Here I am, sitting on a hard double bed in a Days Inn in Tallahassee, Florida. I’m in place where my daily routine involves waking up around 7, eating from a limited yet exciting continental breakfast. Which flavors of oatmeal packets will they have today? At some point after 8, I gather my things and head out to pile into a car with a couple other Zapsters and head to one of the many awesome running venues that are the reason why we come here to Tallahassee. We run for a while, and then drive back to the hotel.
After we change into dry clothes, we head back outside to tip-toe into the very chilly pool behind the hotel. Of course, the pump isn’t running anymore because who in their right mind would want to go swimming in 50º weather?? After wading in the film-covered pool for a painful few minutes, we hop into a hot shower and clean up for lunch.
By taking a short walk to campus, we find ourselves at the FSU cafeteria, where we pretend for a half hour that we are still college students. It’s nice to be on campus and remember all the pros and cons of student life. But, after we’re done eating, we don’t have to head to class. Instead we come back to our cluttered rooms, pull the curtains, and nap and lounge around until it’s time for our second run, massage, and/or trip to the gym to do some core and stability exercises. After that, it’s dinner back at the caf and then back to bed!
Anybody who has known me the rest of my life is probably asking, “how the heck did the Esther Erb I know get here??”
I was actually recalling the path that brought me here just today on a nice run at Tom Brown park and the Alford Greenway with Emily Potter, a runner for the US Army team, who I met at the San Francisco half marathon this summer, and decided to join us in Tallahassee for her own marathon trials build-up. I guess the short version is that it started at the end of April my senior year, when I decided that I wasn’t going to be done with running when I graduated. Once I found out that I would be living in Europe the following fall, I registered and committed myself to the Berlin Marathon, which would take place on September 28, 2008.
After finishing up my collegiate career on the high note of unexpectedly winning the 10k at DIII NCAAs, I was pumped about running, and excited to be able to spend the following summer bumming around at my parents’ house, and essentially living a preview of the life that I live now. As anybody who has ever loved running would expect, I loved the life of mostly just running, sleeping, and eating! So by Berlin, I was ready to see what this marathon monster was all about, and went out and ran the most even splits I’ve ever heard of, especially for a debut! Wearing heavy training shoes, and coming to a full and complete stop at every water station (because I had never practiced taking fluids), I ran 1:23:03 and 1:23:12 to finish in 2:46:15.
From the moment I finished (and promptly puked up the half of a banana I had tried to eat en route), I was hooked. It became my one goal in running to qualify for and compete in the 2012 Olympic Marathon Trials. After a year of coaching myself in Vienna and getting in solid but slow mileage, and not much of anything else, I found Terrance Shea of the BAA in September 2009, who agreed to coach me for a qualifier within the window opening in 2010, and it worked! I qualified on Valentine’s Day 2010 in Seville, Spain, and essentially since then, my eyes have been set on the trials.
So here I am! It’s finally here. In the 16 months since I came to ZAP, I have learned so much about the sport, about training, about living and getting along with a very small group of people, and I’ve learned even more about myself and where I fit into all of the above (and where I don’t). I’ve gradually increased my volume and intensity beyond anything I had done before, and things that seemed nearly impossible just months ago have become routine. In fact, a week ago yesterday, I ran my longest run yet, of 30.8 miles in 3 hours and 33 minutes and loved it! I also can’t forget that I have been incredibly blessed to have spent this whole time injury-free, and try to never take that for granted.
Just like in the first year of qualifying to DIII nationals, it has taken me a long time to believe that I belong at the level to which ZAP has elevated me. It was a big jump from DIII to the Austrian elite level and then another leap and bound to the American elite level. I feel like I’m just now getting to the point where I’m confident enough in my training and the work I’ve put in to know that when I show up at the trials, nobody will look at me and think “who is she and what is she doing here?” I’m excited and I’m ready to run faster than ever before. That doesn’t mean I’m going to go out there and expect to book my flight to London, but it does mean that I am ready to do what I set out to do almost four years ago, as a clueless DIII runner. I’ll be there to keep the promise I made to myself after my very first marathon experience, and compete at the 2012 trials!
After we change into dry clothes, we head back outside to tip-toe into the very chilly pool behind the hotel. Of course, the pump isn’t running anymore because who in their right mind would want to go swimming in 50º weather?? After wading in the film-covered pool for a painful few minutes, we hop into a hot shower and clean up for lunch.
By taking a short walk to campus, we find ourselves at the FSU cafeteria, where we pretend for a half hour that we are still college students. It’s nice to be on campus and remember all the pros and cons of student life. But, after we’re done eating, we don’t have to head to class. Instead we come back to our cluttered rooms, pull the curtains, and nap and lounge around until it’s time for our second run, massage, and/or trip to the gym to do some core and stability exercises. After that, it’s dinner back at the caf and then back to bed!
Anybody who has known me the rest of my life is probably asking, “how the heck did the Esther Erb I know get here??”
I was actually recalling the path that brought me here just today on a nice run at Tom Brown park and the Alford Greenway with Emily Potter, a runner for the US Army team, who I met at the San Francisco half marathon this summer, and decided to join us in Tallahassee for her own marathon trials build-up. I guess the short version is that it started at the end of April my senior year, when I decided that I wasn’t going to be done with running when I graduated. Once I found out that I would be living in Europe the following fall, I registered and committed myself to the Berlin Marathon, which would take place on September 28, 2008.
After finishing up my collegiate career on the high note of unexpectedly winning the 10k at DIII NCAAs, I was pumped about running, and excited to be able to spend the following summer bumming around at my parents’ house, and essentially living a preview of the life that I live now. As anybody who has ever loved running would expect, I loved the life of mostly just running, sleeping, and eating! So by Berlin, I was ready to see what this marathon monster was all about, and went out and ran the most even splits I’ve ever heard of, especially for a debut! Wearing heavy training shoes, and coming to a full and complete stop at every water station (because I had never practiced taking fluids), I ran 1:23:03 and 1:23:12 to finish in 2:46:15.
From the moment I finished (and promptly puked up the half of a banana I had tried to eat en route), I was hooked. It became my one goal in running to qualify for and compete in the 2012 Olympic Marathon Trials. After a year of coaching myself in Vienna and getting in solid but slow mileage, and not much of anything else, I found Terrance Shea of the BAA in September 2009, who agreed to coach me for a qualifier within the window opening in 2010, and it worked! I qualified on Valentine’s Day 2010 in Seville, Spain, and essentially since then, my eyes have been set on the trials.
So here I am! It’s finally here. In the 16 months since I came to ZAP, I have learned so much about the sport, about training, about living and getting along with a very small group of people, and I’ve learned even more about myself and where I fit into all of the above (and where I don’t). I’ve gradually increased my volume and intensity beyond anything I had done before, and things that seemed nearly impossible just months ago have become routine. In fact, a week ago yesterday, I ran my longest run yet, of 30.8 miles in 3 hours and 33 minutes and loved it! I also can’t forget that I have been incredibly blessed to have spent this whole time injury-free, and try to never take that for granted.
Just like in the first year of qualifying to DIII nationals, it has taken me a long time to believe that I belong at the level to which ZAP has elevated me. It was a big jump from DIII to the Austrian elite level and then another leap and bound to the American elite level. I feel like I’m just now getting to the point where I’m confident enough in my training and the work I’ve put in to know that when I show up at the trials, nobody will look at me and think “who is she and what is she doing here?” I’m excited and I’m ready to run faster than ever before. That doesn’t mean I’m going to go out there and expect to book my flight to London, but it does mean that I am ready to do what I set out to do almost four years ago, as a clueless DIII runner. I’ll be there to keep the promise I made to myself after my very first marathon experience, and compete at the 2012 trials!