Run Lola Run

I am a nerd.

Most of you already know this, or have long suspected it. I know it, too. But this past weekend, my official nerd-dom was confirmed.

I got up early on Sunday, but not to do my usual long run. That had been done on Saturday afternoon. (7.78 miles, average pace of 9:20, felt really good.) Nope, on Sunday, I got up early so that I could watch the US Women's Olympic Marathon trials, via live webstream from NBC.com. Yep, I'm a nerd.

I'm not sure when the transformation from slower-than-average recreational runner into working-really-hard-to-improve-recreational-runner-

AND-interested-in-the-elite-amateur-side-of-things occurred, but somewhere in the last 9 months, it did. Of course, it helped that my hero, Deena Kastor, was in the trials on Sunday. I love to watch her run; she's just incredible. But I really wanted to see the race, to watch it unfold and see how strategies and tactics played out. I guess it's kind of like cycling--once I learned more about the strategy that goes into a cycling race (heck that there is actual strategy beyond "ride really fast"), I became more interested in following the sport. I don't see this happening with golf or football, but I'm in love with marathoning.

And the Trials were...just amazing. It was inspiring and awesome to watch these women run. And run at paces that I will never ever achieve in my life. Everyone that ran in the Trials is an inspiration--not just the contenders, but everyone.

Seriously, I'm such a nerd, I almost cried when the three Olympic team members approached Joan Benoit Samuelson. Dang near cried.

Saturday's long run was uneventful. A little short, mileage-wise, but felt really good. I talked to my friend Karen about the whole running-too-fast-with-iPod issue, and she made an interesting suggestion. She told me to keep on doing it, not to stop wearing my iPod. I don't know if I can exactly replicate her argument, but it was something to the effect of--you can run that pace, because you're doing it. Keep doing it, and then when you get to a race and can't run with your iPod, you'll have a little cushion. Interesting. Of course, for marathon training, I'll have to not wear it on my long runs. But for tempo runs...why not?

Anyway, news for the day--I'm a nerd.

posted by Lola @ 12:45 PM