Author's notes: I learned something new today

This blog is a separate place to put selected saved Blogs from my years at SparkPeople.com.  Today, July 31, 2021, I discovered that I can set the publication date!  So I am setting them to the original publication date from SparkPeople.com!.

I also split off a third blog to hold the "Encouraging Words" blogs that have been "hits" over the years.  It's here:  Encouraging Words from OneKidsMom

NOTE:  These will not appear exactly as they originally did on Spark as I've had to "edit around" some things.  I've added photos where the blog had none to begin with.  The emoticons from Spark didn't come over well, so they are gone.  I may have wrapped text around some of the photos differently from how it originally appeared on Spark.  And so on.

Now that they are in date order, you'll be able to fairly easily go from bottom to top in a group, if you want to review a series, for example, related to a specific event (so the Boston Blogs are now marked as published on their original date, and you can read them "in order").

Since only seven blogs show up on the main page at a time, you can skinny them down by the labels.  Do you see the little labels over on the right hand side?  

If you click on one, it will display blogs that share that label.

* "OLY TRI" will get you blogs that I wrote following my Olympic triathlon participation in 2014.  They were all related to both the elation I felt in accomplishing this goal and the assimilation of who I had become in the process.  In the couple of days after, I couldn't even write in my own voice... I had Brenda (my bicycle), and then Eliza (my wetsuit) as the voices.  These are some precious memories that I did not want to lose... so they are here.

* "Injury" will get you blogs surrounding my fall during a training run in November, 2016, and a second fall in January 2017.  It will overlap with a couple of "Events" blogs, because you can apply more than one label to a blog.  I kept these because they show a period of time when I tried maybe a bit TOO hard to overcome the injury.  It took some time before I got to the point where I adjusted to what I can do NOW, as opposed to what I envisioned a few years earlier.

* "Mud Run" will bring up only the ONE blog, The Mud Run story, which was my first featured story on SparkPeople.com.

* "Archived Success Story" will get you the articles published by Spark as success stories.  So far it's just got the first one as I'm having trouble with the images from the "Where are they now" version.  I copied Kevin's success story, too.

You can also navigate directly, using the dates for the archive, also on the right hand side. 

One Member's Journey from 5Ks to the Boston Marathon

One Member's Journey from 5Ks to the Boston Marathon 

By Melissa Rudy, SparkPeople Blogger 6/16/2017

Sometimes, it takes a big life change to get on track toward health and wellness. For single dad Kevin (MOBYCARP), it was an empty nest. Shortly after his daughter moved out in 2011, he discovered SparkPeople and started recording his food intake and activity. Little did he know that his new daily habit would lead him to some amazing transformations—and across a legendary finish line.

The Art of Maintaining

Having already surpassed his initial goal weight within a couple months of joining, Kevin's new goal became to maintain his current weight and fitness level. "Getting to goal weight isn't like coming home and parking your car in the garage," he says. "It's more like maneuvering your boat to a spot in the middle of a lake marked by GPS, with shifting winds and currents. To stay there, you need to make adjustments in response to changing conditions. Although there will be no loud cheers for maintaining your weight over a period of time—after all, it's not as sexy as losing 50 or 100 pounds—it's worth doing."

If you're trying to maintain your weight, Kevin says it's important to be prepared to make the necessary adjustments. "Maybe you maintained for six months or a year on a certain number of calories per day, then something changes and your weight starts trending one way or the other. So instead of maintaining on one number of calories, you need to maintain on 100 or 200 less, or more. Deal with it, and change what you eat.  Take care of the little problems before they become big problems."

It wasn't long before Kevin started reaping the benefits of his new, healthy lifestyle.  "Health and fitness in general make a lot of things easier," he says. "I can fit into a standard airline seat. It's easier to mow the lawn, trim the hedges and shovel the driveway than it was when I was out of shape and overweight. If I want to buy cat food in the 25-pound bag because it's more economical and I don't have to shop as often, it's easier to get the bag from the car to the house. If it's raining, I can push a shopping cart through the parking lot with one hand and hold an umbrella with the other hand."

Fitness Made Easy: Doing What You Love

The exercise part came easy for Kevin, as he quickly discovered a genuine love of running.  After completing the 5K Your Way challenge, he moved on to 10Ks and then completed several half-marathons. Despite a few injury-related setbacks, Kevin went on to run his first full marathon in 2014. As a surprise bonus, his time qualified him to register for the Boston Marathon by a wide margin. In order to run Boston, men between the ages of 60-64 must complete a standard certified marathon course in under three hours and 55 minutes.

 

"Running is my passion, and that makes it easier to stay healthy and fit," says Kevin.

"The obvious benefit is that I have very good cardiovascular conditioning. What's less obvious is that I have learned the discipline to do things I don't have as much passion for in order to support my running habit. I don't need a whole lot of strength training, but squeezing it out of my schedule entirely is asking for a repetitive motion injury, and couch time is no fun at all." 

Another perk of running has been stress management. Kevin found that pounding the pavement helped him deal with his significant amount of job stress. In fact, when a change to his work schedule threatened to derail his training for Boston, he made the decision to retire early. "Absent a desire to train for Boston 2017, I might never have considered retiring before age 62," he says. "In an indirect way, running got me somewhere between 16 months and 4 years of higher quality life." 

Sparking Motivation in an Online Community

When Kevin's sister Barb (ONEKIDSMOM) first urged him to join SparkPeople, he never expected it to change his life. But in addition to the convenience of the nutrition and exercise trackers, he found amazing support and motivation from other Sparkers—and now he's giving it back to those who need it. 

"I have greatly benefited from other Sparkers' analysis of their issues," he says. "A broad theme in Spark blogs has been managing your own behaviors and emotions. Participation online has made me more aware of how much this matters. Much of how I have organized my life in the past five years has revolved around this, and I could have been blissfully unaware of the need for it without the online community." 

Mastering the Boston Marathon—Not Once, But Twice

As he started his official Boston marathon training in 2016, Kevin was excited but a little skeptical. "I'm not sure I really like running marathons, but I certainly like training for them," he blogged three weeks before the race. "So, I'll do my best to finish in good shape and uninjured, then make a decision on future running after I see how successful I am." 

It was no walk in the park, but Kevin successfully completed the course in 3:23—just a few minutes shy of his time goal of 3:10-3:15. "Boston is different," he says. "As I walked back to the hotel, just about everyone congratulated me. When you get a medal, you're a rock star to the general public in Boston."  Although Kevin's accomplishment would be a huge feat for most, he couldn't shake the feeling that his results didn't reflect how hard he'd trained.  But after a few days of reflection--and the realization that even very experienced Boston runners were discussing how tough weather conditions had slowed down pretty much everyone--he became happier with his results.

In 2017, Kevin returned to the Boston course. Again, his sister Barb joined him for the weekend as a much-needed morale-boosting spectator. A few days before the race, Kevin came down with a cold—but there was no way he was going to miss it, even with the chilly forecast. The first half of the course went pretty much according to plan, and then at mile 20, he hit the proverbial wall. Zapped of energy and struggling with muscle cramps, he incorporated walking intervals and Gatorade stops to get him through the last few miles. Even with the late-race struggles, Kevin finished in under 3:50 and

qualified to run Boston next year, if he so chooses.

"Each of the marathons I've run has had its good points and its disappointments, but I

do love the training process," Kevin reflects. "In hindsight, my training was better this

cycle than in any previous cycle, and that helped with managing conditions that could

have been disastrous. While having the nasty cold is disappointing and the weather was

less than ideal, I'm rather proud of how well I managed the situation that I had to deal

with."

Kevin's Racing Tips

If you're new to running: Work your way up to a 5K. Kevin recommends SparkPeople's 5K Your Way challenge as a good, structured plan to get you there. "You should be able to walk two miles before you start," he recommends. He also suggests running no more than three non-consecutive days per week, to give the body time to repair and rebuild after each run.

If you've run shorter races and want to run a marathon: Slow down. "It takes a long time to build the capability to run a marathon without hurting yourself," warns Kevin.  "The game changes between a 10K and a half marathon, and it changes again between a half marathon and a full marathon. Don't look too far ahead. After a 5K, work up to running a 10K. After a 10K, work up to running a half marathon. After you have successfully run a half marathon, pay attention to how much recovery time your body needs. Being able to run a marathon and finish in good shape is more important than being able to run a marathon soon."

If you have trouble running farther than a certain distance: Run slower. "Most new runners run too fast for long distances, and I was no exception," says Kevin. "It seems

to be natural to gravitate toward your body's lactic threshold pace, which by definition can be sustained for about an hour (assuming conditioning sufficient that you can keep moving for an hour). For a race that will take you more than an hour, you cannot run at lactic threshold for the entire race. You need to learn to run easy to be able to run farther."

Life Lessons for Those Just Starting Their Journey

Kevin remembers what it was like to be sitting on the couch, overweight and unhealthy.  He offers some tips for those who may be feeling hopeless and stuck.

"You can't change everything at once, and trying to do that is a recipe for failure," Kevin says. "Instead, pick just one thing that will improve your situation. Maybe you drink eight glasses of water a day, or start recording what you eat. Maybe you get up and go for a walk around the block three times a week. It doesn't have to be major, and it probably shouldn't be at first. Pick something you're pretty sure you can do, and do it. Keep doing it for a week or three. Make it a habit. When you notice that you no longer have to pay much attention to doing that first thing, pick something else to add."

Kevin stresses that the goal should never be to eat or exercise perfectly—just to do better than you were doing before. "A year after you start, look back at where you came from and you'll be amazed at how much you have improved."

Same song second verse

Sunday, January 15, 2017

A little bit louder, a little bit worse...

OK, now I've got that old kids' song rattling around in your head, I'll 'splain. It was NOT louder or worse, but it was embarrassing.

Training run, target 8 miles, yesterday morning. Dry trails, we were working on getting it done before the ice storm that's started landing now.

We waited for 10 a.m. to take advantage of sun coming out and temperatures moderating. We were going along just fine, and chatting about how my confidence is coming back.

Chatter, run/walk/run... and then, 4.86 miles in... "oh, crap... I'm falling". Not as bad as seven weeks ago... but I did bang up my chin, and bit my lip pretty badly. Here's the "boxer" look the morning after (this morning), showing the band-aided chin, the swollen nose and fat lip:

What a contrast from Thursday's "Youth" blog photo!

The recovery is happening fast. I went back to the Runza restaurant near where I fell, after a hot shower, and heading over to check on my sister's cats (also to get it done before the ice comes)... and bought a sandwich, going "off program" to do so, just to leave a huge tip. They had let me use their restroom to clean up and even brought me band-aids for the chin. My coach had his wife fetch the first aid kit from their home (we were 3 miles out from the cars, on our way back), and I'm sure I could have walked it, but by the time we made that assessment she was on her way, so I accepted a ride back to the Y, where we had started.

I've been up on the treadmill today, 3 sessions so far (splitting it up with laundry and kind of mimicking my "recess" times).

Today's adventure is the long-predicted Ice Storm. I'm in an Ice Storm warning area, that will not expire until 3 a.m. TUESDAY, here. It started about on schedule, noonish... and it's looking pretty slick out there now.

I figure if it's too slick to go to work on Tuesday, I'll just have one more day for the swelling to go down.

For today:

• Eat to the plan, even though there is no bag.
• Taking those recess times on the treadmill.
• Remembering to breathe, prioritize, and delegate... well, not much delegating here at home, but definitely breathing to deal with the storm qualms, and prioritizing tasks within the house.

Feeling grateful and living the best Sunday January 15, 2017 I can, within the parameters of where I'm at... hope you are, too... 'cause it's the only one we'll ever get!

Youth

 Friday, January 13, 2017

I was just looking at this selfie I took last night of MJREIMERS and (obviously) me:

The first thing that popped out at me was how vibrant and happy we both look. The second thing is how YOUNG! The sparkling eyes, the anticipation of the running season ahead of us. The occasion was the BRIN Blackout party, where those of us who finished all three 10K's after signing up for them last year (Leprechaun Chase, Cornfield Cornfield, and Harvest Moon Hustle) collected our commemorative medals. I'm wearing mine. Mako (MJREIMERS) has signed up to do the three races in 2017, as have I. I dubbed this photo "Once and Future BRIN runners".

Youth is not wasted on the young. They need it to survive growing up! But, the quality of being open, of always learning, of living in the moment, of being, as my little Webster's tells me, "esp. of being vigorous and lively"... can be preserved or prolonged, if we take care of our body's needs. All the things that Spark teaches us (or our mothers and grandmothers told us): get your sleep, "eat real foods, not too much, mostly plants", and move your bodies... feed a vibrant, vigorous life, no matter what the calendar calculates our age to be.

Don't get me wrong: I dub myself a "little old lady in training", because I do venerate the strength and wisdom of my years, and hope to rack up many more of them. But I want to do so with the vigor of good health that we often associate with youth.

Is Spark the fountain of youth?

For today:

• The bag is packed, but I have to remember to go to the dentist first, instead of automatic pilot mode to work.
• Remember to go to recess in this chopped up day!
• Remember to breathe, prioritize, and delegate.

Let's all get out there and live the very best Friday the 13th of January 2017 we can (whatever our superstitions about Friday the 13th may be), because, after all, it's the only one we'll ever get!

Last

Sunday, January 01, 2017

How appropriate to hit the "L" in my "accidental alphabet" series the morning after the "Last Run" of 2016...

Of course, being me, I'm going to use that word in another sense than the "final".

From my Webster's:  "vi 1 to remain in existence or operation; continue; go on; endure 2 to remain in good condition; wear well."

Yep, that's a decent quality to have... enduring fits right in with the triathlete in me. And the distance runner... but more importantly, with LIVING... enduring whatever storms life throws our way, and LASTING or rather outlasting them!

So, here's to lasting, vibrantly. Because taking care of our health through those things we CAN control is

the best way of making that ability to last "easier". I noticed that at some aha moment a few years ago... that LIFE became easier when I took care of myself. Life could still pack a wallop, but enduring it was easier.

So, for today:

• No bag... but remember you're making choices that will make staying with the program easier or harder!
• Enjoy, savor that RECESS of the First Run 5K!
• Keep on breathing, prioritizing, and delegating.

But most important, let's live the very best New Year's Day 2017 we can. Because it's the only one we'll ever get!

Being there... with bells on!

 Saturday, December 10, 2016

Well, it's two weeks since my fall and injury. Two weeks of healing. Good progress on that front. Earlier in the week the coach had proposed that this weekend, rather than a standard training run, we do the Jingle Jog, a fund raiser for a couple of schools in the area. It was to be in a local park, untimed, you could do 1, 2, or 3 loops of the park, constituting 1.1 mile, 2.4 miles, or 3.7 miles.

Training run *would have been* 10.5 miles, had I not been injured. As it was, at this point in my recovery, I was very happy to complete the 3.7, and bailed right after to come home and warm up. Hot shower felt wonderful!

You see, unlike those folks running in FLORIDA today, I was looking at 24F at 9 a.m. start time, with enough of a breeze to put the wind chill index at 15F. Brrrrr! Especially Brrrr as this was in a park, with no indoor spot to be warm right up to race time or to re-warm following. The 30 minutes or so of standing around waiting to start was the WORST part of it.

Once we got moving, though, no problems. I was wearing two layers on the bottom: my good running tights, augmented by knee sleeves to cover up the holes my fall tore in the knees, topped with my Wild Turkey Chase sweat pants. Four layers on the top: base layer tank with built in sports bra, topped by long sleeved running shirt, a quilted vest, and my warmest winter running jacket. On the head, my ninja face mask (honestly, I can see the advantages of Muslim headgear in this weather!), and a knit cap on top of that. Since I tore my new running gloves in the fall two weeks ago, I substituted last year's solution: two pair of gloves, including the ones with the windbreaker mitten covers, and Hot Hands chemical warmers inside the gloves.

Wool socks and my good ordinary running shoes were good for the feet. Looped around my waist were the bells pictured above. On the wrist with the RoadID bracelet, I had attached five smaller jingle bells using dental floss as the thread. Bad plan... those bells managed to fall off during the course of the run. I had seen other bells on the path in the second and third loops, so I'm not the only runner who was dropping jingles on the jog!

Still, those bells on my waist? Had me sounding like "Bobtail" in the Christmas tune. "Bell's on Barb's Waist Ring" somehow doesn't have quite the same cadence, does it, but I wasn't going to take the obvious match to "Bobtail", either. Anyway, in the third mile I mentioned to my coach that I felt a bit like a sleigh horse with them jingling in time to my steps. He commented back that it was a very consistent sound... I must have a steady pace.

We ran faster than we should for a long run, but this wasn't a long run. We kind of called it speed work, if you can call a 10:13 mile speed work... but for run/walk/run it's a very respectable speed work pace!

Coach let me set the pace and decide on the walk intervals, and being cold, I didn't take as many. They were all 30 second walk breaks.

In short... very glad to be back out there! Next "official" run will be New Year's Eve / New Year's Day "Last Run / First Run", with training in between now and then.

Hope you're all living the very best Saturday December 10th, 2016 you can. Because as with each day that comes along, it's the only one we'll ever get!

Baby Steps, did I say?

 Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Thank God for the existence of support structure! We all need it, even those of us the most independent.  I have three sisters, a son, and a daughter in law in town. All have been checking up on me, since I live alone, and they have been made aware of my situation with the fall last Saturday.

I stuck the most recent photo, this morning's mug shot, out on my status: Here it is again for once I take it off the status.

The two days in between looked worse, probably about the same as each other, as the bruising progressed. The most disturbing (to me) part of this recovery was the nausea... which is a symptom of concussion. My body seemed to tolerate solid food Saturday after I got home, but starting mid-morning Sunday, not so much, and the rejection of everything but water began. This lasted through Sunday and Monday, even clear fluids not being well tolerated. Last night I got down about half a cup of green tea, and it stayed. This morning, you would not believe how good apple juice and saltines tasted.

The scale is indicating dehydration, reaching bottom scream weight this morning, so it's a good thing the body is healing, it doesn't have much to lose, as my non-Sparking sister commented when we discussed last night.

The apple juice and saltines are not part of my normal fare. I was rescued by sister SPINNINGJW, who brought them over.

I've been visited by all three sisters and my son, who checked for other concussive symptoms. Both SPINNINGJW and the mythical son have some medical training, and all the sisters have been Girl Scouts. But Jen and Jon especially know what to check for, particularly in the area of brain injury... so at various visits folks checked my pupil sizes, my balance, my temperature, etc.

Stayed home from work yesterday, and will again today until I'm sure the body is tolerating at the least bland foods. And will gradually introduce food as I heal. Stitches are slated to come out on Thursday afternoon. So, yes, Spark gang, I am recovering, albeit slower than the patient ever wants!

Why is it that most of us patients, aren't? Sense of humor intact.

I limited screen time significantly the past couple of days, out of deference to those concussive symptoms... that's the protocol these days. This morning, feeling much, much better, so I'm actually playing catch up with subscribed blogs.

Hope that all of you are out there making the best decisions you can with the choices you are given!  Because let me tell you from the inside of this recovering self: having an underlying level of health and fitness is SO worth it when you add trauma to the picture. I think that LINDAKAY228 said much the same when she had her stroke. Being in good physical condition surely assisted her recovery. So, despite the fact that my injury happened while running, I'm not going to stop being active! I may dial it back for a while, listening carefully to what my body is ready for. Being active, and choosing the right nutrition is part of what keeps me in the shape to recover when things go sideways.

Life is good. I am grateful. And I value every one of you Sparkpeople who are looking in on me, and cheer for you on your own healthy living journeys!

This was NOT how it was supposed to go!

 Saturday, November 26, 2016

Yeah, that's me. Note to self: head is NOT supposed to make contact with concrete. Note to others: I don't think the head did, but the sunglasses dug into my eyelid, digging quite a significant hole, as you can see. The sunglasses? Ruined!

This happened about 2 1/2 miles into what was supposed to be a 9 mile run. Fortunately, I was NOT running solo. My coach was with me. And a good Samaritan stopped and helped staunch the blood. She also provided transport back to the cars, where coach would not let me drive, he took me home at my request.

But as soon as I saw myself in a mirror, I knew I needed to get to an ER and have that "hole" addressed.  

My non-Sparking sis came to the rescue... transporting me and staying and keeping me company while the medical folks looked me over. And stitched me up:

Pretty stitching! Two interior, four exterior, on the eyelid. They also did a CAT scan to ensure I didn't damage the brain. No concerns there, and they let me go with instructions to go back to my primary care physician for follow up and to get the stitches (exterior) removed in five days.

I even retrieved the car and brought it home (not that far, and I was careful... I was not under any drugs, other than the topical they gave to numb the skin for the stitching.)

Now I'm icing, and on Tylenol (minimum dose) as needed... which so far has been just that one pill. And the doctor pronounced me a tough old lady, and blessed me to run again if I felt up to it, as soon as tomorrow. I'm taking a wait and see attitude about that.

The running jacket I put in a cold water rinse before heading to the ER... and considering the front had been pretty much covered in blood? Look how clean it came out, with just that cold water rinse!

Meantime, I'm fine, really I am. But taking no chances. Doing as the doctor ordered.

Hope whether your day has gone how it's supposed to or not, you're doing the best you can, and today I'm grateful for my level of fitness, which should see me through this, as it does so much. And for that level of fitness? Guess what site has been my motivation central?

Darn right it's SparkPeople.com! Spark on my friends, and be safe.

Denouement, a.k.a. the trip home - Chapter 6

Friday, April 22, 2016

Picture it: 2 a.m. my "home" time, getting up and showering, making sure the last things are packed, dressing for the travel. Getting down to the lobby of the hotel about 3 a.m. my "home" time. I have done the "super Spring forward" thing by traveling East. So my eyes *might* be just a little glazed over.

I am an early riser, mind you... I'm up between 4 and 5 a.m. most days. But with the fullness of the weekend and the short sleep? I admit I was kind of sluggish mentally, Tuesday morning early. The desk clerk asked me if I needed a cab, I said, "I have a van coming." I sat down to wait, pulling out the paperwork for the van driver.

On my "home" time, it would have been 3:10 a.m. when the white van pulled up in front of the hotel and the driver got out and tapped on the door, wagged his fingers at me. I went out the door, he put my bag in the back of the van, and opened the door.

"That's odd", a sluggish part of my brain thought. "The van driver on the way in asked if I was me, verified my identity and wanted the voucher." I shrugged and buckled in. Driver asks, "Where are we going today?"

The sluggish brain does another "That's odd... the driver on the way in already knew where I was going..." But I automatically answer, "Logan" and the airline name. While my sluggish brain is still musing on the oddity, a few blocks later, the meter registers on me. I have purloined someone else's taxi!

What to do? I still have a short schedule, I need to get there in time for a 6 a.m. (Boston time) flight. So I sit back and accept that I'm going to pay for a taxi ride and the shuttle ride I already paid for would go by the wayside. And the poor person whose cab that was? Hope they either hook up with the shared van in my place or somehow manage to get where they need to be, too!

However, this kind of explains the kind of gaffe that can happen when you are NOT paying attention! Had it NOT been a legitimate taxi? You could write novels about kidnappings! Wake up, already, Barb!

Anyway, got to the airport, looked at my phone: missed call. The van driver. I called him back, explained what happened, "no problem," says he. Apparently these things happen. It's Marathon weekend in Boston.

Mistake number 2 from the sluggish brain... not noticing the TSA pre-checked icon on my electronic boarding pass. I could have gone through a shorter line. But no, glassy eyed, I stood through the long one. At least they didn't make me take off my shoes... the advantage of that little icon.

Got to the gate. Quite a few teal jackets (see MOBYCARP's blogs for the explanation of the significance of teal - this year's color) and also Boston Athletic Association jackets from prior years. The gate agent asks as we are getting ready to board who all ran the marathon on Monday. Several hands went up. She asks all those within the area to give them a round of applause. Then as we started to board, she announced "This is a one-day special... anyone who ran the marathon yesterday may board at any time".

In fact, this is a very practical thing. Marathons take a lot out of the human body. Some of these folks could be pretty stiff!

Food on a funny schedule? Yep. I had an orange standing and waiting to board. I accepted full test coffee on the airplane (small cups), and tomato juice, and even ate the pretzels. I waited for my connecting airport where I had about an hour and a half to seek out my yogurt and a banana to "complete" breakfast.

On to the connecting gate. Since I had time, I walked the 3000 steps from one gate to the other. It felt good to be stretching the legs.

Next mis-adventure, not in my control: they boarded us on the second plane, taxied along, then took a detour to try to "fix" a heating element in a cockpit window. Yikes! Back to the gate. They happen to have an extra plane, at a nearby gate... they move us all. Since it's the same model, we keep same seat assignments, get back on, and on our way we go. Smoothest equipment replacement I've experienced in all my years of travel. Only delayed arrival time by about 38 minutes. And since my destination was "home"... no sweat.

The cats survived. A bit wild, they destroyed a mini-nerf football and knocked down one of my recycle bins since my musical sister's last visit, but no worse for wear. Sis left me notes indicating when (which days) the cats went out and came back in. Prisoner stayed out in a thunderstorm (nothing new there).  Rubia mostly was in. Also expected. 

Ahhh! Travel is wonderful. So is coming home. As I arrived home, it was with a great sense of gratitude.  This trip is going in the "worth it" memory box. It so fits with the things I wrote on the maintenance advantages list. Life is easier at "home weight". It just is. I cannot have this life ease if I go nuts with foodlike substances, or go back to couch potato status. This trip, even though I was not "eventing" myself, reminded me that even to "be there" at the special moments in my family's life... I need to take care of my body. It *is* worth it!

So... here comes today's pitch... let's go out and take care of our bodies on this, the only April 22, 2016 we will ever see! Because we're worth it.

P.S. Happy Earth day (I still kind of grit my teeth when I say that... for me, it's Happy Arbor Day on this date, no matter when Nebraska shifts it to a different date to give me a three-day weekend!) 

Perceived Sunday becomes Marathon Monday - chapter 4

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

It did not take long for me to remember that it was Monday and a Holiday at that, in Massachusetts.  Because they make a HUGE deal of Patriots' Day... in fact, at the finish line, they were filming on this year's Marathon Monday for the upcoming movie of that name (Patriots' Day).

TV coverage warned everyone of when things would be shut down... you'd best not try to cross that route!  I did indeed rise EARLY to get myself over to the VIP lounge, where breakfast was available for the runners who had purchased the "premium package" (Kevin did)... see? It's big business, this Marathon!  The Premium package he bought gave him access to the bus right up to the time his wave loaded into the corrals at the starting line in Hopkinton. Which is a good thing, considering they had to get to the starting line several hours before the actual start of his wave!

At the lounge, the Jeff you've met before and Kevin had a bit of that breakfast.

Being frugal, I did not partake even though as my runner's "plus one" I could have. I had my soaked oats and banana back at the hotel and I didn't intend breakfast until after I saw them off. I didn't want my prepared breakfast to spoil and go to waste.

The other Jeff showed up a little later and I got hugs from him, too. Before we knew it, it was 5:30 and time for them to line up and load onto the busses.

I caught them standing in line and made them pose, here we have left to right Jeff P, Jeff H, and MOBYCARP, a.k.a. Kevin. I'm still not sure which Jeff is Fast Jeff and which is Young Jeff, I kind of suspect that we're looking at Fast, Young and Brother (sounds like a law firm?)

Here are the busses, about to head out... note the sky is just starting to lighten. His wave won't start until 10:25 a.m. local time.

Once the busses pulled out, I went back inside to refresh my decaff before heading back to my hotel, where I had that breakfast, showered and debated on what to wear to watch the race finish. It was a balancing act between making it easier for the security check points ahead, and being warm enough when the wind was predicted to kick in. Here's what I settled on:

Meantime, STRONGDAWG, a.k.a. Laura was set to arrive at the hotel about 9 a.m. The front desk called to let me know of her arrival, and we prepped the rest of the way. She was carrying no bags (well prepared) but I had my clear plastic bag from Fenway, and in it I packed two apples and two of my baggies of nuts, 'cause I figured we'd at least need a snack in that four hours of waiting.

Between the time I went to see the runners off and the time Laura and I set off to wend our way to the finish line (and we did do some wending), they had blocked off the end of the block my hotel sits on... and we needed to go through security check point. This was a loose one... they saw clear plastic and no bags for Laura, and we got through THAT one. Then when we turned down toward Boylston Street, there was another, with a LONG line. We waited and chatted until we figured out that the grandstand was "invitation only/VIP" access (we're talking Spectator VIP... invited by the race sponsors). So we went back up the street, moved down to the next one... same deal. Three blocks down from where we originally turned, we

found the "general public" check point.

They flagged my clear bag as "Inspected" and we proceeded to what turned out to be a primo spot... across from the UNO restaurant on Boylston, about a block to a block and a half from the finish line. In fact, if you have a morbid sense of history, we were across the street from where one of the bombs went off in 2013... there was a wreath laying in that block on the other side of the street.

Here we are, sporting our local hats, toward the beginning of our spectator standing stint (which was an endurance event in itself, as you may have already read in Laura's blog).

And this was our spot, before the crowds got too thick, I was catching the police presence, which varied as the race progressed... these are just walking to whatever post, reminding people to keep all the trash out of the street (especially before the hand bikes came, but you don't want runners having to dodge coffee cups when they are almost done with 26.2 miles!

It was some time later that we determined that the signs we made were worthless at that point on the race course... the runners at that point have their eye on the prize... they can see the finish arch. The thing you really need to root them down Boylston to the finish? Water to keep your throat from giving out on you and a strong voice!

It was before they even started when we were lining up, which is why we got such a good spot, and even then we were two or three people back from the rail. We made friends with those around, of course. It's what you do. We found the couple who were there for their daughter, who was doing her first Boston. The gal and her son at the actual rail? Veterans! Their husband/father was running his 7th. Oh, yeah, she was clearly a veteran... and runs shorter distances, so she and I had some notes to swap about training uninjured / racing uninjured. She had read the Jeff Galloway run/walk/run literature, and said that her

husband uses that, too. (That bit is for SLENDERELLA61!)

I had loaded my phone to get text alerts for the progress of my brother, my running coach, and my triathlete s-hero. We didn't start using those until after we heard the announcer at the finish line broadcast the start of the waves. The gal at the front showed me how to access the BAA runner tracking on my phone using Chrome... and I picked the three names plus the daughter of the couple beside us and made them "my runners". Thus we there on site were doing the same thing remote folks across the world were doing to track progress!

As we got the alerts, Laura was updating the Sparkverse in her status of MOBYCARP's progress! Which is good, because if you try to do too much with the phone, you miss what's going on around you, and I really wanted to be present in that scene! It was also good I had someone with me, because y'all know my little bladder can't take four hours. I was pleased that I made do with just one trip "out" to find facilities... fortunately, the hotel with the VIP lounge was only a block and a half away, down a side street!

I brought back water & another decaf (to warm my hands, I had neglected to bring gloves). Taking that bathroom break, though, caused me to miss the first trio of handbike finishers... who made it wheel to wheel to the line! Laura saw it, though, and as I was coming back, I saw probably finisher 4 - 6 while I was trying to re-find Laura. Turns out about 4 more bodies deep had been added to the press by then.Time passes and we shout for everyone who comes along. Since they start in waves, we had little clue about when the "real" winners of various divisions were coming, except from what we could catch of the announcers at the finish line... and the shouts of the crowd sometimes make that hard to hear.

But when I got the text that my running coach Eddie got to the 40K mark, I did the math and realized "holy moley, he's going to finish in less than 10 minutes" and I wriggled my way to the rail while the wife/mom/son team kept others from crowding in. Eddie was actually featured on one of the banners on Beacon Street:

They had invited registered runners to submit a photo of themselves running (obviously the photos are from many other races) and chose I think it was 24 to feature on those banners. He submitted one on a whim, never thinking he'd win that kind of a spot... but there it is! In the news interview he did, he called himself a "regular Joe"... I think not! I screamed as loud as I could as he cruised by on his way to a 2:54 finish!

Mama up front let us all know that she was very protective of that rail spot... she didn't mind letting people in if their runner was "imminent", but doggone it, she earned that spot by her early arrival. And I agree... if you showed up at 8:30 a.m. for a race that starts at 10, 26.2 miles away? You *did* earn that spot! Still, she was very generous letting those whose runners were faster than hers and finishing share space, trying at the same time to stay next to her son!

Now being at the rail, I retrieved my sign (the one you've seen in prior blogs held by me and by Janet) and hung it over the rail while waiting for Kevin's finish, which came about half an hour later. I described the singlet he was wearing to the little clump around us, and they helped me look after he had reached that 40K mark. At 40K, by the way, the runners will be seeing the Citgo sign (as shown in my Friday afternoon blog). From that sign, there are 1.2 miles left to the finish line.

When Kevin came by, he was totally focused on finishing, and I'm sure he didn't hear individual voices, but he, like all of them, heard the crowd. Which reminds me, across the street someone was holding a sign with the name Kevin on it, I'm sure for some other Kevin, but my brother told me later that this "other Kevin" must have had a similar pace, for he heard his name shouted at various places along the route... "could have been Kevin, or Evan, or something else similar" he said, but if you don't think a runner can hear and be encouraged / pushed by hearing a spectator shouting it, you would be mistaken. I know *I* have picked up my pace when I hear someone call my name (which they may have read on my bib in

races where they put your name on it).

He finished in 3:23:01, which is good enough to re-qualify for Boston next year. I will leave it in his capable hand to blog about his decision making process, because he would not be able to register until September... he has that long to think about it.

And I think I've rattled on enough for a good chapter 4... but I'm not done yet... I'm leaving you at the point at which Laura and I backed away from the rail to give others whose runners had not yet crossed a better view. To be continued...