Inspired to Run Seattle Half Marathon 2013

0 CommentsSaturday • November 23, 2013 • by Imei

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I’ve been a movement addict since the age of one.

My mom tells me I always liked music and dancing, skipping, and running about. Still, Running and I have had a love-hate relationship over the years. For a time, I used it to keep my weight low and engage in eating disordered activities. Other times, I used it for stress relief. And at this time in my life, I’ve returned to running as a way to hear my thoughts and challenge myself to doing things I either haven’t done before or simply want to improve upon. And so, here I am, one week away from the Amica Seattle Half Marathon, in some of the best shape of my life, and strangely uncaring about how I look as much as how I feel and what I can accomplish with my running. I feel really good, really strong, and very determined to have a great race.

 

From my Facebook Wall: November 21, 2013

The following is an adaptation from my Facebook Wall about my preparations and reflections regarding the Dec. 1, 2013 Amica Seattle Half Marathon:

According to my training plan, I am now peaking (which feels like “Go!” and followed by “Zzz”). As an example, I tried running a 3.1 mile run at race pace, and without looking at my watch until after, I was running 8.15, 8:30, and 9:00 (when I used to run 10, 9:45 and 9:30). I’d like to say that 39F weather is to blame. What I am willing to do to get the run to end quickly! And then I was asleep on the bus ride from Redmond to Seattle. Weird!  After Sunday, my runs will get shorter and my rest periods longer. I will embrace my inner sleep monster (I slept nearly 10 hours last night!). Iron stores are replenished, thanks to iron pills and orange juice twice a day on an empty stomach. White rice may happen! Woot!

I want to take a moment to thank my friends who have supported me on my running journey. I recognize that the data and the deets are sometimes boring, even to me. I share them the way that others have done — that by doing so, they lock themselves into a pattern that means they MUST follow through, or face the humiliation of not doing what they said they would do or could do, whether that was losing weight and improving health, learning discipline and strengthening their minds, or improving a time or performance. I’ve learned that by sharing a goal, I become accountable to it. To Timothy Ferris fans (The 4-hour Body): I am not at the place of posting a picture of myself before and after in a bathing suit, because this has not been about weight loss for me, but I wouldn’t have a problem posting my Garmin watch analytics. I still managed to lose 15 pounds and build back a couple of pounds of muscle. Woo hoo! Who cares how I look? I feel fantabulous!

Last year October, I said I wanted to try to run a half marathon in 2 hours or less. In February 2013 at Birch Bay, I missed my goal to run it in 2 hours 10 min by 8 minutes after making the wise decision to walk/jog the last 2.5 miles, due to blinding knee pain (this race was not chip time — you turned in a strip from your bib and handed it to one of the volunteers, who had to hand-record your time; our watches actually said 2:14). I was disappointed, but it taught me some lessons about training, about patience, and about commitment.

For many runners, running with comparison to your age and gendered-compared time is a goal that inspires. For me, I feel down! My time would have to be 1 hour and 12 minutes to be the fastest in my age group! Um, no thanks! I can already hear my hips and knees crying at the pace my body would need to go. No, a half marathon at 2 hours or just under is plenty fine for me, and rates at the 60% mark. I’ll take 60%! Heck, 52% on the first try wasn’t too bad either. Some of us just want to finish!  And yet still, why is 2 hours significant, to me, or to anyone? In general, most runners consider a half marathon time of two hours a decent finish time for an amateur runner. It’s where many of us start. It’s just not necessarily where the story on running ends for me.

Another reason I want to get my half marathon time under 2 hours (approx. 9 min/mi pace) is to get a glimpse of my feasible future capability of running a full marathon in  four hours, getting the time on the course to a reasonable amount of exposure for a person with kidney disease and hypohydrosis. I don’t think I want to be out on any race course, running or triathlon, without significant support for times longer than four hours. No race is worth losing my kidney over. I kind of like my kidney. It’s really useful for processing waste and getting icky chemicals out of your system. On that matter, livers are pretty cool organs too.

Yet another reason to run is to challenge myself to do things I never thought I could, and to do them at an age where few of my contemporaries even try. I have surrounded myself with athletes who are more experienced, stronger, and faster, and I often forget that I’ve only been racing for 1.5 years. I didn’t think I could do this training and also do off-season swim training at 6:00 am two times a week, but somehow, it’s happening without me falling asleep in the afternoon! Thank God for energizing Yoga and sprints up and down three flights of stairs. Breathwork rawks!

So while next week’s Seattle Half Marathon seems like any other run to the casual observer, I bet it is filled to the brim with all kind of wishes, dreams, commitments, and desires of the individuals who race it, even if they aren’t anywhere near the top 1000 finishers. Behind every runner and walker is a story that would take years to tell. You think I’m long winded about the sport? Try talking to my nieces. Those little runners will talk your ears off your head!

 

Supportive Friends Make It Better

If you’re in the Seattle area on Dec. 1 and happen to see any part of the race on 5th avenue, the I-90, Seward Park, etc., honk your horn and shout in support, even from a distance. It will help our minds wrap around our goals. Every runner knows that after the training is done, the thing that gets us across the finish line is the mind saying to the body, “You can do this!” and “Go go go!” I know this, after seeing a few racers in 2009 get into the finisher’s chute, tears in their eyes, faces contorted in pain, walking, jogging, limping and willing themselves across the finish line into the arms of their friends and family.

If you aren’t local to Seattle or can’t be in the area, the Seattle Amica Marathon has a portal to track racers by name. You can set up an account and indicate where you’d like to updates to be sent (Facebook, Twitter, email). Check out ChronoTrack on this link: https://register.bazumedia.com/event/tracking/eventID/6068. I don’t believe I’ll be running with Google Glass because in general, I don’t run with any devices on me (it’s good training to just be focused on the road with no distraction).

 

My Unhired Hips: A Challenge to Inspire

Unlike my triathlon races in 2013, the Amica Seattle Marathon and Half Marathon is a sponsored race that does not directly raise funding for a charitable cause. This is the first race I’ve paid a fee in which no part of my fee is specifically designated to a noted cause or need. As a separate aspect of the race, racers and audience can choose to raise money for the Pancreatic Cancer research as a legitimate and viable 503(b) organization. I did not sign up to do so, having only learned about it recently.

And so, my hips are unhired for this race. Fancy that! Here I am, a sometimes-blogger who wanted to link performance art and movement to charitable giving. Think think think! 

Instead, will you join me in making a charitable donation to the Red Cross, designated for relief funds to the Philippines? You wouldn’t be hiring my hips directly — I cannot, and will not, accept any funds. I simply want to inspire you and your friends to give when the world is in need.

Here’s what I am suggesting:

1). Consider a lump sum donation directly to the Red Cross or your favorite organization that delivers at least 85% of money collected (12-15% to administrative costs) to relief efforts after tropical storm Hainan has put the surviving peoples at risk for disease due to exposure, lack of clean water, and pneumonia. A million people have lost their homes, and thousands still remain at risk.

2) Consider an additional donation after Dec. 1, 2013 when I run my race, based on my chip time, which I will post conspicuously.

For example:

a. If I PR (personal record) it (better than 2 hours and 18 minutes) give X dollars to charity

b. If I reach my original goal in Feb. 2o13 of 2 hours and 10 minutes, give Y dollars to charity.

c. If I reach my new goal of 2 hours or under, give Z dollars to charity.

d. If I take a DNF for any reason, give X dollars to charity.

After the race is done, simply come back here, or on Hips for Hire on Facebook (public page), or @hipsforhire on Twitter, and let me know that you made a donation. You don’t even have to say how much if you don’t want to. I understand if you want to keep that anonymous (right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing, got it). Your post can just let me know that you were inspired to give because you read my words. A few businesses have shown interest in this idea to help inspire giving. If you are a small business, please contact me so I can thank you for your donation to the Red Cross and give a shout out on my Twitter, Facebook,  and G+ accounts.

My intention is to try to challenge myself while doing something good for someone else. It’s a win-win for us all. I want to make it clear that I know many people are giving and planning to give to these relief efforts. I am honored by your compassion and responsibility, and in no way do I want to interfere with your efforts to give generously. You can give the same amount you were intending, with no reference to my race results. If this post helps you or a friend to consider giving more, I am honored if you would join me in this challenge.

If anything, I want to inspire you to give and feel good about giving. I’m the lucky one here. I get to run. I have a home with heat and clean water. I am not worrying where the next meal will come from, or whether I may become ill with pneumonia. I’ll be asking some of my friends and connections through Social Media to help me get the word out that I’m counting on others to pull together and help. My little contribution is just two hours (or less!) of physical discomfort while I go tearing around Seattle in the cold air, remembering that someone out there may have read this, and is waiting for me finish this race to prompt them to give a little more because I gave it my all.

Seven days left to go.

See you out on the race course, in person or on the Internet through ChronoTrack!

 

 

Posted in: Seattle

Tagged with: half marathon, philippines, racing, runners, running, storm relief