Run Log: September 2013

And...here we go.  My birthday month is over; marathon month is starting.  My training is in the taper weeks {KILLING ME, by the way}, Cross Country is winding down...school is getting in the groove.
I've changed my thinking about this marathon from, "I think this is the stupidest thing I've ever decided to do and I'm scared."  to, "I'm going to be a marathoner."
I AM going to be a marathoner.  I AM going to run the best race possible.  I may hate every step of the last six miles...but I'm going to be proud to run them.  "I am a Champion ~ You're gonna hear me ROAR" {Thank you Katy Perry}
Jackie and Amy gave me a 26.2 magnet for my birthday.  It's staying in the bottom of the bag until October 14...when I put it on my white board @ school.
My boys gave me two massages.  The first will be this Thursday & the second will be Monday, October 14.  I'm really going to need that one!

September’s Totals:

138.46 miles for the month 
943.92 miles for the year
0 biking miles for the month
132 biking miles for the year
237.63 miles for my orange mizunos {actually a few less, because I didn't separate out the 10 miles or so I ran at XC practice}

My WEIGHT:  Last I checked it was 132ish.  I thought about getting on this morning...but after all the crap I ate over my birthday weekend, I really didn't want to know {and I forgot that I would be reporting it today}  I'm not too worried about what it is...I'm worried about what it will be after October 13!

Some interesting facts:

Longest run this month: 20.56 {in 3:00:01}
Favorite place to run this month: I have to say the Fairport Marathon course.  I cursed it at the time, but it's been the vision of most of my running since.  I've been picturing the last six miles & how I'm going to tackle them.  I hope the mental practice from that one run pays off.
# of bags of Candy Cane Kisses left in my cabinet: One {and it's gotta be stale}
# of books I read this month: three
Monthly mileage record: 155.46 ~ August 2013!  WOW
Highest mileage ever-at-one-time:  20.56 ~ September 21, 2013

PR's:
5K: 22:45 (Rabbit Run 10/30/11~ but I think it was a short course)
10K: 52:02 (Cleveland 5/15/11)
10-miler: 1:21:29 (Hermes Cleveland 10-miler 4/28/12)
half-marathon: 1:47:35 (Cleveland Half 5/19/2013)
marathon: 3:50:05 (Akron relay {team run} 9/24/11)

45

Technology & Birthdays!

First is was Facebook & the joy of all the birthday wishes there...

Today I pulled up to the ATM to get $ for food at the Grape Jamboree {sausage sammage, bucket 'o fries & a purple cow} I put in my card & my ATM machine wished me a Happy Birthday.  What about that?

Then I opened Google...

You may not be able to see clearly, but the Google letters are saying, "Happy Birthday, Becky!"

I love technology. ~ but mainly because Patrick facetimed me from UC ~ he looks good and he sounds good & he's coming home next Saturday.

So, Happy Birthday to me. If I live to be 90, I'm halfway there.

#27

There's been lots going on in my world between books 26 & 27...but I haven't been able to write about my growing marathon fear, the missing of my college son, the stress of a new school year, the fun of XC, the stess and joy of life...so here I am, at book #27.  Commencement by J. Courtney Sullivan.  I read it because her second book, engagement, was recommended as a good summer read ~ and I am unable to read a second book without reading the first {even when they are totally two separate pieces of fiction...}  It was a long one {400+pages} and rambling, at times, about four college friends ~ how their separate lives were never so very separate.  How dreams and passions can get mixed up.  How love and family can be the same thing...and how they can be very different.  The ending left me wanting more...which makes it a good ending.

Quotes:
p320 ~ April's just a Dixie cup of crazy.  Lydia's more like a twenty-gallon tank.

p372 ~ Smith had left its mark on her, so that the place would always feel like home, but she was a stranger here now.  In each of er friends, her Smith College self would always live on.  Maybe that was why they were all still so important to one anotehr, even though so much had changed.

fl: Celia woke with a gasp.  ll: "Is it you?" Sally said at last.  "It's me."

#26

I did get in the interrupted book ~ and I'm still waiting for the two I have on hold through ClevNet...and I didn't think I'd have time to read it.  Just in time for fall, I've discovered a great summer author {note to self...next summer!}  #26 is nancy thayer's summer breeze {lower case, because that's how she put it on the cover}.  A sweet and kinda romantic story of three women, who become friends, & the men they love.  It's charming & light & full of summer. ~ and Slade, a great name for a bad boy.

quotes:
p11 ~ It was June, perhaps her favorite month, warm and fresh and full of the promise of summer. {I told you it was a summer read}

p12 ~ she was almost aggressively fashion-unconscious.  {I LOVE the description...it could be me}

Good Words:
p70 ~   repose

         temporary rest from activity, excitement, or exertion, esp. sleep or the rest given by sleep.

p107~  desultorily

         lacking a plan, purpose, or enthusiasm

gulp....gulp....gulp

I started a post yesterday about my incredibly amazing training run on Thursday, but with all the craziness that is life in the fall, I never quite finished it (I think I got a sentence typed.)  Today that post seems irrelevant.  Today was an 18 miler.  Dodd and I decided to run 18 miles of the marathon course, which was probably a great idea.
So I'm flying high from Thursday's run...where I ran 5 miles in 39:17 {that's a 7:51 pace, in case you don't want to do the math}.  I have NEVER EVER EVER run more than 2 miles at an under 8:00 pace.  I was so pumped ~ felt so strong ~ felt so unconquerable...
And then there were the last mile and a half of today's 18.  It was sheer mental effort that kept me on my feet until my watch said 18.  I feel like crying...because I don't know if I CAN do those last 8.  I know I couldn't have done them today.
I knew this marathon thing was not to be taken lightly...but, honestly, I have had such great long runs...I had confidence that I could do it.  After Thursday I started telling a few people that my goal was to be a BQ {3:55 for a 45 year old woman}.
I am pretty sure that I'm not going to do that, and I'm not so sure that I'll have a successful 26.2.
I hope it's a good thing that I'm becoming a little more realistic about this task...because I really just feel like crying at the futility of what I've set out to do.

marathon...gulp

Drove the course for my October 13 marathon...I was feeling confident; now my knees are knocking a little.  My training runs are downhill for the last two miles.  The home stretch for the finish line is uphill...and not a slight uphill.
Fairport Harbor is HILLY.
We are also running up a gravel path from the Mentor Marsh to Headlands Road.  It looked up.

Time to mentally prepare.  I think my legs can do it.  Now I need my head to do it.

I am going to be a marathoner.

#25

#25 interrupted a book ~ which I think I need to mention ~ because I think the next book I have on hold will interrupt it & I might actually want to go back & read it ~ summer breeze by nancy thayer.  Anyway, book #25 is The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida.  Naoki was 13 when he wrote this book.  He used a special computer and alphabet grid to write it because he is a non-verbal boy with autism.  He is so well 'spoken', with such a clear understanding of how he is different ~ it just blew me away.  He speaks for all people with autism, but I wonder if that really is the case.  There are many specifics to his own life, that he broadly put onto all with autism...but from a 13-year-old's perspective, it probably seems true.  He wrote of things that totally changed my perception of those struggling with autism ~ lots of things I highlighted...so here we go:
 p1 ~ a great word:  unstoppably

p12 ~ The three characters used for the word "autism" in Japanese signify "self", "shut" and "illness."

p34 ~ Some of you may think we read aloud with a strange intonation, too.  This is because we can't read the story and imagine the story at the same time.

p67 ~ Even performing one straightforward task, I can't get started as smoothly as you can.  Here's how I have to go about things: 1. I think about what I'm going to do.  2. I visualize how I'm going to do it.  3. I encourage myself to get going.  How smoothly I can do the job depends on how smoothly this process goes.

p92 ~ Every single thing has its own unique beauty.  People with autism get to cherish this beauty, as if it's a kind of blessing given to us.  Wherever we go, whatever we do, we can never be completely lonely.

p101 ~ Unchanging things are comforting, and there's something beautiful about that.

p119 ~ But to us people with special needs, nature is an important as our own lives.  The reason is that when we look at nature, we receive a sort of permission to be alive in this world, and our entire bodies get recharged.  However often we're ignored and pushed away by other people, nature will always give us a good big hug, here inside our hearts.

p129 ~ people with autism never, ever feel at ease, wherever we are.  Because of this, we wander off--or run away--in search of some location were we do feel at ease.

p134 ~ Roads speak to us people with autism, and invite us onward.

p135 ~ I feel a deep envy of people who can know what their own minds are saying, and who have the power to act accordingly. My breain is always sending me off on little missions, whether or not I want to do them.  And if I don't obey, then I have to fight a feeling of horror.

p140~ To you who are helping us, I'd say this: please handle and approach our behavioral issues with a strong faith that they are definitely going to pass, at some point in the future.  When we are stopped from doing what we want, we may well make a terrible song and dance about it, but in time we'll get used to the idea.  And until we reach that point, we'd like you to stick with it, and stick with us.

p149~ One of the biggest misunderstandings you have about us is your belief that our feelings aren't as subtle and complex as yours.  because how we behave can appear so childish in your eyes, you tend to assume that we're childish on the inside, too.

August stuff

Cleaning out my August memories ~ to make room in my brain for new memories... First of all, I had to memorialize the highest score I've ever managed in a Words with Friends game {sorry Aunt Chris... FYI, we are pretty evenly matched, she may win a few more times than I do ~ so this was a legit high score}  I wish I'd taken a pic of my highest scoring word ever, because I believe it was 109 {but that may or may not be true, as I can't trust my memory}

This picture is of the snake living in our flower bed.  He's a cute little guy & I've warned him never to let Mike see him, because then he will be dead.

And REALLY ~ REALLY?  Why would a high end joint advertise like this? {Taken from Duffy's window looking out at the Vault Steakhouse}