I started running in the summer of 1999 when I was living between my parents’ houses, working on my master’s thesis, working for each of them part-time, and planning my wedding. I wanted a way to “stay in shape” for the wedding, and I had a pair of tennis shoes and open highways and gravel roads. I started by running as far as I could then walking until I caught my breath. I kept this up a few times a week and through a move from Emerson, IA (population 476) to Naperville, IL where my fiance’ lived. I kept it up until October when it got cold at which point I switched to fitness videos inside. I picked the running back up in about April and had to pretty much start from square one. Repeat this until Thanksgiving 2009.
That Thanksgiving the director of my department gave me her old treadmill for no charge as long as we would move it out of her house. We did and that old, noisy treadmill was the start of something great. I could finally run through the winter and while the kids were playing around me. I remembered that my friend, Heather, said she was using a 5k training plan to give her something to work toward. I got online, found Hal Higdon’s training plans, printed one off, and started crossing off miles on the Beginner program. After six weeks or so, I ran that 5k on the treadmill. I almost died. I was pretty proud of myself, though, and decided to print off a 10k plan. I worked on that and eventually ran a 10k on the treadmill as well. This time I thought I would die of boredom. As soon as the weather warmed up, I was outside and happy about it!
The summer went on, and my brother, who had gotten into running, convinced me to sign up for my first actual race-the Living History Farms Run. This is a 7ish-mile cross-country race through corn stubble, woods, and prairie crossing a stream about 7 times and getting plenty muddy during all of it. I trained. I worried. I bought running tights at Target. This race is always the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and the weather is usually pretty cold. I got out there and ran that race and thought it was the best thing I had ever done. It was like being a kid again! Running through the fields and scrambling up muddy banks. I loved it! The hook was set. I was a trail runner.
Fast forward nine years. I am significantly older. I have run distances from 5k to 50 miles. I know how to push myself. I know when to hold back…kind of. I learn more about fueling and hydrating and heel striking and shoe thickness everyday. I have run in rain and snow. Along gravel roads and dirt roads and highways and steep, muddy wooded trails and clear, paved bike trails. I’ve run deer paths and through tall grass. I. Love. To. Run. I don’t get to do it nearly as much as I would like. Things hurt these days. I have a chronic thing going on in my right lower leg that is a mess of tight calves pulling on a tendon on the front of my foot and up my leg. This causes my hip to hurt and my other leg to try to compensate. That causes my lower left back to hurt which is compounded by a partially compressed disk on the left side of my neck that pulls on all of the muscles in my upper back and shoulder. Sounds fun, right? I finally got myself into the chiropractor last week after not having gone in almost two years not counting the quick-ish adjustment our chiropractor friend gave me on our family snowmobile trip last March. Someone was filling in for my usual guy, and as I was trying to explain what I was having trouble with, I realized that I should have probably made sure someone warned her about me. She seemed to be a little annoyed about my plethora of issues and lack of chiropractic maintenance over the past 2 years. She got to work and after adjusting several places, released me with the option of coming back for a couple of weeks if I wanted to. I went home knowing that one adjustment probably wasn’t going to hold, but hoping for the best.
The next day I met a fellow trail runner for a run. We didn’t really have any set distance or time. Out we went on the trail-talking and super happy to be where we belong in nature. I had 10 miles in the back of my mind and when we got to five, I told my running friend that I would be good heading back at that point. She was fine with that and back we went. I finished up with 10 miles and the best part? NOTHING HURT! Not my leg! Not my hip! Not my lower back! I felt great! I probably shouldn’t have sat on the couch for three hours after that watching the Hawkeye game, but there are sacrifices that I will make for the Hawks. I was a little stiff and sore, but nothing bad. The next morning, I met another runner in town and went about five miles at a pace I have not seen consistently in a while. How was I going that fast after a 10 mile day? I don’t know, and I frankly don’t really care. All I cared about was that I had two awesome days of running pain-free. It gave me hope.
This past weekend I should have been at a race. It was my goal race for the year. My training fell apart in June, and I had to let that dream go…for now. My plan is to spend the next year training for that race. Strength. Hills. Speed (well, kind of). Consistency. I want that race. I want that distance. Renewed motivation and belief in myself.
Now pardon me while I go make that follow-up appointment with my chiropractor.
