20 miles

It's nice when the only things on the "To Do" list are:
* 20 miles - run it, walk it, just get through it
* eat
* shower
* nap
* season opener hockey game

Cuz then you are in such a calorie deficit that you can go and enjoy those arena hot dogs that are piled with chili, cheese, onions, and sauerkraut. Mmm, good. Oh, and the introductions to the players and the images of the guys in street clothes with hockey sticks, OMG. Yeah, OMG. My brain just kinda stops there.

And then you go and find that the 20 miles has made you forget how to do math as in algebra and number theory and other things you're going to be tested on in a month. Or maybe it was the image of the Caps in their street clothes. My brain does kinda stop there... Have I said "OMG" yet?

Marathon running

It's amazing to watch the Olympics and the worlds top marathoners run. I watched the women last week and now the men. After an hour and 40 minutes, the men were somewhere around mile 21. For some perspective...I did 8 miles in about 1 hr 36 minutes. Yeah...I'm slow. I am happy that now that I've now seriously picked back up with the marathon training (really late in the summer), I'm back at the 12 min/mile form of last year. Whee! There is a bit of pressure. I managed to pick up a transfer entry into the Marine Corps Marathon for this year so I'll be doing that at the end of October. In addition, I'll be hitting up Memphis at the beginning of December. Yes, I'm already looking forward the greasy burgers I will be eating for dinner after both races.

Oh, and I really hate all the metro maintenance on the weekends. I was at the Braddock St. metro and was trying to get back to Rosslyn. After the Pentagon stop, I just went "Why is the train crossing the river??? It's not supposed to cross the river!!! OH SHIT!" So that kinda messed with my plans for the afternoon and didn't get to my nap until just after dinner.

Next week, we go for 10 miles and a long nap on the couch.

Happy New Year!

Tomorrow is the Chinese New Year, which makes today New Year's Eve. Since I found myself awake at 6 this morning, I called the family in Taiwan and got passed around to the various members. And then I remembered that I had to go to work in an hour or two and promptly fell back asleep.

A couple of days ago, I finished my Everlasting Bagstopper from the Summer 2007 Knitty.

The plan now is to tie this around my waist when I go running and run towards a farmer's market. From the office parking lot, it's about 6 miles to Eastern Market and about 8 miles to the Old Town farmer's market. From one of those, I can then take the metro back to the office. If I can manage to get out of bed on Saturday, I think I'll be headed towards Eastern Market.

Mid Thanksgiving break

I finished some socks. Just in time too cuz I'm going to see the recipient for a hockey game tomorrow! Cornell vs. BU at Madison Square Garden. How awesome is that? The arena is going to be all red and white cuz both schools are going to be all red and white. I'm going to see people I normally see once a year. Going to eat some good food, watch a hockey game, hang out with some friends into the night. Gotta love New York! Anyways, it's on my way home.

Back to the socks. Wendy's generic toe up pattern using Colinette Jitterbug. This color way kept making me think of a hot fudge sundae with a cherry.



I started out the week in Philly where I ran the half. It was cold, it was raining. Did I mention that it was cold? I still managed to finish in under 3 hours with little to no training the last month from illness and being overstressed at work.

Then I continued on up the east coast to Providence, RI for Thanksgiving. Pulled back into work on my travel day so we're going to have to talk about my days off when I get back about when can I take a day off for real? Two exhausting days working full days and did another 3 hours or so of work Thursday morning before I got busy with the turkey. And after that I pretty much just said "fuck it" to the work. I'm not a miracle worker, even though people think I can just make things happen with a quick motion of my magic wand. No. You're just going to send me to the mental facility THAT MUCH SOONER! My brain keeps seizing up everytime I log back into work. Edited to remove some overly emotional venting

Oh right, food. Sorry to side track into life. It's either bitch and complain here or not post at all due to all the negativity spewing out right now. Turkey turned out well. We get a turkey from Whole Foods every year. It comes all set to go, you just have to pop it into the oven. I made some ham/sausage maple stuffing Wednesday night and some sweet potato gratin. I love the stuffing! The sweet potato gratin didn't really do much for me. Cranberry sauce out of a can. Chinese sticky rice. That is a tradition my mom started way back when...instead of stuffing, we had sticky rice. There were also some green beans.

Pictures of everything can be found here.

Philadelphia Half Marathon

It was supposed to be a full but illness hampered my training and I only did the half. It was cold and it was rainy and it was cold. COLD! Even with my lack of training in the last month, I still managed to finish in under 3 hours. 2:51 and change. Which isn't bad considering this was right around my time from a couple of years ago when I did the Philly Distance Run, also a half marathon and I had actually just done the VA Rock N Roll Half Marathon 2 weeks prior to that and taken 10 minutes off. Ah...the joys of not training.

Feeling better

• I'm feeling better. I've been sick for 2 weeks, at times being so incredibly tired that all I wanted to do was sleep.


• I finished that green sweater with the Lamb's Pride Bulky. There is no FO picture right now. K2P2 was about all the thinking I was capable of handling.


• I walked 13.1 miles today as part of the Nike+ Women's Virtual Half Marathon. I haven't moved in 2 weeks from being sick. I'm quite sore.


• Nothing new on the beading front. It took too much brain power.

Whee!!!!

The first 100 miles with Nike+!

Saturday afternoon progress report

When you start a workout with the Nike+ system, you can choose "Basic" (run until you tell it to stop), "Time" (set a time goal, say, work out for an hour), "Distance" (I want to run 10 miles today), or "Calories" (I feel like burning 2000 calories today). Under the "Distance", there is a preset group of distances (think your average race distances) along with a custom option. I was thinking, as I crawled out of bed this morning, that 12 miles might be a good distance. But when I went to go set my work out, I was too lazy to take the extra 30 seconds to go to custom and instead just picked "Half Marathon". 13.1 miles...close enough to 12. Conclusion of the run. My body was fine through 12 miles. I pushed myself through the last 1.1 mile. Ow I hurt.

And now, I go tackle the carpets. Experience from my room has taught me a bit and I had 13.1 miles to plot out exactly how to execute the plan today. Seriously, I spent the run thinking "I will pull up carpet today. Must stop by Home Depot on the way home to get some paint color samples. Should take no more than 4 hours to get all carpets, tack strips up and the floor cleaned. I can slap on a layer of primer tonight and paint when I wake up in the morning. And I shouldn't bother showering immediately when I get home cuz the carpet padding and dust is just going to stick to a nice showered body so I might as well stay dirty." Yeah, so all you people, stay away from me today!

Weekend goals

It's Labor Day weekend! I have 3 days off, though I'll probably have to monitor work slightly. Whee! I thought I'd make a list of things I'd like to accomplish this weekend, just so I have a reminder.

• Run 10+ miles Saturday mornining


• Bike the full Mt. Vernon trail


• Get my entire yarn stash into pictures so they can be loaded into ravelry


• Organize the larges batches of beads


• Start putting all my necklaces up on etsy. Yup, that's right all. The ones I don't want to part with might be marked a little higher...but that's cuz I don't want to part with them as much


• probably a little much but pull up the carpet in the room upstairs with the yarn and beads

If I can do all of that, I think I will be happy.

Um, stuff

I got out and did the 4 mile loop between Key and Memorial bridges today. It was nice. Breathing was hard since I haven't exercised in 3 weeks and the cold is finishing up and my throat was dry but I finished and I feel good. This is good news cuz I'm signed up to do the Cherry Blossom 10 miler in a couple of weeks.

In some etsy surfings, can we say, "WAY UNDERPRICED"? Does that even pay for the yarn?

My brain is ouchy. I think it's the running that did me in. I put away the beads and yarn tonight cuz my brain was too tired. So instead, I was trying to learn the blogger tag lingo and adding new widgets in. Ya, my brain is weird. It's tired and you'd think it'd prefer to knit or bead since it requires less effort than coding, but no...brain wants to sort through xml tags and widgets. I'm trying to duplicate the Blog Archive widget for the Sweet Life Knitters KAL blog to be more specific but it was not liking me and brain was having a hard time figuring out what part of my xhtml it did not like. And then I just noticed that instead of the br tags to separate these paragraphs, i was using the closing /a tags. Ya, I hand code my html, and ya, I'm tired. I think I'm headed to bead and I hope this means I can actually get up in the morning.

Awake for once

It's the first night since the marathon since I've been up past 10. I'm a little behind on the pictures.
Amber got me some spinnable fluff as a congrats you finished the marathon present. I need a picture of that. I also got some blue spinnable fluff from ebay. Need a picture of that too. I also (finally) finished the Somewhat Cowl. I need to block it and then take a finished picture. There are some "I still need to sew in ends" pictures but I'm going to wait until I'm finished. I've turned the heel on the second Anna sock. I've also got 4 Swarovski pearl necklaces to string up and a blue cabochon necklace to finish. I think I"m going to give my cousing the blue cab. I'm leaving in less than 2 weeks. Now that I've regained my energy, I need to stop sleeping so that I can finish all of this stuff. Plus, there has been some upheaval at work in the last couple of days so I've reprioritized and trying to get everything done and all the information I need before I leave on my trip. Yeah, cryptic, but I've been told that some people I work with check my blog to see if there's a picture of me, and they've been on holiday and I don't think they've been told of the news yet.
I knew I'd be working myself to death before I left. At least I don't have a marathon in the upcoming future to train for.


Speaking of which, I have started looking at marathons to do for next year. I mean, imagine what I could do if I trained properly! One is the New Yorkmarathon, but that's a lottery system since I can't run fast enough to qualify for a guaranteed entry. Another is the Mayor's Midnight Sun Marathon up in Ankorage, Alaska. You start running at midnight. So I'll worry about that stuff after I get back. Don't think I'll get back into a regular training pattern til January anyways.

I finished! And I'm alive!

And I finished on my own 2 feet! I was going to bring a disposable camera but I left it at home. Instead, I pulled out the trusty cell phone and took pictures at various mile markers. Now, we get to relive that exeperience here, while I'm lying motionless on my bed. Here's the course map in pdf format. Warning that it takes a while to load.
My actual thoughts in bold.

Here we are before the start. Reshma on the left, me on the right. Don't we look clean and not sweaty? Our start actually got delayed because after the first wave left, there was some "security" issue that had to be cleared up

While approaching mile 1: mmm...Chipotle. Hey Starbucks. The office is just 2 blocks up, I could go use the bathroom there

	Mile 2 up Lee Highway. This hill was a lot bigger than I had expected. The pack was still thinning out here. I didn't get to take a picture in Rosslyn cuz it was just too crowded.
	Spout Run, as we're headed to GW Parkway and the Key Bridge. Lots of wooded areas. Guys are lucky that they can just run off to the side and shield themselves if nature calls. Not so easy for women.
	Grr...hill. Almost into Georgetown. Almost into Georgetown where there are oranges.
	Georgetown and Mile 5. Where are those oranges???
	Need to take the long sleeves off. This is a good place. Must also pay attention to side of road for a hidden wooded area to use the facilities.
	Still in woods. Still no good places to run off into nature
	This means we're almost out of Rock Creek Park, right? Really must find some place to go because I can't go on the Mall
	This area had potential...some wooded area by the river. Yes, I went

So, I didn't take any pictures on the Mall cuz I was tired then. However, between miles 12 and 13, the high school marching bad was playing Rock 'n Roll part 2, so while most people are yelling "Hey!", I was yelling (and pointing) and doing the Cornell hockey version of: "da da da SIEVE! dada dada da da da da SIEVE! WE'RE GONNA BEAT THE HELL OUTTA YOU. F'em up! F'em up! Go CU! " That pepped me up. So around the mall and down Independence and back towards the Tidal Basin. My leg started to cramp up bit just before mile 15.

Welcome to Hell

Hain's Point and East Potomac Park is really awful because there really isn't much there. I had been running 2 lamp post lengths and walking 2 lamp post lengths. At mile 18 is the 'tortured look' of the Awakening. As many point out, it's appropriately fitting. It was sometime after this that my leg cramped up again after a little bit of running and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to finish. I decided that if I walked the rest of the way, I should be okay. I just kept moving, wasn't hard, legs were on autopilot at a brisk pace. They were also telling us that if we kept moving, we'd make it across the bridge before it was opened up to traffic. Now the goal was "Beat the Bridge". I was very tempting to stop at the medical tent and just stop. I think that was when I hit the wall. I also put my long sleeve back on just before exiting East Potomac Park. It was getting cold.

	THE BRIDGE! THE BRIDGE!
	Beat the Bridge, baby! This was the other side, on Virginia soil. I'm almost there and the first checkpoint is passed and if I can keep walking, I can finish. No Recovery Bus for me!
	Where are those Jelly Belly Sports Beans? Are they all out? Crystal City is so evil to be floating the smell of BBQ.
	mmm...Five Guys. It's just up the hill from the finish. mmm...grease...I want a little cheeseburger with ketchup, mustard, lettuce, tomatoe, fried onions, sauteed mushrooms. I can just smell that grease
	Mile 26. F-ing 2 tenths of a mile up a f-ing hill. I knew this was coming but still.
	I'M DONE! I'M DONE!

Post race, we stopped in the office to use the bathroom and went to Five Guys. I forgot to get ketchup and mustard. My legs are starting to stiffen up, but I'm alive. Supposedly, I finished 6 hours, 32 minutes and 42 seconds. And here's the "Don't try this at home" part. All summer, the most I had run was 20K, which is about 12.4 miles. I was trying not to do this whole "If I've done half the distance, the other half wouldn't be that hard" deal like I did last year with the VA Beach Rock N Roll Half marathon. Somehow, though, it did work out that way.

Marathon morning

I can't f*ing believe I'm doing this.

Unsuccessful

I put on shorts today. Along with a sleeveless top. And for good measure, I put something long sleeve over that...for before I warmed up. This was before I stepped out of the house. After I stepped out of the house, it still felt a bit cold, but that's okay.
Then I got into the car and saw that it was 30 something degrees. How did no one mention this critical fact to me? So my plan to run 16 miles today did not come to fruition. I ran maybe the first 2 or 3 miles. And then I was over in East Potomac Park. And my muscles just didn't work. The river side of the park was ridiculously cold with the wind blowing off the river. So I walked around East Potomac park and got back to the tidal basic and walked myself to the Smithsonian metro where I returned to my car. Overall, a not so successful morning. I did decide to knit myself a wool cap because the wind blowing against my head was giving me a headache.

why?

Why? Why? Why? Someone needs to explain to my why I signed up for the Marine Corps Marathon. Because tomorrow morning, I'm getting up before the crack of dawn to run something like 15-17 miles. And I'm already tired and getting more tired just thinking about it. So, why did I sign up for MCM? It's not like I can blame my friend Reshma this time. I was the one who signed up for it.

I think this is going to be my route tomorrow: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=491610. Gotta love google pedometer. How does one replace close to 2000 calories? Judy needs to replace at least 1500, for fear that she will get another headache that doesn't go away until she goes to sleep tomorrow night. Judy is really tired. That's why she's talking in the 3rd person.

20K is...

• 12.4 miles. For about the first 11.5 miles, I thought 20K = 12.8 miles. Imagine my happy surprise.
  
• Less than the distance from my house to Bead Obsessions if I take the Beltway


• Less than the distance from my house to work (in Rosslyn) if I take 395.


• The distance I ran this morning, for which I got my butt up at 5am and drove to Leesburg for.
  

Now I have an excuse to lie on my couch all afternoon and either knit or bead. Cuz I don't think I'll have much energy for much else. And I don't really have control of my feet at this point.