Ode to a Runner

We've had temperatures consistently above 45 in the mornings for the past few weeks now, so the girls and I have been getting out on our morning stroller jogs quite regularly. A few days ago as we passed a very nice old woman in the next neighborhood, she asked if I was training for a marathon. I would have doubled over from laughter, were I not already in that basic position due to a significantly raised heartbeat and a severe lack of oxygen (a result of attempting to jog up a small hill).

Last week one morning we were out for about 30 minutes, and there is no way I went even three miles, and I think I almost died.

These two events got me a little curious about just how fast (slow) I am really jogging, so I timed myself from my driveway to the stop sign at Setucket, the point at which I usually have to take my first break from jogging to catch my breath. It took 11 minutes, 50 seconds. A quick drive in the car revealed this to be a distance of 1.2 miles. Don't bother doing the math - I'll just tell you: it's a blazing 10-minute mile. Maybe the air in the BOB tires is running a little low - that's supposed to decrease your fuel efficiency, isn't it?

No wonder Catherine is always asking, "Mama, can you run faster?"

Even if you accept my excuses that I'm pushing about 80 pounds of stroller and kid and I've been pregnant for 18 of the last 40 months, you still have to admit there are people all around who routinely run more than twice that speed. Seriously? I don't think I will ever be one of those people. In fact I'm pretty convinced that I possess neither the mental fortitude nor even the potential for the level of physical fitness required to run a marathon. So to you I tip my hat, Marathoner.

It is highly unlikely my feet will ever trod the course of a road race, and breaking a 9-minute mile with BOB and the girls is probably ambitious, but I very much enjoy our morning stroller jogs. I like that after only a few weeks I already feel a little stronger when I go out, and I recover just a little quicker when I inevitably have to slow down, and this morning on the sizable hill near the end of our route I made it all the way up to the third crack in the road (about halfway) before admitting defeat and slowing to a walk.

I have to do something, or Catherine is going to outpace me by the time she's 5.


Now I have all summer to figure out how to keep up some level of activity through the winter, because I'm starting to remember writing an eerily similar post a couple springs ago.

Have you exercised today?