The Smiling Runner (A Mama Kat Writing Prompt)

This week, random.org handed me Mama Kat prompt number one: Have you decorated your Christmas tree? Share a favorite Christmas ornament.

Have I decorated my Christmas tree? That would involve having laundry mountain cleared from the Christmas tree's spot, and having the tree down from the attic. Not yet. I wish.

Share a favorite Christmas ornament. Did I mention that the box of ornaments is in the attic along with the tree?

I do have a new candidate that will factor among my favorites, however. It just arrived in the mail from my friend Audrey.

As luck would have it, Audrey and I were on Facebook simultaneously about a week ago when she messaged me and asked if I had received my birthday present. I said no, because no packages had been in the mail that my son had retrieved on his way in from school. It then occurred to me that a larger (than the mailbox) package would have been left at the front door. I checked the front door, discovered a package there (!) and Audrey and I had a mini virtual gift opening right there on Facebook. Not the same as being together physically, but still fun in a 21st century kind of way.

Here's the ornament that she had made for me:

The ornament is even personalized:

And ask me how much I love that happy look on the face! A friend recently mentioned how common it is to see runners' faces all scrunched up and tense looking, portraying a tension that transmits itself through their entire bodies. I thought about the ornament and my friend's comment all last night at Interval Training, which of all the running events in a typical week  makes me want to grimace the most.

Audrey told me that she chose this gift for me to represent my commitment to running and making it a priority in my life, helping her feel more inclined to commit herself to exercising more.

Even without an ornament, Audrey's comments would have been gift enough.

They (and the ornament) really put a smile on my face!

Do Stretching and Yoga Help Runners? It's a "Stretch" to Assume They Don't

I enjoy Jeff Galloway's e-newsletters about running. I have a lot of respect for Jeff, and I know that his route to success went through Tallahassee, which leads me to feel a commonality with him.

But I have been unsettled about something Jeff wrote in his April 2011 newsletter. Even though I have not been an Olympic runner (never will be), haven't written a single running book (doubt I ever will), and couldn't run even a half marathon in the time it took him to win a full marathon (2:23:02), here's my non-Olympian, non-published, non-speedy-runner thought.

The passage that I haven't been able to shake mentally was this:

Q&A on Stretching and Cross Training



What stretches should I do?


Surprisingly, I've found that stretching causes many injuries. I don't believe that most runners or walkers benefit from stretching. So I'm going to take away the guilt for not stretching. If you have some stretches that help you and don't produce aches and pains, then do them—but be careful.


What about yoga or pilates?


I hear from many runners every year who are injured in yoga or pilates classes. I don't see any benefit for most runners in these activities. But if you do them (and are not experiencing problems), be careful.

For my response, let me start with yoga. I had never done yoga before I started in the fall of 2010, after a foot injury caused me to take a lengthy break from running (more about my fitness plan during the non-running period here). I bounced around a few types of classes until I determined that core yoga was the best for me at that time. I was doing a lot of reading about how the core drives the rest of the body and creates a strong foundation for the work that the arms and legs have to do. Improving my flexibility, I am convinced, made me less likely to be injured, not more. And one benefit of yoga as it relates to running has nothing to do with physicality and everything to do with focus. My mind can wander (isn't that true for all of us?) and learning to concentrate during a two-minute plank or a one-minute balance pose, keeping my gaze on a specific point, is a discipline that ties into my running when I try to remain on a specific cadence without the benefit of any kind of "beats per minute" audio support in my ear.

As for stretching, there is lots of stretching, it is true, that can be counterproductive (or at least not as helpful to the runner as the runner may hope). Where static stretching can be ineffective, active isolated stretching (AIS) can prevent injury and improve athletic performance when applied correctly. Kim Ortloff explains AIS well on her website here.

To be honest, it isn't Jeff's contention that yoga and stretching don't benefit runners that bothers me. It is the wide reach that he has with beginners and elite alike and my fear that beginners will decide not to learn more about effective stretching or the possibility of incorporating a yoga practice into their fitness plan just because of Jeff's opinion. I know both have been irreplaceable to me in overcoming an injury, being better equipped to fend off injury in the future, and achieving better mental focus.

Poet Antonio Porchia wrote:  "I know what I have given you. I do not know what you have received." I doubt Porchia was writing about running, yoga, or stretching, but it's the perfect quote to sum up my post. Jeff knows what he has given us in his writing, and I have no doubt that stance has worked great for him personally and for countless others. But I fear that what many of his readers and students have received is the closing of their minds and hearts to something that can be an important part of their fitness lives, one that prevents injury and opens their minds.

Have stretching and/or yoga been a factor in your running life? Tell me more.......

Breakfast on the Track - Solo

Every year, Gulf Winds Track Club has a "Breakfast on the Track" (BOT) mile run in mid-August. On the plus side for my experience yesterday (8/20/11), my best time in the past six years that I have been running the event (10:49:95). On the minus side, the fact that my "favorite young runner" (my 12 year old son) was not with me because I didn't even ask him if he wanted to come. Here is a picture from last year.

Breakfast on the Track 2010

There was one other BOT when I was alone, but that was because Wayne Kevin was participating in a kids' triathlon, not asleep at home on the couch.

At a Kids' Triathlon

As I have watched his exercise activity decline over the past year and a half, I have grown increasingly sad. As I told my friend Leisa,

"I am a little heartbroken about this but Wayne has hit that intersection where any natural ability to hang with sports has been outweighed (pun sort of intended!) by his weight gain and lack of training. For so many years he participated in everything, including kids tris, and although he was never really a "contender," he enjoyed himself. Now he gets so short of breath he really can hardly complete a mile and had to drop out of the kids' tri in May in the middle of the swimming portion. We thought it was exercise induced asthma but it's really mainly being out of shape and not training. I haven't been a drill sergeant about it b/c a) I am so slammed working as much freelance as I can due to economic issues and b) I am concentrating on my own running goals -- he has to want to do this himself - I won't handle him with kid gloves anymore. Although he did do RealRyde [spinning] with me some this summer and that was good."

 

 

An Easier Year (2005 maybe?)

Photo Credit: Tallahassee Democrat

Wayne Kevin is the barefoot runner

 

I still recall the embarrassment of the President's Physical Fitness assessments of my elementary school years -- lumbering through the "dash," attempting (and completely failing to do) chin-ups, and some other athletic "tests" that I didn't remotely succeed at. That is why it was such a relief when my daughter, Tenley, succeeded at many of the the active endeavors (gymnastics, cheerleading, dance) she tried and when Wayne enthusiastically embraced so many athletic activities -- tennis, running, kids' triathlons, one season of Pop Warner football, two seasons of  flag football, and recreational gymnastics. During summer of 2010, the "shortness of breath" episodes started kicking in, and the pediatrician prescribed an inhaler. That same pediatrician, when Wayne Kevin had his physical this year and listened to my description of the strenuously difficult time Wayne had with his most recent mile, and the DNF during the swimming portion of the kids' triathlon, introduced the idea that this was not asthma, it was ...... out-of-shapeness (thorough diagnostic representation on my part, right?). In a kid who did not train between events, how could I argue?

 

 

Springtime Tallahassee Mile 2009

 

I can't make him train. I am responsible to a degree for a summer spent primarily in front of a video screen while I was freelancing at night instead of making him walk a mile or even a yard ... of course he does have two parents but between his dad and me, neither of us succeeded (much) in reinforcing any type of physical activity.

 

And although I am ecstatic to be moving closer to my goal of running a 5K in under 30 minutes, I am bereft at seeing the road to physical fitness growing longer and rougher for my son.

 

When Leisa responded to my message, she said this:

 

"At some point we can't push and have to focus on ourselves. You keep getting to your goal and hopefully he will come around. The more active he sees you hopefully it will make him turn another corner sooner rather than later!"

 

Have you dealt with a child (or, heck, with yourself) losing motivation and sliding backwards? Any tips?

 

 

That Finish Line Look (And a Request for Advice)

I knew this weekend was going to be full. It started Friday night with Relay for Life (I am our team's captain). This is my the luminary in honor of my mom, a cancer survivor:

On the Saturday morning when Relay was still technically underway, I needed to get my son to the Friends of Wakulla Springs 1 Mile Run, which  was a "Grand Prix" run for him. After he spent the night with me on the oh-so-comfortable Leon County Fairgrounds soil, we headed out at 6:30 a.m. for Wakulla. Having figured out that I would be at Wakulla also, I signed up for the 5K. That 5K is what got me thinking about tonight's post ........

Prior to giving in to the siren call of the prospect of running a race I really like for a cause I really care about, I was seriously contemplating not running 5K's at all until I felt like I was closer to my goal of running a 5K in less than thirty minutes. I have been running 12 400's at a local track once a week, and have had a bit of success with getting closer to 30:00 (this week was under 33:00), so I had started thinking that I would work on getting closer to my goal in that controlled environment before doing a race again.

But, as I wrote on my DailyMile post after the race, who was I kidding? I may not be happy with my time but I love races. I love seeing the people who share the joy of running; I love seeing all the different levels of athletes do their best; I love watching race volunteers pitching in; I love helping a good cause.

Fred Deckert, one of our club photographers "extraordinaire," stationed himself at the finish line so he got some real doozies of people's expressions. (When I was at my son's kids' triathlon today, I overheard a parent tell their kid, "don't smile, just breathe and run." Really??) But finish line pictures capture so much (more grimaces than smiles!)

I know racing is just supposed to be "against ourselves" and for me it's a specific time goal but I really do hate to be passed and I use the runners around me to challenge myself to pick up the pace. There were several of us women finishing around the same time, and several of them were friends (or sisters or something). A friend of theirs was coaching them on how to make a better finish and running in with them and I said, "help me finish strong too." This awesome guy didn't say, "you're kidding, right? I want to help my friend finish faster." By his response, he personified the spirit of running - he was supportive and pushed me to sprint to the end.

That's how I "2240" and I ended up neck and neck at the finish.

After last year's St. George Island Sizzler, when my whinefest about how people ought to be polite at the finish line resulted in an almost unanimous chorus of "no, you just have to go for it" sentiments from commenters, I have determined to make the strongest finish I can, whether I am by myself or shoulder-to-shoulder with five other people.

After the finish (we both finished at 41:08), it took me a moment to figure out if I was going to barf or pass out. That "barf of pass out" moment is hard to achieve without the adrenaline of a race. As someone proposed in an article I read recently, "If you're trying to get faster, you need to race."

Racing or not, I still want to break 30:00. That's where the advice part comes in. I know some of the elements are: 1) losing weight so there's less to move around, 2) getting stronger so the body that is there functions more efficiently, and 3) challenging and varied workouts, including intervals. With our household employment situation right now, I can't pay someone for personal training, so if you have advice that has worked for you in getting faster, share away!!

I'll "run" into you next week, readers. I'll be the one with that "outta my way it's a finish line" look!

Will Run for Pancakes!

Gulf Winds Track Club holds a mile track race each August, accompanied by pancakes, and punctuated with the "Hamstring 100" race.  I was fortunate enough to participate in all three this year:  the mile, the pancakes, the 100 (not in that order!).  As a souvenir, each of us got this sticker, which reminded me of this recent blog, which questioned whether a "3.1" car sticker had been sufficiently "earned."  I can only imagine how the writer would feel about a "1.0" but I love mine!

I had hoped to make a quantitative amount of progress between last year's BOT and this year's BOT.  Here's last year's time:  11:20.61.  Here's this year's time:  11:14.91.  An entire year's worth of intervals, training runs, and cross training for a measly 5.7 seconds of improvement.

Hmmm.....

This summer, which started off with me vowing to work so hard I would look spent, has ended up with me limping in to the figurative finish line.  Right around the time I started doing turnover drills in early July, my plantar fasciitis started to act up.  Weeks later, a chiropractor who eventually said "go get different inserts at the running shoe store" after sucking up several copays for ultrasound treatments, and many ice packs/heating pads later, finds me without any drastic improvement to brag about. 

But I do have this great memory of yesterday's mile:  finishing neck and neck with my son (he was so psyched to have found used racing flats at Play It Again Sports):

photo credit: Fred Deckert

and this great memory of being invited to participate in the club's annual "Hamstring 100 Invitational" (I still don't grasp the math/logarithm that got me invited but it was a thrill to participate, to come in 4th (yes #'s 5 and 6 are in their 70's but let's not split hairs here!)), and a lovely bouquet of roses (the male competitors in the Hamstring 100 get hams). 

photo credit:  Fred Deckert

Lastly, people who don't know her story won't know what a big deal this was, but my friend "K," who was brutally attacked in her front yard, in daylight, several months ago, made her re-entry to running at BOT yesterday.  In the pictures taken yesterday, you can see joy on her face -- what a testament to the restorative powers of running (and friendship). 

Another takeaway from this last half of summer, dealing with heel pain, is that I have branched out in my cross training, which used to be walking.  I have pulled the bike out of mothballs and gotten some swim coaching from the fabulous Revolutions Triathlon Coaching.

Is my goal still a sub 30:00 5K?  You bet.  Am I bummed that I made so little progress toward that goal this summer?  Yes.  But I'll get there -- I have told too many people that is my goal and they're all helping me remain accountable to myself. 

Once I do, I may just have to get myself a "3.1" sticker.  I'll know why it matters. 

I'll "run" into you next week, readers!

Wordless Wednesday

July 5, 2010 - The Freedom Springs Kids Triathlon

Blue Springs Recreational Area - Marianna, FL

Swim!

Bike!

Run!

Play!

To modify a Danskin quote about triathlon: 

"The child who starts the race is not the same child who finishes the race."

Sleep in Peace, Benjamin

This holiday weekend, I am awash in a sea of red, white and blue images, along with all kinds of patriotic verbiage. 

When I arrived at Greensboro, FL, yesterday morning to run the Firecracker 5000 Race, I was greeted by crosses lining the streets memorializing citizens lost in the line of duty.

This morning, Facebook bloomed with quotes celebrating freedom, and AOL offered a red, white, and blue "theme of the day."  One of my favorite Facebook statuses was Jess's, which featured a lyric from the Toby Keith song "American Soldier": 

 "I'm out here on the front lines, so sleep in peace tonight."

Tomorrow, Wayne Kevin will compete in the "Freedom Springs Kids Triathlon."  Here's a picture from last year:

I loved the "Americana" feel of my morning in Greensboro yesterday.  I loved the thoughts and sentiments shared among all of us in the Facebook community today.  I loved the family get-together in Thomasville and the minor yet fun backyard fireworks ceremony we shared.  I love the anticipation of sharing another gorgeous North Florida morning with my son tomorrow enjoying the kids' triathlon and closing out Independence Day weekend.

Most of all, though, the one moment that moved me most this weekend happened this morning.  I had just turned on CNN, and the reporter was interviewing some soldiers in Afghanistan (at Bagram Air Force Base).  Had the soldiers not all been in fatigues, and the video feed not been so erratic, the scene could have easily been mistaken for some coworkers having a care-free get-together on American soil and daring each other to soak their boss in the dunk tank.  When the reporter gave a few soldiers the opportunity to say something to the folks back home, a female soldier sent all her love and wishes to "my five year old son Benjamin, in Wisconsin." 

I'll just say it plain and simple; I would find it almost unbearable to be a world away from my child, for months on end.  Agree or disagree with the politics of it all, my heart breaks for this mother and child who are separated.  That mom/soldier has my empathy and gratitude. 

Sleep in peace tonight, Benjamin. 

Where is Emily Post When I Need Her?

This blog is intended to elicit comments and opinion - please chime in!

A few years ago, I ran a one mile race with Wayne Kevin.  I wasn't really training at all at the time, so it was a fairly dismal effort on my part.  Poorly trained or not, some primal brain cells deep in my brain kicked in at the end and I blew past one or two competitors within a few feet of the finish line.  Maybe it was my imagination, but one of the finish line volunteers, who has extensive running experience and my deep respect, seemed disapproving that I would pass the other runner(s) so close to the end.

One year, the Tallahassee Democrat published a picture of Wayne Kevin and his friend, Alex, appearing to be neck-and-neck at the finish of the Red Hills Kids Triathlon.  Wayne had been taking his sweet time on the mile run until Alex started gaining ground on him.  Then it was an all out sprint to the finish; the picture shows each boy struggling with all his might to reach the tape first.  Arms pumping, legs churning, as much machismo as a couple of boys could muster!  Of course, Wayne had started in an earlier wave than Alex, so regardless of all that finish line bravado, Wayne's finish time was still minutes slower than Alex's.  But for that moment when Wayne thought he had a race to win, he mustered up reserves that had been completely dormant until a competitor showed up!  In my mind, that had always been a "too little too late" situation; if Wayne had been running his own race, and focusing his own mind, he would not have wound up in such a nail biter of a finish (but it did make a great newspaper photo!). 

More recently, the topic of finish line etiquette came up in a conversation between a friend and me.  I commented that in a recent race, I had sprinted to the finish with another runner, that I felt justified because we had been competing somewhat evenly throughout the race, but still worried that I had broken some finish line etiquette "rule."  My friend then said, "Well, maybe that explains what another runner said to me today when I passed her right before the finish."  The other runner's expression hadn't exactly been "good job"!

When I got home that day, I sent an email to one of my running guru friends, asking if there is a "finish line etiquette" or some "no pass zone" once you are close to the line.  His response:

It's more a matter of resentment and hurt feelings to be passed near the finish. I see it at every race. Actually there is some strategy involved. You don't want to make your bid too early, if you do, the victim has a chance to recover and perhaps hold you off. That said, it's kind of tacky to roar by within a few feet of the chute.

I thanked the guru, shared the information with my friend, and thought I had put the issue to bed. 

Until (drum roll please), I was the passee at last night's St. George Island Summer Sizzler Race.  Compared to last year, I really felt better about my endurance in this race, and at the splits, I thought I was easily going to come in under 40:00 (and yes, the "big" goal is to come in under 30:00, but the oppressive heat put many of us into survival mode!).  When I was at 39:39 at the 3 mile mark, 40:00 was out of reach (darn it!).  I was trying to put my all into getting across the finish line when footsteps came pounding up behind me and a runner I don't recall seeing all race came sprinting up beside me.  Crap!  By the time I mentally registered that runner's presence, I did not apply enough "oomph" to cross the line first and heard one of the finish line volunteers point out the color of her shirt for the volunteers up the line to know who had come in ahead of who.  The humorous thing was that this runner kept up at full speed through the line, making the strippers' job a challenge.  I was feeling all the things the guru discussed above (resentment, hurt feelings) in conjunction with solidarity with the finish line crew, whose job is fun but not easy. 

This runner deserves the place ahead of me because she fairly and squarely got to the line a nanosecond before me.  And although the results aren't out, we probably finished in exactly the same time.  It still irked me, though, and led to me wanting to explore the "finish line etiquette question" in more depth.  Believe it or not, when you google the question there's not a lot out there. 

The spouse of a twitter friend, who is a runner, had several observations:
1) It depends on the race and your level of competitiveness,
2) apply the golden rule,
3) gauge people you're running near/with to see they'd welcome push for finish, and
4) many races are timed so the finish spot is not important

What do you think?

I'll "run" into you next week readers, but I'm not sure if I'll run "past" you, especially if we're within five feet of the finish line!

I Hope I Look Spent

(photo credit: Jackisue/Flickr)

I love 5K races that do not involve waking up at the crack of dawn on a Saturday.  This Memorial Day weekend, I had the exquisite opportunity to sleep in late yesterday (Saturday) morning.  I also had the exquisite opportunity to have Friday off due to our Executive Director's decision a few months ago to add the Friday prior to Memorial Day as an official office closure day (thanks, Rich!!).  I don't know why he did that, but this is one situation where the "why" is pretty insignificant.

When I planned tonight's blog, I planned to post my review of "You're Not the Boss of Me -- Brat-Proofing Your 4-12 Year Old Child" by Betsy Brown Braun.  Since I am not done with the book, and my review can be posted as late as Tuesday, that idea got jettisoned.  I have a commitment to blog weekly, though, and for me that is every Sunday night. 

When I was listening to a RunRunLive podcast this week, the host (Chris Russell) conducted an interview with Erskien Lenier.  At one point in the interview the two were discussing the condition in which runners cross the finish line.  I think it was Chris who commented about how totally spent the elite runners look when they cross the line.  Spent, as in at the point of collapse.  The point was that these runners leave it all on the course.  And he went on to ask of us listeners:  how much are you holding back when you race?  Are you leaving it all on the course?  Is there something else you can pull out of your arsenal as the race elapses that can help you more effectively reach your goals?

Most of you know that my running-related goal is to run a 5K in less than 30:00.  I started training for this in December 2008 and have felt somewhat "plateaued" over the past month or two.  I have seen enough athletic training (including a zillion hours watching young gymnasts train when my daughter was a gymnast) to believe that an athlete should be exceeding in practice what they want to demonstrate in competition.  So, since I have not broken 30:00 in my usual workout routines, it's not going to happen tomorrow night in Bainbridge.

BUT, what I can do is pledge to myself to leave a little more out there on the roads of Bainbridge.  And I can tell all of you that that's my plan so that you can help hold me accountable! 

I read a great quote that sums up my feelings about tomorrow night's race:

Every person's work...is always a portrait of that person. - Samuel Butler

The work I do tomorrow night in Bainbridge will hopefully convey a portrait of perseverance. 

I'll drop in tomorrow night after the race and provide a follow-up comment.

Then I'll "run" into you all again on Tuesday, for my review of "You're Not the Boss of Me"!

Wordless Wednesday

Wakulla Springs, Florida

Photo Credit:  Sue Damon

A month or two ago, Sue Damon and I started exchanging emails about using one of her beautiful photographs as part of a Wordless Wednesday.  Eventually, we agreed that the Wednesday prior to the 5K Run for the Friends (of Wakulla Springs) would be the best time.

Back then, it just seemed like a logical idea, to support a place that is near and dear to so many of us in this area.  Everything changed on April 20, when the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill occurred.

Now, more than ever, Wakulla Springs needs friends.

Photo Credit: Sue Damon

If you live here in North Florida, consider coming out and running or volunteering this Saturday, May 15, at 8:00 a.m. (the races begin with the 1 mile fun run). 

If you live elsewhere, visit this Facebook Page for information.

Stadiums are for spectators. We runners have nature and that is much better.

Juha Väätäinen, Finland

Wakulla Springs Boats at Sunset

Photo Credit:  Sue Damon

Keeping the "Fun" in "Fun Runs"

In September 2003, I ran an 8K race in Jacksonville. My parents drove Tenley (then 7 years old) over to participate in the one mile “fun run” which was scheduled to occur an hour after the 8K start. As I was finishing my race, I noticed Tenley standing far away from the other kids, who were clustered together, looking ready to start the mile race. I was screaming at her something to the effect of, “Why aren’t you with those other kids?” My parents, who had selflessly woken her up early, fed her, dressed her, and driven an hour to get her there, were looking perplexed at why I was yelling at her and looking so disgruntled with them when they had stationed her precisely where the race organizers told her the 1 mile would start.

When it was time for the 1 mile race to start, what do you know? All the kids were herded over to the spot where Tenley was standing – she and my parents were right, I was wrong.

Races are held at all kinds of venues – fields, tracks, parking lots, streets. You name the venue – with the addition of some chalk and a clock, you can have a race. It is the myriad of things between that first chalk mark at “start,” and the finish line clock that make a race a “good race.” These include: course markings, volunteers throughout the course to provide additional guidance, water (for longer races), finish line staff to “strip” numbers and “string them,” and someone willing to compile all of the results after the race.

When Wayne ran the Roberts Fox Trot 1 mile “fun run” yesterday, I knew something was amiss when kids started “finishing” at the 3:30 mark. Kids are fast these days but not that fast!! It turns out that about seven kids had become misrouted and showed up at the finish line prematurely. The race directors gathered the kids and sent them back out to re-run the course, and noted when the children returned to the finish line. As a result of this mix-up, there was a related confusion in scoring at awards time. The times of the “mix-up seven” were not clear and therefore those kids did not get recognized.

I watched parents of these children talk with the race directors, and was brought immediately back to the first expletive I uttered publicly when Tenley stopped short of the vault in gymnastics (not that I have ever hurtled myself toward a stationary object and thrown myself into the air over the object). My reaction was all about me and not at all about her.

Yesterday, the parents who spoke with the race directors handled the conversations about the “mix up seven” radically differently, and in at least one interaction, the word “fun” was long gone from the “run” part.

In any athletic competition, whether between adults or children, things go wrong. As adults we (hopefully) learn to shake the minor ones off and put the major ones in perspective. There is an added dimension, however, if you feel your child has gotten shortchanged, and if you have the challenge of dealing with their disappointment as well as your own.

As a “gym mom,” I wanted badly for my child to succeed, to be appropriately (and equitably) rewarded, and to be free of any complications that might spoil her motivation to stick with the sport. With the benefit of a several years behind me, what I know for sure is that kids who truly are internally motivated to participate in a sport will weather the storms of complications, judging subjectivity and other external forces -- all they want is to be doing what they do. The trophies, medals, goody bags, etc., are nice but that's not why they're out there.

As I close out this weekend, I fervently hope that we as parents do everything we can to keep the “fun” in our child’s next “fun run.”

Writing School - The Revision

Last week, I shared the essay I had written in response to www.literarymama.com's (LM) writing prompt. LM's editor had provided some feedback about my piece, which I also shared with you in last week's post. So, this week, here's the revised piece, hopefully incorporating LM's very constructive feedback.

Circular Thinking

I am running around in circles (ovals, technically) to rekindle my passion for running. I have company.

Every Tuesday night, I join approximately 20 runners at the Florida State University track for “supervised” interval workouts. Intervals are multiples of short distance runs, accumulating to three miles, with rest periods between each run segment. Interval workouts help improve oxygen delivery to your muscles, and by doing so help athletes improve endurance and speed.

At the same time this weekly gathering is getting oxygen to my muscles faster, it is accelerating the delivery of confidence to my psyche. Although I run solo round and round my neighborhood several times a week, running in the intervals group round and round Mike Long Track at FSU has become a core part of my workout plan, mentally and physically.

At this workout, runners are always divided into three strata: blazing fast, pretty fast, and slower-than-the-first-two-groups-but-still-fast. I am the unofficial fourth group: not fast.

My abiding memory from my first brief stint at intervals, in 1995, was when Gary, the coach, said, “I just don’t know what to do with you.”

In the years between 1995 and now, my children became involved in the local running scene. I frequently found myself standing around on the sidelines, envying the athletes who were due a generous dose of endorphins.

I began rekindling friendships with the running community.

I clicked “yes” to the “I Am Runner” application on Facebook.

That “I Am Runner” thing started to bother me. You can be a runner at heart, or a past runner, or a wannabe runner, or parent of a runner, but that isn’t always enough.

In December 2008, I decided to live up to that “I Am Runner” declaration, with a goal of running a five kilometer race in less than 30 minutes. At the first race I ran after deciding on that goal (in January 2009), my time was 43:30. On July 5, my race time was 42:48. I still had not broken 40 minutes, much less 30. I had plateaued It was time to return to intervals.

I was not feeling brave about the prospect of setting foot on the track again. Coach Gary is still in charge, and the “I don’t know what to do with you,” had morphed in my head into “I don’t know what to do with myself.” When I saw Gary at the July race, I broached the subject of my returning to intervals, and he said, “come on back.”

I have been back at intervals now for eight weeks. This group has rekindled my passion by its sheer acceptance. Although I probably provide a little comic relief with my less-than-elegant stride, there is not one iota of ridicule.

Some groups build their members up through verbal exchange. Although we chat at intervals, it is not the talking that fortifies us. It is the silent fact that every quarter mile, as I pass the clock, I can say:

I am runner.

***

I will "run" into you next week!

Going the Distance

Yesterday, Wayne Kevin and I ran the Women's Distance Festival race in Indianhead Acres. I was really happy to run my second sub-39:00 race in twelve days, and Wayne had a good mile run as well.

My original draft for this blog talked about one of the main topics of curiosity on Wayne's part when he started running the 1 mile in this race in 2006 -- why are the street names so funny? (We always park on Kolopakin Nene, which apparently is an authentically Seminole way of saying "Seventh Trail."). I learned that the original developers wanted to name Jim Lee Trail "Humpin Nene"! Some ideas are better left not implemented.

Back to original programming ......

After the 5K, I helped set out the prizes for the one mile run - TOYS!!! After the kids finish their run, they are called up in the order of their finish to choose a toy as their reward. Here was the loot freshly arrayed:

And here was the loot surrounded by the excited kids as they awaited the 1 mile awards:

Between taking picture #1 and picture #2, I watched all the kids finish the race. The most dramatic moment of the entire day was this neck-and-neck finish between Lilly and Austin, who finished within .29 seconds of each other:

I don't know the full backstory of why these two 7 year olds were so bound and determined to prevail over each other. The finish was right up there with one of Michael Phelps's oh-so-close finishes in the Beijing Olympics.

What I do know is that no toy in the world will bring out the tenacity I saw in these two young people yesterday. It comes from somewhere else deeper in the soul.

Each child got a goodie bag yesterday in addition to their toy of choice. (They could also choose a trophy instead of a toy). These rewards for getting up early, running a mile, and pitting yourself against your goal of choice: beating your most recent "best" time, beating a worthy competitor, earning "grand prix" points, or just finishing the race, are important incentives to get kids out to our races and integrated into the world of running.

Lilly's and Austin's toys, along with all of the other ones earned yesterday, won't last forever. But that building block of "I can do this" is no child's play ---- it will "go the distance" of a lifetime.