Timbeaux’s Challenge

Happy Birthday Baby!

What more can I say….my wife is incredible!  From chewing me out during her first 5K a few years ago to having completed a marathon and a half-ironman triathlon in the last 7 months, she gives new meaning to the old saying, “You’ve come a long way, Baby!”

I love you Christine!

I tried to run in the rain yesterday evening.  I failed.  Actually the rain failed.  It thundered to the left, lightninged to the right and didn’t do squat in the middle where Christine and I were running.

Most times of the year, I have to plan my workouts to try to dodge storms.  Right now with the heat, I am looking for them.  It did finally rain while I was sitting on my back porch with my legs in a 5 gallon bucket of ice water.  Oh well, I will take what I can get.

And I will look for the rain again this afternoon.

84 degrees…….that was the temperature my truck showed at 4:30 this morning when I got to work.  That is just not right.  But I am tired of talking about the temperature and how hot it is.  Evidently, this is going to be the norm for the summer, so I will have to deal with it.  My current method of dealing with it is not working.  I have only run 6 times in the past 2 weeks.  And nothing very long.  Of course, part of that was from the heat and part family scheduling (swim meets.)

Speaking of swim meets, there are only two more left for the summer!  Next week is city meet for the summer league where Lara and Mason both swim for the Gonzales Dolphins.  And then that weekend is long course state meet where Mason will get to swim with Crawfish Aquatics.  He won the 100 fly yesterday at the district meet so he can swim at state!

So in the next few weeks, I hope to improve on the consistency of at least two things: my running and my posting.  Yes I realize it has been a while since I posted.  Oh well, busy life!

I had a conversation at work a week or two ago that went something like this:

Co-worker:  So what is the next race for you?
Timbeaux:  Probably the St. Jude Marathon in December.
Co-worker:  Oh. Only a marathon?
Timbeaux:  ……..Uh, yeah.

So how do you reply to the statement, “Only a marathon”?  People seem to be expecting more from me.  I guess with the races I have done in the past 5 years, a marathon evidently appears like I am taking the day off.

Most people don’t know what I do or understand how hard it is.  And I usually don’t talk that much about it either.  Occasionally I will get caught limping or walking slowly and I will explain the reason for my ailment.  But for the most part, I just go about my business.

If it weren’t for fund raising and the need to get other people involved, only my family and closest friends would know I raced at all.  I just don’t like talking about myself.  In the words of Popeye, “I am what I am and that’s all that I am.”  But unfortunately, I have found it is hard to raise money for charity if no one knows you are doing it.  So that is the main reason for this blog, my alter ego Timbeaux, and our team Running on Faith.

And that leads me back to the question at hand, “Only a marathon?”  First off, there is no such thing as only a marathon.  A marathon is tough.  Period.  26.2 miles of running takes its toll on everyone.  And I am definitely no exception to that rule.  I am hurting right now from some short runs.

I guess people expect more of me because I expect more of myself.  And that is one of the reasons that I decided to try to qualify for the Boston Marathon at the St. Jude Marathon in December.  It is my way of taking the sign “Only a marathon?” and lighting it on fire.

The other reason for making this attempt is that it will help my fundraising by giving me more to talk about.  I could do a long, slow build up of my miles and run the marathon in December with minimal problems.  But that would be boring.  Or I could abuse myself by pushing my body past its limits while crashing and burning over and over.  Now that might be exciting!

And if somehow, I survive the training.  If somehow, I show up at the starting line having raised as much as I can for the St. Jude Children’s Hospital.  If SOMEHOW I can cover that 26.2 miles in under 3 hours and twenty minutes.  Then I will head to Boston to run that famous marathon while raising money for Habitat for Hope!

Only a marathon?  Nope.  26.2 miles of blissful agony coming my way.

A few weeks back I was listening to a podcast which was talking about pain.  The concept of the discussion revolved around the fact that we can’t actually remember what pain feels like.  When it actually happens, sure we can explain it in vivid detail.  But a day later or a week later when the pain has subsided, it is hard to remember exactly how it felt.

One theory is that the brain is wired that way for self preservation.  I have never given birth to a baby, but from all the horror stories I have heard no woman would ever have two kids if she could remember it all.  I am sure God planned it this way or humans would have died out a long time ago.

I have been thinking of this concept because of my training lately.  After talking with Pat “Rocketboy” Fellows a week or so ago, I have been looking at my training plan for the marathon.  Pat is also going to try to qualify for Boston in December.  He will be doing the Baton Rouge Beach Marathon on the same day that I will be doing the St. Jude Marathon.  We were talking shoes and I asked him what his plan was for the marathon.  Pretty simple reply, “Run Farther, Run Faster.”  Yep, sounds like a good plan to me.

One thing I know about a plan like this is that there will be pain involved.  And that is where the pain don’t hurt philosophy is going to come in to play.  Last week, a friend at the pool asked my why I was sitting there with an ice pack on my lower leg after running.  I told her it was from some form of tendinitis. Of course, she asked me if I was stupid and wondered why I didn’t stop running for a while.

It is amazing for a professional engineer how many times I get asked if I am stupid.  I am sure the state licensing board would stop by for a surprise visit if they read my blog.  Anyway, the leg issue is just a pain that will be part of the training.  I have been icing it every day this week and will continue that until it goes away.  If it doesn’t, oh well.  Sooner or later, it will stop hurting and I won’t remember what it felt like.

As I ran 10 miles yesterday, I started off slower than I wanted.  After a few miles I decided to up the pace a bit and I felt it.  By the time I hit 8 miles, I almost slipped back to my self preservation ultra marathon mode and stopped to walk.  But I quickly thought of what I was training for, remembered my pain don’t hurt reasoning and pushed on.  My last mile was my fastest of the 10.  It hurt for no more than 30 seconds after I finished.  Then it was gone.  After that I was just tired and ready to ice my leg.

I don’t know if this theory is a good one or not, but I don’t have much of a choice.  Either I push, get faster and give it my all to qualify for Boston.  Or I don’t.  Like I said, not much of a choice.