Running with Righty #2: 3 months out!
Okay so I didn’t meet my goal of writing every week...not even close…but it’s three months from Marathon Monday and I wanted to fill you in on all the goings on! Here we go!
Yay! Running with Righty is back. I apologize for the delay — I really have no excuse besides life getting in the way. Between the holidays, travel and work being back in full swing, I’ve been a busy lady. But, we have lots to catch up on, so without further ado, please enjoy!
And, if you haven’t yet, you can donate to my Spaulding fundraising page here — any amount counts!
I want to start by celebrating a huge milestone that happened over the holidays — we hit $5,000 raised for SRH. I cried a lot. I am so grateful for all the support from friends, family and strangers. $5,000 is serious money that can do serious things for patients like me and I take everyone’s generosity very seriously. It does not escape me that there are so many worthy causes that come up around the holidays, and I thank you all for your willingness to support as you have. And now we’re at more like $6,500! $10,000 fundraising goal, here we come.
To celebrate hitting half my goal, I ran a half marathon (okay, in reality it was also on my training plan for that week). It went amazingly and I felt so energized and proud of all the work it took to get to that point.
When the training has gotten hard (see more in the section titled “How It Feels To Really Be Running Running”), it is everyone’s love that has propelled me through. Thank you, all of you, really truly from the bottom of my heart.
Hungry All The Time
Let’s start on a light note. If you sit next to me at work all day (sorry, Eric), you know my latest complaint is that I’m hungry all the g.d. time. I will eat a big breakfast at 7am (aka multiple eggs, toast, a whole avocado, the works) and need more food by 8:30am.
This mini-update is not meant to be that exciting, but more a cry for help. Any recs for nutrient-dense, delicious and fun snacks are more than welcome (especially if they do not break the bank…my grocery bill as of late will thank you). I’m getting bored of Kind bars and clementines.
On the plus side, I’ve done a lot more cooking (winter favorites like heavy pastas and chili). Even though my NY apartment kitchen is cramped and makes me feel like I’m in the opening scene of a House Hunters episode where the couple is tripping all over themselves and exclaiming that they need more space, I am really enjoying being back in the kitchen.
NY Bridges — My New Love
WOW! Where have the bridges been my whole NY running experience? Sure, I dabbled in the bridges a bit before I started training but they have become a mainstay in my routes and I am loving it.
I miss hills. When I would run during college in VT, hills were a non-negotiable. In NY, it’s basically impossible to find a solid grade (besides the park of course). Then, I started running on the bridges and everything about running in the city changed for me.
For one, I got my hills back and I love it. For two, the views of the city have evoked a love for NY I did not have before. I feel closer to the city, seeing it from above, in between the boroughs. I’ve never been a New York person, but for the first time, I feel like I could be a New York person, and that’s pretty rad.
How It Feels To Really Be Running Running
Training is a lot. A lot a lot. But honestly, it feels so happy. I have missed being in my body this much — the last time I was running so much was senior year of college, and it’s exciting to feel this version of me come back around.
It’s also exhausting. I have whiled away a lot of early mornings running in the dark (shoutout to the one and only Rick Charron for keeping an eye on my location), I have spent hours coming up with routes and trying to squeeze in runs (shoutout to my family for their patience on vacation) and I have already hit a bunch of snags (shoutout to eating shit four times on the treadmill at the gym — embarrassing).
Just last week, I pulled my quad (my good quad on my left side no less), and had to adjust my long run to account for the injury. To be honest, getting injured brought back a lot of painful anxiety that I know all too well with my CP. What if I don’t get stronger? What if I stop being able to walk? What if the pain becomes too much to bare?
It turned out to be a little injury, and thankfully it’s already cleared up. But, it was on my good side and the setback reminded me how tenuous this whole operation is. It reminded me that I am relying on lots of moving pieces to fall into place to run this marathon. When my good side is injured, I don’t have another side to help compensate. I’m caught in a lurch. Without my good side, my bad side can’t get stronger. Without my bad side getting stronger, I can’t get this thing done. You see how fast this spiral can spiral.
I had to be patient this weekend, to trust my body and my coach and my progress. I had to be kind to myself. It was unbelievably hard. I am not one to grant myself kindness when I’m not achieving the goals I’ve set for myself. But I gave myself the grace, and now have another “why” behind this marathon.
Why am I doing this marathon? Because it’s helping me learn to trust my disabled body in a way I haven’t before, one setback at a time. It is so unbelievably hard, it will continue to be so unbelievably hard, and I’m so unbelievably proud of myself for even trying.
Okay, whooooof — enough of the heavy stuff, let’s close this out on a high note (pun intended)
Thought I would share some of the content I have been consuming while running. If I give you my recs, I need yours too! Please send any podcasts (my go to running soundtrack), as well as any hype music — I’m getting bored of my own taste.
Albums on repeat: Joni Mitchell Live from BBC, In The End It Always Does by The Japanese House, Reputation by TS (specifically …Ready For It? - me and Auntie’s running anthem), NOT DREAMS BY TALON!!!!!!!!
Podcasts I can’t get enough of: Any interview by the Smartless people, Las Culturistas obviously, Mike Bribiglia’s Working it Out
Till next time, thanks for checking in!!!!
<3 SGC
Highly recommend Collective Soul “Run”. Keep going Soph - you sparkle!