I text my Gym Cousin while I was at work to remind him that we should run the official race trail tonight after work. I was at home moseying along, talking about the latest gossip with my Little Sister on the phone and much to my surprise he had taken his clothes to work and he was ready before I was. I told him to come pick me up so that I would have enough time to finish getting dressed. I had the race map printed out and we drove through the course first, so that we would know where we were going. I’m directionally impaired, and no good at being the passenger seat navigator, but I got us through the park.

He grunted, “This is even a long drive, and we have to this on foot.” We both looked at each other nervously. “I don’t know why I let you talk me into this,” He said. I was wondering the same thing. After driving the seemingly never-ending course, we agreed to walk together since he runs a lot faster than me, just so that we could get a general idea of what it felt like to do it on the pavement instead of the treadmill. We probably did 90% of our training indoors at the gym. The winter weather here has been so crappy, some places some places still has a foot of snow outside just days ago.

Tonight was the true test. I’ve eaten healthy for several days now, so I didn’t have that yuck carb-loaded greasy food feeling weighing me down as we walked. My mom treated me to a buffet today for lunch and I ate meats and veggies only with a little whole-grain rice. Of course if she read my blog post and reminded me to eat healthy. Even though she has never had a weight issue and doesn’t really “get it” she’s always supportive of my efforts. Since I haven’t had all that sugar in my system I wasn’t really even craving it. My Mom even got desert but I didn’t even go in that direction. For a minute I considered eating a sugar free dessert, but everybody knows they taste like crap, so I stuck with what I had on my plate. Anyway my point is I made healthy choices today and that helped me not feel sluggish on my walk tonight. But, around the 2 mile mark, things started to get a little tough, I really wanted to quit. That’s because we’re on Week 5 and I typically get through about 2 miles when I’m at the gym. The last mile was a mystery for both of us.

 

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During our power walk, I tried to understand that complex equation also known as “the male mind.” We chatted it up about relationships and our wants and needs. And how drastically having a baby now in our early 30’s would completely alter our childless, single, fancy-free, travel-when-I-wanna lives. We talked about how we want to leave a legacy to carry the family torch, but how were just not real excited about a kids yet. *shrug* Maybe if we had the right partners, we’d feel different. Who knows?… Anyway, as we finished up, I told him the funny story about how my Little Sister who agreed to start the 5K race with me left me choking in her dust as soon as the starting gun fired.

He made me run in the last couple hundred feet and we made it to the car in one hour in two minutes. Tonight was really challenging for me. I’m wondering if I should power-walk the whole way on Saturday? Sure I can do a couple five-minute running intervals, but I’m worried that if I do that, I would be completely exhausted and still have a mile and a half to go….I need to pace myself to finish. Hmmm…we’ll see! Race Day here we come!

 

2 Comments
  1. Great looking gym buddies!!!! Best of luck to you both this weekend. Remember all that matters is that you finish. Not what place you finish. You will NEVER be last!!!!!! Have fun and keep moving!

  2. Tam, I didn’t get to reply before the race, but this comment inspired me! It made me realize that as long as I gave my best, that’s all the mattered. Sometimes I am too hard on myself. Maybe those people didn’t have to come from where I came from, and regardless of what place i finished in, I was still a winner b/c I got my butt off the couch and gave it all it had! Thanks lady!

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