T-Shirts and more. Firstly, if you are a new (or renewing) member, please pick up your shirt (Coolmax/Technical) from Todd Rose. Also, if anyone is interested, we still have a few tank tops and cotton Tees from last year, available for $5 each. I have these shirts, so if you are interested, let me know, and I will see if we have any left in your size.
Second, if you were here a couple of weeks ago, I brought an AREC afghan to show off to the club. Some people expressed an interest, though not enough to get the minimum order of 25. I corresponded with the company that makes them and they may be able to accommodate us. The cost looks like it will be around $30. If you have interest, contact me IMMEDIATELY! Marathon training continues. Each Saturday, at 7:00am, at Stoneybrook Villas Clubhouse (500 Bellflower Blvd., near Pacific Coast Highway), our runs continue. The current distance is about 12 miles and is very easy going. We are still looking for volunteers to help out. Volunteering simply involves showing up and running at whatever pace you want (after all, it’s training for everyone), and if you know the area, all the better! Thanks to Todd Rose, Dennis Murphy, Roberta Bonifacio, Stacy Shourt and others who have come and run with us!
Special Marathon Training Event. This Saturday, July 10th, the marathon training group will be meeting at the Runners High store on 2nd Street. Still at 7:00am! After the run, the store manager, Thom, will give a talk on how to pick the right shoe for you. Even if you are not interested in running 12 miles on Saturday, why not show up, do a shorter run, and then stay afterwards for the talk – there will be some prizes and learning more about the right shoe for you is definitely important!
Elizabeth Campagna update. Lastly, I just got an update from Elizabeth Campagna: “I’m still surviving on the farm. Sonia, my host mom, who was supposed to have an operation earlier this week ended up missing the operation. She thought the operation, a hysterectomy, was suppose to be on Monday, so she spent all last week preparing to leave and then looked at her appointment sheet on Saturday evening and found that she was supposed to have had the operation on the previous Thursday…only in Africa! Just an example for you all of “Africa time” – it’s not just a myth, people really have no sense of time here. Who knows what she’ll do now, the op was to be done at the state hospital, so it’s not like she can just reschedule, she’d been waiting for a long time to get a date.
Anyway, I made it up Table Mountain, ended up taking the cable car up. I went with Kirsty, the new volunteer on the donkey farm. We started off on a trail, but somehow lost the trail and then just decided to make our own. We did well for awhile until we hit tall vertical rocks and had no choice but to turn around and since I had to be back to catch a train we had to take the cable car up instead of making a second attempt at following the designated trail. The view was awesome at the top, it was a very clear day, we could see all the way to Cape Point.
I’m still milking Sweetie Pie.
I got to play surgeon with the goats the other day. Stevie, the only baby goat and only ram, got attacked by a dog a few weeks ago. Stevie is my favorite because he is sssooo cute and ssssooo soft. Anyways, the dog managed to rip little Stevie’s ear in half and also rip open his neck as well as giving him two black eyes, so Stevie went away for a day and a night to the vets. To save money, we decided to take the stitches out ourselves, so armed with nail clippers and tweezers I went to work. The little ram is quite aggressive so Kirsty and Sonia held him down while I snipped the stitches out. I think I was more nervous than the ram, I thought for sure I would cut his neck open or ear off, the stitches were pretty darn close to his skin, I guess that’s the point though, huh? Anyway all the stitches eventually came out (about 15 in all) and Stevie and I are still friends so all is good.
Guinea Pigs – we got two new guinea pigs so now there are three total. I named my new one cinnamon. Sonia was only going to let us get one new one, but after much begging and being unwilling to let go of cinnamon she let me keep her. I’m not sure if this is a good thing yet. Cinnamon managed to escape and went missing for two days – presumed dead – but then miraculously we found her again! I spent the other morning upgrading the guinea pig pen area so they will no longer escape, I hope! I think Cinnamon is pregnant, so maybe there will be more soon, I hope so!!!
Besides acquiring more guinea pigs we’ve also got two new pigs on the farm, they are miniature pigs so they won’t get much bigger then two feet long and a foot and a half high or so. Their names are Cool and Spunky. They are cute, but the sounds they make are so annoying. I was privileged enough to build the back fence for their pen. There were three other girls to help me at the time, but none of them seemed to be able to drive a nail through a piece of wood, so I ended up doing it myself.
We have kids coming to the farm next week at least Monday through Wednesday so it should be busy.
This has been a really interesting series, and hopefully next month, we can get some feedback from Suzanne Kairy, who continues to strive for a marathon every month in 2004.
For July, I just want to take the opportunity to talk a little about listening to your body when you are training for any kind of race. Naturally, you want to set goals and reach them, but it is equally important to set realistic goals, as well as be willing to set aside those goals for another time if your body is telling you to stop.
In 2003, Todd Byers ran the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon (because it was his 40th birthday and 150th marathon) even though he had been diagnosed with a stress fracture in his foot. After the marathon, Todd was not running for a few months.
I talked with Dennis just before San Diego Marathon and he was torn (and probably something else was, too…) because he really wanted to run a marathon a month, but was having difficulty recovering and running the next marathon. Dennis has wisely decided to cut back his marathoning so that he can adequately recover from the 5 marathons in the first 5 months of the year.
So, a few key points, whether you are doing your first marathon or a marathon a month:
Don’t assume that discomfort, pain or other messages are the norm, talk to anyone in the club; you’ll find they may have gone through the same experience and can offer some useful advice. Just remember to listen (to them AND your body)!