Well, it must be true. Winter must be on its way. This morning I got up at 5:00 AM to run my 6-mile hill course out in Downs. It was dark, cold (40 degrees) and windy. I started running shortly after 5:30 and soon spotted a pair of bright yellow eyes staring at me along the roadside. I'm not sure exactly what animal those eyes belonged to - I'm guessing they belonged to a cat, but I will say the eyes were high enough up that it was a large one. I continued running along and heard many noises. I believe most of them were falling hedge apples from the Hawthorne trees. It's funny how your imagination can play with you when running alone in the country in the dark. It still wasn't light when I completed my run and returned to the safety and warmth of my car.
It might be a good time for an update on my upcoming races:
Sunday, Nov. 2nd - Marshall University Marathon (Huntington, West Virginia)
I'll need to practice my football carries for the finish line photo.
"The highlight is to run through Marshall University campus on their way to a goal-line finish in Marshall Football Stadium. Footballs will be available to carry in the final 100 yards if desired!
We have a limited amount of flowers that are handed out as you enter campus (at Old Main on Hal Greer Blvd. and 4th Avenue, just beyond the 25 mile mark). This is a memorial for the plane crash victims from November 14th, 1970 (for which the movie We are Marshall was made). Those taking the flower are asked to put this in a basket 200 yards away at Memorial Fountain."
Sunday, Nov. 9th - Jingle Bell 5K (Bloomington)
Sunday, Nov. 23rd - Gobbler Grind Marathon (Overland Park, Kansas)
Thursday, Nov. 27th - Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot (Bloomington)
Sunday, December 7th - Frostbite Festival 10 Mile (Springfield)
Sat./Sun. Jan. 10 & 11th - Goofy Challenge (1/2 marathon Sat., full marathon Sun.)
Monday, April 20th - Boston Marathon
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
It Was a Dark & Cold & Spooky Morning
Thursday, October 16, 2008
My Very Own Sir Edmund Hillary
Our two days after the St. George Marathon were spent hiking in Zion National Park. Sunday we took it a little easier because I was pretty sore - especially my quads, which made hiking downhill painful. We did hike all day long, finishing our last hiking route (western part of the park) around 6:00 PM.
Monday was to be our more strenuous hiking day. We were well-prepared with a lunch of peanut butter sandwiches, trail mix, energy bars, apples and plenty of water. Unfortunately for me, Monday morning I had even more difficulty coming down the stairs at our condo due to incredibly sore quads. I'm not sure if the hiking on Sunday lessened the soreness or increased it. None the less, I had a full day of hiking ahead of me. I was determined not to whine - whimper maybe, but not all out whining.
Our first hike was the 2.5 mile hike "up canyon" (5 miles round trip). As we started this hike up the rock face of the mountain, we could see tiny little people moving along the mountainside. Surely we weren't going to be where those people were? Or were we? The trail was wide enough to not be too scary - just enough room for someone coming down to pass by. It was narrow enough to be somewhat scary at the steep drop off sections. The climb was pretty strenuous, especially the section called "Walter's Wiggles" - a series of 21 switchbacks up the mountain to our destination of Scout's Landing.
At this point, there was the option to continue on to the ultimate destination of Angel's Landing shown in the picture above. This climb includes steep drop offs on both sides (a mere 800 and 1200 ft or so), with chains provided in some, but not all, sections of the climb. I tried climbing a small portion of it, turned around to test the quads (for coming back down) and quickly ascertained this was not the time for me to attempt the climb.
After looking at what I thought was the climb, I did not want my husband, Howard to climb it. Although I know he has great balance, no fear of heights, I was concerned about the strenuous nature of the climb to the summit and the fact that it was unforgiving in terms of making a mistake. A mistake could mean falling off the mountain.
Of course he went anyway. Little did I know that the most challenging part of the climb was hidden from our view. You can see it well in the photo. Yup, he climbed up that! And, most importantly, down that! Yikes!
He returned safely and then took my sister up to the "false summit" section - by the tree in the photo. Great! Now I had both my husband and my sister on the mountainside. The climb up went well. Shelley took a look at where the real summit was and decided it was a perfect time to come down. She had conquered a lot of fear to climb this first section. Howard proved to be a very patient co-climber, telling her where to place her hand or foot and providing a "security hand" when they were on a section without the chain.
All appeared to be going well on the way down, until a girl slipped and nearly fell off the mountain. Howard said he could hear the sound of her backpack and body scraping along the rocks as she let go of the chain, slid off the path, and dropped onto a ledge about 3 ft below. Beyond that ledge? Absolutely nothing except about 1500 ft of free fall. Fortunately she was able, with her boyfriend's help, to scramble back up on the trail. Howard was only a couple of climbers away from the girl, so he had a pretty good view of what had happened.
I was very happy when my two climbers returned safely! Now all we had to do was hike down the same 2.5 miles. Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! It was starting to get rather warm and we were thankful we were headed down, rather than up.
I give Howard all the credit in the world for tackling that climb to Angel's Landing. The photo does not do justice to just how scary and difficult that climb was. I would like to attempt the false summit when I'm not sore from a marathon. I'm guessing the true summit at Angel's Landing would remain out of my reach. I also give my sister, Shelley, all the credit in the world. She does have a fear of heights, or at least a desire to have her feet firmly on the ground, and her balance is not great. She had to let go of fear and step into trust in order to make that climb.
As Sir Edmund Hillary said; "It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves". Howard and Shelley both accomplished exactly that.
After that we hiked several other routes - all of them spectacular in their beauty. On our very last hike of the day we had the pleasure of seeing a tarantula! Although, I am not fond of spiders, it surprisingly was not scary to see the tarantula outdoors. After all, it was in its natural environment, it seemed perfectly normal and rather unintimidating. Not that I would want to see one in our house!
We'd love to go back to Zion National Park. It was truly a beautiful place.
"The explorers of the past were great men and we should honour them. But let us not forget that their spirit lives on. It is still not hard to find a man who will adventure for the sake of a dream or one who will search, for the pleasure of searching, not for what he may find."
~Sir Edmund Hillary
Monday was to be our more strenuous hiking day. We were well-prepared with a lunch of peanut butter sandwiches, trail mix, energy bars, apples and plenty of water. Unfortunately for me, Monday morning I had even more difficulty coming down the stairs at our condo due to incredibly sore quads. I'm not sure if the hiking on Sunday lessened the soreness or increased it. None the less, I had a full day of hiking ahead of me. I was determined not to whine - whimper maybe, but not all out whining.
Our first hike was the 2.5 mile hike "up canyon" (5 miles round trip). As we started this hike up the rock face of the mountain, we could see tiny little people moving along the mountainside. Surely we weren't going to be where those people were? Or were we? The trail was wide enough to not be too scary - just enough room for someone coming down to pass by. It was narrow enough to be somewhat scary at the steep drop off sections. The climb was pretty strenuous, especially the section called "Walter's Wiggles" - a series of 21 switchbacks up the mountain to our destination of Scout's Landing.
At this point, there was the option to continue on to the ultimate destination of Angel's Landing shown in the picture above. This climb includes steep drop offs on both sides (a mere 800 and 1200 ft or so), with chains provided in some, but not all, sections of the climb. I tried climbing a small portion of it, turned around to test the quads (for coming back down) and quickly ascertained this was not the time for me to attempt the climb.
After looking at what I thought was the climb, I did not want my husband, Howard to climb it. Although I know he has great balance, no fear of heights, I was concerned about the strenuous nature of the climb to the summit and the fact that it was unforgiving in terms of making a mistake. A mistake could mean falling off the mountain.
Of course he went anyway. Little did I know that the most challenging part of the climb was hidden from our view. You can see it well in the photo. Yup, he climbed up that! And, most importantly, down that! Yikes!
He returned safely and then took my sister up to the "false summit" section - by the tree in the photo. Great! Now I had both my husband and my sister on the mountainside. The climb up went well. Shelley took a look at where the real summit was and decided it was a perfect time to come down. She had conquered a lot of fear to climb this first section. Howard proved to be a very patient co-climber, telling her where to place her hand or foot and providing a "security hand" when they were on a section without the chain.
All appeared to be going well on the way down, until a girl slipped and nearly fell off the mountain. Howard said he could hear the sound of her backpack and body scraping along the rocks as she let go of the chain, slid off the path, and dropped onto a ledge about 3 ft below. Beyond that ledge? Absolutely nothing except about 1500 ft of free fall. Fortunately she was able, with her boyfriend's help, to scramble back up on the trail. Howard was only a couple of climbers away from the girl, so he had a pretty good view of what had happened.
I was very happy when my two climbers returned safely! Now all we had to do was hike down the same 2.5 miles. Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! It was starting to get rather warm and we were thankful we were headed down, rather than up.
I give Howard all the credit in the world for tackling that climb to Angel's Landing. The photo does not do justice to just how scary and difficult that climb was. I would like to attempt the false summit when I'm not sore from a marathon. I'm guessing the true summit at Angel's Landing would remain out of my reach. I also give my sister, Shelley, all the credit in the world. She does have a fear of heights, or at least a desire to have her feet firmly on the ground, and her balance is not great. She had to let go of fear and step into trust in order to make that climb.
As Sir Edmund Hillary said; "It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves". Howard and Shelley both accomplished exactly that.
After that we hiked several other routes - all of them spectacular in their beauty. On our very last hike of the day we had the pleasure of seeing a tarantula! Although, I am not fond of spiders, it surprisingly was not scary to see the tarantula outdoors. After all, it was in its natural environment, it seemed perfectly normal and rather unintimidating. Not that I would want to see one in our house!
We'd love to go back to Zion National Park. It was truly a beautiful place.
"The explorers of the past were great men and we should honour them. But let us not forget that their spirit lives on. It is still not hard to find a man who will adventure for the sake of a dream or one who will search, for the pleasure of searching, not for what he may find."
~Sir Edmund Hillary
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Boston.... One Thousand One, One Thousand Two.... No Boston
When I stepped outside of our condo in St. George on race morning, I was surprised to find it was sprinkling. I quickly ran back inside to grab my Boston marathon hat. Once at the marathon finish area, all of the runners boarded buses for the trek 26.2 miles up the canyon. The rain began to fall harder and the wind picked up. The temperature also dropped from the warm 72 degrees in St. George to probably 20 (or more) degrees cooler at the start area. Since there was no shelter from the rain, most of us tried to stay warm and dry using whatever we could (a mylar blanket from a previous marathon for me).
Once the race began, we had to reluctantly toss aside throw-away layers, garbage bags and mylar blankets in order to run. By mile 2 I told myself this would most likely not be a day for a Boston Marathon qualifying time. Even though I let go of my firm grip/attachment exactly what my race would look like, I did not let go of my pace. I decided to just run what I could run.
I was running with the 4:15 pace group. Our pace group leader said that we would be running fairly even splits except at the "big hill" called Veyo hill at Mile 7. We would be slowing down on the 4 mile section from mile 7-11. I pulled ahead of the pace group around Mile 5. I was running well within myself, and thought this would provide a nice cushion on the hills if I needed it.
I was surprised to see how big "the hill" was when I first saw what was in front of me. We don't have hills like that in Illinois. I was surprised when I arrived at Mile 11 without the 4:15 pace group catching up to me. Apparently I am a better hill runner than I thought. My five weeks of hill training paid off. This gave me time for a much needed porta-potty stop. When I stepped out of the porta-potty, being tempted to stay in the warmth it provided, I saw the 4:15 pace group which had just passed by while I was inside.
I was greeted at Mile 16 by my own cheering section consisting of my husband, Howard and my sister, Shelley, both nicely outfitted in rain ponchos. I pulled over alongside of them and told them I was doing ok, but freezing. Once I continued running they agreed that I looked so cold, they doubted I would be able to get my goal time.
I was truly suffering from the cold, the rain and the constant headwind on this point-to-point course. I stopped twice at a Bengay/massage station between Mile 13 and Mile 22. My leg muscles were so cold, I knew I had to find some way to stay warm. Even though this cost me a couple of minutes, I knew without doing something I would only slow down.
By Mile 22 I was surprised to look at my watch, do some quick math calculations and realize I could still get the Boston Marathon qualifying time. I was going to have to hustle to do it and the next four miles were really going to hurt. I put my head down, ran hard down the remaining downhills and went for it.
As I came into the finish line area, I heard Howard and Shelley cheering for me. I only gave them a quick glance and a "I think I made it" as I ran for the finish. I stopped my watch. It showed 4:15:58 - one second within the qualifying time I needed (you have the extra 59 seconds, so unless it ticked over to 4:16, I got the time).
Shelley and Howard actually didn't think I did have the time because of already seeing the 4:15 pace leader come in. However, they didn't know exactly when I crossed the start line or how much he came in under 4:15 (4:14:30). We had to wait until we could verify my finish time online much later that evening.
My time? 4:15:57! Two seconds to spare. Boston here I come!
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