boston run to remember race report: my turn

I guess I'm qualified to write a race report now, right? Here goes:

So, I was just telling Lloyd last night, I think I have a case of post-race let-down. He nodded so knowingly, no other words needed to pass between us for me to know I was completely understood. It's just that so much mental and physical energy went into preparing for the race, and then the race came and, inevitably, in a few short hours, ended. But my goodness, it sure was wonderful and has already become a source of dewy-eyed nostalgia and a memory to savor, not even quite a week later.

Here's a shot of Emilie and me on Saturday, day before the race, on the waterfront in Boston. In this case, the waterfront isn't so much the feature as our happy, smiley heads. And happy and smiley we were. (For those of you who don't know, Emilie and I are great friends from undergrad days, but much more than that, too; as Emilie pointed out this weekend, we've had incredible adventures together before: NELP, Ecuador, San Francisco, counselors for a summer at Camp Runoia in Maine, and now, half-marathon).


So, let me set the scene for you a bit: cloudless, breezy, cool/warm, excitement in the air, and also loud, blaring music in the air. I can't remember what we heard in the morning, but I do know I crossed the finish line to the blaring sounds of Boston (the band). Fitting, right?

Anyways, here we stand, fit, fidgety, well-trained and keyed up as jackrabbits. So fun. I must say, don't we look pretty great? Between the 2 of us we have lost over 60 pounds since the last time we saw each other last August (she had her second baby February '07). We spent a few minutes at the airport checking each other out and telling each other how hot we look. Aren't we entitled?!

Still milling around at the starting line. She just looks like a badass, right? And she is. Take my word.


The airhorn sounds and we're off--here we go, crossing the bridge to downtown like a bunch of happy sheep.

My face here may say it all--I had the tremendous good fortune of feeling great on race day. My legs felt frisky and coltish and itchy to run after months of training and a few much-needed rest days before race day. Unfortunately, Emilie was still in the throes of a gnarly chest cold and not feeling as frisky as me. More on that in while...


That photo above is the last one we took before we dug in and got serious about the race (that picture was taken just minutes into it). I carried Emilie's little camera in the secret pocket compartment of my shorts (the next day I noticed a little stellate pattern of small abrasions and broken blood vessels on my leg that could only have come from carrying the camera, though I had no idea it was happening at the time. I consider it another souvenir, along with my medal and t-shirt).

Anyways, what happened in the next 13 or so miles is really the crux of the matter--Emilie and I ran most of the first 6 miles of the race together. Emilie's chest felt crummy and she just wasn't at one hundred percent so she encouraged me to go on and run my own pace. At about mile 6 I did just that and we vowed to meet up at the finish line.

And I felt great the whole race--when I let my legs run, they just ran and ran. I ran splits I never did when I was training and passed runners all the way to the finish line (which was a great psychological lift for me, but perhaps demoralizing for the runners I left in the dust? I asked Lloyd about this; he tells me I'm too solicitious, and that that's a great way to have a good race. Hmmmm.) The miles just clicked by and I felt bolder and stronger with each one . My innate competitiveness asserted itself every time I gained on another group of runners. I got one "go, girl" from a gentleman I passed. Thank you, anonymous gentleman.

Also, must say that the weather couldn't have been better--breezy, sunny, temp rising up to probably near 70 at the end of the race (I heard lots of people complain about the heat; are they for real? They should have done 4 miles in 90 degrees like I did this evening. I felt about as peppy as day-old oatmeal. Humidity only 56%. 56%? I don't know what can prepare a person for a North Carolina summer, but I'm sure I'm not ready).

The course itself was also incredible--beautiful, grand Boston. Brick streets, bridges, gardens, college campuses, sailboats afloat on water dazzling in the brilliant sun, even some rowers on the river. Come on, do they do that just for the tourists or are they for real?

So, I finished in about 2:16 (Boston blaring:"when the lights go down in the city....and the sun shines on the bayeeyay....."), which pleased me very much. Collected my medal, got some snacks, and shook off the numbness and achiness of the hips and hamstrings. By then, I calculated Emilie should be approaching the finish line. I saw her coming and fumbled for the camera and managed to turn it on in time to catch this, with the lump already rising in my throat:


Doesn't she look leggy, elegant, and powerful? And she really is, all 3. I felt so proud of my friend, who is quite an athlete, a triathlete, and a very accomplished swimmer, but who does not think of herself as a runner. A year ago she wouldn't have believed she could complete a half-marathon. At several points during our training I know she felt very discouraged. When she crossed the finish line we just hugged a little sweaty hug and enjoyed the teary emotion of it for a minute. She felt very tired and her legs hurt, but she did it, chest cold and all. To read her account of the race, go to her blog. Here we are with our medals.


After that, it's all gravy; we had a swell dockside meal, featuring the fries and beer I'd been fantasizing about as a post-race indulgence. Okay, so I have fries and beer not after races, too, but those felt so very earned.


The time came to say goodbye to my friend even as we were already dreaming about our next event--next summer in Maine? Triathlon? Or relay race? Lloyd found one that would be good for a 4-person team. I told Emilie I think I'm addicted to training for and completing races together.

I spent Memorial Day with another very close college girlfriend, one whom I hadn't seen in over 3 years, my dear friend Susan and her husband and little girl. They live in beautiful Hingham, near Boston. But drats! I don't have a single photo to prove it. Our camera was home with Lloyd and Junie, and I didn't think to buy a disposable. So just believe me when I say we had a beautiful time. How fortunate I am to have spent time with two such very good friends in one long-weekend.

We had an incredible girls' dinner on the waterfront, spent a day at the beach, had a Memorial day cookout feast with their family and friends (it was great catching up with Sue's parents and her brother, whom I hadn't seen since Susie and Tim's wedding 6 years ago), and spent a city day lunching and going to a movie.

Susan and Tim are incredible hosts, and meeting Maggie, their 3-year old, for the first time was a special treat. I like to think Maggie and I bonded over a little tickling and some pretty in-depth discussions about Sadie and Natalie, her most beloved dolls. I feel so thankful for friends like these, with whom I can reconnect like no time has passed at all even after years and many changes of circumstance. Such a relief to find all the wit and frankness still perfectly intact and only sharper. We had laughs and we had serious chats and when it was over, it made me teary all over again to say goodbye, though I did manage to extract a promise to visit us here in NC, making it a little easier to part. And that will be 3 visitors, I hope, next spring; Susie and Tim are expecting their second child in July.

That's my tale--that's what I was doing while Lloyd and June kept busy feeding ducks, swimming, and playing. When I got home late Tuesday evening I gave Lloyd a kiss and a hug and snuck right in to Junie's room to stroke her sweet, sweat-dampened curls. I felt such gladness to be back in my spot in the world. So good to go off to an adventure, so good to come home.

above .500

June just went off to bed, so my four days of solo dad duty have essentially come to an end; Adrienne will be home in about two hours. If I had to rate these past four days in terms of wins and losses, I'd say we finished with two wins, one loss, and one tie.

On Saturday, June was simply at her worst. She woke up in an awful mood, and unfortunately, things didn't improve much as the day wore on.

Sunday was a 180 degree turn from Saturday. I don't think a single tear was shed the entire day.

Memorial Day was somewhere in the middle. One moment she was laughing, the next moment she was crying... such is the life of a toddler.

And today we managed a very good day with a run, a trip to the Museum of Life and Science, lunch at Guajillos, and swimming at the Y.

I can't wait for Adrienne to get back, but I have to admit, I was more than a tiny bit sad putting June down in her crib tonight because it marked the end of our four day father-daughter adventure.

Here's Junie doing her Eddie the Eagle impersonation during our picnic at Duke Gardens on Sunday...


Duke Gardens recommends feeding the ducks cracked corn rather than bread, so we made a trip to the local feed store before our picnic. Smallest package of cracked corn: 25 lbs - a little bigger than June. Anybody need some cracked corn?

And here's a shot of her putting the feed into action...

On Memorial Day, our neighbors Gary, Kirstin, and their daughter Rachel had us over for a bbq. They're very generous and invite us over for nearly every holiday. Some other friends of ours, Jed, Kerry, and their daughter Lily, were also in attendance. The girls had a smashing time. Much to my satisfaction, June didn't succumb to the peer pressure from the older, more worldly girls (I think both are five or six months June's elder) and managed to keep her diaper and most of her clothes on. Here are June, Rachel, and Lily in the playhouse...

June and Rachel sitting in a pool of water...


June working on her bubble blowing...


Rachel and Lily on the keys, June on the saucers...


Today's trip to Life and Science. The indoor toddler play area is hard to beat, but is it really wise to have an activity station that helps toddlers hone their latch opening skills? June spent a solid twenty minutes mastering her craft...


And finally, here she is getting ready to take a dip this afternoon. Her bathing suit is too much , isn't it?

mom on the run

I'm not sure if Adrienne has mentioned it in a past post, but she will be running in Boston's Run to Remember half-marathon on Sunday. Today she finished her last training run before the big day. For the past few months she and her good friend Emilie, who lives in Maine, have been virtual training partners. They'll meet up in Boston on Saturday and run together on Sunday... a great way to spend the weekend indeed. Congrats to both of them for making it to the starting line healthy and injury free. Enjoy the run and have fun in Boston! Junie and I are looking forward to the race reports.

The astonishing disappearing locopop

What's a locopop? A locopop is a wonderful thing....just ask Junie.
We recently made a warm afternoon trip to the Locopop shop. June had her very own pop for only the second time ever (the first time was on my birthday in March). Strawberries and cream for her, cookies and cream for Lloyd, mango-chile for me. Watch that strawberries and cream get smaller....and smaller....and smaller....

rain delay

Yesterday, Lauren, Foster, Adrienne, June and I went to Tyler's (same place I had lunch with June on Saturday -- happens to be a minute walk from the baseball stadium) with the hopes that the rain would let up and the Durham Bulls would play. The rain kept falling, so we sat down for an early dinner. Turned out it was a little too early (5:30ish) for June. She had no interest in being confined to a high chair and she let it be known. She just had a lot of excess energy to burn. Adrienne walked her around inside the restaurant for a few minutes, but June wanted to go outside and that's exactly where she went. We all took turns watching her as she ran around blissfully in the rain. The Tobacco Campus has a large, beautiful lawn in its center and June made sure to test all of its puddles for depth and splashability. Watching her have so much fun certainly made up for the missed Bulls game. The game did eventually start two-and-a-half hours late, but by that time, June was at home getting her bath.

this and that

Quite a full day indeed. After I returned from my early morning run (it was beautiful, by the way: 50's, blue skies, and birds singing), Adrienne took off for Charlotte to attend the Nascar Sprint All-Star Challenge with her sister, Lauren, and her husband, Foster; this should definitely gain Adrienne some street cred in these parts (the South)-- something I have none of.

June and I stayed behind and headed to the Little Gym for 45 minutes of jumping and somersaulting. We're both becoming quite proficient at both. After class, we quickly stopped by the farmer's market and snagged the strawberries and eggs Adrienne asked us to procure. Junie barely had a chance to get her hands sandy in the sandbox (there's a small sandbox next to the market pavilion) before we cruised over to Duke's football stadium for the "Walk for the Animals." June was in doggie heaven. There were dogs everywhere. We spent most of our time watching the flyball competition. Here's June checking out some of the action...


The animal walk festivities were winding down and our appetites were ramping up, so we got back in the car and made our way to Tyler's for lunch. Nothing really significant to note beyond sunny, 70 degree weather and outdoor eating with Junie... doesn't get much better than that now does it? Here she is with her crayons and some of the wonderful water features of the American Tobacco Campus in the background...


After lunch we both enjoyed lengthy naps. Recharged from our respective slumbers, we made a late afternoon dash to the Bimbé Festival at the Historic Durham Bulls Athletic Park (the one in the movie). Unfortunately, the festival, at least while we were there, suffered from a trio of problems that seems to affect far too many festivals: excessively muddy grass, less than entertaining musical entertainment, and far too many booths selling candles, body lotions, or both (who's buying this stuff?). Nevertheless, I snapped these photos to prove we were there...



We returned home and read books and June played with her toys until the beginning of the Preakness Stakes. June must think we're horse fanatics because the last time we had the TV on for her was to watch the Kentucky Derby. She just points at the screen and says "neigh, neigh" repeatedly (actually sounds more like "knee, knee"). Maybe she's waiting to see if he wins the Belmont Stakes, but June didn't seem too impressed with Big Brown's victory today: by the time he crossed the finish, she was already building something new with her blocks.

As usual, dinner, bath, a few books, and a couple of songs soon followed before she slipped off into dreamland.

Adrienne returns tomorrow and Lauren and Foster will be spending at least one night here. Assuming the weather holds, we'll be attending a late afternoon Bulls game tomorrow. We'll keep you posted.

up and down

Yesterday I ran the Buncombe Trail 34 Mile Run in South Carolina's Sumter National Forest. The race director's description of the course read, "there aren't a lot of hills on the course." Given that the race director, Terri Hayes, has completed over 200 ultramarathons, it should have dawned on me that her definition of a "hill" might be a little different than mine. I actually expressed concern to Adrienne on Saturday that the course might be too flat. Well, the total ascent turned out to be just shy of 2300 feet. 2300 vertical feet spread out across 34 miles is very runnable, but it's still a good amount of climbing-- the Grandfather Mountain Marathon that I ran in 2004 had less.

Anyways, the course was beautiful and in great shape.

(a few of the horses I saw along the way)

It wasn't especially well marked in places, so I was lucky to have had other runners nearby to let me know when I missed a turn. My worst navigation blunder cost me no more than a half mile. The finisher immediately ahead of me ran at least an extra mile and a half; some runners had unplanned 45 minute detours due to missed turns. The weather, low 80s and sunny, was a bit warmer than I would have preferred, but fortunately, the vast majority of the course was well covered single track trail; we've had a cool spring here in NC, so I'm not especially well acclimated to warmer temperatures. Despite no entry fee, this race was really well supported. Along the course, I had bananas, watermelon, S!Caps (electrolyte replacement capsules), a lot of fluid, and my favorite mid-race fuel: boiled potatoes. I've been a bit under the weather, so I felt a bit lethargic out on the course. By mile 27, I was truly in "get there" mode. I just put one foot in front of the other and continued my way to the finish. Despite not feeling my best, I ran a good race and finished in 3rd place with a time of 5:53:46 (note: if you'd also like to finish high up in the standings, do like I do and enter races, like this one, with only 21 competitors).


In the finishing area I had a few hot dogs and some macaroni and cheese. Terri hand-made the finishers "medals" and wrote my time on the back. It certainly ranks as one of my favorite prizes for finishing a race.

I didn't stick around very long at the finish. I hopped in the car and headed back towards Durham (note: spending three and half hours in the car immediately after running for six hours is not necessarily the best medicine for tight legs). Back in Durham, Adrienne, June, and I went out for barbecue. We're not sure who taught her this, but June said "puppies" when she picked up a hushpuppy from my plate. After dinner, June had her bath and went to sleep, and then Adrienne and I sunk into the couch and enjoyed episodes of What Not to Wear and Cheap Seats. Not a bad way to end the day.