With Ruth as my witness I declared that “upon returning from Florida I will launch into Riverbank training.” Well, Bag’s back! I have fully embraced training; running with a little core workout and weightlifting thrown in so I can be the strongest man in the world!
Yesterday, January 19, 2010, found me mulling over how far I should run. With recent motivating testimonials regarding distances 8 miles and over, I was feeling a little pressure to get with it. Now, I realized I had been training for less than a week, but I was feeling incredibly motivated so I decided to set my sites on seven miles. Living roughly seven miles from the downtown YMCA a plan was formed; I would run to the Y and meet Ruth after she was done with her yoga class at 6:30pm.
Not wanting to risk getting there late (if I needed to walk the last few miles or something) and hoping to get in an extra workout after arrival, I decided to leave at 4:45pm. This departure time pitted Bag versus rush hour traffic, including most significantly east bound Fulton drivers. Glossing over the reality of reduced to non-existent shoulders and sidewalks due to snowplowed snow I set out with high hopes. Upon reaching Fulton I immediately realized the stupidity of the thing I was about to undertake. Still in high hopes and with a few mental tricks I convinced myself that it would be fine and I would get through the worst of it quickly.
Well, it takes a lot longer to run a distance than it does to drive it. There truly is no shoulder and the sidewalks are completely overtaken by piles of snow. When I saw a semi-truck in the right lane barreling towards me at 60 mph I decided the best thing to do was to get the heck off the road and into the snow. I did this numerous times to avoid oncoming traffic, including a couple cuss-holes who thought it was incredibly entertaining to swerve towards me and flick me off. I took to high stepping in the snow unless no cars were in site, at which point I would hop back on the road and run for dear life.
The Bridge over the expressway was the worst obstacle; two narrow lanes with a small pile of snow and a 20ft drop a few feet away onto 70 mph traffic. I waited for traffic to clear and started to sprint, hoping beyond hope that no one would come. Successful but winded, I returned to my snow bank on the other side of the bridge. It was an incredibly taxing beginning to my longest run yet, but I recovered and braved a few more incredibly ridiculous stretches of rush hour traffic before finding better cleared roads with wider shoulders and cleared sidewalks.
Eventually I settled into my pace and experienced the runners high that I have been looking for. I am now completely addicted to running. By the time I got to the Y I felt like I could keep going and going. Life is great. Running is fun. Rush hour traffic is crazy. Choose a safer route. I am Bag and I am back!
don't do that anymore, brent, you will die.
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