This past weekend while I was home preparing for and completing my first Olympic distance triathlon, my girlfriend was off island to participate in this year’s New York City Marathon as part of the Run for Horner crew.
Now, unfortunately for Lauren, her training for NYC didn’t go as planned. When Lauren first signed up for the race she had plans of improving her time from the Toronto Marathon, which she ran almost a year earlier.
However, she wasn’t too far along with her training when she started to encounter issues with her IT band – a very common injury with runners – and instead of focusing on reaching her time target, she had to change her focus to staying healthy from week to week.
Lauren may well have spent as many hours doing physiotherapy as she did running. Okay, I might be exaggerating slightly, but it is safe to say she courageously persevered over more than a few speed bumps in her preparation for New York.
I can also tell you that with her injuries came plenty of frustration, for both her and me. In fact, with the race day only a few weeks away, Lauren made it well known the New York City Marathon was going to be her last marathon – blasphemous words to my ears.
Lauren arrived in New York last Friday night and shortly after touching down, she met up with the participants of Run for Horner and soon realised she wasn’t the only member of the team to have issues with injuries.
By the end of the night, Lauren had decided to run the race as a member of Team Injury.
Team Injury was made up of Lauren, Nick Quin’s brother Tom and Jo Jo from the United Kingdom and their sole focus was finishing the race, with no regard for time, and enjoy every step of the way.
As Lauren was the only member of the team who had completed a marathon, she courageously shared her experience to guide Team Injury on a six-hour journey through the streets of New York to the finish line some 26.2 miles away. Now, I’ve not received her entire race report, but her brief comments included the following: “An amazing experience”, “I must have high-fived over 5,000 people”, “It was so much fun”, and “I had so much energy, I was dancing in the streets”.
Her initial sentiments have given me hope I might be able to convince her to run at least one more marathon (Berlin 2012?) and an email received this morning (Tuesday) has confirmed she plans on running many more.
So why am I sharing this story in the weekly column? Well, we are now three weeks away from this year’s Intertrust Cayman Marathon and I’m sure some of you reading this column had hopes of running a personal best this year or covering a distance you had never covered before but, for one reason or another, your training hasn’t gone to plan and you are now reconsidering whether to enter this year’s race.
Hopefully, Lauren’s story will serve as inspiration as to what can happen if you stick with a commitment, open yourself up and see it through. Fair enough, NYC is a special race but so is the Intertrust Cayman Marathon (for completely different reasons) and either race can present a life changing experience for you.
It may not be the experience you first anticipated (i.e. blazing across the line in record time) but that certainly doesn’t mean it won’t be awesome. Your path may have changed, but the goal of finishing remains the same and you never know who you’ll meet, what you’ll see or what you’ll learn about yourself or others in the process.
For you experienced runners, maybe you’ll get the chance to share your know-how with a less experienced runner as they persevere for the finish line.
For you beginners, maybe you’ll get the chance to make a new friend or two on your journey while doing something you have never done before. One thing I know for sure is this year’s Intertrust Cayman Marathon is shaping up to be a memorable experience for the island and I hope you make the right choice and decide to make some memories with us. Until next week, don’t stop running!
James Murray, who is training to run 100 miles around Grand Cayman as part of his “A Crazy Idea” campaign, provides weekly training tips for those who want to complete their first half marathon (13.1 miles)
Related Videos
