Monday, December 8, 2008

Running Jargons

I guess until you've really ran your first marathon you will not be able to appreciate these jargons that I will be mentioning. But it is worth reading anyhow just in case, one of these days one of your running buddies would mention it and you would not want to be left totally in the dark. These running jargons are taken from the Complete Running Manual:

1) Bail - simply put, you dropped out of the race for a variety of reasons. You bail with composure when the reason is due to injury, illness or an emergency. You bail with embarassment when it is due to oversleeping or undertraining. You bail silently when you have diarrhea in the middle of the race.

2) Bomb - use the term when you feel you are underperforming or your personal expectations are not being met.

3) Bonk - imagine a huge rock hitting your head and creating that sound "bonk". Yup, that may just be the most appropriate term when you suddenly get depleted of energy. Most likely this is caused by hypoglycemia or low blood sugar. You should have brought a banana with you if your budget is too tight for an energy bar. Lately, I've been trying to save on grocery to accomodate extra Christmas expenditures, I had to sacrifice buying my energy drinks. To prevent bonking, I make sure I have something sweet and salty to eat after I drink my plain water. They all get mixed in the stomach anyway.

4) Bus - is when you run as a group. It can offer real support and camaraderie among yourselves but can also be a cause of irritation for other runners who want to overtake your group if you are running at a leisurely pace. Hmmn, reminds me of buses along EDSA. Totally irritating when they overtake you and then suddenly swerve and block you to unload a passenger.

5) In the zone - when you are at your best performance and everything is just as how you predicted your run to be. This is opium for the runner.

6) PB - never forget this jargon... your "personal best" because even if you finished last in the race, if you finished earlier than your previous race, it is still a cause for celebration. At least this time, you were not picked up by the sweeper anymore. (That's the special vehicle assigned to pick up runners who have gone beyond the decent time and are causing undue traffic and annoyance to the other motorists). PW is personal worst. Remove that in your vocabulary. Unless your PW is your enemy's personal best. You can freely brag about it then.

7) Split/negative split. - this pertains to the time you have covered between markers in a race. When you run faster after the designated marker, then you have a negative split.

8) Ultra - not the stadium in Pasig. In the runner's lingo, this means longer than the usual marathon distance (42 km or 26 miles). If it is 80 km or 100 km, then it is an ultramarathon. It's funny that for non-runners, a marathon is being used interchangeably with the word "race" even if it was just a 100-meter sprint. When I was new to running, I thought that too. Then when I started reading about running, I soon realized how terribly ignorant I have been. So now, whenever my friends would say that I just completed a marathon when in fact, I only joined a 5-km or 10-km race, I'd gracefully correct them. But I claim it in my mind at the same time. As much as running is a very physical activity, it is even more a mental activity.