Cherish Your Special Running Place!

#395 - I did a prior episode on having a secret running trail. This is kind of along those said lines, except your Special Running Place isn't just a trail and it's not secret. It's a place, with maybe lots of different options for your runs. Take a listen and see if you have a special place to run. I bet you do! Also, don't miss the end of the show when I tell you about a product that might save you a ton of money if you want to save money replacing your leaky water bottles! 

Transcript

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We runners love the outdoors. Many of us also love history. If you love both, then check out Hidden West, a YouTube channel all about the people, places, and events that make the American West an incredible place. Welcome to Martha Rentzel World, a podcast with a new take on running, fitness, and all things health oriented. I'm Martha Hughes, your host, and each week I present a new topic that is of interest to all runners. Hi, and welcome to episode 395 of Martha Rentzel World. Thank you so much for joining me. I appreciate it each and every week. I just don't say that, I really truly mean it. You're a small and very loyal audience, and I really appreciate it very, very much. So thank you very much. And first I want to apologize for making such a negative episode, or at least starting an episode on such a negative note last week. I wasn't incorrect saying that things have been rough, but they are getting better, and they always do. I think it's always darkest before the dawn, as the saying goes. There's a reason for that saying, it's very true. And sometimes when things aren't going well, we have to push through that darkness and tell ourselves that we can't stop moving. We have to keep going. Because even if the light is just a little teeny pinprick ahead, it will get better if we move forward towards it. It won't get any bigger if we don't move, but it will get bigger if we continue to move towards it. And I truly believe this. I am an optimist, and I truly believe that things will always get better if we work at it. Not everything's going to get better, but some things will. And we have to take a win when we can get it, right? I'm just full of all kinds of sayings, aren't I? It is still early, so forgive me. Now, I am not talking about diagnosed depression. Don't misunderstand me. If you're going through a diagnosed depression or or depression that's lasted a long time, there's nothing wrong with trying to get professional help that will really do it. But if you're just going through just a time of doldrums, then um you can get over it. All right. That's what I mean with that. Full-on diagnosed depression is a different thing, and that is something that a professional can help you with. The ups and downs of life, it's a different thing. But thank you for your understanding. I really, really, truly appreciate it. It means a lot to me. A while ago, I had an episode about having your own secret trail and its importance, and I still think it's very important. And while it's important to have a trail to call your own, whether you want to share it with anyone else or not, you can if you want, but you don't have to. It's also important to have a place to run that means something to you. Now there is a difference. A place isn't necessarily a specific trail or road. It's more inclusive than that. It can be a trail, but it can't be a series of trails. It can be a whole area that you like to run. And it's anywhere you run where you feel the most comfortable and you really look forward to it. It should be somewhere that you're familiar with, that you go to a lot. You don't have to go there every day, but it should be that kind of thing. You don't have to run there all the time, but when you know you're going to go there, you should feel happy about it. You should start to feel ease and maybe a little excited knowing you're going to a place that you've been to many times before. And it should welcome you like an old friend. A special running place should offer a few things. It should make you feel safe. It should be a place where, although it can be challenging, it's not too challenging or risky. And challenge is a great thing. But there are some running courses that take this to the nth degree. Your special place, unless you are an extreme person, shouldn't take it too far. It's okay to be challenged, but death-defying every time you go, well, that's another thing entirely. So it should be a place where you know that you're going to get a good workout, but you're not going to near nearly kill yourself every time you're there. But it should be a place where you have fun and you know it's going to be a good fun and you don't have to go out and do 20 miles every time you're there. You can do three miles or 20 miles or whatever. It shouldn't be too far from your home. You should be able to get to it easily, either by car in an hour or less, but or by bus or train or however you get to your places. Or you don't even have to take a car there. If you can go, if it's just a few blocks away, that's fine too. It shouldn't take you all day to get there, is what I mean. There are places that we love, but it might take four hours for us to get there. That's not this kind of a place. There are incredible places in our world, and many of them take all day to get to them. That shouldn't be your special place. Your special place should be closer so you can go there anytime you need it. Save the other amazing places for special occasions, which is a different thing. That's really not what I'm talking about today. You should feel happy running there no matter the distance. You can run three miles or twenty miles and still feel happy about it. It should offer all kinds of varieties and distances. You might be exhausted, but it's still your special place. Your special place is great for a quick run before work or a long weekend run. That's why it isn't just one trail, unless that one trail is really the best trail ever. It can be, of course, like I said, but usually long trails have other trails attached. So maybe it's a network of trails or paved park paths. It doesn't have to be a trail. It can be a park path or it can be a road. It can be somewhere that you consider special. You don't have to do any trail running at all. If you're a roadrun and you like that, it has to be a specific place where you like to go. You can run there on your own or share it with others. It's still a special place. Since it's not a secret path, there's no reason not to share it with your running friends and bring them along if you choose. Many runners are looking for cool places to run. It can be a place where there are races there. It can be a place where uh there's other runners there. It's not a secret place. It's a place that where people really other people may consider it their special place as well. And that's probably one of the reasons why it's so special, right? So that's one of the uh wonders of it. That's one of the good things about it. And you can still find cool discoveries about it even after running there over time. These discoveries can vary depending on what your special place is, which I'll get to shortly. You can find different trails or trees you've never noticed, or if it's on the street, you can find different views you've never seen before, or different buildings you've never seen. Some of the buildings, when I run in the cities, some of the buildings here have the most ornate, beautiful um sides on them. If you look up, they are actually decorated beautifully, and you can see these on your runs. There's no reason not to look around and see the world we live in, and this can be part of your special place. And it's nice to see things if you're so familiar with your run. It's still nice to see things that you've never seen before, and this can be part of your uh special place. And your special place can change over time. It can be one area one year, and then the next year you found another place that you like your as as your special place. Things change. Where I live, there's always construction and neighborhoods change. Mostly not for the better, unfortunately. Mostly they're just building more and more skyscrapers or or taller, taller buildings, and it's just getting more and more crowded. My special place, which I'll tell you in a bit, may not be my special place in a few months or weeks. I may be moving, well, I will be moving eventually, but when I move, I'll have another special place and I'll tell you all about that. And that's fine. So don't fall so in love with your special place that you can't change it later because things change and you maybe your interests change. Maybe you don't want to do road running anymore and you just want to do trail running or vice versa. Or maybe you just want to do uh treadmill, and I will talk about treadmill as well. But what is a special place? A special running place is anywhere that you feel happy to run. I hope you have many choices of places to run. If you do, is there one particular place that you love running more than others? That may be your special place. If you only run in one place, but you love that place, then there you have your special place. It gets trickier if you run on a track or treadmill. Both can be your special place, but you might have to go out of your way to make them special. The track might be a tad easier in that it's outdoors and there's more to look at to think about weather, other runners, walkers on the track, sunset, sunrise, everything. These can be added to your experience. And sometimes you have to look really closely to see all the little nuances to make it a special place. Thinking of the treadmill as a special place might take a bit of your imagination, unless, of course, you love it, then it's no problem. But if you want to make it more special, then switch up your music or what you watch, if you do indeed watch something when you're running, or create new running workouts while you're running on the treadmill. There's a myriad of ways to make your treadmill a special place and make it more interesting for you as you run. Now, my special place right now is the San Francisco Presidio. If you asked me where my special place was pre-December 2022, I would have said the Mr. Headlands. But after my fall, whenever I shattered my shoulder, I rarely even go there anymore. I go there once in a while. I haven't been in it, been there in a few weeks, actually. It's been a couple months. I do plan on going there not too long from now, so. But it isn't a place that I go to all the time like I used to. And I love the headlands. Um, our special place can change, and that's just fine. The presidio is closer for me and far easier to get to for me without a car. And I don't have a vehicle. The presidio is a huge place, it keeps me entertained for many miles, and I love it. There have been many races there, and I've shared it with friends as well. I've ran and walked many miles there and will continue to do so. The Presidio offers me exactly what I well, what I put into it, what I get is what I get out. I know what's there, but then I'm surprised by what I find as well. I know there's the flat part, you what I usually get out by the beach there in the east parking lot. That's where I usually get out, and then I run along the promenade there past Chrissy Field, and then most of the time I go up, I get I get out away from the crowd because the promenade there can be kind of crowded. So I leave that and I go up into the um into the hills, and then I find some trails up there. I always find something that I'm not expecting, or I see something that I've never seen before, and I don't do the same way twice. I do different ways and find different things, and that's what I like about it. I know it's there, but then sometimes I find things that I didn't know were there, and that's why it's my favorite place. I am always surprised by something really cool. I'm not surprised by things that um I don't like, except when it gets really crowded by the beach area, and uh I I can skip that sometimes. That's why it's my favorite place and it's my special place. Now, when I move out of the area, I'll find a different special place. I'm gonna be moving out of the state next year, and when I do, I will definitely be in a different environment, and when I do find that special place, I will let you know all about it. My running is finally making progress. It hasn't been easy these last few months. I stopped racing last winter to save money for retirement and my move. I said, Okay, my job is steady, I'm okay, and I can start saving money up, and here we go. Well, once you start getting comfortable, that's when life says, you're too comfortable, we're gonna shake things up. So never get comfortable, I'm telling you, never ever get comfortable. Well, then this past June, I uh was laid off my job, and well, that was a big surprise. I really didn't expect it. I was thinking, really, you couldn't wait a few months? I would just retire anyway. If you could just wait a few months, I'd be retiring. But oh well, they couldn't. So I have yet to find a job. I did apply for unemployment, so I should be getting that shortly. Um, I have a couple interviews coming up, but nothing until then. I'm just in this holding position. And for a while there it was like kind of bleak and not too good. Last week it was much worse, but I've been running a lot and it feels really good. Last week I didn't have a lot of that, so I was feeling kind of bad. And I am by nature, as I said earlier, I am an optimistic person, but that optimism was severely tested. It really was. We can be optimistic people, but we have to also be realists in that life isn't always going to be good and wonderful and cheerful, and and yay, everything's great. And I can't pretend that. Maybe some other running podcasts can pretend that everything is great and just put on a happy face even when they're feeling bad. I'm not like that. I can't pretend that I'm happy when I'm not happy. I can maybe a little bit, but if okay, if I'm at a job, I can. But in my own podcast, I can't do that. And I won't be dishonest for you. I really won't. But things are better now. It's been difficult. It has been difficult. I'm not going to say it's been easy, it's been really difficult. And I remember getting laid off in 2020, and I remember that also being difficult. I think it was harder then because I my right hip hurt and it needed replacing. But of course, at that time there weren't any surgeries going on unless it was like an emergency surgery. So I couldn't even run. I could walk, and it hurt to walk, but I did walk and I got myself out walking. And my friend and I went to trails and we went, he ran and I walked, even though the trails were closed, we still did it because we're rebels that way. And it felt okay, it hurt, but it felt good to get away from everything. And then I had to wait till 2021 to get surgery. But that whole year, well, I was off work for seven months, so it took seven months to get a new job, and then I had that job for almost six years. No matter what the pain, no matter what the government officials told us not to leave, not to leave farther from our house, whatever. I don't care. I'm gonna do it anyway. If I feel like doing it, I'm gonna do it. That's just kind of how I am, and I'm not gonna change. That is me. I remember, I remember this ex-friend of ours, of my friend and I, who I w used to go out running with, this ex-friend of ours, his wife, scolded us on Facebook saying, you shouldn't go farther than blah blah blah blah blah miles from your house. And it's like, well, who are you to tell us what to do? What do you care? Take care of yourself. I'd never understood people who try to to police other people. That's not your job, go away. Oh well, okay, that was a while ago. Anyway, here's a clue about life. If anyone tells you not to exercise, unless you're in a full body cast, don't listen to them. They don't have your best interest at heart. They tell you to stay inside, don't go outside, don't listen to them. Do not listen to them. Go, go outside. Being outside fresh air is the best medicine. I tell you, it's the best cure. It really is. Unless things are falling down all over the place outside, go outside. It's really the better thing. All right. Um for the first time in a long time, uh, after my run, I felt sore. I mean, it felt good. It was a nice feeling. And I can't tell you how wonderful that felt. And you know what I'm talking about. I haven't done long enough runs or hard enough runs for to get that feeling for a long time. So it really, really felt good. The delayed onset muscle soreness from a good run was wonderful. Is there a better feeling? I don't think so. And I'm not talking about not being able to get downstairs soreness, just a little bit to tell myself that I've done something good today. And that was really nice, and that made me really, really happy. And that was last weekend. And since then, I've been really going out and doing some nice running. And life gets complicated sometimes. It gets overly complicated. It just does. And I can't take it. Sometimes you have to be happy about the small things and the little things, and just say, okay, well, maybe some of the big stuff I can't solve, but I can be happy about the little things. And that's what I choose to do today. Just be happy about the little things. One really cool thing I discovered that I wanted to share with you is that if you have a hydration vest like I do, and then you'll probably want to keep that vest for a while. They're expensive. They they're not cheap and it costs quite a bit, and you and they last for a few years. The last one I've had is a Solomon and it's two years old, but I know I'm going to have it for like two or three or four more years, probably. I'm hard on them, but they're durable, and I love this vest. I really it's probably the best vest I've ever had. But with that said, the bottles that come with it have a life expectancy of no more than two years. I swear. When it's two years is up, one of the bottles started leaking, and it just, it just soaked that side of my vest. So I had to get that replaced. So I didn't think about it, and I set away for another solemn bottle. And with shipping, it was about 40 bucks. Now, I'm sorry, that's a lot to pay for a plastic bottle. That's a ton of money, and it's hurt. This is when I was still working, so I could afford it. So two months later, I just got laid off and the other bottle started leaking, and I really need two. And I said, I can't afford the other one, so I might just go with one. But I happened to be in sports basement because I had to get something. And um, I saw they had these bottles there by a company called Hydro Pack, and I've never heard of them before. They were about $22, so about half the price. And what Hydropack does is it's that it gives you a UPC code that you put in and then um with your phone, and then you look up your type of vest, and then they pick out the right uh bottle for you that they have, and it fits perfectly, it fit my vest perfectly. So it was great, just save me 20 bucks. So that was pretty nice. So if you need to replace your bottle, instead of paying a ton of money for a specific brand, see if you have Hider Pack at your running store or sports goods store. Uh, sports basement has them. I don't know if REI has them, they may, but um, that was nice to get them there. Which begs the question: why running equipment companies can't make bottles that last is beyond me. But until they do, this is a great alternative. So yeah, it at least is something. It's better than nothing, I think. I mean, I know they're out to make money. Yes, companies have to make money. I understand this. I I'm big into that. I'm a capitalist. Making money is important and a good thing. But why can't they make bottles last a little longer? I don't know. I mean, they these vests last a long, long time now. And I'm not gonna buy a new vest every two years. That costs a lot of money. They're like $150, $200. I I'm not gonna spend that on that. There's other things to spend money on in running to school, obviously. But until they start making bottles that last longer, this is a good alternative. All right. Um, so that is really it and this show, and thank you so much for joining me. I truly, truly appreciate it each and every week. I really, really do. And um, I hope you have wonderful runs this week. And on that note, let's tie up our shoelaces and go for a run.