I've been around runners long enough now to know there are some who talk and some who do. Few runners will remain silent about their latest race or their latest long run. It's understandable. We're proud of our accomplishments and, who knows, our talking about it just might prompt a listener into action. We all hope that our talk (some might hear it as bragging) will get a non-runner to become interested in running, or at least some aerobic level of walking. More often, our talk is heard by other runners. I guess that's another of our intentions: to find someone with whom to talk shop. But sometimes we talk not of what we have done, but what we plan to do. The question this raises is how often does future tense become past tense? In other words, how often does our talk become action?
Last weekend I was listening to Car Talk on NPR, more specifically on Texas Public Radio, and a caller to the program prefaced her "car talk" with: "I just got in from a 14 mile run." This information had absolutely nothing to do with her car issue for which she was seeking advice. It was just something she blurted out. I'm certainly not the only runner who heard her mention her 14 miles. We all speculated on what race she's training for, how fast did she do it and finally, on when we could get out and run a 14 mile loop as she had described. It sounded like a great idea to me and it's been on my mind ever since.
That same weekend I ran into my nephew-in-law who had run his first marathon recently at the Rock'n'Roll San Antonio. Bill is a good runner for as big a guy as he is. He ran 25 minutes faster than I did; of course, he's 25 years younger than me, too. Bill and I met at our family Christmas gathering and I could see those around us look for other conversations when Bill and I began runner talk. What's your next race? How much have you run since the marathon? These sorts of things. I encouraged Bill to sign up for the 3M Half Marathon next month (January) in Austin. It's a great race, overall downhill, an opportunity to test your speed at a more reasonable distance than a marathon yet still a challenging distance.
"I'm thinking about it," Bill said.
"I just signed up," was my reply.
"I'm thinking about a 10 mile training run this week," he said, "to see if I'm ready."
"Me too," came my reply as I remembered still the suggestion earlier in the day of a 14 mile loop.
As I said, many runners are filled with best of intentions but aren't always good at paying it out. That's what was on my mind when I started a run this late, chilly afternoon. My thought was to run 4 or 5 miles. But it felt pretty good, I dressed right for the chill, and within a couple or three miles I decided it time to put up or shut up about a 10 miler. It wasn't fast, it wasn't pretty, but it's the longest I've run since the marathon 5 weeks ago and puts me on a good trajectory for next month's half marathon.
How about you, Bill? Are you a talker or a doer? How was your 10 miler?
No comments:
Post a Comment