Sending Good Thoughts

Best of luck tomorrow to:

21st Century Mom, for her Metric Century ride
and to:
Bex, running her FIRST marathon!

Ride strong. Run strong. Live strong.

Proud To B...

I knew it was going to be a good day when my husband announced he was making pancakes for breakfast. Pancakes and pure maple syrup are a little bit of heaven.

Today was the Human Race, an 8K in St. Paul. It is the third year that I've run it and this was my best yet. Because I was jealous of inspired by Jeanne's phenomenal finish time in her 8K, I decided to see how well I could do. I knew I couldn't run as fast as her, but I was hoping I could come in at an hour, which is a 12 mm pace.

I came in under an hour. Four minutes and 53 seconds under. Official finish: 55:07. That's an 11:06 pace. I was ecstatic!

But I get ahead of myself. The race began at a civilized 1:20 in the afternoon. It is an out and back along Summit Ave. in the capitol city of St. Paul. I arrived a couple of hours early and after picking up my race packet then stashing my gear bag, went for a two mile run along the river trail. Here is a view of the Mississippi from the east bank, facing west.
Returning to the field house, I stretched then looked for people I knew. I saw some people from my new running group and as I was taking their picture, my friend DJ saw me. She took our picture, then went to find the co-worker she was going to be running with. It wasn't until I was racing that I realized I should have taken her picture too. But perhaps I did her a favor, because the CrapCam takes especially crappy pictures indoors. Here is a very blurry photo of my running group.


The race has two themes: B-Fit, B-Healthy, B-Human and B-Proud, B-Green, B-Irish. I chose to be Irish and wore the bright green beads with the shamrock medallion that my friend Little P bought for me at the St. Patrick's Day parade. I saw a woman wearing shamrock earrings and commented on them. "We have to be Proud," she said. Indeed.

I crossed the starting line with the two women from my running group, but quickly fell behind them. K was wearing bright green pants and I kept my eye on them until I could see them no more. I had no music with me and just focused on my running. Usually I talk with the other racers, but not this time. This time I was in it for me and a PR.

About fifteen minutes into the race, the leaders were passing me on their way back. Usually I hoot and holler for them, but today I saved my energy. I'm sure they'd understand. :-)

Summit Ave. is a major route in St. Paul and to have it closed to traffic was a huge inconvenience. Too bad, so sad. There were a few pedestrians that tried to cross in front of the runners. A man stepped off the curb just as I was trying to turn left and cut the corner. I glared at him and he stepped back. I swear I would have plowed right into him. Hey, my race fee covers the permit to reserve the road!

We passed the governor's mansion and I wondered out loud why he wasn't out there cheering us on. "He's probably running it," said another racer. Both the governor and his wife ran in the Twin Cities marathon last year, but I checked and they didn't run the Human Race.

On the way back, the traffic cops were letting cars cross a certain intersection, just as I was kicking it up a notch. Gasp! I was afraid they were going to make me wait, which would have RUINED my time, but as I approached they made the cars wait. I thanked the nice officer.

My Garmin told me I was near the end, but I couldn't see the finish line. There was no balloon arch, just a clock at eye level. Finally, there it was. People from my old running club were cheering for me and then M, the asst. coach with my new club ran in with me. He was really excited for me, because he knew that I was trying to come in at an hour. It's so nice to have people cheering you on at the finish.

The post-race refreshments were provided by Whole Foods and the Great Harvest bakery. All I wanted was a chocolate chip cookie, but I picked up a bottle of water, some figs, slide of bread, and some sort of health cookie. Afterwards I changed out of my sweaty clothes and headed out for pizza with my running club.

Here are my race results from the past three years. Division Place means where I placed in comparison to other female runners in the 50-54 age group. Which means, for my age group, I'm pathetic.

YEAR	AGE	TIME	PACE	DIV PLACE
2004	50	58:03	11:41	20/22
2005	51	1:02:02	12:29	27/28
2006	52	55:07	11:06	32/33

Happy St. Patrick's Day

An Irish woman of advanced age visited her physician to ask his help in reviving her husband's libido. "What about trying Viagra?" asks the doctor. "Not a chance," she said. "Himself won't even take an aspirin." "Not a problem," replied the doctor. "Give him an 'Irish Viagra' -- drop it into his coffee. He won't even taste it. Give it a try and call me in a week to let me know how things went."

It wasn't a week later that she called the doctor, who directly inquired as to progress. The poor dear exclaimed, "Oh, faith, bejaysus and begorrah! 'Twas horrid. Just terrible, doctor!" "Really...what happened?" asked the doctor. "Well, I did as you advised and slipped it in his coffee and the effect was almost immediate. He jumped straight up, with a twinkle in his eye and with his pants a-bulging fiercely! With one swoop of his arm, he sent the cups and tablecloth flying, ripped me clothes to tatters and took me then and there, making wild, mad, passionate love to me on the tabletop! It was a nightmare, I tell you, an absolute nightmare!"

"Why so terrible?" asked the doctor. "Do you mean the sex your husband provided wasn't good?"

"Oh, no, no, no, doctor, the sex was fine indeed! 'Twas the best sex I've had in 25 years! But sure as I'm sittin' here, I'll never be able to show me face in Starbucks again."

Geek Out

I bought some cycling shoes the other day. I accompanied a friend to a new bike shop and asked to see their cycling shoes. They were having a clearance sale and found a pair of Lake MX160W in my size. When I opened the box I thought, "My God, those are ugly." Dark and clunky. The owner must have read my mind because he quickly told me they were only $20. I may not know much about cycling shoes, but I know a deal when I see one. Even with the $25 charge for the SPD cleats. I was told that cycling shoes would make my spinning more effective, so I took them.

I returned to the Bikram Cycling class this morning, and wore my new shoes for the first time. I felt like a total geek. I tried them on at home with various socks to see not which pair provided the most comfort, but which looked better because that's so much more important. The instructor showed me how to clip into the pedals, and I spent the next 20 minutes practicing. I was the first one in class, and while the instructor was out, I turned on the fan. It was really powerful and I thought it would be great when the class got going. But I never found out, because when the instructor returned she told me we couldn't have the fan on during class. I was disappointed, but I guess the other members prefer to spin in a sauna.

The shoes were good, although they took a little getting used to. I feel out of my element in this class, like I'm riding with the Lance Armstrong cycling team. It doesn't help that the instructor is so young and athletic, or that when the rider next to me dismounted to do push-ups, she did about 50 of them with her legs straight. I can do maybe 10, if I don't go down all the way. I wasn't as hot today, and I kept my heartrate down, so hopefully I burned fat. Despite the fact that I'm slower than everyone (a familiar theme) it was a good workout. I like the high-energy music she plays--in the 70s we would have called it disco, but I think now it's called dance music.

Runners Like Me

Today was a long slow distance day. I've been running with my new group for two weeks now, except for last Saturday when I was in Las Vegas. There's only one woman I've been running with, and realistically she's about 2 minutes per mile faster than me. So it's tough for me to keep up, although she's so sweet she never complains about going too slow.

Our coach suggested we start a half-hour earlier than the rest of the group, so that we'd be back in time to hear the guest speaker. But when I arrived this morning, my running buddy wasn't able to make it. Just as I was leaving to run by myself, a woman came chasing me and said she'd run with me. I panicked, thinking she'd be too fast. I warned her that I'm a slow runner, then realizing that people who run 10 minute miles say they're slow, I told her I run 13 minute miles. She was cool with that, and explained that she was getting back into running after an injury and she was only planning to run 4 miles.

It was nice to have company, and to meet somebody new. Runner's are a great group of people. After she turned around, I continued on and stopped to take this picture:

When I was ready to move on, I saw a bunch of runners coming up from behind me. I assumed they were with my club, but they were with Team Salubrious, another training club. I fell in with them and we started talking. I knew they were my kind of runners when I told them I finished the Twin Cities Marathon in 6:05 and they started cheering! I never had that kind of reaction before. I ran with a woman from their group until my turn-around point and before I left I took their picture with the CrapCam. They gave me permission to post it and I invited them to stop by this blog. They told me I could run with them any time I wanted. I'm sure I'll see them again.


I was running against the wind on the final four miles and the run was definitely harder. We had a water stop and I foolishly didn't top off my water bottle, thinking I had enough. As I was cursing my poor judgment, I found a community building. Eureka! Not only did they have a water fountain, but--joy of joy's--a bathroom.

Continuing on, the trail ended and the run got boring. I considered playing my iPod, but then I wouldn't be able to hear my watch tell me it was time for that all-important walking break. I'm not familiar with this part of town, and at one point I didn't know where to go. Fortunately, some women from my club were running back right around then and I followed them.

When I was at the half-way point for my 8 mile run, I felt strong and considered running further. By mile six I was so glad I didn't do that, because I was getting tired. I took a gel after an hour of running, but it didn't give me the usual jolt. By the end of the run I didn't feel as if I had anything left. So I guess I ran the right distance.

Afterwards I went to breakfast with my new running buddies and some of the people training for Boston joined us. These are hard-core runners, but very nice. The coach of that group ran Boston last year and qualified there for this year's race. We carbo-loaded, then said goodbye until Monday.

Bright Light City

Couldn't run with the running club today, because I'm in Las Vegas. Viva! Ran with the club on Wednesday and Mary, my new running partner, told me about an awesome run she once had with AmyBee on the Strip. The last time I was in Vegas, I just ran on the treadmill cuz I thought (whine) it'd be too much of a hassle to run on concrete sidewalks, trying to avoid all the tourists. Listening to Mary convinced me I needed an attitude adjustment.

We're staying by the convention center, I ran from my hotel up to Las Vegas Blvd. I planned to run 4 or 5 miles to finish up the week, but ended up doing 6.5 and had a great time. Since I started at 6:30 a.m., there weren't a lot of people out, and most of the one's who were out were runners. I had the CrapCam(tm) with me, so took pictures along the way, trying to capture the essence of the Strip.

At the Mirage, I saw this bronze of Sigfried and Roy. I never saw their show in Vegas, but I loved the TV cartoon show they had. Apparently I was the only one, because it was off the air faster than you can say bad taste. So I had to photograph this tribute.

As I approached Paris, I thought of my run last summer around the real Eiffel Tower. This one's for Plods.

I should have turned around at this point, but I was having too much fun. My heart rate was pretty low, since I kept stopping to take pictures. There are a lot of pedestrian bridges along the strip now, so instead of using the escalator, I ran up the stairs. Interval training!

Here is Lake Como at the Bellagio. Every half-hour they turn on the fountains and perform a water show. It's one of my favorite things in Vegas. The show later that day was to, you guessed it, Viva Las Vegas.

I couldn't end my world tour without a stop at New York, New York, which is why my run was so long. After September 11, people created a makeshift memorial at the foot of Lady Liberty. The casino took these items and created a permanent memorial, displaying some of the items that were left.