1) I will be the first to admit my marathon training has gone poorly. Fits and starts have kept me from putting in the miles I need for the marathon. Yet, I am determined to do this. I need encouragement folks. Start sending positive vibes my way.
2) I just want to thank my good friend, and Shamrock Shuffle partner, Kelly for sending me the care package of Biofreeze. This stuff is great for aches and pains. I met a women a couple weeks ago who uses it before every race. She swears it limits pain during the race. Thanks Kelly!
3) Job interview. Why would this merit mention on this blog? I'm interviewing at a running store. My first interview was with the owner. Next I meet with the store manage. This would bea very cool job.
4) New shoes. My New Balance shoes are working great. No pain after my runs. They fit. They're comfortable. I think I am in love.
:-)Charlie
3 comments:
A running store!?!! Charlie, that would be so excellent! You'd be such a great person to have helping me with shoes. You're honest, down-to-earth and you don't (bless you) look like you came out of the womb running.
When you're someone like me, it can be uncomfortable some times to shop for running shoes and gear when everyone there looks like they eat and breathe running and do 10-milers just to wake up in the morning (and I'm still schlumping through 5Ks).
You are an inspiration and what a great place to be an inspiration. If the shoe store knows your story, they'd be crazy not to hire you.
Plus, you'd get a discount on your shoes, yes??? ;)
Kelly
As for inspiration....OK, there's "perfect" training and then there's what people in the real world do.
I've known a lot of people who decided to run marathons. All of them -- every freakin' last one of them -- trained imperfectly. They got injured, they got discouraged, they got swamped by work, they got run over by life.
Every single one of them.
And they ran anyways. Or didn't. Sometimes they had to do the training regimen a couple of times (and sign up for but not make it to several marathons) before they actually ran their marathon.
Perfection is oh so tempting and oh so dangerous a trap, a lure, a mistake.
Jeff's brother got married in Oct. '99. His wife -- a traditionally raised Southern girl -- wanted the wedding...of her mama's dreams. She actually said a few weeks before the wedding "I just want it to be perfect."
That's all?
So, what's the first thing she and her new hubby say to each other when they walk into the bridal suite after the "perfect" Southern wedding? Something romantic? Something endearing? Something racy?
"Well, I hated every minute of that, what about you?"
He agreed. They "renewed their vows" (translation: repeated their wedding) a year later in a Scottish castle like they'd wanted to all along. Only the parents were in attendance (the rest of us decided one wedding, to the same person anyways, was enough).
All she wanted was perfection....
The only people I know who do their marathon training just so and just right are the people for whom running is only slightly more difficult than breathing.
Yeah, I know a few people like that. If I didn't like them, I'd hate them.
They do it just about perfectly because it's easy for them. If it's not easy, you're likely to do it unevenly, incorrectly, goofy. That's true of just about everything in life.
They only truly important part of your running, in my rarely humble opinion, is that you keep going.
Damn, son, I'm pretty sure I would have given up by now. (Come to think of it, I have! But that's a conversation for another day.) But you haven't! That is so much more important.
Charlie, you've changed yourself and your life in so many ways, I can't even count them. I'm in awe of you.
I check your blog pretty much every day. I'm rooting for you. I'm excited for you. I miss you here in DC, still. If you need it, I'll send more Biofreeze. :)
Keep running in whatever way God made you to run. It's about who Charlie is, not about who all those "perfect" runners are.
(Those guys in the running magazines? Airbrushed, just like the Abercrombie & Fitch models!)
(Well, that's my story anyways and I'm sticking to it.)
Kelly
Biofreeze may, in fact, help limit pain during a race. I can't quite figure out or explain how that would work -- a numbing effect? vasoconstriction? -- but I doubt she's completely hallucinating.
(Everybody is hallucinating a little bit if the run is long enough!)
Maybe you should experiment. Put some on before a long run somewhere you routinely hurt and see what happens.
I find Biofreeze works a lot better on muscles, tendons, and ligaments than it does on joints. So I'm not sure how much help with would be with your ankle joint. But it might help the ligaments that stablize the ankle joint...hmmmm.....
Kelly
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