Pick Your Runs, But Keep it Fun
Last year I was signed up for the Chicago Marathon; a marathon known to be a flat course, and typically cooler weather (typically!). My training had gone well and five weeks earlier, I had my second fastest marathon ever in Tupelo, 3 hours 19 minutes. A week later I set another personal record (PR) in a 10k just four weeks before Chicago. But Chicago went badly awry for me. Looking back, I can see a few things that I did wrong that likely were the culprit of my worst marathon ever! I didn’t hydrate properly in the first six miles; I went out way too fast with the A corral even though I was seeded in the B corral. Regardless, I ended up spending time in a medical tent at mile 19 and then at mile 22 where the doctor suggested that I await a bus that carries the wounded to the finisher’s area. I wasn’t going to DNF (did not finish) so I made it in 4 hours and 22 minutes completely disgusted on a day when the weather was pretty good. However, if there was a silver lining at all, I did discover the girls in the 3:45 – 4:30 pace groups seem to have more curves than those in the 3:10 pace group that are shaped more like lumber.
I think my immediate and perhaps lingering reaction for several days afterwards is a common one of runners, “I’ll never run another marathon in my life!” However, after running the Tupelo Marathon just weeks before Chicago, I had qualified and signed up for the Boston Marathon. So seemingly to me, it was unfortunate that I was already signed up for another marathon months away (April 2012). I was convenced that I never wanted to run another one at the end of the Chicago Marathon.
No matter what pace a runner runs, they know when they have bombed a race finishing much slower than expected. When a runner bombs a marathon we typically swear them off. We don’t have a baseball bat or a golf club to hurl into the air, so at worst we may threaten to burn our running shoes. This is more of a symbolic gesture of how deeply dejected we feel.
On the other hand however, if we have a good marathon we are all about plotting out the year and which marathons we may run, because after all, we had fun doing well in the last one. Running is a bit of a festive atmosphere whether it’s a 5k or a marathon or even a group run. You get to see everyone and everyone has different running objectives. The races are a bit of a parade and definitely a participant sport. It can be competitive, yet fun.
If you want to get better, or simply not get burned out, then you have to keep it fun for yourself. This may mean trying different race distances, different training programs, running fewer races or taking a road trip to a race. Road trips are always a fun venue. If you run point races in the Mississippi Track Club, you get to travel to small towns all over the state that often have an annual festival the same day as the 5k. And then there are a lot of running groups. You’ll find these just about any place you go. Running groups know how to keep it fun!
The best place to get started if you’ve never participated in 5ks or group runs are the running shoe stores. In Jackson, there are two: Fleetfeet in Ridgeland and Stinky Feet in Flowood. Both of these locations are ideal if you are thinking about getting into running. They have people that know running and can get you started in the right shoes, which honestly is the most important thing to getting started. They can hook you up with running groups and point you in the running direction you think you may like to go!
So if you are trying to be competitive, how do you keep it fun? One of my favorite running quotes by my friend at the University of Phoenix in Scottsdale, Arizona, Coach Dean Hebert, a gifted runner and coach who specializes in sports psychology says it best, “Set goals, not expectations”
One common denominator of every great coach I have been around, from my daughter’s high school coach to an Olympian is “Keep it fun.” You can do this and be discipline as well. And yes, if you are starting out, it may take a little work, but it does get fun!
This week’s race in Bryam, the Swinging Bridge 5k is an out and back course. Every time I think about this 5k it makes me laugh. In 2005, it was a very muggy sunny day. There were 84 runners and the top five were pretty fast local people, Chuck Engle, Mike Thrailkill, Rob Oates, George Faulk, and Dale Griffin. There were a lot of runners there with agendas, some carrying over from the prior week’s watermelon classic 5k. Here’s how it typically use to go and maybe even occasional now as far as the start of the race. Jack Ward of the Mississippi Track club drags his step ladder to the starting line. Then he beats on the megaphone until it finally works, and gives very good instructions of the course, where to turn, and to be careful. Then the starting gun jams a couple of times and finally it will fire for him. However, in 2005, just before the start, Jack has his hands full while walking up to his ladder. At the same time he is trying to cock the trigger before making announcements and telling the timers to set the clocks. The gun accidently fires while Jack is holding it, shooting himself in the other hand, and runners take off blazing down the road. The starting clocks were not set and Jack has no luck yelling at runners, already a good 100 meters away, to come back. Later after the race was over I asked Jack, “You didn’t really give any instructions today?” He showed me the powder burns on his hand as he told me how he accidentally shot himself with the starting pistol. To this day I still prefer a starting pistol to a starting horn
I think my immediate and perhaps lingering reaction for several days afterwards is a common one of runners, “I’ll never run another marathon in my life!” However, after running the Tupelo Marathon just weeks before Chicago, I had qualified and signed up for the Boston Marathon. So seemingly to me, it was unfortunate that I was already signed up for another marathon months away (April 2012). I was convenced that I never wanted to run another one at the end of the Chicago Marathon.
No matter what pace a runner runs, they know when they have bombed a race finishing much slower than expected. When a runner bombs a marathon we typically swear them off. We don’t have a baseball bat or a golf club to hurl into the air, so at worst we may threaten to burn our running shoes. This is more of a symbolic gesture of how deeply dejected we feel.
On the other hand however, if we have a good marathon we are all about plotting out the year and which marathons we may run, because after all, we had fun doing well in the last one. Running is a bit of a festive atmosphere whether it’s a 5k or a marathon or even a group run. You get to see everyone and everyone has different running objectives. The races are a bit of a parade and definitely a participant sport. It can be competitive, yet fun.
If you want to get better, or simply not get burned out, then you have to keep it fun for yourself. This may mean trying different race distances, different training programs, running fewer races or taking a road trip to a race. Road trips are always a fun venue. If you run point races in the Mississippi Track Club, you get to travel to small towns all over the state that often have an annual festival the same day as the 5k. And then there are a lot of running groups. You’ll find these just about any place you go. Running groups know how to keep it fun!
The best place to get started if you’ve never participated in 5ks or group runs are the running shoe stores. In Jackson, there are two: Fleetfeet in Ridgeland and Stinky Feet in Flowood. Both of these locations are ideal if you are thinking about getting into running. They have people that know running and can get you started in the right shoes, which honestly is the most important thing to getting started. They can hook you up with running groups and point you in the running direction you think you may like to go!
So if you are trying to be competitive, how do you keep it fun? One of my favorite running quotes by my friend at the University of Phoenix in Scottsdale, Arizona, Coach Dean Hebert, a gifted runner and coach who specializes in sports psychology says it best, “Set goals, not expectations”
One common denominator of every great coach I have been around, from my daughter’s high school coach to an Olympian is “Keep it fun.” You can do this and be discipline as well. And yes, if you are starting out, it may take a little work, but it does get fun!
This week’s race in Bryam, the Swinging Bridge 5k is an out and back course. Every time I think about this 5k it makes me laugh. In 2005, it was a very muggy sunny day. There were 84 runners and the top five were pretty fast local people, Chuck Engle, Mike Thrailkill, Rob Oates, George Faulk, and Dale Griffin. There were a lot of runners there with agendas, some carrying over from the prior week’s watermelon classic 5k. Here’s how it typically use to go and maybe even occasional now as far as the start of the race. Jack Ward of the Mississippi Track club drags his step ladder to the starting line. Then he beats on the megaphone until it finally works, and gives very good instructions of the course, where to turn, and to be careful. Then the starting gun jams a couple of times and finally it will fire for him. However, in 2005, just before the start, Jack has his hands full while walking up to his ladder. At the same time he is trying to cock the trigger before making announcements and telling the timers to set the clocks. The gun accidently fires while Jack is holding it, shooting himself in the other hand, and runners take off blazing down the road. The starting clocks were not set and Jack has no luck yelling at runners, already a good 100 meters away, to come back. Later after the race was over I asked Jack, “You didn’t really give any instructions today?” He showed me the powder burns on his hand as he told me how he accidentally shot himself with the starting pistol. To this day I still prefer a starting pistol to a starting horn
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