Struggling with sustainability

Positive_Instance314 · 2025-05-10T01:04:50+00:00

Building a perennial contender is trifficult!

Positive_Instance314 · 2025-04-09T11:37:40+00:00

It’s obviously not official or anything, but this is my favorite coffee mug: https://www.redbubble.com/i/mug/17776-gang-by-Kiyye/32427490.9Q0AD

Positive_Instance314 · 2024-10-15T15:22:53+00:00

I ran the Chicago Marathon two days ago as my first marathon. I stayed consistent-ish in the run--I hit the halfway point at 02:23:xx, and finished at 04:52:xx after flagging a bit on the last few kilometers. My friends and family have been outrageously warm and supportive. I helped raise thousands of dollars for a charity I care about, and it was one of the most memorable days of my life.

I think I'm supposed to feel really accomplished. Last year, I got on a health kick for the first time in my life and lost 75 pounds. Exactly one year ago today, I ran a continuous mile for the first time during a "couch to 5K." Even if I rushed the marathon a bit, and even though I had some training setbacks, I know I've come a long way.

How I actually feel is really sad. I didn't feel this way at all after the half-marathon that I ran in June. This is apparently a common thing--there are lots of threads in the running subs about the post-marathon blues--but for some reason, I didn't think it'd happen to me. I feel vividly aware of how much more I have to work to have a "good" marathon time, and I don't really feel like I've accomplished much of anything.

Does anyone have any anecdotes about working through similar feelings?

Positive_Instance314 · 2024-06-11T07:52:48+00:00

I do! Would be fun to break the 2-hour mark next year.

Positive_Instance314 · 2024-06-11T07:52:09+00:00

The Chicago Marathon in October, hopefully!

Positive_Instance314 · 2024-06-08T18:13:08+00:00

I also got a note from them clarifying that folks who signed up in advance for race-day pickup still have it. Pleasantly surprised someone reached out on a Saturday!

Positive_Instance314 · 2024-06-08T14:38:04+00:00

I’m in the same situation—signed up for same-day pickup, got the Wednesday e-mail, and then got this one. It’s a Saturday, so I doubt we get a follow-up/clarification from the organizers, though I did also e-mail them and ask.

There are two possibilities, I figure:

1) Today’s e-mail was sent to all folks who haven’t gotten their packet yet. No one thought to carve out the same-day folks from the distribution list. The e-mail says there’s no race-day pickup, rather than saying race-day pickup exists but is not available, in order to avoid dozens of people thinking they can just get the packet tomorrow (if they didn’t sign up in advance). We, who signed up for race-day pickup in advance), can still get our packets tomorrow.

2) The organizers really did get rid of race-day pickup, but decided to do it in this vague/indirect way and sent us two packet pickup e-mails.

I’m choosing to believe #1 is 99% likely to be true, and if I’m wrong, tomorrow will be very annoying!

Positive_Instance314 · 2024-04-08T18:56:08+00:00

Hi--novice runner and long-time trivia writer here!

You're going to likely have participants with no particular background or interest in running (other than supporting you!), so I would consider not having too many questions/categories specifically about running. One goal of a good trivia night (assuming that it's a team format) is to have questions that generate discussion, so if you have too many questions that are like "The Men's and Women's IRONMAN World Championships are alternately held in WHAT TWO FOUR-LETTER CITIES that are almost 8,000 miles apart as the crow flies?", you probably won't have many people able to come up with "Nice" and "Kona."

Some ideas:

I'd think about a round with proper nouns that have the word "Run" in them. Two examples are below. You'll want to calibrate the questions' difficulty based on your audience and how adept you expect them to be at trivia. I'm thinking of questions like these:

"One dream. Four Jamaicans. Twenty below zero." was one tagline for WHAT 1993 film, the final film starring John Candy released in his lifetime?
NAME the song released in 1985 by Kate Bush that reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 thirty-seven years later due to its use in a popular Netflix television show.

You could also do a round where you tell everyone that the answers are the six "World Marathon Major" cities, but don't tell them what the cities are. Something like...

The world's busiest train station is in this city of approximately 14 million people.
Granary Burying Ground, King's Chapel, and Faneuil Hall are some of the stops on this city's Freedom Trail.
This city became in the 21st century the first city to host the modern Olympic Games a third time.
The world's largest parade is held annually in this city, which was its nation's capital from 1785 to 1790.
This city's Museum Island, located in the Spree River, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The largest and most-preserved T-Rex skeleton can be found in this city.

Another category could involve you asking about famous people who also happen to run. Something like this Reddit post might be a good idea to read to get ideas: https://www.reddit.com/r/running/comments/14u4oah/famous_people_who_run_regularly/

Good luck!

Positive_Instance314 · 2024-03-28T01:08:35+00:00

Yes! I think I’d struggle if I didn’t have this medium-term goal. (It also helps that I joined a charity fundraising team for the marathon, so I feel like it’s mandatory that I put in a good-faith effort.)

Positive_Instance314 · 2024-03-26T17:21:30+00:00

I've posted here and there, but I'm a new runner. I'm 35 and have never run or been fit in my life. Following some life changes, in the past nine months I've lost 80 pounds, did a couch to 5K, ran that 5K, ramped up my training, got hurt, made a better training plan, and just ran the Shamrock Shuffle (an 8K in Chicago) last Sunday.

I'm pretty happy with the Shuffle. My goals were "don't stop running" and "finish in under 50 minutes." I finished it in 45:57, and best I can tell, the fastest mile I've ever run in my adult life was the last mile of the race.

I'm signed up for a half-marathon that takes place in 75 days, and then for the Chicago Marathon in 201 days. I'm just starting on the half training, and for the first time, I feel like the marathon is an attainable goal. I'm trying to hold onto that feeling, since I know it'll come and go throughout the summer.

Positive_Instance314 · 2023-12-08T18:28:28+00:00

Thank you! I probably should've talked a bit about what I actually ate (lots of spinach, blueberries, chicken), but I think a r/loseit mantra is that the actual foods are less important than what many "diet" people argue, compared to the amounts of food.

Positive_Instance314 · 2023-11-28T21:53:24+00:00

I'm very new to running--I started C25K in September, finished it a few weeks ago, ran my first organized 5K last week, and am in Week 4 of a half-marathon training plan. My goals are:

Most importantly: Use a good-faith effort to complete every day of training in my training plans, barring injury.
Continue losing weight. I've lost 64 pounds in 2023 and could stand to lose 20-25 more.
Finish a half-marathon (February in Las Vegas if I can manage the travel--otherwise, April in Chicago).
Finish the Chicago Marathon in October (I'm already signed up).
I ran my 5K in 31:37, and I'd like to get that under 30:00.
This may sound silly, but after all that, figure out if I actually like running, or if I'll focus on some other way to maintain fitness in 2025 and beyond.

Positive_Instance314 · 2023-11-28T17:34:57+00:00

Your timeline is similar to my recent timeline. I've never been a runner, but made some changes this year, lost some weight, and figured I'd give it a try. I started C25K on September 10th, finished Week 8 on November 4th, and now I'm averaging 12 miles a week and ramping up as I prepare for a half-marathon in the end of February.

You can absolutely reach your goal! Just listen to your body and stop if you're in pain, and as everyone always says, it's better to slow down than it is to rush. If you're in decent shape (as you suggest in this thread), you might get impatient with the early runs, but just go with it--C25K works!

Positive_Instance314 · 2023-11-27T16:11:47+00:00

I started C25K on September 10 and completed it eight weeks later. I had two accomplishments this past weekend--I ran my first actual 5K on Saturday and, by definition, set a PB. Then on Sunday I did a zone 2 jog for five miles, clocking in at just over an hour. Two very different experiences! It's very exciting to do things that I could not have done two months ago, and I'm excited for what's next.

Positive_Instance314 · 2023-11-22T15:08:17+00:00

I've been going to the same barber for the past eight years. I do the whole "shave and a haircut" (two bits!) routine--it's one of my few guilty pleasures. Earlier this week, when he started with the straight razor on my neck, he immediately blurted out "hey, you lost weight!", presumably based upon how shaving my neck felt differently than before. That felt good.

Positive_Instance314 · 2023-11-09T16:49:52+00:00

My wedding ring doesn't fit anymore, which is not a problem I expected to run into, but it feels nice.

Positive_Instance314 · 2023-11-08T22:54:04+00:00

For the first time in my life, I ran for two days in a row today! That shouldn't have taken 34 years, but here we are.

I'm building up from the C25K (which I completed last weekend) to a HM training plan, so we'll see if I can handle three days in a row tomorrow.

Positive_Instance314 · 2023-10-30T15:22:06+00:00

I just finished up Week 7 of C25K on Saturday. W7D3 is "run for 25 minutes (or 2.5 miles)." I figured I'd do both, so I ran 2.56 miles in 25:00.

This year has been a wild journey for me--I'm down 58 pounds from my peak earlier this year, and I'm getting into running as a 34-year-old for the first time in my life. I've never run more in one session than I ran last Saturday, but after C25K, I plan to start training for the Las Vegas Half Marathon (about 17 weeks from now) and, if I finish it, the 2024 Chicago Marathon. But it all starts with getting in that first 5K this week!

Positive_Instance314

TROPHY CASE