Where did you go to grad school?

This seems like an innocent enough question, but its one that makes me a little nervous when I first meet new people. Upon first meeting, I assume that most people think I'm fairly normal. Then they ask where I went to school, and things start out well. I say "Yale," and they think I'm smart. Then, I follow that with "Divinity School," and they often go a little wide-eyed. "Is that like seminary?" Yes it is. "To, like, be a minister?" Yes indeed.

At this point, things can go one of five ways:

1) The other person thinks this is great and immediately starts sharing their feelings about why gay people are going to Hell.

2) The other person thinks this is great, or at least interesting, and we proceed getting to know one another like normal humans.

3) The other person thinks this is horrible and immediately starts telling me that, if I just read The DaVinci Code, I would understand why I'm wasting my life. (True story!)

4) The other person immediately assumes I am judging them and starts explaining why they haven't gone to church in ages but intend to go back, and/or confessing to other "sins."

5) The other person just thinks I'm straight-up crazy.

I'm always hoping for outcome #2, but watching this video reminds me that those who think I'm crazy might be onto something.

Of course, sometimes the conversation goes far enough that I have to explain that I'm not a minister right now and I'm actually still in grad school studying pastoral counseling. YouTube doesn't have a video for that yet, but if they did it would go like this:

Person #1: So you want to study pastoral counseling?

Person #2: Yes.

Person #1: What is that exactly?

Person #2: (Blank stare.)

The end.

What does the appendix have against marathons?

This is a photo of Sarah and Ryan Shay, a pair of brother and sister runners whose stories I have followed in Runners World and various other running media for awhile now. In 2007, Ryan Shay (who was 28) dropped dead from heart failure during the Olympic marathon trials, held on the same course as the NYC marathon. In the years since her brother has died, Sarah Shay has gone through a divorce and been diagnosed with lupus.

Faced with all of this misfortune, what did Sarah Shay decide to do? Run a marathon for charity! As she shares in this article, she had a dream during one of her lowest periods in which her brother encouraged her through a difficult race. With her brother as her inspiration, she ran her first marathon in February and raised $13,000 for a charity that supports wounded veterans. The response to her efforts spurred her on enter the 2010 NYC marathon with the goal of raising $26,200. During that marathon, she would run past the exact spot where her brother died. Just as Katie and I set out to finish Dr. Murray's marathon, Sarah Shay wanted to finish her brother's. On November 4th, she told the New York Daily News: "I'll be excited and proud to run this marathon - one that (my brother) didn't get to finish... And in the end I will probably be bawling my eyes out."

Naturally, I can relate to this story and I have followed it with great interest. Unfortunately, I can now relate to it even more. As reported in this article, Sarah Shay started experiencing stomach pain on the morning before the marathon, and had to have an emergency appendectomy that night. She didn't get to run her race. When I read about this, my heart broke for her. I can recall perfectly the moment in late August when a doctor told me that my stomach pain was appendicitis and I thought I might not be able to run my race. I remember thinking about all of the people who were following my training and giving money to my cause, as well as all the hard work I had already put in, and I could not imagine not being able to run. I am so grateful that I was able to recover and get back in the game, and my heart goes out to Sarah Shay.

I hope that Sarah Shay will recover as quickly and fully as I did, and I really hope that she will be able to achieve her dream of finishing the NYC marathon in 2011. I put my name in the lottery for that race already, so if all the stars align, I might be there to cheer her on! I think a resounding chant of "Take that, appendix!" will be in order.

If you would like to donate to Sarah Shay's campaign, you can learn more about it at her website, http://www.runningforryan.com/.

Five: the gateway mile.

On Saturday, I ran the Down's Park 5-mile race, the second-to-last in the 2010 Striders' champ series. It was a great race through a beautiful park (see borrowed-from-internet photo above), and it reminded me of one of the ancillary benefits of marathon training: the marathon makes anything shorter than a marathon feel really easy!

Running this 5-miler through a park reminded me of my first 5-miler through a park, which took place just about one year ago. In my November 4th post, I mentioned that, as of a year ago, I had never run more than 3 miles. My good friend Corinne made a comment on how I wasn't even a runner year ago, which is both true and not true. I have been running for a long time, but that 5-mile race was probably the day I first felt like a "real runner." A brief history:

When I was in high school, I used to take long, solitary walks around my parents' neighborhood in order to get out of the house and clear my head. When I graduated from college in 2001 and moved back in with my parents, I resumed those walks and started mixing in a little running. Gradually, I started to do runs with a little walking, as opposed to walks with a little running. This pattern remained the same for a long time, though the setting varied depending on where I was living.

From 2004-2007, when I was at Yale, I started running on the elevated track in the amazing Yale gym. My fondness for that gym combined with the flexibility of being a graduate student meant that I started running a lot more. Then, I found myself a boyfriend who was a very accomplished runner, and he convinced me to enter my first races. In 2006 and 2007, I did my first two 5K's. I didn't manage to finish either of them without walking, but they got me over my fear of races.

Then came the dark period. Winter of '07-summer of '09 was a pretty rocky time in my life. A series of events, including the break-up with aforementioned boyfriend, left me unmotivated to do much of anything beyond work and school. I totally fell off the wagon with all exercise, including running. In July of '09, my rebound relationship from the runner ended rather abrubtly and I decided I needed to focus on myself for awhile. Among other things, that meant getting back in decent physical shape.

In August '09, I joined my neighborhood gym, the terrific Annapolis Athletic Club. As I have written previously, I took to exercise this time in a way I never had before. I was much more focused, committed and disciplined. I started out with weight training and running on a treadmill. In October '09, I entered my third 5K. My performance in that race was dissapointing, so I started working harder on the treadmill. By mid-November, I could run for 45 minutes to an hour without stopping and I decided to look for a longer race.

I was aware of the Annapolis Striders running group through some runner friends, and I knew that they have a race every year called the "Cold Turkey 10K." Given the name- cold turkey-I assumed that this race happened after Thanksgiving. So, at the start of my Thanksgiving break, I looked up the race info and learned that it actually happens the week before Thanksgiving. (I guess the turkey is cold because its still frozen!) I had already missed it. Fortunately, Thanksgiving week is a very popular time for races. I did a Google search and found a 5-miler happening the Saturday after Thanksgiving: the "Turkey Burnoff," hosted by Montgomery Country Road Runners. I decided to give it a shot.

I'll save the full story of that race for later this month, when I plan to run it for the second time. For now, I'll just say that I was incredibly nervous before that race and had no idea if I would even be able to finish. When I did manage to finish- without walking at all- it was one of the happiest moments of my life. I literally could not stop smiling for days. Five miles felt like some kind of dividing line which seperated the casual "run a little, walk a little" types from the "real runners," and I had crossed over. As soon as I crossed that barrier, I wanted to see how much further I could go. That race set me on the path that led, in only 11 months, to finishing a marathon.   

MCRR's Turkey Burnoff 2011 is happening this year on Saturday, 11/27, and I am already looking forward to my triumphant return. Its a really fun race, with 5 and 10-mile options through a beautiful park, so let me know if you want to come along! The Cold Turkey 10K is a great race too (I hear)- just remember that it happens on November 21, the Sunday before Thanksgiving!

NYC heroes.

Have you heard about this guy? This is Edison Pena, one of the formerly-trapped Chilean miners who finished the NYC marathon yesterday. You can read all about it here. People gave me a lot of credit for running a 6:10 marathon a couple months after an appendectomy, but that's not much compared to running a 5:40 marathon after being trapped in a mine for 69 days. Amazing! Apparently, he ran up to 6 miles a day by going back and forth inside the mine. I totally understand running as stress relief (that's a big reason I do it), but that is pretty extreme.

I'm also impressed with Meredith Viera and Al Roker from the Today Show, who both ran yesterday and then turned up for work at the crack of dawn this morning. She was even wearing heels! It has to be hard to find motivation to run every day when you get up at 3 or 4am to tape a morning show 6 times a week.

Further Kudos to Jared the Subway guy, Ryan from The Bachelorette, Bobby Flay, and the numerous other celebrities who ran that race. At many points during my race, I was pretty happy that nobody I know could see me. I would not have enjoyed having cameras and fans following me! I prefer to suffer semi-privately.

They aren't celebrities, but I also have to mention my co-worker Monica's family. Her mother, brother, sister, and future brother-in-law all ran, which would be impressive even if said sister and future brother-in-law were not getting married next weekend! The walk to the aisle should feel pretty short now!

For all 2011 NYC marathon hopefuls, the lottery for next year's race opened today. You can apply here. If you get turned down three years in a row, you are guaranteed entry in your fourth year. So, if you think you might want to do it anytime in the next few years, you might as well put your name in!

Step one: gather your materials.

Two of my favorite hobbies are cooking and sewing. In both of those activities, you start by gathering your materials. That's where I am in terms of training for my triathlon. The race is not until August, so I have a ton of time, but I also have a ton of materials to gather and not a ton of money to work with. I hope that I will be able to buy a decent bike at some point during my training, but that is not an option at the moment. So, today I ventured into the back of my shed to rescue the barely-used Huffy that my parents bought me at Kmart for my high school graduation in 1997.

Pictured above is my exact bicycle, nicely cleaned and polished by somebody trying to sell it on Craigslist. Mine does not look like this. I put it in my shed when I bought my house in 2003 and never touched it again until today. Just getting it out of the shed was a challenge because it was wedged into the dirt floor. When I got it out into the daylight, I was concerned that it might not be usuable, as it was caked with dirt and more than a little rust. I don't have a hose nor any suitable cleaning products, so I wound up working on it with some Fantastik and a couple of dish rags. Shockingly, it worked! After about a half-hour of scrubbing, the original green color was actually gleaming through and I could see that the rust was not nearly as bad as I had thought. Both tires are flat, so I didn't get a chance to test it out, but I know plenty of people with air pumps, so I should be in business soon.

If I wind up having to ride this thing in the actual race, I think I'm going to play up the juvenile theme by attaching a basket, a horn, and some streamers. If you have a dog, walk it proudly!

FAQ's

Hello again! Things are slowly returning to semi-normal, so I have a few minutes to share some further thoughts on my marathon experience. Here are the questions I have heard most frequently over the past few days:

1. How are you feeling?

Good! Physically, I was super-sore and tired the afternoon/evening of the marathon. I went to bed around 7:30pm, which took care of the tiredness, but not the soreness. Monday morning, I got up with my usual 5:30am alarm to go to Group Power (my weightlifting class), but quickly realized there was no way I could do squats or lunges and went back to bed. When I got up again (which took a good 10 minutes), I took some Advil and went for a sports massage. That helped immensely. Tuesday morning, I woke up feeling much better and went to Group Power, where I had some kind of adrenaline surge and actually added weight. That class seemed to work the rest of the stiffness out. I did GP again Wednesday along with a 1-mile walk, and I went to my boot camp class this morning. So, all in all, my physical recovery has been quite easy. 

Mentally, I'll admit that I had mixed feelings the day of the marathon. When I started training, I had really hoped to run the whole thing. I think I was on track to do that before I got appendicitis and went back to school. The appendicitis knocked me out for two really important long run weeks, and returning to school cut my weekday training time in half. Even with those setbacks, I had hoped to walk less than I did. So, on the day of the race, I was a little dissapointed, as I always am when I have to walk in a race. By the next morning, though, I was pretty much over it. Even with all of the training, there was really no way I could have known what a marathon would be like until I did one. Now that I have, I have a much better idea of what I'll need to do to prepare for the next one. Which brings us to the next question...

2. Will you run another marathon?

Yes, I think I will. I would like to actually run one start to finish, and there are a couple "destination" races I would love to do when I no longer have a full-time job and a full-time course schedule. No concrete plans yet, though, which brings us to...

3. What are you going to do now? 

A few things. I have 3 or 4 shorter races left in 2010 (including one this coming Saturday). In 2011, I'll probably run many of the same races I did in 2010. These include the Striders' Champ Series. I'll also be joining the Striders' half-marathon training group in January for my second year. I do not know whether I will do a second year with the marathon training group; that all depends on what my work situation is next summer.   

The really exciting news is that I am doing at least two triathlons in the coming year! The first will be a run-bike-canoe triathlon that my crazy ultra-running friends have incorporated into their wedding in April. Seriously. My friend Pat and I will be doing this as a 2-person team with me on the run, him on the bike, and both of us in the canoe. We will be joined by other wedding teams, including the bride with the groom and the bride's father with the minister. I am also DJ'ing the wedding, which means that I have to finish this race at all costs! 

The second triathlon will be the Columbia IronGirl event in  August. This is a regular swim-bike-run sprint distance event. Should be an adventure. As a kid, I was a really strong swimmer and good on a bike, but I haven't done either (aside from spin class) in years. At this point, I don't even own most of the equipment I need, so I'm slowly buying one thing at a time. Right now, I have a swimsuit, goggles, and a helmet. There is a lot left to obtain- most importantly, a decent bike.

4. What did you learn from this?

So many things, but there are two big ones: 

First, that I have amazing people in my life. Throughout this whole process, I have been amazed and overwhelmed at how many people have taken an interest in my training, fundraising, and race. For the last 6 months, it has felt like everyone in every little corner of my life has known and cared about this. I truly did not expect that, and I will never forget it.  

Second, that I have more courage and more determination than I realized. Throughout my life, I have always been a bit of a risk-taker and I have always been pretty dogged in pursuing the things I decide to do. At the same time, I tend to play to my strengths. For example, it was a risk applying to Yale. Still, academics is where I excel, so I knew I had a decent chance of success.

For me, deciding to run a marathon was a much bigger risk than applying to Yale. Athletics is not my area of strength. As a kid, I consistently missed straight A's because I got B's in gym. A year ago, I had never run more than 3 miles and I had only done that a few times. Every step in the build-up to this race- joining the gym, joining the Striders, signing up for progressively longer races- was a leap of faith. I honestly did not know if I would be able to do this, and failure terrifies me (I'm an overachiever to the core). So, I'm proud of myself for even giving this a shot, and I think this is going to help me be even more courageous in other areas of my life.

As far as determination goes, I think everyone has seen some of that. Obviously, I had some major setbacks in the process of training for this race (hello, appendix!). I am proud of myself for pushing through those, but I'm more proud about the smaller acts of focus and discipline I had to do on a daily basis. I have a very, very busy life and I have often used that as an excuse to neglect my physical health. A little over a year ago, I finally let that excuse go, and started doing what I needed to do to be healthy. If you had told me 18 months ago that I would be working out at 6am 4-5 times a week, and that I would often put in another hour in the evenings, I would have laughed in your face. But that's what I've done, and the payoffs have been unbelievable. This training has definitely reminded me that nothing is impossible if you just put your mind to it and do the work.

All in all, this has been an unforgettable experience and I know that its just the beginning of more amazing things to come!

Returning to the scene of the crime.

I saw this video posted on my friend's Facebook page a few days ago, but I didn't watch it until just now. I'm very grateful that my co-workers are at lunch because, even with my loathing for cheesy inspirational music, it totally made me cry. It was like re-living the whole experience, with three notable exceptions:

-The opening festivities. I neither heard nor saw any of that. Keep in mind that this video shows maybe the front third of 30,000+ runners. I was in the back third. I heard nothing but the starting gun and I didn't even see the start line until 30 minutes after the gun fired.

-The monuments. As I watch the beginning and end of this video (ie: the parts when I was doing well), I can remember every little detail of the scenery. In the middle, which happens to be both the most scenic part and the part where I was struggling, I don't remember a thing. I was so completely focused on just putting one foot in front of the other that I totally missed all of the sights. Unfortunately, I didn't recover enough to tune back into my surroundings until we hit the overpass over 395.

-The lines of Marines. These didn't make it into the video, but there were long lines of cheering Marines at both the start and finish lines. Its too bad you don't see it here, because it was a nice way to bookend the race.

Enjoy!