I was in Chicago a couple days ago and as I was walking along Lake Michigan, this is what I saw…
You’ve probably noticed the variety of body shapes of runners in a start corral (except for the elites). To calm my hilariously overblown pre-race nerves, I usually size up the group around me, which in the 9-10min./mile area, runs the gamut of height and width. “Uh-oh,” I think, “That girl has some long get-away sticks! What is she doing here? She’s going to breeze right past me.” Nevertheless, once everyone takes off, I am repeatedly shocked to find that most of my predictions are false. Long Legs McGee might finish twenty minutes after me, but a hulking man with tree trunks for limbs might already be nom-nom-ing post-race refreshments by the time I cross the finish line.
So, what gives? This week, I tried to discover if there’s an ideal body type for runners.
With only three months to build up to walking 6.2 miles I had my work cut out for me.
The distance itself was not daunting, but the thought of being out there for possibly over 2 hours didn’t sound like much fun.
The good news was that I was starting to have more feeling on my right side and my speed was improving; the bad news was that the muscles were still extremely weak and when I tried to use them, cramps the size of tennis balls would stop me in my tracks.
Cramps the size of tennis balls
The old trick of pinching my upper lip when the cramps hit worked occasionally, but other times just gave me a sore lip. I even tried increasing my electrolytes but that didn’t seem to help the problem.
The next two months were uneventful with my walking increasing gradually week after week. Most days I would do a longer walk in the morning between two to three miles and a second walk during my lunch break covering one mile using the walking poles for all but the times I was forced inside on the treadmill. One highlight was needing to contact Omni where my brace came from to have them make it smaller. Apparently all that nordic walking I was doing was burning off the pounds and shrinking my waistline . I still had more to lose before I get to my ideal running weight but it was a good start.
Near the end of March I made the commitment and signed up for the Illinois Marathon 10k, a distance at one time I could complete under 32 min, now just hoping to keep it under two hour’s and not falling on my face.
I had thought about maybe walking it without the poles but if my balance didn’t improve soon there wouldn’t be a choice.
In March I had another follow-up appointment with the Spine Clinic and asked about the muscle weakness and cramping I was dealing with and was told it may take up to a year or more to improve and to expect some permanent muscle weakness. The cramping was caused by the muscles that for some time having little nerve function basically waking up with cramping as a side effect. Permanent weakness is a phrase I would not accept so I asked about when I could start physical therapy and was
scheduled for an evaluation later that week.
My first session made me realize that my strength was worse than I had thought and if returning to running was ever going to happened, physical therapy was the road to that goal.
The long road to recovery
For the next 4 weeks leading up to the race I continued walking twice a day, increasing my longer walks from four to five miles and going to therapy twice a week.
I had thought about getting in a six-mile walk in before race day but between walking, therapy and work I was starting to feel a little fatigued and decided to save it for the race.
To be continued….
There is something incredibly intriguing about random information on life. And when you hear a random fact, don’t you want to just go tell people about it?
For example, this week I heard that there is actually more Monopoly money printed in the United States every year than real money. Parker Brothers prints nearly $30 billion worth of the fake currency annually, compared to a measly $974 million from the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Now if only I could buy a real house on Park Avenue with my Monopoly earnings…
In case you somehow missed the 20,000 runners, last Saturday was the fourth annual Illinois Marathon. I had a great time cheering on runners, but—and I’m going to be completely honest here—I spent a good deal of Saturday afternoon checking the race results of everyone.I.know.
And, please, don’t even pretend that you haven’t done this at least once before.
*Disclaimer: For those of you who follow the blog, I didn’t read Mica’s post before I wrote mine. Sorry Mica – I guess great minds think alike!
On my way to the marathon on Saturday morning, I couldn’t get The Stones “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” out of my head…
Sometimes, things in life just don’t turn out how you want them to.
I WANTED the weather to be like this on the day of the Marathon…
…then I remembered I lived in Champaign. And this is what we got.
I WANTED to go to bed at this time the night before the Marathon…
…and managed to not crawl into bed until this time.
I WANTED to make myself a breakfast similar to this before I left home…
…and was lucky to grab this before I ran out the door (and ate it in the car…).
I WANTED to have a good experience with my relay team…
…and I had a phenomenal one.
Even though some things don’t go according to a preconceived ideal plan that I concoct in my head, other things turn out to be better than anticipated. Let me give you a rundown of my 2012 Illinois Marathon experience. I can pretty much guarantee it will motivate you to do the Marathon Relay next year.
My relay team – aptly named Three’s Company, Four’s a Relay – may be considered a little unconventional. Three women (Lindsey, Rachel and myself), one man (Don – what a trooper), with about 40 years of age difference between the youngest and the oldest. Some of us have been athletes, some veteran race runners, others running just a handful of times so far this year.
Now, Rachel and I have known each other since a monumental day in both of our lives: the first day of kindergarten. However, the four of us have established a strong friendship through group exercise class at Mettler Center. And one of us had the bright idea last December that we should team up and take on the marathon as a joint effort. I think there was some hesitation on all our ends, but we all managed to commit.
And I’m so glad we did.
I typically think of running as the “introvert” sport; it is probably the most individual sport you can find. You don’t need a team or a partner; you just put in your headphones and go, getting lost in your own thoughts and tuning out everyone else. Yet the four people on my team are four of the biggest extroverts I know (yes, I include myself in that); always talking to others, incredibly sociable…I mean, we met in GROUP exercise class. So I think the idea of making such an individual activity a group effort was appealing – and extremely beneficial – for all of us.
Ironically, we never once ran together in our training. I would pass Don on Duncan Road during our runs, each of us going our own pace and in opposite directions, yet training for the same thing. Rachel and I trained for the half-marathon together last year, but realized that our paces were different and we may not have been the best of running partners. And I would see Lindsey running on the treadmill at Mettler; it wasn’t that I didn’t want to jump on the machine next to her, I was just usually busy doing something else…like talking.
But on race day, we were all ready to go.
After countless conversations about coordinating our outfits, what time we would meet and how we would transport ourselves from relay station to relay station, race day was here. I’ll be honest, the idea of running for 7 miles and driving around for about 3 hours on a cold, rainy morning was not extremely appealing to me. But it turned out to be one of the best times I’ve had in a long time. The four of us have a “gym relationship” with one another; we talk about how sore we are, how much we despise doing mountain climbers in strength class and the new shoes we just bought.
But on Saturday, we really got to know one another. I’ve known Rachel for 20 years, so there isn’t much more getting-to-know-you that we had to do. But with Don and Lindsey, it was so nice to talk to them about their kids, their homes, their jobs, how Lindsey doesn’t like the layout of the Meijer in Urbana, how Don has no intention of retiring when he actually retires. The time flew by, despite the fact that we were sitting in stagnate traffic for 75% of the time, and standing in chilly, windy weather the other 25%.
At mile 25, Don, Rachel and I met Lindsey on her last leg of the race and together, as a team, we ran the last mile of the race and ran into Memorial Stadium, arm in arm, cheering for each other, cheering for our team. We finished in 4:09, about 20 minutes faster than estimated, and each of us beat our personal time as well (I ran my 7.1 miles in 57 minutes!). And then, we had a big, sweaty group hug. And it was – without question – the best big, sweaty group hug I’ve ever been part of.
Running into home plate. Looking REAL cool with my jacket tied around my waist.
As we grabbed water bottles and our medals, we found our “fans” from Mettler Center. It is one thing to have your family come cheer you on (thanks Mom!), but to an extent, they have a bit of an obligatory responsibility. It is totally another thing to have your friends from the gym come to take pictures and also give you a big, sweaty hug. Thank you all for your unconditional support – it meant the world to us.
My and my cheerleader - my momma!
Congratulations team. And congratulations to everyone else who ran the race. Thank you to the volunteers, cheering fans and race coordinators. Days like that when I’m proud to be a C-U citizen.
So sometimes, things in life just don’t turn out how you want them to…
…and sometimes, they turn out better than you could have ever imagined.
In reviewing my post about the 2011 River to River Relay, I have again decided that it is impossible to write a post that covers such an eventful and memorable race. Moreover, I wanted to write an entertaining recap because this race was exactly that: entertaining.
(It’s still all one word.)
Looking for a way to be free of using a walker, but not risking falling or injury, led me to the thought of using Nordic ski poles to help me get around and improve my fitness. My right foot and leg were not fully functioning so going very far without something to hang on to was not a smart option. My three week follow up appointment was that week so I asked if it would be ok to use Nordic walking poles and was given the go ahead to use them, but was told to make sure to not overdo it and to keep my posture straight while using them. I already owned a pair of adjustable ski poles that I used to run with on trails to prepare for Nordic Skiing, so I was ready to go. The next day I headed out for my first Nordic walk, doubling my distance (a whopping 1/4 mile) from the previous day, stopping a couple times to rest and get the numbness out of my leg, before returning home. I was excited to finally be free of the walker, but I had forgotten that adjustable poles can sometimes slip, and a few days later I almost hit the ground when one of them collapsed.
Unless I wanted to continue to risk falling I needed to find a pair of one piece walking poles and after a little research I ordered a pair of Swix Nordic poles from skiwalking.com. A few days later the new poles showed up at my door along with a DVD on how to use them. Since I already had a XC skiing background I quickly picked up the technique and gradually increased my distance to 1/2 mile in 20 min. A tortoise pace for sure, but I knew it couldn’t get any slower.
Nordic Walking around the neighborhood
I still wasn’t sure if I was going to the Body n’ Sole New Years Eve run until the day of the event and once I was there decided to walk 1/2 mile without the poles.
At the turn around point, pain and fatigue forced me to take a short break (holding on to a street sign) and then I slowly made it back to the store.I stayed long enough to visit and hand out prizes for the run and with the pain meds wearing off I quickly headed home to lay down on an ice pack. This was a December that I will never forget, but I’m glad that it is over.
I'm the one behind the camera.
During the month of January my distance and pace started to improve dramatically so that by the end of the month I was up to covering 1 1/2 miles at a 20 min/mile pace with a total of 40 miles. Most days, if the weather was decent I Nordic walked outside and the few times that we had ice or snow I walked inside on the treadmill. I also went back to work the week after New Years, for only 3-4 hrs at first then adding a few hours at a time until I was back to full time.
My nine week follow-up appointment was the first week of February and Dr. Harms was very pleased with my progress. I brought up my idea to possibly do the Illinois Marathon 10k in April, adding that I would be walking, obviously not running and he said that would be ok if I gradually increased my mileage. The longest I had walked at that point was 1 1/2 miles, but with the race three months away there was plenty of time to get to 6.2 miles.
To be continued………..
Hey, Body ‘N Sole Blog readers, after a six-month hiatus, Fit Asian Grimace is back.
I have a kick-ass story to tell you about River to River relay, so stay tuned.
To whet your appetite: a haiku
River to River.
Can you say, “Third Place,” b*tches?
Pork Chop Sammiches.
One would expect some epic post from me for the week of the Illinois Marathon.
One would expect profound words of wisdom. Words that would change your life and make you take 12 minutes off your race time.
One would be wrong.
I was truly stumped this week. My type-A perfectionist personality put far too much pressure on myself for a blog post.
Far too much.
