Thanks to my ulra-marathon running crew!

Many ultra-runners have a race crew that goes along to the races and meets the runner at various points to provide support, encouragement, nutrition, and sometimes a pacer on the long run.

I do, but my crew is a virtual crew. My crew helps me get to the race start, prepares for the long run, and helps me recuperate afterward.

I want to thank my crew for their hard work and dedication to helping me achieve my 50 mile ultra-marathon goal this year.

Let me start with my trainer, Jon Tobey of The Fitness Factory (http://fitnessfactorynh.com/). Jon and I started working together a few years ago when I first started running and my first goal was to be able to run a half marathon in Ireland without dying of pain. I did! Now, Jon and I work together each week and each week we work toward a combined mission of making me more fit and achieving an annual running goal. This year’s was to run a 50-miler. Mission accomplished! But it’s not the last.

Jon Tobey will tell you my main weak spots are my hamstrings and IT bands. There are others, of course, but when it comes to running, especially up hills, these are my “you need work” zones. By the end of too many races and long runs my upper legs want to give up. Not so in my 50-miler last weekend. A 50-miler that consisted of 7500 feet of elevation gain and loss. As a matter of fact, at mile 30 my legs felt so good I was running the descents like I hadn’t a care in the world. And loving it!

After a long run the discomfort and pain in my legs is usually so uncomfortable that I spend half the night awake and whimpering. Not so on this run! This achievement is a direct correlation to the hard work with my fabulous, can’t say enough about him, my trainer, Jon Tobey. If you want to reach a fitness goal, I highly recommend Jon Tobey of The Fitness Factory (http://fitnessfactorynh.com/). Tell him Denise sent you.

Another great team member in this long-term goal of running and fitness is my chiropractor, Mark Stagnone of Stagnone Chiropractic (http://www.stagnonechiropractic.com/). I found Mark about a year and a half ago, maybe more when I woke up one day in excruciating pain in my lower back. Thank goodness I found Mark! He made the pain go away almost immediately. Turns out I have a problem with my SI joint. Basically, it just doesn’t like to stay where it should. Unless, of course, when I’m running. No joke! My body likes to run, but it doesn’t like to sit. Unfortunately, for my job and my commute I do a lot of walking.

Mark has been an amazing asset to my crew in that he keeps me upright and without pain. We discuss my insane running schedule while he manipulates my spine to help me achieve my goals. If you want someone who knows about athletes, who cares about his patients, and wants to help you achieve a health goal then I recommend you contact Stagnone Chiropractic (http://www.stagnonechiropractic.com/), ask for Phyllis and have her get you an appointment with Mark Stagnone.

The third member of my race crew is my massage therapist, Amie Anderson of Cassandra Salon and Spa (http://www.cassandrasalon.com/). Amie has the magic touch when it comes to working the kinks out of sore, tight, and often obstinate muscles. What I like about Amie is that she will try different techniques to get those muscles to loosen up. A little elbow here, a knucle there, or a heated stone in that muscle. Amie has seen me crawl onto the massage table, seen my calf muscles so tight she probably wanted to weep, but she has been there for every pre-race massage and every post-race ‘please help me I can’t move’ massage.

After I did my first half marathon a few years ago I think both Amie and I wept as she kneaded every muscle in my legs. HA! She has helped my poor calf muscles go from being tight as a pulled bow to being somewhat pliable. And after this 50-miler, Amie was pleasantly surprised that I not only walked in to the salon, but I didn’t yelp in agony when she dug in.

Amie Anderson, massage therapist is the best! She will talk you through the pain and get you to that relaxation zone. She will remind you to hydrate, which is good because who doesn’t need a little reminder. She will ask you if there are any zones you want her to concentrate on. For me, always the legs, especially calves and then the back. Thanks to Amie my recuperation time has shortened to days instead of weeks.

If you need a massage whether to relax or recuperate, please contact Cassandra Salon and Spa (http://www.cassandrasalon.com/) and schedule an appointment with Amie Anderson.

To these three professionals, I cannot thank you all enough for your effort on my behalf to help me reach an unbelievable goal. A year ago I would never have attempted an ultra-marathon, let alone a 50 mile ultra-marathon. But with you all as part of my team and your encouragement, I was destined to succeed.

THANK YOU!

Journey to the Marine Corps Marathon

It’s almost here! I am one week away from reaching my BIG running goal for the season! My stomach is flip-flopping, my nerves are jangling, and my heart trips over itself every time I think about it, but I’m ecstatic that the main event is only seven days away.

How did I get here?

It all started six months ago when a friend of mine suggested my next running goal not be just a marathon, but the Marine Corps Marathon. So when registration opened up for the Marine Corps Marathon, I was one of the thousands of people who sat at her desk and entered her information and waited then did it again, and again, and again until it finally went through. Yes, the registration site couldn’t handle all us crazy people coming at it all at once.

Once I received the email saying I was registered, that’s when the fun began!

The first thing I had to do was come up with a training plan. Yeah, well, just do a search on the Internet and you will find any number of them. I looked at them and basically took my race schedule for the year and incorporated several with that. I’m not an all-out runner, I do the intervals of run then walk so I trained according to that. The hardest part for me was working in the longer runs. Ugh! Running more than 10 miles by yourself or without a carrot dangled in front of you is challenging to say the least and sometimes very boring.

The boring is where I learned about getting the right music playlist. It gave me something else to focus on beyond the strides, the staying upright, and the timing of when to drink and when to toss a Gatorade Chew in my mouth. Once I got enough Eminem on my playlist I was set! Not kidding. Those of you who know me know I am a country music girl. Yeah, not when it comes to running. When Eminem hits my ears it’s just the right motivation to keep you moving even if you have blisters on the bottom of your feet or you can barely lift a leg for the next stride.

My training plan definitely included many races, way more than I am sure some professionals or elite athletes would recommend. But, for me I needed the added motivation of the people and the exuberance of crossing a finish line. More for me was the goal of getting faster. The races allowed me to challenge and push myself to improvement. Add to that I kept a spreadsheet of every race and the finish times so I could track progress or not. Oh, yeah, I got better, stronger, and faster!

Running alone is not enough to train for the Marine Corps Marathon or any long distance race. You need to work your core, strengthen your upper and lower body and learn to eat right to achieve a fitness level that will allow you to endure.

Thank goodness I already had the best trainer. Jon Tobey of The Fitness Factory is a fantastic group and one-on-one trainer. He listens and designs plans to help achieve your goal. And the training is never static, which is a personal pet peeve of mine. Every Friday was different! I never knew what to expect. Some days we’d kill my core, others we would do supersets of arms and core or legs and core. My favorites were the days he added in some boxing. Who doesn’t love to punch something! If that wasn’t enough, I did a double workout on Tuesdays where I incorporated Jon’s thirty minute metabolic meltdown class and his forty-five minute bootcamp. On Thursdays, I did just the metabolic meltdown. Great fitness classes that will challenge every part of your body.

So I had the running plan. I had an amazing trainer. Now all I had to do was figure out how to achieve the weight loss and eat for the fitness level I was trying to achieve. This was harder for me. Until I found my naturopath, Dr. Kristen O’Dell of Bedford Natural Medicine. This woman saved me! Almost two years ago I was diagnosed with kidney issues without knowing the cause. Kristen not only identified the issue, she treated it naturally! On top of that, she identified a root cause as to my health problems that I wasn’t even aware of. I have something called leaky gut syndrome. We identified the foods my body wasn’t absorbing, which just so happened to be almost all the foods I ate on a daily basis. Then we changed my diet and added a nice amino acid called glutamine to my daily routine. All I can tell you is that her supplements and the change in my diet have gotten me to be much more physically fit from the inside.

People ask me every day how I can eat like I am. For those of you who do not know, I am not eating gluten, egg, or dairy and many fruits and vegetables. I eat nothing processed when I can help it. The only vice I have not given up is my Mountain Dew. I have it every morning with my glutamine and magnesium powder poured into it. Yeah, both Jon Tobey and Kristen O'Dell cringe when I say that, but you know, a girl has to have one vice. [GRIN] When you want something bad enough you will do whatever you have to do!

In every pursuit of a physical goal there are bound to be injuries. Luckily my big one came early on in the training. I woke up one morning with excruciating back pain. I tried to blow it off, but that didn’t work. I ended up at a doctor office. Much like my kidneys, I was not satisfied with not being able to identify the issue and fix it. I’m a smart cookie though, and I found a magnificent chiropractor. The issue is my SI joint. Apparently, it doesn’t always like to stay where it belongs. Dr. Mark Stagnone of Stagnone Chiropractic has kept it in line and kept me running. I am grateful because I believe seeing him once a week has truly helped improve my running. Plus, he recommended I take glucosamine for my joints. Bonus! I no longer have to run with a knee brace.

Thanks to these three people I have a fitness level that I am ecstatic about and that I know will allow me to reach that finish line.

Speaking of people, I have to mention several people who have supported, harassed, harangued, and goaded me during this training. There are more than a few, but there are three that have done so on a regular basis and it is much appreciated. First, my friend Tony, a fellow runner who talked me into this life-changing goal. Thanks to Tony pushing me, I will be running the Marine Corps Marathon and more than likely, I will be running even further next year. My friend, Brendan, who whenever I started to doubt myself and my ability, would post words of encouragement or plain old tell me to get over myself. Can you ask for a better friend that one who tells you the truth?! Then we get to Heather. Heather is a runner I met this past year and we would meet up at several races. When I wasn’t scheduled for a race on a weekend, Heather would send me links to races and egg me on to join her. Who needed rest! Heather has always been faster than me so she became my carrot in those races.

Thank you all, and thank you to all my other friends and family who supported me. I will keep all of you in my heart when I run the Marine Corps Marathon next Sunday, October 27.

For those of you thinking about chasing a major goal in your life, here's a quick word of advice.

GO FOR IT!

No one else can do it for you. There are no shortcuts. Will it be difficult and challenging? Yes! Will you wonder if you can do it? Yes!

All it takes is discipline, determination, and heart. If your heart wants it, your mind and body will follow.