This is not the post I started to write yesterday about my morning run.  THAT one is about half-way done, but I’m scrapping it in favor of writing about what I did AFTER the run.  I want to write this because I want a record what I did on March 6, 2010, long after this exact date fades into the fog of memory.

Saturday morning started with a run, but the 5-mile morning run was a warm-up exercise for the rest of the day.  I went out at 6:15 in order to get a few miles in before I had to get myself dressed and organized to head to south Denver for a presentation at the Inverness Hotel.  Since I don’t dress up often, this process probably took a lot longer than it would for regular people.  But I digress; the Colorado Language Arts Society was holding their Regional Spring Conference and I was on the books as a co-presenter with my favorite teacher of all time, Tim Hillmer.

Here’s a picture of us at the conference, looking totally professional and beautifully coiffed:

At the conference, me (Lara) and Tim

Tim was my 6^th and 7^th grade Language Arts teacher.  I was 11 years old in 1984 and it was his first year teaching (I had no idea, all adults look old to kids and I figured he was old too).  My family life was turning upside down after a horrible incident of domestic violence, and my parents were going through a hideous divorce that dragged our family through the entire gamut of the legal system.  Meanwhile, Tim was navigating the hell of being a first-year teacher in a basement classroom with a crazy shop teacher that liked to tell “female jokes”.  After three weeks of school the 8^th period class had an uprising.  They stood on their chairs and yelled “We’re going to get you fired!”  That was his impetus for throwing out the worksheets and starting us on a curriculum of creative writing that changed the way I learned and wrote. I wrote 10 or 12 stories from various perspectives and genres, and played with the format of poetry.  I adored writing stories.  When my family life was tumultuous and I could barely function in school, I went to his class and wrote.  Writing kept me anchored to the “here and now”, when life all around me was falling apart.

When I left 7^th grade we lost contact. And then 25 years later, I saw his name in the Daily Camera, our local newspaper.  He was going to be the keynote speaker for a Relay for Life Cancer Rally at Monarch High School because he has prostate cancer.  I emailed him, he wrote back, and we met for coffee shortly thereafter.  Through many conversations and cups of coffee, we meandered our way back to those two years that we were in class together and started “studying” the teacher-student relationship.

That’s the basis for the presentation we gave yesterday.  We used our teacher-student relationship as a way of illustrating the usefulness of putting ONE teacher-student relationship “under the microscope and examining what works, what doesn’t work, and what strategies might be tried”.  We emphasized that it isn’t realistic for middle or high school teachers to try to study all 150 students that blaze through their classroom each year, but that there is merit in looking at one or two students and figuring out how they look at giving feedback, how they can encourage more writing, and most importantly, how they can build trust, the most essential piece of all.

We each read a few original pieces we’ve written, and wove the written essays/stories into the narrative.  We jumped through time here and there, offering memories from 25+ years ago, lessons learned since then, and then spoke about the present time.  I thought I was going to be nervous because I don’t normally care for public speaking, but it actually wasn’t bad at all.  Tim and I practiced our presentation several times, and even used our spouses as our first “live audience”.  We’ve talked so much about the material, and examined it in such minute detail, that I was not so much worried about forgetting something as I was about talking too much and going over on time.

When I was a kid, Tim Hillmer created a safe place in school for me to write.  I became a writer under his guidance.  I left school, grew up, had kids, and did a lot of living.  He left the school where we met, had kids, wrote two books (The Hookmen and Ravenhill), and continued as a teacher.  His health took a turn for the worse and he stopped writing.  As we were reconnecting he asked if I was still writing; I told him about this blog.  He told me that I was the basis of two characters in his book Ravenhill, and that our time in the classroom together solidified how he now teaches writing.  Our friendship and connection deepened, and as we discussed writing a memoir about our parallel lives during those pivotal two years, I started opening up even more as a writer.  He wanted to write, but something was always in the way.  Now, maybe as a part of the process of preparing for this presentation, he is ready to delve into writing again.  At the conference yesterday he honored me deeply by saying “This has come full-circle.  I’m writing now, again, because of you.”  The teacher teaches the student, the student teaches the teacher.  Full circle.  The circle of life.

Thoughts are still swirling in my head about this.  It was a fabulous experience, presenting to a group of Language Arts teachers about my favorite subject with my favorite teacher.  I am in utter awe of the work these teachers do, and the curiosity they bring to this conference in order to share ideas and wisdom.  To have been a part of that was an utter joy and privilege.  Thank you, Colorado Language Arts Society, for allowing me to be a part of your conference, and THANK YOU to each and every teacher that shows up, day after day, ready to teach.

I’ve been sidelined from running for about a week now because of my cold but today, I was ready to run!  I took a few tissues and stuffed them in the pocket of my pants because guess what?  I didn’t even have to wear a jacket because it was already 30 degrees and getting warmer by the second! March has started with a bang and in the 7 days since I’ve welcomed a Colorado morning from the better side of my bedroom window, the world has come alive again.  Geese honked overhead as I left my house at 6:45 this morning.  Birds chirped in the bare branches of the cottonwoods and when I brushed by a tree while sidestepping the remnants of ice on the Greenbelt path, there was a thickening of buds on the branches.  The icing on the cake of this magical morning was the surprise that awaited me on Davidson Mesa.  Can you guess what it was??  It was mud.  There was mud on the trail of Davidson Mesa.

You heard right!  There was MUD!!!  Not only is the snow and ice starting to recede, the ground is warming up!  My shoes squished a little as I ran the three mile loop.  No prairie dogs greeted me, but there was a huge uptick in the hoards of runners that were out and about this fine morning.  On average this winter, I’ve seen maybe one person per run; today I think there were about TEN different groups of people on the route!

And now, while I sit here at my computer staring out the window at my backyard, two cute little  birdies are considering the merits of making a nest in the abandoned metal candle-holder thingie that has been here since we moved in almost five years ago.

I’m a week into this blasted cold and still not having any fun.  There is NO WAY I can even attempt a run, or any cardio of any kind.  My head is stuffy and the goo has made its way into my bronchials.  When I lie down at night, a persistent tickle occurs and I cough incessantly.  (Pity my poor husband, who’s a light sleeper.  I left the room last night but he still heard me coughing.)

All that being said, I’m not convinced I need an antibiotic yet.  I took some cough medicine this morning and a decongestant, and plan to leave it at that for the moment.

So my big question is, when do YOU know you need antibiotics?  What’s the defining moment when you finally throw in the towel and say “I’m not getting any better, I must have a bacterial infection.”

I tend to wait until I feel like death warmed over (this takes about 10 days to fully kick in), and then it’s another week of recovering from that snot-induced, cough-racking place where I’m utterly exhausted and worn down.  And, how does a person keep the virus from turning bacterial?  I know I’m a slow learner, but I’m still trying to find that magic tipping point and keep myself on the viral side of things.  So far, not working so well.  Do I keep trying, or is that the very definition of insanity, to keep doing the same thing and expect different results?

 I think the title says it all.  Running hills with a cold is truly a BAD idea.

I gave it a good shot on Wednesday morning.  I’ve been fighting a cold for the past four days and I was pretty tired of the whole thing, so I went out for a run.  Wednesdays have become my unofficial “high mileage” days, mostly just because it works into my schedule like that.  This Wednesday however, I was thrilled to get a weensy 6 miles under my belt.

I started the run thinking that I would do a 7-8 mile loop, but once I reached the half-way point of the “long hill” in Louisville, I actually stopped and reassessed my situation.  There were 5 tissues in my pocket (I can’t do the farmer’s blow to save my life, it’s disgusting to watch me try) and I had already used two of them.  My heart was beating way too hard and a sinus headache was knocking at the door.  I decided to be smart about my running and heretofore, stick to the flats and whatever downhill I came to on the circuitous route home. 

I was 2.2 miles in when I realized I couldn’t do the hills.  I do this route at least once a week; it’s a long 3 miler that has a very gradual incline for the first 2 miles, then a much more steady incline for the last mile.  Usually I’m barely breathing hard; yesterday I had to stop.  It wasn’t that my head was so packed full of snot.  Actually, it was because I was starting to get light-headed and my heart was racing too fast.  This was the not-so-subtle cue that I was indeed sick and yes, I needed to back off the pace.

So the lesson here is:  if you REALLY need to run when you’re sick, try to keep it on the flats.  You don’t need to be doing huge hill work to prove what a brute you are.  The fact that you’re getting your heart rate up is good enough.  Save the hill work for when you’re healthy.

Yesterday I posted the first half of an interview with Joe, the amazing marathoner and blogger who is running two marathons in thirteen days as a cancer fundraiser for his friend Dom.  This is the second half of the interview.  When you’re done reading, please consider clicking over to Run For Dom and donate by sponsoring a mile of one or both of Joe’s marathons.  To view the interview in full, click on Joe’s Interview.

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Lara: These are Dom’s Lessons, then.  We can do so much more than we thought we could, because we’re healthy, and we’re alive.  That seems like a pretty good message to impart.

Joe: Agreed, Lara.  I think we all have times in our life that we thing about being a better “me”.  This really was a wake-up call for me that life is really precious – the most precious thing that there is – and whatever I can do to honor Dom and help his family get through this challenge so he can see his kids grow up, help make a dent in their medical bills or contribute to the kids’ college funds… This is a small price to pay for the lesson I was taught this August.

Lara: People can support your efforts by sponsoring a mile in either Boston or Pittsburgh, or both.  How would they do that?

Joe: We’ve had people donate anywhere from $26.20 ($1/mile) for one race, $52.40 ($1/mile) for both races and have sponsored an individual mile for a $100 donation and above.  The “Sponsor a Mile” initiative has been really neat as a friend, family, sisters etc. can pick out a mile of either marathon that they want to “name”.  The donors are listed on my blog and right now there are 7 miles that are unclaimed for Boston, and 9 unclaimed miles for Pittsburgh.  I’m going to have the “Sponsor” lists with me on the course so I can think about the people who have donated while I race.  Just today, a friend of mine from Alabama sponsored mile 24 at Boston.  He asked if I would play the song “Maniac” on my iPod during “his” mile.  It’s moments like that over the course of 26.2 miles or 3 hours and 20 minutes (give or take a few) that you draw on for a quick smile or some encouragement to keep pushing when the race gets tough.  26.2 miles is a challenging distance that really tests every runner at some point, and the more friends that I can have with me along the way, the better!

Lara: You mention “Maniac” will be on your Playlist; what else will get you through the miles?  And, can someone suggest a song for you?

Joe: Absolutely! I am always looking for new music and would enjoy the encouragement.  It’s funny; I have music I run to, and music I listen to – and their paths do not cross very often.  I listen to faster, “louder” music when I’m running; Green Day, The Clash, Social Distortion, but I’m much more mellow when I’m just hanging around the house.  Then, I listen to Bruce Springsteen and Pat Green.  I have a funny story about music and racing.  I’m originally from Philadelphia where Rocky isn’t just a character; he really exists in the collective minds of Philadelphians.  For the Pittsburgh Marathon last year I wanted the theme from Rocky to come up in my list right around mile 20 based on my Boston qualifying pace.  I hit it really perfect and was about .35 miles into mile 20 when it came on my Nano. I was running next to a guy for a couple of miles who was also trying for a Boston Qualifying Time, and we had chatted a bit.  He was 10 years younger than me and needed to run a sub 3:10 to qualify (I needed sub 3:20, one of the few benefits of being a 41 year-old marathoner at the time).  When the song came on he caught me smiling and asked me why.  I told him that the theme from Rocky just came on my earphones.  He looked me dead in the eye and said, “Dude, can I listen?” It was the funniest moment of that race and I remember it like it was yesterday.  Unfortunately a BQ (Boston Qualifying Time) was not in the cards for him that day, even though he was a really strong runner.  If he hasn’t made that time already, I know he will.

Lara: HA!  I can just imagine him running next to you, wanting to share your earbuds!  That’s a great visual… two hot, sweaty guys running along in silence, connected by a cord of technology that’s jammin’ out the theme song from Rocky…

“Runners are passionate people by nature, and nobody knows how to make a difference like runners do.”

Joe: That’s the part that is so great about races.  There are only a handful of people actually competing against each other – everyone else is competing against themselves, which is what makes it such a great experience.  I actually dropped one of my water bottles around mile 13 and knew I couldn’t go back for it because I was trying for that specific time.  About 50 strides later a runner tapped me on my shoulder and handed me my water bottle.  He had sprinted to catch up to me when he saw me clap my hands in a bit of anger when it hit the pavement… that’s what it’s all about.  I think about him as well a lot.  He helped me to my 3:17:43 time also.  Marathoning is a sport that everyone thinks is a “solo-mission” but the fact is nobody is alone out there.

Lara: That’s pretty accurate for the adventure of life, as well… we all think we’re so alone, and we don’t always realize just how many people are truly supporting us.  Which leads to my next question:  You’re “Joe” from Joe_RunForDom.  Are there other people out there who have offered to dedicate a marathon to Dom as well?

Joe: Great question Lara – I just got an e-mail this week from a young woman who is a friend of Dom’s brother Matt.  She and three of her friends are going to run the Relay portion of the Pittsburgh Marathon and are going to be getting folks to support Run for Dom through their efforts.  I’ll be getting another page set-up for them at www.runfordom.com under the “other fundraising efforts” tab, and donors will be able to keep up with them as well.  I’m hoping that a few more runners or running groups want to get involved – with the races now 9 and 11 weeks away respectively – now is the time to get cracking if we are going to do it.

Lara: And what about people that aren’t able to run Boston or Pittsburgh?  Can they run solo or form a Relay team in another race and have that count as a fundraiser for Dom?

Joe: Absolutely!  That’s one of the amazing things about runners; we are always looking for a cause to run for.  Runners are passionate people by nature, and nobody knows how to make a difference like runners do.  I would love to have as many friends and supporters as we can find toe the line for Dom.  He is truly a remarkable young man.  I refer to him as “All-Time” because that is what he is.  All-time.  He’s had more than 9,700 visitors to his personal page that’s hosted by the Caringbridge organization.  I wish more people could really get to know Dom as I do.  I know that if our roles were reversed, there isn’t a thing in the world he wouldn’t do for my wife Dawn and me.

Lara: It sounds like you’ve known him a long time.

Joe: My wife Dawn has known Dom basically their entire lives.  She and I have been together for 15 years and married for 10.  I’ve known Dom since Dawn and I first started dating.  I met him in the parking lot of a Pittsburgh Steelers playoff game.  He was there with a ton of his buddies at the tailgate and I really only knew Dawn.  Dom spent a couple of hours talking to me and getting to know me when he could have been hanging out with all of his buddies.  I’ve never forgotten that about Dom; because Dawn was such a close and important person in his life, he wanted to get to know me, because I must be pretty special too.  Funny thing is, it was Dom who was the special one.

Lara: You’re pretty humble about that.  I have a feeling it was more about “kindred spirits” recognizing each other.

Joe: Maybe Lara, maybe.  All I know is that I plan on him being around for a long, long time.

Lara: Is Dom going to be at the Pittsburgh race finish line?

Joe: (Laughs)  I’m actually angling for his mother to cook my pre-race meal on Saturday night, too.  With a name like D’Eramo, you know the pasta is legendary!

Lara: That’ll be the best pre-race meal you’ve ever had! (Laughs)

Joe: And her Christmas eve dinner this year was incredible.

Lara: Speaking of family, how’s Dom’s family doing with his illness?  You said he has a wife and two small kiddos…

Joe: It’s been really hard.  His wife, Val, is doing a great job keeping Dom’s spirits high, but when you’re recovering from such an aggressive surgery there are plenty of tough days.  His kids provide a pretty big energy boost for him though.  Sierra is 3 ½ and is completely adorable.  She actually took my blood pressure with her doctor’s kit when I was there at Christmas!  And Nico is 9 months old now is such a cute little guy.  He was the recipient of the first baby bottle I’ve ever provided.  True!

Lara: I can only imagine that there are so many family and friends rallying around this family.  It seems only right that with all the good thoughts, energy, medical treatment and will, that he’s going to get better.  It’s almost too much to think of the alternative.  He HAS to get better.

Joe: Absolutely.  On Christmas Eve a few months ago, when all his friends and family held hands to say grace it made a circle around the entire downstairs of his parents’ house.  Kitchen to living room to dining room to hallway and back to the kitchen – it was pretty amazing to be a part of that circle of love.

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Joe is raising money for Dom’s cancer treatment.  People can sponsor a mile for Boston or Pittsburgh, or both.  Donations have ranged from $1/mile in one race to $100+ for a particular mile in one of the races.  People are putting together Relay teams and raising funds for Dom’s battle to kick cancer’s ass to the curb.  All of this is so that in a few years, Dom will be there to pick his kids up from kindergarten.

You can visit Dom’s personal site on Caringbridge.com’s website and offer good wishes to him and his family:  http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/dominicderamo

To sponsor a mile, visit Run RunForDom.com and Donate:  http://www.runfordom.com/donate.html

More info on linitis plastica:  http://www.knowcancer.com/oncology/linitis-plastica/

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Sometimes you meet a person and there’s just something about them that strikes a chord.  Maybe it’s the way they thoughtfully answer a colleague’s question, or how they offer sincere encouragement to their students, or even how they rush to hold the door when someone is fumbling with their heavy load.

With the advent of social media and the internet, some people we get to know and love are folks that we’ve never actually met face to face.  Social media is so inter-connected that you can become friends with someone through Twitter, Facebook, DailyMile, and the blogosphere.  This is how I met Joe Marruchella.

I came across Joe’s blog by way of a comment he left on ChicRunner.com, a blog we both visit regularly. Struck by the thoughtful way he commented on a post, I clicked on his name, landed on his site, and started reading.  After I finished reading the entry I got up to walk around and clear my head, then came back to read it again.

The premise of his blog is simple; Joe’s dear friend Dom was recently diagnosed with a horrible form of cancer.  To raise money and awareness for Dom, Joe is running two marathons in thirteen days.  He had already qualified for the Boston Marathon when Dom was diagnosed with cancer last summer, so Boston is the first of his two marathons.  Dom lives in Pittsburgh, the place where Joe met his future wife who also happens to be a close friend of Dom’s.  So it made sense for Joe to choose to run the Pittsburgh Marathon.  All signs point to Dom being at the finish line in Pittsburgh this Spring.

Joe and Dom

A lot of people get cancer.  Every person that is affected by this brutal disease has a compelling story.  The first thing about Joe’s blog that stood out was the title; “Joe is Running for Dom”.  His name on Twitter and DailyMile is Joe_runfordom.  He has linked his online identity to Dom’s as a way of raising awareness and funds for his friend’s cancer treatment.  I’ve seen this from parents whose child is seriously ill, but never from a friend.

Over the past two months I’ve been a faithful reader of Joe’s blog, following both his marathon training and Dom’s progress and set-backs.  With Joe’s first marathon only six weeks away, I approached him and asked if he’d be willing to do an interview with me.  He graciously accepted, and now I’m honored to share the content of the interview with the world at large.  It is my hope that a few people will be as moved as I have been by this story and will sponsor a mile or two, for Dom.

Due to the length of the interview, this will be posted as a two-part story.

Lara: Joe, you surprised me when you said that you weren’t always a runner, and that there was a period in your life where you called yourself “Fat Joe”.  How did you turn from “Fat Joe” into the amazing runner that you are now?

 Joe: Well, “Fat Joe” made an appearance when I turned 34 (I’m 42 now).  I was traveling for work about 35-40% of the time, eating late meals, not exercising and the food quality was not the greatest… lots of big meals, desserts and the like.  I’m 5′ 8″ and at one point weighed 176 lbs. Not good!  The worse part was I just didn’t feel healthy.  I was always an athlete growing up, playing baseball, basketball, football – but never running.  I didn’t even know how to start.  But I was determined to do something about my weight and lose a few pounds before going on a vacation to the Outer Banks in 2005.  I started walking on my lunch hour which gradually morphed into running 1/2 mile, walking 1/2 mile… by that fall I was running three miles about 4 times a week.  I changed my diet (which included swearing off all fast food, which I am proud to say I have not had a single fast food meal in about 5 years).  I stopped drinking Coca-Cola, cut a few other things from my diet, and the pounds came flying off.  Now, my race weight is about 137 pounds and my body fat percentage is about 6.3 percent.

Lara: You sound incredibly healthy!  You dropped 39 pounds and a lot of body fat; when did you decide to start racing?

“If you want big rewards you have to take big risks.”

Joe: Great question! I was on the road traveling with the CEO of my company, who is a great mentor and friend.  He caught me coming into the hotel from my morning run in NYC and asked how my run went.  I told him it was “okay”.  He then asked why it was “only okay”; didn’t I enjoy it?  I told him not really, I was only running because we had eaten a big dinner the night before and I needed to burn some calories.  He said that the reason I didn’t enjoy running was because to me running was punitive.  I needed to run for a reason OTHER than burning calories.  That I should in fact run a race, and not any old race, a big race – a MARATHON!  I honestly thought he was crazy.  But when he talked about the experience that he had – it started to sound not only possible, but truly amazing.  I flew back to Texas the next day and during the flight home I decided that I was going to train for a marathon.  The second I walked in the door I told my wife what I was going to do, and dove headfirst into trying to figure out the first steps; how to train, who to listen to, etc.  I remember my run that Saturday morning (my next run) – which in a lot of ways was really my “first run”.  I had a purpose, I had a goal and I absolutely loved it.  It was only 4-miles, but it honestly changed me from “a guy who runs” to “a runner”.  I am so grateful that my CEO took the time to talk with me that day.

Lara: So you’re saying that it took a literal “Reason to Run” to make a difference in how you approached the thing that you did for your health.

Joe: Absolutely; having a reason really provided a great perspective.  It was my ATTITUDE toward the activity, not the activity itself that needed to be adjusted.  Don’t get me wrong; I like rest days – they are an important part of training and they help you get stronger and stronger as a runner.  Without a break every now and then you are only tearing your body down and not giving it a chance to come back stronger.  But I LOVE my run days.  I could hardly get to sleep last night looking forward to this morning’s 16-miler.  I know that sounds a little crazy, but 100% true.

Lara: And now, you’re running for Dom, a friend of yours who has cancer.

Joe: You bet Lara, and I’ll tell you that this one hit me like a ton of bricks.  Up until this point I had been pretty fortunate that the people that I am close to are healthy.  Other than a scare with my father about five years ago (who is doing great and turned 81 this month – Go Dad!) I have not had a lot of health-related challenges in my life.  Last August my wife called me in tears because our friend Dom had just being diagnosed with cancer.  He’s 39 years old and has a wife and two little ones at home. I felt like someone put a hundred-pound weight on my chest.  I spent the better part of a week trying to make sense of it – but as you can imagine, there really is no sense to make of it.  I felt like I had to do something to help Dom and his family as he was in literally the fight for his life.  I was on a Sunday long-run of about 10 miles, not training for a race in particular (I had just completed the Pittsburgh Marathon three months before getting the news about Dom).  He was actually one of the friends and family members to come to the post-race breakfast in Pittsburgh that day.  On my 10-miler I kept thinking about how great it would be to go back to Pittsburgh in 2010 and run Dom’s hometown race.  But with it being only 13 days after the Boston Marathon that I had worked so hard to qualify for.. what could I do?  I remember the exact spot on the trail that I have run literally hundreds of times when I thought “Why not run them both?  Why can’t I run Boston and then Pittsburgh 13 days later?”  If you want big rewards you have to take big risks.  If I could put myself out there and take on a challenge like that, surely people out there would be interested in hearing about Dom’s battle and support me in honoring him.  That’s how Run for Dom started; on an August morning in Austin at Brushy Creek Park, down by the lake.

Lara: What kind of cancer does Dom have?

Joe: Dom has linitis plastica which is a rare, invasive cancer that attacks the organs.  Dom’s stomach and spleen were affected the most.  His initial diagnosis was very bleak; 100% mortality rate and not a long life expectancy.  After visiting several specialists he found his doctor at Pittsburgh Medical who is a pioneer with this type of cancer.  In December Dom underwent successful surgery that was quite invasive.  His stomach and spleen were removed, along with parts of his intestine and parts of a few other adjoining organs.  He had a Hot Chemotherapy Bath that bathed all of the areas affected, and is now approaching the second of three chemotherapy treatments and that will mark the end of his treatment course.  His PET Scan three weeks ago was 100% clean.  His doctor is extremely happy with the results from the surgery, but Dom is really struggling with nutrition now.  He has a lot of pain and nausea when he eats and/or drinks, so since his surgery in December, he gets most of his nutrition through a feeding tube.  It takes him about eight hours to take in 2,000 calories.  After my 16 mile run this morning, I ate almost that much at breakfast… unbelievable.

Lara: I have to pause here because this is hitting me pretty hard.  It’s incredibly difficult for a healthy person to imagine the intensity of this disease.  Dom is 39 years old and is supposed to be in the prime of his life.

Joe: I know Lara; it makes me so thankful to be healthy and able to do pretty much whatever I want, whenever I want.  What the hell was I doing eating McDonald’s Double Cheese-burgers and lying around the house.  FAIL!

Lara: So this is a wake-up call of sorts; health can be pretty fleeting.  When you go out on your training runs for the purpose of running two marathons in 13 days, is it possible that you’re giving yourself the health and exercise that Dom can’t have?  If you BOTH can’t have it, at least one of you is living the healthy life?

Joe: That’s an interesting point Lara; I’ll tell you one thing that has changed about my training runs that I attribute to training for Dom.  There is a hill along one of the routes I run, it is a really good hill to train on because it forces you to practice running downhill for almost a full kilometer with not a single flat place.  It’s steep enough that you have to lengthen your stride, but not too steep that you have to “brake” the entire way down.  It’s perfect practice for the start of the Boston Marathon where the early portions of that race can really destroy the quadriceps over the first few downhill miles.  Up until I started training for RFD (Run For Dom) I had run up that hill exactly one time.  It seemed unfair.  Too steep, too long, no breaks, no recovery. Since I started my 16-week to Boston, 18-week to Pittsburgh training schedule I run up that hill every Sunday and I place it in the last 1/4 of whatever distance I am going.  I run that hill now and think only about Dom.  How if, given the chance, wouldn’t he relish that hill?  Would he celebrate it? Run up it and at the top, laugh to himself at just how easy that was compared to the other things he is going through?  So that’s what I do now once a week.  That hill gets shorter and shorter, flatter and flatter every time I go up it.  Heartbreak Hill in Boston at mile 21?  I’ll have a little something for that one when the time comes.

To be continued…

This morning’s trail run on Dowdy Draw was like running through sand.  We all wore YakTrax so we wouldn’t slip on the ice, though after a while I completely stopped worrying about ice and just tried to get my feet off the ground.  The snow was powdery, and there was enough of it to make it SLOOOWWWW going.

I brought my camera today and stopped to take some pictures.  The first one was in the parking lot at the Dowdy Draw trail head while we waited for everyone to arrive.  Nice outfits, right!

Me and Beth sporting our "twinsies" look... matching pink jackets, green layer underneath, black gloves, black pants, and YakTrax. We did not call each other to coordinate outfits!

The Boulder trails have been covered in snow and ice for several months now in a total uncharacteristic winter.  Thus, this is the first time I’ve been on this trail in a LONG while.  We headed up the trail and I stopped to take a picture of the landscape.  The clouds were low-lying and the mountains were completely cut off.  Someone commented that it felt like we were “under glass, fogging up the place with our breath”.  I like that.

Headed toward that big hill, it's covered in fog...

As we continued on we caught site of a coyote a little ways ahead.  He was trotting along the same trail we were, and I watched his paw prints disappear under my feet, mesmerized by the sensation of forward motion and an unending trail that had miles to go.  I tried to get a picture of him a few times, but the camera couldn’t distinguish his form for all the fog, even though my naked eye could see his cuteness far ahead.  Finally, we dipped into a slight valley and I saw him come out of the ravine, and snapped this picture.  The ladies were right behind me, so I held up the entire party for this photo-op.

Coyote trotting out of the ravine

And then we headed up the hill.  This is a bi-level switchback; you run south for half the hill, then abruptly turn north for the remainder of the hill.  I dropped back so my picture-taking wouldn’t hold up the line.

The stillness of the trees. Up close and personal, the branches are encased in ice.

And finally, my favorite section of the trail. 

What's to come...

I should have worn my sunglasses to give me some serious differentiation in the pure whiteness of the morning.  Several times I almost stepped off the trail because I didn’t see the ground drop away.

At the top of the mesa we decided against doing the “tree loop” for two reasons: 1. because our legs were TIRED after the hard work of running through the snow and 2. we weren’t sure we’d be able to find the trail.  We’ll have to wait for the snow to melt or the clouds to leave us before we attempt the loop.  I have to admit, I’m going through some serious trail withdrawal.  Today’s trail run was good for the soul… so, so good.  As hard as it was to run through the snow, I’d do it again in a heartbeat.  I’m actually considering another attempt tomorrow morning… hmmm.  We ARE supposed to get more snow tonight…

I am so excited to announce that next Monday, I’ll be posting the first segment of a two-part interview with Joe, the marathoner who is raising money for his friend Dom’s cancer treatment! 

 Joe of Joe is Running for Dom is a blogger many of us have come to know and love.  We know him from his blog, Twitter, and DailyMile.  Joe is running the Boston Marathon  on April 19th and will run the Pittsburgh Marathon thirteen days later as a double fundraiser for Dom.  Many of us have run races for a cause, though truth be told, often the charity is a corporate one to which we  have no personal attachment. Joe epitimizes running for a cause, but in this case, the cause is one of his best friends.  This makes it personal.

Here’s a snippet of the interview, a preview of what’s to come:

Lara: Health can be pretty fleeting.  When you go out on your training runs for the purpose of running two marathons in 13 days, is it possible that you’re giving yourself the health and exercise that Dom can’t have?  If you BOTH can’t have it, at least one of you is living the healthy life?

Joe: That’s an interesting point Lara; I’ll tell you one thing that has changed about my training runs that I attribute to training for Dom.  There is a hill along one of the routes I run, it is a really good hill to train on because it forces you to practice running downhill for almost a full kilometer with not a single flat place.  It’s steep enough that you have to lengthen your stride, but not too steep that you have to “brake” the entire way down.  It’s perfect practice for the start of the Boston Marathon where the early portions of that race can really destroy the quadriceps over the first few downhill miles.  Up until I started training for RFD (Run For Dom) I had run up that hill exactly one time.  It seemed unfair.  Too steep, too long, no breaks, no recovery. Since I started my 16-week to Boston, 18-week to Pittsburgh training schedule I run up that hill every Sunday and I place it in the last 1/4 of whatever distance I am going.  I run that hill now and think only about Dom.  How if, given the chance, wouldn’t he relish that hill?  Would he celebrate it? Run up it and at the top, laugh to himself at just how easy that was compared to the other things he is going through?  So that’s what I do now once a week.  That hill gets shorter and shorter, flatter and flatter every time I go up it.  Heartbreak Hill in Boston at mile 21?  I’ll have a little something for that one when the time comes.

Head over to RunForDom.com and support a mile in Boston or Pittsburgh!

I was looking at some posts from last March, and was struck by “Drought of the Spring Equinox”, the one where I noticed how DRY the mountain was.  In that post I mentioned how there was usually a month (yes, a four week time period) where we had to stay off the mountain because of the quagmire of mud that came in the spring.  During that time we ran one of the County trails in the plains of Boulder, and patiently waited until the trails were passable.

It’s been almost three months since I’ve run a mountain trail.  The mountains have been covered in perpetual ice and snow since December.  Last year in mid-March I was noticing how dry the landscape was; this year it’s been moderately wet, but cold enough to allow the snow and ice to seriously wear out its welcome.  Last year, the snow didn’t arrive in Colorado until the last week in March; when it finally came there was several feet of snow that blanketed the area and resulted in such an array of wildflowers that Colorado hasn’t seen in at least thirty years.  This year… it’s too early to tell.

Today was my mid-week run.  I look forward to Wednesday almost as much as Saturday.  My husband is usually home on Wednesday mornings to make breakfast for the kids and get them out the door for their carpool.  I can leave the house early at 7 AM like I did today, or I can head out at 8:15 after their carpool arrives to whisk them off to school.  Either way, I keep my Wednesday mornings clear so that I can do an hour-plus run.  Strangely enough, it’s worked out that Wednesdays are my “long run” days instead of the typical Sunday runs on most people’s schedule.

I took a different route today, as I’m getting to the point that I could run my usual “Louisville loop” while sleeping.  I crossed South Boulder Road, the big street that bisects our town, and headed up the trail to the hill of open space that borders the boundary between Louisville and Lafayette.  My eyes teared up in the cold for the first ten minutes, but after a few wipes they acclimated to the twenty degree weather.

The first thing I noticed along this new route was the beautifully rendered signs announcing that I was entering Coyote territory.  The signs are similar to the ones located near many trailheads along the Foothills of Boulder, though all the mountainous signs warn visitors about the Bobcats and Bears that live in the corridors.  They’re full of helpful information, like what NOT to do if you encounter a mountain lion (never turn your back on a mountain lion, you look like easy prey).  I love that the Parks and Open Space Department is putting up signs announcing the Coyote’s presence, and that people are forewarned to keep their snack-size pets under close watch.  I wish Parks and Open Space would put up a sign or two along the corridors I run on the southern side of Louisville, because there’s a number of coyotes that trot along the greenbelts.  I’ve been followed by a coyote, passed within twenty feet of one during a mid-morning run, and heard my dog barking at a long-time resident coyote that passes by our house on an almost daily basis.

After the excitement of the signs wore off I focused on getting up the hill.  It’s a good half mile in length and has a steady incline, which helped keep my speed in check and engaged my hip flexors.  This hill is more consistent than the one I usually run from my house up to the Davidson Mesa, so I felt like I was getting a different workout even though I wasn’t on a mountain trail.  I can’t believe I’m saying it, but I actually miss the North Fork/South Fork loop for the butt-kicking qualities of that workout.  It all goes to show that variety is a wonderful thing, because we can come to appreciate that which we don’t have.  When we get the same thing all the time, even if it’s a good thing, we get bored.

At the top of the hill I followed the trail through the greenbelts to the top of the Mesa, and crossed over South Boulder Road once again.  I ran along McCaslin to Davidson Mesa and jumped onto the 3-mile loop inside the preserve, just to get away from the noise and fumes of morning commuter traffic.  The trail inside the Mesa was quiet all the way around; I only saw one other person and no animals at all; the prairie dogs, coyotes and rabbits were all hidden away.

I ran the last 5K along the greenbelt trail to my house, finishing the 9 miles in 1:17:08.  This is exactly the mileage I complete when I head up to Davidson Mesa in my typical “Louisville loop”, which is bizarre to think that my house is equidistant to both routes.

It’s hard running the same routes week after week, especially when the weather gets dicey.  Often I want to simply run out the front door and get in a few miles.  Getting in the car and driving to a trailhead adds precious minutes, sometimes even good sections of an hour, to the workout, and that’s time that I often don’t have.  I’m looking to mix up my running routes in a super-easy way.  I usually run by myself during the week in the early morning, and don’t want to drive somewhere.  But maybe I need to suck it up and drive five or ten minutes to a new starting point, where the terrain is different and I get a new perspective?  I’m open to opinions and advice here, because I’m going stir-crazy.  I love my “Louisville loops”, but too much of the same is Plain Vanilla, and I’m a Raspberries in Chocolate sort of girl.

It was another Bobolink Trail sort of day.  Old Man Winter dumped a few inches on Colorado this past week, and the temps have been in the 20’s and 30’s.  I have to say, I’m getting a little tired of the persistent cold.  Any time Spring wants to come and hang out in the Foothills of Colorado, I’ll be here with a big ol’ Welcome sign!

Bobolink is our “go-to” trail this winter.  It’s a flat out-and-back, totaling 6.6 miles.  There’s nothing exciting about this trail, but it’s perfect for trail-runners who don’t want to risk broken bones on treacherous trails.

Elizabeth took this picture of the sunrise.  Isn’t it beautiful???

Sunrise at the Bobolink Trail 2-13-2010, photo taken by Elizabeth Hagen

Kathy was able to run a little this week after taking several weeks off due to a knee sprain.  I ran with her, Elizabeth and Marcia for about twenty minutes before we all noticed that Sarah had taken off; she was far ahead of us.  I decided to see what she was up to and sprinted ahead, focusing all my energy on trying not to DIE on the vast tracts of ice that covered the passable parts of the wide trail.  Since I was wearing my trusty Nike trail shoes, I didn’t slip too much, but enough to know that I needed to keep my stride short.

Keeping my stride short and fast became the name of my game for the next mile.  I was gaining on Sarah, but finally had to call out to her because I couldn’t navigate another 50 feet of ice quickly.

We ran together to the “end of the line”, touched the gate (I’ve been told that you HAVE to touch the gate for it to count) and headed back.  Somehow, with a friend running beside me, the ice fields didn’t seem as bad.  I checked our pace a few times on the Garmin and noted that we were doing a decent tempo run (8:15/mile), considering the ice mine-fields we had to navigate.

After crossing over South Boulder Road and getting onto the cleared sidewalk, we pushed pace a little more and held steady at 7:45/mile.  This was the edge of Sarah’s “talk-able” pace; any faster and I would be having a conversation with myself, so we held it there.  Granted, I was doing a lot of the talking anyway, but Sarah was an angel and contributed to the discussion so I wouldn’t feel like I was holding her hostage to my verbal diarrhea.  Just kidding, it wasn’t really that bad.

Back at the trailhead we did some serious stretching while we waited for the group to congregate.  Sarah has these amazingly long legs that easily hook over the top rail of the fence.  She worked her hamstrings and calves, while I hooked my feet over the middle rung of the fence and did the best I could with my 5’6” body.  I’ve been really good about stretching every day since I mentioned it in my stretching post a few days ago, and I’ve really felt a difference.

The rest of the group joined us and for some reason we all stood around talking for another five or ten minutes.  It was a good twenty minutes after Sarah and I finished running that we all headed out to the coffee shop, which meant that I was good and cold by that point.

Let me take a minute to mention one of the best coffee shops in Boulder; Ozo Coffee, right near 55^th and Arapaho.  The coffee is amazing, the baristas are talented and friendly, and there are even GLUTEN-FREE baked goods!  This is a very popular gathering place; when we arrived at 8:30 on Saturday morning there was room for our group of nine; by the time we left, each table had hosted two or three different groups of people.  If you’re ever in Boulder, take time to stop for a coffee treat from Ozo Coffee!  (No, I don’t get paid to say this.)