I've had some mild chest pain, more of an ache, for two days. Yesterday, I had a low fever and a sinus headache, and my lungs felt heavy. Seemed like a typical cold. Today, the chest pain has localized to a small spot in my right lung. I also coughed up some blood. Because I have a blood clotting mutation (MTHFR a1298c) and because my sister has had a pulmonary embolism, I decided I should get checked out.
The EKG was fine, chest x-ray was clear, and blood work (including d-dimer which looks for blood clots) was normal. So I'm home with orders to rest, follow up with my doctor next week, and come back if the pain gets worse.
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Sunday, April 1, 2012
New Goal
So this blog has gotten kind of neglected. I'm a lot more active on Facebook. But I did want to update with my running goal for the year.
This year, I plan to run 1000 miles. This is about a 20 mile/week average, with a little wiggle room. I'm already off to a good start: we're 1/4 done with 2012, and I just reached 250 miles (1/4) today. To reach this goal, I've been running twice during the week, 4-6 miles each, with a weekend long run ranging from a minimum of 6 to a maximum of 20, depending on what I'm training for and where I'm at in the training.
Training for the Little Rock marathon got me well on my way, since at the beginning of the year I was doing 14+ miles most Saturdays, but now that I'm done with that my long runs are more in the 6-12 mile range. Once Papa Runner is done with his next race at the end of the month, I plan to gear back up for my next marathon. I haven't officially signed up yet, but I'm hoping to do the Leading Ladies marathon in South Dakota in August.
After that, it's Papa Runner's turn again for a fall race, and then I hope to do the Disney Goofy Challenge in January, but that's not firm yet. If I can't do it in 2013, I'll do it for sure in 2014.
All of this is just ground work for my long term goal. And this goal is pretty crazy and impossible.
When I was training for my first race, my coach told me every runner should have 3 goals: a weekly goal that's fairly easy to achieve, a medium term goal 3-6 months out that's "on the edge of achieveable" with hard work and a little luck, and a Crazy, Impossible Goal, one you may never actually reach, but that you set anyway to keep you motivated. At the time, I set the Goofy as my CIG, but now that it's on the horizon, I've set a new one. I haven't shared it with anyone other than Papa Runner, my parents, and my sisters, but someday I'll make it public.
This year, I plan to run 1000 miles. This is about a 20 mile/week average, with a little wiggle room. I'm already off to a good start: we're 1/4 done with 2012, and I just reached 250 miles (1/4) today. To reach this goal, I've been running twice during the week, 4-6 miles each, with a weekend long run ranging from a minimum of 6 to a maximum of 20, depending on what I'm training for and where I'm at in the training.
Training for the Little Rock marathon got me well on my way, since at the beginning of the year I was doing 14+ miles most Saturdays, but now that I'm done with that my long runs are more in the 6-12 mile range. Once Papa Runner is done with his next race at the end of the month, I plan to gear back up for my next marathon. I haven't officially signed up yet, but I'm hoping to do the Leading Ladies marathon in South Dakota in August.
After that, it's Papa Runner's turn again for a fall race, and then I hope to do the Disney Goofy Challenge in January, but that's not firm yet. If I can't do it in 2013, I'll do it for sure in 2014.
All of this is just ground work for my long term goal. And this goal is pretty crazy and impossible.
When I was training for my first race, my coach told me every runner should have 3 goals: a weekly goal that's fairly easy to achieve, a medium term goal 3-6 months out that's "on the edge of achieveable" with hard work and a little luck, and a Crazy, Impossible Goal, one you may never actually reach, but that you set anyway to keep you motivated. At the time, I set the Goofy as my CIG, but now that it's on the horizon, I've set a new one. I haven't shared it with anyone other than Papa Runner, my parents, and my sisters, but someday I'll make it public.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
My First Marathon
I finished my first marathon in Little Rock on Sunday. Papa Runner and I flew down Friday and spent a great evening with some friends who had moved there a few years ago. On Saturday, I picked up my packet from the Expo, bought a new 26.2 sticker for my van, and attended a meeting for the early starters.
One of the reasons I picked Little Rock is for its generous time limit. Many races have a cut-off of 6 hours or even less. I thought I could finish in 6 on a good day, but I wanted a cushion in case conditions were less than ideal. Little Rock has an early start for anyone expecting to take more than 6 hours, so the course time limit is 8 hours if starting early. This early start is ONLY for those needing more than 6 hours, and they will disqualify you if you're significantly under that. At the meeting, we learned the rules for avoiding the DQ: stay behind the 6-hour pace team until the half way point. Then, if you're having a great day, go ahead and finish faster.
Sunday morning, I headed out just behind the 6-hour pace team. There were two pacers, one a little ahead of the other, and with my walk/run ratio, I'd catch up to the lead one during my run and fall back to the trailing one during my walk. The second pacer, Steve, was absolutely the perfect guy for the job. He's done almost 200 marathons. He'd announce everything he was doing ("I will start running at the corner, and run for 1 minute"), and at each mile marker he'd let us know we were "20 seconds ahead, but there's a hill coming up" or "30 seconds behind, but we'll make it up on the downhill." There was quite a group around him, all having a blast.
The first ten miles went great. Miles 10-15 are a steady uphill climb, but not too bad. Yay for stair training! Mile 16 is a pretty steep downhill, and I made up a lot of time there. That was where I passed the pace team, and stayed a little ahead the rest of the race. Once we got down that hill, the course heads out into an open park, where it was sunny and hot. Even there, though, I felt pretty good. Papa Runner was able to cheer me on at several places on the course, and it always gave me a boost. I saw him for the last time at mile 24, and that's when I finally started to feel less than great. My ankle, which had been acting up a few weeks ago, started to get achy, and the general stress of having run 4 miles farther than I ever had before was catching up. BUT I never had a "hitting the wall" moment, and I never missed a run interval.
I had thought I could do a 6 hour marathon on a good day. Turns out it was a great day. My final time was 5:56:27. I had signed up in the "walker" division, and it turns out I was 8th place among the walkers, 4th place for women! I'm pretty excited about that. I got a HUGE medal, too. Little Rock is known for having the biggest marathon medal, and since this year was their 10th run, it was even bigger. Amy won my "Guess the Finish Time" contest with a guess of 5:53. She just edged out Staci, who was 33 seconds over. (Sisterly rivalry!) Amy, I'll get your Panera card to you soon.
This was such an amazing experience, and I can't wait to do it again. I have to give a big Thank You to everyone who supported me before, during, and after the race. It was such fun to see the comments here and on Facebook. I don't have any marathons currently on the schedule, but I'm signed up for the half at Champaign in 8 weeks. I'm hoping to turn my unofficial PR of 2:44 into an official one. I'll be looking for more marathons with favorable time limits, maybe in the fall. And I'm still debating about attempting the Disney Goofy in January 2013 or waiting until 2014.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
A Contest
So Sunday I will be running my first full marathon in Little Rock. I thought it would be fun to do a little give-away. I'm offering a $10 gift card to Panera to the person who guesses my finish time, Price is Right rules (closest without going over). To give you an idea of my potential time, my personal record for the half marathon is 2 hours 44 minutes. I finished my 20-mile run in 4 hours 50 minutes. I expect to finish between 6 and 6.5 hours, but it could be later depending on how things go. Entries must be submitted by 6:00am Sunday (start time). Encouraging thoughts appreciated.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
That Moment
Warning: If you're the squeamish type, you should skip this post. You definitely should NOT scroll down to the pictures.
Have you ever experienced That Moment? You know, when there's something potentially dangerous nearby and you know you shouldn't leave them unsupervised, but you've just got one thing to do that'll only take a minute? And then you hear the shrieks that let you know you're The Worst Mother in the History of the World? That Moment? We had one of those on Monday.
Smartie had asked if she could walk on the treadmill for PE, which she's done a few times before. Papa Runner and I have warned our kids over and over not to go near the treadmill when it's on. Smartie had completed a 1/4 mile and the other kids were otherwise engaged when I heard the washing machine buzz. I ran up to move the load over and was on my way back down when it happened. Sassy had touched the treadmill.
She lost the entire outer layer of skin on the bottom of two fingers from just above the second knuckle to the tip. Amazingly, there doesn't seem to be any damage to muscle or bone, thank God. But seeing her shredded fingers was still a heart-stopping moment.
This has been giving me PTSD-style flashbacks to when Sweetie nearly lost her finger to infection. They had to take the skin off from the second knuckle up, and it looked almost exactly like this but with neater edges. She ended up with a lot of scarring. With regular massage and what the doctor called "informal PT," it doesn't seem to affect her now. She has almost the full range of motion, just can't straighten it the last bit, and is learning to write without a problem.
Our biggest concern for Sassy, of course, is infection. In fact, I decided not to take her to the doctor because I'm sure that's where Sweetie was exposed after a minor cut, and that led to a 4 day hospital stay and the word "amputation" being thrown around. I've been keeping them bandaged with antibiotic ointment. The next biggest concern is scarring. I'm already planning to massage them regularly with vitamin E oil once they're healed enough.
We are now 3 days past the injury. She doesn't complain of pain except when we change the bandages, which is an ordeal. She asks Monkey to hold her hand, and he faithfully does. (Twins are awesome!) This morning they were still very swollen, and she couldn't bend them much, but seemed a little better tonight. I'm hoping they don't stiffen and that she'll have a good range of motion.
The injury is to her left hand, and while my other kids were clearly righties from birth, Sassy uses both hands almost equally, the left a little more than the right. I wonder if this will push her into preferring the right or if she'll remain ambidextrous/left-handed.
The bandages back on, and she's happy. Out of sight, out of mind, I guess.
Have you ever experienced That Moment? You know, when there's something potentially dangerous nearby and you know you shouldn't leave them unsupervised, but you've just got one thing to do that'll only take a minute? And then you hear the shrieks that let you know you're The Worst Mother in the History of the World? That Moment? We had one of those on Monday.
Smartie had asked if she could walk on the treadmill for PE, which she's done a few times before. Papa Runner and I have warned our kids over and over not to go near the treadmill when it's on. Smartie had completed a 1/4 mile and the other kids were otherwise engaged when I heard the washing machine buzz. I ran up to move the load over and was on my way back down when it happened. Sassy had touched the treadmill.
She lost the entire outer layer of skin on the bottom of two fingers from just above the second knuckle to the tip. Amazingly, there doesn't seem to be any damage to muscle or bone, thank God. But seeing her shredded fingers was still a heart-stopping moment.
This has been giving me PTSD-style flashbacks to when Sweetie nearly lost her finger to infection. They had to take the skin off from the second knuckle up, and it looked almost exactly like this but with neater edges. She ended up with a lot of scarring. With regular massage and what the doctor called "informal PT," it doesn't seem to affect her now. She has almost the full range of motion, just can't straighten it the last bit, and is learning to write without a problem.
Our biggest concern for Sassy, of course, is infection. In fact, I decided not to take her to the doctor because I'm sure that's where Sweetie was exposed after a minor cut, and that led to a 4 day hospital stay and the word "amputation" being thrown around. I've been keeping them bandaged with antibiotic ointment. The next biggest concern is scarring. I'm already planning to massage them regularly with vitamin E oil once they're healed enough.
We are now 3 days past the injury. She doesn't complain of pain except when we change the bandages, which is an ordeal. She asks Monkey to hold her hand, and he faithfully does. (Twins are awesome!) This morning they were still very swollen, and she couldn't bend them much, but seemed a little better tonight. I'm hoping they don't stiffen and that she'll have a good range of motion.
The injury is to her left hand, and while my other kids were clearly righties from birth, Sassy uses both hands almost equally, the left a little more than the right. I wonder if this will push her into preferring the right or if she'll remain ambidextrous/left-handed.
The bandages back on, and she's happy. Out of sight, out of mind, I guess.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Dealing with Miscarriage
So my previous post was triggered by this "Pop Quiz" that appeared in Good Housekeeping. It offers a scenario of a woman who has announced her pregnancy but then suffers a miscarriage and asks what you would do, offering three choices--do nothing because miscarriage is private, leave a note and flowers on her desk, or tell her you're there for her if she needs to talk. Now I have lost two babies in the first trimester, and speaking for myself I would prefer a note or kind word. I certainly know not all women would deal with this situation as I would. Some prefer to grieve privately, and that is totally okay. I would never judge another woman for how she chooses to mourn.
Good Housekeeping could have said that people grieve differently and the correct response is to follow their cues, offering support if it's welcome and leaving them alone if that's their preference. But that's not what they said. They said the correct response is to do nothing. My knee jerk reaction was that this idea that miscarriage must always be private reinforces old taboos (which, thankfully, seem to be disappearing) and does a disservice to women like me who want and need the support. I did not mean to imply that those who grieve privately are doing anything wrong. I was just upset at the insinuation that those of us who are more open in our grief are the ones in the wrong.
Good Housekeeping could have said that people grieve differently and the correct response is to follow their cues, offering support if it's welcome and leaving them alone if that's their preference. But that's not what they said. They said the correct response is to do nothing. My knee jerk reaction was that this idea that miscarriage must always be private reinforces old taboos (which, thankfully, seem to be disappearing) and does a disservice to women like me who want and need the support. I did not mean to imply that those who grieve privately are doing anything wrong. I was just upset at the insinuation that those of us who are more open in our grief are the ones in the wrong.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
What would you do?
I'm really curious to know how people would handle these hypothetical situations.
Situation 1: Your coworker Lucy is not at work today. Word spreads through the office that her father died suddenly last night. What do you do?
a: Tell her you're sorry for her loss when she returns.
b: Leave a note of sympathy on her desk.
c: Do nothing. Grief is private, and if she wants to talk with you she will.
Now let's alter it slightly.
Situation 2: Your coworker Lucy recently announced her pregnancy, but is not at work today. Word spreads through the office that she miscarried. What do you do?
a: Tell her you're sorry for her loss when she returns.
b: Leave a note of sympathy on her desk.
c: Do nothing. Grief is private, and if she wants to talk with you she will.
Was your response different? Why or why not?
Situation 1: Your coworker Lucy is not at work today. Word spreads through the office that her father died suddenly last night. What do you do?
a: Tell her you're sorry for her loss when she returns.
b: Leave a note of sympathy on her desk.
c: Do nothing. Grief is private, and if she wants to talk with you she will.
Now let's alter it slightly.
Situation 2: Your coworker Lucy recently announced her pregnancy, but is not at work today. Word spreads through the office that she miscarried. What do you do?
a: Tell her you're sorry for her loss when she returns.
b: Leave a note of sympathy on her desk.
c: Do nothing. Grief is private, and if she wants to talk with you she will.
Was your response different? Why or why not?
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