I think I have mentioned that I have decided to run a
marathon for my 40th birthday. The actual race is more than a month
before my real birthday, which is significant only because it means I’m still
in the more competitive 30-39 year old age group, but there are only two
marathons on Guam, so I’ll be racing in April.
I found a training program online and started following it a
several weeks ago. It’s not too time consuming right now, but I’m going to have
to get in several runs of 2 hours or more. That means I’m going to have to get
up earlier and earlier the next few Saturdays. Most of the time I confine my runs to base
because I don’t like worrying about traffic or dogs. The route is already getting old. I found someone to run at
least a portion of the long runs with me, so the time spent running in large circles passes a little faster, but I’m still wondering if I really
want to do this. Maybe the reason why runners are particularly susceptible to
inspirational Facebook quotes and posters is because they are always seeking an
answer to Why? Why run this far? Why use up what cartilage I have left in my
knees? Is this really fun?
I ran one other marathon in my life, at age 22, several
months after I graduated from college and several months before I got married.
I was in graduate school, substitute teaching occasionally, and had no pressing
responsibilities, other than paying my share of rent and utilities and feeding
myself. I was still in shape from collegiate
running. I found it relaxing to spend a couple of hours on the weekend running
around Dallas – mostly the Turtlecreek area or around White Rock Lake near SMU.
Then I could lie on the couch the rest
of the weekend and read.
I ran a pretty good race – I think my time was 3:13 – and
qualified for the 100th anniversary of the Boston marathon. I was
happy to hit this benchmark, since I had no real idea of how I’d do in this
long race. Moreover, I knew I’d be in Rhode Island that spring as a newlywed
for the historic event. I made notes on what to do to improve my time. Boston
here I come! Or so I thought.
But life turned out better: shortly after the Dallas race, my
husband and I were married, and by the time we moved to Rhode Island, I was pregnant
and due to deliver our first baby right around the date of the Boston race.
Having a baby was more fun than training. So life sped along
happily for many years in which I got good use out of a babyjogger, but I
rarely raced, other than a couple of 5Ks over a period of 12 years. When we moved to Mississippi, our youngest
went to preK for a bit, so I didn’t need the babyjogger any more. I raced three
or four times and surprised myself by winning my age group, and, once, the
women’s division.
Now on Guam, there is a strong and healthy racing
subculture. Every weekend you can find a road race, either a fundraiser or
sponsored by the running club. Nearly once month or more the triathlon club holds
an event. The bike club has regular rides. There’s a mountain bike series.
There’s the Perimeter Run, the Cocos Island swim, the paddling group, the hash
runners. Xterra Guam holds trail races and an international qualifying
triathlon that attracts a relatively large number of participants for a small
island.
It helps that every weekend the weather is beautiful.
Many – if not most - of the participants in these various events
are the same people. Eventually you get
to know some of them. You wish each other luck before the races and talk about
what was hard afterwards. You chitchat about what race is coming up and what
you’re doing for training. After several months of this, you have made friends.
You hang around after the race for
ribbons and snacks and drawings for prizes. Fairly often I win my age group and
sometimes get a coupon for a free dinner. Some races offer goody bags with
coupons and marketing give-aways like pins and water bottles. I won a DVD player
and a bottle of wine in drawings. Not bad for a $5 entry fee.
The drawback to these events is that most of them start at
5:30 or 6 in the morning. The plus is they are over before it starts to get
hot. Last weekend I got up on Saturday
at 6 to run 12 miles with my friend for training and on Sunday at 5 to run in a
3 mile trail race. I was already tired from trying to get back into the school
routine. I nearly stayed in bed on Sunday.
But after lying in bed several minutes, I realized I was wide
awake, and I might as well get up. My son wanted to go (another fun part of
these runs is that they are family friendly for the most part – great bonding
opportunities). We hadn’t done a trail run before, and this one wasn’t too far
from our house. I rolled out of bed, and we headed out.
About a hundred people were there. The route wound through
the woods, down a clay hillside and across a stream that dropped into a
waterfall. Back up the hill, a spectacular view provided inspiration for the
second half of the run. It was a tough
course, but beautiful. And since the guy who was in the lead got lost, my son
won, and I came in third overall. For
our pains and entry fee we received a cup of water and a handshake - plus the satisfaction of beating some pretty
fit looking guys. The race was its own reward, I guess.
I shouldn’t say “guess.” The race was rewarding. It was hard
leaping from hillock to hillock and prancing across the stream. I wanted to
walk the steep uphill. We were filthy when the race was over; our shoes were loaded with mud. But I finished well, which is always satisfying. And my son was really happy with his win,
which always makes me happy.
There are few things that I am really good at, but I’m a
better than average runner. I know that I wouldn’t be winning races in other
places with the times that I’m running. In college I was a front of the middle
of the pack runner, and I’d probably be in the same position in a big city
race. Nonetheless, it still feels good to race, to win, to improve.
So even though it is not necessarily “fun” to do these
training runs and to get up before the sun, it is fun to greet familiar faces,
to be congratulated when hard work pays off, to use a talent that is God-given. Being a decent runner is a gift that doesn’t
seem to have any real service to humanity, but here on Guam, since the races
are affordable and family friendly, running gives us the opportunity to
interact with the community and to involve the family in fitness. I like to think that when people see me out
there, they see that you can have 6 kids and still be halfway normal.
Then again, maybe this isn’t normal.
and more...
"We run, not because we
think it is doing us good, but because we enjoy it and cannot help
ourselves...The more restricted our society and work become, the more necessary
it will be to find some outlet for this craving for freedom. No one can say, 'You
must not run faster than this, or jump higher than that.' The human spirit is
indomitable."
-Sir Roger Bannister, first runner to run a sub-4 minute mile
"The miracle isn't that I finished. The miracle is that I
had the courage to start."
-John Bingham
"You
have to wonder at times what you're doing out there. Over the years, I've given
myself a thousand reasons to keep running, but it always comes back to where it
started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement."
- Steve Prefontaine
"I always loved
running...it was something you could do by yourself, and under your own power.
You could go in any direction, fast or slow as you wanted, fighting the wind if
you felt like it, seeking out new sights just on the strength of your feet and
the courage of your lungs."
-Jesse Owens
"The will to win means nothing without the will to
prepare."
-Juma Ikangaa, 1989 NYC Marathon winner
"In running, it doesn't matter whether you come in first,
in the middle of the pack, or last. You can say, 'I have finished.' There is a
lot of satisfaction in that."
-Fred Lebow, New York City Marathon co-founder
"To give anything less than your
best is to sacrifice the gift." - Steve Prefontaine
"The answer to the big questions
in running is the same as the answer to the big questions in life: Do the best
with what you've got." - Dr. George Sheehan
