Atop Betsy Bell

View from an observation post atop Betsy Bell.

Running in the Rain

I slogged up the New Street hill about 5:45 last night. A gentleman making his evening transfer from car to home smiled and said, "Wasn't Saturday's ten miler enough?"
Actually it did seem like enough when I forced myself out the door, knowing that I needed to run my crazed emotions into submission. Then as I headed up Points, I realized I wasn't even winded. I smiled as I remembered how just a few months ago I thought I'd never reach the top of New Street without having to walk part way. Yet here I was, still running -- up Points, up Prospect and on to the blessedly flat track. One more mile and I could start intervals. Just as I finished the warm-up, a good steady rain fell.
Remember what worked on Saturday, I opted once again to work on form and not really look at the time. I WAS tired after all, and I HAD just finished a ten-miler followed by a recovery run on Monday. And so I ignored the clock and coached myself...lift your legs, McCracken. Get those heels up. Pump your arms. Bend a little. Line up shoulders and hips. Launch from the balls of your feet. Keep the shoulders relaxed. Concentrate.
The rain came a bit harder. I LOVE running in a steady rain -- not a gully washer, necessarily, but I love running in ion loaded, freshly laundered air.
First 800 - 4:28. About 15 seconds faster than goal pace. I jogged a lap, reset my chronograph and started another interval, watching my form and not the clock. 4:24. Another lap at a jog pace. A quick stop to down some water and then the last interval. Another 4:24.
As I cooled down I thought about lessons learned Saturday and today. My best scores have come, success has come, not when I watched the clock, but when I watched the details under my control -- monitoring where I placed my feet; remembering to keep pumping the arms; and maintaining a hard, but steady breathing rate.
I thought about my life and the frustrations weighing me down as I began the run. "The Lord WILL restore the years the locusts has eaten," the Bible says. I think that's in Job. I've been claiming that promise for years now, sometimes with great faith; but more often in pure desperation. But honestly the Lord is restoring. Just this year alone, I graduated with a B.S. and summa cum laude, no less; I am maintaining (with the help of my friends) my apartment; I am holding a steady full-time job, and I RAN ten miles. Yes, there are times when life seems pure drudgery and times when it seems there is no gain from minding the daily details. Some days, in fact, it seems the effort is purely wasted and the locusts eat the crops no matter how carefully the seeds were planted and nutured. And yet...God WILL restore. God DOES restore.

God IS good. Sometimes we see it; the rest of the time we live by faith.

Post Race Visitors

Above Maggie in the kitchen...
In the photo below: There's an open space beside the stove that goes back under the counter. Maggie is investigating the space--probably talking to Eliza who loves to hide back there. It's her "secret place" at Grammie's.
Maggie and Eliza came with their mom and dad, who gave me a ride home from the race. Then AM's childhood friend Stephanie, her husband, Geoffrey, and two and a half month old Michael (below) joined us for lunch.
Photos by Steven David Johnson

One Hill of a Run...the race results

I found the link providing race results. I was 74th out of 82 runners; second in my group (but then there were only two 50-year old female runners!).

If you'd like to check out the link, see below:
http://results.active.com/pages/displayNonGru.jsp?rsID=49334

One Hill of a Run...the Arrival of the Paparazzi

Just when I wasn't sure I could muster anything close to a hard finish, I heard a familiar voice just over my shoulder, "Paparazzi's here." My son-in-law, a photography professor at EMU and a professional photographer had arrived with his wife and daughters. The top photo he took as he jogged past me (he hadn't just run 10 miles!). He then sprinted past, did a U-turn and ran backwards to get the bottom photo. That was all I needed for a hard finish with a smile on my face!
More photos of the run follow, and the whole story was posted on Saturday. So please keep scrolling down. (Photos by Steven David Johnson)

One Hill of a Run ... Crossing the Finish Line

Ten hilly miles at 1:47:34, according to the computerized time chip reader....race day weather conditions were perfect. Staunton high was 75 - 80 degrees, but the race began at 7:45 a.m., long before the temps reached that point.
The volunteers gathered around the parking lot for the loop around the parking lot were exceptionally wonderful -- hooping, hollering, cheering. One guy, before the last desperate push in this photo, shouted, "Look! she even has a smile on her face." He didn't know about the previous greeting by my "paparazzi" or that I had just spotted my tow-headed granddaughter waiting at the finish line. The only miniature white-blonde at finish line, she was easy to spot. And then I saw her mom and little sister next to her.
How many people finish their first 10-miler at 50 with their own personal photographer, daughter and grandchildren at the finish line waiting to capture the moment?!?
(photo by Steven David Johnson)

One Hill of a Run...post race & trying to breathe again

I took my camelback, not wanting to risk a repeat performance of my last race where a swallow of too-cold water caused an asthma attack just past the two-mile point. Nonetheless I still ended this one, as always, having given it everything I had and in oxygen deficit, struggling to breathe. AM and her family looked a little concerned but, as she said, "You had told me you always end a run this way, so I wasn't too worried." In the above photo I am pulling my inhaler out of the camelback pocket.
(Photo by Steven David Johnson)