Life is splendid. And I’m noticing.

I feel so content right now… there isn’t anything particularly special happening, but I just feel very satisfied with the way things are going. Maybe it has something to do with American Thanksgiving yesterday, but I’ve been feeling this way for a bit longer than a day. 🙂 So maybe not.

Thanks, God, for smiling in my direction. 🙂

This morning was the Race to Deliver by God’s Love We Deliver (see post below). It was a 4-mile run, and it was also my first since my days in high school; in fact, it has been around six years since I last ran. Prior to this morning, I have done zero running outside in.. years, and I had very low hopes for myself. Despite doing cardio in the gym on a regular basis, I have not done any impact cardio workouts, and road races are a whole different beast compared to the bike and the elliptical!

I got to the site really early and had a chance to meet a couple of fellow employees. It was a cold morning and I wished that I brought some gloves. The hours slowly marched by and the time finally came to go to the start/finish line. I was very weary of avoiding a slow group, so I started somewhere around the middle of the pack (because I’m not dumb enough to think that I can keep up with the people at the front). The first mile was death. It was uphill and there was a large crowd wherever I ran. I saw the clock at the 1-mile marker and read 11 minutes and change.

Dang! I suck! So much for that 8-minute mile. Oh well. I keep on going and going and going. At times I thought about stopping to walk but I knew that I wouldn’t forgive myself after the race if I did. And I really wouldn’t have. The last part of the race was downhill, which was really nice. So I somehow find it in myself to go into overdrive and pick up the pace for the last mile. I cross the finish line at 35:37. That’s slightly better than 9 minutes a mile. Not bad, not bad.

When I get back, another co-op in town (who also ran the race) informed me that the time that I told her was not my net time… it was my race time! I figured that they would have taken the time it took for me to cross the start line into consideration, but I guess they didn’t. It turns out that my net time was a lot closer to the 8-minute mile goal that I had; I averaged 8:05 per mile and I can sleep well (and sorely) at night about that!!

So while this discovery has made me feel better about myself, it made me almost more disappointed because I was SOO close to my goal. I only needed to go a teeny tiny bit faster and I would have met it. Ugh. It sucks how a better time results in disappointment.  It does, however, shine a light on the potential of improving my performance. So, we shall see about training for future races.

For now, though, my head is pounding and I have MSN conversations to which I should attend, so bon nuit to you!

Why is it that, while you’re on the treadmill, time goes so much slooooowwwwwwwwwwer? Even on the elliptical, 30 minutes seems like 30 minutes. But when I’m running along in the narrow confines of the treadmill, the space-time continuum bends to spite me. Curses!

Anyhow, the running on the treadmill is in preparation for a race that I am running on Sunday. It’s called the Race to Deliver, and it’s going to help raise money for people to provide nutritious meals for impoverished people with illnesses like HIV/AIDS and cancer. The race itself is a four-mile (6.4 km) run or walk in Central Park, and it is my first race since my days in cross-country (in high school)! So I fully expect myself to be out of shape, despite doing cardio every time I work out downstairs. My goal: beat 32 minutes. I’ll have to pop some pain killers to ward off those evil shin splints…

Interested in making a pledge? My goal is $200 and I’m half way there! Click here to make a difference!