A donation, a heat wave and three miles

This is me and Cindy. Cindy has been at finish lines letting me cry and getting me to massage tables, at start lines telling me how wonderful I am going to perform and taking photos and at sidelines catching discarded laundry and feeding me bananas to help me keep going strong. When I started running, she thought it was a marvelous idea. At least ... that's what she said. ;)

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Due to some traveling and a sinus condition, I didn't get last week's final 11 miles under my belt.

[humbling]

Knowing the heat today was going to be intense, I got myself out of bed this morning by reminding Self that there were other runners already outside on the road and that when I saw them, I was going to be sorry I didn't join them. That did the trick and I got 3.62 miles in before work.

It was hot, humid and horrible!

Running in the heat and humidity is nothing compared to living a life in which I might be exploited and harmed. I really did think about the Tanzanian orphans this morning as I slogged through the thick air and it helped me put things in perspective.

Speaking of humbling: what a perspective it was!

I received a public education at the expense of my fellow taxpayers. I went to community colleges while I worked. I entered a state university and received a Bachelor's Degree.

I never considered a moment when someone might force me to carry a gun and kill or be killed. I never considered a time when I might be forced to do hard labor without pay, housing or food. I've never been at such a risk and I like the idea that with these donations, the children we're helping will have tools to rise above their risk.

Your donation helps make the world's risks less frightening for a child so far away. Thank you to Cindy for her recent donation. I'm very proud to call her my friend. I feel the benefits of our friendship over these last 15+ years have all been made out to my side of the relationship because she's such a good friend. She is also one of my best encouragers in this life!

Run safely

Another 4 miles and another first. I was almost hit by a car! That's never happened before. I was almost through the intersection when the driver decided to turn into me. Thank goodness she didn't hit me, but it was shocking. Then for the rest of the run, I was angry.

Unfortunately, it all came together to distract me and I ran more slowly than was necessary. It was a good run and if I'd been paying attention, I could have gotten a better pace out of it.

On my training plan, I noticed that this week's runs are 3, 4, 5 and 6 miles long. Due to my schedule this week, the 5-mile and the 6-mile will be back-to-back on Friday and Saturday.

I saw on Facebook that Peak 4 Poverty's team made it to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro! Congratulations to them all! Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro is a fundraiser for the same orphans of Tanzania for which I'm raising money. So if you aren't into running, but would like to climb the highest point in Africa, you might treat yourself to an adventure of your very own.

From the website:

Peak 4 Poverty envisions a sustainable model for educating the orphans of Tanzania, by building a framework to educate them and prepare them to move beyond the vicious cycle of poverty and AIDS. The end results would be a society that is educated and aspires to be successful in the world.

A couple bucks, some miles and a little rain

If I were still running rather than training, I might have skipped the run this morning and waited for later. Rain was headed into town, so I dawdled for an hour this morning trying to get my head into the game.

I don't know about other runners, but I know for myself running is mostly mental. I get nervous before really long runs and since at this point in training, 8 miles qualifies as "really long" I got a little nervous.

I got the yips.

After the dreaded first mile, I got into it and by mile 2.5 I let my mind start wandering. Unfortunately, it wandered into Ye Olde Crappy Song Shop and I had a bad REO Speedwagon song in my head the entire remaining miles. That's roughly an hour of involuntarily singing "I can't fight this feeling anymore" in my head.

No offense to all you REO fans, but I hate that song.

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On another front, I was handed a cash donation yesterday that surprised me! I'll be entering that in through my own PayPal account shortly. But it brought to mind something I want to be sure you all know.

A $5 donation is received with as much joy and thanksgiving as a $50 donation.

According to Avert.org, AIDS orphans may begin suffering before they lose one or both parents to AIDS due to the nature of the disease:

"Children whose parents are living with HIV often experience many negative changes in their lives and can start to suffer neglect, including emotional neglect, long before they are orphaned. Eventually, they suffer the death of their parent(s) and the emotional trauma that results. They may then have to adjust to a new situation, with little or no support, and may suffer exploitation and abuse.8 9

In one study carried out in rural Uganda, high levels of psychological distress were found in children who had been orphaned by AIDS. Anxiety, depression and anger were more found to be more common among AIDS orphans than other children. 12% of AIDS orphans affirmed that they wished they were dead, compared to 3% of other children interviewed.10

These psychological problems can become more severe if a child is forced to separate from their siblings upon becoming orphaned. In some regions this occurs regularly: a 2002 survey in Zambia showed that more than half of orphaned children no longer lived with all of their siblings.11"

Take this opportunity to show the AIDS/HIV orphans in Tanzania that people very far away care about the way they feel and want to invest in their future.

What a powerful way to spend a few dollars this year!

Another contributor!

Michelle is a blogging friend of mine who has chosen to support me in my effort this summer. I can't tell you how tickled I am that people I enjoy so much and count as friends would chose to support me even though we haven't met in real life. I wrote a post about her blog.

Contributors kick off my summer training

Rose was my first contributor and to thank her, I wrote a post about her blog
here. Many thanks also to Bryan and my mom, whose contribution is on the way!

Thanks for kicking off my summer.

Pace is a funny thing

I woke up late this morning and looked outside. It was raining a little and looked as though it had been raining all night. I turned on the television and they said we were getting a break, but that starting this afternoon there's a wind advisory already in place.

I didn't exactly want to go for a run in the rain and the wind. I wanted even less to run in heavier wind and a thunderstorm, so I suited up, fastened my Garmin to my wrist and took off.

On my training schedule, today was supposed to be a hills run. But my physical therapist, who is working on my running mechanics is telling me I'm not allowed to run hills yet.

As a substitute, I ran to develop speed. I ran for about five minutes, ran hard for about 1 minute and then jogged for about 2 minutes. Rinse, lather, repeat. But pace is a funny thing.

When I got my Garmin Forerunner GPS watch, I noticed it has preset zones for heart rate and speed. Zones for speed go something like this: slow walk, walk, slow jog, jog, run, sprint, max speed. The manual says the zones may not match your personal abilities.

They're not lying.

For three years, I've been demoralized because my Garmin has characterized even my hardest efforts in the most demeaning ways. I can pour my heart into a run and my Garmin sneers at me for never reaching more than a jog. I finally got wise and just last week started fiddling around with the zone settings.

They now read: walk, fast walk, jog, run, sprint, heart attack, death.

Much more accurate.

My problem stems from the undeniable fact that I have little room between a jog (12 mph) and a sprint (9 mph). That may seem great in terms of actual speed, but in terms of the effort it takes for me to move between 9 and 12, I'm not getting much of a break.

Here's my suggestion: Garmin needs to develop a watch that measures courage, effort, stupidity and stubbornness. That's what runners really need to measure. Sales would explode! The watch could tell me that what I'm about to do is 40% stupid or that clearly the only way I got up that hill was 100% stubbornness or that passing an untethered St. Bernard/Great Dane barking monster took 75% courage mixed with 20% stupidity.

Oh, and some praise and encouragement would work wonders, too.

A running first

Last night after work, I got out for a three-mile run at race pace. That's a 10:00 mile for me, at least right now. That's the best time I got to last year and it felt comfortable. I'll be in training longer this year, so it is possible I could become a little faster or build more stamina for a longer haul at last years' pace.

As I was going, I was breathing very loudly. I'm a loud breather when I run until I settle into a long run, which wasn't going to happen last night for three miles. Three miles is considered a short run.

So there I am huffing and puffing. On my route are several predictable spots that always have a cloud of gnats. As I closed my mouth and ran through, I wondered laughingly how many I've accidentally consumed without realizing it.

Not four minutes later, I got my first bug. Stunned, I tried to yak it up by making that horrible noise big brothers make on long car trips to gross out little sisters. What that managed to do (and cover your ears now if you're squeamish) is pull the nasty little bug into two pieces.

I spit out a huge piece of bug and tasted bitter black licorice. Thoroughly disgusted, I tried and tried to get what I could still feel out of my throat. I suppose it's possible I had spit out the entire bug at once and was just left with creeped-out sensations. I coughed and spit and coughed and spit until I almost made myself sick.

I'm proud to say I kept running the entire time.

Aren't you glad you tuned in? Come on back and I won't gross you out next time.

Have a good day.