M
msiwik
I know this sounds so far away but given that I won't be doing any more races in 2005 and because there will be several of us doing this race (LLJ, MarkU, maybe BillC, me), I wanted to start a thread now that will carry us through the race. The link to the website is http://www.500festival.com/marathon/ (If by chance you read this thread down the road, please remember to sign up early as this race always sells out way in advance of race day, which will be May 6, 2006. In fact, it looks registration will close by Jan. 31, 2006 and the price goes up in mid-December 2005.)
You will be able to tell from my posts how much I miss being able to pursue my normal training regimen. In fact, I am going through a bit of withdrawal now because but for my surgery, I would have been in my marathon taper. This year, I was supposed to be running the Marine Corp Marathon on October 30.
As of today, I am running approximately 3 to 4 miles a day. Because of my post-surgery illness (weeks 13 to 19), I had to start all over again at the initial pace of 12:00 minutes a mile. But unlike the first round of rehab (weeks 6 to 12), I could hold the pace for 9 minutes instead of 3 minutes. Today, a week and half later, I ran 45 to 50 minutes without stopping and did two miles at 11:30 and two miles at 11:00. So there is hope that I can get back to my sub-8:00 pace for the half-marathon but I have no idea whether it will happen by next May. Frankly, I don't really care whether it happens by then as I now am much more accepting of the temporary limitations imposed by OHS.
As soon as I finish this post, I will be off to coach cross-country. I work with a group of kids who range in age from kindergarten to the eighth grade. I have always enjoyed working with the slowest kids and this year particularly, because at the moment, they are all faster than me!!! When the season is over, I will post a picture or two of the team. To keep the slowest kids motivated, I come up with nicknames - this year, there is "Special K" who is Kristin, a fifth grader with the heart of gold; "Donut Dude" aka Jack, a third grader who loves donuts and football (built like a fullback!) in that order, and Amanda "Manda Manda" a fifth grader.
Amanda is the most interesting child of the bunch as she has played on the girls softball team I have coached the last two years. During softball, I saw that she had the body type of a long distance runner (petite) and that she was quick and I knew that she had not yet found her spot in athletics. Amanda is very social and most of the time had no idea what the score was during the softball game. In fact, this was the first year, she actually wanted to know who won!
For kids Amanda's age, they have to run 1.5 miles. For the first several weeks, it was struggle to get Amanda to run .25 miles without stopping. The first week, she was 123 (out of 128), then she moved to 102, and last week, 72! It is very rewarding to watch a child go through the progression of becoming athletic. For a while, Amanda didn't believe she could even finish a race. Now she knows can and is becoming more determined to compete. You should have seen the smile on her face when she heard that she moved up to 72 - a memory that I will have for some time!
Ok - enough for now! May 2006 can't get here fast enough!!
You will be able to tell from my posts how much I miss being able to pursue my normal training regimen. In fact, I am going through a bit of withdrawal now because but for my surgery, I would have been in my marathon taper. This year, I was supposed to be running the Marine Corp Marathon on October 30.
As of today, I am running approximately 3 to 4 miles a day. Because of my post-surgery illness (weeks 13 to 19), I had to start all over again at the initial pace of 12:00 minutes a mile. But unlike the first round of rehab (weeks 6 to 12), I could hold the pace for 9 minutes instead of 3 minutes. Today, a week and half later, I ran 45 to 50 minutes without stopping and did two miles at 11:30 and two miles at 11:00. So there is hope that I can get back to my sub-8:00 pace for the half-marathon but I have no idea whether it will happen by next May. Frankly, I don't really care whether it happens by then as I now am much more accepting of the temporary limitations imposed by OHS.
As soon as I finish this post, I will be off to coach cross-country. I work with a group of kids who range in age from kindergarten to the eighth grade. I have always enjoyed working with the slowest kids and this year particularly, because at the moment, they are all faster than me!!! When the season is over, I will post a picture or two of the team. To keep the slowest kids motivated, I come up with nicknames - this year, there is "Special K" who is Kristin, a fifth grader with the heart of gold; "Donut Dude" aka Jack, a third grader who loves donuts and football (built like a fullback!) in that order, and Amanda "Manda Manda" a fifth grader.
Amanda is the most interesting child of the bunch as she has played on the girls softball team I have coached the last two years. During softball, I saw that she had the body type of a long distance runner (petite) and that she was quick and I knew that she had not yet found her spot in athletics. Amanda is very social and most of the time had no idea what the score was during the softball game. In fact, this was the first year, she actually wanted to know who won!
For kids Amanda's age, they have to run 1.5 miles. For the first several weeks, it was struggle to get Amanda to run .25 miles without stopping. The first week, she was 123 (out of 128), then she moved to 102, and last week, 72! It is very rewarding to watch a child go through the progression of becoming athletic. For a while, Amanda didn't believe she could even finish a race. Now she knows can and is becoming more determined to compete. You should have seen the smile on her face when she heard that she moved up to 72 - a memory that I will have for some time!
Ok - enough for now! May 2006 can't get here fast enough!!
