Let's go for a wun

Thanksgiving and the weekend following were wonderful. At the last minute I decided that my sis had to come to town so we tracked down some flights and got her out here. We spent some time with the rest of the family, some time at my office working, but mostly we spent time together. There's just something about having a sister, a best friend, that makes everything all right.

Makes everything tired too. As I'm fond of saying, my sis has more energy than a two year old who just consumed a box of Froot Loops. GoGoGoGo all day long and then collapse at the end of the day. I'm more like GoGo all day long and then get a burst of energy at 9pm. Our biorhythms aren't quite the same but we manage.

One thing we managed was to get outside each morning and get moving. We had decided to get ourselves up and do the Walnut Creek Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning, the 5k version. Sis hasn't been running much for various reasons but at heart she's still a runner. I haven't been running much because I'm sluggish and lazy but at heart I'm still a runner. We decided that we'd run, and run:walk, and walk if necessary. Sis is faster than I am (by several minutes per mile) but she said she'd slow down for me. I've heard that one before.

It was cold Thursday morning and there was a lot of waiting around for the Trot to begin. We were bundled up because we anticipated lots of walking and so when we actually started running I was a little overheated. The race was crowded with real runners, families, dogs, baby strollers, walkers. We fit somewhere in the middle there, just wanting to have a good time. Seriously, who beats themselves up at a Turkey Trot? (Well, one fellow did. He was running along at a very fast pace, repeatedly projectile vomiting as he ran. Just as disgusting as it sounds. Dude. Slow the hell down and get your germs away from the rest of us!)

Somewhere in the middle of this Trot I decided that it was time we had a new word for the whole run-walk interval thing. Thus: "wun." Sure, I could have come up with "ralk" but that sounds like what the guy was doing as he ran. "Wun" conjugates like "run" so "I went for a wun," "yesterday we wan 6 miles," "we were wunning along the trail," "my wun was 9:1," and so forth. I anticipate that the same people that don't know the correct conjugates of "run" will also make a mess of "wun" (and seriously, what's up with that? Haven't schools taught grammar for the past few decades? Am I the only person bothered by this?).

So spread the word! Many people are training, and racing, with run:walk intervals. Heck, I've heard that people are training for Ironman Triathlons with intervals. Yes, you too can wun an Ironman. Join with me and be a wunner!