Challenge,  On Writing,  running

Some Misc Stuff

November 20, 2019 /

I Got a Couple of Questions About Why…

… I was cut off the marathon course at mile 11 instead of later on. Simple math is the answer.

I had reached the 11 mile turn at 2 hours and 10 minutes. Now I had on my planned-out schedule that was about the latest I could hit that point and I was wrong by a few minutes. It was too late. Actually, I wanted to hit it under two hours.

Here is the thinking… I did 11 miles, while fresh, in 2 hours and 10 minutes. That means if I was lucky, I was going to do the next 11 miles by 4 hours and 20 minutes. That left over four miles to finish, the tough four miles, in 40 minutes. Nope, wasn’t going to happen, so by turning me at that point, they saved me a lot of wear and tear for the exact same result.

And as I limp around today, I am thanking them for that. (grin)

So I wasn’t upset at all. Really showed me what I need to do next year to be really ready. And there are other marathons without such a tight time limit I will do as this year goes by.

If writing has taught me nothing else, it is to be patient and think over years instead of months.

— I was also asked why this marathon was so important to me.

When I was up in Lincoln City, for three years I set as a goal to do this run because I thought it would be a blast to run up the middle of the Strip at night. (I was right.)

So this race was one of the carrots that kept me going, slowly losing weight without hurting myself. I think every long-term goal is helped by a carrot of some sort.

I am now down over 80 pounds because of this silly goal to do this run. I never made it down here while up there on the coast. So last year, when I was injured from a fall the night before, I still did the half marathon. It had built up over years to be that important and it still is.

So on the 5th year, baring injuries and other unforseens, I will finally make it. But I will need to be down the last 20 pounds and have a lot more miles under my feet.

— One last thing on a workshop topic…

The December Regular workshops are now available on Teachable. I will put up the January-April workshop list in a day or so. It will have spots for new workshops. We did eleven new workshops last year. Not sure how many we will do in this coming year.

And I will get the new Classic workshops up and ready to go. I will announce those here.

Now I am off to do some reading.

 

4 Comments

  • Leah Cutter

    November 21, 2019 at 8:19 am

    I learned a long time ago that I do so much better with carrots than with sticks. Even something as silly as I get a small tasty treat when I remember to take my vitamins. It’s very simple and yet so very effective. The power of that carrot is great.

  • Joseph Bradshaw/Bradshire

    November 22, 2019 at 5:04 am

    Down over 80? Good for you, I thought you looked different. Healthier.

    I’ve started a walking program, I’m a bit too heavy to be running right now. 350# is no joke. I finally got my insulin and breathing figured out, that’s how I gained all the weight, but here’s the funny thing…once gained, and you fix the issue, all you do is stop gaining, you don’t automatically start losing. Hahah.

    So walking for now, a mile a day, with my little hand weights, and we’ll go from there. I can’t actually make the full mile yet, but I’m nearly there.

    • dwsmith

      November 22, 2019 at 11:10 am

      Joseph, I was too heavy to do anything but walk when I started, so basically did exactly what you are doing. I got a FitBit and started tracking steps. It became a game to make sure I got my steps every day. The Fitbit I have now has a feature that has me try to get 250 steps per hour, basically to make sure I get up and walk every hour. It buzzes with ten minutes left in the hour to tell me how many steps I have left. So as you said go slow, but it is possible. Kind of like writing a novel. One step, one word at a time. Good luck with it.