Intolerable Rudeness

I recently read a blog post about how people will tolerate bad behavior in the person they love because they love them, and that a true test of a healthy relationship is to say, "would I tolerate this language from my friend?"  I'm very fortunate to be in a loving relationship with a person who treats me with respect, and I never have to ask this question, however, I caught myself listening to a voice in my life the other day and wondering why I tolerate that negative language.

I ran a Half Marathon in just a sports bra and skirt last week.  It was 96% humidity and 88 degrees.  Needless to say, I wasn't the only person out on the course who was only half dressed, and I figured it was OK.  As I crossed the finish line, however, there were photographers snapping photos as we were draped in our medals, and I laughed and said, "Oh Lord, I won't be buying THAT photo.  That is a lot of squish for a finishers pic!"

Of course, I was laughing.  I actually think I look Ok.

But later I thought back and wondered why it was OK for me to be so rude to myself.  If someone - a friend - had said that to me, I would have been very sad.  When I realized that, it made me want to buy the picture and save it, knowing that there may be a time in my life when I will look back and think, "Hey, when I was 38, I was very fit."

So women, and men, reading this - please be kind to yourselves.  Appreciate that life is a process, and that just because we are so often always striving toward a bigger goal, it doesn't mean we should dismiss our current greatness.

I know I'm going to try harder to celebrate my current self.

Also, next to me happens to be one of
my favorite Nursing School professors.
We didn't run together, but she caught
me in the last mile.  Great job Prof W.

One Bite at a Time

For Christmas I got a Galactically BADA** gift from The Good Dr.  Like, level 10. On a 10 point scale.

I received an entry into Ironman 70.3 Raleigh.  It’s in June.

Also on my spring schedule, (also a “Happy End of Finals” gift), is an entry into a Half Marathon in March.

His idea is that we would train for the races together, and that it would give us an opportunity to spend time together on the same path before he goes down the 140.6 path and I go down the 26.2 path.  My wife, TMB~ Racing with Babes ~ and I are definitely making a LOT of Fall Marathon noise at the moment.

So, last week was T-9 weeks till Half Marathon and I didn’t exactly do much to prepare for a Half Marathon.

In fact, my new training plan is off to a ridiculously SLOW start.  Like... kinda not started...  (Whomp Whomp)

Part of it is that it’s so overwhelming.

13.1 – 70.3 – 26.2 and all the training in between is a HUGE amount of cardiovascular exertion.

More exertion than last year, that’s for darned sure.

That’s not to say I sat around doing nothing last year.  I did ride my bike a WHOLE wicked lot.  About 1650ish miles.  Still, riding a bike is a different kind of hard than running.  (swimming is still easy, even when it’s hard).

So tonight as I stepped out of the shower and prepared for bed, I reflected back on a very light week of fitness.  And I remembered what 3L said about her first marathon.

“I’m going to eat this elephant one bite at a time”.

It’s exactly the advice I used to get through Nursing School.  And it’s exactly what I needed to remember.

I don’t need to be able to run 13.1 miles tomorrow.  I only need to be able to run 6 miles or so.  It’s 8 weeks away, and all I need to do is get through this week.

Flying Pirates & missed opportunities

"it's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack
of  cigarettes, it's dark and we're wearing sunglasses ..."

Obviously anyone who follows my blog knows I've been unable to run enough this spring to get trained for a Half Marathon. The Half Marathon
was exactly 5 weeks and 2 days after my pneumonia diagnosis.... so... yeah, about that. I am out and about, and getting my fitness back one step at a time, but running 13.1 miles would have been a death wish.

All that drama didn't stop me from spending the weekend with a posse of giggling women who seem to appreciate mocking themselves as much as I enjoy mocking myself.

We went down to the race venue, picked up bibs at the surprisingly good expo, and admired the GIANT costume contest trophy.

I made eye contact with T right then, and I'm pretty sure we were thinking the same thing... well... I was thinking, "I wonder what it takes to win this hideous trophy..."

We drove the rest of the way down to the cottage and did some touristy things ... ok, ok, we did all 4 touristy things you can do at the beach this time of year.

1) We visited the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.

2) Drive past a known Osprey nest to see if the birds are home (they weren't, sorry T, Kim & Erika)

3) Got our feet into sand and take a photo on the beach that should be an album cover for our next CD, which will be named "Hill Repeats" and the first single will be "Flat Sand Running", which will be UBER appropriate because I'm probably going to be off key. "We'll put the band back together, do a few gigs, we get some bread. Bang! Five thousand bucks." Blues Brothers

4) Admire the inappropriately young HOT surfers <~ seriously, this is actually an acceptable tourist activity.  holy carp....

Still, I think this is a post of Important Safety Tips:

Important Safety Tip: Check the race location in relation to the cottage you own before offering to host everyone for the weekend.  not that it was a major problem, but I thought the race was on the Manteo side of OBX, not on the Kitty Hawk side of OBX... right.... so after an hour and a twenty minute drive to the start I parked the car.

Important Safety Tip: When snuggling your friend in the porta potty line, make sure the guy behind you  understands you're joking when you tell her, "I don't know you but here let me hug on you". .. unless of course you want a hug from a RedShirt named Daniel. In which case, go ahead... #seriously #HuggedARedShirt

Important Safety Tip: Take a photographer with you on the cool parts of your MTB adventure... otherwise all the photographs will be of you MTB on PAVEMENT. I assure you, I had a wicked good time exploring the trails on the way to find the girls out on the course, and I am TOTALLY looking forward to MTB in OBX ASAP...

Important Safety Tip: Be a bad ass.... oh, wait. seriously though, I had a great weekend and pulled some ridiculousness, like cycling while spectating, taking photographs while cycling, and convincing another runner to take our photo while he was running...

And finally:

Important Safety Tip: If you're planning on running with us next year at this race, be prepared to share that hideous trophy for 1/5 of the year, because we are so going to win it.

Uh yeah. Cos that's how we roll.

I'd guess it's about 18" X 24"... maybe 30"

ThanksGIVING "SWEEPS" VOTE OFF

Seriously, I *think* this is my last follower racing this month... If I'm wrong or I missed someone, my apologies... 

Carrie is running her first Half marathon on Thanksgiving.


I'm proud of her.


She trained smart.
She listened to her body.
She's going to FREAKING ROCK.

Own.every.mile. Carrie.  You only get to run your first Half Marathon once.  Believe in yourself.  Savor EVERY moment.  Half Crazy, or Half Sane, you're in good company.


Taper Island will be lonely without you!

Respect the Distance

I love The Half Marathon distance 13.1 Mile Races.

It’s a great distance. Long enough to be strategic, and short enough that if I screw up I’m not screwed.


They are respectable. I kinda wish they’d re-name them. Instead of Half Marathons, which sounds suspiciously like only “half” a race, I wish they’d call them 13.1 milers. Like, a 10Mile Race. It’s straight forward. And no one calls it Half a race. Even a 5K isn’t a Half10K, right?

Or perhaps 13.1 mile race would be better reflected in Kilometers… like, let’s just call it a 21K. Hey Jon, what do you think of that? Sportsbackers could just re-name it: The SunTrust Richmond Marathon, featuring the McDonalds 21K and Ntelos 8K.

Of course, then all us “stupid americans” would walk around wondering how long our race is today. (oh oh, wait, how many people here have had someone ask them how long a marathon is? Yup. A 15k? Yup… how about, How long is The Surf & Santa 10Miler??? Me! ME ME ME ME!!  True story...)

Seriously though, the Half Marathon isn’t Half of anything. It’s a solid distance. What kind of half sane or half crazy person thinks that this is a good idea? “I think I’ll go out and run as hard as I can possibly run for 13.1 miles". It takes training and strategy.

So why all this today? I’m training for a Full Marathon, and have no races lined up and scheduled from now until… well, November 12th.  Shouldn't I have been on this High Horse a few months ago when I was Half Crazy?

I’m writing this in response to a runner who said to me recently, and I quote, “Well…. I’m only doing the Half, this year”.

I’m… only? Shut the front door, did you just say, “only?”

I hate that. I hate when someone belittles their effort because they feel that as a runner who’s training for a marathon, I’m not going to respect their efforts. Seriously? What kind of jerk do I look like? I have some friends who will be tempted to answer that… resist.the.urge.

Please don’t apologize for coming to a training run at 5am.

Please don’t dis your training.
Please don’t belittle your effort.

You had my respect as we were laying down a 6 solid miles at a sub 9 that morning, because ~ yeah~ I’ll say it and risk the wrath of the blogesphere:  You’re a runner who knows when you have time to give a marathon your attention, and when you don’t.

As a “marathoner”, there is NOTHING that irks me more than a runner who claims to be training for a 26.2 mile race, but then doesn’t give the TIME it takes to get there. This isn’t something you just wake up one day and say, “Oh I think I’ll run a marathon in 16 weeks” and then expect it to happen.

People, this takes more dedication than you could possibly realize. This takes hours of your week. 8+ hours for some, plus ice baths, plus cross training, plus… you still have to be functional for your kids, school, work, Irish Step Dance, and then some.

So to the person who chooses the Half because they know their limitations, my hat is off to you.

And to the person who says, “I'm training for a full... but I only ran the long runs because I didn’t have time to do any running during the week” I say, I know you might be a marathoner, but I’m not feeling a whole lot of respect for you right now.

Of course, I could just be tired and cranky today...  I've been up since 4.

~Savor the Run~

Half Crazy

In 2008 I ran my first Rock and Roll event.

It was a Half Marathon in Virginia Beach.
It was my FIRST Half Marathon. Period.
It was ~like~ Africa Hot.  Imagine the hottest weather you can imagine…  now imagine running in it.  I believe the temp at the start of the race was something like 88 degrees, at 7am.  And Va Beach has no shade to speak of… it wasn’t my best day.  I barely scraped over the line in less than 3 hours.  F'ugly.

I must’ve wanted to get my money’s worth out of it or something.  Or maybe I was having SO MUCH FUN that I wanted it to last.  I, personally, think RnR events are notoriously over priced.

So, anyway, after that I swore off RnR events & Half Marathons in August.

My “no August Half’s” vow lasted less than 12 moths, to Patrick Henry Half 2009 in Ashland VA.

My “no RnR” vow is being broken this weekend.  I’m running Providence Rock n Roll Half Marathon in a few days.

I’m excited for a few reasons.

1. If I totally suck, I can drop the phrase, “yeah, well, I just ran San Fran Half Marathon a week ago” into conversation at every turn.
2. If I don’t totally suck, I can drop the phrase, “yeah, AND I just ran San Fran Half Marathon a week ago” into the conversation at every turn.
3. If anything goes according to plan I will have fun running with H’s cousin Kev, & Kev’s friend Tim.  Kev has spent the week sending me e-mails about how epic I am, and how he doesn’t think he’ll be able to keep up…  Have I mentioned how much I love Cousin Kev?  Tim, Kev’s friend was in San Fran (crazy.small.world), and thanks to my more than crazy outfit, Tim even called me out on the course!  I didn’t see him though, and ~ to be perfectly honest ~ I thought I was hallucinating when I heard my name.
4. If I finish, I will be a Half Fanatic by completing 2 Half Marathons in a week.  

Today I hit the expo at the Providence Convention Center, which is about 45 minutes or so from my in-Laws house.  The expo was fairly empty, parking was a piece of cake, and everything was very well organized. 

I don’t usually shop, but I forgot my hand held water bottle when I packed for this trip, and knowing how crowded it might be at the race this weekend I determined that I should buy a new one.  And, given the “chafe versus bra” situation, I picked up some new body glide.   

Then…

(and then what happened?) 

Well…  

the Vitalsox guys were really into hearing what I had to say about getting some CUTE striped or patterned compression knee socks…  They ARE coming out with orange this fall.  I told them I’d be in touch. 

I did buy 2 pairs of socks, and will review them as soon as possible.  So far, I’m in love.  The pink ones I picked up a pretty freaking cute.

Anyway, RnR Providence is Sunday (SUNDAY ~ ahem ~) and my bib# is 3437  if you care to stalk me…  and corral #3 if you find that you’re running this weekend.

Respect the Distance.
~savor the run~

Finally, on other topics, please drop me a line at nmomof3 at gmail dot com and let me know what marathon, half marathon, or fall race you’re signed up for as well as its date…  I have a tradition of “voting the winners off” Taper Island a few days before their race, and I’d hate to miss anyone!  (And you just never know when I’ll be inspired to write you a letter… which, in my opinion, are pretty epic).