Born to Run

I have participated in several dozen running events, from 5K to full marathons. At every single one of these runs, Bruce Springteen's song, Born to Run, is played liberally. That, along with Eye of the Tiger, are two songs I always expect to hear.

I was on an overnight this past weekend. I didn't get to move as much on Friday as I wanted to. A friend was going to run around Lake Geneva (approx. 22 miles) and invited anyone who wanted to along with her. I was unable to due to time restraints and also because I'm not there yet. One thing I did notice, though, was I felt slumped on Friday. I didn't have the usual pep in my step, my mood was a little lower and I just didn't feel like I was firing on all cylinders.

Inspired by my friend's trek around Lake Geneva (it really is beautiful, you are literally walking through people's backyards and the houses and yards are unbelievable), I decided to come home and try to run a bit. Well, really I took Bekah to dance class, went grocery shopping, took her to a birthday party and started working on dinner. Then I thought I would try running.

Unfortunately, the kids had different ideas. I think they missed me and didn't want to see me leave again, so they begged to go with me. I tried to tell them that I was going to go for a long walk. I tried to explain that I wasn't going to be able to carry them or hold them, that they were going to have to walk. They assured me all of this was fine.

It turned out to be the longest 2.21 miles in my life!! I had to let go of the idea that it was going to be a fitness walk. They were not interested in walking fast or hurrying up. They were, however, interested in seeing how many twigs, pinecones and other flotsam they could pick up on the way home. Jeremy ended the walk with quite a collection.

They begged me, at various points, to take a break, to stop, to slow down, etc. I knew in the back of my mind that stopping meant we would never, ever get home. That was not an option. So we soldiered on. It was quite an adventure.

Yesterday, I wanted to go running. They wanted to go with me. I told them it was going to be the same thing. They decided to ride their bikes. Okay, I thought, at least if they're riding their bikes I can still jog a bit. Except that it was hot and humid yesterday and I didn't bring any water. We had a few spurts of me jogging along behind them, but it took a lot of cajoling, encouraging, prodding and pushing to get them to finish. I had the same principle in mind as the day before--just keep moving. I've run enough races to know that stopping to rest may seem like the sane option but in the end it breaks up momentum and ends up making the race last longer.

Mondays are always tough. I enjoy having Brian home all day over the weekend because he is a buffer between me and the kids. He will help redirect them if they are being too demanding of me. He will allow me to go take a nap (sans children). Monday morning is always a cold bucket of water on that set-up for me.

This morning it started super early. Bekah had crawled into bed with me (as did Jeremy) and was on top of my head. I am a firm believer in not touching during sleep. I don't like snuggling or cuddling or anything like that. As far as I'm concerned, I would like to lay down a barbed wire fence in the middle of my bed. So having a 4-year-old on top of my head is not conducive to good sleep. She was also having a bad dream, which involved flailing arms and whimpering. At 4 AM.

I was so disoriented that I fought her off until 5:23, at which point the temperature in our bedroom must have been close to 80, even though in the rest of the house it was 67. I was overheated, crowded, sleepy and cranky. I carried her to bed, said no to her request for a lullaby and went back to bed.

If the day starts off like that, it usually doesn't get better. We had to go get the oil changed in the van and I became progressively more exhausted! I had no caffeine readily available. We were going to go get Doug's hair cut after that, but the place we visited didn't have availability. We went home and after feeding the kids lunch and putting Doug in his crib, I closed my eyes for a bit.

Upon waking, I knew I needed to make a batch of bread, make dinner for the kids and prepare Brian for the fact that I was going to go running tonight. By myself. True to my word, I had prepared dinner for the kids and the bread was in the oven when he got home. I was already in my running shoes and kissed everyone good-bye. Bekah was the most upset that I was leaving, but even Brian understood that taking her with wasn't going to get me the benefit I wanted.

I ran for about half an hour, almost 3 miles. I felt really good. I wasn't trying to catch my breath, I wasn't hurting anywhere, I wasn't overwhelmed. I did take a short walking break as I approached the crosswalk, but other than that I was running up to 2.50 miles. It felt awesome!! I can tell that I've lost weight (aside from the obvious measure of pounds on the scale coming off) because things were not jiggling as much and my knees were not screaming at me.

It was blissful. I didn't play Springsteen on the iPhone, but baby I was born to run.