Another early morning. This would be only the beginning of my upcoming week of sleep lost. Haha. The drive down wasn't bad, but I would still love a chauffeur sometimes. Holding my foot on the gas pedal the whole time does actually tire my right quad. Next car=Automatic & Cruise Control. John slept the whole way down...and until after the race. I could NOT get him to get up. I was originally going to drag him down to the race area while I raced, but he wouldn't budge. I parked near the front of the lot in a safe place, put the sunshade on, cracked the windows. He was good. It was actually the perfect temperature in the car and stayed that way the whole time he was in it.
I rode the bus down initially just to get my bib number, then I walked back to the car. I did an easy mile run and felt ok. I could feel the slight familiar ache in the tendons, but nothing really bad. I knew this wouldn't be a good time for me today, but I was hoping to feel mostly ok.
I woke John up just enough to let him know I was headed to the race. He acknowledged it and then I ran down to the start. I checked a bag just so I would have my phone and a bag to put snacks in when I finished then meandered to the start. I lined up a little farther back than I should have, but I wanted to line up with my CMS teammates. Two days in a row, I lined up with Barb McManus. Haha. It had gotten pretty warm out so I knew the heat could be a factor, but 2017 was still WAY worse in my opinion. Today was a bit drier. The heat did suck, but it wasn't horrible.
We got started, and I immediately found myself running off to the side to get around all of the people I had started behind. The photographer's photos of me from the start are pretty funny. I initially cropped them to cut the guy out who's in front of me, but those are actually more entertaining to share. Haha. No idea if he ever got thing set since I passed him right after this. Haha.
I was happy when I came around the side and found I was behind Holly Madden and Lindsay Close. Holly beat me here last year. I beat her at Doyle's this year, but I wasn't expecting to run anywhere close to that time today. Lindsay beat me at the first 2 GP races this year, so I decided to keep my pace slow on the hill. As soon as we crested the hill, though, I picked up the pace. Like I've mentioned before, I have to start out fast to make up for the end since the tendons start to ache and slow me down. Today would be no exception. Was it bad? Actually, no, but it was still enough that my last mile was exceptionally slower than it should have been. Fortunately, Lindsay pushed the pace a bit, too, so I had her to follow. I was actually surprised to find us passing people I don't normally pass in the first mile, and then in mile 2, Lindsay dropped back. I felt like I was moving slowly so I hoped it was just them having a bad day and not me being stupid. It turned out they were having a bad day. Haha. I really noticed quickly that my fitness was intact. Cardiovascular-wise, I wasn't going my max. I never did the whole race. But the legs couldn't match up. I don't mean that I was taking it easy, but I just felt like I had a little bit more to give if my body wasn't failing me. Haha. I honestly never looked at my splits during the race. I really just wanted to run on feel and see what became of it so that was interesting since I felt like I had more, but I just couldn't give it. The first two mile splits were 6:23 and 6:30 compared to 6:10 and 6:20 last year. Big time ouch.
Photo by Kim Gordon
Waving at Kim Gordon on the way back. Haha.
Mile 3 begins on the downhill and has a mix of up and down through the 5k mark. Unfortunately, right at the mile 3 mark, my other issue cropped up. I honestly thought I was going to have to run off into the woods immediately. Like it hit me suddenly. So it became a battle in my head. Could I make it? I honestly didn't know if I could, but I kept going. I hit the 5K in 19:55. Another ouch. I was just happy to still see 19 on that clock. As we climbed the hill I looked from side to side. Where could I step off? I'm not going to make it. But there was nowhere, so I just hoped for the best and kept going. I honestly don't know if that affected the last two miles or not. Mile 4 was only 1 second slower than last year in 6:49. And like I said mile 5 was awful in 6:34 compared to 6:14 last year. It's possible it affected me, but I really don't know. The tendons did for sure, but I'll never know if it was a combo of the two or not. All I remember is just trying to put it out of my mind and to keep running. That's what I did. Mile 4 didn't seem nearly as horrible as last year. On mile 5, I just couldn't drum up any speed on the downhill like I did last year. I mean, I've definitely lost speed for sure. I've hardly run anything fast since April. Zero workouts. Only one 5K. So I'm not surprised, and I wasn't upset with my finish in 32:44. I haven't run a 5 mile race that slow in forever, but it's what I had today. I still managed to finish 2nd in the 40-44 age group for the Grand Prix scoring so I'll take that. Full Results
Headed to the finish
As soon as I finished, I took a water then went right to the porta-John. Let's just say that my body hated me for the next two hours and that this wasn't my only visit to one. Ugh. I hate talking about this stuff, but it's kind of affecting my life so I owe it a mention. Haha.
I got my bag right after and proceeded through the snack line and grabbed a slice of pizza for John. Then I walked back to the car. Funny, I kept running into Arthur Besse in the exact same spot in the parking lot where I ran into him and Heidi last year. It was so weird. Haha. He had a good race. In fact, he's been doing well at every race this year.
John was actually easy to rouse since it was so late, but getting him out of the car was a different story. Haha. Once I stopped sweating, I changed and then waited like 15 minutes for him to change. I realized before the race that John needed someone else's bib to get into Ribfest or else it would cost $10. I wasn't spending $10 for that so I put E-J Hrynowski in charge of finding me one. It only took him 2 minutes before John became Christopher for the day. Haha. I had John put on the race shirt that Dave Dunham gave him and pinned on the bib. Totally looked legit, too. Haha.
I ran into Christin Doneski down near the entrance of Ribfest so I talked with her awhile before we walked through the snack and pizza lines again. Haha. I was bummed she wasn't staying since it meant that I had no one to hang out with AGAIN. I could have found the other Whirlaway people like last year, but I wasn't feeling it. It ended up being so much better hanging out with only John anyway. I bought him cotton candy and got my first beer and we sat in the last bit of shade left available under the tent. It got SO hot there quickly.
When I finished my beer, we went back outside to see if there was any water leftover from the race. We were dying. We snagged two waters and a gatorade just in time and then went back into Ribfest. I needed to charge my phone so we went to the T-Mobile trailer where they had chargers set up. Unfortunately, they set the charger station up right in the sun so that the phones were getting too hot within about 5 minutes and could no longer charge. Duh. Not the brightest move (but I'm not surprised). I kept trying to make shade for it, but it didn't really work well. In the meantime, they had giant Connect 4 there so John and I played it for like 45 minutes while I had my second beer. I was surprised to outsmart John more than usual today. He usually beats me in nearly every game. I think we came out pretty even in wins-losses in the end, though. We were both ready to leave after that, and I had 4 more beer tickets we needed to give away. I told John to look for people who seemed like they would appreciate the free tickets most instead of the rich looking people. Haha. I guess we stereotyped looking for poor people. Haha. But all four tickets were given away to people who seemed to be grateful, so goal was accomplished.
John wanted to take the shuttle back, but said that it was either walk back to the car or take the dogs on a walk when we got home. He chose the walk back to the car. On the way back, I did what I always do and forced a selfie on him. Hahaha. Moms are SO annoying! :D
We drove straight home from there and were back pretty early. I dropped John off at the house then took the dogs on a walk in the Albany Town Forest. It was bug hell so I made it as quick as possible for the 1.8 mile loop.
And of course, the rest of my night after making dinner was spent on the couch with Phoenix. Haha.
So overall a really good week. Back to running... a little bit. I got to be a part of racing again. I hung out with a lot of friends on Friday and Saturday. Definitely left me upbeat and optimistic about my injury. It improved immensely from Tuesday to Sunday. It's still there. It's still holding me back. But it's not as bad as it was. I'm going to start putting some running back into my routine and keep spinning until my membership is up on July 1st. I'll probably go back to Olympia gym a few Tuesday spin classes to use up the rest of my punch card there. I'm definitely going to miss spinning at Integrity. It's been so good for me the last 3 weeks and I'd like to continue it, but I don't know if it's worth the cost. I might change my mind, though.
Next up on my list.... Barrel House Z 5K, part of the New England Runner Pub Series. A trip to see family in Texas. And then the Loon Mountain Race for my 8th year in a row!
I honestly couldn't contain my excitement all week for the Mt Washington Road Race. This would my 7th time doing the race, but the first time I've ever been excited about it. Every year, I dread it, then I run it, then I'm disappointed and depressed for weeks. I say, "I'm not doing it next year. I hate that race." Two days before the deadline to sign up with my Mountain Goat entry, I got my tax refund, and while most of that went to bills and basic living expenses, $95 reluctantly went to the Mt Washington Road Race. No, no, no. I won't go on another poor me, I'm poor rant about the ridiculous entry fee. I don't think I need to. It's a basic fact that it's just absurd, so I'll leave it at that. So, I paid for it. Then I regretted it for months. I considered a DNS back in May when the tendinopathy had gotten really bad. But there was no fucking way I was wasting my $95. I would walk the damn thing if I had to. Haha.
What ended up happening was probably one of the most negative things in my running life turning into a HUGE positive. Mt Washington has been my nemesis for 7 years! I'm just not good at it! On Saturday, I enjoyed the race SO MUCH! I wasn't dying and gasping for air for 7.6 miles to turn out yet another terrible result. Instead, I never got out of breath. I looked at the view. I could speak in full sentences. I put in little to no effort and then as I hit the top of The Wall and saw I was going to break 1:40, I busted out laughing. 1:39:35. How the hell?! 10 minutes slower than my fastest. 6 minutes slower than last year. And only 3 minutes slower than my worst. I had so much energy at the end that I even equaled my fastest time up The Wall from 2015. Back when I was SO much faster and uninjured. All of this time, I had been doing Mt Washington all wrong! And I mean, all wrong FOR ME. I've tried running the whole thing...one of my worst times. In 2015, I came into it super fit, healthy...barely broke 1:30.
Like I said, I am not good at uphill-only running. I learned that I really do better at hiking/running. Granted, my injury prevented me from using this method to its full extent, especially most of the 2nd half, but I still barely finished slower than my other times. I can now look forward to using this method when I'm healthy. I found one key for me was keeping my heart rate low. When I did run, it was only very short surges. 10-15 yards maybe. I would walk before I would ever get out of breath or my heart rate started to climb. I had people gasping for air all around me as I walked up the road like it was flat bike path through a park. It's not like this is a new method. I know people who are successful at it, but I just couldn't get myself to try it. My injury was that gift. My entire attitude about this race has done a 180. I've also accepted the fact that I will never be that good at it, and I really don't care. It's just not my strength. I'm just so sick of hating it and dreading it and being so disappointed in myself. In 2018, that bullshit ended. I would rather enjoy myself in that race than let it bring me down. Whereas I said I wasn't doing it in 2019, I'm now looking forward to it. In fact, I can't wait.
So this week was just interesting all around. I came off of 2 weeks of not running a step to a week when I had two races planned. Haha. I was definitely RACING Ribfest. I would end up running 3 times during the week, too. The first run was flat 3 mile run after work on Tuesday morning. The pace was way quicker than planned, but it felt effortless. 21:57. 7:16 avg pace. As I had hoped, getting on the spin bike really improved my fitness. What didn't improve much was my injury. These two things would be so off from each other. The lack of power and speed due to the tendinopathy would actually hold me back from working to my max. Cardiovascular-wise, I could have pushed myself so much harder, but the rest of the body wasn't having it. But I still consider this a huge positive knowing that once my legs can catch up, I'll be good to go in very little time.
Monday, June 11, 2018- Same ole stuff. Walked 2 miles outside. Did abs and glutes. Stayed busy enough but still got sleep overnight.
Tuesday, June 12, 2018- Like I mentioned, it was my first test run. I was really, really nervous about it, too. I was scared I would find no improvement with the injury and planned to put it off until the afternoon, but when I woke up to really cool, perfect weather, I decided to get it over with. Well, improvement varied. I was able to run normally right out of the gate. I haven't had that in SO long. I was slightly stiff from not running, but it wasn't from my injury. Yay! After the first mile, the pain started to become apparent mostly on the left side while the right was barely noticeable. I was definitely sad by the end of the run to find the right side about 80% improved with the left MAYBE 10% improved. Booo. But I had to remember that I had a huge improvement with no pain from sitting or driving or even at the start of the run. That was BIG.
I went right from my run to the gym for an hour of spinning. I was only going to spin two days this week so I had to get it in. I don't think I'll be able to afford to continue my gym membership after the month is up so I really want to use it as much as I can while I have it. I need my own spin bike, dammit. Haha.
Since this would be John's second to last day of school, it also meant the end of my Tuesday play time. Haha. This Tuesday had to count which meant I had to make a VERY difficult decision... Go hiking or kayaking. I would choose kayaking! I had plenty of time to paddle Silver Lake end-to-end so that's what I did. Nevermind it was into an insane headwind the whole way out and then a crazy, white-capped waves side-wind the whole way back. Haha. But don't worry. Even through the hard effort of paddling, I was still able to have my first kayak beer of the season. Haha. This did end up being a really good upper body workout, and my upper back would be sore from it the next day. 5.2 miles total. Even though it was tough, I really enjoyed being out there.
Here's a video I took of it. I was getting drenched from waves crashing over the boat. If I had been in a stupid lake boat, it would have dumped me over for sure.
I went home to grab the dogs so I could walk them on the Jackman Pond Trail behind John's school before he was ready to be picked up. They were swimming at the lake all day so I assumed the school dog would have gone along, but nope. Haha. As soon as we got out of the car, she was there. I don't mind walking her, but I was doing the entire walk which meant partly on the road and where I lost her last time. Well, things did almost turn out badly when we got to the road. She waltzed right across it and then decided to step out right in front of car while crossing it again. It was actually so close that I screamed. Fortunately the car was able to stop, but I'm sure they thought I was a terrible dog owner for that. Haha. She just doesn't listen. Great dog otherwise, though. With time I think she'll get better. We walked the full 2 miles. Timing was perfect. John was ready as soon as we got back.
John was so beat from swimming most of the day that he fell asleep in the car. I couldn't get him out of it when we got home so I asked him if he just wanted me to leave him there and just drive him to ninja class when it was time. He told me to just drive him there. Since I had time to kill, I did an upper body and abs workout...not that I needed the upper body part. Haha. Sat on the couch with Phoenix after that and then drove John to ninja. He still couldn't wake himself up so we turned around and went home. Haha.
Wednesday, June 13, 2018- Got myself up early again to hit the gym before work. Another 30 minutes with the most drab "instructor" in the video. Haha. She seemed like she really didn't want to be doing it, but I'm sure she was paid well in order to sell the product. Catherine Marsal led me on a 30 minute ride that still kicked my ass. This would be my last spinning of the week in order to save my legs from fatigue for the weekend of racing.
Off to work for another mostly quiet shift. Three calls withing a span of about 4 hours in the evening and that was it. Hell did freeze over when we somehow pulled off getting North Conway Fire & Rescue to do a patient "sign-off" (Refusal of Care) while we took the "No patient contact". In 7 years, that has never happened for me. Timing was perfect and I thoroughly enjoyed the moment. Role reversal for once... as it should have been. Haha.
I got in a 2 mile walk on the trail out back and then did abs and glutes in the awesome air conditioned room upstairs. I'm actually about to do the same exact thing now!
The rest of the night was quiet and uneventful. Got sleep again! Yay! But our luck was running out with these quiet shifts. See the next blog post for that one. Haha.
Thursday, June 14, 2018- Only had time in between the 24 in North Conway and the next 9 hour shift at the track to go home and shower. Another really nice day there. So nice that it was a bit chilly. I spent most of the day lying in the back of the ambulance reading a book but got out during the lunch break for a walk up the track and then down around the cart track for a total of 2.4 miles. The cloudy skies made the views even more beautiful.
Reading my book
Lupine is my favorite early summer flower.
Rain over the Sandwich Range
It may be a baby cone, but I'm pretty sure it tried to trip me.
As soon as the shift was over, I changed clothes then headed to Wolfeboro for a new Six03 Pub Run. It's actually a pub run that has been going on since the winter put on by Burnt Timber. I was going to do some of those runs but never got there. I figured tonight would be perfect for another test run.
I started off with the group until we got to Sewall Woods for a trail loop. Since the pace was way too slow, this other girl, Jess, and I split from the group and ran together the rest of the way. I've never met her before, but I've known her fiancé for a few years since he's the Center Ossipee Fire Chief. This ended up being a really good run. I was happy for the company, and she isn't slow, so it worked out well. The injury was a little bothersome for this run, but still not too bad. I did discover that I'm a bit out of shape on the hills, but I kind of expected that. I was already slower on them from the injury anyway. We got in 3.9 miles in 32:42. I'll have to see if I can meet up with Jess again for some running this summer since it would be nice to run with someone occasionally around here.
As soon as we finished back at the pub, I looked by the fire pit and found my work supervisor there. Ugh. Can't get away from work! Haha. I ended up having two beers. The first beer was supposed to be $3, but I got charged $10 after 2 beers so I think I might have been overcharged or else the beer is regularly $7! If that's the case, I'll have to pass on the second beer next time. Haha. Decent beer and nice little spot there. The fire pit totally made it. The people there were super nice and really comfortable to be around. Too bad they're changing the pub run to Tuesdays. UGH. Yet another Six03 pub run on a Tuesday. The only the Thursday one is in Rochester, and it kind of sucks. The run is somewhat unpleasant, and while I like the bar, it's a little overpriced. Not really worth the hour drive. They're changing the pub run to accommodate the 3-race series on a few Thursdays at the Abenaki Ski Area. Grr. Annoying since I would never do those races for personal reasons. Haha. Looks like I'll be sticking to the Whitaker Woods Trail Series on Tuesdays like I always do. Just gotta work on turning it into a pub run somehow. Heehee.
I look like I have a gut with the stuff in my pockets.
Friday, June 15, 2018- What was just supposed to be an easy day of walking or hiking turned into me deciding it was a good idea to go for a run. I just had that itch to get out on the trail and run. Craving it. I planned something short and slow on the mountain bike trails in North Conway. It wasn't a good idea. I was actually in quite a bit of pain. Not as bad as it was when I dropped out of VCM, but bad enough that I should have aborted the run halfway through. I couldn't get myself to do that, though, so I kept running.
At one point during the run, I saw through the thick trees another runner and a dog coming towards me. As they rounded the corner, I was like wait a minute; that's my dog! Haha. It was Chill and Bryan out on a run. I could tell by the look on Bryan's face that he realized he was busted since John was with him...and John wasn't with him. Haha. I can bust him without even trying. :) I honestly didn't care, though. Him leaving John behind in the van at a safe place is no different than me leaving John at home or in the car when I run and race. So it would have been hypocritical of me to be mad about it. It was fine. I'm sure he breathed a huge sigh of relief. We did stop and talk for a minute about John's summer reading. A very pleasant conversation, actually. But still weird to run into your ex-husband randomly in the middle of the woods. Haha. 5.2 miles total in 53:11. Like I said. Very slow. 515ft of elevation gain. Mostly just rolling hills. No harm done to the tendons really. Just definitely more painful than I'd hoped for.
I made a quick grocery store stop then headed home. Got in upper body and abs stuff, showered and then waited for Scott Gordon to arrive for a Reiki session. Scott has been doing part of the Mountain Series the last few years, and I randomly ran into him while doing the Mt Adams Challenge in 2016. We didn't know each other; just said hi in passing. Scott figured out who I was shortly thereafter and read my blog post about my experience doing the Challenge. He wrote an article/story about both of our experiences that day (with my permission) and reached out for help with editing/feedback on it. It was fantastic read, by the way, and Scott is still searching out publications for publishing it. So anyway, in exchange for help with his article, Scott, who practices Reiki, offered me a session. Today worked out since Scott was coming up my way for the MWRR already.
I've had one prior experience with Reiki, and prior to that, I was highly skeptical. There are many non-believers out there since it hasn't been scientifically proven that it works. It's energy healing so there's nothing really tangible there. But does it really matter? Do you need proof before trying it? Nope. My first session with it 4 or 5 years ago was only because I won a free gift certificate. I didn't believe in that fru-fru stuff. Haha. Well...I walked out of that session a believer. I really wish I was writing this blog then so that I'd have my memories of that session written down. It's been so long that all I remember is that it put into this amazing meditative state and that my body felt so strangely better after that. Hard to explain it now since I probably couldn't put my finger on it at the time. I still can't. All I know is that I vowed to go back. I never did due to the cost. Here's a link about Reiki: Reiki Really Works
So anyway, Scott showed up and set up his table in my kitchen. He explained the process, did a little meditation and then got to work. First thing I noticed was the extreme heat coming off his hands. I remembered this exact same thing from the woman's hands the last time. It's so hot, it almost feels like a hot pad being placed on your skin. It's pretty crazy. What happened when he moved to my abdomen was what kind of freaked me out. And I'm not making this up, but as soon as his hands moved over my stomach, it cramped up. Like instantly and stayed that way until he moved them. And when he moved them, he put them in more of a cupping shape over the midline of my abdomen and with the change of hand position, the cramping followed but went specifically to my midline and felt like it was pulled up towards his cupped hands. (Take this out of context and it sounds like I'm writing a romance novel! Haha. Sorry, Scott. ;) ). I couldn't believe it. So crazy. The second he moved his hands away, the cramping stopped. Like instantly. So yeah, I don't have any proof to show that happened, but you'll have to take my word for it that that experience was real and not made up in my head. I definitely felt relaxed and just an overall increased sense of well-being. Finances are tight, but I'll be booking another session with Scott when I can. If you're in the Seacoast area or like to travel, I highly recommend it.
After Scott left, I quickly changed clothes so that I could head up to the Mt Washington Auto Rd to pick up my bib number and meet up with Mike King to give him my runner tag so his wife could drive the car up the next morning. I was already riding down with the Kirsch's who had like 11 potential tags so I knew I could give mine away. John didn't want to come so I left him at home and headed up.
As soon as I got there, it was like social hour. This always happens. Christin Doneski and her husband showed up just after I did so I talked to them until Mike showed up. It was fun seeing so many familiar faces. This just made me even more excited for the next day!
Tom Hooper messaged me letting me know that he and few other Six03 people were at the Moat so I decided to stop in and join them for a drink. I wasn't there long before I ran into Jodi Hall on the way out. She said she had just met Seth Acton and told me where he was sitting so I decided to go over there and scare the crap out of him, which I did. It wasn't long before more Rhode Island friends showed up. This wasn't planned so it was kind of funny. Sarah Chapin and Mike Radz, then Rachel Flaksman and Derek. Seth moved over to join us. I felt kind of bad because I sort of ditched the Six03 group, but I had already spent some time with them. I had to hit both groups! Haha. Also ran into Rich and Andrea Leonard on their way out so it was a fun time seeing everyone. It was, however, short-lived when a blight on the landscape showed up and joined the RI group. I left shortly thereafter. :) I had to go anyway. Other than a few pieces of Roxanne's leftover pizza, I still needed to eat dinner AND drive my bag for MWRR over to Paul's house. It was almost 9pm by this point. I was glad I stuck to my one beer rule tonight. Still too much to get done!
Seth, Sarah, Mike, Photobomber, me
I went home and ate ramen quickly. It's had to be my diet staple during my extra poor two weeks. Haha. Then I drove to Paul's. He came out when I got there and we chatted a bit, then I headed back home. I was in bed way later than I wanted to be, but I didn't care. Tomorrow would be laid back, and I didn't really need the rest.
Saturday, June 16, 2018- Mt Washington Road Race-
I think I've written most of the emotional part about today's race, so I'll get right down to the details. I was up super early so that I could drop John off at his grandparents' at 6am. This is the 4th year in a row they've helped me out with this one, and it's very much appreciated.
I got to the Auto Rd early as planned to beat the traffic and was once again successful! I got a much better parking place than ever before that was close to the tent and also with more privacy. Emer O'Donaghue was parked right near me and loaded me up with two more huge bags of clothes for John. This one included a Calvin Klein suit!! Omg. John will be so stylish!
I had so much time to kill so I made the rounds to chat with people at the Six03 tent and the acidoticRACING tent. Caught up with Dominick LaPorte who was getting married at the summit after the race. I also talked with Josh Fields and a few other people. I haven't talked to Scott Mitchell in forever, but it turned out that we have the exact same tendon injury AND plantar fasciitis. Me thinks it's ALL related for sure!
It started to get warm out so I went back to my car to ditch my layers and get ready for a "warm up". I caught up with Suzie West, Dawn Roberts and Donna Smyth for a bit before I attempted a run.
Dawn was one of the first women I noticed during my first two mountain series races in 2011 because she is such an amazing uphiller. I've watched her run up the entire length of Upper Walking Boss!
I started my warm up jog. I kept it super slow...ok, at a shuffle. I just wanted to see how I felt. I was a little stiff overall at the start and then felt ok. I only ran 1.3 miles and kept it on flat ground. On the way back I ran into Jackie Shakar and talked to her briefly about my injury. It was hard not to get run into people I knew and ended up chatting with Roger Marcoux and Brad Klinedinst before I realized it was only 15 minutes until the start! It was so nice not being nervous and hanging out with people. Not that I wouldn't have been social, but I would have kept it at a minimum pre-race.
I meandered up to the start and lined up with my teammate, Barb McManus. Funny. We started together and would end up finishing 6 seconds apart! I guess I lined up correctly. So my plan was to run the first mile so that I didn't get trampled at the start and then to get a little headstart on the easiest part of the climb before I started hiking. Mile 1 felt easy, and I ran it slower than I normally do. I wanted to keep my heart rate lower and my breathing easy. The end of mile 1 came easily and quickly in 9:55. I started to walk but then realized it was kind of flat so ran maybe another .1 or so before walking again. Hmmm. Something I learned right away. The Auto Rd isn't steep when you're walking it. When I realized it wasn't steep enough to power hike, I was like, "I'm bored," and decided to incorporate running surges like I've watched many people around me doing in the past. Funny. I never remembered all of these flat sections before! Seriously! I only remember the one just after mile 2 with the water stop. Turns out that if you're taking it easy, you realize there's a lot of flat! Short-lived, but those were the sections I chose to do my run surges. 10-15 yards maybe. My goal was to run these without getting my heart rate up and without getting out of breath. I'm sure the people I was playing leapfrog with were hating me since I've always hated the people that did this to me. Haha. Crazy how fast I could run and keep up with most of the same people through the entire 1st half. It was so easy! And fun. And all of the people sucking wind around me made me feel sorry for them. Hahaha. At one point, I got slapped on the ass really hard from a passerby. I was about to scream out that I had been sexually assaulted when I realized it was just Amy Rusiecki. Haha. Only kidding about the screaming out part. Haha. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw my half time. 45 minutes and change. I should have hit the split on my watch, but I forgot. How the hell was that barely slower than my previous races when I've run the entire 1st half?! Oh, I know! Because I suck at uphill running!
This year, I got my wish for that cool wind once we got above treeline. Yes! This year's weather was absolutely PERFECT. I know people complained about the wind, but, I'm sorry. NO. It was strong in parts, but it wasn't bad at all. I'll take that any day over stifling, windless last year. It also bode well for my powerhiking plan anyway. Bend down and tuck into the wind. I did end up powerhiking almost all of the second half. I ran a few surges early on, but I noticed I was starting to really feel it in my tendons and thought it best just to hike. I will admit it...mile 5 and half of mile 6 are still steep when you're hiking it, but I still never got out of breath for these sections. Since I was walking so much the second half, I did get caught and passed by a lot of people. I honestly didn't care. I wasn't out there to be competitive today. I actually took in the view and talked to people I knew who were passing me. It was amazing. I ran the section across the cow pasture because it was flat and it was actually a crazy sideways wind here. I wanted to get out of it before getting cold.
Barb caught up with me around the 7 mile mark and moved ahead very quickly. I saw her catching up to Nancy Cook with whom I had been "racing" with for most of the second half of the race before she got ahead of me. They were quite the distance ahead of me, but I had already planned to run the last section of the race so I decided I would also catch Nancy since she was on a competing team, WMDP (they would end up taking the masters win anyway with Ashley Krause and Dawn Roberts running well). I started to run right where planned but forgot about the short, steep hill just before you get to Cowbell Corner so I powerhiked that then got to running! Crazy how much energy and speed I had here. Plus, I was laughing and enjoying the crowd. I waved at people and smiled for the cameras. Haha. It was awesome. The Wall was so easy unlike last year when I went up it 25 seconds slower than today! What an opposite experience here than 2017! As soon as I got around the corner and saw the clock, I laughed! I was about to go sub-1:40. I crossed the line just behind a guy and Barb in 1:39:35. I welcomed the blanket this year since it was chilly. I was glad I wasn't out of breath or worn out this time because Barb was struggling so I stopped and tried to help her get her medal. Some other people helped walk her out of the shoot. I ecstatic over my experience. This had never happened before. I'm usually dying here and upset and hating this stupid fucking race, but not today!! I would end up finishing 44th woman. Hahaha. Still not bad considering I had walked most of it. I was 19th last year and that was only 6 minutes faster!
Photo by Dave Dunham who yelled at me for running. Haha.
Photo by Mark LaRosa
I love this photo by Mark LaRosa so much that I had to put it in here twice. :)
I was talking to Matt Lipsey for a few minutes right after I finished when Steve Laska came hobbling over to tell me there was something wrong with Barb. I told him to get EMTs while I stood there holding Barb steady. We needed to get her out of the wind, but she was so out of it and couldn't move. I was finally able to get her moving and held onto her as we shuffled over to the building. Once she was sitting and somewhere warm, she started to come back to life. Phew! We sat there together for awhile until we were both ready to go back out in search of our cars with clothes. It was really cold up there!
For the first time ever, I spotted Paul's truck from up high. Thank goodness because the purple blanket wasn't helping much by this point. Paul was down there so I talked to him, got a beer and then changed into my warm clothes. I actually packed more than I thought I would need, but I needed all of it. I walked out of the lot to watch more of the race finishers and spotted some CMS guys and Kim Nedeau so I went over there for a bit. I had a beer I needed to give away so it went right into Todd Callaghan's hand. Haha. I chatted with Kim for a bit until they announced they were going to start letting cars down. As I passed by this group with really good beer a 2nd time, I was fortunate to be offered two awesome beers. Yay! Thanks, guys! I went back to Paul's truck. Catalina was driving, and Kevin Tilton and I sat up front with her. I had opened a second beer by this time. The first one had already gone to my head so I was excited to have food soon, but it wasn't as soon as I'd hoped. I think we sat there another 45 minutes. One of the last cars to come down the Auto Rd. It was still fun hanging out with Cat and Kevin.
I was starving and burning up by the time we got down there. The temp difference was crazy so I changed into shorts quickly and got in line for food. This is the first time I've ever been hungry for the turkey dinner. I think since I usually run back down the Auto Rd after the race, my appetite is still suppressed. Since I basically did nothing at all today, I was hungry. Yay! Haha. I sat over at the Six03 tent. I had one more beer that Roxanne gave me and hung out with Michael Narcisi and Rachel. I didn't stay long after that. I got my award and headed out. John needed to be picked up from his grandparents since they needed to go back to Marshfield.
This really cracked me up. Haha.
First time I've seen this, but in all honesty, women are the ones who pee all over the toilet seat so I'd rather not have a women's only porta-John. #stophoveringladies #cleanupafteryourself
I picked up John and took him to Conway Lake to swim for an hour. He needed it. It was really hot out, but I didn't get in. The lake is still too cold for me. In a month or so I'll be able to tolerate 5 minutes. Haha.
I pretty much vegged the rest of the night since it was a double race weekend and I was actually going to try at Ribfest the next day. I was somewhat nervous, but not really since I kept my expectations low. See the next blog post for the Ribfest recap. :)
Not much to write about this week really. I held myself to my no running rule which became a little tough over the weekend. Seeing everyone's race posts/photos kind of gave me the itch to run, but I didn't. Two full weeks off is what I promised myself before I do any test runs. I know the injury isn't gone and won't be for a LONG time from what I've read, but I'm still hoping to throw some running back in there. Not sure how much right off the bat, except that I'll still be racing Ribfest 5-Miler on 6/17. Still planning just to powerhike Mt Washington on 6/16, but even that will leave my legs pretty tired for Ribfest. Hoping to get through it with a respectable time and minimal pain, but we'll see. This next week will be a test for sure.
After an easy rest day on Monday, I really hit the spin bike hard for 4 days straight and then overdid it a bit on Friday when I did the bike for an hour, then hiked up Mt Whiteface and followed that with the Friday Night Lights vertical race at Black. I woke up Saturday pretty sore and tired so I took that day off biking and just did some short hikes. Sunday I got back on the spin bike and the mountain bike. So even with no running, I'm pushing myself pretty hard. I have to stay in shape somehow. And as we all know, I'm a hyperactive person anyway so I can't just sit around normally. I was tortured a bit with that at work since I picked up some extra shifts this week. One 10-hour shift on Thursday and then the on-call shift Saturday night. I still managed to walk while at work at least.
I still feel fit, but by the weekend I was missing that awesome feeling I get from running. I think the worst part is that I feel like I'm missing out, but that will change in the coming weeks. Even if I can't run much during the week, I'll still be at races. I need that part to escape from my sad, little life.
So an interesting thing. About a month and a half ago, a friend's wife suddenly came down with the exact same intestinal issues I've been having. Symptoms the same. Luckily for her, she was able to get a colonoscopy and a diagnosis. Although I have no idea if we have the same thing, she was diagnosed with a sub-type of microscopic colitis which is what I've suspected I have as well. Mine is just a hunch based on symptoms, but I was really curious to know the treatment. And as I suspected...steroids for 6 weeks. Yeah, no thanks. Maybe when hell freezes over. Haha. That's what I suspected since I've learned that's pretty much the treatment for most intestinal problems. So no matter what I have it really doesn't matter because the treatment is the same, and I'm not putting steroids in my body. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know that living with what I have cannot be good for me in the long term either, but steroids are scary with nasty side effects. I can't do it. I AM down another pound to 117 which is a good race weight; so as long as I'm not drastically dropping weight or getting sick, I know that my body IS digesting enough even though it honestly doesn't feel like it. If I do see a sudden change with this issue I'm having then I will have to rethink the steroid thing and hell might just have to freeze over for 6 weeks. At that point I'll have to do a cost-benefit analysis and make a judgment call, but that wouldn't be until I actually have insurance again...so that's probably not happening anyway. Haha.
Other things this week...hmm. I'm digging here. I cut my hair. Haha. Not a real cut, though. Just trimmed the ends a bit at this awesome salon called my bathroom. Haha. I haven't gotten my haircut since November so the ends were looking pretty dried out so I knew I had to do something. And I like I said before, I've basically given up on trying to look good, so I didn't care how it came out. It looks pretty awful and is super uneven, but whatever. I don't care anymore. My looks have never gotten me anywhere before and they won't ever, now that I'm getting older. Haha. Plus I just saved about $60. Along those lines, it's kind of interesting that the week after I got rid of my nails, my nail salon closed its doors for good. There are others, but I really liked this particular place. Tells me the timing is right. And the nails never covered up the old hands anyway. I'm not really writing this to put myself down. Aging is a fact. Every year, I'm going to look older. I still think I look pretty good for my age so I'll take that. Haha.
Monday, June 4, 2018- Super quiet day at work. Walked 30 minutes on the treadmill since it was raining all day. I spent most of the day working on last week's blog post. It was actually the perfect day to be at work since the weather was gross. Tuesday, June 5, 2018- Drove right to Integrity Fit to spin for an hour. After a day off, I pushed extra hard today. As always, my ass was kicked and I was soaked in sweat.
No idea what the shiny thing is in my mouth. Spit bubble? Haha.
I was a bit rushed to shower and head out the door since John overslept and had no time to make a lunch. So I had to bring him lunch by noon.
The day was gloomy, but I lucked out to miss the rain completely during my hike up to Big Rock Cave with the dogs. I didn't have a lot of time since I wanted to go to the grocery store before coming back to pick John up. This was the perfect hike for today. Only 3.6 miles round trip and not too difficult of a hike. As the place is called, it is a rock cave that's pretty fun to crawl around in. These are basically giant boulders that fell (rolled?) into each other at some point, and they are huge. I took a shot with Chill in it for some perspective on their size. I still couldn't fit the whole boulder in the shot.
Here are some other photos from the hike. Sorry, not sorry, for the selfies, but it's my blog, so I will put as many selfies as I want on here. Haha.
There's a giant rat in the cave!
I made it to the store and back to John's school just in time to not be late. Haha. I got in an upper body and abs workout when we got home then got to work making a pasta dish for the potluck at John's school Wednesday night. It's a yummy dish, but only when eaten fresh, I learned. By the time it was at the potluck, it had dried out and not many people ate it. This turned out to work in my favor, though, since I now had dinner for dayyyyyz. Haha. The usual ninja class that night. Kind of looking forward to this ending for the summer since it's so late. I packed tonight for my next 2 days since I wouldn't be back home until Thursday night. I had to pack clothes for two spin sessions and two work days, plus a change of clothes after the 2nd spin on Thursday and a stuff for two showers. This was like going away for the weekend...except it wasn't fun. Haha.
Wednesday, June 6, 2018- Woke up at 4:45am happy that I HAD packed everything the night before since I basically just had to change into my workout clothes, pack up my food and coffee and then head out. Since I didn't have a lot of time, I only did a 30 minute spin video at the gym, but I made sure to pick one that kicked my ass. I had planned to shower there, but someone was using the one shower that's at the gym. Well, so I thought there was only one shower. Haha. Turns out there was a second one; I just didn't see it and thought it was a regular bathroom. Oops. It wasn't until someone told me the next day that I realized it. Haha. So I just went right to work from the gym and showered there.
This would be the 3rd Wednesday in a row of nothing but one fire alarm for the whole 24 hours. I was fortunate, though, to be able to leave for 4 hours from 5p-9p. My coworker, Bill, offered to cover for me so that I could go to John's portfolio showcase at school that night. I was so happy I was able to go since I had been dying to see the sheep he and some classmates built to study its anatomy. John's focus was the heart and lungs. I'll be honest. I really had no idea what a portfolio showcase was. I thought John was doing a presentation. Instead, it turned out to be each student presenting his/her work throughout the year. They had to show what they had done in all the disciplines required by the school. None of it is like a regular school so I'm not going to explain it. Haha. Check out The Community School's Facebook page, though, if you want to see photos of the students' portfolios to get a better idea.
I started with John, of course, and looked through his work. He had his own table and everything organized how he wanted it. Once I "got" what this was about, it all made sense. This was basically each student's unique display of their work, set up only by them. John's favorite part of history he studied was the Korean War so he had a photo of one of the battles. One of his team collaboration jobs was moving the fencing together for some animal pens so he hung a small piece of fencing up. The funniest part was that he learned at some point that eating the flower of the dandelion made him throw up so he picked a bunch of dandelions for his table. Haha. There rest was just all of his writing on display. The parents were supposed to go around to all of the kids' tables and provide feedback/criticism. I couldn't hit many of them, but it really helped seeing the other kids' work for me to understand exactly what was expected of them. So I was able to go back and give John feedback for the things I think he needs to work on. This process was actually really helpful to me for that since I honestly didn't know. Now, I can see he needs to write more and work on his handwriting, for example. I loved seeing John super excited to share what he had done with us. This sounds cheesy, but it really warmed my heart so much to see him there as a part of this. Like it almost brought me to happy tears.
Another good thing was that Bryan was there. This was our first John function that we've ever attended together. It actually went well! We were genuinely friendly to each other. When he's being nice to me, it's easy for me to talk to him like an old friend. We spent over 16 years of our lives together so you'd think it would be easy, but I guess it's really just specific to this type of event/environment. Haha. But whatever, it was kind of nice.
They used real sheep's wool for the outside of the sheep. Haha.
I looked at 5 other students' portfolios then I had to leave. On the walk out the skies were gorgeous. I snapped some photos as I walked to my car.
As I drove, I headed into some crazy cloudy skies. I took this photo to send to someone, but never did and never will. Oh well. Haha.
Once back at work, I did some abs then went to bed.
Thursday, June 7, 2018- I was actually pretty bummed to be working today. I had originally NOT picked up a shift this particular Thursday on purpose since I had planned to finish up doing the trail exploration in southern Mass that has been ongoing since December. So it did kind of bother me today that I couldn't run. But now I didn't need the day off, and my partner, Jeff, wanted to take the shift off so that he could go to his daughter's scholarship night at school, so I picked it up from him. I needed the overtime anyway since I haven't had any the last two paychecks. Plus, I had Jared as a partner, and he's one of the good ones here. We had two calls, a fire alarm and one transport. The day didn't drag at least. By the time I finished my report, it was 5pm and time to leave. Yay!
I drove right to North Conway to get on the spin bike at the gym. A guy was in there using a bike which has happened a few times. They're always just using the bike, but not doing a video so I ask if they mind me putting on a video. They've been cool about it, and this guy actually joined in the "class" until he had to leave. Kind of made a little more fun with a real person in there. Since it was so late, I only did a 45 minute spin which still kicked my ass as much as the hour class does. Haha. When I was done, I tried the only core-specific video I could find on there. It was 10 minutes and just a little too easy for me. Haha.
It was so nice to go home after 2 days of being gone! Yay! The night was cool so I finally opened the Stoneface RIS that Tom Hooper had belatedly given me for my birthday. Good stuff!
I sipped on this for 2 hours. No lie! Haha.
And of course dog snuggle time
Friday, June 8, 2018- No sleeping in. I was up at 6:45am to make John's lunch and make sure he was up for school. He had overslept AGAIN on Thursday and missed the van. School is out for summer in just a few days, but before it starts back up in the fall, I'm getting an old school loud-as-fuck bell alarm clock that will wake his ass up. Haha.
It was back to the gym for an hour spin class this morning. For some reason, it felt harder than the last time I had done this particular one. My legs felt a little trashed. I still got through it.
I rushed home to shower and get back out to the Ferncroft trailhead so that I could fit in a hike up Mt Whiteface with Phoenix before picking John up at school. As always, I had remembered the mileage wrong and thought it was 3 miles to the summit, but it was 3.9. Haha. This meant a bit of rushing to get to the (true) summit of Whiteface and back down by 3pm. I hauled ass up that thing even though I was pretty beat from the spin class. Made it back down by 2:40pm.
The views from this mountain are amazing on a clear day like today. Lake Winnipesaukee, Squam Lake, Ossipee Lake, Mt Chocorua, Mt Passaconaway...and so on.
View of Whiteface from Ferncroft Trailhead. It's the mountain in the background.
Chocorua is the tallest one in the distance.
I love breathing in the air up here on the ridge. And the smell of Balsam Fir is awesome.
Very much not an exciting summit
She loves to cool off in the water. Haha.
I hustled it back down the mountain almost at a run, but not quite going there even though I had the itch to. Picked up John and headed home.
Even though my day wasn't over as far as doing stuff, I still had a post-hike beer when we got home. Steve Brightman gave me this one after Cranmore.
I had a couple of hours to veg at least. I should have eaten more, but I had absolutely no appetite today. I ate a bagel (still left over from my race haha) before the spin class and then an apple on the hike, but that was it. I force fed myself veggie chips in some effort to have energy for the vertical race later, but I didn't eat many. I wasn't feeling sick at all, so the loss of appetite didn't make much sense. Too busy to be hungry maybe?
I let John stay home again while I drove up to Black Mt for week 2 of the Friday Night Lights race. I'll be honest. I wasn't really feeling it. And I had no desire to be social tonight, but I was looking forward to the race part. I did my best to act like a normal person and talked to people, but I'm reminding myself to get there at the last minute next time so I can just go right into the race. As with last week, I planned not to run a step and ended up in last place right from the start. This course wasn't a good one for me since about 3/4 of it was less steep and easily runnable for most people. It was only the last part up some steep glades where my power hiking would have an advantage. I only passed 6 people this time and was part of the back of the pack tonight. It was totally fine, but it was REALLY hard holding myself back from running on the first 3/4 of that. Haha. The course was only slightly longer at 1.4 miles tonight and took me just over 26 minutes.
I only took a few photos tonight. This one is of Andrew videoing everyone. Rich Leonard is the one smiling. I wasn't the only one to comment that this is the first time we've ever seen him without his wife, Andrea, who was off on a girls weekend. Haha.
I once again attempted to be social but it was actually a struggle. I just wanted to be alone so I finally left for the walk down by myself. I took last week's course down so that I would most likely stay alone. The evening was gorgeous and even a little bit chilly! Perfect. I had planned to stay for the raffle. No beer since I didn't want to spend the money. I changed my shoes and then took my bag out to the car where I planned to leave it before walking back to the deck for the raffle. But when I opened my door, I realized I just wanted to get into my car and drive away so I did.
I was finally hungry when I got home and ate some of the pizza I had made for John before I left. My body was really tired which came as no surprise. An hour of spinning, a hike of a 4000 footer and another 1000+up Black Mt was a lot for one day.
Saturday, June 9, 2018- As soon as I sat up out of bed, I could feel a lot of soreness in my legs. I also had some slight pain in the tendons. I had overdone it the day before. I couldn't help it, though. I had so little free time that I wanted to fit it all in in one day. Haha. And I even ran out of time to kayak! :)
I knew spin was out for the day. John had to be at his school from 9:45am until noon for the senior graduation so I just planned to do an easy hike up Bayle Mt with the dogs while he was there. I didn't have a lot of time since just the drive over to the Ossipee side of the mountain took 20 minutes each way so I opted to take the shortcut trail from the snowmobile trail that connected to the Bayle Mt Trail. It probably cut off a half mile each way and gave us just enough time to get up there and hang out for a bit before heading back. This was only a 2.6 mile round trip hike so it was perfect for my tired legs. And it was ANOTHER beautiful day.
After I picked up John, I took him to the trailhead off of 113A for a hike up to the Great Hill Fire Tower. He wasn't getting away with no exercise! Haha. :) This is a pretty easy hike and only 2.3 miles round trip. It was pretty buggy, but nothing has yet to compare to last summer. That was the worst summer bug-wise I'd ever experienced up here. Once at the top, Chill kept trying to go up the fire tower but would only make it half way up the first set of stairs before getting scared and going back down. It was kind of funny. I carried Phoenix up to the top. She was definitely not a fan of this.
Phoenix with the look of terror
Poor Chill finally gave up trying. Haha.
The hike down was quick and then we went home. I got in an upper body, abs and glutes workout and that was it for me before I had to be ready for work at 5pm. The on-call (stipend) shift is ok for me to do since I'm not leaving John behind for too long. I can just rarely pick them up on the weekends since I race so much. Since I had nothing going on Sunday and they were desperate to fill the shift, I decided to pick it up for the extra cash.
I was happy I got dinner made before I got called in just after 6pm. When I got to work, one of the other crews was back in service so I headed home after chatting a bit. About two miles from home, a tone went out for Ossipee Corner, so I turned my car around and went back. The other crew was transporting to Memorial from West Ossipee at that time. I was back at the base maybe 10 minutes before we got a tone to Center Ossipee. Always Ossipee. I hate that town. Ours was for an assault so we ended up transporting. I was home around 10pm and luckily didn't get called back in again before my shift ended at 7am. Stipends are a great way to make some money if you get called in. I made $116 for 4 hours of work. I'll take it! Sunday, June 10, 2018- Today was a struggle because I really wanted to be racing. The weather was too beautiful not to be out there. I had originally planned to race Nipmuck South as part of the Grand Tree Series, but it wasn't to happen obviously. That would make two planned Grand Tree races in a row I would have to miss (Cranmore was the other). Ugh. My schedule is so tight as it is since the Grand Prix races coincide with many of them. I have Upton and Busa Bushwhack on the calender but now I have to fit one more in as well to count for my 6 races. I had Wapack 18 mile race as tentative one, but I'm not feeling that one at all so I'm either going to do the People's Forest Trail Race or Monroe Dunbar Brook. Neither is ideal schedule-wise, but I'll just pick the least cumbersome of the two. And of course, any racing is all dependent on how I'm feeling with this injury thing that I probably won't be good about resting properly. Haha. I don't care much how I place in the Grand Tree, but I just wanted to count this year. And hopefully, next year I can do more of them and get off the roads a bit more than I have the last 4 years.
So anyway, I slept in pretty late this morning to finally catch up a bit then went back to the gym for an hour of spinning. I felt completely recovered so the easy Saturday was the right move. I'm really hoping this spinning will help me next week at Ribfest. I'm really nervous about how it's going to go.
I went home, showered, then dragged John out to mountain bike on the trails by Echo Lake. I like biking these because they're gently rolling so we can ride quickly. The trails are very rooty in spots, but other than that it's smooth sailing. We only biked 3.1 miles which was good enough for me. Haha. That's also just enough time to keep John interested, too.
I was surprised he actually accepted my suggestion to go to the lake beach after. Yay! We found the beach completely unoccupied when we got there which was so weird. Maybe it was the yellow, pollen-filled water that turned people away, but not John. He thought it was fun to swim in. Haha.
It wasn't long after we arrived that some others did, too, and unfortunately, it was the four awful kids we'd run into there last year. I wrote about them in some blog post from last summer. They gave me a bad vibe to my core last year and today was no different. I don't know what it is exactly, but there's just something so off with them as if they could be dangerous people some day. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think I am. Right after they arrived, some people showed up via boat and proceeded to yell at their kids constantly. Argh. Haha. So much for a quiet beach. The water was actually kind of cold even for John so he only swam for about a half hour then joined me in the sand for about 20 minutes before we left.
I could have done more like mow the yard (the mower had just overheated and works fine now!) or do upper body and abs, but for some reason, my ass would not get off the couch. Haha.
So considering this post took me no time at all to write meant a pretty uneventful week. My life is very much not exciting when running isn't involved. Maybe I should make some gym rat friends I can pump iron with so I can write about how much I can lift. Haha.
