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2014, from the halfway point

2014, from the halfway point

It’s a bit strange to think that we’re already at the halfway point, or past the halfway point, anyway, of 2014. In the absence of doing weekly training recaps as I had done from January-March for Oakland, I figured I could post a quick update with how training has been going here in SJ.  (Related: we’ve already lived here as a family for six months. Whoa).

family time at Daddy's work party
family time at Daddy’s work party

More often than not, training seems like it’s an experiment of one. What works for you may produce horrific results for me, what works for me could possibly make you want to keel–or whatever–but the funny thing is that regardless of what does or doesn’t work for us, we don’t know anything until and unless we try. And my experiment, thus far in 2014? Four marathons, five months… and with the intention of racing three of them. I wouldn’t necessarily advise that anyone do this, but hey, if you want to, the roads are yours and yours alone.

get after it!
the roads are a-callin. get after it!

 

how it's gone down.  Week 12: Oakland Marathon (3/23); Week 22: Newport Marathon (5/31); Week 26: ZOOMA Napa Valley Half Marathon (6/25); Week 28: Jungle Run Half Marathon (7/13)
how it’s gone down.

That training screenshot isn’t the clearest, but basically:

I’m elated to say that the past six months of training and racing have gone really well and have been pretty consistent. Sure, I made some stupid mistakes that cost me the performances I wanted at Oakland or Newport, but when I step back and look at my training and racing from a bigger perspective–much as I try to do when I look at my weekly and monthly training logs–I’m actually pretty satisfied. The consistency is there, and in that regard, I’ve used and have more or less continued to use Pfitz’s 70/12, and combining that with remaining healthy, and thanks to Coach Jay Johnson’s GSM and Matt Fitzgerald’s brain training techniques (which I keep typing as “braining”), getting physically and mentally stronger, I think I’m setting myself up for a favorable year. Time will tell.

Oakland-ing
Oakland-ing
Newport-ing with Kel and Austin
Newport-ing with Kel and Austin
Napa-ing, home of a beautiful and potentially fast course, but one that wasn't mine for the taking
Napa half-ing, home of a beautiful and potentially fast course … and also a good opportunity for me to run super poorly. At least the scenery was pretty!
being awkward on the podium for the Jungle Run half. Pretty sure this is my first race wherein my race bounty was a tiger.
being awkward on the podium for the Jungle Run half. Pretty sure this is my first race wherein my race bounty was a tiger. also: a redemptive run, even with a shit stop at mile 7, considering the hot mess that was Napa. The JR was a harder course, yet it was a better run for me. Universe, you win.

That said, I’m heading into the second half of 2014 with a fiery determination to (continue to) work hard and realize that which I’m after…and you know that which I’m after is some crazyass goals because really? If your goals aren’t crazyass, you’re wasting your time.

It’s wild to think that marathon #3 of the year, the San Francisco Marathon, is in less than two weeks now, but I’m super excited for it. As was the case with Bay to Breakers, more than anything, I’m really looking forward to another weekend of QT with friends in San Francisco. I haven’t figured out exactly what I want to do there, in terms of my racing, but that’ll surely come within the next 10 days or so. It’ll be my first time running that race since 2010, when I ran it freshly and unknowingly pregnant (and on not-great training), so I’m really looking forward to the experience this time around.

And! Even more exciting! Not only will I soon get to see Austin in August for the Santa Rosa Marathon, I’ll also be serving as a 3:35 co-pacer with my RunningAddicts buddy Ko (who was one of my 3:20 pacers in Oakland), at a marathon that is one of the fastest in the nation, in terms of how many BQs it produces. This will be my first time officially pacing a 26.2, so while I am a tad nervous, I am seriously thrilled (and honored) to be doing this.  🙂

with some of my RA family post-Jungle Run. L-R: Ko (co-pacer for SRM!), Johnny (decapitated, poor guy), Deanna, Linh, and Adam (1:45 co-pacer from Santa Cruz HM a few months ago).  cred: Linh
with some of my RA family post-Jungle Run. L-R: Ko (co-pacer for SRM!), Johnny (decapitated, poor guy), Deanna, Linh, and Adam (1:45 co-pacer from Santa Cruz HM a few months ago). cred: Linh

Finally, I’m in the beginning stages of a very long training cycle–twice as long as what I usually run–for CIM in December.  In the build-up to CIM, I’ll be racing the Nike Women’s San Francisco 13.1 to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society–and for which I am fundraising (and have already met nearly 40% of my goal, thanks to your amazing generosity). In keeping with the “I am so excited about everything” right now attitude, I am super jazzed to be fundraising for an organization that’s so near and dear to my heart and one to which I owe my marathoning and running history for the past seven years. (And in case you missed it, here’s why I’m returnin’ to my TNT roots this fall).

Nike Women's SF fundraising

2014 has already been an incredible year, full of tons of surprises and many opportunities, and I’m stoked to see how the rest of the year will unfold, one mile at a time. Thank you for all that you’ve given me so far, and stay tuned for more adventures!

What about you? How’s your year going so far?

making my miles matter this autumn

making my miles matter this autumn

So, why do you run?

Inevitably, this question pops up in conversations —  and with about as much frequency when I chat with runners and with non-runners. I can easily wax and wane philosophic about why I do this stuff for fun, why I’ve considered myself “a runner” for most of my entire life, or why, oh why, something that can break my heart can instantly, if not also simultaneously, invigorate and exhilarate and leave me shakin’ in my boots…and why I insist on coming back for more.

I could also try to be sassy and say that I run to eat, or drink, or because it’s cheaper than therapy, or because it sufficiently empowers me to wear clothing so skin tight, it might as well be painted on… and all of these aforementioned are at least partially true…

If I’m being honest, though, and consequently, feel comfortable with likely crying in front of the person who has asked this innocuous question, I’ll say that I run, and got into marathoning specifically, because I wanted to chase after something bigger than myself, to feel like my running was contributing to some sort of social good. While I knew/know that it’s hiiiiiiiiighly unlikely that yours truly will ever single-handedly find a cure for cancer, or single-handedly eradicate poverty, or single-handedly convince the world that educating girls and women is a damn good idea, worthy of their serious consideration, what I can do is make my miles and training matter.

In 2007, when I decided that it was time to train for and run my first marathon, I signed up with the north Chicago suburbs’ chapter of Team in Training, the fundraising arm of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Out of all the charitable organizations out there doing great things–and there are many–I chose TNT because I wanted to honor my dear college friend, Traci’s, mother, who had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma while Traci and I were in undergrad together.

In addition to honoring Traci’s kick-ass mom, I also wanted to honor my own kick-ass mom who had been diagnosed with breast cancer when I was a first-year student in undergrad, in 2003, and who went on to beat it, after an aggressive treatment of chemotherapy, radiation, and a double mastectomy. Just a few years later, in 2006, during my final year of undergrad, my mother, after having a clean bill of health for years, had a stroke, resulting in paralysis of her right side (which was her dominant side) and expressive aphasia, among other things.

In 2007, when I first learned about Team in Training and the LLS, and what LLS stands for, and the work that they do, it was a no-brainer that my very first marathon (and, at the time, my one and only!) would be through TNT and that my fundraising efforts would go toward LLS.

Fortunately, because my friends are awesome and just about as crazy as me, Traci also decided that running and training for a marathon was a grand idea and jumped on the effort (and has since gone on to complete five marathons with TNT before enrolling in medical school–after earning two Masters degrees. I told you, my friends are fuckin’ amazing).  Shitty hot weather aside, my memories from my first marathon, in Chicago, couldn’t be better and more meaningful.

Traci with her parents, post Chicago Marathon 2010
Traci with her parents, post Chicago Marathon 2010

Since I began marathoning in 2007, I’ve been fortunate to participate on behalf of TNT at Chicago (2007, 08) and Nashville’s Country Music Marathon (2008) and, until somewhat recently when I finally figured out that the TNT singlets I have chafe my arms so hard that I bleed, I always raced in a TNT singlet.

finishing the 2008 Akron, OH Marathon
finishing the 2008 Akron, OH Marathon
circa mile 9 of the 2008 Chicago Marathon
circa mile 9 of the 2008 Chicago Marathon
IL Marathon 2012... post-race cry :)
IL Marathon 2012, my first marathon postpartum, and my first BQ postpartum (and new PR at the time)… and obviously after my usual post-race cry

Continuing to support TNT and LLS remains close to my heart because I can’t think of TNT/LLS without thinking of Traci, or her mom, or my mom, and it’s quite likely that I wouldn’t be running like I am now were it not for this fine organization that got me on the right path seven years ago.

with my mom at my first Masters graduation in 2010. I am so happy that she beat the cancer and the stroke.
with my mom at my first Masters graduation in 2010.

My running, and specifically, my marathoning “career” is rooted in that organization, and I attribute my love of the sport, and the wonderful foundation I have had for my 23 marathons, to the excellent and inspiring coaches I had in Chicago from TNT. Hell, until we moved, one of my regular running partners, Jack, was one of my former TNT coaches. The organization is like family.

TNT/LLS, as an organization, is what brought me to the sport.

Its mission is what has kept me going.

The incredible and knowledgeable and, just generally speaking, kick-ass coaches are what (or who) brought me back to marathons year after year (if not also month after month), healthy and happy to ready to race and realize my full potential as a newly-minted marathoner.

It has been a few years since I’ve raced on behalf of Team in Training, and in “the universe always makes sense” department, nearly one year to the day of Traci’s mother’s passing–a passing ultimately due to the long-term complications that, unfortunately, come with the territory of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma–seemingly out of nowhere, I was asked if I’d be interested in running the Nike Women’s Half Marathon in San Francisco, a race that exists exclusively to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Once my hands stopped shaking as I was holding my phone, and once the tears in my eyes swelled down enough that I could see, I immediately shot roughly 230803  texts to Traci, committed to the race in October, and promptly went for a run… wherein I saw, would you know, a runner outfitted in TNT gear.

I’m telling you, the universe always makes sense.

Were it not for the NWHM’s explicit connection to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, admittedly, I would have no interest in running it. And, were it not for a race recruiter reaching out to me, the race wouldn’t have been on my radar at all. Sometimes, though, opportunities just fall into our laps, and sometimes, it’s worthwhile to just go with it and figure out the details later…once our hands stop shaking and our eyes stop watering.

I am beyond excited to fundraise for the first time in many years for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society because the need remains.

I am totally humbled that a damn-expensive and kinda exclusive half marathon–nearly $200, and accessible only by lottery–reached out to me to see if I’d be interested to help get people stoked about Team in Training in the hopes that these runners would participate.  Last year, at the 25th anniversary of the Nike Women’s Half Marathon, TNT trained more than 600,000 participants and raised more than 1.4 billion — with a B — dollars. I am floored and quite honored to be part of this for the 2014 race.

And, maybe more than anything, I am really happy to continue this unicorn pursuit–of somehow making some sort of societal difference through my running–here in CA and really, for the first time, explicitly, in several years. It’s refreshing — and incredibly empowering and motivating.

My “endurance running” pursuits began as a way to honor some incredibly special women; it seems only fitting, then, that I recommit my running to these women as I begin a new life chapter in California.

Nike Women's SF fundraising

Please consider supporting my fundraising efforts this autumn for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society by donating to my campaign HERE.

And! If you’re super jazzed about this wonderful and mission-driven organization and want to do even MORE, please consider fundraising for LLS by running the Nike Women’s Half. Click HERE for more information.

How do you make your miles matter?