What Only .1% of Us Realize: Running a Marathon Brings Joy

What Only .1% of Us Realize: Running a Marathon Brings Joy

This week I assigned my English students the task of writing a Cause and Effect Paper which  entails asking a question starting with "Why" and then solving that question. To get them thinking I showed them the first hour of the documentary, "Hood to Coast," where four teams are followed during an overnight 200-mile relay race from Mt. Hood to the Pacific Coast. I then proceeded to tell them that I've run several relays and marathons. I asked them to ponder, "What causes human being to register for these events?" My smarter students simply turned the question back to me: "Why do you run them Ms. Woodward?" Perhaps they were ready for their minds to turn off, but I would like to think that they were truly curious. Therefore, here is brief analysis of the cause and effect of endurance running:

The Effect: A person (and in my case - a female in her 30s) registers for a marathon, an overnight relay race, or even crazier, a 100-mile trail run.

The Causes: In order to seek camaraderie, and on a deeper spiritual plane to access something beyond himself or herself (be it an emotional escape or a supernatural encounter).

My endurance running began when I finally registered for a local 5k race in my mid-20s. A friend challenged me to run with her so mainly it was a social experience. At the time, however, I was processing the weight of adult responsibilities as well as the extra twenty pounds I had gained since college. Therefore, I took up running in road races and training for road races as a challenge to get in shape and connect with others. Two years after this first race, I registered and ran in my first marathon in order to process the grief of losing my father at a premature age due to cancer. I trained with Team in Training, an organization that raises money to fight the cancer that killed my father. As I completed longer and longer Saturday training runs, I receded deeper and deeper into my grief. Higher mileage and fatigue seems to bring your emotions to the surface and I was no exception. My pace was so slow that no one else competed that first 20 mile by my side. I ran ten miles and at the turn around on a suburban street corner I pumped my fist in the air as if to say, "F. you cancer." and "I'll not forget you Dad." I turned around and ran ten miles back. I finished the last few steps to a few claps from my coach who had been waiting and was more than ready to head home. It did not matter, his lack of enthusiasm or the lack of a crowd; I had gained self-esteem and a release from my grief that day. So much so that the actual race itself a month later came as an anti-climax to the "deeper spiritual release”, I'd attained during my training - though it was also cathartic.

My story connects to the stories of many other female endurance athletes with their own if not similar motivations for running long distances. In 1984, Joan Benoit-Samuelson, who I have met and congratulated, was the first woman to win gold in the marathon in the Olympics; up until that year, many believed that the event was too strenuous for the female body and thus masochistic to include at the games. Joan ran it easily and left the competition far behind her proving the fears outlandish and thus behind us. More recently, the first human being to run continuously three hundred miles was female. Pam Reed outran a male competitor to this historic world record revealing that the female body cannot only handle long distances; it may in fact be more competitive at extreme distances than men. Continue on this strong female accomplishment, it might not be long before more women compete in marathons nationwide then men. "According to Running USA's 2013 Marathon Report, women have gone from being just 11% of all marathon finishers in 1980 to 42% in 2012" (Runners World). A more detailed website crunched all the numbers from marathons in the last 40 years to highlight how many more runners (male and female) now run endurance races then in years past. "In 2012, there were an estimated 850 U.S. marathons, a record high, compared to approximately 300 marathons in 2000 (Running USA). Looking closer at the female demographic, 35% of female runners are age 25-34 and the median age of a female marathon is 35 and has been for the last decade (Running USA).

I fit within this data as I have run several half-marathons, marathons, and endurance relays during this exact age range. During this same time I have started my career, dealt with the economic Recession, enjoyed and yet processed a decade of marriage, and given birth to three children. Despite these stressors and perhaps, due to them, I have eagerly participated in these running events. American women who do marry do so at around a median age of 27, according to the US Census in 2011. However, "the median age of first birth for a woman is now 25.7," which clear places many births and almost a majority of first children as being born out of wedlock in the US (Castillo). A study by Kay Hymowitz, William E. Simon Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, summarizes that this adversely affects mothers with lower education more than mothers who completed college. While women and men are waiting to get married until they are older perhaps due to economic challenges, this delay has seemed to only benefit those who were already fairly financially stable (CNN News).

All this being said, if women in America are choosing to run endurance races in record numbers despite being in an age group prone to a new marriage, a new baby, and perhaps a new career (and all not necessarily in that pretty order) then they are doing so in response to life’s stressors and not due to a surplus of time on their hands. Women who run in a local running group in Elk Grove, California when studied appear to be between age 25 - 65 (most in their 30s and 40s). Many are married and most have children. The runs are often a time to talk about the stressors of balancing many roles in American society, which often now requires women to both work and keep the "home fires burning."

Beyond this sought camaraderie, however intense, endurance racing at the highest level requires a deeper cause. In an interview with Reiko Cyr, a woman who has won several 100 mile endurance races and most recently completed the Western States 100 in under 24 hours, I discovered a truer cause. My question: Why do you run 100 mile races over difficult to say the least terrain, in the middle of the night? Reiko's answer:

"Running really is both bonding and cathartic. I had a friend who once remarked that he didn't like running because it was a solitary sport and unlike a team sport (which he played a lot of), wasn't social. But it's not true at all. It's amazing how much you get to know someone if you run with them. And it is also a personal journey... I was curious about 100 mile races because frankly I was hoping it would strip away all the noise and allow me to hear God or a higher consciousness or what ever one calls it. I wanted a sign or some affirmation. In two of the races I experienced profound joy and connection with everything and everyone. I remember crying with joy at the Buffalo Run and being in love with everything. It sounds kind of crazy. Who knows, maybe it was low blood sugar...but maybe not!"

While Reiko’s blood sugar certainly does lag during a 24 hour race and has left her at times seeing and hearing imaginary people in the middle of the night, her sense of joy at the end of her race is not an isolated occurrence.In the documentary, "Hood to Coast," one mother gathers a team full of her son's old college friends. Her son died prematurely and unexpectedly at age 30 during the previous year. They run as a team with his face on their running shirts and vans. After her middle of the night run, the mother hugs her remaining and living son crying, "I felt him out there with me you know?" Just like Reiko Cyr who was seeking "a sign" or "some affirmation" she ended the race with a feeling of "profound joy." In every endurance race that I have run I have experienced that the longer the event the more profound the joy at the end. Middle-of-the-night relay runs often leave me, as well as my teammates, elated and full of energy. Another runner from the documentary, the Team Captain of “Thunder and Laikening,” previously not a runner, states after her night run, “I wished it would never end.” This elation comes to all runners as the inevitable payoff of the race once it is successfully completed; along the way other little joys and surprising "affirmations" or "God moments" often surface as well.

Despite this payoff over 99.9% of American’s last year chose to NOT run a marathon; running magazines and running culture may have led to an increase in marathon registrations but 518,000 in 2011 is still only .1% of the population. (Running USA). Even more daunting is that fact that only 70,000 of people complete 100 mile races each year (Wiki); if we assumed that all were American, that would be only .02% of Americans. Therefore, more people need to know about the positive stress release and final elation that comes at the end of these endurance races. If with the medal at the end of 100 miles, or 26.5 miles, or an overnight epic 200 mile relay race comes an inevitable moment of "profound joy" the question is no longer, "Why do people run these races?" The question should instead by that with an effect so grand why don't more people run them?

Works Cited:

Castillo, Michelle. "Almost half of first babies born to unwed mothers." CBS News.

"Running USA Annual Marathon Report." Running USA. Web. March. 2013.

“First Births.” American Community Survey 2011. Census Gov. Web. 2011. 

"Ultramarathoning." Wikipedia. Web. Aug. 2013.

The Oak Tree Said to the Rose - or sometime you have to go it alone

Today I'm sitting under the historic walnut trees in my backyard, feeling the Delta Breeze from San Francisco hit my face, while a naked toddler prances in his little pool beside me. That sounds like an opening to another reverie.  I ran a tempo run today and averaged 9:50 mile pace, I'm pushing hard to run a 5k next Saturday, and keep focusing all summer on weight loss and pace improvement, not really long distance. My run today reminded me about how sometimes it is nice to run with someone for a couple miles but if they keep saying, "You can leave me behind," it is perfectly okay to do so. 

Not sure what that says about life and relationships, but I do think it does say something. Especially when I see many women that I work with or that I teach arriving late to appointments or school or not remembering who they are and what they are capable of due to abusive or draining people in their lives. For example, one student of mine might be in a human trafficking relationship, where her family relies on her to cook, clean and care for them all, making her endlessly late to school. This week she showed up late and almost vomited in class due to exhaustion after getting in a traffic accident and not getting to the hospital the day before. She looked at me and said, “After class I have to help someone in my family move, I can’t go to the hospital.” I asked her, “Do you have car? Did you drive here?” She said, “Yes.” So why does someone with a car not just drive away from such abuse, such craziness, such slavery. You are a young girl with no children, you have a car, so flee your situation? I ask the same question when I get  a text from dear friend unable to see her husband’s emotional abuse for what it is, questioning her own “sins as a wife” when time and time again he has failed to say sorry. I think of my student and then my friend as a run. Now my running partner is neither abuser to me nor in an abusive relationship, instead she is a gem of a chatter-box who helps the miles tick by and graciously shares her water and Sport Beans so I graciously slow down to run her pace. However, when she said again, "Don't let me slow you down," and we only had 1 mile left, I kicked up the pace, dropped her behind and suddenly felt free to run my own pace, and then and only then did I discover what I was really capable of - speed. Alone. And that was fine.

No more excuses

It happened when I looked at the photos from our recent trip and noticed the slightly chubby triceps and other extra weight. It is time to up my game and get back in the ring and whatever other cliche I can throw at this extra baggage. I still have 15 pounds to loose from my last pregnancy, and another 5 after that to get down where I want to be for running.

So today I found the hardest hill in Elk Grove to run and I went out and ran it. 8 times. In the 90 degree heat. It felt good to sweat, think of all those folks locked up in their Air Conditioned Cars wondering, "what is she doing?", and just pound out the calories.

I've also found that whenever I diet and exercise to loose weight I do need a team of others working alongside me in order for me to succeed. Therefore, I sent an email out to some co-workers challenging them this week to join me as I:
1) focus on eating lots of fruit and veggies and little else
2) give up all liquids except for water, milk, and black tea
3) exercise till I can't talk for at least 20 minutes a day (hence cardio)

Feel free to take up the challenge with me this week, you might loose a couple pounds. Then again if you have not reached your own "no more excuses" moment yet, then you are excused.

Sophy's Amazing Answer to the Question: "Why do I run?"

Why do I call myself a running mom?  Well, seems I’ve always been running, mostly away from things.  As a middle child in a very competitive set of six kids, I often felt left out or forgotten.  So I’d temporarily runaway.  OK, I hid away from everybody else and took off to daydream.  As a result, I developed a drive to be independent and different from everyone else in my family.

I hated the used bike my sister had to share with me, so one Christmas, I saved up all my money to buy my own bike.  It was way too little.  But I found out that I could buy a unicycle with what I had, so I did.  I learned to ride it and became a fixture in my inner city neighborhood as that “kid on a unicycle” running errands.

Being the third girl attending parochial school, I often had the misfortune of being “another one” from that family.  So when it came time to pick out a high school, I chose a local one that I could walk to and break away from the sigma of my older sisters.  Running again, up the hill to school, and down again every day.  I made it through four years without a single tardy slip.

The continuous competition at home drove me to distraction.  So during my high school years I ran away from it through school activities, volunteer work and Junior Achievement. I was running away from my life at home.

I tried to run as a sport on my own during high school, but with no instruction, no school team, and neighborhoods I didn’t even like to walk through around me, it didn’t last long.  I had injured myself chasing after a bus and pulled my groin muscle badly.  At the local junior college I decided to take up weight lifting as a way to rehab it.  The coach suggested I try cross-country, so I did.  At the time I didn’t know the women’s cross country team needed more members.  I just signed up and ran!

I learned how to pick a shoe.  I learned about form.  I learned to run a seven-minute-mile.  OK, I couldn’t run more than five miles, but I learned to run as a sport.  I loved it.  It didn’t last.  When the season was over, I did some paid runs.  But in the early 80’s it was all about the competition.  I wasn’t fast enough to be competitive.  Then again taking two or three busses to and from runs wasn’t easy.  Nor was running with my sweats in a pack very comfortable.  I never checked my gear out of fear it would disappear.  So I ran away from running too.

At age 21, I moved away from home.  Just a few blocks for my first apartment, but I was out!  I had a job and was independent.  Ten years later, I married my long-time boyfriend.  Ten years after that and in our third apartment, we finally had our son.  To give him a better life than what we could afford in the big city, we moved to Elk Grove.  The ultimate runaway!  I became a home-mom.  Shortly after moving here, I discovered an ad for an inaugural 4th of July run that celebrated the incorporation of my new hometown.  I signed up and was instantly reconnected with running.

I joined a running group and got introduced to relay running.  Got hooked and continued that for six years.  Next I got hooked on distance running.   Now I’ve got half a dozen half marathons completed and have my goal set on a full 26.2 mile marathon.  I assist with my son’s track team at his school and chase the kids around the field shouting encouragement.  I’ve running friends who inspire and motivate me.  I run for “me” time where I don’t have to answer to anyone or make any decisions except how far and where I am running.

And my 11-year-old son…he wants to run a half marathon with me before he turns 13.  I am a running mom.

The Running Mom's Dilemma - please contribute

The Running Mom’s Dilemma

Today while running with two other super mothers we started chatting about the relative highs and lows of mothering and running in our current land of the strong and free. Each one of us has to wrestle with how to balance all the roles we play with an inner sense of self value and worth. The Running Mom’s Dilemma is an essay, blog, that might become a book highlight how and why we fight for this time, for ourselves to run. How it then makes us better mothers and wives and daughters and perhaps also employees or even bosses. Now the three of us are just three mothers in our corner of America, in sunny Elk Grove, California, but we know that in truth the numbers of us are growing across America. According to the magazine every Running Mom loves to glance at right after a good night to the kids, and romance with the husband, and before the night lights go off, women now make up 51% of all those marathon running in races in 2011! We are out there in droves. Running together and processing together (if we have wind in our lungs to talk while running) and thus this book is an attempt to share that run with you all.

You will join our running group by just reading this blog/essay/book, but first you must get to know the players and what are our passions. What drives us to get up early and run? Now this should also be your own question for there are many mothers who never do such a crazy act. My mother never did (except for that aerobics class back in college) and neither did my dairy farming great grand mothers, or immigrant grand mother. Sarah, that’s me, is 34 and has been running since she was 4^th string on the high school basketball time and always felt like the wanna-be athlete on the team. Coming from a family that had struggled (perhaps due to that longing for dairy products) with obesity I often got competitive as a child but in my family that really meant who could eat the most slices of pizza for dinner. After my father died at age 49 of cancer (that could have been masked by his obesity) my passion for running was renewed at age 21. But running has ALWAYS been there for me as an outlet. As I run I can go to a zone that is much like holding a yoga pose, or stating the Nicene Creed in church, or saying a simple prayer. Now that I’ve mothered 3 children in 5 years I need running more than ever but am now firmly facing the Running Mom’s dilemma: when to find the time to run, where is my balance?

Sophy's bio...

Shannon's bio...

In this text, besides helpful running tips and resources we also want share with you some of our other passions and knowledge on how live a balanced life in this crazy culture that is post-modern America. Sophie knows how to shop simply, cook simply, and thus create amazingly chemical-free food on a tight budget. Shannon is the queen of staying fit with two young kids by hiking, creative cardio cleaning, giving, and using children for weight resistence. Sarah is a suburban homesteader whose chicken flock has now supplied her family and friends, raises organic meat and fruits and veggies on her ½ acre lot at the end of the cult-de-sac, and finds solace in Christian prayer and meditation that she hopes will also lead you to intimacy with God and your loved ones. In a way isn’t a running mother a bit of a revolutionary against this American couch potato culture? In our quest for wholesome living we have given up the couch for the trail, the soda pop for an occasional glass of red wine, and the stress for a feeling of contentment and joy. We hope our little book will inspire you to get out there and join the Mommy running party – you are about to join ours.Please contribute if you want to join the discussion.

Re engage Core

      I've been injured really ever since my marathon in December of 2010. That year, up until that race was really amazing for me and my running self. Improvement just sky rocketed and even though I ran my 5k, 10k, and one mile personal records on tired legs (from work outs the day before) I knocked old times out of the ball park. For instance, in college and really throughout my 20s I couldn't ever really run a mile faster than 9 minutes. In 2010, I ran 5 in a row at 8:00 and then finished that workout with a 7:32 mile (faster than high school). In my 20s and early 30s, I would often run 5ks in around 31 minutes, or at a 10:00/mile pace. In that magical year of 2010, I ran one at 29, 27 and then 25:25 (winning my age group at a local 5k) and 8:25/mile pace. Older half marathon times hovered around 2:30, in 2010, I hit 1:59. Older marathon time was 6:45, so I was planning on around a 4:15 when I towed the line of my amazing, heady, self-confidence inducing year.

 But as English majors and tragedians will tell you: "Pride comes before a fall."

       I fell hard but I must say it was still an accomplishment. At mile 20 of that fateful marathon, my left hip gave out. I could feel it slip and then my gait just wasn't right again. And when I say again, I mean from that day until today. That would be 16 months of my gait no longer being right and my left hip aching when I try to jog (any distance). Now within 9 of those 16 months I was pregnant. The other 8 months have been spent nursing and attaching to and caring for a third child. Therefore, I have not focused on finding out why my hip wasn't working right and getting it fixed. In fact, I sort if ignored the problem as best I could - especially during the first hour in which it occurred because, "by gum it, I have a marathon to finish!". I finished my marathon in 5:04 (limping painfully to the finish), which probably didn't help my hip's timeline for healing.

      So that magical year of 2010 I must let you go! The year where I ran 7:32 in the mile, 8:25 in the 5, 8:45 in the 10k, 9:07 in the half marathon, and 11:11 in the marathon - must be let go of and instead I must now rejoice in May 12th, 2012.

       For today I ran a one mile time trial in ...drum roll...10:16 (okay I know that is a serious let down)...but....I ran it pain FREE. My hip did not give out. I did not feel any hip pain as I've been working with a Sport Medicine Doctor and Physical Therapist to rebuild my piroformis strength as well as my core. I am labeling this year the year of rebuilding. My simple if not slightly intense goal is to run a half marathon in September pain free. That is it. No time goal. Just to get to the start without pain and end it without pain. In my mind tonight I just kept reminding myself to "engage hips, engage core" over and over. I have to rebuild my gait so that I recognize the early warning signs of my hips decline before I get to mile 20 and am injured for a year an a half.

     This matches another lesson God is teaching me in my own heart about not pushing myself to the brink emotionally or physically before slowing down and asking for help. The core must be rebuilt before new heights can be reached. So I'm learning what is my core and how to rebuild it. Sounds like a task worth all my efforts and all my rest.

The Value of Me

Once upon a time I was Sarah Frutchey. Some of you knew me back then. I was perhaps say, 16-years-old, a bit too into myself, and quite independent (or so I thought). I headed off to college with heady dreams of an undefined future, guided by Jesus, to hopefully a joyful end. I wanted to make a difference, change the world, perhaps act in a few plays, and maybe be a family counselor or a theater teacher.

Now I'm a 33-year-old Sarah Woodward. I'm called, "Hon! Mom! Mommy! MOOOOOMMMMMMYYYYY!!!" and a variety of other names. My every day choice effect not only my day but the feeding and care of my family. A third baby is due any day, and will add to the wonderful people who really need my love, quality time, and patience.

I feel a bit like a giant spider connected to many other parts of giant web. Or perhaps a bit more like pumpkin vine feeding a lot of pumpkins.

So underneath all the wonderful people I would say I help "feed" I also recognize the need to be fed myself. I appreciate all the precious friends who help feed me with prayers, hugs, helping hands, and encouragement. I also am blessed by those people who know and reflect me back to me. Helping me to define who I am, essentially, within and surrounded by relationships. I can't suspend my relational definitions as they help define me and grow me. However, there is an essential Sarah - I remember her - she was there in the quiet moments of the Rogue Valley woods at age 15, wandering around praising God and wondering what I'd be at age 30.

Holding onto the value of me, who I was created to be, and how I love to create, envision, inspire, and dive right in helps me believe that I am always worth recreating and rediscovering. And all this comes back to why I always love "getting back in shape" quickly after being pregnant and why I love running and eating healthy. These acts are a part of valuing the essential me that is underneath the layers of Mommy pounds that come at month nine of each pregnancy. Where is Sarah? She is there somewhere. Time to value her and bring her back to the surface.

A Blank Sheet

I logged into my garmin online account after months - 7 to be exact - and cannot locate any of my previous data on my years of running! So frustrating. But I guess it is also freeing. Now I only have my memory of my fastest Personal records to remember. No more obsessing about the highs and lows of my previous running career.

I have 51 days till the likely birth of this baby. Within two weeks after his birth, somewhere near Labor Day, I should have only about 25 pounds to loose to get back to prepregnancy weight. I figure with some healthy eating, breastfeeding, and some swimming and weights I can start working out 5 weeks or so after his birth. It won't take me long.

I plan to be back to 145 by hmmmmmmm Halloween. Hopefully my leg injury will also mend if I do lots of yoga, swimming, and massage to get my weight down. After Halloween, if my leg doesn't hurt, then I can start running more in earnest. I could run in a CIM relay team in December!

Or I could run a half marathon in February.

It is always good to envision the path ahead. Since I've lost my data about how I did this before I'll just have to go by feel this time.

Finding my Foggy Limit

Hello friends....It feels so long ago that I ran my marathon in December. On that day I was unknowingly pregnant and weighed about 145 pounds. I'm now up 30 pounds and I'm at 30 weeks - just ten weeks to go (or so I keep telling myself).

How I miss running. I miss just heading out the door running a quick three miles, seeing the creek and feeling the wind and sun, and rejoicing that my body was fit, fast, and balanced.

Right now I just feel so awkward and off balance. The big belly does this, as well as my leg injury which keeps reoccurring, and the fatigue of pregnancy will hit me just like a large wall of fog. When I least expect this fog all the sudden I MUST sit, I MUST rest, I MUST no longer move.

But I am a creature of movement: of action: of forward motion: of running. How I miss running. All my forward motion, however, must now be working inwardly. This little boy is growing within me very rapidly. He started out quiet and now he pokes and prods me and has a heart that makes the nurses eyes get big and say, "Strong heart!" I think he has stolen my running heart and is using it for his own nefarious purposes. I miss my heart and lungs. I want them back.

But this to "shall pass.."

How grateful I am though for my health before this pregnancy. I believe that one day my leg will heal, I won't be pregnant and I might once again run one mile...then two...then three.. and on up...until I once again hit my foggy limit. Without a pregnancy that limit won't be just walking up the stairs or down the block. It will only be as far as my legs will take me...which can be, for any of us, really damn far!

Much love to you all - Sarah

Struggling with injury

Basically the nerve doctor in Kansas City was right, I should not run marathons due to a groin injury I sustained when in labor with Lincoln. My left leg (inner thigh nerve system) is damaged and therefore has the endurance of a 65-year-old woman. So after I would say about 15 miles it re-routes all communication to use back up muscles. This throws off my gait and over uses other smaller muscles in my left leg to the point of injury. Basically my left leg stops working completely near the end of the marathon, even if I it is extremely strong due extensive training. It is the nerves that shut down and fail me.

So I'm over three months from the race and I still cannot run three miles without feeling a lot of leg pain and tightness the day afterwards. The last time I overextended my left leg in a race was when I ran the "hilliest 5k in America" only months after birthing out Lincoln. It just goes to show that I can really gut out any race, even when I'm injured. But it also reminds me of when Paula Radcliffe (the World Record holder in the marathon for women) gutted out an entire marathon at the 2008 Olympics while injured and the commentators said, "this is a gutty performance but I really hope Paula isn't doing permanent damaged to herself with this race."

I keep asking myself what is the limit then of my legs endurance. When is the point of no return, after which I really should NOT be running. My leg pain started, I think, when I started into the last half of my marathon training (running 15-20 miles every Saturday morning). The pain was only slight then, however, so I ignored it. I also wonder if I were to invest in regular weekly massage during the last stage of marathon preparation, could I still push through more marathon seasons.

This injury took a year to recover from last time and is especially disheartening because I have dreams to run a 50k trail run someday (which is over 30 miles) and compete in other endurance races (perhaps a half Ironman like my brother Eddie). Today I go in for a 90 minute massage session. If I feel this massage therapist is effective, I'll sign up for a massage every one to two weeks, until my leg recovers. That was the ONLY effective treatment last time, massage along with yoga. It is painful deep massage, that is the only one that works for this injury, but I'm tired of not being able to run. POUT!

On a side note I did run three miles this week and despite injury and being four months pregnant I ran the first mile at around 9:50 and the second at around 10:20. My leg gave out the last miles and slowed to around a 12:00 but my heart and lungs felt totally capable of going much faster.

Cheer me on please!

What the marathon felt like

I did it! I ran 26.2 miles and I only stopped to walk when my quads seazed up and forced me to watch. I set a new PR and I completed it pretty much on my own. It took me 5:04:48 (11:38 pace).

This is how it felt.
Pre-race: I was nervous but excited and highly caffeinated. A bit lacking in sleep.
The gun went off!
I jogged as slow as I thought I could and still ran mile 1 at a 10:13.
That was okay but I should have started slower. My goal was a 10:18 pace.

Mile 2 - 7: My running partner and I booked it downhill at a 9:40 average pace. I would feel and regret this later.

Mile 8 - 14: Was an unforeseen hilly section of the course. I knew it was rolling hills but it felt really hard. I struggled to stay ahead of 10:20 and my pace dipped to 11:00. By the half marathon point I was on pace at 2:14 BUT I could tell I had used up a lot of my legs endurance on the hills.

Mile 15 - 20: I spent these miles looking desperately for my family. I needed some encouragement as my pace kept slipping and the 4:30 pacer caught up with me and passed me at mile 16. I struggled to keep an 11:40 pace

Mile 20: It was awesome to see a huge crowd at this point and my family and most importantly my brother Eddie (who joined me to pace me home). The next three miles I talked to him about how my legs were dead and he encouraged me to just keep moving forward. I'm amazed I eeked out two 12 minute miles at this point.

Mile 23 - 25: Low point for sure. I was running 15:00 and stopping every .25 to stretch my quads which would just stop working all together. When I stopped I felt pain in every last inch of my body. I struggled to keep the shuffle moving forward.
At this point a school bus was trolling the race for the wounded and it kept slinking past me (and folks inside would yell, "come in here for margaritas!") This wasn't fair. I was emotional and yelled things to myself and sought encouragement from the crowd and from Eddie and from Kat (a friend who passed me and said keep going). The bands the last mile were really good and helped me have a sense of humor. I tried to dance along as passed each one.

Mile 26: I did this last mile in 12:38 or so, which was fantastic! Considering I had NOTHING LEFT! The last .25 I picked it up to a 10:30 pace at points. I was SOOOOO ready to be done. In the last 50 feet I sprinted past 5 women!

End of race: When I tried to lift my foot onto the chip timer step I couldn't do it.
My brother Eddie came up behind me and caught hold of me and helped me walk to a space to sit down. I could hardly balance and I was immediately freezing. I had left it all out there in the race and Eddie had to guide me to a place to lay down for 10 minutes before I could really even sit up. I had also spent most of the race with a tummy ache, afraid of throwing up, but thankfully I never did.

I came home with a beautiful medal which I am going to show the kids at church tonight. And I'm proud of how I trained for this race and completed it 97 minutes faster than my last marathon.

My thanks go out to my fam anf friends

Patience

I believe in God.

I believe that I'm NOT God.

But sometimes I try to run faster then God.

This week I'm hardly running at all. I'm resting. My marathon is four days so this is called a taper. When you hardly run at all and store up food and water for the hardest run yet. I feel a lot of pent up energy. I want to go out with a bang.

But even when the gun goes off I will have to run slow. Slower then I will want to run.
In order to finish at a steady pace instead of slowly walking to the finish line. I will still be waiting. Through mile one to mile 20 to really let my legs go the pace they want to go.

Spiritually...I also get impatient with God. I want to go and with God make things right with people right away. I crave unity. I hate conflict. And I rarely enjoy waiting for resolution.

So this week I'm trying to practice waiting. Being patient with myself, others, and with God.

At some point I will run with all my might...just.......not.........yet.........

One step after another

When you start out intending to run 20 miles without stopping for any reason the task ahead of you can feel daunting. You wonder if you can really make it the entire way, do you have the resources to draw on, or will you fail. These worries are not unlike the ones you might experience when facing a large decision that you know will have lasting consequences on my life. You start to lean towards saying yes to something new and as you gain momentum the thrill of that new change charges toward you along with the fear of what it will bring.

This is not unlike the fear of the marathon, you take your first step and before you know it you've run a mile and then two and then three. Once you turn around at the half way point you realize I'm almost there and perhaps you speed up like horse searching for the stable. But then the stable scares you by how far away it is and how unattainable that goal is and you slow down greatly doubting your ability to keep this pace all the way home.

Recently my feelings of fear, hope, excitement and anticipation that I feel during a my long runs (which last over 3 hours) mirror my self-doubt as my life approaches drastic changes and choices. I interview for a job tomorrow that would return me to work and out of my comfort zone of staying at home with the kids. My husband and I are also being certified to be foster/adopt parents through the county and may have kids in our home somewhat quickly.

I anticipate the new lessons I'll learn when my life changes often for the better. I'm so blessed to run. So blessed to even live in a country where I can work, run, adopt children, and feed them all. So worrying about these changes isn't more than just stretching my legs in the first few miles of a marathon. Isn't it?

Trying my best

I ran a local 1/2 marathon on hilly terrain and my coach is saying this terrain is similar to the hills of my marathon. My stamina really fell after mile 10 but I'm still proud of the fact I ran 11 miles at 9:35 pace on those hills.
I borrowed a Garmin from my friend Francis since mine was destroyed this weekend in a freak motorcycle accident. I love knowing my pace. The Garmin ran out of juice the last two miles though but here is the breakdown.
1 8:49

2 8:58

3 9:11

4 9:48

5 9:08

6 9:33

7 9:46

8 10:06

9 9:46

10 10:05

11 9:44

12 11:24

13 11:24

2:09:26 (9:54 pace)


I was 42nd in my age group out of 121 women ages 30-34!


350 out of 838 women!

Oh and my favorite is that I ran the race alone and beat 37 of the 81 three-person relay teams!

If I can run a marathon still posting sub 10 minute mile pace overall, so around 4:20 I will be amazed. I will push my pace hard this weekend when I run 18 - 20

Thanks for your support everyone!

Sarah

5 minutes of Running

My last country run was down a lonely road into the small town of Jacksonville.
I wasn't sure where I was running to or towards. I knew I had a few options. Grandmom's first house, or the house she recently died in, or her new gravesite. I ended up on the back porch of the house she had most recently lived in. Around me were the various gardening tools and whimsical decoration ideas she'd left behind her. Shells in a glass jar. A red necklace on a stone grasshopper. A metal toy bike in a flower box. A wind compass on the roof.

I couldn't really cry at the funeral, or when I found out she had died, but after running 2 miles to this porch I could cry here for 5 minutes and then suck it up again to run back. I left the 5 minutes on my watch as they were a part of my run.

The ability fo fuel

The next six weeks I'll be running longer and longer on Saturdays. I feel slow right now on these marathon training runs because I often approach them improperly fueled due to my upset stomach issues.

However, last Saturday however was heavenly. I ate a large dinner late at night of bland rice pasta. My stomach was relaxed and happy.

I awoke after a good night of sleep, relatively, and with a settled tummy and legs full of energy. My run felt easier then it has for weeks. I ran around 14 miles all at a pace I could be proud of.

So I keep hoping that my tummy troubles are lessening even though today something has made my tummy unhappy. Was it the coffee? Or the ketsup?

Here is hoping that the next few runs will be easier and easier as long as I stay VERY strict on my diet. Oh, and I am loosing a bit of weight each week so I do need to really refuel carefully as I'm craving protein a lot after these runs, but meat can also aggravate my tummy. Especially spicy sausage.

Next up 16 miles, then 18, then 20 then 22 (I will attempt these on Saturdays in November) so hopefully that week is full of great refueling and a steady tummy.

16 minute miles to 7 minutes miles - How to get there

My most recent running journey is as old as my 18-month-old daughter. Although I've been a runner since my youth, the pregnancy and then birth of a child is a touchpoint in both my athletic as well as spiritual life. With the birth of my second child, Zoe, I entered a new realm of motherhood. This is one where I can't have all my ducks, or children, in a row. I've always been I think calm as a mother, even with my first. People used to comment that I was so calm with Lincoln as he tried out his legs and independence it was as if this was my third child. But with the birth of my 2nd I am in a place that requires even more patience and resilience.

I'm at home providing daycare for my kids and their two cousins and sometimes some extra friends thrown in for good measure. The kids often make me laugh but they also make me yell out, "OH NO!" They are especially happy if I get down on the floor with them instead of towering about them bossing them around. But when you are a busy adult with a house you need to keep in order it can feel painstakingly slow to get down and talk to a child. Teaching them something new can take even longer but it can be so rewarding in the end when they look up to you with that smile.

So last night, I was running with my running group around the track and for the first time in a while my running and my mothering worlds collided. Nate actually had a night off from work and so he appeared track side with the kids mid-workout. My kids started hollaring, "Go Mommy!" each time I came around their side of the track. When I finished an interval and walked by they both ran onto the track to hug me, like I had won the race. They pushed me to my fastest mile ever in my life (7:38) and that was in the middle of a long hard workout of mile intervals. I felt like I'd run two races, my physical one with myself and the mommy race (trying to raise good kids who still love me in the end).

My new mile time also was cause for me to stop and reflect on how far I've come both as a runner and as a mother, since 18-months-ago. I'm sure a blog post talks about my first run AFTER giving birth to Zoe. I remember it as a long slow slog at a 16 minute mile, which is really a creative walking pace. I was pushing Lincoln in a stroller and had left Zoe with Daddy and finally gotten myself outside after 6 weeks of full-time newborn mothering. Since then I've learned a few things that helped both my mothering AND my running to get me where I am today. Here are a few.

Persistence.
If you get out and run every other day or so and try running a little faster or harder each time you will get faster. Also with kids if you set a boundary or teach a new lesson or get up and hold them tight in the middle of the night, this persistence will lead to happy children and a system that works well. If I get down on my kids level and open my arms they know they will get a hug. If I start counting down from three and I get to one before they have listened they know they are going to the bedroom.

Joy.
Does what you are doing give you joy? Persistence can really knock the joy out of my running or my mothering so I need rest to refuel and come back again. I also need to remember the good and easy runs and the good and easy days mothering so that I can keep plugging along with them. I recall the giggles between siblings playing in the other room as I get some cleaning done or the sunrise over the American river as some Canadian geese fly over our running trail. Both these moments refuel me and remind me what I love about running and mothering. If I don't feel the joy then I need a break.

Friendship.
Sometimes to find my joy again I need the company of friends. One of my dearest friends comes over at least once a week with her two children and we don't sit around complaining about our lives. We instead invite each other to help us recount the joy in our lives. We fuel the smoldering flames under our joy for mothering, and other pursuits. My friend said to me just yesterday, "I'd rather have my kids be cranky here then at home with me by myself." Just like my running partners who often say, "I couldn't have run today without you." There is joy in the moment in the act of running and mothering when you have a friend by your side.

Pride.
On that day 18-months ago I felt weak, overweight, and trapped in a body and new life that were so heavy and challenging. But even in that moment I felt the sense that I could accomplish anything. I sensed that if I could climb up out of that weakness into strength I could be proud of myself and that would be a great challenge to conquer. When I'm around friends who have no self-worth I feel drained. I try to fan the fires of, "you can do it!" beneath them to start up their joy again but they don't have any self pride to start with. If you want to become something different you can, but only you can convince yourself. You have to believe in the end product before you will ever get there. I believe that someday I will run the Boston Marathon. I also believe that someday my kids will grow up loving each other, the world, and their families. I can see the mountain top and will reach for it.

Running Relays

Early on in our overnight relay race, our 12-person team decided it would be a great goal to actually beat 24 hours to travel 187 miles by foot. That is the neat thing about these crazy relay races, is that others depend upon your performance both mentally and physically. Whenever the baton was handed to me I felt the surge of responsibility to do my best to get through my run as fast as I could so that we could meet our time goal. In the end I performed a lot better then I would have on my own.

My first leg was a rather hilly 10k course with lots of shade and glimpses of the Pacific Ocean. I finished it in a 9:06 pace per mile which was way better than a flat and hot 10k I'd completed a month earlier in 9:50 pace. I then helped with other tasks of timing, driving, and guiding my teammates to and from other handoffs as the sun set. We passed of the baton to team 2 and tried to get some sleep on a creaky gym floor which runners kept walking on. It was impossible without some serious earplugs so I just gave up.

My next run was only 2.7 miles at 3am and I wish I had taken this run faster. It was over before I knew it and at the same pace too. I could have run this faster but i got a bit disoriented in the dark streets of Anacortes, WA (no street lights).

Pushing the team forward by driving the old Vanagon up steep hills from 3am on till 6am was the hardest part of the race for me. It was harder then running for sure. Staying alert while driving and making sure you follow directions are really hard tasks at this stage.

The middle of the night logistics as well as proper hydration, fueling of the car and yourself, and containing inflammation are all key parts of making it through a relay safe, sound, happy, and a winner.
A sense of humor is key at this time of the race as well as a high tolerance for smells and crowds.

My final leg was looming after one hour of sleep and a pile of pancakes. It was a 7 mile trek up some serious hills and down a steep backside. Each hill slowed me to a 11 minute mile pace, as I raced down the other side at sub 7 minute pace. In the end I ran this last leg in 9:40 pace (still faster than that flat 10k back home). My personal finish was down a steep downhill to the ocean and to some awesome music my husband was playing for me on his dulcimer.

Our team finished just below 24 hours and in 16th place out of around 200 teams. My overall pace for 15 hilly miles was 9:20, a lot faster then my 11:10 pace of two years ago. Relays definately have a way of kicking me into gear.

Running intervals in heat

I'm in the heat of the summer, not my own female heat or something, and it is the dog days of that heat down here in Sacramento. My local running race team that I joined has a crazy 67-year-old coach who does NOT care if it is 100 degrees out we should still show up to the track to run intervals every Tuesday at 6pm (rain or shine and boy does it shine). SO I thought i was prepared with my water and electrolytes, but I put too much of it in the water which made it like I was swallowing cotton balls. I borrowed water like a mad woman. Not even asking some team members and gulping down a kids water like it was mine.

I ran 4 X 1200 meeters in that heat in something like:
6:15
6:01
6:38 (jogged around high school to find a bathroom to cool off in for 5 minutes and stuck my head in the sink)
6:22 (I ran this last one only because my coach gave me a hard time when I returned to the HOT track).

As a side note. I've regained about 10 pounds this month of travel to Seattle and eating stuff like lattes, endless salmon, dolmas at Pikes Place, Crumpets with marmalade from Pikes Place, endless morning pancakes, pastries from coffee shops, an entire crab, wine, beer, hot dogs and bread.

So I'm reimplementing my food and training diary via Excel tomorrow morning and I hope to loose 15 pounds in the next two months.

A typical run in Haiti

While in Port au Prince I was lucky enough to stay in a real building with running water, electricity, and food. This building was protected from the masses of hungry Haitians by a concrete wall and large steel door. Whenever I felt fortified enough internally I would venture outside of our walls with my teammates to bring food, and what hope we have due to our Lord Christ, out to the Haitians.

Several teammates were college students from around the US who I just met when I arrived at the Apparent Project guest house. Thankfully, they were runners, as many friends and family donated $900 toward our relief efforts which required me to run 9 miles while in Haiti. I did this by running 2.5 miles four mornings while I was there. So as I was saying the college kids helped me for though I was 10 years their senior they were more knowledgeable about how to run in HAITI. They knew that 6am is a good time to start (before it is 90 degrees out)and by 6:30am it is too hot and the roads are crowded with tap taps (trucks converted into taxis).

After exiting our gate, we would take a left up the hill on the river bed like roads, and continue up hill at a 11 min mile pace for about 1 mile. Then turn left at a pile of rubble or a corn row or a goat. We would weave in and out of these hilly roads and then after another 1/2 mile we would turn onto the main road (which was just busier and full of tap taps and vendors). My guides would point out churches, schools, and mass graves.

To avoid the vendors (on the 2 foot dirt curb) or the tap taps competing for the one lane but coming both directions, we would often run on the only concrete curb we could find (a four inch precipice). My deft running partners, always ahead of me would jump onto this four inch wide path and run straight and sure and then hop over this toxic puddle and that pile of rubbish, dash around a vendor or some school children (to each we said, "Bonjou."). I'd always follow obediently. At times we turned heads in our tight running tanks and short shorts, and sometimes kids teased and ran with us in flip flops.

One of my running partners told me of a time when she was running up hill in her Nike gear and how a Haitian woman overtook her running in flip flops with a full basket of plantains on her head. In other words, the fact that you can even go running for fun means you are wealthy as I believe this woman was running for some other purpose than fun. Running in Haiti was a lot of fun for me and a lot of work but it was like all things in Haiti, it reminded me how thrilling it is this live and how blessed I am to have shoes.

Haiti might be a place to run to or with next. For you or for me. But since you are American, and you have the wealth and health to go running, get out and run. Even if that just means figuratively. The world needs you in some way to exit your gated community and hike up the steep dirt hills.

This week I was lucky enough to run on paved streets in the mid-80s of my California suburb and tomorrow I get to test my prowess in a local 10k race (unheard of in Haiti). Each step I hope to remember a few of the miles I ran through the streets of Port au Prince, with Ali, Molly, and Luis, and a few smiling Haitian children. I think I might miss the precipice, the rubbish, the goat, the obstacle course of Haiti somehow made me feel alive.