Prison Break

Imagine this:

It's about 70 degrees out and you're walking home from running your Sunday afternoon errands.  The sun is shining and you start thinking "today would be a good day to do some yardwork or just hang out on the porch and read a book."  You turn off the bike path, pass the soccer field and the playground, and hit Herbert road.  You look up ahead toward your house and see a dog with no leash walking toward you.  And, wait, what's that behind the dog?  Is that a lady in a bathing suit with no shoes on?  No way.  It's a sunny day and all but it certainly hasn't been warm enough to be hanging out poolside.  She seems to be speaking to the dog but you can't tell if they're actually together because the dog isn't responding.  Not even a little bit.  She keeps switching from a nice "good doggy" voice to something that sounds eerily familiar to Linda Blair.  You think that maybe at one time she liked the dog but is quickly changing her feelings.

That was my Sunday afternoon.  No, not the one walking home from Sunday errands.  I was the crazy lady running the streets in a bathing suit chasing after a dog who suddenly decided she wanted nothing to do with me. After the Newton 10K Sunday morning, I headed home while Micah left for his softball practice.  It was such a nice day outside, I decided to throw on the bathing suit, breakout the lawn chairs, and finish Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernieres.  There have been a few instances where Sota escaped the yard (Snow Moat Snow Problem) but I thought that there was no way she would try a stunt like that with me sitting right in front of her.  Apparently I was wrong.  I look behind me and I see her pulling our make-shift fencing down with her paws.  I yelled at her and she got down.  30 seconds later, different spot, same move.  Again, yelled at her and she got down.  I decided to take her inside once I got to a better stopping point in the book, but before I made it to the end of the page she was scrambling to get over the bushes.  Without thinking, I launched myself out of the lawn chair and tried to catch her in the air but I only managed to terrify her.  Normally when she gets out, she just goes to the front door or comes right back when you call her.  Since I scared her she refused to come within 5 feet of me.  That's how I ended up 3 blocks away from the house in my bathing suit and barefoot.  We passed someone about a block and a half from the house who asked what was going on.  I briefly explained that my husband's dog (she's Micah's dog when she's doing bad things) found a way out of the back yard and wouldn't come back.  The woman walked off and I didn't think anything of it until about two minutes later I saw her walking toward us.  I told her Sota was afraid of strangers and not to try to catch her.  So she just stood in front of Sota until I could catch up.  I guess Sota decided that of the two options, I was the least scary (I had access to her food and water, which helped a little I'm sure) so she went with the lesser of two evils.  I led her home by the collar and told her she was never going outside again.  Ever.

This whole ordeal really killed the laying out mood, so I changed and focused my attention on fixing the fence.  Micah and I replaced the entire fence with a sturdier wire and t-posts.  Hopefully that will keep the beast at bay.

Lazy Days of "Summer"

I haven't been on a run since Tough Mudder.  Not only was I sore and bitter about the entire experience, but the weather was crappy, and I was sick.  Running just wasn't in the picture while I was congested and coughing.  I kept telling myself that it was allergies but I'm sure jumping into 30-45 degree waters didn't help.

I won't deny it.  It's been nice not HAVING to get out there to run.  It didn't directly effect anything if I skipped a day or two, or ten.  With no major races coming up I don't feel obligated to keep up with the training.

So without question, I have gotten lazy.  Which I can live with (a little) but I'm quickly realizing that my laziness has a serious negative effect on the pups.  We have episodes of this:

With this mixed in:

Sota actually asked for McDonald's the other day.

I need to get these girls outside.

Toughin' out the Tough Mudder

It was cold, it was wet, it was dirty.  And I paid money to do it.  Bruised knees and scraped arms?  Check. Hypothermia?  Check.  10,000 volts running through the bones?  Check.  Orange headband?  CHECK.

In the matter of 10 miles, we ran all the way up the main face of the mountain twice.  Mount Snow's base elevation is 1900 ft and summit elevation of 3600 ft.  The main face is over two-thirds the way to the peak.  You do the math.  Only the first hike up, the "Death March," was considered an obstacle.  This 1.5 mile march up the main face was designed to weed out the weak.  You could feel the excitement  and adrenaline we had built up at the start line rush out of the atmosphere within the first .5 mile.  Everyone stopped yelling and clapping and turned their focus in just surviving.  Once at the top, Micah and I regrouped at the water station and decided that our only goal of the day was to finish the race alive.

After the Death March, the constant up-and-down the slopes were only intended to defeat us physically, emotionally and mentally.  No other march up the mountain counted as an obstacle.  We still had 27 challenges to go.  Along the course we had to trudge through knee deep mud, scale cargo nets, crawl through tunnels, and swim through 45° or colder water.  My personal Achilles was the "Glacier Freeze" - a 25 ft wall of ice and snow that we had to climb straight up.

Photo from www.toughmudder.com

 By the time I was over the wall and down the snowy slope I was frozen from the inside out and seriously considered quitting.  I couldn't feel my hands (I didn't regain feeling in my fingertips until about 1 hour after the race) or my feet and the very next obstacle was running up a hill weaving between hay bales while getting blasted with snow makers and fire hoses.

Photo from www.toughmudder.com

 Doesn't that sound fun?  Micah stopped with me while I caught my breath and talked me out of throwing in the towel.  After the Gauntlet, we headed back down the hill where Micah needed to stop to get a giant boulder out of his shoe.  I spotted a Mylar blanket that was abandoned by another runner so while Micah struggled with his shoes, I ran over to wrap myself in a rescue blanket.  Not a great sign.  If you need something to referred to as a RESCUE BLANKET in the middle of a recreational race, something is not adding up.  I wrap myself in the silvery goodness and almost immediately feel my body temperature rising when all of a sudden I feel a sharp burning sting.  I rip the Mylar blanket off my shoulders to find this:

COME ON!  Are you kidding me?  A hornet?  Why?  Why can't I get through a mud race without getting stung by a hornet (32 hornet stings between Micah and I in last year's Spartan Race)?  So now I was cold, wet, and stung and I still had over 2 miles to go.  I opted out of the next 3 obstacles - swimming through an ice bath (dyed with food coloring, just to be mean),

Photo from www.toughmudder.com

Funky-Monkey bars where you fell into icy waters if you slipped

Photo from www.toughmudder.com

 and a series of 4 12ft walls.

Photo from www.toughmudder.com

I know, I know.  No one is more disappointed than I am that I skipped some obstacles, but at that point anything involving getting even colder was simply not an option for me.  Give me some warmer weather and I would have been in like Flynn.  Micah, however, went through every single obstacle.  Nearly made it across the Funky-Monkey bars, too, but slipped with 4 bars to go.  He killed half of the 4 Berlin Walls but had to skip the last two because most of the other runners had given up on that obstacle and it took multiple people to get each person over the wall.  The last 4 obstacles were a breeze, including the Electroshock Therapy

Photo from www.toughmudder.com

 where I was shocked 3 times...the third time locked up my knees and nearly threw me to the ground. But that was it, the race was over.  Finally.  Based on the grumblings at the post-party it sounded like the average completion time was somewhere between 4.5 and 5 hours.  Micah and I barely beat our marathon time.

Am I happy I did it?  Yes.  Would I ever do it again?  Absolutely not.  Call me a sissy, but I think I'll stick to the marathons.

A Day in the Life of a Boston Marathon Finisher

I am officially up a marathon and down a toenail.  A decent trade, so I'll take it. 

Our day started bright and early the morning of April 18, 2011.  The bags were packed and our clothes were laid out the night before, which made waking up at 5:15 AM that much easier.  MFNE sprung for a charter bus for the Running for Cover team so we were spared the long lines for the BAA buses to Hopkington.  Micah and I made it to the team bus 15 minutes before it departed.  (Note: Micah and I are never on time, especially for things like races (Sunday Morning) so this was a huge accomplishment for us.)  We climbed on the bus, picked our cushy chairs, used the restroom (because we could), and while enjoying the warmth of our bus we quietly snickered at all the marathon suckers who were stuck waiting in line to be packed like sardines into a cold school bus.  They may have been faster runners, but we showed up in style.  Once in Hopkington, we were taken straight to Athlete's Village where all the Boston runners waited for their waves to start.  I spent the majority of the morning curled up in the fetal position under a blanket to get away from the wind, but Micah braved the cold long enough to get a pretty good shot of our holding pen.

 

Micah and I were in the last wave.  The walk to the start line was about .5 mile away from Athlete's Village.  On the way, there were tons of water stations set up by the neighborhoods and volunteers along the road ready to donate all the "throw away" clothes left by the runners.  Spectators lined the roads all the way from Athlete's Village to the start line and beyond...

The support along the way was absolutely amazing.  There was not a single stretch of the 26.2 miles without spectators.  Micah and I wrote our names on the front of our shirts and people yelled for us the entire race. Allie is an easy name to yell for but Micah got some interesting versions including Meekah, Meesah, Michael, Mick, and Mich.  All attempts were greatly appreciated and extremely motivating.

 We coasted for over half of the race with the exception of one bathroom break (sorry Micah).  I may have taken the hydration thing a little too far...I've never had to pee so often in my life.  Hopkington, Ashland, Framingham, Natick, and Wellesley flew by.  Wellesley was the best thanks to the ladies of Wellesley College.  And no, Micah did not kiss any of them.  I was behind him for this section so I know this to be true.  I, however, cannot vouch for the other guys running in front of us.

  

 We started feeling the burn between miles 17-18.  Newton's hills were harder than we expected, even before Heartbreak.  Like many of the runners around us, we chose to walk the uphills and run the downhills.  By Heartbreak, it got harder and harder to start that running part...And yes, we looked as beat down as the folks in front of us at this point.

   

Our pace slowed significantly between 20-24 miles.  Despite the cheers and high fives, my legs refused to go.  Getting out of Newton was exciting (no more hills!) but seeing the "Entering Brookline" sign made me want to cry.  I forgot about Brookline.  I wanted to be in Boston.  We were able to muster our last bit of strength to finish out the race once we saw the "Entering Boston" sign.

 Finally, the right on Hereford, left on Boylston was right in front of us.  We came around that last left as strong as we could.  Our legs were numb at this point, so it didn't matter.  Lo and behold, my parents had squeezed their way up front and were cheering us all the way to the finish line!

 

We certainly didn't break any records by finishing at 4:56:10 but the Boston Marathon experience was out of this world.  I learned a few things that will help us the next go-around, like how you probably shouldn't beat your best half marathon time when running your first marathon.  And yes, I say first because there will most definitely be a second.  But what will I call my blog from now on...?

More importantly: thanks to everyone's support we have raised $4500 (and counting) for the Melanoma Foundation of New England!  Running the marathon was easy with so many people cheering for me.  I never thought I would surpass my fundraising goal by so much but it's clear that I have the best fans in the world.  Eat your heart out Geoffrey Mutai.

Just a Few Days Left!

Just a few days to go before the Big Day!  I'm practicing telling everyone "yes, I am ready for the marathon" with confidence.  To be honest, I'm not sure if I actually believed April 18 would ever roll around.  While the past 3 months of training have been fun, it's nice to know that the end is near.  It was hard to keep the thought of that final right on Boylston and the image of the Pru looming in the distance when running through a blizzard in the dead of winter.  But it's here, finally!  And right now weather.com is advertising good news for Monday.  Yes, I realize it's April in Boston and you can't ever count on the 10 day forecast but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Partly Cloudy doesn't turn into Rain in the next five days.

Now that training is winding down, I'm in my final push for those last minute donations.  It's not too late to throw some money in the pot to support my Running for Cover team to benefit the Melanoma Foundation of New England!  Just go to www.firstgiving.com/allisonsilletto.  To help you keep your eye on the prize, I will be here in just a few days! 

Boston Marathon Finish Line

Full Circle

It's official.  I've been running for one full year. 

My running career (term used loosely) began March 2010 when a friend of mine, Ronald (name changed to protect the innocent), randomly asked me to run the Cohasset Road Race by the Sea with him on April 11, 2010.  At first I hesitated because my limited running experience left me with only negative thoughts.  I only ran when forced to: high school gym class, basketball practice (suicides), marching band practice (yes, we ran), being chased by a lion while on safari in Africa...you know, only in dire circumstances...But we had just spent the winter learning to ski together so I figured I should give this running-for-fun thing a shot.  Plus, Micah jumped at the opportunity and there was no way I was going to let him have fun without me, even if chances were slim that it would be fun at all. 

Ronald gave us at least 4 weeks notice before the race.  We signed up immediately but in true Silletto fashion we decided we would start training "tomorrow."  Tomorrow ended up being 2 weeks before the race.  I found a 4 week training program online and split it in half hoping that would do the trick.  For the record, it is not recommended to go from the couch to running 10Ks in 14 days.  You should work your way up.  Don't procrastinate. Your body will hate you.  The first run out of the gate was a 45 minute run. It was pouring rain and neither one of us had appropriate running clothes.  We wore COTTON.  Silly newbies.  Minus the wheezing and the pain, running in the rain was surprisingly enjoyable.  The second time we ran, we decided to go for a distance rather than a time limit.  1 mile.  Sounded easy enough.  So easy, we decided to take the dogs along.  We split up because a) there were squirrels and Sota preferred chasing them over running with me and b) I couldn't make it.  I blamed it on Sota but the truth was I ran a half mile and felt like I was teetering dangerously close to death.  (I was in a very dramatic phase last year).

Needless to say, I was not overly confident that I would be able to run a full 10K in less than 2 weeks.  Luckily for me, I have a competitive husband who refused to take no for an answer.  We kept running.  We even ran a nice hill training route through Beacon Hill.  I hated it.
April 11 rolled around fairly quickly.  We got to the starting line and I was immediately intimidated by the fancy running gear everyone else was sporting.  Micah insisted he could maintain a 9 minute mile throughout the race so Ronald and I decided to roll our eyes at him and hang back to run it together.  If you've ever been to Cohasset, you know that it is absolutely beautiful.  It's the quintessential New England town right on the water.  Ronald and I were handling the course well until we got just over halfway to Forest Ave where the course turns left and goes straight uphill.  It was the most demoralizing sight I've ever seen.  There was a collective gasp in the small group of runners around Ronald and me but we managed to muster on through the last 3 miles.  Micah was there waiting for us when we crossed the finish line.  We rushed over to the registration area where they were giving out free hot dogs and saw a small ice cream shop across the street.  6.2 miles deserves a good ice cream cone - and it was SO good.  The feeling I had completing my first race was indescribable and I knew as I was downing my free hot dog that I would be doing this again.

So here I am one year later: 2 half marathons down, and two weeks away from running my first marathon.  I managed to slice 11 minutes 22 seconds off last year's 10K time.  Cohasset was just as beautiful as last year and the hills seemed significantly smaller.  We went to the registration area and there were no hot dogs left and the ice cream shop hadn't opened yet, but that didn't dampen my spirits.  Besides, no hot dogs meant we had to stop for lunch and there just so happened to be a McDonald's on the way home.

The Longest of the Long Runs

A few things we learned on our latest long run:

1.  Micah needs to limit his intake of Gatorade and other sweet drinks.  He dilutes the Gatorade so he can't taste the sweet but still gets the benefits, but if he has too much it upsets his stomach leaving him to contemplate how he will vomit on the T without anyone noticing.  (The conclusion was he would puke in his hat and wrap his hat in his shirt to avoid drippage - in case you were wondering)

2.  Allison will stop at EVERY water station whether she needs it or not.  There were tons of groups running the marathon route yesterday, which meant a water stop every mile or so in the beginning then every two miles past Newton.  In the first 6 miles, I think I stopped at 10 water stations.  Perhaps this is the culprit for #1.

3.  Throw your running shoes away if you've gone more than 300 miles in them.  I decided I was better off risking blisters and wore my new shoes on our run (New Shoes).  No knee problems whatsoever and the blisters really weren't so bad.

4.  Allison is unbelievably lucky to have a Micah.

5.  You DO NOT take Commonwealth Ave all the way into Boston before hitting Beacon St.  You take a right on Chestnut Hill Ave then an immediate left on Beacon which takes you straight to Copley Sq (the finish line). In the real marathon route, you should run by Boston College.  Not Boston College AND Boston University.

6.  There is a Raising Canes near Boston University.

7.  Kinesiology Tape is best if applied properly.  Otherwise it is just a nuisance.  Removal is painful, worse than a Band-Aid.

8. Chipotle guac tastes delicious after 20 miles.

9.  Running is one of the most unpretentious of all the sports.  I plan on walking Heartbreak Hill.  Nobody else running will judge me for this because they have/will be walking it as well.

10.  In addition to Gatorade and water, a lot of the stops had gummy bears, swedish fish, cheez-its, dum dums, pretzels filled with peanut butter, pretzel rods, and starburst.  I wasn't sure if I was preparing for a third graders birthday party or a marathon.  I carb-loaded before the run; I crap-loaded during the run.

And now, here's some pictures from the Hyannis Half Marathon in February...