I wanna be a lot of things, and for now, it's a runner.
This is my story as I train for the 2010 Seattle Rock N' Roll marathon.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Reality

First off, you would think that the streets would be relatively empty at 10:30 at night on a Monday in January. And in any other city you might be right, but not in New York. I suppose it's because temperatures here have finally spiked to a reasonable degree here at 50 degrees and people are celebrating like it's spring. Whatever the reason, I had to weave in and out of people the entire run.

When I made it to the end of the block, I had to quickly decide which way to go. Right would take me up towards Lincoln Center to a really nice part of town, but the road splits in a weird way at a certain point, and it's always a pain in the butt to navigate when you're trying to keep a decent pace.
Left would take me downtown, towards Times Square. I decided to go left. I've run this way a few times before, but I guess I must've gone a little farther than usual tonight. I ended up down by where the Lincoln Tunnel connects to the city and is basically a flood gate for all of the traffic coming in. Also, not the best part of town apparently. Had I spent any longer in that area, I probably would've ended up high from all of the pot that was being smoked. Oh well, what else do people that live by bridges have to do? I don't think I'll be running that route again any time soon.

I was a bit self conscious the whole run because I was forced to wear my laundry day running pants. Ha- that would be a good thing if today was even laundry day. But it's not. And tomorrow probably won't be either. Ryan and I have a difficult time doing the laundry and any one that's ever lived in an apartment building and shared 4 washers and dryers among 100 units would understand. You have to lug all your stuff down to the basement, pray for a couple open machines, and then wait the hour and a half that it takes to complete just one load. On the plus side, I've had more compliments on my rolling laundry cart than anything else. Like the weather, it just seems to be a conversation starter. Bed Bath & Beyond owes me some money for all of the people that I've sent their way for this awesome invention.
Back to the pants. These pants have been around for longer than any pants should be. I believe they were purchased my freshman year of college, so you do the math. That's been a while. Oh, and they're a little snug. Just a little. I've thought on many occasions that I should throw them away, but then what would I do on nights like this with nothing else to wear? Solution? Wear a slightly longer shirt to cover just how snuggish they are. Oh, and don't stand at red lights too long where people can get a good look at you. As long as you're moving, you really can't tell. Who knows, maybe I'll break down and order some more running pants from Target. I think they're on sale this week! I was supposed to do a 3 mile run tonight, but only ended up doing 2.5. I think my pants were cutting into my vital organs, and I some strange pains came over me. That's ok though. I'm a month ahead of my training schedule.

So this post is getting pretty long- Just one more thing. I'm following a new running guide for non-marathon runners. I think they have a 100% success rate for their approach, so I feel like I'm in good hands. The book is called The Non-Runners Marathon Trainer. The 'lessons' are broken down by week, so you start your week off motivated. Here's a great line from this week's lesson: Change your thoughts or action and you change your reality.

On that note, I'm going to bed. Good night!

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