2012-366 Day 48 – Running

So after seeing a posting on Facebook saying the race was 90% full (Liars! The website when I got there said it was 87% full!), I registered yesterday for the Disneyland Half Marathon in September (I later received an email saying that the L.A. Rock and Roll half marathon had been moved to late October and is a Halloween themed race, so I might do that one too). I’ll use this opportunity to point you to my original article on running, which I wrote over a year and a half ago (and about 3 weeks before the beginning of the events described in the lost year). I encourage you to read (or review) the original article, as I’ll be updating it here.

Back? Good.

I do wish that I was back at the volume of running that I was doing at the time, but, sadly, there was a time period when I was undergoing the neck and shoulder issues that I didn’t think I would be able to run long distances again. Now that I am largely recovered, I have to rebuild my mileage base and work my way back up, and giving myself a target date of September makes that easy enough. It has, however, renewed my appreciation for the physical ability to run the miles, with this filter now being my own experience as opposed to someone else’s.

In the meantime, I’m heading back out to train so that I’m ready for April’s Ragnar Relay So Cal, my absolute favorite race, for the third straight year. I’ll try to get the technology set up so that I can live blog it this year (although I always tend to fall asleep sometime in the middle of day two, so there may be a little lag in there). For those I haven’t told about it before, the Ragnar Relay is a 200 mile(ish) relay race where 12 people (or a crazy 6 people) split over two vans take turns running 36 legs (each runner gets three legs, so the first runner would run legs 1, 13, and 25 while the last runner runs legs 12, 24, and 36, and each leg ranges from 3 to 9 miles). While one van is on the course, the other van moves down the line and gets whatever rest they can. It is an absolute blast (although I’d imagine you mileage would vary if you had bad van-mates, but I’ve yet to have that happen), and the physical challenge coupled with the camaraderie and sense of accomplishment at the end makes for an incredible two days. It’s a running experience I look forward to without the hint of dread that half and full marathons dredge up.

Between making you read/review the original article and putting up around 500 words here, I think I’ll wrap it up for today. I would not be surprised to see more running posts as these events draw closer. Oh, I’ll also mention that while I didn’t do a lot of mileage in January, apparently Karate is a pretty good cardio workout, as I was able to pick up where I left off in terms of mileage and speed very quickly.

Weight: 233.4 Max: 240 Min: 233.4 Body Fat %: 24.7
Yearly Mileage: 23.2 miles
Current Belt: Purple – Next Belt: Orange – Next Test Date: 3/3/12
Fitocracy Level: 13 (16925 points, 325/3000 to next level) – ID: disciplev1