I never got around to my post-marathon-post, did I?
Well, to be honest, I wasn't happy with my marathon performance. I was about 20 minutes slower than the year before. I started too fast, I hit the wall earlier, and I didn't have a good time. I felt pretty disappointed and defeated, unsure if I would ever go through this process again. I stopped running for several months.
Fast forward to this week. LTB and I drove cross-country to see his family. We always drive, as travel can be a lot more fun when you don't treat it like something that has to be done and over with as soon as possible. One of the benefits is that we listen to a lot of audio books, and it's really great to experience a book with someone else in real time, pausing the mp3 every so often to share thoughts and comments.
One of the books we listened to was Born to Run, by Christopher McDougall. What an absolutely fantastic book. I definitely recommend it to every runner, and everyone who thinks they hate running.
I think Amazon can summarize the book better than me, but what I took away from it is that my approach to running this last marathon was all wrong. I kept trying to figure out ways to distract myself from what I was doing -- listening to music, planning out my day, writing lyrics in my head -- anything but being present in the moment. Throughout training, running felt like something I had to get over with, something in the way of the rest of my life. Too focused on times and outcomes instead of paying attention to the moment.
So completely off from where I need to be. Today, LTB and I went for a run in the woods. No watches, no iPods, no expectations. I took my shoes off a little ways in. Barefoot, as in, naked feet. It felt amazing, invigorating. My knee pain, which reappeared as soon as I hit the trail in my sneakers, disappeared as soon as I slipped my shoes off. I felt like a kid again, and remembered that running is freaking fun and we are designed to do this. We ran for about an hour, slipping my shoes on and off periodically, after barely working out for months. I felt so completely in the moment. Because, when you're dodging pointy sticks on the path, it's kind of impossible to think about anything else.
It'll take a while before I can run with bare feet for any significant amount of time, but I am really into it. I'm usually quite suspicious and very reluctant to follow trends. This feels right to me. I'll let you know how it goes.
Right now, I got my eye on the Portland, Maine 2013 marathon. It's at the end of September, so training isn't through the winter. Maybe I'll do it barefoot. But, I should probably run barefoot more than 20 minutes before I make any bold statements.
