Friday, July 18, 2008

Untitled at the Moment

When I think about running, my mind always goes to the movie "What Women Want" with Mel Gibson. I love the part when he is pitching the Nike ad for womens running. (ill add in the exact lines later) When i watch that part I get goosebumps because about 85% of the time thats how i feel when i run. The road doesn't judge me, it doesn't say i need to go faster or say i look fat or ignore me!! Thats a big one, it is ALWAYS there for me no matter how long I'm gone.

I ran in high school, my mom was always pushing me to prepare more and run more. I enjoyed running, soccer was always about running and I wanted to push myself to be better. Junior year of Soccer i was probably in the best shape. We used to run 15 minutes before practice actually started. Odo would always lead my line, and we would do indian runs while she sprinted away at at blistering 6:30 mile pace!! Basketball was always different, never long distance just sprints which I am not the best at. And then there was track. I almost quit in 8th grade but of course my parents had a genius plan and told me I would be making dinner every night and cleaning the house if i didn't go out for the team. I hide from running then and began throwing shot put. Thats where I met Jen, she became my friend and mentor. I can't remember how far she threw...I should look that up. I went to my first big meet with her and I was very nervous. At the end of that season I was put into Pentathlon because i participated in hurdles as well. The sectionals were very interesting as i was the youngest girl in Pent but i managed to score (i think...)

I participated in Pent until junior year when coach took me out and put me in shot for sectionals. I was seeded as the #1 seed and I ended up winning sectionals! It seemed like i would have realized then that i was supposed to be in track because i had lost in finals in soccer and basketball and I really only could depend on myself. I played soccer, basketball and ran track my senior year and although a few colleges wanted me for track I wanted to play Bball instead. I played all four years in college and I wouldn't trade that experience for the world. Last year i ended my junior year and suddenly i was a new person. It was as if a fire had been lit inside of me. I had this desire to get up every morning and run.

My work schedule for the summer made it more difficult to run because the company went to summer hours after July 4th. I was working 40 hours in 4 days so my schedule went a little like this...
4:45 am - pull myself out of bed
5:00 am - walk down the driveway and start running
7:00 am - arrive at work
5:30 pm - leave work
6:00 pm - Lift/Shooting
7:30 pm - Dinner
9:00 pm - BED!
All the hard work paid off though as I led my basketball team and we had a great season. Spring brought track and i was persuaded by two teammates to go out for the team. I only threw shot but slowly worked back into the 800m. I was amazed that i could run so fast in the 800, my three races were 2:43, 2:42, and 2:41, all new PRs. In high school i never ran so barely got 2:50 for the 2 laps. I desperately wanted to break into the 30's but i have two more seasons left for that! I managed to also PR in shot which was great.

SO now its summer again, and its way too hot to run at night, so im back at it...running in the mornings. I get to watch the world wake up in front of me. I've seen so many beautiful sunrises and moon-sets! Usually at 5am its dark which makes it that much more interesting!

2 comments:

B-rabbit said...

I love the title ;) It's a great start!!!!!!

The Laminator said...

Welcome! Great first post!