Running like a Kenyan... Why I don't own a TomTom!

This amazing lady is Rita Jeptoo, two time winner of the Boston Marathon and just this past weekend, the winner of the Chicago Marathon. Not only is she a beautiful lady with a great personality, she also has won a ton of other races as well. The question always remains, how do they do it? When ever you see who won these major marathons they always seem to be from Africa somewhere. So what is there strategy? Of course, as anyone knows genetics plays a huge part. Oxegyn uptake is crucial for successful long distance running.This is how much oxygen you can get to your muscles. The other question is how do they train? What are these awesome people doing that's different from the rest. The answer may surprise you!
Many of these elites talk about how they had to run to school or work. No cars, just feet. Their respective school or workplace was ten miles away so they ran to and from each day. If it takes you less than hour to run ten miles, then that's less than most people's morning commute. Clearly they are not stopping for coffee on the way or sitting in the parking lot for a smoke. They did not have coaches or fancy watches. They just had to get from point A to point B. Some people spend all this money on special equipment, expensive watches and iphone apps. These spectacular individuals just ran!
So what does this have to do with me. Not much! When I was learning about training of course I read up on them. What they did for training and how they tracked themselves. Honestly I wasn't shocked, it just made me fall in love with them even more. I'm never going to be as fast as them. I know that! I respect their struggle and I'm always so happy to see them win. I decided to take one thing from them though, I don't time my every minute. If I go straight from work I don't even carry my phone with me. Only when I'm running from my house or on a long run I bring it with me. I know what time I started, how long I'm going and what time I finished. This helps me just enjoy the run. I can tell when I'm going slow, when I'm going fast and when I'm going too fast. I listen to my breathing and know when to push it or when to slow the hell down!
I own lots of fun running clothes (I'm a girl, what can I say), running sneakers and a ton of hair accessories but I don't have a watch or app that tells me everytime I hit a kilometer. Running for me is my time in the day to just relax and that's why I love it. Sure I train to go faster, I look for hills and map out each run. I live in the moment. I just run and enjoy it. Now these lovely folks were just trying to get to work but we can all learn a lesson from them, but down the technology and enjoy. When your whole run is a constant track of your time, how do you enjoy it? For most of us this is not our proffession but our hobby. As the expression goes "If it's not fun, why do it?" I couldn't agree more! Three weeks to NYC and could not be more excited!!! Central Park here I come!