| Happy New Year! |
[Jan. 1st, 2008|02:10 pm] |
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| |  tired | ] |
Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone is having a great day.
Art and I just ran the Burlington First Run 5K this morning. Good way to start the year and helped me realize how out of shape I've become from being busy with grad school and not exercising much. So, I'm going to try to fit running into my schedule this semester. That's as much of a resolution as I can come up with or hope to follow... |
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| so sad |
[May. 18th, 2007|11:30 am] |
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I just found out that Veronica Mars has been cancelled! Why is it that all of the good, smart, creative tv shows get cancelled? This world is hopelessly idiotic. |
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| Read my blog! |
[Apr. 4th, 2007|06:51 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  accomplished | ] |
Hello there friends,
I haven't posted in a while. Life's about the same. But I wanted to let everyone know about the blog that I started. I read that it helps to keep up with training if you have a blog that people read, so I thought I would start one myself. It's just about my running though, so it's not all that exciting. However, if you're really bored, it's better than staring at a wall.
Here's the link:
http://www.marathonmary.blogspot.com
Enjoy! |
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| I did it! |
[Feb. 26th, 2007|08:47 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  nervous | ] |
I just submitted my electronic application to UVM! I applied to graduate school! I'm going to be a teacher (if I get in)! Now I just have to wait for my two additional recommendations to come to me (only one has arrived so far...) and then I can send them in with my writing sample and transcripts and then I have fully applied! I do hope the recs come in soon...I'm surpised that Dr. Farley's (Michael) came in first. For once he isn't the biggest procrastinator. Granted, I did send it to him first....
That's about all I have to say. I'm a little terrified right now, to tell you the truth. What if I'm not really cut out to be a teacher? I hope I made the right decision. Life can be so frustrating and it doesn't help that I'm a bit fickle about things like this... Well, too late now to change my mind!
(I really do think this is the right decision, it's just change that scares me some.) |
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| Blizzard! |
[Feb. 14th, 2007|07:09 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  satisfied | ] |
Burlington is experiencing a blizzard as we speak! We already have 14 inches and it keeps coming down. We are supposed to get a total of 15-30 inches by the end of the night. It's such a big deal that the city officially shut down. This is an extremely big deal since Burlington never closes for anything. UVM closed today for the first time in 20 years. We are officially experiencing crazy weather. And I took pictures for everyone! |
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| This is a subject |
[Jan. 3rd, 2007|09:08 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  amused | ] |
So I did some writing today for the first time in...I am really not sure. I wrote some poems a few months ago, but today I added onto a story that I started over a year ago. It felt good. I also started reading some stuff I wrote in the past and realized that I actually write pretty well. At least not all that bad. And I'd even totally forgotten about one story that I wrote.
Ash -- remember our Secret Stories that we wrote the end of the the semester in Paul's class? Anyway, I hadn't and was very unsure about what document I could have that was titled "secret." Sort of funny to forget you wrote something....
This writing impluse was started by a recent decision that I should go back to my original plan of getting a teaching license and teach high school English. I always wanted to be a teacher, but after I graduated, I decided that there had to be something else that I wanted to do. I don't really remember what my reasoning was. If anyone has documented proof of why I chose not to pursue teaching, please share it with me. Perhaps I had some great revelation and just can't remember it...wouldn't that suck... However, if there isn't any such proof, then I do think I'll continue to think about teaching. I'm meeting with someone in the Education Deparment at UVM next week, so we'll see how that goes.
I think that's all for now. Hope everyone is doing well! |
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| I suck at posting |
[Nov. 11th, 2006|09:48 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | tired | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | buzzing of the fridge | ] |
I have decided to suck it up and post about my life. It has been a very, very long time since I last posted. I can't even get my mind around when it must have been when I last posted.
Work is really busy right now. Our choral festival in Puerto Rico starts in less than a week and I have been doing pretty much all of the coordinating for it. I guess that's what happens when you work on a project with the president of the company. However, I do get to go to Puerto Rico next week, so I guess it is all worth it. As long as everything goes as planned... I'm really nervous about the whole thing.
I ran two half marathon races in the past couple months. One was on October 1st and the other was on November 5th. The second one went especially well and I beat my best time by two minutes! Right now I have a couple of months where I'm not training for anything. Sort of an odd feeling after all of the training. I'm going to run the Vermont City Marathon again next year, so I have about two months to relax before I start training again. I do need to make sure I still run, though, or it's going to hurt a lot when I start the training in January. Today I ran 6 miles without a watch. I decided that that was the only way I could keep myself from obsessing over the time. It ended up being a great run.
That's about it for me...work's busy, running is going well... Art and I are doing well. Nothing really new there. We have pretty much settled into living together. I really enjoy having him around all of the time. We seem to make a pretty good team. (Did that make anyone else think of the line from "The Graduate"?)
I guess that's it. I hope that was enough for the fans. :-) |
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| Finally - The Marathon Post |
[May. 31st, 2006|06:52 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  energetic | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | The Beatles - The Night Before | ] |
I know that all of you have been on the edge of your seats waiting for this post. I sincerely apologize that it has taken me so long to update everyone on how the race went on Sunday. However, you need to wait no longer, for below is the complete report.
Sunday was very, very warm. I knew it was going to be around 80 degrees as a high, so I decided to hydrate well for the three or so days before the race. I drank four liters of water on Thursday and Friday, and then on Saturday I drank over five. I also started consuming a higher percentage of carbs. Basically, I did what one is supposed to do before a marathon, but I was extremely religious about it. I tried to get enough sleep and tapered my running schedule.
The morning of the race I was nervous, but also knew that I had done everything I could to prepare. Art and I had planned a place at mile ten for him to hand off a full water bottle for me and a place at mile 20 to hand off some energy gels (Sharkies, to be specific, they are sort of like candy...mmm..) I had a waterbottle with me the whole time and would refill it at aid stations - half water, half gatorade. That worked pretty well. I also had three packs of Jelly Belly Sports Beans in my pocket for the 20 miles before I got what Art handed off to me. So, I had everything planned for the actual race that I could.
The first ten miles were great! I was so excited that I was running a marathon that I had trouble keeping from smiling. There were so many fans cheering that it really felt like I was a rock star or something. I ran a few miles a bit too fast for my pace, but nothing too bad. It wasn't all that hot yet, so I was doing alright.
After I met Art around mile 10, I started to realize that it was getting warmer. We were running down Pine Street to the south end and there wasn't much shade. And then we ran to South Cove and there was an uphill section that really caught me off guard, especially since it was really hot. But when we looped (it's a circular street) to the other end, there was a really nice breeze off the lake. We ran up Austin Drive to Oakledge and to another Aid Station. The had done a bad job of clearing the cups away at this one and I tripped over one and twisted my right ankle. One of the volunteers ran over to me as I swore and hopped over to the side of the path. I tied my shoe lace tighter and had to swear to her that it was alright and that I didn't need to wrap it. It really did feel fine or else I would have stopped to wrap it up - really. But as it was, I had to promise to stop at the next aid station if it started bothering me for her to let me go. I thought that was a little annoying, but I guess she was just concerned...
So we followed the bike path to where it intersects with Maple Street. I run on the bike path all the time, so this was a breeze. But once we got to Maple, we had to turn onto Battery Street and "the attack on Battery!" I trained on a lot of hills, since Burlington and the surrounding areas are full of them, but I have to admit that Battery was a lot longer than I had remembered. The hardest part of running up a big hill in the middle (this was mile 15) of a race is to keep from running really hard to get over it. I still had over 11 miles to go once clearing it, so I needed a lot of energy left over. But it went okay. I joked with someone next to me about how easy the hill was and then she started talking more and I couldn't hear her...so that was kind of lame. But I made it over the hill.
The race continued onto North Ave. We took some detours onto side streets. A lot of people living on the streets were kind enough to have their sprinklers on and to hose us off if we wanted. I took almost everyone up on it since it was pretty darned hot by then. I was still in pretty good spirits even though I went through all the music on my mp3 player after 3 and a half hours. I liked all the songs, so I didn't really mind starting it over.
North Ave was really, really hot. There wasn't really any shade, so I sort of zoned out for the rest of that section. And then at the end of North Ave, we had to run down a pretty steep hill to connect with the bike path again. I think that's why my quads didn't stop hurting until this morning. But once I got to the bike path, I knew that everything was going to be okay.
I didn't take any walk breaks until I met Art at mile 20. I walked for about a minute while I reapplied sunblock then. From then on, I told myself that I could take a one minute walk break at each mile mark if I needed to. I was really worried that I would hit a wall soon, or bonk, as the athletes call it, since that often happens to people after running 20 miles. But I managed to feel alright through the last 6.2 miles. I was a lot slower than in the beginning and took 2 or 3 more walk breaks, but it was really nothing awful. I was able to keep my form strong and knew the route well enough that I could pace myself very well. I also made sure that I was drinking enough, which can be hard when you're focusing so hard on just moving...
So finally I got to Waterfront Park and the end of the race. There were tons of people cheering and telling me to "keep going" and that I was "almost there." I didn't have anyone immediately near me, so it was kind of cool having people cheer for just me. :) But I had to keep repeating those words to myself to keep myself going because I really was on my last leg. I knew that the finish line had to be really close since I know the area so well, but I couldn't see it until I was really almost there. But I was able to get a pretty fast sprint in for an incredible end! Yeah, that's right people, I'm a superstar!
Art was there to greet me at the finish line and gave me a towel to dry off. I felt okay and first, but started to feel pretty awful for a little bit after. I sat down for a bit, went to the bathroom (I didn't throw up!) and ate some, and then felt better. Unfortunately, my mom couldn't find us for almost two hours due to the thousands (literally) of people filling the area around the finish. But we finally met up and it was grand! Oh, so grand!
And I can walk now without any pain. Pretty cool. The first few days I was extremely sore, but it went away.
Oh, you probably want to know what my time was. Well, I finished in 5:02:00, which is pretty good considering I was aiming for under 5 hours before it was going to be insanely hot. I don't know if I'll ever run a marathon again, but if I do, I'll easily beat that time.
So there you are, friends. I have posted on the great race! |
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| Time to RUN |
[May. 26th, 2006|07:52 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | energetic | ] |
Hey there friends. Today is Friday. I am running my first marathon on Sunday. I have been drinking a lot of water. I have been eating extra carbs. I have been checking the weather report every hour or so... Right now the high for Sunday is down to 80. That is better than the 85 it was predicted to be a few days ago. Not as good as the 79 that was predicted yesterday. Tomorrow I pick up my bib and whatever else they're going to give me. I need to buy sweat-proof sunblock. I need to do laundry. I think that's it. And I need to drink a lot of water and try not to worry. The latter will be difficult.
But I'm excited too. If all goes well, by Sunday afternoon I will have run (with some walk breaks, I imagine) 26.2 miles. That's pretty cool. I was also thinking recently why I decided to do this. People seem to ask me that a lot and I think I had forgotten for a while. Well, here it is.
When Alla died I got really angry. I was angry because she chose to end her life when there was still so much she had left to do and so much that she could do. I was also angry because I wanted to experience things with her, and I could no longer do that. So I decided to live as much as I could. Since Alla could no longer live, I wanted to live for her as well. That meant no longer desiring something but being too scared, lazy, or tired to actually do it. So I got in shape and decided to do a marathon. I'd always wanted to be athletic and be able to run long distances. So instead of dreaming about having the energy and will-power to do it, I'm actually going to do it. Well, I'm going to go to the start line, start running and see how long I can last. But at least I'm getting that far.
So if anyone asks one of you "why the hell is Mary running a marathon?" you can tell them my story.
The End. |
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