Running Can Be Anything
“A race is just a race, but running can be anything.” -Julia Lucas Last week I wrote about the Ali on the Run Show podcast where Julia Lucas talked about her fourth place finish in the Olympic Trials, where she missed the Olympic team by 1/100 of a second. Julia also wrote about that race in her article, A Race is a Race. Lately I’ve been trying to figure out where I want to go next with running. Races are coming back around here but I haven’t signed up for any. I haven’t been doing any speedwork and am torn about signing up for a race just for the fun of it, knowing that my finishing time won’t be remarkable. So I should do speedwork, right? Well, I’m a little afraid to because of my foot. My plantar fasciitis is still there, but hasn’t been hurting when I run. I’ve really been enjoying my long trail runs. As a matter of fact I look forward to them every week. I don’t want to jeopardize that by stressing my foot with speedwork. Or maybe I should be like Camille Herron. Coming back from an injury, she knew her marathon time would be slow, so she decided to set a different kind of record. With a time of 2:48:51, she set the women’s world record for the best marathon time wearing a superhero costume. She wore a full-body pink Spiderman costume, which covered her face and head as well. She said the costume was very hot, and caused her to chafe (but I love how she still ran a “slow” 2:48:51!) On second thought, maybe I won’t be doing that. For now I’ll just continue to enjoy my runs and appreciate being able to run at all. But it’s lurking there in that back of my mind- “What am I doing next?” If running can be anything, what is it to you right now? Do you enjoy running races even if you know you’ll be slower than you have been in the past?