The Anti-Running Runner

No, I'm not referring to the Honey Bucket visits from the last post. Horrible runs meaning extremely difficult jogs. My last few runs (a six and a couple eights with shorter distances thrown in there) have been quite challenging. I blame the heat (seriously, it is KILLER here), but I also blame my lack of talent as a runner. And my inability to get up early. I don't have "it" like some people do. But that's okay. It's not a complaint. I do have perseverance, so that's in my favor. But getting back up to higher mileage is such an ordeal for me. As a 10-12-minute miler, it takes a long time for me to get some of these runs done. I guess this is one of the reasons why I'm the Anti-Running Runner. While in Georgia meeting my new niece (!!!) I got a chance to run in my sister's neighborhood two weekends in a row. I've mentioned before how much I love running there. Here I am doing one loop around her neighborhood (about 4 miles). It was ho...

I left off the last post sharing my first Hood 2 Coast experience. In the dark, I got through my second leg (something like 4 miles), but I was starting to feel sick to my stomach. I was exhausted. I couldn't believe I had to run one last time. Slight tangent: Each Hood 2 Coast team decides whether the runners will do the driving or whether someone who is not running will drive. My sister had raced the year before, and decided to volunteer to drive instead of run this time. She says it's actually more stressful being a driver than being a runner. My parents decided to follow our van (van 1) since both my sister and I were there just to spend time with us and the family. They had borrowed my uncle's mini van. In this post-second leg time frame, I had to visit the Honey Bucket a few times. This in itself is not a pleasant experience. In the dark, after some hundreds of runners have already visited the port-a-potty before me...you can imagine. I rea...

My first Hood 2 Coast continued... The relay is over and I would bet people are already planning for next year. I left off the Pt 1 post with the Wonder Women. This was the shirt for our team in 2004: front back Because my family had been doing the race for years, I got to jump on board the team of mostly family members. I can't quite remember who talked me into it, but I know my cousin, Alyssa, and many of my aunts gave me great advice on how to train. My sister, Larisa, had done it the year before, and I wanted to try it. I started long-distance running in college. After college (I had no job except jewelry-making at the time), I spent a month in Oregon visiting family and training on the hills around my aunt's house. There is one really huge hill that is the perfect trainer for a Florida girl coming to do Hood 2 Coast. I did a lot of stairs during the months leading up to my trip, which helped. The relay begins at Timberline on Mt Hood. I was in van 1, le...