Changing of the Seasons

The winter of 2011-2012 was unusually warm for Wisconsin.  Other than a day or two of iced over roads, the weather rarely if ever kept me from running outside.  As it warmed up in the spring, I was more and more encouraged to get out there and do my long training runs.

As we now draw closer to the winter again and the weather gets colder and the days shorter, I find myself more and more reluctant to run outside.  I'm remembering the same kinds of weather back in March and the excitement I felt at running outside in high 40s.  Now it feels too cold and I resort instead to the treadmill at the gym to get my distances in.

I should get my butt outside.

I was certain that the Haunted Hustle would be my last race for 2012.  The weather was turning and I felt the mental fatigue of yet another half marathon.  I was done, I thought.  But then, my friend convinced me to run the Turkey Trot, and well, I'm easily talked into races.  Now I'm debating the Berbee Derby on Thanksgiving Day and a half marathon in January in California.  

The truth is, upcoming races keep me from getting lazy.  It's way too easy to stay in bed an extra hour if there's no upcoming race that I want to run well in.  Having already done a half marathon here and there, I kind of know how little training I can get away with.  And I do, whereas the very idea of a marathon is scary and daunting.  Fear can be a powerful motivator.

In setting up this blog, I revisited the 8 races I ran this season and what had started me down this path.  It was a year ago when my sister ran her first half marathon and that convinced me to sign up for my first one at the Madison (Half) Marathon in May 2012.  It was convenient too as my friend Ben had also signed up to run his first half marathon in September 2012.  My friend Jesse was planning to run his 4th marathon at the Madison Marathon.  We were all training.

When I told my friend Barry that I was going to run my first half marathon, he wrote down a list of 7 or 8 races in and around Madison between February and the Madison Marathon.  The Black Earth 10 mile race at a registration fee of $5 was difficult to resist.  And it was a good way to know whether I could do 10 miles.

I think this was when I was hooked.  Getting a time brought out the competitive nature in me, and immediately after the race, I wanted to run another 10 miles to see if I can do even better.  I find that I get a post-race high after double digit races.  It usually last a couple of weeks and it's within this time frame that I get itchy and starting thinking about another double digit race.  I signed up for the Lake Monona 20k shortly after Black Earth. I signed up for the Madison Mini-Marathon about 3 weeks after the Madison (half) Marathon.  I started obsessively visiting the Flying Pig Marathon event page after the Haunted Hustle.

Needless to say, this has gotten to be an expensive habit on a grad student salary.  In total, I spent about $350 on race registrations this year.  That's not including the new shoes and other running clothes and accessories I've purchased.  I've started thinking about the races that I'll want to run next year and planning a schedule and budget.  I'm estimating conservatively a $500 budget for race registrations next year.  Is this still cheaper than a coke habit?

I still wonder sometimes if this is just a fad, a temporary period in my life.  I would like to think that when I reach 55, I will still be running half marathons and marathons and going for a PR every time, but who knows.  Life changes at a whim and injuries are always a possibility.