Run Book Thoughts

Honestly, I have been reflecting so much on all these years of running hundred mile weeks, with multiple coaches guidance of course, thinking that I did all that work to do Olympic Trials for the marathon. As disappointed as I am that for some reason trials has just not worked for me, like that year I broke my foot before Boston, there is always something positive to take away from running. I have run my fast times, not in all the big races that everyone wants to run those times in, but nevertheless they have been attained. One of my favorite things is running through Baltimore Woods in the springtime, when all the flowers are blooming, the sun is shining, there are butterflies everywhere and it all just makes me feel happy.

In efforts of putting my book together, I keep changing my mind about the style of writing to use in different chapters. In college, I graded so many awful papers for my job, and afterwards I would read some structured literature by my favorite authors to enjoy the high standard whilst shaking off horrible creative writing exposure. It is so funny looking back on those hours in my advisor’s office grading or tutoring with them. Finding a balance between a correct tone or dialect and being friendly to an audience is difficult, takes a lot of trial and error, in serious or fun pieces. There are books on my bookshelf that I have had for over ten years, my aunt gave me for special occasions, and though I could just purchase another copy there is something so special or sentimental about holding onto literature gifted by a loved one years ago.

I am sure if I pick the right race, and really get in shape with my coaches I could swing another fast time, maybe even in a glamorous race. Currently, I am looking forward to a nice tennis match with my aunt and going out to lunch afterwards, perhaps having deep discussions of literature with old friends I haven’t seen in a while.

Writing a run book is the funnest victory lap I have had the pleasure of in my marathoner days.

I love this little bee, I bought for my purse in a winery gift shop. However, my dad is really allergic to bees so we have his epi pens all over the place when we go out. We always keep one in our purse or backpack, car and boat. Do bumble bee’s sting? Nevertheless, I like the little story that goes along with the little bee, it’s cute.

A++++++

I thought about running Olympic Trials when it was in LA years ago, but I ended staying in my dorm at SJC eating a chicken quesadilla and waffle fries with a copious amount of ranch dressing.

It is perfectly fine things worked out that way. Yes, those are the years when I was very fast.

My best friendz in my major brought me to Sugar Loaf to watch a Bruins Game to make me happy that weekend too. Even in the off season, we always had a Bruins game on, it was awesome. We had so much junk food and lobster. Have you ever made a grilled cheese sandwich with lobster, paired with a craft beer? Our favorite thing was craft beer hopping in college or watching hockey. I miss us five stealing each others brewery sweatshirts or swapping in the SAAB on a Saturday, even when I threw away getting the USA running jacket that anyone can order online anyway, omg. My favorite one ended up all the way in England, so I had to buy another for myself, so uncool but I love it. So many girls were jealous of all my history major man friends back in the day, especially when we had our lobster roll contest in Portland. My best friends were made taking, The History of Northern Ireland, which is something that I never expected would be a reality in my life. You never know how you’ll find your clique in college, I would not have had friends if I did not meet them in that class towards my major as a requirement; it sounds silly, but we only had three grades the entire semester because it was harder than calc 3 and we all studied together a lot. Later in life, I am happy my professor designed the class so we would all study together constantly and become best friends, even though we all have different lives and special friends nowadays. Brehon Law is really cool. It is interesting the classes they map out so you finish your degree requirements for history, English and mathematics, it’s a good thing I started college in highschool to finish all of it; prep school for my grad program was awesome.

I challenge everyone to try a lobster roll in every restaurant in Portland, Maine.

Runner, Runner.

Would I have lost my security clearance? Probably. Now is such a great time to still be working towards that phd and mba, whilst still doing my software job but not full time because of school. I am so serious, you must wonder how I can have my running blog and not get fired? Well, the answer is tons of professionals are also runners or elite runners. There are even company running events, and those are the events that make everyone at work happy that I run and post all these things online about it. It is so cool to do interviews on my blog because even the professional runners I interview have very nice jobs. Do you want to date someone with a very nice job like you or be with a person who is not serious at all? Honestly, for me, I am so intense all the time about everything, I do need to be around serious people who won’t get me fired or can afford to take me out to dinner like a normal professional adult, but I have had fun being an athlete. Some of those ‘not serious at all people’ can get jealous of the ‘nice job like you people’ because it can really go either way at a certain level, which is really funny when an ex has an unexpected sick joke to play on you so close to your book publication. Soon that book will be here with probably not a lot else, it’ll be cool.

When I went to Alaska to help my little cousin stay in Alaska and not on a spontaneous trip to Mexico or Europe without permission, people there thought I was so controversial which is probably why my cousin wanted to travel so much; I know I hated it there. I was so shocked by the culture in this place, I wanted to come back to NY before the four days were over. In Kodiak, they do not think women are supposed to be as smart as I am, or have my job. I had to tell everyone I worked for my uncle to not blow their minds. What a culture shock that was for me, it was more shocking than my mission trips, seriously. It would be interesting to spend your life with someone who makes you as upset as being in Kodiak when you’re a powerful woman…wow. However, even in Alaska men love buying women dinner and jewelry, there’s real gold out there under all the waterfalls in the glaciers; I could not have bought myself a drink even if I tried.

I said absolutely not! I am still collecting hats for anyone wondering.

My progression in running

When I was in my teens, the year I started running the marathon, my coach wanted in on it. I went all out to be really really really good. Things like running a wicked fast time in the marathon on a track, warming up for world major happened. Also things like dropping out of a marathon further than the half mark and not receiving a half-marathon medal, despite running a killer half-marathon time for a normal human being, happened. My perception of what should happen in women’s professional long distance running can be horrible, because some of my experiences could have literally not happened and it would have been awesome. Yeah, there have been times where I would have been the last person to go to for running advice, because I would have been over the top strict, but now I think I am the opposite and try to help people do things the right way. One of the biggest lessons that I have learned, is running a time trial on a track can count as an official race time, especially if you are with your coach who said ‘You will race what you run in practice’. I have saved girls from running a full marathon before racing it, in real life, for real. I like to help make sure young girls have awards and their school writes articles about them, and behind the scenes they are treated right by their coach. One thing I did, was tell a certain race director to give every U20 marathon runner an age group award, instead of just top 3, because top 3 is a morbid thing for young marathon runners to compete for beyond finishing the distance. There were times, at eighteen/nineteen, I turned down the age award because someone was just behind top three and should have had an award too; there needed to be one for all of us or no one should have gotten an age award, being that young. I have even gone as far as suggesting participation awards for people who drop out, but at least tried in certain events during meetings with race directors or owners. It can be revolutionary to think maybe people should have something nice after at least accomplishing x, y and z; versus nothing. One race director here in Syracuse, has tons of chocolate to give away at all of his events, we talked about all my thoughts feelings and ideas working on a fundraiser together; he tosses t-shirts to all sorts of people too. Also, I open up about the marathon being an uncomfortable distance, and maybe waiting until an older age is the healthiest idea. Sometimes, I even break out medical studies to back up my theory about racing the distance at a certain age. In reality, what I ran for time trial on the track is really good for an actual race, and being ten minutes faster than what I ran shouldn’t really have mattered; it is something no one needs to accomplish. I try to be more social on here, than competitive because it is more relatable. I accomplished one of my biggest dreams, not in the way I thought that I would at all, but I beat a standard nonetheless, and I think it is a good thing that everything happened the way it did; still cool. Luckily my coach sponsored and spoiled me with the Harvard track and Boston Marathon course, I even wore my favorite large pearl earrings whilst running my fastest marathon time ever. If anything from my running career you all know to run on the indoor Harvard track, in MDI/Acadia, or barefoot on the beach in run-buns and a sports-bra.

Bags

In college, my best friends and I were really into ski weekends at Sugar Loaf and Bruins game parties! On our weekends, we needed to have cool bags for all of our stuff. Guess what we did? Instead of buying the newest designer’s version of everything, we bought the most worn out bags we could and painted or bleached them, added glitter, and anything else we wanted. We sook out worn out Louis Vuitton travel bags, and we would literally paint them, put gold leaf on them, glitterfy it, add patches, this was our signature best friend look for our weekends! These bags were on the verge of being garbage before these makeovers of course. Zombie bags with holes on the sides and no handles. I think it was cooler than buying the newest thing, we styled the oldest of the designer bags every girl wants in college. After college, you do not even want the newest version nor stacks of travel bags in your closet, because you’ll want something different than every other professional woman on the planet traveling. I miss our ski weekends and watching our games with fun drinks, and our bags thrown on the guest bedroom love seat. Guess which one of us got to keep all these beautiful bags in their closet???

Be like me and my lady gang, buy some horrible bags on Poshmark or a thrift shop in the middle of nowhere in northern Maine off dirt roads you happen upon whilst being lost in your aunt’s old car you bought for $1 without a working radio, and make a design of your own for game weekends in college! The lady who sold it knew it was in ghostly shape, but wanted young gals like us to enjoy it instead of throwing it away. We happened upon many treasures to refurbish and make our own. Everyone will be so jealous on your ski trips or even in the airport, and it is really funny.

Race Bibs

I have so many race bibs. In a marathon there are different colors, because if it is your first time everyone will know to help you through the hard parts, they want you to stick out for a good reason. First timers, sometimes need extra gels, moral support, Vaseline, snacks and water; you have a bright color and larger bib for a reason. There have been times, I have wanted the best number or my name or last name in a demanding way just because I could. Other times, I jokingly tell the race director to give me a horrible number without my name to blend in. Going up to the line of a race you are elite in with a purposely bad race bib, is interesting because of how people who don’t know you react. For one race I really love, I have had the same number every year, but it is a random number no one would want, it’s really funny. One time, I did the Maine Marathon and did not wear my race bib, I just went out there like a wild woman. I think I have every number when you need to be a number that I like 1, 123, 180, 44, but 57 was questionable or on the fence of being bad to me. Should you take yourself too seriously or be funny? There is totally a time for both! Enjoy the ride, is my advice as a seasoned athlete.

One year, I had a race packet mailed to school, and someone thought they were funny taking it before I even knew it was in my mailbox. I think they thought it would actually prevent me from running the race, where I could just show up anyway and the director would solve all my problems. It got to someone’s head they took a big packet from me and it became a sick joke trophy for them, but in reality it did not affect my life or impact my ability to run in that race. If you ever lose your race bib, you can ALWAYS just ask for another one elite or recreational, it will NEVER be the difference between competing on the big or small scale. However, everyone will look at the race packet snatcher funny, yet they wouldn’t even be banned from running it themselves if they so desire. There are stacks of extra race bibs on race day for pretty much every event, just in case something goes missing, it is not a big deal. But, yeah the last thing I needed at the time was some weird group of people who don’t even run, stealing my race packet, ughh… It was like the Gilmore Girl’s episode where she writes the bad review about the ballet and the girl is all angry about the review, or maybe that analogy isn’t even enough, I don’t know. When someone thinks they can do something serious to you, but they really cannot and you do not even know how to respond to it. It is never fun having someone disrupt important matters in your life, they have nothing to compare to. Forgive, find a solution, and moving is is the best option.

Stitches

I was just talking to one of my friends about getting my stitches out tomorrow. One time, she cut her eye-brow in a lacrosse game, and needed to wait in the ER for hours, because there was only one plastic surgeon working and she did not want anyone else to do her stitches. It was worth the wait, because she told me nothing was cauterized and they did all of her stitches inside and out in a straight line, nothing diagonal at all. She told me what scar cream she used afterwards, even without makeup you wouldn’t really even be able to tell she had them. At least I don’t usually have to look at my back, tomorrow is the big day to say ‘bye stitches!’ Such a small price to pay, because it could have been worse, but at the same time that did put me out a bit in terms of lifting my fat chihuahuas.

Going the distance

It is funny how you build the desire to run a certain distance. Like in modified, we always did a six mile long run, and it would bother everyone the number was not five. Then, in varsity, that number turned into 9 miles, 3-3-3, this bothered everyone the number was still not five nor an even ten. After a while of 3-3-3, a few of us lived on the edge running an even ten miles. Upon finishing an even ten miles in practice, it bothered us girls that we were not half-marathon runner’s. The issue was, if we were on a varsity team, then we could not run road races. So one hot summer day, waking up extra early to beat the sun, we went out and did the half-marathon distance instead of a Sunday rest-day. While a lot of my old teammates specialized in a shorter distance and going longer than ten was typically inappropriate to ask, I wondered if I could run a half-marathon two times in a row. Can I run a marathon well? Then, my attempt in running a marathon well, turned out pretty well for me and actually became my first career!

Play with distances, but be safe and smart about the way you play with them. I also recommend having a coach for playing around with a distance. When you do something for a long time, it becomes natural for your body. So after years on years, it is natural for my body to run really long distances everyday, but for someone else it wouldn’t really be safe for your tendons and bones to have that kind of exertion. You should always work with a coach and doctor, on ways to healthily run. Even not during an injury, I would go to physical therapy every two weeks, for strengthening and weighing myself, it’s not a bad idea.

Sometimes confessions do not make you get married, sometimes they make you go to the school you were supposed to years ago and run all the races you actually want to, because you’re still young enough to pretend you’re sixteen and be free. Always do the lawsuit in the beginning, and never sign anything. Diamonds cannot be valuable if there are so many.