road and trail talk - Albany Running Exchange

Page 4
By Miriam Hardin
Finding ARE
Two milestones for me in 2007 were turning 40 and
returning to running, after having been away from it, for
the most part, for more than 20 years. Several years
before, I’d managed to lose more than a hundred pounds,
and regular physical activity was helping me maintain the
loss. However, I wasn’t running--somehow in my mind
this was something I used to be able to do.
I’m not sure what clicked for me in 2007, but I realized
that I really missed running. At the time, though, my
mindset was that I needed somebody to run with. My
first idea for finding these somebodies was to send out a
message to a parenting listserv I belonged to. I got a
couple of responses and went on some runs. However,
scheduling issues made these runs pretty infrequent. If I
managed to get out and run more than once in a month, I
was bucking the trend. Despite the irregular schedule,
though, I signed up for Race for the Cure, my first race
since high school. Although I was much slower than I’d
been in high school, racing felt great, and I knew I
wanted to race more. I decided that I wanted to work
my way up to a marathon... in a few years. I would
spend 2008 building my distances, do a half in 2009, and
a full marathon in 2010.
Realizing that I’d need to run much more regularly to
meet these goals, I took a deep breath and began to go
on runs by myself. From Runner’s World magazine, I
picked up the concept of doing an easy run and a “speed”
run during the week, and a long run on weekends.
Initially, my weekday runs were only two miles, and my
starting distance on the weekend long runs was only
three. I added on to those runs steadily, so that before
long, I was in the fives and sixes.
Early in 2008, I joined HMRRC, hoping to meet other
runners that way. I posted in their message board’s
“Where to run, who to run with” forum, hoping to find
other runners in my neighborhood, but got the sound of
crickets in response. Although I saw a reference to the
Albany Running Exchange in the “running groups” section
of their website, I got the distinct impression that it was
a group for runners who were affiliated with UAlbany, or
at least that all of their group runs were held there.
What really got me curious about ARE was seeing so
many ARE singlets at races. I remember seeing runners
wearing them at Freihofer’s, Race for the Cure, and
Stockade-athon (the three races that I ran in 2008). I
Road and Trail Talk Magazine
wanted to learn more about this group, but I didn’t get
around to finding the website until early 2009, and I
didn’t join until March of that year. Almost
immediately, I found people to run with.
My very first group run with ARE was the first “Houseto-House
Half” in September of 2009. As many of you
might recall, the event listing for this run billed it as
“mostly flat.” I wasn’t yet attuned to the sense of
humor of Randy Goldberg and Chuck Batcher! Despite
the unadvertised bumpiness of the course, I had a great
time, met lots of ARE members, and proved to myself
that I could cover the needed distance for a half
marathon.
Another benefit of ARE membership became apparent
when I started wearing an ARE singlet during races.
People who didn’t know me would cheer, “Go ARE!”
From the first time this happened, I knew I’d become
part of a great “running” family. As I got to know more
ARE members by attending group runs, I had more and
more people cheering me on by name at races.
Sometimes that kind of encouragement is all it takes to
turn around a race that isn’t going so well.
After finishing my first half marathon (the Mohawk
Hudson Half) in October of 2009, the thought of running
double that distance made me feel panicky. My
husband had parked on Broadway, and each step
descending from the pedestrian bridge from the
Corning Preserve was an agony. But I reminded myself
that I’d worked my way up from running 5Ks; working
my way up to a marathon would be the same kind of
process.
In June of 2010, I started my first 16-week marathontraining
plan, which I’d generated using the
SmartCoach tool at runnersworld.com. This was the
summer that I started attending Anne Butler’s “Nisky
Bike Path” runs on Sunday mornings. This was the
perfect way to ramp up my long runs, as our group
conversations helped make those miles fly by. One of
my favorite memories from that summer was laughing
so hard I had trouble catching my breath. I also
noticed that there is no better way to get to know
people than to go on a long run. Something about it is
like truth serum--folks will open up about pretty much
anything during a good group run.
October 10, 2010 was marathon day. Lining up at the
start in Schenectady’s Central Park before the race, I
was excited and nervous, and surrounded by ARE
running buddies. I remember Stacey Kelley commenting
that we’d banked our miles, and now was the time to
cash them out. One of my mantras during the race that