The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-338 – Sandra the Organic Runner Mom

(Audio: link)

[audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4338.mp3]

Link epi4338.mp3

MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks – http://www.marathonbq.com/qualify-for-the-boston-marathon-in-14-weeks/

Hello and welcome to episode 4-338 of the RunRunLive Podcast. In today’s episode we are going to have a chat with Sandra the Organic Runner Mom. I met her up at the ES20 and decided to have her on the talk about some of the goings on in the organic farming space she habituates. It’s a good chat.

In section one talk about how to roll your fitness into a B race when you’re a race goes sideways. In section two I have another piece I wrote for one of my work related blogs when they asked me what my advice to my 22 year old self would be.

Ironically I saw her at the Boston marathon. She tapped me on the shoulder and said ‘hi’ as she was cruising past me late in the race. That wasn’t hard to do at the pace I was going at that point!

I’m tired. This time of year is super busy for me – as I’m sure it is for you as well. I have just rolled out of a 7 –day stretch that include getting my ass kicked at the Boston Marathon, a quick trip to Atlanta on business then pulling off the 25^th annual Groton Road Race over the weekend.

I had to drop my little one off at the airport at the crack of dawn Monday morning and get back to my home office for a 3 hours of conference calls starting at 7:00 AM with Europe. My wife pulled a bit of a fast one on me by announcing Sunday night, after I was already well into my celebratory cups at the race wrap-up cookout, that I’d be taking my daughter to the airport in the morning.

I’ve got this week to catch up on some things and then I’m into 6 weeks of travel and it won’t let up until the middle of June, if ever. It’s good to be needed.

Yes, as you have guessed, we had a tough day at Boston. It was a little warm for me, there was a bit of a head wind, but I went for it anyhow and ended up sprinting right into the wall with a classic, textbook, Boston-bonk. I couldn’t recover and ended up doing the death shuffle in for a 20 minute positive split.

But, as painful as it was I was not terribly disappointed. I trained very well. I respected the race. It just won this time, as it has done many times before. It’s a tough, unforgiving race. I’ll try to write up a full race report this week.

We had awesome weather for Groton. We had a good year which no major crises. Great for me to ‘go out on top’. It really is something when you see how organized we are and how well we pull off an event of that size with a dozen or so volunteer directors.

We got some new members this week for our RunRunLive members only feed where I produce some extra audio content.

Last week, based on member feedback I started working on a series about the podcasts that I listen to. I don’t know why anyone would want to listen to that, but since they are members they get to tell me what to do!

I also worked with one of my virtual assistants to add an annual membership option and that should be working now. You asked for an annual option, so I got it added.

I’m doing this membership option so I don’t have to bug you with commercials, sponsors and ads.

Access To Exclusive Members Only audio

Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you!

Exclusive Access to Individual Audio Segments from all Shows
- Intro’s, Outro’s, Section One running tips, Section Two life hacks and Featured Interviews – all available as stand-alone MP3’s you can download and listen to at any time.

(I’ve got episodes 4329 – 4335 up – in pieces – already)

We will consider other benefits as they are requested by you, because when you’re a member it’s all about you!

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I’d like to welcome new members Duane, Cheryl and Bill.

…

For the Groton Road Race we set up on Saturday. We have the party rental stuff delivered and we set up the field with fencing and such. We pick up the water and the ice. We do a lot of miscellaneous running around.

We set up the gym and sort through the shirts for registration.

Sunday morning is race day. I host a 6:00AM run of the course. This I can keep my streak going. A trick I learned from Dave McGillivray. I actual register and pay. Sometimes I’ll wear my number. Usually it’s a half dozen or so of the race directors who show up. We walk over to the starting line say a few words and go run the course.

This weekend it was beautiful. With the sun just coming up over the hills and meadows of spring time Groton it was stunning. My friend Brian and I led the pack and just had an easy run of the course. It’s so peaceful and serene in the crisp morning air.

Then we get changed up and go to work to pull of the race. I keep my time so I can be entered into the official results. I stopped my watch at 49:36 for the 10K run.

One of our RunRunLive members Duane came up from PA to run the race and say ‘hi’. I was checking the results online this morning and his time is posted as… you guessed it… 49:36! How about that?

Karma.

I am blessed and lucky.

On with the Show!

Section one – Running Tips

Rolling your Fitness Forward to your B race – https://runrunlive.com/rolling-your-fitness-forward-to-your-b-race

Voices of reason – the conversation

Sandra LaFlamme – http://organicrunnermom.com/

Meet Organic Runner Mom

Hi! I’m Organic Runner Mom!

I found running back in high school when I used to run before crew practice. It was common for us to have to run from boathouse row in Philadelphia to “The Three Angels” and back as a warm-up before getting into our shells for the real workout. Someone once called me “gazelle” during one of these runs perhaps because of my ridiculously awkward, skinny long legs but perhaps more so because they could see how freeing running could be for me. I rowed all through high school and college at Colby College in Maine and then met my husband, a rower too at Bates College! I used to be a rower but when my husband and I moved back to New Hampshire so he could join the family business, Pete and Gerry’s Organic Eggs in 2000 running became my new passion!

Being a runner has taken me on a journey of self-discovery and made me a stronger individual both inside and out. As a runner I am inspired and motivated by all of the amazing endurance athletes that I meet. Since I discovered my love for running I have met many new friends and have continued to set new goals for myself. I always have big dreams and love a new challenge. I am now a half marathon runner, marathon runner (2 time Boston Marathon Finisher, soon to be 3 time finisher!), trail runner, and mountain runner. Several injuries (tendonitis and a back injury) have led me to discover triathlons. Most recently I completed my first Half Ironman and the Timberman Ironman 70.3.

I love sharing my athletic pursuits with you as well as training tips, nutrition tips, recipes, and lots of motivation. I hope you will join me often on my blog here and that you will share your stories and inspirations too.

Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. –Rachel Carson

Section two

Advice to my 22-year-old self – https://runrunlive.com/address-to-my-22-year-old-self

Outro

That’s it friends, members, we have made it to the end of yet another fully certified organic RunRunLive Podcast. Thanks for being along for the ride. Thanks for being a friend.

Next week we’ll chat with John Mangan the Irish ultra runner who ran around the world and he’s now walking around the world. Interesting dude.

I had issued a public service announcement about the RunRunLive podcast feed. I wasn’t getting updates on my podcruncher app. I called Libsyn and they said everything was cool but “did you know you have two instances of RunRunLive on iTunes?” Yes, I know – the second one is an older feed that goes through Feedburner that I’ve been telling people to switch off of for a year now. I could tell you again, but if you’re hearing my voice you figured it out. I went in and deleted that feed and permanently redirected it – (That sounds painful). The Duh! Moment for me was when I realized that I was pointing to the wrong feed in iTunes with my PodCruncher app! Doh!

You can get the show from iTunes, from the Libsyn feed directly or just download the files from my website. All roads lead to RunRunLive. Except Feedburner. That turns in on itself like a snake eating its tail.

With the marathon over and the road race done – what now? What am I going to focus on? I’m thinking about running the Vermont City Marathon on Memorial Day – May 30^th. I hate to let my fitness go to waste. I felt really strong going into Boston and I think I have a decent performance in me, I just need the right venue.

I’ve been at this for a long time. I think I’ve found some balance but the tradeoff is that I’m not as manically focused on my running goals anymore. I just want to feel that joy that we get on those crisp mornings with the sun peaking over the hills and birds chirping. You know, the peaceful epiphany stuff that I love, out on the trails thinking about stuff and thangs.

Closing comments

That’s 10 years, or maybe 11 that I was the race director of the Groton road races. That’s close to 20,000 runners of all ages I helped give an opportunity to get over our courses and across our finish line. To put that in perspective, that’s about how many men Hannibal crossed the Alps with to conquer Rome. But he also had 40 war elephants. We don’t have any elephants.

But, still, that’s a generation of runners I had some small impact on. That’s pretty cool. I’m a grateful guy.

We had all 25 T-shirts strung up across registration. That is impressive. Now you’re talking 2-3 generations of local runners we’ve touched. We are all very fortunate.

Many times we look at these things and we fret over what we could have done. We wring our hands over the opportunities lost. We beat ourselves up because we didn’t make some goal or achieve some thing to make our mark higher. We are a chronically unsatisfied bunch.

It’s really all in the value of the action taken, whatever that action was, the movement that starts a person. Because each movement has the opportunity to take hold and create compound movement both physical and metaphysical. That snowball effect is how our small actions can win the world in the balance.

It’s the butterfly’s wingbeat each time we move.

So keep moving my friends, and I’ll see you out there.