Fun Run

While Colby was running through the woods of Vermont, I was busy visiting our friends at The Happiest Place on Earth! Yup, the Fam and I snuck down to Disney for 5 days to get our fill of junk food and vertigo. A good time was had by all.

Of course, the first stuff I packed was my running gear. Running on vacations is one of my favorite things to do. You can check out new scenery, get your bearings on where you have landed, and they are blissfully unrushed.

I didn’t get a chance to run the day we got there or the next day – too busy and I didn’t want to hold the kids up from getting to the parks, and by the 3rd day I was kinda completely jumping out of my skin. The combination of walking a zillion miles across acres of park followed by waiting in line had left me achy and antsy. My body needed to move – at a clip faster than a walk, and for more than 5 minutes at a time. I assume I am not the only person who actually feels more achy when they don’t run than when they do?

Day 3 I got up early, ready to go. Vacation run: new scenery. Opportunity to check out new radio stations. And best of all, no rush to get back for work/school bus/meetings. Aaaah. And, truth be told, given that I am in the middle of marathon training, I was a little anxious to get some mileage in.

Dressed, laced up my sneaks, and spent 10 unsuccessful minutes searching for my Garmin. That I managed to misplace my Garmin in a small hotel suite is quite amazing. But I did. I’m amazing like that. Gave up looking and decided that this was not going to be a training run after all – just a fun run to shake the legs out. (update: turns out I had put it in a “safe place’ in a small zippered compartment in my carry-on. So safe I couldn’t even find it myself.)

Stepped outside and was greeted with a wall of 100% humidity and temps in the low 80’s. OK Orlando, so this is how we are going to play it? GAME ON! It’s The Happiest Place on Earth! A little heatstroke inducing weather isn’t gonna kill my buzz.

Turned on my mp3 player to watch it die before I left the parking lot. I felt like Shleprock. But I carried on.

The run ended up being wonderful. I felt so unfettered – I didn’t know where I was going, what I would see or how far I was running. I didn’t have anything in my hands or on my wrist. I just ran. Like a kid. And loved every minute of it.

Florida has many beautiful areas, but International Drive in Orlando, where I spent much of my run, isn’t one of them. Didn’t matter – this run wasn’t about sightseeing, it was about getting in a run that my body seriously craved and needed. I felt all of the weird amusement-park induced aches fade away while I ran – using my body in such a familiar way. Ran for about an hour and felt like a million sweaty bucks afterward. I have no idea how far I ran, only a loose idea of how long I ran and had no idea if anything interesting had happened in the world while I was gone. And I didn’t care. I got my run on and had a blast.

This was no training run – it was a fun run. And even though I’m usually technically “in training” for one thing or another, I need to remember to take these more often. I don’t get too many opportunities to feel like a kid again, so I want to make sure to grab each and every one. Plus, it reminds me of why I started to run in the first place. Because it is fun.

The next day, I got up and had another great run with my Garmin and my fully-charged mp3. And it was a great run. But this one – this was one worth writing about.

Does anyone else get oddly excited to go for a run on vacation? Do you ever ditch the Garmin and just head out for a “fun run?”