time to run

brian and i just recently signed up to run a 30k trail race. april 13, moraine state park. a 30k!!! that’s 18 miles people. oh man, i’m going to die. i wrote about running in a post from 2010, i think it was called “year of 13” or something. i waxed eloquent (har!) about climbing a 5.13 and running a half marathon. i talked about how hard running 13 miles was…. and now i have signed up for even more pain and torture! 5 more miles of it!

first off, it would be wise for me to stop thinking of running as torture, and instead think of it as… a party!? i need to embrace the fact that for at least these next 4 months, i need to act like a runner, be disciplined like a runner: i am going to have to run. a lot. i may have to stop acting like the rock climber i am, stop trying to get out of running to do climbing related activities. i will have to reverse my natural mindset and go for a run instead of climb.

i bought new running shoes. that was the fun part. the not fun part is realizing that i may never find the perfect pair of running shoes. and by perfect i mean the kind that make it feel like my feet never touch the ground, the kind that don’t allow my legs to tire and keep my lungs full of oxygen. nope, the shoes i have tried have all left me feeling like i have a long way to go to run 30 kilometers, to be on my feet running and walking for like 4 hours (knowing me, possibly more).

some advice i have received from some runner guy online is that i need to start running often enough to make running begin to feel like second nature. running has always felt really grueling and completely opposite of what i have been created to do, so i am kind of dubious that i can get there. but i’m going to try. going to try to fall in love with it if i can, or at least force myself at it a whole bunch of times and hope we can still look at each other in the morning.

i have 4 months. time to run!