Bittersweet Symphony

2011-08-03T11:13:00.002-04:00

The other day Margaret mentioned to me that she was amusing herself during a bit of downtime in her lab by reading old blog posts of mine. So naturally I delved into the archives to revisit them as well. Yikes! I had forgotten how dramatic and angsty everything was in college, likely exacerbated by the fact that I lived on really terrible caf food, Mountain Dew, and Easy Mac, and got practically no sleep. How did I find the time to write all of that?

Sometimes I feel jealous of the college students I see daily, but I guess I have the antidote for that now--reread the old blog. Then again, the college students here (at least, the ones I see) seem to have copious amounts of leisure time. I guess I never see them in class or in the library, so my perception is of them strolling around downtown, hanging off apartment balconies, and playing cornhole in their front yards.

Oh well...I'd say things are better now. I like not being stressed out. And this morning, my final student loan payment was processed, giving me this lovely, lovely sight:

No, I'd have to say life is pretty good.

Another really funny thing about going back through some of those old blog entries was how my to-be-read list has swollen over the years. Back in 2006 I complained that it was 45 books. IF ONLY. It's 118 now, and that's not including books in unfinished series (like A Song of Ice and Fire). So if George R. R. Martin ever finishes his series, I'll add them all to my list. Luckily I don't have to worry about that for probably a decade. I know that since the beginning of 2008 I've read about 150 books, so it's not like I'm standing still! I just add them faster than I can take them away.

So long, student loans!

2011-07-29T11:52:00.000-04:00

On my fridge, I have an old one-panel comic clipping (from back in the day when I received a physical newspaper). It shows two very elderly people toasting the fact that they've finally paid off their student loans. At times, it really did feel like I would be 90 years old before the darn thing was finally paid off. (Then I got a mortgage, but that's another story.)

As it turns out, with persistence and a willingness to funnel my extra pennies into that loan over the years, I'm thrilled to say that I've paid off my student loan. It took me about five years--the same five years that we spent saving for and buying a house. Here's how I did it.

1. I worked my ass off in high school, earning good grades and doing tons of extracurricular stuff. This enabled me to get my pick of two colleges offering very good scholarship packages, meaning that although I chose to go to a private liberal arts college, I didn't have to take out exhorbitant loans in order for my family to afford it.

2. While not exhorbitant, the amount was still daunting. With my loans for grad school, it added up to more than I was making during the first year I was out of school and working. I looked up average loan amounts before writing this entry, and my amount when I started was a couple of K over this year's average. I'm not sure what the average was back in 2006. For my last semester of grad school, I opted not to take out any additional loans at all. I lived on ramen, worked tons of overtime, and at one point had only $20 in my checking account, but I was able to pay the tuition bill myself and squeak through.

3. I found a job during grad school that could be part-time when I needed it to be to work in around my classes, but that could give me seasonal full-time hours and time-and-a-half overtime hours during school breaks. No health insurance since I was technically part-time, but see #6.

4. Those were frugal times, but in general I live a fairly spare lifestyle. I don't give a crap about shoes and handbags. I wear clothes from Target until they wear out. I cut my own hair. I rarely eat out. I carpool or bike to work. And I've never carried any credit card debt. Also, my parents are awesome and bought me a used car when my hand-me-down Bonneville from my grandparents was worn out. I partially, but not completely, paid them back for it. They also paid for our wedding (for which I kept the expenses pretty modest).

5. I was lucky enough to consolidate my loans at a time when the rates were really low. I further lowered the rate by enrolling in auto pay and by paying my first 12 payments on time.

6. I am lucky enough to be in good health. I've had one medical incident that necessitated an ambulance trip and exhausted my high insurance deductible at the time. That was a blow, but I was able to cover it, barely. Besides that, I've never needed to deal with insane medical bills. I am also lucky enough to have only been laid off once, and to have found another job within a reasonable amount of time.

7. Especially during the first few years, I made extra payments whenever I could. This didn't happen as much while we were hardcore saving for our house down payment, but even in the past year, when we've been concentrating much more on extra payments to the mortgage, I've been putting aside bits here and there to pay down the dwindling student loan.

8. After five years in the workforce, I make about 10K more per year than when I started. I think the habit of living a fairly spare lifestyle is well ingrained. I spend a fair amount on my biggest hobby (running)--but even those expenses can be kept on the modest side by training more and racing less, and by mostly doing races close to home. My other big hobby (reading) is very cheap indeed, thanks to libraries and PaperbackSwap.

I guess that's about it. Now to celebrate--by increasing my IRA contributions. Oh, the exciting life I lead!

We didn't die!

2011-07-25T10:57:00.000-04:00

Well, Indiana Jones was wrong about them dying in Temple of Doom, and his animated gif was wrong about us dying in the Red Eye Relay. I did hit the wall after 16 of my 19 miles, but I did finish, even if it wasn't a pretty sight. In fact, during my first two legs (7 and 6 miles, respectively), I felt surprisingly good. I had done one run at 6 miles and one at 7 in the past month, and those were the extent of my "long" runs, so I really can't complain.

The pace was way better than I thought I'd manage--9:40 for the first leg, 9:13 for the second leg. The last leg was okay for about the first half--I want to say around 9:15-9:30 pace, and then I simply hit the wall. Even with walking up the hill on Boltinghouse, I was still averaging 10 minutes per mile at the top, but I was finished after that. I don't know my final time because I didn't stop my watch when I finished. I'm not concerned about it--I eked out a WAY better performance than I thought I was capable of, especially with the excessive heat warning. In the end, all I promised to do was physically cover the distance, so I think I surpassed that!

Mark ran as well--he had a total of about 14 miles and ran all three of his legs solidly, despite the fact that he's been running even less than me.

Should you ever run this relay, I highly recommend TRAINING FOR IT. It's far more fun and you notice the hills far less--meaning you can enjoy the beautiful scenery and camaraderie of your teammates that much more.

Here's a few pictures from my first leg, taken by my teammate Maggie:

At this time (about 8:00 p.m.), the air temperature was still 88 degrees and the dewpoint 72. I don't remember the heat index, but I probably don't want to know. The people running earlier in the rotation certainly had it much worse, and in many cases, had much less shade.

So what now? A few days off from running, for sure. Maybe more, but I'm so annoyed with myself for doing this while undertrained that I might be motivated to get back into regular running. I'll play it by ear, as usual.

More than we bargained for, indeed

2011-07-21T17:08:00.000-04:00

For the fifth year in a row, I'm running the 100-mile Red Eye Relay on Saturday and Sunday. This is the last running commitment on my calendar right now and I'm feeling less and less like adding any more in the foreseeable future. Maybe it's partly this heat, but my running motivation is once again at low ebb. I'm content to let it grow when it grows. I'd say it's perennial and will be back.

My team this year is one of the BARA (Bloomington Area Runners' Association) teams. We're fielding several teams, all with BARA in the name. Ours is More Than We BARA-gained For. This is an appropriate name! For one thing, I was originally slated to run about 10 miles total, which, even with the hills, is pretty manageable. But then I was switched to a position totaling 19.5 miles. Oops. And then there's the heat. Of course it's always hot in July. You expect 90-degree days and oppressive humidity and even become more or less acclimated. But this "excessive heat warning" is something else. With heat indices reaching past 110 degrees through Saturday evening...it's going to be interesting. Our start time is 4 p.m., so we'll be right in the teeth of it. SO: I'm running 19.5 miles, which is more than I've been running per week, in the space of about 14 hours. Even after dark, the temps will still be in the 80s and the humidity ridiculous. Oh, and there's the hills, which are...substantial.

Hopefully I'll still like running when this is over. :)

More painting...and a vacation

2011-07-12T17:12:00.000-04:00

We have been in Wells, Maine, for the past week. If there is a perfect place on earth, it might be Wells, Maine, in the summer. You sit on the beach, where it is not too hot or not too cold (unless you like swimming, in which case, it might be too cold). You read with the soothing sounds of waves, seabirds, and children's laughter in the background. When you're hungry, you stop by the lobster pound and get awesome seafood. Not just lobsters, but swordfish, scallops, clam chowder, steamers, etc. Coming as I do from the Midwest, I don't eat a lot of seafood, but it's different here. It's what's for dinner, literally, and it's amazing. If you want to be more active, there's kayaking and tons of other boating- or swimming-related activities, not to mention biking and hiking if you prefer dry land. And of course, there's always the simply joy of a morning or evening run on the beach. When it's time to go to sleep, it's nice and cool. If you're lucky enough to be renting a place near the shore, you can fall asleep to the sound of waves. It simply can't be beat.

So that's what I've been doing. Polished off the last three books of the Harry Potter series (rereads) in about a week's time. Upped my post-injury distance PR to 6 miles. Went kayaking on the ocean and didn't tip. Tasted swordfish (of Perfect Storm fame) for the first time. Talk about good times!

Just before left, we finished the bulk of the painting in our house. I still have rooms to straighten and pictures to take, but here's what our bedroom looks like with a coat of purple paint on the walls.

I was really scrambling for us to finish the painting (at least the bulk of it) before we left for Maine, because I knew that when we got back, the last thing we would feel like doing would be to pick up a paintbrush. And predictably, I am SO FRAKKING GLAD that it's done. We got home late-ish on Sunday night, and were able to just slide into a made-up bed in a clean room with freshly painted walls, which really does wonders.

So far this week, I've been able to muster the motivation to do little more than sit on the couch and watch Harry Potter movies to lead up to the release of the final movie on Friday. But last night I pulled in a great harvest from the garden, mostly zucchini. It's amazing to see my efforts finally paying off. I also discovered that I apparently have several volunteer acorn squash plants (!?!?). NO complaints here!

Goodbye, wallpaper.

2011-06-26T12:49:00.003-04:00

We woke up to rain last weekend, so although I had been hoping to do some more planting that day, I cast about for an indoor project. Lying in bed and thinking, my eyes fell on our ucky dark green-and-white-striped wallpaper. Hey I know! Let's strip wallpaper!

We had wallpaper in three rooms: the master bedroom, the living room, and the dining room. We also had chair rails in almost every room. The living room, for example, had striped wallpaper on the bottom and dark burgundy paint on the top. Just not my style. Time for it to go!

Let's just say that wasn't exactly my favorite home project. The important thing is, however, that except for one wall in the bedroom, we've cleared it all off. Hurrah. And since we had the furniture all shifted, we thought--why not go ahead and paint? So we did. Without more ado, here are some before-and-afters:

Living room before

Living room after

Dining room before

Dining room after

I've never masked my distaste for the wallpaper in the bedroom, but the wallpaper in the living room and dining room wasn't so bad. It wasn't really my style, but it was okay and fine to live with for a while as we worked on other projects.

But now, with a nice soft avocado green on the walls, the space feels more open and airy. It's really a vast improvement. Now I just need to get stuff on the walls!!

Happy Anniversary.

2011-06-14T19:18:00.002-04:00

Today, just one day later than our two-year anniversary, we met up by the garden where we got married and got a quick picture to celebrate.

We have been very busy around the house lately. I have mainly been working in the garden. Maintaining the vegetable garden, yes, but also clearing and planting other beds as well. I put in a little corner flower bed in the front yard to pump up the curb appeal--I only hope the Anonymous Yard Critic approves.

The main undertaking, however, was starting a bed in the corner of the backyard near our den. This corner has come a long way in the year or so since we moved in.

This isn't that exact spot, but this is about what that corner looked like when we moved in.

Here it is last fall as we prepared to install the fence.

And here it is today, with the fence complete, a brick border around the flower bed, and a hydrangea, Japanese painted ferns, and hostas planted.

The ground cover in that area was some sort of invasive vine with more roots than you can imagine. I've dug at least most of them out part of the bed, with about a third of it still to go. But at least progress has been made and I finally got to put in some plants! In years to come, those ferns and hostas will fill in, and the hydrangea will get much bigger. I'll also add in some bulbs, like daffodils or something.

I've also (suprise) done some rearranging inside the house. We moved the guestroom to the south side of the house, made the southeast corner bedroom into an office/library/reading room, and I did a bit of work in the sunroom, which has probably been the most neglected room in the house.

Praying Lauren Spierer is found.

2011-06-09T12:53:00.000-04:00

Like many in Bloomington, I have been closely following the news about the disappearance of Lauren Spierer, a 20-year-old IU student, from the downtown area late last week. The reason it's hit me so hard is that the area from which she disappeared is right next to where I work. The spot where she was last seen is one block away and her apartment (her destination, which she never made it to) is two blocks away. At least I'm not obliged to work a ton of overtime here and stay until crazy hours, right?! I should also point out that my employer takes employee safety seriously. Many people park in a lot across the street and they recently put up security cameras covering that area.

But back to Lauren; the spot where she was last seen is on one my running routes (albeit not one that I've done often since moving to the east side). I drove into town from the west side in the early mornings or after dark and ran there because, well, I thought it was safer. That is what's getting a lot of people, I think--the fact that she vanished from the heart of Bloomington. No matter the time of day--it's a well-lit area surrounded by residential buildings. It's terrifying to think that it's not safe to walk three blocks along College Avenue in Bloomington.

I haven't yet joined any of the organized search parties, but I did take Rudy and spend some time looking around in the wooded area near my house. Luckily, or not luckily, no sign of her there. I'm just praying that somehow she is found safe and sound, even as the chances of that diminish.

Scrabble by candlelight.

2011-05-28T07:44:00.003-04:00

While Bloomington didn't get hit nearly as hard as Alabama or Missouri by the weather so far this spring, we did get our share of storm damage. Here at casa Addonizio, we lucked out with zero damage. No trees or heavy limbs down, not a leaf of the vegetable garden harmed, and no damage to the house. Our power was out for two days, but that's just an inconvenience, and seeing as how we have a gas stove and a gas water heater, a pretty minor one.

We've never had much trouble entertaining ourselves without electricity. There are always books to read, and we have a tradition that dates back to my childhood: Scrabble.

This game happened while it was still light out, but the candles were broken out shortly after. Being without electricity can be kind of fun in a way (except for having to throw out most of the food in the refrigerator), but we were very glad to come home from work on Wednesday and find the power back on. Of course, we came home Wednesday in the midst of a tornado warning. The sirens went off almost half a dozen times before midnight, so we spent a good bit of time in our makeshift storm shelter, which is a cupboard under the stairs, Harry Potter style.

It's a little cramped in there, but we lack a basement, so it's about the best we can do. There's also a first-floor half bath that would work well, but it's not any bigger. We make the best of it will blankets and pillows. Rudy was having a fine time!

We have lucked out big time with Rudy when it comes to storms. Many dogs get stressed and even destructive over storms, but Rudy is like the honey badger of dogs during a storm (for once)--he just doesn't give a shit.

Meanwhile, I'm pacing around, looking out the windows

and hoping a tree doesn't fall on us.

We emerged unscathed, but we were very lucky. Bloomington took some heavy damage from the storms, especially campus and on the west side:

They've now confirmed that it was a tornado, and not just high winds, that struck out on the west side of town. Please keep these people in your thoughts and prayers as I am!

I give you...the vegetable garden.

2011-05-21T22:48:00.000-04:00

At last, the vegetable garden is done. I can sit back and enjoy the fruits of my labor. Ooookay, not really. The vegetable garden is only beginning and I still have plenty of work to do before I get any fruits. But, the plants are all outside, the fence is up and secure, and the mulch is spread.

I think some before-and-after pictures are in order. So without further ado, here are before pictures of the front of the house (from last summer):

And here's what it looks like today:

Here is a view of the front yard from the sunroom (again from last summer):

And today:

I have lots of peas, carrots, broccoli, tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, and herbs planted. I also planted a few melon plants and even some habaneros and jalapenos (for Mark). I've left space for more--the farmers' market and the nurseries are bursting with vegetable plants, so if I see anything cool in the next couple of weeks, I'll be able to put those in as well.

So now I just wait, weed, and water. And hope everything grows!

To the anonymous lawn critic: You asked for it.

2011-05-19T23:16:00.001-04:00

Over the past six weeks, as Bloomington has gotten record-shattering amounts of rain and we've been scrambling to work on the backyard lawn and the vegetable garden in any spare time/good weather we have, our front lawn has been, to put it nicely, neglected.

But today, we were fired up. We were going to get a quick run in and then head home and tackle that lawn. It would be tamed!! But first, we checked the mail. Among the usual junk, I found an envelope addressed to "Resident" at our address. No return address. I opened it and found a nastygram about how our lawn needs to be mown or the city of Bloomington might fine us.

No signature, of course. Allow me to emphasize that this letter was not just dropped in our mailbox. It was mailed. Using a stamp. Bloomington's local mail is not processed locally--it travels to Indy, then back to Bloomington. So this anonymous lawn critic not only spent $0.44 to send us this letter, but this thing traveled 100 miles round-trip to arrive in our mailbox. I can only conclude that the author was afraid to risk approaching our mailbox in person, fearing that his or her cover might be blown.

Now, let me explain why I'm angry. It's not about being admonished to mow the lawn. We deserve to be admonished! The lawn is pretty much a disgrace. We chose to focus on other parts of our yard this spring, and this was the price. It's weedy and and patches of it have gotten quite long. It definitely didn't look good, and I don't blame the neighbors for being upset.

Here's why I'm angry. The tone of the letter was condescending and officious, for one thing. It reminded me of an Internet forum--you'll say all kinds of things when protected by anonymity, but face to face? Doubtful. Why couldn't this person, if he or she was so worried about property values, simply knock on the door and ask nicely? Then I could have nicely explained how sorry we are that the lawn got out of hand, that we've been extremely busy working on other parts of the house and yard (not to mention working full-time), and that we'll get it taken care of as soon as possible. People in this neighborhood have otherwise been unfailingly nice, and have watched us working diligently on the vegetable garden for weeks now. It bothers me that someone is so concerned about someone else's yard that he or she absolutely MUST act, yet is too much of a coward to actually confront the problem and resorts to a nasty letter.

So there was only one thing to do.

And now, my response:

Dear Anonymous Lawn Critic,

You seem to require a refresher course in basic English. First off, polite people open letters with what we call a salutation. See above for an example of a salutation. Now then. Your first sentence is a question, and therefore requires a question mark at the end. See, you're just getting off to a bad start all around here. Good communication is very important when you're trying to persuade someone to do something--in this case, mowing the lawn. It's even more important when you're trying to convince an editor to do something.

Your tone is not appropriate for a persuasive piece. The first sentence was okay (please is the magic word!), but the second sentence takes on a condescending tone that implies that the reader is lazy and waiting for someone else to take care of the lawn. I am in fact aware that I no longer live in an apartment; I'm not sure if it was using our life savings for the down payment or the fact that no one else lives in the same building that tipped me off first, but somewhere along the line I figured it out. Thanks for your help though.

Throughout your attempt at a persuasive piece, you rely heavily on the passive voice. This is indicative of weak writing and should be avoided. Then again, it does seem to fit your personality.

Lastly, you should invest in a dictionary. Convents are where nuns live. I'm pretty sure we have none in our neighborhood and if we did, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't care about my lawn. I think the word you want is covenant, another word for agreement. I notice you didn't bother to include any sources backing up your claims, such as links to city codes and neighborhood rules, which is another big no-no when it comes to persuasive writing.

Well, Anonymous Lawn Critic, you certainly have a lot of room for improvement. Your piece wasn't very persuasive. In fact, we were sorely tempted to decorate our yard with a rusted out car on cinder blocks and maybe some beer cans. Luckily we are nice people and as planned, we did work on our lawn this evening after work. It's not all done yet, but rest assured that we'll finish over the weekend.

Sincerely,
Miranda Addonizio

P.S. That was called a closing. Another thing your letter lacks. Just saying.

Sad news.

2011-05-13T14:37:00.001-04:00

Spring is such a time of hope and life that getting any bad news is especially hard. Early this week I learned that my grandfather had gone into hospice, and it was only two days after that when he passed away, peacefully, in his sleep. He was 93.

I have a lot of good memories that I'm revisiting this week. We lived close to my grandparents as I grew up, so I spent many days playing in their huge yard, which included lots of trees and even a creek. Grandpa and Grandma spent their summers for many years in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. One summer (I was in third grade) we had our vacation there in their cabin. Some of my most vivid memories are of that summer. I remember the first full day we were there, Grandpa took us on a hike up a mountain close by and I found a horseshoe in the path that I got to take home and keep. It hung above my bedroom door for years.

One of my favorite memories of him is when he sat down to help me write my salutatorian speech for my high school graduation. He was a charter member of the New Albany Toastmasters, so he knew his stuff when it came to public speaking. I was still nervous as all get-out for that speech, but it would have been worse without his help.

Grandpa is a veteran of World War II. He fought in the infantry in Germany and France and earned a Bronze Star for his heroism. He didn't talk about those days often, but I remember one story about how he and his division were in a castle in Germany and he was nearly killed by a shell. Scary stuff!

The memorial service to celebrate his life will be, aptly, on Memorial Day weekend.

Patrick Byrum Higdon, 1917-2011

Farewell, Boston shoes.

2011-05-11T11:11:00.002-04:00

~~One of~~ The only good thing about being injured, perhaps, is that it does save some money in the shoe and race fee department. (Unless of course you've already registered for said races. Drat!) But shoes are still there for you when you're ready to run again. With injuries and other factors having come into play over the past year, I am only now saying goodbye to the shoes that pounded their soles into the roads from Hopkinton to Boston last year.

Their final voyage came last night on a recovery run just longer than two miles. I have to say, even two miles, which last year would barely have counted as a run, feel amazing right now. (Amazing as in sweaty, huffing puffing, hard work, with the heat the way it is this week.) It's such a blessing to be able to do ANY running. I'm not the only one glad to be back on the roads.

Rudy has given me many mournful looks over the winter and early spring as the Boston shoes lay dormant. Now when we go for our short jaunts, for the first quarter mile or, he gallops at full speed (or tries to--it's like a football player resistance exercise with me as the dead weight). He calms down soon and we run as normal, but I'm sure we look pretty comical to the neighbors.

It seems a little silly to feel so sentimental about a pair of shoes, but having missed Boston this year because of injury and with the outlook on going back hazy, I'm treasuring memories of last year. And retiring the shoes that took me through the race represents the severing of a link. Now they will enter the rotation of gardening shoes, an occupation no less honorable and, increasingly, just as important to my sanity.

But, as always, I must look ahead. Right now I feel like I'm starting from scratch, but I'm hopeful that I'll regain my fitness over the summer. Taking shape as a possibility for this year is the Tecumseh Trail Marathon in early December. I think my only goal for it would be for it to NOT be my slowest marathon ever. So, anything under 5:09. That seems like the doable-yet-challenging, post-injury type of goal that I can get behind.

The first Saturday in May.

2011-05-08T23:35:00.002-04:00

It's that magical time of year when Indianapolis puts on its massive half-marathon (35,000 participants), Louisville its venerable horse race, and IU its graduation ceremonies. As has become our tradition even when neither of us are running in the mini, Mark and I drove up to Indy to cheer for our many friends who are running. We brought Rudy along this time. Rudy considered us boring and just wanted to run.

Afterwards we went to a graduation party where there was a baked potato bar. Rachel, I'll say it again: GENIUS. Congrats Rachel! And then we watched the Derby, in which I followed my tradition of picking a horse based solely on its name. Pants on Fire!! He didn't pan out, unfortunately, but congrats to Animal Kingdom. Your name is also pretty good.

Along with these weekend exploits, we managed to fit in some garden time. This giant hulking tree stump is out of the picture now:

We are making good progress. I think everything will be ready for me to plant my indoor starts in about a week's time.

Quick running update:

I'm running. Not a lot, but it's better than none. I'm up to four miles now, and no twinges from the knee. The achiness that I noticed when I first started up again has faded. I'm still going to be taking it very gradually, but I'm very hopeful now that I've got the injury beat.

Rearrange this.

2011-05-05T09:30:00.000-04:00

I think that somehow, in the back of my mind, I believe that one day I will be "finished" with the house. Everything will be in its right place and I can sit back and, um, live in it. Of course, I do know better. If if we reach the end of our list of projects, there's always rearranging.

It's a sickness, really. I'll tinker with the placement of furniture in a room and be completely happy with it--then, a month or two later, I'll walk in and inspiration will strike. "Mark!" I will shout. "Can you help me move the sectional again?" Mark is used to it, but that doesn't stop the eye-rolling. We've moved the mammoth sectional three or four times since August. It is so big that we have to move it through the sunroom, the yard, and the sliding glass door into the den because the doorways and halls between the living room and the den are too narrow. Mark still likes me, I think.

The good thing is, I think this experimentation produces better results. I don't think we'll be moving the sectional again (cue Mark: "Hurrah!"). But the bug persists. Yesterday, I got the idea that since the treadmill now lives downstairs, the room we had thought would be the exercise room could now be a sort of library/office. It's the largest bedroom in the house and is located on the southeast corner, meaning it has two windows and gets more light than any other room. We were going to put all of our exercise and running gear in there because of its size--we have a lot of exercise and running gear. But now it could be our sunny, bright office/library type place! Very exciting! (Do you see how I have a problem?)

Yesterday on my lunch break, I rode home to let Rudy out and decided to move some things around. I ended up moving the old TV and the elliptical into our bedroom, leaving the sunny corner room open for other things. Like desks! And books! More moving to happen soon! I am pretty much over moving between residences, but rearranging furniture? I might never quit.

On a side note, I've read before that having a TV (or not) in the bedroom is quite the point of contention. We haven't done so in years, but I like the idea. We often end our evenings with a movie. It would be nice to wash up for the night and get into bed for the movie, so we can just turn over and fall asleep when it's over. And the TV can double as entertainment while cross-training. Win!

Then and now.

2011-05-02T12:25:00.000-04:00

Receiving the news of Osama bin Laden's death last night brought a rush of feelings. Some of them were gladness and relief. But mostly I felt heartsick anew at the sheer amount of loss. And also a little scared at the hornets' nest that could be stirred up. I'm looking ahead to the flight to Boston we have coming up in July as part of our trip to Maine and I can't help but feel a little apprehensive about it.

I've been reflecting a lot on the parallels between these two events, since they form bookends in a way. The parallels are interesting, and so are the differences. A lot has changed since then. Ten years ago, I was a college student, I suppose just beginning to come of age. Now, I'm a homeowner with a husband and a dog.

I'm sure no one who was capable of memory on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, will ever forget where they were and what they were doing when the news broke of the attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. I was asleep. It was the second day of classes at Knox College, and I had arranged my schedule in such a way that I could sleep in on Tuesday mornings before going to my campus work-study job in the library, and then classes in the afternoon. So I was awakened by our dorm room phone ringing. My roommate Margaret answered. It was our friend Eric. He didn't tell us what was happening. He just said to turn on the TV.

The same snapshot-in-time feeling may occur again with this news. It was a rainy Sunday night, and Mark and I had settled in on the couch, watching reruns of the Joss Whedon show Angel on Netflix. Rudy was snoozing with his head on my lap. We were feeling worn out but content after a productive weekend of gardening and other work around the house. I had Facebook open on my laptop, but hadn't checked it in a few hours. We were a few minutes away from turning in for the night. My cell phone trilled its text message song. It was Margaret--telling me to turn on the TV. Now, ever since 9/11, those words have held a bit of forboding for me. Watching that disaster unfold on the suite TV of my dorm had changed everything. Evil, truly evil things can happen, and sometimes they can't be stopped. And all we can do is watch. And cry.

I couldn't turn on the TV because we don't have TV service (Netflix and Hulu serve all our needs). But I immediately turned to Facebook. Someone would have linked a news story or posted the basic gist of the story in his or her status. That was the quickest way to find out what was going on. Someone had posted "Justice for 9/11!" Another said, "Ding dong the witch is dead." I narrated to Mark: "I think they got bin Laden! Wait...bin Laden is DEAD." Mark found a stream of Obama's live announcement.

Those two moments are going to live on for me. In college, Facebook was unheard of. I didn't have a cell phone. We got the news on a landline. We watched the towers collapse on a regular TV. So much has changed--but it still feels like it just happened, because those feelings of pain still feel so raw. I didn't lose any loved ones on that day, but the pain was still there. (I can't imagine the pain if I had lost someone.) All that fear and death and hatred, realized in the least abstract way possible: smoke, fire, blood, twisted steel. And this news changes nothing. It still hurts. Part of my realization has been that yes, it's been a long time, and I've changed, and the world has changed, but it's that moment, the moment we realized what was happening on that Tuesday morning, that remains the defining moment. Yes, I'm glad, and yes, I'm relieved. And I don't diminish the import of what our military and intelligence accomplished. But you won't see me cheering.

A sunny day does wonders.

2011-04-30T18:24:00.001-04:00

After three weekends in a row of rainy weather, we were very much looking forward to this sunny Saturday. We had a long list of things to do. In fact, it started on Friday night with a Straight No Chaser show at the IU Auditorium. This was the IU student group with an appearance by the Atlantic Records version. It was fun! We didn't want to drive the car or fool with parking, so we rode our bikes to the auditorium. I think we got the best parking of anyone there.

We have the appropriate front and rear lights equipped on our bikes, so riding back after dark was no problem.

Today, we got up early and drove about a mile to a sale of compost bins and rain barrels that I had heard about. In fact, my employer, Solution Tree, had just held a chili cook-off in order to raise money to buy a compost bin and a rain barrel for company use from the same vendor. The deal looked so good that I decided to take advantage as well. I got two rain barrels and decided to also go for a compost bin. We have a compost bin already, but this one is bigger and opens into the ground for better drainage and faster decomposition. It top-loads and then there's a door at the bottom for the finished compost. I set that up first.

Then the first rain barrel. This one is in the front of the house, and will be right in what will soon be my vegetable garden. I'm very excited about this. I plan to use the water mainly for gardening.

We also rode down to the farmer's market and got a few things (local asparagus yummmm), but most of the rest of the day was spent working on the vegetable garden. We've made good progress on it, but it's been a lot of work. We keep getting wrenches thrown at us, like this:

That is, a large leftover tree stump from when the previous owners cut down a tree next to the house but didn't remove the stump. It's pretty sizeable--the severed trunk is a good eight inches in diameter. I'm taking a break and Mark is still out working on it...he seems to have declared it his nemesis. Meanwhile, I went ahead and planted a row each of snap peas and carrots. In another couple of weeks, after our last average frost date, I'll transplant the seedlings that I started back in March (tomatoes, broccoli, green peppers, etc.). I had hoped to get more done today, but considering that tree stump I'm happy. It's supposed to rain more tomorrow, but hopefully we'll have this garden completely ready to plant soon.

The dreadmill.

2011-04-28T20:43:00.001-04:00

So, do you know what sucks?

You thought I was going to say, "Running on a treadmill."

And it does, much of the time. But that's not what I going to say. What really sucks is moving a treadmill. Treadmills? Are heavy. Dreadfully heavily. Not to mention wider than our doorways. We had grand dreams of making one of the spare bedrooms an exercise room. Unfortunately, that's up a flight of stairs (narrow) and through two doorways (also narrow). After more thought, we chose the den as the new home of the treadmill, its main qualification being that it's the first room you get to when you come inside the house from the garage, which is where the delivery guys put the box.

Actually, it'll work out well, and probably better than the upstairs bedroom. The den is on the north side of the house and is much cooler in the summer...no direct sunlight at all, ever. The weight can rest directly on the concrete slab foundation instead of on the floor upstairs, and there won't be any loud treadmill noises in the next room should one of us decide to get a run in early in the morning while the other still wants to sleep. I think if we'd really wanted to, we could have found a way to get it up there, but those considerations were a great help in allowing us to be lazy!

Speaking of lazy, we got the deck into place and then gave up for the day. We'll assemble it over the weekend. Isn't it funny how lazy we are considering that we're talking about a machine (which took us some time to save up for) that is solely for the purpose of exercise?

Folded up treadmill...or downhill workout from hell?

On the plus side, putting the treadmill in the corner of the den forced me to move my desk, which forced me to clean it, which it sorely needed. Now it makes me look like I'm organized.

Meanwhile, Mark is busy playing Portal 2.

Who am I kidding?

2011-04-27T16:35:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure why I thought that trying to maintain two blogs was a good idea when I clearly can't maintain even one. So I've combined them and I think, in the end, that Bittersweet Symphony just isn't going to be a "running blog" anymore. It'll be one more regular blog o' life, about, well, life, our house, our dog, the garden, reading, and yes, RUNNING.

Updates:

Running: Since I last posted about running, I haven't done much of it. I had my knee looked at by a doctor, who couldn't actually find the problem in an X-ray. Since I'm still in insurance limbo, I haven't pursued it further. I took two full weeks off, then started back up, still hoping to slog through Boston. Unfortunately, it was a no-go, and the knee pain came back. So, I bailed on Boston (ow) and took a full six weeks off. Then I started up again with very short runs (~2 miles). That was about a week and a half ago, and so far, I've had no pain. It was achy at first, which I'm told is normal. I'll inch the distance and frequency of the runs back up very gradually. I'm also going to have to bail on the Bayshore Marathon, but my hope is to be in shape again for the Red Eye Relay at the end of July.
Life: Bailing on Boston does have a silver lining. Now I have vacation time and a Southwest Airlines credit that I can use toward returning to Maine for our family vacation in July. Hurrah!
House: Our latest purchase was (drumroll) a treadmill. This will go along with our less recently purchased elliptical machine (which has seen a lot of use lately because of my injury). Having a "built-in" exercise area has been great for us. We have our old TV set up in the same room. With so little running, and so much rain, let's just say I'm getting caught up on my Joss Whedon. We're thinking our next major project (which will take us some months to save up for) will be to be replace the grungy carpet downstairs with hardwood flooring).
Most of my energy lately has been channeled toward the yard--replanting our backyard lawn, and preparing a space for a vegetable garden. It's been hard to get much done outside in the past few weeks because of the amount of rain our region has received (more than 10 inches in April, a record).

I guess that's about it for now. More coming soon, I hope!

Me again!

2011-02-25T10:51:00.000-05:00

Please know that I am fully aware of how sucky a blogger I am. Running just hasn't been happening for me so much lately, and I can't seem to get the engine to catch. When I left off in November, I was starting to come out of the nightmarish busy season at work, which completely derailed my running and also other essential things such as sleeping and eating. By the new year, I was sort of back on track, but in late January, I injured my knee and have basically been rehabbing it since then. The good news is, I have a new job. It's amazing how much better life is when you don't hate your job.

Most people who follow the world of running will have heard the news that the BAA has revamped the registration procedures for the 2012 Boston Marathon, and tightened the qualifying standards for 2013. This does not give me much hope for returning to Boston after 2011, so I feel quite a lot of motivation to somehow complete the race this year, even though I've barely been able to train. With less than eight weeks to go, I'm very torn about the best course of action. I am confident that I will eventually get back to Boston, but it could be years.

I think this course of action is good for Boston. Initially I was bummed because it didn't seem so good for me, but now I am starting to feel like it is good for me after all. Those months and years in which I was focused on my goal of qualifying for Boston were good for me--I was in great shape and happy from all that running. After I qualified, I set a new goal and trained hard to get it, but it just left me feeling burned out and unmotivated. This gives me something new to aim for. I don't think it's possible to run a 3:40 this spring to try for Boston 2012, but possibly this fall I could shoot for a 3:35 for 2013. The only annoying this is that 3:35 might not be good enough. It would be nice to know what the real number is; I guess the running world will know more about that this fall when the BAA holds the registration for next year. I have the suspicion that I'll need to get that 3:30 or better after all just to get a berth.

If only I could run...

Still here!

2011-02-25T09:25:00.000-05:00

It's been ages since I've posted, I know. I'm bad about that. Basically my job ate my life and I couldn't take it anymore, so I got a new one, which has been a vast improvement. But even with all that, we've still been hard at work on the house.

Here's a recap of the projects we've tackled:

The kitchen: Mostly finished now, but we still have to drywall over the hole in the ceiling where the fluorescent light panel used to be. Mark's parents as well as his older brother and his partner came down from Michigan to help us with the bulk of the painting, and we had an electrician in to redo the lighting.
The yard: We built a DIY fence out of premade 6' x 8' panels. My parents came up to help out with that. It was very hard work, but endlessly rewarding--we're enjoying playing out in the yard with Rudy, and also appreciate being able to simply let him out in the yard to do his business on colder mornings. The next phase of that project is to reseed the decimated lawn.
Furniture: We did finally receive our tax credit, and along with the fence, a healthy extra mortgage payment toward the principle, and a shot of life into our savings, we bought some furniture: a sectional couch, a loveseat, some chairs, end tables, a coffee table, a seven-piece dining set, and a three-piece set for the dining nook.
Curtains: More to do here, but we put in some nicer-looking curtain rods and an insulated linen panel for the glass door in the den.
The exercise room: We had been saving toward buying a treadmill to support our running habit, but when I injured my knee in January, it became more important to have a convenient means of cross training. So instead we went for a combination bike and elliptical trainer, which is now saving my sanity by allowing me to work out. It was nowhere near as costly as a treadmill, but it does set our treadmill dream back a bit.

So that's quite a healthy amount of improvements in less than a year's time. We've definitely plateaued a bit since the tax credit money ran out, but we still have plenty more we'd like to do in the near future:

Garden: Besides reseeding the back lawn, I'd like to really get the garden going this spring. I'd like a vegetable/herb garden, and also some flowers and shrubs just to look nice. I barely know where start there. But a bed here, a few plants there--whatever I do, it'll be better than the bare dirt and weed-choked beds I have now!
Painting: Strip the wallpaper from the master bedroom, the living room, and the dining room, and paint throughout the house.
Floor: Get rid of the carpet in the living room and den, and replace with a hardwood floor. This is not so much a near future thing--we have to save for a while to get this done.
Treadmill: I don't much like running on treadmills, but sometimes they are great--for hill workouts and speedwork and also for running after dark (although running with Rudy has partly removed that as an issue for me). Mark actually prefers to run on the treadmill.

I'll try to post again soon with some pictures.

What Now? Syndrome: The aftermatch and new beginnings, I hope

2010-11-08T17:30:00.000-05:00

Anyone who has read this blog for a while has probably come to expect long silences, but seriously, I have got to be the worst blogger ever!

In my defense: I was basically gone for the month of July--vacation in Maine, wedding in Iowa, Red Eye Relay, etc. Then we adopted this guy:

Then it was super hot and I couldn't motivate myself to run. Then the busy season at work started. It's still not quite over, but I have some breathing space now. Running has been completely derailed. For a lot of that time, I just didn't WANT to run. Even with Rudy, the new pup, who at 1.5 years of age is a bundle of energy and loves to run, I just wasn't getting out there very often. Then when the desire started to come back, I began to spend all my waking hours working. I ran only a handful of times in October, and November didn't get off to a great start either.

Now I WANT to run and just CAN'T, many days. I stare hungrily at people running while I'm driving to work. I ran my tune-up half (which was to be a NYQ attempt) in 1:49. I switched my fall marathon (which was to be a sub-3:30 attempt) to the half, and ran it in 1:58 (which is pretty good considering I wasn't sure if I could finish!). I just want to be (relatively) fast again. I miss that pleasant tired feeling (it has been replaced with unpleasant mental exhaustion). The only PR I set in the latter half of this year is that for working the most hours in one day (17). I know that 2010 isn't over, but, well, as far as running is concerned, it is and GOOD RIDDANCE.

I shouldn't complain. I do have a job (actually I have about three; I just get paid for one--ha), I have a wonderful husband and a rambunctious pup who makes our lives...interesting, I have a great house to which we did a ton of work this summer and fall (I hope to update the house blog with photos soon). But life just feels empty without running, without post-run brunches, and without raw, sweat-stung patches of chafe on my chest and legs. My brain feels like it's in a fog, and I know it's not JUST from lack of sleep and subsisting on coffee and junk food.

I think I suffered from What Now? Syndrome after Boston, as well as plain old burnout. It reminds me of the beginning of my running renaissance back in 2006-2007, when I had to remind myself that this is supposed to be FUN.

So here's a good thing: I am registered for Boston 2011. Goals? No idea. I don't know what's realistic at this point. I need to see how fast my fitness comes back once I actually get into running again. I am thinking either 3:30 (probably not), 3:40 (re-BQ--or at least until they lower the standards--gulp), or 3:50 (course PR). Boston is going to be fun--we'll have a bit of a Bloomington contingent going next year.

For now, I just need to run run run, and hope I can find time to do it.

A new addition to the family.

2010-08-04T22:14:00.000-04:00

So, after a tremendously busy July (vacation to Maine, wedding in Iowa, and a 100-mile overnight relay race, along with mundane things like work and housework/yardwork), I am finally back and ready to tackle some house projects!

We could have bought a new loveseat or chair for the living room during July, but instead, we brought home this guy:

We have been wanting to get a dog for some time, and now that our busy July is over and the rest of the summer/fall are relatively quiet, it seemed like the perfect time. Meet Rudy! He is a 13-month old German shepherd/border collie mix who we brought home from the animal shelter just over a week ago. He's a wonderful boy, just as rambunctious as you would expect from a guy who's barely over being a puppy. He's quite good around people, but very reactive around other dogs, something we need to work on. I don't know if he's scared or just wants to play, but it involves lots of barking.

Other than that though, he's really a remarkable guy. Loves to run (which suits me just fine!), and learns very quickly. We've already taught him Sit, Lie Down, Off, and Roll Over. I'm working on Look at Me, and also to give us some sort of signal when he wants to go out. I want to teach him Speak for that, but it's hard because he almost never barks (only when there's another dog in sight!).

He's certainly not without his problems, though. Besides the dog-reactivity issue, he is a dedicated chewer, tends to nip or "mouth" us (like a bite but gentle...still, not a good thing to encourage), and likes to jump on people. Normal puppy habits that he's hanging on to. Considering that he came in as a stray and has been through Lord knows what in his short life, and has only been with us a week, he's doing extremely well.

Rudy has certainly been keeping us busy, but we are still looking forward to our kitchen makeover. Today we ordered the cabinet hardware. This weekend we'll be getting paint and other supplies. We've decided on a lovely soft shade of light green for the cabinets, and it's looking like a soft golden-yellow for the breakfast nook wall (it was between that and a light blue-gray, but we decided we wanted a warmer, brighter kitchen). Can't wait to post before-and-after photos!

I have joined the cult

2010-06-29T19:05:00.000-04:00

The Garmin cult, that is. Thanks to my friend Rex from running group, who recently upgraded his Forerunner 305 to the shiny new 405, I am the proud new owner of a GPS watch. (Or, I should say, the use of a GPS watch--if he ever needs it back, back it goes, of course!)

It's been interesting to pore over the heart rate readings, something I've never gotten into before. I still need to read up a little more on HR zones and whatnot, but I'm on my way. It's especially nice to be able to just turn and run down any little side road or alley without having to worry about remembering the route later to map. I'm delving a bit into SportTracks also. I'm sure there are still many features I haven't even scratched the surface of yet. I love how behind the times I am.

I started marathon training, more or less. I've decided to pursue my "no speedwork" idea. I've been doing lots of 5Ks and this morning I did some hill reps on a long, steep hill, but just at regular pace, not like real hill reps. But other than that it's been LSD all the way. So far, so good: This past weekend I ran a 21:49 at a very hilly 5K. We determined the course was ever so slightly short, but it was still a comparable time to the flat 21:57 I ran two weeks before. Now I have to find a flat 5K, but the next month will be so busy that I probably won't be able to race another until August. So it'll be interesting to see what happens next time I race.

A kitchen makeover in the offing.

2010-06-28T17:18:00.000-04:00

We are putting a lot of house projects and furniture purchases off until we get our tax credit, but we do have a few things we'd like to accomplish sooner. When my in-laws (Joan and Mike) offered to pitch in on a weekend project when they come to visit in August, we narrowed down our projects to a few possibilities:

Kitchen makeover. Although maybe one day, in some sunny, distant future in which we have lots of extra cash and time on our hands, we'd love to completely redo the kitchen with new countertops, cabinets, appliances, etc., in reality there's absolutely nothing wrong with what we have now. But one issue we're having is that the place seems very dark all the time, partly due to the fact that both windows face the shady backyard. So for now, painting the dark wood cabinets a lighter color is our solution.
Garden touch-up. The garden undeniably needs some help. Lots of weeds and unknown stuff to take out and replace with some nice, friendly perennials. I have more ambitious plans, but in the near future I just want to replace the existing weedy flowerbeds with something more pleasing.
Sunroom floor redo. We ripped up a corner of the carpet to reveal what appears to be concrete. After reading about the possibilities for staining or painting a concrete sunroom floor on this blog, we immediately adopted it as one of our near future to-dos.
Wallpaper removal/painting. The living and dining rooms need serious help. The wallpaper choices are better in these two rooms than in the master bedroom, but I'm just not a wallpaper fan. I am looking forward to having a clean, uniform look to the walls. The master bedroom, even though it is worse, can wait.

So, after throwing different ideas around, our frontrunner for the August project is...the kitchen cabinets. We decided to concentrate mostly on indoor projects to help prepare the house to receive Thanksgiving guests, so it makes sense that the kitchen would receive some attention. The dining room is the obvious next choice. Hurry up, tax credit!

Here is a current picture of the kitchen.

Actually the camera's flash makes it look better than it is. See, everything's perfectly good! Just imagine that it's a little dimmer than this and you'll have our issue. I think a few coats of a nice light green, as well as new hardware, will do wonders. At least I hope it will. Here is my inspiration:

Picture courtesy of Better Homes and Gardens.

I especially noticed that the floor looks similar to ours, and that the green works not only with silvery/gray stainless steel, but also with yellowish/tan shades as well. We don't have stainless steel appliances now, but we might someday. We thought about painting the cabinets white, but with with the white tiles and off-white counters, we worried it would be a bit much. Another idea that I am really digging about this picture is the open cabinets. We might try removing the doors from one of the cabinets and storing all the pretty things there for show. Thanks a MILLION to Steph for sending me this link! Steph also gave us the idea of doing a bi-color thing with the cabinets, which we are definitely considering.

The only other thing to figure out is what color should the wall be in the breakfast nook? Very little actual wall in the kitchen itself, but we might give the breakfast nook a new coat of paint while we're at it. Needs some more thought, but the idea is definitely taking shape.

A compostin' we will go.

2010-06-25T22:13:00.000-04:00

Composting is something I've always wanted to do, but just never felt like I had the space or means to do so. (Now that I've done a lot more research, I'm well aware I could easily have done a small-time operation on my apartment deck. Oops.) But, better late than never, as they say.

I've read numerous tutorials about using recycled materials to build your own compost bin, as well as window-shopped online for the "deluxe" models. Finally I just decided to jump in the middle--today we bought a 34-gallon plastic Rubbermaid bin at Target for $9.99. Mark drilled some holes in the bottom, sides, and top, and I dumped in some dirt, a mixture of brown and green leaves, and some eggshells as our first kitchen contribution. Voila:

Then I crushed up the eggshells (the smaller the pieces are, the faster and easier they break down), and mixed it all together. Then I popped the lid on. As the bin gets fuller, I'll probably have to use a small spade to keep it mixed, but for now a small garden fork does nicely.

We don't produce very much trash (most things can be recycled, especially now that Bloomington takes 3-7 plastics), and we're hoping this will cut down on our waste even more, not to mention produce some free "black gold" for the garden.

This blew my mind.

2010-06-23T17:27:00.000-04:00

Okay, I apologize for another IRS rant. But a co-worker sent me this very timely article today. GRRRR.

The tree limbs go bye-bye.

2010-06-22T21:54:00.000-04:00

Now, I promise I won't update every time we do a bit of yard work, but we were pretty pleased with ourselves after making our giant tree-pile into manageable chunks that the city garbage service can collect tomorrow morning. Here's what it looked like on Saturday afternoon:

We're not quiiiite done because we ran out of yard bags. But here it is now, quaking in fear from me and my saw of destruction:

I have to admit it was some nice therapy to break up all those tree limbs, very nice for working through some IRS-related rage issues. Mark was happy enough to actually strike a funny pose as well.

After years of apartment living, I still find it faintly miraculous that all we have to do is get our stuff out to the curb in the proper container with the proper tag, and it gets whisked away.

I think we had ten bags in all. Yowza.

IRS update: I called this morning for an explanation of the mysterious form. The rep, while friendly and sympathetic, was as stumped as me. Apparently when they mail these returns back, they close the file and therefore have no record of why it was rejected. I think most businesses run out of people's garages are better organized. She suggested I mail it back in. When I expressed concern that I was starting over and had no guarantee that the same thing wouldn't happen again, she suggested enclosing a letter explaining what had happened. Are they working with pencils and notebooks in this place? Couldn't she make a note in my file?!?

I was running late for work, so I gave up on her. Later that morning, I walked over to the IRS office, which is very close to my work. There, both reps pored over my paperwork. One of them was the very one who had pronounced our amended return good to go six weeks earlier. Finally they said that apparently the IRS needs further proof that we closed on April 30 (the deadline to go under contract in order to get the tax credit was April 30).

Me: Why? The closing date is right here. April 30.
Them: Well, we need more documentation. Did you bring your closing documents?
Me: I have my HUD, which is all that I was told was required.
Them: Did you bring the rest of the documents from closing?
Me: I don't know why I would have done that. Which document do you need?
Them: I don't know, just bring it all. We have to confirm that you were under contract before May 1.
Me: Look, what do you want from us? The closing date is spelled out right here. Since we closed on April 30, we were obviously under contract well before that. The deadline to close is well after April 30. I just don't understand what the issue is.
Them: The investigations office does not agree. Here is a list of further documents that you need to bring in. Just bring all that stuff in and we'll get it submitted.

I stormed out. I gathered mortgage statement, bank statements, and a pay stub showing the new address, while Mark ran over to the house to get our closing folder. He brought our entire house bundle just in case. I took the whole mess in right after lunch and dropped in on the counter (thud), saying, "Well, I'm back. I don't know what you want, so here you go, here's everything I've got." They did ask for it, after all.

The whole thing was beyond ridiculous. I mean, did they think we traveled through time in order to go under contract after May 1 and close on April 30? What a neat trick. Anyway, apparently they were able to find sufficient documentation in the book-length pile of papers. I popped out Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to read while I waited for them to process it. So now it's being overnighted back to the IRS, and we're back to waiting another 8-12 weeks for our tax credit. Two hours of yard work therapy after all that crap was sorely needed!

IRS fail.

2010-06-21T22:18:00.000-04:00

Today when we got home, we found an envelope from the IRS in the mailbox. Yippee!! Our tax credit check already?!?! Could it be? We weren't expecting to be lucky enough to get it this soon. We dropped it off in person at the local IRS office on May 7, so it's only been about six weeks. We were assured at that time that our paperwork was all in order.

Well, of course it was too good to be true. Instead, we saw this:

and this:

The very next page was our amended tax return, which was this:

Now, not only do we have to call the IRS and find out what the heck is going on (neither of us like confrontational phone calls), but we have to start over on our tax amendment. IRS FAIL.

A tour of Bloomington's private gardens.

2010-06-20T18:17:00.000-04:00

Today we spent another day out and about--taking part in the 2010 Garden Walk, a tour of beautiful private gardens in Bloomington. About half a dozen gardens are chosen every year to be stops on the tour. Since I've been so into gardening lately, and thirsty for ideas, it seemed like a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. The tour starts at the Hilltop Garden, which is IU's botanical garden, and you see each stop at your own pace before ending up at the Monroe County History Center, which is a great little museum.

Not exactly house-related, but here a few of my favorite sights:

I got some great ideas, inspiration, and information.

Our haul from Goodwill and the art fair.

2010-06-19T20:23:00.000-04:00

Two posts in one day OH THE INSANITY! If you read my running blog, you know that I'm more apt to write only two posts in one month. :) But there is a lot going on with the house, of course, and I am excited about the stuff that I found during our fun day out.

We spent most of the day at Arts on the Square and Taste of Bloomington. I love art fairs, but spend most of my time at them sighing over things that I can't afford. I am especially attracted to ceramic pieces and to wooden pieces. Today I simply couldn't resist this little guy:

I love dragons. I love reading fantasy about dragons and love dragon imagery. So when I see things like this, I just can't resist. I decided he might like a place in my reading corner, which is taking on an Asian flavor.

This is one of the only bits of the house that I've more or less finished. The rest of the room is completely barren and empty. We definitely have a ways to go! But I have my reading nook so I can survive. The dragon is such a nice little detail up there.

So, after a fun but extremely hot and sweaty day at the art fair/food festival, we swung over to the west side to my work because I had left my cell phone there yesterday. Since my work is just a little ways down from Goodwill, we stopped in to see if we could find anything of interest. Found some neat things that just sort of jumped out at me. All for $11!

I have no idea how I'll use this stuff yet. I just liked all the colors!

The joy of trees.

2010-06-19T14:17:00.000-04:00

High on my wish list while house hunting was a yard with mature trees. I got my wish. Today we finally had a nice day, so we took the opportunity to work on pruning the trees for a couple of hours before heading out to Arts on the Square and the Taste of Bloomington later today.

Earlier this week we had a couple of spectacular storms move through on successive nights, each with tornado warnings and high winds. We lost a couple of limbs and even a small tree, but at least it left us this beautiful orange sky:

It was not only storm damage that we wanted to tackle, though. We had noticed a lot of dead limbs on the trees, and one tree was situated near the corner of our corner lot, with some lower branches making it hard for people turning out of our street onto the main road to see oncoming traffic, which does not have to stop. So we gave some attention to no less than seven trees, resulting in the following pile:

We finished up with a conifer that I have yet to identify on the southeast corner of the sunroom, which had a lot of dead branches. I forgot to get a good before picture. It's the tree on the left in the photo below; those dead branches extended all the way around the tree from the ground to about shoulder height.

Afterward, I think we have a much prettier tree!

Now I have space to plant something nice underneath.

Still doing a spot of running here and there

2010-06-18T16:11:00.002-04:00

So what with house insanity (which I started a separate blog for here) and marathon recovery, I haven't been doing very much running. Now of course this is a relative term. But it's been very light compared to the spring. I knew I needed the break, and I've tried not to fight it too much. I've gradually gotten back into the swing of things in the past two weeks or so.

I definitely draw some comparisons between this summer and last summer. There are similarities: complete and utter lack of motivation, one week in the single digits, and the feeling that I'll never be able to run more than 10 miles again. Of course, this summer contains a great deal less freaking out, for which I am grateful. And since I didn't have any Stressful Events (other than closing on the house), I was able to keep things going a lot better.

On June 5, I thought I would just see where I was and run a 5K. Of course it turned out to be a hot, humid morning, and the course was hilly. I managed a 23:22, which was pretty disappointing, because last summer I ran a 22:46 and was very upset with how slow it was. Then the following Wednesday I tried to run 10 miles and couldn't finish 3 without walking. Ouch.

On June 12, I tried another 5K. This one was even hotter and more humid, but it was flat! (Similar to the route of my 22:46 from last summer.) Against what seemed like all odds, the mojo returned and I ran a 21:57. So, now I suppose I can say that I'm about five weeks and 50 seconds ahead of last year.

That being said, I'm due to start my training for Monumental on Sunday, and I'm kinda not looking forward to following the plan. I'm seriously thinking about just scrapping the idea of a real plan and just kinda running what I feel like. I'll set mileage goals, but otherwise I'll run slow when I feel slow, and fast when I feel fast. Probably won't do much if any true speedwork other than local 5Ks. It's an experiment I've always wanted to try. How necessary is it for me to do formal speed workouts? Maybe I'll find out.

Welcome to our house.

2010-06-18T12:34:00.000-04:00

I've decided to start a new blog to document the many projects we plan to undertake in the coming months and years in and around our house. I've kept a blog for years that mainly chronicles the miles of trials, and the trial of miles, of my running life. It wasn't always strictly a running blog, but it turned into one. Trying to mutate it back into a "here is my life" sort of blog just seemed wrong somehow. So here I am with a clean slate.

A little bit about me, and us: I am Miranda, and people often call me Mir. I like this because Mir is Russian for "peace," and also because it's a homophone for "mere," which complements my self-depreciating personality. I am 28 years old and enjoy running for hours at a time, reading, and now, working on our house. A little over a year ago, I married Mark. Mark likes computers, art, and video games. About a month ago, we moved into our house.

Our house: A Dutch Colonial on a quiet corner in a beautiful tree-filled neighborhood on the east side of Bloomington, Indiana.

We immediately fell in love with it when we went to see it, and were extremely lucky to get it, I think. It was at the upper end of our price range, but well worth it. It has no pressing needs in terms of renovation or repair. Just lots of stuff that we'd like to do eventually.

This is our first house. After years of apartment living, we are both complete and utter novices in every aspect of homeownership. Mark is somewhat handy, and definitely has the potential to be very handy given the opportunity. I am less so, but eager to learn.

Although we are working on filling the rooms out with furnishings first, one other project that I am very eager to tackle is the garden. The house has some wonderful garden space. Much of it has become overgrown, so I really have my work cut out for me. Mark doesn't seem very interested in that part, so the garden will largely be my project, I think. Which is great. I'm eager to really make it my own. I'm even more of a newbie in the garden than I am in the house, though, so...it will be a work in progress!

Our first "test" will come in November, when we somehow agreed to host Thanksgiving for both our families. This could mean as many as 15 people coming to us. Although I am excited and look forward to it, I am also a tad stressed. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and I want everything to be right.

So...here we go. :)

Final thoughts: What went wrong?

2010-04-26T16:31:00.002-04:00

All right, it's that time. I loved the race, I can't wait to go back, but now it's time to buckle back down to the business of getting faster.

The only problem I can pinpoint was the possibility that I actually ran too much in training. Put another way, I increased my mileage too quickly and ran the race before my body had a chance to adapt. Running tons of mileage has never presented much of a problem for me. I never have trouble recovering, rarely get sore, and in the past, have felt mental, but not so much physical, fatigue going into the taper. I enjoy doing it most of the time. This time I ramped it up well beyond what I had ever done before, averaging about 78 miles per week for the 12 weeks before taper. This was all great for a while, but I did noticed in the weeks before the taper that I was just plain exhausted and feeling rundown. I thought maybe I was iron deficient, but otherwise, I took it for a normal pre-taper. I was exhibiting no signs of overtraining other than just feeling tired and rearranging/shortening a few workouts: no trouble hitting paces during speedwork (did skip one or two sessions though), no insomnia, etc.

Other than possible overtraining, things seemed great: I was healthy with no sickness or nagging injuries, the weather was perfect. I ran a smart first half. So starting to fall apart barely past the halfway point, before the hills even started, was pretty discouraging.

I do know two things I am changing for sure. I don't think either a shorter training cycle or a shorter taper are beneficial for me. I am 0 for 2, and I don't think at this level of mileage that it's working. So I am returning to a longer program and a three-week taper. I'm not giving up on Hudson yet, so it will be one of his 20-week marathon plans. I'm keeping the mileage high, but will go no higher yet...in fact, I might drop it down a little. I'm hoping that a year with no Stressful Events will help me run a nice even base into June and then start training for the Monumental Marathon in early November around June 20. After closing and moving into our new home in the next couple of weeks, I can literally and figuratively settle in and relax. Then I can run a longer cycle and be better prepared and rested for some revenge on the Monumental course (I blew up en route to a painful 3:57 there in 2008).

I looked back over the log leading up to the marathon for which I think I peaked absolutely perfectly: Sunburst 2008. I really think that I might have BQed that day, if not for the heat/humidity and hobbling along on my foot. I "only" ran 45 mpw for that cycle, and have basically been increasing since then. I want to emulate the framework of that cycle as much as I can. And hope that keeping the mileage steady instead of increasing more (which, really, I can't realistically increase it much more) will help my body catch up.

In just under two weeks, I'm running the Indy Mini, which is a flat, fast, but massive, crowded half. I did get seeded into Corral B, which will help with the latter. I'm not planning on racing it per se, but if I feel good that day, I'd like to see what I can do. Then it'll be more rest and more easy/relatively low base mileage until late June.

The best bad marathon ever: Boston 2010

2010-04-21T12:55:00.004-04:00

So, no suspense here: I finished in 3:50:07, with 1:46:16/2:03:41 halves. Ouch. So, on the surface, that looks like a classic Boston Marathon go-out-too-fast, crash-and-burn scenario, but here's the full story.

I ran a lot in preparation for this race. A LOT. I'm talking 80 miles per week. I added more speedwork this time as well. I was hoping that with the higher mileage, the projected times from my shorter races and my actual marathon time would match up a little better. With a PR of 43:54 in a 10K in March, I thought a 3:30 goal or even a little faster was perfectly realistic, if not conservative.

At the same time, I have been (as you know if you've been reading) GEEKING OUT about this race. I wanted my first Boston to be memorable in a good way. Most of all, I wanted to round the corner at Hereford and Boylston and finish strong with a smile on my face. So I went into this weekend prepared to try for a PR but ready to dial it back if my body said no.

I won't go into every single detail of the weekend, but suffice it to say that I had a wonderful time hanging out with my family and meeting up with friends throughout the time in Boston. The expo was massive and overwhelming, and I wandered for hours, trying to decide what, if anything, to buy. I finally bought a Brooks tank (which I ended up wearing in the race--I know that's a no-no, but I had a zero chafing, so THERE!). Picked up my bib number, race shirt, and poster. No real hiccups, except for my camera batteries (both sets?!) running out of juice.

The whole weekend was so full of people that it was almost a blur. I tend to get claustrophobic (I know that's not the right word, but that's what it feels like) in large crowds of people, but beyond a few moments of annoyance as we navigated the crowds at the expo, the T, and just out and about, it was fine. On Saturday, my brother got a Zipcar with his account and we drove the course. I don't know if it gave me an edge or anything, but it was fun to see Hopkinton on a more "normal" day, and get a look at the route. Parts of it, especially through Newton and Wellesley, are very scenic. I even got to see the Johnny Kelley statue.

On race morning, I packed up my stuff, pulled on my race outfit and throwaway sweats, and headed out to meet Audra, Flo, Barb, and Jackie (and a few others) to make our way over to the buses. At first we thought we could hitch a ride on a hotel shuttle, but that didn't pan out, so we went down to the T. The ticket machines weren't working, so we all basically had to jump the line to get on. I had forgotten my T pass, but I did pay for unlimited rides for 7 days, of which I only used 5, so I don't feel a bit guilty. We did TRY to pay! We made it to the buses and found a sea of people lined up to board them. After meeting up with a few of the 3:20 crew, we finally made it on board a bus. As we were getting close to boarding, I realized I hadn't stopped at one of the portajohns at the Common, as I had planned, but I didn't want to go off and become separated.

I sat with Audra on the bus and we passed the time talking about various things. It was fun! Having a good bus buddy is a huge plus. As the bus caravan made its way to Hopkinton, my bladder started talking to me. We were getting closer, but it was getting louder. Now, I debated on including this part, because it's pretty gross and I don't want to offend anyone: I had brought along, JUST IN CASE, an empty, good-sized plastic peanut butter jar. I had read many stories of men bringing Gatorade bottles for these instances, but I don't have the proper set of equipment to make that feasible. Some of the RWOL forumites began talking about bringing wide-mouthed peanut butter jars with screw tops. So I brought one. I figured it couldn't hurt, but that I probably wouldn't be able to bring myself to actually use it. So as we sat idling in a huge line of buses, the village not even in sight, I started to think very hard about that peanut butter jar. Finally I mentioned it to Audra and she offered to switch seats with me so I could be on the inside. Since the bus wasn't moving, and I was wearing very loose cotton pants, it wasn't hard at all. No mess whatsoever. I don't think I would have made it to the village, where the lines for the portajohns were long. (Later, I emptied the jar where it belongs and then threw it away!)

Oookay, now that THAT's out of the way (I have never felt so relieved), we wandered around the village a bit, met a few forumites (hi Ron!) and then settled down by some of the BQ gals. Made the usual last-minutes adjustments, applied Vaseline and sunscreen, and suddenly it was time to move to the corrals. Karah and I had decided to run together since we were in the same corral and had the same goal. As we headed toward the start, we were amazed at the sheer amount of people. We worried we wouldn't make it, since Corral 14 is the first one in Wave 2, so we had to go aaaaall the way up to the actual factual start line. But we did with a few minutes to spare. And there we were, about to start the Boston Marathon.

At some point as we lined up, I realized I had to pee again. Possibly this is my punishment for peeing in a peanut butter jar while aboard a school bus. I hoped it would go away. We started and whoooo-eee they were not lying about that downhill! It was kind of scary. But we successfully held ourselves back. I concentrated on gliding down the hills and taking short, light steps. That first descent was no joke, but until the Newton hills, I didn't really notice the hills very much.

Mile 1: 8:16
Mile 2: 8:00
Mile 3: 7:59

I was proud of our first 5K. I had done exactly what I was supposed to do: not go out too fast! However, I still had to pee. I started watching for portajohns along the course with no lines. Found one in mile 4 and ducked in, having told Karah to go on ahead. I lost perhaps 20-30 seconds there, and then decided to try and make up the time 5-10 seconds at a time, hopefully breaking even in 3 or 4 more miles.

Mile 4: 8:35
Mile 5: 7:44 (I hit this too early; it's actually about 7:54)
Mile 6: 8:08 (more like 7:58)
Mile 7: 7:48 (caught sight of Karah I believe in here somewhere, picked it up just a little to catch up)

After I caught up with Karah, we both said that we felt okay but not necessarily great. I thought maybe I would pick it up, but decided to wait a little while. Karah said she was going to hang even at just around 8:00s.

Mile 8/9: 16:17
Mile 10: 8:07
Mile 11: 8:15 (Still feeling very good, but really thinking I should pick it up just a bit)
Mile 12: 7:59 (The fact that this mile wasn't faster was my first concrete clue that today wasn't my day)
Mile 13: 8:07
Mile 14: 8:09

Just over the halfway mark was a turning point. I think I was running a smart race. My half was 1:46, one minute slower than my first half in Philly. But I just wasn't feeling all that good. Both hips were starting to bother me, and I had a knot near my left shoulder blade that was also becoming bothersome. Should I HTFU and keep pushing, and possibly eke out a re-BQ, or even a PR? That's what I did at Philly, and I didn't regret it. But somehow, here in Boston, I just couldn't make myself care about my time. I had promised myself I would soak it in and enjoy myself, especially on this, my first time. I was having such a great time listening to all the crowds cheering. I had my name on my shirt, and I heard it so many times--I smiled and waved or said thanks to everyone who yelled my name. So I just sort of took a step back and let the mile splits fall where they would.

Mile 15: 8:31
Mile 16: 8:13
Mile 17: 8:27
Mile 18: 8:52

Karah and I yo-yoed back forth a little, but somewhere in here she left me for good. She ended running a very strong 3:37. Yay Karah!! I knew I should take more GU, but my stomach said Noooooo!

Mile 19: 8:33
Mile 20: 9:18

My family was camped out around here somewhere. It was a huge boost to see them. Then it was time to buckle down and finish the hills. They didn't seem that bad, really, but they were causing my back some issues. The knot near my shoulder blade had turned into shooting pain all the way down the left side of my back. I tried to concentrate on running erect and not hunching down over the hill, but it was just wasn't helping. Another promise that I had made to myself was that I wouldn't walk at any point during the Newton hills, but that one was harder to keep. I made it to the top, but I was in some real pain now from my back and to a lesser extent from my hips.

Mile 21: 10:00
Mile 22: 9:49

This was probably the lowest point. My back was on fire.

Mile 23: 13:03
Mile 24: 10:46
Mile 25: 9:58

Finally, on one of the minor uphills, I allowed myself to walk for a little while. I took my last two GUs one after the other, drank some water, and collected myself a bit. I could see the Citgo sign, and the crowds were incredible, absolutely electric with all the energy they gave off. I knew it was close. I took a couple of walk breaks after that as well. I think I totaled four walk breaks.

Mile 26: 9:22

One last walk break. I was trying to give myself a back massage, rubbing and hitting it, before starting back up again. This actually elicited a huge roar from the crowd, which was totally awesome! Then I realized I was in sight of Hereford.

Mile 26.2: 1:40

I didn't really sprint it in, but I picked it up as I headed uphill on Hereford and rounded the last turn onto Boylston. I was able to run that part just as I imagined: no dead sprint to grab a PR, no hunched-over death slog, just a nice, solid run to the finish. Somehow the back pain and the hip pain melted away. I was grinning from ear to ear.

I'm recovering well...I seem to be less sore overall than usual after a marathon, although I notice my hamstrings are much sorer than normal. No chafing and no blisters.

I will be back next year! At some point I'll look over my training and give some more thought to the race, how my body reacted, and what I can do to continue to improve, but for now I'm just happy that I finished my first Boston Marathon and had such an incredible, memorable experience. Thanks for reading! :)

Forth now, and fear no darkness!

2010-04-15T10:11:00.004-04:00

The title is a quote from The Lord of the Rings that I've always liked. It's from the third part, The Return of the King. It was also used in Peter Jackson's adaptation, but slightly altered: "Forth, and fear no darkness!"

Anyway, I came across a video just today that I really like. It's by the same guy who made the "Why Do You Run?" video. Here it is (click View Original Post if you are reading this on Facebook):

So, tonight, we drive to my parents' house near Louisville, where we'll spend the night before flying out of Louisville tomorrow morning. The weather forecast still looks favorable, although the chance of rain has gone up considerably. In fact, there's a fair chance of rain the whole we'll be there. Thanks, Boston! :-P

I've added a box to the sidebar with my bib # and the link if anyone is bored and wants to track me on Monday. This is really a lot of fun to do, especially if you know more than one person running. Boston has a great tracking system, with updates every 5K. Trust me, between that and watching the live streaming Universal Sports coverage online, it's kept me glued to my computer for hours on each of the past few Patriots' Days. If you're seeing this in a reader or Facebook, my bib # is 14899. Go to www.baa.org on Marathon Monday for race tracking. There are also text updates available if you want to sign up for that (these are less frequent).

Why do you run?

2010-04-13T12:29:00.003-04:00

This video is posted a lot, but I never get tired of it. Who do I run? Because it's hard, and it doesn't stop being hard. Because it makes me feel good, in mind and body. Because it's a way to improve myself. But sometimes I run because this video made me feel like I should. :) Why do you run??

Less than a week to go now, and high time to start obsessing over the weather. The current forecast according to weather.com looks very favorable:

Looks to be a little windy, but since we'll be running in an easterly direction, it's more a tailwind. The overnight low for the night before is 44. Seriously, I don't think I can ask for better than that. Obviously, six days out is a long time in the world of weather, but at least I can be hopeful! I mean, at least there isn't a nor'easter coming like a few years ago. Yikes.

Only three more runs...2.5 more days of work...my biggest task this week is resting up.

Motivation

2010-04-09T13:44:00.002-04:00

With ten days to go before the big day, my mileage is going down and my legs are starting to feel better. This morning I got up before dawn to put in a marathon pace workout: 2 x 4 miles at goal MP. It was a cool morning (33 degrees) , and I had to dig out my gloves. But it was clear with a lovely crescent moon, and I got to see the stars fade into the first hints of dawn, which is always a huge highlight of morning running that never gets old. The run felt great--I averaged 7:57 for the MP miles and it felt smooth and relaxed. I found myself not focusing for large chunks of time, but with no problems maintaining pace over undulating terrain, which I take to be a very good sign.

With less running, I've had more time to think about my journey to Boston, and the things that helped motivate me. I'm not necessarily talking about the Big Things, but rather the things like songs and videos that helped get me out the door on cold days, or hot days, or rainy days, or just I-don't-wanna days. I thought maybe I'd go through some of these in the days leading up to the race, both as a way of passing the time and pump myself up. And if you're reading this, perhaps you'll discover something new that will help get YOU out the door!

I'll open with a song from the mix tape that my high school cross country coach used to play for the team before we made it the state meet despite being TINY. Enrollment of 400 vs. enrollments of 2000+? Awesome. The tape included a lot of pretty random songs, but this one stayed with me and can still be found on my iPod playlist (I hope this works):

Three weeks to go!

2010-03-29T11:49:00.002-04:00

For the past two weeks, I've been feeling kinda...run down. My long run on March 14 didn't go very well. I was scheduled for 22 with 11 moderate, and I had to cut it short at 19 because I felt horrible. My midweek runs were still mostly okay, so I figured it was a fluke. Bad long runs do happen! Then on March 21, I was scheduled for a 3:30 timed run. I had to cut it short again at 19 miles (just a touch under 3 hours). That was worrisome. I started to worry that I really had done too much. I took Monday off completely (from work, too--was feeling really weird, lightheaded and just drained). I began to think perhaps I'm low on iron. It wouldn't be the first time, and since Mark and I have been in frugal mode lately, we haven't been eating as much red meat. Also, the second bad long run happened right after my lady time. So maybe with that and the super-high mileage, I just haven't been getting enough.

After my day off, I continued to treat last week as a cutback week--dropped the mileage a little and skipped my Tuesday speed workout. I also started taking ferrous sulfate (an iron supplement), which is what I took a few years ago when I was anemic. I'm not taking as much as back then. I just figure I need a little boost. By Thursday, I felt a little better. Then I rocked my Friday tempo repeats and then yesterday, after dreading it all week, I finally did my 3:30 timed run, coming in at 23.32 miles (9:00 pace). I'm not feeling perfect, but I'm feeling solid and that's actually the equivalent of perfect at this point in the training cycle!

A note on the ferrous sulfate: I've read that it takes a few weeks for iron stores to replenish themselves (making red blood cells and whatnot), so I don't think my rebound was necessarily because I started taking the iron supplement. I'm going to keep up with the ferrous sulfate for a couple more weeks just in case. Taking too MUCH iron can also be harmful, but being a woman and an endurance athlete, I would have to take a really insane amount to get my levels up that high.

I have one more hard week. It'll be more than last week, but well under my peak week. I'll cap it off with one last long run, about 2:45 and no more than 3 hours, maybe 18-20 miles. Then comes a 2-week taper. Hudson doesn't call it a taper so much as a sharpening period, so the next three weeks will involve a lot of marathon pace, but of course less and less mileage. I can't believe I'll be tapering for the Boston Marathon in only one week!

News on the home front

2010-03-18T13:45:00.002-04:00

After my last post, I had been planning to update following the 10K that I ran on March 6. That was almost two weeks ago now. And it was certainly update-worthy! I went out a little too fast, struggled in the middle, and managed to gut out a sub-44 for the first time. My official time was 43:54, a new PR by 17 seconds. It was also good for second place female, which is awesome, but also tells you how competitive the race was. :)

So why didn't I update? Well, because we went to see a house that we loved that afternoon, and then we decided to put in an offer. Which was accepted. So you can imagine how crazy the past couple of weeks have been! We house hunted for about six weeks, and this was our first offer. I was amazed that we got under contract on the first try. I suppose I was thinking there would be more competition out there with the tax credits due to expire fairly soon.

And this house is a real find. It's in a nice, older neighborhood, and has some wonderful features that I'm really excited about--a sunroom, ample garden space, mature trees, etc. One of my major location needs was that the area be highly "runnable." That is, safe to run any time of day, including rush hour, after dark, or what have you. This fits the bill perfectly, in fact, better than I thought we could afford. It is at the upper end of our price range, but seeing as how we're now kind of skipping the whole "starter home" thing and moving on to "here's where we're going to live for a good long while," I'm thinking it's worth it. I'm still stunned and overwhelmed at our good fortune at finding something so perfect for us, in such a perfect place, that we could afford. (I was worried about some horrific hidden problem, but the home inspection turned up only a few smaller problems, all of which are manageable.)

The closing date is April 30, eleven days after Boston, meaning April will be an even more interesting month than I was expecting! I am nearing the end of my peak mileage week, and I am officially in "ready-for-taper" mode. Mileage will lessen a little bit after this week as I transition to race sharpening, and then I'll start a two-week taper. I can't believe it's so close!

Boston bib numbers were released earlier this week. Mine is #14899, meaning I'm in Corral 14. The fourteenth corral is the first of Wave 2 (the race consists of two waves, one at 10:00 a.m. and one at 10:30 a.m., with separate starts). This means I will be right up front (kinda) at the BOSTON MARATHON. It's actually a very ideal start position, with less crowding and less time spent waiting to cross the line after the gun.

It's hard to explain how exciting this is. I have been wanting to run the Boston Marathon since 1996, after reading an article about the 100th running (that was 14 years ago?!?!). In 2004, when I ran my first marathon, I realized how difficult it was going to be for me to get there. In 2007, I joined the online running community and started making friends who were running the race. For three years, I looked up their names and bib numbers on the BAA site so I could track them on race day. So now, to see MY name displayed, with MY bib number, is...indescribable.

Seven weeks to Boston...time for a mental rut!

2010-03-02T12:15:00.003-05:00

This is the point of the training cycle in which things get a little tough mentally, especially this time of year. Winter just won't...let...go. And the training weeks seem...so...long. I'm holding up well--no unusual pain or niggles to report. But I can tell I've hit the "mental rut" part of training. It's not hitting me very hard, honestly. I haven't missed any training runs or workouts, and I'm still running well. It's just that little extra mental nudge that it takes to get going. If this is a mental rut, I'll take it! This does tend to happen in the peak weeks of training, but usually it's worse.

This morning I met a friend for a 6 a.m. 8-miler and I was on the verge of canceling. I just wanted so much to stay in bed. I just didn't want to put on my tights and other layers AGAIN. I didn't want to be cold, even for the relatively short time it takes to warm up (and it was only 28 degrees, anyway). I managed to get up and had a decent recovery run, but then I took what must have been the longest shower ever. I have a major guilt complex about doing this, but I have been terrible about it lately.

Boston is seven weeks away. This week, fortunately, is a recovery week, and then I have a 10K to race this weekend. Racing always instills my training with motivation. I hope it can last another month or so, until taper time. Until then, I'm just plugging away. Tomorrow is a speed workout (mile repeats), and then the rest of the week is all easy/recovery miles until the race.

The race! This is the second in the series of training races for the Indy Mini. I did the 5K last month. It was very cold. This weekend, it looks to be around 30 degrees (high of 48 that day!!!), which, while still colder than ideal for racing, will be pretty comfortable compared to three weeks ago. No more rain or snow in forecast before then, either. Could be a good day. I'm completely unsure of what to expect. I ran the 5K in 21:33, a 6:57 pace. Flo sent me this chart that shows what effect different temperatures have on race performance. If I read it correctly, the cold added a fair amount of seconds to my per-mile pace, somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 or 20, I think. My 10K PR is 44:11, a 7:06 pace. Not sure if this is ready to fall, but the temperature data seem fairly hopeful. Too bad it can't be 50 degrees at race time, which is apparently the optimal temperature.

Quick 5K report...and a few rants

2010-02-15T13:21:00.004-05:00

The 5K went very well--not a PR, but with 21:33, I ran faster on a certified course than I have since 2003. My splits were 6:58, 6:52, 6:57, :44. Very pleased with that! I'm thinking that dipping under 21 this summer might be a very real possibility. It was 14 degrees, with a "real feel" of 5 degrees, at the start, and there were still some icy spots on the course, particularly the turns. So conditions didn't turn out to be quite as favorable as I'd hoped, but they were good enough. Maybe I can better this at one of the flat 5Ks in and around Bloomington in July. And hey...lookit!

Weeeee! This was a fairly sizable race (about 1150 finishers). Very exciting!!!

And now, a couple of rants:

1. People at my gym are illiterate. I have been spending more time there than I'd like, running laps on the track instead of risking ~~death and dismemberment~~ injury out on the ice. There are clearly posted rules in several places in the vicinity. I made special note of these rules because they are slightly different than the rules on a standard track. Faster running should be done on the outside and walkers should stay to the inside. All passing is to be done on the outside. That's the basic gist. (This is a good thing because the track is not an oval, but rather a rounded rectangle, and running around those sharp curves in the first lane would be difficult.) The rest is common sense, like "Look before you cross" and "Don't get in the way of faster runners." Yet people just can't seem to figure it out. Yesterday was a good example (or bad example, actually).

Several children were playing on the track (supposedly children under 12 should be accompanied by an adult). No adults seemed to be in charge of these, and they were running up and down the track, running in front of and behind me (one girl even ran behind me for almost a length, shadowing me--I don't care who you are, but don't do that. It reminds me of being raped. Thanks, kid.) They stood on the track in lane one for a while, watching a basketball game taking place below, then romped around like it was their personal playground, apparently taking no notice of the several people whose workouts they were disrupting. They were old enough to know better. When I was a kid, I learned early to stay out of my elders' way. It's not rocket science. Grrrr.
There is a girl at the gym that Mark and I have named "Annoying Third Lane Walker Girl." She walks in the third (running) lane. Since I am generally moving faster than others on the track, I spend a lot of time in that lane and she's in my way, a lot. I see her there all the time, but she has yet to get around to reading those rules. She was there yesterday. Nothing out of the ordinary. Just annoying as usual. This time she was joined by another annoying third lane walker girl, except this one kept switching lanes.
Three windsuit-clad women were power-walking, taking up the entire track. I yelled "Track!" and finally "Excuse me" and they finally let me by. Grrrr.
One dude was walking around the track the WRONG WAY. Now this one just gets me. You don't have to know how to read to figure that out. There's a big purple arrow that tells you which way to go, and if you can't figure THAT out, you could get a clue from the fact that EVERYONE ELSE is going the SAME WAY. There are times to conform, and this is one of them!

I know this is all pretty petty, but I just can't understand what is so hard about taking 30 seconds to read a few rules. Most of the time it doesn't matter. I can just go around them. But on a busier day like yesterday, it can get a little crowded and the rules are there for a reason. Dodging ain't fun when you've been running for more than 3 hours. Oof! I needed to get that out of my system.

2. Mark was pulled over for the second time ever yesterday (on the way back from the race) and administered a ticket for going 12 over the speed limit. This was on a road that was turning into a highway. There were no signs posted in the vicinity and we were going 52, building up to the highway speed limit of 55. Apparently the speed limit there is a 40. Well, now we know, but it was a costly lesson. How much? Well, we won't know for a while, because we have to call a number on the ticket and find out, and apparently it can take 4-6 weeks to be processed into the system. Which will give us another 2 weeks to come up with whatever exorbitant amount they decide to charge. Grrrr. Thanks for ruining the high of my good race, not to mention Valentine's Day! (We don't really care about VDay, but the cop doesn't know that.) We're already on a diet consisting mainly of ramen noodles to help scrape up more money for the house down payment. Guess some of that money is going to the IPD. Thanks guys. I would like to know why they NEVER EVER pull over the people who truly deserve it.

3. Mark then kept getting calls from an 800 number. After the second one, he Googled it and found it was our bank's fraud division. He decided to call them back to see what was up. Apparently someone had used his card info to make $600 of purchases at stores in Illinois. This isn't so much a rant as a "Holy crap I'm glad they caught that." But it is really annoying that he had to cancel his card and will now be without a credit card for about a week. I'm really hoping they roll over the cash back points he had accumulated.

4. My student loan account is on automatic debit. I don't like automatic debit, but they lowered my interest rate if I signed up, so I did. It comes out on the 14th of each month and has been for years. Well, it still hasn't come out for February, and when I checked the account, it is now showing as past due. Maybe this is because of Presidents' Day, but the fact that it is showing as past due pisses me off. I'm afraid to pay it manually because they might take a double payment, which I can't cover until I get paid again. I have been extremely conscientious about paying off my loans on time because it affects my credit. I have an extremely good credit score, and it would be awesome if they could NOT eff that up right before we try to get a mortgage. I've emailed them...just gotta wait and see.

These are some awesome complaints to have compared to last year. I'm kind of "enjoying" them, if that makes any sense. But I'm still annoyed! Boo hiss!

Recovery week--and a chance for a 5K PR

2010-02-11T15:22:00.002-05:00

This week I've been enjoying a recovery week. Less mileage and more of them easy miles. And no speedwork tomorrow morning. In fact, the only run for the whole week that wasn't easy was the 5 x 1,000m I did with the group on Monday night. I'm still sticking with lifting all three times this week, but cutting down on reps and weight. It's not all that much less overall, but I feel very fresh. Once I finish this week, I will have four weeks of Boston training under my belt. Crazy! Only a little more than two months to go.

I have been ogling the Boston gear on the adidas website. In particular, the jacket. The Boston jacket is iconic and I have been wanting one for years. I'm biding my time for now in case they come out with more choices, but I'll probably buy the jacket in about a month's time. But I'll be too superstitious to actually wear it until I cross the line in Boston. I just want to have it ready. :)

Coming up this weekend is a 5K tune-up race, the 500 Festival Training Series 5K. It's the first of a series (5K, 10K, and 15K) to help beginning runners training for the Indy Mini get ready and learn how to race. For more experienced runners, they make useful tune-up races--no-frills, certified courses, flat, etc. And they're relatively cheap.

I have been an extremely inconsistent 5K runner. For years after college, I assumed I would never really PR in the 5K again, since I had raced it so much in college meets. The standards of 21:10 over 5K and 20:52 for 5,000m (indoors) would not be easy to surpass without a lot of focused training, I figured. For a long time, this was true. I ran a string of 23:30ish races, and just could not really get below that. It was amazing to me that in college I considered any time over 22:30 a failure, but here I couldn't even break 23. In fact, at the training series 5K in 2007, the last time I ran it, it was frigid the morning of the race and I just had a horrible day, coming it at 26:39. That was discouraging!

Then in 2008, I suddenly busted out a 21:07. I have my suspicions about the accuracy of the course, and I haven't come close since. In fact, I couldn't even dip below 22 in 2009 (although I only raced three, and none were at ideal fitness). But now, I have been putting in some really solid speedwork, I'm in good condition, and I'm coming off a recovery week. The forecast calls for a low of 23, high of 30 that day and partly sunny (that is going to feel very mild compared to what we've been having). The roads should be dry by then. So...everything may be coming together for...duhn duhn duuuuuhn! a 5K PR. I'm hopeful.

So what is my current PR? I am not sure. I think my best road 5K was around 21:40 or 50 before the 21:07. My best cross country 5K was 21:10. My best 5,000m on the track was 20:52. Now, a road 5K is nothing like a track 5,000m, but...not gonna lie, I would really like to just say ONE number for my 5K PR with no asterisks. I don't know if that's feasible yet, but man that would be AWESOME.

Reinventing myself as a morning runner

2010-01-20T11:25:00.003-05:00

One day last week, I thought to myself, "Think I'll run tomorrow morning." So I put myself to bed soon after 10, rolled out of bed early, and stumbled out the door into the predawn darkness. I love the idea of running before work, but rarely do it because I'm such a weenie about getting up early. I'm also a little leery of running around alone in the dark along deserted streets. It's nice not to have to dodge cars, but those same cars help keep me safe: countless witnesses to anything that might happen.

When I run in the morning, I opt either for the treadmill (gag) or to run loops of a two-mile route around my neighborhood. My road is lined with apartment communities, which means plenty of 24-hour lighting and few isolated spots, so I generally feel safe to run there even though it does get a little monotonous. I decided on an outdoor run, despite 12-degree temps and some sidewalks still covered with snow/ice. It was clear and I could see the stars and I just couldn't go inside. So I put on a bunch of layers and headed out to trundle through the snow. And it was a great run. I went for just under an hour, and was able to watch the stars and just the slightest crescent of the moon fade gradually as the first hints of light appeared in the east. And then of course there's the great feeling of actually being awake and alert in the morning while doing such essential tasks as choosing that day's outfit and, um, driving to work. And the feeling that I've accomplished something already as I start work for the day. And the fact that I can come home and have an entire free evening to spend relaxing (a rare commodity).

It was so nice that I vowed to myself to make it a true habit. That was Wednesday. It is now Wednesday again and I have gotten up early every day since then (except for Sunday) to run or at least do something. I'm starting to introduce more doubles into my training, and of course I still have group run twice a week in the evening, so evening running is not going anywhere. But still, it makes it seem like I have so much more time than usual--we even finally cleaned our apartment! And this with mileage ramping up, a time when I usually feel completely scrapped for time.

This morning I even ran with fellow runner and INRunCo group member Rachel, who lives nearby, so we were able to range out quite a bit further. One week does not a habit make, but it's a start. Hope to stick with it!

Hey look, another hiatus

2010-01-11T12:02:00.002-05:00

Once again, a month goes by between posts. I'm terrible at blogging, really. But I am grateful that the year ended and began anew in such a different manner than last year.

I don't know what to say about 2009. I'm glad it's over, but at the same time I can't leave it behind. It is the year of my marriage and of a lot of good books. It is the year I PRed in almost every race and qualified for Boston at last, not once, but twice. And it's the year of the personal triumph of helping to put a sexual predator away, hopefully for good. The only problem is that I felt like I was going crazy the whole time and my running and reading became lifelines rather than just things I enjoy. How could 2010 compare? I certainly don't want anything else bad to happen, to me or to anyone else. In fact, I would dearly love a nice boring year. At the same time, I've never liked being bored. It's a weird feeling!

I know that 2010 will offer some challenges. We're looking to buy a house, and along with goals in reading and running, I'm sure I'll stay plenty busy.

I kicked off my 2010 race schedule with the First Light Half Marathon in Mobile, Alabama. I was on the lookout for a winter half (pretty much zilch around here unless you like running in circles) and also wanted to go visit Michelle in Mobile at some point soon. What do you know, a marathon/half marathon right in Mobile in January! A nicely sized race and one benefiting a good cause, even. Combine with that the fact that I'd have a chance to meet some fellow RWOL forumites, and seriously, how could I not be all for it?

I'd never been to Alabama before (driving through on the way to Florida does not count) and really enjoyed it. It was a little surreal to step off the plane and see palm trees and huge, gnarled oaks with their leaves still on and veils of pale moss hanging down. Really a very lovely experience to run among such scenery, especially in January.

Despite all the great things about the weekend, the race itself didn't go very well for me; I finished about 4.5 minute short of my PR. I held PR pace for about the first half but was already working too hard. I faded and just eased up in the last two miles. I'm not broken up about it, though! Not every race can be "PRs and sunshine," as Flo would say. It was a great weekend, and the bad race will become a good motivator for Boston training. I met fellow blogger and forumite LA Runner for the first time and she presented me with a little "Welcome to Alabama" kit: sweet tea, spice rub, and homemade cookies. It's always nice to find out that someone you've admired from afar turns out to amazing in person as well. Along with meeting forumites Shake Your Money Maker (SYMM) and Bird, I got to spend a whole weekend with one of my best friends from college, Michelle. So how could I possibly be broken up?

It's time to train for BOSTON, baby!!! 3:30 or bust!

Transition time

2009-12-03T14:37:00.003-05:00

I've been recovering well from Philly, back running again, and keeping the miles relaxed and easy. I'm shooting to get the volume back up relatively soon, but will keep the pace slow until late December, when I'll do a couple of workouts ahead of the half in January.

I'm restarting a gym routine consisting mostly of core/hip work. After my hip bothered me for most of the marathon, I've decided that me and the "sex machine" (i.e., the hip ab/adductor machine) need to get reacquainted--Mark and I did the 30-Day Shred early in the last cycle, but I almost never went to the gym. I am also downright weak in the upper body and want to not be that weak. So I'm doing the Hundred Push-Up program. And I'm not talking about girly push-ups, either. I want to get better at the real thing. I managed 3 in my initial test. I know! Pathetic, right? But I made it through Week 1, Day 1 yesterday. I foresee many repeated weeks. But I aim to be more consistent with strength work in general this cycle, and all I have to think about to motivate me is Boston...Boston...Boston.

I know there are people who make it to Boston and think, "Well, the hard part is over. I made it. I'm going to just run and not worry about it and have a good time." I actually sort of wish I felt that way. But I don't. I want to knock it out of the park at Boston. It's a challenging course, and PRing there is a mark of pride among marathoners. And I still want to get to the finish line of a marathon feeling not relieved, but triumphant.

I experimented a lot with my training for Philly, and of course some of the events over the summer contributed to making the training even more experimental, i.e., practically non-existent for several weeks! I am eager to experiment further. I will try a relatively short training plan again, probably in the neighborhood of 12-14 weeks (starting a week or two after the half) with a 2-week taper. But this time, instead of relying on my old friend Pfitz to get me to the finish line, I'm going to line up with Brad Hudson. I've started reading his book and will draw up a plan based on his training philosophy. It will stay high-volume, but will introduce a lot more intensity than I'm used to. For this reason, I probably won't increase my mileage much (although the average mileage will hopefully be a bit higher through better consistency and a more solid base).

I am just hoping for a nice, boring year.

A cherry on top: my Philly RR

2009-11-24T11:01:00.002-05:00

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know I had a couple of rough spots this summer. For a while, I was not even sure I would be able to run Philly at all, let alone re-BQ or PR.

From the last week of May to the first week of August--11 weeks--I averaged just over 21 mpw. Just couldn't get out there. I didn't force it...just read a lot of books and waited for the motivation to return. It did and I started building back up in mid-August. I followed a 12-week Pfitz plan for Philly and averaged ~63. Training was a bit more sporadic than it was in the spring--I got sick for several days and this factor and that disrupted my running. I missed some key workouts and but felt pretty good about the cycle overall. I ran a tune-up half in October in 1:37. I figured this would make a 3:33-3:35 doable for me, with a good chance at something closer to 3:30. I figured I would shoot for 8-8:10s in the race and just see what happened. The pressure was off since I didn't have any real need for any certain time.

I did exactly one MP run in early September (8 miles), at about 8-minute pace. At the time, it felt too fast for MP. I dithered so much about what pace to shoot for that I just didn't do any more pace work.

DH and I flew into Philly on Friday and met our friend who we stayed with. She ran the full also. She made us a ton of awesome sweet potato falafel. Then we polished off an entire box of cereal. Got up and got in a short run, then headed to the brunch FE with the BQ ladies from the RWOL forums. Expo after that, where my friend and I bought each other early Christmas presents. Headed home--she went to run a couple more errands and I got dinner started (Tofu-sundried tomato-artichoke concoction with rice--she's made it for us before so I knew it would be okay for pre-race. And it's AWESOME.) Watched some TV and went to bed around 9. Didn't sleep well thanks to the guys who stood below her window screaming all night. Literally.

Up at 4, and had some chocolate soymilk, two bananas, a mini bagel with almond butter, and half a bottle of Gatorade along with water. A major race morning eating PR for me. We walked to the start, got gear check and bathrooms taken care of, gave cell phones to Mark, and then hugged each other good luck and split off for our respective corrals (my friend started in purple and ran 4:13, a 7-minute PR). I found my way to green, then found that there was no barrier and it wasn't terribly crowded, so I moved on up to get the 3:30 pace group within sight. I wanted to start near them and then let them get a little ways ahead so I would know I wasn't starting out too fast. This worked well...I just ran with the people around me, so no weaving or dodging, and my first mile was right where I wanted it.

Splits from my wristwatch, using the course's mile markers:

1--8:15--Getting started, feeling good, just concentrating on running with the people around me (since I started near the 3:30 pace group). The pace group got ahead and I let them go, not wanting to push it so early.
2--7:48--Slow down, stupid!
3--7:54--A little better but come on, you still have 23 miles to go!
4/5--16:20--Heeere we go. Starting to settle into a groove and feeling very comfortable. Had my "morning coffee" (Expresso Love GU).
6--8:03
7--7:49
8--8:08--Somewhere in here my right hip started bothering me. I don't think it was a true factor, but it was just bothersome. This lasted the rest of the race, but didn't get much worse.
9--7:53
10--8:04--I think there was a hill in here somewhere. Another GU at the top of the hill.
11--8:04
12--7:56--I wish I had sunglasses.
13/14--16:19--Crossed the half in 1:45:17 on my watch. I was feeling comfortable and not breathing hard, but something told me that I had used up too much to maintain this pace for the second half.
15--7:58--One more mile at pace, but I was having to work a little too hard. Legs, especially quads, really starting to feel it, already. GU #3.
16--8:23--Oh crap, really? I was disappointed to see this split, which was the result of even effort.
17--8:16--Mir's stomach: I hate you. I quit.
18--8:16
19--8:20--Some dude making the most horrendous puking noises on the side. Stomach seriously NOT happy now. More GU out of the question.
20--8:20--Maintaining a pace about 10-20 seconds off original pace. Miles 15-17 are a little to early to start really pushing, so I just went with it. By now though I could hear myself breathing and knew I was in a for a long last 10K. My stomach was in knots and just the thought of taking another GU made me seriously consider stopping to vomit. I took Gatorade from then on in and hoped I wouldn't throw up.
21--8:11--Well, that wasn't so bad.
22--8:34--Death knell. Ouch. Mir's legs: We hate you too. We quit. I think it was in here somewhere that my friend went by on her way out and shouted at me. I turned around just in time to see her but didn't have a chance to return the favor.
23--8:41--I had the legs = bloody stumps of raw meat feeling and oh how I wanted to walk. I realized that if I could just run 10-minute miles, I could still sneak under 3:40, and secure my BQ for 2011 and a small PR. The temptation to walk was alluring, but I knew walking would mean no BQ.
24--9:07--Okay, that's one. Maybe 3:38:xx? Must not walk. Must not walk.
25--9:12--The only thing that kept me from walking this mile was the thought of seeing Mark at mile 25. Maybe I can pull off a 3:37:xx?
26--8:38--Got a boost from seeing Mark and hearing the BQ ladies cheering! Under 3:37?
26.2--1:30--Great crowds in the last quarter mile carried me home.

Finish time: 3:36:11

I am really happy with this race. I'm not sure what went wrong, but I'm chalking it up to an off day. Especially after the summer I had, I'm THRILLED with a PR. I'm especially proud of hanging on in those last miles. It's awesome to be able to say I didn't have a good day, but still come away with a handy improvement. I'm totally okay with improving a few minutes at a time...that just means more celebration.

Sometime soon I will analyze and plan my schedule for Boston training. But for now I think I will just give thanks (oh how much there is to be grateful for), and savor the clear horizon.

A lot to catch up on!

2009-11-24T10:21:00.004-05:00

Since life has been so crazy, I just haven't had time to update, and there is a lot of updating to be done.

First off, the sentencing. Long story short, the guy who attacked and sexually assaulted me has been sentenced to 60 years in prison, of which he must serve at least 30. The time can be reduced if he is well-behaved in prison. Judging by his past behavior in prison, I'm thinking it will be closer to 60 years.

The hearing was a very surreal experience. It was like the trial all over again. This time I had written up a short statement. I didn't have to take the stand again; I just sat up front before the judge and read my statement. I managed not to cry somehow, but my heart was pounding so loudly that I actually thought it was going to explode. I was shaking like a leaf as well.

I got through it, and then the prosecutors presented some other "aggravators," that is, things that can give the judge reason to lean more toward the maximum sentence. They called a police officer from the city where Murphy committed his previous sexual assault to testify about how the cases were similar. It was chilling, indeed, one of the most chilling parts of the entire case. I knew Murphy had done something similar to another person, but what I didn't know is that it was a 15-year-old girl who he followed home from summer school, forced into the woods, and assaulted. Everything was the same, down to the dirty things he made her say. How he only served six years for that, I'll never understand. NEVER. It was sickening. Less than a year after he got out, he did it again. To me.

Murphy offered up some "mitigators," that is, things that might incline the judge toward leniency. All the while maintaining his innocence, he handed over a thick sheaf of papers from his high school counselor, said he had cooperated with the police, and said that "the attacker" had repeatedly said he was sorry throughout the attack (a lie). Another one was that I had not suffered any serious physical injury.

The judge did not see any of these, except possibly his cooperation with police, as mitigators. He pointed out that the records from the high school counselor basically just said he was anti-social, that Murphy had said "Sorry" exactly once, when I, blindfolded, stumbled while being forced into the woods, and that serious physical injury would have been an aggravator, but that the lack of it was not a mitigator. Right on.

There are all sorts of details that I'm leaving out, but that was about it. The judge sentenced him to 60 years, which was the full sentence that the prosecutors had asked for, and recommended that it be served in a maximum security facility (which evidently is not something he usually does). Goodbye Murphy.

Two days later, we flew to Philly for the marathon. Coming soon: my Philly race report.

Taper time!

2009-11-09T16:48:00.002-05:00

I thought maybe a blog post was in order now that taper time has officially begun. Things have been going great. I feel good about running and about life in general. The sentencing hearing is coming up, which jars the nerves a bit, but honestly it's not bothering me much at all right now.

In fact, my life-is-good feeling could not even be budged by a bonktastic last long run. I had 17 scheduled for Saturday, but I also really wanted to spectate the Indy Monumental Marathon, so I planned on running the 17 in the afternoon with Tracy. Then we were a little late getting back, and since Tracy had plans and couldn't push the run much later, we agreed to do it yesterday afternoon instead. Over the course of the weekend, I did not eat nearly enough, due to the routine-busting schedule and general excitement, and also did not drink enough water. Then the run itself was hot (71 degrees and sunny after weeks of 50ish is definitely hot), windy, and hilly. We ran probably a little too fast, but I don't think the pace contributed much to the bonk. I had to walk it in for the last couple of miles, and called it 15. Tracy is seriously AWESOME for staying with me and making me sip water as we walked.

So, I still got in a solid just-slightly-shorter-than-long run, and I'm totally fine with it. I still feel confident and really excited for Philly. The route we ran was new to me and I really, really liked it. Just a beautiful, scenic route in the hills south of town. Definitely a keeper, and a route to return to for Boston training!

Now the hay's in the barn, and the fact that the last bale is a few straws short isn't causing me any lack of sleep. Bring on Philly! I'm already going a little stir-crazy, and as a result have signed up for a mess of races for the winter and spring. The newest is the turkey trot at home, which, being just four days after Philly, will just be a fun recovery fun to support a good cause (diabetes education at the local hospital). Who needs money anyway?

New races include:

Fast Freddie's Festive Five-Mile Foot Feast. Thanksgiving Day. Featuring tech shirts this year, WHOO! A tradition. I've run this race all but two or three years since like 1996.
First Light Half Marathon. Mobile, Alabama. January 10. Random! But there's a rhyme to this reason. We are going to race in a new state and visit our awesome friend Michelle who just moved there in pursuit of a job. Goal is to go sub-1:37 and get my NYC guaranteed entry. Psst! Mark is doing the full! And I am "coaching" him. More on that later.
500 Festival Training Series 5K. February 13. Flat course. Just want to see what happens.
500 Festival Training Series 10K. March 6. Ditto.
Indy Mini. May 8. Three weeks after Boston. This is more about the social aspect of running. Probably won't be gunning for any PRs, but we'll see. I can get seeded pretty far up front this time, so that should be fun.

So, in other racing news, Mark quite suddenly got the marathon bug again and decided to sign up for the First Light Marathon. It's a little soon (9 weeks from yesterday), but I am confident that with the base fitness he built up doing his recent half, he'll be able to do it. I drew up a training schedule for him that will have him peaking at 55 miles per week, and averaging probably 45ish over 9 weeks. It will be challenging, but perfectly doable. I'm excited to see how my training philosophy works for another person.

The longest week ever

2009-10-26T13:07:00.002-04:00

When we got back to Bloomington yesterday night and I put my things in order for work the next day, I found myself unable to believe that only a week had gone since the previous late evening arrival home (which was in fact exactly a week earlier). So much was packed into that week. I had the elation of my half marathon race and PR, the feelings of congratulations and disappointment upon hearing about friends' races, and good times with the running buddies in Columbus. Then the slow/fast, excruciating first three days of the work week, trying to focus on work. And then, of course, the trial, which was surreal. I felt by turns light-headed, bored, fascinated, frustrated.

During my testimony, I was shaking so hard that I could barely pick up the glass of water they provided and set it back down again. And I needed that water because my mouth and tongue felt like sandpaper. They said I did a good job and stayed poised during my testimony. What was going on outside and inside were apparently very different. I'm just glad I didn't faint. I was afraid to look at Mark, my parents, or the women from my running group who had come to support me because I thought I would cry. I was very touched and grateful for the people who were there for me (in person or in spirit) those two days. I did come close, but held it together. I had promised myself I wouldn't cry in front of him again. Near the end, the prosecutor asked a series of questions to introduce the fact that I am well acquainted with my assailant's (Murphy's) voice, having heard it frequently during the attack and then again when they interviewed the suspect on the news, and then at his hearings in the following months. Then he asked if the owner of that voice was present in the courtroom, to which I said yes, and then asked me who that person was. I turned and pointed to him and said, "There, that's him." It felt really, really good.

I was not able to return to the courtroom until closing arguments the following afternoon. I spent the interim waiting in or around the courthouse, walking around downtown, or at the Bakehouse ODing on coffee. When I returned, both sides delivered their arguments. I found out then that DNA evidence had been collected (my DNA was found in one of his samples, and vice versa) but then Murphy's appointed lawyer got up and read a statement Murphy had written which accused one of the witnesses of perjury and seemed to be trying to imply that the nurse who had conducted the rape kit and the suspect kit had contaminated parts of both kits.

After this, Murphy and his attorney (Schrems) whispered to each other, and when the judge asked them if there was anything further, they said there had been a miscommunication and they wanted to introduce more evidence. The judge literally put his head down on his desk. The defense's case was reopened, and I was allowed to stay. First they played the tape which had been made by the detective when she first interviewed Murphy the night he was caught. She asked him a series of questions about his activities that day before accusing him of the attack, at which point he promptly asked for a lawyer. He had apparently said he was at home all day, but under questioning began to admit a series of errands that he had been on during the day, including retrieving a bike lock from a bike locked by the trailhead (which I guess turned out to be same one I saw that day? I honestly don't know--I am fuzzy on the details that I wasn't there to see myself). Nothing in the tape seemed to help his case in any way that I could see.

Then he started going about how the SANE (sexual assault nurse examiner) had become hostile toward him as soon as she found out he was a suspect, and how she had contaminated the samples from the two kits she was taking. Finally it was decided that the nurse would be called to testify. She was not on the witness list and had not been involved with the case or the investigation since that night, so the fact that she was there within 45 minutes of being called was pretty amazing. She took the stand and answered an exhaustive series of questions that established that she had done my kit, which took about two hours, always staying in the room with the kit and not leaving sight of the kit until it was sealed and handed over to police, and then done his kit about a half an hour later. She described the many precautions SANEs take to make sure no outside contamination occurs with the samples, including changing clothes after each swab and sample, etc. It was clear from her testimony that everything Murphy was ranting about was complete bullshit.

I learned later he had taken the stand in his own defense. His defense was simply to deny everything and accuse the police and the hospital staff of some huge conspiracy to frame him. Unsurprisingly, the judge was in chambers for less than half an hour before returning to pronounce him guilty. The sexual battery charge was lessened to a misdemeanor, because that charge and another charge would be considered one for sentencing. But the important thing is that he is guilty of criminal deviate conduct, an A felony, which carries a maximum sentence of 50 years. He was also guilty of three other lesser felonies, with varying sentences. Sentencing is supposed to happen with a month, but they were not able to agree on a date at the time, so I'm staying tuned to find that out.

Upon hearing the verdict, Murphy started crying, and I hope it doesn't make me sound like a terrible person when I say that I really enjoyed watching him do so. This wasn't him being remorseful, by the way. This was absolutely crying of the oh-shit-I-was-caught variety.

Looking back over the whole ordeal really makes me appreciate the extraordinary set of coincidences that led to Murphy's arrest, and more amazing than the coincidences, the awesome people who were in the right places at the right times, and alert, to take advantage of these coincidences. I feel immense relief that I was lucky enough to see my attacker brought to justice in such a relatively short time. Ever since I heard his voice on that newscast, I have known he was guilty, but proving it in court is a different story, and I know voice identification by witnesses is not considered the most reliable evidence. I'm so glad that DNA evidence backed it up.

The debacle of re-opening the case and bringing in the new witness meant that the verdict did not come until well after 6 p.m. We had dinner with my parents and then went to bed soon after. We got up early and drove 5 hours to Galesburg, Ill., for Homecoming, which was a whirlwind weekend involving very little sleep. But it was worth it to go even for such a short time because I have missed my friends so much and it was so good to see them. We dawdled around campus until 4 p.m. the next day, putting off the drive back, but we finally got underway again and got home after 9. By this time I was so tired, mentally and physically, that I literally couldn't see straight. When I woke up this morning, I felt like I had just put my head down on the pillow. I think I could have easily slept for another 12-14 hours.

Me and my buddy DOMS

2009-10-20T11:23:00.002-04:00

Forty-eight hours since the race and I have some fairly significant DOMS action going on. This is unusual for me after a half, and actually it's a good thing because it means I gave a good account of myself in that race. I really wasn't holding out much hope for this fall, but some focused hard work has paid off and I feel good about another marathon PR in a few more weeks.

So, having the race (mine and others') to focus has been good for the past couple of weeks. But now the next item on the agenda is the trial and I am starting to freak out. I have a big running week, and that is going to help provided I can fit the runs in. My buddy DOMS, however, is not going to help. I work up early this morning, planning on an MLR, but decided to sleep in because I was still sore. I could have run, but thought giving it an extra 12 hours at least might help. I'll go for another short recovery run today at lunch, both to shake out the legs and to prevent freakout. And then hopefully something a bit longer tonight after meeting with the prosecutor.

Columbus Half Marathon Race Report

2009-10-19T11:19:00.002-04:00

Up until last weekend, I was ready to go all-out for sub-1:37. Then I got sick. I took three days off and only logged about 25 miles for the week. I was feeling mostly recovered by yesterday's race, but threw the sub-1:37 goal out the window and was prepared to be happy with sub-1:40. I figured I would just start running and see what happened.

Mark and carpooled with three others in two vehicles (was going to be six, but one ended up having to drive separately). Jon, Thom, and Shiva were our companions for the weekend. All three were running the full in the hope of qualifying for Boston. Since this was an important goal race for everyone else in our group, I felt the focus was not on me at all, and I didn't really feel nervous. It was a fun drive. We witnessed a high-speed police chase even (car sped by us in the shoulder, followed on the actual roadway a minute later by a police car). Who does that, seriously? It's not like anyone EVER gets away.

We stopped at Fazoli's for lunch and then arrived in Columbus in mid-afternoon. We headed straight to the expo, meeting up with Ben, Steph, Rick, and Melissa (Steph and Rick were also running the full). After packets and shopping (I got two Saucony shirts for the price of one!), we confirmed dinner plans and headed to the hotel.

Dinner was at a place called Bar Louie's. It was excellent. I had Thai-chili salmon, which was basically salmon with Thai stir-fry veggies/sauce and rice. Best restaurant meal I've had in awhile. Thanks to Steph for picking out this restaurant! Next time I'm in Columbus, I will definitely seek it out again.

After dinner we stopped back at the hotel, and then headed back out for a quick trip to pick up breakfast supplies. Well, it wasn't a quick trip due to some bad directions from the hotel clerk, but we finally managed to find the place. We finally got to bed around 1o p.m. We were sharing a room with Jon, and left the wake-up time completely up to him (5:45). In the morning, I had a banana, a few bites of a bagel, and some Gu for breakfast. I really need to work on forcing myself to eat more on race morning. I drank some water too.

The weather was clear, about 33 degrees. It was supposed to warm up only to 36-38 by the end of the race, so I opted for capri tights, a long-sleeve compression shirt, and a short-sleeve shirt over that. I wore gloves and an ear-warmer also.

We left the hotel at a little before 6:30. After a little confusion, we finally parked in a surface lot and walk/jogged for 10 minutes or so to get to the start with about 10 minutes to spare. The start was extremely crowded, with lined-up racers and people in line for the bathrooms all mingling together. There were no corrals or any indication of pace. Pacers were holding up white balloons with the paces written on them, but they were high up, and bobbing up and down, making them impossible read even from close by. Most things about this race seem well done, but their start line set-up needs some serious work. What a clusterfuck. Mark and I split off from the group and worked our way backwards to find shorter bathroom lines. This worked and we were in and out in five minutes, but working back up to the front of the sea of people was impossible.

I started with the walkers and took about 15 minutes to cross the line. I immediately went to the far right and luckily the road was quite wide and I was able to run relatively unencumbered. I was passing walkers for more than 2 miles. The mile markers at the beginning were on the left and I was to the right, so I missed the first mile.

1/2 - 14:28

I realized that I had actually started out a tad too fast. HA! I tried to ease up. I quickly found that settling into a groove was going to be impossible. Constant dodging and weaving.

3 - 7:27

The course narrowed and I found myself in a bottleneck. It was necessary to run in the grass much of the time.

4 - 7:40

We went through some residential neighborhoods with sidewalks, so I hopped up to take advantage of the "express lane." I had to pass everyone there too. Argh! I hope people didn't hate me too much! Still, I had a couple of better, more steady miles.

5 - 7:25
6 - 7:19

Miles 7-8 kinda sucked. Course was still causing me some bottleneck problems. I was getting plumb sick and tired of weaving. The crowds had thinned out a little, but not much.

7 - 7:43
8 - 7:30

The road widened again and I took advantage with a couple of faster miles. I was starting to feel tired and worried that I would crash again at mile 10.

9 - 7:16
10 - 7:26 (new 10-mile PR 1:14:18)

I realized I was through mile 10 about a minute faster than at Capital City, and I still felt like I could hang on. It was so tempting to give up. I really think my mental game in this race wasn't very good overall. It was a little boost to come around a corner and see mile 11.

11 - 7:35

I really lost focus in mile 12. I knew I could go faster, but that annoying little voice kept telling me I could slow down and still PR.

12 - 7:39

With 1.1 to go I finally dug in and got my legs moving again. There was an actual hill in this mile and it was fun to pass people on the way up. I was ready to be done but still feeling strong.

13 - 7:21

Coasted down the hill and managed a respectable sprint to the finish. I think my clock time was 1:5x. Ha. The announcer gave an admirable attempt at pronouncing my name.

13.1 - 0:41
Official Time: 1:37:33 (7:27 pace)

I went through the line and collected a mylar blanket, medal, finishers' fleece hat (very nice), and some water, then ducked aside to wait for Mark. I knew he had been stuck in the back too, and if he hit his goal, he shouldn't be far behind. Sure enough, he came through just a few minutes later. He didn't know his time, but we found out later he ran 1:40, nearly tying my old PR. YAY MARK! We spent about 45 minutes searching for the car; it didn't help that we misread one of the confusing confusing downtown maps. At least it was just a half and I could jog instead of hobble after the race. :) I was cold and shaking and Mark's hands were about to freeze off, but we finally made it to the car and changed into the warm, dry clothes.

We headed straight back out to mile 26 to cheer on the rest of our group. The first person we saw was Rick...on the sideline. The clock time was still sub-3, so we were surprised to see him and I stupidly asked him if he had already finished (his goal was 3:15). Unfortunately, Rick had an injury act up that forced him to pull out at mile 17. He used Mark's phone to call his wife Melissa and then headed off to find her. We stayed and waited nervously for the rest of our group. We cheered for everyone, but missed Jon and Rex.

Finally we swung back by the car and then headed to the finish to find our runners. We gathered in the warmth of one the buildings nearby and traded stories...it turned out to be a pretty tough day for the marathons corps. Jon was on pace for his BQ until mile 23, and then was hit with full-leg cramps. He was forced to walk it in. Shiva and Steph had both been battling injuries and finished around 3:22, short of their goals...but gutsy performances nonetheless. Thom ran a stellar, negative-splitted 3:04 after having a similar problem as me and starting way off the gun. He had been hoping for sub-3.

After showers, we ate lunch at Gordon Biersch, another great recommendation from Steph. The beer was yummy. Shiva and Jon were already talking about running Monumental in a few weeks, and Rick had mentioned that possibility as well. You can't get a good marathoner down! We lingered awhile and then finally hit the road to return home.

Post-Race Thoughts
I'm very pleased with how I did, but wish I could have gotten my splits under control and been better mentally. I know the dodging and weaving probably cost me some time. But even so, I plugged this time into the McMillan calculator, and this is my best running performance ever; it predicts a 21:06 5K, which is one second faster than my PR. It also predicts a 3:25 marathon. It looks as if my goal of 3:30 might be possible if I have a very good day. That will be my A goal, but my realistic B goal will likely be 3:32-33. C goal will probably be just to actually BREAK 3:40. :) Excitement! I kept having to check my watch to make sure the 1:37:xx was real.

Capital City River Run Half Marathon

2009-09-28T10:45:00.002-04:00

On Friday Mark and I drove up to Michigan, both for a visit with his parents and to run the half marathon, one of the organizers of which is a family friend. The drive up there always turns into an epic journey because apparently the favorite thing to do in both northern Indiana and Michigan is road construction and random, unexplained traffic backups. On no other drive have we come to a dead stop on the interstate so many times for no apparent reason. It's only a little more than 300 miles, but it usually takes us 6.5 to 7 hours to drive. There's nothing like inching forward past signs that say "Speed Limit 70 MPH" when it's past your bedtime and there's still more 100 miles to go.

We FINALLY got there, had a snack, and went straight to bed. Luckily this is a Sunday race, so we slept in to 9 a.m. the next morning, went for a short run (6.4 mi) and had breakfast. Mark's dad is a big Michigan football fan and has season tickets. They went to the Big House for the game (against IU, ha!), and his mother and I went to a movie (Up, which I have seen and she hadn't yet). It's a great movie and I was glad to see it again. Joan enjoyed it too. We got back in time to watch the last quarter of the Michigan/IU game.

Afterwards, we went out for dinner and went to bed soon after--we were waking up at 4:45 in order to get some breakfast and an early start on the 1:15 drive to Lansing for the race. We arrived around 7:30 and got shirts/bibs with no trouble. My new last name makes for easy locating on bib number lists, and low numbers (7!). I got a 15-minute warmup in and then we jogged to the start.

I was not sure what to expect from the race. My only real speedwork recently has been 2 tempo runs totalling 9 miles. The only other miles I've run under 8:00/mile were 8 MP miles at 7:58 a few weeks ago. Otherwise it's all been easy LSD. I know from last cycle that this works for me, but I didn't feel sharp and I didn't feel confident in my ability to run much faster than 8s for 13 miles. I always want to go for a PR, but I knew that probably wouldn't be in the cards for this one. Columbus has always been the secondary goal race of the season. This one was more for fun, at the suggestion of the family friend, and an opportunity to visit family.

Then there was the matter of the week preceding this race. I didn't want to sacrifice any workouts toward the bigger goal of Philly, so I wanted to keep the mileage right up. No taper to speak of. Because of the two days I took off the week prior, I had backloaded that week. Then I frontloaded the week preceding the race, so as to give myself a bit of extra rest. As a result, my 7-day total on the Wednesday before the race was 90 miles. Ouch. For me, that's a LOT. The two calendar weeks ended up at 64.3 and 68.0, which really masks the insanity of those 7 days. I ran a tempo run as part of a 16-miler (partly by accident...see my last post) on the Monday before. I hit 7:40 pace and it did not feel easy.

What I'm trying to get at in my rambling way is that I've never come close to running this much before, and I was feeling it. And I felt SLOW.

So I started in the race and just ran. I hit my watch at mile 1 and saw a 7:40. Well, that wasn't so bad. In fact, I was feeling good and thought maybe I'd speed up a little. A little too much actually! I missed mile 2 and at mile 3 realized I'd run 14:17 for two miles. At that point I just figured, the heck with it...I ran how I felt and just hit my watch for the splits. And they were varied. Miles 2-3 were fastest, but I ran a 7:20 quite late. This wasn't a race in which to hit a groove...this was a race to experiment and FIND that groove. I tried on paces like shoes. It was kind of fun to not worry so much about the end result and just run.

And of course, that took its toll at about mile 10. I actually came darn close to my 10-mile PR, but I was done. I knew I could basically call it in for the last 5K and run a 1:45 or so...a very good time, and my hard-fought PR from a year and a half ago. But I also thought this was a good opportunity to practice running marathon pace in an end-race-situation. Mile 10 was 8:00 and I just wanted to keep that up. Miles 11 and 12 did end up in the 7:50s, but then mile 13 slipped to 8:20ish. I picked it up a bit, finished, and saw that I'd PRed by 2 seconds with a 1:40:22. Ahhh, if only I'd kept up those 7:55s for one more mile, I'd be under 1:40! But truly, I am VERY pleased for a number of reasons.

Let's compare my previous 1:40 to this 1:40. In February I was in the middle of a painstaking marathon buildup. I had a very solid, long-term base. Six weeks earlier, I had a run a huge 10-mile PR. I averaged 62.7 miles in the 8 weeks before the race. The week preceding the race, I ran 41.8 miles and no speedwork, the longest run of which was 12 miles. It was a true mini-taper. I was gunning for 7:40 pace from the outset.

Right now, I'm coming off a shaky base. When I went back to get my 8-week average before CC, I realized that 8 weeks out I ran 15.3 miles, and that was just about what I was running for many weeks of the summer. The miles were higher since I started marathon training, but the 8-week average is 56.7. Six weeks ago I was very excited about simply making it through a 14-mile long run, and it felt like a 20-miler. The week preceding this race--well, I've already talked about that. Ouch. As I've mentioned, I had no clue what to pace for and ended up just doing them all--LOL!

Now let's compare the races themselves. Last Chance for Boston is a one-mile loop on perfectly flat ground. It's like time trial with race-day magic thrown in. Not only was pacing very easy, with every quarter mile marked, but there was nothing to break my rhythm and the mental part was very easy.

Capital City features a twisty, turny course, often narrow, with a variety of running surfaces, including asphalt, concrete, bricks, boardwalks, and dirt. No real hills, but a few inclines just big enough to make the legs whine. I actually really enjoyed it. It's a fun, interesting, scenic course, but I would NOT call it a PR course. I am grateful that my "fun" race fell to this course, and my secondary goal race will be at Columbus, which is in fact supposed to be a PR course.

We could even look at the weather. In February it was cold (duh!). Yesterday it was cool (55-60), but VERY humid (90-100%). I didn't feel like it bothered me that much, but most likely it did have an effect.

So, as you can see, I'm pretty stoked for Columbus. I feel that as long as I continue training well and avoid illness/injury, do a real mini-taper, execute a sensible race, and with a little luck in the weather department, I can sustain 7:20-7:25 pace and run a 1:37 half.

Training for Philly--three weeks in the bag

2009-09-22T09:21:00.002-04:00

Ugh, I'm such a once-a-month blogger. But luckily, my free time has been spent running. I've gotten some very good weeks in so far. I have been a little worried that I jumped back in too quickly, but so far the only hiccup was a slight strain of some sort that I had on my lower leg after an 18-mile trail run. I took two days off and it was good as new. Other than that, each week so far in the training cycle has been significantly higher than the average mileage from the last training cycle. I'm interested to see how the 12-week program works out.

Once significant change that I've made is to run tempo runs outside, albeit on the flattest routes Bloomington has to offer, and in places that make it easy to pace (marked, paved trails and last night, a track). It feels MUCH harder. But I think it's mostly mental.

Last night's workout was a monster, and a little more than I bargained for. I was originally scheduled to run a 5-mile tempo today, but I figured, with the half coming up and the group doing speedwork of their own on the Rail Trail yesterday, I would join in and get an extra day of recovery. Despite what happened there, the Rail Trail is just such a wonderful place to run, and it's good to take any opportunity to run there safely (i.e., with other people). Some were doing 800s and others 2-mile repeats.

I figured out that I could run to the store to meet the group, then with the tempo plus warm-up and cool-down, I would have a total of 11 miles on the day, which was only one more than written. The route on the trail was out and back with a turnaround that fell right on a road. It was meant to be!

So I left work, beat the rush out of the parking lot, and ran down to the store. Upon my arrival, I learned that the group was heading up to one of the local high school tracks...3 miles away (the Rail Trail is 1.5 miles away). Urgh. And the thought of doing 5 miles of tempo on a track wasn't exactly attractive. I certainly didn't want to head down to the Rail Trail alone. I'd kind of had my heart set on getting the tempo done.

As we ran up to the track, I argued with myself and finally decided that 14 on the day wouldn't kill me. I would simply cut out today's morning run. We ran up to the school (mostly uphill) and turned into a subdivision. I had dropped behind because the main group was doing sub-9s for their warm-up. I later found out that this was a shortcut, but unfortunately I didn't know the shortcut and ended up going in a big circle and then found myself back out on the main road. I finally found the track, where everyone else had already gotten started. Good thing I'm doing my own thing anyway. The 3-mile warm-up turned into 4.58 miles. I started the tempo and felt meh on the first 2 miles, ucky by mile 3, and hanging on for miles 4 and 5. But somehow I still kept chugging out 7:40 miles. It was very humid, and I would like to think that that coupled with the Epic Warm-up made my effort level good for more like 7:30 miles. My splits were 7:40, 7:35, 7:40, 7:41, 7:39. I honestly don't know how I managed any kind of consistency.

I finished and rested and had some water while the others finished, and slogged back in the dark. This time we took a real shortcut and it was "only" 3.2 miles back. My grand total for the day? 16.12 miles. My legs were in real pain. Not soreness or injury pain. Just pain. We swung by the grocery for some recovery ice cream and when we got home, I ate, drank, and put on my OxySox (just ordered them last week). I honestly don't know if they really aid recovery, but damn they feel good.

So...anyway, that was pretty crazy and I hope I'm better for it. I am thinking that should just replace the 15-mile MLR I had scheduled for tomorrow. This week was already weird with a pre-race recovery run replacing my long run. And now it is in for more rearranging. Whoo.

I have no clue what to expect for the half this weekend. My tempo run was at at pace that matched my PR pace from February, and I don't think I could have gone another lap. I am just going to start running and see how I feel. Race-day magic might take over...or I might turn it into an MP run...we shall see!

The fall racing season

2009-08-20T16:56:00.002-04:00

It is going to be an interesting cycle. After two months of very little running, I'm about to start marathon training again. I mapped out my schedule (a Pfitz 12-weeker), which starts August 30 and culminates with the Philadelphia Marathon on November 22. I have one, possibly two half marathons planned in the interim.

And that's about all I really know. I don't know about goals, and I certainly don't know what to expect. With my current fitness, even the first week of the schedule is going to be challenging. I am fully prepared to modify it, and I will probably have to.

I do have one hopeful sign, which I'm clinging to for dear life. The Red Eye Relay went unexpectedly well for me; in fact, I had a pace PR. Last year (on a solid base) I averaged about 8:00/mile, and fell apart during the last leg. This year (on a shaky base, after barely making it through a 9-mile trail run just a week before), I ran strongly on all three legs and finished with a 7:54/mile average. Since then, I still had two very low-mileage weeks, but have since picked the ball back up.

I believe I needed some time off physically and mentally to recuperate from what was basically a two-year push to BQ. Maybe I'm just well-rested? Time will tell. I think I'm going to run the Capital City River Run Half Marathon in late September to tell me how I'm doing.

Doing much better!

2009-08-17T09:06:00.002-04:00

Wow, the difference between now and about 10 days ago is like night and day. I feel like a different person. And for all the people who left comments of love and support, I simply cannot convey to you how much your words mean to me. My running motivation is back with a vengeance; I made it 14 miles Saturday and then came back for another 9.5 Sunday. It's quite an upswing...I'd have to check, but I think I averaged 20-25 miles per week for the past several, and then last week I ran 45. I think enough of my fitness from May remains that moving back up into the 40s won't kill me. I'm used to caution (which I think has kept me virtually injury-free), so this climb seems precipitous, but in truth I think I'm all right.

So, I wanted to put that happy update first, because I will now do this silly survey. Or, at least I will until work picks up for the day.

MIROLOGY

***FOODOLOGY***

What is your salad dressing of choice?
Newman's Own Olive Oil and Vinegar.

What is your favorite sit-down restaurant?
Olive Garden.

What food could you eat every day for two weeks and not get sick of?
Pasta!

What are your pizza toppings of choice?
Cheese, pineapple, green peppers, Roma tomatoes (not all at the same time!).

What do you like to put on your toast?
Butter.

***TECHNOLOGY***

How many televisions are in your house?
Just one. Used more for video games and movies than actual television.

What color is your cell phone?
Blue.

Do you have an iPod?
Yep.

***BIOLOGY***

Are you right-handed or left-handed?
Righty.

Have you ever had anything removed from your body?
Wisdom teeth.

What is the last heavy item you lifted?
Lugging groceries up the stairs to the apt.

Have you ever been knocked unconscious?
No, but I have fainted.

***BULLOLOGY***

If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die?
Eeek...no way!

If you could change your name, what would you change it to?
I actually like mine just fine.

Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1000?
Can I sub in Mark for this one and keep the cash?

***FAVORITOLOGY***

Season?
Spring or autumn.

Holiday?
Thanksgiving.

Day of the week?
Friday!!

Month?
April, May, or October.

***CURRENTOLOGY***

Missing someone?
Yes.

Mood?
Calm, hopeful.

What are you listening to?
My space heater. Yes, I know it's August. Tell that to my employer. They keep it COLD in here!

Current worry?
The trial.

***RANDOMOLOGY***

First place you went this morning?
Laundry room to find clean clothes.

What's the last movie you saw?
Bonus features from the Watchmen movie: Tales of the Black Freighter and Under the Hood. In the theater, The Ugly Truth.

When was your last run-in with the cops?
I wouldn't exactly call it a run-in, but my last interaction was when I reported my assault in December.

Last person you talked to?
Mark.

Last person you hugged?
Mark.

Do you always answer your phone?
Most of the time.

It's four in the morning and you get a text message, who is it?
Probably someone I don't know!

If you could change your eye color what would it be?
Grey (not gray).

What flavor do you add to your drink at Sonic?
Huh?

Do you own a digital camera?
Yes.

Have you ever had a pet fish?
Yes. Black mollies, among others. They were named Molly and Black. I wrote a story about them in second grade.

Favorite Christmas song(s)?
Happy Xmas (War Is Over!), What Child Is This?, O Holy Night

What's on your wish list for your birthday?
Uhhh. Well, it's far off, so nothing specific, but probably books and running gear!

Can you do push-ups?
The wimpy kind, but I'm working on it!

Can you do the splits?
Eeeek! Not a chance.

Does the future make you more nervous or excited?
A little of both.

Do you have any saved texts?
I think? I don't know how to save or delete them, so whichever my phone defaults to, that's what I do.

Have you ever been in a car accident?
Yes, but luckily none involving injuries.

Do you have an accent?
Yes, especially when excited and/or emotional.

What is the last movie to make you cry?
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Plans tonight?
Group run and grocery shopping.

Have you ever felt like you hit rock bottom?
Yes.

Name three things you bought yesterday.
Didn't buy anything yesterday. Most recently, from Bloomingfoods: bread, chocolate soymilk, hummus.

Have you ever been given roses?
Yes.

Met someone who changed your life?
Yes.

Name two people who might complete this?
Dunno!

Would you go back in time if you were given the chance?
You know, I really have no idea.

Have you ever dated someone longer than a year?
Yes. We got married.

Do you have any tattoos/piercings?
Nope.

Does anyone love you?
Yes.

Would you be a pirate?
Not a real one, but Johnny Depp style, heck yeah!

What songs do you sing in the shower?
A very random assortment.

Ever had someone sing to you?
Yep.

Do you like to cuddle?
Oh yes!

Have you held hands with anyone today?
Nope.

Who was the last person you took a picture of?
I think it was Michelle at the Red Eye Relay.

Are most of the friends in your life new or old?
Some of both!

Do you like pulpy orange juice?
Ewwwwwwwwwwwww.

What is something your friends make fun of you for?
Running and/or reading too much.

Still here...more or less

2009-08-05T15:54:00.002-04:00

If you had told me at the beginning of the year that things could get any worse, I would have laughed. It was a bit of a rough start, after all. Things seemed pretty bad. And yet, it was easy to see the silver lining. And many good things have come to me since, including a Boston qualifier and getting married. I was the lucky recipient of a lot of heartfelt support from friends and family, support that has not, I hasten to add, waned. People awed me with their generosity and love at a time when doubting humanity would have been easy. Surely things have improved! On the surface, things certainly have. So why do I feel so terrible? How can I complain when I am so lucky?

Nevertheless, I seem to be at a low point. I think the immediate reason for this is that the trial, originally scheduled for June and postponed until earlier this week, has been moved again, to October. Both times, I found out right before it happened, after weeks of building myself up to the terrifying act of testifying about the things done to me in front of the...piece of garbage...who did them to me. I had hoped to have a relatively normal second half of the year. Now I can't even remember what normal feels like. I still hold out hope for 2010! Sigh.

Time solves a lot of problems, but so far, is not solving this one. My mind whirls, I feel restless and sometimes out of breath for no reason, and I still get nervous if someone is right behind me. I can't stop thinking--it's the biggest problem. It has helped to read voraciously. If I'm reading a book, I can't think about what happened. I read 16 books in July. I've read two and am halfway through another two, five days into August. I can't seem to stir myself into doing much else.

The problem with the thinking is that when I run, a lot of thinking happens. Under normal circumstances, the mind eventually empties and I enter a sort of meditative state. But now, I can't get there and I just relive everything, over and over again. So I haven't been running much. Running with other people helps, but not always. I can't explain why this is happening now. I thought about it a lot when I was running 60-70 miles a week in the spring, and almost had a "bring it on" attitude. Possibly since I had my goal of making it to Boston, and it happened during a training run in pursuit of that goal, I somehow turned the whole training cycle into a protest, an empowerment. Every run was a statement, proving something. But now I seem to have lost that focus...I'm ready for it to go away, and running does nothing but bring it back. My greatest passion has turned against me... (OMG what a sob story)

Well, this is all enormously depressing, and I apologize to anyone who has made it this far and hasn't stopped reading in disgust. I should add that I'm sure this is simply the next step of mental trauma recovery or whatever. I'm sure it will pass. Having something like this happen, and then making it to Boston, certainly made for a pretty story, but the story is not over. The real marathon is the endless slog of colorless days that run into one another, a blur of just trying to get through each day and appear normal. Zombie. (If I'm to the slogging part, surely the finish line is coming up soon?) The story WILL have a happy ending. We do have to earn our happy endings, though. I'm not quite there, but I sense that I'm making progress.

My reading nook

2009-07-04T10:38:00.003-04:00

I've always wanted to have a special place to sit and read. This is kind of hard to accomplish in a one-bedroom apartment, but our current place has a little "den" just off the main room that I've always thought ideal. We used it as a place to stash our running stuff for a while, but it looked really cluttered, so we moved that to the bedroom. For most of this year, I've been working on transforming it into a dedicated reading nook. I finally "finished" it.

15 Books That Inspire Me

2009-06-30T14:08:00.002-04:00

Angela tagged me...

No tagging from me, as usual...if you see this and want to list your books, go for it!

Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you’ve read that will always stick with you, in no particular order, and not necessarily favorites. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes...

1. AVA (Carole Maso)
2. Bel Canto (Ann Patchett)
3. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
4. The Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien) [That kinda counts as one, I guess.]
5. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
6. Voyage of the Dawn Treader (C.S. Lewis)
7. Bridge to Terabithia (Katherine Paterson)
8. The Velveteen Rabbit (Margery Williams)
9. Atonement (Ian McEwan)
10. A Wrinkle in Time (Madeleine L'Engle)
11. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
12. Where the Red Fern Grows (Wilson Rawls)
13. A Natural History of the Senses (Diane Ackerman)
14. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (Annie Dillard)
15. The Things They Carried (Tim O'Brien)

This was fun!

Quick update post

2009-06-29T12:39:00.002-04:00

So, I got married! Everything went really well and come together beautifully for the wedding, and the honeymoon was a dream. Maybe I can devote a post or two to those here pretty soon.

The trial, which was supposed to take place a week ago, has been continued until August. Hates! I was pretty down about it, but seem to be back to "normal." Or maybe I'm just insane permanently and have forgotten what normal feels like? There's no telling! :-P

Our next big project? We're buying a house! Our plan is to save like there's no tomorrow (that makes no sense, but you know what I mean), and evaluate at the end of the year to see what sort of price range we can realistically support. Then we can house-hunt in the "off-season," which I've read has some advantages. That gives us 8 months to find something and close. If for whatever reason we can't find something we like and need to keep renting, we will simply find a new apartment (we want out of this place either way--the apartment itself is awesome, but the management company sucks). Then we can keep saving and searching.

In the meantime, I'm looking forward to a quiet summer to be spent rebuilding my marathon training base, reducing my TBR bookcase, and just enjoying life instead of freaking out all the time. Things are bound to get interesting again in August, but I have a little while before that happens...

Philly: The great experiment

2009-05-07T10:42:00.002-04:00

One of the nice things about running a marathon this fall is the relative lack of pressure. I mean, I have plenty of things to stress out about other than how well I run marathons, but the fact of the matter is, they're important to me and I put a heck of a lot of time into getting faster. And Illinois was special because so much meaning was wrapped up in finally getting that BQ. I wasn't stressed out in the same way I am for, say, the wedding, or the rail-trail attack trial, or even the way I used to be about important school projects, but I did feel pressure to not take many chances with my training. I experimented a little with my training for Monumental (more speedwork, somewhat fewer miles) and it backfired.

But now that I have the BQ and a definite ticket to Boston 2010, I don't "need" to run a marathon this fall. I just want to! And I don't "need" to run any certain time. I do want to get faster, but I feel more freedom to try different things to get there.

Here are some ideas I've had so far:

Shorter training cycle (Pfitz 12/70?)
Two-week taper

The thinking behind these two things is that I've always followed 18-week plans. Is it possible I am missing my peak in that time? There was a discussion about this on the women's BQ thread on RWOL, triggered by a fellow forumite surprisingly missing her BQ after a tough, gutsy race in New Jersey. One hypothesis offered was that she had been in better condition around the time she ran a huge half marathon PR, and by the time the marathon came around, she was coming down off her peak. This got me thinking. Eighteen weeks is a long time--mentally, it's hard for me to stay motivated for that long. I'll have weeks in the middle in which I take extra days off simply because I can't make myself go. A shorter cycle might help keep me focused a little more. And it would be interesting to see how things go in the race itself if I do.

As for the shorter taper, I've never had any trouble recovering from workouts. Even the day after a 20-miler, I generally feel fine, with no soreness. By the end of my three-week tapers, I mentally question whether I can even make it to the finish line, let alone run fast! Once again there's a mental and a physical aspect here. Mentally, the two-week taper would be easier on me, and I believe that physically, my body could run a marathon well after 14-15 days of tapering.

So, if I do this, I wouldn't start training for Philly until the first week of September. That leaves five or six weeks between my goal 5K in July and marathon training. I'm not sure what I would use that time for; most likely, I would just run easy miles, maybe some MP or steady-state runs, and keep up the base. It'll be nice not to be doing specific marathon training in August. Blech.

Yes, another marathon after all

2009-04-27T10:55:00.005-04:00

The marathon and I are very committed to each other. Marathon was kind to me this spring, giving me a great course with great weather and no hitches. Yet I considered seeing other races and putting Marathon on the backburner for a while. I thought this might be best for both of us. I was missing my old flame, 5K, quite a lot, and wanted to get to know Half Marathon and 10K a little better.

As it turns out, however, I just couldn't go through with it. I realized how much I would miss Marathon this fall. I realized that when I run any other race, all I do is compare it with Marathon. And so, I am committing to run the Philadelphia Marathon on November 22. This is one I've wanted to do for a few years. This seems like a good time. I don't have a solid goal for the race. It would be super cool to shoot for 3:30, but this might be a tad ambitious. I'll decide nearer to the race after I have some training and a tune-up race or two under my belt. So Marathon is the one for me.

But I'm not as fickle as all that! I'll still spend some time with my other good friends (just friends of course!). I still plan on targeting the Limestone Classic 5K with the hope of going under 21 minutes. And I will schedule a half marathon, probably in October sometime, in the hope of going sub-1:37 for my New York qualifier (these two goals line up neatly according to McMillan, by the way). If I accomplish these two goals, I think shooting for 3:30-3:35 at Philly will be perfectly reasonable. I feel liberated after finally accomplishing the Boston qualifier--I feel free to experiment and tinker with this cycle. I do know I want to up the mileage again. I don't know how much more I can realistically do, but as usual I'll build gradually and play it by ear.

I'm also not completely obsessed with these fast PR races. I'm scheduling not one, but now TWO hard, hilly relays. There is, of course, the 100-mile Red Eye Relay in July. And I found out today that I'm in for Dances with Dirt Gnawbone on May 9! These are both more like fun runs--I'll want to run hard, but not all-out. They're definitely more about the experience than the time. For DwD, Women with Will has entered three teams, which means that there will be three W3ers out together at any given time. We'll run together (in costume, I believe!) and just have fun and try not to get lost! DwD is a trail ultra/marathon/relay that is famous for its tough hills and crazy course.

So it promises to be an exciting year of running and racing. I just hope I can continue to stay injury-free and healthy!!!!

Boston!!

2009-04-21T09:11:00.003-04:00

I barely had a chance to descend from my post-marathon high when I shot back up again, along with the entire running community, with the 113th Boston Marathon, which took place yesterday. Knowing that I will be joining those ranks in a year's time only made it more exciting!

The women's BQ thread from RWOL sent four regular posters and two occasional posters to the Boston Marathon this year. It was such a fun time tracking them while watching the elite races unfold on the Universal Sports webcast. I also tracked some local women I know from one of my running groups, as well as my friend Tracy from Louisville, who had an excellent race on that tough course. Besides that, RWOL was alive with tracking threads, both on MRT and on the Boston forum. It was such an exciting day. HikerGirl, BarbBQ, MichiganMama, and Betaboo--you all did a great job! I can't wait to read race reports and hear (see?) your thoughts.

The elite races were very exciting to watch. Kara Goucher, in only her second marathon, stayed tucked into the lead pack for the entire race. She put in a surge in the last few miles, but couldn't quite hold on. She ran a smart race and had the win in her sights, but as so often happens, the stars just didn't quite align. I have a feeling she'll be hungry for a victory (hopefully she'll be back in Boston next year!). Kara faded back, and the race was decided in a heartstopping sprint between Dire Tune and Salina Kosgei. I thought Tune was going to get it, since she won in similar fashion last year, but Kosgei got a stride up on her and crossed one second ahead.

I was also very impressed with Ryan Hall. He ran a gutsy race, seemingly determined to show the world that he's someone to be reckoned with. At the gun, he was off like a shot, leading the pack through a blistering first several miles. Then he seemed to fade completely. As eventual winner Deriba Merga put in a powerful surge that pretty much lasted to the finish, we lost sight of Ryan Hall. I thought he was toast, wasted after his risky burst of opening speed. But he didn't give up. In fact, he gave second-place Daniel Rono a run for his money and managed a solid third-place showing. He shaped the race into what it was: not a tactical game, like the women's race, but a fast-paced contest of attrition.

So, with the marathon afterglow renewed by the excitement of Boston, it's been hard to run too much or too fast during my own training runs. I've been running steadily, but keeping things easy. Yesterday I was definitely a bit too fast (8:30 miles), but I think I can be forgiven after such an exciting day. Today, maybe a rest day would be in order, but if I run, it will be short and VERY easy. I'm determined to keep things easy while building my mileage back up to around 50 mpw. On May 3, I'm going to start a new training program. This one will be targeting a 5K, the Limestone Classic in July. This race is well known locally for being fast and accurate. I'm thinking a sub-21 could be a real possibility. I haven't training specifically for a 5K since college, and then I didn't have the solid base that I have now. I also eat better and get more sleep now. Could I get faster than I was in college? I will find out in July!

After that, I'm not sure what I'm going to do. The allure of running a fall marathon is definitely there, but I also want to try my hand at shorter races, not just this 5K. I would also like to go sub-1:37 for the half marathon, in order to qualify for automatic entry into the NYC Marathon. So it's possible that I will start a half marathon program, targeted toward one or two halfs in the fall. Nothing definite yet though!

The epic-length Illinois race report

2009-04-12T16:31:00.005-04:00

"Sweat cleanses from the inside. It comes from places a shower will never reach." --George Sheehan

This race, Boston qualifier or no Boston qualifier, is inextricably linked with a host of emotional and personal issues, so...well, bear with me. I knew months ago that no matter what the results, this race would be a resolution of sorts. Writing about it in absurd amounts of detail is simply my way of decompressing from a training cycle frought with fear, excitement, numbness, triumph, and confusion. If you just want to know how I did in the race, results and splits are to be found at the bottom. But to me, it will always be an ending to the story begun late last year. Long story short, less than two weeks after this training cycle began in December, I was attacked and sexually assaulted while on a training run. I posted about it at the time, as I'm sure many of you remember, and the support and encouragement I received was a priceless gift at a difficult time. Thank you all, once again! It felt imperative to me to talk to fellow runners about it, especially women, who, like me, run a lot of miles alone. But I still haven't been able to bring myself to talk about it with many people in my life.

Anyway. I was not physically harmed beyond a few minor scratches, so I ran the very next day on the treadmill. It felt good to move and to sweat. I immediately felt better. I think it helped me sleep that night (but the biggest help was the fact that the man who had attacked me had been arrested). And so it went. I threw myself into training, running longer miles than I had previously thought possible. If I felt like wavering, I just tapped into the anger and helplessness brought on by the attack. It's as if by not running, I allowed him to "win." He had attacked and prevented me that day from running, my antidote for life, my means of escape. I wouldn't let him stop me, and I wouldn't let him taint it. Sometimes I ran with clenched fists, trying to process the anger.

For this training cycle, my second serious BQ attempt, I chose to move up from Pfitzinger's 18/55 training plan to his 18/70 training plan. I had originally planned to modify it to lessen the mileage a bit, but instead I ended up following it very closely, allowing myself extra rest days here and there. I stood up to the jump in mileage very well, I believe, because I concentrated on running much slower, in general, than I was used to. Recovery runs were in the 9:45-10:00 range, long runs 9:30-10:00 (dipping down to around 9:20 in the latter half of the cycle), general aerobic around 9:15-9:30, and tempos around 7:40-7:50. I stopped thinking about paces and concentrated on how I was feeling. On a recovery run, I didn't want to hear myself breathing. If I needed extra oxygen, I was probably running too fast and not truly recovering. My total mileage was 1043.29 miles from December 8 to April 10, for an overall average of 58.28. I peaked at just more than 70 miles, and my cutback weeks (sometimes with an extra day off) hovered a little below 50 miles.

I also ran three tune-up races. The first was a 10-miler, in which I PRed by about five minutes with a 1:14:52 (7:30 pace). I knew I was on to something. The second was a half marathon. Another near-five-minute PR, 1:40:24 (7:40 pace). The third was three weeks out from race day, a 10K in 44:11 (7:07 pace), a 97-second PR--over a time from high school, almost ten years ago, on a downhill course. These told me that I was still seeing above-average fall-off in pace as the distance increased, but that this problem was improving with my higher mileage. And could the slower overall pace have something to do with it too? Most of all, they told me that I could probably expect somewhat less difference between my half marathon and marathon paces. Before it was 48 seconds. Now, I needed it to be 46 seconds or less in order to squeak in for the BQ.

A note on my previous BQ attempt(s). I ran Sunburst 2008 as a bid to finally break 4 hours for the marathon; it was not an "official" BQ attempt. I went out shooting for 3:45-3:50. However, because of a snafu with the mile markers, I found myself on BQ pace at halfway and feeling amazing. The stars just aligned for that race. But the one responsible for my foot missed the boat. It suddenly started hurting at mile 17. I'll never know if I could have finished in 3:40, but I think I would have been close. My foot was like a ball and chain holding me back, but the rest of me continued to feel amazing until at least mile 23...and even with the foot, I held on pretty well for a 3:50 finish. Then I ran my first legitimate attempt last fall at Monumental 2008. I didn't get in the training that I wanted and I was overambitious, causing me to go out for the 3:35 I thought I was in shape for. I crashed at mile 20 and struggled in at 3:57. I would not be making that mistake again!

During the week of the race, I drank a lot of water, ate a lot of carbs, and got a lot of sleep. Although I thought about setting a more ambitious goal based on my training cycle and tune-up races, I decided in the end that 3:40:59 had to my sole objective. There would be no A, B, or C goal here. It was all or nothing.

On race morning, I woke eight minutes before the two alarms I had set for 5 a.m. I had been suffering from back pain all the day before, and as I got up and tried to move around, I discovered that it was worse than ever. I could walk or run forward with no problem, but twisting around hurt like hell. I suppose I should be thankful I wasn't playing a big tennis tournament or something that day! It also hurt to hunch over, and I was worried that my back would cramp up late in the race. But I had no control over that (other than staying well hydrated, which I did). So I went about my race morning preparations. I took a shower, which helped ease the back pain somewhat. Then I met my friend and fellow blogger Joe down in the hotel lobby to hand off his race bag (he drove in that morning and had asked me to pick it up for him the night before). He had made me a small sign that read, "A BQ in C-U! Go Mir!" I was very touched, and it also gave me a thrill of motivation. I told myself, "I will make this come true."

Finally all was ready and we left the hotel at about 7 a.m. We parked near the start line and immediately began searching for the bathrooms. First we tried the stadium. Huge lines out the doors. Ugh. I heard someone say they had 40 portajohns near the start. Excellent. Maybe not so many people there since it was still 30 minutes until race time and it was pretty cold to just stand around (38 degrees, slight wind). We made our way down to the start. Oh, okay, so about a billion people. Oops. Still, with that many portajohns the wait wouldn't be so bad. Then I realized that the start corral was lined with portajohns--that faced inward. People were squeezing through masses of people waiting for the bathroom, looking for their pace groups. Other people, like me, were about to wet their pants by this time and simply wanted to find the end of the damn line. It was an utter clusterf*. Finally I found the end of a line and got in. Spontaneous urination was imminent. A wonderful person named Lindsay actually let me cut in front of her because she didn't have to go as badly. She was going for between 1:30 and 1:40 in the half. I hope you did great, Lindsay!

Once I got out of the bathroom there was nowhere to go but back into the crowd. I found myself near the 3:30 pace group. I simply didn't have the energy to fight my way back to the 3:40 pace group. I didn't plan on using the pace group, but I figured on hanging nearby for at least a few miles to help me get into a groove. Well, whatever. Allowing 3:40 to catch up would help me have a relaxed first mile. I would just have to stay to one side and try not to get in anyone's way. I had a few minutes to mentally prepare. I felt relaxed and ready. The weather was perfect, it wasn't too windy, and I was tentatively confident of a good day.

I crossed the line about a minute after the gun. I tried to stay as calm and relaxed as I could. I was a little shocked to see the first mile marker already. 8:01! Holy crap. Okay, Mir, just dial it back a notch. That is much too fast. I was actually a little pleased. If 8 minute pace felt that relaxed, then 8:20s were going to feel like a jog. Then the next mile was 9:07. Don't dial it back THAT much! Eeeek! Still, now I had the 3:40 group about 50 feet in front of me. Well, good, I thought. Still, I felt like I had to speed up just a bit, and it did not feel like a jog.

I stripped off my throwaway hat, then my throwaway long-sleeve T-shirt. I hit mile 3 in 8:28. Better, but on the high side of my goal range. Still, I relaxed again. Mile 4 came in 8:14. Oh, eek. What is up with this pace group? In mile 5 I threw down the gauntlet (gloves. HA.) and moved past the pace group. Mile 5 in 8:17. Here we go! I never saw the pace group again.

I had been trying for the past couple of miles to assess exactly how I was feeling and how I was reacting to this pace. The signals coming back were not overwhelmingly positive. At Sunburst last year, I felt perfect just cruising along, and the miles flying by. At Monumental, the miles flew by, but I knew I was using up energy too quickly. Here, I was somewhere in the middle. Although my mile times were better, at no time did I feel like I hit a real groove. The miles didn't click off like clockwork; I was very aware of each one. I did feel relaxed and very good, but I realized I was going to have to stay very focused to maintain my pace. I felt as early as mile 3 that the BQ was not necessarily in the bag, and that I might find myself in a real struggle at the end. I concentrated on getting to 10 miles, then the half, then 17 miles. Mile 17 is sort of like my own personal wall. That's where things always seem to fall to pieces, one way or another. At Sunburst, still feeling like a million bucks, that's where my foot suddenly started hurting. At Monumental, that's where I realized for sure that yes, the pace was too fast, and I started falling off.

I hit 17 still feeling good. Not exactly Sunday-jog-in-the-park good, but the same relaxed-but-focused good that I had settled into. Legs were still feeling decent. I started to pick off some carnage from the 3:30 pace group. Passing people caused me to subtly push the pace, although I was a little shocked to run mile 18 in 8:04. Ooh. Probably not a good idea; you still have a ways to go. Although I still felt good, I didn't think it was going to last. Mile 19 was back to 8:24. All right. Just keep it here. That's all you need to do. Still, I could feel fatigue creeping in. I began to work. Legs still feeling okay, but heavy. I don't have a heart rate monitor, but I guessed that my heartrate was up. I could hear myself breathing.

As I counted the miles down, I hung on doggedly to the pace. Mile 21, 8:21. Awesome. But five more miles seemed like a long way. Mile 22 in 8:27. Really starting to feel it. I tried to reason with myself. What exactly is the pain you are feeling? Your brain is trying to trick you into slowing down. I was feeling it in my legs, but I didn't have the quad-busting pain that I had had in the past. You know, the kind where you keep looking down to make sure your legs aren't mangled stumps of bloody meat? The mileage had prepared my legs well. It wasn't that. I was just running low on fuel and my body was ready to quit. Mile 23 crawled by in 8:34. Argh. I had another argument with myself. You can't give up now. Hang on for three more miles and you have it. But another part of me sized up the fact that now I was getting really tired. Would the race or my body give out first? I eked out mile 24 in 8:28. Only two left! Come on, this will be such a crappy story if you don't BQ!

This is where I started trying (and failing) to do the math. I realized, peering at my pace band, that I had banked some time. I couldn't figure out exactly how much, perhaps a minute or so. How much could I afford to slow down? I had no idea, so I kept throwing each leg forward, one after the other. "Don't stop, don't stop, don't stop," I kept telling myself. Mile 25 was 8:38. Oh crap. I realized that my legs were dead, and it was entirely possible that my conservative race plan had not left me enough time to make up for late-race fading. Had I cut it too close?

My fiance found me late in mile 26. By this time I was just ready to be done. I couldn't manage complete sentence, only curses. Mark ran with me for a couple of tenths, maybe a quarter mile, and told me I was getting close. "It's just around this corner, and then you're in the stadium," he said. "You're almost there."

Mark has finished a marathon and knows better than to say "You're almost there" unless you ARE almost there. I growled, "Too many corners," spat curse words with every exhilation, and struggled gamely on. But I could sense the end was near. Mark peeled off and I picked up a bit more speed. Mile 26 in 8:40. Descend into stadium, every step a jolt. Flail out onto football field. Motor control gone. I looked down and saw 3:39 something on my watch. I had to run all the way up the field, make a wide U-turn, then run halfway back down. I put my head down and gave it everything I had left, miraculously not colliding with anyone. I looked up and saw the race clock ticking inexorably to 3:41, but knew I had a minute beyond that. I threw myself across the finish line right at 3:41 gun time, 3:40:07 net time.

I finally did it.

1. 8:01 (8:01)
2. 9:07 (17:08)
3. 8:28 (25:36)
4. 8:14 (33:50)
5. 8:17 (42:08)
6. 8:32 (50:40)
7. 8:21 (59:02)
8. 8:23 (1:07:26)
9. 8:14 (1:15:40)
10. 8:21 (1:24:02)
11. 8:30 (1:32:32)
12. 8:24 (1:40:57)
13. 8:21 (1:49:18)
14. 8:12 (1:57:31)
15/16. 16:39 (2:14:10)
17. 8:17 (2:22:28)
18. 8:04 (2:30:32)
19. 8:24 (2:38:57)
20. 8:25 (2:47:22)
21. 8:21 (2:55:44)
22. 8:27 (3:04:12)
23. 8:34 (3:12:47)
24. 8:28 (3:21:15)
25. 8:38 (3:29:54)
26. 8:40 (3:38:34)
26.2. 1:32 (3:40:07)

First half: 1:50:12; second half: 1:49:55.

I am notoriously bad about prerace fueling. I've always had trouble forcing myself to eat early in the morning. I managed to get down some Carnation Instant Breakfast and a GU. Obviously something to work on. I also took GUs after each hour of racing. Besides that, I alternated water and Gatorade at all but two or three water stops (always drinking water with the GU). I sipped water throughout the morning before the race, until one hour before the start. After my prerace bathroom adventure, I never needed to go during the race.

This was an inaugural race, and I would say that, other than the clusterf* that was the start/bathroom lines, the organizers did a great job. Crowd support was good, and people seemed genuinely excited to have a race coming through their neighborhoods. The number of water stops was adequate. Some of them gave out full bottles of water, though, which was very wasteful. I hope the later runners didn't suffer because of this. I couldn't have asked for better weather; 38 at the start and 49 at the finish. The day was sunny, but with the cooler temps it didn't become a factor for me. Headwind noticeable at times but not bothersome. No hills to speak of.

Upon more thought, I actually don't feel that I peaked very well for this race. But my training got me through. Mission accomplished!

The pre-race rundown

2009-04-09T10:39:00.003-04:00

All righty, people, it's time. Marathon number 9. Number 9, number 9, number 9, numb--oh, sorry. Anyone get that reference?

The number 9 does seem to hold some significance. I mean, who needs the single measly charm that 3 brings, when you have 9? Ninth time is a triple charm! Boo-yah! And I'm going to need it. It's no secret that my major goal of the past several years has been to improve my marathon time enough to qualify for Boston. I muddled my way through several marathons before really buckling down to focus on what I needed to do in order to improve to 3:40. My "running renaissance," as I call it, began in December 2006. First, I set out to break the four-hour barrier. It took three tries (although the second one was Twin Cities 2007 [heat wave], which hardly counts!). But finally, at Sunburst 2008, I broke through the barrier with a 3:50. In fact, if my foot hadn't started hurting, I think I had a legitimate shot at 3:40 that day. I thought 3:40 was in the bag that fall. But a training plan that didn't work well for me (namely too much speedwork and running too fast in general), along with some overconfidence and going out too fast, led to my downfall despite good conditions and a fast course at the new Monumental Marathon in November 2008.

This time would be different. This time I would leave no doubt. I mapped out a new, harder plan, with much more mileage than I was used to. At the same time, I resolved to slow down. I can run a 5K that predicts a MUCH faster marathon than I'm capable of. I realized that there's nothing wrong with my speed, but my aerobic capacity kind of sucks! That's what I needed to work on. I even had some adversity thrown in. Well, pile it on, life! ::grits teeth and puts head down:: Somehow it all just made it more imperative that I suck it up and get moving. If I wanted this, I was going to have to bust my ass.

Here are the results:

Right, so, I ran a lot. To be exact, 1042.89 miles* this cycle. That's an average of 58.26 miles per week. Let's compare to last spring, my previous best training cycle to date, in which I ran 801.81 miles, averaging 44.8 miles per week:

And I even went back to look at my stats for my Spring 2007 marathon. Then, I ran 587.3 miles for an average of 32.6 miles. This yielded a 4:14. So:

32.7 mpw = 4:14
44.8 mpw = 3:50
58.3 mpw = ?:??

So I'm feeling good about things. I'm feeling if I don't BQ, it will be because of stupendously bad racing or a combination of things I can't control. All I need to worry about is the one thing I can control: myself. Basically I just need to not be an idiot. :) Things have gone well enough that it's certainly crossed my mind to go for 3:35, or even 3:30. But 3:40 is the main objective. The plan is to go out and hold my miles splits between 8:15 and 8:30. I'll assess at the halfway mark and again at 17 (which is where my problems always seem to start). Who knows? Maybe I won't have a good day, or maybe it will be windy. I'll just have to go out there and roll with it.

*I'm projecting my planned miles for today and tomorrow.

Let the taper begin!

2009-03-25T13:42:00.002-04:00

Between (among?) wedding planning, court crap, marathon training, work, and apartment redecorating, I have been busy lately! But marathon training is going very well still, and I finished out my weeks of regular training this past weekend with a new 10K PR (44:11) and a nice 20-miler. Now the taper has begun.

First, the 10K. It was the Rodes City Run, a fairly fast course with a few rollers thrown in to keep things interesting. They never have enough portajohns. I think there were maybe 10 or 12 for 7,000 people? Yeah, get real. I figured 20 minutes would be enough for the portajohn, but it took 25. So I was late to the start. It's chip-timed, but they use the D-tag so that's not really a guarantee. I estimate I started about four minutes after the gun.

Of course, I'm stuck behind a legion of slower runners and walkers. Grrrr. I know I started late, but I was still far enough up that walkers should still be behind me. Unless you can walk a mile in 11 minutes, that is. SIGH. I hopped up on the sidewalk for most of the first two miles, so as not to hinder anyone by cutting them off or anything (I was in the wrong place after all, not them!). Things bottlenecked after that, but I was still able to get through clumps of people without getting in anyone's way. The road widened around mile 3, and people were thinning out enough by then that I had little trouble.

My splits went like this: 7:12, 7:12, 7:17, 7:03, 6:57, 7:01, 1:26 (o.2). Sometime in the fourth mile, I thought, this race is over halfway over and I am still feeling good. I should speed up! So I did. I was surprised by the 7:03 though. Then I thought, hmm...could I get sub-7 split? I went for it. And did. I wanted another sub-7 for mile 6 but didn't quite get it. Still, I am not complaining in the least. I had a very good day. I broke my lifetime 10K PR by 97 seconds. It was set in high school on a downhill course, so I am understandably thrilled. I think I can say now that I am faster than I was in high school. If I could just get under 21 again for the 5K, and break 6 for the mile, I could safely say I'm officially in the best shape of my life. Finding a 4K race in order to break 17 minutes would be nice too. Miles and 4Ks are not easy to find, but I am signed up for the IU Mini 5K in two weeks. It's on a hilly course, but I'm eager to see what I can do.

Things will continue to be crazy, probably pretty much until the end of June. The trial date for the rail trail attacker is looking more and more like it will stay set for the week after my honeymoon, so that's awesome. But...it would be better to get it over with sooner. I just have to make it through the first half of this year. One quarter nearly done. I'm looking forward to the wedding, of course, but I'm ready for that to be over with too. And after all of that...well, maybe then I can finally relax.

A reading meme: this one's right up my alley!

2009-02-21T11:58:00.002-05:00

Facebook is "meme city" lately! I couldn't resist this one.

Instructions:
1) Look at the list and put an 'x' after those you have read.
2) Add a '+' to the ones you LOVE.
3) Star (*) those you plan on reading.
4) Tally your total at the bottom.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (x +)
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien (x +)
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte (x +)
4 Harry Potter series - JK (x +)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (x +)
6 The Bible (*)
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (x)
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman (x +)
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens (*)
Running total: 7

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott (x)
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy (x +)
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (*)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier (*)
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien (x +)
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger (x)
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger (x +)
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot (x)
Running total: 13

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald (x)
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy (*)
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (x)
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky (x)
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll (*)
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
Running total: 16

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy (x +)
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens (*)
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (x +)
34 Emma - Jane Austen (*)
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen (*)
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (x +)
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini (x +)
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres (x)
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden (*)
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne (x +)
Running total: 22

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell (x)
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (x)
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (x)
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving (x)
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood (x)
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding (*)
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan (x +)
Running total: 28

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel (*)
52 Dune - Frank Herbert (x)
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen (x +)
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon (*)
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (x)
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley (x)
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon (x)
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (*)
Running total: 33

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck (x)
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov (*)
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt (*)
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold (*)
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy (x)
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding (x +)
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
Running total: 36

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens (*)
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett (x +)
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson (*)
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath (x)
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome (x +)
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray (*)
80 Possession - AS Byatt (x +)
Running total: 40

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens (x +)
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro (x +)
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry (*)
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White (x +)
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Alborn
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
Running total: 43

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad (*)
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams (x +)
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole (*)
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas (*)
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare (*)
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl (x +)
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (*)

Grand total: 45

Not too bad. At least I've read more than six, which is apparently what the BBC says is how many most people have read out of these. I hope I don't sound like a snob, but if you've only read a few of these, you are REALLY missing out. Lots of great ones here, people! Get to work! ;)

Last Chance for Boston Half Marathon: Race Report

2009-02-16T08:57:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I raced the Last Chance for Boston Half Marathon as a tune-up for my upcoming marathon. I wanted a simple, no-frills, logistically easy race, something that would be be a good test of my fitness without a lot of extra factors, and that's what I got. Some of you may know that this race is known for being run on a one-mile loop.

Mark and I woke up early Saturday morning and ran with the Indiana Running Company group at 7:30. He ran about 8, and I ran 6 easy. Afterwards, we grabbed breakfast at Bloomingfoods with Jon, Jaylyn, and Jen. Then we popped over to the Bloomington Bagel Company and picked up a baker's dozen (including two red, heart-shaped bagels in honor of Valentine's Day). Carbo-loading, dontcha know. And then we finally hit the road around 11. Dublin, which is just outside of Columbus, Ohio, is about four hours away. After an uneventful drive, we arrived at the hotel, which was the host hotel and the site of the packet pickup. I checked in for the race while Mark checked us into the hotel. Ten minutes flat found us in our room, and it was only a little after 3. I am loving this race already.

After a while, we decided to investigate dinner options nearby. We jumped in the car and drove down the road. I wasn't feeling terribly hungry since it was early, but I wanted an early dinner so I could go to bed early as well. Finally we spotted a restaurant promising "Italian cuisine." We went in and it seemed to mainly a deli, with a counter and a couple of tables set up. There was a huge stack of cases of wine arranged in the middle. As we approached the counter, the girl warned us they were out of calzones.
Me: No problem. Can I have a turkey sub?
Girl: Sure. :pause: Oh, no, wait, we're out of bread.
Me: You're out of bread? Oookay. Do you...have anything we can eat?
Girl: Well, we have this stuff down here. :gestures to trays of different cold food:
Me: Okay, well, is this lasagna?
Girl: Yes.
Me: Is it cold? Can you heat it up or something?
Girl: We turned off the ovens.
Me: Um...
Girl: Sorry, we were really busy for Valentine's Day.
Me (thinking It's 5 o'clock on Valentine's Day; how could you not be prepared?): Um...well, cold lasagna does not sound very appetizing. I guess we'll be going.

SIIIIIIIGH. We were now feeling discouraged and lazy. When I spotted a Trader Joe's across the way, we decided to go in. We don't have a Trader Joe's in Bloomington, so it's kind of a big deal to go to one. We got some chicken salad, crackers, hummus, grapes, and baby carrots. I also got a quart of electrolyte water. So our Valentine's Day dinner consisted of sitting on the hotel bed munching on our groceries and watching Man vs. Wild. See how romantic we are? I actually hate Valentine's Day, so I guess it worked out for the best.

I got to bed around 10 and woke up at 5:30. I puttered around, trying to decide what to wear, and finally decided on capri tights with a short sleeve and a long sleeve shirt. I warmed up about 15 minutes, then, oh the joyness, went back up to my room to use the bathroom one last time! I jogged the tenth of a mile down to the start and a few minutes later we were off. The way this race is set up, you run a tenth of a mile, then 13, instead of the other way around. So I hit my watch as we crossed the finish line, 0:42 for the first tenth.

1 - 7:38
2 - 7:42
3 - 7:35
4 - 7:39
5 - 7:33

The first five miles felt good. I wasn't breathing too hard and I didn't feel like I was putting forth too much effort. I knew I had a good start. The question was, was I being too ambitious? Was this pace going to prove too much to hold on to? The good thing was, there were almost people to pass, which helped to pull me along. The bad news was, there were always people to pass, which meant some weaving. And unlike most races, the runners didn't thin out in the later miles, since we were all on the same loop. Although the slower 10K runners were done by the last part of my race, I didn't notice much of a reduction. Still, it really didn't bother me too badly. Only once or twice did I have to break stride to avoid someone, and that could have happened in any race. Most people were good about staying to the left as I passed on the right. I found myself on the outside for pretty much the entire time, as one of the relatively faster runners. (And there were a few guys who lapped me two or three times!) So sometimes I got passed on the left too. I think if this race were to get any bigger, it would be a giant cluster, but as it is now, it's still manageable. I don't know how I would feel about trying to run a 5K or 10K there though. The faster 1OKers in particular started two tenths behind the finish, and therefore had to catch and pass the entire half marathon field. Weird as it seems with all those loops, I think the two longer races are better suited to this style of racing.

6 - 7:41
7 - 7:43
8 - 7:43
9 - 7:37
10 - 7:45

I got some water at the beginning of mile 6. I think that was the lap in which I fell in briefly with a guy who asked me if I was running the full or the half. I told him the half, and he answered likewise. I asked him his goal, thinking it would be nice to have a running buddy to stick with, but he said it was a training run for him and he wanted to do 8-minute miles. I wanted to ask him what he was doing running 7:40s, but refrained. :) I just said I was hoping to run a little faster than that, and that hopefully I could hold on. A few moments later I pulled away. I was starting to feel it a little bit, and I thought to myself, "To work now!" It was easy to keep pace, though, since every quarter mile was marked. I checked myself at each one and knew I was staying in the groove. Mile 10 was a bit slower, but I got a boost when the announcer called out that I had completed 10 laps, confirming that I was counting correctly and that I just had three miles to go.

11 - 7:41
12 - 7:41
13 - 7:37

I seemed to have gotten a bit of a second wind. I didn't feel like I could really pick it up by that point, but I was able to keep my pace even, although I had to work harder to do it. I passed the half mile mark during mile 11 and thought in wonder, just 4K to go. Then I finished mile 11 and thought, only 2 miles to go, really? With a mile and a quarter to go, I spotted MothAudio, a RWOL forumite, and his two kids. I had seen pictures of him before, but I wasn't totally sure it was him until I glimpsed the signs his kids had: "Go MirRunner!" I called out to them and kept going. I got a definite boost from that!

By the last mile, I was sucking wind and ready to be done. But even this mile didn't seem too long. I kept passing people and presently I rounded the turn and ran in the last 10th. Moth and company were right there at the end cheering. I clicked my watch off at 1:40:24. Whoo! A 4:30 PR!

As I stood catching my breath in the chute, they told me I was second place female and handed me a plaque along with my medal! I was floored. I talked to Moth for a little while, then Mark and I headed inside and I scarfed up a banana, part of an energy bar, and part of a bagel. I gave the rest to Mark because he hadn't had breakfast. Then we headed back to the room where I took a shower and we relaxed for a little while. Then we packed up, loaded up the car, and went for lunch at the hotel restaurant, since we had been given vouchers for $10 off a meal there. To my pleasant surprise, their breakfast buffet was still open, so I had a yummy second breakfast of scrambled eggs, pancakes, fruit, and sausage. And about four cups of coffee because I was TIRED! Even that didn't prevent me from falling asleep almost immediately in the car.

We hit the road and stopped for gas about an hour later, and I got my traditional post-race McDonald's fries. Yummers. A great day all around!

25 Random Things Meme

2009-02-13T14:30:00.002-05:00

All right, this thing has been circulating around and I've been tagged several times. Finally got around to doing it.

Here we go!

1. The "dating anniversary" of my fiance and I matches his parents' wedding anniversary, and the "dating anniversary" of my fiance's twin and his fiancee matches her parents' wedding anniversary. Both couples started dating around the same time, and both got engaged around the same time, unbeknown to each other.

2. I share my birthday with Edgar Allan Poe, Robert E. Lee, Janis Joplin, and Dolly Parton.

3. I've had a stuffed bear since I was born known as the "Tickle-y Bear" because I used his nose for tickling and eventually rubbed all the fur off his nose.

4. When I was very young I was terrified of car headlights shining through my bedroom window; they would travel along the wall toward my bed as cars passed by. I thought they were coming to get me and called them "The Angries."

5. I've run eight marathons, with number nine coming up in April. My biggest goal in life right now is to qualify for the Boston Marathon. I am currently running 60-70 miles a week in pursuit of this goal.

6. Up until about a month ago, I collected books and never let them go. I have several hundred (at least) books stuffed into our one-bedroom apartment. I recently decided that rereading books is generally not going to happen. So I decided to give the majority of them that I've read away. I had already vowed to stop acquiring new ones until I've reduced my "to-be-read" list to a manageable amount, meeting with limited success.

7. I wish people still communicated by exchanging handwritten letters. Somehow I doubt anyone will be interested in reading "The Collected Emails and Texts of So-and-So." Although I wouldn't be above trying to get a book by this title published. I've seen worse.

8. I actually set a school record in college for the 3,000m steeplechase. I only held it briefly, but it was cool to be in the record books at all.

9. I played the clarinet in high school concert/marching/pep bands, two youth orchestras, a community concert band, numerous honor bands, and college concert band, and got to be pretty good at it. Sadly, though, I haven't touched it since college. I always really wanted to successfully play that bit that starts off Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue but never quite got it.

10. I used to drive faster, but now I rarely drive over the speed limit, and hate it when people tailgate me! I've never been in accident in which I was driving, and I've never received a speeding ticket. More people should drive like me, right?

11. I am terrified of children. Not just the prospect of having children, but children themselves. I get really nervous and afraid that I'm going to say or do the wrong thing. I'm literally afraid to touch babies. I really wish I was better with children, although I have no desire to have my own.

12. I've never been in credit card debt.

13. I never quite managed to run a six-minute mile, and I haven't given up on this goal.

14. I discovered recently that sometimes, with some things, I find it easier to talk to people I don't know very well than to those I do.

15. Although I had a lot of fun in college, I've since mellowed out and usually prefer to stay in on weekends.

16. I endeavor to be less materialistic, but it's been hard. I love buying stuff. My two major vices are running gear and books. Luckily, if I don't need something, I have developed a guilt complex that usually prevents me from buying it.

17. More than just about anything else, I hate being the center of attention. I can't think straight and become tongue-tied. Public speaking is pure torture, and ice-breaking games with large groups are incredibly nerve-wracking and miserable.

18. I have a constant feeling of social awkwardness when I'm with all but a very few people. Usually I can overcome it and even carry on perfectly normal conversations. But I never quite lose the feeling of discomfort.

19. I have very little tolerance for "hot" foods (peppers, salsa, etc.). I used to refuse to eat that sort of thing altogether, but now I enjoy it in moderation. I like spicy ethnic foods as long as they're not TOO spicy, and I can now manage some brands of medium salsa as long as I have something cold to drink handy. I know, I know, wimpy. Meanwhile, my fiance has trouble finding foods hot enough.

20. I still love reading young adult novels. Not just the ones I enjoyed as a child. I buy new ones, as well. I love them unabashedly. I feel the same way about movies--I still love kids' movies, especially animated ones.

21. I hate talking on the phone. There are only a few people I feel comfortable talking to on the phone for more than a few moments, and either way I tend to ramble. If I can't have a face-to-face conversation, I actually prefer computer chat to the phone. Even texting would be better than talking, but I'm too cheap to add texting to my current plan. Most of all, I hate calling people because I'm so afraid I will disturb or interrupt them.

22. I still say "like," like, all the time. If I could pick one bad habit to break, that would probably be it.

23. I have never smoked a cigarette in my life. Once in 6th grade, a girl who sat next to me asked me about that, and was amazed that that I'd never tried. Yes, 6th grade, aka 11 or 12 years old. W. T. F.

24. I am sick of this list!

25. I had a lot of trouble coming up with this much stuff.

Oh...and I'm not tagging anyone because I figure if you want to do the meme, you do the meme. Also, everyone and their cousin has already done it. ;)

The endless winter

2009-02-03T10:17:00.003-05:00

February is here at last. Although February is the shortest of months, it is also the longest--because it comes just at that time when winter has really overstayed its welcome. By the time we reach February, the name becomes nothing more than a hurdle to be cleared on the way to March, in which there at least exists some hope for warmer weather.

This month has been a sticking point for me in my marathon training for the past two years. I always basically miss a week of training during February, because of weather, sickness, or both. Of course, now I have access to a treadmill, so only the worst weather will force the gym to close. And we had that last week. Snowstorms like like simply do not come around every week. So I think that barring sickness, perhaps this year will snap the streak of bad Februaries. The motivation to run certainly takes a hit around this time of year as well. But I seem to be sailing along on that front as well. So I will hope it continues.

I have had a string of great runs lately. Last week was a little tougher because of the snowstorm we had here in the Midwest, which actually caused me to miss a scheduled run outright for the first time this cycle (a record, surely). I ran a few extra miles on Friday to make up for it (recovery pace, naturally). Saturday morning I got in a tough 20-miler outside on the ice and packed snow, followed by a 10-miler on Sunday at just below 9-minute pace. I was feeling some soreness and tightness on Sunday night, but on yesterday's recovery run of about 10K I felt completely recovered with no hint of tightness or nagging pain. Today is another medium-long run of 15 miles at an easy pace. I plan to run it no faster than 9:30 pace. I need to be more careful than ever in these next few weeks to make sure my body can hold up to this mileage.

Most of my free time not spent running has been spent on BookCrossing, trying to get my collection registered and sorted. It's been challenging. Some books are just too dear to me to let go, and others I feel that I may be able to let go after one more read. I believe, though, that I will be able to keep my permanent collection to a fairly reasonable amount. And then there's the business of actually reading the books. More than ever, I want to get to all those books and enjoy them. There are so many that I feel quite overwhelmed and less willing to spend time reading online forums and the like. My goal is to be mainly a library person instead of a bookstore person, and also have a small enough TBR list that I can go out and buy/borrow more current books. For example, right now I would love to read The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, but the thought of adding even one more book to the TBR pile is actually stressful. I feel that I have a prior commitment to the books that have hung around for years without being read. And then there is the stack of books that have been loaned out to me and also the stack of gift books. It is truly a mountain! My nickname on BookCrossing is "Book-Dragon" because sometimes I feel like a dragon hoarding not gold but books...and sometimes even sitting on them.

A book post

2009-01-27T12:15:00.003-05:00

I think my 2008 recap/2009 outlook post is officially not going to happen...January is nearing its end. Oh well. The year ended with too much upheaval, I guess.

My latest project (other than breaking 70 miles for a week for the first time) is not in fact running-related, but book-related. The amount of time I've spent reading has fallen off a lot lately, and I miss it terribly. So I've been trying to set aside some time each day to read. As I do this, I am once again feeling buried by my mountainous to-be-read (TBR) list. Related to this, I seem to have experienced a shift in how I feel about my book collection. For most of my life, I collected voraciously and never got rid of any book. I always wanted to be able to go back and look at the books again, possibly reread them. Lately though, it's dawning on me that rereading books is a luxury that I cannot allow myself if I want to make any sort of dent on my TBR list. In general, rereading books, with few exceptions, is just not going to happen. There is also a possibility that we will be moving again soon, and I just do not want to cart all those books across town again. I am craving a clutter-free life. It seems selfish to keep them on shelves to gather dust when they could be out in the world being read and enjoyed.

I've begun the painful process, then, of letting go of my books. I've joined a couple of book swap sites (Paperback Swap and Bookins, to be more specific). I've also joined BookCrossing, and will soon embark on the journey of registering and releasing my collection. That will be quite a project. Since I'm mostly looking to get rid of books and NOT to acquire new ones, Bookins has been good so far since it offers free postage (you only pay when you request a book). I'll have a lot of credit there for the faraway day when I actually start actively looking for new books to read! I've already shipped out 15. Only a couple hundred more to go! I'm not sure how many I can realistically unload through that particular site, but a few to people who actually want them is better than nothing.

And of course there are books that I simply cannot bring myself to give up. So I will always have a library, even if I get my TBR list up to date. It will just be much smaller.

Phedippidations!

2009-01-16T16:39:00.003-05:00

Two posts in one day, what could possibly be going on?!?

Kazz posted this morning on RWOL that Bittersweet Symphony is featured on this week's Phedippidations podcast! This is insanely cool and I am totally geeking out. I am also honored and humbled by Steve's words. Anyway, check out the podcast if you haven't already. It's a good one: Fdip170: Thoughts from the Road.

I'm in da club!!

2009-01-16T09:22:00.002-05:00

No, not that club. The club I'm referring to is the "More Miles than Degrees" Club. It basically means that the number of miles you run is more than the number of degrees Fahrenheit at the time. So yesterday, I ran 11 miles outside in the 0-degree temps. It would have been 12, but I passed the gym with a mile to go, and saw that Mark was parked there. So I went inside and finished up on the track and then rode home with him. I'm actually really glad I did it that way...I shucked off a few layers to run the mile inside, but still had on tights, loose running pants, and two shirts. So it warmed me back up pretty efficiently and I didn't have to worry about much finger numbness and general inability to do things like manipulate my apartment keys and type out RWOL posts.

The run itself was surprisingly manageable. My nose and cheeks got pretty cold, but I would just put my gloved hand over my mouth and use my breath to warm the area up. My core was pretty toasty with all the clothing I had on, so overall I was good to go. I didn't worry about my pace at all. Stopping my watch at traffic lights and crossings was too much work, so I didn't bother. It was a medium long run, so it was more about aerobic conditioning and time on my feet anyway. I got a lot of surprised looks!

I once equaled the temperature with a 6-mile run a couple years ago, and honestly that seemed much worse than yesterday. Yesterday I wore the following: one hat, one earwarmer, one scarf, two sports bras, one long-sleeve mock turtleneck compression shirt, one long-sleeve shirt, one 3/4 zip top, one fleece pullover, two pairs of gloves, one pair of underwear, one pair of tights, one pair of loose running pants, two pairs of socks, and a pair of shoes. So yeah, a lot. The wind wasn't too bad, fortunately, but there was a wind chill of -14, which did make itself felt at times.

We don't often get such weather around here. I would like to point out that it was/is actually colder here than in Alaska! This morning I somehow got the car started in the bone-chilling temp of -9 (that's NOT the wind chill). Things will go back to normal tomorrow, it sounds like. Back to highs in the mid-20s to mid-30s with the famous "wintry mix" continually expected.

A most successful 20-miler

2009-01-12T10:07:00.004-05:00

The friend of a friend who I mentioned a couple of posts ago also invited me to join her for a run on Saturday, along with a Bloomington triathlon/running group called Women With Will (W3). I mentioned that I was running 20 miles. With no hesitation, she said, "I'll run 20 miles with you!" I think my jaw about hit the floor. It's just not easy to find people willing to run that far! As it turns out, she's a very experienced runner. And ultrarunner. So 20 miles at my pace was child's play for her.

I talked to her Monday (a week ago). As the week progressed, I heard about an event also being held on Saturday: Take Back the Trail. The idea was, area runners/walkers would meet at the trailhead near where the attack happened and basically reclaim the trail in force. People wanting to run more than a couple of miles would meet at the W3's regular meeting place (the Bloomington Bagel Company on Dunn) and run down to meet the main group. I know a lot of people have been hesitant to run any part of the trail, especially the section where this happened. So this was sort of a symbolic way to show we as a community are not afraid. I thought it was a great idea.

Saturday morning, the alarm went off at 6:30 a.m. and I could hear rain coming down outside. YUCK. It was 36 degrees outside and rainy. I was sad, because I figured the weather would keep a lot of would-be participants indoors. I rolled out of bed and got dressed, had some toast and water for breakfast, and packed up a couple of GUs and my water bottle. After some thought, I packed some dry clothes. Mark drove us downtown and dropped me off at the BBC (he was going on down to park by the trail and participate in the shorter version of the run).

I ventured inside and found it crowded with runners, some of whom I know. My new running buddy, Tracy, was there, and she introduced me to several new friends, including Linda, who would be going for 20 with us. I think there must have been a good 20 to 30 people who eventually gathered. We set off soon after 8 a.m., running in a phalanx down the street. It's such an amazing experience to run with a large group!

We used the newly paved B-Line Trail to thread our way through downtown, on south towards the Rail Trail. As we approached Grimes, I saw that a police officer had parked his car in order to block traffic and was standing there waving us through. A chorus of "thank you"s serenaded him as we streamed past. We continued south and took up the Rail Trail at the top of the northern section. Running by the spot where it happened wasn't too bad. I mean, I was surrounded by the laughter and chatter of lots of runners. The only weird thing was that the police tape was still strung up around the trees.

As we climbed a small incline and descended toward Country Club, I saw a large crowd waiting at the trailhead. They cheered as our group approached the road. I saw that more police officers were blocking traffic here, too. Someone commented that they had shown up out of the blue. I was feeling pretty overwhelmed. Mark was waiting there, along with some other members of the INRunCo group. We mingled and talked for a few minutes, and then Emily, the founder of W3 and the organizer of the Take Back the Trail event, got up on the bumper of someone's car and said a few words.

I was wiping tears from my eyes. Only a handful of people knew that I was the victim, and I was so touched that an attack on someone they didn't even know had brought so many out in a shower of support. Still, this was only partly about me. This was mostly about all the runners and fitness-minded people in the community showing solidarity.

I was on a definite high, and it lasted the entire remainder of the run (a little more than 2.5 hours more). I had a great time running with Tracy and Linda, and hope to run with them again soon.

I just want to thank all those who have emailed and left comments on RWOL, my blog, Facebook, and my running log. The outpouring of support I've gotten has been incredible. For the 20 minutes of so or evil that I endured, I've been seen good tenfold. I guess I'm saying "tenfold" to be poetic, but literally, I think it's probably more. I'm no good at math. It's a lot. I love you all.

Hangover Classic, and a few other things

2009-01-09T16:13:00.003-05:00

It's definitely time to move on to happier things. Like PRs! There's nothing better to put me in a good mood like a five-minute plus PR.

Mark and I drove down to Clarksville to visit my parents for New Year's. I am not a big partier, and New Year's parties aren't really my thing, so it was no real stretch for me to rest up and go to bed relatively early on New Year's Eve. On New Year's Day, a great 10-miler is held in Louisville on River Road: the Hangover Classic. I had signed up hoping for a PR and an early indicator of my chances at half marathon and marathon PRs in February and April, respectively.

After the whole trail attack thing, I felt sort of afloat in regard to specific running goals. I didn't even take one day off though, and kept running...aggressively, if I were to use one word to describe it. I mean, I went into this cycle thinking I'd follow the framework of the 18/70 plan and cut a few miles here and there, but it's turned into a mindset of "If I miss a day, he wins." I don't think I quite believe that up to the point where I would run myself into the ground, but it's been a great motivator. I'm shameless. I will use anything for motivation. Take that, creepy trail scumbag!

Anyway, so I had been running a LOT of miles (the week previous to the race at 66, a few miles more than the peak for my last marathon), but was not really fixated on any certain time goal. I figured if I could just get under 1:20, that would be great, but in reality, I wasn't expecting much more. A bit of 10-miler history: I have run three previous 10-milers. The first was actually the 2001 edition of the Hangover Classic. No clue what my time was. The second was the 2006 Papa John's 10-Miler. I forgot to wear my chip. No clue what my time was. The third was the 2007 Papa John's 10-Miler. This was early in the running renaissance. I ended up with a 1:26. Yuck. In my PR half marathon last year, I went through 10 miles in 1:20:11, so I've been calling that my 10-mile PR. So under 1:20 would be great.

I missed the first mile marker, but eventually realized I was running 7:30ish. Whoa. I felt like I was in the groove though, so I went with it. I went through five miles just a few seconds slower than my turkey trot time. Whoa. Still feeling awesome. Just cruising. I started out picking out women ahead to catch, but ran out of those, so started concentrated on catching anyone at all. I started getting 7:20s and even one or two below 7:20. Yipes. The last couple of miles I started to feel it, but I kept it together and the split for my last two was 14:46, compared to the first two, which was 15:12. I had a negative split of about a minute. Weeee!

My official time was 1:14:54 and my watch time was 1:14:52. I am ecstatic! That's a ridiculously huge PR. Even better was how great I felt the whole time. I mean, it hurt, but surging during the last half of the race felt effortless in a way. I suspect only other runners will really be able to understand what I'm trying to describe here. I hope to be able to finish as strong at Last Chance and at Illinois.

I was second in my age group, 10th female, and 76th overall. For my age group placing, I won a bottle of sparkling wine (which turned into mimosas soon after). I also received a fleece blanket with the race logo as a door prize. Considering I also got the correct t-shirt size, I would say I had a pretty successful haul.

So, pretty soon, I'm going to post a belated 2008 wrap-up/2009 outlook. As you can probably guess, a lot of things have been put in perspective for me. So, sorry if it's long and contemplative! Every successful race and every PR is more than that now; it's a victory. And every day, every run, seems like a gift.

Still truckin'

2009-01-08T11:54:00.002-05:00

I should have clarified in the last post: the scumbag was caught...on the same day! This part is actually a good story, so it's actually hard to resist telling it. Moments before I was attacked (literally, it could not have been more than 30 seconds to a minute), I passed three runners going the opposite way on the trail. Afterwards, I met them almost immediately coming back the way they had come. They immediately stopped to help before I even had to say something. It must have been pretty obvious something terrible had happened. I had tried calling Mark on my cell phone, but his phone was off. Next step was the police, but I wanted to get to the road before I did anything else, because I was afraid of the guy coming after me again. So now that I had people around, I let one of them call the police on my phone. It took us a couple of minutes to walk back to the road, and the first officer was pulling up as we arrived.

One of them was able to give a description of a man they had seen running behind me on the trail after they passed me. He was in street clothes, but this isn't necessarily unusual. A lot of people use that trail as a shortcut to get around town. It was a cold day, and he could have been running to keep warm.

So, although I never saw the guy's face, we now had a description of a person who, if not the actual guy, surely had to have seen something. He had bruises all over his face, a pretty distinguishing feature, so I felt pretty hopeful that he might be found. More officers arrived, along with a detective. They kept asking questions, but did so without making me feel badgered or threatened. I could tell they were raring to get this guy.

Eventually, they brought in a dog in an attempt to track down the guy. Meanwhile, I had started writing out my statement, figuring I should do it as soon as possible while everything was still fresh. Mark got my panicky message and came as soon as he could. I felt bad though, because everything took a while and he ended up having to go back home to get me a change of clothes. He mostly paced around the gravel trailhead parking lot. The police asked me if I would be willing to walk them back to the approximate area where I was attacked. I was starting to get really cold, and they initially offered me a coat, but then one pointed out that my clothes needed to stay uncontaminated since they would be needed as evidence (that's when Mark took off to get clean clothes).

In the meantime, I knew that the sooner they were able to the investigate, the better the chance they would find something, so I told them I would be fine to go back on the trail. Actually, walking was better, helping to keep me a little warmer. We walked back until I noticed some scuff marks on the trail. It seemed to be about in the right place, so that's where they started searching. After that, I went back, changed clothes at a nearby gas station, and continued working on my statement.

They asked me to go back one more time--they'd roped off an area but couldn't find the actual spot. It didn't sound like the dog had been successful (although it turned out she was able to lead them to within a block of the guy's house). I looked around the area, using the few clues I could remember (a certain tree, a section of wire fence, a clump of sticker bushes), but everything back there just looks the same. It was starting to get dark, so we headed back and I finished my statement.

Mark and I started back home, but then I got a call from the detective. She wanted to interview me and ask some more questions, and gave me the choice of doing it that night, or waiting until the next day. I chose to get it done that night. So we turned around and headed back downtown to the police station, where I talked to the detective for some time. Afterwards, she suggested going to the hospital to see if they could gather any evidence. She offered to go with us and take us in through the back door so we wouldn't have to deal with anyone. I felt a little weird about going to the front desk by myself, so I took her up on that offer.

A few moments after we got there, we were standing at the check-in counter waiting for a room assignment when the detective very casually asked me to move down the hallway a little ways. She followed and said she had seen a man fitting their description and was going to check it out. They put me into a room at that point. During the exam, the detective and other officers came and went, asking questions and keeping me updated. Eventually I found out that they were all but sure they would be arresting this guy. The detective said he would have to come up with a pretty good story to explain himself. He had at least one prior conviction for a similar crime. So the guy had been at the hospital at just the right time (I think because of his facial injuries from an unrelated incident), in an exam room literally feet away from where we happened to be.

So with some luck and some very competent work by the police, the guy is in jail, being held on a $250,000 bond. I'm very grateful that the people working on my case have done such a good job.

It turns out the runner who gave the description is a friend of a friend, so I was able to thank her again in person as well. Without her description, he might still be out there. And I certainly wouldn't be sleeping as well as I am now.

Please be careful out there, everyone.

2009-01-05T10:45:00.004-05:00

So...I had a pretty rough Christmas season. Here is a post I wrote on RWOL on 12/22:

I've been debating for a while whether I should post this. I decided to go ahead, to let my experience serve as a reminder.

I was sexually assaulted (but NOT actually raped) Saturday afternoon on my long run. Seven miles in, I was running on a stretch of my local rail trail that is fairly isolated and with a wooded area bordering it. A man grabbed me from behind and pinned my arms and head before I could resist. I couldn't move. He used my ear warmer to blindfold me and demanded money. I didn't have any, so he demanded other things and pushed me into the woods. He threatened to kill me with his hand on my throat, squeezing hard enough that I believed him. Finally, he let me go and I got out of there. I never saw his face. I know I did the right thing because I'm alive right now, but I can't help but feel like perhaps I should have died fighting to prevent the persistent feeling of filth that I can't wash off. I feel weak, cowardly.

Don't let this happen to you. I know you all know how to keep yourselves safe, but a reminder never hurts. BE SAFE. Be careful. Try to minimize your risk as much as you can. It would take an extraordinary stroke of bad luck to have something like this happen. Don't give that bad luck too many chances if you can help it.

One thing I can say is that this dirtbag will not scare me away from running. I'm going to stick to the treadmill for a while (had to give my clothes, including gloves, ear warmer, and my only pair of tights, to the police as evidence), but soon I will venture outside with my running group, and eventually alone in well-populated areas. I doubt I will ever be able to bring myself to run that section of trail again though, even with a group. We'll see.

Saturday, I had a bagel and a small ham sandwich and that's it. Yesterday, woke up and ran 13 miles on the treadmill. Couldn't eat beforehand. I think I was fueled solely by rage (the fcuker also stole my last GU!). After that, I felt better and even felt hungry again. This guy didn't completely win.

I apologize for the long, decidedly depressing post. I hope this reminder helps keep you all safe this holiday season and beyond.

So...yeah. Now it's been a couple of weeks and things almost seem back to normal...almost. Today I'm meeting with the prosecutor to discuss the case. I'm still downright jumpy. I was running outside this past Saturday in a Louisville park and heard stomping footsteps behind me--practically jumped a mile before I realized it was a preteen girl just romping around on the path.

Argh. BUT, I am back outside for most runs. I'm still hesitant to run alone at night, even around campus. So now that my winter break from work is over, I need to figure something out, like running loops around a small but particularly "safe" area. But at least I am warm! Through the amazing generosity of both my local and online running friends, I've been able to replace my winter gear. I believe some also donated money to the Middle Way House. So a lot of good is actually coming of this. Also, it sounds like the people I've told about this have been a little more on their guard. A good thing.

I've been running a LOT. The past two weeks have both been over 60 miles. It's been helping.

2008-12-11T13:01:00.002-05:00

I am starting to lose track of fellow bloggers, forumites, friends, etc., who have lost, are losing, or are worried about losing their jobs. Add that many more who are worrying about loved ones in the same boat. It is scary, not only to think about the many people who will struggle financially through the holiday season and beyond, but I'm also worried about my own job.

I haven't heard anything definite or even any rumors of actual layoffs here, but I still feel vulnerable. After all, I am the newest person in my department and have the least amount of work. I struggle to stay busy on even the busiest of days. My recent review was favorable, and I even brought up my willingness to take on more clients and more work so things would be a little more balanced. But still, as things stand, it's hard not to imagine that if they took a look at our productivity reports, I would be the first to go. My only hope is that although the work isn't enough to keep three people busy all the time, it's a little too much for two people to handle. My clients are demanding and often expect very fast turnarounds, so it's certainly an asset that I'm here to cover that.

Speaking of work, I might have to stay late tonight, so not sure how that is going to mesh with running 9 miles and watching The Office at 9...

2008 mileage goal: CHECK!

2008-12-10T16:32:00.003-05:00

In 2007, I resolved to run 2,008 miles in 2008. Yesterday, I met and surpassed that goal during my 11-mile medium long run on the treadmill. Whoo! In fact, with the super-duper miles I'll (hopefully) be putting in during the next few weeks on my new plan, I'm projecting closer to 2,200 for the year (yowza). Yes, I'm a mileage junkie.

Still, I wouldn't do it if I didn't enjoy running A LOT. Maybe not always when it's dark and yucky outside and I would rather curl up on the couch with some hot chocolate. But almost always, once I get out there, I'm so incredibly glad I did. And I know the extra miles will help me get faster.

For 2008 I talked about shooting for 2,350, but that's only 150-200 more than what I'll end up with this year if all goes well. So I've pretty much decided I'll be going for 2,500 instead. A much rounder, cooler number. That's a tad over 48 per week. Yikes! It seems like a lot, but my last 50-mile week felt pretty comfortable. I think it's doable as long as I can stay motivated and healthy. If I can really run that much, I'm excited to see how much my marathon time could drop. Moving from a 33 mpw average to a 45-mpw average (over an 18-week period) gave me 23 minutes. For this next one, my plan will give me something in the high 50s! Another drop like that is probably a little too much to expect, but I'll settle for a mere 10 minutes for now! :D

On the weight loss front, I've dropped a whopping three pounds. Which is about what the damage was after Thanksgiving (just in time for Christmas), so I'm feeling pretty good about that. Now I can start working on the taper/post-marathon weight.

Pfitz 18/70: Here we go again for the very first time

2008-12-08T13:09:00.002-05:00

Yesterday kicked off my latest Pfitz-guided campaign. These programs, ironically, always start off with a rest/XT day. I decided to go for some cross training, so Mark and I headed to the gym. I did some core work and then hopped on the elliptical, easy effort, for an hour.

So I'm very familiar with 18/55, but this will be my first time venturing into ~70 territory. I hope to stay pretty close to the program. I'm apprehensive and excited at the same time. Today is the first run, an innocuous-looking 8 miler + 10 strides. I know that if I can make it through this program with my motivation and body intact, I will have a great shot at finally nailing that BQ. My body is definitely liking the slower running paces lately, so I will be keeping things very easy as I crank up the mileage, other than the LT workouts, strides, and some "fast-finish" long runs.

I'm itching to race again, but it is IMPOSSIBLE to find races around here this time of year. Indy has a couple of 5Ks and such, but that's a 100-mile round trip. One hundred miles for a 5K? Nuh-uh. And racing on Christmas weekend doesn't seem to be in vogue either, as I can't find anything happening in Ann Arbor while we'll be there. Looks like I am out of luck until Hangover on January 1.

Big shout-out to all the CIM and Tuscon runners yesterday! Y'all rocked it! Really makes me want to make the trip out to Sacramento to run CIM someday. Wouldn't mind going to Tuscon either. :)

My core is SORE!

2008-12-04T16:38:00.002-05:00

I have decided that among the several things I am changing/reviving in my training regimen is strength training. I rarely did any strength training during this last cycle. On Tuesday night I went to the gym on my off day and strength trained the bejeezus out of my core and hips, mainly the sex machine (i.e., the hip ab/adductor), the multi-hip, and the captain's chair. Also did bicycles, planks, and crunches. A LOT of them. Last night, DOMS began to take effect, and today my gait around the office can best be described as that of a wounded duck. I also can't laugh or cough. You would really think that I would know better by now.

I'm actually so sore that I'm considering taking today off from running. Tonight is a group run, which I hate to miss, but I also walk like a zombie, so running may not be the best idea. I'm going to see how I feel walking down the stairs after work. I had to run an errand over lunch, and things seemed to improve after moving around a bit, so perhaps a very easy run would be a good thing. I've been specializing in those lately, so luckily a very easy run is exactly what I had scheduled today. :)

One more week until Pfitz!

2008-12-01T11:58:00.002-05:00

It's hard to believe that in one week I will be back into marathon training again. I hit 50.7 miles last week and felt good, so I think after a week of easy miles around 40-45, I should be ready to rock! I am really excited and a bit nervous about the increase in mileage. I'll just have to be sure and run EASY on the easy days and listen to my body every day.

On Thursday I ran Fast Freddie's Festive Five-Mile Foot Feast, a turkey trot in New Albany, Ind. I finished in 37:48 by my watch, which was a little disappointing since I was slightly faster last year. Still, last year was a perfect day, and this year I was on my period, felt horrible upon waking up, and had to stop and tie my shoe during the race. I also ran a marathon 26 days before instead of over a month and a half. So I feel okay about it despite the lack of a PR. I think it shows that I'm in a comparable place to where I was last year at this time, despite a little adversity and half the recovery time. So that's a good thing! Give me another month and I think some more PRs will fall.

The 37:48 predicts a 1:19 10-miler. I am confident I can do better than this on a good day, but will likely make my main goal for the Hangover Classic to go sub 1:20 for the first time. Stretch goal will maybe be 1:17:30, which predicts a 1:43 half and a 3:37 full. Hopefully another month of endurance training will make my BQ dreams for the spring look a little more solid by the new year.

Looking ahead a bit

2008-11-21T13:47:00.002-05:00

Since the year is approaching its end, and my main 2008 racing season has concluded, my attention is now focused on next year. I haven't yet figured out all my goals for 2009 yet, but today I did make my 2009 mileage goal by joining the 2009in2009 Club on the Runner's World forums. It's run by a forumite through the Beginner's Forum (so-called, but plenty of very experienced and accomplished runners post there). I did it last year and it has been a good tool to stay motivated.

My goal for this year was 2,008 miles for the 2008in2008 Club. You can pick any number, of course, but 2008 was ideal and it was fun to have a matching number! This year I'm a little more ambitious and have chosen 2,350 miles for my goal. This works out to roughly 45 miles a week. That's a lot of running, but I think I can do it. Mileage challenges like this one and the East vs. West Challenge on L&O really help me. If I see other people posting miles, I start thinking, well, I can do this too.

The 2008 goal of 2008 miles is about 38 miles per week, and barring injury or major illness, I should have no trouble exceeding it. I'm just shy of 1,900 miles now. That felt really ambitious a year ago, but it turned out I could do it if I just buckled down and got out there. Knowing that lots of people are doing more than me, or have it harder than me and are doing it at all, is really inspiring!

Recovery continues and a new race to look forward to

2008-11-19T11:32:00.003-05:00

Things have been pretty calm for the past week. I ran about 26 miles last week and this week am shooting for about 35. So far, so good. Monday I picked up the pace a bit and felt very comfortable (although I had stomach troubles, yuck). I'm not going to do any speedwork (other than a few strides, if that even counts) at all until the marathon program calls for it. I'll be building a lot of miles, so adding in much intensity does not sound smart. And given past ruminations, I probably don't really need it.

In fact, I'll be very interested to know how the race I just signed up for goes. It is called the Hangover Classic; it's a 10-miler that takes place on New Year's Day in Louisville. Weather permitting, it's a fast course. By that time I will have maybe one tempo run under my belt, but no other speedwork at all, just easy build-up miles and a few GA runs. It could be an early indication of how my strategy is working for me. And it will definitely give me a clue of what to shoot for at the Last Chance Half in February, which will in turn tell me if I'm ready for my BQ in April. I ran this race back in 2001 on an icy day, so hopefully the weather cooperates. As long as the footing is good and it's not toooo cold, I am good to go. I am so glad to have tune-up races lined up.

Weight woes, just in time for the holidays

2008-11-11T16:53:00.003-05:00

Last last week, I began to notice something that usually doesn't register as a blip on my radar: my weight. Actually, I suppose I should say I began to notice it during the summer, and that it entered my radar screen late last week. In short, my weight has been inching up since June. I didn't worry about it--my weight fluctuates within a few pounds' range practically on a daily basis depending on what I eat and how much I run and how warm it is.

But late last week I began to notice that some of my pants are a tad snug. I hadn't weighed myself in awhile, but when I checked, my eyes bugged out--I was six pounds over my usual "high" number. Ooh, time to take steps to fix this problem. So I figure I need to lose about eight pounds in order to fall back into my usual average. Shouldn't be too much of a problem. I mean, all I have to do is stop eating like I'm running 60-mile weeks while I'm running 20-mile weeks.

I usually give myself about a week's vacation from worrying about my nutrition after each marathon, and this time was no exception. That's part of the problem. But the biggest part of the problem is the fact that I did that after Sunburst and really didn't come back from that vacation. I have a BIG sweet tooth, and my willpower apparently got kidnapped while on vacation and may be held hostage somewhere in South America.

Possibly one reason is that I went back to work not long after the marathon. It's so easy to overeat at my workplace, as it is in many workplaces, I'm sure. Candy bowls, potlucks, leftover Halloween candy, "overtime" dinners, random cookies and other treats, birthday cake, going-away cake, OH the list never ends. And how can you say no when co-workers are kind enough to bring food in? I will just have to try and do better.

It's Official

2008-11-10T14:39:00.002-05:00

I'm registered for the Last Chance for Boston Half Marathon. I really hope that the logo does not come true.

And the Illinois Marathon. This logo can come true. If I were as big as Illinois, the BQ should be pretty easy. Oh, and the world record. For MEN. Of course, then I would be as big as Illinois.

Here we go...

I would like to take a brief moment to reflect upon the fact that running the half marathon event of a race titled "Last Chance for Boston" is inherently meaningless, since running a half marathon basically gives you zero chance at Boston. I just have to laugh. But hey, it's relatively close, it's a snap logistically, and it's a fast, controlled course. Perfect for a tune-up.

So, I'm excited! I just have to keep it in check for a few weeks until December 8, when training officially starts. Until then, I'll gradually build back up, then take an easy cutback week before jumping into a modified Pfitz 18/70 plan. I'll shoot for 25 or so this week. Will mostly play it by ear, but so far I've been feeling good. We'll see how good my recovery actually went on Thanksgiving Day, when I run Fast Freddie's Festive Five-Mile Foot Feast in New Albany, Ind.

In which I dissect the bonk

2008-11-05T11:48:00.002-05:00

That's right--bonk. It is actually hard to imagine a more stereotypical bonk.

(I posted a race report on the RWOL Marathon Race Training Forum--it suffices to relate what happened, so I don't think there's any need to write out a new one or to repost it here.)

Instead, I want to spend a little time reflecting on what happened, what went wrong, and what I can learn from it.

Basically, my quads could not stand up to the pounding of 20+ miles. That seems to be the bottom line. All other systems were go past 20, but every step was so painful that I couldn't keep moving. To me, this points to a problem with training volume. I spent some time crunching the numbers to determine how this training cycle compared to the spring cycle, which has been my most successful so far.

I discovered that I had actually toed the line with an inflated sense of my preparedness. I had thought my total training volume was roughly comparable to that of the spring cycle. Nope! In fact, I averaged 43.9 miles a week for the 18 weeks leading up to Sunburst, and only 40.9 miles a week for Monumental. Not a huge difference, but enough of one to ensure that I should have been much less complacent about my 3:40:59 goal. Why didn't I do the math more carefully before the race? Well, that's a good question. I think I just thought I was close enough and didn't need to take the time. I had planned for more miles, but didn't realize just how much the runs I missed had added up.

Two workouts in particular helped to shore up my confidence: the last 20-miler and a Yasso 800 workout consisting of 10 x 800m at 3:30-3:35 pace. After both of these I felt incredible...like I could have run another 10K easily, or more 800s, whatever the case was. So, even though I had a sub-optimal training cycle (several missed runs due to sickness, work, etc.) I thought I had rallied enough to improve "easily." I was also coming off a 23-minute PR at Sunburst, and figured another 10-15 minutes would be doable. Man, this race bites you in the ass when you deserve it.

When I started the race, I ran a few miles at around 8:00 min/mile pace (way too fast). It was hard to slow down, but by mile 5 or so, I had settled into 8:15s, which was close to my goal pace range of 8:15 to 8:30. Because of the fast start and somewhat-fast early middle miles, I had banked some time on the 3:40 goal, but I still felt okay about it because I was still on pace for about 3:35, which I had thought was doable. Now it is plain that I didn't have enough endurance. I could waste time wondering if adhering more strictly to 8:15s and up from the start would have made a difference, but...well, there's no point. In fact, I should probably wonder if running strict 8:27s wouldn't have been my best bet. Oh wait, I just said there's no point. :)

But I can learn from this experience and try to remember it when I start my next marathon. The lesson is: don't be ambitious, stupid. Follow the PLAN. That's definitely step one, and so very easy to ignore as the miles roll by effortlessly in the early going.

There are also a number of things I can do to help ensure that bonks like this become much less likely in the future. I think it's plain that I need more and longer long runs to be well-prepared for 3.5 hours of relentless pounding. In general, I need to continue my long-term plan of continuing to increase mileage. I don't know how much more I can fit into my schedule, but I will always be inspired by those who run a hell of lot more than me while also doing a hell of a lot more with their lives. I need to be more consistent with it this time around.

Another aspect of training that's becoming increasingly clear is that I need more LSD (long slow distance) and less speedwork. Speed (speaking in relative terms of course!!!) comes naturally to me. My PRs drop off considerably as I move up in distance. So I'm thinking I'll lose most speedwork (other than tempo runs and maybe a couple of sessions later in the marathon training cycle). It was a good experiment, but the extra speedwork I did this cycle probably had me better prepared for a shorter race.

And a third thing I can do is run at least one tune-up race per cycle. I never got a chance to this past fall (other than a couple of 5Ks, which do not really count), and I think if I had I might have had a better idea of what I was capable of on race day.

So with that, I'm already giving some thought to the spring cycle. For a while, I thought to rally immediately and run the Last Chance for Boston Marathon in Ohio in February, in order to qualify for 2009. But there's no guarantee that registration would even be open by the time the race takes place, and if it is, it's pricey. Running three marathons in half a year's time doesn't seem like the best idea, either (assuming I qualify and am able to register). If that scenario took place, I would not be running Boston hard, but any marathon is going to take a toll. So I think 2009 is a wash and it's probably time to turn my attention to 2010. A year and a half away--almost as much time as has gone by since I first started working towards this goal in earnest in January 2007.

No, the more I think about it, the more I realize that the most sensible course is to allow myself to recover, rebuild my base slowly, and pick training back up for a spring marathon. Heck, if I manage to qualify in the spring, I could take a break in the fall (and save up for Boston plane tickets!). But I am getting far ahead of myself. Need to qualify first. :) I do like my chances of making it to Boston 2010, since I'll have two opportunities. It's wrenching to realize that I'll have to put my dream on hold for another year, but I'm only paying for my own mistakes. At least I know I can hang around in the women's BQ thread on RWOL for a while longer! ;)

Since I'm getting married in June, I have to plan around that. It might not end up being a big deal, but it seems prudent to plan on an early spring marathon instead of one just a week or two before the big day. I found a new race, the Illinois Marathon, which is to be held on April 11 in Champaign. This is the frontrunner right now. Interestingly, the Last Chance for Boston Half Marathon would work out perfectly as a tune-up race. So, giving that some thought.

As for a training schedule, I think I will probably go with Pfitz 18/70, modified to subtract some of the miles (hoping to average around 50, peaking at 65-70). The 18/55 schedule has worked well, and I think I'm ready to take a step up. Lots of long and medium-long runs and not as much speedwork: exactly what I need. If I were to go for the April marathon in Illinois, training would start on December 8, giving me just over a month to recover and rebuild.

Indianapolis Monumental Marathon: Goals

2008-10-31T09:50:00.002-04:00

So, I guess it's about that time. The time when I make goals. Oh yeah.

Actually, this will be a pretty simple goal-setting session, because I only really have one goal: to BQ. That's it. If I qualify, I will be happy. If I don't qualify, I will be disappointed.

3:40:59. End of story.

And it is certainly risky, no bones about it. I will have to enjoy a near-perfect day to get my 3:40. So by making that my only goal, I'm possibly setting myself up for disappointment. But let's be realistic. I really want to do it, it's the main thing that I've been training for all last year and this year, and now it's time to throw down.

3:40:59

2008-10-28T15:31:00.003-04:00

I ran an easy four yesterday and I just have to say that the hard-won resistance to cold temperatures that I built up last winter has gone. It was only about 40 degrees and I was FREEZING the whole time. Literally, I did not warm up until about 3.5 miles. Yuck. I should not have needed to wear tights at 40 degrees, but I was keenly wishing I had brought them.

This is making me rethink my race day outfit--I had figured on just wearing shorts and a tech tee with a throwaway cotton shirt and maybe throwaway gloves, but now I'm thinking of wearing capri tights (the pair I own have a handy butt-pocket similar to the shorts I had planned on wearing). I'll bring both and make a decision based on the latest weather forecast and how I feel that morning.

Ahh, taper madness in full force. Is it only Tuesday?

Two more runs before the big day.

2008-10-27T13:18:00.002-04:00

It has been a disgustingly long time since I posted.

I know I'm a mediocre blogger and I'm comfortable with this fact, but even I'm appalled at how little I've been posting during this marathon cycle. A lot of it has to do with the time of year. Even though I'm not in the custom publishing industry anymore, I somehow managed to gravitate towards another industry with a busy period in the fall: healthcare marketing. Rats.

So, a brief recap of the fall training cycle is in order, I believe:

I ran a lot.
I trained with a group (a marathon-dedicated group) for the first time.
I raced a couple times and recorded one new PR--21:07 in the 5K.
I got sick and had to work some overtime, mostly around the same time.
Went through a rut in motivation; training suffered.
Rebounded and logged some great, confidence-boosting workouts recently.
Am still definitely in the hunt for that 3:40:59.

That about covers it.

Beginning Wednesday, I started obsessing over the extended weather forecast for November 1. Since then, predicted highs have ranged from 55 to 70 with lows from 34 to 56. It has been consistently calling for partly cloudy skies and a very low probability of precipitation. On Thursday I can start to obsess over the hour-by-hour forecast. :)

My foot continues to nag off and on. Every time I start to think, "This time, I really need to have this checked," it stops hurting completely. I haven't felt a twinge in the past week, so I'm hoping it will stay quiet. If it flares up during the race, I think I'm going to have to break down and see a doctor. At least then I can be told not to run for a while and might actually obey.

So with five days to go until the race, the outlook is promising. The hay's in the barn--I can only wait and see how all the factors fall into place. And eat a lot of carbs. And drink a lot of water. And rest. Etc... :)

Still alive!

2008-08-28T10:25:00.003-04:00

I thought it was high time I posted something. I actually got an email from a concerned reader asking if I was okay! *blush* :)

I am okay, but unfortunately running has not gone well of late. I got sick this past Friday, and that was the last time I went running. I could have been back at it as early as Tuesday or Wednesday, but then the 12-hour days at work started up and I just haven't been able to get myself out there. Today is not looking any better. I'm at work now, waiting for the next version of the project I'm working on to be finished so I can check it. I promised myself two years ago that I would never let a job interfere with my running again, but this week I have not been keeping that promise. I really need to get back on the horse.

The good news is, I'm making progress on wedding planning, which has been hanging over my head like a dark cloud. Now I have a date, a time, and a location, and am getting close on a dress. So I feel better about that.

Things will hopefully calm down after today. I am supposed to have tomorrow off, so I hope to get a good run in, get some errands done, and meet with the schedule coordinator of my wedding location to discuss event details. And CLEAN, because both sets of parents are coming to visit at the same time!

Red Eye Relay: Race Report

2008-07-30T11:53:00.003-04:00

This is long overdue, and I still don't have all the pictures gathered together yet. That will have to be a future post, I guess. For now, the report:

The Red Eye Relay is a 104-mile, overnight relay beginning and ending at the IU track in Bloomington. The course consists of two 52-mile loops that wind through the back roads of Monroe and Morgan counties, including some that are not paved, and visiting some of the craziest hills that southern Indiana has to offer. Our team was the in the open mixed gender division, meaning we had five to seven people on our team (seven, in our case), with at least half being female. Each of us ran three legs.

My strategy was to stay up late Friday night and sleep in as late as possible Saturday morning, in the hope that I would find the all-nighter on Saturday night a bit less of a shock to the system. I hosted some of the other members of our team; we watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and Without Limits. I think we ended up going to bed around 3 a.m. or so.

The strategy backfired a bit when I woke up at 9 a.m. or so and could not get back to sleep. Oh well, I got up and made the best of it, figuring I'd have a nap in the afternoon (which I did). We just tried to rest up and take it easy during the day, and then finally headed over to the track around 4.

After loading up the cars and getting some pictures, we went down to the track to cheer on Jenny, our first runner. As she set off north towards Griffy Lake, the ladies piled into the car (not quite intentionally, we ended up with a girls' car and a boys' car) to get me, the second runner, ready for my leg. At this point, it's about 5:30 p.m. and it's HOT and HUMID. I believe it was close to 90 degrees. My leg headed uphill from Griffy Lake and through a residential area before descending a truly monstrous hill on Boltinghouse Road (hopefully there will be some pictures of this). By now it's mostly wooded patches and farmland, not very much shade. I'm POURING sweat and am probably bright red in the face. A nice man driving a small tractor pulled up next to me and asked if a race was going on (I was wearing a number) and then asked if I was okay. Heehee. I thanked him and let him know I had people up ahead. No matter how many hicks* in diesel trucks gun their engines as they pass or leer at you, at least there are redeeming human beings out there.

I struggled up one last hill and ran down into the exchange zone to hand off to Becky, our third runner. I was so hot that I could literally feel my face and body radiating waves of heat. My teammates had some cold water ready. I felt better pretty quickly, but wow, I don't think I've ever been that hot and sweaty before!

First leg: 5.84 miles in 45:32 (7:47 pace)

As we drove around to follow and support Becky, I ate some shot blocks and drank more water. Last year at this race I got sick after my second leg, and I suspect it was because of dehydration and not eating enough. Becky handed off to Michelle, and once Michelle finished, our car was done for the time being. We had PB and J sandwiches and Gatorade. I also ate some snack crackers.

By the time the boys' car was finished and handed back off to our car, it was almost 11 p.m. I received the baton (which was actually a slappy bracelet!) a little after 11:30. I actually ended up running my previous leg backward, which meant I had to run up the monstrous Boltinghouse hill. After dark, we followed runners with a car as much as possible, but we had to have runners ready for hand off and it was actually really hard to drive that slowly up some of the steeper hills, so I was on my own going up Boltinghouse (we each ran with a headlamp, red blinkie light, and a reflective vest). I managed to run the whole way, but I was slowed practically to a crawl and my calves were like rocks! The run back down to Griffy Lake was pretty exhilarating. I came in at exactly the same time I ran for the first leg, which was good considering the Boltinghouse hill.

Second leg: 5.84 miles in 45:32 (7:47 pace)

We had to hurry this time because Becky's leg was really short and we didn't have much time. We jumped in the car and downed some more shot blocks and water on the way. I didn't do as good a job of eating after the second leg, but I also had some more snack crackers and Gatorade, and of course more water. And some barbeque chips. Yummy.

Once our car was finished with our second round, we drove ahead to park and rest for a bit. I don't think any of us actually slept (I know I didn't), but it was nice to lie down and close my eyes for a few minutes. Eventually I got up and started moving around a little bit, but I was really tight and already feeling some soreness. The fact that I didn't have the opportunity to stretch or warm up at all was definitely taking its toll by now.

Finally we were on again. During Jenny's run I was having real trouble staying away and was really not excited about running. But once I got the baton I felt better. It was around 4 a.m. Right after I started, before the car could catch up, I heard barking and saw a pair of glowing eyes streaking towards me. I stopped and whirled around and the dog stopped in a puff of dust, but wouldn't run away. I started to turn and it came at me again, so I had to keep facing it. Luckily the car came up right then. I deducted about 20 seconds from my time to make up for the devil-dog attack.

This leg was very surreal due to the darkness, the very bright moonlight, and the weird shadows thrown by the headlights of the car and my headlamp. The first bit wound through farmland, but before long we plunged into the woods and the road turned into gravel. We headed up, and up, and up. I seriously thought this hill would never end. It wasn't as steep as some of the other hills, but it was bad enough. The length was the real factor. I didn't time the uphill portion, but I would have to estimate it was close to a mile. I was crawling almost as bad as on Boltinghouse.

Earlier in the leg I been repeating to myself, "The faster you run, the faster you're done," as a litany. But it was a huge challenge to stay focused. I really struggled mentally during this leg. And when I hit that nightmare uphill, I lost it completely and just concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. I finally reached the top and the car went ahead to get Becky prepared. I started downhill, which was actually pretty terrifying because the darkness was so complete and the footing was uncertain. My headlamp seemed like a faint blueish spot in the darkness. Eeek! It was only about a quarter mile, but man I was ready for that leg to be done!

Third leg: 7.04 miles in 59:40 (8:28 pace)

That uphill and the general exhaustion really made a difference! I was so relieved to be done. It wasn't over yet, however, as we had to keep Becky and then Michelle supported and safe from dogs and other wildlife. There was also a possibility that our fifth runner, Mark (my Mark), might be unable to run his last leg because he wasn't feeling well and his calf hurt.

Our car really hit up the boonies. We were on gravel roads for a good long while, hitting roads with names like Bear Wallow Road and Slippery Elm Shoot Road. We returned to more familiar ground as it was getting light out. It was the home stretch and Mark was running! I was a little worried that he would really hurt himself, but mostly relieved that I was really done. :)

We headed back to the track to wait, where we had the opportunity to shower and change. I didn't shower, but I did clean up with wet wipes and change into dry clothes, which was the best feeling ever. A former teammate from last year's relay came by see us finish. She brought champagne and orange juice and made us mimosas. Incidentally, she is my new favorite person. As we waited, the first-place overall team finished (they had started hours after we did). Their name was Team Brilliant and they ran the last lap as a team, carrying full pint glasses of Guinness. Incidentally, they are my new heroes.

Finally Mark and Rob, the sixth runner, arrived, heralding the appearance of Peter, the last runner. We all attempted to run the last lap with him, but he was going pretty fast, so we were a bit fragmented. Jenny just cut across the field and Michelle and I ended up about 100 meters behind. I wasn't wearing a sports bra. Oops.

So we finished in 15 hours, 41 minutes, and actually won our division. Good times were had by all. I was exhausted, but my body was also craving protein, so we stopped at the local breakfast place for steak and eggs. Yum. When we got home, we literally dropped our stuff by the door and fell into bed.

Picture post hopefully coming soon!

* The term "hicks" is not meant to refer to anyone living in a rural setting. If you're a rude, boorish person living in the country, you're a hick in my book. If you're polite and compassionate and live in the country, then you're a nice man or a decent human being, no matter what kind of accent, education, or other characteristics you may have. :)

Free smiles

2008-07-23T10:09:00.001-04:00

This really made me happy:

2008-07-11T08:45:00.002-04:00

So...crap, it's been a while since I posted. What with work and marathon training, I suddenly have no time. Work has been great, but not without its frustrations. Still, I am definitely enjoying it overall and am grateful to have a job. I've learned SO MUCH about grammar, style, and usage (GSU), either that I once knew or that I never knew. When we're slow (which, currently, is often) I read up on GSU. It's amazing how much there is to know.

Although I've been struggling a bit in the heat and humidity, marathon training has gone well. I had a brief flare-up with my foot (more on that later), but haven't needed to take any time off. The addition of bike commuting to my routine has made runs that occur directly following rides unexpectedly hard, but I think I'm starting to get used to it. Hopefully in the long term this will help me improve.

Now that money isn't such a worry, Mark and I took off to Philadelphia to spend the Fourth of July holiday with Margaret. We had a great time walking around the city, eating, and going to a cookout, which involved more eating (and drinking). I structured my running schedule to make it possible to leave running gear at home (ran at 3:30 a.m. Thursday and 11:00 p.m. Saturday, took Friday off), so we were able to pack very light, which was awesome. Traveling is SO much less stressful when you can carry everything you need on your back (and it's not heavy). It was awesome to see Margaret again, and the visit seemed much too short.

Problem was, I took one pair of sandals (my trusty Tevas) and all the walking we did apparently aggravated my foot problem. It flared up at the worst time possible: as we were hurrying to catch the train to the airport. Luckily the train was late and we made it, but I was of course worried about my stupid foot! But late that night I ran with no issues. I'm taking Margaret's advice and just wearing retired running shoes all the time, even though it's so hot. I'd rather have sweaty, stinky feet than hurty, injured feet and no running. Hopefully with the extra support and continued icing and massaging, I will stay in the clear. I found some strengthening exercises that may help, as well.

Mark and I binged pretty heavily over Fourth of July weekend on junk food of all kinds. Actually I've been terrible about food ever since the marathon, and it's time to get back on the wagon as far as nutrition is concerned. In fact, it seemed like a good time to act on an idea that I've been toying with for several weeks now: instead of buying groceries at Kroger, I've been thinking of switching to Bloomingfoods, which is a local market/deli that specializes in local, natural, and organic food. It costs more, but I just feel better supporting the local economy. Also, they have a location right downtown that's easy to get to and has copious bike racks. By shopping there, it will be a little easier to cut down on the impulse junk food buys.

The neat thing about Bloomingfoods is that it's a co-op--members of the community join by buying into part-ownership. So I shelled out some dough to join up and now feel like I'm supporting my community. Yay!

Mark and I are also getting rid of some stuff: mostly old papers and clothes. Most things will go to Goodwill or Salvation Army, and we will sell a few items on eBay. It feels good to have less clutter! I'm finally getting rid of my Runner's World collection. Since it's available online, it just doesn't make sense to hold on to them. Off to the recycling center they go! It will hard to dump them all into the bins, though. I've been a subscriber since 1998.

Good luck beating the heat, everyone!

Barnyard Dash 10K RR: Unexpected this is

2008-06-22T11:14:00.004-04:00

So. I swear this was to be just a fun run for me. I registered on a whim just a few days before, and I'm still less than a month post-marathon. Although I had never run this particular race, I'm familiar with the area and knew it would be a hilly bugger. Besides that, we went out with friends on Thursday night and got less sleep than is optimal, then drove home Friday night, staying up late again to talk wedding plans with the parents. In conclusion, when the alarm went off at 6:15 a.m. yesterday, the last thought on my mind was going for a PR.

I invited my parents to come along and participate in the 3-mile walk. They've both talked of trying out a walk before, but never tried it, and I thought this would be a good opportunity. In the end, they did decide to come along, although we were running a bit late. Upon arrival at Huber's Family Farm, where the run was held, I found that they had not received my registration form! I had sent it a bit late, but I thought still in time to arrive by Friday. The organizers graciously allowed me to fill out my information and sign the waiver on the spot, just writing "check incoming" on the form. I do hope if the check was actually lost somehow, that they will let me know so I can mail another. Anyway, it took a while to get this all figured out, then I had to stand in line at the prereg table (they had a larger-than-expected turnout).

In short, I didn't have time to warm up. As we came out of the barn, they were announcing five minutes to go and asking all participants to report to the start. Shoot. Now I had a real quandary. For when we were inside the barn, we caught a glimpse of the age-group awards. They were beautiful hand-made ceramic mugs. I really wanted one, but this is a decent-sized race. I would have to run hard to have a chance at one, but with no warm-up?

I lined up and off we went. No major hills in that first mile, and a fair amount of downhill. I looked down and was shocked to see 7:01 for the first mile. But I still felt good. I started working on reeling people in, imagining that each female I passed could be the difference between one of those mugs. I did slow down a bit after that, once the hills really set in, but I somehow stayed consistent in the 7:20-7:30 range until mile 5, when a steep hill simply kicked my ass. I struggled up that one, but rallied and finished strong. I actually passed three people who were walking, including one female. Someone yelled that I was 13th female with less than a half mile to go. I tried, but could not catch the lady in front of me.

Right after I finished, I spotted Tracy, whom I'd never actually met in person, and said hi to her. It was just a matter of time. :) Mark finished soon after me and we went to get some food and water (oh, heavenly strawberries). Then we went to stand near the finish line to watch for Mom and Dad, and saw Tracy again. As it turned out, the lady who I'd been chasing for the last mile was her friend (I am now completely blanking on her name even though we were introduced, I suck!!). Tracy had been telling her about meeting me in person, and that I'd signed up for this race at the last moment and just gotten engaged. She realized that she had been searching for information on the course today and had read a blog entry written by a girl who had signed up at the last moment and just gotten engaged. Ha! What a coincidence.

So, remember how I started the day with zero expectations of a PR or even really racing? Well, I finished in 45:52 (7:22/mile), which is a massive post-college PR by 2:18 and only 14 seconds off my lifetime PR, which was set on a fast, downhill course. Holy. Crap. I was floored. Splits were 7:01, 7:23, 7:31, 7:21, 7:53 (ahh, damn that hill), 7:16, 1:24 (0.2). I also set new 4- and 5-mile PRs of 29:18 and 37:11.

And, I got 2nd in my AG. Yay pretty mug!

***

So, I've been tagged by at least three people to complete this meme, so without further ado:

Rules: Each player answers the 5 questions on their own blog. At the end of your post you tag 5 other people and post their names. Go to their blogs and leave a comment on their blogs telling them they’ve been tagged and to look at your blog for details. When they’ve answered the questions on their own blog, they come back to yours to tell you.

How would you describe your running 10 years ago?
This would have been the summer heading into my junior year of high school, a turning point in my running life. Along with a particularly dedicated cross country team, I started training more regularly and also kept a log for the first time. We worked really hard that summer and it paid off with a trip to the state finals in cross country. On the personal side, it showed me that I really could improve and do better than I'd ever thought possible if I was willing to put the work in.

What is your best and worst run/race experience?
Describing the best is hard because I've had a lot of good races lately. But I'll reach back to high school and describe my race at cross country semi-state, senior year. I was coming off a 30-second PR at regionals. I ran another 30-second PR, 17:02 for 4K, and as fifth runner, helped get our team to state again (this time without the state champion on our team). But right up there are the half and full marathons I ran this spring season. Rarely have I felt so euphoric!

As for the worst, I would have to say the Country Music Marathon in 2006. I hated that race; it was hot, windy, hilly, and the last 10K made me want to shoot myself because it's an out and back. I wanted to turn around early or else lay down and hope someone would carry me back to the finish. I'm not even sure why I had such a bad race. But luckily the rest of the weekend was really fun!

Why do you run?
Running makes me feel good. It's a multitude of different goods. Sometimes I simply feel euphoric, the classic runner's high. Other times I feel immensely satisfied and content with a particular performance (this never lasts long however). There are times when it just feels good to be moving and to feel the wind on your face and rushing by your ears, to coast down a hill. There's the social aspect when running with a group. There's the cathartic time to yourself that running can afford. There are the moments of great beauty that you sometimes see while on the run, the mountain view or maybe just a few rays of sunlight peaking through the branches of a tree. And, of course, sometimes it just feels good to be done!

What is the best or worst piece of advice you’ve been given about running?
This is hard for me to answer because I've received so much good advice from coaches and running friends, as well as online on the RWOL forums. I would say the most important advice has been not to be afraid of higher mileage, but to respect it by building up gradually, knowing when to stop and not being afraid to rest when it's needed.

Tell us something surprising about yourself that not many people would know.
I am generally calm around creepie-crawlies. Spiders, bugs, snakes, etc. might make me jump if I'm startled, and I'm certainly not going to "make friends" with them, but they don't cause my heartrate to go up significantly or anything. But bees? I am terrified of them. I will literally get up and run away if a bee comes near me. I am unable to relax if one is within sight or earshot, and if it gets too close I start freaking out. I mean, I know snakes and bugs can bite too, but they generally stay put and don't attack you like mini-kamikazes of pain.

Tagged: anyone who hasn't already completed this one, go!

More big news!!

2008-06-20T13:55:00.002-04:00

The past week has been so incredibly overwhelming that I haven't had a chance to share my other big news: Mark and I are engaged!

He kept it simple: made me dinner and cake, bought me Guitar Hero to keep me busy, and then popped the question. Considering that the proposal came little more than 24 hours after the job offer, I have been staying on Cloud 9 pretty continuously since then. And I have, of course, been busy with the new job, which I started on Monday. I am enjoying the job very much. It has been very slow so far, so I've been using the time to brush up on grammar and style, as well as familiarizing myself with the client style guides. Now on top of all that, I suddenly have to begin planning a wedding! We're thinking next summer sometime. All I know is that it will be outdoors. Luckily, Bloomington has a lot of great parks and natural places, so it's just a matter of making a choice.

Running news:

Recovery from the Sunburst Marathon is going well. I feel as if I have my legs back. I actually ran a 10K last weekend (two weeks post-marathon, and only my third run since then) and despite some hills, a poorly marked course, heat and humidity, I came up with a post-college PR of 48:10. I think I lost about 15-20 seconds from wrong turns and pauses to figure out where I was going. On impulse, I signed up for another 10K tomorrow (the Barnyard Dash in Starlight, IN). We're visiting my parents this weekend, and I've always wanted to run this race, since it's put on by the local running store, Pacers and Racers. I have no expectations going into this one; I just want to have fun and enjoy some good food afterwards at the Huber Family Farm.

I got a job!

2008-06-12T17:12:00.002-04:00

And a great one. The official job title is Quality Control Coordinator--I'll basically be a copy editor. It's at an ad agency in Bloomington. SO HAPPY. SO RELIEVED.

Finally!

2008-06-12T12:39:00.002-04:00

Last evening I finally headed out for a five-mile run with Mark. I felt pretty good, even though it was a hilly route. My foot did not hurt. There are times when it still feels a little stiff, but I've been icing aggressively and Mark has promised to give me foot massages, which do make a difference. The important thing is, it didn't hurt during the run! So, I don't think I'm quite out of the woods yet, but as long as I keep up the icing and don't do anything crazy (for a while), then maybe it will be okay.