This morning I ran 12 miles. On the treadmill. At the gym. In the cardio cinema. While watching Rocky Balboa.
That wasn’t my original plan.
Yesterday I experienced a
nagging level of anxiety as I anticipated my Saturday long run, knowing I would
be rising at 4:30 a.m. after an already-exhausting week to run in the dark for
twelve very long miles, a feat I had never before attempted; but since I am
signed up to run the St. George marathon in October this year, I have to stick
pretty closely to my training plan; 12 miles now will have to be accomplished
in order to be ready to run 26.2 in just two and-a-half months.
At bedtime last night, my
patient husband listened to me ramble on about my marathon doubts and
fears. Just why am I training for a marathon?
I am too old to do this! Am I
crazy? Will I even be able to run 26.2 miles? It will be expensive to travel to St. George;
David will have to take off work; the kids will have to miss school. It’s so time-consuming to train. I am tired.
When my alarm went off at
4:30 this morning I knew it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to run outside
with my friend, Melissa, as I had originally planned. (Melissa is also training for the St. George Marathon,
and we have done some of our running together, which makes it really nice
because I love to talk and run. I also
love to think and run when I am alone.
Running allows me to think clearly and to appreciate the beauty around
me and contemplate on my blessings. I
often pray when I am running alone. I
have felt God’s love for me when I am running and praying). Anyway, the reason I knew it would not be a
good idea to run outside this morning with Melissa is because my sleep had been
interrupted repeatedly in the night by lightning flashes which lit up my
bedroom, as well as thunder crashes, not mention dreams of sleeping through my
alarm and being late to meet Melissa, tripping over objects and meeting up with
obstacles in trying to find her. I texted
Melissa to let her know I thought it would be safer to run at the gym instead
of outside in the lightning storm; she texted back that she agreed.
I begrudgingly got dressed
for the gym, ate my protien and fruit (raw almonds, milk, and honeydew melon),
and drove through the storm to Gold’s Gym.
It was just getting light outside and there were only three cars in the
parking lot at 5:30 a.m. I made my way
to the cardio cinema, crossing my fingers that there would be a good movie
playing today to make the two hours on the treadmill go by a little
faster. Lucky for me, it was Rocky
Balboa on the big screen. I was the only
one in the cinema, and the time did actually go by pretty quickly. The best part was that my hill climb at mile
7 coincided perfectly with the training scene in the movie, where Rocky is
getting ready for the big fight against the reining heavy-weight boxing
champion. The Rocky theme song was
plenty motivating for me to make it up the hill. The fight scene also came at a good time in
my run, about mile 10. I actually felt
great at that point, and found myself cheering on Rocky and being distracted
from the tedious treadmill running. At
mile 11 I really hit a wall. My knees
were hurting, the movie had ended, and I was tired of running. I actually had to walk for a little while
during that last mile. Then I ended
strong – the last quarter mile I ran at 7 mph pace. That felt great. I did it!
I came home feeling
famished. I made scrambled eggs with
cheese, bacon, toasted homemade wheat bread with honey and butter, and honeydew
melon. I ate breakfast in bed with my
husband. I made enough food for both of
us, but ended up eating most of it. Yum!
