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Wow! Isn't it amazing how something is so big in your life ... you are consumed by it. You think of it all the time. Your friends tire of hearing you talk about it. And then, in a flash it's over and you have moved on!
That's how I feel about the Cherry Blossom 10 Mile Run. I worked hard (in my little, whimpy mind) to train for this run. I sacrificed home-cooked meals in exchange for a run and then a quick fix meal of (fill in your favorite "fast" food, prepared at home!).
Dad and I had a great time running together. It was a very damp, emotional experience for me. Rained all morning, of course. At least my feet kept dry! Not sure how that happened, but I was very thankful for it as we walked around museums later that morning.
I committed to this run because I wanted to make a significant memory with my dad. I can definitely say - mission accomplished.
You might ask - what prompted me to finally make an entry more than eight weeks after the run - tonight my friend, Sally, asked how the run went. I was reminded that I had told many people about the run and then instantly stopped talking about it the day of the run! I also got a wonderful tabloid with the "Official 2008 Race Results" in my mail today. I knew the time very quickly, it's just satisfying to see it in ink!
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| Sunny SeattleWho would have imagined two completely sunny, blue sky days - in a row - in Seattle in February? Add to that six wonderful days with good friends and life doesn't get much better. We indulged at the first Starbucks store at Pike Place Market, saw how Boeing makes their planes (in a very BIG space), drove around a lot, and relaxed tons.
Seattle has such interesting architecture and scenery. There are lines, curves, colors, shapes, trees (trees everywhere!), lakes, mountains, views, styles ... it's just really incredible the variety of style there. It seemed like every turn we took brought another design, period, shape, view or whatever to draw our attention.
Good friends and good coffee - two of my favorite things in life and they went together so well in Seattle! We stayed with some of our most special friends in the world! Got to see friends from the U of Maryland and the U of Nebraska - what a treat. Had coffee with most of them, either at a local shop, Starbucks, or even Microsoft!
I was even able to get in a few runs to keep up my training. Wow - do they have some hills in Seattle! Google Maps doesn't really show the elevation so it was a little misleading. I survived, though, especially because it was either mostly sunny ("it's sunny today - because you don't see all gray in the sky!") or truly sunny (which I define as actually seeing the blue of the sky, not just a thin layer of clouds). It is good to be home where sunny is defined as blue sky!
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| No one's chasing me!There’s not much like being outdoors – the bright sun, crisp air, cold wind blowing. It makes my eyes water and my nose run. I guess my fingers get a little chilly, too. Of course, that is probably because I’ve been running outside in 30-something degree weather. I do prefer running in space that God created rather than space than man manipulated, even when it is cold. I’m not sure that I’ll do it for years to come.
Passing scenery, houses, trees, and the same people over and over on the loop, is a great way to pass time while running. I get a little freaked out if I get to an area where I don’t really know where I am, how far I am from where I started, etc. I’m still new at this whole running thing so I don’t have a natural feel for distances and I still don’t have a watch to measure time with. That makes it difficult to know how much more “new” scenery I should pass before turning around.
Last Monday, I let my iPod guide me. I was counting songs on my fingers (until I realized the iPod did the counting for me) to determine when to turn around. It was great! I decided to run the length of my playlist. “By accident,” I ended up having my longest run – over 5 miles! I’m so excited – I’m half way to the goal distance and I have weeks left to go.
When I got back to Mark, he told me I had been gone more than an hour! He waited while I stretched and cooled down (by laying on the floor). He called his dad because he was bored. His dad asked what I was doing, Mark told him that I was laying on the floor. After telling his dad that I had gone running for so long, he said, “and no one was chasing her!” I suppose there aren’t many good reasons to run outside in the cold, especially if no one is chasing after you!
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| Post-Consumer ShockYou know how sometimes just having a goal is enough to make you accomplish it? That doesn't always work for me. I sometimes need outside influence (read "pressure") to really stick with it to the end. Case in point ... the Credit Union Cherry Blossom Run.
I have run before. I was a little more consistent when I lived near a lake with a great path (read “no big hills”) and marked distances. I kind of kept it up when we moved into a small apartment, running on campus rather than the moderate hills of the neighborhood where we lived. Let’s just say that my “running streak” typically lasted a few weeks rather than a few months or even a year. A run was, at best, three miles or 30 minutes – whichever came first, which was usually 30 minutes.
My running has pretty much come to a stand-still since we moved to a high-rise on the crest of a big hill. From what I see, all of the nearby neighborhoods have about three streets that don’t connect to any other neighborhood. To me, that would be like running aimlessly on purpose.
So, now I’m running in the CUCB 10 mile run, and I have never run farther than three miles. What was I thinking?! I almost didn’t agree to the run because it’s 10 miles and I have never run further than 3 miles. (did I already say that – well I really can’t think what I was doing!) But, it’s my dad and some of our best current memories are running together. Well, I have to stick this one out because my dad is coming all the way from Nebraska to run this! I guess I’d better get to my training.
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| USPS Saves the DayMy parents are coming out to visit us in the Spring - I guess we need to tell them more often that we are moving overseas temporarily to get them to come visit. But I suppose that is another entry and I digress. So, they are coming out this Spring to see the beautiful Cherry Blossoms of Washington DC.
We told them about the many fun, interesting, and creative events of the National Cherry Blossom Festival. My dad let me know that the one activity he definitely wants to take part in is the Credit Union Cherry Blossom (CUCB) Run. He said, even if we don’t get to do much else, he has been wanting to run this for years.
He warned me that registration closes quickly (eight hours last year!) so I would need to be Susie-on-the-spot to get us registered before it filled up. He sent an e-mail the day before to remind me that the next day was the big one. He also left me a phone message the night before registration opened to be sure I knew it was starting the next morning.
I set my alarm extra-early to be sure I didn’t miss the start of registration. At 8:02 I was beginning to load the first of several pages to get my dad and I registered for the CUCB 10 mile run. That page took more than 10 minutes to load! I had several pages for each registration and two registrations to submit. There was no way I would be to work by 8:45! I stopped and decided to register during lunch. Maybe I’d even take lunch early at 11:30. It filled in 8 hours last year, surely I could get on after less than four hours to register.
I ended up getting online at 12:07 to register:
Registration for 10 mile run is Closed
Online registration closed at 12 noon
I couldn’t believe it! Four hours! That’s all it took to fill the online quota. I scurried around, called my dad and my husband a number of times to negotiate still entering. After sending our registration in via Express Mail (it only went two cities away, but who should take a chance?), I waited and believed.
On Dec 21 I got an e-mail that our entry had been accepted and I was registered for the CUCB 10 mile run! I gave a print-out to my dad for Christmas. He didn’t believe me until he read his own e-mail on Christmas night.
I see now that only half of the entries received by mail on the morning after the online registration closed were accepted. I love Express Mail!
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