Taking My Time

"If you ask me today what I truly love, I can easily tell you I love God, my family, my friends, fireworks displays, a good red wine, staying up late with a mystery novel, a sweaty run, painting abstract art, indulging my organizational compulsions, laughing until no sound comes out and taking my time." Kristin Armstrong in Glamor 2006

Every since I read this quote in April 2006, coincidentally the year of my first Boston, I have always loved it. While I don't paint abstract art, and prefer the classics, chick lit, and non-fiction to mysteries I think Kristin and I would click (as I sit her with a glass of red wine after a long sweaty run this morning). I love reading her blog on runner's world each week. Her ability to put life into big picture perspective is refreshing.

Taking my time is a lesson I have to take to heart if I am going to survive this marathon season. Because the muscles around my knee remain a bit sore and my right ankle is tight and intermittently painful, my run this morning was my first since last Saturday. The DFMC schedule called for 18-20. I had hoped to make the 18 or even 16 but as soon as I started running I knew that was not in the cards as I was nearly limping with my ankle. Thankfully by the first waterstop at mile 3, Marcy declared she was going to do a 14 mile run:walk with a 4:1 interval and asked if I wanted to join. While I've certainly run:walk before, I've never done so with any structure so this was a first. I think without implementing this strategy today, I would not have made it 14 miles so I'm grateful to Marcy for coming up with the idea and inviting me along for the run. While the run-walk method did certainly slow us down, about 11 min miles instead of our usual 10 min miles, we had a decent workout. The uphills were almost always on the run portions of the intervals with the walk part on the flats or downhills. When we did run, I think we did so a little faster for at least half the intervals than we would otherwise have run. And the biggest bonus of all, my legs are nowhere near as sore now as they are after typical long runs.

Running allows me to take my time, not just on days when I run a bit slower like today. It is easy to get caught up in the daily grind, and the time commitment of training for a marathon certainly adds to that grind. Yet, while on a long run I can take my time to appreciate the people and experiences that are most important in my life. I can take time to grieve the loss of my brother while pounding the pavement and breathing hard. I can learn from those who have faced similar losses by taking the time to listen to their experiences in losing a close loved one and how they have coped. The bad moments,those when the grief overwhelms you "come when they come" a teammate shared, they know no calendar. The days you think will be bad like birthdays, anniversaries, or other special events can sometimes pass without serious sorrow, and then on a random Saturday you can find yourself bursting into tears as you meet with a florist to pick out flowers for your wedding as I did yesterday.

Following the group run, I came home showered and went to visit my nieces. I was treated to Mackenzie's rendition of the Pledge of Allegiance which immediately segued into her signing Grand Old Flag, complete with hand signals, marching, and big smiles. Taking my time is a nice change of pace.