Run Until You Can't Think

I love Boston around Marathon season. For the month of April, everything in the city is about running or targeted at runners. My sophomore year, Adidas was running an advertising campaign called "Reasons I Run"...billboards, blimps!, bus ads, posters in the T...everything had a different reason why people run. Walking into the Pru to go shopping, I got an Adidas Boston Marathon shirt that I had to write the reason that I run... (to beat PRs?)


One reason displayed on the buses was "The pavement is my therapist"...a sentiment that resonates with me quite clearly. Running gives me time to clear my head, to step away from a situation, and try and gain some perspective on it. I can think of numerous times that something has been bothering me: fights with boyfriends, friends, parents, stress about school...I've gone for a run, and by the end of the run, the problem is so not the giant dilemma I thought it was.


I've had a pretty crap weekend/few days. No need for intimate details, just that anything that could go wrong has, and tonight I reached the peak of my frustration/anger. If only it wasn't dark out, I could have run for miles and miles and miles. I could have run "until my legs pumped battery acid" (thank you Maniac Magee!) if it was mid-day or not so scary to run alone at night.


Unfortunately, my only option was the treadmill. I began my workout at a conservative 6.5 mph and 2.5 incline as I jogged along to whatever was playing in my iPod (a better running mix....) I tried to flip through the magazines that were covering my time/distance, but I kept thinking about everything that was on my mind. Instead of trying to think about everything going on, I decided to just run until I stopped thinking.

I dropped the incline down to 0 and ran between 7.0 and 7.5 mph for the majority of my workout. I got into a great rhythm of pushing myself until I could think of nothing except running harder and faster. I wished I was outside, but for once, being on the treadmill was kind of nice. I had to keep up with the speed of the belt, and as soon as I started to let my mind wander I just upped the speed.

I finished my run at 8.0 mph, a speed that I had not previously sustained on a treadmill for longer than the sprint portion of an interval workout. I can't say I necessarily figured anything out, seeing as the whole purpose of my run was to run so hard I couldn't think, but I'm sure I've got lots of miles over the next week to ponder my life. Hooray for marathon training!