How not to start your day

I thought it all started out fine. Well, except for waking up an hour and a half early and not being able to get back to sleep. But I got up early, got out of the house early, got my venti non-fat sugar-free vanilla latte and drove to work. Traffic not too bad. Morning still going fine. Got to the office where I had to change the five gallon bottle of water, but that's ok too; I usually change the water since people are lazy and just can't do it themselves. Ahem. Anyhoo, things still going ok. My blinds were closed, which I hadn't done. I remembered that yesterday when we met with (among other people) the on-site building manager one of our employees had asked that our blinds be cleaned. Since they hadn't been cleaned since we moved here nine years ago.

Oh, they cleaned them all right. There's no dust at all on the blinds. It was all on my desk, my computer, my monitor, my keyboard, my papers, my printer, my phone, my calendars, my calculator, my cabinet, y'know, everywhere! Nine years of schmootz all over absolutely everything in my office. I started cleaning up, trying to get a clear surface, and whooopsie. I knocked over my latte. Which was still about three quarters full. It fell on the floor, losing the lid as it fell. About 16 ounces of latte all over my desk, my chair and the floor. Son of a bitch! Oh, excuse me, didn't mean to shout that so loudly that they heard me in San Francisco.

I spent the next hour cleaning up the spill, the dust, the dirt, coffee all over everything. While I got angrier, more congested and gritty. Arrrgh! One of my coworkers came in while I was cleaning and ranting (silently to myself by then), heard the situation and offered to (begged to) go next door and get me another latte. She escaped while I finished cleaning.

Ok, time to start the day over. I have my latte, my desk is clean(er), my chair is (almost) dry and the carpet looks better with a latte spill than with a coffee spill. Hmmph!

I had a good run last night with Pam. The weather was beautiful, warm with a light breeze. We ran our short short route because for some reason my legs felt flat. As if I had just done a long run, instead of being two weeks off the long run. We ended up being a bit slower than normal even though it felt as if we were pushing it. Nobody tried to run us over or run us off the road so that was very nice.

I knit about another inch last night on the neverending superlong wrap. I have the end rolled up and I don't think I'll unwrap it again until the remaining yarn ball is small enough that I think the wrap will be long enough. I didn't knit during the season finale of Heroes because, well, it was the season finale. And wow, they actually did a great job of winding up the past season while cliff-hanging a new season. Good job! Now if only they don't ruin it over the summer with introducing new characters.

Today's Gratuitous Bear of the Day is Ms. Health, another Safeway charm bear. I thought health would be a good one for today, what with my allergies acting up from the dust storm in my office!

Ban Mondays. Hate Tuesday instead.

Yaaaawn. I think we need a national proclamation that henceforth all weekends will be three days. Monday will no longer be the most hated day around, instead it will be the favorite of everyone. Anyone want to start the campaign? Stand at your local grocery store with a clipboard and ask people if they're registered to vote so they can sign our petition? Finance the drive and present it to a national legislator? Anyone??

My weekend, however short it seemed, was mostly restful. I got up early Saturday to meet the team at our mentor-led run on the Lafayette-Moraga Trail. I was planning on running about 8 miles. My friend Mary Ann joined me. I haven't seen her in a couple of months so it was nice to catch up. She's faster than I am and as usual I ran too fast. During our second mile we ran into an old friend we hadn't seen in a long time. He had stopped running for a while -- a couple of years -- but was making another comeback. We stopped and chatted for several minutes until we all decided we had to get the rest of our runs over with.

One of the mentors had marked the missing miles (the L-M Trail is marked every half mile except from 3-1/2 to 4-1/2) so it was clear where the four mile mark was. It was actually farther along the trail than I had thought, by about a tenth of a mile at least. Mary Ann and I ran the full 8 miles and were very happy to finish. Although it had been pretty cool when we started it was turning into a beautiful day. The heavy fog was burning off, the wind wasn't too bad and the sun was shining. We waited around for the last couple of people to finish so we could cheer them in. It was a small group, I'm not sure if people are injured, if they're running on their own or if they're just enjoying the final taper.

The rest of my weekend was exactly how I had hoped. I didn't have anything else planned that I had to do at a certain time so I was able to just catch up around the house. I got a lot of gardening done. The blooming jasmine makes my yard smell wonderful. There are lots of birds around and the hummingbirds are back. One was feeding on the jasmine while I was deadheading the peonies.

I also got lots of knitting done. I did a few rows on my neverending multidirectional diagonal scarf so I may just finish that one day. In the middle of summer. I also started and finished Monica's second hat for the Giants Stitch 'n' Pitch and there's a great improvement over the first one. Once again I used the yarn we got at the game from last year. The orange is TMA Yarn Pop 'n Yarn, 100% acrylic worsted, specially treated with aloe (huh?); the black is Red Heart Super Saver acrylic worsted. I used the same pattern as I did before, Ann Norling's Head Huggers, with size 8 16-inch addi turbo circular needles. I knit a 3x1 rib; k3, p1. This knit much faster and easier than the other hat - the uuuugly one. I'm not thrilled with the feel of this hat but I bet it'll be much cooler to wear than if I had used wool. And won't be at all itchy. And it's not floppy and ugly and strange like the first one!

Look both ways

When I was growing up my mother taught me to look both ways before crossing the street. When I was learning how to drive I was taught to look both ways before driving into or through an intersection, or before turning, or before pulling out into traffic. Obviously, based upon the actions of several drivers (parents) last night, that rule is no longer in force. It seems that now the rule is "look wherever you want then floor it." Thank you very much to the very busy important mom who came this close to flattening us during our run last night. Dads, we appreciate how you pulled out into traffic without a single glance to see if there might be anyone there. Other moms, I hope everyone else drives more carefully around your child(ren) than you did around us.

Pam and I had a great run last night, except when we ran past the elementary school. A large crowd was just leaving the school after some evening function. Parents had anywhere from one to four kids in tow and they were all in a great big hurry to get home for -- well, I have no idea why they were in such a hurry. After mom number one almost took off our legs we detoured onto the sidewalk; that didn't help as car doors were opened and parents blocked sidewalk access. Then we had to cross the street and it got really frightening. Anyway, except for that, and we did speed work to get through it faster, it was a great night for a run. The wind that had been so strong for the past several days was gone, it wasn't too hot (or cold), just a nice night. We ran our short short route and were very pleased when it was finished.

I went back to knitting up my neverending superlong wrap last night, got about another inch done. Snore. Only about eight inches left to go which should only take me -- yeah, until about July. I'll start in on another Stitch 'n' Pitch cap for Monica some time this weekend. I'll have to go through my stash and see whether I'll make it out of Malabrigo, which I probably will, or out of something else. I'm pretty sure my only orange yarn, excepting the crap we got at last year's game, is Malabrigo. I also haven't decided whether to do a plain ribbed cap or maybe something felted.

Today's Gratuitous Bear of the day is yet another Safeway charm bear: Ms. Love.

The hat's going nowhere

Last night was Stitch 'n' Bitch at my house. It ended up being a smaller group than usual, just four of us. And we only went through one bottle of wine and one bottle of champagne. I decided that in keeping with the spirit of my diet I'd cook. Shut up, I did too, a little. I marinated some chicken in a ginger lime sauce, then just baked it. It turned out really tasty. Using Pam's recipe as a guide I made couscous with tomatoes, green onions, garbanzo beans and light feta and that was pretty good too. Anita brought a pasta salad with broccoli, Olivia brought chips and seven layer dip, and Claudia brought wine. I had also picked up the traditional shrimp, and got a big bowl with fresh fruit. We didn't even miss dessert!

Anita is knitting a multidirectional diagonal scarf and was having problems. Her biggest problem was she thought the pattern was much harder than it truly is. Also, she wasn't turning the short rows, just continuing on. That made it unidirectional instead. I showed her what to do and after I told her that it's my non-thinking project she realized what to do and how easy it is.

Claudia is knitting a Brangelina hat. She's using Malabrigo in -- I think it was -- Forest and it's just gorgeous. As usual her results are smaller than mine usually are since she knits so tightly. It'll turn out to be a really pretty hat.

I brought out my hat-from-hell, the Stitch 'n' Pitch hat I was making for Monica out of the (crappy) Bernat yarn we got at last years' game. Oy. It was really big (and ugly). I was thinking I could decrease for a couple of rows and just have a big floppy brim, maybe pin it up somehow. When they were all done laughing at the hat (and me) they thought the best idea would be to just decrease and finish it immediately. Or maybe throw it away. Or give it to poor Monica and let it swallow her head. I finished it off and you can see that even Hiyo doesn't like wearing it. I'll offer it to Monica but I'm pretty sure she'll prefer the replacement hat that I'll make her. Yay, I have a further excuse to not knit the everlasting superlong wrap!

Call me Inappropriate

I hate to shop for clothes. I think I always have, even when I was younger and was wearing all the styles of the day. I even worked in an upscale clothing store while I was in high school and college, and bought lots of fashionable clothes (can we say "mini-skirts" and "bellbottoms"?), but I didn't really like the whole trying on, looking in the mirrors thing. In fact, the more mirrors the worse because I just don't need to be taking that close a look at myself.

The only time it wasn't too terribly bad was during the second marriage to Shithead when I was really thin. When I was on the cigarettes, vodka and verbal abuse diet. At least the majority of stuff I tried on then fit and looked good. But his taste in clothing was on the trashy side and in my efforts to please him that's what I tended to buy: short skirts (damn, mini-skirts were back again), tight and low cut tops, y'know, hoochy clothes. I'd slip in more classic, conservative styles for work but everything else was a few steps short of floozy. This was a very short period of time in my life (thankfully) and I went right back to hating shopping.

My friend Sandy is getting married in a couple of weeks and is having an afternoon church wedding. That means I can't wear any of my normal clothing which as I mentioned yesterday consists of jeans and jeans. And running clothes, also not quite right for the occasion. I've been putting off the shopping until the last minute, hoping that by some miracle the right article of clothing would magically appear in my closet. Or that overnight I'd lose about 20 pounds. No surprise, neither of those happened. So at lunch yesterday I dragged myself across the street to Macy's.

I'm never sure what size I am, I just know I'm larger than most clothes will fit. Especially with current styles since I can't stand tight or formfitting clothes. I won't buy from the "women's" department because of the spangled, embossed, shiny, embroidered, bright, chiffoned, polyestered stuff they think big women like. Uh, no. The regular clothes tend to top out at size 14 and I'm on the border of 14/16 depending on styles and fabric. I started looking through the racks, concentrating on the darker colors since that's all I'll wear. Every single time I buy something with a print or pattern, or in a light or bright color, I hate it when I'm wearing it. I know it isn't right to wear black to a wedding but that's about all I ever wear and I'm just way too uncomfortable in anything else. I pulled nine dresses from the rack, including the only two black size 16 dresses in the store, a couple of strapless thingies, a couple of blue dresses, a few things that would require specialized undergarments, in short anything I thought had a vague possibility of fitting.

For the next 45 minutes I dressed and undressed and sighed and chuckled and swore and giggled and frowned and actually managed to find two that might work. I switched back and forth between them and decided that although one was cuter it would involve having to get a different bra (more shopping, oh no!) and had some deodorant stains from someone else that I wasn't sure would come out. So I bought the other one. A black, sleeveless number, pretty conservative, more of a night dress than a day dress but whatcha gonna do? A very typical little black dress. I don't think it's quite right for an afternoon wedding, let alone an evening wedding, but I'm hoping that when I throw my blue silk clapotis on my shoulders it will both dress it down and dress it up. Know what I mean? Hey, at least it's not jeans.

I had a good run at the buddy run last night, alone as usual. I ran just under 3 miles. I probably should have gone longer than that but boring. I had my music without the Nike+ thingie since I don't think it's accurate enough to bother with. As usual when I run with music I went too fast. I didn't' wait around for anyone else to finish because there was a wicked cold wind blowing and I just wanted to get home.

Knitting on Monica's SnP hat continues. I got a few inches done in a 2x2 rib and realized that it's too big. As in pumpkin-head too big. I decided that maybe that will work for a turned up brim and reduced down many stitches, continuing in plain knit in the round. I have no idea if that will work, but it's interesting trying. This part will go fast so I should be able to see within a few more inches whether it's going in the frog pond or whether I can actually give it to someone to wear. It has the possibility to turn out cute. Or horrifying.

Today's Gratuitous Bear of the Day is the third Safeway charm bear, Ms. Courage. "Courage" always makes me think of the Cowardly Lion and with a very large stretch of the imagination you can see that reflected in this bear. Can't you??

Worn out shoes

It's summer here. That means it's cold, overcast and windy. I think the fog is supposed to burn off later but for now it's chilly. I'm not sure how to dress for this. Ok, that's silly because no matter what the weather is I'm wearing jeans. Probably 95% of the time I'll wear jeans. And I'll probably wear a light weight top with a sweater or jacket because I never know what the temp will be in the office. Since I spend most of the day inside it doesn't make sense to dress for outside, no matter how hot or cold it gets. I guess the difference is whether I wear a sleeveless or short sleeved or long sleeved top, and what kind of shoe or sandal I wear. Since I'm experiencing a short period of ugly toe I don't really want to wear sandals, but my feet get hot before the rest of me. As soon as my toe stops hurting from the marathon-blackened toenail I'll get a pedicure and have showable feet. I always think that someone will look down and get nauseous looking at my ungroomed toes. Yeah, like they really care!

I took my ugly sore toes for a run last night, the usual short short route with Pam. We had a good run, nobody tried to knock us down or run us over. The weather was perfect for an evening run. One of these days we'll increase the length of our run and ... right. We probably won't. It's really nice running for only about 40 minutes (depending on the red lights we encounter) and then going home. We're not exhausted, not sore, just feeling well from the run.

I've mentioned before how I wear through running shoes so quickly. I mean, literally wear out; I go right through the rubber on the heels. There aren't many (any) shoes that I can wear because my feet and/or orthotics just don't fit in many (any) shoes. Either they don't have enough support, are too narrow in the toe, too shallow in the toe, too high at the ankle, too shallow in the heel, fit my foot but make my legs hurt, etc. Or I can't even get my big chunky orthotics into lots of shoes. When I finally find a good pair I'll stockpile several pairs. As all you runners out there know the shoe companies continually "upgrade" their shoe models and you'll be lucky to find the exact shoe for more than a year. I finally found a shoe that works for me and yeah, they upgraded it at the end of last year. I bought out the last 4 pairs from Roadrunner and thought they'd last a while, but I go through a pair about every 100-125 miles. That works out to about 7 pairs of shoes each year. I found a place with close-outs on this particular model and bought another 4 pairs, at half the price they were originally. I've worn each of them for a short run and they're all fine. I'm thinking I may just buy several more, just in case I have a banner year for mileage. That means I could wait at least another year before I have to start trying on new models and brands. I've heard that the shoes will wear out/dry out as they get older, but I've also heard that's an urban myth and they'll be good on the shelf for several years. I'm hoping that's true!

I knit a little on Monica's Stitch 'n' Pitch hat last night. I'm still not sure if I like it. I didn't get too much done because I was concentrating on Heroes too much. I think I'll ask the ladies at Stitch 'n' Bitch what they think. It could still get ripped out and started over with another yarn!

Today's Gratuitous Bear of the Day is another one of the Safeway charm bears. This lovely lavender teddy is Ms. Wealth.

Can you donate more?

Hey people, Noah needs your help. I know you've all got an extra $25 to give to a good cause! In his own words:

Team Cuttler formed many months ago to help cut out cancer by raising $150,000 through The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Man & Woman of the Year campaign. To reach that goal, we've relied on the support of online donors and fundraising events across the country, most recently in Atlanta, San Francisco, Davis and Washington D.C.

At the halfway point in our ten-week campaign, with the help of hundreds of supporters and dozens of volunteers, Team Cuttler has raised tens of thousands of dollars. Our efforts are making a real impact on blood cancer research, education and patient services. Now your donation is as critical as ever.

Please help us raise $2,000 by Friday, May 18th by donating today at http://www.active.com/donate/ncamwoy05/teamcuttler.
Every $25 contributed awards you a raffle ticket for our quarterly drawing. This quarter ends May 29th and the prize is a $100 giftcard to Starbucks. The largest quarterly contributor will be recognized in the Team Cuttler Newsletter and Cut Out Cancer Blog - cutoutcancer.blogspot.com!

It looks like my legs are all better, a pretty quick recovery after the marathon. Saturday was our TnT coaches run, in combination with the San Francisco team, in Mill Valley. It was the longest run for the Rock 'n' Roll runners before their taper begins. I've grown to enjoy this run even though the first time I ran there, my very first 20 miler ever, wasn't as much fun. They change the route sometimes and Saturday they had the route I like; out to Blackie's Pasture and then over to Tiburon. I was a little disappointed knowing that I wouldn't be able to do the whole run.

I got up early, too early if ya ask me, got ready for the run and drove over there. I never remember exactly how long it takes but this time with no traffic, it only took about 45 minutes. I wanted to get there early because I didn't know which group I'd try to run with -- or start with. Also wanted to get there early because parking can become a problem if you get there too late! I had to decide whether to start with the earliest group, those going my speed but running 20 miles, or to wait for the half marathoners who would be running more my intended mileage. I asked Coach Al how far he thought I should go, he pondered a moment, then said I should run about 10 miles. !!!Wha???? Here I was thinking I should try for 4-8 miles, depending on how my legs felt. Looks like neither of my coaches is letting me slide these days. So I decided to try for 8 anyway. Heh heh. One shouldn't ask for advice one isn't prepared to follow!

I saw one of our captains who I thought was my speed, maybe a bit faster. She's coming off an injury and has slowed down from that and was planning on running 8 miles so I joined her. She has slowed down, mostly because her injury isn't healed and she's still in discomfort. Or, pain. We ran 4 enjoyable miles together, then I decided that I felt sooooo good that I'd go for another mile before turning around. Dummy. I had forgotten just how hilly that last mile is. But it was a beautiful day, sunny, cool, breezy, I was feeling no pain, so wtf.

A lot of this run is very, very pretty. We got a view of the bay, with San Francisco and the Bay Bridge in the background. But I almost missed the biggest Anita moment. Trish pointed out an egret -- or heron? -- standing by the edge of the water, as still as a statue. As we ran up closer it spread it's great wings and took flight. Just stunning, nature at it's showiest.

For the whole run I had Mama Lisa's voice in my brain telling me I wasn't allowed to walk any hills. Darn, even when she isn't there I can hear her! So for the first 4 miles I ran the hills, except the one short one that the San Francisco coach had told us all to walk, it's too steep. Since I had slowed to Trish's pace running up the hills was actually not too bad. When I continued on I sped up considerably but still continued running the hills. That was much more difficult. And tiring. And painful. I could feel every one of them in my calf muscles, and feel every downhill in my quads. Ouch. I only walked one other hill, a long steep one that happened, coincidentally, to be during my regularly scheduled walk break. Hmmm? Oh, I started 9:1 for the last 6 miles. Every other walk break was on a downhill or flat but luckily the worst hill was a walker. No really, it was a legitimate walk break! I was darn tired when I finished but impressed that I had managed 10 miles within a week of running a marathon.

I hung around, cheering in all the runners, congratulating them on their incredible achievement. Nineteen to twenty miles is nothing to sneeze at. It's quite an accomplishment for all of them and the longest most of them had ever run. So I stayed there, dreading the drive home, talking with friends, having a nice morning. After the last runner had returned, most of the people were gone, I got in my car so I could go sit in traffic.

And sit. Although it had taken only 45 minutes several hours earlier, it took me just under an hour and a half to get home. Most of that time I talked with my sis on the phone so it didn't drag too badly. Nevertheless I was happy to get home finally. I needed a shower, food and a nap, stat!

This weekend I was supposed to get rid of my old, broken television. Because it's too big for me to move it's still sitting in my dining room, face against the wall. I had received a flier on my door from a neighbor who was doing a recycling drive to benefit cancer and his eagle service leadership project. He had included an email address so I contacted him about whether he could come pick it up; he was very agreeable and we set tentative times for the pickup for Friday night or Sunday morning. I didn't get a final confirmation from him but waited around Friday evening and all Sunday morning. Yeah, he never showed. Never emailed, even in response to my latest query. Damn. Time for Plan B. I don't have a Plan B.

While I was waiting for the kid I cleaned the house. And I dusted everything on my bookshelves. No, I didn't pick up each and every book. That's crazy talk! I have many, many MANY books. As in 7 bookcases, 6 shelves on 3 of them and 7 shelves on 4 of them. Full of books, often double rows on the shelves. And lots of stuff on the shelves in front of the books; pictures, figurines, bears, more bears, etc. Being the conscientious housekeeper that I am, I thoroughly dust the bookcases at least once a -- decade? No, more frequent than that, maybe twice a year. Or once. And a little more frequently than that I dust around things. If I spent more time in that room I'd probably keep it cleaner. Yeah, because cleaning is my life. Not. At least, not since I divorced the anal-compulsive needs-to-clean-the-house-spic-and-span every-single-damn-Friday-night shithead. I think every cleaning urge in my body must have been expended during the married years, with nothing left over. I'm lucky I actually use a dust cloth and vacuum at all anymore.

I worked a bit in the garden. It smells wonderful, with the jasmine and peonies in full bloom. I can open my back slider and sit on my sofa and still feel like I'm outside. Without the sun or the bugs or the wind.

I got some knitting done too! Superlong wrap is coming along. And along. It doesn't look like the picture, probably because I switched the yarn to the skinny alpaca. I'm hoping after I finish it (some day) and block it that it'll open up more. I also started on a new instant gratification project. Shhhh -- don't tell the other side of my brain, I'm supposed to just be finishing some off my existing projects. But I told Monica that I'd knit her a hat for Stitch 'n' Pitch. I knit 3 different hats last year, for Pam, Sandy and me. I'm trying some of the (crap) yarn we got at that game, a strange orange/black boucle-ish acrylic. This is supposed to be my fun project? I've only knit a few rows. If I think it's ugly after a couple of inches I'll rip it out and use my malabrigo. Now THAT would be a fun project!

I haven't had a Gratuitous Bear of the Day in a while since I had a bunch of other pictures. I'm feeling it's time for a change. The next group of bears were sold individually at, of all places, Safeway. Hey, I should be safe from bear temptations when I'm grocery shopping! It's hard enough staying away from chips and ice cream, now I had to watch out for the bear aisle too? So this was a set of, I can't recall exactly what they were called, but it was something like lucky charm bears. They each have a little bead necklace that can be removed and worn by person as a bracelet and that's supposed to bring you luck in the trait the bear embodies (which is embroidered on her foot). I've left the necklace on the bears, since I certainly don't know what I'd do with more health, success, love, courage, happiness or wealth! Um, right. So today, here is Ms. Happiness.

Pink and white, not red

I like things to go smoothly and evenly and with routine. I'm pretty boring that way. Even though I've been traveling a lot for the past few years I still find going away for a weekend destroys my routine and upsets my system. My normal insomnia is increased and I'll go several days on either end of my travel without sleep. My house is a mess, my yard overgrown, my fridge is empty and my eyes blurry. Last night I finally slept soundly and I'm feeling normal again. Yay!

I ran last night with Pam, our normal short short route. I took the first couple of steps and wasn't sure my legs were ready for running yet. I had a lot of discomfort in my upper quads, or maybe it's my middle IT bands. I'm not too sure which but my thighs were not pleased. After a couple of blocks and a bit of stretching they were ok. In fact, it was a pretty good, if somewhat slower than normal run. The nagging blister/bruise on the bottom of my toe didn't feel too good, and the couple of bruised toenails will take a while until they stop hurting, but otherwise I think I'll be able to start increasing mileage a bit again. Which is good, with the Mill Valley run tomorrow. I had hoped I'd be able to do more than limp a couple of miles.

My neighbor was able to fix our fence. Somehow the cross bars had shrunk, or the posts shrunk, because the bars had lifted away from the post. It's the same way in a few other spots along the fence line. My neighbor told me that he was astounded at how little the previous owner of my house had paid for the fence so I'm sure it was because of cheap wood, short nails and shoddy workmanship. Nice neighbor fashioned a shim to bridge the gap and renailed all the boards with longer nails. It's probably the strongest spot in the yard now. Too bad that the next place the fence will fall apart isn't shared with his yard; I'll have to hire someone to fix it then. What? Fix it myself? Uh, right. Me with a hammer and nails? Bwahahahah!

Mister neighbor also kept exclaiming about how beautiful my garden is. The peonies are in bloom now, many plants with many flowers each. He had no idea what was hidden behind my fence. I let him know that it was, in part, due to his removing his big sweet gum tree. Now that part of my yard gets much more sun and the peonies are responding happily.

It's funny, but there are supposed to be bright red ones, white ones, pale pink, deep pink, etc. but they mostly tend to be either purple, pink and white, or white. I don't know if bright red is just a color that doesn't bloom true or if the description of the plant was simply inaccurate. I also can't tell the difference between the plants that cost about $30 each and those that came in a Costco package for about $10 each. Oh, and the insects in my garden are thrilled at all the peonies. Looking closely at the flowers it's easy to see where they've been nibbled on. The ants are the worst, crawling all over to get the sweet sweet nectar, so I can't really cut and bring the flowers inside. I don't mind; they last longer on the bush than they would in my kitchen.

I resumed knitting on my never ending superlong wrap. I tried it on, hoping I'd like how long it is already, but I think it stills needs about a foot more. Snore. I'm really tired of black, really tired of the same 2 row repeat. But I figure since it's taking me months to finish I should make it the right length. So it's back and forth and back and forth and yo, k2tog, k1 and purl along the back and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Avenue of the Giants Marathon

I've written about the rest of my weekend in Humboldt County, now it's time for the race report.

Although I did this race with the Leukemia and Lymphoma's Team in Training, I was dedicating it to Noah Cuttler's Man of the Year Campaign. As a Team Cuttler Athlete I had pledged to raise another $500 for the L&L Society. I figured that even though the money wouldn't go to TnT's bottom line it would serve the same ultimate purpose.

I was signed up for the early bird start at the race. The regular race was scheduled for a 9:00 am start; the early bird (and early turtle for half marathon runners) was scheduled for 8:00 am. Not so early, hmm? Maui, at 5:00 am, is early. Eight o'clock is practically the middle of the day for runners!

Saturday night I set the alarms on the bedside clock and on my phone. Often I'll set three alarms, just to be sure, but I thought two would be enough. Since I was meeting Bree at the staging area by 6:45 am, and I wasn't sure how long the drive would take in the morning, I figured I should leave the motel by 6:15 am at the latest. That meant a wake-up of 5:15 since I like enough time to shower, dress, eat and, oh yeah, fret a little.

Turned out I didn't need either of the alarms. After tossing and turning (and sniffling and sneezing from the room) all night I finally got up about 5 o'clock and decided to get going. I took my wake-up shower and stood under the pouring water for a while, trying to focus. I could hear from the plumbing noises that my neighbors on both sides were also showering. Guess they were marathoners too!

I had dithered about which top to wear, and finally decided on the short sleeved top instead of the singlet. Saturday afternoon at packet picket had been warm, but the wind was cold. I know my arms and shoulders chill easily so I decided to cover them. Plus, it would mean less area to glop on sunscreen. TnT normally gives the runners purple singlets and the walkers the purple shirt, but I don't like the cut of the singlet and had asked for the shirt; I'm glad I did. My number was already pinned in place. I have issues with crooked or improperly pinned bibs, especially for a marathon where it could flap or rustle or just annoy the heck out of me after several hours, so I always do this the night before. I had also attached my timing chip to my shoe with the garbage twist-tie they had. I was a little worried that it might fall apart during the race, but all went well.

I ate my oatmeal, forcing down every single bite. It's my perfect fuel but that doesn't mean I like it, especially when I make it with hot tap water instead of freshly boiled water. Yum? I read for a while, rested, drank water and finally decided to just hit the road.

The drive down was uneventful. It was interesting to see the lumber mill steaming away on a Sunday morning. [Monday night on the news I saw an interesting story about it - I'll report on that later - if I remember ....] It was a beautiful morning, cold (low-40s), sunny and bright. I remembered the exit from the day before but it looked like the other cars on the road were having a hard time figuring out where to go. At the right place, on the gore point after the exit, was a sign saying "marathon next exit." I actually think it was just misplaced by about 20 feet, but a lot of cars screeched out of the exit lane and back onto the freeway. I took the exit, followed the next (correctly placed) sign and drove up toward the staging area. We had been told the day before that parking would be on the sand spit behind packet pickup, about a mile's total walk to the start (and yes, the thought of an extra couple of miles made me grumpy), but when I arrived close parking was still available on the side of the road. I met up with Bree and we sat in my car staying warm between frequent trips to the (abundant and clean) porta potties. Finally we decided we had better head over to the start line.

I decided to keep on my disposable poncho until at least the start, and to wear my gloves. It was still pretty darn chilly out. The early birds and turtles all lined up at the start. Bree and I moved toward exactly the opposite direction we normally take at the beginning of a race: the front. Most of these starters would be walkers so we wanted to be in front of them. How odd to be among the fastest in the crowd. I ditched my poncho just before the horn sounded. It seemed to take forever, but finally we were off! We had to weave around a few walkers but then it was mostly clear in front of us, only about a dozen people ahead.

The full marathon course is an out-and-back along two different roads. The half marathon followed the first half of the full. Right at the start was a very pretty waterfall -- what a sight for the start and a harbinger of what was ahead! Within yards of the start we were in a heavily forested area, among the big trees. The road, to put it simply, sucked. It was sharply canted, cracked, rutted, pitted, broken, holed; just a totally crappy surface. It was also twisty, narrow and hilly. At this point of the race, and for at least until after we turned around for the return trip, it wasn't too much of a problem because we had essentially the entire road to ourselves. We could find the best surface and cut all the tangents for the shortest route. We could go back and forth on both sides of the road to find good footing or just stay smack in the middle. That was nice, being out front without a crowd.

Our plan was to run:walk at 4:1 and finish about 5:45. That meant running consistent 13:07 or faster splits. It was really hard to pace on that road; not only going back and forth but also the hills. Our first mile was on target at 12:25. On target knowing that we'd start out a little fast before we warmed up. It wasn't too fast for either of us. The next mile was 13:10 and we just didn't understand why, we felt like we had given it the same effort. Then mile 3 was 12:34 and 4 was 14:08 Huh? It was the hills, or it was the surface, or maybe the mile markers were off, or whatever. We felt we were running hard and consistently and didn't understand why our splits were so uneven. At about that time I decided not to worry about my watch and just try to run well.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention, at length, the beauty of the area. It was really one Anita moment from start to finish, stunningly gorgeous along the road. When you could look up from your footing long enough! The peace and serenity of the giant trees seeped into my thoughts, my brain, my soul. Shut up, it did. The undergrowth was new and fresh, bright wildflowers were everywhere. Pale green leaves on shrubs and hardwoods, deeper green in the grasses and ferns, dark shady greens back in the forest. The trees weren't big, they were enormous. Unbelievably wide, incredibly tall. It was like a natural chapel. I would have loved to have plopped myself down for several hours to just commune with nature. It's very easy to see why I'm a treehugger at heart, why my (unused) degree is in forestry, why conservation of our environment is so important to me. It touched me and I'll carry the memory of the majestic glory for my life.

But meanwhile, I kept running. Heh, no stopping for beauty on this trip! We continued on, chatting or not as the mood hit us, commenting on other people or the scenery. We made bets on when the leaders would show up and she won. Math while running isn't my strong suit. It was nice passing the turnaround (where they had a chip mat for a split and to deter cheaters) and going back the way we had come. It wasn't too long before we saw the front runners pounding up the middle of the road. That was the last of our having our choice of where to run. As it started getting more crowded we were relegated to the far right hand side of the road. The slower people coming toward us hugged the left part of the road, faster runners sped down the middle. There were also a few cars coming by, pretty scary with all the runners going both directions.

Faster runners always complain about having to weave past early-start walkers in a race. This would be one of those times. We could see some of the walkers (not TnT thankfully) stretched out across the entire road. They were blocking not only those trying to pass them from behind but those trying to pass in the other direction. As we squeezed past them both Bree and I felt like we wanted to give them a hip check or a shoulder nudge to get out of the way. We didn't but only because we thought it might hurt us worse than them.

Early on, by mile 3, Bree started having significant pain. She had a nagging hip injury that had bothered her while we were running our 20 miler and it had returned, just in time for the marathon. She popped a couple of painkillers and thought that would hold her. It didn't. By mile 9 she was running hunched over, crooked, bent and in great pain. She didn't want to stop and didn't want to give up and wanted to keep going. After talking it over, and talking with a friend of hers (a TnT coach we saw along the way) she decided to do the right thing and give up not only her quest for a sub-6 marathon, but any thoughts of a full marathon at all. She urged me to go ahead without her and being the selfish pig that I am, I went off on my own. I was torn, I wanted to stay with her and make sure she'd be ok, but I also knew she really wanted me to get lost. It was a tough decision, but nowhere near as tough as hers.

For most of this leg there was no crowd support; it was pretty impossible to get out there to cheer unless you had started early and planned to stay until the race was over. As I got closer to the end of the first leg a few people, then a lot of people, were on the side of the road cheering. I'm sure most of them were wondering what I was doing out there with the leaders but I wasn't in the mood to explain it. Everybody kept telling me I was almost there, almost finished. Even the people passing me said that. Oh stuff it! Didn't anyone remember there was a full marathon going on too? Or maybe I just don't look like I can run a full marathon. Whatever, I smiled at most of them and kept running.

I finished the half and hung a right to cross the bridge and start the second half. All of a sudden it got verrry quiet out there. There were about 900 people running the half and only 325 running the full, most of them behind me since I had started early. It was kind of cool, having mostly everyone pass me at some point of the race. And they did: anyone who began at the regular start and finished faster than 4:45 passed me.

The second leg's pavement was a vast improvement over the first. It was still hilly and winding and canted but the surface was much smoother. It was also, for the most part, a wider road. By this time, it was warming up and getting windy. At the intermittent clearings the wind really picked up and the sun was burning strong. Luckily it was, remember, the Avenue of the Giants so it was mostly shady. There was one spot where the whole side of the hill had washed out and the road was technically closed. Of course they let us through. It was just a tad creepy thinking of one of those hillsides coming down. Good thing it hadn't rained in a few days.

There were more people along this stretch too, mostly campers wondering just what in the hell these strange numbered people were doing, and when they'd be able to move their big ol' RV's back along the road. Some were cheering us on, most were just staring.

Water stops were adequate to good. They had water and this nasty (so I'm told) electrolyte drink, urg or ugg or something like that. Some stops had oranges and bananas. There were no gels or bars or beans or sharkies or anything like that available. Luckily I carry my own gu and my own packets of ultima. Yes, I'm one of the seventeen people in the world who like the taste of ultima and I've used it for all my training and races. I was also glad I had my own salt tablets and packets since it was so warm. On the first half there were people handing out cups but by the time I started the last six miles most of the volunteers were sitting and watching the race. Or, watching the few of us still out there. Yeah, that made me cranky but hey, I'm always cranky at that point of the run. I can't really blame the people, they'd been out there for so long, but it meant more work for me to stop and figure out which cup to take and to grab it. So I tossed those on the ground when I finished, instead of trying for a garbage can like I'd been doing. Take that!

I was getting really tired those last few miles. I thought of just walking it in, since I wasn't trying to pace Bree anymore, but I just couldn't do it. Why? Because I opened my big fat mouth and predicted 5:45 is why! On my blog! In public! What a git. Although I knew that was best case scenario, I put it out there anyway. I knew, as early as mile 8 or so, that 5:45 was out the window. But I also knew I could come in some time around 5:55 if I didn't just shrug my shoulders and walk it on in. I knew there were 3 hills at the end; a long gradual one, a shorter steeper one (an overpass) and a short bridge right at the end. I told myself I could walk up all 3 of those, even if they weren't within my 4:1 which I had continued for the rest of the race. My run had become more of a shuffle, but that was eating up the miles.

Bree had walked out for about the last mile (?) to run me in. I didn't want to talk, and didn't particularly want anyone else to either, although it was nice to have company. I was about as focused as I ever get, just concentrating on moving forward. Bree just quietly matched my pace and followed my lead. My breathing was pretty ragged, a combination of exhaustion and asthma. I quickly walked up the long hill, resumed running, trudged up the big hill, then continued running. I quit the 4:1 at that point, turned the beeper off on my watch.

Then I saw, waiting for me along the road, my coach Mama Lisa. Ruh roh. I knew, without a doubt, that she wasn't going to let me slack on that last hill. Lisa and Susan, another runner who had been waiting with her, fell in with me and Bree. Bree told them I'd like quiet and they ignored her. Which was fine, since I was so focused on finishing the damn thing that I was trying to ignore them! Lisa exclaimed about how well I was doing, how good I looked, y'know, all those lies they tell runners. My shuffle sped up and we left Bree struggling behind us. Lisa had no trouble matching my slow pace since she runs in our slower runners all the time; Susan had a harder time slowing her Boston pace to my trudge. As we neared the bridge Lisa told me to slow down a bit in preparation for the bridge. I muttered "walkin'" which was all I had breath to say. She thought I meant right then, and was about to stop, when she realized I meant to walk the bridge. I was right, she was having nothing to do with that! No way was she gonna let me wuss out there, with the finish line almost in sight. I was too tired to argue. In a quiet, calm, encouraging voice she coached me, step by step, up and over that bridge. "Shorten your stride," "don't look at the top, look over there" (I was actually looking at my feet, I was afraid I'd trip), "deep breaths" (deep gasping breaths were all I could get) "up on your toes" and so on. As we crested the top she told me to look and see the finish line, right ahead of me. I wearily raised my hand for a high five and pounded my way across the line, totally spent. Finish time: 5:52:09.

I had my usual emotions at crossing the line; thrills at finishing the race, pride at giving it my best, regrets for not being faster, overwhelming sadness at not being able to tell my Dad that I'd finished another marathon, anticipation of telling my sis and mom and friends about my day, vast happiness that I didn't have to run anymore. Also as usual after a finish line dash I was entirely out of breath, starting to feel the pain in my legs and feet that I had been ignoring for the past couple of hours, wanting to cry, wanting to laugh. At that time everything seems magnified, bigger than life.

I got my chip removed and was handed my medal, then walked over to give Mama Lisa a great big hug. We waited for Bree, walking around a bit to slow my breathing and cool down. We walked up to the TnT checkout tent but they had closed it down already. I kinda knew they would since the full marathon wasn't their race, but I had really hoped I could get a TnT 26.2 pin. I know it's practically impossible to get one after a race is done. We walked over to see what kind of food was available. I noticed them packing up the tee shirt table (and what's up with that? There was still another hour for people to finish the race and I knew there were people behind me) and walked over to see if I could exchange my ugly girly shirt for one of the burgundy shirts. The woman told me I had to hurry up and get my shirt to trade in. I just looked at her and told her I had just run 26 miles, I wouldn't be hurrying anywhere for about 36 hours! Bree very generously offered to get the shirt from my car, so I was able to make the trade.

There was a table with some cookies and pretzels and one quarter of a dried out peanut butter sandwich, and cups of water. I don't know if there had been more than that for earlier finishers. Nothing looked in the least bit enticing but I took a couple of fig newtons for later.

So that was it. My 25th full marathon. Silver anniversary marathon! I'm very glad I did it, glad I got to experience running through that gorgeous scenery. I'm happy with my time but even happier that I didn't decide to just phone it in and that I worked hard for that time. I'm sad that Bree didn't get to finish it with me but we'll have another chance at another race once she's healed.

I made one mistake. I told Mama Lisa that at the San Diego Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in 3 weeks I was just gonna have fun, just stroll along and walk the whole damn thing if I felt like it. "Oh no you're not!!" was her reply. Hmm. Maybe I'll have to run incognito ....

Don't fence me in

My recovery continues well. Yesterday I was all about the ouch and owie but today my legs are just a bit weary. We'll see how they feel after sitting at my desk all day. I have to remember to get up and stretch.

I got home on Monday and as I was going to the mailbox I noticed there were lots of branches and twigs all over my front lawn. I have an ailing Sycamore that doesn't fare well in windstorms so I figured that we must have had a lot of blowing. I was hoping that the tree wasn't just losing branches because of Monday's heat. I finished unloading my car (geez, I take a lot of crap with me when I got to races) and started glancing through the pile of mail. On top was a folded piece of paper with a letter from my neighbor who lives behind me. He said that the fence between our yards had fallen down on Saturday and he'd be out of town until late Tuesday, but he'd try to fix it on Wednesday. Unless, that is, I'd rather call a professional and pay to have it fixed or replaced. Uh, let's see. Spend time researching and calling fence companies, or do nothing and let the neighbor try to fix it. Yup, I'm taking the do nothing approach. I hope he can fix it, it's creepy knowing that anyone can see right into my house. Especially now with the heat, when I keep my back slider open for a breeze.

I decided to go to last night's buddy run to see if moving would help make my legs feel better. I thought I'd have to walk and I didn't want to push it too much. It seemed like everyone at the run (all 5 of us) was in some sort of pain. Great, the week before their long run and they're all hurting. I ran with the group to where we stretch but that was all the run I had in me. I ended up walking almost 3 miles and felt much better than when I started. Except for my toes. I think during the race there was a wrinkle in my sock underneath my big toe and it feels bruised. There's no blister, just very tender skin. Walking didn't help it at all.

I had a mostly knitless weekend. I had taken my multidirectional diagonal scarf in case I had time. I knit for a while on Saturday before the pasta party but that was about it. After the victory party I was too exhausted to think about what I was doing and I knew I'd just end up frogging anything I knit. After the run -- er, walk -- last night I spent some time on my neverending superlong wrap. I'm getting so tired of it. I need to knit something else with some instant gratification. And some bright colors. But first I must ... finish ... wrap.

My weekend at the redwoods

Few things are as frustrating as writing incisive witty remarks for an hour and having the computer EAT THEM!. Hmmph! If my weekend report is boring it's not my fault, I wrote a very good report earlier.

I left my house Saturday morning, ready for the long ride up to Humboldt County. I had managed to get my car washed between rain showers on Friday night so it was nice and shiny and I could see out of all the windows. I made short stops for a latte and bagels then met Joanne and Oscar at the BART parking lot. Because of logistical problems we had decided to drive up separately but together. For almost the entire ride I followed Joanne's excellent pace setting. Her green truck kept me on the road at good speeds.

We planned to stop a few times since we were heavily hydrating in anticipation of a warm race. We stopped for lunch in Willits at La Mexicana. I had a combo plate with chicken soft taco and tostada, and rice and beans. I only ate a couple of chips since I know that my stomach isn't too happy with fried food the day before a long race. I also skipped the beer, which was much harder to do! The food was very good and filling, and I'm glad I had the protein. The tortilla for the taco was fresh and pretty obviously hand made. Good carbs!

It had been many long years since I had last headed up Highway 101 to Northern California. I don't think I've been north of Sonoma County for decades. I had forgotten how incredibly beautiful California is. It was exactly the right time for this trip. The hills are green, wildflowers are still blooming, new green leaves are on the shrubs and hardwoods, and there was no traffic on Saturday. That combined to make a very fast and enjoyable trip. Fast, except for the speed traps along the way. One was so obvious it was almost laughable. It went from freeway speeds to 35 mph in about 100 yards, with a patrol car sitting right there. I guess that town has to make enough money to pay the officer through speeding tickets. Another place there was a fake squad car alongside the road, with a dummy inside. No, a real dummy. No, not a cop, a scarecrow-like dummy!

I had brought along my iPod with the running music so my whole drive had a background of high tempo, rockin' songs. I had a good ol' time singing along so it was a good thing nobody else was in my car. It helped keep me awake and focused, especially on the return trip when there was traffic, road construction, more traffic jams, and have I mentioned traffic?

Packet pickup was at the staging area for the race. There wasn't a real expo, just one local vendor who had all kinds of running gear. This was good for the people who had forgotten some essential, like socks, gel or sunglasses. Packet pickup was very smooth for me; I got my bib and my chip. The chip tie was unusual, just a long baggie twist-tie.

I wasn't as thrilled with the tee shirt. The design was very pretty, but they had different 100% cotton shirts for men and women. The women's shirt was a girly cut white shirt, the men's was a normal tee, in burgundy. Not being a white shirt wearer, in addition to not liking the girly cut, I asked if I could have the men's shirt, since they hadn't mentioned in the registration process that they'd have different shirts. Nope. They said they'd ordered according to who had registered so I got the girly shirt. They said if I came back after the race they may have leftovers. Riiiight. After I've run for 6 hours I should schlep to the car and back to exchange my shirt. I took the white shirt, knowing I'd never wear it, and tossed it in the back of my car for later use as a rag.

I continued on to my motel, about another 25 miles north of the race staging area in Fortuna. The team was officially staying in 4 motels, all clustered together. I was at the Super 8. My room, although posted as being non-smoking, reeked of cigarette smoke. I think they took a smoking room and just stuck up signs without doing anything about the lingering stench. It was pretty bad, even after I tried to air it out for a while. When the furnishings are all soaked in smoke, just a bit of fresh air won't help at all.

Our TnT pasta party was in town at the Vets Building. I think there were about 300 people there, runners and their families (or maybe it was 200). I was unimpressed with the food. There were rolls, salad (greens in one bowl, a few cut up veggies on a plate), a very nice fruit plate with lots of different types of fruit and pasta. Three types of pasta, all using the same noodles. There was slimy pasta with mushrooms, slimy pasta with a tomato sauce, and slimy pasta with a meat sauce. Not my cup o' tea. I had salad, fruit and bread, figuring I'd have a bagel and cheese back in my room later. Not what I'm used to before a long run.

There were the usual speakers after we ate, including the requisite survivor who had us all sniffling and wiping our eyes. It is very touching to see that we're helping to make a difference in peoples' lives, to see someone who's been through it all, to hear what they've experienced and felt, and to hope that we can help raise enough money to find a cure. It puts it all in perspective, how fortunate we are to be able to run a race, to train, to be healthy. We can never take this for granted, it can disappear too quickly.

Afterward I went back to my room, made sure all my stuff was ready for an early morning (although not too early compared with other races), and went to bed. Oh right, as if I was going to sleep. My sinuses had stuffed right up when I reentered my room. The bed was hard. Blah blah whine I tossed and turned for hours, got maybe a couple of hours of sporadic sleep. I was up before the alarms went off, figuring what the heck, get the day started.

The race will be in a separate report, but short version is I ran hard, didn't give up, finished in 5:52:09. More than being pleased with the time (although I am), I'm happy with the effort I put forth.

I had told Bree that since she was returning to the Bay Area after the race she could come back to my room and shower. Her bf was going to meet us there so that he didn't have to drive back and forth and back and forth. I hobbled to the car, changed my shoes, and drove with erratic speed back to the room. My feet hurt! My legs hurt! Bree wished that she were driving! Bree showered and took off, I showered, and damn, it was almost time to leave for the victory party.

I'm not sure why but the party started very early at 4:00 pm. I made it there about 4:30 and the food this time was pretty impressive, maybe the best TnT victory party food I'd seen. There were a couple of types of salad, fried chicken, another chicken dish in some sauce, sweet and sour pork, a hunk of beef, oh, much more that I'm forgetting. And a dessert table. I had been waiting for that. There were fresh strawberries dipped in chocolate, small carrot cakes, little mud pie thingies, and a couple of other dessert-y items. The only problem was I wasn't hungry. I knew I had to eat, knew I should have already eaten something, but I pretty much had to force myself to have anything other than the carrot cake. I tried several things, but the fresh strawberry lemonade and the wine were really all I wanted. Actually, I would have liked a doggy bag since I knew I'd be starving later.

Everyone managed to get out on the floor and dance a little after they ate. Only about 4 team people had run the full marathon, the rest had run the half. I was pretty happy for all the newbies who had run their first big race. I think it was a good one for a starter race. Some of them were more sore from their 13.1 miles than I was from my 26.2. I remember how I felt after the first time I ran that distance and I had plenty of sympathy for them. Mostly. It was fun to dance and laugh with my teammates.

The party ended early, I think I was back in my room long before 8pm. I decided to pack in the morning. I knew I wouldn't be sleeping since I never do after a marathon, but I wanted to just plant my body on my bed in my stinky smoky smelly room. I had brought a bottle of wine with me and proceeded to rehydrate with it. Ahhhhhh. Just what I needed to relax! Toss in a couple of advil and I was a happy camper. I did end up getting hungry about 10pm so I had some cheese and crackers I had brought with me. I really wanted something sweet and totally forgot I had brought some bars with me. I finally turned out the lights about 11:00 and tossed and turned for the rest of the night.

Since Monday morning I was up so early and packed and antsy to go I checked the phone book for the nearest Starbucks. Which was in Eureka. I'm pretty sure if someone wanted to make some money they could open one in the middle of Humboldt County and rake in the cash. Or maybe it's one of those areas where they want to retain the "charm" of the towns and not open chains. In which case they should dump all the motels, the Denny's, the Safeway, the McD's, etc. Or at least open lots and lots of really good and easy to find coffee shops the the sleep and caffeine deficient!

Mama Lisa had arranged for several of us to meet at Denny's for a pre-drive breakfast. Only thing is, geez, what's with the calorie/fat/grease laden (cheap) breakfasts there? I'm not a food snob but -- oh wait, I kinda am. I really wanted a piece of good french toast and a few slices of bacon. And a good latte. That was almost impossible to order so I got a meal with pancakes, eggs and bacon and a cup of coffee. It wasn't too appetizing but I ate quite a bit of it when it finally came. It was a fun meal, all of us talking about the race, past races, future races and more. We finally got on the road about 10am. Once again I was following Joanne's lead. Thank you Joanne!

We had to stop at Bigfoot's place along the road. I would have liked to buy a tacky redwood chainsaw teddy bear but they were absurdly overpriced. My garden will have to do without it.

We stopped again in Willits for lunch. This time we went to the Country Skillet. I was torn between something healthy and something with gusto and settled for a Reuben, with french fries. I know, I don't eat beef. But I make this one exception, once or twice a year, for corned beef, since it doesn't really look or taste like beef and doesn't gross me out. I ended up taking half the sandwich home with me for dinner. I was afraid to eat too much when I still had several hours of driving left. After eating we cruised across the street to the cheap Safeway gas station where I paid only $3.29 per gallon! First of all, yay, cheap gas! Second of all, when did $3.29 become "cheap gas"??

After that we just drove and drove without stopping again. Once we got into Mendocino there was a lot of construction and traffic jams that were on and off until we crossed the Richmond/San Rafael bridge. Then, surprise of surprises, Highway 80 had no traffic. In the 30+ years I've lived in the Bay Area I have never seen 80 so empty, even when I've been on the way to pre-dawn weekend runs or when I used to stay out into the early hours partying. It was a very pleasant part of the ride that I had thought would take forever. Traffic didn't slow down until right at the 580/880 split (the 880 part had just reopened that morning) where stupidheads had to slam on their brakes to see the hole in the freeway. Dumbasses. What are they trying to do, create a crash with another conflagration to destroy another part of the freeway??

I finally made it home just after 4pm. I had driven over 600 miles and run 26.2. I was pretty tired! So I skipped my Monday run with Pam. Well, duh! Of course I did! I had a sofa with my name on it, just waiting for me. Ahhhh, naptime! It's great to be back home.

The post monster ate my post

I had a nice long weekend report written and my browser crashed and I couldn't recover the post. I can't face doing it again now, so: nice weekend, long drive, good race. See ya later.

Rain and anticipation

I was going to leave work early today and get my car washed for the long ride up to the redwoods, but it's raining again. Not that I particularly care if the car is shiny, I just wanted all the windows cleaned, inside and out. I don't do windows. Ok, I'll clean the outside, but I'm abysmal at cleaning windows and mirrors without missing spots or streaking. With my difficulty seeing in the dark, and knowing that I'll be doing at least some driving at night in a strange city, I wanted to be able to see where I was going. Maybe it'll clear up by the time I leave work. Yeah. Maybe pigs will fly. Oh wait: that's this weekend too.

Stupid National Weather Service forecast for Sunday is still an overnight low of 43 and a high of 85, sunny with winds of 9-14 mph. Hey! Trying to run here! Weather Underground's forecast is a little friendlier, with 8:00 am forecast to be at 44 degrees and 2:00 pm at only 76; sunny with winds from 8-11 mph. The Weather Channel is completely different from both of those; low of 45, high of 67, partly cloudy, humid and winds of 13 mph. Makes planning tough. I'd like to wear the short sleeved TnT shirt, since my shoulders and arms will be freezing in the morning, but it may just be too warm later and I'll need the singlet (which I find very uncomfortable; Nike styles these things for tiny women and even the big sizes just don't fit right). I'll take both and decide Saturday evening which to pin the number on.

Slogged a bit more on my superlong wrap last night. I think I still need it to be 8-10 inches longer. This will be the first thing I've tried blocking and I'm not sure how much the length will be affected, so since I have the yarn I'm just going to keep going. Yawn. I was trying to decide which project to take with me this weekend and realized that it doesn't really matter; I'm not going to be in my room for much non-sleeping time, and it's not like I can knit while I drive.

Today's Gratuitous Bear of the Day is Toastie. He really is toastie; he's a warmable heating pad bear. I can stick him in the microwave for a couple of minutes and he gets warm. Of course, putting him in the microwave feels like I'm committing bearicide! I feel kind of like Snidely Whiplash when I do this; "haha nothing can save you now Toastie Bear" before Amy Do-Right comes to the rescue and turns off the oven. Hokey smoke, I think I watched too many cartoons in my formative years!

First send-off

Last night was our TnT send-off party for those running Avenue of the Giants and Vancouver Half Marathon. It was at the San Leandro Yacht Club. For some reason, people have trouble finding the building. Maybe because it's called a "yacht club" and from the outside looks like a fishing shack. I know I was confused the first time I went there.

I left the office early because I had no idea, with the freeway collapse situation and all, how long it would take to get there. Not very long, it turned out. I didn't care. I had my mindless diagonal multidirectional scarf to keep me busy. I mellowed out knitting for a while, watching the birds over the marina. It was very peaceful.

The send-off was fun, seeing all the people about to run, in some cases, not only their first half marathon but their first race. I remember how excited I was before my first marathon and these peeps are feeling much the same. There was pretty decent support from the rest of the team and most of the mentors were there to support their mentees. We started the night with potluck. It's funny how very few people actually prepared the food they brought. Aside from one pan of lasagna and some cookies, most of the food was prepared by Safeway and Costco. I should talk, I brought some yummy veggies and some pasta salad from Safeway. There was, as is usual at these thing, way too much food. I managed to stick with the healthy stuff, except for one yummy cookie.

Mama Lisa, one of our coaches, gave her patented pre-race talk about how to pack, what to eat, what to do. It's a good (long) talk, but unfortunately most of the mentors/captains have heard it many times. I'm pretty sure that most of us were on the edge of our seats, waiting for something different, or wanting to say "oh, you mean" when she paused. We didn't, we all like her too much to interrupt or be rude during the talk. Although I must say there was a bunch of light chatter in the background.

Then Coach Gary (and I just can't get used to calling him, or anyone other than Lisa or Alphonzo, "coach") gave his pep talk. Y'know, the "go out fast, die like a pig" talk. After that we heard from our Honoree Captain, to put the whole thing in perspective.

The final speaker, as is his right, was Coach Al. Some day I'll talk about Coach, what he's meant to me and what he means to the team. Short version, I adore him; I come back to TnT simply to have him be my coach again. He's warm, caring, inspirational, funny and a damn fine coach. He'll be going to Vancouver; Mama Lisa will be with us at Avenue. Anyhoo, Coach talked about Brenda and Cole, got teary eyed along with the rest of us. He told us to believe in ourselves, believe in our training, believe in our angels who will carry us along. He gathered us all in a big hug circle (yeah, all of us, it was quite a sight), had our moment of silence for our honorees, past and present, then told us to just to out and DO THE DAMN THING!

So Sunday morning at 8:00 am, that's exactly what I plan. Right here, right now, I'll say that Bree and I will do the damn thing and finish in 5:45! You betcha!

Drive me crazy

What is it with California drivers and bad weather? I realize it doesn't rain here that often, but it happens every winter, even the dry ones like this. I don't think the idiots realize that when it's wet they shouldn't (1) weave in and out of traffic at high speeds, (2) zip right in front of big rigs and slam on their brakes, (3) eat breakfast/put on makeup/hold a phone/shave, (4) tailgate the car in front of them when the front car is already too close to the car in front of it, (5) turn around to discipline a child in the back seat, (6) try to drive 15 mph faster than the rest of the cars around them, or (7) try to drive 15 mph slower than the rest of the cars around them. Sheesh! What's so tough about that?? It took extra long to get to work today and I was privileged to observe all those behaviors. Ok, take a deep breath, think calming thoughts. Hmmph!

So, there's this storm front moving through northern California right now. A week ago it was supposed to hit on Sunday, during the race. Now it's sped up and should be clear by the weekend. That's where the forecasters start guessing. Not that I'm a weather geek or anything -- oh wait, maybe I am -- but I've been checking 3 sources so I'll know what I want to wear for the race. The National Weather Service is saying that on Sunday we'll have an overnight low of 41 and a high of -- get this -- 84 degrees!! Crap! The Weather Channel says an overnight low of 45 and a high of 65! Huh?? Weather Underground is telling us there will be an overnight low of 37, high of 71. Thanks guys, clear as mud. My interpretation as someone who knows squat about forecasting is that by the time of the early bird race start at 8:00 am (that's not early - get a clue organizers) it'll be close to 50, and by the time I drag my sorry ass across the finish line in the middle of the afternoon it'll be toasty warm, if not blazing hot. At least the course should be shaded, right? By all those giant redwoods? What, me anxious?

My run along the Iron Horse last night was more interesting than usual. The only ones to show up for the run were Mentor Marcie, Fiancee Dave and me, so I was running alone. Heh heh. I always run the buddy run alone, this was not different. I just stuck my headphones in my ears and tootled off, determined to get in at least 3 miles although I totally wasn't in the mood. All of a sudden I saw a police car turn off one of the cross streets and onto the trail. Hmm, I thought, what's this? So I kept running until I came upon a pretty funny scene. There were 2 cop cars, a big ol' official looking black SUV, 5 or 6 very unhappy teenagers sitting on the ground and a bench, and one stern looking cop. I didn't see other cops, but I didn't stop running so I didn't really get a good look. When I returned about 10 minutes later, there were 3 (count them -- 3!) more uniformed cops and another in a suit (I think he was a cop, he had that bearing), and one more squad car. The first cop was patting down one of the boys while the others sullenly looked on. The boy being patted down looked like he was going to cry. The one girl in the group was smarting off to the cops; I could hear her even through my music. I wish I knew what was going on, but my guess is either vandalism (there were a couple of smashed ceramic pots along the trail) or drugs. Oooh, are their parents going to be mad!

I was doing some gardening over the weekend and discovered what my mystery plant is. I was right, it's an Iris. It's not that pretty and not terribly colorful (or at least it wasn't, until I color saturated the picture), but is a nice break in all the greenery. There should be four or five more flowers opening off the plant but the rain might just turn them to mush. And they'll probably open over the weekend while I'm gone. If you look closely you'll see another yard bunny behind the plant.

Last night I spent more time knitting the super long (and and now super boring) wrap. Yawn. Maybe I'll finish it this week. Or maybe I'll just fall asleep knitting and poke out my eyes. Either way, I won't be working on it for much longer!

Rats again, this one cute. Sort of.

After the shower on Saturday I went to my bro's to see my nephew's new rat. My nephew is a typical nine year old boy who loves everything gross and icky, so of course he needed a rat. Just because he already has 3 cats and 2 dogs doesn't mean another animal wouldn't be welcomed into the house. At school the classroom rat parented a swarm of ratlets (ratlings? pups? kits?) and some lucky students were able to adopt one. The new rat isn't full size yet, and should get either one-third bigger (according to my bro) or twice the size (according to my sis-in-law). Ratty (ok, I forget what they named him) is friendly and will submit to hugging and loving. As long as there's food involved. I know people like that too.

When I first arrived at bro's he said that since I'd spent the afternoon bartending at the shower I could certainly continue that and mix up some drinks. After surveying the contents of his freezer, pantry and fridge I concocted a blueberry kiss: vanilla vodka, natural unsweetened blueberry juice, Rose's lime juice and triple sec. Very yummy! And how nice, they were also feeding me dinner. Which I totally needed after the wonderful food and booze and chocolate fountain at Bree's house. Not. Just imagine my shock and horror when bro announced that we were having chicken pot pie from Bakesale Betty's! I knew then that there was no hope for any diet redemption, I should just figure on gaining weight. I'd never had the pot pie but I was (too) familiar with her scones, cookies, sticky date pudding, etc. The pot pie didn't disappoint. There had to be at least a half inch of butter dripped out on the cooking sheet that the pie sat on in the oven. It was beyond a doubt the best pie crust I've ever had. The inside was wonderful too: big chunks of veggies and chicken and a wonderful gravy. I was in glutton heaven and figured I wouldn't need to eat again for a couple of days. And I'd have to run a million miles to work it off.

It wasn't a million miles, but Pam and I had another great run last night. It was the short short route. Hey, I'm tapering! I really love running in perfect weather; upper 60's, sun low enough to not be an issue, light breeze. Too bad the traffic was heavy and cars keep trying to run us over. We could run on the trail only, but that's too boring. I'm hoping that after recovery from this next marathon we'll want to run the longer route occasionally. Maybe!

I've gotten more rows done on the super long wrap. It goes on and on and on. Pretty soon now I'll need to decide just how long I want it. I'm not sure if I just want it long enough to hang straight over the shoulders; to wrap over one shoulder; to double wrap; to double wrap with knee length ends. I have enough of the alpaca to let it be pretty long, but I'm tired of knitting it. I need something bright, colorful, and instantly gratifying. Too bad I told myself to just finish this darn thing!