Time for a new theme!

I started this illustrious blog back in July 2006 on MySpace (does MySpace even exist anymore?). It was a simpler time then; my rent was $800 a month, the economy was booming, Taylor was in this hemisphere...but that's neither here nor there. The point is, my blog has gone through some iterations....and now I'm at a crossroads.

The original purpose of this blog was to share my "exciting" life in New York City with my vastly dispersed friends and family (of which I think 2 actually read this regularly :). Now that I am moving home to Ohio in 2 weeks for at least 6 months, I need to figure out what to do with my blog! I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to bore you with all sorts of info...but I'm not sure if anyone really cares :) So...please take .4 seconds to vote on the right about what topic you'd like me to focus on in my "new" and "improved" blog!

I'll be honest, the easiest but also most annoying would be to blog about the wedding we're planning. But I am aware that not everyone wants to read about my wedding at length (see my favorite e-card). So, I took a stab at some other ideas. The last choice is basically just a catch-all for my random ramblings. Please let me know what you think. If you have an idea that isn't on here, leave a comment!

Detailed Marathon recap - THE FINALE - Miles 22-26.2

Alright, I know this took forever so now I have to make it worth it ;-)

So where were we? Oh, Mile 22 of the New York City Marathon, heading down 5th Avenue. Mile 22 is about right where we come back into Manhattan. It really is the homestretch because we're back in the grid of streets where you know exactly how far you have to go at any point (20 blocks is a mile in Manhattan so it's pretty easy to figure out). Our Team In Training coach, Christine (who was 7 months PREGNANT) was at about mile 22.5 and she ran with me for 100 yards or so. She told me, "don't think about the pain, just focus on getting to Central Park." Which was just what I needed to hear. It reminded me of my unlikely mantra during the 20 mile run, "Pain is inevitable, Suffering is optional." So even though I was really feeling the pounding in my feet, knees, head, you name it, I decided at that point I was running the rest of this race (as in NOT walking at all) no matter what! Wahoo!

So I'm running down 5th Avenue and there were many fun things to see. First, there are some really cute apartments in the 120s and 5th avenue. It's like the fancy part of Harlem, I guess. Then, at 105th Street and 5th avenue is where Taylor and I are getting married next year (I just paused to give them a quick call, way to keep me on task, blog). So it was nice to pause for a second to think about that. Then at 95th St. my parents and Taylor's parents were standing there to cheer me on. I stopped to hug them again. :) Actually, this time, when I hugged my mom I looked and saw a woman taking a picture of me, which I found weird since I didn't know her. Apparently after I kept running she told my mom that she was from Runner's World (the magazine) and would be featuring a little story about me on their web site. She asked for my name and stuff and my mom told them that I was running for Team In Training. Well I kept looking on the web site for the week after the race hoping to see my moment of fame and this is what I found... I'm famous, and so is my mom's hand ;-)

After I saw them, we made the turn into Central Park and had less than 3 miles to go! The reason Central Park is such a big deal in the Marathon is that it's basically where we did all of our training. We (all the NYC-based marathoners) do most of our training in Central Park so we know it like the back of our hands. Which is something I learned from this marathon. Knowing what you have up ahead on the course is CRUCIAL in a marathon.

Inside Central Park the crowds were really thick and there were SO MANY people cheering for Team In Training, which was awesome. I was feeling pretty good, too. I knew that I was off of my 4 hour stretch goal, but that was ok. If I kept to 10 minute miles I was going to be around 4:08, which I was fine with. I have to admit, though, at this point in the race, knowing that my family wouldn't be there to see me at the finish line (It's too crowded, the only way you get to is if you buy $75/tickets and stake out a spot the whole race, but I would prefer to have them throughout the course), I was really wishing that I had a running buddy to cross the finish line with.

So with about a mile left, the course exits the park and turns to run on 59th Street along the south of Central Park. The crowds are REALLY thick, and I was actually feeling pretty good. I Looked up and up ahead I saw a PURPLE SINGLET!!! It was one of my teammates! I was so excited, I cannot even tell you. And on top of that, it was my mentor buddy, Glen, whom I'd run with all season. He was supposed to be about 10 minutes ahead of me, but I was gaining on him quickly (he'd started out a little fast and was now paying for it.). Now, to understand this next part, I have to tell a brief story from the Pasta Party the night before the race.

At the Pasta Party, all of our coaches and training captains get up and give us their one piece of parting advice before the race. One of our training captains, Elle, had the best advice I'd heard. She said, "Get a PB." What's a PB you ask? A Pace Booty. That's right, pick a runner up ahead who's keeping a good pace for you and whose booty you don't mind staring at for some amount of time, and GO AFTER IT. She said this works particularly well at the end. Well...I don't have much of an affinity for Glen's booty (no offence to Glen, it's just that we're both otherwise spoken for), but as I approached him I made a confession "You've been my pace booty for about the last 50 yards, let's finish this!" So I hung with Glen through the last 3/4 of a mile and I am SO HAPPY that we got to finish the race together!

We turned left into Columbus Circle with just .3 miles left and I'm practically jumping around, more excited to be crossing the finish line with a friend than anything else. Running can be such a solo activity, it's so much fun to share the accomplishment with teammates. That's why I love Team In Training. As we neared the finish line, the roar of the crowds got louder and louder. And I know that many people were inspired to see our TNT jersey's go by. I looked up and saw the finish line and didn't feel a twinge of pain until we crossed it. I had a really strong urge to grab Glen's hand and hold it up like in all the photos you see, but I resisted :) I think he's very glad I did. Here's a series of photos:

FINISH LINE PHOTO :)

We crossed the finish line and began what is called the "Penguin Death March." Basically we just hobbled, unable to really walk (too crowded) or stretch (we had to keep moving) for about .5 miles up to to the place where we were able to get our bags. It took about 30 minutes before we were able to leave the park, another reason why I'm glad I found Glen, we got to spend some time talking about the race!

Once I was out of the park, I met my parents and Taylor's parents to celebrate with a MARGARITA! :) What a great race!!!

Detailed Marathon recap, before I forget! (Part 4 - Miles 16-22)

Well, most people know that Mile 20 of a marathon is the so-called "wall" where even the most prepared runner starts to feel the slight twinge of having run 20 miles. Or the throbbing, pulsing, miserable reality of it. Take your pick.

Anyway, dear blog reader, I hope that this post won't feel like a wall because I was actually lucky enough not to really feel it while I was running. I just wanted to put that out there, you might start dragging.

So I've mentioned that the New York City Marathon is famous for the huge crowds that line the course. Well, the most famous moment of the marathon (besides the finish of course!) is the Queensboro bridge, which connects Queens to Manhattan and is at mile 15-16 of the course. Essentially, it's about .6 miles UP followed by .6 miles DOWN. Most people will tell you that the UP is the hard part. I disagree. Due to my IT band issues in my knees, running downhill is the most painful thing for me, and this was the steepest descent of the whole course. So, at about mile 16.2 I was freaking out a little because it was the first time I was in a lot of pain and I knew I had 10 miles left to run!

But the Queensboro bridge entrance into Manhattan is not just famous for being the so-called "heartbreak hill" of the New York City Marathon. It is also famous because at this point is where you come upon the screaming, booming, 16-people deep crowds that line the race in Manhattan. And I am not even kidding you, I am getting goosebumps right now just typing it! As runners come off the Queensboro bridge (throbbing knees or not, haha), they greeted by hundreds of thousands of people cheering. We turn and run up First Avenue and I'm not even kidding, it's the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade for about 3 miles.

For me, First Avenue was a wonderful, difficult, emotional rollercoaster. Coming off of the bridge I was PETRIFIED that I would not be able to keep running because my knees were hurting so bad. Luckily, though, most of First Avenue is a slight incline, which was good for me.

The plan was to see my parents and Taylor's parents at 78th Street on the left side of the course. At about 77th Street, I hear someone screaming my name from the right side of the course and look over to see Taylor's parents! I waved to them and then started looking for my parents on the left. It turned out that 78th was too crowded so they were standing at 80th street. I stopped again to hug each of them and, being the logistics-oriented person that I am, made sure to tell them exactly where Taylor's parents were so that they could meet up with them.

So that was about mile 17.5. After that, the real battle began. I knew I had about 6 more miles before I would see my family again, the crowds thin as you go up the street, and I was starting to feel tired (imagine that!). So when I crossed the Queensboro bridge, I was still keeping a low-nine minute per mile pace. As I started to feel the pain on the way down the bridge, and especially as I was to distracted by all the crowds to really pay attention to my time, I really started to slow down and run more based on how I was feeling than on my aggressive time goal (4 hours). So, starting at about mile 18, I kept about a 10-minutes per mile pace for pretty much the rest of the race. And I was happy with that. Being more conservative with my pace really made the last part of the race bearable, which is really all one can ask for at the end of a marathon!

So miles 18 - 22 took me up into the Bronx which I'd like to say right now is NOT as bad as the say. People are always saying that there aren't many people cheering in the Bronx. Well, those must be the people who don't go to the Bronx to cheer because from where i was standing (running), there were tons of people and it was great! I think because I was smart and slowed my pace, I felt really good, even through the doldrums of miles 18 - 22. Which set me up for a great time the rest of the race!

Next.

Detailed Marathon recap, before I forget! (Part 3 - Miles 9-15)

This is going to be the "boring" part of my recap. Miles 9 - 15 of the marathon stand out for one reason: they were boring.

Don't get me wrong, I am thankful for the crowds out cheering for us on this stretch of the course, but really, it was the least interesting part of the course, all building up to entering Manhattan at mile 16.

Miles 9-11 were tough because it was the first time that my knees started to hurt a little bit. It's also the time when I realized I probably wasn't going to be able to make 4 hours. At mile 10, we were supposed to increase our average pace to 9 min. per mile. This means the "windows" now became 8:50 - 9:10 per mile. Remember, I was supposed to stay within this window, but not stay on either side of 9:00 for more than 2 miles in a row. Well, unfortunately, I just could not get my pace under 9 minutes no matter how hard I tried, so I hovered closer to 9:10-9:15 for the next five miles. It was a bummer, but I wanted to be careful rather than forcing myself to speed up and pay for it later.

There was one exciting part of this portion of the race. While I didn't enjoy it very much, I'm sure you will find humor (or craziness) in the fact that I came upon a man (and blessedly eventually passed him) wearing this. IN THE MARATHON! Crazy.

Next!

Detailed Marathon recap, before I forget! (Part 2 - Miles 0 - 8)

Alright, finally, I'm taking the time to recap the marathon for you in full. Enjoy!

The New York City Marathon is unusual in that it starts at 10am. Most races start much earlier (I ran a half marathon in February that started at 6!), but I guess they realize that New Yorkers won't get themselves out of bed that early to cheer. And the New York City Marathon is known for it's enthusiastic crowds (over 2 million people are said to line the streets for the race, and after running it, I believe them, but we'll get to that!).

Even though the race starts at 10, we still had to be to the Team In Training bus by 6am in order to beat the traffic to the start (if everyone left later everyone could leave later, but what do I know?). So we arrived at the start "village" - and it really does feel like one, more like a town with 38,000 spandex-clad residents! - at 7am with three hours to shiver in the cold until the marathon. And let me tell you, it was FREEZING and windy! Everyone had warned me about spending so much time in the cold so I was prepared. I had on my race gear plus a "heat tech" shirt, fleece pants, and one of those throwaway paperish jackets that they sell at the expo. It was like $10 and windproof so well worth it! At the start line we all basically huddled together in a sunny spot and fretted about whether or not we were correctly adhering to our pre-race rituals which include anything from eating to hydrating to peeing at regular intervals or taping joints (what, is that too much information?).

At about 9:15am I had to take my bag of things I wanted to have at the finish over to the UPS trucks that would transport them while I was running. One thing I'm SO glad I took with me was my UGG boots! I wore them at the start and they kept my feet and calves nice and toasty :)

Some of my mentees and I at the start line (that's my warm shirt that I pulled up so you could see the TNT gear!)

Now, I still had 45 minutes before we start running (and longer until I felt even the least be "warm), so I didn't put my warm clothing in my bag. I kept it all on and shed it at the start of the race. Which I'm ok with because they actually collect all that clothing and give it to shelters. See, doing a good deed AND running :)

Ok, so I think we're finally at the start. Woo hoo! So 10am rolls around and I am in a corral waiting for the start of the New York City Marathon. I decided to run by myself for this race because I knew my knees could act up at any moment and I didn't want to feel like I was slowing someone down or, conversely, I didn't want to be slowed down by them if I happened to be having a better day. So being at the start line alone was REALLY scary! Everyone around me seemed to be talking to someone, thereby having something to distract them from being scared s*&^less about the 26.2 miles they were about to run. Instead that's just what I was, scared to death! When the cannon went off and we finally started moving, though, I felt better. As we turned a corner and the Verrazano a girl behind me grabbed her husband (boyfriend, whomever) and was like "Oh my Gosh honey, we're about to do the marathon!!" Her excitement was contagious and paired with "Born to Run" by Bruce playing out the loudspeaker I burst into tears. Seriously. I spent the first tenth of a mile running up the Verrazano Narrows Bridge crying like a baby. But that quickly wore off and the first mile of the marathon went by in a blink.

So my stretch goal for the marathon was to complete it in 4 hours. This meant that my goal for the first 10 miles was to run 9:00 - 9:20 miles, never keeping too close to 9:00 or 9:20 for more than 2 miles in a row. Well, there wasn't a marker for the first mile, so I had to wait until the second mile. My time at mile 2 (the base of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge) was 18:19, right on pace, nice.

Miles 2-8 went by in a blur, but I managed to keep right on pace (maybe a little fast). I got confused at one point because we were divided into different groups who had run a slightly different route after the bridge, so my group was about 200 yards "behind" the other groups. At one point, I pressed my split (to see how fast I had run the previous mile) and it said 8:36! Which is NOT good, it's never a bad thing to run way faster than you want to because you always end up paying for it later. Luckily, I realized that I actually had about 30 more seconds to run until my mile marker, which meant I was actually right on (about 9:06).

At mile 8 was the first time I saw my parents. They were so cute out there cheering. My mom devised a scheme whereby she just held up the TNT sign she had gotten the night before and I watched for it on the left side of the course. I was so excited to see them at mile 8 that I gave them each a hug before moving on :) Here's a picture of me running up to them:

Next.

Link to some photos!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2127938&l=7c58e&id=4700966

The New York City Marathon (Part 1 - Thank-you e-mail)

Hello! Here's the thank-you e-mail I sent to all my donors. I apologize if you already got this! I'll post a full race recap soon :)

Well, this past Sunday I crossed the finish line of the acclaimed ING NYC Marathon!

The course was no joke- FULL of up hills and down hills- but I completed all 26.2 miles in 4 hours and 7 minutes!! I joined over 40,000 other participants from around the country in completing the race (enthusiastic photo attached).

Any marathoner will tell you that all you want to do after a race is tell people all about it. Unfortunately, people who have never run a marathon don't really care much to hear every gritty detail, so I will spare you. However, there is one inspirational story that I simply MUST share.

Last week, while researching potential major gift donors for the non-profit at which I was temping, I came across an executive at a major company who had a beautiful daughter named Melissa. Melissa had down syndrome and lost a battle with Leukemia on April 7 of this year. I was touched by Melissa's story and – seeing as my job was to find out as much information as possible about this person – I found the home address of her family. On a whim, I wrote them a letter much like this one telling them what I was doing for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and telling them that I would be running the marathon in Melissa's honor as well. Well, Saturday night, just 12 hours before the start of the New York City marathon I checked my e-mail to find a $1,000 donation from Melissa's generous parents. Talk about a touching moment. Not only was this donation completely unexpected and supremely generous, it also took me WAY beyond my personal fundraising goal. That's Melissa's photo on my back in the attached photo. You wouldn't believe all the people who came up behind me during the race and said she was inspiring them to keep going. Learn more about Melissa at www.riggio.net

Of course, the search for a cure for cancer of all types still isn't over. I know so many of you have been affected by this disease. If you haven't had a chance to donate yet, please consider making even just a $5 donation to help our team reach out final goal. Your money will go directly to The Society's mission- to better the lives of cancer patients and their families and find a CURE to not only blood cancers, but ALL cancers. Please don't wait. Make a donation today. http://pages.teamintraining.org/nyc/nyc08/VandySanctus

If you've already donated, please know how much your money is appreciated. But don't take my word for it. Hear it from someone who has benefited directly from your generosity- my teammate, marathon finisher AND leukemia survivor Dani Frisch:

"I didn't have any choice other than to receive chemo and radiation. On the other hand, I have a choice, everyday, to run and raise more life saving funds for others battling blood cancers. I am proud to say I am striving for more everyday, and so happy you have made the choice to help others as well."

Thanks again for your support (and I promise I'm not going to do this again ;-)