Earthmovers and Sandcastles

Mom called earlier. My grandma, who is suffering from multiple forms of cancer, is now finally near death, and they thought she wasn’t going to make it through last night. Apparently, she stopped breathing when my grandfather tried to move her, and they rushed her to the hospital.

She hasn’t regained consciousness yet, though that could be due to the very strong drugs (something stronger than the stronger-than-morphine drug she’d been taking before? Details are fuzzy) she was given. She’s sliding downhill fast. I may need to make it to Maryland quickly, though I’m not sure about how or when yet. Haven’t told Sam yet, either; he’ll take it poorly, even though he doesn’t know her well.

Prayers are very welcome. I know that she’s been dealing with so much for so long, and that her pain has been great. It’s still hard.

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Also, I think I need to make an appointment with the doctor for myself. Today’s run had me coughing badly by the end, much more so than usual, and I was actually wheezing while waiting in line for my coffee (which I knew would help open my lungs up, so I was desperate). A fellow club member was talking to me; turns out that she has asthma, and she said that my wheezing sounds just like hers when she needs her inhaler.

I’ve never used an inhaler before. I’ve also never run double-digit mileage regularly in the winter before. Changing times apparently call for changing measures, so to speak. I’d hate to think that this is going to get worse, and my only available remedy would be in the hands of the closest barrista.

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Okay, here’s how to improve your pace on a longer run without too much effort.

1) Have only a vague idea of the route that the group will be running.
A) Put only a couple of people running in front of you.
B) Make them faster than you.

2) Put somebody running behind you, pushing you along.
A) Make her, also, faster than you.
B) Slow her down just a notch, such as by giving her a dog.

3) Do the run in the freeeeeeeezing cold and spitting rain/snow, and put warm coffee at the end.

Now, that’s a pace I like to see, much better than what I’ve been managing for the earlier parts of the week. I still think I’m a bit dehydrated, which is probably slowing me down, and I’m toying with the idea of taking one of my regular runs and doing speed work with it. Eric raised an eyebrow when I told him that, but I assured him that this would be a replacement, not an additional run. It would likely actually reduce my weekly mileage, not raise it, so I’m not worried about a recurrence of the tendinitis. We’ll see. Winter is when people usually focus on endurance, using long slow runs; not on speed work, unless you have an indoor track or a high tolerance for the treadmill.

Anyway, winter is upon us, here in the midwest, so I better figure out my plan for the coming months. What’s on your horizon?

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Apropos of absolutely nothing except that I stumbled upon it by chance earlier today and have been obsessing wildly about it ever since, this is opening tonight. Nowhere closer to me than Minneapolis, of course, so I won’t be seeing it yet. Not sure that I really want to, either, but…something keeps me coming back. Witness:

PRO: Anthony Stuart Head! As a creepy, sexy legal assassin!
CON: Paris Hilton! Augh! (On the flip side, though, I didn’t even recognize her in the clips I saw until I was told that it was her.)

PRO: The Graverobber character makes me go weak in the knees. Guh.
CON: I sort of want to punch Luigi in his face.

PRO: I haven’t been able to stop singing Zydrate Anatomy (not safe viewing around most kids - careful! ) since seeing it the first time…and I keep going back to watch it more.
CON: It’s directed by the guy who did a bunch of the Saw movies, and it’s what you’d expect from that respect. In one of the trailers, I saw intestines being ripped from a man. That’s really, really not my usual cup of tea.

I think what I want to happen is for everybody else to go rushing out to see it and come back to tell me all about it. Maybe then I’ll think about seeing it myself, probably right in time for the DVD release. In the meantime, I’ll just keep singing the songs and torturing myself over it.

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Eric’s company puts up fleet cars (cars used for business trips, etc.) for auction every so often, and we’ve toyed in the past with the idea of bidding on one. Well, this year, we test-drove one, picked our bid, and Eric submitted it this morning.

By a high bid of three whole dollars over the next-highest, we won a 2006 Chrysler Town & Country! Yahoo! We can actually separate the boys for trips! And it was a really good deal, too. Holy crap, I can’t wait to drive this thing; we’ll actually be able to carpool with people for the first time since having children! And it’ll have a radio, too - we haven’t replaced ours in our Saturn since it was stolen several years ago. Ah, the simple pleasures in life.

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For instance, until a few minutes ago, I’d never heard of “race bandits”: people who run without having registered for races, especially exclusive or big ones, like the Boston Marathon. I was confused when, while registering for the Kenosha Marathon, I came across the bold-lettered warning, “NO BANDITS.” My mind flashed to pistol-toting masked men, demanding Fuel Belts and running shoes from hiding places behind water tables…

Also, I can get a special reserved spot in a “Cheesehead Corral” (separated starting area, usually organized by pace times) if I’m willing to at least start the marathon in some sort of cheese-related apparel. I have no idea how to approach that. The fun of the idea appeals, but I don’t want to deal with anything like a Cheesehead hat (the ponytail holder could be a possibility, though), and I can’t find anybody selling technical shirts (no running in cotton!) that have anything to do with cheese. Could make my own…

Mmmm, cheese.

I want potatoes to go with the honey mustard pork roast I’m making for dinner tonight, but all we have are these freaky little fingerling potatoes Eric picked up for God only knows what reason. Seriously? What the heck am I supposed to do with these? They look like what grows into potatoes, not like real, y’know, potatoes…

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I’m feeling really, really happy right now. Of course, last night was full of serious discussion with Sam, whose school had a mock election and who came home on a bus with kids hanging out of every window, shrieking for Obama. Apparently, Sam got confused and when the announcements at the end of the day declared Obama to have won at his school, he thought that they were referring to the actual voter polling that was happening in the gym. He was overjoyed, and I felt sort of bad having to tell him that there was no actual news from the polls yet.

Then we talked electoral college, exit polling, and about how you don’t just vote for a candidate because everybody says that they’re cool. He got embarrassed about that and about not being able to come up with any other immediate (and valid) reasons for his preference, but I reassured him that this is why seven-year-olds don’t have the vote. You’ll have time to learn, Son, and I have faith that by eighteen, you’ll be safe to be let loose upon the democratic process. (Dunno about Gabe, though. That jury’s still out.)

Sam’s having a sensitive health issue he’d probably rather I not discuss (not that he has any compunctions about bringing it up in mixed company himself…), so I’ve got to pick him up from school at recess to get him to the doctor. Hopefully, that won’t go poorly and will be minimally invasive; he does his best to cooperate, but I don’t like to test that too far, remembering the blood draw of several months ago, when he bolted from the room and had to be chased across the building.

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I run on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays lately. Looking ahead, it’s calling for rain on Thursday and a rain-snow mix on Saturday, so I wanted to make the most of today in case I didn’t feel up to longer runs in inclement weather. Gabe didn’t have school today, which was fortunate in that I wasn’t limited by time, but unfortunate in that it meant that I’d be pushing the stroller for the run.

I did 13.14 miles. That’s just over a half-marathon. Still almost a mile shy of my longest run length pre-tendinitis, but respectable nonetheless, and I didn’t do those earlier long runs with a wind-filled stroller holding me back. I made sure to take some Sport Beans at about 5 miles and drink water throughout, and I felt pretty good…until the run was over, at which point I nearly fell over from cramps in the backs of my thighs and my bottom. I guess I was using those muscles to help push the stroller along. Ow.

Ran into many groups of election day volunteers, out canvassing neighborhoods to make sure people were voting. They were in yellow and looked pretty nonpartisan, which cheered me; they also appeared to mostly be older teens and young adults, which is always encouraging. They called out to me to ask if I’d voted, then cheered for me when I hollered back that I had. I did also encounter a group of what looked like young teenagers outside a school where there was voting; they were lounging around, looking lazy, until one of them suddenly yelled the name of a candidate at me. As it happened, it was the candidate for whom I voted, so I punched the air at him and they all hooted happily. Odd day, today, but nice. Well, except for the fact that Gabe has decided that he actually prefers the sound of the other candidate’s name, and every time I say my choice’s name, he starts growling and throwing tantrums.

Got my free coffee, too! You get yours?

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…and I’m just grateful to be back, hopefully, into a routine I can predict. Well, except that today Eric had an early meeting and missed the bus for it, so he had to take the car; I’m not sure I had anything I needed to accomplish today which would require driving, but you just know that now that it’s not an option, something will arise. Sam is nagging me to walk with him to the bus stop in half an hour, but that’s always a headache, as Gabe tries to tiptoe closer and closer to the curb (it’s a very busy street) and run away from me when it’s time to go home. I dunno. Also, Gabe has decided that the perfect outfit for today is his heavy Christmas sweater from last year, a pair of soccer shorts, and a fedora. I pick my battles, and that one’s all his.

On the other hand, letting Gabe loose might be a good thing today. Witness what he did on Saturday evening at the mall, when a cute shopgirl was flirting with him and giving him doughnuts and little cups of cider:

GABE: “Do you have any pie?”
GIRL (giggling): “No, we don’t have pie. Just doughnuts.”
GABE: “Do you like pie?”
GABE: “Oh, yes! I love pumpkin pie the best.”
GABE: “I’m selling some pies!”

Somehow he remembered what his current preschool fundraiser is. I quickly intervened to say that while his effort was laudable, we weren’t going to drive all the way back down to this mall in Illinois to deliver a frozen pie.

Supposed to be a lovely day today. Hey! Maybe today can be the day I coax my little chicken onto his tricycle and finally persuade him to pedal! I at last have figured out that it’s not so much a confusion about how it works as it is a fear to have his feet off the ground for more than a second. Bribery does scary things to this kid, and not always pleasant ones, but maybe this would be an appropriate venue for it. After all, internal motivation for trike riding can come later; right now, we just need to show him that he won’t face loss of life or limb while riding the thing.

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Today’s running club group, despite it being a relatively mild day, was on the sparse side. Maybe everybody had just a bit too much fun last night for Halloween. We ran the bike trail right by my house, so I got up early and did three miles as a warm-up before meeting everybody else on the trail. After that, it was a very quiet run - almost bordering on dull, really. My pace put me near the back of the pack and mostly alone; I ran with my headphones on, kept company by the latest episode of Phedippidations.

I’ve been bugging a friend (Sarah, I’m a-calling you out! ) to come run with us, but she’s been reluctant to join. Thinking back to when I was as new to running as she currently is (and she’s moving quickly along this path), I think I probably would have had the same hesitations; I was very slow, couldn’t run as far as I’d have thought most of a weekly running club could go, and I felt like I wasn’t really a “runner” yet, whatever that means. On this side of the equation, of course, I feel a bit different. The motivation I get from running with other people is way more than enough to outweigh any self-consciousness I might feel at being a middle or back-of-the-packer. It’s also sort of the same as the first time you run a race. All those thoughts about how it will look to come in near the end, to have to walk part or most of the way, to feel like people are pointing and whispering…it’s all bogus worrying, but you can’t really get that until you’ve ripped off the bandage and done it.

In May, I’ll run my first marathon. I’m saying that as a fact, not as a hope or a musing of possibility. The idea of doing it sounds preposterous, especially the “first” part, as it makes the assumption of at least one more to follow. I suppose that I could spend a few more years training, gearing up, making sure that when I finally did do 26.2 miles to a finish line, I could be sure of making a good showing and getting a Boston qualifying time. People do that. Something, though, is telling me that this, too, is a bandage that I just need to rip from my skin, so that I can move forward. It gets easier.

What are you putting off doing?

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