A recap of the running challenge BAR held in May. What else are you doing to keep motivated with physical activity these days?

By Beau Seegmiller

Whether for health or just to achieve some mental clarity, runners run for many reasons. Of those reasons, the opportunity to face and overcome a challenge is one of them. Normally we will use a race to serve as a great focal point for our challenges. Given the nature of the COVID-19 pandemic and our efforts to stem its spread through canceling races and group runs, finding new challenges has itself become a challenge. 

Boise Area Runners are not known to sit back and let the global spread of a deadly virus stop them from setting goals and overcoming challenges to reach them. To celebrate this aspect of our runners, we held an “official” challenge event where participants created and shared their challenge, and how they overcame it. What follows are just a few of their stories.

For a number of our runners their challenge was about getting out into areas new to them. Molly Guenther shared, “True confession: I’ve lived in Boise for 3 years and never been to Bogus. Until today!” She biked to the top.  Duane Evans “decided to try to do a half marathon on the Lucky Peak loop. Ended up walking many of the steeper pitches but it was a beautiful day with amazing views.” Sara Fry ran a trifecta of completing three different new-to-her routes of varying distances with one up to 20 miles long. “I loved challenging myself to try to face the unknown!” 

For Ben Hipple this challenge was an opportunity to not only be creative but wax philosophical: “I did a triple virtual today! For my virtual run with the BAR, I went around the Payette Lake race course, except I did not race it, and I didn’t even run it, as I ran it virtually on my mountain bike. There is still snow on the road around North Beach,and the hill is as steep as ever, and nobody was at the finish line to cheer me on. So if you cross a finish line and nobody is there to cheer you on, then is it really a finish line? Something to ponder.”

Even though he is very new to the BAR, Leif Fredericks jumped in and completed a monster of a challenge: the 4x4x48. This feat involves running 4 miles at the top of every 4 hours for 48 hours. For the mathematically impaired, that means running 48 miles in two days with interrupted sleep! All of you ultra distance types should be feeling nothing but envy.

Corum Hughes decided to take this challenge as an opportunity to express or create art using a gps with his two feet. “I did a very Idaho half marathon this morning for my first try at Strava art. It was actually about 14 miles, but I had to pause the watch to get some extra lines not represented by streets. The actual 13.1 distance was serendipitous.”

Others just got out there and ran to discover that often the challenge finds us. Matty Leppell reports, “I couldn’t think of anything amazing so I just let my feet take me on a random run with no plan, it was relaxing-ish. I ended up running through a shin deep swamp, got stung by a bee in the palm of my hand, and randomly tripped when I stepped outside my front door to start my run giving the neighborhood a good laugh. #noregrets” 

What is the lesson we can take from all of this? Runners overcome their circumstances, whatever they are, and find a way to keep moving forward.

See you out on a run!

By: Alie Columbus

“Relax. Nothing is under control.”

Adi Da

This quote was shared with me recently by a dear friend. I have begun to make it my mantra as each week seems to bring a new set of accepted normallacies to our culture. Like many others, I have found more gratitude from the adjustments to daily life, short term goals, and long term goals as well. 

I had 2020 all figured out. I had registered and planned my year of races that would challenge me, help me grow, give time for recovery between, and then amp me back up to achieve the goal of the next one. Like most others in our running community, as races started to be canceled, I found myself feeling rebellious and wanting to create groups that would literally ‘run rogue.’ It didn’t take very long to realize that taking the pressure off such a packed year meant more time to work on myself in more important ways that I had been neglecting. Running was becoming a constant challenge of hitting goals I felt required of myself and I lost patience with my own healing, recovery, as well as the targeted growth. 

As a society, we are only into this shift in our lives a few weeks and I imagine we have a long way to go yet. However, every run I get out for, I am more grateful to be outside doing it. I appreciate the spring flowers along the trail side, the seasonal birds returning, and the shift in the air. I went to a favorite spot last weekend for a hilly trail loop and brought my running partner (think 4 paws, a waggy tail, and a tongue hanging out of his smile). I had been working on bettering his manners during runs off leash. But last weekend, I began to wonder if each run would be our last outside run together. I took a step back- both in his training and from my goals for him/us. I wanted us both to just share pure joy and gratitude for the day. 

Having some of those races canceled, allowed me to delve deeper into what brought me to running and what kept me there. I started running to support a friend and challenge myself a bit. I stayed running because it took me to places in and outside of myself that are very reflective  yet also an escape. I stayed running because of the community and friends made along the way. I stayed running because I love the challenge of doing something you never thought possible before. And mostly, I stayed running because the views are freakin’ phenomenal!!!

Finding quiet within and taking the opportunity to hang out with who should be my own best friend (myself) has been enlightening . Do I miss gathering for a meal with friends, running as a group on the greenbelt and trails, HUGS? Absolutely, I do. 

“Nothing is under control”. Isn’t it a relief to not have to strive to make that balance happen but, rather to let it happen?! It is amazing what happens when we accept and appreciate every moment. 

I wish everyone health inside and out and look forward to our time together again soon. Meanwhile, be strong within yourself, weak to lose your joy and hope, and balanced throughout. 

~Alie

By Sara Fry

Viewing the pandemic as a call to slow down and pay attention to the small things… because really the small things are big.

A friend mentioned that they hadn’t realized how over-scheduled they were until COVID-19 closed down all their 5- and 8-year-old’s sports. Suddenly they are home in the evenings, going on walks, playing games together, and eating relaxed meals as a family. Another friend feels like the pandemic is trying to remind humans of how out of sync we are with nature. Seeing photos of the canals in Venice clear for the first time in decades or satellite images showing reduced pollution brings that home and reminds me that the Earth can heal itself if we give it a chance. Slowing down – as a species and in our homes – feels like the perfect description of how I’ve adjusted my running goals.

The probable cancellation of my late-June marathon, Grandma’s Marathon in Minnesota,  and the lack of group runs with the BAR is making it easier to slow down and really pay attention to my body. I’d already decided to run/walk the marathon due to my Achilles tendon. I’m still building up my total time in case the race happens, and if it’s cancelled, I’ll still continue to build up – I’ll just skip the full distance and extra fatigue that comes with it! Getting up to a 20-mile run/walk will still feel like a huge accomplishment. 

Knowing the race may not happen has made it easier to stop focusing on the length of my run intervals. After reading about someone who ran an impressive PR run/walking with 1 mile run intervals followed by 30-steps of walking, I was working towards 1 mile run intervals. I was fine at 0.4, and each week I added 0.05 or 0.1 to my running interval. Somewhere between 0.5 and 0.6 miles, my Achilles started getting annoyed. Now, in contrast, I don’t use my watch to guide how long I run – I pay attention to how I feel. I also pay attention to the possible dog distractions up ahead (if you’ve ever met Emma at a BAR run, you know the threat is real!). If I see ducks or a dog, I start to run and I stop whenever I’m in the mood. The last time I saw my PT, he couldn’t believe how much progress I’d made after being in a stuck point for so long. Maybe I’d have gotten to this spot without knowing my race may be cancelled – but I kind of doubt it!

I know BAR friends have adjusted their running in surprising ways as well. For example, Glenna Toomey viewed the cancellation of the Eugene Half Marathon as an opportunity to get out on trails and reconnect with the joy of running. She ended up running more miles that week than she did when marathon training. Some are running more, others may be running less.

When I think about why I started running somewhat seriously close to three years ago, I wanted to get out and enjoy winter (which is a hard season for me) and have fun with Emma. As Emma has gotten older and Beau has gotten faster, my goal expanded to keep Emma fit and make it easier for Beau to do key runs and not have to be as concerned about helping get the dogs exercise. Slowing down and paying attention has helped me support Emma, too – who is having some arthritic pains that seem to have started just as COVID-19 swept across the US. I’m now keeping a training log for her so we can see if there is a sweet spot with the right mix of activity and rest.

As I look back, I see that I had doubts that I was going to be able to build up to marathon fitness safely given the pain I was having in my Achilles tendon. It’s strange to think that I may be better able to achieve my late-June running goal of being ready for a marathon distance because of slowing down and paying attention. Like Glenna “accidentally” ran higher mileage as she enjoyed the beauty of the foothills in spring and a slowing down from the cognitive demands of her challenging training plan, I am also achieving growth through changing my approach. 

I know we all look forward to a return to life as we knew it before the pandemic led to social distancing and a myriad of other changes to protect our communities, I hope we will all take some lessons with us. Slowing down (it’s a metaphor – you can still run fast!) and paying more attention to our needs, seems worthy of carrying forward.

I must keep reminding myself of this