The long and the short of it is, Asia is still running every day. In 2011 she ran in 12 races, including 3 half-marathons, the Martian Half, the Dexter-Ann Arbor Half, and the Brooksie Way Half. She continued to say that she didn't want to run another full marathon, and was pretty adamant about it. She didn't enjoy her last marathon at all, and we supported her decision. Then on September 6 I received an email from Ben Fesasaiga, President of Train 4 Autism in California. He asked about Asia's running schedule for the coming year and casually mentioned that if Asia was interested, he would like to invite her to run on the T4A team in the Los Angeles Marathon on March 18, 2012. (Yeah, right, I thought. She'll never do it.) But I promised to mention it to her.
I was pleasantly surprised when the first words out of her mouth were NOT an emphatic NO! She asked excellent questions. Will Coach make me a schedule? Who will run the long runs with me? Who will run the race with me? (Marathons are the only races in which Asia has a dedicated running partner.) She said she’d think about it. The fact that she didn’t reply with an outright, emphatic NO is testament to how much she likes the Train 4 Autism people she’s met so far.
Several days later, more questions. Would she get to see Ben and Molly and meet Sam’s son? Where would we stay? Would we fly out there? She said she was still thinking about it.
Two weeks later we were at the hotel the night before the Brooksie Way Half-Marathon. We were about to settle down for the night, when Asia asked, “ Mom, are there any Chinese restaurants in LA?” That’s when I knew she was hooked. “Yes, honey,” I replied. “There are many Chinese restaurants, and about any other kind you can think of, in LA.” “Any all-you-can-eat buffet restaurants, mom?” Me: “Oh, I’ll bet we could find a few.” “OK,” she said. “I’ll go.”
Asia’s coach, Kathleen Gina, developed a training schedule for her which started in October, to gradually increase her miles to 60 per week. In non-training periods Asia runs 5 miles a day, every day. She uses her internal clock to tell her when she’s run 5 miles. Her training schedule called for many days of more than 5 miles. Since she typically runs before we get home from work, we decided to set a timer based on the # of miles x her usual speed. She clips on the timer before going out to run and comes in when it goes off.
As soon as we had the training schedule in place I sent out an email to Asia's teams, both the new one and those from the old team that I thought would want to help. Starting in January there were 8 weeks of 10 mile runs in the middle of the week. And there were 5 weekends of *back-to-back* 10 mile runs on Saturday and Sunday. We immediately got responses from Ashley, Claudio, Aaron, Eric, Katie, Gwen and Erin. Aaron offered for Asia to run on Wednesdays with him and Michael and the others offered to pick up some of the Sunday 10 milers. We had a plan in place. I printed a calendar for Asia with her miles for each day and who she was running with.
Angie, Asia, and Ashley
Eric and Asia
We are now in the 60-mile per week period, which will last until the week before the marathon. If regular practice miles didn't match what Asia needed for the day Doug, Vanessa, Erin, Maureen and other members have come in an hour early on Saturdays. Rich has stayed late on Tuesdays to make sure Asia gets her miles in for those days. Most Wednesdays since the first of January Asia has run with Aaron and Michael. Kumi met us in Ann Arbor last Thursday for an evening 10 mile run with Asia. Ashley, Eric, and Katie have filled in all the Sunday slots. And one Sunday, Meg's sister-in-law Angie was in town and ran with Asia and Ashley. If it takes a village to raise a child, then it's taking the commitment of a dedicated Coach, a supportive team, and wonderful friends to get Asia to the Marathon.
Stay tuned.....now that I'm back into writing, there will be more news to follow as we all go thru this Marathon journey.
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