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.
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