Runwriting, lets see what you can do

Running and writing

I’ve never really liked running. When I was wrestling in high school, I hated the running part. I never could run far, and I always felt nauseated after running. I figured, who wants to spend their time making themselves feeling like they cant breath and are dying… while slowly destroying your joints. Well somehow this changed when during college when I figured running was a good way to stay in shape, and that you were working out hard enough unless you felt like you were dying. “No pain no gain” right?

Capital City Half Finish Line
Me crossing the finish line with the super speedy 2:26:10

Well some how DP convinced me to train and run the Capital City half marathon back in April of 2005. I figured it was one of those things that I wanted to force myself to do. During my off and on training, the most I was ever able to run in one sitting was 5 miles. I was usually accustomed to running only 1-2 miles in a day. Then my buddy Clement created his “clement two and a half”. This just meant he would run 2.5 miles, but he did refer to it as the “Clement two and a half”. So of course I felt i needed to up my game. I did try my best to follow the suggested training schedule on the Capital City Half Marathon website, but I only try did I do. The most I actually ran ever prior to the actual half marathon was 5 miles during training. Some people would say: “you’re an idiot” for deciding to run a full 13.1 miles while only ever going 5 miles… EVER. Well I was an idiot for that.

I remember on race day that their was a huge snow fall, nay a Blizzard! I was going to use that as an excuse not to attend, but somehow I was able to psyche myself up into going. I also couldn’t let DP do it, and have me wuss out.

Chunks of snow was falling as I painfully pushed my way through all 13.1 miles. After the race, I remember digging my fingers into the available Donatos Pizza to warm my hands up. I could barely walk back to my car because my knees were hurting so bad, and I was exhausted. Then when I actually got in my car, I couldn’t even drive. I sat and laid down in my car for about 1 hr. I  somehow mustered the energy to drive home (in the snow storm mind you) and then laid around the rest of the weekend. Painful.

Alex Run
Using Endomondo to spell my name

Back to the topic at hand. So now I do enjoy running more than I used to. I enjoy the challenge, and the exhausting feeling that I equate to accomplishment. I do hate the difficulty breathing aspect (maybe I have exercise induced asthma…), but running is a great time to get alone time, to think and reflect on anything, and also just to enjoy the outdoors. I’m not one of those trail runners (not yet), since I don’t really go farther than 2 miles at a time usually. I enjoy running in the neighborhood and seeing my neighbors and what not.

Now with the smart phone APPs and GPS tracking, it is easier to log runs, and make things more interesting, by trying to beat prior lap times, or tracking where you were. The other day I had this great idea, why not try to write/draw something with the GPS tracking? Am I the first to come up with this idea? Probably not, but I just havent bothered googling this yet. I am sure others have thought of this, but now I am challenging all those other runners out there to do the same. Write something creative, draw something cool. Whatever. Obviously my first attempt to write my name was in vain, but I think my attempt today was pretty good.

Compare that to the one I did the other day

Runwriting
Runwriting, as good as my handwriting!

I want to see what you guys come up with!

Also check out Endomondo. They have an app for the iPhone and Android (the one I use)

:-)

the wonders of google android , this post is completely voice dictated

since I am watching my baby today it is very difficult for me to get to a computer let alone blog with the baby trying to take away the keyboard and trying to write her own blog. I feel like 1 of the radiologist using the dragon speak software. I spoke too soon baby has come to confiscate my phone.
I must say google android system has a very sophisticated speech recognition program.