Kathy Runs

Patagonia.com

Leave it to Patagonia to keep us all inspired and excited about ski season. After a pretty rocky running season, I must say that I’m looking forward to this year’s mountain time with primed legs and feet that are itching to snuggle into my telemark boots. I have one more race (the The California International Marathon on Sunday, December 6th) and then it’s a mad sprint to the white room for the next few months.

Luckily my runner friends are also my skier friends, this helps keep my excitement factor at all time highs while going into winter 2010. After posting the above photo on Dailymile I went on to gush about it with my dear friend and heterosexual life partner, Haley.

I started running three years ago. In fact, running the Nike Women’s Marathon this year marked my three year anniversary with running marathons. I’ve improved a bit since I started, I stopped hating it so much and learned to love sore muscles, blood blisters, missing toenails, random aches and pains, obsessing over diet and training methods, and having my friends in a constant state of never understanding this one passion of mine. Coupled with this, I’ve come to value the good tenfold: my running buddies, the way my body feels after a twenty mile run around town, eating all the time, being motivated and motivating others, and making so many new friends that do understand this crazy passion.



The past three years have been tough, I assume it has to do with aging into my late 20s, but I’m very thankful I’ve had the constant drum of the marathon to keep me steady as I grow into my ever changing life. After my first marathon, a good friend of mine snapped this photo. In it I’m walking towards him eating some yogurt. Someone had tapped a telephone to the pole and written on it, “It’s 4 u.” I understand that I can take symbolism to new dimensions, but this one is pretty obvious. Reflecting on the past three years, I have definitely learned that I became hooked that day I ran the Nike Women’s Marathon in 2006.

I’ve had time to reflect on the marathon and what it means to me in the past few months. Recently I’ve been toying with the idea of running the 26.2 a lot faster than I am right now. (Is it even possible?) I normally don’t let on what my plans are, but I figure this one is larger than me, and I’ll need some help, so why not let folks in on the secret – at least I’ll be held accountable, eh? Over the next few years I’d like to feel what it’s like to take the marathon seriously, not just in a respectful and humbling way (which I believe will stay with me from race to race) but in a challenging and motivating way. I don’t know where this will take me yet, but I’ve come to terms with the fact that as Caleb would say, my marathon game needs steppage. I have a few more races to finish out the year, and after that, keep your eyes peeled for the super sexy marathon training plan of 2010, and be sure to wish me luck! Many thanks to all those who have helped and will help inspire me to run far, run fast, and run often!

Ever since I fell in love with Dailymile a year ago, I’ve used it for logging my training, sharing advice with other runners, meeting new friends, and learning to love running more. Well, my roommate and friend,
Elizabeth C. has taken Dailymile’s motivating and easy to use interface out onto the cross country course.



Let’s face it, budget cuts have rippled throughout California’s foundation and schools have been feeling the sting for quite some time now. I have almost daily conversations with Elizabeth about how to be creative with the small budget she does have. She has a lot of goals for her kids on the XC team, but the most challenging one is to keep them having fun and engaged. When the team went to their first meet, Elizabeth sat down and decided to leverage some free tools online. I showed her Dailymile, and it was love at first sign-in. She created a group for the Balboa Cross Country team, had her kids sign up, and they’ve been using the site to motivate each other, post results from meets, share stories about running, and have a good time.

So who’s the lucky one here? These days I’m finding myself in conversations with other DMers (as we call ourselves) that go a bit like this:

Caleb:Don’t you guys love Dailymile?

Kathy:You know what’s great about it? It’s an online community of real people! You know there’s someone sweating their butt off on the other end.

Caleb:I love Dailymile. I really don’t think I would have run my sub-3 without some of the folks I’ve met there.

Daniel:Can I have some of that sub-3 love?

So there you have it. I’m not sure if Dailymile got lucky with all of us, or if all of us got lucky with Dailymile. I do know that we’re all marching towards better health and fitness together… and we’re doing it with the kick ass Balboa High School Cross Country Running Team. By the way, they had their last meet of the season yesterday and from what I hear, they kicked some butt. Give them some props if you have time! Balboa XC Group on DM.

First of all, I must apologize for my neglect of kathyruns.com. So I haven’t posted for a while… which means I’ve been doing other things, right?

In an effort to make myself feel better for leaving everyone hanging, I’ve put together a “Where has she been” list. Here goes…

• Ran the Nike Women’s Marathon
• Launched RunTalkRadio
• Whimsically traveled to New York City for Halloween and some big marathon that gets a lot of hype
• Did laundry
• Bought new running shoes
• Signed up for a super secret project with a runner who you may or may not know who’s name rhymes with Fall
• Began training for the California International Marathon on December 6th
• Threw a party for all the Daily Milers in SF
• Perfected the banana muffin
• Found a new favorite band
• Finally got over her crush on Edward Cullen
• Ran to the top of Bernal Hill more times than she can count on two hands and two feet
• Contemplated getting a tattoo… where? Not telling

So that’s the update. I’m hoping this allows me to feel sufficiently less guilty about not blogging for a month so that we can all move on. Shall we?

NYC Marathon! from Kathy Simpson on Vimeo.

As someone who loves to run marathons, I never get to experience the race from the side lines. This year, I came out to watch the NYC Marathon and not run it. It was fantastic, I thought that as a runner I wouldn’t be able not feel drawn to the course and anxious to run it myself. Standing with the other spectators, cheering on the runners as they went by felt fantastic. There’s something about showing support that makes me feel even more like a runner. The best part, though, was that I got to watch the elites wiz by me.

The wheel chair division came first and filled the crowds with inspiration. Watching a 70 year old women complete a marathon in a wheel chair…. Well, who wouldn’t feel empowered to get up off the couch and run a marathon?

Next came the women’s elite division lead by Paula Radcliffe (of course). The fans went wild for Paula, but the real fanfare was as the men rounded the corner chasing after the NYRR organizer, and just about 20 police officers.

Following the elite runners, were the 40,000 + runners on their journey through NYC. Congratulations everyone who ran the NYC 2009 – You inspire me! And if you missed it, here’s a bit of footage from the leaders of the pack.

Evidence:

and

I have a few rituals to go through before running the Nike Women’s Marathon on Sunday. It started early this week when I pulled on my running kicks, which haven’t really left my feet all week with the exception of sleeping. I’ve been practicing some pretty outrageous hydration teqniques (I think the waterbottle is better than my head, it requires two hands in order to drink from it), soon I’ll be getting a manicure, eating plenty of long awaited carbohydrates, and today I’m listening to nothing but fast tempo hip hop, rock, electronic, punk, etc. (I’ll do that tomorrow too). Tomorrow is the penultimate day: pick up bib, experience the expo-lisciousness that Nike does so well, and then I’ll be sitting on my butt all day eating pasta and watching movies. Around 6pm, I’ll lay out all of my race day gear and organize it in neat piles on my bed, and then organize it in neat piles on my bed… again. Sunday… well, we all know what happens on Sunday.

These are my pre-race rituals, they’re all great and they help me get excited about the upcoming 26.2 miles, but I left out the one that helps me find my inner runner’s zen: reading other runner’s race reports. It’s hard to do this well (I have yet to find my groove with the post-race report), but I found three who have nailed it over the past year.

The season isn’t over, but up to this point, the winner for best race report has got to be Punk Rock Tri Guy. So, first the guy finished an amazing marathon in Long Beach this year – huge congrats. And then second, he went through the race mile by mile and told a beautiful and hilarious story of what was happening to him, around him, and inside his head, I’ve definitely shared these sentiments before: “Mile 16 – Oh yeah, the half marathoners were sooo much smarter.”

Second place (so far, like I said – season’s not over) goes to a good friend of mine, Haley Cloyd. Haley completed her first half marathon in 2009 and now she’s obsessed. Some of you may remember Haley from a guest blog post earlier in the season when she described becoming hooked on running. Well, I should say that she fell in love with running, which in my opinion goes far beyond just being hooked:

“I fell in love with the shortness of breath.

I fell in love with the sweat.

I fell in love with the sound of my feet on the pavement.

I fell in love with the warmth of exertion as it made its way through my legs.”

Next up for Haley is her first marathon. I’ll let her tell everyone when and where, but I for one am looking forward to reading her next race report.

Third in race reporting, but not actual running (because I’m constantly eating this guys dust) is Caleb Masland. Caleb set out to run the Portland Marathon, then set out to run it in sub-3. Result: Caleb is a Sub-3 marathoner and Boston Qualifier. These are two heavily sought after accomplishments in distance running, and he didn’t stumble upon them by accident. Caleb pretty much designed his own training program (something I love doing myself), and then took it by the horns and let it carry him to a sub-3 victory. That siad, the best part of his race report was something that Caleb didn’t do, it’s the video his wife took at the finish:



Congratulations to all three runners, it was (and is) a great 2009 season. I’ll still be checking out everyone’s race reports for the rest of ‘09, but the competition is heating up in the world of blogging runners. Hopefully I will be able to convey an accurate (… and somewhat embellished but just for the entertainment factor) story of my next race, but for now I will slip into my running shoes, listen to my techno music, and read some more race reports hoping to find my zen.

If you’re into ultra running, you’ve heard of Sarah Stanley. With a 100miler under her belt, she’s making her way into the top spaces of female ultra runners in the USA. Sarah is also on a marathon extravaganza around the states, and she’ll be in San Francisco just on October 18th to run the Nike Women’s Marathon just weeks after completing the Portland Marathon.

Sarah has a lot of messages to share, mostly around motivation and inspiration and all focused on getting people out using their bodies. Her blog, Sarah Stanley Inspired is riddled with articles, notes, and videos that I consider to be a kick in the pants getting me out the door and on a run.

While Sarah is in town for the Nike Women’s Marathon, she’ll be speaking at Sports Basement on Bryant Street. Come join me and Sarah on October 19th 6:30-8:30 in the Grotto (details below). Since it’s post marathon, there will be food and beers!

• Sarah Stanley
• Monday the 19th
• 6:30-8:30 in the “Grotto”
• Sports Basement Bryant
• 1590 Bryant St @15th

I’m not a fast runner. I have a few marathons under my belt, but I haven’t made speed the focus of my races. That said, after my second marathon (and after reading Kathrine Switzer’s book Marathon Woman: Running the Race to Revolutionize Women’s Sports) I’ve had the crazy dream of running a sub-three hour marathon.

So here’s what I’m thinking. First, running a sub-three means dropping more than 45 minutes off of my current time, I have no idea how much commitment this will take, I’m daunted just thinking about it, I’m pretty sure it’ll disrupt the lives of my boyfriend, my family, my friends, and my feet will need many a pep talk. All that said, I’m pretty sure the passion is there.

My questions are:

• How do I start?
• Am I dreaming?
• What if I can’t do it?
• How am I going to make sure that I can do it?
• What are the sacrifices I have to make?
• Should I even start thinking about the sacrifices?
• How do I keep my goal in sight?

This list goes on… I have a few more races to run this year before I start to buckle down and make the decision to do this or not. But once I start, I’m in it, and I don’t think I’ll be able to settle for 3:00:00.

The Nike Women’s Marathon is on October 18th, and I’m expected to be at the starting line. Anxiety and nerves are starting to set in as I’m filled with self doubt. A constant stream of questions pour through my mind on a daily basis. Did I train hard enough? Why didn’t I pay attention to my nutrition plan? How many pain killers can you take without permanent kidney damage?



Truth is, this year’s training program has been battling many other priorities, unexpected and unplanned, for top ranking, and I’m nervous about it. Sure, I run Bernal three (plus) times a week, I’ve put in the long miles on the weekends, I’m pretty sure my feet can take it… I am missing several toe nails, so what am I really worried about? Everything!

That said, being nervous about running a marathon means the distance is truly being respected. The Marathon is difficult. It’s 26.2 miles, 42.16 kilometers, 46,112 yards, 138,336 feet, and 1,660,032 inches (that’s alotta inches!). So here I sit after my morning pilgrimage up Bernal Hill in San Francisco, drinking my coffee and letting my stomach fill with butterflies – each one essential to successfully crossing the finish line at Ocean Beach on October 18th.