first night 5k

Today was the First Night 5K. It's actually named wrong, it should be the Last Night 5K. But it's all part of the First Night festivities for New Year's Day. (BTW is there no dumber holiday?)

It snowed this morning. Two-three inches. I really din't want to wear my pink sneakers but I did. The snow stopped about 3 hours before the 1 pm start.

It would have made a beautiful picture with the snow on the blast furnace and people milling around. But no pictures. My camera battery was dead. 

As I arrived at the skating rink start line, a member of the Coordinated Health staff was leading a group stretch. Apparently they are one of the sponsors. CH a physical therapy / sports medicine place, and apparently they have a full service fitness center too. I hid behind a trash can and joined in. I wasn't sure if it was a sign-up ahead of time thing. Then the female PT announced into the mike that they had people inside doing individual stretches, and she'd be outside doing them. Nobody went to her. They went inside. Fools. I went to her.

She stretched out my legs and dang did it feel good. I know never stretch enough before these events. I especially don't during the mega walks. I think it actually helped my walking. I felt really good thru the whole event.

They changed the route this year. It started at 1st and Polk, went over the Fahy Bridge, up the Center St. hill, out Church, thru the "pee tunnel" up to Main, then down the Musikfest path (was it pretty looking down to the historic area) to the Luckenbach Mill. We walked all that in the street and it was just wet. They did a great job clearing the snow. Until we got to Conostoga Street. It was snow covered and hard to walk on.  When we got to Lehigh Street, we had to use the sidewalks, because Peeps Fest needed to have the traffic come thru.

We crossed the foot bridge onto Sand Island, went to the Ice House, turned around came back and continued to the Fahy Bridge. Back over the bridge and back to the skating rink.

My time was 53.05 and I was disappointed. There was at least 12 people behind me, after I passed two people on the bridge, and four people fifty meters from the end.

Oh well.

hopefully my knees will forgive me

Today I signed up for three winter stair climbs. That should keep my fat butt moving. Two are the same day. Hopefully my knees will forgive me.

I didn't plan that. Really. I was hopping back and forth on the lung association page page between the Philly one that goes straight up fifty floors (1,088 steps) and the Wilkes Barre event which is in an arena and is 1,224 steps both up and down. That's the one I planned to sign up for. Oops.

The Philly one is at 8:30 am and Wilkes Barre at 2:30 pm. I can do both...if my knees hold out. March 20 is the big day.

The third one is February 28 for cystic fibrosis. Also in Philly. Fifty three flights (1,019 stairs). I entered the "fun" climb. The lung association one doesn't have that option. I'm planning on dead last, but finished.

All say if you can walk a 5K you can do it. Some sites suggest in 20 minutes. I suggest an hour... and a half, maybe.  I'm going to train on south Bethlehem hills because I don't have any 50 story building to climb stairs in. Martin Tower is closed. I don't think security would let me in even if they were open. I also think that's about 25 floors.

Bonnie is my emergency contact. Haven't told her yet that she's on-call that day.

Anybody want to come along on either event, let me know. I'll even buy lunch. Hopefully there will be someone at the top to take a picture.

pedestrian friendly?

Lately these signs have been popping up like weeds. Has the city finally become pedestrian friendly? Or did they just get a new sign making machine?

I started thinking about this today while walking on Third Street. Traffic was busy, as always, and I was waiting at the corner to cross. Cars stopped for me. It happened three times today. And a few times before today.

I could get use to this.

reflections

(I'm often told by my siblings that my memories are wrong. I'm sure I'll hear from them.)

Yesterday on CBS Sunday Morning they did a story of "nostalgia". I kind of pooh-poohed it and went on my way.

But perhaps it's because of the Christmas season...the time of the year when the past invades the present...I got to thinking about the past today while doing errands, on foot of course.

(I'm not a writer, so I can't seem to make this flow properly. I apologize if it rambles or is disjointed.)

I live in a small city. On what some people might call the "bad" side of town. The benefit of a city is that you don't have to drive to get the daily necessities of life. I can go to the elementary or middle school, post office, State Store (booze), grocery store, a public library, three university libraries, a tailor, dry cleaner, drug store, two dozen churches and bank on foot. I can also go to three live performance spaces, a casino with five restaurants, a university, a half dozen galleries, a dozen ethnic restaurants, several good bars and a couple seedy ones.  All within two miles of my house and without crossing a bridge. If I cross a bridge, the possibilities multiply dramatically.

Yes, the choices aren't as great as they were back in the 60s with a thriving steel mill. But they are still there. (Although I'm hoping for a Target or Kmart or something like that when they redevelop the steel property. I'd never have to drive to shop!)

When I was growing up we walked nearly everywhere—school, shopping, errands, activities.

Just like today, with list in hand, on Saturday mornings mom gave us each a list of errands to do, on foot, and we would not return until they were done. My job, before New Years Eve, was to find pickled herring for my Nana to eat at midnight. I'd procrastinate and the seafood shop (sadly now closed) would be out.

And I was really, really thin. None of us were fat. (I shall search for a picture but it will be a week before I'm near a scanner.) When we got a car, it was my dads. "God gave you two feet" our parents would say. "Use them." I referred to this as the "shoe-leather express." When we weren't walking, we took a bus.

The day after Christmas we were talking in the car about the obesity epidemic. I've read that one reason Americans are fat is because of the decline in the family meal. Every night my mother cooked our meals, then we ate around the table as a family. Shoveling food into our mouths and telling tales, sometimes tall tales, of the day. Restaurants, for the most part, were not in the budget. Most days we carried our lunches to school.

My mom fed us well according to 1950-60s standards. Every night we had one meat, one starch, two veggies and a salad. Many nights the first four elements were thrown into one pot. She—well all of us including Nana from her perch on the pretzel can—canned and froze a lot of our food. We didn't have soda, and frequntly only had prezels for snacks, except at holidays when there was cookies galore.

There was "bad" food too. I'm sure we ate too many fats. And carbs. We ate margarine (oh the trans fat I've consumed!), or oleo as she called it. On white bread she bought at the thrift store. We didn't snack. She had a fondness for trying prepared food for the convenience, but rarely made them twice. Except for Noodle- and Rice-A-Roni.

So what's the point of this trip down memory lane? I have no idea. What does have me curious is why am I thinking about all this now, on the cusp on 2010.

I do know that I've been battling my weight now for three decades. I want this war to end. Once and for all.

does shoveling snow count?

I have not been exercising much at all lately. And I've been eating out a lot. But I have shoveled lots of snow. Does that count?

Over the weekend we had about 8 inches. Philly had about 15. I did three sidewalks, two parking spaces, the path thru my yard and the garage. I did the sidewalks three times. I'd rather shovel two to three inches three times than  eight inches ones.We also had a lesser snow about a week earlier. That time I just did the sidewalks.

I  did one walk with Betsy and the dogs last week. And I did the stairs maybe once each week.

I also hiked up the trail and cut a Christmas tree. Does that count?

Nope. It's all smoke and mirrors.

Next week I have off and I've got to come up with a winter schedule. The First Night run/walk is the 31st and Betsy and I are doing it together.

I need motivation to keep me going thru winter. So I will sign up for the stair climb I mentioned before in Wilkes Barre. And perhaps a Philly one too or the Empire State building. (Beats paying $20!)

planes, bridges, and automobiles

Another entry that has nothing to do with exercise. I've spent the better part of the last five days in the car, shuttling people to airports in three states. I have been eating poorly and have drank too much caffeinated soda to keep me awake. Things must change or I will be the really fat girl, not walking, by spring.

January 1st I decided I was going to do one new thing a month. It was prompted by an article on a local "polar bear" event.  I thought it was a doable new years resolution.

Wrong.

I'm sure I did something new in January and February, but who knows what. Wouldn't I have been the most motivated then? But the calendar offers no clues. My old blog, Tall and Fat Tales (my old blog) probably would have netted clues, but that died in July, I think. I didn't copy it. Boy am I dumb.

In March I took two different walking classes. (Hey wait...the blog has walking references....it is relevant. Cool.) First Strides, a 12-week program that I hated. That adventure was chronicled in my old T&FT blog, as well as my 3-day blog. The other was a really cool one-day seminar called BreathWalk. It's run locally by Walk For All Seasons. It kind of combines yoga breathing and walking. I couldn't do it. It's like walking, chewing gum, and rubbing your head counterclockwise all at the same time. But I might try again in 2010. Both events I found while looking for new walking challenges in the dead of winter.

In April I became a training walk leader for the 3-Day and the Avon. (Does that count?). In May I did yoga on the stairs of the Philly art museum for Breast Cancer research in memory of my friend Karen, and in June I went to visit the worlds largest Big Mac outside of Pittsburgh. Okay, that's a stretch, but I did pay extra money to go an additional exit on the turnpike! In July, or maybe August, I walked over the Brooklyn Bridge for the first time, explored Brooklyn by food, and also hiked the High-Line Park. (that was in T&FT also. Drats!) In August, I started to keep my doodles and started my doodling blog a little while later. In October I did two big Breast Cancer walks and in November I took a cheese making class. A fair average, if I could think of what happened in January, and February.

That is until December.

This week I had a ton of firsts. I drove in Manhattan (okay, at 4 am. Herald Square is gorgeous at Christmas time with the lights on), and thru the Lincoln Tunnel (again, 4 am), and over the Verrazano Bridge three times. Twice at night. I went to JFK Airport twice, both in the dark. It makes Newark and Philly look like the LV Airport. Going North instead of South on Rt 404 today had me go over the Bayonne Bridge and the Pulaski Skyway at morning rush hour.

And I saw the best road sign ever at 5:45 am on the Staten Island Expressway. "NYC GRIDLOCKED. USE MASS TRANSIT."

So in 2010 I'll try again. And this time, I'll write down the new things. Maybe as a postscript in this blog.

climbing stairs

If I'm seriously thinking about doing one of those stair climbs. I need to find larger buildings locally to practice in. And of various ages. Stair rises change from building to building, especially in old ones. No standardization prior to what, maybe 1960?

Last Thursday I had to go downtown to the Williams Visual Arts Center to deliver something to one of the professors. It's a the base of campus.  There are stairs which go from behind Keefe dorms, around the Civil War Statue (no that is not Lafayette!)  to the Alumni Arch on 3rd Street. As I finished my descent, in heels,  I noticed that the sign I designed was on "The Spot", the student nightclub. I didn't have my handbag, so no camera. I vowed I'd return today.

So today I went downtown again. Back down the Alumni stairs in heels again. At one time there was about 199 big, chunky limestone or slate stairs, now there's only about 90. A few years ago, I think when they opened WVAC  they ripped some out and put paths in, for safety, I guess. Damn those paths are steep climbing up. I'd rather have stairs. Today, I took the longer path down, and it's the steepest of all. It took so much energy to "brake" going down.  I thought I was walking at a 20 degree angle!
The first picture is my sign. The second is the Civil War Monument. In the mid-ground  in Rt. 22 and behind that is center square Easton. The peace candle is in the center of the square. The last picture is of the Alumni Arch and stairs from 3rd Street and College Hill. The other is of my sign.

Later today I hope to do my typical 6 flights at Acopian. I should really do the five flights in the old section of the building. They are much different, smaller, and steeper that the "new" ones. And I should also try the ones in Pardee again. They are knee-torturers.

jingle bell run/walk

Today was the Jingle Bell Run/Walk sponsored by the local Arthritis Foundation. It's a cause near and dear to me since my mom, and her mom, and her mom...you get the idea...all had it. As do all of my siblings and maternal relatives in various degrees. Walking is one way I'm trying to fight it off, but the knees are not taking the hint.

This is always a fun event. First of all they keep up the finish line till everyone crosses. But because it's a Christmas race with prizes for costumes, many people dress silly. Tons of Santas and elves. Dogs and kids dressed up also. One trend I saw this year was red and white stripped knee high with fur tops. I'll have to look after Christmas and get me some of those.

The runners go first. Someone fell getting out of the gate and the ambulance was put into service. Hope she's okay.

Then the walkers. They allow kids and dogs and strollers. The walkers follow the same route as the runners. But there are only 3 winners in each gender. The runners go by gender and age. No way I'll ever win, but today I finished in 51.04. I wish I would have downloaded my old blog. I think that one was 1:01.0. This time that won't happen. My cousin Cindy sent me a link to have your blogs printed like journals. Too bad it isn't compatible with my breast cancer blog sites. Those I extracted as generic text files and archived.

The final group to "hit the streets" are the kids. Their course is in the parking lot and I think it's one mile. Maybe next year I'll take some with me. I wonder what the low age is.

Sharon borrowed my camera, so I took some pictures with my phone. I hoped to download them here, but it didn't work. I have to wait till later.

The race started and ended at the community college so I'm taking the opportunity to get some grading done while here. Nobody will sit next to me in the computer lab, I'm sweating like a pig!