Have you ever heard people say something is just like riding a bicycle? By that, they of course mean that you never forget how to do certain things. Once you learn the balance associated with bike riding, you never need to figure it out again. It just sticks with you. There are other things like that, usually involving gross motor skills. Running is one of them.
I ran a cross-country race today for the first time since November, 2010. I have not run a competitive race of any kind since May, 2011. I haven't done any workouts, nor have I run copious amounts of miles in anticipation of my return to the running fold. So when I toed the line this morning, ready to embarrass myself, I thought about the stupidity of what was about to occur. This was a race that I was not required to run; rather, I decided it would be a good idea to deliberately torture myself for what could be up to 26 minutes. It was a brutal thought, and yet I'd waited until the very last moment for it to happen. There was no way I'd be able to back away from the startline with my pride intact. I had to go for it. I had no strategy and barely any training, and here I was running with the big boys. It wasn't going to be pretty.
But you know? I ran pretty well. Not my fastest time ever, but equal to what I ran at the same course during my sophomore and junior years. And those years were full of crazy summer miles and three hard weeks of Guy Murray training. So the thought eventually came to me - why was I able to perform so admirably when I wasn't even consciously getting ready for the race? I mean, I went to Cici's pizza buffet the night before for a premeet dinner. I was not trying to run a really good race, and then I went out and did it. What gives? Only now am I starting to realize that perhaps having no pressure is a good thing. I had incredibly low expectations and outperformed them by a large margin. And there was no team or anyone else counting on me to run well. I was out there on my own, with only myself to answer to. That's a big load off. Another factor may have been the extra adrenaline pumping through my body. Not having run a race in many months allowed me to use a little bit of that extra pent up adrenaline that I had been storing for this exact moment. Adrenaline is a crazy thing - you go fast and can do things without even realizing you are doing them. Our body is a complex piece of machinery and I am fascinated by the way it works so cohesively together, every part in complete harmony with the others. And pushing it to the limit and allowing it to show off its capacity is an awesome feeling...once you're done.
I was talking in the beginning about how sometimes there are things that we never forget how to do. There're tons of things, emotionally, physically, and mentally, that we never forget. And there are also things that we should never forget. I'm happy, though, that on this day, I was able to reach back in and succeed at something that I thought had left me. I'm not ready to get back out on the course every weekend, but it's good to know that I can still run with the Titans.
No comments:
Post a Comment