I have never been an athlete. In school I tried my hand at team sports a few times and failed; and boy, how I hated gym class. I have a couple of very distinct memories of failed attempts at athletic endeavors - the main one being from gym class my senior year. I had failed gym [again] and was put into a freshman gym class with one other senior girl. For some reason, a group of really nasty freshmen girls zeroed in on us for a semester of torment and humiliation. The leader of the mean girls - her name was Dawn Pride and fuck her, I'm not going to change her name for the sake of my blog - was one of those people who seemed like they launched right out of the womb wearing sneakers and running marathons. She was tall, lean and athletic; everything I wasn't. And for some reason she HATED me.
One of the assignments we received in this gym class was to run a mile. That's it: just run one lousy mile. At some point I must have gotten it in my head that I could beat Dawn at this. I started working really hard, even running outside of class, imbued with a gritty determination that was so unlike me. On the day of our mile run, I suited up and headed outside, feeling super confident and ready to do this. We started running, and Dawn left me in the dust with those giant grasshopper legs. I felt a crushing sense of failure, and that was it for me. Even though I ran the entire mile without stopping - I focused on the wrong part of the story. The lesson I SHOULD have taken from that experience was that I had set my mind to accomplish something and did it. Instead, I figured some people were born to run and others were not - I was not - so why bother trying?
After I graduated I did some athletic stuff but never really crossed the line from casual to dedicated. I picked up inline skating in 1995 and fell in love with it. But in my 20's I had a hard time with pushing boundaries. I created imaginary barriers and didn't know how to break them down. ("The most I skate is 10 miles; I cannot go further than that.") - instead of pushing to see if my body would go farther. I did the same thing with weight training; dabbled but never dedicated: and never, ever continuously. I lacked the mental tenacity necessary. It took me a while to learn that the body is just a machine, waiting for instructions and performing as instructed. The mind is where the athlete truly resides. My mind was insecure and lacked the confidence.
Fast forward to the year 2011: the year I turned 40. Something inside of me changed: something in my mind finally clicked. I really got into the inline skating and not only did I break down the barriers of my youth: I shattered them. I started skating marathons and actually doing really well. Crossing finish lines and collecting medals was a whole new experience for me, and I became addicted. I set goal after goal and reached them all. 2011 and 2012 were really pivotal years for me, for my confidence; for my fitness level. For the first time in my life I got a taste of success; and for the first time in my life, I felt like an athlete. At the end of 2012, I sat down to start working on my goals for 2013 and came up with nothing. I had accomplished everything I had set out to do as far as skating was concerned. I had no desire to skate at the pro level, so what next? I need goals, they are what keep me on track. If I'm not training FOR something, then it's a whole lot easier for me to justify skipping it altogether. I needed to find something else to train for.
About a year ago, I added running to my cross training routine because I felt I wasn't spending enough time at the gym. I would run for about 25-30 minutes, then knock out 35-45 minutes of weight training. At first, I alternated the treadmill with the elliptical, but eventually I stuck with the treadmill. Then I started running outside - curious to see how far I could go. But before the curiosity could develop into a passion; skate season started. Unwilling to completely put running on the back burner; I decided I would run a 5K in the summer. (I have done the AIDS Walk every single year since 1998, and ever since they added a 5K run to that event I have been wanting to do it. This was the year I would.) I skated 4 marathons in 2012, and placed at all 4: and I ran my first 5K in 32 minutes. It was a really great year.
Skate season starts winding down for me pretty much after my last race of the season (Northshore in September.) I'll usually keep skating through October and sometimes into November, just not at a training pace. After the weather turns to crap I generally fall into a lazy state of nothingness (from November until about February with skate season starting up again in March.) This year I grabbed onto running as the thing that would get me through that boring no-man's land that is the off season between skate seasons. I chose running because I can pretty much do it anytime; if it's yucky outside, I can hop on treadmill. I can also run from right outside my front door. It's the ideal transitional exercise for me.
But then an interesting thing happened. I ran the Turkey Day 5K on Thanksgiving. I ran it very slowly, but I ran it without stopping. Something about running that event and crossing that finish line switched something over in my brain. Somewhere along the way I went from using running as cross training to actually falling in love with it. So as I sat contemplating my goals for 2013, I decided to work running goals in. First I thought about maybe doing one 5K per month. Then I added a couple of longer runs in: a 7K, a 10K... Then I thought, should I do a half marathon? COULD I do a half marathon? I don't see any reason why I can't - or shouldn't. So, I signed up for the Colfax Half Marathon in May, and started some prep work prior to committing to a 12 week training program that starts for me on February 25th.
I'm still going to skate; I am a skater at heart. (I'm actually doing a duathlon in August - skate a half marathon, switch out the foot wear then run a 5K: I'm also doing the Northshore Inline Marathon again because how could I not?? - I may or may not add a third one in there too.) However, I am ALSO becoming a runner. The two sports take me to completely different places. (Skating makes me feel like a little kid playing; it's fun, carefree - fast. Running grounds and centers me. It clears my head and makes me feel serene.) So my new journey begins now, and the destination is a half marathon in 41/2 months.
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