Chase Ryan Schlenker

Anita's grandson, Chase has been battling Neuroblastoma since December 15, 2008. He has been at St. Jude's in Memphis Tennessee until last month when the cancer metasitized to his brain and they sent him home with hospice. Sadly, he passed away yesterday.

I have been praying for the Schlenker and Hawkins family since December 15th. I know there is nothing to be said that can take away the pain of losing a small child. It just doesn't seem fair.

You can visit Chases' caring bridge site here.

Doug

Sadly, on Friday last week, Doug Braash was found down at East LaLoma park. He was taken to the hospital where he remains in critical condition. We are all praying for him and Barbara.

Grape Stomp

Last weekend I ran into Barb Elia at the park and she said she was going to sign up for the Grape Stomp in Livermore so I decided to sign up also. It's in Robertson park along a bike path with a stream on one side and vineyards on the other. It's been awhile since I've run in that park but there are no longer any vineyards, they are houses! We started off at 8a. My goal was 1:44 or less which I thought it was doable. It was an out and back course with a small amount of trail but mostly paved bike path. I felt pretty good. I only used my 10 and 1 watch because my garmin's broke so I had no idea of my pace. I just put my music on and ran. At the turn around there were two women in front of me. I could see the second place girl and she was within reach. I passed her at about mile 6 1/2 then took a short walk break and she passed me. We did this one more time and at mile 11 I ran. I knew she was close behind but I didn't want to look. At the dirt path I knew there was only a half mile left. I came across the finish line in 1:38:16!!! I'm so excited with my time. That's a 5 minute PR for me. I got some nice sway for finishing second - a nice bottle of wine, a running bottle, a plaque and another string shoe bag. (I have quite a collection of these now....)

Barb ran a 2:21. She placed second in the 60-65 age group.

Run fun......

Ride em' Cowboy

One of our Trauma PA's just had a baby. Him and his wife are big horse riders and have a cattle ranch. I saw this sweater in a book and decided I needed to knit it for their new baby boy. Can you believe they make wranglers for 1 year olds??

National Geographic

If you didn't get a chance to see the October Issue of National Geographic, check it out. I'm quoted along with my friend Steve Holman about ultra running. Very cool.

Run fun...

Leslie

Cowtown

The weekend following Tahoe was the Cowtown Marathon, Half marathon, 10k and 5K. I decided on Friday to run the marathon. I drove up to Sacramento and registered. Linda McFadden from our club was also planning to run it so we could carpool together on Sunday morning.

The weather was cooperating, it was perfect running weather. I didn't really know anything about the course but Linda informed me it was two 13 mile loops. Man, I dislike loops.

The run starts at the beautiful William Land Park next to the Sacramento Zoo. We run through some neighborhoods (with big, beautiful houses), then hit a parkway along side the Delta. The Delta was on our right and the freeway was on our left. It would have been very serene except for the whizzing car sounds!!

We then loop around back into William Land park and repeat the loop. Around mile 5 I caught up with the 3:40 pace group. My friend, Karen Hoffman was the pace group leader so I hung out with her. I haven't seen her since Western States and she filled me in on how her run went. It really made the time fly by. Soon, we were at the start/finish again and Karen handed her pacing duties to a guy named Dean.

Somewhere around mile 22, my left knee started hurting. I'm sure the 72 miles of concrete the weekend before had nothing to do with it??

A half mile from the finish line was a very cute sign that read, "1/2 mile to the barn!"

I crossed the finish line in 3:39:26. Good enough for first in my age group. The medals were cowbells - very original!! I waited for Linda who arrived in 4:25. We packed it up and headed home. Overall, a very nice day for running....

Catching up

I have been busy lately and really need to catch up on some blogging. I'll start with Tahoe.

I ran the Tahoe triple in 2007 and in 2008 I signed up for the "Super" Triple. You run a marathon on Friday, a marathon on Saturday and then Saturday at midnight you run the whole 72 miles around the lake. Well, because of my Achilles issues in 2008, I was able to postpone my entry until 2009. When I emailed the race director he said I could sign up for any race - WOW just the out I was looking for. I haven't really been putting in many miles and didn't feel in shape so I opted for just the 72 mile Ultra around the lake.

Robert and I headed up to Tahoe on Thursday. We arrived late in the afternoon. The weather was warm. Unseasonable warm for Tahoe.

Friday we decided to hike to Eagle lake. It's about a 2 mile hike and it was beautiful!

Friday afternoon, we rode bikes to the casino so Robert could place some College football game bets and then we hit an outside bar for some Blue Moon carbo loading... Matt, Sarah and Connor drove up later Friday evening and we had a nice pasta dinner (more carbo loading..). On Saturday morning we decided to watch the bicyclists finish their 72 mile race around the lake. They were flying. We got to Zephyr Cove just in time to watch the winner cross the line. Here's my photo as he whizzed by: (I shouldn't give up my day job huh?) We drove up to Spooner parking lot so I could stash some water. I figured I would be needing a refill about that time. If I figured right, I would hit there about 4-5 hours from Pope Beach. We also stopped at a vista and Connor did some rock hopping. The Pre-race Briefing: On Saturday, after watching the bikes, we headed to the expo. We ran into Les Wright, the RD and he informed me that the 72 mile ultra race was officially "cancelled". Due to some permit screw up on his part, Cal-trans and NDOT (Nevada department of transportation) denied his permit for the ultra. He said he would give us full details at 4 p.m. At 4 p. Les informed us, "it was a free country and if you wanted to run a 46 mile warm-up before the marathon, it was your right". The other options offered, were: 1. Run the marathon 2. Refund your entry fee 3. Roll it over until next year Since I had already rolled over the previous year and I didn't want to just run the marathon, I opted to do the free country bit and run the 46 mile warm up! The Start: Robert dropped me off at Pope Beach at 9:50 p. Surprisingly, there were between 10-15 people gathered for the 10 p. start. At exactly 10 p., we took off. I started out running with 3 guys from the bay area. At Round Hill, one of the guys, named Chris peeled off. He was the "crew" for a guy named Ben Balstar. Chris said he would look out for me since I was crewless!! I arrived to Spooner lake and found my hidden water. It was very, very dark so Chris held a light so I could refill my hydration pack. I didn't see what time it was because I didn't really care. By now, we were pretty spread out along the road. I ended up running alone for the majority of the 46 miles. My stomach started revolting shortly after that. I'm not even sure why. It wasn't hot, I had been drinking enough fluids, I took some salt although I wasn't really sweating because it was chilly outside so I'm clueless as to why it felt awful. When I got to the Vista where Connor had been rock hopping, I barfed. It was gross!! Immediately after, I started drinking and TRYING to eat but nothing sounded good. When I arrived to the turn for Incline Village, Chris was waiting for me. He said he would see me at the finish since Ben was running fabulously. He wished me well and was off. It's amazing how many nice people there are out in the world! When I arrived into Kings Beach, it was bright because of all the neon signs for the casinos. I was on a walk break and a young man came from one of the casinos. We exchanged hellos and then he asked me what I was doing. I told him I was running around the lake and then he said, "What the hell for?" It was very funny. He too, wished me well and told me there was a 7-11 about 2 miles up the road since I really needed a Sprite to calm my stomach. I found the oasis in the desert and bought some sprite. It tasted very good!! I continued to drink but hadn't really eaten anything in sometime. When I was about 7 miles from Tahoe City, I looked at my watch. I was making pretty good time. I new I would arrive earlier than we had planned so at 5 a. I called Robert and told him to meet me at 6:30a. not 8 a. like we'd planned. It took forever to get to Tahoe City. Here I come down the street. I was surprised to see Sarah and Connor had joined Matt in dropping Robert off. It was a very nice pick me up and mentally I needed it. They also brought some ginger snap cookies which tasted great. I was also happy to drop off all the gear I'd been carrying. Robert and I started off. I was pretty much toast. I thought the walk 50 steps, run 50 steps thing would work and it did for awhile but eventually I just ended up walking. Robert tried to make me feel better by saying how nice it was to walk so you could really take in the views. I made Robert carry my water bottle, I've never had anyone "mule" for me and it was nice. Finally, I arrived at the turn into Pope Beach. Only 1/2 mile left. Robert left me at this point because he wanted to hit the $2.00 beer booth. I saw Matt, Sarah and Connor and then the finish line. Yea!!! I ran the 72 miles in 15:40:26, "unofficially" of course!! I can now check this off my list of things to do before I die!! Run fun...