Day 1 : Happy Feet, Troubled Heart, Clear Mind

 Day 1 : 17 Weeks : 1 Day : 00 Hours : 17 Mins: 00 Secs*

Runs end. Running doesn't. - Anonymous

print screen of 39th BMW Berlin Marathon website

It's been a while since I posted here @ Happy Feet in the Netherlands. I've been very busy but also had a terrible case of writer's block due to numerous life factors.

Tonight, to be completely direct, I would rather not blog at all.  But I vowed to myself, that I will keep a daily journal of my marathon odyssey from beginning to end.

So, here I am trying to be an adult, even though I would rather lie down in bed and cry myself to sleep like a child, who does not understand the world and it's complexities. (Edit: link added, Saturday, 3rd of June)

My feet are a happy pair though, even if my heart is terribly aching.

After running a 3.04 kms (in 24.49 minutes) today, I had a wide smile over my puffy eyes because it felt like I did not have a break at all.

I took 11 days off running (after my 10K run in Nijmegen) since I felt persistent pain around my ankles when I walked, and I was scared because even careful jogging felt like I was twisting  my muscles.

Nothing fancy with this watch but it suits it's purpose (timing my runs!), and mijn liefste P gave it to me shortly after finishing my first Run2Day Ladies Damloop, September, 2011

I tried to maintain fitness through long distance biking.  When I am cycling, I did not feel any pain at all.

Biking, I have to say in my case, is also a physical activity, which do not require much motivating to do.  Perhaps because it's  a part of our everyday life,  specially during school weeks; it's for the most part our main means of transportation in the village.

 

My bike. This picture was originally shared last April @ The Lightness of Being on the Bike

One of the good things, that came out of my short running break is I discovered how much I've improved in biking since we moved in the Netherlands.

I've written this in one of my blogs before: in looking back on my improvement  in the last 2 years of consistent biking, I am encouraged to be patient in improving my speed and all around performance in running. As with everything else we want to achieve in life, consistency, patience, persistence  eventually produces positive results.

an image taken June, 2010, shortly after mijn liefste P bought and assembled the bike for me; I tried it out for the first time, and after 1 km fell off it (this is my first country bike, I had a mountain bike, when we were still living in Germany)- more bike stories @ The Lightness of Being on the Bike

I guess, I can call today a painful (metaphorically and yeah, literally) over-due birth to this marathon daily journal.

It's been more than a couple of days, since my 9-month-runniversary of being a beginner runner - still thinking of celebrating it belatedly (blog to follow!).  I begun running by following an 8 weeks-training program for my first 8K on the 8th of August, and following the training plan, participated in my first ever running event almost three weeks later, Mom in Balance - Run for Pink Ribbon (Sunday, 28th of August, held in Amsterdam Bos).

Mijn liefste P beside shortly after finishing my first ever 5K Mom in Balance- Run for Pink Ribbon NL @ Amsterdam Bos - 28th of August, 2011

If not for the heart-ache of today, I would perhaps not made the effort to "begin" again in every sense of the word with a modest 3 kms run (it felt so good I had to do super-mini interval training), and to blog about the circumstances that surrounded it as honestly as I can.

The longest distance I have thus far ran in my short runner life is 15 kms, and that during my training in December, 2011.

It was in a very stormy evening, as I fought the wind, I tried my best to convince my body I was ready to participate in a 15 kms run I registered myself in for held in Rotterdam.

I missed it due to a very stubborn virus I caught a month before.

Since then (I thought!) I've learned my lessons, I would no longer cry over a "lost" run, nor be disappointed if I don't perform as I would like to.  I also thought after being sidelined from running for weeks during Winter, that I would know better how to balance time for running, the things I have to do to keep fit for it, with every thing else in my life - my family life, my social life, my responsibilities, and my countless interests.

My first run for the year 2012 @ The Vondelparloop, last 15th of January, after missing out on 15K run in Rotterdam.

But everyday I learn, that the lessons to be learned from intergrating running in one's life, is never-ending, even on days I am not running.

Every day as I try to get to know the runner I am becoming, I learn to appreciate and respect the boundaries of my body, and mind.  When I consistently do so, I am amazed how both communicate to me, how strong I am, and can be.

This image was captured by mijn liefste P, last year in October, as I picked up my bib for my first 8K @ the Amsterdam Marathon Expo held at Sporthallen Zuid

I might feel pain in my body, heart and mind, but running shows me clearly, I am strong enough to endure and overcome those pain.

*When I begun writing this post (11:45 pm), I wanted to print the screen of BMW Berlin Marathon website for their countdown, but I got distracted and when I finally came to it, it was beyond midnight. Just a curious fyi for readers, who perhaps like me, look at those kind of details. :)