The Long Run

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May 31, 2005

Huh?

In my quest for a new job, I e-mailed my resume to this "elite" public school here in town. This is a public school, but the students must apply and be accepted-basically it is for high achievers. Anyhow, I got an e-mail from them today that stated, "we are in receipt of your resume and will be arranging interviews the week of June 6th. Thank you for your interest in xxxxxx school." Now does that mean that I am supposed to call them to schedule an interview? Will they be calling me to schedule an interview? Is it just for my knowledge? I wish that they were more specific in their contact. Am I just completely clueless?

So, I did run today. Most of the day my upper hamstring/glute/piriformis area was really tight. I was using the tennis ball almost all day to try to get the knot out. It really only bothers me when I'm walking. I did my regular 7 mile loop, the first time since the marathon. I could feel that I am still tired from the race. The warm weather may have also played a part in the general feeling of being tired. I wore the heart rate monitor, but I have decided that I do not particularly care for it. My suspicion is that it is not completely accurate on me since it registers awfully high readings even when I am very relaxed. For example, while I was driving, it was registering something around 188-it just does not seem right. I did my 7 mile loop in 50 minutes, a little bit slower than a regular day, but none too shabby.

I went to the gym and rode the bike for an hour. Again, the monitor was picking up interference from the machine. With about 15 minutes to go, I had to get off the bike and buy a bottle of water since I was absolutely parched. The weight area was really crowded and I had every intention of lifting. I got done on the bike and decided that I only had time to stretch well or lift. Since I have been tight tight tight, I decided that stretching was the better option. I was able to get some of the kinks out. It was already getting late, I was hungry and still had to go to Trader Joe's. I made a quick trip to TJ's and then came home, ate, and here I am....

Posted by Blondie at 08:10 PM | Comments (3)

May 30, 2005

Memorial Day

This morning I came to the realization that this Memorial Day is the first time I have not raced on the "unoffical start of summer" in five or six years. The race that I used to always participate in, a fundraiser in memory of a boy who I went to high school with, has been cancelled. That may not be the best term, the family was raising a set amount of money for a scholarship and has achieved that number. The new Memorial Day race in the area is about 25 minutes south of here and not an appealing course, so I didn't race at all.

We had a morning workout instead of an evening track workout today. It just makes more sense when everyone is off from work to get together in the morning so that people can spend time with their families during the day and go to cookouts for dinner. Of course, this weekend we have had beautiful weather in the morning and then pop-up storms around dinner time, so we lucked out in the weather department too. There was a bigger than usual group and a big reunion since there were people who have not been to a track workout in at least a year! We did our usual 2.5 mile warm-up and then the workout was basically geared to the 5K. I didn't get to do the workout, but I understood what they were doing and know that this is part of what I will be doing for the rest of the year. We did 4 100 striders, then a 2 mile push on the track. The entire goal of this was to run the first mile fast and then run the second mile within 5 seconds of what the first mile was. After that, it was a lap jog and some more striders. I got to be the clock operator since we even set up a clock on the track. While everyone ran their 2 miles, I jogged around on the grass for about 10 minutes. I tried to do the second set of striders, but got kicked off the track. J and I both know that my speed is lacking and that we need to work on my short speed. This means that during the summer I am going to be doing the mile quite a bit to get used to running 5:45 or faster again. My body felt pretty good and I can feel my regular pace coming back to me.

There is something that has been weighing on me recently. I seem to have put on some weight and can not get rid of it. I never weigh myself anymore since I went through a period of being too obsessive about the number on the scale. I know that I have put on a few pounds since most of my clothes are tight on me. Even some of my "chunky" clothes are tight. I understand that eating is a big part of being healthy, I need to shed a few of these unwanted pounds. Another thing that bothers me is that when I was running my fastest, I was my absolute skinniest. Probably too skinny, my brother would ask our mother if I was eating at that time. I don't really want to get back to that point again, but I know that right now I feel sluggish and heavy. I do not want to turn this blog into an obsessive eating entry, but this is something that I do struggle with and it needs to be mentioned. I would not say that I have a full blown eating disorder, but I do have a distorted body image and have disturbed eating patterns-this much I do know.

I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday and took a moment to remember those who have fought in the wars.

Posted by Blondie at 06:03 PM | Comments (0)

May 29, 2005

It Just Figures

Yesterday I did lots and lots of laundry. I prefer to hang my clothes on the line outside. Well, I had the last load up on the line and my mom and I decided that we were going to go visit my grandmother at the home and run some errands. No biggie, right? Wrong! Soon after we got to the home and were chatting away (mainly with my aunt, my grandmother wasn't having the best day) we noticed that the sky was black. The next thing I knew, it was super windy and absolutely pouring! There wasn't anything that we could do about it at that point, but laugh. We did our errands and then came home and took the laundry off the clothesline, even wetter than it was when I put it out! That was pretty much my big excitement for yesterday.

I slept in this morning. It was so nice. Even though it is two weeks post-race, I still feel like I am worn down tired. The bouts of insomnia that I suffer from don't help that any. I ended up going to the same trail that I ran on Wednesday. I would have gone to the other park, but it is pay season now and I am just too cheap to pay for parking. You're supposed to pay for parking at the trail I went to today, but they never come out to the four car lot where I park. I decided to do the same thing as on Wednesday, I ran out for 18 minutes (almost the same exact spot as then) and then turn around and come back. The main difference was today I was dodging a bunch of people-walkers and mountain bikers. I must have been absolutely flying on the way back because I ran back in 16:20. I jogged around to hit 36 minutes and called it a day. It is probably about 4.75 miles, but who knows. The blister is healing up and the tingling is pretty much gone, so I think that it was a result of the blister. My right knee feels weird now, but only for the first three or four minutes that I run, then it warms up and feels fine.

My grand total of running this week was about 32 miles. Quite a leap from the 12 I did last week, but still well under my usual average. I am starting to think about what races I am going to do for the rest of the year. I have some plans, but nothing is set in stone yet-I need to hear from some race directors regarding my early fall races. I may do a track race this summer as something totally different and for fun. Now that I am starting to feel almost recovered, it is time to start looking forward.

Hope that everyone enjoys the holiday tomorrow!

Posted by Blondie at 06:57 PM | Comments (0)

May 28, 2005

Start of the Long Weekend

After our work-related news on Thursday afternoon, the school nurse called me at home on Thursday night, but I did not get the message until after she was in bed. J is 70 years old and is one of the most genuine, nice people I have ever met. She feeds all of the stray cats in the neighborhood where our school is and takes care of almost every employee in the building. I knew that she was very stressed about the situation. She loves to help people and is concerned about the new management. She is alone, her husband died about 20 years ago and her children are grown and have their own families. She knows that if she did not work, she would have to babysit for the grandchildren. J loves treats, so on the way to work I stopped and picked up a treat for her. I ended up running late because the cashier was working so slowly. Soon after I walked into the door, the woman who owns the company strolled up with her husband/business partner and their executive assistant. They came to see what they were taking over. They also pretty much said that we are not guarunteed our positions for next year. This did not bother me at all because I decided back in March that I would not go back, but many others are very stressed about their positions for next year.

Other than the visit, the day was really uneventful. This may be due to the fact that I do not care anymore, I am basically counting down the days until school is over. After work, I was a woman on a mission. I have a very fun, cool dress that is extremely sheer and I need a slip to wear under it. I was all over the place trying to find a slip that would work under this dress. The slip that I ended up with isn't quite what I need, but with some safety pinning it will do the job. I also ended up with some fun sandals and a fun skirt as well.

It would have been a beautiful day to run, but Friday is my day off from running. Anyhow, I am still working on the rest and recovery thing. It was OK though, because this morning was another beautiful day to run! I was wiped out last night, so I went to bed early and was pretty awake by the time it was time to get up. I packed up some clothes to wear to the gym afterwards and got ready to go. We had a rather small group, but most of us were doing the same thing. One guy had to do what he wanted to do, he is quite stubborn. Not that I am not stubborn. They equated his having to do his course for the long run to why I had to go out and jog the day after the marathong. Anyhow, we ended up with a group of six or seven running together. We did our route through a historic garden/estate. It is one of the most beautiful courses we do. There are lots of rolling hills and the scenery is gorgeous. We ended up running for a little over 9 miles, 68 minutes.

I went to the gym afterwards and rode the stationary bike for an hour. There were actually some decent magazines to read. A few might have been a week or so old, but they were much better than reading parenting magazines (the gym seems to have an endless supply of these). I also lifted some, but am still not up to my pre-race lifting routine.

I was using the heart rate monitor again today. I had some trouble with interference since three of the guys who I was running with were also wearing their monitors. One of these guys was playing with mine and said that the max on it was way too high, but we figured that it had to have been wrong. I wore the bra while I was running, it was so much more comfortable than the strap. At the gym I wore the strap and there was something going on that was not right since it kept registering rates like 220, 232, etc...I wasn't even breathing hard so I know that it was wrong. I don't know if it was picking up signals from the equipment or if it is not as accurate with the strap.

I hope that everyone is having a great long weekend and that all of you who are taking vacations have safe travels.

Posted by Blondie at 12:36 PM | Comments (0)

May 26, 2005

News at Work Today

As I have alluded to many times in my blog, my job is not the greatest. A little bit of background will help in the understanding. The school where I work takes students from all of the districts in the county where I live. Most of these students are expelled from the regular public school system. A few are placed instead of being expelled and some are coming from being detained. Instead of a school district running this school, a private company runs it. This company is a for-profit corporatation. In the education world, this basically spells trouble. There has been something not quite legit going on and it has been getting worse. Our paychecks have bounced. Our health and dental insurance has been terminated. There are numerous outstanding, unpaid bills at school. You get the picture. We received news today that the company we work for did not receive the contract for next school year. Since I had no plans to work at this school next year, it did not bother me all that much. The company that will be running the school does not have the same financial difficulties as the one that I currently work for, but you can only take the behavioral challenges that these students provide for so long. The main concern at this point is if our paychecks in June and July will clear. The problem is if the company is bankrupt, how will we get our pay for the work we do? I have dealt with being severely underpaid for four years, but this is not volunteer work and I do expect to be paid for my time.

So my toe felt kind of tingly today, but it was not too bad. I soaked it in an ice tub when I got home from work. Tonight was track night, but I am still prohibited from doing workouts. The weather said that it was 60 degrees out, but it felt much hotter than that. I was sweating buckets wearing my short sleeve shirt and shorts-usually at 60 degrees that is a comfortable outfit. It may have gotten warmer since the sun was coming out after being in hiding all day. It was rainy and gross out in the morning and even when I left work this afternoon. I did the warm-up and then went out with 3 folks who were not doing the workout for an easy run. The pace was difficult for me-it was unnaturally slow. I skipped the warm-down since I had already done over 6 miles for the night and didn't want to push it to almost 9 for the night.

I do have permission to do the Saturday morning long run this weekend. I'll keep it short, maybe as short as 45 minutes, but I really want to run with other people!

Posted by Blondie at 08:11 PM | Comments (0)

May 25, 2005

It Appears that I am Heartless

A few weeks ago one of the women I run with asked me if I would be interested in wear testing a new product that she had been involved in the development of. It is actually a pretty cool product. They were developing a sports bra that you can snap a heart rate monitor into the bra without the strap. Now, I have never used a heart rate monitor before, so I am not the best wear-tester, but it is pretty cool. They supply us with the bra, heart rate monitor, and log sheets to keep track of the workouts. We are supposed to do the same workout with the bra and the strap.

Well, I took it to work with me today to try to figure out how the monitor works. I pretty much managed to program all of my data into it without a real problem. Then decided to try it out and see if it was working. I wet the transmitters and put it on and then started the watch. I waited the fifteen seconds to get a reading and...no heartrate. I did this about five or six times without ever getting a heartrate. I determined that I am either heartless or dead. Since as far as we can tell, I am not dead, I decided that it must mean that I am heartless.

When I got home, I tried it out again and finally got a reading. It must mean that I am heartless at work because I am not caring enough with the students. It has been rainy here all week, but I really wanted to run. My plan had been to go to a trail near the gym and run easy. I decided to go with my plan and drove over to the trail. It is fairly wide and not very rocky, I really wanted to run on it to stay off the roads and keep myself from running hard. I ran out, slightly downhill, in 18 minutes. I turned around and ran back, uphill, in 17 minutes. I ran around for another minute to run for a total of 36 minutes, probably a little bit short of five miles. I was definitely moving on the way back. I wore the heart rate monitor, but I'm not sure how hard or what percent of my max was. I guess that I'll learn more about that as I wear it more. I felt pretty good, but don't want to push it yet.

I went over to the gym and rode the bike for 40 minutes after my run. I stretched a little bit after riding the bike. My right knee feels a little funny now, but it didn't feel weird until I got up from eating my dinner. I need to get better about using my foam roller again because I can feel some tightness in my butt, etc...

Posted by Blondie at 07:05 PM | Comments (0)

May 24, 2005

Oh How I Wish I Had a Bigger Butt

OK, maybe not a bigger butt, but maybe one with more padding. There is an easy solution of wearing cycling shorts, but I cringe at wearing them unless it is to a Spinning class. Today I spent an hour on the stationary bike at the gym. By about 35 minutes I was constantly adjusting myself because my butt was so sore. None of my running shorts seem to sit right on the bike either because they are always riding up. It was a terribly boring hour, but it was a day off from running to aid in recovery.

After the bike, I lifted some. It has been nearly three weeks since the last time I lifted. I did less weight and less repitions than I had been, but it was still a struggle. I am pretty sure that I will be sore after taking so much time off from lifting.

I am definitely itching to get back to running every day. Taking breaks really makes me appreciate running. My big toe was bothering me some this afternoon in my sneakers since I was retarded and wore heels to work today. What can I say, I suffer to look cute sometimes. It is feeling much better now that I'm hanging out in my slippers.

Tonight I need to forward my resume to a friend who has lots of possible connections for jobs. I was supposed to do this about three weeks ago, but I have not gotten around to doing it and I need to do it now.

Posted by Blondie at 07:09 PM | Comments (0)

May 23, 2005

Being the Troublemaker

Growing up, I was always the "good" kid. My brother wasn't bad, I just never got caught. I never had a detention, I was never the one talking in class or giving the teacher a hard time, I always got good grades, well you get the picture. I was a dork (and still am!) I always listened to my parents or the teacher, it was what you were supposed to do. Even at work, I try to keep everyone more or less happy, even though I hate it. You would think with all of this respect for others who are in authority, I would be a very coachable athlete. At one point I was. I did whatever my swim coaches would ask me to do without question. Now I am a stubborn lil thing who does not listen very well.

After last weekend, M told J that he thought it would be a good idea if I did not run at all for at least a week. Of course this was not meant to be. When I saw M on Saturday, he yelled at me because he heard that I had run during the week. Tonight J was late for the workout. The prescribed workout is one that I love/hate. I love it because when I do it I know that I am in shape. I hate it because it is HARD. The group of guys were moaning and groaning that they did not really want to do the workout, I told them it didn't affect me, but what good is having a schedule if you aren't going to follow it. Anyhow, J showed up during this discussion and told them to do whatever they wanted. Then he and I talked about what I should be doing. Needless to say, I wanted to do more than he thinks I should be doing.

I ended up doing the warm-up, about 2 miles on the track and the warm-down for a total of about 7 miles. J didn't want me to do the warm-down, he would have rather me just stretched, but I am so itchy to run that I had to do it. His main concern is that I'll do too much too soon and end up hurt. To make him feel better, I won't run tomorrow. My toe is feeling better, hardly any tingling today. My off and on sore shin was a little sore tonight, but that is not abnormal. I feel like I am ready for an almost normal week, but I'll still take it extra easy this week.

Posted by Blondie at 08:09 PM | Comments (1)

May 22, 2005

What to Do Now?

At the moment, I am in quite a quandry as to what to do. It is definitely a case of the post-marathon let down. This marathon was not planned, well not really. Sure, I knew for about 3 weeks that I was going to do it, but it is nothing like the typical 16 to 18 week build-up. I think that I liked it better this way, there was not all-consuming, all or nothing mentality to it. Even with all of this, I still have the "OK, I did the marathon, now what?" kind of feeling. I know that recovery comes first. I'd kind of like to do some kind of event over Memorial Day weekend, but there really is not anything around here. The race I used to always do is over (the family was raising x number of dollars for a scholarship and has reached their goal). The race I did last year I will never do again, it had four turns on cones, not fast and boring!! There actually is not any race I'm interested in until close to the end of June. I would like to find something between now and then to do, just for the fun of it.

I think that over the summer I'd like to work on my speed and then attack my 5K and 10K PRs. My speed is almost nonexistent. It has been pretty dead for about a year and a half now. In a few weeks we'll do our annual mile time trial. Running a 5:30 mile almost kills me. Somehow, I have been able to put together 3 5:45s... If I run an 80 second quarter, I am done. The 5K PR will be tough to achieve, the 10K should be able to come down. In the next few weeks I'll start thinking about my fall racing season. The summer races don't interest me that much. I can't get too excited about paying $20 to run a slow time because of the heat and humidity.

Recovery has been going pretty well. I ran a whopping four miles on Saturday morning. There were a million yard sales in the development I run in, so I was dodging cars. One of the older men I run with lives in this development and I ran into him backing out of his driveway, so I had to stop and talk for a while. Getting started again was tough, my legs definitely tightened up during the break. I rode our basement stationary bike for 50 minutes when I got home.

This morning involved another grand four miles. The weather all week has been so nice that I wish that I could run more. I can feel my pace picking up to my usual pace again, but it definitely is taking more out of me. I think that my grand total for the week was between 13 and 14 miles. I am feeling very fat and out of shape now. I better watch out that all the new clothes that I have splurged on won't fit anymore!

I went for my post-race massage yesterday. The massage therapist commented that my legs were not too bad considering what I had done the week before. They may not have been too bad, but they were definitely "crunchy" in my opinion. The massage helped quite a bit, my range of motion feel much better now. The blister was ready for surgery last night, so I operated on it. There is now what looks like a big hole, but a lot of the tingling is gone. Not completely gone, but it is much better than before.

Posted by Blondie at 05:16 PM | Comments (0)

May 20, 2005

Rainy Day Random Thoughts

1. Wearing my glasses makes me feel tired all day long. When it's rainy, I just do not see the point in dealing with contact lenses. There is no need for sunglasses and the prescription sunglasses just don't cut it, so I take advantage of these days to wear the cool glasses I invested in last year. For some reason, wearing them during the day makes me want to go to bed. I guess I associate not wearing glasses with getting ready for bed.

2. I always seem to be hungrier on days that I take off from exercising. I just don't get it, but I want to stuff my face even more when I don't work out. Thank goodness I work out most days of the week, if I didn't, I would weigh about 300 pounds.

3. I am a very impatient person when waiting for things to heal. I pick at scabs and blisters. I tried to perform blister surgery today, but it was not ready for the operation. Now I have skin that I cut away from the blister on the edges, but the middle is not ready to pull away yet. I also pick at my scabs. I am very lucky that I don't have too many scars from this picking. I have not yet picked at the scabs around my ankle from the timing band...they are itchy and I am so tempted to start picking at them, but I think that they'll bleed if I do this.

4. People think that they will melt in the rain. One of my big pet peeves is people who refuse to walk from the car into the grocery store when it is raining. The driver will drop them off in front of the store and just sit there, causing a huge back-up in the parking lot. Get over it. It is only water. You do take showers, don't you?

At work today my toe was feeling a little bit more tingly, but after the attempted blister surgery it is not feeling quite as tingly. I really do think that blister is putting some pressure on a nerve that is causing that sensation. I'm going to ask the massage therapist about it tomorrow. The problem is that our company dropped our health insurance (without informing us!) and getting any kinds of tests will be quite costly. If it doesn't go away in another week I'll think about getting it looked at. The problem is not in the treatment, it is in the testing.

Hope that everyone has great weekends!

Posted by Blondie at 03:32 PM | Comments (0)

May 19, 2005

Work May Be Turning Me Into An Alcoholic

For the past month, I have felt the need to have a glass of wine with my dinner to help me unwind from stressful days at work. I have never been much of a drinker so this is strange for me. It is not that much of a problem, because I don't actually need the glass of wine; I just enjoy it. In a way it is actually good for me because it makes me eat a better dinner. Eating a bowl of cereal just does not justify drinking a glass of wine. That being said, I finished a bottle last night and thought about tonight. I didn't feel like going out to buy a bottle of wine, so I broke the tradition tonight. Also, for the record, work was not quite as bad today as it has been of late.

I got to run today!!! Yeah!!! Not much and definitely not fast, but I did run. I made it a total of 30 minutes, probably about 3.5 miles. I went up to the track and ran the warm up and then jogged on the outside with a guy who has not been able to train for three months while everyone else did their workout. When I spoke with J today we discussed taking it very easy this week and even next week. He does not want to risk any kind of injury from running tired.

On the recovery front I am making progress. I didn't need to hold onto anything to go down the steps at work today. I don't need to balance on my desk to sit down. My cold is improving, but it has been lingering for quite some time. My appetite is finally back full force and I think that I am almost rehydrated. My massage is scheduled for Saturday afternoon. The only thing left to do is go out and celebrat with some of the girls.

Posted by Blondie at 08:01 PM | Comments (0)

May 18, 2005

The Post-Marathon Cold

I wonder if anyone has ever done a study to determine exactly what percentage of marathon finishers end up with a cold soon after race day. Now, I know that I had my cold before race day, but it seems that everyone I know who has done a marathon ends up being sick within a week after the race. Something about the distance wreaks havoc on the immune system. Currently, I am in the throes of a spring cold. I woke up yesterday and there was absolutely no way on earth that going to work was even a possiblity.

Monday night I went to bed early. I set the alarm for later because I had every intention of not going to work. The school nurse knew this and was expecting my call. I could hardly talk when I called out. She said I sounded terrible, but I did not know if that was because I had told her that I was calling out in the morning. Monday was pretty pathetic at work, but I would have been absolutely useless yesterday. I ended up sleeping almost twelve hours and was exhausted all day. I even went to bed early again last night.

As far as working out goes, I am sticking to trying to not run most of the week. Yesterday I went to the gym and swam 1200 yards and then rode the stationary bike for 45 minutes. This afternoon I ran in the pool for 45 minutes and then rode the stationary bike for 40 minutes. I am being recognized at the gym; people who I usually don't talk to are coming up to me and congratulating me. Maybe I'll meet a potential boyfriend this way! I am getting the itch to run, but I don't want to get worn down too quickly.

My body is still sore. Going down steps is still a challenge, as is sitting down. I'm kind of afraid that I did something to my big toe on my right foot. It doesn't hurt, but it feels like there are pins and needles in it. I hope that it is from the blister that is on the pad under my toe on the ball of my foot. Putting weight on it is not painful, but my toe feels numb most of the time. Dad thinks that it could be a nerve problem. Great, when I don't have any health insurance to cover testing. I'm getting a massage sometime over the weekend, the therapist has to call me back and let me know when the best time is for her since I have no plans for the weekend.

Posted by Blondie at 07:03 PM | Comments (2)

May 16, 2005

Recovery

Today marks day one of the recovery process. All of last week I was feeling a little bit under the weather, but yesterday morning I knew that it was more than just allergies. When I blew my nose before leaving for the race, I blew out a nice solid chunk of green-yellow mucus. Pretty, I know. My throat has been bothering me off and on. With all of this being said, this is probably a good week to lay off.

Yesterday afternoon just got worse and worse. I threw up four times. It was all liquid, which was probably a blessing. I had no appetite, I could not get any food in me. I could hardly drink water. Bad, I know, but it made me feel even worse to put anything in my body. I slept off and on throughout the day. I finally went to bed for good around 8:30. I woke up a few times, including one time at 12:30 when I was hungry. I was craving water ice, but no place was open. Water ice probably would have been good for me with all the liquid and sugar in it. Instead, I had a little bit of lemon sorbet which made me feel like I was going to throw up again. I decided that if I did puke, I was calling out of work right then.

I woke up right before the alarm went off and got ready for work. My legs are definitely sore, especially my quads. My stomach still was not feeling up to par. I managed to eat my oatmeal for breakfast and got a cup of yogurt down for lunch. Eating was a chore. My stomach is starting to feel better and I did have a little bit of an appetite tonight, but I did not want to tax my stomach too much, so I stopped eating before I felt full.

I went to the running store to thank M for carrying me through the race. I also went to the track. I jogged the warm-up. The 2.5 miles felt so hard, I can't believe that I ran so far yesterday! The first M I ran with stopped by with his daughter and congratulated me for a good race. He said that he knew that it was a tough day because in the four years that he has run with me, he has never known me to labor so much to run the pace we were running. Other than that, I got tons of congrats. We also talked about our idiot newspaper, that pretty much ignored the race. The article was about the bagpipe players and the beautiful weather for running a marathon! Even my mom, who was sitting the entire time, commented that it was hot and oppressive. Anyhow, back to running. I ran 2.5 miles and walked a little bit more. I stretched some on the track and then headed home.

I'm calling out sick tomorrow. I probably should have today, but maybe this will make the week go by a little bit faster. I'm not running tomorrow or Wednesday. Thursday I'm going to the track and doing the warm-up plus about another mile. There is not anything to be gained by doing a whole lot this week. I'll go to the gym and get in the pool some this week. No Spinning or anything tough, just some R & R.

I would like to thank everyone for their generous comments on my race. I just got an email from someone about the race that made me tear up. Yesterday was a huge emotional high for our family considering everything that we have gone through in the past six months. Although I would have like things to go a slightly different way, I could not have hoped for anything more than what was accomplished.

Posted by Blondie at 08:03 PM | Comments (2)

May 15, 2005

Reason for Not Blogging

There was a very good reason that I was not updating my blog much last week. After this entry, my attempts at remaining anonymous will probably be ka-put. I ran a marathon today. I decided about two weeks ago to try this race and see how it went. We ran the relay of it last year, but we were not going to be able to put together a relay team, so we decided to enter it as a "look and see" kind of race. I didn't blog about it because I didn't want any advice or wishing of luck (which I really do appreciate, but I was trying to keep this as low-key as possible). I didn't really tell anyone about the race. I purposely avoided the track on Thursday night so that I would not get any of the last minute advice. The cat got out of the bag early last week when the final entries were posted on the event website.

So, Thursday I met with J before his youth team had practice. I ran a very easy 25 minutes and called it a day. Friday I did not run at all. Yesterday I ran for 20 minutes with a very slow man who was very excited when he figured out I was doing the marathon. The weather yesterday would have been perfect-low 50s and sunny.

Yesterday I headed down to the race to pick up my packet. It is only about ten minutes away from home. The first signal that things were not going to be great was that it got hot yesterday. Much warmer than called for. The second problem was that the temperature was not supposed to drop much overnight. Other than that, I did not do anything during the day. I took an ice bath shortly before going to bed. I slept well, even waking up way before the alarm was set to go off. When I woke up and saw that it was already 67 degrees at 5:45, I knew that today could get very ugly.

The Delaware Marathon is a four lap course. If you want to know the history of this race, there is an article on it in the most recent Runner's World. It is not a pretty course, there are much prettier parts of Delaware, but the reason for this course is explained in the article. I met up with M who was going to start with me and we agreed (again) to be conservative. That pretty much went out the door right away.

The course was changed slightly from last year to take out an annoying out and back towards the finish of each lap. To make up the extra distance, they made a "victory loop" of a mile before the first lap. We definitely went out way faster than planned and kept trying to back off, but we were holding under 7 minute pace for at least the first ten miles. After the first lap, he asked me how I felt and I said good, but that was probably jinxing myself. Towards the end of the second lap I was not feeling so hot. I was leading the first two laps and had a cyclist with me so that I would not get lost?!

At the start of the third lap, another M jumped in with us. He carried a bottle of water and bottle of diluted Gatorade for me. Around halfway through the third lap I started to feel really bad and really weak. At the turnaround on this lap, I was passed by another woman. I passed her right back and tried to get myself back into the race. About five minutes later, I had to stop, I was really dizzy and knew that I did not need to do anything to harm myself. I was giving myself a really hard time at this point, I thought she looked so good and I really wanted to win. M said, there are eight miles left, she could fall apart. I responded with I am already falling apart and she looks so good. For the rest of that lap I kept saying that I was not going to finish. M said, that's fine, but you've got to at least finish this lap. I don't know when, but I finally said that I am going to finish this damn thing and I don't care how slow I run.

On the fourth lap, M kept tabs on how close I was to the other woman and let me know what she was doing. He also filled my water bottle multiple times with water from the water stops. As the lap went on, her lead was shrinking quickly. It started at 40 seconds and the next thing I knew it was down to 24 seconds and then we passed her! A little bit before the turnaround where she had passed me the lap before, I passed her right back! After the turnaround she was falling off really quickly. By 24 miles my quads were shot, my right foot was burning up and I just wanted to be done. I was still concerned that she would come back and pass me again. M kept tabs on her for me and could not see her. As we hit the 26 mile mark, he sent the cyclist up to tell them I was almost there. Then he told me that I earned today and it was a tough race. I crossed the finish line in 3:14:58, not the kind of time I was hoping for, but all things considered, one that I am very happy with. It was hot and humid and there was not shade on the course.

My parents were there and were thrilled, J was happy, everyone I know was happy. M told J that if he ever doubted how tough I am, I am much tougher than he would have ever known. I'm afraid of what I said in my interviews after the race because I was pretty delirious. I have a big blood blister on one foot and a big blister on the toe of my other foot.

I just wanted to go home, but I had to wait for the awards. My stomach was not feeling so great and I had an accident during one of the interviews. I have felt like I could vomit, but have not been able to. My back feels out of whack and it hurts to take a deep breath. I've been laying around, but I was so hot that I sat in a cold bath tub to bring my core body temperature down. I have not been able to eat anything yet, but will be trying to drink a milkshake soon.

So there it is...the reason that I have not been updating my blog.

Posted by Blondie at 02:55 PM | Comments (8)

May 11, 2005

A Real Reason to Celebrate

Although work absolutely sucked, as always, today was a great day nonetheless. I share an office with two other women, one of whom I get along with very well, the other one of which, neither of us get along with. Friday there was basically a huge falling out and now the one woman just makes the whole situation very uncomfortable. Doesn't bother me much, she has the guilty conscience. Even though I don't particularly care and know that I won't have to deal with her after the end of the school year, it makes work that much more unpleasant.

There were two reasons to celebrate today. One was much more important than the other. Today was my mother's last chemotherapy treatment!!! This is the real reason to celebrate. It is also my birthday, but not one of those significant birthdays. We had a little party around dinner time to celebrate both. My aunt and two uncles came over and we had some champagne. There was also angel food cake, but since I had not had dinner yet, I didn't have the cake until after dinner.

Oh, yeah, I ran some today. Nothing exciting. Since I have a million things left to do tonight, I'm going to sign off for now and fill you all in more later.

Posted by Blondie at 08:47 PM | Comments (5)

May 09, 2005

Weekend at the Races

Almost all of this weekend was spent at the races. Different kinds of races, but races nonetheless. It was quite a busy weekend as well, I probably only spent a grand total of three hours at home (not including sleeping time).

Saturday morning started out early as usual. It was cool and sunny during the run. I made sure not to do anything stupid. In order to accomplish this, I spent close to the first half of the run glued to J's side. We did a pretty challenging almost 10 mile loop. The first half has a pretty substantial downhill, but then the side road to get back to the main road is about 1.75 miles of hills. It climbs, drops, then climbs again four times. Each climb is steeper than the previous climb. The final climb is truly a bitch, it does not matter what kind of shape you are in, that hill kills you. I did try to push the hills a little bit. I did feel pretty strong, T was trying to stay with me but I dropped him on the third of the hills. We regrouped at the top to make the final 3.5 mile run in. T likes to take off and sprint in the final mile or so. I let him do that and just stayed comfortable.

After the run I rushed to the gym. I rode the bike for 40 minutes and lifted. I had to get out of there so that I could get to the high school track meet to volunteer. Doing the awards at a high school invitational is not the most enjoyable way to spend a Saturday afternoon. I must have been allergic to the sunscreen I had on because my face ended up bright red. I didn't get to see the races I was actually interested in because kids were badgering me for their medals. There must be a better method for doing this, but I only do it one time a year so I'm not going to stress over it. I got home and ate dinner and then realized that I needed shoes to wear on Sunday and had to run to the mall to buy a pair.

I woke up at 6:30 on Sunday morning to run before going to the horse races. I was out the door and running around 6:50 and it was breezy and sunny. The wind would pick up later in the day, but it was really nice early. It was so quiet and eerie running so early. There were hardly any people or cars out. The Catholic church must have had a seven o'clock service because that was pretty much the only place there were a lot of cars. I was more sore than usual from moving around in funny ways on Saturday while doing the awards.

I had to get home fast and shower to get ready for the pre-race breakfast. Nobody goes to these horse races to actually watch the horses, it is more of an excuse to have an all day tailgate. Tradition dictates that women wear sundresses and hats, but it was way too chilly to wear a dress yesterday. No hat for me, but I should have worn one. A different sunscreen was used on my face, one that I did not have an allergic reaction to. I also made sure to reapply every 90 minutes since there was no shade. Good eating habits totally went out the window yesterday. Too much alcohol was consumed and there was no healthy food to be found. It was a fun day, and much deserved. My face did not get sunburn, but my scalp did. I feel like a bald man. I guess that is what I get for having fine, blond hair.

After the races, I went to my aunt's house for Mother's Day dinner. My mom's wish for me was to go out and have a good time yesterday. She says that she would rather me go out and meet people and have fun than to spend a day with her. She knows how long it has been since I had a good time and that I really needed it. I actually was not having that much fun with S, I felt like a third wheel since she has only been dating T for about five months. On top of that, everyone else was a couple and they all worked together and were talking shop. I found some of the folks that I work out with and spent the rest of the day with them. OK, I'm way off topic now...Mother's Day dinner was nearly over when I got there. I had a small dinner and then completely overindulged on Italian Rum Cake.

I called out of work sick today. Getting up early to go to work would have overextended me and made me sick later. I did not even sleep all that late, but I needed to not have to wake up early. It was beautiful once again, but I wasted the day and did not do anything. I went to the track and all I did was some striders. My body feels like it needs some rest and TLC, so that is what I am giving it. I have a massage scheduled for tomorrow.

Well, that's about all...It could have been much longer, but I don't think that anyone really wants to hear all of the gory details of any run/party!

Posted by Blondie at 08:04 PM | Comments (1)

May 06, 2005

Breaking a Promise to Myself

I had promised myself that I would no longer gripe about work on my blog. Today was one of those days that has made me break that promise. Since I take Fridays off from running, I can't take my frustrations out on the road. Instead I'll write some of it here.

The nurse at school is 70 years old and takes care of me all the time. The students give both of us a hard time, neither of us get any respect from these students. My supervisor is completely unprofessional. In fact, she is rather uneducated. Her supervisor lets her do whatever she wants and never stands up to her. Due to his actions, I have very little respect for him because he never puts the supervisor in her place. My supervisor talks about all of the staff behind our backs, I know it and don't let it bother me. It does bother some of my co-workers, but I have resigned myself to the fact that this happens. When one of the staff was completely out of line, she told my co-worker that it was her duty to pull him out of the class and tell him that he was out of line, in front of the students. This totally infuriated my co-worker. None of us can ever do anything right. As far as she is concerned, it is only her way. The stipulations she has put on us makes it nearly impossible to do our jobs, so none of us to what she wants us to do. My position is completely misunderstood not only by her, but by everyone else because the way she explains it is wrong. This complainng is just about the supervisor. On top of that, our health insurance was terminated and we were not informed of that until 7 weeks after the fact. Our paychecks have bounced, so we have to cash them at the bank they are drawn on as soon as we are paid. I know that I need to get out. Work makes me so unhappy and miserable. I was ready to pack up all of my belongings this morning and never go back. The nurse had to talk me into at least staying until the end of the school year.

Today was payday, so I had to run to the bank and cash my check. After depositing the cash in my account I went to buy plants. I think that I bought too many tomato plants, but if I did we can give some to my aunt. I bought 9 tomato plants and 2 pepper plants, as well as a basil plant. This is one of my favorite things to do during the summer. Fresh veggies that I grow taste so much better than the ones you can buy in the grocery store. I went to the running store to let the owner know that the shoes I got were so much better than the previous version I had worn. After that I bought the wine for Mother's Day, as well as some for dinner tonight, I feel that I deserved it after today!

Sunday I'm going to the horse races and breakfast before hand. I plan to have a good ol' time...this means that I may be missing out on work on Monday, darn. The forecast was originally for 80, but now it is only supposed to be about 70...brr. Tomorrow I'm volunteering all day at a high school track meet and it is supposed to be in the 50s and wet, I'm going to be one grumpy girl. I'll probably be missing Mother's Day dinner with my family, but mom said it was OK. She knows how miserable I've been with work and she wants me to go out and have fun. I may be able to stop over at the dinner, but it could be very unpleasant. My crazy uncle is coming to visit and my brother will be around too.

Hope that everyone enjoys their weekends!!!

Posted by Blondie at 04:39 PM | Comments (0)

May 05, 2005

Parking

Every year during the second weekend in May there is a carnival in the park adjacent to the school where we do track workouts. The police block off most of the streets in the area for parking. The reason for this is so that residents do not lose their parking spots and so that emergency vehicles can get through as needed. This makes parking for the track workout nearly impossible. It also makes our warm up and warm down extremely dangerous as there are tons of idiot drivers out there who do not notice a large group of people running. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy this "carnival"-I buy my tomato and basil plants there every year, in fact I'll be there tomorrow after work buying those plants. The problem is all of the portable rides that attract families. Tonight I was lucky and was able to find a spot pretty close to the track, but not everyone was so lucky.

Onto running. My workout was fair. Definitely could have been better, but upon some reflection, I need to accept it. I have not really been working on speed, I've been doing lots and lots of strength. I can run about a mile fast and then I am petered out. Tonight's workout was 3 x 1600 with an 800 jog. I purposely held back some on the first, but I took the brunt of the wind on the backstretch. The guy who I absolutely can not stand running with was there. He only runs with us from May 1 until the end of October. He makes so much noise and then races on every interval. This completely and totally defeats the purpose of what I am trying to do. Anyhow, even though I tried to not work too hard on the first interval, the rest of the workout was downhill. The miles were 6:05, 6:08 and 6:12. The second one felt terrible, the third one, although the slowest, felt stronger. As usual, I was able to keep my recoveries strong-about 7:15 pace. This is really an indication of the training that has been put in, I recover very fast. Most of the people at the track don't like to do workouts with me since I run the recoveries so much faster. My new shoes were much better tonight-the right one was tied looser so that hot spot didn't show up on the ball of my right foot.

Tomorrow is a busy afternoon. It's payday, so I have to run to the bank to cash my check. I'm going to a different branch, then picking up the wine that I won two weeks ago. While at the wine shop I have to pick up wine for Mother's Day dinner. I have to buy a ticket for the horse races that are the social thing to do on Sunday. I have to high tail it over to my bank and deposit my cash and then head up to the carnival to buy my tomatoes, basil, and maybe some bell peppers to plant. By the time I get home I will defintely be spent. My body definitely will appreciate the day off from running as well. Right now I attribute the tiredness to being a cumulative effect from all of this week.

Posted by Blondie at 08:07 PM | Comments (0)

May 04, 2005

Weird Weather

Ahhh, Wednesday is nearly over. The week is all downhill from here. I am seriously considering having a well-day on Monday. A massage therapist I used to go to said that you should call out of work healthy, don't even bother lying, just call out. There is actually more than one day next week that I've considered to be my well-day, but at the moment Monday seems to be the leading day. The weather looks like it should be beautiful and the rest of the weekend looks like it will be very busy. It is so funny how I can have absolutely nothing to do on the weekend for months at a time, but then in one weekend there are about a trillion engagements!

For some reason I have been more tired than usual this week. I've been getting to bed at a decent hour (I would like to be in bed a little bit earlier, but it is not late by any means). I've been sleeping through the night. OK, I have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, but I think that I sleep-walk there. The only culprit that I can think of is not taking naps on Monday and Tuesday. I was so exhausted last night that even though Mom was bored and lonely, she told me to go to bed because I just looked wiped out. This afternoon I did get to nap and was out like a light.

I did a very pleasant 7 miles this afternoon. My stomach was acting up some, but for the most part it was tolerable. The weather has been unseasonably cool this week. Don't get me wrong, I've been enjoying it. The other day the weatherman said that we had an unseasonably wet April, like over 3 inches above normal. I don't remember it raining all that much, but the days it did rain it was a heavy rain all day and all night. Back to today...I didn't time the run, just ran it and tried to stay relaxed. Got home, used the bathroom and went back out for my 6 striders. There was really nothing exciting about it at all.

It really surprises me how not beat up my body is after racing on Sunday. I know that the course is gentle, but there have been years that I have not been able to walk down the steps after this race. I believe that it is just a testament to how much of a bad day I was having. I just could not get my body to push hard enough to be racing. I am a little bit on the tight side, but nothing out of the ordinary.

I went to the gym and rode the bike for 30 minutes. I talked to S for the first 20 minutes that I was on the bike. The last ten I was alone and read an old trashy magazine. I had to go to Trader Joe's to pick up a few items. The real bummer was that the one item that I was really trying to get was out and won't be in until tomorrow. The rest of this week looks really busy, so I don't know when I'll be able to pick it up.

OK, I really need to get to bed at a decent hour tonight!

Posted by Blondie at 08:14 PM | Comments (0)

May 03, 2005

Addicted to New Shoes

I have a serious problem with shoes. Running shoes, cute shoes, sandals, boots, any kind of shoe I love em. Over the weekend I bought two new pairs of sandals. We can't even wear open toed shoes where I work, but I just wanted them. Today I bought a new pair of light weight trainers. I needed them. In the past month I have purchased a pair of racing flats, a pair of regular trainers, and now my light weight trainers. I really needed to get these today. Enough said for now.

I have to say I was an annoying customer. I tried on every single shoe on the wall of this variety. Buying regular training shoes is not too much of a problem. I get the same kind without fail. Every time I find a light weight trainer that I like, it gets drastically changed. I took a big gamble and tried a shoe that I had a terrible experience with in a prior version. It is supposed to be much improved from what I wore once and had to get rid of. Anyhow, I was a pain since I tried on every pair in more than one size each. My feet seem to have magically grown a half size, not that I going to complain about it.

There is a loop from the running store that they do for a group run on Wednesday nights. I am getting bored with the run that I typically do, so I changed my clothes there and did that loop. Rumor has it that it is just over 7 miles, but I don't know if it has ever been measured. One of the men who runs with our group has a pedometer that he swears by and he says that it is 7.2 miles. I decided to do this loop for a change of pace. You would never guess that I had run a 10 mile race on Sunday becuase my legs felt pretty darn good. The first mile felt a little bit sluggish, but once I got moving they felt very good. I wore my new shoes to test them out. There were some potty problems, I had to wait until over five miles in to use a bathroom because there is absolutely no where to hide on this route. The worst part was coming back to the store, up the hill with wind in my face. I did try to stay relaxed, but I did the course in just over 48 minutes. I kept running up the road some and then turned around to hit an even hour. I guess that it was between 8.5 and 9 miles for the afternoon. The new shoes were not bad, but there was a hot spot on the ball of my right foot towards the end.

I stretched a little in the parking lot before heading over to the gym. While there I rode the stationary bike for 40 minutes. After riding the bike I stretched some more. This is part of the TLC that I am giving my feet this week. After I lifted some, but I really wanted to go home because I had not been home in over 12 hours.

Now I'm home and have eaten and just want to veg out. There is some cleaning that reall needs to get done, including folding the laundry that I did over a week ago...

Posted by Blondie at 07:53 PM | Comments (1)

May 02, 2005

What Happened to Spring?

The weather this morning looked like it would be perfect to run in. It was cool, clear and brisk. By the time I was leaving work, the clouds were rolling on in and the wind was starting to pick up. Two hours later as I got ready to go to the track, the temperature had started to plummet, the winds were really picking up and it was starting to rain. Yuck. I'm still chilly now.

I didn't know that the pee stretch would generate so much interest. I wish that I could write down how to do it. I must say that I will forever be grateful to the individual who showed it to me. It has come in handy many, many times. To be honest, I don't really care if people see me peeing when there is not a port-o-potty around. This looks like you are doing a stretch, but you can discreetly pee. I will demonstrate for anyone who is interested if we should ever meet.

This evening was an easy workout. The weather seemed to scare off most of the group. All I had on tap tonight was to do some gradual accelerations. No less than 8, no more than 12. I ended up doing 12. J was running late and he did his warm-up with me as I warmed down. I jogged a mile on the track with him when we got back to bounce some ideas around. I didn't feel bad tonight, but it was hard to do any pick-up because I was so cold and wet. I was wishing that I had not cleaned out my car two weeks ago because now there are not any random gloves hanging around in the backseat.

I have gotten over my disappointment in yesterday's race. I do realize that most people would be very happy with this performance. It was what I did and I must accept it. It was not a stupid race, I did not go out too fast and die. I had a plan, started to execute it, but it was not meant to be yesterday. There are plenty of other races in the future and Broad Street is not going anywhere. I had my day of pity and now it is time to move on. The most important thing for the next few days is to recover.

All righty, now it's time to read about the weekend!

Posted by Blondie at 08:19 PM | Comments (0)

May 01, 2005

Just Not My Day

Today was just not my day. I had great hopes going into the Broad Street Run. This race is fast, mainly flat to downhill (there are a few incline "bumps") and draws a great field. As I stated earlier, the conditions can make or break the race. This is one of the races that I had been pointing towards all year. My big goal was to break 60 minutes. If all else failed, I at least wanted to PR (61:49). All of the training I had done indicated that PR was in the bag.

One of the guys who I train with picked me up around 6:30. We made the trip with very little excitement. Our only issue was parking, but we simply followed where they directed us. We didn't park in the lot that I'm used to parking in, but that must have been becuase the Sixers had a home playoff game and the Phillies played later on in the day. We were accross the street from the Septa station and made our way to catch the subway up to the start. A train took off just as we got underground, but the next express train was only about four minutes later. We were among the first people on that train, so we were able to sit for the half hour ride up to North Philly. The race starts in a bad, I mean really bad, section of North Philly. I would never venture into this part of the city other than for this race. It's the part of the city that is always on the news for murders/shootings. We got to Central High, the staging area for the race. My ride wanted to use the toilets and I needed to get a baggage ticket and wanted to jog some. I got a ticket, put my bag down and jogged around the mud track. After all of the rain we had last night and this morning, the track was a mess. Warming up on this track is nearly impossible because you just end up dodging people. I managed to get about a mile in. I headed over to the buses to drop off my bag. I sat on the ground to change my shoes, strip and put my number on. After I dropped off my bag I wanted to use the bathroom, but the lines were immense. I ended up doing the "pee stretch". I'm not really sure how to explain it, but it is basically a stretch to do and discreetly pee while doing it. I hope that none of the people around the starting line noticed me watering the lawn!

I lined up in the back of the seeded runners area. I warned the other folks who I went up with who had never run this race before to line up way in front of the pace they expected to run because the race officials are not particularly good at enforcing it in this race. The weather was cool, damp, sort of drizzling at the start, and there were occasional gusts of wind. The roads were very slick which made me extremely cautious given my tendency to fall. J called me last night and left me a message to have a race plan and stick with it. My plan was to hit the first mile around 6 and then maintain and pick up the pace. I went through the first mile in 5:58, pretty much right on my plan. The second mile was when I started to know that today was not my day. I went through 2 in 12:00, but it was taking more effort than it should have to run that pace. Three miles was something around 18:15 and took a lot of work to run that. The miles pretty much stayed that way. It was taking way more work to run splits that should have been easy. The wind was weird; it was either a cross wind or a headwind. The same gust would even have both in it, but I never noticed a tailwind. Early on I kept reminding myself that it was a long race and not to panic early. There were women in front of me who had no business being there, but I kept telling myself that I could pick them off later. Around seven miles I knew they weren't coming back, but some other chic passed me and that sort of woke me up. I tried to maintain contact with her and tried to get closer. Around this time I had some serious stomach problems and had to soil my shorts a little bit. I wanted to stop, but was not in a neighborhood where it was a good idea. The race runs through most of the various neighborhoods of Philly. One thing I noticed was there seemed to be a McDonald's on nearly every corner...no wonder Philadelphia is ranked one of the least healthy cities in America! I managed to finish in 62:21, not a bad time, but disappointing nonetheless.

I met up with my running buddies and we decided to go out for lunch. I was freezing and did not want to stick around for my award, they can mail it to me. My fingernails were turning blue as we were walking back to the car. We had a nice lunch talking about the race and drinking a few cold beers.

Later this afternoon I talked to J. I don't know if you would technically call him my coach, but he definitely gives me advice and tailors the workouts of the group for me. He makes the workout for everyone, but will alter it if you ask him to help you. I expressed that I was disappointed, but it could have been much worse. He had estimated a finish somewhere between 59:30 and 60:50-where I thought I would be as well. We're pretty sure that it was just an off day. We compared where some people in the half marathon from March were to me today and knew that I just did not run well. It could have been worse-I could have crashed and burned. Instead it was just consistently off. The splits were rather even, just not as fast as they should have been. This week is going to be pretty easy to recover-some striders tomorrow, hopefully the full workout on Thursday. One great thing about this race is that it does not beat your body up the way some races do. In all honesty, this was my second fastest 10 miler, so it is nothing to laugh at.

They just had a segment on the race on the news. I was being sarcastic to say that I saw myself at the start (I did, but it was a tiny blip). My dad was standing there watching and they showed a long segment running into the finish and I was in the center for about five seconds! I'm a celebrity!!!

I ran four miles this afternoon because I didn't get to warm down after the race. I got in the car and sat for a while and also sat at lunch. I think that I actually felt better on my jog than I did in the race.

OK, gotta go and see if someone can get me a copy of that news!

Posted by Blondie at 06:11 PM | Comments (3)