Disney World Marathon, Part I

You know how you can work and train and sweat toward a goal for so long that when it is over, you almost don't believe that it happened? Meg, Luc, and I started planning for our first marathon in May 2009. We started training in earnest in August 2009. We ran a MARATHON (26.2 miles) on January 10, 2010 in Disney World. Wait, really?

Audrey, our veteran marathoner friend, Luc, and I ran for the Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research, and raised over $7200 through amazing friends and family and hosting a 5k.

The four of us endured increasingly frigid and dark training runs as New Jersey fell into winter, running up to 21 miles before tapering in the few weeks before the race. Meg suffered a hip injury, started physical therapy, and kept on running. This was an expensive and time-consuming venture--no one was giving it up!

Finally, January 7th arrived. NJ=freezing. FL=...freezing?? Yes. Florida decided to have a cold snap the one week we visited it. Luc, Meg, and I arrived in Orlando super excited to be going to DISNEY WORLD anyway. Rally gave us a room in the Pop Century resort, so we took the Magical Express from the airport. Yesss. Ten minutes after arrival, we were already cared for by smiling Disney Cast Members and surrounded by Mickey Mouses.

Disney knows how to put on a smoothly-running ginormous event. Every 5-10 minutes, a bus left the resort and headed to the Expo at the Wide World of Sports:


We picked up our bibs, shoe tag, and goody bags with our schnazzy *marathon* shirts, bought cute pink souvenir *marathon* shirts, and enjoyed the buzzing excitement of the
health and fitness expo. We got free sports bar samples, looked at running clothes, and made signs for Josh and Luc's dad, Lee, to hold as our cheerleaders:


Meg, Luc, and I ran for 45 minutes before dinner at Downtown Disney. I bought Mickey Mouse ears while we waited for Josh, Lee, and Audrey to arrive.

The next morning, Audrey and I woke up to find happy signs on our door from the Rally folks!


We are SO glad we were a part of a team for this race. The little things--like the signs, the matching shirts we wore for the race, the cheer groups they had along the route, and the candy in the Rally tent at the end--made the experience very comfortable (considering) and enjoyable. :) One of the BIG things was the team pre-race pasta dinner and coach's clinic on Friday the 8th (day before the half, two days before the full).

We met at Epcot in our red shirts:


And were escorted into the park as a group of about 130 red-shirted athletes, family, and Rally staff. (We all considered "losing" the group and riding on Mars Mission instead of eating spaghetti, but we were good.) We were secretly pleased to discover that most of the other 114 Rally runners were only doing the half marathon, and then realized that Disney is possibly the only place we could feel bad about ONLY doing the FULL MARATHON: Audrey and a few others were running the Goofy Challenge--BOTH the half AND the full. Sigh. The coach's talk actually made me more nervous. Audrey reminded me that I trained and was ready. I'd be fine. I knew how to fuel, I had my running shoes, and I ran IN THE COLD ALL SEASON, so Florida's freakishly frigid temperatures wouldn't hurt.

We ate tasty pasta and fruit (and everyone snagged extra bananas and apples for our rooms--Disney is EXPENSIVE) while listening to Rally families share their stories (some brought tears to my eyes :( ) and the Rally CEO share her story (it was pretty cool). Then, they passed out prizes to teams and individuals who raised the most money. To our surprise, our team came in SECOND!!!

After dinner, Lee took us to the Polynesian resort for a drink. (Although Audrey the Goofy went home to sleep before her early morning 13.1 miles.) A small one. With lots of water. We must stay hydrated, you know!

Audrey woke up Saturday morning at 3am for her half. I heard her drink water, then do something, then drink water, then do something. She left around 3:45am. I woke up around 7am to start an ice bath for her and get hot chocolate and coffee from the cafeteria. It was below freezing at the half's 5:45am start time, accompanied by snow and freezing rain. Brrrr. She did so well though: she finished in 1:47:00! "Oops, I probably ran that too fast. Haha!"

She came back FROZEN and jumped immediately into her bathtub of ice and ice-cold water. Why? To help her poor muscles heal before the full the next day! She shivered for 15 minutes before taking a nice hot shower. Then she swam in the rain for a few minutes in the nice hot pool, and then took another nice hot shower. :)

Audrey and our weird resort:




The rest of the day, we all mostly lounged and ate. We had lunch with Lee at his resort, Saratoga Springs. We zipped over to the Expo to buy a souvenir for one of our favorite supporters (two-year-old Wally, who made us a running playlist with his mother's help), and then watched Chariots of Fire in our hotel room. Finally, we ate LOTS of pasta for dinner, and went off to our hotel rooms to get ready for the next day.

Audrey and I attached our shoe tags and bibs to our shirts:


Our bibs had our FIRST NAMES. I LOVE DISNEY.

We were in bed by 9pm, I believe. Time to sleep. Our 3am alarm will come all too soon.

The Journey Home and Back

My annual trek back to the Pacific Northwest was a wee bit more exciting than usual this year, as my cat Faraday joined me! I bought a kitty ticket, got sedatives from the vet, stuffed the nine-month-old kitten into his carrier and under the seat in front of me. He was NOT thrilled. I spent most of the flight hunched over my seat, petting him to quiet him. But we survived!

My family has two cats--Ashley, who is 13, and Scout, who was four months old--and a golden retriever, Maddie. Faraday hasn't been around other animals since he was a baby in foster care. We kept him in my sister Amy's room for the first couple of days, while the cats got used to each other:


We graduated to Faraday on a leash:


And by the end, all animals lived in harmony...mostly.



It was a fairly relaxing trip, with lots of good family time. We took sibling trips to the mall and Sherlock Holmes, I saw Avatar with an old UW friend, Nama, Papa, and the aunties joined us for a beautiful Christmas day, and we had a reunion dinner with four main childhood-friend families and their various new little families (that was scary: there were nine kids under the age of six! In one house!). I enjoyed running around my childhood neighborhood (my training schedule was nearing the end: I was in taper mode, and had to run between 4 and 12 miles a few times). One day, Mom drove me to the local highschool track--where I would've gone, had I not been homeschooled! :D We baked and baked and ate and ate. Dad and I talked about physics and our African travels. Amy discussed her impending move to Morocco for the year. David made me play a game of ping-pong, and we had fun being geeks together. Jenny regaled me with stories of her first quarter of college. The family also shopped in Seattle one fine day--we mostly drank a lot of coffee, looked at pretty things, and had dinner at Spaghetti Factory. :) I got to eat lunch with Madeline and Alex (UW swing friends), too!

Mom's beautiful Christmas dinner:


My entire family and another family walked on a lovely nature trail in Sequium one cold, cold day, too.

Dad and Mom:


Amy and David:


Our family's annual New Year's Eve bash was even MORE intense and entertaining than usual! Mom found a murder mystery party plot online, and gave each of the SEVENTY guests a role to play. It had a cruise ship theme, so guests were crew (Jenny was the Cruise Director and David a sailor), passengers (I was a recent highschool graduate on a cruise with my father), chaplains (Dad was Chaplain Love), or Ambassadress of the Seas competitors (Amy). We had personalized partial plot notes for pre-murder, and received new notes post-murder, which directed us to ask certain people certain questions. They helped us compose a convoluted view of the motivations of a really terrible set of people. Ha! No one actually guessed whodunit correctly, but we had a fabulous time trying. :)

Jenny looks all official:


Anna (who turned out to be the culprit) and Tim (the bartender) pose by portholes:


We even had the victim (Consuelo) scream and fall over during a house-wide blackout and balloon-popping explosion. Then the officer (Doug) outlined her sprawl for posterity:


We were amused by ourselves. :)

My other big event was a trip up to Bellingham to spend the night with Bethy JO! We ate Thai food, drank some wine, enjoyed her cat (Nellie), watched an episode of Pushing Daisies, visited with her friend Jonathon, toured her office and met coworkers, and drank LOTS of coffee. Then we spent a couple of hours in Seattle, eating cupcakes and getting our eyebrows waxed on a whim. Love. Bethany.



That evening in Seattle, I (take a deep breath) had coffee with Levi and David (UW Swing dance buddies), appetizers with Beth and Catherine (UW roommates), and dinner with Bethany (Seattle swing dance/church/knitting buddy). Whew.

All too soon, Muffin (Faraday [the cat]) and I had to fly home. Sigh. Next year. :)

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Many more Christmas pictures can be found here.

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Frosty 5k!

As you know, Audrey, Luc, and I are training for the Disneyworld Marathon on January 10th (it's less than three weeks away!!). We're sponsored by the Rally foundation, and are raising money for cancer research. We held a fundraiser on December 12th: the Frosty 5k.

Audrey was the brains behind it and major organizing force. Even though we'd run many races before, none of us really knew how much planning and work one takes! She had guidance and support from the Princeton Running Club and people at Dillon Gym, to know that you need to rent portaloos (Luc's favorite term for them), should order X number of t-shirts, and have so many officials. We thought of many different possible 3.1 miles-long routes in Princeton, but most involved township approval and shutting down roads. No way. We settled on the Princeton cross-country course, which was easily approved by the university and all in cushy fields.

A week before, Audrey and I printed off hundreds of fliers and posted them all over campus.


We took turns sitting in the Frist campus center, advertising and signing people up. That turned out to be highly unlucrative. Out of seven days, three hours each, we registered about six people. We also signed up two or three one evening, sitting outside the Graduate College dining hall. The most successful advertising was probably through active.com, and possibly our fliers.

Audrey and I meticuously painted medals for first, second, and third in six divisions: Males over 30, Males under 30, Males under 15, Females over 30, and Females under 30, and Females under 15. We also had two extra medals: Average Place Male and Average Place Female:






The night before the race, Audrey, Luc, and I assembled the medals, assigned bib numbers to runners, and organized t-shirts. We also baked sugar cookies. Audrey decided that every runner needed a snowman-shaped, frosted sugar cookie. So she baked 150. Rachel and I frosted them all.

We were ready. The weather was supposed to be about 26 deg F, cold, clear, and windy. I set out my many layers of clothes, breakfast, and last minute supplies I needed to bring, and went to sleep. The only thing I forgot to set was my ALARM.

Audrey woke me up at 7am with a text message "sooo...you ready?" "AAAGH I WILL BE!!" I dressed and left in FIVE MINUTES. I swear that is a record! I picked her up only ten minutes later than we had planned, and we headed to Wegman's to buy several dozen bagels, a hundred bananas, and COFFEE. We scarfed down a bagel in the car on the way to the course. Volunteers--BEAUTIFUL WONDERFUL FREEZING volunteers--met us, helped unload, and set up.

All too soon, it seemed, the masses came to register. This is really the only piece which we would drastically change. Mostly, we'd have more than one registration table, separate lines for day-of and pre-registration, and possibly separate male and female lines. It was mildly chaotic (especially as our hands slowed increasingly as they stiffened and froze), but finally, everyone paid, recieved race bibs, and had the t-shirt of their choice (mostly).

Audrey and I at registration:


We started only five minutes late! Our 95 runners embarked to the sound of Justin's trumpet, which was pretty sweet.


Our timing team eagerly waited the arrival of the first finisher:


Luc manned the water station halfway through, and captured Meg running by!


The winner overall and of Males under 30 came blazing in at 17:30ish! Tyler, from PPL, came in second with 18:30ish. Full results are posted at frosty5k.com.

After the runners hydrated, ate bagels, bananas, and cookies, and warmed up with some hot chocolate, Justin's trumpet called them to the medal ceremony with--of course--the medal ceremony music from Star Wars. Awesome. I think everyone thought the medals were cute and enjoyed the event. :D

Clean up was fun--Luc got a flat tire driving over potholes by the fields, we had to divy up dozens of leftover bagels, bananas, and cookies, and we had to dump out about seven gallons of hot chocolate. Eh, we over-planned, but at least no one went hungry!

All in all, it was a fantastic event, we are incredibly close to our fundraising goal (the race raised over $3000), and we are PUMPED for Disneyworld!!!

A Tale of a Snowy Morn

On December 6th, I woke up at 7am to see the season's first inch of snow covering the grass. Groggily, I fed the prrraowing Muffinkins, gave him fresh water, and shoved a bowl of oatmeal into the microwave. I drank a glass of water, stirred in two tablespoons of peanut butter and a dollop of milk, and started eating. Sigh. Peanut-buttery oatmeal is not the most appetizing dish. I must, however, finish it all. I need the calories.

7:30am. Oatmeal done. Email checked. It's 32 degrees F outside. Haha...

Time to get dressed:
-cold-weather tights
-long-sleeved shirt
-sports bra
-Bandaid three toes which still don't have healthy nails
-Vaseline entire rest of feet (and other areas)
-special low-rub socks for my feet
-fleece earband
-baseball cap
-old socks for my hands
-iPod
-house key goes in tiny zippered pocked on back of tights
-accelerometer/pedometer watch

Filled the Fuel Belt:
-two packs of fruit snacks (Toy Story today)
-One 10oz bottle full of water
-One 10oz bottle full of Gatorade

8am. Sigh. Now I had to go outside and meet Luc.

Luc printed off the directions for the morning's adventure. This one was complicated!

1. Start at end of bridge
2. R on WA, L on Fac, R on Alex, R on Univ, R on Nassau
3. L on Snowden/ Riverside
4. L on Hamilton
5. R on Linden
6. R on Franklin, L on EWING
7. R on Valley, L on Harrison
8. Veer R on Burn Dr
9. L on Poor Farm Rd
10. R on Mt Lucas Rd
11. Continue R on Princeton Ave
12. R on Co Rd 518/Georgtown Franklin Turnpike
13. L on Canal Rd
14. R on Old Georgetown Rd
15. L on Copper Mine Rd
16. R on Canal Rd
17. Turn around at Sterling Rd
18. L at Griggstown Causeway
19. L at Towpath--stop at the red bridge!

Or in easier to grasp form, this is where we ran:
Twenty-one miles-long figure 8

Yeees. Twenty-one miles. Oh the apprehension. This was our 3rd to last long run--the last being the 26.2 miles-long marathon! One just never knows how a 4-hour-long run will go.

The towpath was crunchy, and the roads covered in patches of black ice. We inched gingerly along, enjoying the dust of snow on the trees. Before we even ran a mile, I realized that I needed to use the bathroom. Shoot. Good thing WaWa was on the way! Luc danced around outside for a couple minutes while I went in. Finally, we were really off!

We chatted for a few miles as we ran through pretty Princeton neighborhoods. Soon, the neighborhoods turned into rural woodsy areas with a business here and there. Because the sheer length of the run and the black ice weren't enough, a mile-long hill appeared. I do not like hills.

When we ran out of conversation topics (hey, we see each other every day at work, AND train together, AND usually hang out socially), we turned on our iPods and listened to Wally's Marathon Mix. WMM is an amazing, four-hour compilation of diverse upbeat tunes from our littlest supporter, two-year-old Wally (and his mom, Jill).

We angled west and crossed the towpath. Immediately, we turned onto a delightful-sounding road, Old Georgetown Road, next to a delightful-looking red barn structure. The road turned out to be LESS than delightful-feeling, as it was in fact another full MILE of UPHILL. Later, we found out that we gained about 300 ft in elevation during that mile. We huffed and puffed in time to our plodding steps and focused on the beat of the music. Nearly at the top, we passed an adorable adolescent golden retriever who looked just like a young Molly. She really really wanted to come WITH us, but I finally convinced her to go home. Aaaw...

Around mile ten, we had our first fruit snack pack. Aaah fruit snacks. They say that at 10-12 mile-long runs, you should start fueling. One can pay for special sport beans (jelly bellies), gummy things (fruit snacks), or gels (...uber sweet frosting), but we discovered that regular ol' fruit snacks both taste better and are much cheaper than these options.

Once at the top of the hill, the woods cleared and we ran through fluffy white farmland with horsies, sheep, and goats. After a glimpse of vast blue sky and trees waaay below, we reached the other side of the hill and started runnin' dooooown. Thankfully, the sun had melted the ice, and we only had to worry about not trippin'.

The base of the hill was along the D&R canal. We ran along the water for a while, past a beautiful little white church building. The bells were playing a slightly dissonant version of Silent Night. I paused the Black Eyed Peas' "Boom Boom Pow" for a bit, because it didn't mesh well with the carol.

Finally, we reached the last leg of our complicated journey: seven miles home on the towpath.

The towpath is a beautiful thing. The New Jersey side is thirty miles long, from Trenton to New Brunswick. Princeton happens to be approximately halfway between them, affording us a scenic, flat, soft-and-knee-friendly running path. The most dangerous thing I have encountered on the towpath (even at 4am), is a bunch of geese protecting their precious goslings. The only downside, really, to the towpath, is that it stretches out in front of you. Forever. It's surrounded by pretty trees and water. Forever. On. And on. And on.

Fourteen miles into this run was when Luc and I died. My legs became like lead. But nothing...hurt. So we kept going.

My face relaxed to expressionless and we ceased chatting. After a great enough distance, you can just keep going forever, until things break (like, your body). It's only mental, a friend told us once. Don't focus on the fact that you have been running for three hours and will have to run another hour to get home. Focus on the beat of the music, your footsteps, your breathing, or landmarks. "This is where we crossed on our way over!" "This is the last street-crossing before Route 27!" "WOO IT'S ROUTE 27! TWO MILES TO GOOO!" Praying for everyone I can think of helps. Writing to-do lists isn't bad. Thinking about research is too upsetting; don't do that.

About half a mile from the end, I had enough. I started sprinting. Luc said "whoa, what are you doing?? COOL DOWN. It's a COOL DOWN." I slowed down. Hrmph. I was just so bored.

Finally, we reached the red bridge around 12:30pm. In ecstasy and relief, we stopped our watches. 21.07 miles completed in 4:01:50. Happy sigh. :)

I enjoy post-run, a lot. I love the stiff walk back to my apartment, the first glass of water or gatorade, my post-run-smoothie, stretching, showering, being in pain for the next three days, and having to eat back the 2500ish calories burned. Mmmmmmmm exercise!

Relaxing and SUPER Productive.

This year, as with every year I've spent on the east coast, I traveled an hour north to Fort Lee, NJ, to spend Thanksgiving with my friend Sarah and her lovely family. I only stayed for the afternoon and evening on Thursday, as I had to return to feed and love my dear gato and my friend Laura's gata next door. That meant that this morning, I could sleep in as long as I wanted to and have the most leisurely day imaginable.

Well...by sleep in, I mean toss and turn in bed while coughing my lungs out until 10am, and by leisurely...I mean...this:

My apartment was filthy. Messy, and pretty downright dirty, too. My goal for this weekend was to decorate for Christmas, while enjoying Christmas music. I couldn't do that in such a state. Armed with a latte, eggs-cheese-n-salsa, and still in pre-Thanksgiving pumpkin PJ bottoms, I pumped up the holiday tunes and markered up my whiteboard. Do the dishes. Check! Hang up pile of coats on the couch. Check! Put away shoes that accumulated underneath the dining room table. Check! Sweep! Mop! Scrub! Borrow Meg's vacuum because I have her keys because they're on Luc's keyring because I'm taking care of Luc's fish! Vacuum! Pile dirty laundry in middle of floor in preparation for the post-acquiring-of-quarters! Find cat toys in EVERY nook and cranny!

Wonder why cat has so many toys!


Find cat zonked in unmade bed!


Yes, it was incredible. I hate cleaning. Thus, I go for weeks and then REALLY CLEAN ALL AT ONCE AAAGH. That was finally finished, so I showered. At 4pm. Beautiful.

Next! I dug out my Christmas decorations. Replaced summery picture of siblings with snowy picture of siblings. Hung little stockings on Moroccan wrought-iron hooks. Decided to go out and buy...

My first very own Christmas tree!


It is of course real. I believe in pine tree smell, sticky pine sap, and pine needles ground into carpet.

I used a steak knife to trim it:


We decorated and decorated and finally have this:


I LOVE it. It makes the living room so warm and cozy:


Here's the tiny topper:


Some ornaments:


My sleepy buddy:


My festive fish:


And my other project of the day, making two pounds of refried beans from scratch:


Ah yeah. Who has a freezer full of tastiness?? Me.

And now, we must go to sleep. In my post-Thanksgiving, Christmas snowmen PJ bottoms. Love and Merry Start-of-the-Christmas-Season!

Busy busy busy

Fall arrived in Princeton and brought colorful leaves, busy conferences, and fabulous escapades. Sadly, the leaves have mostly fallen off the trees and the east is rather brown, but it was beautiful while it lasted!









Faraday even got to enjoy the brilliant outdoors:


He continues to be my darling little buddy and is such good company! My life is much brighter with him in it. He walks all over me to wake me up to feed him, and sleeps on my chest if I ignore him long enough. He always greets me with a (often groggy) "prr!" when I come home. He loves to sleep on my lap when I'm knitting, reading, or watching a movie. He'll scratch my bookcase to get my attention when I'm too enthralled by my laptop...and he likes to hang out in the bathtub:


He also loves to chill out while I wash dishes:


Walking amongst leaves and playing with Faradude is quite relaxing. My life really isn't. What ELSE am I doing, you ask?

1. Performing at dance festivals:
We kept playing even when the music stopped!


2. RUNNING a lot:
The marathon is coming up so quickly! Today we ran 19 miles. Yes. NINETEEN. I'm sore and tired, but accomplished. We're hosting two fundraisers: the Frosty 5K in Princeton, and the virtual Coast-to-Coast 5k that ANYONE can do. SIGN UP!

3. Attending conferences:
I had posters in a conference at lab in October and APS at the beginning of November.
APS was in Atlanta, home of the Georgia Aquarium and the World of Coca-Cola. My usual buddies and I had plenty of fun at both:





The best part of the Coke museum is the tasting floor. One can taste over 50 different kinds of pop (I MEAN SODA, EAST COASTERS, SODA)! One can drink AS MUCH as one WANTS! We indeed tried every kind, and had the biggest sugar high and then crash ever.


4. Lots of other stuff, but we'll save that for another day. :)


Many more pictures can be found here, as usual.