The winter that won't die!

I am beginning to believe that it will never stop snowing!   Been snowing all day here again today.  Not much accumulation, but I just don't even want to look at it anymore.

I have been forced to exercise indoors again all this week.  Been doing the 5-mile walk/jog DVD's with Leslie Sansone.  They are good and I feel I get a workout, but I have to build up my mileage.  I am going to have to resort to the gym and the treadmill if the weather doesn't improve and it sure does not look like that is going to happen anytime soon.  I know I shouldn't be, but I am embarrassed at the gym.  I am so slow and I feel like people are thinking "for heaven's sake, why doesn't she just walk?"  Anyway, I try to go super early in the morning when no one is there.  I realize that this is probably all in my own stupid head, but that's how I feel.  Silly, huh?  I wish I could get over this speed thing and just be happy to be moving at all, but it really bugs me.  It's like my legs just will not go any faster, I try.  Maybe when the weather warms up.

On a brighter note, I have entered a few contests on FB this season and I have won 2 paid entries into races of my choice!  So that means I am now registered for 3 half marathons, 2 of which are of no cost to me.  So I am running Cleveland in May, Lake Erie in August, and Mighty Niagara in September.  I should probably stop with those three, since I have been having all these darn aches and pains.  Think I will just play it by ear and see how I feel once I start to get my mileage built up.

Well, I am going to run 6 miles in the morning, hopefully outside, but I have a feeling it may be the treadmill.
I will let you know how I do.

ginny

It's been a long, long winter!

I am so sorry that I have not posted in months!  My running has been so sporadic since October.  Back in November I started working with a personal trainer, which was great, but somehow I did something to my lower back which put me out of commission for over a month!  My back still isn't right.  Needless to say, between the weather and my back my running has suffered considerably.  Just over the past month I have been trying to get there more.

Our winter has been brutal.  If it isn't snowing and blowing , the temperature has been near or below zero with the chill factor.  Heading into March and I think the temperature might reach 15 today if we are lucky and we had a little more snow last night!  Winter is not a good time of year for me, I think I may have a touch of depression in winter.  I am definitely a warm weather, sunshine kind of lady.

I ran outside this past Sunday with no snow on the street!  It was wonderful.  The past few Sundays I have gone out it has been with my Yaktrax plowing through 3 to 6 inches of snow.

Aches and pains galore this year too.  Not sure if it is just because of my age or what.  But up until this year I have almost never had any pain anywhere.  Now it seems like something always hurts, my hip, my back, hamstring...always something.  Maybe the extra mileage that I have been doing the past 5 years?  Just not sure what is going on, but I don't like it.  I won't stop running, but just wondering if maybe I should not do so many Half marathons this year.  I am already registered for two.  The Cleveland Half in May and The Mighty Niagara in September.

Anyway, I hope this hasn't been a downer, because I will not give up my running and I so enjoy the half marathons, so I will just keep running and hope my little aches and pains disappear with the winter.

If anyone does read this blog and has been experiencing any thing that I have, I would love for you to comment. Like I said, just not sure if it just my age and my years of running catching up with me or what.

Ginny

Lake Erie Shores and Islands Half Marathon...

Great day for a race!  Left the house this morning about 6:15, race started at 7.  Sometimes it is really nice to have a local race, no worrying about time and where you are going to stay, traffic etc.  Still kind of dark when we arrived and fog.  This is the 3rd year they have held this race and I have done all three.  Very few people running today though, apparently there was a triathalon in the next town over today too, so I think that ....took some of the usual runners.  As I was looking around and saw so few people I thought to myself, oh no, so few people I will be dead last,,,they will probably send out the local police to look for me.  I really get nervous before races.  I one point I said to my husband, why do I do this????  He said "because you love it"...yeah he is right, even as slow as I am I do love it and I love competing, even if it is against myself most of the time.  So anyway, played the National Anthem and away we went!  The course was a little different this year, past years we went about 1/4 mile and then ran on a kind of trail for a couple of miles.  This trail has never been well maintained, it is single file and does have some really low spots and holes that aren't readily seen when you are running, but I kind of like that part of the run myself.  But today we stayed on the highway instead, not a lot of room on the shoulder to run, but they did have the orange cones, making a sort of running lane.  Traffic at that time of the morning was not bad though.  It is pretty scenic, some beautiful homes along lake Erie, the first mile went really fast for me. I was wearing my Garmin, but I decided to just use it today to help remind me of my Walk/run ratio.  I have been doing the Walk/run for my past few halfs and it has worked for me.  I did not want to know how fast Iwas going...I get too caught up in that and I think I think about it too much, so it was hard, but I did not look.  I did however check at each mile to see what my pace was.  I didn't let it get to me though, just looked. This stretch of highway was about 3 miles I think and then we entered the small town of Huron, running through the neighborhood, then out on a highway again.....I think it gets a little hilly here, but probably most people would not think that it is....not a lot of room again and more traffic.  Got a little dicey when the lead runners were heading back and we were still running to the turn around.  My son and grandson live in a subdivision along this highway and they were standing on their corner to cheer grandme on!  This year I crossed the street and gave grandson and son a hug, never did that before, but seemed the thing to do today.  Continued to the turn around, which I thought would never come, but I still felt pretty good.  The way back is more downhill so I tried to kick up the pace a little......back into town, and my feet start cramping a little, they always do this and as long as I keep running they usually calm down. By now we are in mile 9 and going pretty well.  The sun is up now and getting a little warm, but not bad.  At this point I did pass 2 ladies that had been ahead of me the whole way.  Out of the town and back out on the highway...mile 11 I started getting a twinge in my right calf and I keep saying, please don't cramp up now, please don't, I think I am going pretty well.  Kept twinging and more cramps in the foot....mile 12 twinges are getting worse, but keep moving Ginny, keep moving.....10-20 feet from the finish my right calf grabbed me so bad I had to stop, nothing else I could do......I am alone, staring at the finish line, the photographer is there and I had grabbing my calf at a dead stop!  My husband saw me and came to me, so I leaned on him, we are both rubbing that dang calf....it finally let up enough for me to cross the finish line.....but I was so disappointed.   Really????  10 feet in front of the finish?   BUT  I still had a personal best!   I couldn't believe it....for whatever reason they had the sign that showed your time turned off, so I figured I must be way over 3 hours and they just turned it off...but Ken said you had a really good time...I said I did?  I looked at my Garmin at it said 2:46.  I know to you runners this is not that good of a time but it is the best Ihave ever done, so I was thrilled!!  Ken said when he saw me approaching the finish he thought Wow she is doing good!   So even with my calf I did well and I am just so happy!   Bring on the next one in September!!!

Ginny

What Happened to Summer???????

I mean this morning and last night I was wearing my winter robe and socks!   In July!  This just isn't right!  We have approximately 6-8 months of winter here in northern Ohio, I need a couple paltry months of summer please before we are plunged back into cold and dreary.

My running has been going pretty well though.  I guess this weather is conducive to that anyway.  Ran 11 miles yesterday morning and felt really great.  I am running another half marathon on August 18th so I need to get in some longish runs.  Up until this past week my running has been sub par, feeling really sluggish.  Don't know what causes this.  One day you feel like you cannot put one foot in front of the other and a few days later you can be running like the wind!   Well I never run like the wind, but you get my gist.  Very perplexing as I know most runners experience this phenomena.  I have tried to keep track of my runs and figure out if there is a common thread when I have these terrible runs, but I have not been able to find one, it just seems to happen.  Maybe the stars aren't aligned right or something, who knows?  As long as I  don't stay in a running funk I guess I can handle a few bad runs.

Ran a local 5 K over the 4th of July and did pretty well for me.  Ran it in 36:22 and placed 2nd in my age group.  Not bad and it was fun.  Always fun to place, which never happened when I was younger.  Perseverance pays off I guess.

Completely off topic from my running, I became the proud grandmother of twin girls almost 2 weeks ago now!

They are too cute aren't they???  What a blessing.
These two little angels are grandchildren number 9 and 10!











Ginny

Running into Relatives!

With my genealogy-obsessed coworker I have digging into my past for the past several years.  Recently we discovered that my father's cousin lived less than an hour away!  This was quite a find, since most all of the relatives are in the Scranton, Pa., Philadelphia Pa. area.  So this cousin's father and my grandfather were brothers!  I had the pleasure of meeting Jack last summer and again just last week , with an added bonus!  His sisters were there visiting, so I got to meet more cousins.  We had a wonderful time and I loved hearing stories that I had never heard before.  We figure we may have met up sometime in Philadelphia when we were very small children.  Below is a picture of my grandparent's Emma and Ambrose Murray.

They both died when I was in my teens, but I do remember them of course.  I was born in Philadelphia, so I remember them being babysitters when my mom and dad would go out.  One night I remember that it was snowing and my parent's specifically asking me and telling my grandparents not to let me go out in the snow!  I have no idea why they would have said this, maybe I had a cold or something, I just remember that my grandparents completely ignored these instructions and we went out and played in the snow!  Once we moved to NY, my grandparents would frequently visit and we would visit Philadelphia.  However, I do not remember much about any other relatives.  I have no idea why we were not involved with other aunts and uncles, maybe my parents were and I just don't remember.  It was quite exciting then to meet my grandfather's brother's son!  Below is a picture of  a my grandfather, Ambrose on the right, Emma (grandmother) then Kay and Jerome ( Ambroses' brother) at my grandparents home.

Added bonus, when I met with Jack and his sisters, Peg had brought a picture of Ambrose's mother.  I have never seen a picture of her.  She was born In  Ireland in 1863 to James Fleming and Bridget O'Hara.  Her first husband was a James McCann, he died very young.  It was with her 2nd husband John T Murray that she had 4 sons, Walter, Joseph, Ambrose, Jerome.  You can see them listed here in the 1900 census in Scanton, Penna.  Also listed are 4 other children of which we really cannot figure out the connection.

Below is the picture of my great-grandmother, Mary, with 3 of her grandchildren and a neighbor.  According to my cousins, Kay and Peg, she was quite stern and you learned to mind Grandmother Murray!

Sadly,  I did not connect with Jack Murray until after my father passed away.  My Dad would have been so excited to meet up with one of his relatives, that I am sure he knew when he was young.  They would have had so much fun talking about the past!  My Dad was proud of what I had found out already, but this really would have put him over the top.  

Why we do this?????

Those of you, who are not runners, may wonder why we do this to ouselves?  We pay money to run these races, where at times, we run with cramps in our feet and calves, aching knees, nausea...we keep running even though we feel like walking (which I do), but even when I do walk, I will myself back to running even though it hurts.  I really don't know how to answer the question of why we do it.  For one thing, the comaraderie is awesome.  I have met such wonderful people and made, I hope, lifelong friends.  Before I started running the longer distances it was a pretty solitary activity.  I mean it still is solitary when I do my runs, but not at the races, and I get such support from my running community.  I believe some of it may be the competition, even though I know I am not going to win one of these races I compete against myself I guess.  There are so many times during these races that I really want to stop, get on one of the vehicles that roam these races and tell them take me back, I am done!  But I just can't make myself do it!  As long as I can propel myself forward, I just cannot DNF, Did not Finish.  I feel I would be disappointing not only to
 myself, but my friends and family, even though I know, in my heart, that they would not think any less of me if this happened, but my head just won't let me do it...I just keep going.  Maybe it is because I always thought my Dad was disappointed in me as a kid, (don't mean to go deep here), but sometimes I wonder why I do it myself and it hard to figure out or explain.

Who knew that when I first took that first step out the door with running shoes over 30 years ago, that I would still be at it and running half marathons!  It certainly is character building!  I still haven't really explained why we do it.  I would be curious of what other runners think.

By the way, I won 1st in my age group, for the first time in a half this weekend, which is probably why I am feeling emotional.  It's a great feeling.

Ginny

Hatfield/McCoy Half Marathon....WV and Kentucky

First of all, this was an amazing Half Marathon!

Left for the Hatfield/McCoy about 7:30 Friday morning.  Driving by myself, so for the first time I used a GPS that my daughter let me borrow.  Loved it!  Would literally have been lost without it, even with the directions I had printed from GoogleMaps.  Driving from northern Ohio to Kentucky.  Once I got south of Columbus it was a beautiful drive.  Not that the beginning of the drive isn't nice, but I am used to that one.  I have lived in Northern Ohio so long now that I almost forgot what mountains are like.  The scenery was breathtaking once I was in Kentucky, the roads are carved right out of the mountains and they are just right there.  So green, everything so green, beautiful drive.  There was nothing for miles and miles and then all of a sudden, just stuck there was a tiny store, looked like a mobile home almost, with a big sign Haircuts and Barber!  It was just so odd.  The more I drove the steeper the climb was, gave my little Rav4 quite a workout!  Arrived in Pikeville, Ky about 3:30 in the afternoon.  The worst part of the drive was locating the dang Hotel, had to call Marjorie, who I was rooming with...ends up I was only about 1/2 a block away, I totally missed it.  Hampton Inn, great Hotel, beautiful room.  Rested for about an hour and then joined the rest of our little group in the lobby and headed off to the pasta dinner.  Guess we had to drive about 1/2 hour.  Good food and company and then moved to an aud.  itorium where they had the author, Dean King, speaking about his book "The Feud, the Hatfields & McCoys, the True Story.  Very interesting and then there was a brief skit, which was a dialogue between an Hatfield and a McCoy...very good.

Headed back to the Hotel for an early night.

Arose about 5:00 a.m.  The marathon started at 7 and the 2nd Half Marathon, which is the one I was doing, started at 8.  Went downstairs and had a complimentary breakfast, the Hotel started their buffet at 4:30 just for the runners, thank you Hampton Inn!  Those that were running the marathon left around 5:30.  My friend, Cindy and I left around 6:30 for our half, thinking we had plenty of time, it was about a 40 min. drive, WRONG...first of all the ramp to the highway we were supposed to take was closed for whatever reason.  Had to take a little detour to get back on and then we missed the first turn, had to double back, so by this time the marathon runners were on the same highway!  Not good.  Finally we are clear of runners and decide to take a shortcut!  Another bad idea, we ran into the runners again and this time there was no escape!  We had to follow a police car at about 5 miles an hour, runners on the right, cars on the left on a 2 lane road, with cars coming from the opposite direction also!  We did get to see a lot of scenery though, going that slow, the world's smallest horst, the Hatfield homestead.  We also passed our friends, already running the marathon!  Needless to say, we missed our Half Marathon start by almost an hour.  As there was not time limit for the race, we just jumped in where we were supposed to start, which was the 1/2 way point for the marathoners, so the start was still up and running, so we were going to be timed.  I started out way too fast for me and I knew I was going too fast and I just couldn't control myself.  It was mostly downhill at the start through the small town of Matewan WV, lovely , you could see peoples flower and vegtable gardens right at the road, everything was just so green, so pretty..  The first 5 miles, I would say was rolling hills, small hills, seemed to be more down than up at this point, so I was cruisin, some of the marathoners were showing up behind and passing me at this point.  Everyone saying good job, as I suspect they thought I was running the marathon, they didn't know I had just started.  I did start to slow some and then had to slow a lot as we came to about a 2 mile area that was all mud.  Not deep mud, but very sticky and slippery mud.  As I am not used to this at all, I had to walk some as I did not want to do a fanny plant in the mud.  I don't know exactly what mile I was at, but afterwards we came to a golf course to run through which contained a swinging bridge.  It was a little disconcerting, as it made me a bit dizzy, cause as the runners ahead ran over it, it swayed and you could see through the slats to the water below, it was different though.  There were some steep hills at this point, not long hills, but steep.  After the golf course we were running through the woods again, I know I sound like a broken record, but it was so beautiful, vegatation right to the edge of the road....I noticed wild roses, which I didn't even know existed, looked like grape vines too, no gaps, just green , green, green and gorgeous valleys and bridges and water falls and just mountains no matter where you looked.  We heard roosters crowing and turkeys gobbling , I saw chipmonks running back into the woods in front of me.  A few homes, but not many.  At one point there was a beautiful colt , just beautiful and there were 3 men passing me at the time, one of the men said "man, that is a beautiful dog"  Just cracked me up, I laughed for quite a while thinking of that comment, we all did around him.  A lot of hills now and I was getting really tired and my back, right between my shoulder blades was killing me.  I admit, I walked a lot after this.  One of my friends who was doing the marathon came up behind me and stayed with me up one the steeper inclines, not sure I would have made it without her.  Thanks Tessa!!!  She ran on and I kept plodding alone.

The last 3 miles were very hard for me.  I really could not wait to see that finish line, it seemed like it would never come, but once I was in sight of the finish, I just could not walk, so I did run down the chute, which was kind of long.  BUT  my friends were there yelling my name and cheering me on, so that helped a lot!  I think my time was 3:08, which isn't my worst, but I hate finishing over 3 hours.  Oh well , with all the hills, that isn't bad for me.  I never train on hills.  There were a Hatfield and McCoy standing at the finish line who high-fived you as soon as you crossed, which was cool and then they handed you an ICED towel!  It felt heavenly, as it was pretty warm at this point.  Oh and they had watermelon, which also hit the spot.  I felt okay, but just could not eat anything, except the watermelon, they didn't have chocolate milk, so I just drank something and sat down for a little while with my friends, got up and walked a little.  We had to catch a shuttle bus to take us back to the car.  Got on the bus, and not 5 minutes later I thought I was going to be sick.  I just sat there with my head down, holding the towel to my face, but I got worse and worse, broke out in a cold sweat, I was just waiting for the leg cramps to begin, but they didn't and I started feeling better, thank goodness.  However, in the meantime, my friend was getting motion sickness, so now she was sick!  Believe me it wasn't fun , in small school bus, going around very steep curves and up and down mountains when you are not feeling well.  That was some long ride!  We were so thankful when we got off that bus!  Unfortunately we had to get back in the car and drive 40 minutes to the Hotel, around all those curves and hills...oh my, neither one of us felt well.  Couldn't wait to lie down back in the room.

This was a wonderful race though.  You have got to go down and run it if you can.  I will go back, long drive, motion sickness and all!

Ginny