Why I Started Running

I've been doing a lot of introspection lately. A Lot. I've been debating about how much to share here, because that's not really what my blog is about. Not that my blog is about much, but it's definitely not about deep thoughts or what crazy notion is circling my head at a given moment. But this I think is worth writing down, so that I will have it on record when I need the reminder about why I have running shoes in the first place.

The Story

I've always gotten a lot of headaches. A Lot. My mom tells the story that when I was in elementary school, she would get calls about once a week from the school nurse: Your daughter says she has a headache, may I give her an aspirin.

Fast-forward 20-some years, I finally got myself to a headache doctor. His diagnosis: in technical terms, I was a stressed-out, perfectionistic, worrywart. Who me? We tried this and that, and I did generally get better, but I was still getting headaches. I was doing just about everything within my control to improve my general wellbeing, and the next step was big-time medications.

Well...everything, that is, except for this: Aerobic exercise has proven as effective as medication for controlling stress and anxiety.

Sigh...ok, fine.

Why running? Well, I could run at home. Or at a conference, or at my parent's, or on vacation, so it's portable. That was important. Also, I'd read a book* by Barbara Delinsky several years before, in which the heroine was a runner.** Not a super fantastic runner, but a woman who'd suffered from severe asthma all her life. When she decided to start running, she first researched how to start running, and then scaled back what she learned to an ultra-basic, run-walk plan.

I thought I could probably do that.

So I took myself to the library and researched how to start running. And I bought a pair of running shoes at the New Balance shop, conveniently located in the same building as my office. I used the first edition of The Beginning Runner's Handbook, and I discovered that I could run! And I didn't feel like my lungs were going to burst into flame and leave me in ashes on the sidewalk, unlike all my previous running experiences!! (Suicides in basketball and volleyball practice. Ugh.)

End Story

So, did running help with my headaches? It's definitely part of the overall picture. When I take care of myself, I have very few headaches. Let's repeat that, this time in bold.

When I take care of myself, I have very few headaches.

Taking care of myself includes, but is not limited to: getting proper sleep, getting regular exercise, not eating too much crap, and generally keeping a lid on the stress and anxiety. It seems like these basic things wouldn't be so hard to do, but as my family and friends all know, sometimes I just really, really suck at them.

From the beginning of January, I've pretty much sucked at them, and surprise, surprise, January was a pretty headachey month. I've only been running a few times two times over the past month. Even though those two runs have felt sooo good, I've just been having a really hard time getting out the door with my running shoes on. Hence, this reminder.

It's interesting. Although I enjoy the excitement of races, and it's fantastic when I improve my PR, I've discovered that they don't really motivate me to get out the door on a day-to-day basis. So although I've certainly been looking at races and plotting which ones I might enter, I think for the time being, I'm going to take a break from racing and worrying about time and speed and just focus again on getting out the door consistently.

Taking care of myself -- I don't need to run far or to be fast to do that. I just need to run.

* Moment to Moment. This is one of her early books, a fairly sweet romance that I think was originally a category. Nowadays, she writes more woman's fiction.

** Actually, in quite a few of her books that I've read, the heroine has been a runner.

Hey there, blog

Hi Blog, I see that you're still here. Although how pitiful you are looking, starved by your recent lack of attention. Yes, I know, our relationship needs work. I keep think that I will write you a post about this, or a post about that, but then do I write the post? No. I know, communication is not my strong point.

So I'm writing this post, short and boring though it is, just to get over the roadblock I seem to have built to posting. It's not much, but it's something.

I finally, finally, finally went for a run yesterday. It's been almost a month since my last half-hearted run with Marshal, my sister's dog, before Christmas. This lack of running is partly due to the snow and ice we had on the ground and partly due to inertia. When not running, it is so easy to keep on not running. (Just as when not blogging, it is so easy to keep not blogging.)

But I'd been a lump most of the weekend, and I was really feeling the need to get out and move, and it was a nice day, so I changed, and put on my new running shoes (bought before Christmas, but only worn for that one run-walk with Marshal), and headed out for the canal in the fading light.

We've had a bit of a warm up over the past several days, and the accumulated snow and ice are pretty much gone from the sidewalks. I expected the canal path to also be clear. Not so. There was still quite a bit of ice in places, of the skating-rink variety, so my new running shoes got well and truly baptized in the mud on the side of the path.

I ended up running (with just a few short walk breaks) not quite 3 miles along the canal and streets on the way back. It was a fairly average run, good to be moving if a bit sluggish.

The canal, by the way, was still frozen pretty solid, except for under the bridges. It froze over a bit last year, but nothing like this. Last weekend I walked along the canal, and some brave folks were walking and biking on the ice. Ok, that was probably safe, given that the weather hadn't been above freezing for several weeks. But driving a car? That takes a special kind of crazy.

Race Report: Paisley 10k

Hey look, my blog is still here! Flips on the light and peers around. Alright, who wrote "clean me" in the dust on my monitor?

Seeing as I have another race tomorrow, I figured I'd better get moving and actually finish my race report from my last race, almost two months ago now.

Right. August 30th I ran my fourth 10k race in Paisley. It was also my best 10k race! I ran it in under 1 hour 17 minutes, beating my previously best time from a year ago in the Great Scottish Run by 39 seconds. Woot!

I had several goals for the race, and I'm happy to say I met most of them.

• Goal 1: I was not last! Ok, given that there were over 1000 runners, this wasn't likely, but you never know. As it turns out, 65 people were slower than me. Knocked that goal out of the park.
  
• Goal 2: Yep, I beat my times from the Great Edinburgh Run and the Great North 10k!
  
• Goal 3 (unstated): Set a PR -- Check! My best 10k time before this was 1.17 something in the Great Scottish Run in September last year. That also happened to be my first 10k, but that's neither here nor there.
  
• Goal 4 (unstated): Finish in under 1:15. Nope, didn't happen. This was a long shot, but it's a goal that is within reach. I think. Eventually.
  

The race itself was fun and well organized. Highlights of the race were running through St. Mirren Stadium and along the Paisley canal towpath. The only downside was this one pair of runner-walkers. As I was running the whole thing (woot!), we kept passing each other. Unfortunately, these two were conversing nearly the whole time and completely oblivious of others who might be around them. Just the two of them somehow managed to run/walk such that they often were taking up most of the path. And once, they even ran past me, immediately crossed right over in front of me, and then dropped to a walk, nearly causing me to plow into them. Argh!

However, aside from those two, it was a great race!

As to Paisley itself, well, it's basically a suburb of Glasgow. It wasn't always that way. At one time it was a textile powerhouse. They had several statues and monuments dedicated to various dead guys named Coats. By the way, if you sew, this is the same Coats associated with the thread company.

I got there late enough in the day on Saturday that I didn't get a chance to see anything of the town. But I did take some time on Sunday after the race to walk around and see some of Paisley. Here are a few pictures that I took.

Paisley Town Hall
Paisley Abbey
Public Torture Device on display at the Paisley Museum

My next race is tomorrow, the Jedburgh 10k. Given how I've been currently running, I don't think the under 1.15 time is in my legs just quite yet. But who knows, maybe the fall leaves will inspire me and I'll surprise myself!