I'll say it again (because it's so much fun!) I RAN A MARATHON!! Ahhhhhh!
So you may (or may not) have been expecting a blog post about the actual marathon since I have been talking about the anticipation so much. Shockingly, however, there are just no words... well, maybe too many words. Hopefully over time I will have some of them sorted out and I can tell you all kinds of things about the marathon and how I feel and all kinds of encouraging things and blah blah blah, but right now, these words are my favorite: I FINISHED!!! YAAAAAY!!!
15-miler - down! 16 miler - down... it was hot, horrible, and slow, but I did it! 18 miler - down - totally redeemed myself from the 16 miler! 20 miler - down. It rained the last 8 or so miles. Apparently running 8 of 20 miles in soaking wet shoes in September is not nearly as much fun as 12 miles in July. Ya learn something new everyday.
I did the Chicago half marathon too... see? (By the way, that's me pretending to run, not winding up for a fist pump.)
As for the mid-week runs, they're annoying, but I do them. Well, most of them.
I had to do my first mid-week 9 miler in the suburbs, and I unknowingly dropped my license and debit card along the trail. I was kind of panicked because I was planning a road trip to Nashville the follwing weekend and really needed my license. Guess what? Some good Samaritan turned it into the local police! As my husband said, that's why you move to the suburbs! I'm not totally convinced yet, but it sure made a strong arugument.
Anyway, I'm past the peak of my training, and all I have to do is... keep running? Just not as much. Hmm... I'll take it!
It's not like somebody else can run a marathon for you. It's all you out there. Finishing means you can say, "There's not a lot I can't do." - Kenneth Feld, Owner of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus
I really feel this way! I am really starting to believe that if I can conquer this marathon, there's not a lot I can't do (through Christ who strengthens me... and I've realized He doesn't need to strengthen me to sit around all night.)
Childbirth? Not scared! Mt. Everest? I could if I wanted to! Living debt-free? I'm on my way! 9-minute miles? ...Someday!
Leave it to a guy who manages a circus for a living to have some wise words about marathoning! Now get out there! 'Cause nobody else is going to do it for you!
But haven't I already been running my tail off, spending ALL my free time running, praying for sub-80 degree weather, moving around like a granny because I'm so sore, and generally getting sick of running all together the past month and half?
Yes.
And it's going to get harder?
Apparently!
You see, up to this point, our "long runs" have been between 5 and 10 miles, and our "middle-distance runs" have been between 3 and 5 miles. Sounds crazy enough for me and most other reasonable people. The problem is that the marathon is not a reasonable distance! Therefore, we have to run extremely unreasonable distances starting now and going strong until the beginning of OCTOBER!
From now on, the middle-distance runs are 6-10 (yes, TEN!) miles! On a TUESDAY! And the long runs are all double-digit miles (from 10 up to TWENTY! OMG!) until the week before the marathon, at which time the glorious-sounding period called "cutting back" begins! Ahhh, I feel peaceful just dreaming about it!
Friday, July 16, 2010
By the way, I just realized that I NEED this shirt:
When fast people run, they're probably focused on their pace or their form or their "splits" (which by the way, I still don't know exactly what those are or how they're calculated or why they matter, but anyway...)
When I run, I tend to focus on things like where the next water fountain is, or how my mom's doing, or what I'll cook for dinner, or I might replay a funny story in my head... basically just about ANYthing other than the fact that I'm already tired and I still have about 1 million more miles to go.
I'm afraid of letting my brain make the connection between me running and how nice it would be to not be sweaty and spending time away from other priorities. Too dangerous!
My most common discouraging thoughts: 1. Am I KILLING my knees? Will I still be able to walk in 20 years? In 2 years? Back to my apartment? What if they just FALL off?
2. WHAT?! I'm not even half way! JEEEEEEZUS!
3. My motivational self: "Okay! One more mile!" My running self: "Ugh, that's still really far! Can't we measure in seconds?"
4. I don't have tiiiiime for 5 miles today!!!
5. uuuuuugh. I shouldn't have eaten that.
6. It's fine if I just walk, right? Like, the whole rest of the way?
I need ways to ward off these thoughts, and one of my methods is to imagine how the song on my iPod will fit into my very dramatic and inspirational made-for-women's-television running movie based on my life.
I can't think hard enough to make a whole plot (that'll be the writer's job anyway) but the part where Virginia really starts training hard, but she's still struggling, but doing it anyway... that scene will show the actress who plays me (yet to be determined. Maybe on my next run!) running in all different points along the lake and in different seasons and weather conditions, and - most importantly- they'll play the new Kellie Pickler song:
(It'll be soft at first, and then get louder at the more relevant parts.)
"I've felt the power of forgiveness. I know that life can let you down.
I'm not blind. No, I don't need a witness to tell me there's angels all around ...
And there's dreams I told myself I'd keep!
Now I don't give up easy, I've got many miles to go, but I can't wait to get to what I see down this road.
And all my life I've learned to just take it day by day I'm not there yet, but I know I'm on my way!
I've looked out the window when there's no hope in sight, But I swear I heard a whisper; said it would be worth the fight!
So I woke up one morning, and I put my fears aside. Now look how far I've come; from the back of an endless line!
I still got lessons to be learned, there's a choice at every turn. Someone out there cleared a path, and there's no turning back!"
THEN, As Virginia finishes the marathon, it be all slow-motion during the last stretch and they'll play "My Hallelujah Song" by Julianne Hough:
(Please excuse the terrible music video in light of the lyrics.)
"Look at me, can't believe I finally made it here!
Feeling like I'm where I belong, singing my hallelujah song
Hard to find, took some time, But I think that I might be hittin' on what's been missing all along
Singing my hallelujah song
It's a highway sliding through a Sunday afternoon. It's a snapshot smiling like we ain't got nothing to lose!
It's the peace in knowing that love is gonna be gone someday,but you only get more when you give it away. ...
It's a sweet prayer knowing someone's up there hearing it. Divine punch lines take a little time but I'm getting it!
Life is more than just how many breaths you take But the moments that take your breath away.
Baby, take my breath away
... Hard to find, took some time But I never was by myself. There were angels helping me all along
I related well to this part, "I enjoy the fact that every time I start running down my driveway toward the road, I'm convinced that this time I CAN'T run five miles ... but always do."
But not so much to the "I couldn't run outside last summer due to the sometimes 15 (!) cars of paparazzi that would, like a funeral procession, follow me wherever I went..." part.
Just for the record though, I was into running before I ever knew she ran too. No one is that lame.
I really slacked off on my running this past week, but I promise I have a good excuse!
Early Monday, I noticed a sharp pain of the left side of my lung/chest that would travel up to my neck and intensify with deep breaths, but I figured maybe I was just anxious or something. That afternoon, I reluctantly went out for my Monday 3-miler, but every breath was alarming and painful, so I decided to just walk my normal route. The pain didn't go away that night or the next morning. Surely I am too young and not in that bad of shape that I could be having a heart attack, right? I was growing less and less convinced, so I called my doctor, and she was concerned that it could be a blood clot, and advised me to go to the ER. Scary!
Long story short, I do not have any blood clots! Praise the Lord! Instead, the theory is that I somehow managed to pull or otherwise injure a muscle in my ribcage. Yeah, my ribcage!? Of all the possible muscles and bones, I'd have ranked this one close to last in likelihood. Go figure!
I'm sad that I missed out on going to Six Flags for my company outing with Courtney and Jack, but needless to say, I am very relieved it's not something serious!
And today I want to talk about how stinkin' FAST I ran today. (Which should make all of you "real runners" feel really good about yourselves and encourage my fellow newcomers that someday, you too, may run faster than a one-legged grandma.)
But before I do, I want to say that I hope no one ever takes my gloating seriously! Whenever I get excited about something I've accomplished, I say it with all the enthuasism of a kindergardner who just drew his momma a beautiful picture for her, but with the full knowledge that the picture is just a bunch a scribbles. So while I am excited about it because it's new to me, I also by no means think I'm actually impressive or even good at this!
Anyhow, today is Thursday, which in training terms, means it's Hard Day. I decided to do Three 1-mile repeats, which just means you run a mile as fast as you can, stop for a minute or so and get some water, and then repeat that process.
So...
I ran my first mile in 8:50! EIGHT-fifty! OMG! A time that starts with EIGHT!!!
I am certain this is my fastest time ever.
The next mile was almost a full minute slower.
Then I ran the last one in 9:12... and wanted to throw up when I was done.
As the title suggests, I had my first visit with a Physical Therapist today!
Relax, I'm not injured!
I'm just paranoid.
When I was training for the half marathon, my knees started acting up, and I had seemingly continuous back pain, so I figured I ought to be proactive about strengthening and stretching the parts that need that kind of thing.
My biggest fear is that I will run my knees or back into the ground and not be able run anymore and thus lose the only successful weight and cholesterol management method I know.
My physical therapist said I was super tight all over my calves and hamstrings, including my IT band, which is most likely the culprit for my knee pain. I could hardly do one of the simple calf stretches she showed me. The coolest part is that instead of just telling me that my pelvis is misaligned, she talked about things I could do to fix it! That information alone was worth more than half a dozen trips to the chiropractor! She even told me how to test if my shoes were worn out!
Thank you, Physical Therapy and Husband's company's AWESOME insurance benefits for keeping me on the pavement!
Also, sorry to all my fans for scarcely updating. They don't pay me enough (ahem, anything) for this ; )
Lastly, you may (or may not) have noticed my fancy new background. It matches my running shoes!
I have been meaning for a while to post about how The Biggest Loser has inspired me, and I guess now I have an even greater reason to post because today I totally High-Fived this seasons winner, Michael!
I knew he was from the Chicago 'burbs, and they showed clips of him running on the lakefront, but I was still totally surprised! I recognized him right away, walking with a big crown behind him and being a big ham, and I got all star-stuck like a small-town girl. haha.
So what do I do? I run up beside him and yell "BIGGEST LOSER MICHAEL!! WHAT'S UP?!" and put up my hand for a high-five! He was with his mom, Maria, so I waved at her and said "Go Team White!" and then I felt really dumb and overly-excited, so I ran away.
It kinda made my day!
I've decided that if I see him again, I'm going to ask him to sponsor a World Vision child because I know he has the money!
***Shameless plug: If you want to beat him to the chase, you can be my FIRST sponsor here! Come on, I feel a little pathetic being at $0.00!)
So anyway, on to the inspirational bit. I'll keep it short, I promise.
I guess it's pretty simple, really. There are these painfully obese people who work out around the clock and learn about nutrition and end up losing a ton of weight, and then THEY RUN A MARATHON! It's a total "if they can do it, so can I" story. It's true that I don't work out 12 hours a day, but I do have about a 200-pound advantage on most of them! (And better hair... sorry, Daris!)
I've only recently subscribed to Runners' World, but so far every single issue has had someone with a six-pack on the cover. Maybe I'm strange, or maybe I just can't relate, but fit people don't motivate nearly as much as seeing a recovering obese person push themselves across the marathon finish line. In my mind, a six-packer should be running marathons. It's probably easy for them. That's what skinny people do, right? Run marathons all day! But an obese person? Now that's an accomplishment to finish a marathon!
I've always taken the BMI chart with a grain of salt, but at one point I was a pound or two away from being technically obese. It's really embarrassing and surprising and scary because I never felt obese, but I was slowly on my way to being a Biggest Loser candidate myself someday. Thankfully I got my wake-up call early and took it seriously with the support of my Mr. Wonderful, family and friends.
So consider me on the Orange team (World Vision's color) 'cuz here I come, Formerly-fat Marathon-runners' Club! GRRRR!
Where ARE my manners?! I just got an award (my custom finishers medal... oh yeah!) and didn't thank anyone!
So here it goes: (In my best rapper impersonation) I'd like to give thanks to God first. This is for obvious reasons, namely, keeping me alive through all this!
Also, I couldn't have done it without Alan Jackson, Sugarland, Kenny Chesney, and other upbeat country stars to keep me distracted from what I was doing. You too, Taylor Swift!
...I have no idea how I'm going to run a whole one!
Don't get me wrong, I finished, and it was awesome! But not awesome enough that I could have turned around and ran another one back-to-back to finish a whole marathon!
Another serious concern I have is not just about the marathon, but the TRAINING runs that are longer than what I just ran! Between August and the end of September, there are no less than FIVE runs between 14 and 20 miles! And no medal, no flowers, no porta-potties and water stations and roads blocked off. How is that supposed to work?!
The good news is that once upon a time I thought running three miles was a lot. (It still kind of is, actually) but now I can run 3 miles pretty easily. 26 miles should be no problem, right? (okay, I'm not convinced either...)
I guess we'll just cross (or hobble over) that bridge when it gets here!
The Mile by Mile Overview My lungs felt fine! I was not out of breath at any point! My legs, on the other hand, started to run out of gas around mile 9 or 10. I experienced a brief surge of energy around Mile 11 (getting closer!) but it was short lived. Then I saw the finish line, and BOLTED! Praise the Lord, I finished!
Then I spotted my husband and made my way toward the water stand. There was only one problem: I could barely move!
It remains a mystery to me how someone can RUN the whole way and then have a terrible time walking afterwards. It's like, Hello Body, I'm giving you a break, here! Work with me!
That's probably been one of the most fun parts about this whole thing is understanding my body more (and sometimes less) than I ever would have. The definite most fun part has been eating. I ate a whole frozen pizza after the race! Don't judge me; I burned about 1300 calories in 2.5 hours! Try doing that in Pilates!
(This post is for Courtney, since she reads my blog too. And she's ran half marathons before!)
The past 12 weeks of training have all led up to this: my very first HALF MARATHON is TOMORROW!
Honestly, I feel ready for it. Yes 13.1 miles (can't forget about the .1! I call it the pesky point-one because... it's pesky! You get to the end of your last full mile, and then you're not done! Annoying!) But as I was saying, 13.1 miles is far. Farther than I've ever ran. But I've ran farther than I've ever ran a lot over the past several months, and I think I can do it again!
Praise God, I have not been severly injured and made it this far in tact (for the most part). My knee is untrustworthy, but it's still there, so that should be good enough. Otherwise, I have no reason to believe I can't finish. I ran 10 miles last weekend, and it was a big, long, sloppy, sweaty mess, but I finished! I was terribly sore and walking around like an old lady, but I wasn't out of breath! That's about my expectation for tomorrow.
As good as I'm feeling, a little inspiration never hurts, and I found some while watching this: The Spirit of the Marathon!
I've developed a taste for documentaries over the years, and this one is coincidentally about the Chicago marathon, and it follows beginners, intermediates and professionals through their journey. I got all goose-bumpy and kinda teary all over again. Cleary, I need to hurry up and just run this thing! The anticipation is the hardest part. Hopefully after tomorrow I'll have a better idea of what to expect!
See you at the finish line!!
(Sorry, I had to!)
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
I'm not sure how to account for my blogging absence. I've been running; I've been not running. I feel guilty; I feel proud. It all blends together.
This is probably bad, but as my long runs get longer, I still do them, but I slack a little on the weekday runs. In my defense, I have been battling a bum right knee recently.
On an up note, I once again ran farther than I've EVER ran before! NINE miles! Go me! I then proceeded to binge on pizza and ice cream the whole weekend in celebration of my 25th birthday.
And because this blog doesn't have nearly enough pictures (because spandex running gear is NOT flattering) here's me on my birthday!
(This update is for Angie because she's the only person who has told me she reads my blog!)
I got my cholesterol checked again, and.... DRUM ROLLLLLL..... I WON!I reached my goal! My triglycerides are normal!
Warning: Biology lesson to commence below
To be specific, a healthy triglyceride level is below 150, a not-great but not-terrible range is between 150 and 200, and over 200 is really bad news.
In October, my triglycerides were at a scary 222, and the doctor started talking about Diabetes and all this crazy stuff, which is what motivated me to start running more seriously. Now, my triglycerides are totally in the clear - 143 to be exact!!! YEAH BABY! Take THAT, diabetes!
And if you really want to know... My total cholesterol was good in Octber and got better: It's now 158, and needs to be below 200
Interestingly, my LDL (bad) cholesterol went up since October, but I'm still under 100, which is healthy.
My next project is to get my HDL (good) cholesterol up. It went down from 38 in October to 33 in April, and it needs to be above 40. The strange thing is that the only remedy is... exercise. Hmmm? That's exactly what I've been doing!
My doctor said HDL is mostly genetic, so my mom appologized to me when I told her :)
I finally got my Team World Vision jersey in the mail today! Ahhh! I look SO cool... in a very ridiculous way, of course.
Also, the weather has been simply incredible recently. It's the kind of weather that makes you want to quit your job and worry about the consequences later. Needless to say, my runs long the lake shore have been utterly delightful. I'm so glad I have a reason to be out there. I feel like I missed so much lake time last year by taking the train home every day, and it would be tragic to repeat my mistake, so I've started running home once or twice a week, using the bus just to get me to the proper distance away from my apartment before I head out and finish the route on foot. That has been working out wonderfully, and it saves time overall.
Lastly, I'll share a quote from a fellow blogger, wife, and UD alumna, Sarah, who gave it to me for encouragement:
"The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer." - Habakkuk 3:19
What’s the difference between a regular person who exercises and an athlete? Well, regular people are like me, and athletes are… I don’t know. Better than me? Definitely skinnier than me.
I can’t be sure, but it seems like athletes exercise because they like it or something, but us regular folks do it because we have to, or at least for me, I run because as much as getting up early to run sucks, I’m sure it beats living with diabetes and/or having a heart attack.
I do have things in common with athletes though. For example, I’m rapidly accumulating a collection of running gear. Ya know, everything from hats to socks for all temperatures, in “wicking” fabric, ‘cause duh, Cotton is Rotten. I’ve also got a fancy multi-buttoned watch that I barely know how to use, iPod arm band, muscle-massaging stick …inhaler. I have to say, I look the part. I’ve lost a few pounds, too. I’ve even subscribed to Runners World… who am I?!
I think I am in a period of transition, and today was a milestone. I had my first “tempo” run. Tempo is a fun word for hard. The idea is to push yourself (a figurative term that athletes use) to run about a minute or so faster each mile than you do normally.
I did it, which would make me a regular person who exercises, BUT, the craziest thing happened today! I enjoyed it! Honest to goodness, it felt awesome, albeit in a very masochist way. I felt this dull discomfort kind of in between my lungs, but I thought about it, and I was like, “well, I’m not out of breath; I’m breathing just fine. My legs don’t hurt…” and I told myself that walking wouldn’t make me feel better, so I just kept running, and when I finished, I felt like I won! I felt… like an athlete?!
I’m learning that athleticism is not a matter of have or have-not, rather it’s a spectrum, let’s say, between heart-attack-waiting-to-happen and Olympian. After today, I am 3.5 rockin’ miles further away from where I don’t want to be!
