Who said running 10K was easy?

I signed up to run 10K, my objective, restore strength in my Achilles heal which I tore last year playing soccer. I thought the only way around this is to actually sign up, no matter what, sign up and practice.

What I thought is going to be the hardest part about running was the pain from my achilles and the pain from being so out of shape, it turns out I was wrong.

My good old friend is a runner, the first day of my training we went for a run along the Ottawa Canal, a few hundred meters after we started, I found me a bench and sat on it, while he ran in place to keep himself warmed up. A short day out for sure. When he finally got back, we went for a beer and he started talking to me about running. You know, you should do the 10 – 1 running method, its the “Running Room” method. What you need is a running watch he said. Some good shoes, oh shoes make a huge difference he said. Eat carbs, you need carbs (great, I am starting off well with the beer). You know when you run the 10K you need some running clothes, you don’t want to look like a  loser he said. Don’t wear the T-shirt they give you to the race, that is a no no. etc… I had a headache.

A month after that run, we got together again for a run at an indoor track, he got a head start on me, each lap was 400 meters. One my 10th lap, I was in serious pain, but i insisted on running 5K no mater what. I finished running after my 13th lap, he finished after 40. I waited for him on the side line, when he finished his run, he ran over to the cafeteria and bough me and himself half a liter of chocolate milk each. Here drink it, you will feel better tomorrow. WHAT? yea yea, don’t you know, chocolate milk helps you recover the fastest from you run, blah blah blah. Did you get running gear? nope. Did you go get your feet tested? Nope. Make sure you rub your thighs with antiperspirant when you run, OK that’s is where I draw the line… I just want to build strength in my heal. What is all this about, runners you can’t be that serious

There are two things that I found extremely hard about running.

1) The easier of the two, is training, and the hardest thing about training is actually doing it, there is an old Arabic saying that goes, “2/3 of the way is your door step” and that is so true for running, getting out the door is the hard part

2) Runners. If you are a runner, please shut up and don’t try to be helpful. I have a 10K run to train for, having me rub antiperspirant on my legs is not helpful at all!

Do you run? or trying to run? what are some of the more interesting training “tricks” you heard off?