disappointment

Posts Tagged ‘disappointment’

I Train While You Sleep

Posted in motivation, training, tagged BQ, disappointment, running, training on April 26, 2011| 10 Comments »

'Nuff Said

[tweetmeme source=”luau” only_single=false http://www.URL.com%5D

So after taking a week off from running, the alarm went off at 4:30AM this morning, telling me it was time to run again. Time to dust off the shoes, slip on the shorts, put in some miles.

Honestly, I’ve had to force myself NOT to run since Boston. It hasn’t been easy, but I think my body (and my mind and spirit for that matter) needed the time off.

Still, when the alarm went off this morning, a part of me just wanted to roll over and go back to sleep. I had gotten used to not waking up so early just to pound out some miles. As I’ve said many times, I am NOT a morning person. I really am not.

But then I thought of a picture I saw (above) on someone’s dailymile page. That was me, all winter. Waking up between 4AM and 4:30AM, running between 5 to 20 miles. And as much as I am not a morning person, I loved the feeling I would have for the rest of the day when I’d managed to drench myself in sweat before most people were waking up.

Now that school vacation is over, the days are going to get busy again – which made me think of this:

If I’m going to be good, I have to work around the busy-ness.

And it’s not about the competition with others…it’s about the competition within.

It’s about the desire to do better, last longer, run faster.

I leave you with a quote from a comment my friend M left me:

DISAPPOINTMENT IS THE HIGH WATER MARK OF EXPECTATION.

Why do you run?

Read Full Post »

Posted in boston marathon, tagged boston marathon, disappointment on April 22, 2011| 12 Comments »

[tweetmeme source=”luau” only_single=false http://www.URL.com%5D

So as I sit here struggling to write my race recap of this year’s Boston Marathon, there is one word that keeps popping into my head.

That word is disappointment.

Now, before any of you start to feel sorry for me, let me clarify one thing – Disappointment is NOT a dirty word. Disappointment does NOT need to be a word of sadness. Disappointment does NOT need to elicit comforting words.

No, in this case, disappointment can be a word of hope, a word of dedication, a word of renewed inspiration.

If I were not disappointed in my performance this past Monday, I would have to question every run, every drill, every drop of sweat spilled since the middle of last December. My disappointment legitimizes the hard work. My disappointment gives my 4AM runs meaning.

…and because of my disappointment, I will go back to the drawing board, come up with a plan, and run another 26.2 – once again with the goal of running faster than I’ve ever run over that fantastic distance we call a marathon.

“Use this experience to sharpen the steel for the next one.”
-my friend Brendan M.

Why do you run?

Read Full Post »

8 Hours

Posted in boston marathon, racing, tagged 8 hours, boston marathon, Boston Qualifier, BQ, disappointment, registration, Shut out on October 19, 2010| 17 Comments »

I think that BOS marathon registration just BQ’d…8h is a reasonable time for a 114 year old, right?

-Tweet by @petfxr

Only if the marathon is female. It’s 7 1/2 [hours] for 114 yr old male

-Tweet by @LuckyRunner40

But age on race day is 115

-Tweet by @petfxr

[tweetmeme source=”luau” only_single=false http://www.URL.com]

Last night…no, check that, yesterday afternoon registration for the 115th Boston Marathon closed – 8 hours after it had opened. This was, by far, faster than last year’s record of several weeks, which had in turn shattered the previous record set the year before of a couple of months. Yup, if you had managed to BQ in the last 12 month months, but didn’t have phone or internet access yesterday, you are out of luck. True, you can run for a charity or get lucky like I did last year by having an Invitational Entry handed to you, but if you simply wanted to register, and you went to do it after work yesterday, it’s “Sorry Charlie.”

I was lucky. I got through on the computer at around lunch time. Next year, who knows if that will be early enough.

8 hours.

8 FRAKKING HOURS!!!

As excited as I am, I am now a little nervous. Another Twitter friend (@edschober) had the wisdom to point out, “[I] Bet the qualifying times for 2012 #bostonmarathon will be adjusted down…or they’ll triple the entry fee.” My sudden fear now is that after BQ’ing for 2011 and 2012, I may get UBQ’s (UnBostonQualified) for 2012. I understand the reasoning. Although Boston isn’t the sole reason people run marathons in the Fall, there is a large contingent of runners who work all Summer to run a marathon in the Fall with the hopes of qualifying for Boston in the Spring. Boston closing in 8 hours eliminated many of the Fall marathons, including the biggest one, New York City, from that equation.

If the BAA (Boston Athletic Association) doesn’t lower the times, you can bet that early fall marathons like Bay State and Smuttynose will continue to grow in popularity, possibly driving up prices across the board. I don’t know what the answer is. It probably makes more sense for the BAA to lower the time rather than raise the fees (though who knows, maybe they’ll do both).

One final thought – let’s stop bashing the charity runners for this. They only make up 5% of the field AND they do a lot of good. Quite honestly, Boston would have closed yesterday regardless of whether there were charity slots or not.

Bottom line is that in all likelihood, I am going to have to get faster…or older faster, and I think I’m okay with that…I just hope that if the BAA lowers the times, they keep it within striking distance.

UPDATED: One last “last thought” – if runners are going to get angry at other runners for Boston filling up so quickly, they should be looking at runners like me. Last year I was lucky enough to land an Invitational Entry and this year I was fortunate to qualify by a mere 1:40. Please leave the charity runners out of it.

Why do you run?