Towpath Half Marathon

Completed my first 13.1 - YES!!! and completed it in 2:27 just under my hopeful goal of 2:30. Was a beautifully cool day and had no hydration issues. When all was said and done it was hard to believe what I'd actually accomplished. Even now, I'm not even sure I did it - except I did!!

It's official

Registration Details Confirmation #: 24590093-xxxxxx
Date & Time: 10/11/09
Location: Cuyahoga Valley National Park (Map)
Purchased at: 08/28/09
Category: Half Marathon
Name: Stephanie Graham

Drabble.... 'ish

So, one of my stalkee's, Peter DeWolf is having a "contest'ish" - it's a Drabble contest. (ish).

Now a drabble has NOTHING to do with running, or does it?!... A drabble is a fictional story of 100 words (no more, no less) and Peter has decided that the theme of said drabble be the subject of.... Love.... awwwwww....

anywho... here's my first try:

(sigh) What the… That cannot be the alarm. Shit. 3:50am already. The blankets are warm and toasty and I love having my feet intertwined with his. I hate leaving this way. But it’s 4:05am already. I have to go before it gets much later. I whisper “I really do love you” in his ear and tiptoe out of the room to get dressed. Suddenly… I’m another person, I have somewhere else to be, I fumble with my keys, I’m nervous. The pit of my stomach aches. There! I see it. I make my way. I smile. Yes. It’s race day!

See a drabble about love and running... perfect!!


and since I'm not real busy, here's attempt number two:

I don’t know what it is?
I hadn’t planned on staying this long.
I looked forward to leaving.
But I will miss being here.
I already miss it.
He will find someone else.
Friends, we are just friends, nothing more, remember that.
No not just friends, but best friends.
No, not lovers.
Friends.
But we used to be lovers…
We used to connect on that level, he used to make me want to scream in passion. Sweat running down my spine.
The touch of his finger tips caressing my back.
The feel of his lips against…
No, not lovers.
Friends.

Before and After Running Photos

I still have a LOOONG way to go...but what a difference two years makes!

Picture on the left is from A Shot In The Dark, Winking Lizard 2-miler in 2007 and the one on the right is from the 4-miler completed this past Saturday.







Like I said...there is still a long way for me to go, but it's nice to see the side-by-side changes so far.

Yikes

Crap. Ok. Here goes. I'm putting it out there, so no backing out...right?!

On October 11th, I am going to do the Towpath 1/2 Marathon . I am really hoping that completing the 10-miler earlier this year will help me to be prepared a little more for this race...I mean it's ONLY another 3.1 miles...Right?!?... Ha...

I am running away to Canada this weekend (ok, not literally running there) but then once I am back I will have 10 weeks to get it together and figure out this whole nutrition/hydration thingy because THAT is where I am really lacking. Well that and completing 13.1 miles...

"Dance like no one is watching. Sing like no one is listening. Love like you've never been hurt and live like it's heaven on Earth." ~ Mark Twain

Thursday morning (yesterday) I did something I have never really done before, or at least not as an adult and most definitely never before on purpose. I ran in the rain. Wait, did I say rain?, was that rain? or was it a mini-monsoon? Irregardless, there was lots of water falling from the sky when I woke up and yet I still proceeded to get dressed put on my running shoes and headed out the door...on purpose.

Previously I was always able to come up with a really good reason to not run outside when it is raining but I decided it was time to get back out there and run a race, the Winking Lizard race this Saturday in downtown Cleveland, and with a look at this weeks rainy forecast and more importantly the dismal looking forecast showing for Saturday night I figured I'd better just suck it up and go run. End result - I survived all 3 miles, it wasn't miserable, I think I actually came back smiling and most importantly I did not melt!

While out playing in the rain lots of things happened to me. I found out that although I may not melt in the rain, it has been charged as an accessory to murder in the death of my iPhone :( I remembered what it's like to not run with music and only with the voices in my head for company. I found out that I run at the same pace no matter what the weather brings. I accepted the internal fear I have for running on Saturday and ultimately for a race that is still 3 months away. I found out important things like my running socks although wringing wet when I got home where not squishy in my shoes and kept my feet feeling oddly dryish. I remembered the joy you can feel when splashing in a puddle. I remembered that I run for ME and no one else.

...it was a great morning.

Politics and my job - Scene & Heard

Article and it's link about what's happening in my little world and how it may effect you all in Cuyahoga County...

http://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2009/06/17/elsewhere-in-buyahoga-county

ELSEWHERE IN BUYAHOGA COUNTY …
Posted by Frank Lewis on Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 12:03 PM
When county Democrats chose Bedford city manager and ex-police chief Robert Reid to be the county’s new sheriff last month, they were clearly going with the shaker and not the mover. They passed over the candidate who so many on both sides of the vote believed was the more obvious candidate for a county with so much swindle at its oft-rotten core: Clayton Harris, a police academy chief and ex-Cleveland police commander from Collinwood who vowed to actually start enforcing all the laws for everyone, from county boss Jimmy Dimora on down. It was a perfect measure for how the county’s balance of political power clearly tilts toward the cozy ’burbs and away from the ailing city. But how often does the better candidate lose out to the better ass-kiss? Apparently, more often than not.

Last December, as part of a push to streamline costs and services, county commissioners voted to merge the Cuyahoga County Board of Mental Health and the Board of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services of Cuyahoga County. The new model gets unveiled July 1.

The two final candidates to lead the new monster came from dramatically different backgrounds: Dr. Russell Kaye holds a PhD in experimental psychology and is the head of the county’s alcohol and drug abuse services, working locally for nearly two decades. Bill Denihan (pictured) is a well-connected Dem party animal with no direct experience before taking his job at the helm of the county’s mental-health board five years ago. He’s a former Cleveland safety director who also worked, in recent years, as the appointed leader of the county’s Department of Children and Family Services and the claims director for the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation.

So what does the new board do? They give the job to Denihan, of course, and they don’t even offer Kaye a chair on the new board. Jim Joyner, another top former board member who worked first as a drug counselor and then as training manager for the county drug board, was also left out of the new planning. Both men tendered their resignations.

“Philosophically, across the nation, whenever the two [types of programs] have merged, it tends to submerge alcohol and other drug programs,” says Joyner.

Differing views on the nature of addiction now divide the new board, he added, and could affect future funding. He hopes the winner takes all … the advice he can: “Whatever Mr. Denihan may or may not have in terms of being qualified, it’s important for any leader to recognize what those limitations are and that they hire the right people with the right knowledge base. That’s what’s waiting to be seen in terms of formation.”

Kaye, who isn’t sure where he’ll work next, took Buddha’s path in recounting the last year: “The skill set he brings is what the new board of directors felt were more valuable at this time, and I respect that. Beyond staff and leadership, the most important thing in this are those in Cuyahoga County who need addiction and mental-health services. The true litmus test will be whether they benefit from this move. If services aren’t at least consistent or improved from where they’ve been, it doesn’t matter how much is saved.”

So experimental, his psychology.

Another county worker, who asked to remain anonymous to keep his mortgage paid, didn’t mince words: “I don’t understand why [Denihan] was picked. The only thing I could see was that it was political. When you match the qualifications of these two people, Dr. Kaye was head-and-shoulders above his competition. Denihan is one of the best at being a political animal. He knows how to play and maneuver, and he’s part of the Democratic machine here in the county, so people can make whatever conclusion they want.”

Maybe Kaye should have ponied up for some trips to Vegas. — Dan Harkins