Cramps and Victories

Yesterday morning I set out on a 9 mile run. I did the exact same trail that I had done on May 26th. It had been almost a month since I tackled the trail.

My first time I ran this trail I completed it in 1:27:44 with a pace of 9'24"/mile. I was very pleased with this pace and thought to myself if I can keep it up I will have a great marathon run.

Yesterday I ran it in 1:19:12 with a pace of 8'29"/mile. I finished 8 minutes faster than the last time I ran it. I was so excited and happy about this run because not only did I run it faster but I got cramps around the 3 mile mark and they lasted until the 4.5 mile mark. There was a point where I was nearly in tears and I wanted to stop and walk the rest of the way around the lake, but I just kept telling myself if I can continue to push through they will eventually go away. I kept running and pushing myself to maintain my speed and eventually they were gone. What do you do for cramps? How do you get rid of them when you are in the middle of a run?

Some runs are easy, some runs are hard. Some runs test your limits. I believe that limits are in your head and once you can push those voices aside that tell you that you are not good enough or that you can't do something that is when you are undefeated. The sad thing about those voices is once you push one out another one comes. I think that is why running is such a challenge. You are always fighting yourself. You are always fighting your deamons.

I have had easy runs where everything goes right, the weather is perfect, I find my perfect pace right off the bat and I yearn for those runs but they don't teach me anything. It's the runs that I have to battle myself the entire time not to stop and walk, where I have to fight myself to keep going, fight myself to push a little harder that I get something out of the run. Maybe it's only a good feeling, maybe it's a lesson I needed to learn but I am trying to teach myself to seek those harder runs more often and not always walk on the side of caution.