Chicked

Sunday was the annual Oregon Roadrunners Club awards banquet.  Surprising no one, Melissa won several awards, including Runner of the Year.  Melissa is a fast runner.  She might deny it, or point out that she's no elite and that lots of women are faster than her. But let's face it: in a club full of runners, if you win more often than anyone else, you must be pretty fast.



Awards, schmawards...

So first, obviously, congratulations to her.  She's pretty humble about it, but I think it's damn awesome.  That said, I'm not here to talk her up--she doesn't need it and I know she doesn't run to get recognized.  Her award did remind me, though, of something I've been meaning to post about for a while.

My wife is a fast runner, as I said.  She's quite a bit faster than me and has been for a long time.  (The last time I beat her was in a 2009 race--and I was ahead at the end by only by two seconds!  I think she had the flu or something...)  But comparing her speed to mine is a little silly.  Sure, compared to the average Joe off the couch or the weekend warrior who runs the occasional 5K, I run at a decent speed.  The reality is that are a lot of guys out there who are a lot faster than me and if a few of them show up for a race I'm not going to win a damn thing.  The point is, I don't consider myself fast.

However, people will still inevitably ask, "doesn't it bother you that your wife is faster?"  They might even assume I'm joking at first.  Then when I explain how often she places in the top five or that she qualified for Boston, that's when they start worrying about my ego.  One friend actually told me he "couldn't handle it" if his wife were faster--and he said it with an air of sincerity.  I'm not quite sure what that means he would do.  Would he just quit running altogether and pursue a truly manly hobby  ("let's see you grow a beard this luxurious, Wife!")?  Would he jump off a bridge in despair, hoping he was as poor a swimmer as he imagined himself to be a runner (let's hope he wasn't rescued by a female firefighter)? 

I think for some men it might be similar to having a wife who earns more money, or has a higher-status job than they do. People always talk about the fragile male ego, and this kind of thing does make me wonder.  How often do other men speed up just so they pass a woman?  Do they feel inadequate when a woman finishes before they do?

I really don't know, because it doesn't bother me at all.  My wife is her own runner and so am I--I don't run to keep up with her.  It's odd, because it seems to me that most runners to respect the individual ability of other runners.  In my experience, once you get out there on a regular basis, especially if you enter races fairly often, you start to leave your ego at home.  I've been beaten by a 10-year-old girl and a 70-year-old man.  I've also finished ahead of plenty of men younger and slimmer than me--but I don't really think about it.  Yet you hear about guys not wanting to "get chicked" (or even "wifed"), which is apparently a common enough event in long distance races. 

At the end of a race, the only thing that matters to me is giving it everything I have.  Man or woman, if I'm close to another runner near the finish, I'm going to dig deep because I am at least a little competitive.  I can't imagine finding some hidden sexist reserve of energy that would propel me that much faster.  So to imagine that I'd be bothered by my wife finishing...ahem...four or five minutes ahead of me in a 10K, well, it's just silly.  I'm happy for her, just as I know she's happy for me when I do well.

Plus, when I'm running behind her when she's wearing her running tights...well...nevermind.

Confessions of a Two-Timer

Don't let the title get you wondering. I mean, yes, I am totally two-timing, right now. AGAIN. And, honestly, it's a little hard serving two masters. Sometimes, there is a bit of symbiotic relationship to love two at the same time, right? Some things are even better together---like Paul Newman and this Pinot Noir. I love Paul Newman, and I love wine, so it's a three-some made in heaven. Seriously, it is. Please don't question my devotion to Paul Newman or my absolute love for fermented red grapes, it's a futile agrument. This one works. Well.

But, I wasn't really thinking about that kind of two-timing. No. Back in the summer, I was two-timing for the first time. I was training hard (so hard) for my first marathon (survived it in October), while at the same time staying steady with training for two 10Ks for the ORRC 10K Series. Most of the time, running is just running. You run. You run some more. You do long runs, tempo runs, hills, intervals. Usually, for 10K training, I run faster, shorter intervals than what would normally be called for in my marathon training plan. So, what is a runner to do?? Well, I just stuck with the marathon training plan, and hoped nothing bad would happen to my 10K race times. The training didn't have to change too much...until....I had a 10K race which required scaling back and tapering so I could run on "somewhat" fresh legs. But, I still had to get my mileage and training in for the marathon. I had to TWO running programs that I felt like I HAD to do! What to do??








These two guys helped to push me to my PR in September.
But, so did the two-timer training!

For the first 10K, I decided to do my "long run" on a Wednesday before work, 18 miles with 9 mile runs on both Tuesday and Thursday so that I could to rest my legs before a 10K on Monday(labor day). Truth be told, my legs were super tired for that 10K. I'd already run 45 miles that week BEFORE I ran another 6.2. So, I had to be smarter about my" two-timing" the next time. In September, I ran some extra miles at the beginning of the week, tapered back before the race, and saved the long run for AFTER the race. I ran my heart out---faster and stronger than ever, and got a PR. BUT, I had to run 16 miles the next day. My training journal says, "tough on tired legs." The race was better, the long run wasn't. But, that's how I guess it goes with two-timing.

Maybe like most two-timers, I have realized that I can't really give my complete love and attention to both, but I can play it smart and get something out of having the experience of both. On that note, I'm back at the two-timing game. Hagg Lake 25K in February, Champoeg 10K in March and Vernonia Marathon in April...then two more 10Ks in May. The game goes on!

Please don't judge me. The 10Ks know all about the marathons, and the half-marathons, even the trail racing I am doing, too. They are completely ok with it. I guess it's one of those "open" running relationships. :)