Someone in the running group I post to asked for other members to briefly write about their very first race.  I thought I'd post my answer here, too.


My very first race was probably a 5k "Jingle Bell Run" in high school, but I don't really remember it. My next organized road race was the Wineglass Marathon, in Corning, NY. I was in college. It was in October, and I had trained all summer, though I never ran further than 18 miles prior to the race day. It was a beautiful, slightly warmish fall morning. The trees lining these long rural streets were in gorgeous color. It was mostly flat. I ran the first 15 or so miles with an acquaintance I ran into that morning. My boyfriend at the time cheered me on from his bike along the course. Around mile 20 I ran a bit with a very old lady who was not entered but was training for another race; she called me a clydesdale and I wasn't quite sure how to take that. I started to really hurt with about six miles to go but was able to finish in 4:32, without walking except at the water stations. I don't remember the drive home but I was quite out of it for the rest of the day, and I nearly failed an exam in one of my classes the next morning.

For a long time after, having completed this race was a motivation for me in many aspects of life. I found myself saying "I ran a marathon, I can do x, y, or z".

I sometimes take pictures of kitchen creations. Occasionally these creations are disastrous, because I tend to modify recipes.  Sometimes the modifications are intentional "experiments", other times they are the result of negligence on my part, such as forgetting to add milk to a pumpkin pie (yes, I have done that).  In this post I catch up on some recent dishes. The first ("a very orange meal") is my own concoction, the second (beef stew) was from the Joy of Cooking, the third (hot dog sushi) was put together by my friend Donna.

The snow last night was a treat, especially under the lunar eclipse.  Matt and I attempted to take some photographs of the moon over an agricultural field, but none came out.  

Okay, so I'm the stubborn idiot who tried to take pictures of a dim object in a dark sky, at the edge of dark woods, without a good tripod.  Matt stood in the cold air, occasionally trying to talk some sense into me.  I listened, and I appreciated the input and much appreciated the company, but I am not one to follow reason.

"um, i wouldn't go down that bank.  It's all full of sticks, and stuff"

"No, the floor lamp in your trunk that you were going to give to Donna will not work as a tripod; you should just put the camera on one of those fenceposts "

ten minutes later...

"It's cold out here"

"Why don't you just let this be an event that is not documented but is really pretty in person"

I'd love to say I proved him wrong and got a fantastic photograph, but in the end the eclipse proved elusive.  It WAS really pretty out there.  We both enjoyed the serenity of it, even if we got a bit chilled.  

Last night I made beef stew. It was done at midnight, so needless to say it was not my dinner yesterday - it is my dinner tonight!  It's snowing now, so I'm really looking forward to a warm cozy, savory bowl of homemade stew. Yum.

Um, weatherchannel.com says that it is partly sunny and 42 degrees right now.  I disagree.
 

 

Researchers in my lab occasionally have the privilege of studying the ecosystem at the Caribbean Coral Reef Ecosystems Program (or CCRE)  on the island of Carrie Bow , off the coast of Belize.  CCRE is funded by the Smithsonian and is part of the Smithsonian Marine Science Network of research facilities which includes the lab where I work - the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in MD, facilities in Fort Pierce, FL, Panama, and a 96-foot research vessel.  This boat may very well be larger than the entire island of Carrie Bow, which is so tiny that it can house only seven researchers at a time.  Seven - keep in mind that's less than half the number of people that start off as contestants on Survivor, and you think their accommodations are sparse! 

Actually, Carrie Bow is furnished with reasonably modern comforts, save for a real toilet.  Despite the space constraints and the expected friendly competition for a one-or-two week long slot at the facility, some really great scientific work is done here, on topics ranging from the bacteria that grow on mangroves to the manatees, fishes, and jellyfish that swim around them.  In fact, since it opened in 1972, over 500 scientific publications have come out of this beautiful, remote place! 

Since I interviewed nearly two years ago for a job at SERC, I have hoped to go to Belize.  In my life I've snorkeled and scuba dived (scuba'd?) three or four times in tropical waters - once, last year, for my diving certification - but have never taken a look at a tropical marine system from a research perspective.  This prospect is to me - a kid who grew up watching Cousteau and later Discovery Channel documentaries - what playing at Fenway or Yankee Stadium would be to a former little-leauge warrior (I take no regional allegiance, however).

So, imagine my thrill when on Friday, an otherwise dull February morning at work, my boss phoned me at my desk to tell me that I had been granted a spot on the island!  One of our graduate students will be studying jellyfish there and will need my help as a scuba diver for one week in May.  My hope is that in the following months after this trip perhaps I can craft a proposal for a creative project of my own that would merit my return to Carrie Bow. 

Of course, I would have to appeal to my boss as well as the "Jeff Probst" of the Marine Science Network to make that happen.

I don't know if it's because I'm approaching 29, or perhaps because it's February, but lately I've been getting irritated with my own excessive self-reflection.  Crap! I'm running out of play-in-my-20's time; I need to figure out if I'm on the right track in life!!  Granted, I KNOW that the process of self-improvement never stops, and thus the feeling like you've arrived at "Life" never quite happens, and yet I let a rainy, blustery winter day get me drear-ified (my invented term).  I almost want to slap myself, but what good would that do?

Lots of songs have been written about this feeling of  searching for belonging and purpose, of needing to check  off life -list items optimistically penned at age 23, and of trying to be more than just a number while at the same time actually bringing home a paycheck.  One in particular caught my attention a few days ago.  While stopped at a traffic light on my way home from work, my ears perked up at the line:

Caught between the longing for love/and the struggle for the legal tender

That's ME! Right NOW! I thought.  And everyone else in the world, I chuckled.  Ah, and I didn't even know what the song was about, though I recognized the artist as the soulful 70's singer-songwriter Jackson Browne.  So, since the internet knows everything, I Googled the line. 

Here are the rest of the lyrics, and a youtube video.  


Im going to rent myself a house
In the shade of the freeway
Im going to pack my lunch in the morning
And go to work each day
And when the evening rolls around
Ill go on home and lay my body down
And when the morning light comes streaming in
Ill get up and do it again
Amen
Say it again
Amen

I want to know what became of the changes
We waited for love to bring
Were they only the fitful dreams
Of some greater awakening
Ive been aware of the time going by
They say in the end its the wink of an eye
And when the morning light comes streaming in
Youll get up and do it again
Amen

Caught between the longing for love
And the struggle for the legal tender
Where the sirens sing and the church bells ring
And the junk man pounds his fender
Where the veterans dream of the fight
Fast asleep at the traffic light
And the children solemnly wait
For the ice cream vendor
Out into the cool of the evening
Strolls the pretender
He knows that all his hopes and dreams
Begin and end there

Ah the laughter of the lovers
As they run through the night
Leaving nothing for the others
But to choose off and fight
And tear at the world with all their might
While the ships bearing their dreams
Sail out of sight

Im going to find myself a girl
Who can show me what laughter means
And well fill in the missing colors
In each others paint-by-number dreams
And then well put out dark glasses on
And well make love until our strength is gone
And when the morning light comes streaming in
Well get up and do it again
Get it up again

Im going to be a happy idiot
And struggle for the legal tender
Where the ads take aim and lay their claim
To the heart and the soul of the spender
And believe in whatever may lie
In those things that money can buy
Thought true love could have been a contender
Are you there?
Say a prayer for the pretender
Who started out so young and strong
Only to surrender

After my last attempt at a race report tuned out as a long-winded tale of race morning, I thought to try a different approach.

So, in lieu of a third stab at a race report, I give you the top ten things that kept me running to the finish line.
 

Better late than never!

There are some things that I wanted to report that I didn't have time for in my last post. So, here it goes...

The short report and numbers:

I had a fantastic time at Disney and really enjoyed the race on Saturday morning. 16,000 people came out for the half marathon and the sight of them gathered at the start in the dark at 5am just blew my mind. 18,000 ran the full marathon, which was held on Sunday. Nearly 2,000 runners and walkers from Team in Training came out in total for both events, and raised 5.6 million dollars for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I was proud to be one of those "in purple" and loved to be part of team running with purpose and a cheering squad of thousands. Following the race, people passing me would congratulate me on finishing and some would simply say "thank you". I've never been thanked for an athletic achievement before, so this was a really great feeling.

While this race was about so much more than running and time, I sill like to track my progress and see if I am pushing myself as hard as I should be. I finished in 2:08:27, which is between my goal time of 2:05 and my realistic time projection of 2:10, so I am happy with that. For some perspective, the top female finished in 1:18:07, however a lot of people walked this event and many needed the full three and a half hours to finish. In my age-sex group, I placed 134 out of 918. Overall, I finished # 2,508 of about 16,000; and 904 of all women.



This was my first half-marathon. Although I had completed four months of training and done progressively longer weekend runs, I wasn't quite sure how fast I could expect to be. In the past three years I've done a handful of races: three 5 K's (24:32), one 8K, a 10K(57:13), and a 10-miler(1:38:26). I also ran my first and only 26.2 miler, the Wineglass Marathon (Corning, NY), in 4:31:44, but that was EIGHT years ago. I'd like to start training more consistently through the year and entering more local races so that I can continue to feed off of the energy of other runners, and hopefully see some improvement in my times. Being part of TNT was amazing and I'd love to continue to run for charities as much as possible - maybe once every one to two years. It's really a win-win situation.

It was great to have Matt there as my biggest fan. But, more details to come later.