Although I met fellow runner, Wanda, a year ago, I realized I knew nothing about how she got started running. Taking up running several years ago after breaking up with a boyfriend, Wanda wanted a “positive way of getting over him” so she decided to train for the LA Marathon. Since then, she’s run seven marathons and four half marathons, including four LA Marathons, the Disneyland Half Marathon, Long Beach Half Marathon, and the Nike Women’s Marathon that she considers her favorite. “It was damp and cool,” Wanda says as we run early Saturday morning, “of course getting that little Tiffany box by the Marine at the end helped.”
Joining the LA Leggers in 2010, Wanda is no stranger to group running after running with another club prior. “I like the group run because you meet friends like you (she means me), and it keeps you motivated. You share things. Solo running, I like because it’s you telling yourself get out of the way, go run, and once you finish no matter how it goes, you would’ve accomplished one thing.”
Wanda has even got her sister in on the action. “My sister is 75 years old and she did her first half marathon last year!” Wanda says proudly.
“[When running] I don’t have to think about anything. I just put one foot in front of the other and my mind is clear. All I try to do, sometimes you can’t, but I try to focus on my surroundings and how blessed I am to run, and meditate, I look at the ocean, all the beautiful homes.” But if there is anything she doesn’t like about running, it’s “pain.”
Music helps to take her mind off the long mileage and she listens to it pretty much during every long run. “I try to start off with Christian music when I first start just to set myself in a mode that a whole lot of people couldn’t be out here to run so give to thanks that I could run. Then I put it on some fast bike music, just good music like James Brown, Crusaders, or music I spin on that is fast.”
To fuel her for her long runs, Wanda tends to go with a runner’s staple. “Pasta, any kind, and a little piece of bread. I don’t think carbs are my friend so I take it easy on the carbs.” And during the run? “I may bring some wheat thins with peanut butter. Something like that gives me protein and carbs.”
Wanda also loves to complement her running by cross training. “I do spinning and I used to do weights religiously but I hurt my wrist first, and then I hurt my thumb, but I need to get back into it with light weights because truthfully, weight training does more for my body than running. It defines my body more than running.”
So what would she suggest to someone who is starting to run and getting into races? “Take it slow. Enjoy it. If you don’t enjoy it, you won’t stay with it. I’m not saying you’re going to be jumping up and down every time you’re going out to run but, you have a mindset that once I do this, no matter how I feel when I finish, you’re going to have a good feeling you did it.” Absolutely!
Thank you Wanda for the interview and I hope we have more Saturday morning runs to enjoy together!