Just a short post. I made it home yesterday afternoon after spending 2.5 days stuck at the office because of snow and ice.
All is well other than a possible reaggravation of an old back injury. Quite a lot of muscular pain in my middle right back (but only when I move). This started last night.
So now rest. No running and no work.
I hope you all have a productive weekend.
Tom
I love running.
Okay, when I am out there and it is really cold or really hot or I just don’t feel good, running can be a chore.
What I love most about running is the freedom that it gives me. An unexpected consequence of being a runner.
Last Saturday was a rough day. In fact it was a difficult week overall, it just came to a head on Saturday. I needed to get away. A couple of years ago that would have entailed driving to Walmart and surrounding stores and walking through the isles of stuff. Not this time. Instead, I walked. In fact I turned off my phone and walked for hours. I walked on a trail I have run before, but never actually just took the time to look at the surroundings. It was really cool. Waterfalls, beaver dams and quietness.
I realized that day that because of my running I could walk as far as I wanted and not worry about how to make it home. I was able to just go and be free. It was awesome.
The other time this “consequence of running” occurred to me was this week while shut in at work for two days because of the snow. I was able to spend hours outside helping people get their cars going. I walked miles to the pharmacy to pick up meds for a coworker (and buy toothbrushes). I never once thought, “can I make it back?” I had freedom. Who needs a car!
So if you are debating if you should start running or you are a runner and are trying to encourage others to run, remember what I learned. There is a lot of freedom in life once the chains of poor physical fitness are removed. Once you run 26.2 miles, it dawns on you that if needed, you can walk the 23 miles home in an emergency.
Freedom. A basic instinct. One that I am glad I received almost 2 years ago when I started running.
Honestly I have nothing to do, so I thought I’d write a post for my blog.
We are stuck. Massively stuck. The road where my work is off of only has two ways out. One side has a sharp hill that is ice and the other is filled with a quarter mile of cars that were abandoned yesterday. The Interstates are crawling and abandoned cars all over them.
Basically the weatherman made a booboo. He said that this storm was going to be much more south than it was. So they sent all the sand trucks (and what few salt trucks and snow plows we have) south. Thus we had 2 inches of snow on frozen roads that turned to ice and no way to move. I know people up North say, “2 inches of snow… those wimps”. I am from the North and I’m telling you, if you had this snow with no equipment to clear it or melt it and sub freezing temperatures… Okay, you would have handled it better than us Southerners who haven’t seen snow in 10 years, but still it would have been a mess.
So I spent the day getting medicine and supplies from a CVS a few miles away and walking a co-worker to her husband’s hotel. Oh yeah, I also worked some.
Another night her in the office and probably most of tomorrow. I don’t see them getting these cars cleared very quickly. It is a mess.
No running for me, but I did walk about 7 miles in the ice. That should account for something.
UPDATE:
It has been two hours since I started this post. Seems some cars are moving on the Interstates, but our road is still blocked. Ugh. The guys who brought the good came and picked it back up. I’m not sure where they were going, but they were so nice and said to keep anything we needed. The main guy was a pastor and his deacon was helping him. Very nice people.
So another day is done. I may write in the morning if I can keep my eyes open. I have nothing to sleep on, so it will be another long night. Reminds me of my collage fraternity days. Sleeping on the floor in strange rooms. 🙂
I am so thankful for this experience. It has been hard and I miss my family, but we are all safe and warm and have food and shelter. There isn’t much more we can ask for in this life.
Goodnight!
The saga continues.
I sit here at work. It is 4:51 in the morning. It was a long night. I slept on an office floor and, being a runner, my hips have little cushion between them and the floor. Ouch. I got about 3 hours sleep and now am up for the day. It is cold, icy and not going to get better soon.
It is supposed to get just above freezing today around 2:00 – 3:00 and then go back into the teens. I have a strange feeling I won’t be going home tonight. There are thousands of stranded Birminghamians and at 2:00 they will all try to head home. The only thing worse than spending another miserable night on an office floor is to spend one in my car.
Okay, back to yesterday. Honestly in many ways it was amazing.
I got about 1/4 mile from work when the cars in front of me stopped. There was a hill and they were struggling to get up it because the snow was so slick. I had to stop and each time I started to go forward, my wheels would just spin. Funny, I drove my son’s car and had just told him that his front tires are getting bald and need to be changed. Oh well.
My stranded car
I sat for 20 minutes watching 20 cars in front of me trying to get up the hill. Some made it and many did not. Eventually, at the top of the hill, there were several cars just blocking the road. They either couldn’t move or were sliding down backwards. I sat in my car amazed that no one was getting out to try helping these people get moving so that at least someone could head on. Then it occurred to me… “Hmmm. Why am I just sitting in my car not helping these people. Here I am mad at everyone else and I am doing the same thing. Someone has to do something.”
So I got out and went up to a car and started pushing and tried to explain to Southerners how to drive in icy snow. I have driven in a lot of snow in my life; not much in the past 15 years, but I know how to drive in the snow from a lot of experience. So I explained to people how to get the car moving slowly forward and I pushed from the side of the car. My little push seemed to make all the difference. Honestly, as Christian, I’d have to say there were angels helping me. I even pushed a small school bus full of kids. As soon as I started pushing, the bus started moving. It was quite amazing.
I finally came to a car that had been stopped for an hour or so. It was in the wrong lane and sitting out in the road. I couldn’t help them because of the angle that the car was sitting. I finally saw 3 men walking down a nearby hill and asked for help. The jumped in and we got this guy up the hill. I mentioned to one of them that I wish I had gloves and he gave me his extra pair. After about 20 minutes they left to get some people to shelter and after offering to help me get my car out (I declined), they went their way. I still have his gloves. He never asked for them back.
The irony of the situation was that the road was blocked ahead and behind. After people got up the hill, there was no where for them to go. But at least they were parked on the sides of the road and not in the middle of a hill.
After a couple of hours, I finally decided to walk back to work. Then the next amazing thing. Someone with a pickup truck full of food from SAMs had to park in our lot because he couldn’t get anywhere. He asked if it was okay to leave his truck and then told us to eat anything we wanted. I’m talking a lot of food. There were probably 15 pizzas, lots of bags of rolls, pies, cookies and much more. So the 10 or so of us got to cook anything we wanted. I think we will be eating this for the next few days. We made a list of what we eat so we can reimburse him. The food was for a church ministry, but he didn’t want it unused. So we have electricity, heat, tons of food and I even get to be one of the few people who will make it to work today. 🙂
Our food truck
I sit here in the quite as my coworkers try to sleep. My hip hurts from all the pushing yesterday. I am exhausted. But I am thankful for the events of the past 24 hours. I miss my family and my bed. I do know that there were still people stranded on the highway late last night. I pray they made it somewhere safely.
So no running yesterday. 🙂 Just lots of memories. I hope and pray that I get home tonight, but if not, I’ll write part three of this saga tomorrow.
I just spent 2 hours helping cars get up a hill that my car couldn’t climb. Now just walked back to work. I may have to spend the night.
Okay, I’ve gotten over my lack of recognition in this race and am glad that it gave money to a charity. However, even though we are no where to be found in the results, below are pictures of TJ and me running and finishing the race (and stuffing out mouths with donuts).
It is now official for all time on the Internet and with the NSA that we RAN THIS RACE!
Have an awesome day!!!
Tom
The Krispy Kreme Donut Dash was a good race overall.
TJ and I decided to race the night before. I kept going back and forth on whether or not I wanted to go. Finally on Friday evening I agreed to do it. We wrote the race director and asked if we could pay at the race and they said yes.
So we got there and signed up. It was about 25 degrees and 20 – 30 mph winds. I was cold. We waited around for a while because we wanted to get there early to sign up. There was really no where to keep warm, but the bathroom was packed. No porta potties (first ever for me), just a bathroom with one toilet out of service.
So the race finally began. TJ suggested we run hard for the first two miles, since we wouldn’t know how we would feel on the last two after eating a dozen donuts. I thought that was a good strategy. I ran hard out of the gate. I totally forgot to look at my time when I hit the donut station, but I think I was in the 7:30 range. Then we were given a dozen donuts to eat. It is hard to eat a dozen donuts when you are breathing hard from running 2 miles and it is freezing cold. Also you had to show proof that your box was empty before they would let you continue. So TJ was well into his donuts when I arrived. Then he was off and I finished mine off. I headed back the last two miles.
I finished strong. I Ended up coming in 8th overall and TJ came in 2nd overall. That was exciting. Our first Donut Dash and we nailed it.
So we waited around for the giving of the medals. This took an hour. It was cold and my sweat made me colder. When they called up the winners, they didn’t call TJ. Hmmm. Seems that since we signed up at the race, we weren’t included in the results.
So after all that, we turned and went home. Sort of sad that we didn’t get our medals. I would have placed first in my age group. I think the race director should have told me that we could sign up at the race, but it would cost more and you won’t be included in the totals.
At least it was just a fun race. Strangely I didn’t feel sick. It was hard eating those donuts though and I don’t think I’ll be eating Krispy Kreme donuts anytime soon.
So that was it. I’m proud as always at TJ finishing 2nd. I guess I shouldn’t have waited to make up my mind.
My youngest is a good kid. He is 16 and gets along with everyone (other than his siblings). Anyway, I thought I’d share a text I got from him last night…
Autocorrect?
Okay, I honestly think it was an autocorrect thing, but since I wrote mine in all caps, I wonder if there was some type of Freudian thing going on. 🙂 Now that I think about it, he never did let me know when he got home.
So TJ and I are off to the races in a few minutes. It wasn’t until last night that I decided to go, so we have to register there. Should be fun… 23 degrees, 18 wind chill at race time. I’m glad I live in the South.
Have a great weekend.
Tom
Running can be boring, especially for someone who refuses to listen to music and who runs alone. One good thing is that I am always listening (for cars) and looking around and observing.
Yesterday I came across this sight. I had to stop and take a picture. I didn’t know if the picture would come out or not, but it did.
Take a look:
Black line in the sky
Look in the sky of this image. There is a dark line running across it. It is perfectly straight, goes across the whole sky and seems to even intersect the contrail from a jet. I took two pictures and then started my run again. As I got to the stop sign ahead, the line was gone. I looked up and it wasn’t there anymore.
There is probably some reasonable answer as to what this is, but I was fascinated by it. I’ve seen lots of interesting things in the sky, but never a long black straight line.
Anyway, back to my boring run.
I hope to one day qualify for Boston… that is no secret. So whether I want to or nor; whether it is cold or hot; if I am tired or sore… I run. I have to make my goal. Now, once I do, that will be interesting. What next… I think I have a few years to make to make that decision.
Today I am taking off as I have been running for 6 days straight and my hip is beginning to rebel. Saturday morning TJ and I are going to run the Donut Dash. @BigBigGeek is unfortunately hurt and can’t do it this year. I guess I’ll get his share of the donuts!
Have a great weekend and when you run… look at the sky.
To
Yesterday was a “run off lunch” type of run.
It was 30 degrees colder than Monday and the wind was blowing at 20mph.
Lunch was provided by work and it was PIZZA! I’m sorry, but if there is pizza, my will power goes out the window. So I proceeded to eat until I was full. Then I went back to my desk in a carb/gluten crash and waited until I could head out.
By the time I got home (after several errands), I was in no mood to run. It was cold out and I was tired as I didn’t sleep well the night before. BUT I had all that pizza at lunch and I know my body and how it works.
Here is my theory:
Eat before running… Everything gets burned off in the run. The carbs are used for energy and by morning I lose weight.
Eat after running… Everything gets stored because my body thinks that at any moment I’ll go for a run and need the reserves.
This is my theory and I am not a doctor (that I know of).
So yesterday I might have walked rather than run or taken the day off, but 5 pieces of pizza were sitting in my stomach and forcing me to get out and get my 4 miles in. Let me tell you, running with 5 pieces of pizza in your stomach and 80 oz of water isn’t my version of a fun run.
So it would have gone well for my weigh in this morning other than the fact we had a birthday in our family and the chosen “cake” was brownies. Outside of pizza, brownies are my favorite food. So I indulged.
How did my weigh in go?
I was up half a pound from yesterday’s weight. Not bad really. Assuming I have no temptations today, I’ll probably lose that and some tonight. Of course there is the Donut Dash this weekend that @BigBigGeek wants me to run… Donuts are right next to brownies and pizza as a favorite. So I want to get another couple of pounds off before then. I figure if I can get down to 188 or lower, I’ll be fine. After all it is just a 2 mile run, eat a dozen donuts and a two mile run back. No problem. And the eating of the donuts is chip timed, so I could win a medal. My type of race. I doubt I’ll PR, but then again, I’ve never run a 4 mile race before, so any time will be a PR.
I love running!
I made the decision yesterday to take the day off as I just ran up a mountain with TJ the day before. However, I got home and it was sunny and 65 degrees out and I just couldn’t waste the day! So I decided to go for a slow easy run.
I started out at about a 10 minute pace and went through the neighborhood streets that I have been running lately. As the run went on, I noticed my pace picking up quite a bit. I honestly didn’t “feel” like I was trying to push it, but my pace kept coming down. It was just 3 weeks ago I couldn’t run faster than a 10:00 pace because of my hip. I think I am pretty much over that injury now for the most part. I wouldn’t say I am totally past it, but it only aches at times and usually I realize I am tensing up and as I try to relax, I feel much better.
So here is a graph of my run:
As you can see, my pace kept coming down, past my marathon pace and close to my 10K pace.
I am wondering how my run with TJ up that mountain on Sunday impacted my run yesterday. I expected to be sore and stiff, but I really wasn’t. My left hamstring was a little sore in the beginning, but that went away early and I felt great after that. I wonder if my increased speed was due to the hill/mountain workout?
So another run in the books. In 2 months I will celebrate my 2 year anniversary of running. My weight is coming back down and I am feeling great physically. I honestly can’t complain…
Have an awesome day.
Tom
278 to Boston 