April 2007 Archives

On days when the weather permits I run on trails and roads around my office. That means that coworkers see me runnign regulary as they move to and from work. I really don't like it when people see me running.

After I ran my first marathon, a friend of mine said that I looked like a brick with legs while running. My lacrosse coach in high school told me that he needed a calendar to time me. Okay. I get it. I'm slow and look funny. So when peolpe at work exclaim, "Hey, I saw you running!" my reaction is either one of two things:

• Self Loathing (see "brick with legs" description above): Not so long ago I was doing a short training run on a treadmill next to a big mirror. As I looked over I was struck by the fact that I really do look like a brick with legs provided the brick was physically awkward and rather fat. This is what I think other people are thinking when they see me run.
• Inability to Find an Appropriate Response: What am I supposed to say to that? "Congratulations! I really am something to behold!" It's akin to someone saying they once drove through the state in which you now live or come from. "You're from Minnesota, huh? I drove through there once." They found it so apalling that they didn't stop and yet they are using this experience to make a connection. Eff them is what I say.

The moral here is I have enough hang-ups about my non-athletism...I don't need pseudo-friends pointing out to me that they had a good chuckle over them too. In my mind, telling me you saw me running is as arbitrary as me coming to you at the office and saying, "Hey, I saw you typing in your cube the other day!"

It's almost over. I am in the 18th week of my 18 week training program. Marathon 1 of 3 this year will take place on Saturday. I have a light week as far as running goes. Three today, four tomorrow followed by two rest days.

More on my continuing Taper Madness as it develops. Suffice to say I have checked the weather for the marathon location three times today.

As I post this, I am participating in a conference call here at the Coal Mine. It's mind-numbingly boring and all I can think about is that I am in my second week of taper and have experienced two of the major indicators of the taper period: illness and silly injury that is blown way out of proportion.

This past weekend into this week I had a cold. Nothing major. Sore throat. A little sneezing. I think I caught this from my children. When feeding them, I tend to sneak a few spoonfuls of fruit (Gerber bananas are the best) after giving them a bite. Not the best way to stay healthy.

Injury came in the form of twisting my ankle last night while leaving my brother's house. It hurt like a mother-effer for the rest of the evening (but was fine this morning). Although the rational part of me knew that this was in no way a major injury, I still had visions of lying in traction on marathon day rather than crossing the finish line.

Taper Madness...it should be in the next version of DSM. Every little twinge or tickle gets amplified in your mind to a catastrophic affliction. I have only 10 days until Pine Line. All I have to do is keep from losing a limb.

Happy Easter. I promise to actually write something about running next week.