Race Prep

I’m running my first race this weekend, the Bucktown 5K, and I’m experiencing tons of excitement swirled with tons of terror. My hips and knees have been especially sore this past week, so that’s a concern, and I actually haven’t gone on a run since Saturday morning (again, I’ve been especially sore, but also especially busy/lazy).

I’ve been “running” for years, though not with any sort of intention. I’ve run for weight loss and sanity, but never with regularity. It’s been on an as-needed basis. For the past few months it’s been more routine, and I’m learning that to be a “runner” you have be a scientist. There are things to experiment with such as caloric intake, what to eat the night before or the hour before a run, how often to go between runs and/or workouts. You can’t just eat a whole pie, say, and think you can run it off in the morning. It turns out that you don’t burn that many calories on a run, especially if you’re only running 3 miles at a time, and you won’t be able to run very well the morning after a whole pie. I would never eat a whole pie, though. I can, however, go through mounds of guacamole and El Ranchero tortilla chips with an ease that is really just disturbing.

Running kind of keeps me in check. Definitely mentally, but also in regards to what I’m ingesting, and how often I exercise. How I feel about this race on Sunday is how I feel about every run, it’s just that much more acute, regardless that it’s only about 3.1 miles. So there are things I’m doing to prep such as being easy on my knees, eating especially well (save for last night’s sopapillas) and doing mental jogs.

I’ve just realized that I’ve become addicted to running because of the (false?) sense of control involved in conditioning yourself to run.