Aurora's Blog

Set Your DVR For “The Price is Right”

March 10, 2013

Aurora De Lucia in line at The Price is Right

Next Monday – March 18, 2013.

Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to go to The Price is Right.

After living in Los Angeles for a year and a half (plus even more time actually, with my additional smaller stint before this one), I finally went to see TPiR. (I am sort of a game show fanatic.)

I was in the audience for next Monday’s episode of The Price is Right.

Will you be able to catch a glimpse of me in the crowd? Will George Gray call me to “come on down”?

There’s only one way to find out!

The Adorable Girl On Yesterday’s “The Price Is Right”

February 26, 2013

I saw an amazing episode of The Price is Right yesterday – so great, I felt I had to tell you about it.

If you’re not in the mood to have a TV show recounted to you, I hope to see you tomorrow. If you are in the mood to hear about this amazing girl bringing even more joy to daytime television – read on.

So, yesterday, I’m watching The Price is Right with my sister.

One of the first 4 people called down at the very beginning of the show is one of the most adorable people I’ve ever seen. Every time she goes to make a bid, she just quickly sticks her head out to the mic and then retreats it back – almost like the mic is going to bite her.

Anytime she outbids someone by $1, she quickly looks over and says, “I’m sorry!”

She’s just adorably jumping around, so nervous-seeming, and so excited.

In the very first item up for bid, I’m pretty sure she bid $800. And the actual retail price was $799. She was off by a dollar, and the person who did go up there ended up playing for a car!

In the second half of the show, adorable girl still hadn’t made it up onstage. In one round, the last person who’d been called up (and first to bid), bid $500. Adorable girl was last to bid, and bid $501. The bell sounded that someone had the perfect bid. It was the person who’d bid $500.

Yet again, adorable girl missed out by a dollar.

Yet again, the person who beat her to get up onstage played for a car!

Finally, it was the very last chance to get onstage. The tension was high. Me sister and I wanted so badly for adorable girl to play a pricing game. Sure enough, adorable girl got onstage! And she was oh so happy.

She lost her pricing game! (I was upset for her, but her awesome attitude seemed to be like, “Well, at least I’m here!”)

Then, on the wheel, she barely passed 95 cents to get only 50 cents. But when she spun again – she got another 50 cents. Boom! A dollar! Yay! She’ll have a chance to play again in the showcase round.

Or will she?!

The winner of the car also spun a dollar. (Yes, this episode is getting nuts. Imagine watching this excitement in real time. 11am party, baby. My sister and I were going absolutely nuts.)

So, they both got their bonus spins.

And on the girl’s bonus spin, she gets another dollar!!! I kid you not. Go ahead, jump around your living room. She just won another $25,000(!) (in addition to the first $1,000 bonus of landing on the dollar).

Then, the guy spun one of the green spots around the dollar winning him $10,000.

This was the luckiest bunch I’d seen in a while.

Later, Lindsay (Fonseca – adorable girl) unfortunately overbid on her showcase. But instead of beating herself up about it, she exclaimed so earnestly, “It’s okay! I won $26,000!”

I’ve never seen anybody be so giddy after losing.

If I were super, super duper rich, I would totally contact her out of the blue and buy her that trip and that car. I’d just be like, “Hey. I know you already won $26,000. But I loved your attitude. I loved watching you see the bright side of everything. I bet you’re a super nice person who enriches the life of those around you. So, here are the contents of your showcase anyway. Please don’t ever lose your joy, positive energy, and all-around awesomeness.”

I just wish I could get across how much her joy was just permeating through the TV. That has to be one of my favorite episodes, and favorite contestants, ever.

(Oh! And side note, speaking of my love for The Price is Right! I went to a taping on the 6th. It will air on March 18th. Will they call me on down? Will you at least be able to catch a glimpse of my face in the audience? Who knows. Only one way to find out. Feel free to set your DVRs, y’all!)

I Wish Some Of Our Normal Visits Were Like Hospital Visits

February 25, 2013

As I said yesterday, I recently went to visit a friend of mine in the hospital.

And even though I described my own weird insecurity/stress about it – there was something awesome about it too.

Everyone put away their phones. Nobody was half paying attention while checking emails. It was just really brilliant and beautiful to be in a room with people sitting around and doing nothing but talking to each other.

And of course, as is often wont to happen in hospital rooms, people started recounting wonderful stories of the person in the bed.

How great would it be if groups just gathered with no electronics and talked about how great each person was? We just put a bunch of love and joy and there and celebrated life.

Of course, I know this does happen sometimes. But I think it’s kind of rare… And I understand you can’t just sit around and talk about life all the time, ’cause you have to go out there and make the stories.

And even though I have a tendency to sometimes tell people a little too often how great they are (David, I’m looking at you (for one)! ;)) – I know you can’t just constantly celebrate people and tell them how wonderful they are. (I mean, you can. But if they get used to it, it may not mean as much, maybe. I understand that. (Even though, you can feel free to tell me how great I am all the time if you feel that way. Pretty sure I might never get sick of being loved. :-P))

After all, it may never get old. Becky used to do compliment time and that certainly never got old.

Aaaaaaanyway, I guess the point I’m trying to make is that even though certainly not every day or hang out time can be like a hospital visit, I do think it would be lovely if we all said a little more often how much people mean to us, and how funny they are, and how wonderful it is to be around them.

It would be nice if we turned off our electronic devices, didn’t worry about who else might be asking for our attention at the moment, and just enjoyed each other’s company.

Bart hugging Lisa

(And, as far as hospital visits are concerned – oftentimes people get like that because they get worried that something will happen to the patient. But there’s no need to only remember how great someone is when that person’s sick. I know it’s so silly to still let this affect anything in my life, but I had a crazy rare congenital heart defect and I could’ve dropped dead at any moment with no warning. Anyone could be gone in the blink of an eye. Anyone. And I don’t mean that in some weird, morbid sense.

I don’t mean go live your life terrified of dying every second. I just mean, if you have something to tell someone, say it. If you want someone to know how much you appreciate them, tell that person. If you always let people know how you feel, you will never wish you would’ve said something.

Side story: i worked on a show with a really great guy who was always looking out for me and being kind to me. And he passed away pretty suddenly, not too long after we’d worked together. It was a bit shocking, and of course sad. But I always let him know I appreciated him. And I gave him a thank you card at the end of the show since such a seasoned, important person took such great care of a newbie.

I was able to take solace in the fact that he knew exactly how much I appreciated him.)

Anyway, I’ve gone on a big tangent. I guess all I’m trying to say is perhaps, today, think about taking the time to tell someone that you appreciate them. Think about telling someone you love them. Life goes so quickly! We might as well take time to appreciate each other (and get our heads out of our electronic devices!)

(Shuts computer. Goes to look at someone’s face.)

Do You Have Advice For People Who Want To Do 52 Half Marathons?

February 22, 2013

Sure.

But I have a feeling that some of it is just kind of common sense.

I’ve touched on a lot of this stuff before, but so that you have it in one post:

1) Do yoga. A lot of it. Stretching is wildly important.

2) Budget. I just kind of decided I was going to do this and flew by the seat of my pants for a whole lot of it. Budgeting and saving for it instead of just kind of trying to figure it out as it happened would probably be better.

3) Be so super trained that half marathons are basically nothing to you. By the end, I was barely holding on! I slowed down a lot just to make sure I wouldn’t get injured. If you’re weekly mileage is already so high that you’ll need to go out and run more after you cross the finish lines of your half marathons, by all means go for this. If you’re still struggling in half marathons, I’d train harder. I think it’ll make the experience better.

4) Be ready to organize from the beginning. ‘Cause you’re gonna have so much stuff. Have a dedicated email just for races. Put all the pictures from each race in folders on your computer as soon as you can, ’cause having them all over your phone and desktop and unsorted/unlabled in iPhoto is not the key to calm, organized bliss.

5) Don’t forget to have fun! This one may seem silly. “How can I forget to have fun? The whole project is supposed to be fun!” Well, it is fun. But somewhere in there, you might get bogged down with overnight bus trips and cancelled races. If you’re fundraising, you might be tearing your hair out. If you’re blogging, you might be having trouble squeezing in time to write. It might get hard trying to keep track of everything like your photos from races, bibs, medals, and t-shirts while traveling, planning, and trying to keep up the blog. There are times it may seem almost like a job. There are times when you might be pretty sleep deprived. And you will see other doing projects even bigger than yours, and you might feel for a second that yours might not be the huge undertaking that it feels like it is. That might make you feel a little small or a little stressed. But in the end, don’t forget the great times – ’cause there are so many.

I think that basically covers it. I know you probably could’ve guessed most of those. But if you have any other questions, I’m always ready to answer more!

52 Half Marathons: By The Numbers

February 19, 2013

How many times am I going to use this picture in a post? Probably about a million, 'cause I love it. — How many times am I going to use this picture in a post? Probably about a million, ’cause I love it.

States Run In: 13 (+ DC)

(Arizona, California, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, New Jersey, Kentucky, Indiana, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Ohio, Nevada)

Race Miles: 762.90 (That’s the distance from Times Square (in NY) to my old Boston stomping grounds and back – and back again – still with miles to spare.) (The total mileage is made up of: 52 Half Marathons = 681.2 miles, + 2 attempts (I never got swept or quit, but boy did I get lost) and wake up late) = let’s say 16 miles, + Other Races (2 marathons, 3 5ks, and a 4-miler) = 65.7 miles)

Pairs of Shoes: 3 (mainly) I rotated between an old pair of Aasics Kayanos, a newer pair of Aasics Kayanos, and a new pair of Brooks PureConnects. I did throw in a pair of Brooks Dyads for a race or a two, but they weren’t in the normal rotation. (I’ll have a later post dedicated to shoes.)

Injuries: One. (I sprained my ankle on a rock I didn’t see during my 2nd half marathon (which of course was a trail run (and trail runs are the worst!)). Then, I did my third half marathon on crutches. All was well after that. (I did feel sick in December, but that wasn’t an injury, and I powered through (which we could argue wasn’t the best decision and I don’t always recommend that, but I’m alive… Just barely! because… (next line))

Brushes With Death: One.

Series Completed: 9 (Scroll to the bottom of that race schedule linked there to see the list.)

Awards Won: 2 – One for spirit. One for doing more races than a bunch of other people.

Races With My Dad!: 2 – His first, and his current PR.

Pounds Lost: None, really. And I have a post explaining that tomorrow. This wasn’t supposed to be a weight loss journey, and I didn’t try to make it one. I did lose 20 – 30 pounds right before I started the journey. And I did fluctuate within a 10 – 20ish pound range throughout the year with diet challenges, and other things.

Money: Ahh, the big one. I know people are curious how much it cost. And I do plan on telling you, if for no other reason, so that people who want to do this crazy year for themselves can have sort of an idea of what it might cost. But I’m sure the number is kind of on the gross side. So, let’s not talk about it now. Full post on that coming up in the future (probably).

If you have any other questions, please let me know!

You Are What You Decide To Be

February 18, 2013

Aurora De Lucia coming into the finish of the Surf City Half Marathon on crutches — (Yep, I use this photo a lot…)

This is an incredibly simplified idea.

I know that you can argue that the title of this post is not necessarily a true sentence.

You can’t decide to be a 7-year old. You can’t decide that you’re gonna start working on The Simpsons tomorrow. There are things that are outside your control. I’ll grant you that.

But, we have a ton of control over what we decide to be.

Before I got sick, being a runner was a huge part of my identity. (I was better at it back then. (But still not great. Don’t get excited.)) I had a humongous passion for running. I went to the gym a lot, pushed myself, and trained for distance events. I took pride in it, and loved my hobby.

Then, I got sick. And that part of my persona, I guess you’d say, started to slip away. When I started this 52 half marathons project, a lot of the people I knew didn’t even know I used to run.

Within a few months of starting this project, people once again found it very normal to ask how my training was going, or what my next race was. It wasn’t all that hard to change people’s perception of me. I decided I wanted to run, so I just started running.

Again, it’s a very simplified idea. Some perceptions are stronger than others. Some things are harder to overcome than others. Some goals are more specific than others. Saying you “want to be a writer” is different than saying you “want to be a writer for Modern Family.”

Obviously, you can dream big. If you want to write for Modern Family, you should pursue that in every way you can!

But, there are some changes we can make immediately that depend on us (and basically no one else). If you want to be a writer, write your specs, start a blog, write in a journal at night – just write something.

If you want to be a marathoner, just start running. If you can’t run, walk. If you can’t walk, figure out something else.

Whatever you want to be, just be it.

There are a million excuses as to why we’re not exactly who we want to be. Some are way more valid than others. Some are genuine obstacles that need a lot of planning, time, and effort. And unfortunately, as much as I really like to believe that anything is possible (and nearly anything is), there are some things that are just actually impossible. (Sorry.)

But fight. Fight to the very end. Fight if an obstacle is only nearly impossible. You don’t give up until it is literally impossible to do the thing you wanted to do. And if you should find yourself in a situation in which the thing you cared about most is no longer possible – there has to be something new (related or possibly completely unrelated) that you can throw your passion behind.

In the end, a lot of things outside of our control will decide the minutiae of who we are. (I suppose not all of it is minutiae, ’cause some of those details are actually pretty important…) Sometimes outside forces will work in our favor, and sometimes they won’t. But ultimately, we basically are what we decide to be.

Who are you going to decide to be today?

Which Race (of the 52 Half Marathons) Was My Favorite?

February 17, 2013

(Note about the title: I always try to sneak the words “52 Half Marathons” into all of these conclusion posts, because 52 years from now when the blog has thousands upon thousands of entries I’m gonna get so confused as to what’s part of what adventure – or hopefully I won’t, because I will have labeled it all and left myself bread crumbs to what I’m talking about.)

So which one was my favorite? The Indy 500 festival hands down. No contest.

There is no beating that race.

It’s so unbelievably well organized. The course is super supported. It seems like the entire state of Indiana comes out to cheer you on.

I just love it. I love everything about it. I’d be happy to go back anytime, and I’m sure I will go back many times.

(You can read my full posts on the race here. And you can read my dad’s account here.)

If you want some honorable mentions of other races I really loved during this year of racing, here’s a list:

Kentucky Derby
Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego
Nationwide Children’s Hospital Columbus Half
Big Sur
Goofy Challenge (of course (it was my big finale))

It’s hard to pick such a short list. I loved a lot of the Rock ‘n’ Roll races. (New Orléans is great. Go do that one.) I met such a super sweet couple at the NC half. April Fool’s Day in Atlantic City was fun. I had a lovely time with a mother/son team in Long Beach.

Doing a half marathon on crutches is something I will never forget.

I’m sure I could probably go on like this all day. There were a lot of great memories. (But if I had to pick a favorite, it’s Indiana.)

I look forward to more memories to come!

The Really Big Free Half Marathon Ended Up Not Being Free

February 16, 2013

Email we received from them. (Click on it to enlarge.)

This is way, way sadder news (times about a million) for IO events than it is for us runners.

I know all of you in the running community have probably already gotten the emails and heard the news, ’cause it happened a bit ago. But between all the race/vacation reports and some posts about 52 half marathons, I never got around to talking about this (’til now).

Anyway, IO Events has announced they are going out of business.

They said they’ve been around for 7 years.

It seemed like a tumultuous year because at least 2 races I was planning on doing with them got cancelled.

I guess the point of this post is that if you were wondering if we all got refunded our deposit for that race (which is what would’ve made it free), we didn’t.

But, on the bright side, since they cancelled so many races this past year, if you were actively trying to get your Hometown Race series medal (by running 3 events in the year), but couldn’t because they canceled multiple times on you, they gave the medal to you anyway.

It’s always sad when a company run by people with such passion who are really trying to do some good stuff for the world goes out of business. I’m wishing the best to everyone involved as they close out this chapter of their lives and move on to the next one.

How Are You Holding Up Physically After All Those Half Marathons?

February 13, 2013

This is a question I’ve gotten kind of a lot after my big 52 half marathons in 52 weeks project.

Generally, I’m holding up pretty well.

It’s amazing to me how much our minds affect our bodies and our lives. It seems like whatever my end date is for a show or a project – my body holds on really well until the end.

Only then do I crumble. But, I’m always smart enough to wait for the end date.

I didn’t really crumble per se, but I did do about a week of pretty much nothing at all. I was tired, man!

I did have some adjustments at the chiropractor to help put me back together again after such a crazy year. (Huge shoutout to Dr. Levon (possibly the most fun chiropractor on Los Angeles – check him out)!)

I don’t know that I’m a huge chiropractor person. (I still have yet to have any super strong feelings for or against chiropractic care. I feel like America’s attitude is ti be skeptical of it, though, from my experience, I think it’s real and pretty cool.) But I know that he made me feel way, way better after I was a little stiff/sore/crumpled up from all the racing (and not enough yoga – yeah, I’ll admit it).

(You should’ve heard my back on that first visit – crack, crack, crack, cr – cr – cr- craaaaaaaaack (so loud!).)

I am back to running again, a little. This year, I’d like to actually train – the right way. Build back up, work on speed. As I’ve said before, the same distance every week is not optimal. So, running is still a part of my life. But, I’m starting with less mileage than I did last year, and I’ll work up.

I still make sure to get walks in everyday. I’m going to start on some weight training and yoga.

So, basically, my body is good. I feel good. Things are good.

And it’ll continue to get even better!

52 Half Marathons Was an Awesome Idea and a Terrible Idea

February 12, 2013

Yep. I use this picture a lot, 'cause it's one of my favorites. — Yep. I use this picture a lot, ’cause it’s one of my favorites.

This crazy project gave me so much.

In some ways, it sort of gave me my life back, kind of… It did bring some stress (although, I generally love and feed off of stress). But it also brought a lot of happiness and a newfound (or perhaps re-found) sense of adventure. It definitely got me back in the swing of working out again. And it made me know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I’ll always be able to handle 13.1 miles.

I do think that I’d gotten most of what I really needed from this project about halfway though. I’d gotten the habit of running back. I was back to wanting to exercise, not dreading it.

I still had some amazing adventures after the halfway mark. (For instance, I got to dress up with my dad and go to a special Spirit Award reception. The Goofy Challenge was pretty much beyond words. Definitely cool stuff happened.)

But yeah. We could easily sit around and argue if this was worth all the money. Technically, if all I wanted to do was enjoy working out again, I could’ve pumped that money into a gym membership and personal trainer.

But… I don’t know if those things would’ve made working out fun. I might’ve kept in the same cycle of try/nope, I’ll never get back to where I was/give up that I’d been in ’til I started the project.

There are tons of things in this world I could’ve done instead of this with the money I spent. But, I did this. And while it does seem like maybe sort of a foolish investment, it was definitely fun. And it was a super roller coaster. And it’ll be an interesting memory to say the least.

We also could argue that I spent a lot of time on this – time I could’ve spent being a better person in any number of different ways. I could’ve perhaps volunteered, or done nice deeds for friends, or tried to start learning a language.

Actually working out is time well spent, but I spent a lot of time traveling and waiting at races and sleeping on buses and all that crazy stuff.

Now, would I have actually used my time for good? Or would I have sat around my apartment and watched all the seasons of Three’s Company?

Lastly, we could argue – we won’t even argue about this one ’cause it just is true. This was not the best way to train to get any better. Doing the same (or the same-ish) mileage every week doesn’t increase your speed. There are training plans for a reason.

Granted, I could’ve done more during the week to help myself a little more. I just always felt like I was barely hanging on for dear life. So, I wasn’t worried about increasing miles or speed during the week.

All I know is it’s absolutely not the right way to train.

So, basically, the year didn’t give me optimal health, or an optimal bank account for that matter – because I didn’t do those things for myself. But it definitely did what it was supposed to do (and more). It did force me to get back into being active.

The year may not have given me optimal health, but it me way better health. And it helped me to meet some amazing people. It gave me some insane experiences (some of which I’m still having even though the project).

So, definitely not the best way to train. Not the most economical. But a year to remember.

Then I Was Famous For A Day

February 11, 2013

Oh boy. Buckle up.

I kinda got popular while in Orlando (and a bit after).

You can check me out here, here, here, and here. (Don’t get too excited. A lot of it is the same info at different places. But the first one is kind of fun, ’cause it’s a video where I get to look like a super dork (When am I not one?).)

I also got some tweets from RunDisney, and Cory Booker. After I got home, I got Facebook (and twitter) shoutouts from Luna Bar and goKicker.

Also, one of my friends alerted me Monday morning that I made national news! I was on HLN’s Morning Express which loops every hour for a few hours each weekday morning. After my dad heard I’d be on, he waited with bated breath (which calling everyone he knew), and leapt up to tape the TV with his cell phone. (Yep. He’s the best (and hilarious).)

Here’s the video he took with his cell phone:

[wpvideo pLCYsXnJ]

It was a little bit crazy. I spent almost all of Monday writing people back on twitter, Facebook, and in emails – and profusely apologizing to my dad for spending our precious Daddy/daughter time with my head in a computer. However, he thought it was the coolest thing that I was a little famous. And he spent a big part of the day buried in his electronic devices to tell his whole world, “My little girl was on TV!” Oh, Daddy.

Once Orlando was done, Phoenix welcomed me with open arms. (Video of that to come soon.)

Now I’m just back to being non-famous (but at least you still love me! ;))

(Also, I was just interviewed for a national running magazine, so I’ll have a little burst of small fame again… and I will definitely let you know when you can get your copies!).

Pacers/Magic Game & Daddy/Daughter Orlando Trip

February 10, 2013

Yesterday wrapped up the Goofy Challenge portion of Orlando, and here’s the rest of that awesome trip!

Every year since I was a little girl (and we lived in Indiana), my dad has taken me to see the Indiana Pacers play in a different arena. We went to see them play the Magic, and we had front row seats! (Front row of regular fans… There were reporters in front of us.)

It was funny, ’cause my dad and I both noticed ourselves at a few points looking up at the jumbotron, catching ourselves, and thinking, “Why am I looking up? The players are freaking right in front of me!”

During a karaoke segment of the night, I ended up getting on camera on the jumbotron. (Woot!) I played right to the camera. (I know what’s up.)

After the game on the way to the car, someone even said, “Nice singing!” (What? Does the “dust off shoulder” move.) I didn’t even realize someone had said that. I heard something, but didn’t understand.

My dad told me only once we’d already passed the person. So, if that was you who complimented me, sorry for ignoring you. Also, thanks! (Even though I know you meant nice lip-syncing. Still, I’m taking the compliment.)

Speaking of music, there was this amazing senior dance team that we loved. And what was hilarious was they broke out into “Gangnam Style.” Of course, it’s only hilarious if you knew how many time my dad and I had heard “Gangnam Style” during the week.

Starting with the DJ doing it at the Family 5k on Friday, we seemed to hear it all the time at the races. We were practically having dreams about that song. So, when the Orlando Magic Silver Stars broke out “Gangnam Style,” we found it to be absolutely hilarious.

Another hilarious time was when these pump-up-the-crowd guys on stilts, sat right in front of my dad and I, pretending to be us. They were making fun of me for tweeting.

Why was I tweeting, you ask? Well, as if I haven’t talked enough about the awesome power of twitter – we noticed that Brook Olzendam (Pacer’s reporter) was sitting in front of us. We tweeted her. (…I guess it sounds creepy when I tell the story of tweeting someone to say “I’m behind you!” (Eek).) But she was super nice, came over and talked to us, and tweeted us back.

The Pacers didn’t win. I don’t mean this as a diss to them, ’cause I love my team, but we often don’t win in the games my dad and I go to. Granted, we never see them with home court advantage since we’re seeing a different arena each year.

Even though our team didn’t win, my dad and I had a great time. But, I always have a great time with my dad whether at the Pacer’s game or just hanging around the hotel.

One final little anecdote speaking about our time at the hotel. On one of the days where we were just hanging out, I decided to try to get some Price is Right tickets for when I got home. I’d been saying I was gonna go to the show practically since I’ve moved to L.A. – yet, I’d never gone.

The website I was using kept not allowing me to go to the final screen of getting tickets. As I lamented, “Why can’t I get these tickets to The Price is Right,” my dad joked that Drew Carey had put me on a list after I accidentally snubbed him at the half marathon. (Again, so sorry about that.)

That was sort of a big running joke of that week, and when my dad didn’t even skip a beat in making jokes about me being on a secret list (when I hadn’t even thought about the fact that Drew Carey is the host), I cracked up for about 30 seconds. That joke just tickled me. Although, I don’t know that it translates as well in print to people who weren’t there. So, I suppose just forget everything I ever said.

(And yes, I did end up going to watch The Price is Right, and you can bet there will be talk on the blog of what it’s like to attend a taping of the show.)

Wrapping Up Goofy Challenge Trip

February 9, 2013

In case it wasn’t clear from all the posts about the various races (5k, half, and full marathon), this trip was pretty magical.

I thought I was going to be able to wrap up the magical-ness into some riveting blog post. Maybe it’s ’cause I’ve been away for weeks, or maybe it’s ’cause I’ve hit all the great parts, but I don’t think I have a super riveting post to write.

I pretty much just wanted to say that things were so chill – so very, very chill.

I had considered going back to try again at The American Idol Experience in Hollywood Studios. (I glossed over that in the last Orlando trip, ’cause I don’t like to admit that I didn’t make it to the final round. (Grr at myself.) It wasn’t my best performance or best song choice… But there’s always next time – if I come back a next time.

When I first fell short, I was determined to come back to Orlando as soon as humanly possible to try to undo my failure. Then I realized it’s the re-creation of some show I don’t even care for, in a theme park. Why do I let it get me so riled up? I was actually acting pretty normal and human about it by letting it go and not squandering my whole vacation trying to “fix” the performance that disappointed me the time before… (But let’s get real. I still might go back and try again another time.))

We didn’t go to any of the parks (though I went through them all during the marathon). This was one of the few vacations where I actually unpacked my whole suitcase. Just chill out… Spend some time in the hotel acclimating (and obviously watching runDisney TV on loop). It was just so nice that everything was so very relaxed.

Since this was almost the last trip of the journey, I didn’t have a bunch of planning and logistics in the back of my mind for future things I had to work out, which was nice (and ultra-not-time-consuming).

I just unpacked, watched a bunch of TV, spent a bunch of time talking to my dad. And it was the loveliest.

I spent the entire weekend giving all of my energy to the marathon – didn’t try to squeeze anything else in, didn’t worry about anything else – just focused on one thing. I soaked it all in and enjoyed every second.

(Not to say you shouldn’t fit some other stuff in. For some people it’s great. For me it was nice to decompress and just to one thing (or one series related things).) (Although, we did stay longer and go to a basketball game. More on that tomorrow.)

My dad and I met this amazing group from Canada on one of the many buses going to an even for marathon weekend – and we seemed to bump into them everywhere (which wasn’t too surprising considering we were staying at the same hotel and doing all of the same races).

If you’d like to check out the blog of one of my amazing new Canadian friends, you can see it here.

I cannot emphasize enough, by the way, how much my dad took care of me over the weekend and how much I appreciated it. He was basically my personal race crew. He made sure to always have on him anything I might need – Gatorade, Shot Bloks, flip flops to change into. If I said I was in the mood for a burger, he wouldn’t rest until we found one. He always let me go to bed crazy early. He made the races as easy as they could’ve possibly on me, and I am so lucky and thankful for that.

All trip long, Disney called everything “magical.” I know the company seems to really love that word. I don’t want to overuse it or anything. But really, it actually was pretty magical.

It’s nice when things turn out even better than you’d imagined them. I imagined a big ending to the project, and I imagined a great time at Goofy. But the whole weekend seemed to work out so perfectly. It fully lived up to (and surpassed) expectations. (Yay!)

I Forgot I Had More Goofy Challenge Advice…

February 8, 2013

My bad. But I got more for you! This post is more about Disney logistics than it is about surviving the races.

1) If you can go to the expo on Thursday, I highly recommend it. My dad and I went back to the expo on Friday and it was packed. The line to get in was looong. On Thursday you might actually be able to get in, and breathe, and move a little. Thursday was still crowded, but Friday was 10 times worse.

2) If you want your merch, I’d get it early! I didn’t buy anything extra, but I did hear stories of them selling out of certain shirts and things. So, if there’s something you think you want, but it immediately. (Note: Disney is one of the few marathons that doesn’t seem to sell all the merch options online. Usually you have plenty of time to buy your finisher shirts in the weeks following the marathon. Not here.)

3) On the day of the half marathon, I took one of the very first shuttles right before 3am. Then I had a bunch of time to kill in the Epcot parking lot. I didn’t love having tons of time to kill. (I got there before they even opened the corrals.)

So, the next day I went out to wait for the shuttle much closer to 4. But that was very nerve-wracking! There were many more people waiting at the bus stop. And full buses kept passing us without letting anyone new on! I got there totally fine.

And then if you get there on the later side of things, it’s way more crowded to try to get to your corral. They have a row of port-a-potties along the route you’re walking to get to your corral, and the lines are so long as the race starts that they almost totally block the route. So, it’s this interesting adventure to try to wiggle through the crowd. “Don’t mind me. Don’t have to pee. Excuse me. Sorry. Yep, not getting in line. Just trying to get to my corral…”

I’d recommend just going early and having the time to kill. It might be slightly boring, but it put me way at ease.

4) Bring the nutrition you love. I made sure to pack Gatorades. (Disney uses Powerade.) And I packed my Shot Bloks that I like and some Luna protein bars. I wanted to make sure I had everything I liked to eat/drink ’cause you never know what you can or can’t get ahold of in Orlando/at Disney property. So just have your stuff. (This pretty much goes for all races…)

5) At the expo, I went to the talk by the race director/staff where they talked about the course, best spectator spots, and things like that. I found that to be really helpful. For one thing, they told us there’d be Powerade and water at every single water stop in the marathon. The first tables would always be Powerade, and water would always be in the back. So, I never wondered if it would be water or electrolytes.

I also heard the warning early that we’d be running over a small patch of grass. So, I knew that was coming. Just generally, I felt really prepared and didn’t have a lot of surprises.

I think that covers all my logistical advice. If you have things to add, please let me know in the comments!

My Goofy Challenge Strategy

February 7, 2013

My Goofy Challenge strategy is not for those of you who want to know how to do the Goofy Challenge with great speed.

My strategy is for the person who just wants to finish without getting caught by the sag wagon.

It’s funny what when I opened up this draft, I’d actually written out what my main strategy points were and said something like, “Guess we’ll see how they work.” As I read through I was proud that I’d thought ahead and stuck to my strategy. And it worked out great.

First, and most important. SLEEP!

1) Sleep is everything. Everything.

Okay, fiiine. Perhaps it’s not everything. But it’s so close to being the most important thing.

The Disney races are at 5:30 in the morning. And the shuttles start at 3am! I (successfully) tried to get on that crazy sleep schedule early on. I was lucky, because 3am is midnight California time. And I’d ended up on this weird schedule at home where I was sleeping during the day and awake at night. The races fell kind of in my “night-time hours.” I don’t know.

I really don’t. My sleeping schedule was all over the place. But I stayed up almost all night before I got to Disney, went to bed early, and just kept going to bed earlier throughout the weekend. One thing that was amazing and wonderful was that I wasn’t woken up by my alarm for the half or the full marathon.

Since my sleeping schedule was so jacked, I ended up getting up around 1:15ish each morning. It was nice. I had time to very peacefully get ready, have some food, maybe even watch a little hulu. I never felt rushed. I never felt groggy And to me, this is the most important part of Goofy Challenge strategy!

Give yourself the whole however many days you’re down there to just concentrate on your race. Some people will try to fit a bunch of time at the parks in and not go to bed until 11pm or midnight. I would’ve been a huge crankypants if I’d gone to bed at 11pm or midnight. That sounds awful.

Some people don’t need as much sleep as I do. But as far as I’m concerned, going to bed in the late afternoon and getting a full night’s sleep is the most awesome thing and crazy important of the weekend.

2) Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. I mean, don’t over-hydrate. Replace your electrolytes as well. But make sure there’s a water bottle in your hand from a week before you leave for Disney ’til after the marathon. I often get dehydrated while away because there are not always places to refill your water bottles and you have to get rid of water before airport security, etc. But make the effort. Hydrate.

3) Eat enough. Between the half marathon and marathon, you might not be super hungry. But just make sure you consume enough calories to replenish what you just did and store for what you’re about to do.

4) Pace yourself. I walked the majority of the half marathon. My manta for the 5k and the half was, “Go into the marathon feeling like you haven’t already done any racing this weekend.” Some people think this might be the wimps way out, but I thought it was comfy and awesome.

5) This one is optional. But my sweet dad bought me a massage at the Grand Floridian after the half marathon. This was awesome. As I already mentioned, I hadn’t pushed myself too hard in the half marathon. But still. I already had 16.2 miles under my belt for the weekend (5k and half). So, a little rejuvenation was amazing. (Not to mention – if you go to the Grand Floridian after the race, about 4 million staff members will say “Congratulations,” and you’ll feel super special.)

I think that basically covers everything. Those were my goals before Goofy: Always get to bed early, never be thirsty, mainly walk the half marathon, and start eating right after – making sure you get enough to eat before it’s too late in the day. They worked out great for me!

Of course, in the comments section feel free to say what worked great for you (or ask any questions).

“Did Anybody Die at the 2013 Walt Disney World Marathon?”

February 6, 2013

Nope.

I hope this doesn’t creep you out, but when you come to my blog from a Google search, I can see what you searched. Well not what you searched. (Maybe you…)

Basically, I can see generally how some random internet people got here.

Well, I’m here for you. You searched for answers, and I’m gonna answer your questions in various posts here and there.

So, did anybody die at the Walt Disney World Marathon this year (2013)?

I heard this rumor online. I have no idea who started it or how it’s still getting around, but as far as I know, no. Nobody died.

I’m pretty sure if someone had died, it’d actually be on a news source somewhere – any credible news source – rather than just the idea floating around Facebook. (Why would anybody start this rumor? And why is anyone continuing to spread it?)

And addressing the idea in general of people dying in marathons – from what I can tell on the internet, there’s less than a one/one-hundred-thousandth(!) of a chance that you’ll die in a marathon. In fact, it’s almost a one in a million chance. (It’s an 8 in a million chance.) (I know I’ve only linked to one study, but Google around and the results seem to be pretty similar.)

From what I can tell, it seems more likely that you would die from car accidents, childbirth, diabetes, and super long list of other things than from a marathon.

If you’re still worried, there are precautions to help lower that already very low chance.

– Get checked out before you embark on a journey to becoming a marathoner. You never know. You could have some secret underlying heart problem you never knew about. (I did.)

– Train. In real life, train. Don’t say you’re gonna train then throw a bunch of miles at yourself in the last week. Technically, it seems the general rule of thumb is not to increase your mileage more than 10% each week. (This is a “do as I say, not as I do” piece of advice. I’ll admit that for this crazy year, I didn’t do nearly enough training to really justify this craziness.)
(The first time I did a half marathon, I trained like a champ. And I felt amazing. And that’s what I really, really recommend.)

– Don’t over-hydrate. Hyponatremia is a real thing. Remember to replace your electrolytes on your runs.

– Don’t under-hydrate(!) If you feel thirsty, that means you’re already at least a little dehydrated. Water is good for you. (And if your fingers are swelling up during the race (which is apparently a thing that happens to a fair amount of people), I think that also means you’re dehydrated.)

– Generally, listen to your body (and the weather), and take care of yourself.

Who am I to give advice? Well, nobody, really. Don’t live and die by my advice. In fact, perhaps don’t even listen to it at all.

I’m not a doctor. I’m not a fast marathoner.

But I’ve lived through a bunch of distance events, and I think I know some rules of thumb (but of course they don’t substitute for any medical or real advice.)

So, go out there. Run. Take care of yourself. Know that, generally, most people are more likely to die from health problems involved with not exercising enough than they are to die from a marathons. Marathons are fun! And truly not all that dangerous. As far as I can tell, the benefits far outweigh the risks. (And as far as I can tell, all 20-some thousand runners in the Walt Disney World Marathon survived it.)

Update on the 13.10 Challenge

February 5, 2013

All right, y’all! Welcome to the conclusion of fundraising week. (Thanks for sticking with me.)

So whatever happened to the $13.10 Challenge?

1) Did we reach the fundraising goal of that challenge?
As is pretty evident on my fundraising page, we didn’t reach the money goal I was hoping for.

But, we raised over $1,000 in the first week of the challenge, which I thought was pretty rad.

And the challenge led to my first internet encounter with Cory Booker. And as much as I never shut up about that on this blog, we all know how much that meant to me!

Not only did it lead to my first encounter with Mr. Cory Booker himself, but also my first interaction with a few new friends on twitter who’ve proven to be enthusiastic lovely supporters. I’m super grateful for them!

2) Did everybody get their care packages?

As far as I know, yes. Most people got them back in December when I was trying to wrap things up. Unfortunately, one person is just now getting her’s (in 2 parts, at that!).

(I had ordered what I thought was a cool 2013 calendar for her, but there was some problem with it and it never came. Then I just kept pushing back giving her other stuff. So, sorry Carissa! But I hope you enjoyed what you did get/are getting.)

I tried to pick things that people liked. Some people got some sweet stuff (in my opinion, at least). I kind of even wanted to keep one of the books for myself (Stephen Colbert’s America Again: Re-Becoming the Greatness We Never Weren’t)!

I got some lovely thank you messages (and even a thank you video!) from people after they got their packages. So, hopefully you all liked them.

Some people declined the offer of a care package. To those people, you know I’m still sending you gobs of love strongly radiating from my heart in California to wherever you are.

If you were someone who gave $13.10 or more during that two-week period in October, and you’re a blog follower, and somehow I missed you in the offer of care packages – please, please contact me. I don’t want anyone to be left out. And I want to follow through with what I said I’d do.

3) What made you decide to issue this challenge?

I felt that people would be more likely to give if I asked for a specific amount of money (and one that many could afford), and put a specific deadline on it. I bounced the idea around for a while. People seemed to think it was a pretty good idea. A lot of people (including many strangers) said, “I’d definitely give $13.10!”

Well, when the challenge was actually issued, some of them did. Some of them didn’t. There’s definitely a difference in how easy it is to say something vs actually do the thing.

But a lot of people gave. As I said, we raised over $1,000 in the first week, which was awesome and amazingly helpful. And I’m so thankful for that.

4) What do you think went wrong?

Mmmm, I’m not totally sure… I did make people jump through two hoops if they wanted a care package (donate and subscribe to the blog). (I didn’t think I could really afford to give to everyone who gave if I didn’t get something else out of it.) Maybe people didn’t want a care package.

And a care package – that’s so vague. Maybe people wanted to be entered for an iPad or something cool like that. Maybe we needed more than just 13 days. I dunno.

The challenge got tweeted and Facebooked to close to 2 million people (that I know of – maybe even more). I thought that’d do it. Less than 0.1% of people who saw it (or conceivably saw it – not everyone sees every tweet and/or Facebook post) needed to give for us to successfully carry out the challenge. But, we couldn’t get less than 1/10 of a percent.

In the end, I think no matter what kind of idea you have, sometimes things catch, and something they don’t. This just didn’t catch on the way it needed to.

I still don’t think it was a bad idea. Maybe it just needed more tweaks…

Fundraising Has Made Me More Giving

February 4, 2013

"Hey! Give us your money!" (Avenue Q is one of the most brilliant things ever.) (Photo credit: http://blog.dominionstage.org/) — “Hey! Give us your money!” (Avenue Q is one of the most brilliant things ever.) (Photo credit: http://blog.dominionstage.org/)

Fundraising week is winding down.

I’m finally done sharing the plummets on my emotional roller-coaster (aka whining on the internet).

The one thing that has been really great about fundraising is that being in the money-raiser position, I am now far more likely to give money, without having to be too terribly prodded about it.

Even I used to buy into some of the fundraising misconceptions (mainly – “if I can only afford to give $5 or $10, I might as well not give anything ’cause the person’s gonna look at that, sigh, and sarcastically say, ‘Oh yeah. Thanks soooooo much for “helping”.'”).

But now, I’ve realized how precious every dollar is. I do a little dance, and throw myself a tiny party, every time I get an email saying I got anything.

As always (whenever I take on any project), I became a little on the obsessive side – and definitely the yearning to “win” side of all this. I unhealthily start to wrap a big part of my self-worth in whether I can escape failure – in this case whether I could somehow get more people to give money to Broadway Impact.

I now understand the overwhelming joy when the thermometer on the fundraising page ticks up at all – even if it’s just a bit.

I also realize how many hours it takes to write people in your address book and on places on social media, to make videos, to send thanks yous, and on and on. I never really thought about that before.

I gave to a stranger who needs a hip surgery. I gave to HRC and The Four this year after seeing some tweets about various pushes/campaigns the organizations were doing.

I even gave a donation to a charity I don’t really believe in – not one that actively supports something I don’t believe in, but just one that from everything I’ve read has a somewhat high overhead. (And I’ve read on multiple (seemingly legitimate) online sources that about 25% of what people raise goes toward the cost of the fundraiser’s race/trip).

But I just thought, “I like my friend. She’s super nice, and she deserves a trip. So, I’m just gonna donate this $26.20 with the intention that I’m helping a good friend do something nice for herself.”

And knowing full well what I was actually giving to (her trip), and still feeling great about it made me feel awesome.

Aaaanyway, the point of this post isn’t to list all of my giving. (“Oh, look at me. I’m soooo generous.” (Not.)) Most of my donations to those places were small. And the majority of my charity money went to my fundraising page. (Feel free to put money in it as well. That’s why I linked it! :)) The majority of my money in general went to funding my fun project (the 52 half marathons).

Was that worth it? Was that kind of selfish? It was definitely at least kind of selfish. Whether it was worth it can be debated in a later post when wrapping up the 52 half marathons.

I guess the point of all this is to say that fundraising started to make me a better person, I think (or, at least a person more willing to give). Well, two things started to make me a better person this year – that and following Cory Booker’s twitter feed.

I’m serious. I know it’s only a twitter feed… But it was almost like he knew when I was feeling down about myself. Boom. Inspiring quote in the timeline.

Plus, I kept seeing him not even take a second to think before helping a complete stranger.

It seems to be the absolute reflex with him. “See someone in need? See something trying to help a cause bigger than herself? I’m in. I’m in immediately.” That seems to be the Cory Booker attitude, and I love it.

He doesn’t seem suspicious, distrustful, too guarded, or cynical. He just seems to have an open, caring heart. He’s a great role model – and certainly one of mine.

Aaaaand, tying this together – I’m not sure that I would’ve gotten twitter had it not been for fundraising. So, overall, I think fundraising has affected my life in a positive way.

I don’t have the resources of Cory Booker, and I am definitely still going to make some selfish decisions in life. (Sorry. Fact.) But I’m at least going to try to make fewer selfish decisions, and more selfless ones…

I Don’t Really Understand the Concept of Running for Charity…

February 3, 2013

I know I use this picture a lot - 'cause it's awesome. — I know I use this picture a lot – ’cause it’s awesome.

And I never really have.

Fair warning: It’s still fundraising week, and this post is in the same blergh-ish vibe of the last two days.

If you don’t want to hear about this stuff, please come back Wednesday.

So, sure, I ran for charity. It’s the societal norm, I suppose. But I don’t really understand why it’s a thing.

If you’re not familiar with how running for charity works – usually, you get a free entry into a race (many groups even give free travel!) if you raise a minimum amount. Different charities (and different events) have different minimums.

Let me get this straight. I get to do something I love, that’s already insanely fun; and I don’t have to pay to do it, because all of these other people are putting in enough money that I get to do it for free? And I get to feel good about myself, go to a special dinner for my charity group, have coaches who take care of me, and possibly even win other awards for raising the most (or clearing other hurdles)?

There’s no downside here is what you’re saying? I get to have all the fun (and perks/attention) while other people pay my way?

Of course, now I realize why fundraisers get to race for free – and why people are nice to them, and give them cheerleaders – ’cause fundraising is freakishly hard. Super, super hard (as I’ve said this week).

I always felt a little weird about the concept of running for charity. I was on the fence whether to do it for this project. I didn’t want anyone’s money to send me to Hawaii or anything (not that I’m judging those who makes that choice). (I certainly don’t live some selfless, reward-less life. But in this instance, it wasn’t the choice for me.)

So, I laid out a goal. Once the project was running, I talked to Rory about running for Broadway Impact. I said I didn’t want any bibs, any travel – any anything. He was down.

Then – this is the embarrassing part, but it’s already obvious in my journey/the blog, so there’s no hiding it – it took me months to take the final plunge.

There was some phone/email tag. I’m sure the people at Broadway Impact hate me. (Okay, I’m not sure, because they’ve been really nice to me.) But, I was just – to use a way overused analogy – very lightly dipping my toes in the pool, instead of diving in.

I was terrified!

Do you know what quite possibly my favorite thing about running is?

It’s all you. You decide if you’re gonna go for a run. You decide if you’re gonna push yourself. You decide. All of it. And for the most part, you are in complete control (barring injury-causing accidents).

What freedom! What a beautiful thing. You can fly!

But when you decide to fundraise, (shwoop! – that was the sound of [I was going to make some remark about fundraising taking the fun out of things, but it didn’t seem to go over well, so insert whatever you want]), you are now reliant on other people. There are so many variables outside of your control. And it is stressful – super, incredibly stressful.

I hate failure. Hate it. Hating it doesn’t change the fact that I fail all the time. That’s life, I suppose.

Some people are made to sell, to charm people, to raise money, etc. Some people like to do that stuff more than they like running. I am not one of those people. I am not good at that stuff. Why I thought I would be? – who knows?

But I just felt like with such a huge project, I had to try to do some good for something outside of myself. I started feeling guilty, like if I was going to do a big running project, I had to fundraise.

How these two completely unrelated things became intertwined, I’ll never know. But I jumped on the bandwagon.

And Broadway Impact was nice to me. They said it wasn’t about the money. They liked the enthusiasm and awareness.

(But of course, to competitive me, it was a little about the money.)

Again – I’m so unbelievably grateful to all my cheerleaders this year, whether or not they gave money. Don’t let my disappointment in myself make you feel like I’m disappointed in anyone around me. But in this blog, I share my feelings with you. And these are my feelings. (Stomach ties in knots…)

Tomorrow, I’ll move onto a brighter spot – how fundraising has made me a wee bit more selfless.

Running For Equality Is An Uphill Battle…

February 2, 2013

An up-mountain battle. An up a steep, ice covered mountain battle. I don’t want to oversell it too much, but it is so hard!

I hemmed and hawed a bit before writing these posts. I don’t want to paint myself as some super victim. But I struggled a lot. And I feel like sharing some of that struggle with you.

I haven’t done a big fundraising project in a long time. When I was younger (elementary school young), I did those walk-a-thons… Basically you just sent out letters to your family, pediatrician, and parents’ co-workers; then you called it a day.

I have a pretty freakishly huge extended family. So, if everybody gave $20 – bam, I was a millionaire. (That may be an exaggeration.)

But I haven’t done any fundraising projects in the recent past (other than this one), and I certainly haven’t done any for such a hot button issue.

Intellectually, I knew it was a hot button issue. But I didn’t realize how hot button, until I started running for it!

I don’t want to compare equality to other causes, and pretend like I’m judge and jury of what’s worthy of support. But I will share a little story from the year.

I really wanted to run Rock ‘n’ Roll USA (D.C.). When I went to sign up, the bibs were sold out! But, you could still get in if you ran with a charity.

I picked the one with the lowest minimum. I flat out paid for the bib, and was done. I wanted all big public asks to go toward my Broadway Impact page. I didn’t mention this other charity on social media or to my friends.

I wrote literally one sad, little barely-ask email to my dad, explaining “Hey, this charity sold me a bib for a race I really wanted to do. I’m all paid up, so I’m not obligated to raise anything else. But since they did me a solid, it might be nice if I could get them a little extra money. If you happen to know anybody who’d like to contribute, here’s the link.”

He forwarded that email to a few friends (without making the wording of that ask any better), and pew, pew, pew (pitched laser-gun sounds); I had money.

That charity’s mission is to help older abandoned kids get a permanent home. Older kids are often ignored. It’s good that someone’s looking out for them. I’m not saying the charity doesn’t deserve money.

But the difference between the windfall of easy money for a kids charity, and the dollops of money that came in one drop at a time for equality, was astonishing to me.

I saw other people’s fundraising totals skyrocket – and skyrocket fast.

I don’t know how to emphasize this enough – I don’t wish a poor performance on anyone’s fundraising page. I don’t think I’m more special than everybody else. I think there are plenty of great causes.

It was just painful to see everyone else succeeding as I failed. And it was even more excruciating to hear I did everything “right.”

I asked for advice from big fundraisers, and I took all that advice. I made videos. I got someone with a huge twitter following to tweet out my cause. And on and on and on. Granted, I was new to this. Not everything was perfect.

But I felt like I was often banging my head against a wall. That was hard. Really, really hard. I’ll totally admit that I crawled into the fetal position and cried about this on more than a few nights in December. (And other months. Let’s get real.)

I really appreciate everyone who gave. I also appreciate everyone who was a cheerleader, even if they couldn’t give monetarily.

Please, don’t think I’m ungrateful. But this struggle was just… I dunno. Ugh.

I guess I just wanted to share that I thought choosing this issue would make fundraising slightly harder. But I was so wrong. There was no “slightly” about it.

I suppose I’m happy I did it. I think I maybe sort of helped Broadway Impact get its name out there. But, boy was it hard. And I’m sure I’ll be fundraising for them again before you know it. I just don’t feel like I did enough…

“You’d Raise A Lot More Money If You Ran For Heart Stuff,” and Other Things I Often Heard This Year

February 1, 2013

My "Yeah, I've heard it" face. — My “Yeah, I’ve heard it” face.

Fundraising week continues. Check back Wednesday if you’re skipping all fundraising talk.

Running for equality was much harder than I expected it would be. (Post on that tomorrow.) Today, let’s talk about some things I heard a lot this year (which drove me a little batty).

1) “Equality is not as important as a disease or some ‘life-or-death’ issue.” To me, equality is right up there with life or death issues. I had a very serious medical issue. I could’ve easily died, and almost certainly would’ve, had it not been caught.

I can tell you from first hand experience that living is not about physically living. It’s not about figuring out a way to make a heart beat longer. It’s about your quality of life – the kind of life you live.

Of course, this is an opinion. People could argue that they think prolonging life is more important than quality of life.

I don’t believe it is. I’ve had long enough hospital stays – with various things going in and coming out of my body, while I’m basically trapped in a room feeling utterly exhausted – to really understand how wildly important quality of life is.

To me, the issue of equality affects our quality of life. It affects the kind of world we live in, and the way people treat each other. I think it’s wildly important – certainly just as important (if not more so) than my little heart issue… Which brings me to another thing I heard a lot.

2) “You’d raise a lot more money if you ran for heart stuff.” Yep. Got it. Understood. I heard it a million times this year. And everyone who said it is 100% correct. But I told myself at the beginning of this that I’d rather raise $4 for something I really believed in than $4 million for something I didn’t care as much about.

I meant it then. I still mean it now. But it doesn’t make it any easier to reconcile that difference between saying it, and seeing it happen in front of my eyes.

I had a super rare heart defect. I don’t even know of any charities raising awareness for Wolff-Parkinson-White. That’s probably because they’d only save a handful of people each year. Obviously, even a handful of people deserve saving. But, are tons of resources best spent on that?

Plus, you don’t even need to raise a lot of money to save people from that disease. The cures are already out there. Just go get an EKG. You’ll know if you have it. And if you have it, you’ll almost certainly live if you get it treated. Done and done.

Of course, that could mean me trying to effect change to our healthcare system… There are other fights to fight. Equality isn’t the only one. But I don’t think it’s necessary that just because I had a heart problem I become the heart problem girl, who’s all heart problem all the time (even if we have covered that heart problem in-depth on my blog).

3) “I believe in you, but I don’t believe in that.” All right. I’m not going to attack people for not believing in what I believe. I hardcore disagree with them, but I’ll respect them as they respectfully decline the invitation to donate to my fundraising page. It doesn’t make it easier to hear over and over. But we’ve all been civil to each other. I suppose at least that’s something.

There were more things people said all year, but I think I’ve hit all the ones I want to talk about.

It’s frustrating to hear reasons why I’m failing, on loop, for months and months. I’m happy people are being honest with me, but that doesn’t make any of it easier to hear.

Tomorrow, I’ll elaborate on my challenges with fundraising (and specifically fundraising for equality).

My Final Call to My Fundraising Page for My 52 Half Marathons in 52 Weeks

January 31, 2013

Fundraising week continues on the blog!

I am thankful for all of you not abandoning my just ’cause I’m talking about money stuff. I’m about to close out the project, so I gotta do it, you know?

Here is my final call to action that I taped the day I got home.

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Bonus: If you follow me on twitter, you know I said I’d give a $10 Starbucks gift card at random to someone who donated this week (also that I will give a $10 Starbucks gift card at random to someone still following me on twitter after this week of fundraising/money talk (Thanks!)).

So, if you would, get to donating and following me on twitter. You might get some free coffee out of it!

p.s. Cory Booker tweeted about it and donated. Will you? 🙂 (I know some of you already have, and I am immensely thankful to all of you!) You can give here!

Misconceptions About Giving to Charity

January 30, 2013

Still fundraising week here on the blog! If you don’t want to hear about charity stuff, come back next week.

Thanks for everyone who is sticking with me, though.

I’ve run into a couple of misconceptions about giving to charity. They kind of drive me crazy. I do understand them, but from the perspective of someone trying to raise the money, they drive me a wee but nuts.

Check them out in this video, and please consider giving if you can!

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FAQs About Broadway Impact (The Charity I’m Supporting)

January 29, 2013

It’s fundraising week on the blog!

If you’re not interested in hearing about fundraising, please come back next week. I still have plenty of other stuff to talk about. But for those of you who’ll stick around this week – today I start with probably the most important thing. If you’re gonna give money, you want to know what you’re giving to.

Check out this video for some FAQs I’ve gotten about Broadway Impact:

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(Don’t feel like watching a video?…

The main points: Yes, your donation is tax-deductible. No, absolutely none of the money goes to me or my racing. And you can learn more about Broadway Impact on their website. (And you can give to my fundraising page here!)

(Celebration Race) Rock ‘n’ Roll AZ (January 20, 2013) – Part 4 (Greeted Lovingly By My Weekend Host Family)

January 28, 2013

Aurora and J1 Toward the end of the race, I came up to the bridge I’d remember from a year ago, and I knew I was almost done. When I got closer to the finish, the family I was staying with was there cheering me on! (Awwww.)

I was worried that this race might be a little lonely without Taylor (who I’d done it with last year) and without my dad since I’d just spent a week with him and already missed him the moment I boarded the plane.

So, having a family that welcomed me with such open arms into a huge (metaphorical) bear hug felt so good.

I finished in just under 4 hours, and even still, I was pretty exhausted. My body was basically pretty over it by this point. “Okay, Aurora. We get it. You like distance events. We did a freaking marathon (after a half marathon(!) last week. We’re tired. Is it time to just sit around and watch Three’s Company yet?” – my legs.

Plus, the heat! Oh my goodness, the heat. Some people thought the Disney marathon was hot? I didn’t think it was anything compared to this weather. Maybe it’s just something about how Arizona is oh so very dry that makes it seem hotter.

That’s not really how it works, I guess. Humidity supposedly makes you hotter, but I’m just stating how I feel. And I feel that the dry, hot, dry (yes, I said dry twice because it’s really dry) desert is (that sizzling, blurry field of vision comes up in front of my face like in the movies. Empty, hot facial expression. (And scene)).

This half marathon was a bit of a struggle, and I thought it was very fitting to end how I started – delirious, tired, and sore.

Last year, this was #1 of the 52 half marathons. I didn’t even know I was doing 52 half marathons when I did it! I was just trying to get back into the game and spend some time with an amazing friend of mine. I wasn’t super trained. I was incredibly tired toward the end. My brain was fried. I’m sure that after the race, I was saying all kinds of things to Taylor that didn’t make sense. She was so sweet anyway, though.

After the race, I went to good ol’ Garret at the Heavy Medals tent, and got my sweet Desert Double Down medal for having done Las Vegas and AZ (yes, I know one is a city and one’s a state, but that’s how the Rock ‘n’ Roll series names them) in two consecutive months.

I’m gonna miss the heavy medal booth. What will it be like to be some normal person not doing far too many races in one year? Bye Garret! It’s been fun.

After the race, I met up with the family I’d stayed with. J finished almost an hour ahead of me… and he did the full marathon. We all had a delicious meal together. Then I had nap time, plane time, and I was home that night.

What?! Home? How sad and normal.

Yep, after an amazing trip to Florida and Arizona with a bunch of races and cast of amazing people cheering me on, I was back in Los Angeles (wah wah).

Even though this story is over, I’d love if you stuck around the blog a while longer. I’ve still got some conclusions posts about the whole project, a post on strategies for Goofy, some more stories from Orlando… and best of all, I’ll be announcing my next project next month! So, stick around if you would. Hope to see you tomorrow!

(Celebration Race) Rock ‘n’ Roll AZ (January 20, 2013) – Part 3 (I Wanted Dairy Queen, But Alas ‘Twas Not Meant To Be)

January 27, 2013

Picking up from yesterday –

I was talking about the cool inspirational signs from P.F. Chang’s.

(Side note: P.F. Chang’s has branded this race so well that on a few occasions when I’ve talked to Arizona residents, they ask if I’m doing the P.F. Chang’s in [insert city here], even though as far as I know, it’s only the title sponsor here. Good job P.F. Chang’s, and thanks for the enthusiastic team you had out there!)

Speaking of inspiration – let’s talk about ice cream. Yum.

I’d remembered to stuff some money in my sports bra in the morning, because I’d seen a Dairy Queen commercial while I was in AZ and remembered there was one on the course.

I love Dairy Queen and don’t live anywhere near one, so I was totally not above taking a detour for some ice cream. I wondered if memory served me right, if it was still there, and if I’d hit in in the race by the time it had opened.

Sure enough, I did see one across the street! And the door was open. An employee looked to be setting up some tables and chairs outside. I yelled over asking if the restaurant was open. She said no. This was at 10:17am. I’m guessing if I had seen it just 13 minutes later, it may well have been open.

I suppose it’s better this way. What kind of person eats ice cream in a half marathon? Again, totally not above it, but perhaps not the best example to set if anyone is watching.

Maybe not so bad though… “Look! Exercise is fun. And you can have ice cream!” (Spectators immediately throw off their outer layers of clothes to reveal workout gear, and the whole city of Arizona walks/runs together.) Imagine what could’ve been…. or not.

I wasn’t able to stop at Dairy Queen, but I did talk to some people who made a McDonald’s stop. So, I was not alone in my fast food yearning.

During the race, I saw one of the coolest running signs I’d seen all year. Dear future spectators, it seems like the challenge is on! This sign was shaped like a runner (and had the face of presumably their runner), and it had moving parts that someone cranked from behind.

I kept slowing and slowing throughout the race. For one thing, I was tired! Marathons are tough. And I think I was still feeling the marathon from the week before.

I wore my orange Goofy shirt. Even though I felt that I looked cuter in other things, I just wanted the world to easily excuse me when I looked like a slow zombie. (Of course that also meant that people might’ve thought, “Um, I think if you did Goofy you’re supposed to be some kind of real athlete. Pick up your speed, girl!”)

Or, perhaps more likely, no one cared about a stranger.

And I will finish up talking about this race tomorrow.

(Celebration Race) Rock ‘n’ Roll AZ (January 20, 2013) – Part 2 (Community)

January 26, 2013

man holding focus sign for support at RnR AZ half marathon 2013 — In his head, he’s probably thinking, “Do you not get the point of this sign? Quit taking pictures and get on the road!” (The sign says, “If you are reading, you’re not focused. Get back to work!”

This may have actually been the hardest race of the year – not because it has some crazy tough course or something. But just because I think I was still feeling the effects of the Goofy Challenge.

Marathons are hard. And they wear you out. (Or at least they wear me out.) So my legs and back and just general body were still carrying around that a little (though I did a pretty good job of resting and slowly doing more walking throughout the week).

Before this race, I had this amazing blog follower write me out of the blue and ask what my plans were for Phoenix. It was so nice of her to do that, ’cause I definitely hadn’t made any.

My amazing, super wonderful friend Taylor (who I stayed with last year for this race) moved to Georgia. (I miss her.)

So, I stayed with – get this – not even the blog follower herself, but her family!

And I had the time of my life. Sandra’s family treated me as one of their own. They were so kind. They shoved tons of free food at me. (“Eat, eat!” seemed to be a rallying cry around their house.
J. (the son) was doing the full marathon, and both parents were distance racers. So, they just wanted to make sure we all had enough calories. It was very sweet. (And I was very well fed.))

J. told me the morning of the race, “Wow, it’s kind of like the last day of school for you, huh?” And he was right. (I guess. Kind of depends what school you go to. If you’re thinking stressful final exams, that was not this. If you’re thinking pizza party free-for-all – ding, ding, ding – you got it.)

PF Changs balloon arch In the morning I met these two funny guys whom I just had to talk to because one was rushing his teeth. I’m a sucker for always brushing my teeth no matter how weird it is. So, doing it outside of your start corral just made me super happy. Turns out, they have a podcast. (Of course they have a podcast. What kinds of people that fun don’t have some kind of internet thing?)

(I’m going to admit, I have not listened to said podcast yet. If you listen and don’t like it, don’t blame me. (And don’t give me the credit if you love it…Well, unless you want to.))

I also ran into a couple of different blog followers before, during, and after the race. It’s so weird and cool to hear, “Aurora?” (“Yes?”) “Oh, hey. I’m ____. I recognized you from your pictures. I read your blog.” For a quick second, I know what it must be like to be Ken Jennings.

One thing I remembered from last year was slanting on the roads. It didn’t bother me too much. (I imagine it was harder on faster runners.) But I remember it being a conversation between Taylor and her friends that day (and I remember noticing it on the course).

I was expecting slanting this year, but alas, none. I think the course was the same(?). So, I don’t know if roads have been fixed, or if it was just a mirage we could all feel last year – but no slanting this time around.

Some things were the same – like a bunch of great encouraging signs from P.F. Chang’s (though the color scheme of the signs changed this year for anyone keeping score at home).

This is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

(Celebration Race) Rock ‘n’ Roll AZ (January 20, 2013) – Part 1 (The Smoking Half-Marathoner?!)

January 25, 2013

What?! Yes, indeed. This is a smoking half marathoner (during the race!).

Weird to be writing about the last one – well, the last one of this specific project, at least.

But let’s just jump right in to the craziest part of this race, ’cause it was nuts and I’ve never seen anything like it. And I don’t even know if I should be drawing attention to it or not! But I mean, I have to tell you about it ’cause it was just nuts.

There was a smoker on the course! I kid you not. A smoker. With a bib and a pack of cigarettes. He was also doing the half marathon in a trench coats (and leather boots as he himself pointed out to me).

He still beat me though.

I was talking to a couple about how I’d heard a rumor there was a Dairy Queen along the course. Someone mentioned “oh, that’s almost as bad as having the smoker here… Well, okay not at all that bad.”

“Back it up. What, now? What smoker?”

“There’s a guy up ahead in a trench coat, smoking. We had to get away from him.”

“Wait, what?”

They explained he really had a bib and was doing the race. I had to see this with my own eyes to believe it. So, I ran ahead. I was booking it to try to catch up to this guy (with long legs and a quick walking stride).

I was totally winded by the time I got up to him. Before I said a word to him, when he saw me struggling, he cheerfully said something positive like, “Keep it up. You’re doing great.” He was actually very nice, which made it harder to be all rargh rargh rargh.

Don’t get me wrong. Of course I was all rargh, rargh still. How do you smoke out in the open, among all the runners, in a distance race?!

Everyone who I’d met who was around him or had encountered him at some point in the race was pretty furious. People were altering their paces just to get away from this guy.

I almost didn’t want to take pictures of him because I thought that might be sort of encouraging him. But I had to document it for you, because I wouldn’t have believed it if I wouldn’t have seen it. I barely believe it now.

When I went up to talk to him, he said he’s the “smoking marathoner,” and he has a goal to smoke a pack per race. (I don’t know if he’s done any full marathons. Today he was doing the half.)

I don’t understand it. I still can’t really believe it. But I just had to tell you about it. Though again, I really don’t know if I should’ve brought attention to it, ’cause I don’t think you’re supposed to bring attention to bad stuff, really… unless there’s a way to fix it or something, right?

Either way, there’s that. And I’ll tell you all about my race tomorrow.

Rock ‘n’ Roll AZ Expo

January 24, 2013

Entryway to the Rock 'n' Roll AZ 2013 Marathon expo Rock ‘n’ Roll events – always doing it up right!

Red carpet entry, countdown clock with the hours remaining ’til race time ticking away.

I’ll try not to cover the ground I’ve already talked about in all my other many Rock ‘n’ Roll expo posts.

I took the leap and signed up for the Dumbo Double Dare Challenge at the runDisney booth. For those who haven’t heard, it’s a brand new thing this year in Disneyland, sort of like California’s mini-version of the Goofy Challenge.

It’s a 10k on Saturday followed by a half marathon on Sunday. I had started to hear rumors that the race would sell out fast. Sure enough, it was sold out within an hour of registration opening to the general public on Tuesday, so it’s a good thing I just got in and did my thing at the expo.

Since I live in L.A., I wanted to get in on the inaugural Dumbo. I saw how special the legacy runners were treated at the Walt Disney World Marathon (sashes, rings, special bibs and Corral A placement, and on and on). I want a sash! Since Anaheim is basically a local race for me, I’ll go ahead and consider giving up a weekend in August/September every year for the next 20 years of my life. We’ll see…

A cool little thing at this expo was that the people at Cole Investments were giving out little tins of “invest mints.” Get it? Super cute!

A guy from Scottsdale Sports Medicine Institute was giving away free pens if you could identify a bone in the bottom. Sternum.
Ba – Bam. Click, click, says my victory pen!

I talked to some fun people and met some new bffs at the Team Challenge booth.

I hope my new expo friends enjoyed me… I was slightly worried about it, ’cause I’m pretty sure you could tell I was about to do my last race of this project. My brain was pretty dead. I was pretty dead. I mean, I tried to keep it together, and keep it all fun. But I could feel myself on the verge of (makes slow robot sound as I lean forward) system shutdown.

(Don’t worry. I didn’t completely shut down. I made it through the race okay, but I wondered if people at this expo thought they were talking to a robot. So, if you met me here, hopefully I was not too terribly robot-like.)

Countdown And now the best part of all – as I was leaving the expo, I happened to walk by the Chocolate Milk booth. I was just passing it ’cause I’d already been at a bunch of other expos. But then, someone there pointed at me and called me over. He said someone had told him that if he saw a girl in a “Who’s Bad” hat he had to stop her to hear her story and get her to tape a Got Milk thing.

What?!

How random, right?

For those of you who haven’t been to the expo, the Chocolate Milk booth has a camera set up and anyone can tape a little thing about why they love chocolate milk. Then there’s a whole voting process and people get little sponsorships and things.

I was certainly convinced to tape one by this stranger/strange occurrence. I’ll keep you updated if the video goes online at some point.

Tomorrow, I’ll tell you about my celebration race!

Walt Disney World Marathon Presented by Cigna (Goofy Challenge, Day 2) (January 13, 2013) – Part 7 (Finishing The Race!)

January 23, 2013

Aurora De Lucia making a tired pose after the Walt Disney World Marathon 2013 — After all the fun pictures, I asked my dad if we could take one with a tired pose. (I love this.)

Picking up from yesterday –

We were traveling through Epcot, around the World Showcase.

My, it seems like a pretty big world toward the end of a marathon. However, I was pretty darn thankful to be in a park.

I love roads, but something about going through a park made it seem so much easier.

I took a few glances behind me to make sure there were still people back there. (lol) Luckily, there were still plenty of runners/walkers behind me.

In both Epcot and Hollywood Studios, I saw people running to the side of the course to see friends and families who were in the parks.

It was cute. It was weird, though, to be watched by people in the parks. Spectators at a marathon kind of expect you to possibly look a little like death warmed over. But I just imagined kids out for a fun day at Disney asking, “What’s with the parade of zombies over there, Dad?”

Once I hit Mexico in the World Showcase, I knew I was almost home free. I remembered from my last trip to Disney that it was the last (or first) country.

I thought to myself, “I must be getting close to that loop away from then toward the big ball from the 5k and the half marathon.”

Once I hit that part of the course, I realized we didn’t do the same loop on this last race! We only had to do the second half of it. That was a pleasant surprise.

Before you knew it, it was out toward the parking lot and I passed that same energetic gospel choir. I high-fived everyone in the front row as I jogged by.

I turned the corner, saw the sign that told me I only had 400 yards left, and could barely believe it.

I very lightly jogged on toward the end. (I think it was pretty much glorified walking, but I like to end as runnery-looking as I can.)

As I was running toward the finish, I heard the announcer say, “Cross that line, get yourself a medal, and call yourself a marathoner for the rest of your life!”

Did you hear that important part? “Call yourself a marathoner for the rest of your life!”

Technically, I could already do that. But this wasn’t some long day-long 26.2 mile hike through the woods. This was a 7-hour road race. So I’m gonna call myself a marathoner so much harder now.

I just thought it was such a cool idea to think about having the title “marathoner” for the rest of your life! Woot!

Of course, for the spectators, this was not a new thought. Apparently, the guy said it a lot (according to my dad who’d been there for a bit). But that’s understandable. Every few minutes it’s a whole new crop of marathoners.

I am hesitant to say anything even slightly negative about Disney since I absolutely adored this race and my whole weekend. But I’ll go ahead and say that I’m sort of bummed they use MarathonFoto now instead of Brightroom.

Brightroom is awesome and records video of you crossing the finish! (I can’t tell you how thankful I was earlier this year when I realized they do that, and I was able to forever save the moment I crossed a half marathon finish line on crutches. (Thank you for recording it, Brightroom.))

My dad taped the finish. So, I’ve gotten to re-live that moment, and I’ve already heard “And call yourself a marathoner for the rest of your life!” a few times since that awesome day.

But we’re not all lucky enough to have our dads there. I’m sure for some people – especially those doing their first marathons – crossing the line can be a magical moment. (Just my 2 cents, Disney and MarathonFoto.)

I got my gorgeous, amazing, lovely marathon medal that says “All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.” I think that’s the perfect quote for a marathon medal. (One of the reasons I chose this race was that amazing medal!)

After I crossed the line, I got my sweet Goofy medal from the lovely, helpful volunteers (or voluntEars as they like to say at Disney).

My dad was waiting for me as I exited the runner area. I couldn’t have been happier that he was there.

Walking to my corral in the morning, there was a sign that said, “Have a magical race.” I did just that.

Walt Disney World Marathon Presented by Cigna (Goofy Challenge, Day 2) (January 13, 2013) – Part 6 (Getting Closer to the Finish (And I Passed a Bacon Challenge))

January 22, 2013

Picking up from yesterday –

Once we made it into Hollywood Studios, people were giving out candy! Yep, various kinds of chocolate. Yum yum. …?

“Yum yum” was my first thought when I saw candy. However – for one thing. I’m obsessed with milk. I don’t really like chocolate unless I can down some sweet, sweet, delicious milk along with it.

But more than anything, my stomach was just not having it around mile 22-ish. I reached out for free chocolate. It’s free chocolate. Natural reflex. Then I looked at it in my hand and thought, “Nope. No way.”

It wasn’t that I had an upset stomach, but I dunno… It just did not seem appetizing to me that deep into the race, though I’m sure some people loved it.

Speaking of food deep into the race, there was a bacon challenge around mile 24. I had no idea what it was when I passed it. I saw a booth people were going off to, and I saw people getting medals. I had no idea what was going on.

I found out later that a little non-Disney-official Facebook page had been started, and a group had put together a challenge in which runners would eat 3 pieces of bacon toward the end of the race. If they did, they got a super cute 3 Little Pigs medal.

I’m not sure bacon would’ve been super appetizing at that point (to me, at least – congrats to everyone who could handle it), but I’m pretty sure I’m in for the challenge during the Disneyland Half. (I can definitely handle it in a half.)

After Hollywood Studios, the course took us through Disney’s Yacht Club Resort (this is where that bacon challenge was). I liked being on hotel property. As much as I like highways, again, the change of scenery was nice. Thought it is a little odd, right? Seeing these hotel guests lounging by the water when we’re out there doing a marathon.

I’m sure it’s weird for them too. “What is this sea of people doing traipsing through my vacation?”

Even though I had taken a look at the map, I was not intimately familiar with it. (I never am. I just follow signs and people in front of me.)

I thought we’d be doing the overpass again to get to Epcot. I wasn’t looking forward to going up an incline so late in the race – even if it was just one hill.

Well, imagine my pleasant surprise when the course took us through some back entrance to Epcot from the Yacht Club. Woot!

I knew once we were in Epcot, we were pretty home free. This was it – the last thing. Just get to the ball and go out to the parking lot.

I was tired, but still keeping it together okay. The park was open and people were milling about. Anytime I’m in front of a crowd, I want to be super cute and personable and fun. I wanted to take off running, looking totally cute, of course, and giving big smiles to everyone I passed.

I abandoned that idea in about one second.

I want to give y’all a show, but way more than that, I just want to put on these headphones and have R. Kelly and Michael Jackson take me on home.

I started up “The World’s Greatest” by R. Kelly on my iPhone. That song is my jam! I used to end every workout with it. Then I banned it from my rotation for a while after I got out of the hospital and had crummy little slow workouts. “You are not the world’s greatest!” I’d yell at myself.

But, I’ve allowed it back in the rotation sometimes this year. (Not that I actually think I am the world’s greatest anything. Come on, who am I? Hillary Clinton? Cory Booker?)

Anyway, I was finishing a marathon – a marathon, y’all! Slowly, slowly finishing. But I allowed myself my R. Kelly treat (twice).

And I will wrap up the marathon story tomorrow (even though I wish I could just talk about it forever – too fun!)

Walt Disney World Marathon Presented by Cigna (Goofy Challenge, Day 2) (January 13, 2013) – Part 5 (Awesome Signs)

January 21, 2013

Picking up from yesterday –

After my regal entrance into mile 20, I got another burst of energy.

I mainly walked the second half, but I had bits of running sprinkled in here and there, and this was a place where I did a little jog. Hello, world! I’m doing a marathon!

There was one point in the race when I was warning people that I was coming, when I said, “On your…wherever this is that you hear sound,” ’cause I couldn’t really remember for sure (so quickly-ish) what was right or left anymore.

We had a little laugh about it, and then I didn’t feel alone when someone did the same thing to me later.

From where I was in the marathon crowd, everyone seemed so very polite. When I did want to run, people were happy to give me space (and even encouragement) when I needed to squeeze through a group or around people.

And when it was my turn to walk and have runners pass me, they also seemed very polite and encouraging. The attitude on the course was awesome.

And speaking of awesome runners, there was a retired Navy serviceman was wearing a shirt saying he was retired and running for military families.

When I said, “Thank you for your service, sir;” he said, “It was my pleasure and honor.”

I saw him somewhere around me at a couple of different points. It seemed like many people were talking to him and inspired by him, which I thought was lovely. And every time someone thanked him, he was so gracious, humble, and awesome about it. I’m sure he inspired a bunch of people on that course.

Speaking of inspiring, we all ran on a road during the race that had all these great quotes from runners and innovators (of course including Disney himself), basically telling us we can do anything and never give up in various interesting or poignant ways.

And then as I was reading them, I saw one was labeled “- Hercules” after the quote.

Really? Running/walking along, looking at quotes – Olympian. Innovator. Famous person. Aaaaaand, cartoon character. I laughed a little at the silliness, but allowed it, ’cause it is Disney, after all.

There was also a stretch of road with silly thoughts (and a few facts thrown in) that I found enjoyable as we made our way toward Hollywood Studios.

Some of those signs included –
“What’s another word for thesaurus?”
“If corn oil comes from corn, where does baby oil come from?”
“Why isn’t phonetic spelled the way it sounds?”
“Have you ever imagined a world with no hypothetical situations?”

Tehehe. Cute, right?

While we’re on great signs, quite possibly my favorite of the day was one this awesome spectator held that said, “Imagine Morgan Freeman narrating your marathon.”

Yes. I will imagine that, ’cause it sounds amazing. Thank you very much.

And this is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

Walt Disney World Marathon Presented by Cigna (Goofy Challenge, Day 2) (January 13, 2013) – Part 4 (Wide World of Sports & Mile 20 Spectacular)

January 20, 2013

Picking up from yesterday –

Being halfway through felt great! Only one more half to go!

(Some Goofy Challenges like to think of that as being 2/3 of the way through. I just kept thinking about it a mile (or a few) at a time. Mile 14 seemed to come pretty quickly.

I don’t pay too much attention to the side character stops, but I was found of the “Bad to the Bone” one with a bunch of Disney villains. It looked pretty cool, I thought, with Scar draped over some huge skeleton thing and smoke/fog stuff coming out around it.

From miles 14 – 17ish, I just enjoyed my music and looked forward to getting into Wide World of Sports. I don’t often really look at maps before marathons, but I’d looked at this one, and I knew that once we got there, we’d be going through pretty entertaining scenery changes from there to the finish.

I was very happy to get into Wide World of Sports. They were playing some nice music, it was a great change of running surface. I love the pavement, but sidewalks/walkways were fun too.

I think it was somewhere around here that they gave us cold, wet sponges. (Thanks, Disney!) (I really don’t remember if it was earlier, later, or here. So, don’t take my word on when we got them.)

Again, I took every single opportunity to preemptively get colder (and wetter) throughout the race, before the heat made my cranky. It seemed to be an okay strategy. It never registered to me that it was hot.

When I ran into the stadium, sure enough, my dad was there! He gave me a Gatorade and some Clif Shot Bloks. I ended up not using the Bloks (Earlier in the race, I’d used a pack I’d brought with me.) But that Gatorade was amazing. (Disney uses Powerade. Not to hate on Powerade, but come on. Gatorade.)

Originally, I thought it might be a super bummer that my dad was spectating instead of running, but it worked out well. And I’ll talk more about how great he was later.

I was excited to see what the big “mile 20 spectacular” was (in honor of the 20th anniversary). A lot of people have been saying they were disappointed in it. I don’t know if it’s because I was delirious or just so happy after 20 miles – (how can you not be with all the endorphins flowing?) – but I liked it.

(I mean, really. It’s the middle of a marathon and a stream of people will be hitting it for hours. What can you possible have lasting for something like 4 hours that’s going to be over-the-top spectacular? They’re not gonna do that many fireworks. They can’t really give us anything super special (that we’d have to carry to the finish). I don’t know what people were expecting… but I expected nothing and was ready to be surprised with anything.)

It was basically giant puppets of various Disney characters, and instead of a normal mile marker (which is already big and awesome), it was an overhead arch that showed every medal for the last 20 years, including a big ol’ picture of the one we were on our way to receiving. Plus, there was some great Disney music playing.

When I passed “Prince Ali” was playing. Right as I went under the arch, it was the kind of grand part of the song where it slows way down (and I think even has a key change). Oh yeah. My big royal cross into mile 20, baby!

This is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

Walt Disney World Marathon Presented by Cigna (Goofy Challenge, Day 2) (January 13, 2013) – Part 3 (Mid-Race, & Hopping on a Roller Coaster)

January 19, 2013

Picking up from yesterday –

After the first 10 miles, I was averaging a 14-minute/mile pace (14.01 to be exact for any sticklers out there).

At mile 10, I thought, “Oh, already in double digits. Awesome.” Then I realized that I still had more than a half marathon to go! I definitely don’t recommend thinking that way, ’cause then a marathon seems long. It felt way better when I thought about it in little pieces – a mile, a 5k, etc.

After the sun started peeking out, I poured a cup of water over myself at every water stop, which I think helped a lot in making sure I didn’t get hot… though it did mean I was pretty wet.

I was dried off pretty well between water stops, especially after the sun started showing itself more as the race went on. But, not all parts dried equally. I poured some nice cold water on my lower back once, which felt great – but meant water was stuck around my bum for a bit! Be careful how you wet your back, or you might just accidentally give yourself a wet behind.

As it got warmer (and as I was trying to adjust my wet, swishy pants), I pulled up my pants like shorts at some points (which I’m sure looked super not attractive at all, so big apologies to anyone who had to witness my insanely pasty tree trunk legs reflecting enough light to blind somebody). (Of course, I’m not ashamed of being pasty! Skin care is vitally important, and “reflective surface” happens to be the natural shade of my skin. I’m just sorry anybody had to see my super healthy skin that’s rarely ever touched by the sun. :))

I covered up my bib every time I saw a photographer when I was in a more-messy-than-usual state. I don’t need the gross moments (in which my outfit (and myself) are falling apart) captured forever!

As we started going toward Animal Kingdom, I took a picture of a fake alligator (in yesterday’s post). Soon after I thought, “fake animal,” I looked up and thought, “real animals!”

That’s right. They had cast members out there with birds and goats. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Crazy.

But I made it out unharmed by any animals. (Yay!) (The cast members seemed to have good control over what was going on… but still, animals were out and about, so you never know what will happen.)

Somewhere around mile 12 or 13, cast members were waving people into what looked like a ride. I went over and asked what they were waving us into. Indeed, Expedition Everest was open to runners!

I’d told myself that today was about finishing, not wasting time stopping for photos and random Disney things. But I was ahead of my 15-minute/mile goal pace, so I made one exception to run onto this ride – and it was the most awesome decision!

I don’t think I’ve ever seen any group of people more excited to get on a ride than a group of marathoners in the middle of a race! What a lovely little invigorating break.

(In true Disney fashion, you could even buy the picture you got on the ride, and they gave you the number of it in case you wanted to buy it the next day. (I did not.))

Soon after the ride, I got to the halfway point and was at exactly a 15-min/mile pace. Perfect.

I called my sister. We had heard this story of someone breaking down in tears during the marathon at 13.1, lamenting, “I just did 13.1 yesterday! I’ve already done a full marathon between the days. I still have another half marathon?!”

It’s not funny to laugh at someone’s emotions, but my sister and I thought it was a funny idea. We weren’t laughing at the person, but the idea of the big breakdown. Caylan and I planned on taking a fun little break for crying pictures at 13.1, but alas she was not able to come to the Goofy Challenge this year. So, I just called her to quickly say hi, and that I couldn’t wait to cry with her next time.

This is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

Walt Disney World Marathon Presented by Cigna (Goofy Challenge, Day 2) (January 13, 2013) – Part 2 (Banking Time)

January 18, 2013

age is no barrier sign Picking up from yesterday –

I started the race, and felt great. I’d spent the half marathon mainly strategizing for the marathon.

I knew the first 8 or so miles were the same both days, so I paid attention to what different parts felt like, when I’d get to go downhill, when the road would get narrower, etc. (Disney makes all that stuff really clear, but there was something nice about a test run the day before.)

My big goal was to use this early morning time weather to bank some time. I was still nervous about the heat to come with the sun, so while we were in the dark, I made a run for it (mixed in with plenty of walking still).

As many of you know who read the blog, I’m quite slow. My whole goal for this race was to just finish while the course was still open (not get swept). Thankfully, I never even saw the sweeper.

Basically, I knew that because of the corral I was in, I could finish in a 17-min/mile pace and be okay. I wanted to finish the first half in about 15-minute miles then I could take my time with the second half if necessary.

I didn’t want to waste battery on my phone, so I didn’t fire up my running app. I just looked at my phone for the time at every mile marker, then added 15 minutes for my next marker goal.

I hit every one early, and after 5 miles my dad sent me the text (from the runner tracking he was getting) that I was at a 13:38 pace. Awesome.

Random note about the morning: I was flabbergasted by the number of people in the first few miles who went out to pee in the woods. I saw one guy only go so far out as to not be seen by runners, but he was perfectly visible to the monorail still… And then of course I saw one pass by.

I just imagined families looking down. “What is happening beneath us?” But, it was dark, so probably no one saw. I guess that’s just a risk you take when you’re a guy peeing in public during a race.

Forget about men peeing. Why am I even talking about that? Back to my awesome race –

Get this! When we ran through Cinderella’s castle this morning – I did not have to come to a complete stop! Sure, everybody slowed down, but I got to keep moving! Of the three Disney races I’ve done in Orlando (Princess and the half right before this one), this is the only one where that had been the case. Perhaps it was because I was a bit faster this day (though still not fast, of course). Rock on, runners.

That was a fun, magical moment.

Speaking of magical moments – this was insane. As I was jogging along through the magic kingdom, I looked over and thought I recognized someone I worked with on America’s Got Talent two years ago. No… it couldn’t be… could it?

Yes! It was. He was wearing a pin with his name on it on the back. What are the chances I saw someone who looked just look him and had the same name?

“Rico?” I said. “Yes?” Then he saw me, and realized who I was. We both were all, “What are you doing here?!” “Uh… running a marathon!” We talked for a quick minute, and he introduced me to his sister. Then we parted ways as I took off (just to be passed by them later, I’m pretty sure).

This is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

Walt Disney World Marathon Presented by Cigna (Goofy Challenge, Day 2) (January 13, 2013) – Part 1 (What Was The Hubbub About The Weather?)

January 17, 2013

What was all the hubbub about the weather, y’all?

I will say that I was super slow. It took me a little over 7 hours to finish the race. So, maybe all the people who were saying it was hot were pushing themselves to the max. Plus, I live in Los Angeles. I’ve become very used to the heat. But I didn’t even notice it was “hot,” even though that’s all most people were talking about.

I’d had the begoodness scared out of me throughout the weekend with all the billions of heat warnings/weather advisories Disney had been bombarding us with. I usually try to look at least someone cute at running events. (There are people there whose job it is to take your picture!)

But I’d had the terror implanted in me hard enough, that I opted for a shirt I didn’t look super cute in, because it was white and made of really light fabric.

I’ll admit I was a bit on the nervous side for this race. I had a plan for what I wanted to wear, but I still changed shoes about five times in the morning. (I didn’t have five pairs of shoes. I was just switching back and forth between the two pairs I had – and they were just two different pairs of Aasics Kayanos!)

I changed socks a number of times. “No, these… No, wait. These. Definitely these… Uh, maybe this one for the left, and then one from this pair for the right.”

I changed shirts a couple of times. I asked myself if I had to use the bathroom about 30 times. “Do you have to go now? Okay, you just used the bathroom five minutes ago. So, you don’t have to. Maybe just one more time right before you leave…”

Intellectually, I knew I’d made a great strategy for the weekend (which I’ll get into later, but basically it just involved a lot of rest and sleep), followed the strategy, and felt great. I knew I was ready. But there was still something about the marathon that gave me butterflies.

I’d only ever done one marathon before, and it really barely counts ’cause it was through the woods, and I took a million breaks. It was basically just a day-long hike.

I’d just heard oh so many stories of people being swept. In fact, after I put my neurotic energy aside for long enough to get out of the room and on the bus, I sat next to someone who’d been swept before!

But, I had Ty’s bandana wrapped around my wrist. I knew he was with me the whole time. (He even sent me an encouraging text the night before, so I doubly knew he was with me.) I’m gonna be just fine!

I made it to the race, and walked on the red carpet under an arch shaped like mouse ears to go toward my corral. (All runners got to do that. It wasn’t ’cause I’m so (obviously) super famous.) Once I got closer to my corral, I had a quick stop off for an interview with Run Disney TV’s Dennis Marsico. I told him the channel had been on loop in my hotel room practically all weekend. And then we talked about twitter because we both love it so much!

After the interview, I worked my way over to my corral.

And this is where I’ll pick up next time.

(#52) Walt Disney World Half Marathon (Goofy Challenge, Day 1) (January 12, 2013) – Part 3 (Finishing & Being Greeted By The Media!)

January 16, 2013

Aurora De Lucia with her medal from the Walt Disney World Half Marathon 2013 - Her 52 half marathon of 52 half marathons in 52 weeks Picking up from yesterday –

I was talking about how Disney running events are sort of like Disney events that happen to involve running.

I still tried to have runner etiquette as much as I could – walk on the right, always use hand signals when slowing down, just generally stay to stay out of everyone’s way and be as safe as possible, basically.

I did a pretty okay job for the most part, I think. It can be a little hard sometimes ’cause Disney races are just so crowded. So, if I accidentally got in anyone’s way in a narrow place, I’m sorry and I hope we’re still friends. (But I assume we are ’cause that just comes with the territory of Disney racing.)

I saw a few Princess Leias out on the course. I couldn’t believe I didn’t think of that. Someone even had earmuffs shaped like the side buns. Nice, right? Perhaps next year… If I’m gonna be a Disney Princess, she’s the one I want to be!

And I forgot to saw (way back from the beginning), I thought the fireworks at the top of the race started by the start line. Well, I was in the front of my corral, and I don’t know if I was hallucinating, but it looked like some fireworks also went off past the start line ’cause even after I ran through the start line arch, I still saw fireworks in front of me – unless they were reflections (or my imagination).

As the race went on, I slowed to a comfortable walk. “Save yourself for tomorrow. Save yourself for tomorrow,” was my mantra.

I met a guy named Brad who was out there for his mom’s 50th birthday! The whole family went down to do the half marathon – and his mom and passed him. So, we walked and talked for a while.

I fell behind to announce my twitter handle over the mic at the turnaround point when he was asking us where we all were from. Yes, that’s right. I am from twitter. It wasn’t all for naught, though! I got a new follower out of that. What, what?

As I went through the course it all seemed incredibly familiar. It felt as though I had just run the Princess half yesterday even though it was back in February. I couldn’t believe how much turns and entertainment stops and things came flooding back. I was often able to guess what was coming next before I came upon it, which flabbergasted me.

Aurora De Lucia hamming it up for David Baumann's cameras for Disney Sports at the end of the Walt Disney World Half Marathon 2013 — My dad (in the stands) caught me hamming it up at the end.

Things were the same down to the stranger who had the “Hello, complete stranger. I’m proud of you too!” sign. I even ran up to her and said, “I saw you last year at Princess!” And she smiled. (She was out again at the marathon the next day. I don’t know who she is, but she seems pretty awesome in my book.)

At the 5k I’d done with my dad the day before, as we turned to leave Epcot I said something about thinking I’d remembered a gospel choir from the last race… but they weren’t there. Well, that’s because they were for the half, not the 5k! Sure enough, as I turned the corner, a gospel choir was rocking out!

As I ran through the finish line, I saw David Baumann and his team waiting for me at the finish line! Aw, how nice to be welcomed in by a camera crew. You can see me being a dork here. (But don’t get too excited. I think I’ve already linked to this earlier, so you may have seen it before.)

What was really nice about ending my big 52nd half in the midst of the Goofy Challenge was that I didn’t go nuts or feel empty. I just thought, “Eat. Rest. Sleep. Focus. (dum, dum, dum) You have a marathon tomorrow, baby!”

(#52) Walt Disney World Half Marathon (Goofy Challenge, Day 1) (January 12, 2013) – Part 2 (Don’t Plan to PR at a Disney Race)

January 15, 2013

Halfway there...or not Picking up from yesterday –

After the fun morning interview, I went to my corral. Before you knew it, it was off to the races!

I saw a funny pair of signs just a few miles in. I thought the “you’re halfway there,” “bad at math” sign idea was pretty cute. (The couple holding them showed up again with the same signs at the end. The signs seemed even funnier when we were only a tenth of a mile away.)

There was also a big projection made by Disney onto the side of an overpass that said “Congratulations.” It was cool, but I thought, “uh, a little premature, much? We’re like 4 miles in, y’all. Thanks anyway, though.”

One person’s family had a sign that said, “her feet need your tweets,” and included her twitter handle. I thought that was a super cute idea.

One last sign I thought was funny said “Hurry up! My arms are getting tired!”

As far as my strategy for this race – I just wanted to chill out, walk a lot, and come in a little before the time limit. I did 15:50/minute miles for the first 10k, just taking it all in, looking around, being silly.

As we got through the Magic Kingdom, we all came to a big stop right outside Cinderella’s Castle (which happened in my first Disney race as well). I was sort of expecting it, and my thoughts were really on the marathon the next day. But I felt bad for the poor girl next to me. She was sweating and working hard. She was incredibly frustrated and yelled out, “This is unacceptable!” as she looked for a way to get through the traffic.

Congrats sign at Disney I looked at her, and in the most understanding way I knew how, tried to say, “This is a Disney race. This happens. This isn’t a race you run for time.” She exasperatedly exclaimed something like, “I didn’t know that!”

I think she had learned it in the first 6 miles, but she was already in the race. There was nothing she could do now.

I do think it’s really important for people to know that you should not expect to run a PR at a Disney race. Some people do, sure. And sure, you can push yourself. But there are parts that get narrow, and so many people posing for pictures and stopping to look at things – you will almost certainly be held back, at one point or another, from a pace you wish you were going. To have a pleasant Disney experience, you just have to be okay with that.

It is jarring and can be upsetting the first time you learn that lesson, so I empathize with runners who’ve never done a Disney race. But now that I know that to be the case, I chill out, and just enjoy Disney races for what they are.

(Obviously, if you are elite and start in the front, that very well may never happen to you.)

I like to think of Disney races as Disney events that happen to involve running instead of running events that happen to involve Disney. When I look at them that way, they’re super fun. I had an amazing time! But please, runners, know what you’re getting into.

I’ll finish up telling you about the race tomorrow.

(#52) Walt Disney World Half Marathon (Goofy Challenge, Day 1) (January 12, 2013) – Part 1 (Accidentally Blew Off Drew Carey… And Met Joey Fatone)

January 14, 2013

As I was waiting in the staging area to go to back to the corrals, I got a text message from my mom asking if I’d met Joey Fatone.

(For those who don’t know, Joey Fatone was a member of Nsync. When I was in elementary/middle school, I pretty much adored them and saw them in concert 22 times.)

When I got a text asking if I met him, I sarcastically thought, “Yeah. In this sea of 25,000 people, I met Joey Fatone – whom I’m sure is being treated like a total VIP and not even anywhere close to us commoners. ;)”

Not that long after that, I got to go up around the start line so I could be interviewed by David Baumann of NBC Sports.

Sure enough, before you knew it, I was standing around Joey Fatone and Drew Carey. This is where it gets nice and embarrassing.

Someone who travels with Drew Carey’s team (his assistant, perhaps?) asked if I wanted a picture with him. I think she thought I had made my way up there to get pictures with famous people. (I saw a small group of girls get their picture taken with Drew and head out right as I was coming up there.)

I didn’t want to annoy him, and I wanted to be all cool and seem like I belonged. So, I was all, “oh, that’s okay. I’m just waiting to be interviewed.”

But then I looked up and saw with my own eyes – could that be Joey Fatone?! I glanced away, then back. It’s him. It’s really him.

With Joey Fatone only three or so feet from me, I kept thinking, “That’s Joey Fatone from Nsync!!! An Nsync member is standing so very close to you. You have to ask him for a picture.” Then I thought, “Be cool. Be cool. Be cool. You’ve met famous people. They’re just people. You’re super cool and totally supposed to be up here since you are now apparently super famous as well. ;)”

Followed of course by thoughts of, “It’s Joey Fatone! Let your inner super fan out. You are a nerd. Nerd out and be okay with it.”

So, I went up and tapped him on the shoulder. I said, “Sorry to bother you.” And he very sweetly was all, “No, it’s fine!” I said I’d seen him in concert 22 times. He said, “I’m sorry.” Tehehe.

Then I asked if I could have a picture. He said, “Of course!” I looked around for who would take it. Sure enough, the only person around was Drew Carey’s assistant person (or, I suppose Drew Carey lol).

I sheepishly asked the assistant if she would take the picture. She was nice about it, but I could see in her eyes she was probably thinking, “Are you joking me? I just asked if you wanted a picture with Drew Carey. Now you’re asking if I’ll take one of you with Joey Fatone? Aye, aye, aye.”

I hope Drew Carey didn’t overhear all of this. I wasn’t trying to snub him! I was just trying to be cool, but then abandoning that…

Thank goodness I didn’t wait one more second with the loop of “Should I bother or not bother Joey” going in my head, because right after I got my picture, it was time for my interview!

David was so incredibly nice and cool. I hope he thought I was nice and
cool too, but my bet is I didn’t seem super cool. I had a bit of nervous energy – last race, big interview, super early morning (and I’d just met Joey Fatone!). But David didn’t seem to mind that I was totally nerding out. (I kind of feel like I am constantly nerding out lately. But that’s okay. I think that just means I’m having lots of fun.)

You can see some of the fun of that interview here.

Then I went on back to my corral, and I’ll talk about the race tomorrow.

Disney Family 5k Fun Run (Unofficial Dopey Challenge) (January 11, 2013)

January 13, 2013

Whoa, what a weekend. So much to talk about!

I’ll just do it like normal and go a race at a time.

One thing I thought was pretty funny was when we got there, there was so much food being sold! There was even a cupcake truck! There were people walking around selling hot chocolate. We didn’t get anything, but plenty of sweet treats were available if you wanted them.

Before the race, there was a DJ who was pretty funny. He danced to Gangnam Style. (And that song was in my head for the rest of the weekend.)

Our race was pretty uneventful. It was just me trying to slow my dad down to a mall-walk. I wanted to walk this and not even feel that I’d done it. And that’s what we did.

We were dorks who stopped for a picture in front of the Epcot ball, but I didn’t care. I liked it. It’s Disney! Embrace that dorkiness!

After the race, they gave us so much food. There were snack boxes, full bottles of Powerade, bananas… Huh. I kind of just took a little walk through the park, but uh, okay… Thanks, Disney!

(Oh, and a note to anyone who wants to know what the Dopey Challenge is… It is an unofficial thing runners talk about, but it’s not recognized by Disney. It’s doing the official Goofy Challenge (the half Saturday and the full Sunday), and adding the 5k in the day before.)

(Added note to this blog: The Dopey Challenge actually became real. Disney added a 10k. It’s now 4 days long. And you can do it. It exists.)

That wraps up that little 5k. Tomorrow, I’ll talk about the half marathon!

I’m Not Afraid!

January 12, 2013

The original title to this pose was “I’m Not Nervous, Per Se.”

Then the first line was: But I’m a little nervous.

However, I had a couple of days to think about it, and I’m not afraid!

The half marathon went great, and I’ll tell you all about it soon. But now, I’m gearing up for the marathon!

So, here’s the reason I was perhaps slightly afraid.

If you spend some time reading about Disney races on the internet – (the internet is so very dangerous!) – you can easily read about a trillion (hyperbole (maybe)) stories of being swept by the sag wagon.

Then that starts to mess with your head. Well, maybe not your head. Maybe you’re fitter, more confident, and/or more secure than I am. But it messed with my head a little.

The thing is, if you look into most of these stories, the people didn’t train, or they made stops for pictures with every character, or they made other mistakes that cost them the race. Most people who train, plan, strategize, and follow through on that strategy make it through (or at least it seems that way).

Of course, there are stories of prepared people getting injured. So, that would be pretty awful.

I don’t want it to sound like I’m coming at this from a place of defensiveness. I’m going into this with the full expectation that I’ll be fine, and stay within the time limit. I’m going with the intention to have fun, laugh a lot, dance a lot – all that good stuff.

weather warning

But if the heat starts getting to me, and it’s not my day, and I start falling back – I will fight to the death!

Here is the one promise I make to you and myself. I will not end in the sag wagon.

I will end at the finish, or I will end getting some serious medical attention. I won’t quit unless I’m unconscious or have some shattered bones, or something that makes me unable to use my legs.

I will not let the Disney people just take me!

Of course the plan (and the preference) is to finish. (That is what’s actually going to happen.)

If I’m sore or in pain, I very well might cry, or complain, or throw a tantrum . But I will go on.

I will be wearing Ty’s bandana that he wore in Afghanistan. It is a constant reminder of him and his belief in me. He has never faltered in that belief, and I don’t intend to give him any reason to start now!

Failure is not okay.

I will finish this.

Goofy Challenge Expo

January 11, 2013

overview packet pickup Before you even got to the actual expo itself, there was a huge room set up for some of the bib pick-ups.

They had a whole ‘nother room for 5k and Goofy pick-ups.

There was also a place in there where you could listen to speakers and panels.

The nutritionist for the Orlando Magic was talking as I came in. I listened for a bit, ’cause she was pretty funny and interesting.

After I picked up my t-shirts, I walked to the table beside them to check out the merchandise. I asked if it’s possible to buy extra participant shirts. (These participant shirts are pretty cute and everything I look for in one – long sleeve, tech material, a color other than white.)

I decided I think it’d be pretty cool to have a quilt of all the shirts from races throughout the year, so I’ve been trying to get duplicates of my favorite ones so I still can wear them around.

overhead view of lots of booths/people at the runDisney expo for WDW Marathon weekend. The man at the merch table said in the years he’d worked there I was the first one to ask if extra participant shirts, and they didn’t sell them. I said it was too bad. When he asked why I wanted one, I said 52 half marathons quilt, blah blah blah.

He asked me to hold on a moment, and sure enough he came back with an extra set of shirts (all 3 – half, marathon, Goofy), and just let me have them. That is Disney magic, right there!

From there, I ran into the runDisney booth, which was very crowded every time I passed it. It looks like a lot of people are getting in on registration for the Dumbo Double Down before it opens to the general public later this month.

When I stopped by the Clif booth, I told the guy behind the Shot Bloks that I loved them and I was looking forward to my 52nd half marathon of 52 half marathons in 52 weeks on Saturday. He said he thought that was really impressive, so he handed me a handful of Shot Bloks. Then he said, “Clif likes to do a little something special when we hear inspirational stories. Hold on.

big, lit up, mouse ears shape runDisney booth at the WDW Marathon expo 2013 He then went to some back table, came back, and handed me a $100 gift card to Road Runner Sports! It says “Run more, smile more.” And it comes in a little sleeve that says, “Endorphins, PR, friendship, solace, adventure – whatever your motivation for running, and wherever you go, we support you. running requires gear. Here’s $100 toward your effort. Run with it! Your fans at Clif Bar.

Love it! Amazing.

Basically, I’m feeling kind of like a princess here. It’s already starting out to be an amazing weekend.

I also passed by Team Serious Fun‘s booth.

I had met Brian – the really fun booth guy who looks like he stepped out of a Disney Channel show (which I 100% mean as a compliment) – in Las Vegas. He totally remembered me before I even said a word! I couldn’t believe it, but it keeps well with the theme of “I’m feeling very special this weekend.” 🙂

2013 hasn't quite happened yet, but you can buy your 2014 training gear. — 2013 hasn’t quite happened yet, but you can buy your 2014 training gear.

Brian is wonderful at his job. Some people seem to be naturally good at getting people excited about things, and he is one of them. I guess he’s kind of like a natural salesperson. (I don’t know why I keep saying things about him that I totally mean as compliments but that I think can be construed as compliments or non-compliments…) the point is, I’m jealous and wish I was as good at getting people excited about an idea as he is.

I also happened to see Darris Blackford (race director of the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Columbus Half Marathon). He was lovely as always. He asked what my strategy was for Goofy. I said very, very slow the first day (pretty much at the time limit) to save myself for Sunday.

He added that most importantly, I can’t forget to eat. He said sometimes people don’t remember to eat enough on Saturday and run out of energy on Sunday halfway through the run.

I also listened to a talk about the course and spectator viewing. The Disney race director and team seemed very cool. The course seems great. Let’s do this thing!

Goofy Is Happening!

January 10, 2013

Aurora excited at Wide World of Sports I mean, of course it’s happening.

It’s been on the schedule for a long time. I registered back on April 10th when registration first opened. But now it’s here!

I’m already here, but I started drafting this back when I was still in L.A. I’m reading my eloquent, groundbreaking thoughts now. They were “It’s here! It’s really here. It’s happening. I’m packing. I’m packing! For the Goofy Challenge. How crazy is that?”

There’s a channel in the room – Run Disney TV – that just has runDisney stuff on loop. That’s it. Race footage, race advice, the Jeff Galloway dance, even! Seriously – (in rhythm) “Do the Galloway.”

This channel is hilarious, and amazing at getting my super amped up and ready to do this marathon already.

I can’t stop watching it.

Oh my gosh, and the host loves twitter! He just said he was a’twitter over twitter. And now there’s more dancing. Why is this so awesome?

Speaking of videos, there’s a video that plays on loop on the shuttle to the expo about the races, the expo, and everything. It is unbelievably chipper. (This is Disney after all.)

I think sometimes it’s easy to do kind of make fun of this over-the-top enthusiasm and joy. But I am just letting it wash over me, and I’m loving every minute of this.

Oh my gosh, James Franco just came on the TV, wished us luck, and said, “The fact that you are running this race proves you’re… powerful.” (The ellipsis is because I can’t remember if he said strong or great. (This will probably be on loop long enough that I’ll find out.))

I guess what I’m saying is this channel rocks. I’m amped up. I’m ready to do this. And I can’t believe (even though of course I can) the time has come y’all! This is really happening. Race #52. The Goofy Challenge.

Bring it.

2nd Place Women’s Open in the SoCal Half Series

January 8, 2013

So, I found out I came in 2nd in the Open Female division (ages 39 and younger) in the 2012 California Half Marathon series.

Of course, by Ricky Bobby’s logic (based on one of my favorite quotes ever), I pretty much came in last. As we all know, “If you’re not first, you’re last.”

Nonetheless, I’m last with a small trophy thing.

I wish I would’ve had any clue I was in contention. Apparently if I had just run two more races of the series, I would’ve won my division. Of course, that’s easy to know after the fact. And it was a hard series to make work schedule-wise and transportation-wise already. So who knows if it would’ve happened… Probably wouldn’t have.

And I definitely would’ve rather galavanted around outside of California (as I did) instead of win this series…

But what do you even do with a “second place” something? It’s kind of cool you have something, but you don’t want to flaunt to the world, “Oh, look at me. I was second…”

But, I dunno. Just got this in the mail, and thought I’d share.

(#51) New Year’s Race Los Angeles At Night (January 5, 2013) – Part 2 (High In Safety, But Not Entertainment)

January 7, 2013

Picking up from yesterday –

It was funny as it got later in the night seeing groups of drunk people running around. Sometimes the drunk club-goers had enough energy that they looked like half marathoners.

Sometimes the half marathoners were struggling, stumbling a little, looking like they should be in the drunk crowd.

The race was a very quiet one. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much music. We finally heard some many, many miles in. “They have music for us!” we exclaimed.

Nope.

As we got closer, we realized that was music blasting from a club. Oh well. Either way (dances).

We did finally hear loud, fun music (from the race) at the final turn. Better late than never, right?

It’s amazing how much of a difference music made! My little group started dancing. Others started dancing. We were all re-energized!

As we walked down the last street, streetlights or some kind of lamps went out. It was a bit jarring, and totally made me feel like I was in Criminal Minds for a split second. (Although every lighting change (and angle change, and any other change) makes me feel like I’m in Criminal Minds if I’ve watched the show recently. It can be a super scary show, and I should not be allowed to watch it!)

Anyway, even though in playtime pretend world you could make it scary, it actually wasn’t scary at all. It was just a light or two. We were all very safe.

I will say that even though people have been complaining (kind of a lot) about this race, the race people got so much stuff right. The course wasn’t the most thrilling, but some new races don’t get basic stuff right.

I never went thirsty. They had plenty of water and Gatorade. There was a big police presence. (Yes, I mentioned that yesterday, but for downtown L.A. in the middle of the night, a very large presence was needed, was delivered, and worth mentioning again.)

There were tons of volunteers! (So very, very many.) There were multiple medical tents. The streets were successfully shut down with no intersections open (which would’ve forced runners to make stops (as some races have done)).

I’d rather be safe and completely taken care of (which we were) than entertained (which were were not).

The race got all the really important basic stuff right… For the most part.

The race has been getting a number of complaints on Facebook, and because I feel like it’s being attacked somewhat unfairly, I wanted to stand up for the race. However, it’s been confirmed that they re-routed runners around mile 6 who had started in one of the back corrals and were well within the time limit. My understanding is that happened because the race started late.

That’s an almost unforgivable thing for a race company to do. Especially with apparently no warning. I don’t know whose decision it was (police, race officials, etc.), and I don’t know exactly why they made it. But it’s definitely unfair to those runners. And I can’t stand up for the race on that count.

But enough of my soapbox.

My posse made it to the finish and got our sweet medals. I could then see my apartment. Score!

As I walked toward my building, I overheard people behind me. “Where is she going?” (in somewhat jealous/thinking I’m super cool tone) “Oh, she lives there!”

I was hungry and had heard of this magical place – LA Cafe – that delivers 24/7. A delicious cheeseburger came to my door (carried by a person, of course). As I went to the door, I saw it was raining! We had escaped running in night rain. Nice.

I’d say all in all it was a nice night. Thank goodness my Long Beach buddies were there. They kept things interesting and fun, and helped pass the time. I’d say they made it at least 35 times more fun than if I’d done it alone.

I can’t believe race #52 is this weekend!

(#51) New Year’s Race Los Angeles At Night (January 5, 2013) – Part 1 (Round and Round the Parking Lot We Go)

January 6, 2013

Aurora De Lucia with her medal from the New Year's Race Los Angeles at Night 2013. It doesn’t get much more convenient than this. I left my apartment twenty minutes before the race started. I was at the start line in five.

I met up with Brian and Singrid from The Long Beach International Half Marathon. The race started about 20 minutes late. Even though I was ready to get the party started, I had all night. It didn’t matter much to me.

As we went around downtown, I saw the Disney Concert Hall, and other downtown-type places. It almost helped me connect where places were that I’d been before, in relation to each other.

But alas, I have no sense of maps in my head or on paper, so I still don’t know where anything is. Luckily, I didn’t need to. I just followed the course.

Once we made it into the Dodger Stadium area, I thought we might be in for some fun.

Nope. We went all around the parking lot for what seemed like our entire lives. I am hesitant to complain too much about it because people on the Facebook page are furious about it. (The internet is often awful, and should not always be read/paid attention to.)

There was a course map available. (I don’t think it was available when I signed up as one of the first 500 runners. However, being in the first 500, I got a steep registration discount. (My entry fee was only $45.) So, what do I have to complain about?)

Anyway, the course map did show that many miles would be done around Dodger Stadium. (For once I actually looked at a course map ahead of time, because they were posted everywhere throughout my building.)

But I don’t know that everyone who’s unfamiliar with Dodger Stadium knew it would be miles and miles of parking lot, just because lines on the map were going around the stadium.

Also, I think the main killer was not that it was a seemingly endless parking lot – but that it was a silent seemingly endless parking lot.

It very well may be hard to get permits to play music late at night, but that was what made it boring. If we had had pop music blaring, I doubt that nearly as many complaints would’ve come in.

Once we’d been going around and around Dodger Stadium for what seemed like eternity, we got to go through the stadium. “Single Ladies” was playing – it sounded like it was coming from some suite people were hanging out in. I was all, “I know that dance.”

Surprisingly, I still remembered it in my head, though I was only doing small hand motions on the course. But, I was about ready to run in the middle of the baseball diamond and rock out a show… Perhaps next time.

When we finally got out of the Dodger Stadium area, we made it back to the craziness that is downtown Los Angeles. We saw scenes of people getting in fights down the block from us. We saw a car almost ram into the course. (And I saw police leap into action. I’ve never seen a police officer reach for his gun before.)

Even though L.A. is crazy, I never once felt unsafe. (For one thing, I live down here and I’m obviously as tough as nails, I’m sure…) There was a very large police presence (and of course whole bunch of runners were around as well).

A couple of fun things from our super safe adventure: A college-age looking man came up to us and asked for directions to his next bar. Turns out, he was going the same way as we were, so he talked to us for a bit and showered us in confetti he had hiding in this New Year’s trinket horn looking thing.

There was also a man on the side of the street, who didn’t seem crazy or drunk, who wanted a hug. I nearly gave him one, but I didn’t want to stop. Though we had a slow rhythm going, we had a rhythm, and we were ready to finish this race!

(Sorry, guy who wanted a hug. Hopefully you got one from someone behind me.)

I’ll pick up with more tomorrow.

New Year’s 1/2 Marathon Expo

January 4, 2013

Aurora De Lucia in her New Year's Race Los Angeles 2013 hoodie — Forget t-shirts! We got hoodies for this race! – Hoodies, I tell you!
I tried a few different facial expressions for you. And I thought this kind of “I’m too cool for school” one was the most fun.

What? We’re doing this again?

Yes! I know it’s been three weeks since I’ve had a race.

(I had set aside extra time in the schedule in case anything happened (illness, injury, etc.) that would make me need to add a race in at the last minute. I ended up not needing that extra time. Yay!)

As I was walking from my apartment to the expo, I saw a bunch of big trucks. There are often a bunch of big trucks around Los Angeles. My first thought was, “Huh, I wonder what movie they’re shooting here.”

Then I realized, “These trucks are here to set up for a race I’m running! Exciting!”

There are signs in the elevators, and generally all around my apartment building about road closures and things. Oh yeah, a race is a’coming, and it’s almost here!

When I picked up my bib, I went to the little area where you run it over a timing device to make sure the bib is working and has your information associated with it. My name and everything came up on the screen. Then I saw a box that said, “Don’t believe in resolutions. Live all year long!”

I looked at the timing guy full of wonder. “This is crazy! I just wrote a blog post last night about that same idea. It’s like this message was meant for me!”

I thought this was the same kind of thing they did in Seattle where a random, fun message was generated for you.

Nope. It then dawned on me that I had written this message a million years ago (hyperbole) when I first signed up for this race. During the sign up process, you were asked for your New Year’s resolution. That’s what I said (of course).

Aurora's New Year's Bib It came up on the screen, and it’s on my bib. (And I do still think they’re pretty wise words if I do say so myself.)

The timing guy and I had a good laugh about the very short roller coaster ride of emotions/realizations.

This expo was very well staffed with volunteers. There were so many people. If you needed help with anything, you could have it immediately.

(And the volunteer shirts were rad. They got tuxedo t-shirts. I loved them and it sort of made me wish I had volunteered… Perhaps next year.)

I did run into Wendy and Marty, and Wendy’s friend Heather, which was so fun! This was Wendy’s 52nd race in her journey! Congrats to her for being done after tomorrow! (She’s not keeping a blog about it, or of course I would link you. So does have an old podcast though if you’d like to hear about her weight loss.

I made my way around the booths. You’ve already heard about almost everything they had there – Wipro San Francisco Half, Hollywood Half, San Diego Half, etc. There was a booth here for the Clippers. So, that was fun and different. Don’t get too excited. There weren’t any basketball players there. There was just Clippers swag (and a nice woman) at the booth.

I think that covers it all. Expo complete, and race number fifty-one(!) tomorrow!

That Time My Heart Broke. Literally. – Part 46 (The End(!)/(And This Story Was Somewhat Hard to Write))

December 28, 2012

Sometimes you just need a break... Get it? 'Cause "we were on a break"... — Sometimes you just need a break… Get it? ‘Cause “we were on a break”…

This whole thing was surprisingly sort of a hard story to tell.

The heart story blog posts almost always took way longer to draft than any other blog posts I write – not because they’re so well crafted or anything. Because sometimes I just needed a break.

In certain chapters, I’d say out loud to no one (but like you were here), “I just need a minute.”

I’d get up and get some water, or turn on some TV show to give my brain a break.

Sometimes my eyes would well up a bit, and I’d just have to go work on something else.

Some (most) chapters weren’t especially flattering. Some chapters weren’t that fun to relive. But I told the story. I guess it’s nice that I did so I’ll have a pretty good account of it in case, for whatever reason, I want to relive it again someday.

Every once in a while I unintentionally relive it for a moment. I love those medical dramas on TV. While I’m sure a lot of things on those shows are more dramatized than the real world, some things are incredibly reminiscent of my experience.

And it can be jarring – even still – to see something that so vividly and immediately transports me right back. (Good job, writers.) It’s just a weird part of my life. It doesn’t mean I’m ever going to stop watching Grey’s or Scrubs or others. It’s just a weird thing that happens sometimes.

I don’t know if that will be the case forever, but it’s the case for now and I’m okay with that.

I hope that you all enjoyed hearing my heart story. I’m sure I forgot some things.

For one thing, I forgot to mention this adorable older woman who had Alzheimer’s. She was a roommate of mine in the hospital. Her family was very kind, and at night she would always try to make my bed while I was in it.

It was just a random little sweet memory I had that I forgotten about ’til something reminded me the other day.

I also neglected to mention the rad heart pillow you get after open heart surgery. Volunteers make one for every patient who has the operation.

In these posts, I also forgot to mention how itchy wearing those leads can be, and how they leave these little red spots all over your chest that somehow get these dirt outlines.

So, suffice it to say there are things I forgot about that just kind of flash into my mind when something reminds me of them, or comes up when people talk to me about it. And I think, “Oh, I completely forgot about that part!”

But overall, I think I basically got it all. (I mean, it was 46 chapters! I think we all can live without every tiny anecdote.)

So, we did it! I told the whole thing.

If you have any questions or comments, you know I’m always open to that stuff. Thanks for being some great blog readers!

That Time My Heart Broke. Literally. – Part 45 (The “Details, Details, Details” Chapter)

December 27, 2012

Now that this sucker is basically all wrapped up, I wanted to take a moment to say I tried to be as accurate as possible, and remember as many details as I could.

I can’t be sure that every minor detail was correct. A lot of stuff happened over a period of time. And it happened a while ago. I used my memory, old calendars, and stories from others to try and get everything as accurate as I knew how. Hopefully, that’s pretty darn accurate.

I’ve seen two things recently that sort of opened my mind all over again to that old time in my life.

For one thing, I saw some old Facebook messages and remembered that even though I had in fact pushed people away, and I had been pretty quiet about the whole thing, I did begin to let more people in eventually. After the epicardial ablation (when I got the blood clot on my heart and was in the hospital for something like a week just hanging out) I was finally convinced to get a Facebook.

Stephen had been bothering me for months. I caved. I had forgotten that for some reason, once it got to that point, I let more people in than you would’ve imagined. As I’ve been trying to write everyone I’ve ever met to raise more money for my fundraising page, I’ve seen a few surprising old messages in which I let the cat out of the bag that I had a heart problem.

I’m not sure if I was lonely, or was finally ready to accept some of the attention that comes with being sick, or what. I never really understood the boundaries of whom to tell and not to tell. There were still certainly people I didn’t tell, but I definitely went through a weird testing the waters phase…

It’s weird when you’re sick – trying not to let it define you, deciding which friends to let in and how much help you want/need/are willing to accept. Thankfully, I have some patient friends. I’m very lucky.

I also got to peruse some old pages from my chart because a doctor needed my records.

First off, there are a couple of notes in there about how much I hate taking medicine. I know I’m loud and opinionated, but geez to goodness, was I that obnoxious about it? Do you think the doctors disliked me, or do you think they found it adorable that I think pills are so disgusting and annoying?

Let’s go ahead and go with adorable… (A girl’s gotta be able to sleep at night.)

This is my dentist who gave me my "teeth in good repair." He did one of those hunky male model calendar things. Why a picture from that? Thought it was more fun and different than any ol' doctor pose. — My dentist who gave me my “teeth in good repair.” He did one of those hunky calendar things. Why a picture from that? I thought it was more fun than any ol’ doctor pose.

I also forgot (ready for this TMI? (if not, skip down to next paragraph)) that I could not pee to save my life after my open heart surgery! No joke. Could not pee on my own for days. I completely forgot that, ’til I saw my chart. Then I remembered how frustrated I was, and how apologetic I was to the nurse. “Oh, I’m so sorry we have to do this straight catheter business.” Of course, she was a total pro and acted like it was no big deal at all. In case you wondering, I was able to pee like a big girl before I left the hospital. (And I still pee like a grown-up just fine.) (Yay!)

It was a really weird feeling to read about being put into “cardiac arrest” when they stopped my heart for my surgery. Crazy, right?

I’ve enjoyed talking to my chart a little. I saw an old blood pressure reading of 80/40 and said, “That a girl!”

There’s a note in here that says my “teeth are in good repair.” Well, they better be! Dr. Dorfman worked incredibly hard on them for months. It probably should say something more like “teeth are freaking excellent. Get name of her dentist later.”

It also says “extremely outgoing young woman.” Do you think that means they like me or do you think it’s an extremely passive aggressive way to say I’m a handful? I mean, I am a handful! Hopefully a likable one though, right?

I think I’ve pointed out anything even 1/4 worth pointing out from my chart.

I suppose the point of all this is to say, I tried to get the details as right as possible. I’m sure some friends saw it differently than some others, who saw it slightly differently than my dad, who saw it slightly different than my doctors – but I tried to give as complete and accurate a picture as I could. Hopefully I didn’t screw anything up too much. 🙂

One more post tomorrow wrapping this all up, baby!

That Time My Heart Broke. Literally. – Part 44 (The “Thank Yous” Chapter)

December 26, 2012

Photo Credit: "Custom Cookies By Jill" — Photo Credit: “Custom Cookies By Jill”

I believe that I have mentioned this before, but I just want to make it clear that I was so lucky to have all the doctors, nurses, EMTs, social workers, admin staff, transport staff, cooks, cleaning staff, etc. I don’t know the title of every person who was involved.

I don’t know the names of every person who was involved in my case. I know the names of my electrocardiolgist and my heart surgeon, of course. I know the name of the main receptionist. But if you think about it, from start to finish of a long process spanning two hospitals and many months, at least hundreds of people were involved in my case in some way.

And I am grateful to every one of them. Sure, being in the hospital may not have always been the most fun experience. But the people at Mass General (and at Tufts) did the very best they could to make it the best experience it could be. And I appreciate everyone putting up with me on my worst days and my best days.

I appreciate people putting up with the stubborn me, and the me who hates to take medicines. I appreciate the nurses who wouldn’t leave the room ’til they saw me swallow the medicine since they knew I hated it so much.

I appreciate the first EMTs who convinced me we should go to the hospital the first time. “Why not take a look?” I don’t know your names, but you kind of saved my life. You’ll probably never know it, but thank you.

It’s hard to really pinpoint any one person who saved my life. So many people were involved, and multiple steps had to happen for my problem to be caught and fixed.

Whoever read that first EKG and happened to notice the slight abnormality – might not be alive without that person. That first ER doc who made me promise to get an echocardiogram – might not be alive without him.

The electrocardiologist who saw me from basically the start all the way through the finish, and was so helpful at each step… The heart surgeon who did a gorgeous job and gave me the smallest scar I could hope for while taking phenomenal care of my heart… the night nurse who kept me sane and rubbed my shoulders to make me feel better… the nurses who danced to Thriller with me when we heard it come on a boombox at Tufts…

The family of patients I shared rooms with, and the patients themselves… Hospital volunteers… my friends! Goodness, gracious, my poor friends who had to put up with me as I tried to navigate the waters of how much I wanted to tell and when I wanted support versus when I didn’t…

To these people and so many more – to everyone who was involved in any way shape or form, from the person who cleaned the halls to the person who had his hands on my heart… I am just unbelievably grateful.

There’s a reason people say MGH (Massachusetts General Hospital) stands for “Man’s Greatest Hospital.” I can’t imagine a higher standard of care. I was incredibly well taken care of, and I can’t speak highly enough of everyone involved with my experience.

I will never forget all the diligence and kindness I was shown. I will work hard to pass that on to more people. And I will always be grateful to all of you. So, thank you. Thank you so much.

Many of them won’t read this. Many of them got thank you notes (not in blog form), but hopefully everyone knows that I am grateful.

That Time My Heart Broke. Literally. – Part 43 (“Did It Change You?”)

December 25, 2012

Jennifer Holliday performing And I Am Telling You... at the 1982 Tony Awards — I wanted to get a picture of Jennifer Holiday singing “I Am Changing,” but this was the best I could find. (It’s her performance of “And I Am Telling You” from the 1982 Tony Awards.)

Sometimes going through a big life event changes people.

This post is to address if I think all this heart stuff and struggling to get back on my feet changed me.

I think it has. Whether it has in a better or worse way can certainly be debated…

A lot of people say that almost dying helps them feel the need to “live every moment.”

I’m proud to say that I never felt that. It was nice to know that I was already on a trajectory that I liked before I entered the hospital. I was running a lot, and losing weight. I was working and writing a lot.

I worked on the aspects of my life that were important to me – my career and improving my health. And I didn’t really have any “I wish” moments in the hospital other than “I wish I wasn’t here right now. I wish I was out doing the stuff I’m already doing.”

That may sound braggy, but I am so human, and I make plenty of mistakes in life. I think it’s okay to be proud of the time when I was actually doing something pretty right.

Then I fell apart a little… okay, maybe a lot. As you’ve read in the story, I was a mess. I moved a lot. I didn’t always know where I’d be living. I lost all the fitness and speed I’d worked for. I ended up transitioning out of theater and into reality TV because it paid more, and it just kind of happened. And I let it.

It’s maybe easier to be more bullheaded when you don’t have to worry about basic survival stuff. When the going got really tough, what did I do? I just settled and moved to L.A. and took a nice, comfortable job and lived in a nice, comfortable apartment. I look back on the last few years of my life, and I don’t see really anything all that special.

When I graduated high school, everyone (including me) thought I was gonna do some amazing stuff. After high school, before I got sick, everyone kept thinking I would do amazing stuff.

Now all I am is someone who takes the comfy reality TV paychecks and lives a very normal life.

And here’s something weird. A part of me maybe wants a normal life. There is a big part of me that talks about going to “real” college, and maybe doing something in the medical field. From the time I was a toddler to the time I got sick, I never questioned myself or my chosen field. I don’t like feeling flounder-y. That’s not who I am. I’m a crazy fighter. Or at least, I used to be.

After my surgery, I almost felt like I’d lost my “superpower” – whatever it was that made me, me. Is my personality wrapped up in some random extra fibers on my heart? No. Of course not. But it did feel like I changed.

I don’t live my jobs anymore. I don’t have a life that revolves around work. Maybe that’s healthy. Maybe it’s not. I don’t know. I like it and I don’t like it. I liked living my work, and always being too busy for any vacations. But, now I’m used to taking time for me. That’s nice too, but still a weird feeling.

My drive, my craziness, it’s in me somewhere. I’ve seen glimmers of it this past year.

But I’m not as crazy. And unfortunately, I don’t know that I’m as driven as I used to be. I don’t know exactly what happened. I don’t know precisely how to get it back. I do know that I try everyday to be a better person than I was the day before.

And this whole thing of being a “better person,” and being more understanding and compassionate to the people around me – that’s new. I’ve softened since my whole ordeal – which also could be good, or it could be bad.

I don’t always like myself, but I do some pretty okay things.

Will I ever be who I was? I don’t know…

More thoughts coming tomorrow.

That Time My Heart Broke. Literally. – Part 42 (The “New Job and the Upswing” Chapter)

December 24, 2012

A wall I liked in New York... which just so happens to be where my hopes & dreams are (in the city, not on the wall). — A wall I liked in New York… which just so happens to be where my hopes & dreams are (in the city, not on the wall).

Picking up from two days ago (since yesterday was just answering a question) –

I got offered the amazing job that paid a nice salary plus food and hotel expenses. I packed my bags and went to Vegas. I worked with the most delightful crew ever, and I had an amazing time.

Once that job was over, I wasn’t positive what I’d do next. L.A.? New York? Where should I go?

I went back to New York for a couple of glorious weeks. That’s my home base, and I didn’t really know where else to go. I worked on Broadway Bares. I did my part for The Marriage Equality Act, rallying and phone banking. And then I got a phone call offering me another job. In L.A.

I didn’t want to go, but I remembered what it had been like to have nothing. I didn’t want to turn down any opportunity – even if it was in California.

I had about a week or so before I had to leave. I went to see every Broadway show I could. I filled nearly all my time with theater, ’cause I knew it’d quite possibly be the last time I was in New York for a while. Daniel Radcliffe was so good in How To Succeed…! (Do not get me started on his lack of a Tony nomination for that role!)

I saw a lot of wonderful theater, and said goodbye to a lot of wonderful people. And that was that.

I had just left New York when late at night on June 24, 2011, The Marriage Equality Act passed. (I’d never been so excited to just sit in front of my computer watching State Senate proceedings.)

When that happened, I felt okay (maybe never totally okay, but better) about leaving. I ended on a pretty high note. I’d seen everyone and everything I’d loved. And I was a teeny itsy-bitty part of making a change in New York – a change that really happened! It was magical to see, and as silly as it is, it was a tiny sign that said, “Bye, Aurora. This good news should hopefully negate some of the awful feelings about leaving.”

how-to-succeed-broadway-poster-daniel-radcliffe I found the best deal on an apartment right in downtown L.A. that anyone could ever ask for. I started my job and having been working steadily (and usually pretty long-term jobs) ever since.

Finally, I had a stable and secure life. I had those basic needs of food and shelter met. I wasn’t constantly looking for the next bit of money or the next place to live.

I have a gym in my building, and I knew it was time to start taking care of myself again.

I fought so hard in the hospital for the ability to run. I kept telling the doctors that no matter what happened, I had to keep the ability to run – nothing could happen to that.

So, as I floundered for a long time after getting out of the hospital, I kept feeling a bit weird and almost ungrateful. I mean, of course I was so grateful, but how was I showing that? I had yet to successfully do any sort of long-ish distance. And it had been over a year!

In order to force myself back into training, I signed up for a really fun 5k, and I kept doing events. If I did events, I had no choice but to do more miles ’cause I had to reach the finish line. And the lively environments of events made it easier to focus on the fun rather than focus on what I could or couldn’t do.

I had to try to learn not compare myself to where I’d been before I was sick, but instead just see the progress as I made it from where I currently was.

It’s a hard lesson, and I’m not sure I ever truly learned it. But, I do my best on this journey that is life.

So, basically, the story’s done. I’m gonna throw up a couple more chapters just addressing if I think it changed me, and perhaps if I really learned anything. I think I pretty much (super, probably more than you wanted) covered everything. (The story is 42 parts, after all.) But, if you have any questions or any reactions or anything, of course always feel free to comment or email me!

I’ll pick up here tomorrow.

That Time My Heart Broke. Literally. – Part 41 (The “Why Didn’t You Just Move Back In With Your Parents?” Chapter)

December 23, 2012

Picking up from yesterday –

Before I get to the beautiful part of the story, let me just quickly address the question some people have.

“Why didn’t you just move back to Ohio with your parents?”

I made a promise to myself when I was much younger that when I graduated high school, I would leave and I would not move back.

I knew that there would be struggles, but I promised to face them head on.

Many people can live a happy life in the Midwest. But as someone who wanted to work in the entertainment industry, I believe that if I had to move back in with my parents in Ohio, it would be a sign of failure. I wasn’t ready to fail.

Not to mention, I’d felt so pitied when I was sick. I didn’t want to play into that. “Wah, wah, poor Aurora got so sick. Now she needs to be taken care of by her parents.”

I felt that I was an adult and it was time to act like one and figure out a way to figure out making my life work.

(“Where were all your New York friends?” might also be a question that comes up. Some of them lived in dorms and were only allowed visitors on certain nights and things. Some of them were out of town doing shows in other places or studying abroad. Many of them did help me with a place to stay when they could. But, it’s not their job to take care of me. I love my friends, but you can only ask so much of them, you know?)

Now, do I think it was the smartest idea to not move back in with my parents?

Well, the cons of being too proud to do that are that I’m still not back to my pre-surgery weight. Granted, I haven’t made it my top priority and maybe I should’ve. I’m also still carrying some debt. Obviously, I’m paying it off and have a much easier time making payments now.

But had I moved back in with my parents and taken a year or so to just focus on me, I probably could’ve gotten my health and bank account in order. You never know what would’ve happened, but it might have been smart.

...But they do look so happy... — …But they do look so happy…

Some successful people lived with their parents for a while. I think Kanye West lived with his mom until he was 26. In the end, I think that perhaps the real “grown up,” or the real person who can feel pride in her decisions, is the one who takes every advantage she can even if that means living with her parents. It’s the one who is humble enough to ask for help when she needs it. Pride is not always good. Humility is often a good trait. (I think both pride and humility can be good and bad in different circumstances.)

But, forgetting the cons of not moving back with my parents – there were some pros.

I have lived with nothing and have been shown that that’s totally doable and okay. Sure, I have a swanky apartment and iPhone now. But if I had to lose it all, I could, armed with the knowledge that I’ve survived before. I certainly could do it again.

I also think I’m slightly more thankful for things I do have. I’ve lived in my place for over a year and a half, and I still marvel at the wonderfulness of it.

Not to mention, whether it was stupid or smart, or who knows what it was, I will always the fact that I never moved back in with my parents after high school. To me, that was something I wanted. And I get to hold dear that little fact about myself.

In the words of Fred Astaire (and more famously Frank Sinatra), they can’t take that away from me.

I’ll pick back up with the story tomorrow.

That Time My Heart Broke. Literally. – Part 40 (The “2nd Homeless Shelter” Chapter)

December 22, 2012

Picking up from yesterday –

Before I get to the part about the second homeless shelter, let me just touch on something I learned in that time that I did not know before. Did you know there’s kind of like this little network of homeless people?

Before I started transitioning to a shelter for a long-term solution, and I was just spending a couple of nights on the streets between places, I started overhearing these conversations of people strategizing together about where they’d stay next and pros and cons of places. There were people worrying about other homeless people, asking about people by name. And people knew!

Person A would ask person B, and person B would be able to say, “Oh, she’s at the Times Square McDonald’s tonight” or whatever. I actually thought it was pretty sweet, and very interesting to me that there was this whole network I didn’t know existed.

Anyway, back to the story at hand. I went to the second homeless shelter in midtown.

This was a much different experience. They had a weird unmarked door (though it may have had a mural on it?), so it was kind of hard to find it. Once I did find it, there was no security guard. There was no metal detector. It was just a room full of people on the cots and on the floor.

BUT, we got to watch free movies in there! What up? I saw Due Date and Middle Men.

MiddleMenPoster

As far as who got a cot and who got the floor, my understanding was you got the privilege of a cot if you’d been there for three months.

The man next to me mentioned having two strikes and something about assault with a deadly weapon toward his girlfriend. Apparently it was his very first night out of jail. All right.

He weirdly caressed my hair once as he went by, but I just let it go. I don’t think that’s the guy you want to call out…

I met some interesting, sweet people in that shelter.

Random thought: I also thought it was funny how many of the people in there had smartphones. I can’t say I’m too surprised. You can live a certain lifestyle to have it all fall apart. And I guess if you already own it, perhaps you just keep it. At the time, I’d never had a smartphone, so I was not someone with one. But they were in abundance in this shelter.

I had a somewhat hard time sleeping that night. It was sort of cold, though they had blankets. I had to awkwardly sleep on top of my book bag – protecting basically everything I owned. And more than one mouse made its way by me through the night.

I think it was around 6am that everyone had to wake up, clean up, and begin leaving for the day.

Once I got out, I went and hung around Penn Station for a while. There are some places in there where you’re generally left alone if you look pretty put together (like someone genuinely waiting for a train) and you quietly doze off.

That day, I got a call from a friend offering me a job that paid for housing, food, and paid a salary of almost $1,500 a week! Sign me up, please.

This is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

That Time My Heart Broke. Literally. – Part 39 (The “Flirting with Homelessness” Chapter)

December 21, 2012

Covenant House Picking up from yesterday –

Now, I don’t want to overplay any of this. I’ve had plenty of nights when I was between sublets sleeping (or staying awake in) various places in New York and Los Angeles. (And if any of you need a list of the best ones and the best times to be safe and get some shut-eye, I got ya!)

But I’m not somebody who lived on the street for any long period of time. I don’t want to make this a “poor me” story. I’m okay.

I do remember, though, as I was getting poorer and poorer hearing stories of people who lived in their cars, and being jealous that they were able to afford cars…

So, as April was coming to close, it was time to gear up to become homeless for an unknown period of time – until my bills were a bit more under control and I was making more money than the somewhere around two-hundred dollars a week I got on unemployment.

I did some research on homeless shelters and set out to start my journey. I started with Covenant House. (Apparently everyone starts there as I learned from people in my next homeless shelter.)

From internet research, it seemed to be the most welcoming place. You got to have your own room and everything. They even had programs to help people transition out of homelessness.

I got there and the security guard led me in. I went through the metal detector, they searched my bag, and then I was brought into “intake.”

The intake place was really nice. They immediately offered you food, and had a big TV with a bunch of couches. This was nice than any place I’d lived in a long time!

Since this place was so nice and everyone here so helpful, it’s not very surprising that all the beds were full. The staff was incredible. The woman speaking to me seemed upset that she had to turn me away. I tried to let her know that I was sure I would be fine.

They offered me a plastic bag of toiletries and a Metro card. I didn’t feel right about taking those things ’cause I still had some money in the bank (that I’d use for bills and food), just not enough for rent for another month. I was sure I wasn’t as down on my luck as some people who come in here.

They did give me a list of other shelters that I was happy to take. They let me hang out and watch TV for a bit. I met a resident there. She had nothing bad to say about the place.

They also told me that beds open up all the time, and you can call and check as much as you want. If there’s a bed open when you call, they’ll hold it for you for two hours, giving you a chance to get there. Then it’s yours. (Just in case anyone needs to know for future reference.)

After intake (even before the twenty minutes of TV watching with a new friend), it was pretty late and most shelters had closed as far as letting anyone new come in for the night.

There was at least one twenty-four hour shelter I saw on the list, so I left, heading there next.

This is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

That Time My Heart Broke. Literally. – Part 38 (The “Money Got Tight/Moved to New York” Chapter)

December 20, 2012

RallyToRestoreSanity I know this is generally a Wednesday night series, but since this current 52 half marathons project is coming to a close soon, I’d like to just go ahead and knock the rest of these chapters out.

(I don’t want to still be telling this story in the midst of the next fun project (which will be here before you know it). So let’s finish these up. Sound good?)

Picking up from yesterday –

My job was over. I wasn’t going back to school. I didn’t really know what I was going to do.

I knew I wanted to go back east. So, I just went. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert were having this rally in Washington DC. I took that as a sign. that I should go and just stay. I packed up the two suitcases of stuff I owned, got a plane, went to the rally with my lovely friend Fareed (who’s been mentioned on the blog before).

I took up a bus up to New York, subleased a place in Queens, and tried to get my life back together.

Checking in with how the running was going – not well. I had a very hard time getting back into a running routine when I’d been in California because all that bouncing around from place to place made it hard to worry about anything other than “where will I be living next month?”

Also, I just had this mental block. On certain days, I’d break through it and be happy with walking a few miles. On other days, if I couldn’t go as far or as fast as I used to (and I never could), I’d end my workout early out of frustration, and admonish myself the whole way home.

Once I got back to New York, I tried to put running as a priority. I started to work out more. I started to improve a little. It was an extremely long process to try to become the happy runner I’d once been. (I am still, to this day, not as fast or fit as I used to be.)

I struggled, but I was ecstatic to be in New York and my newfound happiness made it slightly easier to be better to myself.

The month I got there, I got a job on a cooking show. It ended in January of 2011.

I stretched my money from January 2011 to April 2011. I kept looking for work and just wasn’t lucky enough to get on another show.

I found it hard to regain the work momentum after I’d turned down jobs while being sick. People were starting to realize I was back and offer me stuff again, but you know about those laws of physics – a body in motion stays in motion. In my experience, it was true of my career as well.

As far as living situations during that time – my sublease had run out on that great Queens apartment back in December. I went around to different places, and stayed with some friends. A family took me in for some time while I tried to find yet another cheap place, which I did. I found a place to stay in Far Rockaway. (That name does not lie. It certainly was far).

I couldn't find any of my pictures of Central Park lying around, so here's Bryant Park. — I couldn’t find any of my pictures of Central Park lying around, so here’s Bryant Park.

The more my money stretched while looking for a job, the more luxuries went by the wayside. It got to the point where I wouldn’t take the subway into the city unless it was necessary (for instance, a job interview). I couldn’t afford even a couple of dollars to go enjoy Central Park (which is of course free if you can just get there!).

Of course my running yet again went by the wayside while I focused on basic needs (well, basic-er than running, which is pretty basic in itself). “Today, will I eat lunch or dinner, ’cause I only have enough food/money to choose one…”

Toward the end of April, looking forward to May, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to stay in my apartment. I couldn’t juggle all the bills I was still paying, plus pay for a place to live. Something had to give. I didn’t want to default on any credit cards. I wanted to pay any and all debts I’d gotten myself into. I guess the apartment would have to go.

This is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

That Time My Heart Broke. Literally. – Part 37 (The “Skipping Town For Good aka Moving to California” Chapter)

December 19, 2012

It’s Wednesday, so the story continues.

Picking up from last week –

(This is sort of starting a new storyline. The health stuff is over. This is more about the effect it had on the rest of my life.)

My lease was coming to an end in the summer. I decided not to renew it or sign up for more classes in the fall.

I’d been offered a job working for America’s Got Talent which would go through part of the fall. I was tired of being “the heart girl” at school, and wanted to escape for a bit.

I didn’t have as much money as I used to (though I’m not sure how that helps the case to move, when really that probably should’ve helped the case to stay put and try to climb out of the hole… Either way, the reasons for the lack of money were two fold.

1) In 2009, before I’d gotten sick, I worked a ton of jobs. Many were low paying, but when you work a lot of low paying jobs, you end up having money. All of that income disappeared as I had to let go of job after job after job in the hospital. So, I’d been using credit cards way more often than before, and had built up a nice bit of debt on them during the many, many months without any income.

2) I now had medical bills as well. Granted, insurance covered by far the majority of them. (And thank goodness. My understanding is that close to half a million dollars has been sunk into my body. (Wow.))

So, I took the job went to Cali. At the time, I had the intention of going back to school. (I didn’t.)

I only subleased in California. I wasn’t ready to commit to being there for anything longer than the show.

I lived in some crazy places. I lived in what may or may not have been a drug dealer’s apartment (pretty sure it was). I didn’t ask any questions, and I got out of there after the month for which I’d paid.

I lived in a place (warning if you don’t want to hear about bugs) infested, and I mean infested with cockroaches. (Shivers thinking about it.) I sprayed roach spray one night to try to get the ones I’d seen. When I woke up, there were rows of dead cockroaches sprawled out in the spray’s path… I was out of there in three days.

I ended up living in the living room of someone’s apartment. Once AGT was over, I started gearing up to go to school in the spring. (That had been my plan all along. I’d taken online classes during the fall so as to not lose my full-time student status.)

However, I couldn’t find the money to go. I know this sounds very childish (of course, I was still kind of a child then), but my parents were the ones who worried about school money, and they said it just wasn’t there.

This is the "College Dropout" album cover... (That's why it's here...) (If I have to explain the photos, I'm oh so sure I chose the right one...) — (This is the “College Dropout” album cover…) (You know I made the right choice photo when I have to explain it… (Shakes head))

I wasn’t offered any money after filling out my FAFSA. Even if you’re living in California, working, and paying for your own stuff; the government considers you a dependent if you’re under 24.

Oh well, I’m not gonna hate on the government for that. They do so much great stuff for us, I can let that slide.

So, however my parents had figured out how to procure money in other semesters, it wasn’t working out this time.

As far as I was concerned, if they said I couldn’t get the money to go, then I couldn’t get the money to go.

I believe there’s always some kind of way, somehow, to make things happen if you really want them. Maybe that’s true. Maybe that’s a foolish belief. But the truth is, I didn’t know how much I really wanted school, anyway.

I’d never been that keen on going to college. I wanted to try working. Once it became easy not to go back, I just didn’t go back.

(Granted, at the time, I was a little thrown thinking I was going to return to the safe confines of college – just to be thrust into the “real world,” basically without a safety net. But I figured, “This is my life now. I gotta just make it work.”)

I stayed in California for the rest of the month. I did a day on Skating with the Stars. (I even drove (a huge vehicle!) all day… and everybody lived!)

Now, as you know, I’m not a huge fan of Los Angeles…

This is where we’ll pick up next time.

That Time My Heart Broke. Literally. – Part 36 (The “Follow-Ups” Chapter)

December 12, 2012

ER-the tv show It’s Wednesday night , so the story continues.

Picking up from last week –

I had multiple follow up appointments – my electrocardiolist, my surgeon, my primary care doctor – everyone saw me to say hello.

Three months after surgery, when I followed up with my amazing heart surgeon (Dr. Vlahakes), he told me I was now basically a superhero. If you think your sternum is strong, wait until someone cracks it open! Apparently, it gets even stronger when it fuses back together (or however that works).

I had a couple of tiny scares and trips to the ER before my follow-up appointments, and some months later. Instances where I thought maybe I could feel my heart flutter again, or thought something else was wrong.

I don’t know if any of you reading have had a serious illness to be pronounced good as new. But it’s kind of a weird feeling. Of course you want to believe it. But I think, in my case at least, my mind/body started playing a couple of tricks on me. “Am I really okay?” “Did I just feel something?” “I better go get this checked out immediately!”

It feels weird to go from a life constantly in and out of the hospital to being completely free. It almost feels like you’re supposed to be in the hospital but somehow you’ve escaped with the universe to catch you red-handed at any moment.

Another thing that spurred a couple of ER visits (as opposed to doctor visits) months after my follow-ups was that I moved around a lot. I left my safe, lovely, wonderful, amazing Boston life and mainly spent time in California. (We’ll get to the move soon.)

It was hard to find a new doctor I trusted who was accepting new patients. So, I went around doctor-less for a while. And when I’d have an urgent concern, I just went to the ER.

In total, over the year and half following my surgery, I only had a handful of ER visits. It wasn’t like I was going a ton, but I went more than zero times.

I have since grown out of that slightly paranoid, “every tiny weird feeling must be something wrong with me” phase. I haven’t seen the inside of an ER for over a year – for heart stuff, anyway. (I had a sprained ankle back in January.)

I’m happy to know that I’m not alone in the overly cautious after surgery department, though. I’ve talked to a couple other WPW patients who were scared their problem might be coming back and had some extra visits to a hospital or doctor that in the end, we didn’t really need.

I never want to waste any resources, but I suppose it’s better safe than sorry…

And I wasn’t always completely wrong. I’ve had a flutter here or there, with very slightly abnormal EKGs. I never had anything truly emergent, but I do still have to have a cardiologist. Someone is keeping an eye on all that tiny stuff, just in case.

Overall though, I’m a pretty healthy lady. I have no restrictions on what I’m allowed to do. My doctors took exceptional care of me – absolutely exceptional. I may even give one post to that so the idea doesn’t get lost this post.

JD on scrubs making fantasy face Even though this is all in the past, it’s weird. Sometimes some random thing happens that catapults me back, and I’ll feel like it was yesterday.

Most of the time, this heart stuff is just a memory from a long, long time ago. It doesn’t really affect my day to day life.

But sometimes, my sternum will crack in a weird way (which it never did before surgery), or I’ll see some medical show on TV where a doctor or patient says or does something that puts me right back in the hospital for ten seconds in my mind.

It doesn’t happen so much anymore. It used to happen kind of a lot, but the whole vivid memories have settled down over time.

I can’t believe it! We did it – we told the heart story! (Yay!)

There will still be more chapters that deal with quitting school, the money issue, and getting back into running. But I think we’ve covered the health stuff! I hope you found this story at least somewhat interesting. Thanks so much for reading along. I hope you enjoy the next chapters of how that year went on to affect to following year… We’ll continue next week.

(#50) Santa to the Sea (December 9, 2012)

December 10, 2012

This morning, I was lucky enough to experience friendship in its purest form.

My friend Billy knew I’d been under the weather and that this was my last race of 2012(!). He offered to drive me to Oxnard so I could avoid the hassle of renting a car and driving out there myself. He showed up at my apartment at 6am so we could make an hour-long drive to the race. How incredibly sweet is that? I am extremely grateful.

I made Billy go home and get some rest since the train would be open by the time the race was over.

I love this race. I did the 5k last year, and knew I had to come back for the half marathon. I’m glad I did!

I had the pleasure of live-tweeting the race from the brand new Santa to the Sea account.

I don’t think you could ask for anything more from a Christmas race. It starts at a ginormous Santa statue. Plus, non-statue Santa Claus is there to take pictures with you at the start line.

This race feeds its runners like crazy. There are snacks at the start line, the halfway point, and the end.

snacks

They have some healthy things such as orange slices, and they have tons of brownies and little cinnamon rolls. Yum, yum, yum!

At the start line, I ran into Joe (from the Ragnar team for which I volunteered, and from the Hollywood Half).

It was super easy to pick up my bib and timing chip. Everything was so well organized.

In the first mile, I saw a man walking, wearing a New York City Marathon jacket – from this year. Anything that involves the 2012 ING New York City Marathon will always spark a conversation with me!

I could easily have blog posts pouring out of me about it. I won’t, ’cause it’s over. I wasn’t planning on running it this year (though I had plenty of friends/teammates who were). But if you meet me, and bring it up, we will so talk about it.

Mrs. Claus at Santa to the Sea

I end up talking to Robert from mile 1 through the end of the race. (No, we didn’t talk about the marathon that whole time.) We talked about his family. We had a riveting discussion about the education system in America. (He knows a lot about it ’cause that is a big part of his job.) Walking with him was absolutely lovely.

They had super cute mile markers in this race. Cartoon Santa is on them carrying numbers in different ways. (The markers sort of look like the medal.)

There were a number of fun groups along the course. There’s a neighborhood challenge going on where runners can vote for their favorite. I don’t know what the prize is, but I know people want to win!

Neighborhood 2 was playing great music. Neighborhood 3 had balloon arches (and Santa and Mrs. Claus)! Neighborhood 5 had tiny, cute kids handing out stickers.

Before you knew it, Robert and I had made it to the 5k turnaround point (which I remembered from last year). The beach was a familiar (but still just as odd) sigh. How crazy is it to see palm trees in the sand at a Christmas race? That’s December in Southern California for you!

Aurora getting massage at Santa to the Sea

As I was coming into the finish, a rush of adrenaline completely took over. I couldn’t believe that in a matter of steps, I’d be done racing in 2012! I was dance/running as Carly Rae Jepsen and Owl City blasted through the speakers.

The announcer said “There’s Aurora from Los Angeles – the tweeter of Santa to the Sea.” Special shout out! Boom baby.

I then got what very well may be the best massage I had this whole year from Kaelyn at Coastal Acupuncture (though I had a lot of great massages (especially in Kentucky), so I can’t say for sure). Then, I got stretched out by Lyndsay at the Advanced Spine & Sport Chiropractic booth. They have everything at Santa to the Sea!

A really nice volunteer drove me to the train station, and I was on my way back home.

(Finished/wipes hands clean gesture.)

[wpvideo 90fdLU8c]

(#49) Walnut Creek Half Marathon – Part 2 (The Race)

December 9, 2012

Picking up from yesterday –

So, I did the race even thought I was sick.

I was very lucky that I found a great place to stay on CouchSurfing.org. I stayed with Anton, an extremely nice, fun man.

He had a spare bedroom with a really comfy bed. I went to bed pretty super early. I got around nine hours of desperately needed sleep. So amazing.

Anton was only about two blocks from the starting line – which was even better.

I always forget that other cities have weather, but luckily this time someone on Facebook reminded me that it would be cold in the morning. (Thank goodness for random good Samaritans on the internet.)

I brought my gloves that I had gotten in Seattle, and I put on my sweatshirt (the only one I own). I made my way to the start line.

I came extra prepared today since I was under the weather. I brought a water bottle and some energy chews so I could be sure to stay hydrated and have an extra dose of energy if need be.

The aid at this half marathon was great, though. They had orange slices at nearly every station. Every person I saw in Walnut Creek from the first person I saw at the expo to each spectator I saw on the course seemed really lovely and enthusiastic about the race.

I did what I always do when I’m sick and something needs to get done – I just act ’til it’s over. (When something doesn’t need to get done, I play the part of a whiny child in bed.)

Especially any time I went uphill, I turned on a lovely dramatic song on my iPhone. I charged up those inclines with the power of Jennifer Holiday pushing me. I actually passed people on hills. I knew I’d probably slow down on them, and I did not want to slow my walking pace, so I just went all musical theater on them. Ba-bam!

I even hammed it up for a couple of cameras on the course. The adrenaline was flowing. Plus, it is ingrained in me – see a camera, do something. I’ve known that lesson ever since I was a baby and my parents put a camera on me and said, “Now show me happy.” “Now show me sad” – and I’d do huge facial expressions and sounds. (I’ve been playing to the back of the house ever since I could understand words.)

Side note: My parents are not performers (well, that can be debated if you’ve seen the way my dad acts like we’re about to die in any distance race ;)), and they were not trying to raise one. I was just a very perform-y (and I imagine super-fun, of course) child.

There was great signage on this race. There wasn’t any chance of getting lost – until one point around mile 12. There wasn’t a sign to turn, but if you happened to look to your left, you could see the 12th mile marker a bit down the (paved) trail.

You’d think the girl who always gets lost wouldn’t notice it, but I did! I get a gold star for that, I think. Not only did I save myself from extra mileage, I saved the four people around me. (What, what?)

In the final mile, I talked to a fun group of three women. Mainly we talked about Cory Booker, ’cause really, what else do you talk about with new strangers, right?

I was very happy to see that finish line. I ran through the little muddy area, and collected my medal!

Side note about this race’s swag: they’ve had the best drop bag yet. It’s made of good material, has a plastic tag holder for your number. I could totally see reusing it (and did at Santa to the Sea earlier today).

Then I got my Northern California Series medal (and a t-shirt to boot since I did the SoCal series as well!)

(Perhaps the NoCal Half people have something to do with this race? They seemed more intertwined here. In SoCal, no one knew where to get your special medal at the end. I went and grabbed mine out of a box where no one was checking names. Here, there was a whole booth, and volunteers, and a system in place. Also, at the expo, the NoCal medals were prominently displayed. Edited to add: They are run by the same people! Ba-bam. I could tell.)

Now it’s back to SoCal for Santa to the Sea in Oxnard!

(#49) Walnut Creek Half Marathon – Part 1 (The Pre-Race Chapter…Sort of Sick-ish)

December 8, 2012

The first bit I have to say has absolutely nothing to do with Walnut Creek, and only has to do with being sick. So, don’t take this to be anything about their race.

I don’t get sick often. But I got sick this week. I had a very busy week last week. My body kept pleading for sleep. I kept denying it. This was its revenge.

I was really pretty hard-core sick. Chills, achy, getting out of bed was a chore. I did not want to do this race (again, only ’cause I was sick).

I really struggled with the decision of whether to do it. On the one had, you only get one body. You should be at least somewhat kind to yourself. There is a general “neck up, neck down” rule in running. If you have symptoms that are only neck up – stuffy nose, etc., you may run. If you have fever, chills, nausea, etc., you should not.

I had some neck down stuff going and knew I should follow the rules. The incredibly stubborn side of me that never listens to anything rational and only looks at goals and results said, “Do the race!” The side of me that’s really trying to be a more thoughtful, rational human being said, “Take care of yourself, by golly.”

I set up a 3-week break in the racing schedule toward the end, partly so that if anything like this happened – if I got sick, if a flight or a race got cancelled – I could shove in another race and be find. What a wonderful thing I did for myself! That I decided to ignore…

Ultimately, here’s what it came down to. My job at Playboy is over. So, money is tighter now. I still have enough money to finish out these races, but every penny counts even more than usual. I didn’t want to buy yet another race entry. (They’re expensive.)

Also, my roommates love to throw a part every Friday night. (I know.) If I stayed here, I was going to be treated to loud music until Saturday morning – not really optimal rest conditions. So, be annoyed in bed or be annoyed that 13 miles seems far. At least in the latter I’m getting exercise.

Plus, this is my last racing weekend of 2012, and I am ready for that break I built in! So, I decided to go to Walnut Creek.

And, this was the last race of the last series I’m in. So, I wanted my final special medal.

Nothing bad happened today, but officially, I do not recommend this strategy of racing while sick! It’s not the safest or the most fun thing to do. I’m sure it makes you sick for a longer period of time.

If the race is Boston or something you cannot miss, okay. Do it. If it’s just a race you can replace, replace it!

Obviously, I survived. I’ll talk about that tomorrow.

Seattle Travel

December 7, 2012

This has pretty much nothing to do with this post, but it was awesomely foggy while I was in Seattle (on main half marathon day).

I met these two magical women on my flight to Seattle.

I don’t know how to make this post interesting, but I really felt like I couldn’t not mention them, ’cause for me, it was something to remember.

Cathy, the woman in the middle seat was exactly like my high school theater. Of course we were immediately BFFs.

And Cheryl, Cheryl was some kind of etherial creature. She had the best listening face! She had also been through some major life-chaning health issues. And, did she ever change her life!

She decided to change her career path. She is now in a job she loves helping people. And she was just a genuine sweetheart. They both were.

It was a lovely flight. I’m so often so lucky when it comes to new passenger seat buddy friends. (On the way home from Seattle, I sat next to someone who’d worked with Cory Booker! What?)

(#48) Rock ‘n’ Roll Vegas (December 2, 2012)

December 6, 2012

A night race! (I sang that line in my head. Please, sing it in yours as well.)

My first night half marathon. I was excited to sleep in… And I woke up at 7am. Couldn’t go back to sleep. So much for the benefits of an awesome night race.

I tried live tweeting for the first time with this race, which was incredibly fun for me! (My twitter is @AurorasBlog. If you scroll down to December 2, you can see the live tweeting in all its glory.)

I am generally a pretty late adopter of technology. I’m not huge into social media. Now that the rest of the world already got twitter, then moved on to Instagram, I am loving twitter! Absolutely loving it.

People on and off the race course were tweeting me, which was cool. I’m actually a big proponent of human interaction, and I think as a society we use technology too much. I don’t want to live tweet every race. However, every once in a while, I think it can be fun to use twitter to enhance my interactions with racers around me, and to make some of my twitter followers who aren’t there feel like they’re there in the moment!

I try not to say the same things in too many forums on the internet, ’cause I don’t want to bore any of my amazing super fans who follow me on a bunch of different platforms. (I’m not even close to perfect about it. There are definitely things posted in multiple places, but I try to change it up!) But, in case anyone reads this way after December 2, 2012, and it’s a chore to go that far back in my twitter timeline – let me give you the overview of the race.

Some couple got married and renewed their vows during this race. I saw a sign for a restaurant where you eat free if you’re over 350 pounds! (Sorry the name of the place isn’t on the sign, so I don’t remember the name and can’t tell you if you fit in that category.)

I would love to know how that works – and what kind of business plan that is. Apparently there’s also a liposuction lottery. Let’s grab a bunch of body builders, retrace the course ’til we find this restaurant, and go get the skinny on it!

The wind was insane that night. I almost lost my hat, but I protect it as best I can, and made it to the finish with my hat still on my head!

They gave me a special (extra) bib for this race to make me feel special since I’d run 10 of them. But the Rock ‘n’ Roll bibs are already the biggest ones. Where am I supposed to put a second one?! (I went with my leg.)

Overall, this race is great. There was one section around mile 8/9 where it got dark and quiet. We went through some random streets without any bands. (There was probably some kind of zoning thing preventing bands since we were just going around some houses and I think, a school.)

When I got to the finish, I tried to spy for a gold medal. The Rock ‘n’ Roll Series had a few gold medals hidden within the normal medals, and if you got a golden one, you won $1,000! Alas, there were no gold medals to be found.

I got my little post-half-marathon space blanket from one of the coolest, most fun-loving staff members I’d ever met. Get this! It turned out he’d had Wolff-Parkinson-White as well, and he also had to have open-heart surgery! Is it a small world, or what?

I’d spent so much time tweeting and talking open-heart surgery that I missed the heavy metal booth before they took it down. So, I don’t have my super huge Rock Idol medal yet (that’s pretty much the size of my face). But you will see it when I get it!

This was definitely a fun race, and one I’d do again.

Epiloge: The following day, I went to Tasti D-lite! That’s right. There’s a Tasti D-Lite in Vegas! If you are not familiar with Tasti D-lite, it is an amazing ice-cream like dessert. I am obsessed with it. It used to only exist in New York/New Jersey. It’s branching out, but it’s still not everywhere. However, they do have one just off the Vegas strip and I was ecstatic to go there.

That Time My Heart Broke. Literally. – Part 35 (The “Skipping Town For A Bit” Chapter)

December 5, 2012

college-road-trip-poster It’s Wednesday night , so the story continues.

Picking up from last week –

(which was really just a tangent), so more like picking up from two weeks ago –

Multiple professors were encouraging me to take more time off before coming back to school. (I had a doctor’s note for 6 weeks.) And some of my family members were finally putting their foot down.

My family had been very lovely to respect my wishes not to come visit in the hospital. But now that it had been about two weeks since surgery, I started hearing, “You come see us, or we come see you.”

All right. All right! If I’m not gonna be in school, it’ll be super boring just to sit around my apartment. I made an appearance at my family’s house. And I went to see everybody.

The whole seeing everybody thing was really kind of nice. The day after I graduated high school (okay, the day after I graduated, I had a party… but the day after that), I got on a bus and did my best to stay busy enough to never look back!

It was weird (but cool) to see my friends again. Everyone was sort of “Oh, you do exist?” (In a nice, fun way – not in an angry way that I never visited.) I Greyhound bussed around to see some friends at a couple of different colleges.

My mind was absolutely boggled by this incredible completely free time that I had. (Now I’m less cool and have free time all the time as you’ve read over and over in this blog.) But back then, really it was – it just boggled my mind.

Eventually, I made my way back to Boston. I think it was about two or three weeks that I was gone.

In the end, I think I took close to, if not all of, my six weeks allowed in the doctor’s note.

Some of my teachers had had open heart surgery before. They were extremely sympathetic and almost too understanding. I sort of felt as though perhaps I was taking a little advantage of their kindness. Maybe I was. I could’ve gone back to school a little earlier, and I probably could’ve churned out some better work.

Some of my teachers were not nearly as understanding. Some were right in the middle – with probably the perfect amount of patience and understanding. I passed all of my classes that semester – not with a stellar grade point, but passed.

As far as getting back into the world of running, I went to the gym soon after being discharged (I think within a day or two). I was unbelievably frustrated with how hard everything was. I wasn’t even allowed to run at first. Even if I had been able to (ha!), I was only allowed to walk for the first few weeks.

A mile seemed so far. I kept telling myself I’d do the half marathon I’d already signed up for in the first weekend of May. That definitely didn’t happen. I just got more and more frustrated as progress continued to be very slow.

As far as health went, overall, it went pretty exceptionally well. And that’s where I’ll pick up next week.

Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas Expo

December 4, 2012

This expo was rad!

The Sony booth had 2 levels. You got to go upstairs and look out over the expo, which was way cool.

And, they had a 3D video of the course you could watch. What?

This was also the first expo where I’d seen the “Deliver Happiness” truck, which I believe is a charity arm of Zappos that sells really “happy” things (shirts and such with happy sayings).

The Deliver Happiness people had taped out a hopscotch play area on the floor leading to their truck. I love when people theme their areas that well!

There were two races here that really made me want to do them – the Utah Valley Marathon and the Phoenix Marathon.

First off, they both sound amazing. (The Phoenix Marathon has a Michael Jackson aid station. I kid you not.)

More than that, they were competing with each other for who could get the most people to sign up! One of the people at the Utah race offered to get me birthday cake at the expo since it happens in June.

The people at the Phoenix race said I could get in the cherry picker at the end and say things on the mic!

They both sounded amazing, but alas, I didn’t sign up for anything.
1) I’m ready to stop spending oh so much money.
2) I still don’t know next year’s plans yet. Those races are definitely on my radar, though.

Deliver Happiness hopscotch At the Now Energy Bar booth, I got a whole bag chock full of various bars because I didn’t know who Phil Keoghan is. (Sorry Phil Keoghan.) (He’s the host of the Amazing Race, and he, I guess, is the president of the bar company.

Speaking of bars, I got a free PR bar. Yum! I don’t see that bar everywhere, but when I do, it’s delicious.

I also heard about a brand new race in Texas called the Hero-thon where you dress up and wear capes. Keep that on your radar ’cause it sounds cool.

I don’t know if I ever mentioned that at another another expo I got one of the coolest pens I’d ever seen in my life! It’s from the Hot Chocolate Race Series, and you pull on the side, and the schedule comes out of the pen! It’s really amazing.

It came in handy at this expo. I was at a booth for a race. Someone though the race looked like fun, but wondered if it conflicted with the Hot Chocolate race. Guess what? I knew, ’cause I had a schedule built into my pen! Brilliant, Hot Chocolate company. Brilliant.

I’ve been in and out of love with Lifeproof on this blog. It’s a phone case that is drop-proof/waterproof/everything proof. First I loved it. Then my adapter broke and I gave up on it. Then I got another one, and it saved my phone in the pouring rain in Seattle. I loved it all over again once it saved my phone’s life. Guess what? I’m still on the love train.

Vegas expo big view At their booth today, they were sweethearts, and they gave me a new adapter! Thank you kindly, Lifeproof.

Lastly from the expo, I don’t know how much I really believe in the gluten-free diet for people who don’t have celiac disease. I don’t know if I believe it has any real health benefits. I’m also not a doctor, nutritionist, scientist, or anybody who knows anything about anything. So, who am I to talk about it really?

Even in my skepticism, I tried an Udi’s Gluten Free cookie. It was actually super delicious.

After the expo, I went to the pasta dinner! A blog reader got me a ticket at his table. How kind, right?

I pretty much ate my weight in pasta, and did a little interview with the news guy who was there taping the shindig. (I saw the news later in my hotel room, and they did give me a little shoutout.)

Lovely night, and now it’s onto the race!

(#47) Amica Insurance Seattle Half Marathon (November 25, 2012) (Seattle Quadzuki Day 4) – Part 2 (Loving Seattle)

December 3, 2012

Picking up from yesterday –

I caught up with a couple the girls and I had been leapfrogging with. I have a caffeine boost, and I’m in it to win it now!

Okay, not at all in it to win it, but in it to catch up with people who’d passed us!

I caught up with Damaris and Laura. We had some lovely conversations, and just enjoyed the gorgeous weather around us.

Eventually, we parted ways.

The Seattle Half Marathon really takes care of its runners. They had plenty of snacks, Gatorade, and water. (I love when there are snacks.) Of course, its possible that everything was so abundant (and that there were snacks) because we were sharing the marathon course, and all of us half marathoners got to start first (by 45 minutes).

I passed a Hostess building. It was odd to think that Hostess will soon be a thing of the past.

Before you knew it, I was coming into the finish!

I couldn’t believe it. (I mean, I could.) It was awesome. All those miles, all those races in one weekend – done. I didn’t know what to expect. I’d never done four races in a weekend before. But it really wasn’t hard. I think my fitness level keep secretly improving little by little without me noticing.

I crossed the finish line and got my medal from Army soldiers. Then I walked across the field to go into the indoor post-race finisher area.

Race announcers are always shouting encouraging things over the loudspeaker. He happened to say, “You did it!” as I was walking out of the race it area. It was almost like the timing would be in a movie.

Medium shot of Aurora as she’s walking triumphantly out of the stadium as in the background we hear “You did it!” She looks straight ahead knowingly with a half smile as if to tell us “Yeah, I did.”

This finisher area was wonderful. Chocolate milk. Yum. Bagel. Yippee.

They even had soup and hot chocolate! I didn’t have any of either of those, but it was cool that they existed for those who wanted them.

They even had a goodie bag with deodorant in it! And not cheap deodorant – the great kind. Clinical protection. Don’t mind if I do, thank you very much!

I also thought it was smart of Seattle to have their finisher area indoors! You never know what the weather will be like. It might’ve been cold or rainy (it wasn’t), but using an indoor area makes it lovely and comfy no matter what the weather.

I went to Bastyr University’s area where they were stretching people out. Tom was unbelievably helpful. This was totally exactly what I needed.

Eventually, I made my way back to the car, met some Seattle friends for delicious cheeseburgers, and called it a day.

Would I ever do four races in a weekend again? Definitely. Would I ever do the Seattle Quadzuki again? I cannot imagine a scenario in which that would happen. I loved races 1, 3, and 4. I can’t stand trails though and don’t ever want to set foot in race 2 again. Ever.

Considering I did live, and didn’t even have any injuries, I’m glad I had this experience. And I do love Seattle. My gosh, it was gorgeous out here this week. Absolutely lovely. And huge, huge thanks to my amazing friend Helen who let me stay in an empty condo for free this weekend. I couldn’t have asked for any better housing situation. And huge thanks to Rich for suggesting carpooling and driving me to day 2’s race. I was extremely happy to not have to drive home after being traumatized! 🙂

(#47) Amica Insurance Seattle Half Marathon (Seattle Quadzuki Day 4) (November 25, 2012) – Part 1 (Beautiful Weather, Beautiful Start)

December 2, 2012

Boom, baby! Four in one weekend! It happened!

This was a really lovely race. I was slightly nervous the night before. I set a couple of alarms, and put them out of arms reach so I’d have to physically get up and couldn’t just hit the snooze button. This was the first time I’d done four races in one weekend. I wasn’t about to let anything happen to the last race!

This was the “real” race of the bunch – the official Seattle Half Marathon. It was right in the heart of Seattle (started and ended very close to the space needle). (Side note: The space needle had huge tree-shaped lights on top of it and it looked really cool coming into the city before the sun came up.)

This is the first time I’ve driven myself to a large race in a big city. I left myself plenty of extra time in case of traffic or difficulty finding parking. As I drove around looking for parking, I couldn’t help think, “Where is my dad? He’s the driver in these scenarios!” Not today.

Surprisingly, I found a parking space across the street from the start line. I thought about trying to find a cheaper but farther space, then gave up on that idea because I’d already been driving for a while and I get lost everywhere I go. And you know if you leave the lot across from the start line, when you come back it’s going to be full.

Since I’d left myself so much extra time, I had plenty of time to sit in my car and just chill out, put my bib on, talk to my dad – all that jazz.

One thing I didn’t understand about this race is why the half marathoners started first. I’m sure there’s some reasoning behind it – perhaps having to do with when the winners come in, or who knows. Of course from a layman’s perspective who’s not running the race – (okay, someone who is running as an athlete (and I use that term quite loosely), but not running as in “running the show”) it seemed a bit odd.

Wouldn’t you want your lead marathoners out in front so they never even see the slowest half marathoners? (In the scenario as is, the marathoners passed all of us slow pokes. As much as we all tried to stay to one side, I couldn’t ever help but feel we were in their way.)

But what do I know? And that’s not said in any sarcastic way whatsoever. In all seriousness, what do I know? Nothing about those big decisions. I’ve never been a race director. It’s a long-standing race. I’m sure they have their reasons.

The weather was absolutely perfect. If I could’ve picked my own weather, that’s exactly what I would’ve picked. Not too cold, but definitely not too hot. Not so foggy we couldn’t see, but the sun never felt like it was beating down on us.

Beautiful, beautiful weather with air that felt amazing.

I walked a number of miles with two lovely women (one of whom was doing her first half). They wanted to stop for Starbucks around mile 6ish, I think it was. (I don’t really remember what mile. Somewhere.) There was a Starbucks right along the course, and I never turn down Starbucks (especially when someone else says it’s on them)!

I walked with them for another few miles until we’d pretty much exchanged life stories. Then I left them alone to have their fun best friend time together.

This is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

Amica Insurance Seattle Half Marathon Expo

December 1, 2012

Awesome mugs from the Seattle half marathon Boom, first amazing things – these mugs!

These are the coolest mugs I’ve ever seen. (On the back, they have your distance – 26.2 or 13.1) And they were only five dollars! What?

I don’t usually make purchases at expos, ’cause golly, I’d be poor by now, right? I totally splurged today, though. I bought a mug – an amazing mug that I’ve taken home and use all the time. (I don’t know that I’ve ever owned a mug before. Yay!)

Speaking of splurging, let’s get it all out of the way now. I also paid for a massage. I justified it to myself ’cause it was only 15 minutes. It wasn’t too terribly expensive, and I had done 39.3 miles in the week thus far. It was a good, helpful massage.

Lastly on the money front (yes indeed, I did spend even more money), I registered for Rock ‘n’ Roll Arizona. I wasn’t positive if I was going to tack on a “celebration race” at the end of my 52 half marathons in 52 weeks. But let’s get real. I knew I wanted to do it. End where I started. End with a Rock ‘n’ Roll race. (It’s cheaper to register for them at expos.) A lot of it makes a lot of sense to me.

(The only reason I was hemming and hawing about it is because the best part of last year’s race was hanging out with my truly incredible friend, Taylor. Now, she lives in Georgia. She’s actually planning on coming down to the Disney World marathon to cheer me on! Then I was kind of of the mindset of “start with Taylor, end with Taylor?” “Disney’s gonna be a freaking huge event. I don’t know if it’s super necessary to go out with another bang.”

Nonetheless, I took the plunge and registered for the race. I like the Rock ‘n’ Roll series, and I have all of the other North American heavy medals besides the Double Down. So, why not, right?)

I also got these $2 “throw-away” gloves at one booth. (I put throw-away in parenthesis, ’cause they seem like fine gloves to me that I don’t plan on tossing aside.) The booth said all the glove money went to charity (bonus). I need constant reminders that places get cold. Even though I was in Seattle, it would’ve never crossed my mind to prepare for the cold if it hadn’t been for the booth. (Sorry I don’t remember name of said booth, but thank you.)

sparkling ice mascot — Cute Sparkling Ice mascot

Besides the fact that I apparently spent a billion dollars at the expo, I met Aimee and Shane with Vibrance Nutrition and Fitness that had a sign saying “Drinking chocolate milk after Sunday’s race is like putting cheap gas in your Ferrari!!”

This was a big shock, considering how much chocolate milk is touted as the most awesome thing ever at practically every race I ever run. I haven’t looked into Vibrance Nutrition, but I am a little interested in hearing more about their philosophy.

However, if there’s one thing I think we’ve all gathered from my blog throughout the year, it’s that I don’t really know anything about nutrition and I’m horrible at learning about ’cause lots of people say lots of different things and I’ll never know how to sort that all out.

Speaking of food and drink, I tried this Sparkling Ice flavored water. I’m not big on flavored water. I love water. It doesn’t need any extra flavor to me.

(Granted, I don’t really have a sense of smell, which greatly affects my sense of taste. Maybe that’s why I don’t care about water tasting differently. Everything is more about texture to me than taste.)

The Sparkling Ice booth was a really fun booth, with a really energetic, cute mascot. I tried the water, and it was actually pretty good. It was a little carbonate-y, which was a little shock party to my mouth. Still good, though.

One other fun little cute thing they had – in expos, there’s often an area where you go over a timing mat to make sure your chip is working correctly and is assigned to the right person. At this one, you got a little encouraging message on the screen next to your name!

“Enjoy the sights!” “Set a PR!” “is carbo loading tonight!” Cute stuff.

30th Anniversary of Thriller

November 30, 2012

This post sort of goes against something I believe in.

I don’t super believe in elevating people on their birthdays or anniversaries, but instead spreading that love out all year. Arbitrary days don’t make anyone more or less special than they were on a day that wasn’t that day.

(I am still a human in America who likes to be loved, though, so I do celebrate that kind of stuff… I don’t know precisely how much I do or don’t believe in all the jazz…)

Anniversaries are more worthy of celebration than birthdays (in my opinion). They’re not as arbitrary. Michael Jackson did some amazing, phenomenal work. It deserves to be celebrated.

(But hopefully his work is appreciated on more than just today, and I’m sorry that I’m bringing it up today instead of a day when the whole world isn’t singing his praises.)

But the reason I am bringing it up is that for it just hit me kind of hard today.

I’ll go ahead and admit I have a somewhat unhealthy love of Michael Jackson (as I’m sure you’ve seen on this blog).

I think that adoring him, and trying to learn from him, and using him as a role model is healthy. Crying over his death (even years later) harder than some people cry for people they actually know? That’s the possibly unhealthy part. But it’s probably okay.

Here’s the great thing about Michael Jackson. He was so much more than just a man.

He was hope where there was no hope. He was a fighter. He fought for people who couldn’t fight for themselves. He encouraged us to raise our voices and fight for what we believed in.

He had so many amazing lessons that he couched in catchy pop music so we could all easily take them in.

My gosh, listen to any of the lyrics in “Why You Wanna Trip on Me?”

When I listen to Earth Song, I go full on nuts as I sing those “What about us?!” lines.

If ever I am down, if ever I am overwhelmed, if ever I question fighting for something because the uphill battle seems so hard – I can turn to Michael Jackson’s music. He may be gone, but his encouraging messages last on forever.

Even though I never met him – and unfortunately, I never will – I want to live a life that I’d be proud to tell him about if I were to meet him. He inspires me to be better. (And I have a long way to go!)

As far as Thriller specifically, I think Bad was better than Thriller. I think Dangerous was better than Bad. Those aren’t necessarily popular opinions, but they’re mine.

You can always be better, even when you’re at the top of your game and no one else is even close – you can always be better. And you should be. Even if you’re the only one pushing you. That’s the lesson I like to take away from him topping himself twice when no one thought he could top Thriller.

I said earlier this year that I was finally able to listen to Michael Jackson without having a breakdown.

I just wanted to let you know, lest you think I’m a stable human being (or a callous one), or one who’s forgotten the genius of Michael Jackson – I’m not. I haven’t. And I never could.

Something about today, something about everyone talking about him, something about re-seeing the magazine covers that came out after he died, I was transported back to that mindset. I sobbed as I listen to him sing “Smile.” ‘Cause he’s Michael Jackson. And we’ll never get him back.

But we’ll always have his influence, his lessons, his music to keep us going, to keep us inspired, and to keep us pushing to better.

I will always be so very grateful to him. And I’ll never be able to thank him. At this point, the best way I know how, is to listen to what he said. Start with the man in the mirror. Try to make the world a better place.

I’m no Michael Jackson. But I’m a better me because of him.

(#46) Ghost of Seattle Half Marathon (Seattle Quadzuki Day 3) (November 24, 2012)

November 29, 2012

Today was an 8 o’clock start, so it was a nice chill morning.

As I was falling asleep the night before, it dawned on my that the race starts so late in the day, I could actually get Starbucks ahead of time. Cool. There are only, I don’t know, a billion of them in Seattle. It shouldn’t be hard to find one.

(That sounds like an intro to some crazy story where I couldn’t find a Starbucks in the morning, but fear not. I saw a bunch.)

I grabbed a drink heavy on the caramel (yum), and headed out for a nice thirteen-mile stroll in gorgeous Seattle.

I traveled around a walking path. Eventually, I finished the Starbucks and pitched it. Not long after, I came upon a couple who’d done the turnaround, carrying Starbucks in their hands. I smiled and said, “Good idea.” The girl looked at me embarrassed as though she couldn’t believe she stopped for coffee in a race. I wanted to turn around and say, “I did it too! You don’t know ‘cause I just got rid of my cup. I wasn’t being sarcastic!”

It was too late. We’d already gone our separate ways. Well, hopefully she enjoyed her deliciousness.

One thing that was fun today was that I saw little markers where the Seattle Marathon was planning to put their mile markers the next day. For some reason, I thought that was so cool. (Can you imagine how awful it’d be if someone just walked around, taking them out? Hopefully no one would ever do that. I just didn’t realize the miles were already marked the morning before the race…)

After yesterday’s brush with death, I was a little more on edge than normal about dogs. Anytime I saw or heard any, I went into “I’m having a heart-attack” mode much quicker than I usually do. But, there weren’t any close calls today. Everything is cool.

At the finish, not only did we have the best medals thus far of the four races, but we also had tons of free food! Not just bars, but bagels – with cream cheese. I kid you not. That’s not even the best part. I’m building to it. Hot dogs! That’s right, honest to goodness hot dogs! Hot food. You could put cheese, ketchup, mustard or all of it on there!

I know I have some vegan readers out there. Check this out, they had faux hot dogs for vegans! How great was this race? Super great, that’s how great.

I wouldn’t mind doing this one or Thursday’s again. Seattle’s beautiful. The air feels clean. These races have generous time limits, and they’re a great excuse to get moving during a long holiday weekend when people can get wrapped up in gorging on more food than we even want.

The people here were lovely. That atmosphere was great. The weather was pretty perfect (not too sunny, not too cold). Low key run, but beautiful and fun.

Three races down for the long weekend. Only one to go!

That Time My Heart Broke. Literally. – Part 34 (The “Surprisingly Lonely Coming Home” Chapter)

November 28, 2012

Alone in a Crowd It’s Wednesday night , so the story continues.

Picking up from last week –

Now that I’m out of the hospital in the story, let me take a post to take a tangent. (Shocking, I know… since I take them, hmmm, all the time.)

In my experience, here was the weirdest part of being sick – everybody was up my bum while I was in the hospital.

Psst, that’s when I don’t really need you.

I’ve touched on this idea before as part of the reason I didn’t want visitors. But it also goes with people who call, text, email, send carrier pigeons, whatever.

I appreciate the love. I love love. But the weirdest part about it all was the silence that followed. Everyone cares sooo much – until you are safely out of surgery. Once you’re discharged, everyone thinks you’re fine, and they leave you on your merry way.

I will go ahead and preface my remarks in this chapter by saying, yes, I did keep pushing people away. I asked them to stop paying so much attention to me. Perhaps people finally started listening to me. Perhaps it’s my own fault for not being a good acceptor of love. I will definitely shoulder some (maybe all) of the blame for this.

(I’ll also say that I had one or two people who continued to check in on me for um… forever. So, I wasn’t completely abandoned.)

However, it mostly went from an unbelievable amount of chatter regarding my health problem to silence after I got home. I do think that often in our society, people shower patients with love and affection while they’re in the hospital, then kind of forget(ish) about them afterward.

I completely understand that people are busy and they can’t (and shouldn’t) worry about you forever. And I think my stance on this has been made clear before – but to me, the hospital is the last place you need love!

Some people obviously feel differently. But for me, it was so weird to have everyone I’d ever met, who heard the news one way or another that I was sick, come out of the woodwork with an unending amount of compassion – just to disappear.

Returning home from the hospital is already lonely! You’re used to having a built in network of doctors, nurses, volunteers, fellow patients, and some visitors (whether they be yours or other patient’s visitors fanning out). You have a crazy number of people talking to you every day.

You don’t have that in your home. You don’t constantly have people walking in and out and around the hallway in your home. You don’t have people waking you up at 3am to draw your blood in your home. Where is all the buzzing around of the hundreds of new friends in your life?

By virtue of going home, poof! They are gone. They have to move on to helping other people who need it.

When your physical army of people and your virtual army of people all disappear at the same time, it’s extremely jarring, and really kind of lonely.

No one’s offering to come to your house to play Monopoly with you, as they did when you were in the hospital.

But this is the time you need it most! This is the time you’re in the most pain. (I don’t have a morphine drip in my apartment.) This is the time you are the most bored. (Most people can’t go back to work immediately. What are they to do with their time?)

Humans are weird! I will never understand why we offer so much support to someone in the most supportive environment on the planet, just to take it out from under them right as their other super support system collapses.

After the patient’s been lifted to the clouds, until (poof)! They’re hurtling toward the ground, involuntarily skydiving once every support structure collapsed at once.

So weird.

And I never even knew that was a thing until I was sick.

Patients come home and are dealing with pain, life adjustment, money/debt/bills, boredom, frustration at not getting back to their normal activities, possible problems at work or school – and who knows what else. That’s when they need us the most.

At least, that was my experience. I will certainly remember it when trying to support any sick friends in the future.

(I’d also like to say that I love and appreciate my friends. No one is perfect. (Most of my lovely friends are far closer to perfect than I am!) This is not a post to complain about them, just to shine a light on patient interaction that I wasn’t aware of before I got sick.)

The story continues next week.

(#45) Half-Bone Half Marathon (Seattle Quadzuki Day 2) – Part 5 (My Carpool Buddy Got Injured In During This Harrowing Race)

November 27, 2012

Picking up from yesterday –

A quick note just to say how thankful I am that someone actually came out of their house to help me. In our cynical world, it’s easy to ignore people in need, but I felt taken care of in that neighborhood.

Eventually, I started breathing again, made my way back to the beginning of the trail, which also happened to be the finish line. I. survived.(!) I collected my medal and was all done with that biznatch.

Turns out, I was not the only one who narrowly escaped death. Everyone was getting lost out there. People were wading through standing pools of water and mud.

A couple of people that I’d met at the previous day’s race were kind enough to carpool with me. There was a sweet volunteer named Rich who talked to me at Widdle Wattle, and offered to let me jump in on the carpooling with him and Rick (a runner) the next day.

Well, when I ran into Rick at the finish of this race – he had blood pouring down his forehead! He’d tripped, fallen, and gashed his head wide open… when he wasn’t near any aid stops. There were loops in the (narrow) trail, and if you got hurt miles from an aid station, well, walk the rest of your loop ‘til you find help.

So, he walked for, I guess, from what I heard, more than a mile after breaking open his head.

We both ended up finishing… by the skin of our teeth! As nice as everyone was here, let’s get out and never return.

(#45) Half-Bone Half Marathon (Seattle Quadzuki Day 2) – Part 4 (I Almost Died! (Part 2))

November 26, 2012

Straight up "Bye Bye Bye" style. Except scarier. — Straight up “Bye Bye Bye” style. Except scarier.

Continuing from yesterday (if you haven’t read that one, go read it first) –

I’m about to die. I turn the corner and hear silence. I want to peek around and see what the heck is going on, but I’m obviously too petrified to do that.

I ring the woman’s doorbell so I can get another human involved. By this point, I’m absolutely hysterical, crying and shaking, looking generally crazy I’m sure. I’m kind of surprised she was okay coming to the door with such a weirdo on her front porch.

Chris was her name, and she’s the kind of person I’d want to be around in any sort of disaster/dangerous situation. She was all business, the first thing out of her mouth being the important questions. “Is anyone else in danger? Are we safe here right now? What’s happening?”

I’m trying to communicate in sniffs, tears, head turns, and hand gestures. I get across the information that no one else is around as far as I know, and that I think we’re safe now.

She went around the corner to check and the dogs were gone. How weird, right? One moment they’re here, the next moment their gone. How did they get quiet so quickly? Where did they go?

I know they were not a figment of my imagination. Know how I know that?

Chris said she was on her way out of the house because she heard so much barking. She’s a dog rescuer, and she wanted to make sure the dogs were okay. That’s right. She said she wanted to make sure the dogs were okay.

Even though I am making fun of that point a little, I will say she was extremely kind to me. She said, “You’re soaking wet!” I’m all “Yes, I know. I’m in a half marathon. And I – (cry, cry, cry still). She gets a blanket out, puts it around me, and says, “Come inside. Let’s call your parents.” Adorable, right?

You may not have heard the way I said that sentence, but I’m (again) gently making fun of something she said. However, it’s actually not all that crazy of an idea to call my parents. I do generally call my dad whenever anything exceptionally bad (or good) happens, ‘cause you know, he is my dad. Unfortunately, he was thousands of miles away, and I’m kind of a grown-up, I guess, or something lame like that. So, even though he’s my daddy, he couldn’t protect me in this case.

Anyway, as Chris went inside to get the blanket, a man from across the street came out to check on me since I had been screaming loudly enough that I’m sure people in Portland heard me out in Seattle.

I was taking breaths between every word, ‘cause you know, I was traumatized!

“What happened? What’s wrong?” There (breath) were (breath) these (breath) two (breath) huge (big breath) dogs (breath) and –

He seemed so relieved when I said the word “dogs,” as if he was afraid I was going to say “murderer” or something. Well, let me tell you, I could’ve just as easily been murdered by these dogs as I could’ve been by any human!

Truthfully, I would much rather be chased by a murderer than a dog. I mean that sincerely. With a dog, they will catch up to you. And they cannot be reasoned with. With a murderer, he or she is just another person. Conceivably, you could outrun them. Conceivably, you might outsmart them. You might be able to reason with them if they actually do catch you. (I’ve watched a lot of Criminal Minds, therefore I’m obviously pretty trained to deal with psychopaths).

Thankfully, I never saw the dogs again. I’ll wrap up the rest of the race tomorrow.

(#45) Half-Bone Half Marathon (Seattle Quadzuki Day 2) – Part 3 (I Almost Died! (Part1))

November 25, 2012

Stock rain photo Photo Credit: Anthony Redpath

Picking up from yesterday –

Finally! The part of the story where I almost died. Oh my gosh. How can I even settle down enough to write words on this blog? I almost died today! That’s not even the worst part! I almost died in the worst possible way. (Okay, one of the worst possible ways.)

I’m drenched, absolutely completely drenched in water, holding a heavy sweatshirt that’s drenched. I’m walking along the road with only two streets ‘til I hit the neighborhood where we started. I’m so very close to being finished.

If you’re not sitting down, do it now. This is the part where our hearts are gonna stop.

I hear a person say, “No. Stop.” They are saying these words in the manner that you’d say them to an animal. That’s right, an animal, such as, oh, I don’t know. A dog, perhaps? I look over, and there are these two huge dogs at the edge of this person’s driveway. They’re looking right at me and starting to come toward me.

The owner is not in my sight!

Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Please don’t. ‘Cause this is super scary. This isn’t a huge marathon or really busy street where I’m gonna be saved by a stranger or ambulances standing by, or something. This is just a quiet neighborhood with no support. There’s no medical staff here, no spectators, nobody to save me.

I freeze in terror for probably a tenth of a second as thoughts rush through my head. “Is the owner going to be able to get control of these dogs? Which way is the best way to run? Should I somehow try to actually go toward them to be close to the owner – the only other sign of human life out here right now? Am I even supposed to run at all? Is it safer to stay still?”

The dogs start picking up their speed. I’m outta there! I take off – like an Olympian. I am telling you. My strides were long and gorgeous. I ran faster than anybody has ever ran, ever. All the while, I am screaming – absolutely, desperately, top-of-my lungs, tears in my voice – “HELP ME!!!!! HELP. ME!”

I start running toward the neighborhood. I just want to see another human. Maybe, just maybe I can be let in a house quickly enough to slam the door before the dogs get in. That’s probably not going to happen. But, perhaps I can ring a doorbell right before I start being mauled to death. Maybe that person can call an ambulance in time to save me. Or maybe they can make some kind of big distraction, scaring the dogs away. I’m pretty sure finding a person is my best bet at survival.

I turn toward this neighborhood – and I see a huge gate! That’s right. I’m running toward a gated neighborhood. Except, good news. There’s a gate in the road with nothing on either side of it. No walls to climb. I just have to run around by the gate. Of course it may have been better if there actually was a wall so I could try to leave the dogs behind, but I’m not positive I could’ve jumped over one. I’m pretty short…

So, I’m running by the gate. I see the first house. I see one of the dogs bounding behind me out of the corner of my eye. They’re getting so close. I’m already imagining what it’s gonna feel like when they knock me to the ground. I imagine the paw laying on my shoulder (they are as tall as me on their hind legs, ‘cause they’re freaking huge!), and knocking me down. I tell myself that when that happens, no matter what, just stay face down. Don’t let them get at all those important things in the front of your body (your face (the moneymaker, of course), your heart (kinda need that)).

And when they knock you down, cover your neck with your arms to try and protect your carotid artery. They can tear your arms to shreds, but if they get your neck, you are gonna bleed out. Quickly.

As I’m making my plans for how best to escape death while being attacked, I’m still running. (The plans are being formed at warp speed in my head.) In the first house, I consider climbing on top the car in the driveway. But I figure, these dogs have really long legs. They’re gonna be able to jump on the car. I’m just going for the doorbell.

As I turn the corner onto this person’s porch – silence. The incredibly loud, bone-chilling barking has stopped. What happened? This is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

(Spoiler: I still don’t know exactly what happened…)

(#45) Half-Bone Half Marathon (Seattle Quadzuki Day 2) – Part 2 (Acting Through The Beginning Of My Own Personal Hunger Games)

November 24, 2012

stuck on branch — Branches (and their thorns) sticking into my pants.

Picking up from yesterday –

I leave the trail and go onto the road.

I start daydreaming about how this is sort of like the hunger games, with all the obstacles of rain, cold, trails, and things. No one’s trying to kill anyone (but it does feel like we’re all going to die).

I start thinking about how I always imagine I’d be rad in crazy competitions, ’cause I like to think I’m somewhat creative and can try to find things people might not think about. Then I think about how horrendous I’d be because I’d never know where I am! How could I ever escape anyone when I have no idea where anything is?

None of this matters because hopefully I’ll never be in a hunger games situation. But you just never know. I was here!

About 6 miles in, my sweatshirt is really heavy. I start asking myself if it’s better to keep it on or take it off. If you take it off, you get to take off all that sopping wet weight, but then you have to carry it! Also, everything else you’re wearing is just gonna get wetter.

I do take it off, and start carrying it.

Random thorny branches are grabbing me here and there (and I’m thankful for the pants choice I knew today. I knew I wanted long, tight pants to give my legs the least possible chance of coming into contact with any nature).

I fell a little out of love with my Lifeproof phone case after those rush of posts where I gushed about it. My first adapter stopped working, blah blah.

However, I gave it another chance ’cause I feel like I do desperately need a phone that can withstand everything, as today proved it.

About 9 or 10 miles in, there were no dry spots left anywhere on me – nowhere to try to dry off my hands, and certainly nowhere to try and keep a phone safe.

As the race got colder and wetter, I did what I usually do in tough workout situations – I just started acting.

You know how it is when you’re acting – nothing gets in the way of your acting. Outside bothers, temperatures, sopping clothes – none of it exists. You just deal with elements around you as you rock your part like no one ever has.

So if I’m ever in a tough situation, I just start acting since I know in that state, nothing’s allowed to bother my “performance.”

I put on some sweet jams. I acted like I was in a music video for Maroon 5’s “One More Night.”

You want it angry? Longing? Sexy? I gave all those takes and more. (I had to do something in the rain!)

I also rocked out to Mariah Carey’s “Through the Rain.” A little literal, perhaps. Still fun to pretend there was a music video where I had to triumphantly walk through the rain.

Eventually, I was closing in on 13.1 miles.

This is where I almost died! I will pick up here tomorrow, ’cause that story is getting its own post(s).

(#45) Half-Bone Half Marathon (Seattle Quadzuki Day 2) – Part 1 (Rainy, Muddy, and Getting Lost)

November 23, 2012

Half Bone wet trail — Photo Credit: Robin Canell

I wanted to start the story like normal, not jumping straight to the crazy part, but I have to open by telling you that something terrifying happened today. Terrifying!

That part comes a bit later… (But I promise we will get there.)

The beginning of the day was wet and cold. I own one thing to wear cold weather – a sweatshirt that I bought in New Orleans earlier this year. No gloves, no coat, no nothing else. (I live in Los Angeles.)

People had warned me it’d be cold out here. I’m all, “Yeah, I’m covered. I own a sweatshirt.”

As someone who’s happily lived in Boston, Massachusetts (during lovely winters), you’d think I’d remember what actual cold is like. I didn’t. Until I got here.

A cotton sweatshirt is not the thing to wear in Seattle rain. More on that soon, but that was only the tiniest of problems…

When the day began, I posted this status on Facebook:

“Rainy. Cold. TRAIL. Stories of animals people have seen on this trail. Bears, deer, dogs. Oh my.
We are all gonna die here to today. :-p”

Okay, well hardy, har, har… unless you ACTUALLY die there that day. Well, I almost did die. Just wait for it. (And prepare yourself to be terrified, my friends! (Terrified!))

So, we start off on the trail. It’s a trail. If you know me/have read the blog, you know I don’t like trails very much. For the chance to try four half marathons in one weekend, I was willing to go out on a terrain I don’t care for.

Plugging along, small paths. Getting muddy. Hard to let people pass since some paths are very tight.

Even though it can get a wee bit crowded, we’ve spread out in the back, and at this point I’m alone. I just keep following the path until, of course, I get lost. I come out to the road. Huh. Don’t think I’m supposed to be here. I look along the beautiful road. I think “Huh. Maybe I’ll just work my way back around to the front by looping out here. I have my running app. I can watch the miles. This is a tiny race where they won’t really care… No, no, no. I’ll suffer through the path that’s meant for us.

So, I start back. I start going the way I think I should be based on the runners I see in the distance. After a while, some walkers are walking straight toward me. Uh oh. “Are we supposed to be crossing paths like this, or am I going the wrong way?”

“Sorry, you’re going the wrong way.” Uuuuugh. I turn around again to go with them. We make it out to another opening in the road!

They turn around. “Sorry. It was us. We were going the wrong way.”

We are never going to make it out of here!

At this point I sort of take it as a sign. The road is calling to me. The trail is getting dangerous. Okay, well, I’ll just go this way. (Otherwise, I am never ever going to find my way back to the trail.)

This is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

(#44) Wittle Waddle (Seattle Quadzuki Day 1)

November 22, 2012

Everyone here was so nice.

I don’t have a ton to say about the day, but that was my big takeaway. I don’t know if it’s people who live in Seattle, or runners in general, or the running community of Seattle; but each person I met was a total sweetheart.

This race was super chill. We didn’t even start until 9am. Usually, I don’t think starts that late are the best ideas. However, it wasn’t hot at all. I wore a sweatshirt through the whole thing. It was a bit chilly, but the air was really nice. (I’d much rather be a bit chilly than in sweltering heat (cough, cough – Los Angeles).)

We started with a big random hill, then we just went on a pretty flat walking/bike path starting in Gas Works park. I walked the whole way, taking it easy since I had 52.4 miles ahead of me this weekend.

I had phone conversations with my sister and my dad. I listened to some tunes. I listened to some thoughts. When I was coming back, I saw the space needle in the distance, which I thought was cool. “Yep. I’m in Seattle. Awesome.”

I’d heard that last year some people got lost. Surprisingly, I did not get lost! I know I get lost everywhere when left to my own devices. Not here. Boom!

They had delicious chicken noodle soup at the end – and the loveliest volunteers ladling it out for us.

We also got a pretty rad wintery hat. That was a fun, different thing.

Basically, it was a chill, lovely race. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

That Time My Heart Broke. Literally. – Part 33 (The “Back to School After Open Heart Surgery” Chapter)

November 21, 2012

I spent over 100 hours on my Michael Jackson soundalike project. I cannot tell you how many times I heard "Billie Jean." But I think it's impossible for me to tire of him... — I spent over 100 hours on my Michael Jackson soundalike project. I cannot tell you how many times I heard “Billie Jean.” But I think it’s impossible for me to tire of him…

It’s Wednesday night , so the story continues.

Picking up from last week –

I went into the studio for my project the night I got out of the hospital. My friend Logan was kind enough to come lay down some guitar tracks, and my friend Kelly was nice enough to come engineer.

(I don’t remember exactly what times we were there, but we were some time in the midnight to 6am block. So, it was a huge favor they were doing me.)

I don’t remember why these weren’t recorded before I went in – lack of studio time, or something needing to be re-done or what. But the point is, I needed them and we got them done immediately.

I was still having troubles sitting up. It was pretty super painful. So, I ran the session while lying on the ground the whole time. How anybody put up with me, I don’t know. But I’m so glad they did.

And a note about that lying flat thing – to this day, I don’t use pillows anymore. And I often have to take eating breaks during meals. I don’t know what those things are about, but they started after open heart surgery, and I never shook them… That makes me a little weird, doesn’t it?

Back to 2010, I spent basically all my free time around that time working on my soundalike project. I actually became an infinitely better producer/engineer after getting sick than I would’ve ever otherwise. (I’m still not great at that stuff, but better than I was to say the least.) So, repeating the semester wasn’t necessarily the worst thing.

I started going back to class immediately. I think the first week I only went to half or so, and was working my way up. (I had a doctor’s note to be out for six weeks, so I didn’t have to worry too much about going or not going….)

(Though it was awkward if you’d go to one teacher’s class then decide to nap through the next one. (Granted, it’s not that awkward. A number of college students do that when they’re not on painkillers coming back from open-heart surgery.))

Even though I was a good student who sat quietly and didn’t bring attention to herself, some of the teachers I was closest to who looked out for me the most encouraged me to just stop coming to classes altogether and continue resting at home. (I think the whole sitting quietly, not bringing attention to myself thing is what made people worried. ;))

Just going home to rest was sort of a boring idea. But I think having a recovering patient around the halls made people nervous. Oh my gosh! Speaking of recovering patient – I think this was the moment I realized they might be right and I maybe didn’t want to be around the school in my state.

So, I went to one of my teacher’s office hours after school the week after I’d gotten out of the hospital. He had office hours on the later side of things. There weren’t tons of people around, but some.

I was lying in the hallway (’cause sitting up was hard) waiting for my turn to go in, when a DOG comes down the hallway!

That’s right. A dog. In a school hallway!

It did not really look this scary at all. I think it was more of a fluffy dog... But in my head, they all look like this...(Photo Credit: Josh Plueger for U.S. Air Force) — It did not really look this scary at all. I think it was more of a fluffy dog… But in my head, they all look like this…
(Photo Credit: Josh Plueger for U.S. Air Force)

I immediately got up to get away, and of course felt a good amount of pain in the process moving so quickly and moving around my precious sternum and stomach that were oh so fragile.

The pain made me a little short-tempered, and I yelled at the girl for letting her dog just roam the halls of a school with no leash or anything. I mean, honestly, what is wrong with this girl?

She was mad that I was mad and we got into a short screaming match with each other.

The teacher I was waiting to see was Stephen (whom I trust immensely). He used that run-in to add to his “take care of yourself and get out of school for a bit” case. After that incident, it wasn’t that hard to convince me.

This is where I’ll pick up next week.

This Big Sur Travel Weekend

November 20, 2012

San Francisco to Monterey on Google maps How awful was my travel planning for this weekend? Really awful.

I pieced it together little by little, and in the end, it made no sense.

Originally, I planned to fly up there so that I could easily take public transportation (and be closer to Monterey so the public transport would only take me 4 or so hours as opposed to 4 or so million hours).

Then, I couldn’t find a free place to stay. I decided to go ahead and book a hotel. One three miles away was a good deal cheaper than one very close to the start. I went ahead and decided to save the money, thinking I could walk it or perhaps get a ride. I figured that I’d figure something out.

Later, I decided I’d go ahead and just rent a car. “I’ll get to Monterey quicker. I’ll have more freedom to get anywhere I need to go – expo, restaurants, whatever I need.”

I first noticed my travel plans were not optimal as I drove farther and farther south (aka toward Los Angeles – from whence I came)! Why did I fly up here when I was just going to drive toward my apartment?

(Side note: My flight was delayed a couple of hours. Add that to travel time to get to and from airports, and going through security, I’m really thinking I would’ve barely lost any time just driving the whole way.)

Of course, then I ended up being the most confusing three miles away from the hotel that I could be. It involved getting on the highway, and taking a really quick exit. There was no way I was ever going to find my way to the morning of the race (and find a place to park where there was barely any free parking). Then a cab started to look good. But then why did I drive?

Why did I fly? Why did I drive? So many questions. So many mistakes.

Oh well. I didn’t have to drive too terribly far. (I hate driving.) I had the pleasure of flying. (I love flying.) Even though I could’ve made some smarter decisions, I got everywhere I needed to be. I suppose that’s what matters in the end.

(#43) Big Sur Half Marathon – Part 2 (A Dog Ran Onto The Course!!!)

November 19, 2012

Picking up from yesterday,

So, I’m jogging along. All of a sudden, a big dog comes running down the field of runners!

What?

The owner is nowhere in sight! There is no leash hanging off the dog, leading me to think it’s not like the dog just accidentally got away from the owner. Where is the owner of this scary brown dog?

So, this dog is coming. (I assume to eat us all, of course.) I book it to the nearest human and grab onto this man’s arm for dear life.

The dog just ran past us, and everybody lived. Just barely, obviously. My heart was going about 300 beats a minute. I apologized to the man, and walked on, doing my best to calm my heart and myself. (It was really, really scary!)

About a mile and a half later, my heart rate was still only just starting to come down. That’s when I met Darcy and Lisa and recounted the frightening tale.

We became fast friends and talked for the next few miles.

The race was pretty scenic. As I was driving there, I thought about how funny it is that, living (and running) in California, I’m to the point where I’m a little sick of seeing the coast. However, something about being in the race made it a much prettier sight. It’s a nice view.

The one lame thing (besides a leash-less dog!) about this otherwise amazing race was that they rerouted us at the end! We didn’t even get to see mile marker 12 (which was especially a bummer since the mile markers were so super cute – also because I love mile markers as aids to keep me encouraged and aware of where I am).

I came in under the time limit and was on pace to do so the whole time (meaning I should not have been rerouted). As I’ve said before, I don’t like when races say you have a certain amount of time, but then don’t really give you that amount of time. I realize I’m very slow. If it’s too slow for you, just put an earlier time limit on your website.

Also, obviously, I need to work and speed (and will do so next year) so this is never an issue. But even if I get to the point where it’s never an issue for me, there are still other people in the world – other newbies, other people who do it completely as a hobby just to get off the couch and not to have PRs and things, etc.

Even if I’m running Boston someday, I care about all the new people to the sport. You want them to love it and want to come back. Anyway, let me just step off that timing soapbox of today.

I forgot that one of the reasons I signed up for this race was because it had a cool medal that looked different from most, so I was stoked about my new, interesting medal.

They also served soup, which I thought was a pretty rad thing to do. It was Minestrone. I’ve never had it, but it was a big word and I just decided not to go over and try it.

I saw some people I’d met at the expo. One person came up to me and said that he’d checked out my blog and that what I was doing meant a lot to him. He said, “That man I was with yesterday – he was my partner. I really appreciate what you’re doing for us.”

That really meant a lot to me. I certainly have a lot of people in my life who are affected by marriage equality. (Really, we are all affected because it affects the sort of world we live in.) But, you know, I have a lot of friends in the LGBT community who will be directly affected. It’s not as though I’ve completely forgotten the people for whom I’m running.

But sometimes, while running for a cause, an idea – a more tolerant world where all citizens are treated equally – I forget about the specific, individual people who struggle in a world where many view them as “less than.” To have a person come up and thank me for what I was doing, it just really touched my heart.

43 races down! Onto the Quadzuki next weekend!

(#43) Big Sur Half Marathon – Part 1 (Signs & Fun)

November 18, 2012

This race was one of the last ones I added when making the schedule, and I’m glad I added it. It may have just cracked the top 5 of the year.

People were saying it was most likely going to be cold and rainy the morning of the race, but the weather was lovely.

Before the race started, the announcer came over the sound system. “Due to unforeseen circumstances, we need someone out there to sing our national anthem. Seriously. One of you, please volunteer.” You know I would’ve been first up on the stage in this scenario, in most cases. However, I was about 80 million miles from the stage in one of the last corrals. I couldn’t teleport over there, and someone got to it before me. Ah, well, perhaps next time.

I wanted to see how long I could stay with the 3-hour pacer in this race. However, there was no 3-hour pacer. So, I lined up with 2:45! And I actually made it for almost 3 miles. Mike was taking a run/walk approach. It was sort of nice ’cause the walk breaks were lovely – but that meant we had to go all that much faster when we were running!

He was a fun pacer, and it was a fun group. I knew there was no way I was doing the whole race with them, but I told them I’d hold on as long as I could. Mike had a little speaker system with him and said we could request songs. Everyone else was pretty quiet about their requests, so everyone once in a while, you’d just hear this struggling voice toward the back of our pack “Maroon 5!” “Carly Rae Jepsen!”

After I lost the group, I slowed way down and just sort of chilled out for a few miles.

The mile markers in this race were hilarious. I loved them so much. There were cute little cartoons on every one!

There were some great signs in general at this race. Someone had one that said “Stop reading! Run!”

Then there was an apartment building I passed that had signs all along the balcony: “Choices. – You could be watching football and drinking beer.” “Don’t worry, everyone gets a trophy.” “Some people won’t drive 13.1 miles today.” “You’re NOT almost there yet.”

Whoever lives there – thanks for putting signs all along your balcony. We are now friends (even though we do not know each other).

Someone else had Justin Bieber cutouts along the road, which I thought was pretty funny and random.

There was a guy holding a sign that said, “Run faster! I just farted,” who was out there all day cheering for people. Big ups to you, man.

Once we got to the turnaround, I got a new burst of energy. As soon as I made the turn, for some reason I felt like as long as there were people on the other side of the turnaround who could see me going the opposite way – I had to jog, as though I had to justify being ahead of them in the race. It was fun because it gave me and added burst of energy.

I tried to cheer for everyone I passed. Our names were on our bibs so I told people great job by name as I jogged along.

Then something scary happened. And this is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

Big Sur Half Marathon Expo

November 17, 2012

Thompson at expo — Thompson being awesome (next to the sign about free yoga!).

Best expo yet!

I’m surprised to hear myself say that. I wasn’t sure that expos got better than Indy or Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego. Apparently they do.

I also didn’t know there’d still be new things to experience at an expo 43 races in, but there were!

First off, right when I walked in there was a nice volunteer – in a jacket and tie(!) – enthusiastically helping people. (Everyone here was incredibly nice.)

Check this out – they had free yoga! Free yoga. I kid you not. It was presented by Lululemon, and they gave me a free yoga mat (to keep!). (It was a nice yoga mat too. It was restorative yoga, and it made me feel restored. (Thank you so much, Brie!)

After yoga, I did a trip through the expo. Before you even entered the hall, there were big tables set up manned by the very lovely Friends of the Monterey Public Library.

There were sightseeing brochures and things to encourage people to explore Monterey.

Also, before you got inside the actual expo, there was a whole sign-making station set up, which I thought was cool and a fun activity for spectators.

Outside and inside the expo, you could hear about how this half marathon is going green. You could also recycle your shoes.

Onto the goody bags, they are absolute geniuses here. Your little bag check paper was attached to your bib (normal) but had adhesive on the back! What? Instead of tearing off your bib number and getting a zip tie – you just stick it right on your bag. And by “you do it” what I mean is they do it for you!

Also, in said bag, I got a beautiful shirt. Tech material, long-sleeved, a color other than white (maroon-y) – all of my favorite things! It also has the date of the race prominently displayed on the front. I loved it.

Plus, there’s a big, really well put together weekend guide in the bag.

Now my quick little tour of the expo – there was a group promoting international running adventures (such as the Great Wall Marathon (in China of course). We’ll start talking about all these races they mentioned (China, Tanzania, Antarctica) another day…

I also got a free Gatorade! Boom! I love when I get free Gatorade, and if it happens, it’s usually at the race, but on expo day? Thank you so much Gatorade!

I also spent some time at the awesome booth for the San Diego Half Marathon at Petco Park. They gave me a free shirt, a discount code, and told me about their new race next year in Mammoth. They have a San Diego/Mammoth challenge thing in the same year coming up. Even though it’s too late to be a San Diego legacy runner (I was out of town during the race this (inaugural) year), I could be a challenge (and Mammoth) legacy.

I ran by the pacer booth and saw Darris (the race director of the Columbus half), so that was very fun.

I have to mention the cool thing the Modesto Marathon is doing. They put all the names of people who qualified for Boston (who’ve never been to the Boston Marathon and who registered saying they were going to try to qualify) in a hat after the race. They draw a name, and that person gets $1,000 so they can plan their trip to the Boston Marathon! So cool, right? Sign me up in uh, 5 or so years…

The point is, this expo rocked and I am unbelievably stoked for the race tomorrow!

(#42) Malibu International Half Marathon (November 11, 2012)

November 15, 2012

Surprisingly, I don’t have a ton to say about this one.

I got a bit lost on the way to this race, which really shouldn’t surprise anyone considering I have absolutely no sense of direction whatsoever.

However, I was not even close to being late to the race. I left very early knowing I’d get lost winding through mountains. I may have been late yesterday. And I may have been late last weekend (Aye, aye, aye.) But today, I was super early!

As I wound through the mountains in the morning, I saw a couple of lone houses and thought about how I would not enjoy living there whatsoever. It seemed so lonely and quiet. They might love it, but I’d go nuts.

Also, let’s take a little side break here to talk about Maroon 5’s new song – One More Night. And by “new,” I mean it came out in June and I heard it for the first time on this trip.

It is awesome! I’m obsessed with it. Maroon 5 is really an incredible band. They have a great, unique sound (or perhaps Adam Levine just has a unique voice). As soon as Adam Levine started singing, I knew it must be a Maroon 5 song. They have clever lyrics, and interesting song ideas. I enjoy them so much!

Getting to the race, I saw a lot more ING NYC marathoners today. There are out and about. They are running, and they are wearing their bibs!

Supathlon participants started with us today. I never knew that was a thing until today – and I’m still not positive it is a thing other than here. Apparently it’s a run followed by paddleboarding. Who would’ve known?

I met a few sweethearts at the race starting with Analisa on the shuttle bus. There was a fun group from Canada that I hung with at the start.

During the race, I’d walk with a group for a while, then jog ahead to the next walking group. It made for some varied conversations and fun times. The volunteers at the first water stop handed out leis. That was pretty fun.

In a lot of races, there will be something especially special in the final mile – more spectators, more decorations – just generally more. In this race, nothing felt different to me about the final mile. I started to think it might never end… but then it did! (Not that I don’t love half marathoning… but you know, cliffs, ocean, cliffs, ocean. I got the gist… ;))

I saw my good ol’ friend Endorphin Dude at the finish.

I also won a free marathon entry by spinning the wheel at Compete Green’s booth! I had actually won a free race entry by spinning the same wheel in December at a 5k, but wasn’t able to use it this year because it didn’t fit into my crazy half marathoning schedule. Now, I won all over again for next year. What are the chances of the happening?

I walked for 1,000 years (about .8 miles) back to the car. I was ready to jet back to the hotel since I wanted to soak up every bit of awesome hotel-ness before check-out. (Thank you so much, Quality Inn for my late check out. The Quality Inn Thousand Oaks rocks! (No one even paid me or gave me a discount or anything to say that!))

Then I saw these two women walking to their cars. (I think all of us underestimated how ginormous that parking lot was.)

I asked if they wanted a ride, and they took me up on my offer. They weren’t quite sure where their car was. (That sounds like a situation I could easily find myself in.)

We found it quite quickly, and I much preferred taking an extra 3 minutes to help some strangers than have 3 more minutes in my hotel bed. (In fact, I probably should’ve just driven people around that big, long parking lot until everyone had gotten back to their cars.)

I know I’m really harping on the parking lot here, but everyone walking to their cars seemed a bit tired. (I know I was…)

Once I got back to the hotel, I took a little dip in the hot tub and used my Malibu Marathon towel to dry off. They gave towels instead of t-shirts at this race.

Then I hung out at a Starbucks for a while, just enjoying the idea of being far away from home – even if I was only about an hour away. I liked the little escape.

By the way, small victory – I did that whole pre-buy the gas thing. As I was turning the corner to get to the rental car place, the gas light came on. Score!

That Time My Heart Broke. Literally. – Part 32 (The “Touching On the Scar and Going Home” Chapter)

November 14, 2012

A Scar, but not my scar. (Get it?) (Photo Credit: Disney) — A Scar, but not my scar. (Get it?)
(Photo Credit: Disney)

It’s Wednesday night , so the story continues.

Picking up from last week –

Let’s address the issue of the scar. I almost put up a picture here of my scar,

(Edited to add: Later, I did.)

but I thought that might be weird. You can see it sometimes in certain lower-cut outfits, but we won’t look at it on here today.

When I found out I’d be having open-heart surgery, my biggest concern was the scar. Forget “pump head,” micro air bubbles, and everything. Let’s worry about the way I look.

I love dancing! How am I going to ever be a Pacemate if I have a scar up to my neck?

If you do a quick search for open-heart surgery scars on the internet, you can find plenty! Some look okay. Some look not as okay. I spent way too much time looking at them before my surgery.

I was extremely lucky in that I had a doctor who gave me what is the smallest scar I could imagine. I still have a scar, which, of course, sucks. But, it’s quite small in terms of open heart surgery scars.

It’s weird that I can feel the place where my sternum was cracked. I remember not too terribly long after I’d healed, I put my hand on a friend’s chest while telling him something, and I felt what a normal sternum felt like. It’d already forgotten.

I don’t go around feeling my own (or other people’s) sternum all day. But once you have a weird feeling sternum, it’s something you notice. Isn’t it weird how stuff works like that – people becoming keenly aware of normal things once their normal thing is different.

Of course, at this point in the hosptial, I wasn’t yet feeling or seeing the scar as it was bandaged up pretty well.

My doctors were sweet and kind. All the various doctors who’d been on my case at Mass General came to check on me at one point or another. Dr. Vlahakes, my surgeon, said the surgery went brilliantly. I easily came off the bypass machine. I didn’t need any blood transfusions. Everything went great.

I got better and stronger as the week went on. One week from my surgery I was discharged.

Stephen came to get me. (He had just gotten back from Greece.) I refused to take a wheelchair downstairs. I remember being slightly more energetic than usual. I think I may have been slightly overdoing it in the “look how healthy and sprightly I am!” show – not in any way that exhausted or injured me. Just in the way that I wouldn’t have wanted to be around me.

“I get it. You don’t need a wheelchair. Quite scurrying down the halls and bouncing off the walls. Just be a calm adult and get in the elevator.” That’s what I would’ve told myself. But Stephen just smiled and said you couldn’t even tell I’d had had surgery.

Boom. You know it!

He drove me home and asked if I needed anything at all. I didn’t. I’d set myself up very well for my return (pats self on back).

You’d think I might be bored – coming from the busy world of the hospital with the constant chatter and machines beeping, the bright lights, and the general hustle and bustle to the boring little (lovely) apartment that was my home.

I didn’t have time to get bored yet, I had guitars to record for my soundalike project.

This is where I’ll pick up next week.

(#41B) Santa Barbara International Half Marathon (November 10, 2012) – Part 2 (Music and Finishing)

November 13, 2012

Picking up from yesterday –

One thing that was fun about this race was that there was some random music along the way. There was a sort of low-key jamboree thing going one and a drum circle type thing at one point. It was the most interesting, eclectic collection of bands I’d seen yet.

The volunteers hanging out at mile nine were awesome. Once I made it there, they said in unison, “Welcome to Mile 9!” They made it seem really cool to be there.

One interesting thing about this race was that there were a lot of runners who planned on doing the ING NYC marathon. I saw people wearing their NYC bibs on their back, their NYC gear, etc.

We could talk forever about this year’s ING NYC marathon. (In case someone is reading this way in the future and doesn’t remember what happened this year – there was a huge hurricane in New York that hit Monday of race week. Mayor Bloomberg said the race would go on all the way until Friday of race weekend. Then he/NYRR pulled the plug. Everyone was up in arms. (Some were mad about the race being cancelled so last minute. Some were mad that it took so longer – no matter what people were mad about, very few people were happy about it.)

There have been many debates over everything about this year’s ING NYC marathon. I joined some of them (but haven’t opened one up on my blog). I may or may not do a post about it. I was going to while the race was still happening, then everything changed. So, I don’t know. I think we’re all done talking about it. Therefore, I most likely will not do a post. But you never know.)

The point is, I was happy to see the NYC runners doing a race – even if it wasn’t the one they’d been planning on. (Many races offered discounts to runners who’d been denied the race. This race offered 300 steeply discounted entries.)

Moving on… to my feet – I’m sure a riveting topic you’re all on the edge of your seats about – I got a new pair of Brooks Dyads. I broke them in a bit, but really not enough to do an entire race in them. I went back and forth for a bit, arguing with myself – “They’re really just not broken in enough. You will regret this.” “But they’re so comfy and new! I’ll be fine.” Sure enough, they, in fact, were not broken in enough – just as the rational part of me knew.

I was having a rough time in the last few miles, getting blisters and all that jazz. (Ew.)

One thing that was different about this race that I may have forgotten to mention earlier – they didn’t give any bags (for bag check). Environmentally conscious? Nuisance? I don’t know how to feel about it… All I know was I didn’t have a bag and I didn’t bring one for bag check. That’s why I’m holding keys and water in my photos.

Going toward the finish line was hilarious. I kept waiting and waiting to be done. (My feet were hurting (which was completely my own fault, but didn’t make it any less true).) I finally got to a point where speakers blared out “Welcome to the Jungle.” Home stretch!

Psych.

Usually when you’ve been going for a while and you hear the blaring music, you’re almost done. But here, the music faded and there was more quiet before I hit the actual end music. There was also this little maze toward the end that I was pretty sure was going to last forever. However, alas, eventually I hit the finish line.

Not only did I get my half marathon medal, I got a large medal for the end of the Southern California Half Marathon Series. I know I was back and forth on whether I was going to do that series. But I will say, that medal is pretty dope – and a lot nicer (and larger) than I thought it would be.

I hopped on a shuttle, went back to the car, and started to drive toward Malibu. I realized I was incredibly tired, parked in a shaded parking lot, napped for an hour or so – then off to Malibu I went!

I’ll tell you about that race next!

(#41B) Santa Barbara International Half Marathon (November 10, 2012) – Part 1 (Morning Bus Rides & Funny Signs)

November 12, 2012

crowded shuttle bus on the way to the Santa Barbara International Half Marathon Another series down; another race down!

Our shuttle bus was a party. We were mainly sitting three to a seat, with some people on other people’s laps. People who were ready to board a shuttle around 5:45am still weren’t at the race for a 7:15 start. There were very few buses and many, many people.

They held the start for 15 minutes. My shuttle didn’t get there until somewhere around 7:40 – and I still had to get my bib. Yet again (just like last week), I was late – even though I was way early.

I got into Santa Barbara at 5:15. (I also ended up on a shuttle that took me to a second shuttle spot instead of the race start (even though the instructions said it would take people to the race). So, by the time I got to the second shuttle stop, the line was humongous.)

On my bus, everyone kept wondering – “They’ve started without us, haven’t they?” “I bet they already started,” until one girl said “There are people running – at which point there was a collective sigh.

Basically, the morning was a bit of a mess. At least this time I don’t feel responsible. I got there super early, followed instructions, and still ended up late.

This time it also was a much smaller deal, ’cause here, there were tons and tons of people who were late. I wasn’t even the latest. When I was already on the course, I saw a big group of people booking it to the start – from the opposite direction I was going.

Can you imagine having to jog part of the course in the opposite way and see all these people making progress – knowing you are just getting to the start line?

Not only had the shuttle been quite late for them, at that point, I guess it couldn’t get past certain road barricades that had been put into effect.

I didn’t actually have any strong feelings about all this. Some people were annoyed. I was mildly annoyed about standing around waiting for the bus for a such a long time ’cause it was sort of chilly in the morning. But it’s California. Honestly, how chilly does it really get?

Beware of people riding horses — Look out for people riding horses? I’ve never seen this sign before…

Anyway, getting to the actual racing stuff – to me, this marathon was the marathon of signs. There were interesting signs I’d never seen before and a new funny one.

Someone had a sign that just said “Encouraging words,” which I thought was really funny.

One person was holding a sign that was just a big smiley face – and he had a huge smile himself the whole time.

(My favorite new funny sign is the last one in this post.)

There were some motivational signs such as one that said “Be the good in the world.” (That one was from the Gwendolyn Strong foundation.) I had never heard of the gsf foundation until that race, at which point I heard about it hardcore.

It seemed as though every person I saw was wearing a shirt running for the gsf. (The foundation increases awareness of Spinal Muscular Atrophy and searches for a cure.) They were out in full force and absolutely could not be ignored. Their motto and branding and everything is burned in my brain forever.

Paul Ryan's funny marathon sign — You can find out your best time according to Paul Ryan here: http://www.PaulRyanTimeCalculator.com/

The volunteers and spectators at this race were really good about cheering for you by name (which is on your bib). That’s always one of my very favorite things about running Indiana – you hear your name about 40,000 times and feel super special. We were all rockstars at this race as well. (Yay!)

One thing that was weird about the aid stations here was that there weren’t any until after we hit mile 3. Then they were everywhere! (By everywhere I mean every single other mile.)

I didn’t mind. I’m just a bit curious why it was laid out that way. I heard some of the people who started in a rush (late) talking about a wish for water, but we all got plenty by the end.

This was the first time I’d done a half marathon where the marathoners do the entire second half of their race on the half marathon course.

On one hand, it’s sort of cool. You got to see the 1st place male and female go by. You get to see everyone go by. You see the story of the marathon as it unfolds. But you also feel even slower than usual. (By “you” in those sentences, I mean me. Actual you might very well be a lot faster than I am.)

I’ll pick up here tomorrow.

(#41A) Lady Speed Stick Women’s Half Marathon AZ (Nov. 4, 2012) – Part 5 (The Actual Race Post)

November 11, 2012

Now that the crazy part of the story is over, let’s talk about the actual race.

Once I got into the race, it was really fun. The spectators for this race were so joyous, silly, encouraging, and wonderful.

I’d heard from one of my friends that the only all-women race she’d done had a really uplifting vibe that was hard to describe, and it was hard to put her finger on as to why it was so different from a normal race.

I was a bit skeptical. Racers and spectators are always awesome. How will this one be any different with mostly women? (It wasn’t quite all women. I think there were fifty-ish men in a crowd of over 3,000 women.)

But for some reason it did feel a little different, a little sweeter, a little happier. Not to fall into gender stereotypes or anything… it just was it was, and that was my experience.

Another cool thing that I noticed here was that there were people from the medical staff just out walking/running around – looking around, checking on people throughout the race. You didn’t necessarily have to wait until you got to a tent if you were out. They were out and about – offering water to anyone who looked dehydrated, trying to proactively help anyone they could.

I also loved that for the first time I can remember this year, I heard the Macarena on the course, and saw spectators doing the dance. It was pretty awesome.

Also, just a general note. I like the Phoenix area. It’s hot and sunny, of course, which is not my favorite, but the air seems so much nicer than the air on Los Angeles. It’s really pretty over there, and I just get a generally nice vibe from the Phoenix area. I like it.

After the race, there’s a Charm Transfer Station where people will help you take the charm out of the middle of your medal and put it on a necklace or bracelet if you want.

I was treated like an absolute queen at this event, and they gave me a free bracelet (Thank you!) ‘cause they liked my whole 52 in 52 deal!

I wasn’t completely sure how I’d feel about the idea of turning a medal into jewelry. It sounded pretty cool, but I wanted to wear it to see how I’d feel about it.

Now I can say I think it’s a pretty awesome idea. I think it’s fun to wear a piece of your medal around in day-to-day life – especially if this was someone’s very first half marathon (or maybe a PR), it’d be pretty cool. You get to have a little reminder on you all day of “look what I accomplished.”

(Of course, I kind of made a mess out of this race… But it’s still a very neat idea that I think is very cool.)

For me personally – oh my goodness, not even to bring it back to this, right? But, I’ve never been one to wear jewelry. When something is put around my wrist, I have a small flashback to wearing my hospital bracelets (‘cause there was a time when I was wearing them all the time). I am sure there will come a point in my life when I don’t have a tiny moment that thinks about hospital bracelets anytime I put on a bracelet – but that time hasn’t come yet.

I don’t live in that old world of the hospital. I don’t think about it all the time, but I do have small moments that catapult me back to some other moment from that time. Having something put on my wrist was one of those small moments.

I think it’s nice to be able to put something saying “Yeah, what up, world?” (It doesn’t literally say that) in the same spot that used to sport a sign of weakness.

So, there you have it. The Women’s Half Marathon. Truthfully, I loved it. I loved the vibe. I love the sweet medals and jewelry. I love the kind staff, the lovely runners. I love it all. I wish I wouldn’t have made a bit of a mess of my morning, but it is for sure a race I’d do again.

(#41A) Lady Speed Stick Women’s Half Marathon AZ (Nov. 4, 2012) – Part 4 (The Morning Craziness, Pt. 4 – The Surprisingly Welcome Attitude of Those Around Me)

November 10, 2012

Last time, I had entered the race from a cab and tried to explain what was going on to the runners around me.

Surprisingly, instead of being frustrated or yelling about how I just should’ve gone home, the runners welcomed me with open arms. They seemed even more bummed about my morning than I was!

A woman named Mary even gave me a pack of energy chews that she’d brought specifically for sharing with other runners. (I’d been smart enough to set out food and water the night before, but didn’t get the chance to eat it in the crazy events of the morning.)

I found out after the race that I was not alone. Other people had been messed up by daylight savings. I still felt like a chump, but a bit less of one.

Funnily, one of the race staffers apologized to me for not putting warnings on all the materials that Arizona does not partake in daylight savings.

It’s my fault I didn’t set my phone right and make back-up wake-up plans, but it was adorable of them to reach out and grab some of that blame off my shoulder. (Although appreciated, it certainly was not necessary. In my book, blame on Women’s Half Marathon = 0%.)

I talked to the timing company after the race. They agreed to go ahead and list me with the finishers. I asked that they give me a 7am starting time (instead of after 7:30 when I did) to add more time to finisher’s time, helping to make up (at least records-wise) those miles I accidentally missed. They went ahead and did that.

The policy of Competitor Group (the company putting on this race) for runners who fall behind is to put them in the sag wagon and bring them forward to a later mile, allowing them to continue on.

So, as far as whether I was cheating their specific system, I wasn’t really since they allow people to cut out miles when they won’t make it otherwise. They give them medals. They list them as finishers. So, I’m in line with what the company allows.

Ethically, I’m sure we could all come up with different points about why what I did was okay or not okay. But, I did it. I had an amazing time at the race once I actually got in it!

I look forward to telling you about that wonderful time tomorrow.

(#41A) Lady Speed Stick Women’s Half Marathon AZ (Nov. 4, 2012) – Part 3 (The Morning Craziness, Pt. 3 – So, Then I Get a Cab Involved?)

November 9, 2012

Picking up from last time –

At this point, I know there is no way that I’m going to be able to jog back the 2 1/2 miles, and get back on the course, and catch up and finish before the time limit. Unfortunately, I’m not that fast (yet).

I called a cab to take me to somewhere around mile marker 4.

I wait about 10 or so minutes for the cab. Then, we end up going the wrong way twice (and not realizing for a bit each time). I guess he’s new to Arizona. I certainly didn’t know the city at all. He was an incredibly sweet man, but we were a mess trying to figure out where we were going.

We realize that the mile marker we’re hoping to see is on a path where cars can’t go. Also, by this time between the waiting and the driving, we’ve wasted all the time I made up and then some.

I desperately don’t want to cheat. I also don’t want to just give up, go back to the hotel, and spend a billion dollars on cabs this morning for nothing. I ask him to go ahead and take me to mile marker 5 (which we believe is a place a car can go). I’ll try to make up the missing distance by running some circles later on, or figuring it out somehow. At least I’ll be on the path (know where I’m going) and have water, Gatorade, and such.

Well, the next place we end up finding that has runners is toward the end of mile 6! Rargh, rargh, rargh.

I want so badly to try to go back farther, but we both (the cab drive and I) have apparently no clue where we are ever, a bunch of roads around us are closed, and quite frankly, I’m out of cash. I only grabbed so much as I was running out the door. I didn’t expect the morning ride to cost $43 (gulp), or tow have a second ride in the middle of the race.

At that point, I didn’t feel as though I had tons of options. I struggled with whether I should jump in or call it a day and leave the race area.

Even though I knew I would not be counting this as an official half for myself, I wanted to experience this race. I wanted to know if it was one I’d like to do in the future.

I jumped out of the cab and started running.

As I came into the race, I definitely felt the glares. I don’t blame the runners giving them to me. They were working hard, and some girl jumps from a cab onto the course?

I explained what was going on to the people immediately around me, so I could try to release some tension from my area.

How did that go over? Find out tomorrow.

(#41A) Lady Speed Stick Women’s Half Marathon AZ (Nov. 4, 2012) – Part 2 (The Morning Craziness, Pt. 2 – And Then I Got Lost, Of Course)

November 8, 2012

Picking up from last time –

So, I start running with no one else around. I get to the intersection. I realize I have no idea where I’m going. The race as been extremely efficient at cleaning up immediately after the last runner. There are no marking anywhere as to where to go. I jog back down towards where I came and yell to the clean up crew, “Do you have any idea where I go.” The person closest to me gives me the “I have no idea” shrug.

I call my dad to see if he can give me directions. Then I realize I’m on an iPhone. I hang up the phone and pull up the map from the website. Turns out, I already started running the wrong way through the start.

Yep, this is going brilliantly so far.

I run the opposite direction, through the start again and follow the map.

I’m pushing myself, trying to catch up to anyone. I just want to see the last place person, but I know that starting over half an hour late, I won’t see anyone until probably somewhere in mile 4 at the earliest. (It’s more probable to happen in mile 5 or 6.)

I don’t listen to music for the first mile and a half. I have way too many thoughts chattering in my head, and I’m too nervous about this whole trying-to-find-the-last-runners-thing to listen to any music.

Another runner with a bib blows past me. Okay, at least I’m not alone in my situation, and I’m probably still going the right way. Cool.

I saw the first mile marker, and was reassured that I was in fact going the right direction. I looked down at my phone. 12-minute mile. Not too shabby. The time limit has 20 minute miles. I’m 8 minutes closer to catching up with anyone going that speed.

I speed up a little in my second mile. I don’t want to go nuts (for me – I know 11 minute-miles are nothing for many people). Even if I tire myself out now, I’ll be able to make 20-minute-miles happen.

I make a turn onto a street where I’ll just jog on down that same street for the next while. On the one hand, this is a pretty big relief because I am awful (absolutely terrible) with directions and reading maps, so I’m excited not to have to turn for a while.

On the other, this is nerve-wracking because I might not realize I’m going the wrong way for a long while if the next street I’m looking for doesn’t show up for two miles.

I run along, looking for people to hopefully verify that I’m going toward McDowell. It’s a Sunday morning, so not many people are out and about. I just keep jogging, pretty sure that I’ve diligently followed the map. (I sort of tried to check it out using my GPS, but just got nervous about spending too much time figuring it out. I decided to trust that I’d read the map correctly and jog it on out.

One I was pretty sure that a mile had gone by, I was kind of disheartened that I didn’t see a mile marker 2. I chalked it up to the fact that the clean-up crew was working really hard. From the start there had been very few cones or signs that a race had taken place that morning. It made sense that mile marker 2 would not be there.

Keep jogging.

Third mile marker is nowhere to be found. After I’d done about 2 1/2 miles, I started to get really nervous that I didn’t see the next street to turn on – and I found a human being! She said I was definitely going the wrong way.

Of course.

This is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

That Time My Heart Broke. Literally. – Part 31 (The Time in the Hospital After Open-Heart Surgery Chapter)

November 7, 2012

Aurora De Lucia immediately after having open-heart surgery — I had the presence of mind to think “you may want one picture of this in the future to remember it.” If only I’d known I’d be writing a freaking novel, I’d have thought to take more! (Sorry.) Here’s the one I’ve got!

It’s Wednesday night , so the story continues.

Picking up from last week –

Eventually, they took me off of my morphine drip. This was pretty much the saddest thing ever. But, i guess eventually you have to start becoming a fully functioning human again.

Speaking of becoming human, they started taking tubes and wires out throughout the week. I don’t know exactly what everything did, but you balloon up a good number of pounds afterward ’cause your body has extra – I don’t even know – in it. Whatever it is, it all gets drained out.

Once the drains and IVs and temporary pacemaker wires were no longer needed, we got rid of them. What I’m saying it, I’m no longer part machine. Wah wah.

I got to start breathing into this little… it almost seemed like a toy, but it was a little blue thing you got to blow into to raise a little ball thing. It would measure how well your lungs were doing.

You had to do three things before you were allowed to leave the hospital – walk up a flight of stairs, take a poo, and… I forget the third thing! I think it may have been to sit completely upright? I don’t remember. Maybe you do if you have open heart surgery.

But how funny is it to look back on that time and remember that week’s goals? When was the last time people cheered you on for walking and taking a poo? We’re like little toddlers in there.

I think I was pushed a little harder than some ’cause I was “young” (which is a relative term – we’re all old to someone and young to someone else). Some of the nurses seemed to want me to get up and start walking around very soon after surgery.

I know you all are on my side and looking out for me, but cut a girl a break! My sternum hurts. I appreciated the “tough love” nurses during the day. But there was a nurse at night who was very patient and sweet (and even gave little back massages!).

I remember when the night nurse took me to the stairs to make sure I could climb a flight. I went up slowly at first, thinking a “flight” meant all the way to the next floor. I want to run, but thought I’d ease in, seeing what I was capable of. I wanted to run for it once I got to the landing!

Turns out the landing was as far as I had to go. And she didn’t want to let me run up stairs. Boring. (She said she had enough adventure in her life as is.)

Nurses got me moving more and more each day. Walking was measured in how many times you could walk around the floor (a pretty small floor) – odd for someone who used to measure her distance in miles.

– – – – – – –

While we’re speaking of the hospital, let me jump back for a second to previous visits. I forgot to mention this when I was in the hospital for my blood clots and such. One of my great friends from high school who was living in Boston at the time asked if I wanted to hang out. I was all, “yeah, but I’m kind of trapped in the hospital.”

There was some weird little window where I was healthy enough to be allowed to go to the cafeteria on my own and drink some milk with my friend, but not healthy enough to be discharged. It was also a weird window in that I was all “sure, bring me a visitor!” when oftentimes I didn’t want them. (It helps that I went to high school with her. I have an extremely tight knit bond with my high school buds. We’d walk through fire for each other.)

It was actually super fun to see my friend and to have a little in-hospital adventure. It felt like I was some kind of explorer/adventurer to get to go off my floor and into the uncharted territory of… the lobby!

– – – – – – –

Back to open-heart surgery week – well, we’ll pick up here next week.

(#41A) Lady Speed Stick Women’s Half Marathon AZ (Nov. 4, 2012) – Part 1 (The Morning Craziness, Pt. 1 – Aye, Aye, Aye Daylight Saving)

November 6, 2012

Why is this race 41A instead of plain ol’ 41? A few miles got cut out of my route (you’ll see why), so I won’t officially count this one in my challenge, but I still wanted to tell you about it. (It’s a great race I’d recommend/do again).

I was staying at a hotel very close to the finish line. There were free shuttles run by the race from the finish to the start. (This was a point to point race.) My shuttle was going to leave at 6:30.

I woke up around 5:45. I called down to the front desk asking for a cab at 6. Then I started brushing my teeth, putting on sunscreen – generally getting ready for the morning.

My dad called around 5:55 to say good morning and see what’s up.
Daddy: So, what time does your race start?

Aurora: 7.

Daddy: 5 minutes from now?

Aurora: An hour and 5 minutes from now.

Daddy: You’re in Arizona, right?

Aurora: Yes.

Daddy: They don’t have daylight savings in Arizona.

Aurora: I know. My phone says it’s almost 6. It shouldn’t have changed. I called down to the front desk and said I wanted a cab at 6. He didn’t say anything about it…

Daddy: Huh. Well, if he didn’t say anything about it, maybe it is 6 out there.

Aurora: But you’re really making me nervous now.

Daddy: Well, just call the front desk and call me back.

I got off the phone with dad, googled “What time is it in Arizona?” Sure enough, it was almost 7! The cab called and said they were there. I grabbed my bib and safety pins, and ran out the door.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
(You can skip this side note if you want to keep the flow of the story…)

Side note: I knew it was the night of daylight savings and that Arizona did not partake, and I was worried about this very thing happening. So, I thought I had set my settings on my phone to make it so that it would not adjust for daylight savings. I did not do that correctly.

Also, I tried to get a wake-up call, but the hotel I was staying with was under renovation. There was only one person on staff and he was being run ragged with people who needed him because various things weren’t working. I eventually gave up trying to get my wake-up call. I don’t blame him. He was working hard. And I had his attention when I checked in and should’ve had the foresight to do it right then.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

iPhone Set date time — Apparently, even if “set automatically” is off, it will follow your time zone listed on your phone…

I told my cab driver that I needed to get to the start line and gave her the map that I had. We –

A) got a little lost.
B) Got a little diverted because of closed streets.

I ended up getting to the start at 7:30(!)

The timing mat had been taken up. There were a group of runners there who, I think, were in the same boat. They said there were going to drive and catch up and asked if I wanted a ride. I said thanks, but politely declined. I wanted to start from the beginning and catch up on foot.

I started asking around at the start line if someone could just write what time I started so that I could still get counted as an official finisher.

Everyone there said they weren’t a race official or someone with the timing company. So, I just looked at one guy and said, “What’s your name?” He said, “Ryan.” I said, “Okay Ryan. When I talk to the timing company at the end to try to get an official time, I’m gonna let them know that you were a witness to my start.” He said okay.

So, I start running.

This is where I’ll pick up Thursday.

Lady Speed Stick Women’s Half Marathon Expo

November 4, 2012

Luna Crew silly faces — Me and the Luna bar crew! – Heather, Laurel, Dalton, Joscelyn, and Rebecca. I loved this booth!

So sorry to bombard y’all in a night. But as I was cleaning up the blog and preparing for the weekend, I realized I had a big gaping hole I had left for this expo. So, here’s that post!

We hit this expo fast and furious!

Right after the Really Big Free Half Marathon, Wendy, Marty, and I jumped in the RV and Marty drove us all to this expo. (They brought snacks. Yum yum. Wendy makes delicious (vegan) cookies.)

We got to the expo towards the tail end, but we had enough time to make the rounds.

First off, I was in love with the Luna Bar booth. They had delicious samples everywhere. And, if you could guess their new flavor (after a taste), they’d give you a free bar!

I don’t have the best sense of taste since I can’t really smell. However, I do have a great sense of sight. All you had to get was one ingredient correct and I could see the peanut butter chips on the bar. Ba-bam.

The awesome people at Luna Bar were so sweet, and so pumped about my 52 half marathons in 52 weeks – not only did they give me a free bar, they gave me a free box of bars! I opted for the new chocolate cherry almond ones. Yum, yum, yum.

luna red eye — Sad we have super red eye in this picture, ’cause I’m thinking apart from that there is some cuteness buried in this photo.

I also stopped by the information booth to see if they had any fun secrets. There weren’t any secrets (at least none that I can tell you). Seriously though, there were no secrets. I just wanted to sound cool.

There may not have been any secrets, there were two super sweet women working the information booth. Ellen and I became fast friends. She’s pretty much one of the most adorable people on the planet. (Sage was great as well if you’re wondering about the second woman.)

I loved the vibe of this expo. It was very sweet, kind, and friendly.

It already feels a bit different from a normal race. I don’t want to stereotype women or anything by saying this group is sweeter than a normal group. But there was just a vibe in the room – a nice vibe.

I bet it carries over to the race. We shall see tomorrow.

(Since this is an old blog post that I’m making up, you already know it does in fact carry over.)

(#40) Really Big Free Half Marathon Las Vegas

November 3, 2012

The term “Las Vegas” is used very loosely here.

This race was much farther into Henderson, NV than I’d originally expected. I once worked a show that taped around Vegas and the whole crew stayed in Henderson for a month. So, I knew generally the distance from Henderson to Vegas.

Well, the course map kept changing, and it turned out the race was in a National Park in Lake Mead at Boulder Beach. We passed the old hotel I used to call home for a month (shout out to the Fiesta Henderson!) WAY before we were even close to the race.

I hadn’t planned too much about this race ahead of time. (Sometimes races fall through the cracks a bit as I worry about other races.)

On the Greyhound bus on the way to Vegas, I was checking the website and Facebook to get more info on where I needed to go. I found out how super far away it was, and luckily I was not the only one figuring out travel plans semi-last minute. A bunch of people were talking about travel from Vegas, so I commented on a bunch of posts asking to carpool. I thought it might be too late for anyone to read my pleas, but it didn’t hurt to put them out there.

Sure enough, I actually had three different people call or text to offer me rides in the morning! How incredibly sweet, right?

I rode out there with George and Brenda. They were unbelievably cool and super fun, which made the long drive quite enjoyable.

I ended up walking the race with Penny and Jim. They’ve been married for almost 30 years! They were also crazy fun, and Penny was absolutely hilarious. The race itself was pretty quiet. Hills, hills, hills. Desert, desert, desert. Quiet, quiet, quiet. Until, at one point, we came out from underneath an overpass and there were people on top of the overpass cheering. That was pretty cool.

One of the few spectators in the race stood handing out tissues to people. Apparently a bunch of people feel the need to blow their nose during a race, because I hear people talk about it all the time. And as everyone ran or walked past her, they were saying thank you effusively. People were yelling that she was brilliant. She kind of seemed like the hit of the race.

Once we reached the turnaround, there was a water stop for the full marathoners at the top of the hill past our turnaround. We could see water, but couldn’t go get it unless we wanted to climb yet another hill and add more distance.

Hey, half marathoners… You thirsty? Oh, well, up ahead there’s some – psych!

Speaking of drinking stuff, there were different flavors of Gatorade throughout the course. As a walker, this didn’t bother me too much. But, usually you’re supposed to pick one, tell people what it’s going to be, and allow them to train with it so their body is used to it.

As the day wore on and the sun came out, Penny whipped out sunscreen and shared! It was brilliant of her to bring it along for the ride on a hot day through the desert.

Toward the finish, some girls who we’d been leapfrogging with throughout the race started jogging, passed us, then started walking again. Penny started hilariously grumbling about it, said she thought we could catch them. I agreed. I made a run for it as did Penny and Jim. The girls saw us as we were passing them and picked up the pace as well. My hat flew off in the commotion. (I got it after the finish.)

Sure enough, I crossed the finish line before those girls! Team Penny/Jim/Aurora for the win!

Then I jumped in Wendy and Marty’s RV (yes, the Wendy and Marty of my blog fame – okay, way, way more of their own fame. Anyway, the super sweet sweethearts drove me to Arizona so Wendy and I could get our packets for the next day’s race.

As far as the Really Big Free event goes, I don’t have any strong opinions. Some people said there were 10 safety violations. (That’s just a rumor. I haven’t verified anything. Anyone know anything about that?) Some people loved the race. Some people hated it. I had a lovely 13 miles walk with Jim and Penny.

On to Arizona!

That Time My Heart Broke. Literally. – Part 30 (The Open-Heart Surgery Chapter)

October 31, 2012

An idea of what I was like after open heart surgery - half woman, half machine. — An idea of what I was like after open heart surgery – half woman, half machine.

It’s Wednesday night , so the story continues.

Picking up from last week –

I changed into a hospital gown, and gave all my stuff to hospital personnel.

I think I had to sign yet another “you may die from this form.” Yep. You might die from anything. We’re good here.

I don’t have anything to say from when I was put under and when I woke up.

Waking up after surgery is weird, right? It’s weird when you wake up and have all these wires and drains sticking out of you. After open-heart surgery, I feel like you’re part-machine, part-human for a bit.

That was something that stood out to me in this little pre-surgery pamphlet they give you – the list of all the millions of things coming out of your body – tubes, wires. (Stiffens hands and arms and starts doing robot moves for you.)

So, I woke up as a bionic woman. I slept a lot in the first day.

Then, I got hooked up to my own morphine machine. I got to control how much medicine I got. I kept that sucker at the max all the time.

Until…

(dum dum dum – scary chords) Wednesday.

Before Wednesday, I was almost lying completely flat in the bed. I don’t know what it was about my stomach – if one of my many new contraptions was coming out of it or what, but it hurt like heck to sit up. That was no doubt the most painful part. I wanted to constantly be flat. Alas, the nurses would not allow that to continue forever.

This is the third and final time I cried in the hospital – the only time I cried from physical pain at Mass Gen. The nurse making me sit up didn’t seem to be too empathetic. “You have a morphine drip.” There is not enough morphine in the world! Though I did just keep pressing the morphine button until I fell asleep.

Speaking of pain, my sternum, baby. My sternum. Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch.

I never realized how much sternums are used until mine was cracked open. When you sneeze, you sort of, a little, are pretty sure you’re gonna die.

Don’t let anyone tell you anything funny while you’re recovering. Laughter hurts just as much.

I didn’t have any visitors, and I was extremely grateful for that. I would’ve been the most uninteresting person in the world. I slept a lot, and that was pretty much the extent of it.

Even though I didn’t have anyone physically there, I of course checked in with my dad by phone. (I really, really appreciated he restraint on respecting what I wanted and not coming to Boston. I love him to pieces, but he can’t put his life on hold for his adult daughter. (Plus, I was oh so tired. I don’t know how I could’ve had the energy to be around more people.))

(I, of course, talked to my high school theater teacher. She’s kind of my rock…)

And I Skyped with Stephen. He was in Greece at the time, which is, I’m sure, why he wasn’t busting in the hospital room, trying to show me how I needed visitors after all. Though, I will say, when he was there in person (in previous hospital stays) – he came bearing gifts of delicious, amazing food.

I so appreciated the McDonald’s and Ben and Jerry’s he had brought in the past. Yum. Of course, I wasn’t super hungry most of the time after open-heart surgery anyway. This time around, I wasn’t missing much.

So, I spent about a week in the hospital. I’ll talk a little more about that, the scar, and more in future posts (including next week‘s).

(#39) Rock ‘n’ Roll Los Angeles – Part 2 (Other Great Things About The Race)

October 30, 2012

Picking up from yesterday –

One thing the people of this race did that was absolutely genius was wear signs that said the flavor of Gu they were giving out. No runners/walkers were confused. It was right there in plain (neon) sight.

Another genius things? They had signs for the smile zone!

I don’t know about you, but I (and usually the people I’m with), like to ham it up for the cameras and try to look like we’re either super fun, super fast, or both.

When someone sees a photographer, they’ll yell out something along the lines of “Photographer to your left coming up!” Everyone will know to speed up and smile (or get their intense look on).

But sometimes you miss the photographers, and by the time they’ve caught your eye, they’ve also caught you sauntering (or worse – checking your phone).

In this race, there were big signs that said, “Smile zone ahead! Get ready to smile!” (There weren’t signs at each point, but even signs at one were a pleasant surprise.)

One insanely exciting thing about this race was that I knew where we were. I am horrendous with directions. I never study course maps. But this was my backyard! Once we turned onto Flower St. – I knew what that meant! I said, “We’re on Flower,” and that actually meant something! I had a great grasp of how much we had left to do for the entire final mile. Yay! (Still can’t get over it, in case you can’t tell.)

At the end of the race, I took about 10 steps and I was home. I decided just to hang out outside and cheer for a bit.

It was so awesomely emotional to cheer for people in their final .05 miles of their half marathon.

This one girl (Brooke) came walking in. As I was saying, “Great job! Look at what you are accomplishing,” I noticed she was crying. I asked if it was her first half marathon. Brooke said yes. I said, “You are one minute away from becoming a half-marathoner.” She started crying harder. Then I started crying. It was so emotional! She was so proud and empowered to be a half-marathoner! Amazing.

Lots of people kept asking, “Is that really the finish? Is that banner really the end?” I thought it was hilarious how often I heard that question. It was awesome to be able to say, “Yes! Look. It’s right there. Seriously. I promise you that’s the end! You are doing this!”

As long as I live in my apartment, I cannot imagine a year in which I don’t do this race again. Be awakened at 6:30am to blaring music outside your window that does not stop for the next 4 1/2 hours, or go run with thousands of your closest friends? The choice seems incredibly clear to me!

See you next year, Rock ‘n’ Roll LA!

(#39) Rock ‘n’ Roll Los Angeles – Part 1 (Fun Strangers, Fun Race)

October 29, 2012

What a difference a day makes!

I was all rargh, rargh, rargh about that race I did yesterday, but this one was super fun.

First off, the start does not get better than this. It took me about one minute to get to the start line from my apartment. This is the way to do it! Roll out of bed and cross the street.

Within the first mile, I met these three guys that I stayed with for basically the rest of the race.

Bill, Tom, and Paul kept me company and kept me at a nice walking pace.

They were all lawyers (or retired lawyers), and they’d all been married for decades! What do you think are the chances of finding three men (in Southern California!) who’ve all been married for decades? I’m thinking it was more likely that I’d win the lottery or get hit by lightning, so congratulations to those families.

Two of them had four kids, and Tom had two. (Two of them had very nice, fun sounding boys around my age… I’m still waiting for my phone to ring. ;))

Bill had three grandchildren! Can you even believe it? You could make a city out of just the families of those three men – so many kids and grandkids. And I believe that Tom said he had five siblings. What?

Enough about the family trees of strangers.

The point is, the three musketeers kept me on my toes through the whole race, and I was led to a time about 5 minutes faster than yesterday!

Bill – the one with grandchildren, mine you – was kicking butt and taking names. Can we all agree to be incredibly proud of/inspired by him?

I was pumped from the moment I got to the start of this race. I was able to get a fair amount of sleep, and I love those huge races with thousands of people. That’s my scene – not small, not scenic. I like the big parties.

The music, the stage, the multiple starts (one for each corral) – they all just made the race more and more exciting.

One thing I’ve noticed about myself during races that I think is mildly funny, is that sometimes when songs play that sort of annoy me on the radio (due to being overplayed or other reasons) (eg. Gangnam Style), I will love it if it plays anytime after about mile 8. I’ll be dancing around and singing along. If you saw me at any other time, you’d be all, “You don’t even like this song!”

Well, when the energy is up, and endorphins are flying, I do love it. I love them all!

I loved the number of MJ songs that were played during this race (which are, of course, songs I love 24/7 no matter where I am).

There were a number of celebrities running the race – which of course I didn’t find out about until I got home.

Apparently Will Ferrell ran with the Ron Burgundy facial hair.

I have a few other thoughts about the day. I’ll pick up with them tomorrow.

(#38) Healdsburg Wine Country Half Marathon – Part 2 (The Good Stuff Outside Of The Rarghness)

October 28, 2012

Yesterday, I wrote about the miserable part of the race.

Today, let’s focus on all the fun, wonderful stuff surrounding the bad stuff.

I got into Healdsburg around 3am. I walked around the Hyatt lobby (where the shuttle was going to pick everyone up) until I found a chair that seemed kind of out of the way.

I fell asleep assuming no one would notice me, until I woke up to the sound of people talking about me in Spanish. I tried to explain that I was there for the half marathon. They made me move from the secret chair, and to the main lobby.

No one was in the main lobby, so I was hoping no one would notice I was sleeping there. Alas, I woke up again to a security guard, but once I said I was just two hours early for the shuttle, he allowed me to sleep on the lobby couch. Score!

Once I got to the race, I met Jenny – this incredibly joyous girl. She hadn’t done a half marathon in a while, and every single thing was awesome to hear. “Look at all these people! Look at these costume! Look at these bibs!” I adored her incredibly positive, infectious attitude.

I overdressed hardcore in the morning. I thought, “Oh, I’m in Northern California, which actually has weather. It won’t be sweltering like it is in SoCal.” I was incredibly wrong, as I learned while melting under my three shirts as the race wore on.

As I came closer to the water stop around mile 4, I saw this humongous group of incredibly excited people. “Hmm, who’s up there?” I wondered. Of course it was Girls on the Run. I know I mention them all the time, but to see first hand the work being done for girls, and to see the women mentors fostering an attitude of service, kindness, and all that good stuff – it’s awesome.

The girls were so enthusiastic, even to those of us in the back of the pack. They seemed to genuinely believe what they were saying as they cheered, “You’re doing great! You are awesome! You got this!”

I’m glad Girls on the Run exists. I really hope to get involved in their organization next year!

After the race, I got a free massage, which was awesome. And I met an incredibly nice family who drove me to the airport. (Thank you so much Michael and Erica!)

I flew out of the tiniest airport I’ve ever seen (Sonoma County Airport). It was kind of fun, ’cause the full name is the Charles M. Schulz – Sonoma County Airport. It was themed accordingly, and adorably.

(#38) Healdsburg Wine Country Half Marathon – Part 1 (Rargh, Rargh, Rargh Rant)

October 27, 2012

Punished.

I lovingly made fun of my dad in my posts from this past week, and karma got me back. Good one, universe.

Miserable.

This was by far the most miserable half marathon I’ve done. I feel a little weird complaining about it, because I want everyone to know that I love running events. I want people who read my blog to want to do running events, because running events are (generally) awesomely fun.

However, I feel as though I should be honest. Running events are not quite always awesome. You gotta pick the great ones.

I know I’ve light-heartedly complained about a few races before. But this is straight up annoyed, even infuriated at some points. So, if you’re not in the mood for a rant, you’re in for a treat.

Tomorrow I am running Rock ‘n’ Roll Los Angeles, so my strategy today was to jog a little to get a nice head start on the sag wagon, then mainly keep it to the steady 16-minute/mile pace to beat the time limit.

In mile 2, I could see the sag wagon in the distance. It was moving along at the slow pace, and I was daydreaming about how I was going to tell you about walking within view of the wagon, but far enough away not to worry.

THEN – I’m getting mad just thinking about it.

Okay, before I start complaining, let me state for the record that I know that 16-minute miles are quite slow. I know that. But when someone tells you that that’s what you get – that’s what you should get.

Going into mile 3, we started to hear a man over a PA system. “Pick up the pace. You’re not going fast enough.”

I say “we” started to hear it because there were a number of people back there. It wasn’t even close to just being me alone.

The wagon sped way up, pretty much catching up to where I was.

Hey man, I did my first two miles in about 13 and 15. And I am definitely keeping at least a 16-minute-mile pace. You know who needs to get off my back? You do.

At first being chased was a little bit fun, using the frustration to propel me, pretending I had to escape for my life (although I don’t know what’s prete about that). Being chased got progressively got less fun, though.

The race started late. Apparently there was not much wiggle room in the permits, so the rest of the race consisted of the sag wagon bullying the back-of-the-pack walkers.

I had two miles in there between 13 and 14 minutes, and I still felt super rushed.

There were a few people behind me who were struggling hardcore.

Some people got on the sag wagon who I don’t believe would’ve otherwise.

Those of us who were able to continue were infuriated. You can’t push our pace like this! 1 – 3 minutes a mile in a distance race is humongous.

My understanding is that someone went to talk to someone from the caravan of vehicles. Apparently, they totally admitted that because of the late start they were rushing people to 15-minute miles or faster.

The sag wagon, or police officer, or whoever was in charge back there did a horrible job of keeping any kind of steady pace.

They’d settle into something slow. I’d run ahead to try and get them at a comfortable distance. All of a sudden, we’d hear them revving up engines, and they’d speed forward, covering most of any distance we had gained. “Pick up your pace.” “Slow down your pace! Slow your freaking roll, please.”

They finally left us alone around mile 9. I finished the race out mainly with 20-ish minute miles. I was exhausted. It was sweltering. And I was infuriated by the stress they’d put me under, and by the injustice of seeing these people quitting because they couldn’t keep up a 14-minute mile pace. They didn’t train for that!

If you want people to do a 3:00 or 3:15, make that the rule!

Rargh, rargh, rargh.

Tomorrow, I’ll talk about everything to do with this race that doesn’t have to do with this horrible horribleness.

Rock ‘n’ Roll Los Angeles Expo

October 26, 2012

I already love this race – mainly ’cause it’s all taking place about ten feet from where I live.

Before I rocked on down to the airport tonight (for a Healdsburg Wine Country race tomorrow), I walked out of my apartment and hit the expo.

This expo seemed surprisingly smaller than usual, but perhaps we were just in a bigger hall space than normal.

I loved the Halloween theme with ghosts and skeletons around.

Some new things that I haven’t already mentioned/seen at other RnR expos were:

The AT&T lounge. You could kick back and watch TV in style. (They were giving you an idea of the living room you could win.)

I also noticed a “Rock ‘n’ Roll Sports Medicine” table. I don’t know if this was the first time they had it, or the first time I’d noticed, but there was a doctor hanging out all day to help if you had any questions about nutrition, injuries, race preparation – whatever kind of health/race things people might have questions about.

There was also a skin care booth! Brilliant. That is brilliant. Why do I not see more skin care booths around? There are thousands of people walking around this place who are in the sun all the time and often have messy feet (that are in desperate need of some help). Of course we all need skin care! Brilliant, I’m telling you. I hope/bet they did tremendous business all weekend.

(Luck would have it that as I’m trying to love all over this booth, I can’t find remember the name of their product… but it made my hands silky smooth.) (Unfortunately, I did not buy any because I’m in “Save every penny for race travel and charity donations mode” through the end of these 52 in 52, but it was an amazing product, and I want some.)

I met Becky Reese, an incredibly nice woman running her own booth, who offered to send me free clothes and shoes once she heard my story! Thank you kindly, Becky! (I’m sure they’ll be more on her and her clothes once I get them in the mail. Just in case you didn’t see the link to her website on her name (’cause I know there’s some weird coloring going on in my layout), you can check her and her products out by clicking here.

I think that wraps it up! Time to fly to wine country.

Thanks so much for coming to my blog!

I’m Aurora (as you probably guessed)!

This blog started when I ran 52 half marathons in 52 weeks after open-heart surgery for a weird congenital heart defect (Wolff-Parkinson White).

(That inspired more “52 in 52 weeks” projects you can see if you scroll down to check ’em out!)

I also won a car on The Price is Right (and lost a trip to Mexico on Let’s Make a Deal).

Currently, I’m completing Project 882 – 882 race miles in a year to represent the 882 Americans sexually assaulted every day.

Thanks again for visiting! Stick around, and read today’s post (to your left), or check out the projects (below), and feel free to contact me – let’s be friends! 🙂