Humbled by the Trail
I ventured out to running club tonight, arriving right on time. Looking back now, the first sign of trouble was when I pulled into the parking ramp. New ticket machines greeted me, "when did this happen?" I yelled out to the parking attendant.
"Six months ago," he replied.
Dang. It's been that long? Same friendly faces and Mr. Mason seemed a bit shocked to see me ("well look who showed up," he said), but lots of new faces, too.
We set out for the run and I was able to keep up and chat with the group for about, well, half a mile. By the time we hit 1 mile I was struggling to keep up with the slowest of the pack. They pulled ahead and I walked. I did. I walked.
A girl came up behind me, "are you okay?" A familiar face! She was with the club run! So I started running again. For a quarter mile. Then I had to let her go ahead. I walked again. And again. I stopped to watch a canoe race (40 canoes!) across Calhoun. I walked again.
The hard part of starting to run again (in my defense I was seriously injured just a mere 2 months ago) is that it's an entirely different kind of fatigue. What I love about running long distances is the feeling you get after when your whole body just aches and you feel so incredibly alive. Today's kind of fatigue was more listless. More, I'd like to sit down now, thanks, and have a nice cup of coffee because this just might be killing me.
So now the decision: train to run Twin Cities with a pace that will keep me from getting picked up by the bus? Ditch it entirely because I can't get a PR? Switch to the half?
"Six months ago," he replied.
Dang. It's been that long? Same friendly faces and Mr. Mason seemed a bit shocked to see me ("well look who showed up," he said), but lots of new faces, too.
We set out for the run and I was able to keep up and chat with the group for about, well, half a mile. By the time we hit 1 mile I was struggling to keep up with the slowest of the pack. They pulled ahead and I walked. I did. I walked.
A girl came up behind me, "are you okay?" A familiar face! She was with the club run! So I started running again. For a quarter mile. Then I had to let her go ahead. I walked again. And again. I stopped to watch a canoe race (40 canoes!) across Calhoun. I walked again.
The hard part of starting to run again (in my defense I was seriously injured just a mere 2 months ago) is that it's an entirely different kind of fatigue. What I love about running long distances is the feeling you get after when your whole body just aches and you feel so incredibly alive. Today's kind of fatigue was more listless. More, I'd like to sit down now, thanks, and have a nice cup of coffee because this just might be killing me.
So now the decision: train to run Twin Cities with a pace that will keep me from getting picked up by the bus? Ditch it entirely because I can't get a PR? Switch to the half?
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