LIVING YOUR STRENGTHS
HOW RUNNING A MARATHON CHANGED MY LIFE By Lynn Peneck
I
wanted to share a story of a moment that changed my life.
I met up with my friend Carl after working at a dental conference in Washington, DC. Before I got married, Carl and I traveled with friends on ski trips and skating races hosted by athletic clubs. Carl congratulated me on running the Broad Street Run. He said ten miles is quite the accomplishment. Carl knew running was new to me. He then asked, “Do you want to run a marathon?” I said, “You are crazy; I could never run a marathon.” We ordered another beer. As the evening went on, he shared that if you can run ten today, you can run a marathon; if you add one extra mile a week to your training, you can run a 26.2-mile race in 16 weeks. In that moment, I thought to myself, “If you put it this way, it sounds obtainable.” After a second beer, I said, “OK, I’m in!” He then asked, “If you could run just one marathon, which one would you do?” My answer was obvious: New York, of course. We both applied to run the New York Marathon and started our training program. I bought John Galloway’s book “Marathon Running for Women.” We trained in our respective cities, with me in Philly and Carl in Washington, DC. I loved the discipline and structure of the program. It includes running three miles a
16
day, three to five days a week, rest, and LSD. LSD stands for Long Slow Distance; you increase your long slow run by one mile each week and rest a day afterward. My long runs were on Sunday. I would then spend Sunday afternoon on the couch, exhausted, indulging in a televised game of football. This was a great time in my marriage because my husband just wanted me to watch Eagles games with him. Each week, Carl and I reported to one another about how we felt after short runs during the week and our long runs on the weekends. The training was going well, and then we received the acceptance letters for our race applications. Getting into the NY Marathon is like getting into Harvard; it’s more like a lottery, but only a small percentage of applicants get into the NY Marathon, and you never hear of a first-time applicant getting in. I called Carl to share that I beat the odds and got in the NY marathon on a first-time application! Carl shared that he did not get into the marathon with the lottery. At this point, I was comfortably running eighteen miles. I shared that I was committed and would complete this goal together. We changed plans and registered to run the Baltimore Marathon instead. Baltimore is halfway between Philly and DC, which is
dew.life