Saturday, April 29, 2006

Good Training Walk

I walked with my Buckeye Strider buddies today. Deb, a true early bird, had those of us going to the Flying Pig walking at 7 a.m. to get our 8 miles in. The rest of the clan joined us at 8 a.m. to get in 4 miles. The weather was beautiful, the company was great, it was a fun morning.

I'll taper this week, as if my mid-week training ever needs tapering. (So much to do, so little time.)

My walking buddies were great sports trying out different energy bars for me. We are planning a review of the products in the Summer issue and those who showed up today were very helpful. To find out what they think, you'll have to get the Summer issue!

Unfortunately, I have not yet purchased new shoes, and my blister is back. I better do something about it before next weekend.

Monday, April 24, 2006

Blister Cure?

I popped every blister, even the one I developed on Saturday,let them dry out and I think I'm cured. I finally have some callouses where I need them. My daughter and I took an easy 40-min walk in a local park and I feel pretty good.

In the meantime, I'll begin looking for new shoes, which I desperately need. I'll be sure to take the shoe reviews from the Spring issue with me.

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Dumbest Magazine

Every week I check my web site statistics to see how people find me. I can see which sites people link from and if I'm unfamiliar with the site, I look it up.

Today I saw that I had 35 hits from a place called 705 Music Scene. Now why on Earth would anyone there link to WALK! Magazine?

One of the regulars asked, "What's the dumbest magazine you've ever seen?" Low and behold, the second one mentioned was WALK! It was nice of mcface, a Charlotte Hornets fan, to copy and paste the cover of the Spring 06 issue into his posting. We are situated between 24 Magazine (about the show 24) and American Idol the Magazine.

This is the first time I have been slammed like this and I find it hysterical. I can't believe this guy would have even heard about WALK! I must be doing something right.

As George M. Cohan said "I don't care what you say about me, as long as you say something about me, and as long as you spell my name right." And it did bring 35 hits to my web site. Now if I can just get George Carlin to revise the joke he tells referring to a defunct walking publication, I'll have it made.

If any of you are interested, here's the really short discussion: http://the705scene.7.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=613&highlight=stupid+magazines

Saturday, April 22, 2006

Shirt Order Delays

I probably owe a few people apologies. Their technical shirts have been on hold for a VERY long time! I put a notice on the WALK! Magazine web site saying the shirts were delayed. I even indicated what day I would receive them, which was yesterday. Unfortunately, I did NOT post the delay situation in the WALK! Magazine store. (Now that would have solved the problem.)

Today I received an e-mail from an unhappy customer. She sent an e-mail last week upset that her shirt had not yet arrived. I replied explaining the delay, but she was still unhappy. I got a scathing review of my store.

She also indicated that the store is difficult to navigate. I had not realized that before, and am not sure what I can do about it. I use Yahoo and there are only so many things I can change and the program is NOT user friendly. Regardless, I will look into improving the checkout process. I plan to add Pay Pal and remove the credit card approval system I currently have to use. Pay Pal can accept credit cards, so that should make my life easier and more profitable since the transaction fees are lower.

So, I am sorry it has taken so long to receive the technical shirts. They are going in the mail this weekend - some today and some tomorrow. None of them will be postmarked until Monday.

I hope you find the shirts were worth the wait.

Run Happy 10K

Today was the Run Happy 10K in Central OH and hosted by Run Wild Racing. Those of you who do not have walker friendly races near you would love Doug Grout of Run Wild. He loves walkers and treats us very well.

It had rained last night, but luckily had stopped before I left for the 8 a.m. race. It was great seeing many of my Buckeye Strider buddies! I also ran into Reggy, who I first met at the Bingham race in Columbus a few weeks ago. The skies stayed lightly overcast, the temps were mild and I was excited to be able to race in shirts sleeves and shorts.

Some of us started at a 15-min mile pace, and had planned to walk the entire 10K at that pace. Alas, only Reggy and I were really that slow. In reality, we were the two slowest for a very long time. After we both got rid of our shin splints, our pace picked up to 14:45, then 14:30 and eventually a 14-min mile! I was thrilled! Up until the last half mile, we were dead last.

Not that I am conceited, or even worried about being last, but I was very surprised that walking at that pace I would be last. This was a very fast group of walkers!

Congratulations to Reggy who received an age-group award!

A special congratulations to Jacqueline! This was her first 10K and she finished right behind me. (OK, I had to work very hard to catch up to her so I could pass her, but that is beside the point.) She was so thrilled, finishing brought her to tears! I hope I'll see you at many more races!

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

@#%* Blisters!

My home medical treatment didn't work. Dag-nabit! (However you spell it.)

Not sure what I should try next, but maybe putting the blister block on kept it from draining and drying out. I took a nice easy walk to the library and back - 2 miles round trip. I wore regular running shoes - the pair I wear with jeans, not serious walking shoes. The blister is coming back.

I thought I was a blister expert after my serious bout with them a few years back. Obviously, I was wrong.

I think my best bet is to remove the blister block and let the area air dry. Maybe the skin will toughen up and start to callous. I hope so. I was planning to enter the Run Happy 10K this weekend!

ARGH!

Monday, April 17, 2006

I Hate Blisters

I have not had blisters for a very long time - not since I found the wrinkles in my insole and switched to Wright socks.

During the Xenia Half Marathon I developed a blister on the heel of my right foot. I could feel the heat, I knew it was coming, but I kept plodding along. By the time I got back to my car and took off my shoe, it was huge.

I know you shouldn't pop blisters, and I try to avoid it. So I left this one alone all week and it slowly shrank. But Saturday my husband and I did a 6-mile (almost) training walk. Before leaving I put a "blister block" on the sore spot. It didn't help. Within a couple of miles I could feel the blister getting bigger and bigger. By the time we finished, I was almost limping. The blister was humongous!

Sunday, it was so huge I couldn't wear real shoes so I wore sandals all day. That night I couldn't take it any longer. I cleaned the area with alcohol, cleaned a needle and popped it. I cleaned the area with more alcohol and applied another blister block.

Though I'm a little worried, I would rather pop the thing myself while my foot is clean rather than have it happen in the middle of a long walk when my feet are hot and sweaty.

Monday, I feel OK but wore shoes with no back. I'm hoping to do some really light mileage this week, which I probably will not even feel. The test will be this upcoming weekend with I enter the Run Happy 10K outside Columbus, OH. (www.runwildracing.com)

Friday, April 14, 2006

Meeting Walkers

When I first started this blog I didn't think anyone would actually read it. I like to write. But many of the things I think and write about do not work in WALK! Magazine, and I really needed an outlet for that. I even envisioned some of the ideas I discussed here to be fine-tuned and used as a letter from the editor some day. I was very surprised the first time someone posted a response.

What is great about the blog is people are more willing to send e-mails to me. Usually it's about a race I plan to go to. Just this week I received an e-mail from someone who is interested in meeting up at the Flying Pig in May. She's from Boston. (Hi!)

I enjoy meeting new people and walking with people I don't know. Though I LOVE walking with my buddies, if I'm alone at a race I always look for someone who is at my pace and might be friendly. I guess that's one of the reasons I hate headphones during events. Nothing says "don't talk to me" like a pair of headphones. Anyway, the point of this paragraph is that, when I walk with someone I don't know the time just flies. I can hear any old story a walker's entire family has heard a million times, and it's new to me. Just talking about what someone does for a living or how old the kids are can kill a few miles.

I've met some really nice people during races - some I keep in touch with, others I just remember as being fun. One I met in Parkersburg travels everywhere and one from the Air Force Marathon I've been in touch with for a few years now. (Jeeyum occasionally reads this blog.) I met people in Cleveland last year and Murray in Xenia a few weeks ago. There's a gentleman from Columbus I met during a half, and I see him every race locally. He just makes my day when I see him in a race and we chat like life-long friends.

What all of these people have in common is they enjoy walking and I love feeling that positive vibe when I'm out there. I like to say I've never met a walker I didn't like. So far that's true. And maybe, with the help of this blog, I'll have the opportunity to meet a few more walkers I'll like.

Monday, April 10, 2006

A Beautiful Day!

Today was so beautiful I went for a short walk. Actually, I just walked to the post office to check my mail, but it is about 1 mile round trip.

Part of the reason I decided to take the walk is I'm in pain. I'm pretty sore from yesterday's half marathon and needed to move a little bit. I knew I'd have some pain since I was not trained as well as I would have liked, but I had to laugh when it hurt to get out of my chair earlier today. Stairs are a little bit of a challenge, but not too bad. I've definitely felt worse.

But, being a sucker for beautiful days, it was very difficult to keep it to just 1 mile. Luckily my muscles would not have cooperated even if I wanted them to.

I'm a little bit concerned about training for Cinci in 26 days. I'm glad that members of the Marathon Walking group on Yahoo offered some great advice.

I'm sure there will be plenty more beautiful days to come.

Sunday, April 09, 2006

Xenia

Until today, anytime someone mentioned Xenia, I thought of tornadoes. After today, I'll think of a very walker-friendly half marathon and a great sunny day.

Xenia is a littler farther from Columbus than I thought. I drove out on Saturday to pick up my number and find out where I needed to go. I'm glad I did! It was more than an hour away and I had anticipated about 40 min.

I got up at 5:30, and left the house at 6 to be sure to get there in time for the 8 a.m. start and to pick up my chip before the race. I arrived at 7:15, did everything I needed, took a 5 min nap in the car (I needed more), and was ready for the 8 a.m. start. Unfortunately, the race started at 8:30! So I ended up standing in line for the port-a-johns a second time and realized I could have slept!

There are a lot of fast walkers in this area of Ohio. I'm not one of them. I started out way in the back and eventually ended up passing a few people. There were many, many more walkers with great racewalking form ahead of me and I had no shot at catching them. Within the first mile I caught up to Murray. I had planned to chat with him until one of us needed to speed up or slow down. About 13 miles later we finished faster than 3:20.

As many of you know, my training didn't not go as well as I had intended so my main goal was to just finish. I don't know what happened but I was able to hover around a 15-min mile. It felt great! We finished at least 10-15 min faster than I had anticipated. And Murray had a personal best!

With the sun, the mostly cool temps, and good company, it was easy to maintain a steady pace. I didn't really pay much attention to the blister developing my right foot. (I guess it wasn't the socks that caused a blister last time. It is the shoes.)

For anyone who wants a straight-forward, low-key and friendly half, I would highly recommend this one, put on by the ORRRC.

Thanks for keeping me company, Murray! I'll look for you at future half marathons!

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Walking Awards

A few people who entered the LaSalle Bank Columbus Distance Classic contacted me because there were no age group awards for walkers. I'm assuming that the decision was made because there were fewer than 300 walkers registered, though I was not involved in the decision.

Though we cannot give awards, we can try to recognize your hard work and accomplishments. If you should have received an age group award at last Saturday's race, or know someone who should have, please e-mail WALK! Magazine with the name, the age group, and finish time. We'll post the results on our web site. (admin@walk-magazine.com)

It's not the same as receiving a plaque, but it's the best we can do.

Thanks for understanding!

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Great Training Walk and other Ramblings

Sunday I had a great training walk. I headed to the library, did three laps around the park and headed home - a little over 5 miles. I was not quite sure how many miles to do. Normally, I would taper the weekend before a half marathon, but I have been tapering for WAY too long with the Fleet Feet team. In addition, I stood for 4 hours Saturday to monitor the Half Marathon. I wonder how many training miles that equaled?

I tried a new pair of Brooks shoes given to me by Fleet Feet and they were nearly perfect. They are so light, they feel like slippers and they bend in the perfect spot. At the same time, my feet felt cushioned enough. My only complaint is that my right ankle felt as if it was leaning inward. If my feet and ankles were a little more stable they would be perfect! So, since they are running shoes, I'll probably let my kids fight over them. They are really cool looking, and feel good, I wish they worked better for me.

BTW: Good news - I have again been inundated with new subscriptions! Bad news - my data entry person is no longer available to help me. She is really great, too. So, I am adding a few entries every night and will send out copies as quickly as I can.

I'll be walking the Cleveland Half Marathon with a small group. My husband and some of his co-workers will be walking their first half and I'm planning to join them. I'm not sure what their pace will be, but it should be fun. Because I'll be doing the Flying Pig two weeks earlier, I'll just take it easy. If any of you register for this race, be sure to say you heard about it in WALK! Magazine. In the drop down menu select "other" then type WALK! Magazine in the blank.

I also found out that several friends will be doing the Pig! I'm really excited!

Well, enough rambling for now. I'm thrilled to find out so many people had fun at the Bingham race over the weekend. Thanks for understanding that we did not catch all of the runners. I'm sure it will be even better next year!

PS: Larry, yes I was on High Street near Nationwide. I was on Front near the end of the race, too.

Saturday, April 01, 2006

Perspective

I'm not quite sure how to start this one. I'm trying to put everything into perspective.

Due to events over the last few days, I see some things with new eyes. Jaded eyes. I'm pretty disappointed in how things turned out, but I'm going to think about it before I put thoughts about those events into words. In fact, I might not ever share those bad feelings on the web for everyone to see. One person, whose opinion I value, said to spread the word, let everyone know. But I'm not sure.

At the same time, after today I'm very excited! I am so proud of the Fleet Feet walkers! They were fantastic! I watched the Columbus Distance Classic as a course monitor today and saw most of the women who trained with me and many of my Buckeye Strider buddies. They were great. And that Weight Watchers group was very inspiring!They all looked strong and seemed to have a good time. Congratulations to all of you!

In fact, all of the walkers seemed to have a good time. It was really fun watching people who had worked so hard successfully complete this event! A half marathon is not an easy undertaking. It takes training, perseverance and TIME! It was obvious these athletes had put in the time and the training.

For this reason alone, I am very proud to have been associated with this race. I smiled the whole time watching people go by. Seeing so many athletes enjoying this type of healthy endeavor is very inspiring. It was especially inspiring to meet and then watch people that were entering their first race of this distance.

And seeing these people have such a good time made me realize that sometimes it's just about the walking. Sometimes you don't need to know "the rest of the story" as Paul Harvey says.

So, thank you everyone who walked this event. You have made my day! I had a wonderful time watching you and you inspired me to do my best next weekend in Xenia!

PS: I saw over 30 people with walker numbers blatantly running. It took 3 of 6 course monitors seeing a person run to have them moved to the runner results. I know there are a couple "runners" we missed. Maybe with a few more monitors... Regardless, there were about 6 people who should have signed up as runners. It will be interesting to see what the race does with those results. And those of you who walked the entire distance, I'm sorry we didn't catch all of the runners. We did our best!