First of all, if you were following this blog, I apologize for not writing in the past six months.  March to September tends to be the busiest time of the year for me.  I plan to make this site a priority from here on out.

Do you really want to know what got me going again?  Innocent runners who have no idea they just motivated me again, and a race that I tried to do last Sunday.

First the runners.  I never had such a good time running as I did on Monday.  I was showing three runners the upcoming Octohalf race course.  What I didn’t know before hand was that these awesome runners would give me such a charge.  For each one this or the Rock n Roll Half in late October is their first half marathon.  The Octohalf is less than three weeks away and we were going over each square inch of the course, which is what I do for me, therefore I share with anyone I am coaching.  I pay attention to every detail and try to teach them my methodology.  Isn’t that what coaches do?

I am blessed that everyone I have ever coached has been so kind and full of respect that they show up on time.  I understand a few minutes here and there you cannot predict the last minute red light, etc.  Honestly, I am in awe that in this day and age of being overworked, juggling multiple jobs, being a single parent, not one runner has ever made me angry for delaying a workout. I think that shows that runners, in general, are awesome people, full of respect for fellow mankind.

So I have three runners learning the course ready to go.  One has been running with me for a couple of months now and is the most likable person I have met.  She brings energy every time we run.  She doesn’t know it but she gets me pumped to run (OK, maybe a chance that she knows now if she reads this).  The other two are new to the course.  One is my regular runner’s friend.  The other just found out about my course training recently.

It’s 6:45 AM.  Who is smiling that early?  All four of us!  Why am I smiling?  Because the other 3 brought energy to the group.  If I could wake up every morning like this I would feel like I was in heaven.  My normal routine is, family gone off to work, then I decide to get out of bed and start my day.  Or get up before they do and go run. No people interaction at all.  I am so used to that.  But today it’s different.   Two strangers and a crazy running student who should be a CEO of something since she is so intelligent and has so much energy early in the morning.  Wow, made my day.  They listened to everything I had to say and that alone made me feel good.  On top of that they laughed, made jokes.

I pointed out the details of the course.  That’s what I do.  I am a scientist and analyst of running.  I crunch every number that my Garmin gives me, mix it with the personal vital data that I have on each runner and try to dial in the perfect training plan for each one of my students, online or in person.  Look as far as you can and draw a straight line with your imagination and run that straight line is what I teach. There’s the geometry that I was so good at in high school coming to use.  The runners were all courteous and listened and I felt that they understood what I said.  They stopped talking when I spoke.  Even if I interrupted them.  What a great feeling! All in between them having fun and laughing.  What a coach’s dream.  Runners that listen but still have fun.  I had the pleasure of coaching one of those to her first half marathon last year at this time.  I miss her so much.  I wish all of my runners would need me forever but that’s not happening.  It pumps me up.  It gets my own personal training going full steam ahead.

OK, Sunday’s race.  Coming off of the ultimate high for me, qualifying for the Boston Marathon, it has been a struggle to regain the personal running motivation.  I tried to do a 5K because a friend mentioned that they were in need of runners for a local 5K race.  I actually jogged the course to warmup so that I knew it.  I left the start line and that was it.  I had no mojo.  I finished almost a minute worse than any other 5K I’ve ever run.  I started wondering.  Am I done?  Is training my runners enough satisfaction for me?

After the race, I was so humbled by the lack of effort.  I am so competitive.  That got me steamed on my drive home that I would run less than 100% when I have an example to set.  The next day there I was facing runners who were listening to every word I said hoping to gain knowledge to allow them to get better.  Wow.  Talk about being taught a lesson when I was supposed to be doing the lesson teaching.  My next personal workout was this morning.  Let’s just say I’m back to normal.  See you soon!