Marathon Mo

Goodbye, Blog!

2006-11-09T15:00:00.000-05:00

This is officially my last post.

I had intended for this to be a Cost of Marathoning post but, when we actually started to add up the costs (fundraising mailing costs, clothes, sneakers, race entry fees, doctor appointment costs, medical devices, GU, Gatorade, Sport Beans, travel costs to San Francisco for all of us, etc.) it quickly became too depressing to want to itemize.

So instead, I just want to say thank you to all the people who donated (or wanted to donate but couldn't) through me to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Thanks to your generosity, I raised $4740!

Thank you to the people who read my blog and took the time to send me comments. It was nice to know that other people were sharing in my experience.

And a very special thank you to Braman and Larsson and Nora who dramatically altered their schedules, picked up a lot of slack at home, and spent many boring hours on the sides of various race courses while I trained for the marathon. I simply could not have done it without their wholehearted support.

I plan to continue to run on a casual basis but won't be documenting it on a blog anymore.

Thanks for donating! Thanks for reading! Goodbye!

The Marathon! (Part 3)

2006-11-06T14:13:00.000-05:00

Miles 11 through 16 were in Golden Gate Park. It was a loop so I could see people on the other side on their way out as I was running in. I hadn't paid enough attention to the course because, in my mind, I thought we were finished with hills but it turned out that much of the course in the park was gradually uphill.

I plugged along, though, and took advantage of the line-free port-a-potties near mile 13. Right before I got there, I passed the "pedi-care station" where people were being treated for blisters and other foot ailments. Thankfully I felt fine, because I could not imagine voluntarily taking my shoes off at that point since it seemed like it would be infinitely worse to have to put them back on after a break.

The park was interesting and I appreciated seeing trees, such as the very fragrant eucalyptus, and other plants that we don't have in New York State. I saw some huge pinecones along the route and hoped that Larsson might have an opportunity to pick one up. (Braman and the kids were scheduled to take a 9am shuttle from Union Square to the finish line. Since the finish line happened to be near mile 11 and mile 16, they were hoping to be able to see me at one of these points on the course as well and then spend time exploring the park while they waited for me to finish.)

It's all a blur now but Harland caught up with me somewhere between miles 14 and 15. He called Braman on his cell phone, found out where he was, told Braman where we were and thus we arranged to see each other near mile 15. (Braman missed me at mile 11 because the bus was delayed.)

Larsson and Nora were bored waiting for me to show up:

Here I come in my yellow hat:

Harland and I smiling for the camera:

Larsson and Nora posing afterwards for Braman:

I really appreciated their efforts to come out and cheer me on and it was great to have a little personal support. I stopped to give the kids a hug and talk for a few seconds and then I was off again.

After leaving the park I parted ways with Harland again and started down the Great Highway, which parallels the Pacific Ocean. Although this was at mile 16, it felt like the beginning of the end since, if I had looked behind me at that point on the other side of the road, I could have seen the finish line. I was running south (slightly uphill again!) and I knew that all the people I was watching running north on the other side of the road were almost finished. Honestly, this was a little discouraging since a lot of those people (I thought) didn't look much sportier than me but obviously were a lot faster. I tried not to dwell on it and just kept forging ahead since I had ten more miles to go.

I won't lie to you--I started walking a lot at this point. I was tired, disheartened by the steadily annoying uphill and the streams of people almost done. So I would walk for a while, see the next mile marker off in the distance, start running until I reached it and then walk a little again. This stretch of highway had a lot of traffic lights and intersections so when I couldn't see a mile marker, I would run to an intersection, walk for a while, run to the next intersection, etc. I was hoping to be running more consistently at this point but it turned out this was what I could manage. I think not running for three weeks previously set me back a bit in terms of attitude and fitness.

One thing that I haven't mentioned yet but which continually put the whole marathon experience in perspective was seeing the amazing number of shirts decorated with the names and/or photos of people the runners were running in honor or in memory of. Every name or photo represented someone who suffered from or was suffering from cancer. There were pictures of young and old, family and friends. And as some other shirts read, if you think running a marathon is hard, try chemotherapy.

Although I hadn't decorated my own shirt, I thought of all the people I was running for--people who had shared their own experiences with cancer with me and people who had told me about friends or family members who had cancer--and it really made the temporary discomfort I was experiencing seem trivial. Again and again I was inspired by all these people and felt true gratitude to have the good health to be able to be out running.

I knew that at about mile 18.5, near the San Francisco Zoo, people would be handing out animal crackers. I was really looking forward to this as a way to break the monotony and, possibly, have a decent snack but, sadly, the crackers were yucky generic ones out of a big bag and you couldn't see any of the Zoo from the road. Next time they should spring for Barnum's Animal Crackers.

The next time I run a marathon (!), I am going to carry a map of the course with me so I can see where I am as I go along and what still lies ahead. I say this because, like the continuing hills that kept taking me by surprise, I had another rude awakening when I was confronted with running a 4.5-mile section of the course I had conveniently forgotten about.

Watching all those people on the other side of the highway cruise downhill toward the finish obviously made me want to be one of them and I imagined that, after I reached a certain point on the highway, I would turn around and start heading back like them. Oops. It turned out that, instead of turning around and heading back, I first had to run around Lake Merced for more than 4 miles, from shortly before mile 19 to shortly after mile 23.

I was starting to feel really sore and stopped a few times to stretch my back and my legs. At mile 19 I saw someone strapped to a gurney, vomiting and about to be taken away in an ambulance so it could have been a lot worse. I kept up my combination of walking and running and was really looking forward to the finish which I now believed I would reach, although not soon.

Mile 22.7 was designated the Ghirardelli chocolate mile and there were people with trays of individual chocolate squares. I was told that I could take as many as I wanted but there weren't any plain ones, only chocolate espresso and chocolate with caramel, so I took one with caramel and was happy to eat it.

Somewhere around mile 23, after the chocolate but before getting back on the Great Highway, Harland found me again. Surprisingly I was able to make normal conversation and it helped to pass the last 3 miles until the end. With about a mile to go, we met up with Linda who had started walking the marathon at 5:30am. She was tired but steady and we talked for a few minutes before running again to the end.

Harland called Braman on his cell phone to tell him that we were almost there and to see what side of the road he was on. Braman is tall and was wearing a red hat so he was easy to spot on the left as we approached.

Braman took this picture of us as we neared the finish line.

Harland slowed down so I could finish by myself. Here I am happy to be almost done.(The picture is blurry because I was moving so fast)

Once I could see the finish line in sight, I checked my watch and saw that I had a chance to finish in less than 6 hours.

When I had started out, my vague finishing goal had been 5 1/2 hours but after running the whole way, 6 hours still seemed pretty good. I managed to pull it together and finished in 5 hours, 56 minutes and 25 seconds.

I had been so focused on just finishing that I forgot that I got rewards at the end. As I crossed the line, I was met by a group of tuxedoed men holding trays of blue Tiffany boxes tied with white ribbons. The finisher necklace! And then I had to select my Nike Dri-Fit Finisher t-shirt that announced I finished the Nike Women's Marathon and that I Ran Like A Girl.

Here's a picture of me finishing. You can see the tuxedoed men (and lots of fog) in the background. The clock started when the elite women started which is why it doesn't reflect my actual finishing time.

I was also handed a blue Tiffany bag for my loot, a mylar blanket to wrap around myself to help retain body heat and a Jamba Juice peach smoothie (which I drank but later regretted.)

Here I am sitting in the first chair I could find in the Team In Training Tent.

I looked happy but I was starting to feel sick (which I attribute to the three packets of GU I ingested on the course.)

The kids were glad to see me again.

And, of course, Larsson wanted to try out the mylar blanket.

I was very sore and uncomfortable but we managed to hobble to the Team In Training buses which took us back to Union Square.

Before I ran the marathon I thought that we might do some sightseeing in the afternoon after the race but it turned out that all I wanted to do was lie in bed and try to feel better. I did eventually manage to take a shower and go out to eat (although I didn't actually eat anything) but the rest of the day was mostly a write-off.

And that's pretty much it. By the time we went home on Tuesday I felt much better, although my left foot was still a little numb. The marathon was fun, I'm glad I did it and I'm even thinking about maybe doing another one next fall.

The Marathon! (Part 2)

2006-11-04T14:56:00.000-05:00

When she found out that we ran at about the same pace, Alicia wanted to try to stay together for the marathon. And we did, for the first few minutes. But I hadn't run in three weeks and had no idea how I was going to feel so I started off really slow (probably the most common marathon advice I've read), slower even than I would normally run. So Alicia soon left me in the dust and I took my iPod out of my pocket and started listening to music.

As described on the Nike Women's Marathon website, the race began in Union Square, headed through the Financial District, past the famous TransAmerica building, along San Francisco Bay's Fisherman's Wharf, Aquatic Park, Ghirardelli Square, Fort Mason and Marina Green while exposing breathtaking views of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge. The course then went through the Presidio and Sea Cliff District, out to the Great Highway, through Golden Gate Park and South around Lake Merced, and finished north of the Great Highway along the Pacific Ocean.

If you want to see a map of the course you can go to the Nike Women's Marathon site, click on The Race and then click on The Course. You can then click on View Marathon Course which will open a pdf file of the course or you can click on View Virtual Tour which will show you a movie from the perspective of someone driving on the course.

It really was an interesting and beautiful course but I don't have any pictures (until Braman showed up) because I, unlike a surprising number of other people, did not carry a camera with me while I was running.

Ten minutes into the race, while people were still running quite close together in a big mass, a crazy man with a cup of coffee tried to sprint from one side of the street to the other. There was no way he could have made it without bumping into someone and that someone turned out to be me. He spilled part of his coffee on my right sleeve but, while it was hot, it didn't burn me but I was left with a lingering smell of coffee and a stain on my shirt.

Thanks to my timely use of normal bathrooms, I was able to avoid the very long lines at the port-a-potties on the course. I was amazed at the lines even at the first "rest area", about 2 miles from the start. The people at the end of the lines had to wait at least 10 minutes and probably more. I knew I wasn't going to win the race but I also didn't want to take all day to finish and I was glad to not waste precious clock time waiting to use the bathroom.

After successfully running several miles, I felt incredible relief and gratitude that my knee didn't bother me (at all!) and that I hadn't done any lasting damage to my foot from all the walking we'd done on our quest for paper. I really enjoyed being out there on that beautiful day, in California, in the sunshine, making my way toward the finish line.

I obviously remember Union Square since that is where the race started but I don't remember much about the Financial District (which I hadn't been in before) except that it looked like a typical urban place. Fisherman's Wharf and Ghirardelli Square were fine and flat and I could see Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge as promised. Then we ran along Fort Mason and Marina Green which is near where Larsson got himself soaked the day before.

Which brings me to mile six and the beginning of the first hill. While this hill didn't seem as steep or as long as the hill in the Bridge of Flowers 10K I ran in August, it turned out I still didn't want to try to run up the whole thing. (It was about a mile long and went from a little above sea level to 295 feet above sea level.) I started to shuffle up it, made it maybe halfway, then remembered that I still had 20 more miles to go so I started walking.

It seemed a little sad to start walking so early on in the race but I didn't want to use up energy that I might need more at the end. I made it to the top (passed the "oxygen bar" where people were taking hits of oxygen to refresh themselves) and saw Maura from Team In Training who cheered me on and told me that Harland was behind me and would catch up with me soon. (He had started walking with Ellen that morning but I think, as a coach, he tries to connect with everyone on the team during the race.)

A little after mile 8, Harland did find me and we ran together until mile 11. We ran through the posh (and hilly) Sea Cliff district where everyone had beautiful, colorful landscaping as well as (I'm guessing) great views of the Pacific Ocean from their homes. Harland thought we passed by Robin Williams' house, which had a metal dinosaur frame peeking up over the tall hedge. (I think it was supposed to be a topiary but the plant hadn't grown up to the top yet.) We ran up a hill and then down a really long, steep hill which bothered my numb feet.

Mile 11 was near the finish line and Harland and I parted at that point and he went, I think, to check on how the other runners and walkers were doing. I started up my iPod again and continued on the course as it looped through Golden Gate Park.

The Marathon! (Part 1)

2006-11-03T15:29:00.000-05:00

I was pretty nervous the morning of the marathon so I didn't have any trouble waking up in time. In fact, I woke up before the alarm was scheduled to go off at 4:45.

Our hotel was right on Union Square and you could see the start line, and the Expotique tents, from our room window. Most people were going to start at 7:00am but walkers who expected to take more than 7 hours to finish were in the early start at 5:30am so I could already hear the noise of people milling around and some talking on a loudspeaker.

Because I had to turn the light on to get ready, Braman woke up and then Larsson. They were both excited about my big race. Nora, at least, kept on sleeping. I got dressed, got all my gear together, and headed over to the next street to the Lori's Diner that was open 24 hours to get some breakfast.

During training, I felt like I had had fairly successful long runs when I first ate a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast. Since the advice I'd read and heard most often was not to try anything new on marathon day, I ordered a bowl of oatmeal (and some toast since I had a ten dollar bill, wasn't planning on carrying the change with me for the race and thought I'd get the most for my money.)

Lori's Diner was one of only two diners in that area (that I knew of) open 24 hours. There were an anticipated 15,000 runners in the race and I was worried that enough of them would have the same idea to get breakfast at Lori's that I might have to wait and not be able to get my breakfast in time. But I was pleased that there were only a few other groups of people in there when I came in.

Since I wasn't planning on lingering, I didn't bring a book with me so I passed the time while I sat at the counter waiting for my meal by looking at the other people in the diner. There were two groups of women sitting in booths, all suited up and numbered for the race. They all seemed happy with hearty appetites but I don't know exactly what they were talking about since I tried not to be a completely obvious eavesdropper.

Once my oatmeal came I was able to eat about half of it along with a few bites of toast. Another solitary runner came in and sat at the counter and ordered just toast. I drank half my cup of water, paid the bill, left the rest of the change for the tip, used the bathroom there so as to hopefully avoid any contact with port-a-potties, and left.

The whole diner process hadn't taken as long as I thought so I still had 15 minutes before I was supposed to meet my group from Team In Training at 6:15. I had to walk near our hotel on my way to meet them anyway so I decided to check in with Braman and the kids again.

There were so many people all over the place, many of them in purple shirts representing Team In Training, and I was starting to feel excited and hoped that Braman might be able to take a few pictures before the race. But Braman and the kids, naturally, were still in their pajamas so there are no pictures documenting the pre-race activities. I used the bathroom again (who in their right mind wants to use a port-a-potty?), hugged and kissed them all and left to go wait for the start of the race.

I met Liz and Alicia on the corner of the Square near their hotel. I'd trained with Liz in Ithaca. She had planned to run the full marathon but had hurt her leg during training and had decided to cut back to the half-marathon. Alicia I had just met the day before at the Pasta Party and we were both doing the full marathon, all 26.2 miles of it. I had also met Ellen and Linda the day before but both were walkers and Linda had started at 5:30 to walk the full marathon and Ellen was starting at 7:00 to walk the half-marathon.

Everyone was supposed to line up in groups according to their pace. After the elite runners, there were 5 pace groups based on your estimated minutes per mile: 6:30:8:59, 9:00-9:59, 10:00-11:59, 12:00 - 14:59 and 15:00 plus. We all joined the 10:00 - 11:59 minutes per mile group on the south side of Union Square on Geary Street right in front of Macy's department store. Each pace group was a block long.

We stood there and made small talk, listened to the local radio personality attempt to work us up into a frenzy, and waited for the race countdown. At 6:40, the elite runners started. Then, 20 long minutes later, the starting gun finally went off. We shuffled forward slowly until we reached the start line and, at about 7:10, I landed on the pad which activated my Champion Chip and my marathon officially began.

I didn't know it at the time but Braman was leaning out our hotel window trying to take a picture of the start of the race. It was still dark out and he had a hard time keeping his hand steady but you get a sense of the number of people moving forward on their way to the start. I'm probably in this group somewhere. Macy's, in front of which we waited for the race to start, is the big building in the background.

San Francisco Trip Recap, Saturday 10/21/2006, Part 2

2006-10-29T11:42:00.000-05:00

Here we are in front of Niketown. You can see a crowd of people gathered there on the sidewalk. On the wall of Niketown, all the names of the marathon participants were listed and people were posing in front and having other people take pictures of them pointing to their name. It was a little crazy.

Here's another picture of us from a different angle so you can see the big billboard that Nike put up on the top of the store:

Here's a picture of us in front of Niketown from later in the day when it was less hectic:

And here's a picture of my name on the wall. (Look in the middle.)

Inside, Niketown was just as loud and crazy as the day before but it was easier to navigate without children. I bought a marathon shirt and discovered that the heat press station was a place where you could think up a phrase (15 characters or less) and the Nike people would print it on your shirt for free. That sounded like fun but I couldn't think of anything so I took my purchase and went back to the hotel room to drop it off.

I then met Maura (the Team In Training Campaign Director from Syracuse), Harland (our coach), Linda, Ellen and Alicia (three participants from the Syracuse area that I hadn't met before) and we all walked to the Moscone Center for the Pasta Party. The Pasta Party is a Team In Training pre-raceday event where you gather with hundreds (thousands?) of other participants to share a meal (of pasta plus more), listen to some encouraging words, and hear the story of someone who has suffered from a blood cancer.

Our sitting (there were two more after ours) was at 12:15. Lunch was good--dark green salad, three different kinds of pasta, whole-wheat rolls, and fruit--and our group was seated near the front of the huge room so we had a good view of the speakers. Someone from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society spoke first, then Joan Benoit Samuelson (the Nike Women's Marathon began as a way to honor Joan Benoit Samuelson, the first American women to win an Olympic medal in the marathon), and then a man from Texas and his two children.

What started out as an encouraging story--the man's wife was diagnosed with cancer, was aggressively treated, he joined Team In Training, she went into remission, they planned their family trip to San Francisco--took an incredibly sad turn when he went on to say that his wife, at only 28 years old, had had a relapse and had died just six weeks earlier.

To see the struggles his wife had endured and to see him stand up there with his two young children, after all he had been through and was still going through, and have a sense of humor and encourage the rest of us to have a good race the next day was really an inspiration. It definitely put the whole race in perspective and made the idea of running 26.2 miles much less daunting than it had been a few hours before.

After the pasta party, I met Braman and the kids in Yerba Buena Gardens. By then, Nora was asleep in the stroller so we walked around a little more, had tea and treats at Citizen Cupcake (I had a delicious lemon cupcake filled with lemon curd, topped with lemon frosting and decorated with a meringue straw), then checked out another store on my paper list, Stacey's. I bought a few more cards (including one with cherry tomatoes, Nora's favorite) and Larsson picked out two new books.

Since Friday had taken such a toll on my feet, I had planned to spend as much of Saturday sitting down as I could. But San Francisco is such a fun city and we weren't there for very long so it was just too tempting to walk around and see as much as we could. My left foot was really sore, though, and numb after the day's activities so I iced it a few times that night after we got back to the hotel room and made sure to take Naproxen and Tylenol.

I was starting to get worried about the marathon so I did as much preparing before bed as I could. I set the alarm clock for 4:45am, pinned my number on my shirt, folded my shirt, shorts, and socks and put them in a pile with my hat, iPod, BodyGlide, GU, the transportation wristband I'd need for the shuttle from the finish line back to Union Square, and the Naproxen and Tylenol I would need for the next day.

I knew I'd need to eat breakfast, hopefully oatmeal, the next day so we confirmed that the Lori's Diner on Mason Street was open 24 hours and served oatmeal. I felt like there wasn't anything left to do so I tried to relax and get some sleep before the big day.

San Francisco Trip Recap, Saturday 10/21/2006, Part 1

2006-10-29T07:51:00.000-05:00

Saturday morning we all got up early and had breakfast at Lori's Diner. This is a 50s-style diner with three locations in Union Square. The food was good (I had french toast-yum!) but pricey as are most things in San Francisco. We forgot Larsson didn't like freshly-squeezed orange juice and had to order him cran juice again.

Then we headed over to the Nike Expotique in the actual square part of Union Square. Big races like these usually have Expos, held in big places like convention centers, with lots of different vendors and free stuff.

Nike set up a series of tents in Union Square with different slogans like Feel Like a Girl (free manicures, etc.), Run Like Girl (gait analysis on a treadmill, pace calculators, free bottles of water, free postcards, sneaker testing, free Luna bars and Luna lip balm) and Shop Like a Girl (you can guess what was in there.) My foot hurt so I didn't want gait analysis, but I did get some free water and a postcard that I mailed to myself as a memento of the race. I didn't think the Expotique was terrible but it wasn't very exciting either. I guess I'll have to do another race to get the real Expo experience.

After the Expotique, Braman and the kids and I parted company. I needed to meet my group from Team In Training at 11:15 at their hotel so that we could all walk over to the Pasta Party together and Braman and Larsson and Nora were eager to start doing something fun.

Since it was only about 10:15, I went into Niketown by myself to check things out and the family headed over to the California Academy of Sciences to see fish and dinosaurs and other fun things.

Before they left, though, I made Braman take some pictures for the blog.

San Francisco Trip Recap, Friday 10/20/2006, Part 3

2006-10-27T20:52:00.000-04:00

Before we left for our trip, I made a short list of paper stores I was hoping to visit, complete with addresses, phone numbers and store hours. In our room, the hotel provided an 8 1/2 x 11" map of San Francisco and Braman and I used the addresses from my list to mark the locations on the map. There were five stores that were in fairly close proximity to the Exploratorium.

We started out walking and visited Books, Inc. and Paper Source on Chestnut Street and Union Street Papery on Union Street.

I bought one card in Books, Inc. plus some postcards to send, nothing in Paper Source (this was mostly a curiousity stop to see if this store was much like the ones in Boston and Cambridge and it was), and a bunch of cards in Union Store Papery. I might have gotten more but it is a small store and Braman was trying to entertain Nora outside while I shopped and she got sick of this quickly and came tottering in by herself. Once I was holding her my shopping time was pretty limited.

Larsson had fallen asleep shortly after Books, Inc., and we were pushing him in the stroller while we carried Nora or let her walk. We were all tired after this walking and the next two stores were near each other but about 9 blocks away from where we were in a neighborhood called Russian Hill. They are not kidding about the hill so we took the bus there to visit Russian Hill Bookstore and Polk A Dot Stationers.

On our last trip to San Francisco, we had visited both of these stores and had great success at each so I was looking forward to going to them again. The stop at Russian Hill Bookstore did not disappoint and I found a bunch of great cards, including pirate cards for Larsson's next birthday and several cards with violins on them should we ever need to send personal correspondence to Larsson's violin teacher.

Sadly, although I thought I had all the information I needed, I should have called ahead to verify my facts since we discovered, after walking uphill to find it, that Polk A Dot Stationers had gone out of business. This was especially sad since the last time we were there I had found some interesting cards that I haven't seen anywhere else and they were cheap, too, for letterpress cards.

But I didn't mind quite as much as I could have since by then my left foot was really bothering me and quite numb from all the walking around. We gratefully got back on the bus which left us off quite close to our hotel.

With all my blathering about our day, you might have forgotten the purpose of our trip so I will now say that we arrived back in Union Square in time for me to pick up my race packet at Niketown.

Nike, naturally, is the host of the Nike Women's Marathon, and Niketown, a 7-story store on the corner of Post and Stockton streets in Union Square was making a big deal about the race. We were almost instantly deafened by the dj music as we entered the store. They had redone the store directory for the weekend so I could tell that packet pick-up was on the 4th floor, the Espresso Cart and Runner's General Store (stocked with things like GU and BodyGlide) were on the 5th floor and Marathon merchandise and the Heat Press station were on the 3rd floor.

Since we had the stroller, we took the elevator to the 4th floor. I picked up my bag and my number (but not my t-shirt which you only get when you finish), had my chip activated and we left. There were hordes of women in that store intent on purchasing a lot of Nike stuff and it was too crowded and loud, and we were too tired, to look around. But it was exciting to finally have my number and official race stuff in hand and I felt like I was actually going to run a marathon in two days.

We walked back down the hill later to have dinner again at Westfield Centre and then took the cable car back up to our hotel. Thank goodness it was a short ride because it turned out that Nora hated cable cars. I thought she would enjoy looking out at where we were going but instead she screammed, "No! No!" as we jerkily climbed our way up the hill. Larsson had a good time, though, but we didn't try cable cars again on our trip.

I iced my foot and my knee that night and hoped that neither of them would be a problem on race day.

San Francisco Trip Recap, Friday 10/20/2006, Part 2

2006-10-27T15:30:00.000-04:00

After the Exploratorium, we walked over to Crissy Field where we walked on the beach and enjoyed a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

(I should mention here that the temperatures in SF while we were there were very warm, in the 70s and 80s. We hadn't expected those highs and so hadn't packed shorts for the kids, though it turns out they would have been appropriate, but thankfully had a few short-sleeved shirts. That afternoon there were lots of people walking around and even quite a few people lying on the beach in bathing suits.)

The sun was bright and the kids didn't feel like posing for the camera. They did their best but they mostly just wanted to poke around in the sand.

I don't know what came over me but I asked the kids if they wanted to walk a little bit in the water. So we took off our shoes, rolled up our pants and dipped our feet in San Francisco Bay. Nora, who is sensitive to cold, cried right away and wanted to get out.

While I was bringing her back to Braman (who had sensibly kept his sneakers on), Larsson ventured further into the water and got the bottom of his pants wet. He looked cute and it was scenic with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background so I went to get the camera to take his picture. Turns out that wasn't such a great idea because, while I was doing that, Larsson went a little further out, and, not being familiar with waves and how how the land can slope down, got soaked up to the top of his thighs and almost lost his balance and fell in.

Here we are before it all went wrong:

Here is Larsson on his way to get soaked:

And here he is all wet and sandy:

Of course, this was the one time we forgot to pack extra outfits for the kids so Braman wrung out Larsson's pants, Larsson put them back on and, at about 3pm, we finally began paper shopping.

San Francisco Trip Recap, Friday 10/20/2006, Part 1

2006-10-27T11:44:00.000-04:00

I love to buy notecards (and send the ones I can bear to part with) and San Francisco is a card-buying Mecca. Since we live in the sticks where it is not so easy to buy fancy cards, I was anxious to get out and get shopping.

But I am also a mother of two small children who had just endured a long, tedious plane flight to the other side of the country so that I could run a marathon so I put aside my own consumer urges and we spent Friday morning and part of the afternoon at the Exploratorium, a fantastic kids' science museum with lots of hands-on exhibits.

Actually, we started off the morning by having breakfast at Sears Fine Food, a restaurant well-known for breakfast and conveniently located right next door to our hotel. I must have been really tired because I can't even remember what I had but I remember that Braman and the kids shared pancakes and Larsson discovered that he doesn't like freshly-squeezed orange juice and had to order a second drink of cranberry juice instead.

After going back to the hotel and packing the backpack full of essentials like diapers and wipes, books for the kids, stickers, crayons and other entertainment, we walked down to the corner of Powell and Market so that we could take a Powell-Hyde line cable car towards the Exploratorium. (I say toward instead of to because the cable car routes are limited and we still would have had to take a bus once we got off the cable car near Ghirardelli Square.)

Taking a cable car to go to the museum seemed a little crazy to begin with since it wouldn't actually bring us to our destination but Larsson had seen them going up and down the street in front of our hotel and really wanted to take a ride on one. However, it seemed extra crazy once we got down to the stop and saw how many other tourists were waiting in line so we ended up taking the bus. (Handy Braman had purchased a municipal transit map from the bookstore next to our hotel so we knew which route to get on and where to pick up the bus.)

We finally made it to the Exploratorium, spent a few hours there and had a great time. (What made the visit even better was that we got in FREE as part of our reciprocal membership with our local kids' science museum, the Sciencenter.) The Exploratorium is housed in a huge open, industrial-looking space and the lighting is not great for taking pictures. But here are a few from the baby play area where Braman built a cage for the kids:

It started out innocuously enough where Larsson and Nora were both helping to build.

Then started to become an enclosure for Nora.

Then Larsson wanted to enclose them both completely inside.

But Nora became scared...

...and busted out.

San Francisco Trip Recap, Thursday 10/19/2006

2006-10-26T20:52:00.000-04:00

We left the house at 7am on Thursday morning to drive 2 1/2 hours to Buffalo for our 11:30 flight. This was Larsson's third time on an airplane but Nora's first. Here they are on the first leg of the journey, from Buffalo to Philadelphia. Nora was excited to sit in her own seat for a little while and click the buckle:

This is how Larsson interpreted "look excited":

After a brief layover in Philadelphia, we flew on to San Francisco. The flight was long but the kids were good travellers and we finally arrived in SF at about 5:30pm, west coast time.

We had decided not to rent a car so we took the train from the airport to downtown San Francisco. Between the infernally slow airport tram to the train station, waiting for the train, and the train trip itself, it took us about 2 hours to travel what would have been about 30 minutes in a car.

Fortunately, the train stop at Union Square is on Market Street in the bottom of a large shopping complex with a food court. Since you can't eat well on a plane, we were hungry by then and couldn't imagine trying to go out again once we checked into the hotel so, with all our luggage and two tired, hungry kids, we navigated a crowded, fancy (this is upscale shopping) food court to find some dinner. I got Thai food, Braman and the kids shared pizza and then we walked ten minutes uphill on Powell Street to our hotel. Larsson was excited to be out at night, in the dark, and to see all the bright city lights and crowds of people.

We stayed at the Chancellor Hotel. When we went to SF two years ago, we stayed here and found it to be a nice, relatively inexpensive place so we didn't hesitate to make reservations here again. We checked in, went up to our room, and all fell asleep without too much trouble after our long, busy day.

Goodbye, San Francisco!

2006-10-24T09:51:00.000-04:00

I felt sick most of Sunday after the race (too much GU?) and yesterday we spent the day visiting the Aquarium of the Bay, gawking at huge dungeness crabs on Fisherman's Wharf and eating ice cream at Ghirardelli Square so I haven't had a chance to update.

We're leaving the hotel at 10:30am and won't get into Buffalo until 11:30pm so today will be a wash, too. But here's a picture of me the night before the race in my official Team In Training shirt:

and one right after I finished:

The race ended on the Great Highway right next to the Pacific Ocean. It was foggy and breezy and I was very glad to be sitting down and wrapped in my space blanket to keep me warm.

We took pictures of us doing things in SF (the kids near the Golden Gate Bridge, in Union Square, etc.), during the race and after the race so there is definitely more to post and more to write about. I'll try to start on Wednesday if we can manage to get Larsson to school. With jet lag and our late arrival this may be difficult but stay tuned.

I did it!

2006-10-22T20:09:00.000-04:00

Today I finished the Nike Women's Marathon in 5 hours, 56 minutes and 25 seconds. Given all the uncertainty I had in the three weeks before the marathon, I am grateful to have finished and am very happy.

My knee felt fine but I am sore all over and very tired. I'll try to write more tomorrow and post some pictures from our trip.

Leaving for San Francisco!

2006-10-18T19:29:00.000-04:00

I think my knee is better but it's hard to tell because I haven't been running. So I'm going to run the marathon on Sunday after not having done any running for 3 weeks. At least it will be interesting.

We're going to start packing soon (I don't know why but we always wait until the last minute) and will hopefully have everything ready before we have to drive to Buffalo at 6:30 tomorrow morning for our 11:30 flight to San Francisco.

We're bringing a laptop with us to SF so I plan to update on Sunday after the race.

Wish me luck!

Tried Again...

2006-10-14T10:55:00.000-04:00

Braman took the kids out for the morning so that I could try to get the house organized and we can start getting ready for our trip.

Since the point of our trip is for me to run a marathon, I thought I'd see if I could run yet. So I got dressed, walked down to the 3-mile-course starting point, and started to run. While I have been walking and moving without pain, when I started to run, I felt a little something. And when I kept running, that something intensified. So I stopped.

Dr. Getzin said to try running this weekend and email him on Monday. I guess I'll just see if there's something else he can do for me.

To save money, Braman booked our flight to leave out of Buffalo. Oops. I hope they don't get two more feet of snow before Thursday.

Up But Not Yet Running

2006-10-11T14:21:00.000-04:00

I haven't written in my blog for a week because I haven't been running.

After last Tuesday's elliptical machine workout, my left knee started to feel sore. It felt worse later in the day. I rested on Wednesday and then tried unsuccessfully to run on Thursday. I rested for a few more days, tried to run unsuccessfully on Monday and then made another appointment with Dr. Getzin, the sports medicine doctor.

I saw him yesterday and he diagnosed my problem as runner's knee. Evidently my muscles get tired and can't control the movement of the knee cap. Then the knee cap moves around and aggravates the cartilage and then I have pain.

Like plantar fasciitis, runner's knee can also be an overuse injury so this is probably my body's way of telling me that it wasn't quite ready to run 20 miles. But since I had a sharp pain when I tried to run on Thursday but a lesser pain when I tried to run on Monday, Dr. Getzin feels that I am healing pretty well and have a good chance of being able to run the marathon.

This is good because I just found out that I only have 6 1/2 hours to run it. People who are walking and who think it will take them longer than that have to start at 5:30 while everyone else starts at 7:00. Since I estimated it would take me 5 hours to run the race, I was placed in the 7:00 start group and don't have the option to change it now. After 1:30, the roads are opened back up to traffic and a van comes along and picks up stragglers. So if it turns out that I'm not able to run much, I will have to walk the course in 6 1/2 hours. Which I'm not sure I can do. So keep your fingers crossed that my knee pain is all gone by the 22nd.

I'm now to ice my knee as well as my foot and continue to take the anti-inflammatory medication. Keep resting and do cross-training if possible. But since my Fitness Station membership expires today and I have no desire to renew it, I don't think I'm going to be doing much cross-training. I have a knee sleeve that I've been wearing around the house. It feels pretty comfortable. Dr. Getzin thinks it may help my knee cap remember which way to go so it is worth a try.

I'm going to try to run again on Friday and see how it goes. I'm hoping to join everyone for the last group run (8 miles) on Saturday. But if it still hurts a little, I'll just wait and hope it's better for the big day.

55 Minutes on the Elliptical Machine

2006-10-03T07:26:00.000-04:00

This week is the beginning of the taper, which means that the weekly mileage only goes down to give your body time to recover before the marathon. This week's schedule is 5-8-4 miles on T-W-Th and then 12 miles on Saturday.

Today I got to The Fitness Station at 6am when they opened and used the elliptical machine for 55 minutes to approximate running for 5 miles. I always feel funny using the machine and then really funny when I get off and try to walk around. But it's done.

I'd like to run outside tomorrow for the 8 miles but I'm not sure if I can squeeze it in in the daylight before Larsson goes to school.

20 Miles!

2006-09-30T18:13:00.000-04:00

Today I ran 20 miles.

It took 4 hours and 8 minutes.

My legs didn't fall off. My lungs didn't spontaneously combust. I didn't pass out.

Here I am after it was all over:

Here is my right foot after it was all over (a little out of focus but you get the idea):

Note that I now only have two good toenails on this foot and that the second smallest nail is just sort of flapping there. It may have to be pulled out if it really starts bothering me.

Since I finished, I have to say that the run was an overall success. I met the group down in Ithaca at 7am. It started out cold (about 40 degrees) and I had on two shirts, a jacket, shorts and warm running pants over those. I hadn't planned to keep the jacket or pants on but it was so cold that I didn't want to take them off. I shed the jacket at the first water stop at mile 3 but kept on the pants until about mile 15. I was feeling really tired at that point and, once I took those sweaty pants off, I felt a lot better.

Mostly I don't need much motivation to run. I like to get out by myself and listen to my audiobook and have a little time alone. But I have to admit that, if I hadn't been with a group of people, I don't think I could have run 20 miles. I definitely felt like I had my ups and downs on the run but since I ran with my teammate Amy for the way out and then with the assistant coach Monica for most of the way back, I had enough conversation and encouragement to keep going.

I had to walk some stretches (increasingly longer stretches towards the end) but I tried not to feel too bad about it. Since this is going to be my first marathon, my goal is just to finish and I don't have a particular time frame. If I have to walk to gather enough energy to keep going, that's the way it is. (After seven hours officials will pull you off the course but I don't think I'll be THAT slow.)

Now that I know I can run 20, what's 6.2 more miles? I'm looking forward to going to San Francisco and just putting one foot in front of the other.

The Team In Training people did a nice job of providing support along the course. There were water stops every three miles and encouraging phrases chalked on the road throughout the course. At the end, there was lots of food and each of us got a treat bag filled with running goodies like bandaids, vaseline, a power bar, and earwarmer, chapstick, chocolate, etc. It was a nice touch.

After the run, Braman and the kids met me at the parking lot. I decided that I had enough energy to try to do something as a family so we went out for lunch and then took the kids to the Johnson Museum's open house where we looked at some pirate art, did crafts, watched sword fighting, and listened to the Cornell Savoyards sing songs from H.M.S. Pinafore and the Pirates of Penzance. Larsson and Nora both seemed to enjoy it.

Once I got home, I took an ice bath. Yes, an ice bath. It had been suggested that this would be a good idea to reduce inflammation and muscle soreness after a really long run and I need all the help I can get so I did it. Braman says it was more like a cold water bath since we only had a few trays of ice in the freezer and those melted quickly in the water. When I got in, the water was 59 degrees. This was cold enough for me. I managed to sit there for 10 minutes (with a shirt and scarf on for a small degree of comfort) and then quickly drained the tub and took a hot shower.

Here I am suffering:

Did it make a difference? I don't know but I guess I feel more like a runner now that I did it.

So now we're on the taper, which means that the mileage only goes down until the race in three weeks. Next weekend's long run is 12 miles, the next one is 8 miles and then it's the marathon.

By the way, my foot feels pretty good but my ankle is bothering me a little bit and my left knee is a little sore. It will be good to have this marathon behind me so I can give my body some rest.

61 Minutes at The Fitness Station

2006-09-27T08:41:00.000-04:00

This is the peak training week which means 5 miles on Tuesday, 10 miles on Wednesday, 5 miles on Thursday and 20 miles on Saturday. I ran the 5 miles yesterday but my foot was sore after it and my ankle felt a little weak so I decided to use The Fitness Station for my 10 miles this morning.

Since my foot goes numb after more than 60 minutes on the elliptical machine, I planned on an hour on the elliptical machine and then 60 minutes on an exercise bike. With some discomfort I made it through the 60 minutes and was on the 5 minute cooldown when I felt a sharp pain in my left foot. So I hobbled off the elliptical machine and decided to call it a day. I've read over and over again that it's better to undertrain than overtrain and hurt yourself.

I'll see how I feel for the 5 miles tomorrow but I want to save my foot for the 20-mile run on Saturday.

The Carrot and the Stick

2006-09-26T06:25:00.000-04:00

Braman needed to get to work early today so I had to finish my run by 6:15. Which meant that I had to leave the house by 5:15 and that my whole 5-mile run would be in the dark. I knew this in advance so yesterday I bought a headlamp to wear on my hat. I'm not sure if wearing a light on my head is a new personal low or a new high in my running dedication but there it is.

Since I start out in the village where there are streetlamps, I didn't need to use my headlamp right away. But as soon as I passed by the gas station on my way out of town, I switched it on and was glad to have it. The headlamp created a circle of light a few feet in front of me, so right by my feet was dark but I could see if I was approaching something. I didn't realize how much I bob up and down when running until the circle of light accentuated it.

It was pitch black. I was running along and turned off the highway onto a country road. There are maybe five houses on the mile-long stretch that I'm running and they're mostly set back from the road. The start of the road is flanked by tall brush on either side and the road is fairly narrow and turns a few times so there are a few blind spots. Even during the day I try to be careful here to avoid oncoming cars but, in the blackness of the pre-dawn morning, the area took on an ominous feel and all I could imagine were nasty people lurking in the brush to leap out at me or sneak up behind me as I ran.

It didn't help that my audiobook (The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova) was at a scary spot as well.

(One of the characters, Rossi, has received a mysterious old book, blank but for a two-page spread in the middle with a woodcut print of an evil dragon. His initial research shows that the woodcut print is associated with Vlad the Impaler and he goes to numerous places to learn more about Vlad and the Dracula legend. In trying to discover more about the book itself, Rossi leaves it with a friend at the Smithsonian Museum for chemical analysis. Several months later the friend calls him and tells him that the book is ready and asks that he come in person to pick it up so the valuable item won't be lost in the mail.

Rossi goes to meet his friend at his office. The friend seems much older and worn than he did the few months previous. As he relates the results of the analysis, the friend's expression seems to switch between benign and oddly sinister. He alludes to events that Rossi hasn't told him anything about and presents Rossi with a copy of a map of the supposed location of Dracula's tomb, a map that had been stolen from Rossi on a visit to Istanbul months before but which his friend claims was folded up in the back of the book. And Rossi thinks the man has fangs. Is this guy a vampire and is he going to attack Rossi? It definitely seems likely. And, while I may not have done a very good job of re-telling this part of the book, trust me that it sounds pretty scary when you're listening to it while you're running alone, in the dark, on a deserted road.)

Running in the dark is strange because it's hard to tell exactly how fast you're going because you can't really see where you are or how fast you're approaching something. But I was sufficiently weirded out by listening to this vampire book in the dark that I tried to run as fast as I could to get home as fast as I could. There was the carrot of our well-lit house combined with the stick of the scary audiobook and the fear of Dracula lurking in a roadside ditch.

I joke that I don't have any fast-twitch muscles but maybe I'm developing some because I finished the 5-miles in 49:20. (This is almost ten minutes faster than the 5-mile race I ran on Memorial Day weekend and more than 3 minutes faster than the five miles I did last week when I felt I was so speedy.) I felt so good at the end of the run and was so amazed with my less-than-ten-minute-mile performance, that, if I wasn't so terrified of it, I might make running in the dark while listening to scary stories part of my new training plan.

11 Miles Alone, 3 With the Group

2006-09-24T13:44:00.000-04:00

I had planned to get out of bed at 5am, eat some breakfast, fiddle around, and then leave the house at 6:15 to get down to Ithaca for the group training session. But Nora wanted to nurse until 5:30, I tried to clean up the kitchen so Braman wouldn't have to deal with a huge mess when he was trying to get the kids breakfast before Larsson's violin lesson, and I still needed to eat oatmeal and gather all my things. So I didn't end up leaving the house until 6:30.

Even then, I only had time to put sandals on and had to change into my sneakers at two different red lights on the way. I also couldn't find the BodyGlide (I hadn't used it since Philadelphia and we're not the most complete unpackers) so grabbed a tube of Aquaphor as I was going out the door and smeared that under the neckline of my sports bra as I drove, hoping it would be enough to prevent the chafing that has left a scar on my chest.

As a result, I arrived at the meeting spot five minutes late at 7:05 to find that the team had already left without me.

Another group that meets at the same spot to train together told me that I had just missed them and that if I cut a little bit off the start of the route, I could probably catch up with them. But I am stubborn and decided that I would run the route from start to finish by myself.

I wouldn't have minded so much except one of the coaches and I had emailed back and forth and I had told her I was coming. I don't remember the group being particularly punctual before and thought that they would have waited a few extra minutes for someone they were expecting but evidently not. I was told later that I should really get there 10 minutes early and that they are trying to train us to show up on time since the marathon won't wait five minutes for latecomers. Yeah, OK.

So I ran three miles to the first water stop. Drank some Gatorade, retied my right shoe which seemed loose and started running again. I ran to what I knew was the 5-mile point. Sometimes there is water there but not then. I kept running. I thought there would be water maybe a mile or so down the road but I didn't see anything. (I found out later it was well-hidden in some brush at mile six.)

The group likes to run more than halfway on the way out so that they can cut off the beginning part of the route on the way back. A small psychological benefit. But I was getting tired of running without knowing where the water was so I decided that I would run for an hour and 25 minutes out and then I would turn around. This would be about 7 miles out and so I would do exactly the same route on the way back.

At 1:25 on my watch I did a u-turn in the road and headed on back. At about mile 10 1/2, I was overtaken by some people in the group, including the coach. She said she didn't know I was coming and that she felt bad that I had been running alone. At mile 11, we came to the original water stop so I had run 8 miles without additional fluid. I drank some more Gatorade.

Since I hadn't gone as far out as the rest of the people, I didn't cut off the end of the route like they did but kept going back the extra mile or so to make sure I ran the full 14 miles. I ran about a 1/2 mile of this by myself and then Monica, the coach, met me and we ran the last 1/2 mile or so together. I told her that she didn't have to but she said that part of her coaching obligation is to make sure that everyone finishes.

I don't mind being alone but was frustrated that I hadn't taken my mp3 player with me. I could have made some good progress on The Historian. On a positive note, I felt pretty good overall, much better than I had last Sunday when I only ran 13.1 miles. I felt fast when I was running and, more importantly, felt like I could have kept going after the 14 miles were over. I finished the 14 miles in 2:47 minutes.

Goldenrod and New England Aster

2006-09-23T13:35:00.000-04:00

I may be contending for Worst Wildflower Photographer, but I still thought I'd post the pictures I took of the goldenrod and purple flowers that I saw on my 3-mile run. They really do look beautiful together and my pictures don't convey this at all.

Here they are together:

Here's the goldenrod by itself:

And here are the purple flowers by themselves:

Based on these feeble pictures, I am going to say that the goldenrod is Canada Goldenrod (Solidago canadensis) and that the purple flowers are New England Asters (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae). (See here and here for New England Aster pictures and descriptions. See here and here for Canada Goldenrod pictures.)

I don't feel so sure about the Goldenrod now. Maybe I'll ask Craig Cramer from Cornell for some identification help.

Our Yard. 9 Miles? Wildflowers. Podiatrist.

2006-09-21T15:26:00.000-04:00

I missed my long run on Wednesday morning because our yard is currently being dug up to lay pipe for a new geothermal heating system. The work began on Tuesday afternoon, resumed on Wednesday at 7:30am and is still going strong Thursday afternoon at 3:30. Braman has designed the system, hired local big machine guys to do the digging and is laying the pipes in the 6-foot trenches himself, with some help from the digging guys.

Our yard used to be grass but here is what it looked like at various stages of digging yesterday:

Braman needed to do some preparatory work before the guys showed up on Wednesday morning and so was out of the house at 6:30am. Since this is when I'm usually exercising, I had to change my schedule. And since I can't really run after dinner very well since things are crazy with the kids then, Wednesday turned out to be a rest day.

But Braman didn't need to start with the guys right away this morning so I did my 9 miles today. I didn't want to run in the pitch black again so I started out on the elliptical machine and used it for an hour and 5 minutes (thank you, space shuttle landing, for dominating the news and sparing me from more violent and depressing stories.) I'm guessing that 65 minutes on that machine is about 6 miles worth of activity. Since it was light out by then, I split the workout and ran my usual three-mile course so I ended up "running" about 9 miles.

It was so refreshing to run outside, in the daylight, that I really enjoyed every slow step. Cars could see me! I could see things! It was fantastic.

Though most of the wildflowers I learned this summer have come and gone, there are two blooming together which make a stunning pair: tall, spiky goldenrod and a deep purple aster-esque flower. [I wanted to link to a picture of the goldenrod but it turns out that there are many different kinds (scroll down on this Connecticut Botanical Society's page to see 12 of them) and I'm not sure which one I'm seeing on the roads around here. It's kind of like this but it might also be this, or even something else. The Connecticut Botanical Society people wrote a short article on goldenrod identification which I will read when I have time.] The purple flower may be New England Aster or maybe New York Ironweed or maybe something different. I'll see if I can take a picture of the two together this afternoon and make a more confident identification.

Oh, I saw a podiatrist this morning about my toenails. Turns out the three toenails that I've been going on about are just going to fall out one day. The purple one is going to fall out soon and the others may take a while. Since they don't hurt, he said just to leave them alone and let nature take its course. The second smallest toe on my right foot, though, which was red, swollen and sore after the half-marathon, turned out to be infected. He said the toenail was just floating on top of some goo so he cut off the top of the nail, released the goo, and put a bandaid on it. If it's still red and sore in a week, I should go back and he'll pull the nail out. Otherwise it should be fine and will eventually just fall out on its own. This makes a total of four toenails that I'm going to lose.

If I can manage it, I'll do five miles tomorrow before Braman goes to work. Then there'll be the 14-mile group run on Saturday. The Marathon's a month from tomorrow!

Outside!

2006-09-19T08:44:00.000-04:00

I decided to try to run my five miles outside this morning. It was 65 degrees with 80% humidity so I knew I wouldn't be cold but I started at 5:45 so almost my whole run was in the dark. Running in the dark is not so fun. I think if I am going to keep doing it, I need to get a miner's light for my hat.

Overall, the run was not too bad. I felt a little stiff in the very beginning but improved as I went along. The first four miles are mostly level or uphill which was fine but the last mile is all downhill. I'd been looking forward to the downhill thinking it would give me a break but it turned out to be the most uncomfortable part of the run. I had thought my plantar fasciitis was really improving but turns out it is aggravated by downhill running. I hadn't noticed this in Philadelphia because the course was flat but hills will be impossible to avoid in San Francisco. I better try to coddle my foot as much as possible before the marathon.

It was good be running outside again instead of being cooped up in The Fitness Station. And I enjoyed my audiobook again, although I had to back up more than 80 minutes so that I could understand what was happening. The book, The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, is a literary thriller about the search for Dracula and as such may not be the best book to be listening to on dark morning runs but I like it.

After a depressingly slow half-marathon, I was super speedy this morning, running the five miles in 52:40.

Looking ahead to life post-marathon, Braman, Larsson, Nora and I have registered to run the Interlaken Steeple Chase 5K as a family. I've done the run for all of its three years, in 2004 pushing Larsson in the stroller while I was pregnant with Nora and then last year pushing them both in the double stroller. Last year I ran it in 39:28 but this year, after having run that particular course in training many times, I hope to do much better. My fastest time was 37:15 in 2003 which I think shouldn't be too hard to beat. Anyway, it will be fun for all of us to do a race here in our hometown.

Philadelphia Distance Run

2006-09-18T14:21:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I ran the Jefferson Hospital Philadelphia Distance Run (half-marathon.) My time was 2:42:13 with a 12:23 pace.

I was 10,146 out of 11,119 overall; 4707 out of 5363 females; and 746 out of 851 in my female age group. I am happy that I finished and that I wasn't last.

I ran 5K in 36:21, 10K in 1:13:29 and 10 miles in 2:00:45. Since I finished in 2:42 you can see that I started out slow and finished a lot slower.

In races like this that attract a lot of participants, people are grouped into pace groups with the speediest people in the front and others in sections behind, each cordoned off by a rope. Because of my estimated finish time of 2 hours and 35 minutes I was placed in corral 14 out of 15.

After the gun went off and the elite people began racing, it took me about another 10 minutes to reach the starting line. The race started out with a loop through downtown then went down one side of the Schuylkill River, crossed over a bridge, and then went back toward the city along the other side of the river to the end near the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The highlight of the race for me (after finishing) was seeing some of the elite runners in action. The downtown loop was about 4 miles and there was a point where the beginning and ending sections of the loop were quite close to each other so I, after having run less than a mile, could see the elite runners on their way out of the loop heading towards the water. I saw the lead runner as well as some other speedy men and the first female runner. It's fun to be in a race with people like that and to actually have a chance to be running near them, albeit in opposite directions, was great.

The race was OK. I listened to my audiobook for most of the time but, with all the activity, I couldn't always follow what was happening so I may have to go back and listen to some parts again. By mile 11 I felt really tired and the audiobook just wasn't that entertaining for me anymore so I switched and started listening to a few songs I had on the mp3 player instead. They picked me up enough to keep going to the finish line.

I didn't start walking at all until mile 11 and even then I didn't walk that much but it still took me an incredibly slow 42 minutes to run the last 3.1 miles. Ugh. And I felt really tired at the end so I'm not feeling particularly encouraged about the marathon in 5 weeks. Maybe I need to start reading some inspirational books.

Overall, I think this was a good learning experience, though. I learned that I probably don't want to walk around San Francisco too much the day before the marathon. We walked around Philly a little bit on Saturday afternoon and went to the Academy of Natural Sciences with the kids and my left foot became sore and then still felt sore when I woke up on Sunday. (After mile 4, it seemed to improve.)

I learned that I need to get to the start of the race really early if I want to use a port-a-potty. I got to the start about 20 minutes before the race (you had to pick up your number and timing chip the night before so I was ready to go) and thought I would go to the bathroom one more time. Wrong. The lines were so long that I never would have made it through before the race started.

I learned that by the time I get to the water stops, a bazillion people will have already been there and poured water and dropped their cups in the road making for a very slippery situation.

I learned that having more music on my mp3 player is probably a good idea.

I learned that I need to have a post-race meal ready to eat. After this race I ate a bunch of orange slices, grabbed a few bags of pretzels and peanuts and drank a bottle of water but I was HUNGRY still and it's hard to get something good to eat in a strange city when you are tired and sore.

Larsson ran the Children's Run but I missed it since it started at 10:30 and I was still running then. Braman said it was a little hectic managing Larsson and Nora in the crowds and then trying to get Larsson ready for his race while watching Nora but he managed. Braman has been a great support throughout all the training and was particularly heroic for this crazy race weekend where we drove down at 6am on Saturday morning and drove back right after the race on Sunday.

Here's a picture of Larsson and me the night before the race in our hotel room:

And one of us with Nora:

The race started at 7:45. After Braman gave the kids breakfast he was good enough to try to find me on the course so here's a picture of me running downtown. I think this is between miles 3 and 4. I'm near the middle and have on a white shirt, black shorts and a yellow hat.

Evidently Larsson had some trouble staying on course in his race. (His race was a quarter-mile and he told me afterwards that it was "VERY long.") He was so focused he missed a turn (and didn't heed the race organizers excitedly telling him which way to go) and had to be caught by a police officer before he ran into traffic. Here's a picture of him after he got back on the route:

Larsson and I both won medals for our races. Here we are at the finish, proudly displaying them:

I'm resting today and am scheduled for 5 miles tomorrow. I may try to run it outside if I feel up to it instead of going to The Fitness Station.

No News is Good News (and Toenails)

2006-09-14T10:28:00.000-04:00

I arrived at The Fitness Station this morning at 6:05. There was actually someone on duty at the front desk but I decided not to say something about the TVs.

However, after being subjected for 55 minutes to repeated stories of someone who was beaten to death with a hammer, someone who shot multiple people at a school, teenagers who were supplied with alcohol and who later died in a car crash, and the dilapidated state of Syracuse schools (never mind the gazillion commercials and weather forecasts) I have decided that, should I ever see someone working there again, I am going to see if the TVs could be turned off, or at least turned down. Watching the news is just about the worse way I can think of to start the day.

My foot is starting to feel better but I am worried about one of my toenails. The first two toenails on my right foot have turned whitish, separated from the nailbed and are sure to fall off at some point. If you press down on them, stuff squooshes out. Here they are:

But the toe on my left foot is still very purple, is raised and bumpy, has not separated from the nailbed and it looks like a new toenail is starting to grow over the old one. I have heard that sometimes the old toenail has to be pulled out, like George Clooney's fingernails in Syriana. I am hoping this is not the case. Here it is:

Two days of rest now and then the Jefferson Hospital Philadelphia Distance Run on Sunday. Maybe when I pick up my number on Saturday at the Expo, there will be someone I can ask about my toenail.

85 Minutes on the Elliptical Machine

2006-09-13T10:06:00.000-04:00

If my foot was in top shape I would have run 9 miles outside today in the dark and cold rain. Instead, I drove my car to The Fitness Station and used the elliptical machine for 85 minutes. This change in training, while mostly depressing, has its advantages.

To really simulate 9 miles I should have used the machine for 100 minutes but my feet were starting to go numb so I stopped. For next Wednesday's long "run" I think that I'm going to split my time between the elliptical machine and an exercise bike. My feet will probably like it better.

I didn't even bring my audiobook with me this morning and just tried to enjoy watching the local news. At least I got to see part of the Today show--including Meredith Vieira's debut as co-host with Matt Lauer--although I only watched the first half-hour so missed the more entertaining segments featured in the second half of the show.

I remembered my towel and water bottle today and dutifully cleaned my machine off when I was finished.

Tomorrow it's back to The Fitness Station for an elliptical 5 miles (55 minutes) but Saturday we leave for Philadelphia so I can run a half-marathon there on Sunday. Something to look forward to.

The Fitness Station

2006-09-12T08:56:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I signed up for a one-month membership to The Fitness Station, the only workout place in Interlaken. If you know anything about Interlaken (population c. 674) you're probably surprised that it has such a place at all but here it is. When I signed up I confirmed that they had an elliptical machine, that they opened at 6am reliably every weekday morning and that there would be someone there to show me how to use the machine. (The last time I worked out on a machine was my freshman year in college and that was a Stairmaster.)

I chose The Fitness Station over the YMCA in Ithaca because I can walk to it and because, if I work out right at 6am, I will be able to finish before Braman needs to leave for work and we won't have to worry about daycare for the kids. Nora has babysitter-phobia and when we do leave her with someone, she frequently cries the whole time. When I asked at the Y (which has daycare) what would happen if she did this, they said they never let a baby cry for more than 15 minutes at which point they'd come get me to comfort her. Which means I'd be hard-pressed to get in any workouts, never mind a 2-hour workout intended to replicate 10 miles.

So I get ready this morning, hobble down to Railroad Street on my sore foot and go inside. (You might have guessed from the street name and the business name that The Fitness Station is a converted train station. It was originally part of the Geneva & Ithaca Railroad--completed in 1873--which came under the control of the Lehigh Valley Railroad in 1876. I'm not sure when trains stopped running through Interlaken but I'll ask some of the Historical Society people that I know.) I get there at 6:03 and need to get started right away since I have to workout for about 45 minutes to simulate a 4-mile run and Braman needs to leave for work at 7am in order to arrive in time for his 8am class.

No one is at the front desk and there's only one other person inside but he's a customer like me and not an employee. He is nice enough to stop and tell me that the owner lives upstairs, comes down to unlock the place at 6am and then goes back upstairs. He says the owner may come back down later or there may be a person coming in 20 minutes or so who might be able to show me how to use the machine. That won't work for me so I go through the weight room into the cardio room and try to figure out the machine myself.

By reading the directions on the machine, I'm able to plug in my weight, how long I want to workout and the intensity plan I want. This all takes me a few minutes so by the time I get started it's about 6:15. I set the machine for 40 minutes since I started later than planned.

The workout is fine and I sweat a lot, more than I do when running, I think, or maybe it's just because there is no wind inside to cool me down. I do the full 40 minutes and, according to the machine, I burn 350 calories. I average about 138 steps per minute. I'm mad that there wasn't anyone there to show me how to use the machine when I explicitly asked about it but, since I forgot to bring a towel with me, I comfort myself with the knowledge that I am sweating all over the machine and won't be able to clean it off when I am done. Petty, I know.

And, sadly, it doesn't look like I am going to be able to listen to my audiobook while working out at The Fitness Station. In the cardio room, all the machines are oriented toward three TVs mounted up high on the wall. This morning one of the TVs was tuned to FOX News, one to NBC and one to The Weather Channel. I tried to listen to my audiobook but, even with the volume at the highest setting, I could still hear the TV. So I took off my headphones and watched the Syracuse news for the rest of my workout. At least the other two TVS were muted. If I'd had to listen to FOX News for 40 minutes there is no telling what might have happened.

When I left at 6:55 there still wasn't anyone at the front desk. If I ever get to speak to a person I'm going to ask if they'll turn off the TVs when I'm there. (There were big signs on each one saying "Don't Touch".)

I thought a little longingly about the row of new elliptical machines at the Y, each with their own personal TV that only works if the exerciser has headphones plugged in. Then I thought about the daycare room, which doesn't open until 8:45 and in which Nora certainly would have bawled the whole time. The Fitness Station only has one elliptical machine and TVs that I can't ignore or control but at least I got to workout. And, for the next six weeks, that's more important to me.

Ithaca 5 & 10

2006-09-10T20:22:00.000-04:00

Today I ran the 10-mile part of the Ithaca 5 & 10. The 5-mile course was a loop and people running the 10-miler had to run the loop twice. The 10-mile race only attracted 85 people this year (read this article from the Ithaca Journal) and I am slow so, yes, I was lapped by a few people. And I came in 85th with a time of 1:54:56. I averaged an 11:29 pace and finished 9th out of 9 in my age group.

Here I am with Larsson and Nora before the race started:

I ran the race with a few people from Team in Training including Harland--one of the coaches--and Amy and Yassine, my teammates. Actually, I should say that we all participated in the race since I ran mostly by myself until the end when Harland came to find me and ran with me for the final half mile or so.

Running ten miles alone is pretty boring and I regretted not bringing my audiobook. Oh well.

The course started at Ithaca High School and then went through sections of downtown and Stewart Park. Running a loop two times is not my favorite thing to do because, when I'm running the loop the first time, I keep thinking that I'm just going to have to run the whole thing again. But at least when I start the second time, I'm familiar with the course and know in my mind how much is left until the end.

Since I hadn't run in a week, I wasn't sure how my foot was going to feel and I was a little nervous. The race began, I started to run and my foot was uncomfortable right off and then began to get worse. I tried to alter my gait and then run on the side of my foot to alleviate some of the discomfort. After about 5 miles, my foot started to feel better. It was still a little sore but I could run on it with no real problem. It became more sore after I stopped running but it was nothing like last weekend when I couldn't walk on it at all so, overall, I am very encouraged.

Here I am with the kids at the finish line after the race ended:

And here we are walking together back to the car:

Based on today's experience, we are still planning on going to Philadelphia this weekend for the half-marathon and I am looking forward to it. There are supposed to be about 10,000 runners there so I shouldn't be last.

Plantar Fasciitis

2006-09-07T08:35:00.000-04:00

Well, it turns out that running 15 miles on a sore foot on Saturday was not the best idea since my foot is still a little sore and I have not run since.

At my appointment yesterday with Dr. Getzin I learned that I have plantar fasciitis, an inflammation of the plantar fascia, a fibrous band of tissue that connects the heel bone to the base of the toes.

He said there is no quick fix but, with a modified schedule, I should still be able to run the marathon. Evidently my foot felt that I increased mileage a little too quickly and it just wasn't ready for it. On a positive note, Dr. Getzin thought my biomechanics were fine and I am very flexible.

So now I have to wear shoes with arch support all the time (barefoot is bad), take Naproxen twice a day for the inflammation, ice my foot for 10 minutes several times a day, wear a night splint when I am sleeping and try to do some alternate methods of training (like using an elliptical machine, pool running or riding a bike) for some of the running workouts. This cross training makes things more complicated since I have to go somewhere with an elliptical machine or a pool and have to put the kids in daycare. But, after having completed 15 weeks of training already and with only about 6 weeks to go, I very much want to run the marathon so I'll try to find a way.

I had to scratch plans to run the Labor Day race in Skaneateles but I am still hoping to run the Ithaca 5 & 10 this Sunday. And I've registered to run the Jefferson Hospital Distance Run (half-marathon) in Philadelphia on September 17th but I don't want to hazard a guess as to whether I'll be able to do that yet or not. I hope so since registration cost $55 but we'll see. I might try to run a mile or so tomorrow and see how I feel. My foot does seem to be improving but I don't want to go backwards just when I'm beginning to feel progress.

So, that's it. It's a little disheartening to be sitting around when I want to be running (plus I miss my audiobook!) but I'm hoping that a little care now will ensure a successful marathon in a few weeks.

(Oh, and Dr. Getzin confirmed that my toenails are on their way out. One is black and curved and bumpy and the other two have begun to separate from the nailbed and I can actually pry them up a little bit and look underneath. Thankfully, this isn't painful but it is gross.)

15.5 Miles in Rain with Sore Foot

2006-09-02T09:52:00.000-04:00

Monica met me this morning at 5:00 in Ithaca so we could run 16 miles together. This means that I got up at 3:45 and left the house by 4:25am. Crazy.

I wore my reflective vest since the first hour plus was in total darkness. Amazingly, we didn't trip over anything or encounter anything scary and, in a way, running in the dark was good because I was surprised when we reached the three mile mark (our first water stop) because I hadn't been able to really see where we were.

We ran about 9 miles out (which seemed to take forever) and then turned back. By mile 3 my left foot was already feeling sore and by the turning point I was already feeling ready to be done. We walked a little bit off and on but it didn't really seem to make a difference and it was just making the run last longer so I tried to run most of the time. Monica suggested that she could run ahead and get the car and drive me back the rest of the way but ultimately we decided to just cut a little bit off of the run. It ended up being only a very little bit since we ran 15.5 miles. Still, I was glad to have spared myself the extra distance.

Altogether we ran for about 3 hours and 20 minutes. It seemed like a very long time, and it was. Plus, about mile 4 it started raining and then kept raining for the rest of the run. When I left the house the temperature said 61 degrees and I thought it would only get warmer so I ran in shorts and a t-shirt. Well, in Ithaca at 5:00 the temperature was about 58 degrees but then went down to about 56 by the end of our run. My fingers were so wet and cold by the end of the run I could barely undo the cap on the bottle of water and pour some into a cup.

An hour and a half after we finished running, my left foot is now so incredibly sore that it is painful to put weight on it so I might not run the Labor Day race in Skaneateles that I had planned. I'll see how I feel on Monday. When my foot really started bothering me after Wednesday's 8-mile run, I decided to make an appointment with Dr. Getzin of Finger Lakes Sports Medicine so I'm seeing him this Wednesday at 8:45. Depending on how my foot feels, I might not run again until after the appointment.

There wasn't a lot to see today since we ran in the dark and then the cold rain (which seemed to keep most things inside or under cover) but there was one notable sighting. We were on our way back, running by a farmhouse, when I heard loud bird honking sounds. I looked over and there, on the porch, were three large turkeys--one black and two white--pacing by the porch door, making a racket and looking exactly like they were waiting for someone to open the door and let them into the house. I guess they didn't like the cold, wet weather either.

Sore Feet

2006-08-31T15:59:00.000-04:00

I took today off to rest my sore feet but plan to run the 16 miles on Saturday morning.

8 Miles in Interlaken

2006-08-30T07:55:00.000-04:00

I started out this morning for my 8-mile run at 5:30am. I changed my routine--by using new headphones and also carrying a small, 12 oz. bottle of Gatorade (so that I could have a fluid stop without actually having to put something out ahead of time on my route)--so, of course, I forgot to start my watch. I remembered about 10 minutes into the run, I think, so I started it then but my finish time of 1:41 minutes is approximate. In any event, I was slow.

Since it's enjoyable and scenic, Braman mapped out a route for me to maximize my time running along the lake. This also means, however, that I have to run downhill for about 3 miles and then uphill, mostly gradually, for about the same. It was refreshing to see new sights and to experience roads, that I had previously only driven on, in a new way.

Most of the houses that I run by along the lake are fancy and old or fancy and new with manicured lawns and matching boathouses. There is one older house set back from the road with a small, attractive sign hanging on a post by the driveway that reads "Avalon Farm, Chester White and Yorkshire Swine". Since the front is planted with a privacy hedge, I could only see a glimpse of the place but, if they really are raising pigs there, they have done a fantastic job of eliminating all pig odors. I couldn't find anything online about them but maybe I'll see if I can get some more information from my friends at the post office. Lake frontage used for pig breeding is definitely unusual.

The 4-mile mark was exactly at the point where I had to leave the lake road and turn left back up towards home. I stopped at this corner for a minute or two, opened my Gatorade bottle and drank a little. I probably should have practiced walking while drinking since I think that's what I'm going to do at marathon water stops but I didn't. I'll have to do that next week.

Partially because I could actually see something (the first 45 minutes of my run were in pitch blackness or just-dawning light) and probably because I hadn't run most of this way before, I found the uphill return more interesting than the way down.

What did I see?

A few wild apple trees, growing close together and close to the road with the weedy wildflowers, just outside a wire farm fence.
A barn-like building tucked into the woods the roof of which was covered in solar panels. There were four vans parked around it (only one with license plates and one which was very tiny, old and European looking) so I spent some time wondering if people live there and what it was like inside.
A pond with honking geese. The pond had a few regular ducks, some white geese and then some unusual black geese and some white and brown geese. The brown and white geese looked like English setters (like the male Orange Belton English Setters on this page) and I actually stopped and then backed up to get a better look at them. I haven't had any luck identifying them. The black ones looked to me like Pacific Brant geese per the picture on this page but they'd be pretty far from home if they were. Maybe I'll have to look for a goose identification book...
A deep gorge that I crossed over on the road. I could hear the water traveling in it but couldn't see it very well and, when I went to take a closer look, found that there were some portions of the road with no protective barrier. The idea of slipping and falling made me decidedly uneasy since it looked like a very long way down. But it WAS interesting.
Lots of agricultural sites--fields of corn, soybeans, animals in fields--but only a few that were proud enough to post signs with names, including George Farm and Persoon Dairy (both New York State Dairies of Distinction), and two separate tracts of grapevines for Lucas Vineyards and Cayuga Creek Vineyards, respectively.
A wild pear tree hanging over the road. I was tempted to pick a pear even though they were too small and I don't even like pears.

As I felt my skin being rubbed raw under the neckline of my sports bra, I remembered that I forgot to put Body Glide on this morning. And my feet, though padded in brand-new Thorlo running socks, felt a little sore when I was running and then very sore afterwards. My left foot, particularly, has bothered me throughout the day today so I think I might need to do something about it.

So, another 8 miles down. I might take tomorrow off depending on how my foot feels.

Pud's Run 5K

2006-08-27T20:57:00.000-04:00

This morning I ran Pud's Run, a 5K race in memory of Michael Padula, an Ithaca police officer who was killed in the line of duty. This was the 10th anniversary of the race and there was an article about it in the Ithaca Journal last week.

It was a fast and flat course and I was, almost, fast. I finished in 32 minutes even, my fastest time running a 5K since I started marathon training. Braman was trying to manage the kids and then I surprised him with my speedy finish so here's a slightly out of focus picture of me whizzing by to the finish line:

Unfortunately, it was another rainy Saturday. I didn't mind so much myself during the race but Braman and the kids got very wet waiting for me to finish and then we all stayed wet and started to get cold waiting for the start of the Kid's Run at 11am.

Here's a picture of me with the wet kids right after the race. Cayuga Lake is in the background.

Larsson enjoyed stepping in a deep puddle with his boots on:

While Nora had a good time riding the horses at the playground:

Larsson and Nora both made funny faces while we waited under the tent for the Kid's Race to start:

All the kids are getting ready at the starting line. Nora decided she wanted to do the race, too (her first one!), so she and Braman teamed up. Larsson was brave and felt he could run the race by himself as long as I was cheering him on. Here Larsson is looking at the camera while Braman and Nora are off to the side getting prepared.

Then they're off! Larsson runs...

...and runs.

Here are the two very wet, cold and tired race finishers:

Once we finally got back to the van (we had to park very far away) and the kids changed into dry clothes, they were proud to show off their finisher medals.

We were wet and cold but overall had a good time. I felt good running the race and immediately afterwards but later, when I changed out of my sneakers, the soles of my feet felt very sore. I hope they improve with two days rest.

I'm on break until Wednesday when I'll be running 8 miles here in Interlaken.

15 Miles!

2006-08-26T11:12:00.000-04:00

I got up at 4:30 this morning so that I could drive down to Ithaca and run 15 miles. No one else in the group wanted to get up this early but I needed to start by 5:30 since I knew it would take me around 3 hours to finish and I needed to meet Braman at the violin school and take Nora before Larsson's group lesson at 9am. Monica, one of the coaches, graciously agreed to meet me so we started off together.

She needed to get back to meet the rest of the group at 7am so, since she didn't want to go too far from where we started and she didn't want me to run alone for too long, she decided that I would run a 7.5 mile route two times. We ran out 3.75 miles from our starting point and then turned back. When we were almost back it was clear that, if we stayed together, she wouldn't make it in time, so she took a shorter way and I finished the first 7.5 miles by myself.

Liz in the group recently injured her leg and has been receiving physical therapy. After taking a week's break from training, she was back at it this morning but only wanted to do half the distance instead of the full 15 miles. And, since she needed to go slow, we ran the second 7.5 miles together. She's also going to be running the San Francisco marathon so it was good to have a chance to talk.

Including several water breaks and some walking, I finished the 15 miles in 3 hours and 5 minutes. It seemed like a very long way and my legs were already dead-tired by 12 miles. I felt really sore for about an hour afterwards but now, several hours later, my legs feel much better but the bottoms of my feet are still really sore. I guess this is one of the joys of marathon training. My toenails still look pretty nasty but at least they aren't sore. I will spare you a picture.

Saw many deer this morning: in people's yards, on the road, on the bike path, including several babies with their mamas. And was happy to be able to provide Larsson with a handful of acorns from an oak tree on the bike path. Where are all the oak trees these days? This is the first one I've seen since we started looking for them last week.

Pud's Run is tomorrow at 10am. It's only a 5K but maybe I should have looked at our training schedule before signing up for it. Hope I'm not too tired. I'll take Tuesday off to compensate so the next training day will be Wednesday for 8 miles. Since this is the first time I've run that distance at home, I'll have to find a new route.

Should I Be Embarrassed?

2006-08-24T06:03:00.000-04:00

This morning I ran the same 4 miles that I ran with the kids last Thursday except I ran it 2 seconds slower than I did with them for a time of 44:53. I think that maybe I should be embarrassed that I ran slower by myself than when pushing 70+ pounds of kids and stroller.

Oh well. At least I did it.

7 miles, Deer, Gunshots and Spider

2006-08-23T07:17:00.000-04:00

I ran my 7 mile lake route this morning in 1 hour and 16 minutes. It was very dark when I started out at 5:30, the sun was rising at 6:30 and I was glad the sun was to my back as I finished my run because it was very powerfully orange and bright this morning.

I saw four nervous deer in yards down near the lake, heard five shots fired in the vineyard just outside the village, and then, as I was walking home, saw a HUGE brown spider on the sidewalk a few houses down from ours.

I don't know much about spiders but I didn't want to get to close to it so I can't say much else except that the body was big and the abdomen looked like it had spots on it. I've never seen such a big spider outside of a cage, especially on a sidewalk, and hope not to see it again anytime soon.

4 miles tomorrow and then 15 on Saturday.

32:12!

2006-08-22T06:54:00.000-04:00

This is not my fastest time running the 3-mile course (actually it's my third-fastest) but it is the best I've done since July 6th and I am excited to feel less sluggish and more speedy.

The schedule is changing, though, so this is the last three miles I'll run for a while. For the rest of August and all of September, Tuesdays and Thursdays will be 4 miles and then go up to 5 miles. Wednesdays miles continue to go up gradually every two weeks. So this week will be 7 miles, but the next two Wednesdays will be 8 miles, then 9, etc. The longest mileage week will be the week of September 25th when we'll run 5 miles on Tuesday, 10 miles on Wednesday, 5 miles on Thursday and 20 miles on Saturday. That should be exciting.

There was a chill in the air this morning (56 degrees) and I noticed a lot of birds flying south. I wish I could tell you what kind of birds they were but they were high up. The best I can say is that there were a lot of them, they were decent-size birds, they seemed to be all the same kind and I don't think they were Canada Geese.

10 Miles and Doomed Pheasants

2006-08-19T15:50:00.000-04:00

I ran 10 miles this morning and it actually seemed like an almost normal thing to do.

Today was a group run so I got up at 5:00, got ready, and drove down to Ithaca for the 6:15 start. Since not everyone likes to start early, there were two groups this week, a 6:15 one and one at 7:00. Only the coach and one other person, Amy, were there at 6:15 so we headed out. And, since the coach wanted to meet the other group before they started running, he turned back after we'd run the first three miles and Amy and I ran by ourselves for the rest of the route.

Amy told me that she recently ran a half-marathon in 2 hours even so I know I was holding her back but it was good to have company on the long run and made the time go faster. A Great Blue Heron flew overhead at about mile six and I recognized a few patches of Queen of the Prairie (from my own failed attempts to grow it in my own garden) flourishing along the road. I forgot to stop my watch right away when we got back to the parking lot but we finished in about 1 hour and 52 minutes.

Whenever we do group runs of 7 miles or more, we pass by a game farm on the aptly-named Game Farm Road. There are three large fenced enclosures with netting over the top. Two of the enclosures are empty and the third enclosure is filled with pheasants as well as grain bins and water stations for the birds. The enclosures are somewhat overgrown with weeds and grasses so it's almost like the birds are in their own mini-jungle.

Every time we've run by there I've wondered about the pheasants, why they're there and what happens to them so today I googled the game farm. It is called the Richard E. Reynolds Game Farm and is part of a ring-necked pheasant propagation program operated by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

According to the Ring-necked Pheasants in New York pamphlet published in January 2002 by the NY DEC, Reynolds Game Farm has been hatching and distributing pheasants since 1927 and is the only pheasant propagation facility in New York. The farm provides pheasants for three programs: the Day-old Pheasant Chick Program, the Young Pheasant Release Program and the Adult Pheasant Release Program.

If you want to read more specifics about the individual programs, you can take a look at the pamphlet but the last paragraph pretty much sums it up:
"The primary purpose of the pheasant propagation program is to provide pheasant hunting opportunity, not to restore wild pheasant populations. The Department releases thousands of pheasants annually. Very few survive until spring to reproduce. Therefore, hunters are encouraged to harvest released pheasants. All three programs require that the birds are released on land open to public hunting."

Poor pheasants. I feel sad for them.

Running 4 Miles with the Kids

2006-08-17T15:18:00.000-04:00

It was another morning where I wanted to stay in bed. And I did. At least until 7:00am, at which point I decided that I would still run in the morning, although now I would have to push the kids in the double stroller.

The kids had both had a late night last night (I'd gone out to the movies by myself and Braman had put the kids to bed and things had not gone so smoothly since Nora is used to nursing to sleep) and they were both still very tired. Nora was already awake but I had to wake Larsson up (not generally a good idea) since he had a violin lesson in Ithaca later in the morning and we needed to hurry. You can see how excited they look:

I didn't get to listen to my audiobook but Larsson provided decent entertainment for the run.

As I struggled to push them up the mile-long hill:
"Brrr, I'm cold."
"Maybe we'll see something interesting like a REAL mouse."

As we traversed a horse-poop strewn road in front of a farm:
"Eeeeew! Did you walk in any of that, Mom?"

As we ran by a field of corn:
"I'm thinking about what I would like for Christmas."
ME: What would that be?
"I would like some corn seeds."
ME: Do you want to grow corn next year?
"Yes. I think Santa would give me corn seeds."

Serving as interpreter for fussy Nora:
ME: Give Nora a Cheerio, please.
He offers but she turns away.
"She doesn't want one"
She points at the bag.
"Nora says she wants one now."
Nora dangles her cup over the side of the stroller and makes some noises.
"Mom, Nora wants you to take her cup."

As we passed another farm:
"Oh, I do hate farms!"
ME: Why?
"Because there is poop EVERYWHERE and they STINK!"

Out of the blue:
"I see a hole and it isn't drainage and it isn't a ditch and it isn't just a hole. It's a DEN. A very small den for animals."

"Maybe the sun is made up of hot lava."

Nora started to cry between miles 3 and 4 and Larsson was telling her to stop it. But they were a lot happier once we got home since they knew Daddy had made pancakes for our breakfast.

Larsson stretched with me on the porch:

while Nora happily ate Cheerios in the stroller:

We finished our 4-mile run in 44 minutes and 51 seconds. It is a lot easier (though surprisingly not all that much faster) to run by myself.

I Love Weed Identification Sites

2006-08-16T05:42:00.000-04:00

Maybe because it's so dark in the morning now or maybe I'm just getting tired of running but I really didn't want to get out of bed this morning. I hear that, after their first marathon training experience, some people don't even take a break but continue running and training for other marathons, while other people say that, while they're glad they did it, they will never run another marathon again. I think I will fall into the latter group. We'll see.

At least this morning wasn't rainy or too cold, although it was still dark when I started out. And I was wearing all my regular workout clothes and my new sneakers felt comfortable.

I haven't been writing about them lately but I still admire the wildflowers as I run. One of the reasons that I don't really write about them anymore is that I'm seeing the same ones over and over again. And when I do see a different one, it's usually an isolated situation of one or two plants in a particular location and I don't have my camera and can't remember enough about the flower to try to identify once I get home.

But today I noticed groups and groups of the same plant along my route which I feel the need to identify. The plants seem mostly to grow in the deep drainage ditches along the road, are maybe 3 feet tall, with blue-green leaves and orange flowers. After I'd seen so many that I decided I need to learn more about them, I stopped to try to pick a piece to bring home. But I didn't want to fall into the ditch so I had to keep going empty-handed.

Later on, at about mile 3, I found a patch of them growing near the lake and was able to pick a small piece of the plant. Upon closer examination, the flowers are kind of horn-shaped (reminding me of a smaller version of monkey flower) with an orange-yellow body, darker reddish-orange at the mouth and orange spots inside. Very pretty flowers and a very beautiful shape.

[In searching for an illustration for monkey flower, I noticed on the Connecticut Botanical Society's page a section where you could search for flowers by color. Looking at the Red and Orange section, the first flower, Jewelweed or Spotted Touch-me-not, seemed like it might be what I had seen but I wasn't sure since the plants I saw had many flowers per stem. So I did another search using the scientific name Impatiens capensis and then, on the Virginia Tech Weed Identification Guide (which has been useful several times already) I found confirmation of the name. So Jewelweed it is.]

While beginning the trek uphill with a piece of at-that-point unidentified Jewelweed and two milkweed pods (treats for Larsson) in my right hand, I saw two antlered young deer grazing in a big field. They both stared at me, probably wondering if I was crazy for trudging up the hill like I was doing but then, when I said "Good Morning" to them, they bolted for the protection of the woods. Maybe I didn't quite seem human before I opened my mouth.

Nothing remarkable after that point. I made it home without walking and finished in 1 hour and 17 minutes.

The weekday mileage continues to increase which means Thursday's run is now going to be 4 miles instead of three. I'll be running the route on which I saw the great blue heron and heard the rooster crow so I'm hoping for something equally exciting tomorrow.

Skunks, Slugs and Slowing Down

2006-08-15T06:40:00.000-04:00

When I left the house this morning, I was instantly assaulted with the odor of skunk. I kept smelling it as I walked to my starting point on Main Street, very strongly in some spots. I started running and the smell dissipated as I made my way into less densely populated areas. But as I ran back into the village, there it was again. I don't know how long skunk smell lasts but I'm glad I didn't encounter any skunks personally and only had to endure what they left behind.

And for the first time in a long time I saw slugs. Not just one or two but tens of slugs on a short stretch of paved road. Many of them were, sadly, squooshed flat but some were still sliming across the road. I wonder where they've been hiding.

I felt moderately speedy this morning and even slightly winded at the end of the 3 miles but I finished in 34 minutes even. I don't know what I used to do to occasionally finish in 32 minutes or 33 minutes plus but it seems I can't do it anymore.

On to 7 miles tomorrow.

Bridge of Flowers 10K

2006-08-14T06:32:00.000-04:00

I've wanted to run the Bridge of Flowers 10K (6.2 miles) in Shelburne Falls, MA for a few years but I'd heard it was hilly and, by the time the race rolled around, I never felt like I was in good enough shape to do it. Since I've now been running regularly for almost 2 1/2 months and have run more than double the distance of the race at one time, I figured this year was my best bet. So off we went.

My parents and my sister Elin got up super early and drove from the other end of the state to meet us in Shelburne Falls before the race started at 9:00am. They hadn't seen us all since Memorial Day so it was good to spend a little time together.

Here's a picture of Larsson and me before the race started. He insisted on being in the picture and is clutching a bouquet of white clover that he picked for my mom. Only Larsson knows why he is making that face.

We were all talking and I didn't realize the race was coming up so quickly. With only a few minutes to spare I ran down to the starting line.

The race starts on a bridge (although not the Bridge of Flowers) and it was crowded with runners. Since I was approaching from the start of the race, I had to fight my way through the pack of runners so that I wouldn't be in the initial group. As it was I still ended up in the first third of the group.

Braman was ready to take my picture at the beginning of the race but my early position so surprised him he could only get me as I passed by.

Due to my spot up front, I was initially almost trampled by all the speedy runners but eventually things settled down and I was surrounded by people running at my own pace.

According to the course description, the first two miles are relatively flat, which seemed mostly true. At several points I paused my audiobook to listen to the musicians who'd set up along different points. The bagpiper was my particular favorite. The course snaked through the village then back to the bridge we'd started on. We crossed the bridge and began the ascent.

I thought that the course was supposed to be hilly but it turns out that there is just one big, massive hill. I've been training on hills around here and thought that I would at least be able to downshift and shuffle up it at my slowest snail pace. But as I approached curve after curve in the steep road, hoping after each one that I'd see a leveling off or maybe even the beginning of the downhill but instead saw that the hill appeared to be neverending, I had to give up on that plan. I ended up running about halfway up the hill and walking quickly up the rest. So many other people were walking (and walking very slowly) that I passed more people when I was walking than when I was running.

I read later in the race program that this hill is "one kilometer in length and sports a daunting 10.5 percent grade of incline, making it one of the most difficult slopes to traverse in all of road racing."

After struggling up the hill, things were literally almost all downhill after that. (And I'm happy to say that my new shoes seem to be doing their job because my toes felt fine!) I enjoyed the cool morning and listening to my book. Here I am crossing the finish line.

I came in 502 out of 540 overall and 101 out of 107 in my age group. My official time was 1:08:13 but I clocked myself on my own watch at 1:08:06. They didn't have Champion Chip timing at this race so they start your time when the first person crosses the starting line instead of when you actually cross it and, since it took me 7 seconds to get to the starting line once the race began I am happy to deduct these from my posted time.

This is called the Bridge of Flowers 10K, so here's a picture of me after the race standing on the actual Bridge of Flowers. The bridge that we started on is in the background.

The whole time was so much fun I may even consider doing it again next year.

New Sneakers, Skunk and Road Races

2006-08-11T14:51:00.000-04:00

I think I need to start eating some brain food.

Yesterday I put a straw in Larsson's drink with part of the wrapper on, put Nora in a swimming pool with her shoes still on, and found--and then lost--a ten dollar bill in a few short minutes. (We were at the elevator at the Syracuse mall. I thought I had left the bill in the car but then was pleasantly surprised to find I had it with me. I put it in my pocket, we got on the elevator. We got off the elevator and walked the short distance to the food court. I went to take the money out and it was already gone.)

Today I woke up and realized that my usual workout clothes were all wet in the washer. So I had to wear different shorts (too big), a different shirt (OK) and a different sports bra (a little too big). I couldn't find my hat so I had to wear one of Braman's and I couldn't find my watch so I had to go without. Plus, I was wearing my new sneakers purchased yesterday in Syracuse.

Thank goodness I could find my mp3 player and at least listen to my audiobook because all the other unusual things were a little too much for me.

The run itself was OK. I kept thinking about how my new sneakers, a full size bigger than my last ones and with more arch support, felt and if they were hurting my feet or if my feet were still just sore from my last pair. I didn't like that I couldn't check my time on my watch. And I discovered that I am perhaps more afraid of indecisive skunks than of snarling dogs.

I was starting out on mile 1 downhill and could see a small black animal in the distance attempting to cross the street. It would start out but then, when it was almost to the other side, it would turn back again. It did this several times. I thought at first it was a cat but it seemed too low to the ground and then as I got closer I realized it was skunk. I stopped running and started walking slowly hoping that the animal would just make up its mind. But it couldn't. So I started scuffing my feet loudly on the street to let it know I was near. This seemed to help it decide as it then crossed the street and kept on going. Whew. The fear of being sprayed by a skunk, no matter how small or scatterbrained, is powerful.

Aside from the skunk incident and the fact that it was a very cool 56 degrees this morning, there is not much to report.

We're leaving this afternoon for Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts where I will run the Bridge of Flowers 10K tomorrow morning. The course is supposed to be hilly but scenic and I'm looking forward to it. I don't think I'll post while we're away but will write about it on Monday when we get home.

The Bridge of Flowers race is the first in a series of races I'm going to be running in the coming weeks. Others include:
Pud's Run 5K in Ithaca, NY
Skaneateles Labor Day Road Race in Skaneateles, NY
and the Ithaca 5 & 10 in Ithaca, NY (I'm doing the 10 miles)

What a Difference a Week Makes

2006-08-09T10:31:00.000-04:00

Well, last week on this day I ran 12 miles in sweltering heat and humidity. This morning I met a small group to run 13 miles in weather so cold (50 degrees) I could see my breath as I ran. Unbelievable.

(We're going away again this weekend so I needed to get my long run in earlier and one of the coaches, Monica, kindly agreed to run the 13 miles with me. A few other people joined us for part of the run but only we two ran the whole distance.)

It was a good run. By the end my legs were very tired and my feet were sore but I never had to walk and I didn't feel winded. Including the few water breaks, we finished in about 2 hours and 35 minutes. Monica and I actually ran 13.1 miles (she has a watch with GPS so we know the exact distance) so I can now say that I have run a half-marathon. I don't feel like I could run double that distance...yet. But I never thought I could run 13 miles and feel relatively OK so I know that day is coming.

Most of the route is along the East Ithaca Recreational Way or on country roads in the Ellis Hollow neighborhood of Ithaca. These roads are usually flanked by fields of corn or soybeans or acres of woods with a few houses here and there.

Peering into a wooded section this morning, I saw a large male deer with big antlers. I thought he'd run away when we made eye contact but we kept staring at each other as I ran past. A sighting like this, especially on such a personal level, is the real reward of these early morning runs.

At mile 9, I tried another packet of GU (Tri Berry flavor) and, while it was marginally better than the Lemon one from last week, it was still pretty disgusting so I am going to try Sport Beans to provide the extra energy I'll need to finish these long runs. I'll let you know how it goes.

Since I could really feel the big toe on my right foot jamming into my shoe on the downhills today, we are officially going to Fleet Feet in Syracuse tomorrow afternoon to buy a new pair of shoes. And since my hands were numb and I had goosebumps on my arms for most of the run this morning, I think I'll look for a jacket, too.

3 More Miles

2006-08-08T07:24:00.000-04:00

Got up 15 minutes late.
Got dressed.
Spent 15 minutes looking for my watch.
Finally found it.
Left the house.
Started my book on tape from the beginning again since I couldn't remember some details of the plot.
Walked to my starting point.
Started running.
Ran, ran, ran.
Realized I forgot to set my watch.
Started my watch.
Realized that was now pointless.
Stopped my watch.
Saw a skunk scurry across the road in front of me.
Was glad I had not scared it.
Ran up the big hill and across to the end of the route.
Started walking home.
Passed a trumpet creeper (which I think may also be called a hummingbird vine) in front of the Farmers' Museum.
Picked up three fallen trumpet flowers for Larsson.
Arrived home and really started my day.

Downhill Bad. Uphill Good.

2006-08-06T12:12:00.000-04:00

I ended up not running yesterday since my toes were a little sore and I didn't want to have to rush too much in the morning before leaving for our trip. So I got up early this morning to run 6 miles.

After a few misfires [ 1) Braman had set up my new audio book the night before but the beginning wasn't on my mp3 player so he graciously got out of bed at 5:30 to fix it for me and 2) I wasn't sure which 6-mile route to take so B took a few minutes to map one out for me at that same time. What a good guy!] I left the house about 6 o'clock.

By cutting out some of the village running parts, I was able to use the same route I ran for my seven miles last week. So out, then down to the lake, across and back up I went. Very quiet and scenic. I enjoyed hearing the small lake waves lapping against the shore and was surprised to be dive-bombed by some small pointy-winged birds. Saw some more flowers I don't know the name of as well as some wild black-eyed susans that I think just recently bloomed since I don't remember them being there before. I finished in 1 hour and 10 minutes.

The one problem with this route is that about two miles of it is straight down hill and puts a lot of pressure on my toes, particularly the big toe on my right foot. One of the team coaches suggested that I try running with shoes that are a half-size larger so I may get a new pair of sneakers this week. I don't think I can run this course again in these shoes.

I may be pushing the boundaries of good taste, but here are two new pictures of my even-purpler toenails:

Running uphill is actually a lot more comfortable so I may look for a mostly uphill or level route for next time.

Tomorrow's a rest day and then back to 3 miles on Tuesday.

Purple Toenails

2006-08-04T07:08:00.000-04:00

My toenails are still sore and purple but I was able to put on my shoes so I decided to give three miles a try this morning.

It felt refreshingly chilly when I left the house at 5:20 with a temperature of 68 degress and 88% humidity. And since it was completely dark out when I started, I wore my new reflective vest which I purchased immediately after last week's pre-sunrise morning run.

I ran slowly (pretty much my only speed) and, though my toes felt better as I went on, the tongue of my right shoe is now rubbing against my lower leg and giving me a small cut. I'll have to remember to put a bandaid on it tomorrow.

It was raining again and I was certain I'd see frogs hopping or slugs or snakes slithering but I didn't see anything. When I first began training in May and June I'd see slugs all over the roads in the morning but now I hardly see them at all. There must be a season for slugs.

The run was fine, though not as enjoyable now that I'm listening to David Rakoff read his Don't Get Too Comfortable instead of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. I may have to look for a different audiobook. Right now I'm leaning toward The Italian Secretary by Caleb Carr (read by Simon Prebble!) or The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.

Tomorrow's plan is to run 6 miles before we leave in the morning for Cooperstown.

12 Miles in Heat and Humidity

2006-08-02T15:19:00.000-04:00

After this morning, I am now officially one of those crazy people that my father shakes his head at. Yes, I got up at 4:30 to drive down to Ithaca and run 12 miles in high heat and humidity.

(We're leaving early Saturday morning to go to Cooperstown, NY to see the Pirates of Penzance at the Glimmerglass Opera so I won't have enough time to run with the group that day. Several other people also had weekend commitments so we decided to meet on Wednesday and do the long run together.)

When I left the house it was 80 degrees in Interlaken. According to this weather station located in Ithaca, it was 75.8 degrees with 88% humidity when we started running a little after 5:30. When we finished, 2 hours and 31 minutes later, the temperature was about 81.8 with 79% humidity.

We ran one 6-mile loop two times and had four water stops. After the first loop, I ingested my first ever packet of GU (lemon sublime flavor) which is supposed to give me more energy for the rest of my workout. I couldn't tell if it worked and the stuff is thick and gross so I'm not anxious to try it again. Despite being very tired in the legs, I did finish the second loop, although I walked up two hills and a few other short sections. 12 miles is a long way, particularly in 80% humidity. (This is the first time I have been able to wring my shorts out from sweat, not rain.)

In the true spirit of marathon training, I have been experiencing some minor aches and pains, chafing and abrasions on my chest from the neckline of my sports bra (because I keep forgetting to slather myself with Body Glide) and now, after today's run, three bruised, purple toenails.

The rest of my body feels surprisingly OK after these 12 miles but my toes are SORE so I am walking gingerly and trying not to have them stepped on by the kids (no easy feat--pardon the pun.) The toes in question are the second toes on both feet and the big toe on my right foot. The left toe is the most sore and purple:

while the others are more mildly bruised:

I may take tomorrow off and rest my poor feet.

And thanks to some very generous recent donations by friends and family, I'm now 99% of the way to my fundraising goal of $4,000! Anyone want to give $37 to make it 100%?

Sweaty Mama

2006-08-01T08:32:00.000-04:00

If Larsson is awake when I come home from my run, "Sweaty Mama" is how he greets me. Today, which is supposed to be the hottest day of the year in our area, this endearing name was truer than ever.

I guess I was out of routine, not having run for three days in a row, but I forgot to set the alarm. So I woke up naturally at 6:15 instead of 5:00 which is when the alarm usually goes off. Since today's run was only three miles, I still had time so I put on my running clothes and left the house by a little after 6:30.

I've said before that 6:00am can be too late for running. Well, 6:30 on the hottest and most humid day of the year is definitely too late. But there was still a breeze so I took it very slowly and just concentrated on completing the run without feeling uncomfortable.

One dead frog, two dead snakes, three rabbits, one woodchuck, the end of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and 36 minutes and 29 seconds later, I finished. And the first thing Larsson said when I came through the door was "Sweaty Mama!"

(You can check our current weather conditions here which shows data collected by Braman's weather station at our house. Right now at 8:44am, the temperature is 82.9 with 70% humidity. Supposed to near 100 degrees today!)

7 Miles Alone in the Rain

2006-07-28T08:47:00.000-04:00

Since we're going away tonight for the weekend, I'm not able to run with the group tomorrow morning. This weekend is a drop back week so we're scheduled to do seven miles and I decided that I'd rather get it out of the way so I ran them this morning.

I was worried about how long it would take me to run 7 miles by myself so I kept waking up throughout the night. Finally, I got out of bed at 4:50. As I stood in the kitchen getting my workout clothes out of the dryer, I could hear the steady sound of rain. I checked the radar on the computer and saw a huge blob of precipitation covering our area. If this had been in the beginning of training, I might have gone back to bed but by now I've run in the rain so many times that I knew it wouldn't be so bad once I got started. So I got my things ready and was out the door by 5:20.

Now sunrise in our area wasn't until about 5:57 today so the first 40 minutes of my run were in the dark. While my sneakers have reflective bits, I think it may be time to invest in a full reflective vest to wear on these pre-dawn outings. I will eventually be running up to ten miles by myself, sunrise is getting later by about a minute every day, and I don't seem to be getting much faster so I will have to be getting up earlier and earlier.

Since this was a new distance for me running In Interlaken, I ran a new route which we had mapped out last night on a computer program. I started out runnning a few blocks in the village, then down the main street and out of the village a little ways, turned right down toward Cayuga Lake and then ran all the way down to the lake. Followed the lake for a while and then started the long ascent back up to the village where I had to run along a few more streets before going home in order to reach the seven miles.

If I can figure it out, I'll try to note the drop in elevation from our house to the lake. It wasn't so bad going down but it seems to go up very steadily for a long time on the way back.

I enjoyed being out in the early morning, running alone on the narrow country roads and seeing the mist rise off the lake. Wildlife was conspicuously absent this morning; I saw what I think was a frog hop in front of me in our driveway when I set out (it was still quite dark and hard to tell for sure), some ducks on the lake and a fat woodchuck run away across a field when I was on my uphill back home.

I'm currently trying to identify a purple wildflower that I think might be crown vetch so when I saw a patch of it down by the lake, I picked a section and carried it in my right hand for the rest of the run. I'd take a picture and post it but our digital camera is currently lost.

I got really wet but I ran the whole 7 miles without walking and finished in 1:20.

I'm almost finished with Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and don't think it will last for even the next three mile run so it's time to find another audio book. Simon Prebble, who reads this one, is so good I may just look for another book that he's done. Without a good narrator, even a great book sounds terrible.

Another 3 Miles Run

2006-07-27T06:44:00.000-04:00

Not much to say this morning. I ran the three miles a little faster than on Tuesday, in 34:24.

At 6:40am, Braman's weather station reports that the temperature is already in the 70s and the humidity is 67%. It felt really humid, too, and started to rain just as I got back to the house.

Oh, I know I've mentioned before that I'm listening to Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell as I run. Well, I'm nearing the end and it is getting very exciting. I highly recommend it.

Dogs and Their Irresponsible Owners

2006-07-26T09:04:00.000-04:00

I ran 5 miles this morning and I was S-L-O-W, finishing in 59:10. In my defense, I had to stop to walk two times since this was the advice I received to protect myself from attacking dogs.

I met the first dog at about mile two and a half. It was a small, white and brown, sort of foxy-looking, farm dog who ran out to confront me as soon as it saw me approaching in the road. I stopped to walk, it kept barking and also vigorously sniffed me and bumped my leg several times with its head. Is this aggressive or friendly behavior? I didn't have to worry about it too long since it determined a sweaty, slow runner wasn't much of a threat and gave up on me to trot back to its farm.

The next two dogs were about a mile later. These dogs were smaller than the first, one also foxy and the other maybe a mini pug. They were in their front yard with another much larger (and evidently lazier since it never got up) dog and one of their owners in her bathrobe. The dogs came tearing out of their yard, barking loudly and showing me their teeth.

I stopped to walk and tried to ignore them but they were persistent. Their owner tried to call them back but they were so loud and determined that they either didn't hear her or didn't care. I made eye contact with her but she obviously wasn't able to control them. They followed me well past their own house and onto the neighboring farm, barking all the way on my heels. I yelled at them which didn't seem to do much. By this time I could see that someone else from their house had come out to call them, also ineffectively. Finally, I really yelled at them and started to chase them back to their own house which is what finally worked to get rid of them.

Dogs who are not tied up are one thing. People who choose not to tie their dogs up and then aren't able to control them when they menace passersby in the street are another. If I thought it would do any good I would call the local dog officer.

White Sweet Clover

2006-07-25T17:59:00.000-04:00

I have, a time or two in this blog, mentioned a white flower I was trying to identify. After sitting down today for the second time and really examining Peterson's Field guide to Wildflowers of the Northeastern and North-central America, I found a drawing which led me to surf the web which ultimately resulted in an identification: White Sweet Clover (Melitotus alba).

It looks so graceful and delicate, swaying in the breeze, more so than these pictures can portray. And I have even seen one Yellow Sweet Clover plant (Melitotus officinalis), but only one so far.

Now you know what it's called, too. I would have included one of my own pictures but they were terrible.

(I think it's interesting when I go to check the web for pictures to verify or illustrate my sightings, how many links I find from places all over the country. These invasive plants/weeds/wildflowers have traveled quite far in some instances and are not just to be enjoyed/done battle with here in Upstate New York.)

More Wildflowers Gone

2006-07-25T07:05:00.000-04:00

Got up this morning and was out the door by 5:45 for my 3-mile run. Maintained a moderate/slow pace and finished in 35 minutes even. (Sadly, a minute slower than last Tuesday.) Weather was a pleasant 68 degrees with a cool breeze.

I was disappointed to see another long stretch of wildflowers had been mown down, including a patch of that willowy white flower that I have been meaning to identify. While a large area had been cut, whoever was doing the mowing stopped a few yards before the corner and left a stand of wild daylilies untouched. Perhaps they spared the daylilies because these seem more beautiful or more like cultivated flowers than the others. But, having recently developed an appreciation for all the other "weeds", I was sad to see those go.

10 miles!

2006-07-22T16:08:00.000-04:00

Today was The Longest I Have Ever Run. 10 miles.

It was yet another rainy Saturday and we all met early in Ithaca at 6:15 to beat the heat. (Beating the heat turned out not to be necessary since it was mostly in the 60s all day and kind of breezy but it was good to get an early start anyway.)

We started running. I remembered to start my watch. We all got soaked to the bone almost right away. (I wrung out my shorts and shirt a few times as we were running but soon gave this up since it was hopeless.) But I kept plodding along until we were finished. With the exception of the three water stops at which everyone stopped for a minute or two, I ran the whole time. No walking.

I was last but still felt good at the end, not winded at all just starting to feel a little sore in the joints. Since I also remembered to stop my watch this week, I know that I ran the 10 miles in 1 hour and 58 minutes. Not speedy but satisfying. And though it had stopped raining by this time my shorts were still so wet that they dripped on my sneakers as I walked back to the car.

Amazingly, I feel better today than I did last week when we only ran 9 miles. My right hip is a little sore but much better than last week. And, after a two-hour afternoon nap, I feel almost refreshed.

Nature sightings today included a possum (crossing the road as I was driving down to Ithaca), a mother deer and two spotted fawns (on the bike path we run on), a chipmunk (which I almost stepped on because it couldn't decide where to go) and a baby bunny.

I also was able to identify many of the weedy wildflowers that I saw on the roadside: old favorites birdsfoot trefoil, chicory, and wild carrot (did you know this is another name for Queen Anne's Lace?), as well as recently learned wild parsnip (which can give you a burn if you're exposed to the plant juice and then the sun), and bull thistle which I have just noticed with its beautiful pinky-purple flower.

Thanks again to Craig Cramer of Cornell who suggested that I take a look at Weeds of the Northeast by Richard Uva. I borrowed this fantastic book from our local library and, with the help of its great photographs, may soon (I hope) be able to name many more of the flowers that keep me occupied as I run along our country roads.

Kids

2006-07-20T07:05:00.000-04:00

When it was time to go to bed last night Nora wasn't tired. After we read stories and turned out the light, I tried to nurse her to sleep like I usually do. But she squirmed and insisted on getting down and crawling all over the place in the dark, pulling things out and trying to read her board books even though there wasn't enough light to see the pictures. I continued to try to get her to relax and she continued to fight it. This went on for 45 minutes.

Eventually Braman came in and tried to hold her to get her to rest but, while she much prefers Dada in the daytime, at night she needs Mama and the thought of being kept from Mama at nighttime was so terrible that she cried ("Mama! Mama!") to get back to me. After a little more crying in my arms, she calmed down and went to sleep at about 10:15, about two hours later than her usual bedtime.

Which is why I was surprised this morning when we heard her crying in her crib at 4:30. Actually, this isn't a surprise. She usually cries in the wee hours of the morning and Braman will go get her out of her crib and bring her into bed with us. I nurse her and she falls asleep again. But this morning she came into bed and sat up. I nursed her but she wouldn't fall asleep again. She tossed, she turned, she tried to crawl down to the end of the bed. At 5:30, she did fall asleep again.

Just as I was going to try to get out of bed to start my run, I hear Larsson say "Mama, cuddle me." So I invited him into bed, too, and, sandwiched between two kids, thought for sure that my run was doomed.

But at 6:00, Braman said there was still time to run before he needed to be up, so I extricated myself. Larsson almost unconsciously flopped over to be cuddled by Braman and I left them all sleeping, just like this:

The run was uneventful and I finished the three miles in 33:24. Sometimes the biggest obstacle is just getting out of bed.

Horses, Wildflowers and Sleeping Dogs

2006-07-19T08:54:00.000-04:00

I scared more animals today on my new 5-mile route.

After I run the mile uphill from my house, I turn right onto a country road. Maybe I'm noisier than the average runner or maybe these horses are more skittish than most but I had just started to near the field in which they were grazing when the herd of them--maybe 12 or so horses including several foals--took off and ran quickly to the other side of the field. I'm not really a horse person but these were beautiful animals and it was nice to see the babies prancing about with their mothers. Sorry the feeling wasn't mutual, horses.

Seeing the horses this morning reminded me how my vocabulary to describe scenes like this, and many of the other things I see while running, is really inadequate. As I ran by the horses, I was thinking how I would write about the encounter in my blog. But then I realized that I didn't know what kind of horses they were or what their different patterns and markings were called. Some were all brown, some were brown with white patches on their foreheads, some were dappled brown and white. Some of the foals had matching patterns to what I assume were their mothers. Which made me wonder if this is usual for horses or not.

And then there were all the wildflowers I saw on this route. Red clover (Trifolium pratense) seemed to be most common on the horse road, although there were lots of other kinds blooming there, too. While I'm happy to be able to latch onto a few flowers that I can identify, I've got to admit that seeing so many other flowers that I don't know the names of is starting to get to me. I'd love to be able to extoll the beauty of this dainty yellow flower and that star-shaped white flower and that delicate purple flower but I don't know their names and don't really have the right words to describe them. Plus I can't quite remember what they look like when I get home and I don't usually take a camera with me when I go out.
Who knew marathon training was going to lead to this? There is a lot to learn in this world.

And you will, I hope, be glad to know that I was not menaced by any dogs this morning. I crossed to the other side of the street when I ran by the houses where I've been harassed by these dogs before and would have held my breath except I needed it for running. Running in shorts with calves exposed makes you feel very vulnerable when you think a dog may be lurking nearby ready to take a chunk out of you. But all was well.

The run was fine. I finished the five miles in 54:35 and felt good. It helped that it was 64 degress and a little breezy when I started out at 5:30am. although I passed three farms on this route, I didn't see any farmers. Maybe I will next week when I run this route again.

6:00am Isn't Early Enough

2006-07-18T07:20:00.000-04:00

I woke up at 5:15 to Nora's crying in my ear, nursed her, then fell asleep until 5:45. By the time I was ready to go, it was almost 6:00. And in the middle of the summer, this doesn't seem early enough for running. The thermometer already said 77 degrees and it felt really humid, although I think the humidity was only about 61%.

(I should add that I was tired from waiting up last night until 11:30 for Braman and Larsson to come home from the Celtic Woman concert. Larsson is a huge Celtic Woman fan and has seen them in concert three times now. After each concert he has been able to meet with some of the performers. Last night he visited with Orla and Mairead. He drew pictures for all of them which he hand-delivered and showed Mairead, the fiddler, how he is learning to hold the bow in violin class.)

I ran three miles and felt creaky and awkward, like I usually do on a Tuesday after taking two days off from running. My time was 34 minutes even.

Sadly, the big government lawn mowers were out recently and mowed down my favorite stretch of wildflowers/weeds. I don't know why they have to mow this spot and I felt sad that the wildflowers that I just learned like birdfoot trefoil and chicory, the ones I already knew like Queen's Anne Lace and milkweed, plus the ones I had hoped to identify soon had been cut down by the mower and were all lying there in a rotting pile.

Of course, the mowers can't go everywhere so there still are wildflowers to see. Maybe I'll go for a walk with the kids and take my camera. There was a beautiful tall plant with delicate white flowers that I'd like to learn the name of...

After I finish my three miles, I have a short walk through the village back to our house. On the way there, I pass an Ithaca Journal newspaper vending box outside the local diner. One of the front-page items this morning declared "Heat, Humidity and Smog Stifle Upstate" with a companion piece on how people exercising in this weather need to stay hydrated. I'll definitely have to set the alarm to get up earlier tomorrow. And I better go start drinking my water.

5 miles tomorrow! I'm taking a route where several dogs are known to roam freely so I'm hoping that those same dogs are not early risers.

9 miles! (And fundraising update)

2006-07-16T10:15:00.000-04:00

I ran 9 miles with the group yesterday and now, more than 24 hours later, I feel sufficiently recovered to write about it.

I don't know how long it took because I forgot to start my watch in the beginning, started it a few minutes into the run but then stopped it well after I had started driving home. So all I can say is that it was less than 2 hours but more than an hour and a half (the last time I remember looking at my watch.)

9 miles is a long way. I almost ran the whole route but not quite, needing to walk the last bit of an uphill toward the end. And I felt tired and sore after I was done. But I feel better today, which is promising.

The schedule for this week is 3-5-3 miles (Tues-Wed-Thurs) and then 10 miles on Saturday which will be The Longest I Have Ever Run.

As for fundraising, yesterday July 15th was the goal I set in most of the letters I sent out. I am pleased to say that, through the generosity of friends, family, Braman's co-workers and BorgWarner, I have raised almost $3500 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society so far. (My donation website http://www.active.com/donate/tntcny/maureen hasn't been updated yet to reflect the most recent gifts.) This is a little short of my target of $4,000 so, if I haven't heard from you yet, I may be sending out a reminder postcard to beg for your donation.

Thank you to everyone who has been so kind (and quick!) to donate. You have all made this fundraising process much less scary than it seemed in the beginning and I really appreciate it.

What a Morning!

2006-07-13T07:45:00.000-04:00

I left the house this morning about 5:45 for my 4-mile run. Weather was cool and humid but breezy. This route goes steadily uphill for about a mile, across and still slightly uphill for another mile, downhill for a mile and then across for the last mile.

The first mile was fine but boring. I kept trudging and made it up to the top.

The second mile began to get interesting. On this section I pass two farms. The first is a sort of gentleman's farm with a few draft horses, a handful of cows and some chickens that I sometimes see wandering about the farmhouse lawn. The draft horses were out and close to the road. I called to them but they were determinedly walking up the path to the field and didn't pay me any attention. One stopped to scratch his leg on the wheel of a wagon in the field.

About 1/4 mile later, more horses (of the non-work variety) were out. These ones all perked up when they saw me coming and one even came running towards the road from deep within the field. I bid them good morning and kept on going.

About halfway on this road I passed the first of three Amish farms on this route. The horse poop that usually covers this section of road had been washed away in yesterday's heavy rains. The dog that sometimes barks and runs threateningly at me must have been relaxing in the house. And I heard a rooster crow loudly at 6:15. I passed a friendly young Amish girl all dressed in black right before I turned the corner to go downhill. I'd seen her when I ran this route last week, too. We waved to each other.

The beginning of mile three is also the beginning of the second Amish farm. Here growing in a small field on the corner are different varieties of daylilies for sale. I'm anxious to get some new daylilies for my garden and, while I didn't see any here that interested me, it reminded me how I'd like to make a trip to Olallie Daylily Garden in Vermont to try to find a few. I thought about my garden for a while, especially how exciting it is that the recently planted canna bulbs and sunflower seeds are just sprouting.

After the daylily plot there's a fenced off field where baby cows were grazing. Then there's a small pond where I've seen cows wading and drinking. Set back from this there are several barns and then a bit further down the road there's the farmhouse.

As I passed the cow pond, I saw it: a great blue heron! (At least I think it was a great blue heron. Once I got home I tried to verify the sighting with an online photo. The bird was indeed big and gray like the great blue heron but I don't remember the white stripe on the head. Maybe it was a juvenile.) When the bird saw me coming it flew gracefully to the other end of the pond. And when I approached that end, it flew back to the side I had seen it at originally. So beautiful and exciting.

That (and hearing the rooster crow) were really the highlights of my morning. I continued down the hill past a small iris farm, turned onto the main road and kept jogging along, re-entering the village, getting back on sidewalks again. I stopped at exactly the 4-mile point and walked the half-block back home.

My time was 42:46 so I was fairly speedy, for me. What a great morning!

Sweaty and Tired

2006-07-12T12:52:00.000-04:00

I was feeling better today but didn't manage to get up early enough to run before Braman left for work. Once I did get up it was raining, and raining, and raining.

About 11 o'clock it stopped raining and the radar looked pretty clear so I packed up the kids (which took some time) and we eventually headed out for our run. (We only ran three miles today instead of the scheduled four because I was just trying to get back in the routine again.)

While the rain had brought the temperature down (the thermometer said it was 75 degrees), it had done nothing for the humidity. (We've been back from our run for only about 15 minutes and wunderground.com says the humidity is currently 84%!)

It was like running in the shower. My shirt got instantly soaked and I had sweat dripping off my elbows. Gross, I know.

Add that to the fact that Braman let some air out of the stroller tires so the kids would have a smoother ride (think pushing a cement truck uphill) and that I'm still a little tired from being sick and you don't have the most successful outing ever.

But I finished the run and only had to answer minimal questions and respond to a few comments from Larsson. ("Will we see anything interesting?" "What is milkweed?" "Where do groundhogs live?" "Where do raccoons live?" "What do you think the farmer will do with all of this corn?" "This road needs to be repaired. There are CRACKS in it!")

Nora fell asleep early on and then, surprisingly for a morning run, Larsson fell asleep, too. So here they are relaxing in the yard while I stretched on the porch.

We finished in 37:36, not my worse time but close to it. I think I'm going to ask Braman to pump the tires back up. And I don't plan to run close to noontime again.

No Running Today

2006-07-11T07:24:00.000-04:00

I am under the weather. If I feel better tomorrow, I'll be back at it.

5-mile Group Run

2006-07-08T09:39:00.000-04:00

I left the house at 6:20 this morning to drive down to Ithaca for the group run. I am a devoted NPR listener and was able to enjoy Soundprint on WRVO until I lost signal in Ithaca. I was disappointed not to be able to hear the end of the segment on the couple who competed in ballroom dancing at the International Gay Games but I may still listen to it on the Soundprint website.

I have to drive down to Ithaca again later this morning and I'm looking forward to listening to one of my favorite programs, Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me (the oddly informative news quiz.)

The run was fine. We only did 5 miles today, maybe to rest up for the 9 miles we're going to do next weekend. We maintained a steady pace and finished the run in about 55 minutes. (I keep forgetting to stop my watch when we actually stop running so I can't say exactly how long it was.)

We were a small group (4 participants and the assistant coach) but we all managed to stay together, the weather was pleasantly cool, and it was a productive way to start off the weekend.

Running

2006-07-06T16:57:00.000-04:00

In case you think this has ceased being a running blog and has become dedicated to wildflower identification, I want to report that I ran 4 miles yesterday and three miles today.

The new four-mile route is more agricultural than the three-mile one and I pass three different farms on my way. Since two of the farms belong to Amish families and Amish families farm with horse-driven plows, I dodged a lot of horse poop on this route.

I also found a small, light-blue, speckled bird's egg (hatched) on the road at about mile 1 which I picked up and carried gingerly in my left hand for the remainder of the run. I presented it as a prize to Larsson once I got home. He now asks me everyday if I found anything interesting for him and I was glad to be able to give him such a treat. It's currently sitting outside in his "basket of special things" in a bird's nest that we found on one of our walks together.

My time was 44:02.

Today I was back to the familiar 3-mile route. I was grateful to be able to name birdsfoot trefoil as I ran by it but saw a few other flowers that I might need to investigate. The wildflowers are blooming in force now.

Although I thought I might be my fastest yet on this course, I ran it in 32:05 which is 3 seconds slower than one of the days last week. Oh well.

(And as much I try to constrain this blog to running, it is amazing how natural observations creep their way in.)

And Thank You, Craig Cramer!

2006-07-06T16:48:00.000-04:00

Before I realized I had the answer to my wildflower question on my own bookshelf, I emailed two different departments at Cornell University with my question. Two days after I sent in my query (and one of those days was a holiday), I received a friendly, informative, correct response from Craig Cramer of the Department of Horticulture. He emailed me directly and also posted his answer in the comments section of my blog for July 3rd so all can benefit.

Thanks, Craig, for taking the time and care to respond so thoughtfully to my question. You're great!

Thank you, Roger Tory Peterson

2006-07-04T20:16:00.000-04:00

After trying to determine the name of the yellow flowers through repeated web surfing of wildflower identification sites with no success, I remembered that we had an old copy of A Field Guide to Wildflowers of Northeastern and North-central North America by Roger Tory Peterson and Margaret McKenny (acquired from Braman's grandparents when we helped clean out their house.)

Looking through the Yellow flowers section, I saw something that looked like our flower but it was a line-drawing not an actual photograph and I wasn't sure. So I looked up the name on Google and, lo and behold, our flower is Birdfoot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus), which grows on roadsides, waste areas and fields.

See the Connecticut Botanical Society's site and the UMass Cooperative Extension site for better pictures than my own and more information.

Just goes to show that old-fashioned books can still be superior as a fast source of accurate and valuable information. (But I'll admit that I was glad to have the computer to verify my guess.)

Fourth of July

2006-07-04T12:31:00.000-04:00

We were up late last night watching the fireworks in Ithaca so I didn't get up as early as I wanted. When I did get up, at 7:00, it was raining hard so I decided to put my run off until a little later in the day.

I left the house about 10:45 and it took a while to feel comfortable. But I eventually developed a rhythm and finished the 3 miles without stopping in 33:54. Not too bad.

It was hot and humid and there's not much to report. Masses of those yellow flowers everywhere. Cows were out. I saw a big caterpillar on the road.

Tomorrow is the first mid-week mileage increase; I'm to run 4 miles instead of three which means that I have to allow a little more time and I have to find a new route. Then it's back to 3 miles again on Thursday.

Can you Identify Them?

2006-07-03T07:21:00.000-04:00

Here they are growing by the road (right in front of our house!):

And here's a close-up:

After some preliminary web-searching still have no idea what they are.

7 miles!

2006-07-01T09:30:00.000-04:00

I drove down to Ithaca this morning for the weekly group run. Today we did seven miles and it wasn't too bad. It definitely helps that there is someone in my group who runs at the same pace that I do and she's also a mom with two kids about the same ages as Larsson and Nora so we have things in common to talk about. The miles seem to go faster this way.

Part of our course this morning was on the East Hill Recreation Way which is shady and scenic. We saw two deer right on the path as well as some baby bunnies.

I set my watch when we started out but forgot to stop it right away so I think we did the seven miles in about an hour and 23 minutes.

Almost as soon as I finished running I had to get in my car and drive to Larsson's group violin lesson where Braman was already waiting with the kids. I picked up Nora (who would be disruptive in the class) and Braman took Larsson in for his lesson. Since I could barely make it there in time after running seven miles, I'll never make it there in time once we're doing more than that so I think that Nora may be joining me on the Saturday morning runs. Single jogger here we come.

And those pesky yellow flowers were all over the place. I've got to find out what they are.

Yellow Flowers and Daylilies

2006-06-30T11:09:00.000-04:00

If you've read the other two posts where I took the kids out in the double jogger, you may have noticed a pattern.

Today was the same:

"Mom, look at those yellow roses!"
ME: Those aren't roses
"What kind of flower are they?"
ME: I don't know
"They sure are pretty."

These yellow flowers are low-growing and small and grow in bunches all along the road on our course. As you can tell, I don't know what they are but I am going to take a picture of them and post it so you can see what I'm talking about. Inquiring minds now need to know.

Wild daylilies were blooming along the road today. I ran Wednesday and don't remember seeing any but today they were everywhere and very beautiful.

Our time was 35:18.

32:02!

2006-06-28T06:47:00.000-04:00

It seems like running while pushing the kids really pays off because I feel super speedy the next time I run by myself.

And I might have even run these 3 miles in 31 minutes and some if I hadn't stopped to pick up a baby horse chestnut that had fallen prematurely from its tree (a present for Larsson.)

Road Kill

2006-06-27T07:50:00.000-04:00

We left the house at 7:00 am and I put them in the double jogging stroller.

"Mom, we should call this the donkey, pig, cow run."
ME: But there aren't any pigs on this run.
"Oh. We should call this the donkey, cow, horse run. No, we can call this the donkey, cow, horse, RABBIT run!."

Then we were off.

"That car didn't stop at the stop sign! He should be taught a lesson!"
"Why is there all this traffic?!"
"Where is everybody going?"
"Are they going to work like Daddy?"
"Look at those yellow roses! Those are wild!"
"Oh, what kind are they?"
"Look more of those yellow flowers! They sure are pretty!"
"Why does that sign say Children At Play?"
"Why didn't we eat breakfast yet?"
"Look at the flowers on my side!"
"I hope we see some farm animals and some rabbits."
"Look, that car drove through the big puddle!"
"THAT car, the one I am pointing to!"

We'd gone about 2 miles when we saw it.

"Mom, what is that lump in the road?"
ME: Probably a dead animal.
"Probably a dead raccoon or something."

We got up closer.

ME: It's a dead groundhog.

"It probably got hit by a car."
"Maybe it wasn't careful."
"It should have been in the crosswalk."

Silence for a few minutes as we jogged/walked up the big hill.

"I couldn't tell whether that was a boy groundhog or a girl groundhog."

Thankfully, we didn't talk about it anymore.

I walked up more of the big hill than I would have liked and our time today was 35:37.

Rainy Marion Village 5K

2006-06-24T11:26:00.000-04:00

We're visiting with Grandma and Grandpa in Marion, Massachusetts and Larsson, Nora and I ran the Marion Village 5K this morning! Since it's a Saturday it was, of course, raining. But the double jogger has a rain shield and we all had hats and we were not afraid of a little rain.

Here's a picture of us before the race started, with the scenic Sippican harbor as a backdrop:

(Larsson was trying to pull down the hood of the stroller since it had started to rain.)

Here's another one with the rain shield firmly in place:

Braman was our designated race photographer and took this action shot shortly before mile 1:

I didn't feel very fast but we were steady and, thankfully, Larsson was distracted by all the action and didn't talk too much so I was mostly able to conserve my breath. Before the race started I provided Larsson with a bag of goldfish which he snacked on and which he doled out sparingly to Nora throughout the race. This kept them busy and I only had to tell them to stop poking each other once.

The race course was pretty flat with one very small uphill and one barely noticeable downhill. I don't think the kids noticed but I enjoyed looking at all the well-kept shingled seaside houses with tidy, seaside-y landscaping. We ran through Tabor Academy (where Braman went to high school and where Grandpa works), part of the village of Marion, along the water and then back to Tabor. The race ended at Hoyt Hall which is where Braman and I had our wedding reception.

The sights that we ran past included the Marion Mallet Club (a member of the United States Croquet Association), the Sippican Tennis Club, and the Beverly Yacht Club. It was a fun run with beautiful scenery.

We finished the first mile in 10:58, the second in 11:16 and the third in 10:53 (I sped up for the third mile!). Right at mile 3, I unbuckled Larsson from the stroller and he hopped out and ran the last .1 mile with me.

Here we are coming down the homestretch:

(It was really raining here.)

Still running...

Almost to the finish line:

And all done!

(Nora was asleep in the stroller.)

Our final time was 34:52 (we started in the back of the pack and it took us about 13 seconds to reach the start line so the time on the finish line clock you see in the picture above wasn't accurate for us) which included stopping to take up the rain shield when it stopped raining, stopping to put it back on again when it began raining again, and stopping to take Larsson out of his seat so that he could run to the finish line. It wasn't my fastest time but it wasn't too bad. I was 246 out of 269 runners and 27 out of 32 in my age group (30-39). Larsson was 28 out of 36 in his age group (1-13).

As promised, I continued to run after the race. Instead of running the race course again, however, I ran back down along the water to Silver Shell Beach and then back up Front Street to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Braman told me this distance would be about the same. From the start of the race to the end of my run, I was gone for an hour and ten minutes which is probably about six miles.

The only problem with the day was that we stepped in a BIG puddle right before the finish line and my shoes were completely waterlogged so I squished for the first part of my post-race run. And I had to wring out my shorts which completely reached their water absorption capacity in the race downpour. Overall, a very fun time.

Bunnies galore

2006-06-22T09:02:00.000-04:00

This must be baby bunny time because I saw so many this morning on my run. Everywhere I looked a tiny bunny was hopping across the road or running to hide under a bush. Very cute.

I didn't feel as speedy today as yesterday and I wasn't. I finished the 3 miles (still without stopping) in 34 minutes and 5 seconds.

I hope to do a little better than this in the road race on Saturday since the course is flat. I haven't pushed the double stroller in a race since I ran the Interlaken Steeplechase last November (where I finished in 39:28) so it should be interesting, and fun. Wish me luck!

Blazing speed!

2006-06-21T07:04:00.000-04:00

Pushing the stroller yesterday was pretty taxing so I decided to give myself a break and got up at 5:30 to run by myself. I guess those kids had really been slowing me down because I finished the course in a non-stop time of 33:37! I almost felt like a real runner.

Nature sightings included:
a rabbit in our front yard
two slugs on the road
and a hairy woodpecker (male) pecking on a section of dead tree.
(Thanks to our participation in Project Feederwatch I could identify him.)

I'm not sure if I can keep this pace up for tommorow's run but stay tuned for the exciting results.

My arms hurt!

2006-06-20T15:37:00.000-04:00

Since I'm going to be pushing Larsson and Nora in the double jogging stroller for the Marion Village 5K road race this Saturday, I figured I better get some practice in. So this morning, instead of getting up super early and running by myself, I got them out of bed, took care of potty needs, put sweaters on over their pajamas, gave them a drink and a snack for the road, put them in the double stroller and left for our training run at 7:30 am. I took the digital camera so that I could document some of the sights on our course.

Larsson is quite a talker so I knew I couldn't listen to my audiobook (Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke) like I usually do. Instead, this is what I heard:
"Where is all this traffic coming from?!"
"Those are daisies!"
"Can I pick them?"
"What does 'wild' mean?"
"There's a rabbit!"
"Why are you stopping?"
"That is corn growing over there!"
"That sign says 'Stop ahead'!"
"Why aren't we going that far?"
"Why are we turning?"
"This is a quiet road."
"Oh no! Nora's hat!"
"Why aren't I running?"
"When is our race?"
"Am I going to sleep over GrandmaGrandpa's?"
"What are those flowers?"
"They are yellow like my marigolds."
"Do coyotes live over there?"
"Coyotes live in woods and fields."
"Oh look! A cute kitten!"
"I drank all my drink."
"I saved some goldfish for Nora."
"Am I going to see anything interesting?"
And on and on and on.

One of the reasons I was stopping was to take a few pictures. Here are a few of the views we enjoyed:
A glimpse of Cayuga Lake as we went down the big hill

Corn growing in a field on our left

Grapevines from a local winery

A donkey at the next corner

A scenic stream on our way up the big hill

And our cow friends once we got to the top of the hill

(They were looking again but none of them wanted to come close to the fence.)

I don't know why I didn't take a picture of the kids in the stroller but I didn't.

And we finished in 41 minutes 30 seconds, partly because of taking pictures but mostly because it is hard to push the stroller with the kids in it uphill. With 22 pounds of stroller, 35 pounds of Larsson and 20 pounds of Nora, my arms are sore! I hope things are easier on the flat course in Marion.

Second Group Run

2006-06-17T22:50:00.000-04:00

This was the fourth run that the group did but the second in which I was able to participate. Unlike the past two Saturdays, this one was dry and warm and I didn't have to huddle in my car to avoid the rain before the run started. We did 5 miles this morning and it felt pretty good.

We're slowly starting to increase the mileage. This week I'll continue to run three miles three times during the week and then next Saturday we'll do 6 miles. The week after that will be the usual three miles and then on July 1st we'll do 7 miles. I'm not sure what the rest of the July schedule is like because the coaches don't want us to look too far ahead and be intimidated. Which given how I feel about doing 7 miles is probably a good thing.

And I'm now 46% of the way there with my fundraising! Thanks, everyone, for being so generous!

Cows and Corn

2006-06-14T07:07:00.000-04:00

Yes, I got up to run this morning. The alarm went off at 4:45am but I didn't get out of bed until 5:21 and left the house by 5:35. I ran most of the 3-miles but walked a small portion of the uphill. My time was 37:35.

I had some early entertainment in my run this morning as I passed by a group of cows out to pasture. They were mostly Holsteins with one light brown cow (a Jersey? a Brown Swiss? I'm not sure) in the bunch. The cows belong to the local dairy farm and sometimes I see the cows outside but far away in the field near their barn. This morning, though, a group of them were right up near the fence near the road.

I don't think the cows see many joggers, particularly at this time in the morning, and they weren't all sure what to do. The first two cows that saw me--a Holstein and the tan cow--ran towards the fence and, if I hadn't been trying to maintain my slow and steady pace, I would have stopped to try to pet them. Some other cows looked up with interest and I was surprised to see a few more start to amble towards the fence. I'd never seen so many outgoing, friendly cows before. But I think I startled the last two because when they heard my shuffling on the road, they took off quickly (for a cow) in the opposite direction. Aside from scaring the cows, which I felt bad about, this cow encounter was a nice distraction on my run and gave me something to think about.

And the corn is starting to come up! I can't wait until we can eat fresh corn on the cob.

36:37!

2006-06-14T07:03:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I ran my regular 3-mile course without stopping once! And was faster by 10 seconds.

Cornell Reunion Run

2006-06-10T16:14:00.000-04:00

It was another rainy, cold (41 degrees!) June Saturday morning here in Interlaken and we all got up super early so we could leave the house by 6:15 to get down to Ithaca for the 7:30am Reunion Run at Cornell. It was my 10th Reunion and I figured this would be a fun way to get in my weekend run.

There were about 80 people who braved the elements for this event and, surprisingly, it turned out to be fun. The 5-mile course was fairly scenic, looping through the Plantations and ending up with a lap around the track at Schoellkopf Field, home to Cornell's football, field hockey and men's lacrosse teams.

During the race I ran by the Class of 1901 Nut Tree Collection but didn't see any nuts. But I did run by several Tulip Poplar trees in bloom. I'd always thought that the tulip-shaped leaves were what gave the tree its name but evidently it's the orange and yellow tulip-like flowers which I had never seen but which I thought were quite beautiful.

What I found most amazing is that I didn't have to walk at all in this race. For 5 miles! Up some steep hills! I don't know how I managed it but I have to think that my usual 3-mile run involving the big uphill must have something to do with it.

And I finished in 58 minutes and 30 seconds, faster (by 38 seconds) than the 5-mile Lowell Spinners race from two weeks ago.

Larsson, Nora and I are pictured above after the end of the race. We were all wet and freezing, Larsson's eyes are closed, and there are obvious raindrops in the picture but I think we all had fun.

Progress!

2006-06-06T06:49:00.000-04:00

I ran my usual 3-mile route this morning: down a big almost 1-mile hill, across a shorter way, up a big almost 1-mile hill and then across again. It's the course for a local 5K race so I know that the whole thing is actually 3.1 miles. I've been running this course since I started training and each time I've run it in 38 minutes and some seconds. While I can usually run a 5K in less than 38 minutes, I'll admit that, when it's time to go uphill, I take breaks and will run to a road sign and then stop and walk to someone's mailbox and then run again to someone's driveway, etc. It's not pretty but at least I'm doing it.

Well, today, I don't know what came over me but I ran down the hill, ran all the way across and then ran almost halfway up the big hill before I stopped. I only took one break and then I started running again and ran all the way up the rest of the hill (in the steepest parts!) and kept running until the end of the course. I didn't run up the hill quickly (a casual observer might have thought I was standing still but my feet really were shuffling along) but I kept going and I finished the course in 36 minutes and 47 seconds. I'm getting faster! I really do feel encouraged.

And I saw the biggest frog I've ever seen in person in the middle of the road. It must have been about 8-inches long, smooth and shiny green. I didn't even know we had frogs like that around here. Sadly, it was a victim of traffic but seeing this frog and the snakes and the other things I never seem to see on later morning or afternoon walks makes getting up to run at daybreak all the more rewarding.

First Group Run

2006-06-03T15:11:00.000-04:00

Woke up this morning at 5:30 to pouring rain. Left the house at 6:15 in pouring rain. Drove down to East Hill Plaza in Ithaca in pouring rain and, you guessed it, ran 4 miles in pouring rain. Still it was fun to run with the group for the first time and the run seemed to go a lot faster than the 3 mile ones I've been doing by myself. (Of course, I don't know exactly how fast it was because I forgot to start my watch at the beginning of the run.) Made it back home by 9am but was already starving. The group runs begin and end in a plaza that has a great bagel shop so I think that I might make eating a bagel and having a cup of tea part of my post-run routine.

And I want to thank everyone who's donated so far. I really appreciate it!

5 miles down, 21.2 more to go

2006-05-30T15:55:00.000-04:00

Right after I finished the Lowell Spinners 5-miler on Saturday, that's what Braman said to me, "5 miles down, 21.2 more to go." While I finished the race in typical blazing fashion (59 minutes, 8 seconds; 212 out of 220 runners and 33rd out of the 35 in my age group), I definitely didn't feel like I was ready to keep going. But that's what training is for, right? So I have faith in the Team In Training people who say they will prepare me for this marathon and I will keep chugging along.

For those interested, the race was very scenic and involved plodding past beautiful old mill buildings, crossing over the Merrimack River and finishing on the Lowell Spinners baseball field. There were three water stops and the race people were all very friendly and courteous to the slow runners. I'd recommend this one and might even do it again next year. Larsson had a great time in the kids race where he and the other under-four-year-olds ran a small portion of the warning track on the baseball field to the official finish line. He won a T-shirt, a drink of water, a certificate, and dogtags with pictures of the Spinners players on them.

The picture above is just after I finished my race but before Larsson ran his.

And after returning home last night at 11:30pm, I got up this morning at 5 to do my three miles. I smelled a skunk, ran around the remains of an animal in the road, hopped over horse droppings and saw a large snake in someone's driveway. Even though I felt fast, I ran the course in about the same time that I did the other three times, 38 minutes and some seconds.

Training Day 3

2006-05-25T08:24:00.000-04:00

I should mention that my training consists of running by myself during the week on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and running with the group from Team In Training for longer runs on Saturday mornings. For the month of June I'll be running 3 miles during the week and then from 3-6 miles on the weekend.

June is a busy month because I'll also be running two road races: the 5-mile Reunion Run at Cornell on June 10th (as part of my 10th reunion) and the Marion Village 5K on June 24th in Marion, Massachusetts. Larsson is also registered for the Marion race. He and Nora will start out the race being pushed by me in the double jogging stroller but Larsson will get out of the stroller towards the end and run the last bit over the finish line. This will be his third road race and he is excited.

The Reunion Run will satisfy my running requirement for that Saturday but I'm supposed to run 6 miles on the 24th so, if you can believe it, I am actually going to be one of these people who finishes a race and then goes out and keeps running. I used to make fun of these people.

In case you were wondering, I did indeed run my 3 miles yesterday and today. Nothing eventful to report, which is probably for the best.

I did it!

2006-05-23T23:44:00.000-04:00

It's a good thing that I feel like there's some public accountability now because I did not want to get out of bed this morning. But I did. I dislodged Nursing Nora at 5am, gathered my things in the dark and then ran outside for the scheduled three miles. It felt good to get started. And only one menacing dog barked at me and he was contained by an Invisible Fence.

Training starts tomorrow

2006-05-22T16:16:00.000-04:00

Well, officially, training for the Nike Women's Marathon with Team In Training starts this Saturday but I'll be in MA for the weekend and will miss the first group run. But since I'm going to be running the 1st Annual Lowell Spinners Road Race this Saturday instead, I figured I better get in at least a few runs before the race.

So, starting tomorrow morning, I'm going to be getting up early and heading out to run a few miles before the family wakes up. Wish me luck! And be sure to check back for exciting accounts of how I narrowly avoided attacks by rabid farm dogs and dodged horse-droppings on these country roads.

(Hey, since you're reading this, do you want to donate toward the cause? Just click here to visit my Team In Training donation site. Thanks!)