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Archive for the ‘running’ Category

Today is the First Official Day

02 Jun 2008 at 16:05

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Me in front of the Brandenburger Tor with the Berliner Bear last August. This is about 200m before the finish line.

That’s right: Today is 16 weeks out from the Berlin Marathon and official training has started. I am warily excited. I’ve tried this before and didn’t make it. But I am stronger and more prepared physically and mentally.

Thankfully, I’m not alone. Rob has committed to training with me and cheering me on during the big race (what he doesn’t know yet: I’ll have a map with places he and his family will meet me, complete with estimated times that I’ll pass the spots), plus my Springfield training partner just announced that she’ll be training for a sprint Tri during the summer (not as good as training together, but better than nothing!), and a new-found running blogger buddy starts training for his marathon two weeks after I do (although under rather mysterious conditions).

A Question for Runners: Dehydration?

12 May 2008 at 18:24

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running

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I drink only water 95% of the time (the other 5%: Beering with my colleagues on Friday nights, and one Dr. Pepper a week as a special treat), so I don’t need to drink more water, or so I thought.

But the last couple times I have run, I have felt dehydrated later in the evening. Obviously I need to make sure I am drinking more before, during, and after my runs since I’ve been feeling dehydrated, so that is not my question.

Adventures of a Runner in Stadtwald Giessen: Cuckoo clock? Snow in May? Air Conditioning?

12 May 2008 at 13:05

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Germany, running

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Today Rob and I hit the pavement for a nice out and back romp through the Stadtwald Giessen. We ran from the beginning of the trail, almost at Rathenaustrasse, to the very end of the path. I heard and saw two beautiful pieces of nature today and one perk of running in shade near water that I just had to tell you about.

Cuckoo Clock?

About six minutes into the run I heard what was undeniably a cuckoo bird. I have never seen or heard one before, but I have heard my share of cuckoo clocks, and this sound was exactly like those potentially annoying time pieces. Exactly.

The Running Season has Officially Started!

03 May 2008 at 12:55

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running

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A few weeks ago, I announced my bid for the 2008 Berlin Marathon (for those of you who read the 4-part series on my running history, it might be interesting to know that every time I try to type “2008 Berlin Marathon,” I start typing “2008 Chicago Marathon“), and today is officially the opening of Linden’s running season. It has been really cold this winter and Linden just doesn’t run in the cold. I could have started running last week, but there were some threatening cold days this week, and when I start, I don’t want to stop again.

So we rode our bikes the 10 minutes through town, straight to the entrance to Stadtwald Giessen, locked the up, and ran. As you head into the Stadtwald (“shtaught-vault,” or “city forest”), you run up a slight incline for about 2 miles. There are places where it levels off a little bit, but for the most part, it’s a long killer incline. I am used to running on flat ground, this even this baby “hill” leaves me way more winded than I should be. Nice thing is that I always go faster down the hill, so that means negative splits!

My Running History P.S. Fitness Test

09 Apr 2008 at 14:36

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personal, running

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I forgot a second announcement I meant to post alongside my “I’m running the Berlin Marathon” announcement. So here’s a little post script on yesterday’s post.

Remember those Fitness Tests I and so many others failed in high school? I’ve decided that I do not want have that failure hanging over me anymore. (Not that it is something that has been bothering me since 11th grade or anything…)

I’m more physically fit than I was then by a long shot, so I think I can rank at least in the “Good” category.

My Running History is MY Running History

07 Apr 2008 at 02:50

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running

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[caption id="attachment_754" align="alignright" width="144" caption="Linden at the end of the Giessen half-marathon"]

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I have been telling you about who helped me believe it was possible for me to start running and who helped me continue being a runner, but today I’m going to try to tell my part of the story. Well, at least the most relevant parts. :)

When I started training for that 2005 Chicago Marathon, Rob and I had one car and we lived just north of Grand Street. We both worked at Bed Bath & Beyond. This means that both of us spent lots of hours at Border’s waiting for the other to get off work. I spent most of my time reading about running, and I started with Hal Higdon’s marathon book.

My Running History is Sarah’s Running History

06 Apr 2008 at 16:16

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running

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[caption id="attachment_756" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Sarah and Linden after the Frisco 5k (March 2007)"]

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In yesterday’s post, I wrote about how Beth encouraged me to take the first few running steps down my path as a life-time runner. Today, I’ll write about how a girl who I never thought I’d know more about than her and her fiancé’s names and wedding date the first time I met them pushed the runner in me and started down the “Road to the Marathon” with me.

I met Sarah long before we became friends: I registered her and Chris at Bed Bath & Beyond. Then we met again in Pummill 401 (the English Department‘s Graduate Assistants office). We kind of started being friends the first semester of grad school, but our friendship really began when we started running together in the spring semester in McDonald arena. I think she needed someone to boost her into running longer distances, and I needed a running partner to help get me out of my slump, although I didn’t know it at the time.

My Running History is Beth’s Running History

05 Apr 2008 at 12:45

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running

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[caption id="attachment_759" align="alignright" width="180" caption="Beth at her marathon"]

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During my junior year of college, I watched as my best friend spent hours during the week and even gave up her entire Saturday afternoon and evening during college planting carb shots along her running route and then running her miles for the week. Running?! Weird. She had a goal: The 2003 Chicago Marathon.

If you didn’t know me and Beth in high school, this won’t seem as weird as it was to me then. When we were younger, we hated physical activity. We waited to take the required gym class until our junior year (most people took it their freshman year). Even though we had lots of spirit, we were always the last two people to be picked for teams. We failed the Fitness Test, despite all of Coach Alms’s patient support of our un-athleticism.

100 Mile–8 Week Challenge: End of Challenge

24 Feb 2008 at 17:10

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running

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This challenge did not end with a bang for me. It just kind of fizzled out. But I’m not too worried about that; I met the challenge goal and that is that. On Sunday, the weather finally turned beautiful, so we went for a really long walk, winding in and around our little area of [...]

Three Things I Never Thought I’d Say

16 Sep 2007 at 10:30

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personal, running

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Three years ago, if you would have told me that I would proudly say the three statements in this post, I would have laughed in your face and called the loony bin for you. “I can run for a long time.” Yeah, three years ago, I was happy to make it 10 minutes, much less [...]