sharp top then back to the bay

I was a little heisitant but I went to meet up with a friend in Roanoke, Virginia at his cousin's family's house Sunday after work. I got Monday and Tuesday off since I have a bunch of PTO (paid time off) days and I'm leaving the company (I don't take sick days). We hung out, watched movies and ate lots of yummy food. (I'm definitely still the president of the Big Eaters Club!) I had just talked to a friend and mentioned that I wish I could have been going home this weekend because the A's were playing at home and I would of course have gone to all the games... and Dallas Braden threw a PERFECT GAME on Mother's Day (Sunday), the first in A's history since 1968 and the 19th ever in Major League Baseball! I was disappointed that I wasn't there to witness it... but at least I had fun in Virginia right? Sigh. We had dinner with his cousin's family and aunt and uncle at McDonald's... the first time I've been to Mickey D's in over 2 years. I, like the good dietitian I am, ordered large fries and an Oreo McFlurry. I'm such a great example.

Monday morning I woke up, did the dishes, took out the trash and ran up Mountain View street and back for a total of 4.6 miles. I need to run more. I was kind of tired and it was very nice weather though I have pretty bad allergies out here in Virginia. My friend and I drove over to the Otter's Peaks and hiked up Sharp Top. It was a perfect day, the sky was perfect, the weather was perfect. The pictures turned out because the weather was so great. We went to Cracker Barrel and I branched out and had something other than my usual blueberry pancakes... it was delicious as expected from Cracker Barrel.

Tuesday I was a little more lazy because it was raining when I got up and though I changed to go running, I didn't end up going out. We watched 'Death at a Funeral' at the theatre and ate at Red Robin for lunch. I headed out around 8:30PM and though I was falling asleep, I made it back to Midlothian via 460 to 307 to 360 (I passed Farmville where I used to intern at Southside, so the last 50 miles were familiar... I've fallen asleep while driving those 50 miles tons of times... not safe but whatever, at least I made it.)

Wednesday I went to the dentist and got the bumps taken off my teeth and I'm done with invisalign! :) I was excited. I chewed a piece of gum with gusto as soon as I got to work... despite the fact that we're not supposed to chew gum at work... but I haven't chewed gum in almost 9 months! I am a gum and chapstick addict and I'm not in denial about it either. I need to go to Costco and get gum when I go home. We had our Abbott rep come and do an A.S.P.E.N. inservice with us so we got Panera for lunch... I had already made plans to eat at Panera with some work friends for dinner... so I had the yummy Panera twice yesterday, ha ha. Later I met up with another friend from church for Cold Stone's. I love ice cream. Gosh, food is delicious.

Today I got up at 3AM and registered for the Rock 'n Roll San Antonio Marathon, so I'll get Texas done this year. I don't know if I'll get New Mexico done while I'm in Arizona because we're supposed to stay in state as much as possible and I really want to make it to Miriam and Al's weddings. My friends are priorities over running... as we tell because I'm paying to fly to California for K-Gibbs and Noelle's wedding this weekend even though I already registered and paid for the Delaware Marathon back in November. Hopefully I'll be able to run it later/not have to pay another full registration fee again (I already deferred my registration for next year for $25 but I might not be able to make it out to Delaware since I'll be in Arizona... augh!).

Well, I've been at work for about 5 hours (I got here a little before 5:30AM) and I'm really tired, it's a good thing it's hospital week and it's the ice cream social today after lunch. I have to drive up to RIC and fly out to Oakland today. I'm SO excited for In-N-Out. Of course Manuel's picking me up and we're going to In-N-Out like I always do as soon as I touch ground at home no matter what part of California I'm in. Tomorrow is our joint birthday venture (my 7th birthday party ever), we're going to Quinn's and bowling. Hopefully I'll see Rock tomorrow and also see Iron Man 2 and Robin Hood. Saturday I'm hanging out with Al and Andy before K-Gibb's wedding in Portola Valley... my tan lines are horrid for a strapless dress, but oh well, I'm going to blame New Jersey. Sunday is Bay to Breakers! I am pretty sure Manny, Noli and Herns are all doing it... along with a whole host of other people I know but haven't confirmed with. Good times back in the bay. I can't wait.

- run for life

hyperthermia

I'm a little concerned about Nevada and the 'Running with the Devil' 50 miler than I have scheduled. I went to New Jersey this weekend and ran the New Jersey Marathon. It was reminiscent of what I would consider torture. I hung out with a friend and watched "John Tucker must die" or something at her house, it was funny (mindless funny). Then I drove up toward New Jersey and slept at a rest stop in Maryland a few miles from the Boarder of Delaware. Since I am holding off on the Delaware Marathon and have no Delaware jumping pics, I stopped off at Delaware Park (I thought it would be a park, like a garden-ish type park with a walking path/playground, but it turned out it was a race track and casino... ha ha). I took some pictures by the signs and met a guy who was on his daily walk who helped me to take some jumping Delaware pictures at the track.

Afterward I headed out to the hotel where I would pick up my stuff for the expo. Of course I'm brilliant and forgot to print out the booklet with the directions and information for runners... So I looked up hotels in Long Branch, New Jersey on Tommy's (my GPS) points of interest. I knew it had the word 'Ocean' in the title, so that narrowed it down to two choices. I called the first hotel on the list. It wasn't the right one, it must be the second right? I called them and it turned out it was the location of the expo and across from the starting line. I chose that as my destination. I was planning on stopping at White Castle (as in Harold and Kumar go to White Castle) but I was too tired and wanted to get my stuff.


I hit the expo and picked up all the samples they had and bought a few sports bras and shirts with sweet logos. I even 'designed' my own shirt from the logos they had. It's going to be great. I think it's hilarious. I got a shirt that says "will run for ice cream" aka the story of my life and another that says "it's not fat, it's fuel"... plus the one I designed. I usually don't buy anything, but I really liked the material and the sayings on these shirts so I got sucked in! ha ha.

After I left the expo I wandered around on the beach and sat out on the rocks chatting/catching up with a few friends. I even signed up for unlimited text messages! Big deal for me since I haven't had them since 2007 and am not the hugest fan. Honestly I got them because of a certain someone... but I'm also excited to get A's scores every day sent to my phone.

I read the small book I got from visiting Park West Church in Knoxville, Tennessee by Lucado. I love Lucado's writing, he's so frank and he just makes so much sense!

I went to the 50 States Club meeting and met some people who are just as crazy as myself. :) I was glad I am really not the only one. I'm going to join and get a 'certified' 50 States finish when I am closer to being done. I added up how many states I will complete this year... and I've already done 4 and I will get 4 more before the year is through with just the runs I've already signed up for, not to mention I want to do Arizona and Ohio this year...

Afterward I ate some food and read some more and chilled in Lazarus before prepping for the next morning and falling asleep in the back of Laz.

The run began at 9AM... I thought it was pretty late, but people were arriving before 7AM. I was woken up by the sound of car doors slamming on either side of me. I decided I should get up when it hit 7:39AM and changed and headed toward the hotel to brush my teeth, wash my face, and charge my cell phone... ha ha.

Others were stretching out and were serious about this run... I waltzed in with my toothbrush and was just out to complete another state as a part of my quest to finish the 50 states.

I talked with some fellow runners, dropped my stuff off at Lazarus, put on tons of sunscreen (though apparently not enough because my neck and cheeks were still burnt after the 5 hours in the sun). I headed toward the starting line and there was a sea of people. It was kind of ridiculous. The race started... the gun fired... and then again the gun fired. I didn't actually cross the line until 10 minutes after the original start. It was already 85 degrees and 85% humidity when we started. The sun peeked out through the clouds. It was going to be a hot day.

The loop was unnerving because you could see the markers for the second loop... so at mile 2 we saw mile 14 0.1 miles before we hit mile 2. It was frustrating... I felt so annoyed by mile 9 that I wanted to hide the flags and pull them out later for the second loop. (I'm not a big fan of loop marathons or when you see the other people who are ahead/behind you while you're running, it's disheartening.) I met a guy named Don who was 54 years old and didn't run at all other than the half marathon each year. He said he was out of shape, but he didn't look that terrible for a man of his age and his claims of not exercising. Later he said he was going to do something he'd never done before in his life... walk. I trudged on along ahead and eventually found a woman named Julie to run with. She was 46 and a health and P.E. teacher with two kids. I want to look like her after I have kids when I'm 46. She was awesome. I pushed her through the last 3 miles of the half and was excited to she her finish her first half marathon. :) (That's the only cool thing about a straight up double loop, I could literally see her finishing her run as I passed under the sign that pointed to the "loop 2" for the marathon.)

I continued to slop along (my heels had both been bleeding for at least 5 miles at this point and were quite tender and painful). I stopped by the port-a-potties by mile 14 only to discover to my horror that it was that time of month... no wonder my stomach had hurt, but not running cramping, the other kind. I was so annoyed and of course no one running had anything. I was tempted to ask someone who was sitting on their lawn cheering us on but I figured I might as well just get to the finish so off I went. I ran with a guy named Sean who lived in Texas but worked in Northern Jersey for a company based in Southern California. He got paid to travel around. I liked the sound of that. I definitely need to find a job like that. He was walking/running so I eventually ran on ahead (slowly mind you) and eventually was delirious by mile 22. I thought I was going to die. My head hurt, my body hurt and I wasn't sure what was keeping my legs moving but I had to chant to motivate myself and tried my best to encourage those around me despite the overwhelming heat.

At one point (around mile 24) I was almost crying from the heat and pain of it all. I hit mile 25 where we ran along the boardwalk and I knew I was going to finish under 5 hours. I kept on moving and even picked up the pace in the shoot passing the guy I had set my sights on around mile 23 and dominated the girl who had passed me at mile 22 (I actually passed her at mile 24.5 when she started walking and I continued on toward the finish). When I crossed the line, it was like a release of tension and my head hurt, my body hurt and I semi collapsed. It's a good thing they have medical personnel to help, they put me in a wheelchair and wheeled me over to the medical tent. I didn't quite pass out but I was hyperventilating and it turned out my body temperature was a toasty 103 degrees. They packed my body in ice (armpits, groin, under my knees, neck, in my shirt, etc) and it took a good 20 minutes to get my temperature down to 102.1. I couldn't talk because my tongue was malfunctioning and I called Benedetti to tell her I'd be slower than I had anticipated. My entire body was tingling more than I had ever tingled in my life. I tried to slow down my breathing as they instructed but it was difficult. I was glad I had texts at that point and took a picture of my medal and bib number still pinned to my stomach and sent it off to some friends to notify them of my 13th state finish. 37 to go. After another hour and then some (it took over 90 minutes to get my temperature back down to normal ~96 degrees), I eventually was freezing cold because my clothes were soaked in water from all of the ice melting (they had to change packs of ice on me multiple times) and the breeze coming from the nearby ocean. I left AMA (against medical advice) because I was really hungry and wanted to get back on the road to Princeton to visit Benedetti, Andy and Jeff.

I drove over and we watched Drumline, which I love. A good quote from the movie: "we don't date in the South, we have boyfriends." We got pizza from Papa John's and chilled out. Andy came by and visited after he got back from church in Philadelphia and Jeff stopped by to stay hello after he was done with his prior obligations. I was just glad to see everyone since I was in New Jersey and wasn't planning on going back. I finally left around 10PM and headed south. I made it to Maryland before I had to pull over and take a nap. I was very out of it and quite delirious at this point. I felt so dehydrated I couldn't think. I took an hour and a half nap, woke up and continued on my way (of course after trying to figure out how to get to the freeway, rolling over a curb because I was still out of it, I finally made it back to 95S). I ended up cranking up the tunes and bustin' a move to stay awake till I got back to Midlothian. I arrived around 6AM, took a 2 hour nap and got up and went to work.

I need to get more sleep. Last night I tried to go to bed at 10PM and I couldn't fall asleep until after midnight even after taking half a Benadryl (usually I'm knocked out from Benadryl).

- run for life