mountains

The only thing I really, really wanted to do when I knew we were coming to Japan was climb Mount Fuji. Anita had done it when she was on the army base in Zama back in 2007. She had made it up and back in 6 hours, so I figured it wouldn't be too bad. Boy was I wrong.

It turns out there are 5 different routes up and each starts at a different level on the mountain. Apparently the one army dropped her group off the first time was the easiest one. The one we did yesterday was the second hardest. If that was the second hardest, I don't even want to know what the hardest one is like!

It was an ordeal deciding when to go because our half brothers told us it was hard and we'd need a lot of time, so we settled on leaving Thursday night at 7:30PM from the Shinjuku bus station. Hiro asked me when we would want to come back, so we booked the bus coming back at 12 noon the next day. I figured we'd make it up for sunrise (by 4:30AM), maybe walk around the top in 90 minutes and head on our merry way back down by 6:45-7AM. That did not happen.

After taking mom and dad to the cemetery, Hiro picked us up at the hotel and we headed off to the bus station. We ate before he came so we were able to get right on the bus when it got there. It was super confusing to find the right stop! There were so many buses, even Hiro had to call the bus line and ask where we needed to go. Anita and I definitely wouldn't have been able to find it since we can't speak Japanese. We planned on sleeping on the bus, but that didn't happen. I wasn't tired at all yet as it was only 7:30PM and I often stay up talking to Nathan on skype well past midnight since it's day time for him (13 hour time difference). So we ended up talking and then took a brief "nap" for an hour... in which I didn't sleep at all, I just tried to sleep but failed miserably.

We arrived at the 5th station a little after 10PM, we went to buy our sticks, we got the shorter ones with flags on them for 1200 Yen. A guy found nubs of the sticks and we asked if we could have them and the guys at the counter shook their heads "no" and took them from us. (They were probably a foot long and had the 5th station brand on them, I figured if we could get "top" brands on those and our long sticks, we'd for sure be able to get our branded sticks or stick nubs home somehow on the plane!) Oh, well. We sat on the rock seats that were outlining a rocky patch and ate some of our rice triangles and drank some water before we began our accent at 10:18PM. I had to go potty but I didn't really want to pay 50 Yen at the bottom in the store where we got our sticks, so I waited until we found some trees on the side of the trail and went there when there were no people passing by. It was much easier in the dark because as long as no one was shining a flash light on you, no one could see you as it was pitch black. Later I found out all of the restrooms on the trail were 200 Yen, so 50 Yen at the bottom didn't seem like much!

There was a cement tunnel-like structure with a speaker that said in Japanese and English that we should be prepared for a strenuous activity and that if we were wearing summer clothes, we should turn back now. It reminded me of the warnings on the rides at Disneyland... Luckily Anita had said it was colder at the top so I was prepared wearing my North Face snow pants and brought my North Face jacket with fleece liner. I was San Leandro'ed out, reppin' the North Face! Ha, ha. I almost bought a new Recon while I was at Sports Authority... if I hadn't needed new running socks, I totally would have since I had that $25 gift card. I'll have to get the Recon again when its on sale or there is a coupon again from REI. It's pretty much best backpack I ever owned, but my old one's zipper broke. :( I was hoping to get a new one, but they just gave me money back and said I'd have to buy a new one... I've been putting it off because they're about $100 bucks. Anyway, I should get back to the Mt. Fuji journey...

Shortly there after we arrived at the guide station where we received a map for the trail. It's pretty straight forward to get up... you just take all the trails upward. It's down that is more confusing, but I'll get into that later. There were no stamps at the guide station, but after a few more twists and turns we reached the 6th station where we received our first stamp! I was pretty excited and handed over my money willingly. Whoever thought of the stick with branding idea was brilliant, branding is super easy/very low cost and the sticks are way useful when climbing up a volcano with slippery rocks and loose dirt.

I have been saying "climbing" rather than "hiking" because we were literally climbing up rocks at least 1/3 of the time. It was quite difficult to do with a hand held flash light and I longed for my headlamp I had packed into my Arizona stuff! I vowed never to leave home without one again (I always keep one in my car too, just in case I need a light!). In case you're wondering, I didn't bring it because we were planning on hiking in the day time-getting there in the morning and then coming back that late afternoon or evening.

I was carrying an exorbitant amount of water and food as well as a change of clothes and my flip flops. We each brought 2-2 liter bottles of water, a small bottle of vitamin water, and a small (16 oz) bottle of water. I carried 3 of the 2 liter bottles along with my vitamin water and small bottle of water. In all I was carrying almost 2 gallons of water which is nearly 17 pounds of water. Along with that I had an extra shirt and pants in my bag, my fleece for when we got to the top since there was always snow at the top, tons of food including snacks, rice triangles, bagels, pocky, chips, chocolate, etc. We didn't want to buy the crazy high priced food in the mountains so we packed a lot.

We arrived at the 7th station and were quite tired. Literally every time I began to ascend I felt winded. When we were walking on flat ground through the station I felt fine... so of course I wanted to keep going. I knew we needed to keep going in order to make it to the top before sunrise. When we began at the 5th station, we were still beneath the clouds, but the rocky slope was steep and we were able to see the tops of the clouds. The view was breath taking. We continued gamely on with our massive amounts of water and over abundance of gear.

We reached the 8th station and had over an hour to make it to the top, we weren't that far so I thought we could make it. I began stumbling up the side of the mountain. The altitude was getting to us. I closed my eyes and trudged up the path. It was dark anyway, everyone had lights. Anita thought there were more buildings above us, but the white, blue and red lights turned out to be a huge line of people waiting to get to the top. We joined the line shortly and still had 45 minutes to make it the last 900 meters to the top.

The line barely moved. I became a little concerned. Even though I really didn't mind the slow pace since the altitude was killer (when you get less oxygen than you need to your brain and legs, it really puts a damper on things), I was worried we wouldn't make it to the top in time for sunrise! It took 10 minutes to move 20 meters! I tried cutting through people but the path was only big enough for two people and the line was already two across as people marched two-by-two up the path.

It was soon 4:20AM and we still had about 10 turns to go, if we were only doing 2 turns every 10 minutes, we weren't going to make it before the sun rose at 4:57AM! We decided to step off the path and watch the sunrise from 12,370 or so feet instead of waiting to get to the top (not even the highest point, we had to hike around to that after we hit what most consider to be the "top"). I pulled out the video camera (oh, yeah, that was another 4 pounds on top of the 17 or so pounds of water along with all the other gear and food I brought) and tried to set it up. It said the card was formatted incorrectly. I was getting frustrated. I didn't carry it all that way to have it not work while the sun was rising!! I pulled out the battery and put it back in, but that didn't work. I pulled out the memory card and put it back in. It's easier said than done because at this point I was literally freezing and my fingers and hands weren't functioning properly. It was hard to smile because my face was so cold and my teeth were chattering. I couldn't wait for the sun to come up!

After I put the memory card back in, it worked! I was SO glad and set it up on a rock facing the sun. It took a decent picture, but it was definitely not the same as sitting there watching the sunrise. There are so many words that can attempt to describe the beauty, but nothing is even close. The clouds look like fluffy pillows with a red gleam far off on the horizon. As the sun rises higher, the light breaks into gold, yellow and red in the distance. The great reddish orange ball of light continues up into the sky flooding light over everything in sight. Like I said, nothing can describe what we saw that Friday morning on August 6, 2010 on Mount Fuji at over 12,000 feet. It was even more gorgeous than the sunrise Anita and I saw back in 2002 on Haleakala (the world's largest dormant volcano on Maui in Hawai'i) at over 10,000 foot elevation. I never thought I'd see a more beautiful sunrise.

I think the pain and headache (literally) of climbing that high that fast made it even more beautiful. My head was pounding and I could barely move from the cold, but the view was breath taking (literally with the limited amount of oxygen available).

After the sun fully rose we packed up the video camera and headed up the trail toward the 'gate' at the top. A man who worked in Japan, but was from the U.S. told us what it was, I think he said it was a Torro? I forget, my brain was just hurting and it was all I could do to smile for a picture beneath it.

I had to hit the bathroom. I can say without a doubt that climbing Mount Fuji at a bad time of month for me was the toughest thing I have ever done as a woman. I stood in line for the bathroom at the top. It smelled wretched. And it cost 300 Yen. I used wet naps to clean up a little and waited while Anita stood in line. We looked for the "top/sunrise" stamps but we couldn't find them. I began walking toward the highest point. It didn't look that far. The path we chose started out downhill. That was easy, I was feeling better! Of course, what goes down... and is trying to get to the highest point... must go up! As soon as my foot stepped on the upward slope, I was not happy with my decision. I knew I was an idiot for attempting to get around when the bus was leaving at noon. We trudged along anyway since we had already come this far. I was figuring if we were able to get back around and start down by 8 (that'd be four hours) we would be fine. There was a line to take pictures at the highest point. It took about half an hour to get through that. It was ridiculous how many lines there were on top of a volcano!!

Once we had taken pictures at the highest point, we climbed up a ladder to the look out... which was a sucky view and my backpack was so big it was difficult to fit through the small opening in the metal that you had to get through to see it. I squished through anyway and was disappointed and wanted to go back down. We finished the circle as quickly as we could, we found the post office on the way, went to the 'gate' to the left of the "village" or shops on the top when you first climb up the Yoshida Trail... I was disappointed. It didn't look as awesome from close up and there wasn't much space to take a jumping picture! Boo.

We hurried back to the shops to find the brand we wanted. It was right in front of our faces by the Coca-Cola umbrella out in the open! We stood in line for a short while and got all 4 for 300 Yen a pair, so for both of us, it was 1200 Yen. Totally worth it and we hurried to begin our decent at 8:38AM. We had 3 hours and 22 minutes to make it down. We half ran/half walked. I could make it down more quickly, but my shoes were horrid and kept getting rocks in the bottom. That's definitely the last time I wear sandals (I was wearing Keens) to climb mountains. They weren't very comfy on the Half Dome hike either (that was actually a hike, this was definitely a climb). Note to self: don't climb mountains with Keens when there is a possibility of there being loose dirt and pebbles!!! They are fine/great even when there is not loose dirt or pebbles.

I kept checking the signs to make sure we were on the right path while Anita kept on trekking downward. Her knees were hurting so I took the rest of the water and her jacket to make her load a little lighter. We drank another 2 liter bottle of water on the way down but still had another two liter and a small 16 oz bottle of water in my backpack when we finished. We saw horses on the way back, the people there rented horses out to people to carry them to the end of the trail head. They think of everything here! As soon as it was flat enough, there were horses for tired, weary travelers who just wanted to get back to the bus station.

I started us down the Yoshida Trail toward the Yoshida-guchi 5th station, but one of the guides yelled down to us to come back up. Another guy said Kawaguchi was the other way when I asked him. We came back up and were soon on the right path. I'm glad that was the only place I got a little turned around on directions! (I tried to remember everything but things look completely different from night to day! ... especially since it was literally the difference of night and day when we hiked up and down.) When we hit 1000 meters to the finish (I believe it was Izumigataki where the road broke off and you could get to Sato-goya following the other path) there was a group of people there taking surveys. They said it was about 15 minutes from the end and Anita was tired so she continued on. They offered a 16 oz bottle of water if you completed the survey... which I didn't need since we still had more than a half gallon, but I did it anyway. We still had nearly 50 minutes to make it to the end before our bus departed the station. The survey just asked how I heard about Mt. Fuji, if I had been to Japan before, who I was traveling with, if I had come with a tour group, why I was visiting the country, what they could do to improve (i.e. a visitor center since there wasn't one, more information about the area, religious, history), etc. I said more bathrooms at the top cuz that 20 minute or so line was ridiculous when you're on that time and need to go! I got my bottle of water and hurried along the trail back up to the bus station. I caught up with Anita along the way and we made it to the starting gate in less than 3 hours! We still had 30 minutes to spare. I was stoaked. We walked over to the bus stop through the now crowded circle filled with people laying down and those new comers coming in to climb. I'm definitely glad we left at night because it was more crowded during the day than it was at night and I thought there were quite a few people at night. It's probably because it's popular as it's the highest point in Japan and it's only open to most people 1.5 months out of the year due to weather (snow, sleet, etc) making it unsafe.

I asked to make sure we were at the correct bus stop and then we took turns hitting the bathroom. I made it back as people were loading the bus and after we got on, we passed out. We hadn't slept since Thursday morning because we weren't able to take naps during the day Thursday or on the bus. That was the longest I had ever stayed up in my life (over 26 hours)! (I pulled an all nighter once in my life before during college but I was only awake for 24 hours and then I went straight to sleep after I turned in my homework.) I don't sleep a whole lot or haven't since I started grad school while working full time, but I always take naps and sleep at night. I would always put off homework or studying and choose sleeping over any of that. (I barely studied in school anyway.)

Needless to say, it was amazing to see the sunrise up over the clouds in brilliant fiery reds and oranges. My head hurt like nobody's business. I'm a tad bit sore, but not much, it was really the lack of oxygen and not the actually physical difficulty of the climb that made it difficult. According to the Yoshida Trail map you start a little below 2,390 meters, hike down a few hundred feet and then up to 3776 meters. So I figure we went from almost zero elevation/sea level in Tokyo to 7,841 feet and then climbed up to 12,395 feet. It looks like we climbed over 4,500 feet on foot and the bus took us to about 7,800. Either way, I think we both got altitude sickness since we live at or around sea level 365.25 days out of the year. You literally climb up rocks and trudge your way up switch backs up the side of a volcano. It took us 7 hours including our stop to watch the sunrise to get to the top and less than 3 hours to get down. The fastest person ever to run up did it in 3 hours. I'm sure that was without waiting in lines for other people! It was super hard, it'd take a miracle for me to want to do it like that again. I want to climb more mountains, but I think I'd want to acclimate a little more to altitudes before I go running around up mountains and volcanoes any time in the near future... so I should probably train a whole lot more for the Mount Lemmon marathon I signed Nathan and I up for this October...

- run for life

catch up on catching up?

Really, I will catch up and write about the completion of my road trip, my two week trip to Tennessee to visit Nathan, and hiking up Half Dome! I'm currently in Japan and talking to Nathan on skype. Once I get to Arizona I should be able to get up to date! Sorry for the delay... more to come in a few weeks...!

- run for life

catch up!

I need to catch up on blogging from my road trip since I haven't taken the time to do so since I was in South Dakota. I've been more content to chill and bum around. I'm currently at Anita's in Anaheim and am getting ready to pack up Lazarus for one last hoorah up the coast through SLO and back to the bay. I'll be home on Saturday.

Since I last wrote, I've acquired an "official" boyfriend, I mean, it's facebook official, so it must be a big deal right? Today has been one month since we've become boyfriend and girlfriend officially. Unfortunately, it's long distance, but I don't know, I've gotta feeling about this one. We'll see how this works out. Spent 8 years not dating and coming up with more pre-requisites that my future boyfriend would need to have when I eventually had one. I think I hooked a good one this time, I don't foresee having to throw him back into the ocean anytime soon.

Gotta pack up Laz and head out to SLO. I'll try to actually catch up on the last month of my life soon.

- run for life

on the road again...

Nathan took a Greyhound bus from Knoxville to Richmond to come visit me. :) I took him with me to Baltimore to watch the A's play the Orioles. It was his first major league baseball game, which I was glad I was the one to take him to it. Camden Yards is a nice park to go to for your first game ever. Hopefully he won't be too disappointed if I ever take him to the coliseum! We don't focus on the frills in Oakland, we just play baseball! We drove back to Richmond that night looking forward to a good night's sleep, especially since Nathan had been on the Greyhound and hardly slept and then I took him straight up to Maryland and back! We arrived at the apartment and no one was home. We couldn't get in and after deliberating for a bit, we headed to a hotel to shower and sleep. It had been sticky in Baltimore due to the humidity and we were tired. It was the first time I've ever paid for a hotel in my life. I always couch surf and my parents have the time share condos with World Mark so we don't go to hotels. I screamed when I saw a roach on the bed. I killed it and threw away the body, but wow. Gross. I was paranoid something was going to bite me. I don't think I'll be checking into a hotel again any time soon. I definitely appreciate my dad spending money on the time share stuff a lot more now. It's always super clean with a full kitchen and master bedroom.

I was hoping to take him down to the river and hang out, but since we were so tired we slept in and checked out of the hotel at 11AM. I baked a yummy pizza for lunch and we just hung out at the apartment and watched a movie. I packed up my stuff to leave Friday after work.

Unfortunately after I packed my stuff up... I brought my keys with me to work, which defeated the purpose of getting a ride to work, but Nathan was able to open the door and get my spare key so he could come visit me at work and have lunch with my co-workers and myself. :) After lunch we headed out, stopping at the house I lived at in Harbor Point to pick up any mail and drop off my key. Then we hit the road, stopping in Roanoke to have dinner with his uncle and two cousins who live there. It was a fun birthday dinner. I never have many birthday celebrations so it was nice to have a gathering on my birthday even if it wasn't specifically for my birthday. Last year I sat on the couch at the Richardson's watching the Cavs vs. Magic game by myself while doing homework. Super exciting, I know.

We continued to Knoxville, stopping to get gas along the way and were very tired and a little cranky by the time we got there. Tennessee was fun, we mostly chilled, hung out by the pool, watched movies and ate food of course! Brittany, Denise, and Jenna had gotten me a gift certificate to Olive Garden and I took Nathan there where we had a long and interesting conversation with our waitress about her life, kid, and gym memberships. I felt bad for her and tipped generously when it was time to pay for the check, especially since most of the meal was covered by my birthday present. Sunday night I cooked dinner, we need to get more spices, but I tried to make do with pepper... I liked my fish and potatoes, but my asparagus was lacking. I usually like to cook my asparagus with garlic, so next time I'll spring for the garlic when I go shopping. I was going to leave on Monday but I ended up staying until Tuesday morning.

After Tennessee I drove up to Dayton to hang out with Jecca and Dan. Jecca was done with school and just passed the NCLEX so we hung out, watched movies, and rode bikes. When I got there her friend was there and we all watched 'Dear John' which was one of the worst movies I've seen this year, if not the worst. I thought people said it was a good movie... or a good book, but it was horrendous! The girl promised to wait for John when he went overseas in the army and then wrote him a letter TWO MONTHS later saying that she was engaged... what the heck??? What is commitment to these people? How is that a good movie? I thought perhaps it'd get better or something, but it didn't. He ended up going back and they alluded to them getting back together after she was a widow because her husband died. She could have taken care of the dude without marrying him. That's ridiculous. If you really love someone, you shouldn't marry someone else. I felt like I had wasted two hours of my life that I couldn't get back. Ugh.

We did run the first morning I was there at a local walking/running park near where she lives, walked over to Graeter's Ice Cream (ice cream made in Cincinnati) and hung out by the pool until the clouds rolled up. We rode her scooter around a bit and I was left wanting my motorcycle (daddy said I'd hurt myself, which is probably true, so I sold it since it wasn't vital for my livelihood). It was awesome to just chill out. I think I could get used to this life! I stayed for about two days there and headed out to Wheaton... fighting off the Chicago traffic (it ended up taking 8 hours because of the last 30 miles, I had made good time through Indiana!). Jill and Catherine came out to meet me, Catherine had made me a sign that said "Welcome Jill" and we had pizza and salad for dinner. It was good to see them! Catherine and Connor have gotten so big! Patrick came home later and we had some ice cream and caught up.

In the morning I went with Jill to drop off the kids at school and back for Connor's 2nd grade poetry reading. Afterward I headed out to Wisconsin to hang out with the Richardson kids after they got off school. We just sat around, watched television and I regulated their chip consumption. ha, ha. Then they were picked up by the woman they were staying with for the weekend and I hung out alone in their house... which turned out to be very creepy because the lights were flickering in the dining room, the door shook and there were growling noises coming from in the basement. It didn't help that Kelly told me her tales of when she grew up in the house and there were demons in it. I was quite afraid alone and turned up the Jesus music and went back into one of the bedrooms, shut the door, put some stuff in front of it and prayed.

In the morning I gathered all my stuff, shut out the lights and headed out as soon as I woke up. I was on my way to St. Paul, Minnesota. I had a marathon to run and a baseball game to watch! I made it the 5 hours of driving without stopping for gas or the bathroom. I had filled up before I left Wheaton and made it to St. Paul with Lazarus' tank near empty. I pulled up to a gas station on Como Street where they were having an art fair in the drizzling rain and napped in the parking lot across from the apartments while I waited for Abby to finish at work. When she got there I brought some of my stuff up and we went downtown to go to the expo... which was the more pathetic excuse for an expo. There was nothing there, not even to buy if I wanted. The shirt was pretty cool and I like the color, but the jacket they were raving about was waffle material and funny cut. The sleeves are too short and there's a weird slit in the bottom of them. I just watched a movie on Saturday when they went out and then went to bed.

Sunday I got up and drove down to the Lake Street light rail station since the bus didn't start running Sunday morning until after the race had already started. I caught the light rail to Government Plaza, followed people to the bag check, turned in my bag (I brought a bag so I could have other clothes to change into because I was supposed to meet Kat that afternoon), and waited in line for the restroom (okay, so port-a-potties).

The run began. I took my time and walked up to the starting line. I ended up finding my way to the 4:45 pace group and chatted a bit with the pacer and another guy named Al who was running his first marathon. After mile 8 I sped up a bit with a girl from North Dakota who was there with her grand father running her second marathon. She was only a sophomore in high school who ran cross country in the fall and did a marathon in the spring instead of doing track. I thought that was interesting. We ran together for about 10 miles before she decided she needed to walk and I trudged along ahead until Fort Snelling when I walked up the hill because it was huge! They definitely did not give you enough water or Powerade (of course I thought of Nathan and how he would be pleased there was Powerade and not Gatorade). It was probably a centimeter of liquid in the bottom of a small cup which is barely a sip! I took three Powerade cups and two water at almost every station to attempt to wet my throat even a little!

I found myself with the 4:45 pace group again as I ran through miles 19-22. After awhile I just needed to hit 10s and couldn't run at the 10:53 pace they were at so I went on ahead. I was passing people and trying to encourage them to keep going to the finish and one guy took it to heart. His name was Kent. He was from Iowa and he ran with me from around mile 22-24.5 before he started walking a bit. I walked up the hill around mile 25 and he caught up with me again telling me I was close! and that I could do it. It was good to have a little push at the end and when we finished he hugged me and thanked me for the encouragement and said he wouldn't have been able to run those last few miles without me. His kids were there at the finish waiting for him. It always makes me feel like I've accomplished something when people say stuff like that. I feel like I've done something. Helping people achieve their goals is a great feeling.

Afterward I tottered on over to the bag check, picked up my stuff and wobbled over to the food where I picked up everything. I was appalled they didn't have water bottles for people who had just finished a marathon... I mean for crying out loud, why wouldn't they have water bottles? I drank 3 cups of water, but they weren't even full and I couldn't carry it with me. I laid around on the cement near the stone bridge while waiting for Kat to finish up at work. Unfortunately after I had text her a second time... (I text her right when I finished and then again 3 hours later) she told me she wasn't going to get done until 9-10pm... um, I wish I had known that 3 and a half hours before so I could have just gone back to St. Paul instead of lying around downtown Minneapolis! It's not like I could have done anything cool or knew where to go when I was super tired after running a marathon. And I was hungry! Boo. I headed back to the light rail, got back to the apartment, took a shower and chilled out. (I watched Step Up 2 for the millionth time.)

When Ab and Eric got back they were going to Eric's best friend's house for a birthday dinner, so I tagged along. They had 4 kinds of pie! It was awesome. I of course tried them all. :) His grand parents were there, they were super cute showing off their great grand child. :) We chatted as I tried not to fall asleep. The next morning Ab and I laid out on the front lawn of the apartment... I fell asleep while trying to read Born to Run and got a little toastier than I would have liked. Then we hung out, made pizza for dinner, and watched some of the Blind Side when Eric got back. We headed to 331 with one of their friends for some free live blue grass music and hung out for a bit afterward for some strawberries in chocolate sauce. Al and Andy had gotten engaged on the west coast so I took a break from the blue grass music to hear the story. :)

After that, more sleep and when I woke up, it was Tuesday. Game day! I was a little worried because it was raining all morning. I took a nice long nap in the after noon and then packed up my stuff to head to Target Field. Luckily it stopped raining and although they canceled batting practice because of the rain, I was able to wander around and take pictures around the entire outside of the stadium and inside. I posted myself near the foul pole in left field and talked with some Australians who were there on holiday. They borrowed my glove for pictures and bought me a bottle of water in return for explaining some of our American baseball practices. I met another pair who lived in St. Paul and I didn't end up having to wait for the bus because they gave me a ride back to the apartment.

I fell asleep soon after talking to Nathan and was woken up in the morning when Abby knocked on the door and said she had to go to work. While I was packing and folding everything up, I watched the Proposal again and moved everything to Lazarus and hit the road. I had horrid reception on the way down interstate 90 toward South Dakota. Luckily I have reception here in Vermillion, but apparently South Dakota's best carrier is Verizon so everyone out here has it. When I arrived in South Dakota I had dinner with Lura and her husband Jordan, we hung out, chatted and had some ice cream afterward.

And this morning... all I've done so far is type up this blog, talk to Nathan and eat food. Not a bad morning for an unemployed master's program graduate huh?

- run for life

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

three things.

Another weekend, another marathon, more life goals checked off the list. I went to Tennessee to hang out and go zorbing in Pigeon Forge, TN. I forget when I discovered zorbing, but I thought it'd be awesome, so of course, I went. It's like a huge hamster ball for people. You get in it and if you do the dry version, you have to get in a harness. If you do the zydro or the zorb with water in it, you don't need a harness and you sort of roll down the hill with the water reducing the friction in the ball. It's pretty awesome. I recommend doing it at least once in your life. I might have to go again...

While in Knoxville, we watched movies, ate food, and hung out. It was fun. We drove up to Louisville, Kentucky where I need to do 2 more things on my list: go to the Louisville Slugger Museum and run the Kentucky Derby Marathon. It was AWESOME. The museum was one of the greatest places I've been, and I've been a lot of places. Perhaps it's because of my huge affinity toward baseball, but it was good times. I ran the marathon and had local ice cream in both Tennessee and Kentucky while I was in each state.

For the first time I had a spectator with me, which was nice so I have some pictures of myself while running (Sam was there when Kristen and I ran the Greenville marathon/half, which was super great so I have pictures from that run too, but this was also more special because my spectator was there specifically for me). I just wish I was actually in shape... haha! Well, I haven't slept much due to driving around so much, but I figured I'd throw out a quick update on my ever jam packed life of traveling and experiences.(I am tired because I left Knoxville around 11:30PM/midnight Sunday and slept an hour on the way to work and last night of course only slept 6 or 7 hours as usual. I need to get back on my regular sleep schedule!). Well, gotta sleep, more work and letter stuffing (for the Tucson mission trip) ahead before the New Jersey marathon this weekend. I'm excited.

- run for life