A Year of Running + Gardening

Although it was only two years ago when I first started running around the lakes, I’m now in dire need of new running areas. Where do you like to run? (Preferably around Minneapolis, Saint Paul, or the immediate surrounding suburbs.)

March 20

Mostly a run with a few short breaks for 3.28 miles. Nice run. Warm, but not hot, light, but not sun.

1. Work under a 45 hour work week for the first time since June.
   
2. Run three times.

Get Ready

I just signed up for Dam to Dam a 20k race in early June. I’m starting training this week.

Due to my schedule for training for the Chicago Marathon and so many out of town events, I’m opting not to garden this year.

I’m still planning to use tumblr. to keep me honest by recording my runs, just as I did the first year, but this means that you’re not going to see as many cutesy photos of baby plants that remind you of the glory of spring. Expect to see things switched up a little bit. I may share more food photos, hauls from my local farmers’ markets, and maybe struggles in trying to use more in-season foods.

For now, just know that you’re going to see a lot of maps.

March 11

Starting to record these things again. 3.7 around Harriet on an abnormally beautiful March day.

All registered. I’m crazy.

January 30: Ran with a couple of coworkers for 3.52 miles. Glorious day in Minneapolis with highs in the upper 30s. Felt good to get out of the office and even better to be running.

The great debate on whether I run another marathon just started again. For me, at this point, it’s hard to consider because the last one was so hard. It took everything that I had to finish. Which isn’t to say that it was the last mile, or the last 5 miles, or even the last 10 miles. It was pain starting at mile 9 and shot through my knee with every step. It was hitting the wall, hard, at mile 17 and being completely covered in salt. Visibly covered in salt. It was trying to do that knowing I had to get home to my uncle’s funeral. And when you bury all of that together, it’s hard to go back. But for running.

It’s calm. It’s consistency. It’s constant. It’s companionship on the long runs. It’s being more than you thought you could be.

Let the internal turmoil begin.

Whew. I’m tired. I can’t help it, but I think it all the time. This summer I attempted to simultaneously garden and train for a marathon. On top of that, my cousin got married on Orange Beach Alabama on the gulf, so I spent a week there with my family, I had a business trip to Vegas the following week, and then a week after that I left for 11 days in Europe with my mom and sister. While I was there, we found out that John got a social media internship in Boston. I got back in early August and moved swiftly from 50 hour weeks into 60 hour weeks. John and I briefly said goodbye at the end of the month when I left for a 20 mile run and he got in his car for Boston.

In late September, my boss then delivered her baby a week early and 60 hour weeks turned into 70 hour weeks. A week later my uncle passed away in a harvesting accident in the arms of my mom and dad. I’ll let that soak in for a moment. They were there. I found out at work at 8:30 on a Wednesday night. When you find out that somebody you love has died, there’s no place worse to learn that news than at work. It’s crushing, it’s no place for tears, and it’s approximately a thousand miles away from the seclusion of a bed and pillows and blankets and kleenex. To learn that news and then to decide whether or not you’re going to run a marathon is beyond comprehension. I worked two more days. I ran the marathon on Sunday. I got done running, went home immediately, and was in the car on the way back to Iowa for the funeral within two hours. I stayed for one day and arrived back in Minnesota at midnight. The next day was Tuesday and I was back to work at 8 am. Since then, I’ve been working 60-65 hour work weeks. And sure, it’s advertising, this is what you do.

In the end, I finished the marathon and I left my garden to die. I’m fairly certain this is what burning out feels like. Mostly it feels like nothing. Each day you just make do with the circumstances you’ve created and the circumstances which have been created for you. Often it feels like incredible frustration, helplessness, and loneliness because nobody actually knows what all of that feels like. It feels like you’re becoming diluted and poison at the same time. But today…today I leave for a long weekend in Boston and I get to see John for the first time in 54 days.

I ran the marathon and I survived. A big deep and dirty soul-purging updating coming in the next few days. Stay tuned..or don’t, I don’t really care…okay, I kinda do…but just a little.

…20 mile run this weekend. EEEPPP!