My Two Running Dads

This is the story of my two dads...I read somewhere once that you'll have many parents throughout life, in addition to your biological mother and father. At this point in my life, i can easily identify 10-15 different parental figures, including my two "running dads."

There's Richard, aka real dad, who is gearing up for the Pig half marathon. This will be his furthest distance covered in a race to date and it's only 2 weeks away from today. I convinced him to come downtown to practice the Eden Park hills, so we walked about 6 miles of the course yesterday morning. Dad is a great walk/run companion; we talk about our family, enjoy the scenery and when I suggest we cover the whole Eden Park loop (Woodburn to MLK and back down Gilbert), Dad is willing to keep going. It shouldn't surprise me, but he randomly tosses in a quote from Pee Wee's Big Adventure, which in retrospect, cracks my shit up.

Well, Buenas dias!

It's good for us to have this time together. In my nuclear family, Dad and I are cut from the same cloth. On the surface, we share a common addiction to race-finishing euphoria and obscure movie quotes, but on a deeper level, walking together is our time to reconnect as daughter and father. Rad said to me the other day that some of his best talks with his kids are on walks. And how.

My neighbor, Mark, became my running partner and de facto dad almost 5 years ago while we were living at the Renaissance. That running partnership survived my move with Dan to PP@L, then Mark & Kathy's move to PP@L. We run together 2-3 times a week and usually catch up on the latest from work, family and downtown living. There have been runs, though, when Mark has listened to some of my most difficult issues and offered his advice. Mark is the same age as my dad, but I must say his pace belies all that. Lately, I'm lucky if I can keep up with Mark. That's why he's in Boston right now, (hopefully) resting up before the Boston Marathon tomorrow. I think it will be his 4th or 5th Boston, so I'm sending lots of good thoughts to Mark (and Linda and Mark S.) on the eve of Patriots Day. One of these days, I hope to follow in his footsteps - not just with respect to running, but also in his commitment to his family, community involvement and leadership at work. Mark's a good egg.

Illinois Half Marathon recap

My Top 10 Favorite things about this weekend's race:

10. Expo Deals: Though I never visited Body 'n Sole when I lived in C-U, I was glad they were at the expo offering 20% off of everything. I picked up some Asics arm warmers and a pair of Mizuno shorts with a full size, zippered pocket - a.k.a. the Holy Grail. Those items, plus two flavors of GU and a pack of Sport Beans for under $35.

9. Crowd support along the course made me happy. C-U residents came out to support runners early on a Saturday morning. Students seemed to crawl out of the woodwork as the race wore on.

8. Kinetic Medal: it's awesome - the little person in the "O" spins around.

7. The Photog at mile 12 who took my picture, high-fived me and told me to "Finish Strong!" Outstanding.

6. Running past landmarks like the Alma Mater, Merry Ann's Diner, The White Horse Inn, and my old apartment in Urbana.

5. Pre-gun music selections. Among them: Brown Sugar by the Rolling Stones...finally, something other than Start Me Up.

4. I like flat courses and I cannot lie. Illinois, you make Cincinnati look like the Andes, Alps and Rockies combined.

3. My updated iPod Playlist: I usually don't replay songs when I'm running, but I hit repeat on Run (I'm a Natural Disaster) by Gnarls Barkley. It came on right when the course narrowed onto a Nature Preserve path, with all the runners crowding and hustling in a formation of organized chaos. Plus, the helicopter overhead made me feel like we really were all running from a natural disaster. Oddly, it charged me up and gave me a boost.

2. OMG King's Hawaiian Rolls - soft doesn't even begin to describe them. At first, I saw them and was all, "Why are there rolls betwixt the Nature Valley bars and Papa John's pizza?" One taste of a lightly sweet dinner roll and I'm convinced that they are the most perfect, delicious food in the world following a long run. Hands down.

1. Finishing on the 50 yard line at Memorial Stadium - I was struggling in miles 10 and 11, but when I saw the Stadium, I knew I was close and started getting excited to finish the race. It's hard to fully explain, but running that last mile through the crowd, down the tunnel and onto the field put many things in perspective. Dan and Vicki were already on the field cheering for me, I ran the length of the field - along the sidelines where I used to stand for home U of I games. The course did a 180 turn and I saw myself on the jumbotron as I crossed the finish line.

I felt so satisfied at having come all this way - metaphorically and literally - and my eyes filled with tears. I shuffled to the end zone and laid down on the orange turf. Everything seemed more vibrant than usual. In my head, I told myself repeatedly, "This is why you run, this is what you live for."

My Medal

Race start from our hotel

Saturday morning & the race started right outside our door.

On campus at U of I

Dan & I braced ourselves against the East Central Illinois winds and walked around the Quad. He got this picture of me with the Alma Mater right after a group of prospective freshmen moved on from the statue.

My bib for Tomorrow

Dan at the Expo

OMG lunch

Somehow, I forgot how much food they give you at Courier. No wonder I always wanted to go there when Mom and Dad came to visit.

Courier Cafe Milkshakes

Courier Cafe - Our first stop in Champaign-Urbana

Oiling up in Veedersburg

Our quick trip to Champaign got derailed when the oil light came on. Pulling off the highway at Veedersburg, IN, we stopped at the first gas station we could find. It was about a mile off the highway and completely deserted. And not just deserted in a "nobody was stopping there" way - literally deserted like the owners had just up and left the complex. Weirder still was that it used to be a combination gas station-batting cages-mini golf compound. All overgrown and apparently vandalized. Fortunately, we had oil in the trunk, so Dan poured in some oil and we got back on 74. Creepy. But what do you expect from a town with a name like Veedersburg.

Spring in the River Valley

I didn't take this photo - I found it online

This morning's run was on the Loveland bike trail - flat, scenic, and about 10 degrees colder than the rest of Cincinnati. Vicki lent me her arm warmers, so I was prepped to run with just those, but needed a jacket on top of them. 

Running along the path, I focused on the growth along its edges. I had to look this up, but found out that it was henbit - green weeds with purple flowers everywhere. My two favorite colors lining my path. When I wasn't concentrating on the henbit, the ground ivy extending down the bank to the river looked soft enough to roll around in. 

Fox on the run

In chronicling the highlights of the past month, I completely overlooked one mega event from last week - I saw a fox on a run. Yeah, yeah, it doesn't sound like that much, but living in an urban area, I have never seen a fox just darting around on his velvety little feet. What makes it even more Nat Geo-worthy is that the fox crossed my path in Friendship Park right along the river,  just east of downtown. Usually when I spot wildlife it's in the 'burbs - deer in Taylor Mill, wild turkeys in Indian Hill, etc. 

So, Mark and I were running a week ago last Thursday, heading back to the building after turning around in Friendship Park. Even though it was dark out, I could see a big cat with pointy ears sitting at the top of the path a short distance ahead. It spotted us and darted across the path, retreating to the woods by the river, and I could see it's long nose and the white tip of its tail. Mark was saying something and I totally interrupted him with, "That's a fox!" The fox ran through the shrubs for a few yards, then stopped to look back at us. I tried to point him out to Mark, who couldn't see him in the dark. 

It's a minor thing, but I love seeing animals while I'm out running. Seeing that fox totally made my day. When I got up that morning, I was tired and in a bad mood. Even running wasn't doing much for my morale. Once I saw that fox, though, and watched him run off, it reminded me why I get up and out the door at 6:00 a.m. These are the experiences that make running so special to me. Even though I feel like I spend the majority of my life indoors these days, it's my time outdoors that rejuvenates me. It reminds me of being a kid and being curious - exploring & inspecting everything around me. There are days when I wish I could go back to that, and running helps me get a little closer.

What a Day for a Run