Fun Run?

Even though I've been faithfully doing my C25k training runs and feeling pretty good afterwards (if not during and certainly not before as I cajole and harass myself into lacing up), I never thought I could get my head around the concept of a "fun run".  A fun dinner party, maybe. Fun date, sure. Fun night out drinking with friends...I could list dozens of "fun" activities before I scraped the bottom of the barrel with running. 

And yet, I had the most fun New Year's Eve ever running the 2010 Midnight Run in Central Park.  This is a 4-mile "fun run" that kicks off at the stroke of Midnight amidst fireworks and (sober) revelry in the heart of the Park. It was a balmy 34 degrees with little wind, which was good. Though it was snowing/raining and the roads were a bit slick at times. (Otherwise I totally would have won.)

I'm so glad I completed the race!  We didn't get a chip to track our exact times (this being a fun run and all), but I estimate I came in at about 50-55 minutes? Now I'm eager to run a race with the chip so I can get my personal time. My pace was erratic. I ran a faster pace with my boyfriend the first 2 miles, then waited and walked a stretch at that water station for my friend to catch up and ran a slower pace with her for about a mile, then ran the last mile myself. 

It felt good to be out there, despite the wet snow. A great antidote to the winter blahs I've been feeling. A lot of my favorite blogs are capturing this vibe lately, so I'm glad it's not just me.  I can't even blame holiday travel or festivities really...it's been a fairly low-key affair around here. Gym schedules get all mucked up, the weather makes me want to curl up with a book and a cookie, I feel sorry for myself that I'm not having some super terrific idealized holiday...who knows? Since my last post, I tracked my food a bit more, but there are still some gaps. I think I'm just going through one of those periods where I have to focus on doing the best I can, accepting that I have to just hang in there and cling to some minimal level of my plan instead of allowing myself to freefall completely (in my old Perfectionist way of being "off" or "on" plan), but rather to embrace days I eat more and days I eat less, days I burn lots of calories and days I burn less, as a way of life for the long haul versus some temporary regime to grow tired of until I come up with the "next" thing.