Sunday, July 24, 2011

Remember me?


I'm the one who used to post funny things about running. Sometimes not "funny ha-ha" but "funny sad and pathetic poor girl who thinks she's actually a runner."

In any event, I haven't felt too funny as of late, which is why you haven't heard from me. Before you all worry (hi, Tina!), I'm healthy, Mike's healthy, we're still married and both gainfully employed.

More importantly, I'm still running.

To bring you up to date, in the past nine months that I've neglected you, dear readers, I've run three half-marathons:


1) New Orleans with Babs and Caitlin. Caitlin's 2nd half ever and she killed it.


Obvi, since it was New Orleans, we were running simply to get to the end to get to Pat O'Brien's for hurricanes. It also happened to be Cait's birthday, which explains the feather boa. Actually, I've seen her wearing it around town, so maybe not.


I was not the only person drinking this hurricane. There were two of us.

2) Brooklyn - and oh-em-gee did Babs and I kill-slash-hate this race. You're supposed to be stoked when you PR:



But this race blew. As in the last 6 miles were totally flat, in the beating sun and with not.one.turn. Regardless, I posted my best half time ever, as did Babs. And we got to celebrate the finish at Coney Island with the one and only Javi!


And 3) ... oh yes, there will be wine.


Remember my wine country half last summer with Kerry and the girls? One of my most favorite weekends ever. So I ran another race by the same company, only this one was in Northern Virginia. Who knew about the wineries? I was always there for the in-laws and close proximity to Our Nation's Capital. Score! Now there's a bonus!

Great hilly race with a super cool bottle stopper medal:


In other news, I also turned 40.


Yep, my super-sadistic mother brought my mail to my Vegas celebration, which included an application from AARP. I'm also fairly certain I was older than the Elvis who showed up:


And you tell me if you think any of these gals look a day over 28. My BFF's keep well. And we had a tremendously fun celebration in Sin City:


Another thing I did? Drag a couple of friends into the running fold. Because, really, this is a cult and I am constantly trying to recruit. Hide your wives, hide your kids. Cindy's coming.


Claudie and I ran a 5K in Baltimore - her first race ever. She had been hearing me talking for so long about running that she finally wanted to see what all the fuss was about. How'd she do?


Liked it enough to then join Jenna a few weeks later at her first race ever.

Here's a good place for an observation: I get a lot of satisfaction from seeing happy faces over the finish line. I also like to think that I'm a decent coach (one of the many benefits of being a control freak) and have a lot of knowledge to pass along.

But at the risk of sounding self-centered (Hello? Is this a blog? About me? Named after me?), it was tough to not run at race pace. Don't get me wrong - I enjoyed telling the girls how to best tackle a hill or sprint to the finish. And I loved crossing Claudie's first finish line, hand in hand with her. But at some point, I may or may not have wanted to ditch them and see if I could still make a PR.

Whatever. Don't judge me.

=================

All in all, a great 2011 so far. But I'd like to think the best is yet to come. As in November 6th. The New York Marathon.

Oh yes, that one.

You all remember how training for Chicago totally kicked my ass last summer. The summer before that? My first marathon, which meant those double-digit runs that I had never done before rendered me useless for the remainder of the weekend.

I'd like to think I'm a smarter runner now. So I did what every smart runner does.

I got Ramon.


Babs and I have teamed up with American Cancer Society's DetermiNation team, coached by that crazy Spaniard whose sentences I can only decipher about 23% of the time. Not only am I running with my best gal at my side, but we're raising money for cancer research. As you remember, our first marathon with Ramon was also with Team In Training. Hell, if you're going to run 26.2 miles, you may as well stand for something while you're doing it. I have the most inspirational coach out there. I just wish I could understand what he says.

In any event, please check back as I move through my summer training with ACS. And if you feel so inclined, visit my fundraising page and donate. Or visit my fundraising page and say something catty about what I'm wearing in my latest race picture. I enjoy that, too.

Nice to see you again.