Born to Run

I just finished reading Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. I started reading it when I was sick, and truth be told, it held the inspiration I was looking for in these final weeks! Here are my favorite quotes that I'm going to repeat to myself over and over again as I prepare for the 20-mile run approaching this weekend!

"There's something so universal about that sensation, the way running unites our two most primal impulses: fear and pleasure. We run when we're scared, we run when we're ecstatic, we run away from our problems and run around for a good time." (pg 11)

"The endure a challenge like that, you had to possess all the Tarahumara virtues - strength, patience, cooperation, dedication, and persistence. Most of all, you had to love to run." (pg 41)

"That was the real secret of the Tarahumara: they'd never forgotten what it felt like to love running. They remembered that running was mankind's first fine art, our original act of inspired creation. Way before we were scratching pictures on caves or beating rhythm on hollow trees, we were perfecting the art of combining our breath and mind and muscles into fluid self-propulsion over wild terrain. And when our ancestors finally did make their first cave paintings, what were the first designs? A downward slash, lightning bolts through the bottom and middle - behold, the Running Man" (pg. 92)

"He took some vicious falls and sometimes barely made it back to his hut on his own two feet, but he just gritted his teeth, soaked his wounds in the icy river, and chalked it up as an investment. "Suffering is humbling. It pays to know how to get your butt kicked." (pg. 110)

"Think Easy, Light, Smooth, and Fast. You start with easy, because if that's all you get, that's not so bad. Then work on light. Make it effortless, like you don't give a shit how high the hill is or how far you've got to go. When you've practiced that so long that you forget you're practicing, you work on making it smooooooth." (111)

"Beyond the very extreme of fatigue and distress, we may find amounts of ease and power we never dreamed ourselves to own; sources of strength never taxed at all because we never push through the obstruction." (112)

"You can't hate the Beast and expect to beat it; the only way to truly conquer something, as every great philosopher and geneticist will tell you, is to love it"(124)

"Nearly all runners do their slow runs too fast, and their fast runs too slow" (207)

"So simple," he said, "Just move your lefts. Because if you don't think you were born to run, you're not only denying history. You're denying who you are."

Recap: Past Few Weeks

I thought it was time for a bit of an update on how the training is coming! I've hit a few obstacles over the past few weeks, but things are looking up now and I'm feeling more encouraged than discouraged. It started after my longest run so far this training season - 15.8 miles. With Kellly's "ish" mileage every weekend, it's always fun to look at my watch when the run is done and find out how much further we ended up running than we were supposed to! After the run, I felt great. It was my first trial run with salt pills and my energy was much higher. 

But thennnn... see Monday morning at work: Typing away on my friggin computer and all of a sudden I took a breath, and my back started spasm-ing! My back maybe have been spasm-ing, but I think my brain was spasm-ing even more. FREAK - OUT. Literally, my first thought was, "Sh*t, how am I going to run today?" I had to stop running for a week and of courseeeee the first day I got back and went to track practice, I got sick! YIKES. In the words of Sarad, I tried to "Calm the Eff down," but I felt discouraged and frustrated. I felt like I was going to lose stamina and I hated not being able to participate in all of the team practices. This is supposed to be fun - and it IS fun, and that's why I didn't want miss practices. 

Long story short- 2 1/2 weeks later, I'm back in the running game. Slowly but surely, my focus has switched from trying to break a certain time, to making sure I'm stretching 2x/day just to get the mileage in that I've missed so far. I ran a little over 12 miles this weekend, and while the team was running 15, I drew encouragement from my own relative accomplishment, rather than concerning myself with what distance the rest of the team was running. I'm hoping that I can continue to draw positive energy and mentalities from each of my long runs (and there aren't many left!) from here on out. I feel like I have a new attitude and appreciation for the workouts. I've been looking more forward to them with the thought that I'm just happy I am physically able to complete the workouts! 

Speaking of which, when I was sick, Sarad asked me to create 2 mantras, one real and one joke.

Real: "Because I Can." - Most of you probably know the various reasons why I am running for TEAM, but after having a lymphoma scare myself last year and after my grandmother passed away from breast cancer, I realized that I needed to run in honor of my health and to help find a cure for the disease which affects way too many people

Joke (although it's not such a joke since I came up with this because I found myself repeating these words in my head running up Heartbreak Hill): "Oh Shit, Oh Shit, Oh Shit"

Or, I was thinking about just imagining this little girl when I needed it: Mantra Video

On that note, I'm out - but not without first thanking everyone. I have to give a fundraising update - together we have donated OVER $8.000 to Team in Training and as a complete team we have already surpassed $750,000!!!!! 

Oh yea, also, I'm hosting a fundraiser at Chill ice cream for all of you Bostonians. It's on Wednesday March 14 from 6-10 pm. Chill will be donating 20% of sales from that night to TEAM in Training. So come on by with lots of friends and buy some pints! :) 

Here's to 3 more pain free (fingers crossed!) long runs before our long awaited 20-miler! I cannot wait for mama subu to spectate that run. I'm just trying to get her pumped up and ready for race day. I'm thinking about giving her some swedish fish or pretzels to hold, since our usual weekend buffets will not be available on race day! Thoughts? :)