Running while Scoring (Nope, not what you think)

Last week I was in Kansas City, Missouri, to work for College Board. College Board is the company that creates and scores the Advanced Placement Tests for high schoolers. Each year they hire thousands of teachers, at both the high school and college level, to score those tests, and after 16 years of teaching Advanced Placement Literature and Composition, I finally was able to get in on this.

Each day I started work at 8 AM, which is a half-hour later than I usually start work, so I figured I could get up at 5 AM to run at least 4 miles each morning. The city was beautiful, which makes for an interesting run up and down Main Street, but the weather was hot and muggy each day, starting in the mid-seventies in the morning and climbing to the mid to high nineties in the afternoon. This made for some slow runs.

My morning view on my run into downtown Kansas City

The run started at my hotel and took me into the River Market District, which is a cool residential and shop area based around an open air market. During my daily runs, I saw several other runners from the surrounding hotels, but very few cars and other people, something I still find very unusual since there is rarely a quiet street in Akron, even at 5 AM.  It felt a bit like the Twilight Zone.

I was remarking on this to a colleague on the bus ride to the convention center, and the bus driver said, "There is a good reason why there are no people out on the streets."

Me: "Really? What is it?"

Bus Driver: "This is a super-shady part of the city. You shouldn't be running here. Please be careful."

What????  Let me say this: I didn't have one person approach me at all while I was running there. The place was well-lit, and it was really nice and clean. If that is the shady part of town, I really want to see where the rich people go.

Because I was scoring essays, I was sitting on my butt for long periods of time. Actually, I alternated between sitting, standing, squatting, and rocking back and forth as I read essays. Then, after each folder of 25 essays, I would get up and walk .25 mile. During official breaks and lunch, I would walk longer. Then I would walk the mile back to the hotel at the end of the day. Each time I walked, I would set my watch so that I could keep track of my mileage. My daily average (without my four miles in the morning) was six miles. So, I had a fifty-plus mile week!

I also walked around the city as much as possible, if I wasn't too tired after work.

This is the performing arts center. 

Catching some music (with mandolin!) at the Record Bar

Hanging with my buddy B. Shakes before watching Much Ado about Nothing

 I spent a lot of time on my feet this week, but let me remind you of something that you have definitely read/heard before: Losing weight has to do with what happens in the kitchen, not the gym. This is what I remembered this week. When I started running, I thought it would be the "cure" to my struggle with weight loss. The truth is that no matter how active I am, I will always struggle with my weight. This week I shoved every bit of food into my piehole; whatever was in front of me, I consumed. For God's sake, I ate dessert at lunch! Who does that????

So, I'm coming back with five more pounds than I left with.  Ok, I know how to take care of that.

It's back to the training, too. True to my word, I have taken to the pool as cross-training, and even though it should be too soon to tell, I really think it makes a difference in my running.

Today I ran 8 humid miles in my old stomping grounds, Sand Run Park. I promised myself that if I ran to the very end, I would allow myself to run back on the road so that I could cross the stepping stones.

And I did!

My next step is to figure out how to incorporate strength training into my week instead of just substituting it with swimming and biking. I've got to do some planning.

In the meantime, I hope you are enjoying your summer runs and you run happy, Peeps!

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