Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Running: mental or physical?

Marathon #10 is on its way...in less than 2 weeks, I'll do the Flying Pig Marathon for the second year in a row in Cincinnati, Ohio! I'm both excited and nervous - with the DC marathon only a little over a month away, I haven't been doing super long training runs. The longest I've done since the March 16 marathon is just over 10 miles. Will this help me or hurt me? Will I feel too tired in the race or would I have burned out with longer training runs? I just don't know.

Running marathons goes beyond your physical endurance. I've done it 9 times now and although it has gotten a bit easier, running for that long can really get to your head. Running is definitely a mental sport. For someone like me, who isn't running to win the whole event, I am my own competition. It's rough when the only person you can trash talk is yourself.

Right now, I'm overwhelmed by different thoughts. I'm inspired to dedicate my race to the victims of the Boston Marathon attacks; will this dedication be what carries me to a Boston qualifying time? Will the lack of 21 mile training runs in the last 4 weeks overpower my dedication to do well? Will the stretching that I've been doing backfire (the bad thing about stretching is that you are much more AWARE of the aches and pains) or will it propel me forward to victory against myself? Will it finally rain on the day of one of my marathons, a terrible event that I've somehow managed to dodge so far?

The truth is, I can't control my race. What's funny about races is that even if you train for weeks and weeks, you can still have a crappy day. As much as I want to qualify for Boston, I know that what I really care about is having fun and enjoying having a city shut down for me to run its streets with its residents cheering me on. The people who support their runners are the ones who keep us sane in an insane, crazy sport.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Our Hearts are in Boston

I've been trying to make sense of a senseless situation. Yesterday, after excitedly watching my colleague's progress online for three hours, I emerged from a short meeting to hear someone say, "there were explosions at the Boston Marathon." Words and horrible pictures have been spinning in my head ever since.

Everyone that I know in Boston is safe. But that doesn't make me feel better about yesterday's events. As a marathon runner, I feel part of a larger running community. This hits too close to home. Finish lines are supposed to be the place where you feel relief, euphoria, joy. It's supposed to be the place where you can stop running, take a deep breath, celebrate, and be with your family. Thinking of my own family waiting for me at countless finish lines takes my breath away.

As runners, we are constantly reminded that we are human. Injuries, black toenails, lost toenails, soreness, cuts, bruises, endless pairs of sneakers remind us of our humanity every day. But at the end of a marathon, a runner should feel invincible. At the finish line, we should feel like nothing can get us down or stop us. 

The only thing that I can think of to do is: keep running. We will run through the hurt, we will run through our tears. With each run, we will get stronger and at some point, someday, we will again feel that after 26.2 miles, we are untouchable. Runners are a funny group of people; we don't quit.

Our hearts are in Boston today, but I know that our feet are firmly on the ground, taking the next step forward and running, running, running. We will pause to solemnly lower our heads and pray for those who we lost. But we will never stop running.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Praying for Boston

I'm sending all my thoughts and prayers to the runners of the Boston Marathon. My coworker is safe and so are my friends in Boston.

Love to Boston - we will NEVER STOP RUNNING.

Today is the Boston Marathon

Today is the Boston Marathon. Obviously, I am not there. I am sitting here writing a blog post. One of my coworkers is running and I am living vicariously through him. Guess what? It's not enough. I want Boston for myself!

It's been a long time since I updated my blog. Since then, I've done the DC Rock n Roll Marathon (March 16) and finished strong in 3:44:47 - only a few seconds off my PR. I didn't look at my watch for the first half of the marathon - it was fun to just run and enjoy myself. For a while now, I've been really unfocused on Boston. It seems so far off, even though it's less than 10 minutes now. In case you were wondering, 10 minutes seems like a LOT when you're doing 26.2 miles!

I have the Flying Pig Marathon coming up on May 5 and then Richmond in November. In the meantime, I'll do the Back on My Feet 20in24 in July. There's lots of running going on, but the big question for me is, how do I knock off those 10 minutes?

Well, I am taking some calculated steps to try. I met with a yoga instructor/fitness guru one-on-one a few weeks ago. She worked with me on stretching and gave me some good advice on how to stay strong (some hints: I need to strengthen my hip abducters, ie the insides of my thighs. Those don't get worked when you run, oddly enough. However, if they're weak, you can blow your knee). I learned that I actually have a tight back and a tight butt, but my hamstrings are relatively loose. I've also been instructed to do a strength workout (yoga, weights, etc) once a week. I'm also going to get monthly massages and I'm even going to go see a sports massage therapist - a big deal for me, since I usually only go for the prissy spa setting, where you might have a plush robe, but the massage probably isn't doing as much as it could.

Some of these may seem like common sense to some runners. For me, it helps to have someone tell me to do this. I'm not a great stretcher. I probably never will be. If given the choice between running and weight training, I will pick running every time. So it was incredibly helpful for me to do this.

I've also been doing more speedwork. For me, this is anything from going out to the soccer fields by my house to doing an occasional fartlek (you should have seen boyfriend's face when I told him I was going out to do these!).

Will all of this lead to Boston? I really can't say. It all depends on the day, the weather, my shoes, my hair....you can train and train and train and never be able to tell what will happen on race day. And today's a great day for a run!