Lorrie’s Blog

This past weekend I ran my fifth Mini Marathon. Here’s what made it awesome:

Although it wasn’t my best time ever, it wasn’t my worst either. In fact, I ran 4 minutes faster than last year. (Ok, 6 minutes slower than my best half marathon time ever, but I’m trying to be positive.)

Jeremy ran with me until the 12 mile marker. It was his first half marathon and that day he ran farther than he’d ever run in his entire life. What an amazing thing to be able to experience that with him.

Even though he was with me until the 12th mile, he beat me by more than 2 minutes! While it was all I could do to cross the finish line, he sprinted at the end!

As I was between the 1/2 and 1/4 mile mark at the very end, I heard the announcer at the finish line say, “And finishing with a strong kick, from Indianapolis, Indiana, Jeremy Algate who’s just 14 years old.” One of my proudest moments. I said to a guy who was running near me, “Hey! That’s my son!” He politely pretended like he cared and said, “Really? That’s cool!”

Matt finished without dying, passing out or getting injured in spite of the complete lack of training. He has this annoying genetic endurance thing that allows him to just pick up and run long distances without even trying. Very frustrating for someone who trained for 16 weeks to run the same distance.

The weather was unbelievably perfect. Sunny, but not oppressively hot. Comfortably cool when we were standing at the start line; warm enough to be comfortable at the end when we were waiting for Matt to finish.

Mollie picked up Kate and Nic and brought them to cheer us on somewhere around the 9 mile marker. It was such a huge encouragement knowing they were waiting for us when we came off the track. Amazing how much better you feel when you see the faces of people who love you, and hear them hollering, “You can do it! Keep going! You look great!”. Thanks, Mol! It meant more than you know.

So now that it’s over, I can go back to being undisciplined about my training and just running when I feel like it. At least for about 6 weeks until we start training for the half marathon in October.

I recently realized something ironic about myself. I am not all that disciplined about running when I’m not training for a race. On the other hand, I hate being told what to do (that’s pretty much true of all of my life, not just running), and so it annoys me to have to stick to a training schedule. My own personal rock and a hard place.

There are times when I run just because it’s good exercise; in fact, it’s probably the most efficient exercise because you can burn more calories running than almost any other form of exercise.

There are times when I run because it’s good therapy. I’m convinced that I didn’t start running by coincidence. This will sound dramatic, but I believe running has saved my life. When things are at their blackest, I go for a run and somehow I’m able to deal with the situation better by the time the run is over. It gives me time to think, it clears my head, it makes me focus all of my physical resources. As much as I believe Mike Spencer has helped me, I’ve got to say that running ranks right up there with being a positive contributor to my emotional well-being.

There are times I run because I like it. Ok, so they are few and far between, but it does happen on occasion. And those times are so amazing that it keeps me coming back day after day to lace up my running shoes.

All of those things I have learned training for races. But here’s what makes me love racing.

There is nothing like the sound of thousands of running shoes hitting the pavement all at the same time. It’s a cacophony of sound that rivals any symphony. It’s exhilarating.

I love just running along in a big group of people, listening to little bits of conversation as we go. Believe me, I have heard people talking about literally everything while running. You name it, I’ve heard a conversation about it during a race.

I’m intrigued (and ticked off sometimes) that people who are twice as big as me, or many years older than me, will pass me during a race. On the flip side, I’m often surprised by being able to pass someone much more athletic looking or significantly younger than I am. Running is a sport that equalizes people. Almost anybody can be good at it.

I think what I love most about running races is that, even though I never expect to win any event that I participate in, I can still be constantly improving on my own time or even just how I feel at the end of the race. I’m only competing against myself.

I guess what I’ve discovered is that training is not just a means to an end; what I’ve experienced along the way to my races has been valuable and has been a worthwhle journey in and of itself. And racing is like getting to eat dessert first. I’ve also realized that sometimes that crunchy little place with the rock on your left and the hard place on your right isn’t quite as bad as it sounds.