Back in the saddle...

For those of you who have been following my training, you know that last week was not one of my bests. It was a combination between having no sleep from preparing and executing our 100 person statewide GOTB bus coordinator training and an injury sustained from small talk with Bob Barker. However, before I knew it, the week was already over and I had only one 4 mile run and some change added to my running log. (On a normal week, I would have logged about 32 miles around this time).


As any runner can tell you, these weeks happen. However, when they do, it catches you off guard. Training for a marathon (if done correctly) is a gradual uphill process. Excuse the pun ;p Each week you do your short runs and on your weekend run, you tack one mile on per week. Eventually, you will get up to your goal, which for most marathoners is somewhere between 15-22 miles. (You never run an actual marathon until your race day). Then you taper about 2 weeks before the race to keep your muscles ready, but to avoid putting yourself in jeopardy of injury.

I was so disappointed this week with my progress or lack thereof that I was almost embarrassed. This blog is great for accountability. However, what do you write if you haven't been accountable? How do you tell all your readers and donors that you failed them this week? More importantly, how do you get out of the slump and rebound the next week? These were all the questions that were running through my head until I had an "ah ha" moment that made everything come together.

As part of the program this past Saturday, we had several presenters (regional coordinators and fellow bus coordinators) discuss their own best practices with the group. I had asked one of our star bus coordinators, who just also happens to be my husband, to talk about fundraising. On his agenda, he was delivering his avant-garde ideas, which included this blog. I was so nervous when he was coming up to speak. I kept thinking to myself, 'out of all weeks for him to talk about my blog, it has to be this one.' This was the biggest slacker week I've had since I've started my training. I felt ashamed and embarrassed.

As soon as we pulled up the blog and he announced that I was running the LA Marathon, the craziest thing happened: Everyone started to cheer for me. It was a completely invigorating feeling. I began to realize then that it didn't matter that I had an off week. No one cared. It was, but one more bump in the road.

As if this wasn't motivating enough, one of the new bus coordinators came up to me afterwards and started talking to me about running. He said his son was a runner as well and he had run several races for disabled runners. He told me that his son has cystic fibrosis and although wouldn't be able to do a full marathon, he was definitely in shape enough to do a half. He told me that he was going to encourage his son to blog about his experience just as I was blogging about mine. I started to realize at that moment that I wouldn't need to worry about what was going to get me back on track. Here it was.

When I laced my running shoes this morning, I thought of his son. As I started up my normal path, I decided that I needed to challenge myself so I took a turn up Runyon Canyon and did 4.5 miles of straight hills. Every time I wanted to stop, I just thought of his son and all the odds that he has to overcome on a daily basis and I made myself go faster.

Thank you to all of you who have supported me thus far. I am proud to say that I've logged over 150 miles and thanks to all of you, we've raised almost half our goal. I want to say a special thank you to one of my bestest friends in the world Sandra Palestine Burley and her husband Rob Burley for their donation this week.