The Eye Of The Tiger

Hellooooo Friday Babies! 

What do you mean by "run 12 miles"?

I must say that this week started with a BANG! Last Sunday all of us brave souls gathered at the track at 7AM  for the Meet, Greet, and Eeck the local LLS chapter coordinated for us. We got to meet the official LLSTNT team for this season, we got to greet our coaches and mentors, and we got to do a little running to test our times. (Hence the Eeck!) While the rest of humanity enjoyed the comforting wraps of their bed covers and pillows, and while my fiancé and his best buds enjoyed Chitown, I enjoyed the [semi] Early Bird Special. They'll be separating us in groups according to our running abilities and endurance (or something like that).

The run was interesting, the coach got chatty with us while we could barely breathe (much less talk!) as we did our warm up run. 10 minutes later we were off to do laps around the track. I did well. In fact, I did really, really well. [Translation: I didn't die.]

I'm not sure of how they calculate whatever they'll calculate, but my numbers were correlated to my lack of endurance and the intensity of the sun. You see, at 7 AM the sun is up and bright... and merciless upon us humans. The more time I spent under the sun, the more sweat came out of me (to my shock), and the more tired I felt.


My lap times were something like this: 1st: 2:33min.; 2nd: 4:00min.; 3rd: 6:00min.; 4th: 8:00min. I am not quite sure if my time is good or bad, all I knew was that I was exhausted and I needed a shade, and that purple Gatorade tasted like glory!

We took a few pics afterwards, and I felt like a vampire (original and Twilight versions) as the sun was slowly melting/baking us, and we were so sweaty (ew) that we shined like the Twilight vampires and left some marks on the dry ground. (ew x2) We got our schedules for training- rain or shine. During the week it's at 6 PM, and then at 5 AM on Saturdays. (The really Early Bird Special)

SQUIRREL!!!

Our first official training day was this past Wednesday, and it went fantastic! It was nice that I got to run for 3 miles non-stop (meaning no walking intervals), and that I [evidently] didn't die.  I did have to use my ADD for my benefit. After the 3rd lap I got bored, and I decided to look at the sky, the sunset, birds, people, grass, the lights... so I basically forced myself to be that dog from Up.

 I also bumped into one of my new coworkers who happens to be training for the Chicago marathon, and also happens to be the Track & Field coach. You can picture the following situation this way: 

Me running :overexcited basset hound; Him running: business man aboard a Lear Jet.  He made it look SO simple and easy, and there I was, running in a very ungraceful way, trying to make it. I know I'm not supposed to compare myself to other runners, but it was almost impossible!  

Either way, I'm surprised with my running accomplishment, and I look forward to possibly shattering my alarm clock when it wakes me up tomorrow at 4 AM. 

Until next time...

Prost!

B.

"Los Valientes"- LLS PR, Team in Training, 2013-2014.