Monthly Archives: April 2012

What The New York City Marathon Means To Me

Apr 28

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I just found out that I was selected to run in the 2012 New York City Marathon.  By selected, I mean I put my name in a lottery and I got lucky enough for them to select my name.  So the fact that I was selected isn’t the same thing as qualifying for the Boston Marathon, but I am beyond excited that I got into New York!

I found out on a Thursday morning while I was at work.  The rest of the day was productive only in the sense that I was able to book a hotel room, check on flights, buy a souvenir T-shirt and hat, and post my victory on Facebook.  I then spent the rest of the day in a state of bliss. I actually got a little emotional about it!

Let me give you a little background.  Roughly 20 years ago, I worked with a guy who ran the NYC Marathon.  He said it was the highlight of his life and his proudest accomplishment.  This is a guy who had two kids and he ranked finishing the NYC Marathon above that!  After a while, I started running with him and another guy at lunch.  I was really slow, but they helped me with my form and gave me some tips to help me improve.  I learned about fartleks and intervals and how to enjoy running.  I started by running some 5ks and ended up running the Indianapolis Half Marathon.  That was the peak of my running career for almost two decades. Our company was sold, everyone moved on, and then I stopped running.

About 16 years ago, my divorce was brand new and I was just learning how to be alone.  I spent a lot of time trying to figure out who I was and where I wanted to go from here.  One day, I was flipping channels and I came across the NYC Marathon.  I said to myself, “I’m going to run that one of these days.”  I was on my couch, out of shape and probably hung over when I said that.  I didn’t take one step toward that goal for 13 years.  I saw it again a few years later and I had already given up on that goal.  I felt like I was defeated without even trying.  It took me those 13 years to take my first step toward the NYC Marathon.

In 2009, I was walking 45 minutes a day and I was feeling like I was in pretty good shape.  So I decided to try run/walking the same route.  The first time I ran, I could run for only one minute before I thought I was going to die!  I walked for 4 minutes, then ran another minute. I kept this up over the next few months gradually increasing the running time until I could run the same 45 minute walking course without stopping to walk.  It was during this period that I signed up for Team in Training to run the Flying Pig Marathon.  My body wasn’t ready for the rigors of training for a marathon!  I had hip pain so bad I eventually got a cortisone shot to help.  I ended up running the Flying Pig Half Marathon because I was going to run the San Diego Marathon a month later.  I broke my toe a week before that marathon, so my goal to run a marathon was put on hold.  To make a long story a little shorter, I rehabbed and then ran three marathons in 2011.

I did two of those marathons with Team in Training.  Running with Team is addictive to say the least!  I am committed to the Team and all it stands for.  I enjoy raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and I love running with my teammates.  But the NYC Marathon is all for me.  It’s my Boston.  It’s my Everest.  It’s my Pulitzer Prize (for my blog – there really should be an award for that!).  It’s my making good on the promise I made to myself 16 years ago.  I’ve been training for three years and I’m getting faster.  I have a goal to finish a marathon in under four hours.  When I get to New York, unless my competitive drive kicks in, I’m going to savor the experience and not give a shit about the time on the clock.  What I will remember years from now is how I felt when I crossed that finish line.  The clock started 16 years ago.  It’s time to finish.

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Sweet Dreams

Apr 11

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Any adult who still thinks they can have “sweet dreams” is dreaming!  I woke up at 6:00 this morning due to the weirdest dream I’ve had in a long time, and I’ve had some doozies!  This one involved a bunch of my family and extended family gathering at the house I grew up in, only this was a newer and improved house.  I never went inside because the weirdness was outside.  I saw a nephew, who I haven’t seen in a few years, riding a bicycle with his girlfriend. I don’t even know if he has a girlfriend, but she was pretty.  I saw a few old friends from the neighborhood, and my brother who currently lives in China was there.  So far, this doesn’t seem weird.

I was outside carving some weird meat that turned into jello when you tried to put in on a plate.  So I found these jello glasses to put it in and my friend thought that was really smart, so he stole my serving.  I don’t like jello, in fact I hate jello!  I love alcohol but not when it’s put in a jello shot!  I won’t touch it then.  This weird meat was coming from some unidentifiable animal that was still alive and didn’t mind that we were carving it up. Then, for some reason, this animal turned into a dog with a really bad grooming job with patchy fur all over his body.  I asked my friend what to do and he said I would have to kill it by breaking its neck.  That’s when I woke up!

Where the fuck did that come from???  I can understand the family part of it since I’ll be seeing a lot of them at my wedding next month.  Alana is having stress dreams about the wedding, which makes sense.  But everything that happened after I saw my nephew doesn’t exist in the real world!  How is that shit even in my brain to be processed?  So I did what every person who has been freaked out by a dream would do – I went to google “dream interpretation.”  There were 19,100,000 results returned in 0.12 seconds.  I guess I’m not the only person having weird dreams!

My first attempt to interpret this was to find out what dreaming about a dog means.  This particular dog was black.  What I found was, “To see a black colored dog in your dream symbolizes the shadow aspect of a friend. The dark side of someone close to you is being revealed and you are able to see through to their true intentions.”  I’m on to you, Alana!  I can see your true intentions, I think.  It was a small dog.  What I found was, “To dream of small dogs, indicates that your thoughts and chief pleasures are of a frivolous order.”  Yeah, that’s pretty true.

I didn’t spend too much time on this, but I couldn’t find anything about what it means to kill a dog.  So I got curious and wondered what they had to say about killing cats.  There was no shortage of interpretations here!  My favorite was, “To dream of a cat, denotes ill luck, if you do not succeed in killing it or driving it from your sight.  But if you succeed in banishing it, you will overcome great obstacles and rise in fortune and fame.”  Killing dogs – bad.  Killing cats – money!

My next stop was to find out what dreaming about friends and family means.  I went back to the dreaming dictionary to the “F” page and found an entry for facebook!  If you’re dreaming about facebook, you might want to log off for a while!   Then, there was a banner ad featuring the face of Barack Obama right next to the entries for “Fairy Tale”, “Faithless”, and “Fake”.  Moving on.  For family, we have “To see your own family in your dream represents security, warmth and love. It could also symbolize bitterness, jealousy, or rivalry, depending on your relationship with your family.”  Jesus, that’s just no help at all!

Scrolling down, there is an entry for “Farting.”  ”To dream that you are farting suggests that you are being passive aggressive. You need to express your feelings in a more direct manner. ” I’m pretty sure my farts are in a very direct manner!  ”Feminine Napkin” – “Please see Maxi Pad.”  Finally, down to “Friends” I found, “to see your childhood friend suggests that you have been acting in a childish manner. You need to start acting like an adult.”  I sense a pattern now!  My dream was trying to tell me I’m childish and frivolous!  I think I’ll go with that and forget about the whole dog thing.  I like being childish and frivolous!  Now, it’s time for my second cup of coffee.  I don’t want to go back to sleep!

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