The Body and The Pen

During a job recently, the client was busy with an independent project and I was reading the September 2010 issue of The Writer. One particular article caught my attention: "An essayist finds her stride" by Jenny Rough. She wrote about learning to skull and her writing. Learning to skull and, as her instructor put it, be in flow with the water. She went on and told about her learning curve with paddling, the seeking and failing and trying again, and the moment when she felt that connection. I leave the article reading to you. Nice parallels. It made me think about my current situation and lessons.

I made some notes to write this post.

A few hours later I arrived at my second job. On my first break I went into my blog reader to see what other people have been posting. That day's post from WOW: Women on Writing, was called Writing is Exhilarating and is about, yes, the challenges and thrills of physical activities and writing - similarities.

I knew that I definitely was going to follow through with this post. 

I have been exploring the connections and interdependent influences of movement, of physical activity, and writing. Really, of creativity in general; but my creative focus is writing, so that is what I write about.

I've done three of the Paddling Poet workshops with Ridgefield Kayak in Ridgefield, WA. These have been amazing and inspiring. Participants who have never written but wanted to and didn't know how, wrote. One person who said she was not a poet but loves to read it started taking notes as instructed and after a few minutes exclaimed, "I wrote a poem!" She was floating in her kayak in the middle of Lake River.

Movement. Being outside with the elements. Or inside with the people. Walking, hiking, crunching through snow, sloshing in puddles, thwacking through the mud, swishing through pines/bamboo/cottonwoods/red-leaf maples - moving with the wind, the sun, the clouds, paddling the river. Inspiration, moving through, flowing. That connection Ms. Rough was seeking and achieved. I have felt it, too.

Right now, though, I'm dealing with the reverse. Last week I made the decision to not do Portland's first half marathon. Yes, I was one of the first to sign up when it became available and I was excited. I thought I'd beat my Seattle half marathon time; I had lots of time to train; I was determined.

It's been a series of small setbacks this year. I bounced back from the ten weeks of "Northwest Crud" as it became known, last winter into spring. I was definitely behind on training and slow to get back into it. But I did get back to a level where I could do the Cascade Lakes Relay - which was awesome, again - and I beat my times for last year, which was a surprise.

I was dealing with a sore back prior to the relay. I did what I needed to do and it was better; and I had a quick recovery after I was done with my legs. But the problem persisted a little; receded; resurfaced.

I've been on the fence about whether to let go of the half marathon goal or push through it. I've been doing massage and chiropractice and ibuprofen and strengthening/rehab stretches. Increase my walking and drop the focus on pace. Decrease my walking and focus on posture.

The pain was primarily coming with walking - after a mile or so. Sometimes an ache, a tightness, would continue afterwards - but the pain went away. Most of the time.

So my journey became a little different that Jenny's - I had to learn to adjust my activities by listening to my body. I had to not let my frustration become hopelessness or depression - which it can. Doing less walking, less moving, can stir those feelings, as well. So I pushed for 6 miles with a friend and I did it! The next week I was hurting more and only did 3 miles. Then I tapered back to 2 miles; which I did, muscles tightened, I stretched them out, finished up without pain. No pain - that was my goal.

With that I decided that it was better to let go of this marathon - half marathon - and listen inward. There will be other opportunities if I want to do it again. Right now I need to take it slow, build it up, and do other things. Swimming is back in my workouts. More stretching.

Right now the situation feels like a teeter-totter, because less activity has probably contributed to a weakened core, which contributes to some of the back pain. So the pain causes decreased activity - and so I go around the circle. The return to the pool will help. And I hope to get back to more walking - but, for now, it's a little at a time. Knowing when to push and when to pull, to walk upright, to swim, to lift weights or not.

Revise the goal. And keep moving. Keep writing. Keep creating. Because the creating happens even when I ache, when my back muscles burn, when I cry because all I could do was walk 2 miles. Sometimes writing involves the same revision of goals: if the story isn't working, put it on hold, try another point of view, kill off a character, work on the memoir.

Movement: of body, of words, in the flow.

quick update

...and with a promise of more to come...

CLR Van#2: Esther, me,
Nikki, Gaik, and driver Gwen

My team - the MissFit WiseWalkers - made an awesome showing at this year's Cascade Lakes Relay in Central Oregon. We completed the 132.4 miles walking course in an hour and sixteen minutes less than we did last year. We were last in our division - and that's okay. We were only seven minutes and a few odd seconds behind the next to last team - which is really good. Our average pace was only three-tenths of a second (!!) slower than that team. We all came through it feeling pretty good - some aches, a few blisters, a little stiffness = normal parts of doing a distance relay event in the mountains of the desert in the summer for 32+ hours straight.

And we had fun.

Sophie
11/17/90-8/01/10

There will be pictures.

I arrived home Sunday night to discover my car battery was dead and my cat was dying and then my partner's car wouldn't start in the vet's parking lot. There is more to that story, which will have to wait. Someday the pieces of that string of events will be funny - but I need more time.

Our living room currently houses the storage boxes with the team's supplies and my personal items from being the Team Captain for the relay; with the "welcome home" events last night and then work today I haven't had time to put them away. The dining room has been strewn with art supplies and outfits and my partner's personal items, who is flying out tomorrow morning to teach and take classes an art conference. We are a whirlwind of activity. Thank goodness the writing conference I am attending and volunteering at is local and needs no supplies.

My life is very full right now - of good things. Minus one old part-Siamese tortoise shell tabby, who I miss.

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Pause

I didn't intend to pause my blogging for the Cascade Lakes Relay - but I am. I planned to put together this coming Friday's Razors Edge and have it magically pop up while I was, again, away from technology (at least the big technology I use to pull the pieces together for my weekly prompt).

But the big event itself has taken so much time this past ten days that I didn't get it done and so, there will be a short intermission as I head over to central Oregon tomorrow.

I have printed reams of paper (and I'm really not exaggerating: five sets of race guides, five full maps, volunteer packets, directions from Portland to the car rental pick-up to the campground to the start line and so on - then tonight even more: phone lists and car rental reservations and campground reservations). I have bought a heaping cart-load at Winco: mini-bagels, many packages of meats and cheeses, many pounds of bananas and clementines, five pounds of Red Vines and black licorice, and suckers, and raw almonds and five cases of water. And more.

I've spent many hours on the phone with insurance compaines and the rental car company and AAA and another supplemental insurance company.

And checked red flashing lights for operability, tested the new pesticide sprayers (thanks to a couple of running teams - we learned that these handy inexpensive garden tools make great cooling equipment for runners/walkers in the desert in summer), sorted the supplies into storage boxes for each van.

And put out little emotional or excitement or "what if" fires among the team.

And the day is here. Tomorrow I will somehow stuff all of the equipment and food that is taking up a chunk of my living room into my compact sedan. My partner will drive me to the meet-up spot, where I will offload everything - including the five cases of water in my trunk - into the RV, in which several of us are making the drive over to the Bend area to pick up the cars and go to our campsite.

Oh - did I say that we are camping this year? We have a nice little group campsite right on the edge of a little lake. Should be gorgeous. The RV is small and is for the inactive van's walkers to chill out (literally) if it's hot - but otherwise, we're sleeping in tents.

I'm excited. A little anxious - I didn't train as hard as I did last year for this. But I'm also in better general fitness shape than I was. So while I know I will be a little sore and I know my pace will (I want to say "probably" but I know the reality is it *will*) be slower than last year - I will still do it. And I will be okay. I've done some walking, focusing on the downhills since I am again doing the six miles down down down leg (six miles, 1,400 elevation loss). My IT bands will notice my reduced training - but I started taking Arnica on Sunday, along with Ibuprofen, and I saw my chiropractor today who gave me some kinesio tape with instructions. My recovery time from working out aches is really great (on indicator of improved fitness) and I have promised several people I won't overdo it and push myself beyond what is reasonable. So - I know I will be sore and I know I will be slower - but I also know I can do it. How great to be able to say, "three miles? that's easy!"

It's been a little hectic and I'm a little low on sleep.

So this week's Razor's Edge will wait. Or be skipped.

Or you can hop over to YouTube and search for "Cascade Lakes Relay" and pick a video as your inspiration. Pick a character from those on screen (or pick a whole team!) - and tell a story about who they are and how they got to CLR.

Friday I'll be on the road with the MissFit WiseWalkers. Making our way from Silver Lake through the Cascade Lakes Highway and on up to Bend.

Ahhh.

photograph from OregonLive's RunOregon blog

When Worlds Collide

This has been a recurring theme in my life recently: my own experiences and those of friends.

I'm not sure what it's all about and know I'll have to wait for that answer.

A writer friend has made an important decision about her life. It redefines who she is and how much time she will have for writing. She has two children at home and this job provides them with some essentials and has good perks. So she is a mama writer who will be doing (that job) for a while.

I'm in the midst of a similar situation about my continuing work. One thing I do is partly up to me whether I continue doing it. Another thing I do is something I could keep doing easily as my safety net base work - though I need other things to keep my mind fresh and body moving; and that one has some potential major changes coming, including going away.

And I'm in a collision time of having to do student observations, the final two weeks of dragon boat practice before the big races, preparing for my big vacation rafting from one end of the Grand Canyon river to the other, preparing my Paddling Poet series and the Creative Wandering series, and making final preparations and reservations for the 132 mile relay. And my regular work.

Writing. It's time to get back to it. I've been doing little bits but I need the big chunks. Just one more day of observations, write up the reports, and I'll have a little more time to write.

Collisions of responsibility and desire. Of work and writing, the teeter totter.

WAS: time to play; NOW: time to walk

I hit another wall. Sometimes I'm surprised I have anything left to hit with - recently, anyway. I'm mostly recovered from the long-lasting sickness; I don't normally get the long-play versions but I did get this one. Now that I'm mostly over it, there are some residual symptoms that are mostly minor, until I work-out.

The issues?

One is that the dragon boat races are only four weeks away. Truthfully - I will be fine for the races, although maybe a little sore at the end. I'm the tiller and that takes the ability to stand despite wind and current and the rhythm of the paddlers - it can get a little straining on my low back near the end of the hour on the water, but bearable (and the soreness resolves quickly and is a direct result of being below fitness level due to two months of sickness). Tilling also requires a different type of strength and different muscles than the paddlers use; and those muscles are still strong since I've been able to keep up with the strength training (thanks, Nikki!). The warm-ups can get me breathing harder than I should be as the last strands of this illness linger - but for the actual tilling, I'll be okay with a little Advil.

Two is a biggie: the Cascade Lakes Relay is two and a half months away.

Oops - no, let me back up. The Grand Canyon Rafting trip is just over a month away! Yikes. I'll be fine, I guess. At least it's rafting and not kayaking! Not that I would kayak the Grand Canyon/Colorado River - a little too ambitious for me and I'm not that big of a thrill seeker. So, I will ride the giant raft, help load and off-load my grocery-sized bag of belongings which will contain everything I need for a week (hear me laughing? still haven't quite figured that one out), with a couple extra things stored in an ammo can - I plan to have a book to read, a waterproof notebook and/or sketch pad or two and probably thin sharpies or special pens, a camera... Then, if I'm still not up to par with my lung capacity, I can skip a hike or two. Be technically disconnected and fully immersed in being present. Relax. Nap. Look at the scenery. But I may have to moderate my hiking a bit more than I'd like. I'm okay with that; I think I'll be fine being there.

Then the Cascade Lakes Relay. I've started back to training. Though barely. My pace is about 1.5 minutes slower than it was and my hill walking ability is diminished. I'm trying to not be frustrated. I'm trying to find that balance between not pushing my lungs too much and pushing my fitness level just a bit; it feels like a tightrope of which way is too much or too little. Saturday I did my first deliberate hill walk in over two months. I survived and I cut it a little short when my lungs started to hurt; not just out of breath, but hurt a little. I recovered quickly - which is good.

A couple months after that is Portland's first half marathon - on 10/10/10. I'll see how the relay goes at the very end of July to know if I will be able to get up to half marathon status. I think the answer is yes - but I'm obviously in a period of doubt. And I hope that means it's just a bit of the illness remaining, which I've heard from other people can cause this feeling of hopelessness about getting back to full normal activity.

I didn't plan to write about this when I started writing. It was going to be about play and dreaming and time; something profound and energetic, with a bit of humor.

But this is where my mind and fingers went. So this is what I have.

Another time of one step. One breath. One hill. One mile.

Recovery. Being present and knowing when and how much to push, to try, to back off, to let go. To move on. To not give up hope.

To know that a few years in the future I will look back at this time - if I even remember it - and think how short is was in the overall picture of my life.

Time.

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Thoughts on Revision/Re-Vision

I completed two pass-throughs of The Novel with my 3x5 notecards. I didn't plan on making two passes - but that was what was required.

The first round I was looking for "scenes" and making notes in the margins about the characters and main events. I had a decent size stack of cards when I was done and a few notes. Nothing earth shattering nor a toppling tower. I looked at the cards and thought about what I could move around and went, "huh."

Not much. (Though I imagine sometimes writers think things have to be in the order they are even when they could move -- or at least new novelists get a little stuck in reordering.) I will defend myself and say that it's a mystery ghost story, so I think some of the plot does have to be in the order it is. I'm not looking to find a new Memento style twist nor seeing dead people approach, so some things need to happen in a certain order for it to make sense.

But I started thinking that there were parts that could be moved around. Back story. Character development or history, flashbacks. Maybe there were other hidden bits that I could move.

So I re-entered The Novel with the completed notecards and new notecards and a pen. This time I made more notes in the margins and wrote out new scenes within scene cards. It's still not a toppling tower but it nearly doubled in size.

And there are things that can move.

Then a couple weeks ago I took a drive to the coast. A part of The Novel happens in Manzanita - an Oregon coastal town I haven't spent as much time in as other parts. I had the afternoon of a writing day free so I decided to drive the 90 miles to the coast. I stopped on the way and bought an inexpensive digital camera (I was across town from home - on the coastal range side of town). That spontaneous trip turned out to be the right thing to do.

On the drive over to the coast I had some insights into a couple of characters. I drove the route I had one of the characters drive (which was not my usual highway to the coast), so I took a few pictures along the way and picked up some excellent names of parks and towns and sightseeing spots. And when I arrived in Manzanita I took some pictures and drove around and feel like I have a much better sense of the layout of that part of the story.

And now? What?

Sometimes I get a little overwhelmed by the thought of revising or re-visioning The Novel in its entirety. Especially when I'm also doing things like preparing to interpret a play (this coming Friday night) or have dragon boat practice three times a week (third weekly practice added this month) or am planning 10 days off work for a rafting trip down the Grand Canyon (the end of June; this planning includes working extra to get money to cover taking time off work since I don't have benefits) and ... there's more but those are the biggies. Oh, except for being the team captain for the second year for the MissFit WiseWalkers Cascade Lakes Relay team - just a little bit of organizing to do for that.

But enough - I have The Novel to finish. To edit. I tried to think of it as one page at a time but that is a lot. It seems easier to think about one character at a time. One story angle at a time (there are three seemingly separate stories that converge). One scene at a time!

I will get there. The play will be done this Friday - so that will free up a chunk of time for novel editing. And I have jury duty on Wednesday, so that may also give me some time unless I get selected to be on a jury (which is unlikely, in my experience). My plan for jury duty is to alternate between Friday's Script and The Novel, when I'm hanging out in the jury room.

Highway 26 West Tunnel
photo by Dot.

On the Fitness Side: an expo

Dragon Boat training has started up again (the first week of January). The Cascade Lakes Relay team is meeting monthly with clinics and talking about our plans - at least a few of us are going to do the Shamrock Run on March 14th. The Grand Canyon group keeps getting our snowshoe trips cancelled because it's too icy or now too warm (predicted 60 for this weekend) and not enough snow - so some of us will go hiking instead.

As we regroup during the winter months and stretch and begin again our trainings - the expos start coming up, with or without events. I saw this one on the OregonLive RunOregon blog. Looks like fun if you're going to be in the Portland, OR area and want to check out some product and go for a walk/run with a group.

Me? I'll be out in the Gorge, hiking!
The Racecenter Event Expo is coming this Saturday, Feb. 20th at the NE Foot Traffic! What can you expect at this great annual tradition?

• 
  Discounts to some of the area's top events
• 
  Raffle for sweet prizes, free shoes, free race discounts and more!
• 
  HUGE, free group run/walk starting at 9am
• 
  FREE Lompoc Beer while it lasts!
• 
  FREE hotdogs and snacks
• 
  Discounts on store products ranging from 10% off for some of our most popular models to 70% off for discontinued models.
• 
  Special offer on all regular priced shoes:
  .......Buy one get the second 25% off!!! (one per customer, same size).

NaNoWriMo: 10 days to go and I have....

...a title and a synopsis. This is far more than I had last year at this time - and I will have no more until 12:01 AM on November 1st. No - no outline for me. No cast of characters other than the basic few mentioned below. I will wait to see who shows up on my page as I type and where they take us. But, for now, I have a spark of an idea for the setting and I do have a working title.

Welcome to my 2009 NaNoWriMo Novel:

"Cascade Lakes Footnotes"

Eight women walkers, their two drivers, in two vans, encounter more challenges than they expected in the Cascade Mountains in central Oregon.

The members of Mighty Maude's Marauders are new found friends who decide to take on the challenges of the 132.4 mile walking section of the Cascade Lakes Relay. They joined the event with fitness in mind and each with a personal goal. As the race continues, they discover that at least one of their members has some well-hidden secrets.

Join the Might Maudes as they traverse through the blaring sun and thunderstorms, walk up breath stealing inclines and down I.T. Band crunching declines, and climb higher and higher on the Cascade Lakes Highway. The excitement they stepped off with at Silver Lakes out past LaPine is replaced by fear as they cross over the base of Mount Bachelor and head toward the final miles into Bend. The quest for new personal bests is replaced by the quest for survival.

CLR 2009 video contest

My team is having our first meeting for the 2010 Cascade Lakes Relay this week. I'm excited to get together with everyone and excited that we are going again. This week CLR announced the winners of this year's video contest (I'm hoping we'll have our own entry next year). This is the second place winner, from the team Out Chasing Booty. Watching all the entries has me totally jazzed to do it, again. And I needed a little jazzing about right now - the 9-10 mile walks sometimes get boring when I'm going it alone.




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choices

I will admit I reached overload this past week. A couple of things had situations come up which necessitated additional attention. And time. Time I didn't have and didn't allow for. Nothing major or serious. But I found myself only being able to deal with things from most critical to least and in order of deadlines - triage. I hate it when things get that busy.

Choices. I made choices.

And I made another choice today to take the next Wayward Writers online workshop-course with Ariel Gore. It will begin a month after the first meeting of the 2010 Cascade Lakes Relay team, which is a month before the first training meeting of the MissFit Dragons which will be two to three days a week. I'm captain of the relay team and tiller for the dragon boat team - I'll be there. And I'll still be writing.

Cascade Lakes Relay: leg 33

I made this video of leg 33 of the Cascade Lakes Relay two weeks prior to the event. I went over to central Oregon to scope out part of the route in addition to doing the 10k of the Smith Rock Sunrise Classic. This was the leg I specifically trained for. I made this video so that I would know what the -1372 elevation change over 6 miles pretty constantly downhill really looked like.

Imagine this same stretch of the road with no cloud cover. The temperature was 20 degrees higher, the sun beating down on walkers and runners alike, while the baked pavement radiated the heat back up through shoes. And no rain.



Looking at the video now, it seems way different than how it was on August 1st. The road was much wider when I was a walker on the edge. The turns seemed bigger and more intense. Interesting to have the whole scope change with the change in, literally, vehicle: inside a car versus in shoes on the side. And the rain would have been welcome! It did cloud over the last couple miles of the relay, but the base temperature was still mid-90s.

The relay was an amazing experience and I can't wait to do it again next year. We're already planning.

The music is from Passages, by Philip Glass and Ravi Shankar.

[note for those who may be wondering, "what's up with the little bouncing buddha thingy?": I've made periodic short videos for one of my blogs, Dashboard Buddha Films, of travel in and around the city. This video is posted there, too.]

relay: race results

Here are the results for the walking teams for the Cascade Lakes Relay this last weekend. I think we made a fine showing; we are mostly rookies in this activity. We did great!!

WALKING TEAM - START FROM SILVER LAKE

1 Rumpled Old Men Junction City 26:44:58 Mixed Open
2 Road Rivals Oregon City 27:38:28 Womens Open
3 Forever Young Pendleton 27:38:29 Mixed Masters
4 WeBe Walkabout.. Eugene 29:01:57 Womens Masters
5 WPI Rock-its Tigard 29:43:47 Womens Open
6 Sole Sisters* Aloha 29:52:48 Womens Open
7 huffin puffin Portland 30:05:44 Womens Open
8 Vintage Whine Walkers Portland 31:28:01 Womens Masters
9 MissFit WiseWalkers Portland 33:29:57 Womens Open

relay: photos

Photographs from various team members...not necessarily in the exact order in which they happened...from the MissFit WiseWalkers inaugural participation in the Cascade Lakes Relay event, from Silver Lakes, OR to Bend, Or - a total of 132.4 miles route.

along an early morning leg on 8/1/09

Gwen is "feeling the glory - finally"... we all had this moment at some point
7/31/09

exchange point #18, waiting for Cheri
there had been a communication mix-up just prior to this
van#2 rushed to the point, only to wait another two hours or so
(walkers from both vans in the photo)
...it happens!...
7/31/09


van #1: "runners on the road" sign by Dot,
new slogan inspired by a relay support staff
who caught up with them early in the morning on 8/1/09 and told them
"congratulations! you're doing great.
last year's last place team didn't get here until 2pm."
hence our slogan, written in window crayons above the sign:
"Faster than last year's last place team"
... we may be DAL, but we're not the slowest!...


the handoff at exchange #18
Cheri was 30 minutes or so ahead of the next
walker; they are members of a race walking club
and they passed us up a couple hours later despite
having started 1 1/2 hours after us
...and we were fine with that...
nice women and it was nice to have the company
on the late night routes, especially!
7/31/09


this is me coming in at 3:16 AM on 8/1/09
at exchange # 24
the end of a 6.6 mile walk on the
Cascade Lakes highway
in the dark
through the Deschutes National Forest
and I'd been up since 5:15 AM on 7/31/09
with only a 15 minute nap
...love the headlamp halo effect from being in motion...


G bringing it on home for the final leg for van #1
...still six legs to go for van #2, but this group
gets to go back to the house and shower
...oh wait, there was the clogged bathtub incident
8/1/09


a gorgeous sunset
complete with a phenomenal thunderstorm
a nice photo that barely shows
the beauty

post-relay

What a fantastic day, today!

I woke without a sore knee, thanks to the awesome and talented Betsy Mitchell, DC, despite my record time going 1372 feet in six miles downhill yesterday. I have been going to her for years; but she has been especially supportive and helpful as I increase my physical activity and through things like aching knees, twisted back muscles during dragon boats, strained tendons during whitewater rafting, DOMS (now that was a "great" one: Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, tending to show up in people as they age.... great), and she has been phenomenal as I've been training for this relay. She put kinesio tape on my tend-to-ache-knee the day before I went to Bend and gave me a new set to apply before my feat yesterday. And, voila, I awoke with not only a non-aching knee, but a knee that felt great.

My training for the event, with specific focus two to three days a week on the big downhill part, really paid off and the preparation and prevention steps helped, too. A year ago I went on a round trip 6.5 or 7 mile hike with a friend and I halfway back I thought there was a chance I would not be able to make it down to the car, my knees both hurt and the more sensitive one was throbbing and aching. (You know, once you're up there on a hike in the forest, you have to get back down - you can't park your behind and tell your buddy to just swing the car around.)

My back was sore this morning; couldn't quite stand up straight when I got out of bed. Excuse me, couldn't quite stand up straight when I rolled out of my sleeping bag on a 1" self-inflating camping pad this morning. Oh, that might of been part of the problem - I was too tired to inflate my air mattress last night, which would have given my pushed-to-its-max body a little more cush to sleep on. A shower helped and I straightened right up and the back pain eventually went away.

But my hips- or my hip sockets? Something in that area needs attention. Which is why I am grateful I have an appointment with the chiropractor tomorrow morning. Yay for me.

In another side of things - we are going to do the Cascade Lakes Relay again next year. On the ride home in the RV, we did a little strategizing and planning - which I will continue with. I will be the team captain, again, next year (like the sound of that? me!?! team captain!) and I'm getting feedback from the participants on their "kudos" and "oops." Next year will be even better.

And I have already heard back from one of this year's participants that she wants to be on our team, again. Yay!

Then tonight I had a peer editing & potluck dinner with the editor, publisher, and a few of the other authors for Alltopia, the zine which is publishing one of my creative non-fiction pieces in their fall issue. That was really nice and helpful.

The zine release and reading will be on August 23rd at 6:00 pm, at Hipbone Studio. More details to come after I get the full information from the editor.

Now I'm really tired and need to go to bed. And I have a story due today. Sleep? Write? Sleepzzzzz.

And did I tell you that my team did great! As in Tony the Tiger, grrrreaaaaaat!

Relay: results

The MissFit WiseWalkers finished the Cascade Lakes Relay at 6:30 pm - 33.5 hours!! Our team average was 3.95 mph!! We all beat our personal bests.

Relay: day 2 update

We are at the middle of leg #3 of the final van #2 group. The amazing Nikki Becker maintained just a hair over 15 min miles on her 4 miles uphill leg - most of that in the initial 1.5 miles; amazing timing. We're all doing great times and having a blast. It's hot - tho less than yesterday.

We are doing great!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Ahh, oww, zzz

4:34 AM. In Bend. Ice pack on knee. Feet happily sore. Exhausted in a wow-look-what-I-and-we accomplished way. Sleep should come easily. Up at 8:30 to shower, grab coffee and breakfast, and head to Devil's Lake on Mt Bachelor to our final exchange and the last six legs.

I will only have one: six miles steadily down for 1372 feet, third leg from the end.

Goodnightzzzzz
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Relay: day 2 update

Van #2 finished our six legs 21 minutes ahead of our estimated scheduled time : I came in at 3:16 AM and handed the bracelet-baton off to van #1.

Now back to the house in Bend for about 4 hours sleep and a shower!

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Relay: day 2

It's 12:15 AM and we are on the next to last of this section of legs. I recently completed my first leg of the relay: 3.3 miles in 52 minutes! We have made up some time (two other teammates picked up time a couple legs ago) - so we are back on track for a 3:30 AM exchange with our #1 van.

Go, MissFit WiseWalkers at the Cascade Lakes Relay!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Relay: 9:45 pm

We are now the active van with our 3rd walker on the road. We are keeping to our estimated time and we rock!!

I have the next leg. It's 3.3 miles, probably 72 degrees, and dark. Then I will have another leg which starts about 1:30 AM.

We are having a great time, the scenery is beautiful, and the people are great.

We will become "inactive" around 4AM.

This is bliss and I can't wait to get my feet on the road!

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