On Vacation - Gone Running!

Whew! It’s been a marathon just training for the marathon!! But the time is finally here. I’m leaving tomorrow (Thursday), June 2^nd and returning on June 16^th.

I had hoped to be further along in my fitness, aka Wish-I-Was-Doing-The-Full-Marathon, but at this point I’m happy enough doing the half (13.1 miles).

My main concern is shin splints. Other than that, I’m pretty sure I can drag my butt across the finish line, no matter what. I have four hours to complete it, but I’m hoping I can do it in three. I’m counting on training at 9000 feet to help me run at sea level.

With 30,000 people signed up, you probably won’t see me in the crowd, but I’ll be the one in the green tank top that says, Does This Shirt Make My Butt Look Fast?

I will be checking in, but I am on vacation, so if I don’t respond quickly, I’ll be at the San Diego Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon, or Disney Land, or Sea World, or the San Diego Zoo, or the San Diego Wild Animal Park, or at the beach hanging ten, or at the Colorado River in Yuma laying on a raft with a margarita in my hand.

Wish me luck!

San Diego, here I come!!

Running the Shakespeare Marathon

Article first published as Running the Shakespeare Marathon on Technorati.

Theme marathons are the ideal running experience for runners just wanting to have fun or raise funds for notable causes. The Shakespeare Marathon is a course favorite for top club runners in Britain. It was first created in 1982 and organized by the Stratford Rotary Club in Stratford-Upon-Avon, and primarily benefits the Stratford Hospice and other charities.

Stratford-Upon-Avon is, of course, the birthplace of William Shakespeare, hence, the Shakespeare Marathon. As we all know, Shakespeare was an English poet (often referred to as the Bard of Avon) and playwright who is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language.

What is little known, perhaps, is that William Shakespeare knew a lot about running – and perhaps was even a runner himself!

“I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, straining upon the start...‘Faith, I ran when I saw others run” (Henry V).

The line-up begins outside the Royal Shakespeare Theatre with a leisurely start time of 10:00 a.m. To aid in the fun, many of the contestants, participants and bystanders dress up for the occasion, often as The Bard himself.

“These high wild hills/and rough uneven ways/draw out our miles/ and make them wearisome (Richard II).

For the most part, the course is flat except for Rumer Hill just outside of Welford. The runners have to negotiate the hill twice as the full-marathon is two laps; the half-marathon is just one. Most injuries reportedly occur on this long and steep descent towards Long Marston.

“I would give a thousand pound I could run as fast as thou canst” (Henry IV).  

This year’s marathon held on May 9, 2011, was won by Andrew Siggers, a rugby athlete, with a time of 2:37:41. Sandra Williams was the first woman to finish in 3:06:42.

10-10-10 AKA Marathon Madness

Barking Mad

What is the significance of 10.10.10?  While I’ve heard that it represents divine intuition and ambition that makes you feel motivated, it must also represent some kind of full-moon madness.  I don’t know if tonight is a full moon, but I don’t feel like howling at it, unless it’s with mad, hysterical laughter for what I’ve just done.  Or I guess I should say half-moon “marathon” madness, because surely I didn’t just sign up for a half marathon of my own free will!?  When I can barely even run two miles! 

So I’ve just got to blame this madness on 10.10.10.  This is another one of those “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast” moments. 

Why, Why, Why, do I always think I can do everything? 

I'm just saying.... I must be barking mad. 

She's a Member of the Zipper Club

Today is my baby’s 28^th birthday – hard to believe that 28 years ago today, I was in immense labor pain and lamenting the fact that I ever wanted children awaiting the birth of my bouncing baby girl.  Happy Birthday, Amber!

But her early life wasn’t so easy.  She was born with two holes in her heart (ventricular septal defect), which grew larger as she did, and required surgery when she was a year old.  Even though she was a cardiac kid, she wanted to run from the beginning.  In her hospital crib, still hooked up to tubes and wires, she ran and fell, ran and fell, from one side of the crib to the other, laughing her head off because she was wobbly and kept falling down.  She learned how to run, before she learned how to walk again, and she did it with such joyous abandon.  She never looked back.  T-ball, little league, gymnastics, soccer, 5K’s, 10K’s, mud runs, marathons and bull riding (the mechanical kind), she’s up for it all!  As you can tell, I love and admire her a lot!  She doesn’t give up.      

Cooling Off at the Mud Run

She joined the Zipper Club, a non-profit, support network for heart patients and their families.  Her only lamentation is that she doesn’t have a vertical zipper scar, but a horizontal zipper scar.  I told her that whichever way she looks at it, she has a zipper.  Hers is sideways, so what!  At the time, it was a new procedure that the cardiac surgeon (Dr. Lamberti) called the Bikini Cut, designed so that she could wear a bikini and most of the scar doesn’t show.  So the first thing she shared at Show-and-Tell in Kindergarten was her scar.  Yep, she lifted her dress right up in front of the class and shared!  She wants her battle wounds to show, LOL. 

The Mud Monster

Un-duct-taping the shoes after the Mud Run

Amber recently finished her first marathon – the Rock n Roll Marathon in San Diego, and did pretty well considering she made some first-timer mistakes; doughnuts for breakfast, no extra socks, no emergency tissues, and her biggest mistake, pouring water into her shoes because of the heat, and causing massive blisters. She still has scarring four months later. 

So next year, she wants me to run the half-marathon while she runs the full marathon.  She figures we’ll finish about the same time.  Plus, I train at 9200 ft. elevation (so very little oxygen up here!), so running at sea level in San Diego should be an advantage for me.  I envision us running, about to set a record for the Guiness Book of World Records for the fastest half marathon / marathon for a mother and daughter team.  A man runs up to me and tells me that we’re really close to setting a record, and says, “Maam, I’ve been sent here to pace you so you can beat the current world record.  Just follow me and keep up.”  And I sprint off behind him (not the real me, the skinny, healthy, fast me), more than up for the challenge.  You know, sort of like in the movies, when someone’s needed to save the world, and you’re the only one who can do it.  Of course Amber is right on track and doesn’t need a pacer, and we meet near the finish line and cross together, arms linked, with the crowd cheering us on.  Hey!  No laughing!  I can fantasize whatever I want.  This is my blog!!!  Have you never read Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll?!!!  The White Queen says to Alice, “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”  Well, me too!!! (Thanks for the quote, KelliJ.)

Now back to reality.  If I can ever get past my two-mile hump, I might just do that half marathon next year. 

Happy Birthday, Amber!