Facing down a marathon

A lot has happened since my last post. Russell and I had a son (Eugene), we moved back to America (which required moving out of our apartment, closing accounts, withdrawing Japanese retirement, getting our son a passport, etc all in the span of a few months. Once we had packed our lives into four (granted, VERY large) suitcases and toted them and our son home to Oregon, we got even busier. Russell found a job, then we bought a car and rented an apartment (harder than it sounds in Portland...), moved all our stuff from storage in Corvallis up to Portland, then bought a house and moved all our stuff again. By then it was time for our son's first birthday. 2014 went very fast for us.

And somewhere in the middle I started running.

Or to be more specific, my friend, Michelle, talked me into running a 5k with a group of friends. You may recall an earlier post about an unofficial 5k I ran, followed shortly by a fun run 5k that, while more official, was never timed. Probably for the best. I came in ahead of exactly 2 old ladies.

Even so, I knew I had run a little before and I figured I could summon up enough will power to do it again, providing I practiced a little and wasn't afraid to walk if I had to. The timely arrival of another friend who doesn't fancy herself a runner but is certainly an all around badass, was the encouragement I needed to get out and stretch my legs a bit. We ran the 5k, and while seriously painful and unpleasant, we did finish - no walking even!

Puffed up with success, I was an easy sucker when Michelle made her pitch to join the Foot Traffic Women's Academy - an all women running group run by a local running store. Michelle suggested I do 10k, which I was pretty sure was absolutely impossible. Even so, I knew I could do a 5k, and it seemed reasonable to stretch for a new goal. Tempted, I decided to stack the deck in my favor - I went searching for a running buddy. Here is where I got really lucky: enthusiastic, goal oriented, encouraging, not inclined to self-identify as a runner, recently endowed with some free time and crazy enough to say "Yes", I found Anna.

I feel I should take a moment to explain that signing up for this was a really big deal. I can be talked into all sorts of things. I'm willing to try things I never thought I could do. But running was THE thing I never thought I could do. My entire school career I feared having to run the mile every year. It made me feel slow and fat. I was teased, I was pitied and I hated it. What made it worse was that I really wanted to correct this about myself. I wanted to be able to run a mile in 12 minutes (which seemed like the speed all the average girls always managed to meet). I even asked my dad to coach me once in preparation. We went out to the track a few times and he gave me good advice about not bobbing up and down so much - but whether because of laziness or schedules or some other reason, we never really practiced often enough to make a serious difference. I kept killing myself to finish the mile at 14 or 15 minutes and I decided fairly concretely that I was not built to run. I played sports in the summer - volley ball and softball, but I knew running wasn't in the cards.

My husband wasn't a big runner either. He was far more active than I was growing up, but he had gone more towards hiking and backpacking. In Japan he was working from home and not getting out as much. He decided pretty early on that he needed some sort of activity and about that time he found PodRunner - based on the Couch to 10k interval running program. He started with the 5k program. The basic idea is to rotate running and walking over 30 minutes with gradually less walking until you can run a straight 5k. I tagged along, too. Maybe for exercise, maybe to be supportive, maybe still chasing that 12 minute mile. I can't remember. I know Russell made it to 5k -or very close. I never finished the program (we both started and stopped a few times).

I did, however, get far enough that an especially enthusiastic friend (and one who had also not ever fancied herself an athlete) talked me into signing up for a 5k fun run. Just for fun. Based on the running I had managed to do, I was pretty sure that I could finish the distance. Maybe not run the whole thing - but hey, its a fun run. I signed Russell and I up. This story appears earlier in the blog, so I won't go into detail. It didn't go exactly as planned, but it was fun - my first race. Even if it wasn't timed, I did make it to the finish line. And I got a nifty sports t-shirt.

Around this time, I also had a colleague at work who was training for - and then ran, the Kobe Marathon. I remember her telling me how she had run on and off throughout her life - never a marathon distance, but she enjoyed running. This made sense to me. Some people just enjoy running. They are built for it. She was following a careful training program and doing everything right. I was terribly impressed with her focus and ability. Running a marathon was impossible for me to wrap my mind around - for anyone to do. She most certainly finished, and we talked about it a number of times on the bus to work. She described how it had not only a huge physical challenge but far more of a mental challenge than she had expected. She described the route she had covered - this one blew my mind. She had run all the way to the neighboring city- AND BACK. Like - the city that take 20 minutes to reach by express train. This all just blew my mind. How anyone could ever finish a marathon was beyond me. I remember clearly saying that a marathon was something I could never do. Maybe I could work up to a 5k, or if I really worked hard, maybe someday a 10k - but I would have to be satisfied with that. I just wasn't built to run. Not distances like 26.2 miles. No.

So back to Portland. I talked Anna into doing this crazy running program. We couldn't decide whether to do the 5k or 10k program. The 5k I had just run with friends had been brutal - but I had finished. So could I do a 10k? Anna was nervous about jumping straight into a 10k, but she had done quite a bit of mileage on a treadmill in the past and was in better shape than I was. I believe she was the one that decided we should shoot for the real challenge. After a week or two of running, we were pretty confident that even if we had to walk, we could drag ourselves over the finish line. We signed up for the 10k.

To be clear, when I started Women's Academy, I had heard of run/walk interval running (Galloway Method). I saw this as the option you would take to work up to running. Since I had run 5k without any walking, I was dead set against doing any walking. I wanted to run the full distance no matter how slow I had to go.

After the first day I had to reassess.

I hadn't run a step since the 5k in the summer and the 2 miles on the first day killed me. I could't keep up with the slowest all running group:12 min miles. I was really bummed. I almost quit - but Michelle was encouraging me and Anna had just signed up to join me, so I went for one more week. That week we got a pep talk from the walking coach. She explained the interval running as a different way to cover the distance - not an easier way. She recommend strategies for basically speed walking during the timed, regular walk breaks - giving your body a rest by using a different set of muscles, not by slowing down. She talked about Jeff Galloway and how he had come up with the method (worth looking into if you aren't familiar). It was all very encouraging. It was still hard to accept that I was going to have to walk, but I had to give it a try. Anna agreed to try with me, even though she could have done straight running. I think we are both glad we did.

So when I say I run, what I mean is that I run for 3 minutes and walk for one minute. I repeat that pattern on a timer. And you know what? With walking included, I can comfortably run an 11:30 minute mile. I can cut that down to 10:30 if I'm making a concerted effort for only a mile. That includes the walking. Somehow this method crushed my old goal of running a single mile in 12 minutes.

So Anna and I ran with Women's Academy and worked up to our first 10k. Neither of us were sure we would get there - but we did. We developed an awesome system of meeting each other three times during the week for short runs (I was pushing Eugene in his stroller - he was a very good sport and just slept or people watched.) It wasn't an easy run. I made it the whole way, but I didn't have one ounce of extra energy left for a strong finish. I slowly crept across the finish line, but I made it. It was a big deal for me.

At our celebratory breakfast after our first 10k, my friend Michelle - famous for inspiring and instigating - pointed out that a half marathon was only a little more than twice a 10k. We were half way there already. Why not continue?

Deep down, I knew I couldn't do a half marathon. I had a mental image of just how far a marathon was, and even half of one was truly beyond my capabilities. I wasn't a runner. I don't get bursts of rainbow euphoria before, during or after a long run. The 10k was a difficult slog... I knew I wasn't going to make it. But even so, Anna and I were having run. Eugene was cooperating, we got to chat three times a week and then go for coffee. It was fun to get away for the long Saturday run with the group and know that Russell was watching Eugene. I wanted that to continue. This bug had been put in Anna and my ear before the 10k race, and now that we were looking at the end of the 10k running program, we were both starting to get that crazy twinkle in our eyes that hey - what would it hurt to try?

Its awesome having a friend who is right there beside you when a crazy plan presents itself. Neither of us would have had the guts to do this on our own, but it didn't take long to talk ourselves into it. We were careful to reassure ourselves that we might not make it - but that if we could just walk the last few miles, it might actually be possible. We signed up. This time, Anna wanted her Saturdays back, so while she continued to meet with me during the week, she went all hardcore and did the long runs by herself on the weekends. I continued with the group.

Week by week the mileage was creeping up. It was hard, but it was also awesome to have an excuse to hang out with friends child-free and yet guilt-free as well. I was doing something I never thought I would be capable of. As my mileage increased, I started running slower, but that was okay. I was suddenly way more focused on how far I could go rather than how fast I could go. I had totally dismissed the idea of straight running. Who wants to straight run? Interval running is awesome!

A half marathon is 13.1 miles. My first half was the 2015 Holiday Half this last January. It was cold, but after a relatively mild winter, it wasn't really as cold as it could have been. We got lucky there. Even so, that run was miserable. Really miserable. I started a bit too fast trying to keep up with our normal Saturday group (which was in better shape than I was and had been going a bit faster than I was comfortable with as we got into higher mileage). By half way into the marathon they were off in the distance. Thankfully Anna and I were a team. Anna - though this was her first half as well and though she has her own tales of woe from school age running - took it upon herself to keep me going. I definitely wouldn't have made it without her. We did have to take an extra long walk break at mile 12 after I started hyperventilating, but once I got it under control, I managed to limp in the last mile and cross the finish line. Anna was right there encouraging me the whole way, even though it couldn't have been a walk in the park for her, either. I can't imagine a better running buddy.

We had survived! 13.1 miles! If you have done this distance before - and especially if you have done it several times, you may be rolling your eyes at the drama. One thing that has amazed me in this whole process is how freakishly quickly a body can adapt and strengthen itself. It doesn't happen overnight and it takes very regular work and time, but it happens. Every week we ran a mile farther than the week before. Every week, after having barely survived the previous week, I was sure I wouldn't make it the new distance. But I always did. When I would hit that one extra mile I would think I was going to die. Sometimes I would start crying. But somehow the distance I had barely managed the week before had become much easier. It was just that extra mile that was the challenge. And I was always able to pull it off somehow. This still just amazes me. Anna and I were starting to run 4-6 miles for our "short runs" during the week. 6 miles is a 10k! What had seemed like a stretch at the beginning was now a comfortable run. How did that happen?

At this point, the training group was finished. Women's Academy only goes up to a half marathon, then they take a break and start over a few months later. But Anna and I didn't want to take a break. We were having fun and enjoying our regular chats and coffees. We decided to sign up for the Shamrock Run. This is often billed as the run that starts the running season in Portland. Traditionally, the top distance is 15k - about 9 miles. But up a hill. A pretty big hill. With men in kilts playing bagpipes at the top. The 2015 Shamrock Run in March was the first time ever that they offered a half marathon distance (that also included The Hill). We weren't that ambitious, but running up a hill was still on our "probably impossible" list, so we decided to keep challenging ourselves and go for the 15k.

It was while self-training for this run that we started casually playing with the idea of a marathon. After all, a 5k had been half way to a 10k. And a 10k had been half way to a half marathon. So if we trained for it... we were already half way there. Seemed a shame not to use the progress we had made for something bigger... when would we be this fit again? Eugene was still happy to ride along during the week, neither of us had to be at a job so we had time to do the longer runs and train properly during the week, and we had each other. Just one more crazy plan we weren't sure we could pull off - but who knows?

Michelle said no. She is a fan of the half marathon. (By the way - she's wicked fast. I will never run a half at that speed.)

Russell didn't think it was a good idea. He was afraid I was just signing up to damage to my joins and body.

But sometimes its good to have a crazy friend. Someone just as disinclined to listen to wisdom and who gets just as excited about doing something impossible.

We signed up for the 2015 Portland Marathon.

To be fair, there were a few other strong influences that led to this decision. One was a gal we had run with while training for the 10k and half marathon. She had run a full marathon before in the past. She was the first person I had met - aside from my coworker in Japan - who had actually survived this process. I remember her marveling at how a half marathon had started to feel like just a daily distance kind of run. This seemed crazy to us at the time... but still... that's kind of how the 10k felt at that point. So...

Another big influence for me was a friend of Russell's who had told us that he started swing dancing because he wanted to do something he didn't think he could ever do. He was pretty sure he couldn't dance when he started and now he teaches lessons and is a very involved leader in the swing community in Oregon. The idea of just putting yourself out there and taking on something you never thought you could do struck a chord with me. Just to see what happens. I felt like running was that challenge for me.

So that's how I got here. I ran 16.4 miles last weekend and I am scheduled to run 18 miles this coming weekend. This all seems crazy to me, but at this point, I assume I can do it. I can't run 26.2 miles yet. I'm prepared to walk a chunk of it on race day if I need to. I have a lot more training to do and I actively try not to imagine how I will feel at the end of it, but I'm going to do it.

Several people have likened running a marathon to giving birth. I really hope that isn't true.

Please cross all your fingers and toes for me that I can make it to the start line injury free! I'll let you know how it goes.