Running while Scoring (Nope, not what you think)

Last week I was in Kansas City, Missouri, to work for College Board. College Board is the company that creates and scores the Advanced Placement Tests for high schoolers. Each year they hire thousands of teachers, at both the high school and college level, to score those tests, and after 16 years of teaching Advanced Placement Literature and Composition, I finally was able to get in on this.

Each day I started work at 8 AM, which is a half-hour later than I usually start work, so I figured I could get up at 5 AM to run at least 4 miles each morning. The city was beautiful, which makes for an interesting run up and down Main Street, but the weather was hot and muggy each day, starting in the mid-seventies in the morning and climbing to the mid to high nineties in the afternoon. This made for some slow runs.

My morning view on my run into downtown Kansas City

The run started at my hotel and took me into the River Market District, which is a cool residential and shop area based around an open air market. During my daily runs, I saw several other runners from the surrounding hotels, but very few cars and other people, something I still find very unusual since there is rarely a quiet street in Akron, even at 5 AM.  It felt a bit like the Twilight Zone.

I was remarking on this to a colleague on the bus ride to the convention center, and the bus driver said, "There is a good reason why there are no people out on the streets."

Me: "Really? What is it?"

Bus Driver: "This is a super-shady part of the city. You shouldn't be running here. Please be careful."

What????  Let me say this: I didn't have one person approach me at all while I was running there. The place was well-lit, and it was really nice and clean. If that is the shady part of town, I really want to see where the rich people go.

Because I was scoring essays, I was sitting on my butt for long periods of time. Actually, I alternated between sitting, standing, squatting, and rocking back and forth as I read essays. Then, after each folder of 25 essays, I would get up and walk .25 mile. During official breaks and lunch, I would walk longer. Then I would walk the mile back to the hotel at the end of the day. Each time I walked, I would set my watch so that I could keep track of my mileage. My daily average (without my four miles in the morning) was six miles. So, I had a fifty-plus mile week!

I also walked around the city as much as possible, if I wasn't too tired after work.

This is the performing arts center. 

Catching some music (with mandolin!) at the Record Bar

Hanging with my buddy B. Shakes before watching Much Ado about Nothing

 I spent a lot of time on my feet this week, but let me remind you of something that you have definitely read/heard before: Losing weight has to do with what happens in the kitchen, not the gym. This is what I remembered this week. When I started running, I thought it would be the "cure" to my struggle with weight loss. The truth is that no matter how active I am, I will always struggle with my weight. This week I shoved every bit of food into my piehole; whatever was in front of me, I consumed. For God's sake, I ate dessert at lunch! Who does that????

So, I'm coming back with five more pounds than I left with.  Ok, I know how to take care of that.

It's back to the training, too. True to my word, I have taken to the pool as cross-training, and even though it should be too soon to tell, I really think it makes a difference in my running.

Today I ran 8 humid miles in my old stomping grounds, Sand Run Park. I promised myself that if I ran to the very end, I would allow myself to run back on the road so that I could cross the stepping stones.

And I did!

My next step is to figure out how to incorporate strength training into my week instead of just substituting it with swimming and biking. I've got to do some planning.

In the meantime, I hope you are enjoying your summer runs and you run happy, Peeps!

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Race Recap: Medina Half Marathon

This is the fourth time I've run the Medina Half Marathon, and (spoiler alert!) it gets better every year.

I teach in Medina, so I like to use this race as a transition from my school year to summer, a sort of goodbye for a while. Usually I see lots of former students there, but this year the race was on the same day as Commencement, so there were fewer people around. I was a little bummed that I couldn't read names for Commencement, but sometimes the race needs to come first, Peeps.

This is EXACTLY how I look when I'm saying goodbye to the school year. . .in front of a gazebo. . .at 6 AM.

One of the reasons I like the Medina Half Marathon is the price. I sign up at the expo every year, so it costs me $30.  For a half marathon.  With beer. And pizza.  And a shirt. And a sweet medal. Whatta deal, right?

Here I am in front of that gazebo again, showing off that sweet medal.

A second reason why I like the Medina Half Marathon is the location, which is just 25 minutes away from my house. This means that I can get out of bed a little later than with some races. More importantly, the race starts at 6:45, but I can roll into town by 6:00 (or later if I weren't so nervous) and always find great parking (for free!) and use the bathroom as many times as I would like.

I also have time to take selfies with my friends in the corral. This is Jennifer, and she KILLED it.

The weather was a bit humid, moreso in the second half of the race. I ran with Jennifer for the first four miles because she claimed she wanted to run slowly and I needed to be gentle with myself after running the Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon just six days ago.  By the way, she is a liar. We averaged a 9:20 pace for the first part. At mile four when the rolling hills started, I told her to leave me because I knew I needed to conserve my energy.

I decided to fuel at Lake Medina because it's nice to eat your GU when running around a beautiful lake.

Isn't it nice that I mustered up a smile here?

See the lake?

Coming off the lake, we entered into the residential areas. This is where in the past I have had serious fears. In the first few years, there were some people who completely ignored the fact that there was a race going on in their neighborhood, and they would weave in and out of runners with their cars and completely ignore course marshalls, even policemen. I know for a fact that the Race Director works very hard to integrate this race into the community, and her communication with people living in those neighborhoods is top-notch, so I used to get very angry when I saw how dangerous drivers were there. I am happy to say that there were ZERO PROBLEMS with drivers this year, even at the busy intersection at the finish. Bravo, Medina. You are showing us your best face, the one I often see year-round but other visitors to your city weren't seeing in the previous races.

It was getting muggier and muggier in the race, and I was very thankful for the hoses and sprinklers that friendly neighbors were using on the course. I also have to compliment the Race Director for having ample water on the course. There were water stops at least every two miles, and I stopped at just about every one of them to drink some water, swish some electrolyte drink in my mouth, and dump a cup of water over my head.

The finish was the same as in previous years, on bricks (which I don't like), but without the drivers busting through the intersection before the finish line.  I managed to kick it into high gear when I saw the finish line.

This is my favorite picture: Kicking it to the end! Photo Credit: Marta Pacur

After the race, Marta, Angie, and I took some pictures, drank some beer, and ate some pizza.

I'm modeling the Medina shirt here.

Then Marta and I had breakfast on the Square at PJ Marley's.

This was a great race. It meets every requirement I have of a race: ample parking, good bathrooms, post-race beer and pizza, and interesting and safe course. Oh, and did I mention FREE pictures??? I signed up for next year at this year's expo!

Thank you to all the volunteers and those who worked so hard behind the scenes to make this race happen. I really appreciate you, and I plan to see you next year!

A special thank you goes to Marta, who drove to Medina early in the morning to cheer on Angie and me. We are Trail Sisters, and we support each other, but Marta really goes above and beyond.

What are you training for? For me it's Leg 7/8 of Burning River. I hope that no matter what your running plans are, you run happy, Peeps!

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