With my family/pacers Cindy and Tristan about mile 51 during Umstead 100 in 2009. I am still considering firing them both because in retrospect their pacing might have been a bit (VERY!) questionable. Of course I had very low expectations for Tristan who has been fired multiple times, but my sister I was shocked at her encouragement to "walk" much of miles 50-75 because she wanted to go slower...and she is the "fast" sister. Maybe I need to whine to my parents about this. As for Tristan, he is back to being fired (except as my chauffer). One of these times his firing has got to stick!
With Cindy, Tristan and Imelda at JFK50 miler in 2007...so far Imelda is my only crew/pacer who gets an "A" for effort and implementation. Based on this maybe my problem is related to my family and perhaps I need to upgrade and improve my family. I consider myself the best sister and wife so clearly the problem is not with me:-) And even my sister has acknowledged I am her best sister (but then again she also suggested I am her worst sister...way to see the glass half empty sis...and that assumes our parents aren't holding out on us about additional siblings) Yesterday's trip to Ben & Jerry's as well as by the "Fractured Prune" reminded me of an amusing story from the Fractured Prune which still makes me giggle...
About a week after Umstead, my sister, Cindy stopped by to visit Tristan and I in Maryland. We met up at Fractured Prune in Rockville for some celebratory donuts (since each of us had run 25 or miles more the previous weekend).
We chatted about the race including how everyone may be using Umstead 100 as a training run for the JFK50 miler in the fall. And we all discussed our various stages of recovery. I learned that I made all involved in my 100 mile racing experience acquire a limp. Cindy had no training leading to Umstead 100 (with her longest training run back in January when she ran the Disney Half marathon), Tristan has been fighting chronic knee pain since a 10 miler injury in early January and my lame excuse is that I ran 100 miles. My sisters feet were so badly mangled she had to wear street shoes instead of military issue shoes to work on Monday and Tuesday. I sure hope they send any demerits my way!
Cindy had a few funny post race stories that cracked me up. After she paced me, she decided to just sleep in her car from about 1 a.m. until she woke up (about 8 a.m. or so was her goal). Unfortunately where her car was parked made this a bit difficult because when cars came into the parking lot headlights would shine brightly into the car. This even caused a problem during the night when she was pacing and needed to change into her sports bra. The headlight issue continued to plague her after her pacing duties were over and also would wake her on occasion throughout the night.
But she mentioned that the lights weren’t as bad as someone setting off a car alarm sometime during the night/morning. I knew Tristan had ’fessed up to setting off the car alarm while pacing me (if you press the wrong button on the Jeep, aka “Death Trappy’s” key, it doesn’t lock the door; instead it sets off the alarm), so I innocently asked if she recalled what time and suggested perhaps 5 a.m.? I think she was puzzled by my ability to predict the time almost down to the minute. I then totally squealed on Tristan and pointed out it was he who woke her up with the car alarm. She acted like it was no big deal but I bet he gets a terrible Christmas or Birthday present for this transgression.
Her second amusing story has to do with her inability to get to the ladies room after waking up after her car nap. Because I “broke” her during her pacing duties, she struggled to get out of her car in the morning when she got up. Since the bathrooms were about 200 meters away from the car, she had to make an executive decision about if she could or even wanted to make it to the real restrooms. She decided to utilize a “LaTree”. She looks around, makes sure she is alone and finds a suitable spot. Well apparently a few moments later a car comes around the bend headlamps brightly illuminating her in this compromising position. This cracked me up. Although I like to think it is payback for Cindy & Tristan’s inability to warn me about approaching runners about mile 55 in my race when I was making use of a “LaTree”.
Cindy had a few funny post race stories that cracked me up. After she paced me, she decided to just sleep in her car from about 1 a.m. until she woke up (about 8 a.m. or so was her goal). Unfortunately where her car was parked made this a bit difficult because when cars came into the parking lot headlights would shine brightly into the car. This even caused a problem during the night when she was pacing and needed to change into her sports bra. The headlight issue continued to plague her after her pacing duties were over and also would wake her on occasion throughout the night.
But she mentioned that the lights weren’t as bad as someone setting off a car alarm sometime during the night/morning. I knew Tristan had ’fessed up to setting off the car alarm while pacing me (if you press the wrong button on the Jeep, aka “Death Trappy’s” key, it doesn’t lock the door; instead it sets off the alarm), so I innocently asked if she recalled what time and suggested perhaps 5 a.m.? I think she was puzzled by my ability to predict the time almost down to the minute. I then totally squealed on Tristan and pointed out it was he who woke her up with the car alarm. She acted like it was no big deal but I bet he gets a terrible Christmas or Birthday present for this transgression.
Her second amusing story has to do with her inability to get to the ladies room after waking up after her car nap. Because I “broke” her during her pacing duties, she struggled to get out of her car in the morning when she got up. Since the bathrooms were about 200 meters away from the car, she had to make an executive decision about if she could or even wanted to make it to the real restrooms. She decided to utilize a “LaTree”. She looks around, makes sure she is alone and finds a suitable spot. Well apparently a few moments later a car comes around the bend headlamps brightly illuminating her in this compromising position. This cracked me up. Although I like to think it is payback for Cindy & Tristan’s inability to warn me about approaching runners about mile 55 in my race when I was making use of a “LaTree”.
This just proves karma can, should and does bite folks in the tuckus!
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