Days 50-51-52-53-54 . . . Nike Women’s Marathon and other things

Yup – got behind.

Somewhere in here – and I think it might have been Day 49 – had to go to Kaiser to pick up “new and improved” thyroid meds. I didn’t go to the Wednesday Crossfit (though looking back at the post, the WOD actually looked kinda fun…) – then Thursday the idea was to go to the WOD, but I went in with Kat and Trish to pick up my Nike race bib. We found our names on the Nike wall, and then turned out that Kat hadn’t run more than just shy of 7-1/2 miles, and wasn’t really “prepared” with nutrition, race pack, etc. – so we did the whole Sports Basement “trip  to Mecca” (laugh). There was a BRUTAL car accident then as we were coming home – so no chance of making the 6:30 p.m. WOD. (In retrospect, maybe it was a GOOD thing that we wound up at Sports Basement, since it’s possible we could have been IN that accident – there was glass literally ALL over Highway 101, and from where the flares were, it looks like they had closed down all but ONE lane – there were a ton of police cars plus mashed-up cars on the side of the road too).

Friday I did go to Crossfit –

CONDITIONING WOD:
50-40-30-20-10
KBS 1.5/1P
Push Up
6 x 50M Shuttle Run Sprint at end of each round

I wasn’t going to do the run – since it was (duh) 2 days to the Nike – but I did and I came in FIRST out of the whole box (by one second – Jimmy literally chased me down). Exhilarating! Of course, I’m scaling – but I’m going as hard as I can. Discovered that you can make the kettlebell swings go faster if you (again – duh) pull the kettlebell DOWN (instead of just letting gravity take it down) on the downward part of the swing. Bo was leading the WOD and said that I am going to have to use a heavier kettlebell now. ;-) (I have to ask what the “1.5/1P” part means above – I’m not sure).

Did more running around Friday – had one business call that I can’t bill for (sigh) – and then Tom and Jan had us over to “St. Patrick’s Day Dinner” – because she of course broke her leg (tripping on our stairs!) the day BEFORE they were going to have it this year. She’d put the corned beef in her freezer – and now that they are moving (SIGH!) they wanted to do it. It was a lot of fun – my doctor told me I MUST stop eating gluten because it is SO BAD for the thyroid (body sees the thyroid cells/gluten in the same “way” so when you eat gluten the body attacks the thyroid) – so no Irish soda bread for me – I had 2 glasses of champagne but no wine at dinner. Yes I know, “bad” re the champagne but so it goes. I did leave at 8:30 (right before she brought out the Irish Coffee!) to get to bed, since Thursday and Friday are really the MOST important sleep days before a race. Slept SUPER late on Saturday – again, with the theory that the more you can do, the better.

Saturday mainly laid out my “race woman” (as you can see at Left) then I had to get all dolled up, as I was the auctioneer for a charity auction benefiting the House of Steel. They were kind enough not only to have “flipped” the usual event program (putting the auction before the dinner, not after), but they boxed up a yummy take-away dinner for me from The Pleasure Is Mine catering. I got home at about 8:00-ish, ate my yummy dinner while watching a little bit of a movie with H, then was off to bed with my OuchWraps puppy ;-) (That’s what I’m calling my big wrap.)

Got up at 3:00 a.m. (yaaaaaaawn!!!!) and ate my “ritual” Vega Pre-Workout Energizer and oatmeal (no gluten – H made me check!) then posted my ritual “Ave Imperator, morituri te salutant…” on Facebook, then off to be Vanpool Mama. I brought my friend Kat and 6 other TNT/LLS Run Team folks (yes, that adds up to 7…V.A. and Sherri sat in each other’s la) to S.F. The day before I’d gotten the van carpets steam-cleaned, just in case someone had to sit on the floor! The best thing I did that morning was to I.M. with Sherri – she actually wrote to tell me she had a cold and wasn’t going to do the race – I kept writing and writing until she got out of bed and decided to brave it. I am SO GLAD that she did! We had one “tense moment” when my mentee Sandy Z. somehow lost her corral wristband in the car (I was really worried she had dropped it in the parking lot while getting INTO the car), but all worked out fine.

Kat and I took a photo of ourselves in our “crazy cat ladies getting ready to take their cats out on their leashes” outfits (courtesy of Marin Goodwill – hey, you can’t beat $10 for sweat pants and jackets!) and then went and met Trish, Anne, Lois, Michelle, and April at Maiden Lane for some send-off photos “as usual” for Nike.

I wound up trading my earlier corral slot to V.A., because she was afraid she couldn’t make it if she started back in 11+ where she was slotted. The amazing part is that I haven’t ever actually been in the “back” corral – WOW it’s far back! The good part was that was where Kat’s wristband started her, so we were able to start together. I have run with other people, but never when not starting in the same corral. I had come up with a “scheme” for how we would link up – but I always forget what it’s like to run with 29,999 of my BFFs. So I was really glad to have the same wristband.

We practiced our squats in the Port-A-Potties, and then ultimately the gun went off for the first racers. And then we waited . . . and waited . . . and waited. WOW, it takes a long time to get to the last corral! I want to say it was close to 40-45 minutes. I could really see why V.A. wanted my slot in the next corral after the Professionals/fasties!

I’d decided we’d do a 7/2 Galloway. I kept our pace pretty well – in that in the results (they time you at every 5k) I only had 2 minutes “creep up” over the whole race. Not bad. We were slow though, because instead of “fast walking” during the 2 minute walk periods, was just walk-walked. That was fine though – once we got to Mile 12, Kat said “I’m done” – and I said “Um, no you’re not” – so I’m glad that we had taken a bit longer in the “walk breaks” than usual. When we got in sight of the Finish line though, Kat SPRINTED to the finish – and I mean a full-on sprint! I couldn’t have caught her. It cracked me up! I thought “If you had that in you, woman, we could have spread that out over the whole course…” :-) She came in at 2:49:49 – I’d hoped to get us in at 2:30, but that was about what I figured we’d come in at since we “walk-walked” the walk breaks.

Ran into my sister in the shirt line, who talked my ear off until I got to the TNT tent, about her races, her classes, her experiences, her “I have done so many races I just give my shirts to all my family members,” her thoughts on chocolate milk (“ridiculous, in ‘all my research’ it is useless”), her (name that tune). Unfortunately as Kat needed a Medium and I was in the Large line, lost track of

her. I did catch up to Anne, Lois & Trish in the TNT Tent (and saw Brian, Patty, HB – had seen Elise, Al, and Jen Jay on the course) which was great. It had really gotten cold and foggy, so was glad for the “astronaut” blanket. I did take one of the turkey sandwiches – unfortunately only the peanut butter ones were on gluten-free bread. Then back out to find Kat.

Cell reception was sketchy, but I did send her a text and left her a voicemail, and just headed to the After-bag shuttle. I figured we had dropped our bags off at the same bus, so she’d have to head that way at some point. Caught up to my sister again there with my Dad. Dad was trying to get a hold of Mom (who had been tasked with parking the car).

Liz was shouting at all the walkers who were passing the bus in an “Atta Girl” fashion on and on and on. Found my After bag and was able to get into some warmer clothes and start nursing my recovery drink when Kat showed up (YAY!)

I was super duper glad I’d been able to get Kat a TNT shuttle bus wristband, as we sashayed past the IMMENSE line for the Nike bus and got into ours bound for Union Square. We got into the car, and then headed to Whole Foods where Kat bought me a whole tub of the Vega Energizer as a thank you (no, thank YOU!)

Got home and kibitzed a bit with H, then headed up to the requisite ice bath ;-) I actually wasn’t all that sore or stiff, so I hadn’t picked up a 50 pound sack at Andy’s. I just used the ice we had in the machine. I did add a new “wrinkle” to the experience though – generally I have a cup of miso soup (and a full-sugar Coke, if the run has been over 17 or so miles) – this time I made a cup of Bulletproof Coffee (Brain Octane Oil – which is basically a supercharged version of coconut oil plus butter plus egg yolks) and then added a shot of whisky. (H teased as I was making the coffee that I should “add a shot” to it – at which point I realized – Oh HECK yeah, that sounds like a GRAND idea!)

Caught up on Facebook while lying in bed afterwards, making sure that all my peeps, V.A., etc. had made it in – and then just went to bed. H and I were supposed to go out to an early showing of

“Gravity” after I got my ice bath/nap out of the way, but I was just too sapped by all the talking on the run, being talked “at” by my sister, etc. that I’d had too much “input” for the day! I was sorry because I know H really wants to go, and I hope that we can do it later this week. (I had thought Wednesday, but I just found out he has to go director training in San Jose Wednesday and Thursday – then we’re off to Tahoe for 4 days. Maybe we’ll see it up there!)

I did come down around 8:00 p.m. and got some dinner, then H and I watched some “low taxing” TV and I went back up to bed. That’s a lot of resting! Felt good though.

I really had planned to get up and out to Crossfit this morning, but H still feels bad (he has a nasty sore throat and cold – has had it for a week), and so since I plan to go to Bikram at 1:30 p.m. (it’s already noon – how’d THAT happen?), I bailed. I think H will go with me tomorrow night before he heads out to San Jose.

So now it’s October 21st – time to really get going on our TAR video. I have emailed my Mom to find out if she has any “bookworm-esque” shots of me when I was a kid. I have some other shots and video (especially of the skydiving), but per the timing that I laid out, it only needs to be 30 seconds. Unfortunately – unless Robbie has one – I don’t have any photos from when we were at Lucas together – even then, the funniest part is that we were mainly in contact on email!

I figure I’ll just start a Dropbox folder, like Prashant and I have done before. That will make me feel like this is “going somewhere.”

Unfortunately no more language tapes for a while, as I have our book club book on tape and need to listen to that before Thursday night!