run!

Running Update:

Well, I still love running. Its great.

I finished the winter running series that I started in January. It was hard but it really motivated me. I have now completed a 5K, a 10K, and a 15K race! Pretty neat.

The 10K was my favorite by far. The weather was cold, slightly windy, and foggy. I'm not really sure why, but I was super motivated that day. I ended up running the entire thing without stopping! Yeah, I'm sure some people could walk faster than I ran parts of it, but I never stopped jogging along. It was great and it really made me love running more.

The 15K was miserable. We started the race with clear weather, and then 3 minutes into running, the wind and snow started. It was freezing cold, dark, foggy, and snowy. It snowed about 3 inches or so on the road while we were running. I was so cold for parts of it. I also stopped running the second half. I walked very fast, but I couldn't run. It was so hard and terrible. Every time I started to run again, the snow would blast me in the eyes and I would be blinded by the snow and by my pure hate for Utah. It really was miserable. I think that I will never want to run in the snow again. 

But I got my medal! It was great. It was worth it. If anything, this race series was worth it just so I could finish the races and figure out that I can finish them, even if I don't run really fast. 

What's planned for the future of Mindy's running? I'm hoping to find a half marathon pretty soon to do. I'll have to really train harder. It's been hard to keep up the running during the week. I want to find a marathon to do this summer. And then the 50 in October is still calling my name. Wish me luck and super human abilities.

I sure love running.

5K

A few weeks ago my dad, the legendary ultra runner Davy Crockett, told me about a racing series this month that he was going to do. It started out with a 5K today, a 10K in two weeks, and in four weeks it'll be a 15K. Now, all these races are pretty optimistic for my actual ability, but after thinking about it, I decided to sign up and convinced my roommate Annalie to sign up with me.

Our reasoning behind this is that we need races to keep us going and to keep us motivated to improve. Like I said in my other post, if I quit now it will be so hard to start again, so I'm just never going to stop. I have to keep it up.

Today was our 5K. I was EXCITED all week for this. I knew I could do it, even if I had to stop to walk here and there, and I knew it would be exciting to run with other people. 

We ran at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City. It was a warm 31 degrees this morning. (Warm for me! We have been running in 19 degree weather some days outdoors. I was happy it was so warm.)

Running was good. For the most part. It was a foggy foggy day and I was breathing a lot harder than normal. I ran pretty well! I stopped a few times for about 30 seconds or so, and then kept going. I ended up finishing about 38 minutes or so. Not too bad. I'll try harder next time.

It was fun. I'm excited for the next race in two weeks! Wahoo!

 

 

Obsessed

I found an obsession. 

In a million years I didn't think I would ever get obsessed with running. Wait, a billion years. 

Running and I have never been friends. We've been enemies since I can remember. Those mile runs in elementary school around the playground, playing soccer and the coach making us run a few laps around the field, running drills in basketball. "Fun runs" in jr high. So I picked swimming, a sport that didn't require any running. Until high school, when our team captains loved to torture us with runs. 

I think the farthest I ever ran and pushed myself in high school was a quarter mile. It was an "Indian run" that nearly made me throw up. 

I had knee problems in high school with swimming and so I didn't have to run anymore my senior year. I still worked hard at swimming and swam at state. But I was always so sad that I could never run.

My dad became obsessed with running in 2002 or so. His midlife crisis. Suddenly he was a trail runner and ran crazy distances. I thought he was crazy. I would mention it to friends and people I knew and they were amazed. Sometimes I even met people who read his blog and treated him like some sort of running celebrity.

In college I wanted to try running again. I signed up for the ROTC class and quickly learned that is was possible to throw up while you run. It was hard. I was embarrassed. So I bought a gym pass and tried to work out a couple more times a week in preparation for the Friday runs. I still couldn't do it and I knew I would fail the class, so I dropped out. I failed. It was depressing.

During nursing school, Annalie and I took up running for a bit but started out doing too much too soon and so I hurt my knees and stopped running. I had gotten to the point where I could say that I actually liked to run. But then it was too hard to start up again.

This last October, Annalie and I went to the Pony Express Trail 50 and 100 that my dad puts on. It was fun times camping and cheering. But we were sitting at the finish while people older than us were finishing 50 mile runs. It was inspiring to see how accomplished they felt afterwards and to see their determination. 

Annalie and I joked about running 50 next year. And in the middle of our joking it became a reality and the next week we laced up our shoes and headed out the door, running 45 second intervals to get us up to 10 minutes only four weeks later. 

Now that I have some specific goals and races in mind, like a 5K in a week and a half marathon in June. And of course, the 50 in October. I am obsessed with motivation for racing.

I live and breathe motivation. I'm not sure if its because I'm terrified of not accomplishing my goals. I really want this more than I've wanted anything in a long time. And failing is just not an option. I am not going to get this excited about something and start out with this much momentum and then quit or get set back or fail. I cannot do that. It would be the worst thing. 

I want to run. I want to keep running. I want to be a runner for good. This could be the best thing that has ever happened to me. It feels amazing.

So I'm obsessed. I have to be. I'm so happy at my progress and can't wait to keep going.