Running Together

I ran my first 5k last October. The Frank Lloyd Wright Race officially eliminated 1 of the 9 items on my "to-do before I'm 30 list". The other items on this list include get married, buy a house, have at least 1 baby, have a job I enjoy going to at least 80% of the time, learn how to parallel park, read the Bible, visit at least 1 new country and go on a road trip. As of October, I had accomplished 4 of the 9 goals, not too bad for only being 23! I've been on several road trips since I made that list while I was studying abroad (North Dakota twice with Dan/Tim, Ohio with Dan, to/from Richmond alone, with Megan, and with Danny, as well as our major spring break road trip to NOLA). I can also parallel park with a pretty solid success rate, at least by the third try. I certainly enjoy going to my job 80% of the time now, we'll see if that holds up when I change positions again in another month. I've even started reading the Bible...my kindle iphone app tells me I'm 5% of the way through and I started months ago. Clearly a long way to go...but Genesis is a pretty rough place to start!

As for the running, I did manage to run a 10k before running a 5k so I blew that goal away as well. However, I wasn't very specific as to what I meant by "completing a 5k" which I think was the wording of my actual goal. I ran a solid 3.1 miles for the first time in December in the Santa Hustle. That was a pretty miserable race with rain, cold, and wind resulting in a toasty 35-40 degrees for most of the race. My only motivation to keep running instead of taking a break to walk was for it to end sooner. I was pretty exhausted after that run.

I reached a new milestone just this past Thursday though. I've actually become more of a runner than I ever thought I would be. I never imagined I'd be able to complete at 10k (in just about 70 minutes too!) and now that I know what I'm able to accomplish, I'm not willing to let myself off the hook. For the first time ever on Thursday, I managed to work out before work (repeat on Friday with power sculpting at Xsport at 6am-I was on a roll!). This involved waking up at about 5:45 to hydrate a bit before running. The first mile was rough...I didn't think my map my run app would ever tell me I had hit the mile mark. I had originally just planned to do 2 miles but I wasn't even sure I'd make it there between knee pain and humidity. The second mile was a lot easier than the first though and since I was still about half a mile away from my apartment and still feeling good at the 2 mile mark I made it three. 5k before work? Never thought that would happen to me! I still remember reaching the 2 mile straight mark last September and was pretty proud of myself then! Now I'm just gearing up for the Ascension 5k in June and I should be able to come in under half an hour which I'm thrilled about. Hope Elizabeth can keep up :)

Now, what exactly does this have to do with my relationship i.e. the purpose of this blog? Well, it was right around the time of my first 5k that I started to think of myself as a semi-competent runner despite never reaching the 1.5 mile mark in the run-a-thon and my dad telling me I look funny when I run (which I do). I think it was around October that I stated fantasizing about mine and Dan's Saturday mornings together as a couple. I started thinking about how nice it would be to have a running partner other than my dog. Although Dan is naturally a faster runner than I am, I think my endurance is better at this point so we might be pretty evenly matched. We've tried going running together a few times...I can think of 3 separate occasions. The first time was in high school. He ran behind my friend Steph and I while eating animal crackers out of a ziploc bag. The second time was at Richmond and he was racing ahead of me and then running back asking if we were done doing laps around the lake yet. The third time was in North Dakota last summer and  he said his knees hurt too much so we had to stop after just over 1 mile.

In my fantasy world, we run together on Saturday mornings and maybe even in the evenings after work some times. Its just the two of us to start, running maybe 3-5 miles at a time. We occasionally talk about what's going on in our lives during the runs as well. When we feel compelled, we sign up for 5ks, 8ks, maybe another 10k or even a 10 miler just to challenge ourselves. It starts off just the two of us but eventually we add in a dog (eager to run with us, medium sized, well trained, maybe doesn't shed?) and then eventually one of those super fancy, super expensive running baby strollers. Basically we look like every other couple in Southport but I'm sure we'll be in the burbs by that point anyways.

Nice fantasy, right? I'm sure this will be one of the many ideals that won't exactly work out as I have it planned in my head when it comes down to it..but its certainly nice to think about!