AGAINST THE WIND

WAKE-UP CALL

2012-01-27T09:23:00.000-05:00

As often happens, I woke up at 4:30 this morning. This always annoys me. I like sleep better than just about anything. It's my major chill-out time and I want every drop of it I can get.

But, as often happens when this happens, I was still awake at 5:30, no point trying any longer; I got my Nook and went to the living room. I was reading Oswald Chambers' "The Pilgrim's Song Book" (commentary on Psalms 120-128), highlighting many passages that apply to my current bad attitude (not lifting mine eyes enough, no wonder not much help has been forthcoming.) Heard a distant thump and thought either the dog had let himself out the dog door or the stiff wind had knocked something down.

Then I heard my mother call me. Uh-oh. She was lying on the floor between her bathroom and bedroom, said, "I'm sick," which was evident in a variety of ways. ~Sigh~ My mother is one of the issues I've been letting myself have a bad attitude about, feeling mentally and emotional bled dry. The nurse I used to be came back and I started assessing and cleaning up a patient, enough to cover her with a blanket and get my husband to help me get her off the floor. She was able to walk to bed with help. Finished the cleanup, checked her vital signs, left her to rest. She's obviously got a bug, the exiting-both-directions kind. She's 90; I'll need to watch her for dehydration and/or deterioration.

My husband and I are planning an Appalachian Trail summer, with him driving and me hiking, meeting every few days for a day hike, a night, a re-supply. The last couple hours I've kept thinking, "If we hadn't been here..." but she's got a Life Alert bracelet, and I'm arranging for a variety of people to check in on her daily, so it's not like I'm planning on abandonment.

If I'd been asleep I might not have heard her call. She has a bell but it was on her nightstand out of reach. Thank you, Lord, for waking me up early and sending me out to the living room.

SOMETIMES IT DOESN'T SHOW....

2012-01-16T15:36:00.000-05:00

I did a lot of cleaning today. My mother has lived in this house for 20 years and.... well, she's never been big on housekeeping. I got on a ladder and got way up high. I worked for a couple of hours on high shelves, decorative fixtures, the fake ceiling rafters. There was a lot of old pet hair accumulated up there. I washed 2 walls also, and a couple of doorframes that she grabs onto when she walks through; over time that adds up to a lot of grime. I washed it all off.

Nothing looks any different. Things looked dirty when I started but now that they're clean it's not noticeable to anyone but me.

MIDWINTER

2012-01-15T17:31:00.000-05:00

I'm like the trees.... they look dead, but they will live again. Well, I probably seem alive to the naked eye.... I feel dead, I just haven't hit the ground yet.

I played the hymns in church, laughed and talked with the congregation, gave a 12-yr-old girl my old Nancy Drew books (she about went through the roof!), got lists from the people telling me hymns they'd like to have, went through the hymnbook looking at them all, watched "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" with my mother, packed up my chicken from the dehydrator, and have dinner in the oven.

I did not hike. I looked out the window and at the thermometer (high 20*F) and said, forget it.

My brain is covered in snow like Cordova, even though we hardly have any.

THE SNOW CAVE

2012-01-14T23:08:00.001-05:00

Ostensibly, I got a lot done today.

I went to the post office to return a pair of rubber shoe covers that didn't fit (when I was a kid we called them "rubbers" but that's another innocent word that means something else nowadays.) That in itself is an accomplishment because the return is no longer hanging over my head and the box is no longer underfoot.

I went to the grocery store, the Dollar Store, and the hardware store.

I put 12 cans of chicken (5oz. each, $1 each at the Dollar Store) in the dehydrator. That's chicken once a week on the Appalachian Trail this summer.

I took down the Christmas tree. I watched the Olympic Trials Marathon and Purina Super Dog competition with my mother (or something like that... Incredible Dog?)

I cleaned out a laundry basket full of stuff that's been sitting here for a year or so, stuff from our camper that we sold. A whole year and I've never sorted out the stuff. Now I have. My IronMan Florida Finisher license tag frame was in there. It hasn't been on a vehicle because it's broken. It's plastic, not easy to fix. I held it and looked at it for a long time, then threw it away. I have an IronMan Florida Finisher shirt, hat, and jacket. Throwing away the tag frame doesn't take away my finish. I was 54 at the time.

Made dinner, then we (husband, mother, and I) went to our son's to watch the football games. Played a lot of rough-and-tumble with the granddaughters. Abbie, the oldest, got to stay up late, and she and I talked about assassinations (MLK Day) and she asked me why Abigail Adams was famous, and how she died. I didn't know how she died. We googled it and learned that Abigail Adams died of typhoid. Abbie wanted to know what that was; I told her people get it from drinking dirty water but in our part of the world in modern days we have clean water (because she would worry about drinking water after learning that.) Abbie will be 9 in a couple weeks.

Now we're home. But I'm still in my snow cave. All those activities were acts, fronts, maybe illusions. There's evidence that I did them but inside my mind everything is still dim, blue, and frozen.

I think I need exercise. I hiked 7 miles with my hiking pal Chrissie on Thursday but that was the last time I saw myself move. Maybe tomorrow I will go for a hike. Outdoors is not dim and blue.... it's white. Frozen, but alive.

SNOWBOUND

2012-01-14T09:43:00.000-05:00

In my mind. Outside, it's cold but only about 4 inches of snow are mildly obscuring the earth.

But my mind.... I'm in a snow cave. It's hard to make the effort to keep an air hole open. It's stifling in here, cold, still, and stifling.

I need to go to the store and the post office. I guess there is still a store and a post office to go to. In my snow cave all is still and isolated.

It's hard to imagine emerging, putting on a backpack, and starting up the Appalachian Trail in four months. If I keep eating as I have been, I won't have to carry food.... I'll have enough stored in my body to get me to Maine.

Guess I'll go warm up the car and change out of my pajamas (I hear that the governor of Louisiana is pushing a move to ban the wearing of pajamas in public places.)

Maybe I need to go make snow angels.

FUNNIES

2011-12-23T11:41:00.001-05:00

Yesterday at my party, my husband asked our son's girlfriend's 3-yr-old daughter, "Whose birthday is it today?" She beamed and answered, "Jesus!" We all chuckled, and I told her, "Not quite yet. My birthday is 3 days before Jesus' birthday." Our son-in-law explained, "Yeah, Grandma's 3 days older than Jesus!"

While I was biking yesterday, I rode past the house where two fast, barking, growling, snapping dogs always chase me aggressively. The Australian Cattle Dog gallops 2 inches beside me snapping at my feet while the larger dog, some kind of mutt, snaps at my front wheel 2 inches ahead of me, teamwork maybe, I'll get the bike down and you can grab her leg. Yesterday, I decided to call their bluff (hoping it was a bluff.) I slowed down and unclipped right in their driveway and asked them reproachfully, "What is your problem? What do you think you're doing?" They stopped immediately. The big one turned away and hung his head. I held my hand out to the cattle dog and I swear he shrugged his shoulders in a "What can I say?" gesture, then slowly approached with a look that was shy and friendly. Then a car passed and he started barking again, apparently unwilling to let the driver see him being non-aggressive. So I'm not going to try to outride them anymore. I'll stop, pet them, and send them home.

On to the first day of my seventh decade. No biking today. The roads are wet and the temperature has dropped 20 degrees from yesterday. I think I'll bake cookies.

SIX DECADES DOWN!

2011-12-22T21:36:00.000-05:00

So now I'm actually 60.

I did 60 push-ups and biked 60k. Thought about running for 60 minutes as well, but then thought, nah, I've done enough, I'm 60, for petesake!

Great dinner party, put on by my husband, good deli food and an ice cream cake and adult beverages :-) AND he gave me a big fat gift certificate to REI. Son Jon and his gf Daphne gave me this photo, matted and framed, from SavageMan 2009 (my first SM completion.)

It was a great birthday!

TURNING 60

2011-12-21T22:50:00.000-05:00

Yup. Me. Tomorrow.

I'm definitely not going to run 60 miles to celebrate, or 60k. Sixty minutes, well, I'm a little out of shape coming back from my ankle injury..... I could do 60 minutes if I throw in a walk every now and then. I could bike 60k, maybe. Not 60 miles, that would take me 5 hours and leave me pretty darn tired for dinner with family.

Aha!!! Sixty push-ups!! Yes, I can, if I do them in sets.

I could read Psalm 60. And the 60th chapter of any of the books in the Bible that go that far.

Or I could go to confession and get 60 Our Father's and 60 Hail Mary's. (I'm not Catholic but I used to be and the most I ever got was 3 of one or the other.)

When I turned 50, I had an epiphany. I had lived half a century and was older than a good many people, and by golly they'd better show respect. Hey, folks, I'm playing it like I mean it now.... no more tiptoeing around hoping I don't screw up. I'm all grown up and I'm putting my foot down solid you better listen to what I say.

I kept that for a couple years.

Maybe I should turn 50 again.

Sixty, well actually I'm doing OK....you can't really tell by looking at me, but I do in fact do push-ups, and I bike and I run and I do yoga and I hike. A person might not picture me riding my bike up The Wall and then continuing up Big Savage Mountain without "weaving" like some of the riders in the photos (if you clicked on the link.) I ride it straight. And they don't usually expect a 60-year-old woman to put on a 30-pound backpack and hit the Appalachian Trail.

I'll look a physical challenge right in the eye. It's the psychological ones that still throw me for a loop. And I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.

A NEW TEMPLATE

2011-12-18T22:08:00.000-05:00

I'm thinking about a new template for my blog. It might help motivate me.
Maybe I need a new template for my life.
I need to get my Bible out more often. When things aren't working right, it's good to check the instruction manual. I need a tune-up.

Today the few kids (like, 4) in our church put on a really nice pageant. There aren't enough of them to have done a manger scene, which I thought was good..... everyone does that, it was good to have something different. Each one read a passage from the story we all know from the Gospel of Luke. The youngest reader was 7 and perhaps the best reader of the group. After each reading, one of the kids placed one of the figures in the table-size Nativity scene, and then there would be a song about that part of the story. After the the angel appearing to Mary, and the placing of Mary in the creche, Savannah, who's 12, sang "Mary, Did You Know?" a capella. She has a strong, lovely, country-bluegrassy style that I love to listen to. Adults also did some of the vocal selections, including an a capella trio of two other ladies and me. We had agreed on one of the less-usual melodies, but the lady singing the melody got confused and sang yet a different one (we hadn't rehearsed at all), and the two of us on harmony tried to wing it and follow her, and she got confused and followed my descant so I dropped down to her melody, and it was kind of a comedy of errors but we kept on singing without letting on. After church the three of us laughed like crazy. After our unprecedented rendition, the congregation sang a couple of carols accompanied by their hesitant pianist, me, and then Savannah finished up with Silent Night, again a capella, and again I marveled at the power of this ingenuous young girl's talent. I hope, if she takes voice lessons, some opera singer doesn't get hold of her and take away that old-timey twang that makes her singing so special.

COUSIN EDDIE IN PERSON

2011-12-17T21:10:00.000-05:00

Actually it's my grown (?) son.

Hijacked this from his Facebook page, but I took the picture.

IT WASN'T CRAZY, JUST UNREASONABLE

2011-12-16T14:54:00.000-05:00

The temperature is just above freezing outdoors, less in the shade where there's unmelted ice. I got all bundled up in my bike clothes, factoring in sweat-wicking because uphill is hard work, and windbreaking because downhill is fast and cold after sweating uphill, and what about my feet, will I ever learn how to keep them warm, and...... with my tires all pumped up and the bike standing beside the front door, I gazed out the window and said, "Do I really want to do this?"

I have had frozen feet every single ride, can't seem to get a handle on it. And after a ride one day last week, I felt cold the rest of the day, despite hot tea, a fleece blanket, and a heating pad under my feet.

And I put the bike back, took off the layers of clothes, got dressed all over again, put my dog on the leash, and went running. It was SO nice to be lightly dressed and still be warm, enough that within 10 minutes I'd taken off my gloves and unzipped my jacket. And so nice to have my dog along.

So I might or might not make my impulsive goal of 1,000 miles on my new bike by the end of the year. I'm at 885 miles. If it warms up to, say, 40*F, I'll ride some more. And if I don't hit 1,000 miles in the next 2 weeks, I'll hit it next spring, and in the meantime I won't be getting salt and ice-treating road grit all over my bike, and I'll be warm.

CRAZY GOALS

2011-12-05T21:00:00.000-05:00

The new bike my mother gave me in August has 794 miles on it now. I'm wondering whether I can get in 1,000 by the end of the year. But it's December in Garrett County, MD, and although we've been enjoying unseasonably warm weather in the last month, tomorrow is supposed to be rainy and mid-40'sF, and then not getting out of the 30's for at least the next 10 days. Some will be dry, though..... with proper layering, wool socks, or neoprene socks (I got some at Goodwill for $2), balaclava, knit gloves under my bike gloves, fleece jacket, and windproof jacket, maybe I can do this. Darn, I should have kept riding after the century ride I did Halloween weekend. Until yesterday I hadn't been on my bike since. I needed the break, though. I'm ready to ride again. Maybe it'll make me tough.

I DIDN'T INTEND TO RUN TODAY...

2011-12-02T14:35:00.000-05:00

...considering that I am easing back in after a layoff and injury.

But I did, because I needed meditation time. I was personally upset by something someone said, and needed to work off some steam while I pondered how, or whether, to respond to the person, and how to respond within myself.

I went for 50 minutes, running 2/walking 5, total of 14 minutes of running and 36 of walking. I pondered and prayed. I was still angry and hurt when I got back, but my husband was using the computer, which I would have used to respond.

Killing time until I could get to the computer, I looked in the "Reader Helps" in my Bible, under "When Others Disagree with You," and read the passages.

In the end, I decided to let it go. This person has the right to their opinion and to freedom to express it. It probably was the result of experiences in that person's own life and was most likely not intended to have any effect on me.

My walk/run was 3.2 miles (in 50 minutes, big whoop!!), farthest I've gone in over a month, maybe 2. I restarted my pushups yesterday, too, at a lower level than previously. Yesterday's total was 36, in sets that went like this: 6, 8, 8, 6, 8. I messed up.... one of the 8's was supposed to be a 6. So I have 2 extra to my credit :-)

RETURN TO RUNNING

2011-12-01T13:12:00.000-05:00

After a layoff of 2 weeks following a couple months of not much running anyway, I'm returning to it.

Tuesday I did walk/run intervals: 5 minutes walking w/ my mother's dumb dog Woody and my own good dog Journey; then with just Journey I did 4 of run 5/walk 5, then run 1 more minute and walked the last 4 = 35 minutes total.

My quads were sore the next day.

Actually still a little sore today, but I went out and did the same, adding 1 minute to 3 of the runs. It went like this:
With Journey & Woody: walk 5.
Just Journey: run 6, walk 5; run 6, walk 5; run 5, walk 5; run 2, walk 3. Total 42 minutes.

We'll see how my quads do. And my ankles. I have not turned an ankle for almost a year, since I went to minimalist running shoes (Saucony Kinvara's). In these shoes, which aren't much more than an ultralight upper attached to an outsold with just a suggestion of midsole, my feet are more flexible and I can feel the surface I'm running on. If I step on something uneven, I feel it and correct my foot. In regular running shoes, by the time I realize my foot it turning, it's too late to correct it. Hiking boots are the same. In fact, my concern about my ankles now comes from having wrenched both of them a few weeks ago, backpacking in leather boots. Same thing: My foot couldn't tell where it was landing. So I'm returning my hiking boots (REI accepts returns with no time limit even if they're used) and planning to hike in my mini running shoes, or maybe even those Vibram 5-Finger "shoes." Seems like the less shoe I have, the better my feet are.

BEHIND

2011-11-30T20:26:00.000-05:00

Ever feel that you should be blogging but you're so far behind on your life you can't possibly can't catch up?

CAN'T FIGURE OUT BLOGGER

2011-11-30T14:53:00.002-05:00

It won't let me comment on anyone's page. I sign in on my own page and then when I go to someone else's, it says I'm not signed in. This is frustrating.

THE PUSHUP THING

2011-11-14T14:36:00.000-05:00

Well, that one didn't last long. After the soreness I did a couple more days and then started making excuses: I did planks in yoga class, my arms are stiff from biking, I need to run, etc. etc.

Going to start over at a lower level.

In so many things of late, I'm just finding it hard to push up off the ground.

OUCH

2011-10-05T21:50:00.000-04:00

I think I did too many pushups. I did them but I'm paying for them. I'm going to have to wait until the soreness goes away to continue on to Day 2!

HOW MANY CAN YOU DO?

2011-10-04T12:55:00.000-04:00

one hundred push ups

That's my goal!

I did this a few years ago and got up to 46 consecutive pushups. Then, for some reason, I quit. Why did I do that?

Here's how it works:

You do an initial test, however many pushups you can manage before your form starts to deteriorate. It doesn't matter whether you manage 20, 10, or less than 1; there's a program level for you.

I was able to do 12 for my test, on Sunday. This put me at Level 3 of 7. You're supposed to rest your arms for a day between workouts, so I started my program today.

My first day's prescribed sets went like this: 10, 12, 7, 7, (rest 60 seconds between sets) and a final set to failure (at least 9 prescribed.)

I thought this workout looked scary and considered starting at Level 2 (6, 6, 4, 4, 5+) but then decided that if I'd tested at Level 3 I'd try Level 3. Well....."Do or do not. There is no try." So I did. All the reps in all the sets, with my final set going up to THIRTEEN! Whoo! Total of ...... WHAT???? Forty-nine???? I did 49 pushups my first day???? Well, not consecutively, but I did 'em.

Yes, these are full-body straight-leg pushups, not from the knees.

Not bad for Grandma Hamilton. Even though I won't be 60 till December.

How many can you do?
http://hundredpushups.com

SALVATION AND MY BIKE

2011-08-30T13:49:00.001-04:00

My bike started giving me brake problems.... again. Brakes and gears have been giving me issues since last year. This time the brake pads were worn way down, but when I put new ones on, they didn't seem to be grabbing right. Hmmm, never replaced brake pads myself before, maybe I didn't do it right. I figured I could take it in to the shop, get them adjusted, and go riding from there.

It didn't happen that way. The reason my new brakes weren't working was that my wheel rims were so worn that the new pads weren't making contact properly. (I had put them on just fine.) What I needed was new wheels. The ones I needed were going to cost more than I could afford. Oh, and by the way, it looked like I was going to need a new front chainring set pretty soon, too, which was going to cost about the same as the new wheels.. In the meantime, to keep it running, they could sell me a cheaper set of wheels but my current ones, they said, weren't even safe. Ready to shred like one of those meat cans you open with a key, and you don't want that to happen while you're on the way down a hill at 35mph.

I could tell the inexpensive wheels didn't roll well. I didn't want them.... they would make everything harder. So, all bummed out, I took my bike and her bad wheels and worn-out chainrings home to talk to my husband about what to do. SavageMan is a month away.

Well, my 90-yr-old mother heard me talking about it and asked what was up. She asked to make sure she had it right, that I needed new wheels to make my bike rideable, and was going to need to spend the same amount soon on another part. She questioned the logic of replacing one expensive part after another on a bike that had 10,000-12,000 miles on it and kept breaking down. And she asked, if I were to get a new bike, what it would cost to get the bike I need.

Long story short, I've had a brand-new bike for a week now. Trek Madone 5.2 WSD (Women's Specialized Design) and it's gorgeous. Riding it is like riding butter.

My mother wanted to do this for me. She's not rolling in dough but she does have a little extra. I talked about how we could use that money for improvements to her home. I felt awkward: I'm an adult, and my mother was offering to buy me a bike. But I could see she was going to be very disappointed and sad if I didn't let her do this for me. So I've got this beautiful new bike that flies over the roads and breezes up hills (well, I do still have to grind hard up the worst ones but they're easier than they were before) and I don't have to be afraid that some part or other is going to give out on me mid-ride, mid-hill, mid-race.

And I'm trying to get my head around this gift that I could not have gotten for myself, haven't earned, don't feel I deserve. She says with all I do for her that's not even a question. I'm always feeling I should be doing more.

And it occurred to me.... it's like salvation. It's a gift. I did not earn it, did not have to earn it, because it's not earned, it's a gift. It's there; I need only to receive it. There's nothing I can do to pay for it, because the giver paid for it, it's already paid for, it's mine. Salvation; a new bike. Amazing, the lessons the Lord teaches us.

PREVIOUS BEAR ENCOUNTERS

2011-08-23T21:51:00.000-04:00

I see a couple black bears a year here in Garrett County, MD. Sometimes from the car, but most often I've been on foot or on my bike.

One of the most spectacular was while I was out running with my two dogs 7 or 8 years ago. I heard the usual thrashing in the brush up ahead and had my usual expectation of seeing a deer, but then a bear cub the size of a beagle crossed the road, followed by another, followed by a third. Obviously, when you see a bear cub (or two or three) maybe 50 yards ahead of you, you stop immediately.... there's got to be a mother with those little guys. Sure enough, out she came, followed by a FOURTH cub! And, oh, dear, the mom stopped in the middle of the road and looked at me, and one of my dogs barked at her, and I'm thinking, what to do if a bear with cubs comes after you? They say stand your ground and yell at her to go away. But she just stared for what seemed like half a minute but probably wasn't, before moving on across the road and into the woods.

I reversed my direction. I wasn't going there.

Then maybe 3 years ago, I was biking on a small but well-populated road along Deep Creek Lake, and here came 2 cubs followed by the mother, right across the road into a driveway, and there the mother stopped although the cubs continued on into the yard. Again I stopped. She was right smack next to the road, which had no shoulders. I wasn't riding past her. Even if I turned around and went the other way, she could go from 0 to 30 a lot faster than I could. So I just waited. She looked at me. I looked at her. She waited. I waited. Finally, in a friendly voice, I just said, "Hi!" She turned and booked, along with her cubs, to the back of the house and into the woods.

Quite a few times I've seen a bear up ahead while I've been biking; hollering out, "Hey, Bear, move! I'm coming!" has been enough to make them get out of the road.

But I never had one come this close to me before. I have a friend who's a woodswoman (hunter, hiker, wanderer) and she never goes into the woods without her bear spray on her hip. I've teased her about it. But now I think I'll ask her where she buys her spray. Maybe I've been too blasé about these beautiful, usually non-agressive, powerful creatures. This juvenile bear was awesome but I wasn't nuts about the way he ran right towards me. He'd changed his direction -- had started running into the woods and changed his mind for some reason. I thought the mom might be behind him, coming after me, or that he had decided to chase me off instead of running away, or who knows. I thought he was going to fight my dog (whose purpose is to deter marauders of all species, but I don't want her mauled by a bear.) Oddly, I wasn't frightened, just thinking faster than I ever imagined possible. And after he went away I went ahead and finished my run, 5 more miles, including a 2+ mile road through the forest with few cars and no houses. I mean, what's the chance of two close bear encounters in one hour? I just plain wasn't scared. Call me crazy.

But when I got home, after excitedly telling my husband, I went scrounging through some old stuff and found a can of bear spray we'd bought when hiking in Yellowstone and the Tetons. It said "Exp 2007." I took it outside and shot a little blast at the fence. It still shot. I sniffed the fence. Smelled like pepper. But I'm sure it loses potency. I'm buying myself a new can. ~Sigh~ It costs about $45, but I guess it could be money well-spent.

CLOSE ENCOUNTER OF THE URSINE KIND

2011-08-21T17:50:00.000-04:00

Out running with my dog, about a mile into a 6-miler, heard some scrambling and scrabbling in the woods ahead, pretty usual, probably a deer. Oops, nope..... a young bear in a tree, about 4 feet up. A little larger than my 50-pound dog, who set up her special "funny-looking animal alert" bark. I thought the bear would continue up the tree, but he jumped down and ran into the woods. My instincts made me dart my eyes around to see if there was a mama, but I didn't see one. Then, crash, scramble..... a bear is running out of the same spot, straight towards Journey and me. Is that Mama?? No, same youngster, but he's coming right at us. Journey was lunging, ready to give him the what-for, and I'm still looking for a mama, and thinking, he's not very old but he could kill my dog (or me, I guess) if he had a mind to, and how on earth do you break up a dog-and-bear fight, I guess you don't, you drop the leash and let your dog keep the bear off you, even at the expense of your dog.... amazing how many thoughts can run through your head in a fraction of a second. I yelled "NO!!!" at both Journey and the bear, and he veered off about 2 feet from Journey (maybe 6 feet from me) and dashed across the road into the woods. I'm left with my mouth still open from the "NO!!!" and still looking for a mama when out he runs again, maybe 50 feet away, back across to where he came from. Journey still wanted to give chase. Several cars were stopped. They all waited a respectable interval before going again, too..... no doubt, like me, wondering if there was another one nearby. The young'un seemed to be alone, though; probably a 2-yr-old in his first summer on his own.

Well, I always enjoy seeing a bear, but ordinarily I wouldn't choose to see one quite that close. Oddly, at the same time I was holding tight to the leash and shouting "NO!!!" I was also conscious of how beautifully black and shiny he was..... I would have liked to reach out and touch him.

Well, maybe not.

MISSING HIKER ALERT

2011-08-13T21:42:00.000-04:00

These were posted within the last 24 hours on Facebook by a friend of mine and I'm passing it on:

‎63 year old Eric Robinson from Australia, set off to thru hike the Highline Trail 7.28.11. He was scheduled to finish Sunday 8.7.11. Please Call Sherriff Mitchell at 435.738.2015 or Julia Geisler 415.695.4502 if you are available for the next few days to join the search or have any info.

Calling Volunteers! Missing Hiker on Highline Trail, Uintas, Utah: Eric Robinson
PLEASE SEARCH BLOGS, FACEBOOK, TRAIL JOURNALS for anyone who hiked on the Highline Trail between 7.28.11-8.7.11 and get in touch with them. ANY INFO ABOUT ERIC WILL HELP.

JACK OF ALL TRADES, MASTER OF NONE

2011-08-13T12:23:00.000-04:00

I'm suffering from a notable lack of focus.

I need to/want to/should be doing so many things that seem to rule each other out. I need to be training for SavageMan; I need to rest a couple of injuries; I need to decide whether to do the whole race as registered for or downgrade to the shorter distance or maybe the AquaVelo (skipping the run); I want to skip all this for now and go hiking with my backpacking pal Rocky; I need to clean & remodel my mother's house; I need to clean up my own accumulated junk.....

I need to do just one thing for long enough to progress a little towards accomplishing that one thing.

I need to light somewhere.

I just now started practicing hymns for tomorrow's church service and stopped right in the middle of one and went out and moved the car out of the driveway so my husband can get the truck in. My husband was not there, in the truck, waiting; he's coming after awhile. I stopped in the middle of the hymn to move the car. Then I came back in intending to go back to the piano but instead sat at the computer and started loading the weather radar map to decide whether to go for a bike ride or a swim or neither, and while the weather map was loading I switched to my blog. Haven't gotten back to the radar map yet.

I got a new tent, finished seam-sealing it yesterday, and want to set it up for tonight when it's supposed to rain. A friend has Tyvek she can give me to make a ground sheet, so should I go get that from her before I set up the tent and if so, should I bike to and from her house (24 miles each way) or should I drive there and back or just set up the tent using something I already have for a ground sheet that doesn't fit?

Pretty soon the bike-or-swim question will decide itself for me, as will the bike-or-drive question: I'll simply run out of time. Not to decide is to decide.

I still haven't gotten back to either the radar map or the piano. It's a wonder I've stayed at my blog post this long.

EASTER ESSAY: THE TICKET

2011-08-10T22:20:00.000-04:00

Written months ago..... I haven't been able to publish posts and just now found out how to fix it! On with my "Easter Essay" -- finally!!!

*********

I felt so free..... driving along the back country roads, with my bike in the back seat, after a long frustrating day, to meet my friend Roxanne for a ride. I'd been looking forward to it all day and I felt free, free! Rox and I are going biking, hallelujah!!

Until I saw the red and blue lights flashing in my rear-view mirror. Unmarked car. Darn.

I knew what it was, though. We had moved in with my mother several months earlier and were finding many things that she had lost track of, one of them being renewing her car tags. We'd discovered this earlier when I got pulled over for expired tags, but the officer found, on running the registration, that it was current; the renewal stickers just had not been applied. The cop gave me one of those "get this fixed" orders but didn't ticket me since the registration was current. Mother had no idea where they could be, so we ordered new ones. Well, I procrastinate and lose track of things too, and the new stickers were still in the glove box.

So when this second officer pulled me over, I reached immediately for the registration papers and the new stickers.

"Hello, officer, I know it looks like my tags are expired but it's my elderly mother's car, and she lost the renewal stickers; I have the replacement ones right here but haven't put them on yet," handing them to him.

He looked at the registration and the stickers. He said, "I already ran your tags and I know your registration's current. Be sure to get those stickers on soon. Actually the reason I've pulled you over is..... I clocked you awhile back at 55 in a 40 zone and just now at 62 in a 50."

My spirits plunged as I felt a heavy weight fall crushing down on me. No more light, free feeling.

"It's 40mph starting back there at Black Hawk School Road, with a notice before the change," he answered. "Did you see me sitting there? " "I didn't," I said. (Unmarked car sitting at a stop sign...) "You've been following me that long?" It had to have been at least a mile.

"I have," he said. "That's two violations in a mile and a half." (Plus, he could have said, not paying attention, not seeing the speed limit signs, not noticing the police vehicle at the intersection or behind me. And I thought it was 55, not 50, right here where he'd pulled me over, but he'd clocked me at 62.)

"You can put your stickers back in your glove box; be sure to put them on soon. I do need your registration, license, and insurance information."

Oh no, please..... we'd been living in Maryland for close to a year and I still had my Florida driver's license from when we were RV'ing and didn't live "anywhere" but had to declare a state of residency, so, like many full-time RV'ers, we declared one we occasionally visited and actually stayed in sometimes that had no state tax. Please please please...... I gave him the documents. He read them.

"You say this is your mother's car?" "Yes, it is. My husband and I have moved in with her to take care of her." "She's elderly, you say?" "Yes, sir." "So, how long ago did you move here from Florida?" Oh, geez. Well, not quite. Most recently we'd moved from New Orleans from New Hampshire from Texas. We'd lived in Florida for 6 months in 2005 but at the time we were registered in South Dakota. It seemed too complicated and farfetched to explain.

"Um, several months ago. (Maybe 8 or 10 since we actually changed our address..... isn't that just a few.....?) "Things have been pretty confusing, getting my mother's issues sorted out. I guess I sort of put off getting my own license changed." (I guess you're supposed to get your Maryland one within 60 days of taking up residence there.)

"Well, you have two significant speeding violations, and expired tags even though your registration is current, and I'll have to run the info on your out-of-state license. You now claim the same address that's here on your mother's registration, is that correct?" "Yes, sir, my husband and I have changed our addresses to receive all our mail and services there."

So he goes back to his patrol car and I lean my head on the steering wheel and moan, "Oh, God, no, oh God no, oh God no, oh God no......" How am I going to pay a speeding ticket? Speeding plus all these other issues? How much is he going to hit me for? SavageMan is next month, I was going to get my bike a complete tune-up and new tires. I guess not, now. How could I have been so happy and so heedless? God help me, God help me, God help me...... 55 in a 40 that I didn't see? 62 in a 50 that I thought was 55? I couldn't have been, but he's been behind me for over a mile and I didn't even notice him, even in his unmarked car. I'm just flying along in my bike shorts and jersey with my bike in the back seat singing, "I'm free, I'm free, it's (finally) a great day to be alive...." but my bubble is busted. I'll probably just go home. I'll be needing to save on gas to pay for the traffic ticket.

With my head still on the steering wheel, I hear his voice at the window again. I lift my head and stare out the windshield.

"OK, Mrs. Hamilton," he says. "I haven't written you a citation. I've written you a warning for exceeding the 40mph speed limit. I don't want to penalize you; I just want protect you. Slow down, pay attention, and stay safe. And get your Maryland license soon and put those tag stickers on. You have a nice ride, now," glancing at my outfit and the bike.

And then, so kindly and gently it felt like a soft, warm, blessing rain: "You're free to go."
Free to go. It echoed in my head and my heart.
You're free to go.
You're free to go.
You're free to go.

You have this violation, and this one, and this one, and this one, and this one. (I discovered later that the insurance information I had handed him was expired as well, although, again, the policy was current but the card had been lost. He either didn't notice or, after running my insurance info, didn't mention it.)

But you're free to go.

Free to go? It took me a beat to absorb that. Then I gave him an astonished "Thank you!" and suddenly felt 20 pounds lighter. I felt uplifted and inspired.

Free to go. When I approach the heavenly throne and see that video of my life they always show you, I hope the Lord says to me, "Well, you've had some issues, haven't you? I've watched it all. You had this problem, and there was a tough choice here that could have gone better, you've always felt badly about the way you treated some people, you blew off some things that were important. But I don't want to penalize you, I just want to help you. I've taken care of all of it for you. You're free to go."

I put the written warning in my Bible.

It's been probably 9 or 10 months since that happened. I should call the police station and ask to speak with that officer, and tell him how much that extraordinary kindness meant to me. I think I'll even tell him I hope that's what Jesus says to me when I get to heaven: "You're free to go." He made my day, and left a lasting impression on my life. Maybe letting him know can make one on his.

I Think It's Fixed......

2011-08-10T22:10:00.002-04:00

Switched from "old post editor" to "new post editor" in Settings. One more try.....

Test Post

2011-08-10T22:08:00.002-04:00

To see if I can publish.

WHAT TO NAME THE SNOW?

2011-04-01T21:29:00.004-04:00

So we have snow again today. Not much, but too much just the same. Around here, spring snows have names. There's the "Sugar Snow," which falls after the sap starts to run in the maple trees. It's good for the sap run, increases and prolongs it. This is the picturesque folklore snow described by Laura Ingalls Wilder in Little House in the Big Woods, and in Lillian Hoban's superb children's story The Sugar Snow Spring. Lots of people in lots of places have heard of sugar snow, and the sap in fact has started, as evidenced by buckets hung on the trees and Maple Festivals in nearby small towns. Then there's the "Robin Snow." This was a little harder to pin down to a written reference, but I found a thoughtful one on a blog called Basic North and another mention at Country Captures, a photography blog. Where we live, the definition agrees with the second one: snow after the robins come back. Basic North's grandmother said it falls after the robins start to sing. I've heard robins singing (as opposed to just chirping, which they do at first) in the past week. It's a heartrending, wistful, nostalgic melody, and according to Basic North's grandmother, portends two more snows. These may well be the "Onion Snow" and the "Sarvice Snow." The Onion Snow covers the ground after onions have been planted in the garden. The references I found all said the expression seems to be unique to central Pennsylvania, but this is western Maryland and it's known here as well. I planted onions about 10 days ago but..... I doubt if anyone else has, anyone with any sense, that is. No one plants anything until late April, and many don't try until Memorial Day. In a true Onion Snow, the green growing tops contrast prettily with their white blanket. Well, I planted plants, not sets (tiny bulbs) during a teaser warm spell and although I mulched them with straw they're looking pretty peaked after a week of return to sub-freezing temperatures. I'm an experienced gardener and know better than to plant anything in March, but I couldn't stand it anymore. I put out collard plants, too, and they don't look so good either. The Onion Snow is said, in some parts, to be the last snow of the year, but here in Garrett County, MD, we know there's at least one more to come: the "Sarvice Snow." I couldn't find any references at all to this one. The "sarvice" tree, or service tree, also known as juneberry and shadbush, flowers out in mid spring, and is so called because in days of yore its lacy white blooms graced the settings of services like weddings and funerals which had to be postponed during the winter, until the roads became passable to bring the preacher through again and/or the ground would yield once more to the edge of a shovel to dig a grave. I haven't heard this anywhere but here in Garrett County. Anyway, I know the sarvice blossoms aren't out yet, so the Sarvice Snow is yet to come. Maybe I can make one up. How about the "Coltsfoot Snow?" Coltsfoot is a little flower that looks like a small dandelion and grows mostly on the gravel shoulders of roadsides. I know people rejoice to see robins on their lawns but it's when I see coltsfoot that I know for sure that spring is coming. I started seeing coltsfoot just this past week, when I was out on one of my cold-weather-testing bike rides. Or the "Peeper Snow." Again, this past week, I perceived another hopeful sign: the tweet of just a couple of spring peepers. They sound a little like someone whistling for their dog. And when I hear them I thank God. It's spring! But when freezing temperatures and snow return (as they always do before the peepers find the partners with whom they want to reproduce) they stop and go back under the ground or fallen logs or wherever it is they hibernate. This snow has driven the peepers and their whistling back into winterland, not to be heard again until the next thaw. Or.... we could call it the "Bicycle Snow." Snow that dampens motivation, freezes enthusiasm, and wrecks the training program of the distance cyclist who has already ventured out hopefully on a few early rides. Well...... it doesn't damage the maples, or the robins, or the onions (except maybe my prematurely-planted ones) or the sarvice trees and it won't put this cyclist off the road for long.

THAT LOW???

2011-03-31T21:18:00.002-04:00

Well, after Phil B.'s comment to my post yesterday, I have no excuses left except road conditions. My bike won't make it on ice or snow. Just wet..... I don't know. Requires a big clean-up after riding on wet roads. I guess I should bite the bullet and do that in a "the show must go on" mindset, in case it rains on Gran Fondo day (I'm registered for the 125-mile Diabolical Double in that series of events.) But only cold? Well, Phil.... I guess you've convinced me I can rise (or descend) to the occasion, and have to, since our spring's not coming very close very fast and I need to get in my distances. I gotta get the feet thing figured out. That's the only part of me that's cold. I don't have much more room inside my bike shoes to increase sock thickness. My feet don't just feel cold, they go dead-white with blue toenails. I'll try a couple layers of thin nylons under my woolies. Actually, I was chilly when I first started out on a long downgrade, but knew that once I hit a couple hills I'd be plenty warm. And I was. I had a little backpack to stow discarded layers but didn't want to stop to do it once I was in a groove. I'd have been more comfortable, but now I know I can do Killer Miller when I'm overheating. I did Killer Miller TWICE. Got to the top the first time and thought, "Gee, I wonder how long it's taking me to scale this thing? I'll go do it again and time it, then I can measure progress." So I went down carefully (there's still gravel on it from ice treatment, but you can't go down it all-out in any case because of the grade and curves.) Halfway up on take #2, I realized.... yup, Grandma here forgot to check her time at the start. But it was still good training. So.... definitely no more "It's too cold for biking."

HOW LOW CAN YOU GO?

2011-03-29T20:14:00.002-04:00

I keep trying to find this out, in reference to whether it will be possible to ride my bike outdoors. I'm somewhat behind where I'd like to be in training because it's been "too cold." We had a thaw in February, with a couple days in the upper 50'sF, and I was ecstatic, looked forward to it all week, dismounted my bike from my indoor trainer, and did 25 miles. Next week I needed 35, but when it was time for that, we were only going to make barely 50*, but I thought, well, with an extra sweater... let's try. Thirty-five miles in the bag. Temps have just plain deteriorated from there. The day of my 40-miler, we were only going to make 47*. Well, 47*, 50*, there's not that much difference. It was windy and I was chilly and took a really hilly route, but made 37.5 miles. I could have done the extra 2.5 but that meant riding past my house, and I was cold and tired and the temptation was too great. About 10 days ago I made 50 miles, temps in the mid-40's. And it's been dropping from there. No relief from daytime highs in the 30's for close to a week now. Having tasted the open road, I'm averse to mounting the bike back on the trainer. But 30's? I can't bike when it's in the 30's!! Except today I did. Two pairs of tights, two sweaters, a wind jacket, thick wool socks, fleece neck gaiter convertible to lower-face mask, fleece hat under my helmet, full gloves under my bike gloves. I was overdressed. Long hills were hard, not because I was tired but because I was hot. Sweat dripped down my back. But my feet still got cold. Have to work on that one. So now I know I can bike when it's 35*F. No "It's too cold" excuses left, since I don't expect any more days in the 20's. Hopefully. Sunday is supposed to be around 50*F with 0% precip chance. I need a 60-miler, starting after church. So glad daylight saving time was early, even if spring hasn't been!

2011-03-27T20:30:00.002-04:00

Awhile back, probably about the time of my 58th birthday, I wrote that I was going to start a project to arrive at my 60th birthday in the best shape of my life. ~Sigh~ Well, I do have a passion for extreme endurance athletic events, and I'm registered for a 125-mile bike ride the end of June, but I have so let myself go this winter. I need to lose 10 pounds (again) and I just this week broke down and let the doc prescribe me cholesterol medicine. I have a bit of rebellion, suspecting that the cholesterol hype is just that, hype, promoted by drug companies who naturally want as many people as possible consuming their product. But even I had to acknowledge that, given all current knowledge, this was a little much and I might need a few pills. I've also decided to forgo most animal-based foods for awhile: meat, milk, cheese, eggs. I guess a little skim milk or egg whites wouldn't do any harm. I'm not convinced that dietary cholesterol and saturated fat are the culprits anyway (I suspect that's part of the hype and deception) but I'll give it a try for a bit. I don't mind being vegetarian. I've done it before. Meat's not essential for me. There's plenty of protein in the plant world. I keep thinking, there's so much that goes on in my mind, if not my life, and if I don't write it down it will all be lost when I'm gone. Living with my soon-to-be 90-year-old mother is a constant reminder that none of us is here forever. I would like to live to be her age, but I would like to arrive there with my back straight and my body strong enough not to have to rest after walking across the kitchen.

HELP ME

2010-11-24T21:36:00.003-05:00

Let me be a little kinder,
Let me be a little blinder
To the faults of those about me,
Let me praise a little more.
Let me be, when I am weary,
Just a little bit more cheery,
Think a little more of others,
And a little less of me.

Let me be a little braver
When temptation makes me waver
Let me strive a little harder
To be all that I should be

Let me be a little meeker
With my brother who is weaker,
Let me think more of my neighbor
And a little less of me.

Let me be when I am weary
Just a little bit more cheery,
Let me serve a little better
Those that I am strivin' for

Let me be a little meeker
With the brother who is weaker
Think a little more of others
And a little less of me.

CREEPING UP ON ME

2010-11-07T20:59:00.003-05:00

I already spend too much time on the Internet. But I've got major things to blog about. One is SavageMan, which was, what, 6 or 7 weeks ago now? And no race report? Even though I keep alluding so something life-changing? Honest, I'm not leading you on. It just seems so big to blog about that it's overwhelming. Here are pictures, though...

AND.... Last week I had the wonderful opportunity to stomp another state on the Appalachian Trail, starting at Harpers Ferry, WV and hiking through Maryland to the Mason-Dixon Line with a new hiking friend. Four days, 45 miles, on the AT and I haven't written a trip report!!!

Nope, bogged down here in my head with "How Going to Church Both Aggravates and Assuages My Fear of Mistakes."

Maybe it's time to move on (or back) to real life. Triathlons and backpacking, biking, running, all that stuff. Or at least the memories of them.

STARTOVERS AND MAKEOVERS

2010-11-07T16:17:00.002-05:00

Again in church today, affirmation of my not making such a big-headed deal out of goofing up. The lady who led prayer asked for guidance for the day's preacher, who "says he gets nervous because it's been awhile since he's been in the pulpit." Hmm... I never thought to ask for prayer about my getting nervous becayse it's been awhile since I've sat at a piano. I should have thought of that, asking for prayer.

Anyway.... I keep getting these little lessons that I'm not the only goofer-upper around. And thank you, to the couple of readers who have assured me of the same thing. Maybe it comes from having been raised by stage-performing musician parents: When you get up there to perform, you better know what you're doing. But I'm not performing. I'm.... well, participating. Offering. Helping. Just sort of doing. I'm not the star. I'm a participant. We're all in it together. I need to remember that.

I started running again today. I've run only a couple times since SavageMan, having sort of lost interest in running altogether -- my SavageMan "run" was soooo baaaadddd. (I still haven't told the story of that run.) So today I went out for half an hour, including a few sprints of 30 seconds or so. I'm looking ahead to improving my endurance for next year's SavageMan. I want no repeat of this year's dead-woman crawl!!!

The final makeover to report on is my mother's kitchen. Why didn't I think of a "Before" picture? I guess because at first it seemed like just painting. It's become a real project. New drawer/door hardware. New paint. Gonna be pretty when I put the doors back on. Then I'll have to do the walls. I'm a newbie at this. Never opened a paint can before. Yesterday I spilled most of the gallon can on the floor. I shouted a bad word and then started scooping it back into the can with a dustpan. Today I figured out I can strain out the pet hair and dust it picked up on the floor and use the paint after all. The learning continues.

MISTAKES PROBABLY AREN'T SUCH A BIG THING

2010-10-31T15:19:00.002-04:00

A few posts ago I wrote about being the pianist for an upcoming wedding, and being afraid of goofing up. As a matter of fact, I did goof up. During the wedding march. Ouch.

I've been pinch-hitting on the piano at church lately, since our regular pianist has been ill. I'm out of practice and keep hitting clinkers. I look at my hands and lose my place on the page. I look at the notes and lose my place on the keyboard. I feel embarrassed. I wonder if people are thinking, "Ouch."

There's this gentleman, Mark is his name, who often preaches. He's not an ordained minister. He went to seminary for awhile but then suffered an illness, some kind of infection, that caused massive brain damage. Mark has recovered slowly and spectacularly. He drags one foot a little when he walks, and his speech is a little slow and a little slurred, but understandable. He was never able to fnish his ministerial studies, but he pores over his Bible and he prays and he preaches. He sometimes stammers and has trouble getting words out. He loses his place on the page and is silent for several moments recovering it. He reads from the Bible, tangles the words up, and says, "I need to start over," and he does.

His messages are profound. Twice today I wrote in the margin in my Bible what Mark had just said about a verse, and added "BINGO!!" (I'd like to see my descendants when they get their hands on Great-Great-Grandma's Bible and read that!)

What I'm seeing, what hit me as he was delivering what God had laid on his heart, is that.... the mistakes don't matter. Mark has trouble with words and with concentration and with connecting thoughts, but connect them he does, in the most profound and striking manner. Anyone who hears him would understand immediately that he has difficulty and doesn't let it hold him back. It's plainly evident that he's an extremely deep thinker and excellent speaker and devout Christian. No one gets impatient or thinks "Ouch!" or has any response except to what he's actually saying.

So when I hit wrong notes..... it's the same. So I have trouble keeping it coordinated. So I've never been able to learn to put music in front of me and read it right off as I do written words. Anyone listening can tell that I do play the piano, I have a feel for music, I just have trouble delivering it, and despite the mistakes I'm giving it all I've got.

And when I make mistakes in life...... same thing. I know how it should go, I just hit some wrong notes. Just like anyone else. I'm not so special that I don't make mistakes.... and not special because I do. Most goofs really don't matter that much.

ABOUT TRIBUTES AND FUNERALS

2010-10-24T20:09:00.004-04:00

The things on my mind today are about dying.

Someone we knew, a man our age, died this week. We went to his viewing today. There were HUNDREDS of people there and it was only one of four viewing times. He was well-known and well-liked. Actually, he was one of our county commissioners, on the ballot for re-election in the upcoming mid-term a little more than a week away, had won the primary..... but he would have been well-known and well-liked even if he hadn't been commissioner. He was commissioner BECAUSE he was well-known and well-liked.

Anyway, I was seeing all those visitors, and hearing what people were saying to each other about how well they'd liked Denny. I remembered a memorial tribute I'd heard last month after a friend of my mother's died. And I'm thinking....... the people who died aren't here to see how many people come, or hear the nice things that are said about how much they were valued.

Why don't we say those things to people while they're alive? Why don't we have a party, so everyone who knows them and likes them can come?

Maybe there's somehow less risk in saying the nice things after someone has died. We don't have to risk awkwardness.... "You, know, Denny, you're a really great guy, a really good egg. It's a privilege to know you. Whenever you say you'll see to something, I know it's as good as done. You're a man to appreciate." How do you respond to something like that? How do you say it? Why is it easier to say it after the appreciated person is gone?

My mother is turning 90 in April. I'm throwing a shinding and advertising it in the paper. Also in April, my husband is turning 60, but he says he doesn't want a shindig, just our kids and grandkids.

Back to the viewing....among the hundreds of people at the funeral parlor were many that we've known for years and years, as well as many we both felt we should know but couldn't place. We knew them in some long-ago context and now we were out of that context and we've changed and they've changed and it was like maybe remembering someone from a previous life. A woman walked past. She saw me and did a double take. I did a double take. We both said, "HIIIIIII!!!!! How nice to SEE you!! It's been probably 20 years!!" We embraced. I have no idea who she was. She didn't say my name so I suspect she couldn't remember who I was either.

I have a proposal: At my funeral, and at any I'm in charge of before then, like my mother's, I want to have, beside any door where people might be coming in, a box of those name stickers that say, "Hello! I'm......" and pens so that people can write their names and slap them on. Along with a sign reminding everyone to use the stickers, and to include on them how they know the deceased and/or family. It would help everyone. "Hello! I'm Ellie Hamilton.... longtime friend, kids the same ages." "Hello! I'm Clamity Jane, Bill's cousin." You could walk right up to strangers who share your shock, sadness, and memories and call them by name and know who they are and have the ice already broken. Someone you should know, about whom you'd draw a blank, has a name tag and you know immediately, "Of course!!" No awkward moments. It would help family members greet all the visitors: My husband and grown children would have no idea who some of the people are who might come to my funeral. Cheat-sheet name stickers would help them out a lot.

I'm starting a new trend in funeral etiquette, right here, right now. Name stickers.

I'M GOING HIKING!!

2010-10-23T21:32:00.002-04:00

Next week. On the AT. Starting Tuesday. With my friend Chrissie. For probably 5 days. After we get back I'll tell you where we went.... not telling now b/c my blog is public and I'm picky about who knows where we're going, since it's not busy-busy thru-hiker season.

I'm so excited! I'm getting everything ready and having so much fun. I'm no more organized than I was when planning my thru-hike, but at least I feel I know what I'm doing. It's just a matter of putting together the right stuff.

Weather is supposed to be really good, with daytime highs ranging from 50's-70'sF, nighttime lows 40's-50's. I'm going to be test-driving the Hennessy Hammock I bought this past spring. It's tricky to stay warm in them under about 65*F, so I'll be working on that problem. If I'm cold, well, I can always just put it on the ground, or just sleep in the shelters.

Chrissie is a woman my age whom I've known for 25 or 30 years, but we just this spring discovered what good friends we are! Since the 1980's we'd cross paths once in while, with kids the same age, and we knew each other to say "hi" but that's as far as it went. Then this spring a mutual friend told me Chrissie wants to hike the AT and would like to talk to me. So I called her, and we went in May down to Damascus, VA for the annual AT Trail Days Festivel, where we tented for two days beside a beautiful river. There, and on the 5-hours-each-way drive, we talked soooo much, about everything. She's Christian and we went to church together there on Sunday before driving home. It's amazing to think we've known each other so long and could have been friends all that time. Well, we are now. And we're going hiking!

RE-LIVING THE TRAIL

2010-10-18T14:58:00.002-04:00

What I really need to do is re-copy all my Trail entries, put them in order, add more memories to them, and make a separate blog out of them, as well as copying the whole thing to TrailJournals.com. There is so much more that didn't make it into the entries, and they're all mixed up according to whether I posted them myself when I had computer access, or my husband did when he talked to me, or my daughter Avery did when I mailed her a whole bunch of them.

It will be confusing. I actually did start a Trail Journal there, under the name MacGyver09, but then I didn't keep it up, choosing instead to put everything here in my blog. Then on the Trail I got re-named "Yard Sale," so anyone I knew along the Trail will look for me under that name, not MacGyver.

And this is really, really braindead, but as many times as I've typed "MacGyver," I can't remember at this second whether it's "Mac" or "Mc." Ever have that happen? Of course you've been unsure how to spell something, and neither way looks right, but..... you own name?????

I'm losing my mind.

I think it's "Mac."

Linking to my Appalachian Trail Journal

2010-10-18T14:46:00.001-04:00

AGAINST THE WIND: Springer Mountain, Georgia!

Well, that didn't work. It only takes you to the first post. Gotta work on this some more. Wish I knew HTML-speak.

CAN'T THINK OF A TITLE... BRAINDEAD

2010-10-17T21:18:00.003-04:00

Well, the wedding went off fairly well. I hit some klinkers but don't know if anyone noticed or not.

I have been negligent. Seduced by the quick status updates and easy friend-tracking of Facebook. But it's hard to put the story of my life on Facebook. I need to post here.

For instance, I didn't post a report of my 2010 SavageMan Triathlon. Unlike last year's race, which I breezed through having a blast, this year I found it grueling and life-changing. Yes, actually life-changing. I need to write about that.

I am thinking about a second Appalachian Trail thru-hike attempt. In 2012, to celebrate being 60. Yes, in 2012 I will be 60. Actually I'll turn 60 in December of 2011 but I'll be 60 when I do my hike.

To keep from re-hiking already-covered miles, I may very well start in Maine and go south. That way if the Trail beats me again at least I will have seen a different part of it.

I've been following the absolutely riveting story of a southbound thru-hiker, on Trail Journals. His trail name is Churchill, and he writes like..... well, like a dreamer who's a realist, or a realist who's a dreamer, or both. You can find his ongoing story at My American Dream at Trail Journals. He's like a book I can't put down. He started in Maine in July and is now going through the Shenandoah/Blue Ridge region of Virginia. I remember so well being there. Yesterday he described standing on a cliff taking in the view and daydreaming...... I'll bet I know exactly where he was standing. He daydreamed about hang-gliding, but it also involved an imaginary hiking partner in the person of John Denver, and ended sadly, with a twist. This guy is an incredible writer. He's gotta get his journal published. It's something rare.

If anyone read my blog last year while I was hiking, you know that weight loss was one of the things that put me off the Trail. Well, by New Year's, I had gained it all back, plus more. This spring and summer, I've lost over half of it, training for SavageMan AND just changing my eating habits. I don't go hungry. Sometimes I still get cravings and graze or binge. But mostly..... I eat to nourish myself. It works.

THE WEDDING PLAYER

2010-10-04T14:40:00.002-04:00

How did I get into this?

I seem to be the pianist for a wedding. It's happening tomorrow (yes, a Tuesday.) When I agreed to this a month ago, I hadn't played the piano since my mother and I made that tape of cello/piano music almost 2 years ago. But here it is. In front of a whole lot of people.

I have stage fright. Performance anxiety. I looked for tips on the Internet.

The best one is: "Offer yourself as the medium through which the composer's spirit and intention will flow."

In other words... forget about myself. It's not about me. It's about this beautiful young couple and God's grace flowing through and around them as their beautiful celebration unfolds.

I'm praying. I'm practicing. I'm visualizing. But I'm still going to take some Xanax before I go.

Re: Westernport Wall

2010-08-02T23:40:00.001-04:00

Hah!! I went down to Westernport today and attacked The Wall over and over.

I made it 6 out of 9 times. The other 3 times, I fell. The first attempt, while I was fresh, I made it consecutively up all 4 blocks (each block a hill.... it's one 4-block-long hill, average grade 25%, interrupted only by the cross-streets.) You have to do all 4 w/o unclipping on race day to get a brick laid in the road.

After that, I just did the last section (31% grade), or the last 2, over and over, memorizing how to navigate the obstacle course of potholes and cracks (mostly 4-6 inches wide, several feet long, and at least an inch deep). I also developed a Plan B route up, in case there's someone in front of me on race day. I've determined that it's not so much an issue of strength as of balance and controlling the bike. There's a certain point before which I must not veer left; after that point, a slight left shift is helpful (Plan A) but not essential (Plan B.) I'll tell you what, I popped a few wheelies and wondered how I was still upright even though the bike seemed to have stopped moving forward, but 6 out of 9 isn't bad. At the top of one of the successful ones, I wondered, "Is my rear brake rubbing my wheel? Did itget knocked off center in that last fall? Feels like it was harder this time..." and then discovered I hadn't even been in my freakin' lowest granny gear!!!! Shoot, now I'll have to practice doing it like that >:-<

The tenth one.... well.... I started one last trip from the bottom of the 4 blocks and rode 3 of them, but then said, "Nahhhhhh......" and turned left instead of going up. I couldn't face it again and could tell I probably wouldn't make it. I was very, very tired.

There was a neighborhood boy about 12 on a mountain bike who tried it but didn't make it. He said sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't. That particular time, I made it, and he gave me a thumbs-up and said "That's a hell of a climb." He also rode down it, which I absolutely will not try.

One injury per fall: right elbow bleeding in 2 separate places (from 2 of the falls) and right hip with a swelling, obvious broken capillaries, and a great big bruise on its way (I fell to the right each time).

I plan to go do this once a week until I know that street like the back of my hand and riding it is no big deal.

SavageMan Bike Course, Take One

2010-07-19T19:42:00.001-04:00

Find out about SavageMan here.

Sado-Masochistic, is what it is.

My son Jon and I took it very slow for his first riding of it and my first this year, and I declare, I think that's at least as hard as pushing a little harder because you're out there longer.

We both made the Wall. Except I cheated.... stopped after the first 3 preliminary hills to get my breath before I tackled it. Jon rode straight up all 4.

I bonked halfway up Maynardier Ridge (the last of the nasty hills, about mile 44) and had to sit and rest a little before continuing. It's the first time ever that I haven't made it up that hill. I was surprised because I'd just gone up all the other hills ,including "Killer Miller" Hill , without any distress. I took a couple salt tablets (cheapies from the drugstore) and a breather and then walked the rest of the hill. Jon gave me a Hammer Gel. (I'd been using a concoction of peanut butter and honey.) A few miles later I still was feeling bad, hamstrings and calves were trying to tie square knots, and Jon gave me an Endurolyte. He was carrying freebies from the Gran Fondo. I was just stupid, is all, and didn't plan right. I know better.

Or else I'm just getting too old for this.

About 15 min after the gel and lyte tab, I felt better, and by the last 5 miles I felt normal. When we got back to the cars, Jon put on running shoes and ran for 10 min, while I drank recovery drink, guarded his bike, and waited to see what I'd come back as in my next life. Guess I'll have to wait for another day to find that out, though.

I feel OK now. But I'm done w/ homebrew gels and drugstore salt tablets. Put out the money, honey, and put the hammer down.

5 hours for the 56 miles = 11.1mph. Bleah. I need 12mph to make the cutoff, which I did handily last year by 10 minutes.

There are still 2 months left.

OH, FOR PETE'S SAKE....

2010-07-15T19:24:00.002-04:00

Just a quick review, my husband and I are living with my mother because I/we don't feel it's safe for her to live alone anymore (89 yo, has trouble getting around due to arthritis, osteoporosis, and shortness of breath.)

Found out today during a routine doctor visit that she's been having episodes of chest pain for quite some time but hasn't mentioned it because she doesn't want to be a "fussbudget."

At first I was angry; how could she not tell her daughter, an R.N. who lives with her to look after her and her health, that she gets chest pain???

But after awhile I started realizing it wasn't deliberate, it was just ignorance and an odd form of being considerate. I shouldn't be angry.

PRACTICING THE PRESENCE OF GOD

2010-07-13T20:19:00.002-04:00

I have such a short attention span. And so much going on in my life. It's hard to remember that God is a part of it all. Hours or half a day go by when I forget all about Him.

Brother Lawrence says that will happen, when a person first sets out to form the habit of continual communion with God. And he pretty much advises, "Just press the 'reset' button. You will get the hang of it."

Of course, since The Practice of the Presence of God was written over 300 years ago, those aren't the exact words. But that's the jist.

When I first opened the book a couple weeks ago, I opened to this sentence:

"That our sanctification did not depend upon changing our works, but in doing for God's sake that which we commonly do for our own."

And right there, my life was changed.

He is in my swimming, biking, and running, as much as my son is when we arrange to train together. I forgot to ask the Lord to swim (40 minutes) and run (20 minutes) with me today. I choose to believe He was with me anyway, inviting Himself as a silent partner..... as silent as I was. My thoughts were elsewhere but He knows I would have asked Him if I had remembered. He's not bound by human-type "I wasn't invited" huffiness. He knows you meant to ask Him.

Until I get in the habit, I'm thinking I might set my watch to beep every hour I'm awake. Just to remember to check in.

You can download the book, read it, and/or print it out for free here.

SUN'S OUT....

2010-07-12T14:44:00.003-04:00

....after I just finished 24 miles on the bike in the rain. I set out hoping to beat it, but got rained on anyway, just enough to keep me cool and make me a little cautious of curves, descents, and my brakes. Heard a little thunder, had one lightning flash a mile away, but didn't get struck or have to take refuge in a house (which I did once last year and made new friends.)

Anyway.... if I'd waited a few hours, I could have done it in clear weather.

But now I've had recent practice riding in the rain.

24 miles included 4 of the major hills of the SavageMan course: McAndrews Hill, Otto Lane, "Killer Miller," and Maynardier Ridge. Plus another long climb (Twin Churches Road) to get to McAndrews Hill.

I am so blessed to live practically on the bike course. Just a couple-mile ride gets me to either of 2 of the dreaded climbs. I'm getting so I don't even need to go into my lowest granny gear much of the time, which makes me very happy!

LAZARUS, COAXED FROM THE DEAD

2010-07-11T21:42:00.006-04:00

I want to get back to blogging. I have had so many unwritten pages, so many unrecorded chapters, of the story of my life fly away in the wind this summer. I can only hazily remember that I lived them.... I can't ever read about those days or truly relive them, or remember the truths I learned from them And nobody else ever will, either.

I have been so consumed with myself. That's why I haven't been able to share myself.

We just had a wonderful week in a truck-camper at a small lake in Michigan, with our son Jon, his daughters Sarah, 2, and Abbie, 7, and our 11-yo granddaughter Gracie. Gracie and I took time for an overnight trip to Chicago, by train, just the 2 of us. We had never been anywhere alone together except maybe Wal-Mart or Kroger's. It was a special treat.

So were the next couple days at the lake, our family, swimming, playing on the playground, catching minnows in buckets, and visiting or being visited by many family members we rarely get to see.

Kind of crowded in the little truck-camper and even more so riding to and from in the truck itself, but togetherness is what it's all about.

In case you're wondering..... we sold the RV in which we'd lived for the past 5 years. We live only in my mother's house now, keeping her company and making sure she's OK, and have recently gotten the truck-top camper, which sleeps 5 somewhat comfortably. It was our first trip in it. Next month we'll take our grandson.

I had much, very much care of the 3 young ones during this time. Gracie's 11 and needed companionship and alone-time more than she needed care. (Except when she tripped on an escalator in flip flops and mangled her toe; she needed care then.) So I applied myself to caring for the little girls, and making room for downtime for the hardworking men and the almost-woman girl, who loved floating on a raft without little ones tethered to her. During the week I got in one run with Jon (sprained my ankle) and one 20-min lap swim while Jon took all the girls out on a pedal boat. I worked to give each member of the family some of myself all week, and I didn't have that stressed out feeling I get when I whine about there not being enough of me to go around. Just giving myself up to the needs of the others, encouraging them to help themselves and the others when possible, thanking them for doing so, doing it for them if they didn't, speaking gently even when I wanted to raise my voice to get a response..... it went so smoothly because I took along a lifelong friend that I haven't been in close touch with for some time but who was thrilled to go along and help out and spend time with me.... Jesus. What a help he was, how pertinent his suggestions, how soothing his frequent "That's OK, I'll handle it." He's gently pointing out to me places where my words will add to the conversation, and places where it will just muddy the waters. Often I spew in words about some similar experience and start realizing that no one is listening, they've started other conversations.... they don't care what my experience was. If they do, they will ask me. If they don't, I'm off the hook, don't have to worry about how what I said came across.

Talking less doesn't mean I'm withdrawing. I pray it's the beginning of greater fellowship, now that I realize I'm here to appreciate and help them, not to yak about my own passions, roadblocks, burdens fair or unfair, whether other people's opinions are right or wrong...those things shouldn't be important to me. All that matters is saying what God nudges me to say, and he's provided me with some pithy stuff this week.

And with that I'll leave you all wondering till another day.

On this trip I learned major things:

It's not about me.
Pray without ceasing.
All things work together for those who love God.

I can face life again.

THE RESET BUTTON

2010-04-14T21:03:00.002-04:00

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance." (Galatians 5:22-23)

~Sigh~

I need to start over from Square One about every hour......

HANGING OVER ME

2010-04-06T22:13:00.002-04:00

I'm caught in a time warp.

Now that it's thru-hiker season, I keep thinking, what could I have done to stay on the Trail? Even though, at the time, I had become convinced that I WANTED to come home and do the SavageMan triathlon, and when I did, I was very happy that I had.

It was after the triathlon was over that the sadness kicked in. Training for the tri had filled the void temporarily.

I'm training for the same tri again now (I'll have 6 months of training for it instead of 2 like last year) but it's not filling the void this time. No doubt I'd still be feeling Springer Fever now even if I'd stayed on the Trail and gotten to Katahdin. I'd want the hope-filled start and long step-after-step journey and the climactic finish again. I'd be wanting to pack my pack and do the whole 2,183 miles all over again. I'm sure I would. Even if I'd finished it.

Nothing ever takes the longing away. No one is ever the same. I hear it over and over.

The one thing to the contrary that I do hear, I may have averted: sticking with it far past desire, far past reason, coming to dread each day, loathing it, finishing out of stubbornness, and then never wanting to hike again, never wanting to see a trail again, even for a day. I've heard of that happening.

I'm glad it didn't happen to me. I got out in time.

With the result that I keep thinking about what I could have done to keep hiking, and what I can do to get back out there, and where and when and how.

Better to be left wanting more and planning and waiting for it to be possible, than to have lost the longing.

THINGS CHANGE

2010-04-05T21:43:00.002-04:00

My tent is still outside from when I slept in it the other night. I've rested in it, napped in it, but not overnighted again since then. I keep thinking I will, but then I don't.

The weather map shows what looks like thunderstorms moving in after midnight. I was thinking I'd go out now before bed and take my tent down (in the dark) so it won't get wet. But what the heck, it's been wet lots of times. It's been wet for days at a time. The only thing is, I want to keep my down sleeping bag dry.

Then I realized.... if it gets wet, I'll bring it into the house and put it in the dryer.

Things have changed. I am not on the Trail anymore. Yet.

A fellow on an AT hiking email list is going to send me a hammock system to try risk-free: if I don't like it, I can send it back. I can't wait to try it. You stay drier in a hammock under a tarp then in a tent, and all you need to set it up is two trees -- you never have to worry about level ground or being in a low place or rocks or roots because you're above all that. I can't wait to test it out!

Then hoping to head back to the WV/MD state line on the Trail, maybe mid-May, and hike for a week or so, through Maryland and hopefully into PA to the half-way mark. My husband will stay with my mother for that long. I have got to get hiking to get well.... I'm down with "Springer Fever." Except today it was "Neels Gap Fever" -- a year ago today I'd made it to Neels Gap, the first significant landmark, 31 miles from Springer Mountain, that's some kind of Mecca for beginning hikers: "When I get to Neels Gap I'm going to get..." "When I get to Neels Gap I'm going to find out if there's any...." "When I get to Neels Gap I'm going to weed out a lot of junk...." Neels Gap was on everyone's mind. I felt such accomplishment when I made it.

Well, another year.... another time. In the meantime, I'll go for week-long jaunts and make slow progress up the trail. Trail Fever aka Springer Fever (also regret) is consuming me. I gotta get out there and hike a little.

ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATION

2010-04-01T22:20:00.002-04:00

April 1st was my Appalachian Trail start date last year. I'm remembering it by sleeping out in my tent in the woods behind the house. If I'd thought of it sooner, I'd have gone on a hike nearby and camped out there. But then I'd have missed coloring Easter eggs with our 2 youngest granddaughters, which was a blast, especially since they used raw eggs :-) Anyway, great evening with them and our son, and now I'm going to sleep outside.

How things change from the way we imagined they would be. I really thought I'd finish on Mt. Katahdin in Maine about October 1st. Well, some other year. Or some other decade.

ELLIE'S HEALTH-CARE REFORM PLAN

2010-03-29T15:39:00.002-04:00

It seems to me that the new health-care reform measures don't do much of anything to investigate causative factors of the exhorbitant costs of care, or to lower those costs -- only "how to get (or enable, or force) us to pay it" has been addressed. I think they're barking up the wrong tree.

Here's my plan:

FIRST: REFORM PHARMACEUTICAL ADVERTISING.

Outlaw public advertising of prescription drugs. Those TV commercials ("Ask your doctor if this drug is right for you!") and two-page magazine spreads are presented to encourage use of prescription drugs and increase sales. The commercial spots are expensive to the companies, and we pay for it in higher drug costs. Another less-obvious but expensive form of drug advertising is aimed directly at physicians in the form of visitation and gifting by pharmaceutical representatives ("drug reps.") Company employees book appointments with physicians and give them a presentation about a specific drug (information? or propaganda? Since the info is supplied by the drug's manufacturer?) AND buy lunch or dinner for the entire office staff as a magnanimous gesture. They keep track of how many prescriptions for X the doctor writes, and they'll ask him next visit, "Why are you not prescribing X more often?" They bring cakes, cookies, and donuts, and free gifts of clocks, insulated coffee mugs, and exam-table paper printed with the names of their drugs, just as a few examples. On a large scale, I can't imagine how much all this must cost. In the rural physician's office where I worked, we could count on lunch from a drug rep once or twice a week. They'd call in the morning and ask what restaurant we wanted, and the office manager or receptionist would call the restaurant with our orders, and at lunch the rep would bring it in take-out boxes. My daughter in a large city has a friend who's an office nurse and says they have lunch provided EVERY SINGLE DAY from drug reps.

All of this should stop. No more TV and public-magazine advertising (medical journals are a different situation) and drug reps should not be allowed to give doctors anything but ink pens. Drugs have to carry a hefty price tag for the manufacturers to turn a profit after all this advertising and bribing.

SECOND: REFORM MEDICAL LITIGATION.

Outlaw class-action lawsuits, which often reimburse individuals who never suffered any ill effects of a drug or treatment and never filed suit. Outlaw prescription-specific litigation advertising: "Have you or a loved one been injured by Yaz? Levaquin? Crestor? Etc.? Etc.? Call our law firm NOW!" Success or settlement of these cases increases the price of drugs yet again.

Outlaw commercial advertising by medical-injury litigators. "Have you been injured, sickened, or killed by a medical mistake? Does your child have a birth defect? Have you started sneezing? Call our firm and GET MONEY." Physicians, hospitals, nursing homes, and other care practices, out of necessity charge the consumer more in order to cover their liability insurance. The only place litigation attorneys should be able to advertise is the newspaper and the Yellow Pages. Medical litigation is a feeding frenzy.

Consumers should, indeed, be able to bring suit for legitimate damages. But put an end to frivolous lawsuits: if the litigant loses, they pay EVERYONE'S court costs, including the attorney for the defendant, all of the court staff, lost wages of anyone testifying... every single cost incurred by anyone involved in that case.

Set a cap on the amount of damages that can be awarded, keeping it relevant to the actual cost of the injury, subsequent required care, lost wages and reduced quality of life.

These measures could go a long way in reducing the cost of health care, prescription medications, and medical insurance.

MAPLE RUN 8K RACE

2010-03-21T13:33:00.003-04:00

I went to this race yesterday, part of the Pennsylvania Maple Festival in Meyersdale, PA.

5-mile run; I've been doing casual runs of anything from a half hour to an hour, not pushing hard at all, just doing time. I expected to have fun and probably break an hour; or, if it was a really good day, maybe make it in 50 minutes.

My time:
44:44

Early on a man about my age started running with me, and we started talking, and he was going just a little faster than I was comfortable maintaining, but I was having fun talking with him. We talked just about the whole time. Now and then I'd say, "I have to quit talking, I can't keep up this pace and talk, too," and he'd say, "Well, your pace is just about perfect for me," and then he'd say something and I'd answer and we'd be talking again. My shoe came untied and he actually waited while I tied it because he wanted to stay with me! So I have him to thank for my unexpected performance!

I thought I might be good for an age-group second, if I was lucky. But I was FIRST in my age group (women 55-59) -- first out of two.

But here's the thing. After the awards I went to the results board and looked at the times, and THAT's when I got mindblown.

I would have won in the next three age groups under mine, also.

Women's 50-54 winner ran 45:32. Women's 45-49, 48:29. Women's 40-44, 45:38. No runners 35-39, and the 30-34 first-place woman was ahead of me, but the second-place runner in that group was not.

Besides myself, there were a total of 13 women from 40-59. Holy cow.... I'm out there running faster than that many younger women???? How did I do that? I've hardly been training! I haven't run 5 miles in over a month!

So I got a shiny piece of bling and a definite mental high. I was feeling great when I got home so I went out and biked for an hour, taking advantage of weather we shouldn't be having until May, even though there are still snow drifts dotting the now-mostly-bare fields and roadsides.

What a wonderful day!

"MOUNTAIN TALK

2010-03-16T15:18:00.003-04:00

I just watched a program, "Mountain Talk," on the Documentary Channel, about the speech mannerisms and unique vocabulary of the rural residents of southern Appalachia.

It made me so homesick.

An old woman stated that when she was growing up, the nearest town was Robbinsville, but she never went there until cars came into the area.

The reason I know that "Robbinsville" has two "b's" is that I've been there. It was one of my rest-and-resupply stops on the Appalachian Trail.

Breathtaking mountain views kept appearing, with swirling mist in the valleys. The kind I saw just about every day.

I could cry for those days and those miles.

In a way, it feels as though triathlon is sort of meaningless. I mean, what's the point? Swim a prescribed distance, hop soaking wet onto a bike and pedal a prescribed distance, change your shoes and run (or walk, or crawl, or whatever) a prescribed distance. Why?

I guess.... to see if I can. Or to see if I can do it again, or do it longer, or farther, or stronger.

I guess for the same reasons I want to go back to the Trail.

OTHER PEOPLE'S SUNDAY

2010-03-14T20:01:00.002-04:00

The Census Bureau wants us to hurry up. At first they wanted the local counts in by March 22, which meant we actually had to finish by March 20 to get it in. Then they wanted it by the 20th, so that gave us till the 18th. Now they want it Tuesday, which means it needed to be finished today. On Friday they asked for all hands on deck, with all employees working all day both Saturday and Sunday.

I said no.

It's not that I refuse to do work on Sunday, or believe people shouldn't. I often have. I was a nurse. Hospitals don't close on Sunday, people don't take a day off from being sick. I worked. When I have worked in stores or gyms, if I was scheduled for Sunday, I worked. It gave someone else the day off, and usually it equalled out. And it's not as if all I'll do on Sunday is go to church and then spend the rest of the day reading the Bible. I go running on Sundays, and I'll run a marathon or do a triathlon on Sunday, thanking police officers and race volunteers for their help. I'll go to the store on Sunday, thankful others are working so I can get groceries I couldn't get during the week while I was working -- in fact, I went shopping after church today.

This is something totally different, though.

American citizens are Constitutionally assured the freedom to practice religion (or not) without government interference or restriction. Sunday is traditionally a religious holiday for Christians, and this is a heavily-Christian area of Maryland. Example: classified ads in the local newspaper are replete with the statement "No Sunday sales" whether the advertiser is selling a used car, homemade quilts, clothing alterations, or pit bull puppies. I felt sick in the gut at the idea of knocking on their doors with government business, interrupting the sanctuary of their day of rest and worship as if it were just like any other day. My own religious freedom is violated if I am required to intrude on that of others. I believe it is ethically objectionable for the government to make this intrusion or require its workers to make it.

I said no. I told them why. They gave my assignment to someone else. She came and picked up my paperwork and I told her how to get to the area and off she went.

I'm not fired. My supervisor said I was not the only one not accepting a Sunday assignment. I may be working tomorrow, if everything didn't get done today. And I'm still eligible for re-hire for the next round of operations.

Thankfully, our freedom (so far, anyway) does not allow termination of employment for religious belief, or for consideration of others' religious practices.

IT MADE THE PAPER!!

2010-03-12T20:14:00.005-05:00

I sent my photo of our son's snowed-in swingset to our local paper, The Republican (can you guess the political leanings of most of the people here?) and they published it as illustrative of the extreme conditions our area has experienced this winter. It's the first time I've ever had a photo published in a newspaper. The caption described "...a shot of the backyard of Jon Hamilton....Taken by his mom, Ellie, the photo has in the foreground the tiptop of his children's swing set, which is approximately seven feet tall."

Does that count as a byline?

HIKING THE CENSUS TRAIL

2010-03-11T22:28:00.003-05:00

Did I mention that I have a temporary job canvassing homes as a Census Enumerator? They used to call it "Census Taker." I guess "Enumerator" sounds more official. I think it sounds like an Arnold Schwarzenegger role: "I AM THE ENUMERATOR!!!!!"

If the outer reaches of Garrett County, MD were not still under snow, checking off the address list would be so much easier. The area I had today.... well, some of the houses were plowed out. Some of the roads were passable. Some addresses I could reach by driving around the long way and accessing them from the other end of the road. Some I could see from the road but what I could not see was a driveway or anything resembling one.

The reason they were not plowed out was, these are mostly vacation homes in an upscale resort community. No one lives there. But they have addresses so they have to get a Census questionnaire.

Actually a few people live there. I actually contacted a person at a couple of places. Mostly I left questionnaires in plastic bags on doorknobs, after hiking up what might have been their driveway, or just through the woods, in knee-to-thigh-deep snow.

The Census Bureau had better be grateful. They can't be, though, because they won't know. The people who made the maps don't know that road signs have disappeared, as have the roads they identified. Whoever did the initial canvassing to ascertain addresses, last year, didn't do it through 2 feet of snow. Yes, that's what we still have. I used our GPS a lot. I hiked a lot.

If someone had to go out there, it should have been someone with a lot of endurance, someone strong, maybe some kind of athlete, a marathon-runner or backpacker or something, because they would have had to hike the Appalachian Trail to be ready for this. Oh, wait, that's me.

And because it was so like hiking (although on the Trail, I only had to deal with about 3 inches of snow) it was actually pretty enjoyable. Figuring out the best route through the woods to the house, post-holing through, knee-deep one step, then the next step hitting a low place and sinking to my hip; falling, grabbing branches for balance and leverage -- it was right down my alley. The funny thing was, along with my hiking boots, wool knee socks, and waterproof hiking pants, I was wearing a sleevless top and light sweater because it was 60*F, and charging through the snow like that got me all sweated up. But my boots have lost their waterproofing, and my feet got soaked. I was driving with my windows open and the heater going full-blast on the floor.

For my lunch break I drove back out to the community entrance where there was a parking lot in front of a closed office building, poured water out of my boots and wrung out my socks. Water streamed from them. Then I ran the heater full-blast from everywhere -- put my socks over the defroster to dry out a little and warm up, my boots (filled with paper napkins) on the floor and propped my cold feet up in front of the dash vents, with all the windows open because it was so hot in the car. I ate cheese and Rice Krispies Bars and drank water from a Powerade bottle. It truly felt like a Trail lunch, complete with sock-airing. When I was done for the day, I poured water out of my boots and wrung out my socks again, and then wrung them out again when I got home, because they had gotten so wet again just from being in my boots.

As on the Trail, there is no way my boots will dry overnight. They're beside a heater vent, but the weather is now unseasonably warm, and the furnace will probably not come on during the night.

Well, I have been homesick for hiking. And I get paid for this.

But it's sorta nuts.

THE SNOWIEST WINTER EVER

2010-02-27T17:15:00.003-05:00

Garrett County, MD is known for getting the most annual snowfall of any area in the state -- about 116 inches. But this is ridiculous. In the course of three storms since February 5, with no thaws in between, we're close to 250" now for the season.

We got the first storm three weeks ago on a Friday, followed by a second one on Tuesday. After the first storm, the snow was up to my hips (I'm about 5'1".) The second brought it up to my waist. Then we got just dribbling stuff, a couple or 3 inches every day or two, until our total on-the-ground measurement was 53 inches as of last weekend.

Our F250 truck after the second storm.

Digging out the car.

We dug out the truck just a couple days ago. We did not shovel INTO the truck bed; this is how it fell from the sky.

Then, this Thursday and Friday, the day after we shoveled out the truck, we got a third storm. Various sites and sources are waying it was 21 inches. It's hard to tell, since it was accompanied by high winds that blew it into amazing drifts.

I'm not sure what's actual snowfall and what's drift, but this is our son's backyard: in the background, his smokehouse; in the foreground, his daughters' swingset. It's a normal-size swingset.

Here's a zoomed-in shot of the swingset, taken from his back deck.

How do you like them apples???

A CHEERFUL GIVER

2010-01-17T13:41:00.002-05:00

As so often happens, on a Sunday when I've been thinking, "I should go to church but I don't feel like it," and then I break down and go, it turns out that had I decided to stay home I'd have really missed something.

Today it was Chapter 9 of II Corinthians, which contains the familiar verse, "God loveth a cheerful giver."

I haven't been.

In the context of the sermon, it was mostly about material gifts, but I started thinking midstream, this isn't about my money or my hand-me-downs, it's about me.

I have not given cheerfully of myself. Not for a long time. I've given grudgingly, often with expectation of fair play. I'll do X for you if you'll do Y for me. Or, correspondingly, I won't do X for you if you don't do Y for me. As well as, since you don't do Y for me, I won't do X for you. Maybe if I stop doing X for you you'll learn you should be doing Y for me.

Doing X in expectation of Y isn't being a cheerful giver. Jesus didn't say, "I'll die for you IF you...." He just did it.

Unconditional giving. I hope I'm up to it.

Snowflake Chase 5-miler 2010

2010-01-16T16:05:00.003-05:00

Well. You didn't know I was working up to a race, did you? Neither did I. At least, not until the Pittsburgh Marathon, which is May 2.

Anyway, I decided, what the heck, there's this Snowflake Chase 5-miler, less than half-an-hour away, why not go see? Other than SavageMan, it's the first race I've run since the Austin Marathon in 2008. Based on my current lolly-gagging workout times, I thought I might pull off a sub-55 at Snowflake.

Son of a gun. My time was 47:00. I had to bust ass to get it, but it predicts a 4:36:55 marathon finish. Now, if were to lose 10 pounds, it could take 20 minutes off my marathon time, right? I think that's the formula, 2 minutes per pound of weight loss. Or maybe it's 2 seconds per minute per pound. Ten pounds, 20 seconds, would turn 10-minute miles to 9:40 miles, which again, would do it if everything else goes absolutely perfectly.

Suddenly a Boston Qualifier of 4:15 doesn't seem so impossible. Except, I worked so hard today for just 5 miles..... keeping that up for 21.2 more miles seems.... well .... impossible.

Average pace was 9:43, which is EXACTLY what I need at Pittsburgh.

I wasn't sure where I'd stack up in the age groups today. From 25-29 on, the AG winners' times being called out were 5-10 minutes longer than mine. But when the RD started with the 55-59 women, suddenly the times dropped like rocks and I placed third (out of probably three.) Nevertheless, I was only a couple minutes behind the AG winner. I have noted, since starting running a quarter-century ago, that my AG has some FAST WOMEN.

Well, on to marathon planning, and working on the 10 pounds. As I've described, I haven't been doing all that well at Weight Watchers. It only works if you work it. Imagine that.

TREADMILL

2010-01-07T20:16:00.002-05:00

My mother has a treadmill which she actually walks on sometimes. At 88 she doesn't go outdoors if there's snow on the ground, so she got this treadmill a couple years ago and has spells of walking on it at 1mph for 5 or so minutes twice a day.

It's snowed here nearly every day for the last two weeks and been bone-chilling cold. I got in an 11-mile run last Wednesday when we visited our daughters in Columbus, OH. It was cold but the roads were clear.

The last 2 days, I've done an hour a day on the elliptical while I was working at the gym. Today I was off, so I just did an hour on Mom's treadmill.

It's set on a little incline, which made it hard to keep up even 12-minute miles. You can change the incline but you have to take off these little support legs and reposition them. Too much trouble, when the small incline can only make me stronger. I took walk breaks of about a minute every 5 minutes, since it was too soon after dinner, which felt like it was in my throat rather than my stomach.

Still kind of a bummer to run for an hour and see only 4.3 miles when I've got this delusion I can run a 4:15 at the Pittsburgh Marathon, May 2, and qualify for Boston. Yeah, I'm on this qualify-for-Boston jag again. It's not gonna happen unless I get my weight down around 115. And that's not gonna happen if I keep eating like I have been.

MORE ON FOOD AND EATING

2010-01-05T21:10:00.002-05:00

First off, I'm just plain addicted to eating. It doesn't even have to be anything I like. My husband bought butterscotch-ripple ice cream b/c he knows I don't like butterscotch. I ate it anyway. (Butterscotch is one of maybe 5 tastes I really do not like. Others are: okra, hard-cooked egg yolks, liver, wasabi.)

I don't have to be hungry either. I can be not-hungry and still eat something I don't even like just to be eating.

My mother, whom I dearly love, used to make me eat things I didn't like so that maybe I'd "learn" to like it. Mostly, I did, with the result that I now eat anything that's not nailed down, whether I like it or not.

While I was hiking, I couldn't eat enough. I was ALWAYS hungry and trying to eat ENOUGH and still lost 20 pounds. I've read that rebound weight-gain is a common problem for long-distance hikers. I thought I could keep it from happening to me :-(

I'm watching "Biggest Loser" as I write this. Maybe I'm petty to quibble about 10 or 12 pounds. But I hate the way I look in mirrors, of which there are plenty at the gym where I work and in my mother's house. They're a constant reminder, but they don't keep me from eating myself silly.

WHAT WORKS FOR YOU?

2010-01-04T20:30:00.002-05:00

To control your weight, or lose if that's your intention?

Low-fat? Low-cal? Low-carb? Weight Watchers? Weigh Down? Do-it-yourself?

I'm currently going to Weight Watchers but it emphasizes low-fat/low cal and I don't really believe in that. I believe more in fat-burning via limiting carbohydrates, and/or in eat-when-hungry, don't-eat-if-not-hungry, stop-when-full.

Except I can't stick with any of those for more than half a day. Actually I can't stick with WW for more than that long either.

I WANT FOOD!!!! I want lots of food, even though in a global sense I consider it vaguely obscene to have to plan and follow programs (even pay for them) to lose weight when in so many places it's impossible to get enough to eat to achieve a normal weight.

But we live where we live, including in the body we live in.

It's hard to believe that just a few months ago I was too thin.

Not anymore. I ate my way right back to the size I was when I started hiking last April 1. I would have been OK with putting back 10 pounds, but not all 20 plus a couple more. I have moments (heck, out with it, call it days, weeks) of self-hate and self-disgust because I can't reign in my desire for food.

Unlimited salad and leafy greens don't cut it. Weight Watchers calls anything that's mostly water a "Filling Food" and says eat them liberally, they'll keep you full longer. Like fruits and vegetables and lean protein and skim milk. Fat-free milk is called a "Filling Food" whereas milk with any fat content is not. Tuna packed in water is "filling," while tuna packed in oil is not.

I guess anything works if you work it. Which I mostly don't. For more than half a day.

OVERWHELMED AT NEW YEAR'S

2010-01-02T18:38:00.002-05:00

So at the annual turning of the year, you're supposed to make a resolution that's going to change your life. Or several resolutions.

I better take this to my other blog, "Ellie's List of Lists."

One thing I do want:

I just turned 58, three days before Christmas. I would like to enter my 60's, two years from now, in the best physical, mental, and spiritual shape I've ever been in.

Or at least the best physical shape.

I still want to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail. That will probably have to wait until my mother is no longer physically with us. She thinks she can live alone, but I think differently. I didn't realize how disabled she is, until I started living with her. She can't live alone. I can't leave for more than a few days. AT is off for an indefinite period of time.

But granddaughter Abbie, who will be 7 at the end of this month, sounded very excited last night when I suggested she and I take some hikes with backpacks and stay all night in tents. I said hike for the afternoon, make camp, fix supper, sleep in tents, and hike back the next day, and she said, "No! LOTS!!" She still has trouble saying all that's in her head but I said, "What, more than one night?" And she repeated, "LOTS!! Nother night, and nother night, and nother night!!"

Well, maybe not THAT much -- how much mileage can a smallish-for-age 7-yr-old handle? -- but maybe a couple nights. Abbie would be a fun little backpacking partner.

Her dad, our son, likes it, too. Maybe he and I could do Maryland together on the AT. It should only take 4 or 5 days.

Anyway, I have to take care of myself so that in 5 or 10 years I can thru-hike. I'll be that year's Old Lady of the Mountains.

As for getting my life into some form of predictabiliby, purpose, and plan..... guess I'll go over to Ellie's List of Lists.

CHESTNUTS ROASTING ON AN OPEN FIRE

2009-12-08T22:47:00.002-05:00

OK, is this activity a fond, familiar part of everyone's Christmas memories?

How many of you actually roast chestnuts as part of your holiday celebration?

Has anyone EVER done it? In the last hundred years, anyway?

WORD PUZZLE

2009-12-07T18:42:00.002-05:00

This question was posed by "Freebird" one evening on the Appalachian Trail, as a bunch of us sat cooking, rinsing clothes, eating, sorting gear, and whatever else we did in the evenings.

Name 10 parts of the human body that have only three letters. Authentic words, that a doctor would use: in other words, "tit" and "ass" don't count. Nor does the one contributed last night by my 88-year-old mother, "nut."

OK, gang, have at it.

SURPRISE

2009-11-22T16:40:00.002-05:00

Heh, I'm posting on my blog.... that should surprise whatever former readers of mine must have surely written me off by now.

Catching up:

That "inspirational talk" went well, I guess. I enjoyed it myself, anyway. I didn't plan a bit of it, except to take my backpack. I just told about my trip, off the top of my head. My audience seemed to like it .... they seemed to be paying attention, laughed when I said something funny, said "Ooh" when I described something that had been difficult, were impressed when I showed how I just swing my backpack up over my shoulders. Afterwards, they gave me a big golf umbrella, since a couple of them had been reading my trail blog and liked the story about getting caught in a rainstorm and then changing my clothes in a shelter full of men.

What else, since I've updated on anything at all in my life?

Well.... Steve and I have moved in with my mother. No longer RV-ing full-time, for now. I don't feel comfortable anymore with her living by herself. Also, staying here, we are handy to help our son Jon with the care of his daughters. It feels strange to be living in a house. We have our own "apartment" -- a bedroom, a small room we've made into a living room, and a full bath. We share the kitchen, usually eat dinner as a family, the three of us.

I lost 20 pounds in my three months of hiking the Appalachian Trail, and I've gained it all back. It was inevitable.... in real life how could I keep off the results of hiking 15 miles over mountains day after day carrying a 30-pound pack? Even training for SavageMan I gained.

I'm a lifetime member of Weight Watchers, and last week I started going to meetings again. Cutting back on my food has been a shock. I've managed to pull it off about 3 days out of the 7. I don't think I'll have any loss to show at tomorrow's weigh-in. Next week I'll try for 4 days. I just don't have what it takes to suddenly start eating 18 "Points" worth of food a day when I've been piling it in. Yeah, 18. Based on my height, age, gender, and overall activity level (this means all day, not just a workout), that's my base. Now, this is the equivalent of maybe 1200 calories and I'll tell you what, that's not enough for me, small though I am. Well, everyone has 35 optional "Flex" points per week that can be eaten or not, wherever and whenever. I've tried using these to up my daily allotment to 20, then 22. Still not able to stick to it day after day. We also get extra points for exercise, and I use those to the max. But I'll tell you what, I'm still hungry. I'm thinking, we're all different, which is worked in by allowing for age, height, gender, activity level, etc., but I may simply need more food than someone else of my same age, height, gender, and activity level. So I'm going to bump it up to 25 points a day, which comes out to roughly 1500 calories, and see what happens.

That's enough for one post. Thanks for reading!

SAVAGEMAN PICS

2009-09-30T15:37:00.004-04:00

They only have pics of me on the bike, but they're nice!

Note especially #5 (the other person in the photo is a guy walking his bike up Killer Miller Hill) and #12 (the guy falling in front of me on the Wall.) Just so's you know I told the truth! :-)

Too bad I've gained back 2/3 of the weight I lost on the Appalachian Trail.... it shows in the photos :-( Time for the yo-yo to go back down.

INSPIRATION? MOTIVATION?

2009-09-29T15:14:00.002-04:00

People keep telling me, reading my blog posts, and sometimes my Facebook page, that I'm such an inspiration.

I have even been invited.... this blows my mind and scares me to death.... to give a talk to the annual meeting of the Department of Natural Resources State Secretaries' meeting next week. A motivational talk. About what has interested, or inspired, or motivated, or compelled, me to do the "amazing things I've done."

???????

What, indeed? I guess, since so many people have said they find my aspirations and accomplishments inspiring..... they must be.

So what has inspired me? Or interested, or motivated, or compelled me, to undertake and usually achieve the things people seem to be finding so inspiring?

Well..... because they're there. To see if I can do it. To see if I can do it again. To see if I can do it better, or stronger, or without feeling so awful during or after. To see if there's a better way to do it. Better than I've done it before, or better than I've heard or read of it being done. Better meaning, without the difficulties someone else had. Or, maybe with the same difficulties, but knowing about them ahead of time and being prepared to deal with them.

Sigh...... I don't know what to say in this talk. I kind of feel like all I've done is what the Nike slogan says: Just do it.

I like what Yoda says, too: "Do, or do not; there is no try."

I can't see myself standing there at the annual meeting of a statewide group saying, "Look at me, I've done all these things, am I inspiring or what?"

Good grief. Help.

SAVAGEMAN AT LAST!!!

2009-09-23T19:10:00.002-04:00

After four years of wanting to do this race!! I've wanted to do it before it WAS a race -- when Kyle Yost staged a trial run to see if it was feasible. That year, it was too close to IM Florida. The next year (the inaugural year) we were away. Last year, I registered, started training, then got that damned Achilles tear. This year...... I'm FINALLY a SAVAGEMAN!!!

This is by far the best-organized and best-supported race I have ever participated in, in 20 years of I can't imagine how many races altogether, but 22 marathons, 3 half-iron triathlons, and 2 full Ironmans. More volunteers than I've ever seen, and they were the most enthusiastic ones I've ever seen, too. The rangers from Deep Creek Lake State Park and the State and County Police officers were outstanding.

Guess what was in the goodie bag instead of a t-shirt? Arm warmers! For the bike ride! Black ones, printed with "Tri-To-Win SavageMan Triathlon." Love 'em! I didn't have any, and was thrilled. (Finishers got a finisher's shirt at the end.)

I have started and deleted 2 race reports over the last hour. I get into it and decide I'm being too wordy, too detailed, got to start over..... maybe I can just do highlights now and write a full report in sections over the next few days.

My race goals were:

Finish within the cutoff time of 8.5 hours.
Ride all hills, no walking my bike.
Ride up the Westernport Wall, earning a brick with my name in it inlaid in the road.

Swim: 46 minutes. This is the official time; my watch said 55, so I don't know what the discrepancy is and I'm not going to investigate! I'll take it. I stepped on a large splinter on my way to the water, had to pull it out; it didn't bother me in the race but it's been sore since.

Transition #1: Slow. I took time to dry off well, take a potty break, and eat half a PB&J sandwich. I put on my arm-warmers but didn't wear the long-sleeved shirts and jackets I saw a lot of other riders sporting.

Bike: Well!! By mile 18, reaching Westernport where The Wall is, my average speed was 18.5mph, compared to my usual 16.5 at that point. I thought, YEE-HAWW! I'm gonna rock this course!! But later..... well, maybe it was the too-fast first 18 miles that made my whole ride almost 40 minutes longer than my most recent training ride of the same course.

Westernport Wall: I took my sweet time up the first three hills, snaking back and forth across the streets to reduce the incline. With only The Wall left, I was relaxed (had thought I'd be shaking with stage fright and adrenaline) and not winded at all from the preceding climbs, and I put the hammer down and tackled it. The sidewalks were lined with spectators 4 deep, yelling and ringing cowbells and blowing horns. They cheered me on: "Come on, push it, come on, push it honey, you got it, you got it, lookit 'er go, you got it, you got it, AAWWWWWwwwwwww ......" I had veered just slightly to the left and might have recovered and gone straight after all had a guy not just that moment fallen right there. There was no way I could go around him. I had just enough of a split second to unclip and dismount to avoid hitting him. I had made it about 3/4 of the way up.

You only get one try at the Wall. If you don't make it, you pick up your bike and walk up the grass on the side of the street. Which I did. After all my hype about the Wall and a brick with my name engraved in it, I didn't even feel disappointed. I tried it, I gave it my all, I had bad luck, oh well, let's get this bike up the hill, I've got a race to finish. I still don't feel any major disappointment. It's just one of those things I knew could happen, and it did; no big deal. Next time....

After the Wall comes Big Savage Mountain. With no flat or downhill in between. You crest the Wall and keep on climbing. I was off my bike from walking the rest of the Wall and couldn't get clipped in and going. Couldn't get the momentum on one foot to get the other clipped in, and fell, spilling all the sweet tea out of my aero bottle that I'd just refilled, gashing my ankle in a way that almost looks like a "Don't Go There" slash through my Ironman tattoo. I had to walk it the 100 yards or so to the clothing-drop station ahead, where there was a little flat pull-off. (Clothing drop was for the warm duds we'd put on in T-1, when we were wet and facing a 4-mile fast descent on a cool fall morning. We wouldn't need them the rest of the ride.)

The thing I liked best about Big Savage, and the other horrendous hills as well, was riding (repeat, riding) past men half my age who were walking their bikes. Other than having to quit the Wall and then not being able to get started, I did not walk my bike at all. A lot of riders did.

No, wait, that's not totally true. Twice on long hills my chain fell off, not a big deal, easy to fix, but again, on the steep hill I couldn't get going again. Rather than walk up those hills, though, I walked my bike back DOWN so I could get a new start from the bottom. It was my goal to RIDE every hill unless I fell.

Y'know what, folks..... I'm tired. And I have to be at work at the gym tomorrow morning at 7. I'll finish this in another post. Stay tuned!

READY TO ROLL

2009-09-19T09:50:00.003-04:00

Preparations for SavageMan are rolling here at Deep Creek Lake State Park -- the inflatable buoys are in place in the lake, there are signs directing and encouraging athletes (a sign on the first stiff hill, just half a mile into the course, says "Let's Get This Party Started!!") All through the campground here, where we've lived since I left the Appalachian Trail, there are campers with cool road and tri bikes on their cars or locked to their picnic tables. I just met Julie, first real-life meeting with this email friend who put the SavageMan bug into my ear 4 years ago.

Four years! The first year, which was an unsupported "trial run" (the "0th Annual SavageMan Triathlon"), I didn't participate because it was too close to IronMan Florida for me to recover fully and continue to train. The next year, the inaugural running, we either left too early or got back too late with whatever work-camping commitment we had; I forget. Last year, the second year, I was registered but then tore my Achilles tendon and was out, although I did do the swim. It was my first-ever DNF in 20+ years of races. (I guess I just had my second DNF in June, by not continuing the Appalachian Trail.)

This year, I'm IN!!! I've stayed uninjured, I've fought off the inevitable taper-week cold with tons of vitamin C, I've stayed calm and collected this last week, and I'm IN!!!

The weather is going to be perfect. Low 54*F (about 57* by the time I get out of the water and onto the bike), high 68*, partly sunny/cloudy, only 10% chance of rain (that's as good as zero.) Not too cold, not too hot, wind from SE at 7mph..... couldn't ASK for better.

I am breaking my "no training the last week" rule and going for a short brick: Bike ride up the first hilly road, where that cute sign is, (Toothpick Road, Garrett County is notorious for its weird road names), do a loop for another short steep hill, then come back and run one loop around the campground. They say don't do anything new the day before a race but I always break the rules. I've never done this before but I need to loosen up.

Then it's on to packet pickup and bike check-in, mandatory athlete safety meeting ("This is a highly technical and dangerous course....") and then relax for the rest of the day.

I don't even have my transition bags packed and you know what, I'm not spazzing. I'll just throw some stuff in some bags and be ready. No obsessive sorting and resorting. I've done enough half and full Ironman races that I know the drill and have a list here.

This was going to be a short post. I guess I'm more excited than I thought!

Pray for me, if you're a praying person. And if you're not, then send good vibes. I want one of those bricks :-)

TWO DAYS OUT

2009-09-18T11:30:00.002-04:00

I've cleaned surface dirt off my bike and done a few other get-it-ready things:

Switch new computer-holder-gizmo to other side of aerobars to make room for aerobottle
Take off hand-pump holder, since I've lost my hand pump
Taped down the spring-loaded armrests on my aerobars: I discovered, falling on the Wall, that a smack to the armrest will snap a zip-tie. Luckily that day I had duct tape. I've replaced that with less-conspicuous electrical tape.
Cleaned out my water bottles and aerobottle tube and stopper (a shower pouf.)

That duct tape... electrical tape....

My bike does not look like the spiffy, pristine tri-bikes a lot of the racers have. My bike serves me as real wheels much of the time. I ride it to work, to my mother's place, to wherever I need to go when I can't use the truck, or when I need training, or when I don't want to use diesel fuel. My bike has been used, not just "ridden." It is a vehicle, not a toy.

My paint has chips and scratches. The bar tape on my aeros is chewed up from a fall and I decided that, since that doesn't impair its function, the marginal cost of replacing it isn't worth it, even though I'd look classier.

I have red reflective tape on parts of the frame for times I've needed to ride at dusk. This is nearly impossible to remove, and also has chips, scratches, and gouges from falls.

It looks like a serviceable road bike that's given a lot of service, because that's what it is .... not a jazzy, snazzy racer bike.

My saddle pack and top-tube food carrier have obviously seen better days. I could have replaced both but decided to keep them and save the $40.

I am not going to look classy, but everything I have works.

My helmet is 4 years old, but it passed inspection. It's got old sticky stuff on it from previous race numbers. It's not one of those pointy outer-space aero helmets, either. Nor is it shiny anymore.

My only pair of bike shorts is in the sink being handwashed, since we don't have a washing machine (live in an RV.)

I'm going to wear my bright blue and orange Ironman Florida jersey.

That, plus my age in plain sight on my calf, should put the fear of God into 'em.

SHOULD HAVE.....

2009-09-17T19:53:00.002-04:00

..... been posting about my summer and my SavageMan training and my adjustment to life off the Trail.

But, as I learned on the Trail, "Should have" is a useless thing to say. The fact is, I haven't, and I regret it. My emotions have changed, evolved, and morphed over the summer and I'd have done well to record it. I haven't had the heart for it. I've been holing in on the sofa a lot, reading books (on the Trail I often felt I'd give a lot for a chance to lie on a sofa with a good book); I've been spending totally unproductive time playing FarmTown on Facebook. I've mostly kept up my training but have had a hard time getting or staying interested in anything else. I got a message the other evening from my hiking partner, Jim Dandy. He's not at Katahdin yet but has reached Maine. He was about 230 miles from finishing when I called him and we talked for awhile. It made me want to go back to the Trail as soon as I can manage it. I've been looking at new recipes for dishes that will dehydrate well.

I've been asked by two of my readers for an update, which I find very gratifying and flattering. Folks are wondering about me?

OK, here's the scoop.

SavageMan is coming up on Sunday!!! I'm as ready as I can be... certainly can't get any readier at this point. Well, yes, I can, by eating well and resting well and staying calm.

Calm was a problem until I stopped freaking out about the impossible hill called The Westernport Wall, and started picturing myself pedalling up it "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms." I went to a different church on Sunday, last minute decision, and that song was on the agenda, as well as "Love Lifted Me," also very appropos.... lift me right up that hill! The Wall is what it is and my attack on it will be what it will be. I've tried it 8 times now, made it twice.

I've ridden the entire bike course 4 times. The first time is described in my previous post. Ride #2 went differently: no bears except the hills themselves. Tried the Wall 5 times and fell 5 times, gave it up and went on. Decided the climb up Big Savage Mountain was a lot harder than I'd remembered. Didn't think Otto Lane and Maynardier Ridge were all that bad; Killer Miller Hill sucked.

Ride #3: Did not even try the Wall, rode around it. Big Savage still very impressive; Otto Lane not too bad; Maynerdier Ridge joined Killer Miller in "Hills that Suck."

Ride #4: Rode around the Wall again. Stopped at the top, looked down, thought, "From up here it doesn't look all that bad..." Walked down it, started from maybe 50 feet away on a cross street to get a little start, and ground up it. Several times I thought I was a goner and each time was surprised to find myself still upright and the pedals still turning. But I made it. On to Big Savage, which had gotten steeper and longer since my last time; Otto Lane finally joined the "Hills that Suck" list. But I finished the ride in 4 hours and 23 minutes, 7 minutes faster having ridden both around and up the Wall, than the last time when I'd ridden only around it. I'm not going for time, here; just hoping to beat the cutoff so I'll be allowed to run and finish the race. You are required not only to summit the Wall but also to finish the race, to get that brick.

On Sunday, the only way they can keep me off that Wall is to close the street. I am going to attack it. Going around is a valid option, no penalty for it; but, if I don't even ATTEMPT the Wall, I stand NO chance of getting a brick. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

In the Half-Iron-distance race, I am the oldest female registered, the only one in my age group (55-59), and the only female from Garrett County, MD, the host county. I've been through previous years' registration lists, and I'm the oldest female ever to register. Which means I'll also be the oldest female finisher in the race's history. A feather in my cap even if I fall on the Wall!

But I want one of those bricks. My name engraved in a brick for an accomplishment, and that brick inlaid in the city street where I accomplished it. Eventually there will be a stone somewhere with my name engraved on it, but I'd like one for something I did in LIFE.

Three more sleeps. I pray for dreams laced with victory.

THREE BEARS ON A BIKE RIDE

2009-08-03T17:11:00.002-04:00

Could be the title of a children's story, but actually this is a training-ride report.

Yup, saw 3 bears on my ride. One mama-cub duo, and one other adult. The mama and cub surprised me, and no doubt they were surprised, too, when I whizzed past where they were taking a drink out of a ditch, just off to the right of the road. The cub wasn't much bigger than a basketball. Mama jerked her head up but I was already past them when I heard her startled "Whuf!" I glanced over my shoulder but she wasn't giving pursuit.

The next one was halfway down a straight hill, so I saw it a hundred yards or so ahead, slowed down just a tad and yelled at it: "Yo, bear! I'm coming! Move, git!!" It did. When I passed the spot, it was nowhere to be seen.

I had planned a 3.5-hour ride, headed to Westernport to check out the Wall, maybe try to ride it, keep going till 1.75 hours, then turn around and ride back home.

I changed plans, though, and kept going on the course instead of doing an out-and-back. Seemed there wasn't much point in re-riding the course backwards when I could keep going forwards and see what more of the course was like. After about 35 miles, I passed a turn-off and kept straight so that I looped back home instead of finishing the course, totalling about 48 miles.

Guess what, I rode up the Wall. It goes up for 3 blocks, with 2 cross-streets, so after each block I rested on the cross-street for a minute or two before tackling the next block. The third block is the worst. The pavement is in terrible condition, with holes and cracks, grass growing up out of the cracks, patched spots that are rough, plus the pitch is 31%. It's been closed to cars for years. My back tire skidded a couple times when I guess I lifted the front wheel up off the road pulling forwards -- gotta watch that. But I made it up. Lowest granny gear, but I made it. Actually, I probably will go a gear or two higher next time: I was standing on the pedals and the low granny was actually a little too low; I think it made me wobble.

I guess those 3 sections could also be called "three bears on a bike ride."

At the top I stopped, got off the bike, took a whiz in the woods, and settled down before continuing up Big Savage Mountain.

The alleged 7-mile, 1,950-foot climb up Big Savage wasn't all that bad. I stayed in my low gears and moseyed easily up. It would go up, then level off, up, then level.... not bad at all. I wondered if I was even on the right road, it was so much less taxing than I'd expected.

I didn't need my cue sheet; the route is clearly marked with paint, with plenty of advance notice of turns, curves, and scary descents. When I reached the turn-off where I could continue the course or go home, I went home, which was 13 or so miles. I knew exactly where I was, having ridden/driven that road a jillion times. It's on the way to my mom's house.

Neither of my bike computers is working, so I had my stopwatch running and then figured my mileage with a combination of the cue sheet and G-maps. 48.1 miles, time 3:55, = 12.3mph average, including several stops, the Wall, Big Savage, and the large number of other Garrett County, MD hills and long grades. It was actually very nice not having the computers. I just kept my gears easy and had a nice, no-pressure ride.

Next week I'll do the whole course. It's not as bad as I thought it would be. There are two or three more "bears" on the part of the course I didn't do, including one called "Killer Miller Hill," which some SavageMen have said is the worst of all, although it doesn't get its own page at the Savageman site.

I guess we could say Savageman's "Three Bears" are the Westernport Wall, Big Savage Mountain, and "Killer Miller Hill," whicih, of course, I haven't tackled yet. We shall see!

I'm happy, and relieved. Except for the Wall, so far this is just the Garrett County bike-riding I've been doing for years. I can do this.

SOMEONE FINALLY SAID IT

2009-07-29T22:16:00.002-04:00

I hadn't been able to put my finger on the answer before, no matter how hard I thought about it and how hard I tried.

The answer to the question asked of me on the Trail, by hikers, non-hikers, and by my own self:
"Why are you out here? Why are you doing this?"

I was watching the TV broadcast of the Ironman World Championship in Kona (it was on NBC last Saturday.) A participant who was a Navy Seal said, "You do this to test your soul."

To test your soul. That's the answer I've been looking for.

The great Christian writer Oswald Chambers said, "The author who benefits you most is not the one who teaches you something you did not know, but who puts into words what you have been struggling dumbly to express."

It's not the answer to why I run marathons or why I do triathlons, even the two Ironman triathlons I've completed. Those are physical tests. I guess my spirit is challenged to go through with marathon or Ironman training, but the events themselves don't test my soul.

Hiking the Appalachian Trail did. And I found I wasn't up to it. I have to develop some more before I can undertake that soul-test again. I have to develop and mature and change in a number of areas before I'll be ready. I thought I was ready. I guess I was ready to start.... just not ready to keep on.

Partly it was my body. My body was ready to start but not to continue past 1,000 miles.

But it was also my soul. Part of my soul is still out there, with my friends who are now in New York.

My AT hike is still a work in progress. So am I.

ONE OR THE OTHER BUT NOT BOTH

2009-07-23T11:34:00.002-04:00

Nope, this isn't about leaving the AT and returning to real life.

It's about my bike computers.

Since I started biking 3 weeks ago, my cadence computer hasn't been picking up. I cleaned the sensor, checked the position, checked the wires... still didn't work. Front-wheel sensor working fine, so I had my distance, time, speed, average, and max, but had to guess at my cadence, relying on (of all things) how it felt.

Yesterday I broke down and bought a new front tire (every tube I've put in, since running through the glass, has flatted.) Took both wheels with me in case I decided to buy 2 and have them put on. Ended up buying only one tire. They wanted money to put it on so I said, thanks, but no thanks. If it were free with the purchase, fine, but I can put the tire both wheels back on myself, thankyouverymuch. I'll buy a new rear tire come payday.

It was wonderful today to ride without my front tire going flat. But now.... my FRONT sensor isn't picking up, and, since removing and replacing the wheel, the REAR one is. So now I have cadence feedback but no distance, time, speed, average, or max.

Yes, I put the wheel on right side around. Yes, I've tinkered with the sensor position, and the position of the little gizmo that gives the info to the sensor. I rubbed dirt and dust off both. Nothin'.

Anyway, per schedule I rode for an hour by my watch. No stats other than that my cadence was in the 80's and 90's. I'll credit myself 16 miles: medium-distance, medium-pitch hills, as much downhill as up (for once) and I probably averaged 16. Maybe.

BIKING TO WORK

2009-07-16T21:56:00.003-04:00

Well, I wish I had a video. Or even a photo. But didn't have the foresight to have a photographer accompany me.

My first day at the gym job. I was supposed to open the facility at 7:00a.m. I left at 6:05 on my bike allowing me plenty of time for an effortless 7.5 miles, planning to get there at 7:45.

Until I rode through the glass.

There must have been a wreck. There was crumbled windshield glass all over the road. There was no way I could ride around it, and by the time I saw it, I was already in it.

And of course a tire went immediately flat.

I was only about half a mile out from the gym, and thought, "I could walk the bike there as fast as I can change the flat." So I pulled my running shoes out of my backpack, changed shoes, and started walking.

The County Fairground is right there, and I saw that the lower gate was open. I could cross the hypoteneuse of a right triangle, rather than its sides, by going through the fairgrounds. Good! That'll save time.

Until I discovered that the upper gate, right across the road from the gym entrance, was locked. Chainlink fence, 6 feet high, topped with barbed wire, gate of the same. Locked.

By now, if I go back down through the fairgrounds and back around the right-angle of the road, I will be late. I'm opening the gym; there's no one else there. I can't go back around the road.

I have to get over the fence. Chainlink. Six feet high. With barbed wire at the top.

I saw an above-ground electric box, about 2 feet high, a few yards along the fence. And above the box.... a place where the barbed wire was broken. We're on! It's the only way I can even get close to opening the gym on time.

I climbed up onto the electric box, picked up my bike, hoisted it over the fence, and dropped it down on the other side, keeping my arms out of the way of the barbed wire.

Then I tried to find a foothold.

Yeah, right. Chainlink has little diamond-shaped structures about 2.5 inches across. Standing on the electric box, I only had to climb up about 4 feet of them. But my toes wouldn't fit in, and the little x's formed by the chainlink structure protruded above the top rail, even where the barbed wire was broken. I had to navigate over those sharp wire x's as well as through the little sagging place in the barbed wire.

It took half a dozen tries. I had to find a handhold between the x's to give me some leverage and stability, and stick the tips of the toes of my bike shoes in between the chainlinks and hope friction or something would hold me in place, while I dodged the sharp x's and maneuvered into the narrow spot where the barbed wire was loose.

I had to unhook my shorts from the fencing and barbed wire several times, while not losing my grip with the other hand. From the top of the fence, it was 6 feet down (no electric box on the other side.) I dropped my daypack over as something, anything, to land/fall on.

Several cars passed during all this. No one stopped to see if I needed help or to ask what the heck I was doing. I guess a small, skinny, older woman in shorts and a bike helmet, climbing over a barbed-wire-topped chainlink fence at the fairgrounds with her bike waiting on the other side, is an everyday occurrence.

I prayed, "Lord, I'm training for SavageMan... Please don't let me get hurt."

And with that, I Spidermanned up one side, through the hooks and spikes, and down the other. I was not hurt. My clothes were not torn. I was over!!

I had the gym open at 5 minutes before 7.

Whew!!

BACK TO LIFE

2009-07-15T14:53:00.004-04:00

Yesterday I went back to bed, after an hour-long birdwatching walk with a group from the park, during which I still felt so miserable I wanted to just go home and cry. I felt a lot better after I slept a couple more hours. Then I went with my mother to the viewing of a friend of hers, whose death we hadn't even known about when we got up yesterday morning (although I knew about it by birdwatching time, another reason I was miserable.) I skipped the planned swim and bike, took a rest day. I've been knocking myself out grinding my bike up hills with no particular plan except increasing the mileage of each ride (I got up to 24 with about a 4-mile killer hill about 5 days ago and was sick the rest of the day.)

Today, by contrast:

Got up at 6:15

Drove (did not bike) to gym where I start part-time job tomorrow, had hour-long orientation

Ran 30 minutes

Went on plant-identification walk with group from park, loved it, learned a lot

Feel much more optimistic, motivated, productive, hopeful; much less tired, remorseful, or depressed.

On my run, I followed Jeff Galloway's suggested run/walk pattern for 9-minute miles: run 2 minutes, walk 30 seconds. Not sure if this is recommended if you're already running 9-min miles (I don't think I am), or if you're hoping to achieve them (that would be nice.) Also not sure I'll stick with that pattern, but for now while I'm still testing and challenging my tendons, it's both conservative and ambitious enough.

I've downloaded and printed Gail Bernhardt's 13-week Ironman training program, to use for my SavageMan Half. My long runs won't have to be as long, but the swim and bike sessions are fine for me just as they are. The longest bike workout is 5 hours, which is just about what the SM course will probably take me (or longer....)

Since I'm 9 weeks out from SavageMan, I jumped into the program at Week 4, which happily is a "rest" week after 3 "build" weeks. I'm amazed at how easy this program is, the relatively few training hours and easy workouts. Reading over it, it became clear to me that I've been working myself far, far too hard, pounding myself too hard for too long on the hills on the bike, and doing too many bricks and 3-way's (all 3 sports in one day.) I've done low-key 1/2 and full IM training before, but somehow thought I needed to put in 2-3 hours a day for this one because of the difficulty of the course and because I've been hiking hills and mountains 8-10 hours a day and wanted to maintain my fitness.

There is no way I can maintain what 8-10 hours a day gave me. I might as well give that up right now, and as a matter of fact I have. What I can do is take that wonderful base and enjoy my 1-1.5 hour tri-training sessions, even if I gain a few pounds and lose a few muscle fibers.

So: tomorrow's training is supposed to be:
1-hour swim
30-min bike

I'm already breaking training, though. I'll bike the 8 miles to and from the gym, which will be about an hour of biking. Working 7-4 tomorrow, alone, my first day there. Luckily I've worked there before, maybe 3 years ago, and not much has changed.

With that work shift and a bike ride home, I probably won't work in the swim. It's OK, though. I really don't need to swim more than once or twice a week, just enough to keep me from panicking at the start of the race, and get me through before the cutoff time, a generous 70 minutes for the 1.2-mile swim. No problem there.

On with the show....

WEEKEND

2009-07-14T06:36:00.002-04:00

We spent the weekend in Columbus, OH, with ALL of our kids and grandkids, and my mother, and Steve's parents.

We had a great barbecued-ribs picnic.

I shared the One-Hundred Pushups website with our 16-yr-old wrestler step-grandson and we did pushups together.

I went running, with our 13-yr-old grandson and 10-yr-old granddaughter along on bikes. One hour, 3 min walk/3 min run, no tendon problems.

We got photos of four generations on both sides of the family.

I hurt a beloved family member badly without meaning to and it continues to haunt me even though we hugged and talked about it. I'd give anything to be able to undo it. Anything. Anything.

I finally made friends with our one-year-old granddaughter.

I jumped on the trampoline with the grandkids until I got motion sick, which was about 90 seconds.

My mother, 6-yr-old granddaughter, and I went to our 10-yr-old granddaughter's gym and watched the last half-hour of her 4-hour gymnastics practice.

I played innumerable alphabet games with our 6-yr-old granddaughter for the 4-5-hour trip both ways in the car. I drove both ways, with her and my mother and my 50-pound dog. Steve and our son and the one-yr-old went in our son's truck.

I came home so drained and exhausted from the highs, lows, and exertions, that I wanted to cry but couldn't.

I went to bed at 8:30 and read Jeff Galloway's "Running Until You're 100." He recommends running every other day at my age. He says nothing about whether the off-days should include bike training for a half-iron triathlon with a 7-mile climb straight up the mountain, and that's only the longest of the climbs (1,950 of the total 5,700 feet of climbing.)

I finally fell asleep after 11 and woke up at 4:30. I don't know how I'm going to train today. I also don't know how I'm going to be ready for this triathlon.

It's not even 7 o'clock in the morning and already I'm discouraged.

COULDA, SHOULDA, WOULDA

2009-07-09T22:37:00.002-04:00

Tonight I'm feeling homesick for the Trail. I miss my hiking companions.

Maybe I should have stayed out there.
If I'd done some things differently, maybe I could have.
If certain things had been otherwise, I would have.

But I didn't, and things are they way they are.

Maybe I shouldn't have stopped.
Maybe I could have kept going.
If I could have.... should I have? Would I?

You know what.... "Should have..." "Would have..." "Could have...."

These are all useless speculations. Whenever we say these words, the fact of the matter is, we didn't. Pondering whether we should have, or would have, or could have, is continuing to try to make a decision that has already made.

The reality is, we didn't. Learn from it, pick it up and go from there; don't waste energy imagining how things might be different if we had, because imagining is all we can do. Better to direct one's power into the reality that is now.

Tomorrow's docket holds some serious hills on the bike. 20 miles, to the bottom of SavageMan's first, 4-mile "dangerous descent" (verbatim from course cue sheet), and then back up it.

I would have been irreparably sorry if my prospects for SavageMan disappeared -- if I chose the Trail, and then, for whatever reason, SavageMan was discontinued. This I knew.

I "could have" broken my ankle out there if I'd kept on, and and not been able to have either the Trail or SavageMan.

This way, I have both.

I RAN!

2009-07-09T10:22:00.003-04:00

One hour, walk/run intervals in a pattern of 3:00/2:00 for a total of 24 minutes of running.

No word from my tendons, during, after, or today. No news is good news.

But my quads are sore. I can't believe it. I've been walking down mountains carrying a 30-pound backpack for 3 months.... I thought I had quads like the gods'. Twenty-four minutes of intermittent running, over very gentle rolls with downhills rarely coinciding with the run segments, made them sore.

Either I'm losing it or it continues to demonstrate, as I've discovered already, that these triathlon sports are not to be equated with hiking. I can't just jump into it as I thought I'd be able to. I have the endurance, and aerobically I'm fine on heavy-duty bike climbs, but my legs.... well, it's not the same. I thought I'd be able easily to knock off 2 or 3 hours of training a day.

Oh, well.... who *needs* 2 or 3 hours a day? It's not like I'm getting paid for this.

I just want to kill the Westernport Wall. Or at least put it out of its misery.

And then continue to ride the remaining 7 miles of Big Savage Mountain with something resembling aplomb.

Go on. Check the links. I dare ya. Well, no, actually I really want you to. This is one hell of a triathlon. I hope I'm up to it.

ADJUSTING

2009-07-08T10:15:00.002-04:00

First, though.... isn't today's date cool? 7/8/9. Won't happen again till 8/9/10.

Our granddaughter Gracie, when she was about 6, had a favorite joke: Why is 6 afraid of 7? Because 7 8 9. We laughed and said it was funny. She told it to us every time we saw her for a couple years. One summer, when she was maybe 9, she asked the question, and I answered: "Because 7 8 9." She was silent a moment and then burst out laughing: "Oh! I get it! Because 7 ate 9!" Then she looked abashed and said, "Took me long enough....."

Anyway....

I'm 6 steps forward and 2 steps back adjusting to off-Trail life. Yesterday was a rest day from training and I couldn't find anything to do with myself except read and eat. I finished John Steinbeck's "Tortilla Flat" -- a hilarious tragedy -- and started a borrow-and-bring-back from a coffee house: Jan Karon's "Home to Holly Springs."

I ate like an idiot. We didn't have any junk food so I made my own out of weird combinations. My weight is up 3 pounds today.... too many carbohydrates = fluid gain. My Google average is up a pound from last week although it still says "Maintaining your weight." I ate a lot of stupid stuff because I couldn't think of anything to do. I could have played the guitar or penny whistle (piano isn't set back up yet) or cleaned out my closet or.... but I didn't. I ate and lay on the couch and read books.

I haven't decided how much weight it's OK to regain. I thought I was 15 pounds overweight at the start of my hike and lost 20-21. I'd like to stay just under where I'd been if I'd lost the 15 -- which is where I am now.

I felt restless and sluggish all day. Maybe I should go take a hike on "rest days." I felt depressed and unmotivated. Hiking all day every day took the decision-making out of the Trail days. Wake up, hike 15-20 miles, stop, eat, sleep. Decisions were like, fill my empty bottle at this creek, or do I have enough in my other bottle to make it to the next one? Never anything like how to fill empty days.

Last night I slept in my sleeping bag on the deck outside our camper. It was cool and breezy and the bag/underpad combination felt right and today I feel better. Going grocery shopping and then out to walk/run on the SMan course, then taking care of Abbie and Sarah for the afternoon and evening.

SAVAGEMAN TRAINING

2009-07-06T21:12:00.002-04:00

I had this idea that, having hiked 8-10 hours a day for 3 months over steep hills, 5,000-ft mountains, rocks and boulders, carrying a 30-pound backpack, it would be a cinch to switch to a couple hours a day of triathlon training carrying *no* pack.

It's not.

My arms and shoulders, accustomed to "poling" with my hiking poles, as well as push-ups, aren't used to swimming.

My legs, hardened to hauling me and my pack up and down hills, aren't used to pedalling.

My back, strengthened to the weight of my backpack, isn't used to riding position on a road bike.

My rib cage muscles, used to heavy breathing over long, slow effort, aren't used to the aerobic intensity of biking up hills.

My feet, accustomed to 15-20 miles a day walking on dirt and rocks in thick-soled leather-and-Goretex hiking boots, aren't used to running on pavement in flexible lightweight fabric running shoes.

I was worried about my Achilles tendons. I wasn't prepared for metatarsal soreness just from flexing my feet more on the road than on the trail. Plus I'm still concerned about my tendons.

My butt, smaller with less cushioning than before, isn't used to the saddle. My sitbones hurt.

Nevertheless, here's the training story:

Last week
Came home from Trail on Monday. Rested Tuesday and Wednesday.

Thursday: 35-minute swim, in wetsuit in lake. Later, one loop of SavageMan run course (6+ miles) walking, 30-second run every 10 minutes for total of 80 minutes with grand total of a whopping 4 minutes of running.

Friday: 16-mile bike, on SavageMan course, average 14.7mph. Saw a black bear, a turkey, and a deer -- more wildlilfe than on any single day on the AT.

Saturday: Rested.

This week
Sunday: Brick consisting of 18-mile bike, including a 2-mile-long uphill and a bunch of shorter ones, 15.7mph avg., then a one-minute walk followed by 5-minute run. No complaints from tendons.

Monday (today): Although my rib muscles were sore from yesterday, 40-minute swim with swim-to-bike transition and easy-spin 11.5 mile bike. Then got ambitious and did 9-minute run.

Tomorrow: I better be careful. Going pretty hard here. And right now, it's 9:30pm and I'm going to bed. Good night!

ONE WEEK LATER

2009-07-06T10:24:00.002-04:00

I'm finally unpacking my backpack. This makes it official: it's over. I haven't been able to bring myself to do it till now.

Tent is set up outside airing out, sleeping bag and liner are in the hamper, rain pants in the closet, various accoutrements where the various accoutrements go (or in the trash), "everything dress" (nightgown, camp dress, town dress, laundry-day dress, even church dress, purchased for $1 at a yard sale in Damascus, VA) is hand-washed and hanging to drip dry, and I guess the pack will go in the big bin with my unused dehydrated food and other supplies. Maybe I'll store it in Jon or Jamie's freezer, rather than eating it up over the summer as I'd planned. It'll be that much less to dehydrate for next year (or whenever.)

Thank you so much to all who have been following my journey and offered their support, encouragement, and congratulations. I'll be getting to you all individually... stay tuned, waiting with baited breath!

I have a lot of catching up to do, blog-wise, on unfoldings between "The Last Night" and now. I've been in the water, on my bike, and in my running shoes (transitioning v-e-r-y carefully from hiking to running and listening carefully to my tendons. Up to 5 minutes of running now!!) I have also been to church with my mother, to the local 4th of July "Homecoming" parade and picnic, to our son's birthday dinner, and especially have been with our two youngest granddaughters catching up with them. Abbie wants to monopolize me, which isn't difficult as Sarah (13 months) doesn't even KNOW me and only fraternizes with me as a last resort if her parents, grandpa, or other grandparents aren't available.

~Sigh~

THE LAST NIGHT

2009-07-02T21:04:00.002-04:00

(My journal, 06/08/09)

Miles hiked: 11.x, short day following yesterday's near-20.
Hiked with: Jim Dandy and Bee Man, but they walked down the road to get cheeseburgers and I hiked on, so I was alone for 8 miles of thoughts and rocks and finished an hour or so ahead of them.
Stayed at: Blackburn AT Center, an actual house with wrap-around screened porch for eating, socializing, and sleeping (no access to actual house), 7 tentsites, a lukewarm solar shower, potable water from a hose, and a cabin with 4 bunks.
Weather: Cool and breezy.
Terrain: Steep ups and downs, and very rocky.

Bee Man, Jim Dandy, Solar Man and I stayed in the cabin. The 3-generation family slept on the screened porch, along with Lucky Star (a girl) and Pyrofly (a guy), who hike together and whom I've run into here and there for a couple months. It was good to see them again to say goodbye.

The caretaker cooked up a huge vat of spaghetti, with made-from-scratch sauce and Italian bread he'd also made himself, and brownies. Bee Man eats no wheat products and abstained, cooking up whatever lentil-rice mix he had there. I don't eat wheat, either, in general, but I took a chance and ate the dinner. Afterwards I took 2 Imodium tablets, then another before bed, and another on awakening, which allowed me to make it to the pit privy w/o having to make an emergency stop en route and dig a cat hole. Another tablet back in the cabin, and I was OK the rest of the day. Why does everything have to be made with wheat???

The cabin had a front porch, and after dinner I sat out there playing sad, sweet farewell songs on my Irish penny whistle. "Auld Lang Syne," and "God Be With You Till We Meet Again," the mood of which was shot when one of the guys, I'm not saying who, ripped this elongated, exaggerated fart, an everyday occurrence among hikers subsisting on dehydrated food and legumes, but this one rated probably an 8 out of 10, and that was the end of the sad sweet songs as typical ribald hiker hilarity took over. We have deteriorated into a bunch of dirtballs.

Solar Man had left the Trail for about 3 weeks and returned about 5 days ago. When he saw me he said, "Yard Sale! Gad! You look like a refugee from a war camp! Every time you go near a town you need to get 3 Big Macs!" Solar Man is fun. He's from Hawaii and has done IronMan Kona.

My last night on the Trail. Jim Dandy asked me, "Are you having regrets yet?" I said, "Yeah. But I'm doing the right thing."

I am. I can't wait to get on my bike again. I hope I can run. My tendons were aching today on the last section of the Roller Coaster. Not injured.... just stressed. My knees hurt, too, but I'm not worried about them. I have Achilles Tendon PTSD. My plantar fascia hurts as well, and my unhealed sub-callus blisters. Actually, now that I think of it, I hurt all over. Bedtime meds now include: Xanax to prevent nighttime panic attacks as well as induce sleep; Benadryl because my myriad bug bites itch (also helps with sleep); 600-800mg of ibuprofen, since as soon as I lie down my hips, thighbones, knees, shinbones, ankles and feet start to ache, about a 6 on a scale of 10. And of course, tonight, I included the Imodium as antidote to the bread-and-pasta dinner.

My last night. Harper's Ferry tomorrow will give me 1,013 miles. Even without the lure of SavageMan, I don't think I have another 1,170 miles in me. I am whupped.

THE LAST DAYS

2009-07-02T20:43:00.002-04:00

(My journal from 06/27/09)

The die is cast.

Steve has registered me for SavageMan and I'm going home from Harper's Ferry, WV, the day aftre tomorrow. This is my next to last night on the Trail, for this trip.

I am not finished with the AT.

Next year. Next year, a start from Harper's Ferry in early June will put me with the northbound thru-hikers, with plenty of companions. I'll finish in time for Steve's mother's 80th birthday party in mid-September.

Now that I'm leaving, I finally have my backpack adjusted to compensate for the loss of my butt curve. I bent the internal stays and added some closed-cell foam for sacral padding.

Now that I'm leaving, I finally have my socks figured our: Cool-Max liner socks + knee-hi hose + Smartwool hikers.

Now that I'm leaving, I finally have hiking partners whose distance and pace match mine. It has been a pleasure and privilege the past 2-3 weeks to hike with Jim Dandy (my age) and Bee Man (daughter Val's age.) Jim Dandy and I have had spirited discussions on religion, theology, philosophy, and a little politics, that have made me think and want to read up more.

But I am sure this is the right decision for me at this time. I'll probably cry for a week after getting home, and I've told Steve to be prepared for that.

When I think of not reaching the summit of Katahdin this trip, I feel regret.

When I think of not doing SavageMan this year, in this physical shape, living and training on the actual course, I feel heartbroken.

Heartbroken wins. SavageMan, here I come.
_____________

Miles hiked today: 19.8, over the first half of the "Roller Coaster" section on which I blew out my Achilles tendons last year. I'm stepping carefully and my ears are pricked for any suggestion of alarm bells coming from my heels.

Stayed at: Rod Hollow Shelter, where I stayed on that practice hike last year. I feel, again, that I'm home.

Shelter/tentsite companions: Jim Dandy, Bee Man, Bird, Freebird, Amero, and a 3-generation family consisting of 2 adult grandsons, 2 middle-aged sons, and the 77-yr-old matriarch, Nancy (trail name "Gran"), who hiked over 12 miles today with her progeny. They're out for a 3-day weekend, total of about 60 miles planned. Yup, Gran does that mileage. She was great fun to talk to. She started running at age 57 and in 20 years has run 400 races of various lengths, including 3 marathons. Her favorite distance is the half-marathon; marathons are too long and 5K and 10K too intense. Yup, she still runs, too, besides backpacking long days. She weighs 95 pounds and carries a 30-40-pound pack.

There was space in the shelter, but I tented. Just felt like it. I was next to the rippling creek. On my Irish penny whistle I played the hymn "In the Cross" because of the line, "Rest beyond the river."

SURE

2009-06-30T20:38:00.002-04:00

6/25

I called Steve and told him i want to come home. Harper's Ferry will give me 1,013 miles, and I can touch the WV/MD line before I go.
Then I will have 10 weeks to train for Savageman. The only tricky part will be to see if i can run, and then build up to 13 miles.
I am so excited about Savageman. When I think about not hiking thru to Maine, I kind of feel like "Ah, shrug, I can continue next year" (that's the current plan) If I think about not doing Savageman, I feel like my heart is breaking.
So that's what I'm doing.
miles today: 17.5
miles to go: 67
I am on the home stretch. Front Royal, VA tomorrow. I've been there before. I've been all over this area. I know where I am. I'm home.

NOT SURE

2009-06-30T20:32:00.002-04:00

6/24

I'm definitely leaning towards the Savageman triathlon instead of the Trail, but haven't had the nerve yet to make the decision. I am tired in mind and body (which has dwindled down to muscle, skin, and bones) and I can never get my feet pain free. I have calluses that are rubbing blisters on the tissue beneath them, which are untreatable.
Miles traveled: 10.9 Short day.
Stayed at: Byrd's Nest #3 Hut (shelter) where mice ruled. Rustled in the backpacks during the night, and when chased out, would just sit and stare at us, brazenly licking whatever they'd found off their paws. They might as well have had their little middle finger pointed upwards.
Highlights: awesome cheeseburger lunch at a sit-down restaurant, "Skyland Dining Room" in Shenandoah National Park. They put us (Jim Dandy, Bee Man, and me) in an inconspicuous dark corner. On the trail, housekeeping and hygiene are limited to the most rudimentary methods, and we had to remember not to lick our plates and our fingers.

EVIL THOUGHTS

2009-06-30T20:26:00.003-04:00

6/22

My blisters keep recurring even though my new boots are now two weeks old.
With my 20-pound weight loss, my pack doesn't fit right anymore. I've put extra padding where my bones are but I'm always adjusting and readjusting. sometimes my shoulder hurts all the way down my back.
I hurt. I hurt all over. I'm tired. I miss my husband, my dog, my mother, my piano, my friends.
I made a deal with myself that if I lost the joy I'd give myself two weeks before doing anything rash.
I don't know if I have the guts, or the feet, or the mental endurance, to finish this hike.
Miles today: 17.5, from South River Picnic Area (900.3) to Rock Spring Hut (917.8) still in Shenandoah National Park
miles to go: 1260.5 (except I'm not sure I want to right now)
companions: Still with Jim Dandy and Bee Man
Highlights: setting the afternoon pace and getting us to the shelter an hour earlier than original estimate without killing anyone (9 hours 45 minutes including food stop at a campground and detour to a Shelter to sign the register)
Taking pictures of the setting sun, a red ball predicting good weather tomorrow.
Watching a deer graze completely unafraid of us, ten feet away.
Marathons done:31.2

2009-06-30T20:08:00.003-04:00

6/21

Happy Father's Day! Happy Summer Solstice!

Hiked from:Pinefield Hut, Shenandoah State Park, mile 885.7
Hike to: South River Picnic Area in Park, mile 900.3 (BROKE THE 900 MARK!!)
Miles done: 15.6
Weather: Sunny, windy, 80 degrees F (same as yesterday, which actually started out looking threatening but cleared up)
Camping in: Tent, in a grassy tree-surrounded meadow in the picnic area. This is no doubt illegal but we're quiet, not hurting or disturbing anyone or anything (except the grass), and we're too whupped to go on 5 more miles to the next hut. Plus, I cleaned up the ladies room and picked up picnickers' trash.
I. Am. So. Tired. Yesterday's 21+ miles left their mark on me today. I was dragging. My pack was hurting my shoulder and back and I couldn't get it adjusted to stop hurting. I took 800mg of Motrin which helped a little. at lunch I couldn't get enough to eat. Had tuna Fritos (very good together), then peanut butter straight out of the jar )probably nearly half a cupful), then a couple mini candy bars dipped in PB, then a bag of fruit/nut mix, and after that I still felt I could have taken on a big steak dinner had one been available.
Then the rest of the afternoon I couldn't get enough water. Literally. I was dying of thirst (Fritos, a vat of peanut butter) but water sources were scarce. When we found the picnic area I drank 40oz straight down and still wasn't peeing an hour later so I drank 20 more oz, which shortly in a modest amount of pee but enough that it counted.
Traveling still with Bee Man (used to keep bees) and Jim Dandy. also, a father-son duo is hiking southbound ("SOBO") from Harper's ferry, WV to Waynesboro, VA. They're camping illegally in the meadow, too.
Highlights: Finding Lamb's Quarters to cook into my dinner soup. Yum. It's one of the most delicious and nutritious leafy greens on the planet but no one eats it because it's a weed. They pull it out of their gardens and toss it in the burn pile. Look it up on Wikipedia to learn about a vegetable that will change your menus.

PINEFIELD HUT

2009-06-30T20:00:00.002-04:00

6/20

Shenandoah National Park

Miles traveled 21.x (not sure since our campsite last night was a "non-established" unmarked one.)
Anyway, it was a new one-day AT distance PR for me. For all of us (me, Jim Dandy, and Bee Man.) Took us 12 hours including a couple of long stops.
Sleeping tonight in a shelter, Pinefield Hut, at mile 885.7.
Distance left to Katahdin: 1292.6 I've broken the 1300 mark for distance remaining!!
Highlights: seeing two turkeys accompanied by a gaggle of stringy, awkward looking chicks. Buying a cold Pepsi and a cold orange juice at a campground store (RV/tent campground) Drank 'em both down. Seeing lots of pale pink wild roses. Having an after-dinner "hot toddy" made with Sleepy Time tea, orange Crystal Light, extra sugar, and orange vodka (sent by Steve, he sometimes sends me nip bottles). Seeing the shelter after 21.x miles. Hitting the sack.

WAYNESBORO, VA

2009-06-30T19:51:00.003-04:00

6/19

Stayed at Grace Lutheran Church Hostel-and how wonderful it was! Volunteer ministry with food, cots, computers, kitchen, and FREE (runs on donations.) Everyone was more than helpful.
Other hikers there: Jim Dandy, Hot Feet (a girl whose boots are 100% leather and too warm) Bee Man, and two others I didn't know.
Waiting now for a ride back to the trail. 13-18 miles planned depending on start time. I added padding to my shoulder straps to compensate for my weight loss. Someone had left closed-cell foam in the hiker box so it was free.
Weather forecast:90's, humid, afternoon T-storms. We'll see!

Evening-Traveled to: Dry camping in the woods in Shenandoah National Park near Skyline Drive.
Miles: about 10. The first day out of town is always hard because the food bags are full, we've eten unaccustomed food, slept indoors, started out late. We were tired all day.
Traveled with: Jim Dandy and Bee Man
The three of us found a flat place big enough for three tents. It's quiet, companionable and pleasant. I'm hungry, a couple hours after supper, but my food bag is hanging in a tree. So I'll go to sleep and then I won't feel it.
A whippoorwill is singing.

2009-06-29T21:44:00.006-04:00

6/18

Waynesboro, VA
miles done:852.5
miles to go:1325.8 - 1330.8 depending on source of info.

I can't keep up the stream of thought journal. It's too much for me to write, too much for Avery to type, too much for anyone to read.
I lost Young Scott. Just couldn't keep up with a man 1/2 my age. :) Silly to try. I've hiked alone and with others, passed them or been passed and been alone again. Last couple days I've been with Jim Dandy, who hikes Young scott's miles but at my pace. We'll see how long it lasts. Actually I could go faster but what's the point, if the days endpoint is the same, and we're there so one of us can help if the other gets hurt?
I've had beautiful days and horrible days. Yesterday was the "second worst"- cold, raining, windy, I had really painful blisters. Not sure about these new boots. My worst day, I wrote in the register at the shelter (maybe 5 days ago) "I can't go on like this. I'm miserable. I want to go home and train for the triathlon my friends are training for."
I have this signature:

That day I signed

A lot of people the next day asked if I was really okay. I was, after a night's sleep, despite rain during the night that required an hour's cleanup before I could load and go.
Off now for a real lunch. I've lost 18.5 pounds, down now to 111.5 according to the scale at the YMCA.
I'll try real hard to record each day's mileage, weather, companions, and highlights like seeing a scarlet tanager. Thanks for reading - I'm still in the game.

HARD TO KEEP UP

2009-06-29T21:34:00.002-04:00

6/10

It's hard to walk all day, then set up camp, cook and eat supper, socialize with shelter or camp mates, and still have time to write about all that's happened and still get the 10 or so hours of sleep that it takes to recover. I never thought that keeping up with paperwork would be a problem on the AT. so, backtracking a couple days....

6/8 (Monday) Young Scott and I had milkshakes in town and finally headed back to the Trail about 2:30; with only 5 miles to the next shelter, we expected to be there between 4:30 and 5:00. I t was hot (the thermometer in town had said 88.5 degrees F) and very humid, We had heavy loads from the re-supply (A resupply adds 10 pounds to my pack), I was a little awkward in my new boots, and Young Scott's milkshake wasn't sitting real well. He felt really ill and kept stopping to sit on his pack and rest. I stepped in cow shit with my new boots when the trail crossed a pasture. :(
We saw two curved sticks that had randomly fallen into a perfect Christian fish.
Fullhardt Knob shelter had an elaborate cistern system that collected rainwater from the roof and piped it down the hill to a faucet. Presto- running water! Funny color, though, and a sign warned to boil or treat it (which we do with all our water anyway).
The shelter also had what appeared to be thousands of tiny, almost microscopic baby spiders, little tan dots scurrying rapidly over the fire pit, picnic table, and anything placed near them: boots, cooking equipment, food bags, arms, laps, anything at rest. I couldn't imagine how fast their little legs must be moving. It looked like a microscopic Pac-Man game.

CATCHING UP

2009-06-29T21:26:00.002-04:00

6/8

So Gaia and I left Mountain Harbour Hostel and proceeded to get lost. At the top of a long hill were 5 paths and roads, none of which had white blazes. Rumor had it that local folk, disgruntled in property line disputes, obliterated the existing blazes and painted blazes elsewhere to lead hikers astray. Whether or not that's true I don't know, but we picked a road and now and then we saw a blaze so we kept at it for a mile or so before we decided it couldn't be right so we headed back and discovered a turn-off so well marked we couldn't understand how we missed it. So we got back onto the Trail with an extra 2 miles or so to our credit. It was a long-miles day to begin with: the Trail Days Festival in Damascus, VA is May 14-17 and everyone is pushing big miles to get there. There are a lot of vendors, like at a marathon expo, good deals on gear, and good fair-type food. And a parade featuring thousands of current and former AT hikers. We ended up with a 16+2 mile day. Exhausted.

2009-06-29T21:20:00.002-04:00

6/8

Young Scott and I are sitting outside the Post Office in Troutsville, VA, leaning against our packs, enjoying the shade, waiting for the P.O. to re-open after the government mandated hour long lunch break. Young Scott has to pick up his food box and I'm mailing some stuff home. Then we're headed back out to the Trail for a couple-hour hike to the nearest shelter (Fullhardt Knob Shelter, mile 723.6)
Tomorrow we reach the 1/3 milestone, expect we won't know it, it'll just be an estimate based on time. I just spent over $100 on new boots so I'm committed to another boot lifetime. The ones I got at Neels Gap (Day 4 of hike?) wore out. The uppers were losing their stitching. They smelled like leaf mold, swamp muck, sweaty socks, and the fabric softener sheets I'd been putting under the insoles in the hopes of diminishing the funk. I think they just added an ingredient.

Evening: I'm stronger! A rafter in the shelter is just the right height for a chin-up and I tried to see if I could do one. I did FOUR!! Prior to the hike I couldn't do even one. Of course, I'm lifting at least 16 pounds less than the last time I tried.

RAIN, RAIN!

2009-06-20T02:42:00.001-04:00

5/25

RAIN, RAIN!

After retiring at 7 last night, I slept till 8 am. Still tired, told the others i might take a zero day, took a nap, felt better, and started off at noon. Four miles uphill to Chestnut Knob shelter and I was whipped again. I sat in the shelter for close to an hour deciding whether to stay or go on. Finally decided to go, there was a campsite after 7 miles and all downhill. I took off feeling suddenly much better and practically ran the first few miles. Then the rain started. It POURED. My rain jacket was useless. When I came to the turnoff for the campsite, it was raining so hard I couldn't make myself hike the half-mile to the site in the rain, set up my tent in the rain getting it all wet, when there was a shelter just 3 miles on. So I pushed through the rain and the oncoming darkness (I'd had that late start and then a long stop at the first shelter). I booked. It was getting darker and my headlamp was somewhere inside my pack. I felt around for it unsuccessfully. Note to self: put headlamp in accessible place even if you don't expect to be night-hiking, since you never know.
so I hurried on and on through the rain and the darkness. I've never been rained on so hard in my life. The deluge seemed Biblical in ferocity. But no wind and it wasn't cold, so I was still OK. Water was running down the Trail 3 inches deep. It reflected the little light still coming through the heavy forest, so I could actually see the Trail, or at least the river it had become. I kept telling myself, if I can do the Ironman, I can do this. If I finished that marathon at IMFL, I can do this...I'm not cold like I was then. If the athletes at IMCDA got through their Ironman that riny day, I can do this. If it doesn't get any darker, I can do this. Finally I saw a sign, and it pointed to the shelter, and I was there, and there was still room inside. Thank goodness! I put down my sleeping bag, said "Guys, I gotta get my wet clothes off, if you're looking for a thrill this probably ain't it", stripped and climbed into my bag.
So...woke up feeling awful, went back to bed, considered a zero, reluctantly started a "short" day at noon, got a second wind, perked up, and ran through the rain for 3 hours for a total of a very wet, strenuous 14 miles. A roof over my head and a space for my sleeping bag on the dirty wood floor of a 3-sided shelter full of men, mice and spiders was pure luxury.

DITTO

2009-06-20T02:41:00.000-04:00

5/24

Beautiful creekside campsite. Looked like I was going to be the only one but others showed up, decided I had a good thing going, and pitched their tents, too.
Lucky Star and Pyrofly, George (a girl) and Logan and their dog Corbin, others I don't know and/or didn't see - I was whipped, that "so tired I hurt" feeling, went to bed at 7.

RESUPPLY DAY

2009-06-20T02:39:00.001-04:00

5/23

The plan is to hike the 3.5 miles to Rural Retreat, a one-horse crossroad, picj up my mail drop at The Barn Restaurant, buy lunch there as thanks, get a ride to Atkins or Sugar Grove to get groceries supplies that aren't in my box, get a ride back to the Trail, and hike 7 more miles to the nearest good campsite. 10+ miles plus shopping. Gotta get myself together and move on out.

ANOTHER GORGEOUS CAMPSITE

Under a rhodendron thicket, 15 feet from the creek. I've pulled my rainfly back so I'm mostly in just the bug net of my inner tent. If rain starts, I can easily hop out, pull it up, and clip it in place.
Whippoorwills are chirping all around. When one stops, another starts. all alongside the bubbling brook.
A dozen tents are just up the bank, so I'm not really alone as I sleep alone in my creekside hideaway.

TRIMPI SHELTER TO SHATFIELD SHELTER

2009-06-20T02:38:00.000-04:00

From Ellie's journal, May 26. Apparently I typed these and somehow managed to only post half of them, I have no idea how. So....sorry for the delay. =(

miles today: 17.7
Total so far: 533.8
Miles to go: 1644.5
Marathons done: 20.4
Days on trail: 53
Average miles per day 10.06
Days left until Oct 1: 126
Average miles/day needed to make Katahdin by Oct 1: 13

So I need to average 13 miles a day from here on. I can do that - balance a 10-miler with a 16-miler, minimize "zero" days. Suppose I take a zero once a week. That means 18 days off, leaving 180 days. That ups the ante to 15.2 miles per day.
Well....lately I've been considering 14-16 and "average" day. I just can't slip up much.
Mt. Katahdin doesn't officially close for the winter until October 15th, but if there's a lot of early snow they shut it down sooner. That's why I'm aiming for October 1st.
Seems a long time away but I'm cutting it close without much room for error.