Running with the Plague and Other Misadventures, Pt. 2

I told you I'd finish this post! Two days later, I'm still hacking away, but my cough is loosening up, the nastiness is making its way out of my lungs (which is really gross, but a sign of progress), and I'm already planning my run for the evening despite the incredibly ominous looking storm cloud rolling over the Space Needle from the west.

As I stated in Running with the Plague and Other Misadventures, Pt. 1, I've had many adventures since my single blog post from February. These adventures most certainly continued after winning the 1st Lady spot at the FHR:

4) A Sunny Seattle Weekend (Seattle, WA)

After working through a month full of the awesome and the tedious (seriously, moving SUCKS), I was relieved to have a fairly unscheduled weekend to my disposal. And what did I do with it? If you guessed "Knowing Kristen, I bet she filled it to the brim," you would be correct. Before I can continue my narrative, I should probably fill you in on one thing....so, uh, yeah. There's this guy. And he's pretty great. He's been in my life for a couple of months now, he's gone on numerous adventures with me, and he makes my life happier. He and I have a similar enthusiasm for hosting, and after a successful Valentine's Day dinner with friends, we decided that brunch would be in order. We spent Friday night gathering ingredients for the strata that I made and for fantastic bloody marys (the trick is lots of pickles and Johnny's seasoning salt). On Saturday morning, a small group of our friends joined us for what turned out to be a fantastic meal, after which a few of us ventured into the rare Seattle sun for a short bike ride up to Matthews Beach, then through the arboretum to the Central District.

Pickles make everything better.

Bikes at Matthews Beach

The evening's festivities included a stop at what is likely the rockingest party I've attended since college for a friend's 30th birthday. Considering the fullness of the hours leading up, I'm afraid that my showing was uncharacteristically quiet, but I had an absolute blast seeing everyone decked out in togas and playing beer pong.

We had a plan for Sunday to take advantage of the nice weather: we would ride our bikes around Lake Washington. THis sounds impressive, and don't get me wrong, 65 miles is nothing to scoff at, but it's also something we both know we're capable of doing. It seemed kind of like the perfect solution to recent complaints of not enough time on bicycles, and it's a great way to spend up to 4 hours out of doors. But, first thing first: brunch. We went to the 5-spot in the Denny Triangle area because it was noon and there was no wait. It wasn't bad, but not awesome either. It was fuel, and that's all we needed. We set off, stopping only for snacks in Kirkland and for a small rest toward the end as we rode by Magnuson Park. I was enthralled by the fact that he had never before taken my route to get from downtown to the airport in Renton AND that he preferred it to the route he had ridden previously - he usually knows a lot more than I do about the best routes in Seattle. Exhausted, we wrapped up our epic weekend with a trip to Target (ugh, moving stuff), a ravioli dinner, and a movie, each thrilled with the successes of the weekend.

And that brings me to the weekend that just ended, or more importantly:

5) St. Paddy's Day Dash (Seattle Center, Seattle, WA)

I think (hope) that every runner will, at some point, experience a race in which everything goes entirely wrong. It is this belief that prevents me from pulling my hair out and crying over the crushing disappointments I endured last Sunday. This race took its dear sweet time getting here - I'd registered long before the deadline, I found fantastic socks, and even went so far as to order a scandalously short green plaid skirt to complement the green argyle target socks. I mean, it was a fun run. Short distance, beer garden finish line, impending holiday...why NOT go all out? Better yet, I'd be running with ShortSkirts, my running buddy Zach, and Ines! ...and then Thursday struck, bringing with it headaches, a sore throat, coughing like whoa, restricted lung capacity, and no awesome miniskirt. I did my best to rest during the weekend, hoping that my stupid skirt would arrive. When I woke up sans skirt at 7am on daylight savings time on Sunday morning, I wasn't feeling so bad that I could justifiably throw away the $30something I spent on registration and threw on my socks, my favorite Nike running shorts, and my 2010 marathon shirt, and rode my bike through a deluge to the starting line. Soaked and cold, I met up with Zach and Josh a few minutes before the race began and despite the excitement around me, the ridiculous outfits, the lack of wind, and the anticipation that normally builds during the countdown until the start, I could not pick my mood up. I was cold, I was sick, I didn't look even remotely silly, and I was absolutely pissed. I'm afraid I carried my bad attitude with me through the entire almost-4 miles, and it manifested in the ugliest word my mind throws at me while I'm running: "cannot." I remember the minute it popped into my head, I pulled myself out of the crowd to the side of the road where I started coughing. I'm pretty sure my left lung is still somewhere on the side of 99. Not only did I walk during a short, short race, I flat-out stopped. I considered the possibility of just taking one of the stairways from 99 to Dexter and going home without any celebration or revelry. I probably cried, and to give myself *some* credit, I was sick and I was in pain. Still. I crossed the finish line swearing. I realize that I should give myself credit for finishing at all, especially considering that I'd been running a race with the plague in my lungs, but I had walked. My pride hurt a lot and, to be honest, still does. I am so disappointed in myself, more for losing the mental game of endurance than anything. I can't stop telling myself that I really could have kept going if I had kept a sunnier attitude. I'm lucky, too, that my friends were willing to put up with my icy cold demeanor and nasty cough to keep me company in the beer garden. They had all run great races - Josh kept his average mile under 7 minutes! Their company and brunch at Portage Bay Cafe (where runners got preferential seating that morning!) made my Sunday morning worth the early rising. All in all, I hope to run this dash again next year, ideally with healthy lungs and sunshine instead.

I, Zach, Ines, and Josh celebrate the end of the run with Red Hook Beer

I have never in my life been so unsatisfied with my performance in a race, but all is not lost because I learned a few things. First, it's stupid to run competitively (with others AND myself) when my health is compromised. I probably made my cold a little bit worse and now I'm nervous about my next run back, my next race, and San Diego. Secondly, I have not been taking my training seriously enough. As I mentioned in Part 1 of this post, I have been lackadaisical, lazy about planning, and have not improved. I cannot claim to have hit a plateau because I haven't been putting the work in - I have not improved as a result of not adhering to a more stringent running schedule. The thing is, my family will be in San Diego - my parents, my cousin, an aunt and an uncle, possibly my sister...I want to get a personal best in that half-marathon and I wan tto make them proud. My success in November was the direct result of hard work and smart training. It's something that I can do again. I just have to commit to it.

I'll post my training schedule up here soon. I'm probably going to have to omit the first few weeks because I'm getting such a late start, but I think that I'm perfectly capable of a continuous 6 miles when I'm healthy, so I don't have to worry *too* much. It's also time for me to treat my body better over all - healthier diet, more stretching, ideally more yoga (this should be easy now, as I live quite close to downtown). I'll start posting here more often as I figure out more about this running thing and as I think up more interesting routes, and I fully expect any of you readers to hold me to this. Ultimately, the fear of failure, especially in the public eye, is one of my greatest motivators, and I intend to use it to my advantage.

Here we go.