Boston Strong

Being a city family, and a marathon family, and having a certain love for Boston since Jason and I spent our honeymoon and a handful of subsequent trips there, our hearts and prayers have been with Boston ever since the Boston Marathon.

I couldn’t believe my plan to run as a unicorn in the Kentucky half had the perfect tie-in tribute to Boston.  I was so happy to run with Boston in my step.

Of course this past weekend when we went to visit, we had to pay our respects to the Boston Marathon victims and survivors alike.

The sites of each bomb are very cleaned up.  You can see that the first site’s restaurant is not quite up and running yet, but the running store at site 2 is very much open.

It is amazing to see how they share a block, and the second bomb was just feet from the finish line.  I was way proud of Boston for Yarn Bombing each site.  If only I had known! I would have brought a yellow heart to pin on that pole.

The whole town is uniting.  There are tributes everywhere you look.  In the bottom right corner Phoebe is standing on some red bricks that were a little broken up from the explosion, and in the bottom left you can see a painted name: Krystle and a heart, just next to those red bricks.  Two policeman stand guard of each bombing site, so it is easy to find them.

Down the road a bit is a huge memorial.  Today it was covered in tarps because of heavy rains the night before, but you can still get an idea of what it amounts to.  I personally have not seen any news footage of this, so I was grateful to see it.

Boston is such an amazing town, walking the streets it is really hard to believe that this happened.  The city is surviving and thriving and that is the best retaliation they can have.

AZ Marathon

Video’s up!

Phoenix Marathon

This is the first time I can remember going to Phoenix, AZ and not experiencing an extreme in temperature.  The last time I went 6 years ago, I brought winter with me.  My childhood memories include HOT, HOT and more HOT.

Our weekend was so pleasant and lovely. There was no difference between inside and out. Seamless.

I ate this Pomelo.  It was delicious.

The reason for our trip was to cheer for, run and experience the Phoenix Marathon.  Jason and his brother were both signed up. This was #6 for Jason and #1 for his brother.  Their finish times were about an hour apart, so it took some strategy to try to cheer for both of them.

Shane and I sat down and mapped it all out based on their pace and figured that we could stay as a group and see both runners for almost the first half, and then we would have to split off.  I wanted to run Jason in the last 4 miles because I ALWAYS feel that urge when I see him at that point in the race, and I needed to run that anyway for my half marathon training.

Our plans went really well up until about mile 16…and then everything went to pot.

We had a traffic situation because of the marathon and got behind Jason.  I was dropped off around mile 21 and I was about 15-2o minutes behind him.  I took a few shortcuts, hitch-hiked twice and finally ran a roundabout way to try to at least be there shortly after he finished.  That’s what ended up happening–I never caught up, but finished right after he did.  I was disappointed to miss him crossing the finish line but SUPER proud of Lolly for seeing it!  She spotted him!

It was a personal best for J, knocking off 2 minutes from his last record. 3:46:55

It was a wonderful trip to spend time with Jason’s parents and his brother’s family.

Since the kids have gotten older, they enjoy each other so much, and it was wonderful to be a part of that.  Our last night there we had a campfire, and that was probably my favorite part.

PS. We sured missed our Phoebz.

 

Idaho: Pocatello Marathon & 10K

When we were planning our trip to Utah, our NYC-turned-UT friends told us their Dad was running in the Pocatello Marathon the weekend we would be there.  It was the perfect opportunity for us to run as well! Jason signed up for the marathon, I signed up for the 10K and Phoebe signed up for the 1.5 mile kids run.  I recruited some other family members, and it became a mini Anderson reunion.

The night before the race we got some uniquely Idaho swag, had a pasta dinner and camped out in a tiny hotel room.  The king size bed was super nice as Daughters #2 and #3 ended up in bed with us!
The morning started early with Pickle and me dropping Jason off at the shuttle bus to take him to the marathon starting line.  I joined the marathon route a few hours later to run the 10K with my Sparkle Skirt.

I ran with my Sis-in-Law and Cousin, and her friend.  They all agreed to run with me at my pace. They were so encouraging as I maintained JUST under a 10-minute-mile pace.  I could NOT have done it without them and my sparkle skirt.
According to my Nike + app I ran a 9:46 mile, which was faster than my October 10K last year! Woot! We saw some Sparkle Marathoners on the course and met up for some photos after!  Blue Skirt Girl is Carrie’s Niece! Cool!

OFFICIAL TIME: 1:03:35.14

Jason ran a solitary marathon.  He saw our friends a few times on the route because he was just behind their Dad.  He finished just over 4 hours and complained mostly about the downward grade of the terrain–hurt his thighs.  But he bounced back and only limped for a few days. Marathon #5! Check!
Phoebe ran a 1.5 mile run with some of my cousin’s daughters.  We sparkled them up and sent them on their way.

We are pretty sure that the time these kids ran it in didn’t QUITE match up with the actual distance, as some kids (according to the Pocatello Marathon website) ran an under-5-minute mile.  Hmmm…Nevertheless, she ran it quickly and we were proud of her!  She seemed to have the hardest time of the three of us recovering from her race that day.  Drama!

Special Thanks to my brother Sam who we left in a tiny car at 7 in the morning with my 3 daughters…left to wait for us to finish the 10K.  It was too cold to hang out outside, so he just sat in  a car with my 3 crazy ladies.  He was also the photographer.  When I approached him after finishing he was surprised to see me–”You finished?” he asked.

“yes, WITH YOUR WIFE!–we STAYED TOGETHER”  He still only has eyes for her after almost 2 years.  Good for them.

Check out the shot he got of US crossing the finish line:

She also made it on the Idaho News that night.  She’s a looker that one.

We had such a great morning supporting each other and running and bonding.  Can’t wait ’til next time!

Illinois Marathon

This past weekend was Marathon Weekend. Jason ran his 3rd marathon, this time in Illinois!  He was meant to do it last April, but because of an injury deferred to this year.

We took a quick flight to Chicago and then drove down to Champaign with my parents.  We left Phoebe at home with some friends because she had to finish her standardized tests.  We missed her, but it was really fun to be one-on-one with Lolly.  She is a hoot.

The weather threatened to be awful, but turned out to be much better than we expected.  I have learned from Jason’s past two marathons that chasing a marathon is not glamorous or warm and cozy.  I was quite satisfied with my attire, never felt cold!

I spotted three different orange sparkle skirts, so I cheered hard for TEAM SPARKLE! woot!  There were just a few crazy looking characters running and a lot of neon gear–super fun.

Jason’s training partner made him a bracelet with splits he had to achieve in order to make it in 3:50.  He followed it faithfully and beat it by 21 seconds.

When I saw all the runners beginning the 26.2 mile journey, I had no desire to be one of them….but as I watched Jason finish and thought about it for a few more hours, I thought: Maybe, MAYBE someday I will be crazy enough to try it.  My sister thinks next April we should try this one.  First I think I will look forward to The Color Run in August.

ps. How do you like my first collage made with picasa 3?  I need to learn more about it, but so far I think it’s pretty cute.

NYC Marathon

Every year the NYC Marathoners run through our neighborhood.  Depending on when our church services are, we see different types of runners each year.  This year was the late runners/walkers.  They were trying really hard.  This is when the crazy kids come out in their costumes and shenanigans.

This year we saw a Moose, Kangaroo, Dog, juggler, lots of tutus, wigs, and a lot of neon green.  Our post was playing music, and we found that when we danced to the music and rang our cowbells, that it brought a smile to many of the participant’s faces and earned us some high-fives.

Most of their faces looked like: WHY am I doing this?  Yup, we saw those folks, who had probably been at it for several hours, and were only halfway through.  We stayed though. We cheered the stragglers on, even as the sanitation department was sweeping behind the last runners, the police department was clearing out and traffic was resuming.

It was pretty fun to cheer for those who were ill-prepared for this race…I know they were hurting.  They seemed to appreciate the cheering more than the elite runners…who must have cheering squads residing in all their limbs and muscles.

Marathon #2

It’s been a long day. We left at 4:30 AM and got home around 5:30 PM.  The weather went from a bit chilli to lovely.  Jason kept his pace until about mile 22, and then slowed down a bit, but beat his first marathon time by 6 minutes.

We also rooted for the woman who ended up being the female winner of the entire marathon!  We got a quick pizza lunch with her and her running partner (who place in top 10 for men), and then headed home.  The worst part of the day was saying goodbye to our dear friends, who got that look in their eye.

Marathon Man

I finally put together the marathon video. Our home video version will have a soundtrack, but I left it off for youtube.  The soundtrack then remains my ANNOYING cheering…sorry for that. I have to pitch my cheers in a certain place in my voice to avoid vocal damage, so it makes it even MORE annoying.  There was one particular viewer who found herself sharing my corner quite often and I think I REALLY REALLY made her mad…I didn’t care.

The sideways video was actually a happy accident. I didn’t even know the camera was still on, I had it on my hand while I was taking stills, and I ended up getting some cool stuff. The gatorade bottle makes it more abstract no?  If you were watching it on my imovie, you would here I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) by the Proclaimers, followed by The Finishline by Train.

To be honest, there were not many cheerers.  The finish line was like a funeral procession, seriously NOBODY cheered. Enjoy watching Jason kill his first marathon! Woot!  Next up: East Hamptons, Oct. 2nd!

4 Hours. 2 Minutes. 22 Seconds.

It was much colder and much windier than we ever imagined, and the hills! I interviewed Jason about his marathon and he just kept saying: “I was running along and look ahead and just go, OH! Another hill!” The terrain was nothing he had trained for.  His pace was super fast during the first half and became gradually slower during the second half.

Every time we met up with him on the race, he appeared much sooner than I expected, so I thought he might finish even faster than he had planned, but those hills! That wind!  At the finish line, I found myself using The Secret to will him around the bend JUST before the 4 hours mark, because he wanted finish under 4.  2 minutes after the 4 hour-mark there he was! He couldn’t speak for quite a while. I was so proud!

He did amazing. His knees and hamstrings held up, he did not get hit by man, beast or vehicle, and he only got a little sunburn…pretty good for your first marathon!

When we returned to the hotel, having run a marathon, watched a marathon and not used the facilities for about 8 hours, Lolly ran ahead and stuck a quarter that she had found into the key slot.  I miraculously jimmied our door open using a knife that the cleaning ladies happened to have on their cart, but the maintenance man had to switch out the entire lock, which took an hour, so Jason couldn’t get right to his nap/shower/post-marathon rituals.

It was so cold, we didn’t get to show off our awesome t-shirts, but that’s ok, we got some cute pix on the hotel room afterward, once we finally got in.  It wouldn’t have been the same without my parent’s attendance. They helped out so much with tracking the marathon and cheering and helping with the kids and just everything! So glad they could make it.

Jason is already plotting his next marathon….I heard London and Berlin in the car, I guess those are known for the flat course, and I heard they are known for other things, like European Travel destinations, so I’m all in.

Foot News

Foot News:
Jason’s toes have calloused over after marathon training for a while now. He ran 26.2 last Saturday just to know that he can do it…and now hopefully he will be less crazy about running between now and the April 10 official marathon in PA.

The photo of my foot has gone from a 1.5 inch black line across my metatarsal to a thin white line, so I am still not 100% healed, but I am no longer welcome back to the doctor, whose office btw, totally rocks.

That is not my foot, but that is what the photo looked like before the line turned white (healed!).  And, my doc says I do not have bunions, what’s not to be happy about there?

I helped a woman in a wheelchair right after my appointment who was having trouble navigating this crazy slushiness, can you imagine? Her gloves were soaked. Then I had my customary post-doc-appt Alice’s Teacup pumpkin scone (entered to see a screening of A in W there). I have no plans to run it off just yet.