The meditation of running
Saturday morning, I decided to go for a jog. I planned for my usual route, just under 3 miles (my house to Swami's and back). Since I didn't have anywhere to go immediately afterward, I didn't try to run fast... I just went for a leisurely pace. As I passed Swami's, I felt energetic so decided to keep going.
I ended up running 5 miles, the farthest I've ever run. And it's also the distance of my next race... so, yay, I've met my goal of being able to run the entire thing!
Going with a slower pace and not having to return by a set time really helped me appreciate the meditation of running. It takes a while for me to get into the pace and get to that point where I open up to the quiet reflection that you can get while running. It really is like meditation. Of course, the view on my path also helps:
It was a beautiful day, and I ran along highway 101 looking at the beach to my left. Eventually the 101 turns into the main street in encinitas so I ran through town down to Moonlight Beach. Ahh, paradise.
Oh, and my strategy of signing up for races to keep myself motivated to exercise seems to be working pretty decently. I think I'm going to sign up for the Iron Girl in Del Mar in June.
Comments
Good luck Hapa!
I recently watched a show on NOVA called Marathon Challenge. They picked 13 regular people aged 20-60, who had never ran a marathon before to train for 10 months and see if they could finish the Boston Marathon. Some of the people had previous health problems, like heart attacks and some of the people hardly exercised before this. 12 of the 13 people finished the marathon.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/marathon/