Well folks, tomorrow is my first running race of the 2009 season. It will be March 29, and because I am also lucky enough to live in fickle Chicago, it will also be snowing, windy, and barely 30 degrees. (Sigh.)
Still, I am excited. My love for running has grown this year as I’ve taken the time to find things I love to do. I’m on a racing team with a local running store, and my goal for the season is to finish the half-marathon on August 2.
Because running is on my mind so much lately, last week I decided to start a new blog dedicated to my running. I wanted it to be separate from this one so I could feel free to post in it in short bursts, whenever I am inspired to do so. It’s been working for me so far. In case you’re interested in reading about my running pursuits, I’ve posted a link to my running blog on the right side of the screen. (As an aside, I must say I’m kind of proud of myself for figuring out how to do that. Is that sad?)
In the future, I am going to try to keep these two blogs separate, but in honor of the start of what I hope will be an exciting and gratifying racing season, I’m writing a “crossover episode” today. You’ll notice that the title of my running blog is, “The Energizer Katie.” Today I thought I’d tell the story of why I chose that title. Shamelessly, I’m hoping this might prod you into reading my running blog, or even better, into coming out and supporting me in a race someday. Enjoy!
When I first started running, my daily distance was only two miles. Actually, my first route was a one-mile loop that I completed twice, just in case I felt I couldn’t go on after one mile. Eventually I changed my route to a two-mile loop, and this seemed to make the two miles go by faster. This was all during my first year in Chicago, when I lived in Lakeview.
When I moved to Evanston, I mapped out another two-mile loop and ran it religiously, every single morning. I never tried to go farther or even had ambitions to do so. But then I started to talk to my mom more about running, and I remembered that she and my sister had run 5K races in the past. 5K is just over three miles. On a whim, one day I got to the end of my two-mile loop, and just kept going. I ran a smaller loop that felt like it might be an additional mile, then eagerly went home and mapped it out with the g-map pedometer. It was almost exactly 5K, and I had done it without much of a struggle at all! I called my mom immediately and excitedly told her I had just run 5K. (It was the first of a lot of phone calls my mom and I have had over the years about our running.)
You would think that so easily adding a mile to my distance would make me want to add more. But you would be wrong. I was quite satisfied with that distance. Because 5K is typically the shortest race distance (unless you accidentally enter a kids dash the way my mom and sister did once!), I felt being able run 5K officially made me a runner. And that was good enough for me.
I ran in my first 5K race the following spring, and was tickled pink to finish it in under 30 minutes. I dutifully kept up with my schedule of running 5K five times a week, and I ran a race about once a month. And my race times continued to inch downward. 29:39 in April. 29:08 in May. 28:56 in early June. 28:02 at the end of June. Then, on the 4th of July, I ran a 5K in Frankenmuth, MI with my mother, and scored an amazing time of 27:37. That’s under a 9-minute mile pace.
I had a feeling that I had reached some sort of limit, though, because I felt unwell for a few minutes at the end of the race. I had pushed it hard enough that I didn’t really enjoy it. I just wanted it to end. And I didn’t want running to be like that. And sure enough, during my next race, I made sure not to push myself beyond my limits, and for the first time I did not score a personal record time. I finished in 29:04. Still good, but my golden age was over.
So, I thought to myself. Now what? I didn’t think pushing my speed was a good idea any more, so I needed a new goal. The logical choice was to try to increase my distance. So, I went out one Saturday intending to attempt to run 8K. This was the next-longest common race distance, and I just wanted to see what it would feel like. I decided to complete 8K by running my regular 5K loop, then starting it over again and turning toward home sooner than usual on the second lap.
I ran the first lap. I started the second. And then when I got to the place I intended to turn, I realized that I was still feeling pretty good. I had a choice. I could turn home now and be satisfied with 8K, or I could keep on my regular route and see what happened. After all, I reasoned. I can stop any time I need to and walk. So I didn’t turn. I kept going.
When I reached the 8K point on the route, I asked myself what I wanted to do. Walk the rest of the lap, or keep running? Just keep running, I thought. Just keep running.
So I did. I kept running and running and running, and eventually I found myself at the end of the loop again. I had just run 10K. Naturally, I called my mom to brag. She asked me how I pushed myself to go farther. “I don’t know, really,” I said. “I just kept going.”
All this happened last summer. I finished out my racing season with one 8K race and one 10K race. All in all, it was a really good season for me. My last big event was to volunteer at the Chicago marathon, handing out Gatorade. It was a lot of fun, and seeing people of all ages, shapes, and sizes running the ultimate distance made me realize that I could do so someday, too, if I wanted to.
So, this year I set my sights on the half-marathon, and I’ve been working on increasing my distance. One Tuesday, we had amazing weather, and I took to the lakefront path and ran 7 miles, which is 0.8 miles longer than a 10K, the farthest I had ever run before. Four days later, on Saturday, I attempted to run 8 miles, just to see if I could. Attempted and succeeded. That was a week ago.
I haven’t tried to go farther this week, mostly because I have been focused on getting ready for the race tomorrow, which is only 5 miles. But believe me, I’ve been bragging about my 8-miler. One of my friends asked me how I got up to 8. Just like when my mom asked me how I got to 10K, I didn’t know what to tell her. “I just set out to run it, and I did. Any time I considered stopping, I just decided not to.”
“But whenever I run, I just want it to end,” she answered. “I can never seem to force myself to keep going. How do you do it?”
I didn’t know what to say. “I don’t know. If you just keep running, you eventually get to the distance you set out for, and it is over faster than you think. I don’t have any big secret. I just keep going.”
There you have it. That sentence is the crux of my whole running philosophy. How did I go from 2 miles to 5K? I just kept going. How did I get from 5K to 10K? I just kept going. How did I run 7 miles, and then 8? I just. Kept. Going.
It’s what I do. I keep going. And going. And going.
And that’s why I’m The Energizer Katie. Check me out sometime.
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