Victory …



Pat, one of my girlfriends from the Distance Divas, ran her first ultra today, the Greenland 50K in Larkspur, Colorado. That’s Pat, pictured above, finishing the race.

I wanted to write a post about it because I LOVE this photo of her!.

Boston or Botox’s main themes are  “marathons, motherhood and midlife triumphs.” The expression on Pat’s face is pure triumph, joy and accomplishment.

Well done, Pat!!

A few months back I flirted with the idea of running the Greenland 50K myself. I reined myself in because I still have two young children at home. The training and writing I already put in is time consuming, and I try to keep the peace with the Dude. (Staying happily married is its own kind of ultramarathoning, balancing act.)

Maybe someday soon, though, I’ll cross the ultra threshold with Pat and some of my other friends. For now I’ll live vicariously through them and cheer them onto victory, which they deserve.
 
Here’s a shout-out to more of my Distance Divas’ and Columbines’ friends who ran the Greenland trail races (50K, 25K, 8 miler) today: Gayle, Michele, Janet, Lynnette and Jan.

Gayle, whom I’ve mentioned in earlier posts such as the Marathon Maniacs a few days ago, took third overall woman in the 50K. Congratulations to Gayle and to everyone, especially Pat for her first ultra!!

In other exciting news my friend Pam, with whom I ran the Boston Marathon almost three weeks ago, ran a half marathon today. She also ran a full marathon last weekend to become a Marathon Maniac. (Yes, that’s right. She did three major distance races within a month!!)

Next weekend I will race the Colfax Half Marathon. I hope to live up to these daring acts of greatness around me. Hopefully it’ll rub off on me, too.

Midlife triumphs, indeed.

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Aging is inevitable, but growing old is a choice. Lace up your shoes, and let’s go!!

My mileage today: 8.5; My mileage since Boston: 59.5

Starting from scratch

I’ve been a runner for so long I can hardly remember what it’s like NOT to run. It’s simply a part of me now.

That’s why it’s been fun for me to help my friend and neighbor, Dawn, get started as a runner.

Dawn is the gifted photographer who took these great pictures of me a few weeks ago before I ran Boston.



Photo credit: Dawn Spark photography

Dawn’s excitement reminds of how empowering it is to start something new, especially when you accomplish something you thought you couldn’t, but you really can. It’s one of the reason why I became an RRCA certified coach last year — to share that passion with people.

Dawn and I first met when her family moved in across the street from me several years ago. Back then our oldest girls were babies. Dawn was pregnant with her second child.

Shortly thereafter Dawn gave birth to another little girl, and she launched her photography business.

Over time Dawn’s amazing talent and clientele have grown along with her beautiful family. She now has a third child, a little boy close to my son’s age, and she shoots dozens of weddings and personal portraits each year.

I was thrilled when she captured these photos of me. I think Dawn has a knack for capturing the playful and unexpected as well as the essence within her subjects.

We talked about running during the shoot (another neighbor/friend of ours just completed her first half marathon), and Dawn said she’s never been a runner but has always wanted to be.

So … the coach in me stepped in. I suggested a beginner 5K plan and encouraged her. 

Dawn’s now a few weeks into it. She’s running almost two miles at a stretch, about four times a week. She wants to complete her first 5K this summer. I have no doubt she’ll do it and finish it well.

Seeing Dawn blossom as a photographer and artist, and now as a runner has been good for my soul. It reminds to be patient with myself.

It is still my hope to launch this blog and my writing and running endeavors into even more. I will persevere. I will continue with the stories, essays and profiles on Boston or Botox. As I look for my next running goal I know clarity will come.

I will continue to take the advice I’ve been giving Dawn as a coach: Keep taking steps forward. Do not give up. It will get easier and, gasp, even enjoyable over time.

If you believe in yourself and keep moving forward, the way will open.

Your life will rise to greet you. Before you know it, it will be second nature … sort of like being a lifelong runner/writer … or an established photographer.

Amen.

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Aging is inevitable, but growing old is a choice. Lace up your shoes, and let’s go!

Mileage today: 5; Mileage run since Boston: 51




Putting “my pretty on”

Tarzan, almost 5, and Jane, 8, both got dressed by themselves today. Such news won’t make the earth spin off its axis but it rocked my world.

When you do motherhood as a full-time gig it’s hard to gauge progress. Getting an attagirl in the outer world is rare enough but with motherhood it seems to disappear altogether, just like a lost sock in the dryer.

(Hello?? Where did it go??)

That’s why I take Tarzan and Jane’s self-sufficiency today as a sign I’m doing the right thing, that hopefully when I gone and pushing up daisies they’ll have the tools they need to survive.

“You look pretty, sweetie,” I told Jane after she picked out her own headband and combed her hair.

She hugged me and gave me the best compliment of my life: “That’s ’cause you put the pretty on me, mom.” 

It made me cry.

If there is one thing I usually don’t feel about myself these days when I’m busy managing household minutia, it is pretty.

Some days, in fact, I downright fight the uglies that creep into my head. That’s one of the biggest reasons I run so much — to send those uglies within me packing.

The best parts of motherhood are moments like today with Tarzan and Jane, when my children say or do something to confirm that everything I’ve given — all the love, the effort, the heart and soul — in some small way isn’t for naught.

The worst part about motherhood is too often I feel taken granted, and sometimes I’ve allowed others to take me for granted, but I’m not alone. This happens to a lot of women. (I have yet to meet a wife who enjoys picking her husband’s socks up off the floor. or cooking and cleaning up alone after dinner.)

Some of my mom friends recuperate by getting together and partaking of “little mommy juice,” going to a movie or a girls’ night out. 

Others curl up with a good book regularly after the husband and kids are in bed.

Laughter is always a welcomed elixir.

Sometimes I join the girls for some of those options. I’m grateful for my time with my peeps.

Running, however, is the best tool in my anti-aging, anti-ugly arsenal.

Anyway you do it — the idea is the same — to find a way to put your own “pretty back on.”

For me, when I sweat and move my body, it doesn’t matter after awhile — all the stresses or frustrations I’ve felt throughout the day, or that I’m getting older, or whatever other responsibility sits on my plate.

I run and the movement puts the pretty back into my heart. I reconnect with God. My soul gets the strength it needs to move forward.

“I didn’t put the pretty on you,” I told Jane. “God did that.”

Lucky for me, however, He choose me to be the holding tank so Tarzan and Jane could bring their own kind of pretty into this world.

They put the pretty on me, not the reverse.

I am blessed.

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Aging is inevitable, but growing old is a choice. Lace up your shoes, and let’s go!

Mileage yesterday: 3; Mileage I’ve run since Boston: 46.

 

Marathon Maniacs

My friend Pam, who ran the Boston Marathon with me two weeks ago, also ran the Gettysburg Marathon North yesterday. This now qualifies her to be a Marathon Maniac.

What are the Marathon Maniacs, you might ask?

It’s this crazy club and website for habitual marathon and ultramarathon runners. Participants are these endurance psychos and serial racers who can sweep across anything that comes their way. Pam is a perfect example. I swear the woman can scream up any hill, even if it confronted her sideways on the Mars and she was wearing 50-pound gravity boots. She rocked Gettysburg, 3:42, after slumming it in the cheap seats with me at Boston.

Here’s a picture of Pam, at right, after she finished Gettysburg on Sunday.

 

If you meet the various qualifications (running two marathons within 16 days of each other, for example, for  “Bronze level” status), you get a Marathon Maniac T-shirt and join the “Insane Asylum” — the organizers assign you a Marathon Maniac number and list your name on the site.
 
Pam earned bronze status. One of my Columbines friends, Gayle, is also a Maniac who knows the guys who founded the club and site.

I didn’t know about the Marathon Maniacs when I signed up for Boston. Otherwise I’d have gone for it, too, just ’cause. The timing would have been perfect and I don’t know when that will happen again. The Colorado Marathon in Fort Collins was this last Sunday (13 days after Boston). 

Entries into the Colorado Marathon closed back in December. I emailed the race director after I got back from Boston and asked (a couple of times, actually) if there was anyway to still get in so I could become a Maniac. She said no.

Bummer …

Oh well, I guess my Maniac status was not meant to be … for now.

I am signed up to run the Colfax Half Marathon in two weeks, however, and I’m contemplating a fall marathon. I’d love to do a fast course for a PR, but I admit, the Maniac thing is still on my brain. The other goal that appeals to me right now is aiming to run a marathon in every state. (I’ve already covered six states with my seven marathons.)

I’m not sure how it will all pan out yet but I’ll let you know as things develop.

The good news is I feel great, fully recovered from Boston, and obviously I’m well enough to think about the future. The Distance Divas here in Colorado are about to kick off another season in another month or so, and I will be involved with that, too.

Congrats to Pam on a job well and her new Maniac status!!

In honor of Pam and the other Marathon Maniacs here’s a link to not 10,000 miles — you guys have already got that one covered — but 10,000 Maniacs.

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Aging is inevitable, but growing old is a choice. Lace up your shoes, and let’s go!!

Mileage I’ve run since the Boston Marathon: 43
 

Vegging out …

Yesterday I woke up to snow on my front lawn — winter’s last hurrah (I hope) here in Colorado. By noon it was gone.

What makes living in the Rocky Mountains special is our sampler’s platter of weather, followed by a chaser of sunshine most of the time. 

All the teasers of warmer weather  we had before this weekend make me want to veg out as in grill yummy vegetables outside on the barbecue soon.

I grew up on this Eastern European recipe for roasted peppers marinated in garlic and olive oil. My mother still makes them and they are out of the world. I make them, too, but hers are always better. (Isn’t that the way it always is with family recipes?)

You can broil them indoors but I prefer the barbecue — less mess and doesn’t heat up the whole house.

I could live on these — eating them alone, on sandwiches and as a side dish with a meal.

I also like to grill zucchini, onions, peppers, mushrooms, squash and asparagus using one of those grated barbecue pans coated with non-stick spray or oil. I usually make up my own marinate with olive oil, salt and pepper, and basil.

Here’s one vegetable marinade recipe I found to share so you get an idea of how to do it, too.

You can throw grilled vegetables into salads, sandwiches and pasta. Plus eating them instead of Easter bunny chocolates is what one needs to be pool-weather ready once the kids get out of school, just five weeks away in my case. (But, hey, who’s counting??)

My other version of vegging out in the meantime is running just 3 to 8 miles at a stretch instead of 26.2. I ran about 7 miles yesterday and I hope to match it, plus a bit more, again today.

I signed up for a half marathon in two weeks. I’m contemplating another fall marathon out East, flat, fast and sea level. We’ll see …

(I’m also working on more Boston qualifier profiles to share with you, too. I hope to get them to you very soon.) 

Here’s hoping warm (and calm) weather arrives for everyone soon so we can all veg out.  

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Aging is inevitable, but growing old is a choice. Lace up your shoes, and let’s go!!