Stationery

I was fooling around on the world wide web and typed in one of my favorite blogs Runner Susan and it said aka Stationery Susan and I truly laughed out loud. That would describe me lately. I have no umph. I feel like Eyeore!

Recovery

I have not been feeling like running much since Chicago. It is always so hard to get your legs back. I took ten days off and that felt great. Since then my longest run has been 3 miles! Feels funny!

I had a lot of fun on Halloween. One son was a lumberjack, one was a brick wall, one just caused mayhem somewhere!

November will be an easy month. We don't work a full week! We have election day off since the town uses the school buildings, Veteran's Day off the week later, Parent Conferences the week after that and then Thanksgiving. WOO WOO, yeah baby. I love being a teacher. Aren't my little kids adorable. I have 16 just like them!

Pics from Chicago!

On www.marathonfoto.com you can see some race pics. My last name is Martin and my bib was 40686. I look tired...

Here are a few pics of our Chicago Fun! One is of Travis and I on the SkyDeck of the Sear's Tower. So cool.

The other is of the boys posing at the Bean, a totally cool sculpture at Millenium Park.

Chicago Marathon Race Report 2009

First off, let's say that Chicago is an awesome city. Go there, sight see, eat and enjoy the night life. It is awesome. Who cares about the marathon? Marathon, smarthon!!!

But really now this is a blog about running, right! So anyway we headed to Bradley International Airport to discover our flight was delayed a few hours. I was travelling with my three boys and my love. We played cards and walked up and down the puny terminal about 218 times and finally it was time to board. We arrived to a totally nutsy Ohare Airport and discovered we had to pay another 120 buck-a-roos to get to and from our hotel. That is one thing about traveling, its expensive for sure. There was so much traffic coming into the city for the marathon it took us about an hour and half to get to our hotel from the airport. Finally we arrived to our room and sandwiches ordered by my family for us at about 9:30pm. We chowed and promptly fell fast asleep.

The next morning my honey, Stan, and my step-dad, Rich, my oldest son, Tommy and I first ate the most banging breakfast at a restaurant named Yolk on Michigan Ave. DELICIOUS!!!! I had the vegetable skillet with scrambled eggs while Tommy had banana nut bread french toast. I can't remember what the others had but wow, it was beyond delicious.


Then Tommy and Stan went exploring along the North Shore of Lake Michigan and had themselves a fun adventure. Meanwhile, Rich and I went to the Expo. We arrived promptly at 9am so we did not have to fight any crowds. Lots of freebies were given out and after trying every type of sport bean or power bar or miracle sports drink, we rolled out of there and walked along the Lakeshore path back to our hotel.

We were traveling with ten people so it was tricky to all catch up with each other. But we finally did just that at Millenium Park in downtown Chicago. Millenium Park is this coolest park with very cool art. There is the extremely fascinating "Bean" which is bean-shaped mirror that is a giant optical illusion. I have some great pics from there. Will try to get those up. There are sculptures all over the park as well. There is this wild sculpture that we call "Spitting Faces", these two huge blocks made of people's faces were on the blocks and every ten minutes are so the faces spit at each other!!!

A little farther away was another beautiful city sight, Buckingham Fountain. Wow that was magnificent.

The last sight seeing thing we did on Sat. was go to the Sky Deck on the Sear's Building. The sky deck is three glass boxes that are built of the edge of the Sear's building. It was incredible. You could see so much of the city.

After that we traveled to a nice Irish pub for dinner. They must not heard about the Chicago Marathon being in town because the only pasta they offered was macaroni and cheese! Too much cheese would not be a good thing for my belly so I opted for baked chicken and mashed potatoes and spinach. YUMMY! We headed to bed and I actually slept pretty well.

Woke up on Sunday at 6am totally pumped! My first mistake was I only ate half my banana and like two bites of my bagel. I was just so anxious to get out there and run! So Stan and I met Rich at 6:30 and we made our way to the start. Second mistake occurred at this point, I usually take two or three ibuprofen before the run and then during the run at like mile 20 and I couldn't find my stash!!!!

Third mistake happened at the start line. I started with my faster father with the 3:40 pace group. That sucked because I was passed the whole freakin race. Bad for morale. On top of that my garmin did not find any satelites in the middle of downtown, so I did not know my splits. oh well. Live and learn.

It was cold at the start about 32'. It looked like the sun might peek out but it never really did and the temp barely moved up much. It was cold the entire race. I found the beginning of the race uncomfortable due to the cold, my legs were stiff and slow. I soldiered on and found that by mile 9 I had warmed up the miles were just floating by. Since I hadn't eaten like I should have, I ate my first gu early at mile 5. That little mistake would take it toll later on.

At mile 8, we must have been running through the gay and lesbian area of Chicago because there were two groups of flamboyant male cheerleading squads performing adorable cheers for us and a stage of drag queens cheering us on as well. They were great.


I saw my little son and Stan at mile two and loved getting their love on the course. It really jazzed me up to keep going strong. I saw Tommy and Stan standing on top of newspaper boxes at mile 13 screaming their bloody heads off for me! I loved that too. So Cool. After the half marathon mark, I relaxed and felt confident about the race. All the while I was keeping a 8:50ish pace, I think! Not sure since my watch wasn't able to turn on until about mile 8 when we were running on the outter parts of Chicago.

I ate my second gu at mile 14 and was still running strong. I saw Stan and Travis again at mile 17 and they were so great for me. I started to get tired around 18 but decided to dig and say mind over matter and I have to get my legs moving! So I did! But at 18 the race volunteers were handing out power gel. I took one since I was hungry. YUCK, I am used to vanilla gu and my stomach did not like the power gel. I was able to push that aside and keep running hard.

UNTIL ...mile 22. Mile 22 was when my legs were starting to cramp up. I don't think I cramped due to dehydration. I think it was due to the cold and very flat course. Flat courses are great, of course! But my calves were screaming at me by mile 22 and it got a little dicey. I think the flatness of the course kept my legs getting the same type of movement. I was afraid my calves were going to just seize up. I did stop to stretch them and I think that helped me to suffer thruough the rest of the marathon. I was not happy, those last four miles hurt A LOT!


I saw my family at mile 25 and that helped to get to mile 26. I cried when I saw that mile 26 marker so happy to be done. I finished at 4:12. I was happy with that time, it reflected my training and how I felt that day.

Chicago was fabulous and all of you should just run right out and sign up for Chicago 2010!!!!!!

Taper-ahhhhh

Well the work is done. I am as ready as I will ever be for Chicago. I feel confident but not overly confident. I am confident I will have fun and enjoy the race, but I am not sure I will finish in my goal time of sub 4 hours. I will start with that pace group and see what happens. I am very good at readjusting my goals mid-race if need be. I am excited to be visiting the windy city. I have only been once and that was for a short visit when I was 12 years old!

Hope everyone is having a nice beginning of Fall!

20 Miles ...Done

Last night after working with three and four year olds all day, I ventured out along a beautiful slightly hilly long run in the drizzling rain.

It was awesome.

I felt great the entire run. It was not real speedy but I am not worried. My sweet sweet friend, Deb, met me at mile ten at the top of this freakin bear of a hill to support me for the last ten miles. It was great and I am so psyched for Chicago. I have another longish run next week and then taper baby!!!

The marathon is less than 30 days away! Woo Hoo!

Speed work and its hot :(

I am procrastinating right now. I have four 1000m repeats I have to get down and its 88 degrees and humid. Yuck.

Don't worry I will go just a little later than I thought.

Chicago training going very well. Going for massage tomorrow. Long run on Friday am. WooHoo!

School starts on Monday. Back to reality. Back to some money, money, money!

Miss reading posts will try to catch up.

Loving Life!

I have been having the time of my life! Maybe life really does begin at 40. Well almost 41!

Since June, I have taken in my first Red Sox game at Fenway (it poured in the fourth inning but it was still a blast anyway).

I saw The Color Purple in the theatre, it was amazing.

I completed my first third of an intensive course to become a literacy specialist in July. I loved my class and can't wait for the second third to start in Sept.

I sold my sexy Jeep for another sexy car that is waaaayyyyyy better on gas, a 2006 Honda Civic. Black with a nice moon roof.

All the while I have tried to train for the Chicago Marathon. I had a fabulous long run on Friday morning at 5am. The moon was bright and we tackled our run with gusto. We had energy the entire run. It is amazing because I had sucked eggs on the previous long run!

I have started speed work, it hurts but will be worth it come race day.

No tris for me this year but I have continued to swim and bike to keep healthy. I am going to hike Mount Washington instead with my girls. Can't wait.

Happy Running!

Shhh, dont tell my teacher...

I am writing to you while I am pretending to take notes in my theory of reading class. This summer I am studying to become a literacy specialist at Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, CT. It is cool being New Haven yet I am imprisoned in the same blah blah classroom for the month of July. Right now I better go listen to my professor talk about morphology. There is a lot to think about when you are teaching reading...

I have hardly been working out. Bad for me. But I have managed to do my long runs since I will be dazzling the city of Chicago this Oct. !!!

Miss everyone!

Hello out there!

Hi everyone,
Been busy with school since July 6th. Been running a little bit and biking too. Need to swim more. Miss reading about everyone!

Hello

Wow I went to power yoga this am after my morning swim. Whoa it was hard! I need a nap!

Beep

Yesterday I met the running Chick with the orange hat for a run, but actually her hat was white. We were joined by another attractive running chick also wearing a hat, can't remember the color of her hat though.
We were running on the wrong side of road for a short spell and received many beeps and thought wow we are doing pretty well this morning! Must be our new shorts!

Then we said farewell to Dianna since she was running 13 and we had to get back to our kids and were cutting the run by half. Sadly enough when we were running without Dianna we received no beeps.
So what can be deduced?...

1. Dianna is totally hot and was reason for all the beeps. Could be. She is smoking.

2. The cars were beeping at us because we were running on the wrong side of the road. Maybe but this is New England nobody really cares for anyone else's safety that much.


3. On our way back to the car, we were really sweaty and our hair was matted to our heads and we just didn't look as good as when we started. Plausible.

Glad these are the extent of my problems.

Ugh Goggles

Do any of you wise worker outters have any suggestions for appropriate goggles? I have raccoon eyes for hours after swimming and if I want to get better I need to figure this out, I am vain you know?!

Urban Adventure - Boston 2009

Oh my goodness What A Blast!!!!

Travis, Jabez and I started our adventure with a 8am departure, stopping first for bagels of course! We made it to Boston in about an hour and half and got to the packet pickup at 11 almost the first ones there. What fun, we perched ourselves close to the entrance and watched all the crazy costumes! There were two teams of bees, a team of ducks, Dr Spock and that other guy from Star Trek oh yeah Captain Kirk, sharks, angels and demons, just plain angels, and on and on.

At noon, the race organizers handed out our 12 clues. We had to wait till everyone got an envelope before we could open them. Holy toledo, the questions/tasks were so hard. Luckily my oldest son was home and googled us the answers to most of the problems but some were tasks we had to do like find people with red socks and a Red Sox jersey on or shake hands with a dog. It was legal to have a phone a friend and to ride the T or public buses. You couldn't ride a bike or hire a taxi.

Some of the tasks were so obscure, I just don't understand them. Like one was to find something that holds 230 gallons, 2 quarts, 1 pint and three gills. It was this random huge teapot at Starbucks and we only got it because we saw other teams there and Travis spotted the words on the kettle.

But some tasks were really fun. At KO Prime, this fancy restaurant they set up a "Who dunnit?" type problem with 15 clues all over the restaurant. It was really funny, all these people running around looking for clues.

The race has a 5 hour limit and I thought oh no problem we will make it in about 3 hours. Well we had to book to the finish line for the last few miles to make it in at 4 hours 55 minutes!!! I was so happy we made it in the 5 hours.

We probably ran about 8 to 10 miles over the 5 hours and we were soooooo pooped! I would recommend the Great Urban Race to anyone looking to see a city and have lots of fun. I would definitely do this again. Maybe we will go to NYC or Philadelphia for the next time we give it a go.

Oh my goodness pics will have to follow I can't find my stupid usb cord AGAIN!

Crazy Crazy Day

Today I woke to a nice trail run with two really awesome friends. That's where the fun stopped.

I came home to help my son do his paper route at about 8. At one house, a kinda weird house, there was a man waiting at the door, sorta weird a 8 am on Sat. When I gave him his paper, I heard a woman yell, "Help, his just threw me!"

It didn't register in my head. I even picked up his other morning paper and gave it to him. She yelled for help again when he opened the door the second time.

That time it registered. I became alarmed and hurried back into my car. I quickly called 911 and gave them my complaint. The dispatcher asked that I wait in my car outside the home until the police arrived. I did what she requested but wow it freaked me out. What was I supposed to do, bear witness to whatever violence might happen next?

The police came within a few minutes and we finished the route, both shaky and freaked out.

Then I had to go about my day wondering what happened to this couple. I am concerned also for my son when he has to deliver the paper on Monday. Ugh.

But that is not where the craziness ends...

After a baseball game and work commitment, I ran home to clean my house before another baseball game at 3. I just started cleaning when my middle son went outside in his barefeet and stepped on a dang roofing nail. Now I have fixed two flat tires from those damn roofing nails and now my son gets punctured as well!

My oldest son and his friend carry him to the car where he proceeds to throw up. It was a pretty gross injury to look at and as long as he kept it covered he was ok.

But guess what? I got pulled over by a friggin cop on the way to the hospital. He saw me talking on my cell phone. Of course he was taking his sweet time getting out of the cruiser and I was beeping my horn and yelling out my window to no avail! So I called 911 for the second time that day! When I finally got my hysterical story out, he managed to get out of his cruiser and I frantically told him what was going on, he took one look at my kids foot and said, "Ok, that works, see ya" I was about half a mile from the hospital. The hospital staff was fabulous and luck for Nick, it was an old roofing nail and about half the size of the nails that punctured my car tires.

What a day.

Holy Recovery Baby

Wow it took three days to be able to walk normally after Soapstone. There were tons of hills and even by mile 11 I was tensing going down hill. I took a couple days off, went swimming and finally ran this morning almost a week later! My legs felt great and the new trail I ran was very fun!

Tomorrow: Bike Ride!

Soapstone Mountain Trail 24K

Well my day started with a big brown doggie nose in my face at 5:15! I went to pee the same time as he did and what do I discover? Well lets just say that if I was living during bible times I would be sitting in a red tent with other women drinking wine and gossiping celebrating my women-ness but no such luck...time to grab supplies and fuel up with a bagel and banana.

My brother, girlfriend, Cindy, and eldest son left at 7:30 with no problem finding the race start- a horseback riding camp in Stafford, CT. Check in was easy and well organized. The Bare Naked granola guys were handing out samples. Yum I had fruit and nut granola, yogurt with blackberries. Delish.

The race started at 9am about a half mile from registration site and continued on a dirt road for about a mile. I was exhausted right from the start! I knew that with all the pms bitching I did over the past three days, I would have little fire left once my period started and boy was I pooped right from the beginning.

We reached the four mile mark at exactly 1 hour. The most impressive climb of the race was so cool. I will try to get you pics from my friend's camera phone. It was straight up, no lie. I think that was at mile 3 or so. At the top was a fire stand, I think.

I basically just trudged along for the next ten miles, my two friends encouraging me all the way. I have great friends. We finished at 3:35. The race volunteers had burgers, three bean salad and soda left for us and made us feel as special as those finishing in an hour and half. This was a great race. Very technical trails, lots of mud, wet rocks and leaves, and interesting terrain to keep you entertained. Oh yeah the t-shirt was cute too.

After we gobbled up our burgers, we had to get home to other children but not before we grabbed some hot cocoa and toasted bagels. Its amazing how cold you get after running long.

After a long hot shower, I zipped over to celebrate my little sister's 20th birthday! More burgers, ice cream cake and mojitos!

I need a weekend from my weekend! How am I going to get up and go to work tomorrow?

Excited!

Tomorrow my brother, son and a few friends are heading north about 25 miles to run a trail half marathon. I am so psyched! Got an email about the race yesterday that asked we bring our own plate and fork for the post race party...gotta love those trail runners.

Will let you know how it all went down. My only goal is to finish I have no clue about time since I hear it is a challenging course. Would love to finish around three hours though but no biggie if I don't.

I finally found the usb cord for my camera. This pic is from Christmas but I like it. So share...

Happy Mother's Day

Yesterday I successfully and painlessly ran ten miles in preparation for Soapstone Trail half marathon! I am so psyched. I didn't think I would be able to run Soapstone after aggrevating my hip/inner thigh a couple of weeks ago but cross training and stretching and resting have all really helped.

We are getting ready to head out for breakfast!

Is anyone else tired?

I have been so pooped lately. I am able to work out well in the am but by dinner I just want to go to bed and I can't because we have baseball for three hours...in the cold and rain!

Running, swimming and biking now. I love the warm weather.