My Marathon

Yes, this is my totally "all about me" post about finishing my first marathon.  Those who would be bored to hear all about my thinking, my training and my actual marathon are free to move along to much more interesting stuff elsewhere around the Internet.  I'm just glad to get this down so I can remember it, and to share with family and friends.  (Note: I can't get photos to upload at the moment so my race recap will be in another post, sometime in the future).

I had a goal of running four half-marathons this year, but schedules and life this year left only one "official" one:  the Oak Brook Half Marathon in September.  This summer, I looked around for some other fall half-marathon to do nearby, so when I found the Des Plaines Trail Races, I suggested it as a late fall trip for our family to Chicagoland.  I also began thinking privately about signing up for the marathon in this series.  After a few weeks training and some longer runs, I felt that I could probably finish the race, so I signed up for it.  In the meantime husband's work travel schedule and other events around home helped us decide that I would go up by myself for the weekend--my birthday is close so it would be a birthday present for me--I could enjoy some time away for reading, running and just relaxing.

Here was the weird thing for me:  I didn't tell anyone I was training for or going to attempt a marathon.  I don't know why I was shy about telling people, as I've been telling all my friends and family for years I want to do a marathon before or when I turn 50 (still several years away, so I'm glad to have that checked off "the list").  I have love, truly loved, cheering people on as they accomplish their marathons and halfs and such on blogs or Facebook.   I didn't think I wouldn't finish, but for some reason I just wanted to prepare on my own.

I finally told my husband the week before the marathon as I didn't want to have a secret from him, even a nice one like this, and I was getting more excited about it.  He was super excited for me, and so supportive.

Meanwhile, in the months after I signed up for the marathon, marathon news kept popping up, especially in the last few weeks:

*This season, every contestant on the Bigger Loser, my favorite and only reality show guilty pleasure watch, will get to participate in the BL marathon (and I'm so glad they brought the marathon back, incidentally).

*The "marathon mom" completed the Chicago marathon, then gave birth just hours later.  I put on Facebook that at first I got kind of sad that she finished in 6:25, because that's about what my time would be in a marathon, but then I saw she was only 27.  Since I'm more than 2 decades older than her, that about evens things up.

*Just last weekend, a 100-year-old man finished the Toronto Marathon, and his time was more than 8 hours.  By this time, I had told my husband, and so I joked with him that my goal was to finish in a time between the marathon mom and the 100-year-old man, and hopefully closer to the mom.  He smiled.

So, how did I train for a marathon?  I kept with my regular workout schedule, and then added increasingly long runs, of 15, 17, 18 and 20 miles, in the weeks before the marathon. Saturday mornings, my usual long run day, have been taken up with soccer, puppy class and other things, so I traded my long run day to Friday.  Surprisingly, I really like that change and will stick with it.  The day I ran my longest run, 20 miles, I thought it would just be goofy to be running the vast majority of the time my kids were in school (I wanted some recovery time), so I asked my husband to get the kids up and off to school, and I started my run at 5:30 a.m.  That worked great as I had plenty of time for running, getting cleaned up and recovering before kids got home.  Keep in mind this was before I told him about the marathon.  But he didn't ask how long my "long run" was, and our puppy, Tacy, who saw me come home for several water/banana/bathroom breaks and finally finish more than 5 hours later, wasn't talking.  She's a good puppy.

My taper started two weeks before the marathon, and it was pretty steep, as I had some writing deadlines, appointments and sick kids off and on.   I just wanted to make sure I kept my body moving, but that didn't happen on too many days before the marathon--less than half of those days, and my runs were really shortened, like 2 or 3 miles, with one 6 mile "long run."

Okay, I'm having some weird glitch with either iPhoto or Blogger because I can't seem to locate any of the photos from the weekend, even though they are right there in iPhoto.    This is probably good, as I should save the race recap for another post.

The short version is that I didn't really enjoy the marathon as much as I thought.  I finished in just over 6 hours, besting the times of both the Marathon Mom and the 100-year-old man :-) , but even if I hadn't, the important thing is that I finished.  The race was well-organized and staffed, the weather was beautiful, but I don't know about this distance for me.  I can do a half-marathon, and while it is difficult and long, I'm not completely wiped out afterwards or the next day.

Today, the day after the marathon, I'm really sore (even with Aleve) as well as just exhausted.  It is taking me longer to do anything (even write this--I couldn't even think about writing last night).  I think I would like to do another marathon or a even few just to be sure, but I'm pretty sure I will eventually be happy to stick with a couple of half-marathons a year for fun, fitness and travel goals.  But no matter what, I've run a marathon!  In a few days I won't be so tired and I'm sure I will enjoy the accomplishment more.

I've wanted to run a marathon since the 1970s, I was 13 or 14 years old, and our family saw the finish of the Boston Marathon outside our hotel (where my Dad was attending a medical conference).  Dad bought us all running shoes when we got home, and we all vowed we'd run the Boston Marathon the next year.  Or not, as it turns out...  I'm the first one in my family to complete a marathon, and this is 30 some years later.  But most of my family has enjoyed running off and on over the years, including my Dad, who completed a lot of local races and was very much a slow runner like me, until Parkinson's Disease forced him to make the switch to walking with my Mom.

I so wish I could share this marathon accomplishment with him, and of course with Mom, because they were both so supportive and encouraging of whatever we wanted to do.  They are both gone now, so I can't.  I know they would be proud of me, and I am proud of me.  I'm so glad for the e-mail and phone call kudos and kind words from my family (both my siblings and my nuclear family).   And I can't wait to be home later today for some hugs from them.

Favorite Things Friday: New Puppies

Here is ours, Tacy.  She's named after Tacy in the Besty-Tacy books.

Favorite Things Friday: Annunciation Byzantine Catholic Church

I have so many ideas for favorite things, and all of them were part of our Labor Day weekend.   And since last week was too busy for me to post a favorite thing, I can now get several weeks ahead if I work at it.

This week's favorite thing is Annunciation Byzantine Catholic Church in Homer Glen, IL.  Our family tries to attend liturgy there a few times a year or more, whenever business or leisure brings us to the Chicagoland area.  On Labor Day weekend, it was both.    My photos aren't that great, just being snapped by my phone, but I hope the beauty of the church shines through.  Icons are everywhere, and even the mailbox is decorated.  Father Thomas Loya, the dynamic pastor, has "written" or painted, all of the icons throughout the church, and even outside the church (as on the mailbox).  It's beautiful, and so is the liturgy.   Well worth a drive for those who live anywhere nearby.

Because my 8-year-old was wearing an orange fleeece, he had to demonstrate St. John's wings shown in this icon.

Yes, even the mailbox is decorated.

Father Loya.

Father Loya's dog.  I think it is a Hungarian dog, and I cannot remember the name at the moment.  I'm pretty sure it's something Greek.  I will update when I remember.

Favorite Things Friday: Surprise Lilies

Surprise lilies are those wonderful lilies that come out in late summer .  Darn it if every year they don't come back and surprise us!  

I promise you, at our house, each and every year, we all comment how we won't see surprise lilies this year.  We seem to miss their green phase, and then one of will comment, oh, the surprise lilies must have gotten mowed over.  I didn't see them come up, even in their green phase.  Neither did I.That just looks completely dead, I think they must have a certain life span and ours have just lived out their number of perennial years.  Blah, blah, blah.  And then one day last week, we started out on a bike ride:

This is the start of the surprise lilies.  Of course we all cheered and were thrilled, and I had to take a photo.  Then of course we saw them all over our small town in various places.

In a day or so they bloom even more fantastically:  

I see on Wikipedia that surprise lilies are also called "resurrection lilies" and that they come from Japan.  

Are you always surprised by surprise lilies?

Favorite Things Friday: Surf Shelf

I feel a wee bit embarrassed to be admitting this, but I truly "heart" my SurfShelf.

Surf Shelf is a little plastic shelf that attaches via sturdy velcro strips to the front of the treadmill.  It essentially turns any treadmill into a treadmill desk, a concept developed in recent years to help workers who spend most of their time writing or on the phone to be active at the same time.

I first learned about treadmill desks a number of years back when I saw on the news (CNN maybe) a story about a Mayo Clinic doctor who used them and recommended them for weight loss and just general fitness.  I thought it sounded like such a cool idea.  Here's a NY Times article describing the trend and the physician, Dr. Joe Levine.  But professional treadmill desks are hugely expensive, and take up a ton of space.  At that time we didn't even have a treadmill, and several of our children were babies, making it way less than practical.  I just thought it sounded like a cool concept.  My dear husband, though I love him dearly, thought it was a goofy concept (and I'm pretty sure he still does), especially in a work setting.

But about a year ago, we finally got a treadmill, and it's actually gotten quite a bit of use at our house from everyone, not just me running on icy days.  A few months later I discovered the Surf Shelf.  I was a little skeptical, but I thought that $40 was worth a shot.  I ordered my Surfshelf  from Amazon since I have a Prime membership (another one of my favorite things), so it shipped free.

The Surf Shelf takes up just a little space in front of the treadmill.  It was a little tricky to figure out the way to attach it to our treadmill (a NordicTrack from Sears), and I don't have it attached exactly the way they describe, but it works fine for me.  When someone wants to walk or run on the treadmill, we can easily slip the shelf out of its plastic holder to provide more room on the treadmill.

Yes, I'm actually walking at a super slow speed on my treadmill as I write this.   I tend to keep it at a 1.5 or 2 mph speed, though many people recommend keeping it at a 1.  I just find I can do 1.5 the same as 1, so why not log more miles while I am working.  I don't usually get sweaty at all, and I just wear whatever I'm wearing and my older pair of running shoes.

I go in cycles of using the SurfShelf and and not using it.  I tend not to use it on days when I run, or just when I'm checking email.   In the summer I barely used it as all as we were pretty busy, but now that the kids are back in school I plan to begin to use it again.   I don't use it for all my writing, and I also usually check my columns for the Catholic Post after printing them out and reading them through.  That must seem terribly 20th century, but it truly is the best way to edit.  Sometimes about those red marks.

For me, running and exercise are essential to keeping healthy both physically and emotionally, as well as sharp mentally.   One of the people quoted in the NY Times article said she found working on a treadmill desk actually improved her concentration "taking care of the ADD thing" and I found that to be true as well. When I want to focus, the walking actually helps me a little bit, so I probably have some ADD.  I also find that when I need to quite a bit of writing, staying on the treadmill keeps me rooted, instead of getting up to do laundry or putz around the house.  Now, if the SurfShelf could only do something about the lure of checking Facebook...

Do you think turning your desk into a treadmill sounds goofy or cool?

Favorite Things Friday: Wholly Guacamole 100-Calorie Packs

I love avocados, but for much time I didn't buy them because of price or availability.    I would usually save my time for getting avocados when we would go out to eat, and I could get it on a salad or burger.

But some time back, I decided that I really, really like avocados on my lunch sandwich, and this fruit is really nutritious.  So I started buying individual avocados occasionally. Sometimes it worked beautifully because the ripeness of the avocado was perfect when I cut it, and I could save some of the avocado for the next day's sandwich. (I don't really mind how it goes brown, but I also could have drizzled some lemon juice on it if I did). But sometimes it didn't work out, as the avocado would be too ripe or not ripe enough.

Several times I saw a bag of them at Sam's Club, and they were usually high quality and a good ripeness. I would use one and maybe make guacamole with several others, saving the rest in the fridge for future sandwiches, but I could never get to all of them and there would be waste. My husband would eat some guacamole if I made Mexican food, but the kids didn't and the waste (or me having to eat guacamole day after day) became annoying, too.

So I once again abandoned buying avocados. And then, one day, I was (woefully) passing the beautiful bag of avocados at Sam's Club, I happened to see in just the next aisle over, Wholly Guacamole 100-calorie packs. Wow! I thought. Here's a way to have individual servings for me that don't go to waste. They are freezable, so even if I buy the Sam's Club version, I can save any that are nearing the sell-by date and take them out individually. Joy!

I see at the Wholly Guacamole website that they also have individual packs of salsa, though I haven't seen those available in our local grocery stores.  I don't see individual packs of their queso dip, but that could be fun.

My only request to the Wholly Guacamole people is to make a 100-calorie pack of just avocados, without the guacamole spices.  Sometimes I just want that clean creamy avocado flavor without the guacamole/salsa spice.

Do you like avocados?  What's your favorite way to use them?