Free concert Saturday night

Sally Cohen and I play in a band called the MS Community Symphonic Band. We have a special concert this Saturday night at 7 pm at the Belhaven Center for Performing Arts. We have a guest soloist on trombone that we are accompanying on several songs. We rehearsed with him tonight and he is amazing so I encourage any of that can to come hear him/us on Saturday night!

Carol

Have now made it through three"runs" without Sally

I said"runs" because I didn't really run all three times like we usually do. I noted some beginnings of the plague of generalized foot pain after last Saturday's 9 miler so I decided that this week was "Be Kind to Carol's Feet Week". So, I walked on Tuesday and today with my old walking buddies for 2-3 miles and then went to the Courthouse and ran 2 miles on the treadmill. Theory was that walking should be easier on my feet and running the treadmill causes less pounding. So, we shall see how I do this Saturday. This is my third year to train for a marathon. I had many and I do mean MANY muscle aches and pains from the waist down the first year. Second year went pretty well until I began having the vague foot pain all over which culminated in a stress fracture which completed itself 8 days after the marathon. So, I took 6 weeks off, tried to run a little and couldn't, then broke my 5th toe the clutzy way so took some more time off. Started back walking and running in January and even saw the foot doctor to make sure I wasn't going to cripple myself. Have actually done fine while I ran no more than six miles at a time. So, I hope the tootsies will let me go forward with the increased mileage since I've now signed up for both the Twin Cities Marathon in October and the Disney half in January! If I could lose some weight I'm sure my feet would be under lots less stress but I've been trying to do that for about 40 years, fairly unsuccessfully!!!!

I am a spoiled rotten baby

I ran today which is a good thing although it wasn't one of my better or easier runs. I am very spoiled about having someone to meet and run with on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Sally had her 8 am meeting today so I had to go by myself. I, of course, took advantage of the opportunity to stay in bed a little longer and didn't get out til nearly 8 am. And, yes, it was a little warmer and more humid than I like and my legs felt like lead and my lungs like I was a smoker, and I'm not! And, since I have felt the big bad overall foot pain since the Cannonball, I decided to take it long and slow which I would have done anyway since I was running long and slow anyway!!! Instead of running the 3 mile route in the neighborhood and then running to the Park for another couple of miles, I went out at the far point of the neighborhood run and went on sidewalks toward the Elem. School. Then crossed the street and went into St. Ives and then back to the school and back to the neighborhood. But, not before I stopped for a rest on a bench at the school. I enjoyed the rest but wondered if they worried about strangers that stopped on their benches so reluctantly got up and went on. I have now officially signed up for the Twin Cities Marathon in Minneapolis with Sally so I am going to put my poor pitiful feet up to the challenge one more time. It's on the same day as Chicago so it makes the training with the group just perfect, if you can call running in the summer in Mississippi perfect. But, if you can survive running long distances in MS, you build up MUCH stamina which comes in handy running 26 miles in a cooler, more exciting place! Since I've done Chicago twice, I decided I needed new scenery to help pull me through miles 13 through 26 this time--I struggled mightily the second year to get myself to keep going. My serious determination of the first year had left me! But I did finish, thank the good Lord. And so will all of you if you set your mind to it!

Cannonball Run

I'm glad to have participated in the Cannonball Run but, somehow, it brought back some memories of the Goat Milk Half Marathon of 2 years ago which I will not go in to. The trail running was a surprise and a challenge for me but I'm happy that my new shoes didn't get as muddy as I thought they might when Doc mentioned that there were puddles and muddy areas. I can't wait to get my tshirt from the race--they were out by the time I signed up. But I do love waiting for packages. It was truly neat to see such a sea of MM tshirts--I would have worn mine but a friend picked mine up for me and I haven't gotten it from him yet. And, a really neat thing happend after the race. I got home and was searching for something in the back seat of my car and my neighbor called out to me--she was being dropped off from having run the Cannonball and is doing Marathon Makeover, too!!!!! Since I have not been doing my Saturday runs with you guys for various and sundry reasons, I didn't realize this so it was exciting to know that we might be able to train some together, ride together, and get to know one another better! What a small world.

Carol

Running with a runny nose

I will not blog in Hindi. I have been a bad, absent marathon makeoverer this year. But, if it's not raining too bad, I may try to meet up with you guys tomorrow. I did run in the Crescent City Classic 10K last Saturday in New Orleans despite coming down with a BAD cold the day before. And it was cold and windy during the race and sleeted after the race--and I had worried about running in the heat in NO!!!! But, the blog is about runny noses, right? My nose often runs while I run and annoys me so I try to wear a sweatband for this very purpose. This is when I DON'T have a cold. So, this past weekend, I DID have a cold and put Kleenex in several pockets in my running capris. And had Kleenex in my blue jean pockets, too. Now, I don't know which one of these pants were the culprit but, when I opened my washing machine this morning, I had what looked like large white snowflakes all over my load of dark wash!!!! I had to put my running gear in the drier, which I usually don't do as I did not think that anything else would effectively remove the innumerable pieces of Kleenex distributed everywhere!!! So, back to sweat bands and arms of shirts for problem noses I guess.

I have just entertained myself reading about the bad weather expected for the Boston Marathon coming up on Monday. A Nor'easter, whatever that is, is expected, and all these lightning fast runners who had to have qualifying times faster than I can run a half marathon, now have to run in adverse conditions. Or, they may even have to call this 113 year old race off for the first time ever! So, we can run five miles in the rain, for practice, right????

Finally went to the foot doctor

Well, my many prior foot diagnoses were correct! The stress fracture on the left foot has healed, the clutz fracture of the right baby toe has not healed yet (although it doesn't really hurt me), I do have plantar fasciitis on the right foot, and I have a name for my big fat left great toe joint that hurt me long before I ever joined Marathon Makeover. No new stress fractures were visible, surgery was offered for the hallux rigidus which I declined, stretch thing was bought to help with the plantar fasciitis. She recommended that I consider more crosstraining and maybe doing triathlons which I had already considered. And I interpreted what she said to me to mean that there were not marathons in my future to mean that I was not going to be doing lots more of them but maybe could do one more????? But, she did say that I was not permanently damaging my feet by continuing to run so I feel good about that. So, let's wog on, guys!!!! She also recommended different shoes than what I've been wearing so we shall see.

Another first for me

Most people who know me now would never guess that I actually am painfully shy, not a snob or aloof. I have been a member for almost 25 years of the Courthouse and for YEARS could never get up the courage to go into the weight room. Finally, a friend of mine took me in there and showed me how to use some of the machines and then I adapted what we were shown at MM two years ago and figured out a circuit for myself. I've gotten bored with the same exercises and often have trouble motivating myself to do the weights twice a week, so I decided to hire a personal trainer once a week. Friends of mine have one so I decided it might help me. Almost all days will be covered by meeting someone to exercise now--three days a week are running with buddies, including you guys! Well, I may not be able to run tomorrow because my butt muscles are screaming at me right now! I had to do lunges, holding weights, as I went from one machine to the other this morning. But, I did get a good workout, learned some new machines to use to vary my routine and also to detour around the machines where people are parked either visiting with their friends or hogging the same machine for half an hour. My mother has lived for almost 97 years now and makes the Hunchback of Notre Dame look like his back is straight so I am working on trying to stay upright if I am lucky enough to live as long as she has! And I need to be strong enough to carry my grandchildren around when I get lucky enough to have some!