Reigniting Marathon Motivation: Embracing the Process and Finding Inspiration in Running Memoirs

Ever find yourself missing old friends and training partners after a big move? I recently moved to Texas and have been feeling the same way - but an inspiring conversation with one of my former New York training partners reignited my motivation for the upcoming Berlin Marathon. In this candid "dear diary" episode, I share his words of wisdom and how they reminded me of the importance of focusing on the process, the quiet morning miles, and the burning legs and lungs on the track, rather than just the finish lines and PRs.

As I continue to prepare for the Berlin Marathon, I also explore my current media diet, including an array of memoirs I've been listening to on Audible. From Lauren Fleshman's Good for a Girl to Desiree Linden's Choosing to Run, these audiobooks have provided me with companionship during my solo runs and walks. Join me in this episode as I discuss the impact these stories have had on my training, as well as my thoughts on potentially registering for a back-up race and the importance of surrounding yourself with supportive people during the marathon journey.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:14

This is the Lucy Beatrix podcast. Today we're talking about life. It's kind of like one of my dear diary entries where I'm just talking about things that are top of mind, including some inspiration from a friend of mine for going into my training for the Berlin Marathon. I'm going to be talking about my media diet or what kind of content I'm consuming right now by way of shows or things on YouTube, and, yeah, i'm just going to kind of like talk to you guys about what's been going on in my world as I get ready to build up for the marathon this fall.

Speaker 1: 0:51

So I moved to Texas six months ago and I still feel like I'm getting settled. I'm not totally, totally settled in yet, but slowly but surely I feel like I'm getting more and more grounded here. But there is something that has been still missing, and that is I really miss my friends back home in New York and I miss the people that I used to train with And even though there are such talented, amazing, fast individuals that live here in Austin, it's actually kind of crazy. People are so fast here and they don't even realize how fast they are. Like sub two 40 marathoners. Sub two 30 marathoners, sub two 20 marathoners. So I'm in good company out here, but I had my little crew of guys that I used to train with when I was getting ready for the Chicago marathon last fall And I spent the whole summer running with these people And I miss them And I think that's a normal part of moving or starting over somewhere new. And that said, i was talking to one of those training partners a couple of days ago and his name's Brendan and he. We were just talking about running and training and stuff And he said something to me. I hope he doesn't mind me sharing this, but he said something to me that really like fueled the fire to get me excited about going after Berlin this fall. And I think it's because I think the precursor to all of this is that I was feeling like this whole buildup is quite an undertaking, given how hard I worked towards the Chicago marathon last summer, wrapping my head around. That is so much where I'm like man.

Speaker 1: 2:38

Marathons are no joke and should not be taken lightly, like. They require so much, so much dedication, so much mental willpower, and sometimes it just helps to have a sounding board or people to like share that with, so that you don't feel like you're just getting so caught up in numbers and outcomes and rather just trying to enjoy the process. So this is what my friend said to me You're a competitor and want nothing but perfection. It's hard to look at the build for a race and not be filled without. Don't forget, you do it as much for the quiet morning miles and the burning legs and lungs on the track as you do it for the finish lines and PRs. You do it because you want to test yourself every day and prove worthy, but that proof comes with. The process builds day after day until the result is something that you can live with no matter what, because you put your whole being into it. No-transcript, that really got to me, that really like fueled me, because I got out there the next day and ran 14 miles And then today I just finished about nine and a half And I was reminded of how the marathon is literally 1%, less than 1% of all the mileage that you put into training, all those days, all those hours that nobody sees, except for maybe your training partners or your significant others that see you coming and going for runs.

Speaker 1: 4:10

That is just, it's just so much, and so you really have to be tethered to your why to be able to take on such a huge thing, especially when you have an ambitious time goal, like I do. So it's like just laying down the bricks, like I feel. Like right now I'm about I think it's 15 weeks out until the Berlin marathon And I'm still trying to get my base back underneath me and get my legs beneath me, i guess, or feel that foundation from which to spring off of, because it just takes so much to just like get things moving quick again. And I had taken a really big break last week. I took the most days off and running that I have in so long. As long as I can remember, um, i took four days off from running. So I think that was really good because it kind of gave me a reset pause to like recalibrate and think about what my why is, what kind of work it's going to take, and yeah, but I think that the most important thing here is just having people that surround you that are into your goals and all about it and excited about your goals with you, because then that reminds you that you're not doing it totally alone. I think if we do it totally alone, it becomes soul crushing and you feel like everything's life or death and it can't be like that, because then it just gets not fun really quickly. So that's my little two cents about training and where I am right now with all that stuff getting ready for Berlin.

Speaker 1: 5:38

And I'm kind of on the fence about this idea of registering for CIM, which is a couple of months after Berlin, which is something that people traditionally do If you're going for a time goal and you want to have like a backup race just in case. But like it's weird for me, because I almost don't want to give myself that option to like quit before I even start of thinking like okay, well, if this isn't my race and I can do another race a couple months later. It's weird. It's like a psychological hiccup I was talking to my therapist about it of whether or not I think I should sign up. So that's still like a TBD thing that I've been thinking about. And yeah, other than that, it's just day by day grinding and like taking care of my body outside of the training and like making sure that I'm really getting the protein. And I'm actually quite excited by how much like I'm fired up by really working on my nutrition and making sure that that's just spot on and my recovery and my sleep. And I dialed way back down on my caffeine so that my tolerance is back to a normal place, so that I don't rely on caffeine to get out there to train. I can train without it, i can use it for a competitive edge on hard days and races and stuff, so I feel like that's been really positive. But anyway, so training that's where I am with that.

Speaker 1: 6:53

I have been consuming a lot of media, so this is kind of like a little recap of like my media diet, of what kind of stuff I've been listening to, watching and, yeah, basically what I've been taking in, because I think that's just as important as the training is. Like, what am I filling my head with? And I went on a spree with audiobooks where I basically got audible like a month ago, a month and a half ago, and I've listened to like 10 memoirs. At this point I've listened to so many I probably won't be able to recount them all, but I listened to Good for a Girl by Lauren Fleshman. I listened to Choosing to Run by Desiree Linden, i listened to Bravy by Alexi Pappas, the Let Your Mind Run by Dina Caster, the Longest Race by Kara Goucher and Inside Out by Demi Moore, wasted by Maria Harmbarker. What else did I listen to? I feel like I had so many, yeah, and I'm glad my mom died by genetic herding.

Speaker 1: 7:58

So I basically just was like back to back to back to back, memoir, memoir, memoir. And I listened to it while I was running, logging time on feet and walking, and it was great. I felt like I always had somebody with me while I was listening to these. It kind of made me feel less lonely on a lot of these like solo runs that I was doing. But I think that audiobooks are kind of a great way to like break up the podcast routine. If you're into podcasts like I am, because sometimes podcasts are nice to listen to, like conversations and stuff I think I get a lot out of that.

Speaker 1: 8:26

But I also like the structure of good stories from Beginning, middle, end for like eight plus hours. And it's been so helpful because I'm writing my own memoir And so I'm kind of using these books to kind of like help me create my own narrative and find like how to compartmentalize my beginning, middle and end for my own book. So that's been really exciting because I've that's been like besides training, i've been really focusing on writing a book And it's my goal by the end of the year to reach my time goal with the marathon and publish a book. And yeah, so that's been kind of like how my days are being filled, is like with this process, both with writing and with running, and then for fun, when it's not like trying to like focus, like that listening to the memoirs felt like it was almost like doing research for my book. But when I'm not doing like more cerebral work, like that, whether it's running or writing and listening to books on tape.

Speaker 1: 9:26

I have been also just enjoying different shows that I never really got a chance to watch. Like there's a show on HBO I just got into called Succession, that everyone was talking about And I really like it. It reminds me of, like crazy people I knew in New York. And I watched this really great show called Beef with David Cho, who I love and think he's so fascinating and just he's basically plays himself, even though he's acting in it. And then right now I'm obsessed with a show called The Bear, which is about a chef in Chicago, which makes me think a lot about my dad, because my dad was this food critic and love these, like these gritty restaurant stories And this. This really gives you that like intensity of what it's like in the kitchen, of an intense restaurant experience.

Speaker 1: 10:17

And speaking of my dad, my sister found some letters that my dad and if you didn't know this, my dad passed away almost five and a half years ago and he was a writer, he was a journalist, and he had written these letters to my grandparents, and so my sister found these and sent me them a couple of days ago And it was just so funny reading these letters and seeing how my dad was talking. He's basically he sounded like Hunter S Thompson, backpacking around you, uh, packing around Europe, and just recounting what his journeys are like. And this was seven years before I was born that he sent these letters to my grandparents And I just got such a kick out of reading them because I was thinking, man, my dad was a writer And I I love that. I know that I have a little of that, a little of that in me that I like, feel like this need to write, i have to write. It's just something that's in me, and so that was a pretty cool little inspiration to be reading these letters that my dad wrote.

Speaker 1: 11:21

So, besides this update on training and this update on, like my media diet, i've also been on YouTube a lot And I've been just like researching and I love watching runner vlogs on YouTube And one of the runner vlogs I watch is Philly Bowden, who just ran a sub two 30 at two 29 marathon in Copenhagen And I watched her entire buildup for this race And it was remarkable to see how she really did it. She did exactly what she set out to do and, you know, broke two 30 in her in her marathon And I was watching her training from afar, basically like taking notes of like what her paces were looking like and what kind of runs she was doing and her fueling and everything, and it really sparked a lot of motivation in myself to try to emulate that and think how I can incorporate some of the things that she was doing into my routine And, yeah, find inspiration from what I was taking in. So, even though that was just kind of like a nice leisurely pastime thing to be watching her vlogs, i also felt like I was getting a lot out of it for how I can apply it to my own life And generally I like to consume media that I can then apply to my life And so that was super inspiring. But yeah, so I think as far as what's going on in my world, i I've just been trying to get myself revved up so that I can get back on the track, like back on track by getting on the track Because I haven't really been touching the track as much as I would have, would have liked, because it's just been like hard without like my same training partners, my same little routine that I had on Tuesday nights in Brooklyn.

Speaker 1: 13:04

But I think that will come And I've been looking into different places I could possibly go this summer for like elevation training and seeing because it gets very hot in Austin which people have trained through ever friend named Mitch Amons, who ran a 216 marathon last winter and he trained through the heat here. So it's possible to train here. But I also have been like looking into possibilities of going somewhere else and trying to get my friends to come with me. But that's kind of where I am right now. So it's like you know, a lot of different moving parts And a couple North stars, like my Berlin marathon, my book and along the way, just enjoying the process and not getting too attached to any outcomes, and that's basically where I am right now. So I hope you enjoyed this little episode updating you guys on what my life's been like recently, and if you ever have any questions or you want to reach out, you can find me on Instagram. I'm at lucybiatrix L-U-C-I-E-B-E-A-T-R-I-X, and until next time, just be fast, just win.