Countdown to Grandma’s
Each year, Amanda eagerly looks forward to the tradition of Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, MN. She runs the half marathon and gets those of us around her psyched to join her, whether it’s running or spectating. This tradition began in 2015.
June 2015 - happy faces after finishing 13.1 miles!
Since then, every year we gather to cheer, or run, Grandma’s marathon. Some years one (or both) of us are pregnant, or injured, or have a newborn. Our motley crew has grown to 8 runners this year, and a few loyal fans!
Amanda and I just finished a long training run together. We ran 9 miles! We met up at a State Park and busted out the run together. We were able to cheer each other on, talk about all the nerdy yoga and life things we like to talk about (books we’re reading, what our kids and families are up to, scientific research and how it applies to us, and more lol). We shared in the challenge, the discomfort, and the growth over those 9 miles together.
Running is a polarizing activity. Ya love it, or ya cringe at it.
If it’s interesting, I thought we’d share our highlights about what running means and what it gives back to us on a personal level.
Bryana:
An increase in endorphins, adrenaline, and dopamine! Those feel-good hormones that give a positive mental and physical boost.
A decrease in cortisol, the stress hormone.
Mental clarity - probably due to the increase in positive hormones and decrease in negative hormones. I feel like I’m able to have space and distance from challenging emotions. This allows me to proceed in my daily life with more groundedness.
Physical and emotional resilience - running long distances challenges my mental dialogue and my physical abilities. More often than not, my physical body is more capable than my mental self-talk initially wants to lead me to believe!
Outdoor time! I do all of my runs outside, in all kinds of wonderful and terrible weather. I love running outside in the elements.
Flow state. On a long run, I am able to get in the “flow” of things at times (not the entire time). This feels amazing. I’m fully engrossed in running; completely present, mindful, and feeling in sync completely with myself.
Psychological Richness: characterized by complex mental engagement, adventure, openness, challenge, growth, and exploration. I feel like the act of running allows me to access so many areas within psychological richness, whether it’s being present in the physical act of running, or it’s the state of my mind and thoughts while getting outside in nature and moving my body in a challenging way.
Running Grandma’s Half in 2023 and high-fiving my friend. I smiled so much during this race, my cheeks hurt at the end. It had been a couple years of injuries/babies since I raced!
Amanda:
First of all, ditto to all of Bryana’s points. I know finding time to workout can be difficult, and sometimes impossible. For me, exercise is a non-negotiable part of most of my days. If I can exercise outdoors, even better. Walking, biking, running, paddling, playing with my kids, doing a workout video on my driveway while the kids draw with chalk, doing crunches on our living room floor while my kids crawl all over me- this is the key to my mental health. If I don’t, my mental health can quickly become a bit frayed and frazzled.
I was not always this way. I used to dread workouts. I ran the Chicago marathon in 2008 and hated every step of training and running. I didn’t run for 7 years afterward. Years of yoga and learning about shifting my views around nourishment (eating in ways that are nourishing, moving in ways that are nourishing, and celebrating what my body is capable of doing) have all helped me arrive in this era. When I started running again in 2015-16, I promised myself I would only run if my body was healthy. The moment I felt pain or injury, I committed to backing off.
Long-term health is my objective. Running with pain is not an option. Sometimes the most important component of training is taking time to rest, recover, and heal.
Sometimes I don’t know if I like running, or if I just brainwashed myself into thinking I like running. We know that we create our own neural pathways for likes and dislikes. When I run my internal dialogue is something like this, “oh WOW! An eagle! Oh the good old pelican statue. My legs kind of hurt, but I’m still glad I am doing this. Ooh, a mother deer and her fawn! I am so lucky! Oh wow this old house is for sale! Look at those waves, this wind sucks but still… what a beautiful day!” On most runs, these thoughts eventually subside and I am just running (flow state).
I realize that the above sounds.. Unbelievable. This morning I went for a run in the rain. I got absolutely drenched. My body hurt. And yet, and yet! I got to hear the sound of pouring rain on a giant tin shed. I was able to witness how water pours down from a bridge in three places into a gushing stream below. I stood in awe at the resplendent greens of early spring and was overwhelmed with appreciation to live in a land of freshwater abundance.
a dumb picture of my silly, happy, soaking wet run!
I don’t run 5x per week year-round. I’ve discovered that I enjoy training and running Grandma’s in the spring and early summer. The rest of the year I lean into the activities of the season- hiking and swimming in the summer, xc skiing in the winter, etc. Yes, I typically run once or twice every week, but I only run 5 days a week between March-June. I like the rhythm of chasing that half-marathon high once a year, then moving on to other delights and movement patterns.
I am learning to think of myself as “an athlete.” Oh boy, even writing that makes me cringe! Presidential physical fitness, that dreaded mile run during gym class, tryouts in high school, sitting the bench game after game, comments made by coaches/teachers/adults, can seep into our psyche and live there, uninvited, for decades. Like many of you, I internalized those experiences. It is hard to consider myself an athlete. Last summer, while training for a triathlon with my friend Steph, I told her I was not an athlete. “You seem pretty athletic to me!” she replied. That compliment sunk right to my core. I did not grow up with Steph, so she had no preconceived notions about my athletic abilities, or lack thereof. Her compliment meant so much to me! And I realized, well ya! I mean… I guess doing a mini triathlon in my late 30s is not nothing! So… if the last time you ran a mile was around a track in your school clothes, or if you are clinging on to what happened on track and field day or on the basketball court during high school… it might be time to let it go. Maybe you weren’t an athlete then, but you are now.
Maybe you are one of only a handful of your former classmates that is able to do a full weekend of yoga, hiking, and adventure- that sounds like an athlete to me!
You don’t have to be fast, buff, and lean to be an athlete. Moving your body in ways that are nourishing makes you an athlete.
Being able to comfortably take the stairs in your 90s? Sounds like an athlete to me!
Flipside: maybe you were an athlete then… and if you used to be able to run super fast, it can be tough to swallow a new, slower version of yourself. Embrace it. You’re still an athlete. I promise, no one really cares about your mile splits. Seriously.
Is it all 100% positive? No. Running is a hard-earned sport. Put in the miles. Be consistent. Challenge yourself and you WILL see and feel amazing results.
April 2015: Pre-10k training race with Amanda, Bryana, Kristin in Brainerd!
Every year, Amanda and I are amazed at how easily our stamina improves when we begin training again. At first, it feels impossible to go a mile without walking. Within a very short period of time, you begin to see improvement.
To keep it real, we are no star running athletes, okay?
We run 12-minute miles very regularly, sometimes 10-minute-ish (on a good day). We are learning new training lingo and techniques all the time, and that keeps it fun and fresh. We are very novice and good with that fact. Lifelong learning is one of the keys to happiness after all - always the student!
A year when we were both injured and fully committed to the cheer squad.
But hey, the mind is an interesting place and it will try to tell you can’t, you’re too old, you’re too slow, you’re not this or that… and more. And sometimes you’ll have a bad run. Sometimes your shin splints will hurt so bad you have to turn around and/or your toenails will hurt and fall off because you need to size up your shoes (again). Sometimes when you’re running your legs feel like cement and you can’t understand why you even do this? Somehow, amazingly, all of the bad, definitely, is outweighed by the good when you consistently show up for yourself.
2023 post-Grandma’s Half! Bryana, Amanda’s cousin Michelle, and Amanda celebrating!
