The 22 Mile Run That Wasn’t

Oh hi, remember me? It feels like it has been way too long since I have been on this side of the blog. Needless to say, this week has been absolutely crazy. Between work, coaching, finals, and trying to get my workouts in…I feel like a hamster on a revolving wheel.

Conveniently, I am also three weeks out from my next marathon, which naturally, is when the longest long run of a marathon training plan takes place. So between the aforementioned chaos, I was needing to fit in a 22 mile run somewhere this week. That day was today. Because I literally had no other day or time available to do so. Also, summer is upon us here in the midwest and afternoon highs have been in the 90’s for the majority of the week.

I continue.

Getting my run in today meant being up at 5am, greeted with a lightning show, thunder, and big, fat raindrops. I had no way of stalling my run, so I booked it to the gym to do this long run. Before I left the house, I started to download Mean Girls on my iPhone to watch while running and made sure that my iPod was charged to keep me occupied for the four hours I was to spend on the ‘mill.

The first six miles went by pretty well, despite getting a weird stomachache/barfy feeling after mile five. I continued, the next six miles were not well. Mentally, things were getting tough. I tried positive reinforcement to no avail, was sweating like a sumo wrestler on a summer day in Louisiana, and the rain was starting to clear which made me mad that I wasn’t running outside. Ultimately I just could not pull my crap together. My heart wasn’t in this.

One promise I made to myself about a year ago was this:

If there was ever a moment that I didn’t absolutely love what I was doing, then I needed to take a step back, look some things over, and remind myself of why I was doing what I was doing. 

I cranked three more miles out and was done. I wasn’t going to put myself through those other seven miles because it would have gotten me nothing and nowhere. To console my feeling of defeat, I climbed for thirty minutes on the stair master and called it a morning. My skirt was dripping sweat, my thighs had chaffed so much they were bleeding, and I needed to refresh my love of running.

Today was a combination of things that I’m well aware of– stress, not getting enough sleep, and my eating has been sub-par (for me) the past week. I also accepted the fact that I need a break. One of the first signs of over-training is not being able to complete a workout, and while I don’t believe I’m over-training, I realized I have spent the past nine months either training for marathons, maintaining mileage, or racing. I accept that I am feeling just a little burnt out. I absolutely love running, but I have to take some of the stress and pressure away, because those don’t equate to enjoying running for me.

I still love running; in fact, I’m looking forward to a trail run I’ve planned early next week…no watch, no route, no goal pace, just me and the trails. After Med City I’ll be taking near a month off of being on a consistent running schedule and I’m going to be honest, I haven’t felt a release that great in a while. My body needs the break mentally, physically and emotionally. This rest will do me good because when I start training for Chicago I want to give it all I’ve got!

Even though today was the ‘run that wasn’t,’ it was a learning experience and reality check. I must say, I’m blessed and it’s pretty amazing that I was so disappointed with ‘only running fifteen miles…’ WHO says that??

That’s when I finally got my crap together.

Running Errands and I’m Crazy

First I just want to share something I found amusing that I did yesterday. I needed to go to the post office to ship off a package for one of my Stimulock clients, but really didn’t want to drive. I also wanted to get a run in for the morning as well. So what do I do? Combine the two, (un)naturally. I was laughing at myself as I was getting ready, thinking, “Who runs to the post office??” The package was small enough to fit in my Camelbak (I took the water pack out), I stuck my ID and credit card in, and went to literally run my errands! The stares I got at the post office were priceless, and it was really fun to run a route that I’ve never run before, I loved it! 4.25 miles later I returned home and was happy to have knocked out two birds with one stone.

Last weekend signaled the start of a large chunk of spring races that I’m doing, including four half marathons and one full marathon. I like a good challenge, and this is definitely that. Not only physically, but mentally and emotionally and not for the reasons you might imagine. People question me and my sanity daily. Not exaggerating here. Part of me wants to completely shut up about running sometimes because of how much flack I have been receiving about it lately, but we know that’s not going to happen. Terms I hear pretty regularly are: insane, crazy, obsessed, nuts, and the list continues. Please note that generally, all of these terms carry a negative connotation and I’m doing all I can to not let them bring me down.

In the broad spectrum, they won’t keep me down. But right now, it’s just a little tough. I am beginning to accept that a lot of people will not grasp and understand why I run, or why I’m so passionate about it, and I don’t need them to. Passionate people, in my opinion, are refreshing in our society which thrives on instantaneous satisfaction, all things superficial, and a constant inward gaze.

I’m a firm believer in that, if you want to get better and be the best you can be, you have to be around people who are going to challenge you and help you grow. Surround yourself with the ones you want to be like. Though I can’t physically surround myself with some people I’d like to, I draw a great deal of inspiration from them. Take Dean Karnazes for example. He ran 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days. He’s ran across America. He has competed 200-mile footraces by HIMSELF from deserts in California to the Pacific coast. A blogger I follow, SkinnyRunner, runs marathons like nobody’s business. Just this past weekend, she ran a marathon on Sunday, the Boston Marathon on Monday, and is running the Ragnar Relay later this week.

These kind of individuals motivate me to push my limits feed my desire to see what this body that I have is capable of. This weekend I’m running a half marathon on Saturday and one on Sunday, which to some may seem crazy, but to me, it is more than attainable based on where my inspiration comes from. Plus, I know where my strength comes from, and it is not my own. I often have conversations with God saying, “This is all you, because I definitely can’t do this on my own. What are you doing with me?!” Ha!

I’m also blessed that my life currently allows for such crazy adventures. I don’t have a boyfriend, I don’t have kids, I have a very flexible schedule, and my body and I work in conjunction with one another– I’m good to it, so it returns the favor and allows me to log all these miles and do what I ask of it.

In my mind, there’s nothing I can’t do. Yes, some things look big, scary and intimidating, but I’ll never know that I can overcome it if I don’t go find out. Running blesses me exponentially. It adds life to my years. It inspires me, pushes me, and fills me up. Though the negative comments might get to me and start to burn a bit, I’m going to keep going. Nothing worth having comes without a challenge. I’ll keep doing what I’m doing, living life to the fullest and loving every minute of it, hopefully inspiring and motivating many along the way.

This is a journey, and I’m on a constant pursuit to see where my limits are, and then push past them.

Another Marathon, Another State

If you’ve been reading my blog for any more than three months, you might recall that I made a goal this year to run four marathons in four different states. I already checked Arkansas off of that list when I ran Little Rock last month (seems like it was forever ago!), and my next marathon wasn’t going to be until September in Omaha.

This is where God cracks me up. When I think I have a plan of action, He’s all like, “Hold up sister! I have a different plan; yes you’re still gonna do your marathons, but here…do it my way instead.” I’m going with it.

In this instance, I have a special friend who’s best friend is getting married the weekend of the Omaha marathon in September, and said special friend’s 30th birthday is the day after the marathon–so it wasn’t going to happen, per request of the special friend. I made him a deal. I go to the wedding, he goes with me to a marathon.

I’ve known this for nearly a month now and have been scouring Runner’s World and Marathon Guide for a new marathon to run in place of Omaha. A few caught my eye, but I had a pretty tight criteria this time for potential races:

• Distance: the race had to be within reasonable driving distance (no more than a 10 hour commute)
• Location: if it was a summer marathon, I would travel anywhere north of Kansas, no where south
• Date: I wanted a race in September, but that didn’t happen…
• Budget: the race couldn’t break my wallet (read: no Rock ‘n Roll races with $110+ entry fees)

Basically, I searched a lot, from hotel availabilities, to races, locations, you name it. A race caught my eye up in Minnesota, the Med City Marathon, and I thought on it, but passed. It is on Memorial Weekend which is now right around eight weeks away and wasn’t sure I’d want to do a marathon after this slew of halfs I’m doing over the next five weeks.

Let me take you to Wednesday morning. It was 6:30am and I didn’t want to get out of bed yet, so I was checking blogs, the weather, Twitter and finally Facebook. The Med City Marathon posted a status, and this happened:

So Omaha is scratched, and Med City is in. I’m running another marathon in less than two months. I’m running another marathon in less than two months??

Despite how weird, far fetched and near impossible our goals can sometimes seem, makes them all the more amazing when God pulls em through for you. Then He’s like, “Here, take just a little more, I want you to have the best. These dreams are going to happen…show it off a little bit!” Because I’ve also found a trail marathon in Wisconsin in September that would be the perfect final long training run before Chicago. So maybe five marathons in five states this year? Who knows.

All I know is that I’m totally loving this life and rocking out to it; how life should be lived…full and blessed.