Running in the Shadows of Giants

Based on my Garmin Connect website, it looks like I have managed to run a little over 1600 miles this year. I think that's pretty good. I didn't maintain accurate running logs until I bought my Garmin Forerunner after Christmas last year, so I'm not sure if that is a substantial improvement for me or not. I think it is. But all accomplishments are relative in their significance. My good friend, Lisa Smith-Batchen, logged 2500 miles this year in only 62 days. And she broke her foot badly in the process. Actually, she broke her foot about half way through her journey and kept on running--because she had a purpose. Here's an article about Lisa in Runner's World. I'm more than a little annoyed that it is so short given what she accomplished in her Run Hope Through America project. But at least it's a shout out in recognition. I plan to run a lot more next year. I think 2000 miles is a realistic goal. Spread over the whole year, of course. I am no Lisa Smith-Batchen, for sure! I need to stay healthy. No more stress fractures. I also need to dedicate myself to consistency--running at least 5 times a week and trying not to dip below 40 miles per week. More importantly, I want to continue to improve. In the last year, I made significant improvements. I got PR's in every distance--5K, 10K, half marathon (2X), and marathon. I'm only 25 minutes away from a Boston Marathon qualifying time. Let's hope they don't make it harder for next year! I'm running the Miami Marathon at the end of January with a goal of getting 3:30 (10 min slower than a BQ) and then plan to work hard through the spring and summer to give myself the best chance of getting 3:20 at Steamtown, PA in October. Realistic goals and hard work are the keys to success, I am sure.

Goals cannot overshadow the importance of achieving balance in our lives. So, my greatest challenge for the year will certainly be to keep pushing myself on the roads, track, and treadmill without giving even an inch of the rest of my life. My kids, my friends, and my career all expect a lot from me. And I am not one to disappoint. I think that prevents burnout and in general keeps the running feeling good. My best runs are achieved when my mind is clear of other obligations.

So, here's to looking forward to a new year abundantly filled with love, running, achieving goals, maintaining balance, and being completely fulfilled.

Zeitgeist Half Marathon 2010

This is a race I just love to run! It has great runner participation, superb organization, and an amazing course. Well, it's amazing if you like hills. Technically, there are three big hills--several hundred feet each. But it is a loop course, and what goes up must come down. So, there are wonderful stretches of "weeeeeee!!!!" to enjoy.

I was fortunate to get a group of great gals to run it with me--Michele, Deborah, and Holly. Well, none of us really ran together. Everyone had their own pace and personal goal to reach for. Holly zoomed out from the beginning and ended up being the 2nd place woman overall. Amazing. How do those short legs move her so fast?! Deborah passed me at around the mile mark, but I just let her go. I had my target split times written on my arm with a black sharpee. I knew exactly how I was going to run the course in order to get a half marathon PR. And I stuck with the plan. Around mile 2, I started to gain on her as we were heading up the hill. She would stop occasionally to walk a few paces. I

started to run with her and she just waved me off. Guess she was afraid I would hassle her everytime she stopped to walk. Oh, well. I charged forward and didn't see her the rest of the race. It was another great weather day in Boise. Sometimes I long for the day I can live there. It's such a great town with awesome places to run, ski, climb, and relax. And the air is twice as thick as it is in Idaho Falls! As the miles ticked by, I ran strong and in good spirits. With the exception of a mile or two, I hit my goal split times. I was a little faster in the beginning and a little slower in the middle. The long downhill from the summit felt awesome. But it wasn't a stroll in the park. My HR was really high throughout the whole course. I don't know how I manage to do it, but I think my average was 92% maximum. Maybe my max HR is actually higher than I calculated, because that seems like it should be too hard to maintain that for almost two hours. The last couple of miles did feel really hard. That's the flat section after the big downhill. But when I saw the final rise up a little hill at mile 13, I got excited and knew it was almost over. I pushed hard up that little hill with a huge smile in my heart. Then I crested the hill, saw the finish line, and charged. Oh, how I love that last 0.1 mile of downhill to the finish line. My final time was 1 hr 48 min 41 sec. That's a couple of minutes faster than my previous best half marathon (Red Rock Canyon). And it landed me in 186th place out of 1024. Deborah came in about 6 minutes later--a great accomplishment given her back and hip injuries. It was also a half marathon PR for her. And Michele had a fantastic race and took about 7 minutes off of her previous PR finishing in 2:08. Everyone had a great day, and I most certainly look forward to next year's Zeitgeist.

Pocatello Marathon

It was much warmer than I expected at the start of the Pocatello Marathon. This was a bit of a concern, since I run much better in colder weather. But I had trained hard all summer for this and was excited to get going down the big hill. 1500 feet of "down" in the first 15 miles. Woohoo! I had practiced running downhill a lot in the previous weeks. My strategy was to run the first half of the marathon as hard as I could and then try to hold on at a respectable pace over the last half that included rolling hills and no net elevation change. Unfortunately, no friends were running it with me this time. But Supy demonstrated how great of a friend he is by coming down to support me. He stayed with me at the hotel and then ran the last 4 or 5 miles with me--a stretch that definitely was a challenge for me. I used the Brooks Green Silence for the first time in a full marathon. I'm not sure if this was a good idea or not. They felt light and fast. But my feet were killing me by the end. And I had a huge blood blister on my left foot. All in all, it was a great experience and a solid performance for me. I ran the first half in a fast 1:40 time and ended in 3:45. Still 25 minutes too slow for a Boston qualifier. But it was 10 min faster than my previous best. So, I know I am getting better and will continue to improve.

Tin Cup 10K

I will go on the record and say that I am NOT a big fan of running shorter races, which for me includes 5K and 10K distances. The shorter the distance, the more important pure speed is. And I do NOT have pure speed. I have good endurance and strength built up from working my butt off and training almost every day since I started working with Lisa as my coach in January. Spin classes, yoga, interval runs, long runs, and on and on and on. But Lisa thought it would be a good idea to do a 10K as speed training for my next marathon. And whatever Lisa says I should do, I do. Well, that is except for jump roping and yoga (which I have skipped 98% of the time). Anyway, it was actually not too hard to get me over to Driggs for this race. Supy and Clint were going to be doing the 10K also. And Holly was doing the half marathon. So, I got up early on a saturday morning with my kids still in bed and showed up for the Tin Cup races. I was looking forward to testing out my new racing shoes--the Brooks Green Silence (oh, I WISH they were GREEN). And it would be fun to run up Ski Hill Road with its great view of the Grand Teton. The race turned out better than I expected. I got a sub-50 min time, which was a PR for me in the 10K by about 40 seconds or so. The new shoes felt good. And Holly and I were finally able to enjoy a post-race breakfast without anyone needing ice or crutches.

Grandfather Mountain Marathon

It was time to run another marathon with Steve! This one was promising to be quite different from the first one. Instead of 20,000+ runners, there would be less than 400. Instead of running through the nation's capital, we would be trudging up and down mountains and traversing the famed Blue Ridge Parkway. For a couple of reasons, I knew it would not be a race for me to get a new PR. The stress fracture in March prevented me from training at all in May. It was the beginning of June when I could start running again. I tried to get myself in shape quickly with the Sawtooth Relay and the RHTA runs. But these were just not good substitutes for weeks of 30-50 miles per week with speed training. A couple of weeks before the marathon, I foolishly tried to get myself in shape by running Sunnyside Hill once on a saturday and then TWICE (two laps) on the next day. That almost put me back on the injured list, as I developed a nasty case of tendonitis in my injured leg. All I could do at that point was rest and hope for the best during the marathon.

Well, I didn't exactly get "the best." The first 13 miles felt fairly good. I finished them in roughly 2 hrs. At that point I was hopeful for a sub 4 hr marathon, which would have been excellent on this course. But steadily, pain started increasing in my legs and hips. The downhills dried up, and it was a brutal slog up the hill to the finish. I found myself walking for long stretches, absolutely unable to bring myself to run. In the end, my time was a very disappointing 4 hrs 27 min. I did make the cut-off to get a finisher medal. But I still had a huge feeling that I had taken a step back in my running. The lesson to be learned, I think, is that injuries cannot be rushed back from. And training cannot be cut short to rush yourself to be ready for a race. It would have been extremely depressing to pull out of a second race in a matter of months. But that is probably what I should have done. I could have still gone to the race and cheered on Steve. He did quite well, of course--beating me by about 10 minutes. That's what sustained, injury-free training can do for you!

Sawtooth Relay

Finally! I get to run the Sawtooth Relay, a race I've been wanting to do for a couple of years. I guess if no one invites you to be on a team, you just have to start your own. In the process of organizing the "Rock-to-Run" team, I learned whata huge challenge it can be just to get a team of 6 runners together and to the starting line on time. There were so many perturbations to our lineup. Holly was the first on board but had to pull out due to injury. Deborah was added to the roster when I thought I already had 6 people, prompting me to offer giving up my spot so that the other 6 could run. In the end, Deborah's hip bothered her too much, so I was thrown back into the running order. Given that I had only been running for a few weeks since my stress fracture, it was definitely questionable to have me running it either. But in the end, it seemed to work out fairly well. My times for my legs were respectable given my lack of training leading up to the race. I had hoped to have sub 8 min paces for each leg, but it turned out to be 8:48 going uphill and 8:18 coming downhill. The higher altitude really had me running in oxygen depletion mode. It didn't help that I tried to run each leg way faster than I should have.

There's just something exciting about a relay that gets the adrenaline pumping more than a normal race. The team overall was super. We came in 38th out of 297 teams with a cumulative time of 8 hrs 33 min 11 sec. Even with the hassles of organizing, I have to say it was a super experience and lived up to my expectations. I can't wait to get a team (or two) organized for next year. I have a few "ringers" in mind..... :-)

Run Hope Across America

On April 19th, Lisa Smith-Batchen and Sister Mary Beth began their journey to raise $1 million for AIDS orphans by receiving donations for running 50 miles in 50 states. Lisa Smith- Batchen, one of the world’s premier ultra-runners, will be the first person to attempt to run 50 miles in each of the 50 states. Though two people have previously run a marathon distance in each state, no one has ever taken on the challenge of completing an ultra in the same period of time. Sister Mary Beth, 61, belongs to the order of the Religious Teachers Filipini, an order dedicated to education. Sister Mary Beth will run alongside Lisa in her full habit: a black wool tunic over a white shirt and underskirt, black headpiece and a black woolen belt… and sneakers.

Today, Lisa and Sister Mary Beth conquered 50 miles in the state of Utah (the 40th state on the list). Lisa finished 2,000 miles today at Libery Park amongst locals who were participated in this event with her. Holly and I found Lisa this morning at 9:30am at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City. She had already been running and walking since 5:30am. in each state, her courses are loops around parks or streets so she can easily find her support crew at the same location throughout the day.

Lisa walks and runs 50 miles while Sister Mary Beth walks 20 miles. They both go at their own pace, but you can see the support that they give each other. On one stop at the RV aid station, Sister Mary Beth said 'I need to check on Lisa to see if she is still breathing'. Holly replied, 'good idea to make sure that she is still moving'. To which Sister Mary Beth replied, 'she doesn't have to be moving, just breathing'. Holly laughed. What a privilege to be a part of this monumental quest to help the millions of orphan children throughout the world.

During her run, Lisa has expressed the extreme highs and lows.

She mentioned that other ultramarathoners tell her that she

will experience one more breakdown before she finishes. Lisa has been candid about the physical, emotional and spiritual toll of the amount of walking and running that she has done. This is coming from the only American woman to have ever won Marathon de Sables. To her name, she has many other standout accomplishments in endurance sports, including multiple victories at the Badwater Ultramarathon. If Lisa is hurting, this type of attempt would have stopped any other person a long time ago. She jokingly said today that people tell her how good she looks, when she is just hanging on to make it through. She did get to see her two kids and husband yesterday, which must have been a great boost. I ran/walked about 27 miles today, and Holly ran/walked 20 miles. Since we were both recovering from stress fractures, neither one of us had been putting in many miles. And it was a very hot day in Salt Lake City. At the end of the day, I collapsed in the grass near Lisa's RV in sheer exhaustion, and Holly took off her shoes to discover big blisters on the back of her heels. Given how worn out we were, it's awe inspiring to think of what Lisa is going through day after day. Lisa is blessed with this gift to suffer through long endurance events, because her heart is in the right place. She doesn't do it for herself. She runs to help children.

Red Rock Canyon Half Marathon

What a great place to have a race! The scenic drive through the Red Rock Canyon Conservation Area is basically the course. There is a little hook down a dirt road to make it a full 13.1 miles. All along the way, you see thegorgeous Red Rock Canyon cliffs either in front of you or to your left. Soon after starting, the road rises slowly up to an excruciating peak of about 1000 feet above where you start. Then around mile 8 or 9, you can turn on the rocket jets, head down hill, and zoom to the finish line. Both of my miles 10 and 12 were run at sub-7 min pace. That is FAST for me. In the end, I smashed my half marathon PR by 7 minutes on one of the hardest courses I've ever run. 1 hr 50 min was the finish time. Yay!

Afterwards, I decided to forego the pancake feast and went back to the finish line so I could cheer wh

en Holly finished the full marathon. I expected her to come in fairly soon after me, probably as the first woman, given her recent strong runs at the Arizona and Austin marathons. When we ran by each other on the course (with a big high 5, of course!), she was well in the lead for the women. I was so pumped up to see her flying by, even with her trademark "Schmalz Waltz in full gear. Be forewarned if you ever try to run beside her in a race to give her some room if you want to avoid getting walloped with an elbum! But about 10 miles after that point, she tragically suffered a major leg injury. It would be later diagnosed as a stress fracture of her right femur. Amazingly, she endured what must have been excruciating pain for several miles and finished the race. What a hero! But I wish she would have sent the message through other runners to have her picked up by someone. When she crossed the finish line, I knew she was in a huge amount of pain. She could hardly run--it was very disheartening to see. With everyone in our group finished--Holly, Tami, and myself, we quickly packed up and headed back to the hotel because of Holly's condition. We didn't know it was broken at the time, but the basic course of action was standard. Ice, crutches, and Red Robin french fries.

Understandably, my feelings were mixed in the days after this race. I loved the course, was excited about my improvement as a runner, and had a great time with Holly and her family (mostly before the race). It was strange to be in Red Rock Canyon and not be able to go rock climbing. But we just didn't have time for that. I so prefer to run races with friends or family. And Holly is a great friend--a running partner who I hardly ever run with because she lives too far away and is quite a bit faster than me. But the injury was a huge blow to her. So, I wish she had sat this one out. As a result of the injury, she sadly missed her first Boston Marathon and had to take about 3 months off from running, including about a month of being on crutches. In hindsight, we believe the problem may have been attributed to a combination of a chronic hamstring injury and the hilly nature of the Red Rock Canyon course. Certainly, it demonstrates that there is often a fine line between athletic accomplishment and excruciating injury.