So when we started our running journey it was running on trails that was our passion. We wanted to run 5k obstacle courses. Those were the point of it all. Of course the major goal was the Tough Mudder but we really enjoyed running the 5k distance.
This that time I have explained why we moved to road running and our adventure into the road marathon. Through the exploration of road running we really discovered that tail running is our passion. Both of us agree that there is just something about running on a trail that is soul lifting and that is what we want from running.
At first Chris was like "let's sign up for a trail marathon!" and I was like "whoa! Let's sign up for a trail half marathon. Going from the road to the trail is actually a really big difference.
We signed up for a trail marathon at the end of June. It's the Osage Hills State Park Relatively Flat 1/2 Marathon. We are super excited. There is only one problem. It's been raining every day so there is no way for us to trail on an actual trail. It doesn't even look like there is going to be a break in the rain for at least another week.
This is my favorite photo from our training runs...okay it's also one of our only photos from our training runs. I was really bad about not wanting to take pictures. Or have fun at all...they were hard! This is us about to cross the Sky Dance Bridge on our 20 miler.
I would like to take a moment to reflect on what my actual motivations were for running the marathon. What worked and what didn't? What I expected compared to what actually got me through the runs?
Is health a motivator for me?
In the end this was still not a motivator for me and quite honestly I did not feel any healthier after it was all done. I probably am but with an injury it didn't really feel that way.
Is weight loss/looking good a motivator?
This motivator did actually get me through the training. I started seeing changes around the second month and I have to say that I liked them. I was not thinking about looking good on race day though. I was thinking about not looking like I was about to die...I looked that way anyway.
Raise Awareness for a Cause?
So, while at no point was this actually a motivator for me to run the marathon I did end up raising money for the Oklahoma City Memorial. Which was pretty rewarding and fun.
To Mark a Goal Off of Chris's List Together?
This was the reason that I ran the marathon when it really came down to it. When things got really hard I would think about the fact that this was the one thing that Chris wanted to accomplish this year and I would just keep going. At some point during our marathon training so one said you can't run a marathon for someone else. I don't think that is true if you know how much the other person wants it. I do agree that you need some other forms of motivation but you can do it for someone else.
To Make New Friends?
We made so many running friends. This was really the biggest reward of the whole experience. I am so glad that we joined the program that we did and met all the new friends that we have. I look forward to seeing them all out on the road or trail in the future.
The Sense of Accomplishment?
I thought this would be the one that got me through on race day but it wasn't. It did get me through a lot of the training runs. I wanted to accomplish each long run. When I finished that 20 mile training run it was awesome!
We ran a marathon. That is right a MARATHON. The whole GD 26.2 miles.
It was amazing and amazingly difficult. It was fun and painful. I was going to blog about the whole training process but it turned out that with school and work it was just way too much.
We ran the marathon slower than we had planned but with me getting injured during the training and having to miss the Tuesday workouts we still feel like we did well.
So here are some photos from the adventure. There are some blurry ones from the start. Some of us running the course. And finally one of the infamous Gorilla Hill from the drone that was flying the course.
So what will our next running adventure be? It's already been scheduled so stay tuned for details.
People around me have been dropping like flies with the head cold of doom. It was only a matter of time before me and Chris got it. I have only run 1.5 miles this week and that almost killed me. Like I really think I almost died from a respiratory stand point. Luckily I had a rescue inhaler on hand. I did run the 1.5 miles with an average pace of 10:35 though so I was proud of that. Our plans to run the Pack Pint Run tonight have been canceled. We are definitely not going to be getting our miles in this week. Some how we have to find a way to run the 6 miles we have planned for this weekend or we will be too far off schedule. We just got signed up for the marathon so this is going to happen! I will just run it really slowly if I have to this weekend. Being sick sucks.
Yesterday's long run was actually shorter than the week before and as you can see I really needed it to be. My legs were beat. My lungs were beat. And surprisingly my butt was beat as well. I kept getting muscle cramps in my butt! I have never had that happen before. EVER. It was not comfortable and I had to really slow down my pace at the end of the run. Initially I wasn't too disappointed in my run considering how my body felt but Chris was disappointed in it and in my attitude. To be honest I really didn't want to run yesterday. I already knew how tired my body felt and I was not looking forward to it. I was going to run no matter what, I just was not going to be excited about it this time around. Let's hope Tuesday morning's run is better and my body has recuperated enough to run strong.
The time has come to sit in contemplation about the hows and the whys of my decision to run a marathon. This week marks the beginning of my actual marathon training. I have finished the 10k and we are increasing our runs so that we are at the correct long run distance to start our formal training program. Looking ahead is more than a little intimidating. So now I must look deep inside and find the why. The answer I repeat to myself when (and the day will come) I don't think I can take one more step. The thing I remind myself of when there is one more mile of a long training run. The last long mile that seems impossible to conquer. What is it that I will remind myself of that motivates me to take that next step, and the next, and the step after that?
"That moment of inspiration- when we know what we are doing and why- is like an arrow that we shoot. Wherever that arrow goes, our mental and physical troops will follow" -Sakyong Mipham
Today while reading this quote it became clear to me that I can't just run a marathon. Without a clear picture of why I am doing it and what I want to accomplish I will never get to the finish line. I am not by nature one of those people who just decides to do something and then does it out of sheer stubbornness. Don't get me wrong I am the most stubborn person that I know but I use that stubbornness to not do things, not to do things! There has to be something I want at that finish line and I'm not talking about gifting myself a new outfit, the apple watch I want, or the tattoo that I keep telling myself I can have when I do something truly spectacular. I'm not saying I wont do any of those things for myself, but what I know about myself is that those things will not get me past the last mile marker and over the finish line.
So that brings me to asking myself what will carry me through training and across the finish line...
Is health a motivator for me?
When I really think about it health is not what is going to push me to my limit. I do want to improve my health but lets face it I don't have to run an entire marathon to do that!
Is weight loss/looking good a motivator?
This is not a race day motivator but it is a very real motivation during training. I have always been a small person but the years and the pounds are sneaking up on me!
Raise Awareness for a Cause?
Lots of people run a marathon to raise money and awareness to a cause that they believe in. While I find this inspirational it will not be my motivation this time around. This first marathon I will not be running for others. Which brings me to...
To Mark a Goal Off of Chris's List Together?
So I was wrong, this is a big motivator for me. I will to some extent be running for someone else. It is extremely important to me that Chris accomplish his goals for this coming year and any goals that I can be apart of I will. (He did want to run the half marathon and I talked him into the full...remember I have to maintain that it was my idea!)
To Make New Friends?
This is a motivation for me, sort of. Its why we started doing the Pack Pint Runs and signed up for the 10k training (well and because 10k was a goal). That said, I haven't actually made any new friends yet doing these things so I don't think is is a major motivator. I do enjoy running with a lot of other people and feeling like I am part of something bigger than myself. Something BIGGER than MYSELF...I feel like I'm getting closer to my motivation.
The Sense of Accomplishment?
Yes! I think that is it...but lets make it more personal. What is it that I want to accomplish? Is it just the miles? I know it is not. I want to prove to myself that I am capable of something BIG! I am capable of something AWESOME! The only person who can stop ME is ME! I will not be stopped...especially not on MY BIRTHDAY!
Oh PPR (Pack Pint Run) how I totally wanted to crush you! But I failed. So last night we added an extra half mile on to the usual PPR route so that we would get our full 4 mile run in. Because of this we ended up running at the very end of the pack! Which must have affected me mentally because I pretty much killed myself on mile 2 and 3. Killed myself dead. I ended up having to walk some during the last mile. I was so disappointed! If I had just kept my pace reasonable I would have been fine. Still a pace of 10:32 is about exactly where I want to be...just with out the walking! Hopefully my 5 mile run tomorrow goes much more smoothly. I'm am hoping to stick right at the 10:30 pace for most of the run.
Knitting! My friend Cristal sent me a picture of a arm knit scarf. I couldn't help myself. I'll try almost anything knitting related. I made her this scarf in about 20 minutes! How awesome is that? The picture doesn't do it justice. Too much cheese from me but it's really cool.
Fuel:
Today's run was fueled by sushi form Sushi Neko and after the run the body was resupplied with some pizza from Upper Crust.
PPR (Pack Pint Run) is the weekly running event held at our local running shop. I haven't met a lot of people yet. Mostly all I have done is spend a lot of money! It's really fun though because it is like a party atmosphere. Everyone is running happy! Plus at the end they give you a free beer. What could be better than that?
One of the things that I really like about the PPR is that I get to see all different types of runners. There are the super athletes. They just fly past you on supper springy legs. They make it look so easy and almost magical. Then you have a bunch of people like me and Chris, just out there doing the best we can trying to increase our speed. The most inspirational people are the ones just starting their running journeys. I love seeing them and thinking how I felt when I first started. When I first started I didn't ever know if I was even going to be able to run a mile much less the 5k we really wanted to work up to. It's just fun to be reminded of where I have been, where I want to be, and where I will never get to even if I run every day for the rest of my life. I'm never going to be one of those gazelles that flies right through the miles. I'm just not built that way.
I run much better in groups of people though and I feel more accountable for my run. Usually when we go to PPR Chris runs with one of his friends which leaves me free to run at my own pace without any worries. Tonight Chris's running buddy couldn't make it so we got to run together. My pace was good and I felt great during the run. I feel like I'm ready for Saturdays long run.
The Fuel:
Breakfast: a piece of multi-grain bread with butter
Lunch: Taco salad
Dinner: Leftover southwestern soup and a piece of jalapeno bread
I needed a book to read on the train for our trip to Ft. Worth. A book about a woman running a marathon seemed like a good bet and it was. This book is not particularly long but I found it funny (like giggling to myself out loud funny) and a good source for some of the things to expect while training for a marathon. The book consists of Brook Kreder's blog posts during her training. I'm just going to be perfectly honest, this book is what got me back on here and blogging again. The way she documents all the funny, horrible, triumphant moments for her readers was inspiring. I have no readers as of now but hopefully one day I will pick up a couple. This is a short book and a super easy read. Really entertaining. I'm not sure that my training will look anything like Brook's but she gave me at least the courage to try. She put her failures right out there for everyone to see and then set out to prove that they were just bumps in the road not road blocks. The book does contain mass quantities of curse words (they are kind of bleeped out though). This didn't bother me because I am absolutely positive that my marathon journey will have a fair number of it's own curse words! I would recommend this book to anyone that is thinking about training for a marathon...that's a girl. I don't think a guy would get as much from it.
So before we went out for our long run this weekend I was really nervous. I actually had butterflies! It just started right before the run though and once we got started I felt good. This weekend we increase our distance by an entire mile. Up to this point we have increased at half mile intervals. I am freaking nervous right now and I have till Saturday to think about it. I can only imagine that it is going to get worse from here. We run tomorrow with the Pack. Hopefully I run well and feel strong I think that will help a lot. Skipping my run yesterday does not help! I really don't want to do that again unless I have to.
I had a good food day today:
Breakfast: green smoothie and half an English muffin
Lunch: small salad, tabouli, and a multi grain sandwich
Dinner: Santa Fe soup and a piece of jalapeno cheddar bread
Today was the day we ran our long run. We had to run it without the rest of the class that we normally run our long runs with. Let me tell you I am really surprised at how hard it is to run the long runs without the group. Our group runs on Saturdays and we were out of town on Saturday so we had to take matters into our own hands.
I keep saying this and I know it starts to sound cheesy and like it can't be true every time but...this was my best run yet. This run was hard and our longest yet and I kicked it's butt. We ran it in under 11 minutes a mile! That is really great for me. Plus the gain on this run was 125 ft. It was actually up hill the whole way. Well there were some small down hill portions but for the most part it just kept going up.
The coolest part was we just ran to my mom's house. Then we had her give us a ride home. And trust me my dawgs needed the ride home. This one was tough! Stopping for the traffic lights was killer.
I also got a new app yesterday! I got the MapMyRun app with a one year subscription for their extra features. The feature that I really really wanted was the one that allows friends and family to watch your progress in real time as you run. I wanted this for safety. Sometimes me and Chris run at the same time but not at the same pace so when he gets done he can check on me. Totally Awesome. Even if I haven't figured out how to work it yet.
This thing is starting to get a little real around here. Chris asked our coach what we were going to need to do to be ready for the first training run for the marathon. We will need to increase our long run distance by one mile a week! We need to get up to 10 miles. 10 MILES!
I was exhausted after our run today. It will be interesting to see how in the world I am going to get to 10 miles.
So for this up coming year Chris had two goals for the year of his 40th birthday, he wanted to run another Tough Mudder and he wanted to run a half marathon. Knowing how important this was to him I took the lead. We started running again right away. At first we just started going to the Pack Pint Run at Red Coyote. Red Coyote is our local running store and now one of our favorite places but that is another post and so is the Pack Pint Run. The point here is that we started running locally and my ears were to the ground to find a Tough Mudder and a half marathon to run.
The Tough Mudder was going to be the tricky one but as luck would have it the plans just fell into our laps. Since we had done a Tough Mudder in the past I get emails from them. A couple weeks after we had talked about what our goal was going to be I got one of these emails anouncing that there would be a Tough Mudder in Oklahoma this year. AWESOME! I had originally wanted to look for a Mudder out of state for the adventure but staying close to home allows us to put together a team that will make running the race much easier...well easier is not the word. More possible to complete without injury. So only a couple weeks in to planning and we had our Tough Mudder picked out. That seemed easy enough.
The half marathon was the easy choice. We have an awesome marathon/half-marathon that happens right here in OKC. The Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon was the obvious choice for our half marathon run.
So the next step was to start figuring out how we were going to train for these events. While running a 5k we talked to some other participants and realized that Red Coyote had a 10k training program with a coach and everything. This was going to be perfect. We could train for and run a 10k in December. It was going to be a good start. Then Red Coyote had another training program that started the first of the year to train for the half marathon. It is designed to end right when the OKC Memorial Marathon is scheduled to run. It was perfect.
So to recap, our plan was to train for and run a 10k and then go straight into training for a half marathon. We would run the half marathon in April and then run the Tough Mudder in May. It all seemed so innocent and fun. Plus we were going to have our major goals for the year checked off the list before the year was even half over.
Now is when the crazy part happens. We were running a Pack Pint Run the last week and decided that before we left we should go ahead and sign up for the half marathon training program. We signed up and we started looking at the start date, what days of the week we would be training, and what date the final half marathon run would be on...THE MARATHON IS ON MY BIRTHDAY!!! That is going to be so cool! Then these words slip from my lips "Think how cool it would be to run a full marathon on your birthday." Innocent. We both agree that it would be cool and then move on to other things.
The next morning I wake up and its all I can think about. How cool would it be to accomplish that kind of feet on my birthday. I decide to just mention it one more time to see what the reaction will be. Again innocently...or not. "You know I was thinking about it and it really would be cool to run a full marathon on my birthday. I know its crazy, there is no way we could run that far." And the response I got, "It's on your birthday. I don't see how we can not at least try to run the full." Oh no!
That's right we are going to attempt to run the full and I have decided I am going to need lots and lots of motivation and I need ways to hold myself accountable. This blog is the accountable. I know lots of people have done it this way and it has helped so I hope it helps me too. Lets start this crazy adventure!
In Full Disclosure: This may or may not have been all my idea (as described above) but I can't leave any room for me to blame someone else in the future when I'm thinking back and thinking it was a really bad idea.
