Catharsis

Wow. If I smoked, I would totally have needed a cigarette after today's run.

Let's just say I didn't start out with the intent to do that kind of workout. In fact, I had pretty much given up getting a run in today altogether. My motivation was seriously lacking, and I was tired and had already thrown in the towel.

But then I realized that it was Monday. And my mom had offered to pick up the boy while I took the girl to gymnastics. And that meant I had an hour at the community center by myself while she was in her gymnastics class. And really, I had no excuse to not hop on the treadmill.

All my plausible excuses exhausted, I threw on some clothes and resolved to do a quick, half assed run to get a few miles in. And I tried...sort of. When I walked in, I was initially relieved to see one lone treadmill remaining unoccupied in the gym. On the adjacent treadmill, a lady several years older than me was running at an insane rate of speed. I figured she'd do what most folks did - fade fast, and be gone in about 5 minutes.

I soon learned that the lone treadmill was lone because some jackass had stolen the safety key. Without that key, the treadmill lacks a connection that will let it actually operate and, you know - maybe let you run?! Of course it was only after I'd looked around, punched a few buttons and looked hopelessly befuddled that the lady on the adjacent treadmill looked over, smiled, and said in a way-too-perky-voice that they had already informed the front desk that the key was missing, and there was nothing to be done.

Shit.

All other treadmills occupied, I wandered over to the elliptical machine that lay in the corner, licking its lips in anticipation. I was sure it was just waiting to trip me up and make me look like a dumbass. Then again, on an elliptical, it's really not that hard to do. So I settled in to this machine, hoping a treadmill will open up in the next few minutes, and looked like a fish out of water in the meantime.

Meanwhile, the way-too-perky lady running at an insane rate of speed keeps running at an insane rate of speed.

About 5 agonizing minutes later, a treadmill opened up, and I barely gave the former occupant time to wipe it down before I hopped on, ready to get this run over with. Miss way-too-perky was still running at an insane rate of speed.  Apparently she's the real deal.

Now, I'm generally not competitive when I run, but I'll be damned if I didn't start to feel a little inadequate. So I started it up pretty quickly at my normal 10:00 per mile pace, and turned on the Shuffle. After futzing with it for a few minutes, I tuned in to some Adele, Eminem, Rage, and Linkin Park. And I think someone else possessed my body for the next half hour. 

I dropped from a 10:00 pace to a 9:00 pace pretty quickly, and somewhere in the middle of Eminem's "Not Afraid", I discovered that that pace was too slow. Wha?? So I ended up abandoning any plan on the run (the "plan" was some vauge, easy 3 miler) and ran hard when I felt like it, and slowed down some when I needed to. At one point, I was running a 7:30 pace - which is insane for me.

In the end, I finished with 4 miles at somewhere below a 9 minute per mile pace. And my 5K pace was about 8:45, which is definitely fast for me; maybe my fastest. But even better than that was how the world shrunk down for about 35 minutes, and the only thing I could focus on was a dark spot on the opposing wall of the gym; otherwise, I'm pretty sure I would've flown ass over tea kettle when I got south of an 8:00 per mile pace.

Seriously. It was a run that reminds you what it feels like to really push yourself, and come away surprised at how you respond. I needed something like that to kick me in the butt and get me out running again. It was an awesome run.

Oh, and Miss Way-Too-Perky finished up somewhere between my 3rd and 4th miles. She also stopped several times to drink and wipe down. I was sort of sad to see her go - it was nice to be in imaginary competition, even if she didn't know it. Plus I'm sure she was totally nice and you never know when you'll run into someone again, right?

And really. If I smoked, I would totally have gone for one after. In fact, I finished off on The Veronica's "Take Me on the Floor." I was a bit concerned that some of the folks still in there might have to pick me up off the floor once I stopped, but all was good. That might've been slightly embarassing, right? I'm gonna hurt tomorrow.