Just Some Halloween Spirit!

And if you think you couldn't run a marathon before try running 26.2 miles in these costumes.

Happy Halloween!

 

 

Pictures courtesy of EliteFeet  

Something To Say At ROA: A Quick Link Roundup

Not everyone in Albany who's running has been cold lately.

We've got all kinds of political talk coming up, and new representatives running for office's and boards and such, as you can tell I don't follow it all to well. Apparently Republicans feel they need to target Syracuse, Albany, Watertown and Plattsburgh because they are all "distinct areas."

"Distinct" they are.

I've run at Lemoyne College (just outside of Syracuse), The University of Albany and SUNY Plattsburgh, and each of them offer a variety of different terrain and running conditions. But I don't think that's what the Republicans meant.

There are in fact many local races coming up that aren't political.

The Siena Men's and Women's cross country teams will be holding the Spooky Siena Scramble on Halloween day. More information can be found here. I've never run this particular race, but I've ran in costume and it's quite fun. Runner's World has some funny ideas for running-themed costumes that can also be worn while running.

The 34th annual Stockade-Athon will be held on November 8th and it's always a fun race. The Stockade-Athon is a 15k, so it's probably only for more serious runners.

GetSetNY has a list of more upcoming local races.

Rainy Day Runs

 I love to run in the rain during the summer. There's nothing like the feeling of a sweltering hot Sunday run when the rain starts to pour down in sheets. I say Sunday run because Sundays are usually the longest distance run of the week.

I hate really hate running in the rain in the fall/winter months. 

I really hate really freaking hate running in the rain in the fall/winter months.

I especially I really freaking hate running in the rain in the fall/winter months  really freaking hate running in the rain in the fall/winter months when I'm sick.

So rain rain go away come again some summer day.

Thank goodness for us practice today was just a quick and easy four to five miles. Also thank goodness for us the rain had calmed down to a steady sprinkle by the time we took off on our warm-up. Warm-up was no small feat for us because the girls were directly behind the boys (normally we have a little gap between the two teams). The problem is when you're running in a pack you cannot see what is coming directly in front of you. Therefore your leader would jump to the side to avoid a massive puddle, and you would be left to quickly react and find another way around. Mind you at this point we were still in the mindset of not completely soaking our socks and sneakers.

Our run was pleasant. The rain had almost completely died off by our first mile although it got rather chilly. I would assume our breath could be seen by the cars passing by us. All in all it wasn't the worst rainy day run I've ever had, but I still could have done without it and opted for a nice bike or treadmill workout.

We had to make a quick decision to do our striders on the sidewalk back at school because the courtyard where we normally do them was  quite swampy. Our striders are done to remind our body of the race day finishing kick. While we mave have ran an easy run we still want to make sure we keep the body ready for that lactic acid rush.

While nothing too crazy or exciting happened I didn't mind, I was in need of a break from Albany's antics.

Too Sick To Function

I'm sick as a dog today so I won't be attending practice. I feel like a waste of life. I actually got a lot done today but I always feel groggy if I don't run or do some sort of exercise. I contemplated going to the gym and jumping on the bike for an easy 45 minutes.

But then I decided against it.

I miss the team though, it's so weird that this is almost over. I know I have another whole semester, and I have Indoor and Outdoor track coming but still college is almost over.

I will run for the rest of my life, but I won't have a team to run with for the rest of my life.

I Didn't Want To Regret It, But I Think I Might.

This summer I battled with myself on whether or not I was going to race this Cross Country season which will complete my last year of college.

That's a scary thought in itself.

I self finance my education, my apartment, my bills, everything and Cross Country takes up a lot of time. A lot of time for practice and meets equals a lot of missed hours at work. Which equals less money to go towards my education, my apartment, my bills.

I fought with myself for a while and ultimately decided against it. My scholarship at Saint Rose is for Track and Field, meaning I am required to do Track but not Cross Country. I love Cross Country and I love my team which is why this was so hard for me. I worked out a deal with my Track coach that instead of doing pre-season with them I would be running with my Cross Country team on the days when I worked in the morning so I could get to practice at night.

This meant I would not be racing but just practicing with the team.
I did not want to regret my decision.

But I do.

I miss my team immensely. I understand I see them three times a week, but most of the fun comes during meets and over night events. I miss the racing and I miss the complete dedication to something I love.

I don't think I would have been able to survive on my own, monetarily speaking, if I had done both but I now wish that there had been another solution. This would have been the end of a chapter with my team if I had completed all four years, but now I feel a little sense of loss.

I wish to not regret this because there's nothing I can do about it now. But instead I will try to pull from it the good and move on knowing that some things just have to be done a certain way in order to endure situations you are put in.

Flashback to Elementary School

Coach decided we were going to have some fun at practice today. So we played games from elementary school gym class for 45 minutes while continuously running.

At first i wasn't excited.

But honestly once we got to game three or four we were all wicked into it. I think the kicker was the final game of group freeze tag.

It was an even match up. 
It became a seriously intense game.

Finally coach had to call it a four way tie. This was probably a good thing because we were all getting rather tired, and I think injury was soon to follow.

One Fist, Two Fist...Holy Crap Fight!!!

I should not be amazed anymore about some of the things I see on my day to day runs. But it seems every time something new and crazy happens I still have to do a double-take and really ask myself :

Did that really happen?

It was a gorgeous day for a run. The weather was just right and the team and I had good conversation flowing throughout the entirety of our seven-miler. Almost back at school, running down Ontario Street, we looked ahead to see six guys. I would say they were about 18-years old walking towards us on the sidewalk. None of us thought twice about this because we often share the sidewalk with others.

We got closer and their pack shifted left except for two of them. We were about ten feet from these two and began to shorten our stride trying to anticipate what they were doing, seeing as they had not yet moved. Next thing we knew we were witnessing a fist fight directly in front of us. We literally jumped out of the way into the road to avoid these swinging idiots.

Seriously? What the hell?

We looked back thinking that maybe they had been trying to show off in front of 15 girls but they were still going at it pretty fiercely. We couldn't do anything but laugh, so that we did...pretty hard.

That was enough excitement for the day at least that's what we thought. But of course that wasn't enough action for an Albany run.

Around 50 yards later we crossed Park Avenue. The three of us in front of our pack, myself included, nearly got nailed by an oncoming Honda Civic. The airhead was on her cell phone and decided it was smart to roll through the stop sign and somehow failed to miss all of us in brightly colored t-shirts running directly in front of her.

She seemingly failed to miss the Albany Police Car that was stopped at the adjacent red light.

Unfortunately for her the officer wasn't  missing anything. He let us pass then threw on his lights and siren and pulled her over 20 seconds later. Oh karma.