What would you do if you had no fear?

I am officially an ultramarathoner (ultrafondista)!

And I am officially crazy (according to my brother Van).

The impossible was made possible.
In just 3 months a half, I completed 2 marathons and 1 ultramarathon.

Yesterday, I participated in the 50/100 Km Villa de Madrid race and completed 50 Km. To be qualified, you had to run at least 50 Km, but you could do up to 100 Km. The amazing thing was that it was only 2 weeks after my Barcelona marathon. Who would have guessed that I could do that???

At an ungodly hour of 7 am, about 150 or so runners, a very small group of crazy people started the race before the sun woke up in a slightly chilly morning. Most people belonged to clubs with names that commended respect like "Ultrafonda". I was part of a handful of independent and foreigners. They were only a dozen or so women. It would have been easy to feel at odds - I kind of stood out - woman, Asian, petite. Nothing about me screamed ultramarathon :-) But in the past months, I had learned to feel confident and not feel intimidated. Moreover, being a small group of people who share the passion to push limits, there was a camaderie. Several people asked me if it was my first ultramarathon race and shared with me their past experience. The course was tough, almost nothing flat, all up and down. Oh, great.


Unlike the past 2 marathons, this was definitely a tough race.
I experienced (1) hunger - not having eating enough breakfast at 5 am, my body had refused to eat more than 1 banana and 1 of those brick power bars; (2) fatigue, it was hot, getting up to 20 degrees in full sun; and (3) pain from a tendon in my left leg that was bothering me. The most challenging part was not be able to get into a rhythm because the circuit was up, down, up down. All hills. I could not get into my meditative running state. However, at least ChiRunning helped me to put as less weight as possible on my legs, especially on my left knee. I was not floating down like in other races and this was my most challenging ChiRunning test :-) This was definitely a mental race.

However, there were people cheering me all the time. Every veteran who passed me, had nice words to say, "¡guapa, mucho ánimo, puedes, campeona!". I didn’t feel that particularly attractive, but which woman wouldn’t like to be called "guapa" by runners with muscular bodies, or men in police uniform guarding the intersections!! Even a street sweeper told me that "eres la más guapa." I ran a bit taller hahaha. And the organization team pointed me out, "that’s the little girl from the US." I think that they were amazed and maybe a bit proud that I would participate in their race. I felt cared for, I felt special, and I felt part of the group.

All that kept me going, especially at times when I felt tired. I finished the 50 km race in 5 hours 13 min, with the Race Organizer Rafa, the sweetest man ever, shouting, "Agnes from the US!".


Happy woman:
Ultramarathon certificate, trophy & flowers from my hubby!

I have a confession. The past 4 months, I have been focusing on ChiRunning and marathons (and talked non-stop about them, some people would say, hahaha). There is however, a "head fake", defined so beautifully by Randy Pausch in "The Last Lecture." If you have not seen his truly moving video (free on the internet) or read the book, you should not miss it. Randy describes a "head fake" as indirect learning, "when you teach somebody something by having them think they’re learning something else". In other words, key lessons people don’t realize they’re learning until well into the process.

Well, this hasn't been simply about ChiRunning and marathons, but much more. It’s about life and how to achieve your dreams.

1. Decide what is important to you. I mean REALLY. Do the things that move you. What do you dream about? What if you had time and money, what would you do? We too often let excuses get in the way of our most precious dreams. It took me seven years to accomplish one of my lifetime dreams, run my first marathon - because I never found the time. However, I recently learned that time expands in proportion of your commitment to your goal. As one brilliant speaker, Jim Selman, talking about breakthrough said "if you don’t find the time, it’s because you are not 100% committed". It sounds harsh, but it’s true. How committed are you to your dreams and goals?

2. "Impossible is nothing". What stops us is more often than not ourselves more than our environment. What would you do if you had no fear? Or even better embrace the fear and do it anyway. I believed, like most people, that running a marathon after 1 month of training was impossible. People did not think that I could run 50K, just 2 weeks after finishing a marathon. I have learned to ask myself, "Why not?", "Who says so?" I don’t look at the average anymore but at the outliers - the few people who do defeat the odds.

3. Manage your energy. Work smarter, not harder. By relaxing and living/working without tension, we can actually achieve more than if were were stressing our body/mind. And we actually have more fun at the same time. Makes sense? So why are we so stressed? Sure, we live in a hectic, fast-going, pressure environment. I spent years achieving and being stressed until I realized through meditation and ChiRunning that the body and brain, which are fantastic, intelligent organisms, respond better under no tension. Relaxing does not mean that you loose your passion and you stop being active. You can still be goal-oriented. However, there’s a more efficient and enjoyable way of doing things - the path of least resistance, no tension ... or some athletes call it flow.

4. Take action and practice, practice, practice. It’s all well to have a goal or have the best technique. Unless you take action, nothing will happen. As someone said rightly so, "the difference between winners and losers is action". And what you learn from oriental martial art masters is that skill comes from practice, practice, practice (remember the movie Karate Kid?). We need to be patient with ourselves, the results will come.

5. Find allies/angels and ignore the critics. Surround yourself with positive people. I didn’t tell everybody my marathon dreams (it would have been too easy for people to shatter my illusions, even without meaning to). Instead, I remember the words of encouragement of my younger brother Van and my sister-in-law Michelle when I was not sure about signing up for my first marathon in Seattle. "You have nothing to loose", they cheered me on. It meant a whole lot to me that Van drove me to the starting line so that I would not be alone. It’s the same enthusiastic support I got from my ChiRunning coach in Seattle when I emailed her that I wanted to certify myself as an instructor and confessed my doubts about not being a professional athlete. "Agnes, do it!" And that’s this 100% supportive attitude I wanted to give to my husband Antonio, when he ran the Barcelona marathon - I had confidence that he could do it, even working like crazy as a consultant. We already have our internal voice telling us the cons, so look only for allies that believe 100% in you. Whether it is a friend, family, strangers, or a coach.

I have another big confession to make. I wrote this entry blog three days before I ran the ultramarathon (I made some revisions today). Yes, I cheated hahaha. But who said that you could not trick your brain? See, it’s about visualizing success and acting as if it happened. I made it a reality. The professional athletes do it. These are powerful techniques to train your brain. Your brain does not like incoherence. It will find a way to bridge the gap between your imagination and reality, if you let it. Moreover, the brain does not distinguish between the unconscious and conscious. There is a lot interesting research on the power of visualization if you are interested.

A final important note. I am reminded every day how ephemeral life is and how precious the time we have. As you may know, my sister-in-law Michelle has leukemia. Don’t let death catch you up by surprise and stare at you in the face before you realize that it’s too late. Live a life worth living, and have success on YOUR own terms. There´s no time like now. We owe it to ourselves, and to the ones that don't have a chance to live.

This post is dedicate to Michelle, the most courageous person I know, and my inspiration.

Love

"Ordinary people doing extraordinary things"

P-S: I want to give thanks to: Rafael Garcia-Navas and his team for a very well-organized race and the welcoming they gave; to my phyisotherapist Alicia, who is just a miracle worker, and who put me back as new 1 day after the race; and to my husband Antonio, who doesn't blink anymore when I tell him about what I want do, and keeps his real thoughts to himself and just tell me, "Sure, honey!" :-)

Barcelona Marathon - Chapt 2 of my extraordinary marathon odyssey

On Sunday, March 1st, my hubby Antonio, my friend Pablo and I ran the Barcelona Marathon. Pablo’s wife Cris valiantly did almost a city marathon on her own, following Pablo around Barcelona to take pictures and cheer him on!





If you remember, last November, Antonio told me that he would run the Barcelona marathon as a Christmas gift.... How many times did he curse his crazy wife (hahaha) when he was squeezing running sessions at 7 am while doing his own consulting marathon working hours? However, I had confidence in him: I knew that Antonio had one thing for sure - mental endurance :-) Not only because I witnessed him go 72 hours without sleeping or 3 weeks averaging 4 hours (I don’t recommend it to anyone!) but also because he ran 2 hours on a treadmill as part of his training because he is prone to getting colds running outside in winter (you have to have a certain will to run 2 hours on a treadmill staring at nothing).

As far as for me, I had the confidence of having one marathon under my belt (and anyway I had 2 secret weapons - ChiRunning .... and the foam roller ... more about them below). My only worry was that 4 days before the marathon, I went to my physiotherapist Alicia (Antonio and I call her lovingly our "torture specialist") because my legs felt tense and I had noticed some pain in my knees in the past few days. She diagnosed that my bursitis in my right knee had come back. She mentioned that I a hip slightly higher than the other one (what?!) , which could cause some imbalance strain. We also agreed that walking in my 4-inch heels did not help at all (Alicia was looking at me sternly). In my 3 months in the US, I had been wearing only sports shoes (The North Face hiking shoes are the standard uniform for Seattle :-) Imagine wearing heels with those XL anti-germ hospital scrubs that we had to wear when visiting my sister-in-law Michelle (imagine Hospital Central for those in Spain)... a funny picture, right? :-) So no, comfort was the idea.

However, since I had been back in the US, I wore my heels everywhere I went, pounding the pavement all over the city ... for those of you know me, I "run" or "speed walk" in my heels ... And for you Americans, we WALK in Europe (no car drive-through). You have to understand that with my heels I look much taller than my ... (confession time) 1 meter 50 (5 feet), rounding UP ... All right everybody now knows how tall I am. When I wear flats, Antonio thinks that he is a jail baiter (Spanish translation?)

So girls (who can sympathize with my plight) it was a sad moment when I realized that I would have to forgo my beloved heels ... or at least not use them so much (snif,snif,snif,snif). I mean, I own 50+ pairs of shoes (not counting my running shoes) and 45 of them are heels! In my last trip to the US, I had come back with 5 new beautiful pairs of shoes worthy of Sex In the City (don’t worry honey, they didn’t cost as much as Manolos).

Back in the physiotherapist room, despite Alicia’s Ok to do the marathon, I started to wonder "will I run with pain?" and all sorts of doubts invaded me (hey, the point of chirunning is to enjoy the race and run injury-free). STOP. It’s amazing how the mind is quick to imagine the worst, isn’t it? And to start having doubts. Thankfully, oh-wise Alicia replied calmly "Don’t let fear creep in". That was a magnificent effective coaching moment on the massage table!! Mental fear is more debilitating than physical pain. SO FEAR, GO AWAY.

On Saturday morning, the four of us flew to beautiful city of Barcelona and did some sightseeing. Antonio and I happily ate double portion of pasta (Catalan fideuá for lunch and Italian spaghettis for dinner ... I love marathons, it gives you an excuse to eat all this carb hahaha). Before going to bed, I did some deep tissue self-massaging on my legs with the Tiger Stick that I bought in the US, the travel version of a foam roller (see photo below) and then it was Antonio’s turn (I had to massage him because he won’t torture himself... so I have to inflict it on him... it does hurt like hell... but it helps take out the knots in your fascia tissue). For those of you with dirty minds (yes, you know who you are), no matter what it sounds like, it’s not what you think :-)


Despite going to bed at a decent hour, none of us slept well (a normal phenomenon. Again, your powerful unconscious mind knows there’s a big event the next day :-). We woke up at 6:30 am to eat our breakfast (2 hours before the race), a combination of yogurt, bananas (Antonio and Pablo ate 3 each!), and power bars that we got at the expo the day before (they are so dense that they are like unappetizing bricks and need to be ingested with lots of water). Armed with a waist belt filled with our little power gels, we were ready to go to the Plaza of España, where the start of the race was staged.

They were about 8,000 runners (out of 9,750 registered). The Barcelona marathon had grown to a sizable, attractive European race. Antonio and I almost missed the start because I was still in line for the portable bathroom but we were happy to start at the back of the crowd.

I kissed my honey, sugar-pie, sweetheart (my terms of endearment when Antonio does crazy things with me), wished him luck and told him that I would see him at the finish line. For a marathon, unless you are a pro, it’s best to go at your own pace because it’s harder for both the person who has to slow down or the other who has to speed up... and I knew that I would worry about Antonio if I went with him. And well, Pablo, who is a beast, was going for the 3 hour 15 - 3 hour 30 min time, so he was way ahead.

In the first 21 km (13 miles), my legs were unusually stiff and my knees were slightly bothering me but nothing serious or acute (if not I would have stopped so as not to cause injury). My younger brother Van once told me that it’s OK to try to relax and do ChiRunning when you are feeling well but it’s a different ball game when you are stiff and in pain. How true! So this was going to be a good test for me to see if I could do ChiRunning and run effortlessly, despite the stiffness and soreness in my legs. I kept relaxing my legs and thinking tall and forward so as to put the least weight on my legs (it is possible :-). The more my legs wanted to tense, the more I relaxed them. To calm any fear of pain, doubts or any mental game your mind starts creating, I searched for the silence inside of me, similar to my meditation practice (actually, running can often feel like meditation in movement for me).

At the half-marathon mark, Antonio and I saw each other (there was a portion where the circuit doubled on itself, so I was at 21 Km, and he was at 19 km). We waved. It was a great moment of happiness! He was smiling and I could see that he was fresh and feeling good. I was relieved. I shouted "I love you!!!" and gave him the thumbs up.

I had to go the bathroom twice during the race, as a result of drinking the sports liquids at each of the 5Km (necessary to stay dehydrated and replenish mineral loss). Guys, how I envied you!! It’s one of those few times in my life when I wish I were a man!!! I had to look for a portable bathroom and stay in line for 2-3 minutes each time ... while all the men were happily flowering the trees along the road :-)

21 km turned into 30 Km. Continuously sensing my body, I kept on adjusting and re-adjusting so that I would be in as much non-resistance flow as possible (ChiRunning approach to running). I kept focusing on the process (being, running, relaxing, flowing,) rather than the goal (how many Kms were left). After 30 km, I started to find a really comfortable body sensation (by putting my legs slightly more behind and leaning a bit more forward). Curiously, despite some sore muscles, I was feeling the effortless sensation, letting gravity and the chi force (and core muscles) push me forward.

Feeling good and with a slight chance of doing 4 hours, I started to increase my speed from an avg. of 5:50 min a km to 5:20 min a km. It was like going from 2nd to 3rd gear in the last 12 kms. How rewarding to have fresh legs and energy! I was passing people in front of me, and had to zigzag, as some people were starting to slow down and some started to walk (hitting the wall). I finished with a sprint (even the race commentator shouted when he saw me "running at full speed until the very last second" :-). It’s an unbelievable feeling to cross that finishing line, with people around you cheering, and rejoicing in having accomplished another dream.

It takes a few seconds for your mind to realize what it has done and for your body to realize that this is it (no more running hahaha). I took a short moment to savor my personal feat, my second marathon finish in 3 months. I felt truly appreciative of my body - It had performed magnificently and I was injury-free. (Girls, make your body your best friend, love it, pamper it, be patient with it).

It was one of those moments of happiness when you want to share it with someone you love and I wished I could find a familiar face in the crowd. I started to make my way back to the finishing line because I was eager to cheer Antonio on and see him finish but it was almost impossible with so many people. Finally, we found each other and kissed and hugged. The sweetest moment ever!

Antonio did a great time of 4 hours 15 min, running conservatively and regular like a clock every km at 6:00 min, which allowed him to finish with a big grin and a surprise look of "it was not as hard as I had imagined". I was happy for Antonio, and it proved my point that a consultant CAN have a life and run a marathon :-) He was only 15 minutes behind his ChiRunning wife :-) who ran 4 hours, 2 min, 53 second - 4 minutes better than Seattle’s marathon ... and a step closer to the 4 hour time (without bathroom breaks, totally doable :-)

We found Pablo and Cris. Pablo had done an amazing 3:29 min ... 1 hour less than his debut in Madrid last year when he had crashed into the famous wall. And Cris was a true champion - our travel agent, official photographer and cheerleader.

All-around celebration!

Agnes, Pablo & Antonio, post-race


Pablo & Cris

Click on the links for a personal RunnersTV video: Agnes or Antonio.

Post-marathon: feasting on protein for muscle repair, crashing to sleep the rest of the day, and some more foam rolling massage ... Antonio and I woke up with pretty fresh legs the next day :-)

Not taking away any merit from our fabulous personal feat, I would like to share some funny anecdotes which I read post-race in Running Planet: a 101-year old person running the London marathon; a blind person running 7 marathons, 7 days, 7 continents; a spanish person running a marathon backward (retro-running) ...
I love it. Ordinary people doing extraordinary things! Craziness is all relative hahaha

P-S: So as not to think that I am just about marathons based on my blog entries and have only 1 trick under my sleeve (even if it’s a cool, extraordinary ChiRunning trick hahahha), I will write soon about the other extraordinary things stewing and cooking in my life ...

Gratitude - Taking stock of 2008

Yesterday, Michelle´s sister Melanie told me (in a gentle reproaching voice?), "You haven’t written anything on your blog". Wow, I thought astonished, someone actually checks my blog??!!

Heck, if there is only just one person who is interested in reading about my life, then by all means let me continue to write about my adventures (my ego voice proclaims :-) There is a narcissistic trait in all of us (ja,ja,ja), even when it is mixed with an ultimate more altruistic motive - to share my experiment on living an extraordinary life and perhaps along the way inspire others to do so. So below is an overdue entry.

This last Christmas, my husband Antonio and I went hiking in Patagonia, which has always been one of Antonio’s dream destinations. I am so grateful that we managed to pull it together, considering that we threw together the plan less than 10 days before the start of our vacation. It was an amazing trip and I am still in awe of having seen one of the most beautiful sights in my life - Perito Moreno glacier. Completely surreal and pictures don’t do it justice. So if you have a chance, go and see it. Better, do an ice trek on it.

This reminds me how fortunate I am. So let me take the time to write my gratitude list for 2008. By the way, it´s one of the most powerful tools that you can do to change your life and I would encourage this practice to anyone. Once each day, say 5 things for which you are grateful in the previous 24 hours.

"Gratitude is the most passionate transformative force in the cosmos. If you give thanks for five gifts every day, in two months you may not look at your life in the same way as you might now." —Sarah Ban Breathnach

2008 blessings


• Completing my CTI Coaching Training and finding one of my vocations
• Working in my field and being exposed to great speakers on human performance
• Having the courage to turn down a promotion and not settle
• Learning so much about who I am as a leader in 6 months at Orange
• Managing a team, taking risks, making mistakes and striving to be a good boss
• Mentoring someone and seeing her shine
• Being laid off
• The words and support of my team and coworkers who rallied behind me
• Leaving with my values and spirit intact - continuing to believe and being passionate about what I do
• Taking part of ProjectMichelle and an incredible community grass root effort to save lives
• Being with Michelle during her transplant/recovery and forgetting the minutiae drama of my life to be there for someone
• Having a supportive husband who did not mind being left "behind", "wifeless"
• Receiving all the emails from friends in Spain while I was in the US
• Having 2 precious sabbatical months with no other identity than simply being a sister and daughter again
• Converting myself from a junk food junkie to a juicing fanatic (thanks Mom!) and anti-cancer food amateur nutritionist
• Stopping my diet coke addiction
• Discovering chirunning and achieving my lifelong dream of running a marathon
• Hiking in Patagonia and standing in awe at the beauty of Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina, one of nature’s wonders.
• Climbing Kilimanjaro, this time with my hubby
• Ice climbing for the first time in Patagonia
• Receiving the gift of Michelle’s illness: facing the possibility of death as a reminder to live life more fully
• Seeing history being made and sharing with fellow Americans and people around the world the hope of a nation for a better future, "Yes, we can!"


above, standing on Africa´s highest point
left, my attempt at ice-climbing in one of Patagonia´s glacier

2008 was a breakthrough year in many ways, even though at times, it was not clear how it would make sense. This reminds of what Steve Job said in his famous 2005 speech at Stanford: "You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever."

Marathon

I accomplished one of my lifetime dreams today, Sunday November 30th, 2008

Some of you know that I have wanted to run a marathon for the past years ... 7 years ago to be exact.
I first ran a half-marathon in 2001 in Vitoria and since then I have done a few more half-marathons over the years. My husband Antonio even agreed to run his first half marathon with me in Madrid in 2007, as my Christmas present. I like the 21 Km (13 miles) distance - feasible, even enjoyable.

Yet, I was always in awe of the big one ... the dreaded MARATHON ... which requires 4 months of intense and consistent training. A MARATHON - this was a big word. I had a lot of respect for it.
One one hand, I thought that if Oprah (famous American TV personality) could do it, I could do it. On the other hand, it seemed like a big endeavor and commitment to train for 4 months, 4 times a week, including weekend runs of 15-30 km. Time passed and I did not seem to find the time and commitment.

Yet it was still one of my most cherished dreams. Last year, doing my coaching course, I wrote that if I could run a marathon, I knew I could do anything I set myself.

As many of you know, I believed that losing my last job was a blessing in disguise. It is giving me the amazing opportunity to be with my brother and sister-in-law Michelle who is fighting against leukemia and who recently got a baby blood cord transplant. If I still had my job, I would have never had the chance to be with them, which means a lot to me.

Since I had this "sabbatical" time, I set myself a few more goals. For one, to learn about nutrition (Michelle´s condition inspired me to research and read about the best foods against cancer. Yes, I know that you are laughing .... all of you know me as the worst eater ... a vending machine junkie ...
Well, believe it or not, I am eating healthy ... thanks to my mom, I learned how to juice and every morning I drink fresh vegetable juices and fruit smoothies. I am learning to cook some healthy dishes (don´t expect too much. Antonio is still going to be the cook in the family) ... I am even going organic (my friends Blanca and Rafa would be proud of me :-) The more informed I become, the more excited I am that food can be our body´s best medicine against disease.

In addition, I decided to train for a marathon. There was never going to be a better time ... and it might be my last try before I got pregnant.
So 2009 was going to be my year. My friend Pablo and I registered for the Barcelona March 1, 2009 marathon, which would give me 4 months to train. With some trepidation, my lovely husband Antonio offered to do it with us - as my Christmas 08 present!!! (The things Antonio does for love :-)

This past month, I have been running consistently. Being a research freak that I am, I went online and read about marathon training. I learned about Chi running - "effortless" running through good body posture and using the core muscle as momentum.
On one of my long runs, practicing chi running, I ran 32 Km (20 miles) - the longest I ever ran before was a half marathon. Wow, If I could run 32 Km, I could do 42 Km. Suddenly, the marathon became a real, feasible goal - not something far stretched anymore. That was a mental breakthrough for me.

Two weeks later, this last Friday, I told my brother that maybe I should try the Seattle Marathon this weekend.
Warning: it was against everything that experts tell you to do - I only trained 1 month instead of 4 months. I had not planned for it, so I had not had the recommended 2 weeks of rest in order to have fresh legs before the marathon (called tapering). I actually ran 21 km just 2 days ago. Moreover, I had never ran on hills and Seattle marathon was known as a tough marathon due to its hills, especially the killer ones in the last 10 km (6 miles).

My brother helped me walk through the decision and encouraged me to run. He told me that I nothing to loose. I did feel good and I had ran 32 Km (20 miles) twice in the past few weeks. I mentally told myself that it would be a practice run for my "real" marathon in Barcelona three months later and if I didn´t finish, no big deal. I made a pact with myself that if at any time I didn´t feel good, I would stop before getting injured. I was going to listen to my body and be conservative.

So here I was, signing up for the marathon 1 day before the event. When I went to the Event Expo event to sign up, I felt some trepidation and gave my registration with as much confidence I could muster before I could back out. Of the 10,000 people who registered to run - 7,000 were going to run the half-marathon and only 3,000 would run the marathon. And I bet, very few people choose Seattle as his/her first marathon!

I didn´t even tell Antonio, in fear that he would think that his wife is really crazy (I mean, more than I am already). It was one of the craziest things I had ever done (that and jumping out of a plane during B-school ... I also signed up for it 1 day before on a whim).

Saturday afternoon, I started to read about what to do on pre-race day. For carbo-loading, it gave me the excuse to chow down tons of pasta for dinner. However, I stopped reading anything else about race preparation because it was making me more nervous. So I decided to go to bed early and stop thinking how crazy this idea was and think positively. I repeated to myself that I could do it and that I would enjoy it. I started visualizing finishing the marathon and what an amazing feat it would be.

Sunday morning, I woke up at 6 am, did my juice and drank my smoothie. My brother was kind enough to drive me there so I didn´t have to walk the 10 blocks. That meant a lot to me – I felt that I wasn´t completely alone in this adventure and it made me less nervous.

I had read that you should set three objectives before you run (1) an easily obtainable goal, (2) a realistic yet moderately challenging goal, and (3) an ultimate goal. My number one goal was to run injury-free and practice chi running. My challenging goal was to finish the marathon. My ultimate goal (if any) would be to finish at 4:30.

At the start line, while waiting for the half-marathoners and the marathon walkers to go before us, the marathon runners were pretty relaxed (not like in Madrid – where people seem intense and focused before any race). I saw people like “me”, which reassured me. (heck, I admit that seeing some chubby Americans gave me this false sense of comfort that if they could do it, I could too).

Unfortunately my tummy started to hurt and cramp before the bell rang. I also drank so much that at the 1 mile mark, I searched for the portable bathroom (there was a line … guess I wasn´t the only one who had a bad drinking strategy :-).
Not a great way to start but after a while I went into a rhythm. The good thing was that I wasn´t trying to make a time goal. This helped me run a conservative pace. I felt OK the first 10 Km (6 miles). I focused on my chi running, relaxing body, conserving energy. It was hard to focus on my chi “belly” energy point – because my tummy was bloated, so I focused on relaxing the rest of my body. I had told Michelle´s sister Mel, that if I finished this marathon, it was a proof that chi running really works!

It was great to see all the people run. Many people were relaxed, especially in the beginning. There were many teams and friends running together, cheering each other and sharing the experience. People old and young. I saw five people with their coach from “Teams in Training” against Leukemia and I thought about Michelle and her courage. I wanted to dedicate my marathon to Michelle. The day before at the expo, I had bought a running head band with a “M”. For me, “M” meant Michelle. The spectators who were cheering were great, especially the kids who gave high five´s.

Miles 6 to 15 seemed really long and monotonous. Again, thank god, I was practicing chi running and was focusing on my body, to pass the time. Every time my knees were hurting from the pounding of the pavement, I would seek to relax them.

There was a drink station every 2 miles and I stopped to drink Gatorade. I didn´t attempt to run and drink at the same time because first I can´t seem to do it without choking ☺; second, it gave me the opportunity to rest my legs for a few seconds. Again my strategy was to be conservative and have fresh legs. This seemed to work for me, especially in the second half of the race because I was running faster and more effortlessly than most people around me, even though they would then pass me up again when I stopped to drink. And Gatorade was helping me to fuel my body. I normally do my long runs without drinking but I was scared to hit the famous “wall”, when your body runs out of glycogen (energy converted from carbohydrates) so I was hoping that the Gatorade would work for me. I had brought the energy gels that marathoners use but I was trying to avoid them if possible because the only time I took them in one of my races, my heart rate had shot up so fast and I had felt really sick.

Miles 15-20 went mentally faster. I knew that if I got to the 20 miles, I would finish the marathon no matter what, even if I had to walk those dreaded hills. I was actually feeling relatively well, and my tummy had settled. I even ran the steep hills, while some people starting to walk, tired after 20 miles on their feet. At mile 22, one of the time keepers said 3:30. Wow! Suddenly, I realized that I was doing a great time and I could even try to run under 4:00 hours, so I started to pick up the pace and raced. My legs felt great. I felt that I was in the “zone”. It was so strange and also rewarding to still have energy and pass people, who were pooped out. Volunteers and spectators were looking at who was this crazy woman (I did look like a ninja all dressed in black) racing the last 4 miles of a marathon. I ended up finishing at 4:06 sprinting to the finish line. It felt great to have finished feeling strong and energetic.

I couldn´t believe that I had accomplished one of my lifetime dreams! Finishing my first marathon, and one with hills, at 4:06 was an amazing plus. The best was having run feeling good and not having been destroyed afterwards (which I attribute to chi running). I wanted to finish a marathon injury-free, so that it would not be my last one …

I am definitely hooked ☺. So Antonio is not off the hook on his Christmas present ☺


Not my best picture for sure ... but I was the happiest sweaty woman!

"The Adventure of Being Alive"

My blog title “The adventure of being alive” comes from one of my favorite poems by Oriah Mountain Dreamer “The Invitation.” That sentence captures my personal motto to embrace and enjoy life to the fullest and to be grateful for being alive.

The Invitation (Oriah Mountain Dreamer)

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon...
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.