I was already awake and listening to the rain when Lori texted me at 5:55 on Sunday morning.

“It’s raining right now.”

“Do you think we should just not do it?”

I hoped she’d want to back out of the annual Puente Hills YMCA Turkey Trot 5K/10K. I’m sure we both preferred our warm beds to the cold and rainy morning.

But Lori, always a trooper, didn’t back out. Instead she suggested we wear trash bags over our running clothes to keep us relatively dry.

Ten minutes later I was dressed and headed east with Sean to pick up Lori before making our way to our final destination, the Puente Hills Mall (yes, in the suburbs a 5K/10K starts in a mall parking lot).

Thankfully, the rain had stopped by the time we registered and lined up for the race. As expected, the turnout was low, a good sign for us. There were even fewer people running the 10K, which gave us a better chance at winning a turkey. In previous years, Lori had placed second and just missed winning a turkey.

The race itself was rather uneventful and led to a great run. I didn’t have time to set up my iPod Shuffle so I ran without music. I didn’t miss it since I was running with Lori for most of the race and occasionally talking. On the last mile we started loudly humming “Eye of the Tiger” and cheering on other runners just to be silly.

In previous weeks I’d been running the 10K distance at least once a week and doing speed work. It paid off as I clocked faster miles and finished with a personal record. My first mile was a little over 8 minutes, but I doubt the accuracy of the mile marker. I’m not that fast even on a relatively flat course on a cloudy, cool morning. But, I was running with Lori and I’m sure she pushed me to a faster 5K (26:26) and 10K time overall. I finished at 53:45 just behind Lori who had more energy for a sprint at the finish line. That’s a personal record for me.

At the finish line, we met up with Sean, who had been cheering us on and snapping pictures and then waited for the awards. Based on Sean’s assessment that few, if any, of the women who finished ahead of us in the 10K looked to be in our age groups, we expected to win something. And we did.

I placed second in my age group. Lori placed first in hers and took home her first turkey. I like small community races.

We celebrated with breakfast at our local greasy spoon and then went home and napped.

I ran one 5K last year. After the race, I wasn’t left with the desire to immediately sign up for another race. I didn’t have a bad experience, in fact I won a pair of shoes raffled off by one of the race sponsors, Run With Us. Still, I didn’t perform as well as I would have liked. Maybe I was a little discouraged.

Long Beach was different. I met my goals and came away thinking about my next race. Would it be another half? Or would I begin training in earnest for a full marathon? LA in March? I read bloggers’ race reports and looked up training plans. I’m still undecided about the LA Marathon, but know there will be other races in the fall and winter.

In fact, I’ve already run one race.

Lori and I ran the La Puente Main Street 5K/10K Halloween Run on Sunday morning. We decided on it last minute. The idea of running a shorter race so close to home and in costume seemed like fun. In fact, before the Main Street run came up, I thought my next race would be on Halloween for the LA Cancer Challenge 5K/10K.

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I had two goals for the half marathon.

1. Run all 13.1 miles. I’d run all my miles in training and wanted to stay consistent. The most I’d run during training was 11 miles. I hoped that I’d trained well and was prepared to run the entire course.

2. Finish in under 2:06 (about a 9:30 pace).

I didn’t doubt myself until two days before the race. I ran Friday morning. I was slow, tired and simply never found my stride. I tried telling myself that it was all mental and I was just nervous. My pep talk didn’t help. I cut my run short and went home feeling dejected. I hoped that I’d gotten my bad run out of the way just in time to have a good (or even great) run on Sunday morning.

And I did.
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In August, I joined a running challenge headed up by GD of PostBourgie notoriety. In it’s second month, the challenge grew exponentially from 6 people running 75 or 100 miles to 33 who set goals to run between 25 and 125 miles.

All July, I’d read GD’s updates on Twitter and Facebook in the form of miles just run/total miles/goal for the month. Meanwhile, I had a lazy month despite perfect running conditions (long days, a very mild summer which included many overcast mornings). My total mileage for July was a mere 42.3 miles. I set my goal for August at 75 knowing it would be a challenge, but attainable based on past months. I also knew I couldn’t slack off.

At first, the increased running was taxing on my body. I overloaded my first week as I knew there would be a few days where I wouldn’t run due to travel. As I regularized my schedule and got to read my body’s signs better, I improved. I ran 5.5-6 mile short runs. My long runs gradually increased to 8.2 miles. As the month progressed, I got a little faster, but mainly focused on increasing endurance. Toward the end of the month, I signed up for my second race, the Long Beach Half Marathon with my sister. (That photo above is from the 5K I ran last summer). I’d previously shied from a half marathon because of the more intense schedule, but I was doing it all month long. Why not just get one fitness goal done?

I caught a cold mid-way through the month. My sleep and work was affected, but not my running. In fact, I’d have a great run, stop and then start coughing. Plus, I couldn’t slack off as I had to check in with the other PB runners twice a week. I definitely benefited from the friendly competition and the encouragement of all the other PB runners.

My final run for the month was a short 5 miles. That brought my total to 93 miles, easily surpassing my 75 mile goal*.

Now, if only I could make myself sit down and write 93 pages of that dissertation.

***

For September, I’ll be doing 100 miles. The group is bigger now and includes some friends who are sort of new to running, Sean (the boyfriend) and Liz. Hopefully they’ll find that they’ll get better, faster and stronger too.

*Toward the end of the month, I thought I could reach 100. I planned a 7 mile morning run with Lori while I was home last week. Twenty minutes in to the run, I felt queasy. We walked home and I went back to sleep for a few hours. Later, I realized the cough syrup with codeine was likely the culprit for my queasiness. Oh well, sometimes you need a break.

Dude. I’m a runner.

It’s still weird to admit that. Last year, I felt like a fraud when I admitted it for the first time to a doctor. I had no set training schedule. I ran a few times a week, enough to get my exercise in. I had expensive running shoes and a few usual routes in my neighborhood. Last summer, running was still largely something I was doing to help me lose weight.

It’s different now.

I don’t want to lose more weight. I just want to run.

Sometimes, I can’t. That happened about six weeks ago when I mysteriously hurt my back. I didn’t run for about 10 days and was miserable. Running makes me happy. I smile a lot as I run, even on the bad days when I struggle. On those days, I still smile and give thanks for my health. I grin like a fool on the good days when I know that I’ll improve my time so much that I’ll wonder if my watch stopped working for a minute.

When I get ready for work trips or to visit Sean, I pack my running shoes first. I check the weather and look up popular running routes. On my last few trips I got in a run along the Huron River in Ann Arbor, the Chicago River and Lake Michigan (with rain, strong winds and lightning too), the Hudson River in NY and Central Park. I finally got in a run with G.D. of PostBourgie. He had to slow down a bit for me, but it was still good to have some by my side pushing me up the Great Hill on mile 5.

Sometimes when I’m out on a run, I wonder how I got here.

How’d I get to be the girl whose list of happy places now includes an LA running trail at sunset with the perfect music playing on her iPod Shuffle (iTunes Genius really helps with this)? How’d I get to be the girl who runs rather than walks — if shoes allow — simply because it means getting from from point A (work) to point B (the bus stop) quicker? How’d I become a runner?

It’s not an easy question to answer, partially because the answer is dynamic. I’ve begun writing and abandoned various drafts of this post since early April. In those 2.5 months I went through some ups and downs with running. I’m finally feeling back to where I was early in the spring. I ran 7.2 miles on Monday night to a Mexican-centric playlist in anticipation of the Mexico/Algeria game. I felt great at the end of the run. I always do.

I dug up this draft again tonight and the first part came to me easily. It was only a matter of time.