Category Archives: Uncategorized

I will be the first to admit that I was a pretty awful blogger. I intended to keep this blog as a mini-memoir of what I’m doing, how I’m training, where I’m shooting, and how my races went. I had a busy summer with shooting weddings and training for Portland marathon. The marathon was incredible. Of course, I didn’t write a race report. I may still try to write one, but I’m sure I’ve forgotten most of the important stuff. The basics: it was a pretty hilly course. Running up to and over the St. John’s bridge was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in a race. I still PR’d with an official time of 4:36:07. It was a really neat race and an awesome city to run in. I took quite a bit of time to recover but resumed running to do a little training for the Noodleini, a 15K in De Pere. Last year, I decided to run it in the Athena category. It turns out that Athena and Clydesdale categories are sort of debated in running circles. For those of you that don’t know, Athena and Clydesdale are weight-based categories for heavier runners (compared to age group categories). I ran my hardest and amazingly took 2nd in my division. I got a trophy! It was the first time that l felt Ike I could be a competitor as a runner, and it was an unexpected feeling. There were six runners in that small division last year, and the girl that beat me had split times of 8:45. This year, I was bound and determined to beat her. Of course, I didn’t know who I was racing against, so every woman on that race course became my competition. My 2010 splits were 9:12, so it was a lofty goal, but I came in this year with a new PR of 1:22:06 and split times of 8:48. Turns out that our division had multiplied from 6 to 14, the winner was rocking 7:30 splits (at over 150 lbs… What an athlete!), and I placed 5th. I missed placing 4th by just a few seconds. Argh.
In any event, I was incredibly proud of my improvement and welcomed the offseason with open arms.
Five weeks of lots of sleep, lots of Christmas cookies, less running, more strength training, and ballroom dancing a couple times a week, and I am 8 pounds heavier but anxious to resume training. I’ve had a sore ankle for a while… I had it checked out and it appears that there is some inflammation in the joint. I’m not doing much running until this heals, but I’m finding all sorts of other things to do for a workout! 🙂
I’m currently working on picking out my spring marathon, while trying to work around an increasingly busy wedding schedule. I’ve got Grandma’s marathon in my sights up in Duluth. We’ll see! The Bock run is on the schedule in March, and the rest of the season is open and ready to be filled in.

Summer has officially arrived. Yesterday afternoon, it was 15 degrees hotter here in Central Wisconsin than it was in Miami, Florida. It seems crazy.

With summer comes a renewed sense of excitement for the upcoming months. I’m looking forward to a fun mixture of barbeques, bonfires, and baseball games.

I’m still working on my “spring cleaning” and my major annual household purge. As I dig through our unused items and repurpose them, I’m reminded that I do love living a simpler life. Buying less and making more. Eating less and moving more. My focus is turning to enjoying the life that I’m living and surrounding myself with people and places that I love.

When I’m not working at Starbucks on early mornings, I have a wonderful morning routine that I love. I wake up and take my thyroid pill first thing, then lace up my shoes, take out the pups, and go for my morning run. When I get home, I start brewing some coffee and cut up the fruit for my breakfast. While the coffee is brewing (that joyous sound!), I enjoy a little sun salutation or two. 🙂  I cherish that silent time in the kitchen with my dogs, while I make my to-do list for the day and clean up the kitchen. After a quick shower and getting dressed, I turn on the morning news and go through my business emails and begin work on photo editing. Summer has brought a new addition to my routine- watering the garden and pulling a few weeds. Every morning, I inspect every plant and look for new growth and the first signs of fruit. I sing to my plants, in the hopes that they grow strong and steady to the sky.

It is the simple things in my life, like looking forward to a morning routine, that make each day so special.

I’ve got a few things weighing on my heart and pressing in my mind. The busier I get, the more I love the thinking time that comes with a solo run. My Sunday run was amazing… I wasn’t alone, I was training with God. It might sound strange, but when the wind was pushing hard in my face, it was like a direct challenge to do better and fight for what I want. When the wind was at my back, it was as if He was helping me along, encouraging me, and not allowing the hardships of the rough, fast, long hills to drag me down. Anyway- here’s this week’s list. 🙂

1) The Biggest Loser. I have a love/hate relationship with this show. I am addicted to watching the weight loss success of the contestants on the show, and I’m so happy to see their breakthroughs. The hard times in their journey remind me that my story is not as unusual or as uncommon as I think. I’m also excited to think that the show could inspire many sedentary Americans to change their lives. My main problem with the show is that the contestants lose weight SO quickly. I can only imagine how “normal” people on a “normal” healthy weight-loss plan feel when they lose one pound in a week, but someone on the show loses twenty. Sometimes, even I feel unsuccessful when I watch the show, and I’ve kept my weight off for years! I wish that it was somehow emphasized that weight loss doesn’t usually happen that quickly, and that even small results are worth fighting for.

2) Recycled furniture. Do you remember the large harp project that Brian and I built in college? It was part of the COFAC’s Dansculpturcussion project: a collaboration between the dance department, the art/design department, and the percussion studio.  We’ve had this huge harp in our living room since we bought this house, three years ago. If you’ve ever come to visit, you’d remember it. It was really hard to get rid of it, because I was attached. It somehow symbolized all my creativity and all my good times as a college musician, and I wasn’t ready to dismantle those good memories- until I had an idea…my sweet husband built me a shelf. He took one of the boards of the harp with the piano pegs in it, and built me a shelf to hang my medals. 🙂 Now, I just need to get faster. That trophy looks lonely up there!

3)Radio Kaos. My friend, Randy, is the owner of this awesome record store here in downtown Stevens Point. He is a million times better than Pandora. When I walk in there, he immediately remembers all the CDs that I’ve bought from him, and my favorite types of music. For someone like me, that is a really diverse mix. He has recommended some incredibly amazing things for me. For example: he knows I’m in my annual bluegrass phase, and that I grew up with bands of the 90’s, and he came up with Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. It’s like a semi-bluegrassy Matchbox 20. Awesome. Plus, he let me go behind the counter and check out his turntable. I like that he listens to actual records in the store. It’s somewhat of a novelty for my twenty-something crowd. I love supporting small stores and downtown businesses, and Randy has something that is hard to find- a wealth of knowledge and the time to create meaningful relationships with his regular customers. I usually go there with my friend/mentor/kayaking partner, Bill.  We have different taste in music, but we both always leave there with a smile (and a new CD or two…).

4)Osama bin Laden. I don’t really know that I need to be making a public statement about this, but here it is. I understand that he was an evil, terrible person. He spread hatred and ill-will to many. With that said, I can only try to show the grace of God, and I am unwilling to celebrate the death of anyone. It just doesn’t feel right.

Until next time…

Run, shoot, sleep, repeat.

Here I am. I’m alive. And after you hear about my shenanigans of the past two weeks, you’ll be amazed that I’m still kicking! 🙂

My cousin, Karla, turned 30 this year. She had a really fun party up in Wausau on the 9th. Our family came out, and a lot of her roller derby girls were there. It is always nice to catch up with my extended family. We’re a crazy bunch! Karla hired her friends, Aaron Williams and the Hoodoo, to come out and play. She’s all lovey-dovey with their bass player, Z. 🙂 ❤ We love this band, they put on a good show. Karla and I went to hear them open for Los Lonely Boys last week, and they did a great job. I took some pictures of them while I was there, of course! 🙂

I also had the opportunity to meet with an old college friend, Nate. He is looking forward to running his first half marathon this fall, and we shared some training ideas. It still kind of blows my mind that I could be a resource for someone interested in endurance running. Awesome! 🙂

On the 11th, I headed to downtown Chicago for an invitation-only Starbucks Partner Event. I had the opportunity to hear our beloved ceo and president, Howard Schulz, and I left feeling totally inspired. His passion for the company and ESPECIALLY his passion for people is contagious and energizing. I love working for such an empathetic, intelligent, and perceptive person. As a business owner, I hope I can keep my passion alive and strong for years, just like Howard. On my way out, I saw Chris Medina in the hotel lobby. He played and sang at our conference, and he was waiting in the lobby after someone had stolen his cell phone. 😦 I offered to let him use mine to call it, but it was already off. Darn thieves. He was very sweet, though, even considering the circumstances, and posed for a picture with me. ❤ After the conference, I walked down Michigan Avenue and met my aunt Maureen downtown at an incredible little place called Eno. They only serve wine, cheese, and chocolate. Seriously. Amazing. I was so blessed to be able to spend some time with my aunt. We even stopped at the Ghiradelli store and I picked up some chocolate to take home to my loving hubby. ❤ My cousin, Rex, and I had an ice cream date that evening. I love that guy. 🙂

Fast forward a couple days to last Friday. Brian had logged his 40 hours as hard-working electrician, so he was home with me. We were enjoying our coffee and breakfast on the loveseat. As I was replying to emails and checking out Facebook, I saw a video re-posted of Team Hoyt. I’d seen it before, and cried my way through it. If you aren’t familiar with these amazing men, please check out their story. Anyway, I asked Brian if he wanted to watch the video. It happened to be an incredibly moving montage of one of their Ironman competitions, set to “My Redeemer Lives.” Before we knew it, we were both sobbing into our morning coffee. What an amazing story. 🙂

A few Kleenex, a good hug, and I gathered myself back into the smiley girl that you all know; my phone rang. A running friend of mine from my Wednesday night group, Margaret, has a foot injury. She was going to try to walk the Oshkosh 1/2 marathon on Saturday, but decided against it, and offered me her bib for the next day. Of course, I couldn’t turn it down. I was three weeks post-DC-marathon, and I was ready for a race success. And so began the crazy weekend of travels….

…On Friday night, we packed up ourselves, our weekend travel gear, and our puppies, and headed to New London. We spent the night in New London at my mother-in-law’s (Jean’s) home, so we’d be closer to the Oshkosh starting line for the 7:30 am gun on Saturday. Race morning brought rain, wind, and all around nastiness. Brian, as sweet as he is, got up early with me and drove me to the race start for check-in. I got my bib (well, technically, I got Margaret’s bib), and we headed over to a little coffee shop within walking distance. It was the first race that I’ve run where I could just relax and enjoy myself. I usually get pretty nervous beforehand, so it was really nice to be able to drink my coffee and relax. My friends, Kim and Mary, were also running the race, and my coach, Nancy, was there to cheer us all on. Despite the weather, I really focused in and got in the zone. I started slow, because I wasn’t sure how my body would react to another race so close to the marathon. I was feeling pretty good, so I dialed up the pace. I hadn’t even realized how cold it was until I crossed the finish line… setting a new PR of 2:05:33. Once I crossed and got my bearings, I found Brian, and the chill started to set in. I grabbed a cup of hot chicken broth from the race tent, and we hopped right in the warm car. We stopped at the Starbucks right off 41 there in Oshkosh, and I changed into my warm and dry post-race clothes and got a smoothie with extra protein. Gotta refuel those muscles! 🙂 By the time we got back to Jean’s house, I was shaking and freezing. Brian poured me into bed under lots of blankets with a “wheat-and-heat,” and we waited a few hours for my core temperature to come back up. One short nap and a good lunch later, and I was dressed and ready to hit the road. We headed down to Madison for my aunt Tina’s annual end-of-tax-season party. She’s an accountant, so this time of year is a great time for a party. We made a quick stop at Whole Foods to get my favorite post-race treat: Super Stars- a delicious star-shaped gummy candy that melts my heart. When we got to the party, our ears were happily filled with the sounds of West Side Andy, Mel Ford, and Barrelhouse Chuck. We got to spend some time with the Madison crew: Tina, Prissy, Bryan, baby Nathan, Jen, Shannon, Justin, and many more. We also got to hang out with Karla and Z and my aunt and uncle, Lisa and Paul. Brian sat in with the band on tenor sax, and Z filled in on bass. It was a lot of fun, and we hated to leave, but we rolled out right around 11 pm. When we got home, we crashed pretty hard, and the 6 am alarm clock came awfully early! Our friend, Amanda, was on her way to pick us up (in her new car!) for the Minneapolis bridal shower of the lovely Melissa Arves. Amanda and I joined the lovely ladies for a shower thrown by Mo’s sister, Kayla, and Brian went over to hang out with Curtis for the afternoon. The shower was beautiful, the food was delicious, and my FAVORITE game involved 26 unnamed kitchen spices/ingredients that we needed to identify. It reminded me that I need to brush up on my cooking, and expand my horizons! Coriander seeds…. what do you even use those for? Poultry? 🙂 It was very hard to leave the shower, especially a short 2.5 hours after we arrived, but we needed to get back to Point, so we could leave for New London. What?! Yeah. Jean was hosting Easter dinner for Brian’s siblings and their spouses and kids. I think we’re going to make Palm Sunday dinner the new “Easter” for that side of the family. Then we can hopefully see everyone each spring! We were late to dinner, but we were still able to visit and play with our adorable nephews, Ian and Reid. We stayed a little late in the evening, ate too many jellybeans, and once again, hated to leave… but we scooped up the pups and headed home to Point.

Point->New London->Oshkosh->New London->Madison->Point->Minneapolis->Point->New London->Point. I think we were crazy, but the whole weekend was a lot of fun.

In other news of the past two weeks: Brian got a new car! It’s technically not new, but it’s new to us. My coach, Nancy, bought a new car, and she needed to find a home for her old Saturn, Emma. We took Emma and and she is making herself right at home. Sorry, dear Jeep….. but you’re sick, and you aren’t very good with gas mileage. We love you, and we love being Jeep people, but for now, the Saturn will be taking your place.

We also got rid of cable. Charter Communications: you’re just not cutting it with us. Amazingly, though, we now have Universal Sports. I don’t know if everyone does, or what the deal is, but I’m the happiest girl in the world. I got to catch the details of the Boston Marathon, and I’m opening my eyes to other amazing sports. In the past few days, I’ve convinced myself that I need to learn to paddleboard (which I’ve always wanted to), surf, build a wooden kayak and paddle from Alaska to Seattle, and ride a tandem bike across the country with individuals with disabilities. This “Adventure April” is really getting to me. 🙂

I’m not exactly sure yet how to get my photos embedded in this post, so I hope you can make do with a jumble of the past two weeks.

The last few days have been quite wonderful for my soul.

The temperature has been climbing, and the sunshine has been peeking out more and more. As the snow melts away, so does my anxiety about the winter months. My little herb garden has started to sprout; I can’t help but smile when I see the little chives and sweet basil starting to peek out from underneath the dirt.

I was able to catch lunch with my good friend Kimmy yesterday. We went to one of our favorite places here in Stevens Point, Cafe 27. Kimmy has all sorts of food allergies (poor girl!) but Cafe 27 has a bunch of vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options. Plus, they have great food! I picked their salad trio, which has a few salads made with some of my favorite things- different grains and vegetables mixed together. Kimmy was one of my very first running friends to encourage me in my crazy endurance journey, and I’m continually amazed by the progress that she makes. She’s so inspiring! 🙂

The river is thawing out, making paddling a little easier. I went out for the second time yesterday afternoon, and was able to paddle around quite a bit! I spied a Current Designs boat in the water from across the river, so I paddled over to say “hi.” I met Ken, an avid paddler/nature enthusiast and a darn nice guy. I’ll keep an eye out for his green hatchback when I’m putting in by my house! During this time of year, the river is flowing quickly, with new currents and water patterns. The river isn’t open enough for any motorized watercraft, and only the daring paddlers break through the ice to dip their paddles in for the first times in the season. The wildlife is quite vocal- especially those darn geese! I swear, one goose can make enough noise to scare me off. I think they’ve been spoiled by the winter months, and the peace and quiet that comes with the colder temperatures.  The little joys of being a paddler always surprise me early in the season… the peaceful power I demonstrate by loading my own boat… the droplets of water on my windshield after I load a wet boat… admiring my scraped up Valley logo on the side of my Avocet. Fun times have been had, and I hope that this season brings even more adventures. ❤

If you’ve read my previous posts, you know all about my second marathon experience. I’ve been looking at my summer photo and running schedule, and trying to define my goals just a little more clearly, so I can pull off being both an accomplished artist and athlete this summer. 🙂

My next scheduled shoots in April are a whirlwind of fly-fishing shots in Northern Wisconsin, a series of four engagement portraits, and possibly some fun concert stuff. My next race is the Green Bay Half Marathon on May 15th. I’m watching April’s calendar fill up so quickly, and struggling to balance business with pleasure…

Ha. Pleasure. Pleasure=Running. On days like today, where I was able to measure how awesome my run was by how sick I felt at the end, it just seems so funny that I like to run for pleasure. 🙂 I remember when I liked to eat candy and suntan for pleasure.

…anyway… I’m working on a plan for speed for Green Bay. I’m ready for a PR! I will be adding a lot more hill training this summer, after my experience in DC and planning ahead for Portland. 🙂 Today’s training run was intervals. After my last real run, the marathon, I had a crazy mess of emotions swirling in my head. I am incredibly proud that I finished the race under such tribulation, but a big part of me is disappointed that I wasn’t able to rock out a solid race, a better time, and a more graceful finish. Due to this, I headed in to the gym with serious resolve. I raced myself to four miles, and did it in 34:11. That’s 35 seconds faster than I’ve run that particular distance in the past. I’m not sure if it’s because of my “fresh” legs, or my determined focus, but I held off the nausea in the last half mile. I wasn’t about to let myself down again. Plus, I came up with the title of my book this morning. I didn’t start writing it yet, but I’m sure I’ll write it one day! It will be called “From Fat to Fast: A Formerly Chubby Girl’s Triumph.” I can’t use that title if I haven’t gotten fast, and the only way to get there is to try! 🙂

It was bright and early, on Saturday, March 26th, 2011. Five am, and I was hitting the road to get from Virginia, where I’m staying, to the Washington, D.C. Armory for the start of the race. I had my museli in a cup, coffee for the road, and all of my race gear that I’d spread out the night before.

As I got on the toll road to DC, I spent my last seventy-five cents in change on the tollbooth, because there was no attendant at that time of day.  I was hoping I wouldn’t need change for anything else! Of course, in my somewhat sleepy state, and trying to follow my GPS, I got confused by some construction, and before I knew it, I saw signs indicating I was on my way to Baltimore. Awesome. Luckily for me, my GPS recalculated, and got me back on track, not losing any time! I ended up taking the George Washington Memorial Parkway. Even in the dark, it was a beautiful drive. The roads were winding through little forests with the Potomac River on one side; downtown DC was lit up against the dark sky. That little detour was strong medicine for my anxious mind. As I got closer to the Armory, the traffic got worse and worse. I waited at one stoplight downtown for so long: red… green, yellow, red… green, yellow, red… green, yellow, red… green, yellow, red… green, yellow, red… I kept thinking about relaxing my body and taking deep breaths. Eventually, I swerved around the car in front of me and took an uncharted route to the Armory. It turns out that I’d found one of the roads that leads directly to the Armory. Great! 🙂

As I sat in that (also) unmoving line of traffic, I noticed that there was a parking space on the street next to where I was waiting. I rolled down my window and talked to the guys parked in front of that spot. I needed to know if it was legal to park there. Turns out, the sign only prohibits parking there Monday- Friday, and during events at RFK Stadium. Well, technically the marathon was taking place at the Armory, even though we were supposed to be parking in RFK lots. It was about six o’clock, and I was probably about 3/4 mile from the Armory, so I decided to risk it and park there. I spent a few minutes gathering my gear, writing my split time goals on my hand, and making sure the car was locked. (My rental car doesn’t have automatic locks, windows, or cruise control!)

There were a lot of runners heading toward the Armory, so I joined the crowd as we walked on the very uneven sidewalks in the darkness. As I neared the Armory, I remembered to check the street name so I could find my car after the race. East Capitol. East Capitol. I kept repeating it in my head, wondering if I should make a note in my iPhone. I couldn’t forget that street name, could I? Wouldn’t that have been a nightmare?! The girl next to me distracted me from my thoughts and started talking to me about my race experience. She was signed up for the first five mile leg of a half-marathon relay. She thought I was pretty cool to be doing the full marathon. 🙂 As we walked together into the Armory, we saw the line. You know, the bathroom line. It looked to have about one hundred people in line before us! As I checked my phone for the time, and started doing the math, I was getting a little worried that we wouldn’t make the starting corrals in time. We started talking about the odds of us making it, and another girl came up to us in line. She gave us the ultimate race day secret: a secret bathroom in the back of the Armory. Through a curtain, up some dirty stairs, and into a mens’ room with no door. It didn’t matter- we had just won the race day lottery. A few minutes later, and accidentally walking out of my stall to see two men at the urinals, we were on our way to red corral number nine. It was a chilly 34 degrees, and the sky was starting to change colors, but the sun hadn’t risen yet. We met a few people from the Midwest, including a girl from Milwaukee.

At 7:00 on the dot, the gun went off. At 7:03, the sun came up. At 7:18, I crossed the start line, and began the hardest race of my life. The first five miles were great. My pacing was perfect, the course was beautiful, and the sun was shining on me.  Upon the arrival of mile six, I discovered The Hill. Graham and Kelly warned me about it, so I knew that it was coming. However, I wasn’t expecting a seriously long (one and a half mile!!) hill. Just when I finally got to the top, the road turned, and there was more hill waiting for me. Teasing me, taunting me. “So now what? Walk? Are you going to try and keep up your pace while climbing me? Seriously, girl… who do you think you are. You might want to give up.” Of course, I didn’t give up. I just made a mental note to add more hill training to my schedule this summer. I did, however, have a wonderfully delusional moment. A relay runner was in front of me, and I saw the bib on the back of her shirt. I thought it said “RELAX,” and I thought, what a nice gesture. It’s so true! Of course, her bib said, “RELAY.” Either way, I got a nice little benefit, and a chuckle.  There were a nice couple miles along the water, and before I knew it, we were at the halfway point, back at the Armory. Most of the race was on some sort of a hill, either a long, slow upward slope, or a slow downward slope. When I hit the 13.1 mile mark, I stripped off my fleece outer layer and my mittens, tying the mittens into the double knot around my waist. I really didn’t want to carry that for the entire race, but I love that shirt too much to throw it away. Luckily for me, the second half of the marathon took us on EAST CAPITOL street. Bonus!! As we raced down the street, I planned to run up to my car, toss the shirt and gloves into the wheel well, and continue my race happily unrestrained. I was running, and looking, and running, and looking, and pretty soon, we were at the end of the street, and the race course was turning. I hadn’t seen my car! I tried not to panic as I stopped running and grabbed the attention of one of the police officers guarding the side streets. “Excuse me, can I park here?” I asked. He questioned me, “Right NOW??” It was funny, I thought. “No, I’m running a race right now. I mean… I parked here earlier, but didn’t see my car as  I ran by.” He explained that it was legal to park there, and they hadn’t towed anyone. That didn’t ease my worried soul, not one bit. Not only was I stuck with my clothes, I didn’t know where my car was. I focused on the race, on my pace, on the even turnover of my feet, on my breathing. Anything to not think about the car, or the hills.

Miles 14, 15, 16, 17… pretty uneventful. I tried to act experienced, to reassure myself that I’ve trained for marathons, I know what I’m doing. I know what’s coming, I can handle it. I can handle anything! I know that .01% of people have run a marathon. I pondered the percentage of people that run one and cross it off their “bucket list,” versus the percentage that run one, reflect, and decide to try it again and do better. I kept thinking that I can do better than my last time of 4:46. I deserve better than that.

Then? Mile 18. All of a sudden, I couldn’t distract myself with the seafood places on the water or the historical area. All I could do was take deep breaths to distract myself from the cramp in my left hamstring that was shooting up into my butt. My self talk began, “Keep breathing. Don’t worry, it’s probably only temporary. Try to breathe and imagine that air relaxing those muscles.” I struggled through until mile 20. When my right calf muscles starting tying themselves in knots, and sending shooting pain down into my right ankle, I almost lost it. I kept telling myself that I couldn’t cry until I crossed the finish line. My carefully paced run slowed to a jog. Which slowed to a power walk. Then I gathered the courage to start to jog again, and fought through the pain until the cramping forced me to walk again. Miles 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25… It was all one long game of me fighting back tears, trying to run, checking my Garmin, and watching my dreams of a 4:20 finish fade into the distance. Then watching 4:25 fade away. Being passed by the 4:30 pace group, who continued their laughing and smiling, carrying their balloon- totally oblivious to my serious internal battle. I passed a very sweet woman who cheered loudly for us all, reassuring us that a finish under 5 hours was steadily and certainly in our grasp. I passed three drumlines with dancers, which allowed me to spend a short time reminiscing about my days as baby bass drum in high school. (Oh, the good times!) That memory carried me through a half mile with a smile, at least. By some sort of miracle, my iPhone playlist shuffle interjected the perfect song for me at mile 25. I couldn’t have prayed for a better song: A Little More Fight, by my friend Dan Mitchell. I have no idea what he wrote it about, but it was perfect at the time. A lyric sample…

…so the walls I’ve built are crumbling

my fortress has been breached

yeah, but this white flag doesn’t fly that easily

I may be all used up and broken down

You won’t hear me plead, no, no, no…

‘Cause I’ll just dig in deep

and find a little more fight left in me.

Let me be the first to tell you

I’m as human as the rest.

Sometimes I need to find my worst

before I can find my best!

So the walls I’ve built are crumbling

my fortress has been breached

yeah, but this white flag doesn’t fly that easily

I may be all used up and broken down

You won’t hear me plead, no, no, no…

I’ll just dig in deep

and find a little more fight left in me.

And I cannot always be

the one who sets the pace

But you will never see me drop out of a race.

…and you won’t see me drop out of a race. I tried to run the last 3/4 of a mile in the race, even though it was a strong upward slope. I walked some, and jogged some. I cried my way across the finish line. A lady handed me my metal, and a medical staffer gave me water. Then gave me a second look. Then gently took my arm and walked me to the medical tent.

The next thing that I know for sure is that I was hearing the doctor through a tunnel, and seeing black spots. I guess I was dehydrated, although I don’t know how that could have happened. They hooked me up to an IV and gave me two bags of IV fluids. Two bags of room temperature (well, outside tent temperature) liquid added to my body gave me a serious chill. They packed on the mylar balloon blankets and tried to keep me comfortable.  As I started to feel better and become more aware of my surroundings, I was urgently concerned with the fact that my legs weren’t moving. I know that walking for a while after the race is important. I walked roughly 50 yards before I was laying down on a cot with an IV. A lady came over with some serious Bengay stuff and starting massaging it into my legs right through my running tights. I looked at her and said, “I just met you, but I have a love/hate relationship with you. I love you for doing this, but that really HURTS!” The medical staff stopped worrying and knew that I was going to be just fine.

By the time I’d gotten all my fluids, ate a banana, and drank some water, they were ready to release me. As I exited the medical tent, I realized that there was no one left.  Since the streets of downtown DC need to be closed for the race, they had qualifying time requirements. I think 5:30 was the longest they expected it to take anyone to run the race. Between the 18 minutes it took me to cross the line, and my official finishing time of 5:01:04, there was no one left…

…AND I couldn’t find my car. I clomped my post-race lead-feeling legs up to a policeman on the corner near the Armory and explained my situation. He drove down the street and came back a few minutes later. “I found your car.” Turns out, it was about 10 blocks down. In the dark and in my pre-race mindset, I didn’t realize how far I’d walked. The police officer gave me a ride to my car, bless his heart. He looked me straight in the eye and said, “Please tell me you didn’t fly here all the way from Wisconsin to run 26 miles.”

My reply? “Actually, it’s 26.2. And I surely did.” 🙂 He smiled, watched me get into my car, and drove off.

This race was the hardest mental and physical challenge that I’ve had so far in my 25 years of existence. It really is a special kind of person who takes on this challenge, and emerges on the other side a stronger and more passionate person. I cannot wait until Portland Marathon, in October. I want to do better. And besides, “Sometimes I need to find my worst before I can find my best.” 🙂

And it’s just begun! I’m in DC for the National Marathon, which I’ll be running tomorrow. For some reason, when I was looking at spring marathons and chose this one, I decided it would be a great idea to go on a solo adventure. Of course, I’m all about “girl power” and being an independent woman (thanks, Mom!), but there are some things that are really hard to do on your own. Let me start with this story, from the beginning…

Brian sweetly helped me finish my last minute packing, brushed off the car, and helped dig us out yesterday morning. We were on the road at five am, just like we’d planned. The roads weren’t terrible, so after a quick stop at Kwik Trip for cash and cottage cheese with pineapple (yum), we were at CWA by 5:30. Since my flight wasn’t scheduled to leave until 7:05, we were there with plenty of time. Then Delta made an announcement: they had overbooked my flight, and were willing to give a $400 credit, lunch voucher, and free bag check to anyone who would be willing to hop on their shuttle to MSP. Since it wasn’t even 6:00 yet, and my connecting flight out of MSP wasn’t scheduled to leave until 10:45, I thought, sure, I can make this work. They said they’d hook me up with the Skycap, and they’d rush me through bag check and security, so I could make my flight, and still arrive at Dulles on time. So it was a win-win: the mother and son on that flight could make it to their hockey tournament, and I would have $400 to put toward the trip for Portland Marathon in October.

Except… the shuttle driver was two hours late. And the windshield wipers kept freezing, so he had to pull over to clean them off. I totally missed my flight. There is some good news, though. It turns out that I was SO tired- I slept through the ENTIRE three and a half hour drive to MSP. I wouldn’t have been able to do that on those tiny, noisy, cold prop planes that fly out of CWA. And Delta was able to book me on a later flight that got in me to Dulles only four hours late. So, despite the fiasco, I made it here on the same day as planned. My rental car was ready and waiting, a cute little red Aveo. Maybe I should have rented a really fast car, to get me in the mood for Saturday.  Speaking of the car…

I already got a parking ticket. I went to the Armory this morning, to pick up my bib, chip and other stuff, and the traffic was disgusting. Something about DC traffic is very different than Chicago traffic, and I was totally out of my element. I drove around that darn building, reaching a top speed of 5 mph, and there was no parking anywhere NEAR the main doors. My left hip is a little achy, and I was on my feet this morning (more about that later), so I was trying to spend less time on my feet walking and more time resting. So when I saw a row of cars parked in front of the Armory, and a man in a Jeep backing out, I thought, “Great!” So I shimmied that little Aveo into the spot and ran inside. Of course, I forgot my signed waiver on my bed at Graham’s house, so after waiting for a long time in the line to get my bib, the lady at the front sent me off to another line to go get a spare waiver, and I had to wait in that line again. As I was waiting, I was thinking about that parking spot, and thinking it might just be too good to be true. So I didn’t look through the expo at all (not even at those CUTE headbands) and I forgot to grab a course map as I ran out the exit to move my car. There, flapping in the breeze, was a pink ticket tucked nicely under my windshield wiper. Well, I was pretty sad, and mad, and most of all, nervous about tomorrow. So I just jumped in the car and started to pull out. Of course, I stopped, and told the man pulling in that spot not to do it… wish the Jeep guy had told me. I drove around some more, trying to find the place that we were supposed to park, so I’ll be able to find it tomorrow morning, anyway. I found it, about a half mile away from where I had originally parked. I debated about going back inside to look at the expo, but it seemed so far away, plus I had to cross all that crazy traffic, and I just decided to head back to Graham’s house.

I’m not sure if it’s the traveling alone part, or the recovering from sickness part, or just general anxiety about the race, but this smiley girl is feeling TOTALLY out of her element. I’m willing to bet it’s mostly nerves. A PR of 4:20 is a lofty goal from my last marathon of 4:45. And I am certainly building character by attempting to do this on my own. I better say a few prayers, drink some more water, and put on my Zenzahs.

A chocolate bar and a sandwich later, and I feel a little better. In fact, I’m going to lay down for my afternoon pre-race nap, and try to shake this funk before tomorrow. 🙂

I’m near the end of my taper before my marathon in DC. I’ve also come down with a nasty chest cold. Last night, I was entering full-blown panic mode about it. I don’t think that running a marathon is smart with chest congestion of any kind. So of course, I’m in a mad rush to heal myself and get back to my healthy, normal, runner self.

I’ve tried everything I can think of. Rest and fluids, of course. Vapo-rub on my chest at night. Homemade soup, apple cider vinegar, vitamins, Emergen-C, cayenne pepper, tea with lemon and honey, garlic…

I’m heading over to the sauna right now. I can’t imagine that anyone will want to be near me as it is, especially not when I start sweating out all my “natural remedies!”

I’m keeping myself physically and mentally busy with trip planning. The Virgo in me is an incessant list maker: to do before DC, to pick up in DC, packing list, goal split times #1, goal split times #2… and I’m wishing that I was feeling well enough to enjoy a last run or two before the trip. Oh, well!