Born to Run. The Disneyland Half Marathon.

It's been so long since I've blogged, (I've had time to grow a whole o t h e r human.  Not Mouse, a second one.) that I don't remember if I've mocked Mr Snork's reading and implementing tips from a book called Born to Run.  I don't even remember what the book was about, possibly a barefoot runner and a remote tribe of barefoot running people in Mexico - I can't say, but one thing that's come out of him reading that book is the title is forever stuck in my head.  As in, Mr Snork is most definately NOT born to run.  He's tried it barefoot, and with trail shoes, and with supportive shoes, ..  and no matter how he tries, stuff always happens, blisters, cramps, mysterious pains, sprains, etc.  Sometimes, he needs only to jog a block before one or several ailments nail him.  NOT born to run.  Not at all.

But, it's turned out that quite possibly, I WAS born to run.  I think if I was less lazy and less into Scrabble in high school, and joined a track team, I'd be really good at it.  As it is, I'm nothing special, except that, I can do it.  Barefoot.  In socks.  In Zems.  In New Balance Minimus, in Sketchers GoRun (favorite).  Once I got going, at the tender young age of 28?  27?  I've had very few issues with it.

Most recently, I took a year and a half off.  I think.  Littlest is 7 months.  So, 7 months of her being here, and last 6 months of the pregnancy I have done zero things related to fitness.  Eeeevery once in a while I would make an effort, but once you get out of shape, man..  it's just not there anymore.  And once you grow out of your fitness clothes you have nothing to wear to the gym.  Or outside.  And you can't go to the gym naked.

So, I embraced eating every kind of thing, and lounging.  And maternity clothing.  I love maternity clothing.  Pants that look like slacks but are actually elastic waisted?  Stop it.  Why wear anything else, ever.

And then, recently, I've been sort of trying to get back in shape.  ONLY because while I adore my maternity clothes, it's a limited repertoire.  And I have this whole giant closet of the "other' clothes.  And the Lululemon skirts.  I am pretty sure I can't afford to replace them all two sizes bigger.  And, if I decided to have another baby, I feel like stacking a pregnancy on top of a really out of shape body might inspire me to just quit ever trying.   Embrace my 5 month belly, and invest in eternal wardrobe of empire waisted things.

So, I've been attempting to run.  And it's sucked every time.  The second wind is not there, and the cardio isn't, and I'm bigger, so my knees complain, blah, blah.  Also, STILL lazy, and very inconsistent and it's hard to build cardio when you go once every 2 months.

 A little bit ago, Littlest turned 6 months, and I signed her up for the 24HourFitness KidsClub.   Paying for two kids now, is almost as much as out membership, so I make it a point to go at least 5 times a month.  To at LEAST break even.  Because it would kill me if 24Hour got $ for free, and after all,  since I checked out for the past 13 months (Mr Snork followed suit), really they made a great year off us.  No more.

So I've gone 5 times, may be.   Ran 3 miles each time.  Last week, I ran 4 with OCRunClub.  And this Sunday I ran a half marathon.  That's 13.1 miles.  That's 10 more miles than I've run anytime since more than a year ago.  In something like 3:08.  My Garmin says the actual 'moving' time was 2:49.  Initially, I was hoping to be able to speed walk it just in time to avoid getting swept off the course.

AND.  Not only did I do it, I only spent one day afterward feeling like my legs might actually fall off.   I put those thing on ice, and crossed my fingers.   Second day was just faintly sore.   Third day (today) I feel just fine.  And, a little bit great, because I'm so proud of myself.

 It was really hard, and I was going to walk the 'rest of it'  on and off from mile 6 on.  I walked all of mile 12.  And all, ALL aid stations.  Which, bless Disney, there were quite a bit off.  Just when you start to lose hope and faith in your feet, shoes, weather, and decisions in life, an aid station would crop up, with all the super nice people cheering and handing you water (or doughnuts), and all would be OK again.

At first, I thought I'd puke for sure.  But then, it was the best thing.  EVER.

The 'magic in every mile helps'.  Vintage cars, hip hop dancers, cheerleading squads, etc, perk you up.

Princesses along the way?  Check

Motivational posters?  Check.

Monkeys with cymbals?  Check.

  If you were to run a half marathon with no training whatsoever, the Disney one is definately the one.  I got to dress up like Piglet.  Because it was the Disneyland half marathon, and Piglets are welcome, and my friends were already Pooh, Eyore, and Tigger.   I sewed a Piglet shirt the night before, so, I got to run, sew, burn 1300 calories,  get an awesome medal,  and at LEAST (I lost count running through stadium full of kids) 30 "Go Piglet!"s.

13 months of lazy = lots of JoAnn's trips.  A bolt of sparkly Piglet fabric in the closet?  Check.

 Piglet tried hard to bail a few times on the whole running thing, but every time, the rest of the group would slow down, wait up, and I'd feel like I could run again.  Sometimes they'd trick me.  Like, "hey, after that light pole, you could totally run".  And it seemed like I totally could.  Weird.  Group running is key.  A lone Piglet would have veered off course around mile 5, found a nearest InnOut, and would have called her husband to come get her.

Piglet has no resolve on her own..

And now, I'm excited about running again.  Because it turns out, I still can.  I might slowly let go off the cookie dough addiction.  I registered for the Holiday Half.  (Snowflake medal!).  I got some Lululemon running pants.   (to hide the cookie dough thigh situation that's a thing right now...) and I'm looking up fancy running medal racks.   Because running is just not fun when you do it the cheap way.  :(

Must.have.

 I'm getting Mr Snork back into it with me.  He's amazing as pit crew (shielding me from children while I sew, getting all my stuff charged and ready, and showing up at the finish line with a McGriddle), but I love it when we run together.  Mostly, to talk sht, about how, he definately, was not born to run.  But, possibly, and in light of recent events, very likely - I was.  HA!

Best McGriddle ever had by a human being anywhere, ever.

The Second Wind DOES Exist.

It's not that I don't trust Giraffy, I just thought she was lying.

A little white lie to keep me going, kind of like, "Let's go run, it'll be great".   It's never really great.    But by then, I have shown up, in a sports bra and everything, and I may as well try and lose those 2 Butterfinger bars that were truly great with tea last night.

I thought it was part of her ploy to get me to realize that there IS, in fact running after the occasional 5k.   She suggested I train for a half marathon, after I turned green and died of jealousy at all the Tinkerbell Half fun had without me.

I ran 4 miles a few times, and then 5, and then 7, and then a magical thing happened.  I realized that after the first 3 miles (so, a 5k), all of a sudden, it truly gets easier.  It's counterintuitive, because my brain after 3 miles is ready for the shower, bed, cookies, whatever I've promised and delivered before.  But, somewhere something else clicks, and it's like your body gives up.  But in a good way -  "OK, I guess, if you insist, we can do this together.."  Breathing is easier, legs find a rythm, and all of a sudden you feel like you can do this, for a while, and you're going to be just fine.   It's almost a teeny bit enjoyable.  Not GREAT, mind you, but not bad.  In contrast to the recent 5k's I've ran without training or practice, where I felt like I might pass out right after the finish line banana.  Who knew you can keep going after all that?

As a built in bonus, once 3 miles is no longer your longest distance ever, it starts to look and feel really short.   Hard to believe that around this time last year, I'd hop off the treadmill at 1 mile and congratulate myself on having gone that far.

I hope someone as lazy as me reads this and gets inspired - from couch to 5K to ..?  Who knows.   Couple years ago I couldn't jog a quarter mile.    Giraffy and I started jalking - jog-walking couple years ago,  ending our 'workouts' with a beer.  She's now running crazy mileage each week, and training for a marathon, I'm training for a half.  My total miles for March were 68!    It crept up so slowly, and one day few weeks ago, we were jogging at a steady pace, and talking, and it occured to me, we were TALKING, and running, at the same time, for a while now.  I guess that moment was a little bit great.

This Saturday we ran 9 miles - to a little nature preserve near by.   Getting up at 5:30 am for me is super ugly.  But we got there, and the sun was rising, the birds were chirping, the morning fog was drifting over the streams as we crossed them.  It feels surreal to have a place like that in the middle of Orange County, block away from a shopping center, and commercial center.  I really wished I had brought my Nikon, but I'm guessing constant shaking for 2 hours is not good for it.  I was tired for a couple days afterwards and unreasonably hungry.  Like, burned 900 calories, but wanted to eat the entire supermarket.  But I felt great.

I still  don't like running.  The actual feet shuffling part of it, KILLS me the first 2-3 miles, every time.  You'd think it would get better, but it's like your body forgets and hopes you did too, and acts all shocked that you're doing it all over again.  But the larger picture - being in shape, getting places the way your body was meant to, being able to eat all of the desert aisle without much guilt or consequence, and the top of the world feeling at the end of each long run - those are a little bit great.    

Did I mention 9 whole miles??!  9 of them!  All made possible by the totally real second wind - that kicks in around mile 4 and for me, lasted until about mile 9.  That last one mile I really wanted nothing to do with, except that it was getting me home.  Average pace 11:40.  (How do I know this?)  Mr Snork got me a  Garmin Forunner.  Which, by the way is the other really cool thing about running - all the accessories.  A GPS watch.  The skirts.  The headbands.  The medals.   Its really a never ending pool of positive reinforcement possibilities.