running in secret

when i started running, i needed the peer pressure to help keep me motivated. i needed this blog. i needed my brother. knowing that my family and/or friends might check in to see how i was (or wasn't) progressing in my training kick-started my motivation when i felt it begin to flag.

since that time, i've been on and off the running wagon more times than i care to count, due to either injury or inertia. but i keep coming back. because it is simple (in a way), basic, effective. because it is therapeutic and meditative. because it helps me challenge and push myself, and we all could do with more personal challenges. because it always ends up feeling good, even when i hate every step along the way.

while i continued jogging - in fits and starts, i stopped blogging. i guess i didn't have confidence in my commitment to keep running, and seeing my fits and starts laid out as sporadic is a nice way of putting it blog posts made me feel shitty. shittier than the not running. so i stopped writing about it altogether.

i thought about trying to detach the blog from the jog, or starting a new blog entirely, but, well. hello lazy, good to see you uninspired, have a seat can't be bothered.

so. i ran the Shamrock Run 8K a few weeks ago, and did better than i thought i expected to. i'm running Bloomsday in a few weeks. a nasty post-Shamrock cold kept me from my Bloomsday training longer than i would have liked it to, so i'm feeling a little behind, slow and sluggish. but finishing the 8K Shamrock gave me the confidence to know i can run Bloomsday.

it might not be pretty, but it is possible.

today, i had a good run, somewhere between three and four miles. right now, i have a belly full of flat iron steak fajitas. from outside, i can hear the songs of frogs and crickets and smell lilacs.

i think i want some tea.

starting over

i never quite running entirely, i just stopped doing it regularly. so every month, it seemed, i would start over. but it never stuck. there were injuries. first the arches. i never really got my groove back after the arch problem. much later, in early spring 2009, sciatica struck. good LORD, that was painful. and it felt like it went on and on and on. with the help of my chiro, some good books (sciatica solutions, and healing back pain), and a great yoga DVD (thank you, Rodney Yee!) i was able to slowly work myself back to a pain free exitstence.

life got in the way, too. being laid off, starting a new job, moving house. naturally, i could have run all the way through all of that, and would have been the better for it. but i kept finding reasons not to lace up my shoes.

well, i've run out of reasons. so here i go.

sprung

today was a perfect spring day. the kind of day that makes you feel like you're in love, even if you aren't. when you breath deeply the sweet air, it fills your heart before it touches your lungs.

that's spring in portland.

i gots me some new kicks, and i'm quite enjoying them. they are plus enabled - i, however, am not. i'm probably the only nike employee who doesn't have nike+. in that i haven't been able to keep my nano charged, a fat lot of good it would do me anyway.

i've been running consistently the past couple weeks. some have been harder than others, but i've felt strong and recovered quickly. however i haven't done any long runs, or hills. so i think that is on the agenda for this weekend.

earlier in the evening, i took a walk up to mt. tabor park. i just had to be outside. i followed the dirt and gravel paths through majestic firs, and walked around the hundred year old stone reservoirs. there it is, our drinking water - ensconced in this ancient, extinct volcano. with a couple of ducks bobbing on it. the fountain in the lower reservoir was spouting toward the salmon-colored sky like a breaching whale, or a coast guard cutter during the rose festival.

this weekend's long, hilly run will be up there... break out of my routine of running the neighborhoods of northeast portland - irvington, sullivan's gulch, alameda, alberta and laurelhurst. time to cheat on my familiar birches, willows, oaks, maples and chestnut trees with some big, beefy towering firs.

picture is of a tiny flower behind my apartment, right after a spring rain.

bees do it...

snapped this bit of insect-porn right outside my apartment. do they have NO SHAME??!

so i took the week off running, and by the end of the week i was actually craving a run. today i went running in shorts and short sleeves... it smelled absolutely beautiful outside. i'm looking forward to training for bloomsday - and would like to improve my time. this week, yoga has to be a priority - my hips are feeling stiff. it it unbelievable how much of a difference it makes to my running to mix in yoga on a regular basis.

but the purpose of this post is really to give HUGE GIANT PROPS AND CLOUDS OF SPARKLY CONFETTI to my cousin boofy for his outstanding performance in The Big Climb. his goal was to finish in 12 minutes - which would have been a new personal best. but he blew past that and finished in 11:33 - smashing his old best time by nearly a minute!! congratulations, boof - well done!!

thank you and goodnight!!

shoes are the answer

i'm not sure how they'll effect the iraq war, but i certainly need new running shoes.

results have been posted! i am very proud of myself. without much training, i beat my bloomsday time. finishing the 15K in 1:31 running 9.48 minute miles. no speed demon, but an improvement. and kenny? well, he's just SICK - finishing in just over an hour and running 6.44 minute miles. you heard me. 6.44.

what i love are the pics of my brother. now, they did get a couple of me, and as you can see i was plodding and appear to be in measureable amounts of pain. kenny, however, looks like some kind of sports model on X - couldn't be more excited or motivated! love that second to last one - shanna said he was talking a little good-natured smack to the other runners as he was finishing the race! my brother, the smack-talking distance runner...

enjoy the pics and we'll see ya at bloomsday. hopefully i'll post a little more this time. and i supposed i could set a new personal goal for bloomsday, since last years goal was simply finishng... i could do something silly and aim to run the course in 9.3 minute miles or less. cut a minute off my last year's time or somesuch nonsense. hm. hmmmmmmm.

hold music

i just read on the shamrock run website that results won't be posted until march 31.

MARCH 31??!!

low-tech? try no-tech. methinks they're using sundials and short-term memory to figure this out. hope they remembered to set their sundial forward.

so, until the results are posted, please enjoy this hold music. and since this isn't an audio blog, the hold music shall come in the form of pictures of my CAT!!! YES! just what the world needs! another CAT BLOG - YAAAAAY!

earning the right to RELAX!

kenny grabbed me after the race, as we were waiting for our post-race breakfast at bijou, eyes wide and sparkling with an excited, nearly manic grin on his face, "can you believe this, sister?! two years ago could you have imagined we'd be doing this?!!"

nope, brother. and i still can't believe it.

a year ago about this time, kenny convinced me to train with him for the bloomsday race in spokane. after my initial hesitation (massive understatement), his enthusiasm wore me down, and i jumped at the chance to share a new experience with my brother. one year later, we're both still running. unbelievable, for me. granted, he's kicking my ass, but it isn't about who's faster. (unless i was faster, then it would be ALL about who's faster). it is about accomplishing goal after goal after formerly unimaginable goal. and doing that with my brother.

i'm one lucky girl.

today, i met kenny, shanna, penny (shanna's mom) and hai at waterfront park. a few months ago, i'd thrown down the gauntlet: shamrock run - 15K. sure, we could have done the 5K or the 8K. but no, it was 15K or nothing. one would think the "i've never run that far in my life" distance would serve as enough motivation to kick my training into high gear. not so much. i ran, but i didn't train with the diligence i'd trained for the bloomsday. and suddenly, march 11 was upon me - one bloody hour earlier than expected.

thank you, congress, for the early wake up call. i've read the energy saving is a crock of shit.

i digress.

the weather - warm. muggy warm. with some seriously gusty wind. the wind concerned me. i'm no weather whimp - i'll run in below freezing temps, rain, snow... but wind? wind is my kryptonite. i loathe running in wind. my hope was that the route up terwilliger would be protected by the trees. i'd never run up terwilliger before, and i didn't think a headwind was going to enhance my enjoyment of the experience.

time to gather for the start. we made our way to naito parkway (the start had been moved there from the under construction burnside bridge) in time to watch some wee ones finish a race around the block. the drama - it was like pee-wee chariots of fire! kenny gave me a quick hug and kiss and made his way to the front, leaving me with hai and co., whom i immediately lost as the mass started surging forward.

the first bit of the race was a twist through old town and up burnside. then, we started the slog up broadway. this is where i first felt the wind. the grade wasn't horrendous, but coupled with the wind, i wondered how wise this 15K thing was. and i was only in mile 2. go me.

terwilliger came into view. i could see people rounding the switchback and heading up the hill. jesus on a blini, are you kidding me? there was a water station at the base of the hill - i grabbed a paper cup, drank a little, spit out a lot, tossed my cup in the garbage and headed up the hill w/o breaking stride. it was hot - muggy, but the wind wasn't too bad. my pace slowed to a crawl. seriously, i can walk faster than i was running, but i wanted to keep running. and keep running i did. and an odd thing happened - about halfway up, i felt a burst of energy. it felt doable for the first time. now, i still had a bunch of uphill to go, and the wind was blasting me back on occasion, but for the first time i really felt i could make it up this hill. i think the hill ran from mile 2 to about mile 5 or so, maybe a little less. and in the middle, there are a couple of glorious spots where the hill levels out. enough to give a girl a break. eventually, i passed a couple cheering on the side of the road as i was reaching the apex of another hill, and they informed me that this was the last uphill bit. that was it, i'd done it. the rest would be gravy, right?

sure. if gravy were made of burning, aching leg muscles and the sting of new blisters forming between toes. then yes, gravy.

the rest was down hill, or at least level. but it was by no means easy. my body was sending me messages. things like "hey, idiot, enough with the running. feet and legs are getting really ouchy, and butt would like immediate contact with couch." however, my mind - good lord, my mind wouldn't hear any of that noise. mind told butt that feet and legs dragged its sorry ass all the way up that damn hill, and that feet and legs, while indeed ouchy, still had a good 4 miles left in them. butt, my mind said, will have full couch, tub and bed access for the remainder of the day, so for right now butt should just SHUT IT.

so, all body parts in relative agreement, we continued on. running barbur blvd. and dropping down onto naito parkway. as we did so the 8K and the 15K streams merged, and i was treated to the feeling that i was beating some 8K folks, who had started after me! i know, i know - some of them had most likely walked for part of the course, but still - it gave me a little extra boost of pride. i was also cutting into my time a bit. up the hill i was at about 10.2 minute miles, and in the last three miles i had cut that back down to 10. not a huge improvement, but it was something.

the finish line. i could see it. it felt far away. and it didn't seem to be getting any closer. i didn't have much left in the tank for a kick, so i did the landmark thing - hawthorne bridge... morrison bridge... tents... people... and then i hear "HEATHER!" and look over to see shanna and penny smiling and waving! and then? i crossed the finish line. just like that. i was done. and i had done it - i'd run the whole 15K.

no sweat, right?

i'll post results when i have them. and the pic is of my feets, soaking in the tub...