Winning the Chicago Marathon

Yes, indeed! I won another marathon! This time I won the Chicago Marathon ~ ~ ~ I was the 27,084th winner that day. They say it is a huge marathon, one of the biggest in the world. I'm not so sure about that ~ it seems to me like it was 26.2 miles, just like the rest of them. Some people just like to make audacious claims. I did win, though.

I found out later that if I had only run three times faster, I would've won $100,000. Drat! So close! Why didn't I try harder?!

Maybe I was a little out of shape, from being on strike. A couple of weeks before, I had been protesting the hot weather we were having, when we should've been getting fall weather. The protest worked ~ after only a couple of days, the weather caved in to my demands, and I was out there running again.

I should have held out longer, though, so that I could have included Chicago in the negotiations. I didn't think I would have to. Last year, the Chicago Marathon was shut down early because of extreme heat and a shortage of water and Gatorade ~ hundreds of people were taken to the hospital, and one person died. I figured 2008 would be the year to run it, because things like that don't happen twice in a row, and even if there was another heat wave, the race organizers will have learned their lesson, and been prepared.

I was half right, my usual track record. As the marathon date approached, the weather forecast kept changing in a relentless and dastardly direction. As it turned out, it was almost as hot as last year, with the temperature at 11am around 84 degrees... but there was water and Gatorade galore! Even hose-showers, and sponges!

I talked with several runners who participated in the fiasco last year, and they said it was a living hell. That must have dissuaded many people from trying it again in this year's heat, because they had the highest number of no-shows ever. Of 45,000 runners all registered and paid for, only 33,000 showed up. That meant even more water and Gatorade for the rest of us.

I always love going to Chicago, because there is so much to do there. Of course, when you are there to run a marathon, you don't do much, because you need to conserve your energy before, and lie down in an exhausted heap afterward. But Audrey and I did go to the art museum. She is a college graduate in art history, so that's kind of a given. I didn't get to spend a lot of time there, but I did enjoy a couple of hours' worth of art, enough for a possible blog post in the near future.

After the museum, we got together with Ed, from Hawaii. I had known Ed online for about a year, so it was great to meet him in person. He eats at Subway almost every day, and has lost 70 or 80 lbs ~ incredible! I call him "The New Jared." So we met at a cute little sandwich shop across from the art museum ~ I told him "it is right next door to Subway!" I was only teasing, but guess what? He got his sandwich from Subway while we got ours at the other place. We had a nice lunch in the park.




Even though he refused to smile for the photo, we had a good time. During the marathon, I followed him for about six miles, and then I lost sight of him. According to the race results, he won, too! (The men's division, of course.)

Ed helped me find the expo, and it's a good thing! At this marathon, there is no race day packet pickup, and that always causes me some anxiety. I had to get there before it closed.

Because this marathon is such a big deal, they have to have a humongous expo. And because the expo is enormous, it has to be located in a convention center. That means you have to travel to get there, which takes time away from your sightseeing. They did provide shuttle buses, but we had to wait a long time to get on a school bus, and they packed us in like sardines. So transportation to and from the expo took a couple of hours. (Maybe I shouldn't have waited until the last minute?) I would have preferred to have no expo at all ~ just a storefront downtown where we could pick up our packets and have the rest of the day to explore Chicago. But that's not how these things work ~ the marathon was supported by lots of companies who needed a chance to sell things to us.

I don't have a lot of money, especially after all the expenses of this trip, but I did spend some at the expo. There was a booth for Marathon & Beyond magazine, and I bought myself a subscription. I have been buying this at the bookstore, but sometimes miss an issue. So I've been meaning to subscribe anyway.

So Marathon Day finally arrived, and I went to the back of the pack, to wait. I always start at the back, because I'm slow. It's better for me psychologically, if I pass other people, than if I start where I think I should start, and have people pass me.
There were a lot of people, and I expected to cross the Start Line about 30 minutes after the gun. It turned out to be about 23 minutes, thanks to the people who did not show up. It was fun to watch this guy juggle. I wonder if he juggled all the way through the marathon?




Because of the heat, I decided on a conservative strategy, and only hoped to finish in six hours. It reminded me of the inaugural Atlanta ING marathon, which I finished in 5:58. The temperature there was almost 90, and there were hills. I figured this one would be comparable, but without hills, so I had hope. I decided to use 3:1 run/walk intervals, and to take the running slow. I felt I could
probably maintain that throughout most of the event.

By mile 4, I really noticed the heat. Fortunately, the first half of the race had a lot of shade, provided by tall buildings. I also appreciated the mile markers ~ every mile was clearly marked with a couple of large signs, showing the time! I had to subtract 23 minutes for my time, since that is how long it took to get to the start line. They also had clocks at the 5k, 10k, 15k (etc.) marks, and at the half marathon point. I had my camera, so I took a picture of each mile marker, thinking I would analyze it later ~ I could find out how fast I took each mile. (I know my Garmin would probably do that, but I'm not advanced enough to figure out how yet!) When my camera battery died, I wrote down the numbers.

It was interesting to analyze. The numbers show that I ran most of the first 13 miles in 12-something. Miles 14, 15, and 16 were 13-something. This is right where we left the shady parts, and it was really starting to get hot. Then for miles 17 , 18, 19 & 20, I ran 13 and 14-something. I knew I was dragging. For the last six miles, it got easier in a way. It was still hard, because it was the last six miles. But we were getting close to the lake, and there was a breeze. I don't have the numbers for those miles, but according to my calculations, I averaged 13 1/2. Not bad, when you can pick up speed at the end of a marathon!

It was a crowded marathon, and to my surprise, it remained crowded to the end! I don't like that ~ I had to run this way and that way to get around people (and they had to do the same to get around me, I'm sure).

One of the sponsors of the event was Energizer. They were handing out Energizer bunny ears, and I saw a pair lying on the road, getting trampled. So I picked it up and put it on. It was like a foam rubber headband. A lot of the people in the crowd yelled "Go Bunny!" to me, so I wore them for the rest of the marathon. I think they gave me energy.

I liked the crowds of spectators. I think Obama was running right behind me, because I heard an awful lot of people shouting "Go Obama!" This is not the first time I have been running ahead of a Kenyan. (At the Maryville Country Classic, I run the half marathon. The full marathon course is the half marathon course twice. Usually, as I am crossing the finish line, the winner of the marathon is a couple of minutes behind me. So I'm used to it.)

I later caught up with him (or I should say, he caught up with me), in a store window, so we had our picture taken. He was not wearing his medal.


My favorite part of the course was Chinatown. There were two dancing dragons, and the people were cheering loudly and enthusiastically. It is amazing to me that spectators can have that much spirit, four hours into a marathon! This is also right about when the weather started cooling off (on account of the breeze from the lake), so I got some renewed energy as I ran through Chinatown.

Toward the end of the race, I noticed that one runner had on a shirt that said "I run because beer tastes so much better after 26.2 miles." That got me thinking about the free beer we would receive at the end, and gave me a little bit more motivation.

Overall, I feel very good about this marathon. My finish time was 5:47:30. Since I was not going to be surprised if I took over six hours, this was pretty good. I felt like I was still running fairly well at the end, even though it was very hot.

It took a long time to walk through the finisher chute. It started to catch up with me there ~ I was kind of wandering around in a daze. The race officials were being very cautious, after last year's trouble ~ a man walked up to me to ask me if I was alright. I said "Yes. Where's the beer?"

Today the Blogging Floodgates Will Open!

Whew! I am finally home, for real.

I have several major things to write about, and it is going to take some time to get it all written up and posted. Each of these things deserves its own post, so that is what I'm going to do, before the end of the day.

As you may know, I went to Chicago and ran the marathon. (SPOILER ALERT: It went well.) From there, I drove to Iowa to pick up my mother, and took her to Omaha, where she had brain surgery. (SPOILER ALERT: It went extraordinarily well.) Then I came home to work, because you can't take time off indefinitely, but also drove back to take care of Mom, and came home again, and got up at 4:30 this morning to run a 5K with a Mystery Person. (SPOILER ALERT: It went extremely well.)

On the day of the surgery, my overriding concern was that it would be a successful operation. But, that being a high probability, another hope was that I could drive back home that evening, in time to play for choir practice and turn in the music for Sunday. I like to think that there are some things that only I can do, and I needed some normalcy. There was no substitute for me that evening, and the psalm was in my computer, and it was almost done. So if I could get home in time, I could save my coworkers some hassle.

Of course, brain surgery is a big deal, and although it was a procedure with a high success rate, it is still brain surgery, and something could go wrong. I was prepared to stay in Omaha if the situation called for it, or if Mom just didn't want me to leave. I know what is most important.

But I had not been home for a week, and I really wanted to get home if I could. So I was glad when the surgeon came out after surgery and told me how well it had gone, and said that it would be perfectly okay for me to go to Kansas City to take care of business, and come back the next day.

We made good time, and I got home in time to edit and print the psalm before choir practice. The mailman had left a small package from Amazon.com in front of the door, so as I opened the door and struggled with my suitcase and armloads of stuff, I kicked the package across the threshold, into the living room. I had ordered some books, and was glad that one of them had arrived. It's always nice to receive a gift, even if it is one you buy yourself.

I was greeted by the kitties, and used my gushy mommy-voice to let them know how much Mommy had missed them.

But as I walked in, I immediately caught a whiff of something nasty. One of my cats had left me a welcome home present. Great. Calliope is a wonderful cat in many ways, but when she feels neglected, she does let me know in an unmistakable way. I walked in, put everything down, and looked in the usual places where she leaves such presents. Usually it is in the same room as the litter boxes (thank goodness for small favors.) But this time, I had trouble locating it.

As I picked up the package off the floor, I found it. Yuck! I had kicked the package right into a fresh offering of feline dissatisfaction.

So there was an urgent housekeeping matter to attend to, and I took back what I said about having missed Calliope (I still missed Tripod, though), but I did get the psalm printed, and got to work with not a minute to spare.

As I discarded the poopy packaging, I discovered that it contained the book Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management by Mark Forster. I am familiar with most of the productivity books out there, but I don't read every single one of them. I have found that most of them say the same kinds of things ~ it is rare to find one that says anything revolutionary ~ and many of them contradict each other. (This is okay, because what works for one person may not work for another person. You have to find what works for you!)

But I have been hearing about this book a lot. Many people use an approach which combines GTD with DIT. If GTD devotees have honored another author's book with its own acronym, I decided I might need to look into this book myself.

I've only read a little of it so far, and I'm rather inspired by it. One of Forster's Big Ideas is that you are more productive when you clearly define your limits. So, many GTDers will follow David Allen's advice to have a complete inventory of Next Actions, but they use Forster's method of writing a "closed list" of to-dos each day. I tried it yesterday, making a list comprised only of things I knew I would complete that day. It is okay to do more than that, but the official list could not be added to.

It was an interesting experiment! I did have a more satisfied feeling at the end of the day, because I did everything on my list. (I still have my GTD mega-list, and I will NEVER do every item on it, because things keep getting added to it.)

The theory is that as you do this, you get better at it. You get used to crossing off everything on the list, and you get better at discerning what you can realistically do in a day.

Today my aspirations are fairly modest. I've already done most of the things. The only things left are:

1) do the dishes, and
2) write 3 more blog posts.

So stay tuned to this channel ~ Before midnight tonight, I will tell you 1) how I won the Chicago Marathon, 2) how the surgeon relieved pressure in the brains of several people at once, and 3) the identity of the Mystery Runner!

Stay Tuned for New Blog Posts ~ Coming Soon!

I haven't posted in awhile, but there are reasons for that ~ stay tuned! I am still out here, and the protest is now over ~ I ran the Chicago Marathon, and am now in Omaha, waiting for my mother's surgery. When things settle down, hopefully in a couple of days, I'll be able to tell you all about it. But for now, internet access is sporadic and unreliable, and I'm tired and a bit preoccupied. Keep checking back here, and keep your fingers crossed for my mom!

I'm Staging a Protest

I haven't run since my 18-miler last Sunday (which, incidentally, was not pretty.)

At first I thought I was just discouraged because my 18-miler was not pretty. Then, I started to think I was just lazy. I have been tired lately, and when I am tired, the last thing I want to do after working through a hot afternoon is to go running.

But I've been hard at work at other things. I'm a little surprised at my industriousness, in fact. I've been able to study for hours at a time, I've stayed up-to-date in some tedious projects, and for fun, I've been reading some classics of Greek and Roman antiquity. This proves that I'm not lazy (not this week, anyway), and my fatigue is nothing that coffee cannot overcome.

I finally realized that I am in protest. It's the weather. We should not be having summer weather in the fall, when people need to be training for marathons. So I subconsciously began a protest. I cannot run, because I'm on strike, and I didn't even realize it until now.

Now that I know what is going on, I refuse to run until my demands are met, and cooler weather prevails! Until then, I will sit at home, perhaps to read about Pheidippides, who inaugurated the tradition of running marathons, when, after running 150 miles in two days, he ran the 26-mile distance to announce the Greeks' victory at the Battle of Marathon in 490 B.C. "We have won!" he declared, and then immediately dropped dead.

Which is what I will probably do in Chicago in two weeks if this heat wave doesn't go away, so the unfortunate and not very rational sit-in may end, and I may resume my marathon training. The Chicago Marathon is October 12. They are going to have good weather this year. They have to. Bad things don't happen twice in a row. (Well, sometimes in presidential elections they do, but only because the election is stolen. I'm not convinced that this weather is due to corruption of that nature.) And I've already paid, so I have to go. Besides, I've already arranged for a substitute organist. That is almost more trouble than preparing for a marathon.

(My substitute is a world-renowned musician, by the way. I am very lucky to get him.)

I think my protest is having an effect. I heard the meteorologist say that a cold front is on the way. It's a good thing I did this! I refuse to feel guilty, or in any way a failure, because of my lapse in training. Sometimes you have to do things like this, to make a point. The strike goes on. The weather will be lovely, and it will remain lovely all the way to the finish line in Chicago. We will win.

During my sit-in tomorrow, I will email my substitute organist and ask him if he would be available to play at my funeral. I'm sure the music will be spectacular! I will be sorry to miss it.

Therapeutic Foot Massage

This is my second attempt at posting a video to my blog. This time I will leave the video at the bottom of the post. Later on, I'll try to learn how to move it.

I would like to commend to you a method of foot massage, for relaxing at the end of the day. All you need is a comfortable bed and a willing cat. In this case, the cat is named Tripod.

She seemed to enjoy the foot massage, and she stayed relaxed until she noticed the camera. It is not surprising, with a name like Tripod, that she'd be interested in photography.

If there is another cat in the room, she might want to help you relax as well.




Calliope let me use the top of her head for finger massage.





Don't forget under the neck!



And here's the video... Hope it works this time!

I Think Everyone Would Understand if I Did Not Run Tonight

It was a long day. I've been fighting a cold. (Please note that I do NOT have a cold. I do not get colds. I merely have cold symptoms, and they are going away. I'm not dead yet. I'm getting better.)

I worked hard all day, and got home at 9pm.

My feet are tired. I'm tired.

I think everyone would understand if I did not run. I would get a red square on my Sciral Consistency, but so what? What's one red square?

...But I've been doing so well. I haven't gotten a red square since September 1. (It was for not scooping the cat litter). I have a streak going. It would be a shame to ruin the streak. Running would probably clear my sinuses.

I could do a shortened run. I don't have to do the full amount, to get the dot. I could just go out there and run a couple of miles, and it would still count.

So I put on my running clothes. Sometimes if I say "You have to put on your running clothes, but you don't have to run," that is enough to do the trick. As soon as I put them on, I feel like running.

I sat in front of the computer to read running blogs, for inspiration. I learned that at this very moment, Dean Karnazes is doing a 48-hour treadmill run, to break the Guiness world record for running on a treadmill, and that it was possible to watch him on a live web cam.

So I tuned in. There he was. Let's see, he would probably be on about the 36th hour by now. Jeez.

OK, I'm going out to run now. I think I can do the full amount.

UPDATE: I'm back. I did the full scheduled distance. As usual, I feel better than I did before running.

When Harry Met Bessie

I was asked to play for a funeral in Independence this morning. I used to fill in at this church sometimes, back when I was doing substitute work. But I was substituting at one church or another every single week, so I finally just took a regular Sunday job. Nowadays, I don't get a chance to play at other churches very often ~ just the occasional wedding or funeral.

It's kind of fun, because every organ is different, and has its own personality. This one is very touchy. You breathe, and it plays. You have to be very careful. If you are playing a note, and even think about the neighboring notes, you get those too. So I played more major and minor seconds than I usually do.

My daughter says it's weird that I like to play for funerals, but not so much for weddings. I told her the reason is that at funerals, the people are most likely thinking about the meaning of life. But at weddings, they are thinking about the party, and how everything looks, and all kinds of things that are not important. Besides, my track record at funerals is better. When I play at weddings, they usually don't even stay married. But all of the people whose funerals I have played for have stayed dead, so far. (I like to think my work has an impact.)


This is a historic church. It is where Harry Truman went to Sunday School, and where he met Bess.



If I go through a hallway behind the organ, I come to a little sitting room, where they have a framed picture of Harry and Bess as children. It's very sweet.



It's a pretty church ~ there is balcony seating all around. When I have been there on a Sunday, there have been people seated up there.


Right outside this church, you can see the world headquarters of the Community of Christ ~ the muffin-top building is the Auditorium, and the corkscrew building is the Temple. They have the best organs in town.

I can't help thinking about Harry and Bess every time I come to this part of town. Years ago, I read the first half of David McCollough's Truman (I have read the first part of many books), so I remember a lot of little details about Truman's early life. (Since I didn't read that part of the book, I know very little about the second half of his life, although I do remember when he died. I was ten. It was around Christmas time. I was at my grandparents' house in Iowa.) I think it's cool that he took piano lessons, even though it was not considered "macho" to play the piano. He loved music enough that he learned to play the piano anyway, never mind what people think.

One of Truman's favorite pieces was Paderewski's Menuet. (That was one of my favorite pieces, too, much to my teacher's annoyance.) Paderewski was a concert pianist who became prime minister of Poland. I think that's cool too. As a composer, he was a one-hit wonder. I only know of the one piece. In fact, it's the only thing I know about Paderewski. (Other than the fact that he was prime minister of Poland.) When I hear "Paderewski," I think "Menuet."

But when I go to the Wikipedia article on Paderewski, it doesn't even mention the celebrated Menuet. Not that Wikipedia is the authoritative source on what is important about Paderewski, but it makes me realize that I don't know much about history.

I have lived in Kansas City for 23 years, and I have never visited the Truman Library, or taken a tour of the Truman Home. I hear that they are wonderful. People come from all over the world to visit these sites. Sometime, within the next year, I promise to take the time to be a tourist (without leaving town). I will take a tour of the Truman Library and Home. I've said it before, but now I'm saying it publicly, on the internet, so that I will follow through.

(What about you? Have you visited the important sites in your town?)