Font dilemma this week - don't mind the 'new' font. . . .the 'old' font is not cooperating . . . .

This blog sheds some EndorphinGirl™ insight into running an 18 miler.  Yes, that is what this blog is about.  As bloggees may remember, EndorphinGirl™ and the EndorphinKids™ have been in training.  And, yes another blog post was not posted last week because of training? 

While EndorphinGirl™ would like to say that last week’s blog post absence is because she was in training, in actuality, she was not, in training.  She should have been in training, but she was not.  She was off on some global world travels and was not focused on running for about 7 days prior to this very important 18-mile run.  The EndorphinKids™ however have been in training.  EndorphinSon™ was training through his regularly scheduled Cross-Country track running, among other fun runs, in prep for last Sunday’s 18 miler.  And EndorphinDaughter™ has been mostly 'run' tapering over the past 2 weeks in order to be ready for this Sunday’s Detroit Marathon.  Suffice it to say that the EndorphinKids™ prepare & train!  They inspire their momma!

EndoprhinGirl™ and one of the EndorphinKids™ (e.g., son) did complete the LBI 18 miler.  Out of the 619 participants, EndorphinSon™ placed 26th overall and first in his age group.  WTH.  That is pretty awesome!  EndorphinGirl™, on the other hand, is happy to have completed the ‘run.’  As alluded to in the above paragraph, truth is being told that she did not do the proper training that she had planned to do.  While she has kept her cross-training workouts going pretty routinely, she has not done a proper ‘run’ training these past months.  It has rather been sporadic bursts of a few 10Ks here and 5Ks there and some ad hoc running otherwise.  That combined with a brief international trip a week before the run pretty much convinced her that she would be a spectator and not a runner.  Or that at a maximum she would do just a bit of the 18 miler.

However, as the day approached, and her jet lag made her feel wired, she started to think about the ‘reserves’.  You know the ‘reserves’ that you find deep within and you need to borrow sometimes.  She also started to think about some recent books she read about ultra-athletes (the Scott Jurek and Rich Rolls of the world) and how they find the strength and energy to keep going even when all resources seem depleted.  One book she is currently reading, titled Finding Ultra by Rich Roll, is one of those inspiring books.  It is truly a captivating, inspiring, and motivating book.  Okay so how did she do it?  How did she run 18 miles (perhaps some ask 'why did she run 18 miles?).  This is how it went down.  These are her personal insights to completing the 18 miler?

Insight #1.  Never not try.  Perhaps that is not a grammatically correct statement, but so be it.  If you sign up for something, at a minimum, you must give it a try.

Insight #2.  Set milestones.  EndorphinGirl™’s plan was to set milestones throughout the course of the run.  She has done half marathons in the past and she believed at maximum she would at least accomplish that distance.  However, given her jet lag and ill-prepared training, she decided to set shorter milestones.  Her first milestone marker was at the 4-mile mark.  Once there, she told herself she had already completed ¼ of the 18-mile run.  Encouraging!  Her second milestone was at the 6-mile mark.  At this marker she told herself she had completed 1/3 of the 18-mile run.  Very encouraging!  Her third milestone was at the 9-mile mark.  While it was only one mile more than the 8-mile checkpoint, it was highly encouraging because by this point she had completed ½ of the 18-mile run.  Super, super encouraging! Her fourth milestone was at the 13.1 mark.  At this milestone she told herself she had completed a half-marathon - - hoot hoot - - and had less than 5 miles to run to complete the 18-miler.  Extremely encouraging!  It's all about the milestone. 

Insight #3.  Practice psychology.  While milestones are one ‘psychology’ practice think about what other techniques that may help.  For instance during the last ‘less than five more miles’ of the run, EndorphinGirl™ reminded herself that she knew that she could easily run 5 miles, and so she ‘pretended’ that she was just starting off the run which helped her forget about (yes forgetaboutit) the ‘achy’ness that was sort of, kind of, going on.    

Insight #4.  Breath.  All those Monday night yoga sessions during the past 6 years were not for naught.  Breath, breath, breath – through the nose, out the month.  Deep breaths.  It restored oxygen to the brain.  It helped!  It was ‘relaxing’.  Okay maybe relaxing is a stretch, but you get the idea!

Insight #5.  The tortoise is just as good as the hare.  Yes, that is true.  Speed does not always matter.  There were clearly some sketchy moments when EndorphinGirl™ was running NOT at a hare’s pace, but so what.  The goal was to complete.  And complete she did. 

Insight # 6.  Enjoy the moment.  EndorphinGirl™ enjoyed the run from one end of the Island to the other.  It was a perfect weather day in one of her all-time favorite places on a flat, straight course.  The combination of all the positive elements made the run easier.

Insight #7.  Appreciate the vibes along the way.  Running with her son (not at the same pace of course, as he was miles ahead of her), having her mom see them off at the start line and there at the finish line, seeing a friend and her son unexpectedly cheering her on at the 9 mile mark (and getting a hug from friend too), meeting the LBI volunteers along the way who had water stations set up for the runners, and in particular the stations with the orange slices were all so dang appreciated.  EndorphinGirl™ is convinced the combination of these good ‘vibes’ helped push her along.

Insight #8.  Remember the reserves.  We are all capable of doing so much more than we sometimes, even often, think.  She called in the reserves.  That inner whatever it is for you that keeps pushing you.  She also thought about two friends who recently completed similar distances, and this she found incredibly inspiring.  [But she recognizes too that perhaps her other good friends were secretly pushing her along the way – who remembers Vita Min, Sera Tonin and the gang? ]

Insight #9.  Remind self why running.  During the race EndorphinGirl™ reminded herself that she loves to run.  She also reminded herself that aside from the challenge of why she did this particular run, she learned that the run was to specifically honor the 11 Israeli soldiers who were killed by terrorists during the 1972 Olympics and more recently as well in honor of the 9/11 victims - and in particular some LBI residents who died.  This run was started 43 years ago, in 1972, and thinking about that was actually quite inspiring and pushed her as well.

Insight #10.  Have fun.  And she did.

Insight #11.  Keep it in your head.  This is particularly key to a successful run for EndorphinGirl™.  She knows when she starts off on a run, if she keeps it in her head, and stays focused, using all of the above mentioned ‘tools’ she will kill it.  And kill it she did!  

Now while these are her insights and helped her complete the run, it should be clearly stated that she should have done some proper training because her recovery is taking a bit longer than she really wants to admit & blog about.    At the same time EndorphinSon™ is helping her with proper recovery foods to push this along.  The run was well worth the pain!  What is that expression, no pain, no gain!  Hah!  

Next up is EndorphinDaughter™ who will run the Detroit Marathon on Sunday.  She will rock it.

This month of October will add a lot of mileage to the runtheedge challenge for the EndorphinFamily™.  The challenge has less than 3 months before it is over.  They have about 500 more miles to run to reach the 2015 goal!  Stay tuned.  

Over the next several months, EndorphinGirl™ has decided that she is moving to a once-a-month blog post.  However, the weekly picture post will still be updated by one of the EndorphinKids™.  The EndorphinFamily™ has a very busy, exciting year this year with two seniors in the 'house', as she ‘reported’ some blogs ago.  Between all the activity and some inconsistent recent blogging, EndorphinGirl™ thinks a once-a-month-blogging schedule makes more sense for now.

She hopes you will still stay tuned on the second Tuesday of every month, which will be her new blog schedule.  But as you can already see from today’s blog post, it is the second Wednesday of the month.  This week/month’s blog lateness is attributed to running 18 miles, which is no small feat, (no pun intended).  She is blaming it on the full body ‘recovery’ state she is currently experiencing! 

Meanwhile, check out EndorphinGirl™’s latest image with EndorphinSon™ at the finish line near LBI’s Barnegat Lighthouse.  And, until next time, guest comments always welcome in guest book and keep on endorphin’.

EndorphinGirl™