Long Slow Distance

Sundays are all about long
slow distance,
recommends runs by the sea for one,
longest of the week, limb loosening
easy runs for an hour or two
depending on the next race date.

Reading brings long slow
distance as well, immersion
in other lives, other worlds
provides distance from mine,
lets me see it from new
perspectives, mind loosening
easy change, fresh view.

Afternoon delights feeds
long slow distance
in yet another way, travels
of a different kind along
the planes of familiar skin,
far away from days cares toward
soul loosening easy meeting.


Posted for Kenia over at Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads who asked us to write about Sundays in our lives. Sundays are favorites for so many reasons...

A Runner's 55

Finished the Florida half marathon in February
7th out of 47 women in my age group (65-69).
Felt good but I set a new goal: keep running
until 70 when I'm the youngest in the age group
and come in first. This woman of a certain age
likes to have something to aim for.


For G-Man's Friday 55. True story.

On the Jacksonville beach:

At the finish line:

Run With Nike Plus

An easy way to keep track of all running data- the Nike Plus app downloaded onto my iPod Nano. I set it for time or distance, choose the music I want (mostly I like a compilation of upbeat music I put together), and take off. It records how far I go, what time it took, my pace and the number of calories burned as well as where I am in my time or distance while I'm running. It's the best way to know exactly when to turn at the half way point. When I conect the iPod to my computer after I return home it uploads all data to my site on the Nike Plus website. It graphs the data for the run, the week, the month or the year so I see my progress visually. It allows for individual goal setting besides the recording. 

Also, various sports figures (my favorite, Joan Benoit Samuelson, from Maine and the first American woman marathoner to win in the Olympics) give me feedback through my earphones when the run is my fastes or longest or when I reached another 250 or 500 miles. Very fun. It's a free app and keeps track of walks too- check it out. It's a great motivator.

Born to Run

I started running at 60, persevered through the "what am I doing and why am I doing it?" stage and arrived  at the "oh, I like this!" stage. It helped that I prepared for the national breast cancer marathon and wanted to run in it since my sister-in-law and dear friend, Peg, died from breast cancer. Of course, why I chose to start my running career with a full marathon of 26.2 miles that took ten months of preparation is another matter. Chalk it up to I didn't know any better. I finished, felt the rush and cheered myself for running it. Then I switched to half marathons. 

Now, for the method I use that allows me to run three times a week and enjoy it at 68. Developed by Jeff Galloway, my age and a former olympic marathoner, it combines running with walk breaks. With a chance to recover during walk breaks of one minute, he says it allows running to age 100 injury free. Supported by the National Marathon to Finish Breast Cancer in Jacksonville, FL and other marathons, it provided me a way to train and finish the marathon and fall in love with running in the process. Great outcome. One of my goals for our move to Florida is to join a Galloway running group that has other elders. Sounds like fun to run with others after five years of running alone. 

Yeasterday, I ran 14 1/2 miles, my last long run in preparation (laid out by Galloway) for the next half marathon in Florida on Feb. 23. I did that so I know I can finish 13.1 miles. I'm ready. I'm excited. Join me.

A Day's Run

It's the moment in a run
when warm up is done,
resistance abandoned,
muscles move in rhythm
slinky under my skin,
a cadence kicks in,
my body thrums,
finds the day's hum.

Day 2 of NaPoWriMo and a prompt from Fireblossom at Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads to go back to the afternoon of Sept. 9, 1958, the portal suggested in Stephen King's novel "11/22/63" and say what you would do. I was 12 and I loved to run. I rediscovered this love in my 60's and the poem speaks of this and an experience I had during this morning's run. Also, it's Open Link Night at dVerse Poets Pub. There's some great poetry happening over there so check it out.

6.7 at 67

For the marathon in Jacksonville, Florida this year I ran in the relay with nine family members. I ran the third leg that measured 6.7 miles with my daughter to celebrate my 67th birthday. Like last year, the day was unseasonably cold at 34 degrees despite being in the 50's or 60's before and after race day. Nonetheless two teams of five family members in town for my niece's wedding (she's the one in her headpiece and who is now honeymooning in Italy) linked up with each other to run/walk the five legs. Here's how we looked before shedding layers at the start of our respective legs.

We had fun and supported a great cause since this is the National Marathon to End Breast Cancer and 100% of the proceeds go to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville for breast cancer research and treatment. Our teams were named "Peg's Pals and Peg's Pals ll" in honor of my Honey's sister and my friend, Peg, who died of breast cancer five years ago. We joined 10,000 others, including survivors, for this marathon, half marathon, 10K, and relay. A welcome home tribute, a hot tub for the brave and a barbecue for all, followed at my sister-in-law's.

I ran well, had fun and look forward to next year. Running three times a week to ready myself for this yearly event keeps me healthy and happy. How to do this until 100 injury free will be the topic of another post.

Half Marathon Update

From the 26.2 With Donna, Marathon to Finish Breast Cancer, website: of the 7753 finishers in the marathon and half marathon there were 57 finishers in the 65 - 69 age group for women. Of those 57, I came in 8th. My time last year was 2:47:02 and this year was 2:42:52. Even better results than I thought. The training was worth it. I'm surprised and pleased.

13.1 Because I'm Only Half Crazy

I ran in the National Marathon to Finish Breast Cancer today. I ran the half marathon with a goal to better my time of last year, and I did this by 2 1/2 minutes. That's despite the fact that it was 32 degrees when we started and only warmed to 36 by the time I finished, in Florida! We've had weather in the 60's since I came a few days ago and it will go back to the 60's tomorrow. But this morning in the 30's? Seems cruel. Ironically, I stayed in Trinidad an extra three weeks to train so I'd be training in warm weather to be ready for Florida! Instead, my muscles took a long time to warm up and the wind on the bridges and beach was brutal! My run wasn't elegant as my tutor, Marcello, would say, but I finished. My niece walked the half marathon and bettered her time from last year as well. Good for us!

This is us after the race. Notice the red noses, gloves, jackets, and warming blanket, but also, finishing medals. Whereas I usually love to run as I get into it, today I was just glad to finish.

This was the fifth annual marathon so the shirts' stripe and medal ribbons coordinated. I liked it. A long soak in a hot Jacuzzi was terrific way to warm up and soothe tired muscles.

Also, the presence of fives continues for me this year (remember, for two months my Dad was 95, I was 65, my daughter was 35 and my granddaughter was 5?) with a five on the medal and a bib number of 5535. I don't know what it means but it must be auspicious!

I'll stay in Florida a week extra, especially to visit with my sister-in-law since Italy remains in the grip of a deep freeze and serial snow storms that is unprecedented and unwelcome after so long.

Way To Run

I've been asked by a few friends in the blogosphere what kind of program I use for running. Jeff Galoway's Run Injury Free program makes it possible. I was aged 62 when my niece invited me to run in the National Marathon To Finish Breast Cancer in Jacksonville, Florida. Since my sister-in-law and good friend, Peg, had recently died of breast cancer, I wanted to run. But I was not a runner at that point, just a walker and hiker. The marathon organizers recommended Galloway's method of training as did my niece so I gave it a try. Eight months later, at age 63, I ran and finished the marathon.

In February of this year, my daughter joined me using the same Galloway method. We trained together in Trinidad, where she lives, and finished the half marathon hands held high at the end. She was gracious enough to go at my slower pace. It was exhilarating. Two of my nieces did the half marathon walk at the same time.

Galloway's method is a run-walk-run, low mileage, three day a week program that I find both doable and sustainable. He's now trained more than 200,000 ordinary people to set and reach specific goals, including finishing a marathon. He has a pre- conditioning program for those not yet ready to start a training program.

He recommends choosing a run-walk schedule, for example, 1 minute running followed by 1 minute walking which is then repeated for the whole run. Do this for as long as it takes to move to the next split (2 min. run, 1 min. walk) or just stay at that split. I ran both my marathon and half marathon at that split and did fine. Check out his web site for a full explanation as to all the reasons why this method works. There are groups and marathons all over the country using it.

Galloway himself is a marathoner, my age, and wanted to run to age 100 injury free. That intrigued me since I also wanted to be injury free if I was going to run. I'm now almost 66, still run three times a week and will compete in my next half marathon in February of 2012. I love to run. I've had no injuries. I got Galloway's book and followed it faithfully. I met him before the FL marathon. Nice man.

Secondarily running is a way to stay fit and healthy. This particular marathon is important to me so I'm glad to raise money for breast cancer treatment and research. 10,000 ran last year and it was an amazing atmosphere. The whole city supports the marathon and the runners. They call our names as we run by and cheer for us. Runners who are survivors get even louder cheers.

On the web site for the marathon, the runners are invited to say for whom they run. Besides Peg, I run for my daughter, granddaughter and nieces so that we finish breast cancer before any more family members are lost. And I run because I can, for all those who can't.

250th Blog Post

This is my 250th blog post and I'm sitting here amazed. When I started this blog to attempt to stay aware  on my journey as an elder, I really didn't think of how many posts I would write or for how long or if I could continue to write. I just wrote a post and another day I wrote a post and another day I wrote a post and so on until today when I write my 250th. In the meanwhile, I've made new and wonderful friends in the blogosphere, been inspired by them, and shared in significant ways with them. Writing has become deeply important to me. My world has expanded in ways I couldn't have predicted.

Running is similar. I started to run in my 60's. After the initial process of getting used to it, working through the kinks, hating it and wanting to stop and eventually, loving it, and not being able to think of my life without it. Now, I run three times a week, every week. At some point my Nike + iPod announced that I had run 250 miles since I started to wear their chip that keeps track of my runs. Then, a while ago, it announced that I had run 500 kilometers and I was surprised. One step at a time. In the meanwhile, I've run races for good causes that matter to me, met fascinating people who are vital and healthy and I have a way to stay fit. Running has become deeply important to me.  My life has been enriched in ways I couldn't have predicted.

Maybe a lot of life IS about showing up. Doing what we say we will do. Doing what we know to be good for us or important or what we love. Until we find that we're writing our 250th blog post or running our 500th kilometer or, in some other significant way, celebrating a milestone that's important to us. And feeling good about ourselves. More in love with our lives. With richer, fuller lives than we could have imagined.

Only in Italy!

We had a10K race in our town (Cittá Sant'Angelo) last evening, the first annual "Trophy of the Angels" race. A few background facts will be helpful to understand the ambitiousness of this race. Firstly, we've been having a heatwave lately so last evening at 6:30 it was 86 degrees (30 Celsius). Secondly, my town is at the top of a very steep hill which means most of the surrounding terrain is also hilly. Thirdly, I have never run a race in Italy up to now, only in the USA. And lastly, I didn't know about this race until shortly before it occurred.

Anyway, I was asked to participate by some neighbors at our local street festa three days ago. They've seen me running around town regularly and wanted someone to represent our neighborhood. "Sure" I said before I knew the race route or race particulars and figuring it was a little race for our town. Although the distance listed was 10K (6.2 miles), one of the organizers said it was only 9K (5.59 miles). Okay, that was my fist inkling that races in Italy are different. Also, it was difficult to get a consistent answer to the start time and I kept receiving a time range- "Between 7 and 7:30". Second inkling.

But off I went to the town last evening about 5:45 to be sure I had time to register and learn the route as well as the start time. In one of my many language misunderstandings, the registrar mentioned "il parco" to me and off I went to the park but found nothing was happening there. Hmmm. Turns out that each runner who finished the race received "il pacco" (Hey, I'm from Boston where we don't pronounce our "R's"!). More about "the parcel" later.

This was no little town run! There were 185 runners (33 women) and most were in teams or running clubs. They looked like serious runners.  I was one of the few "solo" runners registering at the last minute. But I knew I was in trouble when I heard the route! The first half was down hill which, of course, meant the entire second half of the race was up the aforementioned ridiculously steep hills. I do my shorter twice weekly runs around our town but my long run on the weekend is by the sea on a nice, wide, beautifully flat sidewalk. [Note to self: new mantra: hills are beautiful!] Re: the start time, I kept getting the same answer- between 7 and 7:30. I stayed closeby. Good thing- the race started at 6:35! Third inkling.

Nonetheless, off we went to the starting gun and the front runners were fast! I quickly became what I thought was the last runner, but since my goal was just to finish, I didn't mind. For most of the race I could at least see the two women who were ahead of me. I did become disconcerted, however, when the ambulance drove the whole race behind my left shoulder! Were they worried about me? I was worried too, would I really be able to make it? Did I mention that the hills were unrelentingly STEEP?

Well, I finished. And I wasn't last since there were two women way behind me. And even though I was third from the last, I was first for my age group. That's because I was the only woman over 65 running! I finished in 1:04:04. A respectable time considering the challenges. In announcing the winners of the various age groups and awarding prizes, they brought me up on stage for first in the 65 and over group but had no prize since they clearly weren't expecting anyone in that category! I truly didn't care though - the high point for me was receiving the applause of six of my neighbors who came to cheer me on.

Back to "il pacco." I went and received the parcel for finishers and our reward? Inkling number four: a bottle of red wine and a package of pasta. Only in Italy!

What is it that you love about where you live?

Celebrating Life Events

I already posted about running the National Breast Cancer Half Marathon with my daughter but the photos and plaque came yesterday and I am excited to share them. The plaque is my way of celebrating this significant life event. It makes me happy to see it and remember the wonderful feelings of running,  running with my daughter, and cheering for two of my nieces who walked it. What a great day and a worthy cause.



Photo at the beginning of the  Marathon and Half Marathon. There are about 10,000 participants!:

Half way through the Half Marathon there was a photographer so my daughter and I grabbed hands:

At the end of the half marathon there was a photographer so we again held hands. We were high at this point, feeling good about ourselves and glad to be running for my husband's sister, Peg. We were cheered on by so many family members who were there at the finish line:

Here's the plaque commemorating this wonderful life event. It hangs in my office with the family photos:

Loved running with you, Kelly. Loved sharing the day with you, Danielle and Marian. Thanks for all the support, dear family. Good for us!

International Women's Day

This came to me today from the International Association of Women Runners which connects women runners throughout the world. I'm a member and thought it contained some interesting facts about women runners: Hi Mary , International Women's Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the economic, social and political achievements of women. Women now account for the majority of runners and 53% of road race finishers. Female participation at all levels of running continues to grow.  Women's races continue to proliferate, many selling out in advance. Female charity runners are making a difference both for the non-profit organizations they support, as well as the running industry as a whole. We would like to acknowledge all women on International Women's Day.  Have an especially great run today. Regards and Happy Running,     Good for us! Any other runners out there?  I belong to an International Women's Club here. We're from the USA, UK, Canada, New Zealand, The Netherlands, and Scotland. It's a diverse, fascinating group that I really enjoy. We had our biweekly meeting today and went to lunch rather than just coffee to celebrate. I had a great time gabbing and catching up after my time away. It's good to be back. Happy International Women's Day!

13.1 on the 13th

Want to have a great time doing something fun and worthwhile? I found a way to do that- train for and run a half marathon with my daughter, whoop it up a lot while running, and cross the finish line hand in hand yelling in triumph! This was our first run together and it was in the National Marathon to Finish Breast Cancer in Jacksonville, FL on February 13.

Since my sister-in-law and Kelly's aunt, Peg, died from breast cancer four years ago, I look for ways to honor her and help defeat this formidable foe. 10,000 runners participated, including 4046 runners in the half marathon, and raised money (and awareness) for this worthy cause.

The energy was electric! The whole city of Jacksonville gets involved and cheers the runners on as we run through neighborhoods and on the beach. They make outrageous signs, offer drinks and fruit and yell encouragement to the runners. great fun! Kelly and I finished in 2:44:01 hours, placed 7 out of 51 women in my age group, and felt good, deep down good.

Family members (nieces, grands, great niece and nephew, sister-in-law, cousins, aunts) converged in FL, also made fun signs, rang bells, yelled a lot and, just in general, cheered us on. Two of my nieces walked the half marathon and finished, a first for both of them, and made it a true family event this year.

What lights your fire these days? What are you doing to stoke the fire?

We're Not In Italy Now!

Remember when I described my long runs on Sundays in Italy on the wide walking path by the beach alongside the Adriatic? And it goes for miles, flat and paved and lovely? Well, there's no such thing in Antigua, by a long shot. So long runs, like my nine mile run this morning, get cobbled together any which way to cover the distance.

The good news was I got to run with my friend, Cassandra, who's great company and knows the roads well. The route? A combination of paved main road (but no sidewalks), dirt side roads (but it rained last night), semi-paved (don't ask!) side roads, and even a golf course for our final mile. Good thing it was Sunday and early (we started at 5:30), so not much traffic. Also, good thing it was cloudy and a passing shower cooled us , since the run took longer than we expected because of the treacherous terrain.

But somehow the effort and the obstacles faded when towards the end of the run, a full double rainbow appeared, bright and beautiful. It was the brightest and longest lasting rainbow either of us had ever seen. It was a moment of grace that lifted us up. All we talked about from that moment was how good we felt, how energized, how blessed.

And, driving back, I had a good laugh at who I shared the road with:

And later, I'm going to this beach for a swim:

I agree, I have nothing to complain about!

Running Views

Today dawned brisk (55), beautifully clear and sunny here at home in my little Cittá Sant'Angelo.  My run was exhilarating with views that made my heart soar.  I run the Circonvallazione (ring road) around our town for 45 minutes each Tuesday and Thursday. Later, I took my camera to shoot the route and share a little more of where I live.

I start up a steep walkway, stairway and hill from my apartment to reach the Circonvallazione.

As I come around the first corner, this is what I see. It's the Gran Sasso, highest peak of the Apenine Mts. bright with the first snow of the season which fell last night.

Then to the top of the hill with the mountains in the background and the Circonvallazione over to the right.

Just through one of the four gates into the town, I run by a little local fall color.

Then a smaller hill by the elementary school and one of our many churches.

Down the road, on the side of town opposite Gran Sasso, I come to the park and run the path around it.

And see this view of the Adriatic Sea.

Back on the Circonvallazione, I run by these fields at the back side of town.

To come back to and end with the magnificent Gran Sasso as I head back down the hill to home.

It's not the only reason why I love to run but it sure is a strong reinforcer! I feel deeply grateful to live in and get to enjoy such a beautiful part of the world.

Stay tuned for the photos of Sundays runs.

10 on 10/10/10 at 10:10

Yep, I did. In training for my next marathon, I ran 10 kilometers today, 10/10/10 at 10:10.

What were you doing?

Make Running Fun!

Are you looking for a way to make your runs (or walks) more fun? I found one. It's the nike, iPod sport kit, that combines a nike chip and an iPod thingy that talk to each other in secret, unknown but very cool ways. The chip is supposed to go into nike running shoes but I already had a new pair of another brand so I bought a nike shoe pouch and put the chip in there. It works great. This is what they look like:

I plug in the white thingy into my iPod nano while I run and it does all manner of wonderful, "personal assistant" type things. While running, it tells me how long I've run, how fast I've run or how many calories I've burned. I can chose a workout with a time goal or a distance goal or music of any type to jazz things up. I love running to upbeat music.

Besides monitoring my progress while I'm running (chose spoken feedback in a man or woman's voice), it also tracks progress over time on the computer at nikeplus.com.

This just took my runs to a new level. It's a boost to my motivation as I begin my training for a half marathon in FL in February in the national breast cancer marathon. I ran the full marathon last year and got turned on to running. I've been running 3 days a week since and recommend it to anyone looking for a good way to stay fit. Mi piace correre! What do others do to stay motivated?

9/21: p.s. When I finished my run today, Lance Armstrong said: "Congratulations! This was your longest workout yet." Lance Armstrong! On my iPod! Technology is a wonderful thing.