I Am A Runner

I can't count the number of times I've said, "I'm not a runner".  It always seems to go along with the phrase, "I'm a swimmer".  It's as though we swimmers have collectively decided that we don't have to be runners.  I can, however, tell you the first time I called myself a runner: it was about 3 minutes ago when I wrote the title of this blog post.

Training for the marathon for me, was a lot like Peace Corps in that it seemed to follow the same progression.  When I was just starting, it was exciting and relatively easy.  I felt motivated to leave my room each day and go on a run, and I felt good when I finished.  That happy feeling lasted for quite awhile.

Day 1

In Peace Corps, we talk about the "mid-service crisis".  The mid-service crisis is that point in the middle of service when the excitement of being there has long passed, but the light at the end of the tunnel has yet to appear.  Mine happened when I got back from visiting the States.  Marathon training was actually one of many things that helped me lift myself up every morning and eventually pulled me out of that slump.

I also had a mid-training crisis.  Around weeks 9 and 10 of training, suddenly motivating myself to pull on my shoes was a challenge.  The runs were getting longer, but the end was still out of sight.  As I struggled through my training schedule, I needed some way to get out of the rut I was in.  The answer came inside the book "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall.  I was reading this book at the time, and came across a section that talks about the look of bliss, of complete serenity, on the faces of many ultra-runners.

Jenn Shelton: one of McDougall's examples of someone who is happy to run

So, I decided to start enjoying my runs.  Every time I started to hate running, I forced a smile on my face, took a deep breath, and looked at the mountains around me.  I forced myself to appreciate that I got to be outside, that I had this time to relax, and to remember that running a marathon was a choice I had made.  Even I was skeptical that this plan would work, but suddenly, I started to like running.  I stopped hitting Snooze in the morning, started looking forward to my runs, and felt a lot happier while I was running.

About to finish!

I wish I could write more about the actual marathon, but to be honest, I don't remember most of it.

Here are a few things I do remember:
1) Group photo at the start line

Ready to go!

2) Peeing in a park at Km 6 because all the toilets had lines
3) Seeing Mike taking pictures at Km 11, jumping in the air and almost falling over
4) Finding 2 bald men running at the same pace as me and pretending like I was part of their group between Km 18 and 27
5) Seeing Todd at Km 28
6) Someone handing me a peeled banana at Km 31 and gripping it in my hand for almost 10 minutes before realizing I really didn't want it and throwing it away
7) A really nice man at Km 36 giving me some Gatorade and telling me that I was almost there
8) The last 0.2 Km (because just 42 Km isn't quite enough), and finding it really hard to push myself to the finish line until I saw the giant group of friends waiting at the end, who gave me the strength to finish hard.

Team Peace Corps

The Marathoners

Doing my first marathon in the Peace Corps was a great experience.  Training helped me through some rough times, and being here helped me though the hard parts of training.  People in my town got very excited when they found out that I was training for a marathon, and began to stop me on the street to ask, "Did you run today?" or, "How many kilometers?"

I am already thinking about my next marathon, and I can confidently say, "I am a runner".