Biggest Loser is SO motivating.

Total guilty pleasure. But I love it. More substantive posts soon, promise.

Water Miles

So they opened a new, fancy aquatic center by my house, which apparenly is free for DC residents and just fabulously quiet eaaaarly in the mornings.

Wondering whether it's quiet enough to minimize embarassment from aqua-jogging, which apparently all the pro's do cause it helps you log the miles while keeping injuries at bay.

As if wearing a swimsuit in public wasn't embarassing enough ...

Go!

Until one is committed,

there is hesitancy,

the chance to draw back,

always ineffectiveness.

Concerning all acts

of initiative and creation,

there is one elementary truth

the ignorance of which

kills countless ideas and splendid plans:

that the moment one definitely commits oneself,

then providence moves too.

All sorts of things occur

to help one that would never

otherwise have occurred.

A whole stream of events issues from the decision,

raising in one's favor all manner

of unforseen incidents,

meetings and material assistance

which no man could have dreamed

would have come his way.

Whatever you can do

or dream you can, begin it.

Boldness has genius,

power and magic in it.

Begin it now.

-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Tomorrow's training:

Run and Learn

Another one from Runner's World:

People begin running for any number of motives, but we stick to it for one basic reason-to find out who we really are. -- George Sheehan, M.D.

above: the C&O Towpath at Great Falls National Park, where I've done a lot of self discovery mile after mile. It's one of my all-time favorite places.

Please excuse the brief entry today ... it's been an exhausting week. More tomorrow!

Words to Run/Live By

A lot of running lessons ring true for life, too ... particularly with an event like the marathon. I'm subscribed to Runner's World's "Daily Kick in the Butt" emails, a sort-of quote-of-the-day mailing every weekday. I save the good ones for later, when I might need 'em.

I needed this one today:

The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win. - Sir Roger Bannister, First athlete to run the mile in less than four minutes

The Saps Are Running Again

As I've said, Boston's the holy grail for many runners. Here's how fast you gotta be:

A lot of non-runners (read: non-crazies) look at these times and think, shit, RUN for more than THREE hours? They can't believe how long that is ... but anyone who's run more than a mile knows how FAST these times really are for mortals ... and that most of us who attempt 26.2 miles are out there a hell of a lot longer that 3.5 hours. I know of a guy who had been trying to qualify for years ... every year he'd try to get faster, and it never happened for him. Finally he was able to qualify when he broke into an older age bracket, allowing for a slower time! Yipes!

My qualifying time (at the age of 29 ... unless I have to wait till I'm 60) is 3:40, which amounts to running 26.2 miles at a pace of a little more than 8.5 minutes a mile. I think my fastest *mile* was 8.5 minutes ... maybe a little faster. But do 25.2 more of those? That's different.

So Boston's the gold standard -- you might say it separates serious runners from casual joggers. There are few other marathons that are merit-based like this one ... most of the races in the U.S., you just pay for, and if you can keep a pace of a 16-min-mile for the whole 26.2, you're in.

And yet Boston hasn't always been this exclusive.

There's a little irony to this story, one that Runner's World articulated succinctly in this year's pre-Boston coverage. I'm including an excerpt below (punctuated by images of the elite female runners at this year's race, including my FAVORITE marathonner, Kara Goucher, who took 3rd at Boston. These elite women ran the race in about 2.5 hours, translating into slightly more than 5.5 minute-mile paces. Incredible.).


Read the full Runner's World article here.

Through much of its 113-year history, the Boston Marathon amounted to a small annual spectacle attracting few runners beyond the eastern United States and Canada. Every Patriots' Day (a holiday little recognized outside the Boston area), runners would assemble in bucolic Hopkinton to begin the rolling trek to downtown Boston. Dressed in cotton singlets, shorts, and floppy sneakers, many with handkerchiefs tied around their neck or head, the ragtag gaggle of runners looked like Depression- era hobos. Local sportswriters adored the marathon; it let them unleash their most colorful phrases. "It must be spring," they wrote nearly every year. "The saps are running again."



During the World War II years, Boston attracted as few as 67 runners; by 1965, the field had climbed to only 447. "It was still a number that a handful of race officials could deal with, even in the days of no computers and no office staff," says Boston historian Tom Derderian, author of the classic Boston Marathon: The History of the World's Premier Running Event. There was no crush to get into the marathon, no cutoff date or field limit, and no entry fee. You ponied up a dollar to join the Amateur Athletic Union, and sent your entry to de facto race director Jock Semple, athletic trainer to the Boston Celtics and Boston Bruins.




Semple, a lovable if hotheaded Scotsman, veteran marathoner, and coach of the Boston Athletic Association (BAA) running club, maintained his cool for several more years. In 1967, the Boston field grew to a barely manageable 741. Then in 1969, Semple was flooded with 1,342 entries. In an early, pre-Frank Shorter running boomlet, more Americans were beginning to run and to focus on Boston, one of the country's only marathons, and certainly its best known. The mail, the logistics, and especially the phone calls proved too much. "What? You want to know if you can run the marathon in your track spikes?" Crrrash! The sound of Semple slamming down the phone.


To enter the 1970 Boston Marathon, Semple and BAA president Will Cloney decided runners would have to provide a written declaration, signed by a coach, that they could break four hours. Didn't work. The wave of entries and phone calls continued. "What? You say you can run a mile, and you want to do the marathon, only you don't know how long it is?" Crrrash!

.... To slow the marathon's growth and preserve it for competitive runners, Semple and Cloney got more serious about limiting Boston entries. For the 1971 Boston Marathon, they instituted a prior-race test: You had to have already run 26.2 miles in less than 3:30.

... And that's how Boston got to be so fast. Guess I shoulda tried to run the Patriots' Day Race back in 1969. The last time I was called fast was in 2nd grade, and I wasn't running. "Katie, you fassss," my friend Latoya said. Hmmm.

Mile Markers

Hallo, happy readers. Can I just tell you how nice it's been *already* to see how many of you commented/chose to follow me/just *opened* the email? Thanks. :) I feel spoiled.

So I wanted to share some milestones -- er, mile-markers -- with you. These are the smaller goals I want to meet if I'm to qualify for the big day in April 2011.

1. Get in shape!!! Deadline: November 22, 2009

I'm pretty out of shape right now, but I aim to be at least back up to marathon distances and in much better condition by the Philadelphia Marathon, for which I'm registered. How cool is this: the marathon ends at the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the infamous steps Rocky ran up in the movie. :) Nice. I don't expect to turn in any P.R.'s (that's personal record) at the Philly Marathon -- it's just a date for me to get a good run in (it's supposed to be one of the better, faster, and coooolder marathons -- yay), and meet my weight loss/fitness goals.

2. Run a normal marathon and be in even better shape (read: lots of cross-training): Deadline: Disney Marathon 2010: January 11, 2010

By this time I hope to be running normal marathon times (for me, an average pace of 10-11 minutes per mile ... still a far cry from Boston qualifying times!! more on that tomorrow), and do a *much* better job than I did at last year's Disney Marathon, when my mom KICKED MY ASS! Although Mommy, if you're reading this, I know that if you were running the race again this year, you'd still kick my ass, Rocky Marathon under my belt or not. :)


3. January 2010: Start online training with McMillan Coaching -- Greg McMillan coaches elite, olympic runners, like this girl, Paige Higgins, who WON the 2006 Disney Marathon:


For a small fortune (ok, maybe as much as I've spent on stupid exercise dvd's this year), you can pay to have him coach you online (this is geared toward regular runners like me, who seek the holy grail of running: qualifying for Boston). This is how I plan to actually get *faster.* I'd like to train with McMillan till November 2010, the last mile-marker here ... read on.


4. One last marathon before the big one ... Deadline: Marine Corps Marathon, October, 2010.

Already registered. It'll be fun.

5. And the last marker is THE marker: the 2010 Philly Marathon, November 2010. To "qualify" for the Boston Marathon, you have to submit a race time from a recognized course, and Philly's one of those. It's also apparently one of the "fastest" marathon courses for qualifying for Boston. Not all marathon courses are created equally ... though they're all 26.2 miles, some of them are hillier than others (read: harder), some courses are more crowded (read: harder and more obnoxious), and so on. Runner's World rated the Philly Marathon as the BEST race to use to qualify for Boston in 2007. And I'm hoping it'll work just as well in 2010.

If I run that thing in 3 hours and 40 minutes, then I'll end up here 5 months later. And you can stop reading this blog. :)

7,000-Mile Journey

Apparently a journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step. My journey to the 115th Boston Marathon in April 2011 is more than 7,000 miles long (that's how many miles I hope to log in the 19 months between now and then).

And this is my first step. I've wanted to become a runner for a long time. A real runner. I ran my first marathon two years ago. Running is a chore. It's painful, monotonous, and time-consuming. It's also the closest thing I've ever felt to flying. On a bad day running, I am exhausted. On a good day, I am invincible.

I've been a little too -vincible lately ... too lackluster, too unmotivated, too glued to yesterday. Been trying to find the motivation to run again, to work-so-hard-you-cry again, to come alive again. But the past 9 months have been colored by fits of stops and starts ... high hopes for renewal but no real movement. These low moments come in races, too. But in races, there are hundreds -- sometimes thousands -- of ways out, if you just know where to look.

It's 10 a.m, and you hate running in the morning. You've headed into mile 15, and every muscle in your body is screaming. You're hating life, thinking come oooooooon, why didn't I train better?!, and you can't believe that old man is passing you AGAIN.

And then ...

Then, you turn a corner and are greeted by this:

and this:


and this:



These are the spectators. They are what make races worth every last second (and every last dime). They cheer you on, shout your name, and tell you to go, go, go!!! "Lookin' good!" "You can do it!" "Almost there!" And know what? I usually believe them. I can't tell you how good it feels to see them there. Somewhere near the end of the race, usually where they're all lined up, cheering as loud as they can, I usually end up crying a little. Gawd. I know. But it's just so simple and good and inspirational ... these complete strangers, encouraging you to run faster and harder than you have before. Encouraging you to believe. And then you do.



So that's the real reason for starting this blog. I'm hoping you'll be my spectators as I tackle my greatest running (and ok, personal) challenge to date -- qualifying for the 2011 Boston Marathon. It's really hard, you gotta be really fast (well, for the average runner, and boy am I average!), and -- though I've said it before -- I really, really want it.

So I'll be here, running and blogging, for the next (roughly) year and a half. I promise to try my best, stick to my training, eat right, and blog about it every day. Feel free to come along to keep me honest, tell me I run like a girl, or tell me not to poop in my pants (guys, that is such a myth -- they HAVE porto-potties on marathon courses). Please drop in and comment as little or a lot as you like ... in any case, it'll be great just to know you're there.

On the docket for tomorrow: short trail run and cross-training. You hafta be strong to be fast. Andy knows: