One Track Mind

In a way, being very sleep deprived going into my trip to Kenya turned out to be a good thing. I didn't sleep on the flight from Newark to London, but I slept most of the way from London to Nairobi. (The first flight was six hours, we had a four hour layover, and our second flight was eight hours.) While we were in London, I finished posting all of my photos from the Olympic Trials, just under the wire, because it wasn't going to happen from Kenya.

We are spending the first two nights in Nairobi, staying in an apartment building which is far fancier than anywhere I have ever lived or anywhere I stay in the U.S. (For those who know what I'm talking about, it's not quite Wheatleigh, but this would be called a luxury apartment in any city.) It's actually kind of disappointing in a way, not that I'm complaining. It feels like less of an adventure when you could be in any city. We arrived in the dark, but we saw many car dealerships, gas stations, and other businesses as we rode from the airport to our posh accomodations. They don't quite have McDonalds and the Gap here (as far as I know), but it is pretty urban, and if you came to Kenya and only saw Nairobi, it would probably be highly disappointing. We'll see the Kenya we came for on Thursday.

Highlights of 21k drive included seeing the stadium where the Kenyan Olympic Trials were just held, and seeing two Samsung billboards which used Kenyan runners as their poster men, as we might have a basketball, baseball, or football player in the U.S.

The upside to staying in Nairobi is that we have things like free internet access through tomorrow, but it's also a disappointment in the sense that we haven't really escaped to totally different place yet.

For the record, my travel party consists of Sarah, a runner I coached at Tufts, John Manners (our leader), John Babington (famous coach/Wellesley coach), and Wendy and Bill (a college admissions counselor and an English teacher from a school in NYC). I think this will be a fun group to be here with, and I'm thankful to be here with people who know what they're doing. Now it's time to get some sleep.

Since I last wrote an entry, I've been to NCAAs and my sister got married. I wrote blog entries from NCAAs on eliterunning.com, so I didn't have the time or energy to write anything here. I had a great time at NCAAs, despite the dramatic flooding reports on the news, and I am really glad I went (despite my pre-trip reservations). I think that NCAA track and XC championships are always exciting, and while this week's Olympic Trials will probably be truly spectacular, the NCAA meet can rival a USA Championship (and often outdo it) in a non-Olympic year. So basically this is a note to self...it's worth the investment to go to NCAAs next year, assuming I have room in my life and schedule.

My sister's wedding was great. It was at an amazing location in Lenox, Massachusetts, and she was, of course, the most lovely bride ever. I am really happy for her and my new brother in law (I'm still getting used to using that term...so I thought I'd try it out here...) and it was just a wonderful weekend all around. Between these two events, I've been doing a lot of work, and madly dashing around preparing to go to Kenya. I am sure that there are things I will really wish I had in Kenya, and there will be things that I regret buying or bringing. I am planning to take notes for the people who do this job next summer...

Yesterday was a VERY long day of travel (up at 4:00 a.m. ET, finally settled in our U of O dorm around 9:00 p.m. PT, to sleep at 10:30 PT). My flights alone took me through four states--Connecticut, Maryland, Utah (my first trip to Utah, I think, but I know, airports don't count), and then finally Portland. We rode from the airport to Eugene with Amby Burfoot and his wife, Cristina Negron, who are always very interesting to talk to. If P and I had been alone, we probably would have been far grumpier after a long day of travel. This is the phenomenon that we call "having someone in the backseat." (Someone who will remain anonymous once told me that she and her boyfriend were being kind of nasty to one another on a trip, but when they had someone in the backseat of their car later on, they were far better behaved in their communications with one another. So now when we talk about the person in the back seat, it means being nice to your partner, even when no one else is around to see your good behavior, or call you on your bad behavior.)

[Olympic theme song, which probably has a real name, currently coming from the track...the opening ceremonies are happening right now, and I'm skipping them. I always find it somewhat insulting that at most track meets, the "opening ceremony" takes place well after competition has begun, as field events and multi events don't really count. Our dorm room is so close to the track that I'd be able to watch the meet from here if the Bowerman Building wasn't blocking my view.]

I'm really excited for the Trials. I wasn't originally going to be here, so I am not worrying too much about my coverage. I will do what I can, but I can only do so much on my own, and I can't compete with most other web sites period, and especially those who have 5-10 people working on their coverage.

We ran on Pre's Trail this morning. I remembered more of the trail than I thought I would, even though it's been seven years since I was last in Eugene. I thought we would see some "celebrities," but we didn't. We ended our run at the U of O bookstore, where I bought two more SAT prep items. I am getting really paranoid that I will be a horrible SAT tutor in Kenya, so instead of sitting down with the book we'll be using, I just keep buying more stuff, with the hope that some of it will be useful or make me appear less clueless. One of the books I bought this morning will be really good to read on the way over there, though, so maybe I will remember more by the time I get there.

While I am really excited to be at the Trials, I am also thinking a lot about Kenya. It is really important that I post all of my photos while I am here, otherwise they won't be up on the web until late August...so I'm planning to stay on top of things as much as possible. I leave the Trials early, at the crack of dawn on July 5th, I'll have one day at home, and then we leave on July 7th.

So far, despite some logistical glitches, I think Eugene has done a great job with the Trials, and there is an excitement here that Sacramento never had. The gates opened at noon today, and even though there wasn't much going on running-wise (heptathlon), I was impressed to see fans streaming into the stadium that early. Clearly the anticipation levels were high, and a lot of us couldn't wait for the action to begin. I believe it was Gabe Jennings who was quoted as using the term "Nike-fied" in a recent newspaper article, describing Eugene and the Trials, and part of me is turned off by that, but in many ways, this is what we have always wished for, for T&F to get the respect and hype it deserves in the U.S. So good for the sport and good for Eugene. Once tonight's 800 prelims, men's 5,000 prelims, and women's 10,000 final happen, I am going to be extremely busy. I'll probably post some updates to eliterunning.com, but this will probably be th last you hear from me here (barring unexpected internet access in Kenya) until August. Enjoy the rest of your summer!

I'm sitting here with an ice pack on my stomach, not because I have an ab injury, but in an attempt to stay cool. The thermometer says it's only 81 degrees inside the house, but it feels hotter than that. Of course, the thermometer also says its 108 outside right now, so clearly it can't be trusted.

I'm heading off to the NCAA DI T&F Championships in Iowa first thing tomorrow. In an attempt to save money, I'm making the trip as short as possible and traveling on the first and last day of competition. With a little luck, I won't miss any of tomorrow's events.

I am pretty sure that I will have a good time at this meet and really enjoy photographing the races, but in all honesty, I considered canceling my trip last week. As more people create web sites and get digital cameras, it makes it a little tougher to get access at the bigger meets than it was a few years ago. (It also feels less "necessary" to provide those who can't be there with coverage of the big events when more people are doing it.) And as gas prices go up and my paychecks stop for the summer (not that they made that much of a difference to start with), I am inclined to attempt to save money. I enjoy taking photos at track meets, but a trip to NCAAs is not cheap, and it involves more hard work than most people realize. I might make a little bit of that money back through photo requests after the fact, but not all of it. But when I looked in to canceling my trip, I found that my plane ticket was non-refundable, so off to Iowa I go. (I booked this trip when I thought I wasn't going to be able to go to the Trials, and I wanted to get at least a little bit of a high-level track fix for the summer. Now that I am going to the Trials, going to NCAAs doesn't seem as necessary.)

Now that school's out for the summer, I've had more time to think about what I'm doing with my life. This involves wondering if it's worth it to keep doing eliterunning.com, and if/when I should give up on my coaching career and get a "real job." (Sometimes I think you could draw some parallels between trying to "make it" as a cross country/track coach and trying to "make it" as an actress in Hollywood :-) ) At my most optimistic points, I am sure it will all work out. When I'm feeling less optimistic, I think about all the minimum wage jobs I could get which would allow me to more than double my income. Today I'm too busy to worry about it, so I'm just focusing on making the best of everything that comes my way.

Like Beth, I hate packing. It doesn't help that when I go on a trip, I like to have all areas of my life tidied up before I go. That's how I started the day with a 26-item to-do list. I've crossed 14 items so far, but still have 12 to go (and, sadly, writing a blog entry was not on there, so I don't get any "credit" for this).

With any luck, I'll get home around 1:30 a.m. on Sunday, and then go watch one of my co-workers run at the USATF-New England Championships near Boston on Sunday. The following weekend, I will serve as the maid of honor at my twin sister's wedding. This might be the only time in my life when I wear heels--I generally don't believe in them, but I'm making this "sacrifice" because I love her. Four days after we get back from the wedding, we'll head to Eugene, Oregon for the Olympic Trials. I am very excited to have the opportunity to go to the Trials, and I think that trip will be a little more fun because P is going with me.

I'll be leaving the Trials two days early (no 1,500 finals or men's steeplechase final for me). I'll spend almost all of July 5th flying home. I'll have one day to get everything in order, and then I will spend July 7th and 8th flying to Kenya! As I looked at the SAT book which arrived the other day, I thought about how horribly unprepared I am to tutor Kenyan high schoolers for the SAT, but I am hoping to figure a lot of that out in the next couple of weeks. My SAT book is too big to bring to Iowa, but I am going to make a point of learning more Swahili on my Iowa trip. (I was being pretty good about this back in February, but then the cookbook happened.)

I should return from Kenya on August 16th, and then it'll be time to get ready for another year of coaching at Amherst. (My plan, unless the opportunity of a lifetime comes up, is to stay there this year.) This should be a very busy and life-changing summer, and despite my worries about my career, I am extremely fortunate that my current situation allows me the flexibility to do this. I often think that if I ever get a great full-time coaching position with benefits, I will make sure that I appreciate every moment of it. However, maybe if that happens, I'll look back on the summer of 2008 as the glory days. As I said, the focus right now is making the best of everything that comes my way--or, to use a sports psychology term, "staying in the now."

Before I get back to that to-do list, I will also note that in a moment of weakness, I signed up to run the 2008 New York City Marathon. On the morning of the Boston Marathon, we went for a run with some inspiring people, and something about that run planted the idea in my head. It also occurred to me that it's a marathon year for me. I've completed two marathons--one in 1998 and one in 2003. (We'll ignore the whole marathon drop out thing in 2005--that was clearly because it wasn't a marathon year for me.) It apparently takes me about five years to recover from a marathon. So I signed up, and since I had guaranteed entry based on a half marathon I ran last fall, I got in. I have no idea if I will make it to the starting line, but I'm going to give it a shot as long as I'm healthy. My training program is scheduled to start right around the time I get to Kenya...so I figure that could be really good, or it could make things really tough. I don't know how easy it'll be to find slow people to go on 2-3 hour runs with me while we're there, but if I can't get inspired to run while visiting the Rift Valley, there is no hope for me. My main goal for this marathon is to try to arrive on the starting line in my best shape possible, and then not worry about my time once I get there. Of course I'd like to run a PR, but I'm not going to focus on time. My goal will be to be as fit as possible and then to run a smart race. After seven years of working for New York Road Runners, I figure it's time to find out what all of the hype is about.

And yes, I should write blog entries more often, so I don't attempt to cover too many topics at once!

I've written a couple blog entries recently that I subsequently deleted, so now all that's up here is cookbook news. I'll write about something else in the near future, I promise, but first more cookbook news...

In a random search, I just learned that "The Runner's Cookbook" is now being "globally distributed." I spent so much of the publishing process making sure that I met the standards for global distribution (at least .5" margins on each side, top and bottom/left and right margins must be equal, bar code must be 1.833 x 1 inch, spine text must be .0625" away from edges of spine...and so on). I was pretty sure I had failed to meet at least a couple of those criteria, so I was waiting for an e-mail from lulu.com, telling me what I had to fix. Much to my surprise, I stumbled across something which made it look like the book is for sale at target.com (I don't actually think it is) tonight...so I searched amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com and found the following.
Barnes & Noble
Amazon.com

It appears to be unavailable, but the fact that it's listed is progress...and maybe it'll always look like this since it's a print-on-demand book. I'm still going to encourage everyone to buy their copies via lulu.com, because far more money goes to the Ryan Shay Memorial Fund and the Jenny Crain "Make It Happen" Fund when they do, but this way maybe we'll be able to reach some people we wouldn't have otherwise reached.

As of tonight, The Runner's Cookbook: Winning Recipes from Some of the World's Best Athletes is available at http://www.lulu.com/content/2392159. (If you want to pass this along to someone else, just tell them runnerscookbook.com.)

I still need to work out some kinks (like why the colors are so off when lulu generates a thumbnail of my cover), and some aspects of it will never be perfect, but I can finally say it's done! Long weekend...wanted to "publish" it yesterday, but the preview copy of the book didn't arrive until after we left for the New England T&F Championships at UNH, and I didn't get home from the meet until about 8:30 tonight. Tomorrow will hopefully be somewhat of a recovery day in most aspects of my life!

I know that just over a week ago that the publication of this cookbook would be the biggest accomplishment of my life thus far, but now that I've gotten to this point, I keep thinking about how I could have done a better job with it. However, I admit that when the first copy of the book arrived, I was pretty happy...happier than when I graduated from college, grad school, etc... but maybe not happier than I was when I set my 5k, 10k, and marathon PRs :-) I think certain people in my life think I am too hard on myself, but I see this mild dissatisfaction with everything I do as a positive characteristic, because I'm always aiming to do better. And it doesn't mean that I don't have my moments of being proud. I just move on from them quickly :-)

I got the first copy of the cookbook on May 1st, and it printed surprisingly well. The inner margin was a little too small, which bothered me a bit, but I was willing to ignore it, until we caught a couple of typos. I fixed the margins and typos, ordered two new copies, and then found a few more errors. I received my two additional copies of the book yesterday, fixed a couple things (and added to Shalane Flanagan's bio that she also set the American 10,000m record of 30:34.49 in 2008...) and ordered 20 copies which are supposed to arrive tomorrow. Assuming they look as good as the other books have, and I get to look at one of the copies before I leave for a track meet at UNH at 2:00 tomorrow (it's going to be tight, the books are only guaranteed to arrive before 3:00), the book could be available to everyone as early as tomorrow evening. If not, they should be available by Saturday evening, when I get back from Open New Englands.

When the book is ready, I will post the link to where you can purchase it at runnerscookbook.com. I have started contacting newspapers and magazines about helping me publicize the book, but I am holding off on all web publicity (other than this blog!) until I have the link to where people can purchase it. Once I have the link, I will not hesitate to contact everyone I know...especially other web sites. Since I have spent years helping other people publicize their running-related things on the web, I figure I should be able to find a few people who will be willing to help me out!

I can't believe I haven't mentioned this on my blog yet, but part of my rush to get the cookbook out has been that I am going to Kenya this summer, and will be hard to reach for 5-7 weeks. Originally we were going to leave around June 23rd, two days after my twin sister's wedding, but now it seems more likely that we will be leaving July 7th, which gives me a little more time to deal with any problems or issues that come up. My original plan was to skip the Olympic T&F Trials, which was a little heartbreaking, but going to Kenya is the opportunity of a lifetime. However, now that our trip has gotten pushed back, it looks like I will be able to go to most of the Trials (maybe missing the last day or so) AND go to Kenya. It doesn't get much better than that!

Why am I going to Kenya? One of the athletes I coached at Tufts learned about the KenSAP program about a year ago. It was too late to intern with the program in the summer of '07, but she has been dead set on being the '08 intern ever since. She kept in contact with John Manners (who created and coordinates the program), and was eventually told that if she wanted to be the '08 intern, she needed to find someone who she could get along with to go with her. She probably picked me because I'm the only person she knows who has the summers off, but I'm thrilled she asked me. I am pretty certain this will be a life-changing experience, and this is an important year for the program because of the political situation in Kenya. There was some question in January as to whether or not we'd still be able to go, but now John doesn't seem to think that we will be in any additional danger there. It sounds like we're more likely to be in a car accident than to be the victims of any violence.

More specifically, the KenSAP program brings really bright Kenyan students over to the U.S. for college. I currently coach at Amherst College, and we have two students at the school (neither of them is on the XC/track teams) from the program. As the interns, our job is to help prepare the kids for the SATs and TOEFL exam, and help them with their college essays. We also coach them a bit to see if they have any running talent college coached might be interested in. We have met a bunch of the kids who are currently in the U.S. as a result of this program--they go to Harvard, Yale, Amherst, Williams, Princeton, and other similar schools. More often than not, they don't become serious runners when they get to the U.S., but a couple of the kids from the program (Peter Kosgei at Hamilton and Edgar Kosgey at Williams are two who we compete against often) have done really well running-wise.

To call the kids in the program amazing is an understatement. The ones we have met have incredible poise, determination, and intelligence. When I was 18 years old, there's no way I could have handled moving to another country to go to college. The culture shock must be a huge challenge, not to mention the idea of possibly not seeing one's parents for four years. There are certain kids I've worked with as a coach who give me the sense that they're going to do amazing things in their lives (well beyond just the running I see them do) and basically go on to rule the world...and I have a feeling I am going to feel the same way about many of the kids in the KenSAP program. Our travel plans should be nailed down in the relatively near future. Last I heard, we'll be spending the last 3-4 weeks of the program at Lornah Kiplagat's High Altitude Training Center in Iten. As I said, the opportunity of a lifetime.

As for my running, the pain I was feeling last week did turn out to be a bit of a problem. I took a day off after my race, tried to run the following day, and could tell it wasn't a good idea. I went to the chiropractor who helped me identify the problem as something in my inguinal ligament and adductor. We decided that I would take a week off. I did, and it wasn't pleasant, but it seems to have helped. I don't think I'm necessarily home free on this front just yet, but I ran yesterday and today and haven't had pain yet. It felt so good to run yesterday. I didn't realize how much I missed it until I tried it again. In the winter, things were going so badly that I would have gladly taken a week off. (I'm not addicted to running as much as I'm addicted to the feeling of running well!) Now, I finally feel like I'm making progress and things are clicking. I'm starting to feel good on my easy days, which is always a good sign for me. I'm not anywhere close to where I want to be fitness-wise, but I can tell I'm headed that way. It was good for me to have the week off to remember what people are going through mentally when they get injured (as a coach, it's good to remember this) and to appreciate being able to run in general. However, now that I'm appreciating it to the fullest, I hope I'll continue to be able to do it! I wish I understood my injury a little better. It's an odd one, so it's hard to treat...but I'll do my best.

First I want to thank everyone for the very nice comments. I'm glad all of my favorite readers still check in from time to time :-) I think I jinxed myself by writing about my running, though. The pain I have in my leg hasn't gone away. I took Monday off and tried to run today, which was a mistake. I have officially declared myself injured. I have an appointment with my favorite chiropractor for tomorrow, so hopefully she can help. My co-worker who has had every injury in the book thinks it's my SI joint. It's nothing I've had before. I don't think it's going to be a long-term injury, but right now I can tell that running is a bad idea. I went on the elliptical and pool ran today, but I'm not a very intense crosstrainer, so it's just not the same. It's not like I have some sort of deadline for getting in shape, though, so I will just consider this a small setback and hopefully I can move on soon.

As for what I really logged in to write about, I've been getting a lot of e-mails recently with subject lines like "Are you there?" and "Alive?" The story of how I fell off the face of the earth begins with boredom. It was winter break. I didn't have to go to work, and when I did go, there was no one there. I had nothing to do with myself. I started thinking about work I could do for eliterunning.com. I thought about trying to interview some big-name runners but ask them different questions than people like me usually ask. One of the questions I came up with was, "What is your favorite recipe?"

That idea quickly morphed into making a cookbook full of elite runners' favorite recipes. I decided the cookbook would be a fundraiser. The two most natural things to fundraise for were the two worst things to happen to the U.S. elite distance running community in 2007--Jenny Crain getting hit by a car, and Ryan Shay collapsing and dying during the Olympic Marathon Trials. Both of these events still make me extremely sad when I think of them. I never knew Ryan and Jenny, but I have covered many of the events they ran in, and we had/have many mutual acquaintances. When I watched the women's Olympic Trials last week, it made me extremely sad to think about how Jenny Crain should be out there running, and when I saw Alicia Shay running around the course.

At the end of December and beginning of January, I started tracking down as many elite runners (past and present) as I could find. I still have regrets that I was unable to a) track down or b) get recipes from quite a few of them, but I did end up with 100 recipes from 87 different runners. I don't know what I expected to get back, but I was really impressed by the amount of work some of the athletes put into their submissions. I encouraged them to send along any comments they might have about their recipes, and I thought that ended up being the best part. I still look at the cookbook and think about all of the people who aren't included, but it does make me very happy that so many are, and that they all did such a great job.

The recipe collection turned out to be the easy part. I went through several rounds of e-mailing people, and made my final submission deadline sometime in late March. Now that I've done this once, I know how I should have done things differently. The editing took much more time and effort than I anticipated, and the layout was a big challenge as well. I used InDesign--my father suggested it and my mother bought me the software as a late birthday present (keeping my costs down!). I was really pleased with the tool I used, but it took me a while to figure out how to lay out a book in InDesign, since I had never used it before.

I should mention that I had the idea for this cookbook while I was on break, but by March (early January, actually), I was back to working six days a week, so basically all of my non-running free time was filled with cookbook work. I wanted a landscape layout, with a coil binding, so I laid the entire 100-page cookbook out that way before learning that it wouldn't be eligible for global distribution if I picked that option. (Theoretically, this will be available on amazon.com and via Barnes & Noble at some point.) So I spent the next four days or so working late nights and early mornings to lay the cookbook out again, and it's now 7+ by 9+ inches, perfect bound.

Once I had my whole InDesign document, I had several people proofread it (I am sure there are still at least a few mistakes in there...). Next, I had to figure out how to make my own cover, make sure the spine text is actually on the spine, figure out how to generate a bar code once I had my ISBN number, and so on. I am publishing this through a print-on-demand publisher, so that I won't have to worry about actually selling the books myself, or worry about having to purchase and sell a certain quantity. The goal is to raise as much money as possible for the Ryan Shay Memorial Fund and the Jenny Crain "Make It Happen" Fund.

My latest challenge was converting my InDesign documents to PDFs that would actually print properly. It should be easier than it actually is, but lulu.com doesn't provide clear instructions on how to do so. I tried to enlist the local copy shop to help me, and they did to a point, but at that point, I figured out that they don't know any more than I do about this particular publisher, so I gave up and stayed up nearly all night figuring out how to do it myself.

Last week, I ordered my first review copy of the cookbook. It should be arriving tomorrow (it is apparently less than 30 miles away as I write this). I don't want to get too excited, because it sounds like a lot of lulu books don't print properly if their designers don't know exactly what they're doing. I've prepared myself for the cover colors to be off, the spine text not to be on the spine, the barcode to be unreadable, the margins to be too small, the photos to be too blurry, and so on. I don't want to get my hopes up. (And these are realistic fears, since these are all things I've read about happening to other lulu users.) But hopefully, as of tomorrow, I will at least know what I need to fix.

Each time I make a revision to the book, I need to order a new copy, which takes about a week. However, once I receive a copy of the book which looks relatively error-free, I can click on a link and voila, the cookbook is available to everyone who wants to order one. I've been very hesitant to publicize this, because what I receive tomorrow could be a disaster, but I can tell you that I'm quite happy with how my PDF of the cookbook looks.

Despite my reluctance to publicize this until now, you can be certain that I am going to publicize the heck out of it once it's available. I'm not usually one to promote my own projects, but I don't see this as my project--most of the content comes from the athletes. Plus, I want to raise as much money as possible for Jenny Crain and Ryan Shay. Assuming the cookbook does print properly at some point, I'll consider this project my biggest accomplishment of my life thus far. I have never taken on such a big project. Usually the person who compiles the content for a book does not also edit it, lay it out, design the cover, generate the bar code, and take most of the photos in the book (P took all of the ones that I didn't--he's also been a huge help in MANY other ways, including forgiving me for skipping the concert I was supposed to take him to for his birthday, because I was exhausted from working on the cookbook). Sometime soon I need to make the cookbook's web site, but I figure that's a one-night project.

Once the cookbook is ready, it'll be available on lulu.com. I am going to encourage everyone to buy their copies on lulu.com, because when they do, about half of the cost will go to the fundraising efforts. Because of the markup, if it is ever available on amazon.com and elsewhere, a significantly smaller amount will go to the causes. (Right now I have the price set at $14.95.) I did want this to be eligible for global distribution, though, so that more people could just stumble upon it and buy it. I want those who hear about it from me to buy it on lulu, though.

So far, I've been able to keep my expenses (not including all the work, which I figure is just my donation, and the software cost, which is my mother's donation) to $137, which will come out of my own pocket. Every cent the books raise will go to Jenny and Ryan's funds.

Since I ordered my first copy of the cookbook late last Thursday night, I've finally been able to re-enter the world. I have been catching up on all of the things I've gotten behind on. I am still very behind (this is why my Boston Marathon photos aren't up on eliterunning.com yet) and have a lot more catching up to do, but it's been nice to start living a relatively normal life again. Once I feel a little more caught up, one of the things I'm really looking forward to doing is being ever so frivolous and going to a movie!

There were (and might still be more) times when I thought this project might push me over the edge, but I am really glad that I took it on. The irony in all of this is that everyone who knows me laughs when I mention I'm publishing a cookbook. I have (and deserve) a reputation as someone who doesn't cook. I didn't test the recipes in the cookbook, because that would have been too expensive, but P now makes the Gouchers' meal every week or two, and it is one of my favorite things to eat. Becky has been testing some of the recipes for me :-)

I should be working on all of the things that I'm still catching up on, but if I haven't been in touch (or updated my blog) in the past several months, this is probably why!

It's been so long since I've updated this blog that I almost forgot how to log in. I figure the only way anyone is going to see this is if they subscribe to my RSS feed. And since what I have to say probably doesn't interest most people, that's the way I like it.

In February, I pretty much hit rock bottom with my running. I was still doing it, but I think there were a couple weeks where I took more days off than I ran. When I did run, I felt awful. I had no one to run with, and when I did drag myself out, I usually had to shuffle home the last couple miles at 9 or 10 minute pace. It was getting so frustrating that I was seriously contemplating stopping and not really ever trying to run anything fast ever again. I'm not fast enough to "retire," but that's the option I was essentially contemplating. I was enjoying the elliptical, so I thought I'd become an ellipticaler instead.

At a track meet in February, I ran into the parents of a young woman who I used to coach at Amherst High School. They asked about my running, I mentioned that it wasn't so hot, and that I had no one to run with. This is when I was invited to join the Shutesbury Coffee Cake Runners for a run, and it has completely turned my running around.

The first week I ran with them, I did about 13 miles and barely hobbled home. I was so sore after that run (and disgusted that 13 miles made me so sore) that I was still sore the following Sunday when I ran with them again. I only made it about 10-11 miles the second week (because of the soreness) and had to call P to come pick me up during the run. (I had brought my phone, because I knew this might be an issue.)

Some time in there, we (P has been running with them too) were also invited to join the Wednesday and Friday hill workout group. They meet at 6:15 a.m. in a location that is about a six minute run from our house. The first time we went, we were told that everyone usually spends the whole workout chasing Dave (who was then 62 and is now 63). I made it my goal to stick with Dave for the workout, and I did, but not without feeling like I was going to puke. Since then, I've gotten better at the hills, and the new sign of a good workout for me is that I can run each of my three hill repeats under 5:00 (the hill is roughly .7 of a mile long and we do it three times, jogging down for recovery). I like that I have no idea what a sub-5:00 hill means. All that really matters is that I am working hard. I haven't missed a Wednesday or Friday hill workout since that day. We've done them in slush, sleet, and heavy rain.

I still go to the Sunday long runs and we usually do about 15 miles, but a couple weekends ago I did 18, my longest run for a long, long time. The group is a mix of people--more men than women, and P and I definitely bring the average age of the group down, but we are far from the youngest ones who show up. Should I get faster, there are plenty of people in the group who will still be able to run me into the ground. Dave (the 63-year-old) can still kick my butt on the long runs. P and I have also been throwing some threshold work in as well...well, we run P's threshold pace, which is more like my 10k pace.

At the beginning of April, I decided it was time to test what these sub-5:00 hills mean, and I ran my first race since September. It was 8 miles--a great distance because it means nothing. My optimistic goal was to run 6:40 pace on the course, which had some good rolling hills. I would have been disappointed if I didn't average under 7:00 pace. I ended up averaging 6:41s, which made me feel like this training is actually working, even thought I already knew that on some level.

Today I ran my second race. It was a five-miler through Amherst, which practially went past my house. I ran it in 33:25 last year (it's hilly, I had a bad race, and I wasn't prepared for the hills of Amherst due to training out in Eastern Mass). I wanted to at least break 33:00 this year. The fastest I could possibly imagine running was 6:30 pace--32:30. I ended up running 32:29, so I am pleased. The course is definitely tough, but all of our hill workouts paid off.

I am planning to run another race in another three weeks or so, assuming the weird feeling I'm having in my leg when I sit (but not when I run) turns out to be nothing...which is what I'm hoping.

So if you're a longtime reader of my blog, and know where I've come from, you will not be impressed by my 32:29. But that is only because you did not see how unfit I was two months ago!

Just under a week ago, like many runners, I went to see "Spirit of the Marathon" at my local movie theater. To be honest, I bought a ticket out of a sense of obligation. To call myself a runner seems like a bit of an understatement. I am also someone whose entire career has revolved around running. So when things like this come up, I feel obligated to support "my" sport by supporting them. I didn't expect much from it, but I did get kind of excited a week earlier when I went to see a movie and saw a preview which included Deena Kastor running across the big screen.

In recent years, several running documentaries have been made. I never dislike watching them, but even if they aren't particularly well done, I just feel a sense of appreciation that someone finally covered "our" sport. And because we're so busy being grateful, we can't be critical of how they did it. All of this is a roundabout way of saying that the thing about "Spirit of the Marathon" that most pleased me is that it was done well. I think it is something that could be enjoyed by both runners and non-runners, and I am pretty certain that most who see it will walk away wanting to run a marathon.

I am not going to recap what it was about--many of you have already seen it or heard about it. I enjoyed the whole experience of going to the theater and seeing so many of the familiar faces from the local running community. While there were a lot of people who I was surprised not to see there, and the crowd was older on average than I would have expected, I am sure that if everyone wore nametags, I would have recognized a lot of the names from local race results.

I thought the movie did a very good job of representing different ends of the running spectrum (2:10 marathoners to 6:10 marathoners) with respect. One of the things that really bothers me about the running community is that faster runners sometimes feel the need to put down slower runners, as if their pursuits aren't as worthwhile. I admit that I've had my moments of this as well. When I was in high school, we'd drive by someone who was listening to a walkman (no iPods back then) while running and I'd tell my parents that they weren't a "real runner" because they were listening to music while running. But especially as I struggle through my runs these days, I have more respect than ever for people who are not particularly fast. If you never feel great while running, it's a lot harder to stick with it. Some people never reach that point where they can cruise along and forget they are running because it feels so good and smooth.

I think a lot of serious runners went to see "Spirit of the Marathon" because the fact that Daniel Njenga and Deena Kastor were in it "redeemed" it. But while Njenga and Kastor were great, the other runners sometimes stole the show. I particularly liked Jerry Meyers and Lori O'Connor.

If you missed "Spirit of the Marathon" the first time, I highly recommend it that you catch it when it comes around again on February 21st. And apparently I missed something after the credits, so make sure to stick around for that.

As a "webmaster" of several web sites, I get a lot of spam. Most of the spam has to do increasing the size of a certain body part that I do not possess...In other words, spammers tend to assume that because I am a webmaster I am male. These spammers are really missing out by assuming that I am a straight male (a lot of it has to do with attracting women with my large size). Note to spammers: there's a whole untapped market out there!

But what I really wonder about spam is why it's worth it at all. Does anyone actually read those e-mails and purchase any of the products they are offering? I hope not.

I did my longest run since September yesterday, but that's not saying much. I still don't feel that great while I'm running, and I don't think it's really a fitness issue. I am going to keep plugging away at it, but until I start feeling good, I'm not planning to train for anything in particular. As long as I accomplish other things in life, I do not think that I will regret it forever if I never run another PR. Right now I'm mostly focusing on all of those other things.

Emily LeVan is up to $7,656 in her fundraiser but still has a ways to go. My birthday was the same day as her daughter's, so I had people donate in lieu of giving me gifts. It worked out well. I hope people will consider contributing, if they haven't already. Besides, you can get a nifty Two Trials bracelet out of it!