The Gold Run (Run 50)

Saturday was another team run--this time at Mirabeau in the Valley (to hop on the Centennial Trail)--so it was much, much more flat than last week's team run.* I ran with Heather Butner again, and I must say that although I am certainly stepping up to keep pace with her (she is probably around 8 inches taller than I am), it's really nice to go out for a long run and have someone to talk to and work through the miles. A 60-minute training run* is considerably faster (in terms of the feeling of time passing) when you are having a conversation. Granted, I find myself out of breath and asking Heather very open-ended question so that she has to do more of the talking, but I am contributing.

It's really encouraging to be out at the team runs, particularly when Curtis and Kendra Edlin are out practicing with us. Curtis is in a 5-year remission from Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma (after five months of chemo), and he is currently being treated for Chronic Myeloid Leukemia. Curtis and is wife Kendra are out training with us with Team in Training--and fundraising--even though Curtis is currently being treated for Leukemia. It's pretty amazing to see someone faced with such a serious battle who is out training and fundraising to help himself and others. It certainly makes your feet keep moving once you hit that 6th or 7th mile.

Redistribution (Run 49)

Running is highly touted as a means to fitness, weight loss, and cardiovascular health. I don't disagree with any of these assertions, other than perhaps the weight loss portion. I didn't start training to lose weight, but getting rid of the remaining few pesky pounds that migrate around my midsection (my law school pudge, as I call it) would certainly have been welcome. Since I have started training, I have noted that my calves and thighs are stronger (and smaller) and that my law school pudge is less, well, pudgey. However, the scale has not moved (I know, muscle weighs more than fat, blah blah).

I am most concerned--shocked, saddened, unhappy--about the reduction in size of another part of my anatomy. I won't "flat"-out name it, but, let's just say that a certain letter no longer refers to the grades I got when I was in school (hint: I was the Honor Society Prez in high school, so I got straight A's). Sure, it makes running easy--as there's no top heaviness or back ache (or the need to find a really good sports bra), but, it was deflating for me to have the big splurge of my trip to the Nordies Anniversary Sale be small, small support garments that I could actually fill-out. Let's just say they are in a size that I haven't worn since I was 12 (and, I did not have hips when I was 12--or law school pudge).

I told a few of the coaches and mentors for Team in Training (all women) that I was fairly certain by the time we are done, I'll be able to run topless and it won't be offensive (although, people may wonder why that little boy running has hips--and shaved legs and feminine features). I joked with Heather Butner, a fellow Team in Training runner (training for the full marathon and a former high school classmate of mine) that my current situation was the reverse of high school track girls--those who suddenly fill out after freshman year and notice their pace and endurance changing. So, perhaps I am en route to being a twiggy fifteen-year-old. I guess there are worse things.

All I Needed Was a Little Ego Boost (End of Week 9)

Week 9 was an up and down of emotion and ability, which started off with my bad run that ended Week 8.* Week 9 ended with our long team run (Run 45) at 6 a.m. on Saturday morning on the Centennial Trail by SFCC (very, very hilly). I ended up running the first 30 minutes of my supposed-to-be 60** minute run with a girl that I had gone to high school with, Heather Butner, formerly Heather Silvey. Heather was always a star athlete and sprinter in both high school and college. There was no way I could ever have kept pace with her in high school. She and I knew of each other, but never really knew one another during that time. She was always very friendly, and I knew she was one hell of a runner.

So, Saturday morning, bright and early, I find myself running with--and keeping up with--Heather on a very hilly course, very early in the morning on Saturday.*** Now, I understand that sprinting and distance running are two very different creatures (Heather even commented as much), but for me to keep pace with someone I'd always considered a strong, fast runner really changed my bad-attitude that had dominated the end of Week 8 through a good part of week 9. Thanks, Heather!

In addition to be able to keep pace with a good runner, I get a little ego boost every team practice by finishing first. This is not because I am the fastest (far from it--I think that Aileen Laughlin, my friend Meg's little sis may be the fastest out there--and the fastest woman at the least), but because I run with the people who are completing a full marathon. They are running almost twice the distance that I am during our long runs to prepare themselves for the twice-as-long race in October (26.2 miles v. 13.1 miles). During practice we all run out in the same direction and turn around based on what our race distance is (half or full marathon) and what our pace is (over or under the 12-minute-mile mark). The half-marathoners running under a 12-minute-mile (that would be me, and...me) have to run for the least amount of time during out team runs.

So, I get to turn around sooner. Now, I know that many of my team members and coaches realize that I am a "halfer," but I can tell by the looks on some of my teammates faces (mostly the walkers) that not everyone realizes this. The coaches always give us a max turn around point for the runs, as in, even if your reach mile marker x before you are supposed to turn around (based on your time limits), turn around anyway (and add distance to the other end point of your run). I think some of these other teammates assume that I have reached the max turn around point at mile x, and that I have turned around to head back--very quickly. Sometimes I'll say some encouraging words to those teammates that I am passing in the opposite direction and let them know that I am a "halfer," but sometimes I just let them think that this short, 30-year-old girl who claims to be a "new runner" is just a natural.

*See my earlier posting, "Running Just Might be a Pearl Izumi Ad."

** The trail is a bit confusing by SFCC, so on my way back to the parking lot via the trail, I missed a turn and ended up all the way on the other side of SFCC. The team coaches and mentors looked at me strangely as I came running from the other side of the lot to the water station at the end of my run. This confusion added another 10+ minutes and probably close to 1.5 miles to my run.

*** I realize that "very early" is not 6:30 a.m. for many people, but I am NOT a morning person.