The Run Report – 26.2 on my horizon

Okay guys, run report time. Confession (and it’s not even time for runfessions yet!) – I haven’t been doing a lot of running. I’ve been doing a few short runs, like 3 miles or less, along the river, or on the trails near our new place. But honestly, with the unpacking/organizing (we’ve finished unpacking but now we’re still, still finding a home for everything) and the nap/play/nursing schedule, I haven’t been focusing on progressing my running.

So when we went down to visit Grandma near Woodstock, Vermont earlier this week, I went out and ran 4 miles, to see how it felt and start the process of building back up to distance. It felt SO good and when I got back I was in such a great mood. It’s amazing how moving your body and getting your heart rate up can affect your state of mind as well.

It felt so good, in fact, that when I got home I promptly signed up to run the Vermont City Marathon on Memorial Day weekend next year! Yup, 26.2 miles, May next year. So there will definitely be a lot more running going on as the winter progresses up here in Vermont. And maybe some snowshoeing and cross-country skiing as my cross training – woo hoo!

Now, one of the other reasons I haven’t been out a lot running is because I’m still trying to find some good routes around our new place. I was thinking about stopping in at the RunVermont headquarters in Burlington and having a chit-chat with them about running groups and routes and what not. In the meantime, we went to our friend Sarah’s place for dinner one evening this week and I asked her if she knew where people in my area ran if they just wanted to head out from home, rather than drive to the lake or to some of the trails on the outskirts of the city.

(And by the way, isn’t this a gorgeous sight? This is our friend’s house, lit up and cozy when we arrived, as she was beginning dinner and her kids were getting the last of their homework done.)

I mentioned to Sarah that I hadn’t found a perfect place to run yet. I mean, Prospect Park back in Brooklyn had its limitations because its loop was just a smidge under 3 and a half miles, so it wasn’t great for marathon training, but it was so close and it worked so well for any kind of running workout. Sarah is one of those people who just knows their city and community inside and out and she didn’t miss a beat. She told me exactly where I could run, pulled up a map on her laptop amidst the pasta cooking and the wine being poured and showed me an out and back in a beautiful area I could do anywhere from 5 miles to 20 easily. (Well, probably not easily for the 20, but you get the idea).

I’m excited. I’m nervous for the training. The fact that the NYC marathon is right around the corner and I’m getting so pumped about it (especially about my girls Nellie and Allie running!) is making me even more psyched. I’m trying to ignore the kind of crazy-looking outline the VT race course makes – hopefully all those turns won’t make it brutal.

And there’s a hill at mile 15 – kind of like the Queensboro bridge mile in NYC – that I’ve heard is awful. Turns out, I already know where it is, from when we were at the lake a week ago. Roman decided he absolutely couldn’t walk any further, so I carried him up that very hill on our way back to the car park. Carrying close to 40 pounds while walking up that sucker gave me a good idea of how steep it is, but it also made me think, I’ve got this. Plus, now I know where to go to do hill repeats. 😉

I’d be lying if I didn’t admit I wanted to PR. I’ve only run this distance twice and my best time was after having Roman. Now I’ve had two babies, I would love to break that record again just to prove to myself (okay, and to others) that us motherrunners can still bring the speed and draw upon our strength to kill any distance we choose. And now I’ve put that out there and I’m sure I will question my ability over and over again since this has been a long, slow, meandering, stressful return to running for me. I mean, come on, I started this post with celebrating 4 miles.

So that’s where I’m at – out of condition, still carrying Baby T weight, just finding my way back again – and hoping I can accomplish the goal I’ve just set for myself.

And since it’s my awesome husband Fran’s birthday today, I want to share a running story of his that makes me feel happy and hopeful all at once. If you didn’t already know, back in December of 2010, Fran got sick with what we thought was just a bad stomach flu. Turned out to be a little more serious – to the tune of complete organ failure, a two-week coma and a prognosis of a 99% chance of him dying. But he didn’t die and 5 months after he was finally released, he ran a half marathon with me at his side.

(and I was 6 weeks pregnant at the time and had NO idea.)

But it wasn’t the half marathon that I remember most. It was the last long run I’d programmed for him, a 10 mile run a couple of weeks before the race. The only time he could do the run was fairly late in the evening. It was drizzling and kind of miserable out and he wasn’t thrilled about running. (He’s not a born runner and actually makes fun of my running nerd-dom as often as possible). He set out reluctantly to the park to get it done. About half an hour after he left, it started POURING. Just bucketing down. I heard it and watched and thought, I am going to have one cranky, pissed-off husband back pretty soon.

Finally I heard the key in the door and I went to meet him, ready to offer condolences for what must have been a miserable run. And saw the beaming face of my husband. He told me how amazing it felt. How he was so proud to be running the farthest he’d ever run. The first time he’d ever run double digits. There were only two or other people crazy enough to be out running, they all did the nod as they passed each other again and again on the loop and he spent the last loop of 3 miles or so watching animals run away and hide from the conditions he was running through. To this day he says it was one of the best nights of his life, that he felt like Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption when he emerged from the sewer tunnel in the pouring rain, free and happy.

And that, my friends, that right there, that’s what running is. Fran doesn’t love running. He sees it as a means to getting in shape, not something he enjoys or wants to do. But even someone who’s not a runner can have that one run – the time when everything falls into place, it feels good, it feels right, it makes you realize how transformative it can be just to be moving your body and feeling it all work the way it’s supposed to. It’s magical. And that’s why a lot of my motivation for running my best, for making my crazy goals, comes from a guy who doesn’t like running.

Happy Birthday, Fran. I love you, even when you tease me about my running gear and my talk about splits and gear and fuel.

Do you always, never, or sometimes doubt you can achieve a goal you’ve set?

Have you found motivation in an unlikely place?