Raising the Bar

It's finally over. The long saga of the past three-plus years is over. On Friday, the results of the bar exam were released by the state bar association. This week took an eternity to grind on by. As Friday approached, my husband became more nervous than a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. When he came home from the exam that day in July, he worried that he'd failed.

The results were to be posted on the web at 5:00 p.m. on Friday. After a long day in meetings, I sat at my desk and waited for the time to tick to that fateful moment. At around 4:15 p.m. or so, I decided to check out the web site, but I'm not really certain what I expected to see. Sure enough, the results were posted early. I clicked on the link, clicked on the last letter of our last name and scrolled through the listing. There he was. He did it. He passed. And I was sure he didn't know yet.

A wave of excitement crashed over me as I dialed his office number. He wasn't at his desk! I was going to track him down no matter what so I called the main number for the firm. The receptionist simply transferred me to his extension, but he was magically transported back to his desk. He didn't know. He hadn't seen. So, it was incredibly special to break the news, to be able to hear the relief and excitement in his voice, and be an audible witness to his experience. I'm so proud. I'm so relieved. This result means that my husband can move forward in his legal career and we can move forward together in life.

In other news, my mother called to say she had already made reservations for the three of us (mom, my sister and me) to go to Paris. It was a done deal. I just have to buy a plane ticket up to New England. My main worry now is how to contend with smokers for an entire week, but Paris should be great!

As far as running goes, despite last week's knee scare, I was able to complete my last peak week at full mileage (50 miles) with a 20-miler on Sunday. Reflecting back now, I'm worried that I didn't work hard enough in training. My recovery from the longs was too easy.

Just as taper begins, I peruse the Chattanooga Track Club's web site only to find out that they've changed the course at Chickamauga due to road construction. Just what a tapering marathoner needs to worry about!

The Best Recipe for Frozen Peas

I've never really liked peas all that much. While not a picky eater, I've just never favored the small green round vegetables. However, in the past couple of days, frozen peas have come in quite handy. The packages of peas make the best ice pack, far better than anything with the actual intended purpose. The peas conform perfectly to one's leg.

It happened on Monday afternoon: my worst fear realized. I was dropping off a package to the post office where I work. The post office is located down the strangest ramp (because the building was formerly a parking garage). As I approached the ramp, my right knee buckles, but I keep on walking, with a slight discomfort. This discomfort increased throughout the day; so too did my worry. I've had a difficult training cycle. I've struggled with ankle issues that seemed to be improving, and now this "problem" during my final peak week of training. Monday was a scheduled day of rest, and I took last night off too. I'm going to try to run tonight and see what happens. I can walk without a limp, but there's still some tightness. My husband has been encouraging ibuprofen, which I am actually taking. Taking medication is something fairly unusual for me (I only use it as a last resort).

Despite the struggles over the past few months, I want to run this marathon. I want to run it bad. I'm to be surrounded by friends and family running a marathon on my birthday. I can't let my stupid knee stand in the way. The story continues....

More Golf Carts Per Capita

This morning I had the pleasure of participating in the Peachtree City Classic, running a 15K. Peachtree City, Georgia is perhaps one of the most unique cities in the country in that the entire city is connected by golf cart paths. Residents of Peachtree City traverse their fair town via golf carts to each other's houses, the grocery store and even to local fast food venues. There is something charming about this idea and strange as well. Much of the 15K was spent on these cart paths which in some cases were the dividing line between two neighborhoods as two sets of backyards back up to the cart path. These paths go everywhere; tunneling under roads and bridging over larger highways.

As the race time approached I worked down to the starting area and chose a sufficient spot to line up. Lining up is always such a quandary in trying to guess if the people around you will probably run around the same pace or not. The race started without a gun that I heard and the mass of people lurched forward. I was relying on the Garmin Forerunner for pacing. When the pack finally thinned and got into a groove, Garmin said I was at 7:57 pace - a bit fast. However, I crossed the first mile marker at about 8:26 or so. The race was chip timed and there was a delay crossing the start line. I had hoped to maintain around 8:20 miles for this race, so I figured I was on track. About a half mile or so later we turned off the roads and onto the cart paths. The remainder of the race was spent on the twisting, turning, tunneling paths. Through the tunnels vision was obscured to a minimum by the tunnels' length and width; only the literal "light at the end of the tunnel" served as a guide. Needless to say, with the tree cover and the tunnels, the Garmin was completely useless. I just ran by feel and listened out for the splits. By mile three I knew I was running slower than I wanted, but I just stayed with a consistent pace. Along the way I was inspired by a woman I dubbed "Rockin' Granny" who was cruising ahead of me for about a mile or so. She had to be in her 60s I thought. Eventually I passed Granny, but as it comes to pass, she was 68 years old and finished somewhere not too far behind me. While one could certainly assess this occurrence as a testament to my slowness, I prefer to think about it as how awesome this woman is to be cruising along at 68.

I forgot to hit my watch at the end of the race, but the clock time was somewhere around 1:19 something or other. The Peachtree City running club had the results posted fairly quickly on their web site, revealing a chip time of 1:18:45. I'll admit to being somewhat discouraged with my time. I had a lower goal set that would align well with my goal marathon time (which I had decided would be 3:55). I wonder if I would have run better on a course that was less twisty and turny than the golf carts. Nonetheless, the Peachtree City folks put on a great event. Each of the bibs for the pre-registered runners had the individuals' name printed on them so that people could say, "Good Job, Runninchick." The shirts were a nice long sleeve technical fabric with an embroidered race logo. Definitely a race that I'd do again, if nothing else to just gaze at the spectacle of this interesting "city."

Eureka Moments

Sometimes the obvious stares you right in the face. For the past month and a half I've been running through lingering ankle soreness that would probably be technically described as achilles tendonitis. I've never had this type of problem before, and couldn't figure out why my right ankle would give me such a hard time. I had a Eureka moment on Wednesday evening as I was doing a pace workout - 10 miles. In the later miles of the run, I went through the local college campus to do one mile around the track. After spinning around the track a few times, I began to feel my ankle soreness more prominently (usually it loosens up when I run). Duh. The track was the answer. When the Garmin fouled up, I started doing some work on the track to have a good idea of distance. All the spinning around in circles must have done it. Now if I can just heal up in the next few weeks. The aforementioned pace run did not go well. Pace was all over the place. First couple of miles were slow, next couple better, one mile too quick (under 8 minutes). Hopefully I can improve upon that in the weeks ahead.

I can't believe the marathon is just a little over a month away. I've got a 20-miler this weekend and another 20-miler in a couple of weeks - amazing. Next weekend I'm planning to race a 15K to see what I can do and perhaps what I can expect from a marathon performance. I finally signed up for the marathon. I waited as long as possible for the price went up.

I haven't written much about my battle against crap (food). The battle was going well for a couple of weeks. I'd made some progress on weight loss, was incorporating fruits in my diet and not snacking at night. That pattern pretty much went out the window a couple of weeks ago during my travels north for the Salem Lake. My reversal of progress culminated with independently finishing off a box of Swiss Cake Rolls in less than a week's time (one each day for dessert). Perhaps hitting rock bottom has me realizing I need to regain focus and work hard for the next month to eat responsibly and fuel properly for my goal race.

At the Country House

This past weekend husband and I executed a planned retreat to celebrate our fourth wedding anniversary. We decided to leave the city lights behind and head for the hills of the North Georgia mountains. Ostensibly, the locale chosen was near Helen, Georgia for its annual Oktoberfest celebration. However, we fundamentally ignored this festival during our sojourn.

We left the city Friday evening after work and struggled our way out via the congested traffic arteries. One of the unique things about our marriage (I think), is that my husband and I generally can drive almost anywhere and we never turn on the radio. Since the inception of our relationship, our driving hours together are typically accompanied by interactive conversation rather than the blocking curtain of music. So, this two-hour drive served as a nice beginning to our weekend celebrating togetherness. One of the most interesting points of the drive came when we stopped for supper. We bypassed chain restaurants en route in hopes of discovering a hearty local greasy spoon. Finally, the beacon of the Country House Restaurant called to us. The parking lot seemed relatively full, so it had to be decent. A few old men stood outside the entrance talking and probably giving us slightly suspcious looks as the entered the restaurant. As we opened the door, we were greeted by loud music - loud country gospel music to be specific. The median age of the clientele of said restaurant was about 63 years old. Nonetheless, we wandered up to the counter under a small sign that said "Cafeteria," careful not to walk in front of the band. The "cafeteria" consisted of a meager steam table with three entrees and several side dishes separated in bins. We both requested the country-fried steak, with sides and banana pudding - quintessential greasy spoon fare. It was absolutely wonderful: the plastic plates, the roll of paper towels on the table, and the singing. The other patrons had finished eating and were simply taking in the entertainment. To cap the evening off, husband thinks that the female singer was someone with whom he went to college.

After our dinner we proceeded on our way, stopping at the grocery store to buy supplies and try to find a cheap watch. I'd forgotten my Garmin and running watch. I ended up purchasing a small clock to carry with me. We drove through the town of Helen, Georgia and firmly decided that we would not got to Oktoberfest. Helen is an "alpine-themed" town. All of the buildings on the main drag, including the Wendy's, are architecturally fashioned after some Swiss mountain retreat.

Rather than drinking beer and cavorting with other tourists, we spent the majority of our weekend in the rental cabin hot tubbing. When we weren't hot tubbing, we were hiking in Unicoi State Park, napping or driving through the countryside. The experience at Unicoi was unique because the area had suffered a tornado in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The park had done a good job of clean up. However, the twisted wreckage of trees was strewn everywhere.

Regarding running: I got up Saturday morning and had a nice run in the roads around the cabin. Along the way I saw turkeys and a chocolate lab comfortably lazing in the middle of the road. I'm taking solace in the fact that I have two more "hard" weeks of 20 mile long runs (with a stepback week between) and then it will be taper time!

I will always be a country girl at heart. Husband and I left Sunday morning talking about our desire to have our own permenant mountain retreat.