30 Seconds! That’s nothing, right? We’ll you may not think so, but it’s huge to me. Over the last 10 days, I’ve run 35.5 miles in 340 minutes. That’s an average pace of 9:35 per mile. My marathon goal is a 9:05. That’s 30 seconds per mile faster than the pace I ran for the 10 days. 30 seconds for 26.2 miles, through pain, fatigue, and every bit of self-doubt you can imagine.
On Tuesday we had the kickoff for our CFF marathon team, Team for Life. It was a good time and I was asked to speak to the group. I basically rambled off the Time to Train blog I posted here earlier. While talking to a friend before the meeting, I mentioned that I had fixed my stride and now was running faster and better than ever. Well, one of the team members was there with us and heard me say that I could run an 8:35 for two miles. She kind of snickered and walked away. I called her on it, as she didn’t hear the rest of the discussion. What she didn’t hear is that I could do that for up to three two mile intervals.
No, that is not going to get me to a sub 4:00 marathon. But, it’s about 500% better than I’ve ever done before. What will get me to the sub 4 is CF. Some see CF as a curse. A “why did this have to happen to me” kind of situation. I don’t. I see it as a character defining trait. Now, I’ve been lucky to be very healthy over my almost 40 years. But, CF has made me see life the way it really is…a challenge. And I believe it has made me stand up and take on that challenge better than most people.
In fact, I believe that we the CF community are stronger and more determined than the average bear. We’ve been taught to handle things in life from a very early age. So, that’s what will get me to a sub 4 marathon. Grit, determination, and the ability to handle adversary… like I’ve had to since I came to understand CF.
More to come on my perceived benefits of training and CF!
I am curious as to what your pft number is? I turned 44 and ran my first marathon on March 20. Oh, I do have cf. I finished in 5 hrs 7 mins and it was not my lungs that stopped me, it was the latic acid build up in my legs that killed my time in the last 8 miles. My pft’s generally run 58-59%. I run a comfortable 10-10:15 and can do shorter runs (6-13m) at about a 9:45. I want to increase my speed but often wonder how much CF will limit my ability. I would be interested in hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Wanda
Hey man I just ran the Boston Marathon as a bandit, I was timed by my friends at 4:35:00 and another 4:53:00 I stopped to use the out house, ate way to many fatty foods the night before if you get my drift. I read your blog a while back, my goal from when I was a kid was to run in a marathon. Your blog helped inspire me to really want to try then a friend of mine with CF ran twice and thats when i said I gotta do it too. Thanks for helping inspire me. Along with your help I hope we get get the word out there that its not the disease that defines who we are, or what we will be. Instead pushing us to be what we see for our selves.