See Diva Run

I’m ending July on a happy note. After several weeks of being incapacitated with an injured calf complicated by tight hamstrings, I was able to run 6 miles on Sunday and another 3 miles tonight. I’m sure that rest played an important role in getting me this far, but I’m just as sure that my super light Nike Zoom RS’s (center right) had something to do with it.

The last time I tried to recover from an injury, the turning point was switching to a very light pair of Nike Air Max Motos. The Zoom RS is even lighter. I had been wearing Saucony Omni’s when I got injured, but the second pair never felt quite as good as my original pair. A couple weeks ago I switched to Nike Vomeros with posture control inserts, but they didn’t feel right, either. Then I got the Zooms as a gift from Nike, and decided to give them a try. I’m sure as my recovery progresses and I start increasing my mileage I will want to go back to a heavier shoe, but for now I feel like my feet have wings!

When you run a lot of miles, you go through a few pairs of shoes! These are just the shoes I have lying around the house . I have another pair in the trunk of my car. Some are worn out shoes that I use for yard work, others are shoes that felt OK for the first hundred miles. I have been a fan of Brooks Addictions and the Saucony Omni in the past, but I’ve recently developed a fondness for Nike

You may find yourself at Nike headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon having lunch with Alberto Salazar and Adam and Kara Gaucher, and you may ask yourself — well, how did I get here?

Back from left to right - 714OnTheRun, Snowcrash, DatabaseDiva, 1Miletgo, Edens, Alberto Salazar, Abelisle, JenW, TeeW, LeoRNR, Mighty Weezie, Pmag, Adam Goucher.
Front - Munckee, Monk_Monkey, Kara Goucher, Swoosh Diva, Kynafork.

It all started last September when I bought an iPod Nano and a Nike+ Sport Kit. It sat around in the box for a couple of weeks, but once I started using it, I was hooked! By November I was running 150 miles/month, which was probably a bit much. Eight months, one grandchild, 200 runs and 1250 miles later, I had made it to the number 3 spot on the world wide leader board for women 45-49. That was when I saw a post on the Nike challenge forum that Nike was inviting a dozen of the most “active and intriguing nikeplus.com users” to Beaverton to get product feedback. When I saw the post, I immediately checked my e-mail, and there was my invitation. It pays to be colorful!

I arrived at PDX at 10:20 p.m., picked up my bag and started to head for the door. That was when it occurred to me I didn’t know where to find my ride. I turned and started walking toward the information counter, and that is when I saw the man holding the “swoosh” card. I asked if he was there for me, and he asked if I was Ms. Kelley. He walked me out to the parking garage, where my town car and driver were waiting for me. Darrell drove me into town, and dropped me off at The Westin. When I got to my room, there was a running bag and a shoe box waiting for me. There were actually two pairs of shoes, a pair of Air Zoom/RS that are super light. I put them on and ran laps around my room. There was also a pair of Air Vomeros, an awesome, lightweight running jacket, shorts, socks, a shirt and a running bra. There was also a new Sport Kit, a storage case and an armband, which had been personalized with my Nike+ screen name, DatabaseDiva. I put my treasure away, and crawled into my “Heavenly Bed”, to get some rest for the next day.

We met in the lobby at 7:30. The other members of the group were “Edens”, “Mighty Weezie”, “Monk_Monkey, “JenW”, her husband, “TeeW”, “LeoRNR”, “Snowcrash”, “1miletogo”, “munckee”, “714OnTheRun”, “Pmag” and “abelisle”. Our hostesses, Kyna and Elyse greeted us and led us out to the bus. This was not your everyday bus. It was more like a limousine on the inside, with 2 big screen televisions.

When we arrived at Nike headquarters, the first thing we were told was “no photos”, which is why I don’t have any to share. I’m hoping they will send us the photos they took. The original plan called for a tour, but it was later moved to Thursday, so I missed it. They took us to a conference room behind the library, and served us breakfast. The morning was dedicated to discussion about the Nikeplus.com web site. They showed us the changes that had been released that day, and got our feedback about other issues related to the web site. We also saw “previews of coming attractions”. Believe me, things are just going to keep getting better. Their enthusiasm for the product was really exciting, as we “super users” are also very enthused about the product, and want to see it to continue to develop. Nike is excited about the “super users” as well. They treated us like we were visiting celebrities!

We took a break for lunch, and headed to another building. When we arrived, Alberto Salazar was waiting for us. The “serious” runners in the group were pretty excited about that. He seemed like a very nice man, and I was surprised to see him because of his recent heart attack. He said that he was feeling much better. We were also joined by Adam and Kara Gaucher, who answered questions from the group. Everyone was very nice, but to be honest, I was probably more excited about meeting the people behind Nike+ than about meeting running celebrities. On the other hand, meeting celebrities makes a better story

We spent the afternoon talking about hardware and other upcoming products. The highlight of the afternoon, possibly the entire event was the Amp+ preview. The Amp+ is a remote control for the iPod and sport kit that is built into a wristband. News of this product first leaked last fall, and we’ve been anxiously waiting for it to be available. The product is still in test, but it should be available in the fall, unless you are a super user! We were invited to participate in the test phase. I’m so excited, I can hardly wait to start testing! Our last discussion was about running music, then it was time to head to the Lance Armstrong building and change into our running clothes for a lap around the campus, with a pause to run a lap around the Bowerman track.

I’ve been hurting since Seafair, and running on a very limited basis, but I wanted to join in on the group run. I put on my new, super light Zoom RS’s for luck, and was able to keep up with the front of the pack for most of the trip out. My calf and shin were stiff, and hurting, and I was starting to slow down when I stepped in a hole. It was like someone had shot be in the back of the leg with an arrow. I would have stopped right there but I heard someone say we were at the track. I hobbled to the track and watched while some of the group had a little race. TeeW is a smokin’ fast runner. It was fun to watch him go. Michael had driven out to watch the race, and he gave me a ride back to the Armstrong building. We grabbed our gear and headed to the bus. We were running late, and would have about 30 minutes to shower and get back to the bus to go to dinner.

They took us to a great local restaurant, where we had dinner and drinks with our Nike hosts. It was a great finish to a really great day. It was over much too soon. A town car picked me up at 7:30 this morning and took me to the airport. Those of us who didn’t go home this morning were invited to shop at the Nike employee store, where all of the merchandise is half price. Since I came home with a bag full of free shoes and merchandise, I’m not going to pout.

It was such a fantastic experience meeting all of the great people from the Nike+ design and marketing teams. I’m thrilled to know that we will remain in touch, as they want to continue to get feedback from us. Now I just need to get my leg to heal so I can start running again!

Additional photos available here.

I had been planning to run the Seafair Half Marathon this year, in an effort to improve on my half marathon time. James, aka CPAK, an online friend from the LVM 21 message board was coming from Austin, Texas to run the full. After suffering some knee pain, and a disappointing diagnosis from his orthopedist, he was contemplating his first 6 hour marathon. Since 6 hour marathons are our specialty, I convinced Mr Diva that we should join him for the full. This was right after the San Juan Island Half Marathon, when I was feeling invincible, right before the dreaded calf pain struck.

James & Kris at the pasta dinner — the camera battery was nearly dead, and they are wondering why it is taking so long!

We made plans to join James & his wife Chris (Kris?) at the pasta dinner after the expo.We had a very pleasant dinner at the host hotel, thanks to good company and nice surroundings. The food itself was unremarkable. It was the first time we’ve ever attended an official pasta dinner. James assured us the are usually better. We had a nice visit, but made an early evening of it, with plans to meet at the back of the starting line in the morning. We woke up at 5:30, stumbled around getting ready and headed out the door. A word of caution: if you are already in pain before you get out the door, you are in for a long day. The 25 mile trip to Bellevue went smoothly. We rushed to the park as they were calling the marathoners to the starting line. We got to the start as they were counting down. The gun went off, and we watched the crowd for James. True to his word, he was at the very back. We joined him and the adventure began.

James is the official LVM21 club representative at the Seafair Marathon

The marathon course is nicer than the half marathon course, which is mostly strip malls and residential streets. It is also a bit hilly. The combination of hills, two prior 5Ks in the week and a sinus infection were too much for Mr. Diva, and after two miles he told us to go on without him. Though he claims to be from a flat location, James ran up our hills as if they weren’t there. After 6 miles of enjoying his pleasant company, I realized I was probably slowing him down, so I wished him well and stopped to wait for Mr. Diva. He was better off without me, as he went on to finish in 4:41!

James near mile 3

I didn’t wait all that long before he came running up. Mr. Diva is a trouper. I tried to convince him that my leg hurt, and that we should quit, but he said we had to finish. His goal was to walk up the hills and run down them, which we did, for a while.

This year the marathon had a pirate theme. Even the volunteers got in the spirit.

In addition to their good lucks, the volunteers were also friendly and very supportive.

Though there were plenty of pirates, this was the only pirate ship we saw along the route.

Here is Mr. Diva while he is still able to smile!

Scenery along the marathon route.

As time passed Mr D’s legs started to cramp, and eventually he couldn’t even run down the hills. We didn’t realize just how slow we were until we got our police escort at mile 8. That’s right, we were the official tail end of the marathon! At first I wanted to speed up, but Mr D was in too much pain, so we walked as fast as we could.

I continued to jog the downhill sections, just to give my legs a break from the fast walking. I would then walk slowly until Mr Diva and the escort caught up.

Here is a “self portrait”. If you look carefully you can see the lights on the police car right behind my head. We were getting a little bit silly by this point. We were tired and achy. Mr Diva was absolutely miserable. It could have been a really miserable experience, but the volunteers were wonderful. At one point, two young ladies walked along with us for at least a quarter of a mile, cheering us along the entire way. We received a big welcome at every station, but one was exceptional. They cheered, and then did the wave, while a couple girls did cart wheels. With the police escort behind us, we started feeling like celebrities, or visiting royalty. I can’t say enough to express our gratitude to these volunteers for brightening a difficult day.

Though I thought it would never happen, we finally reached the last turn, and waved goodbye to our police escort. They were with us for nearly 2 1/2 hours. I bet they were really tired of looking at my butt by then!

For the first time in race history, Mr D did not want to sprint the finish. We walked across the mat, holding hands. It was very romantic in a hot, sweaty, foul smelling, miserable and painful way. We crossed the finish line with 5:58 on the clock. Even though we walked most of the last 20 miles, according to my iPod we were never slower than 14:50, and our average for the last 20 miles was 13:38.

We were greeted at the finish by the Seafair Pirates. Since we were the last two finishers before the course closed, we got a big reception. It was awesome! The lady who removed my chip noticed that my other shoe was untied and tied it for me. I guess I didn’t look like I could bend over and do it myself. I probably couldn’t!

My hand was a bit shaky, so I didn’t get a very clear shot of this pirate.

Even though we came in right at the 6 hour mark, there were plenty of oranges, bananas and bagels waiting for us. After completing the entire marathon on nothing but water and Gleukose, I was hungry and ready to scarf down as many orange slices as I could.

We stopped to sit on the concrete ledge, and met Dharam (Paul) Piplani. The Seafair Marathon was his 808th, after having run a 34 mile ultra the day before!

In addition to meeting Paul, we got to see Bob Dolphin, a local marathon legend. Seafair was his 410th marathon. Talk about good company! Except for the pain and blisters, being at the back of the pack was an amazing experience. For all of the races that we set a goal of not being last, this time our goal was to finish, and we did. According to the race results there were two other finishers who came in after the 6 hour cut off.

We received the white short sleeved technical shirt as the finisher’s shirt (it says finisher on the back). I bought the turquoise shirt at the expo because it is my favorite color, and it had the cool pirate on it. It doesn’t take much to get my money! The medal is nice, but I’m not sure what the design represents.

Scenery/location: Good
Spectators: OK
Course: Challenging/hilly
Aid stations: Good
Volunteers: Excellent!
Bathrooms: OK
Shirt & medal: Good
Post race food: Good

We arrived just a few minutes before the start of the Run of the Mill 5K in Mill Creek. We were pre-registered, and were able to dash in at the last minute, pick up our bibs, and pin them on in the starting corral. There were 3 groups, runners, joggers and walkers. We lined up with the joggers, which seemed like a good idea at the time, as I’ve been limping around on a sore calf for two weeks, and Mr. D has been suffering from allergies and a sinus infection. There were over 500 of us, which is a pretty large group for most local 5Ks.

The crowd took off, but the joggers weren’t going very fast and things got congested in a hurry. The first leg was an out and back, and when the lead runners caught up with the outbound joggers it was like 5:00 p.m. on I-5 in downtown Everett. I was starting to feel claustrophobic, and when I saw an opportunity to move into an opening, I took it. Eventually I was out in the open, and able to relax and enjoy the run. The course had some hills, but they weren’t very steep. We ran on streets and trails. It was a very nice course, with plenty of shade. This was a good thing, as it was warm and humid.

Two weeks of running combined with achy, tired legs started to take their toll, and I was tempted to join the others who were walking the course, when a song came up on my iPod that reminded me of someone who lives in Las Vegas, where it has been 114 all week. She gets up at 4:00 in the morning to run during the coolest part of the day. The coolest part of her day was warmer than the weather I was running in, so I decided to “run it out”. When I saw the finish line clock it was approaching 29:00. I tried to sprint it out, but there wasn’t a chance. I finished in 29:06. The finish chute was even more crowded than the race start. We were told to wait in the order in which we finished, but I started to feel faint, and I knew if I stayed in the chute I was going to pass out. I told the woman next to me that I was going to faint, and she was kind enough to take the tag from my bib. I left the chute and walked around until my head cleared. By that time Mr. D was crossing the finish line. Although there was plenty of food, and a really great street fair, we were feeling tired, so we headed home.

This event was a fund raiser for Lance Armstrong’s LiveStrong foundation. It was well organized. The course was very pleasant and not too hilly. The post-race festivities looked like a lot of fun. I hope I’m feeling better next year, as I’d like to run this one again.

Event: Run of the Mill 5K
Date: 7/7/2007
Place: Mill Creek, WA

The Yankee Doodle Dash is one of the few races that is actually close to home. It is sponsored by the Everett YMCA. We ran it a couple years ago, and had no problems with our mail-in registration. This year they offered online registration, so I used it. When we tried to pick up our bibs, we were referred to the office, where a long line of online registrants was waiting to re-register using a paper form. Apparently the YMCA insists on getting a signature. While there were 6 people at the desk, only 2 were dealing with the long line. After re-registering on paper, we had to recite all of the registration information to the kid behind the desk, who then wrote it on the bottom of the bib. By the time we got our bibs the smallest t-shirts they had left were size large. I resent the idea that it is OK to give a small person a large t-shirt, so I didn’t bother taking one. The race itself was fairly well organized. The course starts on a minor hill, but the rest is flat. There is a water stop near the half way point, but it only had one volunteer, and he only had two hands. He gave his two cups to the runners in front of me, and I wasn’t willing to stop and wait. It was surprisingly warm for 8:30 in the morning in western Washington. The heat and grass pollen caused a mild asthma attack that made it difficult for me to get started. I felt tired, and was happy to see the finish line. I don’t think I could have gone much further today. I coasted down hill toward the finish chute, happy it was almost over. When I saw the clock was approaching 28:00, I got a small kick, just to make sure I got in ahead of 28:00. We didn’t stick around for the results but my finish time was in the 27:50’s. I’m anxious for them to post the online results so I can see the actual time.

Next year, I think we will run the Firecracker 5000 instead.

Event: Yankee Doodle Dash 5K
Date: 7/4/2007
Place: Everett, WA