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By kilax, February 5, 2014 12:05 pm

Do you like to go do things by yourself?

Eat out, take a class, see a movie, go to a race, whatever?

A few weeks ago someone said to me that they thought it would be odd to see a movie in the theater by themself. I responded that I didn’t think that was odd, and that I’ve done it before and quite enjoyed it! (Okay, okay, I know saying I’d do something doesn’t make it not odd, ha ha).

There’s nothing wrong with being one way or the other – that’s just how you are! But I have to admit, I enjoy doing many things solo and figuring stuff out on my own so much that I sometimes feel bad for people who don’t do something they really want to because they’d have to do it alone.

And I don’t do everything alone! In fact, I got pretty lonely when I lived in Rome by myself for a few months. I’ve appreciated running WITH people lately. It’s fun to go to movies with friends, too.

Anyway… I’m just thinking how grateful I am today to get out of the office and eat by myself, and read a bit. Sometimes I do things alone for the breather, and come back recharged.

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By kilax, February 4, 2014 11:53 am

We were watching a movie last week and I noticed that the main character’s children called a family friend “uncle” as adults. I watched it and thought, “Ooo! I wonder if Luca will still call me and Steven ‘Aunt Kim’ and ‘Uncle Steven’ when he is old enough to know better!” Ha ha. I hope so!

Do you have anyone close to you that you call aunt, uncle, mom, dad, grandma, sister, whatever… that isn’t actually a blood relative?

When I lived in Rome, I called my friend Rixa nonna, which is Italian for Grandma. She was like a grandma to me when I lived in Rome… well, what I imagine a German grandma would be like (she was a German, living in Rome). Sigh. I still miss her! Anyway. Moving on. 

Since one of the points of this blog is to document my memories, I had to share some of the funny Luca stories from this weekend!

• While Steven and Luca were inside the convention center, waiting for us to finish the race, Luca said, “Where are they?!” Steven thought Luca was asking where Mom, Dad and Aunt Kim where, so he told Luca we were out running and would be back in a little while. Luca says, “No! Where is DART?” Ha ha ha. Luca didn’t care where we were! He wanted to know where the DART train was! He looooooves trains (and airplanes and most vehicles) and was so excited he could see the DART train from the convention center. He just wondered where it was, from time to time. Duh, Uncle Steven.

• Luca remembers so much and knows many words, letters and numbers! I was very impressed! I loved counting with him and asking him to point out colors and “find” things with me. We got him this shirt about his “robot best friend” (since I love robots, and want him to too (ha!)). He must have remembered that his shirt said his best friend was a robot, because after the race, we asked him if Uncle Steven was now his best friend since they hung out for a bit. Nope! He let us know that Robot is his best friend. We were laughing so hard (Steven was his #2 best friend, by the way, and the list switched throughout the weekend (had to keep asking him) but Robot held pretty steady toward the top!). 

• At one point during the weekend, Luca shouted out “P-O-O-P!” I was very impressed with his spelling skills! I tried to teach him to spell L-O-V-E yesterday, but that must be less fun or something. 

And… that is probably enough mushy stories. We just love Luca and I am so happy we are a part of his life! Being around him brings me a lot of joy. And I especially love being the aunt who is a bad influence, heh heh heh. 

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By kilax, February 4, 2014 6:27 am

Steven and I were talking about the Mellew Texas Half timing issues yesterday. I know, I know, quit talking about it already… it’s not the end of the world (it isn’t). But Steven actually has some good perspective, because he was at the finish and saw what happened, so I am going to talk about it just a little more. And the point of me writing about this is that our conversation actually reminded me of something else I wanted to talk about awhile ago, and don’t think I ever did (err, I hope not). 

So. There was a timing “truss” set up for the half start. All the half marathoners got through and then the truss fell over due to the wind (luckily no one was hurt!). It was set back up for the 5K start (which was scheduled for fifteen minutes later*) then taken down after the 5K was over. 

Mellew has not said much about what happened (with timing and course distance issues), but I saw in their response on a Facebook post that because their “timing trusses fell” it would take them longer to “consolidate results” (huh?). What happened is a total pain in the butt** and really stinks… but my question (besides why aren’t they being more upfront about all this crap) is why wasn’t there a back-up plan? Why wasn’t someone able to think quickly on their feet and come up with a better way to take finisher times? Yes – safety is the #1 priority. Definitely don’t put that thing up if it’s going to keep blowing over, but was there really nothing else they could do? Was abandoning taking finish times and having an unclear finish line the only answer? Anyone with race director experience… please chime in (what would have done?!). 

SO ANYWAY, Steven and I were talking (because this post is about something else, remember?) and I told him how I’ve always been in awe of the efficiency portrayed by medical and military characters in movies during a time of crisis. People take charge and figure things out. Without much panic. They are trained for emergencies, I know, and yeah, it’s a movie. It’s just always made me wonder why some people are so much better at thinking on their feet… and some just aren’t. Maybe it’s training? Maybe it’s natural? Hopefully that connection to the race made sense. Ha ha ha. 

So… you guessed it. This post’s question is… are you able to think quickly on your feet?

I used to think I stunk at it, but you know what has made me better? Teaching strength class and having to make changes last minute. There is less panic and more “figure this out now, Kim.” I am a lot better. Maybe I am calmer, overall? Nah. I don’t think anyone would accuse me of being calm. 

OH! And since I was talking about the race, I just have to say… damn. Gina and Steve have some fast miles in them. I was probably actually holding Gina back for most of the race. Ha ha. When they get their “real” 13.1 they are going to kick some major bootay. 

And OH! #2 – since there have been two “wah wah wah” posts about the race, expect a cute & fun Luca post this afternoon to cheer things up around here! I swear! I am not a grump (all the time)!

*and probably short too
**especially if they have to go through race photos to get results… and p.s., there was no clock at the finish

And… I have 47 scarves (unless we are counting the new one Gina gave me this weekend?!). The closest guess on the Umbra Little Black Dress Scarf Organizer Giveaway was Katie (@ from Ice Cream to Marathon) with a guess of 45.  Katie, please email me your mailing address at kilax@ilaxstudio.com and I will send the organizer on its way!

Thanks to everyone who played my silly guessing game!

I actually have another giveaway in mind after I see one of my favorite cat ladies this weekend to FINALLY give her her Christmas gift! Don’t want to give it away (literally and figuratively) on the blog, first!

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By kilax, February 3, 2014 4:20 pm

Recently, I read an article about a new women’s indoor marathon record. The new time seemed really fast (to me), and the article mentioned part of the reason for that (after talent and hard work, of course) was that it was on a controlled indoor track – cool temps, no winds, no hills, yadda yadda. Edited to add – I cannot find the original article, but luckily xaarlin (I had shared the article with her) remembers the mention of lack of wind resistance, etc. And also remembers the lady said she had crazy leg cramps because of running in the same direction forever.

It got me thinking – the elites differentiate between indoor and outdoor records – should amateurs as well?! If you got a new indoor PR, (personal record) would you think of it as a separate type of PR than an outdoor one for the same distance? Or would it replace that outdoor number?

Hmm, my brother-in-law recently ran this cool 5K in a cave! Does that count as indoor or outdoor? Indoor since his Garmin didn’t work (and funny – Garmin was a sponsor!) or outdoor since it’s not a controlled environment? Ha ha.

I don’t have much experience running indoors. I didn’t really think it was “my thing,” so before, I wouldn’t heavily consider an indoor race. But I thoroughly enjoyed running 7 miles indoors with my dad a few weeks ago, and Rachel made her recent indoor half sound so fun! Maybe with the right company, I would like it!

But I do think if I was training to PR an indoor race (which I doubt I would do, but I should answer my own question, right?!) I’d probably recognize it as a separate PR. Probably. Maybe if it was really epic (for me), it would make me want to try the outdoor distance shortly after the indoor race, to see where I stand.

(Ha ha. Not that running is only about PRs! It’s mostly about fun for me!)

Comments (47)

By kilax, February 2, 2014 12:52 pm

Today was Gina and her husband Steve’s first half marathon, in Irving, Texas! I was honored Gina asked me to be at her first half! It was such a joy to me to hear about her training, and watch her fall more and more in love with running. She (and Steve!) worked so hard for this race and I knew it was going to be a success for them both.

Um, it was a success, but not what we expected. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever felt this disappointed after a race. And not for me – for them. Ugh. But I’ll start at the beginning.

Gina had a sub 2:05/sub 2:00 goal and Steve had a 2:10 goal. We planned to start together (two warmup miles) then Gina and I were going to go ahead.

Awesomely, Steve stuck with us! There wasn’t much talking though – we were pushing it! And we had some challenges with tiny inclines and some interesting weather. The forecast was in the mid 30s (my preferred running temps!!!) but with some loco 18mph winds coming from the north. The course was a bit of a loop (with out and backs) and a little under half of it was head in to these winds. Blah.

I felt good for the first half though, keeping us on sub 2:05 pace. We got to a paved trail midway through and I started to have these “Ugh, why do I do this?!” feelings. Of course, I was undertrained and overfed (in January – ha ha) and still dealing with chest congestion. I was happy to be pushing low 9:00s at all!

But something was worrying me. From the beginning, the mile markers were off. A tenth or so, but we got to “Mile 8” when my watch said we were at 7.4ish. Gina and I talked about it – I just hoped the mile markers were in the wrong spots and there’d be some realllllly long mile at the end. Um, nope. They got further and further apart. I started to fade at (my) mile 10, so I told Gina to take off at 10.5 and I’d stick with Steve. Only I dropped my glove and had to run back for it so I ran the end with Steve in my sights and Gina ahead of us. I kept yelling for Steve to push it and I was pumped Gina was ahead of us.

Then I saw the finish. And knew the race was going to be quite a bit short, and my spirits fell. And I was confused that the finish was marked by a traffic cone – what happened to the timing equipment and arch we’d seen at the start? We later came to find out it blew over because of the wind, and it seemed you had to tell someone to write down that you finished… which we realized five or so minutes after we finished. Sigh.

I’m so not one to complain about races, but I… just have to for this one. I was extremely disappointed that the race was short. At first we just noticed our watches were off – I got just over 12.5 miles (as did many others). But later “research” (from other people’s posts on Facebook) shows that there were two course maps*. So someone must have been confused when they marked the course, and had a turnaround a street too early. Ugh. Easy mistake to make, but what a bummer. And what a bummer that is what this post became mostly about. 

My watch says I ran the course in sub 2:00. Come on! In this shape?! And my “official” time is 2:08?! I knew I was on track for 2:05 (I was using a pace band). If they’re going to have the wrong time and a short course, can they at least have one that makes me look faster?! Ha ha.

But this isn’t even about me. This was about Gina and Steve. It was supposed to be a 13.1 mile celebration. It turned in to a letdown. A new PDR by .5 miles. Whooooo hoooooo. D-e-f-l-a-t-e-d. Ugh. Just ugh. We were in low spirits when we left and it took a few hours to snap out of it. 

I normally wouldn’t care, but I think for your first half, you would want it to actually be 13.1 miles. A lot of people are commenting on that Facebook page that they loved it as their first half and many were excited about the huge “PRs.” Ha ha. 

The race did do A LOT right. Great volunteers and traffic control. It was awesome to have it at a convention center, with bathrooms and somewhere warm to stay (Steven and Luca hung out there during the race!). The course was decent. It was nice to have the road/trail mix. People were upset about lack of jacket sizes at packet pickup, but that didn’t bug me. And I like the medal. And am excited I got to race in Texas!

And we did have a good time. Any day I can run is a blessing and I am grateful for that. We talked to a few people on the course (one guy also did the COOL 10K!). And man, Gina and Steve were kicking butt. I just wished they could have kicked for .6 more. The whole time during the race, I was thinking the mile markers were just off, and was super pumped to have them be so proud and ecstatic all day. I am SO proud of them. Just bummed, too. 

I think a redemption race is in order. Something with a better reputation! Gina and Steve are coming to Chicago to run the Soldier Field 10 Miler in May. At least I know we can rely on Fleet Feet to put on a good race!

*For my notes, we should have gone to O’Connor and not turned at Fuller, in the first mile.