Sarah Jo Austin

Running Haiku I*

Bright leather, fresh tread
Pound the road with renewed beat
Energetic feet

*This blog entry was originally posted on LogYourRun.com

Add comment April 25th, 2007

Grapes*

Tonight I’m eating grapes. I canceled my classes today, slept until almost 1 o’clock, was scolded by the department secretary, skipped my 2 o’clock class, folded laundry, finished Wednesday’s lesson plan, and practiced the art of saying “no.” I also weight lifted in my living room while making fun of the Bachelor with my husband (he didn’t weight lift; he made fun with me).

I also managed to put a massive hot pink ink stain on a couch cushion (thanks to my designer husband who is a master at the strangest of domestic tasks, like getting ink out of couch cushions). I also incorrectly set the VCR and did not record 24, much to my husband’s dismay.

Though I could easily call today a failure, I feel fantastic. There’s something liberating about taking a day into my own hands and doing exactly what I think needs to be done. No, I didn’t go running today (I’m trying to take preventative measures against some looming shin splints), but I’m eating grapes, which are good for me.

*This blog entry was originally posted at LogYourRun.com

Add comment April 24th, 2007

Today’s Running Mantras*

Linden and I logged 4.5 miles during today’s beautiful afternoon, and though my face and arms are a little pink, I feel great. (FYI, I read last month–in Women’s Health, I think–that runners have higher rates of skin cancer than other athletes. Time for sunscreen!)

I didn’t feel great during the run, though. I hit a wall about halfway in, but encouraging Linden, who was also struggling, helped take my mind off the run. I played around with some new mantras:

“Beautiful Day” by U2
It’s a beautiful day, the sky falls
And you feel like it’s a beautiful day
It’s a beautiful day
Don’t let it get away

You’re on the road but you’ve got no destination
You’re in the mud, in the maze of her imagination
You love this town even if it doesn’t ring true
You’ve been all over and it’s been all over you

“Jesus Loves Me”
Emphasis on “They are weak, but he is strong.”

“Holiday” by Madonna
The route took us on Holiday Street. Simply singing “Holiday Celebrate” helped.

“What If I Stumble” by DC Talk
Forgot how great this song was. It seems discouraging at first, but when you get to the end of the chorus, you remember that Love will continue even if today isn’t what you hoped it would be.

What if I stumble? What if I fall?
What if I lose my step and make fools of us all?
Will the love continue if my walk becomes a crawl?
What if I stumble? What if I fall?

And then there was my ole faithful:
Easy does it. You can do it.

*This blog post was originally published at LogYourRun.com

Add comment April 16th, 2007

Today I’m a Runner*

I’m a runner today. Today was windy, overcast, and cold, and I ran three miles. Who else ran with me? My hardcore counterpart and training partner Linden. There were no cute sorority girls with their iPods and pink shorts running on campus; it was me and Linden in our tights, sweatshirts, gloves, and headbands looking anything but cute.

I don’t call myself a runner every day. I certainly don’t run every day, but that isn’t why. I don’t always call myself a runner because I don’t always feel like a runner. For example: Can I call myself a runner when I run even though I don’t feel like it? Or can I call myself a runner on beautiful days when it seems everyone else is calling themselves runners, too? Or can I call myself a runner at local races when those who are older and faster speed past my turtle-like pace?

In the TA office about a month ago, Linden and I had a conversation about how our running had changed since this time last year. Last spring, we let the stress of schoolwork, marriage, teaching, and work stand in the way of our running toward the end of the semester, but this spring we’ve stuck with it. Yes, we’re totally stressed out as graduation nears, but we haven’t wavered in our running schedule.

Does that make me a runner? I certainly think so. Something in my psyche has changed, and no matter how busy and tired and stressed I am, I keep running. Heck, I even added weight training to my schedule after spring break to tone up before May’s Florida vacation.

Will I be a runner tomorrow? I think so.

*This blog entry was originally posted on LogYourRun.com.

Add comment April 12th, 2007

My Relationship with Food*

When I started running last year, part of my reasoning was to maintain/lose some weight. Over the last two years, even with the running, I’ve gained twenty pounds, which I chalk up to adjusting to married life, the stress of graduate school, synthetic hormones, bad eating habits, and every woman in my family who seems to have failed these same battles.

So now I weigh twenty pounds more than my husband (which is just depressing even though he’s a stick and it isn’t his fault), and I’m trying to pin point what I can do to turn this problem of weight gain around. I want to get this under control before I start bearing children in the next few years because, let’s face it, having children is just going to make this battle tougher.

I think the problem is my relationship with food. I’ve tried keeping food diaries, but as anal retentive as I am, I do a horrible job maintaining them. I don’t think I need to go to Weight Watchers because the other women would hate me. I’d like to visit a dietitian to nail down how I should be eating for my half-marathon/marathon training next fall/spring, but all the dietitians I can find in Springfield specifically talk with patients with real problems, like diabetes.

I just need a system and some accountability, but I have no idea where to start. And that is most frustrating of all.

*This blog was originally published at LogYourRun.com.

Add comment April 11th, 2007

Running Memories*

Over the last week, I’ve read a lot of running materials, and for some reason, these readings have got me thinking about my early running.

I’m not a born runner. I think back to elementary school when Coach Cornell made us run one mile during P.E. class, an agonizing twenty laps around the gym. Her one piece of advice that I still remember: Don’t clench your fists; put your forefinger and thumb together and pretend to hold an egg. Did I run well? Not at all. The Fast Jakes finished first, followed by the Fast Kristins, I was somewhere in the middle of the pack, and the fat kids finished last.

In middle school, I wasn’t much of a runner either. After a growth spurt in sixth and seventh grades, I was tall enough (but not nearly athletic enough) to be on the basketball team. I quit my ballet classes (I just wasn’t any good at pointe work), and I struggled to find a place to fit in athletically.

In the spring of eighth grade I started running to “get in shape.” Here was my rationale: I was going to play tennis my freshman year of high school, so I would be on the swim team the summer before to “get in shape” for tennis; therefore, I needed to run before swim season started to be in shape for the summer.

On the tennis team, we didn’t run much, especially my freshman year, but with a new coach my sophomore year, we started line drills. By the spring of my sophomore year, I was weight-lifting regularly, and I ran my first two miles without walking. I continued running and weight-lifting throughout high school, and by my senior year, I was the fastest on the tennis team.

It never occurred to me that I could be on the track team until after high school (after all, I was outrunning a few of my team members who did run track), until after high school when I learned that my dad ran cross country in high school.

In college, I ran with boyfriends and roommates; my favorite of which took my roommate Amy and me downtown past a bread factory. I got married after my undergraduate work and pretty much stopped working out. When I got to grad school, I met Linden, who was training for Chicago that fall, and we started running together.

I ran my first race–a 10K–last spring, before which I learned that I shouldn’t drive before I race. I was so excited that I got a speeding ticket. I’ve run a few 5Ks in the last year, and now I’ve set my sights on a half-marathon in November and a marathon next spring. Yikes!

*This blog entry was originally posted at LogYourRun.com.

Add comment April 9th, 2007