OK, the news first. I tanked on the hill. I walked it up.
But don't go all consoling me, 'cause I don't want it. Here. At this point in my running career it's a gain to find out where the bottom of my energy tank is. And the only way to find out is to get out there and run hard runs. I ran my run.
Want to see it? Check out the slideshow, courtesy of N. and his amazing photographer's eye. Click the viewer to see the pics larger.
So, am I disappointed? Well, sure. But not in an awful way. (When did I get so much stronger than the ridiculing voices in my head? That's the big Wow.) I mean, recovery from a 5K is so fast. Twenty minutes after a race like this, walking around just fine, it's impossible not to be wondering if I really gave it all I had. But yeah.
With about a quarter mile of hill to go, I overheated in the 89% humidity and started to cramp. I still had my legs (though I'm not sure for how much longer); I still had my lungs and my heart. I even had my mental steel. But my spleen had other ideas. It seemed to be creasing like a paper accordion and my forehead went white hot. I ran a little way like that and then decided I don't know my body well enough yet to know where the line between stubborn and stupid is.
"I know my goal for next year," I said to N. in the car.
"But you could come back and run it next week if you want to," he said.
The thought of it just about knocked me over. I'm not ready for it yet; I know I'm not. I give it a month.
Adventures on Hospital Hill 2008
The Little Trolley Runner That Could
Some lessons I learned from the 20th Annual Trolley Run:
- I can run 4 miles without breaking pace. Yes I can.
- Paradox: I can probably run it faster than I did and yet I did my best.
- If it's 45 degrees out, it might be okay to go with short sleeves, but wear gloves.
- For goodness' sake, wear gloves.
The street bands in Brookside and on the Plaza were playing Clash covers. Inevitably, the Clash-loving runner speeds up and she can barely keep from doing moon leaps. Ay! Oy! Let's go!
My time was 47:42:8 for an 11:56 pace -- 30 seconds off my pace from last September. I ran the first mile more conservatively than I needed and probably could have pushed myself harder on the steepest downhills. But I think part of the fun of starting to run is learning what your personal best is so that you can live up to it and challenge it.
Statistics help with that, but I want to remember, over the long run as it were, that stats are not the reason for persistence. Really, it's all about the moon leaps. And about the shoes, which make me feel invincible. I had to choose between these:
The new Saucony pair on the left, which make me feel bionic, and the favorite, best pair of shoes I have ever owned, the worn Adidas on the right. Which have made me, a former humble ground snail, feel as though I am flying.
I almost went with the Adidas for sentimental reasons. Joint pain beats sentiment, in case you wondered which way to bet.
The pack rat makes a packing list
My adventure this weekend is a sort of cave exploration. I am top-roping my way down into the pile of research I've done for my novel, taking an inventory, and figuring out what to pack for my writer's retreat next week.
Doesn't a writer's retreat sound glamorous? Two writer friends, two days in a lake cabin, and reasonably mild winter weather.
Yes, writing always sounds glamorous until you try to do it. It'll be nice to have isolated, beautiful surroundings in which to do this thing that most people find tedious and frustrating at best. Here's my packing list:
Stuff for the Actual Writing Work
- An inventory of my research material
- My longhand notes on characters and my longhand rough drafts of scenes
- My laptop, of course, which houses photos of Winston-Salem where the novel is set and the file where I'm actually writing (and my tiddlywiki, where I'm organizing notes)
- My tapes of Winston-Salem people
Supplies
- Tape recorder and blank tape
- Notebooks and pens
- Flash drives for backups
- Books: Wallace Stevens, James Thurber, Virginia Woolf, Adam Sexton, and Roget
Life Stuff
- My running gear
- iPod and camera, batteries, various device chargers
- Provisions - coffee, soup, yogurt, fruit, eggs, minibagels
- Houseshoes
Wish us luck! I'll post pics and adventure stories next week.
The password is "tinsel"
The Christmas word for the week is "tinsel." It's like a Yule calendar. This week, I find a way to work the word "tinsel" into spoken conversation every day.
Yesterday we assembled the Christmas tree. It's not much of an adventure since we have recreated the same tree for the past six years, give or take a light strand.
I'm not sure why we put up a tree, except that it would seem sad and bleak not to. We're not especially fond of the activity of either putting it up or taking it down.
But that part in the middle is nice when the lights come on at night or when we get up in the morning and the world is brown and wintry and there's a big green tree facsimile in the house, with symbols of our memories hanging on it.
For instance:
N. gave me this Snoopy at the typewriter the year I started working on my book.
And this green glass bulb hung on my great-grandmother's tree, in the house that my great-grandfather built for her.
And the beaten-metal kitty was given us by friends the year our cat, Rocky, died after a long, loving, nursing-out time.
Our friends felt anxious that they had possibly given us a painful reminder.
It didn't work that way. Rocky the Cat and pain are not allowed in the same room. We put the kitty on the tree. It makes us smile.
WonderGirl 5K Results
I did it! I did it!
Breathes there a girl with soul so dead, who to herself has never said: I did it!
Kept a consistent pace, didn't lose my breath or my legs (which means I can run a little faster next time), and finished in 37:36, according to N.'s photo of the finish line.
My goals: a 30 minute 5K by late spring and a 10K next fall.
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