Ike at Mardi Gras party

pancakes at church before ash wed...



the cats loved playing with his beads

Albany Winter Marathon --Feb 22, 2009

after the race --homemade bread and peanut butter




After race --inside the gym..
Sleet, snow and rain and a forecast of 5-8 inches of snow did not deter Rob, Frank and I from running the Albany winter marathon --a low key loop course on the campus of Suny Albany, about 2 1/2 hours away. Anthony P. was going to come with us, but since he had run the Rocky Racoon 100 miler only 2 weeks ago, the forecast gave him a reason to back out. (Plus, he has Caumsett Park 50K next sunday --me too, I think).
Saturday the 21rst was beautiful --low 40s and sunny!! But the forecast for Sunday called for anywhere from 1 to 6 inches in the Albany area, and maybe here 2 inches. So on Saturday we all e-mailed each other and had plan A, which was for me to pick up Rob (his sports car does not drive in snow) and Frank and go...or to bag the Albany road trip and run the Cherry Tree 10 miler instead. We agreed that we would wake up Sunday at 6 and see what it looked like outside. The weather advisory for Albany did not look great!!! Well, woke up Sunday to dry weather, so it was a go. We got up to about Kingston at 8:30 a.m. and it started snowing hard. 'Should we turn around?' ws the mantra in the car. No way did we want to run for 4 hours in a snowstorm...Frank even suggested turning around and taking 84 to lake waramug for the Polar bear run --(only 7 miles:).. Then, miraculously, it stopped snowing. We got to campus around 9:30, registered, and left our bags in the warm gym to go out to the start. It was snowing lightly. As I was still tired from the Florida miles and the consistent hill training this week, I elected to try for a 8:45-9 min pace.
This course is a test of one's mental strength as it's 4 loops of the campus.
In fact, one might say that it is one of the more boring courses around --BUT as ultrarunners we are used to loops; need to get used to loops; and it was even fun to see all the runners on the out and back portion and 'fun' to be passed by all the fast guys!! We did finish in 3:39 (Frank, who ran the first 20 miles at an 8 minute pace); Rob (3:47) and me (3:53)...maybe it was the weather or my stiffer new Balance shoes or the pavement I've been running on, but felt pretty up...my quads never relaxed and my hamstrings hurt the whole time!! I was pleased that, when I reached 20 miles, was able to crank up the pace and passed 5 women. This was all of our first long race of the year, so I thought of it as an ultra -haha. In fact, the womens' winner finished with Frank, so I ended up coming third even with that slow time.
After the race, we changed, took showers, had some hot chocolate and got finishers' certificates --we had to wait around for mine and Frank kept joking that I was so slow that we'd have to leave without it:)
We then wet out to a quick late lunch at the Albany pump house down the street.
Light snow on the thruway quickly turned into real snow -arghhh. I have to say that the Toyota 4-runner drives well in the snow, and I was happy to have that 4 wheel drive when we hit the Taconic and the snow was coming down. Then, it turned to rain..
what a weather day. I am exhausted just writing about the weather. And today it is sunny again. bu windy and cold --almost worse than yesterday! I need to make a decision about the 50K on Sunday, but will probably go ahead and run it --too bad the
25K AND the NYRRC 5K are both on the same day:(

a few Sanibel Island photos

The best of Sanibel shells from the lighthouse keepers' collections...

A 1700s shell collection from a lighthouse keeper

antique valentines at the historical museum

Eating lunch while biking

The lighthouse in the background at sunset

Sailor's Valentines from the Sanibel shell museum

Our beach entrance at sunset

The lighthouse beach at sunset

Carol and I after a beach walk

Me in front of the Sanibel general store in middle of long run
With this winter weather (today, Friday, is the worst -can barely be outside, and my son going skiing for the weekend), Florida seems like years away. Well, it can't be that bad too much longer --this winter wind reminds me of the winds of March at Caumsett Park 50K and St.Patrick's day races..ugh -I hope to do both races.
But let's get this weekend over with first --a long run in the snow????????
Rob, Frank and Anthony and I (well, Anthony maybe not as he doesn't need the long run!!!) hope to drive to the Albany winter marathon on Sunday. I was actually looking forward to this race (last year ran it in 3:40) until we got the forecast of snow...we will see what happens. Maybe they will make it into a snowshoe race!

ladies' beading party

I recently attended a beading party at my friend Christine's house -she just sent me the photo...several glasses of wine later, we all made colorful creations Notice my mid-week running partner, Francoise --she cleans up well:)

2 'frozen' races --the Feb. 14 Stratford 4 miler and the Feb 15 TRR Freezer 5 miler

It was tough racing again after a 2 week layoff!

Rob, Frank and Kate

Chris, on the right, hammered the course in 23 minutes and came in third overall.
Brian and Kate

Brian, Kate, me and Frank ater the 4 miler --hardware all around

Ronnie, Paul and Sherry

talking with Lee after the 5 miler (left)

Ed and Joe at the awards ceremony (we got our awards from the 2008 dinner:))

Frank and Bob after the Freezer 5 (below)...
It was a drag to come home from Florida to this cold weather. On the other hand, I had so much fun at the Stratford 4 miler. Frank and I teamed up to win our division --even though he and a bad chest cold, and I was tired from all the Florida miles, we still ran a combined 56 minutes (his time was 27:56? and mine was 28:13?) to win our team age group. The Stratford race --always hilly and cold --is a fun event as the team divisions give everyone a chance to win, young or old. In fact, Ronnie had a 75 year old man for her partner and won her division! Chris and Sal came from NYC to run. Kate teamed up with Brian to come in third in their division(Rob was sick and got lost, showing up 10 minutes before the race start so was not teamed up but he still ran a good race considering that his mom may have given him pnemonia). It was great to see Sherry out running (after months with injuries) --her partner was Marty. Don volunteered. A good time was had by all! Check out Kate's photos and Frank's photos
On Sunday I went up to 'jog' the Freezer 5 miler (Frank raced it in 34 and change)and to see Lee about the July 4 race. But mostly, it was a social time with all the Taconic people -Joe Pecora, race director, did a great job!! Greg, Bob Tom, Ed, Lee and others were helping!!! Despite the cold, it was a nice course and hilly. I was tired from sat. and got a good hill workout. Cookies, bagels, coffee and beer were available after. Do not miss the next Taconic event --the March 15 St. Patrick's day races. Guaranteed to be cold also!

Sanibel photos

Sailor's Valentines

Ike with parrot at Parrot place

Carol and husband Pat, who just returned from bike ride

Carol at lighthouse beach --end of the island

A real turtle..

A turtle sand sculpture

Carol, walking over to meet me on beach

Done! with the long run...

the boys and my mother-in-law at beach

Ike at Bowman beach

beach chairs on Captiva island road

At Blind Pass beach (sideways photo:()

going through alligator territory on my long run
Carol lent me a camera cord, after a great bike around the island.

long beach walk with carol from CT

Imagine my surprise when I got an e-mail from my Ct running friend Carol, saying that she and her husband Pat were biking on Sunday and saw me running! Not only is she an awesome trail runner, having won many USA age-group trail awards, but she is an accomplished marathoner. She is recovering from back surgery and a stress fracture so just getting back into the training after many months. They own a condo down here, and are here until the end of March. Carol and I made plans to walk on the beach, since they are near where we are staying --we walked to the lighthouse and back, and saw 2 turtles --a cool turtle sculpture and a real tortoise...It was good to catch up --I gave her the info on the CT winter racing scene and got all kinds of Sanibel info from her. We talked about trail races (Escarpment and seven sisters), regular races (Boston), and hill climbs (she is in Mt. Washington hill climb and will have to do hill climbing on treadmill). The weather was delightful. Since her husband had been out biking I got inspired and went biking for an hour. A fun Sanibel blog (s)I discovered is Tootsie-check out her photos of Sanibel critters and scenes, especially turtles. Thak yo Tootsie for allowing me to publish the photos below.