Live Up To Your Own Expectations

I promise I'm [probably] done with my Born to Run obsession, but the book really is just that good. And I need as much inspiration as possible to prepare for Sunday. So... some quick pearls of wisdom from el Caballo Blanco to start your day off right...

"And if I really wanted to understand the Raramuri, I should have been there when this ninety-five-year-old man came hiking twenty-five miles over the mountain. Know why he could do it? Because no one ever told him he couldn't. No one ever told him he oughta be off dying somewhere in an old age home. You live up to our own expectations, man."

The Romance of Running

Continuing with my inspirational excerpts from Born to Run, I found myself both convicted and inspired by ultramarathoner Ann Trason's analysis of the romance of running:

"Grueling, grimy, muddy, bloody, lonely trail-running equals moonlight and champagne. But yeah, Ann insisted, running was romantic; and no of course her friends didn't get it because they'd never broken through. For them, running was a miserable tow miles motivated solely by size 6 jeans: get on the scale, get depressed, get your headphones on, and get it over with."

Ouch. Clearly, Liv + I have quite frequently fallen into the category of Ann's friends. But every so often, the romance finds its way into running, and the two work in harmony to create the ultimate "runner's high."

"You have to be in tune with your body, and know when you can push it and when to back off... You have to listen closely to the sound of your own breathing; be aware of how much sweat is beading on your back; make sure to treat yourself to cool water and a salty snack and ask yourself, honestly and often, exactly how you feel. What could be more sensual than paying exquisite attention to your own body? Sensual counted as romantic, right?"

Through the bang-ups and hang-ups of injury and training pitfalls, I've certainly realized our mistake of committing to a marathon before we learned to truly love running. We no doubt would be in a better situation now if we were more seasoned runners with years of experience under our belts. But for Liv + I, we needed a goal to work toward to make us stick with running - otherwise, we both would've quickly gotten sidetracked by whatever fitness craze seemed exciting and new. So while our approach has been a little unconventional and slightly extremely alarming to our bodies, it has mostly worked for us. 

But I find myself jealous of Ann's love affair with running and her full understanding of her body's needs and limitations (if she actually has limitations, that is). The good news is that the marathon is only the beginning of a lifetime of running for us - and our love affair with running will continue to grow. 

Injury Makes Us Normal

I spent much of the weekend completely immersed in Born to Run, finally taking the time to read for myself how and why the barefoot running hype began. My brother, Mikey Doodle, sent me his copy in the mail, thinking I could maybe read a few excerpts here and there to get some last minute inspiration before the marathon. But when you take my lack of social life and add to that my trembling fear of next week's race, I pretty much knocked it out in a day (it's a delightfully easy read).

This is a book that no doubt sticks with you. It causes an internal struggle between wanting to drop everything to run 100 miles -and- the complete inability to put the book down and return to the real world. There are a few passages from Born to Run that I can't seem to shake, so I'll share a few this week for those that haven't read it or perhaps  are simply looking for some inspiration.

Pain. Pain has obviously been a big part of our training. We've dealt with a host of issues and we've incessantly blabbed about all of them on this blog. My IT Band-related knee pain is currently so debilitating that the finish line is an extremely blurry and idealistic concept to me. But Christopher McDougall's analysis of pain helped me put my own in perspective, and reminded me that I'm not alone... and it's time to suck it up:

"Take any other sport, and an injury rate like mine would classify me as defective. In running, it makes us normal. The real mutants are the runners who don't get injured. Up to eight out of every ten runners are hurt every year. It doesn't matter if you're heavy or thin, speedy or slow, a marathon champ or a weekend huffer, you're just as likely as the other guy to savage your knees, shins, hamstrings, hips or heels. Next time you line up for a Turkey Trot, look at the runners on your right and left: statistically, only one of you will be back for the Jingle Bell Jog."

Heartbreaking but true. Pain makes us normal - it's how we overcome the pain that sets us apart.