Countdown to Training

Official training starts next week! In the meantime, I have been extremely busy. I knew the first half of 2011 would be crazy, and I think I prepared for it as best I could, but the next few months are going to be challenging.

I've been keeping a grueling schedule that involves my usual 9-10 hour work days (plus evening prep work), daily workouts, and since mid January, two graduate level courses. I'll also be resuming coaching Girls on the Run two days a week at the beginning of April, but I'm hoping by then my grad school work will be winding down.

As difficult as it is to manage my current schedule, I know it's finite and it's all in keeping with reaching goals I am determined to achieve. I want to run the half in May, and I am equally determined to finish my masters in 2012.

I cannot describe how motivating it is to see all the donations my family and friends have contributed to support my half marathon goal. I have already raised over $800.00 for First Descents! I am still hoping to reach my goal of $2,500.00 by May, so I'll encourage you again to check out my First Giving page and watch the video about my journey with cancer, and if you're moved to do so, make a donation, anything is appreciated.

I'm keeping this post short because I still have more work to do tonight, and an early morning workout planned for tomorrow!

Hope, Love, Run!
-Marathon Girl

Taking it Easy

It was 40 degrees out today! The piles of snow are slowly melting, and I'm really hoping that the warm weather that is expected this week means that winter is on its way out. I took advantage of the 'warm' weather and went for an outside run. This was actually the second outdoor run I did this week. Back on Monday, it was in the high thirties, and although it was dusk by the time I got home from work, I couldn't resist the urge and went for a run.

It felt like forever since I ran outside. It was SO good to be in the open, the pavement under my sneakers, the cold air numbing my ears and nose. It was the magic of outdoor running that led me to run farther and farther...Farther than I should have.

How far out I ran wasn't the problem. It was the rest of the way back that started to hurt. My legs were sore, and my ankles clearly need some rebuilding from the last few months of shorter treadmill runs, but I was certainly not sorry I went out that night.

Today was another warm day, and being the weekend, I didn't need to run in the dark. I was tempted to take one of the routes I came to love at the end of my last half-marathon training. One of the 10-12 milers that runs along the river. I fought the urge though, and went in the other direction, the one that only allows for a three mile run, because beyond that there's only highway.

I learned last spring that getting too ambitious too early equals injury. And injury only equals RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation). I did that last spring, and I'd like to think I'm slightly wiser after 600 plus miles of running and training for a half-marathon.

The week looks good for some more outdoor runs. It might even get up to 50 degrees! I'll keep you posted. The next three weeks mark the last ones before I officially begin training for the Run to Remember in Boston. I'm really excited about training, and what this race symbolizes. I'd also like to thank all the people who have already donated to support my race training, it really motivates me to see how many people are supporting me in this challenge.
Thank YOU.

If you'd like to learn more about why I'm training for the half, or about my story, Please visit this site.

Hope. Love. Run.
Marathon Girl

Q: What time is it? A:Time to give back.

I am now registered for Boston's Run to Remember, which takes place Memorial Day weekend, 2011! I'm spending this month in pre-training for the race. This means I'm running regularly each week, logging at least ten miles, so when I begin training in early March, it's an easy transition. Having successfully trained for a half once before, I feel confident moving forward and saying I am running a race that is still four months away.

However, unlike last time, my commitment goes beyond just saying I'm running this half. I plan on making this race a statement, and the statement is this: not only did I survive, but with some help, I found a way to live a full life beyond cancer. Last year I wrote about celebrating my fourth cancerversary. This year's cancerversary is extra special because it's the holy grail year: Five. Years. Out.

What's the big deal with five, you ask? The big deal is that I was told that there was a 50% chance I would live to see five years from my diagnosis. There was a time I doubted I would live to graduate college, have a job, find someone who could love me, cancer and all...but on June 5, 2011 I will have outlived those dates, and will be as close to being ordained as 'cured' as I'll ever be.

I know it's only February, but I think at this point it's pretty safe to say I will be alive in four months. So I figured, what better way to celebrate this milestone than to run 13.1 miles and raise funds to support the organization that encouraged me to push my body after cancer?
I couldn't come up with anything I'd rather do to commemorate my five year cancerversary, so I'm running this race for First Descents. I feel forever grateful to them because the two week-long kayaking adventures I participated in with other young adult survivors were life-changing and have brought me to the positive place I am today.

So this is the big launch. I have opened my FirstGiving site for support. I encourage you to visit and at least watch the video posted there titled 'Giving Back'. It's a quick (under 4 minutes!) look at the post-treatment portion of my journey with cancer. If it moves you to do so, make a donation. If not, that's okay too, because just by watching, you're one more person who is aware of First Descents and can share it with a young adult who might benefit from it, should the opportunity arise.

Hope, Love, Run,
Marathon Girl

First Giving page
Direct to video

The Miracle of Technology

I find technology to be a huge motivating factor for me as far as exercise is concerned, and if you exercise, I would venture to guess that you're 'plugged in' in some way. I started thinking more about the pivotal role technology plays in my physical fitness when I experienced a technological disaster this week.

I think the single most influential technology in exercise is the ipod, because it connects with so many other resources I use, like Nike+, Earndit, and even some gym equipment directly connects to the ipod. Oh, and in case all that's not cool enough, it also plays music. When I had an ipod mishap this week, it felt like a disaster.

I skied during the previous weekend and brought along my ipod for a little slope music. I tucked it in my fleece and forgot about it. I forgot about it for so long that when I did laundry one evening later in the week, I tossed my fleece in with everything else. Then I hung it up to dry and went to bed.

I didn't think about the ipod's absence until the next morning when I was driving to work. Was it in the fleece? Did I take it out and forget about it? I waited in suspense all day with the chemo-brain hope that it was sitting on my dresser or in my gym bag, where I had absent-mindedly placed it.

Unfortunately, it wasn't on the dresser or in the gym bag. Sadly, my ipod was in my fleece. It went through the full washing machine cycle. An hour of soap, soaking, and spinning. It was shiny and smelled rain forest fresh, but not surprisingly, it wouldn't turn on.

In a state of panic, I did some quick online research that indicated that there might be hope. Apparently I'm not the first person to put an ipod in the washing machine, and some ipods do recover from this sort of thing. What I read indicated that while the dryer is a death sentence for all ipods, the washing machine alone doesn't always yield the same results. In the washer, ipod touches fared worse than nanos and shuffles, with shuffles being the winner for routinely surviving washing machine trauma. I felt a bit more hopeful after this, since I have a nano.

In case you're wondering what to do if you don't want to immediately buy a new ipod after running yours through the washing machine, there are a variety of ideas for trying to bring it back to life, among them putting it under a desk lamp, soaking it in a bath of alcohol, placing it in an air vent, and letting it sit in uncooked rice.

I opted for a combination. My ipod spent the next 36 hours in a bag of rice sitting on an air vent. After a day-and-a-half, I ultimately gave in to curiosity and plugged it in to my computer. Miraculously, it not only turned on, but synced up and began charging. Aside from a little condensation under the screen, it seems my ipod has survived it's unintended swim. I don't know if it will last, but for now I'm breathing a sigh of relief and going to the gym to run tomorrow- I'm just two miles from the next level on Nike+...so I'll be on the blue level by tomorrow night, which marks 620 miles ran since I started using Nike+ back in April!

Sometimes I buy myself something to commemorate a milestone like this, but I think this time not having to buy a new ipod is a sufficient reward for this accomplishment- thanks for making such a durable product, Apple!

Hope, Love, Run!
Marathon girl

Planning the next move

With the holidays done and 2011 stretching out ahead of me, I figured it was time to seek out my next running challenge. I've been looking in to doing a second half marathon. Back when there were still green leaves on the trees, I had grandiose visions of running a full marathon this summer, but after completing a half back in November, I came to two conclusions.

1. I think I need to train for and run at least one more half before I take on the challenge of a full.
And
2. I love running, not racing.

Don't get me wrong, I could run a 5k every weekend without skipping a beat, but a half is a whole different animal.
This is what I consider running: I love getting up on a Sunday morning, eating eggs and toast while I complete all my weekend-work, then getting dressed and going for a long run. Out the front door. The run goes wherever I say it does. My course. My rules. My schedule.

Racing on the other hand looks something like this: Pack all necessary belongings and hope I didn't forget anything. Figure out how to simulate eggs and toast in a hotel room at 5:00 AM (in case you're wondering, hard boiled eggs and bread and butter are about as close as it gets) Drive far. Wake up terribly early. Get to start line. Wait...and wait...and wait. Run when and where you're told to.

There are some things to love about racing; the sense of being a part of something, crossing the finish line, cheering people on the sidelines, and most of all, training.

So while I don't absolutely love racing, I do adore running to train for a race. Running when and where I want, but still working toward a goal. So, while I don't think I'm ready for a full marathon race this summer, I think doing another half will give me more confidence to work toward that goal. After all, I didn't always think 5Ks were a walk in the park. But hopefully with another 13.1 mile race under my belt, I'll feel more comfortable with the idea of 26.2.

After much consideration and searching, I think I've decided on Boston's Run the Remember, held Memorial Day weekend. I haven't registered yet, but my mind is pretty made up. Aside from being in the middle of a long weekend, and far enough out that I can wait until the threat of snow has passed to start training, the date has significance not just for our country, but for me, but I'll save that explanation for my next post.

In the meantime,
Hope, love, run,
Marathon Girl

Happy New Year!

Today is the last day of 2010. I have to say that this has been a pretty awesome year. I kept my job in the face of massive layoffs, 'ran' six miles every day for a month, learned about sustainable agriculture by working at a CSA, ran my first half-marathon, came in third in a national art competition, donated 10 inches of my hair to other women affected by cancer, designed and built an award-winning gingerbread house, and best of all, I finally feel I have started living life beyond cancer.

For the past four December 31st's, I have made the same resolution: I want to be alive next December 31st. As I sat on a plane this afternoon, flying home from a quick warm-weather getaway, I looked down at the black and white landscape- snow and trees seen from the aerial perspective, I remembered my resolution.

And I decided, this year, I think I will make a different one. Surviving another year doesn't seem like a resolution I need to make. I feel like this is a monumental shift in thinking for me, and a pretty significant accomplishment. Resolving to do something other than just be alive in 365 days means I finally feel secure in the knowledge that my life is not measurable in days, weeks, or even months. I finally feel confident in planning the life ahead of me in years.

When I was twenty-one, I was told that there was a 50/50 chance I would live to see June 2011. Five years. 50%. At the time I was told this, I remember articulating that the statistic made me feel as though I was being robbed of my invincibility. But looking back, I think it wasn't my invincibility that was lost. I never thought I was invincible. What was taken from me when I was provided with that statistic was my future. I stopped planning in decades, or even years. I started living on a much shorter timetable. Looking back, that shift makes me really sad. At twenty-one, I doubted whether I would live to graduate, find a job, or find someone who could love me, cancer and all.

But I have accomplished all of those things. And so much more. Each accomplishment brought me closer to the belief that I could live my life. A full, long life. So this year, I will not resolve to live until next December 31st, because it should be a given. I will make a different resolution, if you want to call it that at all. I prefer to think of a resolution as a promise, because promises are meant to be kept. So I promise to keep writing, running, and not just surviving, but living, for the next 365 days...And beyond.

Happy New Year!

Hope, Love, Run,
Marathon Girl