Lilac 10K

I love May. I've always loved May. My birthday is May 14th and Jimmy's was the 28th. It was a great month to be a kid - lots of cake and presents! When I got older, I realized that the big old lilac in my grandma's yard bloomed in May. It was so fragrant and pretty. The lilacs in Highland Park remind me of when I was young...before I knew about death. So in my journey to run the Disney Marathon in memory of Jimmy, I chose to run the Lilac 10K. Baby steps I figure will get me to 26.2 miles in January of 2011. Today was wonderful. 6.2 miles of cool and sunny; lilacs in full bloom. I teared up a bit along the route thinking about Jimmy and broke into a full blown cry after I finished. I can't imagine what I'll be like at my next step in September when I drag Jimmy's memory along with me for 13.1 miles at the Rochester Half-Marathon. I hope I cross the finish line just like today - hoping he was proud of me...his overweight 44 year-old sister dragging her butt out to do the impossible to honor his memory.

This is the photo on my running shirt.

Pink Ribbon Run

Today I ran the Pink Ribbon 5K Run with my friend Cheryl. Cheryl is a breast cancer survivor. I didn't hesitate a single second when she asked me to run it with her. My neighbor Melissa joined us. We had a great, although chilly, run this morning along the lake shore. There is a section of the run where you are heading up a slight hill - we were blown away by the sea of pink climbing that hill. Survivors, supporters, and, unfortunately, women running for a cure for breast cancer in memory of someone they'd lost. It was an amazing show of strength and will. Next Sunday, I run the Lilac 10K in my brother's memory. But today was about beating the beast. Today, I was running with my friend - a survivor.

Smarty-pants, but not very smart

Okay - I give! I guess I'm not as smart as I envision I am. Over a few beers, I talked my neighbor Russell into being my running partner. He travels for work, so it's more like a weekend check-in/race partner than a daily running partner. His wife, Melissa, used to be my running partner and she thinks Russ and I are the perfect running partners - dedicated, competitive, gadget loving, planners. Plus all my gung-ho, crazy running ideas are now not directed at her. So you can see why she might think this is perfect. My gung-ho, crazy running ideas this time involved the Rochester Half-Marathon in September and then, if I didn't kill myself trying to be a runner, the Disney Marathon in January 2011. Four beers in and I had a reluctant Russell agreeing to both. I handed Russ my Penguin Marathon training book and off we went in separate directions on this great adventure of mine.

Russ did research and found a half-marathon training plan to follow, which involved short and long runs, interval training, and cross-training. He's been following it for quite a few weeks now and is doing great. I was following my own plan of run when I can, throw in an hour of Pilates every week, and just run a little bit farther each time I go out until I'm able to run 13.1 miles.

Yeah, that's turned out to not be such a great plan. Turns out that my "plan" leads to exhaustion and overuse injuries. This I found out on Saturday when Russ and I headed out to the Lehigh Valley Trail for the 7 mile "long run" on his professionally recommended training plan. I've run 7 miles on the treadmill, so I figured this was definitely doable. Hah! This is how it went down...

My sciatic nerve has been bothering me from (I'm self-diagnosing here) sitting in hospital waiting room chairs for five weeks. So we start by walking a half-mile to warm up. Each step sends a pain from my lower back, across my right hip, down my quadricep and into my knee. "Hmm..." I think "I guess I'd better not run *fast*." We start our jog. I, being a "smarty-pants, but not very smart," get right in step with Russ and head out at a minute faster than my normal pace. Good job there Jude. (Now for a little bit of disclosure - When Jimmy and I were training, I was running a 9:30 min/mile. I now run an 11:20 min/mile. I suspect this is because I've spent the last year and a half looking for my brother at the bottom of every bottle of beer, ice cream container, and pan of brownies I encountered. It slows you down carrying an extra 15 pounds of weight around.) About 2 miles in, I decide I really need to slow down. Then at 2.5 miles I decide I really need some water. At 3.0 miles, I'm hoping I can get to the turn around point in another half-mile without keeling over. I offer Russ some water as he turns around and heads back - hoping that he'll take me up on it and I can stop for a minute. I get an "I'm good!" with a little wave. Damn. I turn around and head back. About mile 5, I stop and walk for a tenth of a mile under the excuse of hydration. After all, it is 80 out in April, who would deny me that excuse??? Glug, glug, glug out of my spiffy new water belt (did I mention Russ and I love gadgets?). I start up again and learn that I shouldn't STOP running until I'm DONE running. I limp another .7 miles for a grand total of 5.8 miles and have to walk. I see Russ just jogging along farther into the distance. I walk a half-mile and decide I'll try again to jog the last mile. It's okay if it's slow, just run. Hah! again. As soon as I take a step, my calf muscles yell "CHARLIE HORSE!" Yeah, I'm done. I walk the final mile and a half back to the truck in all the glory of my fallen hubris.

I see Jimmy's smirk, the slight tilt of his head as he shakes it back and forth at me, as if to say "I can't believe you are my older sister and yet so stupid sometimes." So yesterday, I got my Dawn Dias Marathon for Women book down and am using the professionally created 20-week training plan to work myself up to the Rochester half-marathon in September. I started down my new path today with a 4-mile run at an 11:18 min/mile pace in the cold rain. When I finished I felt pretty good. My pants were soaked and cold from the rain, and hopefully a lot more smart than they've been the past few months.