The Broad Running Broad

It’s definitely crunch time.

This past week was productive and exhausting.

Ran on Tuesday and Thursday? Check.

Lifted Monday-Wednesday-Friday? Check.

I even had a leg night on Thursday. I figured leg night on Thursday would give me plenty of time to recover for a shakeout run on Saturday morning. However, because it’s been a while since I specifically worked quads and glutes, I completely forgot about Day Two. Day One after leg day is always lousy. Day Two is a slower ache, where you can function normally but holy crap does walking around hurt more than it should.

Yesterday wound up being a rest day, which I’m okay with. My body was begging for mercy, and I got my new coffee table delivered a day early. So my Saturday was a major apartment decorating, table-constructing day that I’ll tell you about next time.

This brings me to today. My legs weren’t hurting, so I decided a Sunday long run would be a good idea. My last long run was 10 miles, so I figured I should do 12 today. I texted Mom once I got parked at my usual spot that I was doing an out-and-back and would turn my phone off to avoid butt dialing anyone.

As a quick side note: never turn your phone off while running. I wound up going longer than I was anticipating, had the phone off for over three hours and had several missed messages from my mom. To put it mildly, Mom was not thrilled I had my phone off on a run, especially on the heels of University of Georgia student Laken Riley being attacked and killed on her run late last week.

So from now on I’ll just deal with butt dials and hope none of them go to my boss.

But back to the run.

There were some snowy/icy spots I had to walk through and I discovered a main road I drive regularly has a deceptive hill. There were more hills than I was expecting and a head wind most of the run that frankly sucked.

But at the same time, running in the afternoon sunshine and passing other runners who were bundled up like I was, I was having fun. I felt strong and happy and alive.

As I ran down a hill towards the end of my run, I was transported back to a late February day. The snow on that day melted, it was unseasonably warm and I decided to go run on the trails near my old home. Running as a child was a struggle – actually, any sports were and still kinda are – so there I was at 24 thinking to myself, Why not?

This was in 2016, shortly after moving to Columbus and starting a new chapter.

Now here I am, another sunny day in late February 2024, starting a new chapter in a new home, running on new-ish grounds.

In the right years since that maiden run, running has taken over my life in a way I never saw coming. It’s been my avenue to adventure to new places by myself, to explore different cities and terrain on foot. It’s been with me through challenging times and was often one of the only anchors when the world around me was spinning off its axis.

And I still feel like I’m in the very beginning of where this journey is going to take me.

So Reader-Friends, today’s long run reminded me where I’ve been and where I still need to go. It was also a lot of fun, to the point where I did lose track of the miles and wound up running 15 instead in a little shy of three hours.

You know, I think I’m going to be okay for Carmel in April.

And with that being said, I hope you all have a great night and week ahead.

Yours in running and writing,

Allison