I should not be blogging right now

...I should be running instead. But I am exhausted. Last night, I did the disciplined thing, came home early from a fun night with friends (one that included delicious food and a crazy Boston car ride in which we listened to a Van Halen  cassette!) and tried to sleep to no avail only to awaken this morning cranky and disoriented and 20 minutes before the start of my group run.

Add to the list of things that make me mad: Sleeping in/ being late. Compound that list with the asinine (and yet pressing) concerns that my contacts won't go in my eyes and my ipod refuses to work and I came to this conclusion:

I don't want to run today; I want to sleep. Or, as a fellow blogger would say: Go Away! Want Sleepy!  

Half-fast, a blogger I wish I knew because I LOVE his running philosophy. created this graph charting the probability of running given a certain amount of sleep:

Given that I slept for about 5 hours last night, the chances of me running should hover in the 30 % range. And yet, I feel compelled ( at least mentally) to push myself out the door, to not put off this run and just go for it. Today's goal is only 8 miles, which in my head amounts to a 6 mile warmup (this is how long it takes me to get the sleepys/ aches/bad attitude/ kinks out) and a two mile run. Not so bad. In fact, not bad at all. These middle distances, 5-8 miles are getting easier, especially as the 10-20s loom on the calendar. But still,  the other seventy percent of me thinks that running right now is a terrible idea and wants to blog about this dilemma for a while (in hopes of solving it, I suppose) and then crawl back into bed for the next few hours--or days. 

What to do? Hit the road? Try it. And if all else fails, sleep now; run tomorrow. Thank goodness this marathon is not until November. I'm going to need a LOT of sleepy and a lot more miles before then.

6.14 times 4.2 will do!

Today was my first long run with my partner--my first long run with ANY partner in fact, besides a brief and painful lap with my amazingly athletic cousin Al. It was just over a 10k, but it was hard! Like any new endeavor, this run had its bumps and bruises (mental, but not physical--yet) and proved to be a worthy challenge and the start of something great.

My running partner, Michele and I met at 8:00 am and started out fast (too fast!) but strong. This morning, before blue skies reigned and the world seemed on the brink of a thunderstorm, we mutually decided that we would "just keep running" no matter what and would learn to deal with all the mugginess and precipitation that Mother Nature could throw at us. The rain never came and after a while I stopped thinking about it. I did, however, count each step, marker and mile in hopes that we would finish quicker (we didn't) but in the end, my perseverance came down to keeping us together and remembering that we only have to do today's run twice for a half and four times over for a full marathon. On a gross muggy day with little training, we're already a quarter of the way there!

 It was both strange and comforting to adjust my steps to a parnter, both distracting and motivating to know that she was there. Around the fifth mile--a tough one for me-- I felt stronger, knowing that there was someone beside me who wasn't going to kick up and leave me in the dust. We've been friends for only a week now but she and I , like most of my nearest and dearest "just clicked". Today, while pounding the pavement we discovered that we have almost the pace, same birthday, the same ipod, the same desire to teach and to help others, the same passion for travel and living abroad. We are also vastly different and quirky ( I think she would approve of this description!) she's a brilliant scientist and I nearly failed Chem. Yet we're committed to our goal and to helping each other be, run and train at her personal best.

After 6.14 miles of running (at a solid but too-fast 8:40 pace) and a two mile walk-run cool down, we celebrated our success at Ihop. (Please note: I'd run for pancakes any day! In fact, I'm considering making the shirt:)

Here's to the next 3/4, partner!