Wow, I don’t know what happened to me, but last night my body sorta freaked out. All of a sudden, I got the chills and intense whole body aches and I thought for sure I was coming down with the flu. I threw on a ton of clothes, got under several blankets and put myself directly to bed when it happened. I was really miserable, but I must have fallen directly to sleep because I don’t remember anything more than just getting into bed miserable. Then, the next morning, I overslept. BY AN HOUR AND A HALF. Wow, that is serious oversleeping! I figured I must be sick and that marathon training would have to take a back seat to my health and my job, so I skipped my run. I felt really terrible about it and thought that this could be the ‘beginning of the end’ if I start skipping my training. However, I gave myself a break and reminded myself that I must keep my job, I do not have to complete the marathon and I let myself pick my job over my training.

However, when I got to work, I was reasonably well. I didn’t feel like I had the flu and I began my work as if it were any other normal day. By mid-day, I was convinced that I wasn’t sick at all and although I have no idea what that weird chill thing was, it didn’t appear to be anything serious, so I started to look at my schedule to see if I could possibly put my run back in. There were two breaks in the day, but neither one was long enough for a run, so I resigned myself, again, to skipping it.

However, several hours later, I was still feeling good and still wanted to see if I could salvage my run and I realized that I could walk over to the gym after my last client, do my short run very quickly, then walk back to work to get my bicycle and ride home and that the experience, although it would be quite unpleasant for me that late at night, wouldn’t kill me.

After my last client, I just changed into my running clothes without thinking, jogged over to the gym, hopped on a treadmill and started pumping up the speed. I had to remind myself not to push it up too fast, but I also really wanted to get it over with and go home, so I made it up to speed in about .4 miles which was probably a little less than prudent, but it worked. I was able to complete the 2 miles at a 9-minute pace.

I think my motivation was helped by the fact that I had essentially completed a whole 5k at 9 minute miles when I was in Minnesota, so I guess I thought 2 miles would just be a cakewalk. And, what is a cakewalk anyhow? Well, how disturbing, it is a reference to a type of dancing that Southern slave owners would encourage slaves to do, which was sort of a mock of fancy ballroom dances. Dancers were often awarded a small cornbread type cake for their efforts. How it evolved to mean something easy is unclear, probably because the mock dancing was something that was considered easy and fun. Hmm, I guess I won’t be using that particular phrase much anymore if I can help it. Oh wait, I just figured out how to reclaim the phrase without being disrespectful to anyone but myself…

It’s a cakewalk if I’m mocking or mimicking the formal runners like the slaves mocked or mimicked the formal balls of the wealthy land owners. Like the slaves, I sorta wish I could be a part of the elite running crowd, but I also know I never will be, so I do what I can to have fun and enjoy my current situation and status. I can have a little bit of jealousy towards the elite athletes, but not so much that it ruins the good time I have running the event as if it were a cakewalk. And, maybe after the race, I’ll have me a little cake.