Long, and I mean Long Run Day

I've never really done much running. I was a baseball guy back in high school, and Coach Reed's off season workouts were the closest I've ever come to running consistently. He liked to do things like pile the whole team in the back of his crappy little truck and drive us out into the country, stopping every now and then to drop off the slower runners. He tried to time it to where the slower runners and the faster runners ended up finishing at about the same time. I was usually one of the last guys dropped off, which says more about the slowness of our team than anything else. The moral of the story is, I'm not one of those ex-runners who goes out running and says "I haven't done that since ____." Most of the time, when I do something that involves running, it is a first for me. Like tonight, for example. For the first time in my life, I ran a 6.2 miles.

For those unfamiliar with running and running terminology, that is a 10K. I always thought my first 10K would happen in a race situation. But instead of running in front of thousands of people, I completed my longest run ever in front of a few stray dogs, about a dozen wild turkeys, and more old people carrying sticks than you could shake a stick at (which is grounds for an article all by itself). It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I ran it in 1:31:42, which is a 14:47 pace. It seemed a lot slower. I feel unbelievable slow out there. It probably didn't help that the sign at the bank said it was 100 degrees when I ran by at the start. Also, when the runs start stretching out past a couple of miles, it is damn near impossible to find a run without 4 or 5 big hills. I guess I could just keep running the same flat mile to half mile course over and over again, but that doesn't sound like much fun either.

My thought on this is that the harder my training courses are, the easier it will be on race day. Sure it hurts more now, but I guess that is the price I'm going to have to pay. The funny thing is, the uphills really don't bother me, but running downhill makes my knee hurt like hell. Looks like I am really going to have to focus my cross training on building strength. I think I may also have to add hills to my weekday workouts, at least in small doses. Did I mention that I also need to lose weight?? I saw another guy running tonight, and the lucky bastard was thin enough to be running without a shirt. By the time this summer is over, I damn well better be able to run with no shirt. Or laughter.