Wonderful Monotony

As a runner, monotony becomes your best friend. You get used to going long periods of time with nothing to do but pound the pavement over and over. However, that's not completely true. A lot of the time, I enjoy the monotony of running because it gives me time to think. Our society does not leave much time devoted to thinking. I have found that I think about practical things like schedules and what I need to do. I also contemplate deeper life questions. I even try to determine what the squirrels and geese I'm passing are thinking. I get to feel like a mini-philosopher for a little bit.

That is mostly what I enjoyed from my run yesterday. I have been super busy for the past week and I have gotten kind of caught up in the rush. Taking an hour and running on the treadmill ready forced me to stop and slow down. Physically, it was a pretty fast four mile run, but mentally I got to slow down. Treadmills are great for that. I don't have to worry about cars, or weather, or other people, or animals. I can plug in my music and zone out the world. That is one of my favorite places to be!

I'm gearing up to run the Music City 10k this Friday to celebrate the 4th of July. It's my first 10k and even though I know I can do the distance, I am nervous. I've never run 6.2 miles in an actual event before and I don't know how to approach it. I know how to plan a 5k speed. I know how to conserve speed for a half marathon. However, a 6.2 is smack dab in the middle of those two and I can't quite come up with a plan. I'll probably just do it and it'll be fine, but I'm nervous all the same. Weather is supposed to be gorgeous, but I wish the race was an hour or so earlier to miss the heat of the day (it starts at 8).

Thanks for reading!