Matt Hazard

Getting over this chest cold has proven to be a rather painful procedure.  Running has been virtually impossible, so doing leg weight workouts have been my only replacement for a solid run lately.  Seriosuly though, I tried running yesterday, and even before my 2 miles was up, I felt like I was drowning in my own lungs.  Gross, but true.

So today I signed up for the Run Your Heart Out 5k run, which is a fundraiser for the Manitoba Mutts society.  In english, I’ll be saving puppies with my legs.  I told my dog Timbit he’d be running the 5k jaunt with me, and he immediately ran and hid on the stairs.  Such a supportive best friend I have…looks like I’ll be doing this on my own this year.  With even more events like Color Me Rad, Dirty Donkey, and of course the much anticipated Manitoba Half Marathon, I’ll need to be in tip top condition to finish with a strong win – and by strong win I mean finish at all.  OK, not top condition, the first run IS only 5k…but with the past months records of runtimes I sadly need to do some work.  Where normally a 5k run is barely a warmup, my damn cold has hindered virtually useless on the treadmill where the unforgiving Manitoban weather has rendered running outside a bad idea in general.  Still, the cold IS healing now, and hopefully in two weeks the weather will improve.  Or I will be running the first event in long underwear and a snowsuit.

Inspiration in unlikely places..

This past weekend I was at the bar, minding my own business playing with the lighting controls in the DJ booth like I normally do, when I bumped into my good friend – and fellow runner – Kaila.  I hadn’t seen her in a little over two months, and so we almost immediately started catching up about our training.  I always found it funny how I could boast about the farthest I’ve ran on a treadmill, or all the events I plan on running this summer while I’m holding a beer in one hand and a shot of jack in the other.  Hey, we’ve all got our clutches, right?  It was extremely refreshing to be able to talk to another runner who has the same amount of passion as I do, and kind of even brought my head out of the snow and inspired me to keep at it despite the chest cold and crappy outdoor temperatures.  All I need to do now is convince her to run the marathon with me so I can get some finish line smack talk out of my system.  Nothing wrong a little friendly competition. Boom.

I figured I’d give it one more shot and ask the dog to run the race with me, but instead he faked his own death in the cats bed.  What a guy.  Looks like I really am in it on my own, which is fine by me.  I’ve been reminiscing too much about how a month ago I was running 7mi jaunts every other day, and since then can’t do 2mi without wheezing.  I need to heal and goto the gym.  But not in that order.  And it’s becoming apparent I’m now just typing my thoughts and rambling, so its time I grab an early din and go run before I pass out.  So here’s to this evenings 5mi attempt and a good nights sleep!  Ice bath to follow..