Gah, I hate days like this! I have this one day off for the next couple of weeks, one day in which to get quite a lot done, but I'm trapped here at home waiting on deliveries. I can't afford to miss them, it's a one-shot deal today, but with the weather so perfect outside I want to get out and get in my 10-miler, this week's long run.
I know, the day is young yet, and tonight will be warm enough that I could do the run just as easily in the dark, but still...
November 9, 2006
November 8, 2006
the post that didn't get written
Back on Thursday Nov 2, I began to write a post about the marathon expo, where I was volunteering. That turned instead into my first audio post, focusing on the question of the numbers of CF people and comparing that to the number of people running the marathon Sunday.
So I never got around to talking about volunteering at the expo. For that matter, I haven't written anything about volunteering Sunday, either. I've decided not to go into great detail in this post, either -- I'm still trying to figure out whether the volunteering even mattered. To the reader: this will be a little long, but unimportant. I did see NYFlyGirl and check her in and that's maybe the only important bit. If you only have a limited amount of time, please go read an actual runner's race report.
The facts:
My volunteering did not begin auspiciously. Oweing to a disappearing kickstand and dropping my motorcycle on my foot, twisting my ankle and knee in the process, I was late. I had tried to turn my body as I fell over in front of my house so that I wouldn't do any damage to the joints, even as I realized what was happening and that this was going to hurt. It was all very slo-mo. I had to pull my foot out of my shoe to get it out from under the bike. Then I had to recover a bit, lift my bike, make sure nothing important was broken, and get on my way. So I was late. And though I tried to pretend nothing happened, I was using Tylenol 8-hour through the three days of the expo.
So I spent Thursday through Saturday checking IDs, making edits to runners' information, and figuring out the Spanish, Italian, German, and French words for "blue", "green", and "orange". The Help Desk turned into the Solutions Desk and most of the old duties were moved out to ID check area, so it wasn't too mind-numbing being there, and I know Barbara, the volunteer in charge of that area for the last 13 years or so, was grateful to have me. I like Barbara a lot and would work with her again for sure. Not so sure I want to volunteer at the expo again, is all. I could tell a lot of stories because of those three days and there were bright moments, but all in all -- meh. Might have been better off sleeping and running.
Sunday was spent in two places: Staten Island and Central Park.
Staten Island was cool. No, sorry, I meant COLD. I met the volunteer bus at 3:45 a.m. at NYRR and we went out to the starting area. We were split up into groups and I went with to the blue food court area, where I spent the next five hours handing out donuts and bagels. (The donuts, while plain, were bona-fide Duncans and were quite tasty. The bagels, not so much.) 40 of us handing out food; could've been covered by 25. I felt marginally useful, but perhaps could have been more helpful somewhere else. Despite wearing four shirts, a jacket, and two hats, I was soon so cold I was shivering and could not stop. Cups of tea and coffee weren't warming me up and eating some donuts didn't help either. (Lesson: eat a big breakfast BEFORE standing around in 30-degree temps for five hours.) I took several breaks to walk around and warm up, using the opportunity to observe and take mental notes for next year, when I'll be one of the 37,000 suckers freezing his balls off while waiting to trot to Central Park. *sigh*
Once the runners started to line up in the corrals, the volunteers headed for the buses, which were doing double-duty as giant crowd-control barriers at the time. I got to see the blue and orange groups head toward the starting lines, shedding amazing amounts of clothes as they went. (By the time they were all gone, the toll plaza looked like a WWII battlefield, but instead of craters, imagine discarded sweats and jackets. It could not have been more artfully arranged.)
As the runners streamed out of the corrals and toward the starting line, I scanned the crowd for the lime-green Team CF jerseys that are by now so familiar to me. I saw several and hurried to catch up to these people. With each runner, I introduced myself as we trotted, telling them my name, that I have cystic fibrosis, and how much I personally appreciate their participation today. Of all my volunteering moments, it was this that truly stands out to me and made all of Sunday morning worth it.
I also want to note that when the recorded announcement mentiond the "air force will be doing a flyover before the race," she wasn't kidding. I expected something nice, but typical, perhaps a couple of jets a mile up passing over the bridge or something. Nope, we got an AWESOME buzzing by a four-prop giant plane that came in - I shit you not - no higher than 150 feet over the trees, appearing out of nowhere from behind the national guard base and turning in a tight bank to buzz out over the crowd and then narrowly avoiding the bridge itself. Sweet mother of God, I've never seen anything like that!
The afternoon was spent at the baggage trucks. I wandered around for 45 minutes looking for "hospitality" and "Dan Brown". Nobody seemed to recognize the name and obviously didn't know what the fuck hospitality meant. I tried five places, being directed from one to the next, before finding one who said Dan would have a cowboy hat on and hospitality meant bagels and bags. He directed me on up the Central Park loop and sure enough he was right. Had he not been, I would have simply gone home at that point.
I teamed up with another volunteer and two UPS drivers at their truck. These guys were GOOD. They got the bags organized and were 100% done by the time the first runners showed up. The entire day, it took no more than 45 seconds for any runner appearing at our truck to get his or her bag. We were a crack team. Not an exciting job, but we did it well. Turns out my two drivers had done this for six years and both had actually run the marathon last year. Cool. I only point out how good these guys were because, by way of contrast, the next truck down was terribly inefficient and disorganized. They couldn't get their shit together before the masses of runners showed up and so had seven drivers trying to locate bags and a crowd of chilly runners three or four deep at times.
So I'm ambivalent about the volunteering. I enjoyed myself more last year. But I am wondering if next year, it would be more expedient to volunteer for Staten Island in the morning, even as a runner. Though it means two extra hours of toe-numbing cold, I'll be out there long enough to have a difficult first few miles no matter what I do. The volunteer bus is free and I could make the time pass quickly by handing out tea and coffee, then drop my bag off, shuck a few extra clothes, and be off and running. Literally.
Another thing I'm worrying about is the finish. By the time I finish, it'll be almost as cold in Central Park as Staten Island in the morning. It's important to get to warm clothes fast...but if my truck is the 76th one, that's nearly another MILE further up. Perhaps I can persuade a friend to volunteer as, say, a chip clipper and to hold a sweatshirt for me....
And speaking of chilly runners finishing, I observed a lot of people coming in and it affirmed for me that I absolutely made the right decision not to run this. I would not have been prepared for Staten Island. I would not have run this well and would have ended up once again as one of the miserable, injured runners who were mostly in the last third. Hurting and tired is one thing, but I refuse to put myself in the position of being one of the Walking Dead, the runners who are so in pain and so unhappy. I want to be one of the guys finishing around 4:30 that, though tired, were still in good spirits and were still alert and functional. There's just no sense in it otherwise.
Well, that's it. A long post, sorry, for such an unimportant one. Please go read the other running blogs and immerse yourself in the race reports. A lot of people ran fantastic races, a lot of people actually PR'd, and their stories - a few of the 37,000 - deserve your time.
So I never got around to talking about volunteering at the expo. For that matter, I haven't written anything about volunteering Sunday, either. I've decided not to go into great detail in this post, either -- I'm still trying to figure out whether the volunteering even mattered. To the reader: this will be a little long, but unimportant. I did see NYFlyGirl and check her in and that's maybe the only important bit. If you only have a limited amount of time, please go read an actual runner's race report.
The facts:
My volunteering did not begin auspiciously. Oweing to a disappearing kickstand and dropping my motorcycle on my foot, twisting my ankle and knee in the process, I was late. I had tried to turn my body as I fell over in front of my house so that I wouldn't do any damage to the joints, even as I realized what was happening and that this was going to hurt. It was all very slo-mo. I had to pull my foot out of my shoe to get it out from under the bike. Then I had to recover a bit, lift my bike, make sure nothing important was broken, and get on my way. So I was late. And though I tried to pretend nothing happened, I was using Tylenol 8-hour through the three days of the expo.
So I spent Thursday through Saturday checking IDs, making edits to runners' information, and figuring out the Spanish, Italian, German, and French words for "blue", "green", and "orange". The Help Desk turned into the Solutions Desk and most of the old duties were moved out to ID check area, so it wasn't too mind-numbing being there, and I know Barbara, the volunteer in charge of that area for the last 13 years or so, was grateful to have me. I like Barbara a lot and would work with her again for sure. Not so sure I want to volunteer at the expo again, is all. I could tell a lot of stories because of those three days and there were bright moments, but all in all -- meh. Might have been better off sleeping and running.
Sunday was spent in two places: Staten Island and Central Park.
Staten Island was cool. No, sorry, I meant COLD. I met the volunteer bus at 3:45 a.m. at NYRR and we went out to the starting area. We were split up into groups and I went with to the blue food court area, where I spent the next five hours handing out donuts and bagels. (The donuts, while plain, were bona-fide Duncans and were quite tasty. The bagels, not so much.) 40 of us handing out food; could've been covered by 25. I felt marginally useful, but perhaps could have been more helpful somewhere else. Despite wearing four shirts, a jacket, and two hats, I was soon so cold I was shivering and could not stop. Cups of tea and coffee weren't warming me up and eating some donuts didn't help either. (Lesson: eat a big breakfast BEFORE standing around in 30-degree temps for five hours.) I took several breaks to walk around and warm up, using the opportunity to observe and take mental notes for next year, when I'll be one of the 37,000 suckers freezing his balls off while waiting to trot to Central Park. *sigh*
Once the runners started to line up in the corrals, the volunteers headed for the buses, which were doing double-duty as giant crowd-control barriers at the time. I got to see the blue and orange groups head toward the starting lines, shedding amazing amounts of clothes as they went. (By the time they were all gone, the toll plaza looked like a WWII battlefield, but instead of craters, imagine discarded sweats and jackets. It could not have been more artfully arranged.)
As the runners streamed out of the corrals and toward the starting line, I scanned the crowd for the lime-green Team CF jerseys that are by now so familiar to me. I saw several and hurried to catch up to these people. With each runner, I introduced myself as we trotted, telling them my name, that I have cystic fibrosis, and how much I personally appreciate their participation today. Of all my volunteering moments, it was this that truly stands out to me and made all of Sunday morning worth it.
I also want to note that when the recorded announcement mentiond the "air force will be doing a flyover before the race," she wasn't kidding. I expected something nice, but typical, perhaps a couple of jets a mile up passing over the bridge or something. Nope, we got an AWESOME buzzing by a four-prop giant plane that came in - I shit you not - no higher than 150 feet over the trees, appearing out of nowhere from behind the national guard base and turning in a tight bank to buzz out over the crowd and then narrowly avoiding the bridge itself. Sweet mother of God, I've never seen anything like that!
The afternoon was spent at the baggage trucks. I wandered around for 45 minutes looking for "hospitality" and "Dan Brown". Nobody seemed to recognize the name and obviously didn't know what the fuck hospitality meant. I tried five places, being directed from one to the next, before finding one who said Dan would have a cowboy hat on and hospitality meant bagels and bags. He directed me on up the Central Park loop and sure enough he was right. Had he not been, I would have simply gone home at that point.
I teamed up with another volunteer and two UPS drivers at their truck. These guys were GOOD. They got the bags organized and were 100% done by the time the first runners showed up. The entire day, it took no more than 45 seconds for any runner appearing at our truck to get his or her bag. We were a crack team. Not an exciting job, but we did it well. Turns out my two drivers had done this for six years and both had actually run the marathon last year. Cool. I only point out how good these guys were because, by way of contrast, the next truck down was terribly inefficient and disorganized. They couldn't get their shit together before the masses of runners showed up and so had seven drivers trying to locate bags and a crowd of chilly runners three or four deep at times.
So I'm ambivalent about the volunteering. I enjoyed myself more last year. But I am wondering if next year, it would be more expedient to volunteer for Staten Island in the morning, even as a runner. Though it means two extra hours of toe-numbing cold, I'll be out there long enough to have a difficult first few miles no matter what I do. The volunteer bus is free and I could make the time pass quickly by handing out tea and coffee, then drop my bag off, shuck a few extra clothes, and be off and running. Literally.
Another thing I'm worrying about is the finish. By the time I finish, it'll be almost as cold in Central Park as Staten Island in the morning. It's important to get to warm clothes fast...but if my truck is the 76th one, that's nearly another MILE further up. Perhaps I can persuade a friend to volunteer as, say, a chip clipper and to hold a sweatshirt for me....
And speaking of chilly runners finishing, I observed a lot of people coming in and it affirmed for me that I absolutely made the right decision not to run this. I would not have been prepared for Staten Island. I would not have run this well and would have ended up once again as one of the miserable, injured runners who were mostly in the last third. Hurting and tired is one thing, but I refuse to put myself in the position of being one of the Walking Dead, the runners who are so in pain and so unhappy. I want to be one of the guys finishing around 4:30 that, though tired, were still in good spirits and were still alert and functional. There's just no sense in it otherwise.
Well, that's it. A long post, sorry, for such an unimportant one. Please go read the other running blogs and immerse yourself in the race reports. A lot of people ran fantastic races, a lot of people actually PR'd, and their stories - a few of the 37,000 - deserve your time.
November 7, 2006
just logging a short run
Getting back in the habit of regular running is the hardest thing. Procrastination is so easy. It wasn't the run that was the problem; it was getting started!
But I did get out of the house today on this beautiful day and go for what was supposed to be a fast 5K. Turned into 2 1/2 miles because of my right ankle not-so-gently reminding me that I probably went out too fast. My running has been based in long, slow running, using the first three miles as warmup. I tried a warmup jog first today - a few blocks with pants on - the put on shorts and tried to do 9 minute miles. Hah. Riiiiiight. Back to the drawing board if I want to craft some speed workouts, cuz what I did today was just dumb.
No matter, though. I'll be putting in five miles tomorrow morning in Central Park and I've already had ice on my knees and ankle for almost twenty minutes now and they feel loads better. And I can tell the physical therapy is working, too. My foot placement is much surer, especially once I really am warmed up.
Of supreme important, though, I got out and cleared out my lungs. I'm in a cycle of late-night rehearsals in the theatre for the next two weeks and - as I noted several times to the house electrician yesterday - there's more dust in that theatre's air than ever. So it's important to go out and make myself cough. (Speaking of which, I did a lot of that, too - hills remain difficult because deeper breathing triggers coughing. Coughing happens anyway every quarter to half mile and slows me down. Whatever.)
I've got to sit down and create a new training schedule. Despite the minimal running of the last several weeks, my legs still feel good and I think the ten miles I'm planning for Sunday a.m. should be no problem. As long as I take the time to warm up first. :)
Okay, ice is done. Time for some food and a shower.
But I did get out of the house today on this beautiful day and go for what was supposed to be a fast 5K. Turned into 2 1/2 miles because of my right ankle not-so-gently reminding me that I probably went out too fast. My running has been based in long, slow running, using the first three miles as warmup. I tried a warmup jog first today - a few blocks with pants on - the put on shorts and tried to do 9 minute miles. Hah. Riiiiiight. Back to the drawing board if I want to craft some speed workouts, cuz what I did today was just dumb.
No matter, though. I'll be putting in five miles tomorrow morning in Central Park and I've already had ice on my knees and ankle for almost twenty minutes now and they feel loads better. And I can tell the physical therapy is working, too. My foot placement is much surer, especially once I really am warmed up.
Of supreme important, though, I got out and cleared out my lungs. I'm in a cycle of late-night rehearsals in the theatre for the next two weeks and - as I noted several times to the house electrician yesterday - there's more dust in that theatre's air than ever. So it's important to go out and make myself cough. (Speaking of which, I did a lot of that, too - hills remain difficult because deeper breathing triggers coughing. Coughing happens anyway every quarter to half mile and slows me down. Whatever.)
I've got to sit down and create a new training schedule. Despite the minimal running of the last several weeks, my legs still feel good and I think the ten miles I'm planning for Sunday a.m. should be no problem. As long as I take the time to warm up first. :)
Okay, ice is done. Time for some food and a shower.
November 2, 2006
Audio Meditation 1: "One race; 30,000 stories."
This is my first attempt at audio blogging. If you were fast enough, you got the text version of this little gem. I hope you'll enjoy my initial foray into audio recording. It isn't radio quality, but if this experiment is a success, I'll work on it. And though he doesn't know it, Steve Walker deserves a nod for inspiring me to give this a shot. -CD
Right click to download Audio Mediation 1: "One race; 30,000 stories."
Right click to download Audio Mediation 1: "One race; 30,000 stories."
November 1, 2006
i'm still here
I know it's been a whle since I've posted; I've just been hellaciously busy. I've had to choose between sleeping, eating, or running over the last few weeks and, yes, my running dropped off to nearly zero. Once I'd made the decision not to run NY, I was able to concentrate on work a lot easier and my stress went way down.
But I am back on the running trails and I'm happy about that. I got in five on Monday and about three today. Today got cut short for running-related reasons, but NOT pain or injury. More about that some other time.
The ongoing physical therapy is working nicely and except for some very minor knee pain and some odd ankle pain, my legs feel great. My lungs are in better shape than they were three weeks ago, as I was able to take the hills in Central Park Monday, and that just might be because of the extended rest and, consequently, more time put into my medicines.
I'm posting tonight to announce that I am definitely running Houston in January and that I'm going to be raising funds for charitable cause. The Boomer Esiason Foundation has finally launched Team Boomer and I will be running for them in Houston. They do have some runners already in the NY Marathon, so be on the lookout for the Team Boomer logo!
I'm really happy that a CF-specific athletics group has been formed and I hope to be an active part of it. Look for me running around Central and Prospect parks wearing the nifty training jersey with the logo. I don't think I'll be wearing the shorts they sent, though, as...well, I'd be stepping into a grey area with them. They are so very short and my running boxer-briefs will show quite a bit. Not that that bothers ME, mind you, but it might cause some of YOU to go blind.
Moving on:
Expo weekend starts tomorrow. I'll be on the registration and help side for three days, so drop by, find me, say hi. I know you have to come by to get your bibs.... I'll also be out on Staten Island the morning of and will be greeting y'all in the park, probably as part of handing out bagels or helping you find your bag. It's going to be an incredibly active four days. Since I'm not running, this is all I can do...
But I am back on the running trails and I'm happy about that. I got in five on Monday and about three today. Today got cut short for running-related reasons, but NOT pain or injury. More about that some other time.
The ongoing physical therapy is working nicely and except for some very minor knee pain and some odd ankle pain, my legs feel great. My lungs are in better shape than they were three weeks ago, as I was able to take the hills in Central Park Monday, and that just might be because of the extended rest and, consequently, more time put into my medicines.
I'm posting tonight to announce that I am definitely running Houston in January and that I'm going to be raising funds for charitable cause. The Boomer Esiason Foundation has finally launched Team Boomer and I will be running for them in Houston. They do have some runners already in the NY Marathon, so be on the lookout for the Team Boomer logo!
I'm really happy that a CF-specific athletics group has been formed and I hope to be an active part of it. Look for me running around Central and Prospect parks wearing the nifty training jersey with the logo. I don't think I'll be wearing the shorts they sent, though, as...well, I'd be stepping into a grey area with them. They are so very short and my running boxer-briefs will show quite a bit. Not that that bothers ME, mind you, but it might cause some of YOU to go blind.
Moving on:
Expo weekend starts tomorrow. I'll be on the registration and help side for three days, so drop by, find me, say hi. I know you have to come by to get your bibs.... I'll also be out on Staten Island the morning of and will be greeting y'all in the park, probably as part of handing out bagels or helping you find your bag. It's going to be an incredibly active four days. Since I'm not running, this is all I can do...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)