Marathons for My Daughter

Friday, November 25, 2022

November 2022

Running Update:

October 54.6 mi 9:16:41

November (to date) 42.0 mi 6:51:49

2022 (to date) 1009.0 mi 170:46:43

I’ve not done a lot of running since Chicago. I had to take some time off—I don’t recover as quickly from these races as I used to! Specifically, one of my knees was feeling a little abused, so I did not run the Philadelphia Half Marathon last weekend as originally planned. (I deferred to next year.)

BUT I did hit 1000 miles of running so far this year AND I ran the Madison, CT Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving with Alec!

I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday weekend.

NF Update:

I’m a little late for this year, but felt it was still helpful to post. Last month Face Equality International (https://faceequalityinternational.org/) spent the days leading up to Halloween to remind people that facial disfigurement is not evil or scary (I’ve written about this), and so should not be used in costumes as such. Here is a nice recap by Elizabeth Russo:

In the vein of face equality, I was happy to see that the producers of the stage version of the novel Wonder are planning to cast a person with a facial difference as Augie, the main character. (This is something the film version did not do, to my annoyance.)

Jane Update:

Jane and I return to NIH for her semi-annual check-up in a couple of weeks.

We recently attempted to count how many MRIs Jane has had in her lifetime, and it’s not easy to do.

If multiple MRIs done in one session/visit count as ONE, Jane has had:

24 at NIH,

2 at Indiana University, and

8 at Yale New-Haven, for a

TOTAL 34 MRI sessions.

But almost every session includes two or more MRIs. For example, on the first day of our upcoming NIH visit, Jane has an hour-long full body MRI followed by a more dedicated MRI of her face, sinus, ear, nose, and throat due to the location of her biggest tumor. The next morning she has a dedicated brain MRI. By our definition above, all that counts as one MRI session. So Jane’s probably had over 50 individual MRIs in her 15 year life.

I’ll report back on our trip next month.

Sunday, October 16, 2022

The 2022 Chicago Marathon

I was more excited about this marathon than I have been for any other in a while. I think because the stars seem to be aligned for a good race: I lucked out and managed to get a hotel right near the start/finish, so no onerous trekking before and after the race. The course was very flat and neatly divided into three manageable sections: north, west, and south. And the weather was perfect! In the final pre-race email from the Chicago Marathon they said, "According to the advance local weather forecast, the weather on race day is projected to be partly to mostly sunny, with low temperatures in the low-40s (degrees F) and high temperatures in the low-60s (degrees F). Based on this forecast, the Event Alert Status level is Green, which suggests ideal conditions for marathon running."

And it was!

Course Map

I could see the finish area from my hotel room!

At the Expo

Anyone could write down a reason for running and add it to the wall.

View of the city

The Bean!

The Riverwalk

Pre-race gear shot

The Chicago Marathon is the second only to New York as the largest marathon in the US. 40,000 people participated, but it didn’t ever seem like that many. Most of the course was on relatively narrow, tree-lined streets, so it didn’t even feel like a big city, let alone a big race. The only way the Chicago Marathon felt big was the number of spectators--they lined every single step of the course, and they were loud! There were lots of signs, some with the usual chestnuts:

· “You’re running better than the government!” (Alternate: “…the metro”)

· Pain is temporary, pride is forever.

· Worst parade ever!

· Your feet hurt ‘cause you’re kicking butt!

· On a scale of 1-10 you’re a 26.2!

But I saw a few creative signs that were new to me:

"I'll get you into Boston" (with a photo of Lori Loughlin)

· “Due to inflation you’ll run 27 miles”

· Several Wordle-themed signs eg “RACES, ROADS, WANTS, MEDAL”

· A couple of Lord of the Rings-themed ones: “Fly you fools!” and “A day may come when you cannot run, but it is not this day.”

Some of our NF Endurance Team!

In Chinatown

Photo by our NF Endurance Team leader, Lydia, who was waiting for us at mile 13!

Todd was able to follow me from afar on the Chicago Marathon app

He took several screen shots as I approached the finish line :)

I felt strong until the last few miles, but I finished with my best marathon time since 2017! And I was 605th out of 1662 women in my age group :)

At the finish line a guy proposed to a girl right in front of me. He had the ring with him and everything. Apparently she said yes because they kissed afterwards. (Risky!)

Nicholas Kristoff and family were there, too!

One more special treat this Chicago weekend—the day after the marathon I got to have breakfast with college friend, Lolan, and his family! So wonderful to reconnect with old friends.

With Lolan's nephew, Samuel

And with Lolan's mom!

I brought Samuel a Chicago Marathon shirt <3

Next: the Philadelphia Half in November! I'm giving myself a couple weeks break first, but I'm still motivated to keep running to #endNF <3 THANK YOU to all who have donated to our campaign so far this year!!

My Dumb Runner calendar has a perfect message for October

The medal rack Todd made for me several years ago. It's getting pretty full.

Wednesday, September 7, 2022

Labor Day Weekend recap

Running Update:

2022 NHRR Half Marathon: 2:06:57

I hope you all had a relaxing Labor Day! I started the day with a run through the city of New Haven with 4500 other people :)

The New Haven Road Race is the home of the USATF 20K National Championship, so there were dozens of elites running along with us, too. (Alec was more impressed that Conner Mantz was there than the fact that his mother ran a half marathon!)

At the start

Here come the elites!

Mantz in the lead from the start

Then comes me!

At the finish

Enjoying lots of post-race water

The medal

I just love the New Haven Road Race—the course, the organizers, the volunteers, and the city itself. I swear New Haven has the best spectators, both in number and level of energy. Whole families and even whole neighborhoods come out in the early morning—on a holiday, no less!—to give us encouragement and snacks and to spray us with cool water. I even heard a woman cheering for a runner who had to stop and walk—she called out, “Good job! Way to listen to your body!” The mayor, Justin Elicker, has himself run in the NHRR for the past 12 years. School groups volunteer; various bands, DJs, and bagpipes play. It’s like a city-wide block party.