Last week was wild.
I’ve never considered myself part of the ‘Edmonton Running Community‘ as I’m tend to go for the ‘solo sport‘ mentality; the ‘man vs. himself‘ or ‘man vs. nature‘ type of narrative, anyway.
If you’re new here, I ran the Edmonton half marathon last Sunday, and it was my first formal event of any kind, save for the school-enforced track & field events I phoned it in for as a teenager. I suppose I knew it would be inaugural and influential in more than one way and I’d just hoped it would be positive. It surpassed expectation. My foray into things like Facebook groups on the subject came from a dear friend adding me in and some really interesting conversations are there for me to observe, though I’d say I’m still in the ‘observing stage’ of being a member.
There’s a lot about racing that I just had no idea about – like ‘pace rabbits‘ for example. I had no idea that there would be any discernable unit of measure to indicate how I was doing. When I started the race, the “2:20” pace rabbit was in-sight, and he ultimately stayed there. I knew if I was ahead of the 2:30 pace rabbit, I’d reach my goal of being under 2:30. I caught up to the 2:20 rabbit in the 20th kilometer of the race, chatted with him for a bit, and then as soon as I saw the finish line I left him behind me. I finished at 2:19:26 – well ahead of my goal.
I’ve read about the amazing generous nature of this community that I would only consider myself a peripheral member of, but I will say that to be surrounded by so many people who’s health trajectories took them to the same place at the same moment in time was palpable, even in spite of my naturally introverted method of social operation (in other words, I didn’t make any new friends). Everyone there did something amazing that day and nobody can take that from any of them.
I’m grateful to have come this far and done this much and I’m thankful that it will continue on from here. This event reminds me of recording music in a way – it’s a snapshot in time, that will be remembered and measured against again in the future and I’m glad I did it, as uncomfortable it can be when you’re surrounded by people more experienced than you. I am satisfied that I did what I could to let that feeling go and just take it all in. I signed up for an experience, and I got it.
I aim to make a video for the YouTube channel soon – truthfully it’s been a busy and fruitful summer, and without putting too fine of a point on it, I’ve been too busy living life to make videos about it, so consider me on ‘summer holidays’ in that regard, I guess. I’ll be back at it soon, though.
Training this week is back in motion. I took a couple days away from my running shoes to reflect and recalibrate, but was back to lifting as of Tuesday and resumed commuting the 14.5km’s to work on my bicycle (and another 14.5 back home). I’m aiming to run a little less through the rest of the summer and bike a little more. If I can get 2-3 runs in per week I’ll be content with that, as I’ll be cross-training on my bike and lifting weights twice a week. I do aim to get a lot more serious over the winter with zone-2 brick workouts, but I’ve resolved to enjoy what remains of the summer and do as much physical effort outdoors as is possible.
Lu pointed out to me that the remaining Sunday long-runs are a highlight for her (as they are for me) and in doing so, she mentioned that there may be only 6 or 7 outdoor runs left this year. Ominous.
I still believe that creation is waiting for me at the edge of what I endure, and the closer I get, the more it steps out of reach.
Every day is a gift.
As this is being posted, I’m in Grande Prairie. Confusionaires are playing a downtown celebration on what will likely be our last outdoor stage of 2022, and we’re performing from 3:30 to 5pm so if you’re in the area, please come by!
The Conscious Pilgrim 