Fat Girl Learns To Run

Bad Chocolate ----------- Day 311-312

Today our group run was for 9 miles.  It was a gorgeous day outside for a run.  The run was going well for me before our turnaround.  Right after the turnaround there was a water station where the group stopped for water and Gatorade. I had one of orange chews during the stop.  As we started to run again, my stomach started feeling not so good.  I had one of those chews before and I felt fine but today I didn’t.  When we got to the next bathroom (around mile 6 ½), I told Megan that I needed to stop at the bathroom and the group should continue without me.  Thank God for the lakefront having bathrooms.  After my bathroom break, I felt so much better and continued to run the 9 miles.  During my run back, I started thinking about what could have upset my stomach that much.  I then realized that I had some chocolate after dinner last night.  It had to be the chocolate that upset my stomach.  The thing I have realized is that what you eat the night before really affects you when you run a longer distance the next day.  I am never doing that again.

Our group runs let you experiment with what works and what doesn’t.  Chocolate doesn’t work before a race, only after the race.  I also forgot to put on my body glide.  Not putting it on didn’t have any effect on me until I hit mile 7.  I could then feel the rubbing between my thighs.   When your thighs are as big as mine, this is not a good feeling.  There are more things that you need to think about when running longer distances.  Overall, 9 miles really wasn’t that bad.  I struggled more when I ran 7 miles the first time.  Next week we run 10 miles.  This is exciting because we hit double-digits.

After the run, I headed home to get cleaned up and meet a girlfriend for lunch.  After running in the morning it felt good just to sit, eat, and chat.  After lunch, we walked around Uptown to get a feel of the area.  I saw this apartment listed on a certain street but an address was not listed for the apartment.  Since there was a picture of the building, we did some investigative work and tracked down which building it is.  At least I think we did.

The frustrating thing about looking for an apartment is that when I contact the agency that listed the apartment, no one gets back to me.  I find this such bad customer service.  Once I get an apartment, I plan on writing a review on Yelp letting others know the bad customer service or I should really say lack of service that I have received.  If an agent rents an apartment, they get a commission.  I guess no one is really that in need of commission if they don’t even have the time to send me at least a quick email.

After walking around the neighborhood we stopped at Starbucks.  We just sat around talking for hours.  I like days like this when I really don’t do anything.  Since I get up early all the time, tomorrow I plan on sleeping as long as I want and not setting an alarm clock.  The other good thing is that I don’t have to work on Monday so I can get my run in during the day.

Urinetown ---------- Day 309-310

Yesterday I decided to do the mid-week CARA run at the lake.  Since driving around Montrose Beach is confusing for me, I just park at the same spot that I do on Saturdays and walk to the Wednesday night spot.  There is a bathroom where I park that is used by the beach goers.  I prefer to always make a stop at a bathroom before beginning a run.  I have to be honest and tell you that the beach bathroom is one of the most disgusting bathrooms that I have ever been in.  It’s not so much the look of the place but the smell.  It always smells like urine.  I try not to breathe when I am in there.  By the end of the beach day, the bathroom is just trashed.  There is all this toilet paper lying on the floor.  Women can be such pigs when using the bathroom.

This bathroom experience made me think of other bathroom experiences that I have had.  My most interesting experiences were when I have travelled through Europe.  In most of the public bathroom you need to deposit money in the door slot to use the toilet.  This reminds me of a song in Urinetown called The Privilege to Pee.  Many years ago when visiting relatives in Germany, they had this toilet in their house where you needed to pull a chain from the ceiling to flush the toilet.  Everyone knew when you went to the toilet.  And let’s not forget the awful brown toilet paper my relatives used.  It was like wiping with a brown paper bag.   I have saved the best for last.  I was travelling through a small town in Greece and stopped at a local restaurant for lunch.  Before continuing my travels, I wanted to use the restroom at the restaurant.  I was told that the restroom was outside.  Okay, so I make my way outside and open the door to the ‘restroom’.  All that was in the restroom was a hole in the ground where you are supposed to go and do your business.  When you have to go, you just go.  I haven’t used a hole since then and I hope not to in the future.

After the ‘hole’ experience, the port-a-johns used during races are a luxury.  When we run on Saturdays, we prefer to stop at the ‘nice’ bathrooms around Belmont Avenue.  On my Monday runs I stop at the North Avenue bathrooms which don’t look that great but at least they don’t smell like the Montrose Beach one.  I am sorry but I can’t get over the smell.  It’s even there the first thing in the morning.

I actually did run 5 miles on Wednesday with the group.  None of the people from my pace group where there so I ran with another group.  I met one of the women in the group at the Half Marathon kick-off party so I felt at least part of the group when she introduced me to others in the group.  I like meeting people in other groups but I still like my Saturday group the best. 

Tonight I did my group leader gig at RAM.  This week has actually been a good week on the workout front for me.  I am getting little nervous about the 9 mile run on Saturday.  The longest distance that I have ever run in my life was 8.9 miles when I was in my 20s.  The legs aren’t as young as they used to be.  I am glad that I am going to have the support of the group to make it through the run.