MY VEGGIE TALE: Part 2 - a running story

(For Part 1 - a weight loss story - see October 21, 2007)

After losing 25 pounds in 6 months at the end of 2004, as an "overweight, unhealthy vegetarian" turned "balanced-diet, exercising carnivore", I was feeling good. I felt like I could do anything - well, almost anything.

I heard about the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team In Training, which is the world's largest endurance sports training program. In early 2005, I received informational material about TNT in the mail, and wondered if running a marathon was something I could do. I attended the meeting in January, and decided on a whim to do it -- to raise money for the organization, and to train with them to run a marathon, or to be more specific, a HALF-marathon. 13.1 miles seemed doable by May, but 26.2? I wasn't so sure.

When I first began "running", it was really more walking than running. I would run a block than walk a block (or 2). Little old Chinese ladies were passing me on my walk-run route along the Great Highway in San Francisco, but I was committed. Everyday before heading to work, I was out there. I was so excited the day I realized that I had run more of my 3 mile route, than I had walked! And when I finally ran my 3 miles without stopping (which includes a half-mile UP HILL), I ate chocolate cake and I didn't feel guilty!

There is, however, a big difference between my 3 miles and a half-marathon -- a 10.1 mile difference to be more exact. The enormity of my task slowly began to settle in the week before our first TNT training. Not wanting to putz out on our first run, I pushed myself a few days before our first Saturday training, and injured myself by straining (what I would find out later to be) my IT band. It was going to be a long spring.

Through the first weeks of training 3 days a week, I would heal, but then re-injure myself as I pushed myself harder than I should. I was getting anxious about being able to run the distance.

It reached a point where the coach said, "Stop it", and I took 2 weeks off to allow my IT to heal completely. The rest did it, and with the strengthening work I was doing with a foam core roller, there was still time for me to train smart and finish the race. And I did, on May 7, 2006 at the Ave of the Giants Half-Marathon in Humboldt County. It took me 2 hours, 13 minutes, and 43 seconds; I hurt my knee at mile 11 and ended up run-walking to the finish, but I did it!

And I was hooked. I got home, registered for the inaugural San Jose Rock-n-roll Half-Marathon in October, and after allowing my knee to heal, I kept at my running, using the training techniques my TNT coaches had taught me, and the principles for "injury-free running" which I was learning through chi-running. On October 8, 2006, I broke 2 hours, running the 13.1 miles in 1:57:42.

In between those 2 races, by my 41st birthday on June 26th, I had dropped another 15 pounds. It took an extra year, but I finally lost the 40 pounds I had wanted to lose by the time I turned 40. I felt like I could NOW do anything, and so I did it. The day after the San Jose Half-marathon, I signed up for my first marathon - the 2007 San Francisco marathon - the FULL marathon, 26.2 miles. Would I be able to do it? I had until July - 9 months - to find out.

Stay tuned for Part 3 of my Veggie-tale, and discover how the carnivore runner transforms into a vegan marathoner.