My Daughters Runs Marathons, Too!

I just had this conversation with a very nice lady at a Christmas party Saturday night. Several of the guests, close friends of mine, knew I ran the Las Vegas Marathon and while I was boring regaling them with the details of the race, this lady chimes in and tells me that her daughter runs marathons all the time. "That's wonderful", I replied; "Your daughter must be a very experienced runner". "Yes", she said. "She runs 3 or 4 every year". Wow, I think to myself-3 or 4 marathons a year? Most marathoners I know usually do only 1 a year; perhaps there are runners who can do 2 a year; but 3 or 4? The logistics of that astounded me. How do you train for that many marathons? How much time does this lady's daughter have between marathons to recuperate properly? Obviously, this required some investigation.

I asked this lady which races her daughter ran-were they the big races? She said her daughter ran mostly local races because she didn't like travelling too far from home by herself. That puzzled me-how many marathons can an area have in one year? Then it dawned on me what was happening here-I asked the lady "How far does your daughter run when she does her marathons?" She told me her daughter ran 13 mile marathons. I explained to her that her daughter ran half marathons, not full marathons, and that a full marathon was 26.2 miles.

This lady then explained to me that a marathon was any race over 10 miles and her daughter ran them all the time. She was very sure of herself and I got the impression that I would not be successful if I tried to argue with her about what constitutes a marathon, so I changed the subject to something more suitable, like the best recipe for lemon bars.

I wondered later that night about the daughter. If she was indeed running half marathons on a regular basis, then she really was an experienced runner. I wondered if the daughter knew her mother was telling people that she ran 13 mile marathons and that a marathon was anything over 10 miles. I would be mortified if my mother did that (hi Mom!). I have tried to educate my family about the ins and outs of running so that if they mention my running, they don't embarrass themselves with inaccurate bits of information like this woman.

Work Sucks.

Work just plain sucks. After my mini vacation in Las Vegas, and FINISHING MY FIRST MARATHON, I came back to work invigorated and ready to roll. That didn't last 2 weeks; I'm back to my old, mean, bitchy self at work. The problem is I have to share a desk with a co-worker and there is no good way to share a desk-my philosophy is that if there is work on the desk that needs to be done, I will do it. My desk sharing co-worker, however, believes that I should not touch "her" work and leave it for her to finish. This would usually not be a problem except that a lot of the work we do is time sensitive and needs to be addressed immediately. I just can't leave a contract untouched or a check unmailed when I know it has to go out now.

We worked out an ok system whereby I work Tuesday through Friday until 3:00 and my co-worker comes in all day Monday and at 4:00 the rest of the week; this way I don't even have to see her. Yesterday I went to work early to process payroll for the salesmen. I had been at my desk for about an hour when the co-worker shows up and tells me she planned on doing the payroll. Umm, ok, fine. You do it, co-worker. I'm going home. I just wish she had told me or left me a note or something-it could have saved me a trip in to town.

If this continues much longer I'll just quit. I don't need the job and working will cut into my running time when I go back to running full time next week.

Neglect

It seems I've been neglecting my little corner of the blogosphere; what with FINISHING MY FIRST MARATHON and going back to work and all, it's not as easy to get over here and post my brilliant observations. I will, however, be back soon with some absolutely wonderful posts about running and working; I already have some ideas I think you, faithful readers, will enjoy. Stay tuned for more!

I Now Remember Why I Retired Early!

I went back to work today. Yup, that's right-I'm a member of the working force again, a cubicle monkey, a nameless, faceless clerk, a very tiny cog in a huge machine-I don't know what part of my brain thought it was a good idea to say yes when my former boss called and asked me to come back, but that particular part of my brain needs to be punished severely. I had to get up at 4:00 am in order to get in a 6 mile run before work, and I was out the door and running in the pre-dawn chill, scared to death of cars or coyote or bears, oh my! I got home from the run with barely enough time to shower and dress and head out for work. I forgot about all that morning routine-stuff like makeup and actually doing something with my hair rather than just combing it flat and putting on clean clothes rather than the jeans and t-shirt I wore yesterday..

The good news is the work routine came back pretty quickly. When I finally started actually posting contracts and receipts and all the other flotsam and jetsam of my boring work day, things started to click and I actually started remembering account numbers and bits and pieces of information I will need to do my job.

The bad news is I have to wear nice shoes instead of comfy former running shoes that have lost their bounce for runs, but are fine for doing chores around the house and grocery shopping. But alas, dirty running shoes just don't work with nice button down shirts and skirts.

The question is-how long will it be before I start despising my co-workers, and I remember exactly why I needed to retire?

Why I Hate Main Stream Media

What is it lately with inflammatory, inaccurate articles lately about marathons? First it was the "Plodders don't belong in marathons" thing that I posted about yesterday; then it was the CNBC article regarding the winner of the New York Marathon in which the writer believes that Meb Keflezghi's win is hollow because Keflezghi is not a natural born citizen to the U.S. And on top of all that, last night's news on the telly went on and on about all the deaths lately in marathons and whether people should even be attempting to run 26.2 miles. The part that really got me angry was when the reporter interviewed the obligatory doctor, a cardiologist, who stated that "he recommended that his patients only need to walk 1/2 an hour every day for optimum health". Well, of course he recommends 1/2 hour of walking a day. He's a cardiologist; his patients consist of heart attack survivors, bypass surgery patients, and people with congenital heart problems. I wish I had been interviewing the good doctor- I would have asked him if he thought a healthy person with no heart problems who has been running regularly for a few years was capable of training for and running a marathon-never mind what he recommends for his ailing patients. I'm pretty sure he would have answered in the positive to that one, but of course then NBC wouldn't have a really scary story about how you're going to die if you run a marathon. Now I have to deal with my mother in law telling me how scared she is for me and all this running I'm doing...

I'm a plodder, and proud of it

I just can't let this go. I've been thinking about the New York Times article in which faster runners are complaining that those of us that are plodding away at the back of the pack are somehow ruining the mystique of the marathon.

If there is some sort of mystique about the marathon that is based on how fast you can run it, perhaps the distance should be reserved for the Olympics-that would really give the 4 hour marathoners a goal to shoot for. Or go one step further-as one commenter put it, if we want to preserve the "mystique" of the marathon, then everybody who runs it should be naked, and die of heat stroke.

I'm thinking that the runners who don't want your average Joe running a marathon want to keep the race for themselves because running is how they define who they are and running marathons makes them really special; thus, if the average person can complete a marathon then the faster runners aren't all that special, are they?

The interesting thing is, since the article came out, I've read comments from some truly elite runners-the people who can actually win a marathon. They all seem to share the view that a marathon is for anybody who wants to train for it and complete the distance-the more the merrier.

Don't get me wrong-I think the 26.2 miles should be respected and no one should attempt a marathon without a solid running base and months of training. I will be the first person in line to discourage an inexperienced newbie runner from signing up for a marathon. It takes months of hard work and discipline to prepare for a marathon. But if you've been running a few years, and have a decent running base, and you've trained for a couple of half marathons-I say go for it. And stopping on the marathon course to have lunch-not cool.

Finally-one last comment about the runner in the article who will accost people in marathon shirts, ask them what their time was, and then make a nasty comment if she deems their time too slow-the fact that she is capable of doing something so mean and small speaks volumes about her character. I guess every sport has its bullies..

Volunteerism

I worked as a volunteer all weekend for a car show; it supports a good cause (our local hospice) and all my friends were there, either as volunteers or exhibiting a car. After we spent an exhausting afternoon marking the golf course for the cars on Saturday, I was up and at my post Sunday morning, checking in the cars and handing our exhibitors packets. Every driver, WITH ONE EXCEPTION, was friendly and helpful with information about their cars. So.....this is an open letter to the ONE UNFRIENDLY TOOL gentleman I encountered:

Dear Sir:

I'm sorry you had such a bad experience with me as I tried to check in your car for the show. I failed to recognize your car as a BMW and I called it an Audi and you got very angry. You made a nasty and insulting comment about hiring the handicapped. I would just like to clarify a few points with you:

1. I was not hired for this car show. I volunteered. Not only did I volunteer, but I volunteered to help line up cars on the golf course, not check them in. I got recruited to check in cars when that volunteer did not show up; that is why I could not answer any of your stupid assed, lame pertinant questions.

2. I apologize for not recognizing that your car was a BMW. I guess that after spending all morning checking in really interesting cars like Duesenbergs, a beautiful coffin nosed Cord, and a veritible herd of vintage Ferraris, your boring, off the street, nuthin special except the grotesque pricetag BMW just didn't register on my Special Car Radar.

3. I also apologize for not having a packet ready for you with a pre-printed dash card. Unfortunately, this is what happens when you REGISTER LATE for an event. I did not have a nice felt tipped pen to fill out the blank dash card because the organizers did not provide one for me and I did not know I might need one; otherwise I would have brought my own from home. I hope you didn't mind that I listed the make and model of your car as a 1966 Dodge Dart.

4. Yes, I do know how to spell BMW. I spell it J-E-R-K.