It’s Raining, It’s Pouring…

I awoke this morning to the sound of rain on the roof.  Having lived my entire life in the Pacific Northwest, I’m used to waking up to the sound of rain.  I snuggled deeper into my blankets, letting the sound lull me in my cocoon.  It was lovely – until I realized I needed to get out and put in my four miles.  Four miles in the rain.  Four miles in the dark.

One of the benefits (if you can call it that) of having this 1200-mile goal for the year is I don’t want to miss a day.  I don’t want to fall behind in my mileage.  If I wasn’t participating in this 1200-mile challenge, I probably would have settled back in to bed and listened to the rain.  Or, I might have been really ambitious – I might have actually gotten out of bed to sit snuggled by the window with my coffee while watching the rain come down.  But, no, I didn’t do either of those.  Instead, I got up, put on my rain clothes and headed out the door into the predawn darkness.

It wasn’t just wet; I soon realized it was colder than I had expected.  I hadn’t brought gloves and my hands were soon wet and frigid.  I was wearing a baseball cap to keep the rain off my face, but it was raining too hard for that to be very effective.  I wasn’t sure if the moisture dripping off my nose was rain or snot.

The trail I walk on is a well used trail, but I didn’t meet any other walkers or runners this morning in the dark and with the rain coming down hard.  I did see four other people standing outside, in the dark, in the rain, but they weren’t out for exercise.  Each of them was outside for a cigarette break!  Really??  I had to pull my butt out of bed to force myself outside for reasons of health and fitness and here these folks were standing outside, in the rain, to smoke a cigarette?  Unbelievable!

I normally do an out and back and then head out again for a shorter out and back to get in my four miles.  Like a horse that heads back to the barn too quickly, I knew I couldn’t tempt myself with a return to the house until the full four miles was done, so I had to plan my route to take me far enough away to make it less likely I’d cut the walk short.  As I walked, I thought about what I’d write for this blog and the blog became a motivator.  After all, it wouldn’t do to write about walking four miles in the rain if I didn’t actually finish the four miles.

According to the nursery rhyme, it’s raining, it’s pouring, the old man is snoring.  Not for me!  My version:  It’s raining, it’s pouring, my mileage is soaring.

Have Challenge, Will Walk

Today is four days into my 1200-mile challenge and I’ve walked/run over sixteen miles, staying on pace with my plan of four miles/day, six days/week.  The temperature where I live has been very cold, dipping down into the negatives early in the mornings.  There is a lot of snow on my walking trail along with some icy spots, so this is not exactly power walking, but it is definitely a workout – my legs feel the effort!

I have to admit I would probably have bagged the idea of walking four miles on January 1^st and 2^nd if it hadn’t been for the formality of signing up for this challenge with Oregon Road Runners Club.  It would have been easy to simply sit inside looking out at the beautiful white winter wonderland and put off a workout until “someday” when the conditions were better.  However, knowing I’ve signed up for this challenge and my mileage will be posted on the ORRC website and with the companionship and support of my husband and two visiting friends, I got out there and walked…and walked…and walked.

My husband put together an Excel spreadsheet for me to track my mileage.  Seeing the numbers for the first three days along with the miles left to go and the projected mileage at my current pace was encouraging.  Yesterday, it was much easier to get out the door.  Today, it wasn’t even a question.  I’m on my way!

Sneak Peek — January’s “Someday”

I did it!  My January “someday” is to conquer a physical challenge.  No, I haven’t conquered the challenge yet, but I have taken the first step.  I’ve done many races, mostly 5ks and 10ks and I’ve also completed a handful of half-marathons.  In 2001 I completed my biggest challenge to date – I walked a marathon.  It was not a pleasant event.  My feet were covered in blisters and I almost stopped at mile 22, but I continued on when a friend mistakenly called my phone number instead of my husband’s and admitted they’d conspired to all meet me at the finish line.  Obviously, I had to finish.  As I limped along with my blistered feet, an aide worker at mile 25 suggested I stop walking and check-in to the medical tent.  I kept going.  It was pretty ugly, but I finished and I’m glad I did.  It was an accomplishment I’m not sure I’ll repeat, though if I did, now I’d do it as a runner/walker.

There’s another type of running/walking challenge I’ve toyed with the last few years, but always managed to talk myself out of doing.  Not this year!  Someday is now, after all.  The challenge is the Oregon Road Runners Club’s “1200 Club” and I signed up today for the 2016 event!  It’s not really an event; it’s a year-long program to run or walk 1200 miles from January 1^st to December 31^st.  That averages out to 4 miles per day, 6 days per week.

I’ll admit I’ve been practicing to see what that kind of mileage is like and I feel confident I can do the daily mileage.  The challenge will be in doing it day-after-day, week-after-week, month-after-month, through snow and ice, sun and heat, vacations, and sickness.  Yes, it will be a challenge.

So, stay tuned.  I begin the challenge January 1^st and will be focusing on getting a good sound start that month.  I’ll report on how it goes, how I feel, the challenges, and the victories.

Challenge your body before your body challenges you.