Thursday, January 1, 2009

A New Year's Quiz

5:45 this New Year's morning... I'm driving my car in the pitch dark... my windshield wipers are flying back and forth across my windshield as fast as they can go but I still can't see anything on this dark highway...

What am I doing? I could be in my warm bed with my husband and cuddling with my cute little daughter.

Instead, I'm driving across the island to see how fast I can cover 6.2 hilly miles nine weeks after giving birth.

There weren't many people on the road at that hour. And the people who were out on the road? I couldn't help but wonder where they were going? Were they all just now on their way home from their New Year's Eve celebration? Or, like me, did they have something they felt they needed to do to start the new year off right?

I got to thinking about other New Year's mornings I've had... the one in another life in college where I woke up feeling completely nauseous, smelling stale clove smoke on my hands and in my hair. Ugh. Don't want a repeat of that one. Maybe the one in 1997 where I met up with some swimmers from my local masters team at the pool to complete 97 x 100's @ 1:30 just to say that we did... or a few years ago when I attempted to ride 87 miles around the island but stopped 70 miles in and instead showed up at a friend's house looking like a drowned dog begging for a ride home because I was just too tired of all the rain and mud we were riding through...

In 2009 my memory will be driving in the rain toward Hawaii Kai to run a 10K. Just a quiz to see where I'm at right now. I wondered who else on the island would also choose to skip the standard late night celebrations and fireworks to attempt a hilly 10K this morning... turns out, about 100 people, most of whom I did not know...

I'll give myself a B+ on my quiz this morning. My goal was to get under 50 minutes, but I missed that by about 13 seconds per mile. I'm okay with that though... I adjusted my goal by a few minutes when I was standing at the start line listening to other runners say stuff like, "Wait till you see that hill..." They could have been talking about any of the big hills on the course today... though when I saw the huge long steep one toward the turn-around I had a clearer understanding of the early comments. So I think averaging 8:15 on the course today is just fine. I passed my quiz and now have a good benchmark to work with in the coming months...

And now the rest of this first day in 2009 can be spent peacefully with my family at the beach!

8 comments:

X-Country2 said...

Great work! Way to set the tone for 2009. Enjoy the rest of the day.

N.D. said...

You are super motivated and inspiring!! I can't believe it has been 9 weeks. What scares me is that 8 weeks - only 8! after my due date so it will maybe be like 6 weeks later, I'm going to be walking through Boston. I don't really know what I was thinking as it gets closer. I just really hope this baby comes early!!

Happy new year = it will be a great one for you guys!! and great job on the 10k, I think your time was awesome! considering all the hills too!!!

Molly said...

Great job! That's an impressive speed, even if you hadn't just given birth - since you did, I'd call it superhuman ;-p Happy new year!

Clare said...

ahhh, i felt guilty for skipping a 5k this morning in the 10 degree weather...and yet LOVED the day spent on the couch taking 2 naps. i need to get my motivation and resolutions (aka race calendar) going...

Allison Chapple said...

Yeehaw. I bet it felt good to be out there again! Nice!

Rebecca DeWire said...

Nice job in the 10K! What a way to start off the new year. I love your reminiscing of old New Years...I could relate to the nauseau and cloves but definitely not the 97x100 on 1:30...I can't swim that fast. I am amazed at what you have done since your daughter was born.

Angela and David said...

Great job. What a great way to start 2009. Much better than starting the year off hung over.

RunningMama said...

Woohoo! 8:15 is still a success! Just getting out there is important!