Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Chasing the "Tomb Raider" Dream

I was an anthropology major for, like, a nano-second in undergrad.

Why? Because I thought I could be "Tomb Raider," that's why.

You know-- traveling the world and collecting artifacts, swinging on vines to avoid explosions, shooting 9mms with surprising accuracy...fighting grizzly bears. Basically, stuff like that.

When I couldn't find Tactical Bear Combat 101 in UK's course catalog, I ditched that plan and switched my major to English. File that one under "Gross Misunderstanding of Anthropology."

Six years later and I find this: Adventure Racing at Red River Gorge.

Wait...What is that sound? It sounds like all my wildest dreams COMING TRUE!

Cycling, trekking, rappelling, paddling...this is as close to "Tomb Raider" as it's gonna get!

There are only a few things that stand in my way: I can't mountain bike, can't rappel, can't read a compass...haven't tried, but probably can't paddle too well.



Hmmm...looks like fun...or not.

Looks like I'm putting my Tomb Raider dream on ice once again.

I do, however, want to give trail running a try. There are some amazing state parks in Kentucky, and it's always good to mix it up in training.

My quads burn just thinking about it.

Anyway, I ran 8.5 miles last night and felt alright. Running uphill with the wind in your face is pretty demoralizing, but I kept pushing. My legs were numb for the first 3 miles, which is never fun.

When I found myself in doubt, I'd think "BB...I can't believe you are actually even considering a marathon if you can't man-up and do this run RIGHT NOW."

It's a very effective mantra, to say the least. I broke through the mental barrier and felt really fresh. Miles 6-8 were the easiest miles I've run in a long time.

Running is so weird sometimes.

4 comments:

  1. Challenge yourself, you'll be happy you did :)

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  2. I agree...running can be so weird! For me, the first 3 miles of my long runs are always HELL and then for some reason my body just gets into the groove and the rest of the run usually feels great. Funny.

    You can definitely do a marathon!! I always thought I would never be able to, but if you keep up with your training and slowly increase your mileage, it will become second nature. I said today in a post that my training schedule has me doing 10 miles in the middle of the week....and 10 miles used to be my long weekend run! It's amazing how the body adapts. You can do it!!

    Also I have a colleague who does adventure racing. I don't know much about it, but he says it's such a blast!

    Sara

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  3. 8.5 miles is awesome. You rock.
    The talk about majors is funny...I declared Criminology for my first few months because I thought I would be this hot shot attorney like on The Practice. Pretty funny.

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  4. Thanks for the encouragement, guys! I think I'll take baby steps are start by trying trail running...which should be interesting in itself!

    Thispired-- I was so clueless in undergrad! I thought I'd become a prof. of literature and then I considered the 8 years it would take to get there...and thought better of it!

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