Oh. My. GOD!!!!

Valerie Selinger
Entry Number: 341582


Congratulations! You have been accepted into the ING New York City Marathon 2009. We are thrilled that you will be joining us on Sunday, November 1. Be sure to bookmark our site and visit it often for the latest news. Good luck with your training.

The Countdown Has Begun...

I'll find out about NYC is less than 24 hours! My hopes are ridiculously high and I know the chances of me getting in are very, very slim...but I REALLY need something good to happen right now!

Blah.

I'm having a really hard time. I don't have a race on my calendar and it's bumming me out. Actually, forget that...I DO have a race on my calendar and it's staring at me, taunting me every day - every TIME - I look at that calendar. I was supposed to do the Seattle RnR Marathon on June 27 but that's not happening now. I thought I was okay with this...I didn't drop because I wanted to...I had to (thanks, hamstring), but it really wasn't bothering me. Until today. I flipped my calendar at work over to June and there it was, in big, black letters with what looked like a million exclamation points after the words "Seattle RnR Marathon!!!!!!" I think I need to find some white out or something to fix that.

In addition to my bummer-ness over that race, it's starting to look like I have Achilles Tendonitis. I've had some heel pain after almost every run for a couple of months now (not that there's been a ton of running over the past couple of months...thanks, tax season). For a long time I was convinced it was just heel spurs and I was going to have to accept the fact that it's time for custom orthotics...but the pain started to travel up my Achilles Tendon and my calf feels tight all of a sudden. I mentioned it to an awesome friend of mine, who is also the co-owner of the local running shop I frequent and she threw out this whole Tendonitis theory. I figured I'd take her advice, rest it a little, ice it a lot and wait...but I refused to jump into my regular habit of obsessing over things like this and resort to hours of internet research (which always ends with a diagnosis of cancer). I woke up Sunday morning, swung my legs out of bed and stood up...and promptly hit the floor, almost screaming in pain. I have never felt anything like this before...it was horrible. I managed to crawl - literally on my hand and knees - back into bed and wake the hubs up to tell him that I was on my deathbed...this resulted in an angry, although concered hubs, going to get me a bag of ice (note to self: Do NOT fall asleep with a bag of ice in bed...it melts into water).

So now my whole plan of not obsessing and relying on internet research to figure out what is truly wrong with me is completely out the window...so far it looks like I do indeed have Achilles Tendonitis (or cancer). I spent today with a bag of frozen peas strapped to my ankle/heel (I upgraded from the bag of ice) and an unsuccesful attempt at riding my bike because my calf muscle is still really tight. Hopefully tomorrow it will be better.

In *slightly* happier news, I should find out about NYC this week or next. This can be both good and bad.

Good:
I'll have a marathon on my calendar that I WILL NOT MISS.
This is something I really, really, really, really want to do.
I'll get to see my best friend who lives in NYC a few weeks earlier than currently planned.
It gives me something new obsess over and check daily (so far in the past two weeks I've gone through obsessing over CPA Exam scores and now my Foot Cancer).

Bad:
If this foot thing/cancer turns out to be bad, it could jeapordize the race.
I'm not the smartest person when it comes to training...have I mentioned that this has been bothering me for a couple of months and I'm just now looking into it?
NYC is expensive. Both the race and the city.
Considering I'm only up to (a painful) 4 miles right now, I'm not sure I'll have time to train properly.

Eh, who am I kidding...see the first "Good" reason. I WILL NOT MISS THIS ONE!

Changes...And Random Thoughts

Whew a lot has happened in the past couple of weeks. First off, the hubs and I celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary on May 19. I can't believe it's already been 2 years! To celebrate, he bought me a cycle computer for my bike. :)

In addition to that, I made the hard - but very good - decision to leave public accounting. Again. I really like what I do and I love the people I work with, but this is a good opportunity that I couldn't turn down. It also helps that I won't have to travel anymore and will have much better benefits...and one of my best friends will be working right down the hall. And one thing that I really, honestly, seriously considered and helped make my decision - I can bike to work. It's about 15 miles one way, so it's not something I can just jump into, but I'm really looking forward to it. My goal is to start a couple of weeks after my first day and to eventually bike at least 2-3 times a week. The route is hilly for the first few miles, but it flattens out after that so I don't think it will be a problem. I am very, very excited for this (the commuting AND the job). I'll start on Monday, June 8.

Even though I'm leaving the CPA firm I work for now, I've decided to stick with taking the CPA exam. When I first started that "adventure" I didn't care much about it...it was just something I was being forced to do. But now that I've given up months of my life for this, I've come too far to just stop. I still haven't passed anything, but I should get my next score around June 20. My next exams are scheduled for July 16 and August 29...wish me luck. After taking a month off to relax, I started studying again tonight. No fun...I can't believe I'm willingly doing this.

After participating in Jay Benson (I feel wrong saying that I "raced" it considering the minuscule amounts of effort I put into training...ok, some that time was spent healing my stupid hamstrings), I immediately came home and signed up for the Chile Harvest Triathlon in Socorro. It will be on August 1. My goal for this race is to train and to go into it feeling a lot more prepared than I did for Jay Benson...I think doing it this way will make it fun. I hate to say it, but I did NOT enjoy anything about Jay Benson until it was over. Don't get me wrong...it was an awesome race and I'll be back next year...this was all my fault. At least I won't have tax season and an injury (I hope) to get in my way anymore.

Lastly, the application deadline for the NYC Marathon is next Monday, June 1. I should find out shortly whether I made it in or not. Either way, I just need SOMETHING on the calendar at this point. I decided that if I do not make it in, I'll just run the half at Duke City since it's local. The hubs and I were already planning a trip to Phoenix in January for RnR AZ, so if I do Duke City Half, I'll run the full there. If I get into NYC, I'm doing the half in Phoenix...unless I have some kind of brain damage and decide to attempt a full for both. Someone remind me of the hamstring injury from a couple of months ago if it looks like I'm headed that way...

Race report - Jay Benson Triathlon 5/10/09

I always pictured my first triathlon to be a lot like my first (and so far - my only) marathon...lots and lots of hard work training and then a great big pay off at the end. As far as Jay Benson goes, I kinda skipped out on that whole "training" part of it and skipped right to the "pay off" part. Not the smartest way to do things and I'm convinced that this is why my legs are still sore (no, it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I did NOT stretch after the race...I never claimed to do anything smart while preparing for this race, why start now?). All in all it was an awesome, amazing experience and I loved it. Also, my estimated finish time before the race was 2 hours.

The day started early...my friends, D, T and I decided to head over to the base around 6.00 AM, so that meant leaving my house around 5.30. Of course, when it comes to being on time, I'm always 5-15 minutes late so it was no surprise when it was 6.00 and Mike and I were pulling into a drive thru Starbucks nowhere near the base. We managed to get in, get parked and get me into the transition area, where I promptly set up my stuff next to my buddies (wrong - my triathlete friend came and fixed it later) and then milled around for the next hour or so saying hi to the gazillions of friends I had that signed up for the race and the other awesome friends who came out to be the best cheerleaders ever. The men started at 8.10 or so and by that time it was already heating up...before I knew it, it was time for me to line up. I joined the crowd of women and wandered towards the back of the pack till I found D, who was talking to a few friends of ours who'd come to cheer us on. Luckily that took my mind off what I was about to do. I wasn't even paying full attention when the buzzer sounded and the race started...I just moved forward with the crowd and the next thing I knew we were off!

The run was hot and I started out too fast, but luckily I reaized this very early on before I bonked too much. I also had been walking around with a bottle of water I forgot to throw away (I'm telling you, my mind wasn't in this) but I'm so glad I kept it. There was one water stop at 1.5 miles, but I ended up drinking my entire bottle of water. I was in the very back of the pack, alone for the most part, but I didn't mind. It was weird running without my iPod (unallowed) or watch (purposely left at home) but I think I kind of liked it - at least the watch-free part of it. I walked when I need to, wanting to save any energy I could for the bike, but I was still dizzy and neauseated when I finished. By the time I got to my transition, my triathlete friend (Frank) was standing outside the ropes but near my bike and he saved me...he walked me through everything I needed to do. I kept hearing "Ok, put your helmet on. Drink some water. Change your shoes. Get your bike." I knew what needed to be done, but I think if he wasn't there I would have taken even longer in transition than I did.

The bike was good. It felt amazing to be on my bike...I've always loved my bike, but I was worried how I'd feel trying to ride while being so hot, dehydrated and tired...but I loved it even more. The ride was hilly and the hills did get to me, but I remembered that a friend of mine said "When you get to a hill, you put your head down and you pedal...you never walk," so that's what I did. I kept repeating that on the uphills and singing Margaritaville out loud on the downhills - hey, I had to do something to get my mind off how tired I was! I got to transition again and was pretty disoriented though. I've never gotten the hang of the whole drinking while riding thing, so I didn't take in any fluids on the bike, a big mistake. I attempted to run to the pool, but after a few steps my legs yelled out "Eff you!" and I stopped and walked. I couldn't, there wasn't anything left in them.

Swimming has always been my strongest and it comes naturally. It's never felt so good to jump into a pool before...all I could think was "this is it, just get through the pool." Of course, it wasn't that easy. The pool was FULL of people and it was so hard to pass. Most people would move over when tapped, but not everyone. And to top it off, my goggles decided that this would be the perfect day to leak. Overall, it wasn't my greatest swim ever, but I was still happy with it.

It was a very fun race and it took a lot out of me...it also taught me how important it is to train properly. I must have liked it though...I just signed up for another one in Socorro in August. :)

Splits -
Run (3 miles): 40:20
T1: 3:00
Bike (20k): 50:07
T2: 2:40
Swim: 9:38
Overall: 1:45:49.45

Unser Half Marathon

Unfortunately, this is not a race report. A few months ago I had planned on being able to give you all a report on this race, but nope...I didn't do it. Instead, I'm hovering around a slow, painful 3 miles right now, which I'll take over not running at all. Instead, this post is to brag a little bit about the hubs. :)

The hubs, for those of you who don't know him personally - and I feel bad for you, is quite the character. He goes about a million miles a minute, asks thousands of questions of anyone and is really pretty gullible and come up with funny and random things all the time, but he'd kill me if I told you that (oops). In fact, my friend T and I say we're going to compile all the Mike-ism we've heard over the years and become millionaires over his hilarity. So when he told me about three weeks ago that he was still going to run the Unser Half Marathon I thought this was another one of his jokes, or something that he got mixed up. He'd been running, but only about five miles at a time for a month or two at the time...but nope, he was serious. So here we sit, at Dion's (geez, now I feel REALLY bad for those of you who don't live in NM, seriously, the BEST food!) and I'm trying to figure out how to keep him from dying on this race.

It turns out I didn't need to worry...not only did he manage to get himself up to the distance in time (although not in any way I would suggest to anyone wanting to run their first half) he did an AMAZING job during the race! I don't have a race report since I didn't personally do it, but maybe I can get one out of him in case anyone else is considering it for next year. He finished in 2:02 and was 121 out of 226...I was very impressed! And now for a couple of pictures (all courtesy of Mugshots & Pawpritnts)...

I can breathe!

I'm finally crawling out from under the rock that is known as tax season and am happy to say that I survived yet another year. Considering I don't actually DO taxes (normally - every Saturday from the end of February till April 15 this changes) survival is a huge feat in itself. I thought this year went much better than last year...at least I knew where I was messing up and could give the reviewers a heads up.

Jay Benson is less than a month away and I'm not prepared at all. I'm trying to go into it with a good attitude - it's just for fun, I'm not in it to win, blah blah blah. It's all true, but I know I'll be bummed when I do worse than I predicted back in November/December when I was figuring this stuff out. It's lame and I need to get over it. Outside of the hubs and the familia, I have three priorities - work, exam and working out. Generally I can balance all three okay but between the little injury at the beginning of the year plus the insanity of work the past few months, plus the pressure that's been put on me with the exam, something had to be scaled back on. As much as I love running, it doesn't pay the bills (or harass me every time it sees me about passing the exam it paid for).

And now for my random vent of the day. I almost feel like I have a few friends who are sitting back and waiting to watch me fail at next month's race because I wasn't able to work out as much as I'd have liked. They question me all. the. time. about how much I ran this weekend, did I bike, have I been to the pool yet? And it doesn't feel like the supportive conversations it started out as...it's more like "hmm...you and you actually think you're going to do this?" A part of me wants to scream and point out that it's not like I'm spending 12 hours a day sitting on the couch watching Oprah and eating ice cream, but the other part - the more rational part - realizes that they probably don't understand how nasty things can get. It's rough meeting my co-workers at 7AM to go out of town to a client's, working through lunch, and getting back to town between 6 and 7PM and having to decide between working some more or studying. And this isn't just through April 15, folks...my real busy season is September - December 15.

Ok, I'm done whining about how hard my life is. Now I DO feel like sitting on the couch for a few hours.