Lies, damned lies, and... you know

Remember how this blog used to be about something besides running? Ahh, the good old days. Perhaps after I run the L.A. Marathon on March 21, I'll get back to the old navel-gazing and poetic-waxing and snarkiness-posting. But for now...

So, I ran my race in 4 hours, 50 minutes, and 59 seconds.
The fastest man finished in 2:22:31 and the fastest woman in 2:46:06.

There were 3515 finishers (of the FULL marathon; another 9311 finished the half!): 1959 of them male and 1556 female. Overall, I came in 2260th place and 840th among the women. Humbling. However, the overall average time was 4:35:52 so I was only a little behind that, and even better, the average female time was 4:51:36 - HOORAY, I AM ALMOST PERFECTLY AVERAGE!! (Believe that and it's clear we've never actually met.)
The longest time was 7:29:50. I kicked that chick's ASS :)

I was bib number 16176, which I liked because it was the start of a Boston phone number: 1-617-...
Total miles I ran in training prior to the marathon (since 10/31/09): 153

You can actually watch video of me finishing!! Click here and enter bib number 16176. I'm the first one across in the "finish" video, and I'm 3rd or 4th, against the far side fence, in the "before finish" video!!

Here are my mile splits (I know you were DYING for this info!!)
Mile / Time
1. 10.25 (so crowded!)
2. 9.35 (fastest mile - I was so hyper at this point I was forcing myself to walk my walk intervals and not just run through them...)
3. 10.08 (5K time: 31:08)
4. 10.05
5. 10.35
6. 10.02 (10K time: 1:02:50)
7. 10.04
8. 10.35
9. 10.18
10. 10.27
11. 10.58
12. 10.45
13. 11.11 (Half-marathon time: 2:16:17)
14. 11.27
15. 11.23
16. 11.32
17. 11.36
18. 11.47
19. 11.23
20. 11.55
21. 11.39
22. 12.18 (Slowest mile)
23. 12.00
24. 12.05
25. 12.15
26. 12.10
Average: 11.06

Next up: my five-hour iPod playlist! I listened to music the whole time I ran and it was wooooonderful!!

All the stats are from this website here.

Rejoice, we conquer.

Well, I did it! I ran 26.2 miles, and I raised $4,985.17 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. It's been quite an experience.

Running this marathon really was an amazing experience. Before I started training in November, I think I had never run more than four miles at a time. I remember being scared of the week we were supposed to do five miles. I remember being terrified of the jump to eight miles. Then double digits!! Yet a couple of weeks ago, I literally said the phrase "only ten miles". ONLY! This has been a huge lesson for me in how possible the seemingly-impossible can be, and how much a like-minded community and the support from the people in my life can make all the difference in the world. My goal was to finish the marathon in under five hours, and I did it in 4:50. It was a gorgeous day in New Orleans, and I felt totally prepared and ready. Many of the miles flew by, and it didn't get hard until well past the halfway mark. When I started to get very tired and things began to hurt, I thought of all of the people that donated and it was like this huge crowd of (nearly 100!) people was behind me pushing me on. I finished strong and very, very happy.

Here are a couple of favorite moments from the 5 hours on my feet:

I ran past a woman who was saying to her friend, "Boxers can be pretty rambunctious too." A mile or two later, I realized she was referring to the dog, not the undershort.

The morning of the race, we had to meet in the lobby of the hotel at 4am. My mom and I step into the elevator to an overwhelming odor of athlete... pre-exercise athlete, not post (thank god).
"Well, good morning!" says Mom.
"That Vicks VapoRub will always wake you up!" says someone squeezed in the back.
"Oh! says a woman by the door. "I was wondering why it was getting mintier and mintier in here!"

I loved all the signs and posters people were holding or had posted along the course. Some were hilarious. My favorite was the one I passed at about mile 8: "You can stop running now; the Kenyans have already won!"





If you or anyone you know wanted to donate but never got around to it, there's still time to donate here. In fact, if I raise a little bit more money, I get some good swag :)

And now my craziest news: now that I've done this ridiculous thing, I'm going to do it again!! I'm running the L.A. Marathon in less than 3 weeks. If you want to come out and cheer for me on 3/21, I'd be deliiiiiiiighted! Let me know and I'll give you the heads up on what to look for so you can spot me and how to track my progress!

"Pheidippides" Robert Browning, 1879

So, when Persia was dust, all cried, "To Acropolis!

Run, Pheidippides, one race more! the meed is thy due!

Athens is saved, thank Pan, go shout!" He flung down his shield

Ran like fire once more: and the space 'twixt the fennel-field

And Athens was stubble again, a field which a fire runs through,

Till in he broke: "Rejoice, we conquer!" Like wine through clay,

Joy in his blood bursting his heart, - the bliss!






4 hours, 50 minutes

_Decline and Fall_ , Evelyn Waugh, 1928

"Frankly," said the Doctor, "I am at a loss to understand my own emotions. I can think of no entertainment that fills me with greater detestation than a display of competitive athletics, none--except possibly folk dancing."



9 hours

_The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner_ Alan Sillitoe, 1959

"Off like the wind along the cobbled footpath and rutted lane, smoother than the flat grass track on the field and better for thinking because it's not too smooth, and I was in my element that afternoon knowing that nobody could beat me at running but intending to beat myself before the day was over."




31 hours

What's up? A minor rant in the key of tired.

This is maybe the busiest week of my life. I haven't had a single day off in weeks and weeks, and my first one will be this Saturday, when I will leave the Jewish Educators' Conference I'm attending to run 20 miles and then go back to the conference. It'll be another full week before I get another "slow" day. This week, in addition to my multiple other jobs and appointments, I'm basically running 5 Israeli dance sessions in 8 days.

I'd love to write a real post, but I'm exhausted. In the meantime, thank you so much if you have donated to my fundraiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and if you haven't donated yet but are still considering it, please donate to me on my friend Brandon's page. Please. You get double the appreciation!

Thank you.

DFW, JDS. RIP. l,l,l, RDB

Right before J D Salinger died, I tweeted about still mourning the loss of David Foster Wallace. With JDS, though, the probability of reading more stuff he wrote *increases* with his death, while with DFW it's the other way 'round. Still, the silence is deafening.

And I just re-read Franny and Zooey, on the occasion of recommending it to a friend, and finally read both The Way of a Pilgrim and The Pilgrim Continues His Way.

And just happened across my own posting of the Spot-the-Salinger game we used to play. Read it.

Wishlist Blast from the Past

So I have this wishlist on amazon.com, right? And even though hardly anyone ever uses it to buy me something, it's a great list to remind myself of things I want (I can look at it when I'm browsing in a used bookstore, for example). I try to keep it updated, so every once in a while I'll look through it and remove a few books that I have acquired since adding them to the list or, more rarely but still sometimes, I'll remove something I no longer want.

Just now, I removed a VHS tape I had on there. I mean, I still wouldn't mind owning a copy of Casablanca, but on VHS??!! Ha!! I apparently added that to the list in 1999. Maybe I should have left it on there for posterity.

Ah, the good ole days. And ten years - see what a dedicated Amazon user I am?!

The Irresistible Henry House

I sometimes get advance copies of books to review, through the Early Reviewers program over at LibraryThing.

The books I've received this way were all pretty good and pretty much my style, but the one I read most recently was way beyond that - it was terrific. The Irresistible Henry House, by Lisa Grunwald and scheduled to be published in March, is a fantastic story that would appear to be totally whimsical and yet is based on a true practice: Henry is a "practice baby" supplied to a college home economics class by a local orphanage and raised by seven or so different "mothers" who are students in the course. As it turns out, the story is indeed irresistible - Henry is compelling, his life story is fascinating, and the historical background of the 1940s-1970s in which the book takes place is brightly illuminated. Many small differences between daily life then and now added a fascinating sepia-tint to the landscape of the story, and the novelty of now-common icons of popular culture (some new thing Disney is working on down in Florida? some movie that new band the Beatles are making?) brought the era to life in a wonderful way, especially to someone who didn't live through it. (And I'm pretty sure anyone who did live through it will love the nostalgia of this recent history also.)

I recommend it.

JogBlog 4... and FOURTEEEEEEEEN

Well, I ran 12 miles a couple of weeks ago, and it was brutal. I mean, it felt fantastic to have done TWELVE MILES, but it was on a very hilly course (by design) and it was haaaaard. Took us 2 hours and 15 minutes.

And then I didn't do squat, running-wise, for nearly two weeks.
On Thursday I did four miles on my own, around my neighborhood. Here's the playlist:
NPR: 10-17-2009 Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!

And then this morning, I ran...
wait for it...

FOURTEEN MILES!!! Yeah, baby, 14. For cancer research. 2 hours 25 minutes!!! Oh, that's more than a half-marathon? No sweat!

(Ok, lots of sweat. It was HOT today! I love L.A. I definitely needed that dose of Vitamin D or whatever Vitamin Sunlight is.)

Aaaaaaaand I forgot my knee brace at home, so I ran without it, and it didn't hurt at all! Until I stopped running. Then I was in screaming pain. Literally. Ouch.

But it's ok now. Oh, I have a show tomorrow? I'm sure I'll be able to walk by then :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!