It’s probably redundant to begin each monthly recap here on le blog with sentiments conveying holy shit, how is another month behind us already????! …but damn.

How is September already behind us?!

It’s that time of year, and it’s awesome. There’s so much going on, so much to look forward to, and lots of opportunities for fresh beginnings, that on any given day, I just feel like I bop around (for lack of a better phrase) from task to task, doing lots of behind-the-scenes stuff to help keep The Ship moving in the right direction.

 

It’s particularly during times like these that I am especially happy that I run and that I have chosen to train for, and race, marathons. It’s a luxury, and I get that, but damn, am I ever lucky and fortunate to have it.

I’m at a proverbial season in life that finds my days very segmented and regimented, leaving very little/virtually no wiggle room for error, so when it comes to my running, it’s important to me that every run has a purpose. Don’t get me wrong: I’m one of those types of runners who loves to run all the time, with or without something on the calendar. However, that said, I find that my enjoyment factor is significantly higher — and to be honest, I use my time much better — when I’ve got a deadline (a race) to work toward.

This is all to say that even though this is one of the busiest times of the year for my family and for me, I absolutely love — and am so incredibly grateful — to have begun training for CIM in earnest in September. I ended September with over 200 miles in the bank, about 213, and ran a few races in the mix, including the 6k GGP Open XC meet in SF, the 5k XC meet at Garin, and Viva Calle SJ’s inaugural 5k for fun (the day after Garin, and as part of a LR, woof. No RR because I’m lazy, but it was fun). I’m working under Lisa’s tutelage again for CIM, just as I did for SF ‘18 and CIM ‘17, and we’re having fun with it. On some runs, I feel like my ass is getting handed to me, but for the most part, my ass has been staying exactly where it should be… or something. At any rate, I’m getting stronger, and I feel really, really good.

 

 

 

Suffice it to say that September was good to me as it pertains to my running. Sure, there are definitely enormous dumpster fires going on in other areas of my life right now that leave me equal parts pissed and scratching my head in utter disdain, but as for running… hooray! Let’s keep it up! 

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Eliud effing Kipchoge. How amazing was it to watch him shatter the world marathon record in Berlin in the beginning of September? I know it’s old news by now, but man. We’re going to feel that reverberating for years (decades) to come. I think I read just about everything I could find on the subject on the internet and still feel like I didn’t get enough. Something that I find especially attractive about him (in a “you’re a really fantastic human being” type of sense) is his apparent humility and his absolute eloquence. So much of what I’ve read about him lately — as post-Berlin reactions or otherwise — seem to be completely surprised by how this super fast guy, from probably pretty humble beginnings, can be so supremely athletically gifted and incredibly philosophical and cerebral (if not professorial) simultaneously. You (we) don’t have to treat these tenets as being mutually exclusive. After all, runners often make terrific writers (and by extension, communicators), as we all are well aware. There’s so much online on the subject of runners being writers, and writers being runners, that it strikes me as odd that people seem to be so amazed that this guy’s (really, really) good at both.

 

Boston. Fresher news in the running world revolves around Boston ‘19 and Boston ‘20 and namely, that in order to make Boston ‘19, runners had to run a BQ time -nearly 5 minutes. As if that isn’t powerful enough, the BAA tightened standards beginning for ‘20 and tightened everyone’s qualifying times by 5 minutes. For ‘20, that means just to qualify — not to guarantee your entry and secure a slot in the field — the youngest men will need to run no slower than a 3:00:00 and the youngest women, a 3:30:00. In reality, of course, assuming that the field continues to be as competitive as it was for ‘19, men and women in the youngest age groups (18-34) will likely need closer to a 2:54/2:53 or a 3:25/24 to stand a better chance of their qualifying time being fast enough to allow them entrance to the coveted field. Let that sink in for a minute. A 2:53 marathon. A 3:24 marathon. And those folks would be the slowest qualifiers in the fastest age-based field.

Honestly, I’m pretty stunned. Needing to be five minutes faster than your qualifying time is pretty huge. Boston times are already pretty fast, though I think the delta between men’s and women’s qualifying times may be worth examining. But to require BQ minus-5 minutes (or more) to ensure acceptance? I wonder how much longer it’ll take before BQ times are closer to that of NYC qualifiers.

Personally, essentially nothing has changed for me. I’m about to hop age groups, so my ‘20 qualifying time will stay the same (3:35:00). Unfortunately, I don’t have any solutions as to how the BAA can make this any easier on anyone — I think it boils down to supply/demand 101 — but man. My heart hurts for people who are on the cusp.

I’m really glad I ran Boston the two times I did, but at the second time — literally when I was within the first mile of the race (I remember it vividly, I was on the right side of the road) — I decided then and there that I didn’t want to return to Boston for a long, long time. I trained with people who have gone on to become my lifelong friends, we had an amazing training cycle together through a predictably shitty Chicago winter, and C and I had just an absolute blast in Boston together (pre-kiddos). The icing on my Boston cake was that I ran a great Boston, requalified, and just ran with great joy from start to finish. My Boston experience was positive, and while I feel confident that I can run a faster time there now, I don’t know if my cumulative experience can top what I already have. Sharing is caring, right? Why try to have a “better” experience if you’re already pretty damn happy and satisfied with what you already did? My personal opinion is that unless you are completely en fuego for Boston, don’t register for it. “Give” “your” “spot” to someone who wants to do it with all his/her heart and soul and who has been busting ass to get there. That’s just me, however. Do whatever you want. 

Continuing to qualify is still such a huge honor for me. That’s enough. At this point in my life, I’d much rather revel in my training partners’ and friends’ Boston trainings and experiences because I know how special it all is. I’ve been there. I understand. If you’re reading this and so badly want to be Boston-bound, take it from Desi. Keep.showing.up. I will gladly and enthusiastically support you. I get it. It’s a big deal, and if it’s important to you, keep grinding. You’ll get there.

Reading. I was still in a bit of a lull this month with reading. I haven’t made any more progress on Handmaid’s. I started Dopesick, and while it’s pretty good, it’s just really, really hard to read because my mind goes to my cousin and starts playing all the hypothetical, what if? games. I finally, just recently, got my hands on a copy of Bad Blood (after waiting for it for a few months from the library), and holy shit, it is absolutely ridiculous in just about every way possible. I am so intrigued, enthralled, and disgusted, pretty much all at the same time. I have no words.

Listening. I came upon a new-to-me podcast called Bodies whose pilot I listened to (about birth control), and it was okay. I haven’t listened to another episode simply because I haven’t been in the mood for it. Lauren Fleshman’s and Jesse Thomas’ Work Play Life podcast has had some great episodes in the past month, and Lauren’s guest appearance on Mario’s podcast, the morning shakeout, this month is well worth a listen, too. I also really enjoyed Ben Rosario on Lindsey’s show, I’ll Have Another, and would recommend that to anyone, particularly — and especially — if you’re a fan of Hoka pro athletes. Lots of listening-about-running to be sure, but with it being fall marathon season and all, it’s to be expected.

Writing. Less freelancing this month due to some structural changes for the company/guy for whom I was ghostwriting this past month, but still a little bit, which was fun. I think I may be starting to write under my own actual name (what a novelty!), so maybe I’ll start linking to some of it here on le blog if it actually transpires.

Racing. Racing definitely played a part in my September, including two XC PA races at Garin and in GGP, and for funsies, the inaugural VivaCalle SJ 5k. Come October, I’ll likely do some more XC action as well as a half marathon (gasp!) and some 10ks as part of my build for CIM. In my book, anytime of year is a fantastic time to be a runner, but there’s just something so awesome about running and racing in the autumn.

Family. September was pretty stacked, thanks to the beginning of the school year and the “beginnings” of other life aspects starting up again in earnest, and unfortunately, included in that mix was the eventual folding of my eldest’s swim program. What was a thirty-plus year-old institution is now gone, and the organization that came in to essentially “save” them has also quickly come and gone, leading some to believe that something nefarious may be underfoot, something that starts with E and ends with mbezzlement. Yeah. Not good. Trying to explain business stuff is hard enough as it is, particularly if you’re not equipped with a robust business acumen (ahem), but trying to explain lots of changes to a 7 year-old who’s invested lots of time and energy into being part of one particular team, at one particular location, with particular coaches and teammates — who then had it all taken out from under her — is tough. She’s not alone, obviously, which just makes the magnitude of suckery that much worse. She’s since begun swimming with another organization, so life has gone on, but we could have done without that dumpster fire that consumed the better part of the month.

In preschooler news, she loves it and gave me a good meltdown the other night when I told her we couldn’t go to school at 7pm because it wasn’t open. When she asked me again at 7am if it was time to go, and I said no, another meltdown ensued. How sweet it is to genuinely love school that much.

That’s about it for September. I felt like I was surrounded by dumpster fires in many regards, fires that seemed futile to try to put out, but I guess just like anything else in life, control that which you can and let go of that which you cannot. Knowing your limits can be empowering, or it can be frustrating. Like just about anything else in life, it’s your choice, your call to make.

Final quarter of 2018.

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