And I Ran, I Ran So Far Away

Hike Time: 1 hour!!!
Amount of Hike Completed: All 3.5 miles!
Longest Running Stretch: 6 markers
Wavelengths Present: Nola, Xianne, Alissa, Kathy
Weight Update: 321.4 lbs

I'm starting to really like this running deal. I've never liked running just to run. Get me on a basketball court, hand me a baseball bat, or serve me a volleyball, and I'll run. But running just for the sake of running? Never liked it. Hated it in fact.

Running almost kept me from being valedictorian in high school. On my first day of high school, I walked onto campus and decided then and there that I was going to own this school; I had dreams of being valedictorian from day one. Quite ambitious for a fourteen year old. In my mind, only one class could possibly stand in the way of my goal - gym. It always has (and still does) seem silly that you get a grade for gym. My gym teacher employed an interesting pedagogy. We all started off the semester with 100 points, or his equivalent of a B. To get an A, you had to have 120 points by the end of the semester. The only way to gain points, however, was to be excellent at any given sport. If you won the tennis tournament, you got points. If you were on the winning basketball team, you won points. Every Wednesday, we would run a mile; if your mile time was under 8 minutes, you earned points. Most of my classmates started the semester with mile times well under 8 minutes; earning an A was easy enough for them - all they had to do was run a mile a week. I started the semester with 17 minute mile (I walked). By the end of the semester, I was running most of the mile, and my mile time had improved to 11 minutes per mile. I'd say that was pretty awesome progress. Apparently it wasn't enough progress for my gym teacher; my 6 minute improvement on my mile time gained me ZERO points towards my grade. Luckily, I'm a pretty good swimmer. I earned my A by swimming laps in the pool while the rest of my classmates got to enjoy a fun day by the pool. Unfortunately, my quest for number one wasn't hindered as much by gym class as it was by sexism and calculus. But that's a story for another day.

Admittedly, the first few stretches of running this hill are tough. After the first two or so, however, the running becomes much easier. The adrenaline is pumping, my muscles are supple, and my motivation has kicked into high gear. There's really no better high for me right now than finishing a running stretch. I may be tired, I may be gasping, but I feel lighter than air.

Today, I had two pushers - Alissa pushing me to run farther, and Kathy pushing me to walk faster. After turning down a number of Alissa's propositions (like running up the hill that leads to the base of the Dish), I threw her a bone. There's a slight downhill stretch about 5 minutes past The Dish that I can run the majority of. On a good day, I can run the length of three markers. Today, I forgot where I normally start this running stretch, and started running a marker early, which led us to run the length of four running stretches at one go. As we reached the end of the fourth running stretch, Alissa asked how I was doing. To be honest, my knee was bothering me a bit, but I felt like I could keep on going. So, we ran a good portion of the downhill, and one marker past that. Six markers. That's probably about 1/3 of a mile, maybe more. It felt so exhilarating to run that long. The question now is whether or not I can continue to run that stretch on subsequent hikes.

After finishing the running bit, I walked the steep downhill portion backwards. That felt really nice on my calves, and gave them a nice little stretch before running again towards the bottom of the hill. I pacified Alissa's frequent running requests by trying to run up one of the final hills. After much mental "I think I can, I think I can", my body responded "nope, you can't." I made it about half-way. Next time, the goal is to get 5 feet farther than when I stopped the last time.

As we were walking up the final hill, we checked the time: 7:58 am. We had started at 7:00 am, so in order to finish in an hour, we powered it up the final hill, and ran down the steep hill that winds back to the guard's station. And when I say ran, I mean run. It wasn't any of the wimpy jogging we were doing during the hike, but a full on run that became almost sprint like the closer we got to the guard's station. The clocked turned to 8:00 am right after we stopped running. The whole 3.5 miles in an hour. To think that, when I started, it took 1 hr 20 minutes. My starting mile time was 22.8 minutes. Now, it's 17.14 minutes ... and not on a flat track like it was in high school. If only my high school gym teacher could see me now!