The Passage of Time
Time moves swiftly disguised in a steady stillness that mostly goes unnoticed, yet in a moment seems to secretly surprise me. I have just finished my 5th week of the Dana Farber Marathon Challenge 18 week training plan. How has five weeks already passed, I ask myself. Since December 12th I have logged 133 miles. I have had some good days, some great days, and some not so great days. However, I continue to focus each day on getting in the miles I need whether I feel like it or not. I remind myself why I am running-I am part of a team that dreams a world without cancer and I am doing this to honor a very special boy named Josh. Then quite simply, I put one foot in front of the other and suddenly I have 133 miles behind me and have raised $8,250 dollars to support cancer research. Wow and thank you!
Sometimes when we are in the hectic nature of our daily lives we are just trying to figure out how we are going to get through the day while fitting in everything that we need to. Then suddenly we become aware that time stops for no one. I think it was John Lennon who said, “Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans.” While we are planning for and dreaming of a world without cancer, we also must actively and purposely seek it in our day-to-day lives, one step and one dollar at a time. The idea of the passage of time and engaging in a disciplined routine has been the focus of my thinking this week. However, before I get to the thoughts and ideas that have fueled me on my runs this week, I want to share some exciting news.
Updates
I already shared our great fundraising success, but just because I like to say it, I will type it again. As of today, we have raised $8, 250 to support cancer research. So it is important for me to start with gratitude. All of my running is so much more than being prepared to run the Boston Marathon this April 16, 2012. It is a purposeful act, a sort of prayer in action that someday we will live in a world in which cancer does not dictate the time we have we our loved ones. Time does move swiftly and for those who have battled with cancer or watched their loved ones battle with cancer, they are all too familiar with how swiftly time can move and for them, it does not move unnoticed and it is not something we can get back. Each step I take is inspired by my dear friend Matt and his family and the many other families that have so bravely battled and continue to battle with cancer.
So as I reflect in week 5 on this part of my journey, I am so incredibly filled with gratitude to all my friends, family and coworkers who have so generously joined me in my efforts to do what we can to dream a world without cancer! You too are huge part of my inspiration. You remind me that anything is possible when people come together to take a stand about what is important. Whether you can give $5, $50, or even $500 it is all part of a collective effort and each bit helps. So today we are $8,250 dollars and 133 miles strong and growing. It is one dollar and one mile at a time and one donation and one message of encouragement that brings us closer! We have many more miles and many more dollars to go, but we are well on our way. Collectively we are a powerful force!
Team Runs
Since I posted last (yes I need to get better at this), I have participated in two team runs. One in Watertown when we ran 14 miles some of which were on the actual marathon course. We tackled some of the hills in Newton. This was an incredibly challenging run for me and that is easier to say now that I am a week beyond it. It started off great and I was running with a teammate with whom I really enjoyed running. However, my asthma was getting the best of me. This combined with the hills and probably talking too much there were times I just could not catch my breath and my pace slowed to a walk several times. I finished the 14 miles, but have vowed to myself to learn the lessons in this run. I have to get better at running smarter especially when hills are involved. I will leave this for another post, but on January 8th the hills of Newton got the best of me. I managed, but when I meet them again, I will be stronger. Look out hills; I will make you my friends.
I also had another team run yesterday on January 14, 2012. This is the greatest example to me that if we keep showing up and putting one foot in front of another we get to where we need to be. My run yesterday was great. I was armed with a new watch that could calculate my pace and help me run smarter. It was a very cold day and there was a headwind, but all these things just build character right? I ran twelve miles and it was probably the best twelve miles I have run. My overall average was under a 9 minute mile pace which is a very strong pace for me. In fact, there were many times during the run that I looked at my watch and we were going at 8:30 min/mile pace. “Really,” I thought. Then I would just say to myself, “I can do this.” I know this is not that speedy for others, but for me this was huge. I really attribute it to running with new friends who are also committed to such an important effort. I also recognize that some days we feel better than others. Of course it helped that my friends Sandy and Steve (both who have run with DFMC) were volunteering at the run. They brought good energy.
On the way home, I felt great. I am continuing to get to know more DFMC teammates who are wonderful. It is really an amazing team to be a part of and there is nothing better than running on a trail and hearing the collective sound of a group of runners who share both stride and sense of purpose. It has a sort of rhythm that is inspiring all by itself. However, the most important take away for me from this run is to be open to what any day or any run has to offer. I would not have expected that I would run well on a cold day, yet I did. The secret, I did not think too much about it. I thought a lot about why I was running and then just put one foot in front of the other and kept telling myself, “I can do this.” At the end of the run, it was cold and the head wind was stronger. I slowed but did not struggle too much. Ah, lesson learned from the run before-run smarter. Slow and steady is sometimes the solution. When I was done, I did buy some warmer at the Boston Running Company-the store that sponsored our run. I got some great deals but there is nothing like a cold run to turn an inspired runner into an inspired shopper.
We are What we do Repeatedly
I have titled this weeks post “we are what we do repeatedly” and it is probably time I get to the thinking I have done this week and it is deeply connected to this phrase. This is actually only part of a quote of Aristotle who so wisely said, “We are what we do repeatedly, excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” It always amazes me how some themes are woven through our life and take on a different significance. When I was working on my dissertation which was on high performing urban schools, this was a theme that was integrated into the work at these schools. It is the idea that excellence is something that requires hard work, commitment, and continuous effort. It is showing up day after day even when you do not feel like it. It is not just saying, but it is doing. Parker Palmer would say “let your life speak out loud.”
Excellence is not an event or a one time act or performance. Although I do believe an act or performance can represent excellence, I believe at the core it is living excellence in all of its imperfections. The habit is what we do repeatedly regardless if excellence is what we seek. I agree with Aristotle that which we do repeatedly is who we are. If it is not, we should change what we do. Actions do speak louder than words and while words are important and can move people to act, it is actions that bring about change. If we are defined by what we do repeatedly what is it that we do repeatedly and how are our actions consistent with the person we want to be? How is that for giving us something to think about? Thanks Aristotle, Parker Palmer and John Lennon.
Why is this significant to me now and during this journey? Well, there is nothing more repetitious than running and especially when during the week a great deal of my running is on a treadmill. This magnifies the repetition because there is not much that changes during the run. Yet I keep going. Maybe the speed or the incline or the person on the machine in front of me may move, but for the most part I am simply running to log the miles. I have tried to re-frame this boredom as part of my training. It is an exercise not only for my body as I run 5-8 miles, but for my mind in enduring what is not always enjoyable and sometimes that which seems barely tolerable. I work hard to use that time and to view that time as a gift. It is a gift to me to have time for me in my day and a gift to others because it is really about training for the marathon as a means to raise money to support cancer research. So I have been thinking deeply about Aristotle’s words “we are what we do repeatedly” and how this has taken on all sorts of significance this week and in my training.
First, I am joined by many in the gym who because of the New Year are trying to create those habits which will help to define their newly envisioned self. I am also very aware of how hard this is. It is not the idea of getting fit or in a more broad sense, how we make the world a better place that is the real challenge, it is making the “idea” a practice that is the greatest challenge and this has provided fodder for my thinking this week. I have been viewing my running and the repetition of running as an act of the person I want to be. Not because I want to run 26.2 miles, but because of what it means to be running with the Dana Farber Marathon Challenge Team and being part of an effort to dream a world without cancer. The theme-purposeful, repetitious steps and habits aimed at having actions match our values-supporting research brings us closer to a world without cancer.
I would also like to share what I believe is a great example that a dear friend of mine posted on Facebook. It was sort of a New Years Challenge. This friend of mine is very involved with supporting both Dana Farber and also Children’s Hospital. In fact, she organizes blood drives all the time in memory of her son, Matty. In many ways, my friendship with this person has inspired me to do more. In fact, I am sure if I thought about it long and hard, she is probably one of the motivating forces in my decision to run with Dana Farber to honor Josh. She is someone who exemplifies “we are what we do repeatedly” because every day she is working to make the world a better place while honoring her son, Matty.
Here is her challenge. Are you up for it?
www.halfpints.childrenshospital.org
I have asked myself many times this week, “if we are what we do repeatedly” how does what I do repeatedly represent the person I want to be and the world in which I want to live. This is more of a rhetorical question and one I believe that can only be answered with lots of reflection and action. I suppose it is a good thing that I have lots of time to think when I run. So for now I will just leave you with this last thought. I believe that we collectively value a better world and one without cancer. What do we do and what are we willing to do repeatedly to make that a reality?
With gratitude,
Kerry D
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