Perseverance counts • September 5, 2006 | 7:20 p.m.

This past weekend I ran the longest and hardest run I’ve ever done. I knew I had to go 15 miles to stick with the training plan, but the weather didn’t make it easy. A tropical storm brought rain and high winds. On Saturday, I was almost home, but I still needed to put in a few more miles. To make up the distance, I had to run up and down hilly roads. By the time I got in my house, I was soaking wet and dog tired, but I had finished my long run.

Next weekend, there will be an even longer one to tackle. I’ve been following a training program designed by Bart Yasso, who’s with Runner’s World magazine. When I started training, I was doing five mile runs three times a week. The first six weeks of the program, I ran 25 to 30 miles a week, adding more miles with a long run between 10 and 15 miles on the weekends. This week, my training plan calls for one longer mid-week run of eight miles and a long run of 17 miles on the weekend. By the end of this week, I should be somewhere around 35 miles a week.

It’s a struggle pushing through those long runs. This past weekend I tried not to think about how nice it would be to stop and walk, and how much distance I still had left to cover. Instead, I constantly reminded myself that if I could get up one hill, the rest of the run would be that much easier. I woke up this morning, after a long weekend of shopping for kids’ shoes and school supplies, chauffeuring children around and attending BBQs, and I was so tired I really wanted to go back to bed. I thought about those hills and I thought about Natalie’s comment in one of her blogs that running parallels life in so many ways. OK, I just need to get up this one hill...

All these miles are getting my body into shape for running a 26.2-mile marathon in couple of months. And I feel really good about finishing those long runs, because that reminds that perseverance counts. I try to remember to apply that lesson to my daily life. I’ve gotten to the point where I always want be training for a marathon and reminding myself that I can do more every day. With this in mind, before I’ve even finished my first marathon, I signed up for the Big Sur International Marathon in April. It goes along the Pacific Coast highway in California. My sister Kelly lives in Monterey, so the run will give me a good excuse to visit her … and maybe even convince her to run with me. With all those hills, I expect the course to be breathtakingly beautiful — and super challenging. And I know that I will have to keep training after the NYC marathon to run that one.

I want to thank Jules Herbert, who works with me at Barnes & Noble, for sharing his marathon stories. He told me which ones were tough, hilly, scenic or overrated, and he told me how the crowds make you feel, what the weather was like on marathon day, and even what food and drink is served at the finish line. Jules made me realize that running marathons isn’t just a sport; it’s a way of life, almost an addiction — although a healthy one. He inspired me to sign up for Big Sur. Why stop at one?

My long run • August 29, 2006 | 11:30 p.m.

Last week I received e-mails from people at various stages of their lives who are trying to fit marathon training in their hectic days. I heard from women who were struggling to get past mile one, three, or 15. One woman had already run numerous marathons and was preparing for her first ultra one. I heard from a woman in the midst of breast cancer treatment who one day wants to run. I even heard from a woman who was diagnosed with breast cancer at 46; today she’s a 17-year survivor who regularly runs ultra-marathons.   

The wide spectrum of these women’s experiences reminded me about how much my own life has changed since I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004. Thinking back to that day, I could never have imagined myself writing a blog about running for the “Today” show. In fact, I didn’t imagine running at all. I only thought about getting through treatment. Later on, when I starting running, I couldn’t imagine running a marathon. To me, that would have been pure fantasy. But I could imagine running five miles a day. And once I ran that distance, my next goal was running more than five on the weekends, which would become, in training parlance, my “long run.” 

Trying to visualize the end state when it’s such a long distance from where you are can make it feel impossible to reach. Sometimes thinking that far ahead will kill your motivation. You need to think about the next few steps and make sure they are in the right direction.  I am sure that the amazing Linda from Longview, Wash., the 17-year survivor, who now runs ultras, would never have predicted on the day of her diagnosis that she would one day run 66 miles.   

I look at my training for the New York City Marathon as a series of small steps. Since I am not naturally athletic, I accepted from the beginning that, unlike my college botany final, the procrastinator’s cramming strategy wasn’t going to work. Slow and steady weekly gains in physical and mental strength and stamina are the only way for me to imagine my body lasting 26.2 miles. So I am hoping that mile one becomes mile two and three and so on. And over time, before I know what hits me, one day I’ll eventually cross mile 26.

My goal last week was to add a few extra miles to my long run on the weekend. And I did. I ran along the bike trail in Cape Cod with my friend Kristine and our kids. They rode their bikes as I ran. I was so impressed that my children had the stamina to pedal for more than two hours. I finished the week with 25 miles. I skipped one training day during the week and I didn’t have any time to fit in cross training. I’m on track with my training schedule, but I would like to get out more this week, plus get in some cross training. I still have the long run ahead.

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