Today was a day of little wins.
Miracle of miracles I ran my first sub 12 minute mile. I am 100% sure it was due to the fact that I had zombies on my ass twice in that span of time. But hey I’ll take it. I actually had a bit of a mini freak out when my gps app announced my time, just as I was passing an older couple going the opposite way. They were treated to me jumping in the air and pumping my fist, and wearing an expression so stupidly happy it bordered on the absurd. I’m sure they thought that I had escaped from the loony bin abut at that moment I really couldn’t have cared less.
I actually went a full four miles without walking, granted it was still at my normal shamble/jog but this has been the longest distance I have been able to go without having to stop my trot to a walk. Granted the last mile or so was shambled out of a pure refusal to allow myself to have gone that far and end up walking at the end. Here’s the thing I found about setting a good pace, for me at the least the key is finding a song that you can really rock out to and lose yourself in it. It takes away the fatigue and really allows you to soar. I actually found myself singing along like a loon half way through when “come on feel the noize” came on. I’m sure the walkers on the trail thought I was a crazy person.
Speaking of music, I have had in my running play list a dubstep Lost Woods by Ephixa along with several other mixes but it had yet to come up. Then a strangely appropriate time it came up.
oh you have got to be kidding me
I have to say there is very little more surreal than running through a landscape while listening to a song seemingly designed for it. I may as well have had a master-sword on my hip and a shield on my back. A little bit of geeking out apparently goes a long way with me, perhaps gamifying this running thing could work in the long term.
Weirdness upon weirdness I emerge from the trail to be greeted by what I can only assume is an AARP brigade with their equally old cars. None of them were there when I arrived and there was no indication that just such an event was happening that day, I would have parked a ways a way had I known.
Side note: when a exhausted runner politely asks you to move because your blocking her car move. I had to practically hit a centenarian to get him to vacate his viewing space.
In conclusion: running fast rocks, people suck.
-THR
The Grumpy Runner 