There's No Magic To Running Far

There's good news and bad news.

The bad news (depending on your view of things) is that this will be my last post for the foreseeable future (though I always reserve the right to post on my own site whenever I want).

The good news is the reason why.

The last five months or so have been completely insane from a time management aspect. 

At the end of December my wife gave birth to our third child.

My responsibilities at work increased dramatically when we hired a new financial advisor at the end of January and then another in mid-April.

In February we went through the home buying process.

In March we completed the purchase of a home and, while my wife and kids went to visit Grandma in Arizona, I spent a few weeks painting, having carpet installed and moving from one house to another. On top of my normal activities.

Having moved in, the first week of April was been spent preparing our old house to put on the market. Scary proposition, let me tell you. But it needs to be done. 

All told, there hasn't been too much time left over to sit down and write much regarding running. Case in point, I started this post nearly a month ago. Frankly it's a miracle I've been able to continue to run three days a week.

But none of those reasons are why this is my last post.

The wall of my garage in my previous house was my space. It's where I displayed all of my race bibs, age group awards, medals and anything associated with the races I've run since this began in 2009. The marathons (and ultra) receive special status and are placed in frames with a picture from the particular race. Each bib has the date and my finishing time written on it. Of all the things I moved out of our old house over those few weeks, this wall was the very last thing to be done. Not because I couldn't have done it earlier, but because I just didn't want to do it. I was proud of that wall. I was proud of what it represented. Of the time, effort and commitment it took to earn each item.

But as the Realtor left on a Friday afternoon, intending to list the house on the market the following Monday, I knew the time had come to tear it down.

My long run the following morning was great. I knocked out 18 miles relatively pain and soreness free. It's the longest I'd run since the ultra back in October and it felt good. I felt like a distance runner again. With this run under my belt, I went over to the house, took one more look at my wall, and began to carefully remove each bib, frame and medal and place them in a box. For some reason I worked backwards, so I started with the 2011 Silver Falls Trail Half Marathon bib. And then next came the big one: the 50-mile frame with accompanying medal. 

50 freaking miles. I reflected on that for the first time in a while and it brought a smile to my face. I'm excited to do it again this year. Yes, excited.

I kept working backwards through time. 2011 St. George marathon. 2011 Pocatello marathon. The Foot Traffic Flat on the 4th of July. Seattle Rock 'n' Roll, where I set a new PR. Newport. Red Rock Canyon. And that was just 2011. 

I worked my way back to my first marathon, Newport in 2010, and thought about what a miserable day that was and how it was the encouragement and enthusiasm of a good friend that got me through the final four miles that race without wanting to give up running forever the moment I finished. 

As I came to the final column of bibs, I took down my first half marathon. And my first 10k. And then my first 5k. Each of these were distances I wasn't sure I could do at the time I signed up for them. And then the 2.6 mini-marathon bib from 2009. The first race I had ever "trained" for. I thought back to the first day my little brother and I ran a mile on the track in preparation for the big day. It was awful. 

It was the final bib on the wall that made the biggest difference though. The 2008 mini-marathon bib. The day I thought I should be able to run 2.6 miles without any problem and without any training. I was horribly mistaken. 

With an empty wall in front of me I thought about where I had been, the places where running has taken me these last three years and the experiences and personal growth I've enjoyed.

And then I thought about this blog and knew instantly I was done with it. Though I will most certainly continue to run, the purpose of this blog has been accomplished and completed. When I sat down to write my first post in 2009, I had one thought in mind: I'm going to run a marathon. Underlying that finite goal though was something bigger: I was going to become a runner.

The purpose of this blog has been to explore that process. During my time here I have tried to examine the various aspects of becoming a runner though my own experiences. What would it take? What would I need to change about myself to accomplish it? What strategies, physical and mental, would benefit me the most? How would I change, if at all? How would people's perception of me and what I was trying to do be received? Would it change over time? What would be the biggest disappointments? The biggest triumphs? How would all of these things weave together to form a runner? How would I know when I got there? Would it be a certain number of miles? Finish a marathon? More than one marathon?

Though I haven't answered every one of these questions here in print, I have been able to in my own mind. 

Knowing I had become a runner didn't happen when I realized I could leave the house and run 15 or more miles anytime I wanted just for fun. It didn't happen when I qualified to become a Marathon Maniac or when I ran 50 miles in a day. It didn't happen when the diet I started because I wondered if it would help me became my diet because that's just what I ate day after day. It wasn't any one thing but instead was the sum of all of the experiences and thoughts I've had over the past three years that has changed the way I think of myself.

What started as "I wonder if I can run?" has passed through the stages of "I think I can run," "I hope I can run," "can I run?" "I can run" and has arrived at simply, "I run."

It has become who I am, a runner. I am a runner. 

As I took on more look at the empty wall in my garage, and then to the box full of hard-earned mementos it seemed fitting that now was the time to come to this conclusion. I'm entering a new phase of my life. New baby, new house, new goals. Shoot, I turn 30 in a month and half. But I enter this new phase with something that I wasn't born with or was given. I enter it with something earned. Something worked for. 

From the very first day there has been a quote from General George S. Patton at the top of this site:

"Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired in the morning, noon and night. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired."

I love that. But even simpler is the following from Bear Grylls:

"There's no magic to running far or climbing Everest. Endurance is mental strength. It's all about heart." 

Thank you for reading. From those who have read from the very beginning to those who will find their way here in the future. I hope that what you have found has helped you in your own journey in some small way. 

If you're interested in continuing to follow where I'm running and what I'm doing, you can follow my progress over at the DailyMile website. It's going to be a busy few months. In June I have a half marathon and marathon. In July I'm doing an Olympic open water triathlon. And then in a period of 10 weeks from August through the first week of November I'll be competing in a 1/2 Ironman distance triathlon, two marathons (here and here), a 50 miler and a half marathon. A punishing schedule for sure. But I wouldn't have it any other way. After all, I am a runner.

In Search of IT

IT gets you up before everyone else.

IT gets you out the door when its dark and cold and raining.

IT is the reason you're in bed early and the reason you lay awake thinking, visualizing, hoping.

IT pushes you through the last few miles and keeps you on pace.

IT tells you to keep going when you're sure you've given it your last ounce of energy.

IT keeps you coming back for more, telling you that you can do that just a little bit better. A little bit faster. A little bit harder.

IT is why you do what you do.

I haven't had much of IT lately. 

I certainly didn't have IT this morning as I fought myself to get dressed and on the road.

IT wasn't anywhere to be found during my first few miles; just a long slow boring Saturday run.

Man, I really needed IT.

And then I saw IT. IT was about 100 yards in front of me, moving at roughly the same speed I was.

Go get IT.

And I nearly did.

But then IT took a shortcut through the park and re-emerged a mile later, now a 1/4 mile in front and already moving up the hill.

I was running out of road, only two miles left.

Time to dig deep and go get IT. 

Run IT down.

Passed IT. 

Ran away from IT. 

Found IT.

2011 Year in Review

Finishing Pocatello

2011 At-a-Glance:

1 50-mile ultra marathon (also HERE).

6 marathons (1 PR)

2 half marathons (1 PR)

2 10ks

1 5k (1 PR)

1 Friends & Family Turkey-Trot (1st place)

256 race miles

1251 total miles (as of Nov 28th) and counting

My first triathlon

Marathon Maniac status (bronze level, later promoted to silver)

Learned to swim 

 

It was full year of training and racing, with the first marathon coming the first weekend in March and the last race on Thanksgiving day. I'm ready for a little break through the holidays and with that, a chance to reflect on what I've accomplished, what my next challenges are and what I can do in 2012 to reach them.

 

Most Satisfying: Staying (running-)injury-free the entire year. Multiple marathons and other races weeks apart, the training in between, no more than a day or two of rest and recovery afterwards and no injuries this year. There's a difference between sickness, pain and injury. If you've got the first, you need to be smart (see Exhibit A from October). If you've got the latter you need to stop. If you've got the remaining one you need to suck it up. There was plenty of pain this year (post-Red Rock Canyon marathon comes to mind quickly), but no injuries.There was one week back in April where everyone from my parents to the surgeon thought I had a hernia that needed fixing, but that was from overdoing it during a spin class session(see also HERE, and HERE). I attribute this to another full year eating healthy, getting enough sleep and taking regular rest days at the same time every week (Sunday and Monday, light on Friday). I can still eat even healthier, but I've come along way since January 2010 when I first started making fresh fruit a regular part of my diet.

 

Best Race Medal: St. George Marathon. Made of sandstone, each of the 7000+ medals were unique. Newport comes in a close 2nd for its unique glass medal.

With Scott Jurek

Most Unexpected: Meeting Scott Jurek at the Seattle Rock 'n' Roll expo. Nicest guy ever.

 

Me, A, M after St George

Most Enjoyable: Hanging out with my buddy A, and his wife M at the St. George marathon. It was their first marathon and experiencing it with them was awesome. From driving the course the day before (M: "How far have we driven?" A: "About halfway." M: "Only half?!?") to the hanging out at the expo/pasta dinner, to the early morning bus ride, to killing time in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night for a few hours pre-race, to running the first half mile or so all together and then finally to see them cross the finish line together and (after some time) experience the awesomeness that is the feeling of finishing your first marathon. And then to get a phone call the following Monday morning that began with "I can't even walk down the stairs in my house I'm so sore today, so why do I have the urge to sign up and run another one?" He's been bitten (M, not so much).

 

Tri For Life Triathlon

Most Difficult: Without a doubt, learning to swim. Running was difficult at first too. But there was never any chance of drowning while running. Learning to swim was extremely frustrating and in the days leading up to my first triathlon, a 500 meter swim was about the most awful thing I could think of. And it didn't go all that smoothly on race day either. I didn't swim again until just a few weeks ago, and it was still just as awful as I remembered it. But something happened as I started showing up to the YMCA pre-6am every single day: it got easier. I started swimming 1000 yards every morning. And then on Day 7: a mile. In 44 minutes. Without a struggle. Now I'm swimming a mile a couple of times a week and combining 500 or 1000 yard swims with 5k runs on other days. 

 

Autumn Leaves 50 miler

Most Questionable: No question about it, the Autumn Leaves 50-miler. When your parents openly question if you can and/or should TRY it, even during the week leading up to the race you start to wonder a little bit if you should. When your wife half-jokingly (give or take a few % points) asks about the value of your life insurance policies and is satisfied with the answer you wonder if you're crazy. And in a quite moment at the starting line, when you're asking yourself "What. Am. I. Doing?" you try to answer the question. But you don't have time to, because the gun goes off and you do the only thing you can do at that point: you run.

 

Business Left Undone: A sub-4 hour marathon. I've got to get there. 4:07 in Seattle in June and 4:08 in Pocatello in September was as close as I got. In both of those races I was tracking sub-4 until miles 21 and 22, respectively.

 

Goals for 2012:

 

1. Sub-4 hour marathon. Stays on the list until it's accomplished.

2. Olympic-distance open-water triathlon.

 

I may have a few posts here and there in the coming weeks, but probably not too much. There may even be a redesign of this site if I get around to it. But I'll be back at it regularly in January, ready to hit the training hard for what I hope is another great year. If you don't want to miss any posts, be sure to subscribe via email in the box on the left side of the page or become a Google follower. Thanks for reading and staying in touch in whatever way you do (even if it's just stopping in every so often to read). Your support and encouragement means a lot.