Marathon Day

JAN BROGAN - Tomorrow is a big day in Massachusetts. Patriots Day. That is our celebration of Paul Revere riding through town and alerting everyone that the British were coming and, of course, the first shots of the Revolutionary War. 

 Once, I celebrated the holiday by actually going to the reenactment of the battle on the Lexington Green, which was followed by a fabulous brunch (Thanks Cynthia), but mostly I celebrate the way everyone else around here celebrates: By going to the Boston Marathon.

Yes, tomorrow is Marathon Day in Massachusetts, a holiday I hold dear to my heart because during college  I worked at the Eliot Lounge, formerly "the running bar."  I always made a lot of tips in Marathon Day and once I even often got free sneakers.

Today I'm going to celebrate Marathon Day at the blog by explaining how I used a running book to help me write.

Recently, I did an interview for the Boston Globe with Catharine Utzschneider, a professor of competitive performance at Boston College, running coach, and the author of MOVE!: How Women Can Achieve Athletic Goals at Any Age.  

Anyway, in our interview, she mentioned that a number of her  friends  had used her structured approach to motivation to tackle the marathon of writing a book. So I thought, okay, what the heck? I used to run. It's almost as grueling as writing. 

Turns out there are a number of really good suggestions that applied, including breaking goals into short term and long term goals, re-assessing, picking yourself up after injury, and keeping motived by enlisting the help of a buddy who will push you on days you don't want to be pushed.

I will talk about the two points that most helped me.

First  was keeping a "training" journal. I've  had a journal for  each novel I've written but it was mostly space to work out character traits or plot points. Now  I started a daily calendar journal - to keep track of how much time I was spending actually writing and where I was frittering time away.  It was illuminating. I frittered less than I thought, but certain projects took more time than I realized.

Most importantly though,  I  stumbled upon  a new trick to help fight my Internet/email addiction. (which, by the way, I learned last night at a panel discussion at Mass General Hospital, is considered a serious problem in China, so I have LOTS of company).

As part of keeping track of the where I'm spending my time, I forced myself to write down every time I check my email or the Internet.  And viola! It works the way keeping a journal about  how much food you eat keeps you from eating so much.  

In other words, it's really sort of embarrassing when you see in your own handwriting just how often you click on that MAIL icon in the corner. Shame is a really good incentive NOT TO DO IT.

My buddy Barbara also suggested jokingly that I award myself little gold stickers for every day I work uninterrupted for four hours. We laughed over that.  Little gold stickers - hah! -  like we used to give the kids

On the way home from the gym that day, I stopped at CVS.

It may not be as exalting as running through the finish line, but you might be surprised  how satisfying a little gold sticker can be!