The 40th Annual Peachtree Road Race

(or somewhere thereabouts). That is the advertised number. My Dad seems to think that might not be accurate. Potato, Potah-toe. Personally, I like that this is the 40th because it coincides with my age. I am 40, this is the 40th, I don't know why but I can make a connection with it. One of those memory association things, I suppose.

This is the 2nd year that I have run the race with my Dad (his 30th race!). The plan was to meet at his house at 5:15 AM for a 7:36 start. Yeah, it seems early considering we are only about 30 minutes away but this is one of those races where you need to allow plenty of time because the crowds are insane. (insane in number, not necessarily insane as in "mental" although there were a few people I saw that made me wonder...). The start time for the race was 7:36, the last time group was estimated to cross the start line at 8:57ish. WOW. Of course, I have had issue getting up lately and the 4th was no exception. I managed to get in the car at 5:13 and try to shove a half of a peanut butter sandwich down on the way over to Dad's. I probably finished about a quarter of it which wasn't a brilliant plan. No early morning hydration, no food to speak of... A couple of marathons under my belt and have become seemingly complacent with the important pre-race rituals.

I pulled into Dad's driveway around 5:22. He was waiting in the garage. Oops. I knew that my 7 minutes might throw off the plan! We decided he would drive to MARTA and off we went. A short wait for the train, a change of trains at Five Points and we were off at Lenox around 6:45. Not too bad. There were loads of people there already so we made our way to our corral and the port a potties. I was in time group 1B, Dad was in time group 2 which worked out well because we are in the same pre-race staging area. We parted ways at the line for the port a lets and agreed to meet up post race.

By 7:15 I was in line and decided that sandwich wasn't doing much so I downed one of the GU gels I brought along. I turned on my IPOD and took in the sights until the race started. The usual sights, loads of people in red, white and blue. The occasional man painted from head to toe like a flag, an older lady in a super short mini dress made of metallic streamers and a guy running in a poncho and sombrero. That last one just looked painfully hot. The weather could not have been better for the race, it was cool 70ish for the start and like a nice spring day at the finish. Love it.

I crossed the start about a minute or two after the official start and just set it on cruise control. I decided I was just going to finish and not go for any personal bests, just enjoy the race. The course this year ended at Piedmont Park so it was a downhill finish and less hilly overall that last year. I may be a bit jaded because cardiac hill seems like nothing to me after logging so many miles at Stone Mountain. Overall, it was a great race. My time was just under 57 minutes, I got the coveted shirt and another race is in the books!

The only negative this year was a really long walk back to MARTA. It seemed like a mile or more. I am sure it was just the way we were routed so hopefully they can improve that for next year. I wasn't really into working up another sweat after I just finished the race. Call me crazy.

The rest of the weekend. Well, it was just that... lots of rest and I LOVED every minute of it!

Cancer Schmancer and other 4th of July fireworks

At the rate I am going, this may turn into a medical blog :)

For the past few years, I have been going to the dermatologist annually for a skin cancer screening. I have more than my share of freckles so it is quite the process. Typically, they find something that looks suspicious and send it off for testing. So I got a call yesterday about a skin biopsy I had done last week. It turns out it was cancerous. Funny, because the doctor didn't seem to think it was anything. I was the one that insisted it be tested. I guess we know our own bodies better than they do - or at least when something is not normal. I am insanely religious about sunscreen now. Not so much "back in the day". I think this is from my spending every waking hour poolside in my youth before we knew about sunscreen or perhaps from my brief addiction to tanning beds. I know....

Luckily, basal cell is really not a big deal and from what I understand, the chances of it spreading to other organs are next to nothing (if not nothing) so for you fans of Grey's Anatomy who are thinking I will start hallucinating and talking to dead fiancees like Izzy, it ain't gonna happen. They gave me 2 choices, I can have it cut out or burn it out with some kind of prescription. I opted for the prescription. Well, I opted for the prescription until i got it filled and did a google search on it like any other self respecting, self diagnosing individual. The crem is called Aldara and has some crazy reports of side effects. I do believe I might call on Monday and go for the cutting off/burning/freezing/whatever it was option. The area is the size of the end of a pencil so how bad could the scar be (and am not sure I really care about a scar anyhow).

All this made me think that I never updated on the whole thyroid thing... (is it just me or did I start falling apart when I hit 40?). I decided to take a gamble and let it ride. The risks associated with removing the thyroid were more than I wanted to deal with right now. I go back in October for another ultrasound and possible biopsy.

Tomorrow, I am doing my annual peachtree road race with my Dad. In Atlanta, that is THE race of the year. I heard that more than 10,000 who sent in entries were turned away. The race caps at 55,000 entrants so you can imagine the wait time to cross the start line if you are in one of the last corrals. Luckily, I did a qualifier race and am up near the front. I won't be lining up with the Kenyans and other runners of great speed but not too far behind. I managed to get into time group 1B. The weather is supposed to be "coolish" tomorrow with a high around 88. To some, that might sound high but for the past 2 weekends we have had temps around 96 or 97 so 88 as a high is quite exciting. Not enough for a jacket but exciting nonetheless ;)

Have a great 4th!
KW

Sight of the day...

As I was playing tennis today, I heard the familiar sounds of the ice cream truck. The pied piper for kids everywhere. The name on the side of the truck? CDC Ice Cream. Hmmmm.... I wonder if this a new way for the CDC to vaccinate the kiddies? Interesting concept... ;)

Decisions, decisions....

A few months back I went for an annual physical. It turns out that the age of 40 is magical is the medical world. All sorts of new and exciting tests to be performed to make sure you aren't falling apart. My personal favorite is the stool sample by mail. I know. TMI. I am just preparing those of you out there who might be approaching the magic age. Well, I was given the kit anyhow. The test, well, let's just say I can't remember where the kit is right now...

All my stats are beyond great. I keep up with them like some sort of prized report card. I pride myself on how low my numbers are and compare them from year to year like some star pupil in school. Yes, a little odd I am sure but at least I "know my numbers" as the ad says.

Part of the exam was feeling my thyroid, or actually I am not sure what they feel for when they grab your throat (I assume it was not same lame attempt to choke me...) but anyhow, it turns out I had a lump on my thyroid. "Did you know you had a node on your thryoid?" "Yes, you had me get an ultrasound last year when you told me about the node". Doctor scurrying over to the chart... "Oh, yes, we were going to re-check it in 6 months". "oh." The short version is I was sent for another ultrasound to check it out.

We got the ultrasound back and I was sent to a endocrinologist to look at it. The initial thought being it was a cyst. It was slightly larger than last year and now there are 2 smaller ones. I guess it was a buddy plan. Anyhow... The Endo did a biopsy two weeks ago. The biopsy was quite interesting. They did a series of five needles into the nodule and kind of dug around with each one. There was some amount of anesthetic but not completely numb. On a pain scale of cotton balls rubbing on your skin to hair being ripped out by the root, I give it a bee stinging you in the nexk five times while someone presses down on your throat. Yeah, that kind of captures the feeling I suppose. :)

So... I went back today for the results. They were only able to biopsy one of the three nodules. The other two were too small. The main one did not show cancer. A relief to be sure although the chances of cancer were very minor. It is rare. I went into it thinking that if it was cancer obviously there would be treatment, etc. If it was not, I would be on my merry way. Apparently, not so. I was given two options. One being we could do ultrasounds and biopsies every six months to monitor the issue OR surgically remove the thyroid gland since the other two nodules were not tested and there is a history of thryoid issues in the family. I was given the number to a surgeon they use quite frequently and they suggested I go talk to him to see what is involved. I have reservations about the surgery mostly because i know so many people who have horror stories about being on synthetic thyroid. Hmmmmm, what to do, what to do.... This is my dilemma of the day!

In other news, I have gone to boot camp faithfully all week. Still need to work in a run. Somewhere. I have been freakishly tired all week and have had the hardest time getting up. Must be from staying up so late Monday night at Finals. I am such a whimp. I had a tennis match tonight. I won - 6-0, 6-0. I was glad it was an easy match since I was so tired! Not much else going on. Lots of tennis this weekend. Have a great Friday!

City Finals...

We came up short and lost overall 2 to 1. Joan and I lost our match, 6-3, 6-3. Some pearls of wisdom from our opponents:

- After the match... Some people play good and some people play smart. You played smart. (umm, thank you?)

- After my return of serve hit the baseline and the opponent missed it... "was my serve in? (yes) OK then your return was good". LOL.



Can we just keep the sign???


Are you sure we can't just have it???


We got a lovely parting gift - the sturdiest bag tag I have ever seen. It is
metal and pretty darn heavy. If you were Tanya Harding you could use it to
knock out your opponent before the match. Not that I am that kind of player but I'm just sayin....

The story on the bathtub water...

Slow news day, this is all I have... As it turns out the reason for the water being bathtub temperature outside at Lifetime is that the outdoor and indoor pools somehow use the same heating system so if you turn it down/off to keep the outside water cool, the inside swimmers have water that is too cool. Oddly, I don't remember the water being hot outside last year. Who knows... Maybe I should just bring some bags of ice to dump in my lane before I get in on Tuesday morning!

In other news, tennis, tennis, tennis is the theme for the next three days. Today was the official start of the Mixed season. I generally don't like playing mixed as the men tend to be pretty competitive and if your partner is one of these types it is not much fun. You might be surprised to find that I don't see myself as being overly competitive so you can see the conflict. Yes, I like to win. I just don't have that win at all costs competitive drive. I joined a mixed team this season and they are just fun. Just plain fun. My partner and I had a pretty competetive match and ended up losing in three sets. It was a great match, we just came up on the wrong end of the score. Oh well.

Tomorrow is singles which is probably my favorite. It is completely up to me, no pressure of disappointing your partner with a bad shot. You win or lose it yourself. The other part of tennis involves food. The matches are played at 12:30 each Sunday and for some of these teams, teh food is more important than the playing. I had one team captain in the past read us the riot act because the table was not something that would have made Martha Stewart proud. We immediately voted to pay her $10 a week to bring the food so it would then be up to her standards. I much preferred it that way - nothing to bring but cash. Anyhoo... I am baking carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting as I blog. How is that for multi-tasking. If you would like to be further impressed, I am also washing a load of whites. Yes, I am an over-achiever! :)

Which brings us to Monday... City Finals! I can't wait. Hopefully it will be a good match. We are a little worried because the other team has crushed their opponents leasing up to this match. We don't know their opponents so we aren't sure if it was just that their opponents weren't that great or that this team is just that good. I am hoping it is that they aren't that great.

I had several friends who did a tri this weekend, I kind of missed it. I have a feeling I will do Augusta after all. Must get the training plan worked out. The thing of it is, I am not sure how to fit it all in with boot camp, tennis and work. That is where the plan falls apart. I know the answer. I don't like the answer. Give up boot camp or tennis. Still pondering and running out of time.

Have a great weekend.

Swimming in a bathtub...

Have you ever wondered what it might be like to swim in a giant bathtub? I got my chance to experience it first hand this morning. You might wonder what exotic locale I journeyed to in order to experience such a pleasure. Surely it was some pricey spa, right? Not exactly. Having been MIA from masters swim practice for the past 2 weeks, I made an appearance this morning. I LOVE masters at Lifetime for one single solitary reason. We get to swim outside. There is nothing better. Only the masters group is allowed in the outdoor pool at that hour and since we have so few people in the group, we are further spoiled by not having to share a lane. For those of you who aren't swimmer-types, I can assure you that having your own lane is quite the luxury. No one to politely banter with about which is slower and therfore must go last. No one to accidentally kick as you are doing breast stroke. No one to blindy run into as you are doing backstroke (which would happen a lot at this pool as it is outside and has not backstroke flags so it is difficult at best to maintain a straight line down the lane). So anyhow, back to the bathtub story...

Normally, you brace yourself for frigid impact first thing in the morning. It can be like diving into a vat of ice water. I did my usual jump in and prepare to get moving to get the blood flowing - my feet hit the water and - what the??? I have had baths that had cooler water temperature. Call me crazy but I like my swims to be cool and refreshing. The story was they had the pool heater on for a few days or something like that, not exactly sure. In any case, it has been close to 90 here so there was no need for a pool heater. It did make it difficult to swim. I am not sure if it was a mental thing or if there was something to the higher temp. I assume it would be like running on a hot day. It just made me want to get out of the pool and get some air after each set.

The workout was fun as usual. This group is a coached workout but it feels a little more relaxed like you are just swimming with your friends. The coach hands out the workouts and basically we just chat during the rest interval which is perfect for me since I am just trying to get yardage in within getting bored. Today, I ended up swimming a shorter set. I put in 2100 meters of freestyle. It was a variation of drills, pulling and kicking working on descending times for each set.

In other news, on Monday my tennis team won their semi final match and have made it to the finals which will be played this coming Monday. WOO HOO! If we win there, we get to go to the state championship in November. I have been jumped full force back into tennis again. I missed it quite a bit when I scaled back for the marathon training.

I am still debating on the 70.3. I will probably end up doing it but might approach it as more of a "just finish it" type race so my training can be more low key. I have registered and that is half the battle. Do I lose the registration or just suck it up and do the race? hmmmm....

The big home news today is that we finally got a scanner! Rick was quite excited and I am pretty sure I won't see him for weeks as he is knee deep in photos that he has been dying to scan and share. He did allow me to use the new toy for a few photos. Family and friends beware, all those photos you thought were long gone may come back to haunt you :)