My Most Interesting Run to Date

Last night I had 5 miles on my schedule to run.  A friend of mine, Mark, has been riding his bike next to me while I run so I am not out at night by myself (I've had a couple of little scares).  I didn't know where I wanted to run so I told him to pick the route.  He gives me the direction and we head off.  About a 1/4 mile into the run my running watch dies because I had forgotten to charge it.  Mark looks up the mileage on his iPad and we keep going.  Another 1/4 mile my blinking butt light falls off and breaks open all over the road.  I gather up the pieces and keep going.

I start feeling very sluggish and I just can't get a nice rhythm going.  I figure it's the heat as it was still pretty warm out.  As I am running Mark says this is probably not a good route to run by myself.  It goes into an industrial part of town and there is not a lot of traffic.  He figures he chose the route because it brings back memories of when he used to ride his bike down it as a child.     

We get to the halfway point and turn around when I suddenly have to go to the bathroom.  Not only did Mark pick a questionable route he picked one without a lot of gas stations.  I decide to keep going knowing there is a gas station about a mile up.   I get to the point I just can't handle anymore and suddenly run across the street where I see a good hiding spot.  I had yelled my intentions to Mark but apparently he didn't hear me.  I dump what I can in a few seconds (I was worried about witnesses), knowing that I will probably stop again at the gas station.  Mark finds me after thinking I had been kidnapped right before his eyes and we keep going.  We get to the gas station and I run in.  Meanwhile, there is a group of five or six boys on bikes outside.  They start asking Mark for money.  He tells them no but they continue to talk to him.  When I walk outside of the gas station there is Mark with all these boys circled around him listening intently.  He was basically talking to them about making something of themselves instead of running around causing trouble.

We continue on our way now with a band of boys following us.  They start swearing and making disrespectful comments so Mark stops and tells them if they follow us they have to stay behind us and be respectful.  Of course, this just makes it worse and they start ramming their bikes into the back of Mark's.  Now, keep in mind these are little kids between the ages of 9-15.  So, anytime Mark stopped and got off his bike they were afraid he was going to hit them or something so they would jump off their bikes.  One of these times he goes ahead and picks up two of their bikes and throws them over a fence, hoping to give us a little time to get ahead.  It doesn't work.  Now, they start throwing rocks at us.  After being hit a few times, Mark has had enough and stops in front of a pizza place.  He makes a move that makes the boys think he's getting ready to fight them and, of course, they jump off their bikes.  He grabs one of the bikes and we go inside the pizza place and tell them to call the cops.  The boys hear cops and are out of there.

The police come, we tell them the story, and they take the bike.  We know the police really couldn't do anything at that point but we got some gratification out of the fact one of them was without a bike.  We figured that was the end of that.

However, the next morning on the way to work, Mark sees the boys.  He slows down next to them and as soon as they see who he is they take off.  Mark follows them and calls the police on his cell phone.  The police were able to catch two of the boys!  YAY MARK!

So, there you have it!  If you are finding your running is becoming a little boring just take the more questionable route, or not.         

Motivation

I have had a quite a few conversations lately with people about motivation.  Motivation: the desire to DO!  I have my days but for the most part the motivation to run has not been a problem for me.  I think it might come with the fact that I am a little competitive but I also like the way it makes me feel when I have finished a run I had scheduled.  I love that great feeling of accomplishment.  A lot of people seem to have a problem with being motivated to exercise.  Here are a few tips:

Set goals!  I keep scheduling races and running events because I know I have to run them whether I train or not.  It will be a heck of a lot easier to run them if I train so I keep running.  I also like to set time goals.  Some say that takes the fun out of running but, like I said before, I am a little competitive especially against myself. 

Schedule your workouts!  I HAVE to have a schedule of what days I am running, how many miles I am running and what time I am running.  You can also do minutes instead of mileage.  Scheduling your workouts makes sure you get them into your busy day.  Schedule them just like you do anything else.  Don't just say I am going to exercise 3 times this week, put them on your calender with a time and how long.    

Exercise with a friend!  You can't make excuses if you've told someone you are going to meet them somewhere to exercise.  And the time will go by so much faster.  I have ran by myself for a long time but I just recently joined a running group for my long runs on Saturdays and it is so much fun!  And  nobody understands my running obsession except for others with the same problem :)

Reward yourself!  I just read recently about someone who is going to pay themselves $1-$5 for every day they exercise (What a great idea Natalie!).  And when she reaches her size goal she is going to buy herself a new outfit.  I also read another blog where she made a reward chart.  10 lbs = a new shirt, 20 lbs = a massage, etc.  You could also do this with number of workouts instead of weight loss.

So get motivated and get movin!!