Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind
Monday, January 26th, 2009
Blow, blow, thou winter wind.
Thou art not so unkind
As man’s ingratitude;
Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.
Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then, heigh-ho, the holly!
This life is most jolly. …
- from As You Like It
I want to share three things that made me smile during the past couple of days. Can you guess the connections?
At trail's end off Inspiration Point, middway through a 20-miler, with Jim Hesson and Tom Riley (thanks to Dennis Hoagland for taking the pic). We caught quite a chill pausing in that damp wind!
1. This snapshot from the halfway point on Saturday’s 20-miler. I ran with three seasoned runners on the Skyline National Recreation Trail between Sibley and Tilden regional parks, over Volmer Peak, and on the Nimitz Trail from Inspiration Point. The fog was so dense that I could drive only 5 mph to the start. The trails were so slick that I had to grab branches to keep from falling. The wind was so fierce that I had to shout at the summit to be heard. The last time I ran this stretch, the trails and vistas epitomized tranquility and clarity. I’m not entirely sure why, but the shroud of fog and lashing of wind made Saturday’s run more satisfying than any run I would have had on a take-for-granted pretty day.
My brother David getting his winter workout.
2. This recent photo of my brother snowshoeing up Lizard Head Peak near his home in Telluride. He disdains ski lifts and their crowds, preferring to earn with his legs and sweat every downhill thrill that he carves on his snowboard. He recently turned 50, but he’s forever in my mind the 18-year-old who’d willingly carry his 8-year-old sister piggyback up the mountain on a family hike.
3. This commercial from YouTube. It’s funny but touches a nerve. That aggro alpha chick must have some big score to settle — and I like the way she fights!
The obvious connection is winter weather and the edge it brings to our training. A more subtle suggestion, captured by the Bard, is the way the weather can provide a comparative relief or escape from certain people or circumstances.
Thankfully, I’m not caught in any stormy relationships or particularly stressful situations right now. But training for the Napa Marathon, which is in five weeks, has turned up the heat under some long-simmering issues. The training itself is going pretty well; I’m running 5 or 6 days a week, averaging 45 – 55 miles per week (plus strength training at the gym at least twice per week). I’ve had a nice string of long weekend runs in the 20 – 26 mile range, during which I try to progress to marathon goal pace for at least a portion of those long runs.
What is “marathon goal pace”? Ah, that is the big question.
People who ask what my goal time is probably don’t know my history at Napa and the personal significance this particular marathon carries. So here’s my goal, what it’s always been: to run a Boston Qualifier under the top men’s standards, which would be sub-3:10. That means I need to do better than a 7:15 pace (and knowing me, I’ll have to factor in potty breaks). How close I can get to 3 hours isn’t the issue for me; I just want to make the men’s time. I missed it by a minute in the previous attempt.
I want to reach this upper eschelon in the sport to prove to myself that I can accomplish something that seemed so far out of reach when I started marathoning. But I also want to earn a level of legitimacy and respect that the women’s qualifying time of 3:40 can’t deliver. It takes guts, sweat and balls (metaphorical ones at least) to run sub-3:10. Any woman who does it is less likely to be seen as a pretty face and told to smile.
I was smiling toward the end of Saturday’s hard run while setting the pace on the cold final stretch, and I’ll smile again when I cross the finish of 26.2 in 3:09:59 or less.
Tags: Boston Marathon, Napa Marathon, Running, Tilden, trail