My Thanksgiving: Just, wow

Wednesday:
O'dark-thirty: Wake up. I have a sinus infection. My whole face feels like it's about to cave in. Pack food. Go.
Can't remember what time: Keep driving. I was given advice to avoid Chicago entirely. I did.
Been-on-the-road-too-long o'clock: Gary, IN is my least favorite city to drive through. The only traffic I hit all day.
Oh-crap-I-gotta-pee: I remember Amanda told me a human bladder can hold 200 CCs. I can tell you, an entirely full bladder is a painful experience.

Thanksgiving-Thursday:
No one wears a watch 'cause it's vacation.
Morning: Wake up. Have the cereal my mommy brought me. Later morning, RUN! It was a cold day when I started and ended up cold and rainy so I cut it short (sort of) at around 40:00. A nice and slow run because I haven't run since my trot around the lake a few weeks ago with Jenna.
Lunch: What's the point in eating right now?
Immediately after we don't really eat: All the cousins/aunts/uncles/kids (wow! there are a lot of people) showed up. I sat back and watched the mayhem. It's fun to watch my cousins suddenly act like adults because they have kids.
4:00pm This is the only exact time I know because it's time to EAT! We had my favorites including creamed corn, sweet potatoes, mash potatoes, stuffing (there were even more kinds of starch but I lost track) ten different kinds of pies, lasagna, and eggplant parmesean. (Did I mention there's this weird Italian contingent in my extended family?)
Later: Wow! There are a lot of people in this house.
In the evening: I had some coffee and was doing one of my favorite things: checking my newsreader. I read this article about Thanksgiving Turkeys and now cannot eat turkey. Ever. It's not a gross thing, just an ethical thing. (I wonder if my turkey bacon comes from the same turkeys that we use of Thanksgiving. That would be a big problem.)
Late: Tried to sleep. I didn't sleep so good (see the above mentioned sinus infection)

Friday:
Omyguswhutimeizit?: I'm up. I'm up. We went to Macy's where I got my first Christmas present: a wool coat. Charcoal, with a hood and a zipper. (Kelly: Is this like the coat it took you a year to find?) This eye-issue started at Macy's. I thought it was crap in my contacts.
1030 or 1100: Get back to the house. It's not crap in my contacts. It's my eye. Wow, does it hurt. BTW, I don't know what happened to my glasses but they're not in my suitcase. Liz walks around with no contacts and no glasses. Liz cant see the big-screen TV.
I ate lasagna in my semi-blind state.
1:30pm-ish: Back to shopping. I helped Mom pick out several items and Barnes 'N Noble (if you're reading this, they're not for you). The contacts were back in my this time and my eye hurt less but still noticeable.
Did I mention all the football we watched all day? Go Bearcats!
Then we went to Bath & Body and I got my soap for the year. No, seriously. We also shopped in Bed Bath & Beyond where I did not buy anything.
Dinner-time: I did beg Mom to come down to the basement and talk to me while I spent quality time on the elliptical. Then we ate again.
More shopping: This time on the internet. I bought my gift for Dad (Eating Well Magazine), the Melcher Christmas steal-a-thon Christmas Passing Party (a gift certificate to Kiva - hmm, I hope my family doesn't read this blog), and gifts for Amanda and Kelly (I do know better than to tell that one).
My eye is still bothering me, this time it is the contact. You know when you get that weird halo/blurry/funky thing lenses can do? That's what I've got going on. I'm not sure what the issue is but the pain's basically gone. I'll take the blurry vision.

Tomorrow: Who knows? I'm thinking about running but also thinking about going on the elliptical instead. I've got to get back into training for my winter 5k.

The ER: The Sweetest Thing I Heard After...

I did have to go to work today for a little while despite my adventure last night. While there, many of my colleagues told me to go back home. (Thanks.) I did have one thing I had to do and couldn't re-schedule, but I only stayed a few hours.

While I was explaining what happened, a colleague said the sweetest thing I heard today (besides Amanda taking me to the ER and staying up all night): "Do you want me to come and clean up the blood in your house?"

I made the comment that my bathroom looked like a crime scene. The colleague noted that some people just don't like cleaning that stuff up, and a problem of living alone is that any mess is my own. Luckily, while other people's blood makes me want to pass out, the site of my own doesn't bother me at all (unless it's gooooshing out of my face).

Still, I feel like one friend who will get out of bed and haul @ss across town in the middle of the night and another who will clean my house for me is a sign that I'm making a family here. Sweet.

my latest trip to the ER

Sunday night around 11:30pm: I went to sleep. All was normal.

Sunday night/Monday morning 1:30am: I woke up. At first I thought I had a runny nose but quickly figured out it was a bloody nose. Which would not stop. Applying pressure made it worse. A Google search (rarely a good idea in this situation) did yield some helpful information. The most consistent information was: if the bleeding doesn't stop in ten minutes, go to the ER.

1:40am: Still on the fence about the ER, but still bleeding.

1:41am: The biggest blood clot ever came out of my body. (Ewww.) At that point I was really scared. I called Amanda and begged for help.

2:00am (Thank goodness Amanda got her car fixed.) The bleeding slowed to a dull trickle. The magic words at the ER seemed to be, "I can't stop bleeding" because I got right in.

The timeline in the ER is a little blurry (Amanda could tell you better). But the doctor came in, looked at me, left, came back, left again, and then came back to actually work on my nose. It had basically stopped bleeding by then and I was feeling pretty guilty about dragging Amanda out of bed and across town for something that basically stopped on it's own.

And then the doc touched me. Gooosh. And we were back in bloody nose business. So she cauterized the area. Holy mother of Wow! did that hurt.

The doc came back to check on me and found that I'd sprung a leak so she cauterized more. This one didn't hurt so bad, but it still did not tickle.

4:07am: "We'll give that ten minutes to make sure it stops" says the doc.

5:00am: Still no doc to do one last check (thanks Abbott Northwestern) but the RN sent me home with follow up instructions. I called in sick/late to work and went to bed thankful for health, health insurance, and a friend I can wake up in the middle of the night from a dead sleep to sit with me in the ER so I won't be scared.

Running a marathon taught me to have faith...

Amanda and I were talking about a circumstance unrelated to running. I was enumerating the values of taking one particular action and Amanda was noting the possible risks and negative outcomes associated with said action. In response, I was encouraging faith in a positive outcome. I was trying to explain why I'm so sure the positive outcome is the one that will actually be created out of the circumstance. In explaining my point, I made a statement Amanda really liked:

Something about running a marathon taught me to have faith

I was saying that I had faith in my ability to create the experience I wanted out of running the marathon. Not the experience of running 26.2 miles in a certain time, or running a certain speed, but all the experiences that went along with it that were so positive like raising a whole bunch of money (there's still time to donate) for a great mentoring program and having people make a 26-mile-long line and cheer for me as I ran by (something you should all try at least once). The experience I meant was just knowing that the marathon was going to be a wonderful experience. I didn't know if I was going to finish or live to tell the tale. But even a few days before I ran I knew it was going to be great.

The other day we got some really discouraging news at work. That information highlighted a larger a concern we've all had about the something that's been going on (or not going on) at work for a long time. The news is discouraging on its face. But the circumstance actually creates an opportunity (finally) to address this larger issue. In the end, something really positive will come out of this, even though it didn't appear that way when it showed up on our doorstep. Why?

Because something about the experience helped me find my faith that I can create the reality I want.

Sidenote to my friend Amanda: I'll also refer you to what it says up top just below the title of the blog and tell you to Man Up.

I need to train for a new marathon, and I've found a miracle cure

I've had two unusually severe migraines this month. I'm not sure I got a migraine the entire time I trained for the marathon.

Ergo, I've decided I need something new to train for. I'm thinking not a marathon because I don't want to tear up my joints prematurely (I plan on using them for a long time to come) and I don't want to buy that many pairs of shoes again. I did hear tell of some Freeze-your-@ss-off-Half-Marathon in the middle of January that I will be, um, strongly encouraged to (read: if all else fails, shamed into) run with the St Paul runners so that may be my new goal. (For some reason, the 5k wasn't the correct motivation; something about the distance I think. But I can't wait to run it.)

I haven't run as much since the big day. For a while it was resting, then motivation, then the time changed and I have even more issues than normal about getting up because it's dark, plus add to that some days I should now be running at the Y and I have a whole separate mental block about that. I need some positive motivation to make me actually run at the Y. (I'm fine once I get started, but just the thought of it...) I'm open to any and all suggestions.

My new training plan, for now, is to train for the I-have-no-idea-why-I'm-running-when-it's-this-cold-Half-Marathon. All the running I did last year taught me I'm really happier going for a nice steady run for a couple of hours than hauling tail for a couple miles. And the Best 5k in Town will be a great speed training session for the longer race. (PS, you should list the Dreidel Dash over at RaceberryJam.)

In migraine related news, I found a freakin' miracle drug yesterday (as I lay in bed feeling like I was going to die). The migraine I had yesterday was the most severe one I've had in a long time and I was really desperate. I remembered an old (read: legal) prescription I had for some, um, really strong pain killers and I had some leftover pills.

Lord only knows why I didn't cut the tub in half, but I swallowed this entire horse pill (per the instructions on the bottle). I compare the strength of this medicine to using a power saw to cut a piece of paper in half.

Twenty minutes passed by and then: I didn't have a head ache, I wasn't in any pain, I couldn't remember pain, I swore my head and my entire body would never hurt again.

And then I slept for like five hours.

It's like a whole day of my life that I'll never get back. But those pills. Wow. What a relief to be pain free for all that time. I'm a little worried I'll get addicted (I haven't taken any more) but the sleeping part didn't feel right. Almost like a hangover without the sick, so I really don't want to take the pills ever again, despite their awesome pain relief.

the best dinner I've ever cooked

Yum!

I'm a little worried seriously concerned that I'll still be full tomorrow morning when I wake up to run. What'd I make?

Calamari with mushrooms and capers over greens in a goat cheese dressing. I'm calling it Liz's Awesome Dinner for short. I don't have a recipe that I can point you to, so let me tell you the story of how I made it up instead.

1.) I'd been seriously craving squid for a long time and my dinner at La Hacienda on Friday night merely held me over for a while but didn't fully satisfy the craving. (I was pretty careful this time about not letting Amanda steal my squid too.)

2.) Squid was on sale (I guess, what is a normal price for squid?) at the Co-op.

3.) I bought goat cheese yesterday. (Goat cheese should really become a staple of my diet.)

4.) I really wanted salad. I crave salad about as often as I crave seafood so I usually honor my desires.

5.) I had to go to the YWCA today which is only notable in that it got me out of the house and near the co-op to begin with.

I trawled around the web for some good calamari/squid/whatever-you-call-it recipes. Fried didn't sound good to me (read: frying food at home didn't sound good to me) and I don't own a grill. So I was left with broil/bake/roasting or the pan-seared/saute option. I found some recipe for baked squid with potatoes and olives and I thought I'd try that.

When I got to the co-op though, they had these local greens that I bought for my salad craving, and then I noticed the local mushrooms (which I supplemented with shitake mushrooms that are decidedly not local). At that point, I remembered I had capers at home and decided to do a piccata-like thing instead of the recipe I'd found.

I got home with my squids (frozen of course) and first had to learn how to thaw them properly. I did the bowl/change-the-water method which worked well and didn't waste a ton of water.

I sauteed my mushrooms and carefully added the capers right at the end.

I chopped the squid into rings (in a big WIN for me, the tentacles had been pre-separated and the eyes were already gone) and marinated the rings and tentacles for a while. I had to sear the squid pieces a few at a time so they could all make contact with the bottom of the pan. (This is the one part of this entire blog post it's ok for Mark, my cousin the chef, to read. He'd probably cringe at the rest of it.)

After all the saute magic, I added the "piccata" mix into the squid.

Then I created my own salad dressing or olive oil, red wine vinegar and goat cheese and added it to my yummy locally grown greens. I added the seafood mix and sprinkled with Parmesan. It was so good. Sorry to my friends reading this who don't eat squid for religious reasons. Not sorry to anyone reading this who just thinks squid is gross. You don't know what you're missing. Besides being yummy, my squids were a good source of important nutrients like copper and selenium (I'm sure I'll need those for something).

A good way to start a Sunday morning

This morning, I'd planned to wake up and run with the St Paul girls (whom Amanda refers to as my "running mates"). I woke up and checked Facebook (standard procedure in case anyone can't come) and got some good news on another front (more on that in a minute). I got to Lake Nokomis and met Jenna (the other St Paul girls dumped us). We had a great run. Lake Nokomis at sunrise is just about gorgeous. Plus the sun rise today was all purple and red and even more dramatic than usual.

After completing my exercise, I came home to verify and get more information on what I learned from Keith Ellison's facebook feed. We are one step closer to having an actual health care system. Although, as noted it aint a law yet. Find out all 39 democrats who voted against the bill. (Dennis Kucinich?!?) And, in other good news Gov. Pawlenty is clearly gearing up for a run for president in 2012. I'd just like to point out that health care in Minnesota is cost effective and provides excellent coverage despite the governor's many many attempts to eviscerate the very programs meant to keep costs down.

How does the US stack up against other nations in health care spending? It's what everyone has been saying. We spend more to cover fewer people and tend to score lower than other industrialized nations on public health indicators. (We can talk about abortion but the same people opposed to health care covering abortion have opposed expanding the health care that would reduce our ridiculously high infant mortality rates.)

Note: Apparently this post will be about politics.

Next up in health care: Legalize pot. I learned recently that many other industries are opposed to this because hemp is a better fiber for clothing, rope, and pulp for paper and can be produced with less stress on the environment. Also, in the Netherlands (where pot is basically legal) there's actually a smaller percent of the population actually using it than places where it's illegal.

And I think this is just cool. What a great idea, to take apart HIV and make it carry something that makes us better rather than sick.

Now, H1N1 is all over the news and I'm sure everyone reading this knows someone who's had it already. (Do those people need the shots then?) Here's the treatment method I'm sure we all want our kids to learn. And the tragic real life example of isolation and H1N1. (Although, honestly, how many of you, when you read that story thought "I can see Russia from my house".) And, yet another reason I don't shop at Wal-Mart. (And another reason employers should be required to provide health insurance.)

Hopefully stepping away from topics that can piss people off, I recently discovered I love this show.

I've always wondered what Hydroponic gardening means, especially since last week when I dropped a ton of money on tomatoes grown in a hydroponic garden in Minnesota instead of tomatoes grown some other (less expensive?) way in some far away state. I think I could totally do that in my windows.

Spell Check: Doesn't Catch Everything

Oh, oh, Salt Lake City. Thanks for this gem.

Just a little story from my day

The funniest part of my day:
After Amanda and I ate an awesome dinner at La Hacienda, we drove seperate to her house. She was in the lead and I got stopped by a few lights that she sped right through proceeded through safely. So I was shocked when I got to her apartment door and it was locked.

I'd already seen her car parked out on the street.

Did she come in the back door (which never happens)? I unlocked the apartment door (with the magical key I don't actually have because it would be against the rules). The apartment was dark.

Where is Amanda?

I called her. No answer. It went to voice mail after two rings. Now I'm starting to get nervous.

Go back downstairs. I verify that it is, in fact, Amanda's car parked outside and not some red-car-impostor. Where is she? Visions of calling the police and reporting my best friend abducted between her car door and apartment door are dancing through my head. I've had a rough enough day, I don't need this at the end of it.

I started to go back upstairs to think. And then I heard her voice. A neighbor had called her into his unit to "look at art". Ha, a likely story.

After all that...

After all that work I did figuring out how to vote, I almost forgot to actually do it.

Again, I took my mentee to the bus stop this morning. Early. And then I had to be in downtown St Paul at 8:15am. (Yeah, I laughed when I heard what time they wanted me too.) So I couldn't vote before work.

I didn't have breakfast either. Which pretty much set the tone for the day. I've been hungry ever since. Someone finally let me leave after 4:30p tonight. After trying to convince a someone from my office that netbooks are a waste of money for the way our staff use computers. (Sorry but the person they have picking out computers for us, it's like handing me some x-rays and asking me to diagnose a tumor.) I'm not sure it worked.

So I was exhausted when I got home, and even less likely to go out because it was raining. I made myself a pretty nice dinner (eggs, bacon, bagel, and roasted veggies) and was sitting enjoying it when I thought...

"Oh %#@&!"...I haven't voted yet. Which I left immediately to do.

The results of my first Ranked Choice Voting (also known as Instant Runoff Voting) experience: I'll tell you about it the week before Christmas when my vote is finally counted. The ballots were fine, easy to use, the same as the ones from the previous years. It was more the homework I had to do ahead of time picking who to vote, although I probably would have had to do a similar amount of homework because I was picking people I'd never heard of for offices I didn't even know existed (hello Board of Estimation and Taxation). And now I'm here typing and wearing my "I voted" sticker which is really the main reason I vote.

An interesting day, and it wont be the last one...

Today was a looong day.

RUN!!!
It started at 6am when my alarm went off. I had a little internal debate. I surprised myself even by actually getting out of bed to run. My new 5k race prep plan is called "run fast up hills". I only had a short time to run this morning, so I did just under 4 miles. Turning on the "elevation" feature will reveal, I was fairly serious about the "hills". None of them is too tall, but some are pretty long for being hills in my neighborhood. Side question: Why does GMaps have the bike paths but not the running paths on their maps?

School!
I took my mentee to her school but stop this morning. (Why does she need someone to drive her to her bus stop? It's not the teenager's fault but please don't get me started.) That's the reason I actually couldn't do a long(er) run. It's ok, it probably only cut off a couple miles.

Work, work, work
I was the second one in the office today, just after 8am. I pulled up and most of the lights were off but there was one car in the lot that I didn't recognize. One of my bosses got a new car it turns out. (Guess who was first at the office.) And I worked. And worked. And worked. My last home visit was at 5pm. And then I actually went back to the office for a little while.
One of the volunteers in our office (actually, our only office volunteer) had a death in the family so I left the office and went down the street to Sholom for the shiva. (Follow the link for an explanation if you don't know what I'm talking about.) It started at 7pm (that's right, I was working on hour 12 at that point...).

Toilet Paper!
Sometimes, a Target run is just what's required and tonight was no exception. I got coupons (probably everyone in Minneapolis reading this got the same coupons) from Target for their brand of, like, everything including toilet paper. When I got to the store, the shelves were completely bare of the Target brand. (That's how I know you all got the coupons too.) No worries, I successfully picked a different brand to meet my needs.
Also, I was happily able to buy beer tonight, so I'm chillin' now. (The fact that I can still type coherently tells you not to worry.)

Rest
Am now drinking a beer. Will go to bed soon.

What tomorrow holds:
1. Pick up the mentee even earlier than today (7:30a) becuase...
2. My first home visit starts at 8:15a tomorrow. (Now seriously, why did I schedule that?)
3. Which means I probably won't be able to vote until after work. I will feel naked all day without my "I voted" sticker.

Another note about voting:
Both of my posts (I've only written two) mentioning instant run off voting, otherwise known as ranked choice voting seem to draw comments from people who can't possibly read my blog on a regular basis. (If you're reading this as a "note" in Facebook, you'll need to head over to the actual blog A4bats to see the comments.)

I'll let you know tomorrow what I think about ranked choice voting. Although, it's possibly I wont let you know for several months becuase the City of Minneapolis is not allowed to use electronic ballot counters that are not federally certified. And there are no federally certified machines that can handle instant run off voting. (Iam not making this up...) Here's one place I read it:

Since there is no federally- or state-certified voting equipment capable of counting a Ranked Choice Voting election, the election will be hand-counted to determine the winners. Minneapolis election judges will begin working on the hand-count Nov. 4, and winners in individual races will be known as the count proceeds in the coming weeks. The hand-counting is tentatively expected to be complete by Dec. 21.

My ward is the second to last to have our votes counted. My thing is, if this is in multiple states, how do we not have a federally certified machine that can count my vote. A hand count? To save money? Although apparently in the next few years there will be a federal machine that can count votes this way. All I can say is, don't laugh my St. Paul friends. This question is on your ballots this year.

Ranked choice voting: doing my homework

Election day is coming. This is the first year Minneapolis is doing the ranked choice thing. It's new and I want to be prepared, so I spent some time tonight thinking about my vote. First thing about "ranked choice": There was primary day last month when I felt naked without my "I Voted" sticker. (I didn't get one because ranked choice eliminates the primary.)

Here's the thing. I am a reasonably well educated adult, so this whole voting thing should be easy for me. Wow. Because it took me at least an hour to figure out who I wanted on the park board (where I pick 3 at large members and one from my park district), Board of Estimation and Taxation (who knows why I spent time on that because it may not even exist after this election) and what to do about the City Charter Amendment Question (to eliminate the Board of Estimation and Taxation). The charter amendment question was the hardest to decide. I had a hard time finding information from either side I thought I could trust. City council and the mayor is also up for election but I already knew basically who I want to vote for in those elections.

So, with everyone picked out, I had to actually make a list so I remember who I want. You'd think it'd be easy right? There are no less than 12 names on my list, plus instructions on how to vote on the amendment. (I've never heard of any of these people. I hope they're all real.) And I didn't even use up all three choices for the Mayor or City Council. (I know. The list could have been even longer.)

What I've learned from the process:
1. Ranked choice really requires some serious thought before election day. It's like homework.
2. I suddenly care about the park system. (Duh, given the insane amount of time I spent running through our parks this spring and summer.) I told my mom what was important to me about the park system (meaning for me to enjoy running around the lakes) is what time the bathrooms are unlocked in the winter (because they take away the biffies in the winter for some inexplicable reason) and how often the paths (lakes and parkways) are cleared. (Who can say single issue voter?)
3. When I think about the parks, I always consider the rec centers and sports teams as separate from the lakes, parkways, and the falls. That's a very inaccurate thought.
4. League of Women Voters of Minnesota is an excellent website that really helped me make decisions about my vote. They also endorsed a position on the City Charter Amendment, helpful since it's the only site other than the "yes" and "no" sites of any credibility. WIN. Second WIN for the league, their national chapter has an explanation of health care that doesn't make my head explode.

Since the marathon, I haven't really been motivated to run... but I cooked a lot today

Today was actually one of the first day I was really motivated to do much of anything. I was going to do a long(ish) run, then have a beer and watch the game. Alas, it is not possible to buy alcohol in Minnesota on a Sunday. (I know. It is ridiculous.) So I had no need to run to burn of calories in anticipation of alcohol. I was additionally confused by this whole fall back an hour thing. I spent most of the morning laying on the couch instead. (Win.)

I got up long enough to go to the Co-op where I dropped over $60, mostly in produce. Among other things, I bought fresh tomatoes. What's that? Oh look, a pig flying by... I then spent an awesomely productive day cooking. I'm not going to document it here. (Although, if you like reading about those things and finding new recipes, may I suggest my friend Chris' blog.)

What did I make? I was jonesing for some soup. A lot of times at work, if I eat soup I don't eat anything else so I need a hearty soup with protein and carbs.

First, I made White Bean and Vegetable Soup. I made it basically as described there.I used the blender to puree about eight cups of the soup, as opposed to the two recommended in the recipe. That's more a texture than a taste thing. Also, I will reheat these in the microwave so it's better if the ingredients are a more uniform consistency and size.

Tomato Soup was a late addition to my menu but I badly wanted some. This recipe looked good as it included lentils, meeting my protein and carb requirements. Plus, cooked tomatoes are like the healthiest thing in the world. Obviously, this was the reason for the fresh tomatoes I bough. This one, well, you would recognize the ingredients from the recipe but not much else. I used big tomatoes (not cherry tomatoes) because they were the only ones I could buy that were grown locally. All I know is they were "from the vine" and they were the round red ones. (People tell me there's a difference between roma, heirloom, cherry, etc, but raw tomatoes make me shudder so I've never done a taste test.) I roasted the onion with the tomatoes. After the roasting, I pureed the tomatoes, onion and garlic, and then cooked them with the lentils. I don't know why I wasn't in the mood for pureed lentils. Perhaps it was all the pureeing with the other soup. I think I used way more lentils than were called for, but yum nonetheless. I confess, I did have to add a bit of sugar to the soup to cover the recognizable bitter tomato taste, but dude, I bought fresh tomatoes and actually turned them into something I will eat.

Last, I made roasted vegetables which is so much my specialty there's not even a recipe I can refer you to. Today, it was roasted broccoli, cauliflower and edamame. (Firefox doesn't think "edamame" is a word, but I am spelling it correctly.) I always toss the vegetables in olive oil, salt and pepper, and then pick any additional flavors. Today, I added sesame oil and lemon juice. Apparently, there's a roasted edamame recipe for every day of the year. I highly recommend them. They're yummy and have iron, which I always have trouble including in my diet. Next to Brussels sprouts, edamame is my favorite thing to roast.

I know. We should all send winter coats down to Hell and tell the air traffic controllers to look out for flocks of pigs when I willingly by Brussels sprouts and tomatoes. Also, seriously, I did not know "Brussels sprouts" was spelled with an "s" at the end of the first word. The co-op today did have Brussels Sprout stalks today, which I'd never seen before.

Last night, I cleaned out my freezer, which was pretty depressing. There was a whole bunch of food I cooked that I wound up not eating. Those included paad thai with the wrong (and consequently overcooked) noodles, an early attempt at roast vegetables which did not go so well, and some quinoa thing I should've made a lot less of to begin with.

Happily, the freezer is now full of stuff I am much more likely to eat. About eight single serve containers of my white bean soup, three of my tomato soup, and three of my roasted vegetables. Nom nom nom.

Now that I've got food for the entire month of November, I just need to run so I don't embarrass myself in the Dreidel Dash. By the way, Beth, on numerous occasions, has told me the course is totally flat. Here's the route. However, turning on the elevation feature of Gmap Pedometer reveals that Beth is smoking something good. It's ok, I need to learn to run UP hill in a 5k.

Danger: Bowling may cause tight ham strings. Wait. What?

No. Seriously.

Yesterday we went bowling. (My team from my office. Yes, my job is that cool.) We bowled two games, some people just bowled one. My wrist is mildly stiff. My ham strings though. Wow. Super tight. They've been tight ever since I took this really long run.... But one of my colleagues, who did not just run a marathon, had similar symptoms so we decided to blame bowling.

I got a 98 in my second game, which was the high score of the day. I got 3 strikes that game. I'm considering the first game I bowled to be a warm up. Although both times my score was higher than my age.

I'm starting to miss running, feeling like it's time to get back out there. I ran once this week, worked out once and took an hour walk. And now it's raining. So I'm thinking about waking up early and working out at the Y again. I haven't been able to get to the Y much this week because I've been taking my mentee to the bus stop. That situation just highlights the ridiculousness of several systems she has to deal with, not the least of which is that no one except the principal can change her school bus stop and the principal is apparently never there.

I also made my Thanksgiving (my favorite holiday) plans. Next step: getting the days off work. Ever since I got done with the marathon, I've been getting super excited for Thanksgiving.

I think I have a sinus infection

I think I have a sinus infection. Although it's not totally clear. Last night a sinus headache gave me the worst migraine I've had in a long time. The migraine is mostly gone (oh crap, I just realized I forgot to feed my fish), now I just don't want to eat.

(My first thought when I started typing was "I wonder if this will show up on Facebook now, damn news feed")

Life after the marathon is going ok so far. My first instinct was to pick a new marathon to train for. Although my brain tells me I should take a lot of time off. A lot of you will be screaming "Liz, you're young, train, have fun". I think you're partly right. But I'm young, my knees have to last a lot longer than you old geezers you more experienced runners. Really I watched someone my parents age run her whole life and then not be able to run anymore because of arthritis. And if I had to pick between running a marathon every year for the next ten years or never running a marathon again but still running 5ks when I'm 80, I'll take the running with the senior citizens option.

I'm starting to get excited for Thanksgiving too. (Speaking of running) because I always take an awesome long run to justify the insane helping of sweet potatoes that follow. Mmm, sweet potatoes.

BTW, at work, I sent someone home sick last Wednesday (the day I flew to Amsterdam) 'cause I was afraid she was going to give her crap to me before I ran. Good thing I did because she was H1N1 positive. I just saw her today. She looks much better, glad to see it.

One more post from Amsterdam

I got an hilarious email from my parents the other day. Basically the son of a family friend is also (somewhat accidentally) living in Amsterdam and I should email him.

Sometimes (rarely) I just do what I'm told. I haven't seen this person, we figured, since I was five years old. But I emailed him anyway. We actually just went out tonight. I had a really nice time. The two of us went to a really chill restaurant near the hotel (which it turns out is about a five minute walk from his house) and hung out. I had a really good time.

I think the rest of the crew is out at a steak house (which makes sense with three vegetarians in the group). Although by now they're probably out at a bar or, um, coffee shop enjoying themselves. I've learned that I can't consume too much alcohol after a race either, so I'm fine hanging out with a few stragglers in the hotel.

I had this dream a few nights before the marathon that I ran the marathon and finished and then couldn't remember the run. That's not totally how I feel now, although it does feel like it was a lot shorter than five and a half hours. As a whole. Some parts of the race feel like they took a lot longer than that.

And I still can't think about running. I'm taking a break. Maybe I'll start swimming again or something. Just kidding. But taking a week off does still feel like the right thing to do.

More on the marathon

I have no idea what I've said already.  Here's kind of a breakdown of the race:

0-7.5K: The "first loop" was a nice little jog through the city center and through one of the parks.  It was around 3 or 4k that a power walker passed me.  No joke.  My roommate told me powerwalkers can walk 8 minute miles so I didn't feel so bad.

7.5k - 16k: Took me down to the shores of the Amstel River.  I could see everyone running on the other bank for a looooong time.  It also had some bizarre loop in it, probably only to add distance.  It just made the water stop farther away.

16k-21k:  Probably the prettiest part of the course, which is really saying something.  The Windmill was right before the water stop.  There were sheep and cows and geese.  I couldn't believe there was so much pasture land so close to the city.  And, I took 10:00 off my former half marathon time.  WIN.

21k-25k: I just tried to keep it together for this part.  I thought I was going through a park but it was more like an industrial park.  I was getting lonely and tired.  

25K-30K: It was around 27 or 28k that I started throwing in short walks.  It was much later in the race than I thought I'd walk.  This was also the point where my back started to really hurt.  It was a little bit of stretching and a little bit of some other issues.  I took my second dose of ibuprofen somewhere around 25k though, so I knew I'd be better.

30k-35k:  I saw the happiest clock I've ever seen in my life.  Becuase it was around this point that I figured out I could almost walk the rest of the way and still finish.  I started walking a little more, but I was still running a lot.  It was somewhere in here that Eminem's "Loose Yourself" because a big part of my strategy.  Also it was about here that the half-marathoners tried their darndest to run me over.  The half marathon started about 3 hours after the full started.  I was happy for the company at the end of the race, despite the risk to my physical safety.

35k-40k: Where is the freaking water?  Nope, the water stops are still every 5k, even though it's the end of the race.  Mercifully the rain started about here so I could cool off a little.  I was walking more frequently by this part of the race, but received much more encouragement from the half marathoners than the fasties who tried to harm me earlier.  

40k-42k: Lots and lots of walking.  By this point, I knew I was going to finish.  I must have awesome shoes because despite the blister the size of a strawberry my feet did not hurt.  Lots and lots of encouragement from other runners.  And then, I saw the stadium, took one last walk and absolutely goosed it to the finish line.

Other thoughts:

Last night at our pasta dinner, Ryan told us some story about being a Bolder Options mentor and remembering the kids when we ran.  So it was awesome when "Man in the Mirror" came on near the end of the race and I totally did think about the kids.  I was a mentor for those of you who didn't know.

I sort of knew ahead of time that this was going to be a really fun day and that I was going to finish.  It's the closest to absolute faith I've ever been.  Nice.

I just got distracted by people asking me to go drink and dance so I'll have to finish this later...

Liz trains for a marathon: Liz Runs a marathon

Today was the day.  My arms are so sore I'm not sure for how much longer I'll be able to type.  The marathon was an absolute blast.  I thought if there was a 5:15:00 pace group, that's who I would have run with.  Turns out, in Europe, no one runs that slow.  So I was pretty lonely in the back of the marathon.  

Luckily, about the time I was really starting to get bored/anxious/tired the half marathoners started running by so I had some company again.  

I'd love to tell you more, but I've run for five hours and only eaten a bannana, two small (read halloween size) sour patch kids and a granolla bar, plus a roll, cheese and some granolla and yogurt for breakfast.  I've been notified that food is now ready, so I'm going to chown down.

More later.

Look before you sit: A follow up

Ok, after this morning's run and the accompanying discussion, I wanted to give an update. Plus, I'm sitting here having my heart broken by the Minnesota Twins (I knew they were going to loose the series, but I was hoping for a win at home first) and I have the biggest blister ever in life on my foot (It's ok, I think I just need to re-lace my shoes, plus I have Heather's awesome body glide plan.) so I needed something to cheer me up.

I got curious about this whole "rat swimming up into the toilet" thing because I'd never heard anything like it. A quick google search took me straightdope.com. That article really posed more questions than it answered. Most importantly: What do you do when you find a rat in your toilet?

So I headed over to asktheexterminator.com, a site which should only be referenced for horror movies. Why? Who wants to know this:

[FTA:]Rats are good underwater swimmers. (They can swim one-half mile in open water and can tread water for up to three days.) It's totally possible for a rat to walk up a horizontal soil pipe from the sewer, swim through the water-filled piping inside the toilet, and surface in the toilet bowl.

Three days?

I also learned this has been a phenomena in places outside Minnesota like Arizona and my home state of Ohio (poopreport.com, hee hee). So apparently I was wrong about thinking this rat issue was regional. (Black widows are still scarier.)

The Twins still haven't finished breaking my heart yet (bottom of the 9th, now 4-1 Yankees, 1 out), oooh hey, why is that person running across the field? And why are they showing replays instead of showing me what's happening? It's not like he's naked.

To stave off the heart break, if only for a moment, I'll just add:
Bonus WIN to straightdope.com for taking a dipsh!t caver spelunker (no way was that guy a caver) to task on accurately portraying the likelihood of getting rabies from bats and for telling me about Merlin Tuttle's new job. I thought he was still in Texas. FTA:

As for bats--well, let me tell you, buddy, they don't take kindly to being libeled by disreputable rat lovers such as yourself. Bat biologist Edward Stashko of Oakton College, Des Plaines, Illinois, estimates that less than one-half of 1 percent of bats are rabid. He says many common misconceptions about bats, such as that they can carry rabies and infect humans without themselves being affected by the disease, grew out of faulty scientific research from the 30s, no doubt conducted at the behest of the rat lobby.

According to a 1982 report in National Wildlife, only ten people in the U.S. and Canada have contracted rabies from bats in more than 30 years. Exclaims Dr. Stashko: "More people have died from lawn mowers than from bats. Statistically you have a better chance of being hit by lightning than being bitten by a rabid bat."

Liz Trains for a Marathon: Liz learns about regional differences...

The runners of St. Paul took me out for a short (ha) little run this morning, only 7.5 miles or so. We did my new favorite route around Ft. Snelling. (I am so sick of looking at those lakes...)

On the way back, after the big run up the hill where Beth smoked everyone, we were talking about something that is apparently an issue in Minnesota. I didn't hear the whole conversation because I was gasping for air by that point. But the salient point seemed to be that several of their friends (or perhaps you yourselves) have had an issue with sewer rats crawling backwards up into toilets. One of the runners admitted that her fear was *ahem* being surprised by a rat in the toilet. (How can you not know there's a rat in your toilet before sitting down?)

It just goes to show, where I grew up, everyone's biggest fear is being similarly surprised. By a Black Widow. Or a Brown Recluse. In the outhouse. It's apparently quite easy to miss these little guys in the outhouse and we've all got our own little routines for checking. So, while I live in Minnesota and it's going to snow for the second time in October tonight, at least the creatures that could surprise me will be easier to spot.

The St. Paul runners may never tell a funny story in front of me again....

Liz Trains for a Marathon: Liz finds the prettiest spot in the city

I have started the glorious taper of marathon training. But that means running like 10 or 12 miles instead of 18 or 20. Due to a change in my schedule at work, this is one of the last Wednesday mornings I'll have free for a long run so the taper couldn't come at a better time.

Being finished with that 20-mile run, the taper, and the construction on Minnehaha Parkway at 35W (I've only mentioned it a few times...) is also awesome because it means I don't have to look at the lakes anymore. Don't get me wrong, I think they're gorgeous. We all know how I feel about Lake Calhoun and Lake Harriet at sunrise. But I'm sick of seeing them.

This morning I took the Minnehaha Falls, Fort Snelling-ish path that Beth taught me a while ago. There were very few runners out this morning. I assume all the runners are still too tired from the marathon to move. There were some deer and I did hear woodpeckers as well. I looked for Eagles but the path was too well covered for me to see any. The path down to Ft Snelling is a gorgeous, 1.5 mile delicate slope leading down to the river until about fifty feet before the fort. At that point, there is a truly nasty hill. I've never successfully run up the thing, but today I came as close as anyone I know. I only walked about 30 feet of it.

Usually by the fort we cross into St Paul and run up the river parkway but I didn't want to go that far today so I stayed on the Minneapolis side and ran by the Fort. Where I found an amazing view of the river, the bridges and downtown Minneapolis. Ft Snelling is actually at a decent elevation (just based on my view) so the vista is quite impressive. It's even prettier with the leaves starting to turn.

A few other things I noticed on my run:
1. Some of the individual packages of sour patch kids have fewer kids than the others. Bummer when you're running hungry.
2. It's amazing how a surface that should be flat always appears to look like I'm running up a hill. Is there some sort of scientific optical-illusion explanation for this phenomenon?
3. When did 11.5 miles get so short?
4. When did 11.5 miles get so fun?
5. When did I learn to run up hills?
6. In the summer, the only thing that would make me happy at the end of a run is an ice bath. At any other time, I'm usually freezing the second I stop running and the only thing that will make me happy is a hot shower. It's the only thing that restores my body temperature to normal.

I don't think I'm really a hill climber yet. I made the mistake of voicing the opinion that it would be fun to run the Flying Pig, Cincinnati's marathon. I grew up there and a couple people I run with have family living there or from there. It's not such a bad idea but it does mean
-I will need to learn to run UP really big hills
-I'll finish one marathon and immediately start training for another
-I'll be training in the winter which means either cold or running around the track at the Y. Although running with friends in the cold, maybe that wouldn't be so bad...

I was a little bummed when I got home and found out the route was 11.5 miles, not the 13 I thought it was for some reason. I was also a little frustrated with the time my iPod told me it took because I felt like I went much faster than what the time would indicate.

Maybe I'll take this same route Sunday, my last long-ish run before the big day.

Liz Trains for a Marathon: Liz cannot freakin' wait!

I am so excited to go run a marathon now! Why you ask? (Good question!).

First off, I figured out leaving the course open for 6 hours is a 13:44 pace, not a 13:30 like I originally thought.

But seriously, today was the Twin Cities Marathon. If you're from out of town, it's a gorgeous run along the lakes and river in Minneapolis and St Paul and finishes at our state capitol building. I knew several people running. Congratulations to Heather who qualified for Boston (looking forward to some good winter training I hope), Beth who has a big birthday tomorrow and Robin who ran with Beth, and to Yvonne who was a last minute entry.

For entertainment Beth (different from the Beth who ran, I know, try to keep up), Jenna and I met in St Paul, biked over to Lake Calhoun (mile 6), cheered for everyone, then hauled tail over to Lake Nokomis (just past half-way), and cheered for everyone again. At that point, Jenna left us to cheer on Heather (who runs at an obscenely fast pace and had stretched her lead over our other friends), and Beth and I went to the River Parkway (mile 17) and then met everyone one last time at the top of the hill where they all pour on to Summit Ave. Here's the route we took. It wasn't exactly the same as the marathon course, so we were able to get ahead of the runners in several places.

It was standing at Cretin and Summit that made me most excited to run in two weeks. It just looked like a lot of fun to be out running and having everyone cheering the runners on. I hope the marathon is a big deal in Amsterdam because now I'm looking forward to 26.2 miles of people cheering for me.

The bike ride was very fun cold and fun. I had lots of layers for my morning.

Once we got done riding and cheering, I sped off to Chipotle (between not eating breakfast and biking 20 miles, it's ok) and then to Kelly's house to meet the apple picking crew.

Apple Picking was quite fun. I got to do lots of tree climbing. Amanda made a bunch of apples fall on her head. (That's because she was saying "I know, we've read this before" over my voice as I was reading how not to make apples fall out of the tree.) I didn't buy apples but I did eat lots of them. Ironically, even with me not buying any apples, I believe we left with more apples than in any previous year. (Four pecks this year to three pecks in all previous years.) I did enjoy hot apple cider and an apple doughnut.

Now I'm at home, too tired to move. I need to think about dinner and also call my parents. What am I thinking about dinner? Where can I buy it from? But I need to be back to call Mom and Dad. Oh, the conundrum.

I'm looking forward to training the next couple of weeks also, just running 4 days a week, and the longest run is like 10-12 miles. I'm so excited about the marathon, I feel the urge to go for a really long run. I understand that's bad so I'll try and contain myself.

Going Pink

Every year at this time, I turn my blog PINK for October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Why? I have no idea. One year, it just seemed like the thing to do, so I tried it. And I've just done it every year since then.

I think we need to have a marathon-awareness color. A few friends are running the Twin Cities Marathon tomorrow. I'm going to go out and cheer them on give them food and cheer them on in the morning. I'm sure this will get me even more excited to actually run the marathon. Probably by the end I'll be saying "I don't want to wait two more weeks..."

Last Sunday was the 20-mile run. It could have gone better but I think it could have gone much worse. After that run, I'm mostly working on staying calm and relaxing during the run, a strategy I employed with great success during my first half-marathon.

Tomorrow is also our annual apple-picking weekend, another one of my favorite traditions. I fear that tomorrow will involve lots of mud as it's been raining for about nineteen straight days. Maybe this year we'll be mud zombies instead of hanging from the trees like monkeys. Actually, my favorite part of apple picking is climbing the trees. Amanda and Kelly seem to make all this awesome food after apple picking, which I've never been inspired to do. (I think it's because of all the apple pie Dad made when I was growing up.) I mostly just pack them for lunch. Although this doesn't look so hard.

Best. Picture. Ever.

I'm not going to launch into my opinions on the health care debate here becuase I know it will annoy my Pooky Bear. But this picture... hee hee. I'm not sure if it's someone who doesn't understand the system, I prefer to think it's someone who's bright and funny putting an hilarious spin on things.



Picture from here.

Liz trains for a Maraton: Liz Drops 5:00 from her 10K time

Today was the Bolder Dash, my favorite race of the year, and the only 10K race I've ever run. I ran the 10K last year too. It's really hard to get my head around doing two laps around that lake.

To start things off, Sen Klobuchar came out to thank Bolder Options, mentors, and families, which was cool. She said she couldn't run because she had some other events. I wonder how she would have done.

At the starting line.

I did take 4:56 (read 4 minutes and 56 seconds for non-runners) off my time from last year. (No wonder I felt like I was going to die after the race...). That's quite an achievement over last year when 10K was about the longest I'd ever run. It's all that marathon training paying off.

After I ran the 10K, Dad and I walked the 5K. We were pretty near the end of that race. But he didn't want to run. Not sure where the running gene comes from, maybe not him. He plays tennis though which makes me think he'd be a great sprinter. After moving my body the equivalent of about 10 miles (there was walking to and from the car, and to and from starting lines plus the 15K of actual movement) we went for lunch and now I'm about to have a siesta.

Not sure what we'll do for dinner tonight...

This article is for Amanda

Even though she doesn't need it because our pictures were completely, perfectly, exactly straight and level no matter what anyone says.
How the rest of y'all can hang perfectly level artwork...

Liz Trains for a Marathon: Matter over Mind would be nice

Today, I did this route. As you can see, it's not the "Minnehaha Parkway to the Lakes and back" route any normal human being would have preferred. But it got the job done. MnDot (or whoever) finally took my advice and actually made it clear that no one should be underneath 35W at Minnehaha Parkway. It's really clear, disappointingly clear now. So clear that you can't fake not knowing and going through anyway.

My stomach and I got along much better this week than the last couple of weeks. I think part of the problem is the Gu Gels freak out my entire GI tract. (Raspberry is the best flavor I've found BTW.) It doesn't create *ahem* problems, but I just don't want to run when my body feels that way. Today I tried bringing a granola type bar with me too. That seemed to work really well. I could actually eat that while I was running in little bites and it wasn't so sugary. Also, Gatorade is disgusting. I don't remember it being that bad.

I'm also able to identify more of the abrasions I'm getting on my skin from running. I still have one on my belly button from my Fuel belt and waste line of my pants all coming together in the same place. The one I originally thought was from a sleeveless shirt under my arm was actually the armband that holds my iPod. How'd I find that out? It changes sides when I change the armband.

Today's run was good because for the most part my stomach wasn't trying to kill me. My body actually performed well overall. I wasn't even in a ton of pain when I got home and was able to run up some hills at the end which I've never been able to do at that distance.

My brain, on the other hand, totally freaked out around mile 14 and wanted to be done. It's much harder for my body to fight my brain than the other way around. So it was really hard to make my body keep running. I think part of it is that I always run that same route (only partly because Heather put the fear of god into me about Pike Island) and my body knows when it wants to be done and how much is left. I'm hoping Amsterdam will be new and interesting enough to distract me for much longer. Or maybe I'll teach my body to overcome my mind in the next few weeks. Or maybe both. We'll see.

Discretion: The better part of valor

An hilarious story from today: I had to go speak to the Executive Director. I knocked on her door and looked through her window. At the boss. Playing Freecell. She closed the game before inviting me in. (If it had been anyone else I would've given them a hard time, but I decided not to in this case.)

Right now I'm thinking of doing a long run tomorrow but I can't decide the mileage or the route I want to take. My options are basically anything between 10 and 20 miles for distances. For routes, I can go do the grand tour (kind of what I'm leaning towards, but hesitate because of the 35W construction issues), or Minnehaha Falls/Ft Snelling/Pike Island (which seems like it would be fun but it might be kind creepy and isolated that early in morning). Local runners: what should I do?

Well... just wow, again

::Steps onto soap box::

I finally got around to watching President Obama's speech to congress from last night. I know, I can't even use the "no cable" excuse on this one. I loved the part where the president talked about health care as a social justice issue. (Anyone who went to the U of M social work program understands...) And I was reminded again how valuable the time I spent outside standing in a looong line on this day was.

If your curiosity is piqued, or if you've been under a rock, check out the full speech here by scrolling down to the bottom of the text of the speech. (I suppose you could just read the speech there too.)

::Steps down::

Liz Trains for a Marathon: My GI Tract is still mad at me...

I *ahem* attempted to do a long run this morning. It was a mixed success. The minus column is obviously that my GI tract is still mad at me, I didn't feel so hot after about mile... well I didn't have it mapped so we'll put that in the minus too, but I cut the run shorter than I wanted.

The plus column is that I found a new route which doesn't involve me running through construction zones under 35W and I think I know why my GI tract is trying to kill me and it's not really my fault.

In the undecided column, is there anyone who can tell me which path leads to Pike Island? I was confused.

Liz Trains for a Marathon: An Open Letter to....

1) Katy Perry: Thank you for my new favorite running song.

2) MnDOT: I'm renewing my earlier concern about freaking closing Minnehaha Parkway under 35W with no explanation or, you know, detour. The last time I ran through there, the sidewalks were at least closed on the east and west side of the bridge. Today at o'dark-thirty, there were no sidewalk closures marked on the east side of the bridge. Although as soon as I was under the bridge I met a huge construction barricade and all of the sidewalks on the west side of the bridge were well marked as closed.

3) To my friend Alicia (who I'm sure doesn't read this blog, but some of you might know her): When we were teenagers on a caving trip, you taught me many valuable skills. I was just thinking of you today.

4) To my digestive track: We really need to work something out. I don't want another long run like the one you and I had this morning. Was it really good for you? Things that seemed to help you feel better and not want to kill me were water, sour patch kids (I know, I was surprised too), and running slowly. I'm sorry things got to the point where you needed extra water and food. I'm also sorry about the Gu. We're almost out of the gross lemon lime stuff, and I'll only get the raspberry from now on. I promise. Also, I'll try to take better care of you the night before a long run so we don't get into any more disputes. I don't want any more runs where you try to hurt me.

5) Everyone who was part of my Nike+ iPod graduation gift. I'm still using it. As you can tell by number 4, it was a rough run. At then end, I was feeling kind of discouraged until I looked at last weeks run and realized I was only 5 minutes slower this week than last week. (I assure you, I can account for all of that time.) It helped me realize how hard I actually worked and keep a positive attitude.

6) The sunrise over Lake Calhoun: you make my heart happy.

7) Willow trees: Willows FTW. (Kelly Pooky Bear, is "FTW" one of those abbreviations you can't stand? Sorry if it is.)

8) Everyone who has contributed to Bolder Options so far, and everyone who still wants to: Thanks for your ongoing support. Running a marathon I think will be a big accomplishment but raising enough for a kid to go through a mentoring program is an even bigger deal to me.

No power? No problem.

This morning, I woke up and decided to go back to sleep. When I woke up again, there was no electricity. Doh. No electric means no lights. Normally that's not a problem for me. As a former caver and bat biologist, I have a collection of flashlights and head lamps that rivals the camping section at most sporting good stores. But today, all my flashlights were with my gear from the race and were mostly out of batteries. Obviously, this lead to a comedy of errors this morning that culminated in me doing my hair in the dark.

In other news, I've decided to do the "Liz doesn't eat out for a month" thing again. The last time I did this was after my kitchen was finally finished. The rules at that time were no restaurants, no take out, but coffee shops are exempt (because I was totally hooked on lattes back then). That time, I wasn't really running a lot or putting in a lot of miles. This time I'm amending the rules that any day I run more than 10 miles in a single day, Chipotle is also allowed. (Sometimes, there's just no other way to recover that many calories.)

The last time I did this, it was mostly about money. This time I realize bad things happen to my body when I get lazy and eat out a lot. Really bad things. I'm getting excited about what I can cook for myself. I'm thinking of homemade chicken quesadillas (Firefox thinks "quesadilla" isn't a word btw). I was all emotionally prepared to try roasted brusells sprouts but amazingly the co-op didn't have any. Tonight I'm roasting other root vegetables such as beets, potatoes, carrots and cauliflower (which is not a root vegetable but it awesome). That'll be lunch for a few days.

195 miles of fun

Who wants to run from Winona Minnesota all the way up to Minneapolis? In two days? In costumes? (I was on board right up until someone wanted me in costume, by the way.) No, actually, I did wear a costume. Our theme was "Ragnar 911", obviously.





We certainly weren't the only team in costumes. This team is the W.H.O.R.s team. (Women High on Running) and we stayed up with them most of the way. I think we arrested their team a few times. They were really fun.


Turns out, we arrested almost everyone at least once.

Some of our team even had special band-o-liters. I'll let you imagine what's in the test tubes.


Friday morning I woke up at the crack of dawn (actually, slightly before the crack of dawn), and met my teammates to drive down to Winona for the start of the race. There were 12 of us in two vans of six and I was in the second van. (I already know which van I want to be in next year, btw.) I was the 11th of 12 runners, which meant the race started at 11am and I wasn't running 'till sunset. It also meant I didn't have to run again 'till sun rise.

Very few of the legs of the relay are on running paths or sidewalks. Mostly, it's just running up the side of a road. This is definitely my favorite way to see Wisconsin.


Did you know, they had to make a special rule for if runners encounter dangerous live stock? It's one of the only ways a runner can re-enter the team van during their leg without being disqualified.


First lesson I learned for next year: Hill Training.


Good job to Kate who actually had to run UP this thing in the middle of the heat. She was the only one we saw who actually ran the whole way.


My first leg was a nice 4 mile run in the evening. I was the second to last person to go and I was ready to run by the time it was my turn. I felt like I went much faster than my normal pace (that's still pretty slow) so I felt good about that one. After my run and runner number 12's short 3 mile run, we headed off to sleep for a few hours.

The first runner of our van had to start running about 4am. I started running at 6:30am. I had some issues hydrating and keeping food in my body after the first run. The first mile or so of the second run I felt like I was going to die. And then my team passed me some Powerade which I have renamed Go-juice, because once I had that, I felt like I really could run the next four miles up hill.

The hydrating and keeping food down issues persisted the rest of the trip.

Another lesson for next year: I feel like any idiot could run, go to sleep, and get up and run again. It's really the 3rd run in 30 hours which is challenging. And the third run was exactly that for me.


Hee hee. It's funny because it looks like I'm running away from jail and the police officers.


Who here in the cities knows hidden falls drive? Now, who here has ever tried to run UP it? Big ol' Thank You to the cheering section at the top by the way.




Once I got into Minneapolis, I had to contend with the running path on the West River Parkway being basically not there. It was a pretty run, but a hot and challenging one as well and I was super happy when it was over. I had spent most of the day being jealous of everyone in van 1 who were all done running by about noon.

We had one more runner after me. While I was grabbing some water after my last run, we met a guy biking on the parkway. He started in Portland (Oregon) and is going to bike all the way to New York City. Wow. He thought the relay sounded really cool. I thought his trip sounded cool too. He asked us to take a picture with that Nalgene water bottle which is making it's way across the country with him.



At some point, I really stopped noticing Kate's mustache. But it freaked a lot of other runners out.



At the finish line, the criminals (that's right, I dressed up as a jail bird instead of a police officer) held the crime scene tape as we and the rest of our team ran through. Then, there was much drinking and rejoicing. And the medals double as bottle openers.

Liz Trains for a Marathon: Another 17 miles

A couple of quick hits because I actually have to go to work soon (bah), no, actually I like my job. It's just hard when my feet are so sore.

• I never knew all of the different places on my body I could get blisters and abrasions from fabric. I have a blister on my big toe from the seam in my sock, a wicked looking thing where my water belt rubbed against the skin on my back (yeah, that goes most of the way across my back too), and possibly a place under my arm from where my sleeveless shirt seam was hitting my skin.


• Ice baths continue to rock.


• I wish breakfast would cook itself. I'm trying to decide between cooking or just using the time to rest. Which is more helpful?


• For some inexplicable reason, all of the paths, sidewalks, and roads under 35W along the creek were closed. Which I didn't realize 'till I was in the middle of a construction zone. ::Steps up on soapbox:: WTF, to the north there's a bridge over the expressway but it requires scaling about the biggest hill in Minneapolis, and the bridge over the expressway to the south is like a mile out of the way. In your construction zone there's a road, a sidewalk, a bike path, and a running path. You're not working on all of them at the exact same moment. Leave one open. ::Steps down::


• Last night, I planned out a route, check it out here that was about 18.5 miles long. While I was running this morning, I was inspired to check out Lake of the Isles which is a similar mileage to Lake Nokomis. Also, I had a detour on the way home due to the above mentioned construction oversight. So I took this route instead. At least I got to go down the big hill instead of up it. (If you want to see the hill, turn on the elevation feature and look between miles 15 and 16.)

Liz Trains for a Marathon: Liz Ignores her Blog

I've been away for a while... I make no excuses. (BTW, for those of you reading this as a "note" in Facebook, I do have an actual blog at a4bats.blogspot.com that you should check out.)

How's training been going? I'd say fair. My long runs are now long enough that the weather has started to be a factor. Things like humidity (which I'll get to) and pop-up thunderstorms are much more of a problem when I'm several miles away from my house than when I'm just running around Lake Nokomis and can get home fairly quickly.

This Sunday I tried to do a long run since I couldn't on Saturday. Like a good girl, I got up nice and early, checked the weather and determined there was no chance of lightning killing me, laced up my shoes and went out. Into the 95% humidity. It wasn't that hot, it was just humid. I'll be honest, it was like a pride thing that I didn't want to stop. But the humidity absolutely kicked my butt. I wound up doing about 6.5 miles outside. Then I went to the Y to run intervals inside, but by that time I was already so tired I didn't get very far. I was feeling pretty bad for not being able to run in the humidity. A friend pointed out there was probably more water in the air than usable oxygen, which helped a little.

How's fund-raising going? Also about fair. I helped at a water stop this Saturday for the Minnesota Half Marathon, for which I will receive a donation towards my goal. For those of you who don't know, the point on the whole marathon-training-thing, is actually to raise enough money to put a teen (or pre-teen) through the Bolder Options mentoring program entirely. The marathon will be more to celebrate that accomplishment. Everyone on the marathon team will also have raised enough to put a teen through the program so with all of us, that'll be about 15 kids. Want to make a donation? Great! Head over to my fund raising page at Firstgiving.com or drop me an email. I'm about half way to my goal, which is supposedly ok for this time of year. Everyone else thinks the other $1,600 dollars for this undertaking will appear, so I'm trusting the universe as much as I can. (Thanks to the universe and to all y'all who've already donated too!)

How's the rest of life going? I told someone that it's a real barometer of my mental health when I stop cooking lunches for the week on Sunday before I go back to work. I don't think I've cooked lunches in a few weeks, probably about the last time I wrote on the blog. For some reason, this time of year is always hard for me. Maybe I was traumatized by always having to go back to school (which I hated) at this time of year. I don't know. But, as expected, anxiety has been noticeably present. Don't get too worried yet. I did just cook lunch for the next few days, and I'm planning to do my long run tomorrow so I can be stuffed like a sardine in a 15 passenger van with a bunch of smelly runners (what'd I just say about my mental health?) run the Great River Relay on Friday and Saturday with a team from Bolder Options. It should be really fun.

Now I think I'll go try an hypnotize myself so I don't freak out about this run tomorrow.

Liz Trains for a Marathon: Liz runs for a loooong time

I don't know exactly how far it was that I meant to go this morning when I left the house. But I'm fairly sure 17 wasn't the number I had picked out. Through some very poor math however, that's about what I wound up doing. Oops.

It took me about four hours. Don't worry, the last time I ran 15 miles, it took me three hours. There were more stops and more hills on this route, plus I walked a little more. I couldn't figure out why I was so tired at the end. (Could've been because I went a few miles further than I meant to.) I ran this morning instead of Saturday because I was already going in to work late so I had the time. Plus it's going to be 90* on Saturday. I fear the heat.

Another awesome thing that happened today is I saw my friend Kao who's been teaching English in Japan the past two years. It was so nice to see her. I love having friends where I can just pick up with them right where I left off and it's not weird that we haven't seen each other for a long time. We had Chipotle which is a bit of a joke between the two of us because when I worked with her, I think I had Chipotle every freakin day.

As with most days after a long run, my day has mainly been about food. After lunch with Kao, it was on to a company picnic (much more pleasant than it sounds), also with awesome food. I love working in a place with such good cooks. I benefit highly from it. Even though I'd had a burrito like three hours earlier, I had plenty of room for the friend chicken and noodle salad.

After the picnic I had to run a group for work, but it turned out no one showed up. Now I'm at home, the first real opportunity I've had all day to put my feet up and it feels great. Oh, hey, I think I'm hungry again...