2024 Little Rock Marathon

On March 3, 2024, I completed full Marathon #28 and U.S. State #15 at Little Rock Marathon. I encountered a couple Atlanta friends at the airport when I was headed over there. It was cool seeing them and it also worked out nicely since I had a ride to the hotel. (I didn’t rent a car since I was staying within walking distance of the start line.)

The Residence Inn was a reasonable rate for a full studio with kitchen and it was very near the start and finish.

I forgot to bring my SpiBelt race bib toggles with me, and I had a mild panic when I realized this, because I didn’t want to wear a shirt, just a sports bra, for the race, since it was going to be hot. I ended up solving the problem by using hair ties in the same manner. It worked! Now I know.

My pre-race meal was some grilled Red Snapper with veggies, black beans, and rice, and some fried pickles, at The Flying Fish. It was delicious.

They put on a great race in Little Rock; I’ve got to hand it to the race director. He made an excellent call in moving the start time to 6am from 8am this year, a decision that was made during race week when the weather predicted unseasonably hot and humid weather. There was great communication about this change, everyone is very friendly, they offered real post-race food and good drinks, and it was nice to be able to hang out inside before and after, real bathrooms, cool medal, fun theme. They do it right!

The theme was dinosaurs this year. That was a fun theme! I enjoyed it. Who doesn’t love dinosaurs?

We also got very lucky in that it was overcast. It was still humid and about 5-10 degrees hotter than I would have liked, but it ended up being fine. I’m glad I went with just the sports bra and hydration vest and didn’t also wear a tank top. That would’ve been too much. By the first mile I was already so thankful I opted for less clothing.

It’s a hilly marathon; that’s for sure! Lots of hills but there is one that goes up for 3 miles, between miles 14-17. That was tough! It also finishes with some hills that are pretty tough, but by then I was able to get the finish excitement to push me, and I was trying really hard to get sub 4, so that helped me with the hills at the end as well.

I made a friend who is also running a marathon in all 50 states. He was actually on my same flight over and then we kept running into each other so ended up talking after the race and decided to remain in contact, so that’s cool. I love that part of this journey, meeting fellow 50 states runners all over the country is fun! I also made another friend after the race, a fellow member of the 50 States Marathon Club and Marathon Maniacs who had done over 200 marathons. I need to look him up on the maniac website so we can also keep in touch!

Also, the medal is amazing! It weighs like 5 lbs or something. It’s huge and really cool!

After I finished the race, a reporter interviewed me and it ended up in the paper. Never mind that the reporter referred to Peachtree Road Race runners as “marathoners” (which I obviously didn’t say), but they interviewed me after the race and it’s in the paper. Here is the link (I’m not sure how long it will work but here it is): https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2024/mar/04/little-rock-marathon-finish-lines/ and here is the screenshot I took of the bit about me.

I made a race video to put on my Facebook profile and on my YouTube Channel.
Here is the video:

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2024 Mesa Marathon

I ran my 27th full marathon in my 14th U.S. State on February 10, 2024 at the Mesa Marathon in Mesa, Arizona. My official finish time was 3:47:20, an 8:40 pace. It was 25 seconds slower than my marathon personal record, which I had achieved in 2017 at the Marine Corps Marathon.

The start of the race was weird. It started late. I never heard the national anthem. I didn’t even hear a countdown or a horn or gun to begin. People started moving and it was like “oh, we’re going now?”

I really enjoyed myself for about the first 10 miles, but then the rain picked back up. I got cold, my feet were soggy, and my legs tightened up. The crowd thinned out. I started to lose my focus mentally as I began to worry, and I fell out of the game emotionally. Fast people were passing me, and, without the crowd support, this was pulling me further and further out of my confidence zone, which I really needed to get myself through it. I stopped filming to conserve what energy I could. I turned the camera back on at the end.

My goal had been 3:45, which would have given me a 10-minute buffer on the qualifying standard (3:55) for what my age group (F 50-54) will be at the 2025 Boston Marathon. I have a 7:40 buffer with this time, which is still most likely adequate to secure my entry. Only once in recent history was a greater buffer needed, and that was in 2021 when they had reduced the field size by 10,000 participants due to the pandemic. So, in all probability, I will be able to celebrate my 50th Birthday at the Boston Marathon. My birthday is the week prior, and I really want to have a huge 50th birthday celebration with 30,000 runners on the streets of Boston. This is meant to be. It will almost make it ok that I missed out on my other BQ (because it got cancelled in 2020) if I can celebrate my 50th with my first run of the Boston Marathon.

This is my GoPro footage from the first half race and the finish.

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self-date to Cirque du Soleil Luzia

I was tired of waiting for someone to invite me on a date to go see Cirque du Soleil Luzia so I decided to invite someone, myself.
This will be my 5th Cirque du Soleil show. I’ve seen La Nouba, Alegria, The Beatles ‘Love’, and Ovo.
I’m pretty excited about my date! Best idea ever!!!
DOOR 6, SECTION 204, ROW M, SEAT 27

Rock N Roll Nashville Marathon

Rock and Roll Nashville Marathon went pretty well, all things considered. Not my best time, but not my worst either. 4:34:51. My Garmin registered 26.61 (a new personal record for farthest distance); I am guessing that the extra distance may have been due to weaving in and out of the crowd in the beginning of the race, although I tried to minimize how much I did that.

The race had a delayed start from 7:15 to 7:50ish. My corral (corral 20) was getting close to the start at 8:18am, based on the last text message I sent. I was going to check my phone in gear check but I decided to carry it with me instead. I had it in my waist pack, but the zipper on my waist pack broke (thankfully this happened before the race actually started so I had time to deal with it.) I ended up putting my extra gels and my phone in my rain jacket’s pocket. The hard rain stopped, though, and it went to a drizzle and I started to get hot a few miles into the race. First I took off my hat and attached it to my clothes, but I was still too hot. It was steamy and humid, even though it was drizzling. There wasn’t really much wind. By the middle of mile 5, I had to take my jacket off and tie it around my waist.

I had to carry my phone for 20 miles in my hand after I took my jacket off, as it felt awkward in the pocket, heavier on one side and hitting my leg as I ran at that point. I reattached my hat to my jacket around my waist and that is how I ran the rest of the race, switching hands with phone and hydration bottle every couple miles. Since I had the phone in my hand anyway, I sent a few texts to my brother to let him know where I was along the course. I turned the power of the phone off in between those texts to prevent the motion-activated flashlight feature from coming on and draining the battery. It was fine, I guess, holding the phone, since I had one hand on the water bottle anyway. It would have been better not holding the phone though, since holding the water bottle is somewhat hands free with the thumb loop. Holding the phone requires actually gripping something, but I managed it.

I also ran without wearing headphones since I had stowed them the night before in two ziplock baggies, having known that it was a good chance it would be raining. After the pre-race downpour, it rained off and on a little for much of the race and I didn’t feel like bothering to get the headphones out. It was a first time for me to run without my music for this long a distance. I’m actually glad I did that, because now I feel slightly more confident about being able to do it, but I will say that I was very thankful for the bands playing every 2-3 miles.

It was a fun race and I am very glad I did it. I’d like to be able to say this whole marathon thing is getting easier, as one might think it would, after 5 full marathons (almost 6) in the span of less than a 6 month period, but I can’t say that yet. Gotta keep trying 🙂

Birthday dinner, movie and ice cream

J took me to dinner (at Atlantic Grill at Atlantic Station), to see a movie (we saw Deadpool) and to have ice cream (at Kilwin’s at Atlantic Station) for my birthday. They had a throne at Kilwin’s that is just like the throne that was given to me years ago that is now in storage. The movie was good. I don’t think I would see it again. He said he was seeing it for the 3rd time and that it was that good. I did enjoy it, but not enough for multiple times like he did, apparently. Dinner was good. I had trout with rice and some sweet potato side dish that was awesome. For ice cream, I chose Rum Raisin and Pumpkin Pie in a waffle cone. I couldn’t finish the ice cream and I brought the rest home. I didn’t get to blow out a candle this year. Does that mean I have to grant my own wishes?

note: journal entry added on 20160501 when I cleaned out my wallet and found the ticket stub

The Big Short

I saw the movie ‘The Big Short’ at the theater today. I liked it a lot and the soundtrack was good, but it hit me pretty hard because of what I had gone through with the house. I cried multiple times. Alas, it was a good movie. I bet the book is very interesting.

note: journal entry added on 20160501 when I cleaned out my wallet and found the movie ticket stub

Amanda Palmer and there’s no turning back now

Well, that’s it. I’m 40 and there’s no turning back now. I just got home from seeing Amanda Palmer at the Variety Playhouse. She is a performer like no other and I am so glad that I went. I bought her book “The Art of Asking” at the concert and stayed until the very end (I was literally 3 people from the end of the line and I waited about an hour and a half to have her sign it “Happy 40th, Pina). I read the book while I was waiting, both to pass the time and to avoid having to chit chat while I waited. I wasn’t in the mood to talk. I wanted to preserve the energy I had experienced from the evening. I wanted to make sure I made it meaningful and did not diminish it. I wanted to honor the experience and my birthday, so I did just that. I had time to read up to page 44 in her book while I was waiting in line.

I knew I would cry for much of the show and I did. It was the good kind of cry, the really good kind of cry. Amanda Palmer​ is inspiring. She is beautiful. She is talented. She is not shy. She is brave. She is a lot of things that I wish I could be. She asked for requests to play songs early in the show. If I had raised my hand, she would probably have called on me. I could feel it and that is why I didn’t raise my hand. I wanted to ask her to play the song that got me into her music, “Coin Operated Boy.” It didn’t get played. I wouldn’t trade a minute of her performance and it is perfect that it went the way it did. I kinda knew that would happen. It was part of what she was there to teach me. The rest is up to me.

So it begins… a new era of my life.

Queensryche and Kickin Valentina

I went to see Queensryche tonight (well… last night technically, it was on Friday). My friend’s band, Kickin Valentina, opened for them! It was an awesome show and it was wonderful to see my friend succeeding at making his dreams come true!!!

I also got to see another old friend for a few minutes and catch up a little. That was actually the best part of my night. I hadn’t seen him in about 8 years. He is married now. It seems like all of my (male) friends are married now. I’m happy for all of them, but it kinda makes me feel …like I am the only one not getting married. It’s not like I didn’t have my chances. I completely just gave up even bothering with the whole dating thing about three years ago and I’ve never looked back. I don’t have time for it anyway. I work way too much these days for a relationship. That is what I have been telling myself anyway. To everything there is a season…

I’m very glad I had gotten to see Queensryche previously. It was a different experience this time. They were still amazing but the show was less theatrical than it had been on the tour I saw in Nashville in 2006. This was more of a traditional concert experience. I have no doubt about the relevance of each experience to my life situation at the time. Jaded as I have become, it’s important to me to be able to reweave the fabric of time and space together. Doing so creates meaning for the spaces in between. I’m thankful for the opportunity to have done that tonight.

Geoff made some comments that resonated with the part of me that has been yearning for my (spiritual and creative) muses to return to my life. May this resonance help their approach.

chime the bells

Seven Seven Thirteen

Nocturnia Reunion.

Pina – the movie

I am writing this entry at 20200407-1753, while quarantined under a mandatory stay-at-home order and furloughed from work due to the COVID-19 crisis.

I found a ticket stub to the movie Pina, a 3d documentary of the choreographer Pina Bausch. I went to see it at Phipps Plaza at 20120222-1915. I rode my bike there, as this was during the time that I didn’t have a car. It was nighttime when I rode home, obviously. It must have been fairly cold out, given the time of year. I don’t remember that, but I do remember the ride and also being quite proud of myself for having done it.

That was such a difficult time of life for me. It helps me to remember all that I have been through, especially when it seems like times are tough currently.

It was a great movie that I enjoyed immensely. Because, obviously, of it being my name, but also because I wish I had never quit dance. I used to love it so much.