Sharlie on Endurance and Overcoming Limitations

I was recently asked if I knew of anyone who would be interested in speaking at The Hammer Festival, an endurance sports gala in San Diego. I immediately thought of my sister, Sharlie. 

Her story is one of struggle, tenacity and of overcoming challenges. While we, as endurance athletes are able to choose our challenges, Sharlie, who was born with Cystic Fibrosis, had her struggle forced upon her. And, even though our struggles and obstacles are different, Sharlie and I, and everyone who participates in endurance sports, share that universal joy and sense of accomplishment as we cross our own finish lines after months of training and preparation. 

Sharlie's attitude and the way that she handles every challenge has inspired me and keeps me motivated every day. She motivates me to overcome my own comparatively small challenges, to keep training, and to keep pushing my own perceived limits. 

The speech she gave on Friday night really touched me, and I have included it below. I hope you enjoy it. 

Me and Sharlie after the Lost Boys 50 Miler

Nine months ago I was surrounded by my family and my dearest friends, while I sat on a gurney waiting to be wheeled into the operating room at Stanford Hospital. I had been on a waiting list for five months and the call had finally come, I was going to get new lungs and a new heart.

I was born with Cystic Fibrosis, which is a terminal, genetic, lung disease that causes life threatening infections and permanent lung damage. Over the years my lung function had deteriorated to a dangerously low percentage. I needed a double lung and heart transplant to survive.

The first time I realized I was different than other kids, I was doing something that many of you love to do (or you don’t love it but you do it anyway!) I was running. My first grade class was at PE and we were running around the track. I was having a hard time keeping up with my friends, but was determined not to fall behind, so I pushed myself to go harder and run faster. The next thing I knew, I was lying on the floor in my classroom with my legs up on a chair and my worried mother looking over me. I had fainted on the track. My lungs could not keep up and my body couldn't get enough oxygen. That was when my mom explained to me that I had Cystic Fibrosis a little bit about what that meant. She told me to be careful and listen to my body so I wouldn't hurt myself. And, of course she said that this meant I was extra special!

I’m not sure if it is because of that specific experience, or just because I have been so physically limited throughout my life, that I've always yearned to be an athlete. Not necessarily a professional athlete but I just wanted to be able to use my body and feel a freedom I had never felt before. Don’t get me wrong, I was not a couch potato. I did what I could to strengthen my body. I found low impact exercises I could do and fell in love with yoga. I would turn up my oxygen all the way and walk on the treadmill but didn't know if I was doing more harm than good as my head pounded, my fingers turned blue, and I ferociously sucked in air. Leading up to my transplant, it was difficult to even talk, let alone exercise.

When my brother started running and started writing about his experiences on his blog, I was incredibly inspired. I devoured every blog post and would visualize myself running the trails with him as I read. I clearly remember giving him one last hug before the surgical nurses came to prep me for my transplant. I knew in reality I could be saying goodbye for the last time but I was filled with hope and truly believed I would experience a miracle. As I gave Dax a final squeeze, I whispered to him, “I love you, I’ll see you on the trails.”

A month ago that dream was fulfilled. Dax asked me to run the Lake Hodges 5K trail run with him. It was super hard. After months in the hospital, my muscles had completely atrophied and I am still getting used to being able to take a deep breath and use my body. I was unsure of myself but as I ran alongside my brother and my husband, two of my heroes, I thought about where I had come from and how the experiences I had dreamed of having and had visualized when the journey seemed hopeless were actually happening. I also thought about my donor, someone who had decided that if anything should ever happen to them, they wanted to give the gift of life to someone else. Such a selfless gift. It was an amazing race and I was so overcome with gratitude and joy. I can tell you, it’s harder to run when you’re crying! They were happy tears. Even though I was one of the last to finish, Paul Jesse, the race organizer surprised me at the award ceremony with such kind, encouraging words and a very generous gift card to get some new running gear and a subscription to Trail Runner. It felt like I won first place!

Sharlie finishing the Lake Hodges 5K

I am so grateful to be here tonight. I am so inspired by this community of endurance athletes. Living with Cystic Fibrosis has given me a unique perspective. I do not take life or even one breath for granted. I have faced death many times and know how blessed I am to be here. I think athletes share this unique perspective. You push and thrive and dream and conquer, you are grateful and most importantly, you give back. When I was first accepted for Transplant, the first thing they told me to do was start fundraising. They said my medical costs could reach up to a million dollars. Dax set up a fundraising page for me and reached out to this community and we were incredibly humbled by the generous support we received from so many of you. I have come to learn that that is just who you are and what you do. I am so grateful the funds raised tonight will go to the CF Foundation and will be used to find a cure for this relentless disease.

As a beginner athlete, I’m most likely never going to be at the elite level that you all are. However, living with 15% lung function and surviving and recovering from a double lung, heart transplant has taught me a little bit about endurance and now instead of spending hours a day on my bed doing breathing treatments, respiratory therapy and running I.V.s, I am trying to follow in your footsteps. I know you also know about endurance, I know you have all experienced the feeling of thinking you cannot take one more step or pedal one more time or swim one more stroke but you dug deep and you did. That is what endurance is and I have learned it is the most painful and sweetest experience at the same time. Thank you for inspiring me. I am learning how good it feels to drip sweat, and how delicious sore muscles feel. I promise to continue to push myself and honor these new organs of mine. I also promise to follow your lead and give back. I have a lot to pay forward! On behalf of the CF community I thank you for your generosity tonight. It means the world to us. We have a saying that we hope one day CF will stand for CURE FOUND!! Thank you for helping us get closer to realizing that dream! God Bless.

To become an organ donor, please visit www.organdonor.gov.
To learn more about Cystic Fibrosis and become involved, please visit www.cff.org.

Crest Canyon and the Joys of Urban Trail Running

Sometimes you just have to make do with what you have, and when you're making do with what you have, you realize that you have a hell of a lot. That's how I was feeling for most of the day yesterday as I revisited one of my first and favorite urban trail runs.

While I envy people who live in trail-running meccas like Boulder, Bend, or Park City, and I occasionally catch myself drooling over pictures of miles of uncrowded singletrack trails that can be found within walking distance of the front door of the inhabitants of these cities, I do, however, immensely enjoy the challenge of stringing together trails in an urban environment. It's fun to solve the puzzle of how to join sections of trails together in a logical way to make a loop with the least amount of pavement. It involves getting to know an area really well, getting lost on the trails, and lots of time tinkering and testing the magnification settings on Google Maps, trying to determine if that squiggly line is indeed a runnable trail, or a dead-end path leading to the den of a local pack of coyotes.

When I was training for my first marathon a few years ago, I lived next door to Paul Thomas, who was an amazing runner and world-class duathlete, and I would pick his brain about running every chance I could get. He encouraged me to get out on trails and introduced me to some of the trails around our neighborhood, trails that I run nearly every day. One day I asked Paul what his favorite local trail was, and he told me that any time one of his old running friends came out to visit, he would take them to Crest Canyon. I asked for more details. Paul gave me a starting point and a cryptic description of a loop that crossed some streets, went along some train tracks and a cliff, but mostly he encouraged me to just get out there and explore.

I started going out to Crest Canyon in Del Mar for my weekend long runs. I got lost a few times, found some beautiful trails, mixed in some connectors on the road and incorporated one of my favorite spots in the world, Torrey Pines State Park. It was so much more enjoyable than running up and down the long, straight (but also beautiful) Coast Highway. My current Crest Canyon loop is about 12 miles and I included some details below, but if you want to do the run, just get out there and explore, string some of your own trails together, or get lost and find new routes. It's part of the challenge and most of the fun.

I park at Roberto's on Carmel Valley Rd. because burritos are good. I head toward the coast, then turn right onto Del Mar Scenic Rd. The first trailhead is at the end of the hill. This trail will lead you to Del Mar Heights Rd. Cross Del Mar Heights and connect to the Crest Canyon trail. This will lead you to San Dieguito Dr. where you turn left, cross Jimmy Durante Blvd, and run west along the Del mar Riverpath until you hit the Coast Highway. Turn left and head towards 15th St. park. Run through the playground and take the trail that follows the railroad tracks on the cliff. From here, I run up the inside grade of Torrey Pines, do the short, but beautiful Guy Fleming trail loop, then down the beach trail to the beach, north on the beach, then under the bridge, through the Torrey Pines parking lot, and then let the sweet smell of breakfast burritos lead you back to Roberto's.

15th Street Park

Along the tracks in Del Mar

This is a great trail, but (wait for it...) it gets congested.

Ended the day at the Torrey Pines Gliderport with some friends in bright yellow shirts

Thanks for reading.

Changing Pace and a Good Hill Workout

I'm familiar with the cycle. A period of good, long training, successful races, goals met, then a plateau, sometimes a long one, months, and then the rut. It's nice to be able to recognize it and know that the world isn't ending, and that I'm not backsliding into a sedentary life. Change is good.

My change doesn't involve picking up a new sport; I still have no desire to get back on the bike or in the pool. The change this time is the type of training. I'm focusing on some shorter races, some 5Ks and 10Ks. I'd really like to run a sub-40 10K before I turn 40 in February. I've come close to that before, hit 40 minutes and change a couple of times, but have never broken the 40 minute barrier. So, I'm switching up my training.

I'm not running less, but I am replacing a couple of the weekly longer runs with more quality runs, mixing in some track work, some tempo runs, and some hill repeats. The mileage still hovers between 40 and 50 miles per week, but the workouts give me more variety, and for now, they are a lot more fun than the long runs. I'm trying to avoid the trap of only increasing distance at the expense of speed. I have found myself not wanting to train for and run shorter races because it almost felt like taking a step backwards from the ever-increasing volume and race distances of ultras.

Early morning track work at Cal State

I've been heading down to the Cal State San Marcos track for some interval training, and that has been fun. It's been awhile since I've run fast and done form drills. Steve Scott (the greatest American miler) is the women's cross country coach down there and I have never felt as self-conscious about my form as I was last week when Steve and his team were stretching and doing core work on the side of the track while I was doing intervals. I also talked to an older woman who holds the American record for the 5K and half marathon in her age group. She was so nice, and we talked for awhile about her races and running. She told me she was 76 and I asked her what her secret was for running so fast that late in life (I can't remember if that's how I put it; I hope I used a little more tact). She told me that she started running 5 years ago. So, there you go. That's the secret.

I'll share today's hill workout because it was simple, and it was fun making it up, and it kicked my ass.

1. Easy jog for 2 miles.
2. Find a long (about 1 1/2 mile), moderately steep hill.
3. Run hard for 3 minutes up the hill.
4. Turn around and recover for 2 minutes downhill (I walked for a minute, then jogged a minute).
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you reach the top of the hill (for me, this was 5 intervals).
6. Cool down.

That's it. Let me know if you try the workout and what you think about it.

Thanks for reading.

Grand Canyon Run

Ultra runners and potential aficionados,

Sante and I will go back again to the Grand Canyon this year. 42 miles, 11k feet gain. And one of the most beautiful trails on earth.

The plan is Saturday Nov 3. Drive out from SoCal Friday afternoon Nov 2; drive back Sunday Nov 4. You're invited.

I's be open to go to Zion and do the classic Zion traverse (48 miles). But since Sante really wants to get back on r2r2r, Grand Canyon's the plan currently. And I am not complaining, it's the best run I've ever done; this will be my 3rd go. Maybe we can save Zion for next spring.

Hope some of you can join. Spread the word as needed.

Ben

May 22nd, 2012

It hurts to know that I will never get another one of these emails from Ben, but am forever grateful that I was included in this one. My hope is that this will be the beginning of an annual tradition, a Zoom Loco Field Trip that will bring together friends who want to experience amazing places around the world and to push beyond what they think is possible, held in memory of Ben, honoring his spirit of adventure, his ability to bring together a diverse group of people, and his love of being a participant in nature, rather than a mere tourist.