Lazy W Marie

Carpeing all the diems in semi-rural Oklahoma...xoxo

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Fueled

   It’s early Tuesday morning following the 2013 OKC Memorial marathon. The sun is still snuggled deep in the purple-black folds of the eastern sky. I am only half a cup of perfect coffee into this new day. Nothing is awake outside. Not a rooster, not a horse, not even the cranked up tree frogs who will serenade us to sleep if we let them. Wait, I do hear a goose. I think we all know which one. 

   The house feels hot and stuffy, so I open the kitchen door and enjoy the crisp breeze that promises another gorgeous day. Now the dining room is flooded with delicate birdsong and the hum of the interstate a couple of miles south.

   I feel like anything is possible.

   I know that anything is possible, so I choose my thoughts and prayers carefully. With those tightly reined, I can dream wildly. With abandon and trust.

   My feet crave the cool, spongy path of clover between the raised garden beds. My shoulders crave the sun. My eyes and nose crave a broad, curving expanse of herbs growing outside the kitchen window. I want to swim in the pond that is still topping its highest ridge. I want to explore the forest, napping on the thick pine needle mattresses and finding wild mushrooms and roses.

   I want to love the people close to me more fiercely and more gently than ever.

   Running the half marathon was one of the most positive experiences of my life. Until finishing it myself, I would have found that statement a bit cliche. So if you want to roll your eyes when you read that, I get it. Truly. But you guys… So many unexpected things happen in your mind and your body on long runs; and then so many more things happen when you share a long run with thousands of strangers… particularly in remembrance of such an event as the Murrah Building Bombing of 1995. Ignoring the myriad awakenings would be such a waste.

   So today, two days after the event, my heart is full in ways I did not expect. I love our beautiful renaissance City even more. I feel more bonded to our people, the strangers for sure but also and especially my parents in law and my brother and nephew. I feel like celebrating life more fully than ever.

   There is so much reason to celebrate.

   There is so, so much living to do!

   How are you going about it today?

Jangly Nerves & Positive Thinking

   The Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon is this weekend. As I type this, in about 58 hours thousands of people from all over the world will convene in our beautiful city and run different distances at varying speeds in remembrance of  April 19, 1995.

   And I will find out if I have prepared well enough for the half.

   Honestly, you guys, I am terrified. I am worried that I won’t make it past mile 9 (the longest I have run so far) or that my yoga pants or the elastic of whatever stupid, not matching outfit I end up wearing that day will fail when everyone is looking. I am worried that 6:30 a.m. is too early for my body to do much of anything besides drink coffee, enjoy the sunrise, and watch chickens and llamas do their thing. Will Handsome be willing to have a 4 am Hot Tub Summit with me that day?
   I am worried that while running with strangers a big gust of Oklahoma wind will kick up on an unfamiliar urban hill and steal my favorite turquoise beekeeper’s ball cap, Velcro fastener mangling my ponytail in the process, and that I will be so devastated that I exit the race to reclaim it. I will then trample someone’s perfectly designed tulip-and-pansies flower bed and never show my face on the north side of town again. I am worried about embarrassing my little brother and our nephew, who are also running that day, and I’m desperately worried that my beautiful daughters will be there on the sidelines and feel embarrassed of me.

   For the past nine months or so I have been “training,” sometimes strictly but often not. There has certainly been slow, steady progress; my abilities today are without a doubt beyond what they were last summer when this all started. But at this moment on Thursday evening before the race, a sort of panic is overtaking my confidence like an ugly oil spill.

   Side note #1: Isn’t it interesting to note the nine months detail? 
Amazing things can happen with a woman’s body in that slice of time.

   Enough negativity.

   No doubt about it, if I can get my thoughts and feelings under control then everything will be fine. The race will be a success. I will come home with my favorite hat and a medal to give my parents-in-law (I’m running for them), and no one will pretend like they don’t know me. At least, not any more than they already do.

   Running is absolutely a mental game, and I recently enjoyed some proof of this fact. Would you like to hear a little story?

   This past Monday afternoon I went for exactly my second public run since junior high P.E. class. Running in public is a ginormous phobia for me, adding to my building sense of dread and doom for this weekend.

   I drove to a municipal park about twenty minutes from our farm, believing the paved track around it to be one mile. At home I am accustomed to running two miles before stopping for water, so at this park I planned to do the same. Two miles, which would be two laps. Right? I listened to the same music, kept my normal pace, and just kind of got lost in the zone.


   Side note #2: I used to regard sports metaphors with a special disdain, 
believing them to be contrived and super dorky and not sincere. 
Now I know they are anything but that. There really is such place as a zone, 
and it it’s absolutely magical there.

   Back to Monday.

   I ran steadily, following this lovely paved path which alternated between sun and shade, semi-private and very public. I celebrated inwardly how friendly people are to runners. Then at the end of two laps I felt thirstier and much looser and more warmed up than I usually do after two miles. I checked my phone and saw that rather than twenty minutes, I had been running for almost an hour! It was shocking. I later confirmed the path I took was three point-something miles.

Side note #3: I have the best running music in the universe.

  The point this proves is that my body could fulfill the expectations placed on it by my mind. I thought I was running two miles, which is easy, so I just kept going. Easily. And it turned out to be six. Then grabbing one final three-mile lap was a breeze, and I finished nine miles giggling out loud.

   Once my mind was distracted and in the zone, my body naturally followed suit. I have no doubt that if I had been focused on difficulty, that would have been my experience.

   The whole thing is flat out exhilarating. The physical, the mental, the emotional… All of it.

   So while I cannot predict the exact results of Sunday’s race, I can insist on a return to positive thinking and trust that it will foster a good experience. I can support my little brother and our nephew for their incredible efforts. I can thank my husband for supporting me in mine. And I can love and honor the people for who I am running, the rescue workers and morgue workers:

Harvey Wreath
Judy Wreath
Alan Prokop

   Thanks for listening to me sort this thing out. The big irony here is that running has become my stress reliever and at this eleventh hour, no matter how stressed I am, I’m not supposed to run anymore, just rest and stretch till Sunday.
   Continue to pray for the city of Boston, and when you wake up Sunday morning send me some positive vibes!

“Winning is not bout headlines and hardware (medals).
  It’s only about attitude. A winner is a person who goes out today
  and every day and attempts to be the best person he can be.
  Winning is about struggle and effort and optimism,
  and never, ever, ever giving up.”
~Amby Burfoot, Editor-at-Large, Runner’s World
xoxoxoxo

Commencing Training

   Oh my goodness, friends… After joking and dreaming about the possibilities of it for a few months, today I step boldly and sweatily into the half-marathon training program for the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon later this Spring. Between now and April 28, my goals are twofold:

  • To be conditioned to run 13.1 miles at a reasonable pace.
  • To do so in front of lots of other human beings without having a nervous breakdown.

   I am more optimistic about the first half of this venture than the second. Of course, losing a little curvy padding around my posterior would not hurt my feelings one bit. I won’t lie, “skinny” is always on my radar. And running just a few times a week has made a nice difference there and all through my life.

   But the good news in the vanity department is that by making running a true habit, a regular fixture in my life, being skinny has taken a back seat. No pun intended. hahaha

   The more I run, the better I feel instantly. And the less junk my body craves. And the more water I tend to drink. So, the more I run, the more I tend to slim down, naturally. It’s all part of my word for this year, STRENGTH.

    Anyway, the program includes more than running. Twice a week I am supposed to incorporate strength training and stretching, which I’ll interpret as either yoga or Pilates. These are on Mondays and Saturdays, so today I have a date with Jillian Michaels.

   On running days, though, my dusty, sticker-ridden shoes will be tromping around the back field here at the farm, negotiating hills and tree roots, eluding a snotty llama, and keeping beat with a slew of late 90’s rappers.

   Have you started a New Year fitness regimine? Would you like to join me in this perfectly realistic schedule? If you’re local, would you like to do some running around a lake or park soon?

   One final thought before I close up and head outside for an amazing Springlike day in Oklahoma… Edie at {lifeingrace} said this last year of fitness… That it is an excellent servant but a terrible master. I could not agree more. Whatever you do for your body, let it be something that serves you rather than something to which you become a slave yourself. Amen.

   Okay, see you around! I have a 70-degree day to soak up!

“There is a necessity for a regulating discipline of exercise that,
whilst evoking the human energies,
will not suffer them to be wasted.”
~Thomas de Quincey
xoxoxo