"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."
- Winston Churchill
Allyson, Lisa, Ella, and Cookie Monster at the Sesame Classic |
As someone who prides himself on helping runners, I have to
say that I haven’t been prouder of a runner than I was of Allyson when she
broke the three-hour barrier. I know
someone reading this will find that last line bias because this particular
runner is my wife, but let me assure you that there is more to this than my
love and affection for this amazing runner.
As you will be able to see from the chart below, Allyson has come a long
way in her thirteen-year marathon journey.
The reason I’m sharing this is not only to boast about Allyson’s
accomplishment (it’s always good to stock up on brownie points…), but to
continue my theme of inspiring the runners that I have the privilege of working
with year in and year out. This
inspiring theme can continue by going through Allyson’s marathon results from
the last thirteen years.
Before we begin, I want to start by saying I cannot count
how many times runners have told me: “I can’t
run that fast” or “I can’t run a
marathon.” This drives me bonkers! The only thing worst than those lines is when
a runner retracts and they lose all their training that they worked hard to
build up, all because they got lazy and took a long period of running off (this
excludes injured runners). My father
used to tell me I couldn’t do anything right, he told me I was a loser
countless times, he told me I wouldn’t do anything with my life, and as I got
older I truly got wiser, and blocked all the negative comments and verbal abuse
that he attempted to deliver me. This
eventually led me to lose contact with my father and my mother too. I have removed all the negative garbage in my
life and have replaced it with puppies and rainbows, well maybe not everything
is on the level of rainbows and puppies, but you know what I’m insinuating. If
not, here’s a hint, the noun I’m describing is P-O-S-I-T-I-V-I-T-Y. My point is my life has no place for
negativity and your lives shouldn’t either.
Speaking of things that are positive, Allyson as you can see
from the chart once ran marathon times in and around the 4 hour mark. She didn’t improve overnight; she didn’t just
wake up and magically become a sub three-hour marathoner. Allyson, like any runner, had her shares of
trials and tribulations with the beast that is the Marathon. She learned that if she wanted to run the
times that she wanted to run, she would have to put in the proper
training. She learned that incorporating
structured interval workouts were an important aspect to marathon training. She found out the hard way that she really
needed to get those long training runs in, to simulate the feel of the many
hours of pounding her legs would endure come race day. Allyson learned to treasure those rest and
easy days. Lastly, she learned what she
could eat and drink while on the course.
I really hope this blog post offers you some resemblance of
encouragement. I want you all to learn
from Allyson’s experiences and gain the knowledge that you will need to succeed
not only at the marathon distance, but also at any distance. If you’re only capable of taking one thing
from this post, please allow it to be this: Don’t ever let anyone, even
yourself put you down and tell you that you’re not capable. If you put in the hard work it will pay off
in the long run (pun intended).
CT
AT's Marathons: 2002 - 2014
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Date
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Marathon
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Finishing Time
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Pace Per Mile
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November 2002*
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Philadelphia
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3.56
|
9.01
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April 2003
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New Jersey
|
3.49
|
8.45
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November 2003
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Philadelphia
|
4.34
|
10.28
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March 2004
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Ocean Drive
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4.30
|
10.19
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November 2004
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Philadelphia
|
4.21
|
9.55
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April 2005
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New Jersey
|
4.32
|
10.24
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June 2005
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San Diego
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4.32
|
10.23
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November 2005
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Philadelphia
|
3.54
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8.56
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November 2006
|
Philadelphia
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3.29
|
8.00
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April 2007
|
Boston
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4.16
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9.46
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October 2009
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Hartford
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3.19
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7.35
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October 2011
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Chicago
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3.05
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7.04
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November 2013
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Northern Central Trail
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3.05
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7.04
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November 2014
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Philadelphia
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2.57
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6.46
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*First joined BC Roadrunners, first Winter Series
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Did not train for…..Weekly long run did not top 10miles
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Hurt…Stress fracture
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Started to really train again, after a few years of not
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Started doing higher mileage and speed/hill workouts with BC
Speedsters
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Chris, Allyson and Speedsters:
ReplyDeleteWhat an amazing tribute!! Stories of a person's dedicated progress inspire me and keep me going! This is a blog which invites comments and responses, so why don't we share some more stories of our long and winding roads to fitness to especially inspire our newer runners. Charts, paragraphs, whatever! I'll lead off and go with half marathons to change it up......
1985 - 1998 Sedentary and way heavy and out of shape!
Oct 2006 Jersey Shore 1:49:20 8:20 pace
Sept 2007 Jersey City 1:43:39 7:55
Fall 2009 Can't recall where 1:36 7:23
Sept 2010 Lehigh Valley Via 1:33:36 7:09
Nov 2011 Philadelphia 1:28:25 6:44
Jan 2013 Hoover Dam (hilly!!) 1:37:24 7:26
Nov 2013 Delaware Canal 1:28:32 6:45
Nov 2014 Philadelphia 1:28:11 6:43
That slight 14 second PR this past Sunday might not seem like much but at 51, you'll take what you can get! Plus, I missed 7 weeks in Aug-Sept with a torn muscle and 2 more weeks in Oct with a nasty flu. So with all that time missed, I had no business getting a new PR and I have no doubt a major contributor was all of the summer hill workouts with all of us urging each other on, so thanks everyone!!!
Tom O'Leary
As Allyson's mother I was so excited that she reached her personal goal on Sunday. I watched many a swim meet during her high school and college years and have gone to quite a few of her half an ironmen race and one full ironman. My stomach still churns everytime I know she has trained and is racing in a big meet. On Sunday, I had text messages sent to my phone at her various mile markers and tried to watch the race on the internet (which I couldn't figure out). When both her sister and I received the text at almost the same time and realized she went under three hours we yelled and were so excited for her. I always told both Allyson and her sister during their swimming years that a winner is not always the person who wins the race but the person who has fallen down and has the strength to get up and try again. So congratulations to my daughter a winner in every way. We love you and are proud of you everyday.
ReplyDeleteVery inspirational....so proud of Allyson!!
ReplyDelete