Still Running by Gill Hunter

Still Running

by Gill Hunter

@gillhunter_eku

I ran two half marathons in the last two weeks. The performances themselves are certainly nothing to write about; I finished way, waaaay back in the pack in both races. I could write about the uniqueness of the races or courses – both were first-time events, both were hilly, and both were definitely scenic. On November 2nd, I ran in the Shakertown Half Marathon, the first trail race I’ve run, and my slowest ever. I was faster, but by no means fast, on November 16th, when I ran the Renfro Rock ’n Run Half Marathon.

I can spin those details, right? More time to enjoy the view…. Made sure to get my money’s worth…. Started my recovery run halfway through the race….

The thing is, though, that each time I crossed the finish line, more than an hour after the top runners had finished, it felt like a victory. Because I couldn’t help but think about how far I’d come.

***

I went for a run on July 9th. I didn’t get a particularly early start; I had run Lexington’s annual Bluegrass 10k on July 4th and left for a short vacation with my family the next day. We got back late on the 8th so I slept in a little and moved slowly to start the day. By the time I set out it was nearly 10:00 and the temperature was already climbing. I had envisioned an 8 miler, but cut back those plans, heeding the weatherman’s heat advisory. I still wanted to be tough, though; after all I’m a runner, so I followed a familiar 6 mile route.

That route offers little shade, and the sun beat down. I ended up walking more than I usually do, and by mile 5 or so I didn’t feel very good at all. I decided my blood sugar was low, so I stopped at a hotel about a mile from home and asked for a Coke. Taking pity on me, they gave me one and I sat outside for 5 minutes or so, drinking and hoping things would improve.

Things didn’t improve, so I self-diagnosed some more: my body temperature had to be too high. I went back in to ask for a cold towel. I just needed to do enough to get back home. No one was up front, so I balanced myself at the counter and hollered my request toward the back.

I don’t know what happened next.

I heard a man’s loud voice, “Sir! Sir! We’ve called the paramedics!” I looked up, discovering I was lying flat on my back on the hotel’s hardwood floor. I tried to sit up, but couldn’t really do it. I asked the man to call my wife – I said something like that anyway – and tried to give him her number. He was nervous and I couldn’t talk clearly, but I knew enough to point to my shoe: my wife feared the Road ID tag she bought me would come in handy. On this day it helped save my life.

Two young ladies came around the corner. One brought the towel I had asked for, several of them actually, and the other was pushing a bucket and mop. It was then that I noticed the pain in the back of my head.

Again, I don’t know what happened next. Evidently I drifted in and out of consciousness, with the towel-bearer kneeling behind me, putting pressure on the gash in my head and holding me up as much as she could. She told my wife I was humming/mumbling/singing; I wish I knew the song. The bucket and mop-bearer cleaned up the pool of blood that had poured from my head and – a really good thing – got it cleaned up before my wife showed up. I was thrilled when my wife rushed through the door; it dawned on me that it was a miracle that I was seeing her again. I saw immediately the concern on her face. The paramedics, for whatever reason, didn’t share her concern: 19 minutes after the hotel’s manager called, they still hadn’t arrived. So my wife helped me to the car and we left.

She took me home, helped me get cleaned up a little bit and I sprawled, rather pathetically, on a towel on the floor trying to get the blood to stop flowing from my head. It wouldn’t quit, so I agreed to a trip to the emergency room.

It’s amazing how quickly a patient gets attention when his head is pouring blood. The nurse had never stapled a head closed before, but 5 staples later she considered herself an expert. Two bags of fluids got me to the point where I could at least comfortably sit up. The ER’s biggest concern, though, was my heart. Their thinking was simple, really: lots of people run in the heat, and lots get overheated, but I had passed out, and there had to be a reason.

Multiple blood pressure tests, an EKG, and an Echo test. A brief visit from the cardiologist, a follow-up appointment with another cardiologist, and a treadmill stress test. A baby aspirin every day, avoiding ibuprofen (did I mention the renal failure?), opting for the treadmill when the heat and humidity are high. Lots happened on July 9th, and lots has happened since then. I learned that day – and had to confess it to the cardiologist before he released me from the ER – that I have to be smarter than I am tough. My wife holds me to it, but she doesn’t have to. I now understand that taking care of myself the right way is literally a matter of life and death. I’ll exercise – doctor’s orders, after all – but I won’t be stupid.

And I’m going to race. Well, maybe not race like those at the front of the pack, but I’ll make strides. I’m still running, and I’m competing with myself – especially with what I would be if I weren’t running at all. And I’m steadily and purposefully and carefully, if slowly, running away from what could have been on that day in July.

Guest Post: 1 year of Running by Brenda Power

This week's guest post is by Brenda Power, founder of Choice Literacy

Thanks for sharing your story with us!

It’s been exactly one year since I started training for a 5K. I was inspired by Franki Sibberson’s commitment and discipline. I’ve done three 5Ks since then, and I’ll be trying my first 10K in August. This is after years of many sporadic and unsuccessful attempts to exercise.

When I think about what keeps me going, it’s one thing. The desire to get healthy? Nope – of course I’d love to be healthier, but that never fully catapulted me off the couch before. Vanity? Sure, I have plenty of that. But Vanity + No Discipline does not a runner make.

The thing that keeps me going is music! Here in Maine jogging outside is impossible for 4-5 months of the year because of snow, ice, and finally mud season (no kidding – in early April the mud gets so thick up here on the dirt road I live on  that I have sunk up to my ankles). What relieves the boredom of the treadmill is some great tunes – to rev me up, take me back to happier times, or help me imagine a healthier, happier me.

It turns out I’m not alone in relying on music to keep me going. In the March 2013 issue of Scientific American (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=psychology-workout-music), researchers verified that exercising to music helps athletes overcome fatigue and work a little harder:

The human body is constantly monitoring itself. After a certain period of exercise—the exact duration varies from person to person—physical fatigue begins to set in. The body recognizes signs of extreme exertion—rising levels of lactate in the muscles, a thrumming heart, increased sweat production—and decides it needs a break. Music competes with this physiological feedback for the brain's conscious attention. Similarly, music often changes people's perception of their own effort throughout a workout: it seems easier to run those 10 miles or complete a few extra biceps curls when Beyoncé or Eminem is right there with you.

I know when I am struggling to keep running, the right upbeat tune makes me jog for just a few minutes longer. Some songs take me back to happy times; others help me imagine months ahead when I’ll be healthier and have more energy because I’m exercising now.

When I’m getting bored with jogging, just putting together a new playlist of songs can get me excited again for the day’s workout. Finding new songs to add to playlists was a problem for many months. I’d scramble for a scrap of paper and pen to jot down songs that might work when I’d hear them on the radio. Googling “playlists for running” made me realize yet again how old I am – most of the playlists come from a younger generation that thrives on exercising to hip-hop or heavy metal head banging stuff. That’s not me.

I finally found jog.fm a few months ago, and my search is over for running tunes to sample and add to my playlists. jog.fm is a site where runners share their lists, and even better, the songs are all listed by beats per minute/pace. So if you are looking for songs to fit your pace as a runner (or a pace you aspire to), you can search by beats alone. A great bonus feature at the site is their mapping app – the best one I’ve found on the web for charting out routes from your home and calculating mileage. I live two miles down a dirt road in the middle of nowhere rural Maine, and my home often doesn’t show up accurately with maps on the web. But the one at jog.fm is dead-on accurate, and it’s fun to calculate new routes without having to drive them first.

Here are some of my favorite songs for playlists with the categories that work for me:

Anthems

• Let the River Run  - Carly Simon
• Dog Days Are Over  - Florence + The Machine
• Stronger -  Kelly Clarkson
• Hair -  Lady Gaga 
• Some Nights  - fun.
• The Edge of Glory - Lady Gaga

Good Beats

• Train in Vain   -  The Clash
• I Will Wait -  Mumford& Sons
• Feel Again  - OneRepublic
• Everybody Talks - Neon Trees
• Blow Me One Last Kiss - Pink
• Payphone -  Maroon 5
• Surprise, Surprise -  Bruce Springsteen

Makes Me Speed Up

• My Life Would Suck Without You  -  Kelly Clarkson
• I’m a Believer -  Smash Mouth
• From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come) - Bruce Springsteen

Guilty Pleasures

• Everything - Michael Buble
• MMMBop - Hanson
• I Gotta Feeling - Black Eyed Peas
• Brokenhearted - Karmin

Cool Down

• Can You Get to That  -  Funkadelic
• Seasons of Love  -   Rent Soundtrack
• One Step Up - Bruce Springsteen
• Landslide  - Dixie Chicks

Bonus Playlist for Those of A Certain Age and Inclination:

The Ultimate Bruce Springsteen Workout List!

• Born to Run
• We Take Care of Our Own
• Growin’ Up
• Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
• Ramrod
• Land of Hope and Dreams
• Thundercrack
• Promised Land
• Radio Nowhere
• Cadillac Ranch
• She’s the One
• Badlands
• Working on a Dream
• Tenth Avenue Freeze Out
• Thunder Road
• Sherry Darling
• No Surrender
• For You
• From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)
• Leap of Faith
• Living Proof
• Roll of the Dice
• Surprise, Surprise
• One Step Up

What are your favorite songs for playlists?

Let us know in the form below as we build the ULTIMATE #runteacherrun playlist!

Ugh...Why Would You Do That? by Mike Roberts

“Ugh…Why Would You Do That?”

Tips for Aspiring Ultra-Marathoners

So when I tell people that I run ultra-marathons (any race that is greater than 26.2 miles), their response is usually something along the lines of “Ugh…why would you do that?”

I used to laugh it off, primarily due to the fact that I pretty much get that same response whenever I tell people that I teach middle school.

But the more I’ve thought about it over the years, the more I’ve come to realize that I shouldn’t laugh it off. In fact, the question shouldn’t be why would I run ultras, but rather why wouldn’t I run them.

So in an attempt to get more of my teacher peeps out for a 50k, 50 mile, or even a 100-mile race, here are the top five reasons why being an ultra-marathoner rules.

1. You instantly become super-hero like to all your couch potato friends.  Lazy people are generally pretty easy to impress, so even casually mentioning the fact that you have a 50-mile race the next day puts you into Batman territory.
2. It’s not much more training than you do for a marathon.

Seriously. If you add an extra 10-15 miles per week to your marathon training, you can finish a 50k. The first one won’t be pretty, but you’ll finish.

3. You don’t have to run fast…you just have to run all day.

In fact, since most ultras take place in the mountains (involving climbing and single-track running), you will actually do a ton of walking during an ultra. But don’t tell your friends this…it might jeopardize the super-hero rep.

4. The aid stations are way better than marathons.

Don’t believe me? A typical ultra aid station comes complete with potato chips, Oreos, gummy bears, Coke, fruit, M&Ms, and, if you’re really lucky, popsicles. Sure beats a sippy cup of Gatorade, eh?

5. Black/Missing toenails are a badge of honor.

Embarrassed by your feet? Not at an ultra! Take pride in those sorry looking dogs! The more mangled, the better.

There you have it…the top five reasons why being an ultra-marathoner rules. And yes, there are other reasons (health benefits, challenging yourself, getting into nature, camaraderie with the other runner, etc.), but none of that stuff is nearly as cool as the junk mentioned above.

Still not convinced? Then I suggest checking out a few of my favorite ultra websites for inspiration…

http://www.irunfar.com/
http://antonkrupicka.blogspot.com/
http://footfeathers.blogspot.com/

And being an English teacher and all, here are a few books on the subject. You could even download them and listen to them while running. I know…I just blew your mind!

Born to Run by Christopher McDougall
Eat and Run by Scott Jurek
Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner by Dean Karnazes

Finally, in all seriousness, if you have any questions about running ultras, please feel free to email me at thebaldenglishteacher@gmail.com.  While I’m far from an expert, I can usually at least point you in the direction of someone much smarter than I am (which really isn’t that hard).

Now get out there and go for a run!

The Fragility of the Life-Run Balance by Gill Hunter

The Fragility of the Life-Run Balance

by Gill Hunter

Several years ago, I quit running because I started writing. I was in graduate school at Purdue University (Boiler Up!) and starting my dissertation. I had been running off and on for several years, never really seriously, and mostly as a brief diversion from the hours of reading required by a doctorate in literature. I reached my breaking point, though, when I started the dissertation. Every mile made me flinch as I thought, “that’s another page I could have written.” So I backed off, then quit altogether.

The good news is that the writing continued: I finished the dissertation and have the tenure track job teaching college English that we all wanted. But that something gained was unfortunately added to: thirty pounds I hadn’t had before, points on my cholesterol score (come to find out cholesterol’s like golf – the lower your score the better). The something lost – fitness, health, work-life balance – nagged at me. The dissertation-forced break from running became prolonged. I settled in. I was (and still am) very happily married, with two stepdaughters who kept (and keep) me active and filled with joy. For three years I stayed settled in that way.

In other ways I was unsettled, though, and on Christmas Day 2009 I started running again. Just like in every story you’ve heard about starting running, or returning to running, I started slow and kept it short. I wanted to go farther, but really couldn’t. I wanted to go faster – and I think I used to – but couldn’t, and pretty much still can’t. But I ran. I know why I did it, and I’m proud of why I did it, and I know the difference it’s made, to me and, surprisingly, to others. And that difference it’s made is the story I love to share.

First of all, I run because God told me to. Just before Christmas Day 2009, the preacher at my church – my wife’s brother – resigned in order to move and plant a new church. As we struggled to accept his decision, I felt a pull to start a “movement ministry” at our church. I wanted to include – and create – runners and walkers, and I convinced several to join me for some Saturday morning jaunts, a couple charity walks, and a few 5k races. But most of these folks didn’t share my call to run, and I found myself showing up for races and going out for runs alone. So my impetus shifted slightly, and I began to look for ways to build community at races, and among racers, and between friends who didn’t go to my church but were inspired to run. Four half marathons (with a fifth coming at the end of March), a handful of 10k’s, countless 5k’s, a Warrior Dash and a Tough Mudder later, both my community and my motivation are strong.

The rest of that story, then, is the impact running has had on the rest of my life, including, importantly, my teaching. It took very little time to discover that I’m not a talented, or even a good, runner. But I have no trouble now, after three years of mostly productive and always-inspired running, describing myself as committed. The same can be said of my teaching. I’m in my seventeenth year. I’ve followed a winding road that has included a jail, two high schools, and three college campuses, and that has always entertained and along which I’ve strengthened myself through determined perseverance rather than sheer brilliance. Early in every semester I stand before my students and declare to them that I’m no expert. I let them know, instead, that I’m just really interested in the content of a class, in how learning happens, and in them as individuals. This is probably not the stance college professors ordinarily take, as a doctorate might suggest expertise, and classes, maybe stereotypically, indifference. I’m not sure whether running caused my mindset or not, and I don’t know if it’s humility or what, but I much prefer to sit beside my students, to work with them, to understand how they think, what they prefer, how they’re growing and how they see themselves, to standing up in front of a class and acting like I have all the information they want. We slog through the tough stuff together and celebrate when we reach the finish line.

Some of my favorite moments are those few minutes before a class begins, when a small number of students have arrived and we’re waiting for the rest to trickle in. I know what these students do for fun, because I ask them. One reason I ask, I admit, is for the quid-pro-quo of it, so that I can tell them about a race I just ran or have coming up, or explain why one day’s hill repeats make me sorry the next day’s class meets on the fourth floor, or marvel at the way the sun broke through the clouds at exactly the moment I set out for my run the day before. I know some of my students run, too, and sometimes I’ll see them at a race, or hear about their time spent on the track, or check out their new shoes. For these students, and eventually the rest, running becomes a shared metaphor: the semester is a marathon not a sprint; there will be hurdles to be overcome; we spend a lot more time training than we do racing; we have to stretch ourselves in order to get stronger.

I love my job. I mostly teach British and Irish literature and classes for pre-service teachers. The content of these courses – Dickens, Yeats, Woolf, Joyce, Heaney and others in the literature; pedagogy, writing instruction, assessment, reflection, even the Common Core in the classes for education majors – is stuff I love to talk about and the kind of reading I do for pleasure, not just work. Similarly, I love to run. I love that I can run, and I enjoy thinking about it, reading about it and, because I can’t help it, talking about it (which is why I have to often insist to my wife, my most available audience, that I’m not obsessed). My running is best when I approach it the same way I do my job, as an academic and a physical thing. I run or cross-train nearly every day. I stretch most days. I eat way, way better than I used to. And my bookshelves are growing crowded. Arthur Lydiard and Jack Daniels (a little tough to explain to college students exactly who he is) deserve spots next to Virginia Woolf and James Joyce. Each author helps me understand how to push myself, how to embrace difficulty, and how to get the most out of life. In the same way, Born to Run and Running with the Kenyans and What I Talk about When I Talk About Running belong with Wondrous Words and In The Middle and Write Beside Them. They all rely on rich experiences, include unforgettable stories, connect to the mystical, and blend the highest of theory with the most practical of application. So, they do what teachers do.

Maybe there’s a class in there somewhere. But I’m no expert.