Archive for November, 2008

Today was a blast. Nick and I drove through some scenic towns on the Delaware River (New Hope, Lambertsville area), stopped for a long, lazy brunch and wasted most of the day away.

We got home around 3:00 and I immediately jumped into my running gear because it had been raining all day and I was dying to test my new Hydrolite rain jacket! Two words: Love it! It did that weird bubbly, scabies thing I described a couple posts ago which amused me for a good span of time till the bubbles took over and blended into one surface.

It works! Comfortable, very light and breathable (albeit not the most attractive garment), it has a pocket on the side for folding into itself which came in handy for stowing my gloves mid-run. So yay! I’m all geared up for whatever Mother Nature doles out.

Right after the run, we went to the movies to see Slumdog Millionaire. It’s by the guy who made Trainspotting and dayum, this is one phenomenal flick. Twenty thumbs up if not more. Can’t stop thinking about it, it was that good.

In other news, the friend who was attacked is much better. She got out of ICU yesterday so we hung out with her yesterday evening, shooting the shit while she described the Percocet-created dancing onion rings she was seeing. She’s going to be fine and even has some sight in that one eye, with surgery still to come, so huge sigh of relief.

Three more weeks till my last race of the year, a final 5K. But now I’m wanting to race more so I’ve been scouting winter races and found a series called the Pickle Runs in a town about 35 minutes from Philly. It sounds like a blast involving prediction runs, choosing your course (5K, 7K or 4.5 trail) and of course, finding a pickle. And who wouldn’t want to spend the winter searching for a pickle? Not I, sweet friends…not I.

Last year I did this race and absolutely loved it.  It’s cheap ($15), you get to wait in the Fire Station with a real bathroom, the course is flat through residential streets and when it’s all over, you get a free hot breakfast at a restaurant across from the finish line.  Mucho Perks!

Conditions today were absolutely perfect, sunny and 39 degrees, not a trace of wind.  I did a little less than a mile warmup and had a moment of pre-race worry because the strides I included were slower than normal and seemed hard.  But I finally realized today that this is my pattern, it’s that way before all my races, so no sense in worrying about it again.

As far as goals go, I had secretly been thinking 22:30 for a dream goal, 22:40 would be wonderful and 22:55 would leave me satisfied happy.  All I wanted was to get out of the 23′s.

My time today? 22:14!  2nd place in my AG (lol, always the bridesmaid, never the bride).  That’s a 52-second PR from April and a 1:16 improvement over last year.  What a huge relief because I’ve secretly worried that my times had begun to stagnate some.  False alarm.

I’m not posting splits because my Garmin wasn’t in line with the race and I forgot to turn it off at the end (when will I learn?), so I was really running on effort, not the watch.  How lovely to find my mechanical crutch is playing a smaller and smaller role in my running.

Mentally, a big help was that Brain Training For Runners book I got.  There’s a section in it that talks about pain and being afraid of pain.  It gives you a few methods to deal with it and the one I used today was deciding to go into the race looking for pain, knowing it would come and seeing how far I could take it.  Wouldn’t you know, it ended up being one of the less painful races I’ve run.

And that’s it from Race Central.  Time to take a shower and become my alter ego, Sloth Girl.  Have a great weekend folks, may your runs be fast, fun and fabulous.

Hey folks, I hope you’re having a lazy running stuffing your face day today.

I’m feeling much better since my prior pity party post.  The proverbial glass is more than half-full today, I’d say it’s around 14/16ths.

Just had a great run 6@8:32.  Felt amazing.  There were lots of people walking around the park after the parade, smiling like crazy and enjoying the day.  Completely infectious.  Then I come home to Nick cutting up leeks and making the house smell great.  My job is to vacuum and wipe a few surfaces…I am so spoiled.

Anyway, I hope you Turkey Trotters out there leave me word of how great you did, I want to spread some applause around.

Happy Turkey Day all!

I thought twice about divulging the real goings-on this week, because they’re horrible and depressing, but it’s real life, so I don’t want to pretend it’s not happening.

The night before the Philly marathon, a good friend of mine was viciously attacked in her apartment by a teenaged boy whom she’d occasionally hired to do odd jobs around her house.

This boy tried to rape her without success, but there was a struggle and she ended up with multiple stab wounds and beaten so bad he chipped a vertebrae in her neck and she may lose an eye.

She was found Sunday morning by a guy walking his dog in the neighborhood.  He’d never walked that block before, but the kid had left the door ajar and when the dog went by the door, he stopped in front of it and wouldn’t budge.  Finally, the owner looked in and found my friend.  She was able to name the kid and the cops found the weapon between her house and the kid’s.

When the cops got to the kid’s house, his father said he was at the hospital with a hand wound, they went to the hospital and arrested him.  Turns out he had a prior sex-crime conviction.  He’s 17 or 15 years old. (the news reported 15, but we think he’s actually 17…either way, so young for such evil).

Now my friend is on a ventilator in ICU, unrecognizable, drifting in and out.  We’re not able to visit her for a few more days, and honestly, I’m glad.  I’m afraid to see her.  I can’t stop thinking about what happened and imagining what she went through.

When I’m not thinking about her, there is that pesky issue of my mother…this week is the second anniversary of her suicide (we’re not sure of the exact day).  I’m able to compartmentalize pretty well – I don’t dwell on it, but damn, way to have a fucked up holiday for years to come. Thanks, mom.

Then I call my Ex in Florida to tell him what happened to my friend (very small world, she used to be married to my Ex’s cousin) and he tells me his own story from the weekend.  Two high school boys from the fancy school where he works got in a fight Friday night and one stabbed the other dead.  Both were sweet kids. WTF?

If I wasn’t such a practical person, I’d probably get rid of all the knives in my house.  Seriously, it’s fucked up to have so many mental images for one stupid utensil.

Less horrific but hugely sad is that I found out yesterday another friend’s dog (a big kissable darling) has cancer so there’s nothing they can do for the sweetie but make her comfortable until she goes.  I have felt more for animals than many people, so it’s heartbreaking.

And to round out the week, I had a funky mammogram yesterday (I’ve had quirky ones in the past, so no huge surprise), but this time it’s funky for a different reason, and while there’s nothing to be freak about yet, it’s anxiety provoking to wait for next week’s appt and ultrasound.

So let’s just say, it’s a tough week.  Running helps with zoning out, but then all of sudden, like on today’s run, I’ll start thinking about how easy it’d be for a car to veer off the road and hit me, or look, there’s a scary guy, I’ll run faster by him, or envisioning things I have no business envisioning.  Just seems like we’re hanging by a tiny string sometimes.

Don’t worry though, I’m Debbie Downer for the day, but not enough to ask my Doc for antidepressants.  And being the eternal optimist, Thanksgiving is almost here and I have so much to be grateful for.  This week, my greatest blessing is living with a man who loves to cook the entire Thanksgiving meal by himself.  I don’t have to lift a finger.  What a great man.

I’m not going to open this post to comments, though I know you guys love me and would have put the sweetest replies, I just want to throw this shit out there, let it stick and get on with it.

Happy Holidays if I don’t get a new post in by Thursday.  Big love to you all and give a hug to everyone you care about.  It’s important.

Funny how I’m writing more about a race I didn’t even run, but there were 2 notable things I had forgotten.

1. While I was at mile 12ish, a kid (maybe 18?) hopped on the sidewalk and asked if I had a cell phone.  While he’s dialing, he tells me “This was too much, I’m stopping at the Half.”  Not sad, just matter of fact at finding himself out of his league, then I hear him on the phone, “Hey dad, I’m ok, everything’s fine, but I’m stopping early, can you pick me up?”.   When he hands the phone back he smiles and says before running off, “Now you have a running story.”  So cute!  But kid, do I got running stories…

2. There was a young woman who joined our cheering threesome for a while.  She was really nice, involved in our conversation and it was fun to have another person yelling out encouraging stuff – so it was a big surprise when, after about 25 minutes, she sees a marathoner she apparently had been waiting for.  As he runs by, she gets in step with him and is gone in a flash.  It was kinda cool, like “oh, there are runners all over the place.”

But enough race blab, let’s get to the current meat:

Today was an afternoon 8 w/3 tempo, avg tempo pace 7:42.  I went back and forth today on whether I’d bother with the tempo portion.  My 5K is Saturday and I don’t really need to do one (it’s not like it’s going to make a difference) but then I still have race #2 in December soooo…I went for the tempo after all.

As for the rest of the week, I’m doing a little less mileage (around 40) but no speed session.  Tomorrow’s an easy 7 and I hope it keeps raining so I can try my new Hydrolite jacket.  Funny how you want crappy weather when you get new apparel to fight it, and this jacket’s especially in need of a road test because it’s so weird.  I ran some water over the sleeve and the fabric bubbled up like it had scabies or something.  It was gross/cool.  But I digress…

Wednesday is 8 w/strides (5x200m), easy 7 on Thursday, off on Fri and then, race!

Now there’s something about 5Ks I’m not remembering…the distance? noooo…it’s on the tip of my…oh yeah! They make me want to die.

This should be interesting.

I had a great time today, starting early at Rocky where I handed Kat the emergency pace bands I promised to print and since I’m full-service, I remembered tape and scissors, too. Joe and Sub3 from the forums were there and when they left I met Paula (hi Paula) whom I didn’t know but admitted to reading this blog. Bless you, girl.

Dear Mattsky and his wife were around for the 8K, his first race since a long drawn out injury, but even though we were on the phone trying to locate each other “I’m by the tent” “which tent? I don’t see you”, I eventually gave up and wished him a great race, though I’m sure he was only a few feet away from me.

Went home for 1/2 hour then walked over to the river around miles 11-12 where I saw Sub3 zooming in with the speedy animals and soon after, Joe went flying by. It’s much easier to see super fast people because there are fewer runners around them. I did spot Kat a little later and probably would have missed her but she had her name taped to the front of her shirt.  I also saw Craig who I met at the Expo yesterday and he gave me a high-five, but that was it for that area of the course. I missed my other two BQ gals and a few more I was looking for, especially sad that I missed Progman since that’s why I was at mile 12 in the first place, he of the Half Marathon persuasion.

Standing around by myself, I felt silly yelling at strangers until I eventually got the crazies, pulled out my kazoo (the only noisy thing I had in the house) and started playing the Rocky Theme. Lots of laughs and “woohoos” so it was fun and I got all giggly happy at that point, eventually yelling out lots of encouraging stuff. It’s cool how people respond, I loved it.

Then I walked around to the 24.75 mark and found ShoreTurtle who was the Cowbell Man and such fun to hang with. My friend Craig (different Craig) joined up with us, too, so we had a solid cheering section, taking great delight in yelling people’s names or whatever they had on their shirts. I’ll definitely put my name on my shirt for the next marathon.

From that vantage point, I saw Joe again and then Kat (who I later learned fell splat on the pavement complete with road burns at mile 19 but got a BQ anyway, woohoo!) but missed Nina for the second time so I never saw her though I did see Judy who was looking great. I saw the back of Flyers26 (pointed out to me by ShoreTurtle) and missed seeing quite a few on my list entirely with all the whizzing by and not so familiar faces, so I was a little sad on that score.  Still, what a great way to spend a cold November morning.