I’m running a 10k on Saturday. It’s the same one I ran two years ago with a gaggle of friends. Per the usual, I’ve been sick on and off, and traveling, and I have a blog, and a life, and I like a home cooked dinner and a relaxing Sunday, and usually I’d rather be doing yoga, and all that balance and stuff, so I haven’t trained 100 percent to the schedule. I was discussing this with my dad the other day, and he sounded worried. “Don’t worry, Dad, I’m not Nikki. I won’t push myself too hard,” I proclaimed.
In case you don’t know my sister, she’s the champion of competitive – if you think I am competitive, you’ve got another thing coming. She is the first to beat the heck out of a PR, I’ve seen her train for a triathlon that I at first laughed at (Nikki, swim a mile in open ocean?!), and if you tell her she can’t do something watch out because unless it’s pay attention to someone for a LONG time, she’ll not only DO it, she’ll do it BETTER than you.
Which, this is all to say I used to be like that, but no longer. I am pretty competitive, but at the end of the day I find victory in not over stressing about something that is self imposed (like, say, running a 10k in December.) I used to obsesses over races and psych myself out to the point of being so stressed about a race that it just wasn’t enjoyable (Unlike Nikki, who managed to get the competitive genes and also all the mellow genes). But I’ve chilled over the past couple of years, and I know this: I can move my body 6.2 miles, whether it’s running or not.
So I will go, I will run it, I will hopefully beat my 10k PR, and if not, eh, and then hopefully someone will feed me brunch.
Tonight I went out on my last run before the big one, and it was just a quick (ha! that’s a lie, never let runners tell you anything is that quick) two miles. I figured I would take my 10k playlist for a run and see how it went, and I would try to truly run the whole two miles (I almost always stop for a little walk/death in the middle of my runs, usually up the one hill I’ve decided to incorporate into my route.)
It didn’t go as planned. Instead of running the whole time, I got stopped for a few minutes when a stranger asked for directions. It always baffles me how often this happens to me (I do life in Hollywood, so there are tourists, but still) when I am RUNNING. But I guess people see a runner and figure they must live somewhere around here, and therefore can help them out? Anyways, needless to say I was a little bummed but I still ran a pretty consistent pace and managed a PR for this training.
And so, tomorrow will be yoga, and an early bedtime, and Saturday will be Santas and lots of families and racers for the Venice Holiday run. And I will finish. And if someone stops me for directions, I won’t sweat it. And then, brunch.
