Aurora's Blog

(#19) Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego – Part 2 (Struggling Through The First 5k)

June 7, 2012

I left of with starting the race.

One of the things I often say in real life (but I don’t know if I say it on the blog that much… or ever) is that the first mile is always the hardest.

You’ve woken up at a crazy hour of the morning, then waited in your corral for a while. An hour later, once you cross the start line, the thoughts start flooding in. “Am I crazy?” “I’m tired.” “Running is hard.” “I want to slow down.” “I think I overestimated my abilities. It’s possible I shouldn’t be here.”

I thought that perhaps I was in over my head trying to keep up with the 3 hour pacer. But, come on. Right now I’m only trying to make it to the first mile marker. I can at least do that, right?

Backtracking for a second, the water tent by the start was out of water in the morning. So, I added the, “oh my gosh, I’m not hydrated enough!” and “I’m thirsty; If I can feel thirst, I’m already under-hydrated” doubts to my mind mix.

Re-un-backtracking, I was so pleased to see the 1st mile marker! Woo hoo! I was able to keep up with everyone for a mile!

After hearing Deena Kastor and the pacers speak at the expo about latching on, trusting your pacer, and just having fun; I came to the race without my running app, music, or anything. (Well, I did have a mini-bagel. More on that later. But, I didn’t have any distractions or fancy math contraptions.) I put all my trust in Joy (and annoyingly asked her at the end of every mile how we were doing).

After this first mile, we were at a 12:30 pace. We kept pretty much the same pace for the 2nd mile.

I didn’t see Kathleen or Sherri again basically after the start, but Brandon’s pretty sure we didn’t lose them until the end of mile 2. A part of me wanted to drop off myself, but I thought, “I’ll just try to make it through the first 5k with everyone.”

Somewhere in mile 2 or 3, we passed this huge theater-looking place. A humongous organ was being played there. It was cool, though I could never tell you where to go see it. I had no idea where we were in the scheme of San Diego. (As you might know, I have an incredible (read: absolutely awful) sense of direction and sense of bearings. I pretty much barely ever know where I am.)

As we were running, we passed Joy’s coach from the San Diego track club. He was standing by with a megaphone, encouraging everyone that ran by. He gave a shout out to Joy when we passed, and I yelled back my thanks for sending her out with us.

We passed this big church group with people yelling about turning away from sin for fear of burning for eternity. My group had a lot of little jokes flying about how if they really wanted people to listen, they’d have brought water. Or, they’d be encouraging these hard working instead of trying to strike fear in people.

Members of our little running group also said that if they really want to get people when they’re most vulnerable – meet them in mile 13, not mile 3. You may have had to have been there to understand the loud, brash, off-putting nature of the repetitive, scary, sign-wiedling group; and to understand the inflections and quick wit of the runners around me, which made it such a hilarious fun, brain break that helped me keep running with these funny people.

It was definitely a struggle to keep up in mile 3, but Joy was an amazing pacer. (Brandon was very encouraging as well.) Deena Kastor had signed the back of Joy’s shirt at the expo; anytime I wanted to fade, I looked at the signature, chased Deena’s words of latching on and not letting go.

We made it through the first 5k with a time of 39:21 – my fastest 5k time ever (including inside or outside of a half marathon).

Months ago, when I did my first sub 40 minute 5k, I went straight for a curb and sat down, huffing and puffing, totally spent. This time, I kept on going for another 10.1 miles. I didn’t finish this race with a fast time, but I still see improvement that I’m happy about.

As we went downhill on the highway, Joy told me to focus on my stride. She definitely distracted me while I was tired. Smart things about posture, strides, and everything kept coming from Joy. She was bright a ray of positive energy, all about believing in everyone.

This is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

That Time My Heart Broke. Literally. – Part 9 (My Blood Pressure is Too Low)

June 6, 2012

little brownstone neighborhood in Boston — This was the kind of beautiful neighborhood I was walking through. (Photo credit: VisitBoston.com… I think, hopefully…))

It’s Wednesday night , so this series continues.

Last week, I was about to leave for another weekend of work out of town.

I left my apartment with thank you cards in hand for the doctors and nurses who’d taken care of me the previous week.

The hospital was on the way to the bus station. I thought I’d drop the cards off, then head for New York.

I was not feeling well at all when I left my apartment. I was quite dizzy, and having some trouble staying upright. But, I had just been in the hospital the previous week. I already knew I had a heart condition. What more could I do? I figured I’d tough it out. I had to go to work, after all.

I headed for the bus station, walking down the beautiful brick sidewalk along my street. I’m feeling dizzy. I have to stop a couple of times to catch my breath and get reoriented. (And this is not a long walk. It’s less than 1/2 a mile.) I hold onto little fences by the sidewalk along the way.

When someone is struggling this much to walk, they probably should see a doctor. Yeah, I know. I don’t know what I was thinking at the time. I guess maybe I thought there was nothing else anyone could do for me, or maybe I just didn’t want to be a problem kid or something…

Not surprisingly, I go down before I reach the bus station. I open my eyes to two sweet girls on the phone getting help. They wait with me until an ambulance comes. Back I go to Tufts Medical Center. When I get there, the nurses and I joke about how the ambulance was a door to door delivery service for me and my thank you cards.

My blood pressure and heart rate were taken. Not surprisingly, they were both super low. (I don’t remember the exact numbers, so for those of you medicine-y types who like specific numbers… sorry.)

My heart rate and blood pressure are already, on a normal day, lower than the low side of the recommended range. Once I was on beta blockers, I was a walking zombie. A doctor (or was it a nurse? It was 3 years ago. I don’t remember every detail…) even commented, “Why would they put you on beta blockers?”

I don’t know. I’m not a doctor.

I’m not blaming any doctors. They have to make a billion decisions a day. Doctors were able to find a tiny abnormality on a test that saved my life. I had doctors that paid meticulous attention to everything, and really looked out for me. I have an unlimited amount of love for them.

I get hooked up to an IV of – I don’t know, saline? Whatever blood pressure raising IV cocktail doctors give you, that’s what I had.

They kept me overnight for observation, which drove me crazy. I can’t remember a time I’d ever called off of work (before this month – considering I’d just called out of another show earlier, blegh). All of a sudden, in a span of 2 or so weeks, I called out from 6 performances of a show, and a tape day for a TV show. Who am I?

Anyway, slumber party in the hops. This is where I’ll pick up next time.

(#19) Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego – Part 1 (Still Mourning My Perfect Pants)

June 5, 2012

What a beautiful day for a race!

I can hardly imagine a better start to a race day. I stayed with my incredible friend Sheeva. She’s supremely talented, incredibly brilliant, and a complete sweetheart. I adore her. (She’s Fareed’s sister, in case you’re keeping track of all the characters mentioned here on the blog.)

Sheeva was busy the night I stayed with her, which worked out perfectly because I went to bed around 3:30pm! I was so rested and refreshed the morning of the race. She actually got up at 5:50 in the morning to drive me to the race! I offered to walk since she was only about 2 miles away, but she is the ultimate host and insisted on driving. Well, if you say so, I’m not gonna turn down a ride!

I’m sure you’re all on the edge of your seats as to what I chose to wear after the great Portland Pants Debacle of May 2012. My new pants that I’d ordered hadn’t arrived yet, and I wanted to wear something comfortable ’cause I was planning on kicking butt and taking names in this half marathon. So, I wore the old cutoff pants that I’d ruined in Portland.

They may expose the bottom of my legs, but everything above the lower part of my calves is so unbelievably comfortable. I don’t even know what type of fabric is used. The label just says “Calvin Klein Performance.” Whatever type of fabric it is, it’s magical. I won’t be able to part with these pants for good until they’re just scraps of fabric that can no longer be worn. (Of course that will probably never happen because these are such quality pants.)

In case you’re worried that I say all of this, in the product placement world that we live in, because I get free pants; let me assure you, I do not get free pants. These sentiments come from my heart and my tear-filled eyes.

If you’re curious about the current pants situation, here’s where things are. Jeanette, one of my friends and lovely blog followers commented on the Portland entry with a link to pants that looked incredible similar to my pants. I ordered them. They weren’t in time for the race, but I did get them on Monday. Unfortunately, they were not the pants. The fabric was much thinner.

I emailed Calvin Klein (the company, not the man), being very specific about the pants I was looking for. I told them I’d been searching through tons of websites and wasn’t having any luck. I begged for any information about where said pants might exist somewhere in the world. Alas, they wrote back and said they didn’t have any information on pants from four years ago.

I’ll never have good pants again.

So, I come up to my corral dancing in my fashion faux pas. They’re only that was now because I mangled them. Before I ruined these gorgeous pants, they were not a fashion mistake.

I met up with Joy, the 3 hour pacer. I figured, it’s a beautiful day, on a great course with lots of flat and downhill sections. I’m gonna see how long I can keep up with her. We had a good little new group of friends. Sherri and her friend, Kathleen, were doing their first half marathon. Brandon was also a first timer who had decided only a couple of weeks prior to sign up for the endeavor.

Our group was rounded out by Marie, who caught the running bug last year; and Taiwo, one of Joy’s friends who joined us once we were closer to the start.

We all talked as our corral got inched toward the start line. I learned that Joy is from Turkey. She’s a nurse who’s about to start studying to become a doctor!

After more than an hour had gone by, our corral started. (Yay!) Meb Keflezighi, the Olympian who won the race, was crossing the finish line about a minute and a half after we crossed the start line.

How did my race go? I’ll tell you now, I did not finish in under 3 hours. But how long was I able to keep up with Joy and the gang? I’ll continue the story tomorrow.

Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego Expo – Part 3 (Fun, Fake Blackjack Table)

June 4, 2012

Ryan dealing chips in fake blackjack at the RnR Vegas booth at the Rock 'n' Roll San Diego Marathon Expo 2012

Picking up from yesterday –

The Rock ‘n’ Roll series always has a booth set up to sign people up for more races in their series. This time, in addition to that, they had a special large, swanked out booth specifically for the Vegas race.

I walked by a blackjack (for play money) table where this kid, Aidan was being a total pro. It was hilarious.

The Rock ‘n’ Roll series people said they want to put Rock ‘n’ Roll Vegas in the same league as Boston or New York. Well, good luck. That’s gonna be a humongous feat to accomplish. Of course, why dream if you don’t dream big, right? So, kudos to them for setting their sights high. I’m can’t wait to run this race in December and see what all the hype is about.

Ryan, the dealer, let me in on blackjack, giving me some totally-not-for-real-money chips. He was hilarious. He was cracking jokes and had everybody in stitches when he would do the hand wave thing pretending to making gestures for the imaginary security cameras.

We played for a while until at some point, I went all in. My thinking was, “I’ll leave this booth, or at least be fake rich.” I hit on 19 (with the dealer showing a face card), and I got the 2 of hearts! 21, baby! Ryan, Aiden, and I all cheered as though it were totally real. By then end of my time at the table, I had turned 100 fake dollars into 1,900 fake dollars! I couldn’t make my lucky streak end. So at some point, I decided to scoot the fake money over to Aiden (although he didn’t need it). He was doing a great job becoming fake rich all on his own. I moseyed on to more booths as Aidan probably become a fake millionaire.

There was a new protein bar here that I hadn’t seen before – PR bars. They were pretty delicious. This expo had tons of snacks that I like – LaraBars, Clif stuff, Marathon bars, and these new PR bars. I like ’em all. And I like ’em all even more when they’re free at expos!

At this expo, there were two – that’s right, two – booths giving free massages: The Manchester Grand Hyatt of San Diego, and MassageHeights.com.

playing fake blackjack with Ryan and Aiden at the RnR Vegas booth at the Rock n Roll San Diego Marathon Expo 2012

Craig from Massage Heights gave me the best massage I’ve ever had in my life. I told him I was going to be a rock star someday, and when I am, he can come around Europe as the tour massage therapist. Or, you know, I’ll just get a massage from him if I’m ever in San Diego and have disposable money for massages. (It could happen.)

The best thing about Craig was that when I asked, “Are you tired of giving massages,” his response was something like, “How could I get tired of doing what I love to do?” He talked about how he adored his job; it was his calling. Even when I was waiting in line, I could see that he always had a smile on his face. His energy was infectious.

There was a huge booth at this expo for McDonald’s. Seriously. ‘Cause obviously the first thing I think of when I think of McDonald’s is marathon runners.

As I was getting ready to leave, my friends Marty and Wendy were starting their volunteer shifts. I stopped by, and said hi for a second. They invited me to stay and volunteer with them. And I would’ve loved to have a volunteer adventure with them. (They’re pretty wonderful, and I kind of adore them.) But alas, I needed to go sleep!

I went to bed around 3:30pm. It was awesome.

Now that the expo has finally been sufficiently (okay, more than sufficiently) covered, I can tell you about the race tomorrow! (Spoiler alert: It was phenomenal – one of my favorites of the year.)

Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego Expo – Part 2 (Brooks Booth Theme & SoCal Race Series Mini-Rant)

June 3, 2012

an unexpected friend from high school in a toga evaluating someone's form at the Brooks heaven display at the Rock n Roll San Diego marathon expo booth 2012 — Yep. I went to high school with that dude.

Picking up from yesterday –

Brooks brought a whole new theme today. Usually, it’s a carnival theme; today, they had a “pure running heaven” theme, with someone playing the harp, big golden gates, and all that jazz.

Get this. Someone I went to high school with was working in the Brooks heaven display, all dressed up in a little toga outfit and everything!

We said hi quickly, but didn’t get to catch up since he was working and all.

I felt a bit bad for people around me today, ‘cause I think I may have been a little crazy – even more so than usual – to everyone I interacted with. I had stayed up all night in the hopes of being tired enough to go to bed at a normal hour and sleep a lot before this race. (How many times am I talking about staying up all night on this blog?)

I have a weird sleep schedule, and usually go to bed at the time I’d need to be getting up for the race, so I needed to do something about it. What I’ve found is:

Stay up all night leading into the race – not fun. Stay up all night the night before the race, sleeping like mad the night leading into the race – actually works out pretty well. (Makes sense, right?)

Since I was coming off of no sleep, I sort of had a bit of the crazy eyes, and the roundabout, slow thoughts and speech delivery. But I held it together in an okay way… I think.

Somehow, Drea and Rusty in the Santa Barbara Half Marathon booth dealt with me in that state, and really made me want to do their race. They had lots of energy, and seemed really passionate about running.

Brooks shoes Pure Running Heaven display at the Rock n Roll San Diego Marathon Expo 2012

I had never really thought about the Santa Barbara Half Marathon as a race I was excited about (or even sure I was doing) until I met them.

Why you ask? The Santa Barbara Half Marathon is the final half marathons in the Southern California Half Marathon Series. Don’t even get me started on that series.

Actually, what am I saying? This is a blog. Of course get me started on it!

In the SoCal Half Marathon Series, they give a list of races as possibilities. If you run 4 (including the final race – the Santa Barbara Half Marathon) , you get a special medal at the end. You all know I’m total a sucker for medals.

I don’t love speaking ill about things; I don’t like tearing people down when there’s already so much in this world that will tear you down. But, I’m still a human being with opinions, and my opinion is that I don’t much like this series. Everything I hear from them never seems genuine. The only vibe I’ve ever gotten is that they’re out for money.

They don’t seem like runners who want to make extra money. They seem like people who want money and happen to get it from races. Yay, capitalism and everything. Go make your money, for sure! But, please, make a quality product/campaign/whatever you’re selling. Generally, that means be passionate about what you’re starting.

They didn’t have the website go live until after the first race had already happened! I’m on their mailing list. They could’ve easily emailed and said, “Sorry we’re having trouble getting the site up, but the series is still happening. The first race will be this one.” But they didn’t.

angelic woman wearing all white with halo playing in the Brooks Running booth at the Rock n Roll San Diego Half Marathon 2012 One of the races on their schedule got cancelled. There was no apology or anything. They just eventually changed it, and moved on. Maybe I’m getting the wrong vibe, but the one I’m getting is that they don’t care about the participants.

Obviously, I have free will. I could choose not to do this series. You cannot boycott this series, because it’s made up of a lot of individual races (which I guess you could boycott, but it wouldn’t be as effective. They wouldn’t be able to tell you weren’t running because of the series).

All of that to say, I saw a booth about a race I wasn’t excited about that made me actually want to do the race, instead of begrudge it as a “ugh, I guess I’ll do this one ’cause I want the extra medal, but considering the series it’s in, it’s probably not gonna be very fun” race.

Also, unicorns, rainbows, and ’80s pop music. I wanted to leave you with great, wonderful, happy imagery ’cause I don’t like to end on negativity. (Sometimes a girl’s gotta call someone out though, you know?)

Surprisingly, I have even more to say about this expo, and I will finish it all out tomorrow with part 3.

Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego Expo – Part 1 (Deena Kastor and Race Pacers Speak)

June 2, 2012

Long line of people waiting to get into the Rock 'n' Roll San Diego Expo 2012 — Small line to the left is to go to Starbucks. Super long line on the right doesn’t being to encompass the whole crowd.

Why does this expo get a 3 part blog post? I was at this sprawling expo for 4 1/2 hours. (Huh. I was at the expo longer than I’ll be out on the course.)

When I got there about 10 minutes before it started, there was a humongous line to get in. I could not believe my eyes! Why are there so many people here chomping at the bit? If it was to avoid the crowds, mission failed.

I know I couldn’t believe them, yet I was one of them. I got into San Diego at 8:30, and figured I’d just go be one of the first few people to trickle in before people crowds started showing up. Nope. Once the expo started and the music started pumping, it took two songs to get everyone through the doors!

I had a good amount of time to kill ‘cause I wasn’t going to my friend’s apartment ‘til 2. For the first time, I listened to one of the panels.

Deena Kastor – Olympic Bronze Medalist – spoke today. I loved watching her in Spirit of the Marathon, and she was everything I’d hope she’d be today. I saw her interacting with the group of pacers before the show, when people weren’t really looking. She seemed to be outgoing and very sweet.

I jotted down some of her awesome nuggets of wisdom.. The panel was about running with a pacer. She said, “Latch on and don’t let go.” You could tell in her eyes, her body, and her voice that she was determined, and really meant that you do not let go in a race.

She also said something I think is great to remember while running a race. “You’ve done the work. Tomorrow is your reward. Enjoy the celebration.” Do you love that? “Enjoy the celebration.” I love that – that a race is a celebration instead of a stressful thing or a chore or anything like that. Of course, in my case, a lot of races are more like training runs since I’m doing so many. Either way, I thought it was a great piece of advice.

Deena Kastor speaking at the Rock n Roll San Diego Expo 2012

She said “enjoy the journey.” Not to get too deep on her words, but I took that as a great reminder to enjoy the journey of life as well. Like a race, life is sometimes crazy fun, going nice and smooth, with everyone cheering you on. Sometimes you’re trudging uphill in the stifling heat, and all the Gatorade’s gone. You have to keep going. But a half marathon is an experience every time. As is life. So, as Deena says, enjoy your journey.

The pacers spoke after her. The main advice they gave to for running with a pacer was – trust. They basically said, “trust your pacer. Don’t look at your Garmin. You don’t need to worry about your time. We’ll be doing all the work for you. You enjoy your race.”

Good advice that’s easy to say, hard to do sometimes. Obviously, in the end, you’re just running with a stranger. You don’t know if they are going to run at the same perceived effort throughout, or if you’ll perceive effort the same way. People are different. Most of the pacers went up there and some something along the lines of, “My first mile will be 9 minutes. My last mile will be 9 minutes. That’s our race, the whole way.”

One pacer said that he likes to do the first few miles slower to warm up, then runs a few minutes faster in the middle. Some people like to do their races this way. It makes my head explode. But he’s taking people to a 1:45 half marathon, so I definitely won’t be trying to pace with him. No need to be worried about colliding strategies when he’ll be well over halfway done before my corral crosses the start.

The 3:55 (full) marathon pacer says he has trivia questions for every mile! So cool, right? Although I won’t be running with him either.

This is where I’ll pick up tomorrow. There were tons of booths to get through!

(#18) City of Laguna Hills Memorial Day Half Marathon

May 31, 2012

Marines running in a block together at the City of Laguna Hills Memorial Day Half Marathon 2012 35 minutes before the race, I awoke from my nap in my car, by the start line. I pressed snooze. 5 minutes later, I snoozed some more. Eventually, I got up with just enough to lace up my shoes, go grab my bib, and get to the starting line.

I took it really easy on this race. In the first mile, a large block of Marines came running through, doing their running cadence.

I kept up with them for… not long. But I did enjoy running with them while I could. They were inspiring the runners around them. We were all trying to keep up while taking pictures and video.

After they passed, I slowed down, and noticed a number of adorable kids in this race. (Don’t worry, there weren’t any 7-year-olds running a half. The 5k (and 10k) was mixed in with the half marathon.)

First, there was this little boy who started picking up all of the cups on the ground. His mom kept saying, “Henry. Henry! You can stop picking them up, honey. Other people are gonna pick these up. Come on, Henry.” It was so cute! He really, really wanted to keep picking up the cups. I was gone before his mom had convinced him to stop picking up cups. Maybe he just stayed there until they were all in the trash. Who knows? He was very determined.

Not long after, there was this little girl who saw and incline, and while jumping up and down who said, “Mom! Look. Where there’s an uphill, there’s a downhill!” Her optimism was sweet. (Even though her statement always true for races, depending on the course.)

Probably around 6ish miles in, there were tiny, young siblings in competition with each other to see who get to a cup the quickest when someone dropped one. They looked as though they were having the time of their lives.

Back to non-kids, somewhere around mile 2, a few women running with dogs passed me! I did not realize dogs would be running in this race. Luckily, I didn’t get eaten.

I happily wore my PureConnects today. They’re breaking in well, getting more and more awesome.

(Skip this paragraph to avoid hearing about gross stuff – specifically a blister. (Sorry!) (You’re welcome for not putting up a picture.)) I still ended up with a blister on the bottom of my foot! That might be the worst place to have a blister on your foot. It was huge. And was covered by a callus. I popped it. Now there’s a big hole of skin where it was (ew). (I know. I shouldn’t pop them (even though I love to). They’re nature’s band-aids.) Now, I have a teeny blister growing within the hole left by the last one. My feet are a mess. (But my shoes are still awesome.)

In the second half of the race, we wound around a paved path on a trail. Runners around me started talking about snakes. I thought they were being silly, but I saw plenty of signs about watching out for snakes. Later, I even heard the sound of a rattlesnake. I never actually saw one, but it was odd to hear the sound in real-life nature. I’m so used to hearing it in a sound effect bin at work (on Swamp People).

City of Laguna Hills Half Marathon 2012 medal

Someone had written “Big Ring Century” about a billion times in chalk on the road throughout the race. It sounded like a realtor or something. About the hundredth time I saw it, I was finally curious enough to look it up on my iPhone. You can tell I don’t ride bikes enough (read: ever (other than that one bike race).) Of course, century referred to a 100 mile bike ride. Mystery solved.

In the last 4 or 5ish miles, there was a woman who was going around my speed. She passed me once. Once she passed me, she started jogging a little. She may have been doing this for her own personal gain, but since it started right after she passed me, I assumed it was directed toward me. You want a race? It’s on like donkey kong, now!

I sped up, and passed her. Later, she got fairly far past me as I talked to a woman doing her first half marathon. I politely excused myself to catch up to this woman we could still see in the distance. Caught her. Passed her. I won our little race that we may or may not have been having.

At the finish line, a local beauty queen (in her tiara and sash) put the medal on me. I took another short nap in the car, then headed back to LA.

I finished with an extremely laid back time of 3:45:46.

I’ll be kicking butt and taking names in San Diego this weekend!

That Time My Heart Broke. Literally. – Part 8 (My Dad Came to Visit)

May 30, 2012

The Incredibles husband and wife team in front of trees. from Pixar. — The mode my dad immediately jumps to if his girl is even maybe possibly in a bit of danger. (Photo credit: Disney (The Incredibles))

It’s Wednesday night , so this series continues.

Picking up from last week –

So, I got out of the hospital and was put on this lame medicine.

I’m pretty sure I wasn’t necessarily awesome at taking it. But, I took it most of the time. Sometimes.

You’re not allowed to run for a little while after having an ablation. I forget how many days, but I remember it being a nuisance – not because I love running so much, but because I ran around a bit in my daily life.

Immediately after the play I was working on closed that Saturday night (October 24th), I went to Pennsylvania. I had work for America’s Got Talent bright and early the next morning. My dad drove me down there (on his way back to Ohio). So, I guess it wasn’t all bad that he came out for my little heart procedure.

Obviously, it’s never bad when my dad comes to visit. If I had my way about it, we’d hang out every day (at Planet Smoothie, preferably). But, I’m a grown up. A brave, brave grown up. And I don’t need someone to come to the hospital for me for a tiny procedure.

Yes, this is the same “grown up” who immediately called her Daddy when she didn’t know anything about renting cars, or running out of gas, or any number of other grown up things.

I think, in actuality, it was more that I didn’t want to be “weak.” I didn’t like that there was this thing going on with my body (therefore my life) that I didn’t control. Maybe if nobody acknowledged it, and everybody was just quiet and left me alone, I wouldn’t really have a heart problem. That is how things work, right?

But you know how some parents are. It’s like a bat (child) signal goes off. “My baby might be in trouble? I’ll save you!” [*Music plays.*]

Even though I’m a grown up, by golly!

So, I work all weekend, and it goes fine. It’s a little rough being a production assistant who can’t run much. Luckily my main job was typing all day. So, it all worked out.

During the week that followed, the medicine seemed to be making me feel worse. (Remember in part 6 when I said I started out with a low heart rate and low blood pressure? That was possibly some foreshadowing I was working in there.)

By Thursday/Friday, it was getting to the point that walking half a mile utterly exhausted me. Standing up made me dizzy. You’d think I would’ve been smart enough to realize the medicine might be partially at fault, and to stop taking it (especially considering how much I hate medicine!). Or at least I might be smart enough to talk to my doctor. Well, you’d be wrong on both counts.

On Friday the 30th, I left my apartment to go to New York City to work another America’s Got Talent audition.

Does something happen on my way to leave? Find out next week.

Traveling to Laguna Hills – Part 2 (Picking Up The Car & Getting There)

May 29, 2012

Marge, Maggie, Lisa, Bart, and Homer Simpson singing while driving in the snow to Alaska from the Simpsons movie. Picking up from Part 1 –

When I went to pick out my car from the Alamo lot at some crazy early time in the morning, I saw someone sleeping (tossing and turning a little) in the back of one of the cars. It looked to be a homeless man.

I almost went in and alerted the Alamo people that there was someone sleeping in one of their cars. Then I thought, that homeless man is really smart – to think about a parked rental car as a place to sleep, figure out a way to get into the Alamo lot without attracting attention, and pick a car at the end of a row where he hopefully wouldn’t be noticed. He’s also super brave to be willing to try it. I know how wonderful sleep is, and how horrible it is when it’s always interrupted. So, I let him rest.

I know Alamo can’t have homeless people sleeping in all their cars. But, I thought the man’s ingenuity and bravery should be rewarded with a somewhat good night’s sleep. Who am I to decide what he deserves or make decisions about people loitering in other people’s property? But, who am I to nark on him either, right?

Also, what do I know? For all I know, it’s someone who works there, who from my angle happened to look homeless.

I walked away and picked my car – a red one this time. Stylish, right? (It was a Corolla for anyone wondering). And radio stations were playing my jams all night/morning long!

Al Green in front of a microphone (in a red tie) with a huge smile. — Sing it to me, Al!

I kept landing on all these great oldies songs – Al Green, Marvin Gaye, and all that good stuff. “Let’s Stay Together” came on twice while I was driving. Twice. I was grooving and singing my face off. You should’ve been there. It was pretty much a party.

I passed the exit for Disneyland twice (the way there and the way back). It’s weird to pass Disneyland and not go. It’s not everyday that you pass “the happiest place on Earth.” It’s a little off living pretty close to it, yet never coming close enough to remember that I do.

Me driving by Disneyland: “Oh my gosh, look Disneyland! Disneyland? Geez, when you’re close enough to Disney, you should probably go, right?… Oh, wait. I could come here any day that I wanted to. There is a bus that drives right by my apartment at least once an hour that says ‘Disneyland’ on the top.”

When I arrived back at Alamo, I heard the sweet-voiced recording on loop that welcomes you back, and tells you not to forget any of your belongings. It’s sort of like Disney after all; your ride is coming to an end. Time to raise up your lap bar, exit your vehicle, and go get your funnel cake.

(No, there were not actually lap bars or funnel cakes.)

Postscript: This doesn’t have anything to do with the trip, but in case I don’t mention it anywhere else on the blog, later that night I went to The Groundlings Theatre to see the absolutely hilarious show, The Black Version (created by the super talented Jordan Black). (Last night it featured the comedy stylings of guest star Wayne Brady.) If you live in LA and have not seen this show, get tickets immediately! So. funny.

Tomorrow is already Wednesday! So, I’ll continue with the Wednesday night series about that time I had a heart problem. After that, I still owe you the story of the half marathon itself (not just the drive down there)!

Traveling to Laguna Hills – Part 1 (Oh, That Whole Driving Concept)

May 28, 2012

Oh boy. Driving.

If you’re a reader of the blog, you know what a tenuous grasp I have on driving. And that I have a love/hate relationship with it. I think the same can probably be said for sleep.

I stayed up all night on Saturday night, saw the sun come up, and eventually made my way to bed on Sunday morning. The brilliant plan was to sleep all day on Sunday, and wake up in the late afternoon/night. I’d be ready to stay up all night to get to the rental car place at the airport, and make my way down to Laguna Hills.

I woke up at 11:30am on Sunday, and couldn’t get back to sleep. When my body finally asked to go to sleep, it was almost time to make my way to the airport to grab a rental car.

When will I learn that that brilliant sleep schedule idea never works out well the day before a race? I’ve tried it before with similar results. At least I wasn’t quite as tired this time.

Laguna Hills is only about an hour away from downtown Los Angeles, so you wouldn’t think I’d need that much time to get there.

But you have to factor in the time it takes to get to LAX, get the car rental shuttle, rent the car, get on the road, get lost, get un-lost, get lost closer to the race, get un-lost again, drive in a circle a couple of times, find a parking spot, pull in crooked, pull out, try again, eventually park, and get my race bib. I ended up leaving my house around 2:30am.

Shockingly, I didn’t get lost (or park incorrectly) as I’d predicted in my plan. I had to plan for it, ’cause it is me, after all. But I think I might getting a little bit better at this whole driving thing.

I am pretty floored at how much I’ve been driving in the last couple of months. Just think, it all started when I got stranded at the San Diego Greyhound station on my way to Lake Havasu.

The Jetsons driving in hover car through the air (past a sprockets place) — I was going caption “I’m just waiting for this day.” Although, I don’t know if driving through the sky would make things less or more stressful. Probably more, huh?

It never even occurred to me that renting a car could be an option, until I was basically forced to rent one.

I always figured if public transportation didn’t open early enough, I’d need to pay someone on TaskRabbit to drive me, or just go down the night before. After I survived a weekend with a rental car, it moved up pretty high on my transportation hierarchy.

(Of course, I’ll still only resort to a car when public transportation doesn’t open early enough to get me somewhere in time for a race.)

I will never understand how people drive all the time. Once every few weekends, in someone else’s car, I don’t mind. But everyday? I wouldn’t know how to survive. It’s so stressful. Merging. I can’t take it! And motorcycles! And bicycles! Oh the terrifying bicyclists.

Nonetheless, even through stress and my awful driving, I somehow I made it there and back without injury to me, or others, or any cars. Rad, right? (And I didn’t even get lost in either direction! What universe is this?)

Huh. I didn’t think I had this much to say about traveling/driving, but I suppose I do. I didn’t even get to the parts about this specific trip, such as possibly seeing a homeless man in the back of one of the rental car choices… I’ll talk about it tomorrow, then tell you all about the half marathon.

The Book of Mormon (The Musical, of Course) – Part 6 (The “What an Incredibly Small World” Chapter)

May 27, 2012

Andrew Rannells Believes (singing I Believe from The Book of Mormon) — Andrew Rannells wasn’t in the show that night, but he sure is in all the pictures when you Google anything having to do with The Book of Mormon.

I left off in Part 5 at The Book of Mormon lottery.

If I were a cast member in the show, I would love to walk down the street super nonchalantly through the throngs of fans as they wait for the lottery. “Oh yeah, no big deal. I just sing my face off in this show every night. Don’t sweat it. Oh, you love me in this show? Well, that’s mighty sweet of you. Thank you, thank you, adoring crowd. Thank you so much.”

The Book of Mormon lottery is one of the few places where people are celebrated for being single. When the lottery announcer guy says that someone is only taking one ticket, the crowd goes wild.

We all kept hoping that at least one of us would win the lottery tickets. Let me tell you, no one in my line family won. That’s the karma we got for trying to shoo people away. At least we were guaranteed standing room tickets.

The waiting time between the lottery announcement and buying standing room tickets was one of the longest hours of my life. We are all so tired! Please, I beg of you, sell us our tickets!

When the side window opened to sell the standing room tickets, my heart happily skipped a beat. The whole line got super stoked, and one by one we joyously bought our tickets.

I ended up grabbing a quick dinner with these two wonderful people I met in line – Lauren and Jake. They are doctors (who live in New York), so pretty much some of the coolest people ever. They were super lovely and funny and interesting. And as much as I loved hanging out with them, I still jetted off after 20 or so minutes, ‘cause I needed to down a venti caramel macchiato. I knew The Book of Mormon would keep me awake and attentive, but I also knew I wanted some sugar and caffeine coursing through my veins to make me a more agreeable, pleasant person.

I met up with Noah at that theater. There are a few things that are really cool about the standing room only seats. For one, you know everyone who’s standing around you since you spent the whole day in line with them. For another, you get to expel more energy while standing, which is good ’cause energy is flying at you from the cast members. (In the words of Danny Zuko, “it’s electrifying!”)

Josh Gad, Nikki M James, Andrew Rannells onstage in The Book of Mormon — Yep, still not in the show that night. (Neither is Josh Gad.) But still in all the production photos. (By the way, can you tell that Nikki M James is super giving it in this picture? Work that face, girl!)

Right before the show, Noah told me that he doesn’t really do Broadway musicals. He said he’d seen a few, but not liked any of them. The pressure is on! Luckily, I knew that this was the perfect musical for that kind of person. If you don’t generally like musical theater, and you don’t like this super pop culture-y, hilarious, contemporary musical either, chances are you are not going to like musicals. Sorry.

At intermission, he was still having fun. Here’s the crazy part about intermission. I started talking again with Lauren and Jake (and Noah). I mentioned doing 52 half marathons in 52 weeks. Lauren then asked if I had done Rock ‘n’ Roll New Orleans. “Yeah. I did.” Then she told me, “We sat in front of you on the plane!” What?! I kid. you. not.

They were in front of me on the plane ride to New York from New Orleans. They had overheard me talking to the stranger I’d met on the plane. I was partly scared by this thinking, “I’m pretty loud, huh? And they actually still remember what I was talking about? Geez, I hope I’m not running around the country always making a fool of myself.”

We couldn’t even get over it. The odds of these two medical residents, in this super populated city, who almost never have any time for themselves, not only being by me on the plane ride from their first half marathon, but also sitting (standing) by me at a Broadway show a month later is insanity!

The lights went down for the second act immediately after our humongous realization.

This is where I’ll pick up later with part 7 – the conclusion of this series.

The Trip to Portland (The Traveling Part)

May 24, 2012

I forgot to mention my crazy traveling adventure of my trip out to Portland. (It’s not that crazy, so don’t get too excited.)

LAX was busting at the seams when I got there! I had never seen a line for security screening be so long. (That is not an exaggeration.)

I just kept walking, and walking, and walking until I finally made it to the back – all the way in another terminal. (That part is an exaggeration.)

I’m not totally sure what was happening that made the airport so crowded. There was a large school group flying somewhere. But was the group really that large?

Slowly but surely, the line moves. I’m getting closer to where I can maybe, possibly see the entrance to LAX again. (The line wound around outside.)

All of a sudden, I see someone in the middle of her crazy long trek to the back of the line. She looks so much like my friend Amber (who’s been mentioned on the blog before at the Hollywood Half).

Of course, how could it be Amber? That’d be pretty nuts, right? If at 6 something in the morning I happen across Amber at LAX? I’m sure you’ve all jumped ahead of me, that yes. It was Amber. Insane, right?

She had these big sunglasses on, and I couldn’t see her very well. I yelled out her name on the off chance it actually was here. Sure enough, she turned around.

We talked all the way ’til we got to security. She was selected for additional screening. I wanted to hug her goodbye, but the TSA people freaked out when we got close to each other. (I understand they’re just doing their jobs.) Amber and I gave each other sad looks, and I made my way to my gate where I walked straight onto the plan. My flight was finishing up boarding (otherwise I would’ve just waited for Amber).

Homer Simpson crying, looking at his list of inventions vs. Edison's in the Wizard of Evergreen Terrace episode of The Simpsons, in which Homer Simpson becomes an inventor. — The only other window I’ve had into the life of an inventor.

Later, on the flight from my layover, I ended up sitting next to this man, Michael, who invented the guide that pops up on televisions. Crazy, right? He’s (of course) a super duper millionaire. (Yes, he was still talking Southwest, ’cause it’s the bomb.)

Michael has loads of patents, and talked about how everything he makes off of his patents now goes directly to charity.

He was riveting. It was funny because he came from a family with roots in television. His dad knew Mary Tyler Moore! Yet, he lit up the most when he talked about his kids and grandkids. (Parents, right? They’re always like that. So funny.)

Anyway, he’s traveled the world. He loves hiking. He used to have his own company that had all these incredible perks for his employees. He had so many great stories. Being around him was inspiring. He’s the kind of person that really makes you want to seize the day. There was a special energy or something that just emanated off of him.

He’s done so much! It is possible, people. I was looking right at someone who had a bunch of things that I wanted. (Mainly, I want a company that takes care of all the employees so nicely. That’s a big ol’ dream of mine. Don’t worry, at some point you’ll see it come to fruition.)

Anyway, it’s out there. People making their own dreams (and the dreams of others) happen everyday.

Probably none of you are quite as inspired by my talk with Michael as I was, ’cause you kind of had to be there. But, I hope you get your own Michael on your next flight.

That Time My Heart Broke. Literally. – Part 7 (I Hate Medicine/First Return to School)

May 23, 2012

pile of small, white, circular pills with a line in them. (They look like beta blockers.) — (Photo from health.wikinut.com. I don’t even know if these are beta blockers or not. But you get the gist. I don’t like any pills.)

It’s Wednesday night , so this series continues.

I left off last week being prescribed beta blockers.

Let me take this opportunity to give my rant on medicine.

I hate medicine.

I really, really, really hate it. A lot. If I ever have a cold, or a muscle ache, or anything of the like, invariably someone around me asks if I’ve taken medicine. Why would I? I’d rather just power through.

Sometimes “medicine” is used as a very broad term. I don’t dislike modern medicine. I like the idea that doctors can fix things that happen to me. I don’t like pills, or syrup, or really any kind of thing I have to take. (I dislike pills the most, though.)

I always thought I was very polite, and possibly even somewhat quiet about this fact. But every time I met a doctor on my case in the hospital (or even now, if I go to a doctor for any reason), the first thing a doctor does, as she looks up from my chart, is say, “So, you really don’t like medicine, huh?”

It probably says I’m a troublemaker in my chart, doesn’t it?

Anyway, the doctors at Tufts gave me a prescription for beta blockers. I reluctantly, begrudgingly got it filled, and started taking pills daily (maybe multiple times a day?). Doctors kept stressing that this was my heart, and my life, and everything. They made it sound super serious. Fine. I’ll take your medicine so that I can live. Or whatever.

I returned to school that Thursday. It was so weird going back. The last time everyone had seen me, I’d been walking out with paramedics.

I didn’t know what to say when I came back. I tried to apologize for the big interruption (and possibly startling people), but it’s hard to make that sound sincere (even though it was). I tried to make light of it, but I’m sure my jokes were awkward. I don’t remember what I said, or I’d tell you my awkward jokes. (It wasn’t like I was doing stand up or anything.)

paramedics cartoon, loading someone into an ambulance — Photo from classbrain.com

I also was kind of full of questions (which I’m sure was annoying). I like to be present. I usually like to be pretty in control. And here was this crazy occurrence in my class that I kind of missed, you know, by being unconscious.

I wanted to know what happened, who called 911, and all that jazz. The boys – I’m pretty sure I was the only girl in my class – gave me the story, even though I felt weird being curious about it.

But how can you not be? Everyone else was talking about it. I wanted to feel as though I was a part of the trending topic at school – which was especially weird, because I was part of it! After all, the story revolved around me, which is not what I wanted…

I mean, I did want everyone talking about me. Let’s get real. Otherwise I wouldn’t have taken on fun dares such as this one. But that’s the kind of stuff I wanted them talking about, not weird heart stuff.

It was so weird too, because everyone was asking me how I was doing. On the one hand, that was very sweet. On the other, it was so awkward. Having a heart problem is totally awkward.

And then it was weird because I didn’t have a definitive end. It wasn’t like “well, they fixed me right up!” It was more like, “Well, I have this really rare thing that they couldn’t fix on the first try. Now we’re trying medicine. And we’ll see.”

Of course, many people just got “I’m fine.” The longer explanatory version was mainly for close friends or super curious people.

We’ll pick up here next week.

(#17) Rock ‘n’ Roll Portland – Part 3 (Rain, Supporters, & Clanging Medals)

May 22, 2012

Picking up from yesterday, I ruined my pants (therefore ruining my life) (hyperbole – but only slightly!).

(Although Jeanette commented with a link that just might be the same pants!)

As sad as I was, it was easier to move without all that extra fabric swishing around my feet. I moved at a snail’s pace for a few miles leading up to mile 13. Then I started moving as though I was in a half marathon again.

The kinesiology tape on my knee had come off by the time I’d woken up that morning. I applied the next round myself, messing it up beyond repair twice before I got it right. I think I know what’s up now, though. (Verdict: It was pretty comfy)

There were some fun spectators (braving the rain!) at this race. There was a funny sign that said ,“You look great. (You, not you.)”

Speaking of rain, remember that waterproof phone case I bought with trepidation at Ragnar? It turned out to be a wonderful decision. It rained in Louisville, I ran through every sprinkler in Indianapolis. It rained for miles here. The case was totally worth it, and it’s totally awesome. (Lifeproof is the brand in case you want one too.)

Rewind back to spectators, there was this adorable little boy with a sign, cheering for his two mommies. In some cities, that might’ve been looked down on by some, or that boy might’ve felt embarrassed. He seemed proud (as he should be of his rocking moms!). Way to go, Portland. And way to go, his parents and friends for encouraging him to be proud of his family.

Speaking of boys supporting their families, there were these two men who held up signs for their mom at 12 different points along the course! Talk about dedication! They were the talk of the race.

There were fun water stop volunteers from American Airlines (I’m guessing, since they were wearing big American Airlines hat contraptions on their heads). (I’m still a Southwest girl for life (or until other airlines start allowing changes without fees)! But they looked fun, nonetheless.)

I noticed “no parking (during the hours of the race)” signs in a neighborhood, which made me think about the people who lived there. I’ve run through neighborhoods before, but never thought about those people being sort of trapped in their houses during the race.

They’re obviously not completely trapped. They have the ability to walk out of their neighborhood, get on the MAX, and go wherever they want. But this was the first time I ever really thought about them, and wondered if they’re annoyed, if they’re warned, and all that jazz.

Back to mile 13, I jogged on through to the finish. Maryalicia – the lovely, positive pacer I’d lost – was on the sidelines of the last .1, cheering for me. She’d warned me that if I went out too quickly, I’d probably fade. She was right. (I knew she would be.) Someday I might have enough control to stay with her for negative splits. Today wasn’t that day. (Don’t read that as a surprise or disappointment, ’cause I did not work to make today that day.)

My official time: 3:24:49.

Lawrence, my blog follower that I’d met the day before was waiting at the finish! Luckily, he mentioned getting his Rock Star medal. I would’ve completely forgotten to pick mine up!

We found the heavy medal booth, and Garret gave me my big, huge, heavy Rock Star medal. (It’s way cooler than getting it in the mail.) And, they had Gatorades for us! What, what? That’s something that doesn’t come with your heavy metal in the mail!

I clanged clanged clanged over to gear check. I’d heard people clang medals before – coast to coast and a Disney medal, or Beach Cities and the OC half medal. This was my clanging day!

At gear check, I happened to meet the race director standing by the UPS truck. She told me that she thought she recognized my story. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure we put you in the event guide.”

I usually don’t grab the event guide at the expo, being that all the information I ever need is online. But, I happened to grab one this time. The guides were right in front of me as I came in the expo. I’d heard people talk about them before. Why not grab one?

When I got back to the hotel, I checked the guide. Sure enough, there was a little 2 or 3 line blurb about me. It hasn’t increased my blog traffic, so either no one cared, or no one read it. Either way, the Rock ‘n’ Roll series thought of me.

See you tomorrow night. Since that’s Wednesday, it’ll be time for yet another installment of “That Time My Heart Broke. Literally.”

(#17) Rock ‘n’ Roll Portland – Part 2 (Devastated After Ruining My Favorite Pants)

May 21, 2012

fun hats at a water stop — Fun hats at a water stop. This may be replaced by a picture of me running. We’ll see once the photos come out.

Continuing from yesterday –

In mile 9, I started slowing way down. The start time of this race was 8am. I thought that would make it torturous, getting warmer as we ran, but it rained! It rained. Then it rained some more. All was well with the world.

As much as I loved the cool rain… (sigh) Oh boy, this is the super sad part. I have these amazing pants. They’re the first pair of running pants I ever bought back in 2008! Think of how well they’ve held up. I have no idea what kind of amazing super strength material they are made of (it doesn’t say on the pants!), but I love them. Calvin Klein did an awesome, fabulous job making the perfect pants.

As you may have seen in some of the pictures, my pants are way too long for me. They go way over my shoes, and I have had FOUR YEARS to cut them. Yet, did I? No. Why didn’t I? I don’t know! I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. I suppose I’m just an idiot.

During the race, they were getting completely soaked. As it kept raining, the bottoms got wetter and wetter. It was getting quite cold and uncomfortable to slosh around in all that extra fabric by my shoes. I kept sludging (not a real word, but I like it) forward until I reached mile marker 12. At that point I only had ONE mile left (.1). Why couldn’t I leave well enough alone?

I saw a medical tent and said, “hey, I don’t have any medical problem or emergency. But, do you have scissors I can use? My pants are driving me crazy.”

The very sweet medical personnel got out scissors and offered to cut my pants for me. I should’ve asked to do it myself, but the woman seemed to want to do it. (They don’t want to give the sharp things to runners, I guess, maybe. Or they just want to be helpful. I don’t know.)

I was very nervous, but also cold and tired. I sat down, and she cut off tons of extra fabric from my right pant leg. Then she proceeded to my left pant leg. I saw that she was cutting it a little higher than I would, but I don’t know if I was trying to be polite or what. By the time I said, “Oh, please not so high,” the damage had been done.

my precious pants — This will most likely be replaced with a picture from the run in mile 13 with the uneven legs, once the photos come out.

My right pant leg is now cut way too high. I ruined my favorite pair of pants in the world! I do not blame this woman at all. I 100% blame myself. Why didn’t I cut them earlier? Why didn’t I ask to be the one to use the scissors? Why didn’t I save the fabric before they threw it away to see if I could sew it back on later? Why wasn’t I patient enough to wait until after the race?

Why did I even wear these pants?! That morning, while still in my I love NY pajama pants, I thought to myself, “This is so comfortable. Maybe I should just wear these.” I really, really thought about it.

Then I thought, “No. I’d rather wear the best pants in the universe.” And now they’re ruined! Conceivably I can still wear them, especially on the treadmill where it doesn’t matter. But outdoors, my legs will be exposed to the sun. I won’t look as cute anymore. I am super crazy bummed about these pants.

In fact, when I got back to the hotel I may or may not have shed a couple of tears about these pants. If you think it’s a little over the top to cry about pants, you have never worn this style in the Calvin Klein Performance line.

Of course, now I can’t find them anywhere because they are these 4-year-old pants that aren’t sold anywhere. I’m worried I’ll never have a good pair of racing pants ever again.

Obviously, I’m too distraught to talk about anything else now, so I’ll finish out the story of the race tomorrow.

(#17) Rock ‘n’ Roll Portland – Part 1 (Inclines, Baby & Trying a Pacer)

May 20, 2012

Runners going uphill at Rock n Roll Portland half marathon 2012 — This photo doesn’t do it justice. This was one of the small hills – around mile 10!

Everything is a hill! So, much. incline.

At the beginning of the race, I decided to stick with the 3 hour pacer and see how long I could keep up with her. (I knew it wouldn’t be the whole way, but figured I could hold on for a while.)

While waiting in our corral (for 30 minutes) before crossing the start, a few of us were asking about the strategy Maryalicia would take. She said that since the first half of the race was uphill (first half only – ha! So we thought…), she’d take it easy. Her plan was to run negative splits.

I am not a negative splits kind of girl. I know that sometimes they make logical sense, and more power to those people who can do them. I’m sure I probably could train myself to do them if need be. Right now, I find them incredibly stressful.

We did the first mile in a little over 14 minutes. (That’s right – over 14 minutes!) I’ve had plenty of 14 minute (and slower) miles in my life, but I like to do my first one around 12 minutes (when I’m trying to push myself in a race). Already I felt behind, which was stressful. I was chasing minutes from the beginning.

I will say the pacer was right when she said that if you do the first mile slowly, you’ll be less tired as you go. I usually start to slow down after the first 5k, but I felt pretty consistent and less tired through probably mile 6. Of course, it’s easier to feel less tired since we’re going slower than normal. That whole speeding up thing is when I don’t do well.

I ended up running sort of ahead of the pace group in miles 2 – 5, because I was stressing myself out about the 14-minute mile. Maryalicia blew past me uphill in mile 6. (I knew it would happen. She was strategizing better than I was, and she was better trained.) All of her runners had fallen off! Not one runner was with the 3:00 pace group anymore. I ended up seeing people from the group later in the race, which was fun.

As I was going up one of the many hills, there were a couple of cars sneaking around one of those roundabout things. I didn’t think too much of it, figuring they were some kind of special exception vehicles – race vehicles of some kind, or someone going to an emergency. After all, we were on a closed course. It couldn’t be normal traffic going through, could it?

waterfront in Portland at the Rock n Roll Portland half marathon 2012 — Good morning, Portland.

Yes it could! I didn’t find out until I was running downhill (finally!) in mile 7 or 8ish when a cop stopped me! I had a nice pace going; I was still chasing minutes from earlier in the race. Out of nowhere in the middle of what was looking to be a 12-minute mile, a cop put his hand up right as I got into the intersection. I had to stop dead in my tracks, super confused.

He started letting cars through the intersection! What is happening here? I crept up right to the edge of the intersection. Both police officers were all, “Ma’am, we need you to stay back.”

I contemplated running anyway. The cars were moving quite slowly. I’d seen runners completely disobey stops before on courses that were supposedly closed. I didn’t know the rules of this situation – if I could get in trouble, or get ejected from the race. I also didn’t want to get run over by a car just to save a minute from my time.

A lot of people complained about the stops after the race. Some people were stopped 6 times! People in the 2-hour range got stopped, so it wasn’t only happening to us slower people.

Around the next mile marker, I thought, “Forget this” (as far as caring about my time). I definitely wasn’t trying to PR on this super hilly course, but I was trying to push myself for at least a good-ish time in comparison to my other ones. When the cop stopped me, I was already 2 – 3 minutes behind where I wished I was. Once he stopped me, I knew I wasn’t going to be finishing in a better range than usual.

The traffic stops became a game for me for the rest of the race. I may not have been chasing a time anymore, but I did not like stopping. Anytime I was coming up to an intersection, if I saw the officers starting to shift towards us to say stop, I’d yell out “no, no, no!” sprinting on through.

How do I finish? I’ll continue tomorrow in part 2.

Rock ‘n’ Roll Portland Expo

May 19, 2012

Elise, Darrin, Chris, and Curtis from the Marriott Downtown Waterfront in Portland at the Rock n Roll Portland Half Marathon 2012 expo — Elise, Darrin, Chris, and Curtis

This expo was awesome mainly because of one booth.

I spent the majority of my time at the booth for the Marriott Downtown Waterfront (which coincidentally is where I’m staying).

Time out to talk about the hotel itself for one second. When I originally put Portland on the schedule, the plan was to stay with a friend out here. Recently, she got a new job and moved. No longer having a place to stay in Portland, I started searching for solutions.

I wrote tons of people on couchsurfing.org with no luck. I asked around on Facebook and nobody knew anyone I could crash with. An incredibly generous blog follower found out that I didn’t have a plan for a place to stay and paid for a hotel room for me – right by the finish line! It could not get any better than this. I’m extremely grateful to him!

Back to the expo, I met these really fun people at the booth. They say my “52 half marathons in 52 weeks shirt,” and started commenting on it. At the time, only Darrin and Elise were there. I found out that Elise recently had ACL surgery (and wanted to sign up for a running event to get motivated), and Darrin has never done a running event! Wouldn’t it be perfect if they signed up for one together?

I happened to come around a shift change, so after a couple of minutes, Curtis and Chris joined us. By the time I left the booth, they had all decided on a 5k that they’d run together on July 15th. Darrin gave me his business cards and told me I could check in and hassle him. I told them this was going on the internet, so they better do it now! I can’t wait to hear about their race!

lip shmear (lib balm) from Einstein Bros. Bagels at the Rock n Roll Portland 2012 Half marathon expo I swung around other booths. There was this electronic massage contraption that I’d never seen before. I tried it out, but to me it didn’t feel good. It felt as though I was being mildly electrocuted every few seconds, but a girl next to me loved it.

Einstein Bros. Bagels had a booth where they gave out coupons for free bagels, and I spun their wheel and got yet another free bagel coupon. They also put “lip shmear” in the goodie bag! I am the driest person of all time, yet I never have lip balm. Basically, what I’m saying is Einstein Bros. Bagels rocks.

Since my knee had been bothering me a little, I decided to try that athletic tape stuff that I always see people getting at expos. It felt good at the expo, so we’ll see how it works out at the race.

After the expo, I met up with a lovely blog reader for lunch. (Shout out to Lawrence!) He had an infectious energy; it was great fun to meet him.

Race report coming soon!

That Time My Heart Broke. Literally. – Part 6 (The First Time They Went Into My Heart)

May 16, 2012

A doctor performing a cardiac ablation on a heart patient — It pretty much looked like this. (Photo from jaxhealth.com.)

It’s Wednesday night, so this series continues.

Last week, in the comments section, Kristen asked me if I could feel the tubes as they go up my body.

(Thanks for commenting. I love when y’all talk to me!)

I could definitely feel the catheters go in. The doctors said they numbed the area, but I could totally feel the pokes down there into my skin. I couldn’t feel the tubes as they traveled up, though.

I couldn’t feel anything in my chest, as far as being poked in there, but sometimes when they shocked me (or whatever that is that they do), I could kind of feel a fluttery, shock-y feeling in my chest.

I don’t think I’ve really said what’s potentially dangerous about WPW.

When someone has WPW, her heartbeat can go ba-dum, ba-dee, ba-doo, following the different pathways. (I think sometimes the electrical signal can go backwards?) A heartbeat can then start to loop on itself, making a heart beat so quickly that the person who possesses said heart passes out (or possibly dies).

So, they do this EP study/ablation. One thing I remember about the first one, is that I was the least awake of all three of them. I think they gave me a little extra of whatever that medicine stuff is they put in my IV.

a cartoon heart showing a catheter ablating an extra pathway from Wolff-Parkinson-White — Get it! (Or not.) (Photo credit: Medtronic, Inc.)

While the doctors were in there doing the test, they also tried to ablate (burn off) the extra pathway, but they couldn’t get it.

I don’t remember the exact numbers they use in the test, and what’s good and bad. I just remember my understanding from the doctor was that I was basically right on the line between probably being okay, and possibly being in a dangerous situation. That’s not a cool line to straddle.

My dad and I hung out in my hospital room until I was discharged. The hospital offered to let me stay for super rad dinner, but it was time to get to work.

(Usually we had Wednesdays off, but in our last week of performances, we had a Wednesday show.) The show was back from the weekend, and so was I.

My dad and I jumped in a cab straight from the hospital, and hightailed it to the theater.

I know I said I thought it was pretty ridiculous for my dad to come all the way to Boston from Ohio just to be there for a little procedure. (And I stand by that.) But, it was really nice that he got to come to the show. He doesn’t always get to see everything I work on (being that he lives far away and all).

Aurora and Ben taking a two-person selfie at rehearsal — with my friend Ben during one of our breaks in a rehearsal

I jumped back into work as though nothing had happened. Ben, my Assistant Stage Manager, was an angel. He always works harder than almost everyone I know, but he was especially wonderful welcoming me back (and triple checking everything for me).

He really made sure I knew we were a team. I was not alone at all, and I appreciate that greatly.

(He even came to visit me multiple times at the hospital (and a few times at home) during all the subsequent ridiculousness over the next few months.)

Back to the actual heart stuff (kind of the main point of this story), the doctor prescribed some beta blockers (and I think some other pills as well, but I can’t quite remember).

My understanding of beta blockers is that they can keep your heart from beating too quickly, while lowering your resting heart rate and blood pressure.

The problem is my blood pressure and heart rate are quite low. My resting heart rate is in the 40s. When I get my blood pressure read, I’m fairly often asked if I’m feeling okay. (I’ve been kept from giving blood before, because my blood pressure wasn’t high enough.)

So, here I am with these already crazy low numbers (mainly due to good genes, I’m sure), and I’m going on beta blockers.

I wonder if that might cause some sort of problem… Find out next week.

(#16) Santa Barbara Wine Country Half Marathon – Part 2 (Animals and Spectators)

May 13, 2012

Picking up from yesterday –

While we’re talking about music on my iPod keeping me awake, alert, and moving – I’d like to say (as if it’s not a known fact) that music from the ’90s is incredible. Seriously. Incredible. If the last time you listened to Nsync was anytime before this morning, it’s time to pop them in your CD player.

Barenaked Ladies, Celine Dion, Eminem, Christina Aguilera, Mariah Carey, LFO – hit me with that ’90s music, ’cause it is awesome! Awesome.

Heck, hit me with that ’80s music – Paula Abdul, Whitney Houston, New Kids on the Block, Wham!, Prince, Madonna, Janet Jackson, John Mellencamp, Stevie Wonder.

Obviously, the musician whom I love the most spans the ’80s and ’90s (and other decades) – Michael Jackson. Sometimes when I really listen to his songs, they make me physically ill because they are so good. Bruce Swedien (his engineer), Quincy Jones (producer) and obviously Michael himself were such geniuses, that you put all three of them together and you get something so good that it’s gross.

But enough about music. That’s not what we came here to talk about. (Although seriously, almost everything that came out in probably about 2005 and before rocked my socks. You have got to go put on some old records!)

Because I had used my map app to get to Santa Ynez, and I knew I’d need it to get home, I conserved my battery by foregoing use of my running app. I figured I’d sort of keep an eye on the time, watch out for the SAG wagon, and just keep moving forward.

I started with a slow pace, and I continued with one throughout the race. Every time I thought I could maybe see the SAG wagon in the distance behind me, I started hightailing it. Whenever I thought there were fewer people behind me than I wanted, I’d jog for a while. But mostly, I just walked.

There was one pretty large hill, and a few smaller ones to compliment it. The weather was nice. It was cool and misty.

There were lots of animals around – horses and such. At one point, I heard, “Watch out for the snake!” My head whipped around. “What?” “Oh, there’s a snake back here. You stepped right past it.” For the rest of that mile, my eyes kept scanning the ground for snakes. I never saw any.

As I came to the relay point (5 something miles in), I thought about how awesome it would be to have someone taking over for me. Nope. I’ve got over 7 miles left.

There were extremely few spectators, but there was one man with a cowbell at one of our turns. He was possibly the most excited man I’ve ever seen enthusiasm course. His enthusiasm was welcomed.

As I went on, two people right behind me had friends getting lunch at an outdoor café. As the runners passed by, the friends gave them bacon! I was jealous. Although, at the first stop, we all had gotten Nutter Butters. Considering I had rejected breakfast in favor of as much sleep as possible, I was very excited about a Nutter Butter.

Closer to the end (mile 11 or so?), I saw a kid with a free lemonade stand. Barely anyone was taking lemonade, and the tip jar looked pretty empty. (Not many people carry money during a race, and many don’t have time for lemonade.) He looked pretty dejected, which made me sad.

I thanked him for being there, but he seemed to be pretty much over it.

Around Mile Marker 12, I met a 60-year-old man who talked to me all the way into the finish. He had truly lovely stories about his mother. (It was Mother’s Day weekend, and she had recently passed away (at 97 years old).) It sounded like he needed this half marathon, so I’m glad he had it. I was happy to have a companion for the last mile.

I finished very slowly, just as I knew I would – 3:43:16

When we came into the finish, they were out of medals. The volunteers were so apologetic though. I didn’t care that much, since it should be coming in the mail. (They offered to let people wait. They said they were coming with medals in about 30 minutes.)

I couldn’t stay awake for 30 more minutes. I walked around the corner, plopped down in the car, and slept for about 4 hours. That night, I somehow made it all the way back to LAX, returning Alamo the car in one piece.

(#16) Santa Barbara Wine Country Half Marathon – Part 1 (Sleepy Girl)

May 12, 2012

For me, sleep is quite possibly the most important ingredient in having a fun, successful race. Sleep is quite important in day to day life, really.

Sometimes it’s fun to be running around on very little sleep – maybe as a writer, or other fun contributing job during tech week of a musical. “I feel great! I’m being creative. I’m busy. Watch me go!”

In other non-tech week times, I think, “Why am I an idiot? I could be sleeping on any schedule I want, yet I’m depriving myself for some reason.”

This was the idiot kind of sleep deprived.

Around midnight, I made my way to LAX and rented a car. I would’ve never thought about renting a car before my adventure to Lake Havasu, but now I view it as an available travel option. I rented from Alamo this time, taking advantage of my sweet Mensa discount.

I am still flabbergasted by the process of renting a car. I handed the agent my license and a credit card, and he said, “Go pick out whatever car you want from rows 3 or 4.” How do you just let me take a car? For all you know, I could be a girl who jumped on a bus to New York the day after her high school graduation party, only driving a handful of times in the last few years. But okay, I’ll just head out to rows 3 and 4.

There were friendly Alamo guys outside who asked what I was looking for, and I said anything small that has good gas mileage. They pointed, saying, “That one.” And I jumped in an Altima.

I didn’t even have to put keys in the ignition! There was a button that made it start. Then the people at Alamo just let me leave. With a car. I mean, this whole idea of renting cars is really crazy, isn’t it?

Somehow I actually made it all the way to Santa Ynez, California. Amazing, right?

I ended up getting a spot right by the finish line. It was a point to point course, so I’d need to get on a shuttle to the start, but I wouldn’t have to do that for another hour or so. I reclined my seat and had a much needed nap. But I wanted so much more than those 45 minutes! I would’ve loved to just sleep for hours, but I had a race to do.

I jumped on the shuttle bus (dozing a little on the way to the start), and got my bib and timing chip once I was at the start.

One good thing about 52 half marathons in 52 weeks is that it forces me to go out there and do my 13 miles. If I could’ve, I would’ve loved to have slept in. I like to think that without this challenge, I would’ve still gone for a run/walk, just later in the day. But this challenge really gave me no choice.

This course had a pretty small field of runners, with only 3,000 were running. Many people probably thought of this course as peaceful and scenic, but I was just kind of bored.

I’m sure a large part of my boredom was from being so tired. Sometimes relaxing, calm, quiet, and scenic is good. I’m sure there are many times I would appreciate it. But today, I wanted another Indiana – a course that never left me without entertainment and tons of walkers around me.

I was basically a walking zombie, clinging to my iPhone for dear life. Yeah, Jordan Knight, sing it to me! Keep me awake!

Do I actually stay awake for the remainder of this half marathon? Find out tomorrow.

Aurora and Her Gas Tank Returning from the Grand Canyon – Part 2 (Hopping Fences, Getting Gas, and Getting Home)

May 11, 2012

View of the Chevron when Aurora De Lucia ran out of gas on the side of the highway in the middle of the desert — This the spot where I ran out of gas. So close, yet so far.

Picking up from part 1, I hop the fence. Next item on the agenda – get a gas can. They didn’t have one in the gas station. (Surprising, right?) But, a man in the shop across from the gas station let me borrow one.

I took the gas can over to the pumps, and was having a hard time filling it. Apparently you have to make a seal. It was nerve-wracking! I didn’t want to overfill the small can.

These two extremely nice women came over to help me. They were an awesome reminder of one of the many reasons not to judge people based on assumptions or first appearances. The women who helped me were in high heels and nice clothes. They had manicured nails and styled hair.

They didn’t necessarily look on the surface like the type of people who’d be comfortable with gas cans, but they rushed right to my rescue. They helped me hold the gas can, and came over to the fence with me, handing me the can after I climbed back over the fence. Thanks, ladies!

Once I got back to the car, I realized that gas cans are supposed to have some kind of nozzle, right? didn’t want to walk to the fence and hop it (and back) again in the sweltering heat. So, I poured from the best angle I could, spilling as little gas as possible, hoping not to catch anything on fire.

Somehow, enough gas got in my tank. I drove up around the long fence, into the gas station, and got my gas!

It was incredible how crowded this place was. There was a line for everything – to buy gas, to buy snacks, to use the bathroom – line, line, line. Someone in the bathroom line remarked to me that they hadn’t seen anywhere to stop in hours. Me neither!

Somebody build some gas stations on the Grand Canyon/San Diego trek already!

I grabbed a Gatorade and some precious, precious Doritos. I took a few minutes out of my car stretching, and hopped back in for another good ol’ stretch of nothing.

You’d think driving home couldn’t be more stressful after that, but you’re not winding around a mountain yet! 2 lanes (one each way). So many turns. On a mountain! I’m never going to make it back to LA alive, am I?

driving in moutains — Where am I? (There were much scarier places driving along a mountain, but there wasn’t space to get pictures in those places.)

Somehow, I made it through the mountain and made my way to San Diego. Thank goodness I had totally been eavesdropping at the Enterprise when they talked to other customers. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have known about the secret hotel valet drop-off after hours, and I would’ve been stuck for the night.

I made my way around one way streets for way too long until I finally figured out how to get to the valet. I sadly emptied my super convenient car, and walked to the Greyhound station to get back to Los Angeles. This was the first Greyhound station I’d seen where everyone was wanded before entry (entry to the outside area, since the station was completely outside).

The ride home was miserable. Mis-er-a-ble. First, I sat next to a broken window where cold air was blowing at my like crazy. I asked the bus driver if he could turn on the heat, but he didn’t speak English.

A woman close to the bus driver translated for us. She told me that the heat was already on. I moved seats closer to a big vent that would hopefully be blowing out heat. Nope. Turns out the heat was not on, but the air was.

I looked around, and every person on that bus was miserable, wrapped up in sweatshirts, blankets, and whatever else they could find. As we started to just maybe try to drift to sleep on a bus that made that next to impossible, the bus was stopped by border patrol.

The stern officer asked each of us for our license. This was the billionth time I’d seen border patrol on this trip. When he started on his questions, including, “Were you born here?” I wanted to say, “How is my license not good enough? Born here or not, I’m a citizen. Please, I’m begging you, let us go home. I’m so cranky and sleepy.”

The bus was eventually cleared. I commiserated about the cold and being questioned all the time with a new friend in the back of the bus. Early in the morning, I finally arrived in Los Angeles, and proceeded to sleep for two days straight (exaggeration).

“My First Half Marathon” – Daddy

May 10, 2012

It’s time for a guest post! (Ish.) I say ish because I’m about to do a lot of talking (writing) as well.

Since it was my dad’s first half marathon, I asked if he would write a guest post for the blog and he graciously agreed. Take it away, Daddy.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

I’ve always tried to be a good dad. You make a promise to your baby girl(s), you keep the promise.

When my daughter ran her first half marathon in 2009, she asked if I’d run one with her when I turned 50 (August, 2011). “Sure I will, honey”, I promised her. I never thought she’d hold me to it (especially after her open heart surgery in 2010), but she did.

So I told her I’d train and be ready to go for the Indy Half Marathon on May 5th, 2012. The most I’d ever walked at one time was 4 miles. What a mistake!!!

By mile 10.5, my feet stopped talking to me. My back hurt, my calves were tight and I wasn’t sure I would make it. Of course, De Lucia’s don’t give up, so I kept going.

My baby girl was VERY encouraging and kept me focused on finishing. It wasn’t fast, but we didn’t see the SAG wagon all day. 🙂 I was so excited to finish the race, I signed up for the Columbus, OH half marathon in October.

Walking 13.1 miles might not seem like much of an accomplishment, but if you are a middle age person who doesn’t exercise much, it is a daunting task. I’m off the couch for good now, and it is all thanks to my baby girl.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Aurora’s response:

The way I remember it (which is of course the right way), is that when I crossed the finish line in 2009, he talked about how amazing it had been to watch thousands of people finish – seeing people cry tears of joy, and sport triumphant smiles. Now he was determined to run one.

I encouraged him to sign up for Indiana, since he said he wanted to run it. That’s when he said, “I’ll do it when I’m 50.”

I mean, come on, why would I have suggested waiting around ’til he was 50? I don’t think in terms of “I’ll wait until I’m this age.” I’d rather just do it now. (Plus, I don’t think anyone should ever define any part of their life by their age, ’cause that’s silly.) I told him he should just do it the following year.

He was all, “Oh, I’ll wait ’til I’m 50. It’ll be a fun thing to do for the milestone and give me plenty of time to get ready.” “Okay then, Daddy. If you want to do it in 2012, I won’t stop you. But you really are going to do it?” “I promise I will.”

Every year I reminded him what was coming up. As he told me on the phone today, he just kept thinking, (sarcastically) “Yeah, sure. I’m sure it’s gonna happen.” I don’t know why he thought it wasn’t going to happen. He had made a promise (yes, to me, but most importantly to himself). This was happening.

He was pretty hilarious on the phone today, saying “At the time 50 just seemed so far away. I mean, heck, I’ll be dead by then! 50? Sure, I’ll do it when I’m 50.”

You may be thinking “Gosh, with a daughter who likes distance events so much, why didn’t anybody help him with his training?” (Not to mention, he works with some people who’ve qualified for Boston.)

For the record, we did warn him. We all told him to train more. My dad would say, “Oh, I do the bike all time.” (Indoor cycling is his favorite exercise.) “I’m getting great cardio in.” (Yes, I know it’s not the same thing.)

Granted, I always warned him very gently. “Um, Daddy, maybe, you might want to walk a little more. If you want.” After all, he is my dad, and a grown up. Generally, he knows what’s best.

He did do three 5ks. (One was actually a 4 miler.) He basically said, “I could’ve easily kept my pace on that 4 miler for another 4 miles. Then I’m already up to 8 miles. I’ll just keep going after that, and can slow down if needed.”

He kept downplaying the half marathon. “I’m only walking it.” 13(.1) miles is a long walk!

At lunch after the half marathon, my dad (unprompted) said that he should’ve listened. He took 100% of the blame for his tired legs and feet. Good. I felt better after that.

Daddy has definitely caught the bug. We’ll be doing the Columbus Half in October, and the Walt Disney World Marathon in January. He’s already talking about improving his time. I knew this would happen, and I’m looking forward to future races!

(I’m really proud of my daddy.)

That Time My Heart Broke. Literally. – Part 5 (They’re Gonna Go Into My Heart)

May 9, 2012

cartoon hearts dressed as athletes, running together — (Photo credit: www.healthyheart.nhs.uk)

It’s Wednesday night , so this series continues.

Last week, we left off at the end of my weekend at Tufts Medical Center.

On Monday, I spent a long time lying in a hole of a big, circular machine (which made a bunch of noise). I think that was a cardiac MRI.

I don’t remember all the tests they did. I do remember that they learned basically every single thing there was to know about my heart.

The left side of my heart is slightly larger than the right. And I have the thing commonly referred to as “athlete’s heart.” (It’s not because I was an athlete. I was a recreational runner before all this trouble, but I definitely didn’t push hard enough to get athlete’s heart by being an athlete. Athlete’s heart just means my heart is bigger than you’d normally expect.)

The size of my heart wasn’t my problem, though.

Stephen (my professor who had to deal with my total freak out over losing studio time) called me on Monday to see how things were going. He called right after doctors had informed me that they’d probably have to go into my heart.

Into my heart? Like, in there? Are you sure? ‘Cause that seems… what, now?

Stephen was really helpful through that (and all the months to follow). I didn’t know any details of what the doctors were planning to do inside my heart, and nothing was certain yet. So, I was cool. But even with being cool, he was reassuring. It was very nice that he checked on me.

toy car on a map (facing away from us) — Daddy, please get back in the car and turn around. I love you so much, but don’t be ridiculous. You know, I am a grown up. (Photo credit: Dreamstime.com)

Speaking of people checking on me, my dad drove up to Boston. I kid you not. I was all, “Daddy. Don’t be crazy. I’m fine. In real life.”

“People are probably going to go into my baby girl’s heart?! I’m coming sweetheart, I’m coming!”

[*Shaking my head*] “Oh, goodness, gracious.”

They did go into my heart on Tuesday. Turns out, I had Wolff-Parkinson-White.

I have heard a fair amount about it, so hopefully I don’t get this next stuff wrong. Wolff-Parkinson-White is a congenital heart defect in which there is an extra electrical pathway on the heart that’s not supposed to be there.

You know how our hearts beat – ba dum, ba dum, ba dum. We have a bundle of muscle fibers on our heart that controls how quickly it beats and takes the electrical impulses along the path they’re supposed to go. (SA node to the AV node, y’all? Maybe?)

Someone with Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) has extra pathways (bundles of fibers) that aren’t supposed to be there. Depending on where the bundle(s) is located (and how big they are), WPW can be anywhere from mildly dangerous to very dangerous.

How can they tell if you have the dangerous kind or not? They can tell by doing an EP study (Electrophysiology study). (That’s the thing they needed to do in my heart.)

Okay, so on Monday, they tell me I have WPW and the next day they’re going into my heart. I know the way it was phrased makes it kind of sound like it might be a big deal. But it wasn’t.

They took me to this room. I’m pretty sure it was cold. I got to listen to Michael Jackson in my headphones. That was nice.

So, they take me to this cold room and give me a little something to make me sort of groggy, but I was kind of awake. They then inserted catheters into veins at the top of my legs.

(Yes, WebMD and internet users, right by my groin (ew)). That’s the word all the medical websites use, but I didn’t want you to have to think about that… Oh well!)

Anyway, so they insert these little tubes into my veins, and thread them up into my body until they reach my heart.

And this is where we’ll pick up next week.

(#15) OC half Marathon – Part 2 (An Exhausted Finish)

May 8, 2012

Picking up from yesterday, my first 5k went pretty well.

It seemed that, somehow, the photographers knew when I wanted to walk. In the first half of the race, every time I wanted to walk I’d spot a photographer. And I always try to run by them like I know what I’m doing.

You may remember, I was an idiot last week, losing my headphones on the flight to Indiana. When I got home, I ripped open my back-up pair. I have really enjoyed going sans music for my last two races. But, coming off of Indiana, I knew I’d need some music to keep me pushing through this race.

I went along going slower and slower, understanding my dad’s exhaustion level from the previous day.

There were some pleasant surprises along this course.

As I passed through a neighborhood, there was a family all gathered in their front yard, putting out watermelon, donuts, and muffins for runners. Amazing, right?

Later on, I looked down and saw that someone had written “Go, Tracy, go” in chalk. I don’t know how fast Tracy is. She may not have been able to see it if there were too many runners by her. If she did see it, I bet she felt pretty special and happy.

Later, I saw a joke written on the ground. “Why did the elephant cross the road?” “It was the chicken’s day off.” As I quietly chuckled to myself, I saw “ha ha ha” in chalk, which for some reason made me laugh more.

There were tons of kids volunteering today. I think children may have been responsible for the various awesome chalk messages. I wonder if I missed any more secret chalk jokes anywhere on the course. Great job being funny, and creative in placement, kids!

I slowed down as the race went on. Somewhere in probably mile 6ish, I called my dad just to tell him I was still alive and definitely gonna make it through this race (and to make sure he was still alive as well). I told him that I was gonna come in around 3:30, but since I wasn’t the last person to cross the start, I had a buffer zone of a few minutes. “You don’t need a buffer zone. You can do it in 3:30.” Huh, well, okay, Daddy. My dad’s driven inflection made me decide that I was absolutely going to cross that line in under 3:30.

Once I had gone a good number of miles, I saw this area where The American Heart Association had a bunch of interesting facts regarding how modern medicine has grown over last sixty or so years. I’m asking around to see if anyone has pictures of all the facts. I wanted to hang out and read, but I was getting slower and couldn’t afford the time.

This race had a cool theme going on – “Why I run.” Every mile marker gave a new reason why people liked to run.

In mile 10, I had the overwhelming desire to jog a fair part of it. I had been slowing down, and could use the time. Plus, I was just tired of walking. As I got closer to Mile Marker 11, I saw a hill. They didn’t have any super steep hills here, but it existed. I figured I’d want to slow down to walk it, but when I approached my legs just said “keep jogging!” I happily did. I reached Mile Marker 11, banking a minute or two. Jogging up that hill helped.

As I got closer to the end of the race, I came to a station of volunteers handing out pretzel sticks and bananas. Thanks, OC half marathon! (I took a pretzel stick. Two adorable little girls handed it to me.)

As I passed Mile Marker 12, I was right at a 16 minute mile pace. I didn’t want to chance coming in even a second over 3:30, so I jogged the last 1.1 miles. Official finish time: 3:27:46

A volunteer put my medal around my neck. (I love when they make it cool, instead of just handing it to you.) I was given a bag of food. Then I hung out around the finish expo. Massage Envy gave free massages, and brilliantly gave out wristbands with a coupon for one in their store. A runner is way less likely to lose something they can put around their wrist than a postcard. They have no place to put the postcard. Brilliant, brilliant idea there, Massage Envy.

First double half marathon weekend down. And I lived to tell about it.

(#15) OC half Marathon – Part 1 (Back to Back Races In 2 Different Time Zones)

May 7, 2012

I may or may not have chuckled a bit at my dad during certain points of the race the day before this one.

Of course I don’t enjoy seeing my dad in pain, but when he’s being so hilarious, how can I not laugh? Not to mention, he readily admits that it was a mistake not to have trained more. How can you not laugh when the person telling you “I’ve walked four miles in a row. I’ll be fine for 13,” is telling you toward the end of the race “I’m never doing another distance event!”

Well, today was payback day. I was the one who got to have a nice little struggle.

Doing two half marathons back to back actually wasn’t quite as bad as I thought it might be. I’m sure it helped that my dad and I just walked Indy. If I had tried to run both halves, I might be singing a different tune.

One of my biggest pieces of advice to my future self, and any of you who want to do two half marathons back to back in different states, is that if you book a plane ticket thinking, “Oh, it gets in at 7:30, I’ll have plenty of time for sleep,” you are not getting in at 7:30. You may be landing at LAX at 7:30. But you have not yet gotten off the tiny plane, onto a shuttle that took you to a terminal, walked outside, waited for the FlyAway bus, finally gotten on the bus, taken the metro from Union Station, walked from the metro to your apartment, (maybe took a short dip in the jacuzzi in your apartment complex to try to relax your muscles a bit before your race tomorrow), gotten ready for bed/your race the next day.

I suppose that wasn’t so much advice as a fact. One I will remember. It actually takes time to get from a plane to your apartment. Weird, right?

On Thursday night, before the Indy expo, I only slept a few hours because I had been on a weird sleep schedule. I hoped denying myself sleep that night would help me get to sleep early the next night – leading into Indy. However, I got a second wind (or maybe just too excited about my huge, favorite race (with my dad!)). I didn’t get to sleep until about 1 in the morning.

Here I am coming off of two days of not too terribly much sleep, and I finally get in bed around 10:30, needing to wake up around 4. Not awful. But not ideal. (And heck yeah, I took a nap on the first plane leg!)

Not that you really need a play-by-play of my sleep schedule, but there you have it.

Getting up sort of hard. I really wanted to just keep hitting snooze until about noon. But, I had a race, baby!

When I finally dragged myself to the start line, I was ready to take a nap in my corral until we actually crossed the line.

I heard marathoners go off at about 5:45. I didn’t realize they started so early until I got there and heard it happen. The half marathoners started at 6:15. It was surprisingly already getting light outside. I appreciated the early start. I’d rather be tired than sweating in the hot, hot sun.

I was determined to jog the first mile, because, you know, it’s only a mile. My legs weren’t that tired. I should certainly be able to do it. And I was. I did it in about 12:20 – not a fast jog, obviously. Any of you real runners out there are thinking, “Are you kidding me? My grandma jogs a 12:20 mile.” At this point in my training, I am happy with a 12:20 mile, and I’m working at least fairly hard to get it. (I’m pretty sure I could go faster if I knew I didn’t have another 12.1 coming right after it.)

My only goal of the race was to finish. The time limit was 3 1/2 hours, so at every mile marker, I checked my time and thought about where I was in the scheme of 16 minute miles. At the end of mile one, I thought, “Sweet. I banked over 3 minutes.” I mixed jogging with walking, and by the end of my first 5k, my average pace was still under 14 minute miles.

And this is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.

(#14) OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon – Part 2 (Daddy Finishes His First Half Marathon!)

May 6, 2012

Picking up from yesterday with all the great fun we had –

In the speedway, there were various cheerleading groups all around the track, bringing their spirit! They yelled out runners names as we went by. I thought it was so cool to hear them shout out so much encouragement to my dad by name.

One group was all decked out with Christmas apparel and props. They had signs with altered lyrics to “Jingle Bells.” (“Oh what fun it is to run the mini-marathon.” (But imagine fun, new lyrics for the entire song.))

We passed mile marker 6, 7, and I think even 8 while in the speedway. Music played over the speakers as we made our way through. “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” came on, and I happily danced around and sang. That song is totally one of my many jams.

A bunch of people got down and kissed the bricks in the Brickyard – a tradition in Indy, from what I understand.

Every time we came to a curb (in or out of the speedway) I’d yell, “hug the curb!” That kind of seems to be my new thing. I don’t know how much time I really save by hugging a curb, but when there’s room to do it without getting in the way of other runners, it makes me feel happy.

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My dad said some hilarious things as we went farther and he got more tired. At various times, he asked, “Is there anyone behind us?” (Maybe you had to be there to see how funny his exhausted delivery was.) I’d look back and say, “Nope, not a single person.” (Don’t sweat it. I was always joking. There were plenty of people behind us.)

Throughout the course, we were entertained by various bands and groups. There were spectators galore. Pretty much the whole city comes out for this race. We passed through neighborhoods where strangers had hoses at the ready to happily spray people. Thanks, strangers! (I even saw someone with a water gun.)

As we came into the final mile, there were a big signs that said “Victory Mile.” What a wonderful way to put it! It’s not a final mile of punishment. This is the victory lap!

There were checkered flags lining the course throughout the last mile. I thought it was so cool. The race people really made that final mile as exciting as they could.

When we were getting up toward the finish line, the announcer was out among the runners, congratulating various people. I pointed to my dad and said “first half marathon!” The announcer said “In another ten steps, you’ll never be able to say it’s your first again.”

That was a very bittersweet moment. How incredibly exciting that my dad was almost done with his first half marathon! But also, how sad that it’s almost over.

Well, I don’t think my dad was sad. I’m pretty sure he was done.

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(Just for accuracy’s sake (vs. what I said in this video) – we had in fact passed mile marker 12, but we were not officially in the final mile yet. We had not yet completed a full .1 after mile 12, just for the record.)

After we crossed the finish, my dad wanted to sit down. I pointed to the medals, but he was not listening. I don’t think much mattered to him at all at that point – not food, not medals, just sitting.

He sat for a moment. Then we collected our medals, got pictures taken, and walked through the food area.

They do food up right here. Cookies, bananas, granola bars, etc. (Marsh the local Indiana grocery store rocking the finish chute!)

The organize it well. You get a bag to carry your various food items. And there are very large signs that say what food and drink is where, so you can easily see and pick what you want.)

I cannot imagine a half marathon better than this one. The OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon is my favorite half marathon. If I had to choose only one to do in a year, hands down it would be this one.

(Side note: My dad took me to Champps (a restaurant I love), which is exactly what we did after my first marathon. And at lunch, he was already talking about his next distance race.)

We survived! Tomorrow, I’ll talk about the half marathon I did today. (And then hopefully I can get my dad to write a guest post!)

(#14) OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon – Part 1 (A Huge, Incredible, Lovely Race)

May 5, 2012

This is the largest half marathon in the country. It appears on many lists of “best half marathons” and “best half marathons for first timers.” I’m pretty sure this is the standard by which all half marathons should be measured.

I knew this would be an excellent first race for my dad. It doesn’t get much better than this.

My dad thought it would be cute if we wore matching shirts (as did I). He wanted to wear the shirt he got for this race. (Of course, I had the same shirt, making that whole matching thing quite easy.)

These are super comfortable, cool looking shirts. “But, Daddy! Everyone will think we’re such newbs!” “I am a newb!” he answered. (From everything I’ve heard, wearing the shirt of the race you’re in is a big tell-tale sign that you’re newbie (unless it’s from a previous year).)

(One of my dad’s many great characteristics is his incredible ability to never care about what anybody thinks of him, so he was ready for us to go be total dorks in our new shirts.)

All right, I’ll jump on the newbie bandwagon. I’ll look super cool ’cause I’ll be with my dad, so who cares? (We look like we’re super cool kids, right?)

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We get to the race and line up in his corral, which is corral Z. I kid you not. The last corral. We couldn’t even see the start line from where we were. We couldn’t even see corral T from where we were!

Corral Z was a pretty hopping corral. It was basically all new people (plus a few supporters of new runners.) It was exciting to see everyone getting ready for their first race. We had a lot of laughs about being so far back. If you think I talk about making new friends, you should go somewhere with my dad. He makes more new friends than I do!

Beach balls were being hit from corral to corral. I yelled up for them to send one back to Z. Someone did, and it was dropped. Someone said, “Oh, corral Z.” We all laughed.

Once we heard a lot of clapping around 7:30, we figured that probably meant the race was starting. Slowly but surely we got to inch our way forward. Eventually, we got to turn onto the street where the start line actually was!

There were big video screens showing people crossing the start. When we got up there, I head someone say the Mayor of Indianapolis was in one of the cranes above us. Hey there, Greg Ballard, if you’re up there!

Not long into the course at all, we passed the Indianapolis Zoo, and you could see an elephant! Not only was there this big, cool elephant – there was a little baby elephant beside it. Awww.

My dad said it was a good thing I didn’t really have a sense of smell because I guess the zoo smelled like animals, or something.

Indy has huge signs when you’re coming up to a water stop. Brilliantly, they have blue ones when you’re coming up on water, and green when you’re coming up on Gatorade. Also, because it was a million degrees today, they had spray stations set up, or in some places people with hoses who would spray you. I walked through every single thing that was spraying water on that course.

I am already back in California while writing this. I actually have the OC half marathon tomorrow! I’m gonna head to bed and I will pick up here tomorrow.

OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon Expo

May 4, 2012

The 500 Festival Mini-Marathon in Indianapolis is known as one of the best half marathons, and I’m not surprised. They started things out on the right foot with this rocking expo!

(Really, today wasn’t the start. they’ve been doing things well for the last few months, sending just the right number of update emails and such.)

Today I got to go with my dad to pick up his very first half marathon bib… ever! I am unbelievably excited for tomorrow.

The expo was decorated wonderfully – decals of feet on the floor leading you in, signage everywhere, tons of friendly volunteers throughout ready to point you in any direction you’d need to go. There was even an exhibit showcasing all the previous years of the Mini-Marathon. It was so cool to take a walk though the history of the race.

We weaved through the humongous expo. I heard about some more races. (A number of races here overlapped with ones I saw set up in Louisville last week. Many things were new, though.)

My dad and I entered various raffles. I happily signed up to be on the national bone marrow donor registry. (I thought it was pretty bomb that they were there. This was the first expo in which I’d seen them.)

They had a sign that said, “Out of the 35,167 runners, only two would be your match.” Isn’t it kind of amazing when you put it that way?

We also stopped by the RunDisney booth. My dad signed up for the 20th Anniversary Disney World Marathon in January. (My sister and I are already registered.)

Signing himself up may have been a bit presumptuous, since he hasn’t done a distance race before… Boy, I sure hope he has fun tomorrow.

We watched a bit of this looping video of the course playing in the middle of the exhibition hall. 13.1 miles seemed to be sort of long way, watching it on video… I don’t think it will seem all that long when we’re actually on the course.

Here’s the scary part. (Dum, dum dum (Those are scary chords to hear in your head.)) There were big signs warning about the weather forecast. (We got warning emails as well.) It’s supposed to be super hot and very humid. We have been warned in large, bold letters multiple times. I’m interested to see what tomorrow brings.

So far, this half marathon has gotten every single thing right. I cannot even wait for the race!

That Time My Heart Broke. Literally. – Part 4 (Tufts Medical Center)

May 2, 2012

interior of Tufts Medical Center (with banner hanging) — Photo credit: John Stephen Dwyer (found on Wikipedia)

It’s Wednesday night , so this series continues.

Last week, we left off spending the weekend at Tufts Medical Center.

Let me tell you, Tufts is sort of awesome. Of course, it wasn’t awesome to have my weekend taken away in the hospital. After every show, my friend Ben gave me updates on everything I was missing at the theater.

But if I had to be stuck somewhere, Tufts was the place to be stuck. Tufts Medical Center is like a hotel – a fancy, swanky, unlimited room service hotel. They have the best food. The. Best.

I had never been admitted in a hospital before, so I didn’t know how the food situation worked. On TV shows, there’s pretty gross food, and not a lot of it. (And there’s always so much jello everywhere.)

In real life, there were amazing plates of pasta, so much delicious toast, and so much more. I don’t even remember everything they had, but it was pretty much anything you could want. You just called down when you were hungry and read from your menu. It was awesome.

a smorgasbord of food — The food situation was pretty much like this… (Photo credit: Miss Maud Swedish Smorgasbord Restaurant (found on TripAdvisor))

And the nursing staff! My goodness, these were the nicest people ever. Everyone was unbelievably sweet to me. The doctors were nice as well. If you ever have to hang out in a hospital, this is the joint. All the cool kids kick it here, ’cause it is the bomb dot com.

Now that I’ve talked about all the amazing things, let’s spend a second talking about how stressful this was already becoming – and this was just the first few days in the hospital.

Back in the day, I was incredibly happy to be busy to a pretty insane degree. Most days, I was scheduled within an inch of my life – multiple jobs, tons of classes, side projects, and on and on.

Wouldn’t you know it? I had this humongous project I was working on for one of my classes. People often refer to it as the biggest project you’ll do in the Music Production & Engineering major. It’s called a sound-alike. You take a popular song, and try to recreate it as best you can – getting every single sound (from the kick drum, to the synthesizers, to the vocalist, and everything in between) as close to the sounds on the record as you can get them.

My first session was supposed to be Monday night. And my overdubs session was supposed to be Tuesday. For a while, I assumed I’d get some kind of test on Monday. The doctors would see this was all some sort of big misunderstanding or broken EKG machine or something, and I’d be let out, never to see another hospital again.

After all, how could something as crazy as having a heart problem happen to me?

On Sunday, I learned from a doctor that they were most likely going to have to do multiple (time consuming) tests, and they probably wouldn’t be able to fit them on the same day. It seemed as though best case scenario for when I’d leave was Tuesday, but Wednesday was more likely.

Wait a second. A weekend vacation was one thing. (One thing I already had trouble wrapping my mind around, but somehow found the ability to let go for three days.) But anything more than that was kind of ridiculous. I mean, doesn’t everyone in the world understand that I’m super busy with my little life, and obviously my world must revolve around me? Therefore, no time for this.

recording_studios_studioA — Can somebody just whip one of these together in the hospital? (Photo-credit: Berklee-blogs.com)

I grudgingly emailed Stephen (the professor I had for the class with the sound-alike), absolutely freaking out about missing sessions on both Monday and Tuesday. (Studio time was extremely precious at Berklee.)

I was already mortified that I had passed out in my class and had to be taken out of school in an ambulance.

Don’t get me wrong. Obviously, I’m a sucker for attention. I will sing and dance and act for hours if you’ll applaud me. But I didn’t want it this way. This way pretty much sucked.

I like to try to be known for you know, being awesome, and handling a lot at once. I like to be known for being strong and driven, not some weak victim. That’s boring, right?

So my goal was not to tell anyone, and already I had to get another professor in the mix.

Of course, because he is an awesome human being, he was very nice and understanding. He said to focus on my health and we’d worry about the project once I was out of the hospital with the all clear.

We’ll pick up here next week.

(#13b) Kentucky Derby Festival miniMarathon – Part 3 (Enjoying The Course, & Catching Up)

April 30, 2012

Yesterday, I left off parting ways with Terry and Randy.

Since this mile isn’t too interesting – I’m just on my way to Churchill Downs by myself – let me give you some highlights from various parts of the race.

I saw fun signs such as “May the course be with you,” and “May the odds be ever in your favor.”

Walgreens gave out free orange slices. That was kind of incredibly awesome.

Before (and after) the race there were people wearing “Ask me” shirts. I didn’t have any questions, but I thought it was awesome that there were answer people scattered around any areas in which runners or spectators would be congregating. A+ job, race directors.

Back to the story at hand – I make it to Churchill Downs, and see Mile Marker 8. Sweet business. I decently hustle through the site of the Kentucky Derby on a little wind-y, paved path in there.

Since the path is winding around, you can see people farther in the distance than you might be able to if we were still in a straight line. Lo and behold, I see Terry and Randy. And I’m pretty sure I can catch them! I take off, pushing myself, running as fast as I did in my first mile.

“Terry! Randy!” I call out once I’m within earshot. They turn around, see me, and slow down as I continue working hard to catch up.

I did it. Right before Mile Marker 9, panting and sweating, I catch up to them. I’m incredibly happy to see them again, as running without them wasn’t as fun.

They were kind enough to say that they’d just been talking about missing running with me. Awww.

My pace definitely slows down in the last four miles, but you know, I’m tired! We mix up some fast walking with some jogging.

Going into mile 12, Terry looks Randy and me, and tells us it’s only a little over 1/10 of a mile to the mile marker, so let’s jog.

Around this time, Kelly Clarkson’s “Stronger” blasts out of some nearby speakers. Perfect running song.

We start jogging our way there. Randy goes back to walking a tiny bit before the mile marker. I look at him and yell, “to the mile marker!” He picks it right back up. They had done such a good job of pushing me; I had to return the favor.

At mile marker 11, Terry disappears in the distance, finishing in sub 3 hours. I wanted so badly to run with him, but I couldn’t move that fast!

I encourage Randy to run forward. Assuming I don’t get injured in the last two miles, I can’t imagine a scenario in which I wouldn’t beat my PR. “Thank you for all your help, now run ahead and finish strong!”

He says he’s not finishing without me! We walk most of mile 12. As I reach mile marker 12, I stretch out my legs a little. (They were working hard!) As we left that marker, our time hadn’t quite hit 2 hours and 50 minutes.

I didn’t want to get too lazy in the final 1.1 miles, but I didn’t know how much more I could jog. Randy would have us jog to a stop light, then walk to the next one, and on and on.

Before you knew it, we turned a corner, and there were throngs of cheering spectators.

I happily ran on through. Official time: 3:04:47. Boom, baby! A new PR (by over 7 minutes!).

The fabulous volunteers wrapped me in one of those special plastic blanket things and put my medal on over my head! Celebrity treatment, baby. Did I mention this race was the bomb?

(I think the amazing Planet Smoothie I had the day before helped. In case you haven’t heard, I’m obsessed with Planet Smoothie. It is the most delicious thing. Ever. I drink gobs of it anytime I’m in a magical place that has it.)

I went and enjoyed the wonderful finish festival with Randy and his friends. We saw an awesomely fun recycling booth (sponsored by Coca-Cola). (Recycling is cool.)

I got a free massage and met the coolest, nicest girls – Stephanie and Liz. (You have to see Liz at Beyond Massage Louisville the next time you’re out there.)

My incredible dad hooked me up with my favorite foods – lemons, pickles, and Doritos!

Amazing race. Amazing people. I’ll go ahead and make the absolute statement. This is, thus far, my favorite race of the year.

(#13b) Kentucky Derby Festival miniMarathon – Part 2 (Awesomeness, Rain, And Falling Behind)

April 29, 2012

Picking up from yesterday –

That first 5k was awesome. I’d almost forgotten what it’s like to run a pretty super huge race.

This race was basically perfect. There were tons of runners, yet I never once felt crowded or trapped in a certain pace.

Another thing that was completely awesome – as we were running up to the water stop, there was a humongous sign saying “Water Stop.”

All the mile marker signs were also very large. It was nice that everything was so big. When you got tired, you were able to see pretty far into the distance and get excited about what’s coming next.

I was genuinely surprised at every mile marker from 2 to 5. “Mile 5 already? Are you kidding me?” I was still keeping up with Randy and Terry. I couldn’t believe it.

Terry’s a cross-country coach. Of course he wasn’t struggling one bit. Randy was doing his first half marathon! He was full of energy and always ready to keep running.

Somewhere along our run we passed a White Castle. Oh, precious, precious Midwest/east coast. I wanted to run off the course and grab a slider. Of course I didn’t, but I will not go back to Los Angeles before I have at least one!

It started to rain partway through the run! I’d bought a new waterproof phone case at Ragnar last weekend. (They were on sale, and my old phone case was completely falling apart.)

Though I enjoyed my new case, I had wondered whether I really should’ve bought it. (All money is money that could be going toward future races).

When the rain poured down on us, I knew it was a wonderful purchase.

It rained just enough to cool us down, but not enough to make us soaked and uncomfortable.

Randy posing in front of the finisher's backdrop at the Kentucky Derby miniMarathon — This was me distracting Randy before he got his finisher’s photo taken

After I hit mile marker 5 with Randy and Terry, I wonder if maybe, just maybe, I can stick with them ’til the middle of the race.

Sure enough, I do! I’m a little exhausted by this point, but feeling amazing.

We hit 6.55 miles in under an hour and 30 minutes. As we get closer to mile 7, I’m feeling that I’m not gonna be able to keep up. I’m pretty flabbergasted that I’ve made it this long with them. So, I’m gonna go ahead and call this a win.

I’ve warned them that I’m not gonna be able to keep up with them through the whole race. When the time comes, they should run ahead and not feel bad about it.

They had said if I could make it to mile marker 8 with them, they’d walk around Churchill Downs to take in the scenery/ambiance and such. I pushed. I tried. I couldn’t go that fast anymore.

I said “I don’t think I can make it!” Meaning, “I don’t think I can make it at your pace. Please run ahead.” But all the people around me who heard that jumped in immediately with loud encouragement. “Yes you can! Don’t give up!”

I really appreciate the sentiment, but goodness, it was a ton of people jumping on me at once! Don’t sweat it. Nobody freak out. I’m not dropping out of a race with a six hour time limit. I’m just slowing down from my new stranger friends.

I’ll have to be more careful with my wording and volume in the future. Note taken.

I stayed with Terry and Randy until we hit mile marker 7, when I happily let them run ahead. I certainly wasn’t going to slow down too terribly much though. These boys worked too hard pacing me toward a PR for me to let them down now!

Will I ever see them again? Will I make them proud by getting my PR? Find out more tomorrow!

(#13b) Kentucky Derby Festival miniMarathon – Part 1 (Morning & Corralling)

April 28, 2012

Someone holding a "May the course be with you" sign at the Kentucky Derby Half Marathon — I loved her “May the course be with you” sign

I’m calling this half marathon “13b” because I got lost on the course last weekend, accidentally taking some distance off.

Today started off in sort of a funny way. My dad warned me on the way to my grandma’s, “You have to be careful what time you say you want to get up. If you say you want to get up at 5, she’s going to wake you up an 4:30 to make sure you’re actually going to get up.”

Sure enough, at 4:25, someone is poking me. Yep, it’s my grandma waking me up.

We get ready and head to Louisville. I ditched my headphones for this race, because I had a wonderful time in Havasu opening my ears to the people around me.

(Also, I’m pretty sure I left my favorite headphones on the plane coming out here! Don’t fret too much, I think I have an extra pair of my Sennheiser PMX 60s in my apartment, in case I were to break or lose the pair I totally just lost…)

Last week, I’d worn shoes that aren’t quite broken in all the way. Here’s the thing about those shoes – they fit well and feel incredible on my left foot. They hit me in a weird place on my right foot, which was sort of painful. I think I may have two slightly different sized feet… I’m figuring it out. The point is, my right foot had been hurting a bit, but it felt great this morning. Woo hoo!

The sidewalks were packed with people, but I made it to corral F. I looked around for new running buddies. There were a lot of people in the zone, with earbuds tucked in. There were a couple of pairs of people deep in conversation with each other. And then I saw a group of four people laughing. I told them they looked to be the most fun people in the corral. They welcomed me into their little group with open arms.

Huge Louisville Slugger bat on the side of a building — Some of the Kentucky scenery the boys were pointing out to me

Terry was in the midst of a pretty brilliant idea. There were $500 coupons on our bibs for a car from a dealership down in Louisville, but there was no fine print. He was collecting coupons from everyone who wasn’t going to buy a car, with the plan of going into the dealership, and dumping all the coupons on the table. “Car, please.”

He didn’t keep up with this idea, but I do think trying it would’ve been interesting, if nothing else.

At the beginning of the race, I didn’t try to stay with my new friends, figuring they’d be too fast for me. Not all that long into the first mile, I realized Terry and Randy were just to the left of me, and we were pacing about the same.

I jogged over there and it was a very exciting reunion, even though I’d only been away from them for maybe about .3 miles.

We ran together and they were hilarious and full of energy. We finished the first mile in 12:12. I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep that pace up for the next 12.1 miles. But I thought I’d see if I could keep up with the boys through the first 5. Luckily, they slowed down a little, but we were still jogging at a nice pace. I made it through the first 5k with them.

Think I can keep up with them any longer? Find out tomorrow.

Kentucky Derby Festival miniMarathon Expo

April 27, 2012

Girls covered in dry mud handing out information on a mud race at an expo — Some fun muddy people at the expo

I sped through this expo as my dad circled the block a few times. Cars. They ruin everything/make some things better.

Either way, with 18,000 runners doing this race, he understandably didn’t want to do the whole parking thing. So he circled the building while I did a very quick circle of the expo.

The first thing I saw was the set-up for a pasta dinner, which I think is a brilliant idea – having the dinner in the same place as the expo. It couldn’t be easier than that.

As I wound through the path of booths, I camp upon a set-up about the benefits of beef.

I don’t hear a lot of good stuff about red meat, but here were people at a running expo, giving away activity books full of good messages about beef. They also had free signs available so you could write encouraging words to your runner, with the message on the bottom – “powered by beef.”

Next up, there was a booth for a mud race called “Run the Gauntlet.” The people giving out flyers were dressed up in dried mud. They stood out from other vendors, brought us right into the experience of the day, and made it look fun. Brilliant idea, y’all.

Speaking of “y’all,” Kentucky accents rock.

Ohio tourism had a booth set up. I spun a wheel and won a free pass to Zoombezi Bay. Yee haw! It doesn’t open ‘til the summer, so I probably won’t be around the Midwest. Still cool.

benefits of beef at the Kentucky Derby Half Marathon expo — a blurry picture of the beef booth

I make a quick dash out of the expo, fighting through the large crowd. Then I jump in the car.

(Thank goodness after my pretty recent crazy weekend of actually driving… you know, in an actual car, I’m back to being the passenger. I love when I’m in the Midwest and my dad lovingly takes the incredibly un-fun job of driving. He’s awesome.)

As we go up to Cincinnati (where we’re staying, ‘cause my grandma lives there), I go through my bag of goodies from the expo.

I pull out a gift card for $500 to a new online retailer. What? Are you serious? $500?

I’m reading all the fine print about how they’re giving money to help get the word out. Neither my dad nor I really believes this can be true with no catch, so I jump on my iPhone and check out the website.

Turns out, you have to pay 9% in real money. I guess that’s no so bad… if you wanted anything on the website. But, as far as we could tell, they only sold sunglasses and watches (and not sunglasses that covered huge parts of your face or watches that tracked your running for you). Oh well. We keep looking through the bag.

“At least we got $10 off at Dick’s Sporting Goods!” (reads fine print) “Oh, but it doesn’t apply to Brooks shoes!”

At this point my dad hilariously makes fun of my “bag of disappointment.” Tell me about it, right?

We laughed and laughed, and before you knew it, we were at my grandma’s house. Dinner. Sleep. Kentucky Derby Half Marathon coming up tomorrow!

(#13a) A Run Through Redlands – Part 3 (Getting Lost (And Getting A Snow Cone))

April 26, 2012

Picking up from Aurora De Lucia at the finish of A Run Through the Redlands half marathon 2012, holding her snowcone and medal Part 2 –

I’m going uphill forever. My legs are all, “Uh, Aurora, didn’t we just do this at the Grand Canyon last week?” Immediately following up with, “Whatever, girl. We trust you. We love working out. It’s nice of you not to take us to such a high altitude this time.” You’re welcome.

A couple of women catch up to me, and we walk together-ish.

Miles go by where we don’t see anyone – not a volunteer, not a police officer, nobody. We’re not even the last runners, mind you! It’s a ghost town out there, which is a bit crazy. What if someone had gotten hurt? And with all the dogs in that town, I’m pretty surprised I didn’t get eaten.

For a number of miles, we still see mile markers at least. Even though there are no other cues telling us we’re on course, those let us know we are. Then we get to this point where there are no signs nor volunteers to tell us which way to turn. Which way do we go?!

Super responsible half marathoners know the course and don’t need to rely on volunteers, so I need to shoulder some blame here. I did have my phone. Conceivably I could’ve looked up a map. (Of course, I have the absolute worst sense of direction in the world. Ever. Of anyone. In the world. Ever. Even with a map, I’m not sure I would’ve turned the right way.)

I ask these women where to turn. They say left, seeming confident in their choice. Off we go.

A while later… it’s been a little too long since we’ve seen a mile marker.

We learn we’re off course and hear (from a phone call they make) that we’ll run back into it if we keep on going this way. Full speed ahead, I guess.

Before you know it, we’re almost at the finish line! We’d inadvertently taken a mile (maybe even closer to two?!) off our route. Ugh. I hated merging back on the course feeling cheater-y.

All the “great job” sentiments from people mean way less (if anything) when you don’t feel you really did the half.

I walked past the turn that led to the finish line. As the police officer looked at me sideways, I explained I’d gotten lost and wanted to do a little more distance.

I walked forward and back a few blocks a couple of times. (I didn’t want to lost again, by golly.)

As I came back toward the finish, I saw a booth with snowcones. Sweet Business. I haven’t seen a water stop in who knows how long. This is wonderful.

I stand around talking to the people for a nice long while. (I don’t want my time to be too fast, with the cut mileage and such.)

After a number of minutes, Johannah comes my way asking if I’m ever going to finish the race. I think about ditching the snowcone for the finish, but Jo says it’ll look cooler crossing the finish line with it in my hand. She’s right.

But there wasn’t a race photographer there to catch it! I finished in about 3:23 (with a 4:30 time limit), and they’d already sent the photographer home.

Jeanette was sweet and took some pictures of me. After I crossed, the volunteers handed me a plastic bag that had my medal inside of it. A bag? Hmm. A little anti-climactic, no?

Do medals always come in individual plastic bags first? That kind of seems super wasteful. Maybe it protects them, but goodness that’s a lot of plastic!

After the race, Jeanette gives me the celebrity treatment – driving me all the way back to Los Angeles!

I did two miles on the treadmill to make myself feel better. Luckily, I’m doing more than 52 half marathons, so let’s not even count this as an official half of mine.

Next up – The Kentucky Derby Half!

That Time My Heart Broke. Literally. – Part 3 (First EKG/Weekend in the Hospital)

April 25, 2012

Aurora's EKG after open-heart surgery — (I don’t have any pre-surgery EKGs on my computer, but here’s a post-surgery one)

It’s Wednesday – time to continue on with this series.

Last week, I left off with getting my EKG more than once.

There seemed to be some debate as to whether I was going to be sent home. My understanding is that there was a shift change going on. It kind of seemed as though two doctors were overlapping, and both were sort of in charge.

The one who was about to leave said he was pretty sure something was wrong and wanted to keep me overnight. The one who was coming on seemed to be of the mindset of “eh, you’re probably fine. Let’s send you home.”

Of course, I wanted to leave. I had never in my life missed a show, and I was not about to start now. The doctor who seemed to be starting her shift came in and told me they were going to discharge me. Rock on.

Before the other doctor left, he came in and said that while they were going to discharge me, he didn’t feel completely comfortable with that. He wanted me to promise him that I would come back the next day and get an echocardiogram.

“Um, sure. I guess. Why not?”

“No, really. Really promise me that you’ll do it. It’s important. I want to go home knowing that you’ll do it.”

“Okay. I’ll do it.”

My professor who taught the class I’d passed out in called me later that night, before my show, to see if I was okay. I told him the story, and said I was at the theater and that I guess I’d see tomorrow if anything was really wrong. He assured me that since they didn’t keep me things were probably all right. Yeah, good point. Agreed; they probably are.

Aurora's heart beating in an echocardiogram — My heart during a much later echocardiogram (after open heart surgery)

I told key people at work the story and warned them that there was a tiny chance I wouldn’t be there the next night, but I didn’t anticipate that happening. I mean, really. Theater has always come first. What could ever make me miss a show?

The next day, I dutifully returned to the hospital, as I had promised the nice doctor I would.

They took my EKG yet again. This time, when a doctor came to see me, she seemed pretty shocked that I had been discharged the previous day.

I got the echo. They said it was a little abnormal. That’s when it all really began. All of a sudden I was being admitted to the hospital.

It was weird to have an unexpected experience I wasn’t familiar with whatsoever. I’d seen people be in hospitals on TV, but never that moment when they were admitted. It wasn’t all that special – just paperwork and a wristband.

Still, it felt weird to be doing this brand-new, nothing-to-compare-it-to thing. Often if you’re gonna do something new, you read and prepare. But to have a totally new surprise… It was… Well, it was surprising, I guess.

I called work and guiltily gave them the awful news. They got someone to sub in for me.

Here’s the thing about being admitted to Tufts, with a rare heart condition, on a Friday – they don’t do a lot of their more advanced (non-super-emergent) tests on weekends. A one night stay immediately turned into a three night stay.

If all I was going to do was sit around all weekend, I really wanted to go to work. The hospital people were not keen on that.

I didn’t know whether I had a serious health problem. I didn’t know how much I could fight to be let go, or what the process is with signing an AMA form. I think there are some downsides with an AMA form… I still don’t know, actually. I didn’t look too deeply into it. People at the theater were being cool (well, cool enough at least), and the doctors were being quite serious (making it sound as though it’d be a really bad idea to leave), so I didn’t.

We’ll pick up next time with part 4.

I’m curious, since I’ve been doing this for three weeks now (and since this story is going to go on for many more weeks), is this a story you’re at all interested in? I know people have asked me about my heart condition and time in the hospital, which is why I started doing this every Wednesday night. Obviously, I’m throwing the super non-abridged version at you. So, I’m just curious if anyone likes this series, or if you all just skip reading on Wednesdays and think I should scrap it? Thanks!

(#13a) A Run Through Redlands – Part 2 (Dogs, Dogs, Dogs)

April 24, 2012

A Run Through the Redlands Half Marathon 2012 — It was kind of scenic in the Redlands.

Picking up from two days ago (as yesterday’s post established my humongous fear of dogs) –

To say I’m not an “outdoorsy” person is an understatement. I do everything I can to hide from the sun. I don’t know how to swim. I’m petrified of animals.

I enjoy the sweet, sweet indoors. If it were up to me, I would never run on anything but a treadmill. (I suppose it actually is up to me, being that it is my life.)

Even though I’m not much for the outdoors, I like challenges, interacting with the running community, and medals.

Usually, I barely even consider half marathons to be outdoors. I know they are, but city streets are often blocked off, thousands of runners are on the course, and I don’t feel as though I’m super exposed to the elements, I suppose.

This was a small half marathon, through a bunch of residential streets. It was the first one where I saw a runner with his dog in the race! As far as I could tell, this was not a service dog – just a man, wearing a number, out for a 13.1 mile run with his pet.

I passed numerous houses with dogs. Luckily, I couldn’t see most of the dogs, and I could see the owners. So, I figured I was safe.

Trees during a Run Through the Redlands Half Marathon 2012 — There were lots of trees on this course.

As the back of the pack thinned out, there were areas where I couldn’t see other runners. Not long after I passed one of the last sets of volunteers, I came upon an area by a narrow street in the middle of a woods-like place. I heard super loud barking. My head darts in the direction of the noise.

To my left, there’s a fence. Behind that fence are two very large, angry looking dogs. I can see their faces, because they are coming out from over the edge of the fence. They’re not struggling one bit to have their face completely visible. I was going to take a picture for you, but I was too terrified of having my face chewed off.

My heart stops for a moment. I look around. Is anybody out there who can save me if things go poorly through here? Are the owners around? …I really hope I don’t lose my Achilles tendons today.

I highly consider making a break for it and running as fast as my short legs can carry me. However, I think that’s going to make the dogs want to chase me, right?

Here’s what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna go by very slowly. I won’t look at them. I will walk as far, far away, on the other side of the street as possible. Here goes nothing.

very scary dog yelling as he's half jumped over a fence — It was kind of like this, only worse!… Probably. (Photo credit: http://www.dog-obedience-training-review.com)

As I’m walking along the other side of the street, I hear them barking. Their barks turn into a low growl. Uh oh. I don’t think that’s good.

I start to get scared that maybe I’ll turn around and a dog will literally be right behind me, having jumped the fence. Although, I’m pretty sure I would’ve heard them jump over the fence, right?

I just keep walking. Slowly. One foot in front of the other. I finally turn a corner. I can’t hear the dogs anymore. I look around – no dogs in sight. Sigh of relief! I’m still alive!

But I have something like 6 or 7 miles to go… Aye, aye, aye.

Tomorrow, we return to the Wednesday night series about that time my heart broke – literally. Then, Thursday night I’ll finish with part 3.

(As I’m done talking about dogs for now, let me leave you with one last clip from Friends.)

(#13a) A Run Through Redlands – Part 1 (Supportive New Friends, & Course Thinning Out)

April 22, 2012

Jo_after_half_marathon — Johannah in all of her glory. That’s right – 2 medals. She placed in her age group.

I spent the weekend with Jeanette and Johannah (of the Tour de Palm Springs weekend).

The day before the race, Jeanette drove us up the first half of the course (which was mainly all uphill). (Awesome.) I learned that we would basically be running on the sun. (Oh no, not again.)

It was really nice to have people around who thought ahead about the half marathon (knowing the elevation changes and weather forecast before going out on the course). A novel idea, huh?

Last time I learned to forget vanity and routines. I scrapped my normal race outfit in favor of pajama pants and a white tech shirt. Best decision of the day.

With an incline for most of the first half, mixed with running on fire, I figured I’d basically take a 13.1 mile stroll. (Johannah knocked it out of the park, finishing in 2:06:38.)

I had a nice time walking through the course, doing light jogging here and there. As the crowd thinned out, “Disturbia” came on my iPhone. I start moving my hips as I walk, hoping maybe that’d be some kind of additional workout.

Redlands_uphill — Did I mention uphill? This is basically what you’re looking at for the first 6 miles.

I start to get lost in my tunes, seeing myself onstage at Madison Square Garden, going full out popstar mode. That’s when I see Jeanette with Gatorade. We’ll pretend I wasn’t just completely embarrassing myself there.

Jeanette showed up at a few points along the course to be a personal water/Gatorade station for Johannah and I. Incredible, right?

The course was really well supported for the first few miles. There were volunteers everywhere. The first water station was there before I even hit the first mile marker.

As I was taking a nice walk through the Redlands, the course became less and less supported. Even though there were still a couple of groups of walkers behind me (far enough to where I couldn’t even see them anymore), I came across volunteer after volunteer leaving as I passed.

I got to a water station where people were in the midst of dumping all the water, and warned them more people were coming.

This was a little disheartening. I had a person looking out for me if I needed water or Gatorade. And I’ve done plenty of half marathons, so I don’t need the encouragement that maybe a first timer would.

A pair of women caught up to me later. They were both doing their first half marathon, and they went miles without seeing a soul.

a dog in a yard — One of the many dogs in these neighborhoods that is most likely going to eat my face off. Probably.

We weren’t going to come in right at the time limit either. We were on track to come in at least 50 minutes before the course closed.

I understand that we were going quite slowly, and I appreciate the race director putting such a relaxed time limit on a hard course.

But, my opinion is that if you’re going to take away all the support before a number of people get to it, make it known that support will stop after a certain time (or just make a tighter time limit), please.

The back of the pack was really spread out. At first, I was thinking I enjoyed the scenery and alone time… Until I realized that everyone in Redlands has a dog.

I’ll pick up with dogs tomorrow.

Ragnar SWAT Volunteering

April 20, 2012

I wanted to wait until next year (when I’m hopefully faster) to actually run in Ragnar.

This year, I got to enjoy the next best thing – being a SWAT volunteer. SWAT stands for “Sweaty, Wet, and Tired,” because you work a long shift. Mine was only about 13 1/2 hours. I’ve heard that some people go for 24.

In case you haven’t heard of Ragnar, it’s a 200-mile relay that takes place in various cities around the country throughout the year.

I didn’t know anyone running, but thought it sounded fun to volunteer. I put a post on Ragnar’s Facebook page, and found a fun group who needed volunteers. I met one member of the team at the Hollywood Half Marathon, and most of the other members today.

It was a day of hurry up and wait. Every few hours it would just so happen that I’d have to assign volunteers, answer a bunch of questions from runners, and respond to a semi-emergency on the walkie all at once. Then I’d sit around and do nothing for two or three hours until the craziness started up again.

I had an incredible group of volunteers I got to work with. I used to work a lot in theater, and I miss feeling responsible for organizing details and people. They bus parts of the day were an extremely fun challenge.

Aurora gets her own walkie talkie/phone communication system at Exchange 6 at Ragnar SoCal 2012 — Look! I got a little communication thing with my name on it and everything. I’m special, right?

I worked at exchange #6, which was the start of the race for the second van. We had check-in, safety briefings, and generally a bunch of stuff going on at our exchange. There was plenty of stuff to do to keep volunteers busy.

In the non-busy parts of the day, I walked around, checking in on lovely volunteers. It was nice to see the action of the day from different places.

One of the few disappointments of the day was when I sat down for a couple of minutes at the back of the check-in tent after a round of checking in on people. The race director came over and saw me doing nothing when someone had just complained to her about a trash can that was overflowing. (The trash filled up so quickly!) Don’t you hate that when the boss catches you at exactly the wrong time?

The only other major disappointment of the day was that I brought my sunscreen from the Grand Canyon with me. I put it under the check in table, and it got packed deep into the big Ragnar truck! Once I realized it was gone, there was really no getting it back.

Everyone always complimented the smell of that sunscreen. It went on easily. I felt very protected by the sun. It was almost a brand new bottle. What a bummer, right? And I didn’t even remember what the magical brand name was! Fortunately, I have a friend working at the Grand Canyon this summer, so Josh should be able to remind me what brand it was.

One thing I learned, from a runner’s standpoint, is that you should get to Ragnar early. People love slap bracelets, and we ran out. Exchange 6 (and Exchange 1) both ran out of a fair amount of stuff. That really sucks for the fast people, because they’re the ones who start latest in the day. For people who didn’t get t-shirts or things, Ragnar made sure there were some waiting at the finish. But still. Check in early if you can, was a lesson I took away from this.

One of the stations we had today was set up next to a booth selling waterproof (Lifeproof) iPhone cases. The more I walked by the booth, the more I wanted that new phone case. My old one was pretty torn up. I’d heard so much about the amazingness of having a waterproof/drop-proof/almost-everything-proof case. For all my crazy running/adventure purposes, it seemed to be a great idea.

big field with runners and volunteers at booths in Anaheim at Exchange 6 during Ragnar 2012

Of course, I am trying not to waste money. Racing all the time is expensive, after all! But, they had a demo with a tank. And the cases were on sale. At the end of the day, I’d been convinced, and got my phone case.

(Edited to add: It rained Portland and other cities. Thankfully, it was a worthwhile purchase.)

Before you knew it, that last runner came through the chute, and the Ragnar staff had their truck out of there soon after.

Incredible secret: If you’re a SWAT volunteer 3 times in one year, you can get a free team entry to Ragnar! I can’t wait to run in this race in the future!

The Grand Canyon! – Part 4 (Struggling to the Finish – The Beautiful, Beautiful Finish)

April 19, 2012

Picking up from Part 3, we’re hiking up South Kaibab.

On the way down, I would not shut up about how pretty the Grand Canyon was. I kept looking down at my feet as we walked. And every time we stopped, I looked up and couldn’t believe where I was. Every time. You’d think the beauty would’ve been all old hat by the third or fourth time it happened. But no. I was amazed every time. And I took forty billion pictures.

On the way up South Kaibab, I finally became more and more over it as time went on. I was so over taking pictures. This thing that had lured me in with its beauty now had me trapped!

I was having an awesome time, but hating how much I was struggling (while the boys around me weren’t struggling at all).

As we get closer and closer to the top, I get slower and slower. Josh starts to fall behind to talk to me. In super labored breathing, I say, “Go. Go do your thing,” I didn’t want to hold him back. And he says, “You’re my thing.” And stays with me!

In any other context, “You’re my thing” might sound weird. But I thought it was the perfect thing to say here. Put that in a movie ’cause that’s where people usually say the exact right things.

Josh_on_top_of_the_world — Josh on top of the world!… or a portion of the Grand Canyon at least.

While we’re talking about Josh, he actually had another perfect reply moment over an hour later, when I was really feeling guilty about being so slow. I said, “Go. Keep up with your friends.” He said, “You’re my friend.” Was he or was he not on fire that day?

Sometimes I forget how great of a friend Josh is. I also forget how funny and good at listening he is. An example that illustrates both of those qualities – in the canyon, I said a few times how excited I was to cry about all of this later. Much later, when we were hugging goodbye, I asked if we could cry about it. He said, “Well, I know how much you’ve been looking forward to it all day,” See? He listened to my blathering (which I had actually forgotten about), and had a really funny response.

Anyway, enough of that. With only a couple of miles to go, we all stop one more time to eat. I break out the Doritos, since they are pretty much a superfood. Adam seems to think bringing Doritos was a genius idea. Well, shucks. Thanks. Of course I share and bask in the glory of being a total boss at hiking. Well, except for the fact that I was basically out of water by this point. All of the boys had extra, ’cause they were the real bosses of hiking. They sweetly shared.

I struggle like never before in the final mile and half or so of the ascent. I was pretty sure we were never getting out. The trail just wraps around forever, right? There is no exit. I live here now?

I have friends who have hiked the Grand Canyon (other non-hiking friends, mind you) who were all, “Oh, it’s so fun. It’s an amazing hike. We just went down 6 miles and back up. No big deal.” How is it that I am the only person I know who struggles here?

I like to think that it has something to do with the altitude. Someone did point out that I live basically at sea level. 7,000 feet above that is rough.

This has been a very rude awakening for me about how exceptionally hard Kilimanjaro is going to be. I used to think “altitude, schmaltitude.” Nope. I think it matters.

Grand_Canyon_Sun_in_pic — One of these spots would be a nice place to put that pic from the end of the day after we conquered the canyon… too bad it’s on someone else’s camera, since my phone had died by that point. I’m looking at you, Josh!

As we’re walking up the final switchbacks, and I don’t think we’re ever getting out, Josh is pretty sure that we are. He was a great motivator, believing we would get to the end.

I like to think I was still a tiny bit fun at the end, but I was delirious by that point, so what do I know? I was probably a huge cranky pants.

Lo and behold, we turn a corner, and there’s the exit! No way! Laughter through tears (ish) – the best emotion. (I was too tired to actually cry (unless you had needed me to in a show, at which point I’m always game).)

We did it! Over a half marathon distance of the Grand Canyon covered. It was a struggle, but a crazy fun one. The boys were awesome. The scenery was gorgeous. The workout was amazing.

Watch out canyon, I’m coming for you next time! Colorado River and back. I can do it! (Yep, that’s right. Apparently, I didn’t learn anything.)

That Time My Heart Broke. Literally. – Part 2 (I Passed Out In Class)

April 18, 2012

Aurora De Lucia giving a little "I'm under the weather" face — Just a little picture of one of my under the weather faces 😛

Taking a short break from the Grand Canyon –

I’m still trying out this series covering my heart issues/time in the hospital. Since it’s Wednesday night, it’s time for the next installment.

I left off in late July with the doctor saying to come back in a few months if I still felt that something was wrong.

I was really not feeling well in September. In early October, on a Wednesday, I was completely out of energy. Completely. I could barely get out of bed.

That past summer, I had done my first half marathon. Supposedly, I was training for a full marathon. What was happening to me?

I honestly didn’t know if I could make it out of bed and out of my apartment. I wasn’t familiar with emergency rooms, and didn’t want to do something so drastic as to go to a hospital.

I opted to go to an Urgent Care facility, skipping my favorite class in the process. I felt guilty and bummed, skipping that class, but I didn’t think I’d be able to make it through it.

They gave me a once over at Urgent Care, took some blood, told me to go home and rest, and that they’d call with the results. Luckily, we were in performances of the show I was working on, and didn’t have any shows on Wednesdays. I had the whole night off to sleep.

ambulance from with bright lights — (Photo credit: Zoominmedical.com)

I woke up on Thursday feeling even worse than I did on Wednesday. I didn’t have the energy to do anything. I pulled on a hoodie, and left without even brushing my teeth.

I walked into school with my retainer still in. If Urgent Care didn’t find anything urgently wrong, I couldn’t very well miss class.

I think my teacher asked before class if I was feeling okay. I said I was really under the weather, but that I really wanted to be there. I sat in the corner, and just tried not to draw any attention to myself. That plan burst into flames when I passed out in the second half of class.

Guh.

I was so embarrassed when I opened my eyes and was on the floor. Mainly, I was embarrassed that people were around me and I still had my retainer in. Yikes, right?

The paramedics came. Everyone thought it would be a good idea to go to the hospital to see what’s up. Okay then.

They asked me in the ambulance if there was a specific hospital where they should take me. Uh, no. I don’t know. Just take me wherever you take people.

Outside view of Tufts Medical Center sign — (Photo credit: Sampan.org)

Once at Tufts Medical Center, an administrative person took my insurance information, and I hung out. I kept watching the clock ’cause I had a show that night. Luckily, this happened in the afternoon, so I knew I’d be okay on time.

I figured they’d probably just tell me to drink a ton of water, or whatever it is they tell people who pass out, and then send me on my way. After all, my doctor dismissed my concerns, and Urgent Care hadn’t seemed to find anything. So, I’m sure I’m just under the weather.

That’s when a medical professional (nurse? doctor? I don’t remember…) entered the room. “Hi Aurora. Have you ever had an EKG before?” “No, why?”
“No reason. I’m just gonna take it again.”

I think I ended up getting it taken 3 times that day. The way they said “No reason. I’m just gonna take it again,” I knew. I knew something was up, but I didn’t know what.

Was something up? Well, being that you know the end of the story is me having open heart surgery, I’m gonna go ahead and guess something was. You’ll see next week in part 3.

The Grand Canyon! – Part 3 (We Found Civilization Again!)

April 17, 2012

from Tonto trail Picking up from Part 2, we continue making our way across Tonto. After we walk a few miles, we end up passing other human beings coming from the opposite direction.

We ask how far they’ve come, and find out we’ve got about another hour to South Kaibab. We cross this water place. I don’t even know what it was. It was bigger than a puddle, smaller than a river – just some area of wet, dirty water.

Of course, as I’m trying to step around it, I step right in it. Oh well. I’m wearing my oldest pair of shoes, and Josh’s sweatpants over my pajama pants. Sorry, man.

By this point, it’s hot out, so my leg dries off quite quickly. The last mile or so of Tonto was where hiking started to get you know, kind of hard. Dr. Brandt (Madonna’s dermatologist) always encourages people not to be outdoors between 11am and 4pm, since those are the hottest, sunniest hours. (Yes, I have read both of his books.)

We’re somewhere smack in the middle of this time as we’re hiking across the Grand Canyon in a path with very little shade. I was putting on sunscreen like I needed it to live. Luckily, since I’m a total boss at hiking, I had lots of water and Gatorade, so gulp, gulp, gulp.

Before you know it, in the distance, I see… “Oh my gosh!” “What is it?” “We made it to the next trail!” The boys thought maybe I had seen something scary when I saw the South Kaibab trail. Let that be a lesson to all of us to be careful about the type of inflection we use when we go across canyons together.

Aurora De Lucia and Jessie hiking on Bright Angel Trail in The Grand Canyon (Anthony in background) — Me and Jessie hiking (Anthony in background)

So, I’m happily freaking out, because we’ve sort of kind of found civilization. The boys start joking that it’s just a mirage, and I need more water. Don’t sweat it; it was not a mirage.

Since I don’t ever have to use the bathroom ever anywhere (ask my dad how weird and awesome it was that I never had to stop on road trips as a kid), I talked to strangers while the boys did their boy business.

There were tons of nice strangers in the canyon that day. All of them seemed so legit. “Oh yeah, I’ve been down to the river and back before. I’m heading down to Phantom Ranch today.” People had their little poles, and real climber-type equipment. People move fast in this canyon! I totally saw all ages and types, ranging from kids to elderly people go faster than me throughout the day.

We take a small break to eat (again). We’ve earned it, by golly! It felt as though it was the longest 2 mile walk I’ve ever done. Probably because it was 4 miles.

Off we go again, up South Kaibab. Oh no. It’s so steep! And hot. I can do this…

I sort of keep up ish for a little while. We play that Contact word game here and there. Usually, I’m yelling from behind. (But it makes it seem even cooler when you don’t say anything for a while. Then all the sudden, the boys are directly above you on one of those switchback things, and you yell out something that helps the game. Yeah, baby.)

They were really good about never abandoning me. They may have been faster, but they kept tabs on me, making sure I wasn’t dead. They were gaining energy as I was losing it, stopping fewer times than on the way down. When they stopped, I would try to walk ahead, knowing they always caught up.

Not that I carry the weight of women everywhere on my shoulders or anything, but I should’ve been representing as the only lady in the group. The only thing I was representing was the group of doofi who thinks they can go from never hiking to hiking a whole bunch of the Grand Canyon. (Doofi, according to the internet, is the plural form of doofus. However, I didn’t find any reliable sources. If you know something different, let me know.)

As the sun kept beating down, and we were on a more “path-y” path (where my legs didn’t need to be as super protected from nature), I ripped off those black sweatpants, in favor of my I Love NY pajamas.

Of course, this meant I now had to carry yet another thing in my bag. Thank goodness for all that time I spent living in New York, where you have to carry everything everywhere. I’m a boss at carrying stuff.

Do we ever make it out of the canyon? I’m guessing yes, since I’m writing this post. But you never know. Find out in Part 4, coming soon.

The Grand Canyon! – Part 2 (Let’s Take the Scenic Route)

April 16, 2012

view of side of Grand Canyon from the first mile or so of Bright Angel Trail — Going down on Bright Angel Trail

Picking up from Part 1,

After that first hard, slushy mile, we come upon a lot of awesome workers putting down whatever it is they put down to make it less muddy. The trail becomes way easier to walk on, and I start really holding my own.

I was worried there for a second that the day was going to be full of me trying to keep my balance, and them being held back. (In case anyone is wondering, I didn’t fall once. Thanks yet again, tap dancing through high school.)

After the ground gets sturdy, not only do I keep up with the boys, I keep up with Anthony at the front of the pack. The boys stop to talk to friends they know working the Grand Canyon that day, and they stop to look at plants and things. I think, “What an awesome day this will be. They like to keep an easy pace, stopping to look at a lot of things. Sweet business.”

I knew that Anthony would be a good person to stick around. I saw earlier that he has a knife (2 knives?). So, he’s the one who’s going to protect me when a bear tries to eat me… Or he’s going to murder us when we reach a secluded place. But, I’m 99.9% sure that he’s going to protect, not murder us. So, it’s all good.

around Tonto trail in Grand Canyon We keep going along. Anthony regales me with stories. (He’s quite an interesting guy.) We take a little break 3 miles in. (3 miles, already? This Grand Canyon is going to be a total piece of cake.)

As we walk along, I’m already total inviting myself on future hikes. “Guys, this is fun, beautiful, and awesome. I don’t live far away at all. Next time you have an adventure, you should totally give me a call.”

I’m sure they’re thinking, “Who is this stranger inviting herself on future hikes with me?” And I’m thinking, “Oh my goodness, I know people who live and work at the Grand Canyon. How unbelievably cool. They’re gonna know all the cool stuff to do and the best trails and they’re gonna hike all the time. I totes want to be a part of that.”

We make it all the way to beautiful Indian Garden (4.5 miles down) and stop to eat. (Yum.) This is also when we started playing this super fun word game called “Contact.” Ask about it the next time you’re on a road trip (or in a distance running event) with me.

Now that we’ve made it to Indian Garden, it’s time to make a game plan for the rest of the day. Adam (the super experienced hiker) suggests we walk along Tonto until we reach South Kaibab. “It’s only about 2 miles, and it’ll be fun to go up a different, scenic path.”

All of us agree. “Okay, cool. Sounds awesome. Yeah, I’m up for anything.” etc.

Josh House and Jessie at Indian Garden 4.5 miles into the Grand Canyon — Josh and Jessie at Indian Garden

We start heading over on Tonto. This trail is much less traveled than Bright Angel (which is the one we came down). But still no animals or murders, so the day is good. The trail is also a lot narrower and looks to be a little more dangerous.

Okay, cool. Well, I’m just gonna do my very best not to take a wrong step and end up falling to the bottom of the canyon.

For a while, I keep up with Adam, who is now at the front of the pack. I really did not want to be the hiker holding anybody back. I’m sure Adam viewed me as an annoying 5-year-old with my passive questions, though. “Uh, so do you always hike this fast?”

It felt almost like a trail race as we were going across. How did we speed up so much from our super easy downhill decent? It was all good though. I like pushing myself.

a view of the Grand Canyon I took from a field from East Tonto trail to West Tonto trail

After we’d hiked 2 miles with no end in sight, we realize the main trails are more than 2 miles apart. I didn’t mind ’cause I thought it would be fun to spend the whole day hiking anyway. The more distance, the better, right?

As we keep walking along, I fall more toward the back of the pack. It’s me and Anthony walking together all over again. We agree that if either of us fall, we’re gonna save the other person. No man gets left behind!

Someone who can fend off an animal and will save me from a fall? Perfect.

Does he ever have to save me? I’ll tell you more tomorrow in Part 3.

The Grand Canyon! – Part 1 (Going On a Whim & Prepping for the Hike)

April 15, 2012

Grand Canyon view from the top with a little bit of snow How did I end up in the Grand Canyon on a whim?

On Friday morning, on the way to San Diego, I get a call from one of my friends from high school. He tells me he’s interning at the Grand Canyon all summer, starting a few days ago.

Me: “Los Angeles isn’t all that far. I should totally come visit sometime!” Josh: “Yeah, that’d be awesome!” “Huh. You know, I’m actually in Arizona this weekend for a half marathon… Maybe I could come on Saturday night?” “Really? That’d be sweet.” “Hmmm… Let me see if I can work it out with buses and stuff. I’ll let you know.”

Then, as you know, I ended up renting a car for the weekend. I called Josh on Friday afternoon. “So, I have a car; guess that means I’m coming to the Grand Canyon. Be prepared to hike that sucker!” “Great! We’ll see about that whole hiking thing…”

I get a call right before my half marathon on Saturday. “It’s snowing here.” “What?!”

Snow or no snow, now that I have a car, and am already in Arizona for a race, I’m might as well go see him. At this point, it’d be silly not to, hiking or no hiking. (But I’m still hoping for hiking.)

On Saturday, after a lovely lunch with Wendy and Marty, I hopped in the car and made my way to the Grand Canyon(!) I saw Josh’s sweet digs. Then we went and looked at the Canyon. We could only see a tiny piece of it; it was super foggy out. The one snowy piece we could see was really cool. I couldn’t wait to see how much we could see the next day.

One of these to be replaced with a picture of me and Josh from the day I got there. Josh, this caption is directed at you. Please send me all the lovely pictures when you get a chance… but get a chance in the near future. Thanks. – Aurora. 🙂

We ate dinner at a cute little lodge place, then we went back to his trailer thing.

When we get back there, He gets a text. It’s one of his friends asking if anyone wants to go hiking tomorrow. Aw, yeah! I tell Josh we have to do it. Since his friend is an experienced hiker, and is willing to go out on Sunday, Josh figures the weather won’t be that bad. So, okay, sure, we can go. (Yay!)

We get a good night’s sleep, and wake up early to go conquer this thing. I had read all the visitor information I got coming into the canyon. I had never been hiking before, so I needed to make sure I was gonna be a total boss out there.

I had come pretty woefully under prepared for this trip. The “hiking” shoes I had were just my running shoes. (Thank goodness I had used my old Asics for the race, instead of my new Brooks Pure Connects. I can only imagine trying to hike in a super lightweight, barely there shoes. Even my Asics were crazy compared to the real hiking boots all the boys had.

Shoes aside, we went to the general store in the morning, and got some Cliff Bars, Saltines, and Doritos (of course). (We already had plenty of water and Gatorade.) Okay, I’ve got lots of fluids and a bunch of salty stuff. I’m totally a hiker. I know what’s up.

Off we go to the Grand Canyon with Josh’s friends – Adam, Anthony, and Jessie. Adam was a super experienced hiker. Jessie was smart and funny. Anthony was an interesting, super positive ray of sunshine throughout the entire day.

(None of those attributes are exclusive to any of them – All 3 were great at hiking. They were all happy, positive, interesting, smart and funny. It was an awesome group. I just gave you the main qualities shown to me by each guy that day to try to help you differentiate as you imagine them in this story.)

At the beginning of the day, we’re all discussing how far down to go.

Me: “Let’s go down to the bottom of this trail.”

“That’s 12 miles in total.”

“Yeah. It’ll be fun.”

“Didn’t you just run a half marathon yesterday.”

“Don’t sweat it.”

“Let’s just go down to Indian Garden (4.5 miles), and we’ll see how we feel.”

“All right, all right.”

So, we start down. The first mile or so was slushy and slippery with all the mud and snow melting from yesterday. I was going oh so slowly in my shoes that were definitely not equipped for this. I’m sure the boys were thinking, “Oh boy, what kind of day do we have ahead of us?”

Did I end up falling over? Did I totally regret suggesting oh so many miles? Possibly. Find out tomorrow in Part 2.

(#12) Havasu Half Marathon

April 14, 2012

In mile 2, I found this really fun group of runners – Sara, Ben, and Nolan. It was Sara’s first half! Their goal (as was mine) was to finish, with no specific time in mind.

We jogged and talked (and they entertained me) for a couple of miles. I told them there was probably no way I’d be able to keep pace with them for the rest of the race. I’m stronger in the first 4 miles than I am in the middle. (True that.)

They were awesome! They would not take no for an answer. I pushed through mile 4 to stay with them. I wanted to start walking in mile 5. They weren’t having it. “You can do it, Aurora. Come on!”

You’re right. All right. I’m with you. We kept jogging, taking a couple of fast walking breaks here and there.

When we crossed London Bridge, I saw a photographer. “Look! A photographer! Let’s all look like we’re really good at running.” As we passed, the photographer said, “Wow, you all look like you’re really good at running.” How fun, right?

Everyone I met in Havasu was so polite and sweet. Most of the runners wouldn’t even drop their cups on the ground!

Aurora and her new friends running the Havasu half marathon — (I was trying to look cool, but as we can see from the photo they were looking way cooler.)

I saw people look for trash cans, not find any, and then say “I’ll just hold it ’til I get to the next one.” It’s a sweet idea, but this is the first place I’ve ever seen runners be that polite.

I dropped a cup out of habit a couple of times when I didn’t see trash cans after the water stops. I thought, “ugh. You’re being ‘that girl’ – a rude LA person.”

Hopefully no one noticed or cared… I saw some other people doing it. It was the first time I ever felt weird about it…

Around mile 7, I looked at our time and realized, “Holy cow! If we keep this up, I’m going to get a PR. Here we go, friends. 3:14 or better. We can do this!”

We ran together for a while longer. Around mile 9-ish, I became the one saying, “You can do it!” They were saying “Go on without us!”

We did a nice job encouraging each other for so long. I didn’t want to leave without them. Ben told me, “In all seriousness, go on without us. We can’t all keep up, and we want you to achieve your new goal. Go ahead.”

Aurora De Lucia holding a newspaper she's in — Look, I made the papes!

Thanks, Ben. Okay. I’ll miss you all! I ran forward. It wasn’t quite as fun running alone, but I was ready to make my new stranger friends proud!

I fired up some music on my iPhone, and kept on running. At each mile, I was still on pace to break my PR (but not by much).

I passed a familiar face, when I saw Marty (of Wendy and Marty), working a water station..

As I’m running into the final mile, Wendy, sweetly and supportively comes along to jog the last bit with me.

We come around the corner toward the finish. I turn up Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror.” Sing it to me, Michael! (I think I literally said, “Sing it to me, Michael” out loud.) His voice played in my headphones as I ran to that finish line.

The official half marathon clock hadn’t hit 3:13. My official time: 3:12:02. I did it! A new personal record, y’all. I would not have done it today without the kindness of strangers.

That Time My Heart Broke. Literally. – Part 1 (I Think I’m Getting Sick (You can skip this one.))

April 11, 2012

drawing of a human heart suffering from wolf parkinson white, with alternate pathway in yellow — (Photo credit WeilCornell.Org.)

I suppose it didn’t literally break, being that I was born with a heart problem… But I didn’t know about that heart problem until 2009.

I’m gonna try this new series, in which I eventually tell the whole story of getting sick and being in the hospital (or as I liked to call it, the hops).

The current plan is to do a post every Wednesday night. We’ll see if this turns out to be interesting. I’m learning about blogging, and taking it as it goes. Why not try this and see what happens?

Originally, when I started drafting these posts, I was talking through at least three of them (way too many) about June 25, 2009 – the day Michael Jackson died (and my birthday). That is the day my heart really broke.

(*Note: This post makes me sound pretty crazy and possibly too sad. The hospital stuff gets less emotional (usually). Expect this to (hopefully) be the only crazy, sad post. Feel free to skip this post that’s nuttily mainly about Michael Jackson, and go to part 2.)

I never met Michael Jackson. Yet, he had an incredibly profound impact on my life. Just one example is that I went to Berklee in large part because Quincy Jones (his producer) went there. (I know that’s maybe in the slightly nuts category, but that’s how it is.)

Michael Jackson changed my life. I. did. not. know. how to be a person once he was gone. (I’m still not positive I do.)

Michael Jackson with the sexy looking down, hand sort of in front of face pose from the In The Closet video — (Photo from Michael Jackson’s “In The Closet” shoot)

Not to sound like a complete downer, but on June 25, 2009, I was broken.

I tried to go for a run since that was the only way I knew how to deal with problems, but I broke down and sobbed for hours when “I Wanna Be Where You Are” came on my iPod (while Michael Jackson was on every TV, on every station playing in the gym).

I had the empty glass eyes when I went work, able to get my responsibilities done, but nothing more. When I was able to drag myself to school, I sat in the back of my classes, looking down. Sometimes I wondered what I was doing at Berklee.

Let’s get real. I would’ve worked with Michael Jackson someday. I would’ve done whatever was necessary to make it happen. I believe that. Now it literally cannot happen. There are so few things in this life that are actually completely impossible. Working with him is now one of those things.
[Edited to add: I did go on to work with his family.]

(I hope this is not the first post of this whole blog you’re reading. I promise you I don’t usually sound this crazy, nor this incredibly conceited. Or at least I believe/hope I don’t… I told you to maybe skip this one!)

So, in June/July 2009, I was basically an empty shell of a human being, questioning everything about my life, having no idea how I was going to survive. Within a few weeks of that fateful day, I tried – I tried so hard to put myself back together.

Michael Jackson was able to do anything. I should be able to as well. I tried to remember to eat. I tried to run. I’m strong. I know I’m strong, right?

So, I tried – I laced up my shoes, and gave it a go. My feet weighed 90,000 pounds. I was unbelievably tired all the time.

Homer Simpson running — Why is running so much harder than it used to be? (Photo credit: Fox/Matt Groening (from The Simpsons))

I knew I was upset, but it felt as though something physically was wrong too. I like to think I have wonderful willpower, and I was trying so hard to be a human being again, but I just could not do it.

I don’t even believe in “I can’t.” Anything is possible. But at that one moment in time, for the first time in my life, I thought there was something I could not do.

I went to see a doctor on July 29, 2009, a little over a month after Michael Jackson died.

“Please help. I’m drinking lots of water, and taking iron supplements. I fall asleep throughout the day. I try to run and can’t. What’s happening to me?”

“Give it time. I don’t think the problem’s physical.”

“It must be. I can feel that it’s not in my mind. My willpower is strong. My body is not.”

“Come back in a couple of months and let’s see what’s happening.”

We’ll see what’s happening in part 2, next week.

(#11) Hollywood Half Marathon – Part 4 (Didn’t Set Myself Up Well… But At Least I Was Surprised By Lovely Friends At The Finish!)

April 10, 2012

Picking up from yesterday, I never did see a SAG wagon. Anytime I looked behind me, I still saw plenty of people and no wagon. At the turnaround, I had seen people over a mile behind me.

I heard that the SAG wagon at this race was a limo. I’m not sure that’s true, but I guess if you’re ever gonna get picked up in one, that’s the way to do it.

I had a talk with a good friend and fellow runner the other day about how so many different things play into a run – what you ate, how you slept, which shoes you’re wearing, your attitude, and on and on. I’m glad I’m not the only one who feels that way.

I slept in my own bed 25 minutes away, so I should’ve had the best sleep of my life. I ended up waking up in the middle of the night, and got maybe 5 hours of sleep.

I ate a little too much before a race. I was up for so long, I kept snacking as I caught up on Grey’s Anatomy, which was unnecessary – the snacking part, not the Grey’s part. Not to mention, as we all know, I wore shoes to a race a bit before they were ready.

Basically, due to my own personal failings I didn’t set myself up for the best race I could’ve had. I think I’ve typed that before here on the blog, in Rock ‘n’ Roll New Orleans. That race happened to fall the weekend after my previous PR, just as this race fell the weekend after my current PR, so maybe that has something to do with it as well.

Based on the way I was feeling in the morning, I knew I’d be pushing the time limit on this race, so I kept an eye on my running app at every mile. The first 5k was fine. I got markedly slower while “killing the hill” (or, I guess “lightly causing mild discomfort to the hill”).

I stayed ahead of time limit pace until mile 10-ish when I had slowed down enough to be right at the edge. I was pretty shocked that the SAG wagon was nowhere in sight. I think the race directors were super lenient on the time limit. A number of people finished after me, with some coming in at around 4 hours.

In mile 11 (going uphill), I see Joe (Ragnar runner #7 I’d met that morning), running back toward me. He did my last mile and half-ish with me. He had finished long before me, and was nice enough to stick around and do the end of the race with me!

(He seems to be a really great guy. His girlfriend is overseas serving in the military. He does tons of running events for her, videotaping them, then sending her videos. What a sweetheart, right? It was great to have him around to keep the conversation going for the rest of the race.)

The end of the race was downhill. Sweet business. Joe and I took off for a jog through the finish. There was a little red carpet leading to the finish line, which was pretty cool.

Almost right after I cross the finish, I get a phone call from Fareed! (My lovely friend from Washington DC, who happened to be visiting Los Angeles.)
“Aurora! Congrats on your half marathon!”
“Thank you! I just finished.”
“We’re here.”
“What?!”

Turns out he and Amber (my unbelievably stunningly gorgeous, sweetheart, lovely friend, who my entire group of friends is basically completely in love with, because how could we not be?) are there at Universal Studios.

I (obviously) freak out! I cannot believe that my friends put forth the effort to fight LA traffic (with closed roads and all!) to get to a super popular destination, just to be there at my finish.

Joe and I make the trek up from the finish line to the theme park. As I’m waiting to get on the stairs to the overpass, I see my friends down below waving. (Yay!)

Joe and I part ways. I run into Fareed and Amber’s arms, and we went to a lovely brunch together.

I couldn’t imagine a better way to end that race. I absolutely adore them both! What an incredibly lovely surprise.

As you can tell, this race had some growing pains being the first year and all (and I had some bad decision making). But I have no real complaints. I think the race director tried really hard to make a great race. I’m sure the one in 2013 will be even better. And I had an extremely fun day. For what else could I ask?

(#11) Hollywood Half Marathon – Part 3 (No Electrolytes, So I Got My Own!)

April 9, 2012

Yesterday, I left off talking about the water stations running out of cups.

So, the volunteers ask the runners to cup their hands out as they run by. All right, that’s not that big of a deal. Then I see a lot of runners – a lot – grabbing the jugs and putting their mouths on them, then running off.

Now, I’m not weird about germs or anything. I know humans have strong immune systems. I share food with my friends, no problem. But, I didn’t think I wanted to drink from a jug that had who knew how many people’s germs on/in/around it. I decided to just forgo water – until around the turnaround, there was a station that still had cups. Yee haw!

At every drink station I passed, I thought, “Maybe the next one will have a drink with electrolytes.” Nope. Next one? Nope. Next one? There never seemed to be any electrolytes to be found.

As the sun came up and started beating down on us, and as we kept traveling up an incline, I really wanted to start shouting, “Will sing and dance for Gatorade!” Maybe, just maybe, a spectator would throw me some.

I didn’t actually start doing showtunes for Gatorade. (And there weren’t all that many spectators, anyway.) At one drink station, I did see a teensy amount of pink in the bottom of a jug.

man spinning a "Kill the Hill" sign at the Hollywood half marathon 2012 — a guy spinning the “Kill the Hill” sign (but not near the biggest hill of the course…)

Oh my goodness, they have a drink with electrolytes after all! But, judging by the free-for-all everyone had been having with the water (It was like the Hunger Games out there!) – I decided against drinking it.

For once, I actually had a debit card with me out on the course. There had been a lot of conflicting information about bag check for this race.

It was happening. It wasn’t happening. Back and forth from different information sources on different days. I took the safe route and brought basically nothing extra with me, except my debit card, which I shoved in the back of my phone case.

I kept my eyes peeled for any place that would sell Gatorade. I saw a couple of places on the other side of the (very wide) street, but I wanted a place as close to me as possible. I saw a Starbucks on my side (which would’ve at least had water), but of course there seemed to be a line.

Then I saw it – a 7/11. (Cue heavenly music.) I ran inside, grabbed a water and a Gatorade, got back out on the course, and started downing my drinks!

The streets in LA are like the ones I came across at Rock ‘n’ Roll Arizona – they’re tilted. People in cars probably don’t notice, but on foot, you can definitely feel that the middle is higher than the outsides. It was hard to navigate that and try to pick the best parts of the street to stay as even as possible.

As I kept on going, there was this one spectator I kept passing from Alpha Running – a running club in Los Angeles. She was so supportive! I’d met her at the expo, and I saw her at three different times on the course. She kept moving to different locations to see her runners as many times as possible. She kept yelling out, “You can do this, 52 in 52” when she saw me.

10k Finish line at the inaugural Hollywood Half Marathon 2012 — Look it’s the finish line! Haha. j/k. Only if you’re doing the 10k!

I’ve heard people complain at Rock ‘n’ Roll events that it’s rough when you’re doing the full marathon, and in the middle of your race, you pass the finish line for the half – hearing everyone screaming and music playing.

I got to experience that a bit myself today when I passed the 10k finish line – which was cool, ending right at Hollywood/Highland. (It wasn’t that big of a deal though. I was ready to keep moving on.)

I turned the corner going back toward Universal. I knew ever since those first miles downhill, that I’d end going uphill. Talk about killing a hill – this is where the real hill was. So, I went up. And up. And up.

I was really pushing the time limit on this one. (3 1/2 hours.) I would never let a SAG wagon take me, but I was getting a little nervous that I might see it.

Did I? Find out tomorrow.

(#11) Hollywood Half Marathon – Part 2 (Inconveniences)

April 8, 2012

Picking up from yesterday, the race starts going through Universal CityWalk.

In theory, this is a great idea. In reality, it’s very crowded and next to impossible to start at any kind of pace you want – well, maybe not in the super fast corrals. It’s probably (hopefully) not that way up there.

I fight to get around very slow walkers all the way through CityWalk, until we finally get out and get tons of space. It’s downhill for a while. (I think maybe about the first 3 miles.) I had just read an article in a running magazine about Boston and how to properly train for the hills. The writer of the article was stressing the importance of not going too fast on downhill sections ’cause you ruin your legs for everything that comes next. I really kept that in mind, and took it oh so easy as we kept going low, low, low, low, low, low, low, low. (Did the Flo Rida song just jump in your head?)

(Side story: I was in the car with my dad a few years ago, and “Low” came on the radio. I hadn’t even heard it yet. He said, “I love this song!” He turned up the radio, and sang along with every word! He is the coolest.)

Back to the half marathon, I saved my legs pretty well while going downhill. I didn’t push too hard. I was doing about 13 minute miles. We passed the Hollywood Bowl, and the big Hollywood/Highland intersection – I guess the iconic Hollywood spots. (I’m not really sure what’s iconic here.)

As I was going along, these peppy women came through and asked everyone to go to the side. We were making way for someone hula hooping through the half marathon. She was working on setting a world record for hula hooping through the most miles – and she did it! (Hey Becky, the gauntlet has been thrown down! You ready to overtake this girl’s world record?)

Once I got to Hollywood and Highland, I decided to finally try to take a real picture (thinking it’d be the most interesting area of the course). Of course when I finally slowed down enough to take a picture – that’s when I saw a photographer! He was the only one I saw on the whole course (other than at the finish).

I tried to get back into a nice looking stride, so he’d hopefully get a nice picture of me, but I think it was too late.

[*Click. Click.* “Oh look, Ripley’s… A photographer? Agh!” *Awkwardly stepping over myself to look as though I was really running* Aaaaaaand epic failure.]

misspelled mile 3 mile marker at the Hollywood half marathon 2012 — Photo courtesy of fellow runner Michelle. And yes, it does say “Holywood” (with one “l”). I’m glad other runners pointed this out to me. I thought it was hilarious, and I can’t believe I missed it!

I went pretty slowly for the rest of the way. My body wasn’t hurting, but my feet were (even though I really did have wonderful shoes that I can’t wait to keep breaking in).

It was sort of embarrassing when Joe (who I’d met that morning) and Wendy (of Wendy and Marty) both passed me on the turnaround super early on… and I was there just walking.

The water stops were on the left hand side so they could serve as the water stop for both sides of the turnaround. For easy logistics, I understand. But those dreaded left-side water stations on really wide streets are quite inconvenient. Then again, there aren’t all that many water stops in a half marathon, so it’s not that big of a deal.

Speaking of things that are inconvenient about water stops, they ran out of cups super early on. I know I was having a really slow race, but the one I passed around, I don’t know, maybe mile 4 was also supposed to serve as the one for mile 9 or 10 ish, and by the time I passed it (the first time) it was already out of cups!

The volunteers were real troopers, keeping up high energy and asking people to cup their hands out for water.

There’s a lot more to say about water stations and getting electrolytes (and possibly a small surprise for me…) tomorrow.

(#11) Hollywood Half Marathon – Part 1 (Oof. Trying New Shoes On The Day Of The Race? Tsk Tsk)

April 7, 2012

LA Metro subway car empty in the morning. — The oh-so-crowded LA Metro in the morning

Remember the crowded public transportation in DC? Not here.

During the expo yesterday, the Hollywood Half Marathon’s Facebook page blew up with complaints about traffic and parking. I figured everyone would wise up for race day and say, “Forget it. Let me hop on the subway so I won’t have to worry about any of that.”

Nope. ‘Cause I live in LA.

This morning, in the words of Paolo Nutini, “I put my new shows on, and suddenly everything is right.” I cannot believe I neglected to mention in my post about Ohio that my family bought me a new pair of kicks!

As you know, I’ve kind of been a little obsessed with Brooks ever since I saw the amazing Brooks carnival display in New Orleans.

While in Ohio, I tried some Pure Connects, and was hooked. They’re so light! I can fly in them – and I don’t mean fly as in go super fast, I mean fly as in Peter Pan – get lifted off the ground and fly around.

I’ve been sort of breaking them in-ish, over the last couple of weeks with short jogs or walking. In my heart, I knew I should’ve definitely done more actual long-distance running in them before today.

I knew they weren’t totally broken in, but I figured they were broken in enough. My other pair (my Asics Kayanos) were getting tired of being raced in every week. I knew I really needed to start alternating. I threw caution to the wind and put on my new sneaks.

My shoes felt so amazing in the morning. As the day wore on they started to feel tighter and hurt a little. Brooks is an awesome company with awesome shoes that shouldn’t take any blame for my mistake.

But definitely, the longer that half marathon went on, the more my feet hurt. I ended the day with 4 blisters (all on the same foot). (You’re welcome for omitting the picture of that.) But, blisters can be fun, so I didn’t mind.

As I get ready for the race, I pull out my Hollywood Half bib, but there aren’t any safety pins to be found. Luckily, I have a number of them left over from other races, so crisis averted.

Also, there weren’t any zip ties or any kind of tying apparatuses that usually comes with timing chips. I just used my shoe laces to hold it in place. Problem solving in the morning. Woot woot.

I head out the door and onto the nearly empty subway, where you would never have any idea that a race is taking place that morning. When I get up to Universal Studios, I’m unbelievably pumped to finally find my very own picture to submit to The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks.

This morning, I also meet Joe, Ragnar runner #7 on the team for which I’ll be volunteering in 2 weeks. (I’m so stoked about that!) He was incredibly nice!

horse at saddleranch at universal studios with extra quotation marks saying "please" don't sit on me — My picture for the “blog” of “unnecessary” quotation marks! The horse’s rump says – I LOVE taking pictures but “PLEASE” don’t sit on ME! Thank you – Which I guess means, “I am NOT saying please. This is not a question, but an order.”

As the race gets closer, we all line up in our corrals. I do an absolutely awful job of trying to find Joey McIntyre. (Read: I don’t try to find him at all… I was caught off guard when he ran in Pasadena, but had ample warning about his appearance in this one.)

I should’ve at least done one of those nonchalant strolls around. “Oh, I’m just checking out the scene… Joey McIntyre? What are you doing here?”

Alas, it was crowded and I lamely didn’t have hope he could be reached by me (the slow common-folk).

By the time my corral crossed the start line about 30 minutes-ish after the race started, my feet were sort of already over it. I’d already been standing around in my new shoes for close to 2 hours. Tsk tsk, Aurora, for not breaking them in.

I’ll pick up here tomorrow!

Hollywood Half Marathon Expo

April 6, 2012

I’m in love! The people at The Run Project, and the project itself, have oh so much of my love.

I made my way around the expo, seeing a lot of races that I’d seen before – which of course I’m sure will happen when someone races every weekend. I’m signed up for most of the races I saw. It’s nice to see the medals out, and to see people getting excited about those races.

So, I’m walking around, jamming to the music that’s playing. (When *Nsync is rocking through the sound system, how could you not dance?) As I turn the corner, there they are – the people of the run project.

They’re dancing too! They’re so fun and excited about life! I met Olympian Jon Rankin. Yeah, you know, just chilling with an Olympian. No big deal. I asked what he was selling. Apparently nothing. He’s jut trying to get people excited about running, and help people pair up with causes.

The excitement at this both is electrifying. If anyone who wasn’t running (such as a runner’s spouse or parent) came to that booth today, I don’t see how they could’ve left without deciding to go to another booth and sign up for a race.

Marilyn Monroe wax figure from Madame Tussauds at the Hollywood Half Marathon expo 2012 — Decoration at the well themed expo from Madame Tussauds

When Jon and I were talking about the project and how running can change people’s lives and make the world better, he asked if I wanted to make a video. He said, “Are you in?” (As in R-U-N; Are you in?) Is that genius or is that genius? ‘Cause I’m pretty sure it’s genius! They definitely had me after that. I can’t wait to keep following what they’re doing, and do anything I can to help them out this year.

Running is fun! Running is SO helpful in my life. Unbelievably helpful. Anyone I’ve known who’s become a runner feels happier, has better days, and seems to enjoy life more. Even people I know who started from a wonderful place, and who were nice and happy and fit beforehand, just amplify all of that so much through running. Golly, this is just getting me so excited to run tomorrow!

Let me hop down off my little running soapbox. But before I do, if you’re reading this, and you’re not a runner, I implore you just to do a 5k. Just 3.1 miles. I know you can finish. And you do not have to be fast. As is often heard around the running community, “The last finisher is the slowest winner.”

Running, jogging, walking, whatever you do – getting moving at running events is far too fun to miss out on. And you’re invited! The running community is calling you with open arms that are ready to give you a big hug. Sign up for the race! We’re trying to include you, so please don’t leave yourself out!

Okay, enough of all that business. (Noise of the hydraulic lift of my soapbox coming back down. And, step back onto the ground. And okay, good.)

Tanner and JC presenting Aurora with her Nurse Jackie DVD (blu-ray) at the Hollywood Half Marathon expo 2012 — Tanner and JC with my new present

Other expo highlights include meeting Tanner and JC from 100.3 The Sound. They were too funny. (And Tanner’s going to be a famous actor. Keep your eyes peeled!)

They presented me with a free Nurse Jackie Blu-ray disc… Is that how the kids say that? “Blue-ray disc?” That doesn’t sound right. I’m thinking there’s some kind of shorter slang way to say that. Do I just call it a Blu-ray? I’m sorry; you’ll have to excuse me. I was all ready to say DVD as though I was born in 1920 or something.

I also tested out my brand new 52 half marathons in 52 weeks shirt, which was cool. Everyone wanted to be my friend and I felt mighty special. A woman came up to me and said her daughter reads my blog and had just said, “Mom, I think that’s Aurora.” And the mom said, “I don’t think that’s her.” Then they saw my “I love NY” pants and flip-flops, and they new it had to be me! I love that that’s how people know it’s me – an undying, crazy love for New York.

Before you know it, it was time to go home. There’s a 6am start tomorrow!

57 Marathons (50 States, DC, and 6 U.S. Territories), 1 Year – Part 2

April 4, 2012

puzzle of the United States of America — Photo from SummerForKids.com

When I started this post a few days ago, I told you I’d give you part 2 after this past weekend’s race, so here it is.

Doing 52 half marathons in 52 weeks, I have definitely had to do some maneuvering of puzzle pieces to make my complete picture. I’ve worked pretty hard, and I’m still not done.

Doing a challenge that is so specific would take a lot of time and energy just to get the schedule together. (Some states have very few marathons each year.)

Most importantly, I’ve learned that races get cancelled. I have already done a few inaugural events this year, and I have more coming up (even one this weekend). I think inaugural events can be super fun. However, I’d need to be somewhat wary about newer or smaller events because they definitely can be cancelled. Already, in the last few weeks, I’ve had to re-work the schedule (and even let go of a series I was doing) because of cancelled races.

Speaking of things unexpectedly being cancelled, and things changing – always buy on Southwest. Always. Always, always, always. I already knew this to be a true statement. But every once in a while, when I’ve been looking for plane tickets for my current challenge… Let me give you an example.

(photo from Southwest Airlines)

I was definitely going to do Rock ‘n’ Roll Seattle. I was also definitely going to do a race the next day that was part of the SoCal half series.

They were only one night apart, so I was certainly going to fly home from Seattle in the late afternoon/early evening. I could get something set in stone, because why would I possibly need to change this ticket?

When I checked for plane tickets, Virgin America was having a sale, and was a bit less expensive than Southwest. I thought “Virgin is a cool airline. I like their TVs in the back of the headrests. It’s cheaper. Why not?”

Let me tell you why not. A race in the SoCal race series got cancelled. I couldn’t really make that series work anymore, so I could drop that California race if need be.

Then Seattle became a full marathon*, and dropping that half the next day seemed to be a good idea. [*edited to add: Seattle later switched back to being a half again (though I guess that’s kind of my point – things are always changing)]

I’ll either have to race to the airport immediately after the full marathon, with a tiny glimmer of hope that I will make that flight, or pay to change it so I can spend the night hanging out with my family celebrating my first marathon (which is the option most likely to happen.)

If I were on lovely Southwest, I could change the ticket as much as I wanted with no fees. Lesson learned!

I have said “lesson learned” about Southwest before in my life, yet made the same mistake, thinking, “I know it’s smarter to fly on Southwest, but these plans are definitely not changing, so I’ll be fine.” This time I have, for real, learned the lesson that plans that “are not going to change,” really are still pretty likely to change (with me, at least). Southwest, Southwest, Southwest.

The Simpsons rolling around in money — credit: Matt Groening/Fox

Another thing that would be nice is to start out with a whole lot of money (as opposed to paying along the way as you make more money).

If you register for races early, they have lower prices than then do as it gets closer to race day. Not to mention, sometimes you get gifts with race registrations during special promotions (for instance, if you register for any of the Rock ‘n’ Roll races at other Rock ‘n’ Roll races, you get special t-shirts).

It’s also nice that I’m easing into the blog on a smaller challenge. When I started blogging, it took a long time just to figure out on which site I wanted to host the blog (WordPress).

Of course, there’s plenty of other blog stuff still to learn about after that – child themes, staying organized – all that jazz. I’m still learning about the blog and how to make it better. Hopefully by the time the 57 states/territories challenge comes around, I’ll have a better handle on the it all.

Whenever one of us decides to jump into this challenge, let’s remember we have this post to help give us a few pointers as we plan the big adventure.

For now, I’ll keep focusing on the current adventure. (I still don’t have the schedule completely finished!)

(#10) Atlantic City April Fools Half Marathon – Part 3 (A Post-Open-Heart Surgery PR)

April 3, 2012

I left off yesterday around mile 7, on pace to PR.

For the rest of the race, I checked the clock every now and again to see how I was doing. I finished mile 12 just before 3 hours had passed.

Yep. Unless something catastrophic happened, I was going to PR at this race. I lightly jogged the last mile. Figured I should at least finish strong-ish.

Official finishing time – 3:14:39. That’s 8 minutes and 14 seconds better than DC (and 2:25 better than my current post-open-heart-surgery PR). Now we can all say with certainty that I did a similar (this time, faster) race that felt less taxing.

How in the world did I PR today? As I said in the North Carolina post, I think that consistent pacing of fast walking may end up working out better than running followed by slow walking.

I think if walking’s involved, throwing running in there would probably have the best result, but only if I can speed up the walking that comes in between the running. (Speeding up the running portions, and having a longer stride wouldn’t hurt either.)

I also think that this incredibly flat course and perfect weather (with almost no sun) really gets practically all the credit. It’s certainly not me taking good care of myself. I’ve had 18 Crumbs cupcakes this week. Okay, that’s a lie. But I have had some!

(I used to think it was special that I could have Crumbs out here… Then I found out they have one on Hollywood Boulevard. So, I need to slow down on the no-longer-scarce cupcakes.)

I haven’t slept all that much. I certainly haven’t been going to the gym out here (even though I obviously should be). And unless Doritos at 3am in Port Authority, followed by Lucky Charms 3 1/2 hours later at the race site is the new optimum pre-race nutrition plan, I didn’t have that part together either.

I do still think that being in New York itself has probably helped. There’s so much quick walking always happening out here. I think my fitness level may be improving a teeny bit just by virtue of being here. (I miss living in NY so much, in case I haven’t mentioned that already.)

So there you have it. Inexplicably, I PR’d. (I never understood that phrase, really. I hear people say it all the time. But, what? You “personal recorded?” I don’t think that makes perfect sense, but I think it’s an accepted thing to say, so I’m gonna go ahead and say it.)

They had tons of food waiting for all the runners at the finish and a really nice photographer who patiently got a picture of me jumping (my favorite kind of race picture).

Crossing the finish line was slightly awkward because the photographer was very close to the other side of the finish line, so you kind of wanted to pose, but more than anything, you wanted to make sure you ran all the way through to get your time recorded, and there wasn’t much space. So, it was a little weird, but it all worked out, especially since I got my jumping picture. And really, isn’t that all that matters?

I went back to the Greyhound bus and slept all the way back to Port Authority, then slept on the subway all the way back to Far Rockaway.

It was a fun, simple, enjoyable race with great weather a totally flat course. Number 10 is in the books (well, on the interwebs). (Double digits now, y’all!) Next up: The Hollywood Half.

Tomorrow, as promised, I’ll post part 2 of the posts brainstorming toward the future challenge (hopefully) of 57 marathons all over the country/US territories in 1 year.

(#10) Atlantic City April Fools Half Marathon – Part 2 (Volunteers & Milk)

April 2, 2012

Picking up from yesterday, somewhere between 3 and 4 miles in, we make a turn and go through a neighborhood. Still awake. I got this.

There was one very young, completely adorable little girl at a water stop who said the exact same thing to everyone. It was simple. “Vanilla Gu. You’re doing great. Keep it up!” She literally phrased it the exact same way, using the same inflection to every single runner that passed.

You could tell that an adult (probably a parent) had most likely encouraged her to volunteer, and in the morning coached her on exactly what to say to the runners. It was one of the cutest things I’ve seen in a race, and I got to pass her twice, since the course was a loop.

There was another funny girl at a water stop who said, “Would you like some water?” I reached out for the cup. It was empty. “April Fools!” she said. (Then she handed me one with water in it.) I thought that was hilarious.

I didn’t know what sorts of April Fools’ jokes the course would have – maybe labeling each mile as Mile 1, or who knows? But everything was labeled as it normally is. I didn’t experience any April Fools jokes – other than the one at the water stop.

As I got close to the turnaround, a woman in the group of people coming back toward me said, “Aurora?” It was one of my blog followers! I kid you not. This lovely girl, Aimee recognized me in my hat from all my blog pictures, and gave me a hug as she passed. So cool, right? She also let me know that chocolate milk was coming at the turnaround(!) Sweet business.

(And it turns out it wasn’t the race staff who brought milk, it was her friend Pat.)

If you’ve been reading the blog, you know I’ve been questioning milk a lot lately. Well, I’m done with my questioning phase. In every athletic magazine I’ve been reading lately to pass the time on long subway rides, people say milk is good. Doctors say it’s good. Athletes say it’s good.

When I was talking with one of my brilliant friends, whom I trust a ton, about how milk made me nervous and how there are documentaries about how it’s secretly not as good for you as you think it is, he made a joke (with a truth tint to it) about how documentaries are for people who are trying to prove a false point. I said, “not all documentaries.” He basically said, “True, not the ones that are seen and talked about.” Touché

So, until I get any better evidence, I’m going to go about blissfully believing that milk is really good for me and gives me all the calcium I need. And I’m glad, ’cause I freaking love it (both milk and the idea of getting calcium).

Aurora in between poses wth her medal — (caught in between poses)

[Edited to add: I later had various vegan challenges and changed my tune a little. I now try to limit my dairy intake.]

Remember last week when I was flabbergasted at the difference in how two races felt when my times were only 121 seconds off? Well, I know that in half marathons, every second counts. That’s not so super true with me since I’m quite slow. It’s really more about minutes when you’re this slow.

However, even though no one said it to me, in my head, I heard you all saying “121 seconds could make a huge difference in the way you feel. Over 2 minutes? That’s an eternity when it comes to a race.”

I thought it would be nice if I could match or beat my Washington DC time so that I could be flabbergasted about the difference in feel of the races without any of us questioning if it was due to the 121 seconds.

I didn’t set that as an official goal for myself, but I thought it would be nice if it happened.

Somewhere around mile 7/8, I realized I was on track to PR. What?! I’m here sleepwalking through this race, and I’m on track to PR?

Will I be able to pull out a personal record? Find out tomorrow.

(#10) Atlantic City April Fools Half Marathon – Part 1 (Being Lazy & Getting To Jersey)

April 1, 2012

I’m pretty sure I’m the laziest half marathoner. Last week, I talked about taking it easy. This week, same thing.

I took the 3:30am bus to Atlantic City (from New York). This meant I realistically had to leave Far Rockaway around midnight.

I needed to give myself 2 hours to get into the city, plus a chunk of time to wait at the Greyhound station. Since Greyhound is first come, first serve, I’ve been pushed to a later bus before by not getting there early enough. With a half marathon start time to make, I couldn’t get pushed this time.

All that being the case, my plan was to try to sleep as much during the day as possible, wake up in the early evening, get ready, and go.

I’d act as though the night was the morning and as far as my body clock was concerned, I’d be running a half marathon in my late afternoon . Unfortunately, that’s not exactly how it worked.

I went to bed on the morning of the 31st, hoping to sleep late into the day. I woke up tired in the middle of the day, and could not get back to sleep. So much for my brilliant plan. I vegged for a little, figuring at least rest had to be kind of like sleep.

I ended up leaving around 8:30pm, killing some time at the movie theater by Port Authority, watching “Safe House.” (I smell a sequel.)

After the movie, I waited in line at Port Authority while reading a triathlon magazine until thirty minutes or so late, the bus came. Off we all went to Atlantic City.

tiny wodden incline leading to the pier at the Atlantic City Boardwalk — (the only (slight) incline in the whole race)

I took a little nap on the bus, waking up at Bally’s Casino when packet pick-up was starting.

The people at packet pick-up were very kind. We got blue race shirts. (I love when the shirts are anything but white and when they have women’s cut. Check and check. Thanks, April Fools Half Marathon.)

I changed into my race clothes, brushed my teeth, and went to look for coffee. When I got to the café, I didn’t even have enough brain power/focus to remember that I wanted caffeine. I ended up eating some Lucky Charms.

There was some super enjoyable pre-race music (Backstreet Boys) in the hotel all morning.

As it got closer to 8am, I headed outside, dropped my stuff at gear check, and went to the start. They held the race for 15 minutes to help runners who were having trouble parking. (Apparently, Atlantic City was hopping with multiple events this weekend.)

My only goal was to make it through without lying down for a nap in the middle of the race.

My legs are feeling pretty fresh after taking it easy in North Carolina last week, and I wanted to keep them that way in preparation for the big Hollywood Half next week. I lightly jogged most of the first mile, ’til I slowed down to a walk.

There were a couple of other races that morning – an 11k and a 7k. They both started a little after the half. So, it was funny to have the half field get nice and spread out – just to all of a sudden be in a big pack again, experiencing lots of people passing me… Aaand then again a 3rd time.

This was such a nice, relaxed race, with the first 3 miles all along the boardwalk.

As I passed the first band, the lead singer was coming out very close to the course. He almost looked as though he was gonna start holding the microphone out and getting people to sing with him. Can you imagine – run-by audience participation/karaoke? It sounded fun and silly, but it didn’t happen (as far as I know).

[Edited to add: I did see a half marathon with karaoke for runners later.]

Will I make it to the end before I fall asleep? Find out tomorrow.

57 Marathons (50 States, DC, and 6 U.S. Territories), 1 Year – Part 1 (Wouldn’t It Be Nice…)

March 31, 2012

map_of_US_territories — Photo from the US Government’s website

Don’t get excited. This is not the announcement that I’m changing my 52 in 52 challenge to an every state plus U.S. territories challenge. I’m not.

Although, as of tomorrow, within 10 half marathons, I will have already covered 6 places…

Stop it, Aurora. I think you have at least 25 in California alone this year.

I’m writing this post because sometimes when I daydream, I think about how I’d love to run a marathon (that’s right, preferably a full marathon, so I better get training) in all states and U.S. territories in 1 year.

(We all agree there are 6 territories, right? American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Virgin Islands? Those are the ones the government’s website lists.)

A couple of months ago, I was dreaming that I’d get super crazy fit in secret, and emerge out of nowhere in a few years for this big 57 challenge. But this 52 half marathons in 52 weeks came up sort of out of the blue. And I am so, so glad I’m doing a smaller challenge first.

Even having only done 9 races so far, I’m learning a lot about a year full of racing, and I think these lessons will be helpful when that big year comes around. Someday, when I attempt this challenge (or when we do, when some of you jump in with me), we can peruse this post and remember some things we’re learning from this current challenge.

Homer Simpson hugging a TV with his family's image inside it — Credit: Matt Groening/Fox

In my dream world, I’ll attempt this 57 feat when I’m happily writing on The Simpsons. I’ll somehow find a way to sneak away to a marathon once a week. I’m sure we’ll be super writers who are very fast, never having to come in over the weekend to work on a script.

I’m sure that’s not how it’s going to go down at all. But let a girl dream, okay? Anyway, I sneak out for a marathon once a week and get straight home to keep up working. And if that is how it works out, well more power to me! I will be fine with only going to a state for a few hours to run, ’cause I’ll be working on the freaking Simpsons!

However, if I’m not a writer, and I’m not doing some kind of fun dream job that keeps me in a physical place every week, then the year I decide to do this, I need to either have saved up enough money to not need to work for a full year, or I need to find a job I can do remotely.

I haven’t been home in over 5 weeks, and this is definitely the way to do it, my friend. Exploring different places is fun. (It is possible that what I mean by that is having New York as home base is what’s fun, but I don’t think that’s what I mean…)

I would love to go run a race, spend the rest of the week (or at least a few days) in that place seeing various touristy attractions, trying delicious local specialties, and then moving on to the next race.

Aurora posing by the Universal Studios Orlando ball — Doing a little model pose at Universal Studios Orlando. Oh, how I love traveling

This whole relaxing, visiting, eating thing brings me to my next point, which is that I would really want to be in a body/fitness level that I just want to maintain. (If I’m fit enough to do 57 marathons in a year, I think it’s pretty safe to say I will most likely be at the maintaining level.) While traveling, it is much easier to maintain yourself than improve yourself.

It’s not impossible to travel and improve by any means. The world is a gym. People can still get workouts in, if they want to make time for them. And we don’t have to try every food that someone says is delicious. Even if we do try a lot of stuff, we don’t have to eat any more than a few bites. But it is much easier to maintain than to improve on the road. Not impossible, but it’s the way I’d prefer it for sure.

I couldn’t fit all my thoughts into one post. Part 2 will be coming at you after the posts about the April Fool’s half marathon in Atlantic city tomorrow!

(#9) NC Half Marathon – Odds and Ends (Showers and Such)

March 30, 2012

There were a few things I forgot to talk about in my previous posts about this race.

As I washed my race clothes today (prepping for Atlantic City this weekend), I remembered shoving my clothes into my bag when I changed at the airport, and I thought about the couple of things I meant to mention.

For one thing, there was this really cool looking Richard Petty Driving Experience on the day of the expo. You could ride in the passenger seat as someone drove you around in a race car (or if you wanted to pay a lot more money, you could drive the race car yourself). For all you NASCAR fans out there, this might be the half marathon for you, for that experience alone.

I thought about doing it, but then I thought “that’s the price of a race entry right there.” I’m not all that familiar with NASCAR, so though I thought it would be super cool, it wasn’t on the top of my priority list. I overheard some people who did it. Everyone seemed to love it. However, I didn’t meet a single woman who liked her photos from the ride. Apparently the suit and the helmet made everyone feel fat. So, remember your good angles, ladies (and gents)!

Even though I didn’t try the driving experience this year, I wanted to mention it on the blog so that I could remember a special reason to go back another year (and to let any of you NASCAR fans know that it existed). (Although, apparently you don’t have to do the half marathon to do it. It exists in many other places, including Walt Disney World.)

The other thing I forgot to talk about – Remember how I was so excited to stay in a host hotel? Well, I learned the downside of staying in one. Apparently, everyone requests a late checkout, so the hotel won’t always grant one. Check out time at that hotel was 11am. I had to check out before the race. (Of course, for faster people this is a non-issue. I suppose the real lesson here might be to get faster.)

When I got to the airport after the race, I changed clothes and shoes. I flew to Cleveland for my layover, then back to New York, then took an airport shuttle to the subway, then rode the subway for an hour and forty-five minutes before I got to take a shower.

I didn’t much care. I don’t really have a sense of smell. Shower, no shower – it’s often all the same to me. The people next to me may have cared, though. Probably not this time, though. It was an easy race in a great climate, and I mainly walked the race. I wasn’t all that sweaty.

Ah, the little things I learn through doing more half marathons and traveling for more of them. I’ll continue learning, and continue racing, this weekend in Atlantic City’s April Fool’s Half Marathon.

(#9) NC Half Marathon – Part 3 (The Finish)

March 27, 2012

I left off yesterday talking about the awesome volunteer cheering for everyone.

There weren’t a ton of spectators along the course, but the ones who were, were stoked to be there. There were two people at different points who shouted, “You’re doing it! You’re really doing it!” Both times I heard it, it reminded me how cool half marathons are.

I decided to do 52 in 52 weeks in large part to make them so normal for me that they’d never seem so impossible ever again.

Not to dwell on that rough part of my life, ‘cause I don’t want it to define me. But, there was a time when I wondered how in the heck I would ever half marathon again. I knew that it was possible. Of course it was possible. I had done one before. (Plus, almost everything is possible.) But it seemed so impossible. I needed to race a lot this year so it would stop seeming that way.

Here I am trying to normalize them, and show that they can be just a fun weekend activity (which they can be). Then there are people out there super trained, running their hearts out (rock on, y’all!). There are also people doing their first half marathon ever.

There are people for whom this half marathon was a huge deal, which is awesome. I mean, half marathons should be kind of a big deal. (Just wait until my first full marathon. I’m gonna act like it’s the biggest deal since the Michael Jackson did the moonwalk.) I thought it was cool to be reminded how just how cool half marathons are.

Enough of that tangent. Getting back into the race, Once I see the tunnel to go back into the speedway, I think, “Home stretch, baby! From here, I don’t have to go to any new places. The finish line is in that speedway!”

I run in through the tunnel, and around the various curving paths, until finally I get back onto the track. Sweet business. This is really almost the end. I pass the 12th mile marker (and race car).

In the final mile, there were these two women who would speed up every time I got close to them, and slow down once they felt they were a safe distance in front of me. They looked back at me a fair number of times, checking on my progress. And so it went, speed up a little, slow down. I’d get closer, they’d run ahead, slow down, and on and on.

Well, ladies, you’re inviting a challenge!

When the finish line was in my sights, I took off! I wasn’t positive how much energy they had left vs. how much I had left. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to cross before them, but I was sure gonna try!

I passed them and looked back and smiled at them as I did. Subtext: “Was this what you were asking for? ‘Cause you got it! Let’s race!” But they were tired… They just said good job and kept walking. I was pretty sure that was probably a trick, right? Make me think they weren’t going to push at the end, I’d comfortably jog in, being passed at the last second.

I wasn’t about to let that happen. (Yes, I realize how hilarious it is that I talk about it as though it’s some huge race to the finish when the majority of the field had already left the speedway.) I ran my little heart out through the finish line, keeping my peripheral vision in high gear. (And I finished before they did.)

I got my incredible medal. (It has cars that can move, and one of those big race traffic light things that straight up lights up!)

[wpvideo FUvUKKgi]

As I’m in the finisher area, I hear “Aurora?” I turn around, and there’s Megan of Anna, Jason, and Megan from the expo! Jason had even gotten a special medal for finishing in the top 25.

After the race, sweet Claudia and silly Stephen were kind enough to drive me to the airport! It seemed as though I had just gotten to North Carolina by the time I was leaving. Great race. Great people. Insane medal. I’d be up for this one again in 2013.

(p.s. I gave a few more odds and ends about this race in a later post.)

(#9) NC Half Marathon – Part 2 (Going Around The Speedway)

March 26, 2012

Aurora jumping (with a lot of hair flying in her face) in the finisher area of the North Carolina half marathon 2012 — I like this picture – even with the silly-ness of all that hair in my face 😛

Yesterday, I got so wrapped up being flabbergasted by two races – a week apart – feeling so different (even though my time was only 121 seconds different between them), that I kind of neglected to tell the story of the race.

Before the race started, I heard an engine revving like crazy. I think maybe they had a car drive out in front of everyone to start the race, but I couldn’t see it. It was weird, because I didn’t feel as though I was all that far back. (As I said, I’m pretty sure there were fewer than 2,000 people in this race.)

I was toward the back of the runners, and even I got across the start line in two or three minutes. Yet, even only being as far back as I was, I didn’t see the car. I didn’t see a flag wave (if they did that for the car-racing theme). I didn’t even hear a gun go off. I just heard an engine rev for a while. Then all of a sudden, we were all moving forward.

Uh, okay, the race is starting? As I got closer to the start line, I saw the clock going and people speeding up. So yeah, I guess the race is starting!

In the first mile, it was a little hilarious that the first thing everyone saw was mile marker 12. (The course was a loop, so we’d be coming back that way.) There were lots of varied reactions as people passed it, and a whole lot of people reacted.
“Oh, look! We’re almost done. Hahaha.”
“Oooooh why was this the first thing I saw?”
“Great! Can I just go from here?”
Etcetera. I thought hearing everyone comment on it was really funny.

I loved that there were cars by the mile markers (at this very well themed race), because if you were sort of far away from the next mile marker, you could usually see a car in the distance.

Something I found interesting about running around a track is that the strategy changes. (At least mine did, and judging by the people around me, theirs did too.)

Usually, the field of runners is pretty wide. I always try to stay mainly toward the right, being that I’m slow. Today, we all were going as far left as possible. Runners wanted to hug that curve so as not to add any distance to our run. (Also, the track slants up to the right. It could be really rough to run on that incline.)

Army band playing at the North Carolina half marathon 2012 — the Army band playing

Some runners ran way up that incline all the way to the right, to the top of the slanting area. (And it slanted a LOT. This was not just a barely noticeable incline.) More power to them for challenging themselves! They also were taking a bunch of pictures of everyone below them. I bet they got some great shots of the field of runners.

After we ran through the Charlotte Motor Speedway, we ran out and around to the ZMax Dragway. Going into and coming out of the dragway, the Army band was playing for us. (Remember Stan who gave me that floss the night before? There he was rocking the mic.)

Mile 8 or 9 was one big hill running back toward the speedway. We had an awesome marching band and color guard cheering us on.

I had some good conversations with various runners/walkers as I kept trucking along. One woman commented, “It doesn’t get any easier.”
I said, “Really? This feels much easier than last week.”
“Last week?!” she said.

We got to talking about 52 half marathons, and Iron Mans (her husband is a triathlete).

One of the most energetic volunteers I’ve seen was at a water stop, cheering for every participant and saying with the utmost spirit, “You have less than 3 miles left! You can do it! You’re gonna make it!” I pretty much adored her. Someone get her to every race, please.

As she said, fewer than three miles left, y’all! I can’t wait to tell you all about the end of the race tomorrow.

(#9) NC Half Marathon – Part 1 (Speed Walking)

March 25, 2012

Bring on Kilimanjaro, baby!

Okay, maybe not really quite yet. But, there were plenty of hills in this race, and they felt awesome. (Granted, I walked them, but at a pretty nice walking pace.)

The weather at the inaugural NC Half was an extremely welcome change was from running on the sun last week! It was nice and cloudy here, with a teeny, tiny hint of rain droplets at one point.

I didn’t really know what struggles the day would bring. I’d slept very little during the week leading up to this (but I had lovely sleep the night before).

I hadn’t even made a plan to get to the start. I looked around at the runners in the lobby/continental breakfast area, and asked if I could hitch a ride with anyone. Luckily, Claudia and Stephen volunteered to take me.

We were floored by the amount of traffic to get into the Speedway. I guess maybe we should’ve been expecting it, but this was a pretty small race (I think fewer than 2,000 participants), and they were opening the gates and gear check and everything around 7. We thought if we left about 5 or 10 minutes before 7 to drive down the street, we’d be okay.

I guess everyone else thought that as well. Apparently, it was not the correct thought. Luckily, Stephen was not running, so he was able to just drop Claudia and me off right by the entrance. Claudia and I booked it to the start line. We made it about 20 seconds before 7:30 (the start time of the race).

Traffic had been such an issue, though, that race officials ended up holding the start for about 10 minutes. I hope everyone ended up making it to the race. People were still sprinting across the speedway to the start as the first runners were crossing the start line.

Before I started, I glanced down at my phone to re-read a text message from yesterday, giving me a little extra inspiration.

My supportive friend Ty, who lives in North Carolina (although not anywhere near Charlotte – which is why he wasn’t there with me), told me to “run hard and run fast!”

I don’t know exactly how “hard and fast” I ran. (Actually, I do. Not that much of either.) But, knowing that he was rooting for me (as he is awesomely wont to do), helped me put excuses of being tired or sore out of my mind, and bring thoughts of, “I can do this” to the front of my mind.

My plan for this race was to treat it as sort of a little recovery half marathon. My only focus was finishing comfortably within the time limit, and hopefully feeling great at the end.

Here’s the super weird part – every mile, I’d check in on my time to make sure I was pacing within the time limit (with some wiggle room on top of that). In every mile, I was faster than I thought I was going to be.

I think spending this past week in New York started to make me a faster walker, or maybe I’m just adapting to half marathoning basically every week. I don’t know…

Today, I was 2 minutes and 1 second slower than last week. Last week, I pushed like crazy. I was hurting at the finish. I was pretty sure we all were going to die.

I was only 2 minutes and 1 second slower today, yet I was ready to go for a dance party.

Weird, right? Maybe it’s something about more even pacing as opposed to running hard, tiring myself out, walking slowly, then running and tiring myself out again. Or maybe these hills weren’t quite as bad. (Goodness knows the heat was a big issue there, and a non-issue here.)

The point is, it was a great, successful race. That’s my general overview. Come back tomorrow for more specific, fun details (and to hear about the absolute coolest medal I’ve gotten yet)!

NC Half Marathon Expo

March 24, 2012

Walking to garage for packet pick-up at Charlotte Speedway — Charlotte Motor Speedway – packet pick-up was in that garage to the left.

NASCAR seems to be pretty big in these parts. Even at the airport, a good amount of stuff was race themed – restaurants and such.

I came straight from the airport to packet pick up at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. These two adorable little girls, who were volunteering at a table with their mother, gave me my bib and the sweet, sweet t-shirt they have here.

This was a pretty small expo. There was a little Coca-Cola truck. I won a free drink koozie from answering their incredibly tough trivia question – whether hydration is important during the race.

Only two races had booths – Myrtle Beach and the Divas series. And I think those might be put on by the same company doing this race. The Myrtle Beach medals are huge and awesome. Too bad I’ve already signed up for a half marathon that day.

Speaking of medals, the medals for this race were on display. They look incredible! (The crazy moving, light-up medal was the main reason I chose this race.) But you’ll have to wait until I get mine to see it…

On this trip, I went ahead and sprung for a hotel room for a night instead of couchsurfing. I love meeting new people and saving money and all, but I have pulled three all-nighters in New York this week (mainly since I’m staying so far out of the city sometimes it just happens).

If I wanted a shot at a good race, I desperately needed a full night’s sleep in a bed. I picked one of the hotels from the race website, so I knew a bunch of other people would probably be staying there. I awkwardly stood around toward the exit of the expo. “So, uh…anybody going to the Wingate Hotel?”

I actually only asked 3 people before Megan, Jason, and Anna happened into my life. They weren’t even staying at this hotel, but they’re staying close by and were sweet enough to drive me here!

"Welcome athletes" sign at the hotel — Why, thank you!

When I got to the hotel, there was a big sign in the lobby that said, “Welcome Athletes.” Well, thank you very much! This is the first time I’ve stayed in a host hotel before an event. It’s fun. Almost everyone you run into is doing the event.

There were balloons in the lobby. I used to see hotels around my apartment in Boston gear up for the Boston Marathon, but I didn’t really realize places did it for smaller races (or how welcoming it feels when you’re the one doing the event, instead of the one who happens to live in the area, watching from the outside).

I went in my room and immediately fell asleep for hours. I woke up at night and was a little hungry. I set out to find some food, and ended up at Waffle House. It was a little odd that there were “house rules” plastered everywhere about being polite and wearing shirts and paying for your food. Those are pretty much the rules for going to a public establishment, not just for Waffle House, right?

The workers didn’t seem to like each other all that much. They seemed to be yelling at each other a fair amount. I don’t know what’s going on there…

North Carolina red half marathon shirt — Check out this awesome shirt!

When I got back to the hotel, I searched and searched through my bag for the floss that I knew had to be there. I always have floss. How would it be possible for it to not be there? It was nowhere to be found.

I asked the front desk. No floss. I went to a neighboring hotel that had a little store area. No floss. Walked up the street to a gas station (crossing a crazy intersection twice to get there). No floss! Why? Why is there no floss anywhere in this city?

I came back to the hotel, convinced that all hope was lost. As I was walking in, a group of men from the Army band playing tomorrow was walking in as well. Thankfully, Stan had floss for me! I gave him a hug, and went back to my room. My teeth were so very happy.

I had a quick, 20 minute workout on the elliptical (rock on, fitness center!) to gear up a little for tomorrow. Now it’s time for bed (again)!

Non-Running Fun in Washington DC

March 20, 2012

Fareed enjoying learning at the National Air and Space Museum — Look how much we’re learning at the National Air and Space Museum!

As you know, I stayed with my lovely friend Fareed.

I have a bunch of little sweet Fareed stories – such as the time he planned a whole birthday night for me of all my favorite stuff, but suffice it to say, he is awesome.

Sometimes I feel as though all I do on this blog is blabber on how about how wonderful everything/everybody is. What can I say? It’s been an amazing (seemingly never-ending) vacation. I’m stopping by a bunch of my favorite people/places/things. How can I not love everything?

Don’t worry. I’ll be a little less starry-eyed beneath rose-colored glasses once I get home at the end of the month. But, we are forbidden from thinking about going to back to Los Angeles for now.

Fareed has such a fun apartment. He and his two great, friendly roommates have inspiring quotes written in chalk all over the walls. It’s super cool.

Speaking of cool, I forgot how much I missed singing with him. He grabbed his guitar off the wall. I was a little hesitant to sing in front of him (I just don’t do it nearly as often as I should nowadays, and he’s super talented), but before you knew it, we were singing “Rolling in the Deep” in harmony. Goodness, can that boy sing!

Fareed had to work on the day of the half marathon, but we still had plenty of hang out time while I was there. We spent a little time at the National Air and Space Museum. (Did you know that Washington DC has tons of free museums? (As I said in a post a few days ago, Washington DC is dope.)

We went out to dinner with Fareed’s huge extended family Sunday night. (It was almost Persian New Year.) I made two wonderful new friends. Shadi almost ran a half marathon once, but ended up not doing it. I know she of course can though. Now, she and I have plans to run a marathon in Antarctica in a few years. (Super tentative plans, and a few years may mean many… but we’ll see what we can do.)

Nima and I are going to run half marathons (maybe full marathons) in every country in Europe. Of course, I started looking up my adventure with Nima right after dinner. (How could I not? It sounded so fun.) Here’s the problem. Apparently, many European countries do not host a single marathon or half marathon. I suppose we’re just going to have to organize a bunch of half marathons throughout Europe. It’s gonna be hard, but probably wildly fun – and we’ve got time.

I started my conversation with Nima saying, “What’s your dream in life?” He asked if I wanted the realistic one or the crazy one. Obviously I wanted the crazy one. I had a feeling that the “crazy” one was going to be the awesome, fun, and still possible. And it pretty much was. He said he wanted to walk (or bike) through all the countries in Europe, continue through Asia, and down into Africa.

We started looking up mileage, and thinking about how far you could go in a day. These are just estimates, so don’t let these numbers plan your big quest through 3 continents, but we came up with the idea that it could take anywhere from 3 years (if you bike a good amount every single day) to 30 years (if you walk the whole way and take a lot of time to sightsee.) 3 years sounded stressful, always moving and maybe not seeing a lot. 30 years sounded really long. That’s why we just compromised on the one year of lots of running through Europe.

It kind of seems as though this year of small adventures very well may lead me into many more years of adventures. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens.

(#8) Rock ‘n’ Roll USA – Part 3 (Meeting Up With One Of My Favorites At The Finish)

March 19, 2012

Continuing from yesterday…When I started mile 13, I was about 3 hours and 3 minutes in.

I thought it would be nice to finish strong, but more importantly, it’d be nice to not literally melt into the road beneath me.

Even though I finally got to travel downhill, I still had a rough time. My body was over it. All I wanted to do was jump into the biggest pool of ice that’s ever existed. (Obviously, I was going to push forward, even if I had to do it slowly.)

And slowly I did. I finished in just under 3 hours and 23 minutes (3:22:53). That last mile and a tenth took oh such a long time. But I made it! And what were they passing out at the finish? Towels that had been soaked in ice water! Thank you, Competitor Group! I draped that sucker over my shoulders and felt like just maybe, I might not die.

A text came. It was from David! He was there!

I made my way out of the finish chute, and happened to see someone I’d been smushed against in the Metro that morning. I said hello and asked about her race. Right when I said that I needed to go find my friend, someone behind me said, “Aurora?” I turned around and standing there in the flesh was David himself.

I threw my arms around him! He hugged me right back. A real honest-to-goodness hug. Not a “half-pat, you’re sweaty, don’t get too close to me” hug, but a “you’re my friend, and I’m so proud of you and happy to hug you right-now” hug.

And I had that dripping wet towel on me! So embarrassing, right? He might not have known that that was ice water and that I wasn’t quite that sweaty. He real-hugged me in spite of all that water all over me, having no idea what kind of water it was! He is amazing, is he not?

He is… I can’t… Man, how do I explain? David is brilliant. He speaks Mandarin, and well, does a bunch of other smart people stuff, but isn’t that a good enough example?

He’s crazy talented.

He is incredibly sweet.

David, in all of his wonderfulness, fought through traffic, and crowds, and re-routed buses, and craziness, and found me at a humongous running event! (Amazing, or amazing? ‘Cause I’m gonna go with amazing.)

David Petrick's promise to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro with Aurora — This is the promise he made me on the back of a receipt at dinner. It’s in writing, baby!

He even took care of me(!) – carrying some of my things and filling up my water bottle.

We walked to get burgers at the delicious Good Stuff Eatery. He kindly walked there slowly with me, knowing how tired I was. See, he’s patient too. I have yet to find a flaw of his.

We got burgers – he had a mushroom one since he is yet another friend of mine who doesn’t eat meat.

He was amazing at keeping the conversation going while I’m pretty sure I was suffering from a partially melted brain.

After lunch, alas, he had to go do a bunch of boring grown-up stuff. I walked him to the Metro station and bawled my eyes out. I didn’t really, but I did inside. And I sent him off with some scene-making fake crying.

I am lucky to know him. What more could I want at the finish of her half marathon than to have David stranding there? Great friend. Great race. Great city.

Next week: North Carolina.

(#8) Rock ‘n’ Roll USA – Part 2 (The Heat – The Hot, Hot Heat)

March 18, 2012

Yesterday, I left off talking about that hill around mile 6. I was sweating profusely.

I cannot get across to you how hot it felt. Go take a walk on the sun, then come back and read this; you’ll pretty much understand.

My pace started to slow. I was dragging up that hill. As I was going up, I couldn’t help but think about how much incredible work is ahead of me until I tackle Mt. Kilimanjaro!

As the race wore on, I came to a spot where they were giving out bananas (the first time I’d seen that on a course)! I was stoked.

I happily peeled back that banana peel, and as I brought it to my mouth, plop! It slipped out of my hands, onto the ground! So depressing. I was too far past the banana people to warrant going back.

I realized why bananas may not be a course favorite – there were banana peels everywhere! I almost slipped on one – I’m sure missing out on one hilarious pratfall. I realized how slippery that area was, and successfully maneuvered through it. (Thank you, tap-dancing through high school for some mighty fine coordination.)

I saw some great spectators at this race – people dresses as the Flash, and Elvis… and many groups dressed as their fun, rowdy selves.

Aurora running (mid-stride) at Rock 'n' Roll USA 2012 Being that it was St. Patrick’s day, I passed a lot of people out drinking. One group had a sign saying, “You keep running, I’ll keep drinking” (as they drank from a humongous bottle). Some people even gave out beer around Mile 8.)

People had put up “Worst parade ever,” and other silly signs, down one of the emptier parts of the course. I really appreciated that.

A woman held a sign that said, “Free pugs at the finish.” Of course, that a little bit made me want to run the other way, being that I’m terrified of dogs and all.

I also saw some great shirts saying things such as, “Please let there be somebody behind me to read this,” and “‘Dead Last’ is better than ‘Did Not Finish.'” One of the best ones said, “There is no finish line.”

The course was super cool. We got to go by the Washington Monument, and run toward the Capitol Building. We ran by the beautiful riverfront. It was very Washington-DC-y.

Back to the heat, the hot, hot, heat, we all kept pushing through. I know I kept slowing down. Luckily, I don’t feel alone. Many runners said they went up to 15 minutes slower than they had hoped, just trying to deal with the heat.

At one water stop, I poured water down the back of my shirt. I only did it once. I didn’t want to be too wasteful. (Also I’m super vain, of course, and wanted to come into the finish looking all cool and breezy – not all wet). I have learned, though! Forget vanity! By Mile 13, we were all dying.

I saw somebody’s legs in front of me giving out. Someone’s body was basically shutting down before my very eyes. He held onto that fence thing (fence, I guess is actually maybe the word I’m looking for) that surrounds most of the final mile.

Backing up to mile 12 – I kept telling myself, “If you don’t feel as though you can go fast, act as though you can, and you will.” I had some sweet songs come on my iPhone.

I acted my butt off, making a bunch of facial expressions out there, and was able to pull out some nice jogging. Once mile 12 was over, it was really getting to the point where my legs were saying, “You best slow down, girlfriend, because I am not going to cooperate with you if you don’t.”

I can’t wait to pick up with Mile 13 tomorrow.

(#8) Rock ‘n’ Roll USA – Part 1 (Rushing To The Start)

March 17, 2012

crowded subway in Washington DC on the way to Rock 'n' Roll USA 2012 — This gives you an idea of the fun crowd on the Metro.

As I mentioned yesterday, I knew that the lovely David Petrick was going to be waiting for me at the finish, so I was ready to do this thing!

When my alarm went off this morning, I realized the phone I thought had been charging all night, actually had not been charging at all.

I woke up with about 40% battery. Knowing I;d want to use my runner app and listen to music, I gave my phone every last second to charge, until I had to book it down to the Metro.

I thought I was running a bit late (which I guess I sort of was, sort of wasn’t – in that I wasn’t in my corral when the first start gun went off, but once I got there, I still had over 30 minutes before my corral started).

Being that I thought I was a little on the late side, I was shocked to see the incredibly packed Metro. I felt so bad for the two people who got off at other stops. They were probably just going about their Saturday, then all of a sudden – “Where am I? What did I get myself into?”

The Metro was full of great bonding. I met Dawn who lives in New York and is looking for someone to go see more musicals with her, so I’m pretty sure that obviously means we’re going to be friends.

subway station full of runners in Washington DC After all the runners finally made it to the stop, it took forever for our Metro car’s door to open. It was kind of hilarious. We were so close, but yet so far.

Once we were able to exit the car, there was yet another crowd waiting to get up the stairs and out of the station. (And in DC, you have to insert your Metro card when leaving the station too – so foot traffic got really backed up with a crowd this size.) But we all made it out in time.

Once above ground, I ate a delicious banana. I love that RnR events have fruit around before the race. While I’ve been traveling, I’ve been awful about bringing fruit. So, this was lovely.

Sometime around 8:40am, I crossed the start line. By the end of mile 1, I was already sweating profusely. Dearest race directors throughout the universe, I am begging you not to ever start a race at 8am. At first it was exciting to read that I could “sleep in,” but when I realized how much freakishly hotter it is to race later in the day, I was over the “late” start.

I learn a lot as the year goes on. Two weeks ago in New Orleans, I learned how incredibly important it is to get some walking and stretching in right after you get off the bus. I implemented that, and felt awesome – not bus-lagged at all. (Boom!)

Washington Monument with some runners in front of it during Rock 'n' Roll USA 2012 In this race, I think the big lesson was to check the forecast, and bring options for a lighter running outfit.

I have my basic race outfit which I’ve worn to pretty much every race – but it consists of this heavy hat, black pants, and cotton shirt (over a technical shirt). It’s an awesome outfit for racing, but it was absolutely killing me today. Around mile 3, I was ready to start shedding layers until I’d run into the finish naked. (I did not do that.)

I really pushed myself during this race. I had 13.3 minute miles going during my first 5k. Slowly but surely, I slowed down throughout the race. (10k – 1:30:06, 10 miles – 2:31:28.) People had been talking a lot at the expo about the hill that was going to bother everyone around mile 6/7.

Pssh! I thought. Silly. A hill. We’re all strong. We’ll all handle it. Toward the middle of the race, when I was mildly convinced we were all going to die from the heat, I came upon this big-ol’ seemingly-never-ending hill. I realized, “Ah. This is what they were all talking about. Okay. It is hard after all.”

Do I make it through the hill? Do I make it to the finish? Find out more tomorrow.

Rock ‘n’ Roll USA (Washington DC) Expo

March 16, 2012

Washington DC is dope!

There are bikeshares everywhere. Public transportation here rocks. It’s a healthy, pretty city. Not to mention what really makes it great – two friends live here, one of whom I’m staying with, and one of whom will meet me at the finish line tomorrow!(!!!)

When I told my dad that David freaking Petrick would be waiting for me at the finish line, my dad said, “Oh, you’ll be running toward David Petrick? So, you’ll be doing it in what, fifty-nine minutes, then?” I’m sure I will delve into how much I adore David soon enough. For now, suffice it to say I love everything single thing about him.

The expo today rocked! Remember Chris from Brooks Running from the New Orleans Expo? Well, check this out –

Chris from Brooks working at the Rock 'n' Roll USA Marathon Expo 2012 — Chris from Brooks keeping busy, earning his keep.

#1) He straight up remembered me! When I went up to him, he was all, “Aurora!” So, that was cool.

(Even though he admitted to never having read the blog – even while knowing I’d mentioned him in a post. So, I assured him I’d thoroughly badmouth him in this post.)

#2) He is moving on up in this world! He’s gone from cool, Brooks ambassador guy to a more superhero, super-management guru (notice, if you will, the t-shirt from last time vs. the “I’m serious” shirt of this time).

Chris helped me pick out some sweet running socks. (I generally hate socks, so I gotta get some great ones for running.)

Hey Brooks, I was about to say give this guy a raise. Then I remembered, you just promoted him. So…good job on that.

This expo was chock full of games, wheels, plinko boards, arts & crafts, and video projects. Companies brought their A games! They really, really wanted us to bank with their banks, use their insurance, drink their milk, run their races, and all that good stuff.

Geico booth at the Rock 'n' Roll USA Marathon Expo 2012 — Geico booth

I spun the wheel at the Geico booth, and landed on “mystery prize.” Spoiler alert: it was a Geico Pez dispenser (which I did not know existed)!

Yet again, I stopped by the chocolate milk booth. I know. I cannot even get started again on my confusion as to whether or not milk is good for me. However, I will say they actually had a physician there, and he said milk absolutely does not leech calcium from your bones. Score one point for milk?

Back up to when I was asking the milk people if they’d heard about the leeching calcium stuff – they were all, “No, of course not. In fact, we have a physician here. Talk to him, for sure.”

I looked over, and everybody was getting this guy’s autograph and taking pictures with him. The little sign about him said he was a marathoner and a triathlete, even doing an Ironman. I thought, yeah, those things are super cool. I wouldn’t expect doing them would make him this popular, but that’s really nice that people care so much about those accomplishments. Nope. Turns out he had been “The Bachelor.”

That makes you look really fast mirror at Brooks area Rock 'n' Roll USA half marathon expo 2012 — Brooks makes everything fun, down to the mirror you look in when you try things on.

He seemed genuinely surprised/impressed about 52 half marathons in 52 weeks. I wanted to be like, “dude, you’re an Ironman.” Nonetheless, he was very nice.

What a great expo, followed by dinner with my incredible friend Fareed (who’s graciously opening his home to me this weekend), and his fun group of friends.

Now, it’s time for sleep! I’ve got a race tomorrow!

Odds and Ends from Orlando

March 15, 2012

Greetings from the Greyhound bus.

As I’m heading to my 5th city in 4 weeks, I thought I’d catch up on some odds and ends that got pushed to the side by other posts.

Remember Becky – Marty’s absolutely lovely mother who had compliment time and everything? (Golly, she’s so sweet.) On one of the days we went to Disney, we learned that she is a hula-hooping champion! (Seriously, she won a contest, hula-hooping hooped for 40 minutes straight.) She showed us her skills in a hula-hoop area (which I didn’t know existed) in Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

And don’t even get me started on how fun the Toy Story ride is. You shoot virtual things at various screens throughout the ride. I usually hate virtual stuff, but I love anything in which trying to win is involved. Marty pretty much kicked everyone’s butt at this game. I could’ve easily, literally done nothing but that ride all day until I played it like a boss.

Do you know how Wendy and Marty like to start the morning? They like to drink smoothies and watch Jeopardy!! I am obsessed with game shows. (I totally avidly read Ken Jennings’ blog…and subscribe to his weekly trivia email. I may or may not be sort of a nerd.)

Aurora De Lucia on 1 vs. 100 — (I’m in the bottom left corner of the lit boxes. You can click the picture if you want to make it bigger.)

Fact time: I’ve been on a game show – 1 vs 100. If you’re bored one day, feel free to play “Where’s Aurora?”, seeing if you can spot me in the crowd. Heads up: The group I was part of was the Mensa members, so the show had me wear glasses. (Funny, right?) You can watch a few episodes here. (Episode 3 is my favorite.)

[Edited to add: Later, I was also on Price is Right.]

Annnnnnyway, back to the super fun Florida rental house, we also had a great time doing fun puzzles. What I mean by that, is usually Wendy (and sometimes others) would be doing all the hard work. I’d put in about 10 pieces, as though I was really helping. Even if you put in one piece, you get to sign the back of the puzzle when it’s finished.

We left a puzzle for whoever stays there next, and now it has our secret messages for them on the back. They’ll have to put the puzzle together to read them. (Spoiler alert: The messages aren’t that secret. They basically say that Wendy did most of the work and I admit to glomming on… Or is that what they say? I guess you’ll have to put it together to find out, next rental house guests!)

I also skipped over going to the oh-so-sad Greyhound bus station. Marty and Wendy were the greatest troopers to put up with me on March 1. I refused to go to bed after leap day, because I wanted to be really, really tired going into my bus ride (and I didn’t want to miss a moment of fun in Orlando!).

Becky hula hooping at Walt Disney World — Becky showing off her hula hoop skillz

Like the sweethearts they are, they went along with that plan. (I’m so glad, because I slept almost the entire 16 hours to New Orleans, which is totally the way to do that trip.)

During the time between leap day and the bus station, I’d go through phases – I’d get my second wind and seem really awake and normal, then I’d get super tired and quiet. Wendy said I seemed like jello – if you poked me, I’d move a little, then go back to just sitting there still.

Then there was a phase where I thought I was awake and really wanted to be part of the conversation, but I’d kind of make some nonsensical, backwards sentences.

Nonetheless, they kept hanging out with me, and paying attention to me (I think. Unless I was so tired that I thought I was talking to other people, but was really only talking to myself). They just really are so lovely.

Their kindness blew me away – letting me stay in their rental house, and tag along to Disney all the time, taking me out for the best smoothies on the planet. (Obviously that means Planet Smoothie, in case you were wondering. But how could you wonder, considering that’s an established fact in this world?) They’re really, really great. (I meant Wendy and Marty, but that goes for the smoothies as well.)

Come back tomorrow to read about the Rock ‘n’ Roll USA expo.

Adding a FULL Marathon?!

March 14, 2012

Aurora and Caylan — Me and my hilarious sister

While we’re talking about planning the schedule…

I’ve asked my sister a few times if she’d like to do some running events with me. She loves being athletic – playing softball and volleyball. Our dad is doing his first half marathon this year. So why not her too?

She would never have it. “Running? Boring. Hard. Pointless.” Etc.

I figured she would be a lost cause, until one day, whenever she finds something that made her want to run. I’d be here whenever she was ready.

I mentioned to my sister, “There’s this thing called the Goofy Challenge at Walt Disney World. It happens to fall on the very final weekend of my 52 in 52 challenge. It’s a half marathon on Saturday, followed by a full marathon on Sunday. I think that might just be the best/most exciting/biggest thing to end on.”

My sister: “Oh, a DISNEY race?! Let’s do it!” This idea that I had only put out there in passing has now become her new obsession. She is oh so into it, that’s she’s totally gotten me into it. The Disney races aren’t my favorite races… But this will be a big, fun challenge to end on. (I think. I mean, if you’ve got better ideas for January 13, 2013, hit me!)

If I do this Disney one, you know what that means, right? I’m going to have to run an additional full marathon this year.

I have dreamt of my first marathon for four years now. I don’t want to do one in an admittedly fun place, but a place that isn’t too significant to me for no other reason than “just because.”

Marathon medal from 20th anniversary of the Walt Disney World Marathon (2013) - It says "all our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them" — (Spoiler alert: I did do the Goofy Challenge, and it was in fact inspirational, amazing, and all-around wonderful)

Don’t get me wrong. I am incredibly inspired by Walt Disney. I look up to him a ton, and want to be a lot like him in many ways. However, running-wise, the Disney races don’t really mean anything to me.

I’ve actually been signed up to run a marathon twice in my life. (Let’s hope the third time’s the charm.) I had the time of my life running the 500 Festival Indianapolis Mini in 2009. I was becoming utterly obsessed with running. I signed up to run the Rock ‘n’ Roll Arizona marathon taking place in January 2010.

In January 2010, I was in Massachusetts General Hospital every few days getting my blood taken to make sure my blood thinning medication was working – since in December 2009, I was in the hospital for a week with a blood clot on my heart. I also had my meeting with the heart surgeon for my open heart surgery the week of that race. So much for that marathon.

I was cleared to exercise again on June 22, 2010. I struggled a ton coming back (but that’s really a story for a whole ‘nother post). A few months later, I registered for Rock ‘n’ Roll Seattle taking place in June 2011. It fell right on my birthday. I thought it would be the best way to ring in my next year. I have family that lives in Seattle, and I had gotten my uncle and cousin revved up about doing the half.

They did the half, and of course experienced incredible joy. I just couldn’t get it together. I wanted to so badly. I struggled way more than I would ever care to admit (but will go ahead and freely admit) while coming back from all that surgery/hospital business. So, I just didn’t go to Seattle.

Aurora running at Rock 'n' Roll Seattle 2012 — At Rock ‘n’ Roll Seattle – not doing my first full marathon, ’cause I’d already done it earlier in the month…

This can finally be my year. The Rock ‘n’ Roll Seattle half is already on the schedule. I could easily switch it to the full. There aren’t any races I need to do for two weeks leading up to it, so I will most likely have the freshest legs that I’ll have for the whole year. It won’t quite be my birthday yet, so I could still run the race within the same year that I had originally planned to run it.

I’m 98% sure that the Rock ‘n’ Roll Seattle FULL marathon is going in the books. It’s just crazy. I didn’t plan on doing any fulls this year. It just seems so… incredible, breathtaking, magical, (insert your own words here).

I guess play time is over, my friends. It’s time to prep for a grown up race now!

[Edited to add: Later in the year, I changed my mind, and decided to make my first marathon the week before Seattle – The Mohican Marathon. It was important to my family to be at my first marathon, so I agreed to run one in Ohio (even though it’s on a trail!).]

Making the Schedule (aka What in the World Have I Done?)

March 13, 2012

Hey there!

I keep thinking about blogging some odds and ends from the Florida vacation that were pushed back by other things (and possibly a few more thoughts about the awesome Book of Mormon, since apparently only two posts on one musical still might not cut it).

Instead, at the end of the night for the last two nights, when I’ve thought about what to blog, I’ve just reached for some go-to posts that I’d been saving for times I didn’t otherwise know what to post.

Why, when I have so much to talk about, would I need to go to some blogs in storage? Because at the end of the day for the last few days, my brainpower has been totally wiped. I have no thoughts left except those focusing on future races.

Originally, I thought, “Oh, while I’m here in Ohio chilling at my dad’s house, this will be a perfect time to get the year in order – see some friends from high school for a few hours a day, work on the schedule in all my free time, and bing, bang, boom. Everything works out quickly and perfectly.”

Well, I didn’t take into account that even just trying to plan things in the pretty immediate future – time for all my friends from high school, a bus ticket to DC this weekend, a place to stay in Charlotte, North Carolina next weekend, a way to see every person I know in New York when I go back next week, and of course see oh, so many shows there – would take up a lot of time in itself.

I am so unbelievably thankful that I’m getting some time in the midwest/on the east coast and that there are so many wonderful people in my life who want to (or are at least willing to) hang out with me. And I am SO pumped about all of these races. None of this is a burden by any stretch of the imagination. It’s just a little more tricky and a little more time consuming than I originally thought.

You might think it would be easy to just go to any number of websites that have a schedule of all the half marathons all over the country throughout the year, and then pick out a bunch and call it a day. Or you might be think that one could just fly by the seat of one’s pants all year (which is totes what I’m doing right now).

Aurora De Lucia in a close up making a stressed face — Yeah, I got a little camera happy acting stressed and used two stress-posing pictures. I think it’s pretty well established I’m a complete ham for all cameras everywhere, always.

But here’s the thing, in order to maximize your medals (which is obviously of utmost importance ;)) by doing as many series as possible, and to help people be able to meet up with you throughout the year, you kind of have to have a really great idea of what you’re doing.

Some series (such as Rock ‘n’ Roll Heavy Medals) have tons of different choices, so you build those races around the series (such as the Beach Cities Challenge) that are precisely three races with no wiggle room or race decisions to be made by the racers.

It’s surprisingly hard to put all the puzzle pieces together.

My schedule isn’t etched in stone, but I feel good about the fact that it has an awesome shape, and is almost completely made at this point!

At this point, 7 half marathons in, I’m going to predict that the hardest part about the 52 in 52 challenge is the logistics – planning the schedule, planning the travel, figuring out where to stay, keeping registrations and receipts and plane tickets and bus tickets and everything organized, and all that jazz. Just getting up in the morning and completing 13.1 miles 52 times this year will not be the hardest part. At least, I don’t think that yet. Maybe check in around race number 30, and see what kind of song I’m singing then…

Humongous shout out to Gary from Xterra Snow Valley who heard about my fun 52 in 52 adventure and gave me a free race entry! So, let’s all go run that together as a big thank you for the kind-heartedness! (I hear that Johannah‘s in.)

[Edited to add: As thankful as I am for Gary’s kindness, that race didn’t pan out because the person I was going with got injured at the last minute. Yada, yada, yada.]

Also, a big shout out to Chris from Petaluma Moo-Cow Half Marathon for giving me a very steep discount on that race. I feel like a celebrity with all this special treatment! Chris, Gary, thank you both very, very much.

And hey, 52 weeks of half marathoning, bring it on! I’m ready for you!

Do I Regret Doing a Half Marathon on Crutches?

March 12, 2012

Short answer: Absolutely not.

I thought I would give a post following up on the most recent time I did something a little crazy.

You know how sometimes, when people do sort of crazy things, other people are curious as to how it ended up panning out for them? In case you’re curious about how all of this turned out –

The day after the race, I woke up unbelievably sore. I did not want to move. My arms were more tired than they’d ever been in my life. I didn’t want to lift them for anything.

I am fortunate enough to live in an apartment building that has a jacuzzi. I pretty much lived in that jacuzzi all week. Within a couple of days, I was feeling as though I could pretty much function again, which is good since I had a half marathon in Palm Springs the weekend after the one on crutches.

If I had been able to hobble along the entire course as quickly as I made it through the finish, I would’ve been a much more deserving candidate for such a crazy challenge.

I mentioned before seeing pictures of someone else crossing a finish line on crutches, and how that had inspired me to do it. Of course, she was in way better shape than I am. She had been running full marathons every weekend for a while (probably with times as fast or faster than my times when I “run” my half marathons).

I really had to concentrate during the race on not overcompensating. My hip and knee were getting a little worn out because I was putting pressure anywhere I could, to try to keep it off my ankle. This is something I had to keep in mind in the next few races after this one as well. My body could function the way it’s supposed to (especially after my ankle got much better). I just had to let it (…without overcompensating).

As far as I can tell, I didn’t do any extra damage to myself. I feel great and am unbelievably excited to tackle 45 more half marathons this year. I had an incredible day at Surf City. Onlookers, for the most part, made me feel like superwoman.

I don’t regret doing this half marathon. I’d do it again in a heartbeat. I knew it was something I would finish, and I feel proud that I did. I think it’s awesome when we human beings can test ourselves, and push ourselves in a new way – and be reminded that we are all capable of so much!

I’m definitely going to work on slowly but surely getting in way better shape, though. With whatever other crazy challenges come my way, it’d be nice if I could take them head on in a good, solid way – instead of barely hanging on by a thread. (But goodness, did I ever hang onto that thread!)

Have you ever done anything kind of crazy that other people maybe thought was incredible (or stupid)? Did you regret it? Did you love it? Did you fall somewhere in between?

I’d love to hear from you!

Catch Up: Xterra Boney Mountain 6k – January 8, 2012

March 11, 2012

Woo hoo! As of this post, we’re all caught up on the string of running events I started 7 weeks before this blog.

This race was a real turning point for me. I really have to give it up to my awesome friend, Erin, for inadvertently starting me on my crazy path.

In the 5 weeks (and 6 races) leading up to this race, I’d come into work excited to talk about what race I had just done, and what one was up next. I was always inviting people to run with me, but generally everyone thought it was such a silly idea. “You want me to pay money so I can wake up early on a weekend and go exercise?”
“It’ll be SO fun.”
“Um, doubtful.”

Then one night, I was telling Erin about how I was on the fence about running that weekend. This was before I’d made any kind of official goal to run every weekend. I was saying, “You know, I guess it’s pretty cool that I’ve been running every weekend. But how long am I really going to keep this up? There are very few races this weekend, and they’re pretty far away, so I just don’t know…”

She jumped in and said she’d actually been wanting to run with me this weekend. Music to my ears! Someone was finally willing to go running with me! We decided to do the Xterra Boney Mountain 6k.

As all the racers gathered by the start line, the race officials said over and over, “No matter what you do, follow the blue arrows! Do not follow the red arrows or you’ll end up on the 21k path, which is not where you want to be.”

I made a little comment to Erin – “Gee, I haven’t looked at a single map. I hope I don’t get lost.” We laughed that off. How could I possibly get lost in a race?

scenery Boney Mountain 6k 2012 — Some scenery.

I was toward the back of the pack. I’m always slow, and I was trying to be so kind to my body since I had pushed it way too hard the previous weekend.

This was a fairly small race, so the back of the pack was more thinned out than usual. I was in front of a few people, but there were lots of twists and turns, and narrow passages.

Before you knew it, even though I wasn’t actually all that far from people in front of, or behind me, I was alone.

There was this area where it got really, pretty narrow for a little while. I am not an outdoorsy person, which maybe seems a little counter-intutive since I’m out doing half marathons all the time, but I hide from the sun as much as possible, and I’m totally afraid of animals.

I was a bit freaking out, but I obviously couldn’t quit a race! I grabbed onto my clothes as though I was wearing a dress, and ran through the area pretending I was a Disney Princess – doing my best faces while looking all around me, pretending a huntsman was out to get my heart.

Somehow I did end up making it out of there and back to the wider parts of the course. Then, as I was passing photographers, I saw, no joke, a coyote!!! I am so afraid of animals! I asked one of the photographers if I really, honest-to-goodness saw a coyote. Super nonchalantly, he was all, “Yeah, there are a bunch of coyotes here.”

What?! What have I gotten myself into?

Boney Mountain Xterra 6k 2012 Narrow Scenery (blurry) — Narrow area (photo taken during scared, Disney-esque running)

Finally, I’m getting really close to the finish. I’ve done about 3.5 miles. I know it’s coming up soon.

I come to this area where a red arrow is pointing right. A blue arrow is on the other side of the street pointing forward. I can’t go forward (there is no actually forward ) – only left or right, but I figure since it’s on the other side of the street, they must mean left.

I get lost and go over an extra two miles. (I have the absolute most awesome sense of direction, obviously.) I finish at least 10 minutes after the last 6k finisher. I felt so silly!

Nonetheless, it was a fun day and a good workout.

When we went to work the next day all proud and happy, my friend Matt said, “It’s really cool that you’re racing every weekend. You should keep this up.”

Maybe I should, Matt. Maybe I should. (And that was how this started.)

Kinsale St. Patrick’s Day 4 Miler

March 10, 2012

My friend Jaime is a rock star.

(She’s not literally a rock star – performing on stage in front of thousands of people (even though she is a great singer), but, you know, a figurative rock star – a freakishly amazing person.)

She is around six months pregnant (and still so super tiny), and she did a 4-mile race today! Granted, we just walked the whole thing. But, she kept a mighty awesome, quick walking pace.

She could easily keep a conversation going while moving quickly. I think I kept up with her pretty well, but I definitely had to work to make sure I did! She is fast and fit. She’s one incredible pregnant woman, walking two miles almost every day, eating incredibly healthy stuff, and always keeping a positive attitude.

And she’s so cute. She said she was going to hang the medal in the baby’s room and tell her little girl how they did the race together. Adorable, right?

Guess who else did the race with us? My dad! If you’ll remember, he did his first 5k in Los Angeles a few months ago. And he’s doing his first half marathon with me in May!

Daddy at dinner after the Kinsale 4 miler race, giving a huge smile — We forgot to take a picture of my dad right after the race, so here he is at dinner afterward.

And, if all that’s not enough, he’s got a 5k coming up next week. I am so proud of him.

(By the way, I forgot to mention, I’m in Ohio now. I’m just kind of making my way around parts of the east coast, having a grand ol’ time.)

My dad lives about a mile away from my favorite food place ever in the history of the universe – Planet Smoothie! I had some awesome fuel before the race today.

When we got to the race, I spun the wheel at WNCI’s booth and got some free swag (t-shirts and movie passes)! (What could be better pre-race fun than playing games, and winning free stuff?)

The race went through a neighborhood and around a golf course. We saw light beautifully bouncing off a lake as the sun went down.

Neither Jaime, my dad, nor I could figure out why they decided on a 4-mile race instead of a 5k. I don’t know if that has significance to anybody or anything. I enjoyed doing 4 miles, but this was the first 4-mile race I’ve seen. Are you familiar with other 4 mile races?

Also, super shout out to M3S Sports in Ohio. I was doing this trip/race last minute, and I saw the day before that the race had sold out.

cute, pregnant Jaime after Kinsale 4 miler — Look at how cute and tiny she is!

I sent emails to both contact emails I could find on the website, begging and pleading about how I’m visiting Ohio and I’m racing every weekend – and how my wonderful, fit, pregnant friend wanted to get into racing… And is there any way in this world that there are some secret spots available?

It turned out there were! There were only 10 spots they set aside for I don’t know what, but I know they let us have 3 of them. I guess it never hurts to ask, right?

They really made my day by letting us in.

I’m really glad I was able to find a race that gave a medal in town over this weekend. (I want to do at least some race every weekend this year, but it’s certainly not as fun without the bling.) There was not a ton of stuff going on in Ohio (or even the surrounding states) this weekend, so I really lucked out.

Most of all, though, besides the medal, and the race itself – I’m so very glad that Jaime, my dad, and I all got to do the race together!

The Book of Mormon (The Musical, of Course) – Part 2 (The “Line Family Fun/Jared is Amazing” Chapter)

March 8, 2012

new friends playing games passing time in the Book of Mormon standing room line — Peter, Kristin, and Lauren playing Botticelli (or at least re-creating playing it for our fun photo-op).

Continuing from yesterday, finally, around 10am someone else showed up. Yee haw!

7 different people came and went at different times within the next hour and a half, flabbergasted that the line was so short.

They were ready to wait, until they each learned that The Book of Mormon does not have matinees on Wednesdays.

Around 12:30, the party really started picking up when Peter and Kristin joined the line. Time flew by as we played Botticelli. (It took about 400 years for us to finally guess Will Wheaton. (Good job, Kristin.))

If any of you are curious as to what time you need to join the standing room line for Book of Mormon tickets, around 3:15 there were 12 people, so that was the point of danger territory – you might get shut out if you came after that. (Of course, this was a Wednesday in the middle of one of the first weeks of March. So, who knows, really?)

A little after 4, one of my friends from high school stopped by to say hi to me! (He had already seen the show. We actually saw the final dress rehearsal together about a year ago.)

Kristin’s friend, Lauren, also showed up around that time. Around 4:30, we all enter the ticket lottery. Kristin’s name gets called! I’m so happy for her and Lauren. They now have front row seats to The Book of Mormon!

The lottery guy moves on to calling the names for the box seats – and Lauren’s name gets called! Lauren and Kristin offered their extra pair of box seats to me and Peter if he wanted, but he decided to stick it out and wait for a pair of standing room tickets, so that he and his friend would be able to see the show together.

As we wondered what to do with the 4th ticket, the girls and I thought why not call Tom, the coffee guy, who waited for hours with me in the morning? Tom came on down to see the show. Isn’t it nice when everything works out perfectly, all tied up in a nice little bow like that?

People who'd won the Book of Mormon lottery with a sad person behind them who didn't win — They won the lottery! But Peter didn’t. That’s his sad face. Wah wah.

I had close to two hours until show time, so I booked it to Penn Station, went in the bathroom, ripped off my gazillion layers of clothes, changed into a dress, and walked quickly back.

The show was incredible. Seriously. As I said, I’d seen it before (and I listen to the soundtrack all the time). I guess I had somehow forgotten in the last 8 months that Broadway is magical. Seriously, honest to goodness, magic.

There is an entire level of happiness and love in this life that I forgot all about while living in California. There is nothing in this world like seeing a Broadway show.

Jared was phenomenal (no surprise there!). I had seen him in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (my favorite show ever) a few years ago. He had this incredible ability to take this kinda annoying character and make him actually, truly lovable. Jared has this incredible quality onstage – you can’t help but love him. (He exudes that quality off the stage as well, actually.)

And don’t even get me started on his wonderful voice. From the moment I saw The Book of Mormon a year ago, I knew that Jared would rock this show like no other. And he did. I had waited so long to finally see him in all of his glory, and I’m unbelievably glad that I was able to!

As I watched some of his biggest moments onstage, I thought, “Look at him! He’s singing his heart out, center stage in a Broadway smash!” He deserves every bit of this awesome-ness.

After the show, we talked for a little while. Jared is one of the most genuinely nice people I’ve ever met. He first met me when I was this totally dorky, musical theater obsessed teenager. (I guess actually not all that much as changed.)

He has always been super duper nice to me since day one. I cannot say enough nice things about him. I will be a total fan of his forever. I cannot wait to see what’s next in store for him! (And I can’t wait to hopefully see him in this show again. It was far too amazing to only see once!)

(p.s. I say more in part 3.)

The Book of Mormon (The Musical, of Course) – Part 1 (The “Waiting for Tickets in the Night/Morning” Chapter)

March 7, 2012

An extremely talented, lovely friend of mine – Jared Gertner – is understudying one of the lead roles in The Book of Mormon.

Far, far away in California, I am ridiculously happy for him (and pained for me) every time he goes in. I have been absolutely dying to see him rock the part of Elder Cunningham ever since I first saw the show last year. I knew he would blow everybody away and bring the house down. Today was finally my day to see him in all his glory!

As you know, I’ve been on the east coast lately (for the Disney Princess Half and Rock ‘n’ Roll New Orleans. Once I signed up for New Orleans, it kind of seemed silly to fly all the way back to Los Angeles). Forget flying back to Cali! I’ll play around the east coast until it’s time for my next race.

On my last night in New Orleans, I wrote Jared, letting him know that I was finally back in the general area of the east coast, and if he went in the show, he absolutely had to let me know.

Within minutes, he had written me back, letting me know that he was on for the whole rest of the week through the Saturday matinee. What?! Oh my gosh! One of my dreams is now possible!

I immediately changed my ticket to fly into New York. Late the next night, I was back at (what feels like) home in NYC!

Around 3am, I headed to the theater. As you’ve most likely heard (assuming you’re hip to the musical theater scene at all, and if you’re not, we should probably change that), The Book of Mormon is the hottest ticket in town. It is next to impossible to get. But, 20-25 standing room only tickets are available on a first-come, first-serve basis every show. They go on sale one hour before show time.

I had heard of people camping out for tickets. In fact, when I was still living in NY, I had asked the box office out of curiosity what time you should get there for standing room tickets. They said very early. They told me people bring sleeping bags, so get ready.

my luggage all alone outside the Book of Mormon while waiting for standing room only tickets — all my luggage with me in the wee morning hours

I figured I’d go early in the morning/in the middle of the night and give my whole day to this adventure. I arrived at the theater a little before 4am. To my astonishment, no one is there waiting yet.

Around 4:30, a man walks by me. I say, “Every time someone walks by, I hope they are here to get in line for The Book of Mormon tickets, and they have yet to be here for that.” Turns out he had just gotten off work from the coffee shop down the street, and he stopped and talked to me for – get this – 3 1/2 hours! He wasn’t even actually waiting in line or anything. He was just a stranger keeping another stranger company. Cool, right?

In the middle of the night, it actually was getting pretty cold (at least, cold to me as someone who unfortunately doesn’t live here anymore). I didn’t even bring a coat with me. (I didn’t realize I’d be coming to New York on this trip (that originally started as being one weekend long).)

I still had my luggage with me, since I came straight from the airport. I ended up throwing on 5 shirts, 2 sweatshirts, 3 pairs of pants, and 2 pairs of socks. My new, very nice stranger/friend, Tom, went out and brought back a blanket!

Tom eventually had to go get sleep. (Boring, right?) As the sun came up, I sat bundled almost beyond recognition on a busy Manhattan street, while people on their way to work looked at me as though I was crazy. (Although, what do I care how people are looking at me? I am guaranteed tickets to The Book of Mormon tonight, suckas!)

Around 8:30, I was getting quite tired. I wrapped the straps of one bag around me and sat on my suitcase. I fell asleep. When I woke up, I was convinced I had slept away hours of my wait. 15 minutes had passed.

Lots of fun things happen in the standing room only line. (And the show is incredible!) I can’t wait to tell you more tomorrow!

Manning’s – The Sweetest Restaurant in New Orleans

March 6, 2012

Aurora after eating at Manning's restaurant in New Orleans — (In a bit of a food coma here, but at least a very happy one!)

After the half marathon, I happened upon this place called Manning’s. I took a look at the menu, and most of the appetizers had pepper jelly on them. Sounds weird, right?

I asked what pepper jelly was. Everyone standing by the hostess stand said it was so awesome. They explained that it was a very sweet tasting sauce that they all thought was incredibly delicious. I was a little skeptical, but figured it didn’t hurt to try something new.

I sat down and was greeted by the sweetest waitress I’ve ever met. It’s worth going to Manning’s just for Kandice. Since I was in New Orleans, (vegan friends (Wendy and Marty), close your eyes), I wanted to try some meat I’d never tried. So, I ordered some duck wings.

They were freaking delicious! Also, I’m addicted to pepper jelly now. The name is misleading, because it sounds weird, and pepper doesn’t make me think of anything sweet. But, it is num num num. I didn’t think I’d like wings that were sweet. (I like spicy stuff!) But, seriously, yum.

I wasn’t super duper hungry after that, but I just had to try the poutine (which I’d never even heard of before). All of the people I’d met in the restaurant said it was an absolute must.

Chili cheese fries are in my top favorite foods, and poutine is fries with pork, cheese, and the new pepper jelly I adore so much. I told Kandice I needed to go on “break” from eating. lol! She was really patient as I kept being all, “um, 10 minutes from now?” (She comes back in 10 minutes.) “I’m so sorry. Can I just have 5 more minutes?”

Now, if you’re reading this, you’re probably thinking, “Well, Aurora, it sounds like you didn’t need any more food if you needed to prep for it like that.” Okay, well you might be right. I know being healthy is great, and moderation is great, but I did need more food, because these were crazy good! Don’t worry too much, though. I had a few bites and took the rest to enjoy later.

(credit: Manning’s logo)

I don’t want to oversell this place, but I’m gonna go ahead and say it was probably the best experience I’ve ever had a restaurant. Yep. I’m saying it.

The hostesses were sweethearts. Kandice was my new friend. The food was all brand new to me, and it tasted incredible! The restaurant was wonderfully well themed with football plays drawn on some walls, and inspiring quotes on others. There were even pictures of the Manning family on the ceiling if you looked up.

After I paid, I scribbled a tiny thank you note to Kandice for her awesomeness on the back of an extra receipt. As I was leaving, I looked at t-shirts with Kisha (the hostess (another new friend of mine)).

(Side note here: I saw that the t-shirts said est. 2012! That’s right, Manning’s is brand new. I’m getting on this bandwagon early, people.)

Anyway, while I was talking to Kisha, Kandice ran over and gave me a hug! How sweet of her! We all took a picture together and said goodbye. So sad. Between the best expo yet, the incredibly fun race, and the best meal I’ve ever had, New Orleans has got me! I’m already ready to go back, and I just left today!

The cab driver on the way to the airport told me to come back next month for Jazz Fest… I wonder if there are any half marathons happening in New Orleans around that time… 😉

(#7) Rock ‘n’ Roll New Orleans – Part 2 (Justifying Being Slow :-P)

March 5, 2012

Yesterday, I left off around mile 7. At that point in the race, I was still doing pretty well.

I’d been pacing to beat my time from last week’s Disney Princess until mile 8-ish – but I’d been struggling to keep up since mile 1.

There came a point when I thought, “It’s just not my race.” I knew I’d be well within the time limit, even if I just sauntered the rest of the way. So, I started walking.

I allowed myself a few minutes to beat myself up about it. “Oh, Aurora, you shouldn’t have had fried crawfish for dinner last night. You should’ve gone for a nice, really long walk and stretched better after your 16-hour Greyhound bus ride, you silly, silly girl.”

Those things probably mattered a little, but I’m not an elite athlete. (I’m not even a regular, ol’ athlete, really.) I can’t blame a slower race on small details. I had complete control over those details. I could’ve tried to set myself up for a faster race, but I didn’t… And, you know what? I don’t care that I walked about 5 miles of the race. I had an incredible time.

Running is my hobby. It helps take away stress. I cannot allow it to become stressful. (Have I convinced myself yet that it’s okay for me to not improve with every single race – or to not even always stay at the same level as the race before? I know you guys have already moved on – “Geez, girl, I get it!”)

After I stopped caring about my time, I pulled over to the side and took pictures and videos of some fun bands (and some of those awesome spectators I talked about yesterday). I went around giving high-fives to fun strangers. I walked and danced to Michael Jackson in my ears as he told me to ease on down the road. I just had a silly, fun time. I loved it!

Earlier I said I’d decided it wasn’t my race. But you know what? It was! I don’t care that I crossed the finish line 3 hours, 37 minutes, and 36 seconds after I crossed the start line.

(I heard someone at the start joke about how once you pay the money to do a race, you should try to be out there as long as you can to get your full money’s worth!)

There were tons of spectators lining the finish as I ran in. (I loved hearing somebody say, “Look, she’s smiling.” (Although, you’d think we’d all be smiling once we can see that finish line.))

Annie, from the Rock ‘n’ Roll Pasadena expo was there welcoming runners to the finish, and she remembered me! As I ran past, she said, “Look who it is!”

Just as they promised at the expo, they had chocolate milk for us at the finish. It tasted so good! I was skeptical at first. I don’t think I’d ever even had chocolate milk before. I LOVE regular milk so much. Why would I ever need chocolate?

But, it was totally delicious (which makes me so sad because of the little debate we’re having in the comments section of the post that mentions getting milk at the finish line). I want milk to be really, really good for me and to not leach calcium from my bones!

After the race, I met tons of wonderful new friends! Danielle from New York said she’d go see a Broadway show with me in the next couple of weeks when I’ll be up that way for a half marathon. (DC, NY, it’s all the same. If I’m going all the way to DC, how do I not make a stop in the greatest city in the world?)

Kathryn from Mississippi agreed to do her first half marathon with me! We’re shooting for one before my 52 in 52 challenge is over. I told her I was gonna put it in the blog and she said that means the pressure’s on! You know it, girl! [Edited to add: There’s no link ’cause it didn’t happen. Ah, so many dreams and plans. But alas, they don’t all come true…]

This half marathon gets a gold star for sure. I can’t wait for Rock ‘n’ Roll USA in Washington DC. It’s got a lot to live up to after this!

(#7) Rock ‘n’ Roll New Orleans – Part 1 (It’s Party Time!)

March 4, 2012

I am so glad I decided to do Rock ‘n’ Roll New Orleans!

I started in the party corral. (At least, I like to think of it as the party corral since we were all having so much fun – me and my brand new friends (aka strangers only minutes ago) Annette, and first timers Sean, Shemane, & Melissa.)

I ended up starting at the very front of my corral. So when I took off to an empty road ahead, for 5 hot seconds I pretended like I was actually racing (to win) a half marathon.

There were awesome spectators at this race! Some of the proceeds went to benefit the American Cancer Society, and woman held a sign saying, “Thanks! – survivor ovarian cancer 6 1/2 years – stage 3.” She high-fived a bunch of us as we went by.

Speaking of high-fives, these kids made signs, and they were all about cheering for people as we passed. Multiple people thought the kids were cool and stopped for pictures with/of them, so hopefully the kids felt good about their good deed.

Yes, I realize how hilarious it is that just last week I was talking about all the traffic from picture taking. We had wide roads here. People stepped off to the side for pictures. I tried to use good picture taking etiquette, as did everyone else I saw. I didn’t experience any traffic jams.

There were tons of families that came out to watch the race together. It was adorable. There was a family with a young kid in a stroller. The mom would point to runners and clap. She was teaching the little kid early on how awesome running is. I thought that was so cool.

There were cheerleading squads from various schools. Shout out to the girls from Gretna Middle school for having tons of enthusiasm both times I saw them, and for giving tons of high-fives and screaming for everyone who went by!

Some people came out with sweet signs such as “Dear Stranger, you’re my hero.” Some people had funny signs including “You’ve got stamina. Call me tonight.” There was even a group of people who brought a makeshift beer area for people around mile 9-ish.

There were rocking volunteers as well. I loved when they’d say anything because of their super cool N’Orleans accents.

Not only did this race have energetic spectators and sweet volunteers, it had incredible runners. I saw a man who was kind of limping (in mile 1). I’m assuming he’s fighting back after an injury. I saw a woman whose shirt said, “I have triplets. What’s your excuse?”

I have a feeling there were thousands of inspirational stories surrounding me. (Heck, anybody who was out there, no matter what his or her story was, finished a half marathon, so I think every one of them is inspirational!)

Speaking of inspiring runners, there were Army soldiers who did the whole thing with their big packs on their backs, one carrying the American flag. Incredible.

Fabulous spectators, volunteers, runners, but don’t forget about the bands! This is my 3rd Rock ‘n’ Roll event of the year, and they always have fun bands playing their hearts out for us. But, there was something special about the New Orleans bands – there were a bunch of jazz bands here! I passed tents with tubas thumping, saxophones singing, trombones blaring. It was wonderful.

Now that the whole 13.1 mile scene has been set, let’s bring it back to the beginning. In the first mile, I saw a few people run into the McDonald’s. I’m sure they went just to use the bathroom, but I got a kick out of the idea of runners going up to the counter with their bibs on – “yeah, may I please have a Sausage McMuffin?”

The first few water stations were on the left side of the street in this race. I thought it was a little odd, and I’m sure it probably drove some of the fast runners crazy to have slower people merging into their lane. I’m not fast, so it didn’t affect me. I just thought it was odd.

Around the end of mile 6, I was thinking it’d be nice to have a little pick me up. Lo and behold, as we came into mile 7, there was a water/Gatorade station. Sweet business. But they were out of Gatorade!

Will I make it through to the end without that great rush of electrolytes? Find out tomorrow.

Rock ‘n’ Roll New Orleans Expo

March 3, 2012

Best expo yet.

Brooks Running rocked this expo. They basically set up a carnival, complete with games and a show. They even had a bus with treadmills. You could run, and they’d take a video of your stride, show it to you, and tell you what kind of shoe to get. Everything about their area was awesome!

I became totally obsessed with this skeeball game. You had to get to 26.2 miles before one of the other three players did. I lost by a hair 3 times in a row. I knew I needed to get out of there, or else I’d be playing skeeball all day and miss the whole expo.

I did a quick run around the expo. It was the fastest I’ve ever gone through one. I picked up pamphlets for a couple of races I hadn’t seen advertised before. Running a race so far from where I live is super cool. I get to see things from a different perspective, and hear about a bunch of east coast events.

I also saw a chocolate milk booth for the first time. They were making videos and giving out swag. It was a pretty sweet booth – too bad there was a carnival in the expo(!), stealing a bit of their thunder.

They said we’ll get chocolate milk at the finish tomorrow, so that’ll be an exciting change of pace. I hear SO many different things about milk.

I’ve heard it actually depletes your calcium. I’ve also heard that it’s one of the best things you could drink after a running event. Do you have any opinions on this?

After a quick sweep through the expo, I ran back to the party that was the Brooks Running carnival. In my first round back at skeeball – I won! Aw, yeah!

Then I went to get my stride analyzed. I’d always heard that that’s definitely how you should buy running shoes, but I’ve never been cool enough to get running shoes in a store that has treadmills set up with employees who’ll watch you run. This was my chance!

After my new friend Glen watched me run, he leaned to his coworker and said “I think we might have a Dyad.”

They got excited, which of course made me excited. When I asked why we were so excited, Glen said it was because it’s very rare for someone to have a Dyad as their correct shoe. (In fact, Brooks actually made this shoe specifically for me. (Not really.))

What’s so special about my stride, you ask? I have some kind of special shape and most importantly, even still, there’s no over-pronating for this girl, ya’ll! (Party music plays.)

Have I mentioned this carnival theme is so awesome? They even had this silly, fun, little show in which a lizard jumps off the stage, and this tiny little girl ran away screaming. It was super cute (but I bet she didn’t think so!).

As of now, Brooks is winning sweetest set up, and I am stoked they’ll be in Washington DC as well!

After the expo, I took a little walk around the River Walk Marketplace. I stopped at Messina’s and Deddie made my first Po’ boy ever.

A random person in line walked up to me and out of the blue said I had great skin, immediately making them my new friend. They told me to try the crawfish po’ boy. (They had me at “good skin,” so whatever they suggested, I was going with it.)

And it was delicious.

What a fun day! Now I better get to sleep. I’ve got a half marathon in the morning!

Blue Man Group/Kobe Japanese Steakhouse

February 29, 2012

As this is auto posting, I’m still at Disney World in hour 21 of 24 at the “One More Disney Day” leap day celebration.

While I’m off gallivanting, I thought I’d talk about a fun night in Orlando from earlier this week.

On Monday, I went to see Blue Man Group at Universal CityWalk with my friends Anna, Marlon, and Marlee. It was an amazing show.

The actors were great improvisers, ready for whatever audience participants threw at them. They were also talented musicians who had everyone dancing in the aisles. It was an incredible, fantastic mix of comedy, art, video, skits, and music. I loved it.

After the show, someone came up to us and said to my friend, “You’re Marlee, aren’t you?” She and her family said, “Yes.” The stranger said, “You’re amazing!” (My friend Marlee is an amazing dancer.)

When they asked how he knew her, he said, “[sarcastic tone] Really?” By his reaction, you’d think we were asking him how he knew who Janet Jackson was. It was hilarious and awesome. We got a huge kick out of it.

After the show, we went to Anna’s favorite restaurant – Kobe Japanese Steakhouse (which was perfect, since it was the day after her birthday). The food was absolutely delicious (and the conversation was wonderful to match)!

Dinner, a show, catching up with old friends whom I haven’t seen in probably over a year and a half(!), (sounds like I’m beginning a MasterCard commercial here, doesn’t it? “…priceless”). No, but really, it was super fun.

The me from yesterday (who’s writing this) has to go to sleep to prepare for 24 hours of Disney. (And the me from now has to go ride some more rides!) Bye! (Talk to you tomorrow!)

Becky’s Last Day in Orlando

February 28, 2012

Slowly but surely, our party posse is paring down. Now we are just the party trio.

Becky (Marty’s mom) went back home today. We all threw a humongous tantrum at the airport. (We didn’t really, but we did in our hearts.)

One of the many lovely things about Becky (that I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned on the blog yet) is her “compliment time.” At random points in the day, she would decide to start complimenting everyone in the room. How great is that? I’m pretty sure we should implement this everywhere in the world.

Before going to the airport, we went to eat at this incredible place called Ethos. Remember how I’m playing a make-believe vegan this week? (Well, I kind of, sort of am when I’m hanging out with awesome Wendy and Marty. But I’m kind of, sort of not when I’m with my other friends.)

Anyway, I was with the party posse today, so I was having fun playing a make-believe vegan. If all vegan foods were as good as the ones at Ethos, I could possibly be a real, honest-to-goodness vegan someday. Maybe… I mean, I do love Doritos so very, very much…

Vegan pizza from Ethos — This looks like any regular ol’ pizza, but it’s vegan!

After we ate and went to the saddest place in Orlando (also known as the airport), we went to Planet Smoothie(!!!) to get comfort smoothies. They comforted us as best as smoothies could.

We came home and tried Cranium with 3 people. (Wendy switched between teams.)

Golly, we sound kind of dorky, don’t we? But, it was really fun! (In case you’re keeping a score of the weekend, I was on the winning team again. Yee haw!)

Tomorrow, I’ll be at Disney for 24 hours celebrating Leap Day – since I assume Disney is keeping the park open that long as a personal challenge to me. I can’t wait to tell you all about it!

(#6) Disney Princess Half Marathon – Part 2 (Nicely Themed Race & Funny Spectators)

February 27, 2012

Today, we get to focus on the magical parts of the race!

(Yesterday, I talked all about the congestion and such.)

Not surprisingly, the half marathon was themed very well. Disney had songs playing that matched the moods or themes of the characters who were out for pictures.

(For instance there was an area where “Ain’t No Other Man” was playing that had a photo-op with Disney princes (such as Aladdin and Prince Eric).)

There was also this funny area of men dressed in suits who were holding out glass slippers and singing “You Are So Beautiful To Me.” One man was yelling “I love you” to every woman who went by.

Disney makes it extremely clear that this race is all about the ladies. They didn’t let men start in corrals A or B. The results page doesn’t even list any men as finishers (even though I heard that over 1,000 men ran – I was going to check that fact for you, but how can I without men in the results page?…).

Large groups of supportive spectators watched throughout the race. It was nice to see tons of families out so early in the morning, supporting their mom/daughter/etc. I saw a little girl who saw her mom run by. The girl seemed to think it was the coolest thing ever, screaming as though her mom was rockstar. It was adorable. (I bet that girl becomes a runner someday.)

Somewhere in Mile 4, a bunch of people started saying, “You’re halfway there! You’re halfway there!” I thought it was hilarious. I even heard an official person say over a loudspeaker, “You’re almost halfway there – just around that corner.” Well, that must’ve been one long corner, because unless that corner was over a mile and a half long, the halfway mark was not “just around that corner.”

I jogged most of the course today! That means nothing to real, honest-to-goodness runners, but it was an improvement for me.

Around mile 8, as I was really starting to feel as though walking would be fun, Michael Jackson suddenly came on my iPhone. Shockingly, it was the first time an MJ song played during this race. I pushed forward and kept jogging. As he sang out that he was starting with the man in the mirror, I thought, “That’s right. Me too. Sing it, Michael!”

Around mile 11, it started to rain a bit. It was nice to get a quick sprinkle of water. I finished the race in 3:18:04 – still slow, I know. But faster than I was last week. (And according to my app, I actually ran about 13.7 miles ,with all the weaving around on the course. So, I’m gonna go ahead and choose to feel even a smidgen better about it.)

After the race, Wendy, Becky, Marty, and I all hung out and enjoyed Disney World. I can’t wait to tell you more about my Orlando vacation tomorrow.

(#6) Disney Princess Half Marathon – Part 1 (The Disney Roller Coaster)

February 26, 2012

True to Disney, this half marathon was a 13.1 mile roller coaster – a mix of sudden stops, plenty of turns (with all our bobbing and weaving), and colliding human-bumper-cars. (Bumper-humans, I guess, is what that would be called?)

(Heads up – this was a fun race, so please read anything below that sounds like maybe a “complaint” with love and laughter in your voice. I thought it all was more funny than annoying.)

When we ran through the Magic Kingdom, we got funneled from a wide road into a narrower bridge. As we ran up to the bridge – screeeeech! We stopped suddenly, trapped behind a huge, unexplained traffic jam caused by a large group of people who’d come to a complete stop.

Runners started yelling “don’t stop!” I couldn’t tell what was going on. Some of us finally squeezed around. I started jogging again, thinking we were back to doing a half marathon, when the woman running just a bit in front of me suddenly halted.

I ran smack into her.

That’s when I saw a photographer. I realized the incredible gridlock all throughout that bridge was due to people stopping to pose.

Don’t get me wrong, I am a super ham for the camera, but I try to keep up my pace while being one. After all, I am in a half marathon, so I want some action shots, by golly!

The thing I’m learning about Disney running events is that they are Disney events that happen to involve running, as opposed to running events that involve Disney.

There were areas where people could get their picture taken with characters, and lines would form along the side of the course. Okay, that’s cool. But, I came upon one where the line was curving far into the road, literally going to the halfway point of the street. What?! Why are you lining up that way? Did you forget you were in a half marathon?

At some point, in some race, I have almost certainly gotten in someone’s way. I am far from a perfect runner. I still slow down to walk sometimes. (And I am a silly, dancing walker.) But I do my best to stay out of the way of faster people. I keep my eyes open and try to be as considerate as possible to other runners.

Granted, this Disney race had 20,000 people, so I’m sure no matter what, it was going to be crowded. Plus, Disney races have more first time runners than any other races. It’s possible that a lot of people didn’t know to stay to the right when they’re going slower, or to go off to the side for pictures.

Everybody has a first time, and life is a learning experience. So, it’s okay if everyone doesn’t know everything about everything.

Aurora running in a huge crowd of people by the castle in the Disney Princess 2012 half marathon — (I’m to your left, behind the girl in the yellow. (You can click the picture to see it bigger.))

And half marathons should be plenty of fun. I love half marathons and would love it if the whole world shared that love. So, I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade. But it was an interesting race to say the least.

It certainly made for a great workout since it gave a nice, little test of my agility and coordination.

The lesson (even in this longer distance race) is the same one I learned at my first Disney 5k and implemented in my next Disney 5k. Unless you are an elite runner who’s going to run far ahead, be up for walking and picture stops. Go into it thinking you’re gonna have a great morning walk with your friends, and you’ll have a ball.

Encourage brand new runners to try their first race with you, leave your Garmin at home, and have a play run. That’s my advice that I will heed at my next Disney race.

As I said, overall, I did have a super fun time, and I can’t wait to tell you all about it tomorrow.

Disney Tangled Royal Family 5k

February 25, 2012

Remember the last time I ran a Disney 5k and talked on and on about it? Today, I went in knowing what to expect.

Wendy, Marty, and I walked the whole course and had a great time doing it. We exchanged stories. They told me about the time they shot their Jenny Craig commercial. (Cool, huh?)

We talked and laughed (and I totally hammed it up every time I saw a camera).

It was super chill and barely even felt like a 5k. I thought, “What are these water stations doing here on my morning walk? How lovely.”)

Before you knew it, we were at the finish line!

There was a regular smorgasbord of food at the end. The race was giving out bottles of Powerade (full bottles, people). There were bananas, fruit snacks, pre-packed snack boxes with humus, crackers, chocolate, and more.

When we returned home, Becky (Marty’s mom) was sitting at the table and said “I saw your video!” (A teacher in a music production class I’d been taking put forth a challenge (for extra credit) to learn that dance. Challenge accepted.) We all had a big laugh, and I felt special someone was looking me up and enjoying my dancing silliness.

Becky is such a sweetheart. She’s pretty much my new best friend. Get this – later in the day, at a lull in conversation, she started reading my blog out loud! I’m pretty sure she should do an audio version, because she reads it with awesome inflection. She makes every little detail sound interesting.

She subscribed to my blog today. Woot, woot. My popularity is slowly but surely spreading around central Orlando (or possibly just this rental house…)

One of the members of our super fun group went home today. (Sad face.) Before we took Barbara (Marty’s aunt) to the airport, we all got on the subject of Planet Smoothie (my very favorite place of sustenance in the entire world).

Marty, being a genius, said we should go. I didn’t even think about the fact that Planet Smoothies might exist in Orlando.

Nobody freak out, but there was a Planet Smoothie only three short miles away from the airport!

By the time we had finished the greatest smoothies known to mankind, we were at Downtown Disney. We explored for a while (and tried some delicious vegan treats at Babycakes). After we’d walked the whole Pleasure Island loop, it was time to come home for another round of Cranium.

Since Barbara had left, we had to even out the teams. Becky was a wonderful partner. She’s quite smart (and does a really cute charades chicken). But, I don’t know in what universe we thought Wendy and Marty should be on the same team. They’ve been married for 13 years. They have telepathic powers!

Needless to say, Becky and I lost. (Sigh) Even still, it was a fun game. (And we are coming for them next time!)

Now it’s time for bed. At 4am, it’ll be time to wake up for our next half marathon. I can’t wait to tell you all about it tomorrow!

Disney Princess Half Marathon Expo

February 24, 2012

As I was walking into ESPN Wide World of Sports (where the expo was being held), I just so happened to see Marty and Wendy walking out.

I was already planning on seeing them today (considering I’m staying in their rental house!), but this was impeccable timing.

We made a game plan. They awesome-ly took my luggage to their car, and they went to lunch with their family while I went into the expo.

You know how Plinko looks super fun on The Price is Right? got to play a Plinko-ish game for my first time at the Chiquita banana booth! Of course, the top prize was a banana (as opposed to thousands of dollars)… I did not win a banana.

I met John, my brand new friend, at the Marine Corps Marathon booth. He was hilarious. I was telling him how I have to get the Rock N Roll Pop Idol medal since it’s as big as my face. He said that we should refer to it from here on out as the “face medal.” (He was spittin’ great ideas all day.)

I asked him how many marathons or half marathons he’d done, and he said none! By the end of our conversation, I got him to agree to run the Marine Corps half marathon with me in 2013.

(It’s possible that he won’t follow through with this… He has my contact info. I don’t have his. But, I’m gonna go ahead and assume that he is going to email me and we are obviously going to run that half marathon next year.)

[Edited to add: That did not happen. Wah wah.]

After the expo, Wendy and Marty came over (with their fun relatives, Becky and Barbara) to pick me up. We went to this nifty Target – but not just any Target. Oh, no. This was a Super Target, which is something I didn’t even know existed. We got Cranium and bananas in the same store!

Princess outside of a carriage at the Disney Princess expo 2012 — (You could get your picture taken with princes outside the expo.)

When we were sitting around the table in the rental home, Marty asked me how I liked blogging. Then, he proceeded to talk about my blog! He reads this blog. No joke. He is possibly reading this sentence right now. (Hi, Marty!) Somebody out there is actually reading my blog (regularly)! Golly gee.

Becky and Barbara made us some delicious vegan fajitas for dinner. I’m not a vegan, but Wendy and Marty are, so I get to play a make-believe vegan for the week.

After dinner, we all sat around for a great game of Cranium! I won’t say who was on the winning team. ((cough, cough) I was.)

I’m pretty sure a re-match will most likely occur this week.

I am having such an incredible time with this hilarious family. There is non-stop laughter in this house.

Now I gotta get to sleep! I have a 5k in the morning. I can’t wait to tell you all about it tomorrow.

I Added New Orleans to the List

February 22, 2012

(photo credit: Competitor Group)

Earlier this week, I was still undecided on which race I’d do next weekend.

I had a list of a couple within a few hours of me. Way in the back of my mind, Rock ‘n’ Roll New Orleans was hanging out. It seemed a little on the silly side to go to a far away city, in which I didn’t know anyone, just to do another RnR race.

But, in the past couple of weeks, I had the best time couchsurfing at Sven’s house. Plus, I had so much fun at my first two Rock N Roll races… And I’d always wanted to go to New Orleans.

Then I thought about the fact that I didn’t have to come home and fly out again. I could spend a few more days with my friends in Orlando, and just change my plane tickets. (Thank you for no change fees and incredible freedom, Southwest!)

A couple of days ago, I decided to register, put in a request for a place in New Orleans on couchsurfing.org, and take the Greyhound from Orlando to New Orleans. Why not, right?

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to prepare to leave my apartment in only 4 short hours and be gone for close to 2 weeks! (Yippee!)

[Edited to add: Little did I know, I actually wouldn’t be coming home for about 7 weeks – staying on the east coast to do Rock ‘n’ Roll USA, NC Half marathon, and April Fools’ race in Atlantic City (plus see some Broadway shows, and just generally hang out, travel, and have an all around spectacular, incredible time.]

I Love Running

February 21, 2012

I am thankful for running.

In case you haven’t noticed by my pictures on this blog or my super slow half marathon times, I am not in the greatest shape. I wouldn’t even go so far as to say I’m in great shape. Probably even “good shape” is pushing it. 🙂 Nonetheless, I adore running.

I’m always thankful for running. I always know how much I love it, but being out for three weeks because of that sprained ankle drove me nuts! Now that I’m back from my short hiatus, I’m falling in love with running all over again.

A nice, long run(/walk) gently pushes stress off my shoulders. It says, “Hey babe, I am here for you. I promise to always and forever help shoulder your burdens, and remind you that you are in control of so many things… And, it’s time to give up worrying about things you can’t control.”

Running in events makes me feel as though I’m part of a humongous team of runners that surrounds me. We all have a common goal, and we’re there to encourage each other. While at the same time, it’s a very individual sport. I’m there to go at the pace I want, and to sometimes get lost in my own world as Michael Jackson jams pump through my headphones. I love that sense of individualism within a sense of community.

Running adds so much to my life. I don’t know what I’d do without it, and I think it’s incredibly silly that I ever lived a life without it!

As I said, I’m not fit. I am not an athlete. I’m a human being who needs to run. I don’t use running only to deal with stress. I use it to channel the excitement of good news. I use it as a time to ponder the things for which I’m thankful.

If you don’t run, I would love to challenge you to try. You don’t have to run far, just as much as you can handle. When I started, I could only run half a mile before I was pretty sure I was gonna die. Even still, I can’t straight up jog (without walking breaks) anything longer than a 5k.

Running is hard! But, I find it extremely rewarding.

You are not Paula Radcliffe or Deena Kastor – unless you are in which case, what? How did you find my blog? Please say hello! You freaking rock.

You are you. That means you run as fast as you can, and/or as far as you can, and whatever that is, is a success.

You can carry yourself wherever you want to go if you just free yourself to go there. So, let’s go!

Catch Up: Run for Books (Simi Valley) – January 1, 2012

February 20, 2012

It almost seems a little silly to still be catching up on races from months ago. But I only have two left, so I figure I’ll finish them out to make the blog feel complete.

(As I’ve said, I started this string of running events 7 weeks before I started the blog. That’s why we’re playing catch up.)

This run for books was New Year’s morning. Let me tell you, I ran the crap out of my legs!

At this point, I was thinking, “Oh I’m sort of a runner again.” Little did I know that trails are the worst ever, and they make running about a million times harder.

I went into the other races smarter, sometimes with general time goals – but always with the number one goal being not to get injured. I luckily didn’t get injured in this race, but I did push myself too hard. I was obsessed with getting a “good” 5k time (or at least good for me).

Alas, obstacles kept holding me back. There were hills, and we were running in the dirt. And it was SO windy – so very, very windy.

The beginning of the race was way downhill. Since so many people around me were going fast, I stupidly felt the need to keep up, so I started too quickly. Basically, what I’m saying is, I was a total mess. And I’d almost done the 10k instead! I’m so glad I only had to endure 3.1 miles of this.

The whole staff was incredibly friendly – probably one of the friendliest staffs yet. But the course just killed me… (Well, I kinda did it to myself.)

Of course in the final mile, there was a person behind me that I decided I just had to beat. She made some really great efforts. There were times when she busted out some nice running, but I was not gonna have it. If she ran, I ran! If she ran faster, I ran faster! She gave me a great workout for sure.

After the race I thanked her for pushing me to do better. She said she was doing her best to catch up to me, but she realized I was just not gonna have it that day. We had a nice little laugh about it.

This race wasn’t too long after the one in which I’d finished dead last. The people in front of me back then acted like I did today, not allowing me to pass them – no matter what happened. I guess sometimes you’re the pusher, and sometimes you’re the person who gets pushed.

Either way, you’re getting a better workout and interacting with other human beings. So, it’s fun in either spot.

(Of course even with the fast downhill beginning, and being pushed in mile 3, it still took me 47:19! Did I mention how windy it was? And how there was a lovely part where we were facing the wind – uphill?)

After the race I had a nice little 3 mile walk to the train station. Nothing like topping off a 3 mile race with a good ol’ 3 mile walk.

(#5) Rock ‘n’ Roll Pasadena

February 19, 2012

As I was waiting to start RnR Pasadena (in my far-back corral) I heard the race announcer say Joey McIntyre’s running today! What?! Everybody out of my way!

A magical power surged through me. I pushed everyone aside, leapt forward seven corrals, and became an elite runner who could easily keep pace with Joey the whole way.

That didn’t happen at all. Well, he did run the race. (You can see the photo on his twitter.) I didn’t actually cause a scene or push anybody. (But don’t even try me if Chris Kirkpatrick runs one.)

I kept my eyes open a bit on the large turnarounds. Is that him?! Nope. Aw, shucks. (Then again, what was I gonna do if I saw him whiz by me? “Joey! I love – aaand you’re gone.”)

I thought maybe if I pumped up some New Kids in my iPhone, perhaps I could summon him. “Step by Step! Oh, baby!”

I know it doesn’t really work that way, but it would’ve been so cool if it did, right?

I don’t ever look at the elevation map before a half marathon (which I’m sure is a brilliant idea). I always figure it’ll be a pleasant surprise when I get out there. What a fun surprise this one was. (There were plenty of hills to keep us busy.)

Tons of people were cheering all along the course. When I yelled out, “You’re awesome” to a group of girls holding inspirational signs (who’d been out there for hours), they yelled back “you’re awesome-et!” Huge thanks to everyone who came out and cheered for strangers. (You are the most awesome!)

In case you haven’t been following all the ankle drama, this was my first half marathon that I was able to run again (as opposed to walk). By mile 4, I was totally in heaven.

I didn’t care about my finishing time today. (Then again, when do I ever?) I just wanted to have a nice, super fun, exciting half marathon. I took some good ol’ wide turns, high-fiving spectators and some other runners behind me. I would run some, walk slowly, run again, etc.

I came in with a time of 3:30:27. If only I hadn’t gallivanted around so much, I could’ve done it in under 3:30 (which is what I generally try to do… for now, anyway). But, you know, it was my first one back after my little injury. No pressure.

Mark McGrath with his hands in the air at the Sugar Ray concert after Rock 'n' Roll Pasadena 2012 — (the Sugar Ray concert after the show)

(Plus, who in the world (besides me) cares about a 27-second difference on such a slow time? We can start worrying about 27 seconds when it comes to qualifying for Boston.)

As I ran into the finish, there was sweet Annie (from the expo yesterday), in all of her race announcer glory. She high-fived me and said, “There she is! We’re gonna see a lot more of her this year. This is only the beginning.” You got that right!

Surprisingly, Joey McIntyre hadn’t been waiting for me at the finish. Bummer.

Non-bummer: I made it in time to catch the tail end of Sugar Ray’s rocking show. (I just want to fly!)

Rock ‘n’ Roll Pasadena Expo

February 18, 2012

Can you believe it? It’s already time for another half marathon tomorrow! Time to get prepped.

I went to Pasadena to pick up my bib (and super sweet t-shirt). I met a bunch of fun people today, and got some random free stuff. Here’s a little gloss over of the expo.

I went to the Dodge booth ’cause this guy, Andrew, handed me a card, and told me to go get it scanned and I’d see what free thing I won.

I told him if I didn’t win something good I wasn’t going to be friends with him. (Apparently free stuff wasn’t good enough for me unless it was free stuff I wanted.) Luckily, I won a t-shirt, which as far as I was concerned, was the greatest free thing there, so I happily reported back to Andrew that we could indeed be friends – as long as he read this blog. (Nothing’s ever good enough for me, huh?)

Later, I met Annie at the TriRock booth. She is incredible! She had a video of herself doing a triathlon, and she had great stories of her super distances. I asked if she had a blog, ’cause I just had to read more about this girl and follow some of her future amazing adventures. Turned out, she does have a blog where she’s also in the middle of a year-long challenge. She refraining from buying anything new for a year (except food). Basically, she pretty much got cooler by the second.

I also met Jenni and Rob from Team Challenge. They did an awesome job convincing me I should do a triathlon.

I told them I just learned how to ride a bike… and I use the term “learned” quite loosely. Rob said, “Perfect. We do our first ride in a big parking lot. We’re here for all levels.” I also said I didn’t know how to swim. They said they help with that too. They make sure that every person on their team is totally prepared for her triathlon.

They also made it sound really easy, because it was a sprint triathlon. So they were all “oh, only a 5k at the end, a super short swim, etc.” Sounds doable, right?

Of course, in the middle of writing this blog post, I’ve done a little internet surfing, reading up on triathlons, and they sound either awesome or terrifying (or both?). All in all, riding a bike sounds pretty dangerous.

A couple of fun eats at the expo included marshmallows in chocolate fondue (to spread the word about “America’s Sweetest Race.”)

There was also Eoni, this cool-seeming company, giving samples of super yummy banana chocolate chip deliciousness that was low in sodium and high in fiber. (I need to remember this brand on my next shopping trip.)

But enough with the food and new friends. Time to go home and get a good night’s race. Tomorrow is race day, baby!

“My First Half Marathon” – Johannah

February 17, 2012

In case you haven’t heard, I’m trying to convince pretty much everyone I know (including strangers) to do a half marathon. Whenever I actually get someone to complete one, I’m very nicely going to ask them to blog about it, if they would be so kind. I will put said entries here in the “My First Half Marathon” series on the blog – which officially starts today!

Without further ado, I give you my guest blogger, Johannah:

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Johannah Ragland with her 1st place age group award in the Palm Springs Half Marathon 2012 — (photo credit: Jeanette (Johannah’s mom))

Hey! My name is Johannah, and I just want to say that meeting Aurora and running my first half marathon was certainly interesting.

First, at the Tour de Palm Springs (also my first bike ride), I was standing there with my mom, getting ready to take off. We looked over and see this lady in pajama bottoms and a “Bad” hat. She looked kinda like she just rolled out of bed.

She started talking to us, and she said this was her first bike race. When she said “I killed it in cycling class”, we both assumed she meant a “How to ride your bike class” like they have at REI. When she asked what the little numbers on the handle bars were, my mom asked her if she meant a Spin Class. Yeah… figured this was NOT going to end well, and thought we had better start in front of the wreck that was about to happen. There were HUNDREDS of bikes behind her.

We got to talking about the run the next day, and Aurora said she was doing the half marathon. I was planning to do the 5k, but we had plans to do a half in April. Aurora told me it was not too late to change.

Well, the ride started, and we hoped we would see Aurora (alive) at the finish.
Note the info on the ride was VERY clear that this was a ride, NOT A RACE. Well, I decided to turn it into a race, as did a few others. I managed to finish second.

Palm Springs Half Marathon 2012 medal and 1st place age group award — (photo credit: Johannah)

After the ride, still feeling the adrenaline, I asked my mom to take me to change to the half marathon. I didn’t start freaking out until we got there the next morning and I saw people running to warm up. What had I done!

Not far into the race, I began to run with a very nice woman. I probably would not have done as good if she had not run with me all the way to mile nine. We talked about a lot of things. When I finished, I could not wait to find out my time and get my “Brick”. I somehow managed to get first place for my age division, in two hours and eight minutes. It was really fun.

My mom did her first 5k. I am really happy that she is running now. She did really good.
Meeting Aurora was fun, and I hope to see her at another half marathon!!!

Aurora’s response: I enjoyed meeting both of these lovely women – Johannah and her mother. I cracked up when I read Johannah’s posting. I love it!

I don’t know what possessed me to wear pajama pants. A five-mile bike ride just seemed like such a silly, small thing to do that I thought I should just dress in something “fun” as opposed to “real” workout attire [she says before ripping her pants at the ride].

Also, yeah, I am the worst about calling spin class cycling class. Now that I know they’re actually two different things, I will try to speak correctly.

I had no idea until I read Jo’s entry that there are classes you could take to learn how to ride a bike! Good to know…

Also, just so the world (and Johannah) knows, I stayed to the side of the starting corral until basically everyone had gone by me. I’d realized that bicycling may possibly be a bit harder than I originally imagined. I did my best to be respectful of other riders and not get in anyone’s way during the ride. (And I didn’t cause any accidents! (Yay!))

Super huge congrats to Johannah for winning her age group on the first time out!

(#4) Palm Springs Half Marathon – Part 2 (Not Quite Last & Free Burritos!)

February 16, 2012

Continuing from yesterday, I was slowing down in mile 8.

Since I knew I was only going to be walking this one, I didn’t start the day with the usual “I’m doing a half marathon today” mindset. I didn’t even remember to eat a banana!

Around mile 8, my energy was starting to fall off, as my discomfort level in my ankle was rising.

Miles 9 -12 took me over 20 minutes each. I took little breaks when I needed them – stopping to stretch a couple of times, and taking a quick seat on a curb for a few minutes.

There was a police officer who rode around on a motorcycle, checking on everybody. There were a few times when I’d happen to be crossing a street at the same time that he’d stop to update other police officers and/or volunteers on how many people were still on the course.

As time went on, that number started to dwindle (without anyone passing me). I asked what was going on and if anyone had gotten injured. He said everyone was fine. People were quitting – quitting!

This was upsetting to me. This race didn’t have a time limit. If someone isn’t injured and they came to finish, what possibly makes them quit?

We all have our own lives, our own pasts, our own needs and reasons for doing anything. Sight unseen, and without hearing the full story, I can’t judge anyone’s reasons to quit. (Truly, I should never be judging anyone in the first place. I think the world would be better (and I would be better) if we all were a little less judgmental.) But, enough on that tangent so I can continue getting my judging on. 😉

Moving on; as I came upon the final mile, I realized there was only one person behind me. And I could see her! I wasn’t sure when exactly she’d crossed the start line, so I wanted to finish full minutes in front of her, just to make sure I wasn’t coming in last. I started speeding it along, even kind of half jogging in the last half a mile or so.

She ended up crossing the finish line about twelve minutes after me. So yet again, I narrowly escaped being last. (Although as we all know, “the last place finisher is just the slowest winner.”)

I took a peek at the results being posted and saw I wasn’t on there. Somehow my chip hadn’t recorded my finish time.

It ended up being no big deal at all. Judging by a photo and my chip start time, the timing company gave me the finish time of 3:55:51. We might not have gotten it down exactly to the second, but I’d say it’s pretty accurate.

My main goal was to finish in under 4 hours, which I definitely did. So, as far as I’m concerned, mission accomplished.

long line of cyclists at Chipotle, waiting for free burritos after the race — Chipotle was packed when we all got free burritos *dance music*

After the race, I went back to Sven’s house. I cannot believe I didn’t mention this in the Tour de Palm Springs posts, but bicyclists got FREE BURRITOS at CHIPOTLE! That’s right. Free. With Guacamole. I saved mine to eat after the half marathon. (Yum!) I got back and ripped it open.

Sven came in and said, “How was it? Tell me everything.”

It was so nice to have another human being there who wanted to hear about the race. It’s probably silly to think that’s cool, but I don’t always have someone waiting for me at home, so I thought that was really fun!

He asked if I came by his house during the race. I said I didn’t think so. He told me there were cones outside earlier and runners coming by all day. We looked at my MapMyWalk app. Sure enough I had gone right by his house!

Of course it was surprising that I didn’t recognize the neighborhood, with my incredible sense of direction and all. (That’s extremely sarcastic because I have the worst sense of direction. I’m surprised I can make it to the finish line of anything without getting lost.)

The cab driver who took me back to the Greyhound station ended up being the same one I’d had on the way to Sven’s house! He was happy to hear I was still alive after going and staying with a complete stranger.

(#4) Palm Springs Half Marathon – Part 1 (Walking On That Weak Ankle, Baby)

February 15, 2012

Aurora doing some dance walking along the Palm Springs 2012 half marathon course — Wendy caught me doing a little dance-walking

This was a struggle. In case you haven’t read, I was coming off an injury.

I’m sure it also didn’t help that I’ve been taking such awesome (read: awful) care of myself this week.

I was really good during my first week on crutches. In my second week, my microwave broke. I took that (mixed with my inability to run) as a grand excuse for an all out free-for-all with ice cream and Doritos …for the entire week!

Even though I had awesome accommodations this weekend, for some reason I had tons of trouble sleeping. (Think that could possibly have something to do with my extreme lack of exercise and poor eating habits of late?)

Around 3am, I had some ankle pain going on. I was a bit worried that perhaps I’d made the wrong choice – that I possibly should’ve brought my crutches, or borrowed a wheelchair. But I knew I’d be fine. I stretched, moved my ankle around, took a quick walk around the living room, and went back to sleep (waking up 3 more times before the morning!).

When I got to the gear check, I was happy to see my friends Wendy & Marty. As I was talking to Wendy, I got a tap on the shoulder. It was Jeanette (of Jeanette & Johannah), happy to see I’d made it out of the bike ride alive. She let me know I’d convinced Johannah to do the half marathon!

Going by the advice of my doctor and the pleading of my ankle, my plan was to walk the entire race – no jogging.

When the half marathon started, I walked across the start line, which was really anti-climactic. “Oh, here I go walking toward the start. This is so exciting… Now here I go crossing the start(!)… aaaand, here I go walking some more. Huh.”

I felt so silly walking through the crowd of cheering spectators lined up at the start.

My walking pace wasn’t too bad at the beginning. I started off doing 15 to 16-minute miles.

I tried to keep it interesting by doing a lot of dance walking.

There were tons of turnarounds in this race, making it seem as though a field of runners was always going by me.

It’s possible that some of them thought, “What’s the deal with that silly girl?” But they all had their own race to worry about (as did I), so I don’t think anyone gave it much thought. Who cares how silly I look when I’m trying to have fun?

As the race went on, I started to get slower. Miles 7 and 8 took a little over 17 minutes each. I was in some pain after mile 8. It’s possible I was pushing myself a little hard for my first weekend off crutches, but once I was 8 miles into a half marathon, there was certainly no way I was stopping (especially when there was no time limit)!

Was I able to make it through those last 5 miles? Find out tomorrow.

Couch Surfing in Palm Springs!

February 14, 2012

You may have wondered where I stayed the night between the bike ride and the half marathon (or maybe you didn’t, but either way I’m gonna tell you).

I tried CouchSurfing for the first time.

I didn’t know what to expect. I’d read about Sven (my host), but who knew what was going to happen – trying out this new website, staying with strangers? I’m happy to say it was a great experience! I never wanted to leave!

Sven and Moselle (his roommate) are two of the most interesting, fun, and nice people I could’ve hoped to have met. Sven has been keeping this book (which I think was an awesome idea) filled with messages and memories from all the different people he’s hosted – and he has hosted some cool people. One girl was in the middle of biking around the country (or was it the world?). Either way, it was a super big place.

Both Sven and Moselle were incredibly nice. Moselle is another NY transplant who basically hikes for a living (cool, right?). Sven has traveled a ton! He backpacked around Europe, spent a semester in Australia. He’s pretty much the epitome of fascinating.

He’s currently studying to become a teacher. (He decided he was done being an engineer. I love when people stop being in situations they don’t love and go after ones they do. Kudos to him for doing just that.) Also, he is so creative! He does woodworking, painting, and such. Everything he had created was awesome.

A guitar made by Sven — See this guitar? Sven made it.

At first I was worried that maybe my hosts would feel like it was a burden to have a surfer (which was silly). Why would they? I mean, they volunteer to do it!

They never made me feel like I was a burden – even a bit. Their hearts were open as well as their (incredible, sweet, spacious, convenient-to-all-my-events) home.

I can’t even put into words how much this experience surpassed my expectations. (I’m sure that’s exactly what you want in a blogger – someone who can’t describe things.)

As I mentioned, we got invited to that barbecue with the AIDS LifeCycle posse. I told Sven and Moselle, and they were totally up for it!

You may think it’s odd that I thought it was odd for people to be up for mingling with new people and eating some free food – but in Los Angeles it’s pretty common for people to not want to go out for things because of traffic… or not wanting new friends.

Out in Palm Springs, we were game for adventures! Sven’s sweet girlfriend, Erin came over and we all headed to the barbecue together. (Side note: Erin is a great conversationalist. She’s a master of asking people follow-up questions.)

As we talked with the cyclists, I learned more about biking. (You clip into your pedals?! Um, does that sound scary, or what? I feel as though all I would ever do is constantly fall over.)

By the end of the barbecue I wasn’t the only one convinced that I should be doing the week-long bike ride. We all had become pretty sure that it was an excellent idea.

A painting of a woman, done by Sven — Yep, Sven painted this.

These AIDS LifeCycle staffers are incredible salespeople. I’m ready to be a freaking cyclist (as is apparently everyone who ever comes in contact with them)!

(Random note: Sven and Moselle got a free large pack of hot dogs and buns when we left. Score!)

We went back home and got to bed early. How sweet that my hosts were looking out for me! They thought about the fact that I had a half marathon the next day, and they wanted to make sure I had a good amount of rest. So, everyone was sent to bed in the nine o’clock hour. (Did I tell you they were awesome, or what?)

In the morning it was time for half marathon #4.

Tour de Palm Springs Expo

February 13, 2012

James and Michael in front of the AIDS LifeCycle booth at Tour de Palm Springs 2012 — James and Michael – two awesome guys working the AIDS LifeCycle booth

The expo lined the streets of the corral area, so I explored a little before and after the race.

I wanted to spend as little time as possible lugging a bike around, so I waited ’til the ride got closer to rent one. This was not the brightest idea anyone’s ever had.

I gave myself almost an hour to rent a bike, which I figured would be plenty of time considering all the rental places were right there. I also called a bike rental shop a week or two beforehand. They said there’d be plenty of bikes, so I figured I was fine.

In the end, I was fine. I don’t know why it took me forever to find a rental. First I was asking around about which booth had rentals. Four of them did, so I kept getting sent in different directions. Every time I found a booth, they were all out of bikes! I don’t know why that was so surprising to me since I was in the last group to start (of five distance options, with the earliest group starting at 6am).

I finally found the elusive fourth booth that surprisingly many people didn’t know about. Shout out to FunSeekers!

While I’m doing shout outs, quick shout out to Pacific Premier Bank for my sweet new piggy bank, also to lovely Mariellen and Burt from Massage Rx. They had a massage booth and were raising money for MS. (Mariellen has MS, and still went out and rocked the bike ride! (Then she gave massages for the rest of the day. So, hats off to her!)

Burt gave me the best massage after the race. I might have to do this ride next year for the massage alone!

One thing that was really cool and fun about this expo was that every single thing was brand new to me – all the jargon, all the fun challenges and events – everything was new.

Did you know that people spend seven days biking from San Francisco to Los Angeles? (Multiple companies host an option for that.) The first booth to tell me about that ride was the California Coast Classic. And… you get finisher medals!

I’ve heard that cyclists like to be “real athletes,” making fun of runners for always wanting something just for being a participant – whereas, as a cyclist, you have to “earn it.”

I was pleasantly surprised to hear that plenty of cyclists like getting medals, and plenty of biking events offer them. I guess that means I can be a cyclist! 😉

Another booth that had the San Fran to LA option was the AIDS LifeCycle booth (which was chock full of awesome people, btw).

Everyone really had me convinced that I could (and should) ride a bike many miles a day for a whole week, camping in between – and riding over 500 miles in the process.

Keep in mind, I have a pretty tenuous hold on how to ride a bike. I’m also not sure I would love camping. I mean, I’m awesome at going days without showering (lol), but I’m kind of terrified of animals (and I don’t particularly love the outdoors). Either way, the people working this booth had me convinced!

(Although, I couldn’t ride it this year even if I wanted to be crazy enough to do that, ’cause I already have a half marathon going on during their ride, but you should sign up!)

Not only did AIDS LifeCycle have the best, most fun & noticeable booth, but they also had fun events (some even included free food!) throughout the weekend – a barbecue, a film screening, a recovery ride, and more. I mean that’s a lot of planning and love they put into this weekend!

I can’t wait to tell you about the barbecue and my incredible hosts for the weekend tomorrow!

Tour de Palm Springs – My First Bike Ride! – Part 2 (I Survived My First Cycling Event)

February 12, 2012

Continuing from yesterday:

One thing that’s completely embarrassing about my bike ride is that I forgot to wear a helmet! It somehow didn’t occur to me that bicyclists wear helmets.

I could’ve easily asked for one at the bike rental booth, but no. I took my bike and wandered off. It wasn’t until the start horn was blown and we were all peddling away that I looked up and noticed someone’s helmet.

Oh, fudge! At that point it was too late to turn around (maybe not for a better, more responsible person who would’ve gone to get a helmet and started late).

I felt awful for being such a bad influence on anyone watching the race or reading the blog (not that anyone would follow my lead on that – more likely they would just talk about how much of a dum-dum I was (especially since I didn’t even know how to ride a bike!)).

I felt so bad about it that after the race, I went and got a helmet and came back in through the finish line for a couple of pictures with appropriate headgear.

Back to the actual race, it was definitely interesting going downhill and uphill. It felt a lot different from just adjusting the resistance in spin class. Downhill felt like fun, (somewhat) controlled falling, and uphill was freaking hard!

A bunch of people got off and pushed their bikes up this one hill. There I was thinking I was so cool. “I’m on a bike ride. I shall ride this bike!” Of course I looked silliest, going no faster (read: slower) than people walking their bikes up. But hey, I made it to the top eventually!

When we were coming back toward the finish(!), I saw a cop whom I’d seen at the start. As I’d pedaled away, I’d yelled “I don’t know how to ride a bike!”

When I came back, she happily greeted me with, “You made it?!” I yelled back, “I’m doing it!”

When all the cyclists got to the finish line, so many people were coming in that we didn’t get to ride through. Everyone got off their bikes and we just walked the bikes through, which I sort of thought was funny, especially since cameras were snapping our big finish.

I couldn’t believe I’d gotten back so quickly. I literally have no concept of how long it took me (no timing chips, and I didn’t look at any clocks). An hour-long ride? Half an hour? Whatever it was, it went by quickly.

By the way, yes, I wore pajama pants. Yes, they got stuck in those gear things or whatever it is that a bicycle has. They got a little hole in them. (Note to self, maybe don’t wear pajama pants on the next ride…)

At the end, I got a t-shirt and a medal! There weren’t supposed to be medals for this event, but volunteers had boxes and boxes of medals from 2008.

One meekly asked if I wanted one – as though she was offering me damaged goods. But I was over the moon to get one – it still says the name of the race (though 2008 is on the back).

Sven (whom you’ll totally meet in an upcoming post) pointed out that it was hilarious that they had a ton of medals left over from 2008 – not from last year, or even 2010. Nope, just 2008.

Great point. Where did these medals come from? Why do boxes and boxes of them still exist? I guess it doesn’t really matter. The point is, I have a bike riding medal! Bam!

I used to think bicycling seemed kind of boring. I mean, why bike when you can run, right? But now that I’ve done a bike event, I’ll admit it’s actually way more fun than I ever thought it would be. You get to be in control of this crazy moving contraption and feel the wind rush past you. It can be like your own tiny roller coaster (depending on the hills). I’ve been convinced – cycling can be fun.

The expo for this ride was incredible (and included an invite to a BBQ!) Can’t wait to tell you about it tomorrow!

Tour de Palm Springs – My First Bike Ride! – Part 1 (I Don’t Really Know How to Ride a Bike…)

February 11, 2012

I came into this weekend not knowing how to ride a bike.

My dad says I tried when I was little, but I guess I fell and my nose started bleeding. And I was not having that.

Even back then I was a stubborn fighter, demanding an example of a time when riding a bike would be a skill applicable to anything I wanted to do in life. How can you argue with a five-year-old’s logic when it’s rock solid like that?

So, riding a bike is never really a thing I’ve done. But I was already doing the half marathon, and I found out that if you did the half marathon plus a bike ride of any distance, you got a special brick award. We all know how I am about awards.

On the way to the bike race, I’m thinking “I rock spin class at the gym. I’m very coordinated. Obviously, I got this…”

Then, once I get to the bike rental booth, I’m looking at this huge thing (vehicle, machine, mechanism?) and just thinking, “uh… oh yeah, bikes are bigger than people… Sheesh.”

At this point, I’d already come out to Palm Springs, gotten to the starting line, registered for the bike ride, and paid to rent this bike. This ride was on like Donkey Kong (even if I did have to get on a big contraption (which yes, I know is the point of a bike ride)).

Aurora posing with a sign that says Howard Hughes lived here, outside of Howard Hughes' house, at the Tour de Palm Springs 2012 — The sign says Howard Hughes lived here. (The Aviator is my favorite movie.)

I wheeled the bike toward the starting corral area and sat on it, trying to figure out how this whole balancing thing works. It was kind of a mess.

I ran into this mom and her young daughter – Jeanette and Johannah – also doing the ride. I asked what the things on my handlebars did. They said something about making pedaling easier or harder. I spilled the beans that I didn’t know how to ride a bike. (Huge shocker to them, I’m sure).

We talked about the extra brick bling for the weekend. Johannah said she was signed up for the 5k, but was thinking about doing the half marathon. Of course I was all, “well, if you’re gonna do 3 miles, I guess you might as well do 13, right?”

As the race drew closer, the family wished me the best of luck, saying they hoped they’d see me at the finish (to make sure I made it out alive).

When the ride started, I wondered how I was ever going to make it five whole miles. I was wobbling left and right, not having the best control over where I was going.

I crossed the start line toward the back, trying to stay out of everyone’s way. Surprisingly, after the crowd thinned a little, I could balance!

I was shouting “I’m doing it! I’m doing it!” to strangers who all probably thought, “Why is this grown up lady shouting about how she can ride a bike? We can all ride a bike. Duh.”

I’m so unfamiliar with bike rides; I never had a feel for how many miles I’d done. At any point in the ride you could’ve said I’d done one, or four, or ten, and I’d be all, “Oh, okay.” There were no mile markers on the course (I guess that’s just how bike rides work, yes?) But, I was so concentrated on not dying (or at least crashing), that I didn’t focus too much on how far I’d gone, or how far I had to go.

Tomorrow, we’ll see if I finished alive!

(Spoiler alert: Probably, if I’m writing this. Find out definitively tomorrow.)

(#3) Surf City Half Marathon – The One on Crutches – Part 3 (Finishing!)

February 9, 2012

If you’ve been wondering, yes, I finished! But the real question is, did I finish last?

Yesterday’s post left off around mile 12. My new goal was to not come in last, and that lasted for about one second until that became about 3% of my goal and 97% stayed on just finishing before the time limit in as little pain as possible.

Around mile 13, I knew I had enough time to make it. I happily got started actually using the crutches again on that mile. (It was ridiculously painful to walk without them, but I have no upper body strength and had to keep up).

I was ecstatic to be in mile 13, though it pretty much seemed like the longest mile I’ve ever done. As you can see from my pictures, I grabbed washcloths in the morning and stuck them over my crutches. That really helped. (That’s a tip if you’re planning a half marathon on crutches.)

As I was walking along with my crutches, another sag wagon came up. This incredibly nice woman driving said, “I just want to let you know that you’re doing great, and you’re gonna make it.” It was exactly what I needed to hear.

A super ripped guy across the street didn’t realize the people in the wagon were being so nice. He yelled, “Don’t try to convince her to get in that van! You’re doing it! You’ve gone this far. Nothing can stop you now.” I really appreciated the sentiments.

The sag wagon drove away to go check on other runners, and I kept on hobbling. I passed a man who said, “Oh my gosh, you’re actually finishing! My friend and I saw you start this morning. I have to call and tell him that you’re doing it!”

It took me forever to see that finish line. I kept asking strangers on the street every 10 feet or something ridiculous like that if I was getting close. And people said I was.

Lo and behold, the sweetest thing I could see… In the distance was the finish line! The feeling was indescribable. I was finishing for everyone who said I inspired them to think they could do more. I was finishing for everyone who said I never would. I was finishing for myself.

The announcer was a sweetheart saying, “For real? You’re incredible!” They actually got video! (If I ever feel like I can’t do something, I’m gonna pop that video in.)

(If you didn’t see it in an earlier post, I came in at 5:07:46 (a mere 1 minute and 3 seconds before the official end of the race).

I didn’t come in last! When the results came out, it turned out there were 7 people who came in behind me. (What?)

After waiting for 13 long miles, it was finally time for that delicious Dairy Queen!

As I was walking away from gear check, I actually saw helpful Marcia from the expo that morning. She remembered me and wanted to make sure I finished. What a sweetheart.

I don’t know if any of these people are reading this, but a quick humongous thank you to the patient staff of Surf City – they still had bananas and water when I finished!

Also, thanks to the spectators and runners for encouraging. Thanks to the people on the sidewalk who gave me pretzels. Thanks to the woman who saw me on a turnaround and said, “I was thinking about quitting, but now that I saw you, I can’t.”

Thanks to YOU reading the blog. I can’t wait to tell you all about the next one – Palm Springs!

(#3) Surf City Half Marathon – The One on Crutches – Part 2 (Crying, Worrying, Rough Times)

February 8, 2012

Picking up from Part 1 –

In mile 5, I threw off the crutches (just holding them in my hands) and hobbled along. I was so sad to have to do that. It was painful. But, I had to figure out a way to keep up.

A sweet stranger on a bike (on his way to the beach) biked a whole mile with me talking about his life, my life, the time limit frustrations of this race, and my sprained ankle. It was awesome to have that company. I really appreciated him.

When we got back out toward the beach, he said goodbye and went surfing. I saw runners I’d seen on a different loop who were still yelling encouragements when they passed me on this one. (If you were one, I can’t thank you enough for all the sweet encouragement you gave me.)

Around mile 7, I was really starting to feel it. I’m not too proud to admit I may or may not have cried (I did). It was hard! And my foot hurt! And that lady in the van thinking the race ended at noon scared the crap out of me! So, I had a good cry for a mile. I think that’s probably good for you, right?

I pulled it together and kept on hobbling. In mile 8, it would’ve been pretty easy to cheat and do the turn around early, since nobody was left back there. I thought about how sweet it would feel to cut off any distance whatsoever. But there was no way I could bring myself to do that.

I walked all the way to the turnaround, building myself up, muttering about having the ability to do anything. “I survived my high school theater program. I can do anything. I’ve lived in New York City. I can do this.” Yeah, just keep talking to yourself, Aurora.

In mile 9, I was pretty hardcore regretting that I hadn’t brought my iPhone. (I didn’t want to deal with having any other stuff when I was already dealing with crutches.) This would’ve been a lovely time for me and Michael Jackson to hang out together.

Since all the other runners were far out in front of me, I busted out into some musical theater songs. There I am, still fighting tears, fighting pain, belting, “You can say what you want; I’m not walking out!”

Later, as I passed a water station (no longer belting out showtunes as I passed volunteers) – even though they were packing up, a sweet guy opened up a box and got me some water. He walked a bit with me and asked what the deal was with my crutches, ’cause apparently people on the radio had been asking about me.

I told him about my ankle, and that the lady in the van scared me. He apologized and said the six-hour time limit definitely did not start when the marathon started, and that I was fine. (I mean, I knew I had to be. But still, he made me feel better.)

I’ve always been slow, but I’ve never been literally at the back of the pack in one of these huge half marathons. Everything was shutting down as I was passing it.

All the water stations and medical tents were empty or emptying out. I even had to get out of the way of street sweepers. It wasn’t the greatest feeling to be all alone, but I was happy to be getting ever closer to the finish.

Around mile 12, I kept seeing a bunch of people who’d already finished walking back to their cars and such. When I saw one woman who wasn’t still wearing her medal, I said, “Congrats! Where’s your medal? You should keep it on all day!” She told me she was also doing the half – and was still in the race!

What?! I’m actually passing somebody…I can’t believe it! My old goal had been just to finish, knowing I was going to come in last. My new goal became finishing anything but last. So I started hobbling faster.

Will I come in last? Find out tomorrow.

(#3) Surf City Half Marathon – Time Limit Confusion

February 7, 2012

time limit rules for the Surf City Half Marathon 2012 — Oh yeah… I took a screenshot of the rules.

Picking up from yesterday –

As an injured runner, the time limit played a major part in my race. It was something I was extremely concerned about.

I wasn’t going to allow myself to still be behind the finish line when the course closed.

The website states that there is a six-hour time limit. The real question was whether the start of that limit was the start of the race, or when the last runner crossed the start line.

The website said “A wave start will allow you plenty of space along the course, at the aid stations, and at the finish line, without affecting your chip time or the time you have to complete the race. All 1/2 marathon participants will still have the ‘6-hour time limit’ to complete the course.'”

That would lead me to believe that I have 6 hours from when I cross the start line.

I asked an official race employee before the race started when the six-hour time limit began. She said that it started from when the last corral crossed the start line.

I finished in just under 5 hours and 8 minutes (5:07:46), but (with the large field of runners) I didn’t cross the start line until over 51 minutes after the race had started. Since it seems as though the time limit was apparently 6 hours after the start of the race, I guess I came in with 1 minute and 3 seconds to spare.

If the time limit had been six hours for each runner, those 52 available minutes would’ve made a WORLD of difference. In those miles in which I hurt and rushed myself, I could’ve gone at least four minutes slower per mile.

When the official on the bike said that I might as well quit because I wasn’t going to finish, I asked him to confirm that I had 6 hours from when I started. He never got an official answer on his walkie.

Since he thought the course was closing at 1:45pm (6 hours after the race started), I very painfully threw off the crutches and started hobbling without them. (More on this tomorrow.) It was the only way that I was going to be able to make up some of that lost time.

Later in mile probably 7, a woman in the sag wagon came along and said I wasn’t going to make it. I said no matter what, I would make it – with a six-hour time limit, I’d be fine. She replied that it was 6 hours from when the MARATHON started at SIX AM!(!!)

There was NO WAY I was going to finish by noon. I basically almost had a heart attack right there by the wagon. I tried to explain to her that I had checked the website at least ten times (since I was nervous and injured) to make sure the six-hour limit was for the half. I was positive that the earliest the course could possibly close, no matter how someone looked at it, was 1:45.

She didn’t believe me. She just said well that’s the situation, but “don’t worry about it.” I don’t know in what universe I could’ve just “not worried about it.” Obviously I’m worried about it! I have to finish this race before they close the course!

The guy on the motorcycle behind her also checked on me. I told him what she had said, and he agreed that the course closed at noon! I said “no, no, no. The earliest it could be is 1:45.” He said, “Okay, so you want someone to come get you at 1:45?” I said, “No! No one will have to come get me. I’ll be crossing the finish line!”

All this back and forth was a real headache. It was the only annoying part of a great race. Six hours is an incredibly generous time limit, so my complaints should barely be allowed to exist. But at the end, when I was hurting, I wished beyond wish that I had those extra 52 minutes that I thought/hoped I was going to have.

More than anything I just didn’t like the stress of different people scaring me with different time limits. Although, I am glad the man on the bike said something, because I was pacing as though I had six hours. And I didn’t. I had 5 hours and 9 minutes. But enough about time limits. On to the rest of the actual story tomorrow.

(#3) Surf City Half Marathon – The One on Crutches – Part 1 (The First 5 Miles)

February 6, 2012

For anybody who’s missed it, I sprained my ankle on my last half marathon on a trail. (Trail runs are the worst!)

So, I was still on crutches for this half marathon. I thought about whether to do this half. But, here’s the thing: There was a six-hour time limit. I felt fairly comfortable with that.

Plus, I’d seen pictures of this girl who was running marathons every weekend crossing a finish line on crutches. She had broken her hip(!), but hadn’t let it hold her back. She looked unbelievably happy and superhuman at the finish line. I thought this would be my chance to feel that way. (I mean, less so than her. That’s unbelievable, right? But still, somewhat.)

So, I wrapped up my ankle, hopped on my crutches, and off I went. There were definitely two camps of people saying things to me.

There was the camp that made me feel incredible with encouragements such as, “You’re my new hero!” “You’re a champion.” “Go get ’em, girl!” (I loved those people.)

Then there was a camp of people who seemed almost determined to get me to quit. (This camp was much smaller and mainly made up of volunteers, not spectators.)

As I started off in the first mile, everyone passed me (of course). Some took longer than others, but eventually it seemed as though they all passed me. I knew I would be slow, but I didn’t truly anticipate exactly how slow I would be.

I did my best to stay off of my ankle, but within the first mile, my complete lack of upper body strength became very apparent.

I let my foot dangle quite close to the ground – every once in a while letting my toes actually touch that ground to give me a bit of extra push (since I have SO much more strength in my legs than my arms). Still, I was barely putting any real pressure on my right leg, since I had the crutches as a huge help.

The first mile was pretty tough. There were a couple of times when I thought I must be at least slightly crazy to take on this endeavor. Then, just when I thought it might never come, I saw that first mile marker!

I knew in that moment that I could definitely finish this half marathon. (I mean, I knew going onto the course that I was going to finish. But something about seeing that very first mile marker made me know “oh, okay, this is very possible.”)

Backtracking a little, about a tenth or two of a mile into the race… I saw a Dairy Queen! Ever since I moved to Los Angeles (about seven months ago) my friend Garrick and I have been talking about the illustrious, mysterious Dairy Queens that exist out here. If you take a trek, you can find one. And there was one right in front of me! Getting to the finish line was now very much about coming back around to that Dairy Queen!

In mile 5, one of the men on bicycles who rides around to check on people came up to me and was pretty flabbergasted that I was still in the race. He said he’d been told that they’d removed me from the course. Like I would ever let anybody remove me. He encouraged me to quit, saying he didn’t think I’d finish. I told him that no matter what happened, I was going to finish this race. Period.

I asked if he could confirm the six-hour time limit for me. This became the beginning of my long day of talking time limits with various event staffers and volunteers.

I’ve never been more concerned with a time limit. I knew that every available minute would be a help for me in this race. This is where I’ll pick up tomorrow (or you can skip the time limit entry and go straight to Part 2.)

Surf City Half Marathon Expo

February 5, 2012

I went to the sort of mini-expo in the morning, instead of the actual expo, ’cause one of the many things that makes Surf City awesome is that they’ll mail you your bib and timing chip.

Don’t get me wrong, I love expos. I like hearing about races, spinning prize wheels, and meeting new people.

But sometimes it’s hard to get to an expo ’cause you live far away, or are doing a double-event weekend. Being injured, plus relying on public transportation in L.A., while living pretty far from Huntington Beach – I was quite happy to have my bib and chip mailed to me.

A note on how I got there – Public transportation wasn’t open in time to get me from downtown L.A. to Huntington Beach. So I tried this thing called TaskRabbit. Before you knew it, five strangers had already made a bid to drive me way out to the beach first thing in the morning (before the sun even came out). Nathan, this cool, fun, up-and-coming actor was awesomely amazing, coming to get me at 5:30am!

The Surf City expo was really well themed. There were surfboards everywhere and everything had a very “day-on-the-beach” feel. I walked in to get some bobby pins. They were conveniently right on the front table – which was manned by sweet, knowledgable Marcia, who effortlessly handled the tons of people coming by with different needs.

Then I went off to get my (super awesome) t-shirt from the other booth. The t-shirts came in these sweet (also very well-themed) bags. The expo tent seemed kind of like the “cool hang out place” for runners. Lots of people were in there stretching.

It was awesome that there was this huge enclosed area by the start line so that people could stay out of the “cold.” (It really wasn’t actually cold at all that morning (by the time I got there at least), but I’m sure this same idea would be appreciated at some other races.)

On my way out of the mini expo, I met Dennis and Lea, who were working a timeshares booth.

I walked up to the booth with my normal, “what’s the deal here? What’s happening?” attitude. Dennis said “well, you have to be 25 to sign up, and you look super young.” Yep. “super young.” I was giddy that someone thought I looked so super young.

(I know that in real life I’m always yelling about how much ageism sucks, and how we shouldn’t take joy or compliments in being young because all of that adds to the idea that younger is better – which it’s totally not, because people of all ages have sweet things to add. But, as someone who still wants to be super young and loved, and never get old, and is obsessed with taking care of her skin… I totally took tons of joy out of Dennis calling me super young. (I will become a better person! (Maybe.) I’m working on it…))

Anyway, Dennis and Lea were super nice to me even though I was too young to sign up to hear more about their timeshares. They said they’ll be at some more California events, so I’ll probably run into them here and there this year.

After that fun encounter, I hobbled to the start line. I’ll blog about the race itself tomorrow.

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! 🙂