On Running My First Marathon

I ran my first marathon in November of 2013.  Recently, I was asked to write about that experience.  That essay was published here.

Now I have completed 5 full marathons.  The truth is, I am an unlikely athlete.  Every time I run I defy the habits of a past version of myself.  It's a humbling reality. I am grateful.

Six Before Sunrise

Thursday morning I got up early in order to run my scheduled six miles before heading to my part-time-tutor-job for the day.

I don't usually get up before sunrise.  I NEVER get up before 5am.  But I did this week.

It turned out to be a glorious start to the day.  When I got to the park to start my trail run, I discovered nearly a dozen other runners already there.  They were apparently at the turn around for their own morning run.  I joined in.

I found my people!  These are the folks who are as crazy as I am - the runners who are out getting the miles in when no one else can see them.  I am part of this community.

"Latin is a dead language". Methinks not!

About a year ago, I decided to take on the task of tutoring a group of high school students through Classical Conversations Challenge II level.  This commitment includes being prepared to tutor Latin.  Having never studied Latin, I wasn't sure where to begin. I wanted my studies to be formal and systematic, and maybe even fun. But, as I read about the many methods to study Latin, I also came across numerous articles and book chapters that included the phrase, "Latin is a dead language..." usually followed by, "but here's why you should study it anyway".  That phrase alone is enough to keep most of us disinterested in pursuing Latin.  It makes the study sound pointless and futile; "well, it's really a dead language no one speaks anymore, but it's good for you, so do it anyway."

All this time, I accepted the premise that Latin is no longer spoken anywhere in the world.  It is, however, the basis for many modern languages and therefore beneficial as a foundation for other language study.  That's all fine and good.

Then, last week, while studying something completely different, the topic of Latin sprang up in a highly unexpected place.  Let me explain. I have a fascination with health, fitness, and nutrition.  In my down time, I study books, articles, websites and podcasts related to this triad of topics.  So, last week I listened to the Rich Roll podcast as he interviewed Matt Ruscigno, a registered dietician and endurance athlete.  In the course of their conversation, longevity was mentioned as well as the title of a book I'd never read.  The Blue Zone.  Being the book addict that I am, I immediately searched for it at the library.  The author highlights regions of the world where higher percentages of the population live astoundingly long lives.  Not just longer lives, but lives full of health and vitality long into their 80s, 90s and 100s.

The basic subject matter of the book is intriguing, but what made me stop in my tracks, put the book down and laugh "AHA!" aloud in an empty room was what I read on page 34.

     "The original Sardinians, in fact, did not keep their ancient Nuraghic languages.  The Romans had subjugated them long enough that, by the time they escaped to the mountains, they had adopted Latin, which has survived the centuries remarkably intact.  In the Sardinian dialect spoken in the Blue Zone, for example, the word for house is still the Latin word domus.  Their pronunciation more closely resembles Latin too.  The English word sky is cielo in Italian but is kelu in Sardinian, preserving the hard K sound as it was pronounced in the original Latin caelum (ka-AY-lum).  The same goes for sentence structure.  A modern-day Italian says io bevo vino (I drink wine) but Sardinians would say it as an ancient Roman would have, io vino bevo (I wine drink)."

It appears that Latin is not a dead language after all.  When I read the paragraph above to my Latin students, one of them announced "I think this calls for a field trip!"  What a way to breathe new life in to the study of a not-so-dead language!

Lost and Found

I’ve been discouraged lately.  My work with Classical Conversations has been hard.  It has left me feeling that I have too little time to work with my own children in their studies.  I’ve been overwhelmed and ready to quit.  I have questioned whether this is really the model I want us to follow.  It takes so much time to study all the various parts of the curriculum.  We are rarely fully prepared for our seminar days.  I don’t like constantly feeling behind.  Even though we all study hard, it feels like there are not enough hours in the day to get it all done.  Honestly, I have been ready to build an exit plan and try something else.

The questions have rattled my brain:  Why am I, why are we - doing this? Why are we doing this, this way?  I don’t want to spend eight hours a day studying.  I don’t want my children parked at a table all day studying.  Where is the creativity? The inspiration?  The love of learning?  This has been the running dialogue in my head for weeks.

My children are all very artistic and creative, but a couple struggle with mild to moderate dyslexia.  I’ve read a lot about learning styles and individualized plans to help work with the strengths of divergent learners.  I recently even explored a local educational option that works specifically with teens who “don’t fit the mold of standard school”. I was looking for something different, maybe even "easier", because what we are doing is very hard - for all of us.  We have never used “standard school” but the past three semesters of Classical Conversations have felt more school-ish than anything else we've ever done.  I joined primarily to find community and accountability for my oldest son.  We were planning for his senior year, and while he wanted to continue homeschooling, he also wanted something different for this final year.  It was a good experience.  He learned.  We all learned.

This year, however, I am also tutoring a Challenge II class - the equivalent of 10^th grade.  I have had to put in so much study time to support my tutoring that it leaves little time for the other study I’d really like to be doing. (namely, on nutrition, fitness, entrepreneurship, gardening).  I’ve become resentful of the time required to prepare for my job as tutor.  I want more time for my own stuff.  I’ve been whining.  At first just to myself.  Lately though, I’ve whined to my family and even to my students.  Not cool.

Then I ran a marathon.  

That day stands out as significant on many points. I will write a post on the other factors later.  The part that matters here though, is that running that marathon was a huge breakthrough for me physically and mentally.  Never in my life - ever - had anyone suggested to me that I might be a runner.  For me to run my first 5K was a departure from the normal course of my adult life.  The marathon took this to an entirely different level.  It taught me that setting a high goal matters more than I realized.  If I had never set the marathon goal, I never would have accomplished all the smaller goals I met in the process of training.  By putting that marathon goal out there, I had to dedicate time and attention to preparation.  Long hours of preparation.  Changes in schedule.  In lifestyle.  In priorities.  Somewhere along the course that day and over the hours following the race, I realized how the same training model relates to our family’s educational process.  If we don’t set high, difficult academic goals - we may not even meet the shorter smaller goals that we’d rather set.  Those long hours of study actually make me crave the physical work of running and cycling.  The study also makes me crave creative outlets of music, art and cuisine.  If I take away the challenge of study, do I risk losing the impetus for the other pursuits?  A change in expectation, by changing our curriculum may prove to be more compromising in the end.

I could say, I’ve come full circle and am ready to start fresh with CC.  Really, this was more than full circle, more like climbing a winding mountain road and having my perspective shift and change through the journey.  This exploration of intent and content has taken me to a more solid platform than just a mental do-over.  I have a high regard for the wisdom of those in CC who have gone before me as parents educating their children at home.  It is right for me to be attentive to their words, and to yield to this process of being both a parent/teacher to my own children and a tutor/mentor to the students in my class.   

 Some days, I haven’t even wanted to want to do well with school.  I’ve been that disheartened.  The desire has been rekindled now.  I am ready to submit to the work it will take to finish this year well.  Kind of like my marathon goals: don’t quit, don’t get hurt, finish strong... and smiling!

November 24, 2013  Finished smiling!