autumn revelations

I walked today at lunchtime. I was stressed to the max and it was either take a long walk or say something stupid and get fired.  I chose the walk.

Dang I wish I had my camera with me. (Photo from Wikipedia.) College Hill was painted in brilliant shades of red. There isn't much prettier in Easton than Victorian mansions cloaked in bright red leaves.

Since the D&L marathon two weeks ago I've been thinking a lot about racing and what role it will play in my life moving forward. It started at the pre-race dinner. Person after person stood up and said how wonderful racing was, and how they break down in tears from joy when they finish. It was like a Hallmark card for walkers. I have never shed a tear or jumped for joy. Sure I was happy it was over. I was happy I finished. But that's it.

The day of the race I counted down the miles like I always do—7-6-5-4-3-2-1-thank goodness I'm done. They hand you a medal which is lovely for about 2 minutes. Then my mind switches gears to what shall I do with this? And I really don't need another t-shirt. Three-quarters of them go to Pat or Goodwill.

But I was signed up for another the next week. It actually would have qualified me for a group called Half Maniacs. After becoming a member the least you could do was one Half a month to keep up your membership. The highest —52 in one year. Yep. One a week. Clearly those people have no life outside of races. And an endless supply of money. Half marathons are not cheap. Plus you need to add in travel, hotels, tolls, eating out, ect.

My fitness friend Nora is a member. She rarely does a 5K or a 10K anymore. She loves the half, and I anticipate that she'll move towards full marathons soon. She check race results. She knows the race staffs. She does two every month. I think I'd rather shoot myself.

Last week I was bored to tears at the Deja Vu. Solitude was not one of my life skills. There was no joy at the finish. Just relief. The shirt went into the hand-me-down box.

The 10K on Sunday was great. But was it because it was half the length or was it because I was walking over a beautiful body of water? Again, no joy at the finish, just relief. And wanted to be sure I caught the right bus back.

Saturday is a 5K. Looks like I'll be going it alone. Again. Bonnie just had surgery, and Megan can't make it. It's at NCC and I designed the tee shirts. I got to go. The money benefits my kids. But I'm not sure I want to.

Bottom line: With the exception of NCC, races are expensive and getting more expensive. I have to buy health insurance next year so there goes my disposable income.  I need to get really picky.

I'm not sure if I've signed up for anything next year. I have to look. (Oh wait—The Yuengling Lager Jogger with Angel and Eryn, and the Hangover 5K on New Years Day....bet there's more.) I need to evaluate how much racing I will actually do. Will 2015 be more Volkssport? More state parks? More fitness challenges. Not sure.

In the meantime,  I found a plastic box for the medals. Not quite ready to recycle them to Medals4Mettle. Maybe when the box is full.

will race for free beer

Or not. The line was way to long.

The Oktoberfest 5K was today. We had a huge group—Bonnie, Lydia, Megan, Dawn and Lyds friend Joleen. It was cold today waiting for the race. We all wore layers. Most of us wore the shirts we picked up yesterday. Nice, right? I had a pink shirt under mine. It is Pinktober after all.

We planned to meet at the entrance to ArtsQuest at 10 am. Megan and Joleen arrived first, then Dawn and her husband, and finally Megan and Bonnie. The race had at least 4K people. They capped it at 5K and were still selling entries.  It was wall to wall people. The broke us into four waves with beer themed names. We were in the last wave. The first was at the start line near the Welcome Center. The last was in the "Keg" section. The line up for that began at PBS. Yep, we pretty much had to walk two blocks to the start line. It took almost 8 minutes for us to cross. Thank goodness for chip timing.

We quickly splintered by pace. Near the beginning I actually passed Megan and Bonnie. How did that happen? But soon Bonnie passed me. Then Megan. Once we hit the hills, I was doomed. Those two, like my friend Angel fly up the hills. I passed them on the way down. But then they passed me again and it stayed that way.

The course went out first, up Webster, out Columbia and over the Fahy Bridge. Then up Center, out Church, and down around the city center and down Lehigh.  Over to Sand Island, turn around and come back.

I met Bonnie and Megan again on Columbia, near the back side of Looper's. Bonnie said "You caught up". And I said something about them seeing the finish line and they'd speed off without me. But they agreed on the bridge that we'd all cross together. And we did. My foot must have hit first because I finished in 50:48, and they finished in 50:50. Our unison was a little off. Dawn finished in 56:50, and Lydia and Joleen in 63:55.

They did not give us our traditional gingerbread cookie medals at the finish which I found odd. You had to wait in line. It wasn't a horrible line, like the one for beer.

Dawn was going to try and save hers. I don't know about the others. Me, I'm eating it. I assure you, it will be gone by morning. Hope it tastes as good as it smells. I heart gingerbread.

color me pink

Yes, it's Pinktober first, and you know what that means. Gayle will be draging out her pink wardrobe. Walking in Breast Cancer multi-day walks bulks up the pink wardrobe. I have enough, for a whole month, with few repeats. 

So it began today. Pink skirt for work, pink t-shirt and ribbon socks for Zumba. I have enough pink t-shirts for about three weeks. I have more than enough pink reusable shopping bags and no doubt I will succumb to another before the month is over.

Yes, I realize the color pink will not cure disease. And the whole pink thing is a giant marketing scam. Just like dumping water on your head was for ALS. Yes, I also know that there is lots of diseases that don't have a color, month, or even a budget to get awareness out there. If you figure out a way to get your disease noticed, I'll support you. Until then, I'm going to party in pink.

This week has been horrible for my numbers. Unless something dramatic happens I will not make my goal of 87,500 steps this week.  Or 140 floors.

I've been fighting some nasty poison and it got the best of me Sunday. I think the build up of Benadryl hit. I was lazy. But Sunday night, at dusk, I walked up and down my hill about 10 times so I could make at least 10K steps and 20 floors.

Monday I had full intentions of walking after work. But the television didn't work and I had to go to the cable company and then spend two hours on the phone with tech support, ect. But the time the smoke cleared it was dark. I didn't want to walk up and down the hill again. Actually I wanted to eat something really fattening and drown my sorrows. I didn't. Total not much more than 5K

Tuesday we did the North Bethlehem Volkssport walk. I forgot my fitbit, so it didn't count. Another sad day under 5K.

Tonight I will take the scenic hilly route to Zumba. Yeah, it's four blocks away. I'm going to try and make it a mile and a half. Or at least a mile. Maybe I will make my 12,500/20 goals. I hope so.

Today registration opens for the Lager Jogger. Angel would like to do it. It's all hills. And the line is too long to get the free beer.

Saturday I'm thinking about doing Columcille. It's different, and not too far. And I think Megan and Lydia will get a kick out of it. Sunday is the Octoberfest 5K.

Maybe I'll turn into a pink superhero and end the week strong.

where was the mud?

My nephew Kool-J always gets the short end of the auntie-time stick. His sister and I have a lot in common and she'll say yes to pretty much everything. Kool-J on the other hand likes super hereos, guns, cars, military, explosions, ... Nothing that his pacifist aunt likes. It's really hard to do things with him.

A couple weeks ago I saw an ad on FB for "My First Mud Run" at Lehigh,and thought he'd like it. His sister would hate it. No risk she'd ask to go along. He said yes. But at 12 he needed a parent or guardian to do it with him, so mom came too. I managed to get a groupon, so it was half the price.

Today was the big day. I've done the Dirty Girl and The Biggest Loser Outdoor Challenge (which teams up with Spartan Races). I have been up to my neck in mud and water. But not today.

After dropping sister at my house to mulch, we headed to Lehigh's athletic fields. The university had several athletic events going on and there was not a sign to our event anywhere. Very odd. Then out of the corner of my eye I spotted a tiny sign. I asked Eryn what it said. She had no idea. She left her glasses at home. Didn't want to break them.

Indeed it was a park here for the mud run sign. We were close to Stabler Arena. So where to go next. The bulk of the people were heading toward the football stadium. We followed. Found a sign about half way there. We went all around the stadium to the rear and kept going. We ended up in the little parking lot off Seidersville Rd.

We checked in an waited. We were the 11 am wave. We set off about 11:15. I told Eryn and Kool-J to wait for me at the end. They had no choice. I had the car keys. (snicker.)

Off everyone ran. Except me. I walked. Up the hill, thru the corn field, around the sculpture. By then others were walking. We reached the first obstacle—tires. Now at the other runs the tires would be sitting in mud, filled with mud. A slippery, slidey mess. Nope. Grass. Easy as pie.

The next was tubes. Not tubes sitting in mud and filling with water. Just tubes. And I fit. Followed by the walls. But there was grass on either side. No mud around them. And more importantly no mud on them.

Then the tire carry. The tires were small and without mud it was pretty easy. Followed by burpies and push ups on the grass. I skipped those. Let the 18-year-old volunteer yell at me.

Finally the heavy jump ropes. This is probably why my arms are still sore. Have you noticed that the only mud in this entire post is explaining that there wasn't any. We were 3/4 done and still no mud.

At the beginning they told us to follow the white lines. After the ropes the white line pretty much stopped.  I saw nobody in front of me, so I walked straight. Clearly it was not the right direction. the family behind me thought the same thing. The father says let's walk toward the music. So I did also.

Eryn and Kool-J were ahead of me. They kept walking and following the path and got way off course. Eryn said they probably walked an extra mile.

Finally we got to the last obstacle—the mud pit. Yes, the mud run finally had mud. You had to go thru on your belly. then run up the hill and come back. But no one told me to turn half way up so I went all the way to the top again.

I finished in about 1.25 hours. Eryn and Kool-Jay came in about 5 minutes later.

No mud. Few volunteers. Poorly marked. I was not happy. But the child was, and that's all that really matters.

The child would like to do more. In fact, he wants to train to do the Spartan race. I'd say go for it. He thinks his Dad might like to do one. That would be good. As a GI he's probably done quite a few of them.

Actually this race resembled what I thought the Biggest Loser race would be—obstacle with some mud.

Look how clean I am!

cedar creek park

Today we went on an adventure. Lydia is always wanting to try new places, and we actively search for stroller friendly routes.

First stop, Cedar Creek Park East. There was a trail but it was rustic. Clearly not stroller friendly. And there was a huge boys soccer tourney going on.

Second Stop, Cedar Creek Parkway West. Much bigger, and another tourney. this time girls soccer.
We couldn't find any place to walk. Back in the car, again.

Final stop. Cedar Creek Park in Allentown. Same old park we always do. This time we headed toward Cedar Crest, around the rose garden and back to Ott. Then we crossed Ott and looped around Lake Muhlenberg and back.

The baby slept most of the time.

Then it was off to the Comfort Suites to do my paperwork for the Volkssport club. The Allentown walk (196) is popular! I have at least three pages of walkers.

North Bethlehem (717) isn't. There were very few on that tally sheet.

Personally, I finished my Distance and Event books, as well as my Pennsylvania book. It is time to send them off to Houston! I've ordered a starter kit for Megan and the Wee One. If my new books don't arrive by the time I leave for Kentucky the trip will be done with the dreaded Insert Cards.

Speaking of finishing. Lydia finished her Gold Award for the President's Challenge yesterday. Unlike me, she will not be doing Platinum. Maybe by the end of summer I'll get to 50%.

it is hard to take a selfie with a baby

Happy Birthday David.

The gang walked today on the Palmer Bike Trail, the portion that serves as the D&L thru Palmer. Usually the walk photos have the baby in the carriage, but I got the silly idea to do a selfie after he was fed and changed. It's difficult. Babies don't cooperate.

Today Bonnie's family arrived right on time, and she left the car running. "I don't think five people will fit in my car with the car seat" she said. We ended up taking two cars.

We started walking in Riverside park off 25th street. It's kind-of under the Glendon Bridge. The lot was empty so we got two prime spaces in the shade, and near the bathroom. The we hit the trail. this is an out-and back trail. If you walk long enough you'll get to Jim Thorpe. Maybe another day. We went about 1.5 miles before the baby was unhappy. Megan was going to stop to feed him, but no benches. Luckily there was a bench where the Palmer Trail and the D&L split.

 As Megan fed the Wee One, Bonnie gave Megan water. It was hysterical.

While they did that, Lydia and I continued on about another mile to the boat launch. Then turned around and came back just as she was diapering the baby. Perfect timing. Then it was time for the trip back.

Somehow I arrived near the front, so I headed off to the swings. And then headed east on the new section of the trail, alone. I wanted to see how long it was, how it went, ect. this connecting strip to Hugh Moore Park was done last year. You used to have to walk on the highway.

As I was walking a few people passed me, and I thought "shouldn't be out here alone". (Easton has had some issues lately with assailants hanging out on the trails.) But all was fine. The path is slightly downhill and straight from the park until the end. Then you start seeing curve signs. The sign below is no exaggeration. The serpentine curves are downright U shaped. The path is divided so no one gets run over by an out-of control bike.

After the wacky curves, I arrived at the Hugh Moore trail head, turned around and walked up hill back. All-in-all I did about 6 miles. The came back and took Adonis for his walk.

Tomorrow we are doing Cedar Beach Park. We are going to try and find the trail behind Dorney, behind Haines Mill.

fitness challenge 2 —geocaching. not.

Today my fitness challenge was to be geocaching. The almighty Wikipedia defines geocaching /ˈdʒiːoʊˌkæʃɪŋ/ as an "outdoor recreational activity, in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or mobile device and other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called 'geocaches' or 'caches', anywhere in the world.

Basically it's a giant scavenger hunt with a GPS unit.

One of my former Girl Socuts —Debi Lehr, now Rice, wanted to try it.  I said sure as long as she had a GPS. She did. Her phone is her job. She does marketing for numerous small business and maintains about two dozen Facebook/Twitter pages for them as part of her job. The plan, today at 9 am. Sand Island.

I registered at the geocaching website on Tuesday in preparation. I set up my location—Bethlehem— and hit submit. A map appeared. In Hebrew. Wrong Bethlehem. But there were a lot of geocaches. Then I had to figure out how to edit it.

Friday I get a FB message. Might be trouble at a Virgina event Sunday. Might have to leave town. Poop. Saturday. Sorry I have to cancel. Crap. (I found out today that the Geocaching workshop at the Wildlands Institute was yesterday. And the Lehigh Valley Geocaching website, hasn't been updated in two years. I guess I should try Meet-up.)

I couldn't try it myself. No GPS. Too cheap to pay for a data plan. Bonnie and Lydia were at the Christening for Bonnie's grandchild. Lydia would have a GPS on her phone. So I went for an ordinary Volkssport walk. Sadly, the Desk Clerk at the Comfort Suites, south Bethlehem, recognized me. Clearly I go there too often.

Today I did the second half of the Bethlehem-South route. Out 4th to Webster (I went to Polk...oops) and back Third. Up the bridge ramp, out Brighton, up Uncas, and back Delaware. At Wyandotte and Delaware I ran into a Girl Scout friend, Elie, and talked for a while. Then I headed down Wyandotte toward home.

Since Adonis was a my house, I also took him for a walk.

bethlehem to bethlehem walk

(I borrowed the pixs from the churches FB page. Hopefully they are one's Dave took while there. If not, I apologize.)

If you remember from back in September, Bethlehem to Bethlehem  is the virtual walk I'm doing with my brother Dave's church, East Hills Moravian. The premise was easy. As part of their health and wellness ministry, they'd walk (run, bike, swim...) the collective miles it takes to get to Bethlehem, Israel, track them, and see how far they could get. It is 5,092 miles as the crow flies. (Or in this case a peace dove.) The theory was we'd make it just in time for Christmas.

So many people participated that we "reached" Bethlehem in mid-November.

 

We "stayed" at the Bethlehem Hotel. In our town we call it the Hotel Bethlehem. 

Now we're trying to get home. I think we're in week 10. I've lost track.  (Now I put the dates on my form!)

In an email this morning he wrote "25% of the people who signed up hadn't posted any miles. We were bugging people to get the miles in. I would hate to be treading water off the coast of N.J. because a few people never turned their miles in." Get off your butts people. The ocean temperature is pretty cold in December! We'll get hypothermia hanging out in in the Jersey Surf. Get us to the coast. We'll walk the rest of the way after Christmas.

Dave was tracking our family miles: Me, him, his wife Barb, and our sister Sharon. But alas when I got overwhelmed with work, I stopped emailing him miles. So we don't know what we did as a family. I bet the coordinator knows.

a family affair

Today was the Turkey Trot in downtown Bethlehem.

Kathy came down from Mauch Chunk and met Lydia. Then they both came, with Adonis in tow of course, to my house. Adonis stayed with Pat and off we went.

We parked downtown by Granny McCarthy's at a three-hour meter. I maxed it out. I didn't want a ticket during "special event" parking fine season.

We headed down to the historic area. There was a mix up in Kathy's registration, caused 100% by me, so she needed to register and a turkey pointed the way. Really. I took his picture. This race used timer chips in the number bibs. Same day registrants were issued ankle chips. I took a picture. It really resembled the monitors celebrity criminals wear.

There was 13K-14K runners and walkers. It was mobbed.

All of Lydia's family turned out for the event. J, I believe, is on Nitchsmann's track team. He also plays soccer. R is 10, I think. They both ran. J finished in 21.47.5 and was 22nd in his age group. R came in at about 35 minutes. Sister-in-law Jeanine finished in 56.02. And brother Todd, just hung around and waited for his family to finish. I put him to work taking a family picture.

Jeanine and Lydia walked together. I started out leading our group, but Kathy caught up. Then we stayed together or leapfrogged  for the rest of the race. The hills killed me.

Entering Sand Island the Heritage Patrol was handing out water. By the time we got there, they were out on our sided. We did the loop of the island, came back, and then they were out of water on that side. With this cold I really wanted water. I didn't take any because there is usually lots at this race. Lesson learned. I also needed a tissue, horribly. Forgot to restock after yesterday's 10k. This cold is not letting go!

Ultimately I finished first at 52.33.7.  Kathy came in 30 seconds behind me at 52.56.2. Next week she'll so beat me. Lydia finished in 57.30.

Speaking of my program, I need to go out and do it shortly. With this nasty cold I didn't do much of it this week. I'm going to get scolded. I don't really care. I don't think it's working. I'm sure it's me, and not the program. I'm not getting faster with my program, I think I'm getting slower. And expending more energy. It stinks.

Dec. 8 is the weigh in. I hope I haven't gained more than 5 pounds. That would be so embarrassing.