Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Would You Rather...?



...be out running and get mauled by a bear OR hit by a biker?  I read this article about a 12-year-old girl out for a jog in Michigan who got mauled by a bear.  And I thought getting hit by a biker was bad...

This morning, on a short mental break from work, I decided to map out yesterday evening’s run.  The problem was, I could not remember where I ran.  I have no idea where I did my first 2 miles.  I went on www.mapmyrun.com and started mapping one direction down my street, but then I decided that wasn’t the way I ran.  So I started mapping the other way down my street and didn’t think that seemed right either.  So then I decided to back-track because I remember the end of my run.  I back-tracked mapping it 3 miles, and then I have absolutely no idea what I did.  I guess it's like when you drive or walk the exact same route to work or school or wherever every day, then you arrive and don't even remember how you got there.

I also have no clue what I thought about while I ran (except for the one mile during which some bro running through the city wanted to race me, which I will detail below).  Usually I always have something on my mind (aka something that is stressing me out).  So I am very glad that I was able to just run and apparently not think about anything and not feel like I'm killing myself and enjoy it!

I might be completely losing my mind because also yesterday on my way home from work I got on the wrong train.  I wasn’t paying attention and just got on the first one that came to the station I was waiting at and got on.  Luckily, instead of just immersing myself in my phone, I was looking around and realized I was on an orange line train.  But it’s OK, because I was able to get off at the next stop and transfer to a purple line train as if it never happened.  And now I can say I’ve rode the orange line.

Anyways, I ran 40 minutes at a comfortable pace, so I imagine the run was 5 miles.  One thing I remember thinking right when I finished the run is how easy it felt!  I think I mentioned this last week, but I have recently been feeling like these normal 5-6 mile runs are a piece of cake!  It feels good to not feel like running is just painful the whole time and like it’s just a chore that I have to go out and do because I have to train for this marathon.

Actually, if I had to guess, I think it might have been a little faster than 8 minute pace.  Why?  Because the very first thing I remember about this run is that I turned onto Armitage and ended up running right behind a guy also out for his evening run.  I was just cruising along listening to my music and we were basically going the same pace, but apparently he wanted to race.  He obviously realized I was running behind him for a minute or two because he kept kind of indiscreetly looking over his shoulder and speeding up…not a lot, but enough to make it clear that he didn’t want to let me pass him, probably because he doesn’t want to get passed by a girl.  I just stayed behind him until that street ran into a dead end and then I decided to turn the opposite direction that he did.  So that’s why maybe my run had about a mile of slightly increased pace than normal.

Something that made today awesome from the crack of dawn:


Grace and I had bought the same outfit from The Limited when we went shopping together for our real job work clothes a few years ago.  She texted me this morning with a picture of her wearing it and said “twin day?”  Of course I agreed because (a) I love matching outfits (even if we are across the country) and (b) that meant I didn’t have to decide what to wear, which cut out a solid few minutes of my morning preparation.  Couple that and the fact that I had already prepared a few lunches for the week yesterday, and boom! - extra time to have breakfast at home instead of at work.

Do you ever "race" with the random strangers running near you?

Do you have any little ways to save time in the morning?

And since my Would You Rather question was kind of obvious (hopefully) and it is such an awesome game, here's another one:

Would you rather be chased by bees or dogs?

1 comment:

  1. I'd rather be chased by bees because it would be awesome to punch them all in the face.

    ReplyDelete