Yesterday was the second 8 miler in the Half Marathon training plan. The weather predictions were for a bizarre February high in the mid 60s, and it was 32 when I left the house. Sounded like perfect outside running weather, but what I didn’t remember reading about was how windy it was going to be.
I mapped out a two loop run, 4 miles each loop. I was very happy to be meeting my running partner for the first loop after not seeing her for a few weeks. That first loop went well and though I noticed some wind, it didn’t stand out as a big part of the miles.
After saying goodbye to my friend, I started out on the second loop. About 1.5 miles in, I came around a corner…and blammo…WIND WIND WIND. Unfortunately, that was the direction where my car was waiting 2.5 miles away. There was no way to change plans, finish the miles, and still get back to my car (though I did consider giving up at one point and catching the bus, BUT I didn’t).
It was an ugly trip back to the car. The wind was hitting me in the chest, trying to steal my hat, making my eyes and my nose run, making my legs feel more like cement blocks than they already were after a high mileage week, and making me feel like there was no way I was going to have the race I was hoping for.
And that is my point in writing this. Sometimes a run just sucks. And sometimes a run can start out good, and then it can suck. And sometimes, you start out feeling like there’s no way you can run as many miles as you are supposed to, and it feels AMAZING! But most of the time, a run is just a run, and that is fine too.
Running has never been easy for me, and as I previously mentioned, I didn’t start running until later in life. The AMAZING runs for me are fewer and further between. Luckily, the feeling I get from those runs sticks with me through the really crappy runs, which are also fewer and further between. It is, unfortunately, too easy to let the few yucky miles have too much influence.
And that’s where I was yesterday, letting the wind win, judging my long run and my Half goals by the few ugly miles at the end. But it’s not where I am this morning. I am back in the groove, ready to get moving on this week’s mileage. And that’s the great thing about running, every run is a new run, you just have to start moving your legs and go.