Running In Place

Some time ago, Chris talked about the motivational posters he would create to help him visualize goals. At the time, I thought it was a great idea! I went out and bought a big ol’ posterboard and thought alot about what I wanted to fill it with. I scoured magazines for pictures and phrases that I thought might make me feel strong and willing and inspired. I mostly ended up thumbing through back issues of Runner’s World. Not that endless pictures of sweating hardbodies (contained mostly in the advertisements) aren’t something to aspire to, but it all began to look the same. I cut a few out but I didn’t end up pasteing them to that virgin cardboard surface. I couldn’t – they weren’t the image of me. So I hung it up, blank, because rather than having a finished product I wanted a work in progress. Yeah, that’s the image of me.

So here it is. Beginning: Early 2005. End: None in sight.

I don’t know how clearly it will all translate, but here’s the overview (in chronological order):
* In the upper left corner is the first thing I ever placed on the poster – Dianna’s post on an Open Letter to Running. Running had not yet taught me all of those things, but I was hopeful it would.
* The next addition was the picture in the upper right corner

She is the only picture, other than one of myself, that I’ve put up so far. She was not anyone famous – just a runner chick modeling some winter duds. I loved her. Not because she represented a body that I wanted to emulate or a perceived speed that I aspired to, but because she just looked damn tough. She visually portrayed an inner confidence that I envied. She didn’t get up in the morning and think “am I really a real runner??” – she just got up and ran. I needed her stern gaze and unyielding posture to remind me that I could be tough too.
* Below her is a column of geometric shapes that contain a piece that I copied from the sidebar of Wil’s page. It related to doing what needed to be done vs. collecting reasons why you didn’t. I pasted it up around the late winter/early spring time of this year, when I was going through a difficult transition in my career and a real flat spot in my running. It was meaningful to me in both areas.
* Next, in the upper-mid area, is another quote lifted from Wil’s sidebar. I put that up when I started my Boilermaker training. I’d never really been “in training” for anything before and that race was so very important to me. That quote was the daily reminder of why the sacrifices were worth the while.
* A little bit below that is a small square box with a picture of a fortune in it that relates to rising again out of the ashes of our mistakes. It was also taken from our good Wil who clearly has a knack for finding just the right words. I pasted it to the posterboard after my unhappy first 10K.
* Near the center is my Boilermaker race bib! That race was my first big goal and a real defining moment in my confidence as a runner.
* I can’t remember the order of the next 2 items as they were placed at close times and represented the same thought.
- The photo at the bottom is me, just before crossing the finish at the New Haven 5K. It may not be real clear for viewers at home, but I can see in that picture (and clearly remember) that I am struggling. I like this picture alot because not only was that race a PR at the time, but it was also the first time in a long time that I left it all out there. So it’s a much less flattering picture than the Boilermaker finish line, in which I was all smiles – but it also represents something completely different and even more important to me.
- To the left of the photo is a quote from George Sheehan that found me right around the time I was contemplating the acute discomfort of racing and the chronic discomfort of training for my first 1/2 Marathon. I thought it nicely expressed a bit of the why?? that I was so often asked by others, and sometimes wondered myself.
* In the far lower left is the text from 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 as narrated by Steve Runner. I’m not sure what translation it is, though it certainly sounds like a modern one. I listened to him read this, via his wonderful podcast, on my second-to-last long run before the half and it just really moved me. When we checked into our motel before the race, I pulled out the Gideon bible from the bedside drawer and marked that page.
* Lastly (so far), in the far right corner is the race bib from my awesome first half M. So far, that’s been the Big Daddy but I hope to put a full M bib up there sometime next year.
* Oh, and of course, hanging from the left corner is the my 1/2 M medal.

So that’s it. My little museum of running. I’m glad I stopped and took a snapshot of it because someday it will be full and it will be time to take it down and put up another blank page. Or I could leave it up – I’ve got a little time to convince my husband that a bedroom wall filled with posterboard is a legitimate and tasteful form of decoration.

** Here’s giant-view of the poster, in which the text is pretty much legible. **