2014 Running Thread

OH princess, Lynnfield is a great town and Ipswich is beautiful . . . I'm in Medford.

Taking off for a week in San Francisco to visit my sister.  In the 60's there and we will be doing a lot of power eating / drinking.  Hope to get a couple of runs/gym workouts in!

Keep moving, everyone . . .

gold, bag of goo R us too.  Well put. What is "the reformer"?

Thanks for the tips about socks, kayb!

The reformer is a great device for muscle training.. ....no cheating when using it

Great job on your 5K YoungTurk!  That must have felt amazing!

LuvLuLu, enjoy your visit out here to CA and the warmer weather.  Crazy that we are worrying about a drought here while it's madly snowing other parts of the country - wish we could level it out somehow. It was 75 degrees here yesterday - nuts!

Goldlining, I got my new shock absorber bra in the mail yesterday - can't wait to try it out this week!

Hello everyone...a good day today.  My Muga came back good at 70% for my baseline.  I am happy with that.  I got married last August and did not train as hard as it was a cross country wedding.  Had I know this was on the calendar for events 2014 I would have trained harder, I missed that memo! 

I love that slogan..The one that says," There will come a day when you can no longer do this, today is not that day."  I am not a fast runner.  I run /walk all my long races.  I have always thought of it this way.  I got to the start.  Think of how many people we know who get injured and can't run.  I get to the finish.  I get my medal and I find someone to help along the way.

The last marathon I ran was Chicago in 2011.  I was at about mile 21 and there was a guy moving s-l-o-w~!  I came up on him and asked how he was and he said  he wasn't sure he could finish.  We started to talk and I asked what he did and about his races and such.  He was a pharmacy student, soon to graduate with a Doctorate in Pharmacy. He was married and had two small children and he was running his first marathon and was alone.  I told him he was doing great, it was about 85 that year, tough running for us Midwesterners in the fall. He told me he had lost 100# in the year prior to the race.  His son had seen the race the year before and told his daddy he should run!!  He told me he laughed but then he got to work on dieting and started running.  Soooo...as we were running together I had my phone and I take pictures along the route.  I asked him did he have any pictures he said no, so I took one for him. It was him standing in front of that slogan!  I sent it to him.  He sent me back a picture of him, with his medal on, his sons arms wrapped around him.  I was so glad to have met him and shared those miles with him.  

Here's to us ALL being able to be there again...running a race, sharing the day, running because we can.

princess, that is one of the best marathon stories I've ever read!  You made such a difference to that guy, to his son, to his self-concept, to his future, to his whole family!  Of course a DNF is not the end of the world, but that guy on that day needed to finish that race, and you made it possible!  And that slogan, yes, it's a winner.  My favorite running slogan has long been "I run because they can't"--same idea--I run for people who can't run, people I love who are gone, people who are ill or unable, and also including myself, some other day.  I am all tingly about your story.  It makes me wish I didn't care about my times so I could help someone else without self-serving reservations.  I hope I get to run enough races to get to that point.

I am so happy to read what I, myself have done. I had 2 coworkers who passed, 1 from BC and 1 from Pancreatic cancer. Bothe with young children and in their early to mid 40's. When I felt I couldn't go another step, I kept saying (sometimes out loud) They wish they could be here running, walking, playing with their children. This is the least I can do to honer their spirits and lives. 

You ladies are awesome. 

*and Firstcall-miss seeing you around the board. If you read at all. Thinking of you and many thanks for all of your encouragement last year!

XOXOXO to all

Happy early hearts day

Piper

Hello ladies....

I wanted to share the story of my running with you.  I was not born a runner.  I am short and not thin.  I was married for 18 years and the last several were not too happy unfortunately.  I was watching the Olympics in 2008 and I happened to see the marathon.  I hadn't run since HS.  The guy who won, he was a jerk, very arrogant. But this guy, the one who won the Bronze medal, he was SUPER excited.  He was running around and jumping up and down. You couldn't help but be excited for him. I found myself smiling. And clapping for him. He was so genuinely thrilled.  He said he had began running after watching the Athens Olympics. And I thought, if he could start and he got  A BRONZE MEDAL for crap sakes, I could get off the couch!

So I started running.  Promptly injured myself and then went and got a book and read how to run!  LOL.  Well, I did and it worked.  I remember the next book I read at the time , the main character, he ran 5 miles a day.  I thought, wow, if I could do that, that would just be something. So I kept running.  Then I was in bed watching some crappy cartoon with the littlest of my indians, I have 3 sons, at night and I was flipping channels and I came across this movie, Running the Sahara.  It was an expedition/ documentary.  Amazing!  Three men, ran 4400+ miles in 140 degrees.  They ran 5 hours in the morning, 25 miles, a marathon essentially and slept in the heart of day and then ran 5 hours at night, another 25 miles.  I was mesmerized, in awe.

About that time, a friend called and we caught up and we ended asking what we were doing for training and we both were now "running". I mentioned a local running place that had opened up had some training thingie and would she like to sigh up together.  ( I am a big "let's do it together" girl)  So we did.  She calls and says she signed up, I say great for the 5K training right? She says no for the 10 mile!  I said, "WHAT???"  She said," yeah, it doesn't start until April"  I said, "NO, the race is in April, we start training next week".  She said, "but it is January, there is snow, it is freezing!"  So there we were both freaking out for different reasons.  It was hysterical.  We ran that race. Both are first race, 10 miles! On February 1, the registration for the Chicago Marathon opened and I signed up.  Committed.

Then I got the bright idea to run a half marathon after the 10 Miler..drug her along for that too..And then I went on to start a marathon program for my first Chicago Marathon, she refused. (Took her a couple more years but she gave in!) I ran one year.  God is a funny guy, you know what I mean?  I found out in July 2009 I had melanoma.  I was 42, unhappily married, over weight and I had cancer.  I freaked.  I'm a nurse.  I understood the ramifications.  I had some serious soul searching runs.  I kept running, ran with stitches in my ass for goodness sakes!  LOL.  I ran and ran and ran.  A marathon program, well the one I use,is 18 weeks.  Funnily enough, that is the length of my chemo regimen.  That God!  

When I crossed the line that first time, beat up, in tears but so proud of myself.  I knew I was hooked.  I ran several more marathons and marathon 18 week programs.  Someone asked my why?  Why run marathons?  I said, " It taught me that I have strength I had forgotten about and courage I did not know I had". I still feel the same way. 

Running taught me that I can do what I set my mind too.  I can run through pain, angry, sadness, so many things and when I stop I raise my fist and say yes, I did it.

So today, all of us that are here, run when we can what we can, but each time we need to remember what it took to get to that start and we need to remember to pump our fist and say, yes I did it!  EACH time!!  EVERY time is a victory for us whether it be one mile or 4400.

Here is a picture of my friend Sean from his first Chicago Marathon

And here we are with that great sign

Princessrn, wonderful stories....I only started running after my diagnosis...it makes me feel alive 

Hello Ladies,  

RunFree16 ...I'm a Hal Higdon girl. Go to Halhigdon.com and you can pick your poison!  I run the Novice 2 I think it is called.  3 20 milers.  But there are a huge amount of options and it is a sound program.  If you do the miles you will finish, I believe that.  I signed up but I ran all my regular runs alone.  On occasion I got to run the long runs with the group.  Of course I was always last since I did the run/walk.  Slow  and steady wins the race...LOL.  

I gave my friend the Novice Supreme, 30 week marathon program.  She was not a runner but wanted to try.  I know she needs this. She needs to run  and feel that peace.  She needs to work for all that time.  But mostly she needs to cross that line and know she did that because she believed in herself and that no one can ever take that away from her.  So she asks me what to do and I tell her to do what it says and don't worry about it.  So my non-runner friend, is running 7 miles for her long run tomorrow! Woo Hoo for her! 

Tammy_M43...  That is just awesome!  Looking at what you are doing for yourself!  Could you have imagined yourself running a year ago? 5 years ago?  Kudos to you!

Goldlining...  My husband lives in Boston. We met online through running incidentally.  We had three friends running that day.  All survived.  Two were finished and one was far enough back.  I arrived on Wednesday following the bombing and it was so surreal to walk around and see the destruction.  My heart broke that day.  People work there whole running lives to get to that race and to have life and limb losses, such a tragedy.

sandpiper1... When I worked at the infusion center I was running pretty hard. 30-35 miles a week.  Most of my patients had wounds that needed IV antibiotics and were barely walking.  I often said the same to myself, I run for them.  They hurt every day, buck up sister. They might not know it, but they were always with me and got me across the line many times.

Sweetandspecial...  that is so great! Sometimes any miles are tough and you can barely do them for yourself.  I am sure she is with you in spirit for each mile you run!

I meant to tell you all I got my first post surgical miles in, 2.5! I have a seroma, swelling and fluid collection, yet to my breast but it is much improved. Each day a bit less.  The cording thing to my arm is creepy, ok I said it!  I put my arm up and stretched it and pressed a bit with the other hand and it cracked. Yes, inside my arm popped and sounded like I cracked my knuckles or crunched rice crispies!  Super gross!  LOL  ( yes, that is the technical medical description!) So I am looking forward to seeing the LE PT on Thursday.

I am going to bike today and hope for a nice run again tomorrow.  The worst part was that my bra was rubbing on my port, ouch!  I will go to the running store and look for a new one.

I met with the Chemo NP today and got all the good news on my meds and got my scripts filled.  I start on Thursday.  Still working my head around it.

Much love to you all

Love the avatar!  That's inspiring, as I sit here in the howling snows of central NH in February.  Nice to see it's sunny and pleasant somewhere....

80F in Orlando today! Bluuuuuuue skies. And oak pollen up to your ankles. No running for me. Playing it by ear for later.

I entered the lottery to run Grandma's Half Marathon on June 21!  I've barely been running because I seem to have developed cording in my right arm post-ALND, but I finally got a referral to start physical therapy next week, so I hope to get going on easy training! I did downhill ski this week, which was a blast!  Proud of all of you and your physical activities!

Hi lovesto - are you doing the race posting?  If so, please put me down for Boston's Run to Remember Half-Marathon, May 25, 2014.  Thanks!

Happy Running, everyone . . .