Friday I hit the gym treadmill hoping to score an 8km run. Turns out I had a little more in me.
I felt very good going into the run. I also had the unusual circumstance of having to get a DOT physical later in the day. When I was younger, a DOT physical was more of an inconvenience than anything else. About an hour of meaningless paperwork and various motor skills tests. But now as the years start to add up, you start to wonder what they are going to find or what test you are going to fail. I figured that, if nothing else, telling them that i ran five miles before the exam would count for something.
I warmed up for about seven minutes covering a little over a half mile. I still felt good but knew that there would be some issues. The biggest would be pace. I knew that my pace would be no better than an eleven-minute mile; it is difficult to watch the pace go by slowly on a treadmill. However, I find that the treadmill TV has a couple of new channels, and my favorite satellite radio program, "Grumpy Pundents," is on channel 157. The first kilometer goes by slowly, but I am still feeling good,
5k goes by, and I am now wondering how far I can go. I am moving at a very slow pace (about 7:08 km) which is frustrating, but I am getting close to the 6km mark, which is as far as I have gone since the accident. 6k comes and goes. 7k comes and I declare the run a success; if added to my warmup I have hit the 5 miles that I wanted to go. But I still keep going. At 8k I am starting to wear down somewhat, but "The Grumps" have a great topic on their show, and I am thinking that if I made it to 10km it would be not only something of a landmark, but it would open up a possibility of running a 10km in the near future. Here we go.
At about 8.5km, I hit the one hour mark, and the treadmill shuts off. Frantically, I try to get it up and running at my previous pace. Looking like Mr. Whoopie when he opens up his closet looking for the 3DBB, I am pressing buttons and trying not to look stupid. I finally get things back online, and I think it helped give me something of a break. Twelve minutes and 1.5km later, I hit the 10km mark, and once again get that feeling of running accomplishment that had been missing for about eighteen months.
Yes, all I could think about was signing up for my favorite 10k race in November. And yes, I passed my DOT physical. You should have seen the look on the assistants face when I told her I ran seven miles this morning. Yes, that is what I think I have missed the most.
