I ran an accidental 10 miler today. My run started with a 30 minute run with one of the athletes on my team. She is an impressive super human that pushes the people around her to be great. The amazing fall weather was a catalyst to the enjoyment that I was getting from every stride.
We ran past our school and picked up one of my friends/coworkers to join us for some more running. We ran another casual 20 minutes. The conversation flowed smoothly from Halloween attire to our favorite Thanksgiving foods and many other little interest facts that make learning about the people we surround ourselves with very fun.
We dropped off our super human athlete and decided to go out for a little bit more. The "little more" turned into 40 minutes as we discussed travel, family, and friends. The moon was extra bright as we finished smoothly back to my starting point. When I looked down at my watch I realized that 90 minutes had passed by and that I was able to spend a good amount of my day doing one of my favorite things with amazing people.
I hope that everyone takes time after reading this post to invest energy in something or someone(s) that is important to you. The more time we invest in the positive things in our lives, the more likely we are to find ourselves doing things that are accidentally awesome.
Uzi,
ReplyDeleteYou've inspired me. I went for a run last night but had to cut it short because I had to attend an awesome birthday dinner with a bunch of great people.
I had run the last 2 days and have been on pace towards my goal of 60 miles for the month. I wasnt going to run today. My class, however, was let out early.
I could not let a beautiful 60 degree evening pass by without a new run. I was talking with my friend, James, who is an avid runner and mentioned that I was going to go running. He said he was planning to go as well, so he came over to my house to run around 630. He had just completed a 196 mile relay with 11 of our friends and was his first run since then. He mapped out a route for us that would be 4 miles and would begin at the bottom of the hill that my house is on.
It went great, slow for him, but he stayed with me and we got to the 3 mile mark without much trouble. I started feeling weak, 3 miles has been about my limit (I've stopped a few times on my 3 mile loop that I usually do around my house). I asked him if he had mapped out the 4 to go to the bottom of the hill again, he said no, but that to the bottom was about 3.8 and that would still be a good run. I couldn't stop there, I pushed myself up that hill (you can't see my house from the bottom, think around dorchester heights). I am pretty pleased with my 4 mile run tonight, but I am more inspired by awesome friends and pumped to get back out there. I even bought a watch so that i can begin to keep track of my times.
2-Nov 3
4-Nov 2.5
6-Nov 3
7-Nov 2.5
8-Nov 4
It is ironic that you accidentally ran 10 miles on this day, because the day before (11/7) I accidentally ran 14 miles at my favorite park, Betasso Preserve. I'm not sure what triggered this impulsive decision. It could have been the fact that I haven't been able to get a solid solitary trail run in for a few weeks because of the snow. Or it could have been that I was ready to lose myself in the natural beauty that the mountains and forest have to offer. I went up to the park with the intention of only doing one big loop of Betasso (3.3 miles), one connector link (1.75 miles) and one small loop of Benjamin (2.75 miles). After I began running and realized that there was pretty much no snow on the trail, I knew what was going to ensue. I finished the 7.5 miles and I felt like I was flying, so I decided that running another Betasso loop wouldn't hurt. Once that was over I stopped for a bathroom break and decided I would run part of the loop and back to make the run 2 hours. Then I got to that point and said "screw it, I am running another big loop" and so I did. I was underprepared for the run, I had only 1 shotblock and a small amount of electrolyte drink, but for some reason I felt like 1 million bucks. It was as if something else was driving me. I saw 2 other people on the trail for those 14 miles, and had an intense connection with nature. Some say that running the same trails can get boring, but I have to disagree. Sometimes when we run certain trails we grow to know the loop inside and out. We grow to know it so well that we barely need to look out for tree roots and rocks and can turn our focus to the mountains, trees, shadows, animals, etc around us and truly appreciate our surroundings. This is why I love trail running!
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