I've been lacking it of late. Now that I'm officially halfway through Week #1 of my marathon training program, I'm feeling absolutely zero desire to run. I'm still getting out there and making it happen, but it's taking such an enormous effort to drag myself out to the park every morning. I'm actually surprised by the fact that I managed to get in a run every day last week in Colombia, finishing up with a very respectable 44 miles. Once I get going, it's not so bad, but the getting out there in the first place feels more like a chore than a passion.
Hopefully though, this is temporary condition that will pass of its own accord. I'd attribute it to jet lag, except that Colombia is only one hour behind us. I got a little bit of a boost last night though, when I rallied myself out to the park after work for one of the summer media races. It's similar to the Corporate Challenge, but just for media companies, so it's just a couple hundred people racing 3.5 for fun, instead of a distressing mass of slowly-moving humanity. There's still a lot of stroller dodging involved, but it's kind of fun and novel to run any non-NYRRC event.
And I even won a trophy! A scary, red plastic montrosity that I love for the very fact that you rarely see anything so hideous. The prismatic 70's disco stars are probably my favorite feature, but it's really hard to pick and choose from all its wonderful qualities. I was actually the leading woman for the first half of the race, but I could hear that there was another girl breathing hard, right off my shoulder. I vaguely hoped that it was just a really effeminate sounding man, but two miles into the race she pulled up even with me and I had to start hoping that it was a really effeminate looking man as well. I was working hard the entire race, so when she pulled away with about a half mile to go, I just had nothing left to push the pace. |  |
I think I just need to take a deep breath and remember that it's a long road I'm traveling. The next four months are going to be tough ones, but the ultimate goal is one that has been important to me for a very long time. No one is forcing me to do this, so I suppose if I really start to hate it, I'll just stop.