Explaining My Absence

It has been a long time since I have posted anything on my blog. Well, my one loyal reader has been bugging me about not updating my blog in a while. As you will see, I have not added anything since April 5. There has been a reason I have not posted anything for so long - I have been training since February to participate in a 10km run. Most of my free time has been dedicated for training purposes. Between running 3 days a week and weight training the other three days, there wasn’t a lot of time left for other things.

Well I am please to announce that on May 27, 2009, I competed in my first 10km race. After completing my second 5Km race last year, and missing my goal of finishing in under 30 minutes (I came in at 31:06), I was going to run the 5km event again in hopes of breaking my goal. A co-worker and fellow runner convinced me to compete in the 10km, as I had already achieved this distance in my training runs. I had set a goal of just completing this race without having to walk any of it. The course that we were to run was a 5km loop and required you to run past the timing clock before the turn around. On my way back out for the second lap, I checked the clock and discovered that I had completed the first 5km in under 29 minutes. I maintained my pace and set out to finish the final lap. As I headed towards the turn around, I hazard a glance at the clock and was surprised by my time. I had a few hundred meters to go before the finish line so I kept my pace constant. As I entered the finish lane I could see the clock and picked up the pace. A friend of mine who had already finished was there cheering me on. I picked up the pace even more. Although I had just run the longest distance of my life, I found new energy and ran faster still – hoping to achieve my time goal. I felt like I was flying, I could not even feel my feet hitting the ground. As I crossed the finish line, I took one more look at the clock, and smiled with joy. Waiting on the other side was my wife – she had gone out after dropping me off and I did not think she would be there when I finished.

My friend from work snapped a picture as I crossed the finish showing me and the time clock in the background. I had completed my first 10km in 58:31! Not only had I reached my first goal of finishing, but I reached my second goal – to finish in under 60 minutes! I was thrilled to have completed all of my running goals and enjoyed the evening, basking in my accomplishments. Now I can quit, I thought to myself. I even kidded my wife that I was finally done. I could not wait to take it easy and let my body heal. I have suffered through sore ankles, shin splints, two pulled hamstrings, sore knees, two pulled groins, and other minor injuries. In fact, I finished the last 5km with a sore groin that I had injured during training a few weeks ago. I thought “No more treadmills, or running in cold or wet weather”. Little did I know about the emptiness and loss of purpose that would follow.

The next day, after telling everyone at work about my great run, I began to realize that I no longer had a reason to run. I began to think what I was going to fill the time with. When I got home, my wife started talking about starting running again (it was her that got me started). She was thinking of entering the Scotia Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon. We looked into the details of the run and I could feel the excitement building in me. I never considered running a half marathon (21km, or 13.2 miles) before, but the idea intrigued me. It was also allow me to achieve one other running goal that I had set for myself when I started two years ago – to earn a finisher’s medal. These are medals that every participant gets for completing the run, usually long ones like a half or full marathon. They are sometimes given out for completing 10km events, and even less for 5k events.

That night we looked into what the training schedule was for a half marathon. It is a sixteen week program that gradually increases the long distance run once every week. It culminates with a 20k run just before race day. We decided that whether we entered or not, we would start training immediately so we could stay on schedule for the September 20 race date. When the registration date approaches, we will then decide if we are going to enter.