Week 4: Six Miles and Smiling?

Today was a great day of running! I am not sure why or how; it just was.

The pace leaders for Groups 7 and 8 had both emailed about learning to run uphill as well as the first crossing of the Santa Monica Pier. Both were "firsts" in marathon training for me.

Before all of the groups set out, Lightning Rod Dixon mentioned the need to learn to run uphill and downhill. Then, they announced the groups would be slowing down, fairly significantly. This meant my new adopted group, Magnificent 7/Lucky 7 was aiming for 12:00 miles rather than race day plan of 10:30. Since I have run much faster than that on 5K and just in training and even the Roadrunners sessions, it was a bit disappointing. Then, the senior pace leader explained it a bit more and ended with, "To run faster, we must run slower." Apparently, this helps build up aerobic capacity; but, for a sprinter-minded runner, it is near heresy ... we run faster to run even faster! This Los Angeles Marathon is a whole new world for me.

Nevertheless, soon Group 7 was launched down the Strand in Venice on an absolutely beautiful day. I felt so comfortable and at ease; it was amazing. Granted, the speed was slow; but, I was running six miles without a problem, something basically impossible at the start of May. I was barely even sweating, which in itself is near miraculous. I stopped at the water station; but, it was certainly far from an emergency halt.

The group continued onwards and we reached the landmark Santa Monica Pier and began the ascent up from the Strand. We were then halted for a bit of training on uphill and downhill running and even a practice session up and down the bit of incline from Pico and the famous sign. I was almost gleeful hearing "pump your arms like a sprinter." Yeah! In fact, a lot of the old ways came back quickly as memories of how I ran The Bowl and stadiums kicked in almost instinctively. It really was no problem.

After ascending up to Ocean Avenue, we continued north alongside a stunning view of a near empty beach and a gorgeous, non-tsunami-threatened Santa Monica Bay. The old tap-the-fingers trick was in effect. I could not believe how relaxed I felt running what really is a decent distance! I actually broke out a smile! A smile! A smile while running! I could not believe it. I had NEVER smiled while running. At Servite, it was essentially forbidden unless you had a) finished a race b) won Yet, here I was smiling! Unreal. People were dropping out of the group and here I was smiling! I just could not imagine this happening.

So, we continued up to California Avenue passing the Santa Monica and Wilshire Boulevard borders demarcating the rich and proper people from us lot in the south. We turned around and got a nice view over the sea as a reward and headed back south. Among the sights was a low-flying military CH-47 Chinook helicopter flying along the beach! Wow, even some aviation scenery for me to see. This was a good run.

Our group headed back down over the Pier and down the Strand to our start, logging 6.06 miles. I knew it was a slow run; but, what a run. I felt so relieved. No knee problems. No problems at all. I actually felt peaceful. After stretching out hearing a bit on next week, it was back to the school for Gatorade, water and bananas. Then there was a rather detailed and scientific discussion on nutrition. I then headed for home.

It was just such a moment for me, a nice moment after a lot of challenges. It will not be easy to finish training and then actually running the Marathon come March 21; but, this helped a lot. I did six miles and it felt like I could have doubled it. Normally, alone on the track I would be huffing and puffing ...

The marathon style is so different. I had been trained to think like a cheetah: run on your own, run hard, run fast and get your target quickly. Now, it is like a wolf pack: run together, run consistently, run longer, and endure. Two ways of looking at life, I guess.

I still have a long ways to go on many, many things in my life; but, perhaps this was a start. Or as my hero Sir Winston Churchill said, "It was not the beginning of the end, but perhaps the end of the beginning."