Running and New York - Some Quotes

"I went to New York to be born again. And when the train plunged into a tunnel under New York City, with its lining of pipes and wires, I was out of the womb and into the birth canal." – Kurt Vonnegut

"When you first run up First Avenue in New York, if you don't get goose bumps, theres something wrong with you."  – Frank Shorter, on the New York City Marathon

"I didn’t know the city at all, but I was so happy to be in New York I cried. I was so excited." – Greta Gerwig 

"You have to forget your last marathon before you try another. Your mind can't know what's coming." – Frank Shorter

The starting line of the New York Marathon is kind of like a giant time bomb behind you about to go off. It is the most spectacular start in sport. Bill Rodgers
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/marathon.html#P3FVAp0hRBJ4Wbev.99

“I definitely want to show how beautiful the marathon can be. I am the opponent of all those who find the marathon bad: the psychologists, the physiologists, the doubters. I make the marathon beautiful for myself and for others. That’s why I’m here.” – Uta Pippig

"The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and beauty in the world." – F. Scott Fitzgerald 

“If you want to win something, run 100 meters. If you want to experience something, run a marathon.” – Emil Zatopek

"New York is the meeting place of the peoples, the only city where you can hardly find a typical American." –  Djuna Barnes

“Running is just such a monastery-- a retreat, a place to commune with God and yourself, a place for psychological and spiritual renewal.” – George Sheehan


"I get out of the taxi and it’s probably the only city which in reality looks better than on the postcards, New York." – Milos Forman

“It’s very hard in the beginning to understand that the whole idea is not to beat the other runners. Eventually you learn that the competition is against the little voice inside you that wants you to quit.” – George Sheehan

"I go to Paris, I go to London, I go to Rome, and I always say, 'There’s no place like New York. It’s the most exciting city in the world now. That’s the way it is. That’s it.'” – Robert De Niro

"The difference between the mile and the marathon is the difference between burning your fingers with a match and being slowly roasted over hot coals."  – Hal Higdon

The marathon always starts after 30K. That's where the problems start. You start without any problems, without any pain. All the pain comes after 30K. Sometimes, it's possible to have pain even in the finger. Haile Gebrselassie
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/marathon.html#P3FVAp0hRBJ4Wbev.99

"New York was a city where you could be frozen to death in the midst of a busy street and nobody would notice." – Bob Dylan

“Running is a big question mark that’s there each and every day. It asks you, ‘Are you going to be a wimp or are you going to be strong today?’” – Peter Maher, Irish-Canadian Olympian

"I regret profoundly that I was not an American and not born in Greenwich Village. It might be dying, and there might be a lot of dirt in the air you breathe, but this is where it’s happening."– John Lennon

My running novel is called "One of the Scariest Novels I've Read This Year" by The Horror News Network

 The Horror News Network, a leading online magazine and potpourri of books, media, movies, and other madness, just put up a review of my novel On the Lips of Children.  Here's what they had to say:

If Mark Matthews goal was to make sure I was completely terrified to take a walk or jog or step out of the house with my kid or even take a shower behind what should be a locked door, mission accomplished.    

The book starts off slow, gently picking up the pace until the reader is jogging at a nice, steady run. I fully believe the running metaphor here is completely intentional on the writer's part, and I found it clever. Though I'm more of a few-miler walker as opposed to runner, I totally got it. And I think it worked (though I will also say that the story itself would work well as part of a series of short stories about running, tattoos, or parenting... even all three).   

The running coupled well with Erin and Macon (the protagonists of the story) being heavily inked, as both bring a certain adrenaline rush into play. And although I've never been a cutter, I suppose I can see a former one seeking a replacement for the release it brings in the form of a tattoo gun scratching across skin. As a tattooed mommy myself, I've never been attracted to the pain. It's always been about the art for me, so I wasn't able to relate on that level. Still, it's plausible.

And while the idea of this tattooed couple lured me into reading the book, I will fully admit I was trepidatious about getting to the thick of the plot. The blurb fully outlines that these people get kidnapped with their kid while they're out jogging. As a mother, this scared the freaking hell out of me. I wasn't sure I'd be able to get through it. Even more, it's mentioned at the very beginning of the book that their daughter, Lyric, is 6-years-old. Well, shit. I have a 6-year-old girl, too. I almost gave up. Sometimes that too-close-to-home thing gets the better of me.

But I stuck through it. And as the pace really started to pick up, I was racing to finish it. I had to know how it ended. I was rooting for Erin with everything I had in me. And even though I really didn't care for Macon, I was rooting for him too. C'mon, man. Show you're worthy of these two amazing females you've been blessed to have in your life. Don't punk out now. Do it. Be the man you want to be.

The marathon metaphor of finishing at your best and showing your worth is heard throughout the story. That's Macon's goal. His character is a bit sketchy, and it kind of bummed me out he kept secrets from Erin. As I used to say as a kid (and even as an adult), "Secrets don't make friends." Regardless of the love someone claims they have for another human being, a heavy secret can outweigh that. I think that was the one thing in the story that left me on a sour note.

Erin, on the other hand, was intriguing and full of life, regardless of her loss and keeping people at arm's length. I just got her. Matthews wrote some very interesting and strong females in this novel. Major kudos to him for it. Also, because of the name and the description of her physique, I pictured Erin Ryder from Destination Truth through my entire read of the book. Heh heh. Erin can totally kick your ass.

The antagonists, Dante, Lupita, and T & Q, are all well developed and scary as all get out. I don't want to spoil too much, but it's shown early on that Lupita will do anything, ANYTHING, to keep her children safe, even when she's obviously gone bat-shit crazy. In the end I don't know who's scarier... tweaked out Dante, loco Lupita, or Q & T (there ain't nothing "cutey" about these two). It's difficult to make a reader repulsed by children. Matthews manages to do that.

In the end, ON THE LIPS OF CHILDREN was one of the scariest novels I've read this year, simply because it could so easily happen. And that's why I've suddenly started going to the gym again instead of walking my neighborhood and now triple-checking the locks on my doors all hours of the day and night.

Thanks for the neuroses, Mark! Appreciate it.  ~Review by: Alicia Banks

Grateful For My Scars

Is it trite to say I'm thankful for my running and all the wonders it has brought me?

Yeah, it is. The answer's in the question.

Ah, but peel back the layers and you'll find that running is like ogres is like onions, and behind that layer of running gratitude, I think what I'm really grateful for is the recovery from the run. The healing.

Without healing there would be no run.The running part is easy. I've never been one to lack in motivation to get out there door. Maybe in putting in enough miles when my legs aren't responding, maybe in not stretching enough or eating for ideal training, but I can run anytime, in most any weather.

Each run tears the body down a bit so that it can be built back stronger, the trick is not to tear it down so much that it gets injured.  Pushing your limits means always dancing on that edge, and often going over it as my latest injury reminded me.

But I'm very grateful that the relatively minor injury is healing, and I'm feeling ready to hit some harder training in the days/weeks to come. Time off to recover and heal after an injury makes you miss what you had, but damn, instead of lamenting the time off of running I try to flip the switch and be grateful I'm healing. This time of slower/less running isn't permanent. It's temporary.

Yep, today I'm grateful for healing and recovery. If I hadn't recovered from lots of damage I've done to my body, brain, and soul through my life I'd be a wreck.  But, as of now, I can run, and can heal and recover.

But, as I age I'm healing much slower and my recovery time seems twice as long.

I know some aged folks who, when I have an experience with them, say out loud, "you know, as you get older, you often wonder if this the last time in your life you'll be doing this..."

Carpe diem or carpe party-poooping, one or the other,

But the day will come when I no longer can do this, no longer can marathon, since I wont be able to recover and heal. One of these injuries may become permanent. One day I may actually have that heart attack or wreck my knees like the smokers and sedentary folks have all been warning me as they list off the reasons running isn't good for me.

 For now, I have had to heal over and recover many times, and have a lot of scars, both physical and otherwise, but I like to think that he who dies with the most battle scars wins.

I want to be one of those guys where folks say "wow, you are still running a marathon at your age...?"

I'm thinking that doesn't even come into play until post -50 years old, right? Probably more like 60.

In other news, the Ann Arbor Marathon announced they are running on June 9th, the weekend after the Dexter to Ann Arbor half-marathon (oh, I can hear the Ann Arbor running community clamoring from here.)

I was just at the Big House last Saturday for the Michigan/Iowa game, and one of my favorite parts of going to each game is the nostalgic walk to the stadium. Well, now I have the nostalgia of last year's Ann Arbor marathon which started at the stadium and then ran past it again at mile 23 or so.

The football game was wonderful. 55 degrees, sunny, a unique Denard Robinson/Devon Gardner backfield, and the incredible beat of my favorite running song "Seven Nation Army" blaring to pump up the crowd. That primal, slow and steady beat that crescendos until your insides are ready to burst.

(I realize it's a popular song for lots of sporting events, but Jack White is Michigan and Detroit, the rest are just borrowing him.)

Yes, I want a football game, a marathon, and a life that is worthy of having the song Seven Nation Army as its soundtrack. And this means a lot of physical beatings, a lot of hurt, and needing a lot of time to recover and heal.

And I'm grateful for that, so for now, “I’m fine... I carry a lot of scars. I like the way that sounds. I carry a lot of scars.”

(pretend I didn't plagiarize this line from the novel The Beach.) 

Happy Thanksgiving. Rub your scars, whether they be on your skin or your heart, and think of how dull life would be if you had none.

STRAY on Amazon

The Jade Rabbit on Amazon

Vacation Running

A vacation isn't a vacation if I don't bring my running shoes and let my running soul poke around. Yep, I like to experience anyplace I visit in the throes of an intoxicating run.

My family has a place up north Michigan on Torch Lake, a lake so blue and gorgeous and clear you'd think I was exaggerating if I put all my sentimental wordy might into describing it.   The area is full of great country roads separating small villages. Farms and wildlife dot the landscape, and a chain of lakes runs right through it.

Torch Lake Blue

Of course, I've run the area many times, and done everything from a 4 miler to a 20 miler over the familiar routes and monstrous hills which are too steep for snow plows but perfect for the one Llama who lives on one of the local farms. As much as I try to avoid the reference, I always feel like Forrest Gump on the roads where I just run on forever and just because. The air is cleaner, or maybe the lightness is from my vacation eyes, because I'm always energized by the open roads, clean lake-blown air, and farm country stretching before me. When looking up the quarter mile stretch of a hill, I know at  at the summit I'll be catching the blue of the lake in the horizon.

One of the locals

The roads always seem new to me compared to the suburbia sidewalks  I'm used to

Still, each time I like to adventure somewhere I've never been, and this time it was off-road down a four wheel drive track.  Do Not Trespass/Private Property signs warn against folks like me who would stray from the roads, but in between the signs I found a dirt route and veered off. Off-piste, as they'd say in ski country.  The green growth had been padded down into two tiretrack trails, and I ran down one, rolling over hills, between evergreens, and came upon a small fenced bee hive farm, is all I can call it. Drawer-like contraptions had tiny dots buzzing around them, just as oblivious as I as to why they were there but still happy to be moving.   (I learned later that farms use these hives to help pollinate their plants.) I saw at least 3 deer doing some wicked Fartlek-ing, and I was eager to join the Herd.

Bees make the world go around

 Part of me said to turn back. Yes, this road was much less traveled, so I  moved on, and it did make all the difference, since , the evergreens opened up into vast land, freshly mowed for hay perhaps, and the ground was smooth, the trail gone,and the short dry grass crunched with each stride. My legs moved in unison, just a motorized two-legged human darting over the landscape and feeling groovy. Hay silos and farmhouses looked on, until I finally came to some telephone poles, a clear sign I'd bumped back into the road and human life, so I turned back the way i came.

Funny to think I'm running in this country as part of my training for a metallic run through the NYCM in November.

It was a most memorable Torch Lake run, 70 degrees but with a slight breeze and so no real need for water stops, no watch on my wrist for my ego to worry about pace, and  my endorphin level in my blood was at a .27 and well over the legal limit. Off-roadin and running free and easy, putting aside my fear of farmers with shotguns, hillbillies with banjos, and not a sign of a human anywhere.  I was, for a moment, the biblical Adam, the only man on earth, running the the farmland of Eden.

country road

The best runs are often when the beauty of your insides are matched by the beauty of the outsides.

Reviews of The Jade Rabbit

The Jade Rabbit, on Amazon 

Reviews of Stray

STRAY on Amazon

"How Do You Measure A Year In A Life"

"Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand Six Hundred Minutes
 Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand Moments So Dear
 Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand Six Hundred Minutes
 How Do You Measure - Measure A Year?

 In Daylights - In Sunsets
 In Midnights - In Cups Of Coffee
 In Inches - In Miles
 In Laughter - In Strife

 In - Five Hundred Twenty-Five ThousandSix Hundred Minutes
 How Do You Measure, A Year In The Life

 How About Love?"       --Seasons of Love,  RENT,

And if you know the song, I hope you sung along in your head.  Great song, inspiring and touching message. How do you measure a year in a life?

Well, how about, "Runs...?"

Yes, I would say that is a major component I use to measure a year, and holiday runs are the greatest. Not sure why, but it's impossible not to be infused with a new spirit on Christmas. This Christmas eve, I took a run in a 32 degree sunny day, light snow on the ground, and knocked out 8 miles with an exhilirating run through heritage park.

Trails with light snow, when they aren't icy, are incredible.  Light snow glistens on the evergreens, no sound anywhere and little evidence of humans. Its' just you, the earth, and some facsimile of the Garden of Eden to be traversed through, bounding up and down winding paths, where the air just seems fresher and my legs respond in kind.

Heritage in the summer.

It's not a holiday if I haven't taken my run, maybe that makes me an addict still, but a 'positive addiciton,' as William Glasser would say.

In measuring my year, it has been a good one. I now have two daughters in grade school, which means the growing and the learning and socializing has been lit all ablaze and is shining bright.  I have a new job, which is much more condusive to my family life and has opened up a whole new realm of challenges and oppurtunities for growth, and I finally released The Jade Rabbit after years of work,  and STRAY continues to be received very well.

But, I'm way more about planning ahead for the next year, as if plotting a battle, then I am in looking back. This means a long vacation or two, a couple of marathons (to make up for zero in 2011), more writing, re-examining my bucket list, and trying to sharpen all the other things that can get dull if not tended to.

(In other news, the map for the 2012 Ann Arbor Marathon is posted Ann Arbor Marathon Course Information  I think I took the same exact route 23 years ago during a drunken walk back to my dorm. I look forward to taking the same route in a different state of being.)

Squeezing Me To Tears

Marathoning is such a grand event, and the way it takes place on the streets and the earth is nothing compared to the way it takes place in my mind.  It has taken on a much more spectacular event in my brain, my heart, and my soul, and has a deeper existential meaning beyond just a physical endurance event on a Sunday morning.

Sure it’s a run, a long as hell run, but more than that. It is me staring into the void, and the void challenging me back, asking me what am I made of? (how a void can challenge back, I don’t’ know). It is the eternal existential question: What's in your essence? What’s in your soul? Are you up to the challenge of being your best? Can you blast past previously self-imposed artificial limits?  Can you walk on water, part the Red Sea, can you not shrivel in pain and fear when the moment comes? Will you run on and endure or crumble into a fetal position and whimper with the challenges you face?

A marathon is the arena in which I prove myself worthy, that I am strong, a frigging fuckin warrior of life who will battle back, fight to the bone and not let blood or sweat or ripping muscles and tendons stop me.  It is life squeezing me and squeezing me to find out whats inside, what am I made of, and my essence oozes out and I bare myself for all to see, and I answer.  Hellz yeah, I got this. I got this and life is beautiful, I am beautiful, and I am Me, hear me ROOOOARRRR!!!! Fucking beast.

Just to show up marathon morning is to face the fear. Dreams of thousands hang on the precipice of that start line, and Fear is at the start of every marathon. I don't care if you have run fifty. There's fear that you won't run your goal, fear of that little injury in your calf since you know that if there's any weakness, the marathon that awaits you of you will exploit it to its core.  Fear of not finishing, fear of embarrassment, will it rain, will you be hurt, will your dreams be squashed, will you not be up to it? will you chaff, did you wear the right thing, you have to pee, you may throw up, you ate too much, not enough, will you curl up into your safe ball of comfort when that gargantuan test is put before you? How will you feel when the heat of the event starts to boil all of your fears and truths to the surface, can you hack it?  Its primordial and filthy stuff, and you won't come away unchanged.

And the power of thousands of people answering the challenge collides at every event, and there’s an unspoken connection.

Don’t you believe you can feel the people next to you in the last 6.2? That there’s a mystical and spiritual connection to thousands of other runners?  Hard to describe, but there is some odd connection that happens to people you never saw, may never see, but just to be near them and experiencing the same thing, all of you in your most vulnerable and stripped down moments. Because you know the person next to you at mile 24 has also been training for weeks, has been running many hours of the day and thinking about running the rest of the hours of the day, and now you have come together for the grand and ecstatic climax.

Whew, that’s a lot for just some training, but I have always made the marathon about way more than just training to feel fit, to give my life more purpose, clarity, and the lovely spiritual and emotional detox of a strong run. It does all of that, and more. It is an existential moment where I have to define myself and rise to the occasion.  And since there is such a build up, maybe that’s why I always cry. The moment I finish a marathon the tears flow, unabashedly, not because I am hurt, (because of course I am hurt) but because I am so alive at that moment, and everything I am made of is being squeezed out of me and I showed up, I did it, I am a Warrior, I felt the fear and did it anyways. 

This whole concept of the power of a running event was the guiding force when I wrote my second novel, The Jade Rabbit. I wanted to write a story that exemplified a complex character who was training for a marathon, and that her whole existence; emotional baggage, psychological fears, biological hopes (she’s been unable to get pregnant) were all played out in the drama of the marathon. The quest to run a sub 3 hour marathon is more than just an accomplishment and a medal, but would define her whole being.  That’s what a marathon does for us.  If the novel is successful in displaying this to the reader is yet to be determined, but the story is so personal, that every time I read it, I still cry.

I know, that sounds crazy. “You mean you know the ending but you still cry?”  my wife asks. Uh-huh.  Then again, same thing happens when I watch Terms of Endearment, Lion King (ya know, when Musafa challenges Simba that he is more than what he has become) and of course the movie The Champ has left a permanent mark.  No, those aren’t red boogers on my sleeve, that’s my heart. Well, maybe a mix of both. And all that stuff that comes out of you when your run-- that’s not sweat, that’s your heart and soul dripping out of every pore of your skin, cause you’re getting squeezed.

So, no, it's not just a run.  Don’t ever let it become that. It’s you against the negative forces in life, the voices in your head, that old teacher from seventh grade or the evil deities in your head all trying to make you feel and believe you are less than what you are. You aren’t, damn it, and you got your medal, your race day t-shirt, your appetite, and your tears to prove it.

TAPER GREMLINS IN YOUR BRAIN

"Damn, I knew I shouldn't have put in that two hour run this week. What's wrong with me.  AHHHH!!!!"

It’s 3 weeks to marathon day, and you just finished your last long run. You took your body to its limit. Your face is beat red from blood rushing through your body, the mitochondria in each of your cells has expanded and is carrying more energy than ever. Your legs are aching, thighs and calfs feel shredded, and stretched ligaments are begging for an ice bathe and some Ibuprofen. Your stomach demands some protein, or pizza, or some chocolate, and just when you think that you are done, you throw in a Five Guys cheeseburger (and the obligatory handful of peanuts while you wait) 

Three weeks to marathon day and now your real work begins.  Rest and taper.  I have heard it said that you are now at the point where there is nothing you can do this late that will improve your performance, but there is much you can do to hurt your performance and damage yourself.

The idea of a two week taper baffled me when I first heard it.  You mean I slow down for two weeks before I run such an event?  An event where people fear to tread, and I’m going to finish this event with a two week slow down?  Um, WTF?  But this was before I knew the science, or at least before I understood it.  Okay, better yet, before the science of tapering taught me many lessons.

After many trials and tribulations, I have come to fully believe in the full three week taper.  And I credit respecting the taper and obeying it fully for allowing me to finally qualify for Boston.  My last three weeks for my recent qualifier looked like this:  

*Three weeks before race date, 23 miles. 

*Two weeks before race date 13 miles.

*One week before race date, 8 miles. 

The rest of the runs were just fillers and all at 6 miles or under, and never two days in a row. I included some striders and some marathon pace miles, but always always holding back when the desire was to fly.

My second marathon, the first one that I ran for time, I was kicking ass in training.  If I wasn’t running miles, I was on the internet researching training plans  (um, this was before two kids).  I was doing many fast runs, and all the race predictors from the 10k’s and ten milers I had finished predicted a 3:05-3:10 marathon time. My mental drive was such that a bullet to the head would be all that could stop me. Two bullets. So, during the 20 mile training run 3 weeks out from the event, sponsored by a local running shoe store, I was going to see how ready I really was.  I basically raced the event, and did 20 miles at a 7:05 pace.  Hellz yeah!  And then a week later, because I was so tormented by the mental games of qualifying for boston and proving my worth, I slogged through another twenty miles, aching muscles and ligaments hurting, and then finally did a taper.

Then off to the Chicago Marathon, where I ran the first 20 miles on pace, but the last six, I was done. Shot. Splat. If I was in a Zombie movie, I would have been shot in the head, because I was a slow moving, leg ragged freak who almost had a DNF.  My thighs had such cramps in them they bulged in a way my wife will never forget. Ironically, it is still my PR at 3:16, but I know if I had trained better, I could have beat that time by ten minutes.

Still, I didn’t learn my lesson, but the lessons were beginning.

After training so hard, your body has been beat down, and you need to be 100 percent rested and healed in order to run your best, and I don’t mean injuries, although there is that too, I mean all the things you can’t see.  All the tiny tears and muscle rebuilding, not from your last long run, but from the last many months.  Think of it as a damn with an empty reservoir behind it, and you need to fill it up to the top until finally the damn breaks through with an incredible rush. Time it so that the break happens on marathon morning.

The problem is, you have been driving yourself so furiously for weeks, pushing yourself and fighting against any urge to slow, and now the goal is to push back against that drive, to resist the urge to go fast and long, and to instead rest and heal.  And the irony is, now that you have the reality of the upcoming race to worry about, you don’t have the relief of the same intensity of running. The worries mount, and your drug to cope is fading. Running is the ultimate high and rearranges all your brain cells and spiritual angst and emotional maladies and brings you back to a place of increase serenity, tranquility, and makes you feel like a kick-arse mudda fudder.  When you don’t have this, it will be a slight detox, and symptoms will appear.  Grogginess, crankiness, and the demons and gremlins of doubt will creep in.  You haven’t ran enough, you need to do more. You really think you can do this? You didn’t train enough. Better go take a run to see how fit you really are.

"Someone pause my Garmin."

Yes, Your taper brain will fu*ck with you (sorry, any other word besides the F-word would be an understatement) and make you doubt your abilities. It will find any small ache and pain in your body and blow it up into something huge and threatening.  The tiny ache on your knee, the hip that seems a bit crushed with your strides, or the calf that seems to pinch with every stride will feel so much more intense and be blown out of proportion.

 Beware of the mental drama and the chatter of ‘self-talk’ in your brain that threatens all you worked for.  It might go something like this:

I’ve recovered pretty quick, maybe I don’t need to taper as much as I thought.

Come on, three weeks of tapering?  Way too much. You have a friggin marathon to do, its dangerous for you to go out there and not train more. You want to embarrass yourself?  DNF? WTF? . You used to run right up until two weeks before the event, and now you’re getting lazy. You’ll lose so much fitness,

Yes, Your body will talk to you. It is a machine, an effective, lactic acid burning, heightened aerobic capacity machine. It has been molded it into something efficient and to take it for a run is blissful. It knows this, and will beg of you; “Don’t you want to go for a run and see what I can do, just a little test drive and rev your engines? Let’s  do some intervals or just see how effortlessly a ten mile marathon pace run has become. Like butter. Come on, it will feel so so good. You will love it, I promise. You know you want to.  Besides, see that extra pinch of flesh on your gut? You will be lugging that around for 26 miles if you don’t go burn some calories.”

Talk back, tell it no. No!  Don’t trust your gut in this one. Your gut and your body and your legs want to run. Trust your head. You might feel fresh and feel you are not exhausted now, but ‘you will be, you will be.’

Of course, this doesn’t mean everyone needs to taper for three weeks, but through experience, learn the kind of taper you need and follow it.  My mantra (plagiarized, of course) is that marathon training is an experiment of one, and the results you get will work for you and you alone.  For me, the results of the three week taper surprised the hell out of me, and if I doubt it, I only have to remember the last 6.2 of the marathons where I went Splat! When I was beaten down and dragging legs of dead weight the last miles and saw all those runners passing me by. Again and again, runners would shoot by me, my watch mocked me, and it took effort just to stop from walking and collapsing.  I wanted to scream, I wanted to cry, and swore to the heavens “God, I promise, I will go to church and taper longer next time if you just help me finish this one.”

So, make a commitment to taper. A solid taper is the road to negative splits, which, to me, is like a powder day on a ski run, like a perfect rainbow on the ocean sky, like a hole in one in golf, and running free and steady and at an even pace, reeling in runner after runner, the last 6.2 miles of a marathon is, without a doubt, the best feeling (family events besides) I have ever experienced in my whole life.  It is the high and bliss of heaven to me and why I come back. And, I have experienced many of the highs life has to offer.

 Do other things to distract yourself, study the course, start pouring through your Netflix que. Go watch all those shows saved on your DVR.  If you want a great inspiring movie, watch the movie Saint Ralph  (you will cry if you have a heart) and keep your focus on the event.  Remind yourself, that if you have done the miles, then you will be fine.  And if you wished you had trained more, now is not the time to fit it in.  Just know that, if you have the balls to train for a marathon and then show up marathon morning, you will cross the finish line.

"The Jade Rabbit" - A story of a miraculous marathon run, by Mark Matthews

Stray, the novel on Amazon
Stray addicts and stray dogs, wandering the streets looking for salvation.

SIMBA, YOU ARE MORE THAN WHAT YOU HAVE BECOME



If you see this bench during a Long Run, take a bite and carry on.



 

As a marathon runner, you get the joy of crossing the finish line in an event where most fear to start, but oh so much more. For one, there is nothing in life like finishing a Long Run in a marathon training program. Especially if it felt triumphant and you were running rather than just slogging and dragging yourself for the last few miles just to satisfy your training schedule.  I have had my share of those.  And then there’s that lovely, Saturday or Sunday afternoon exhausted feeling, where your whole body is tingling, all the molecules of your body seem to be on fire, and you can eat and eat and eat, and still not make up for all the calories lost.  People seem like zombies compared to what you just did, the beauty of life is vibrant and easy to see, and afternoon football seem so much more vivid.  I tend to look at the the athletes and think “I worked just as hard as you today, my good man.” You will sleep the sleep of the elite that night.

But, when it comes to Long Runs, there is so much variance on the buffet table of training options.  When to run the long run, how fast, how many, and at what length?  If you are obsessed enough to run like a crackhead looking for a rock, then you have googled pretty much every training table available. I am a firm believer in marathon training as an ‘Experiment of One’; the results will work for you and you alone. Of course, studying and having some sort of plan that resembles a tried and true program is important, but each marathon attempt is an experiment where you then modify your next program accordingly.  So, with that in mind, here’s what worked for me.

**Scheduling: First of all, when doing your marathon training schedule, do so backwards. Look at your marathon date, and then schedule your last long run three weeks out. This is the pinnacle of a training program, so start with that and then work backwards. Usually, there is a shoe store sponsored training run in your area around that date, so circle it on your calendar, DVR what needs DVR-ing, promise your spouse you will watch the kids on another date so you can have that day free, and let your mojo build to that moment.

**Help On The Way:  While you are on the go, you will need some help.  Here are some thoughts to get you by.

-A killer playlist on your iPod. But no, not killer from the beginning. Put in an hour long podcast to start. (Pheddipitations is my fav) and let yourself slowly build to some momentum building songs. Sing the songs as you run, and badly, and out loud as if nobody's listening.  And Love like you never been hurt and shoot snots out your nose like nobody's watching.

-Your Own Aid Station-  make a central point where you can run out and backs froms your water spot.  I have a route to a gas station where I run 4 miles, get a bunch of water and leave it by a tree, then do a few out and backs that return me to my water, until my final run home.  Yes, getting the water at the gas station with sweaty bills pulled from your shorts and perhaps snots on your nose may get you some looks, but really, shouldn’t the dude next to you buying a 5 dollar pack of smokes really be the one getting the looks. (For nonconformity, the world will whip you with its displeasure.  Feel the crack of the whip and ask for more.)

-Energizers and Fuel. Of course there is Gu, but ever since I read (I think it was in Runner magazine) about an ultra runner who gets by on Kit-Kats, I always buy a few and man are they perfect.  Easy to digest, a nice change, and my body responds more when I promise a kit-kat after another 2 miles more so than the poopy-gooey stuff.

-Anti-Inflammatories- (insert not a doctor disclaimer notes) Before a few of my long runs, I started taking a few Naproxen’s (Aleve) and I think it helps.  It may have been just a placebo effect, and it feels a little too much like cheating or doping or playing with nature, but as long as it's not oversused, I think it’s worth it.Test before trying in a race, as always.

** Getting There is Half The Fun: How to build up to your longest long run? Intially, I just ran a certain length and then bumped it up 2 miles for my next long run.  What I have found, is that for many of the long run lengths, I do 2 attempts at a certain mile length before I bump up. (maybe not all the lengths, for example, maybe two runs of 14 miles, one 16, two at 18, before moving on to twenty, and so on.) The first one is just to cover the miles, but the second is to do a few, up to 8, at marathon pace. Preferably the last parts of the run to get yourself prepared to run fast when you are tired.  That is so important, I believe, cause you can get to the point where you can run 20 miles at a certain pace in your sleep, against the wind in the rain, and on a boat with a goat, but if your legs can’t handle the speed, then you are done. 

** Rabbit or The Hare:  Start as a cute-as-hell turtle with the voice of that sea turtle dude from Finding Nemo, but end with the leg kicks of a wrasckly wrabbit. Some speed or marathon pace runs during some of your long runs is essential. This can be a shock to your legs if you have done 10 miles at a comfortable pace, and then you try to do that last 4 or 6 at race pace, so try some striders at race pace for a minute or two a mile before you hit the change of pace to preprare.  The initial shock will seem hard, but once you hit it again, it will flow smoother. Think of it as getting into a cold pool. At first it is cold and shriveling, but then jumping back in again, its nuttin. 

**Nothing Sacred.  Top out with a run longer than the token 20 miles.  Of all the changes that helped me to reach my BQ PR, (including a 3 instead of  2 week taper, resting when my mental demons begged me to run more) it was topping out at 23 mile long run that put me over the top.  Making this change totally changed the feel of the last 6.2 of the marathon. Despite the character in my novel The Jade Rabbit, who believes in the adage that the last 6.2 are sacred and should be saved for the race. (I was going for the ‘Hemmingway-esque’ metaphor of fearing the psychologically dark places.)  Running 20 is enough for many folks, but as I stated, in this experiment of one, it didn’t work. 

Of course, the risk is that the last long run damaged me nearly as much as the race itself, so what I did was go out super-duper slogging slow.  I ran the first ten miles slow, sped up for the next 5 to 6 miles, and then ran the last 8 at marathon pace.  It made a huge difference. 

If you are doing a training run with a running group, and you are doing more than the group is, then get there early and do them first rather than afterwards. Nothing more dehumanizing than having to run on when everyone else has finished. You will regret going more, you may stop, and you will feel slow when everyone else sees you crossing long after they did. On the other hand, if you get there thirty minutes before hand and put in three miles, you will feel a stud or an amazing Amazon warrior.  (which you already are, by the way, so don’t forget it.)

**Simba, you are more than what you have become; Just some thoughts that worked for me.  Take what you want and trash the rest.  I will ramble on more about recovery time, recovery nutrition, why I cry every time I see The Lion King, tapering, how and why to brush your teeth in the shower, and why I don’t trust people who wink at me at a later date.



The Yellow Brick Road of A Marathon Runner

All existence is suffering, and all of our efforts are to relieve that suffering, if but only for moments.  Another bittersweet Buddhist belief. My paraphrase on one of the four noble truths.

However, with the right efforts, you can relieve that suffering so well that you transcend to something much higher than life.  Do it again and again, and your suffering baseline gets higher, your peaks of living continue to exceed the last one, and the dips of your life are completely manageable.

All this to to try and explain why I run.  I have found that it puts me into a space outside of the world. It heats up my insides and boils my truths to the top, detoxes my brain and rearranges things, and when the run is over, it all settles into a new place.  A rebirth happens with every run.

In times of turbulence, running brings me back to a deeper truth about myself and how to navigate in the world.   It is like going to see the wizard of Oz, and all along the yellow brick road, I am forced to use the very thing in my being that I thought I lacked, and when I get to the end, the wizard points out how it was there all along.  Yes, those scary flying monkeys are there too.

And this is why I love my character Janice Zhu Woodward, the narrator of The Jade Rabbit.  Janice has an incredible amount of angst and truths in her that need to be 'boiled out', and she has a quiet strength in her, a feminine strength really. She needs direction, perspective, and is yearning for her self-doubt to be erased.  With every run, she finds the answers and resolutions she is looking for to attack another day.  And with her final run in the marathon, she has an epiphany that some will see as incredulous while others, who have felt the spirit of the marathon run, will see it as a veritable truth.

We all have our yellow brick road, the journey we take to bring out the best in us. Ask yourself what is yours.

My novel, The Jade Rabbit, at the editors office. Chapters 1 and 2 available

I have released my baby for her first overnight.

Sure, a handful of trusted baby-sitters have watched her for a few hours here and there, but never an overnight. Now she is completely away, for many overnights in fact, and I will have to sleep with my cell at my bedside.

Of course, I am speaking of my coming novel, The Jade Rabbit, which has been sent to an editors office.  Fortunately, I can call whenever I want to check in.

What's it about you ask?  Here's a blurb.

A female infant is abandoned by her birth-mother in a small Chinese village and spends her first ten months in an orphanage. She is adopted and raised in the United States where she becomes a social worker in order to help children in a desolate Detroit neighborhood. This woman is the first person narrator of The Jade Rabbit.

As director of a shelter for runaway and neglected youth, Janice Zhu Woodward gets pulled into the lives of the lost children of the streets and is forced to relive her own traumatic past. To stay strong and spiritually inspired, Janice emulates her adoptive mother and becomes an avid, nearly obsessed marathon runner.  When a mysterious girl with dreadlocks is abandoned at the shelter's front door, the two form a relationship based on their common bonds, and together, rediscover the transcendental power of motherhood love.

Chapters One and Two available here: Chapters one and two of Stray