Cool Runnings

MARIA:

The first week of training has gone pretty smoothly…except for the cold weather. Now, I know that the UK is having one of the worst snow storms on record, but we are having some near record lows ourselves, and even South Floridians are contemplating moving to warmer climates! So, because I couldn’t bear to deal with the cold, there have been a couple of runs on the treadmill at the local gym.

I find running on a treadmill excruciatingly dull. If you’ve ever run outside I’m sure you can relate. When you run outdoors the scenery and the ground are constantly changing, you have to be aware of people (and traffic in the cities), and you are both physically and mentally engaged in the whole experience. Not so the treadmill. To me it’s the exact opposite – total disengagement of mind, body and soul. I have to give myself mini goals for each miles to be able to get thru the training otherwise I’m tempted to cut the mileage and jump off the treadmill, telling myself that at least I ran ‘most’ of the miles.

An observation: Having a news channel and a sports channel on the TVs in a gym is not sufficient distraction to get thru the workout. What about showing people training for or running a marathon? Or bodybuilding competitions? Or bike racing? Wouldn’t that be more physically inspiring than political debates and discussions about sports personalities on steroids?

For my sanity, I can only run a few miles indoors so I did have to brave the 40 degree (F) cold on Sunday to run my eight miles. I layered up: as well as a sports bra, I also wore a sports top, dry-fit t-shirt, long-sleeved cotton shirt, dry-fit zip-up jacket, long trousers, woolly hat and gloves (and socks and running shoes, of course). The hat and gloves made all the difference. The weather forecast shows improvement with temperatures back up into the 70s (F) by the end of the week. I’ll be glad to shed the layers and the soul zapping treadmill.

And so it begins.....

MARIA:
Our marathon story starts on December 2nd when I received an email from my niece, Fiona, asking if I would be interested in running the Norway Midnight Marathon. Fiona works for Focus Birmingham and the idea to run the marathon and raise money for the charity came from their Events Fundraiser Andy Kilminster. Andy was aware that I had run the ING Miami Marathon in January 2009 and the Bank of America Chicago Marathon in October 2009, and thought I might like to run another.

Ok, so the Norway Midnight Marathon takes place in Tromso on June 19th. At that time of year the sun doesn’t set for two months, from the middle of May to the middle of July, so although the race starts at midnight you are running in daylight. Now when I read about this my first reaction was: how awesome would it be to take part in this very unique marathon? And, to run for charity makes it an even better experience. I emailed the information to my boyfriend, Christian, who immediately decided he wanted to take part too.

Now there was a small catch…I was already registered for the Virgin London Marathon which takes place on April 25th. I’m a novice runner so partaking in two marathons a couple of months apart seemed quite daunting. There would be little time to recover from the first marathon before I’d be back in my running shoes training for the next. And what if I injured myself?

Then I thought: I'll be fine. I'll make it work. And, since I'm running London anyway I might as well run both marathons for Focus?

Fortunately, Andy had a charity spot in the London Marathon and Christian was up to the challenge of running both events…..and thus Team Focus was born.

Since there were 2 of us, running 2 marathons, in 2 months, in 2 different countries, it was decided we would aim to raise $20,000.....

Training and fundraising start January 1st.