Jitters...followed by a nice run.

Dear Readers,
If you'll indulge me, I'd like to take a little time to go a little off-topic.......wait a minute, this is MY blog, so I can pretty much do whatever I want, right?  Yeah......so here goes!  :>)

I had a jittery moment earlier today, brought on by a tiny opportunity to do a little public speaking.  During our monthly faculty meeting at my school, I had asked for and was granted a minute to mention my charity running efforts to my fellow faculty members.  When it became obvious that I was about to be asked to briefly address my colleagues, I suddenly felt my pulse start to jump and my stomach get a little tight.  At the same time, I also started to laugh at the absurdity of my nervousness.  After all, I'm a teacher.......I spend the better part of each and every working day speaking in front of people.  Granted, those people are teenagers, but it's still a form of public speaking.  When I'm running a lesson, I know what I'm doing and I'm in control, but any time I get up in front of other teachers, I get a little nervous.

My colleagues were great.....they actually applauded when I mentioned that I'm running the Boston Marathon.  As much as I tend to downplay the effort, I think many people are awed by the idea of running a marathon, so I was pleasantly surprised by their response.  As I've been making my way through the fundraising, I've been sensitive to avoid pestering my co-workers.....I mean, I've asked them to contribute, but haven't really hit them over the head with it.  I've tried to go through our school email system, messages on Facebook, but what really worked (as it did with everyone else, as well), was a personal email.  I was surprised to find this out, as I figured that everyone who's on Facebook is actually ON Facebook, but I think some of us have more of an active online presence than others.  Once I sent personal emails, the donations really started to flow.

Which brings me to my faculty meeting today........once I made my little appeal for support, I sat back down and was immediately approached by a 6th-grade teacher who wrote out a check on the spot........another walked up and pressed a $20 bill into my hand......and yet another contributed online before the meeting was over.  Still another made an online donation this evening......all in all, my co-workers are just KILLIN' IT.......and I can't thank them enough.  Whatever nervousness I was feeling and had to work through to get the message out to everyone was clearly worth it.  By the end of this week, I will likely have met my minimum fundraising commitment!

And now, a brief detour back into running commentary........

This past weekend, I was scheduled to do a 15-mile long run on Saturday, but due to the way my week had worked out, the run was now going to take place on Sunday.......that being SUPER BOWL Sunday.....and my beloved New England Patriots were taking on the hated New York Giants.  So I figured a good long run would get my mind off the game and help me relax.  Sunday dawned beautiful but a little chilly.....by the time I got out around 11am, it was around 25 degrees.  I felt that I had my layering right, so I felt pretty comfortable once I got going.  My initial idea was to do 2 laps around one of my favorite routes here......plenty of hills.  Once on the backside of the route, it became clear to me that a second lap was going to be beyond my ability that day......so instead of forcing it, I changed my plan to have the second lap be my normal daily running route......roughly 5 miles that feature gentle, rolling hills.  So what might have been 15-16 miles became 13.2 instead.  To which I respond "oh well".....I could have pushed it and regretted it later, but instead chose to truncate my mileage to "live and fight another day".

I don't mind running in the cold, but I don't like running in the dark.......ok, I don't run in the dark because I don't have all the necessary equipment for that kind of running, so if I get out of school too late, I'm off to the gym to hit the "dreadmill"...over the last few weeks, I've truly come to despise treadmill running......I used to be able to keep my brain occupied with a variety of things, but now I just get so bored so quickly that it makes every run seem like an eternity.  Ordinarily, I'd break up every treadmill run with short walk-breaks......run 9:30, walk 30 seconds.......and repeat.  Today, for grins and giggles, I thought I'd try to find a reasonable pace and just run........and I made it the full 40 minutes.  I impressed myself.......

My team is going to be out on the Boston Marathon course again this Saturday morning.....this time going from Natick to Kenmore Square.....roughly 15-16 miles.  Yet another chance to get familiar with the course, this time going through Wellesley (minus the Wellesley College girls!), into Newton, up and over the Newton Hills, past Boston College, and into Boston itself..........it's going to be cold, but it's going to be fun to run on the course again.  I'm sure I'll have lots to blog about next time.....cya!