Street Dreaming

Last week, a friend told me about a local road race that his family put on every August. I drifted off, imaging rounding the corner of this race wearing spandex and a singlet and being soaked with sweat from working hard and the warm summer sun. And in that moment, I was ready to race again. Since then, I haven't been able to take racing off my mind. When I drove into Boston to visit my boyfriend, I saw so many runners out for their Sunday morning long run along Comm Ave. I slowed to catch the collegiate logos on hats and jackets and wished I could have just jumped out of the car to join them. Later, the football coach at my school approached me about learning how to run. How could I say no? On our first day in which I evaluated his speed and fitness, he told me that his goal was to run a 6 minute mile by June 1st. Though he's coming from a place of very little fitness and I've been working out since January albeit without running, I said I'd join him. I'm thinking of challenging him to a race.

All of this is to say that I've been bitten by the racing bug and I'm working hard to embrace the run when I finally can. At this point I have maybe 3 weeks until I can run on land, so I'm continuing to bike and elliptical to get my aerobic capacity back up. I've really enjoyed the strength I've developed from lifting multiple times a week, and will likely continue that through the summer. But the most exciting development of my slow comeback is the presence of an underwater treadmill. I stepped on it today and started with a slow walk. The resistance from the water is a strange feeling, even though I haven't run on land for more than two months. After some stretches, I finally got to jog. I felt on top of the world and ready to take on anything...until I was told that I was jogging at 3.5 mph. It was humbling but nonetheless so exciting to finally take some real steps. I'm only aqua jogging once a week and I already can't wait to go back. I'm fixing all of my imbalances and strengthening my legs in way that I possibly may never have before, so I can only imagine how it will feel to finally set foot on land. Now I have goals and visualizations and motivation, and you know that come August I will be racing that 5-miler just like I imagined.