Summer Running...Lessons Learned

Ten weeks out until the City of Oaks marathon in Raleigh and I got in a long run/walk this afternoon in the midst off of all the Back to School craziness. My husband fixed up the jogging stroller and I took my youngest out on a run/walk of five miles in the sunshine and 80 degree temps. During our hour-long run, I learned a few things.

Jeremiah was OUT by the end of the first mile.

• Running shorts are not meant for everyone. Girls with thick thighs are better off sticking to their trusted running capris. See = chafing.
• Pushing a thirty-pound kid in a stroller for any distance is much harder than running alone. Props to the mother runners who do this on a regular basis.
• Sticking to a training plan is essential. And yet life (at least in my case) doesn't seem to go as planned and, as a result, you may find yourself realizing that there may be more walking than running originally planned, BUT you are going to run as much as you can and you are going to finish. 
• Finding your WHY is important but taking that WHY along for the run helps push through the hardest miles. Having my li'l man with me today helped me push for five instead of giving up at two.

This weekend is our last before we head back to school.  The boys have their first day tomorrow and I begin pre-service training and the exhausting exciting task of setting up my classroom. Time to start getting in my runs first thing in the mornings or before bed.  There's a lot coming up and much to think about, so I'll need those runs.

A long and sweaty five, but a full five!

What lessons do you learn while running? Do you make important decisions mid-run or is it a time of meditation?

It's Been a Long Day....

...without you, my friend. These last few weeks I've had "See You Again" by Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth playing on repeat on my iPod. The song was penned in honor of the late Paul Walker as part of the Fast and Furious series but has been my soundtrack for running this summer.  I've been stumbling through my training for the City of Oaks marathon but have been blessed with multiple opportunities to visit with my family and friends in South Carolina, including Jamie's family.

Zachary and Jeremiah at Reedy River Falls  Park in Greenville, SC

I was able to visit with Jamie's mother at the beginning of July and again last week.  My second visit included my two sons, Zachary and Jeremiah.  We visited and the boys swam in the pool I once swam in with Jamie so many years ago.  The boys enjoyed the chance to swim on a hot afternoon and I enjoyed taking them to the home I spent several summers visiting.  At one point during our swim, I looked up to see Debra smiling at us and while it felt wonderful to see that smile, it left me torn.  In that moment, I felt guilty - Jamie should be here. She should be bringing her children to swim but that will never happen.

They say the ones we love never truly leave us and I believe that. Jamie continues to be present despite her passing.  The Jamie Kirk Hahn Foundation continues to do amazing work in her honor, giving back to the community of Raleigh she so loved. Her friends and family find ways to honor her through their words and actions. Memories come from the most random of places. Earlier this week, I watched 'Free Willy', a favorite film from my childhood and as I laughed at familiar scenes, I was hit with the memory of seeing it for the first time in theaters with Jamie.  We loved the film - a young boy forced to do community service at the marine park he trespassed upon strikes an unlikely friendship with a killer whale - and were determined to become marine biologists.  We even ended up attending a week-long marine biology camp just miles from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Fast forward to this morning and our household chores.  With the summer soon ending, we have been working to clean and organize before the school year gets underway and this finds me going through several old boxes.  One box included a plain red folder filled with hand-written poems and photographs torn from magazines, a folder I hadn't seen in years and had forgotten I owned.  The creator? Jamie.  She wrote me these poems at the end of another wonderful summer before we would begin middle school, twenty years ago.  The poems are simple, but speak to the heart of who Jamie was; the first one:

Friends
They're important people,
Just like you.
They make the world a happier place,
With all the wonderful things they do.

Everyone needs one,
In good times and bad.
They make you happier,
Especially when you're sad.

They make you feel better,
When sick and in bed.
They send you a letter,
that makes you happier when read.

They always make you happier
In the end.
They're the most important people -
They're friends!

So, Jamie - like the song says, "It's been a long day, without you my friend and I'll tell you all about it when I see you again." You may be gone, but you're not forgotten. You're with me in every run and will be with me throughout my training MilesForJamie and my run in Raleigh in November.

"We've come a long way from where we began and I'll tell you all about it when I see you again."

A rare tech-free run...just me and the mile.

Running Alone...

It's something I do often. I run alone. I will try and meet up with a fellow runner and run with him/her but often, I run alone. Even when registering for races - we may start together, I run alone. It's not lonely in any way. It's comforting to me. I don't race. I just run. I know that I am not the fastest in the pack nor do I look like the "ideal", but I know that I am capable and I go. Running alone is something I have missed very much in the last two weeks.

Instead - my running and sadly, training is being interrupted by life. This time - in the form of children. My dear, sweet husband is away on a two-week trip with my father and several friends. They've left us for the great North, fishing in parts of Canada - becoming one with nature and the fishing pole, lol. This leaves me with our two little ones. Translation: running only happens when I'm chasing them or when they're asleep.  Factor in that the 4 year old doesn't always want to sleep and bedtime does not go as smoothly as envisioned and I'm too exhausted to get my runs in. Translation: Mommy is quite cranky. Ideally, I would make like Mary Poppins and produce a jogging stroller fit for two and take them with me. I know I put that bag somewhere...

My sister Carolyn and I pre-race.

I did manage to complete the Neon Run 5K but didn't have as good a run as anticipated. I'll recap the event in my next post but I've decided I will not run anywhere near/on the Fairgrounds except to finish the Frederick Half from here on out.  The combination of poor lighting/darkness, unclear course = fallen cones) and unsteady terrain = road, gravel, sand, grass made for a not so good run. I ended up rolling on my left ankle towards the end of mile two, hobbled and walked a half-mile before slowly jogging to the finish line. The  next morning I was relieved to find I didn't injure it as badly as I first thought and was able to put some weight on it with some run/walk intervals on the treadmill during random nap times.  I'm thankful it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been and I'm still able to push forward...and I will.

With two big events looming ahead - the Divas Half Marathon in September and the City of Oaks Marathon in November, I've got much less time to get in the training needed. I feel as though, once again, I will be putting in a bit more of run/walk intervals than I would have liked. It's discouraging at best but I know that a mile is a mile. I will get from start to finish and I will not be the first and quite possibly, the last BUT I will get there.

Never Give Up.