Resurrection

Hi there runner friends, blog readers, and creative thinkers!  For those of you who read my first series in this blog, thanks a TON for all the comments, emails, support, and camaraderie.  I love having connections all around the world from this. 

As you may have gathered, I don't really talk (or write) unless I have something to say.  Well, now I do!  My last chapter was training to settle a score with a race that years ago left me with a terrible injury and a feeling that I had wasted months of training.  Racing and enjoying that 50k in April of 2014 felt amazing! After that I took some time for myself, focused on coaching cross country, and had a myriad of struggles in my personal life by the end of the year.  With a new year comes new vision and time for my next chapter, which I will be announcing the details of here!  But not quite yet, as I'm putting the finishing touches on it. 

I just wanted to take a few minutes to celebrate my resurrection of my blog, and thank all of you for all your support in my first series of writing here.  Very soon you'll be hearing about the next, and hopefully you're as excited as I am! 

 

If every day is an awakening, you will never grow old.

You will just keep growing.

From the ER to the Podium - a Roller Coaster Week

When I woke up last Monday morning I had absolutely no clue the twists and turns my week would take. I remember thinking as I got up that morning that I was happy it was my last week having to work two jobs every day, and my last week with a 5am alarm going off.  The State cross country meet was that coming Saturday, and after that life would go back to normal.  Eye on the prize - make it through the weekend, and then I could relax. 

Monday was business as usual - a full day at the bank starting at 6:30am, and then a smooth practice after that where I took a couple of my athletes on a run to Olin Park to see the fall colors, and catch a great view of the Capital. 

Tuesday morning I woke up around 1am with horrible pain in the left side of my mouth - I had a root canal and crown set up for that Wednesday, but Tuesday morning I thought there was no way I could make it through another 24 hours unless the dentist got me some pain meds to get through it.  I popped 3 ibuprofen and tried to go back to sleep.  I re-awoke at 3am with the same amount of pain, so I had another couple ibuprofens with no success.  As soon as the clock hit 7 I called my dentist to tell them what was up, and thankfully they got me in immediately.  I don't get too freaked out about dental work, and I was so thankful to get the procedure done so I wouldn't be in any more pain. The root canal was smooth as could be - almost enjoyable actually since all I had to do as watch tv, inhale my nitrous, and feel the warmth of the heated neck wrap. :) My dentist assured me that I would feel a LOT better that night, so I left relieved. 

A few hours later as the Novocain wore off, I instantly became pretty sore, and started to swell up a little bit.  I figured that was normal, so I still went to practice and ran an easy 4 miles with my girls. It was my last week of the season with them and I wasn't going to let a little discomfort and swelling keep me from running my last miles with them. On my way home from practice my dentist called to check up on me, and promptly told me he thought I had an infection, so he prescribed antibiotics right away, and I figured I was good to go.  Finally around 11:30 that night I fell asleep, and woke up with a lot of discomfort at 3am.  I sleepily went to the mirror to check my swelling, and much to my horror, it was worse.  A LOT worse.  At 7am I was back at the dentist, and at 7:20 am I was in the ER.  In the end, I got super strong antibiotics through an IV, and had to track the swelling with pen marks to make sure it didn't spread any more. No more running for me until the swelling was all gone, and no overnight trip to State for me Friday night because I shouldn't be that far away from the hospital just in case.  I was bummed - I couldn't believe my infection was that bad, and that potentially serious. 

I focused on relaxing and listening to my body because going up to the State meet on Saturday was my highest priority.  Thankfully Saturday morning I woke up feeling pretty good- only minimally swollen, and maybe 15% sore.  Seeing my girls at the tent at Wisconsin Rapids made me instantly happy and I felt right at home.  They all asked how I was and wanted to hear my ER horror story.  Soon after we did our course routing and I tried to speak with each of the girls to give them some guidance on navigating packs, running tangents, and powerful hill technique to help them get a strong finish.  They soaked up the direction like sponges and then they did their own mental preparation. 

The gun went off at 12:05, and I could hardly watch I was so nervous.  For a couple weeks of the season we were ranked first, but most often hovered between 4th and 6th place.  I didn't have any real expectations for the outcome, but knew I wanted the girls to all be happy with their performances, since it was their last race of the year.  I briefly stood by the one mile maker to see where my 1st and 2nd girls were in the pack, and then went straight to the finish.  Thankfully I had one of my alumni athletes (Erin) with me to share in my nervousness.  As the lead cart came up to the finish all the spectators were straining to see who was leading - A talented girl from Shorewood had a strong lead, my top girl came in 2nd .  Soon thereafter the rest of my top five came in, all with great times, and all in the top 35 places.  There are so many teams competing against each other I could only estimate that we did pretty well, but had no idea what our final team standing would be. 

For what seemed like an eternity I stood with Erin and waited for the team results to be posted on the big screen.  Finally the countdown began - they started with the 16th team and slowly ticked down.  With each place that I didn't see my school name I got more and more anxious - my sore jaw and tired body were the furthest things from my mind at this point.  Fourth - Shorewood, Third - Two Rivers....  oh my goodness, we're in the top two.  THE TOP TWO! Second - Notre Dame.  Erin and I instantly started screaming and running - I didn't even see our school name hit the screen - We were first!  For the first time in school history, we were the best. And we had the scoreboard to prove it.  Tears burned my eyes and I ran to find anyone else from the team - I bear hugged the other assistant coach and we celebrated so loudly everyone turned to stare.  It was a moment of satisfaction and elation I never thought I would have this season, and nothing else has ever felt like it. 

The rest of the day was filled with hugs, tears, countless photos being taken, Culvers, and each person re-telling the events of the day from their perspective.  We all could breathe a sigh of relief and finally see that all the hard work of the year paid off.  It was nothing short of amazing - the awards ceremony, the hugs from parents and grandparents, getting pictures taken with each of the athletes and the monstrous trophy, smiling alone in the car the whole way home, and visiting my head coach this morning who was still smiling from ear to ear, and was still wearing his State shirt the girls gave him.  I told my head coach - 'there's something great about waking up in the morning and knowing your team is the state champion.  Things are just a little more beautiful.'  We shared a hearty laugh and hug, congratulating each other on the success. 

 

Monday morning I would never have guessed that I'd be in some of the worst pain I've ever experienced, be stuck in the emergency room with two doctors looking at me and saying 'whoa - I've never seen anything quite like this before', to being on top of the podium at State.  It was unforgettable, and I'm thankful for the memories my girls now have of this season, and that amazing day.  It has been the pinnacle of my coaching career so far, and I couldn't have shared it with a more special group of girls, parents, and coaches. 

 

A Time to Give Back, and a Time to be Selfish

Like anything in life, balance is a strong component of success.  I take balance pretty seriously in my work, personal, and fitness life.  But in all honesty, distance running can be a pretty selfish endeavor.  You naturally become very self-focused as you dissect your diet, training plans, goals, aches and pains…   If you’re going to make it through a training cycle in a healthy way, you have to pay a lot of attention to yourself.  The ugly part of that is that it naturally takes your focus away (at least a little bit anyway) from your other commitments – your relationships, your work, your other hobbies – there are only so many hours in the day, and if you’re spending a few hours focused on your running each day, you have to cut attention away from something else. 

I am very aware that next year with the tentative goals I have that some other things will drop down my priority list, but I am ready for that. I have a tendency to train hard with high mileage about every other year, and in those ‘off’ years it is important for me to give back to the sport of running.  Training hard every year would get old for me, plus, I would probably die of boredom if I had to focus on myself for so long! 

The most significant way that I give back to the sport is by coaching at the high school level.  I have been blessed to have some amazingly talented girls come through the program, but what really excites me about coaching is the work I do with the girls that are brand new to running.  Maybe they were cut from volleyball and still wanted to do a sport, or maybe they’re just trying it out because their older sister ran previously.  Either way, I love coaching those girls.  It is most important to me (more so than winning and getting the girls to hit their goal times) to lay the foundation for these girls to have a healthy relationship with running, and with their bodies.  Running is special in that it is something you can do for your entire life, and I really believe that those first formative years in the sport are detrimental.  We’ve all seen women who have an unhealthy relationship with running  - they use it as a punishment on their body, or as a tool for regulation of their caloric intake.  Anything I can do to bring out the fun in running, and promote a healthy partnership of working with your body and not against it to succeed is a victory in my book, even if it doesn’t culminate in a team win at a meet. 

Speaking of team wins...  here is a pic of my girls winning their Sectional
meet for the first time EVER this past Saturday.

 

 

                Another way I love to give back is by answering people’s running questions, helping with training plans, and giving them tips on injuries, gear, routes, and mental strength.  Running is accessible to everyone, so if I can be an approachable resource to help get people out the door and on the way to discovering their own strength, that’s awesome.  I get really excited to hear about my friends and co-workers running their own races – it reminds me of the excitement of tackling a new distance and meeting a goal you weren’t sure you could attain.

 

A group of my lovely running friends.

                So now as my cross country season winds down (this is the last week with the State meet this Saturday) I am mentally prepping myself to get back to running solo, paying attention to my body’s feedback instead of dialing into the aches and pains my athletes have, and am really looking forward to focusing on my nutrition the next six weeks or so.  I recently read Scott Jurek’s book Eat and Run and want to explore some different, plant based foods to add into my already pretty healthy eating habits.  If you know me at all, I am not a cook.  I would live off of toast, soup and cookies all year if it was acceptable – so I want to take some of my rest cycle time to try some new things.  I have some tempeh in the fridge that I want to use to make a recipe that was in Runner’s World a couple months ago.  I'm shooting for cooking / trying something new every week.

                So as I get ready from the transition of being a coach for my girls, to being more focused on my own miles, I am happy to have spent most of this year investing in other people’s running goals.  It gives me lots to think about when I’m training on my own, and also provides a lot of inspiration as I think about my athletes and friends, and the struggles they have shared with me. It’s like they are giving back to me when they probably aren’t even aware that they are.  To me it feels like the perfect balance of giving and self-focus.  So thank you to my athletes and my running friends who inspire me through the darkest parts of the trail.

 

Me with an athlete I used to coach who I consider to be a sister. :)