Archives for April 2006

Yes, I am still only “dreaming” of running the Boston Marathon. A year ago, I was reviewing the kid’s school calendar and was excited to find that the Boston Marathon would exactly line up with their spring break. I blocked out April 14th – 20th on my work Outlook calendar.

Now, 1 year later, I head to off to work after asking my friend to TiVo the marathon coverage on OLN. How could this have happened? How could I have trained so hard, and still not made the cut?

It wasn’t for the lack of trying. I ran the Silicon Valley Marathon at the end of October and suffered from the runs before the race and dry heaves during the race. Needless to say, it wasn’t my best performance. I backed off my training, hoping for a speedy recovery, and ran the California International Marathon just 5 weeks later. Although my performance was better than the last, I didn’t make the required time.

In the past couple of days I’ve been aware of everyone heading off to Boston. I’m envious, but proud of them. I wish them all the best and wish that I was able to go along for the ride. I’ll run in 2007. Am I dreaming? Perhaps. Still, I think I will block out some time on my calendar anyhow.

After all, look at the story of Bobbi Gibb, the 1st woman to run the Boston Marathon. She wasn’t invited, in fact she was told that women were not capable of running an entire marathon. She showed them, but not before hitting some obstacles of her own. Without a coach, suffering through injuries, and having to disguise herself as a man, Bobbi Gibbs not only was the first woman to run the Boston Marathon, but she opened doors for women to follow in her footsteps and do the same. In 2007, it will be my turn.

Although the forecast was for rain, it was a sunny morning. I rolled over, put my arm over my eyes to block out the sun, and went back to sleep. I wasn?t out drinking last night, nor was I up late ? but I sure was exhausted. By 9 a.m. Tom and I were out of bed enjoying our cups of coffee. The kids were up and I my plan for running was pushed to an unknown time.

Tom and I did some household chores, and I reviewed my training schedule carefully. I decided to make a last minute change. Next weeks long run was a scheduled step-back week. I decided to run 11 miles today instead of running 15 miles. This will mean that next Sunday?s run will call for 16 miles. At 1 p.m. I was heading to the local trail to get my run in. By this point the black clouds loomed in the sky and threatened rain.

I wasn?t at all into it. I hit the trail to find many people rushing back towards their cars as the rain was just starting. Why had I waited so long to get going? Today was not looking like a day when I was happy to be out running. Instead it was a day that I was going through the motions, feeling isolated from the world, and just getting it done.

I know that it sounds miserable, but it really wasn?t like that at all. By the time I hit mile 2, the rain had stopped. And even though I had been tempted to cut my newly shortened mileage short, I DID complete the distance. Training for a marathon is not all fun and games. It?s hard work. It?s getting out there when you don?t want to and doing it anyways. I am proud to say that, even though I made a last minute change in plans, I was able complete another week of training.

Hal Higdon says, “One of the skills that separate the good runners from the almost-good runners is an ability to focus their attention for the entire period of the race, whether it is a mile or a marathon. Dissociating is a good strategy for beginning marathoners, but not for people who want to run fast.”

I read Hals words and know that it is true. This is one of the reasons that I have chosen not to run races with friends. While it is nice to have the company and distraction from challenges of the race, I know that I have issues when I don?t race alone. Take the Silicon Valley Marathon for example: although the first miles were close to my planned pace, they were a bit fast as I ran with Cindy for the 1st eight miles. Feeling that she wanted to go faster, I insisted that she go ahead only to find that her running ahead of me left me feeling slow. At CIM, in 2003, my sister joined me at mile 10. She meant well, but her enthusiastic ?helpful hints? rubbed me the wrong way. Instead of motivating me, they left me feeling unprepared. Sometimes the well meaning efforts of a friend can back firing in relation to keeping focuses during a race. Generally, I am a people person, but I am a loner when it comes to running. Where does the motivation come from then? I look to my refrigerator.

Now I know what you must be thinking, but read on as you might be wrong.

The side of my refrigerator is decorated with papers and photos. It has the usual display of my children?s select papers showing off a good grade or a certificate for perfect attendance in school. I don?t want my children to think that I have overlooked their hard efforts. Each week, as I go through the stack of papers, I choose a couple of special papers to plaster to the side of the refrigerator. They stay there for a week or so and then get filed in the circular file.

Then there is a section for my benefit. Beside the informational pamphlet, and confirmation card, for the Grandma?s Marathon I have a couple of other items. It starts with a picture of Cindy and I that was taken after running the Home Depot Half Marathon. Above that picture it says I-AM-FAST. Then there are small magnetized words spelling out BORN-TO-HAVE that are placed strategically above a picture magnet of BOSTON. Finally, the refrigerator has my printed training schedule. It is all for the purpose of motivation.

I consult the schedule to remind myself what this weekend holds for me. On Saturday, I will run a 7 mile run at marathon pace, followed by a 15 mile long run on Sunday. I?m 10 weeks away from Grandma?s Marathon, and I will need to stay focused on my goal now more than ever before. In order to stay motivated, I set a goal, plan the training it will take to achieve it, and recognize the little achievements along the way. At least I TRY to.

Rose buds all around my front yard awaiting the coming of spring. Technically, the season is spring, or so my son informed me one day after school. The rain, however, has not taken notice; it has been unrelenting. Until this afternoon that is.

I stepped outside, wearing shorts and my long-sleeved shirt, ready for a cool run. I had hoped that I could avoid the rain. I needed to get away from it all and get out for a HARD RUN. As luck would have it, I not only escaped the rain, but enjoyed a beautiful sunny day at that.

During the run I listened to my iPod running music and took in the lovely day. There were not any open roses to be seen, but there was so many beautiful flower blossoms on the trees. The geese were out honking at me, and people were out walking the trails in force.

There is nothing like a good and hard training session to drain the continued strains of life. I mulled over my current battles in my head and set my garmin for mile repeats. The session began with a mile warm up, and was followed by 1 mile intervals, and then a 1/4 mile easy job in between each mile repeat. My five repeats today were at a time 8:03-7:55 minutes per mile.

As in today’s work out, running has been a tool for solving problems ever since I was a teenager. When I was a teen, I would run when I was upset. I would play out fights in my mind. Sometimes these were fights with my friends and other times with my parents. They were the fights I didn’t have ~ the reason that I didn’t need to talk back to my parents as much as my sisters did. But more than anything, when I was a teen, my running saved me from being the affect of peer pressure. What a gift running has been for me this life. It has saved from trouble and helped me able to cope with my problems.

To this day, I still can rely on it (rain or shine).