Friday, February 22, 2008

Why?

People often ask, "why do you coach?" or "why do you pace?" I am very fortunate to have a wonderful group of women that I have been coaching for the past two years, and have made the decision to work on my own with two other coaches to train this group in the way I think can be best done; more on that to come. I have also had the great fortune over the past two years to be on the 3:50 Pace Team at the marathon...there is NO better way to run a hometown marathon!! It is a sacrifice of time and effort, BUT to get these emails...the question should be, "why don't you?" Here is a sampling of the joy I got over the past week:







I wanted to thank you for all your help and guidance through the whole training process. This really turned out to be one of the best things I've ever done and I have really found something that I love doing.

I am so glad that I had both of you that believed in me even when I may have doubted myself. I appreciate all the gut checks you gave me when I was training more than I should have limiting my cross training to make sure I would get in all the miles and the extra calories. The things that I will not forget are: The track and hill workouts that I was consistently be told that I can do better and faster, as well as long run days hoping not to get lost or seeing Meredith at the top of a hill telling us we are almost there. I achieved two huge goals this year and I could not have done it without either one of you. The most surprising goal was the life style change for myself and my family, which had a great impact to my overall success. I am now even considering myself an athlete again and now trying to determine my next goals. I cannot thank both of you enough for pushing me to be better and finding that thing inside of me that wants to be better.
I wanted to drop a quick note to say howAWESOME Bob and Merideth (3:50 pacers) were at the AT&Tmarathon this past weekend. It was my first marathon, and Iwent in with 4:00 as my goal and 3:50 as my stretch. Iended up hitting 3:49, and I'm sure that I wouldn't havedone it without the encouragement, advice, and motivationalspeaking :-) of the pacers during the race. You reallyadded to my first marathon experience, and I wanted to givea quick note to say THANK YOU!!!

The ATT Astin was my first marathon and I joined the 3:50 pace group lead by a very cheerful and bubbly woman and a tall man by the name of Bob (i think).Her name was Meredith and through web searches I think her last name was Terranova. She is an Ultra runner - I never knew there was such a thing.Anyway she was absolutely terrific and kept the (eventual) small group going hard all the way. In the last few tenths of a mile she said "go!" and I never saw her again to thank her for her help.Does anyone know her and if so please pass my heart felt thanks to her for her support, encouragement, jokes, spirit - all without which I could have never completed. The course was harder than I was lead to beleive.

I emailed Sophie Saturday morning, or maybe even Friday night, in a moment of panic...my group dynamic was not ending on the positive note I was hoping for and the thought of being a positive beacon for runners for 26.2 miles felt daunting. I didn't know if I could put it all together. Then, Sunday morning we were blessed with the most beautiful of days and I was given the gift of the greatest group of runners. The crowd support was lifting, and I felt it all come into place. It turned into the incredible day I always hope for!

Best personal moment, well there were two 1) mile 22.5 friends had set up an ultra aid station and I ran ahead of my group to stop for hugs and a coke (Paul grabbed a beer when he came by leading the 3-hour group), and 2) toward the end of the race I had a small group who had stuck with me ALL morning. I told them that we would ease off just a bit in the last mile because there was one last climb. I told them that when we got to the climb their only job was to stick to me like glue and I would pull them up. When we got to the top, I slowed for a second and told them to GO, and sent them downhill to the finish...I then wrangled in the stragglers who were willing to let me wrangle them in to the sub-3:50 finish!





Sunday afternoon I was given an incredible reminder. One of my friends told me to be transparent, and all would work out on my other situation. I was and had a wonderful conversation and closure with no bad thoughts or feelings!

mer










What a week of great gifts, reminders, and unbelievable memories!!

4 comments:

kelly said...

I just came across your blog and really enjoyed it. I just pulled out of C2M 100k due to lack of training, but I will see you at Miwok and TRT!! How funny!!

brownie said...

Seriously, how 'bout an update? Didn't you do ANY races since you paced at the Austin marathon? Like, maybe something that rhymes with Jiwok?

Dave said...

I just came across your blog via mountain man steve's blog. Enjoyed reading it. I see that your running the Rogue Race Loop. My brother-in-law and myself are running it as well. Preping for my first 50 miler...in Sept, The North Face Challange in D.C.
runningmandave.blogspot.com

brownie said...

OK, if you don't update this soon, I'm gonna go eat an entire pack of hot dogs. My health is in your hands...