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.

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.

A huge piece of competing in any type of event is the mental component. It’s one thing to embrace a physical challenge: we set goals, train, we eat right, and come race day, we are hopefully at our peak performance.

But how do we prepare mentally for what may await us on race morning? (more…)

We made it to Cheyenne, Wyoming, last night. Fremont was pretty happy to be out of the car. I just broke the news to him that we have to get back in the car this morning.

Had a little trouble with the wireless connection at the hotel last night, but it’s up and running this morning.

Gorgeous drive yesterday - I saw things I’ve never seen before. Tis the season, however - construction season that is. Saw a lot of that, too.

We’re headed to Davenport, IA, today. I’ve never driven across Nebraska. Always another new adventure.

Today begins my journey across the country with Fremont. We will probably travel around 800 miles today. And, I’m sure we will learn much along the way on this “ultra” of road trips. We’ll be posting from the road when we stop for the evening - hope we can find wireless somewhere…Let the adventure begin!

Hills are my friends. I love hills. I will persist until I succeed. I said those things to myself this morning as I ran the hills and humidity of Louisiana. Knowing that I have two races coming up in August that have lots of downhills, my focus is to get stronger and better at hill running - both up and down.

As I was running hills this morning, I thought of how hill running is the perfect metaphor for the things we do everyday. And, how we approach hills is a good indicator of how we deal with other challenges in our lives.

Although I knew that today’s run would be hard, I couldn’t wait to get out there this morning - I looked forward to the challenge. I thought, “How I do anything is how I do everything.” Just saying this helped me as I faced the challenge: I charged up the hills and relaxed on the downs. And, I took one hill at a time and focused on that hill before I turned my attention to the next one. Every time I got to the top of the hill, I felt a sense of accomplishment - I had achieved that goal. How cool is that to achieve 20 accomplishments in one run?

Engaging in any activity that requires me to work harder and draw on inner strength is totally energizing. I am grateful to have the opportunity to test my limits.
You’ve heard people say when they have a tough challenge ahead, “It’s an uphill climb.” And, conversely, when something is easy they say, “It’s all downhill from here.”

I say - Embrace both the ups and downs. We have things to learn from both “hard” and “easy” days. And, keep your eye on the top of the hill - persist until you succeed. Reaching the summit of every hill in your life is the achievement of yet another goal.

Yesterday, I spent all day in an Internet Marketing workshop. When you go to these one-day “seminars,” you can always learn something new - if you go in with the right mindset - especially when you know that it is going to involve a sales presentation.

Most of these workshops do involve people marketing something to “sell,” and I have no problem with that. Aren’t we all in the “marketing” business? Isn’t everyone trying to “sell” something? If Mark and I decide that we’re going to see a movie, I “sell” him on what movie I want to see. If you and a friend are deciding where to have lunch, do you ever “sell” her on a place to eat? Anytime someone is using persuasion for any reason, that is a form of “selling.” And, everyone of us do it everyday. (more…)

More and more these days, it seems that it is politically incorrect to “label” someone as a loser. Nobody’s a loser - everyone’s a winner.  Or, one team finishes first, and the other team finishes second. Parents try hard to protect their children from acknowledging “losing” for fear of damaging their self-esteem. However, in a baseball game, clearly one team is the winner when that team scores more runs than the other team. We all can’t be winners every time. The fact is: In any kind of competition, someone is going to “win.”

However, “losing” doesn’t have to be bad. Kids need to learn  how to be good winners and good losers. What one might call “losing” is simply not reaching a particular goal - at that time. And, it teaches us to examine what we did, learn from our experience, and make changes for the next time around. Every experience - winning or losing - is an opportunity to learn something. And, it should be seen as such - not as a final defeat, rather as a lesson to be learned.

Philosophically speaking, though, we ARE all winners - when “winning” is synonymous with “personal victory,” when “winning” is synonymous with “success.” We all have “wins” everyday, and in that sense, we are all winners.

We get caught up in the semantics of winning and losing. We’re all winners and all losers at various points in our lives. But basically we get caught up in labeling. And most of the time, labels are usually both stereotypical and inaccurate .

What started out as a short trip to Sun Valley, Idaho, to run a half marathon turned into more than just an inspiring run in the mountains.

Our original purpose for going to Sun Valley was to run the half marathon; however, when we got there, we discovered that the Sun Valley Wellness Festival was going on. And, a bonus that we weren’t counting on was being able to get tickets to hear Dan Milman speak on Friday night. Dan Milman is a former world champion athlete and author of 13 books, including Way of the Peaceful Warrior.

Most of us already have what we need to be successful, happy, and fulfilled in our lives. It’s just that sometimes we don’t know it and need to have it pointed out. So, we go to seminars, we listen to speakers, we read all the books, we listen to the CDs…all to learn how to get motivated to be successful, happy, and fulfilled.

But it’s not the KNOWING that is the problem - it’s the DOING. The challenge is turning what we know into what we do. Taking Action is the key.

So…

• Do you KNOW what to do to get healthy? Are you DOING it?
• Do you KNOW how to be successful? Are you DOING it?
• Do you KNOW what it takes to be happy? Are you DOING it?

Taking small steps everyday is a start. Although starting is usually the hardest part, it is about  Taking Action. Do something today - A little bit of something is better than a lot of nothing.

All the things I’ve been talking about in my blog up until now converge these few days before the Eugene Marathon. I’m now in the home stretch leading up to race day, and as I prepare for the actual “event,” I reflect on the past 6 months of training:

How you do anything is how you do everything: I commit to a goal, I stay focused, I am disciplined, I manage my time, and I persist until I succeed.

You can’t do it alone: Rarely does anyone achieve any meaningful success on their own. Coach Scott has worked with me for the past 6 months helping me get stronger both physically and mentally. My husband, who often asks, “Can’t we just go on a vacation without having to run a race?” has hung out with me on my long runs setting water along the path so I didn’t have to carry a waterbelt. My kids and friends have listened to me talk about my track workouts, my tempo runs, and my long runs - even when some of them don’t know what the heck I’m talking about.

Everyday we’re tested: I’ve trained through a cold and snowy Idaho winter - one of the coldest in a long time (I hear). I thought training in Idaho would be a piece of cake compared to training in Chicago during the winter. Idaho was no bargain. Cold, snow, ice, rain, wind. I probably ran only half a dozen runs… (more…)