Monday, April 8, 2013

Bad Days Make for Great Races



My best run was the 2012 Riverbank Run 5K.  It wasn't the best because I was in the zone, or had a good night's sleep the night before.

It was my best run for one reason - I was pissed the hell off. 

The first half of 2012 was full of ups and downs in my love life, and the week of the Riverbank Run was no different.  I was dating someone that I liked very much.  I wanted to be his girlfriend.  At the very least, I was hoping we were headed in that direction.*

*side note: Are these really the stages of dating for the new millennium: hooking up, casual dating, dating, and official-exclusive-dating?  It's exhausting.  And there are probably like, 27 stops in between that I don't even know about.

Anyway, we had the relationship talk.  During which, the guy I really wanted to be my boyfriend said this: "I can't say that I can be exclusive with you, what if I go out tomorrow and meet the love of my life?"

That propelled me to my current 5K PR.

A bad mood can't compete with a runner's high and a new PR.


It was cold and drizzly that day, which suited me fine.  There were hundreds of people in the race and I felt like I had road rage.

In retrospect, it's silly.  This guy was obviously not right for me.  But at the time I was hurt by the statement, so I took it out on the course.  And the rage-running worked.

I'm running this race again in a month.  This time, I'm hoping for better weather and a better mood.  And, just maybe, a happier PR.

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Thanks to MissZippy for this blog idea!  See her best run recap and many more at this link:

What's your recent #bestrun?


1 comment:

  1. Ha, ha! That would be a big motivator for me, too! I'm glad you nailed the race and worked through some frustrations, too.

    Thanks for linking up!

    ReplyDelete