I like to run alone for a few reasons and one of them is that I don't have to talk. Talking equates to gasping on my part because the person I run with is usually faster than I am.
Also, its hard to squeeze a fart out quietly when you're with others.
But another reason is that I like to listen to my iPod while running. I usually have upbeat songs going which helps me keep my rhythm of a fairly decent running pace. I've enjoyed running with other people but if I could choose, I'd run alone.
Farmer's Highline Canal Trail (aka my trail)
During the week I run shorter runs around the neighborhood. Above is the trail that I run on when I have to run my long runs which happens to be every Saturday morning. Its a lovely trail with old trees flanking each side of it.
This is how my Saturdays usually start:
1. My alarm goes off at 5:30 am and I jump out of bed before any thoughts of going back to sleep enter my brain.
2. I change into my running gear (laid out the night before) and then eat a tortilla spread with peanut butter plus a banana in my car on the way to the trail. (Both are for easy digestion and a source of carbs which I'll need during the run).
3. I drive to the trail all the time wishing I was still in bed.
4. I grab my camelbak after locking the car in the trail's parking lot. I look like a packhorse by the time I start running because I have a camelbak on my back with my water supply and a belt with a pouch that stores my car keys, tissues (in case I need to go behind a bush), hard candies to suck on (for glycogen) and my cell phone in case I can't make it back to the car for some reason. Then I've got my headphones on with my iPod clipped to my sleeve or shorts.
The trail is very quiet at 5:45 am and I enjoy the time to myself. As the morning wears on, more runners emerge onto the trail and we salute with a weak raising of the hand as we pass each other.
Sometimes I pray for people I know when I run.
Sometimes I pray that I will make it through the next mile!!
I also think a lot during my runs. I plan out the renovations that I'd like for our house, I think about vacations, I think about people and their lives, etc. Its a good time to reflect and be alone.
When I get to the halfway mark on my 2.5 hr run, I start to talk to myself back to the car. It goes something like this...
- "You're halfway through it. Keep going. You're a horse returning to its stable"
- "You're doing great, only 4 miles to go"
- "If you need to walk, you can but try and make it to the next tree before you walk"
- "you don't have to go to the toilet again - you can hold it in until you get home"
- "OK, now you only have 2 miles to go. See, you can do it"
- "Just 1 more mile - its nothing - its easy - you're nearly done"
- "Wahoo, you've done it. Its over"
...and then I congratulate myself over and over for not dying on the trail when I get back to the car.
Running alone has its benefits, especially when I'm shuffling along, convincing myself that I'm actually running when I could be mistaken for a geriatric who has escaped from the nearby Littleton Hospital. There's no one I know on the trail to see how bad I am at running except of course the cute runner who happens to be starting out just as I'm ending my 12 miles. She looks magnificent as she passes me with a friendly "good morning" and a smile while I am red-faced, sweaty and wheezing like an old geezer. That's when I want to do the guy-thing by covering one of my nostrils and shooting snot out of the other one, right onto her running shoes as she goes by.
(I've tried this - not to another runner - and somehow I can't get it the shooting-snot-thing right. It ends up trickling down my face! Maybe I should use the tissues from my pouch! Now there's a concept).
6 weeks down, 11 weeks to go.
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