When I woke up this morning, I heard the weatherman on the radio say that it was 40 degrees outside. "Wow, that’s cold," I thought. Now, how should I dress for the Turkey Trot Race in Long Beach, NY?
I decided to wear a short sleeve dri-fit, a long sleeve dri-fit, a light dri-fit jacket and a windbreaker. I knew I would be hot but I wanted to stay warm until the last possible moment.
Since Marti, my running partner was feeling ill, I decided to do the race anyway. My husband, Brian, who just took up running, asked if he could join me. Personally, I didn’t think he would be able to keep up but I told him sure. He was injured last year after he broke his knee cap in nine places. He had to have two surgeries to repair it and was out of commission for a long time. I was impressed with the progress he has made but was still skeptical. Most people in his situation would have just sat back, watched TV and gotten fat. He was determined to get better.
When we got to the start of the race, we sat in the car. It was freezing outside. “Let me go to the bathroom before the race starts,” I said to him. I got on the back of a long line into the ladies room. We started to see people taking their places. "Hmmm, should I go or hold it in until after the end of the race," I thought. I decided to go. When I came out, Brian told me that the race already started. “Oh no,” I said, and we both took off.
We ran faster than normal trying to catch up to the pack, but we were unable to. We ended up running practically alone.
I’ve been averaging a 14-minute mile but today I did my first mile in 11 minutes. Although I set a fast pace, Brian kept up with me. I was pleasantly surprised.
The air was cold and at first it hurt my lungs to breathe. I also realized that I was breathing heavier than normal. I remembered what Marti told me about breathing. “Just breathe in and out in the count of two. One, two, breathe in. One, two, breathe out. …”
After the second mile, my breathing adjusted and I started to feel very light on my feet. I didn’t feel the pain in my legs or my feet. I felt as if I could run forever.
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