Right on Target

My experience as a pacer at the Madison Half Marathon was really incredible.

The heavy rain held off and the sun stayed tucked behind the clouds.  Running in a humid swamp on that hilly course was not on my to-do list!

We had quite a few people that stayed with us the entire time but kind of remained in their own space.  I think in future pacing efforts I would make more of an effort to introduce myself to the people that line up with us versus letting them introduce themselves.  Some may not want to make that effort or feel it is some kind of commitment, but I think I should have been the first to open that line of communication.  Lesson learned for the future.

We had one young lady who ran with us the entire way and set a new personal best by a good chunk of time.  It was very exciting to be a part of that.  She really did all the hard work, we just added a few boosts in confidence.  Never once did I doubt she could physically make the time, but by now I know all too well that the body only goes where the mind wants or lets it to go.  And sometimes the brain needs a bit of convincing that things are possible.  Confidence is a hard thing to muster when you are approaching the 2/3 mark of any race...where it gets tougher to keep the pace, the mind starts to waver and doubt begins to creep in.  The smile she gave us after we crossed the finish line was worth more than nearly every medal I have ever gotten in a race.  That is a feeling I could seriously get addicted to!  Maybe I can trade that for a different, bad habit?

And we were right on target to where we wanted to be.  We aimed for 2:19:59 and came in at 2:17:58 (my chip time).  So we had a little bit to spare, but as first time pacers, I think we done good.  We did a pretty good job of keeping each other in check and it was only because we didn't lose as much time in the water stops and then on that last stinking hill that we came in early.  I'm proud of us!  And I'm excited to do it again.  And really happy to have gotten the opportunity to do this through my friend David at the Berkeley Running Company.  Count me in for next year!!

This morning I went for a 6 mile run after a couple of hours of work.  My legs were a little tight and my left hamstring was a bit crabby (it WAS a hilly course) but it all worked out within a mile or so.  I feel ready for the Grizzly Double coming up in less than TWO WEEKS!!  But I'm glad I'm not leading a pace group for any of those races!

A Change of Pace

Are you registered for the Madison 1/2 Marathon tomorrow?  I am registered and I am really excited because I get to be a part of something really neat.  I will be a member of a pace team!

Okay, so I might have lied.  I am not just excited, I am beyond excited.  I am super excited.  I am climbing the walls excited.  This is something I have always wanted to try because I love to get other people excited about running.  I just think it is such a great sport and activity that is and can be embraced by so many people.  It really is very accessible to nearly everyone.  And I do mean everyone.  We got 4 minute mile people all the way up to 15 minute mile people.  And it's all good.  Sure, there are a few elitist types out there.  But I believe those people really are few and far between...I've been running for nearly 9 years and I've only run into a handful of them.  When I do run into them, I just walk away.  I've found that life is difficult enough without letting someone steal your joy or rain on your parade.

Anyway I am especially excited because I get to pace the 2:20 group.  Which means that we could have some newbies or people who are just starting to set time goals for themselves.  This is where I get them to drink the kool aid!  No, no...just kidding.  This is where some encouragement and support from us (my pace partner and myself) can make a big difference in how someone's race goes.  In some ways this "assignment" terrifies me.  Obviously we need to stay on pace.  We figured we need to run even 10:30 minute miles so that we can walk briskly through water stops and still hit our overall 10:40 pace that will bring us in at 2:19:59!  It is a tough course and we will have to help people manage the bigger hills, but most importantly we need to help them keep their spirit up and their confidence engaged.

I don't typically get to run with a pace group as I usually do smaller events where "extras" like that are just not needed.  I did run with an amazing pace group leader when I ran the Des Moines Marathon. The guy was amazing, clicking off 9:09 minute miles like a metronome.  Although I fell off the pace group at mile 22, I still finished close enough to my target to qualify for Boston.  Had I been self pacing, I probably would have blown up at mile 16.  I've tried other pace groups in races and have had so-so luck.  In one race I let them go because I wasn't in the shape I had hoped I was in (nothing like an honest pace to teach you that at mile 9 of 13.1).  In another I zipped ahead and away from the pace group because I couldn't stomach the thought of another cheery, like you know, like bubbly pep talk from our "cheerleader" pacer.  Sometimes less IS more and silence IS golden.  I hope I know where that line is.  I also hope that if I cross it someone tells me so I can back off.

I think I am actually more nervous than excited.  I can't remember the last time I was truly "nervous" about a race.  The advantage and disadvantage of doing a lot of races.

Here's hoping it goes well and that we stay on pace, that I don't get decked by a disgruntled runner and that I remember that sometimes silence is golden!

Centered and Balanced

A few years after I started running I happened on a yoga class that was offered through Dean Health.  On a whim I signed up (who couldn't use a bit more flexibility??).  I stayed in that class off and on for 2 years and then it ended as did my formal relationship with yoga.  Oh I still indulged in a pigeon pose or two when my legs felt incredibly tight (every freaking day) but it ended up being a bit out of sight (aka not easy to accomodate), out of mind.

And then a yoga studio opened here in my little, mostly redneck, home town.

And something changed.

No, no...not that.  Well, with enough straps and blocks I could do that but I sure wouldn't look like that.  And my hamstring would seize about 20 seconds into the pose.  And then it would just be really, really bad.

But change I did, because after awhile it wasn't just about "Can I still touch my toes?".  It became about "I know what I CAN do, but what can I try to do?".  So I take myself off to that studio here in town at least once a week to see what I can do. Some days it is the same old, same old and I am not overly ambitous.  Other days I am astounded.  As a runner, my forays into pretzel shapes and supple bends and twists are somewhat limited.  Also being a swimmer puts a serious damper on my ablity to find any type of mobility in my shoulders and upper back.  Approaching the big 5-5 isn't exactly helping my cause either.  But I have progressed with certain poses and not so much with others.

I don't know that I can scientifically say that yoga has specifically helped my running, although I feel it really has, it certainly scientifically hasn't hurt it (except for maybe that one summer solstice class!!).  If you would like a little intro, check out the Yoga for Runners video's at runnersworld.com or better yet, bust out those Groupons and check out some classes around town.  Nearly every studio in town would welcome you with open arms.

However today I took a big step outside my safety zone.  On the suggestion/recommendation/encouragement of one of my favorite instructors I thought I would step outside my running/swimming physical activity box and attend part of a yoga workshop.

It doesn't really matter where the workshop was or who taught it or what we did (there were no pretzel poses for the part I went to...yaye!).  I felt like this was a huge thing for me because I ALWAYS encourage people to run or at least try running...no matter where they start, what their speed, what they look like or what their goals are.  Who knows what it could lead to?  It could be AMAZING.  And here I was...trying something new and what the heck?  It could be AMAZING. I should take my own advice?!

And honestly?  Maybe amazing is a strong adjective, but it was certainly enlightening.  And I am not much into the spiritual side of things (running, yoga...whatever) but these words made sense to me and I felt like they could entice me to at the least look in a new way in a new direction.  And that my friends is not such a bad thing when you are physically stiff and sore and tired and mentally stretched thin.  That 5-5 thing too.

In any event (or workshop) apparently you can teach an old dog new tricks.  Although I'd prefer to say you can expose an old cat to new good habits! Doesn't mean they'll all stick.

Moral of the story...GET OUT OF THE BOX.  The box will just end up being a coffin so put that off as long as you can.

Next up, I (and my pacing partner Mark) pace the 2:20 group at the Madison Half Marathon.  I am looking forward to this, but I am also very afraid that I'll do something stupid and ruin someone's race! If you are running it (or spectating) and you see our group, give us some high 5's!  We might need it!

Introducing...

I guess I said I would do introductions and that I would go first.  Good, I love to talk about myself and how I became a runner.  It wasn't an easy journey nor one I think that anyone could have predicted the present day outcome.   I'm not done with this life yet, so I'm leaving all of my options for future evolution open.  But for right now, I am a runner.

I wasn't always a runner.

I was born a fat, sloth-like child to parents who didn't see the value in athletics.  Don't get me wrong, my parents were all about work, which often involved physical labor, but I don't think they ever saw the benefit in just running around for sport.  My mom would send me outside to play (aka get out of my hair before I throttle you) and I would park myself under a tree and read a book.  This made me well read and covered in welts from ant bites.  It also made me a nerd (or a geek or a brain or something along those lines) and we all know how well nerds and etc fared socially in the "olden days".  That is to say, not well at all.

Most of my experience with athletics as a kid were heavily influenced by 1) being fat and 2) existing as a female in a pre Title IX world.  Not to give away my age, but I was a senior in high school when Title IX changes rocked the athletics world.  A bit late for me, but hey...I am 1000 % percent behind it.  The world always has to stop and begin somewhere.

Do I wish that my upbringing had been more athletically inspiring?  Do I wish I had participated in more sports?  Do I wish, do I wish, do I wish... we all wish for things that can not be had or things that cannot be changed.  My Dad... a certified Arkansas hillbilly would have said sh&t in one hand and wish in the other...see which fills up the fastest.

So I am, exactly where I am.  I got unfat when I was in college.  Started walking and lifting weights after graduate school.  I was always pretty active after that.  But I did smoke (WHAT??) and I professed to hating running and swimming (please, I could tell you "mean girl" stories about swimming in high school that would make you want to cry...these girls were nasty little bitches).

And I got older and life changed and things happened and then a lot of things happened and one day something made me decide to go to Canada on a vacation.  Where I biked.  And I liked it and suddenly I was biking, biking, biking.  And I quit smoking.  And it stuck.  And stuck and stuck and stuck.  I think I quit in 2005?  If so, it has been 10 years!!  Whoooooo hoooooo for me!

Don't even ask where this thought came from but suddenly I decided that as of January 2007 I was going to train for a triathlon!  Yes.  In June of 2007 I was going to do a triathlon.  Apparently that meant I was going to have to swim and I was going to have to run.  Neither of which I currently did.  It was a sprint triathlon...how hard could that be??

So I ran the first time around a track at the gym... 1/10th of a mile.  I wanted to vomit.  I tried the treadmill, I wanted to vomit more, but I stuck it out and I worked up to 4 miles.  Then I took it outside and worked up to 5 miles.  Running went amazingly well. I still hated it though.

Swimming went not so well.

So here we are at the Lake Mills triathlon and I am nervous as can be in the novice wave and off we go.  Or maybe not.  I nearly drown and it took me over 20 minutes to "swim"  400 yards.  I got lapped by two wave starts.  The bike went "ok" but by the time I got to the run I was so cold that I couldn't feel my feet or hands and all I could feel was an ice pick stabbing into my head.  I finished.  Nearly dead last.  I would come back the following year and finish nearly a hour faster.

And then it was a "maybe I'll do a half marathon"...which I did.  And then it was a "I could probably do a full marathon, I have friends who have done that"... and I did.  Fox Cities 2008...I collapsed into the arms of my friends at the end and said "I am NEVER doing this again".  I am pretty sure I said it many times over.  And then suddenly, biking wasn't all that much fun and while I like swimming, I was looking for that BIG challenge.  And I decided that when I was that milestone year (50) I was going to run a sub 4 hour marathon and qualify for Boston.  What??

So yadda, yadda, yadda yadda.  I qualified, I registered, I ran.  Just last fall I qualified for Boston again (and that would be a whole different story).

I've now run 12 marathons.  I am not sure how many 1/2's or other races.  Just ran the Lake Monona 20K last weekend.  I LOVE that course and I sort of hate that race.  Why did it have to get hot?  I don't like hot.

I'll be running 2 more marathons this year on top of our Grizzly Double.  Which will be fine.  I have no time goals for anything this year (running related) so I am just cruising.

I should probably mention that I do have a running goal tho...2015 miles in 2015.  We can talk about that at a later date and catch up on where I am at...I'll give you a hint...I am a bit behind where I need to be.  So I'll be working on putting some serious miles in the tank.

Next up for profile will probably be Liz.  The difference between her and I?  I love running.  She hates it, but does it anyway.  I am working on luring her over to the darkside.  We have cookies.

How on earth could you possibly resist us?