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‘for the hell of it’ miles

‘for the hell of it’ miles

There are many things I like about running, and probably one of its biggest attributes — one of the things that has kept me coming back for more, day after day, month after month, year after year — is its versatility. You don’t necessarily have to have a race on the calendar to run, nor do you necessarily have to be “training” for some sort of timed event, like a time trial, to commit to the sport. Sure, sometimes having these obligations commitments opportunities on our calendars can nudge us out the door when it’s inconvenient to go for a run — when we’d rather be sleeping or being lazy or staying away from shitty weather, for example — but at the end of the day, I think one of the best things about running is that if you run, if you put one foot in front of the other and, generally speaking, propel yourself in a forward motion, you’re a runner. You don’t need to run a timed race (or hell, a watch or running clothes, or running shoes, or running *anything*) to make it as part of your identity. You can run for the hell of it, and that’s a-okay.

Of course, if you like to write about your running, as I do, and you’re *not* actively in training mode, it can make for some pretty long absences in your blog … or some dull reading of the stuff that you do write (and publish).Β Β  o_0

The pregnancy is moving right along, and as of now, I’ve got just two races left on my calendar before my August due date — ZOOMA’s Napa Valley half marathon in late June, when I’ll be about 31+ weeks, and the 5k during The San Francisco Marathon’s weekend in late July, when I’ll be 36+ weeks (!), though obviously both will be races in name only and not in, uh, reality, I guess. At this stage in my life, I can say that I’ve run two marathons, a 50k, and 2 5ks pregnant, but never that late in the game, so we’ll see how it all shakes out over the final trimester. It should be fun … “should” being the operative word here. πŸ™‚ Time will tell.

I’ve written it before, earlier in this pregnancy, but I cannot thank my lucky stars enough that I have been feeling sufficiently healthy and strong and well enough, more often than not, to be able to continue to run through my pregnancy. I’m not breaking any records, my volume is maaaaaybe a third of what it usually is, I haven’t done a legit speed workout in forever, but despite all of this, I seriously cannot express how stupid happy-excited-elated I am at the end of nearly every.single.run I can post while pregnant. Seriously. I’m usually pretty happy after a run, but these days, it doesn’t matter if I go run 3, 5, 12 miles, whatever, because by the time I finish, I am so stupid-giddy about it that I feel like I’m doing all of this stuff for the first time again.

It’s endlessly amusing.

always with the cheesy smile during these 'running for the hell of it' miles. admittedly, I haven't been to my home hills of AR since mid-March and really need to get back before the pregnancy makes me waaaaaay too imbalanced for some good climbing action, even if only for a few miles.
always with the cheesy smile during these ‘running for the hell of it’ miles, even during a solo Sierra 11-mile summit. admittedly, I haven’t been to my home hills of AR since mid-March and really need to get back before the pregnancy makes me waaaaaay too imbalanced for some good climbing actionΒ  … even if I only go and post a few very, very slow trail miles.

 

Most of the time, pregnant or not, I don’t look at my watch while I run and instead go exclusively on feel (and by terrain — I’m a fan of working with gravity and can’t recommend it enough), and even on the days where the run is initially uncomfortable because Kiddo Dos is seemingly straight chillin’ entirely on my right side (ahem, today, hi in there! I feel you!), I’m stillΒ so happy to be out there, doing what I love, that I’m sure that the shiteating-grin on my face only distracts passersby momentarily from my ever-growing midsection that, uh, attractively, more often than not, is hanging out between the tops of my shorts and the bottom of my top because I refuse to buy running clothes that I’ll only wear when I’m pregnant.

Don’t get me wrong, I feel like I already look like a tank (ah, the joys of subsequent pregnancies and getting huger earlier), and I’m to the point in my pregnancy where my belly actually gets in the way when I try to bend over to pick things up off the floor … as well as the point when random strangers on the street either look at me like I’m crazy when they see me running [PSA: don’t be that person] or, conversely, offer me some solid fistbumps and congratulatory shouts [PSA: be that person] …Β  but dammit if you don’t see me running without a smile on my face because I *get* to do this stuff, still.

All these pregnant miles, these “running just for the hell of it” miles have been so good to me and for me and so mentally refreshing that I would falter more than I would be able to adequately convey my appreciation of them. I’m fortunate to not have much of an injury history, but I imagine that pregnancy miles are kinda like the coming-back-from-injury miles, when you’re just so happy to be out there that you really don’t give a damn about your pace or distance or any other metric that you’d usually obsess over. If you want to run .5 mile, 1 mile, 5 miles, 10 miles, whatever, and you feel well, you do; so it is with pregnancy running.

Each day is a new adventure, each mile some potential new opportunity, and being able to partake in new adventures and opportunities each week — regardless if it’s twice a week, seven times in a week, significantly slower or just about the same pace as my non-pregnant running — it all just effing rules. Scratch that; it’s fucking fantastic, my friends.

running on Mother's Day with my girl -- pretty awesome stuff. the best type of "running for the hell of it" miles.
running on Mother’s Day with my girl — pretty awesome stuff. the best type of “running for the hell of it” miles.

 

I don’t coach, and I try not to be too didactic with the stuff that I write on here, but I will say this — I cannot recommend having some periods of “for the hell of it” miles in your running career. I won’t prescribe if it should be every year, so many times in a given month, between seasons — all that stuff you can decide for yourself — but I will say that having this period in my running career at least twice now, during both of my pregnancies, has been deeply gratifying, refreshing and just plain fun.

It’s easy to get into nothing but grind mode and hammer-hammer-hammer every single run, every single week, and usually, that’s how I roll, too, but sometimes, slowing down, running less frequently, maybe running fewer miles, can be good for the soul. This is a concept that might sound sacrilege, and I get it — I have thought this way before, too — but truly. Consider it.

If nothing else, I imagine that it’ll give you a good reminder of why and how you became enamored with this sport in the first place and why you keep returning, running back, for more.

It’s one of my fav days of the year – Marathon Monday

It’s one of my fav days of the year – Marathon Monday

Happy Marathon Monday!! Below is a guest post I wrote for The San Francisco Marathon’s blog. I’m not sure if the race will end up using it, but I didn’t want it to go to waste, so I’m posting it here. It has been so fun to track so many friends working their asses off out between Hopkinton and Boston, and I am so ridiculously proud of so many people… and the results are still pouring in! All my love to all my runnahs this morning. Boston is no joke — I know from experience — and I am just THRILLED for you all. xoxo

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From everyone here at The San Francisco Marathon, we hope you are thoroughly enjoying Patriot’s Day – or perhaps you better know the third Monday in April as Marathon Monday, or Boston Marathon day. Today’s a special day for the running community.

TSFM-and-Boston-2010-medals

A quick primer: the Boston Marathon is the world’s oldest annual marathon – held since 1897, in fact – and is arguably the most prestigious footrace in the world. Entrants can participate in the majestic and grueling footrace through the small Massachusetts towns of Hopkinton, Ashland, Framingham, Natick, Wellesley, Newton, and Brookline, before finishing in Boston, only by way of qualifying at a previous year’s marathon or by fundraising a substantial amount of money for a deserving charity. If you’re toeing the line in Boston this year – or any year, for the matter – congratulations on earning your spot at our sport’s most hallowed grounds. You are a big deal.

with John and Stacey in Hopkinton before the start of Boston '10
with John and Stacey in Hopkinton before the start of Boston ’10

Boston Marathon Monday is important for those of us who will be anxiously toeing the line in Hopkinton, but it’s also quite special for the rest of the running community. Boston Marathon Monday mattered for the running community for the century and decades preceding the 2013 bombings, and Marathon Monday will continue to be an even bigger deal for our community forevermore, in the subsequent years since the atrocities took place.

It’s a day on the calendar, of course, one that affords schoolchildren and many businesses in Massachusetts a day off from studies and work, but for the running community, it’s a day that unites us each year. It’s one where we’re reminded of big goals and the work necessary to realize said goals, and it’s one that reminds us how utterly magnificent the running community is.

yup. (pc: https://twitter.com/OnlyInBOS/status/584415157415256064)
yup. (pc: https://twitter.com/OnlyInBOS/status/584415157415256064)

What I find really compelling about endurance events like the Boston Marathon, and even our own San Francisco Marathon (or half marathon, or ultra, or 5k), is that while our sport might be a bit individualistic on its surface level, at its core, I’d argue that running is a communal endeavor. The running community is what makes racing and training day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, so special.

I argue that running is a communal endeavor because I firmly believe it’s the running community that enriches the experience for everyone. When I think about racing, I think it is absolutely incredible that we runners – the 99.9% of us who do this stuff for kicks, just as a way to blow off stress or give ourselves some sort of physical accountability – get to run the same exact races that the pros do, the people whose very livelihoods depend on their race day performances. I will never be as fast as Kara Goucher, Desi Linden, or Shalane Flanagan, but you know what? I’ve run many of the same race courses as them. In few other sports can amateur athletes say that they played at, or participated in, the same games or venues as the pros.

That shared experience between amateur and professional in the running community – the fact that both you **and** the pro runners had to deal with subpar weather conditions, for example, or a course that was incredibly fast and flat or hilly and quad-breaking – that shared experience is what binds the running community together. It’s very cool and very humbling. Naturally, we each have to run our own races – I can’t ask Kara, Desi, or Shalane to go knock out 26.2 miles on my behalf – but the fact that we amateurs get to run the same exact pavement, on the same exact day, as the people who get paid to do this? That’s pretty cool.

You don’t have to be a marathoner to appreciate the enormity of Boston Marathon Monday because if you’re a runner – and if you run, regardless if you’re posting 5 minute-mile or 20 minute-miles, you’re a runner – you get it.

You get what it means to put yourself out there each day of training, never knowing what will happen on race day, if you’ll be able to run the race you’ve trained for.

As runners, we value and appreciate the emotional investment our running compatriots have put into their race day – whether it’s in Boston, today, or here in San Francisco, in July – and we know how quickly and easily we can find ourselves being calmly confident or panic-stricken in the days and hours leading into our goal race. Our heart skips a beat when we learn that our running friends have secured that personal best race performance they’ve been working toward for months, and similarly, our soul aches when we hear that our friends’ races did not pan out as they desired.

We’re runners; we get it.

On this Boston Marathon Monday, if you are racing across the country in Massachusetts, are in the beginning stages of your San Francisco Marathon (or half, or ultra, or 5k) training, or are just now considering lacing up for the first time, know this: you’ve got a huge community of supporters behind you.

We’ve got your back through the highs and lows of training, through the emotional uncertainty leading up to (if not also on) race day, and through the race aftermath, when all you want to do is celebrate when things went well or analyze and return to the drawing board when things went poorly.

We know what you’re going through, and we get it.

training with these ladies for Boston '10 -- almost everyone's first Boston experience -- has been one of the highlights of my marathoning experiences. so awesome. so cool.
training with these ladies for Boston ’10 — almost everyone’s first Boston experience — has been one of the highlights of my marathoning experiences. so awesome. so cool.

Have an amazing Boston Marathon Monday, and many heartfelt cheers and fistbumps to our community members out there rockin’ the streets between Hopkinton and Boston. Be swift like Atalanta; remember all that you’ve accomplished during your many months of training; and don’t forget to smile because you are accomplishing something truly life-altering and, in the process, are reminding all of us what it means to work our asses off to chase down our race goal unicorns.

We couldn’t be prouder of you today, Boston Marathoners.

All our love from The San Francisco Marathon & the greater running community.

About:

Erin Mink Garvey has had the pleasure of running 25 marathons, qualifying for the esteemed Boston Marathon 13 times (including at TSFM ’14), and running Boston twice since she began running marathons in 2007. Besides running, Erin digs spending time with her husband and young daughter; writing on her blog; or cooking and baking vegan deliciousness. She and her family recently relocated to San Jose, California, after living in Chicago for more than a decade. Connect with her on her blog, runningruminations.com.