At Least He Never Walked...

By the 2nd of August, I was feeling comfortable running. In the initial weeks, the day after the long run was comedic- getting up from a chair or down the stairs was painful & clumsy as the legs refused to bend. Sundays now are not bad- no more body freezing, and I can actually get up & get things done.
Since I had started feeling like a 'runner', I decided to listen to a memoir of Haruki Murakami. Its called What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. It is short and a very good read/listen, especially for runners.
One of the things that gave me great relief was listening to him say that all runners feel lazy and not enthusiastic about running until they wear their shoes.
Apart from that, I enjoyed listening to his account of runs that spanned decades. He ran the original marathon in Greece- that was his first unofficial marathon. Greece will be my first marathon too, so I felt a certain kinship with Murakami. But of course I am not comparing myself to him- he has run 23+ marathons, and a couple ultramarathons as well. And most of all - he runs the entire length of the marathon. He wants his epitaph to say, "...at least he never walked". I will be happy if my epitaph can read, "...at least she finished the race."
One thing that Murakami & I share in common is the right knee pain. Last weekend while running my 9 mile long run on Saturday, my right knee started paining & freezing. That string of muscle on my right calf had strung so tight, that I could now feel the entire violin on my right leg, with the knee being the head of the violin. And at that precise moment, Murakami started talking about his knee pain, "...and its always the right knee", he teased, as I started smiling through my pain. "Change the topic, Murakami san", I told him, and he did move on to discussing Gatsby but not before assuring me that all runners have knee trouble, and that he would be surprised if a runner did not. Apparently F.Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby when he was just 29!

Running Mate & The Shack

At last I found someone who runs at my pace in the ASHA team, so I have started running with her during my Saturday long-runs! Trupti is going to run the Philadelphia half- marathon (vs. the full-marathon I have signed up for) in September and usually has Saturday long runs 1 mile less than I do. So we have worked out a solution where she runs all but the last mile with me, and then cuts across the park to the ASHA tree, while I continue running the last mile around the park from West to East to the tree.
Running with somebody makes a HUGE difference and improves one's run considerably. We can talk to each other to distract from the pain, motivate each other to run just a bit more or a bit faster, and empathize with each other about the various body aches and pains. My Saturday runs now have a time of 13 mins/mile. I can talk the entire length (nearly two hours last weekend) without losing my breath.
Weekdays are a different story as we don't live near enough to run together. So, the next book to keep me company was The Shack by William P. Young.
It was not a great read. Or I was not the right target segment. After reading A New Earth & The Secret etc, The Shack seemed too childish. There were a couple of things that I liked and will remember- to have expectancy, not expectation. Expectation sounds final - inflexible. Having an expectation from anybody usually leads to disappointment. Expectancy on the other hand is a verb and dynamic- it can go up & down, and still not fail.

A Thousand Splendid Suns- Spendid!

Back to my solo runs and audiobooks. I had liked the Kite Runner, and was happy to finally be listening to Khaled Hosseini's next book- A Thousand Splendid Suns. I loved it! Maybe because it was about women and maybe because it was about a culture closer to my Indian culture, but the story kept me involved and distracted for more than 11 hours (over many days) from my running woes.
What I liked also was the added experience that audiobooks like these bring, above regular text books. The pronunciation of certain vernacular words, the lilt in delivery that is unique to each culture is not something that one gets while reading a book. The way the narrator pronounced the names Jaleel, Laila are not the way I would have pronounced it in my head while reading. It was an Afghani way of pronouncing the name and added the enjoyable dimension to my experience of the book. Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Giesha, Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night- Time - these are two other audiobooks that stand out in my memory for this kind of experience that the narrator brings to the audiobook.

I Can't Believe I Actually *Enjoyed* a Run

It was the 4th of July weekend, and I had an old school friend visiting me from California. He decided to join me on my run. As soon as we stepped into the park, it started raining. We decided to run anyway. We ran slowly to avoid the puddles, and that helped us chat as we ran. The trees looked greener and the flowers brighter after being washed by the rain. The park was almost empty. There was no heat or humidity, so it was a comfortable run. At the end of 3 miles, I felt I could run some more! I had actually enjoyed running- a first for me! It felt great! Another thing that happened was that I noticed that my breathing was rhythmic and even- I was no longer panting & puffing. Wow!

Running & Being Present

I loved Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth. I had two chapters left to listen when I started my weekday runs in the park. The book in essence says that our life's purpose is to achieve enlightenment. It goes about describing how you can do that. I like the book because it doesn't try to 'sell' me any concept or try to make me believe in anything. I liked The Secret when I read it, but in hindsight, I think it tried to sell to me the concept that if I 'believe' that I will get something, I will get it. Yet- it helped me understand the power of positive thinking, so I would still recommend it as a good reading. But A New Earth- that's a book I would gladly gift to anyone who was willing to give it a shot.

That said, I had an interesting experience listening to it while running. Tolle's voice started talking about being in the present- to be in the moment- not in the future, not in the past, but in the now. I dragged my mind from where ever it was to the now and what did I find- I was now suddenly aware of my legs and breathing and the more I focused on them, the more sorry things I discovered. My breathing was not steady- it was too loud. I could feel a pain in my calfs and my knee was beginning to hurt too. I tried to 'accept' these sensations like Tolle said in the book - "if you can't feel enthusiastic about what you're doing, accept it". It helped a little, but after some time - I discovered more things. It was obviously my devilish mind trying to make mischief. In the guise of being in the present, it wondered if I had a good 'running style' - was I looking knock-kneed when I ran or was I slouching etc. "That is your ego" said Tolle, and my mind reluctantly let go of these musings. Let's just say that listening to A New Earth while running was good, but not recommended for a beginning runner on the first day of their run without a mentor or coach on a tough course. Its still one of my favorite books of all time.

Headaches and painful calf-muscle twitch

For the third consecutive week, I've been getting a headache after I get home from the long Saturday run. I turned to friends, ASHA mentors, coach and google-the answer:I was getting dehydrated. I did stop at every water fountain in the park, but I did get thirsty between water fountains, so I decided to carry a bottle of water while I ran. I had one of those fuel belts that I had bought years ago to motivate myself to exercise. So I started stopping to take tiny sips of water every 8 minutes or so. That cured my headaches. 

I had also started getting a pain on my right calf muscle which I can best call a painful muscle twitch. It felt like the more I ran, the more this nerve or thin string of muscle in the middle of my calf would wind tighter. When I tried to stretch at the end of the run, it would protest painfully and I could hardly bear it. I used that as an excuse not to run a couple of weekday runs until I realized that I was only fooling myself. 

Finally, I discovered that if I warmed up and stretched a bit before starting my run, that muscle would not pain as much. It also helped if I stretched my calf throughout the day. I tried writing alphabets in the air with my feet while sitting at my desk at work, like Prutha & Jayashree (mentors) had recommended, and it helped a great deal. But I have a feeling this string of muscle is a troublemaker, and I will hear from it again & again during my training...

I am feeling muscles (painfully) on my legs that I never knew existed. I am painfully aware of my legs all the time- they are always sore.

Shopping for running gear

I went shopping for running shoes at a store in Union Square. They have a camera that captures you running on their treadmill and they play it back to show you how your foot pronates. I saw my foot in three different pairs of shoes, and two of them did make my foot land straighter. Unfortunately the more comfortable of the shoes was not available, so I bought the Ascis. I also bought the dry-weave T-shirt, shorts, visor & socks.

Two weeks into running, and the shoe started pinching my big toe. I went back to the store to exchange, but I was 2 days too late. So I'm still running with a slightly uncomfortable pair of shoes-they are too expensive to replace after just 2 weeks. Note to self- buy a half size bigger running shoes than your normal shoe size, as feet swell/expand when you run long distance.

I also discovered that I could find the same shoes for cheaper online. Next time, I will test shoes in the store and buy them online.

3 weeks into my training, and I was still finding running a big struggle. If 2-4 miles were causing anxiety attacks, how could I manage 26.5 miles? The answer was given by my friend Vandu- the run/walk method of Jeff Galloway. I started running 8 minutes & walking two, and the impact was enormous. My long run was now broken up into smaller achievable 8 minute runs with a 2 minute walk reward at the end. I bought the Timex Ironman Triathlon watch (women) to use it to time my run/walks. Thanks Vandu! :-)

A great site for women's sports wear, especially the sports bra is Titlenine.com. When Coach Jane told me about this site, I wondered what its name meant. According to Wikipedia, "...Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, now known as the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act in honor of its principal author, but more commonly known simply as Title IX, is a United States law enacted on June 23, 1972 that states: "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."^[1] Although the most prominent "public face" of Title IX is its impact on high school and collegiate athletics, the original statute made no reference to athletics.^[2] The legislation covers all educational activities, and complaints under Title IX alleging discrimination in fields such as science or math education, or in other aspects of academic life such as access to health care and dormitory facilities, are not unheard of. It also applies to non-sport activities such as school bands, cheerleaders, and clubs..." I was surprised to know that the US was grappling with these issues as late as 1972!

Treadmill vs. asphalt

I was supposed to complete 2 miles each on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. I did not run on Sunday- I was still getting over the shin pain from Saturday, and the headache too. On Tuesday & Thursday I ran on the treadmill in the gym at work. I input a pace of 3.5 (miles/hour), and still had to slow down to a walk a couple of times. My breathing was all over the place, but I felt good at the end of my runs.

The 2nd Saturday run was 3 miles, and I ran with a couple others who were at my pace level- 15 min milers. Coach had said that we should be able to talk and run at the same time. I was able to emit a few breathless words during the entire walk/run...running on asphalt was definitely harder than running on the treadmill. I decided to try & do my weekday runs in the park too...

First run

It was the first weekend of June. I was already a month late in starting my training. 

I saw the ASHA group at the entrance of the park, and we trudged to the 'ASHA tree' inside the park. Before I knew it, we were told to start running 1.5 miles. I felt an adrenalin rush, but it soon faded and I was puffing and panting trying to maintain a 15 min mile pace...Monel, a mentor, ran with me talking all the way. She kept me distracted and I was able to complete 1.5 miles after 2-3 walk-breaks. 

Then Coach Jane talked to us about running shoes, and dry-weave T-shirts and shorts. I had no idea that there was a better fabric than cotton to run in! The socks too needed to be better than cotton, if you wanted to avoid blisters! It was a whole new world to me. The last time I ran- cotton was the best fabric around...it was a very long time ago that I had run last- I was all of 13 yrs old and took part in the high school marathon which was all of 1 mile! Here I was more than 20 yrs later, and signing up to run 26.5 miles. 

It will be an interesting journey, and I'm as curious as you are to find out if I'll be able to run a marathon this year.