I found my new running place and it’s in a parking garage! Hey, it’s a great alternative for me, what can I say? Secretly I wanted to complete my remaining miles for the Aravaipa Strong Virtual Race 50K on Thursday, but it would’ve entailed running a double and I wasn’t sure if I’d have time, so I focused on at least one run, the morning run.
At 5:15AM, I arrived in my gym parking garage, synced up my phone and started running my loops. I found myself in the groove listening to my tunes. Prince, Ray Charles, Springsteen, they all had me in the zone! Around 20 minutes into my run, I decided to check my distance: 0.0 miles.
Yes, zero miles.
Part of me felt a little bummed that I missed out on a mile and change, but bonus miles, right?!
What else could I do, except keep going. I restarted, but this time I checked after 5 minutes and saw 0.44 miles. Okay, that’s better.
While the garage is gated, it’s not like I’m entirely enclosed from the outside. As I reached the front gate, I saw a guy walking down my side of the street and as he passed, he let out a huge puff of smoke. The stench from his pot was so strong it made me nauseous. That shit seriously reeks so bad. Even though I’m the only person in the garage, I could’ve used my face mask at that point. I could’ve used a gas mask or a hazmat suit as well.
I was tempted to leave because the aroma was so strong and kept lingering. There was no breeze to push it away. At this point, I was at 2 miles, and that’s recorded miles since that other mile didn’t register. I kept going because I had time for one more mile. I covered my face with my long sleeve, and tried to avoid the area where the stench lingered.
After a few minutes the stinkiness was gone.
I finished that morning run with 3.17 miles. Now, I had 4.73 miles remaining and 3 days to do them in!
The FINISH
Friday was an early day and a late night for me and I wasn’t able to factor running into the day. I keyed in on Saturday to complete my remaining miles. This was the homestretch. I could’ve broken these final miles down into Saturday and Sunday but at this point, I was ready to have my 50K completed.
A heatwave was upon us so I wanted to get started early before the temps got toasty but it didn’t matter. By 7AM, I got outside and so did the heat.
This time I didn’t have my parking garage as an option so I hit the streets in a very quiet neighborhood with nobody around. It was just me and the sunshine.
There were no expectations or goals about this run. All I wanted to do was enjoy my time being outside. I’ll be honest, that heat was bogging me down. I’m not ready for it! But I gotta get used to it now.
Virtual runs were never my thing before these current times, but this experience has been so awesome. It really has.
I suppose I could create my own personal running challenges and not sign up for any virtual anything, but there was this sense of connectedness and community. Running is great for myself, but it’s even better when I can contribute to supporting others. Thank you Aravaipa Running for organizing this!
And now for the final tally:
Monday- Day 3: 0 miles
Thursday – Day 6: 3.17 miles
Friday – Day 7: 0 miles
Saturday – Day 8: 5.36 miles
Final mileage: 31.73 miles
Thank you for reading. Stay safe. Stay strong. Stay home (as much as possible). And keep running!
Wahoo!! Great job Christina!