Kim and Lauren - Post #3

Kim and Lauren are a mother/daughter team, training to run the Disneyland Half Marathon in September of 2012. Kim, the the 50-something mom is vegan, and is training at the literally breathtaking altitude of 7,000 feet in Taos, NM. She has never been any kind of athlete before. Lauren, the 20-something daughter, is mostly vegetarian, and is doing her training in Seattle, WA. Running isn't new to her, but distance running is. This weekly blog, written by both of them, documents the journey, and hopefully, will inspire a few others to follow a dream, do something that's harder than they ever imagined they'd do on purpose, and enjoy the entire journey. Find all the entries by entering "Kim and Lauren" in the "search this blog" box to the left.

Kim:
When I was a teenager, my grandmother, Florence - Gramma to me - was this tiny, soft spoken woman with an iron will and a relentlessly cheerful outlook on life. She drove me nuts finding silver linings to everything. I was a surly, cynical, pessimistic teen, and I just thought when something sucks, it sucks, and there's nothing you can do about it. But Gramma was a smart cookie, and although it didn't click at the time, she was a lot happier than I was too. Over the years I've found myself seeing the world more and more the way she did, because now I know that what you see really is what you get, so we might as well see those silver linings, instead of blocking them with polarized sunglasses.  It took me long enough, but I know she was the one who got me started in looking for the bright side. I wish I could tell her now how grateful I am.

This running thing has me perplexed. Well sort of. I'm less perplexed now than I was a week ago. Partly because my knees feel a lot better, and partly because I'm remembering to look at how my little knee problem is actually a very good thing. How can aching knees be good? Well, they're good because they slowed me down, right at the start, and refused to let me go for months with bad form, setting myself up for serious injury. They told me to take it easy, do some research, and figure out what to do before I started doing it, which is not normally how I operate. I listened, and I've been doing my homework, and now, along with being grateful to Gramma, I'm grateful to my knees. Thank you, dear knees, for showing me a better way.

Today my knees feel almost perfect. Better than they have in two weeks, and possibly even better than before I started all this half marathon madness (I mean that in a good way), and the Egoscue knee exercises (see my last post). I'm also learning a lot about walking and running form, which I never would have bothered with if my knees hadn't so eloquently pointed out that I was doing it all wrong. I'm revising my training plan, and I'm more excited than ever to do this thing. I dreamed last night that I was running, and it felt like flying... Even my subconscious is looking for the bright side. To me, running used to feel like torture. Flying is a whole lot better, and much more attainable if I look at it that way. Grandmothers and knees are so worth paying attention to.

Lauren:
Last Wednesday I planned to follow my training schedule, walk 1.5 miles, run for 10 minutes, walk for 5, run for 10, walk for 1.5 miles…. But something happened and I became intensely motivated to just run!

It wasn’t an incredibly nice day in Seattle, but it wasn’t raining. I was running with someone, a nice change of pace, and I wasn’t trying to convince him to ditch out on our run and go to happy hour instead (my usual behavior). Rather, I complied with his suggestion to run all the way around the lake… without stopping.

My brain was a mess. What if I can’t make it? What if I look stupid? What if I have an asthma attack and pass out? How embarrassing. Then all of the sudden I realized I was half way around, I was actually giving it my best shot, and maybe going to make it.

Towards the end I was picking up the pace, perfecting my form and really giving it my all, I was barely even tired. I made it! Three miles, all the way around, without stopping, my longest run yet. I was in awe, so proud of myself… then I wondered, did I do this because of the person pushing me, or did I do it because I was pushing me?

A week later I am still not entirely sure who was responsible for pushing me. I think it was probably a little of us both. At first I was averse to the thought of having someone or something motivate me through this. I am not doing this because I have a broken heart, or I need a new hobby, or I wanted to get fit. I am simply doing this because I needed to set a goal and stick with it. Whatever motivates me on the way, the guy I like, a friend, my mom, a bad day or whatever is fine with me now. I am comfortable saying I am not doing this for any other reason or person; I am doing this for me.