Push Your Edge

Wed, July 18
Ran 51:18 minutes outside in 93 degree heat at noon!
Distance: 4.46 miles; Average Pace: 11’29”

So I was prepped and ready to run on the treadmill today. I had heard it was going to be hot again – in the 90’s; same old thing as the last few days. But when I met my fellow warrior (Mary Ann) in the locker room she said she had just looked up the weather and that it was only going to be 83 degrees and that was the real feel. So she suggested we go outside. Hmmm, I thought. I do prefer running outside over the tread and if it will only be in the lower 80’s that might be doable. We hemmed and hawed a bit and then decided to just give it a go outside. Since I had to do 40 minutes we decided to do our 4 miler. We didn’t even look at the temperature thing when we started (good thing). We started out okay and it didn’t feel that bad. Around about 2 miles it got tough. I had to walk a bit. We even stopped in the Shaker Library for a drink in the drinking fountain. There were a couple other times I had to walk. It was pretty miserable, but not totally awful. Just after running up the Belvoir hill we started walking another little bit and we heard familiar voices behind us. What I heard was, “Hey, Lisa…” and then the Charlie Brown teacher’s voice mumble. But in my mind I heard a competitive chide coming from some JCU runner colleagues. I immediately took off running, leaving Mary Ann to fend for herself! After I started my bolt back to campus, and as the voices got nearer I heard our runner friends say something like, “Geez, Lisa, all we said was we would run in with you guys and you took off! What is this a competition?” Mary Ann, who was now running with the pack too was cracking up at me! I don’t know where that extra energy came from at all. I just all of a sudden felt this competitive streak happening…something about “whatever boys can do, girls can do too” or something and I just got motivated to bust it out!! So they were making fun of me as we ran the last 1/3 mile back to campus. As we were walking towards the building we saw the temp scroll by and Mary Ann and I about died. 93 degrees!! So much for 83!! I suddenly felt better about all the walking and MA and I certainly earned some cred from the boys today. I have never run at that temperature outside before. Yikes! Lots of water and a totally cold shower followed. I’m glad I didn’t look at the temp when we started running (that would have psyched me out more) and I’m glad we ran outside. Like I told the group today, if you never push yourself to your edge, you will never know where your edge is. I know, I know, Deep Thoughts, by Lisa Ramsey. Knock it off.