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Surprises
Life is full of surprises. Cliché, I know, but these past few weeks and months have shown the truth in that.
If you would have told me when I was in elementary or middle school that by the latter part of high school and especially in college I’d be an avid runner, I would have said, “you’re crazy”. And now, I’m going crazy when I am too busy that I am forced to cut down my 2 hour workout to 1 hour, and even more so when I’m forced to take 2 rest days a week. .
And if you would have told me before this seemingly ominous semester of physiology and organic chemistry II that I would turn out to love this semester, enjoy Ochem II more than any other chemistry class and choose to pick up a chemistry minor because of this class, I would think you’re predicting the exact opposite of reality.
But that’s what can happen – ominous, challenging experiences turn into triumphant ones that define you by their end. I would have never expected my first Pikes Peak Ascent to turn out to be a defining moment of my running, but it did. From absolutely dreading training and hating running uphill before the Ascent to doing a complete about-face to love running on Pikes Peak, like training, and even seeking out hills to run, Pikes Peak played a pivotal role in my transition.
Then there are the not-so-great surprises. Surprises like finding out you can and in fact did over-train, and discovered this 2 to 3 weeks before the Pikes Peak races. Surprises that involve further surprises of discovering how much you take the ability to run for granted, wishing that the next morning you’ll wake up and your injury will have magically disappeared into your dreams.
Of course there are also the race day surprises. From the realization of forgetting your sunglasses in your car that’s parked a mile away and the race starts in 10 minutes; to the surprise that in attempt to avoid dehydration, you might be hyponatremic; to the fun surprises of looking down at your watch and not believing the numbers because you’ve never done that in training and never dreamed of being able to do that.
So as I continue with this training season, I wish to highlight the fun surprises, like discovering how helpful hill repeats can be, achieving that new PR, while minimizing the not-so-delightful surprises of overtraining injuries and fluid intake issues. I can’t wait for the surprises of running with the Pikes Peak Sports Triple Crown Team!
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Comment
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Comment by Megan Kunkel on May 21, 2013 at 10:03pm
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Amy! Aw, thank you so much!! It's so great to see you too, you are so encouraging whenever I see you! It seems like OChem II was either a hate or love class, not much in between.
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Ryan, yes! We'll have to talk chemistry! :) Thank you! I look forward to meeting you!!
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Comment by Amy (Arcuri) Perez on May 21, 2013 at 2:31pm
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MEGAN!! Your smile on the trail is of NO surprise as it is ALWAYS there! I love seeing you out there and look forward to 3-2-1's because I can no longer keep up with you but I can certainly give you a high 5 as we pass each other. I LOATHED OChem II by the way.
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Comment by Ryan Johnson on May 21, 2013 at 10:54am
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Yay for chemistry! :-p Seriously, though, I'm in awe of your accomplishments thus far! I look forward to running with you and learning from you!!
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Dave, thank you so much! We'll see about those PRs. I'm sure I'll be the one trying to keep up with you! Hope your training is going well!
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Comment by Ann Labosky on May 20, 2013 at 1:43pm
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Megan, you are such a blast to train with! (welll... "with" being a *relative* term ... you're always way ahead of me, and we're definitely related :D) ... anyway, I will always have *fond* memories of your little blustery red p.o'd face while huffing up Barr Trail that 1st year; telling me that you were ONLY going to do this race ONCE and then you were NEVEREVEREVER going to go up Pikes Peak again! I kept telling you that you did not have to do the race and if you wanted to bag it, to go ahead. But you'd have none of that either - you didn't want to be a quitter and you wanted to see it through. Little would I have guessed that in your 1st PP race, when you'd been trailing me all through training, you'd beat me on Ascent day by 16 min.!! I still remember seeing your little pink shirt several switchbacks above me in those last 3 miles, and thinking, "How in the heck did she get so fast?!?" As I crossed the finish line, you were all smiles, and excitedly said, "Hey Mama! I'll do the marathon next year with you!!" And I've been chasing you ever since :)
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Comment by David Mulligan on May 15, 2013 at 8:43am
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Megan, having watched you develop into quite the accomplished runner since elementary school, I guess I would say I'm NOT surprised! I fully expect that you'll achieve those PRs this year in the Triple Crown! Hope I can keep up.
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