RUN FAST for your mother RUN FAST for your father RUN for your children for your siste[r] and your brothers leave all your love and your longing behind you can’t carry it with you if you want to survive.

May 9th, 2012

It was like shaving my head. Something that I wanted to do, for me.

It’s good to shave your head in comrodary with a friend or family member. To raise money or awareness.

It’s good to run a marathon for a cause, an NGO, to show support for something that you care about.

But I shaved my head for myself. to experience it, for my own internal process of growing up and letting go and moving on and starting over and facing identity questions and facing really hard season of life questions and what-does-it-mean-to-be-a-woman-and-not-just-a-girl-anymore questions. It was a challenge.

And I ran a marathon for myself. To enact discipline and training. To work hard at something. To accomplish something I couldn’t have done before. To work hard and see results, to challenge myself and see what I’m capable of.

And what I realized is that sometimes I have pride in thinking that I am prettytough or cool or something. Mentally or physically.

And all of that is a wash. The night before the race my cousin texted me this verse: “my grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore, I will rather boast about my weakness, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weakness, with insults, with distress, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak – then I am strong”. If you read my last post I talked about how I had hurt my foot and been unable to run. 3 weeks leading up to the race I didn’t run more than 30 seconds. I didn’t know if I would be able to even run a mile of the race. So here’s the thing. I am not tough or cool. I am broken and weak and selfish and lazy. Nervous as all get out the night before. The only good things in me come from my surrender to That which is higher, better, true, full. And Grace carried me through those miles. And if I ever forget that the only thing I have to boast about is my weakness – thus allowing Christ to be in me – please someone remind me.

the first 17 were by the river, it was so beautiful. Air crisp running in and out of shadows and early morning light. winding down the  narrow canyon. The energy of a thousand other people filling a peaceful quiet valley. I couldn’t get it out of my mind that we all were helping to turn turn turn the wheel. With every step of our tennis shoes on the pavement and heartbeat in sync we turn the wheel. The image conjured the concept of the “wheel of life” in Buddhism.  But this is another kind of wheel.  Not teaching principals but one where we all keep turning saying “we’re in this” and “we can’t do it alone” and “isn’t it beautiful when we are all running towards something together?”. So we turn it and the sun keeps coming up. And I crossed the finish line at 4 hours and 30 min which was only a half an hour longer than my original goal time, I can’t believe it! Crazy!  Praise God! : )

People who say “it’s a marathon, not a sprint” when talking about life – most of them probably haven’t ever run a marathon. I don’t know anything that is like a marathon except for a marathon. But as you’re training for a marathon (not a sprint) and running and there is all this TIME to think (and I realize we either give and bring life with thoughts or we tear down and take away life with thoughts, it is a practice to always turn our thoughts towards the sun/son and toward grace/love/peace/patience etc. It is far to easy for our thoughts to drowned and cling to criticism and negativity and cynicism.) BUT – what things in life are marathons, and not sprints? Things bigger even, than a 6 month commitment and a lot of stretching and soreness and sweat? I think about things in my life that are coming that are marathons, and not sprints. Pretty much everything thus far in my 23 years has been a sprint in one way or another. A summer committed here, GO WORK PLAY POUR OUT, done. A few years there – LEARN STUDY THINK TYPE SOAK LOVE, done. A relationship here- FALL IN DIG PLAY LOVE LEARN, done. What is it going to be like to commit to something for the long term? Cause when I shaved my head that was a commitment, but two years later here I am with long long brown hair. Running a marathon was a commitment but here I am 6 months later and I feel good and it’s over. In comparison to what is to come, even a marathon seems like a sprint, and not a marathon. In the large weighty metaphorical sense that I have always given it. I think and hope I learned a little bit, at least, about shifting my life towards those types of things. The marathon things. I want the marathon things.

HOW TO RUN A MARATHON: 

SHOES: Mizuno Wave Alchemy. Those are the shoes I wore. I considered trying the barefoot rout but there wasn’t enough time. Read BORN TO RUN - just read it. My foot and my knee ended up pretty seriously hurt over the past 6 months, and if that is the case then running can’t be sustainable in my life. And I want it to be because I love it – So yesterday I bought some of the barefoot toe shoes and I am going to try to learn to run in a way that strengthens my arches and uses more of my calves. There’s a whole theory and debate behind it but what I’ve been doing hasn’t been working so I gotta try something else!

SOCKS: There is such a thing as running socks. Socks made for running. They have little support systems and they are worth buying. Trust me, after 15+ miles you can feel the difference in the socks. I used a few different kinds but ended up liking the Smartwool women’s running socks the best. You never have to wash them- seriously. It’s awesome.

SHORTS: Nike running shorts -duh

 FOOD: this was difficult and it took me a long time to get the calories right. I eat a LOT in general, and figuring out how to transfer that to running was difficult. Goo’s (gross) vs gel blocks. Honey! NATURAL!  Water water. Gatoraide. What you put into your body you can FEEL. Sweet potatoes (natural anti inflammatory), blue berries (all berries), fat free plain yoghurt, egg whites, I wanted to cut out all grains but after a lot of research that is NO GOOD (at least for me) gluten is not the devil! Lots of oatmeal, blackbeans, I could never get into quinoa even though I really wanted to. Veggies that are easy for the body to break down like squash and zucchini edamame. You can have too much fiber and it makes it hard on your stomach when you run. Sorry to those who only eat fruits and veggies. Almonds, natural peanut butter. Figure out what works for you. On long run days I got up a few hours early, ate, drank a large cup of plain black tea to wash it down and out if you know what I mean.

My cousin got through the last 5 months on pizza from the Boulder college cafeteria and the girl looks like  a model and ran a boston qualifying time: so what I am saying is there are no direct rules and you gotta figure out what works for you!

MUSIC: For short runs I had pump up. Long runs I did half boniver/coldplay/etc  second half straight beyonce. Pump up. Some people are really affected speed wise by the beats per min of the music they listen to- check it out.

Training: Okay. This is the hard part right? Some people need other people to train with and run with, I actually like running by myself but check your local running clubs! They exist and are awesome and will usually put water and snacks around paths on saturdays for long run days! I bought a wall calendar and hung up 6 months on the back of my door and researched which training plan I wanted then wrote down all the miles and work outs in sharpie so I could SEE it every day and check it off and write my times and how I felt. I think this is a great method. ALSO REMEMBER TO GIVE YOURSELF GRACE IF YOU ARE SICK OR MISS A DAY. Listen to your body. LISTEN to your body! And look at these training methods they are awesome. Something that I didn’t start doing till the end when my aunt (who runs) told me after she has run for her whole life and done so much research. Try running 3 min and walking 30 seconds. Repeat repeat repeat. You think this might slow down your overall time: it doesn’t. Your muscles have time to recover and you run faster during the running portions. It’s awesome. Try it.

WATER: HYDRATE. water belt, best thing ever. Nathan brand. You get used to it in about five seconds and you should always have water with you. I hate having things in my hands so I would never hold a water bottle or iPod or anything. I don’t like things on my arms either. This belt is pretty cheap and holds enough water or Gatorade (which you should use liquid that has calories in it) plus I could fit my iPhone in there.

IMAPMYRUN:  If you have an iPhone: download this app. It’s so helpful. I never wore a watch or bought a thing to track my miles or anything, I just used my phone. If you’ve got it: use it! Plus then you can get a ride if you get to your half point in your run and you feel like you’re gonna pass out (happened to me).

Find a support team. Once you decide to run the marathon and you register (register early those things sell out which seems crazy) then TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW that you are running it so you can’t get out of it and also so you can inspire others to run with you! There is nothing like the joy of having inspired someone else towards life and health!

All in all: I am so thankful. So so thankful for this experience. I can’t believe it’s over. I learned that we are capable (Lord willing) of so much more than we let ourselves believe. To watch what the human body can do: at the beginning sore from 3 miles and at the end NOT SORE after 20+. You just keep going. You just get out of bed and lace up your shoes and get out the door. You don’t let yourself convince yourself why you can’t do it or shouldn’t do it or how to get out of it. You just do it. Maybe that’s what it will be like someday with the other marathon-things.

In other news: the marathon ended a season. The winter/spring/movingback to colorado/ working at the bakery season. (So thankful)

The SUMMER is starting (favorite time). I just found out I was accepted to a masters program in counseling at Denver Seminary and it starts in the fall!

I go on trail for backpacking with RMR in a few weeks!

I’m moving into a house of girls that live in Denver this summer!

I got a dog and her name is Aspen and she is a husky boarder collie mix (BEAUTIFUL AND WONDERFUL)!

So many new and exciting things – I can’t wait for this next chapter. I’ll fill in more soon. Life is good.

Run fast and don’t give up,

Darrelle

darrellegood@gmail.com

My pup Aspen and I after the race!

“Dog Days Are Over”

Florence & The Machine

Happiness hit her like a train on a track