Catching up

Monday seems like it was a year ago…  I went out for a run, no expectations of anything spectacular, I just needed to get away from my desk and clear my head.  Things seemed limber and loose and going well, so I took a left on Thomas and decided to get back to campus via "the bitch".  Actually went well.  Although I debated stopping at the top to wait for the light to cross I took the high road and went left to keep moving.  I love feeling of flying running south? down that slight grade on Beneham Rd.  Clicked off my watch and was surprised to see the pace I saw.  Combination of no pressure of training and the cool fall air, I am sure.  Whatever it is, I’ll take it!  Enjoyed TRX with the gals, even though I only missed a week it seemed like longer.




Tuesday was a walk with Don and Ro.  Ro and I were going to run after work, we both bailed on that sighting it would be cold and dark and neither of us were really feeling like running and I was pretty achy, not really sure why.  Ro, the over achiever  ran a couple miles on the treadmill and did spin.  Dave was due to be out late, riding at Big River, Time Trials or something, I really need to ask more questions.  Honestly I was thrilled to have the house to myself for the night, the dogs were a bit upset not having all their humans present and accounted for.   He rode how he expected to ride and came home in one piece, guess I’ll call that a success.  I keep wondering if I can tag along and run in the woods while he bikes...  probably best not to push my luck?


Wednesday, OMG what gorgeous weather.  Wished I would have thrown a skirt in my bag, maybe even a tank, get that last little bit of fall sun before I have to deal with my dermatologists tsk tsk tsks.  Just glad there was a short sleeved shirt in the bag.  It was a lovely 4 miles, ran into Mike as he was heading out, hopefully you didn't melt in that long sleeved shirt!! 



I also got a note from Lani from the Lung Cancer Alliance asking if I would share my fundraising story.  She said the Marine Corps Marathon charity coordinator is looking for a charity runner to be highlighted for going above and beyond their fundraising requirement. Just a couple paragraphs about my story, my connection to lung cancer, how much money I have raised.

Oh goodie, I suck at short stories.  Given the option I will elaborate far more than necessary.  This is going to take a bit of time to get right, I fear.

In reality I am so honored to be asked, I know Lani was really hesitant to ask, we all know this was a tough race for me!  The process of pulling together my thoughts and being told the amount I have raised for the Lung Cancer Alliance since 2011 (over $12,000) gave me a nice grounding as to why I ran this race. This race wasn't about me it was about lung cancer.  

Thursday, spin, of course!  Passed on the Sneekers fun run, running in the rain is fun, running in the dark is fun, running in the dark and rain, not so much.  Dave met me in New London for a calorie explosion at St. Sophia Greek Food Festival.  Oh how I love the first week in November (other than the blasted time change).  Sadly I misread the calendar and the festival started on Tuesday, we missed out on the baklava and spanakopita, although they will have some more spanakopita on Friday, I may stop and pick up some to go.  We were more than welcome to order a tray of baklava for the holidays.  Oh krikies, a tray of baklava and the two of us, we would be bouncing off the walls with all that sugar!!!

Sincerely,
Beth, wondering how baklava freezes...

Tarzan Brown - Recap

1:30 p.m. race on a Sunday, ok.  Up and back on River Road, cool.  Friends, even better.  I was really really nervous for this race.  Was I going to blow up?  Was this going to be horrible?  I know I can run that route at a 10 pace, I did it two weeks ago.  OK, so set a goal of 55 minutes for the 5.5 mile race (which is really more like 5.4, so it looks even better in the record books).

Ran into Crutch on my way from the car to pick up my bib, nice to see a friendly face.  I may be overwhelming with my hugs, though.  Sorry!  He had on hat, gloves, and two shirts, oh shit was I under clothed in my MCM moc tech shirt (it is pretty thick) and a skirt?  Well I do have my Wild Turkey gloves in my purse in the car, I guess I could grab them?  Feh, lets see what the start line feels like.  I don't want to spend the race giving people the bird.

Left glove - I suppose showing the thumb would be helpful....

Got all checked in.  The bib guy says "Oh cool name."  *smile* I love that comment.  Perhaps marrying a beam or gun would also have been good.  But that would have messed with my BELLS initials, and my OCD could go into overdrive.

Found Ro and Mark, finally got to meet Ro's amazing sister!

And the line up starts and talk of finish times and what each was expecting.  I threw out 55, hoping that I could at least maintain 10, especially since the course measures short of the 5.5 miles, so there was a little bit of wiggle room.

Got tapped on the shoulder by people I knew, good luck hugs all the way around.  Yes, Monica, I do know EVERYONE.  HA HA HA!!

And the gun goes off.  And off we go.  Not too cold, not too warm, the wind off the water was nice and calming as my heart was racing.  Yeah, I know pull up your big girl panties and do this thing.  It was nice to have biked along River Road with Dave yesterday, I could remember our conversation about how gorgeous and area we live in, the view running is so different from the view biking.  I huffed it along and got in a grove.  The mile marker sign came up before my watch beeped.  I peeked, 9 ish pace, are you kidding me? Well I feel good just keep it up.   And so on it went as the mile markers went by (and yes I walked two of the water stops) I was peeking and seeing 9 ish pace.  Huh...  I checked the total time and wow, I may come in under 50 minutes.  NO STOP, just STOP, just run silly girl.

I saw the banner and thought THAT was the finish line, I turned up the speed and holy wow, no that wasn't the finish line.  Patrick snapped a nice pic.  Thanks!

Slightly disappointed that wasn't the actual finish line!

Then I finally saw the actual finish line the cones and the timing mat and I went for it. Official time 49:52. Yippiee!!!




Coming up to the line and crossing it I could hear Patrick, Crutch, Ro, and Mark cheering me on.  I nearly ran into Ro, she took one look at me and said "Are you ok?" "Yeah, I just need to walk."  I can't just stop running.  Crutch caught up with me, as surprised as I was with my performance.  We chatted.  The Sullivan's came over to chit chat and comment on 'watching' the marathon.  You can see virtual dots on the course, ok that is pretty cool.  A little big brother scary, however cool.  They had a relative running and for a while I was out running him, then the 1/2 way point hit and the game changed.  All parted ways, I know I was starting to get chilly!!

Caught up with Mark and Ro at the Harp and Hound shared a beer (thanks Mark) and caught up on running, biking, and general nonsense!

Sincerely,
Beth, feeling redeemed, normal, and a little proud of herself.

Tour de Graveyards

Thank you all for your support and comments.  Truly that was a tough race for me and my whine fest is over. The race photos came a couple days after the race.  There were a few worth the price of admission. I may fork over the $$ for now I'll violate the no copy rule.  I sent this one to my mom and dad and they were glad to see me smile.   I'm kind of tickled with both feet off the ground...

There were also those, are you kidding me?  I look like THAT? Photos...  We all have them, or at least I HOPE we all have them.

Other than a bit of a twisted ankle on my 'recovery' run on Wednesday all has been well, a little stiff and sore, nothing to horrific.  All the rest of the body is getting back to normal too. Good lord what 26.2 does to a person inside and out.  And we do this for 'fun'...  (yes, I'm considering which marathon I'll run next year, OBX is on the radar...  I'm a glutton)

Had a nice walk on Tuesday with the usual suspects, Don and Ro.  So nice to just talk with them, they've been there done that with bad races, injuries, high expectations, and it was nice to talk and walk, the sun seemed to come out just for us too!!  Don had a stellar race in NC, over the weekend.  Great to hear all about it.  Hopefully he will update his blog and tell the story as only he can!!   As I left my desk Gary stopped me and said "No, running."  I assured him I was only going for a walk.  He reiterated "No, running, Beth."  His wife is an ex-runner (knee issues) with a few marathons under her belt.  He gets it and knew I was thinking about a quick mile...   

Wednesday there wasn't time for a run during work so I figured I'd head out to Bluff Point after my last meeting and get in 3 ish on the trails.  I love those trails.  I learned to run on them.  I remember knowing the first split was 0.1 mile and that was my first goal to get to that point, then I was so thrilled to get 0.7 cut off to go up the hill, the small rolls till you get to see the Long Island Sound, then up and around the up hill with its crushed stone, and a spectacular view of some rocks and usually sailboats on the Long Island Sound, back into the woods, the muddy corner, and so on and so forth till the point where there is one mile left at the cut off for Mumford cove, here there is one small hill and then the big hill down to the bottom and back out.  I remember the first time I ran the whole loop, no walking.  Made me wonder what happened to that girl.  

Lots of leaves on the trail and I do get a bit spacey and wasn't paying as close attention as I should and rolled my right ankle.  I yelled "Son of a Bitch"  (my favorite and very first swear word, oh yes it was!) and caught the attention of some bikers ahead of me, they seemed to take off with a start, like a heard of deer...  I hobbled a bit and all seemed ok, just tender and off I went.  Pushing it just a bit on that final downhill and watching for the rocks under the leaves.  Ahhhhh, definitely felt like I was getting back to me.

And look at that I'm QOM (Queen of the Mountain) for the fire road decent.  Yippieee!!!!  The fire road climb was where I twisted my ankle, guess I have a goal for the next run at Bluff Point?

Thursday was supposed to be a fun run after work, all I wanted to do was go grocery shopping and get home to soak in the tub, again.  Fortunately (?) it was rainy and icky and we bailed on the fun run.  Sad to have missed spin class, I had a late meeting, work, damn it,  does get in the way of fun sometimes.  All in all a good meeting, it is getting towards the end of the year and everyone seems to be remembering they set goals in the beginning of the year and now the adage "Poor planning on your part does not constitute and emergency on my part" rolls through my mind as people are in a panic about what they haven't finished and I've become the road block to completion.  Whoopie twang, folks, whoopie twang...  the process is the process.  

Friday was a complete down day, 88 page corporate procedure to review, fortunately they took on board the comments my group offered so it wasn't too horrific, mostly consistency issues. Happy hour with the girls at one of Dave's favorite restaurants; he came a little later and we stayed for dinner they all went off to Pings (Chinese with some sort of a bowl drink), one day I'll be able to go to Pings.

The only goal I had for today was sleeping in and a nice long bike ride with Dave.  I accomplished both and a few other things (more grocery shopping at my most hated grocery store, ever, disgusting that the employees smoke outside one of the entrances in front of the propane exchange - oh I've written comments and chatted with the store manager about this) chicken was on sale and well, we were out and it wasn't at the store I like, and yes I will drive out to Wakefield...  can't believe our store was closed...  blargh.

Sunny and low 60s for the 2nd of November in New England, Holy Wow!  Perfect weather for a bike ride.  Dave got home from his morning flying RC planes with his buddies, we had a little lunch and off we went for a mellow pedal.  Ahhhhh....



So it wasn't totally mellow, it was mind clearing and FUN!!!  We explored a little 'peace sanctuary' off River Road in Mystic, I pointed out all the old graveyards, love them!!  I wasn't sure about taking Dave riding through them, he puts up with most of my quirks, sometimes it is best not to push the envelope, even after 16 years.   He was surprised there were so many, I don't think it is something he really pays attention to.

Sincerely, 
Beth, approaching normal!