Drew Hills

     I showed up to running club tonight expecting to do an easy run around Lake of the Isles and Lake Calhoun.  Turns out I read the email wrong.  The lakes were Monday’s workout that I skipped.  Tonight was Drew Hills.  When Coach Red first announced that, I turned to my friend, Jessika, and said, “Shit.  I didn’t know we were doing hills tonight.”  Without missing a beat, she came back with, “Oh yeah.  That’s why I came tonight.  I like Drew Hills.”

     I used to like Drew Hills, back when I was a front-of-the-pack runner.  In fact, Drew Hills is a bit nostalgic for me.  We used to do that workout a lot when I was in the intermediate group of running club, when I first joined up.  I was thrilled when marathon group ran Drew back in my first marathon training session.   Keep in mind I was a little fish among a sea of marathoners.  That first training session was intimidating, but that’s a post for another day. 

     We started out on the run and I beeped my Garmin on.  Jessika was nice enough to hang back with me for the 2 mile warm-up.  I thanked her for it and she reminded me that I ran with her when she was pregnant.  That’s one of my favorite things about running club:  Someone’s always got your back. 

     Even with Jessika’s company, I was getting frustrated with the run.  The rest of the group kept getting further and further ahead of us.  I was thinking it’s time for me to give up the club until post-baby.  I wasn’t sure there was a place for a pregnant gal in a running club.  Everyone else is training to get faster.  I’m just trying to finish the workouts, regardless of how slow I have to go to get there.  I’m just trying to hang in there so I can bounce back quickly after Baby is born. 

     We got over to Drew, on the far side of Cedar Lake.  Drew Hills is about a half-mile loop that has a smaller hill first and a more significant hill on the back end.  Then we run back down and do it again.  When we started the first repeat, Jessika took off ahead of me.  I was glad, I didn’t want to hold her back from the workout.  I ran the first 3 loops alone.  The nice thing about Drew, though, is that you keep seeing people the whole time you’re running.  In a .5 mile loop, you see everyone over and over.  I like that a lot.  Other clubbers kept yelling encouragements to me and I did the same.  Coach Red even shouted, “Looking good, you guys!” referring to me and the baby. 

     It didn’t take long for me to realize I was in the zone.  I felt good.  I felt great.   Instead of running the 3 loops I had planned on, I finished 5.  Sure, the last 20 yards of the second hill were torture, but I made it to the top, running, every single time. That’s all I can ask for. 

     While I was running in the zone tonight, I was contemplating the balance of pushing myself harder vs. taking it easy because of the pregnancy.  Pregnancy is notorious for giving women an easy way out of all things challenging.  For good reason.  But I wonder how necessary it is to take it easy all the time.  If I feel okay, shouldn’t I push myself a little harder and get outside of my comfort zone?  Won’t that help my fitness?  (Let me repeat the beginning of that phrase: if I feel okay.)

     I pushed myself tonight and I felt great.  It was just like the old days of running, when it was just me (before the baby).  I’m not as fast as I used to be, but the workout was just as rewarding.    

     I loved running tonight.  After the rocky start, the rest was perfection.