Holiday Run - 4 Miler

The Holiday Run has historically been one of my favorite local races -- partly because it has a festive feel and partly because it is usually a pretty race, especially in snow. It is held at Sharon Woods, which is scenic and one of my favorite places to walk.

About 10 members of the Buckeye Striders and my son had entered.

When we first arrived, the temp on my car said 38 degrees. It felt relatively warm and I was positive I had over-dressed. As we picked up our race chips and walked around, the temps dropped. By race start it felt A LOT colder and I was glad I left the layers on.

At about mile 1 it started to sprinkle. (You've heard it from me a million times -- I HATE rain when it is cold!) I didn't have a hood or any type of hat to keep my hair dry, either. When it stopped I was relieved, but it sprinkled on and off the rest of the race. Luckily it was never heavy enough to soak through my water-resistant jacket, but I did feel bad that my son had to stand in the rain and wait for me. (He ran.) As it turned out, he had to wait nearly 20 min.

Despite the rain, it was a fun race! The Buckeye Striders are always fun! It was fun having my son at the finish line cheering me on. And it was nice having hot chocolate and holiday cookies at the finish line.

My finish time was 56:38, averaging a 14:08 mile. I placed 162 out of 199 women total and about 26th out of 47 women walkers. Not bad. The first 300 finishers received coffee mugs, but I was number 303 overall. Darn!

My son had a good race. He was 59th overall and third in his age group with a time of 29:48. (He got a mug!)

If you are looking for a winter race, this is a good one! It will be my last race of 2008. I'm still deciding if I will enter the First on the First 5K.

Arnold Likes WALK!

I just had a chance to see the Arnold 5K Racewalk flyer for the first time. There is a huge picture of Arnold's face and to the left are pictures of people walking. (Most of them are racewalking.) Three of those people are wearing WALK Magazine shirts!

So, how cool is that?

OK, it is a little like looking for Waldo, so I'll help you out.

In the largest group near the bottom, George is wearing a green WALK! Magazine Walking Team shirt. In the center the gentleman in the red shorts is wearing our white short-sleeved man's T-shirt. In the group at the top, the man farthest left is Joe from Cincinnati wearing our man's tank.

Thanks everyone for wearing our shirts at races!

Yes, it is Metatarsalgia

I finally had my doctor check out a small nagging pain in the ball of my right foot. I've had it for months and I even quit wearing high heels to try to heal it. The switch in shoes has helped somewhat, but racewalking still aggravates the condition. At least now the pain doesn't commence until racewalking for more than 50 minutes.

The good news is it is not a stress fracture. It's metatarsalgia! A few of the causes include wearing high heels, intense training, wearing shoes with little padding, and aging. Hmmm -- I wonder which of these apply to me?

Additional good news: treatment includes wearing metatarsal pads in my shoes to relieve pressure off those bones. I think I can do that.

Teaching Through Example

Subtitle: Parents - Get off the bleachers and move.
I had the opportunity to walk at an indoor track Saturday. While there, a couple soccer teams had practice in the area in the middle of the track. It was fun watching young girls (5 or 6?) and pre-teen boys being active and healthy while we walked!

Here comes the gripe. The ONLY people using the track were members of the Buckeye Striders walking club! There were 40 or so parents sitting in the bleachers watching their kids run around and be healthy.

I'm sure some of these parents are active in sports, too. Active parents tend to encourage their kids to be active. However, a LOT of the observers looked as if they could really use the exercise! What would have been the harm in walking or running around the track a few times while waiting?

I applaud these parents for taking their kids to sports practice early on a Saturday morning! But why not we go the extra step. Why not show your kids that it is just as important for adults to get exercise as it is kids.

Maybe I AM a Racewalker

My walking club met at the Capital University indoor track today. (It's cold outside!) I decided to take advantage of being on an indoor track and work strictly on racewalking form and not worry about speed. My focus was on planting my heels, rolling through to my toes, keeping my knees straight, etc.

For those who have never attempted to racewalk, it feels weird when you do it wrong. It feels stiff, unnatural, choppy and as if you are very slow. But suddenly you will get a smooth, "floaty" feeling and it is almost effortless. That's how you know you have it right!

After several laps of "thinking" about racewalking and waiting for my shins to warm up, I achieved that smooth, floaty feeling. It felt great! I kept the pace consistent and just worked on maintaining that smooth feeling. I'd get distracted when talking to other walkers and notice my steps felt choppy, but was easily able to get that smooth feeling back.

After 57 min I had no idea how many laps I did, but could feel the blood pumping through my legs (I love that feeling!) and was sweating. This suprised me because when I anticipated working on form, I expected to be slow.

Now here is the cool part. Other members of the Buckeye Striders said my form looked great! A couple mentioned that I was fast! Woo hoo!

Maybe I really AM a racewalker! I need to find some judged races to find out for sure. Later today I'll start looking for some local indoor races.

Advertising Rep Needed

WALK! Magazine is looking for an advertising representative. Anyone interested should contact me at admin@walk-magazine.com.

It's a great opportunity for the right person!

Late Night Walk

After getting a bunch of mail out (which took forever, by the way), I was finally able to head out for a walk after 9 this evening. Luckily it had warmed to 33 degrees. (Sarcasm intended.)

I really just needed to get out and walk. I didn't want to work on speed or form or anything -- I just needed to walk. Though I was cold, I did two laps around the big block of our neighborhood -- I could have quit after one, but I kept going.

The night was crisp, cold and beautiful. There were thin patches of snow on the sidewalks. There weren't many Christmas lights, but the houses that were decorated were pretty.

I'm glad I made the time to get out!
_________________

I discovered that carrying a flashlight has good points and bad points. It was carried more so cars could see me than any other reason. However, I found I kept staring at the beam, which affected my night vision, and actually caused me to trip a couple times. Regardless, I felt safer being seen!

Where Oh Where Did the Fall Issues Go?

The Fall issue of WALK! Magazine was mailed way back at the end of October. Despite the initial delays at the mailing house, every subscriber should have received that issue a long time ago. Unfortunately, I am still hearing from a few subscribers who have not yet received it.

I don't know why there are so many more people who did not receive this issue. It's a much larger number than for previous issues. As I've posted before, I'm assuming it has something to do with the massive quantity of political mailings from late October. Still, I can understand a delay, I cannot understand people simply not getting their issue.

So, if you have not received your Fall issue, please let us know. We will get one out to you as quickly as we can.

What About Larry?

Earlier this week, I received an e-mail from a reader who has the goal to walk a marathon in under 5 hours. He followed Larry Smith's training for the Columbus Marathon in the Fall issue and couldn't wait to find out how Larry did.

Of course I'm not going to give it away -- you need to read the next issue to find out!

Another Cold Rain

About 10 a.m. I head out the door for a walk. The original plan was to leave around 9, focus on form and walk for 45 min, but I kept finding a reason to delay.

As I left, it started to sprinkle. Argh! At least it was just a sprinkle, my jacket is water resistant and I wore a baseball hat. The farther I walked the rain got just a little harder. I was pretty close to the house but had walked barely 30 min., so I decided to do a loop around a cul de sac to add a little more distance. My luck, I got to the farthest end when it started to rain pretty hard. At that point I quit working on form and walked as fast as possible to the house. (I still didn't run.)

I made it home after only 36 min. Though my jacket is water "resistant," the seams are not. My arms and legs were pretty much soaked.

Though I hate cold temps and rain together, it was really my own fault. If I had walked with my club yesterday or earlier this morning before the rain, I would have been dry!

Rookie Mistakes

Am I a rookie or what? You would think that the way I approached yesterday's Flying Feather, I had never entered a race before!

Mistake #1: My race clothes were not ready in advance. I only air dry my technical fabric clothes. Tuesday evening I put my race clothes in the washer, but completely forgot to get them out to dry. So, Wednesday night (late) it dawned on me that everything I planned to wear was wet - really wet. I put the clothes on hangers and set up a fan. Because they are wicking fabrics, everything was dry. Whew!

Mistake #2: I arrived at the race without my number or my chip! OK, I know you pin your number to your clothes and put your chip on your shoes the night before the race. Because my clothes were still wet, I forgot. Luckily for me, the race staff gave me a new number.

Mistake #3: I left my gym bag at home. Usually, my gym bag is in the car for all local races. I keep Clif Shots, granola bars, an extra shirt, pins, hats and gloves, etc., in my bag at all times. Because my bag was at home, my Spibelt was at home. I LOVE my Spibelt, but especially for cold-weather races. Because it has hooks to hold the race number, you don't have to put pin holes in your cold-weather jackets. I now have pin holes in my water- and wind-resistant jacket.

Mistake #4: I didn't go far enough to the back of the starting line. Because of the way the start was set up, people were really spread out and it felt as if we were farther back than we were. We did move up at the last minute to get ahead of a couple families we thought would be slower than us. There ended up being tons of runners behind us! I felt bad. We tried to get over to the side and even walked single file, but it just didn't help much. We were in the way. (Sorry runners!)

Mistake #5: Tied to number 3, because my gym bag was at home, I had no food in my car for after the race. A granola bar would have been great and the trip to Tim Horton's on the way home would not have been necessary.

The good news is, I wasn't wearing a WALK! Magazine jacket (we don't have them), so no one could tell that rookie was me!

My First Thanksgiving Day Race

Yesterday's Flying Feather 4-mile race in Westerville, OH was a lot of fun! There were nearly 2,000 people entered in the event. With two other turkey day races in the Central Ohio area, I can't believe this one attracted that many entrants!

But then again, the shirts are great (though too big), the medals are very nice, and I got a bottle of white wine. I think that beats out a grey sweatshirt and pumpkin pie for the first 200 finishers. (Even fast walkers never end up with a pie.)

The race started in an exclusive neighborhood with beautiful homes, then wound through one of the prettiest metro parks in the area. It was designed well so that we were on wide streets when we were packed together, and didn't get into the park and the narrower bike path until everyone had spread out.

There was only one ding for this event -- no food at the end! I know, I know -- it is a problem for many race directors. But I saw people walking around with bunches of bananas (almost hoarding them), and the bagels and bananas were sitting out before the race. Anyone could have walked over and grabbed food before the race.

Still, this event had a very nice family atmosphere. Many of my walking friends were there with kids, spouses and siblings. Despite no food, it was fun.

So after this race, I drank some water, grabbed my wine and head off to the Tim Horton's drive thru with a ton of other entrants. (The 12-grain bagel with cream cheese and a steaming hot cup of coffee really hit the spot!)

Cold or Rain - But Not Both

I know! I know! I am ocassionally a hypocrite.

I am a big proponent of walking outside in all types of weather. If you walk outside regularly, you get acclimated and then it doesn't feel so cold or hot. Then you can be out walking year round.

I draw the line when it comes to rain.

Rain in July or August is great! It can be refreshing to walk in the rain when you are used to heat and humidity.

Rain when the temps are below 40 stops me from walking outside. So, while it is about 33 degrees out there, and has been raining all day, I'm nice and cozy in my warm living room looking out the window at the cold.

If you need to, feel free to call me a hypocrite -- a warm, dry hypocrite.

It's COLD Out There!

At 8 this morning I was out in my neighborhood walking at a brisk pace. It was about 16 degrees, much colder than typical this time of year. I have not had a chance to get acclimated because the cold snap was sudden and I haven't been out as much as I'd like.

Wearing thick walking pants, a long-sleeved shirt, fleece vest, gator and windproof jacket, I went out in the bright sun. It was cold! I anticipated that I would warm up as I picked up speed. For the most part, I was fine, but my arms just would not get warm.

I walked up and down the cul de sacs and in and out of every little side street. Finally, I just walked on the sunniest side of the street, which helped a little.

I arrived home after 55 min. feeling fantastic! The brisk cold air, sunshine and the exercise did a great job of putting me in a great mood!

Despite the cold it was a good walk and it has already been a really good morning.

Afternoon Walk Cut Short

I knew time would be short today, and it was sunny and beautiful about noon. So I decided to take a walk at lunch to get in some movement and improve my mood.

Granted, I was not dressed for walking outside. The temps were in the low 30s and I wore dress clothes and low-heeled shoes. I didn't think it would be a problem though because the sun was so bright.

Once outside I realized the wind was blowing harder than anticipated. I walked for a couple of minutes and decided I just could not take it. By the time I got back inside I had been out for only about 15 min.

The good news is the brisk air was refreshing, I felt energized for the rest of the day and the sunshine did help my mood. I just wish I had thought to bring a hat and scarf so I could have been outside longer.

I Hate the Postal Service!

OK, that statement is probably a little bit extreme. The truth is, I have had more than my fair share of bad luck with the United States and Canadian postal services. With every issue of WALK! Magazine we mail, there are a certain number of subscribers who do not receive their issue. It averages to be about the same number each issue, but there are a few subscribers who have a problem receiving every single issue. I just cannot figure out why.

The Fall issue was the worst! Not only did we have problems getting the magazine in the mail to begin with, but there seem to be a higher number of subscribers than normal who didn't get the issue.

I don't know why this issue is worse, but my thought is that the extreme amount of political mail that caused the initial delay somehow contributed to everything else.

So, as we find out about people who have not received the Fall issue, we're mailing out individual copies.

Please be patient, we are doing the best we can to get caught up!

Great Dinner in Charleston

While in Charleston, I had dinner with Julien Smith, race director of the popular Cooper River Bridge Run. He does a million other things, but I met him through the Bridge Run, the biggest race he directs.

It was really nice to be able to talk to a race director when he actually has time to talk. Most of the time, we're in the middle of race week or the race expo, and we are all ridiculously busy.

After a great dinner at Fleet Landing, he acted as tour guide and showed me the highlights of Charleston. What a great city! I miss so much when I'm visiting a city for a race.

It was a lot of fun and I'm glad I decided to contact Julien. I think I'll try to meet other race directors when I have the chance. If they are half as friendly as Julien it could be a lot of fun!

Uninspired Walk

I had intended to get up early and walk. It didn't work. I had a few minor things to get done, but the amount of time needed filled the amount of time I had. Funny how that works.

All of my meetings were finished by 3:30 this afternoon, and I immediately put on comfy clothes and went outside. Granted, I didn't do any serious walking like I had intended, but I did walk all the way to the Walmart! It was probably no more than 1.5 miles round trip, but it felt great to be outside and away from a hotel.

Also tonight I made plans to have dinner in Charleston. (The hotel I'm at is pretty far from town.) Dinner was at 6:30 and I had not seen any of the city yet, so I took the hotel shuttle at 5 and arrived right outside the restaurant by about 5:20. Before it got too dark, I walked along Market Street and some of the cross streets with really cute shops. So, I probably got another mile in then.

When I travel I really do need to make a better effort to get in some walking.

Heading home tomorrow. I need to get up early, so I really should have been in bed over an hour ago! (If I didn't have Internet access tonight, I would have been in bed by now!)

Sunday's Walk and Blisters

Yesterday, shortly after checking into the hotel, a friend and I went for a short walk. We were waiting for someone else to join us and were just killing time. There is a sidewalk in front of the hotel and I was wearing my comfortable flat dress shoes that are already broken in.

We walked down one side until the sidewalk ended then turned around and went past the hotel in the other direction.

Compared to the distances I normally walk, it was not far. However, I don't normally walk that far in dress shoes. Needless to say, I ended up with blisters on the back of both heels and one of them burst! Ouch! Luckily I had a pair of backless shoes with me, but they had a 2-inch heel. So, what is my choice? Aggravate my blisters or my throbbing toes? I opted for the higher heels and aggravated my toes.

I'm glad I was able to get outside and walk after being stuck on a plane for a couple of hours. Despite the blisters, it was great to be in Charleston with the milder temperatures and the palm trees! (Palm trees always make me smile.) Next time I'll be sure to change my shoes first.
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I'm sure the rest of you have had encounters like this.

I asked the concierge if there were restaurants within walking distance of the hotel. She said that it depends and asked how far can I walk. I came "this close" to giving a smart-aleck response, but decided it would be rude. (She was very nice.) Oh, pretty far, I said, how far is the restaurant? She said about half a mile!

I almost laughed, but again, she was nice and I didn't want to be rude. "No problem," I said.

A couple of reactions: 1) Isn't it sad that for many people half a mile is a long way to walk? 2) Your perception of what is a long distance changes after you have walked a real "long distance" -- like 26.2 miles, for example.

Heading to Charleston

I have an opportunity to visit Charleston, SC this week! I'm pretty excited -- I haven't been there since the Cooper River Bridge Run over a year ago.

Unfortunately, I'll be in meetings most of the time. But I'm hoping I'll get the chance to get some walking in. It's supposed to be in the high 60s low 70s, so that should be good. Rain when I return on Thursday shouldn't be a problem.

Though it won't be much different from Ohio weather-wise, sometimes just being someplace different is all that is necessary to inspire walking.