Running Just As Fast As I Can

I did not run on Monday, nor did I enter the gym. My half-marathon training schedule told me to stretch/strengthen, so stretch I did. For thirty minutes. While sitting in bed at 6am. While watching TV. Hey - the schedule was not specific and I have to take liberties in it where I see a window of opportunity. Interpretation does not exist when the schedule tells me to run 6 miles, but "stretch/strengthen", well, there is a world of opportunity.

On Tuesday, I was to run 3.5 miles. Now - I knew this would be painful, so I took some Motrin a half our prior to take-off. I made a grave error, however, in terms of timing. I had a lunch appointment that went a little later than expected. It began at 12:30 and I headed towards the gym at almost 2pm. By the time I arrived, changed, and was out the door, it was 2:10. The problem: I had a 3pm appointment.

Now, as I considered the time-crunch all of 5 minutes in my car on the way to gym, I figured I would still run 35 minutes to complete my 3.5 miles and have ample time to rinse in the shower and arrive at my 3pm. It really does only take an hour or me to be in and out of the gym. ONLY ONE SLIGHT OVERSIGHT: I HAD A BRAIN LAPSE AND DID NOT FACTOR IN DRIVE TIME. What? Did I think I was just going to go straight from the locker room into the front door of my client's business.

It would have been helpful if this had occurred to me sooner than the half-way mark in my run, as I could have just turned around and came home. Sadly, it did not dawn on me until I was exacty 17 minutes into the run and I looked at my watch. It was practically 2:30 and I still had to run back 1.75 miles and get myself ready for a meeting, which was ten minutes away (5 minutes to downtown, but an extra 5 to park in the parking garage and then walk down the block).

Yikes. I was sort of in a pickle. Only one option, really - to run just as fast as I can. So - with a little inspiration from Tiffany, I picked up the pace and didn't look back. I couldn't believe how fast I was moving. A little fear of being late (I loathe being even a minute late for a business meeting) and I had thrown caution to the wind. Risk of injury? Who cares. I had to get moving.

And so I made it. Sure - walking down those two flights of stairs to get out of the parking garage proved a little difficult with rubbery sticks as legs. The pain came later as the Ibuprofen wore off, but by then, I was able to slap a bag of ice on the sore spots and be done with it.

While my oversight was incredibly stupid, and I'm certain a future instance probably won't have the same positive outcome, at least I know that I am capable of really going after it when I need. Like if someone were chasing me. :)