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 ...