Up and Atom

Up and Atom?

This blog title would probably be more punny if I were, say, a nuclear physicist, but I am not. I’m just an erstwhile Simpsons fan and sometimes I say Radioactive Man’s catchphrase to myself while running.  I find it oddly motivating. And then I say it to myself Rainier Wolfcastle style (“Up and at them!”) and make myself laugh.

Anyway! I’m Alix, I’m 30, I live in Texas. Running here is not the most scenic but I make it work and daydream about traveling to races. I’m married and have a toddler who is pretty awesome. We are trying to brainwash him into loving track and field and running as much as we do.

Running “story”:

Is this a thing? I guess it is. I started running for my high school track team my freshman year. If you asked me then, I wouldn’t have called myself athletic at all, but somehow I kept coming back year after year and track became a huge part of my identity, culminating my senior year when we won state in the 4×400 relay. I went on to run in college for a year before getting pretty burned out and taking a multiyear break from the whole exercise thing. Finally, a year after graduation, I realized I was getting winded walking up stairs and should probably think  about getting back in some kind of shape. I ran my first 5K in January 2006, the same day as that year’s Houston Marathon. Watching the marathon start, I knew I wanted to be out there crossing the line myself, and a little over a year later (and a few hundred miles away in Austin), I did. And the rest, AS THEY SAY, is history. I ran my first 26.2 in 4:20 and change and it sucked a lot, but I learned a ton from it. I came back the next year and (if I do say so myself) destroyed the Eugene Marathon in a massive PR/BQ 3:35. There is indeed magic in Track Town, and that race is one of my best running memories.

Unfortunately, following Eugene I started seriously struggling with motivation and burnout. I moved back to Houston from Austin, leaving my <url=”http://www.roguerunning.com”>awesome training group</url>, and was having a hard time adjusting. I muddled through training for Boston 2009, which I ran in 3:50, but the spark was gone. By 2010 I had really lost my running way, despite finding a great training partner and friend through a local club. I felt compelled to keep running, but was unmotivated to train seriously for anything. I didn’t know how to find the fun in running again, and honestly couldn’t remember a time when I’d been excited to lace up and get out the door.

As it turned out, what I really needed was a long break. Pregnancy and the newborn phase ended up translating to just about a year off regular running. I’d always wanted to be one of those women who trains through pregnancy and, like, runs a 5K the day before she goes into labor, but this plan was nixed courtesy of a baby who liked to hang out low from pretty much day one and made running super uncomfortable. I ended up doing a lot of walking while pregnant, and after S was born in June 2011 (aka the hottest summer on record) I took up residence on my air-conditioned couch. Gradually, as the new-baby shell-shock started to wear off and the temps got blessedly cooler, I started thinking about easing back into running again. We spent the winter and spring making good friends with our BOB Ironman and the 3-mile loop around Rice University. By the time S turned one, I was ready for more. I entered the Houston Marathon lottery on a bit of a whim, and (Murphy’s law in action) I got in. Okay, I told myself, it’s cool, if you need/want to you can always switch to the half. And…then the bug bit, and it bit hard. And I had all these THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS about running, and training hard, and setting big goals. And then the Olympics happened, which always makes me want to train my ass off. And…I started this blog. There you go.

What do you do besides run?

I’m pretty obsessed with knitting, although it’s on the back burner lately with a grabby-hands toddler around. I’m also a big fan of food and have recently gotten interested in craft beer and beer nerdery in general. Careerwise, I’m home with our son right now, but am in school part time doing prerequisites in anticipation of applying to (yikes) physician assistant programs in a couple years. Science is fun!