feeling germy

Ever since I started traveling for work (nearly 10 years ago now - gah!) I've wavered in between being a complete germaphobe to being conscious of the germs and carrying my antibacterial lotion with me everywhere.  There becomes a point where you just can't sanitize everything and really don't want to think about it each week.  I kept telling myself sometimes germs aren't such a bad thing (how else did you build your immune system in the first place?). For as much as I do travel I can count on my hand how many times I have been sick over the last 9 1/2 years.  I thank my constant hand washing and use of Bath and Body Works antibacterial lotion (I just like this product because it's easy to carry and doesn't dry out my hands; they don't know who I am from the next person shopping at their store)

So I've been living my little travel bubble for awhile then this past weekend I saw Contagion (an excellent, well acted/directed/filmed movie).  I recommend it if you can handle the "germ-i-ness" because although it is fiction the story is all too realistic/feasible.  Immediately following the movie I was fine.  Not a thought about the old movie theatre and how many people have sat in that seat and touched that armrest before me over the many years it has been open!  Then I left for another business trip and now I seriously can't stop thinking about everything I touch in a single day while traveling.  I know this will pass but it is currently freaking me out :)  If anything, at least the movie has made me more aware of how many times I touch my face and the fact that I need to stop doing that so many times a day.

Now did I just creep you all out too?

my own run to remember

We all know where we were 10 years ago.  I was 22 and had graduated from college only 2 months earlier.  I was without a "big girl" job still working at the Gap and living with a college friend in a high-rise on the northside of the city.  I had slept in late because I had to work the later shift.  My dad had been in downtown Cleveland for a trial and was evacuated just after the 1st plane hit.  He frantically tried to call me but I had left our house landline in the living room under blankets and was ignoring my cell.  I woke up mad at the world for being woken up, laughed at my dad, then realized it was no joke as soon as I could find our remote.  My roommate was actually home so I woke her up and we just stared at the television with tears in our eyes not knowing what to do.  There were still rumors about Chicago being on the list so we anxiously looked out the window facing downtown.  

Then I had to go to work... at the Gap.  Seriously who wants to buy the new fall sweater on a day like this!  I drove into work along Lakeshore drive.  The drive is normally a solid stream of cars at all hours.  10 years ago I passed 1 other car.  It was eerie.  No one was out and rightfully so.  I was freaking out about having to be so close to downtown in case something else happened.  And wouldn't you know 2 other people came in to shop over the next few hours.  Finally my manager got the okay to close the store early and I rushed home to "safety"...

Today I decided to run my own run to remember.  6 miles, 1 hour to remember those that were lost, those that ran to and not from the devastation, those that survive, and how far I've and others have come.  Right around the time I had to head into work 10 years ago I left to run along the Lakeshore Drive path.  I only ran part of the distance I drove in fear 10 years ago but I'm happy that I can say it is no longer a scared ghost town of a city.  I can honestly say I have never had a more peaceful run surrounded by strangers on such a beautiful day.

return from vacay, return to real life

I think my body is finally back on CST after returning from Italy last Tuesday.  For nearly a week it was a struggle to stay awake past 8pm each night!  I no longer feel exhausted starting at 2pm either.  Now I'm back on schedule just in time to start traveling for work again.  blah.

The trip was exhausting but only in the best way possible.  The ship was incredible, we met some fun new friends, toured some amazing places, dressed up every night, and had one hell of an experience.  I can't wait to go back!   Also, for the first time in months I slept soundly each night.  I thought it might be all the fresh air, the sway of the boat, or the fact we tried to do everything in each country and returned to the ship exhausted.  Last night I realized while it may have been a combination of all those things I think the primary reason for actually sleeping was because I was finally away from work stresses and not replaying my "to do" list each night.  When we left on the 18th I shut everything off and didn't think about it again until last Wednesday.  It. was. amazing.  I function incredibly well without my crappy job.  If it wasn't for that pesky thing of a paycheck...  No seriously, I slept, I had no shortness of breath, I had no back pain, I ate and drank what I wanted in a reasonable manner and gained no weight.  I wish I could find a way to translate vacation me into real life me!

I'm still editing the 500+ pictures we took over 11 days; currently on day 4 of the trip.  Needless to say it's taking awhile.

summer running break

I did get out for a gloriously humid 4 miles this morning.  And it felt good to run easy sans garmin.

This summer I've been on a lot of these for work:

And for a multitude of reasons (or maybe excuses) I'm not doing a ton of this...

 

I burned myself out and am taking a much needed mental and physical break.  I still run but I'm keeping the mileage on the low end and running without purpose or a watch.  I am enjoying the extra free time because I'm not spending 3.5 hours on a long run by sleeping in on the weekends, enjoying brunches with the husband, and actually getting work done around the condo.  I'm still working out but finding other options like long bike rides along the lake and weights.  I may sign up for a half later this year but right now I am enjoying being schedule free.

Now I'm getting ready to go on one of these:

source

A 10 day celebrity cruise through the Mediterranean!  There is so much that goes into leaving for a long vacation but I know it is all going to be worth it once we get there.  We are going to be visiting Rome, Sicily, Athens, Ephesus Turkey, Rhodes Greece, Santorini, Mykonos and Naples.  If you have any suggestions on must see in our limited time at each stop or where to eat leave them in the comments.  

long weekend make me happy!

I'm incredibly happy and excited for the long holiday weekend.  No work, no worrying about work, and no work travel for 3 1/2 glorious days.  Starting at 1pm Friday afternoon I am looking forward to:

• Seeing the Cubs play and visiting Wrigley for the first time this season.  Nothing like a game at Wrigley and having a reason to sport my cute Cubs gear. 
• Warm weather!  After 44 degree's on Thursday I'll take 70's and possible showers
• Running with no specified distance in mind
• Seeing the Hangover 2
• Relaxing
• Finally putting together a photobook for the in-laws I've been putting off due to lack of time
• Grilling out with the hubs
• Enjoying the empty city!  I love how Chicago clears out over a holiday weekends.  It makes it so much more enjoyable to get around and get hard to make last minute reservations!

Happy Memorial Day!  Enjoy your long weekend!

oh happy (and a little sore) day!

Today is a good day!  A scheduled work trip had to be canceled thanks to the stormy weather.  AND it was canceled far in advance so I didn't have to do the whole, drive to the airport, find out I'm delayed when I get there, wait around for hours, then get canceled.  Even better, I don't have to make the trip up/try to smash it into my schedule because I was only helping out since the other team members couldn't cover it tomorrow.  This trip was hanging over my head this week so it's nice to have that cloud lifted.

Now that I'm no longer"in-training" and figuring out what's next I'm trying to incorporate more of a mixture in my workouts.  When I was hurt earlier this year I picked up a kettlebell at Target which included a 20 minute video with Bob from The BL.  Later I ended up purchasing his 50 minute DVD from Amazon.  These were dvds great while I was injured because I could still do most of the moves while in my boot and work up a serious sweat.  While training for the marathon I didn't make time for the kettlebell.  1) because I'm sort of lazy and 2) because I tried one week to incorporate the video after an easy run and then I was so sore I couldn't complete my remaining speed workout and had to push back my long run later in the week.  Kettlebells seriously kick my butt and last night was no exception.

My husband took my car to the airport and I no desire to go find his that was parked on the street somewhere and drive to the gym.  Instead I popped in the 50 min dvd.  Yeah... today I feel like I ran at least a half marathon.  Legs and back are so sore in such a good way.  If you want your butt kicked in the comfort of your living room pick up one of Bob's kettlebell workout dvd's.  I had the ceiling fan going and the windows open to let the cool 50 degree air in and I still was drenched (and swearing at the TV) within 10 minutes into the workout.

I get bored with workout dvds easily but this is one I will definitely be incorporating more often.

Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon race report

Spoiler alert - this post could also be titled "It just wasn't my day"

carrying on the saying/team name from the flying pig 2 weeks ago.  It brought me some motivation and a lot of comments during this race.

Alright settle in this takes awhile...

Sunday I lined up to run the 34th Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon for my 3rd year in a row.  For the 2nd year  Mr. H lined up to pace me and my friend Sarah ran her 3rd Cleveland half marathon.  They have both run one of the races (10K, half, marathon) for the last 5 years.

Mr. H was with me once again because during one night of drinking while home for the holiday in Dec 2009 I asked the speedster to get me to a sub-4 hour marathon.  I struggle with the Cleveland course each year but I keep signing up because I'm a masochist always one for a challenge.  At this point my friend is as determined as I am for me to break the 4 hour barrier.  Though after being injured and coming out of the boot only 13 weeks ago, having a lackluster training because I spent much of my time building my base back up again, not having the time to commit due to my crazy travel schedule, and general lack of motivation I wasn't feeling overly confident this year.  

I was up and at 'em at 4:30 am Sunday morning.  Sarah, Chris and her parents (my 2nd mom and dad) were picking me up from my dad's house around 5-5:15 a.m. to make the drive to Cleveland.  It was a foggy and cool though humid morning with on and off rain showers.  We arrived almost an hour before race start so we killed time making several bathroom trips.  Luckily we had access to the Brown's Stadium and every bathroom was open and there was cover! So many people didn't realize that if you walked 10 additional steps the opposite direction there was one with no bathroom line.  We made the extra effort and had no waiting each time.  

About 20 minutes before the start time we headed to the start line.  It was chaotic!  This was the first year for the race starting by the stadium and there was limited space.  Cleveland also doesn't use corrals or very many barricades so spectators were standing with the runners in the shoot.  We weaved our way through to the 4 hour marathon pacers and found a spot on the sidelines until the races started instead of smashing our way into the line.  We had just enough time for a quick pic before the start.

The half marathoners and marathoners started together.  Since Sarah was attempting to break the 2 hour half marathon bar she started with us!  Around the end of mile 1 I turned to her and asked "In high school did you ever see us running a marathon and half marathon together ever?"  We both had a good laugh.  While we both played sports in high school we were much larger and not runners at all.  In fact Sarah threw the shot put and discus!  How times have changed!

We started out slow and kept the 4 hour pacer group in sight.  The first few miles went by quickly and I mostly just buckled down to a pace that felt right and fell in behind Mr. H.  Around mile 6 Sarah decided to back off from us and finish on her own.  We wished her luck and kept on.  We saw Mr. and Mrs. Dobney in Tremont (one of the best areas of the course) around mile 8.  Always a boost seeing people you know.

At the point of the course where marathoners turned right and half marathoners went straight to finish I took a turn for the worse.  My stomach felt off and everything felt heavy.  I felt like my week of travel and being stressed was catching up to me in the worst way.  I asked Mr. H if we could just finish the half and call it a day.  He said he would do whatever I wanted but I was determined to at least finish another marathon so I turned.  I have never felt this bad this soon in a race and it really got to me mentally.  I was still only about 2 minutes off my pace and gaining time but it felt like such a struggle to maintain.  When we turned onto Euclid Avenue before mile 13 were were greeted with dropping temperatures and wind.  Oh and a open bus lane and cars trying to maneuver around the runners.  Yeah, that was a bit scary.  Around this point I lost the 4 hour pace group and honestly I couldn't have cared less.

By mile 15 I was trying not to get sick and started dry heaving.  Everything felt off and I couldn't recall any positive affirmations only a very negative "this is a little early for the death march to start".  I made mini goals of just get to the next mile marker or to the next water station.  I let myself walk through every water station.  My stomach was off and I was struggling to fuel properly.  Chris was being great and if he hadn't been there I probably would have walked off the course and called it a day.  Not one to let anyone down I kept on trucking slowly.

Around 19 I grabbed a jet blackberry GU and walked to take about 3/4 of it in.  We were leaving the University Village/Metropark area which was pretty but absolutely dead!  The water stations had wonderful volunteers but few spectators showed up on the back half of the marathon (like usual).  This year there were even less because of the weather.  I'm not sure more support would have mattered because I was not noticing or registering much at this point.  As we turned left onto the bike path we had the wind at our back and I had a short reprieve from my stomach pain.  I found some energy, started belting out some random rap song that had come on my ipod and nailed a sub-9 minute mile for mile 20.   I thought maybe I was finding some random 2nd (or 3rd, 4th) wind.  

Then I officially crashed hard.  By mile 23 I wanted nothing to do with this stupid course, I kept apologizing to Chris, and generally felt like s*%^.  My usual "you can do anything for a 5K!" was having no effect and I was walking every chance I could. By mile 24/25 I had an 10:50 minute mile.  I'm surprised I could even muster that!

I didn't talk much and Chris tried to push me (as I had instructed him to!) to pick it up and take it home.  I let out a small "it's not happening today Chris" and he understood.  I told him I knew I would make it even if I had to walk and I would get there eventually.  Just before mile 26 marker we saw Sarah and her parents and turned right onto a downhill which actually felt okay on my legs.  The rain started to pick up but I didn't care I just wanted to see the finish line banner.  Over the last mile we had to dodge and weave all the 10K and half marathon walkers who were walking 2-5 across as well as spectators who had edged onto the course because there were no barricades keeping them on the sidewalks.  Something I hope the race officials acknowledge and fix.

We crossed the finish line officially in 4:10:33 for a 9:33 pace.  Not my worst but not my best.  I wasn't all the happy with myself but I was happy I finished my 6th marathon.  

Sarah ended up with a 2:02 half marathon!  A new personal best for her!  Yea Sar!!!

Maggie asked to try on my medal ;)  

I swore I would never run another marathon after this death march.  Of course I'm checking out marathonguide.com today while laying in bed still unable to walk.  I think my next step is to re-focus on half marathon and shorter distances.  I want to get some of my speed back.  I also like that there is a much shorter recovery time for the half.  I think my next challenge will be back to back half marathons and see how I handle that before jumping back into a full.