Thank you!  I’m just $20 away from raising $375 for the Komen Foundation!  If you have a bit of spare cash, please consider donating to this great cause.

The Dallas Rock-n-Roll half marathon is just about 2 weeks away!  I’m excited but really nervous, I thought that signing up for a half in late March would force me to keep training after the full back in Dec.  And that’s true… but it’s also true that it is cold, and dark, and lonely running in the winter.  Back in December, when I signed up for this race, I was gunning for a personal record– 13.1 in 2 hours flat!  Ha… suddenly, just finishing is looking good.

]]> http://www.bashfullydesigned.com/2011/03/07/running-raising-and-resting/feed/ 0 http://www.bashfullydesigned.com/2010/12/28/new-challenges-new-needs/ http://www.bashfullydesigned.com/2010/12/28/new-challenges-new-needs/#comments Tue, 28 Dec 2010 11:57:48 +0000 ashleyb http://www.bashfullydesigned.com/?p=1233

We’re closing in on Dec. 31, 2010… Can you believe that?!  Although there are much better reasons to make a charitable donation than a year-end tax break, if that’s what motivates you… then, by all means, consider this plea.  I’m running the 2011 Dallas Rock-n-Roll half marathon, which benefits the Susan G. Komen Foundation, in honor of my mother.  She finishes her last chemo treatment for breast cancer on January 11, 2011.  I figure, if she can make it through 6 chemo treatments in the middle of winter, I can run 13 miles and raise $250.  She’s strong, but like many other women benefited from the research and emotional support that the Komen Foundation provides to hundreds of thousands of women every year.

To help me reach my goal of $250 for the Komen Foundation, please click here to donate.  There is no minimum donation– $1 or $100 will go a long way.

I’ll also put a link to my fund-raising page on the sidebar.  Please consider even a small, teeny tiny little gift.  Thanks!

This is the first year in, maybe, 7 years that I haven’t gotten it together to make my own holiday cards and get them sent in time for a Christmas delivery.  It’s not that I didn’t want to make my own, I was busy (more on that later).  So, I’m going to use some of Cavallini & Co’s vintage-inspired “glitter greeting” postcards to let friends and family know I’m thiking of them.  Then, if all goes well, I’ll send some handmade New Years greetings.

I’m planning to blame the marathon for almost everything between now and Jan. 1.  Because, did I mention, I RAN A FRIGGIN MARATHON last weekend?

Around mile 12 and feeling strong.

I ran the Las Vegas marathon about 10 days ago.  It was my first marathon. I did all 26.2 miles in 4 hours and 48 minutes.

Let me get a couple of things out of the way.  First, I don’t think that you need to run a marathon to be considered a “runner.”  Second, I don’t actually consider myself a runner and am not really sure I know what it means to be a “real runner.”  The entire time I was out on that course I kept waiting for someone to say, “excuse me, you don’t really belong here… do you?”

Me, my medal, superman blanket, and a Mandalay Bay showgirl!

I ran this marathon for me, to prove to myself that I could do it and that just because I’m the girl with glasses who took PE by correspondence (I’m not kidding) I could still train my body to do something awesome.  Downright unbelievable, in fact. The race itself was hard,– I ached the next day–, but the hardest part of the marathon was waking up at 4:30 on a Saturday morning in October to run 20 miles before 9 AM.  It was running after work on “code red” air days in August.  I found it way, way harder to get through that first, awful run after being sick than to run 26.2 miles in December in Las Vegas.

Anyway, now that I’m not spending 90% of my free time running, sleeping, or thinking about running, I’m going to get back into the DIY stuff.  I’ve missed it.  Of course, I’ve also already signed up for a half marathon in March… so clearly I didn’t/don’t want to stop per se.

By the way, did you know that less than 1% of the US population will ever run a marathon?  True.

“Jogging” in Emanuel Leanza’s Flickr Stream.
Licensed via the Creative Commons.

Marathon
by E. Ethelbert Miller

it’s a strange time which finds me jogging
in early morning
the deadness of sleep alive in this world
the empty parks filled with unloved strangers
buildings grey with solitude
now near the end of another decade
i am witness to the loss of my twenties
a promise invisible
i run without purpose
far from the north star
i run with the sound of barking dogs closing in
i have lost count of the miles
i am older and nothing much matters
or has changed

Ethelbert Miller, “Marathon” from First Light: New and Selected Poems. Copyright © 1994 by Ethelbert Miller. Reprinted by permission of Black Classic Press. Available online via the Poetry Foundation.

Oh how I came down with a cold this week.  Ever since we got back from San Francisco I’ve been feeling a bit off.  Friday (of course) it hit me hard.  I slept for about 19 hours on Saturday and another 17 on Sunday.  It was crazy, I haven’t slept past noon in ages.  Being sick in and of itself sucks, as I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you, but what really worries me is that I’ve missed two long runs in a row and took almost all of last week off from training.

The marathon is only 6 weeks away (!) and we’re traveling again this coming weekend (New Orleans to see Jon’s family and cheer on the Saints).  I’m doing my best to figure out how to make up for the lost time without pushing myself too hard and giving myself 2 full weeks to taper properly.  Thankfully, I’m running the race with Sarah who swears to me that as long as I’ve run 17 before the race I’ll be fine.  I ran 17 two weekends ago and it was hard, but I actually felt okay.

So, not crafty at all but this is all I can think of at the moment:

• How to pick up my marathon training after 2 weeks of not running? via Ask MetaFilter
• Train for a Marathon in Six Weeks via Healthy Tipping Point
• The Monster Month via Runners’ World
• Final 8 Weeks of Marathon Training via Run Washington

I finished my first half marathon in 2 hours, 12 minutes, and 16 seconds on Sunday. One year ago Saturday I ran my first race ever.  I didn’t plan this, to one year later meet a major goal, but the symmetry is… serendipitous?  While writing a postcard to a friend who ran that race with me, I had to admit that 13.1 miles is physically harder, but mentally I felt much more unsure, scared, and out of my league at that 4-miler a year ago.  I didn’t know what I was doing, didn’t know if my body would be able to sustain anything beyond a 4-miler, and didn’t even know why I’d decided to do that race– it would’ve been so easy to talk me out it.

At the half marathon, though, I toed the starting line and wasn’t even nervous.  I was a coward two days before the race, sure, but when I woke up (at 4:30 on vacation) I wasn’t worried, I knew I’d finish.  I’ve never known that before.  At every single other race I’ve participated in I figured it was 70-30 I’d finish, 80-20 if I was feeling tip top.  But sure?  No, I’ve never been sure before.  Even when I felt my pace slowing at the end, and thought “holy sh*t where is that finish line,” there was no doubt that I’d have to even stop and walk.

Wow.  I know this isn’t a running blog and, truth be told, that I’m terrible at putting my awe-inspired feelings into words.  But still, I’m feeling oddly confident and pretty proud.  I full plan to wear my medal to work on Tuesday.

My average pace was just slower than a 10 min mile, that was my goal.  Still, 2 and a quarter minutes off pace ain’t nothing to be ashamed of.  I’d also wanted to run negative splits, but had a really hard time holding myself back for the first 6 miles– I was running a 9 minute mile for parts of that portion!  Yikes.  Clearly, I need to work on pace control for Vegas.    Oh, and also I have to do TWO of what I did this weekend… back to back… in 4 and a half hours.  Okay.  I’m going to rest of my laurals for a few days, catch up on some crafting, and then get to work on Hal Higdon’s training plan.

It was a great race!  For having over 20,000+/- competitors it was really, really well organized.  I’m looking forward to the marathon in Vegas this winter.  Clearly, the Rock n Roll folks know what they’re doing.  By the way, the images above were shot in my iPhone with the Hipstamatic app… Hey, I was alone in VA Beach!  I couldn’t actually carry my Holga or Diana around, okay.

The Song of the Ungirt Runners
Charles Hamilton Sorley

We swing ungirded hips
And lighten’d are our eyes,
The rain is on our lips,
We do not run for prize.
We know not whom we trust
Nor whitherward we fare,
But we run because we must
Through the great wide air.

The waters of the seas
Are troubled as by storm.
The tempest strips the trees
And does not leave them warm.
Does the tearing tempest pause?
Do the tree-tops ask it why?
So we run without a cause
’Neath the big bare sky.

The rain is on our lips,
We do not run for prize.
But the storm the water whips
And the wave howls to the skies.
The winds arise and strike it
And scatter it like sand,
And we run because we like it
Through the broad bright land.

Available online via Running Times magazine.

Trailer for The Other City.

Once again, I am participating in AIDS Walk Washington and, once again, I’m asking you to donate a few dollars to this cause.  This 5k run and walk benefits Whitman Walker Clinic, a non-profit organization that offers medical and dental care, addiction counseling, free HIV/AIDS tests, legal services, AIDS education, and other services to DC-residents living with HIV/AIDS.

I try to keep my politics reasonably removed from this blog but the AIDS epidemic in DC is something that is terrible at best and unconscionable at worst.  To put the District’s AIDS issues in perspective, consider that:

• DC has a higher rate of HIV infection than most sub-Saharan African nations.
• DC has the highest rate of new AIDS cases per 100,000 people in the United States — a rate that is 12 times the national average.
• In DC, the greatest increase in AIDS cases is occurring among people of color, women, injection drug users and through heterosexual contact.
• In DC, African-Americans account for eight out of every 10 cases of AIDS.
• More than 15,000 people in the Washington metropolitan area live with AIDS. Tens of thousands more people are estimated to be infected with HIV.

If you can spare a few dollars, please take a moment to sponsor me.  It’s a really, really good cause that is in very, very high demand in DC.  The clip above is for the documentary The Other City, not yet available on DVD, that just begins to touch on how complex and profoundly serious a situation the District is in.

We finished the American Odyssey Relay in 32 hours and 30 minutes– slightly better than I’d anticipated.  We averaged right at a 10 min mile over 202 miles and some pretty legit changes in elevation.  I did it.  I didn’t think I could but I did– we did.

My team, Shelby’s Foote-Soldiers (don’t know who we’re referencing, click here), was great.  All the angst about planning and schedules and itineraries paid off.  It went off without a hitch, a fact I still can hardly believe.  I find myself saying that and then immediately looking for wood to tap on.

I won’t go on and on about what a transformative experience it was here– that’s not what this space is for and as someone who is new to running I remember how it felt to have to listen to someone talk about their endorphin high and moments of running-induced transcendence (which, by the way I so get now).  Also, they’re not as poetic now that I type them and am not just thinking them at the edge of Antietam at 3 AM with a headlamp to guide my way… so, let me just say these three things:

1. This is one of the few things in my life I felt was genuinely hard: physically, emotionally, and even intellectually (let me tell you, planning one of these things is no joke).  I have the tendency to think that if I can do something, it can’t possibly be all that difficult.  Perhaps we’re all like that?  Anyway, this is not that– I’m still amazed I actually did it.
2. Running crazy long distances brings out the best in people far more often than it brings out the worst. I was amazed at how when other runners passed me (which, um, happened a lot) they always said something like “lookin’ good” or “see you at the finish line.”  When I really struggled on my first leg (I blame the Sudafed– not a performance enhancing drug) the folks who passed me offered me water and Gatorade.  By the third leg, when we were all tired and oscillating between cranky and euphoric, I traded jokes with a guy who I kept switching positions with.
3. There are not enough things in life that let adults cheer for strangers or stay up all night. We tell our friends we’re proud of them for all sorts of things, we applaud at events, but to really cheer and to know exactly how someone feels or what they’ve gone through is different.  Plus, runners are just some of the most relentlessly positive people I know (see number 2).

Anyway… I’ve actually done some crafting in the past two weeks.  I’ll share that soon.  In the mean time, I’m considering the next challenge…

P.S. I wore my race T-Shirt to the gym yesterday and felt super awesome.  I doubt anybody noticed that I ran 200 miles but I knew.

P.P.S. If you’re interested in running insanely long distances I cannot recommend the AOR enough!  It was well organized, a truly beautiful course, and had a great not-too-competitive atmosphere.

Way back in October, when I ran the Marine Corps 10k, I came across a booth for the American Odyssey Relay.  I think the sign said something like “run through America’s Civil War history.”  They had me at Antietam.

A week ago I thought it’d be the running that scared me.  Not any more.  I ran 8 miles in about 90 minutes on Sunday, less than 24 hours after a 3 mile run.  You know what terrifies me?  The planning.  My Lord there is a lot of planning.  Getting 11 twenty-somethings to show up on the same day, in reasonably good shape, injury free, and happy (er, not whining) is a much bigger undertaking than I’d anticipated.

So, it’s probably going to be quiet around here for the next week or two.  Between a friend’s wedding in Austin, TX this weekend and the race next weekend, I’m really not sure how much time for crafting there will be.  I’ve been keeping up with the swaps I agreed to, but don’t plan to do ANYTHING for a while that isn’t running, recovering from running, or herding cats my friends.  Do wish me luck, I suspect I’ll need it.