Cherry Blossom 10 Miler Volunteer Recap

This year I have made a commitment to giving back to the running community. I have done some volunteering at smaller local races, but this year I signed up to volunteer in two bigger races. The first was the Rock and Roll Marathon/Half Marathon in DC when I worked the Blue Mile. The second opportunity was this past Sunday at the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler.

Honestly, I was stressing about this shift for the last two weeks. When I signed up to help, my schedule was completely clear. The closer we got to the event, the more commitments were added to my schedule. This caused me to flip out a little because my schedule is carefully crafted to allow me to cover all the various aspects of my life. I try very hard to juggle the kids events, working my full time and part time job, get my run training in, complete strength training at the gym, perform household chores, and shop for groceries so I don't have to eat out every meal. Just typing that sentence made me tired. :) Going into race week I was panicking because I knew that after the volunteer shift I would be useless and tired. So everything that needed to be done this weekend would have to be done on Friday night or Saturday. But mother nature had other plans. The weather forecast shifted to a cold and potentially snowy weekend. And as Thursday approached, the commitments fell off the calendar. So completing this shift without stress started to become a reality.

On race morning, I was met with at 3:45 AM wake up. I NEVER get up that early! I don't even like to wake up before 4:50 AM on a weekday morning to get a run in before work. Fortunately I had gathered my attire for race morning the night before. So I stumbled around the dark, quiet house and got dressed in allllll the layers for the cold morning ahead. One of my BRFs was meeting me at a local community center so that we could carpool together, departing for DC at roughly 4:30 AM. I have since apologized to her for my less than sunshiny disposition on that early Sunday morning before I had access to caffeine. I am so so grateful that she knows me well enough to know that this is not my normal demeanor. We arrived at the water stop we would be working sometime before 5:30 AM and waited for directions from the leadership who was coordinating our efforts.

Fortunately for me, the supply truck with our needed materials was running late so there was time to partake in a a cup of coffee before work began. Once caffeinated and tasks in front of me, I felt like a different person! There was definitely adequate time to unload the supplies, set up the tables, and then get to pre-filling water cups for the thousands of runners who would run by us at rough mile 7.5. Three of us were assigned to my table (my BRF, a new friend from another MRTT chapter, and me) and we rocked our job. I have NO idea how many cups we filled before we even saw our first runner that morning, so I will just let the picture speak for itself!

Big races like the Cherry Blossom have waved starts that begin with elite runners who are going to compete with one another for prize money. These folks are barely on the course for an hour and do not partake of the water stops (generally speaking). But a really nice perk of working a water stop is that you get an up close view of these amazing athletes as they streak by. You hold out that cup in case they want it, but mainly just stand there in awe of the performance. Case in point, Meb Keflezighi, of NYC Marathon, Boston Marathon, and Olympic fame, ran right by me as he paced a group of runners. After the elites come the rest of the masses. As the waves of runners come through, the number of athletes needing hydration increases. And for the next several hours, we held water cups carefully balanced on the palms of our hands, filled more cups, and tried to sweep away trashed cups from the ground to keep runners from slipping and falling. It is tough work. But, OMG, did I love it. There is something so intensely satisfying about making eye contact with a runner you know needs that sip of water, and being able to help them through that phase of the race. Or to see someone struggling in general, or absolutely killing it, and calling their name out from their bib to give them some personal encouragement. Seeing people's faces light up when they hear their name and see a little pep in their step. The feeling is awesome.

I was more tired after hours of working a water stop than I would have been had I actually run that race, but the exhaustion was definitely worth it. While I do not know if I will return to DC to work another big race (the logistics are particularly rough with the distance and early morning road closures), volunteering at races is definitely going to happen again! If you have the chance, or can make the chance, I highly recommend doing it. The running community is amazing and you see a whole different view of it when you are standing on the sidelines supporting people.

Inspiration on the 9s - My Girl Lana

This go-round, I wanna talk to you about one of my favorite inspirations, my friend Lana. I hope you will enjoy my latest Inspirational Spotlight!

How did I become acquainted with this person:
I met Lana a little over three years ago when she came to work for the same local running store as me. From the minute I met her, I just loved getting to work/hang out with her. Her demeanor just draws you in and makes you feel comfortable.Our running store is locally owned and the employees aren't just coworkers, we are a family. So it doesn't take long for strangers to become friends.

Tell Us More About This Person:
Lana is a military spouse and a mom to two adorable kiddos. She has lived in lots of different places and has done some cool things! She is mature beyond her years and I am always intrigued by how she juggles everything life hands her. On top of being a wife, mom, local running store associate, and personal trainer, Lana is also an ULTRA marathoner! Her journey to the ultra began with the Marine Corp Marathon here locally and then grew from there. And another neat fact about her is that she comes by the ultra marathon bug by genetics as her mom is ALSO an ultra marathoner!

What Makes this Person Inspirational to Me:
Perhaps my most favorite characteristic of Lana is the fact that she can't see how amazing she is. She is a decade younger than me and I feel like she has life more figured out than I ever will! There is a story she told me once that sticks with me when I find myself making excuses. She told me how she did Insanity workouts after her first child was born to get back in shape. I have tried these workouts and sometimes just watching them makes me exhausted! I can't imagine the dedication it takes to make yourself do these workouts while taking on the new role of motherhood. But that story is characteristic of Lana. She loves weight lifting. And had it now been for her, and talking to her about workouts, I don't think I would have stepped back into a gym and fallen back in love with weight lifting. I have thanked her repeatedly for inspiring me to test myself beyond my running. I wish she could know how much she has given me!

Just Some Extra Stuff:
I finished writing this entry after returning from our farewell party for Lana. Her family has moved on to their next adventure and the ability to run into her is now gone. But the lessons she has taught me and the plans I have for myself that have been inspired by her journey, are in my heart, just like her friendship. I can only wish that everyone who reads this is lucky enough to have a Lana in their life.

6 Weeks til Race Day!

Here we are, 6 weeks until my spring half. I should be more excited or maybe even exhausted. And while I am a little of both, it's just not how I feel like I should be feeling. About 3 weeks ago I wrote about being halfway to race day. And I was honest about being inconsistent. Well, the last 3 weeks have not been much better. I have been trying but my willpower is weak. It was so much easier in the fall when I had a roll that I was trying not to break. So some mental reorganization is happening. This race was always meant to be about the experience. I love Harper's Ferry and the course is through some beautiful terrain/geography. I prepared to train for a faster time goal than my current PR. But, I have always known that was not a possibility with the course elevation, it was just to give me some guidelines for my training. Yes, I know, broken record. And I do feel stronger than I have i\historically when I am under prepared for a race. My brain just can't turn off the bullying. It digs up images of some of my hardest moments in races and puts them on display for me when I am at my most vulnerable. And I know the counter to this is to be more consistent. I am just having trouble fighting the life circumstances. I am trying to learn a lesson in all of this. I think I have learned that I cannot use an aggressive training plan as an outline when I am not planning to train aggressively for a race. I am just too "type A" for that. When I have a checklist in front of me, I just have to check all the boxes, or feel eternally guilty for not doing so. Lesson most definitely learned! So in the remaining weeks, I will try to make sure I get in training runs and try to continue mixing in speed work. And I am going to need to come up with a realistic race plan. Just need to assess where my level of fitness is and how that will translate to this difficult course. It will be here before I know it!

Tech Thrill - Garmin Workout Planning

So my plan to keep writing continues. The third and final monthly recurring post I will be making is called "Tech Thrill". One Thursday a month I will write about something in the technology realm (probably fitness and running related) that I find really neat/cool/fun/exciting/thrilling (you get the point, right?). So I shall just get on to it.

This month I wanna talk about a feature that is part of the Garmin fitness watch realm. For over a year I have been using the "workouts" portion of the Garmin Connect website. This feature allows me to program my workouts and then download them to my Garmin watch. That seems like such a simple statement. But if you have ever done a track workout, you might be able to appreciate how much I love this feature. So let's do a little comparison. Early on in my running journey, a member of my running group posted a series of track workouts she had done with a prior running group of her own. This series included a variety of track distances and repeats. I decided it would be good for me to try to add some speed work to my repertoire and took to using these workouts. They were, as track workouts are, hard. And I had a love/hate relationship with them. I loved how badass I would feel after I finished them. But I hated having to do them. And let me be clear here, running speed workouts is not easy. You push yourself to the limit of your pace and your mental stamina. But that is not that part that I hated. I had a very difficult time learning how to pace during the sprints. I would go out REALLY fast and never really have a good idea of how fast I was going. My watch would tell me but ultimately it was calculating the mile pace so it would be all over the place while I was running the various repeats. And doing math in my head to figure out what is going on while trying to run fast and, you know, breathe wasn't exactly working out. And the part that was really hard for me, was knowing which repeat I was on and how close to being done the workout I was. Its fine when you only have to do 4 or 5 repeats, but when the number of repeats, or the number of laps gets higher and my brain gets more tired, even counting gets a little fuzzy. Enter the Garmin Connect workout feature!

So how does it work? You go to the Garmin Connect website and login to your account. Then you access the workouts section from under the Training menu.  From there you can create your workout. I have never written my own workout, I do not have that expertise, but I have certainly programmed in the workout I am following from another source.  When I first started programming them in, I just put in the repeats and distances. It wasn't until I used the Hanson's method that I added in the piece for pace.  The plan calls for very specific pace goals based on goal finish time.  So I was able to put the low and high pace for the repeats into the Garmin workout.  Now comes the part I love.  When it's time to complete the workout, I downloaded the workout to my watch the night before.  Then the morning of, I just navigate to the workout menu on my forerunner, choose the workout for the day, and start.  Beeps and text alerts on the watch let me know when to begin and end segments and if I am moving too fast or slow.  Completing speed work this way took all the anxiety out of it for me. Now I can just be anxious about the fast running part ;). It has improved my consistency in completing the workouts because I am no longer dreading the workout in the same way. And because I am free to just run, my speed on the workouts, and in general, have improved as well.  If you haven't tried this out....do it....soon.  You will not regret it.

What I'm Reading - "You Are a Badass"

In an effort to force myself to read more consistently, I am going to do a regular "what I'm Reading Wednesday" post. It will be one Wednesday a month and not every week because I am not the avid reader I was as a kid/teen. I am hoping that the commitment to a once a month post about a book that I am reading will force me into reading something new every month.

Yes I am taking a minute to pause and reflect on how sad those last few sentences are. I wish I didn't have to force myself to read. I used to read a LOT. But now, in the few quiet moments I get to myself on a weekly basis, reading often isn't enough to keep my awake and I end up dosing off to sleep. The last few weeks have been better sleep quality so I am hoping that, coupled with this commitment, will get me back into a happy relationship with reading.

On to the good stuff. Currently I am finishing a book I have had for a while. The book is called "You are a Badass; How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living and Awesome Life" by Jen Sincero. You can get a copy here. The book came into my reality via a Facebook post from a college friend who was reading it. It's a self help book that is written like you are getting advice from an older sister or best girlfriend. The fundamental premise of the book is to help you 1) identify behaviors in your life that are sabotaging your own happiness and 2) steer you in the direction of behaviors that can help you get what you want out of your life. The book is an easy read and is packed with great anecdotes from the author's own life as well as tons of humor! I find myself laughing as often as I am shaking my head at all the behaviors she identifies that I know I exhibit in my own life! I am trying to keep an open mind as I read this book. I could very easily find a reason for every positive behavior she suggests as to why it won't work for me. But in really trying to embrace the message, I am asking myself to stop and think about why I am putting up a roadblock. And each time it comes down to being afraid to take a leap or that believing in myself is too difficult. Now...this blog is about running and I am coming a long way in believing in myself where my running is concerned. But the self-doubt for the rest of my life probably comes from the same place the running self doubt used to (and still rears its ugly head sometimes). Without giving away too much about the book, because you really should read it for yourself if this peaks your interest, the bottom line comes down to loving and believing in yourself. The author makes great suggestions for how to get there. And I am trying to implement these things in my daily life as well as my running journey. I have no idea where I am headed next (life or running) but I do know that I am going to try to believe in myself more.

Halfway to Harper's Ferry

So here we are...184.3 miles in 9 weeks time (that's averaging 20 miles per week). That number is supposed to be higher but I have been letting life drive this training cycle. It really started a few weeks back when I had a personal set back in life. My spirit was just crushed and I felt the strong pull to just wallow. I knew the day I skipped my first run, that it was a slippery slope. Once you have missed one, it's really easy to skip another one. But wearing comfy clothes and eating comfort food on a cold day in February was just what my heart needed. (Quick Side Note: My cryptic description about my sadness isn't meant to solicit attention, by the way. It's just not worth mentioning as I have moved past it and it's not the star of this show!) So I picked back up with the training schedule following that "sorry for myself" weekend. But I kept being presented with chances to choose life events, schedule conflicts, or sleep over my training runs. And while I prevailed sometimes...there have been plenty where persistence did not win. I have told myself that it's okay that I haven't stayed true to my plans like I did in the fall because I don't really have a time goal.But if I am being honest with myself, skipping training sessions may be supplying me with an excuse when I under-perform in the race. That truth was hard to face. Even harder when I asked myself why I needed an excuse. And then the giant epiphany clobbered me. I am scared. Scared of trying my hardest and failing. There. I said it. I worked so hard last summer/fall. And it was really tough. And while I met my pace goals for every workout, I still went into race day nervous and unsure. Coming in to this cycle, I haven't been as gym or nutrition conscious. So I am up several pounds and down in self-confidence. I have half the training cycle left so I can make some improvements but I feel like I need to cut myself some slack. My plan has always been to run this first half as a tune up and train aggressively for the fall. So that is what I shall do. I may not complete this cycle perfectly but I can still make a more consistent effort and be proud come race day. :)

Rock & Roll DC - Volunteering on the Blue Mile

When the year began, I promised myself that I would take the time to give back to the running community. I have been the recipient of so much great mojo from running that its the least I can do to pass that along to other runners. So last Saturday I got up in the morning when there was still a leading four on the clock to get downtown to help with the Rock & Roll Marathon and Half Marathon. The group I chose to volunteer with is one I have become familiar with through my running group. One of the members is a local chapter president, but has been involved with the group for as long as I have known her. The organization is called wear blue: run to remember. Check out their website to learn more about them! They are a running group that serves to honor the service and sacrifice of the American military. At several big races locally (and other races nationally), they set up a special mile dedicated to fallen service members. Part of the section has signs set up in tribue to indiviudal service members who lost their lives. The sign features their photo, name, date of death, and their age at the time of death. After runners have completed this section, they next head into a section that is a living memorial. Along the side of the road are volunteers each holding an American flag. That flag has a special tag attached to it honoring a service member as well. I was lucky enough to get to be a part of this tribute that is referred to as the "Blue Mile".

The wear blue staff welcomed volunteers at 6AM but they had long been working before our arrival. They had spent the hours before our arrival setting out the signs along the first part of the course AND setting up an amazing volunteer tent. We were greeted with coffee, donuts, bagels, fruit, and the gratitude of a wonderful and welcoming staff. After socializing and getting to know our fellow volunteers, each of us was given a flag. We then participated in a Circle of Remembrance.