Yesterday I decided to run outside. Though I have been an avid runner for several years, this occasion marked perhaps the 8th time that I have ventured to run outside. The results were, how should I put it, humbling.
The first thing I learned is that there are bugs outside that don't exist within the confines of a 24 hours fitness. Second, I shattered my long held belief that growing up in Phoenix has somehow made me immune to any effects of the sun. Third I learned that being able to run 10 miles on a treadmill, in an air conditioned gym, does not mean that I can run 10 miles on the road. Fourth, I learned that Portland is first rate for bike lanes and cut rate for sidewalks. Fifth, I learned that running in bike lanes is terrifying.
Why did I do it? I have been content to run on the treadmill. I can control the pace and know exactly what is going on all around me. Yet running a marathon is on my bucket list and apparently we all have to have bucket lists because Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman told us to. Quite simply there are no treadmill marathons. Thank God, frankly that would be more boring than watching a professional bowling match played by professional golfers.
I got very close to running a marathon 4 years ago. Then something happened. Between the overtraining and lack of calcium that comes from my milk allergy, at least this is my hypothesis, my ankle became so weak that it broke. I was left with an injury that took a full year to heal and the lamest broken bone story ever.
Four years later I am still a far cry from the shape I was in then. I am 20 lbs heavier (to be on the kind side) and cannot run as fast as I could then. Through it all I have kept trying but had yet to break out in the great outdoors.
Yesterday was a reminder that I am not as close to my goal as I would like to be. The good thing is a bucket list is composed of things one would like to do before death and I don't plan on dying for a long time. I will run my marathon someday, hopefully sooner than later. I will run a good race and will find the flattest marathon in the country, hills are killer.
Tomorrow I will go running again. This time back to the treadmill, back to the air conditioning, back to the music on my i pod, back to watching sports center as I kick the speed up and down.
*Any offense taken by bowlers and golfers is understandable. I find both fun to play but extraordinarily boring to watch. The same goes for baseball, and oh, Nascar is not a sport. We at Green Eggs never shy away from controversy, but as always, if you have a divergent view, go and get your own blog. I bet, like me, you can have 7 readers in no time.
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