On Re-Entry..

Whoa! What's this? A blog post? Shut the front door!

I know, it's been awhile.. I absolutely love blogging, but life has been insane, and every time I sit down to write something, I get pulled away into something else. That said, away we go.

After Stonecat, and then Philly a couple weeks later, my body cried mercy. I needed to take a vacation from running. This doesn't mean not running (I mean, that would just be silly), but it meant a break from a rigid training schedule. Stonecat was the first race since my first marathon that I was actually afraid of not being able to finish. My longest long run was 31 miles, and the race 19 miles longer. I trusted the training, but I was a S-L-A-V-E to that training schedule. I wanted to ensure that I did everything I could to be as race ready as possible when I toed that line.

The start of Stonecat.. 

Colleen and I pre-race

After Philly, for most of December, and January, and February, and.... I was logging slow miles. I retired my Garmin boyfriend, and ran with either the Timex, or no watch at all. I watched birds, I picked flowers, I walked when I wanted to walk. Some weekends I ran 20 miles at a time, others I logged 5 for the entire weekend. I had zero desire to race, run fast, or do anything than just be running. Or power-walking. Either way.. 

In February, I ran the Hyannis Marathon with Sara. It was her first marathon post baby, and we wanted to have fun. I thought that might be the fire under my ass that I needed to run faster than pedestrian pace. It rained/sleeted/hailed that day, and the winds howled at 35mph. Yeah, there was no desire to put in a mile any faster than a light jog. However we did help a friend PR at the half marathon distance, and had so much damn fun along the way. Isn't that what this sport is all about?

In April, we ran Boston before Boston. It's a ritual we have, every year we don't qualify. Our "punishment" is  running the entire course, but with none of the glory and fanfare. It's still damn awesome. That was the first day I put on my Garmin. But I never started it, because I was too scared. We had a good day, and I actually "pushed" the last 10K of the course. It felt surprisingly good to move again. 

Re-Entry.... After Boston I reunited with G-Man. I didn't look at my pace for the first few days. I was Captain Huff 'n'Puff, knowing damn well I was still frickin slow. It was a start though, and I needed to start somewhere. 

Over the past few weeks, I've slowly been chipping away at those paces. I've made it a point to finish every run feeling strong, and I'm watching my "easy" pace come down to some semblance of yesteryear. 

This week, when I was struggling to keep a solid pace, I remembered the re-entry from this, about a year ago: 

If I went from being in a cast, where 9+ inches of stitches laid underneath, to a 50 mile ultramarathon 6 months later, I can certainly handle a re-entry into the world of tempo runs, track workouts, and Garmins. It'll take time to get back where I want to be, but it'll be so worth it when I finally get there. 

Happy Running!