I ran my first national master’s track meet in Spokane in 2008. Half a dozen of us from my running club made the five hour trip to from Portland. I enjoyed the experience so much, that I have run the meet three other times. On two of those occasions, no one from my club made the journey. Travelling and staying by oneself is not nearly as much fun as being part of group, and thus I have connected with other women at the meet when my teammates don’t accompany me.

Staying with others offers distinct advantages, both financially and socially. Sharing the cost of hotel rooms and car rental can help to make the trip significantly less costly, while spending time getting to know other women who share my passion for track has increased the enjoyment factor of such trips considerably.

The local transportation situation is one of the more troublesome aspects of these meets. While the host hotel generally offers a shuttle to and from the meet, the timing of this shuttle is often less than ideal. Being stuck at the hotel is also not the way I would choose to spend my down time. Not that I am a social butterfly, but it is nice to get out to some decent restaurants, and to catch some of the local flavor too.

It seems that the meets are always held in locations which demand a car for true mobility.  Besides the cost of car rental, there is the fact that driving in an unfamiliar setting for a few days can be stressful. Having a navigator and a driver helps getting around immensely. Some women, of course, simply bring their husbands along, but that is not always feasible.

I have been fortunate in finding other women to share accommodation and transportation with at previous races, but I know that not everyone has been as lucky as me. I distinctly remember Barbara Broad lamenting about being stuck at the race hotel, at a previous event. It was at this time that it occurred to me that I could help.

This year the outdoor national meet will be held in Olathe outside of Kansas City. While I am very unlikely to make it to the meet, I would be happy to make a list of women who are interested in room and/or ride sharing. All you have to do is comment on this article and state that this option appeals to you. I can put women in touch with others who might have a similar schedule, and maybe I can help facilitate a more enjoyable experience for some of our readers.

There is no need to put contact information into your comment. When you comment, your email address is listed so I can reach you that way. In this manner I can keep your personal information private while still putting you in touch with other like-minded women. Anyone want to try this?

It can feel harder to run much slower than your usual pace, but yes, you get benefits from running long slow runs. They increase 1) stroke volume of the heart – meaning your heart pumps more blood per beat 2) capillary density – meaning you can effectively transport more blood (and oxygen) to working muscles and 3) your mitochondrial density and quality (health). Mitochondria are those organelles in cells that help you break down nutrients and produce energy from them. They’re the power centers of the cells, the batteries for muscle contractions. (The more mitochondria you have, the more endurance you have.)

Hey – there’s a value in taking it easy – something we often forget, particularly in training towards our goals.

You can run fast on another day. Running with friends is worth it for many reasons.

And “getting back into running” isn’t easy whether your situation is similar to any of the following women I coach: one now in her early seventies, who hasn’t run competitively for more than a decade, and who in her fifties did well in the world masters championships; one in her mid-twenties who is returning to the track having burned out from running on her college team; one in her early forties who’s returning to running, having focused on biking for the past ten years.

Many of us know “getting back into running”, whether we’re returning to it after several weeks off from an injury or after decades.

It takes courage – and wisdom, too — when returning to running. We remember our best times before we took time off. We compare ourselves to others now at peak fitness. We forget how long it can take to build up speed. If we’re coming back to running in mid-life or later in life, we have to remind ourselves that aging has happened and that we have to adjust our perspectives on our times.

It’s easier to return, though, when we remember that this is what most runners do. They may leave running for a while, but not for long. Many runners know there’s nothing like running and return to it if they can. Here are a few thoughts that may help you – and you probably have other thoughts:

Have patience: take a long-term perspective. Give yourself more rather than less time to achieve a milestone.

Value experimentation: consider your return to running as a separate phase of training, one that prepares you for actual training.

Be grateful: not everyone can run. You’re lucky to be back…..

I asked a few people why they were grateful.

Masters champion Coreen Steinbach “loved every minute” despite a — well – not great day: “By far the slowest 10k I have ever run!!,” she said. “My PW!!! I should’ve stopped after my first mile – 6:43 – and that felt easy!!”

Gratitude was still the theme of Coreen’s experience. “The whole day was spectacular,” she said. “The weather was gorgeous…. I was so moved by the posters at the start of the 4 who died in Boston. I stared at those faces during the anthem and emblazoned them on my brain and heart so I would have perspective during my race — that perspective being one of gratitude for having two legs to run on and for the privilege of experiencing the singular joy of being among runners.”

Multiple masters record holder/champion Kathy Martin was grateful to be racing again — returning to running for her first official race after almost a year, having been injured with not one but two stress femoral condyle stress fractures (even so, she finished second in the overall age-graded race!).

“It was my first official race post fractures,” she said. “Was nervous, excited & all emotions. Our age-group is so competitive and the best of the best were there. …..I forgot how hard racing is,” she said. Despite the fact that she said “I struggled every step after 2 miles” she was thrilled to be back: “Kudos to the race director and all who helped put it on.” She commented that it was a festive setting in which to bring competitive running back to Boston so soon after the marathon tragedy.

Grateful also was the age-graded overall winner (one of our club members), Jan Holmquist. She was grateful for the recognition and support for all Liberty runners — to Georgia Cristley who ran in the non-championship 10K, to Regina Wright, National 10K Champion for women 70 plus, to her teammates Leni Webber and Sue Gustafson, W65 – 69 national champions, and to 4th place 50 – 54 finishers Pam Linov, Dru Pratt-Otto and Joani Lamachia.

I was grateful for a happy day that began with a pre-race sprint for tiny tots who raced, some of them holding hands.

For championship results, see http://www.coolrunning.com/results/13/ma/Apr28_JamesJ_set1.shtml.

The Portland Track Festival (PTF) will be held at Lewis and Clark College on June 7^th and 8^th this year. For the fifth consecutive year I will be coordinating a 3000 meter race for master’s women. Early indications are that this year’s race should be one of the better ones.

In 2009 I decided that what PTF really needed was a race for master’s women, and the only way that would happen, was if I started one, so I did. It was very fortunate that I was able to convince master’s legend Carmen Troncoso to enter the race. Using her name to attract other fast women, I was able to put together a pretty good field. The race has continued to build from there, and it’s one of my favorite, running related accomplishments of all time.

There are few, if any races that I am willing to travel to, year after year, so I appreciate the fact that some of the top age group stars have been back more than once; Tania Fischer has even run in all four of the previous events. I have been grateful for the opportunity to get to know these outstanding runners as human beings, and not just as names that I read about.

While it is early yet, I have been blessed to have two women who declined to attend last year, put the race on their calendar for 2013. A year ago PTF meet director Craig Rice kept telling me about “some gal from back east”, who was running incredible times for a forty year old. I knew that he meant Sonja Friend Uhl, and I certainly contacted her, but she had aspirations that went beyond PTF, and Portland is a long ways from her home in Nashville.

This year things have been different, and it looks like she should be able to make it out here. But more than that, she and I have had a few nice electronic conversations, and she is clearly far more than just a talented athlete. She is also a woman who has been gifted with intellect and heart, as well as fast feet. I very much look forward to the opportunity to meet her in a couple of months.

I often tend to try to use my familiarity with one runner, to try to connect with another, and so I was pleased to see that Cassandra Henkiel, one of the top finishers in the master’s women’s 2012 Carlsbad 5000 meter road race, was from Austin Texas. Since Austin is Carmen’s home town, I knew that she would be willing to connect me to Cassandra, and would put in a good word for the race too.

Unfortunately, Carmen told me that Cassandra didn’t care much for track races, but she was glad to give me her contact information. I got in touch with Cassandra and she was certainly pleasant, but she had decided to travel Michigan for the USATF master’s 10k road championship in June, and wouldn’t be coming to Portland. Given the fact that her interest lay elsewhere, I didn’t even contact her this winter, to tell her about the meet.

Much to my surprise, however, she recently reached out to me to see if I had room for her in this year’s race. As if I would say no. She told me that she had decided to run in the 2013 World Master’s Track championships, and was looking for a few good races to tune up before the meet. Coming out of the blue as it did, her email brightened up a day whose otherwise highlight was finishing up my tax returns.

And as much as I like to see the fast forty year olds come to the meet, I am equally pleased when older women are also willing to race at PTF, knowing that they will get lapped by women young enough to be their daughter. This year Candy Puterbaugh is looking to break 13 minutes at age 65, and has said that she is stoked about the chance to run in the race. In both of her previous outings she topped the coveted 90% age grade mark. It has been a couple of years since her last foray into the race , but her return this year will be one of the highlights for me.

The meet itself features a lot more than just one race, and it has garnered a well-earned reputation among middle distance and distance aficionados. Track and Field News recently included the meet in a two page story on top domestic meets aimed at post collegiate runners. Highlights from last year’s event included an outstanding women’s 10k in which six women broke 33 minutes, and the fact that we got to witness the emergence of Kim Conley prior to her stunning Olympic trials race.

While I have been pleased with the response from the master’s women I have contacted so far, there is still room for more. If you would like test yourself on the track against a top notch field, in a well-run meet, in generally near perfect weather, in one of the top running towns in the nation, then please contact me. I can be reached at jmharps57 which is at gmail, and that is, of course, a dot com.

Now many are thinking about healing.

A note from one of my marathoners, a heady Harvard Ph.D. and 2:55 finisher, was typical of notes from others: “I still am trying to regain my focus and sense of balance,” she wrote, “I now think I know how people feel with PTSD.” She ran a personal best on Monday and is hoping she can celebrate at some point. “I am numb but can’t get myself to feel any joy. I had a great race but now I’m confused and unsettled.”

This week she returns to limited running (40% of her usual mileage), and we decided she might focus on meditating while running this week. (Eight weeks of mindful meditating have been shown to make measurable changes in the areas of our brains associated with focus, stress, a sense of self, and empathy – see www.sciencedaily.com.)

Also, she’s more determined than ever to run another personal best next year.

Bet there’ll be many Boston Marathon personal bests next year.

First of all, I think it is an unholy crime that we need to talk about bombs, deaths, and injuries, and fear for the safety of our family and friends. We should be talking about the marvelous races run by the likes of Rita Jeptoo, who re-claimed the crown that she first won in 2006. Those of us in Portland should be cheering the fact that two of our adopted daughters, Shalane and Kara, finished in the top six. Those of us, who are older, should be amazed that Joan Benoit Samuelson ran the fastest marathon ever by a woman 55 years old, thirty four years after she first won Boston.

The sad truth, however, is that all of these terrific performances and more will take a back seat to the human tragedy that occurred on Patriots day 2013 in Beantown.  Because not only will these dark deeds cast a shadow over this race, they will also impact future races for years to come.  Collegiate cross country meets, and local 5ks will be unaffected, as they simply fly under the radar of those who wish to inflict evil on others.

But the big city, big hype, marathons will certainly change for the worse as a result.  There will, of course, be much more security surrounding these types of races; everyone who enters or spectates at such affairs will be negatively affected. I think that bag checks might go away. Can race officials take the risk of having tens of thousands of unattended potential bombs sitting together? Or maybe there will be x-ray machines at bag check. Wouldn’t that be lovely?

Monday evening, as I knocked out my usual evening run, I couldn’t get the old Don Maclean song American Pie out of my head. In particular, the words “I saw the devil laughing with delight, the day the music died” kept rattling around my noggin. And the one thing that seemed clearer than anything else was that we can’t let the devil win. We can’t let running, or more particularly, that part of running associated with events like the Boston marathon die.

Just as the music didn’t really die, when Buddy Holly did, big city races won’t die, as long as we keep showing up for them. It may be true, that as musical innocence passed away, our idea of the purity of racing might need to change a little. There will certainly be more obstacles put in the way of anyone who wants to join the masses for huge races in the future. And, hopefully, just as we endure increased security at airports, we will endure the upcoming inconveniences too.

I would hope that the opposite will occur. I hope that runners will be strong and defiant, and continue to throng to such races. Maybe an appropriate rallying cry would be “remember Patriots day 13”, although surely someone else will think up something catchier. But whatever else may occur, we simply can’t let April 15^th 2013 be the day that running died. We cannot allow that to happen.

As Dr. Cathy Utzschreider eloquently wrote in her blog pre-race the marathon is “more than about the running.” Cathy and her Liberty teammates are safe but many are not. Our hearts are heavy….

“It’s so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone.” – John Steinbeck

Photo courtesy of Pink Sherbet

Commenting on our conversation he said. “This is much more than just about running.”

I was thinking about that again this week-end. Marathoners have been telling me how touched they are by all the good wishes they’re receiving from family and friends. The marathon tomorrow is important for the running in itself, but also important in so many ways beyond the running itself that they can’t be quantified. We can’t just say that the marathon and running are about our hopes for someone, our connection with that person, our shared dreams of what it means to delay gratification, train our best, and test our potential.

Clearly running means so much more than running for the best, even those with chances of winning. Beyond training (sometimes 120 to 130 mile weeks) and competing together, Olympians and Boston Marathoners Shalane Flanagan and Kara Goucher share recipes, talk about “Downton Abbey”, travel on wine tasting trips with their husbands, etc., etc., etc.

As one who’s now mainly a coach and loves to run, I know running is about life and its meaning — our common and individual experience. Just thought of this….Maybe in your final marathon taper it’s a good time to read The Runner’s Guide To The Meaning of Life by Runner’s World Editor Amby Burfoot. It’s a profound, at times funny, and thought-provoking read. The 1968 winner of the Boston Marathon is running again this year – and his family and friends, he told me, are a big part of the week-end.

Running is about much more than running. And that’s the best part of it.

I’ve been hearing and seeing signs of anxiety for several weeks in all marathoners, beginners and elites: bobbing knees that just keep bobbing, conversations that keep returning to the marathon, and millions of questions….(.How many portapotties are on course? Don’t know. Should I wear my compression socks? Why not? Some studies, which have not controlled for placebo effect, have shown a trend towards slightly improved economy and performance with compression socks. Should I run with a small bottle of water in my hand? If it makes you feel more comfortably yes – and then throw it out if its too much. What is my recovery plan after the event? Let’s get through the event first. Whom do I hang out with in Hopkinton for so long? Hello! Is this the part to whom I am speaking?)

Calming nerves before the marathon is tough. By now you’ve done the work to get there. You’ve earned your spot on the starting line. Read books, watch movies, keep a journal, add your suggestions here.

Congratulations if you’re ready. Have a great race next Monday!