But anyway, back to where I left off the end of August....I'm not really sure where to start, so I guess I'll start from the beginning...
Pre-training was in full swing the first week of September, with training "officially" beginning on Monday the 6th. On Friday the 3rd, I had an "off" day, but decided to go for a hike on SGL (State Game Lands) 256 located on Route 274 between Duncannon and New Bloomfield, and pretty close to where I grew up. For the most part, I stayed on a dirt road, but did go off on a trail at one point and came upon a doe that snorted pretty loudly at me, clearly showing she did not appreciate me sneaking up on her. As I got closer to the top, clouds started to roll in and it got windy and dark pretty quickly. I was wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and my trail running shoes, so I was in no way planning on running, however when the rain drops and thunder started as I was 2 miles away from my car, running I did! As I was running down the mountain, I SWORE that Sasquatch was paralelling me in the woods as falling acorns sounded mysteriously like Bigfoot's footsteps :-). Towards the bottom of the mountain, the road forks, and I mistakingly went to the right instead of to the left towards my car - and ended up on the opposite side of a cemetery from my car. I never ran more quickly in my life as I did through that cemetery through the thunder and rain. To make it even more interesting, after running through the cemetery I had to run through a patch of unmowed grass to finally make it to the shelter of the Santa Fe, and the entire time I prayed no rattlesnakes were lying in wait. I was never so relieved to get inside my car than I was that evening!
I decided to start official "training" with the Quarterback 5K in York on Labor Day with one of my best friends, Katie. It was a last-minute decision when Katie asked me, but I definitely jumped at the chance. If you recall, Katie ran my very first 5K with me, the Lady White Rose in York
in April 2010, and is an accomplished runner. In fact, she won the female 24-29 division in the York Wellspan Running Series this past fall, of which the Quarterback 5K was one of the events that comprised the running series. It was a great day for both of us, as we each PR'd - her MUCH faster than me, finishing in 22:57, and me in 28:48. The picture was taken after the race.
in April 2010, and is an accomplished runner. In fact, she won the female 24-29 division in the York Wellspan Running Series this past fall, of which the Quarterback 5K was one of the events that comprised the running series. It was a great day for both of us, as we each PR'd - her MUCH faster than me, finishing in 22:57, and me in 28:48. The picture was taken after the race.I ran through the beginning of September trying to follow the training schedule as best I could. However, on September 18 I deviated from it a little bit. Rather than going for my scheduled 7 mile long run that day, somehow I got talked in to getting up before the sun did, and running 2.75 miles straight up a mountain on another local SGL. Apparently this is what the two others I ran it with consider "fun" for early on a Saturday morning (jk). Now, don't get me wrong, we didn't run full-tilt the whole way - the entire feat took us 44:35 as we ran "intervals", but apparently I slowed them down because the goal was to finish it in under 40 minutes (If I remember correctly). I guess since that didn't happen, the three of us will need to attempt it again soon, especially since we are each training for events in the upcoming months.
I turned 27 the end of September, and with it my life changed completely. I'm not ready to talk openly about my struggles yet, and I probably won't be for quite a long time. A select few of you reading this know some very initimate details of the past four months, and for those of you, I am thankful for your love and support through this difficult time - I'm not through the rough times completely by any means, but I do know that without you guys, I'm not sure I could have made it to the point I am now: a point where I am able to move on with my chin up and a stronger person than I was a few months ago, but not as strong as the woman I am becoming.
I quickly found it very difficult to get through a day at a time, and with that suffered my running. One of my main issues was I was unable to eat much at all, and without consuming calories, I had no energy to run. I remember trying to attempt a 5 mile run on a relatively unfamiliar road leading to another PeCo SGL, and I ended up going farther than I intended and completely couldn't run. It was miserable. Then, on October 8, I was rear-ended and was lucky enough to get to see the inside of Holy Spirit's ER; this also hindered running for a bit. October was a very difficult month for me. In some aspects, I can laugh about some of the events now - such as going through THREE rental cars while my Santa Fe was getting fixed (maybe someday I'll blog about them, especially the G6, but this blog is already getting long), but for the most part, October was one of the darkest times of my life, only followed by a darker November...BUT, before I get to November, I can't not mention my accomplishment on October 23!
So, I hadn't been running....or eating. I talked to both my TNT mentor, Ally, and coach, Linda, and both gave me great advice on how to try to get back on track. And so, in the FREEZING Saturday morning of October 23, I met my TNT co-horts at HACC for a long run. For Disney marathoners, we were scheduled to run 12 miles....I was going to see if I could MAYBE get to 8....especially seeing as how I had NEVER run more than six up to that point. At the turning point for the eight-milers, I was ready to turn around and head back with that group only for Coach Larry to simply say "You're coming with us", and off I went with him and two others who were completing 12 miles. And I did it!! I RAN 12 miles completely! Well, I'm told the secret is that that particularly route is actually a little bit more than 12 miles....at any rate, I felt like I could do another 1.1 miles, and wanted to just so I could say I ran a half-marathon, but I didn't. Afterwards, I was feeling great - so great, in fact, that I ended up going to Elk County with a friend, a
nd Zoda, to look for elk. While we were hiking around, looking for elk, however, I came down off of my endorphin/runner's-high and crashed. Despite getting tired, it was a nice trip....we even came home with an extra "passenger" in the trunk (which I will include in the G6 blog if I ever write about it).If October was a difficult month, November was even darker for me. On the first day of the month, I was at work, filling out my final forms to officially enter the Disney Marathon as a member of Team in Training, when I received a call that will forever impact my life. Within two hours of that call, I found myself at the LLS office handing in empty Disney marathon race forms which officially put my status as a TNT member and my fundraising on a "hold" until I decided which Spring 2011 event I wanted to register for. For right now, I am not willing to openly share the details surrounding my decision to not run Disney, however someday I may.
Central PA Team in Training has three Spring 2011 events - Pittsburgh Marathon, Lake Placid Marathon, and the San Diego Rock-n-Roll Marathon. Pittsburgh wasn't an option for me, as I really have no desire to go there. I briefly thought about Lake Placid, but I've been to the state of New York enough, and I've heard that event is quite "hilly". This left me with San Diego - now, I have been to quite a few states, inlcuding California, but many I do not recall as I was eleven months old as my family moved across country back to Pennsylvania from Alaska; so, in order to "remember" CA, I decided that I would run the San Diego Rock-n-Roll Marathon on June 5, 2011. I was assured that my fundraising efforts would simply "roll over" to my new event - so, to those of you who have already donated - THANK YOU! You can see my new fundraising page here (so far I've reached 51% of my goal of raising $2,900 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society).
And so, I've found myself in "pre-training" once again, this time for the San Diego Marathon in five months. Since my 12 mile run, I had done a couple of hikes on SGLs, and a few 3-mile runs, but nothing consistent. However, on Christmas Eve, I did run 3 miles without stopping in 33:17; my calves, however, expressed their disapproval with my new running style (trying something I read about in "Born to Run") a few days later which lasted for two days! Tonight, instead of running the four miles I would have been tapering to had I still been running Disney, I ran half of that in 21:24 as to help me build my base to start officially training for the San Diego Marthon the week of January 30. I'm a little suprised I can just pick up and run 2 and 3 miles without really running for almost two months, but I attribute that to almost daily 1.5 to 2 mile walks with Zoda (it's helped him, too, as he has slimmed down quite a bit, even though we've taken to calling him "Big Z" recently....of course he still retains his loving nickname of "Snarky", which my dad dubbed him while I was in college).
My holidays were as good as I could have expected them to be, and I attribute that to my loving family (my immediate family is pictured below on Christmas Day) and friends (the family I get to choose). I am, however, looking forward to 2011 and the changes it will bring, most importantly me becoming the woman I was meant to be - someone who follows her dreams without anyone holding her back and telling her that she can't. From the lyrics of a Keith Urban song "It took her awhile to figure out she could run, but when she did she was long gone, long gone" - very relevant in so many aspects of my life right now.
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