Antarctica, 2015

First, Houston...
I spent an inspiring and larynx-destroying weekend in Houston watching both the Olympic marathon trials and the Houston marathon. Meeting Abdi (men's third place finisher) in the lobby of the Hilton was a thrill and I will be cheering hard for him when he competes in London.

Cheering hard for Jess, Beth and Heidi was equally thrilling (where the heck did Heidi go??). Jess had a killer time, Heidi overcame injury and lack of training and Beth bested her goal only four months after having a baby. If being in their company doesn't get you motivated, I don't know what will!

Which led to...
And that's probably why I, an out of shape lapsed runner, decided with spontaneity and total conviction to run the Antarctica marathon. (Having Erika enthusiastically endorse this as a good idea definitely egged me on.)

If race vendors at marathon expos ever wondered if their multitude of brochures have a return on investment, I am proof: I sent in my deposit my first day back in Vermont.

How does this work?
A company called Marathon Tours puts the race the together, running among the base camps of several countries' research stations. (I think the Russian station is the start and finish - slava bogu, a good omen!)

The entire adventure is a roughly two-week expedition on a boat, including penguins, whales, sea kayaking, ice fjords and a marathon thrown in the middle. Read this year's itinerary for an idea.

Why the...?
I may have never liked running, but I have always liked adventure. Running my first marathon WAS an adventure, but now I need something a little bigger and scarier to keep me in the game. I have three years to get back into shape and get ready for the cold. Erika and Beth point out this should be easy in Vermont -- every time it's really cold, really snowy or really windy I have to go outside for run. This weekend is great test!

Here's the plan:

Spring 2012: run 1/2 marathons
Fall 2012: run full marathon, Chicago?
Spring 2013: full marathon, VCM?
Fall 2013: 1/2 marathons
Spring 2014: full marathon, San Diego?
Fall 2014: 1/2 marathons
Spring 2015: Antarctica!!

What I learned from the (FANTSTIC!) Round Church 10K

True confessions from "I never liked running": more than a week before GMAA's Round Church 10K I was secretly thinking up excuses to get me out of running it. And I'm so glad I didn't give into that impulse, because the race was such a fun day of running and celebrating.

Jess had recommended running 3 miles before the race to increase my mileage for the day, which keeps me on track in training for the Leaf Peepers 1/2 Marathon the first weekend of October. But running nine miles somehow seemed an implausibly huge distance. I still had a little jet lag, I'd barely gotten home from vacation, I'd been sick... what else? What else? The crisis in Syria? Locusts?

The Round Church 5K and 10K is a women-only race organized by GMAA. The out-and-back course starts at the Richmond landmark and goes out Cochran Road by the river. The day dawned foggy but burned into a bright blue, warm sun sky over 600-700 women running for the fun of it. I'm sooo glad I didn't skip this race.

I got to Richmond at 7:30 Saturday morning, got my race bib and headed across the iron bridge toward the village. The trail along the river around the park was awesome, the little side street neighborhoods were awesome, the Port-o-let line was not awesome, but I got in 3 miles and got to the Round Church just in time for the start.

A few fantastic people who were at the race:

• Emily, my friend of 10 years (is that possible?) who is now running with a central Vermont group called illume, and several of their runners were out in force in bright red shirts
• Jess, who answered questions, handled logistics, greeted runners and still kicked ass in the 5K
• Heidi, who ran hard in the 10K, and still waited around for me finish, and who ran the last mile or so with me
• Sasha, who I only know by her bright neon Fleet Feet shirt, and who ran my pace and who had an awesomely fun attitude the whole time
• Evie, a 9-year old I met in the first mile who was running her THIRD 5K; I was amazed

I love out-and-back courses because you get to see all the runners -- the fastest, the slowest, the marvelous middle of the pack. There was such a good mood shimmering over this race, with women of all paces and the ages cheering each other on and smiling through the sweat and miles.

And not for nothing, but I won a pot of purple flowers in a raffle after the race. Not too shabby! (Liz: "You won flowers for running? " Me: "No.. I won flowers AT running....")

So, I could have easily slept in and not done the extra three miles, I could have even skipped the race altogether and copped a reasonable excuse for doing so. But there's really nothing to gain by starting out with a mindset of "how can I get out of this?" What I learned from the Round Church 10K? Stick with goals that are realistically hard, and try to focus on the 'realistic' part rather than the 'hard' part.

Also, dress well. It makes you feel better.

Regent's Park 10K, "Resplendent!"

When I decided on a vacation in London, the only firm plan I had was to run in the monthly 10K in Regents Park. Yesterday morning I met my college friend, Joy, in the lobby of my hotel and headed toward the Sloane Square tube station to get to the race start. Checking the time, we decided to take a cab instead, and got the funniest, nicest taxi driver, who was vexed by the road closures due the London triathlon, also that weekend. We turned a 15 minute ride into a 45 minute ride while he cracked us up with comments about Americans being laid back (news to me) and running (he used to run daily until he got a girlfriend a year ago and found that eating out is more fun) and about my fear of being the last one to finish the race (to which he added his fear that I would be the last one to arrive at the race if he couldn't get a handle on the detours. Sorry, "diversions.").

Regent's Park is pretty, with boating ponds, open lawns for cricket, shaded pathways and fountains. The 10K was three loops of a 2-mile path, several hundred runners, many of them from running clubs, and some of them extremely fast. I beat my goal by one minute, finishing at 1:09 and a few seconds.

And as in every race I've run in the US, my slow-to-middling speed was overshadowed by having noteworthy attire. There are no running dresses (or running skirts) to be found here. So the fact that I was wearing a black, pink, white, turquoise swirly-patterned running dress sort of stood out. Particularly when the elderly race announcer boomed through his bullhorn at the starting line, "Here's the most colorful outfit of the day! ONLY AN AMERICAN WOULD WEAR THIS!" I mentioned this race was three loops, which gave the man with bullhorn (Peter, I introduced myself to him afterward) four opportunities to comment, through said bullhorn, on my dress. "Ah! Here she comes! Only an American would wear that!" "Here she is again, Miss Resplendent! Only an American would wear that!" The word "resplendent" was bellowed through that bullhorn a few times, as was his pronouncement of my nationality. Joy reported overhearing a spectator call my dress "psychedelic." I never pegged myself as the obviously-an-American kind of traveler, till this...

At the finish, when I thanked Peter for a great race and introduced myself, he enthusiastically shook my hand, gave me hug and enthused about my clothing choices to the crowd at the finish line. He's going to the Portland marathon this Fall, and I suggested he might try wearing a running dress. "Resplendent!!" he answered.