Back to Nike Women's Marathon

April 28, 2011 - learned my luck did not bring a lottery entry for the 2011 Nike Women's Half Marathon, so signed on for my 7th Nike Women's Marathon appearance with Team in Training. Have actually been there for all of the NWM events, but the first year was as "Support Crew" for Naomi's first effort doing a Marathon. Have now done five Fulls at Nike and one Half, so guess that makes me a veteran. We are going back for the eighth time to the Nike Women's Marathon - October 16, 2011, a couple of weeks after we do the Marathon di Tuscany.

4 weeks earlier Naomi will be riding 100 miles with TNT in the Moab Century Tour with me along as support/mechanic. After the Nike we return to Virginia, where we'll racewalk the Marine Corps Marathon 10K on October 30. The 10K uses the last 6.2 miles of the MCM course, finishing at the Iwo Jima Memorial. You may recall last year's MCM was my last full marathon. "Beat the Bridge" and finished, but enough is enough

Again this year I am raising money for LLS, adding my efforts to the $1 Billion raised for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society since TNT was created 22 years ago. Some of that money has gone to help my friend Bob Raleigh in his battle with AML or acute myelogenous leukemia. Not long ago we were not sure about Bob's prognosis, by May of 2010 he was well enough to be back in the courtroom and now he's going strong.

The other reason I keep doing this is a young man named Caleb Schneck, who turned 6 in February of this year (he is pictured above in the yellow "TNT gear"). He is also a leukemia survivor, having been diagnosed at age 3. Caleb is a very active boy who seems to be able to take the ongoing medical issues with amazing grace, as do his parents and family.

Bob and Caleb are survivors instead of statistics thanks to research funded by your TNT contributions. The treatment programs both of them participate in are funded in part by the Leuekemia and Lymphoma Society, the parent of TNT. Bob's done with active treatment and is putting his life back together again, thanks to your help. Caleb's medical attention is currently more active than Bob's but his Mom says in about a year his active treatments should be complete.

Bob and Caleb are what we at TNT call "Honored Teammate" - the ones who are fighting the blood cancers in person. Ohers involved with TNT are people like me who get out and do these endurance events because they are "fun". Yes, there is hard work involved, but when the race is finished, it's fun.

Your contribution to this LLS fundraising is the best possible way to help support treatment for Bob, Caleb and all the others who are fighting blood cancers. We don't have a cure yet, but the survival rates are improving every year, thanks in large part to the money donated by friends of TNT. In fact Dr. Kwak, whose work has been funded by LLS, is on the 2010 Time100 list in recognition of his work with cancer vaccines.

Please - take the time now to make a donation! By supporting my participation in Team In Training you help patients like Bob & Caleb and advance LLS's mission. Use this link to contribute by credit card, or send a check to me in Alexandria and I'll be sure it's properly credited on the TNT records and you get a tax receipt.

Want to join us for the MCM10K? Great way to see the fun of the MCM, and it's only 6.2 miles. Just use this link to register, but get there soon as they limit it to 10,000 people.

Thanks for your support! Cash goes to TNT but your friendship is priceless.

"Walking Tom" Farnam

ps - Purple for this post - the TNT color, also the color of my pancreatic cancer lapel ribbon.

Bulldog Pride & Determination

Yes, it says runner-up, again and we are mighty proud of our Bulldogs! Butler is the only Indiana school to ever go to the final game two years in a row, and based on a quick glance at the NCAA history it looks like you have to go back to the late 60's/early 70's UCLA teams to find any school repeating in the final game more than two years in a row.

Alright, this blog is supposed to be about my racewalking, so let's return to that topic. After finishing the Marine Corps Marathon last fall, I've been doing some shorter events over the past few months. Not giving up on Half Marathons, will be doing The Virginia Wine Country Half on June 4th, which is an inaugural event. In the meantime, here's a quick list just to bring it all up to date:

• November 20, 2010 Cranberry Crawl 5k – 41:04 =PR


• February 13, 2011 Love the Run You’re With 5K – 43:26 (bronchial asthma)


• February 19, 2011 GW Birthday 10K - 89:00.01 (into 50mph wind gusts on 1st half)


• March 12, 2011 4 Courts 4 Miler - 58:08


• March 26, 2011 National Marathon ½ Marathon Relay – 5 Miles in 1:09:000


• April 1, 2011 Crystal City Friday 5K #1 – about 43:22


• April 8, 2011 Crystal City Friday 5K #2 – about 47:11.7in cold rain


• April 10, 2011 GW Parkway Classic 5K – 40.31 = PR

Naomi is spending a good deal of time on the bicycle, even got herself a new Trek Madone 4.7 to go faster more easily. Neat bike, carbon fiber frame and weighs very little. My contribution to this process has been a really nice indoor trainer which she uses with her older bike just to avoid installing and removing the new one. Also have modified the car bike rack to fit more closely with the new Trek bike. Can't say enough good things about our Bird Automotive bike rack. It took about an hour to install the first time, but just as advertised it's very easy to install and remove without any tools. Naomi can walk into the garage, install the rack and put the bike in place in less than 5 minutes with no tools, and you can still use the trunk of the car. Great investment, if Sam Bird makes one for your car it's worth considering. He even makes versions to carry golf bags, skis, snowboards and luggage.

Walking Tom

Memories

BULLDOGS

It really is fun to watch the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament when your alma mater is doing well, and when they are giving us good close games to enjoy watching. Now have my friends telling me I should be making bets in Vegas. Don't have any idea how to do that, no intent to learn but it sure is fun to see the Butler Bulldogs in the Final Four two years in a row.

Lots of fun as well to hear people talk about Butler having a good basketball team as something new. The Bulldogs have been good at the game for as long as I can remember, which is getting to be a long time since I was in the class of 1966, my sister was in the class of 1962, and my mother was in the class of 1933 (and got a Masters in Education there in the '50s). My father, my uncle, a couple of cousins also went to school there. Good place for an education, not terribly expensive "back in the day", still not expensive compared to a lot of schools.

Also been having fun recently with Facebook, seems my Noblesville High School class of 1962 has a Facebook page and is putting together a 50th reunion for next year. Hard to believe, don't feel that old but the calendar says it's true. Guess having two new lenses in my eyes to fix the cataracts maybe says something about age as well, not to mention the silver hair.

"Silver hair" brings back memories of a conversation with my sister Fran. I said my hair was silver, she looked at me and said "Brother, your hair is gray". I looked at her and said "Honey, if your hair is blond mine is silver!" End of that line of conversation. Miss her, would love to share the Butler games with her. Sure they are watching from heaven, wonder if they get cold beer?

Enough of this, need to update for this year's racewalking. No, will do that another day. For now just going to savor the memories.

2010 Season Completed Successfully

It's been too long since my last post on this blog so let's get caught up a bit. My 2010 racewalking year is complete, and was reasonably successful.

Thank you, on my own behalf and especially for my honored teammates Caleb and Bob. The best news is they are both doing extremely well in their battle with blood cancer. As his mother says "In a nutshell, Caleb is FABULOUS! and during this season of thanks we are truly thankful to be able to report that! We are also grateful and thankful to all of you for your continued support of our family through this very long journey. " Bob Raleigh is back actively at work, and having a great time with the lovely lady Noelle. The contributions you have made to TNT have helped!

My 2010 Marathon season was a little bit less successful than the basketball team of my alma mater. The Butler Bulldogs Men's Basketball team wound up nearly winning it all. What a wonderful series of games to watch, and think about how proud my whole family would have been. My sister, mother, father, uncle, aunt and a couple of cousins were also Butler alums, so if there was a party in heaven to watch the NCAA Basketball Finals, they were cheering loudly.

Like Butler my own fall marathon season was not quite what we hoped, but respectable finishes when all things are considered. Nike Women’s Marathon (NWM) was a Half Marathon for me this year after five years of the Full Marathon at NWM. Gee, the Half is as much fun as the full, but only half the distance. The part of the Full course not used for the Half seems to be interminable. No intent to offend SFSU alums, but the four miles of the course around Lake Merced is boring, even with the Ghirardelli chocolate at mile 22. Besides, on the Half course we got the same chocolates at mile 12.

My race went very well other than a visit by an old friend – gout. First diagnosed 15 years ago, had bothered me only occasionally for the past five years, but hit me during the NWM. If you are doing an endurance event on foot you want nothing to change your gait, and have no doubt, gout will change your gait. Still managed to finish, despite painful right ankle and leg.

About the time we finished the half the sun just plain disappeared from sight and it began raining and blowing, more reasons not to be doing the full. Naomi had finished ahead of me, and she and her sister Ruth Behling were waiting for me at the finish line. Welcome sight, to put it mildly. Collected another Tiffany sterling necklace, then headed on through the finish area to find some food, and catching up with Naomi and Ruth.

Even in the TNT welcome tent with heaters it was windy and cold enough to make us shiver, so we left soon after we finished and got some pictures. Actually back to the hotel and in a warm shower by the time I would have finished the Full. Enjoyed lunch and a tour of SFMOMA, just around the corner from our hotel.

We finished our west coast stay with two days in Healdsburg, Sonoma County. Wonderful small town with wineries in every direction. You can check my blog for those details, and use this link to see more photos from this year's NWM trip.

Marine Corps Marathon is a race I've watched for the past five years, either touring with the coaches or doing the 10K to be at the finish. Since it’s done almost in our back yard, and this year was going to be two weeks after NWM instead of one, the lure of one more Full Marathon was irresistible. Having gone to Quantico Marine Base in March for the “Run to Register 10K”, my entry was guaranteed for a race which sold out - 30,000 entries plus 10,000 for the 10K.

MCM was not a TNT race for me, but our Fall Season TNT training included both the NWM and MCM so we all trained together, getting psyched up to "Beat the Bridge", which is MCM slang for finishing the first 20 miles of the course within 5:15 of "gun time". After a nice tour of the Nation's Capital, we use the 14th Street Bridge to cross the Potomac. The bridge carries I-395 into the District, so can only be closed for a limited time, and if you don't Beat the Bridge you must ride to the finish in a bus, and you will not get the finisher's medal.

The extra challenge is presented by the size of the starting field, which takes over 1/2 an hour after gun time for the last starters to finish. Gout was going to make it very tough for me to Beat the Bridge if starting from the back, so my choice was starting from the front. Just move to the side and stay out of the way of the "gazelles" and there will be no problem. Actually worked quite nicely other than some bruises on my arms from folks passing, sure those were accidents. In any event, my approach worked well enough to earn a finisher's medal.

MCM 2010 is my last full marathon, unless by some miracle I qualify for Boston or New York. Not likely so now I'm going to focus on improving my form and speed while doing Half Marathon and shorter races. Still out there, and it's still both fun and really good for me. Besides, the Half Marathon is about 99.9% as much fun as the Full, and less than half the strain on my aging body.

Thanks for all your support. Almost reached my fundraising goal for this year, but did manage to raise nearly $4,000 to help fight blood cancers, bringing my personal total to over $40,000. Our National Capital Area TNT chapter raised over $1.5 million dollars for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in this Fall Season alone. That's part of the $1 Billion dollars raised by TNT in the past 21 years. Lots of help for patients and families. If you have not contributed and would like to do so, mail a check to my home address payable to "Leukemia and Lymphoma Society", and I'll be sure the check gets credited to my fundraising account.

Contribution from Bob

Have to step away from the usual “training report” which is overdue, and tell you about something special which happened yesterday. Opened my email to find a contribution to my TNT account from Robert Raleigh! To help you understand what a big deal that is, at this time last year Bob was moving from Siteman Cancer Center in St. Louis to the rehabilitation center, where he was learning to walk again. We were all delighted with his progress, but also wondered whether he was ever going to be able to return to work as a trial attorney, his dog Charley, and all the other joys of his life.

HE’S BAAACK! June 2, 2010 we had dinner at Trattoria Marcella, with Bob walking across Pernod Street into the restaurant with the lovely Noelle on his arm. No walker, no cane, just a pretty girl. What a wonderful change from less than a year before, when on July 8, 2009 he got his first “real meal” from Trattoria Marcella which I carried into Barnes Hospital for him. As you can tell from the photo, he and Noelle had a wonderful evening, and were truly a joy to watch. No offense to Bob, but she's vivacious and pretty enough to be fun for any man to watch!

Now, about that training report. Let me assure you the heat and humidity of Washington, DC and Saint Louis, MO are essentially equal. And neither makes training more pleasant. One must search for small bright spots in the process, such as this scene along the Mt. Vernon Trail near our home in Alexandria. By the same token, last Saturday morning on the W&OD trail near Vienna, VA was so hot we actually cut our routine a bit short. Scheduled for 10 miles, we stopped after 8 with temp above 90 and humidity close behind the sun became too much to tolerate. That was at 9:00am! My training times are on target, but my heart rate was above 150 for virtually all the 8th mile, and it just was not worth the risk to continue for two more miles of training. Did get back out on Sunday for a couple of miles.

Our projected schedule of fall events is changing a bit due to my scheduled cataract surgery for the right eye, which will be done September 9 by my god friend and fine surgeon Frank Catanzaro in St. Louis. That means we'll miss the Wilson Bridge Inaugural Half Marathon as competitors, serving as volunteers instead. While it might be OK for me to do the 1/2, it seems a bit risky signing up for that level of exertion only 10 days after eye surgery. BTW, the left eye is working just great after the February cataract operation, so I'm really looking forward to having clear vision in both eyes again.

Naomi is not training with the racewalking team this year, instead is off on her bicycle each Saturday as she trains for the “Seagull Century”, a 100 mile bike ride in Salisbury, Maryland on October 9. The month of October is going to be very busy for the two of us - 10/9 is Seagull Century, 10/17 in San Francisco for Nike Women’s ½ Marathon, 10/24 Naomi does the Army 10 Miler, 10/31 I’m doing 26.2 miles of Marine Corps Marathon while she does the MCM 10K. We don’t expect to be very active the first week of November.

2010 Events

Having done a couple of short (5K events) since the CIMC, and realizing it's been far too long since this blog was updated, thought I could at least post a list of the events Naomi and I have planned for the rest of this year. Must say the Easter weekend "short event" had an extra element of fun, as my daughter Rachel and her daughter Katie got to run one of the Crystal Run 5k Friday races with me. They were faster, but we all had a great time.

Oh, and besides the short events I went down to Quantico, VA for the Marine Corps "Run to Register 10K" on March 27th. Did not get a medal, but did get a guaranteed entry for the Marine Corps Marathon on October 31st. Having decided five Nike Full Marathons was enough, and with the schedule changed so there are two weeks between Nike and MCM, this looks like a great year to do the big event in our backyard and I'll be training to "Make the Bridge". Will be doing the 1/2 Marathon at Nike with TNT (get ready for fundraising appeals), then MCM on my own.

For those not familiar with "MCM slang", "the Bridge" is the 14th St bridge across the Potomac, which as a major highway bridge (I-395 & US 1) can only be kept closed for a limited time. That means if you don't get to mile 20 in 5 hours, you will be "swept off the course" and taken to the finish in a bus. No challenge for the 20-something runners, a little bit of a workout for some of us older folks.

Most of the shorter events are put on by Pacers (we are both having fun serving as "Pacers Ambassadors") for which we may be volunteers or may be doing the events. We have not yet registered for the Wilson Bridge Inaugural or Run To Victory, have to see how other things work out. Otherwise, this will give you a good idea of our future races.

TCF & NMM 2010 Events - both doing these except as noted:

4/25 - GW ParkwayClassic - 10 miler http://www.gwparkwayclassic.com/
5/2 - Brain Tumor 5K "Race for Hope" (Freedom Plaza - Naomi's trainer's benefit)
5/5 - Great Strides (NMM says a simple after-work slow walk)
5/9 - Pacer's Mother Day "Running Festival" NMM-1/2M TCF-1/4M http://www.pacersrunningfestival.com/
5/16- Marine Corps Half in Fredericksburg (TCF only)
6/6 - Zooma Annapolis 1/2M (TCF might back off to 10K, see how it feels after MCHalf) http://races.zoomarun.com/annapolis/race_details.php
6/19 - Pan-Can "Purple Stride DC" - Freedom Plaza (Naomi part of organizing team, with both of us having lost family members to pancreatic cancer, this has lots of meaning)
7/3 - Independence Day 5000 - Fairfax http://www.independence5000.com/
7/24 - Crystal City Twilighter 5K http://www.crystalcitytwilighter.com/
8/28-29 24 Hours of Booty bicycle ride (NMM, maybe TCF) http://www.24hoursofbooty.org/site/PageServer
9/19 - Wilson Bridge inaugural 1/2 M - http://www.wilsonbridgehalf.com/
9/25 - Clarendon Day 10K http://www.clarendondayrun.com/
10/9 - Seagull Century bicycle ride (NMM riding for TNT) TCF as mechanic
10/17 - Nike 1/2 M (TCF & NMM)
10/24 - Army 10-Miler (NMM)
10/31 - Marine Corps Marathon (TCF) & 10K (NMM)
12/12- Run to Victory http://www.runtovictory.org/details.html

See you on the trails - that's where we'll be spending a lot of time.

Caribbean Islands Marathon Cruise 2010

Caribbean Islands Marathon Cruise
2/6 to 2/13/2010 - Tom Farnam’s Journal

Many more photos can be seen in this Kodak Gallery

This saga begins in August of 2009, when Naomi sent me an email with the subject “Birthday Idea” reading: “Any interest in doing John's Caribbean Cruise for your birthday? Interesting way to put new skills from Dave's clinic to play! Let me know and I'll register us - early birthday present?” Lest you think Naomi does not plan ahead, this was 6 months and two days before my 65th birthday.

Duly registered for the trip, in October 2009 I made reservations on Spirit Airlines for a non-stop flight from Washington Reagan National Airport (DCA) to Fort Lauderdale International Airport (FLL) to arrive FLL at 12:30 on 2/6/10, giving us plenty of time to get to our cruise ship.

On 2/2/10 Naomi sent me an email about the snow storm expected to hit the DC area on Friday the 5th, suggesting we change the flight to 2/5. Found Spirit had a 4:40 departure on Friday, so we booked it, then contacted our friends Russ and Betty Gaudreau, who had asked us to come stay with them on our way through Ft. Lauderdale. They confirmed their generous offer was still open, and we planned to join them for dinner and the night of the 5th. By Wednesday afternoon (2/3/10) the storm prediction was getting more severe, and we started talking about changing our flight to Friday morning, but Naomi needed to be in the office on Friday. (There had been a lot of turmoil in her office that week, and as VP of HR she needed to be present.)

I flew into DCA on 2/4, then took the train to Baltimore for some IRS meetings going on there on the 4th and 5th. En route to Baltimore I had an email exchange with Naomi about whether we should try to leave earlier on the 5th. Her office was going to follow federal “liberal leave policy” that morning and close at Noon, so she felt she could be away after all. By the time I got to Baltimore and was able to get online at 4:45pm on the 4th, the earlier flights on Spirit were no longer available. By the time I got home that evening, there were no alternatives to get out of DCA on the 5th, on any airline. No matter, we were going on this trip, both because of my birthday and because she’d had several tough weeks in the office and needed to get away.

Friday the 5th we arose at home to a gray and lowering sky, which actually smelled like a storm. The TV news was telling us Amtrak was closed and it was not looking good at any DC area airports. By the time we got in a cab at Noon, the first scattered flakes were beginning to fall. At DCA there was no one at the Spirit counter, so we waited. 30 minutes later, still no one and I got on the phone with their reservations department. After finally getting a connection to a supervisor, the story became there would not be anyone from Spirit at the airport, all their flights were canceled and the staff had gone home. As Naomi listened to my end of the conversation, she got on the phone with US Air and found a flight out of Charlotte at 8:00am on 2/6 which would get us to FLL by 10:00am. We left the Spirit counter, got my laptop going to reserve the US Air flight while she called Hertz for a rental car.

By 2:00pm on 2/5 we were in a Toyota Camry headed through the snowstorm to Charlotte. Naomi drove the first leg in the “daylight”, through snow and sleet. Dave Morales had been called and was online giving us traffic and weather projections as we headed out of town. Tom sat there sending emails to friends and family about our situation, one of whom said "Amazing how you managed to find a solution without sitting in the air port whining...". The snow/sleet/freezing rain continued until we were south of Richmond, but by the time we got to Peterburg it was rain, which continued all the way to Charlotte.

Only a bit the worse for wear, in Charlotte we first found the Hertz return location, thanks to the “free” GPS unit in the Camry, then doubled back to a hotel we passed on the way there. Actually caught about six hours of sleep after a coach’s nightmare of a pre-race meal - generic cheese puffs, beer, beef stick and Cadbury crème eggs.

5:30am on Saturday 2/6/10 we were on our way back to the Hertz counter, reaching the airport on their shuttle by about 6:00am. Must say US Air was doing a great job of dealing with a full Charlotte terminal, with “all hands on deck” at the ticket counters to deal with the extra load from flights canceled the day before. Our flight departed on time with every seat filled, many of the occupants wearing Saints or Colts jerseys, hats and other paraphernalia as they headed to the Super Bowl in Miami.

Betty and Russ Gaudreau picked us up at the airport, then gave us a brief tour of Ft. Lauderdale before taking us to lunch at a lovely beach club near their condo. Lunch completed, we went off to the Cruise Ship Terminal. Betty was forced to get out of the car at the gate because she had neglected to bring the photo ID required by TSA rules for anyone entering the Terminal. Actually boarding the Eurodam was smooth as good Dutch chocolate.

Found John Bingham & Jenny Hadfield, along with our cruise companions. 61 had made it, there were two couples who were not as lucky as we at making emergency changes. (They were from Pennsylvania, wound up catching up with us in San Juan, one of the options we considered.) Dinner on the Eurodam, a nightcap in the Crow’s Nest bar, and early to bed.

Sunday the 7th we met for a “pre-race briefing” at 7:00am, then off to the Promenade Deck where we had special permission for those of our group so inclined to run on the deck, which has large signs posted forbidding that activity. Three miles on the Promenade deck required 9 laps, and we were eligible for prizes if we were able to finish within plus or minus 15 seconds of the time we predicted for ourselves. Tom was 6.3 seconds faster than his predicted time, Naomi was 1.5 minutes faster than her forecast (and a lot faster than Tom).

The balance of Sunday was spent in a very low key and easy-going day. The evening wound up with us watching part of the Super Bowl via ESPN satellite link to the ship. They even put the “Ship’s Theater” to work as a projection room - talk about a big screen. Fortunately it was also on the TV set in our stateroom, so we retired with the sleep timer set. Actually wound up staying awake for the finish, which meant it was quite a game since neither of us is a big football fan.

Monday the 8th - another mandatory pre-race briefing at 7:00am as we had breakfast, followed by debarkation on Grand Turk about 8:00am. John and Jenny had arranged for us to be the first ones off the ship, even ahead of the dedicated shoppers. A set of Toyota buses were waiting to take us out to the Lighthouse, on the far end of the island from the cruise terminal. (These buses were the same type we rode on in Bhutan & Nepal, clearly a very functional vehicle.)

What a wonderful way to really see an island! There is not much elevation change on Grand Turk (about 90 feet), and they really got hit hard by hurricane Ike in 2008, but it’s a lovely place. Sort of glad we got there this year, they are about to construct a 600 room resort hotel (about 10 times the number of rooms now available) which is sure to make big changes in the island. The only reason it’s not already under construction is their need to finish building the new hospital to replace the one destroyed by Ike. We went from the lighthouse on the north end of the island, through Cockburn Town then back to the cruise terminal, about 8 miles and 2 hours, really interesting to see the island up close. We even had a water stop - two local ladies with water bottles in their car who met us at least twice - plus police protection including our own motorcycle escort and ambulance that cruised back and forth along the road.

Back on board the Eurodam for some relaxation before dinner followed by a drink in the “Crow’s Nest”, the very classy lounge on the top deck at the very front of the ship. Not too late though, we have another “stage” of the Marathon the next day in San Juan.

Tuesday the 9th we get a leisurely start with time for breakfast before our “Mandatory Pre-Race Briefing” at 11:00, then time to watch the ship come into the harbor at San Juan, which is a lovely sight. Once again our group is allowed to be off the ship even ahead of the shoppers (some of whom seemed a bit irritated) and off we go on a “Great Race” tour of Viejo San Juan. Jenny had put together maps and clues describing nine locations we were to find, then take a picture at each of them. Of course, she did a masterful job of giving us a complete tour of Old San Juan as we completed the course, most of us completely ignoring our watches/times and just having fun seeing the city.

One of our personal stops along the way back to the ship was a spice shop (great gifts) where we asked the clerk if she had a restaurant suggestion for good “local food”. She did indeed, and since the ship was not departing until 10:30, John, Jenny and eight others decided to join us. It took about a half mile walk back up the hill into the old town to find La Fonda del Jibarito, http://www.eljibaritopr.com/ but the end result was an outstanding meal at a very reasonable price. Plantain tamales with pork filling, cassava root, little salad and a “tres leches” (three milk) cake. Good local beer, some hot sauce which brought tears to our eyes (even a Penguin who claimed no sauce is too hot) and a fun evening.

Wednesday the 10th we awakened looking at St. Thomas, USVI. Up early for 7:00am briefing, then down to the gangway to be the first ones off the ship. Clamber aboard local jitneys for a drive to Magen’s Bay, where we gather on the beach for instructions from Jenny. She takes off ahead of us (chalk in hand to be sure our course is marked) as we go up the hills. Highest point on our tour was Peterborg Point, which is about 400 feet above the ocean, and it felt like it was uphill both ways. But oh my goodness what views, as the road ran along the spine of the island with lovely homes on both sides overlooking the ocean. Not to mention flowering cactii, bougainvillea, and other lovely foliage. Once again while others were just getting started on their shopping we got to really see the island.

Finished the 6ish mile loop back on the beach, and even though it was not yet Noon, the cold beer was too inviting to pass up (a Margarita for Naomi to carry into the surf). Buses back to Charlotte Amelie, some shopping and then lunch at “Cuzzin’s”, which makes a really nifty rum punch, along with some great conch in creole sauce.

After shopping long enough to locate some studs for my formal shirt (the ones I brought were falling out of the buttonholes) and a gold penguin charm, Naomi caught a cab back to the ship while I searched for a “jump ring” to attach the new penguin to her racing charm bracelet. Found the jump ring, then wound up walking an extra 1½ miles back to the ship. No problem, “no hurry mon”, interesting view of the town. After dinner that evening Naomi retired but I decided to try my hand at karaoke, just for fun, and was invited to the “finals”.

Thursday the 11th we are at sea all day, so no “run briefing”, only a stretch and core exercise session on the top of the ship led by Coach Jenny. The rest of the day was “take it easy” time, which cost Naomi a sun burn. Seems that after using loads of sunscreen on the islands she thought it would be OK to simply sit in a deck chair on the top deck without covering. It worked out fine, she was wearing a blue dress that night and was very patriotic. Made a lovely contrast with my white dinner jacket, about which I got several compliments from people who saw me in the karaoke finals before dinner.

Friday the 12th, another 7:00am run briefing, then we were on the first tender when the ship anchored off Half Moon Cay. Based on John & Jenny’s visit a year ago the folks from Holland America had marked out a “running trail” of about 2.6 miles, covering most of the island. (The GPS unit on my Garmin said the island was named “Little Solomon’s Island, maybe Holland America changed the name when they took ownership.) Fun event, followed up with an hour or so in a “clamshell” on the beach to keep out of the sun.

Back on board the Eurodam, ready to depart, but there was a problem. The anchor chain had “fouled” and could not be pulled up into the ship. This meant we had some 400 feet of chain/cable/anchor hanging from the ship, which made it impossible to even consider going back to Florida. They finally resolved the issue by cutting the anchor chain, letting it drop into the relatively shallow waters off Bermuda, so it would only cost about $300,000 to recover and reinstall it instead of paying $600,000 for a replacement. My suspicion is someone’s career at HAL will go less well due to the incident, but we may never know.

We do know the ship was delayed several hours getting back to Ft. Lauderdale, so we had to revise our travel arrangements for the return to DCA. Finally wound up on an American Airlines flight from Miami to DCA, and since I fly AA almost every week we were able to upgrade to 1st and have a very relaxed supper flight home. Arrived home about four hours later than originally scheduled to find huge snowbanks along the nicely plowed streets in our subdivision. Thanks to our friend Nicole Harris who had been staying with Princess and Pinky, the driveway and stairs were even cleared.

What a trip, and now home to sleep in our own bed, celebrating my 65th by falling asleep in the arms of my lovely and thoughtful wife. If only the room would stop moving, which it finally did a couple of days later as our inner ears realized we were back on dry land to stay.

Did we enjoy it? ABSOLUTELY A BLAST! So much fun we have seriously discussed whether we could manage the Great Alaska Maritime Marathon with John & Jenny in July. Another week on ship - up the Windward Passage to Alaska. Might not be able to make that trip this year but both of us are really high on doing another trip with John & Jenny in the future.

Favorite event: Magen’s Bay. After those hills, we’d like to think we don’t have to train hills at all leading up to Nike in San Francisco. Nice in theory, but we know better.

Most fun & educational event: the Great Race across Old San Juan.

Most revealing event: Grand Turk, an island in recovery.

ps Cataract Surgery

Some of you, including those who were on the CIMC outing, may have heard I was scheduled for cataract surgery soon after the cruise. It’s now done, and even one day “post op” it seems to have been a complete success. My friend, ophthalmologist since 1989 and surgeon (Frank J. Catanzaro, Jr. MD FACS of St. Louis) did the work, and after examining me the next morning said all looks good. I can honestly say there was no pain, even though I was conscious for the procedure.

It was interesting to see the shadows of the tools Frank was using inside my eye. Nothing visible in the usual sense as it was all behind the lens. Doing several kinds of eye drops for a few days to ward off infections and such, but no pain from those either. Will be going back to Dr. Frank next week, then again in a couple of weeks for new prescription measurements. We selected a fixed lens for distance vision so reading glasses will still be needed for the left eye, with full prescription for the right. Of course we fully expect to be doing comparable surgery in the right eye in the future when the cataract forming there gets denser.

Dr. Frank says the cataracts are more or less to be expected,with age but can be slowed down a lot if you wear your sunglasses – the biggest factor is UV radiation. I wonder if many years spent in fluorescent-lit offices are a factor, but it does not really matter. I do recall my mother had cataracts removed 35 or more years ago before the lens implant technology was not available so she wound up with “pop bottle bottom” glasses. Implants are much better.

Most fun was going to dinner last night at Trattoria Marcella, my favorite restaurant in the world. It’s always a great meal, but the large YES on my forehead made for lots of fun conversations with Chef Steve Komorek, brother and maitre ‘d Jamie Komorek, and the staff. Having Brian Stujenske there to celebrate his birthday and mine (9 days apart) and be my driver made it even better.

See you soon – better than ever!