Getting back on the Wagon

Running is, unfortunately, not like riding a bike. Just because you could run 15 miles nine months ago does not mean that you can do it today. There were two years between my first and second half-marathons, and when I started training the second time around it was as though I had never gone for a run a day in my life. Two miles was laborious. I kept at it because I KNEW I could run that distance. But there are not many things in your life where, if you stop doing it, you have to start again as a "beginner."

I feel like I am going through another "beginner" phase. After my first marathon this past November I did not have tons of motivation to go run long distances. I have been running consistently, but haven't managed to pull out more than 5 or 6 miles for my "long" runs. Now I find myself one week to the day away from the Napa to Sonoma Wine Country Half-Marathon, and I am feeling nervous. Due to triathlon training, I haven't gotten in as many long runs as I would have liked. With limited free time this spring I had to cut out a lot of runs in favor of the bike rides and swim sessions. I did a 9 mile run last weekend and it was tough. I had my camelback and walked a minute every mile (which feels a bit like cheating, but Hal Higdon says it's okay, so I'm going with it). I finished, but it didn't feel like 9 miles did this fall.

I realized recently (on a run when I'm usually thinking about these things-like why the hell am I doing this in the first place) I am going to have to keep running like this my entire life, if I want to avoid the "beginner" phase--which is the hardest phase to get through. I am going to have to run 15-20 miles a week (minimum) for the rest of my life. This is a daunting thought. Running is now part of who I am, and what I do. It has to become the same as taking a shower or cooking dinner (okay, maybe eating dinner). I know I want to stay on the wagon, because it is only going to get harder to get back on as I become older. So here is to being 50 and still being able to go out and run 10 miles, no sweat (and by default, here is to being 50 and being able to eat that second piece of chocolate cake). Let's keep running friends!

Abe Weintraub, 98, finishing the 5th Avenue Mile Run

An Origin Tale-How one nonathlete got off her ass and went out for a run

Let me start off by saying-I am not athletic by nature.  My foray into running and triathlons happened by accident (though, how someone wakes up one day and accidentally decides to run a marathon is beyond me).  In fact, if you had the pleasure of knowing me in elementary, middle, or high school, you’d probably be pretty surprised by my fairly recent transformation into runner/triathlete (I’m just beginning to call myself a “runner”, and also feel like I’m telling a little white lie when I do). 

I had the typical “nonathlete” childhood.  I sat indoors for hours and read the Babysitter Club books over and over again.  I was picked last in gym class, tried (unsuccessfully) to twist my ankle before the mile-run day, and ate more than my share of Hostess food products.  Basically, I was your average book-loving, art-making, overweight child.  I wasn’t lazy, perse, I tried to play all of your typical team sports-soccer, basketball, softball—it was just very apparent to me early on that I wasn’t very good, and since I don’t like to do things I am not naturally good at I never lasted in any sport too long.  By the time I reached high school I had found my niche in music and theatre, and left the ball playing to others.   

What did happen, however, was I befriended a group of girls my sophomore year of high school who WERE naturally athletic, and all ran on our school’s cross-country team.  They convinced me to do “pre-season” cross country the summer before my junior year, which consisted of me waking up at 5:30 in the morning (I lived in Arizona, and if you didn’t start running then, you’d melt) and going for an hour run with the team.  When I told my parents I was doing this they looked at me with a raised eyebrow and said I wouldn’t’ last the summer.  Nothing like your parents telling you that you can’t do something to get a non-athlete’s ass into gear.  I may not be athletic, but I’m stubborn, competitive, and tenacious (all traits that really do help with this sport).  So I dragged my butt out of bed every morning and went for a run.  At the beginning of the summer I couldn’t run 15 minutes without stopping…by the end of the summer, I was running 50 minutes. 

I wish I could tell you that it was that simple.  That I began on the cross country team that year, became a star athlete blowing people’s 5k times out of the water…In reality, I got in the school play and stopped running, except for the occasional jog around the block.  However, running never stayed too far from my mind. I was not blessed with skinny genes…so I continued to run so that I could eat (because I was definitely born with the eating gene), and hopefully still fit into my skinny jeans.  In college my roommate and I decided to run a half marathon (I don’t remember whose idea this was-I doubt it could have been mine!) and so began my transformation from non-athlete into self-made athlete. 

Over the years I have had periods where I have trained and raced a lot, and then there have been periods of time when I’ve done nothing.  I’ve learned some basics along the way, and while I’m no expert, feel I might have some pearls of wisdom to share with other non-athletes like myself.  I have noticed as of late, that many people, particularly females my age, are starting to get into racing. That was the impetus for this site.  I hope for this blog to be a collection of tales of my own running/racing history, like the one above, but also bits of advice and tips that I have garnered along the way.  Hopefully it will motivate people to get outdoors and start running—or train for your first triathlon.  Believe me, if I could turn myself into an “athlete”—anyone can!