I'm Going to Run a Marathon

I took the plunge and signed up with Team in Training to train for my first marathon, the Dallas Marathon on December 11, 2016. That's 26.2 miles. I don't even like driving that far.

How it works is that I commit to fundraising for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and they provide me race training with a coach and a local group.

Honestly, I'm really scared.

Two years ago I completed two half marathons while suffering through IT Band Syndrome, which caused excruciating knee pain that left me crying hard through the last mile or two of the 13.1-mile Honored Hero Run in October 2014.

Though I'll be working with a coach and seeing other runners once a week, I'll ultimately be logging hundreds of long, hot miles this summer and fall all alone. So I need your help:

1. Ask me how training is going.
2. Nicely point out my typos.
3. Remind me to stretch.
4. Donate if you can.

And I'll keep putting in the miles and keep you updated on this journey.

Honored Hero Half Marathon

This is an October 20 post from my fundraising page that I'm just now getting around to cross-posting on Blogger.

Yesterday was the event that this had all been building toward. I met my $2,000 stretch fundraising goal and surpassed it by $81.

I hadn't trained much since the August 31 half marathon, and my longest run since then was only 6.55 miles October 11. The night before the race, I'd unexpectedly seen an abusive ex at an event and so began my morning with lingering grouchiness, misanthropy, and no desire to participate at all. Especially not alone. I couldn't find my mp3 player, and it was going to be a VERY long run.

But I wasn't doing it for me. I was there for the victims, survivors, friends, family, coworkers, and their loved ones.

I set off near the back of the pack at a slow and steady jog, thankful for the cool overcast morning and mostly dirt and gravel trail but still scowling at the photographers I passed. I grumped internally about how much fun the other pairs of runners were probably having and the likelihood that I would never ever get to run a marathon because doing this alone was SO horrible.

Seeing Coach Ginny didn't quite cheer but helpfully distracted me for a while, and she pushed me to run a little faster than I otherwise would have. One of the volunteers passing out water remarked on her surprise at one of the front-runners passing the other way so soon. "I didn't expect him to come from behind." And her friend responded with "That's what she said!" before I could analyze whether it would be appropriate to say it myself. I laughed loudly and and pointed at them in acknowledgment.

Sometime as I approached the turnaround, a Wednesday Addams smile threatened to appear. I was on pace for my 3-hour goal. But from 7.5 miles to about 10, the course was all but empty, and eerily lonely and quiet. The sun came out and I panicked, fearing because there was no tree cover at all, but it disappeared again about 2 miles later.

I met Coach Ginny again and had a good, long trot with her until I had about 2 miles left. But the last 1.5, I was absolutely pooped. I took more frequent walk breaks and struggled mightily against body chafing. I was drinking too much water in an effort to keep my body cool, and I felt like I might puke before I finished.

With a half mile to go, my overuse knee injury from May flared up. My left knee shouted in pain, and I alternated shuffled, jogged, and walked the remaining distance with my eyes brimming with tears. I knew I looked rough and repeated in my head, "Just let me finish," scared that the volunteers might stop me and call for a medic. I managed to ask how much farther at the final aid station, and they pointed and told me the finish was just around the corner. I could see it from there . . . just . . . up . . . one last godforsaken hill.

In addition to the pain, I was physically exhausted and had no energy left mentally to fight the onslaught of emotion as I was SO close to finishing. I grimaced and my breath caught in my throat on the final approach; I couldn't even look up or acknowledge the dozens of volunteers lining the final stretch cheering me on (and I'm tearing up again as I write of it).

I crossed the finish line, accepted a medal and water, and stumbled a few paces out of the way to pause my tracking app. 3 hours, 4 minutes. *frowny face* 13.36 miles?! I was 4 minutes over my vague goal with a quarter-mile too-long course and 6 months of simultaneously fighting injury while training for a first half?! Hell yeah!

Then I had to stumble dangerously down a steep hillside to the ambulance to get my knee wrapped and iced. A beautiful woman in a cow suit checked on me, gave me a shoulder to hobble back to the Team in Training tent, and offered to grab me food if I wanted. In-and-Out was catering the event, but I had no appetite whatsoever.

I sat for about 20 minutes, took a few finisher selfies, briefly panicked about the pain I was in and the drive ahead of me, and finally shuffled back to my car, where I grabbed my yoga mat and stretched my aching butt before driving back to my best friend's house to shower. I was very lucky it was my left knee that hurt.

I'd stayed with my friend in Euless so I wouldn't have to drive from McKinney to Fort Worth, and she treated me to a manicure after lunch. We spent the afternoon together while her husband watched their kiddo, and we had a lot of fun catching up, eating pho, being pampered, and shopping.

And I am SO looking forward to taking it easy this winter and running only for maintenance while pondering my long-term goals. I'll be off from running a few weeks while I wait on my knee to heal and am only planning to participate in a 6k race with coworkers on November 15 and a 15k January 10.

It will be a long time before I consider doing anything like this (the fundraising and distance training) again. 

Go Team!

Halfway!

This is a July 28 post from my fundraising page that I'm just now getting around to cross-posting on Blogger.

I've just reached half of my fundraising goal for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, thanks largely to Mom's and Brother's help with volunteering at local races in exchange for fundraising payments! I've also raised over $100 this summer selling jewelry that my aunt made! 

 

Mom and I volunteered from 5 a.m. for the Disco Triathlon in June, feeding athletes loaded pancakes and fruit after they swam a mile, biked 40 miles, and ran another 9 miles! I don't know about you, but I can just barely swim 500 yards and bike about 5 miles total and never on the same day. It was an amazing experience to see and cheer so many athletes of every shape, size, and sex and deeply inspiring toward my own running goals.

 

Another volunteer we met there told me about an event called Dude, Just Tri! consisting of a 200-yard swim, 10-mile bike ride, and a 5k (3-mile) run, which I'm now contemplating training for next summer.

 

Earlier in July, Mom, Brother, and I volunteered from 4 a.m. at the Too Hot to Handle 5k & 15k race in Dallas. Brother directed participants to the parking lot for 5 hours straight and handled with ease the few folks angry about a full lot and having to park farther away. Mom helped athletes check in and get their t-shirts and set up prizes for the top finishers, and I helped police direct traffic and later handed out water to finishers.

We saw our first triple-digit temps of the year that day, and the racers struggled mightily through their 3- and 9-mile courses, even spending their pained breaths to thank us for volunteering. Over 100 volunteers came out that day, including two of my coworkers and one's partner, to take care of participants and make sure everything ran smoothly.

 

Altogether, we earned $300 for the LLS, and I'm a mere $950 from my final fundraising goal, due October 6 to secure my registration for the Honored Hero Half Marathon in Fort Worth on October 19. Summer training is really tough, but I'm keeping at it and am up to running 8 miles so far out of the 13.1 half marathon distance. The Honored Hero Run recognizes local survivors of blood cancers and raises money for research and treatment. I'm not sure I know anyone who's been affected by these specific cancers, but I signed up because I wanted to do something good for others.

 

Every little bit helps, so please share with your friends and coworkers. I've been stunned by the level of support from my coworkers and am glad I took on this challenge.

 

Thanks for all your love and support! I'll be working hard for this final fundraising stretch and to make sure I'm ready for my first half marathon, the Disneyland Half on August 31. I can't believe how quickly it's coming up! 

Onward and Upward!

This is a July 15 post from my fundraising page that I'm just now getting around to cross-posting on Blogger.

I've reached 33% of my fundraising goal and recruited friends and family to volunteer with me at other races to earn an additional $400 that has yet to post to my account, putting me at over 50% of my goal!

In other good news, I had the opportunity to participate in the 8th annual Race Against Misogyny and Sexism 5k, benefiting SafeHaven of Tarrant County, a domestic violence charity, and I took second place in my division!

Thanks to your help, I am well on my way toward my final goal for beating blood cancers!

I'm less than 7 weeks out from my first half marathon in Disneyland!

On and On

This is a July 11 post from my fundraising page that I'm just now getting around to cross-posting on Blogger.

Despite wrestling a mysterious knee injury that even my doctor was unsure about, I'm still running. Sunday last week I laid down 8 miles, and it was mostly horrible, but I finished it. Tomorrow I'm looking forward to an early morning 5k race and then returning home to run an additional 5-10k since I won't have time the rest of the weekend to get in a long run. The knee pain is still there, but with the aid of a brace, it's not surfacing until later and longer mileage each week.

The humidity is kicking my butt and slowing me down from an expected 13 min/mi pace to 16 min/mi, but I'm still getting out there. My first(ish) half marathon is the Disneyland Half Marathon on August 31, and I'm working my way up to 13 miles. I'd much rather sleep in every morning and quit entirely since I hate the heat so much, but I remember who and what I'm running for, and I remember the friends who tell me how inspiring my efforts are.

It's hard and it hurts and I keep at it.

Training setbacks

This is a June 26 post from my fundraising page that I'm just now getting around to cross-posting on Blogger.

Good news: I'm officially a quarter of the way to my fundraising goal!

Other news: Since a sudden overuse injury in mid-May, I've been struggling frequently with knee pain, and half marathon training has been absolutely brutal. I didn't fall or anything, but after the 9-mile Spartan Super, the next day when I set out at an easy jog, my left knee began screaming at me, a new pain I'd never felt before despite past difficulties with crooked kneecaps.

I've been running since 2010, but this season is kicking my butt, and I'm beginning to wonder if I'll have to walk the Disneyland Half Marathon in August and the Honored Hero Half in October. That wouldn't be the worst thing ever, but it would take a very long time to complete. 

I've been taking off a week or two at a time and icing my knees, but when I start to run again, no matter how slowly, smoothly, and softly, the aching returns just a few miles in. My doctor checked me out but isn't sure what's wrong. It's probably either Runner's Knee or Illiotibial Band Syndrome. The best thing to do for them is to ease up on running, but my training plan requires me to increase mileage in the coming months.

It's a bummer. But whatever happens, I'm still fundraising and still planning to finish those races, however long it takes.

Why do I do?

This is a May 21 post from my fundraising page that I'm just now getting around to cross-posting on Blogger.

 I don't have a heart-breaking or -warming story about why I'm joining the Team in Training program. I just want to do good.

Last spring I registered as a bone marrow donor with Be the Match when I happened to walk by a registration drive in a park, because it is a good thing to do. I organized a charity 5k run in the fall on a whim to support organizations that matter to me and will do so again this year.

I signed up with the Skepchicks for the local Light the Night walk because I knew I could contribute more by soliciting my contacts to help with fundraising than I could give from my own pocket.

Last year I hosted a food drive at my Amtgard park to benefit Minnie's Food Pantry in Plano. This year I organized the clothing drive for Hope's Door and collected 3 full trunk loads of donations plus cash and a Target gift certificate for the charity.

I'm not sure even know anyone who's suffered from the blood cancers that LLS is trying to cure.

My family and friends have been touched by other cancers, and I will run in their honor. My grandmother died in her early 60s of esophageal cancer. A college classmate was diagnosed with a brain tumor at 19 and died at 21. She was a flute player in the marching band and the kindest girl I ever met. I run because they cannot.

When I took up hashing in S. Korea, I met a woman who was battling a rare form of cancer and didn't expect to live to 40. She ran nearly every day, even though the chemo meant she had to stop frequently to puke. She ran anyway. And now she's expecting a baby! Another friend, Mofo, is a cancer survivor and marathoner who has also done fundraising for TNT. These two inspire me to run harder and longer than I could otherwise push myself on my own.

I meet more people every day who've been touched by these illnesses and I'll run for them and their loved ones. Because I can.

I love to run and I love to kill cancer!

Yesterday I signed up to participate with Team in Training and set a personal fundraising goal of $2000 by October for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. It's sounds like a big damn scary number, but it breaks down to finding a mere 100 people who can donate $20 or 200 at $10. Those numbers sound much more reasonable to me.

For a lot of people, the challenge is training to run the race. TNT didn't have any marathons available, so I signed up for the Honored Hero half in October. I have zero interest in this event and am finding conflicting information online about whether I can change my event later, such as if the org ever posts its winter events. Oh well. By October, that distance should be a regular part of my marathon training and nothing to stress about at least.

I'm brainstorming creative ideas for fundraising, such as selling jewelry at Open Stage and offering for every donation of $X amount to write the name of a donor's loved one who had cancer on a ribbon and pin them all to my shirt during the race. I think that would be really neat, but I wonder where to set the price point for that. I already have three names of my own. I hope my company will offer a donation and/or matching funds. That would be a big help. I asked my sis if she would donate some funny sketches to sell. She's very talented.

The fundraising guidelines stress the importance of sharing your personal story of why you are doing this and why it's important to you. I don't have an engaging story for why I chose to do this. I signed up because it would be a challenge and because I would be doing good for people. I just love to run. And kill cancer. I could wear my Lady Sif costume (that I plan to make for the Disneyland Half Marathon) again for this race or make a different hero one. Ooh, I could design a Humorless Harpy heroine costume. Fun fun.

Maybe I'll meet interesting and inspiring people along the way (undoubtedly) and bring back a better story another day.

"I love to run and I love to kill cancer!" is a pretty good story, though. I think it would make a good children's book, too. I know I'd read it.