Week 8, AMR Virtual 5K: Keeping Each Other Accountable & the Power of the Running Community
This week we check in with Aimee and Mandi, BRFs training alongside each other. The pair has realized just how much they need each other, as well as the amazing strength of the running community following the Boston Marathon explosions.
1.) In a nutshell, how would you describe your training at this point?
A: Slow. Full of excuses. Powerful and enlightening. All wrapped into one. When I was heavy I chose to work out alone. Now I cannot stand to be alone running. I need the motivation and competition of a workout partner.
M: Hard to find time. Busy semester at work. Looking forward to the end of the semester when I can focus on me again…
Follow These Mothers!
BRFs and business partners Lisa Reichmann and Julie Sapper ran Boston this year—it was the sixth Boston Marathon for Julie, 40, and number 10 for Lisa, 38. Both women finished before the bombings—Julie ran the race in 3:28 while Lisa finished in 3:18. These Washington, D.C. friends and mothers—Lisa has three children, twins who are 7 and a daughter who is 5, and Julie is mom to a 9-year-old boy and 6-year-old daughter—shared with us their experience, as well as why they’re more determined than ever to keep running this race.
Best recent run
Lisa: A ¾-mile run around our block at the request of our 7-year old daughter, completely unprompted by me…
Hump Day Giveaway: Two Hyland’s Sleep Challenge Baskets
It’s taper-time for my marathon partner, Molly, and me: Vancouver Marathon is a mere 10 days away (gulp!). Over the weekend, after running 15 sun-dappled miles together, we both perfected the art of lounging and sleeping. Naps for each of us on Saturday afternoon, then that evening, Molly hit the hay at 9:30. (Rockin’ Saturday night here in Portland, let me tell ya!) The following evening it was me who turned in early, going to bed at 9 p.m. on the dot.
Good thing we banked those sleep hours as we’ve each had a few rough nights since then. On Monday night, at 11 p.m., one of Molly’s daughters realized she (the daughter) had lice so dear mother-Molly to the rescue to pick and comb and nitpick some more until the early morning…
TMI Tuesday: Peeing on a Run, Pt. II
Earlier this month, Sarah gave some tips for peeing on a run when there’s no porcelain tank in sight. Mother runners responded with additional alternative solutions to the toilet that were both creative and laughter-inducing, and we just had to [over]share them.
When you’re body won’t let you go on anything but a tangible toilet, mother runners rely on the kindness of strangers. Donna recalls paying to poop with a pedi:
“On a 10-mile run on a very secluded trail, I felt the urge to go #2. I ducked into the trees and found a spot, but then couldn’t deliver. So I went on running, uncomfortable and praying that I wouldn’t poop my pants…
Ironmother Training: In the Thick of It
Fast forward 9 weeks from now, and it’ll be 3:33 p.m. on June 23 in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho. I will have been in motion for 8 hours and 33 minutes, and I will, fingers crossed, be on the run. I will have swum 2.4 miles and ridden my sweet steed Lyle for 112 miles.
But then the run. 26.2 miles. Right now, that feels as impossible as running from Denver to Idaho does.
How’s training going might be the appropriate question here. I would respond that question, but that would require energy, and I don’t have an extra ounce to spare.
O.k, since my kids are parked in front of America’s Funniest Home Videos and I’m parked on my bed, I’ll expand a bit…
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