Running Like The Wind Blows

Hike Time: 1 hour, 5 minutes
Amount of Hike Completed: All 3.5 miles!
Temperature: low 60s
Wavelengths Present: Alissa, Amy C., Kathy, Kristyn, Nola, Xianne

Lots of stuff to cover today ... you might want to grab a snack before diving in!

First things first, I decided on a name for my groupies - The Wavelengths. Other potential names were the Dishettes (which was thrown out because there are some guy groupies) and The Satellites. I settled on the name the Wavelengths because: 1) it's quasi-related to The Dish, and 2) one infamous night between me & Kristin Briney that defined our friendship. I forget how it came up, but we in Chicago, staying at a friends place, and chatting late into the night. Somehow we got talking about light and the like (because we're nerdy) and how wavelengths were somehow related to friendship (Kristin, you might need to correct this story a bit, because I'm not telling it well and I don't remember it all. Long story short, this is what I remember from the conversation: "What's YOUR wavelength?"

And now, onto more important things ...

I think I need to update my specific aims, because I RAN (ok, jogged is more like the word) about 1/3 of the hike today. I kind of started on Specific Aim #3, totally bypassing Specific Aim #2. Not that these aims are set in stone, mind you, but I thought they'd be a good guideline.

Anyway, it felt gooooood to run, which kind of surprised me. After meeting up with the girls at 6:45, we all stretched and headed up the hills at 6:55. A few days before, Alissa "The Pusher" Murphy had suggested that we power walk up the hills. I nixed that idea immediately, and suggested instead that we walk up the hills, and then alternate running and walking to the posts marked "Recreational Path". I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to run up the hills at all - that goal seems very, very far away as I still feel like I'm going to die after I reach the top of the second hill.

After making it to the top of the third hill, the running began. The first stretch is slightly uphill, so it was a little bit of a push to make it to the road marker, especially with tired legs. At the beginning, I wasn't so sure that I would be able to keep up with the pace; I even discussed walking two marker lengths and then running one. However, I soon began to discover that the walking segment was enough to rest my legs (and my heart) enough to get me going for the next running segment.

As the running continued, I realized one major thing: I need a new and more supportive sports bra. For years of my life, I was definitely in the 80-85% of women who wore the wrong bra size. When I was growing up, I was totally jealous of the girls who could fill out a B, C, or D cup; I could barely fill an A for a long time. Eventually, I accepted the fact that I was flat-chested, and I moved on with my life. Throughout high school and college, I wore a B. I barely filled the cup, so I had to use those lovely chicken cutlet looking inserts to fill out my bra and most dresses I would wear. I never bothered to get measured again, because I figured I was way past puberty and there was no way the ladies were getting any bigger. Buying bras was always something I dreaded; as a big girl, you're expected to have a big chest. Consequently, few to no bras are available in a B cup. After much frustration searching for the right bra, I discovered that if I bought a bra a few sizes smaller, and used the bra extenders, I could fit a C cup. This was such a relief to me - finally I could get cuter bras!

On one of my semi-annual bra shopping trips, however, my world was turned upside-down. While perusing racks of lacy demis and plunging underwires, a sales lady came up to me and asked if I wanted to be measured.

"No thanks," I replied. "I've always worn a 44C."

"C?!?!" she exclaimed. "Honey, there is no way you've been fitting into a C! You have got to be all sorts of uncomfortable!"

"Um, kind of. But they don't make any B cups in a 48." I replied sheepishly.

"Girl, you've got to be kidding me. You're at least a double D!" she said.

Being the type of person that hates to be shown wrong, I asked her to measure me. I told her there was no way she'd measure me as a double D, a D, or a C. Getting fitted for a bra is one of the world's most uncomfortable experiences - and this was no exception. My sales lady was not as vertically endowed as myself, and thus, was about eye level with my chest. She also didn't have the longest arms in the world, and instead of asking me to pull the tape measure around myself, she buried her head into my chest and squeezed herself against me. It must have looked like a pretty intimate embrace to passers by. After taking the appropriate measurements, she stepped back from me and said: "46 D".

My jaw dropped. The flat-chested young woman I had been did a little jump for joy. I was so proud of this fact, that I let the world know. I told all of my friends - even my closest guy friends. I told my labmates. I told my mom. After I had bragged to just about everyone, I spend (probably) way too much money on really, really cute bras. But apparently, I DID NOT spend enough money on supportive sports bras, as I found out this morning.

While running, I also realized that my basketball injury (my sprained ankle) may not be completely healed; it got pretty sore near the end of the hike, but it feels fine now. It's always amazing to me how long it takes to heal a sprain. At least, I think my ankle was just a sprain; I never really had it X-rayed.

As we reached the end of the hike, I saw the last sign (that I was running to at least), and I in the distance, up a small hill. Something came over me, and I ran that last stretch like there was no tomorrow. As we walked down that last hill, the desire to run came over me again.. I ran on the flat part of the hill until I reached the security booth. I guess I was definitely feeling the 'runner's high', because I also ran the two or so blocks back to my car.

Finally, it's Friday - and that means it's a weigh-in day! Since I now have two data points (nerd), I can start to chart my progress using WeightTracker 2.0 (a.k.a. Microsoft Excel). I've also plotted the goal weight loss line, which is 2 lbs/week. Without further ado ...



That's right, 7.4 lbs in 8 days! I'm pretty sure most of it is water weight and I'm totally sure that I won't keep on losing weight this quickly - it's just not sustainable. But I feel accomplished!

Speaking of feeling accomplished, how about the fact that I took 10 minutes off of the hike time today! Wait, let's put this in perspective - last Friday, we didn't even finish the hike. I only tried to run a portion of the hike on Wednesday. Today, I took 10 min off of the hike time and ran a 1/3 of it. I'm pretty sure the acceleration of pace that I've got going isn't sustainable (as Kathy said, there is no way I could do the hike in -5 minutes), but I should celebrate the fact that I'm doing so well with this! And I couldn't have done it without my Wavelengths. If only I knew about my plans, I'm pretty sure I could justify sleeping in and forgetting a day or two. With so many people cheering me on, it would break my heart to let them down!