Letting Up or Moving On

Mardi Gras Marathon Photos

Here is a truth: Once you accomplish a goal, set another one or you will slack off. I have seen it in my own life particularly with running. As long as there is a marathon in the future I am registered for, it is enough to get me out of bed in the morning and running. It is enough to make me watch what I eat and do other healthy things. Without that future accountability, it is easy to sleep in on a cold day or enjoy too much of a good thing. Slowly but surely, all that has been gained slips away and the weight returns.

This is not just a principle of fitness. It is a principle of life. The paycheck lures us out of the house in the morning, the grade at the end of the semester encourages the student to study, and future company motivates us to clean the house and fix things that have been on the list for months.

Why wait for an accountability that is imposed by someone or something else? Why not use future accountability to get things done you want? In my case, I sign up for a marathon and that is all the encouragement I need to run every day and eat right. I do not want to run poorly so I do the work. A byproduct of this process is fitness and being at my ideal weight.

The next time you are complaining about something you need to do or wish you would do, think of how you can make yourself accountable and get it done. Turn the bitching into positive action.

Now that the Mardi Gras Marathon is over I am thinking about Boston. Once Boston is in the books it is the Goat Milk Marathon in June. Accomplishment is a good thing and it is appropriate to savor victory. This can be the siren's song however, if sights are not set toward a new horizon. Bruce Springsteen's song, "Glory Days," is about those who did not set new goals. Their life was defined by a success. Life moved on, but they did not. Do you remember Duffy in F Troop? (This is a reference that goes way back.) Duffy was an old soldier, the lone survivor of the Alamo. If anyone ever mentioned the Alamo, Duffy would launch into a verbatim account the soldiers had heard many times. Throughout the F Troop episodes, this bit was used. Someone would mention Alamo, Duffy would start his speech, and everyone would be shaking their heads.

So, don't let up, life moves on, move along with it.

Until the next time
John Strain

Nokia Sugar Bowl Mardi Gras Marathon

When I awoke this morning at 4:00 AM, a cold rain was falling. Fortunately, when we got to New Orleans at 6:30 AM, the rain was lighter and the temperature was a few degrees warmer. I stood about 10 minutes at the start shivering, but all of that went away when the race started.

We had some light rain and some sunshine, but overall, the weather was pretty good for running. I ran well until I took another wrong turn between mile 25 and mile 26. A cop pointed and I followed the point. He did not yell at me like they usually do if you go the wrong way. I wound up about 2 minutes and 18 seconds off course. The kicker was, I was running in busy New Orleans traffic without police to stop it for me.

This marathon was easier than my last one. I did not have the psychological struggle. I was getting tired around mile 23, but I was able to maintain my pace. My official time is 3:26:54, but if you correct for the detour, my time was 3:24:36. That figures to 7:48.6 per mile.

I am happy with the time, but not so happy about the wrong turn. Sometimes I really hate being a blind guy. I am going to have to get a seeing eye dog or a bicycle escort the next time. Still, I beat my December 4, 2004 time in Baton Rouge by 5 minutes and 8 seconds.

The finish line of this marathon is the beginning of training for the Boston Marathon, April 18, 2005. I can't believe I will be running at Boston. It has been a dream for so long and now it is going to happen - good Lord willing and the creek don't rise.

Thanks everyone for your support, prayers, and cyber wings.

UPDATE: The results are in. Out of 1963 runners I placed 102, 91 if you adjust for the detour. In my age group, I placed 15 or 12 if adjusted for the detour. Overall, I was in the top 4% and top 7% of my age group. I am very pleased with the results both with and without the wrong turn.

Until the next time
John Strain

Bring It On

Sunday is the Mardi Gras Marathon. My training lies behind me and the 26.2 final exam awaits me at 7:00 AM on what is forecast to be a rainy day. Marathons contain elements of mystery. I signed up for this race officially in December, but had set my mind on running it earlier. All of the training winds down to that day and time. The mystery is, weather conditions and how will I feel. Little injuries and aches and pains are common in marathon training, but one hopes to be feeling strong and healthy when toeing the starting line of the race. Weather can be a help or a tormenter. It is still too early to tell, but presently, a 50% chance of rain is the forecast.

Fortunately, when I was training for my last marathon, the one I qualified for Boston in, I had ran a 20 mile training run in a driving rain storm. It could not have rained harder and I could not have been more wet. My shoes were water logged and the streets were at times more streams to ford than paths to run over. I am drawing from the knowledge and experience of that day to psych myself up for possibly 26.2 miles in the rain this Sunday. I mean how bad can it be? Bring it on? Bravado? Maybe, but the alternative is doubt and I cannot let that creep into my thinking. I am going to run no matter what and weather will not be an excuse.

I still have two days to deal with my mind. No more running until the marathon, but there is psychological preparation. I work to stay positive. I go over strategy in my mind. I memorize target split times and imagine running strong, effortless, and finishing feeling good. I prepare for the time that comes in the marathon when questioning begins and when you are tempted to stop, walk, or even quit. So much of the race is a battle within one's own mind.

Why put myself through this? Because it feels so good when I stop running. I feel a sense of accomplishment beyond words. My life has been building to this point and crossing the finish line is the culmination. For a few hours, I am totally fulfilled. If I run a good time, the feeling is even better. I realize that outside of my own heart and mind, the whole process and accomplishment is not much in the eyes of the world. I do not run for the latter, but the former. The result is a strengthened self. I battled and overcame the task. Today the task was a marathon, but tomorrow who knows? I learn things about myself and I become stronger and tougher. Here is another way to say it: The marathon does a whole bunch of guy stuff for me.

So, check back Sunday afternoon and I will tell you how I did. As soon as I cross the finish line in New Orleans, I will set my sights for the 109th running of the Boston Marathon April 18, 2005. It feels really cool to say that.

Here are a couple of things I found from Michelle Malkin which describe what it is like living with a runner. Michelle is a newspaper columnist and she was writing about John Kerry's claim he had run the Boston Marathon. The post was from October 04. Read it.

The next item is a story she wrote about ESPN leaving Jim Ryun out of a list of top congressional athletes. If you don't know anything about Jim Ryun, the miler from Kansas, read this brief story. He is an ideal to which many runners strive. Read it.

Did you know President Bush ran a marathon in 3:44:52. That's pretty good. Check it out. This link was also swiped from Michelle's site.

Until the next time
John Strain

Gators on the Loose

Slidell, Louisiana is a town 30 miles west of where I live and they have a 12 foot long alligator loose in the middle of town:

Crikey! Alligator hunters have Slidell wide-eyed
Crowds gather to watch crews plumb canal
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
By Paul Rioux
St. Tammany bureau

Evan Goodson, 6, squeezed through the crowd and pressed against a police barricade to get a better view of the spectacle Tuesday as animal-control workers searched a Slidell drainage canal for a 12-foot alligator.

"I hope I finally get to see it," said Evan, who had stopped by with his mother Monday when the workers briefly snared the gator with a fishing rod before it got away.

"I saw big splashes and lots of bubbles, but I didn't get to see the alligator," he said, adding that he wants to be a crocodile hunter when he grows up.

Hundreds of people came by Tuesday afternoon to monitor the search for the alligator, which was spotted Monday morning in the W-14 drainage canal at the spot where it widens to about 75 feet as it passes under Gause Boulevard near Slidell Memorial Hospital.

The workers searched all day Monday and returned Tuesday about noon. City workers built a dam using sandbags, and pumped water from the canal, which was about 8 feet deep under the Gause overpass. Howard McCrea, a Sheriff's Office wildlife specialist leading the search, said the gator may have burrowed into the canal's muddy bottom to stay warm.

McCrea and two other animal-control workers poked the mud with wooden poles but hadn't found anything when they called off the search as darkness fell. McCrea said he would return this morning to look for signs of the alligator, but he did not anticipate resuming a full-scale search.

As many as 200 people at a time gathered behind barricades and yellow police tape to watch the hunt unfold in a muddy pit 25 feet below street level.

Austin Cochran, 5, had the best seat in the house: on top of his father's shoulders.

"He loves it," Mark Cochran said. "Anywhere there's action is where he wants to be."

Christy Fambrough said her 12-year-old son, Robert, convinced her to stop as she was driving him home from school.

"He saw the crowd and kept saying, 'Let's go! Let's go!' " she said. "I didn't think I was going to find a parking spot. It's worse than at a Mardi Gras parade."

Business was booming at the nearby Southern Delights ice cream and snowball stand, which uses an alligator in its logo.

Slidell police Capt. Rob Callahan sees that as more of a conspiracy than a coincidence.

"I was joking with the lady behind the counter that this is just a marketing ploy," he said. "Once we get this gator out of here, they're going to put another one in."

Callahan attributed the crowds to a combination of pleasant weather and the thrill of a large gator on the loose in the middle of the city.

"It's like a little festival -- the Gator Festival -- right here in Slidell," he said.
. . . . . . .

Paul Rioux can be reached at prioux@timespicayune.com or (985) 645-2852.

Alligators are no big deal in these parts, but the size and location of this one makes it one. I had the opportunity to go alligator hunting a few years ago. You can read about that here.

Here is what a 12 foot long alligator can do. The woman in this story lost part of her arm and nearly her life.

Slidell alligator video

That is the critter update from the bayou. I'll let you know if they ever catch him.

Until the next time
John Strain

Huh?

Today I placed a phone call to Charity Hospital in New Orleans to reschedule an appointment for one of our patients. The individual had a clinic appointment and would be unable to attend due to being hospitalized. On the surface, it sounds simple enough, but in reality it is more difficult than threading a needle on a roller coaster.

I grabbed patient X's chart and headed to my office. Luckily, the phone number was in his chart so I dialed it up. Now our facility makes calling long distance a bit tricky by giving out codes. The codes go to employees cleared to call long distance. Every now and then, they change something and the codes don't work. Something that should be routine becomes a quest for the Holy Grail. On top of the LD code fiascos that can occur, the phone company sometimes throws out strange rules, like, "You don't need to dial 1." "You need to dial 1, but no area code." and "You can't call there from here."

Things were progressing smoothly until the first Charity employee answered the phone:
Her: Charity hospital
Me: This is John Strain from blah blah Hospital. I am calling about pt. X . . .
Her: Interrupting me - Let me transfer you to patient information.

Me: Listening to another number ring and thinking, "Damn, she didn't hear me out and thinks I want to talk to a patient. Maybe I should call back and try again.

The next her: Patient information.
Me: This is John Strain from blah blah hospital, I am calling to reschedule a patient's appointment at XYZ clinic. (I got smarter this time and left no room for misunderstanding.)
The next her: I am going to have to transfer you to the patient appointment desk. By the way, there are two phone numbers 555-1234 and 555-5678. I will transfer you to the first one.
Me: Thank you. (Thinking: finally, some action.)

The next next her: OB / GYN
Me: (Thinking: What the . . .) I think I may have been transferred to the wrong department. I am calling to reschedule a patient's appointment at the XYZ clinic.
The next next her: OK sir, let me get you the proper number.
On hold: No music
The next next her: The number is 555-9101
Me: Thank you. (Sarcastically thinking: Hmmm, I'll bet this is the right number.)

At this point, I decided not to call the number given to me by the next next her. Instead, I called the second number from the next her.

The next next next next her recording: Thank you for calling the OB / GYN department. . .
Me: Hanging up.
Me: Dialing the number given by the next next her.
Me: Listening - "This is the XYZ clinic, blah blah blah, leave a message."
Me: Leaving message, then hanging up.

I will have to follow up to make sure they got the message, which is as probable as winning the lottery without buying a ticket.

Maybe later I will try something easier like calling the Internal Revenue Service for tax information.

---

Another work related funny: I asked a patient a question in group. "What was one of the best times in your life?" The answer: "The day God spoke to me in an audible voice and told me to go outside. When I went outside, there was an extra terrestrial space ship in the parking lot and I got to talk to them."

Without commenting, I went on to the next patient with the same question. Some things just don't need further comment.

Until the next time
John Strain