Blue Nose Half Marathon

I went back to Canada for a few days... to celebrate my mom's 60th birthday, and to run the Blue Nose Half Marathon.

Not exactly part of my Team In Training training.... but a good long run in part of the overall training scheme of things.






I missed my TNT buddies the morning of the race. It is amazing how much psychological and emotional support one gets from participating in a team. Even if you never say the words out loud, it is reassuring to have people you know standing beside you, giggling with nervous excitement.... reminding you to pin your bib on right side up, etc.



Still, it was wonderful to run in a city that I am familiar with.... running past places that already hold memories for me. It was not my fastest race time, but probably my most enjoyable race ever.

As I ran past an old friend's house, I knocked on the door... gave my very surprised friend a sweaty hug, chatted for a few minutes, and carried on my way.






When I reached the corner where my mom and brother were directing runners, I stopped to have a chat and  a laugh with them...

As I ran along the waterfront, I passed my dad's office.... passed the Thai restaurant where I used to work... passed the train station where I first met my youngest (adopted) brother.... through the park where my mom and I ran our first 5km race together....

Coming out of the park I was delighted to see some TNT purple.... even though I never saw the TNT runners themselves, it was great to know they were on the course.


My dad called just as I was passing the 19 km mark to tell me the whole family had come in to see me finish.... my grandad, my aunt and cousin, my sister and her kids, my foster sister and her boyfriend.

My nephew was waiting for me a couple hundred feet from the finish line. As I reached him, he grabbed my hand and ran with me to the finish line. I hung my finishers medal around his neck and he nodded as he held it in his hand and said "i AM pretty fit for a six year old...."





I love that my family is all proud of me and supports my running, even though I will never truly "compete".... I will always be a long distance plodder, and they think that is great.

Every race holds its own special memories, and I have loved (and sometimes hated) them all. But I think this one will hold a special place in my heart for a long long time...

i must be mad...

i've signed up to run with the Team again for the fall season. which starts next Saturday...

i thought i'd take a break, maybe do one Team In Training event per year from now on.... just so i could recover from fundraising fatigue, really.

but, since i'm already signed up to do Marine Corps Marathon at the end of October anyway... (due to medical deferral last year)... and because i know i will find it difficult to train through the heat of the summer on my own.... and because i love my TNT buddies.... and because it is a great cause....

i signed up to be a mentor again. this time for the Virginia Beach Rock & Roll Half Marathon in September.

so... the blog stays open. as long as i'm working to "save lives, one mile at a time".... i'll keep writing about it.

you lucky ducks!

a wild and crazy season...

this last training season has been... an adventure, lets say.

we trained in snow storms. we couldn't train because of unsafe roads and trails and mountains of snow. we trained in pouring rain. we raced in record high temperatures in March... we trained some more, it got cold again, it got hot again...

it's no wonder that on Country Music Marathon race day we had thunder, lightning, heavy rain, heavy winds... and a tornado warning that had us all pulled off the course before we could finish the race.

some people might take that as a sign... as in, mother nature's way of saying "give it up already!"


but we didn't.


a few determined TNT teammates and i decided we really wanted to get that 26.2 mile run in.

this season.


so we signed up for the Potomac River Marathon, which took place last Sunday. just one week after attempting to run Country Music Marathon...

when we left the house at 5 am to get to the marathon start... it was hot. And raining.

it got hotter.... once again, record high temps for this time of year.  and it rained off and on. sadly this was not really a respite from the heat... it just made for an over all sense of running in a steam room.

for hours.

and hours.

people were getting sick from the heat. i gave my gatorade and pretzels to a guy that was rolling on the trail in absolute agony from cramps and exhaustion... he wasn't even coherent to start with. we waited for the medics to arrive to take him off the course.

many of the participants simply stopped at the halfway mark.


our little TNT group didn't all finish together... but we all finished.


what a season!

Country Music Marathon Weekend

this past weekend I :
~ joined 500 other Team In Training runner in Nashville to run the Country Music Marathon (and half marathon).... we raised over 1.25 million dollars for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, putting our Team Fundraising Total (over all the years) at over a billion dollars.

~ went to hear a concert at the Ryman Auditorium... original home of the Grand Ol' Opry.

~ ate a lot of barbeque

~ resisted the urge to buy pretty cowboy boots, 'cos i know i'll never wear them once i get them home... but i sure did want them at the time! all the other cool kids were buying them...

~ met John "the penguin" Bingham while picking up a bagel at Panera for Saturday morning's 4:30 am start

~ arrived at the race starting place in the dark, in the rain, with lightning dancing across the sky.... and a tornado warning threatening to cancel the race

~ skies cleared and the elite runners were off the mark by 7 am... there were over 33 thousand other runners to cross the starting line, so it was 7:26 by the time I got started

~ it was a hot and humid morning, until the clouds rolled back in and the winds picked up... and the racers were all diverted back to the finish line, no matter where they were on the course.

~ shed a tear or two and said a few bad words that are not fit for public consumption

~ accepted my marathon finishers medal, but didn't much feel like i had earned it

~ ate more barbeque in the pouring rain, thunder and lightning

~ had an awesome phone call of support from my six year old nephew

~ drank quite a lot of gin and tonics, participated in some line dancing lessons at the post-race party, and danced the night away (something i likely would not have been able to do if i had been allowed to run the full marathon!... hello silver lining)

~ got a ride home from the airport with my coach and friend, only to find that i had brought the wrong key and was locked out of the house for the next 5 hours or so, until my husband got home from work at 11:30pm

~ feel like a million bucks today, and am looking for another full marathon to attempt in the next couple of weeks, to make up for not being allowed to complete the one i had trained for.

taking it off

so, in order to stimulate a flurry of donations... i made the commitment to cut off all my hair and donate it to the Locks Of Love, to make wigs for children who have lost their hair due to medical treatment... as long as i made my fundraising goal by today.

well, i have made my goal of raising $3000... even though it doesn't all show up yet on my fundraising website. it takes a while to process donations that were not made online...

so, i will be cutting off all the hair that it has taken me two years to grow... and sending it to Locks of Love for someone who cannot grow their own.

i thought it was a fine idea at the time, but now that i actually have to do it... i have been looking at the box of hair clips and pins and elastics and sticks and ties, etc sitting on the shelf in my bathroom and finding myself feeling nostalgic for long hair already. even though i still have it... and even though i was looking forward to how cool i was going to feel in the heat of the summer.

will post photos next week when i get it cut. and in the mean time, i think i'll go brush it for a while... maybe give myself an up-do or something... celebrate the fact that i have long hair for a few more days.

aaah... taper time!

last saturday was our 20 mile run day.

i would love to have started this post with "i ran 20 miles last saturday"... but i'd be lying.

i tried to run 20 miles last saturday... and the first 16.5 miles of it were GREAT!

chilly... but great.

then i took a step and felt a twinge, and then more than a twinge... and suddenly i was limping my way on to the 17 mile marker, where we had a water stop and people who could drive me back to the parking lot where we started.

i believe i'll pulled something in my groin. after a couple days of rest, it is already feeling better.

really, i only feel it when i'm climbing stairs, or trying to lift that one leg up into bed.

i'm going to be fine by next weekend.

because i said so.

less than a month now until race day!!!

embracing the suck...

National Marathon was two days ago... and what a wonderful morning for a marathon. Chilly to start, but gloriously warm and sunny to finish. Almost too hot, really.... What a shocker, in a season that had us running in snow, not being able to run because of snow, running in pouring rain the week before... and now an unseasonably hot day!

It was great to get out and run through parts of DC that I have never seen before, and certainly never run before. Because I'm still in training for the full marathon, and because I am scheduled to run 20 miles this coming Saturday... I approached the National Half Marathon as just another training run. But with 12,000 friends and a medal.

So, I didn't push too hard. Didn't set any land speed records. Didn't even set any personal records. But I had a good run and thoroughly enjoyed myself. The TNT staff, coaches and volunteers were outstanding as usual, which really made the race a great experience for everyone.

And now, I shall focus on a little more fundraising and one more month of training to get ready for Nashville Country Music Marathon. Woot!!

As always, thanks so much for your support.