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November 27, 2005

B-E-L-L-Y belt

There are a few words in the English language that bother me for one reason or another. One of those words is "belly" when applied to the abdominal area of woman who is "expecting." (As I mentioned before, I had a real problem with the "p" word when applied to myself for a while, but I've gotten better about using it. But that's mainly because finding euphemisms often leads to awkward sentence structure and a loss of clarity and focus which I can scarcely afford when I'm talking. I have a tendency to wander off course and lose my train of thought in a story or leave out really important parts. That's why I love blogging and other forms of written communication. I can go back and see where I wandered off course or left out something important.)

Where was I?

Oh yeah. "Belly." When my friend Shannon first told me she was expecting her second child - probably about a year ago - I promised her that I wouldn't ever use the word "belly" when referring to her abdominal area and she looked at me like I was crazy and told me she had no problem at all with that word. It's a wonder we're friends we're so different.

Last weekend, after hearing that my ab muscles had been bothering me, my friend Liz brought by a contraption to go around my waist to stabilize my midsection. It's a "belly belt." So depending on how my abs feel tomorrow morning I may take it on down to the trail to see how it holds up on a walk-run. I had intended to try it out last Thursday on a walk with Shannon but we accidentally went to Guero's for Mexican food instead. Although I've been getting some great exercise on the bike the last few weeks and will go back to the gym if this doesn't work out, I'm excited to get back out on the trail where I belong. I think I'd rather walk-run and get a worse workout than sit in the gym and work my thighs into even bigger tree trunks.

Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Oh ... I did want to mention that I thought about you New Englanders a lot this weekend. I've been working my way through Walden the past few weeks and over the weekend spent a few really nice hours reading down by the Guadalupe River in the Texas Hill Country. It was hard to imagine a New England pond while sitting in 70-degree weather on the day after Thanksgiving, but being down at the water's edge all by myself really helped set the stage. There was a line, too, that I thought applicable to running:

"Fishermen, hunters, woodchoppers, and others [runners?], spending their lives in the fields and woods, in a peculiar sense a part of Nature themselves, are often in a more favorable mood for observing her, in the intervals of their pursuits, than philosophers or poets even, who approach her with expectation. She is not afraid to exhibit herself to them."

I miss being outside with a purpose. I hope the belly belt can get me back out there!

One more thing: my friend Megan (hi Megan!) won the maternity division of the Turkey Trot this weekend (by a really large margin.) Strong work Megan!

Posted by jenandmats at 7:57 PM | Comments (1)

November 22, 2005

Did I miss anything?

Andy is listening to the Aggie War Hymn in his office. That's a good sign. The Aggies are so horrible this year and Texas is so good I didn't think he'd even have it in him to get fired up for the game this year. We toyed briefly with the idea of going, but decided against it when we found out how expensive tickets were. And without Bonfire I must say the whole experience is a little less appealing to me. We realized earlier this week that we actually attended the last Bonfire in '98, before the accident in '99.

My attention has been diverted from the blogs for the past week or so by work, by baby class (we graduated on Saturday - we know all there is to know, apparently!), by a to-do list as long as my arm, and by a heated debate on the message board on the RunTex website. I think I may have been a sucker for a troll who insulted the Austin running community with appallingly bad grammar and spelling, but it was mildly entertaining for a while. So although I'll try to catch up with reading everything, I'm hoping SOMEbody will let me know if I've missed anything really big.

My ab strain feels better, but it'll still flare up if I do anything that involves bouncing or swinging my arms too much. You know that with all these other posts about sports hernias I'd be convinced that that's what I have, too, except I really haven't done anything remotely resembling "sports" in nearly a year.

Speaking of ... this past weekend was the Motive Bison Stampede, which was probably my best "race" last year, even though Andy and I did it primarily as a pace run. This year they had *much* better weather, but And didn't have nearly as much fun without me. He pretty much decided afterward that he wouldn't try to run Dallas this year and would instead do a fun 50K trail race that same weekend. I'm sad he decided against it, but I know it's the right decision. He would love to make the sub-3 official (after getting a 3:00:02 official time at Houston last year), but he's not obsessed with it and knows he wouldn't really enjoy running a course in a town he doesn't love with no friends around just for the satisfaction of getting a certain time. I know he'll go for it again, and I'm hoping he does it in either Houston, where he has such a strong personal and marathon history, or here in Austin in his adopted home town surrounded by all of our good friends.

He's been wanting to do this trail race for years, but marathon training has gotten in the way. And he still has pacing to look forward to at Freescale - he was assigned the 3:35 pace group this year, which is a little weird, but I guess it's a Boston Qualifier for 50-54 y.o. men and he'll probably also pick up a few fall-offs from the 3:30 train. In between those two races he'll pick up an extra support crew member! (I just hope he can get some sleep the night before Freescale ... "she" may not be a month old by then!)

I have been hitting the recumbent bike the past week or so! It sucks, but man I work and sweat my ass off on that thing. It's nice, though, to be in the gym where the staff doesn't even look at you when you walk in the door and you can feel people checking you out as you work out. (I'm serious! Even me!) It's way better than being out on the trail. Seriously. Who wants to be out running in clear, dry 50-degree weather, anyway? *sigh*

Good luck Turkey Trotters!!!! And I hope everyone has a great holiday ...

Posted by jenandmats at 9:05 PM

November 13, 2005

San Antonio Marathon

Well I didn't want to tell anyone I was going to do this race because I wanted to feel free to drop out if I didn't think I was going to make it. But I started out nice and easy with the four-hour pace group and just kept going from there.

Haaaaa. Not really. We went down to SA to see my sister-in-law run her first "hometown" marathon, even though they've lived there for seven years or so. There's a reason why she's never run it before. It's not a very nice marathon. Terrible spectator support, terrible weather, hairpin turns, cobblestones late in the race ... it's just terrible. I ran it in 1998 as my third marathon and I sincerely doubted I would ever run another one it was soooo terrible. Terrible.

This morning we turned on the tv at 6:50, ten minutes before the start at 7, and the temperature was 74 and humid here in Austin. Sweeeeet. We headed out a little after 7am and got to SA a little after 8, after stopping to clean off a nasty blood splatter on the windshield from a flying chunk of roadkill. It was so gross it would have made me queasy even if I weren't in my "condition."

We parked at the mall right next to the Alamo. Seriously. There's a huge mall right *next* to the Alamo. The size of the Alamo is surprising enough - it's much smaller than you'd think - and having a mall right next to it takes away just a little bit more of its mystique. And as we walked past I *had* to do a little Pee Wee (actually Jan Hooks talking to Pee Wee at the Alamo - "There's no basement in the Alamo." "This is Inez. Inez is makin' tortillas. Can y'all say tortillas?")

Ay yay yay. As if this race weren't bad enough, the location where finally stopped to watch was a stone's throw from ... get this ... miles 2, 12, 18, and 25 of the marathon. All on the same street. We couldn't figure out *what* was going on. Especially since we came across the mile 25 sign about 9:15am and several people had already run by, including the women's leader several minutes before, and the volunteers insisted the mile sign was right, even when I informed them that that would mean we had a new world record! (Turns out they had the sign on the wrong side of the road facing the wrong direction.) The marathoners, at least the faster ones, had to run back through the mass of marathoners AND half marathoners at the end of their races. On cobblestones. On a stretch they'd already run three times before!

Well anyway this was never a race about the clock. Even when you don't know anything about the course, when you wake up on marathon morning and it's 74 degrees and humid you know it's going to be about being tough and not about being fast. And my sister-in-law is tough, so although we gave her a little crap about running such a terrible race, we knew she had potential to do well. And she did. It wasn't a p.r., and she never caught the woman who was ten feet ahead of her at the 26-mile mark, which we really thought she'd do, but she was top 10 overall women and the first woman from Bexar County (for which she got a nice phat check.)

And we had a good time spectating. It was a nice day for spectating. The post-race party got HOT. I think I got a sunburn. There was beer at the finish line, which is always a plus, and there was more food at the end than the little bowl of rice and beans I got in '98! So maybe it's getting better?

As for me, I think my running days have finally come to an end. It's weird that I'd run 20 miles one week with a comfortable eight miles and then not be comfortable two days later. And maybe I could run, but my ab muscles have gotten to the point where they get sore very easily. It's a weird sore. Kinda between a strain and a burning sensation. And it doesn't last long. But I don't like it. And I always said if I got a sign that I might should stop I'd stop. And maybe if something changes I'll change my mind, but for now that's the decision.

And it makes me sad. I'll miss seeing the girls in the morning. What will I do without all their mothering advice?! Ay caramba. I've thought about asking them if I were to get a little red wagon if they'd pull me around the lake a few times a week. It'd be great training. Seriously.

But it is all too clear that I'll have to do *something* to exercise. I felt terrible in the evenings last week when I didn't do anything. I was even more crabby than usual. So I'm thinking maybe the recumbent bike. There's an outside chance I'll swim, but I'll bet the twisting involved in that might make the abs sore, too.

Nine and a half weeks left!

Posted by jenandmats at 6:57 PM | Comments (4)

November 6, 2005

Happy Anniversary to Me

Eight years ago this weekend I ran my first marathon. Through the five boroughs. I don't think I had any idea what it would lead to. Congrats to all who raced today!

Netflix somehow thought we needed to watch Dr. Wayne Dyer's How to Get What You Want in Life (ooorrrr something.) I accused Andy of moving it to the top of the list in front of the stuff I wanted to watch; he swears he didn't put it on the list. But when something like that shows up on your doorstep and you didn't ask for it, curiosity gets the better of you. Or, at least, it got the better of me.

I'm glad we watched it, although I can't say it was particularly enlightening for me. I had a great childhood with no real baggage, I've learned not to blame others for my problems, I've always been surrounded by people who have convinced me that I can do anything I set my mind to, and I don't carry grudges, so his messages about leaving the past behind, not blaming others, ignoring your detractors, and the power of forgiveness didn't help much. His message about "choosing peace," and particularly his example of choosing peace when you're sitting in traffic, I found mildly irritating. I don't get annoyed at the traffic itself; I get annoyed with the way people treat one another in traffic. Choose peace. As if it were that easy.

The parts about the power of positive thought were interesting, but as a natural-born skeptic ... ok and maybe as a girl whose maiden name is synonymous with "doubter," ... I wasn't completely convinced. But hey I'm willing to give it a try for a while. He says he can talk his way out of a cold. His daughter got rid of a skin condition by talking to her bumps, and I'm still fighting the hives that appeared over a month ago, so I've started talking to them. I really don't know what to say. I bet they know I'm a doubter anyway.

But it did inspire me to pull down my Book of Virtues and thumb through it. Although Andy and I don't attend church regularly anymore, we're both really concerned about pointing our daughter in the right direction morally and ethically. Andy is more willing to overlook any differences he has with the church than I am, so I'd like to have some kind of alternate plan. I'd like to have some framework for teaching her, even if it is a collection of stories chosen by a man with his own ethical problems and with whom I'd likely disagree over what is ethical and moral and what is not!

And then, after the video was over, guess who showed up at our door? The Mormons. I wondered briefly if it wasn't another sign of sorts, but in that case curiosity did *not* get the better of me. In fact, I suggested to them that our next-door neighbors might be interested in what they had to say. I hope they didn't tell the neighbors I told them that ...

Posted by jenandmats at 7:45 PM

November 2, 2005

Smokin'

This is a great week for running. It's cold, it's clear, it's dry, and it's light outside! The start of our run coincides with the morning twilight and then we run through the sunrise (as it gets colder) to full-blown, can't-see-through-the-dirty-windshield-on-the-way-to-work morning.

This morning we ventured from the trail out onto the roads, and I was fully anticipating getting dropped, since we have a woman who's started running with us who likes to run faster, but the regular girls stayed nice and easy with me and the other woman ran out in front of us on her own. By the time we were on the home stretch I was totally in a groove and was trying as hard as I could to fully appreciate what I was doing. So many days of the year I daydream about these mornings.

As we crested the last hill and headed back down toward the river I just couldn't *not* pick up the pace. I'm sure there are days over the nasty life-sucking summer when I *don't* pick up the pace on that stretch, but I can't really remember any of them. That stretch is my friend. I distinctly remember flying down that stretch on finishing up my first 22-miler after I adopted a high-mileage philosophy, feeling like I was finishing up a jog in the park, completely amazed at the change in my legs.

Anyway ... this morning as I was slowly pulling away from the other girls I couldn't help have the nagging feeling that people wouldn't approve. I've done the same thing - pushing the pace at the end of the run - the past three Saturdays. And of course, I've been doing strides at the ends of my runs regularly. I worry a little what my friends will think and what other people on the roads will think ... and what my doctor would think if she could see me. But the undeniable truth is that it feels so far from wrong it's not even funny. It feels GREAT.

I'm starting to have a hard time getting up off the couch, I can't *quite* get comfortable when I'm sleeping, and my clothes don't fit quite right and make me look like an Oompa Loompa. But when I'm running fast down Lake Austin Blvd or on the trail on the way back to the rock I hardly feel any different than I did months and pounds ago. I feel stronger, actually, since I can feel the extra weight I'm carrying. I'm not doing it (picking up the pace) because I obsess over exercise or because I want to make sure I stay in shape or because I want to make sure I get back into racing shape as soon as possible after she's here. I'm not even doing it to stay healthy. I'm doing it because that's what feels right and good and natural. It's FUN for crying out loud.

And I thought about that on the way to work. And I wondered if that's how smokers justify their behavior: it feels good and right and natural (natural? I'm not sure about that one.)

She was unusually quiet this morning after breakfast. Breakfast usually gets her going. But I wonder if the cold morning and the hot shower mellowed her out. I poked at her a little, wondering what her deal was. She stayed pretty quiet all morning. And then after lunch she made up for lost time. It was *her* turn to get her legs moving. She was so squirmy it made me laugh out loud ... alone in my office. Always nice to have a little entertainment on an otherwise slow day!

Posted by jenandmats at 5:33 PM | Comments (2)