It Was Fun, Eventually

I seem to remember my Mom telling me that my Aunt Mary said she admired me, because I would work a ten-hour day, go home and run, then write a blog post about it. I worked a ten-hour day today, so I thought I would try the run and write part as well. The run went pretty well.

I decided I was going to run up the hill to Herkimer College (previously HCCC) the front way. This, for non-local readers, is a formidable hill. I try to run it at least once a week, once I get in enough shape to run it at all.

I was a little worried about my run, because I knew it was supposed to be quite warm today. However, it didn’t feel too bad as I left the house, so I started out with high hopes.

Then I put my hopes on hold, because to begin with my body was none too pleased with me. Well, I can’t help it if I haven’t been running for two days; I’ve had things to do. There are only 24 hours in a day, after all, and I insist on sleeping for as close to eight of them as I can manage. No matter. I knew if I kept running there was a good chance my body would relax into it and be fine.

First, however, it was very slow. It was taking me forever to get down German Street! Then I thought, why should that bother me? I run for a certain length of time, not a certain distance. I can run as slow as I want. As George Thorogood once said, it don’t confront me.

Soon I was running up the hill. Yes, I still call it running, even as slow and shuffly as I was going. Don’t judge. It wasn’t much fun, but I was building up my running muscles. Or perhaps merely my ability to keep going till it gets fun.

It did get fun. All along I had the certainty that I could and would keep going. You know, as opposed to my body screaming at me, “Let’s stop! Let’s walk! I want ice cream!” Then I felt reasonably content to be moving. Then I was at the “I can rock this” stage. Yes!

A woman at work was talking about all the stuff she had to do at home. I said that work was probably more rewarding than work at, you know, work. She saw my point but said running on a treadmill was not particularly rewarding. I did not tell her I never run on a treadmill, but I thought about it as I ran down Reservoir Road, admiring the scenery.

I wondered what she might say if I had told her that. Probably that she had bad knees and couldn’t run on pavement. I thought, sure, it’s bad for my knees, my feet, my back, and I don’t care! I’m going to run till something gives out! Fortunately, nothing has so far.

Then I thought, that woman was probably speaking figuratively. Her work at home is never done, so it is like running on a treadmill. What a discouraging thought, although I suppose some people like to run on a treadmill. To each his own, as the old lady said when she kissed the cow.

I ended up running for 55 minutes. I’m thinking the Boilermaker 15K might take me an hour and fifty minutes to run, assuming I take a few minutes more than the last time I ran it (after all, I was under 50 then). So I ran about half what I will run in less than a month.

I walked a full ten minutes for my cool-down. My cool-down walk has been taking less time since I lost my beloved dog. After all, I don’t need to stop and sniff anything. I’m afraid I’ll always miss my Tabby during those ten minutes. However, it does feel good for my legs to walk after running, and I can think of Tabby up in Heaven, doing cool-down walks with the angels. Do you suppose any angels run?