Monday, March 1, 2010

There Always is a Silver Lining

Last Friday the weather took a deep drawn in breath. As I drove home from the rare Friday night meeting the weather was calm and placid. Because someone had to attend a secret dinner cooked by ninjas, and because my wonderful girlfriend was preparing to rock her marathon (quick: go tell her what a great job she did), I quickly rearranged my schedule to head out of town by noon on Saturday. This meant I had to get my 22M run in early Saturday morning—no matter what.

While thinking about my upcoming long run and driving down the highway, Winter exhaled. Snow. Hard, heavy, wet snow, carried on angry winds. And caught and ripped away in this late February storm went any hope I had of a quality long run outside. I had no choice, 22M indoors.

Yes, I was going to attempt to do 22M on a treadmill.

It was a fail. I had to stop after 17M. I honestly think I was hallucinating. The fact that there is even a record for most miles run on a treadmill in a 24 hour period is insane.

But a bad long run is not unexpected during marathon training. However, there is some fortunate news. The temps finally moved above freezing. Today, the sun is shining and snow is melting off of sidewalks. On the first day of March, the chokehold Winter has had on this part of the County loosened. The white knuckled grip slackened a bit, enough to provide the most important training tool—hope. A deep gasp of hope. Exactly what I needed.

Today, for the first time, I feel hope about the remainder of my training for Boston. And I can tell you that this break and the arrival of beautiful are not simply coincidence.

9 comments:

Sun Runner said...

I think we both know how our respective Saturday morning treadmill runs went. Yuck.

The ninja dinner was AWESOME. I haven't eaten that much at once in years. I came home and laid on my bed groaning.

Kandi said...

Your beautiful redhead ran an excellent race. :)
Also, I can't even imagine doing 17 miles on a treadmill. So far I've maxed out at 5.
There is a local runner (in these parts) who set the world record for a treadmill marathon a few years back. Here is a story about him trying to break it after someone beat his record: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dcsportsbog/2008/07/local_man_fails_to_set_world_t.html

Jen Feeny said...

I still can't believe you gutted it out for as long as you did! 17 miles?!?! You are my champion!

I'm glad it's starting to shape up around there cuz I really didn't want to come freeze my ass off...

I am counting down the minutes til I get there and I can't wait to cheer you on at Boston next month! Love you!

B. Kramer said...

Yes, we all could use a little hope. Good luck kicking it into high gear for Boston. Cheers!

Unknown said...

Dude you deserve a medal for doing 17 miles on a treadmill. I can't do 5 miles on a treadmill before I get the "hamster-in-a-wheel feeling" going and stop to save my mind!
Bring on the warmer weather and better training runs for ya in the next month!

Ms. V. said...

I had the worst long run of my CAREER yesterday. Gah.

The Boring Runner said...

SEVENTEEEN!?!?!? wow. So, I didn't go to the record URL, but I can only assume that you are on it.

I have to admit, I am totally jealous when I read that you are training for boston. Too cool.

PB said...

Man, the minute you decided to even attempt 22M on a treadmill you ventured into EPIC FAIL territory. What were you thinking?

I mean, why not just watch back-to-back episodes of Barney the Dinosaur if you want to torture yourself that much???

The fact you actually went through with this and did 17M indicates to me some bizarre chemical imbalance in your brain synapses. I didn't read evidence of this last year, it seems a recent thing. Oh yes, I remember, you are in looooove!!!!!!!

Does strange things to a man. Can lead to odd decision making. Crikey, look at me, I am married now with two kids.

Hmmm. PB :-)

Lisa said...

Hi! Finally stopping by to check out your blog. I read Redhead's and have to say I was interested since you're from Mi. Didn't realize you're in EL! I'm from Okemos and went to MSU. Did you go to State? I hear the weather is warming up there a little too. Hope you get in some great outdoor runs!