Super Long Run and Dating Dealbreakers Fun!

Well isn’t the weekend just flying by?!? I had planned to take some time on Saturday to finish a post for Sunday morning – but that didn’t happen. So instead I am doing a quickie fun post and we’ll get back to things on Monday.

Long Run – Marathon Ready

If you follow me on Instagram you already know this, but Saturday I wanted to do a long run, and some hills, and some hill repeats … and of course make sure I was ‘half marathon ready’ as always – so I did it all!

I did my normal ‘mega hill route’, which makes for a minimum of 14.5 miles … but then I took a detour up a steep hill (in the picture) and did three repeats … and as I was going down the steep down-slope my legs felt like jello! But I still had a long way home!

I ended up with 21.55 miles, with the last mile or so with the sun beating down, sunscreen long gone, and just ready to be done. But at the same time I felt great … the rest of the day I spent hydrating, got a little headache and was tired by the time we hit bed. As Lisa said ‘no kidding … you pretty much ran a freaking marathon!’

So as I sat by the fire last night I felt good knowing that I am more than just half-marathon ready, I could run a marathon pretty much whenever and at least finish with a time I would be proud of.

Dating Dealbreakers

OK, now it has been a few years since I have dated (more than 25, stretching ‘few’) … but when I saw this post on Neatorama, I thought … let’s have some fun! So the set of images below is the ‘don’t message me if’ list from an OK Cupid user … for real.

Here is my thought – let’s make up our own set of absurd ‘don’t message me if…’ lists. No rules or boundaries – they don’t have to be running or health or eating related.

Absorb this greatness … then I will start the ball rolling!

OK, so here are a few:

Don’t message me if:
– you’re a runner and have never lost a toenail
– you are a zombie and want to eat my brains
– your idea of being active is walking around the shopping mall (nothing against the shopping part!)

How is YOUR running going? What would you do for a funny/serious ‘dating dealbreakers’

Wordless Wednesday – the Button I Did NOT Want to Click

Proving once again that I totally can’t manage the concept of ‘wordless’ … let me explain this image a bit.

I have been talking since last year about wanting to run an Ultra – and frankly with the mileage I do, it shouldn’t be an insurmountable challenge. Last year washed out because of too much work travel … so I looked to this year, and found the Finger Lake Fifties.

On one of my Facebook groups I saw the sign-up date, looked at the Finger Lake Fifties page when the date came – and took a couple of days to see if the schedule would allow. At the time we were looking at a vacation a bit later in the month and what is fast becoming an annual weekend with some friends who have a place in the Poconos was also later in the month.

So I signed up … or rather I TRIED to sign up, and ended up on the wait list.

Ugh. OK, so I contacted the race coordinator – who was on the same Finger Lakes Running mailing list as me – and he said that there are two drop points in February and March, so by the beginning of April I would know if I had a shot.

Yeah, and so February and March and April came and went without me hearing anything, and while I kept the race in my head, I had given up actual hope and started looking elsewhere.

Also between February and March one set of friends needed to shift the date of the meet-up, and because one of the primary reasons for our vacation destination of New York City was some college visits in the area … we ended up having to shift our vacation a week earlier to match with other schedules and be back for the start of Marching Band camp.

So OF COURSE this week I got an email saying that I had made it from the wait list onto the sign-ups for the Finger Lake 50s! That elation lasted for about 5 nanoseconds until I realized that the race is the day we go on vacation … and also when the second rescheduling of the Poconos weekend had landed things.

So I was suddenly triple-booked, and since running a 10+ hour, 50-mile race would likely mean spending half of our vacation recovering … it was an ‘easy’ and very clear decision – but incredibly difficult to actually DO it.

I actually waited more than 12 hours to click the button … because I REALLY want to do it, I really know I CAN do it – and do it well. So I was more than a little disappointed – but on the other hand I am a very patient person, and once I allowed myself a bit of time to be sad, I clicked (ok, tapped) ‘Decline’ and thought – next year I will sign up immediately. And I let my family know. So like my various marathons and half marathons … it is something on the calendar that we will do together – just in 2015 rather than 2014.

Also, there are other Ultras – I am on the wait list for a couple of others including the ‘Can Lake 50’.

OK, enough of that – how about some happy music?

First, I have always talked about my love of the music of Miles Davis, and I am reminded of an interview from Musician Magazine in 1988, where he said:

The only real music lover I knew was Gil Evans. “He would call me up and say, ‘Miles, if you’re ever depressed listen to Springsville on Miles Ahead.’”

Oh, and you can blame Cori for this earworm … ‘Wishery’ by Pogo, which I think can help shake any bad mood 🙂

Throwback Thursday: Disney Memories

Last weekend was the Disney Marathon and the ‘Dopey Challenge’ – 4 days, 4 races: 5k, 10k, half-marathon and full marathon! I read about it on a number of blogs from people who either ran or wished they had – especially Lauren at RunSaltRun who is plotting to get there for next year with her family to do the challenge.

All this Disney talk brought me back to the times we have gone there with the boys. The picture at the top is Lisa and the boys from 2005 – we were there over the 4th of July – it was great seeing the fireworks, but something else when we joined the half million OTHER people trying to get out of the park at once afterwards!

We have gone three times – May 2001, July 2005 and over Christmas 2007. Each one has a bunch of memories for a number of different reasons.

In 2005 we stayed at a time-share resort rental that was pretty close and as the kids were four years older we were able to do even more than before. It was a great time, and we actually enjoyed the resort quite a bit (up until the high-pressure sales pitch at the end!), walking around to the ice cream shop, using the pools and so on.

In 2007 we went with Lisa’s sister and her family, so there were eight of us for the week. It was fun but definitely added different dynamics than how we would have done things for just the four of us. Here is a picture from Downtown Disney:

It is interesting for me to look at that one – I had found out that my thyroid was dying, but it hadn’t hit rock bottom yet (and wouldn’t until I was in NY a month ahead of the family move). But I had been slowly gaining weight, and was probably about 50lbs heavier than I am now.

But for me Disney will always go back to our first family trip there in May 2001. They had just kicked off a more structured ‘Star Wars Weekends’ the year before, so we figured it would be a great time to go down – plus May travel was cheaper and less crowded.

Flying with kids can always be a challenge, but since we were doing this pre-9/11 things were much easier, quicker and smoother. I love this picture of Danny on the plane playing a game on an early Pocket PC from Casio (Cassiopeia E-125 to be specific) … I think the game was Mini Golf.

But one of the huge things from that trip to Disney was Star Wars Weekends, and in particular when they had the new event ‘Padawan Training’. We had no idea what it was about, so we hung around to see what happened and found out that kids got to participate. They were looking for kids between 5-12, so we figured Danny was close enough if he wanted to try.

He was interested, but didn’t want to raise his hand or push forward, so he hung back and let others get chosen. Then when the Jedi Master pointed somewhat in our general direction, Chris headed for the stage! Lisa was going to stop him, but I held her back – if they didn’t want him, we were close enough to just go grab him. But they brought him on stage – he had just turned 3 – and he got to fully participate! I love this picture … he is so cute and was so serious and engaged with the training!

Countdown to Wineglass!

Recovering after the 2012 Wineglass Marathon

It is now less than a week until the 2013 Wineglass Marathon. I am ready but nervous …

I know my fitness is where it needs to be – I can drop a half-marathon with ease and have run longer on a weekly basis. My long runs have ranged from 16 – 22 miles. And they all went well.

So why worry? Two reasons:
– Goal: I would really like to crack 4 hours, and feel I have everything in place to do it … but the fear is that by starting out with that goal pace I might kill myself later on. In the PA Grabd Canyon Marathon my WAY too fast early pace combined with tough hills over the last several miles made for a very difficult end. I know Wineglass is flat … but I have no desire to come staggering across the finish.

– Pace: I always fear going out too fast. I really killed myself on my first half marathon by eating like I was still dieting, not tapering … and going out way too fast. I went out too fast again on my last marathon. My only hope is the pacing group for Wineglass.

Wish me luck!