Summer Lovin

Memorial Day is the unofficial start to summer. It's kind of a sad commentary that people are usually more interested in tubing and other "Memorial Day" events than they are actually observing Memorial Day and it's original intent, but I digress.

The weather in S. Texas has been great, we haven't even hit 90 degrees yet. Which gives me lots of hope for this summer. Except for the fact that it seemed SO hot yesterday. Mostly it was pretty humid from all the rain that had been in the area, and anytime the cloud cover broke, I felt like I was in an oven.

This worries me a bit about training this summer. I got home from work yesterday and had no desire to go back out in the heat, none. And then I woke up late today, but did manage to make it out of my house and run 4 miles. The morning, although the humidity was at 90% was much more pleasant. I was covered in sweat at the end of the run, but felt great. I think I'll just have to work on morning runs and if I want to run in the evening, it'll have to be on a treadmill. The only problem with the treadmill is that there's no place to spit. And well when you've been running for 30 minutes, fluids start to form and need to be released. (Gross, I know, I'm sorry, but it's the truth) So we'll see how the summer training goes. I'm really hoping to get 2 workouts in a day, even if that second workout isn't running it's swimming or yoga. But I think the harder I train the easier the 26.2 will be.

My training program (the one I'm paying for) starts on Sunday! Hooray! At 6 am. Boo!
Good thing I live 2 blocks from the meet up point! more sleep for me.

New Shoes

My new shoes came in yesterday. And I couldn't be happier.
They say running shoes should be replaced every 300-500 miles. It's been hard for me to remember how many miles I've put on these. They are a few years old, since I slacked off for a long while on regular running. I've put about 300 miles on them just this year, I ran about 300 miles last summer, so I definitely should have replaced these a while back. In theory these shoes could have upwards of 900 miles on them.

So when I put the new ones on, they were like putting on clouds!

I can't wait to go run on them tomorrow!!

14 days

That's now long it took for the Marine Corps Marathon to sell out. Registration officially closed on Wednesday at 3 pm est. Maybe you're wondering: What is capacity for the marathon. Answer: 30,000. Yes, that's right 30,000 and that doesn't count the 10K registrants.
On the Marine Marathon website it has a press release that says this: A previous MCM finisher, Michael Goldstein of Washington, DC, was the first runner to register online. Goldstein was one of 4,614 runners, or more than 1 runner per second, registered in the first hour of rolling registration.

The Austin marathon has a cap of 12,000 runners (6,000 half marathoners, 6,000 marathoners). But to give you a better idea of how large this race really is, Farmington, N.M. where I was raised and my fabulous family still resides, has a population of about 38,000.
This race is going to be HUGE!!! I'm so excited.

A bird of a different color

Someone recently asked me why, if I'm training for a marathon, don't I instead/also train for the MS 150. For those of you who don't know this is a 150 mile bike ride from San Antonio to Corpus Christi that benefits The National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Let me first say that I completely support the people who do this and the foundation that receives the fundraising money.
I, however am not a cyclist. I'm a runner.
Cyclists and runners are inherently different. Let me start with the sports themselves. There's a lot of fancy equipment involved in cycling, special padded shorts, weird shoes that apparently lock you into the bike, a helmet, the bike itself, replacement parts for the bike etc. Running involves clothes (except for the couple races out there for nudists) and shoes. Sure you can have your iPod, special running shoes (which I do have) a fancy wrist watch, a hydration system, but most runners just go out and run, sans fancy gear.
It's more than the equipment that separates us, it's our very nature.
You're more inclined to see a group of runners at a restaurant post workout, still sweaty and probably smelly. The cyclists I know, hate this about runners. We don't care we just want to eat.
I've never seen a cyclist wipe/blow snot on their own clothing, I've seen many MANY runners do this. (But I still can't bring myself to do it, but I can spit pretty far these days)
Cyclists compete against each other. With the exception of elite runners, we're competing against ourselves.

There's no such thing as a cyclists high.

And well running is harder, even Lance Armstrong has said so.

So I'll keep pounding the pavement and let others pedal away.

To sleep, perchance to dream

So I'm already giving myself anxiety about a run that is 5 months away. I didn't feel like this about the Country Music Marathon three years ago. But then again I also had no idea what I was getting myself into. I'm having all these dreams about the marathon already, and it's causing some restless sleep. Hopefully I'll find something else to obsess about and I'll get back to enjoying the idea of running the Marine Corps Marathon :)

In the meantime I've been looking for motivational quotes to get me through the anxiety. Here are a few I came across

"I have met my hero, and he is me." - George Sheehan

Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will not survive. Every morning a lion wakes up and it knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle or it will starve. It doesn't matter if you are the lion or the gazelle, when the sun comes up, you better be running.

"The only true freedom is the freedom to sweat out your problems."

“Running is a road to self-awareness and self-reliance... You can push yourself to extremes and learn the harsh reality of your physical and mental limitations or coast quietly down a solitary path watching the earth spin beneath your feet, but when you are through, exhilarated and exhausted, at least for a moment everything seems right with the world.”

The last one is particularly poignant for me. There are a couple of photographers I work with who are also runners, so they get the allure of the marathon. But as others have found out about my new goal they ask me the obvious question: Why?
I'll probably write this many times over the next five months mostly as a reminder for myself, but the thing is when I crossed the finish line in Nashville it was exhilarating and calming all at the same time. It made me realize that there is NOTHING in life that I can't accomplish. The world is my oyster so to speak. Completing a marathon takes more emotional and physical strength than I ever knew I had. Crossing that finish line is a reminder that God supports me through all things, that God has given me courage, strength and emotional stamina to face life head on. I know I talk about the medals, which are definitely nice, but in the end the real medal will be the spiritual clarity that God graces me with. Me, God and 26.2 miles. There's nothing else like it.

So tonight I'll pray for a little spiritual clarity and the courage to face the path before me.

Training Tidbit

This is from my Jeff Galloway training program and I thought I'd share it!

Training for and completing the Marine Corps Marathon stands out as one of the most esteemed of life's achievements drawing upon one's physical, mental and spiritual resources over an extended period of time. The universal respect flows from sedentary observers who wish they could find the fortitude to get out there. Participants discover a mature self-respect, along with the previously dormant strengths and capabilities to meet the challenges on this five-month migration that begins when you complete the online registration and concludes at the Iwo Jima Monument in Arlington and are greeted by a respectful member of the United States Marine Corps.

Semper Fi

I have officially registered for the Marine Corps Marathon and I am completely excited!!
The race is in exactly 170 days! So I went out and ran 4 miles yesterday and I felt great! I then downloaded a training program from the marathon website to see what the program had to say. This one is a little daunting because it starts with a long run of 7 miles scheduled for next Saturday, which isn't a big deal. But then I started going through it week by week to see how the mileage increased. The longest run is in September and it's a 29 mile run. I literally laughed out loud when I saw that. When we started with Team in Training the longest run we did was 20 miles, I can't imagine running the whole marathon mileage, plus a few extra during training.
Needless to say I won't be following that schedule, I'm hoping the fleet feet training won't be as intense.
Anyway, training for me starts next weekend and I'm SUPER excited!
As I learn more details about training and the actual marathon my postings will share that with my fabulous readers. In the meantime here's an interesting tidbit: The Marines stationed at Quantico are required to either run or volunteer to help out during the race. How neat is that?!

Get your feet on the street

I'm not sure that my title accurately describes this posting, but I love that saying so I"m making use of it :)

In Texas there is a push to have P.E. be mandatory for middle school students. Not knowing a whole lot about middle school curriculum, since I'm not from here, I was amazed that this isn't already mandatory. In New Mexico I had P.E through junior high (they are now middle schools) and was required to take at least one P.E. class in high school. If you were involved in a school sport this took the place of your one high school P.E. credit.
So because of growing obesity, this may be the first generation of children to not outlive their parents, there is a push for more P.E. I think this is a great thing. There are the obvious problems, funding, resources, etc. But one of the objections to this is that it'll take away from electives. Some say that it'll limit the amount of electives students have, during a time when they are exploring new things. And people are concerned about funding being cut from music or art programs. I don't disagree with this argument. In fact as a ninth grader I had to choose choose between Spanish and choir or take a less challenging math class geometry. The geometry class was scheduled during the choir class or during the Spanish class. Here I was at 14 having to make a pretty big decision: music, language or math. I remember crying and crying about the idea of having to take a lesser math class. I remember crying about the possibility of not being in choir. I remember crying at the idea of not taking another Spanish class. In the end I chose to not take choir and was depressed about it all summer long. I'm still upset about that. I also had to choose another elective, speech (btw, I hated public speaking then and I hate it now, but it was a great learning experience)
But I know that in life you have to make decisions and that was a great learning experience for me. But what I remember most about my 9th grade year isn't that I didn't get to be in choir. I remember how great I remember my P.E. class. At Tibbetts Junior High we had what they called "Advanced P.E." If you did well in P.E. in 7th and 8th grades and got recommendations from other teachers, you were able to enroll in "Advanced P.E" and it was definitely exercise disguised as fun. We learned to repel down cliffs, we had our own track meets, we did a bunch of swimming activities, we played racquetball, did step aerobics, and had our own version of "American Gladiator." And we still had to do weekly Wednesday runs, but came to really like P.E. so the dreaded runs weren't quite so dreaded. We even had special uniforms.
I wonder if Texas schools were able to do things like this, really make P.E. an enjoyable experience if people wouldn't warm up to the idea of mandatory P.E., including the students. No one wants to run around a track aimlessly for 30 minutes. No one wants to do push ups for no reason. But if we could teach students how much fun it is to be active that would be the first step toward stopping this obesity trend.
We aren't doing these students any favors by not showing them how great exercise can be and how much fun it can be. I'd definitely be upset to see music or art programs go by the wayside, but we won't have any kids to play music or create beautiful art if they aren't healthy enough to get off their couches to do so.

God's gifts

Part of what I like about running is that it's a great metaphor for life. I think Oprah's been quoted as saying that the thing about running is that you get out of it what you put into it. How great of an analogy is that for life?
Every now and then I come across some great writing about running that really sums up life. For instance Kristin Armstrong, in writing about her first marathon said, "It's an odd thing, when your body says no and your mind and your spirit say yes. It's frightening and empowering and clarifying and beautiful all at once. It was the past year of my life, shortened into a span of 26.2 arduous miles. It was the culmination of experiences, the knowledge that my body can be pushed past its breaking point, just like my heart. In both instances, when you come to the end of yourself, God's grace is all that sustains. And it is enough."
Beautiful right? Ever since I read that three years ago I've found it helpful. It's helped me through difficult runs and difficult days at the office. God's grace is a beautiful thing.

So when I read this in Kathrine Switzer's book Marathon Woman, this really struck a cord. Kathrine Switzer is the first woman to run the Boston Marathon. In this passage she's talking about preparing for that race.

The thing I worried about most was courage. Would I have the courage to keep running if it really hurt, if it got harder than I was used to, if Heartbreak Hill broke me? Yep, that was it, I was worried about maybe not having the courage if it got awful.
So I decided to have a word with God, for whom I felt I'd shown plenty of respect and appreciation well in advance of this race, so this was no last-minute panic plea. I thought it was selfish of runners to ask God for things like, "Please make sure I finish," or "Please don't make it hurt." If you've done the work, I don't think God is up there making those kinds of decisions anyway. But I do think he (or she) does help us out if we ask for things to better our character, so I felt it was fair to ask for the courage to make the right decision when it got hard. Because it was going to get hard. The marathon is always hard. It took me a long time to boil down my fears to this, but once I realized what my fears were really all about, I slept soundly.


So tonight I'll go to sleep asking God for courage and I plan on sleeping soundly.

Forever on Google

Runners World emails me motivational quotes everyday. It's part of this month's issue in which they listed 101 kicks in the butt, basically ways to get readers off their tushes and on the pavement. One of them says "Race results stay on Google forever."
It's an interesting thought, that someone someday is going to search for my name and see my time on the River Road Run, or some other obscure event.
I recently googled a friend of mine from high school and found her marathon race results. I've still had no luck finding an email address for her, but I know she does a sub 4 hour marathon.
If you google me, you get a bunch of links about Helen Henrichs at Bentley College, obviously not me.
But I'd like to think that someday soon you can google me and find a 5 hour finish for the Marine Corps Marathon. My unofficial training for that started today. I ran 4 miles this morning, if I have time after work I want to do 2 more. Training with the group starts next month. So here goes nothing.

The J Word

Webster's defines jogging as: to run at a slow trot. So probably by that definition what I do is "jog." But I hate that word. I like to think of myself as a runner. People don't "jog" marathons, they "run" marathons. And while it's just a matter of semantics I don't want to be called a jogger. After all I subscribe to Runner's World. I'm on "runner's" forums, I am joining a running group. Never is the word jogging used. I feel like jogging is done in junior high gym classes, in sweat pants around a track, reluctantly. Running is done over the course of miles in sweat wicking clothing. Sure I'm slow as molasses but I don't jog.

Up until now I wondered if I was the only runner who felt this way, but then I started reading "Marathon Woman" by Kathrine Switzer. She was the first woman to run the Boston Marathon, during a time when people thought if a woman ran more than 800 meters her uterus would fall out. And while I'm only a few chapters into it, I felt justified in my feelings about the J word when I read that she too didn't like to be told that she jogs. She runs.

I wonder how many other mid-pack runners feel that way, that jogging is a foul word and should be banished. It's not enough to make me want to run 8 minute miles (I'm happy with my slow molasses pace) but it is enough to make me correct people use the J word.