For the past two days I’ve been asking myself, “Why do I tend to begin all my posts with a preface?” And… this one even breeches into metapreface territory. I’m prefacing my preface with this thought about prefacing. I’m not sure why I do it. Maybe I just don’t post enough. Maybe this is the universe’s subtle hint that I need to be more proactive on the blog (all eyes go to Jenn for that one…).
OK, off I go!
I would like to preface with this (sigh. I even thought about making a pun here, but I’m terrible at jokes): I have had a lot of caffeine.
And I mean supreme amounts. It’s been approximately 36 hours since the beginning of my caffeine binge and believe it or not, I’m still tired. But also hyper. It’s a bit of a paradox, really.
I started the day around 5 AM with a nice can of Dr. Pepper (cherry). As my student asked me later in the day about my first-of-the-day-beverage-choice, “isn’t that kind of gross?” Yes, it absolutely is. And hey, the soda isn’t that bad, but after an hour and change of sleep, it’s a stark reminder that it’s time to get up. And it’s for that reason that I downed the can. I had some assignments to get done before going off to catalog some manuscripts at work, sooooo of course it was a good idea to grab one more can around 8 AM.
I think there was a strong tea in there somewhere, too.
Now, when I can’t sleep, I usually function pretty well for that first 24 to 48-period before I start acting wonky. But, come 10 AM, there I am yawning my way through a collation. Lunchtime arrives and down goes another soda.
After the museum, I head off to teach violin. So totally want to fall asleep in the car, so… Yay, for soda! Thankfully, it was a rather early day for me, so I was home a little earlier than usual. I’ve got a few more tasks to do, but then the question of what my blog post will be about is still looming. See, I had an idea. However, due to brain and sleep failure, I couldn’t remember.
I fretted about it for a bit and decided that it was best to maybe go running, see if any inspirational tripwires are initiated, and then come back to the computer. Success, tripwire tripped, and this is before I even got on the elevator.
And now for the crazy thought-process (this is going to be a bit stream of consciousness, my apologies): if I don’t get running I’m a failure. Complete failure => my heart rate feels a little out of control, maybe the caffeine? => start running => yeah, I feel weird. Why do I have chills? => this feels GREAT, I LOVE RUNNING <3<3<3, fireworks! => in a super good mood => decision made: I’m so running the Baltimore marathon.
I was in the gym for about an hour? Maybe a little longer? So, it’s not as if I came to all these realizations within minutes. And if you’ve been paying attention to our weekly reports then you know dearest Jenn miiiight be pushing for me to do a marathon. Actually, I’d really love to do one. I’m a really anxious and nervous person, sometimes (most of the time) prone to self-doubt. So, that’s a concern and it’s always looming in my brain. Also, running races requires a fair amount of commitment and goodness knows a lot of training. Oh yeah, and the $$ money. I’m a musician and historian, OK? Not exactly rolling in the cash monies.
Anyway, I was so hyper and exhausted at the same time that it would have probably best for everyone all around had there been a marathon going on outside right then so I could have just gotten it out of my system.
I’ve had some time to think over things. It’s the next day, I’m still on a caffeine binge, but I think I’ve come down from the ceiling. Last week when I was teaching one of my students, they shared with me a personal tale of a goal achieved. My student knows I run and we’ve talked about it a few times, but it was revealed that day that he had run a total of 4 or 5 marathons. I was floored.
He said that the last marathon he completed he set himself a new goal: He wanted to finish it in under 5:30. And then I inquired about pace and all that. Apparently he had run previous marathons and 5:30 was by no means a PR, but it was a new goal for walking the marathon. He realized his body just didn’t respond to running the way it used to, but he still wanted to do marathons, hence the walking. He said that he trained very hard and stuck to a strict schedule. It was arduous work and all that, but he wound up finishing thirty minutes earlier than his best time.
Applause!
So, back to my own marathon contemplation: even if I’m not ready, is it acceptable to settle with the fact that there might be some walking involved? The marathon is in October. I’ve got tons of work to do until then, but I’ve been pretty steady with my workout schedule. I don’t have a terrible amount of time to train, but this is something that has been nagging me for a year. It’s kind of a personal achievement goal, you know? Part of this commitment is seeing if I can stick to it no matter what and the second part is: just do one, already.
Maybe I should start with some basic running procedures:
This blog post (for those of you who read the first bit, but then realized how laced in insanity it was and just skipped to the end): I’m hyper, so maybe this is impulsive (blame the caffeine, see above). But, seeing as this is a running blog and one between friends… should I run the Baltimore marathon?
So, should I do it? I’m putting it out there publically, so there’s no backing out now.
P.S. About the “Cruise Control” video: Some of you might be thinking, “Wait a second… Moon supporting Tom Cruise is like Jenn renouncing WDW…” The disclaimer here is… I had no pictures minimal degrees of relevancy, so… >_>
Don’t forget, you can follow FRoA on Twitter @fairestrunofall and on Instagram @fairestrunofall. If you have any questions or thoughts, leave a comment or email fairestrunofall@gmail.com. See ya real soon!