Hello! It has been awhile. When I last wrote, I had just had
a stellar Ironman experience at Mont Tremblant and was planning to sign up for
Ironman Maryland to build on that great training. Boy have things changed.
Instead, when it came time to sign up for Maryland, I realized my heart wasn’t
in it. As I volunteered at the finish line, I fully expected for that fire to
be reignited and that I would sign up for it. In reality, all I felt was
happiness I was helping them achieve the same feeling (confidence, pride, etc.)
I already had. Simply put, my main goal would be to get a faster time, and that
motivation wasn’t enough for me to commit to the training schedule and the
money.
Instead, I changed gears. In the back of my mind I have been
planning to tackle a 50 mile running race (a form of ultramarathon) in the next
few years, and I decided this would be the year. As part of the training for
that, I signed up for a 50k in April. One thing I didn’t realize is that it was
all on the trails, and that I needed to quickly get familiar with running on
the trails. Luckily, Team Z has decided to support the ultra distance, so I had
a few training partners to help me with that (thanks Abe, Michelle, Johnny, and
Jimmy!) and a great set of people to get advice from (thanks Sally, Nicolas,
and Iwan!). Of course, I acquired the knowledge that to run a trail race you
need to run on trails right before our big winter onslaught occurred so I
wasn’t able to get the time on the trails I wanted but the race went well. I
gained enough confidence to sign up for the Tussey Mountainback 50 miler
October 25th. As I write this I am on my way back from an
ultrarunning camp in Flagstaff, where I got to play in the variety of trails
they have for four days (and run with the elites of the sport!). (Airport delays are the best! Said no
one ever.)
However, post Ironman my life seems to have become busier
than ever in a really good way. Overall, I have experienced an overall attitude
enhancement after experiencing the loss of a former coworker/mentor way too
young and attending a Leadership event at work that has led me to be much
happier in general. While there were several lessons learned, the big gist of
it was realizing that you can only control what you can control, and the one
thing you can always control is how you choose to look at life. Everyone
vacillates between “self-focused” (drained, dragging, negative) and
“mission-focused” (energized, positive) and you have the power to switch out of
the “self-focused” mode and to find the opportunities in the challenges. Also, it's our idiosyncrasies that make us stand out/excel, and boy, do I have a lot of them! I have
a fantastic life, the majority of my problems are small in the grand scheme of
things, and this attitude enhancement has allowed me to feel grateful every day
and to just enjoy the moment as I am in it. I highly recommend it!
Given my poor memory, this post will serve to remind myself what I have been up to the last 10 months (!!) since the race. As a warning, this will be long, but since it is for me I don’t really care.
Given my poor memory, this post will serve to remind myself what I have been up to the last 10 months (!!) since the race. As a warning, this will be long, but since it is for me I don’t really care.
September
I believe September started or ended with my second Ragnar relay with my work team. SO MUCH FUN. I never thought sleep deprivation and running would mix for me but I have had such a great time whenever I have done it. Unfortunately it falls on IMMD weekend this year so I have to take a break. Anyone want to do one as an Ultra with me?
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| Napping before the big event |
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| The belt buckle is given to the runner on the hardest leg. My first year,I saw it and said "next year, it's mine!" Check! |
In September I also tested out Crossfit, volunteered at Ironman MD, and had a “paint your own pottery” day with Aileen so that we could indulge our non-athlete sides. Crossfit was good for a bit (and I definitely see the appeal), but the gym ended up closing right as I was realizing it wasn’t a good fit for my training. The classes are structured such that you only work a couple of muscle groups each time (i.e. you do front squats & cleans) so unless you are going often enough it may not be a full body workout. Plus, for trail running I need to focus on balance, ankle, and core stability so it is just a different type of workout I need.
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This is the craft I made with Aileen. I still need to reglue
a few pieces (which thanks to Jenn’s gift of a glue gun I can!) and actually
add the grout and Aileen was too delayed in picking up her pottery after it got
finished. Still, we tried!
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October
In October, my dad and I ran our 7th Army Ten
Miler. He ended up having a hamstring issue after mile 8 and has tapped out for
this year’s race. Given the fact my 50 miler is 2 weeks later, I am more than
okay with that! We will return to the race (or others) one day I am sure.
It was also my Birthday!! This was the first year in ages
the Army Ten Miler wasn’t on my birthday weekend, so I conned John into
throwing me a birthday party. It was great to bring together all of my friends
and I had a really great time. I have the best friends!
Finally, the last weekend brought the Great Pumpkin Ride and
my baby nephew’s first birthday party. Due to the latter, I had to race through
the former & didn’t fully get to experience the delicious pumpkin treats.
Plus, 68 miles is HARD after you take 2 months off of biking. However, this
little sucker made it worth it.
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| Don't worry, him and "grandma" are now best friends |
He pretty much lights up my life, even when he had massive
separation anxiety that made him cry when I went near him for a solid 7 months
(he is better now!). I haven’t seen him in TEN DAYS while I have been traveling
and it’s the longest time I have gone without seeing him. Be warned: I am
planning to put several pics of him at the end just to indulge the fact I don’t
post daily photos of him on Facebook.
November
Four words: BOURBON TRAIL AND COZUMEL! To start off
November, my friend Robyn and I embarked on a road trip to Kentucky to go to 9
distilleries on the “bourbon trail.” Damn Bulleit was closed when we were there
so we didn’t get our t-shirts. Still, I found my favorite bourbon (Four Roses
Small Batch) and really developed my snobbiness when it comes to good drinking
bourbon. Seriously though, if you love history and/or pretty places, I HIGHLY
RECOMMEND this trip even if you don’t like bourbon. Going to Maker’s Mark and
several others was like stepping back in time. I also wore my Ironman jacket
and given they host one in Louisville and are from the south, I got several
high fives and hugs.
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| Maker's Mark. They hand dip every bottle in wax and use a printer from the 1930s for all the labels |
Over Thanksgiving, I ditched my family (sorry Grandma!) and went to Cozumel to 1) cheer on my friends in the Ironman and 2) to relax by the beach. I discovered that I do have the ability to relax (which is actually quite shocking), and spent 8 hours straight lying in a bed by the beach reading and chatting with people. I loved this trip because since there was a large contingent of us, I was never without people to eat with or chat with and got to know people really well. I also really enjoyed cheering on the racers, and got to see 3 of my teammates stick it out and walk to the finish line together long after the race was officially over. This trip really cemented for me that rather than training and racing another Ironman (at least in the next several years), I want to spend my time helping others achieve that dream.
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| I didn't leave this bed for a few days |
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| View from same bed |
December
December was mainly filled with holiday activities (including
my annual road trip to Indiana and Philadelphia) as well as volunteering at the
DC Central Kitchen several times during the time I took off of work. The DC
Central Kitchen is a centralized kitchen facility that prepares over 5,000
meals for various shelters/agencies in the area as well as DC public schools. They
also have a culinary training program that works to give ex-convicts and
addicts the skills to be able to get a job in a kitchen. I volunteered there
with work in October and now am trying to volunteer at least once a month. It’s
awesome because you go and are kept busy the whole time, chopping various
vegetables, packaging up trays, splitting chickens, making soups, etc. If you
are looking to enhance your kitchen skills and/or give back, I would highly
suggest checking it out.
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| Fun fact is I got him this hat and a guy asked if they would be good for his daughters. I said yes, only realizing later his daughters were in their 20’s. I hope they indulged their dear old. |
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| Holiday Tea! |
January/February
They happened. From looking at my calendar I think highlights were DC restaurant week at Kapnos where George from Top Chef was visible from our table (I may or may not have geeked out), brunching, and a visit from my little Amanda which brought about a reunion with a bunch of APOers.
March
You know, I have a horrible job. They send me to places like Prague to attend a really fun conference with a bunch of Directors of Finance for our hotels in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa to introduce my team to them. I took a day off to explore Prague which started off horribly and put a bad taste in my mouth when I got dragged back into a café accused of not paying for my drink. My enjoyment of Prague took another hit when I got pickpocketed and they took my kindle. I realize that of everything that could have been stolen this was the least problematic logistically. However, for those that know me, if you want to hurt me emotionally/leave the deepest scar, you take my books. Especially since after the café experience my favorite part of the day was sitting in a park reading my book, enjoying Prague’s beauty away from the crowds! Luckily, I had a lot of fun at the conference (they really went all out), and made my mom the most proud she has ever been of me by staying out all night at the club/casino before my flight home with my bosses and other attendees. (Real quote: “I was the first one in my family to go to college, you were the first one to stay out all night at a club!”) I promise I actually did work as well.
April
April was a return to racing. My 50k was April 18th.
I was scheduled to run the Charlottesville marathon 2 weeks before (I signed up
for that one first), but on the advice of Iwan I dropped to the half and raced
it. This was the best thing I could have done, as after a winter of slow trail
running and an overall feeling of lack of preparedness for the 50k, I
rediscovered my speed and finished in 1:55, a 7 minute PR! It was the perfect
confidence boost going into the 50k. I took the long way home to stop at a
local brewery and to fully enjoy the beauty of Virginia. Here is a link to my
50k race report.
I also agreed to lead the “corporate responsibility” activity for Take Your Child to Work Day. This was a ton of work, but very rewarding in the end. I agreed as an opportunity to “stretch” myself and it worked. I learned to ask for help and made a lot of great contacts. We ended up putting together kits of toiletries/snacks for the USO, and through that experience I decided to start volunteering at the Warrior Family Center at Ft. Belvoir that serves wounded warriors getting treatment as well active duty personnel. I have only done a couple of shifts so far so we will see how that goes. (Can you see why I have only biked 2x this year?!)
May
Finally, we are to May (I am laughing right now because by the time I am getting to posting this it's July - June will come in another post because it's so busy/wonderful/full of good pictures)! May was a month of recovering from
the 50k. The highlights include a weekend chilling at Lake Anna cheering on the
participants of the Kinetic triathlons, further rediscovering my love of reading
and baseball (including my love of scoring which apparently is really weird if
you do it while watching a game on TV), and my friend Robyn’s farewell BBQ. Her
moving away is a lowlight, but I am so excited for her new job!
And now, as promised, here are more photos of my adorable chunky monkey of a baby nephew:
And now, as promised, here are more photos of my adorable chunky monkey of a baby nephew:
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| His reaction to my first meal for him! |
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| mmmm, refried beans |
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| Dad's softball game was intense. He LOVES baseball and basketball. |
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