In awe

I hate to admit it but I am losing interest in running. Not sure if it is a short term or a long term funk. I know I just signed up for my next marathon

and there are big races coming up for next year and I wrote about running in all 50 states of US.

I’m not sure what is going on. I know I just like to run. I don’t think about why I like running. It is the pressure of life that forces me to be out on the race course. I am an angry runner. I run to blow off steam. Yes I got a few loose screws in my brain.

But when I meet the sane people around me and they asked me why do you run. Why do you put yourself through the tortures? I really don’t know what to tell them. To say I love running is like I’m trying to convince them that I’m not crazy. Any way…

I’m not crazy.

I had a turkey trot today. For the international crowd, running on Thanksgiving Day is really a tradition here across US. I didn’t know this back then. But it is like everyone who doesn’t normally run will run on Thanksgiving and it is usually for a good cause. I ran in the Fairfax Turkey Trot (Mantua Community) and they use the proceeds to feed people in the community who don’t have food (yes, America-US has this problem too).

There is another Fairfax Turkey trot (5k) too and they take place in the real Fairfax City. But I like the Mantua one, because I did my first Turkey trot there. At that time I didn’t know any other races and I just want to find the longest distance I could run on Thanksgiving and that was the longest I could find. Of course now I know tons and you can’t run them all :). I did the Ashburn one last year. Somehow, the local feel of Mantua drew me back to this one.

I finished maybe a few seconds slower than last year at 33:05. Last year was 33:02 (race clock). I don’t know my bib time yet and I didn’t wear my Garmin so I ran blind this time. It is the first time in a race that I don’t know my pace… It was totally gut instinct.

Why all the negative? My marathon will be this weekend. This Turkey trot is like a final shake down, kicking the tires so to speak. I felt out of breath. The weather was cold. It was cold two years ago and it was cold today. I bundled up and much more than last time…there were a few running in shorts (I was like that last time).

I don’t feel I will be ready for this weekend. I heard that it would be colder still. Today temperature is -1 C. Well, forecast for this weekend will be at 1 C to 8 C. I don’t know. Seems it will be warmer. But then it will be 42 km. 4-5 hours out there. Today I felt cold.

Run itself I felt today was horrible. I was out of it after half hour. I felt I couldn’t push as hard. My juice was up. Can’t imagine how long it will be to hang in for another 20+ miles.

It was a good shake down.

(End Day 22)