REDEMPTION
Boy was it ever. My running ego was a little bruised from the group Saturday run because the hills were a formidable opponent. Because my body wasn’t use to them I simply felt tired and sick to my stomach to even go further than my 8 miles already. The goal that day was 10 miles. Like everything in my life, I came away from that with a life lesson….MORE HILLS.
Thanks to my trusty race buddy Andrea we both decided to tackle the Terwilliger/OHSU hills on our holiday day off, that’s commitment. Andrea was nice enough to show me how to get there from my downtown office and what route to take up that steep hill. Although I was a little tired, my body started to get a rhythm on how to tackle the ascent. I know it’s taking mental notes on each curve and how to run it faster the next time.
Andrea and I were talking and our conversation fell on the great Nikki Rafie. If you don’t know her she is a local legend in the running circles and have won several races that I know of and maybe more. I have been playing email tag with her and were just mentioning how she would tackle the hills and where she gets her inner strength from. As soon as we started talking, she appeared, running of course, on our left and said hello and then realized she knew Andrea. Nikki then realized I was the same Mel Ortiz emailing her frantically and we exchanged pleasantries. I couldn’t help look at her small frame and how she effortlessly ran up the hill with us talking as if she was on a chaise lounge next to the pool. She gave us some positive reinforcement on our training and was happy to see we were adding more hills to our training and then as fast as she appeared, she ran off and disappeared within seconds. I had recently volunteered at the Helvetia Half Marathon and was able to see Nikki in all her race glory speed past our Aid Station on Mile 8. My guess was that her pace was a steady 5-6 minutes which just boggles my mind! I was happy to see that she was charming and friendly at first meet and that she was so encouraging.
When our run was all said and done we did 7.4 miles of hills for 1:22 at a steady pace of 11:08, not bad for being new to this hill running. Andrea had a good point to mention that this time/pace is a great starting point to base my future runs on this course.
After we did our barrage of stretches at Duniway Park, we decided to head to Tannesbourne for some great running clothes shopping and a smoothie to top off our day. I had to giggle because when we arrived at Jumba Juice we were welcomed with a cute quote on the wall that said something like…”What do laziness and coins have in common, both can be found in a couch.” We were definitely not lazy today.
No comments:
Post a Comment