A Half Marathon Is Planned......We'll See What Happens

A friend and co-worker, Shannon, has been involved in half-marathon and marathon running for several years, associated with fund raising for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.  Many of the large organizations use running events to enhance fund raising.  In Shannon's case, she signed up for a given run, agreed to a certain amount of fund raising, was supported in her running by an ancilliary organization called Team In Training, and had her way paid to the event.  She ran her half-marathon in Phoenix and enjoyed it so much she signed up to be the a team captain for a marathon the following year--in Dublin, Ireland!  The opportunity to travel is a nice motivator, but fund raising in the thousands of dollars is required, so it's well-earned.

I'm a long-time runner, but have not chosen to be involved in public events very often, nor do I train for speed.  As I said to a friend:  why sign up for a 10K and come in last when I can run by myself and come in first--every time!!  I also haven't often trained for distance.  However, this year I wanted a bigger challenge, so I asked Shannon if she'd like to train for and run a half-marathon together-minus any fundraising.  She enthusiastically agreed.

We signed up for the half-marathon part of the Flagstaff Marathon on September 22.  We chose our training schedules, and agreed to get together for long run training when we could.  Shannon and her husband Jim have been involved in a 10K Freedom Run sponsored by the New Horizon Christian Academy--Shannon runs, Jim prepares food.  She invited me to participate in that event as part of our training.  I enthusiastically agreed, setting aside the above mentioned philosophy.

We ran the Freedom Run 10K on July 21.  What a great event it was!  Very well organized, the route well marked with plenty of water stations, plenty of prizes, a band, and Jim's great food afterwards.  It needs a bit more advertising, because Flagstaff is a 10K crazy town, and this run fielded 115 runners.  Some of the other 10Ks draw a field of 500 runners.












However, the lesser numbers made for a delightfully uncrowded run.  What's more, in a stroke of irony, I came in third in my age group...and got a really nice medal, and a free pizza from Papa Murphy's Pizza! This is no end of amusing, don't you agree?    

As for the "we'll see what happens part"....Shannon and I ran a 6 mile training run on a rocky trail.  She tripped on said rocks and took two hard falls.  Her chiropractor told her she might have some whiplash, besides some really sore muscles. That took her out of running for about a week.  She's still having some trouble with her neck.  A week ago tomorrow,  we ran an 8 mile training run, and I felt a tweak in my lower back.  It  rapidly became painful to walk, and running out of the question.  I've had one session of physical therapy and have several more scheduled.  The therapist believes it will heal pretty quickly...but September 22 is staring us in the face, and there needs to be a couple more long runs in there!  We'll see what happens..........

A Mormon Lake Adventure

For many years, both solo and with a variety of family and friends, I've done one of my favorite bike rides:  from home to Mormon Lake Lodge, or vice versa.  The Mormon Lake settlement includes the rustic Lodge restaurant and saloon, small cabins and motel rooms to rent, a trailer village, a little store, horse rides, and lots of camping .

 

This photo is from a previous Adventure..friend Pat and the bear...another story!

 

 

There is more than one route; the one I choose is a gorgeous 25 mile ride through the forest on unimproved roads.  Mostly it's a reasonable, somewhat rolling ride.  There is one particularly challenging uphill that I've always had to walk more or less of.  I always think of one of Mom's Rules of Riding:  there's no shame in walking the bike. With that rule in place, she rode thousands of miles, so I always feel comfortable when I find myself in situations that require it be invoked. Or what, give up?  Turn around?  THAT'S not happenin'!!!

I had a three-day weekend from work in July, and solicited Ron's willing support to do a ride-hike-ride version this year. The Plan:  Thursday, ride out to Mormon Lake and meet Ron and the dogs there for camping.  Friday, hike Mormon Mountain, a pleasant 6 mile round trip, with more camping that night.  Saturday, ride back home.

Yep, that was best laid version of the plan.  More and more, I say "make a plan, see what happens!"

I rode out from home Thursday morning on my brand new Kona mountain bike, fresh off the boat from China and fitted just to me.

 

 

 I left early enough to arrive before the monsoon, which comes in after 11:00am during the season.  I arrived about 10:30, and called Ron to see where he was and make a decision about whether I should go to the campground or meet him at the Lodge, where I would be protected if the weather came in.  It was cloudy as I was talking to him, but my very insufficient personal weather radar did not detect anything imminent.  Until there was a crack of thunder.  I told Ron I'd meet him at the Lodge, and jumped on the bike for the final 3 miles.  Less than five minutes into the ride, the sky opened, and it proceeded to rain buckets.  I quickly became soaked-even my shoes filled.  Then to add some spice, it began to hail.  Fortunately not of a size to cause injury, but plenty of sting!  Nothing for it but to keep going.  I made it to the Lodge in record time.  I stayed outside for a bit, not wanting to go in dripping, but that quickly became too cold.  I went inside and discovered I wasn't the only bicyclist getting out of the rain.  There's a paved ride from Flagstaff that many road-bikers take, and one of them was inside waiting out the storm.  When the hostess came and offered me coffee or hot chocolate, I realized further that I wasn't the first dripping biker to come in! 

It kept raining, so when Ron came out we decided that rather than risk our old, leaky Walmart tent, we'd make modification #1 to the plan.   We rented one of the motel rooms that are part of the Lodge area. Rustic, small, clean, reasonably priced, and dog-friendly. 

 

There was a ramada with picnic tables, so we were able to enjoy our camp food.  That's Ron's enjoying face.  Maybe it was the food.

 

 

At bedtime, modification #2 became evident.  Ron discovered that his CPAP machine really did need that part he left at home.  He ended up with a not-very-restful night.

Next morning, after some discussion, we decided to hike, then go home for the machine part and make a decision from there.  The hike was beautiful, through a mixed forest of juniper, oak, pine and fir, mostly shady.  The dogs had a great time dashing about, sniffing and being doggish.

 

As we arrived back at the van, it started to sprinkle.  We drove the 45 minutes home and decided the likelihood of continuing rain was 100%.  Rather than go back out and spend the money on the motel again, we made modificaiton #3:  stay home for free and Ron could take me back out in the morning for the ride back.  These things get convoluted, don't they?  I'm pretty goal oriented, though, so driving back out so I could ride home made sense.  Which he did and I did.  The road conditions riding home indicated there had been a significant monsoon event, so we made the correct choice.  With only a few sprinkles, I made it home with mostly self-produced dampness. 

I liked this Adventure a lot.  The three days of activities challenged me physically in a very satisfactory way.  The several modifications challenged us mentally--very important as one closes in on their retirement years!!!!!

A Bit of Catching Up

When I went back to work on February 10 after my medical leave, I decided I would not sit around twiddling my thumbs waiting for retirement for the next 5 months.  These are some of the events and activities I planned and enjoyed:

Special Olympics Torch Ride

Each April, law enforcement agencies across the country are heavily involved in fund raising for Special Olympics.  One of the big events is called the Torch Run.  I don't know exactly how it's organized, but let's say there are four actual torches, one assigned to each corner of the state. In the week preceding the start of the Arizona Special Olympics, law enforcement agencies take turns running the torches to the Special Olympics Opening Ceremonies in Phoenix.  Though called the Special Olympics Torch Run, biking is also acceptable. 

I participated in the Torch Run as a runner for many years, then for about as many years chose not to participate.  For the past couple of years, my friend and co-worker Lea and I talked ourselves out of doing it as a bike ride.  The distance is about 20 miles, we start at 6:00am after having worked until 10:30 pm the night before, it's always cold and there have been times it snowed the night before, and it's early enough in the year that we haven't done much if any biking.   However, this year everything, including our motivation, aligned.

Some of us old dogs aren't all that comfortable hopping on a bike and doing a 20 mile ride right out of the Spring chute, plus I was still regaining fitness from the surgery.  I took advantage of the mild weather in late March and April to do a decent amount of riding beforehand on the only unpaved road in my area that stays open all winter.  During this time, I found myself struggling on rides that should not have been all that difficult, no matter what my level of fitness wasn't.  I thought my bike wasn't shifting correctly, and asked Ron to see if he could make some adjustments.  Fortunately, as it turned out, he made the problem worse.  Since I knew the bike shop would take some time to repair it, I asked if I could ride his bike.  One ride on his bike caused me to realize the problem wasn't ME, it was MY BIKE!  A fifteen year old Giant with plenty of miles on it, I'd had the distinct impression it was fighting me..guess it was all tuckered out! 

One would think in a biking haven like Flagstaff one could do a bit of bike shopping and walk away with a bike the same day.  One can, if one doesn't mind paying top dollar.  If one is a more conservative spender, one can order a bike and wait a month for it to cross the ocean from the Big Bike Factory in China.  Being that conservative spender, I chose to order and wait, and used Ron's bike for the Torch Ride. 

Our agency being the Highway Patrol, we've always done our leg of the event on Interstate 17.  This year, the powers that be at Special Olympics decided Interstate highways were too dangerous, and only State highways could be used.  For us, that meant instead of using the wide emergency lane of the Interstate, we'd be using the no-shoulder two-lane State highway that is parallel to the Interstate. Talk about UNSAFE!  Our Patrol commander had a choice of disobeying the higher ups and running on the Interstate anyway (a moral dilemma for a law enforcement agency), or taking the event to forest service roads, making us invisible to the public, but safe.  He chose the latter.

Lea, fellow dispatcher Kathleen and I got our cheery selves up and to the meeting site at 6:00am, and started the 20 mile ride shortly after.  We were the only "girls" doing the event, though our only female officer in the district, Sherri, drove one of the support vehicles. She did have the excuse of being on light duty with an injury....The runners got dropped off 10 miles from the finish and ran from there.  It was a gorgeous morning, very mild, beautiful scenery, and nary an 18-wheeler to blow us sideways.

In a very nice concidence, the event was held on April 25, the exact date of my Mom's death a year ago, and a year and a week from my Dad's death.  My Mom's teaching degree was in Special Ed, and she and my Dad both had many years of service with the mentally handicapped, including Special Olympics.  Later, they both became avid bicyclists. The ride turned into a perfect, and a couple of times tearful, tribute. 

Here we are at the finish, looking no worse for wear:

 

 

 

I was the last one in, and that's me still in my helmet. Kathleen is beside me, and Lea behind her wearing light blue.  Yay girls!  You can click on the picture to enlarge it for a better view.

 

 

The Beginning

A Gracious Plenty:  an abundance; more than one needs

I became aware of this Southern expression when I listened to a book with this title by Sheri Reynolds.  The main character, Finch, now a middle-aged woman, was badly burned as a child when she pulled a pan of  boiling water off the stove.  The resulting disfigurement has defined her life.  Her father was the caretaker at the cemetary of the small town where they lived, and Finch took over his work.  Because Finch has always defined herself by her disfigurement, she has not allowed personal relationships.  Instead, she talks to the dead in the cemetary, and they to her.  The dead have moved beyond the superficiality of appearance, and only with them does she feels acceptance.  Over the course of this transformational story, through the agency of one of her grade school classmates, Finch begins to accept the living and let go of the dead.  During the climactic conversation, her friend says, "....and at least I got some friends."   Finch replies, "I got friends.  Plenty of friends.  A gracious plenty..."  When he demands she name her friends and she does, he says "They're all dead....."  

In another example on a lighter note,  I recently listened to a much more superficial book also set in the South.  The main character,  Miss Julia,  described a male acquaintance of a certain age as having a gracious plenty of wrinkles.  You get the idea.

When I began to search for a title for this blog several months ago, the meaning of this phrase became transformational for me.  As I moved toward retirement, I began to consider my particular place in life.  I realized that through a synchronicity of circumstance, timing, choice and luck,  I was poised to reap A Gracious Plenty. 

I am humbled by this realization.  Certainly I worked for where I am, and am as deserving as anyone who has done the same.  I'm also well aware of the many who have, are, and will continue to work as hard as I ever did and do not have the untold advantages I have.  With that in mind, it is my intention to accept my retirement as a gift,  to live and enjoy it fully, to share it in ways I can only anticipate, and always be thankful for the Gracious Plenty that it is. 

With pleasure, I invite you to join me!