Incentive

So those of you who have been reading my blog (is anyone reading my blog??) will know by now that I do truly love running since I've mentioned it a few million times. Truly. Madly. Deeply. I can't explain how or when or why I love running, I just do. And to quote another world famous blog (ainsinanutshell) its OK to love something just because...

Anyhow, I digress. I wanted to tell you that I had one of those runs today. Yes all of you runners know what I'm talking about- one of THOSE runs. THOSE runs are the runs where your legs feel heavy, your joints are aching and you sort of had to convince yourself to get your butt out there and run in the first place. Normally I would commend myself for even getting out there for my medium-long tempo run because truth be told lately, if I don't feel like running...well...I just DON'T. But with the Calgary 26.2 looming in the not so far distance I figured I'd better lace up the shoes and get out there, especially since (SACRILEGE) I missed my long run on Friday. GASP. HORROR. I know you're just as shocked and horrified as I am but somehow it seems strangely cathartic admitting that I missed a nice 3 hour jaunt on Friday. Truthfully, I missed it because I had to attend the James Fowler High School graduation until about 5:30 and then I was off to see Lupe Fiasco, NERD, Rhianna and Kanye. Amazing show- highly recommend it in fact, which is a bit strange coming from a chick whose ipod is generally full with the likes of Metallica, Megadeath and Tool.

Anyhow, I digress again. So there I was plodding along the Glenmore Resevoir pathway when the unspeakable happened. I GOT PASSED. Those of you how know me are probably finding this all too entertaining since if you know me well, you will know that I am HIGHLY competitive. It was a bit of a blow, to be honest. I was about 45 minutes into the run and this dude in board shorts cruises on by me. Rather than focus on my own pace and my own tempo, I of COURSE had to keep pace with him rather than have my apparently fragile ego admit defeat. He wasn't really that much faster than me, and once I started to follow him, I realized that he was probably running at about the exact pace that I wanted to run. It was a bit challenging, but not so much so that I couldn't keep up.

And now we get to the incentive part- the dude turned out to be incredibly good looking and athletic. So being a single gal in the city, I decided it really was not a bad thing that he had cruised by me in his board shorts since not only did I have to keep up to him so as to not injure my pride, but the man-candy definitely made the run a little less painful. It only took a couple of minutes and my stride started to feel better and the run became a lot less laborious and much more FUN. And the FUN is important if you are going to get these miles in to be prepared for the marathon.

Sadly, the dude turned around before I could strike up a witty conversation with him; I tend to be short on the wit side of things when I'm trying to keep up, I suppose. But the moral of the story is...I guess there isn't really one except to say that we all have THOSE runs and a little incentive never hurt to get yourself through it!

Happy hills and stairs tomorrow- hopefully I'll be able to get out there for it...my ankle is really hurting and I'm hoping it will have recovered enough for a quick one tomorrow!