Boston Marathon 2009 Spectators' Report

I flew to Boston on Sunday to visit with ye olde college roommate, the photojournalist, Renee, and to catch Thomas and Ray in action on Monday, Patriot's Day, the 113th Boston Marathon.

After much texting and e-mailing back and forth about who would be where when [sample: Thomas: "What mile will we be at? Well, I'll start at mile 0 and will end at mile 26.2, visiting all the miles in-between in ascending order ...."; Ray: "No idea what pace aside from first wave. I’d guess though somewhere in the low 7’s seems like it’ll be fun and casual." SO VERY HELPFUL BOTH OF YOU], we decided on two viewing sites: first, between miles 13 and 14, and last, between miles 22 and 23.

We got there nice and early. Early enough to see this!

Elite women, mile 14ish

and this:
Marching people.

and this:

Team Noah was bookin' it.

and this:
#8858 Richard Whitehead, 32 M Nottingham GBR (in case you couldn't tell where he's from) 3:02:44 6:58 min./mile.*

As usual, I dressed for success:
Why won't people tell me I look crazy before I leave the house??? WHY??? Oh, and that's Davey the Clown standing with me. He has a rubber chicken sticking my leopard-begloved hand sticking out of his head, and yes, he is holding a rubber chicken, yet—somehow—I look like the crazy one.*

My only defense is that it was chilly and windy. Of course you won't believe me when you see the following photos.

I saw Thomas at both locations. He was in the zone at the first sighting, which he explains in his race report.

Both these guys had let me know what they'd be wearing. Thomas: "I'm planning on wearing a bright orange singlet with "Star of the Laune A.C." printed on it. It should be rather distinctive."

Well, you'd think so, wouldn't you Thomas?

I saw 10,000 orange singlets. OK, maybe they didn't all say "Star of the Laune A.C." on them. Luckily Renee has a keen eye.

I believe what Thomas was trying to convey here was the sense of the whole being greater than the parts.*

Or, maybe just ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch.*

Thomas was pulling down 6:50 minute miles. You know, the way you do in a marathon. If you are superhuman.

Ray, despite having let me know that he'd be wearing a BLUE singlet, eluded us. He was probably running backwards or something.

But eagle-eyed Renee caught Thomas again around mile 22ish:

Thomas reacts as he hears me screeching his name.*

He looks right as rain to me.*

Since I can count on exactly no hands the number of times an attractive young man has jumped out of a marathon to hug me, I was struck dumb. We communicated nonetheless. I highly recommend meeting someone for the first time this way.*

Ray was not far behind. In fact, he was exactly 11 seconds behind.

Ray takes time to tell me, "Jeanne, you're number one!"*

And...he takes my photo. One of 147 he will take along the course.*

My partners in crime:
l-r: Poor sad blog-less Bruce, Renee, Sarah

And after that I scurried downtown to meet Thomas, my camera ran out of batteries, I gave him some crappy fine, fine D.C. t-shirts, he gave me FINE CHINA from Ireland, I bought him some fried dough, we laughed, he cried, and then? He was gone.

There's more to this story but it will just have to wait.

Still to come: How Runner Susan saves Jeanne's love life.

*Photos courtesy Renee Dekona.

Ironman Canada

Your favorite rainmaker and mine, D.C. Rainmaker, is showing us all how its done at Ironman Canada (Bib 186) today, in Penticton (I love saying that name, I don't know why) British Columbia.

Go leave him some comment love, and virtual cowbell.

Friday on My Mind

I'm trying to use up 11 years worth of accumulated vacation hours by taking as many Fridays off as I can.

It's my little prescription to save my sanity and the sanity of those around me. Good in theory. My only problem is that I am a really crappy planner.

So today is my second Friday off. And? I have no plans.

Possible things I could do today:

1. I'm sitting in my living room surrounded by piles of clothes that need folding, 5 days of newspapers that need to be read or chucked (why do I buy it and NOT read it??!?!), a bedroom that needs what you might call SERIOUS tidying, and a kitchen that we started to re-do (we stripped the wallpaper--and let the glue fell on the floor because surely I'd be getting a new floor soon? But no. So it landed and hardened.) three months ago.

2. Read blogs.

3. I could go pay for a Reiki session, but it's not cheap and really, what exactly IS IT?

4. I could try to find a yoga class.

5. I live in a city with a boatload of the best museums in the world. And they're all free!

6. Go see a movie already!

7. I could clean.

8. I should really really clean.

9. Write a blog post!

10. Write a desperately overdue letter.

11. Call your mother!!!

Here's what I've done so far:

1. Starbucks. Grande decaf skim latte, extra hot.

2. Read blogs.

Now it's 11:10 and I've wasted four hours of my day already, doing nothing, but not the good kind of nothing. (This post is even boring ME, David, so save your breath.)

Because this is a "fitness" blog, I'll report on the rest of my week, since you asked.

Sunday: Ran five miles, no walking, 11:06 min. miles. Yay me.

Monday: Flat on bike at 6 a.m. Another early morning call to Number One Daughter! No time to run at work. But ran around a lot AFTER work because NOD is GOING TO EUROPE FOR A MONTH before she starts her full-time job. So, that's like 10 workouts right there. (By the way, if anyone knows anyone in Spain, Portugal, Croatia, Istanbul, or Greece, gimme a shoutout. She's going with two girlfriends, and they are backpacking and staying in youth hostels. I AM SO NOT JEALOUS. And so NOT WORRIED.)

Tuesday: Swam 1200 yards. Still slower than B.C. (Before swim Class). Forgot to run. After work, visited D.C. Rainmaker who generously GAVE me a RE-FUSE tire, and watched me put it on, AFTER I (accidentally!) slammed my car into the brick post that holds up his balcony. I'm sure I didn't do any structural damage. I guess he'll find out when he returns from IRONMAN CANADA! GO RAY!

Wednesday: Rode 10.20 miles—NO flat! I still can't seem to get up any speed (seriously Jeanne? You? Can't go fast??) riding on the streets around my neighborhood, which are all major arteries. I'm terrified every time I go out, so maybe I'm going slower on purpose? Maybe?

Wednesday: Ran 3 miles, tempo:

10:45
9:40
11:13

Still no walking. I should probably be adding distance, but my Secret Plan is to get good at three miles so that I don't start to hate running again and THEN add miles. I'll be sure to let you know how that works out. Oh, I also gave up running with the iPod.

Thursday: 1400 yard swim. Still slower than BC. Sigh. Went to last Swim Class after work and swam about 1 million laps there.

(But can I lose one pound?? I CANNOT.)

Friday:

Saturday: Ride 18 miles, run 5k. It's the D.C. Tri Brick-nic.

I'm exhausted. I think it's just about naptime.



(This song makes me smile.)

Bike Me

Yesterday, D.C. Rainmaker generously spent about 14 hours with me (OK, three), teaching me how to change the tire on my bike. And then he taught me how to change the BACK tire, too! Because you know, it hadn't ever occurred to me that the back tire might go flat. There's all that stuff back there. Scary looking, complicated, bike stuff.

But before I ingratiated myself into his headquarters (watch your head or you'll hit the kayaks hanging from the ceiling, no kidding, is there any sport this man can't do??), he had to first TALK ME INTO GETTING THE BIKE INTO THE CAR. Which involved taking off the front tire. I actually printed out his directions and read them while performing. Cuz performing was what I was doing in my parking lot at work (where I keep my bike), trying to read while unscrewing this and moving the seat, and the pedals...well, heck, I'm might as well just share it all with you, should you ever have a need.

Tips for getting bike in back seat of car:

1) Take off front wheel.
2) Move forward passengers seat
3) Open rear passenger side door.
3A) Adjust the pedal so the left pedal is up, and the right pedal down.
4) Insert fork into the car first, in a downward motion towards where the right rear passengers feet would be
5) Right before your fork reaches the midpoint of the car, pull up on it (while now pushing your seat post down into the passenger foot well)
6) The fork should now be behind the drivers seat, angled up and slightly back - close to the left rear window
7) Adjust a bit so that the rear wheel is now in the right-rear foot well. The pedals should be at the mid-point of the car.

In theory, your bike will now be in the car. I can show you the trick as well once you arrive. I've yet to find a car (no matter how small, including some really tiny rentals) that it doesn't work on.

It worked. The man is a genius.

Now for the hard part, getting it back out. Ha.

No, the hard part was the changing the tire part, which, p.s. you are not actually changing at all, you're actually changing the TUBE inside the tire.

(Don't feel bad, we bikers know stuff like this.)

First, he pulled out a box of rubber gloves (I am so not making this up). Then the teensiest tool set I'd ever seen:
(4.99 at Performance Bikes.)

Plus, some tire-taker-off tool thingys:
(4.99 at Performance Bikes.)

This was gonna be good, watching him.

Oh, what's that? Who, me? You mean me? You pointing at ME? In his quiet, laid-back way, he started barking commands: Insert this, move that, squeeze this, align that.

I asked him how long it took him to change a tire. I think he said one minute. After an hour, I finally got the brake thing released. THEN, I started trying to remove the tire. (I could kick myself for not bringing a camera.)

Mr. Rainmaker is the perfect instructor. Unbelievably patient, thorough, and willing to stand by while watching me contort myself to perform the simplest maneuver. Like put a valve through a hole. I mean REALLY, how hard can that be?? I finally finished the front tire, and though it was getting late in the day, D.C. insisted I learn how to change the back tire.

And a few hours later I had finished!!

After accidentally breaking the valve. "Never mind," he said, "It will be good experience for you to change the tube at home." Err, right!

I was so excited I wanted to stop everyone I met and tell them that I, me, Jeanne, now know how to change a flat tire! And, not only that, I could also load a bike into a car. In fact, I did regale my lunch companions today with my prowess.

I feel so...clever! And exhausted!

So, today, I set out to fix the real flat that I had accidentally caused yesterday. Which required a trip to the bike shop to get some tape stuff...nevermind.

And an hour and a half later I had finished!

Obviously on a roll, I then tackled screwing on the cutest little bike pump (I had asked DCR, "Doesn't that require drilling??"), which, no, it did NOT require drilling, it just attached to the holes underneath the bottle holder.

Getting that bike pump holder on was so easy, I started feeling like maybe I just could build a house one day. Tools are our friends!

Carefully examine the two (unretouched) photos below.

(Son of a $#@!!)


(Finally.)

The good news is: I can change a flat tire.

The bad news? By the time I finished, there was no time left to actually RIDE the bike, which I'm just guessing here, is kind of the point of all of this.

And the lesson is: BIKERS ARE AWESOME PEOPLE.