Running as a Math Geek

I will never deny it. I LOVE math. In particular, I love statistics. A lot of what goes on in the world doesn't make a great deal of sense to me, but analyzing statistics does. I took two extra statistics classes in grad school for fun.

My running buddies make so much fun of me because I analyze all kinds of stats associated with my running and remember them. I can tell you my pace for all of my individual races. I can tell you how many miles are on my shoes, down to a hundredth of a mile. I don't need to convert pace into miles per hour, because I know it already for my speed. I store mental maps in my head. I knew the route for half of the legs for Ragnar DC this past year. My running partners for the Marine Corps Marathon were surprised I didn't have the route memorized. Yesterday, I mentioned someone who we hadn't seen in a while who pushed me through my 7-mile run. I knew exactly when it happened 17 months ago, but mainly because it was my longest run ever to that point.

Do your running partners have something about which they tease you with your running? Are you a stat head and remember dates, times, paces?

I also look for birds when I run, but that's a story for another time.

I suck at blogging... I will work on that

You may have noticed the many month lapse in my blogging. Life just got in the way. 

My last post was right before I ran my second DC Ragnar. That event was affected by the US Federal Government shutdown. Actually, my legs in particular were affected. Instead of staying on a train until the end for my first leg, I had to run WITH traffic on a busy road that had no shoulder in the dark. It was terrifying and sucked. My third leg was basically eliminated and I got to run across the Wilson Bridge with one of my running buddies. That was nice but it was miserably hot and I had a blister on the bottom of my foot from running 8 miles on a gravel road during my second leg. 

Two weeks later, I ran the Komen Race for the Cure with my gym. I got a shiny new 5K PR from that. 

On October 27th, I ran the Marine Corps Marathon as my first marathon. It was an amazing experience and I got to do it with two of my good running buddies that I talked into running the event with me. 

I haven't done much since then. I had a giant blister and some knee pain after the marathon and basically spent half the next 2 months resting. I need to get back into it because I'm doing the Ragnar Trails Appalachian relay in June. My only real fitness goal for the year is that I want to be able to do a chin-up by the end of the year. 

Happy 2014!