Joy and Running

That’s right this post is all about Joy and running…more specifically, my mom, Joy, and her very first 10k.

As some of you may know my parents live in Arizona and ever since their move my mom has been an avid gym goer. When I lived there for the summer she and I went to the gym together everyday. The trainers loved us because she could out lift me and my heart rate was never over 70 no matter how hard i tried (I have a resting heart rate of like 46…aka I’m basically dead, but whatever it works). They used to tell me to “work it like my momma” and then would laugh at their own jokes. I was of course bitter about this bc I was a 20 year old living in Arizona with no friends, but now its kinda funny to look back on. Anyway although Joy could out lift me (which I attribute to the weak arms her poor genes have forsaken me with) I could always kick her butt in cardio – especially running.

I remember one day about 2-3 years ago Joy bet my father a breakfast burrito that she could run the whole 1 or 2 miles to the club house at the golf course in our neighborhood. She walked some, lied to him and took the burrito as her prize. I found it so funny that she cheated him out on that and still didn’t really take her running all that seriously. Then one day she started telling me about her runs to “Jenna’s house and back.” “Jenna” is porn star Jenna Jameson, who happens to live in their neighborhood.

Well the “Jenna” runs obviously paid off because before I knew it Joy was running a 5k. The crazy part was at the point of my marathon when I only had 5k left I remember thinking, “OK if Joy can run a 5K I can totally handle this.” When I later told her this she’s like “OMG, when I was running my 5K I though ‘if Ange can run a marathon, I can totally handle this.’” Yup, like mother, like daughter.

But anyway all of her hard work has finally paid off because Joy ran her first 10K on Saturday. And although she assured me she will “never run again” about 10 times throughout her training, I think she still has some good miles left to run.

So here’s the recap according to Joy.

Race: London’s Run http://www.londonsrun.org/

Weather: The morning started out cold (ha!) and then warmed up by the finish. She was totally sweating her butt off by the time she talked to me on the phone.

Her number: 2121 (21 is a very big number in our family as it was the baseball number for a close friend who passed away in a car accident)

Her time and overview: 1:04:03..."However, there was a bit of a controversy with the 10K. Apparently it wasn't marked right and some runners ran 7.1 miles and others ran 5.5 miles, now they are saying some actually ran the correct amount. I am sure I didn't run 7.1... I just followed the crowd... I hope a ran a true 10K but if not it was a beautiful day and a good cause. The half marathon was only 12.6 or something so they were saying that was not accurate either. It was the first year they went to chip timing and it looks like the company they used screwed up a little. There was a lot of rain the week before so it had to be re-routed because of mud I guess. Some serious runners were complaining on the London's Run survey, and I see their point but it was for a good cause and at least we "had fun" so whatever!!"
(god I love that she basically had a runtilimfun moment...aww Jooyy)

She was supposed to send me race photos, but apparently the only picture my father took was horrible and she doesn’t want it on the blog, "You don't have pictures on all of your blogs so why put up an ugly one of your mom." FINE Joy, Fine.