Colchester Half Race Report 2024

This is going to be a different kind of race report. I could write (again) about how the Colchester half marathon is one of my favorite races. I could remind readers (again) that this is a hilly race in late February in Connecticut, which means the weather is likely to be dodgy. I could mention (again) the amazing, hilarious, brilliant race director, who is somehow everywhere on the course and who promises a refund if you don’t get your money’s worth. I could note (again) that the first time I ran this race, back in 2014, it was a massive breakthrough for me with a nice PR, but more importantly, an experience of flow state and joy in racing that has been a guiding star ever since.

Rick Konon, race director extraordinaire

Instead, I want to talk about layers and impressions. Layers are what I’m calling it when you run the same race over and over again. If you don’t care about the time on the clock, layers can be just stories. I’ve run the Manchester Road Race 14 years in a row. I remember re-pinning Aidan’s bib on the big hill, running in a leprechaun costume, running with my dad, running the virtual race, running fast, running in the cold, running with Rose. Each year adds a new layer, a new story, and all stories are good. The pile of stories is so high that I can no longer re-tell them all each year. They threaten to teeter over on top of me, but I love each one so much. Each memory is like a treasure, a Christmas ornament to be appreciated each year before we hang it on the tree, which is generally what we do the day after the Manchester Road Race.

Races where I care about performance are not like that. I’ve now run the Colchester half six times. I’ve run both one of my most joyful and one of my most miserable half marathons at this race. The layers here are more complex. I share these thoughts because I can’t believe I am the only one wrestling with them. Please do not expect a tidy bow at the end.

Some impressions then, or layers, from Colchester 2024, the good and the bad.

I found some joy at the start!

I told ChrisNewCoach that my main goal for the race was to “find joy” on the course. I was chasing a feeling. I did not find joy. Life is heavy right now and at best, it was a little lighter for a couple of hours.

I ran 1:58:09 about 20 seconds faster than last year. At first, I was really happy because I executed well, balancing my effort across the course. Later I was quite sad because I am working hard at my running and I’d like to see more than a 20 second improvement in time. This “holding steady” result brings up a lot of existential questions. Is faster running still possible? Is something about the hypoparathyroidism slowing me down? Am I just getting old? I don’t know the answer to those questions.

When I ran Colchester in 2014, I imagined myself to be Kara Goucher. I knew she had a big brown ponytail, she had been to the Olympics, and she used her sunglasses as a shield from spectators. I considered her pretty close to perfect and I could manage the ponytail and the sunglasses thing. Ten years later, I know a lot more about Kara. Her experience with running has been far from perfect. She is so much more complicated than I understood in 2014 and she knows better than most that not every run is filled with joy. Kara’s still managing to run even with runner’s dystonia. Would I do that? I would probably try. Because running, racing, life – it’s about doing the best you can with the cards you currently hold. Sometimes it’s hard to resist cursing those cards, but that is not in any way productive.

In 2021, I ran Colchester full of rage about the pandemic. On one long descent, my anger focused on Donald Trump’s poor management of the crisis. When I got to that stretch of road this year, I thought of him again. Layers.  But then I thought, I do NOT want Donald Trump in my head during this race. Who is the anti-Trump to drive him out? I came up with our new pastor, Will Tanner. Will is kind and smart and compassionate and funny and inspirational. He’s also complicated, a real person with a complicated life. I chose Pastor Will over President Trump. When I run that stretch of road next year, I imagine they will both be there, but I am proud to have consciously constructed this new layer.

I finished the race, including the last two miles, which are mostly uphill. I had not looked at my watch since the first mile, but I have a good sense of pace and I wasn’t surprised by the 1:58 and change on the clock and at first, I was really happy about it! More than the time, I was happy with *how* I raced. Later, I let the disappointment creep in, which is a bummer.

As I made my way down to the school for the post-race “carb re-load,” I saw two men leaving. The younger man had his hand on the older man’s shoulder. The young man’s shirt said “Blind” and the older man’s shirt said “Guide”. You don’t see a lot of Achilles athletes at Colchester. I’ve wanted to run for Achilles International for a long time, but I’ve always said I would wait until I was no longer focused on my own performance. I’m not ready to give up on my own performance, but I can’t help but feel like God is sending me a message here.

Back in the school, I got changed and found my friends. We engaged in serious carb re-loading. It’s wonderful! The post-race feast at Colchester is amazing! Friends and food. This layer is surely the most important one.

 

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Run for Refugees 2024 Race Report

Kara Goucher says running will break your heart. If you love a race hard enough and run it often enough, that’s going to happen. That’s what happened to me at the 2024 edition of the IRIS 5K in New Haven. But with some time to reflect, I’m feeling better about it.

Short version: I ran about 30 seconds slower than I wanted to, but I still had a lot of fun and I’m moving on.

For the long version, read on:

I’ve written before about why I love this race. It’s a fundraiser for IRIS [Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services https://irisct.org/] an organization that works on refugee re-settlement. Their model of working with local groups has been so successful that it’s been copied at the national level in a program called Welcome Corps. IRIS makes a real difference in the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the world. They also put on a great race. It’s the most diverse starting line you’ll find and this year the international post-race feast was back! In the past, I’ve always met or exceeded my performance expectations. Not this year. Womp, womp.

Back on December 9th, 2023, I ran the Niantic Jingle Bell 5K in 24:32. That was a fun race too! Lots of holiday-themed costumes. A beautiful beach venue. A mostly flat course, awesome family support, and a delicious post-race brunch. Also, a post-surgery PR, beating my 5K time from March by ten seconds. I was dealing with some niggles leading into that race so training had been a lot less focused than I had hoped. I had a decent result anyway and we had a blast at the race.

In the 8 weeks or so since the Jingle Bell 5K, I’d been able to put together a string of 50 mile weeks, albeit with a quick interruption for a stomach bug and a couple days off for an adductor issue. I’d also been able to do some real 5K training. ChrisNewCoach thought I should be able to run pretty close to 24 minutes flat (7:40 pace) at IRIS and I agreed. That’s not a PR but it would be a big milestone because that’s a lot closer to a pre-surgery 5K time for me. Spoiler alert: Final finishing time, 24:35. What happened?

There’s a whole lot of life going on right now. Mervus couldn’t come to the race because he needed to be up in Holyoke with his parents. Despite the life-craziness, Rose and I had an excellent weekend, going out Friday night to see Frozen in honor of her birthday. Saturday was pretty relaxed. She mostly did homework and I did quiet stuff around the house. We got to bed early to be ready for race morning.

This was my first race in my new singlet from the Organization for Autism Research. OAR is the group I am fundraising for for the London Marathon. It’s an amazing organization that provides great resources for autistic people and their families. Also, I love the singlet – gorgeous! I had never planned on fundraising with my running, but this is an organization I really want to support.

Here’s the link if you want to make a donation!

https://support.researchautism.org/2024London/sarahwiliarty?tab=MyPage

Race morning prep went really smoothly. We arrived just before 8:30am. I got bib number 9, which was very cool! We had time to take some pictures. Rose won a purple pom pom for cheering. We found Chewie, got our stuff settled, Rose wished me good luck and Chewie and I set off for our warm up. Chewie listened to my various woes. Warming up for Refugees is starting to be a therapy session with her.

The shakeout run the day before had gone well and the warm up felt pretty good too. It was a little chillier than I had expected. We went and lined up and I counted that I was about 8 rows back. I have never managed to line up close enough to the front for this race and I was determined to do so this time. ChrisNewCoach had told me “Don’t worry about what anyone else thinks about where you line up” and that was great advice. Sometimes I am too shy to go near the front. Even in row 8, there was a woman next to me in a parka, and a teenager pinning his bib on with the make-your-own-I-heart-IRIS-pins they had at registration. For a lot of people, this is their first road race and I genuinely don’t care that they don’t understand that walkers should go near the back. I just want them to have fun and come back and do another race. Especially if I can figure out where to stand so that I don’t have to run around them.

The race always starts with some speeches from IRIS about what the organization does. Chris George, the outgoing Executive Director of IRIS, spoke. The incoming Executive Director of IRIS spoke. The Yale Gospel Choir sang “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” The mayor of New Haven (who runs the race) talked about how someone had put down hateful flyers on the course but they were already picked up. Because this race is about being welcoming and kind. That’s what I love about it.

Then Rosa DeLauro got up to speak. Rosa is our US House Rep and I love her. She’s been in office forever, an old-time progressive. Surely one of the longest serving women in the House ever. She’s apparently 80 years old but you’d never know it. She dyes her hair with a purple streak all the time, not just for the IRIS race. And she takes time for photo opps with young constituents.

But, apparently she’s not in favor of a ceasefire in Gaza because when she took to the microphone, protestors started chanting at her about her position on the conflict in the Middle East. That went on for a bit before the race organizers put a stop to it and got ready to fire the gun. Rose was with a friend, who sent me a text reassuring me that she was managing it all just fine. It was a really tense moment. Whatever your feelings on the situation in the Middle East, it was not the ideal way to start a 5K and I suppose that was the point. Between the politicians and the protestors, the gun went off at 10:15 after we’d been standing there waiting for 20 minutes.

Maybe it was standing in the cold. Maybe it was the distraction and sadness of the protest. Maybe it was family life stress. Maybe it’s that I haven’t raced a lot of 5Ks lately. Maybe maybe maybe. Maybe I just plain didn’t run fast enough. My legs just didn’t want to go. I felt like I was running through Jello. At about half a mile into the race, I looked at my watch and it said 9:30 pace. 9:30?? That’s a warm-up pace for me!

I don’t think I was actually running 9:30, but I was definitely running quite a lot slower than the 7:40 pace I was shooting for. Someone was calling splits at the first mile marker and I heard 8:24 as I passed. A few thoughts flew through my head:

8:24 is much too slow.

That will be gun time. I’m a little faster than that.
Yeah, but not a lot faster. You’re still slower than 8 minute pace.

This is when you think about giving up. Because you’re wildly off your goal.

But this is also when you don’t give up. Because you didn’t come here to jog. You can still have two good miles and that’s a solid workout. You’ve had a result you’re happy with at this race even with a slow first mile. And you don’t give up.

I ran by where Mervus and Rose usually stand. Of course they weren’t there, but it was good to think about them. Then I remembered what ChrisNewCoach had given me for words for the race. You. Deserve. This. I hadn’t thought much about “You” during the first mile, but now I thought about “Deserve.” I deserve a good race. Deserve contains the word “serve”. IRIS is serving the refugee population. I am working to serve the autistic community. Deserve and serve. It was a big messy chant, but it kept me focused. I rounded the corner and thought, hmmm, I should be feeling quite terrible and I don’t. ChrisNewCoach thinks I can run 7:40 pace and I bet I am still slower. Maybe I can pick it up.

I rounded the corner at the bottom of the park and saw Rose with our friend. SO GOOD to see them! Just a mile to go and *now* I did feel terrible. Good! I started counting and remembered word #3: This. Just be in the moment, run hard, finish the race: This, this, this. Around the top of the park, past the yellow gate, up and over the stupid hill in the home stretch, turn the corner, run like hell. Finally, done. 5Ks suck.

Splits: 8:09, 7:47, 7:37. Final time: 24:35.

I did an in-depth private post-race analysis that pretty much boils down to: Run more 5Ks, be warmer at the start of the race, have less life stress. Noted.

I had to get Rose to her confirmation class so we scooted out of there pretty quickly, but we celebrated by going out to eat that night. Because every time you’re brave enough and healthy enough to step up to the line and race, that’s worthy of a celebration, even when the experience is complicated. Maybe especially then.

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Wineglass Marathon 2023 Race Report

Ready or not, here I come
I’m about to show you where the light comes from
Ready or not, hear I come
This is who I am, I won’t hide it
I’mma take it all over the world
To the young, to the old, every boy and girl
Ready or not, here I come
I’mma show the world where the love is
-Britt Nicole

Sometimes training cycles end up with a theme song. It’s been one hell of a year and it often felt like the dark times would never end. I’ve still got some health challenges and it’s likely that I always will. But the marathon is one of the best ways I know to let my light shine so, ready or not, here I come.

Wineglass Marathon 2023.

We left for Corning on Friday afternoon when Rose got out of school. The drive was pretty rough with a lot of very hard rain, but we arrived around 8:15, just in time for our dinner reservations at The Cellar. Downtown Corning is completely charming and I’d love to come back.

We stayed at the Econo-Lodge in Painted Post. It was not at all cheap, but it had a peppy and fun manager, another Sarah-with-an-H, who made us feel right at home.

On Saturday morning, I got up and did a short shake-out run and then we headed to the Corning Museum of Glass, where the expo is held. Every single person we encountered all weekend went above and beyond to make us feel welcome. Want to change the project you signed up to make at the museum? No problem. Would you like a cookie before bed at the Econo-Lodge? Sarah’s got you covered. Need to change the time of your dinner reservation? Of course, we can do that. It was remarkable. Friendliest marathon ever.

We kicked off our visit to the museum with glass making. This was a highlight of the weekend. So much fun. Once we’d made our projects, we hit the expo. By then we were starving so we had lunch in the museum café before touring the exhibits. Mervus and I actually put in our wedding vows that one reason we love each other is because we “take a long time at museums.” That’s true, but I also knew, I should get back to the Econo-Lodge to put my feet up before dinner so we breezed through the museum.

There is no way to do justice to this museum. It’s well worth a visit even if you aren’t running a marathon!

For dinner on Saturday night we went to Tanino’s. You could smell the garlic in the parking lot. It was packed but mostly with local families rather than runners. I had my usual pasta with tomato sauce and split some shrimp cocktail with Rose. Then back to the Econo-Lodge and off to bed.

Flat Sarah – Ready to go!

This is when things in Philadelphia started to go off the rails. Last November, instead of falling asleep, I had a panic attack. Of course that crossed my mind at Wineglass, but I was pretty sure I was going to be ok. I felt so much more prepared for this race. My body was a lot more ready to cover 26.2 miles. I had a solid calcium plan. I went into the race with more confidence than I’ve had in a long time. And in fact, I fell asleep, no problem. Thank God.

We got up bright and early for breakfast at 5am. Here’s my fueling report. My general goal was to get my calcium levels as high as might be reasonable before starting.

Night before the race:

430mg sodium [new addition to the regimen]
.5 calcitriol
1200 mg calcium [total]
400 mg magnesium

Morning of the race (5:30am):

1 cup dry oats plus Flavored PB
Banana
1200 mg calcium
Zipfizz
1000 IUI vitamin D
.5 calcitriol
400 mg magnesium
430 sodium

1000mg powdered calcium at 7am just before getting on the bus

I didn’t want to mess around with transporting a little flask of powdered calcium but for races with a longer ride to the start, I would need to figure that out. One endocrinologist told me that the effect of powdered calcium peaks about 2 hours after you take it.

7:45am: Gu
8:15am: Start
Every 30 minutes during the race: Maurten gel plus 500mg calcium chew. I am sure I skipped at least one calcium at the end, maybe two.

Back to the race report:

Ready to take the shuttle to the start

A much longer line than expected!

We all left the hotel at 6:15am, right on schedule. Mervus and Rose drove me to Bath, which got me exactly what I wanted: Their company for as long as possible. When we got to the park, runners were lined up for the bus to the starting line. This part took a little longer than I expected but I still made it to the starting area before 7:15. The tent they had set up was already full but the race had opened a second location, a big garage, where they had chairs set up so you could wait sitting down and out of the cold.

Enjoying my cute hoodie at the start

Yes, the cold! It was delightfully chilly that morning! After a summer of truly awful racing weather, I finally got a (mostly) better day. So much better than 90 degrees at the start of the Blessing or mid-70s for the start of the New Haven Road Race. Or, for that matter, fog and a hurricane dramatically compromising one swimrun race and cancelling another. It’s all relative! We had three hours of good racing weather at Wineglass.

I sat in the garage for about 10 minutes and then went outside to do my warm up. One last trip to the porta-potty and then I decided to go line up. I didn’t want *any* stress. It was so easy to do gear check that I checked my throwaway clothes and kept my cute hoodie. That delicious chill in the air was already fading as the temperature started to rise.

I lined up near the 4:05 pacer. My race plan was dead simple. Run with that guy, Pacer Paul. Certainly if he was running stupid, then I would do my own thing, but a friend who was also pacing this race reported that the pacers were all good. I met a woman on the starting line who was running her second marathon at age 60 after running her first when she was 18! That was pretty cool. We all wished each other luck, someone sang the Star Spangled Banner, and off we went!

The race starts heading northwest, but quickly turns left onto….Geneva Street! I was so excited when I discovered this. In the lightly-disguised blog pseudonyms, my daughter goes by Rose but I suspect most readers know her real name is Geneva. So cool to run on her street! We had a nice little group around Pacer Paul and we compared notes on our kids – lots of parents of twins, including Paul, whose twin sons were both pacing the half.

I had broken the race into sections based on when I would get to see Mervus and Rose. This first section was only 3 miles long. It was mostly about settling in. Figuring out how the pace group felt. Really paying attention so I could experience Geneva Street and glue it to my memory. Mission accomplished! We wound around a little bit and then came through Bath and there was my family. Hooray! Stage 1 done and I was feeling good!

My word for this section of the race was “control.” You can’t really “win” a marathon in the first 3 miles, but you sure can lose it. I was looking to run about 9:15-9:20 pace. The first three splits came in at: 9:17, 9:08, 9:08. I thought, ok Pacer Paul. That’s a little hot. A 4:05 maration is a 9:21 pace. Then he explained that he needed to have 30 seconds banked and he wanted to have them all by the halfway point. Ok. That might not be my strategy, but it’s not a crazy strategy and I liked the advantage of being with a pace group.

My word for the second section was “rhythm.” I wanted to spend miles 3-13 with my brain turned off, just feeling the pace of the race. Splits here were: 9:13, 9:09, 9:15, 9:09, 9:18, 9:10, 9:15, 9:23, 9:23, 9:09. It didn’t seem like Pacer Paul was going to run the whole race at 9:08 so I decided to stay with him. It did feel like he was surging a little bit, which I didn’t like. It was also pulling me out of my good head space whenever I saw him check his watch because it made me wonder if he was worried. I didn’t like that so around mile 4 or 5, I pulled slightly ahead of the pace group. That felt much better. I didn’t feel alone but no one else was determining my pace. Every now and then I glanced back to be sure I wasn’t getting too far ahead.

This was my favorite part of the race. The course is really pretty. The leaves were starting to turn. I felt relaxed, really good, the running was easy. Around mile 9 I decided to turn on my music and that was excellent. I had made a playlist specifically for this race and I just relaxed into the music.

Cresting one of the few “hills” on the course

With a little distance from the race, I’d say miles 3-18 was the longest stretch of flow state I’ve ever experienced with the possible exception of the 2019 Boston marathon. I felt really good. I mostly heard music and my footfalls. I looked at the landscape, which was lovely. But most of it was passing over me. Many mile markers arrived before I expected them, always a wonderful surprise in the marathon. There weren’t many spectators, but I didn’t care. I was “in the zone,” running comfortably, with Pacer Paul just a bit behind me and the open road in front of me. It was fucking glorious.

We passed through the small town of Savona and then at mile 13, I spotted Mervus and Rose again! I had arranged for Mervus to send updates to ChrisNewCoach so I knew he would know I was feeling good.

Miles 14-18: 9:13, 9:17, 9:21, 9:09, 9:52. The magic had to end at some point and for me, it was mile 18. Nothing awful. It was getting warmer and I was starting to feel a little cramping coming on. I decided to take a salt pill. The calcium deficiency I am dealing with can cause horrific cramping so it’s worrisome. For my last 20 mile training run, I had gone straight to the lab for blood work as soon as I was done. Those results showed that serum calcium was fine, which gave me confidence in my calcium supplementation routine. That’s when I decided to start experimenting with salt pills. But since this has been a late-in-the-game idea, I hadn’t really practiced with them and they got stuck in their ziplock bag. While I was futzing with them, Pacer Paul sailed by me. DAMN IT.

I could have collapsed right then in discouragement but I didn’t and I’m really proud of what I did instead. I knew Pacer Paul was running about 30 seconds ahead of schedule. I had a lot of time left to catch up to him. I just needed to keep it together and run a tad faster than he was going. Splits from miles 19-22: 9:13, 9:08, 9:16, 9:18. I passed over 50 people during miles 19 and 20 and then I lost track! More than anything, chasing down Pacer Paul gave me something to do, a task to focus on. These miles were hard, but they would have been much worse without a target.

Through Painted Post, around mile 20

But then I missed a water stop. And it really was starting to warm up. When I’m running in the heat, I sometimes get a weird “exploding head” feeling, like my head is expanding in a highly unnatural way. It’s not a good feeling and I always pay attention to it. I either have to cool off or slow down. That was starting to happen. Around mile 23, I ducked into a medical tent and asked if they had ice. Ice will save your race on a hot day. They did have ice! But it was in a disposable cloth bag of some sort, not really cooling anything off. I stopped and fussed with the opening to get at the ice cubes. By the time I got the bag open, I knew I wouldn’t be catching Pacer Paul again. I dumped the ice down my bra and started running again. Mile 23: 10:32. Yuck.

The last few miles were hard. Really hard. I was very tired and I wanted to be done. I walked a few times, but each time, only for a few seconds. Each time I thought, no, get moving, start running again, even if it’s slow. Yes, I would have loved to run sub 4:05, which would be a BQ time for me as I am aging up. But much more important than hitting that BQ, I wanted to keep fighting the battle that comes at the end of every marathon. I thought about ChrisNewCoach, who has not been working with me long enough to know that I know how to hang tough at the end. I thought about the motto from High Power Running Mentor #1: This is what I came for. That horrible feeling at the end of a marathon is also the entire point of a marathon. To go to the edge and discover if you can still fight when you get there.

Mile 24: 9:26. I was still fighting. I couldn’t see Pacer Paul anymore. At this point, the course sort of zigzags around Corning. We were running around random parks with no spectators. At least there were more frequent water stops. I dumped water on myself at every single one.

Three miles to go. Two miles to go. I was counting to 100, trying to count people I was passing, just willing myself to be done. Mile 25: 10:11. It was hard.

Then someone yelled out “Just three more turns!” I remembered this race finishes with a Right on Bridge Street, Left on Market so we must be close. On the famous bridge, I walked a tiny bit but then saw the photographer and started running again. Hey, take your motivation where you can get it! Finally onto Market Street and I thought of ChrisNewCoach yelling “Go with her!” at New Haven. I didn’t even care if there was anyone to go with, I just needed to GO!

 

 

 

 

Mile 26: 9:45, last .2 at 9:02 pace. Boom!

Final time: 4:07:09.

I was SO happy to be done. I spotted Mervus and Rose who were at the finish line! I got my medal, a heat sheet, some water. I found Pacer Paul and thanked him.

Pacer Paul!

I went through the food line, got some chocolate milk and an apple, but nothing sounded that good. I really wanted to sit down. The medical folks found a seat for me and fetched my protein shake from Mervus’s backpack. They didn’t want to leave me alone but also didn’t want to supervise me so Mervus got to come into the runner area to keep an eye on me. I didn’t get into any further trouble. Eventually I texted my mom and called ChrisNewCoach on the phone. I got stretched out by the massage people. I went back through the food line and got some pizza for me and Rose.

We didn’t have any luck tracking down a place for a meal on Market Street so we collected our car – Mervus found parking ONE BLOCK from the finish line! We stopped at the Corning Museum of Glass to pick up our projects. They came out great! Then on to the Corning YMCA, which stays open so runners who have checked out of their hotel rooms to have a place to shower. I got cleaned up and we found some amazing ice cream and headed out of town.

Final Thoughts: I found so much joy at this race! I found myself again. This re-discovery had started to happen at Virginia Beach last spring but then it got shaken by the a-fib incident and strep throat in April and May. It’s been a really long road and I am not the same person or runner I was prior to surgery or frankly, prior to the pandemic. I’m not going to say “It all works out for the best in the end” because I am not sure this is the best and it certainly isn’t the end. But this race reminded me of what I can do. For that, I am grateful. Also for these guys, who mean the world to me.

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New Haven Road Race Race Report 2023

I’ve never run the New Haven Road Race 20K before, but this year it was four weeks out from my goal race, the Wineglass marathon. It’s the USATF National Champs for the 20K distance so lots of elites generally show up. It’s usually ridiculously hot and humid. This year was no exception. Training has been going well! It remains to be seen whether I am finally able to be more consistent post-surgery or whether this is one of those three month stretches without a medical crisis, but I have been feeling a lot better. Certainly getting past the afib incidents from the spring is a big deal. I also increased the amount of daily magnesium I am taking and I think that is really helping.

WARNING: Boring detour ahead. Skip the next paragraph entirely if you don’t care about calcium supplementation routines.

One of the trickiest aspects of my weird endocrine disorder is fueling for longer runs. The gland that tells my body to regulate calcium in my blood stream got damaged in surgery so I have to take oral calcium as well as activated vitamin D (calcitriol). This supplementation act is especially difficult when racing because the body uses up calcium faster than it can absorb calcium. This information is quite boring for regular people but for athletes with hypoparathyroidism, it’s critical.

Here is the supplementation routine I used for this race:
The night before the race, I took an extra .25 calcitriol and an extra 600mg calcium.

Race morning:
5:15am: ½ cup oatmeal, half an apple, cinnamon, maple syrup, Zipfizz, usual meds (600mg calcium, .5 calcitriol [.25 extra for race day], 1000 IUI vitamin D)
6:15am: 1000mg powdered calcium
7:15am: 500mg calcium chew [unwrapped prior to race, in a ziplock bag]
8:00am: 500mg calcium chew
8:25am (on the starting line): 1 Gu
4 miles: 1 Maurten plus 500mg calcium chew
8 miles: 1 Maurten plus 500mg calcium chew

After the race I had a Muscle Milk protein shake. Muscle Milk may have a lot of crap in it but it also has a really high level of calcium for an easily available protein shake. Then I had pizza and beer. Yay for pizza as a calcium delivery system! As far as I know, there is no calcium in beer. Some local brewery should get on that.

Back to the race.

I have been working with ChrisNewCoach since early July and it’s been going very well. He listens to all my medical crap, but then also says, Sarah, remember you are an athlete. Be sure to think like one. We had initially been targeting a 9 minute pace for New Haven, but a couple of strong workouts, some successful long runs – 9 minute pace started to feel on the conservative side. On the other hand, the weather was looking pretty terrible for racing. Ultimately we decided that maybe these things balanced each other out and I should aim for a 9 minute pace after all. ChrisNewCoach sent an early morning race day text (SO nice!) saying something like “It’s beautiful out right now!” He wasn’t fooling me, though I very much appreciate the positivity. It was “beautiful” for brunch at a café in a sundress, but pretty warm for a race.

I arrived about 7:15 and made my way over to the New Haven Green. The Manchester Running Company crew had a tent, so I could leave a bag there, which was super nice! I found Pippi and Badass Boomer and Badass Boomer and I warmed up together. We finished our warm up and snuck into the hotel for a quick pee in a real bathroom. I made it to the MRC pre-race picture! Then I went and lined up.

They were supposed to have some kind of markers for expected pace, but I didn’t see anything. I just looked for people who looked more or less as fast as I am and stood near them. Someone sang National anthem and then we were off!

This is my third race in New Haven this year so I am starting to recognize some parts of the city. The course for this race was sort of bow-tie shaped. I chunked it up in my mind into three parts. The first “bow,” then the long straight away, then the second “bow.”

The first mile clicked along and I saw friends cheering and running. Fun! My goal for the first chunk of the course was to run controlled and keep my mind quiet, almost blank. That apparently worked because I don’t remember much of this section of the course. It was quite warm so I dumped water on myself at every aid station. In other hot races, I’ve often been able to use ice to stay cool and that really helps, but I didn’t have anyone to give me ice here. If you’re a spectator wanting to help on a hot day: Ziplock bags full of ice are the bomb!

Somewhere just past mile 5, ChrisNewCoach found me. Yay! He had asked if I wanted him to run with me for awhile. Um, YES PLEASE! These miles flew by. We ran together on the stretch past the green. ChrisNewCoach knew a TON of people. Then we turned and ran through an industrial section that was exposed and hot. Running with him was definitely my favorite part of the race. Around mile 9, he said he had to go back to his family and told me I could finish strong.

I was pretty sure that that was true. A long race on a hot and gross day – it’s really easy to start walking. I definitely sometimes wanted to walk but not as much as I wanted to *not walk*. Some of the last four miles went through East Rock Park where the Refugee Race is. There was a nice downhill. I was extremely focused. I did a whole lot of counting. Finally the finish line came into view.

Just then ChrisNewCoach popped up again! I was pushing pretty hard but then a young girl with a blonde ponytail ran by me and he yelled out “Go with her!” I thought, oh, that’s crazy talk but then I did it! I didn’t stick with her the whole way but I did find another gear! Woot! Crossed the line in 1:55:08 on my watch. 1:55:47 gun time.

I finished like I always do, kind of hanging onto a fence of some sort. This time around, I just sat down on the ground next to the fence. Usually the medical crew doesn’t put up with nonsense like that, but instead of shooing me on my way, someone brought me a water. Then Badass Boomer came in! My voice is a lot better but not strong enough for her to hear me so a medical person went and fetched her. We watched more finishers and slowly got ourselves together and went to find friends. The post-race scene was SO fun. Lots of running chatter and hanging out with friends and then pizza and beer at the Bar bar.

Badass Boomer found a calculator that adjusts for conditions and we did some post-race analysis. I was aiming for 9 minute pace and I ran 9:11. But, adjusted for conditions, a 9 minute pace is 9:32 so I was quite a bit faster than that. A little reverse engineering says that my 9:11 adjusts to an 8:40 pace in good conditions.

I’m not one to make excuses. You run what you run. But I do want to know where I stand. I feel good about this race. The last year unfolded very differently from what I expected. I was more patient than athlete a lot of the time. Running with a chronic medical condition is complicated and I’m still figuring it out. But the athlete is coming back. That makes me smile.

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Casco Bay Swimrun Race Report – Part 2 – The Race

The next morning, I woke up at 5:30am. Not super well rested, but not exhausted. We planned to leave the AirBnB around 6:45am. Snarky Girl had brought her incredible coffee maker with her. Delicious espresso available at the push of a button! I had oatmeal with a banana and maple syrup. We expected the Casco Bay Swimrun would take us around 3 hours, maybe three and a half, but we weren’t planning to race it. We just wanted to finish – completing the swims would be enough of a triumph!

Swimrunners ready to go!

The regular ferry parking lot was full when we arrived but we found parking a block away. Swimrunners were walking quickly toward the ferry building. They took our drop bags right away so I put on the various lubricants, stuffed my stuff into a bag, and dropped it in the bin. I had a plastic bag for my paddles and other stuff but next time, I would just get a couple more carabiners and strap everything onto my belt, superhero style. We found seats on the ferry and off we went.

Now is the time to mention the fog. It was VERY foggy, total pea soup conditions. We were on the second ferry and shortly after launching, we could not see the first ferry, which couldn’t have been far in front of us. I got a little cold feeling in the pit of my stomach. We weren’t going to be able to see the islands we were swimming to. Not even close. Snarky Girl and I do not swim terribly straight even in perfect conditions. If we ended up swimming in circles, no one would be able to tell, not even us. Could we do this? Should we even try?

Luckily, the Coast Guard answered that question for us. Less than 10 minutes after we launched, one of the race directors got on the PA system. We were not sailing for Great Diamond Island, as planned. We were sailing directly to Peak’s Island, the last island on the course. The Coast Guard had pulled the plug on any open water swimming. The folks from Ödyssey Swimrun promised they were working on putting something together and they would let us know more when they figured out what it was.

My primary emotion at this news was relief. Thank God. Swimming in that fog would have been completely insane. I was so glad someone knew that. And now I wasn’t in charge of deciding anything. I relaxed and enjoyed the boat ride. We had some joking around. Eventually we got to Peak’s and walked over to the Lion’s Club. There was a lot of standing around. Every now and then a truck arrived with some gear and we all helped unload it. Every now and then the race directors gave us another announcement. They were fetching the folks off the long course and had to ferry them to Peak’s. They had half a course on Peak’s already marked. We would do a loop with two swims, no wait, one swim. The swim would be 1000 meters or maybe 500 meters. There would eventually be food and beer and they could at least offer a hot dog eating contest. We borrowed phones to text the husbands that they didn’t need to hurry. Eventually our families arrived and there was more hanging around. The race would start at 10am. No, 10:30. None of this bothered me at all. Everyone was in a good mood. As far as I could tell, all the racers were grateful to the race directors, who were clearly working hard to figure out “something.”

Happy to see our families! You should be able to see an island in the background of this photo. Note that you can’t even see all way to the edge of the field.

I was really hoping we could get in the water “a little bit” and that’s exactly what happened. Eventually they had a course together. The long course folks arrived and everyone started together. We had about a mile run, a short swim, and then a 3.5 mile or so run, for a total loop distance of 4.5 miles. Everyone could do the loop twice. We got good luck wishes from our families and walked to the start. We looked satisfyingly ridiculous. A big gang of swimrunners in different colored caps, some of us tethered together, running down the streets of Peak’s Island. Portions of the course were marked with swim caps, an ingenious idea.

Getting ready to swimrun at last!

The race directors had said to run to the beach and then run along the coast until we could see the yellow flags where we were supposed to exit the water. We had a pretty long beach run and then we spotted swimrunners heading into the ocean. And also getting out of the ocean. The weather app had said visibility was 50 feet. Now, the swim entrance and swim exit were (a little) more than 50 feet apart. But they were close enough together than many of us laughed out loud when we saw how short the swim was. I heard someone say “That’s barely worth getting wet for” and certainly that was an understandable sentiment. But still – we got to swim!

Swim portion circled in purple

Photo credit: Kent Mitchell. You can really see the fog here.

Despite having practiced transitioning from running to swimming many times, and in fact practicing it three times just the day before the race, I ran into the water and discovered that I had not engaged my pull buoy. Oops. We stopped and I got it properly settled between my legs. The first few strokes felt awkward and wrong. Something was up with my paddles. I called out to Snarky Girl to stop again. I looked the paddles but couldn’t figure out the problem so I showed them to Snarky Girl. I had them on backwards. Excellent! The shortest swim ever, but I still managed to fit in two serious goof-ups at the start!

The water was cold, really cold, and murky from all the swimrunners churning it up. It was such a ridiculously short swim that we could easily do it without getting our faces wet and I was pretty tempted to try. I got brave enough to put my face down for a few strokes and the swim was over. My watch says it lasted 3 minutes 38 seconds. Someone later said their watch measured 250 meters. I can believe that. We flopped ourselves out of the water, re-settled our gear, and started running again. We went up a fairly significant hill, wound around a neighborhood, then back down again.

After about a mile, we turned off the road and onto a single track trail. This was my favorite part of the race. For the first loop, we were completely packed in. You could only go as fast as the person in front of you. We were not itching to pass anyone and we didn’t. People were chatting and laughing. I could hear the Adorkables ahead of us and that was fun. I loved running on boards through tall grasses and along a path through a pine forest. We were all happy to be able to do *something*. At some point someone in the front of the line went the wrong way and a lot of people followed. The folks ahead of us noticed the mistake so then we were near the front of a smaller group. Eventually we came off the trail and back onto the road.

We were not pushing it. It’s HARD to run in a wetsuit, even a swimrun wetsuit! Plus our shoes were soaked and heavy. But mostly we just weren’t in any kind of hurry. Snarky Girl made some remarks about how one loop would be enough, etc etc, and I wondered if I could find the Adorkables and run with them if she decided to quit. But then the turn back to the finish was not really marked so we ran right by it and we were on the second loop before we even knew it. Snarky Girl sighed – she surely knew two loops was going to be her fate all along. We ran through town again and along the beach again but by now the crowds had thinned out dramatically.

The second swim went much better. Snarky Girl led and I was able to put my face in the water. She steered us further away from shore just to extend the swim a bit. Then – a real triumph – I figured out how to pee in the water! I hope the Adorkables are not mad that I peed in their suit. I think this is just part of the sport! We ran back up the big hill and down the other side. This time we were almost alone on the trail so it was a totally different feel. We popped back out onto the road, ready to pick our favorite beachside mansions where we imagined staying for next year’s race. Both of us picked up the pace a bit in the last mile and we passed a couple of teams, but that was really not the point at this event. Now the turn into the finishing area was marked and we ran across the grass and under the arch. Yay! We got some great pictures. It was a super fun day, though very different from expected.

We got some beer and some burgers. We got showered off a bit. We said hi to the other women from Miller’s Pond. Time to pack it up – the Wiliarty clan stopped in one more time at Standard Baking Co for some Fika for the road.

Post-race burgers – Yum!

It was definitely odd to have such a different race experience than expected. If the race had gone off as planned, the swimming would have been a major challenge for us. I like to think we could have finished. I give us maybe 75/25 odds in our favor. We would have been REALLY tired. Instead, we felt pretty good. We had a long slow run through a beautiful place and it was certainly an adventure. And, Team Mermatron snagged the last spot for Swimrun Cape Cod on Sept 16th. So, we’re giving it another go.

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Casco Bay Swimrun Race Report 2023 – Part 1 – Pre-Race

The idea:

It all started with a text from Snarky Girl a few years ago.

“Hey – we are in a park north of Berlin and people are running around with swim paddles! They look crazy. What do you think is going on?”

No idea, but it stuck in my mind. Time passed. I had surgery to have my thyroid out. I needed some kind of new adventure and started googling. Somehow I came across the Löw Tide Böyz podcast and the Ödyssey Swimrun website. Those people in the park had surely been swimrunning! Swimrun is a relatively new sport where teams of two run and swim together, usually through a beautiful natural landscape. A little more googling revealed a race in Portland, Maine, less than a four hour drive. Of course, we should do this! For more on swimrun, see this post.

The decision to do the race was easy. Choosing a team name took longer. Middletown Mermaids? Middlesexy Mermaids? Eventually we hit upon Team Mermatron. Rose let us know that the Mermatron is an actual creature. She’s a female siren mermaid dragon, who fights the Power Rangers. Perfect! That’s us in a nutshell. We registered for the Casco Bay short course, about 9 miles of running and 2 miles of swimming.

 

 

Training:

Swimrun training commenced as soon as I finished the Virginia Beach half marathon last March. At first “swimrun training” just meant “more swimming.” Snarky Girl and I could certainly handle 9 miles of running. We swim about once a week, but post-pandemic swimming workouts had topped out around 1200-1500 meters. We spent April getting used to being back in the pool on a regular basis and swimming longer distances.

We had essentially zero open water swimming experience, but that was about to change. Our “maiden voyage” was May 6th. We headed to Miller’s Pond, a beautiful state park that is only a few miles from where we live. Snarky Girl had a triathlon wetsuit. I had Mervus’s old sailing wetsuit. From high school. I could barely get it on and once in it, I could barely walk. The water was really cold. We swam about 150 meters across a little cove and we couldn’t put our faces in the water. At that moment, we both had serious doubts about whether we could complete this event at all!

But then we did an important thing. We ran back to where we had started swimming and tried again. The same 150 meters. The second time felt a lot more manageable. We put our faces in the water. We got across the cove a lot quicker. That 150 meters still felt really far, but maybe we could do this after all.

I have been learning about swimrun online. I know it’s popular to hate on Facebook but for niche interests, it’s ideal. I started posting questions in a swimrun Facebook group and suddenly another team, Team Adorkable, offered to lend us a set of swimrun wetsuits! Getting out of the sailing wetsuit and into the swimrun wetsuit was a major breakthrough. I could get the suit on! I could walk and even run! Things looked a lot more promising with those suits! THANK YOU Team Adorkable!

Swimrun training makes really cool maps!

From early May to mid-June, we kept at it. The next time out, we swam to Lizard Rock, much further than across the cove! We made friends in the middle of Miller’s Pond – two women who ended up signing up for Casco Bay! I swam almost all the way across Cedar Lake! A few days later, Snarky Girl joined me and we made it across the whole lake! It got warmer and we got braver and soon we were doing actual swimrun training sessions, running on the trails and swimming hither and yon across Miller’s Pond. Amazing.

Open water swimming has been…..Eye opening? Transformative? Maybe even life changing? I’ve heard that pool swimming is to open water swimming what treadmill running is to running outside. Now I understand that. You can go anywhere in the water! Seeing the edge of a pond from the middle of the pond is a completely different perspective. It’s like a part of the world that used to have a barrier around it suddenly opens up. I can imagine that people who are afraid to go in the woods and then get over that fear might have a similar feeling. At some point, we got good enough at open water swimming that it started to feel like we could just keep going. It feels like walking.

We did some swimrun practice so we could work on transitioning from running to swimming and back again. Mervus got me a very cool very big swimrun-specific pull buoy for Mother’s Day. We ordered our other required gear – a safety whistle and an Israeli bandage. Yikes.

A couple of weeks before the race, I took off for 10 days in Iceland. Interesting taper strategy. Luckily, Snarky Girl is highly tolerant. The one thing we didn’t find time for was going to Long Island Sound and swimming in the ocean.

The trip:

For the trip to Portland, we took along the husbands and the daughters. The sons both stayed home to work. We left in the early afternoon on Friday and arrived in Portland around dinner time. The AirBnb was great and we quickly headed downtown for dinner at the Green Elephant. Delicious!

The next day we had a decent agenda of swimrun activities planned. We started with a brunch with the Löw Tide Böyz at the Standard Baking Company. Swimrun originated in Sweden and swimrunners enjoy the Swedish tradition of Fika. There’s no English word for Fika (ALAS!) but it seems to mean coffee and treats with friends. Gotta love an event that includes a PASTRY phase! The Löw Tide Böyz is my favorite swimrun podcast – I am pretty sure they are the only swimrun podcast. I have worked my way through a decent percentage of the back catalog in preparation for this event and I was excited to meet Chipper and Chris in person. Rose was excited too! She got their autographs! We all enjoyed the Fika. Standard Baking Company is not to be missed!

Meeting the Low Tide Boyz!

Standard Baking Company

After Fika, we wandered around Portland a bit and then headed to East End Beach for a swimrun clinic. We got to meet the Adorkables in person! This was our chance to get in the water and see how cold it was. Answer: COLD. But not as cold as that very first swim at Miller’s Pond. We got past the temperature and put our faces in the water. Super grateful to Team Envol for organizing this event. I am not sure we would have been brave enough to go in on our own and it really helped to know what to expect.

Meeting the Adorkables!

Team BABS! Our friends from Miller’s Pond!

After the swimrun clinic, we headed to packet pick-up. Apparently so did every other swimrunner because the line was crazy. We waited a *very* long time, but it gave us a chance to scope people out and chat with the swimrunners in line near us. It was a mix of first-timers like us and folks with more experience. Even the long line didn’t make people grouchy. Rose had a chance to get her picture taken with the Adorkables so that was worth the wait!

Eventually we got our timing chip and collapsible cup and headed to the Great Lost Bear brewery for late afternoon lunch/dinner. The restaurant was really fun – you could easily do a week-long eating tour of Portland. Eventually we went back to the AirBnB, where we played a game, watched a nature show and ate a bunch of delicious bread. I got all my gear together, including a drop bag with a change of clothes. We went to bed.

I went to bed, but not to sleep. This race scared me. Not the running, which would be fine. But the ocean swimming, which would be cold and pretty dang long. For some reason, I like challenging myself. But it’s one thing to challenge a mostly healthy body to a running race. After all, you can always stop and walk. It’s quite another to challenge a body with a known calcium deficiency to a race involving swimming. What if something about the temperature swings or the length of the event caused some kind of severe calcium drop and I started cramping while in the water? That has never happened. I planned to supplement with calcium before the race. I have switched to a liquid calcium and I had little waterproof bottles ready to go. But still. What if this time in pushing to find some kind of edge, I pushed too far? How much of this anxiety was normal pre-race jitters and how much was genuine worry and how much of the genuine worry was justified? No way to know.

I turned on my favorite “Sleepcast” meditation on the Headspace app, “Cat Marina 2”. But the description of boats and cats just reminded me of the pre-race panic attack I experienced in Philadelphia. I tried “Cozy Farmhouse” but that didn’t work either. Finally “After Carnival” did the trick. I drifted off to a lovely voice describing a town getting quiet after carnival festivities. I got less sleep than would have been ideal but a whole lot more than I got before Philly.

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Health Update May 2023

After a few months of peace and quiet on the health front, the past few weeks have been difficult again. Not nearly as challenging as last summer and fall, thank God. But it’s been mentally difficult to wonder if all I will ever get is 10-12 weeks of stability.

In my last update, I reported that I had been able to drop another calcitriol pill. YAY! All was well until I got sick. On Monday April 23rd, I tested positive for strep throat. My endocrinologist assured me that antibiotics were fine to take and that an illness such as strep was not severe enough to cause issues with calcium. WRONG. I don’t know if it was the antibiotics or the strep, but my calcium levels noticeably dropped. When I returned to swimming on Friday, even pushing off the wall caused calf cramps. Saturday’s run set off bizarre calf twitching. Things settled down by Sunday. The first round of antibiotics was not enough to kick the strep so I started round two on May 4th.

By the weekend I was feeling mostly better. I had planned to run a 10K on May 7th and I decided to go ahead with that. Probably a mistake. It was a warm day and an hour or so after the race, I went into atrial fibrillation. I have historically had several incidents of afib, 2010-2013 and once in 2016, but then no more until the Philadelphia marathon last fall. I ran Philly under extraordinarily stressful conditions and went into afib about 12 hours after the race. I had very much hoped Philly would be a one-off event, but no such luck.

This time around, I came out of the afib 24 hours after onset, on Monday morning. I went to Quest for a calcium check Monday at lunch. Results came back Tuesday morning, calcium a tad lower than it had been, but still well within the range we are aiming for. So – just to be clear – The first time I could go for blood work was 24 hours after the onset of afib with results 24 hours after that. 48 hours between the onset of afib and information about the thing potentially causing the afib. This is why an at-home calcium meter would be SO helpful. There are companies trying to develop this instrument, but I am not that hopeful that it will be available any time soon, possibly not in my lifetime. Remember, only 80,000 cases of hypopara in the United States, so not that many customers. This is so clearly a case of the market not providing what people need that I am tempted to use it as an example when teaching political economy. After this incident of afib, I requested my endocrinologist put in standing orders for stat blood work at the hospital lab, which has longer hours than Quest. Hopefully next time around I can get information faster.

In other news, I had a long-awaited appointment with Dr. Michael Mannstadt at Mass General in Boston this week. Dr Mannstadt is one of the world experts in hypoparathyroidism. I’ll just summarize some takeaways from that appointment:

Many doctors say “I am so sorry” when they find out about the hypoparathyroidism. Dr. Manndstadt is the first medical practitioner to directly inquire about my mental health in the wake of the diagnosis. He is one of the kindest doctors I have ever met.

I am approaching the one year anniversary of the surgery. That will be a difficult day, not just because anniversaries are hard, but because the one year point is when hypopara officially gets declared permanent. Kevin is very good at reminding me that this is partly because humans check how things are going at the one year point. Bodies do not really care about time. But statistically speaking, the chances of full recovery at this point are very low, which Dr. Mannstadt confirmed, as expected. However, because I have been able to come off the calcitriol, he said there is “a small amount of hope.” I said I would take that. It’s a tricky balancing act between maintaining hope and working towards acceptance.

In obscure testing news, Dr. Mannstadt wants me to start checking albumin levels whenever I check calcium.

In other testing news, he is helping me think differently about the upcoming 24 hour urine test. This test checks how much calcium your body is excreting through your urine. I could take loads of calcium and probably feel physically much better. But if you take too much calcium without functioning parathyroids, it all exits the body through the kidneys, leading to kidney stones. The 24 urine test will help us assess the risk to my kidneys. Frankly, I have been avoiding this test because I do not want any additional bad news. Also, my endocrinologist recommended waiting until we see how much calcitriol I can drop. But Dr. Mannstadt said to think instead of the 24 hour urine test as a way of gathering information. If that test comes out okay, I have more wiggle room to take more calcium and perhaps feel better. This is a very helpful psychological shift. Will you eventually be getting pictures of pee collection? Almost certainly.

The other thing Dr. Manndstadt said that is really sticking with me is “My other athletes with hypopara…..” He has other athletes with hypopara!! It is extremely difficult to find other people with this condition attempting to engage in competitive sports. For many hypopara patients, just going about their day is already quite taxing. Lots of people find it difficult to hold down full-time jobs, let alone engage in sports. But I know there are hypopara athletes out there. If any of you read this and I don’t know you yet, PLEASE send me a message. I am trying to find you.

This is plenty long enough already, but a quick voice update. My amazing speech pathologists at Yale recommended that I switch to a practice at UConn that specializes in vocal performance. Even though the speech pathologists at Yale were outstanding, the otolaryngologist (this is the voice doctor) was not. She was horrible. She made me feel like my voice and my desire to sing were not important, which definitely made me feel like *I* was not important, and not worthy of care. It was one of the worst medical appointments in a year marked by some truly bad medical appointments. Voice injuries are so much more psychologically difficult than I understood. NEVER make someone feel like their voice does not matter. I still get angry when I think about that appointment. Doctors supposedly take the Hippocratic Oath – first, do no harm. A lot of harm was done to me that day.

Today’s evaluation at UConn was a totally different story! Dr. LaFreniere was wonderful. He was exceptionally kind. He apologized for every unpleasant aspect of the evaluation – having a camera stuffed down your nose and into your throat to film your vocal cords is not comfortable. Best of all, he referred to me as a “vocalist.” This practice specializes in rehabilitating the injured voices of singers. He said it was extremely likely that I have recordings of some of his patients at home. He has a lot of confidence that they can help me and so do I.

In further good news, when I had this examination by scope back in July 2022, my vocal cords were not stretching at all. That’s why my voice was so monotone. At the follow-up appointment in August, there was some minimal movement. Today’s examination revealed nearly normal movement! There are still some abnormalities. A little asymmetry between the vocal cords, some potential weakness, still far too much tension in my neck muscles. Also some evidence of a bit of acid reflux, possibly impacting the vocal cords. I will start therapy with the speech pathologists at UConn as soon as they can fit me into their schedule.

So, there you have it. I’ve learned that more people than I know are reading these updates so I will keep them coming. My main takeaway for today is the same as always: Be Kind. I met two new doctors this week, which is very stressful because I never what to expect. Both Dr. Mannstadt and Dr. LaFreniere were kind, took time to explain everything, and helped me feel valued as a patient and more importantly, as a person. Kindness isn’t always free. It might cost us time and patience. But it is priceless.

 

 

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Swimrun: What and Why?

I first heard about the sport of swimrun when Snarky Girl returned from a trip to Germany, reporting that she had seen people running around in a park with swim paddles on their hands. She said they were also sometimes swimming but the whole thing was hard to parse.

Sometime later, like months later, I stumbled on something on the internet about swimrun that got me curious enough to plug it into google. The subsequent chain of events is a bit murky but at some point I started listening to the Löw Tide Böyz podcast. The hosts, Chipper and Chris, reminded me of the Two Gomers, with their down-to-earth attitude and focus on fun. I started looking into swimrun a little more and discovered the Casco Bay race in Portland, Maine. That’s only a three and a half hour drive. Mervus and I had almost gone there last all for our 25th wedding anniversary getaway. It didn’t take a lot of convincing to get Snarky Girl on board as a partner / co-conspirator.

So what exactly is swimrun? It’s sort of like triathlon except without the biking. Also, instead of just one swim and one run, you swim and then run, and then swim and then run, and, as the Löw Tide Böyz put it, just keep going until you’re done. Or, don’t stop! Swimrun originated in Sweden and traditionally you go from island to island, running across one island, swimming to the next, then running across that island, swimming to the next, etc. Unlike in triathlon, you don’t change gear. Instead you swim in your shoes and run in your wetsuit with your paddles and pull buoy strapped onto your body. Whenever I’m explaining this to someone, this is where I pause for questions:

You swim in your shoes? Yes, you do. You need shoes with good drainage.

You run in a wetsuit? Isn’t that hot? Yes, you do, and yes, I expect it is. Most people seem to wear those short-sleeved wetsuits with shorts instead of pants. They also make special swimrun wetsuits.

After those questions are out of the way, I bring up what I consider the best part of swimrun, “By the way, swimrun is traditionally a team sport and you are tethered to your partner.”

So, yes, that’s the gist of it. Snarky Girl and I will be running through the woods and fields and swimming through the ocean of the Casco Bay archipelago this coming July while tied together with some kind of rope.

Why? Because the last year has been really hard. I need something fun and vaguely silly and adventurous and badass and somewhat outrageous. An event that has no meaningful clock. I can’t think of a better person to do this craziness with than Snarky Girl because whenever something goes wrong – a lot might go wrong – we will laugh pretty hard about it. But if something goes seriously wrong, we will have each other’s backs. I’ll try to share as much of this adventure as I can. I’m already pretty in love with swimrun and we haven’t even done one yet!

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Virginia Beach Half Marathon Race Report 2023

Badass Boomer and I hatched the plan to run the Yuengling Shamrock Half Marathon last fall. She was looking for a different Boston tune-up race. I was looking for a flat spring marathon. Philadelphia confirmed that my body isn’t ready for the marathon distance yet, but luckily I could easily drop to the half at Virginia Beach. I added the 8K race on Saturday for the Dolphin Challenge. In the meantime, friends from the Sub-30 Club, my online running group, also started making plans to meet for the races in Virginia Beach. Serendipity!

Training for Virginia Beach got off to a rough start. “Recovery” from Philly had included a brief ER visit and an overnight hospital stay for atrial fibrillation, followed by Mohs surgery for basal cell carcinoma on my neck. 2022 was really quite a year. By December, I was physically and mentally exhausted. It’s really hard to keep running when you feel lousy, but it also seemed like it would be worse to stop running so I just kept going.

In early January, we changed some of the supplements I am taking and I started to feel better. My endocrinologist increased the vitamin D2 and I started taking an electrolyte drink called “Zipfizz.” I went to see the Maestro several times to get some help loosening up the right quad. Slowly, things started turn things around. Thyroid and calcium tests also started to come back better. I was able to reduce the dose of calcitriol I am taking from .75mg/day to .5mg/day. No ill effects. That is HUGE. Thank God, during January I also saw a lot of improvement in my voice. Eight months after surgery – maybe things were starting to settle down.

In February, I started racing – see reports on the Run for Refugees 5k, the Colchester Half, and the Shamrock and Roll 5K. Those races were slow times for me, but they were building on each other and it started to feel like my running had some momentum.

At the expo with Sub-30 buddies

I left for Virginia Beach on Friday morning and arrived late Friday afternoon. I met up with Butterfly and other Sub-30 friends and we headed to the expo. After grabbing our bibs and shirts, we headed to Chicho’s for a big Sub-30 meet-up. I think we had 18 people! I wish this event could have gone on longer (and maybe been quieter) because there were so many people I wanted to talk to. But many of us were racing the 8K the next day so we had to get back to the hotel for an early bed and an early start.

Fancy Socks!

Fancy Socks!

Our gang got up early on Saturday to get ready for the 8K. I was using the race as a shakeout run with a medal and a t-shirt so I wasn’t stressed. It was fun to be with a group of friends at a race. That hasn’t happened in a LONG time! I didn’t know these women well ahead of time, but they were a blast to hang out with. We were happy the rain had stopped. I ran pretty easy and then raced two guys at the end down the last 1200 meters of the boardwalk.

 

Getting to hang out with Butterfly in person was one of the best parts of the weekend!

After a quick stop at Starbucks and a change of clothes, I headed back to the beer tent. I’m not normally one for a big post-race party, but this was really fun. The bands both days were excellent and everyone was in a great mood. We hung out with some guys from Salisbury Virginia, just joking around, telling running tales. Eventually Butterfly and I headed back to the hotel. It wasn’t even noon! We grabbed bathing suits and went for a dip in the rooftop hot tub. She did some cold plunges into the pool but no way was I doing that. After our hot tub adventure, we went back to the room, got dressed, and headed out looking for lunch.

 

Happy but freezing. Theme of the weekend.

Badass Boomer had arrived from Massachusetts so at some point, I said good-bye to the Sub-30 party girls and met up with Badass. At the expo, we both bought blankets from the previous year to wrap up in before the race. Back to the hotel for a quick nap and then dinner at a nearby Italian place. I resisted fancy pasta and got my usual penne with pomodoro sauce. I did have a glass of red wine! We were back in the room before 8pm and getting ready for an early bedtime.

The day had been chilly and as much as I was trying not to, I was fretting about weather. Control the controllables is a classic runner saying and you can’t control the weather, but it has a big influence on your race. You *can* control what you wear and I was struggling to decide. I finally texted Coach Maverick for advice and just hearing from him helped me calm down. Expected weather was temperature of around 40 but with a windchill of low to mid-30s. Badass Boomer and I eventually made our wardrobe choices. Having done her online pre-race mobility routine, we did my going-to-sleep meditation on Headspace. Perfect digital resource complementarity!

Badass Boomer likes to get an early start. I had slept well and I didn’t mind the extra time to get ready. Her alarm went off at 4:45am and mine followed suit at 5:15am. We made coffee and instant oatmeal in the hotel room. Here’s my complete fueling report. For breakfast, two packets of instant oatmeal (300 calories total), a banana, coffee, and a Zipfizz. In addition to my regular meds, I added an extra calcitriol pill (.25mg) on race morning. Did that help? Who knows. It can’t hurt. I had a Tums on the starting line. During the race I had a gel and a Tums at 4 miles and at 8.5 miles. I also had a Tums at the finish because I had a serious quad cramp. I only grabbed water at the mile 4 water stop. That’s surely not ideal, but I am not great at maintaining pace while drinking and I really wanted to maintain pace. This is the best that fueling has gone since surgery. I have started taping the Tums to the gel packet so I don’t have to fuss with getting it out of a ziplock bag. That makes the process a lot smoother. I’ve also done it enough now that the emotion is going out of the process. Introducing the Tums into race day fueling meant a constant reminder of the calcium issue, the surgical misadventure, all the bad stuff that I don’t want to be thinking about mid-race. My therapist has said so many times in the last few months “This is all still so new. It’s normal to need time to adjust. It will get easier.” Frankly, I don’t really want to “adjust” to needing calcium when I race longer distances. I would prefer not to need it. But since I do need calcium mid-race, it is good to have it be just a thing that I do – like taking a gel – rather than a thing that I do that has a lot of emotional baggage along with it. That piece is getting better.

Thank you for your years of service, Banana Republic white cardigan!

As Badass Boomer and I finished getting ready to race, we poked our noses out to the balcony to check the temperature. It was less windy than expected, at least on the hotel balcony. As she put it “My nose isn’t actually hurting.” I’ll take that weather report. I opted for light weight tights, my new light weight MRC long sleeve shirt, gloves with hand warmers, and a hat. I also had an old white cardigan sweater that I wore to the start. Badass Boomer and I wrapped ourselves in our $5 blankets to get to gear check but we liked them so much, that we checked them! We were in different corrals because she is super speedy so we parted ways there. We had done our dynamic warm ups in the hotel but I did about a one minute jog before getting into the corral.

I was nervous before the race, of course, but less nervous than sometimes. Crawling my way back from surgery has meant that I am not in PR shape and it somehow feels like less is on the line. Coach Maverick has me running entirely by effort. I’m not sure I will want to do that forever, but for this season of my running, it’s perfect. Lining up for this windy race, I remembered a particularly windy long run with some quality segments. I didn’t remember “not hitting my paces because of the wind” because there hadn’t been any paces to hit. Instead, I thought of Coach Maverick’s advice in our pre-race phone call: “Give yourself a chance out there.”

Waiting in the corral, I spotted the 3:50 marathon pacer. The race didn’t have anyone pacing a 1:55 half (my goal) but a 3:50 marathon is the same pace and the courses are the same until the last half mile or so. I hadn’t planned to run with a pacer. I don’t generally trust pace groups because they can be erratic and I’m good at pacing on my own. My initial thought was, shoot, that guy is going to be hard to ignore. The corrals moved up, one by one, with the usual nervous chatter as we got closer to the start. They called our corral and off we went.

I reminded myself to be calm and stay in control. Within a few minutes, I had pulled even with the 3:50 pacer. Don’t pass him yet, I thought. Just stay here. The wind was turning out to be much less bad than expected. The race was crowded but unlike in the 8K, everyone was moving well together. Really well. Hmmm.

We ran a couple of miles like that. I thought about my “why” for racing. I thought especially about Rose, how strong she is and how much I want to set a good example for her, that we can do hard things even under challenging circumstances. I thought about staying relaxed and not working too hard this early in the race. Everything felt pretty good. I was still not just “with” the pace group but really “in” the group. It was the closest pack I’ve ever run with, but I figured maybe the other people were blocking the wind. Some people were talking – learning about the pacer’s background, a few questions about the course. Other times when I’ve been with a pace group, I found this chatter extremely irritating but on this day, it was fine. I realized my music wasn’t turned on so it was ok to have something to listen to.

I had my first gel and Tums at 4 miles. It was the easiest version of this combo I’ve done yet. I’m learning how to use the surgical tape to cover half the Tums so it doesn’t fall off, but I can get it off with my teeth. I grabbed a cup of water and slowed to get a good drink. I realized I didn’t want the pace group to pull away so I slowly worked my way back to them.

Over the next mile or so, I committed to staying with that 3:50 pacer as long as possible. I ran the Iron Horse half marathon in 2018 with the Retiree as the pacer. I was pretty sure on that day that I couldn’t say with the group for the entire race, but I stayed much longer than I had thought possible. Give yourself a chance, said Coach Maverick. We were only 4 miles into this race and it was starting to feel like work, but I know that’s ok. Not just ok – if you’re going to run fast, a half marathon should start to feel like work around then.

After that, I took it one mile at a time. For the next several miles, I thought every mile might be the last one with the group. I knew that a 1:55 half is right around an 8:45 pace. I thought I could hold that for quite a few miles, but I didn’t know how many. A lot of what I’ve learned about racing started coming back to me. Des Linden says she races out of curiosity – how fast can she go for how long? There is no way to know unless you try. Five miles down. Could I get to six?

This part of the course goes through Fort Story, a military base. The sun was out, the wind was less strong than expected, I was feeling good. I took my hat off and remembered that it is currently messing up my Aftershokz for some reason. I managed to turn my music on.

We crossed a timing mat and I thought about Mervus back home tracking me. I remembered the tracking mat at Hartford last fall. They had a clock there. I saw my time and it messed with my mind. Even the memory of that moment last fall made running harder. I thought of other races where I have slowed a lot after crossing a timing mat. It’s like, I send that info to my loved ones and then I can collapse because they *think* I am ok. Running is so mental. Then I thought – Yeah, running is mental and this slow down is also only mental. You are breathing fine. Your legs are fine. Stay with that pacer until mile 7 and you’ll have made it more than half the race. What a triumph that will be!

I’m too cheap to buy bad race photos. Especially when these murals spotted on the streets of Virginia Beach are so epic.

Mile 7 came up faster than expect, which NEVER happens! I was delighted. The thought crossed my mind  – whatever happens after this, this race is a huge success. You’ve run 7 good solid miles. Even if this turns into a tempo workout, you’ve run 7 miles at tempo, which is huge. Other people were talking but I have no idea what they were saying. We were still running really close together and every now and then someone bumped someone and apologized. I stepped on someone’s foot and apologized. But these little bumps didn’t hinder us. It was almost like we were some kind of running machine, pushing onward. I sure didn’t want to get dropped off the back of the machine. I told myself if I made it to mile 8 and had to slow down, that was ok. Still a huge triumph.

Then we got to mile 8! I realized that idea about slowing down now – that was “the deal” that your brain will offer you as a way to escape discomfort. Coach Mick and I used to talk about Howie Mandell, host of the game show “Deal or No Deal.” Howie will show up in your head mid-race and tell you that you’ve done enough. He’ll say it’s ok to back off or even to walk, be satisfied with what you’ve already done. No way, Howie. Not today.

I kept running, but an image kept flashing through my mind. Me, standing by the side of the road, unable to get my breath, having stopped, having to convince myself to start running again. Ugh. At that point I thought, take another gel. Maybe you need fuel. Don’t wait until mile 9, have it now. So I did. Another smooth consumption of Tums and gel. This is the first race where I didn’t *drop* a Tums. I don’t like having to take calcium mid-race, but I’m getting better at it.

Mile 8 seemed really long. But finally we came out of Fort Story. Somewhere in there we hit mile 9. Four miles to go. Whenever I get to the 4 mile mark, I think of Corgi Speedster and her 4 mile races in Central Park. I made an executive decision to skip water. I felt good. Water stops make me slow down. I didn’t want to lose the pace group.

Mile 9 also seemed really long. Finally we got to 10 and I allowed myself to start counting. I counted to 100 and back down for each finger. I was almost done with that when we hit mile 11.

Mile 11 is where I lost contact with the pace group at the half marathon back in 2018. I felt myself fade a little and then thought – that’s not me today. That’s me in 2018, fading at mile 11. This is a LOT of work, but I am still doing the work. That’s when I realized, I was probably going to be able to hang onto this pace. If I could stay with the pace group, I could run under 1:55. Wow.

During these hard miles, I realized I was racing smart and hard and UNAFRAID. Yes, I might blow up. It was possible that I would end up standing by the side of the road gasping for breath. But maybe, if I gave myself a chance, and hung with this pace group, I could get under 1:55. I didn’t care that my PR is more than 10 minutes faster than that. I found a huge piece of myself on that course in Virginia Beach. I remembered that Mama Tiger image from when my kids were babies. Mama Tiger is fierce and she protects her babies. But Mama Tiger also knows that she must protect herself first. Without being true to herself, she can not take care of her babies or anyone else. It’s not selfishness; it’s just reality.

That Mama Tiger is really brave, but the last 10 months of medical crap scared her. Scared her, but didn’t kill her apparently, because here she was, showing up in my head in a half marathon in Virginia Beach, ready to fight to get under 1:55. I learned in an instant it truly isn’t about the time on the clock. It’s about the ability to get the best out of yourself on a given day. Fear had robbed me of that ability for the past year, but I’ve been getting braver. I got a big notch braver at Virginia Beach.

When Coach Maverick asked me what I wanted from this race, I said I wanted to get to the edge and stay there as long as possible. “The edge” is what I call that horrible wonderful feeling when you are completely unsure about whether you can keep going. To me, this is how a race is supposed to feel. There’s so much clarity because there is only one task. That’s how I found myself about halfway through the race in Virginia Beach. My best self. She is still there. The experience of being so physically and mentally alienated from myself over the past year has been one of the most difficult things I’ve had to confront in life. But my best self is still there and I am finding her again.

Mile 11 – I knew at some point we would turn left and head back to the boardwalk. But apparently not yet. My legs were starting to feel weird. Was that calcium or just exhaustion? Just two more miles. Hang on. My counting was getting a big jagged and I had to keep starting over. Someone dropped something in front of me and I sort of leaped over it.

Mile 12 – Just one mile to go. I am going to lose the pace group soon but it’s ok. They have crept a tiny bit in front of me but I am hanging on. Then the sign – half marathoners to the left, marathoners to the right. They peel off and I head left. I remember the race with the kid with the big hair from Saturday. I have about 1200 yards to go. I try to speed up, but I’m at my max. The Neptune statue looks to be a million miles away, but I know counting four fingers worth of 100s will get me to him. I think about Badass Boomer’s tip of uncrunching the can, think about form, drive the knees, SO close! I cross the line and find a fence to hang on. Medical asks me if I am ok, the usual. My watch says 1:55:16, but chip time turns out to be 1:54:15. I am very much okay. I am finding my way back to myself.

The rest of the day was for celebrating. Badass Boomer found me at the finish line. We grabbed our gear bags and headed back to the hotel for hot showers. It was less cold than expected but still chilly. After brunch, we went back to the tent for more beer, music, and general carousing. The after party really is fun! I was singing with my broken voice at the top of my lungs – it didn’t matter that my voice is broken because no one could hear me anyway. I just felt jolts of pure joy coursing through me. It’s been a long long haul and it’s not over yet. Whatever “the end” of this looks like or “the new normal” – it’s still a big unknown. I really hope I can get back to normal singing. I really hope I can get back to faster running. But the last few weeks have felt much more like myself and that is an enormous blessing.

The 3:50 pacer!

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Health Update April 2023

It’s been a few months so I thought I would send out another one of these updates. Everything has been a lot more stable, for which I am exceedingly grateful.

I’ll start with the hypoparathyroidism, as that is clearly the most serious issue. This condition is confusing and sometimes frustrating. If you’re somehow reading about this for the first time or want a refresher course, hypoparathyroidism is an endocrine disorder in which the parathyroid glands do not operate adequately. The parathyroids control the levels of calcium in the bloodstream. A person with inadequate parathyroid function can easily end up with inadequate levels of blood calcium. That can cause muscle cramps of various severities, from annoying to life threatening.

One analogy that helps to understand this disorder is that we can think of the calcium system in your body like a banking system. The calcium in your bones and teeth is like money in the bank. The parathyroids are like the ATM card. They allow your body to access the calcium in the “bank.” With inadequate or goofed up parathyroid function, some bad stuff can happen. One likely outcome is not enough calcium in the blood stream – this is like too little cash. In order to counteract that problem, I take calcium and activated vitamin D supplements every day. But these supplements themselves can cause problems. Sometimes calcium goes into the “wrong” place in your body. The biggest risk here is kidney stones. Taking gobs of calcium would solve the problem of too little calcium in the blood stream, but it would create a significant risk of kidney stones or even things like cataracts or calcifications of the brain. Not good. People with hypoparathyroidism are engaging in a perpetual balancing act. We need to take enough calcium and activated vitamin D that we feel good, but not so much that we end up doing long-term damage to kidneys or other organs.

There’s another wrinkle to this story. Thyroid surgery is by far the most common cause of hypoparathyroidism, but most of the time, the condition is transient. Within a few weeks after surgery, in most people, the parathyroids start working again. Once you are a few weeks post-surgery, however, things get more complicated. People with hypoparathyroidism need to take calcium and activated vitamin D or we can end up with a calcium crash that lands us in the ER. But the activated vitamin D (calcitriol) *might* inhibit the parathyroids from starting to function. It’s possible that when the body is receiving enough calcium and activated vitamin D through supplements, the parathyroids kind of check out and don’t bother doing their job. Doctors and scientists disagree on this point. But, to clarify, It’s possible that the medicine I have to take in order to remain stable is also preventing my parathyroids from recovering.

Since last summer, I have been attempting to wean off of the calcitriol in an effort to promote parathyroid function. I am having some success with this project, but it’s very slow. Last August, I was taking four calcitriol pills a day (.25 mg each). I was able to reduce by one pill in October, one in January, and one in early April. My calcium levels have remained stable! This is really excellent news, but this process is painstakingly slow. I have one pill left to go and I will certainly try dropping it at some point in the next weeks and months. Please pray that this works!

Clearly this situation is complicated and I would love to report that my doctors have been great at educating me as we go along. However, that has not always been the case. I have learned a lot more from talking with other people with hypoparathyroidism on Facebook and reading scientific journal articles. I don’t want to sound too snarky here. I’ve had some excellent medical care. But there were also some significant gaps in care that ranged from annoying to dangerous. That shouldn’t happen. My advice, beyond Be Kind Always, is not just to advocate for yourself. People with chronic medical conditions can’t always manage that. Instead, find someone to help advocate for you and take this person with you to stressful medical appointments. And also, Be Kind Always.

I’m very happy to report that most of my other health concerns have faded a lot. Skin cancer turned out to be absolutely trivial compared to the other things I confronted over the past few months. The Mohs surgery was straightforward and successful. I have a very small scar on my neck and above average visits to the dermatologist in my future. Poor Geneva’s heart was scarred more than my neck – she still gets quite fretful whenever she hears people talk about cancer.

We have found a dose of levothyroxine that seems to be working well at keeping my thyroid hormones stable. I’ve been on the same dose since last November and feeling good. Not everyone has that outcome so I am very grateful.

I made a lot of progress working with the voice therapists at Yale. Lynn and John were unfailingly encouraging and kind, bright lights during one of the most difficult phases of my life. My voice has improved enormously in every measurable way: I have much better range, better volume, more fluctuation in pitch when I talk – you name it! I can even sing! That said – it is not the same voice I had before surgery, not even close. I have barely enough volume to get a classroom full of talking students to be quiet. I can sing alone, when I set the pitch, but singing in church is much harder. At the recommendation of my wonderful voice therapists, I am transferring care to a therapist who specializes in vocal performance. I hope to recover not just more ability to sing, but also the ability to lecture for longer periods of time, something that I need to do for work. In the meantime, I’m on a short break from voice therapy, meaning I have 3 extra hours every Friday! Enough time to write this update and get started reading some senior theses.

Thank you for reading. I am not sure why it turns out to matter that people try to understand these experiences, but it does. I am a different person than I was a year ago in a lot of ways. I value the love and support of friends and family more than I can possibly express.

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