Last Place Runner

The past several weeks have been difficult for me. Not, of course, in comparison to what is truly difficult for billions of people around the world. But I was starting to climb into a dark place where I was exhausted and grumpy, which left me feeling sad most of the time.

My typical work day is 12 hours, from the time I walk out my front door until I get back home in the evening. My husband is usually home hours ahead of me, but I still bear the responsibility for the housework, yard work, meals, and almost everything in between. So by the time I’ve cooked dinner, we eat, and I clean it all up, all I can do is go to bed and hope I get some sleep before the cycle begins at 5:30 the next morning.

But then a few weeks ago, the sponsors of my training group announced that the 5K program would begin early this year. And without hesitation, I signed up as soon as registration opened.

I’ve been running every day at the gym during lunch and meeting up with Lauren sometimes on Saturdays to run with her. She’s training for a marathon in November, so it didn’t take long for me to be in over my head with her. But she still invites me to put in my daily mileage with her. So I’m not a total beginner this time around, but I know there’s still so much I can learn, and so many ways I can challenge myself. And I could not WAIT for the program to start.

Our first group run was last Wednesday night. Lauren’s whole family was there to volunteer and support (and, it turns out, to make me run more than the required 2 minutes scheduled for the first night), plus there were a few familiar faces from last year, an old friend of mine I haven’t seen in about 5 years, and a guy I worked with at the newspaper years ago is a volunteer, too!

Ten and 15 years ago, when I was a drinker, I sought out friends who drank. And they were easy to find. Just open a door to any bar past 10 o’clock on a weeknight. Some of those friends are still dear to me, but most of them were just people I knew from the bar. And it’s funny to me now that I have running friends. Friends I’ve made through running, that I never would’ve known otherwise. Kind of like my drinking friends, who gathered often to drink, there’s never any need to make too much of a plan with running friends. We get together and run.

Although Wednesday was a long day for me, I felt better than I had in a long time when I finally got home. I’m going to get with the coach this week and have him modify my training schedule so I can give myself a little push. But really I like not having a goal other than to run until I can’t run anymore.

Tuesday starts my virtual half marathon with Marathon High. I’ll have seven full days to complete 13.1 miles, which should be pretty easy. I’ll have to run what I can during the work week, but I’m going to challenge myself to complete as many of the miles as I can on the weekend.

And I hope that I can keep up here more regularly now that I’m back in real training.