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August 22, 2008
Trip Down Memory Lane
This morning I embarked on a fartlek run. Actually, it was more structured than "real" fartlek but nonetheless it was the same idea - run hard for varying intervals with easy rest intervals in between. I had a great workout and really enjoyed pushing myself. Indeed, because my legs feel so good I was able to really run hard. This weekly dose of speedwork added back into my diet has been refreshing!
But hard running for me always results in one thing. Something that I can almost guarantee - an upset stomach. Of the largest proportions.
I think I've always been like this. But I've been running for so long those early years are a little fuzzy now. Regardless, I can certainly remember many a time when despite a killer workout or long, tough race that SHOULD have resulted in a huge appetite (and oh how I do love to eat!), instead resulted in stomach pains and absolute zero desire to put anything into my mouth.
This morning, much the same. Directly after my workout I felt fine but then, the upset stomach started. Soon after my shower I was laying down on the bedroom floor begging it to stop. I did get through my stretching and got ready for work but my belly's unhappiness continued. Until about 10 am. When hunger took over! I have learned through the years that even though the stomach is unhappy, you must still feed it. Because if you wait until you FEEL like eating, you'll be waiting quite a while, and in the mean time you will have robbed your cells of the important nutrients they need to rebuild and recover from the trauma they just went through.
Anyway, I know many people have this issue with running (that's why cycling rocks - you can have a whole feast WHILE you are doing it with no ill effects!). But I also know many who have no such problems.
Case in point - my husband.
We did our first marathon together - at the now defunct Raleigh Marathon in December of 2002. We did 100% of our training together (what can I say, we were newlyweds!) and I have to say - it was absolutely amazing to cross the finish line of my first marathon and then watch my husband do exactly the same. It was a huge sense of accomplishment.
But after the race, of course, my stomach was in knots. O, on the other hand, was ready to EAT! I can distinctly remember (like it was yesterday!) walking through the building where they had the post race feast. I was nibbling on a bagel, trying to will my stomach to calm down. And O? He was going at it! I wish I had a picture. He was just walking down each ailse, grabbing whatever he could at each table. One time I looked up and I swear he had 3 cookies in his mouth at the same time, crumbs all over himself, with a big smile on his face!
And same goes for pretty much every other race he's ever done. Stomach of steel I guess. Lucky him.
Anyway, I did survive just fine and by lunch was rearing to go! Work was busy which at the very least made the day go by fast. And then, on my drive home, I heard the song that will forever remind me of my freshman year of high school cross country - Don Henley's The End Of Innocence.
Why you may ask? Well - that year we won the district (and actually state too) championships. And at that time the local tv news station had a 30 min show that highlighted the high school sports that took place that week. Sports like cross country never made it on the show (it was mostly the football matchups from Friday night) except for districts so by virtue of our win we got on tv! There were clips of the race and then us accepting our awards and my senior teammate was even interviewed ALL while The End Of Innocence was played as the background music.
I think it's funny how I can remember the song that played on a tv show over 15 years ago but for the life of me can't remember where I parked my dang car in the garage each day at work.
Anyway, I still have the tape of the show (on VHS no less) and occasionally watch it for laughs! I had it all - braces and curly, long hair and I look like...well...like I'm 14 years old! :)
Of course the song makes me think back to that time, that year, my first of "serious" running if you count runs to the Dairy Queen serious. I can sometimes remember like it was yesterday some of the goofy things we did. How much fun we had each day at practice and of course at races when we would win! Trophies! How cool! There were only 10 girls total on our team that year and of the top 5 scorers there was 1 senior, 1 sophomore and 3 of us freshman that had absolutely no idea what we were doing. I was the 5th runner on the team and very acutely aware that my big fat placing would be added to the team's score so I had BETTER GET MOVING!
I can remember having to wear the BIG spikes at the meet that qualified teams for districts because it had rained for days on end and the mud was thick. And then we got to wear those same big spikes at the state meet. We had a lot of fun in those!
At the state meet my coach had a goal for me to break 20 minutes (I had never done that before) and to place in the top 50. It was likely nothing more than a stab in the dark for him but of course I took that as my mission! So when I crossed the line in 51st place with a time of 20:02 (I kid you not!) I was just crushed. I was sure I had let my whole team down! (ah...to be a freshman again... :) Surely we wouldn't place well since I had placed 1 position back from some random guess my coach made at how well I might be able to run!
But in the end we won and everything was good! And the tv station came BACK to do a story on us when we got back home (no music played on that one or I probably would have remembered :).
So I guess what that song really reminds me of is a time when running was pretty simple. We went to practice every day and had fun and in the end we succeeded. There have certainly been times in my life when I made running way too complex. And triathlon? Forget it! There is soooo much more to think about and worry about and agonize over in that sport! But why? In the end, it really is simple. Turn the arms over in the water, turn the pedals over on the bike and turn the legs over on the run. AND HAVE FUN! Get the big spikes out every once in a while and splash in the mud.
Tomorrow O's cross country team has their first cross country meet of the season. Incidentally, it's at the site of that district championship from 1993. The course is different now and that park is no longer used for the district championships. But I couldn't pass up the opportunity to go back. So I'm going to finish my ride there tomorrow morning and watch the runners cross the line. My guess is, I'll be hearing Don Henley in my ears.
Posted by beth at August 22, 2008 7:58 PM
Comments
Good post! It brings me back to my cross country days.
I get an upset stomach/lack of appetite after running hard too. I figure if I don't have that problem, I'm not going hard enough.
Posted by: maija at August 22, 2008 10:06 PM
Hey Beth - I used to have the same stomach troubles. Crying on the bathroom floor for anything over 10 mi or any intensity at all, even a 5k. Immodium before the run took care of all of it for me. I wouldn't be an athlete if it weren't for the lovely makers of that drug. I don't know why it works so well, but it makes my stomach so happy.
I love End of the Innocence. Have a great weekend girl!
Posted by: rachel at August 22, 2008 11:45 PM
My favorite part of the races was EATING!!!!! I can't get enough food after a race. Maybe, as Maija was alluding to, I need to run faster...
The XC meet went well today. We had some good performances. I'll be posting about it.
Posted by: O at August 23, 2008 7:54 PM
It's been resurrected! http://www.cityofoaksmarathon.com/
They brought it back last year. So you and O can come and relive those memories :)
So I've always wondered, does everyone call O, O? Or is that just a shorthand for blog world?
Posted by: Bri Gaal at August 24, 2008 8:17 AM
High school cross country brings back so many memories. Living in the South Hills, we never ran at Hartwood Acres, but we did run plenty of races at Mingo Creek Park. And there was Slippery Rock, and California University of PA...
Posted by: brian at August 25, 2008 9:07 AM