The Beginning

About 3 weeks ago I went looking for a new pair of running shoes. I'd just gotten my new knee brace that supposedly would work its magic on my "Patella-Femoral Syndrome." (Whatever?) I'd done a few short runs and learned about grinding in my knees. I had hopes of getting back into running shape, with the help of my flashy pink accented shoes and fancy arch supports. While at the store, I met Mayor Fenty's dad/owner of Fleet Feet and I learned that the dude has run over 100 miles in a day. More than once. Intense.

My motivation to start running again was furthered while at Fleet Feet: I was browsing the race advertisements and am now aiming for the Miami Half Marathon on January 25th. It's the perfect first race: flat, cool weathered and (the bonus) I have free lodging. Plus, my parents will love having me home and I get to lay about in the sun while my DC counterparts deal with crappy weather.

I didn't even get to try out my shoes before I had to take two more weeks off - I fell on the arch of my foot while trying to climb a crack that was pretty much out of league. It started to get better, then I jump on a tent stake while jumping for a frisbee. So lame!

I've started getting into my little rhythm though, and I feel awesome! On Saturday, I did a decent 4 miles. Tuesday, I did something truly unprecedented: I got up and went running in the morning! Anybody who knows me knows that this is an amazing accomplishment. Since college, I've gotten a lot better about not spending the entire day sleeping (honest). I rarely sleep past 9:30 anymore. In any case, I did my morning run and felt peppy all day. The extra pep is certainly incentive to keep the morning runs up.

My progress in training brought me to do one of the stupidest things I've ever done tonight: I decided to take advantage of the cool, albeit humid, weather. I recently discovered Rock Creek Park 2 blocks from my apartment. The roads are basically covered by the canopy of trees, cicadas and birds make alot of noise...generally, your tree hugger paradise right in DC. I decided to take a long, leisurely run right through the park. I should have turned back at the first sign that sidewalks would be scare, but I decided that I would press on. This was a dumb idea. While the lack of side walks was not that bad, I ended up running in the dark because the canopy blocked out the setting sun. I knew I would run in the dark a bit, but it escalated quickly to running in darkness, on no sidewalks, further than I'd planned to run from home, with zero street lights. My imagination conjured images of horror movies where hairy men jump out of the bushes to drag you into the woods. The entire time, I was thinking, "shit I left my mace at home...what good does it do me there!??!"

Beyond the horror movie, I got a solid 6 miles in on pavement and trails, so it was a good run. My foot is pissed off at me, which is altogether a new thing for me, but for now I'm ignoring it.

Florida was never great on teaching me to deal with hills, and I certainly neglected them in Troy. But, I figure if I learn to run hills here, running Miami Beach and Key Biscayne will be a breeze. It's good that I've committed to that: it seems like everywhere I want to run around here is downhill on the way out and uphill on the way in.

And onward: tomorrow, softball (apparently) and perhaps climbing if the foot stops being a sissy.