Melissa - Vain Triathlete

The Chilly Half lead me through my Alma Matter neighborhoods where I used to run as a college student. It's a very pretty, upscale area that also happens to be right next to the Boston Marathon hills. Yes, we did indeed get to run the Boston Marathon hills in the direction you would least expect.  DOWN them. Yup, right down Heartbreak Hill and the other two smaller hills sitting just in front of the infamous Heart Break Hill. Despite this fact this race was more uphill than downhill. Met up with Dan, Tracey and John ( GNRCers ) at Vellos and off we went. This is the crew just before the race. Dan and Tracey ran together and poor John's leg cramped up at mile 8.   The day was fabulous. Yesterday had been a complete washout but today was smiling on us with clouds and just a spit of rain towards the end of the run. I got to wear, on November 15th, a singlet and shorts. Within the past two weeks I started second guessing myself and I was not sure if my original plan o...

It is now November and I have taken a short reprieve from my wonderful  coach Jen  and triathlon training. Why? To save up some bucks for my new Cervelo P2 tri bike. I'm so thrilled that I was able to swing this. Believe it or not this bike is classified as an entry level bike to triathlon. I see this bike as anything BUT entry level. First of all can you really classify a bike as entry level that was used to win the 2008 World Championships by triathlete extraordinaire Chrissie Wellington? I also think that when they classify these bikes they must use the trickledown theory. The view from the top. The view of a professional triathlete. So if you are already a pro (at the top) then this bike would be entry level for you (looking down). I am not at the top looking down. I am probably a smidge above entry level still looking up thinking that this bike is much more advanced than my road bike is. It doesn't look or feel entry level. It looks and feels like a beautiful creat...

Nineteen hours in an ER can bring even the toughest of souls to their knees. An emergency trip to the ER on Friday afternoon after Kathy lost site in her right eye accompanied by a very bad headache did just that. These two symptoms can point to a number of ailments however within our realm of knowledge the most probable cause that came to mind was that of MS or a stroke. Yeah, we were a little frightened. Thankfully a stroke was quickly ruled out. She does not currently have MS either. We think she has Optic Neuritis. She should eventually gain site back in her right eye. We will know more when we finally, and I mean finally, get to talk to a department head on Wednesday morning. On Friday and Saturday all of the Neurologists just happened to be across the country at a conference leaving NOBODY in Boston to properly read Kathy's MRI. My bawling in the ER and curt words with the resident doctors on duty did nothing to accomplish what we needed. After seeing 13 resident doctors, 1 r...

So, here I am training for the Inaugural Chili Half Marathon in Historical Newton MA.. Yeah! I'm getting more and more excited about running this race. I was going to be a good little athlete and forgo anymore racing in an attempt to alleviate any lingering need to rest my brain as well as the bod. Well, I am going to do that just as soon as I run the Chili Half Marathon on 11/15. I was on the fence about doing this half in response to my ups and downs I have been experiencing. That is until I couldn't get INTO the race. This race closed out earlier this month! When I found out it had closed I emailed the race director to see if I could get in. She was nice enough to put me on her waiting list. It only took a few days later to receive the OK to send in the application plus $55. I was thinking I would just do this race in order to keep the weight off until I go on vacation in November to Aruba.. I would, after all, be on the beach a lot and I certainly don't want to p...

After a very bad week of hemming and hawing I ran the Tufts 10k in Boston on Monday, a holiday for many. This is the largest all womens race in all of the US. There over 6000 women. It is a very spirited race. I first ran this race when I was 14 years old with my mom. I have a picture from that race that I will post later. After I scan it. As much as I love this race, because I know the course and it's flat, I was FLOORED by  the long lines that occurred this year. It was really bad. We had to fight through a sea of women to look up our number then try to duck out of that mess to go stand in line for at least 45 minutes to pick up our number. I actually got up the desk and asked for the wrong number after waiting so long in line. My brain forgot it was 1080 and asked for 1090 which had already been picked up. "I don't have your number. Are you sure someone else didn't pick up your number for you?" The woman was sure she didn't have my number. I stood th...

Quick question before blogging.. What happened to spell check on this new Blogger editer??? Mindfullness: It may take me a while sometimes but eventually I DO get it.  I finally GOT it this week. I finally GOT that I really DO need more time off  now that I'm an old fart.  I  stupidly THOUGHT that I would cruise through my recovery after Pumpkinman so I planned 3 extra races to round off the season. That, come to find out,  was a mistake.  I will finish my Tufts 10k on Monday and that will be it for a while. Only two weeks after feeling ggggggggggggggreat, I feel RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRROTTEN. Thankfully it only took me THREE DAYS of agonizing over missed workouts to realize that it's time for a LOOOOONG break from training. It's time to put away the schedule and just enjoy all that life has to offer. No pressure.  Run, swim and bike as I feel. You know the story..  Fighting off negativce thoughts, skipping workouts, tired...

What an awesome Fall day this Saturday was. Great weather, catching up with the THE RUNNING CLUB, and yes, coming in first woman overall in the local 5k makes my day! The race started at 9:00 am. Did my longish warm-up, blabbed with the club, and off we went. We had about 8 members in this rather small race so we must have stuck out like sore thumbs.  We all had our singlets on to boot.  I forgot my watch this day. I always run with my watch. However, I decided that this could be a good thing and ran how I felt for once. At first I wanted Jeff Popper to let me know what my mile splits were since we would probably be near each other.  This plan quickly dissolved after he decided to take it slow. I think my first mile was much faster than I had intended but I felt I could sustain that pace for 3.1 miles.  That was... until.... I hit the 3 moderately challenging hills.. I slowed a bit and hung on.. Thankfully it was over before I k...