Girl In Motion

This weekend, I had an epiphany, an eye-opener of the widest kind.  But before we get into it, I’ve got some ’splaining to do.

As you all know, I loved marathon training, found it challenging but not difficult using the plan I’d chosen, Pfitzinger’s 18/55.

I admit that during this period, I fully expected to end up faster in other distances simply by dint of “the marathon training process”.  I’d read enough accounts of easy PRs gained, both during and soon after such training periods, that of course I expected it to happen for me.  How unhappy-making then, that my one race in the midst of the plan (a measly 4-miler) ended up with such disappointing results.

To understand just how disappointing is to look back at my Spring PRs: a 5K in April (23:06) and a 10-miler in May (1:19).  Both of these races are in the same ballpark of McMillan’s calculator.  Yet here was this 4-miler in September at 30:48!  I attributed it to the marathon training process, tired legs and the fact that it was a short race when I’d been training to go long.  I played it down.  But in my critically thinking head, I was a bit dismayed.

Fast forward to this last weekend, my 10K race.  Yes, it was a sizeable PR and I’m genuinely satisfied with my performance, but if I compare it to last Spring’s PRs, it was not good.  In fact, as far as McMillan goes, it’s right on par with my shitty 4-miler!  When I realized this (and that my Marathon time also fits in the same McMillan range as well) I had to recognize it as a trend, not a few unrelated blips.

So I began investigating the Big Picture and it quickly became apparent to me what was going on.

#1 Revelation:
My mileage build for the marathon was no great shakes.
Note: These monthly graphs include all training runs, but exclude races.

Or rather, since I was no stranger to 45-50+ mile weeks, it was stupid for me to expect that doing the same thing would give me some kind of bonus.  Sure, I had a peak month, but the surrounding ones don’t look any different than assorted previous months.  The fact that my marathon training mileage was apportioned differently (spread out across 5 days instead of 6) certainly helped my endurance, but the mileage itself wasn’t a stress factor, and stress (or increases) are how envelopes get pushed.

#2 Revelation:
My average pace got slower…much slower.

See anything notable starting in June?  That’s where marathon training began and with it, recovery and much slower long runs.  Quite an obvious difference, huh?  Back in the Spring, I not only ran all my easy and long runs faster, I was also doing both a speed and a tempo workout each week.  For marathon training, I had weekly speed or tempo, never both.  So no dramatic mileage growth and less fast stuff, too.

How silly, then, to think marathon training should have given me a speed boost, why would it?  I didn’t stress either speed or mileage - just longer long runs.  That said, I gained beautiful endurance which was completely the whole point anyway - I never could have run a marathon back in the Spring.  With this in mind, I consider my marathon training 100% successful, I have no regrets or complaints.

The important and freeing thing though is that I now feel totally OK with where I’m at speedwise, even if it seems I’ve regressed a tad, because I understand why.  It’s not because I’m all washed up, that I started too late or used myself up too soon (yeah, I actually was thinking this crap).  No, it’s an obvious reaction to a lack of stimuli.  Duh!

Does this mean I’m abandoning everything I learned during marathon training?  Well, you can see from the last month on graph #2 that I’m still doing some slower stuff, though honestly, it won’t be doing those 10+min recovery runs unless I really need them.  And expect this month’s avg. pace bar to become a lot shorter starting with next week’s dual quality sessions.

But this doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll approach the next marathon much differently, either.  I’ll try to increase the mileage, but a main priority for me is keeping training fun and I’m not sure how many miles it’ll take before fun turns into drudgery.  And I love that I was able to avoid injury the whole cycle, so keeping the fast stuff to once a week sounds wise, too.

The main thing is realizing that everything requires it’s own proper attention, that no one training cycle is going to cover all race bases and to keep expectations in line with that training.  I’m only beginning to understand how all this works, how I work.  As they say, “we’re all an experiment of one.”  It sure is fun figuring it out.

Yet another fun day at the races - huge this year, 2269 finishers, plus about 1000 walkers.  It’s a 10K that goes over and back on the Ben Franklin Bridge, which takes care of the first 5K, then the next 5K goes into Camden, NJ on the waterfront, ending in a stadium.

I park the car and approach the stadium when some guy jogs by me and says, “Flo?”  It was Progman2000 who I know from the forums and this blog.  We had planned to meet afterwards, but it was lucky that we met up first because we ended up missing each other at the finish line, though amazingly, we caught each other again as he was driving out after the race.  Not to mention, we had separated before the race started, then I turn around and there he is at the start line, right behind me!  Think about it, we’ve never met each other, there are literally thousands of people around, yet we hook up three times.  Freaky.  Anyway, he’s a truly great guy, and I felt really happy to hang out with him before the race.  Thanks Progman!!  Oh, and a shout out to ShoreTurtle, Progman’s cool friend who was standing with him at the start.  Talk about a couple of great guys, they kept my mind from going all nervy on me and the waiting time passed in a flash.

As far as the weather goes, I was a little overzealous when I saw the updated weather report, I thought it’d be near 50, so my race outfit was shorts and tank, but it ended up being low-mid 40s and breezy.  Maybe two other guys were dressed as bare as me, so yeah, I was self conscious and chilly, but it ended up being perfect for racing, so no regrets, though I did wait until the nth moment to check my stuff in.

My wishes for the race were #1) a PR, #2) 48:something, #3) everything-goes-right sub-48.

I was looking at my logs from last year when I ran this race and laughed to myself last night, “Hah! Ain’t no way I’m running a first mile at 8:15 this year!”  This ended up to be true…my first mile today was far worse.  There was a big traffic clog at the start and it took me a long time to feel race-ready, plus you’re going up a bridge, so with all that happening sub-48 was outta the question right off the bat.

Now before the race even started, at the line-up, I see my local nemesis standing right across from me.  She’s actually a nice woman and in my last 10K back in April, we were neck and neck for the whole race.  Anyway, we waved to each other before the start but as soon as the gun went off, she ran ahead, so my main focus on the bridge was to keep her in my sights.  That said, my bridge running was atrocious, so when I saw her getting even farther ahead, I said screw it and let her go without a fight.

By the time I got to mile 5 though, she was right in front of me and I was wondering what to do.  Part of me felt like passing her and saying, “C’mon girl, let’s go for it!” but the other, sneaky, lazy part (because why make this harder than it has to be?) won over.  I ran ahead without a word and hoped to god she didn’t notice me in my hot pink shorts and white tank (impossible).

The race goes on several surfaces, gravel, brick, road and grass, so that’s part of the reason my pacing was a bit crazy (the other part was because…I suck), but here are my splits:

8:25 bridge (I suck)
7:59 bridge (I still suck)
7:37 bridge (better)
7:32 (mo better)
8:00 (gravel, turns and traffic clogs, I suck)
7:41 (almost home)
1:25 (7:05 pace for the last bit)

My time for the race was 48:39, 8th in my AG out of 118.  It’s a 44 second PR and I beat my nemesis by 36 seconds.  No complaints…and coming from me, that’s huge.

Just got back from the dentist for a teeth cleaning where something disturbing happened.  As soon as the hygienist looked into my mouth and said, “Not much plaque this time.  You’ve been keeping up!” I elatedly replied by touching her shoulder and saying, “Praise be.”

Praise Be? WTF?? I’m an athiest Jew. I mean, I was really relieved to have a good checkup (it’s only recently that I started accepting floss into my life) but still, no matter how happy I am with a dental visit, that was just wrong.  If all it takes is a lack of plaque to make me see the light, my next question is, what am I?  Amish? Church of Christ?  I’m so confused. I mean, Praise Be could even mean I’m a polygamist, don’t those people use that phrase a lot?

But let’s stop this devil talk and get back to running.

Call me a n00b or a dweeb, but I purchased a race photo from Steamtown, just got it in the mail yesterday.  I really love the picture and it wasn’t too expensive, since I bought the 5×7 and scanned it (instead of paying crazy money for the digital version).  If you’ve seen my avatar at Runners World, you’ve seen the photo, but if not, here I am in about as ecstatic a running moment as I’m ever going to have.

Pure Happiness.

No comments on the gait, I’ll probably never get my feet under me, but as long as I’ve no injuries, I can’t complain.

Back to the present, I’ve had a fun week running without a schedule, did 8 yesterday in the chilly wind and will do 7 w/strides after I’m done writing this, then tomorrow I pick up my race packet and go for a short run, Saturday’s off and then on Sunday, while my BQ girls are running the NY Marathon (go Audra, Jana, Ela, Hooliganette and MirRunner at Indy!), I’ll be having fun with my 10K on the Ben Frankin Bridge.

Beyond that, I was looking at Pfitzinger’s 5K plan from Road Racing because at the end of the month I have a Turkey Trot I want to shine in, so I’m going to do the last 4 weeks of Pete’s 5K plan.  It works out perfectly because, according to the plan, this week would have been a 10K tune-up, so it couldn’t be more convenient.

Yes, I’ve been loving these couple of freeform running weeks, but truth be told, I’m a true sucker for following plans.  Probably more so because I’m self-employed and my time is my own, so it’s entertaining to have some structure to follow.

Let me leave you with one more bit of happiness in Flo World…the results of my blood/pee tests from last week (the ones to make sure the dehydration weirdness was finally back to normal) are perfectly fine.  I’m back to being a confidently healthy old coot with many miles ahead.  Praise Be!

Since this week is so stark as far as running, I don’t have a lot to chat about, so I’ll take this time to mention the cool emails we Steamtowners have been getting from the Race Director.  He’s quite a funny guy, so it’s a pleasure whenever one of these hits my inbox.

I might have mentioned this in a comment but not on a regular post that we’ve been warned (and this is actually not a joke) not to pee on Forest City High School.  Last year a couple ladies were found doing this, despite the huge number of porta-potties around the start line.  I was pretty impressed that they could pee on a school (I don’t think they were on the roof) though I shouldn’t be surprised since my standing-up experiment does allow for horizontal aiming.  Btw, I neglected to mention that the second time I tried this method (while on our road trip out west) I wasn’t half as successful, so I won’t be using it again in future.

Another interesting thing is we’ve been alerted that Bill and Hillary Clinton will be in Scranton on race day for a baptism.  My thoughts never even came close to, “Oh cool, the Clintons” which I would have under ordinary circumstances.  Instead my only thoughts were, “They better keep their damn motorcade away from our race!!”  Visions of Secret Service Men tackling the crazy-eyed runner who just rolled over the hood of their car on an unstoppable mission…

As far as taper goes, I’m actually doing great with the running less aspect of it.  I never wanted a break during the cycle, but I’ve got no problem being slothlike this week and don’t feel antsy to get out there like so many people do.  Of course, it’s only Monday, so that might change.

Ah, let’s talk about what’s going on for everybody else!!  This last weekend marked the beginning of the multi race reports rolling in on the Marathon Training Forum - marathon season is now in full swing.   A couple ladies I’ve been virtually training with these past months in the Women’s BQ thread raced St. George on Saturday.  The weather was horrible with rain and headwinds the whole time.

Their reports brought tears to my eyes because these gals pushed to the very end, they were not about to back off, even though it became harder and harder as it went, one even ending up in the med tent after crossing the finish.  Their BQs proved elusive, but only for the environmental conditions.  Both came within minutes of their goal and there is no question that, had it been a normal weather day, both would have succeeded.  HikerGirl and Wendy, you have my complete, unabashed respect for the effort you put into your races.  I only hope I complete mine with as much strength and mental fortitude that you gals put forth.

Beyond my gals, there are a handful of other reports to read and rejoice or commiserate with from all sorts of runners, zoomy to mid-pack and beyond.  But the one constant is that there’s no telling what’ll happen on raceday.  No matter what kind of speed you own, you can do what you can to prepare yourself, but ultimately, there are good or bad days, it’s simply not up to us.  I find this hugely comforting (when it doesn’t terrify me…control freak that I am), since it’s a universal truth and somehow that takes the onus off.

Happy running to you, friends, and have a great week.  I’ll try to come up with something worth posting in the next couple days, but without a long run or an interval session, I’m a bit of a yawn.  Perhaps there’ll be some morsels of major freaking out (that’s always good for a post) but I’m hoping for some peace of mind these next few days.  Yeah, right.

Yep, it’s getting down to it, the Philadelphia Distance Run is tomorrow and I’m nervous!  Because it was the first Half I ever did, it’s a goal race for me, but also, it’s an important indicator for my Steamtown goal pace.  So I have a lot riding on this one.

I’ve had an easy last three days running-wise, yesterday was off completely and today was 4 w/6 strides.  There were so many runners in the park this morning plus assorted folks putting up tents and barricades, the mass of porta-pottys are already up and there’s a general feeling of excitement in the air.

Now I’m back home and the task for the afternoon is meatballs.  I had to back out of a forum FE tonight because Nick’s coming back from Portland late this afternoon, so I’m making spaghetti and meatballs for a romantic, carb-loaded homecoming.  He won’t be at the race tomorrow, instead going with our friends Jeff and Lara on a big cycling event, so we’ll both be in athletic heaven for the day.

Besides missing the forum dinner, I’m also electing not to meet up with anyone before the race starts (I’m sorry Matt!!).  After last year, when I waited in the porta-potty line for about 25 minutes, then the gun went off while I was waiting there, barely getting myself into the corral in time, I’d rather stay at home as long as I can (I live very close to the start of the race) and pee in my own bathroom, then just slide into the corral and go.  “Focus” is the name of the game for me tomorrow.

The weather looks fine - sunny and 56-59 at the start, around 67-68ish when I’m done.  I’m wearing a pace band with two sets of numbers on it, just in case.  As far as other accessories, I’m carrying two gel packets instead of a flask because I want to wear my skirt and the waistband isn’t strong enough to hold a flask up.  I’ll also be wearing my chosen marathon shoes instead of the speedier Elixirs.  I’m trading the couple ounces I’d lose for fresher cushioning, the better for after-race recovery, since Steamtown remains the most important consideration here.

My two aims for the race (besides getting a good time) are to deal with gels and waterstops in a calm manner, and also, if there’s a clog of people in front of me, not to panic, but to realize that by slowing down, I’m harboring energy to speed up when I need to.  I remember my silly self from last year, because of those “eek, I can’t get through” moments, I stupidly ended up running all over the place (tangents? what are they??).  Live and learn.

So that’s it from Pre-Race Day Central.  I’ll be back here afterwards and give you all the dirty details.  Wish me the best, please.  Over and out.

First off, huge props to Nick.  Yesterday he went on a 100-mile bike ride from New Hope, PA to NYC and arrived home at midnight, so the fact that he woke up early this morning (on his birthday, no less) to drive my nervous ass out to West Chester, PA was a big weight off my back.  Not to mention being photographer for the day.  Thank you, birthday boy!!

We get out there at 8am for a 9:00 race.  The weather is pretty nice, 66 and sunny, and the downtown area/race course has a lot of trees, so I know I won’t be able to blame the heat if I suck today.

I get my bib and walk with Nick to the nearest Starbucks so he can read the paper while I leave to stew in my own juices until the race starts.  I walk around some, repeating my new mantra to myself “I am fast, relaxed and strong” hoping it will somehow “take” during the race.  At 8:30, I do a couple warm-up miles with some strides thrown in, but I’m not feeling good about the strides, seems like I can’t get my usual pace on those, so I go back to the mantra and try to chill.

Gratuitous Standing-in-Starbucks-with-idiotic-hair-but-good-abs shot.
(I really do not have a mullet, but clip my hair back for running, so…eh)

The course is a 2-mile loop done twice with some uphills (not real steep, but a few blocks long) and thankfully with accompanying downhills, so I’m thinking ok, not killer but no free rides.  I don’t do the entire course because the volunteers are still walking around at this point with cue sheets trying to figure out where they’re supposed to stand, but I can see how it’ll go pretty much.

Time to line up and we’re off.  It’s a small clog at the start and I settle into my pace.  For the first half of the race, I’m behind a woman in blue, and though I eventually pass her, I realize on the 2nd loop that she’s sticking right behind me because the volunteers keep saying “great job, ladies” and I just know she’s the other lady.

I felt good this race, held back a tad on the first loop since I wasn’t sure what to expect.  I passed a lot of people, so that was a happy thing and on the second split when I saw I was a bit slower than my projected pace, I didn’t bitch at myself at all, just said “fast, relaxed and strong” a few times…and meant it.

After the last hill, just before the finish, I turn the corner and Blue Lady makes herself known, picks up the pace and speeds in front of me.  I take the challenge and stick on her heels with all I’ve got, both of us egging the other on.  She beat me but gave me a high-five the moment we stopped, saying “good race, I was following you the whole time.”  Laughing, I told her she was my carrot the whole first half.  Anyway, she’s 9 years younger, so that’s ok.

Home stretch, Blue Lady on left and me looking ever so determined to catch her ass.

My time?  30:48.  Not quite what I was shooting for, but considering I’m in the midst of some serious marathon mileage, it’s A-OK by me.  My splits per the Garmin were 7:37, 7:41, 7:20, 7:33 and 6:45 for the last .1.  Obviously, this doesn’t mesh with the clock (7:42 pace), but whatever.  They only had the one clock, so I just let the Garmin Autolap every mile.

Afterwards, Nick and I are walking to the restaurant and who should I see but that cute runner girl that had told me in passing that she reads my blog.  We finally introduced ourselves properly and I have to say, that girl’s a firecracker!  She’s doing Pfitz as well for NYC and it’ll be her 7th marathon, so I was totally impressed.  She mentioned that her Garmin had 4.1 and so did mine, so hmm…thought I was good with those tangents today, but anyway, just sayin’.

Finally the results are posted, I’m third in 40-49, but alas, only prizes for 1st and 2nd, so no goodies for me.  We meet up with Nick’s friend Marie for a birthday brunch and finally head home, me feeling good that one more race is over with, Nick dreaming of a long luxurious nap.  All in all, a fantastic way to spend a morning.

Such a lovely number, dontcha think?  I like it even better now that I’m done running it.

Got up at 5:30, had my usual bit of coffee, even had something to eat beforehand (rare occurrence)…peanut butter on a 1/2 a hot-dog bun (don’t ask).  I knew I was going to be out for a while, so figured a little something in my gut might be a good idea.

Wore my Tramp Stamp shorts which I am no longer mad at.  Now that I know where to apply the Body Glide, I’m liking them quite a bit - a gal can always use a back pocket.  I filled my gel flask with 2 gels & water and then stuck an as-of-yet-untested-flavor Power Gel Double Latte (double caffeine) in that back pocket.  Wanted to see if more caffeine at the end would be noticeable or not.  It wasn’t.

It was 73 degrees with 75% humidity when I started at 6:30, so I actually took the first 3 miles at recovery run pace - 10:07s.  I told myself that the object of today was time on my feet, and not to feel guilty if I went slower than usual.  By the end of the run it was 80, so it was a bit of a toasty morning.

I had a good run!  Did the museum loop and the Schuylkill riverwalk, then went back the way I came, detoured onto Smile Hill at around 15.5 for a single up-and-down (I won’t kid you, I was happy to see I only needed to do it once to make the correct mileage to get home), then 4.5 back home.

I lucked out, didn’t have one red stop light the whole run, so I never stopped the clock, the only physical stopping was 1:20, the amount of time it took to refill my water bottle 4 times.  Avg. for the run: 9:32, pretty much smack dab on Pfitz’s prescribed pace with the last three miles averaging 8:48.

Btw, don’t know if your city has them, but Philly is putting those fab new walk lights at almost every main intersection now, they give you the actual time left before the lights change, which is soooo helpful.  No more kamikaze running across to beat the light, I can actually see I’ve got 6 seconds left and speed up accordingly.  Really cool.

In other running news, I’m pretty excited because my schedule calls for an 8k-15k tune-up race next weekend but there isn’t anything local, so I was going to do a time trial.  But I found a 4mile race for Labor Day in a town about 45 minutes away, so I’m going to do it!  OK, it’s not 8k (aka 5 mile race), but it’s better than a 5K and I’ll be able to give it a proper race effort, which a time trial wouldn’t have been. I’m scared though!! I don’t race enough to be used to them yet, which is all the more reason for doing it (and one of the reasons Pfitzinger puts them in the plan in the first place).

And now, I’ll leave you with this link to a hilarious Usain Bolt spoof.  He’s the guy that set new World Records at the Olympics in the 100m, 200m and 4×100m relay.  But in the 100m, Bolt showed an unfortunate lack of good sportsmanship when he looked around, then beat his chest in self-congratulations before the race was even over.  Hah, this video is perfect.  Enjoy, and I’ll see you back here later.

Been thinking about the race, mulling over some bits I left out.

Something I didn’t want to admit because it touches a self-conscious nerve, especially because there’s a thread going on about this in the Marathon Race Training forum…

Well, you know how I’ve been placing in some local races? I get a few rows back, but not too far, because in a non-chipped race it’s the gun that counts.

So this was a fast race runner-wise, faster than any I’ve been in, though I didn’t know it at the time. As one of the fastest local Masters said in his blog, he never found the course to be as fast as advertised, but the competition is. His 16:45 (the guy did a Half the preceding weekend) got him 44th place. There were 9 sub 15s, 15 sub 16s - and this with 623 finishers.

Anyway, getting back to my shame, Lara and I lined a good clump of rows back, there were women in front of me that looked like they had a plan, and enough who didn’t behind me, so that’s pretty much how we ended up.

The gun goes off and with it a time lag before movement is even possible. Within a second or two some big guy, I’d say in his 50s, comes charging from the back and hits me outright, knocking me sideways into some people (as he does everyone in his path), yelling angrily about getting out of his way.

Lara, who was until that point, next to me, was oblivious to what happened, and while I’m falling, the runners he pushes me into get mad, thinking I’m just carelessly barreling ahead. I’m apologizing while scrambling to right myself, then have to surge to get back up next to Lara. It was really fucked up.

I mean, truth be told, I felt really really bad, like I’d totally messed with this guys race and therein lies my shame. However! Why did he stand so far back? There was a good clump ahead of us and no one was able to move before he came charging through. Then again, I should have known this was a fast race and gone farther back myself. But yet, I did not need to be hit, the guy was an asshole. Good cop, bad cop. Aaargh.

All I know is, that’s a really shitty way to start a race - tense and panicky. And as I’m writing this, I’m beginning to put two and two together, because I’m remembering my arms. Throughout the race, my arms felt incredibly heavy. I carried so much tension in them that they actually hurt and I shook them out a couple times. That’s a new one on me - usually it’s my jaw and shoulders. I think the breathing thing relaxed my upper body so I transferred the tension to my arms, that or I was still in defense mode from being pushed. It was weird.

So that was the negative thing that happened. On a good note (besides the fun time I had overall), I did not once feel like puking, which I usually do near the end of a race. Also, the horrendously ugly green tech shirts they gave us (which, as usual, are in mens sizes so way too big for most women…why must they do that?) was diminished by the fact that Brooks was there giving away free black tech shirts (cute ones!) that came in XS, so I got a wearable shirt out of it after all.

Then the other cool thing was that Lara informed me that we need to do Powerball because the jackpot was $275 million. So when we get back to Philly, we go to this neat place called “Check Cashing.”

If you’ve never been in a Check Cashing store, yes, they are as disgusting as you imagine; smoky, wads of trash on the floor, miscreants everywhere and you know it’s a house of addiction when the lady behind the bullet-proof window giving out the tickets is, at the same time, filling out her own lottery cards. I mean, she’s there the whole damn day. Must be an expensive job.

But anyway, we got our tickets then went next door to the huge Asian market that recently opened where, at Lara’s advice, I bought some White Rabbits, yummy asian candy that I can only hope are not laced with battery acid or antifreeze or whatever the Chinese are exporting in food these days.

So there you have it, a little fleshing out of the day. Oh, and for the record, neither of us won Powerball - but there’s always a next time.

So my chance at Zenfullness will have to wait - the beer fun run I mentioned in the previous post has been canceled due to crappy weather this weekend. It’s been rescheduled for next weekend, but I have the Adrenaline 5K that day, so I can’t do it. I’m excited for the race though, so no real loss, just some Zen points (and brewskies) missed.

I need your help though. Lara is just on the edge of saying she’ll do the Adrenaline 5K with me which would be fabu since the only race we ever did together was my first 5K, back in April. She’s joining me for the anniversary of that race next month, but I’d love to have her also join me for next Saturday’s race, too.

How can you help? Post a comment to either:
A) excite her into doing this race
B) guilt her into it
C) embarrass her into doing it
D) use whatever means you have to try and talk her into it

I should mention, we get an ugly kelly green tech shirt and neither of us will likely place because there are preternaturally speedy women who enter this race.

OK, have a go kids…

P.S. I just had a fabulous easy 9.14 in the rain today @ 8:43/mi. Totally off subject, but it’s my blog so I get to do non sequitur shit like that.

That’s me. After that fabulous snowy run in the cold 2 days ago, I am officially sick. That afternoon I started getting chest rumbles, coughing and gooey stuff, then yesterday I had zillions of errands to do in the pouring rain so by the end of it I was a miserable phlegmy, hacking mess.

So, I didn’t run yesterday or today and tomorrow looks out, too. The good thing is, it falls on what should be a cutback anyway, so it’s not that big a deal.

It’s also well-timed because we’re having a big-ass party this weekend (Nick and my first with about 30 guests, gulp) and while I’ve been told I’m a great party guest, as a Hostess I’m insane, stressed and horrible. Think Linda Blair’s head spinning around. So everything but running is freaking me out right now.

I’ve never hosted a party this size, just small game-nights and what makes this one even more stressful (but wonderful), is that I invited 5 dear friends from NYC who will be staying with us. However, one is allergic to cats and we have a 20 lb. Maine Coon who sheds so much, it could fill a comforter.

Another friend is dealing with a final bout of radiation so needs a good bed and rest, so needless to say…I’m terrified!

But, on the other hand, I’m excited beyond belief to finally introduce my NYC friends to my Philly friends. Now people will know who I’m talking about and parts of my life will finally come full circle. That’s what’s keeping me from drinking Drano.

If all this wasn’t enough, I am also quite a nervous cook - feeding people doesn’t come naturally to me, so I’ll be making some easy dips and wraps, but relying on my good friend Trader Joe to pick up the slack. Unfortunately, our allergic-to-cats friend and his mate are Martha Stewart personified so I’ll have to make sure they are otherwise disposed while I stealthily open up boxes of appetizers from the freezer.

Major props to Nick, btw, who is making his downstairs office a perfect guest room for our allergic friend, including painting, re-organizing, installing a new toilet seat (not to mention suffering through my panicked bitchiness). My, but I love that man!

So, that’s the scoop. Wish I had some running news for you…oh wait, I do!!

I signed up for another 5K today, moving my race schedule up a bit. It’s the Adrenaline 5K in Haddonfield, NJ on March 15th. But wait, there’s more!

I’m also going to be doing the first Schuylkill Mile Time Trial on April 6th and will be joined by my fabulous forum friends (Hi Matt!) and possibly Lara, though I’m not betting on that one . This should be a wild run because I’ve never tried to run a mile as fast I can, ever! The good part is, it’s on a stretch I’m extremely familiar with and it’s mostly downhill. You can bet I’m going to be doing intervals every week from here on in.

But back to reality…no running tomorrow, then company comes on Saturday, so I’ll try to run before they get here. Otherwise, it’s more cleaning, shopping for supplies and hopefully no freakouts about missed mileage. After all, that is the least of my worries.