The Paper Pod

Sweetheart Failure

Remember a few weeks ago when I announced my February race for the Runelation? Well apparently the stars were lined against me and that 5k. This was a Sweetheart Fail.

Failure #1:

The Sweetheart Shuffle was actually Sunday February 12 and not Saturday. Good thing I decided to check out the deats Thursday afternoon. Totally would have shown up on the wrong day. I even marked it on ALL my calendars incorrectly.

Failure #2:

See red dot? See blue dot? That’s how far OUT of the way I was at 11:55am on Sunday. Although it was awesome for me to look up all the race stuff on Thursday (and even write it all down- including directions-in my planner), it did me little good when I typed in “Middletown YMCA” into my iphone Sunday morning. When the directions came up I thought “that doesn’t look right” and searched for Greater Miami Valley YMCA Middletown. Brought up the same location so we went with it. As we drove past the correct exit my stomach did a little knot and I said to Adam “I swear, that’s the exit we want- but the phone says otherwise”. I mean in my phones defense it did take me to a YMCA, just not the one I wanted.

We had plans to head to Ikea after the race because I had some items to return. At this point we were 15-20 minutes too far south from the race that was about to start and 5-10 minutes north from Ikea. Ikea won. I was bummed.

But my weekend was a complete loss!

Since the Sweetheart Shuffle was Sunday, I still joined in on the Virtual Run for Sherry Arnold on Saturday. Printed my bib, threw on my sneaks and hit the treadmill. I completed 5 miles at an even 10 mile pace. I am not sure the last time I ran 5 miles so I know I needed to push myself. Anytime I would hear my inner voice whine about my legs being tired or that I was hot, I thought of Sherry. I thought of what goal she set to accomplish the morning she went missing. I thought about what races she might have wanted to do this year. I thought about her husband and children. I thought about her friends and family. I thought about her small community. I thought about everyone else who was running today for Sherry. And then told my legs they weren’t allowed to be tired.

Now to pick my March race.. I would really love to do some sort of St Pat’s Day race. We’re planning to spend St. Patrick’s Day in Cleveland since it’s a Saturday. I haven’t been able to locate a scheduled race in the Cleveland area. Which I guess make sense since everyone is Irish in Cleveland on St Patrick’s day. Who’s going to do a 5k when there is green beer to drink and shenanigans happening downtown?

Game On

Well you know after the Akron Marathon my Runelaltion was born.   January à la twenty twelve is here in two weeks (say, what? I know!) which means I just registered for my first 2012 race! Holla!

Let me get straight with you, I’m not really that excited to run outside in January in Ohio. I’m even less thrilled that the race I picked falls on New Years Day. I had a hard time committing because I know that means NYE celebrations will have to be dramatically cut back. On the other hand, I also think it is a great way to kick off Runelation ‘12!

It’s time to get S.E.R.I.O.U.S.

It gets better. My husband totally surprised me with a text that said “I’ll run”. I of course thought I was seeing things and had to send multiple texts confirming he meant he would like to do this 5k with me and not you know run for senator or something. The most athletic thing Adam and I have ever done together was climb the Great Wall this past summer.

I’m pretty much smitten right now.  

The race I picked is World Race for Hope: Unite to Stop Human Trafficking. The first race for 2012 is kicking off in Troy, Ohio. Their goal is to raise $100,000 for the Somaly Mam Foundation over the next year by the races they’ve set up in other cities such as New York City and Columbus, OH. You can help them reach their goal by participating in a race near you, be a virtual participant or you can donate to Team Pilchak if you so wish.   

January 1^st around noon- it’s game on Runelation. I’ll meet you at the starting line.

A Runelation

If I’m going to be totally honest with myself, I’m on the fence on how I feel about my personal results from Saturday’s race. If I did my math right, my time was 31:08, making roughly an 11 minute pace. Truly, I anticipated finishing in 30 minutes but was hoping to make in 28 or less. Obviously, I didn’t meet either of those goals.

I spent a bigger portion then I’d like to admit on Saturday night bumming about my pace. But then voice of reason set in:

• When was my last race, than I ran? The Bourbon Chase, 2 years ago.
• How many times did I run this year preparing for the Akron race? Something like 5.

After I wrapped my head around those two facts I realized if I haven’t ran a race in 2 years, and I don’t run regularly- an 11 minute pace isn’t so horrible. I should be happy that I completed this run, that was uphill, while I felt sick to my stomach for about half of it.

So I did some more thinking and analyzing about this race and running in general which led me to a revelation or runelation if you will ;)

This race I noticed the other runners more. I took note that most of us out there aren’t competing against each other, we are competing with ourselves. I don’t think I saw one runner who looked like this was cupcake and champagne time. Every runner was pushing themselves and their limits. Maybe their goal was to just finish their leg, maybe they wanted to set a PR or maybe they just wanted to get it done. Not everyone has perfect running form, even some people who smoking fast didn’t have that chest up- shoulders back-high knees-pretend you’re holding potato chips in your fingers stance. I noticed people’s breathing. No one was singing the Star Spangled Banner as they ran past me. They were heaving and hawing just like I do. When I was at the expo I saw a shirt that said something like “if running was easy they’d call it football” (side note: I’ve only played Power Puff football, so I’m by no means knocking the toughness of football- I’m pretty certain every linebacker out there could take me down) But that’s when I realized- running is hard for everyone.

I’ve asked numerous runners “when am I going to like this? When will I enjoy this?”- Typical answers were “never!” or “once you’re done”. I didn’t get it. I mean how does someone run only to be happy once their done running. I don’t design greeting cards hating the entire time I’m creating one. I enjoy creating art from paper- that’s why I have Lilly Pea Designs.

It’s no lie that I think Molly is a bad ass. And we all know how much Kimi inspires me. Something about hearing them talk about their challenges, setbacks and sometimes plain out hating a run really struck me. Or maybe that was Cupid because somewhere in the last few days I’ve falling in love with the sport of running. While yes, I still hate the physical act of running but my mental game is starting to change. And let’s face it, running is such a mental sport. Yeah it wasn’t until recently that I actually understood a split (and it maybe another year before I understand how to track the time on my watch)- and I had to google what PR meant. I just learned about foam rollers and I’m still uncertain why an ice bath is a good idea (that just sounds painfully cold to me) but I know I want to find out. I’m tired of having one foot in and one foot out in this running game. I want to receive a medal and feel good about it. I want to set some PR’s. I want to not feel like a poser when someone asks me if I’m a runner.

While I know there are still about 2 months left of this year, I’ve already made a goal for 2012! I want to run a race every month. I want to do some 5ks, 10ks and a half marathon. Finding a race in January/February might be a challenge. And I’m not sure how I’ll fit one in come November/December with craft shows. And of course I could injury myself and not be able to run at all but for now, I’m setting some goals and I’m going to see what happens. So far on my radar:

• April: Chi Alpha Nu’s 80 Year Anniversary Celebration 5K run/walk.
• May: The Flying Pig
• June: Ragnar Chicago
• September: WPAFB Marathon
• October: Columbus Marathon

I haven’t decided what distance I’ll run for the races that give me an option. I know I’d like to do a St Pat’s run, but I think I might be out of town that weekend. I also know that at some point I really want to do a Turkey Trot but I’m not sure that is feasible since we always travel for Thanksgiving. A lot of the ’12 races are not listed yet but I’m sure it won’t be a problem finding one for the other 7 months!