An adventuresome weekend

This past weekend was an amazing one - hiking on Saturday, and a half-marathon on Sunday.

SATURDAY
On Saturday, I led a hiking trip to Hawk Mountain (about 1.5 hours' drive away from Philly), for 14 undergraduate students in the Life Sciences Management (LSM) program at Wharton. How this started was a PennOutdoors hiking trip I led to the Pinnacle along the Appalachian Trail several months ago. A girl called Iris went on the trip, enjoyed it, decided to plan one for her program (LSM), and roped me in to help lead the hike (and drive). Initially I was rather tentative about leading the hike, because I had a half-marathon to run the next day. But since the hike was supposed to be an "easy" one (to accommodate the different fitness levels of the students), and since I love hiking anyway, I decided to go ahead with it.

I thoroughly enjoyed leading the hike. The LSM kids (well, not really kids since I'm just a couple of years older than them, but you get what I mean... The "grad student" status really makes me feel so much older...) were an enthusiastic bunch, raring to go. It was too bad I couldn't lead them on a more challenging hike (because Iris didn't want to push the limits too much on the first hike with the group), because they seemed to enjoy their hike so much, especially the more difficult sections. Most importantly, I met some new friends that I felt I could really connect to, on the trip. I remember in freshman year I was the social butterfly, seizing every opportunity to go out and meet new people. As years passed and painful experiences accrued, I stopped taking chances to go out and meet new people. I got tired of trying, of reaching out. And I got stuck with a smaller and smaller circle of friends as they left, one by one, to other cities. But starting afresh as a grad student in a different school (though still the same college), I'm beginning to open up again, to reach out again.

And this is one thing I learned: sometimes you really don't have to think too much, and just go with your heart. If I had worried about twisting my ankle before my half-marathon, or exerting myself too much and not being able to run the next day, I would never have had the opportunity to meet new friends or have such a great time at the hike. Life is a journey, and where we are today is a result of the twists and turns we took. If we had just taken the path straight ahead at all the crossroads, or journey thus far would just have been one predictable straight line from where we started.


SUNDAY
At the ass crack of dawn on Sunday, I tumbled out of bed as the alarm rang at 6AM. The Philadelphia Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon would start in 2 hours' time. I grabbed breakfast, took a quick hot shower, and biked to the Art Museum, where the start (and finish) line was. It was quite a lively atmosphere there, though I wasn't surprised since this was the third time I was doing this half marathon. The difference was - this is the first time I actually trained for the half marathon. Technically, I didn't train for this half-marathon, I was training for the Philadelphia (full) marathon in November this year (2 months later!), but I guess it's still training anyway.

And the training definitely paid off-- I felt so much better during the run than the other two half marathons which I was so inadequately prepared for. I had also changed my running stride to land on the balls of my feet when I ran, which helped greatly in making me feel good during the run. I tried to keep it to the 8-min per mile pace, and generally succeeded, though several minutes were added from stopping at water stops and slowing down to eat GU at the 8th mile mark. But in the end, I finished with my best timing to date: 1 hour 46 min.

I felt great and still energetic after the run, unlike the previous 2 half marathons. Though I'm pretty sure I could have run 5 more miles, I'm not sure if I could have run 13.1 more miles there and then. But this is what I'm gonna have to do for the full marathon - 26.2 miles at one time, in the harsh cold winter weather. I guess I should buck up with my training, but unfortunately I'll have to take this week off, because I'm sick and because I'm leading another backpacking trip to the Catskills this weekend (that'll be the topic of next week's post!). I'm kinda worried about how my training is going on, though I guess I can try to make it up next week...

Several years back, before I came to Penn and to Philly, I never would have thought I would run half-marathons and marathons. But the proximity of good running trails and the popularity of running here, makes running such a viable activity. And running IS addictive; now I feel very restless and lazy if I don't run every day.

Overall, great weekend!