Do You Run?

One of the best parts of running Boston - and I am being completely serious when I say this - was loading up with as much schwag as I could smuggle through Customs (just kidding...). I don't just like my Boston windbreaker, I LOVE my Boston windbreaker. It's the kind of love all out of proportion to the fabric itself. Let's be honest, I adore that little piece of apparel because it's supposed to announce to the world that I am the member of a reasonably exclusive club. So it's all about elitism, snobbery and vanity. We all want to be noticed. Me, I wanted to be noticed for running in the Boston Marathon. Given what I had to go through to get there, that didn't seem so unreasonable to me. Hell, as a matter of fact, that seemed downright fair!

Supposed to, you ask? Exactly! How so, you ask? Let me explain... I asked my Mother what she wanted for Mother's Day, and she said me! So I shuttled over to Vancouver Island for two days this week. I wore my Boston windbreaker to show Ma what her son had done. True, I got noticed in the Boston windbreaker, but it didn't come off quite the way I had anticipated. In two days, a half dozen people caught my eye and made a comment. It was an ego crippling exercise, let me tell you...

How did you get that jacket? Did you really run the Boston Marathon? Do you know someone in Boston? Are you from Boston? Did you just get back from Boston? AND BEST OF ALL! Do you run?

In a box of Cracker Jacks, you blind old simpleton! Yes, of course I ran Boston! No, actually I picked it up off the street, doesn't it look good on me! Yes, my Uncle Paddy O'Brian sent it to me! Yeah, I'm from Beantown, Lady! I just got BACK from RUNNING the damned Boston Marathon, thank you very much! Do I run? YES, DAMN IT, I RUN ALL THE FREAKING TIME... you, you, you, dizzy old sot!

All of the above of course were my inside voice speaking. Because my outside voice just kept getting quieter and quieter...

Yes, yes, no really, honestly, I just ran the Boston Marathon. Greatest experience of my life...

No, you're right, quite right, no offense taken, no I guess I really don't LOOK like a marathoner, do I? ( damned stick people genetic freaks...)

Added to the crap I had to take in Boston about the football players picking up their shirts at the far end of the line, I am beginning to get a little miffed, let me tell you!

I am just about ready to make marathoning a full contact sport - I'll show those skinny little bastards a thing or two - Ooops, dreadfully sorry, old chap, was that your nose I just hit with my elbow? My word, how clumsy of me, Oops, happened again!?!

Sometimes, even when you're in the club, you're not in the club, know what I mean?

Today I went out to Port Moody to race in an 8K, and while it has been almost a month since Boston, doing Vancouver last Sunday (even in 4:40:01) probably slowed my recovery a little... I ran two minutes slower than my best 8K earlier this Spring, and full four and a half minutes slower than my best 8K last summer. I ran in about 35:30. Great day. Sunny, bright, warm, loads of wonderful people.

Legs were dead flat. Heart rate AVERAGE was 171 and I racked up 185 at the Finish Line. I had no bounce and no drive. The course was undulating and a little too reminiscent of Boston. My legs felt a little tight and the odd ache and pain announced themselves here and there. At the end, AFTER the race, my calves cramped a little but they walked out in about twenty minutes.

Back on the diet tomorrow, and this week, serious cross-training begins with the tri bike!

Weight-wise I am 186 pounds and it is time to head south again on the scale.