With a Little Help From My Friends

Just Another Runner's Perspective                                                                                                            May 2021                                                                                                                                                      Written By Gale Fischer                                                                                                      

With a Little Help From My Friends “Anything is possible when you have the right people there to support you.” —Misty Copeland

For the avid, passionate runner, numerous sources of motivation exist, providing the push to get out the door for a run. Perhaps the most chronicled catalyst is the phenomenon known as a runner’s high, but there are many other incentives to jumpstart a run on a day when the desire is at an all time low including, stress relief, think time and the sense of accomplishment that comes with a completed run. With all of these short term sources of persuasion, at times the need arises to keep focused on a destination that lies weeks, months or years down the road. Setting goals and hashing out a plan to adhere to, in an attempt to achieve these goals is a strategy that many runners rely on to go for a run on a day when the motivation is hidden. Goals require patience, a character trait that typically exists in an endurance runner’s DNA.

The introduction to my running journey is directly tied to the patience required for a long term goal. As a non-runner, I decided that I wanted to run a marathon. Starting from ground zero, this objective immediately became a year long endeavor. In my tenure as a runner over the last two decades, I have been driven by a variety of aspirations. I have been fortunate to attain many of these, but there have been just as many that I have not achieved. A common theme for all of these goals is that I have remained steadfast in my patience to put in the work to see it through. The focus required for these sought after milestones has helped me get out the door on days when extreme weather conditions desperately attempted to persuade me to take the day off. There have also been instances when finding a slice of time in an already full calendar challenged me to go run, with a goal helping me to find the flexibility to squeeze in a run. 

The format of my running goals is constantly changing. At times I have sought to run races of different distances in a specified time. Some have been tied to targeting a specified distance. I have created other goals, honing in on weekly, monthly and yearly mileage. Many have been as short term as four or five weeks while other goals have been set out to achieve in as long of a period as fifteen years. There are periods of time when I am focused on multiple goals but sometimes my entire focus has been a single endeavor.

Injury and the process of aging have slowed me as a runner and taken away the motivation to try to sustain the speed that I once possessed, forcing me away from speed goals. More recently my running goals have centered around weekly and yearly distance totals. Running the year has been something that has helped me to stay true to my running routine for the last five years. This past year I was able to log more than 2021 running miles. The easiest way for me to keep on track from this goal is to focus on logging forty miles a week to keep on pace. Injury and periods of forced time off from running have forced me to divert my game plan but I have been fortunate to achieve my “running the year” goal the past few years. 

Having accumulated more than 2021 miles for 2021 I began the New Year with the objective of covering 2022 miles for the year. I plugged away through January with just over 200 miles, well ahead of schedule but then my hopes were dashed after consulting with my orthopedic doctor. Surgery was scheduled for my left hip for the end of April along with a four month rehabilitation with no running. Reality immediately hit that logging my mileage goal for the year would be an unlikely accomplishment with a four month layoff. I continued to run but desperately needed a new goal. If I could make a mileage goal for a twelve month period of time, why not do the same for the first four months of 2022. It appeared that 800 miles heading into my surgery would be doable so I decided to up the ante to 900 miles for January through the end of April. 

It wasn’t easy, but I was able to surpass the 900 mile plateau. Fortunately I am a  part of a running group with dedicated friends who helped me reach this goal. I’m not confident that I could have hit my target having had to run every single mile on my own, especially in the midst of a harsh Midwest winter. All of us are capable of reaching goals that we set out to accomplish on our own. Accomplishing anything in running or in life requires a certain amount of internal drive. The miles don’t count if someone else runs them for me while I sit at home on the couch. I am blessed to have a group of friends to run with who have run beside me to reach my four month mileage goal. I couldn’t have achieved  this milestone without the help of Wes, Frank, Fernando, Brian and Michelle, some of the regulars for my Wednesday and Saturday morning routine. Running can provide the perfect distraction from life’s highs and lows but there are times that a distraction from the run is helpful. Having beside you mile after mile can provide this distraction with discussion centered around family, work, running experiences and other life topics. The fellowship that comes from running friends has become the perfect antidote for a rough patch during a run. Even with the support that this group has provided for me for this particular goal and all my running endeavors over the last five years, I would have been hard pressed to complete this four month challenge without the helping hand of another member of our running group, Serene, who logged all but a handful of the my miles for the current calendar year.

Serene was gracious enough to adjust her work schedule a day or two each week to fit in with my running schedule. When I first committed to the goal I didn’t hash out a plan but within a few weeks realized that I would need to reduce my mileage to taper for an upcoming marathon scheduled a few days before my surgery. To adjust I would add a mile to a few of my runs each week but it became obvious that I would need to add more. I decided to schedule a double run one day a week to increase my mileage. Serene adjusted to the double run without any hesitation. A few weeks later I added a second double run and again Serene put in the extra miles, no questions asked. 

As the weeks and miles began to accumulate, Serene began providing support beyond following my plan, sliding into more of a coaching role. In the middle of a six mile run she would suggest that we add a mile. She would implement this subtle strateg a few times a week, in her casual attempt to push me a few miles closer to my goal. Perhaps what surprised me the most came a few days leading into my spring break. Without really tracking our mileage we had just completed an eighty two mile week. This was the most miles I had ever accumulated for a training week and I was riding an all time high. We had planned on a high mileage week to align with my time off from work. During our first run fresh off our eighty two mile week Serene suggested we try for a one hundred mile week. She caught me off guard. A one hundred mile training week was something I would have never considered on my own. For me it was the perfect time for a seven day period of high mileage with my week off work. Serene didn’t have the same luxury as she was still working. Still she put in the miles with me. 

We capped off the triple digit week totaling 106.5 miles. The week of several double runs of double digits was one for the memory books. It wasn’t always easy but it was fun and the feeling of accomplishment when complete was exhilarating. With Serene’s help I easily eclipsed 900 miles more than a week before my scheduled surgery. Serene of course planted a secondary seed,  upping the ante’ to 1000 miles. As I ran the numbers going into the marathon taper, I calculated that we would need thirty miles the two days preceding the marathon to reach 1000 miles going into my surgery.  We made it, pushing my total miles for the year to 1002.

Serene’s selflessness to help me reach my goal is one of many examples of what we see in the running community. Of course this was initially my goal but I think it's safe to say that it ultimately became our goal. Many of us have the capacity to accomplish what is perceived to be unattainable. There is certainly a physical element required to achieve some out of the box goals in our sport but mental grit is really the driving force. Many of us can do most anything with a strong mental edge but what we can accomplish with the help and support of others cannot go unrecognized.

Until next time, this has been just another runner’s perspective.