Back off man, I'm a scientist.

Holy crap. Less than three weeks.

2012-02-13T16:16:00.002-06:00

My time here is Seattle is rapidly coming to a close. I actually haven't been running lately outside (I do intervals on the treadmill after doing weights at the gym) because I have been trying to squeeze in as much playing in the snow as possible before moving to Ireland!

Skate skiing surely has to be an adequate running replacement! Seriously, I find skate skiing to be way harder than running, both from a cardio standpoint and a muscle strength standpoint. Of course, I look as graceful as these skiers!

I do have one last trail race near Seattle before I head off. I am signed up for the 20 miler, but I think I shall be dropping back to the 5 miler. Weak! To answer Bertie's question - I'm actually stalled out at 55 minutes since I haven't been running. Tomorrow! I swear! If anything, I need to get a few more runs in my favorite places in Seattle before I go as well!

55 minutes

2012-01-26T14:39:00.001-06:00

That's how long my next long run should be. This whole "10%/week" things is lame. So next time I have to run 61 minutes? And if you start from zero, how do you increase at all? 10% of 0 is... 0.

But I shall be running none of that this weekend, as I shall be gallivanting in Whistler! Yay snow! I'm trying to smush in as much snow as possible before Ireland, as that is one thing Ireland is sorely lacking in.

ZOMG, Ireland! I have exactly 21 full days left in Seattle. I will be gone for 13 days in February. Nuts! So much to do! So little time!

Mysterious Pelvic Injuries

2011-12-23T12:47:00.001-06:00

The area between my pelvis and right leg is hurting. A lot. It doesn't feel quite like the hip flexor, but it doesn't feel like my groin either. All I know is that I am limping all over the place. I ran less than 2 miles yesterday and it is one big hobble fest today.

In good news, I am trapped in the woods in Vermont and running from our house has two options: Up a big hill and then turn around and go down or Down a big hill and turn around and go up. So I don't love running here anyway. (So the hill doesn't look so bad in the photos, but it is uphill for miles and miles and miles without any true flats, so it wears on you. And add the snow.)

We have snow here at least! Yay for white Christmas! I hope you all have a good one, while I sit on the couch and have my mom bring me breakfast. I love my mom.

Dublin 2012!

2011-12-12T21:35:00.001-06:00

Hotel rooms are booked. Dublin 2012! Good times! We'll return later to the question of if I really want to run another marathon...

In other news, we rented this cabin by Mount Rainier for New Year's Eve. You have to ski or snowshoe in (or bribe the ski patrol to bring you up on that stylin' snowmobile). It sleeps 14. Party time! Of course, we do have to haul in all the booze ourselves...

Sinister Minister!

2011-10-28T16:33:00.001-05:00

Oh my, how did I forget! Team BOMIAS also did a trail relay in Alberta this summer (the Sinister 7)! I had to run 8 miles downhill in the dark being chased by bears and cougars. Even with my huge ass head lamp, it was hard to see and so running was really hard. My hands were cut up from falling and where I had to essentially shuffle down steep banks into creeks because the gravel was so loose that it was hard to get footing.

But it was good times! The race was really well done and we had a blast. Some random Canadian let us stay at their house for free and he slept in his camper. Oh Canada! You're so sweet.

The year in review

2011-10-28T14:27:00.000-05:00

Since Glaven needs a place to make suggestive comments in response to my comments on his blog, I thought I would pop in and give an update. It's been over a year, so I imagine approximately three people will read this, but hey! I'm procrastinating!

So I ran Berlin and then proceeded to do nothing for a long time.

Then I signed up for the Avenue of the Giants Marathon with some Iowa friends, got really sick in February (woah, vertigo!) lost all my fitness, but ran the half anyway, despite having a long run of 2 miles. Gorgeous course. The half is totally PR material. I recommend it whole-heartedly.

I organized a team for the Epic Prelay from Portland to Eugene. It was a gorgeous course. I can't recommend running in Oregon enough.

I was going to do the Ragnar Pacific Northwest Relay, but on short notice I got flown to Australia for an interview (for a job I didn't get, but free trip to Australia!).

Here I will gently suggest that you avoid doing Ragnar races in the future. As a relay veteran, I have done two Ragnars and many independently run relays. If you haven't heard, they started a new relay in Colorado, which runs the course of a long standing relay (simply named The Colorado Relay) in reverse. In fact, the Ragnar race organizer was given a free entry by The Colorado Relay as a courtesy, ran the race, and then a week later began the plans to poach the course.

My Ragnar experiences do not trump my independent experiences in terms of organization or support (in fact, Ragnar's Great River Relay has been my worst experience), so this is not a case of the better man winning, simply bullying by a larger organization. There is room for other relays in Colorado (Epic has a new one as well - they developed a unique route and picked a weekend that doesn't overlap with the long established weekends of other races in Colorado). So on principle, I will not be organizing any more Ragnar teams. There are plenty of great races out there without the Ragnar label, so go do those!

Sorry for the diversion! Anyway, it is all moot, since I am moving to Ireland! So I am guessing there will be no relay for me in the near future, but Dublin Marathon 2012? Anyone?

Also, I'm wearing the German chicken hat today for an office Halloween party. Best hat ever!

Hmm... currywurst...

2010-10-02T16:58:00.003-05:00

So... The Berlin Marathon...

It was a lot of fun! I think not training very hard makes the whole thing more enjoyable since there was no performance pressure. And I PRed anyway!

Hanging out in Berlin before the race, I drank lots of beer, ate many pastries from the bakery on Lisa's block, and had some German food, which is mainly meat and potatoes in some form or other - It was goooood! I think I broke every pre-marathon eating rule.

Lisa lives in Berlin, so I ran the race with her and her mom. Although we really only ran the first 12 miles together or so, since I had to stop to use the portapotty and then I lost them.

I only walked through the water stops. That was my main goal - to not walk this time. I figured that if I met that goal, that I would probably PR.

The weather was rainy. That wasn't fun. But much better than the heat!

Other highlights:

*Germans are totally line cutters, which makes the portapotty line miserable.

*This was the first race ever where I had to use the portapotty in the middle of the race. I am so glad I finished in 5:11 and not 5:03 or something, or else I would have been kicking myself for the portapotty minutes.

*I only did two runs longer than 14 miles - a 15 miler and a 20 miler. So I was ready for the collapse at mile 18 or so. But by then you are so close, you have to finish!

*It was marked all in kilometers. Thank God for Garmin. Too bad Garmin was a half mile off by the end. (And I even got a new one! Not the old crappy one I had!)

*We ran past lots of historic things of which I have no recollection. This is argument number one against destination marathons - the city is a blur.

*I do remember running through the Brandenburg Gate. That was about half a kiometer from the end, but the way it was described by the race, it sounded like the end, so I totally sprinted through the gate only to see the finish line in the distance. That was brutal. But running through the gate was cool. And there spectators for the last km, even for us slow folks.

*My last 2k were the fastest splits I had all day. Nothing like wanting to finish to get the job done!

*After the race, despite there being a changing tent, everyone just got naked on the grass near the Reichstag and changed there. Oh the Germans! We all would have been arrested for indecent exposure in the US.

*The rain made for some major chafiness. My tank top chafed at the arms holes, by belt thing I put blox in chafed around my stomach, my running skirt chafed in all sorts of unmentionable places that made walking miserable.

*It's a lot of fun to run these big races! All the people makes it more enjoyable. I am thinking of doing Chicago next year.

Er, that's it! I'm off to do an easy 7 miler before I head to Hawaii tomorrow for a conference. Life is rough. I know.

Hellloooo oooutttt tthhheerrreee

2010-09-14T14:37:00.002-05:00

People, this summer has been nuts. Since my last post, it has been one marathon-training destroying weekend after another. I can't even recap it all, so here is the brief summary:

7/17-7/18 Seattle To Portland. Me and my bike and 205 miles and 10000 of my closest friends. We split it 135/70 and that 135 was tough. I did one century ride in training. Skipped my long run that weekend.

7/23-7/24 (yes, six days later) Ragnar Northwest Passage Relay. My friend Genn recruited me at the last minute for her relay team, which is also entirely composed of scientists. Genome scientists to boot, so I was totally the odd man out. I got the easiest legs (4,4,3) and I hauled ass, running them at a 9:30, 9:10, and 9:20 paces respectively. Van 1 is totally easier than Van 2. I didn't know what I was missing! I was supposed to run 14 miles the day after, but I only managed to squeeze out 12 - long run destroyed again.

8/1 (yes, one week after that) Troika Half-Ironman. I signed up on a whim the day before Seattle to Portland. I figured I was doing all this biking and running, I might as well just do it.

I did one 1.2 mile swim for training, along with a few dips to get used to my wet suit. It was a small race, so I was one of the last people out of the water (in 50 minutes or so).

I brought out Aqua Velva for this race. I had done one 20 mile ride on her this whole season, then I raced her 56. She held up and I caught several people and finished in about 3:25 (16.5 mph or so).

My only real goal was to finish under 7 hours. I got off the bike at 4:25 so I had 2:35 for the half marathon. It was doable, but I knew I couldn't walk. So I trudged through it in the heat, stopping at every water stop. I still didn't get enough down (I didn't finish my water in my Camelback on the bike, so I went in low). By mile 10 I had chills and I was beginning to wheeze (didn't bring my inhaler). I told myself I had to do this all again if I didn't get under 7 hours, so I kept going. At mile 12, the volunteer at the water stop started running with me to ask me if I was feeling okay. I told him there was no way in hell I was stopping with 1.1 miles to go, so I wasn't going to tell him the truth.

I came in at 6:56 and was immediately swept into the med tent, mostly because I had sprinted to the end and I was wheezing really badly, but then they realized that I was covered in goose bumps so they wouldn't let me leave until I had sat and hydrated.

Needless to say, I missed my long run that weekend as well. But I am not sure when I will ever be in this biking condition again, so I decided that the Half-IM goal was more important than a good marathon.

8/13-8/14 (wow, a whole two week break!) Spokane to Sandpoint Relay. We had a last minute drop out, so the team was reshuffled and I ended up with harder legs than intended. My first 8 miler was hot and hilly and kinda sucked. The second 4 mile leg was still hot (despite it being almost sunset) and kinda sucked too. The last 3 mile leg was one of those pure bliss nighttime relay legs. I had a sweet downhill for the last half mile as well and pulled out an 8:59 pace on that leg. Our team was speedy and came in 9/56 in our division and 17/100-something overall. The roller coaster in the middle of the night was pretty freakin' awesome. What was not awesome was that a bike escort got killed by a drunk driver during the relay. I feel kind of remiss for not doing a real race report on this, but honestly, it was a month ago and I barely remember shit anymore.

Missed my long run that weekend as well. I got back from the relay and the next morning flew out for my first ever faculty interview. I was working on my talks on our breaks during the relay. Good times!

Exhale. I have been home since and managed to do some of my marathon long runs. I did 15 the weekend after the relay. I was supposed to do 18, but my hip flexor acted up and I started limping. I think my body was just yelling at me "You need to take a freakin' break!" Never one to actually listen to my body, the next weekend I jumped 5 miles to 20 miles. It was slow, but I got it done with no weird aches and pains. Then I have been tapering. And by tapering, I mean no runs more than 7 miles. Despite the fact that my horoscope says that 9/23 +/- 4 days will be good good for athletic achievement, I don't care at all about this marathon. I'm going to go to Berlin, have fun with Lisa, and run this race with her. If she is in better condition than me (and I think she is, but she has had a crazy training period as well), then I will send her off into her first marathon glory without me.

In other news, I beat my 10k PR by almost 3 minutes on Sunday, coming in at 58:25. I was pretty ecstatic about that. I didn't even want to die at the end. My short run times have really gotten faster recently (I usually run about 9:30s-9:45s comfortably instead of 10s these days), so I think after this marathon business, I am going to focus on getting sub-27 on my 5k. Me and the track will become friends.

In other other news, Team BOMIAS has been challenged again by Girls Heart Rockets to the Sinister 7 in Alberta next July. Registration fills by January, so I am trying to find 6 other souls to do this with me! Let me know if you are interested. The logo alone is awesome!

Pretty soon I will start planning for the next relay season. I am thinking that since recruiting in the PNW is so easy, that I am definitely going to stick with PNW race. That leaves two races at two very different times of year. If you want to do either one of these, let me know! I will pick one or the other (probably by a vote) at the beginning of next year.

6.17-18.2011

Oregon Prelay

Tualatin, OR

177 mi

8.5-6.2011

Cascade Lakes Relay

Diamond Lake, OR

216 mi

Okay, time to do some work. I'll try and post more regularly, but life is a lot less boring here than in Iowa.

Lake Padden Tri Race Report

2010-06-29T13:53:00.004-05:00

ETA: This happened about 10 days ago, but I have been slow to update. One of our faithful readers and commenters, Wendy Buckner, passed away after doing a sea swim. I didn't know Wendy personally, just through many email exchanges over the years now. I consider her a friend and she will be missed.

Well this was my first race back on the tri scene in two years. The race was a half-mile swim, 21 mile bike, and 5.2 mile run. So the swim was more sprintish, but the bike and the run were closer to Olympic distance.

SWIM (1/2 mile in 17 minutes)

The swim took place in this pretty little lake. Everyone's opinion was that the half mile swim was short, which is fine by me! The water actually wasn't that bad - I think our "heat wave" last week warmed the water up to 65 or so. I could have done it without the wetsuit if necessary, but it was good practice. On the other hand, I was totally one of those 3 minute transitioners because of the wetsuit. Normally I am under two minutes, but I took my sweet precious time. I wasn't racing this all that hard, as they only gave out awards for the top three men and women, so I wasn't even close to being in the running. It's amazing the effort I'll expend when I might win some bling :-)

BIKE (21 miles in 1:24 - really? really?)

The bike... was disheartening. I'm usually best at the bike and pass a crapload of people, but it was hilly. I was warned though. I was looking at my Garmin afterwards and I had several miles where I wasn't even hitting 10 mph on average for the mile and several miles where I was averaging 25 mph. But it was a pretty bike ride. And I didn't fall over on my bike on the last hill like I was afraid of doing. I saw a girl do this once on the Hill of Death at the Cornman and ever since, I have been petrified of doing the same!

RUN (5.2 miles in 53 minutes)

The run was a trail run on the above trails, which was a nice change. The run was quite nice. I wasn't a huge fan of the two loop course because I got passed a lot on the first loop by people who were on their second loop. But by the second loop I knew who I should chase down and did the second loop a minute faster. The trails were pretty though!

SUMMARY

The best part though was starting a race with temps in the 50s and ending in the 60s. Back in the midwest, by the time you were on the run, it was in the 80s. My first Olympic distance race (Big Creek) I crossed the finish line and they yelled "She's dry!" and hauled me into the ambulance because I was apparently no longer sweating.

My friend won the women's division. My bike time was my worst performance (back in the midwest I typically did Olympic distance races (25 miles) in the same time I did 21 miles on saturday AND I wasn't riding 50-80 miles every weekend back there). I came in at 2:41 total.

I did win a door prize too - a t-shirt from the local brewery (Boundary Bay).

I'm also leaning very heavily towards signing up for this Half-IM in August. It is a favorite race of my friend who won this event. And the bike! It's meant for me. 56 miles of rollers with a long downhill into the finish (point to point course). That's what me and my triathlon bike were born to do! (I used my road bike this weekend, since that is what I have been riding).

This week I have a 12 mile run on tap tonight, a 50 mile bike ride on Wednesday night, and an century ride on Saturday. Oh, don't let me forget a grueling kickball match on Thursday night. It requires a lot of effort to lose 17-0!

Team BOMIAS is officially registered!

2010-06-16T13:08:00.002-05:00

I sent in the money yesterday for the Spokane to Sandpoint Relay. Game on! I actually have 8 paying team members and some pretty solid maybes, so I'm not too worried about recruiting this year! That is honestly my biggest concern when being a team captain - as much as I love it when people offer to take on certain planning tasks, I get most excited when they recruit people as that is the hardest thing.

On that note, I'm officially nominating Maria as "Awesomest Recruiter Ever!" She brought in three other people besides herself, all atmospheric scientists, so totally in keeping with our team theme.

My only concern now is that we may end up in the men's category since we might not have 6 women. There are worse fates for sure, though.

Two months away!

In other news:

* I joined a kickball team for returned Peace Corps Volunteers. We lost our first game 17-0 last night. I generally suck at kickball, but apparently I'm the only one who knows anything about kickball, softball, or baseball. Like you don't run on a pop up. And that you can run past first base. And that shortstop is supposed to cover 2nd or 3rd if needed. Oh well, we drink beer after and that is all that matters.

* I've been biking my ass off. Every weekend the miles keep going up. I did a hilly 65 mile ride on sunday. I still hate the hills. But we decided to do 120 miles on the first day of Seattle to Portland so that we only have to ride 80 the next day. So put in the miles I must. My rear tire has flatted out within the last three miles of my ride the last two weekends. On Sunday I was 0.9 miles from the end. Boo!

* On a related note, I had scrapped the idea of doing a Half-IM this year, but when my weekends routinely consist of a long run and long ride, it seems dumb not to take advantage of it. Especially since the Troika is flat flat flat (and a point to point bike course that is downhill for much of the second half). I am doing a triathlon on the 26th, so we'll see how I feel after that!

* OMG I have a triathlon in 10 days! And I have been in the pool maybe 5 times. I am counting on the wetsuit to float me to a not pathetic finish. Speaking of which, I must go buy or rent a wetsuit and practice in it this week.

* Also, I have not used my tri bike yet this year because I do so much hilly riding and city riding and I'll do STP on my road bike. I am thinking that bringing it out for a race for the first time this season is not a good idea. Especially since it is a hilly course. But if I do the Troika Half-IM, Aquavelva will come out.

* Oh yeah, marathon training... Well I'm getting in three runs a week at least. My long runs are sloooow. But they are getting done. I have 11 on tap for the weekend. Also a 75 mile bike ride. See! This is why it seems dumb not to do the Half-IM!

Marathon Training Begins.

2010-05-28T12:36:00.004-05:00

So this is Week 1 of my 18 week marathon training plan for Berlin, which I am right now signed up to run with Lisa and her mom.

The last time Lisa and I ran together was in Norway. Gosh, we look pretty gross in this picture. But anyway, that was a half-marathon. This will be her first marathon. Her mom and I are bad influences.

Anyway, Week 1 started after having the plague the week before. I ran a 5k on Sunday, in which I clocked a not-so-good 29:48. I signed up for a series of 5ks in the spring with the idea that I would use them to track my improvement. This was not an improvement over the last one in April. I guess I can blame being sick the week before, but on the other hand, I was well rested.

I already skimped out on one of my runs for the week. I ran three times, but I didn't do the 5 miler I was supposed to. But I also biked 4 times this week, including a really hilly ride in the neighborhoods in Ballard and down to the water. My legs were shot after 20 miles. I hope to God my triathlon isn't as hilly. I doubt it is as steep as we were winding through some pretty minor roads through residential areas. But who knows? I actually got off and walked on one hill, mostly because I was afraid I was going to tip over from going so slow.

My race is in a month!
And Seattle to Portland is in 6 weeks or so!
Eeep!

PS I have dropped the ball on relay recruitment. Right now I have a check from Lauren. The price goes up on June 15th, so I'd like to get at least 9 of us total on board before then! So if you want to run with us, let us know! We are doing the Spokane to Sandpoint relay on August 13-14. It will be good times!

PPS Al is moving to Seattle! Down at sea level, those Wyoming lungs will kick some ass I think. Al, you better sign up for a race or two real soon to take advantage!

Race Report: Al Finishes Second... Again!

2010-05-15T11:57:00.002-05:00

This time the race was the Cody Yellowstone Opener, and I finished over a minute behind the winner. The course was similar to the other 10k races I've run here in Cody, but instead of starting and finishing at the Rec Center, up on top of the ridge that runs through the middle of town, it started near the Chamber of Commerce, down at the bottom. Also, we took Meadow Lane Ave. to the reservoir instead of the dirt trail. Both changes made the course hillier, and would have made it longer, so we turned around short of the cattle guard and ran the cut-off version of the reservoir loop. Overall the course was something like this, except with the turn-around a bit sooner (I don't know exactly where it would be on a map). For additional intrigue, this race carried a $300 prize for the male and female 10k winners. I wasn't really in great shape, but I figure I'm always a threat to win a race in a small town like Cody.

I actually led up to the turn-around, so for almost the first two miles. The eventual winner then turned on the jets and built a prohibitive lead almost immediately. He had clearly measured his pace for the first couple miles to observe the field. Another runner passed me as well, and built about a 30-meter lead. But at 14th St. he took a wrong turn; along Meadow Lane Ave. we had joined up temporarily with the 5k runners, who took a left at 14th, and he followed them all the way to the finish, cutting the whole reservoir loop (about 1.5 miles). I had studied the course and knew to take a right. The hill up to the reservoir took a lot out of me, and I didn't recover to my normal pace as quickly as I would have liked, but once I did I kept my turnover up and ran strong on the reservoir path. I think I would have had a reasonable chance to catch the second-place guy on the path had he taken the correct turn, but I'll never know.

Since the big climb was at the beginning of the race, and the climb up to the reservoir was steep and short, I think the critical parts of this race were recovery after climbs and downhill running. My recovery after the initial climb was fine but my pace between the turn-around and the climb to the reservoir didn't feel very fast. On the other hand, I really took advantage of the short downhill sections early in the race to pick up my turnover and extend my lead. I used to be awful at that, and it's become a real strength in my racing. As I mentioned above, after a slow recovery from the reservoir climb I felt like I got my pace and turnover up to a good level (I have no data to back this up). Coming down from the reservoir I did fine with my form and settled back into a nice pace before the final descent. That was a little dicier; my stomach started to hurt on that stretch, and as it's a pretty steep decline I wasn't really able to open it up. I lost a little momentum toward the bottom of the hill checking for traffic before crossing to the left side of the street, but there was enough residual hill to get my speed back up. If there had been anyone on my tail I might have tried to kick harder, but as it was I settled for a moderate pick-up at the end.

So I came in second, for the hundredth time, and with a time of 37:02, which was a pleasant surprise. Since my cats hid my watch I've been training blind and my mental energy has been diverted by my job search... I was afraid I'd lay an egg like I did at the Soroptimist's run in October. But I managed to put all the stress away and run about as well as I should have, given my training.

How did it get to be April?

2010-04-20T13:01:00.002-05:00

No really!

This year has been flying by already. I can't believe April is almost over. I have race reports and race plans to report.

Can Do 5k
So at the end of March, I signed up for a random 5k. I decided to make this my baseline 5k, so it was okay if I totally sucked - that just makes running faster easier! It was a pretty nondescript 5k, except that the bastards totally made the race 3.2 miles instead of 3.1. Now I don't trust my Garmin all that much to that accuracy (Forerunner 101 - old school). But the 5k and 10k courses followed each other for the last bit and the 2 mile marker and the 5 mile marker were very close together.

Now, one could argue that maybe the 10k was short, but I came in at 30:19 (9:47 pace) and I passed the 2 mile marker at about 19:19. I could have dropped my pace that much in the last mile but I was sprinting at the end. Stupid organizers and their focus on the special needs families they were raising money for.

(I hope the sarcasm was apparent in that last line.)

Anyway, like I said - baseline race. I decided to do a 5k a month more or less, just to track improvement and because I only did one race last year so I'm not worn out on them.

Seahawks 12k
The weekend before last I signed up for a 12k race that runs along the lake and through the Seahawks training facility and back. I really mostly signed up for it for the incentive to start making my long runs in the 6-8 mile range, instead of the 3-5 mile range I had been poking along in. I didn't bring Garmin, just my heart rate monitor, and made my goal to stay in Zone 2.

The race was moderately hilly and fortunately my knee held up. I am discovering it is mostly the really steep inclines that give me the twinging. Unfortunately, running in Seattle involves many of these sharp inclines if you don't run along the water. So to the water it is! Berlin is flat, so I don't think this will affect me all that much.

Anyway, the first three miles I was sub-10s (while in Zone 2) but then I had to slow down to keep my heart rate down. But then at Mile 6, Crystal Frontier came on and I can't hold back during this song, which is kind of weird since Calexico isn't exactly running music. So I booked it the last mile and a half. The end of the course was evil. You went past the finish and then had to wind around parking lots for almost half a mile. Apparently the number 12 has some significance for the Seahawks, thus why they didn't just make it a 10k.

My burst at the end brought me in at 1:14:45, which was a 10:01 pace. I was quite happy with that and I felt good for most of the race. I'm starting to wonder if I should always be racing with heart rate since when I keep it low, I am generally not miserable.

Earth Run for Water 6k
In my continuation of doing weird distance races, on sunday I did a 6k. The 6k is supposed to indicate the average distance a woman in the developing world walks to fetch water. As a water person, I felt like I should do this race. In another post, I'll describe how I intend to fuck up my marathon training by spending two weeks in Bolivia this summer working on a water project.

Anyway, I wanted to get a long run in on sunday, so I decided not to race this race either and just do a Zone 2 run. I parked my car downtown (about 2.5 miles from the start), ran to the start, then ran the race. It was a gorgeous day, with Rainier being all obnoxious and big and white and a clear view of the Olympics for half the course.

They actually marked the race in kilometers, so I mentally switched to "It would be nice to run sub 10-min miles" to "It would be nice to run sub 6-min kilometers." First k was 5:15, so I dialed it back, especially as it took about 1k for my heart rate to catch up and then shoot over my Zone 2. My heart rate monitor never stopped yelling at me to slow down from that point on. It wasn't way over my Zone 2 (it was in the high 150s and my Zone 2 ends at 156 or so), but I felt like if I ran any slower I would be shuffling. I didn't feel like I was running a hard pace, so I just let it go.

The middle ks clocked in about 6 min/k and then I picked it up for the last one and did another 5:15k, coming in at 34:45 (9:21 min/mile). I'm really starting to think of ditching my Garmin - I run just as fast but I'm way less miserable!

After the race, a nice couple gave me a ride back to my car (in retrospect, probably not my most brilliant move to get in a car with strange people in Seattle - this ain't Iowa!).

Miscellaneous
I was going to write more, but I think this is long enough. A few notes:

1. My next 5k test is next weekend - I hit 5k at 29:30 on sunday, so it shouldn't be a problem to beat 30:19. Aaaannnndddd.... brilliant me didn't realize that the course this weekend is THE SAME EXACT ONE as the 6k course (although short 1k). So at least I know I am a rockstar there...

2. I might be doing the skate ski leg of Ski to Sea. Good times!

3. I still hate swimming. But I am signed up for a pseudo-Olympic tri in June, so in the water I must go.

Is this a bad idea?

2010-03-22T17:36:00.005-05:00

Okay peeps, I am trying to figure out my summer schedule. I am signed up already for the Berlin Marathon. And I signed myself up for the Seahawks 12k in April to get my ass running more than 3 or 4 miles at a time.

Here is my current question (and I'm sure I'll have more):

1. Do you think it is a bad idea to sign up for a sprint triathlon (500m/12.4 mi/5k) the weekend before my marathon?

ETA: I already have another question:

2. Would it be a bad idea to sign up for an Oly Tri the weekend after I have a 100 mile ride on my STP training calendar?

ETA AGAIN: One more:

3. What about signing up for a sprint tri (1/2 mi/18 min/3.2 mi) the weekend after I have a 20 mile run on my marathon training calendar?

Seattle to Portland

2010-03-18T17:17:00.002-05:00

So my friend Jessica, who I did the Birkie with (and by "with" I mean she did the 55k and I did the 23k and she only took 45 minutes longer than me), has convinced me to do the Seattle to Portland ride in July. I'm so susceptible to peer pressure!

So I wasn't planning on biking this summer, seeing as I have a marathon in September to train for. But now that I have someone who will ride with me... well, it will be fun! Jessica and I will ride bikes, talk about boys, and drink beer afterwards.

So once I started thinking about training for a double century (didn't I mention it was a 200 mile ride over two days?), I realized... this should be the summer I do a Half-IM.

I'll hopefully have my run base up from marathon training and I'll be forced to put in saddle miles to train for this and really, getting in the bike miles is the main reason that I have been hesitant to do a Half-IM.

This race is two weeks after the STP ride. I figure that puts my big ride two weeks out and then I can taper. And then I have August and September to finish marathon training.

What could possibly go wrong? It's not like my knee does start killing me every time I run uphill or anything!

At least the bike ride is apparently pretty flat, for better or worse (no climbing means no coasting). I actually think the days of RAGBRAI that I have done might be hillier than this course.

Hmmm, I wonder if there is pie in every town like on RAGBRAI?

Long Distance Relay Training

2010-03-09T21:19:00.002-06:00

I got this from the MC200 yahoo group, which for some reason I am still on, probably because I feel the need to put my two cents in every once in a while. It is sadly only attributed to someone named "Chris" but I think there are some wise relay training tips to be found.

Long Distance Relay Training
General Training:

1. At least one day a week, live on bagels, bananas, and some form of energy drink.

2. Practice rapidly entering and leaving a van without banging your knee or any other part of your leg or anatomy on the van. Work up to at least 23 of these in a row, one for each exchange. A variation of this would be to jump out of the van while it is moving and run to some imaginary starting point several blocks away. (Make sure the van is not moving too fast and you are not the driver.)

3. Practice bladder control. We will need some semblance of order for this during the race. For the experienced relay runners… practice waiting in line while exercising bladder control at the porta-potty, add some jumping around, fidgeting, and holding yourself while waiting.

4. Learn to live with (while keeping your mouth shut) all forms of discomfort, griping and criticism, especially when you are tired. A possible workout would be get really tired, preferably not running (see Run Training below), then have someone criticize you for being smelly, for failing to pickup stuff that isn't yours, for running too slow, for leaving sweaty cloths around, or needing you to run some more right now, etc. Also have this person consume or hide your favorite food and drink before you get back from the workout. You can vary this workout each week to make sure it has all the elements that piss you off the most. This is probably the most important workout in this training plan so don't skimp on it. NOTE: Married runners should be able to shorten this training.

5. Once or twice, stay up all night and act normally the next day. A variation would be to go to a party in some park on the second day and have a few beers without falling asleep.

6. Sleep without a pillow. You can substitute a roll of toilet paper or a pile of sweaty cloths, preferably a little damp, if needed. Make sure it is on a hard surface where you do not have enough room to stretch out. If you must stretch out, try an asphalt parking lot on a cool humid night. As an add-on, after a sweaty workout try sleeping without changing cloths.

7. Find a traffic jam, or, get a couple of cars running in your driveway and enjoy the gas fumes. You might include this with workout #4 above.

8. Open a can of tuna and keep it within smelling distance for at least 24 hours. This is optional depending on the diet of your fellow runners. You can substitute tuna with other odiferous products. An alternative to add into this workout would be to go to the airport (or other public facility), grab a book and head to the "head". Have a seat and ignore the aroma. Resist asking "Who did it".

Run Training
1. Borrow or buy running shoes and try them on.

2. Find a T-shirt and some shorts you can run in. Cutoff's will work. Get a pair of socks, preferably not black.

3. Get up at 5am every other day, turn on the air conditioning to get the temp down to about 45 degrees and spritz yourself with a cold water spray bottle and run a 4 mile fartlek in pitch dark with several cotton rolls tucked into your cheeks. Throw some dust around and bring in some sound bites of semis and cars honking with flood lights flashing to help make you run a bit faster.

Blogless in Seattle

2010-03-09T13:50:00.008-06:00

I always mean to post here, but then I never get around to it. And then it gets all overwhelming when I think about how much I could write about.

So it's been two months...

What have I been up to on the training front? In no particular order:

* Cross-country skiing twice a week in prep for the Korteloppet, a 23k race in Wisconsin. A friend and I leave the city on Wednesday nights and drive an hour west to the mountains where we gallivant around the woods with headlamps on, along with a bunch of people from a local cross-country ski club. Then on Saturdays, we do a longer ski.

* The Korte was two weekends ago. It hurt. There was no blueberry juice like at the Mora. But it was still fun. The hills in Wisconsin never end! Good thing I climbed a lot of mountains in training. Me on one of those mountains:

* I have been learning how to skate ski. It looks so effortless, but dang, it is really hard. I did the Korte, classic style. Skating also involves things like having to wax my skis, so it is a little more work. But it is fun to go fast!

* I took off to Whistler in January on a spur of the moment weekend trip with another postdoc. Literally, we decided on Thursday around noon and got in the car and drove to Vancouver that night. My sister has a sweet hotel hookup at the Westin on the mountain, but to get the cheap rate ($90 for a $300 room), we usually have to book last minute. Fortunately, the postdoc lifestyle is easy peasy and no one cares when I come in, as long as I get stuff done.

* Running has been regular, but low mileage (3-4 times per week, 2-4 miles). I am officially signed up for Berlin! But already the injuries are appearing - the last two times I have run outside, I have gotten a sharp twingey pain in my left knee, especially when running up hill. It hasn't happened on the treadmill, so I am hoping it will go away on its own. But there are lots of hills in Seattle. This picture doesn't do the hill behind my house justice:

* Planning for the Spokane to Sandpoint Relay is underway! Right now I have six definites and nine maybes - I would say my conversion rate on maybes is about 50% so I still need people if anyone wants to join in the fun!

* I still drink too much beer. I blame it on hanging out with Australians. Also, leave it is to a foreigner to carry around $100 bills. That we then deface behind their backs.

Once a month is totally regular updating, right?

2010-01-11T15:58:00.002-06:00

I'll say it again...

Thank goodness for RSS feeds or else I would be posting this into an abyss.

So Seattle is pretty awesome. Still. I just checked and I apparently said the same thing a month ago. But it's true! I've been busy, gallivanting around, doing a lot more skiing than running.

In theory I'm doing the 23k classic race at the Birkie next month. We'll see if that happens. I wanted to do the 23k skate race, but last Wednesday was my first night out skate skiing and I still have a lot to learn. I have a new ski buddy who is much better than me. We are starting to go to these Wednesday night ski outings where you go into the woods in the middle of nowhere and all of a sudden see all these cross country skiers with headlamps. It's good times!

Running... Er, running...

Well, my long runs are 3 miles these days.

My big running plan for the year is....

THE BERLIN MARATHON

September 2010. Me, Lisa, and her mom. And hopefully a lot of beer afterward.

In the meantime, my next distance goal is the Vancouver Half Marathon in May.

And then of course, the relays...

The Canadian Death Race is out this year, unless I can find one more person willing to shell out $350 for a race and who is willing to commit this month.

As for a more laid back relay, based on people's votes, right now it is looking like the Spokane to Sandpoint Relay. Pretty standard 12-person 200 miler... Except this:

What makes this Race different from any other event is the fact that at mile 118 your team is going to take the ride of their life aboard Silverwood Theme Park’s Tremors Rollercoaster. Get ready to plunge toward the Earth at over 60 miles per hour when your team arrives at this exchange around midnight.

Trust me, I'm a doctor.

2009-12-07T15:50:00.003-06:00

Well, what do we have here?

Oh yes, it's a blawg.

So, I have officially submitted all the things I need to submit to finally graduate. It's hard to believe! I defended in November. The weekend after, I saw Joe in Portland, and every time I did/said something dumb (which happens quite often), he enjoyed mocking my status.

Things in Seattle are pretty awesome. The Official Cliche Committee of Seattle made sure I was issued a MacBook upon arrival into the city and so I am writing this now from my shiny new Mac. I already had a fleece vest, so they didn't need to give me one of those. We have had five days of sunshine in a row here, so apparently the Perpetuating Myths Committee has been doing their job too.

Oh and did I mention there is a barrista on staff in my lab who makes us lattes in the morning?

I'm not even kidding.

Running! What's that again? I jest. I have been running a little, but man am I out of shape. A mile and a half winds me. And these stupid hills! Since it is getting cold, I joined a gym and so have been avoiding hills by running on the treadmill. I started going to yoga again too, since my gym is on the same block and it is so convenient. I am soooo sore. But a good sore.

And I need to keep going religiously, because you know what else is awesome about Seattle? The beer. And I swear everyone drinks beer all the time. I haven't had this much to drink, well, ever. I have actually had to declare a beer moratorium, just to detox.

In the meantime, I'm in the process of figuring out which relay(s) to run next summer. Jenny can't organize a van for the Cape Relay anymore, so I'm back to figuring out which one I can convince the most people to run!

Well, now that I am finally a doctor, I might be posting more frequently again. At least when I'm not out drinking beer.

Week-Late Race Report: Elmhurst Turkey Trot

2009-12-03T20:20:00.001-06:00

Since I flew back to Illinois to see my family for Thanksgiving this year I decided to enter the Dan Gibbons Turkey Trot in Elmhurst. It seems that things don't change much in Elmhurst between my visits... the Trot grows steadily every year. Some dude named Ogelthorpe gets some one-liner printed on some shirts and we all wonder who he is and why people think he's funny (this year's entry: "My kind of music? ... Plymouth Rock!"). And there's a race or something.

It was drizzling and cold when Dad and I walked over to downtown Elmhurst to register ourselves and my brother Lyndon, who was sleeping in. We got there early, before the crowds really rolled in, and apparently before they worked all the kinks out of their operation. They gave us child-size shirts! The effect was funniest on Lyndon, who was a gymnast and still is muscular and broad-of-shoulder. We were able, fortunately, to get them exchanged.

The three of us jogged back downtown for the race together, then split up. I ran into Matt and Dave Montgomery (HS cross teammates) and we started off running together. Matt and I weren't in great shape, and Dave was, having just finished his college cross-country season. Dave was rocking a classic Al Dimond look: a scraggly beard and pajama pants. As usual, we started way too far back in the pack and had to dodge little kids, people with stollers, dogs, cats, and the York High School swim team, which was running the race in Speedos. Splits at the first mile were called out by a guy that was walking back against the flow of the runners. As we approached a turn-around point about halfway through Dave realized that he would have had a shot at winning had he really raced it from the beginning... but that he still had a chance to be the first finisher wearing long pants. So he took off in pursuit of that goal. Matt dropped me with about a half-mile to go because, well, I'm kind of slow right now. A couple blocks before the finish I caught the guy Dave spotted as the first pants-wearer at the turn-around and put him away with my deadly kick. I'm pretty sure that the Montgomerys and I were the three first pants-wearing finishers. And that has to count for something. Final time: 17:47 (oof).

I saw my middle-school cross coach after the race -- he ran a few marathons and was glad to hear my dad was planning to run one. I ran into several other cross teammates as well. And we saw some other old classmates and found out where we were living and what we were doing with our lives. Just like every year at the old Turkey Trot.

"Paging Dr. Danielle"

2009-11-18T18:44:00.002-06:00

Any news?
Inquiring minds want to know!!

Caroline

Helllloooo out there

2009-10-26T19:23:00.004-05:00

*briefly popping her head up for a breath from her dissertation submersion*

I have hesitated posting since there hasn't been much to say lately.

Here is a brief list describing the past 2.5 weeks:

I have first drafts off all my science chapters!
I think my entire dissertation sucks.
I really hope everyone feels this way when they are a week out from submitting it.
I'M A WEEK OUT FROM SUBMITTING IT TO MY COMMITTEE!!!
So much work left to do.
Instead I'm blogging.
I started running again, yay!
But I'm only up to two miles, boo.
Also, the hills aggravate my butt, boo.
And the hills are unavoidable.
And they are big ass hills.
I love my new place.
Even though sometimes junkies shoot up behind the building and then yell things.
But in Ames, I lived less than a quarter mile from the fire station and hospital, so my city apartment is overall quieter than my Ames hous.
I officially no longer have a valid driver's license because this state is a big fat stupid dumb state that makes it impossible to prove residency.
This is awesomely not a huge deal since I can walk or bike everywhere I need to go quite easily.
I should probably go back to work.

On edit: I think I shall go to this bar mitzvah on Wednesday, in honor of Joe. This bar is like a quarter mile from me and really is like a beer snobs paradise (I'm looking at you Glaven).

I'm in Seattle!

2009-10-09T16:28:00.003-05:00

I'm here!

I took the scenic route through North Dakota.

It snowed in Montana.

I picked up my friend Tamara in Billings and she has been acting as my personal shopper, helping me figure out how to best lay out my room and what pieces I need from a combination of thrift stores, Ikea, and Target.

I got my first new bed ever and it is really nice.

My roommate is really nice. She has a framed award on the wall from when she won her division at the Vancouver Half-Marathon (1/216).

She's fast.

I live half a block from a Wine Warehouse.

I live five blocks from the Theo Chocolate Factory. They have a tasting room.

The weather has been gorgeous and sunny in Seattle every day and we have been able to see Mt. Rainier daily. It really is huge. If you look to the left out my bedroom window, you can watch the sun set over the Olympics.

On the bad side...

I still can't run.

And I have to get back to my stupid dissertation. I have 11 days to finish this chapter. That's not a lot.

Worst. Race. Ever.

2009-10-03T12:20:00.002-05:00

OK, it wasn't really my worst race ever. That would be the Rattlensake Master in 2003, when I pulled a DNF due to stomach problems. This may have been my worst race that I finished since high school, though. I ran a 10k and finished with an even worse time than the 2007 New Years' Day 10k I did in Palo Alto after not running for a month due to a sprained ankle and hamstring problems (I didn't even think of that as a race, to the extent that I apparently didn't even blog about it). To be fair, the altitude of that race was about 5 feet with very few hills, and this was a moderately hilly course at about 5000 feet. Forget the time. I got smoked by a girl on a climb. That Does Not Happen.

Well, I won't forget the time completely. I came in at exactly 40:00, in 5th place. The course was exactly the same as the other 10k in July that I ran almost 3 minutes faster. I didn't warm up very well for this race, but that's not why I ran poorly. I just wasn't in good enough shape. I might have gone out a little fast; in the last half of the race my turnover felt good but I was in too much pain to extend my stride much.

Conclusion: I need to hit the track. I don't really like track work that much in the best of circumstances, and it's really hard a mile up in the air, but I need to do it. I have been doing tempo and segment runs occasionally, but I've been doing them on trails where I'm probably using sharp turns and hills to take breaks.

Booooo!!!!!

2009-09-26T11:37:00.001-05:00

I still can't run.

I limp when I walk.

This sucks!

Less than a week until the move! I'm freaking out here!

And this stupid chapter isn't done yet!

Because this post is otherwise boring and/or depressing, I leave you with this:

My butt is rebelling.

2009-09-15T19:37:00.004-05:00

So I'm moving to Seattle in approximately two weeks.

I found a roommate in Fremont. That's near this here dude:

My roommate is also a civil engineer/hydrologist, but who apparently runs like 6 minute miles, based upon my internet stalking of her.

I found her on Craig's List, but because the world is way too small, it turns out she knows a friend of mine from the Peace Corps.

She has a kitty. His name is Beast.

I'll miss Lucky though:

SOOOO.....

In the meantime, I spend approximately 16 hours a day in my windowless office trying to get as much done of the diss as I can.

I was managing to get out to run or do weights 6/7 days a week.

All was good.

I was doing 11 and 12 mile long runs and my last 12 miler was a smidge under 10 minute pace.

Kori is doing the Fox Cities Marathon in Wisconsin this weekend, so a couple weeks ago, I signed up for the half. I have been running decently fast for me, so I totally had my eye on a PR for this race.

I was tapering.

All was good.

Then my long run on Saturday.

Eight miles. Easy peasy.

At Mile 6 I thought "Hmm, my pirioformus is sore."

At Mile 7 I thought "I don't know if I can run anymore."

I stopped and stretched and made it a quarter mile more before I started getting shooting pains all down my leg.

I decided to walk in the last 3/4 of a mile.

I got back to the car and could barely walk. I couldn't put any weight on my right leg. The rest of Saturday, I was immobile.

Sunday, it was a little better. A little better yet on Monday and Today.

But it is still a dull ache in my pirioformus. I'm afraid that if I try to run on it, the same thing will happen. The pirioformus gets inflamed and irritates the sciatic nerve, which causes the shooting pains.

Yeah, so apparently? Sitting at a computer for 16 hours a day is a mighty fine way to make your body rebel against you.

I hold out a small hope that by Friday, if I don't run, that it will stop hurting.

But seriously, how sucky of a friend would I be to go to WI to support Kori and two others running the marathon and then after the race THEY need to take care of ME because I can't walk because of ths stupid sciatica.

Sigh.

What next?

2009-09-06T09:54:00.002-05:00

So four years of relaying under our belt. Next year is going to be tricky. I'm not really sure people comprehend what goes into getting a full 12 person relay team. Seriously - I'm shameless. I ask people I barely know. I send e-mails to running clubs to recruit strangers (I managed to pick up our ringers, Al and Shaun, that way). I have failed to get 12 2 out of 4 times.

So I'm a little worried to be leaving my running base here in Ames. I'm sure I'll meet runners in Seattle, but tapping into a large group will depend on finding a running group I like. So I really have no clue what relays might be potential next year... Do I do the Pacific Northwest? Do I come back to the Midwest? I seem to be able to get a full team in Colorado, so that state works. How about near other places where I have multiple running friends?

Serena, the team captain of Girls Heart Rockets, who are a bunch of scientist ladies that run faster than anyone on our team besides Al and Shaun, have challenged us to the Canadian Death Race:
I'm actually totally game. This is only a five person relay, so theoretically it should be easier to recruit for. But it is in the middle of nowhere in Alberta, so that might be a challenge. It is only a 12 hour drive from Seattle though...

In typical Danielle style, I totally made a spreadsheet with potential relays for next year. In January-ish I'll send out an e-mail and people can vote on which one they would most likely do. Here are the ones on my list now. If anyone has any additions or comments on any of them, let me know!

Cape Relay	Quincy to Provincetown MA	May
MC200	Madison WI to Chicago IL	June
Green Mountain Relay	Jefferson to Bennington VT	June
Prelay	Portland to Eugene OR	July
Ragnar Northwest Passage	Blaine to Langley WA	July
Canadian Death Race	Grand Cache Alberta	August
Wild West Relay	Fort Collins to Steamboat Springs CO	August
Spokane to Sandpoint	Spokane WA to Sandpoint ID	August
Hood to Coast	Mt. Hood OR to Seaside OR	August
Ragnar Great River	La Crosse WI to Minneapolis MN	August
Colorado Relay	Georgetown to Carbondale CO	September
Ragnar New England	New Haven CT to Boston MA	September
Ragnar DC	Cumberland MD to Washington DC	September

An unusual race report from Meeteetse, WY

2009-09-05T16:15:00.003-05:00

Usually when I post a race report it's all about how much ass I kicked, the awesome schwag (sic?) I won, my pace average between 5 and 6 minutes per mile, and how I was close to the leader most of the way but couldn't hold on (I have finished second or third in an absurd number of races, and I think I've only won once). Not so this time. In the 15k race at the Meeteetse-Absaroka Challenge I ran 1:57:54. That's about 13 minutes per mile. And I finished about 25 minutes from the prizes.

I can say I was close to the leader for the first few miles. We were together through the 5k turnoff and I was close behind at the 10k turn-around. A young boy, probably in middle school, led the field for almost a mile -- he was really motoring up the hills and wound up winning the 5k. But that was merely the prologue. The road up to the 5k turnoff was pretty steep, and it leveled off a bit up to the 10k turnaround. Beyond that it got crazy. Too steep to run crazy (and I ran up 4.4 miles at a consistent 10% grade in training). The leader had a bit more legs than I did at this point and pulled away (though he wasn't running much either, at least up the initial ascent).

Then I had trouble seeing the course markers. They were the standard orange ribbons tied to trees, but the combination of exhaustion and mild color-blindness led me off the course several times. I never got too far off, but each time was costly. Pretty much every time I did I got passed by someone, that being one of the major ways I found my way back to the course. So after the long, steep climb we ran along a ridge for a while. A couple more short climbs, then a downhill section that occasionally got scary. For much of this time I was talking with a guy that had just passed me while I was lost, and we helped eachother find the course. And then, as the website put it, "one of the most RADICAL FINISHES around". I climbed, at times on all fours, up a rocky slope, ran on another ridge for a while, and then charged up a steep grassy hill (it was the last real climb of the race, so I showed some life) and headed for the big descent.

I don't really know how long the descent was other than "really long". Way too steep to run down, and I couldn't get enough traction half the time to stop from sliding and falling. My knees and ankles were on fire. I got the hang of it more the farther I got down, though I still looked like an idiot for the photographers. Yeah, that's where the photographers set up. I hope they had an easier time getting down with their equipment than I did. By the time I was at the bottom of the really steep part my knees, ankles, and small stabilizing muscles were so tired and sore I could hardly stumble around the trail without tripping. And I was so short of glucose and so terrified from sliding down the mountain I could hardly think. After getting lost twice around what was probably a really simple creek crossing I followed an older guy that looked like he had some idea what he was doing through the rest of the narrow trail. Then we spilled out onto the dirt road we started on for the last half-mile or so and I brought out my amazing kick. Have to show off the speed somewhere.

After the race everyone hung around, ate, and talked. Lots of nice people. As I told the race director, I had gone out to the area a few weeks before and run some of the trails before deciding on the hardcore 15k race, but since I didn't know exactly where the race was going to be I just picked random ones. I picked much, much easier ones than what we ran. If I'd known I would have either run the 10k or invested in some trail running shoes for more lateral support and better traction, and maybe some of those things that keep pine needles and rocks from getting in the shoes. Next year that's what I'll do. And I'll eat a bigger breakfast to avoid bonking. At least I brought gloves (not everyone did, they were useful when I was falling on my ass).

Overall: hell of a race they put on there out west of Meeteetse. The starting elevation is around 7000 feet, and I think it climbs up to about 8500 before the final drop. I could be wrong, though, as I have only a very faint idea where anything but the starting line is on a map. For anyone curious, Meeteetse is this town, which is very small but full of good people. And the race start is around here.

WWR: I should probably finish this race report up

2009-09-05T16:14:00.002-05:00

So it's only been a month since the race and I'm still not done. I'm blaming the diss. It sucks all the will to write out of you. Except for now, when I am trying to procrastinate. But I'm going to keep this short, since... well... I can't remember much anymore.

When we last left our heroes, they had taken a shower and slept three hours.

We got up earlyish, and drove to Exchange 30 to wait for Van 1. We passed Van 1 on Ryan's last leg - Lauren had a keen eye for the stars tattooed on his calf. After wildly speculating as to whether each star had any significance, we continued on our way.

Kelsey had a rough leg, but ran it in to Shaun. Shaun climbed again to the top of Rabbit Ears. He was pretty beat at the top and handed off to me for an "easy" leg. Easy my ass. The leg started at about 9,500 feet above sea level and had like a 200 foot climb. I admit it was mostly rolling, but I was still beat. I passed off to Jamie, who at this point was still hooting and hollering. He had a great leg and then passed off Brady, who had to descend like 2000 feet in five miles. At 23, Brady wasn't the youngest on the team, but he had the youngest knees in our van. He passed off to Dede as the weather started getting pretty warm. Lauren was anchor and ran us in and we crossed the finish as one big happy family in about 33 hours.

Needless to say, we didn't hang around for the awards ceremony. The other three Flatlander teams were all men's teams. One was sponsored by Garmin. Yeah, team BOMIAS wasn't bringing home any bling this year...

We headed back the hotel where I was sad to learn that the bar no longer accepted the 50% off coupon that I get because my sister works there. Booo! Jamie bet The Worn Soles that we would beat them (we yoyoed with them the whole way, but they started a half hour after us). We got ahead in the last set of legs, but not a half hour ahead. So we enjoyed happy hour with their team at the hotel. They were fun people.

Then we went out for Mexican and I may or may not have had two margaritas and may or may not have molested Benjamin Franklin.

It's time to Rock'n'Roll

2009-09-04T10:15:00.003-05:00

I'm a little nervous about this one; I'm doing the Rock'n'Roll half this weekend in VA Beach with some friends. It's the first solo race I've run since I pulled my hammy in spring 2005. Not sure how this one is gonna turn out. I've put in some solid training runs, though, and the weather is supposed to be beautiful, so we'll see what happens. Here's hopin'.

WWR: Working on our night moves

2009-08-25T11:01:00.002-05:00

We arrived at Exchange 18 and attempted to catch a few Zs. We threw our sleeping bags down by the river. It was nice and peaceful... until some stupid ass team decided to all play movie trivia ten feet from our heads. Lauren camped out next to me did not notice this, but I couldn't sleep at all. Hey you stupid ass team - don't you see all the people trying to sleep?

By the time they got bored it was 8:30pm or so and I had no clue when our team would be coming in. The earliest estimates were 9:30 or so and that is if everyone ran their 10k pace. There were some really tough legs in that set though, so we weren't really expecting them then. But as captain, I wanted to be ready to roll.

So we waited. And some more. They finally came through about 11 pm or so and we set off.

Shaun started with a 9 mile leg with 1800 feet of elevation gain. Because he is a rockstar, he passed a bunch of people. It was colder - probably below 50 or so at the top of the mountain where I had to wait for him. But I get warm fast when running, so I braved it in shorts and a t-shirt.

So I know Paul, the race director, occasionally reads here and I forgot to mention it on the evaluation form, but the spotters were really bad this year. Last time, they were excellent at spotting runners with enough time for teams to get ready ("There's a runner coming! We think he might be British!") This time there appeared to be no communication so teams just had to be ready and recognize their runner themselves.

Anyway, this led to hilarity while we were waiting. I was chatting with an ultra team while we waited for our runners. All of a sudden, this runner comes barreling up yelling "142! 142!" Nobody makes a move. Then the runner looks down at his bib and goes "124! 124!" which happened to be the ultra team we were chatting with.

Shaun followed pretty closely behind and I started running. It was a gorgeous cool crisp moonlit night. I was running in Wyoming, where there is actually a nice large shoulder, so you don't have to worry about traffic. My leg started out flat but then it was downhill for the last three miles or so. I was cruising somewhere around 9:30 minute miles for a good chunk of that. One of the men's teams, The Pipelayers, came into the exchange a little after me and he was on my tail the entire time.

So the thing about the night legs? When you are about to be passed, you know it for a while. You see your shadow in the bouncy headlamp of the runner behind you. To top it off, his van stopped every 100 m or so and would tell me "good job" and then talk to him so I could hear him behind me too.

But the thing is that the dude never passed me! I admit I did push a little harder knowing he was right there. I did get passed a lady from the Reapers. I managed to stay pretty close on her tail the rest of the way, with the dude right on mine. When the exchange was in sight, we all picked it up a bit. We had to cross to road - as soon as we did so, I could hear the dude decide to pick it up and so did the lady so we all sprinted into the exchange. (This is where the spotters needed to be doing their jobs better - no one knew which teams were all coming in together so their runners could be ready).

I was actually last of the three at this point, but fortunately just behind enough to hear someone yell "Cattle Guard!" The dude caught his foot in it and tripped (but was okay I think) and I stopped and walked over it - I decided Jamie could make up any lost time.

That leg was 4.3 miles, and I averaged about 10 min/miles (the first mile was slow since it wasn't downhill).

I found Jamie in the mess of runners and handed off to him. He had a great leg, despite a jump in a ditch (this happened to Pete on the same leg last time - CO needs some shoulders!). Brady also had an awesome leg.

Dede didn't feel well after her first leg and hadn't been able to keep much food down. We had a backup plan of Lauren running both their legs (about 10 miles total). But Dede decided she wasn't coming all the way to Colorado to run only 5 miles. So she toughed it out like a trooper.

Then Lauren ran into Walden and we finished up around 4am or so. For the first time during a relay, I actually bothered showering because I was so cold after my leg. At Exchange 30, the only sleeping area was the grass, which is what we did last time and got rained on. There was no way I was sleeping outside when I was that cold, so we decided to stay at Exchange 24, which made me nervous - there is no cell service, so if we overslept, Van 1 wouldn't be able to find us.

Anyway, it was the best shower ever. For real. Then we slept on a hard tile floor in a cafeteria. Best relay sleep I have ever gotten too. There were no snorers in the room! Can you believe it? Inevitably there is a snorer who keeps the rest of us up.

It was less than three hours of sleep, but we woke up ready to finish this mofo off.

Next up: There is no way in hell that this is an "easy" leg.

Alive, but more surgery

2009-08-24T05:50:00.002-05:00

I appreciate all the people who have checked in with me this past year, while I've been struggling trying to recover from the surgery to fix my torn meniscus. It's been incredibly difficult to deal with reading about everyone doing all the things I can't do, like running, biking, even swimming, etc, so I haven't been hanging out much in the blogosphere.

Anyway, I just wanted to update everyone on what the situation is. I found out on Friday that the surgery I had in February didn't work. I am going back under the knife again, most likely this coming Thursday (at least I don't have to wait very long to get back in the surgical suite). I'm continuing to not handle things real well, so I don't expect this marks any substantial return to reading/writing running blog stuff, but I wanted to just let people know, I appreciate everyone who's checked in with me, it means a lot to know people care.

Thanks, and maybe I'll be on the road in 2010.

WWR: I'm serious - this really didn't look so bad when Jessica ran it.

2009-08-20T09:38:00.005-05:00

What? You actually want me to finish this thing? Okay, well, the story continues.

We got up at the crack of dawn, piled into our vans and went to the start, at the Budweiser Center. True to team BOMIAS form, we missed the exit (last time one van went the wrong direction on the interstate). Apparently Fort Collins is on the edge of BFE since we had to drive like ten miles to teh next exit.

But we made it, with about a half hour before our start (we were supposed to be there an hour ahead of time). I enlisted Allison as Van 1 Captain and set her to work doing part of the check-in, while I stood in the long ass line for the waiver check.

Then, we hear "Will someone from Back off man, I'm a scientist come to the announcer's tent please." I sent Allison over, figuring there was a problem. But no, they just wanted to interview us over the announcement system. After Allison gave a few tepid answers, I rescued her and tried to be chipper at 5:45 in the morning. I believe John has this on video, but unless he You-tubes it, you will never see it :-)

Anyway, with a few minutes to spare, we got Marie all ready to start the party.
I totally stole this picture from Brady's Facebook page. I'm glad someone took pics!

That's Marie in the pink shorts. Marie is a friend of Kelsey, who is president of the ISU Nordic Ski Club and who I went to Minnesota with for this race. I spent approximately one hour with Marie the whole weekend, since I was in Van 2. I learned after the fact that Marie was famous for opening the minivan door and leaning out and yelling things like "You're so sexy and I want to have your babies!" at the other runners. John also has video of this, and I really hope he does You-tube it for everyone' enjoyment.

So went Marie off and then the long wait for Van 2 began.

We went to the Waffle House.

We went to a very rustic looking Walmart and bought random last minute supplies. Since starting the diss writing, I refuse to read anything of substance, so I got the third Twilight installment (or chick crack as Jamie calls it). I don't even really like the books and I don't like Bella yet I can't stop reading.

We also got some car chalk and for the first time in BOMIAS history, we actually decorated our vans. It only took 4 years. Of course, I am not sure there are any photos of the vans. Other people took photos of our vans. Little known fact: John is an art nerd for his job and once illustrated a book where Chuck Norris was pitted against Mr. T. So Van 1 had a pretty good rendition of Chuck Norris on the side. Van 2 was not as artistic, but the smart kids liked the "Hey there, nice asymptote!" on the side. Which leads me to believe that the next time we do this race that something like "This is my asymptoting over the pass" should be our slogan.

We went to exchange 6 and waited and chatted with the other teams. Roughly at about noon, Van 1 rolled in and Kelsey handed off to Shaun. Shaun is like a bullet and only had a 3 mile leg, so we got ourselves together and sped out of the exchange to make sure I was ready when he got there.

This was my hardest leg. I knew I just had to get through this one and then everything else would be easier. As team captain, I assigned myself relatively short legs (12 miles total), mostly since my running hadn't been as strong as I would have liked it to be. So this leg was 3.8 miles with 400 feet of elevation gain, most of it in the second half.

I started out at about 12:30ish. You notice right away that there is no oxygen. But I went into this leg with no time expectations, so I just focused on getting through it. I even passed someone in the first half! I was petrified they would pass me back on the hill, but they didn't. We chatted as I passed them and they were from San Diego, so they were also feeling the lack of oxygen.

That hill seemed to go on forever. I told myself that if I started running slower than 15 minute miles that I could walk, but I never got that slow, so running was still a faster alternative. I probably averaged 13 minute miles up that hill. As an evil blow, the "1 Mile left!" sign was about 1.6 miles from the exchange. Fortunately because of Garmin, I knew the sign was a lying liar.

When the exchange was in sight, the girl ahead of me (from the Sofa Kings, who we yoyoed with quite a bit) was walking so I decided to add one more piece of roadkill to my leg. At the moment I was passing her, some speedy dude came out of nowhere and said "C'mon girls, we're almost there!" He blew by us but inspired her to start running again, bastard! But I managed to stay ahead of her and finished my leg. 3.8 miles/11:56 min/mi - hey at least I kept it under 12 min/miles!

Then we sent Jamie off - he described his leg below.

Then Brady went off for a big climb. The dude from Team 11 "Can You Beer Me Now?" was determined to catch him (after Jamie passed their runner). That dude was working and was on Brady's tail. He finally passed Brady, but he looked like he was hurting. So that established that team as our nemesis, even though I don't think they knew that AND our Van 1 really liked their Van 1 and had nicknames for them.

Dede and Lauren finished up our set of legs and we went to the same restaurant we went to last time (the Pot Belly) and began the long drive to Exchange 18.

Next up: Seriously, you need to run a relay just to experience the joy of the middle of the night leg.

WWR: The pre-game

2009-08-16T13:53:00.003-05:00

So like usual, I am going to do this race report business in installments. Partly because I'm lazy, partly because the posts will get really long, and partly because it provides easy blog fodder so I don't have to think of other things to write.

So the good times began on Wednesday night when Allison and Ryan rolled into Ames. I graciously offered them my sweltering attic room while I crashed on the couch in the nice cool living room. Allison had been talking about Pokey Sticks upon the return to her alma mater town but then she totally wussed out and did not get them and now I have been thinking about Pokey Sticks for a week.

Mmm, pokey sticks.

We met Dede, Brady, and John at the car rental place. I give total props to Dede and Brady, who didn't know anyone on the team, but signed up to run anyway. Such brave souls!

Then began the driving. I got a GPS for my car right before the trip. We named her Phyllis.

To put it lightly, Phyllis was a bit... slow.

Seriously, I never want to see Lincoln Nebraska again. We saw it for about an hour, trying to find lunch. And ended up at Godfather's. Ridiculous!

(Phyllis got her ass returned as soon as we got back. Always go Garmin. End of story.)

Nebraska still takes forever. I'm surprised there aren't more suicides off the arch in Kearney. You get to Kearney and have been driving forever and you are STILL only halfway through Nebraska.

Despite our little setback, we still rolled into Fort Collins at 6:30 or so and met up with Jamie and Lauren, who were complete strangers until that day but had hours to chitchat while they were stuck in the hotel waiting for us.

The eight of us crowded into the mini-van and went to an Italian joint in FC for dinner. Weirdly, the same exact one we went to last time, and I didn't even mean to do it! We met up with Kelsey, Lindsay, and Marie who were CAMPING (crazy people). And then Shaun and Caroline rolled in from the airport halfway through.

Let me tell you - the fact that everyone was actually in the state of Colorado at dinner time, was a major improvement over last time already!

After a Target run, we all settled in for the night at the hotel. Our slow asses had a 6am start time, so we had to be up at 4:30, boo! Nothing like sleep deprivation to start a sleep deprived race!

Next up: This leg didn't look so hard when Jessica ran it!

We looked pretty hot at the start for 5:55 AM

2009-08-15T11:42:00.000-05:00

Hey Team,

Here's the start-of-race-pic to compliment Caroline's finish picture.

What'd you do this weekend?

2009-08-14T14:39:00.004-05:00

(So, I'm kinda dumb and can't figure out how to force Blogger to split this up into a front-page piece and an after-the-jump piece. If someone else r smrtr, please feel free to do so and delete this. Otherwise, Jesus, this is long. Sorry.)

"What did you do this weekend?" The simple answer is "something stupid." The more complicated one? I ran the Wild West Relay, a 200-mile, 12-person race from Fort Collins, Colorado to Steamboat Springs, Colorado across the Continental Divide at Rabbit Ears Pass.

My friend Danielle organizes these teams fairly frequently (and better her than me), and had several runners for this year get injured, so when she came to me to ask for my help, I said, "Sure, why not?" This led directly to me arriving a few weeks later in Fort Collins to meet everyone else on the team for the first time at a tasty dinner at a local Italian restaurant.

The next morning, bright and early, we drove two vans to the start point, the Budweiser Tour Center in Fort Collins, to check in, put the race signs on our vehicles, and prove we belonged in our division as Flatlanders (folks who live where there's, y'know, oxygen, below 2500 ft). We divided up into our vans there, too: Van 1, with the runners for the first leg, Marie, Kelsey, Ally, Lindsay, and Ryan -- all from the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul -- and John, from Iowa, and Van 2, with Shaun from LA, Lauren from Chicago, Danielle, Brady, and Dede, from Iowa, and li'l ol' me.

Marie had the first leg, so at 6 a.m. sharp, she and a handful of other teams' runners went flying out of the parking lot. I should pause here and mention the crazy team names and van decorations. We were Back Off Man, I'm a Scientist. We spent a lot of waiting and running time with teams like It's Only a Flesh Wound, a masters team who did up their vans in Monty Python quotes and fake body parts, We Race the Reaper, a group of ER nurses, Worn Soles, made up mostly of the Annapolis Trail Runners, and the Pipelayers, an all-male team of construction contractors.

After we saw off Marie, my van had nothing to do until the first van finished their set of legs (to reduce congestion on the legs and at the exchange points, the inactive vans couldn't shadow the active ones), so we ate breakfast, picked up a few supplies, then headed to the sixth exchange to wait.

That was the longest five-ish hours ever. We were pumped up, excited, ready to run, and had not a damn thing to do, so we passed the time trying unsuccessfully to relax enough to nap, chatting among ourselves and with teams around us, and checking our watches. When our sixth runner, Kelsey, finally made it in, she had had a terrible time with cramping and oxygen debt, so a couple of us when and ran with her to urge her in the last few hundred yards, whereupon Shaun took the bracelet that acted as our "baton" and took off like a scalded dog. We finished our hollerin', made sure everything had gone OK for Van 1, jumped in our own ride, and off we went! The race was now on in earnest for us.

We kept the windows down and whooped and shouted and banged on the side of the van at every runner we went by, a habit we kept the whole race (save when it would disturb people at night), and one which made us more than a few friends. Van 2 did the same thing. If the Wild West Relay had been high school, Back Off Man, I'm a Scientist would've gotten the school spirit award, hands down.

Danielle took the next leg and ran like a trooper on the first leg of the race classified as "hard." She passed off to me at the base of a hill the constituted the first big altitude rise of the race: 6300 to 6900 feet in 3.6 miles. It felt like running straight up a wall, though the grade wasn't actually that bad. For someone who hasn't run up a hill bigger than 40 feet tall in the better part of a decade, it was challenging. It seemed to go forever, and I got chicked very early, which was sort of discouraging. It wasn't discouraging for very long, though: I got another runner partway up, then passed the woman who'd chicked me before we reached the top of the hill. The top itself was sort of brutal: the road went through a cut that acted like a wind tunnel, creating a tangible wall of air that didn't let up for several hundred meters. The last mile was a gentle downslope, on which I picked off another runner, and fairly flew into the exchange point to hand the bracelet to Brady for his leg. It took just over 34 minutes, which surprised the Hell out of me, since I'm not in what I'd think of as very good condition. I was so pumped about that first leg that I spent the next several minutes just hollerin' and carrying on.

Brady's leg was even tougher, over 800 feet up in 5 miles. He did it like a bullet, finishing strong and handing over to Dede, who had another hard leg. She was hit really hard by the altitude, and felt crappy after she passed the bracelet to Lauren. Lauren breezed through the race's shortest leg and we turned over to the other van in a church parking lot around 2 pm. My voice was already starting to go from shouting and cheering more or less continuously at every runner in sight, louder than anybody else (thanks for the hollerin' genes, Ma).

After that, we went to the Pot Belly Restaurant, a quaint little sit-down joint in the middle of nowhere (not one of the East Coast chain of sammich shops) and snarfed down our chow like starving folks. Well, everyone but Dede, who ordered a salad, took a bite, and realized she couldn't eat. Her altitude sickness was worsened by the 60-mile dirt-road detour we had to take to keep the dust on the runners' route to a minimum. The poor thing sicked up a bunch of water -- that was the only thing in her stomach -- and felt terrible. The view on that route was amazing, however, and many of us got some terriffic pictures.

We reached the Woods Land Cafe and Bar, in Jelm, Wyoming, several hours before the earliest possible time Van 1 could be finished, found a spot to park, and tried to get some rest. It was going to be a long night, any way you cut it. We ate, drank, stretched out next to the creek on sleeping bags or curled up in the van, and waited. While we waited, night fell and the temperature plummeted, from a high of almost 90 when I ran into the 40s. There was no cell reception along most of that portion of the route, so there was no way to find out how far along Van 1 was; ten or fifteen minutes before we thought they possibly could have been there, we went to the exchange point proper to watch for them.

We could see almost a mile up the road, because it wound down the side of the mountain to get to us. All the runners were wearing headlamps or carrying flashlights, and the vans would drive past them. Every van that came into view was "Is that them? Are they here?" We waited, bouncing around to stay warm, and cheering for the other teams' runners as they came in and handed off to their next runner. We waited, wondering if something had gone wrong but knowing that they were out on the longest set of legs in the race. We waited, jogging back and forth from the exchange to the van to get drinks and snacks. Well into the wee hours, several hours after our earliest prediction, the other van pulled in, telling us that Kelsey had been having trouble again but was on her way down to us now. She rolled in to us hollerin' for her, tossed the bracelet to Shaun, and he was off, on a ridiculously hard leg, 9 miles continuously uphill, gaining almost 1700 feet.

He did it comparatively quickly and handed off to Danielle, who covered most of the remaining distance back to the Colorado border downhill. We were waiting for her in a rest stop by the side of the road in Medicine Bow National Forest, trying to stay warm and awake, as it was now past 3 a.m. She came trucking into the exchange neck and neck with two other runners, so I went flying out of the exchange with my counterparts from We Race the Reaper and the Pipelayers. The Pipelayer took off a bit and the Reaper almost immediately dropped the red blinky light we had to wear on our backs, breaking it, so I ran with her for a while until we got to where her van was waiting for her so she could get a new one from them.

The air wasn't cold once I was moving, and the night was positively beautiful. I reeled in a couple more runners, and the middle of the leg, a couple of miles, had no runners near me and no traffic on the road at all, so I switched off my flashlight and just reveled in the pure joy of the run alone in the quiet. Shortly after that, I was overhauled by a whole series of runners from faster teams which had started later as we crossed the border back into Colorado, but that couldn't dampen my spirits, and I kept up best I could until the end of the leg, my longest at 7.1 miles.

As I approached the end, I realized I had gone faster than what I'd told Brady I thought was my best possible time. I wasn't sure he'd be right by the exchange point, and the system of spotters the race used to let teams know their runner was approaching was unreliable at best. So, a few hundred meters out, moving fast and steady, I started hollerin' like a crazy man (and demolishing what was left of my voice) so they'd know who was coming, even though it only took me an hour and a minute. Sure enough, Brady was there just like he was supposed to be, took the bracelet, and away he went.

We had been kind of worried earlier about Dede and whether or not she'd be able to take her leg, but she insisted she was ready for it, so we hopscotched past Brady to wait for him at the next exchange -- which featured a very welcome fire pit right near the exchange point itself -- and she geared up to run again. She did her more-or-less flat segment like a trooper, finishing strong and passing on to Lauren, who brought us to our last exchange for that set, the Walden, Colorado high school, where she turned over to Marie again. We high-fived the other van, they took off, and we took advantage of the comparative luxuries of Walden High: a gym locker room with showers and a heated cafeteria in which we unrolled sleeping bags and passed out. Well, they did; I felt sleep was more important than a shower, so I just stayed curled up in the truck and slept through until it was time to move out for the next van exchange.

That was only a few hours, but I felt amazingly energized by that little bit of sleep, so when we got up at a quarter after 5 and went to a gas station to fuel up and get something to eat, I was really chipper. When I asked the nice old lady behind the counter "How are y'all today?" she was really excited about someone from the South, who'd lived in Carolina, passing through her station. Caffeine, donut holes, and bananas in hand, off we went again.

Van 2 had a short set of legs, so we got to the van exchange and got ready for some of the hardest parts of the race, over Rabbit Ears Pass and the Continental Divide itself. The exchange was near a field of sage that was set up as a camping spot -- a freakin' cold and poky camping spot, according to the other teams who slept there -- along the side of Highway 14. After we spent some time dodging the folks who didn't think that slowing down around all the runners and such was necessary and cheering for other teams' runners as they came and went, Steve, one of the runners from the Worn Soles, and I bet a round of beers on who was going to win between our teams. It added a little spice to the race. Van 1 rolled up and let us know that their runners had mostly done pretty well, but that Kelsey was struggling again. I went partway down the hill that led up to the exchange point and ran up with her again. She turned over to Shaun, then stumbled off the road, crying, and told us it was the hardest thing she'd ever done. She held up, though, and made it to the end. We made sure she was OK, congratulated Van 1 on finishing their part of the race, and jumped in our own vehicle, since Shaun wanted us to meet him 2 miles up the road to give him some water (there were no water stations or anything along the course; we provided everything for ourselves) before he got to the bad part of the hill heading up to Rabbit Ears Pass itself.

We stopped next to a beautiful mountain lake to wait for him -- in the process watching a guy from That's What She Said togged out in a lime-green mesh shirt, a fake handlebar mustache, a sky-blue wig, and absolutely scandalous tights fly up the hill -- and gave him some water. He told us it'd take him longer than he thought, as he was dead legs running. So we went up to the pass, took pictures of ourselves under the sign for the Continental Divide itself, used the porta-johns, and got Danielle ready to roll. Shaun came trucking up that murderous hill, 900 feet up in 3.7 miles, turned over, and we started leapingfrogging Danielle. We stopped twice for her in her 4 mile, to make sure she had enough water, so I started warming up and stretching while we were waiting on the side of the road. I was afraid of what the next leg, 6 miles down the side of the mountain, would do to me if I weren't warmed up properly. Brady did the same, since his upcoming leg was even worse than mine.

Danielle ran straight through, hit the exchange, handed off to me, and away I went, down the mountain. There were actually several nasty uphill spots in the early part of the leg, but by that time, there was nothing left to lose. So, no surrender, charge the hills, which put us over the west peak of Rabbit Ears Pass. There wasn't any question of going slower on the downhill, either: that would've resulted in me somersaulting to the exchange with Brady. My legs really started to feel it about this point; the roads were steeply crowned, which resulted in a lot of stress on the outer side of my left knee. By the time I'd started down from Rabbit Ears, though, it felt like both knees had been worked over with a ball-peen hammer and the rest of my legs hurt, too. No surrender, no slowing down: I trucked as fast as my body would let me down the hill, and came around the bend to see the exchange.

Midway between me and the exchange was a fella I thought was the spotter letting the teams know who was coming in, but he was acting weird and not responding to me when I held up my number so he could see it. So, I resorted to my favorite tactic for letting my team know I was coming: I started hollerin' when I was only 30 or so feet from him. Turned out he was a nature photographer or something, totally unrelated to the race, and I scared the bejeezus out of him. It had the intended effect, though, and Brady was there to take the bracelet. I had such a hard time slowing down that I actually ran about fifty or sixty meters with him before I could come to a stop, which is saying something, because he was flying. The leg only took me 49 minutes, and I was done. I stretched for about a minute, then we grabbed van and hauled ass to get past Brady and put Dede at the exchange.

Brady's leg was one of the more dangerous of the race, because there wasn't a shoulder on the left, so runners were forced to run with the flow of traffic. He had a nearly 7% grade, too. We got to the bottom, and waited, looking for his signature bright-red ballcap. I saw him and said, "Hey, I think that's him." A total stranger piped up next to me and said, "Yep, that's Brady." His aunt and uncle, who lived not too far away, had driven out to see him race. Pretty awesome. He'd been forced to walk for a couple minutes by the sheer punishment of the hill, but he still came barrelling down the hill and passed off to Dede, who was fully recovered from the day before and ready to go.

Dede had a nice, relatively straight stretch with a gentle downhill that took her into the town of Steamboat Springs, winding up along a bike trail. She came in and turned over, and Lauren took off on the last leg, headed for Steamboat Springs Middle School on the bike trail that followed the Yampa River (and boy, was she pissed about the folks taking their ease and tubing down the river). We waited for her at the finish anxiously, ready to call ourselves finishers, while chatting with folks from other teams and chugging chocolate milk, which sounds nasty but was actually kinda nice. She broke out of the woods and onto the track where we immediately joined her, all in our matching team shirts, for the last hundred meters or so, hollerin' and carryin' on the whole way as the announcer read off all our names. We crossed the finish line, together, after 33 hours and change of continuous running, an overall pace of 10:17.

What did I do this weekend? That's what I did this weekend. What'd you do?

Congratulations BOMIAS runners!!

2009-08-09T21:18:00.005-05:00

The best-looking team ever got its ass over the pass and reached the finish line with a big smile!

Way to go!

-- Caroline

Happy July 32nd!

2009-08-01T15:13:00.004-05:00

I am in denial that it is August. It's not even possible. So I refuse to accept it.

So, in less than a week, team BOMIAS is off to the Wild West Relay!

No one on the team is injured.
Van and hotel reservations are made.
Awesome team shirts are ordered, courtesy of John:

Team number has been assigned: 3. Turns out that Paul gave #1 to the team that won last year, so Armed and Dangerous did not steal our number at the last minute. That seems fair. And it is probably good that we did not have to show them who's boss on the race course... Of the four Flatlander teams, we have the earliest start time - 6am - by several hours. Which probably means that we are by far the slowest Flatlander team. So sadly, our chances of bling are probably non-existent. Armed and Dangerous is next, with a 9:40 start time.

The bonus of the early start though is that, like last time, I expect we'll be one of the first teams to hit some of the exchanges, which means clean port-a-potties, w00t! Our team's average pace is 8.7 min/mile. If everyone actually runs what they say they run, then we'll actually be within minutes of hitting some of the exchanges after they open, which makes me a little nervous, but the hills and altitude will probably keep that from happening.

In other news, I had an excellent run this morning. I ran the first half with Megan from our MC200 team - then she left me in the dust. But I did 7.25 miles at 10:05 pace. My six mile runs up at the lake have been 30 seconds/mile slower than that! All those stupid hills! We have some hills in Ames, but nothing like Okoboji. The weather was beautiful and I felt like I was comfortably running the whole time without any heavy breathing.

In dissertation news, it is still not done. My goal is to make it to Seattle in time for this. I am totally doing the Brew Ha Ha 5k. AND THEY HAVE A SCAVENGER HUNT. I love Seattle and I don't even live there yet.

BOMIAS is overwhelming you with posts today

2009-07-18T13:49:00.002-05:00

So Al reminded me we have a blog. Normally I would feel bad about posting right after him and burying his posts, but the sad reality is that anyone who used to bookmark this blog and look at it has long since jumped ship. Only our fair RSS readers (of which there are 54!) will actually see this. And since you can't really be buried in RSS world, I decided it was okay.

Because in all honesty, I was actually going to post today! I know you don't believe me. But I tell the truth.

I was going to post because I ran 6 miles, go me! It kinda sucked though. So six miles is my long run these days. I knocked it out at a 10:43 pace. I can run 3.5 miles at sub-10 minute pace, so I'm happy with that. So yeah... that is pretty much where my running stands right now.

The good news is that, as team captain, I get to assign myself short legs for the Wild West Relay. And in even better news, we actually have twelve people and I made an animal sacrifice to ensure that none get injured before the relay.

But in sad news, some KANSANS went and registered in the Flatlander division at the last minute under the name... Armed and Dangerous. Fucking Kansans. Don't they know that WE are Team Number 1? And they went and ruined it. Now we are Team Number 2. Don't worry Kansas, we're going to be all up in your ass on that course. What is it about Kansas? They were a problem last time too.

Also, there were only THREE teams in the Flatlander division before, which meant GUARANTEED BLING!!!! But now there are four. So we gotta take down at least one team.

In other Danielle in Iowa news - writing a dissertation sucks donkey balls.

And my stupid effing field work is GOING ALL WRONG and I am stuck at the field site still. And 12 hour field days and dissertation writing DON'T MIX.

So the defense has been pushed back. I'm starting to get stressed and mad and generally unhappy about all this. I'm on anti-virals to keep from getting the herp again, because it is trying its hardest to reappear. And the stupid pills have to be taken FIVE TIMES A DAY! Who remembers to do that shit?

Oh and did I mention the part about being on a boat for 12 hours a day when doing field work? Oh did I also mention how dehydrated I am, because I'm a girl. I'm on a lake. Where does one go to the bathroom? NOWHERE. So I just don't drink enough water.

Waaaah! All I want to do is move to Seattle.

Oh, yeah, and I found the race we should run in 2010 (as long as I don't have a wedding to go to)

2009-07-18T12:26:00.003-05:00

The Headwaters Relay

It's a little different from most of the relays we've run, in that you camp overnight instead of running through the night. That's because it's run mostly on dirt and two-track roads, some of which are apparently pretty rough. The race website advises that you need "[a]t least one runner who is comfortable running rocky, steep mountain trails". And to keep an eye out for grizzly bears to allow for maximum possible time to make peace before your certain death (phrasing, here, is mine). There don't seem to be a whole lot of rules (this is Montana, after all): between 5 and 10 runners to a team, each team member must run at least 5 miles per day, and, you know, don't start your next runner until the one running has finished (it would seem to go without saying, but the results show that several teams have violated this simple rule in the past). No silly rotation rules or anything like that.

Well I think it sounds awesome, anyway. And their web designer is awesome, too.

Whoa, Al Fails At Internets. Also, two race reports. Small races rule!

2009-07-18T10:03:00.005-05:00

So I moved to Wyoming not so long ago, and everyone thinks I've decided to go into hiding because I haven't been blogging or IMing or Facebooking very much (I've heard there's this thing called "Twitter" that all the kids use... I haven't been doing that either). So after finishing my first triathlon today I thought I should blog it. Yeah! I am not dead to the world!

But before the triathlon, my 10k. Yeah, it happened two weeks ago on July 4, the Cody Runners' Stampede. Stampede? Well, Cody is a big rodeo town. Rodeo Capital of the World (self-proclaimed), in fact! The race was a split 5k/10k, starting at the Rec Center downtown. About 200 runners showed up, and the race organizers seemed pretty happy with that. There were no mile markers on the course and I didn't have my watch with me, so I can't give any numbers on pacing. The altitude here in Cody is just about 5,000 feet even, which doesn't bother me at all unless I'm going fast; my track workouts have all been brutal, but my long runs and bike rides have been pretty good. No race website, but I made a map.

The split occurred at the first turn, so all those speedy 5k guys were out of our hair early. I was in second place after the first turn to a dude in a red and white jersey. He led most of the way up to the turn-around on Skyline Road. I took the lead shortly before the turn, on a climb, and he took it after the turn on the way back down the hill. We turned right off the road onto a dirt trail along a creek. On this trail we were running the opposite direction of the 5k runners, which would be fine if everyone just kept right. They didn't, and there were no other 10k runners near us, so we had to dodge through the crowd. I picked up some ground in this section, and I felt like I did a better job picking smooth routes through the congestion (something I had to do a lot in Chicago). Coming out of that section there was a short, steep climb and descent. I took the lead over the hill, but then on the long flat section around the lakes on the east side of town he overtook me and built a significant lead. I couldn't make up any ground on the way back into town and wound up in second place by 20 seconds, 36:57 to 37:17. The winner was under 20, so I did finish first in my age group and win a spiffy green camping chair!

Comments on this race: it was a nice course, too bad for all those pesky 5k runners we had to dodge. I'm pretty happy with my time considering the altitude. I would have been in second basically wire to wire had I not taken the lead twice because of hills (I'm a really strong climber and not so great on downhills) and traffic. Considering the altitude I'm pretty happy with the time. 2 minutes off my PR, but I may have to use a different set of PRs for high-altitude races. I don't think the altitude is worth two minutes, though; I'm in nowhere near the shape I was in when I ran 35:18 (maybe) in Golden Gate Park.

RACE REPORT THE SECOND

Today was the Cody Summer Tri, a sprint-distance triathlon. 500 yard pool swim, 13-mile bike, 3-mile run (they called it a 5k but the course was really only 3 miles). We started, finished, and transitioned at the rec center; there wasn't a big time clock or people keeping track of splits, so I don't have those exactly. I think there were about 40 entrants total, and at most 16 men.

The swim was pretty uneventful... or, if it wasn't I wouldn't have noticed anything, being under water and not having my glasses on. I've only been swimming for a few months, and with no instruction other than YouTube videos; in training I got just under 10 minutes for 500y, but I don't think I swam quite that well today... it's hard to say just why, but I didn't feel good in the water. Hopefully I have a lot of improvement ahead of me in this leg of the tri. I pulled out of the water at the same time as one other guy, and about 3 of the other 8 in my heat were already gone... maybe. Again, I couldn't really see much without my glasses on. The guy that finished with me got through the transition a lot faster than me; he probably had Real Bikey Shoes With Clips And Stuff that he could pull on faster than I could get my running shoes on. He probably also had an easier time seeing which bike was his. I put on my glasses and comically large sunglasses and jogged my bike out of the transition area.

I was a little unhappy with the start-of-race bike directions; coming out of the parking lot we had to make an uncontrolled left onto a fairly large (but, at this time of the morning, not heavily-trafficked) street, and then a right onto the major highway east out of town. They wanted us to ride the left shoulder of the first road, and then make the right at the light like some horrible vehicle-pedestrian hybrid, which is against every principle of safe and effective cycling. It's amazing how many people don't understand that you're most visible and predictable when acting like a vehicle on the road.

Anyway, I came out onto the highway chasing my swim buddy, who was now maybe 50m in front of me, but I quickly realized that I was losing ground and stopped worrying about him. We had a and slight tailwind and a few rolling hills with an overall slight incline on the way out, the opposite on the way back. I managed to get through my whole bottle of Gatorade and about half my bottle of water -- these things are necessary if I'm going to have a fast run left in my legs, so I tried to get lots of liquids down on climbs and other times when speed and wind resistance was relatively low. A nice guy that I was talking to before the race passed me on the way back and I managed to stay within 20-30m of him. We got stuck at a red light just before the finish of the ride... oh well. I didn't race very hard after the stop light, doing some stand-up riding and stretching to get my legs ready for the run. I came into the transition area several seconds after him but left well before, since I didn't have to change shoes. I just dropped the bike off, took off my helmet and ridiculous shades, and started running, just 30m or so behind my swim buddy. I did start my watch at the start of the bike, and checked my time at the exit of T2: 42:56.

Now supposedly triathlons are all about the bike, but I really made my big move in the run. After my quick T2 took back the place I lost on the bike I was in 4th in my heat. My form didn't feel very smooth, especially in my upper body, which was tight from riding, but I was at least able to at least get my stride length nice and long and force myself to turn over quickly. It only took me a couple minutes to catch 3rd (my swim buddy again), and then I was running alone until about halfway through, when I realized I was about 200m behind 2nd. It took me around a half-mile to make up the distance, and then for the last mile I was alone again. I felt like I finished pretty strong, and came in with a 3-mile run time of 17:49. I didn't see the first finisher until after it was over; he said he and the 3rd finisher were out of the pool around 8:30, and it sounded like the 3rd finisher really wore out his legs trying to keep up on the bike. The 1st finisher had a final time of 1:10:thirtysomething, and I was 1:12:07.

Most of the top competitors were in my heat, but one guy who registered late destroyed the field from the next heat, finishing under 1:02. So I think I came in third overall. I'll have to go check the final results later and verify all that, but I'm pretty sure it's right. I feel pretty good for a first-timer.

So here's what I can make of my splits:
500y swim + T1 (no idea what T1 was): 11:22
13mi bike + T2 (T2 couldn't have been more than 30 seconds): 42:56
3mi run: 17:49
Total: 1:12:07

Apparently there's a triathlon in August in Worland, so I might take my second dip then!

We're going to be so popular!

2009-06-08T07:57:00.004-05:00

So yeah.

This whole trying to graduate thing kinda puts a damper on blogging.

But I'm alive.

I am still lumbering through 3-4 mile runs.

Getting ready for the Wild West Relay. We still need three runners or so, so if anyone in the blogosphere wants to run with us, let me know!

My defense has been set for 8/20, but there is a chance it won't happen that day due to field work. Unfortunately, this cold spell we've been having means that my lake is not staying stratified. No stratification = no internal waves = no research.

In other news, last night I watched Twister for the first time in a very long time, at least since I started grad school.

As someone whose research now requires her to mobilize a team quickly in response to weather, I found a whole new appreciation for the movie.

But my favorite line was at the end when they finally get their instrument to be sucked up into the tornado so that they can get the measurements they are trying to get. Everything comes together and they start getting one-of-a-kind data back from the sensors and it is making pretty plots on their computer and everyone is cheering and one of the nerdy grad students/lab techs exclaims:

"We're going to be so popular!"

So needless to say, the other grad students and I plan on exclaiming "We're going to be so popular!" every time we successfully collect data.

I suck at blogging

2009-05-09T09:01:00.002-05:00

So, as you might have guessed, things are a little crazy around here.

I got back from San Francisco a week and a half ago, suffered from crazy jet lag/sleeping schedule readjustment (hello 4am!) and then spent all last weekend madly trying to write a conference abstract so that I can go ~~gallivanting around Germany~~ spend three days trapped on an island in the Baltic with a whole bunch of scientists in September.

(Note to LtK, take the job in Berlin! I have been to Paris way too many times (okay, twice). I know this is a tough problem to have, but all my friends keep moving to Paris and really I'd like to go other places in Europe before I return there).

I had to pull an all-nighter since I didn't get my hook for the abstract until 2:30pm. Which happened to be a half hour before I had to leave to go see these boys in MSP (and left a little bit sad I wasn't moving to NZ):

(This particular link is for Lisa)

Flight of the Conchords Ep 8 'Foux Da Fa Fa'
by Just1Kiet

So part of the reason I love science is that I actually do get excited about it. So I spent the drive up to MSP silently laying out my abstract while my friends chatted. We got back like at 2am and I got to work and busted it out. Stupid Germans and their being 7 time zones ahead meant that mofo had to be in by 10am.

So after that fun, I got ready to move to my new summer home at the lake.

We went up on Tuesday, are back for the weekend, but go up through June starting Monday.

Seriously people, I have the sweetest lakeside house EVAR. We have a spare bed. Come visit. Without meaning to be, I am up every morning as the sun is rising over the lake. This is going to be the dissertation writing retreat.

I'm living with the two other grad students, two 23 year old boys. After living with 23 boys for a month, this should be cake. We are currently in the disclosure phase of living with new people:

Me to J: You might as well just let me organize the kitchen instead of trying to be helpful, since I will reorganize anything you do because I am OCD like that.

M to me: I might as well tell you now. I swallow my toothpaste.

I only know this because we are both toothbrushing wanderers who stroll around the house while brushing our teeth, so yeah, I would notice.

Anyway...

Running.

I am trying to get back into the swing of things.

I am not signed up for anything so I have all the time in the world (well, except the Wild West Relay, but I'm captain so I get to pick which legs I run).

Taking six weeks off hurts.

The "Danielle doesn't have a spontaneous bone in her body so she either needs a training plan or a mathematical way to decide how far to run" plan goes as follows (it worked for National!):

During the week, I run short. The short runs are a distance a half mile farther than what I can run at a sub ten minute pace. I can do 1.5 miles now at that pace, so next week they will be 2 mile runs.

On the weekend, I run "long." This distance is twice the distance I can run at a sub ten minute pace. So, for the math incompetents out there, this means I ran three miles today. I do my long runs using heart rate and keep it in Zone 2 (146-156 for me).

I'm not going to lie. This week hurt. I got in four runs (for a total of 7 miles - ha!). My first run was the most painful mile ever. My lungs were searing, my legs hurt. It was not pretty. I PRed at a HM six weeks ago! What is this! At the lake, running will be easy, but boring. Given the location, there are two directions to go - north or south. One side of the road are fields. On the other is the lake (but hidden from site). There are no turns really. And it is exposed so my runs are going to have to be early morning.

Anyway, I might as well track my progress here, at least for my long runs:

Today: 3 miles (10:59 min/mile @ 154 avg HR)
Week: 7 miles

Running song of the day: Islands in the Stream (Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers. Rock on!)

She emerges from the sea, windburned and pudgier than before...

2009-04-28T14:07:00.002-05:00

It seems like I can't leave anything to Joe.

Can he post once in the month I was gone?

Nooo. He is too involved with "healing" and shit.

Whatever man.

Anyway, I'm on land! Of course, this morning I swear my luxury king sized bed was moving up and down. In fact I am pretty sure I might be swaying still. No, I KNOW I am still swaying. The big question is whether or not I am swaying so obviously that people think I am crazy.

So now we summarize the month in bullet points:

The herp is gone! And I am pretty sure I didn't infect anyone.

Being the only girl was actually barely noticeable. And I am pretty amazed that the bathrooms stayed as clean as they did. Because seriously, moving target!

And unlike when I spent all day working with only men in my two jobs before grad school, I didn't have to spend the day being hit on and/or listening to stories about visits to the strip club.

Unfortunately, I did not get my own room but instead shared with the other postdoc (who may or may not have been a boy with a cute accent). But we were on opposite 12 hour watches, so we actually barely saw each other.

We saw (in no particular order): orcas, humpbacks, gray whales, seals, sea lions, sea otters, and dolphins. Orcas kinda are the assholes of the ocean world though (as we all know from watching the Planet Earth series on PBS). About a mile away from us a pod took down a baby gray whale while its mom stood by helpless. And apparently they just eat the tongue.

My favorite part was running one of the instruments off the back of the boat because half the time seals or sea lions would hang out flipping around and just generally being cute. To all the jaded west coasters they were like "Argh! They'll bite the line!" To me, I just think "Aw, cutest menace to science EVAR!"

My least favorite part was running one of the instruments off the back of the boat because half the time it was at night and the swell was huge and I swore there would be a headline "Iowa girl falls overboard chasing science."

There was bacon EVERY SINGLE DAY. I'm only human. Oh and homemade desserts. And candy bars. My willpower was not sufficient.

Except for fried food - I skipped many a lunch because I couldn't even go near the galley. It would be useful if this disgust of fried food would stay on now that I am on land, but I am pretty sure that won't happen.

There was no exercise the entire time. The boat was too small for running.

On the plus side, it probably means my calf has ~~atrophied~~ healed!

Okay, now I have three months to run my way back into shape for the Wild West Relay!

Dear DC, I owe you an aplogy.

2009-04-02T10:20:00.002-05:00

Dear DC,

I know last time we spoke, I may have maligned you and suggested that I might have possibly gotten the herp from having to drink water from the same jugs as 8000 other runners, without cups.

But apparently, *I* am the one who brought the herp to DC.

Yes sir.

I have am having a bout of herpes zoster.

Or as known to most of the world: Shingles.

I was just getting the beginnings of an itchy spot on my back right before I went to DC.

The good news is that Shingles isn't contagious, so you don't have to worry too much.

Unless you haven't had chicken pox yet, in which case, I am sorry.

I'm blaming the Scottish dude since stress can wake up one's dormant chicken pox virus.

On the plus side, since it has now been confirmed that I will be the only girl on this boat, there will be no pregnant women around for me to infect in especially bad ways.

Anyway DC, I'm sorry for implying that you might possibly be a dirty ho, when really that ho is me.

From Iowa with love (and herpes),
Danielle

Sugar Induced Coma

2009-03-29T13:13:00.003-05:00

So I have pretty much zero time, since I go to sea on THURSDAY, but I thought a race report was in order. At least before I pass out because of the sugar coursing through my system...

It was Donut Run Day!

I ran a 41 minute 5k and ate 8 Krispy Kremes.

My donut time deductions were nowhere near the time I lost eating donuts.

And once you commit to 8 donuts (one at each stop - my goal for my final time doing this race), speedy thoughts go out the window (well for me at least - Steve in a Speedo is the very obvious exception to this rule). You find yourself in a certain cohort of others that have similar plans so are at the donut stops at the same time as you and you end up chatting while eating your doughnuts.

It's really like a leisurely run where you feel like you might throw up with every donut you eat and you ask yourself "why am I doing this again?" and then you remember "oh yeah, because it's awesome!"

Seriously, I don't need another Krispy Kreme for a loooong time.

And, even more importantly, I finally have my set of 4 Donut Run pint glasses, which was the real motivation for signing up again this year...

This is short, but mostly because I really think I might crash from this sugar infusion. I'm barely holding on here!!!

It was like making out with every runner in DC.

2009-03-22T07:37:00.002-05:00

I think Joe's sister summarized it perfectly (to paraphrase):

"So you PRed, but you also got the herp. It all about balances out."

Now that I have teased you into reading a long rambling race report, I probably should start.

Friday, we had a little bloggy runner meetup and it was good times people. Since I am a lazy linker, I will link to Audrey, who posted a photo and linked to all the bloggers in it. It was fun to meet everyone in person, even if I have been a blogging slacker in the last month and don't really deserve the title of "blogger."

So like Jeanne, I made Ray tell me how I should run this race and then kind of ignored it. What I didn't ignore, was the advice to lay off the Adams Morgan hill. Anyway, who ignores advice that says "Go ahead, be lazy."

Definitely not this girl.

Joe was kind enough to drop me off at the start around 6:20ish. After hitting the portapottie line, begging the med tent for some motrin, which I had forgotten to take, I found my corral and bumped into Jeanne.

And then we were off! I tried to ease into things and lay off a little on the first mile and ended up with a 10:30, which was NOT in the plan. So then with the help of a downhill I ran mile 2 in like 9:40 to even it out. Then I managed to settle into a pretty regular pace through mile 6, coming through there at 61 minutes. Then the big hill began and I laid off, yielding me a nice 11 minute mile for mile 7.

So at this point, I kinda thought my chances of PRing were slim. I'd have to run 10 minute miles for the last six miles to get in under previous PR. And that seemed highly unlikely given my fitness theses days.

But you know what? Apparently that first half really was quite uphill even if it didn't feel that way too badly. Miles 8-11 I was easily cruising at like 9:45 pace. There was another uphill getting to Mile 12, but it was mostly downhill to the finish after that. Those downhills mentally saved me, since I knew I could handle running downhill for a mile at the end.

I hit Mile 12 at 2:02 and I realized I just needed to pull out an 11 min pace for the rest to PR, which seemed totally doable given the downhill (although I was fading fast). At that moment a little Beyonce came on the ipod and I got my groove on and finished this baby up in 2:12:58, about a minute PR. Looking at the race results, I averaged 10:14 through the first 10k and then 10:09 overall.

I finished at almost the same exact time as the marathon winner. For the life of me I couldn't figure out why there were police motorcycles blocking my way as I tried to get down the finisher's chute. Didn't they know I had a PR to get?!!!

And so now you may ask, where on earth do diseases come into this?

So I loved the course, but srsly National, get some effing cups. I got water at Mile 3 and took two clif blocks. I was going to take a swig of gatorade at Mile 5 but there were no cups so I just decided to hold out until Mile 7. I got to Mile 7 and there were no cups there either.

Ruh-roh.

So I followed suit with every other runner and chugged water straight out of gallon water bottles they had out. There was a concerted effort to not touch the bottle at all with one's mouth, but we are talking 8000 runners. Someone at some point hit the bottle.

Mile 9, still no cups.

Mile 11, STILL no cups.

Seriously, you would think that after they ran out of cups, someone would have gotten their ass to ANYWHERE that sells cups and bought a boatload and gotten them to the aid stations. Fortunately the weather was cool so there wasn't as much of a need for water, but I personally needed it to get my nutrition down.

So yeah, I was swigging left and right. If I end up with some weird ass disease, I'm totally sending my bill to the race director.

Quote of the day

2009-03-18T22:42:00.001-05:00

The best things in life are beyond money; their price is agony and sweat and devotion.
- Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

5 Week Follow-up with Doc

2009-03-14T12:28:00.003-05:00

Had my latest post-op with my doc on Friday. Overall, he is pretty pleased with my progress. I still have a little swelling, which he wants me to work on, and I can't quite straighten my leg all the way out (probably about 5 degrees short of straight), which he also wants me to specifically focus on.

Other than that, he told me to lose the knee brace, and wean off the crutches. It's going to take a few days to get my normal gait back, and it'll take probably a week or two before I have the strength to get through a whole normal day, so I'll probably not be back at work in the office for a few weeks yet, but I'm making progress.

I'll probably be in physical therapy for a few more months, but now that I can really start to bend and put weight on the leg, things will step up and really begin to move forward.

Swimming update

2009-03-11T19:33:00.003-05:00

Just wanted to post a quick note (since apparently I don't have much else to do these days, as I've been laying on my couch for the last 5 weeks). I went swimming the other night again (second post-surgery swim). You might remember from my post last week about my first swim, I had a frustrating time. This time, though, It was so much better. I swam 200m warming up, then managed to do 500m. My leg didn't hurt, and I was able to actually stabilize it in the water so it wasn't flopping around like a dead fish. I felt fine in the pool, though when I got done and got out, I was completely spent. It actually took all my energy to make it back up to my sister's apartment. I kept tripping on the crutches, and almost fell a couple of times because I had no energy (I must have looked drunk). But anyway, the swimming felt good, so I am happy. I'll be happier when I can drive myself over to the pool again, so I can swim whenever I want, rather than being a burden on Sherri, but happiness from being able to swim without any real pain. :)

Crunch Time

2009-03-07T12:30:00.002-06:00

So Danielle in Iowa needs descend deep down into a writing cave before she leaves in April to go to sea for a month. I haven't logged into google reader IN A WEEK so I haven't been around the internet leaving lovely pearls in the comments section of other blogs. I hope you'll all be able to bear my absence for the next couple of weeks.

A paper came out THIS MORNING that scoops a few elements of my dissertation (and several elements I of the paper I have been working my ass off to submit in the next couple of weeks). Since the paper is in a "rapid announcement" journal, the idea hasn't been fleshed out yet completely (it is essentially a 4 pager saying "we did this!") but it probably means a longer paper is in the works which means my paper needs to be out ASAP so alas I must go away for a bit.

Because I still procrastinate, so you can find me rambling on Twitter still.

So in running news, I did my last long run before National last night. It was only 10 miles, but it was a good run. It was a gorgeous 40-50 degree evening with a bright moon and I felt great the entire time. I did it at 10:14 pace in HR Zone 2, which is faster than any of my other long runs to date this season and is also PR pace for the half-mary distance, although I am not sure I could hold on for another 5k. What a difference actually taking gus does! I didn't bonk at all.

So yeah, training for National hasn't been ideal, but I have been trying to work on consistency and not ramping up miles too fast, which I was pretty successful at. I was getting in at least 20 miles a week, usually consisting of two 6-8 mile runs and 2-3 hard 3-4 mile runs.

Unfortunately, this did not work. My stupid injury prone self is having calf issues again. This feels almost exactly the same as the injury that sidelined me for Chicago 2005. It's on the base of my calf on the inside and calf stretches don't get at it. It can be sore all day and hurt right a lot when I start running, but once it is warmed up it is fine (last night it didn't bother me after the first mile).

So I am trying to figure out the game plan for the next two weeks. How often and far do I run so I don't irritate the calf yet don't lose fitness?

Anyway, sorry for the most boring post ever. My motivation to amuse others has been completely sucked away. I'll be back for sure, but I gotta take care of business so that I can force you all to call me Dr. Danielle in Iowa.

In the meantime:

1. Hey if you are running National, I think we are having a bloggy carb loading dinner the night before!

2. Hey, if you like doughnuts, come run the Doughnut Run!

3. Hey, if you like crazy races, come join our team for the Wild West Relay! Seriously, we only have 5 runners now so we need you! At least if you live below 2000 ft.

Hehehe

2009-03-06T21:01:00.002-06:00

I was looking through some posts from last year leading up to my marathon attempt, and I had a really funny thought. All the comments about my knee being sore are pretty funny when you replace "knee pain" with "torn meniscus." They read really funny, in a "God, you're a retard, don't run a marathon on a torn meniscus, stupid!" kind of way.

One of the funniest may have been this quote from my Reflections post:

Injuries: I learned a lot about how to distinguish aches versus injuries. Along this journey, there were a few aches I mistook for injuries, and an injury that I mistook for an ache. I think this is one of the most important lessons I learned this year.

"...an injury that I mistook for an ache." Understatement of the year!

First post-op swim and other observations

2009-03-03T20:31:00.002-06:00

So I went swimming for the first time today since surgery. I still have to wear the knee brace and use the crutches for at least another two weeks, so I had to use the pull buoy, though I expected that. Swimming was hard. I managed to do 4 laps (2, then stopping to catch my breath, then 2 more) before feeling enough pain that I had to stop. In defense of swimming, I was actually in pain before I went, but I wanted to at least see what it was like. I have lost so much mucscle control and use that my leg was literally flapping behind me as it was basically being dragged. I couldn't even stabilize it without hooking my feet together. It felt extremely weird. I also got really tired really quickly. I'm going to try to go back Thursday and see if it is any easier.

Also, I've made a few interesting observations. The other day, I thought about it, and I realize that for the last 3 1/2 weeks, I spend, on non physical therapy days, approximately 22-23 hours on my couch. On PT days, that's down to about 19-20 (woohoo!). This is having quite an interesting effect on my mood, and my view of the world. Mostly, it's not in a good way. I also noticed I am not eating a whole lot. I drink a lot of water b/c my apartment gets dry, but I just am not eating much. I think I was afraid that being totally sedentary would cause me to gain a bunch of weight, so I cut back on my eating. Anyway, I got on a scale today for the first time since the day before surgery. After being on my couch for 3 1/2 weeks, I am 2 pounds lighter than I was before surgery. It's pretty bad. I need to eat, probably a lot more.

Oh well. At least I know what I need to do -- keep swimming and it will get easier eventually, and eat more/smarter.

And how could I forget!

2009-03-01T20:43:00.002-06:00

Some of you may remember that I wrote a proposal for a postdoc fellowship from the National Science Foundation to go to New Zealand for two years to do research.

The funding rate is only like 20% so I jumped on the Seattle offer, figuring that was a pretty good alternative option.

I found out last week that my proposal got funded!

But alas, I can't accept it as I signed a contract in Seattle :-(

I was thisclose to being surrounded by boys with cute accents!

I found out the funding was coming from the stimulus package, so unfortunately it can't be deferred. But I hope you are all happy to know that not all that money is going to millionaire bankers :-)

Oh well, anyway Brett and Germaine are already married (but I have tix to see them in MSP anyway!)

Hello Bonktown! (watch out, long rambling post ahead!)

2009-03-01T18:07:00.004-06:00

Nice to see you! It's been a while!

So at about mile 7 today, I hit my good friend the wall.

I am not sure what it was.

It could be that I ran 7 miles yesterday morning and I probably shouldn't have run 8 today, considering my training isn't all that great. But the National Half-Mary is in 3 weeks! I can't be slacking! And I figured, if I can't do longer runs yet, I should do two of *my* long runs back to back. I also ran 7 on Tuesday.

It could also have been that I didn't bring a gu. I think 7 miles is my threshold for that. I just totally forgot. And it turns out that we poorly planned our route and the water stop ended up being at 5.7 miles out of 8. So it really wouldn't have mattered.

It could also have been that Kori kicks my ass. My long runs have typically been in the 10:30ish range, but we ran the first 6 miles at about 10:10 pace. My goal on my long runs is to be conversational and easy paced, so this was a little fast for me these days.

Well, anyway, I am *still* feeling out of sorts. I hate that feeling. And I am kinda going insane right now since I *really* want a hamburger. I have hamburger in my freezer. They are even pre-portioned. But it is so frozen they are all stuck together and they still haven't defrosted enough to split them and seriously I might eat the dog soon if it doesn't thaw.

And to top it off? My bonked self drove a few blocks from Kori's and my car ran out of gas.

Seriously, this is what happens when you combine being broke and not driving all that much. I kept thinking "When March comes I'll fill up. I don't even drive every day! This is no problem!"

I haven't run out of gas in ten years.

Specifically on I-10 in Texas. You can go forever there without an exit! We ended up pouring all our camping stove gas into my car and we managed to make it to the next exit. I am not sure my car engine was ever the same.

*******************************

So an update on Girls Heart Rockets. Turns out that they actually know our team because some of them ran the MC200 last year AND Al knows them and they are actually doing the race at Al's suggestion.

AND Al has a stupid aunt who scheduled her wedding for the weekend of the relay. Priorities people! Doesn't she know that Al is our MVP? I mean he is freakin' insane!

So now we are down to five people. And this stresses me out since finding 6 seemed manageable, but 7 seems intimidating. So who wants to run?! Please?!

*******************************

Recent google searches that landed here:

"losing virginity on a drunk hook up" (thanks again Joe for the title for your first marathon post!)
"how to lose virginity on ragbrai" (be a hot chick and look for Lance Armstrong)
"vegetarians iowa cattlemen" (from the ip addy ames.iabeef.com)
and THREE variations of "naked triathletes" (thanks Audrey for that title!)

*******************************

Last night while tipsy, I wrote this to the American Physical Society. Someone needs to keep me away from my keyboard after four drinks.

To whom it may concern:

I am a former APS member (my subscription may possibly have lapsed,
oops!). Tonight I was at dinner at a professor's house when another
student asked me where I was from originally, to which I replied
"Newton Massachusetts, which is right outside of Boston and home of
the Fig Newton." Imagine my surprise when the professor said "my
daughter has been using this Color Me Physics book and she just
learned that the Fig Newton was named after Sir Isaac Newton." She
showed me the book and lo and behold, there was APS perpetuating this
myth about the origin of the Fig Newton.

Anyway, considering the authors of this book are all PhDs, I would
assume they can provide references for this statement?

All the sources I have seen have all indicated that this is not the
truth and that the Fig Newton is indeed named after Newton MA. our
town had a whole Fig Newton Festival on the 100th anniversary. They
got JUICE NEWTON to sing. There was a half day of school. We take our
legacy seriously in Newton MA.

Anyway, I hope you will choose to edit this if you decide to publish a
new edition of Color Me Physics. We cannot have a generation of
children being raised on the shaky foundation of incorrect knowledge
on the origin of the Fig Newton. Think of the children! Think of our
future!

Thank you.

Scientist competition

2009-03-01T10:11:00.002-06:00

So I was randomly looking at the registered teams list for the Wild West Relay, to ensure that we are still the first team alphabetically in the Flatlander Division (thus ensuring we get to be Team #1 again :-)).

And I noticed there was a women's team from Champaign.

And that their team name was "Girls Heart Rockets."

Turns out they are a bunch of girl scientists!

I'm just glad they are not competing in the Flatlander Division, because I think they might kick our ass.

Doughnuts!!!

2009-02-22T10:45:00.002-06:00

So things are a changin' here at the Casa de Danielle and Sam.

My roommate (who owns our house) has decided to take advantage of the fact that I will be at sea for all of April to put her house on the market.

I don't know who here knows the pain of selling a house, but we have six weeks to get this place sale worthy.

Which means that my stuff?

Needs to be all packed up.

After 4.5 years here, I can't believe I am down to less than two months left. And the next two months are going to suck (please see previous post).

I may have mentioned this before, but I intend to move to Seattle with just my station wagon (which conveniently has a rack for 2 pairs of skis and 2 bikes).

So I am in the midst of a massive purge.

I actually enjoy it. It's very cathartic.

The last time I did this was when I was finishing up the Peace Corps and had to fit two years of my life into two pieces of luggage and a carry-on. That was actually fun since I gave my stuff to all the people I had been working with for the past two years and so I knew who would best distribute stuff.

But yeah, if you happen to be wandering around the mountains above Azua, Dominican Republic and see some grandma wearing a Phish Fall Tour 1995 t-shirt, you know who to blame.

Anyway, I am currently working through my stuff in the kitchen cupboards.

I took out my Doughnut Run pint glasses and got sad. So the Doughnut Run typically gives pint glasses instead of t-shirts. EXCEPT for the first year I was here. I have a t-shirt from that year. I have run the doughnut run four times total, so I have three pint glasses.

The race is usually in April, so I was pretty bummed that I would miss it this year (being AT SEA and all) and that I would forever have an incomplete set of pint glasses.

So I was packing them up and decided to check the webpage to see if I might be able to just buy one off them.

And lo and behold!

The doughnut run is taking place on March 29th!!!

So three days before I leave, I can stuff my face full of Krispy Kremes while running a 5k.

My time here in Ames will be complete as I go for the doughnut per stop (8 total) race. My highest is 6. This is going to be hard (please see excel plot),

And I think Steve in a Speedo needs to defend his title.

(and I think you other MSP peeps also need to roadtrip :-)).

I heart red wine and running!

2009-02-20T22:41:00.003-06:00

Seriously, it totally makes everything better.

So yeah, today was totally craptacular.

My advisor, out of the blue, says to me "So you need to have three papers out to graduate."

To which I respond (in my head) WTF?!!!!!

Hello! Before I took the job in Seattle we discussed this and what milestones I needed to accomplish. And in my head, the goal was to have two papers out before I left in April. I am making good progress on one, and March will be devoted to the other.

But now! A third! Which I am going to have to pull out of my ass!

To all you non-academicians, I'm not talking about a paper like you write for a class. I'm talking paper that needs to be submitted to a journal and peer reviewed so you can't submit some half-assed piece of work!

So yeah, now I have 150% of the work I thought I had to do before I blow this joint. And yeah, did you know I really only have 6 weeks left in Ames? After over 5 years here, my time here is dwindling fast. I was at the point where I was a bit stressed with what I had to do, but I had my head around it. I had a productive work week so I was actually feeling pretty good.

But then I got blindsided by this. Let me note that he has never required that any of this other students get 3 papers out before they leave.

And did I mention I will be on a boat for the entire month of April? And then at a field station for all of May and June? And that I have to defend my mid-July to graduate this summer? Who has time for this shit?!

Anyway, this cast a bit of a pallor over the rest of my day.

So I decided to blow out of my office at 4pm and go home and run, since it was over 30 degrees. I am finally upping my mileage a little and I had a glorious 7+ mile run. It was dark and I was totally unsafe and not running with reflective gear and totally running on dark country roads. But only a few cars passed me, so it was all good. I couldn't see my HRM so I just had to listen to it beep when I was running too hard or I was being lazy. My run wasn't superfast (7.25 miles in 1:20), but it wasn't supposed to be fast, but an easy run. Of course, I have a half-marathon in a month and I am still only up to 7 miles, but I have been doing "long" runs twice a week or so, so I figure that has to count for something.

Well anyway this is my favorite route in Ames. It is the route I randomly ran the first Thanksgiving I was here and I hated the world because not a single person asked me if I had Thanksgiving plans so I spent Thanksgiving alone and I hated Iowa to death (you people aren't as nice as you seem to think you are) and I decided to just run this loop that I didn't even know where it went or how long it was and it turned out to be a good 7 miles and it was the first time I ever ran more than 6.

Anyway, then I came home, took a hot shower (stretching in the shower, new favorite thing!) and ate leftover mashed potatoes and cracked open a Cab from the Columbia Valley. When I was in NZ mode, I was all about drinking NZ wines, so now that I am in Seattle mode, it is all about the WA wines.

Anyway, my day sucked, but now endorphins + alcohol == superawesome!

I may have to remove this post tomorrow...

Still a gimp, but Boston 2010

2009-02-17T19:39:00.003-06:00

I had my first follow-up with the doc today since surgery. I got my stitches out, and was told that things seem to be progressing alright, but we're being ultra-conservative, so I was told 4 more weeks of crutches and the knee brace, and to come back for the next follow-up in 4 weeks. No driving until the next visit, so I continue to work from home and being an undue burden on my sister for trips to the grocery store, drug store, strip clubs...you know, the usual errands one needs to do when you're laid up sick.

On the bright side, one of my father's oldest friends, who is a double amputee, who was named Employee of the Year by Careers and the disAbled Magazine, and will be honored at its 17th annual awards banquet in April, is also training to run the Boston Marathon in 2010. If he is able to run, he's asked me to be his guide for the race. I'm hoping he is able to get his training done and qualify. We're really proud of him, and looking forward to Boston next year. It should be an awesome time.

It gives me something to look forward to, and to think about, in my current state of wallowing in self-pity. I can't forget that my injury is temporary, I'll be able to run again at 100% on my own two legs by the summer (if all goes well these next couple months). People in situations a lot worse than me are still able to do these things I hope to do. I just need to try to not let these last few months get me down too much...

Here comes the "library-scientist"

2009-02-15T17:50:00.004-06:00

I know, I know, it doesn't look like real science but that's the only way I could think of to fit in a team of running scientists.
Anyway.
Just a quick note from the librarian to say hi.

Caroline (somehow known as a frog in the blogosphere...)

Ten ways cross-country ski races are different than running races

2009-02-11T21:19:00.006-06:00

1. They give you an actual cloth bib. I am not actually sure what to do with it now. Since it has two sides, I'm almost tempted to make a bag out of it.

2. I actually skied behind a 80 year old Swede named Sven-Olaf for a mile. Until I wiped out going down a hill and never caught the old man again. Did I mention he was doing the 42k and I was doing the 13k? Also I only know his name because he had a special bib indicating he was a "Vasaloppet Veteran" - he has done the sister race in Sweden (a 90k) 30 times. Talk about badass.

3. At water stops you get heated water and... blueberry soup. Really. I was told that you haven't really done Mora until you have dribbled blueberry soup all over your bib from trying to ski and drink at the same time. Although I was also told to beware of the blueberry soup since apparently blueberries? Natural laxative.

4. You think the beginning of some running races is a clusterfuck? Put all those people on skis. Watch them go down the first hill and fall down. Watch a pile up ensue.

5. You want to see a bottleneck? Any hill, even a short one, that is too steep to glide up results in a huge mass of people trying to fishtail their way up, some of whom really suck at it and fall down and take out everyone behind them. Or at the least they cause everyone to stay at a standstill while they try and get up. If they don't fall, they spread their skis so wide, no one can get past them.

6. I don't know about you all, but from running, my hip flexors are very tight. Hey did you know that cross country skiing involves leading with your hips? Hey did you know I could barely walk for two days afterwards?

7. In freestyle races, you can either skate or classic ski and apparently they don't have separate divisions. That's kinda almost like making a runner race someone on rollerblades. I classic. So I got passed. A lot.

8. Apparently even though I suck at going up hills while running and I am good at going down hills, on skis, it's like Bizarro world, so I pass a lot of people going up hills (well when they aren't falling down and taking me out like a bowling pin). I almost feel like when I cross country ski race in the future, I should have a goatee.

9. This has less to do with skiing vs. running and more to do with racing in north-ish Minnesota. I said thank you to a policeman directing traffic (the trail actually crossed roads at points) and he said "You betcha!" Yay for stereotypes!

10. Not that running isn't superfun too, but cross country ski racing seems so much more like frolicking through the woods, but someone gives you a medal when you are done frolicking!

More swimming advice

2009-02-11T13:41:00.002-06:00

Since Thursday, my days have pretty much consisted of laying on my couch, crutching to the kitchen, or crutching to the bathroom. I started physical therapy on Tuesday, and started working from home today (Wednesday). I still can't walk, though I am starting to put more weight on my leg, which is some progress I guess.

The doc says I should be able to start swimming again sometime in the next few weeks, once I have some more strength and it's ok to soak my knee (i.e. once the stitches are out and the wounds have healed), as long as I use the pull buoy.

So, I figure, to give me something to look forward to, I would hit you all up for some more advice, since you really helped me out last time. For the next four months, I will be able to do nothing except swim with a pull buoy (no running, no biking, no nada that involves strain, stress, or any real use of anything from the waist down). I've really enjoyed the swimming I've done for the last 5-6 weeks, so I'm excited I can continue with it.

My question is, first, is there any danger in doing nothing but freestyle swimming 4-5 times a week for about 4 straight months in terms of strain or muscle imbalance, and if so, what can I do to balance it out, keeping in mind that I have to use the pull buoy, so I have no access to my legs?

Oh, also, on a completely unrelated note, for everyone who checks us out via RSS, in my boredom, I added a little poll to the blog. We'll be changing the polls around once a week, so if you want to come check us out at some point during the week to vote, please do. :)

Still alive

2009-02-06T18:25:00.004-06:00

Thursday went well, all things considered. I got up around 8 a.m., and between then and when I left to pick my sister up to go to the surgical center at 11, I almost ate something approximately 6 times. Every time it was a situation like, "Hrm, I'm kind of hungry, I should have a granola bar," or, "My mouth is really dry. I need a glass of water." Then, every time without fail, as I started to do that thing, I would literally say, "Son of a bitch!" and stomp away from sweet, delicious food.

So at 11, I left, picked up Sherri, and off to the surgical center we go. It was like 25 degrees out, but I had to wear shorts, which was fun. Got there, filled out the forms, and apparently the normal banter between my sister and I greatly amused the receptionist who was laughing for the 10 minutes we were in the waiting room. I went into the back, and found that almost everyone I spoke with was a runner. The nurse in her 40s or early 50s who took care of prepping me was telling me about some sprint tri that she's doing in September. One of the other nurses who was wandering around tried to do Chicago a few years ago but had IT band tendinitis and had to drop out, but is doing the Country Music Half in Nashville this April. Her only question for me about that race was how hilly it was, because her husband is a total baby.

The nurse who was prepping me told me that my doc is not only a team doctor for DC United, but he was also one for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the Steelers head guy recommended him to be the doc for the Redskins, too (so yeah, my doc apparently is a big sports medicine guy). Once she had my IV in, asked what was getting worked on. "My right knee." "Please point to it." So I did. And then she colored a big green dot on the leg right above the knee, which the Doc signed when he came in to talk to me before surgery. (So yes, Glaven, they did draw a "cut this leg" mark on me)

The doc finished his surgery prior to mine really quickly and he showed up before the nurses had me fully prepped. They went through setting up the IV, getting the anesthesiologist, etc, nice and quick and we were ready to go. The anesthesiologist asked me if I wanted to be awake to watch the surgery, but the doc clearly would rather have had me asleep, as I'm sure it's much easier for him to not have to explain it all, etc, so I just said no, knock me out. The last question I answered before rolling into the surgical suite was the Doc's resident asking me how I hurt my leg. My answer, "Oh, 20 mile long run." He just looked confused. Everyone else already knew I was a runner so that answer didn't seem odd. Doc was talking about the options he might perform depending on what he saw, so the last thing I said to him before he headed to prep was that I want to run another marathon when I'm healed, so do what he thinks is best, I trust him.

They rolled me into the suite, and the last thing I remember was the anesthesiologist saying they didn't have a blood pressure cuff and sending someone to get one. Then I woke up in post-op. Things are a little hazy for a while. There was a nurse who kept laughing at me because she kept telling me the exact opposite of what the Doc had told me in the last few weeks, so I kept asking her to clarify if she really meant the opposite of what he said and she just laughed and said, "The anesthesia is making you forgetful. You already asked me that." I also have a habit of shaking my head really hard to try to "clear the cobwebs" when I get tired at work or whatever, so I did that a couple times to shake the anesthesia off. She was really worried I was going to throw up from doing that, so kept asking me to stop, but it was helping a lot. I was starving and thirsty as crap, so I asked for a drink. She gave me some apple juice, which I downed. At this point, Sherri was back with me, so I told her how I couldn't wait to get to the car to be able to eat. The nurse said I didn't have to wait, so I grabbed a granola bar from my bag (I brought 2) and ate it in like 3 bites. Again, nurse is concerned I'll puke from anesthesia, but I am fine, so 5 min later, I ask for more juice and eat the other granola bar. She's still worried, but after I finished the 2nd one and the juice, her comment was, "Damn, you handle anesthesia really well!"

So, final results: Only one tear, on the medial side. Turns out whatever he saw on the lateral meniscus on the MRI wasn't a tear. He repaired the medial tear, so I have 4 sutures in it. I have to wear the big immobilizer pictured in the post from Monday. However, the good news is that I can put weight on the knee as long as I wear the immobilizer. I only use the crutches as long as I feel I need to use them and then I gimp around with the brace. I will be starting home exercises Saturday, and PT starts Tuesday. Doc says he doesn't want me to run for 4 months, because he wants to make sure the repair can heal. There's only a 70% chance of a meniscus tear repair healing, so he wants to give it the best chance (apparently, if you tear your meniscus while also rupturing your ACL, you have a much higher chance of the meniscus repair healing because of the amount of bleeding that happens when fixing a ruptured ACL). However, when my sister spoke with him after surgery, she told him I had been swimming and using a pull buoy to immobilize my legs. He said that I should be able to start that within a couple weeks, so it looks like between now and June, I'll be all swimming. I'll be a fish by the end of this thing.

Overall, things went extremely well. The pain is really setting in now (Friday night), so I'm staring with the painkillers, but that's what they're there for I guess. The next few days will almost assuredly be a blur of Percocet, Vicodin, and sleep. :)

The drug form they gave me when I left the surgical center was awesome, and I include it here for your entertainment. The header of column 3 is what really makes this!

Just call me Sacajawea

2009-02-06T12:55:00.002-06:00

So how brilliant of an idea is this?

So at some point in August I have to move from Iowa to Washington. Guess who also went from Iowa to Washington? Yeah, that's right. My homies Lewis and Clark.

So I am totally going to do the Lewis and Clark trail from Iowa to Washington. Essentially that means following the Missouri river from Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Montana, getting over the mountains in Montana and then following more rivers to the West Coast.

It will be scenic!

There will be lots of places to stop!

I bet I can even manage to not stop at a chain restaurant the entire trip, since I imagine the trail is littered with places called the Lewis and Clark Cafe and Sacajawea's Pit Stop.

And I decided that to commemorate the trip, that I am going to aim to be in Chamberlain SD for the Lewis and Clark Triathlon on August 15th. I'll have my bike with me anyway, so why not?

D-Day

2009-02-05T06:53:00.001-06:00

Leaving for the hospital in a little bit. See you on the flip side!

So tired

2009-02-01T18:21:00.002-06:00

As I was expecting, I am feeling comfortable in the pool now that surgery is 4 days away. Today I did a 300m warmup and then 1500m, with no stops (personal best, so I'm pretty happy)

Swimming has been an interesting exercise experience for me. I am not going balls out, so I'm not out of breath while I'm swimming (and nevermind how weird it feels to exercise but not sweat). I can just get in a groove and keep going, which is nice, and I don't feel really exhausted while I'm in the pool. However, after a day like today, 5 minutes after I'm done, I just want to lay on the floor of my sister's apartment (I swim in the pool at her building) and sleep for an hour or two.

I've been thinking about races in the last third of the year as a way to keep my spirits up lately. I am on our WWR team in August. There are a couple other race possibilities, as well; I'll mention them again later in the year as I put more thought into them.

I've also been trying to find a sprint tri to think about for the fall within a reasonable distance from DC. I found ones in Hagerstown, MD in July, Culpeper, VA in August, Williamsburg, VA in September, Boonesboro, MD in October, and Bumpass, VA on October (perhaps the best named city in all of VA I never knew existed). If anyone knows anything about any of these races, let me know what you think. Once I'm on the mend and start training again, if it looks like I'm going to try to tri, I'll probably end up joining the DC Tri Club (their newbie race of choice is the NJ State Tri in July; the same weekend as Hagerstown).

Anyway, 4 days and counting until the big day. I went to the doctor's office on Thursday and picked up the knee immobilizer, the painkiller prescriptions (Percocet and something that I found out was an antihistamine when I looked it up (I don't know, but whatever)), and a Polar Care, which is an interesting device that is a knee brace attached to a cooler with a motor that circulates ice water through the brace.

I'm definitely resting Monday, but I'll get in two more days in the pool Tuesday and Wednesday.

We're number one!

2009-02-01T11:38:00.003-06:00

At least for now...

Now we just have to go kneecap any potential Flatlander teams who come alphabetically before "Back off man, I'm a scientist." or any Corporate teams, and we can repeat as Team Number 1 (see WWR 2006 bib in header).

The check is going out on Monday! So now we just need six more people to pony up! We have six months! That's one a month!

Now, where is my spandex bodysuit?

2009-01-31T21:06:00.007-06:00

So the Nordic Ski Club had a skiing potluck today. It was gorgeous and sunny and 40 degrees and it was a blast.

And I also found out that they have money for entries to the Mora Vasaloppet.

It's next weekend.

There is a 13k race, which I could totally handle, despite not really training other than skiing a few times a week for fun. But I was out skiing for two hours today over non-groomed trails and I was fine.

But really, I'm totally doing it for the t-shirt.

And perhaps for practice for this next year...

But doesn't "cross-country ski racer" just make me sound even more badass than I already am? Yeah, I thought so.

Oops

2009-01-28T12:41:00.002-06:00

Since I read most blogs in RSS, I wanted to correct my twitter feed link here instead of the original post. I'm here! If you are on Twitter, I am always looking for more feeds to follow :-) Right now, I am so desperate, I follow Karl Rove.

Today in Links

2009-01-28T12:23:00.005-06:00

Beard Bags for Naked Bicycle Riding! (h/t The Bloggess)

Nerdy runner, personified. Did I mention I already read Seattle newspapers?

If Steep and Cheap hasn't already bankrupted me, this will. Seriously, I'm such a sucker for a bargain.

I tweet now. I mostly started to help a friend get up to 500 followers. But as a bonus, my random tweets hopefully have scored us a 7th runner for the Wild West Relay. Yeah, Miss Allycat, I'm looking at you. Anyway, who'd have thought that I feel the need to say random things to my computer all day? My Facebook statuses stay up for like a week, so I figured I would suck at this, but in fact, I just say the things I am thinking to twitter, as opposed to my officemates who will either:

1. Acknowledge I said something before turning back to their computers with a look of "why won't she stop talking?" on their faces.

2. Actually start a conversation with me when all I really wanted to do was point out something funny I read in the roommate ads on Craig's List.

Oh yeah, so we are going to register, yay! Along with me, Joe, Lauren, Al, Caroline, and John (from the GRR team) have all agreed to send money so we can get the cheaper registration rate. So "Back off man, I'm a scientist" will return to compete in the Flatlanders Division. Good times! We need six (or five) more runners! Hint hint...

5 isn't anywhere close to 13

2009-01-24T16:59:00.002-06:00

Well, unless of course you are an order of magnitude kinda girl (which we fluid mechanicists typically are), in which case both are equal to 10^1.

So for like the billionth week in a row, my long run was only five miles. I have been trying not to up my distance too fast, but at some point I need to up just a little probably...

Otherwise that is going to be 13 miles of pain on March 21st...

I was going to run outside this morning but after a lovely foray into the 30s, the temps were in the negatives again so I roughed it out on the treadmill. My friend Mary happened to be on the treadmill next to me, so we made sure neither of us wussed out.

The worst part of my run? Well, I started it watching Scrubs (I heart Zach Braff - seriously I am so predictable with my crushes on nice Jewish boys - I blame it on being from Newton, home of the Fig Newton, Heartbreak Hill, and classmates who mostly went to Hebrew school instead of CCD like me).

Anyway all was fine and dandy.

Then Scrubs ended.

And "I'm gonna git you sucka" came on.

I don't like to change the TV station while running.

So I was forced to watch 20 minutes of the Wayan Brothers.

As if running on the treadmill wasn't torture enough...

Am I enjoying myself?

2009-01-20T20:51:00.003-06:00

Swimming doesn't totally suck. I feel like I'm starting to feel a little comfortable. I'm not good or fast or anything, but I don't quite feel awkward and I am starting to enjoy my time in the pool. Whether that's because I like swimming or because I just can't do anything else, that's not for me to guess at. I am curious, though, what will happen once I have to swim without the pull buoy, since I am using it exclusively right now as I can't use my leg. I may like it less once I don't have a float keeping half of me from sinking like a rock.

Based on the last month, I have set a couple of new goals. I would like to do a triathlon in 2009 (nothing in mind yet, as scheduling is pretty fluid right now until I have a better idea of recovery times), and, assuming I don't just absolutely hate it, I would like to do this in 2010.

15 days until surgery...

31 Degrees! That's a heat wave!

2009-01-17T15:51:00.012-06:00

Unfortunately, as I have learned since moving to Iowa, unseasonably warm weather is almost always accompanied by massive winds.

So after a bit of a hiatus, I actually ran with my running group this morning. I dragged my butt out of bed at 7:30 and got ready to run six miles.

Except that I totally wussed out and only ran 3.5.

Great half marathon training, huh?

But those winds!

They sucked!

We went out and back and the way out I did in 17 minutes and the way back took 21. It was like running into a wall.

I also wussed out because the other slow person there was only planning on doing three and I couldn't leave him to run back alone, could I? Really, what kind of running friend would I be? John and I go way back as running buddies. Back when I was training for Grandma's, he actually did a 20 mile run with me just for kicks. So I couldn't let him run the mile and a half back by himself, could I?

Tomorrow I think I might bite the bullet and do my "long run" of a meager five miles inside on the track. 12 laps to a mile! I am pretty sure I will mess up counting and that will just throw my anal-retentive OCD brain into a complete tizzy that it can't recover from because GOD FORBID I RUN 4.92 OR 5.08 MILES INSTEAD OF EXACTLY FIVE.

My effing watch is only a 50 lap watch WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO DO TO ME TIMEX?????

Maybe I just need to bring a sharpie and write on my arm or something.

****************************************************************

So in completely unrelated stuff that I meant to post around Christmas but things got busy (favorite quote of the week from my cousin "I'm glad to see your mom wore her best sweatpants to the funeral"), I actually nailed my parents Christmas present this year. It was a little pricey since I did everything last minute (who me?). My dad (who I get the anal-retentive OCD brain from) has all their early photos on slides sitting in the basement. So I got a nice digital frame and got a whole bunch of the slides converted to digital format and bam! My mom is still talking about. So anyway, I thought I would share some of my favorites (although I sorta realize now that most of the people that read this blog are my Facebook friends so they have seen them already):

My dad, who totally looks like he is posing for a magazine shoot.

I love the plaid pants/patterned sweater combo here...
My mom has a hood on her wedding dress. God bless the 70s! Oh yeah and my mom totally shared this dress with another friend who was getting married near the same time.
My parents had an Irish Setter named Barnaby that they got before they got married. Apparently he accidentally bit me in the head once when I was a baby. Oops!
I am pretty sure if I ever have kids, that I will pose them with the dog as well.
Is it any wonder that I heart big dogs? Please note the bandaids on both my knees. Once a klutz, always a klutz I guess...
Me and my little sister, who is turning 30 this year OMG WE'RE OLD.
Do you see the black socks and white sandals on me? Is it any wonder that to this day I still wear socks with sandals on occasion? Mom, I blame you for my social ostracization.
I remember very little from my childhood, but I remember these skis. I *hated* cross country skiing back then. I made my mom drag me up all the hills. I really didn't rediscover it until I moved to Iowa. Of course there is no way I could find such a rad ski suit to go skiing in.

I thought my thermometer was broken when it said -21

2009-01-15T08:21:00.003-06:00

Before I moved to Iowa, I used to have a rule about not leaving the house when it was below zero degrees.

I gave up that rule years ago.

The only thing that is going to make me leave the house today is that I only have 15 minutes left on my battery and I am pretty sure I would die without the internet for the day.

Oh yeah and the pilot light on our furnace went out AGAIN last night.

I'm so glad I am not a homeowner and that falls squarely under NOT MY JOB.

T-10 weeks...

2009-01-10T15:57:00.002-06:00

...until the National Half-Marathon.

So I'm not gonna lie. I'd like to finally break 2:10 at this distance. My PR is 2:13 something. Since I have incapacitated my opposition through a conveniently placed pin to the knee on my voodoo doll, I don't have to worry about my pride.

It's ten weeks off and my "long" runs are at 5 miles. Not exactly major miles. But I have only not run two days this year so far, so I think I am building a solid base. Whether or not I can get the miles up is a totally different story.

Plus one can never underestimate the bonus of running in sissy land (DC) compared to badass land (that would be Iowa where we run in ice and snow and 10 degree weather all winter). DC in March has about 10 degrees on Iowa in March and clothes reduction always helps one's times. (Glaven, don't even go there - the chafing alone is painful to think about.)

In other news, I learned that the boat may actually have exercise machines on it.

Unless this is elaborate plan by my current advisor to humiliate me in front of my future advisor by having me show up on the boat and ask "So where are the treadmills?" I think all might not be lost in April.

Of course, my current advisor told me "Whatever you do, don't let anyone know it is your first cruise or else you are going to get hazed."

Now I have heard of being hazed when you cross the equator for the first time, or going down to the bottom of the ocean in Alvin, but no one told me I might be hazed just because! We're just going to Monterey Canyon! Nowhere near the equator! In fact I think we are going to be so close to the California coast that I'll be able smell the smoke from whatever forest fire is raging at the moment!

Not quite a fish yet, but...

2009-01-10T10:08:00.002-06:00

I'm sort of like the opposite of this fish; I imagine my swimming looks to him like his walking would look to me. However, after the great advice everyone gave me the other day, I've been experimenting with swimming some more, and I feel like I'm getting closer to figuring it out. I think the turning point was the suggestion my M to watch the Total Immersion swimming videos on YouTube. After watching a bunch of those, I started to figure out what I was doing wrong, and was able to try to change my stroke up. I'm by no means good, but the day I swam after watching the videos, it was so much easier. I was able to swim twice as far that next day as I had been, once I streamlined my stroke and didn't have all this wasted effort and energy (it's still not very far, but much better than it was last week).

The bouy has been really interesting, too. Not using my legs at all has not only helped me concentrate on my upper body, but it helps my knee a lot; my knee hurts when it's bent (i.e. when sitting), so keeping it straight relieves the stress and gives me some release from the constant ache, which has been getting worse lately.

As I've been having fun trying to figure this out for myself, and only I have 3 weeks and change until surgery, I talked to my friend who said she'd give me some advice, and we're going to wait until after the surgery, so I can just play for the next few weeks by myself.

I've either tried or been thinking about much of what you all told me when I've been in the pool this week, and it's definitely helping this whole swimming thing make sense in my head, so thanks again for all the good feedback!

Swimming Advice

2009-01-04T18:55:00.002-06:00

Ok, to all of our loyal followers who swim, I need some advice. I am finally to the point where there's no longer any real threat of drowning, so I can concentrate on swimming a little more. The other day, I was asking the lifeguard for some advice on breathing and stuff, and one of the comments he made while watching me swim was that I use my legs a lot. I didn't think I was, but I wasn't really thinking about it much, as I was more focused on breathing air instead of water, etc.

Today, I felt comfortable enough that I could think about something other than breathing, and I realized that I was indeed using my legs a lot. I tried to use them less, and found that I got tired really quickly. My upper body is apparently weak. So, assuming I try to incorporate some gym time into my workout routine (which right now consists of swimming and watching Netflix movies from the couch), what should I concentrate on trying to strengthen to help improve swimming?

Punky Power!

2009-01-04T10:03:00.002-06:00

So I'm like a posting machine! This is totally off topic, but I felt the need to post it because I am pretty sure my parents have had the same conversation about me as Henry and Alan have in the first few seconds...

if you replace "room" with "lab", "model car" with "dissertation", and "days" with "years"...

Courtesy of Jezebel:

Of course, if Henry knew how... well-endowed... Soleil Moonfry would turn out, he probably wouldn't worry about her finding a husband...

Also, I wonder if Larry Summers ever moonlighted as the manager of a model car race track...

And did anyone else learn that you shouldn't hide in refrigerators from Punky Brewster? That is a lesson from Cheri that I carry with me to this day...

Two posts in a day!

2009-01-03T22:58:00.003-06:00

So I was going to write this post some other day, but we are in the midst of a bit of an icy mess and the roads suck so I am stuck in the house on a saturday night, finding ways to kill time that don't involve drinking all the beer in the fridge and eating all the chocolate I got for Christmas.
Must. Keep. Hands. Busy.

Anway, I am someone who relishes New Years. I hate New Years Eve but I love that 1/1 is sort of a reset button. Yeah, I know one can "reset" any day of the year, but I like 1/1.

So 2009...

It is going to be a crazy one.

I have approximately three months to get two journal articles out (which will make up the results section of my dissertation). This would be easier if I actually had results. But of course, the data never looks like it should. Ironically this is one of my goals for the year:
I also have approximately three months to get my ass in gear for the National Half-Marathon in DC in March. I'm all registered, so it's official! Travelling always effs up my training, but I have no trips planned until the race, so maybe I can properly train for this thing.

So three months is my deadline because as I have mentioned before, I will be at sea for the entire month of April. On a 50 m long boat. So no running and no spring races, sadly.

Then I come back and have to go out to a big lake in northwest Iowa for two months for field work:
At the same time I actually have to get the dissertation put together in time to defend by the end of July. And then everyone will have to call me Dr. Danielle in Iowa.

I am also contemplating the Chisago Lakes Half-Ironman at the end of July. I'd really love to get a half-IM in before I leave Iowa and my training partners. But yeah, half-IM and defense in the same week? I'm not sure about that...

Then I'm free! At some point in August, I have to move my ass to Seattle. I am actually a bit excited for the road trip. I am going to go a little bit out of my way and drive through ND to Montana, just so I can cross ND off the list. Because really, when else am I ever going to get to ND? And then I have to cross the entire freakin' state of Montana. I have never been to Montana either, so I am looking forward to it. I plan on taking my time meandering through the state. I intend to move with just my station wagon with two bikes and two pairs of skis on the roof so hopefully I can take some time to enjoy the scenery:
Anyone want to road trip?

I also am finally going to take advantage of having a real job and real vacation time (instead of this weird mix of flexibility and obligation that is grad school) and go visit my sister in New Zealand and use my frequent flyer miles to go visit a friend in Colombia. I'm pretty sure it is not like Romancing the Stone anymore. That and I'll have a native tour guide.

So what does this mean for relaying? Well, I most definitely can't do anything before August. So that pretty much leaves two options - The Wild West Relay and the Ragnar DC Relay. If anyone wants to do either, let me know!

Running FAIL

2009-01-03T14:58:00.002-06:00

Dear Resident at 1032 13th Street (and all similar offenders),

Maintaining an inch thick layer of ice on your sidewalk does not count as clearing it. Since many of your neighbors have managed to get it down to clear pavement, I presume you can do the same. Next time I fall on my ass outside your house, I'm totally suing - mostly because 13th street is a major road and wiping out there is pretty embarassing.

Love Danielle

The ups and downs

2008-12-29T13:26:00.004-06:00

The last couple of weeks have been quite the rollercoaster in terms of mood. I was pretty down that I was injured, then up when I saw the doc and the prospect of knowing what was wrong loomed. Once I found out, I was very happy for a day knowing it was fixable, then down because I realize it'll potentially be April before I can begin to run again. Then I was back up for a while when Danielle and a few other people suggested I try swimming. I did, and I was cautiously optimistic when my knee didn't hurt and I didn't drown. I'd probably be really good at swimming if I didn't need to breathe, but I have to work on that. Today, though, I tried to ride the exercise bike in the gym for the first time in a few weeks, and after 5 minutes, my knee was really hurting, so again, the instant mood drop. I'm seriously bipolar right now. I'm sure I'm a joy to be around...

Under the knife

2008-12-23T09:50:00.005-06:00

I had the follow-up with the doc today to get the reading of the MRI. I have two cartilage tears (one lateral, one medial). Surgery will be sometime in January; someone from the office is supposed to call me sometime today to schedule a time. It doesn't appear too serious. He's not sure if he'll be repairing or just trimming up until he gets in there (he said as a rule, he prefers to repair if at all possible, but he can't tell from the MRI for sure what he'll be able to do until he sees it), so I don't know if I'll find out if I'll be on crutches for 3 days or 6 weeks before surgery takes place...

At this point, I am happy he is the team doctor for a professional sports team, since he sees this type of thing a lot, and his job is to get them back on the field healthy and quickly.

Edited 2008-12-23 2pm: Looks like surgery will not be at least until February. I currently have an appt for February 5th, but that is only if the surgery takes an hour or less. The person who does scheduling hasn't gotten any paperwork from the doctor about me yet, so when she finally does, if she sees it'll take longer than that, it'll get bumped back even further. Woohoo! I have the Feb 5th appt because the doc told me I'd be scheduling an appt with her, so I called her, for lack of any other instructions. If I hadn't, I likely wouldn't have talked to her until next week sometime.

More Snow!

2008-12-22T21:03:00.004-06:00

So I am not sure what is going on back in Iowa but out here in New England we are getting slammed with snow.

I seriously don't remember snow like this before Christmas since I was little.

I'd take pictures of the huge snowbanks but my camera battery is dead.

But anyway, I tried to run on Saturday up in Vermont.

Yeah... I made it about a mile and then I quit. Part of that was because nowhere in VT near our house is flat so I was running up steep slopes on unplowed roads.

So my long run this weekend? Didn't really happen.

It might happen tomorrow if I am sufficiently inspired.

But today I went downhill skiing.

Yay skiing!
Okay, this picture is from Winter Park CO in 2003, but who cares. Remember, dead camera battery...

Yeah, so I went skiing with my dad and a family friend today. The snow was gorgeous but it was frigid. Not quite the same workout as running, but my quads still burned.

But... now I am excited to live somewhere I can ski regularly again. I grew up skiing every other weekend or so when I was younger. I raced in high school.

Then I moved to a tropical island for two years.

Then I moved to the Midwest for SEVEN years.

So the skiing? A little rusty.

But there are mountains near Seattle!

Maybe I'll even get a season pass somewhere.

Cuz dude, skiing is expensive.

In other news, I got home and my grandmother who lives here died less than a day after I got here (literally as I was on my way over to visit her in hospice care). My mom works as a nurse, so this was the grandmother who used to watch us after school every day. She was really sick, so it wasn't completely unexpected, but I'm sad I missed out on saying goodbye bye by literally 15 minutes. Not that she has been conscious recently, so it was really for my sake not hers.

But the morbidly hilarious moment of the day on Friday goes to my mom. We were waiting for her siblings to get there before the funeral home took her away so there was this weird time-killing conversation between me, my mom, and my uncle as we hovered around my grandma. So my mom goes to my uncle:

"Will you ask her if she is dating anyone, because she won't tell me anything."

one pole, no protection

2008-12-15T15:30:00.003-06:00

As Danielle so creatively pointed out. My car, a Rendezvous, had a rendezvous with a telephone pole. Apparantly, the ice doesn't count as a no fault accident, so indeed it is my fault that my car slid on the ice. I did a nice, slow thinking response. Steer with the skid. . . . . .didn't work. . . . .steer against the skid. . . . ..didn't work. . . . . . .hit the brakes. . . . .not a good idea, turns the car around. . . . .hit the telephone pole. And, I was on my way to the gym to lift weights before our work xmas party so I couldn't stop to call the police and make a report or I may miss the opportunity to see my only shoulder muscle reflected in the large mirror as I lift my punny weights!

So, Danielle listened to me talk to my insurance company on the phone all the way to the gym. And, then I drank a beer at the xmas party.

Do any of you have a car? If so, invite me to do things. Invite me a lot, take pity on me - I will be fun! All you need to do is pick me up. . . .

Six miles of lumbering

2008-12-13T14:05:00.003-06:00

Okay, at least I am up to six miles. That's something! Even if they were 11 minute miles. I think I may drop back to five mile long runs again, mostly because I get discouraged when I run my long runs in the 11s. I only wear my heart rate monitor so I don't know my pace until I finish. Okay, whine whine whine, boo hoo, I run so slow. Done.

Anyway, maybe I ran so slow because this is Day 9 straight of working out. Seriously! You'd think I was a machine or something! Normally I give myself a day of rest once a week, but Kori has been guilting me into working out, mainly because her car had relations with a telephone pole and so she can't get to the gym unless I drive her. So in the past nine days, I have had 4 short runs (2.5-3.5 miles), one long run of six miles, three spinning classes (two of which turned into bricks with 1-2 mile runs afterwards), and three trips to my weight class at the gym (lamely called Group Power!).

The last track at Group Power is the shoulder track and the music sounds like it came straight out of my Nintendo Dance Aerobics game. (Okay, I guess game is a really bad name for it, since it is dancing).

From 1988.

Yeah, we were doing Wii Fit way before it was cool.

The best was that they had this Track and Field game that was superfun. Of course, we would always cheat on the long jump and jump off the pad and then jump back on to land. And these guys here? There was many an hour of doing this in the basement in front of the Nintendo. If you have never played, I'd like you to note the movements during the 100-m dash, where you go fast by having quick turnover... which when running in place means picking your feet like an inch off the ground. Ah, such a skill to be mastered!

Next up, MRI

2008-12-12T20:42:00.002-06:00

Went to the orthopedic today. He said the ligaments are fine. There was also an interesting, reproducible pop when he torqued the knee a certain way, though while amusing and loud, it's apparently nothing more than entertaining to the doc, so I guess I'm not worried. At this point, he is leaning towards some sort of cartilage problem. He is cautiously optimistic that it's not a breakdown of the support the meniscus provides, because on the x-rays they took, there is good symmetry for all 4 points of contact across both knees, though the x-ray don't show enough detail to be sure. I have an MRI scheduled for Thursday (because the radiology lab needs 3 business days to get pre-approval from my insurance, even though there was an opening Monday at 9 a.m.; yay insurance). So I get the MRI, go back to the ortho, and see what it says.

I really like doctors who deal with athletes (the ortho is the team doctor for DC United), because first thing he said was, "so, the goal is to get you to run marathons again, right?" He didn't tell me to stop running long distances because they damage your body. So now I just wait a while longer [insert Jeopardy theme here]...

I'm addicted to Mary Jane(s)

2008-12-09T22:15:00.004-06:00

So here is where I am totally using this blog for my own personal gain.

Over here, Keen is doing a giveaway.

For any of their products.

Now, in case you didn't know, I am kinda a shoe addict.

And I am addicted to expensive shoes.

Not like Carrie Bradshaw shoes.

But hello, I own about five pairs of Keens, five pairs of Chacos, and five pairs of Danskos (to my credit, I snag a lot of them for like 50-75% off at Steep and Cheap).

I seriously have a problem.

I especially have a bit of a Mary Jane addiction. How can you not think these are not adorable?

Anyway, I get an extra entry into the contest if I link back to it from the blog.

Yes. I am a shameless shoe whore.

Oh! And in some running related content... We had our running group Christmas party tonight.

There was a white elephant gift exchange.

I put in an entire box full of Howard Dean pins and stickers that I have left over from 2004.

In return...

I got...

THE GERMAN CHICKEN HAT!!!1!!1!

The German Chicken Hat hasn't even been worn since I wore it last year for Living History Farms. In fact, it still has leaves stuck in its feathers. Oh I'm so happy that the German Chicken Hat is moving to Seattle with me!!!

Snow!

2008-12-07T18:33:00.005-06:00

So I went cross-country skiing four times this week.

Most excellent!

I did manage to run a few times as well, although I am not a fan of trying to do hard runs on the icy sidewalks. So I am only doing my long runs outside and I do my shorter runs inside on the treadmill where I can feel the pain.

I did about 4 miles today for my long run (you know, after a tough week peaking at 5 miles last week, I needed a rest week). But then right after I went skiing with my friend Jaymi for an hour:

I also went to spinning class twice last week with Kori. Lesson learned: I'm really lazy when it comes to spinning at 5:30 in the morning - I don't turn the tension up as much as when I do it at night...

In other news, I think I accidentally went on two dates this week.

Seriously.

I mean, I'm friends with boys like it's my job. (PLEASE tell me about the girl that you like that doesn't like you back AGAIN). So I don't actually think much about it when boys I know ask me if I want to grab a beer or coffee or something.

On Tuesday, I met someone for (what I thought was friendly) drinks and at 11pm he was trying to get me to go back to his place.

To meet his ferrets.

For real.

Saturday was much less weird so I won't get into it, but gees I'm excited to get out of this town!

Of course Seattle doesn't have Libertarian cowboys or boys with cute accents.

But at least a real city has shear numbers going for it.

And I believe a disproportionate amount of crunchy granola boys.

Who'll probably go cross-country skiing with me.

And we come full circle.

Time to visit the doctor

2008-11-30T21:27:00.002-06:00

Yeah, so I was doing real well for a whole week and a half with the running comeback. Then, one day when I was in Austin, while out for a nice cold morning run, my knee starting hurting pretty bad again. I took 5 weeks off, then on my 5th run of approx 3 miles in length, the pain was back.

The appt with the orthopedic is next Friday. I hope it's something that can be fixed easily. I'm sick of not being able to run.

5!

2008-11-29T12:08:00.002-06:00

Joe should be shaking in his boots. (Or running shoes or Manolos or whatever)

My long run is up to 5 whole miles! 5!

So yeah, today I dragged my ass out of bed and met with my running group for the first time in like months. Because really, it isn't worth it to meet my group when I am running such short distances. Especially in winter when I would rather wait until mid day to run instead of the crack of dawn.

Since I don't wear my Garmin, I'm not sure how fast I went (since there was some creative route adjustment due to a locked gate). Somewhere between 10:30 and 11:00 min/miles. So yeah, not speedy, but I'm building here! I can do 2.5 miles at sub-10 min/miles, but 3 is still elusive.

In other news, I ran five days in the last week, got my ass kicked in spinning class on monday, lifted twice, didn't even celebrate Thanksgiving, and gained a pound.

Seriously.

It's muscle, right? Right?!

Unintentional bloggy meetup!

2008-11-22T14:24:00.003-06:00

So today was the Living History Farms cross country race. Last year was a blast, but since my "long runs" are four miles these days, I decided to abstain and just volunteer (although being undertrained doesn't stop the vast majority of the runners of this race...)

My job was to hand out the chips. This is the first year they used chips. I'm actually sort of curious how well it worked, considering everyone's feet are submerged in water at least once during this race.

Anyway, this year I got to stay dry and just cheer for people and ring some cowbell. I was cheering for the folks from my running group when, lo and behold! Along comes Miss Allycat! We chatted it up for a bit after the race. I am pretty sure there was a commitment in there to come down and run for doughnuts next year...

In my own personal running news, I suck! Okay, maybe not royally, but I have been lazy lately. But the National Half Marathon in DC in March is tenatively on the plate. And I have some Jewish computer nerd ass to kick. So I better get crackin'!

The comeback continues

2008-11-14T14:29:00.003-06:00

I've been running every other day for the last week, and I'm feeling pretty good. I feel a little sluggish because I took so much time off, but my knee doesn't hurt and I'm able to continue with the heel strike stride without falling back into running on my toes, so I guess so far so good.

I am going to be in Austin for the next week for a conference for work. I am hoping to get up and run in the mornings before heading off to the show. When I looked at the weather, it's supposed to be in the 60s, to which I thought, "Sweet!" until I looked closer, and found that at 6 a.m., it's supposed to be 35. What the hell?! 35 at 6 a.m. and 65 at 3 p.m.? What's wrong with this place? Oh well.

I was looking at a calendar today, and noticed that, should D and I manage to pull off the New Zealand trip, the race is 14 weeks from tomorrow. Guess it's about time to start getting serious about training. It's a good thing D's been a grad student for the last bazillion years. She's quite used to being schooled, so the race should feel pretty natural for her.

Back on the horse

2008-11-06T17:21:00.002-06:00

4 weeks since Chicago, 3 visits with the chiropractor, buying orthotics and new shoes, I decided it was time to get back in the saddle, so I went for a run today. I only went around 1.5 miles, mostly because I simply wanted to test my sea legs out (I'm all about mixing metaphors, it helps keep my enemies confused). After about five minutes, my knee twinged a little, but a few minutes later, it was gone. Overall, I felt pretty good.

I went to the running store the other day and got fitted for some new shoes that weren't specifically designed for toe runners, as my old ones were. I gotta say, with the new shoes and orthotics, the heel strike stride feels pretty good.

Here's hoping I'm on the road to recovery, ready to give D a run for her money if we make it to New Zealand.

Cruisin'

2008-11-06T15:18:00.003-06:00

Oh so one thing I didn't mention about this job offer...

Wait, I shouldn't even say I have an offer until I actually have the formal offer. I feel like will jinx it or something. The guy I will be working for is a Pretty Big Name and I am still afraid when I talk to him that I will say something stupid and he will rescind my informal offer.

Anyway, back to what I was saying. While the position wouldn't start until the end of the summer, I do have to go on a cruise for the month of April.

Now "cruise" would probably be the euphemism of the year.

I am pretty sure there will be no fruity cocktails.

Instead there will be 12 hour work days for 25 days straight and sea sickness drugs and lots of science.

And so this will be my home:

I don't know if you can really quite tell from the photo, but the boat is 185 ft long.

What does this have to do with running at all?

Well, this is totally going to eff up any spring marathon plans.

Unless there is a treadmill somewhere on board, a 50 m long boat is not conducive to training.

Can you imagine? I would have to do 50 laps just to do a 5k! Oh my God, I think my brain would explode if I had to do an actual long run!

Add to that the 12 hour work day, which is mostly physical labor.

The cruise really is a solid 25 days at sea. I might be able to pull off a late summer half-IM like I had hoped. Well, I guess in some ways this is good - I can just focus on getting back into good running shape. Maybe I'll see if I can find a March half-marathon somewhere and aim to finally break 2:10...

Oh yeah, so there is a blog here...

2008-11-05T09:07:00.004-06:00

So I haven't been writing much because well... I haven't been running all that much.

Total slacker! I know!

But this weekend I did go running.

In Austin.

With fellow scientist who blogs, Tammy (well, who used to blog, but stopped, which is why I didn't link to her).

I ran a whole 2.3 miles. Crazy!

Next thing you know, I'll be running a 5k or something!

Baby steps, Danielle. Don't get ahead of yourself.

So we ran, and then we ate breakfast outside at Austin Java, where a bird pooped her in coffee and another bird pooped on me personally. Twice.

So I realized I haven't posted anything since the middle of October. Here would be the highlights, very few of which have anything to do with running:

* I turned 31 on Mole Day. Me and Avogadro are totally homies.

* I spent my birthday week out in the wind, cold, and rain on my lake, all in the name of science. Good times! Here is me looking very sciencey while mixing up our dye:

* I found out my sister is moving to New Zealand at the end of the month. This was completely independent of my scheming. And I applied for a travel grant to go to a conference in NZ in February. I think I have Joe convinced to go gallivant around NZ for a bit afterwards and told him to find us a race. He found us this one and really what better way is there to spend Valentine's Day than trying to leave your friend in the dust? We are tied at 1-1 for who beats who at the HM distance. Of course, my only chance is if he is injured, so you better watch out... If anyone wants to come NZ, join in the fun!

* I went to Austin to visit one of my best friends from college! Like our college days, we did a few things, but mostly hung out on the couch and watched TV and ate leftover Halloween candy. She was in the hospital for like a month this summer and is still recovering, so she gets tired quickly. The point of the visit was to see her after her bout with pancreatitis, where her lungs and kidneys also decided to shut down and pretty much she is only alive because she is still young, so I wasn't going down for an excitement filled weekend.

* On the way back, I had an Iowa bonding moment with the six of us in the back of the plane recounting funny stories about things like asking us if we grow potatoes and confusing us with Ohio and pretty much how we get no respect. Then to top off the conversation, the flight attendent came over the announcement system and pronounced Des Moines as "Dez Moin-ez" and we all started laughing hysterically.

As an aside, why do people have such a hard time with Des Moines and Illinois? Did you not take 5th grade geography? I am from Massachusetts and I have ALWAYS known how to pronounce Des Moines and Illinois!

And yesterday.

What can I say about yesterday?

I worked for Obama as a poll reporter in the morning and then knocked doors all afternoon. After turning red in 2004, Iowa didn't let me down this year. I have always kidded that I would only move to a blue state (IA was blue when I moved here), and Obama just gave me a whole heck of a lot more new states to move to.

Although that is all pretty irrelevant, since yesterday morning I got a job offer in Seattle, which is in a consistently blue state. I have a month to decide, but I am not going to hear from NSF regarding New Zealand until March and that fellowship has about a 20% funding rate. Wellington has mountains and ocean, but then again, so does Seattle. The only thing Seattle is missing is the boys with cute accents - unless you count the Canadians there and their funny way of saying "about."

So yeah, yesterday was quite eventful!

On an amusing post-election day note, I leave you with this:

PS The Obama office here is trying to get rid of a crapload of Obama posters, stickers, etc etc. If there is anyone who is not in a swing state who wants some schwag, let me know!

Slightly better adjusted

2008-10-24T21:48:00.003-05:00

One of the other runners in DC Fit has been going to a chiropractor for a long time, and absolutely loves this guy. Over the course of training, she recommended him to anyone with problems, and the handful of people that went to see him all spoke very highly of him. About a month ago, he told the original patient to extend an offer to everyone in the group for a free foot scan for custom orthotics.

After the knee pain I developed during the last month of training, I figured orthotics were probably going to be a good idea, so I called up on Tuesday and made an appointment for this afternoon. I went in, had the scan, and chatted with the doc for a while. I decided to ask him to take a look at my lower back, as I wondered if my somewhat severe supination (and unevenness in pressure, where I put more on my left foot than right, due to the extreme dominance of my left side, both left-handed and left-footed) stemmed from some minor issues I have with my back (a couple slightly bulging disks). He poked a little and found that one hip slightly higher than the other. He suggested that in about 6 sessions, he'd be able to straighten me out so I wouldn't have problems anymore, and between that and the orthotics, I'd feel a hundred times better, like a new person when running.

I had my first adjustment right then in the office, and my second coming up early next week. I felt a difference after the session, and he said by the 3rd or 4th, it would feel really different. I'm excited, I think this is going to be a Very Good Thing (tm).

I haven't started running again since Chicago. My knee feels better every day, but I didn't want to come back too fast, as it was still a little sore on Wednesday. My plan is to get on my bike starting early next week, and if my knee is feeling good, start running in a week or two. The chiropractor approved of this plan, telling me he recommended I not run for at least another week yet. I'm so itching to get back out there, especially so I can be ready to school Danielle in whatever race we end up running in the winter/spring. You're going down, D!

Reflections

2008-10-19T16:19:00.004-05:00

It was waaaaaaaaaay back in April that teammate Lauren asked me to run the Chicago marathon with her. It's been a long road from then to now. So, here are some of the thoughts on the whole experience, in no particular order or with no particular significance...

DC Fit: Good idea in theory. In practice, implementation is everything. In this case, the other runners and the assistant coaches couldn't, in my mind, make up for the jackassedness of the lead coach. His lack of guidance, planning, and general enthusiasm leaked down throughout the ranks of the group, both staff and runners. In the end, I think we got enough out of it to complete our respective races, but I can see how much better it could have been, and that's too bad.

Injuries: I learned a lot about how to distinguish aches versus injuries. Along this journey, there were a few aches I mistook for injuries, and an injury that I mistook for an ache. I think this is one of the most improtant lessons I learned this year.

Walking in races: In three of my races this year, I had to walk what I would consider significant chunks (the last leg of MC200, the Philly Distance Run, and the Chicago Marathon). While I still don't like the idea of walking for any significant amount of time in a race, none were for lack of training, and I'm starting to learn how to deal with the fact that sometimes, your body doesn't cooperate. I've never done anything of the level of endurance as distance running before. This year, I ran three half marathons, the relay, and the marathon. I put a lot of miles on my legs, seeing as how Phoenix, back in January, was my very first half marathon.

Training: I hit a point in my training for Chicago where running wasn't fun anymore. It was an obligation, something I had to do rather than something I wanted to do. I found that I was actually most frustrated with the fact that I didn't like it anymore, and I really wanted to. Running is my outlet for all the crap in my life. I have some of my best runs at the end of my worst days, and if I run in the morning, it's like I'm coated in teflon for the rest of the day, everything just slides off.

Running partners vs running alone: I have found that I like running with people and also running alone. I can think of two specific runs with people that stood out in my mind as being really good this summer. One was with a friend from my old job, Kelly, who was in DC Fit training for Marine Corps. We ran a 10 mile training run during a taper, and we just cruised. It was awesome. The other was with Sarah, another DC Fit member. We ran a 10 miler in the rain on July 5th at 7 a.m., and it would have been terrible to do that alone. We really kept each other going and kept our spirits up as much as possible during that pretty crappy run. On the flip side, though, I did my 18 miler by myself at 5 a.m. on a Monday morning, and it was so great. That was perhaps the most fun run I had during the entire marathon training.

Why I run: I flew back from Chicago the Tuesday after the race. I landed, took the Metro home, dropped my bags, and jumped in my car to go to a workshop for work Tuesday night. On my way to the workshop, I drove past one of my regular running routes, and there were tons of people out. My first thought was, "I so wish I was out there right now." All the stress of training, all the "have to" versus "want to" crap about running mentioned above, it all left my mind about a week before Chicago. I remembered I run because I love it. I like that it's hard. I like that sometimes it hurts.

Race locations: One of our regular readers, Glaven, has mentioned that he likes how I tend to include a description of the city and my impressions of it as part of my race reports. I have found that the location of a race is a big part of my decision making process when looking for which race is next. There's a half marathon in DC in March, but I ran in Nashville in April because I'd never been there and I'd heard it was nice. The Marine Corps Marathon is three weeks after the Chicago Marathon, but I've run almost the entire MCM course during my regular running, so something new seemed like it'd be more fun. I am lucky that I have a job that affords me more disposable income than I need, and I can travel to races throughout the year.

Running friends: Of the five big races I ran this year, all of them were with friends who live in other parts of the country. Danielle lives in Iowa, teammate Lauren and her husband live in Chicago, the relay team is always made up of members scattered across the country. Running races with them is a fun excuse to see people I don't get to spend nearly as much time with as I'd like.

What's next: After this year, I am hooked. My goal is another marathon next summer. I'd like to do one healthy to see what I can really do. I've already started kicking around ideas with a few people, and we'll probably make a decision in January/February if we go through with the tentative plan to run a spring/summer race. In the meantime, there are a few half marathons in the spring that I'm considering. Hopefully there will be another relay next year, and I'd like to go back to Philly, as that was a really awesome race.

So, that's pretty much a brain dump of everything that's been rattling around in my head for the last few weeks or so. I consider 2008 my introduction to distance running, and overall, it was a pretty good year. I leave you with a pile o' memories of this past year.

2008's medals, shirts, and bibs

Hello pervy internet world!

2008-10-16T13:58:00.002-05:00

I would like to thank Joe for having such an intriguing race report title and for linking to the Gmail blog entry on Mail Goggles.

Our readership has shot up approximately 10 billion percent from people clicking on the TrackBack link "Losing My Virginity, The Report" on the Gmail blog entry.

I think this may have trumped Audrey's post on naked triathletes for bringing new traffic to the blog.

In both cases, I am sure there were some sorely disappointed web surfers...

And in other news, not to disparage Joe's accomplishments, but my long runs are up to two miles these days. I mean, anyone can run a marathon. Now getting back into running after a month off? Now that is some hard stuff. I sometimes spend a whole 20 minutes running!

Losing My Virginity, The Report

2008-10-13T09:23:00.006-05:00

I flew to Chicago on Thursday, first class, of course, because, as discussed, that's how I roll. Unfortunately, American Airlines sucks so hard, first class is a cup of warm nuts and an Otis Spunkmeyer chocolate chip cookie (and unlimited alcohol I guess, which I did not partake in, but the guy next to me did. It was amusing to me because he spent 2/3 of the flight responding to work email while drinking heavily, then spent the last 1/3 watching stupid movie on his laptop, presumably when he was too drunk to safely work. He may be a target candidate for this).

Anyway, got to Chicago, chilled with Lauren and Kyle Thursday night and Friday. During the day Friday, Kyle and I went into the city for lunch and to wander around. I was struck by how tall the buildings are. DC is a nice city, but it's so short. All the tall buildings are weird to me, but very cool. Also, I had a moment where I felt like I was in the Matrix -- remember the scene from the first movie where Morpheus is leading Neo through the Agent Training simulation (the girl in the red dress scene)? They're walking upstream against a huge crowd of people. We crossed a street at a stoplight and people just swarmed around me for a second and it reminded me distinctly of that.

tall city

Saturday Lauren and I went to what was clearly the best race expo I have ever been to and met up with her cousin. The shirts they gave us were nice, but mine is about 4 sizes too large (it's a large, but I was wearing two shirts when I tried it on last night and it was still big enough for two of me). The expo's awesomeness can be explained by these examples of things we saw:

A giant liver (approx 6 feet tall and 8 feet wide, walking around with a sign that said "Go Liver!" scaring little kids and posing for pictures with runners)
An approx 60 year old woman with a mohawk, and both sides of her head totally shaved. The mohawk was about 8" tall, and highlighter pink. She had tons of tattoos, including a full necklace tattoo.
A goth clown (if you aren't sure what I mean by this, imagine a clown stepping straight out of a Panic At the Disco music video and going to work in the Little Rock Marathon booth -- it was awesome, but apparently Lauren's cousin is afraid of clowns, so when we showed her this, she almost jumped out of her skin).
Antarctica Marathon booth
Big soft squishy pretzels and fresh lemonade, which was a great lunch.

So, Sunday was the race. Lauren and I took the L downtown. We got to the stop at 6:30, and a train was coming the other way. There were like 5 people on the whole train. Then, our train pulled in like 30 seconds later, and it was completely full of runners, standing room only. When we got off at our stop, we're riding up the escalator, and the guy standing behind us, definitely not a runner, asks me, "Hey, where are you all going?" "Um, the Marathon." "Oh, I was wondering why everyone was dressed alike." Yeah...

We got down to the race, met up with Lauren's cousin, and got into the corral. There were so many people. Holy crap. It took us about 25 minutes to reach the starting line from our place in the corral. Once we got to the front, we were off. Right before the race, I got a text message from Meg telling me she'd be at mile 4 and 11 with a big neon green sign. So as we were about 1/4 mile from mile 4, I looked up, saw a big neon green sign, and said to Lauren, "I bet that's Meg." We ran over to that side of the course, and as we got closer, sure enough, it was. That's when it got funny. When Meg spotted me, she literally screamed, jumped up and down, threw her sign down, jumped down from the wall she was on and ran up and gave me a hug, while still jumping up and down. It was awesome. Then, she realized I stopped to give her the hug, so she starts yelling, "Wait, keep going! Go! Go!" So off I ran. Four people down the wall from where she was all laughed hysterically and gave me high fives as I ran by. They didn't do it for anyone in front of me, and Lauren confirmed they only did this for me, not anyone else behind me. Then the guy running next to me turns to me and says, "Geez. I hope you knew her." This greeting from Meg was absolutely the highlight of the running part of the race.

I ran the first five miles with Lauren and her cousin. At that point, my knee started to remind me it was there, so I started to do a run-9-min-walk-1-min thing. That got me through until mile ten, at which point my knee started to hurt pretty bad. I got into a run-walk routine with longer walks, and that got me through until about mile 18. During this phase of the race, I found that the pain receptors in my knee will completely overload after about 30 seconds of serious pain, and then spend the next 30 seconds slowly dulling until it's mostly numb, at which point i can go until i stop what i'm doing (i.e. stop running to walk), then the pain starts again next time I try to run.

Around mile 18, my calves started cramping pretty badly, and after a few tries and failures, I realized that I was going to have to walk the rest of the race, because anytime I tried to run, I cramped up within 15-20 seconds. I walked 18-22 at approx 15 min/mi pace, and was then able to pick my walking pace up, finishing 22-26 at approx 13 min/mi pace. My sister caught up with me at mile 25 and came out to try to walk with me for a bit, but had to run because she couldn't keep up with my pace. She decided to stop and hang back to wait for Lauren, who was about 3 minutes behind me at this point, while Kyle was waiting at the finish line.

Here are a few of the amusing signs or shirts we saw on the course during the run yesterday:

Sign: "What a dumb way to celebrate your 30th birthday!"
Sign: "Chuck Norris hasn't run a marathon, but you have!"
A girl running the race with a giant ass and booty shorts with the word "ANCHOR" written across them (this was my favorite clothing/costume thing of the entire race)
A girl who wrote on the back of her shirt, "I don't run to compete with anyone, I run to silence the voice inside me that wants to quit." This was especially poignant because I saw it around mile 17, when my knee was absolutely on fire, hurt to touch, and my calves were starting to cramp. I knew I could walk, but I was so mad I couldn't really run, this shirt really came right at the right time.
It was so hot, this guy just painted his shirt on:
Kyle didn't run, but he still kicked assphalt!

It was close to 70 degrees at start time of the race, and when we finished, it was 82. There was not a cloud in the sky, so the sun was just brutal, beating down. My time was 5:25:57. I am happy to have finished. This was a pretty crazy first race, but I'm looking forward to trying another one. This week, though, I'm going to rest and probably eat cupcakes. This is worth mentioning because last week I saw this in the Washington Post and decided I should probably confirm their results after the race, and Marcy commented on getting her cupcake on just this morning now that she popped her marathon cherry, too. Maybe it's the obvious thing to do -- run a marathon, spend a week eating cupcakes...

Not a marathon virgin anymore

2008-10-12T17:33:00.003-05:00

There will be a full race report tomorrow or Tuesday, but for the time being, just wanted to let everyone know I finished my first marathon today. It was hot as shit, but a really excellent experience. As I said, race report to follow, but thanks to everyone for the good vibes and well wishes. The support meant a lot and definitely helped me through.