Flyday to Reunion!

Today is Flyday, and I am super excited – despite the fact that I don’t actually get to go home for a few more days (boo). BUT the reason is an awesome one – I get to go to my five year college reunion!

In addition to being incredibly psyched about the wine tour I’m going on tomorrow with a whole bunch of my friends, one of the activities I’m looking forward to most is the Reunion Run. At 7:30am, the 5 mile race starts on Central Campus, and I can’t wait. First of all, it’s a great chance to burn off all the calories from the 902349081234908 Ithaca restaurants I used to order from late night in college and now can’t wait to have again (helloooo, Poor Man’s Pizza! NYC pizza does not compare to you in either taste or mass volume of calories). But a more important reason (and a lot less superficial one) is that I am just excited to run around campus.

I first started running in between my junior and senior years of college. I didn’t have any fancy equipment – I drove my car around the neighborhood to figure out distance, and I timed myself by adding up the song lengths of the playlist I listened to – and I didn’t have any big goals, either. My goal that summer was to run just one mile without stopping, and I was beyond proud when I achieved that and also ran my first 5K (with walk breaks, for a total time of 33 minutes even). I went back to school with a new confidence and a new identity as a runner, and would occasionally go on short 2-5 runs around campus, feeling like a badass when I did so.

Now? This 5 mile race is going to be a piece of cake (well, as long as I wake up in time for it after the Arts Quad parties the night before)… and I think I want to go even further. Sure, the race distance is set at 5 miles, which once upon a time would have been a huge challenge. But now, there’s nothing stopping me from going long afterward! The Ithaca hills will provide great strength training, and it’ll be a neat way to explore the campus that I haven’t been back to for several years. I have no idea how long I’ll go (full marathon? Maybe if my friends make a bet with me about it toward the tail end of our wine tour), but I know it’s going to be gorgeous. The weather is supposed to be perfect, and I’m looking forward to some quality time in the Finger Lakes.