quick note - my results

I set a new personal record today for walking the 10k. I shaved about 3/4 of a minute per mile off my record time, which I set mid-July at the Smith Rock Sunrise Classic. I also looked back at my time last year for this event - which was with a friend and the early stages of getting fit - and I bit off a huge chunk of time from that: I finished 24 minutes earlier today than I did just a year ago. Things are looking up.

And that's a great number of funds raised for Write Around Portland. I'm leaving my donation widget up on my website, The Writing Vein, for another month so people can still donate if they find some extra cash lying around and they want to give it to an awesome cause.

Thanks, everyone! For being you, for being Write Around Portland, for the financial support to the organization and the personal support to those of us who participated in our various ways in the event.

inspiration is a two-way happening

Last week I took my distance training day off - on the advice of my doctor because of pain in my Achilles tendon; but still. I took it off. I did a one-mile stroll with a friend the next day. Then I missed my pace training 2 days later; same reason. I did the 4 miles of the pace training, but at regular speed - not speedy speed. That was this last Monday.

On Tuesday I did my strength training and regular walking (several short brisk-ish walks totalling an hour scattered in between my jobs).

Then it was Wednesday and time for my hill training (in preparation for the half marathon in Seattle; I don't need it for the Portland Mayor's Walk!). I was concerned about my heel and feeling a little frustrated about missing the distance day and not doing the pace training. And doubting myself. Not wanting to do it - up and down the hill to Mt Tabor several times.

I distracted myself by checking my email. Which turned out to be the perfect anecdote to my funk. There was the following email from my dragon boat / half-marathon walking / whitewater rafting friend :

Hi Dot... every now and then I check in on your writing [on your website, The Writing Vein] ... and I love reading what you write! I also just wanted to tell you that it inspired me because I'm getting to the point where I think about going out for a run/walk or walk and I don't want to... but you remind me that I will feel better if I go and do it. Thank you for that!

I was just going to go do the 1/2 Marathon without training but think I'd better get out there and get my feet in condition!

Don't forget the Race for the Cure on the 20th!

...oh, and she's a MissFit Alliance Race for the Cure teammate, too.

I went out with a smile and walked up and down the hill. And without any pain in my foot but with a renewed sense of "I can do this."

Thank you, Karen, for your perfectly timed counter-insprational note. And I did feel better for having done it.

walking around for write around

I will be walking the 10k Mayor's Walk in the Portland Marathon. I am a walker, not a runner - and I'm fine with that. I am not a race walker, I am a walker who is increasing her pace little by little, with a current goal of doing under 17 minute miles in a half marathon in November. And I'm okay with that, too.

I read Loren's post with a knowing nod about what keeps you going when you don't feel like it. I am just coming out of one of those stretches where I've had to drag myself out the door to go for the 5-mile pace building training walk, or the 8-mile distance building walk, or to walk up and down the hill to Mt Tabor 5 - 7 times. And that's been okay, too.

So what does keep me going?

Sometimes it's noticing how I'm feeling - like the time two weeks ago when I took a day off due to fatigue, and it was the day after my training day off. I was feeling frustrated and overwhelmed. So on the third day I set out on my training walk and I'd gone only a fraction of the miles I had to go and that cloud of doom lifted and I thought, ahhhh. Recognizing that my body has become used to the daily routine. Easier and cheaper than another therapy appointment or anti-depression medication *grin*. Or it's my partner telling me I've become a little crabby and wouldn't a walk feel good? And I know she's right. And it does.

Sometimes I keep going because I've signed up for some events and rallied others to join me on events I haven't signed up for yet. An example is that Sunday I thought, there is no way I can do that 8 miles today and then I remembered that, after the Mayor's Walk, my next event is the half-marathon in Seattle in November. Which now feels not so far away; and I'm out the door with shoes laced and my Camelbak full with a package of Stingers in my pocket.

The same is true of writing. If I go too long without being actively engaged in the writing process, I get cranky. I start feeling bottled up. Stuck. And sometimes I have to completely close that internal critic's eye and just write. I keep myself enrolled in a "Lit Star Training" course with Ariel Gore so that writing is kept on my list of things to do, with weekly assignments and peer feedback. And I find submission deadlines to give me an end-point or a reason to keep revising.

I write because I have something to say.

I walk because I feel better when I do and because I don't want to lose the muscle I've gained or gain the weight I've lost.

I walk and I write because sometimes I find myself smiling for no apparent reason, except that it feels good to be alive and I have something to look forward to. Or maybe I have a kayak tucked in the back of my car. Or snowshoes in the closet waiting for the snow to fall.

Or I find myself halfway up the four flights of stairs to Write Around Portland to pick up my facilitator's bag and realize I didn't even consider taking the elevator.