For Boston

I know, I know - I have not posted in a while, but I've been busy, running, and sick all in the last two weeks.  I did go pick my daughter up from college last week and we drove back from Boston to Cleveland via NY state with a side trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, a visit to Ithaca to see Cornell and the gorges, and a visit to Seneca Falls which is the birthplace of the women's suffrage movement.  Of course, I also managed to pick up a nasty cold (which I believe that I got from my mother as I stayed there two nights) and I have spent the last couple of days pretty much sleeping and doing little else.  I did get in some mileage last week even with the trip and managed a 10 and a 6 over the weekend before the nasty cold just got me. I managed to avoid getting sick all winter and then I manage to get sick as soon as the weather finally turns.  I don't think I expected the weather that we had last night with several small tornadoes and severe thunderstorms in the area.  We were actually lucky that we are on the lake as the real nasty stuff stayed to our south, but it was still pretty windy and it rained harder than I've seen in a very long time.  I thought I left the south to avoid those nasty tornado things.

Anyway, I am due to pace 15.8 miles of the Cleveland marathon on Sunday.  Why 15.8 you say? Well that is the turnaround point, and it is right in front of where I live.  Rather than dropping out when I meet the next set of pacers at 13.1, I'm going straight through to the turnaround. My daughter and husband will also be at the water stop that is there as well. I just hope that I am well enough by then to run the 15.8 miles.  At least it will be at a 9:30 pace.

Next race for me is a 10K on 6/2 in Dublin, Ireland.  The last 10K that I ran was the very tough course in Vienna, VA with Chris and the Schumachers the day after JFK.  It was not only 25F and windy, but the course was quite hilly.  This race in Dublin is very flat, but it does have some 15,000 entrants and it is all women!  I do expect to be able to breathe by then .

Did you pull out of the relay for Buffalo?

Thanks for the update...Hopefully you will be over that bug before Sunday. Like you said, at least the pace is not demanding.

Alex Kubacki wrote:Did you pull out of the relay for Buffalo?

Alex - I'm not sure what the plan is yet.  My Philly friend was setting this up and with her, it is always a just "go with the flow", so I bet I won't know until the 24th!

Even though I'm not close to 100% (still feel out of sorts even this morning), I ended up doing my pacer duties yesterday morning.  Ran 16 miles on a beautiful day (41F at the start and only 60F at the finish) in Cleveland.  I had to run since several of the other pacers are/were also sick with the same bug - maybe we all caught it at coffee after our runs last weekend.  Around 10 miles I was already feeling it and had some breathing issues which are probably due as much to the pollen as my cold/virus/sinus thing.  I'm glad the pace was pretty easy, but my HR was higher than it should have been as it warmed up which is a pretty good indication that I'm still harboring something.  for 10 of those 16 miles, we were at 9:27 exactly per mile and we did hit the mark (16) at 1 min under which was our goal considering that the only "incline" on the course was a mile 22.  

Here is a photo of me at mile 14.5 - not too bad:

While it sucks to be sick, at least you were running without having icy, crunchy things underfoot.  We have days down here like you had yesterday, but it's usually in January and hopefully when the marathon is.

Great job pacing Michele, even though you were sick. You are definitely a model of consistency with the splits that you put up. Hope you get feeling better soon!!

like the shirt!

Haven't updated in a while and haven't really had much to report.  Been in sort of a running funk and can't seem to really break the mold.  I do have a schedule of races set for the summer and fall, but just have not been real motivated to get it going.  As many of you know, my friend, Jerry, passed last Monday (June 2nd) and that has been a bit hard.  After all, it was only in February that he was diagnosed and its only June.  so much for the doctors and their predictions.  Glad; however, that our own Rhondda has beaten the odds against her - so there are silver linings to everything.  

I did run the Flora Mini Marathon (10K) in Dublin last Monday.  It was ok, but not the best and I was not pleased with the race since it was really a charity run and I wanted a race.  I cursed myself the next day when I found out that Jerry had passed since I was cursing a charity race where 40K participants had raised a great deal of $$$$ for many different causes.  I'm glad that I wore Jerry's bib on my back, and I know he was looking after me as I was struggling to get into a rhythm on Monday.  

I will need to start a new blog here soon, and I will - whenever I escape this malaise.

Sorry to hear about your friend Jerry. He seemed like a great guy. I bet he enjoyed seeing the well-wishes and corny jokes you and his other friends posted on Facebook. What you did mattered.

All things considered, it's really not surprising that you're feeling down right now. Give yourself some time. It'll get better.

Sorry to hear about your friend. Things like that can take away a lot of motivation for anything. Don't worry, I have a feeling that you'll get the edge again. Things like that just take time.

So sorry to hear about your friend.  I'm not surprised you're struggling to focus on running right now.  Give it time and you'll probably find that running is what helps you get back that energetic attitude that you usually have.

So sorry to hear about your friend Michele and don't worry you will find away out of your funk! Your a tough person and God only throws tough things at tough people that can not only handle but also embrace it. LOL about the charity thing, you know for so long I have felt that way to some extent and now I find myself running for a charity this year. Sometimes things like that are good to do and take a step back and put it in perspective and realize it has it's place and it's good to give back time to time. 

Keep Trucking!

Sorry for your loss & praying you snap out of your funk.

my condolences to you and your friends family.

I've not been on much so I just saw this but I'm sorry for the loss of your friend. I hope that running helps you as you grieve, I found that to really help me 2 yrs ago as I was very deep in grief. Running and running with friends who would talk and listen, was so helpful.