Reluctant Runner

I have a little confession to make…  You know when I wrote about Ostriching and that as a running strategy it is probably sub-optimal – weeelllll…

Since January I have been keeping a log of all my training and race kilometres, I’d decided to do this just so that I’d know how off track I was, but as it turns out I only ever plugged data in, I never actually looked back to check how far off I was – yes, (head hung low) I was ostriching it because I had a sneaky suspicion that my training wasn’t anywhere near where it had to be.

Of course the story doesn’t end there…  The day before the race when I met up with other runners from my club, everyone was comparing how many kilometres they’d logged in training which ranged between 1 000 and 1 200km’s since Dec/Jan – I stealthily stayed out of these conversations because when I thought back to my training calendar I remember it being rather sparse…

SO, this weekend I decided to count up how much I actually did and finally go cold turkey on the ostriching,  an exercise which made me realize that luckily I did ostrich with this particular thing because as it turns out I had to round up – to 600km’s!!!!

No really, I’m not joking I even counted again to make sure which has lead me to start thinking about this whole training thing.  Do we train incessantly for the Comrades (or any longer race for that matter) to help our bodies or our minds?

My theory is that mental training is totally separate and has nothing to do with running or how much you have trained.  Sure if you know you can do a marathon then you’d be more confidant to tackle an ultra, what I’m talking about is the fact that on most of these races I’ve found that it is my mind which determines how well my race is going to go, not my fitness…

I’m going to think about this a bit more, what is your theory?

My Comrades medals for 2009

Paranoia seems to be setting in…  Everyone in my office is sick and so far all I’ve gotten is a runny nose but with the Comrades on Sunday, I’d be devastated if I got the flu and was unable to run…

I even considered coming in to work with a surgical mask on, or asking my operations manager (who is also running so is as nervous as what I am) if I could work from home this week.

I hate this feeling…

On Sunday I did the Milkwood half marathon as my last long run before the Comrades.  I wanted to do this race in particular because instead of handing you a medal at the end, they hand you an indigenous tree…  Rather random I know, especially since I live in an apartment, but I’d far prefer getting something like this, which I can keep in my flat until it is too big, than a medal.

This post isn’t about the actual race because I did it last year and which I’d recommend anyone in the area adds to their running calendar, I wanted to write about this race because it has come to my attention that my little wooden box which I keep my medals in is becoming inconveniently full.

I’m not sure about any of you, but after every race when I get a medal, it gets photographed for a blog post and then unceremoniously thrown into a box in my cupboard – not really what you’d think one would do with something which is meant to be given for bragging rights…

I’ve always been interested in what people do with these useless pieces of metal, some people don’t take one, others throw them away before they even leave the event and some people do the same as me (minus the taking a photo for a blog post) – very few in fact do anything useful with theirs which has made me start thinking about possible alternatives.

I like the idea of a tree because it makes me feel all hippie and cancels out feeling bad for not recycling (AND a tree is also harder to kill than normal house plants).  I asked around at the race yesterday and some people said they’d prefer water bottles or even sachets of new products to try.

I certainly wouldn’t shed a tear at not getting a medal – ok ok some races you HAVE to get a medal like the Two Oceans, the Comrades and the bit international City races.  I’m interested to hear what you’d like to get instead of a medal!!

Running "Medal"