I will not hide my tastes or aversions. I will so trust that what is deep is holy, if we follow the truth, it will bring us out safe at last. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Think of a time when you didn’t think you were capable of doing something, but then surprised yourself. How will you surprise yourself this week?
You want to know something about me? I don’t run, ever! Running is my Kryptonite. The reason I have such a problem with it is:
- I have bad knees
- I have a bad back
- I hate it
- It makes me feel like death
- It just plain sucks…
So you can imagine what I was thinking when my beautiful girlfriend says “Greg, __ and __ want us to join them in the Redlegs Run. Of course, me being the guy that I am I tell her “okay!” This is also when I had JUST received my new Nike+ Running System and I thought I would use it all the time….not so much.
“Training..”
Now, here I am donning my brand new Nike Shox (which I do love), my new iPod Nano and my Nike+ hitting the gym just about every day for about…oh…2 weeks (maybe 3). I was utilizing the Coach/Training program that the system had suggested for running a 10k to make sure I had some stamina for the races. Oh yeah, did I mention we registered for BOTH the 10k and 5k…
Needless to say, my training didn’t go well…
Closer to the Race…
Sarah starts hitting me with the “you should probably start running so you are ready for the race!” I just shrugged it off and said I’d be fine. She was running about 2 miles 3-4 times a week, whereas I just wanted to lounge around after getting off of work.
Honestly, she was right I should have worked harder for the race.
The Night Before and Race Day…
Friday before the race I headed out to my parent’s house to drop off some of my non-essential running gear and spent some time with my dad. He asked me “are you ready for the race?” I immediately replied, “heck no, I’m just gonna give it my best.”
Later that evening, I headed over to Sarah’s parents house and right before bed I tweeted out (after taking some Alieve and using IcyHot on my back and knee):