Running: Curing Cases of the 'Blah's' Since 1970

Let's talk running.

First let's talk about some SUPER exciting news.  Did you hear that Nuun is sponsoring a few more Hood to Coast teams this year?  If you're female and you have an active blog, it's time to start thinking about your application - go apply!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE Hood to Coast and also LOVE LOVE LOVE Nuun (pick me plleeasseee) so I've got to get to work on my application!

Second, I signed up for another race this weekend.  Sigh.  Yeah yeah yeah, I know I promised I was going to get through the many races I'm ALREADY signed up for before signing up for more.  But a new Groupon-style site called Zozi featured a $29 deal on the November Amica Seattle Half Marathon.  I have only done this race once, in 2003 when I was not a runner, did not train, and as you can guess, it did not go well.  So I wouldn't mind another shot at it, but promising away one of my precious 4-day weekend days (it's on Thanksgiving weekend) is always more than I can handle.  But I'm an incredible sucker, $29 for a $70 (plus processing fees!) race?  Yes somehow it is a deal even if I wasn't planning on buying it!  The deal might still be live if you're interested and want to come run with me!  DO IT!

 

I absolutely do not recommend running a half marathon without training for it.  Or without running... ever.  Yep, that's JMan, Jordanne, and I.  9 years later and we're still going strong.  Yes that is a bandana. 

Third, on Sunday I was feeling extremely blah.  I slept terribly Saturday night (I didn't get home from my tennis match until 11:30pm and then I was worried about zombies robbers because I'm quite the scairdey cat) and was just dragging.  I laid around on the couch and watched a billion episodes of Switched at Birth.  Don't even pretend like ABC Family shows like this and Make It or Break It aren't awesome.

The annoying thing about this show is it's hard to know what's going on if you're not really paying attention since there's so much reading of the translation from sign language.  And in case you weren't aware, I rarely pay attention!

So I finally dragged myself out the door around 2pm.  My weekend running was all messed up since I ran the St. Patty's Day race the day before which was only 4 miles, so I decided to break my hard core rule about not running on two subsequent days.  With that in mind there was no distance goal, I could quit whenever I hated it enough.

Before: I don't wanna

So Cooper and I headed out into the terrible Seattle weather, which actually somewhat cooperated for this run.  Hailed about halfway and sprinkled on me at the end, but considering the major weather issues we've been having lately, and especially considering that it was straight-up POURING an hour later, I got extremely lucky.  Cooper seemed to start dragging around mile 4 so I brought him home and got some water.  Debated being done, but decided to go out for a bit more.  And I finished with a very surprising whopping 10 miles!

After: Much Happier

During the run I passed an adorable little family out walking and the little 4 or 5 year old girl said "Daddy, why is that girl so beautiful running?"  She said it in the same tone you would ask, 'Why is that girl soooo incredibly crazy?!'  That made me laugh, especially when her dad laughed and said, "Oh, for exercise?"  Yes, he had a question mark in his voice.  He wasn't sure why I was running either.  Then I'm pretty sure I heard her also say "How did she get so fast?" but it was a little difficult to hear.  :-)

10 miles in 1:32:09.  Average Pace: 9:10

And when I was done, I felt AMAZING.  I cleaned the whole house, wrote my entire dissertation, and finally trained Cooper to ride a skateboard.

source

Okay, I didn't feel THAT great.  But I did feel much much MUCH better, as I always always do after running.  So what did I learn?  Running will ALWAYS cure your blah's.

Ever have a case of the blah's?  Did running cure it?  Are you going to apply to be on Nuun's Hood to Coast team?