Running on Faith

Our team has once again grown and we are now at 17 members.  My sister, Wendi Poirrier, and her boyfriend, Andy Parker, have both signed up for the half marathon and have joined the team!  And that is a very good thing……because the rest of us are dropping like flies.

Well, we are not actually dropping out of the race or the fund raising, but our bodies are throwing up all kinds of red flags these days.  And this trend seems to be limited to the male side of the team.

Unfortunately, most men are hard headed.  We have this tendency to ignore the obvious with the hopes that it will just go away.  And if it doesn’t, then we will keep ignoring it.  I would definitely place a wager that the first ostrich that stuck its head in the sand was a male one.

However, when it comes to training and especially long distance running, some level of pain is always present.  In the words of my dad, “It’s all part of it.”  So it is often easy to ignore some lingering pain and chalk it up to training soreness or just a tough workout.  But sometimes it is not.  And the “sometimes it is not” is now hitting the team.

Paco has been suffering with cantaloupe ankle for months now.  Actually, I think it progressed to watermelon ankle for a while there.  After ignoring the fruit growth around his lower leg for months, he went to the doctor and was told he had a bone spur.  His running has been extremely limited(ie. non-existent), but he informed Mr Xctmnt and myself today that one way or another he will finish the half marathon.  As long as the beer is flowing at the finish line, he will finish!

Mr Xctmnt is just old.  Wait…..his knee is old?…….no…….I remember now….he has some arthritis in his knee.  He has had some knee issues for a good while now.  Of course, he chalked it up to hard training for a month or more.  Then when things didn’t get better, he started using the “can’t get an appointment” excuse.  A couple of weeks ago at the Oktoberfest Beer Run, he had a rough time with the 3 miler.  He had run 10 miles a few hours before the race, so I am sure that made things worse.  Whatever the reason, he was hurting.

And then he still couldn’t get an appointment!  Well, he saw one doctor yesterday and another one today.  The diagnosis…..messed up cartilage and some arthritis.  The remedy……a needle in the knee and limited running between now and the marathon.  But both doctors said they will get him through the marathon.

And now for me.  I have spent the last few months listening to these guys fall apart.  And up until about 3 weeks ago, I had been doing pretty well minimizing my aches and pains.  Even with the massive increase in mileage, I was holding my own.  And then I had a really bad workout (see here).  It was the start of about 3 weeks of pain, self diagnosis and wondering what in the hell is going on.

You see, here is the problem.  Every day since then, I know I am going to hurt.  Most days I can get through the initial pain quickly, but sometimes it never seems to go away.  But in the midst of the 3 weeks of pain, I have had some awesome runs and races.  I had a great race at the Middendorf 10 miler.  And then I hobbled around for 3 days.  I had a good race at the Oktoberfest run with minimal pain.  And last Saturday, I ran 20 miles around the LSU lakes averaging a 8:30 pace (I was wearing compression sleeves on my legs.)  But two days later, my leg was killing me during an easy 5 mile run and it still hurts a day later!

Now it has gotten to the point of being depressing and I don’t look forward to running.  So I finally pulled my head out of the damn sand and made an appointment with a doctor.  Tomorrow afternoon I will find out what is going with my leg.  Of course, no matter what he says I will still plan on going all out at the marathon.  I just may have to adjust a little of what I do between now and then.

So until then, please start saying some prayers for this team.  At our present rate, there will be Running on Faith bodies littered all along the marathon course.

I have a certain level of arrogance when it comes to running.  But before I go too far, trust me when I say it has nothing to do with speed.  It has more to do with taking things for granted and in the process giving the wrong impression to others.

For example, I am running the St. Jude Marathon this December (just in case you didn’t know and randomly found this website.)  Out of our team of fifteen runners, seven of us are doing the full marathon and for four of them it is their first.  And it is awesome accomplishment just to sign up for a marathon much less to train for and finish one.  This will be something they remember forever.  And right now, most of them are probably stressed out about how they are going to find the strength to run 26.2 miles, how they are going to handle the pain, how they are going to break through the “Wall”.

But for me, I have already learned all of those things.  I have been to the cave where the bear lives who jumps on peoples backs, and he is presently mounted and standing in my foyer.  I know what it feels like.  And I know I am stronger than it.  Short of a compound fracture with multiple bones penetrating my skin, I will not stop until I cross the finish line.  So the fear of not finishing has lost its motivating force.

This is one of the main reasons I am making an attempt at qualifying for the Boston Marathon.  And right now, I don’t have much faith in my chances of success.  Maybe it has been the weather.  Maybe the stress at work.  Maybe the hectic lives Christine & I live.  Or maybe I have just bitten off way more than I could chew, and I am choking on it.  Whatever it is, I don’t like it.

It is ironic that our team name is Running on Faith and I can’t find any.  Of course, the faith that Christine and I talk about for the team is our faith in God.  So maybe that is what I need to fall back on.  Whether I find the faith in myself to qualify for Boston will remain uncertain until December 5th (or later.)  But as long as I have my faith in God, I will be fine.  And that is another lesson learned that has gotten me through many “Walls.”

If you are just joining our irregularly scheduled blog post, please go to my Timbeaux site for the first part of this story.

Okay, so you now know that I sprained/fractured/broke my little toe a mere two days before my 20 week marathon plan is about to start.  For those without a calendar, I hurt my toe on Saturday and my plan starts on Monday.

I had left off my story with the question, “What does this mean in the grand scheme of things?”  So what does it mean?  It means I am in exactly where I want to be:  In Pain.

Not a lot of logic in that statement is there?  Let me see if I can explain further.  I have noticed a component of my personality that comes out when I am raising money for charity.  I usually feel very unworthy of every dollar donated unless I have in turn given a pound of sweat, blood or tears.  If it comes too easy, then I am not doing everything I can.

Somehow I want to put myself in the shoes of those children I am attempting to help by suffering as much as I can.  Of course, I would never assume to understand the depths of their and their family’s mental and physical anguish.  I have been through the living and dying of adult family members with cancer.  But as with all things, children are a different story.  It just never seems fair.  And it never will.  I may never understand why some children get cancer, and that is not my job.  My job is to help the ones that do have cancer in anyway that I can.

And that is why it seems every year I find a new mountain to climb.  The peak of the mountain is always the same: raising money for a charity.  It is the terrain that I try to continually change.  And the more obstacles the better.  Have you ever seen the show, “Wipeout”, where they run an obstacle course at the end?  One part has a long uphill ramp with barrels rolling at them which they must jump.  Without the barrels, it would be boring to watch with no challenge or reward in it.

My little toe is the latest barrel on my ramp.  It wasn’t the first and I hope it is not the last.  Because when I reach the peak, it will be the barrels that I jumped that made me feel like I had done something to deserve the donations.  And the donations to St. Jude are what it is all about.

Okay, I finally  have found the time to write about how my running and training sessions have been going since I decided to sign up for the St. Jude Children’s Hospital Marathon again this year.

I continued to train after I ran the Half-marathon for St. Jude Children’s Hospital last year because it was such an AWESOME experience and I knew that I was definitely going to participate again this year. I just wasn’t sure which event I was going to run. I have decided to run the FULL Marathon. I have had the wonderful opportunity to continue my training with Robin Schreiber, my son Connor’s  Running coach (and mine). Her love for running and for encouraging people to believe in themselves and strive for their best, is priceless!

Although the longest distance I have run (in a day) since last December has only been ten miles (in late March), I have been able to log in at least twelve miles a week. However, the heat has been terrible and I have had to walk or cut back on my mileage and pace drastically! Some days just to finish a workout can only be done with one long prayer just to get back to my house without passing out whether it be running, walking, or crawling! Thank God for my team mates, friends, family, and their words of encouragement and prayers!

I have run in several 5K’s and  local Fun Runs with Connor, his summer track team (Team Us (not Them)), and  Coach Robin from February through spring and now summer. The latest one was yesterday, The Freedom Run (one mile), in Downtown Baton Rouge. It was HOT, of course, but it was an easy run (with the benefit of some downward slopes!). I actually ran a PR of 8 minutes and 8 seconds taking first in my division which was the first time I have ever actually placed in a race. It was very uplifting and motivating as well as surprising. I  would have never thought I would have finished with that time because my weekly runs have been so depressing (run walk run walk – longest being barely 6.5 at an average pace of 10:50+ most of the time!).

I want to make sure that my teammates know that they need to stay positive and not worry about their pace,ability to finish, love/hate relationship with running, etc because as long as we are moving and we keep “Running on Faith”, we will be fine!  My goal for my FIRST Marathon is to raise money for St. Jude Hospital, rejoice and appreciate my health and ability to participate in such a wonderful race, and have fun!

Keeping the Faith,

Weesie

I am Timbeaux, hear me roar!  Actually I think the song said woman, but I am not a woman so I changed it.  You may have noticed a trend amongst the posters of this blog that are kind of touchy feely: puppy dogs, squirrels playing, birds chirping, pink thongs.  Actually I think there was something else in that post like a birthday or something, but all I remember is the pink thong.  If you are expecting more touchy feely, stop reading.  I am sure I will get into that mode later when I really get into the fundraising for St. Jude.  It is difficult not to break down and cry when reading about those children.  But for now, I have a steep bill to pay.

Through my own choice, I have decided to try to qualify for Boston at the St. Jude Marathon.  And with that choice comes a bill that can only be settled with blood, sweat and tears.  So for the time being, there will be no time to stop and smell the roses.

Now don’t get me wrong, I have seen first hand how hard Christine and Marcelo have worked for their running.  They have each shed plenty of sweat and tears.  And if you had been fortunate enough to be along side Christine like I was last year for the marathon, you know she paid her bill in full.  And then some.

But right now, they can take time to enjoy their runs and the environment around them.  I, on the other hand, am constantly fighting the urge to stop or slow down.  But I can’t.  I have to push and find some speed somewhere even if it hurts.  And that is why I adopted the pain don’t hurt mentality (see my other blog).

I ran a 10K this afternoon at home.  It was warm/hot and I was exhausted from sleeping very little last night.  As usual, I started off a little too slow and then pushed.  Every time I hit a U-turn, I wanted to stop and walk.  Every time I got thirsty, I wanted to stop, walk and take a drink.  Every time I felt like I was pushing too hard, I wanted to ease up and catch my breath.  But I never walked.  I drank while I ran which caused me to bust my lip on the water bottle.  And I finished my 10K at about a 7:47 minutes per mile pace.

What does that pace mean in the grand scheme of things?  It is about 9 seconds slower than the pace I will have to run the entire 26.2 miles in December.  It means I am not even close yet.  But it also means I am getting better.

So send me some motivation.  Click the link on the top right corner of the website that says, “Donate Now St. Jude Children’s Hospital” and make a donation.  The next time I run, your name will pop in my head when I am struggling and that may make a difference in my run.  Just like it would make a difference to the children at St. Judes.