plus driving time, but I thought I might be able to get a 5K out of it. I started two weeks ago with 2 minute run/30 second walk intervals; last week, I went to 3 minute run/30 second walk. Naturally, this week, I went to 4 minute run/30 second walk.

I was prepared to die on that treadmill. Last week I was seriously dying, slogging through those three minutes, watching the clock, counting each 60 seconds, thinking there had to be something wrong with my watch interval timer. I scraped through by my fingernails, and worried about what this week would bring.

So I got on the treadmill, hit the button to start my 12 min/mile pace, and went at it. 4 minutes run, 30 seconds walk.

2 miles in, I'm thinking, what's going on here? I didn't get it. I wasn't nearly as winded as I had been last week. I was flying right along, barely noticing until the timer beeped that it was time to do the walk. I seriously debated running through the intervals but decided to do it the right way. But after 2 miles, I kept thinking, "This should be harder."

I was flying! It was slow, but I had that "flying" feeling back, just like I used to get on my favorite five-mile run, the Presidential Loop in Kennebunkport, Maine.

Like the running was effortless.

Light.

Fun!

So, being the glutton for punishment that I am, I upped the speed. I thought, "I should be working harder here. I'm not nearly winded enough." (I'm such a dork!) So I bumped it up to a 10 minute 56 second-per-mile pace, with 4 minutes run/30 seconds walk.

That felt a little tougher, but even that wasn't quite enough. I did another mile, and thought, for the last tenth, I'll just bump it up to a ten-minute-per-mile pace for the last tenth.

My vanity got the best of me; after a tenth of a mile, I thought, "That was it?" and ran another tenth.

My Personal St. Patrick's Day 5K turned into a 5K-Plus-1/10th-mile run!

Time? 38:56.

No, it was definitely not blazingly fast, but better than, oh, say, three weeks ago when I wasn't running AT ALL.

But in the meantime, I discovered this visceral joy in running. It was so easy and effortless that I was watching Oprah and not even noticing the time go by. I was tempted to say that Oprah was just too distracting--and yes, medical mistakes CAN be quite distracting--but nothing is THAT distracting when you're having a hard run.

It's when it's easy that I lose myself and feel like I could run forever.

I went home afterwards, and longingly looked at the Honolulu Marathon website. I kept thinking, "I ran 20 miles. I was going to do San Francisco, but then the move from hell happened, and I never did it...I knew when I did that 20 miler that I could have definitely done six more. I nearly did then. I wish I had...but that's OK. Now, I want to do THIS marathon!"

I blurted it out to Kent. "Hon, I want to do the Honolulu Marathon. It's the one I really wanted to do. It was my first goal. I think I want to go for it this year."

His reaction?

"OK."

...Oh. OK then! We're on!

My new goal: December 13, 2009: The Honolulu Marathon. It'll give me a chance to go back to my old stomping grounds. I haven't been there since that summer of 1982. It's been so long. I want to see the old apartment complex, and walk my favorite walk from Kapiolani Park down to the Hale Koa hotel. I want to check out Ala Moana, and take the tram at Pearlridge. And I want to smell all the plumeria I can get my hands on. They're still one of my favorite flowers.

It's my goal. I am already checking out flights, and now I simply need either to reserve a room at a hostel, or find someone to go with me to split the hotel costs. Kent is willing to stay with the girls, although perhaps our parents can watch them and we can go together. It's a thought.

But this time, I'm not going to stress over whether I can go fast enough to beat 5 hours. I will train to complete it; if I break 5 hours, great. If not, I just want to finish it. It's a better goal for a marathon "virgin" anyway.

Anyway, this morning, since Kara was better and I didn't feel like I'd subject other kids to her cold, I planned to go to the Y to do weight training and then simply walk for a bit, but after almost an hour of Cybex (including a very humbling assisted-weight pullup session lasting for exactly THREE pullups), I got on the treadmill and soon was doing what I call "reverse intervals", with 2 minutes' walking and 30 seconds in an all-out sprint.

I used to do these on a six-minute-per-mile pace; the best I could scrape out was an 8-minute-per-mile pace today. It was tough, but I had a good time with it.

Tomorrow, more running on tap. I think I'll aim for another four miles. I am hopeful that I'll have another "flying" day, but if there is one thing I have found in running, it is that the days you expect to be easy rarely are; and sometimes, the days you expect to be the most impossible end up being the kind of days you live for.

Have a lovely day, and here's to an even better tomorrow...we hope!