Happy Easter!

We are having a fabulous Easter! After the marathon, Bruce hitched a ride to Ohio and spent a week with Grandma and Grandpa. Scott, Phoebe, and I followed on Saturday, and just had a wonderful Easter dinner and are looking forward to a relaxing week.

Pictured above is Phoebe enjoying her loot from a church Easter egg hunt. Thanks Tim for taking her around. Thanks for the picture, Ellen!

More tales of our Buckeye adventures to come...

Boston Marathon Weekend!

We had an awesome super-packed weekend. Scott was busy on-call at the hospital, studying for a big exam he had on Monday afternoon, and writing a paper that was due Tuesday morning. He was probably pretty stressed out, but he put up with the annual Marathon Madness that occurs at our house. We had a pasta party on Sunday night with (left to right in the pic above) GBTC runner and math expert Mithu, GBTC marathon rookie and Harvard sociology extraordinaire Anna, the one and only Anika (my BYU roommate/teammate), me, super-fast elite marathoner and former BYU cross country super-star Nan, and GBTC early riser and training partner Scarlett.
Bruce and Phoebe provided the entertainment at the party. My mom provided the delicious carbs/bread. This is Anika and me at 5:45 race morning. We took the train downtown and hopped on the bus to Hopkinton, where the race starts. The drive out there seems to take forever. Some people chatted and some did crossword puzzles. Anika is a Long Island native and fast-talker. She talks even faster and more frequently when she's nervous. I tend to clam up when nervous, so I happily listened to Anika's chatter - much about her four kids (quick story: when she showed up at my house on Friday, her in-laws who are staying with her kids called and said her son pulled the fire alarm at McDonalds!). Once we were in Hopkinton, we hung out at the Athlete's Village and found my Greater Boston Track Club teammates. Finally, we lined up in our corrals and the race began! The first half-mile was no more than a shuffle, as there were so many people we were trying not to step on. It thinned out enough for us to get a few normal strides in and our first mile came in at 7 minutes exactly. The crowd thinned more and more and we were able to pick it up to our goal pace of 6:40something for the next few miles. Our goal was to go under 3 hours, which is a 6:52 pace. The first seven miles are downhill though, so we knew those would be a little faster. Anika kept "getting squirrely," as we used to call it at BYU. That means she kept wanting to pick up the pace in the early miles and I had to remind her that we still had a long, long ways to go. We came through the halfway point at 1:28 and kept ticking off the miles until we came to mile 16. I'd been feeling pretty tired most of the time (but that seems to be normal with the schedule we keep), but I kept thinking I'd shake out of it. It became apparent to me around mile 16 that I wasn't going to feel any better and that Anika no longer needed to be held back - only 10 to go! Anika kept the pace and I dropped down to 7-minute pace.
My parents and Bruce and Phoebe waited for me at mile 19. They waited for hours and hours, and got to see me for 30 seconds while I ran by. Thanks!
My dad took this photo of Nan, who got a cramp in her quad around mile 10 and claims that she totally tanked, but still ran a 2:38 and ended up in 21st place. This is me accepting water from strangers. I was so thirsty that I drank at every water stop after mile 5 (there's one every mile) and grabbed water from strangers in between. That's Bruce in the corner, holding up his "GO EMILY" sign. Best fan club ever.Anika went on to finish in 2:56. Amazing! I never quite reached "death march" status, but never felt good and came in at 3:05. I didn't get my sub-3 goal, but I finished darnit! I stumbled around the finish area, got my bags/medal/food, and shuffled my hypothermic self to the train and then home.
Running a marathon has been compared to childbirth in many ways and I can see why. I feel completely spent, my mom does everything, and I get pampered by everybody and get to eat lots of chocolate.
After a visit with this sassy girl, I finally got a hot shower and felt a little more put together.
And here we are Marathon Night, triumphant with our medals. The next morning, I woke up with a froggy voice, snotty nose, and headache. Did the marathon cause the cold or the cold cause the 3+hour marathon? Or was it that Phoebe didn't sleep through the night for the last few days? Or was it the cumulative exhaustion from getting up early for months and months? I don't know. But I do know that I had a really fun time with Anika and am super-proud of her and Nan, and that I have some unfinished business on the Boston course next year.

I feel like a lot of people chipped in to make this marathon happen:

Credits....

Scott Raymond - for supporting me as much as he could while being a crazy 3rd year med student and cheering me on at mile 16 before jumping on a train to go take his big test

Mom - for baking four delicious loaves of bread, chasing Phoebe around during the marathon, handing me my Sport Beans at mile 19, and massaging my feet with lotion afterward

Dad - for cheering me on during the marathon, taking lots of sweet pictures (almost all of those above are his), taking me out to dinner Marathon Night so I didn't have to cook, and fixing my kitchen light marathon weekend

Coach Tom Derderian - for providing excellent workouts and advice, and pulling some strings to register me without a qualifying time

Scarlett Graham - for waking up to run with me at 5 a.m. most mornings, even when she didn't have to be up that early

Anna Novick - for running the first 6 miles with me and Anika, doing some really hard workouts with me, and even getting up for those early morning runs a few times

Ellen Patton and the Arlington Ward Mile 19 crew - for putting together a bonafide party, handing me some water, taking care of my parents and kids, and sending me a card to pump me up a few days before the race

Kristen Cutler and Jennifer Smith Johnson - for babysitting Bruce and Phoebe on Tuesday nights so I could get to practice while Scott was still at the hospital

Jenny and Nigel Reuel and Lis and Brian Haslam - for yelling my name three times at mile 24 and still being friends with me even when I totally did not respond

Laci and Christian Gentry - for cheering surprisingly loud at mile 19

Erica McGinnis - for watching Phoebe while I fit some very long runs in during the day

Kate Wangsgard and the Babysitting Co-op - for allowing me a few runs in sunshine

Megan Palmer - for thinking of me and sending good vibes while on an airplane back to Boston from Florida

Sarah Mangum - for making me an awesome pre-race package of almonds, Luna bars, and other yummy stuff

J's Mom - for letting me take the day off and cheering me on at mile 25

Sorry if I forgot anyone. Comment and chastise me if you feel you've been left out.

Abra Cadabra!

Bruce has a new magic trick where he makes a flower appear from an empty pot. He feels pretty cool when he does it.

Dirt to call my own

For the next three years, anyway. And not really my very own since I'm sharing it.

I signed up for a community garden plot as soon as I moved to the city. I'm actually still on the waiting list, but one of my neighbors hit the jackpot and decided to share with me. We're splitting a 10 x 10-foot plot and have big plans to make it the awesomest, most productive plot in the garden.

Peas, tomatoes, basil, and salad greens are all on the list.

I'll post pictures soon. So far, it just looks like a pile of dirt.

Tooth No. 2

Bruce's second tooth fell out yesterday. He was wiggling it while doing his business on the toilet and it came out right then, falling into the toilet.

I was in the kitchen when it happened and all I heard was uncontrollable sobbing coming from the bathroom.

"Bruce, what's wrong?" I asked.

No response. Just sobbing.

I asked again.

More sobbing. Words can't seem to come out. I was worried that he was dying or something in there, so I picked the lock and entered the bathroom. He finally made out "My tooth fell into the toilet" and sobbed some more.

The tooth itself was pinned under a big piece o' poo, so I tell him a note to the tooth fairy will be just fine and that flushing one tiny tooth is okay. He calms down, finishes his business solo, and made the above note to stick under his pillow.

Feeling Old

While sorting through old files on my computer today, I came across this little gem: Bruce getting a bath on the day he came home from the hospital at 3 lbs 10 oz. I can't help but stare at it awhile and wonder where the time went.

Goodbye Tooth No. 1

Bruce lost his tooth on April Fools Day too. When I came home from my morning run, Bruce had his tooth dried off and neatly tucked in a plastic bag (whew, I didn't have to deal with it!). He was so proud he took it to school and showed everyone in his class. He stuck it under his pillow that night and the Tooth Fairy brought a dollar. In the morning he said he wanted a hundred-dollar bill. I told him the Tooth Fairy is not that rich. He already has an adult tooth rapidly growing in; it seems awfully large for that little space. He doesn't have the classic toothless grin, but he may soon: the tooth next to it is very loose and will probably fall out within a week or two. When I took Bruce's picture, Phoebe nuzzled up next to him and then pushed him out of the way. She does not want to be left out of anything!

April Fools!

It snowed on April Fools Morn, which was a terrible joke. It then turned to rain for the rest of the day and left a sloshy mess. No more snow please!This is what Scott's schedule does to him these days. He went to the hospital at 6:30 a.m. on Friday and returned at 2 p.m. on Saturday. He wanted to spend time with the kids, so we hit up some parks. He crashed, but it's the thought that counts.