Race report - FIVE MILES

Oh, hello internet. It's a lovely evening in Southie, and yours truly here just ROCKED A FIVE MILE ROAD RACE. Suck on THAT, New Year's Resolutions.

I am so ridiculously proud of myself it's kind of embarrassing.

My neighborhood is amazing. Walking home from the Expo center with a dopey smile on my face, the sun was setting across the ocean and I heard the slightly off-pitch but still dulcet tones of an aging Sinatra impersonator and all was right with the world. I still had my race number on and oldtimers with their dogs and cigars clapped for me.

While I feel like I'm getting faster, according to most race results I'm sticking at around a ten minute mile (shut up, I never said I was fast). Near the end, my whole body was tingling, my arm was numb, and I felt like I was going to throw up. Then my Amazing DenialBrainBot4000 (usually utilized to convince myself that I'm not in love with people and/or don't need any friends) took over and by the time I reached the finish chute I passed eight people and almost forgot to stop.

Considering all I've had to eat today was half a salad and a handful of trail mix, I'm pretty impressed. Though I know that's not a healthy diet. And I've been so soul-crushingly sad for the past few weeks I could barely put one foot in front of the other, much less train for a race. Or get through a single hour of a single day without crying. (More on that later, because while it pains me to write about it or admit much of what has been going on, it must be done because a life without honesty is just stupid. Life is short, and I'm pretty sure that at the end of it there's nobody handing out cookies for not talking about stuff.)

Anyway I wish my roommate was home because I want to go drink a Guinness. That counts as dinner, right?

FIVE MILES, DUDES. FIVE. That's FOUR MORE THAN ONE, which is what I could barely run six months ago.

The below photos are from around mile 4.5 or so. I love that my face is all puppies and fluffy clouds but inside I'm cursing the day I was born and wishing I could curl up for a nice nap in the middle of Day Boulevard.

Race report - Artesani Park 5k

My official time has yet to be posted, but it was either a flat 30 or 29:59. A minute plus better than my last run on this same course, despite the heat and the fact I walked what I felt was a substantial part of the race. The walking was totally due to lack of mental toughness, and it makes me angry, but at the same time I must have been really hauling to still have beaten my previous time.
This race was much smaller than the last, and there was this hilarious group of Cougars (I don't know what really qualifies them as Cougars, but they were older and hotter than me so Cougs they are) gushing over the young male runners who were obviously going to win the thing with their tiny shorts and complete lack of body fat (and shirts).

New shoes

On a whim, I got a new pair of running shoes on Saturday. My leg pain was getting so bad I was convinced I had compartment syndrome and that there was nothing I could do to fix it and I should stop buying new shoes because they're expensive and maybe I'm just not meant to be a runner and ARRRRRGH. But, I found these lovely Asics Equation 2s at some discount shoe store and the difference from my month-old Rykas is absolutely astounding. I mean, they've created some new problems, namely that my toes now go numb and the collar of the shoe gives me ankle blisters but those problems are all run-through-able so I don't care. For serious though, it's like I'm running on clouds. I ran a nice 4+ loop around Castle Island in the mist and at the end, I felt like I could have kept going. So, take that legs. It's just me and you now, lungs. BRING IT.

On Sunday, I went to the gym. The FitCorp has majorly stocked up on kettlebells since I started there. This is exciting. I can only go there on weekends, but I think I want to at least try to make it for one weekend day every week. Of course, I am not very smart with numbers, and so I think I thought 12kg was a lot closer to 12lbs than it actually is, and ended up squatting & military pressing 2 12kg kettlebells which I think now is closer to 50 lbs? It felt good though. There were some old guys down there who looked at me really funny as I took my shoes off and repeatedly hoisted two cannonballs over my head, and letting out the occasional very ladylike grunt.