The first is the whole notion of not being a real runner? What makes a person a real runner? A real runner runs. They run a few days a week or more. It’s important to them. They miss it when they don’t. They run even if the weather is not perfect (sometimes). They buy running shoes and technical fabrics. They are out there … running. Doesn’t have to be fast. Doesn’t have to be steady … you can still be a runner and take walk breaks. You are also a real runner even if you don’t participate in races. REAL RUNNERS RUN. That is it. Simple and truthful. Don’t confuse yourself with an elite.  An elite runner is a professional, and most people cannot attain the crazy level of training (and low body fat) that they have.

Another refrain us runners say a lot is “I’m just doing the half”.  WTF?  What do you mean JUST??? That is 13.1 freaking miles my friend!  That is NOT a small accomplishment.  How many people can do that?  How many people even try?

Sure, I understand how it feels.  You have a few half-marathons under your belt and you think you can do more.  So you train hard and complete a 30K or a marathon (42K).    And it was awesome, it was fun and it was also torture.  You get addicted and want to do more.

But then you don’t feel up to the full distance and so you decide to run halfs for a while.  So you feel like a failure.  Trust me, I know.  But I can also tell you that the many times I have finished a half marathon, while my husband finishes his full, that I am so happy that I “just did the half”.  I have my medal, my water, my post run fuel, my flip-flops and I am done running. I am always so happy that I don’t have double the distance to do.

Half-marathon distance is a perfect distance in my opinion.  But I think the word “half” is what is tripping us up and making us all not feel good enough when we complete one.  Making us explain that we “can” do a full.  So I propose changing the name.  And mini-marathon is even worse, more “degrading” that half.  I propose we call them 21Ks.  Now doesn’t that sound nice.

As humans, and especially as runners, we all tend to be hard on ourselves.  There is no need for such foolishness.  I would even bet that the majority of runners are driven in their personal lives as well.  No need.  There is more to life than being our own harsh critic.

So just go out there and run your 1 mile or your 20 miles.  Run it fast or slow.  Include walking intervals or not.  You ARE a runner, and you are damn good at it and should be PROUD.

Yesterday, I had my last physical therapy session and a check-up with my orthopedist. Neither feel more PT is necessary, as long as I continue to weight train on my own. Which I can certainly do. They both did some strength tests with me, where they pressed on my leg and told me to push against them and not let them push me. When I first started all of this, I couldn’t resist them at all on my right and now I can. I still need to do lifestyle changes, such as cross training, resting when necessary, losing weight, going to yoga. All of those things I can do.

I have to admit, I haven’t exactly missed running. It’s been a cold difficult winter. I am relieved to have not had the burden to feel like I had to train. And now that Matt is up to his 3+ hour long runs, even though the weather has been lovely for the most part, I am relieved that its not me!

Kitty health around here is stable. Indy is still on medication to bring his liver values down. I didn’t expect this treatment to go on so long, but his last result was still 130, and we need to get him under 100. Joey was not pleased with the treatment he got for his mouth … liquid antibiotics, but it did get him to eat and the mass has massively shrunk. Yay. He will be on/off antibiotics in two week cycles for a long time. He is not happy about it, but I can live with the treatment.

So my husband and I have bought a new house and have slated 5/7 for the move-in date. To prepare for this, we have been doing some massive amounts of decluttering. It is amazing to me how much stuff can accumulate in seven years. One weekend, we started working on the basement. I had actually started that project myself a few times and had a big pile of stuff for the thrift store, which we still need to bag up and get out of here. We spent 108 minutes that weekend mostly breaking down boxes and cardboard. The municipality we live in does not recycle cardboard and I never actually set up a system for dealing with cardboard. I do have a need to keep some boxes that are in good shape, as I have seven nieces and nephews that live in other cities, so I do ship things to them. But I certainly didn’t need to save all of these.

Fortunately, the new township we are moving to recycles cardboard. That makes me very happy. I am a recycler! I just hate having things go to waste. I like to find some use for things, if I don’t want them. Maybe that is the reason behind my packrat tendencies. Some of it is laziness. As in the case of the big pile of shredding … we never shredded this stuff … who wants to mess with that.

This is just a small sample of the shredding we accumulated from various parts of the office, mostly our lovely filing system:

Fortunately, there are companies that will shred for us!

Magazines? I’m addicted. Glossy paper, matte paper … doesn’t matter as long as its paper and pretty. Here were what I considered the “extraneous” magazines in my craft room.

A post on freecycle and they were gone in a few days!

Whoo.

And cooking? Have I been cooking? Well, not too much. Sorting and reorganizing has been taking center stage. Although a few weeks ago, I made the following Sweet Potato Stew from Joel Fuhrman’s book, Eat for Health. This recipe is from the phase one section.

It was yummy. You can make the veggies smaller if you wish and have it more soupy, but I liked it just the way it was.

Recommended side dishes were brown rice (that I didn’t cook enough) and braised bok choy. I had no idea if I would like the latter item. It was okay. I had never braised before, and honestly, I can’t remember how to do it. Here is what it looked like:

This weekend, we will be working on that basement some more. Surely that is the hardest thing to do before we move … besides actually moving. Oh, and making phone calls. I hate making phone calls. There are a lot of phone calls to make in order to move. Does anyone want a job making my calls for me?

But I got up anyway, and prepared for the race.  We were not supplied with timing chip tags, so I had to figure out how to put my chip on my shoe via the laces and this was not the kind of thing I can figure out easily at 5:30 in the morning.

We left later than we wanted to, of course, but were early and beat the road closings.  We had the good fortune of the starting line being near Matt’s office, so we used that parking lot and stayed in the car where it was warm.  And I had access to indoor plumbing … no outhouses for me.

When it was time, we made our way over to the start line, and Matt found the 2:00 pace team and I went to the back.  The slowest pace team was 2:30, despite the fact that we had 3:15 to finish.

There were supposedly 4,500 signed up for this race.  That is a small race to begin with, and looking around, there was nowhere near that.  Oh no.  I hate these small races, I feel so slow!

The race began through the South Side of Pittsburgh and as we begin, 80% of the people participating break away.  I start to have a meltdown and must have given off some meltdown vibes, cause there are others around who start to talk to me and I express my sincere fear that I will not finish in time.  An older woman says that I will and she will finish too, even on the sidewalk.  The younger woman, whose name was also Jennifer was super supportive and we ran together all the way through South Side to the West End Bridge.  I had to stop to tie my shoe (of course) and she said that she was going to keep moving and I told her that I would catch up.  I never did.  I did see her a few times looking back for me, but I had lost too much ground, between tying the shoe and then having to go UPHILL to get onto the bridge.

Around the corner from the bridge, mile 4, my leg started to twinge.  For a moment, I panicked and thought that at least the relay station was only 2.5 miles ahead and if I had to stop that was a good place to do so.  But then I said “My leg doesn’t hurt, there is nothing wrong with it” and it was indeed fine after that.  I must have just stepped funny.

I ran/walked, ran/walked, all through the North Side.  There were few people behind me.  It was very surreal, I was practically alone, feeling like I was merely trudging along on a practice run, except that the streets of Pittsburgh were open just for me.

The prettiest part of the trip was a part of Northside that I had only seen once, at night, during a Halloween 5K.  There is a park somewhere nearby and a walking trail to the right.  But we were on the road, of course, and the trees were still holding on to their leaves.  This was essentially the “turnaround”.  One more uphill ramp, to the 31st street bridge, and down into town and back to Southside and we are done.

Along the way, two girls taking a walk break said that they were surprised that the race was so competitive.  They didn’t think running was so big in Pittsburgh and didn’t think they would be all the way in the back all alone.  They were there for fun, not for speed.  At this point we were all averaging somewhere around a 12:00 mile, so we weren’t exactly going slow.  But we felt like it, as it was so isolated back there.

Around mile 7.5, 8, somewhere in there, I knew I was probably done running, or at least trying to run for any length of time, and I was also nauseated.  At this point, I looked over and saw someone who looked like she was struggling too.   She was also not feeling well, so we helped each other by walking together.  She was walking faster than me, so I had to keep up.  Then she slowed down, and I sped up so she had to keep up with me.  Mile 10 went really fast, but the rest of them seemed to go on forever.

Eventually, my nausea did pass, so I was happy about that and Rachel and I did get to the finish, and I did run across the finish line.   In pretty much 3:00.  That is my third slowest half marathon time.

I would not have done nearly as well had it not been for the kindness of strangers and the support of Jennifer and Rachel.  I finished 138th out 139th in my age group, and I actually think that is a bit funny.  There were not even 2,100 finishers in total.

One thing I was surprised about was that they did have water until the end. I hear about the people at the end who don’t get any because the race runs out.  There was no sport drink after awhile though, but I don’t know if its cause we were late, or if they didn’t pass them out.

The pros of the race:
*The course was nice
*Our goodies … this HUGE reusable shopping bag from Dick’s, a reusable water bottle, a towel, a finisher’s hat (which we got at  the expo) and a long sleeved technical tee
*Plenty of water and food at the finish (although could that be because half of the registrants didn’t show?)

The bad:
*Not enough participants
*There were not time clocks at every mile and I don’t think all of the miles were even marked
*The medals don’t have the year on them
*Not a lot of crowd support

The day started at 4:00 a.m.  I got up swearing to never do another race EVER.   At that time of day, it doesn’t matter what I am doing.  Its just too darn early to be up.  Even with the 11 hours of sleep I got Thursday night, its just hard.

Being veterans of many races, we have the prepping part down to a science.  We were out the door at 4:30 a.m. where it was already starting to get light. Unlike in San Antonio, there were lots of shuttles waiting to load us runners up and take us to the start line in Tukwila.  We were not going to have a repeat of San Antonio and be late for the race.  Later on, however, I did find out that some people were late, but I am unsure if it was lack of shuttles or if it was the participants fault.   The down side of getting to the race area early is the waiting forever and getting cold legs.  We found a place to sit down so that we didn’t have to stand the whole time, or walk, and tire out our legs.

Eventually we lined up in our corrals.  Matt was several ahead of me, so that is where we parted ways.  In my corral, I was talking to women from Portland, who say Seattle sucks.    They also were in the same state of mind I was in … where we just didn’t care what time we finished in.  We were there to have fun.  Or as much fun as you can have in a race.

Since I refused to be a slave to time, I didn’t wear my Garmin.  The only time I wished that I had, was the very beginning, as I missed the timer at the start line, and I really had no idea what time I started.  Because in the end, when you cross the finish line, you do want to know your actual time.   Found out later it was about 45 minutes until I crossed.

As we were walking towards the start, another woman started talking to me.  She is also a run/walker and was planning on doing the full marathon.  She planned to finish in 5:30, which is the pace I was going.  We started running together and a woman from NOLA who is currently living in Miami Beach decided to run with us.  We joked that she would be passing us quickly.  NOLA was telling me the differences in HOT between New Orleans and Miami Beach.   Um, okay ….

Unfortunately, I left the marathoner behind and it was NOLA and me for awhile.  We were on the same pace and she kept me running.  I blew her away though when she stopped for a potty break early on.  She could have possibly passed me later, but I don’t think she did.

There were hills at this point, not nothing too bad.  There were enough downhills and flat areas to even it out.  Mile 5 was a nice long rolling uphill, which wasn’t so bad, as I didn’t notice that it was steep until about mile 8 when someone commented on the hill at mile 5.  I guess there are advantages to living and running in Pittsburgh.

The Seward Park area was totally beautiful, tree lined and went along the water.  Seward Park encompassed miles 4-8.   Some spectators called to our attention a bald eagle in a tree.  Spectacular to see one not in captivity.  I certainly never had!  Some people stopped to take pictures.  I was tempted, but afraid to lose my stride.

Mile 9 was the steepest hill … nobody around me even attempted to run. After all, I was with the slow people. This hill was almost straight up and down, I kid you not.  Fortunately, it wasn’t long.   This was first split of marathon and half marathon.   Apparently there were two more.  Out and backs are rough.  I am glad that I didn’t do the full after hearing this.  I can handle people in front of me, but there is something about watching people on the other side that I find discouraging.  And later on, I saw the really big hill that the full marathoners had to endure.  I had even more respect for all of them after that.  And my respect was super high already!

Then we entered the transit tunnel …  it was interesting.  I thought it would be short and I was walking. Decided to walk the tunnel and then run, but the tunnel kept going and going … was it the Energizer tunnel?  There was even a water stop, a band, and porta potties!   I honestly was waiting for something to happen … like in movies, all the scary things happen in tunnels.  All that happened though was that I wanted to be done running.

At mile 10, I was at the 2:00:00 mark, which was a happy happy place for me.  I was very satisfied with this.  This is a 12:00 mile pace, and that means that I was running more than walking.  However, the road beyond the tunnel got very very narrow and here is where I was slowed down.  Even though I was with the 5 mph runners, I actually run a little faster and lose time on my walks and so I had a wall of slower people that I couldn’t get past.  The next mile was much slower and I also started to get tired here.

Around mile 12, where the full and half marathoners are following the same path, someone, a spectator, saw my marathon number, and said “You are halfway there” and I just smiled.  It was mile 14.5 for the full marathoners.  I didn’t bother to correct him and tell him I was almost done.  I already felt like an imposter, running with my “yellow” full marathon number.

Finish line … winded around and was annoying.  I hate when I know the finish is coming and I can’t see it!  I have to say that from mile 12 on, it was all downhills and flat though.  Again, unlike San Antonio that finished on the ONLY uphill of the whole race.  Maybe enough people complained about that, so they made sure to correct  it in Seattle.

So I turned the corner into the parking lot next to my hotel and then turned again and once more for good measure and crossed the finish line in a clock time of:  3:25:31.  Which in real time was 2:42:54.  Not even close to a PR and slower than I’ve done the last several halfs.  But its okay, I was fine with that.

Immediately after the race, I got my medal and some water and some salty snack.  The secure area was HUGE!  The mylar blankets are usually given out early in the area, but it was almost at the exit.  I needed it this time, as I was chilled and nauseated.  So I sat down.  I couldn’t open my bottle because my fingers were still swollen and the nice guy sitting nearby opened it for me.  We talked awhile.  Then I got up to go look for Matt.  I talked to a woman in her 60s, who just started running about 5 years ago.  She got her husband and her brother to do it too.  Another man who hadn’t run a marathon since college (and he was probably over 40) until this one and qualified for Boston.  Incredible.  So many nice people hanging out in the secure area waiting for their partners to finish.  I was bit annoyed that the UPS trucks were OUTSIDE the area, and I couldn’t get my flip flops, but you know, I survived.

It was a totally new experience for me, not caring about my time.  Just running and talking to people and looking at the scenery.  I liked it, but you know that I will get my competitive drive going again and care about time again.  But until then, I’ll just enjoy the ride.

The hardest part about the staggered start is not knowing when someone actually started.  I had no idea how long it would be before Matt would be done.  I checked the live results page and guessed, but was not a good guesser. Eventually a I got a text from him that said “Just passed 21; please procure gun/ammo and prepare to do the humane thing”.  Ha ha.  Then 40 minutes later “Passed 24.  What’s the status on that gun”.

Well, obviously if someone is texting, you know that things are not going well.  But my wonderful husband did finish in 5:00. That is amazing … two marathons in 8 weeks for him.

Other stats, mostly for the other runners:

Overall place:  11,009/15,650

Out of females: 7,485/11,421 (the race was 70% female)

Division (females, 35-39):  1516/2135 (I keep waiting for that to get better)

Splits:

5K 36:41

10K 1:14:06

9 mile: 1:49:32

12:26 overall pace (told you I slowed down)

Anyway, when we were about 9:28 into our run, I glanced at my Garmin to see how fast I was going and how much further until I reached one mile.  I always think I am going to stop to walk at mile one, but I usually keep going.    The Garmin indicated that I was already at one mile.  Whoo Hoo.  Except … not really.  We were more like at .75.   I don’t know what happened, but the Garmin was obviously infected by a virus.

I actually enjoyed the malfunctioning mileage counter.  I loved seeing how fast I was accumulating the miles.  Normally, this only happens in my imagination.  But I had concrete, er, electronic proof that I was a speedy little runner last night.

According to my Garmin, I ran 9.78 miles in 1:14:15.  Oh how I only wish.  I really only went 6.2.  But I can still enjoy pretending.

And speaking of killer animals, yesterday Hallie insisted on coming down to the main living quarters.  She was down here for about 45 minutes, and encountered several cats.  Nobody picked on her, but they were all curious, therefore, they were not ignoring her.  Nobody got into a fight.  However, when she was ready to return to her suite, Cole was standing next to it, staring her down.  He at the top of the stairs, she on the landing.  Just staring at each other.  Neither seemed stressed though.  I don’t know who would have won, as I ended it but picking up Cole and locking him in the bathroom so that the poor girl could get upstairs and settle down.

After our run and dinner, I attempted to finish the baby blanket I am working on.  I had sewn the sides together earlier, however, I had decided to use 1″ seams instead of the 1/2″ as determined by the pattern and, as any one who has any mathematical inclination can tell you (which is obviously not me), the sides were too short.  So I just finished up ripping them apart to make according to the original directions.  Note to self:  Cut bigger pieces of fabric if you want larger seams!