Giving is a theme in everyone’s lives right now with the horrifying disaster in Haiti.  It’s not a great time to be raising money for health related causes and yet, these diseases continue to plague us regardless of whatever else is going on in the world and we must continue to fight back.

I am participating once again in the ALS Spin-a-thon  but instead of just asking for money I’m holding a drawing!  I have some really fun stuff that I will be giving to some lucky donor.  This includes

1)  A Chico Bag from Levi Leipheimer’s Inaugural Gran Fondo (this is a sold out item, people – this is your ONLY chance to get one of these!!)

2). A cycling hat from Eleven Gear featuring the Republic of Anaerobia logo   

3). An Aluminum water bottle from Power Flex

4). A copy of  Bike Monkey Magazine, also from the Gran Fondo 

You can have a chance at this fabulous swag for a $5.00 donation!  YOU COULD BE TOTALLY ECO CHIC FOR 5 BUCKS!  How often do you get an offer like that, eh??

ALS is a nasty, pernicous, almost always fatal disesease that robs a person of his or her life inch by inch, month by month.  It is horrible and random and not all that common and therefore not something drug companies feel compelled to try to cure.  It’s up to us to raise the money and fund the research to help eradicate this awful disease.  That’s worth 5 bucks, don’t you think?

Here is a link to my fund raising page. It explains how the drawing will work.   The donation levels were set by active giving, not by me.  I’m happy with 5 bucks.  And for that you get 5 chances to win this cool stuff and the chance to help wipe out ALS.

Thanks!

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Last night  in my effort to find something on TV to keep me company while I caught up on Facebook I stumbled on a show on FitTV about Diana Nyad.  Diana was a world class ultra-swimmer.   She attempted at one time to swim from Cuba to Florida and was in the water for 42 hours, covering 90 miles before she had to give up.   She couldn’t repeat that trip because of Visa issues but she did manage to swim from Bimini to Florida successfully.  Makes 2.4 miles seem kind of easy but that wasn’t the best part of seeing that show.

At one time in her life she really wanted to represent the USA at the Olympics. Specifically she wanted to swim in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico when she was 18.  Sadly she had some setbacks including a sexual assault by an adult she knew that strained her emotionally and spiritually  and a cardiac infection that kept her out of the water for 8 months and sapped her fitness.  Those events conspired to keep  her from that goal and she approached her final swim meet in high school with a ‘why bother’ attitude – her dreams a pile of dust.  A friend of hers noticed how laden she looked and said, “look at the nail on your pinkie.  What does that represent as a fraction of the effort you use to swim a race?  Why not go into that race and push off as hard as you can and use every bit of your heart and gut and those muscles you’ve worked so hard to develop and swim as hard and fast as you can and when you get done don’t look to see if you are 1st or 8th, just close your eyes and close your fists and think about how you swam that race so hard you didn’t have a pinkie nail’s worth of effort left in you.”  And that’s what she did.   She came in 6th but it didn’t matter because she was all in on that race and she knew it.

Since then she has filled her life telling stories as a sports caster and she has done many things to inspire others.  She works with women over 40 trying to reclaim their lives and with veterans dealing with any number of  casualties and issues.  She’s done lots of things to inspire and enrich the lives of others.

At the end of the show she talked about how there is so much to do and so many people to help and so much to  experience that no one can do it all – you just can’t. But when her time comes she knows that she will close her eyes  and know that she lived her life  so that she couldn’t have done one pinkie nail more than she did.

And that, as it turns out, is my ‘reason’.    I also do a lot of  “things” – I’m a CASA volunteer (and just signed on to be a team leader and help other CASAs) and I’m on the BOD of my race club and I started the new triathlete program last year and will continue it next year and I “do” stuff; it’s who I am.  This  race and presumably my impending accomplishment in finishing it  is one of many things I am doing not to win, not to be the best, not make someone else  happy, not for glory or fame, but as another component of   living my life with every bit of spirit and effort and joy I can.

Thanks

Getting to a race like this is never a solo effort.

Thanks go to my Coach Tammy Metzer of Tempo Multisport who has taken me from a ‘no way I can do this’  nervous breakdown to feeling 100% confident in my ability to finish. I feel strong and I feel great and she got me here so thank you Coach Tammy!!

My kids have been a huge source of encouragement and inspiration.    That’s one of a bazillion reasons I love them so much and want to make them ever more proud of their Mama.

My friend Sharley took me under her wing and trained with me quite a bit over the last couple of months and it’s been great.  Kelby, too.  Both of them have been great at beating me into shape encouraging me to go a little harder and a little faster than I wanted to.  Dana and Maggs and Kat and Harold and Julie and Christy and Patrick  all get thanks for hours logged training together.  Kudos to Vali for endless cheering and excitement for me (but we really didn’t get much of a chance to train together – baby that knee!)  Chris and Monica are my forever coaches and Joe is my forever font of wisdom and calm.  Thank you to Dana and to Sharely for putting together send off/good luck gatherings for me and thanks to everyone who came – it meant the world. And it means the world to me to know that so very many people are watching me and rooting for me and sending their good vibes.

And on that note – LET’S RUMBLE!!!

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Sept 19-20

Saturday September 19 – no pictures. I ran 2 hours and felt reasonable (which is HUGE!) and then I went to visit my CASA kid.  If you haven’t read up on CASA please do and if you have any time in your life at all (as in your kids are grown and gone or you don’t have any) consider becoming a CASA – it’s  a very   important organization that does critical work.  You really can make a difference in the life of a foster child.  Enough said.

So here’s my run – yawn

Sunday was a great, great, day.  It was the day my new triathletes had been training for – the Tri for Real. I already wrote about this in great detail so here are the pics and a little video:

I didn’t race – I helped someone on the swim and then I ran up to the water station to cheer.  You can see me at about 7:00 in that video  but what you really want to do is start watching at about 6:20 so you can see our Tres Amigos de los Speedos who did the whole race ‘old school’ in their Speedos.   Words don’t do that justice.

Some of my fabulous Newbies

Aren’t those kits gorgeous?  I love our team kit.

After the race it was off to ride Mines Rd.  This was a pretty epic ride for me because I was with women in their 30s who are all much more fit and fabulous than I, it was hot, it was windy and we had to do some serious climbing.

We took pics at the junction

We finally got back to the park where we started and took cold, outdoor showers, washed and headed off to the Challenge  Weekend BBQ a mere 90 minutes late (for  2 hour party – oops).  Some certain people were very worried about me although I had spoken on the phone to others.  When I got there I did a little speech to congratulate my newbies and then they speeched me back and said all kinds of wonderful things that made me quiver and blush and then they gave me a present:

Reading the card

Do I look surprised! Like I'm going to cry? They gave me a Garmin 310XT and a gift certificate.

My fabulous Newbie Graduates

Sept 25-27

The Challenge Series  weekend was hard to beat but I managed to have another one that came quite close.  Summary – Bad Girls Book Club goes to the beach.  Friday afternoon  I drove over to Stinson  with a not Bad Girl (definitely a guy) from my club and we rode our bikes from Stinson Beach to Marshall and back and it was spectacular. Friday night was dedicated to hot tubbing, eating, drinking and for the rest of the group, Guitar Hero.  I was shot and went to bed.

Saturday I ran for 2 hours including running up the mountain.  Then we  had a massive brunch,  went to a sand sculpture event and then I hiked back up the mountain to take pictures, dragging a couple of bad girls with me.  I’m hoping they will forgive me any day now.  Saturday night we made a fabulous dinner and then played Guitar Hero.  Hysterical.  There was hot tubbing, too.  Sunday we kayaked and then we just played at the beach.  The weather was perfect.

Harold and me in Marshall, CA where the population equals the elevation (15 ft.) plus the speed limit (35)

People like to make sculptures on the beach all the time

We learned how to make sand balls from local artist Zach Pine (http://www.naturesculpture.com/) That is one of his

We made these sand balls

Taking Pictures on the Beach

Saturday Brunch of Cheesy Scrambled Eggs, beans, guacamole, sour cream, salsa, tortillas,bacon, cottage potatoes, fruit salad and mimosas. My hair is wet because I had already run for 2 hours. I really enjoyed that food!

Learning to make sand balls from Zach Pine http://www.naturesculpture.com/

Hiking up the Matt Davis Trail

Kayaking (those are my friends in the boat, not me)

I hiked back up here Saturday aftenoon because I saw this in the morning and just had to have a picture of it. It was further up the trail than I had remembered

I think the reason I skipped Monday Monday is obvious. I’m staying stuck in my weekends as long as I can.

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Saturday was long run day – I had to run 2 hours.  It was also a day when many members of my club race at the Back to School 5K or 10K and those not racing go out and volunteer.  Many of my New Triathlete Program people (NTP aka newbies) said they would volunteer and I really wanted to be there to see them the day before our big triathlon and just to be a part of it all.  I also really needed to go see my foster kid for whom I am an advocate through the Court Appointed Special Advocates program (check out the national site to see more).  This child lives hours from me so I had to allocate 2 hours to run and 5 hours of travel time plus the visit plus I had to be up at OMG:thirty on Sunday so I needed to get home early.  I couldn’t work out getting the race in (I guess I could have raced 10K and then run another hour but there aren’t any showers there and racing wasn’t on the plan) so I didn’t go and it felt sort of wrong but very right.  There are things in life that really are more important than triathlon and race clubs and foster kids in need of an anchor is definitely one of them.

My 2 hour run was fine – it felt good and that was exciting because the run and I have not been such good friends lately.  Score!

Sunday was the day of the race I’ve been training the Newbies for.  Most of them had already done a shorter sprint and some had even done an Olympic distance race but this was our big club event and I was so excited.  I didn’t race but I did do the swim with a woman who was very nervous about getting run over by the swim waves behind us (our club gets to go in the first wave en masse and there was quite a mass of us!).  I was there to defend her water space and help her stay calm and I did and she exited the water all in one piece.  After that I ran up to the bike course to cheer people on and then I headed up to the water station to cheer some more and pass out water. Turns out I positioned myself incorrectly and missed some people that way but it was fun.  Then I went down to the finish line to cheer everyone in.

I really wanted o stay and be at the award ceremony and just hang out and talk to everyone about their race  and I wish I had because NTP had people on the podium! How great is that??!!  Alas – I had a long ride on the plan so off I went with my 2 new BFFs and a friend of theirs.  It was a tough, long ride and it was hot and windy but it was great.  There was a moment when I was sure I couldn’t do it and I really worried about how I was going to get out of there but some cold water and a PayDay later and I was fine and rode strong – no problem.

Elevation from gpsvisualizer (top) and from MapMyRide (bottom)

That's it - you ride almost 40 miles and this is what is there

We got back to the park where our cars were right about the time the Challenge Weekend Celebration BBQ was starting but we were sweaty and gross and really needed to get cleaned up.  I had neglected to bring clean clothes but my BFFs had several outfits each with them as well as soap and shampoo and cream rinse so we all used the outdoor, cold water shower and cleaned up in our tri suits and then put clean clothes on (in the privacy of the ladies changing room) and finally, finally headed to the party arriving a mere 90 minutes late to a 2 hour party.  Great.

But it was great because I got a chance to say some words about my fabulous Newbies who stepped up and trained and made their dreams come true.  I’ve hatched a litter of tri-junkies and I couldn’t be happier about it.  I’m so proud of them and so very happy to have played a role in giving them a chance to do something they might not otherwise have done.  I said my words and I handed out a little memento to each of them and then they took the floor.  One of them read a whole story about how there is no “I” in  TEAM and about how great the program had been and how she had made friends and accomplished something wonderful.  Another woman gave a speech about me that made me blush and made me proud and made me feel loved  and then they gave me something to remember this inaugural season with – a Garmin 310XT and a $50 gift certificate to Forward Motion Store, our primary benefactor.  Wow – just wowl  *Channeling Sally Field* -“You LIKE me… right now.  You  LIKE me!”  I’m so humbled and so happy and so very jazzed about my new toy!  But I’m more jazzed that several of the newbies want to ban together to train for an Oly.  Success!

Looking forward, one of the things possibly on my plate is getting a slot for IM Canada when I race Oceanside.  Because it is so early in the year the carrot they dangle to athletes is the potential to get a slot at any of a couple of NA Sports M-dot races and Canada  is one of them (but shhh… don’t tell everyone about this because it’s kind of a secret, okay?).  I have several friends who are going to race and a few more racing Oceanside so they can get slots.  It’s a possibility but one I don’t think I’ll take because this weekend I figured out something really important about me.

My “moment” came when I realized that triathlon is a fundamentally self indulgent endeavor but I am not a fundamentally self indulgent person.  I spend a lot of time volunteering and giving to others because I like it and it makes me feel good.    I feel good about having become an athlete, too but the trade offs cause me stress. This weekend was a great example of that where I was torn between being with my race club and being with my foster kid and being with my race club and getting in my training.  I had to just take a deep breath and let it go but it was difficult.  It all worked out in the end but in the process it made me feel a little crazy.

I’d like to do the NTP next year again and I’d like to help organize this year’s newbies to train for an Oly and I’d like to train with them.  This year my direct participation in their training fell off because I signed up for Beach 2 Battleship and if I raced Canada I’d have a worse problem because it is in August and the training would consume my whole summer.    So again – the opportunity for conflict and stress is huge and I’m a ‘want it all’ kind of gal.  I’m a problem solver, too so here’s the solution:    I’m going to race Oceanside which means training up  a 70.3 on  March 27.  I’ve also decided that  I’m going to attend IM St. George in some capacity.  If I love 140.6 after B2B I might do a fund raiser and buy a community slot for 2010 (I’d pay my $550 and raise the rest) and attend IM  St. George as a participant.   If  I don’t want to do that I can just go be a Sherpa and then sign up for 2011 on-site.  Either way my IM training and season will be over in early May at the latest  and I can get on with the business of playing, training  newbies, and racing shorter distance races.  Brilliant and perfect and what a great Monday it’s been.

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Friday night I had date #2 with a man I like very much.  We hung out and drank a glass of wine at my house then we went and saw Frost/Nixon which was very good and then we went out to dinner and then we came back to my house and had a cup of tea.  Lovely.  I really enjoy his company.

Saturday I had a  fantastic bike ride with Forward Motion and in some ways I killed it.  I was still slower than most of the people (but not all) but I was faster than usual and it was one of those rides that left me feeling stronger and improved as a cyclist and that put a huge grin on my face.

Sunday I went on the most amazing, beautiful run on Angel Island with a friend.  The air was clear and crisp and cool but it was sunny and bright.  The trails there are mostly single track and there was a race but I was not a participant (since it got sold out).  We ended up inadvertently playing salmon and going against the crowd which mostly meant getting out of the way but that was okay because that was the uphill part.  Who doesn’t like to step off the trail and stand still frequently on the uphill climbs?  I was good with that.  Some other people from Forward Motion were running the race so we got to see them and hang out for a while.  Good times.

   When we got to the top of Angel Island  we were greeted with a panoramic, 3 bridge view of the entire Bay Area.  With no no bib and no concern at all about our  time we were free to just hang out there enjoying  the view for quite some time .

After the run my friend and I went to visit the new might-become-my-beau for a moment (does that count as a 3rd date?) and then we went out for a delicious  buritto followed by a drive back home with the top down on her convertible Mercedes.   The whole weekend was positively frabjous.

not her car but it might as well be

How  much can I complain when I have days like that?  Not too much.  Being unemployed is not a happy thing and the economy really and truly is in the toilet and will take quite some time to recover and that’s not a good thing but right about now I’m feeling like that’s the only not good thing in my life.  I have plenty enough resources to keep on keepin’ on for quite a while so color me  happy.

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The Holidays -This year the plan was to go to the East Coast and visit my sister and her family – a plan I liked very much.    However, because I was leaving town I felt no compulsion whatsoever to decorate my house.  Further complicating and alleviating my holiday season at the same time was our collective choice to exchange only handmade gifts.  This meant no Christmas shopping.  Don’t get me wrong – NOT having to scour a thousand stores in search of the perfect something to get someone even though I had no idea what that person needed or wanted was sheer bliss.  Not spending hundreds of dollars on tchotchkes to fill stockings with was equally exhilarating.  It did, however leave me feeling a little empty and not quite filled with the spirit of the holiday which I found quite surprising.

I did what I could to fix that by making gifts (wine charms) and making candied walnuts (to die for!) and eating the chocolate covered cookies the Good Doctor brought home from the office but still – something was missing.  And then it wasn’t.

Our travels to the East Coast went relatively well. I was excited to be flying from Oakland to Baltimore a then Providence because that’s practically direct!  Only the airplane in Oakland had to make a little stop in San Diego first.  Not so direct.  Oh well.   My son missed a connection and I was delayed 90 minutes but there quite a few people in Baltimore being told that the Southwest might be able to get them on a flight Christmas day.  This was on the 23rd.  I had no basis for complaint and my heart broke for these poor people. 

We finally arrived at my sisters at about 2 AM EST and the next day my Humbly Ann and her husband and their puppy arrived and Christmas was ON!  We spent 4 fabulous days eating, drinking, playing games, watching movies, cooking, baking, eating, hanging out and loving each other.  The holidays just don’t get any better than than.

Getting home seemed to take just about forever (Providence to Midway to ABQ to Oakland) but get there we did and the house was intact and I had Pookie with me so again – no complaints.

My Birthday- We left my sister’s on the 28th and the 29th was my 54th birthday.  I waited until just after midnight on Sunday to rifle my bag for the package my sister had put in there. It was a really beautiful beaded necklace from Roatan.  In the morning I celebrated  by going for a bike ride and climbing Mt. Diablo to the junction.  Because I had been off my bike for a couple of weeks and had only run 1 time in CT. my legs were fresh and not even a teeny bit sore.  I’m pretty sure that is the only time I’ve ever climbed that hill on fresh legs and I really enjoyed it.  The air was crystal clear and the view was spectacular.  You could see all the way to the Sierra.  I ended up spending the evening alone but then went to a birthday sister’s (we share the same birthday)  house for cake and she let me share blowing out the candles.

New Year’s Eve – I ended up going to a friend’s house for pecan pie, champagne and we watched Pride and Prejudice.  Low key but perfect.

Year End Wrap Up- 2008 was not a great year in many ways.  I only worked for 4 months and the economy just got worse and worse.  My family and I all enjoyed strong, good health, though and I’ve come to think of that as the thing against which I measure good or bad.  In that respect life was very, very good.  Also,  I had a great racing year, moving from a back of the pack athlete to a solidly middle of the pack athlete and I liked that.  I liked it a lot.  I failed to note my year end totals for mileage but I think it was about 2200 miles on the bike, 550  miles of running and 105 or so miles swimming.  Not too shabby.

The New Year- As I was swimming and riding and running over the last couple of days it occurred to me that tons of the people I saw had just dusted off their lazy asses to execute on yet another New Year’s promise of getting in shape whereas I was just continuing to do what I do.  And yes – I did revel in an overblown sense of superiority.  I don’t do that often so please – don’t harsh my holier-than-thou.  It was fun for a minute or 2.

 I’ve made 2 resolutions for this year:

1).  Get a job.  This make take a few more months but it WILL happen

2).  Get a boyfriend.   I’ve had 3 dates and have another one tomorrow night and a 2nd date on Friday with a man I rather like.  I guess I’ll have to do a seperate post about the dates if you are interested.

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Then I went to a ladies tea party given by a friend from masters.  She gives them once or twice a year and they are ever so refined and delicious.  We had tea and scones and gooseberry jam and little sandwiches and chocolate. Yum!  Saturday night the good doctor and I hung out and drank wine and yukked it up.  It’s so nice to have some company around the house.

Sunday was one of those days where I was busy without accomplishing much. My baby got home from college which was great.  Beyond that my main activity was to make a fancy dessert for the Forward Motion Race Club Holiday Party.  Last year I won the prize for best dessert and I was trying to defend my title.  The party was entertaining enough and the food was great but as though that wasn’t enough the club  awarded me a gift certificate to a restaurant for getting our website overhauled and up and running.  I felt so special!  And then I won 3rd prize in the dessert contest (there was way more competition this year) which turned out to be 2 pounds of delicious M-Dot Kona Coffee.  YES!  3rd place has never tasted so good.  If you have never tried this coffee I highly recommend it – it’s on special right now.

The only fly in the ointment this weekend is that the rains came.  Sunday  night it just poured!  Monday  my training partners and I arranged a garage, trainer session and of course, the sun was beaming but it was cold and the roads were wet and we just stuck with the plan (due at least in part to a lack of helmets).   We did 3 x 8 hard intervals. That means 8 minutes pedal to the metal and 3 minutes recovery.  We needed 4.  We switched it up each session by doing high cadence for 2 minutes followed by 2 minutes of big chain ring ‘climbing’.  It was HARD and it hurt so good.  At least no one got away from me and had to wait up – that was great!

So let it rain, baby!  I’ve got the heated pool with my masters group, the trainer rides with my race club, the runs in the rain or the dreadmill and I’ve got some tasty brew.  Sing it with me now… chestnuts roasting on an open fire…….

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So what’s five bucks to you? Coffee and a pastry? A beer or two? A burrito you don’t really need because you could just go home and make a decent dinner? Go ahead, do it! Just click here and drop 5 or 10 bucks for a really great cause. You will be SO happy you are a part of this fund. I promise.

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Don’t go out too fast …. and
It’s all about the shirt.

This weekend’s 20 miler gave me an opportunity to be reminded of both – one in a good way and one, not so much.

The race was the Clarksburg Country Run featuring several distances. I originally registered for the 20 mile race but had the option to change to the 5K, the 1/2 marathon or the 30K. My original thought was to do 20 miles as a testing ground to decide if I wanted to run the California International Marathon on Dec 6. I had pretty much decided against that so I thought I might switch to the 1/2 Marathon and go for a PR but then I decided to stick with the 20 miler because….. because… well just because.

I went up to the race with 3 other women from Forwad Motion including my training partners Dana and Maggs. The ride up was beautiful, winding along sloughs and vineyards. Lovely. We got our chips and bibs and then went for the shirt where we were pleasantly surprised by this:

Nike Shirt from Clarksburg 20 miler

It is a beautiful technical fabric shirt and when you fondle the fabric – like buttah. The shirt alone made the $40 entry fee well worth it.

This is in contrast to the shirt I got at the Folsom International Triathlon which has to be the fugliest race shirt I have ever gotten. It is cotton which makes it pretty useless to start with but check this out:

T-shirt from FIT '08

I have no idea what the artist had in mind there but that shirt did NOT make the $75 entry fee worth it. Fortunatly it was a great race and they had burritos afterward so it all worked out.

Back to Clarksburg, though – I started out with the idea that I would run 20, 10 minute miles. That was my plan and it was a good plan – a very good plan. I believe I could have done that, too. It isn’t what I did, though.

The day was perfect – sunny and about 60 degrees. I started out running with Dana and Maggs and we were pulling about a 9:05 – 9:10 pace. I knew that was all wrong and I decided I would drop back at the 5 mile marker – only I didn’t. I stayed with them. Then at 6 miles I said I would drop back and I sort of did but not by much. I was still quite close to them. In fact, by the time we got to the turn around I was only about 1/4 of a mile back but definitely losing steam.

I was happy, though because this run was non-stop pretty, taking us along country roads through vineyards with no traffic at all. I could see Mt. Diablo off in the distance, bumped up again a clear blue sky with a row of fluffy clouds marking the horizon. The view was a great distraction because I took the no-iPod rule seriously and had nothing else to keep my mind off the pain blossoming in my quads.

At the 1/2 marathon marker (and they did have one) I PR’d with a 2:06:30 and I was still okay – barely. By 15 miles I was toast and in pain and at 16 miles some women we had left in the dust at the start passed me. I was done for.

The last 4 miles were a walk/run death march but I made it – I finished in the official time of 3:26:20 for an overall pace of 10:19/mile. I was in serious pain and none too happy but whatever. Done, done.

This little race also served lunch which turned out to be ziti with canned sauce and salad made with iceburg lettuce mix but they did have fruit and water and it was clearly a community effort and I loved it.

Lesson learned once again. Do NOT go out too fast. It just doesn’t pay, particulary with me. I tend to run out of 02 and then I need to stop and let my muscles re-oxygenate and it takes time. Next time I race distance (which won’t be for a while) I’m going to take myself seriously and hold back. Hopefully I’ll get a great shirt out of it, too.

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Saturday’s Ride:

It wasn’t quite as hairy as that elevation chart makes it look but it was hard enough. I kept up with the group until we got to that little pointy thing right before the big climb. Then I just fell back and could not keep up. Toward the top a guy was nice enough to come back down to get me and let me suck off his back wheel until we caught up with my guardian angels Dana and Maggs. By then I was shot because although I had a bottle of Infinit on me it only had 300 calories in it and I was too busy keeping up to drink very often so by the time we got to the top of the climb, 35 miles into the ride I’d consumed a whopping 100 calories (on top of a bowl of oatmeal before I left the house). Not good. I was D.O.N.E after that ride. Shot.

Too bad I had already decided to run 18 miles on Sunday and committed to meeting Dana to do it. There was no turning back so we met at 8:00 and off we went. Just to show you how deceptive elevation charts are over distance this is what it looked like:

That run is fundamentally flat. You know you are going slightly down on the way out and slightly up on the way back but it’s really flat. We were doing great for the first 15 or 16 miles, constantly calling out 9:15! time to slow down as we checked our pace but by mile 16 I was done. I had to stop repeatedly and catch my breath but I refused to walk very much. Just can’t handle it. Running time was 3:09 for a 10:28 pace but reality was 3:35 for an almost 12 minute pace. That included stopping at Whole Foods to use the bathroom and stopping several times to fill water bottles.

But none of that is the interesting part of the story. The interesting part pertains to my performance at the Nike Women’s Half last weekend. As you may recall, I ran that race in 2:10:41 which is a very reasonable pace, particularly considering that the course looks like this:

Elevation Nike Women's 1/2

That elevation map counts – that’s a tough run.

Anyhow…. Wednesday night we had a board meeting for my race club and when I got there someone congratulated me on the race and said, “You’re a real runner now”. I fairly glowed with pride. Then on Sunday I went to a party of people from my race club and another guy, a man quite famous for busting ‘em off on everybody remarked, “You’re not slow any more”. Oh man. Oh man, oh man, oh man. That was so nice to hear.

And on the wings of my newly bloated ego I will keep training – for nothing. Because I can and because it works. I really does.

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The plan was for 2 of my friends from Forward Motion to arrive at Chez Moi at 4:30 so that we could head into the city and park out near the finish and take a bus to the start.  That went off without a hitch and when we got to Union Square we connected with our other friend from the Ladies Night Extravaganza

Fomo Foxes prepare to toe the line

Thou Shalt Not Show Crack!

But then I found her  – my friend Laughing Star who came out to cheer for me – yay! 

By then I had only about 4 miles to go which was good because my knees hurt.  I had already had a pain in my left shoulder and a stitch in my side that I just ran though and that went away.  Then the knees.  Then, with only 3 miles to go I got a very odd pain on the bottom of my foot that I can’t describe very well but I suppose if you stepped on a rock barefoot, just at the bottom of your 2 last toes on your right foot, really hard, it might feel like that.  Damnit!  I just kept running/limping, rolling my foot. I stopped for a second to see if my socks had bunched up but they hadn’t so I just ran. 

Nike Women's Marathon Finisher's Necklace

Here are the final numbers:

Final - out of 10,939 women over all; 851 in my AG

NWM 10K Splits and Positions

I’m happy with that.  It is a 19 minute PR from last year and a half marathon run at just (and I mean just) under a 10 minute mile  - what’s not to love about that? 

 Thanks to Bio Freeze, Ibuprofen and sleep my knee is much better today.  Speaking of thanks I’d like to offer a few shout outs to people who made this race special

1). Dana, Maggs, Sue and Julia.  Dana wasn’t there but we ran quite a few training miles together (with Maggs) so thanks to all of you for companionship and fun.

2).  Laughing Star for being there.  I was late to get her an email about our plans and yet – there she was!  And what a welcomed sight she was. She ran with me for a bit and then sent me off to finish strong. (I think it was an order and I took it very seriously).

3).  The SF Cheer Squad who always show up on the corner near the Marina Safeway – you guys rock!

4).  The lady in the hat that looked like a flying pig with wings that flapped when you tugged on the chin strap – loved it!

5).  The high school cheer leading squad in the park who chanted “Go Go Runners” over and over and over again while waving their pom poms – excellent.

6).  All of the volunteers – there were thousands.

7).  Nike and Tiffany and those fabulous massage students at the expo (especially Eddie)  and all the sponsors. You all make the Nike Women’s Marathon one of the most fun races in the country.

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I wanted to share with you what I got at the Expo. I had to go twice to do this. I got the stuff in the first picture on Thursday night when they had “Ladies Night” complete with wine and crackers and cheese. I thought it was crowded then but that was nothing compared to today when I returned to get my iPod engraved. The lines were very, very long and the swag was pretty much gone. Glad we went Thursday!

Nike Swag

I got a Bare Naked bag, 3x Bare Naked Granola, a fabulous bright orange towel which will be very handy at a tri (easier to find your spot), Luna Moons, 20% off Cole Hahn card (very handy when you are seriously in need of $300 flats), a mirror, Dove ‘poo and cream rinse and a card for a free Jamba Juice in San Francisco, sunscreen and chapstick. Not bad! I also got a chair massage by the smokin’ hot Eddie who did a really great job, a foot massage, a horrible manicure (but she was really cute and she’s only interested in hair, not nails) and of course, a glass of wine and some food. I also had a great time with my friends from FoMo.

Today I went back to get my iPod engraved and it has come my attention that a certain someone has a little too much influence on my thinking right now. You know who you are, Dana!

Engraved back of iPod

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10, 5, 14, 4, 2, 16, 5, 7, 28, 22

Notice a slight jump, there?  Oh my aching glutes – they were killing me.  I think it was the right thing to do, though because this is the most I’ve ever trained for a half so it should be good.  It also was the result of running with other people and holding their (faster than mine) pace AND talking.  That’s a new one.  The camaraderie,  the discovery of my ability to keep up, and being  sociable have been  great.

I was going to go for a group trail run on Sunday but the email about where to meet up never made it to the prospective participants (which is really too bad because this run involved going out  to breakfast afterward) so I went riding   instead.  I was so happy.  I love those Sunday rides – they are just the best.  The wind was horrendous but the day was clear and bright and the company was great and I had what felt like  one of the best rides of my life.  It was the fastest for those conditions, anyhow,  and that made me happy. 

In fact, these days my bike always makes me happy and that creates a sort of meta-emotional positive feedback loop of happiness because I used to fear my bike and I used to hate riding in the wind and the hills and although I claim no love of the wind I do love conquering the wind.  I love the way I feel after a hard ride.  I love seeing so much fantastic scenery in the course of a workout although admittedly I spent quite a bit of time focused on the wheel of the person in front of me which explains the speed.  I kept up… I tried.. I worked hard… I was not a total pain in the ass whiner who kept everyone back – I was a cyclist and I had a great time.

I think that will be my story of  this training  season   when the end of December comes and I, like everyone else, feels compelled to summarize.  Training more and training harder rule.  Perseverance furthers.

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This weekend I needed to run 12 miles in preparation for the Nike Half Marathon on Oct 18 – the one I have not trained for 1 bit.  As you may recall I ran almost 9 miles last Wednesday and could barely walk on Thursday.  I was doubtful about being able to force myself to run 12 solo so I went to the Nike group run and lined up with the 10:30 pace group. 

I had my earbuds for my iPod in my ears but didn’t even turn it on for 6 or 7 miles.  That’s what running in large group does.  It makes the miles tick by and the experience remarkably pleasurable.  The only reason I turned it on for the last part is because by then our tight knit group had sort of spread out and it was sort of a loose collection of people all running on the same path in the same direction and my legs were getting tired.  The last 3 miles were a bit of a challenge but in an effort to bring it to an end I picked up the pace and brought it home. 

Perhaps one of the best parts of running with the Nike group is that the Jamba Juice people were there at the finish, doling out cups of Jamba Juice. And there was Bare Naked granola and some baked potato chips and other tired, sweaty runners, all of us happy for having gone the distance.   

I feel okay today – not bad at all.  Tomorrow I swim with masters and then run about 9 with some friends.  If you don’t hear from me for a while after that you’ll know its because ramping up my running volume so fast has made my legs fall off.

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