{Life and Pictures} Running

That title was a bit of a joke :) I don't run, I jog... slloowwlllyyy. You can ask anyone in my family, or on my volleyball team, I don't run quickly!


If I'm actually running... well...

I'll try to stop talking in pinterest now.

I started jogging thanks to Mr. Keeley. He set up a 5k for volleyball training (and anyone who wanted to join) when I was eleven. It was a big deal! There was rest days, and cross training days, and jogging days. Before that, I had really never jogged. I knew Anna was going to run the 5k, and that was reason enough for me to give it a shot! I think the other motivation for me was feeling like I was really training for volleyball. It was my last year of parks and rec, but if CHIEF volleyball players were going to train, so was I. Getting to play on the homeschool volleyball teams was something I was really looking forward to!

So I jogged that 5k. Anna graciously ran with me (so did my dad! He's only raced with me twice, ever.), although I'm pretty sure, being a Keeley, she could have taken off at any time and left me in the dust! I was so wound up from excitement the whole day after the race. :) It was really fun, and made running something I could think on pleasantly. Nonetheless, after the race, I quit jogging for awhile. Several months, I think. But somehow, in the spring I got started again. I think long distance running is a little addictive. There's some point where it becomes really enjoyable. (Getting to that point can be miserable!)

Although running long distance is good for overall physical fitness to some level, it actually is not at all helpful for volleyball. For volleyball, the ideal is short, explosive movements to increase vertical jump and quick movements. *ugh* Short? Fast? I really, really don't like sprinting. It takes so much more focus to push myself for that small space than to just let my mind wander for a few miles!

Which leads to a half marathon in January. I have done a few races in between 5th grade and now. There was a two mile St. Patrick's day race, the 5k dog-n-jog at the vet school, and 5k Turkey Trot at lake elbow. But this year, I really wanted to do a half-marathon. I started last spring when I was trying to come up with some goal to have for jogging. A winter half marathon was my conclusion. So I did some experimenting, and figured out I could probably GO that far, just not quickly. I choose winter for a few reasons:
It's after volleyball season. I can forget my vertical for awhile.
It's not hot!
It's not spring= fewer allergies!

Just if you ever want to know, there's not very many winter half marathons in Kansas. It was handy not to have a whole bunch to choose from! ;) So here's a few things I learned:

• Stretching is really, really, really important. I've read this everywhere, seen it a million times, been told over-and-over, and NOW it's finally starting to sink in. Stretching is good, take the time to do it! (It actually feels really wonderful sometimes to stretch out muscles!)
• Water, Water, Water, Water. Dehydration is easy. I have spent most of my life in a state of constant dehydration. That is not healthy and can cause some serious headaches. << spoken from experience. One week after a long run, a really hard night made me realize I HAVE to drink more water, no matter how much I dislike it. (As a side note, when you just can't stand to drink plain water, try no sugar added cranberry juice with water mixed in. The tart cranberry flavor goes a long way!)
• Sometimes, goals just can't be met. That's okay. Goals are there to help you push yourself, not to help you tune-out legs saying they are too tired to keep going!

Those are my big things. Now, the half marathon. One of my favorite parts was a really sweet lady and her daughter who I ran most of it with. The little girl (yeah, she was twelve) beat me. I'm actually pretty amused over that. Over half the race she kept saying, "Mom, I really just want to run! Can I just go?" Her mom kept saying, "No, just wait awhile." I'm thinking, "Yeah, she just wants to run off some excitement, then she'll be really dead tired." I was SO wrong. At about the 6 mile marker, her mom gave her permission to go. (I was a little bit ahead of them at that point.) She passed me, and I didn't see her until she high-fived me at the finish line. *jaw drops* I was impressed!

Another silly think that just thrilled me was the 12 mile marker. I somehow missed the 11 flag, and really thought that stretch was dragging! When I saw a "12" on the flag instead of "11" I had several minutes of silly, half-crazed excitement. I was a little worn-out and my brain was going strange directions!
So, that was what made me laugh/some of the reasons I really, truly enjoyed the race. The last, BEST reason was my fans! My parents and Hannah made the BEST fans I could ask for. They braved some cold wind and several hours of watching people run, just to encourage me. That was really special for me! I mean who CHOOSES to spend their Saturday doing THAT?! Some very sweet people, let me tell ya'! And at the end of the day, I ended up with sore legs (thanks to a very hilly route), 3rd place in my age group, and a pair of Topeka to Auburn half-marathon socks! :)

I said I wasn't going to talk in pinterest anymore, but that last (rather embarrassing) picture, really illustrates this point: