Running 4 Your Life

As I began to reflect on last Saturday’s 50K trail race, I wondered what I could say that would be of interest to anyone else. I thought of the giant redwood forests, the hundreds of stairs, the “steep ravine,” the view of the Pacific Ocean. But it’s kind of like - you had to be there.

31 miles is a long way to run, and it takes a long time to do it (or at least it took me a long time to do it), and a lot of things can go through your head when you’re out there on the trail alone. Only 51 people finished the 50K, so for the most part, I was alone on the trails for the last 12.4 miles - with the exception of a few other runners here and there.

During the race, I stayed pretty focused on what was going on at the moment. I have to admit that I had a couple of rough spots and wondered whether I was up to the challenge of tackling the second trip up the Dipsea Trail. But I had those thoughts for only a moment. I KNEW I was fit enough, and I never allowed the possibility of not finishing to enter my head. Og Mandino’s words became my mantra: I will persist until I succeed.

In everything I’d read and everything I’d been told, I knew that if I just accepted that there would be some rough spots that they would pass, and I’d get a second wind. And, it was absolutely true. I made it back up the mountain, and in the next two loops, I felt a renewed energy.

I think we all face rough patches from time to time, and if we just keep going despite the difficulty, we will make it through and come out of it stronger as a result.

Running this race was probably the hardest physical challenge I’ve experienced up to this point in my running life - probably the hardest physical challenge period. But, I know that I will have harder races and bigger challenges. And I’m excited about them. It’s exhilarating to test yourself and see what you can really do. And, I know that this is just the beginning of so many more wonderful, challenging experiences.

Joy Johnson reached her goal for this year’s New York City Marathon - she won her age group, and she shaved nearly an hour off last year’s New York Marathon time. She ran a 6:05:57 - that’s a 13:58 pace.

At 81 years old, Joy is going strong and training to run more marathons. If you or anyone you know has ever said, “I’m too old to run,” take a lesson from Joy. She is an inspiration to us all!

Congratulations, Joy!

Born on Christmas Day in 1928, Joy Johnson, a marathon runner, lives up to her name: She is a true “Joy.” I met Joy at Dick Beardsley’s Marathon Running camp about 4 years ago when she first came to camp. She has been a “regular” ever since, and both the coaches and returning campers look forward to seeing her every year.

Joy is running the New York City Marathon on Sunday - for her 21st consecutive year…and she’s going for the age-group win (80-90 age group). She has been putting in extra miles - 50-55 miles per week - and adding speed work to try to lower her time.

Joy is an inspiration to anyone who has ever had a dream…to anyone who ever doubted that they could accomplish a monumental task…to anyone who has ever worked hard to achieve anything.

I am so fortunate to know Joy, and she has certainly added much “joy” to my life. I’m rooting for her on Sunday. And, no matter what she runs, she will always be a winner to me.

She was recently interviewed for the Wall Street Journal - the article is in the paper today. Read the article in today’s Wall Street Journal.

Recently, my friend Joan passed along some teachings from the Dalai Lama which I think have relevance to all of us:

• Take into account that great love and achievements involve great risk.
• When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
• Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
• Don’t let a little dispute injure a great relationship.
• Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
• Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
• Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.
• Be gentle with the earth.
• Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

Running experts generally agree that we have two “fast” or “target” marathons in us per year. That usually translates into a spring marathon and a fall marathon. We train roughly 4 months for a marathon, run it, then have a few months of recovery and maintenance before we start training for the next one. This holds true if we are shooting for a time goal or trying to qualify for Boston.

So, we pick a specific marathon and gear all our training towards that race. But, as “they” say, anything can happen on race day…or “on any given Sunday…” It could rain, snow, or be burning-up hot. You could get sick the week before the race (which is not all that uncommon). Maybe you peaked too soon in your training. Maybe you left your best “race” on the running path. So much goes into training for a marathon and having a good run come race day. Many many factors can contribute to less-than-perfect race day conditions.

For those of us who are not genetically gifted to be able to go out a qualify for Boston every time we run a marathon, we put all our “eggs in two baskets” - that is,  two target marathons per year. And, when we don’t run the race we think we should have run, we can be a bit hard on ourselves. This has happened to me more than a few times.

After a number of races in which I have been disappointed, I have learned that it’s not always about the time - it’s about the experience. That’s not to say that I cheerfully exclaim, “Oh well, I didn’t make my time; that’s ok, maybe next time.” No, it’s hard to go through 4-6 months of intense training only to miss a time goal. Most of us can’t just go out and run another hard marathon next month.

But what we can do is ask ourselves, “What is the opportunity in this?” How can I continue to use this training, this high level of fitness, to help me reach my goal?

First we must acknowledge our achievement. We just ran another marathon - 26.2 miles is a long way. And, it is not an achievement of the weak of body or spirit. Then, we must let go of the disappointment of not achieving our time goal. Let it go and move on.

• We must press on.
• We must maintain our fitness.
• We must hold on to our positive attitude.
• We must set new goals and make new training plans.
• We must pursue our goals with tenacity and courage.
• And, We must KNOW that we WILL succeed.

October 2003 - Dublin Marathon (Dublin, Ireland)

October 2008 -  Royal Victoria Marathon (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada)

Five years ago, my husband Mark walked the Dublin Marathon (his 7th marathon) in a back brace (recovering from a herniated disk) with his 68-year-old mom (her first marathon).

Last Sunday - just 2 days ago - Mark completed the Royal Victoria Marathon (8th marathon) - 5 years later.

When he got home from Dublin in 2003, he decided to leave his job and start his own company. Stinson Brand Innovation, Inc. was “born,” and the demands of starting and building a successful business took precedence over exercise and marathon training. And, along the way, he had pretty much decided that he would probably NOT do another marathon. He did, however, have time to fully recover from his back injury.

All that changed last year when he decided that it was time to do another marathon. His training started off strong, and he chose the Royal Victoria Marathon to be his “comeback” race. Again, the demands of work kept him from getting in all his workouts, but he persisted and focused on at least getting in his long mileage on the weekend. He did 2 half marathons and one very challenging 10-mile race over the summer and was ready to take on Royal Victoria.

Sunday’s race was a huge success, both physically and mentally. The marathon has a way of reminding us that a race of that distance requires lots of physical training, and often on race day, we find ourselves saying, “I probably should have gotten in another workout during the week.” Admittedly, Mark was reminded of that fact on Sunday. Nevertheless, he persisted and had a great day!

The challenge of a marathon is hard enough on the body, but without the mental fortitude, it is almost impossible. Mark may not have had “optimal” training for the past 6 months, but he had the tenacity to finish strong.

I am so proud of Mark for finishing his 8th marathon (8th in ‘08) and for getting back on the “running path.”

Even better though…I heard him say only a few hours after the race as he was doctoring a couple of really nice blisters, “Next year when I do another marathon…”

Check out Mark’s view of his marathon experience in the Oct 12 blog post at http://brandinnovator.blogspot.com/

As we traveled through the streets of Mumbai, India yesterday (with the help of a driver and a historian), we visited the home of Mani Bhavan, a friend of Gandhi ’s with whom Gandhi lived in Bombay from 1917-1934. The home has since been converted into a Gandhi Museum, and the room in which Gandhi stayed is exactly as it was, complete with the actual spinning wheel that Gandhi used. Gandhi started many peace movments from this room in his quest to liberate India from the British.

A torchbearer for non-violence, Gandhi still represents a symbol for peace throughout the world. Just seeing his simple surroundings and the mat he sat upon, I could still feel a sense of calm and peacefulness.

Wow! What a whirlwind it has been over the past couple of weeks. I haven’t posted in over a week. I have found myself “stressing” over so many things to do and not enough time to do them…until I took a dose of my own medicine. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

I have spent the last week prioritizing - with the first priority being helping my daughter move to L.A. Good news: she’s all moved in. She flew to Boise to buy a car here, and I drove with her to L.A., helped her get settled, and flew back. For those few days, I was without a computer - which was kind of nice in its own way. What DID we do before we were “connected” 24-7?

So, now that I’m getting back on track - taking one bite at a time - I’m heading to Mumbai, India for 10 days - part work, but all fun. I will have my computer with me, and I plan to post to my blog as I discover the many wonders of a new place.

One of the speakers this morning at Dick’s Marathon Running Camp was Coach Roy Herron. His talk was entitled, “Mental Marathoning: Using Your Head to Get the Most Out of Your Feet.” If you’ve ever run a marathon - or any kind of challenging event for that matter - you know that the mental component of it is as important, or even more important, than the physical part.

In our earlier roundtable discussion about how to deal with bad patches in a race, Coach Bill Wenmark said that your race is often determined by your attitude at the starting line. This tied in well with Roy’s talk.

Roy shared with us his own mental tricks, magic words, and mental marathoning stories, then invited us to share ours. One of the great things about camp is that we learn so much from everyone here. Just at this camp alone with coaches and campers combined, we have run over 700 marathons. That’s 700 opportunities to learn something. We may never fully realize the impact that one of our experiences may have on another nor theirs on us.

In his book True Success: A New Philosophy of Excellence, Tom Morris states: “The quest for success always begins with a target. We need something to aim at, something to shoot for.”

In order to achieve success, we need goals. For me, part of the fun of running is choosing which race I’m going to run next…which challenge I’m going to take on. I choose a race, train for it, and when I complete it, I feel a sense of accomplishment.

That’s not to say that I never run just “to run.”  I love my days when I just go out and run along the river not focusing on hitting a certain time on my watch or covering a certain number of miles. And including these days in my training doesn’t mean that I don’t have a goal. My constant overarching goal is to stay fit and healthy, so every activity I do is in line with that ultimate goal.

Goals motivate us. Goals guide us. We all have short-term and long-term goals. A short-term goal might be to cross-train 2 times a week whereas a long-term goal might be to set a personal record in a particular race. We need both.

I love setting my own goals and striving to achieve them. And, I love helping other people achieve theirs also. Most of us are more capable than we think we are. It may be time for you to re-evaluate what you want for yourself and others. Set some goals. I guarantee you will feel re-energized as you start working to achieve them.