With all due respect to Oprah: My favorite things, part 1.

Just in time for the holidays, I thought I would share my thoughts on a couple of new products that have come my way over the last week. For those of you who are "Lost" fans, I'll talk about the Lost Encyclopedia in this entry. For those of you who are past, present, or aspiring followers of Weight Watchers, I'll talk about their new program in a forthcoming entry (probably today or tomorrow). Then, I'm sure I'll think of other things to review over the coming weeks until the big day. Sadly, I do not have the resources of Ms. Winfrey, so I can not finish with spectacular giveaways. Sorry!

So, on to The Lost Encyclopedia: I came across this over the weekend at a B&N, though its actually been out since October. Its an officially sanctioned companion, authored by people who were highly involved in writing the show. In the foreward, the producers explain it as "the iceberg," ie: all of the information that existed under the visible "tip of the iceberg," which was the actual show. At first glance, it looked awesome, and I was tempted to impulse-buy it. I'm glad that I didn't, because the cover price is $45 and it isn't worth that. Amazon has it for only $26, so I added it to one of my Christmas gift orders and it came yesterday.

If you are a serious "Lost" fan, there are some good reasons to buy this book. It is filled with fun photos and quotes, which will make it a good coffee table book for nerds (like me), and it does contain and compile some information that is hard to find elsewhere. For example, there are detailed drawings of the hatches, close-ups of things like Daniel Faraday's diary and the blast-door map from the Swan station, a copy of the DHARMA/Others truce, and a two-page spread showing all of the images from the "Room 23" brainwashing film. It also fills in some (very minor) gaps in some stories. For example, it gives the reasons why Libby was in the mental institution and why Charles Widmore was banished from the Others.

That being said, there are at least two major problems with this book. First and foremost, the editing is extremely sloppy. There are typos everywhere, as well as inconsistencies and mistakes in alphabetization. The content is poorly organized, seems randomly chosen in places, and is definitely not comprehensive with regard to the major characters and locations. It is nothing like the website "Lostpedia," which exhaustively catalogs every fact and relationship from the show. Most of the customers who have reviewed the book on Amazon have commented on the shoddy editing, and many have speculated that a second edition might come out in the future. I certainly hope that happens. If I were the show's producers, I would not want this poorly-edited version to be my definitive final statement.

For me, the other major problem is with the content of the book, paticularly those bits of information that were not on the show. There simply is not enough new information, and what is there is not very satisfying. I did not go into this book expecting big answers to the many unsolved mysteries of the show, as the producers have always said that they intended many things to remain mysterious (they reiterate this in the foreward). Still, I thought I might get some of the facts and backstory that got edited out of the finished episodes. For example, the name of the Man in Black, which got edited out of the final episode, and which Kristen from E!Online revealed to be Samuel. I imagine that the producers must have tons of little tidbits like this, which have little bearing on the overall meaning of the show, but would be immensely satisfying to fans.

When the book does address unanswered questions (example: "Why can Miles and Hurley communicate with the dead?"), the answers are generally non-answers ("They were born with these gifts and don't know why"). At least 50% of the time, the answer is just "fate." So, for example, Desmond was born with an unexplained resistance to electromagnetism and it was fate that he would meet Penny and wind up on the island, where his gift was so important. Another popular answer is "unknown." For example, it is unknown how the woman who raised Jacob and the Man in Black came to the island, and it is unknown what happened to the DeGroots after they founded the DHARMA Initiative. In several of these cases, I think the "unknown" stretches plausibilty: did the writers really have no answer in mind for these questions?    

On the whole, the book just feels sloppy and thrown-together. It makes me totally understand why JK Rowling things it might take her 10 years to sort through all of her backstory and "cutting room" material in order to produce a satisfactory Harry Potter encyclopedia. I wish that the "Lost" team had spent more time producing something worthy of their fan base. Still, if you're a serious "Lost" fan, you'll probably want this book. Just don't spend $45 for it. Better yet, throw it on your holiday list and get somebody else to buy it for you!

Ring the Bell!: The 2010 MCRR Turkey Burnoff

Ring the bell- its time for round two! Yesterday, for the first time, I ran a race for the second time. Follow that? I ran the Montgomery County Road Runners' Turkey Burnoff race last year, and yesterday I ran it again. Returning to this race marked two anniversaries of sorts: the anniversary of the first time I ran 5 miles and the anniversary of when I evolved from a totally half-assed runner to a more focused and serious runner.

Last year's Turkey Burnoff was one of the best days of my life. Not only had I never run 5 miles before that day, I had never even finished a 5K (3.1 miles) without walking. When I arrived at that race, I had no idea whether or not I could run the whole thing. I remember suffering through the first 3 miles, and then reaching a point where I knew I had run further than ever before. That realization pushed me to the 4-mile marker, where I decided that I had come way too far to give up. The last mile was brutal, particularly since more than half of it was up a steep hill, but I was determined. When I crossed the finish line in under an hour, I was absolutely elated. I called friends (who were probably still asleep) and left jubilant messages. Then, I took myself out for a big lunch and did some early Christmas shopping at Ikea, where I was still grinning from ear to ear as I stood in line for the requisite 45 minutes. People must have thought I was crazy.

Given that great experience, I was really looking forward to running the race again this year. I even planned to up the ante- the Turkey Burnoff has both 5 and 10 miles options and I decided to go for the latter. I had visions of running along through the beautiful scenery, wiping tears from my eyes as I reflected on how far I had come in just one year.

That's not exactly what happened.

Upon arrival at this year's race, I noticed a few changes from last year. First, the port-a-johns had been moved away from the registration/finish area and into the grassy field where we parked (this will be important later). Second, the start line/turnaround spot had also been moved from the registration area to a spot a little way away, up a small hill. Finally, the registration procedure had changed. Last year, runners specified at registration whether they planned to run 5 miles or 10 miles. This year, they did away with that step. The 10-mile race is just a two-loop version of the 5-mile race, so we would each decide at the turnaround whether to run across the 5-mile finish line or head out for the second loop. In a way, this final change was good for me. Having had trouble with my knees in last week's 10K, I liked knowing that I could stop at 5 miles if that issue flared up again. On the other hand, I knew that, even if my knees were fine, I would have to face the huge temptation of crossing the finish line after 5 miles.

What had not changed from last year was the small parking lot. I heeded MCRR's dire warnings and arrived a good hour early in order to secure a parking spot. It was freezing, so after I registered, I (along with most of the other runners) retreated to my car to stay warm. While there, I finished my morning coffee and drank a cup or two of water. Not wanting this to haunt me during the race, I made two trips to the port-a-johns, including one only minutes before the start. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough.

The race started at 10am. By 10:10, I already felt the need to go to the bathroom again. The race is through a state park, where there are bathrooms at least every half-mile. Unfortunately, none of them were open. When we reached the first one, I jogged halfway up the hill leading to it when another runner met me coming back down and just said "locked." This procedure repeated itself at least 3 more times over the first 5 miles. As we approached the bathrooms, I would look up hopefully, only to see another runner pulling on the door and finding it locked. When there wasn't anyone there, I would run up myself and find that I had wasted a trip. I lost a good 3-5 minutes this way.

When we hit the 4-mile mark, I assessed my options. My knees were hurting a bit, and I had realized that the only bathrooms were the port-a-johns, which would be a decent distance from the course at the turnaround point. I could just end my race at 5 miles, hit the bathrooms, and grab some lunch. Or, I could take the Advil I had in my pocket, suck up the lost time hitting the port-a-johns, and head out on the second loop. Immediately, this turned into one of those moments where running is a metaphor for life. Would I give up, take the easy way out, or keep going? What would Bob and Jillian do? What would Dr. Murray do? The answer was obvious: I had to keep going. 

So, at five mile, I jealously watched most of the runners around me head for the finish line as I headed across the parking lot to the port-a-johns. As I mentioned earlier, the parking lot was in a field of thick grass, and I quickly realized that I could not safely run through it. So, I lost at least another 5 minutes walking there and back. When I finally got back to the turnaround spot, there was nobody there. Literally. Even the aid station was un-manned: the volunteers had just left cups of water sitting out. It was at this point that I realized that almost all of the middle and back-of-the-pack runners (like myself) were stopping at 5 miles. Apparently, the 10-miler was just for the elites (who were already finished) and a few crazy, slow souls like myself. It was going to be a lonely second loop.

For the next five miles, undistracted by the need to use the bathroom, I became acutely aware of just how hilly the course was. For some reason, I only remembered the big hill at the end of last year's race. I somehow forgot about the million or so small and medium-sized hills throughout the rest of the course. I will not forget them again! The second 5 miles were tough. Having lost so much time looking for bathrooms, I knew that I was going to post my worst 10-mile time to date, and being all alone on the course only reinforced the feeling that I was coming in last. Crossing this year's finish line (at 1:55) was more about relief than elation. It didn't help that the first thing I saw was volunteers packing up tables and handing bags of bagels to the handful of runners still hanging around. I was tempted to yell "Don't mind me. I'll just see myself out."

Still, despite a less-than stellar-performance, I'm happy that I pushed through, and even happier when I think about all of the progress I've made over the last year. See you next Thanksgiving, Turkey Burnoff!

A future champion!

Last Sunday, I went to my parents' house after my race and my youngest niece saw me, still wearing my number and stretching. She thought it was very funny. Today, at Thanksgiving, she looked at me and said "When I get big, I will race." I said "Like me?," and she replied "Yes, I will race with you." So, today, I am thankful for running buddies in the making!

Marathon photos, professional and amateur.

This week, I received two packages of photos from the marathon. The first was from my mom, who is terrified of computers and still uses disposable cameras (take that, environment!). The second was from MarathonFoto, one of the companies that takes professional photos at big races and then charges runners an arm and a leg for those photos. In both cases, I only have prints. Fortunately, I spend my entire work day sitting next to a flatbed scanner. So, here you go!

Val and I, somewhere between miles 10 and 12, I think.

I think this is somwhere around mile 17 or 18. I'm pretty sure
that the half-person on the right is my roommate, Steve.

I'm not sure where this is, but I know its close to the end
because I have switched from my own lemon-lime Gatorade
to the race-supplied fruit punch Powerade.

My mom took this at the finish line. I'm toward the back.

Here I come!

The official finish photo. Its not very good,
but the photo people only sell packs of 2 or 4 (not 3).

Back in the game: the 2010 Cold Turkey 10K

As previously reported, I had a mole removed from my shoulder a little over a week ago and the doctor instructed me to "take it easy for 6 weeks." I interpreted this as "take it easy until the stiches are out and then start pushing it." So, last week was my week of taking it easy, and I took to it a little too well. I was not supposed to lift weights or strain my shoulder in any way. Thus, Group Power and boot camp were both out. Another complication was the fact that I spent Monday afternoon- Wednesday morning on a business trip away from my usual gym. Within these restrictions, I still planned to go to a couple spin classes and use the treadmill at my hotel. I hoped to work out 4-5 times over the course of the week.

What did I actually achieve? One spin class. That's it. I am a creature of habit, and changes to my routine knock me out of whack really easily. When I couldn't do my usual classes, it became all too easy to just sleep in. On Friday, I got the stiches out and everything seemed to be healing fine. Yet, I still spent Friday evening and Saturday just lying around.

Sunday morning, I was registered for the Striders' annual "Cold Turkey" 10K. Given my lack of exercise last week, I was a little wary of this race. Fortunately, it went pretty well. I went into the race hoping to beat my 10K PR of 1:07. For the first 3 miles, I ran every mile faster than the one before. At the 3-mile mark, I was at 31 minutes and realized I had the potential to beat the previous record by several minutes.

Then, during the 4th mile, I started feeling the stiffness in my right knee that hit me during mile 13 of the marathon. This was a very unwelcome surprise, especially since I ran a 5-miler the week after the marathon and had no pain at all. By mid-way through mile 4, I was still keeping up a decent pace, but I was really struggling and worried that the knee would just give out. During mile 5, a first-time 10K runner from the Striders'  training class started chatting with me, which was a pleasant distraction and got me to the 6-mile mark. I had hoped to push it during that last mile, but wound up just focusing on maintaining my pace and finished at 1:04. 

So, all in all, I'm happy with the results of the race, but definitely concerned about the knee. It was a little stiff and sore for the rest of the day, but it feels fine now. The same thing happened after the marathon. I'm going to try running on it later this week and see what happens; I'll make a doctor's appointment if it flares up again. I have two more races left this year: MCRR's "Turkey Burnoff" this weekend and the Striders' Anniversary 15K on December 12th. I'm really looking forward to both of these races, especially the 15K, which will clinch my "Ironman" award for running all of the 2010 Striders' Champ Series races. I really hope the knee cooperates with my plans.

This morning, I intended to resume my usual 6am Group Power class. Then, I stayed out late last night seeing the new "Harry Potter" movie in IMAX and drinking specialty cocktails at the Visionary Arts Museum in Baltimore (fun!). Late night + cocktails= sleeping through the 5:30am alarm. I woke up at 7:30 and resolved that I had to go to the gym, lest I remain off-routine and sleep in for another week. So, I used some personal time to take the 8:30 GP class and go to work a couple hours late. Even at the later hour, it was a bit tough to drag myself back into the gym, but I was happy once I got there. It feels good to be back in the game!

Professional Pride.

Last weekend, my mom and I paid a visit to the cemetery where her parents are buried. On the way out, we spotted this tombstone. Get it? He was an undertaker! I'm all for professional pride, but I don't know if I would take it this far.

Of course, ever since I saw this, I've been making up tombstone/resumes for myself. My favorite is a picture of a couch with the words "Alicia is dead. How do you feel about that?"

Feel free to join this game in the comments!

Happy Friday!

Its been a very busy week. I spent Monday afternoon-Wednesday morning on a work trip to Philadelphia. It was a pretty good deal. In exchange for about 6 hours of work, I got the chance to take a friend to some terrific restaurants and visit one of my alma matters, Bryn Mawr College. Since I got back, I feel like I've been regrouping from an extended weekend. Other than the trip, there isn't much to report from this week, but a few things worth noting happened today:

This morning, I went back to the dermatologist to have the stiches taken out of my shoulder. I've had stiches removed twice before, both times from my eyelid, which was cut badly in a car accident. Having eyelid stiches removed is very painful and made me wary of having any other stiches removed. Fortunately, I learned today that having arm stiches removed does not hurt at all. Even better, my biopsy results came back a week early and I have no skin cancer at all, not even the benign kind. Whew!

Later in the day, I got inspired about Christmas gifts, so I used my lunch hour to do some shopping online. Somehow, between the online shopping and a little errand-run-with-detours that I made for the office, I covered nearly everyone on my list. It is November 19th and I am almost done Christmas shopping. For me, this is a Christmas miracle. I still have to face the "Christmas sweatshop" portion of the season, during which I make cookies and homemade gifts, but I vastly prefer that to the mall.

Finally, tonight is the premiere of the new Harry Potter movie! When Katie moved out, she left me a couple of free movie tickets she won playing bar trivia. I have been saving one for this very night.

Have a good weekend, everyone!

MacGyver does yoga.

I had a couple of adventures this weekend:

Friday evening, I was sitting at home lamenting the fact that I had no plans. I was veering into dangerous negative thought territory- "Why have I lost touch with so many friends?", "Why don't I do more dating?", etc.- when I paused my pity party to use the bathroom... and got trapped in there. As I tried to exit, I realized that my doorknob and door, both in advanced stages of disrepair, had finally given out. Several screws  and a metal plate had come off the knob and wedged themselves into the decaying wood of the doorframe, making the door impossible to open. My roommate was out and I had no idea when he would be back. Being someone who prides myself on not being surgically attached to my phone, I did not have my phone. One of my first thoughts was "I do not want to be in the next movie about someone sawing their own arm off." 

What to do? Tap into my inner MacGyver! I spent a few minutes trying to use brute force to get the door open, but that was only making the situation worse. Then, it occurred to me that removing the doorknob all the way might help. I got some manicure scissors out of the medicine cabinet and was able to use them as a makeshift screwdriver. Slowly, I unscrewed the doorknob and took half of it off the door. This gave me more access to the stuck plate and screws, and after a few more minutes, I was able to remove them and escape. The whole thing lasted about half an hour. Once I got out, I decided that my desire for Friday night excitement had been more than fulfilled and went to bed.

On Saturday, I decided to go to an Intro to Yoga class at my gym. In terms of fitness, my biggest weaknesses are coordination, balance, lower-body flexibility, and core strength. Yoga works on all of those, which is both why I should do it and why I avoid it like the plague. Having spent my whole life over-achieving, its hard for me to attempt something where I know there's no chance I will excel, like running. I'm getting past that, though. Its another thing entirely to attempt something where I know I will suck. For example, yoga.

I have enrolled in several yoga classes in my lifetime and dropped out of all of them after a few sessions because I was just too humiliated to continue. However, after spending a Friday night trapped in my bathroom, I knew that I had reached my humiliation rock-bottom for the weekend and things could only improve. Sure enough, the class went pretty well and I think I'll try another next week. I'm sure MacGyver would be proud.

Negotiations.

On Wednesday night, the Annapolis Striders hosted a party to celebrate everyone who completed a marathon (or longer) this year. It was a really nice event, but I haven't uploaded the photos yet, so here is another photo from the day of the marathon. This was taken in the parking lot of the New Carrollton Metro station. I returned there the next day to go to dinner with some DC friends and parked in almost the exact same spot. As soon as I did that, my whole body tensed up. It was a total fight-or-flight/PTSD reaction. I had to tell myself "Its okay; we're not doing that again today." By that point, some kind of endorphin-induced euphoria had made my brain forget the most difficult moments of the marathon, but my body definitely remembered!

Yesterday (Thursday), I went to the dermatologist to have a weird mole removed from my shoulder. The post-removal recovery instructions they gave me say that I should avoid "vigorous activity" for 6 weeks! Seriously? Its a mole! I had an organ removed and was back in the gym the next week!

There was a time in my life, not that long ago, when I would have responded to a prescription of taking it easy for 6 weeks with a simple "done." But things have changed. The words were barely out of my doctor's mouth when I began negotiating: "What do you mean by 'vigorous'?" "How much weight is too much to lift?" "The mole was on my shoulder, so I can still run, right?" And, of course, the most important question: "What is the worst that could happen if I push it?" 

Fortunately, my doctor is a runner and triathlete herself, so she understands. Very patiently, she told me that it is her ethical responsibility to tell me to take it easy for 6 weeks, but she also gave me a rough breakdown of the actual risks if I ignore her advice. In the beginning, they are pretty bad: popped stiches, infection, a re-opened wound. I don't want any of that. After awhile, though, the taking it easy just becomes a way to reduce scarring. At that point, in the words of my doctor, "its a matter of tradeoff." Personally, I couldn't care less about having a scar from a 6mm incision. The scar will almost certainly be more attractive than the ugly mole it will replace.

So, it sounds like I'm out of Group Power and boot camp for at least a week, until the stiches come out. After that, I probably need to drop back my weights for at least another week or two. This is inconvenient since this session of GP (which I love) is all about increased weight, but I'll survive. Also, I'm allowed to run, bike, and do lower-body stuff to my heart's content as long as I keep the incision site clean and dry. All in all, not terrible news.

Here's hoping that my next blog entry will not be titled "How I popped a stich and got chewed out by my dermatologist."

Where did you go to grad school?

This seems like an innocent enough question, but its one that makes me a little nervous when I first meet new people. Upon first meeting, I assume that most people think I'm fairly normal. Then they ask where I went to school, and things start out well. I say "Yale," and they think I'm smart. Then, I follow that with "Divinity School," and they often go a little wide-eyed. "Is that like seminary?" Yes it is. "To, like, be a minister?" Yes indeed.

At this point, things can go one of five ways:

1) The other person thinks this is great and immediately starts sharing their feelings about why gay people are going to Hell.

2) The other person thinks this is great, or at least interesting, and we proceed getting to know one another like normal humans.

3) The other person thinks this is horrible and immediately starts telling me that, if I just read The DaVinci Code, I would understand why I'm wasting my life. (True story!)

4) The other person immediately assumes I am judging them and starts explaining why they haven't gone to church in ages but intend to go back, and/or confessing to other "sins."

5) The other person just thinks I'm straight-up crazy.

I'm always hoping for outcome #2, but watching this video reminds me that those who think I'm crazy might be onto something.

Of course, sometimes the conversation goes far enough that I have to explain that I'm not a minister right now and I'm actually still in grad school studying pastoral counseling. YouTube doesn't have a video for that yet, but if they did it would go like this:

Person #1: So you want to study pastoral counseling?

Person #2: Yes.

Person #1: What is that exactly?

Person #2: (Blank stare.)

The end.

What does the appendix have against marathons?

This is a photo of Sarah and Ryan Shay, a pair of brother and sister runners whose stories I have followed in Runners World and various other running media for awhile now. In 2007, Ryan Shay (who was 28) dropped dead from heart failure during the Olympic marathon trials, held on the same course as the NYC marathon. In the years since her brother has died, Sarah Shay has gone through a divorce and been diagnosed with lupus.

Faced with all of this misfortune, what did Sarah Shay decide to do? Run a marathon for charity! As she shares in this article, she had a dream during one of her lowest periods in which her brother encouraged her through a difficult race. With her brother as her inspiration, she ran her first marathon in February and raised $13,000 for a charity that supports wounded veterans. The response to her efforts spurred her on enter the 2010 NYC marathon with the goal of raising $26,200. During that marathon, she would run past the exact spot where her brother died. Just as Katie and I set out to finish Dr. Murray's marathon, Sarah Shay wanted to finish her brother's. On November 4th, she told the New York Daily News: "I'll be excited and proud to run this marathon - one that (my brother) didn't get to finish... And in the end I will probably be bawling my eyes out."

Naturally, I can relate to this story and I have followed it with great interest. Unfortunately, I can now relate to it even more. As reported in this article, Sarah Shay started experiencing stomach pain on the morning before the marathon, and had to have an emergency appendectomy that night. She didn't get to run her race. When I read about this, my heart broke for her. I can recall perfectly the moment in late August when a doctor told me that my stomach pain was appendicitis and I thought I might not be able to run my race. I remember thinking about all of the people who were following my training and giving money to my cause, as well as all the hard work I had already put in, and I could not imagine not being able to run. I am so grateful that I was able to recover and get back in the game, and my heart goes out to Sarah Shay.

I hope that Sarah Shay will recover as quickly and fully as I did, and I really hope that she will be able to achieve her dream of finishing the NYC marathon in 2011. I put my name in the lottery for that race already, so if all the stars align, I might be there to cheer her on! I think a resounding chant of "Take that, appendix!" will be in order.

If you would like to donate to Sarah Shay's campaign, you can learn more about it at her website, http://www.runningforryan.com/.

Five: the gateway mile.

On Saturday, I ran the Down's Park 5-mile race, the second-to-last in the 2010 Striders' champ series. It was a great race through a beautiful park (see borrowed-from-internet photo above), and it reminded me of one of the ancillary benefits of marathon training: the marathon makes anything shorter than a marathon feel really easy!

Running this 5-miler through a park reminded me of my first 5-miler through a park, which took place just about one year ago. In my November 4th post, I mentioned that, as of a year ago, I had never run more than 3 miles. My good friend Corinne made a comment on how I wasn't even a runner year ago, which is both true and not true. I have been running for a long time, but that 5-mile race was probably the day I first felt like a "real runner." A brief history:

When I was in high school, I used to take long, solitary walks around my parents' neighborhood in order to get out of the house and clear my head. When I graduated from college in 2001 and moved back in with my parents, I resumed those walks and started mixing in a little running. Gradually, I started to do runs with a little walking, as opposed to walks with a little running. This pattern remained the same for a long time, though the setting varied depending on where I was living.

From 2004-2007, when I was at Yale, I started running on the elevated track in the amazing Yale gym. My fondness for that gym combined with the flexibility of being a graduate student meant that I started running a lot more. Then, I found myself a boyfriend who was a very accomplished runner, and he convinced me to enter my first races. In 2006 and 2007, I did my first two 5K's. I didn't manage to finish either of them without walking, but they got me over my fear of races.

Then came the dark period. Winter of '07-summer of '09 was a pretty rocky time in my life. A series of events, including the break-up with aforementioned boyfriend, left me unmotivated to do much of anything beyond work and school. I totally fell off the wagon with all exercise, including running. In July of '09, my rebound relationship from the runner ended rather abrubtly and I decided I needed to focus on myself for awhile. Among other things, that meant getting back in decent physical shape.

In August '09, I joined my neighborhood gym, the terrific Annapolis Athletic Club. As I have written previously, I took to exercise this time in a way I never had before. I was much more focused, committed and disciplined. I started out with weight training and running on a treadmill. In October '09, I entered my third 5K. My performance in that race was dissapointing, so I started working harder on the treadmill. By mid-November, I could run for 45 minutes to an hour without stopping and I decided to look for a longer race.

I was aware of the Annapolis Striders running group through some runner friends, and I knew that they have a race every year called the "Cold Turkey 10K." Given the name- cold turkey-I assumed that this race happened after Thanksgiving. So, at the start of my Thanksgiving break, I looked up the race info and learned that it actually happens the week before Thanksgiving. (I guess the turkey is cold because its still frozen!) I had already missed it. Fortunately, Thanksgiving week is a very popular time for races. I did a Google search and found a 5-miler happening the Saturday after Thanksgiving: the "Turkey Burnoff," hosted by Montgomery Country Road Runners. I decided to give it a shot.

I'll save the full story of that race for later this month, when I plan to run it for the second time. For now, I'll just say that I was incredibly nervous before that race and had no idea if I would even be able to finish. When I did manage to finish- without walking at all- it was one of the happiest moments of my life. I literally could not stop smiling for days. Five miles felt like some kind of dividing line which seperated the casual "run a little, walk a little" types from the "real runners," and I had crossed over. As soon as I crossed that barrier, I wanted to see how much further I could go. That race set me on the path that led, in only 11 months, to finishing a marathon.   

MCRR's Turkey Burnoff 2011 is happening this year on Saturday, 11/27, and I am already looking forward to my triumphant return. Its a really fun race, with 5 and 10-mile options through a beautiful park, so let me know if you want to come along! The Cold Turkey 10K is a great race too (I hear)- just remember that it happens on November 21, the Sunday before Thanksgiving!

NYC heroes.

Have you heard about this guy? This is Edison Pena, one of the formerly-trapped Chilean miners who finished the NYC marathon yesterday. You can read all about it here. People gave me a lot of credit for running a 6:10 marathon a couple months after an appendectomy, but that's not much compared to running a 5:40 marathon after being trapped in a mine for 69 days. Amazing! Apparently, he ran up to 6 miles a day by going back and forth inside the mine. I totally understand running as stress relief (that's a big reason I do it), but that is pretty extreme.

I'm also impressed with Meredith Viera and Al Roker from the Today Show, who both ran yesterday and then turned up for work at the crack of dawn this morning. She was even wearing heels! It has to be hard to find motivation to run every day when you get up at 3 or 4am to tape a morning show 6 times a week.

Further Kudos to Jared the Subway guy, Ryan from The Bachelorette, Bobby Flay, and the numerous other celebrities who ran that race. At many points during my race, I was pretty happy that nobody I know could see me. I would not have enjoyed having cameras and fans following me! I prefer to suffer semi-privately.

They aren't celebrities, but I also have to mention my co-worker Monica's family. Her mother, brother, sister, and future brother-in-law all ran, which would be impressive even if said sister and future brother-in-law were not getting married next weekend! The walk to the aisle should feel pretty short now!

For all 2011 NYC marathon hopefuls, the lottery for next year's race opened today. You can apply here. If you get turned down three years in a row, you are guaranteed entry in your fourth year. So, if you think you might want to do it anytime in the next few years, you might as well put your name in!

Step one: gather your materials.

Two of my favorite hobbies are cooking and sewing. In both of those activities, you start by gathering your materials. That's where I am in terms of training for my triathlon. The race is not until August, so I have a ton of time, but I also have a ton of materials to gather and not a ton of money to work with. I hope that I will be able to buy a decent bike at some point during my training, but that is not an option at the moment. So, today I ventured into the back of my shed to rescue the barely-used Huffy that my parents bought me at Kmart for my high school graduation in 1997.

Pictured above is my exact bicycle, nicely cleaned and polished by somebody trying to sell it on Craigslist. Mine does not look like this. I put it in my shed when I bought my house in 2003 and never touched it again until today. Just getting it out of the shed was a challenge because it was wedged into the dirt floor. When I got it out into the daylight, I was concerned that it might not be usuable, as it was caked with dirt and more than a little rust. I don't have a hose nor any suitable cleaning products, so I wound up working on it with some Fantastik and a couple of dish rags. Shockingly, it worked! After about a half-hour of scrubbing, the original green color was actually gleaming through and I could see that the rust was not nearly as bad as I had thought. Both tires are flat, so I didn't get a chance to test it out, but I know plenty of people with air pumps, so I should be in business soon.

If I wind up having to ride this thing in the actual race, I think I'm going to play up the juvenile theme by attaching a basket, a horn, and some streamers. If you have a dog, walk it proudly!

FAQ's

Hello again! Things are slowly returning to semi-normal, so I have a few minutes to share some further thoughts on my marathon experience. Here are the questions I have heard most frequently over the past few days:

1. How are you feeling?

Good! Physically, I was super-sore and tired the afternoon/evening of the marathon. I went to bed around 7:30pm, which took care of the tiredness, but not the soreness. Monday morning, I got up with my usual 5:30am alarm to go to Group Power (my weightlifting class), but quickly realized there was no way I could do squats or lunges and went back to bed. When I got up again (which took a good 10 minutes), I took some Advil and went for a sports massage. That helped immensely. Tuesday morning, I woke up feeling much better and went to Group Power, where I had some kind of adrenaline surge and actually added weight. That class seemed to work the rest of the stiffness out. I did GP again Wednesday along with a 1-mile walk, and I went to my boot camp class this morning. So, all in all, my physical recovery has been quite easy. 

Mentally, I'll admit that I had mixed feelings the day of the marathon. When I started training, I had really hoped to run the whole thing. I think I was on track to do that before I got appendicitis and went back to school. The appendicitis knocked me out for two really important long run weeks, and returning to school cut my weekday training time in half. Even with those setbacks, I had hoped to walk less than I did. So, on the day of the race, I was a little dissapointed, as I always am when I have to walk in a race. By the next morning, though, I was pretty much over it. Even with all of the training, there was really no way I could have known what a marathon would be like until I did one. Now that I have, I have a much better idea of what I'll need to do to prepare for the next one. Which brings us to the next question...

2. Will you run another marathon?

Yes, I think I will. I would like to actually run one start to finish, and there are a couple "destination" races I would love to do when I no longer have a full-time job and a full-time course schedule. No concrete plans yet, though, which brings us to...

3. What are you going to do now? 

A few things. I have 3 or 4 shorter races left in 2010 (including one this coming Saturday). In 2011, I'll probably run many of the same races I did in 2010. These include the Striders' Champ Series. I'll also be joining the Striders' half-marathon training group in January for my second year. I do not know whether I will do a second year with the marathon training group; that all depends on what my work situation is next summer.   

The really exciting news is that I am doing at least two triathlons in the coming year! The first will be a run-bike-canoe triathlon that my crazy ultra-running friends have incorporated into their wedding in April. Seriously. My friend Pat and I will be doing this as a 2-person team with me on the run, him on the bike, and both of us in the canoe. We will be joined by other wedding teams, including the bride with the groom and the bride's father with the minister. I am also DJ'ing the wedding, which means that I have to finish this race at all costs! 

The second triathlon will be the Columbia IronGirl event in  August. This is a regular swim-bike-run sprint distance event. Should be an adventure. As a kid, I was a really strong swimmer and good on a bike, but I haven't done either (aside from spin class) in years. At this point, I don't even own most of the equipment I need, so I'm slowly buying one thing at a time. Right now, I have a swimsuit, goggles, and a helmet. There is a lot left to obtain- most importantly, a decent bike.

4. What did you learn from this?

So many things, but there are two big ones: 

First, that I have amazing people in my life. Throughout this whole process, I have been amazed and overwhelmed at how many people have taken an interest in my training, fundraising, and race. For the last 6 months, it has felt like everyone in every little corner of my life has known and cared about this. I truly did not expect that, and I will never forget it.  

Second, that I have more courage and more determination than I realized. Throughout my life, I have always been a bit of a risk-taker and I have always been pretty dogged in pursuing the things I decide to do. At the same time, I tend to play to my strengths. For example, it was a risk applying to Yale. Still, academics is where I excel, so I knew I had a decent chance of success.

For me, deciding to run a marathon was a much bigger risk than applying to Yale. Athletics is not my area of strength. As a kid, I consistently missed straight A's because I got B's in gym. A year ago, I had never run more than 3 miles and I had only done that a few times. Every step in the build-up to this race- joining the gym, joining the Striders, signing up for progressively longer races- was a leap of faith. I honestly did not know if I would be able to do this, and failure terrifies me (I'm an overachiever to the core). So, I'm proud of myself for even giving this a shot, and I think this is going to help me be even more courageous in other areas of my life.

As far as determination goes, I think everyone has seen some of that. Obviously, I had some major setbacks in the process of training for this race (hello, appendix!). I am proud of myself for pushing through those, but I'm more proud about the smaller acts of focus and discipline I had to do on a daily basis. I have a very, very busy life and I have often used that as an excuse to neglect my physical health. A little over a year ago, I finally let that excuse go, and started doing what I needed to do to be healthy. If you had told me 18 months ago that I would be working out at 6am 4-5 times a week, and that I would often put in another hour in the evenings, I would have laughed in your face. But that's what I've done, and the payoffs have been unbelievable. This training has definitely reminded me that nothing is impossible if you just put your mind to it and do the work.

All in all, this has been an unforgettable experience and I know that its just the beginning of more amazing things to come!

Returning to the scene of the crime.

I saw this video posted on my friend's Facebook page a few days ago, but I didn't watch it until just now. I'm very grateful that my co-workers are at lunch because, even with my loathing for cheesy inspirational music, it totally made me cry. It was like re-living the whole experience, with three notable exceptions:

-The opening festivities. I neither heard nor saw any of that. Keep in mind that this video shows maybe the front third of 30,000+ runners. I was in the back third. I heard nothing but the starting gun and I didn't even see the start line until 30 minutes after the gun fired.

-The monuments. As I watch the beginning and end of this video (ie: the parts when I was doing well), I can remember every little detail of the scenery. In the middle, which happens to be both the most scenic part and the part where I was struggling, I don't remember a thing. I was so completely focused on just putting one foot in front of the other that I totally missed all of the sights. Unfortunately, I didn't recover enough to tune back into my surroundings until we hit the overpass over 395.

-The lines of Marines. These didn't make it into the video, but there were long lines of cheering Marines at both the start and finish lines. Its too bad you don't see it here, because it was a nice way to bookend the race.

Enjoy!

The race is over...

...but the Kelly Murray Scholarship Fund is still accepting donations!

Greetings from recovery. Physically, I am feeling fine- a bit sore Monday, but I was back to the gym yesterday and this morning. Emotionally, I am a little overwhlemed trying to catch up on everything that got pushed aside in the run-up to the big day. I have lots more to write about the marathon, but I need to take care of a few things (like laundry and the job I actually get paid for) before I do that.

I do want to take a moment, though, to announce the final fundraising total: $3376! Hooray! Honestly, its more than I had hoped for and it will make such a difference in the lives of the students who are given the Kelly Murray scholarships. I can not say thank you enough to everyone who donated!

If you would still like to make a donation, it is never too late! The online fundraising pages are coming down, but you can always write a check to "Loyola University" and send it to:

Annual Giving
Loyola University Maryland
4501 N. Charles St.
Baltimore, MD 21210

Be sure to write "Kelly Murray Scholarship Fund" on the memo line of your check!

Also, if you have been inspired to do some fundraising of your own- in honor of Dr. Murray or for another cause- here is how Katie and I did it:

-We created accounts on Active.com (http://www.active.com/). Once we had accounts, we used the fundraising tabs in the "My Active" menu to set up our campaigns. We gave Active the contact info of our charity, they verified that it is legit, and we were good to go! Active processed all of the credit card donations, deducted a service charge, and mailed monthly checks to Loyola. For a small charity, it was a great system.

-We created our blogs on http://www.blogger.com/.

-We set up training logs on Daily Mile (http://www.dailymile.com/). With Daily Mile, we logged our miles (Katie entered hers manually; I synced my Nike+), and then used a widget from the site to send the running total to our blogs.

-We used the "share" functions on Active and Blogger to post our campaign updates and blog posts to Facebook. This was probably the most effective tool for getting the word out. We also did more traditional fundraising: emailing friends and family, putting up flyers at Loyola, speaking to our classes and churches, etc.

That's it! I won't say that it was easy, but it was manageable and totally worth it (much like running a marathon!). So don't be afraid potential marathoners and fundraisers. If we can do it, you can too!