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May 12, 2005
People Who Run
I know a couple of People Who Run. Rob runs obscene distances every week. This in addition to holding down a job. He has placed well in the Chicago Marathon twice and recently took a shot at Boston. This is a recent running chart:
Yes, a hundred miles per week. Over-achiever. Ambitious.
Rose is a new runner working up to the NYC marathon this fall and making great progress. Via her blog, Miles of Yarn, I found this description of a marathon and was sort of horrified and intrigued. Marathonning is most definitely scary. Rose is brave.
Derek runs the loop in the park WITHOUT STOPPING every couple of weeks, which I find extremely impressive because of the big, long hill in the middle of it. D has a heart-monitor doohicky and does special stretching things afterwards.
I, on the other hand, am not a Person Who Runs. It is a painful activity, and aside from that ostensible but not-really-measurable cardio gain and those fabled endorphins, I don't really have a compelling reason to punish myself in this way. I did the Prospect Park loop once without stopping but I did it at more of a shuffle than a run. When I'm out there, I enjoy the park and finishing the loop -- even if I walk half way -- is always gratifying. I just can't get myself out there more than a couple of times a year.
Still, since I joined a gym a month ago I have been trying out the treadmill. Running with TV is a unique experience. I didn't watch much TV as a child, so when you put me in front of a TV my mouth will drop open slightly, my eyes will glaze over, and I'll be uninterruptible unless physically proded. I never learned to tune it out -- I am completely engrossed by the magic glowing box with the little people in it. TV shows, no matter how bad they are, can draw me in and make me completely lose track of time. So combining the dreary treadmill running with the TV is brilliant. I am hypnotized just enough to forget the annoying physical reality of running and can make it through a mile without stopping. Here's my mileage (if you can call it that):
Oh, and the little comments Rob has? Mine would go something like this:
4/15 15 minutes impossibly hard torturous horrible
4/20 22 minutes god when will it stop?!?
5/8 20 minutes tv good. don't know what watched.
5/10 no idea on time. tv. might have drooled. running sucks.
Here's the kicker. Right after the day I managed to run one-AND-A-HALF miles on the TV-aided treadmill I got an email about the 5k Corporate Challenge at work. The email mentioned the option to walk the whole way. I thought... 1.5 miles, 3 miles, walking, evening, Central Park -- well, that sounds nice. I figured someone I'd know would sign up, so I added my name to the list.
The registration process gave me a hint of things to come -- I signed up quickly and only realized when I got to the confirmation page that I had spelled my name wrong. Yes, my name. And yes, there was a "Review your information" page that I clicked through. I spelled both my first and last name wrong. Cubdt Dat instead of Cindy Day. There must have been something horribly wrong with me that day. I had to email a guy at JP Morgan or whatever to get it fixed. Humiliating.
Then, today, I got an email that mentioned "practice runs" and "headbands" and cc'd a lot of people I didn't know. Images of Richard Simmons danced through my head. Then Jane Fonda in spandex. What have I gotten myself into??
Posted by csageday at May 12, 2005 11:52 PM
Comments
Actually, "Cubdt" is a really easy typo to make for "Cindy"; U, B, and T are the keys directly to the left of I, N, and Y. I type "Frabcus" instead of "Francis" waaay too often.
Posted by: Francis at May 13, 2005 11:04 AM
I love the corporate challenge! I haven't worked for a gung-ho company in many years, but used to do it regularly, and I don't typically run. I think my best time was 30 minutes. You really can run at any pace - but it gets crowded, so if you want to go faster than your pack you have to maneuver around people. Once a group of idiot girls tripped me up because they were jog-talking. Plus there are free snacks (powerbars, apples, etc.) at the end.
Posted by: melissa at May 13, 2005 11:09 AM
What's weird is that my usual typo-name is Comdu, which I much prefer. I've even come to think of myself as Comdu, from time to time.
Posted by: Cindy at May 13, 2005 12:02 PM
Hi - I'll be in the corporate challenge too (though technically I am not a part of the corporation, but I figured I'll get a humongous blue CB t-shirt out of it - it's good to have an incentive :) So there you go - you now know at least one person-who-doesn't-run-normally but got sucked into it somehow.
Btw, there is a small group of people at work who run usually every tue and thu during lunch in the park. Do you want to join us? Alan was the latest addition to the group, providing an element of diversity to the all-female initiative... We are no super-Robs, but it's getting easier with time. And running in the park is a lot more pleasant than on a treadmill in a gym!
Posted by: ellie at May 13, 2005 04:38 PM
Cindy- your story about tyoing the wrong name sounds like something that could happen to me. I thought I didn't know the keyboard very well until I ran across a computer were someone decided it would be great fun to move the keys around. It was not fun trying to check my e-mail on that computer-- forget responding to any of the e-mails
Posted by: Molly at May 16, 2005 06:10 PM