After the Race

So, this is the second weekend in a row on which Back on My Feet Baltimore exemplified the hashtag #NoOneRunsAlone.  Last weekend it was making one person’s day who ended up not being able to do the run this week.  This weekend, many of us participated in the Baltimore Running Festival. 

This was the third fall in a row in which I tried to run an entire race with a running partner from Back on My Feet.  Two years ago, I had another goal for the Freedoms Run Marathon—to get a time for myself, and I ended up not running the entire race with my partner.  Last year, I ran the Baltimore Marathon with a partner and everything went right.  Cool start.  Negative splits.  Boston qualifying time for my friend.  This year, I hoped to repeat last year and had worried that I would not be able to keep up with this year’s partner.  Instead, my job became much more important.  Keep her going to reach her goal of finishing her first marathon in which any tie is a PR.  And, she did—no stopping and now walking.  I stayed because #NoOneRunsAlone.  The race was not about believing in my partner and helping her finish. 

The things that I learned from this race include that:

• others find it just as important to have someone to run with as I know I have.
•  I could probably have run the 3:30 we had planned for, although I will never know
• my seven years of marathon running and training prepared me better than I’d thought

o   how much to drink the day before

o   what to eat the morning of

o   how to use the water stops including the water, Gatorade, and food

o   having done many hot summer long runs, my body was ready for the temps

• while my partner was just making sure she could continue, I was able to

o   greet many people who cheered me on and tell my partner who each was

o   hug a fellow Back on My Feet member at the BoMF water stop

o   sing along with “Sweet Caroline” as we rounded Lake Montebello

o   yell out “We are…” and “Go Blue!” when passing relevant runners or spectators

o   heartily greet volunteers from the business school at a water stop

I am not sure if I will run the race next year.  But this race has become a great experience each time and each time I repeat it I get to enjoy the atmosphere of the race and the group with which I run more and more.  And having someone to share the entire race with because #NoOneRunsAlone is wonderful. 

My Return to Bib Numbers and Spiritual Inspiration

I wasn’t sure if I’d run the full Baltimore Marathon at the year’s start.  I committed to the JFK50 miler early.  The Baltimore Marathon is just four weeks earlier.  One of my two friends running the 50 is doing the full as an easy training run.  I'm doing the full with one goal—for the second year in a row, pace a first-time marathoner to a Boston Qualifying time.  It would be a great accomplishment.  At the moment, I’m confident but not cocky.

I’ve used my bib numbers to look for inspiration ever since my first marathon in 2010 (#1313).  This year, I was assigned #840.  If I look to my closest at hand spiritual reference book (The Catholic Bible) and use the numbers 8 and 4 (leaving out the zero), we find in the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 8, Verse 4:

His disciples answered him, “Where can anyone get enough bread to satisfy them here in this deserted place?”

This was in the context of trying to feed a crowd of 4,000.  They had a significant self-doubt.  Jesus followed up by telling them, essentially, “yes, we can”. Through faith (at least the story goes) they were proven wrong.

So, I sit in my office after picking up my bib number and think about running on Saturday. I have more self-doubt about this marathon than any other in a while.  Not about finishing. About accomplishing the big goal of matching what I did last year when I paced another runner to a Boston qualifying time in her first marathon.  Different day.  Different training season.  Different set of races for the year.  Both partners from Back on My Feet. Each valuing the idea of experienced company on her way to her own goal. 

I know one thing—I have run a LOT of miles this year.  I have continued running with Back on My Feet some this year.  Running continues to make a difference in my life.  Through running, I try to have a positive impact on other people’s lives. 

Now, I just have to put my own faith in the fact that I have trained enough. I just have to execute.  Get the doubt out of my mind.  Be confident.  Say a prayer.  And go.

The picture shows this year’s bib number and a book someone loaned me today.  How interesting that on a day of some self-doubt in one area of my life, a colleague gave me a book about discovering my signature voice to master my leadership presence and, implicitly, leave behind self-doubt.  Time and again, I think I have found my voice when it comes to running and employing running to improve my life and the life of those around me.  The challenge is taking my trust in success as a positive runner and turning it into something that I can use in the workplace to make the lives of the team I work with and the students we serve better. 

We’ll see how it goes.