Okay, I'm setting up a new blog now. It's at http://www.pyjammy.com/blog. Easy enough! I'm still working on a name for it. And the design. So it'll be in a state of flux for a few days until I'm happy with it.

I don't know what I'm going to do. Just a regular blog now? Hmmm. Well, this one will always be up. For posterity's sake. Ha ha.

My race report is up! I'll probably add more pictures at some point, when I get more from Chris, but for now, here it is! Click here or use this address: http://marathon.pyjammy.com/report_1.html

Done! I've done it! For now, I'll just post the message I sent to the Dead Runner's Society (the running mailing list I belong to) but when I get home, I'll do a whole page with pictures, mile-by-mile details, all the good stuff. Today, I feel fantastic. Much less sore (except for some blisters) and the elation is building. Sunday I was too exhausted and shocked to feel much afterwards. Yesterday I was too sore, but today...ah yes. Today is a good day. :D (Also, last night, Marianne and I went searching for Declan, an old friend of ours from when we lived here. He has his own pub in Islington, but we didn't know where. But we found him! It was all very exciting.) So here is what I sent to the DRS: It is now Monday. The day after the marathon. Boy, are my quads sore. Ha ha! I am reeeally looking forward to tomorrow, when I've heard the pain is at its worst. Yay! I'll actually write a better race report when I get back, as I don't have the details with me (what I wrote down, mile splits, plus the photos we took, etc.) So, my goal was to finish in under 6 hours. I finished in 5:57:36, right on target! Here are some of my splits, according to the london marathon website. the 10K mats weren't working, apparently, when i crossed it, which i noticed as we ran over it. oh well. it was around 1:20, i think. http://london.championchip.de/2002/detail.php?_id=31448 I never hit the wall. Highlights: Lots of fun costumes. We ran pretty much the whole way with a red telephone named Dave. I think he ended up finishing a little in front of us. :P We saw the Penguin leading the 5:30 pace group, and we were going to run with them, but they kind of smoked us at about mile 4. :P ha ha! Anyway, I just thought it was really cool that we saw him. Neat! At mile 18, all of a sudden, a blister on my left fourth toe popped. It was a disgusting feeling, but fortunately, we were directly next to some paramedics. Lucky! They bandaged me up (and we took a photo) and sent me on my way. The band-aid didn't really help, and for a few minutes, I was really really scared it was going to finish me off. It was excrutiatingly painful, and I couldn't walk on it, much less run. But amazingly, the pain went away after about half a mile of walking, and I was able to run on it with no problem after that. At around mile 24, Big Ben, my favorite icon of London, came into view. It always makes me happy to see it, and this time, when I saw it, I started sobbing and gasping, but not really crying. I didn't let myself go. And then, I just got to this point where I had to just dig deep down and concentrate. So I would pick a spot on the road about 10 feet in front of me, and run to it, pick another one, run to it, etc, etc. The spectators were really thick at this point, and the runners were sparse, so there were huge crowds screaming "go pam! go chris!" which was great, but i really couldn't pay attention to it. another thing was, when chris gets near the end of a long run, he starts talking and cheering us on, and getting encouraging, when all i want to do is concentrate. i don't want anyone talking to me. but that's just the difference between us. so i just tuned him out. ;) So then, at about mile 25 or a bit after that, I was able to pull myself together (it's hard to run and cry at the same time!!)and enjoy the crowds. As I said, I never hit the wall or anything, but I was *tired*. I only managed about 2 hours of sleep the night before, and getting to the race was a bit of an ordeal (more on that in a later email) so after running nearly 6 hours, yes, i was sleepy. :) So we walked a little bit when the signs said "only 800 meters to go." You know, 800 meters sounds like so little, but it's really half a mile, right? But we started running, turned the corner at Buckingham Palace, and the gasping and crying threatened to start again. Didn't want to ruin my finish line photo, though! But Chris and I managed to grab hands and raise them in front of the finish line. I finished one place in front of him. :P yay! So, that's all for now. I'm tired. But I didn't loaf around today. Walked around, went to a museum (now that's a bad idea! too much standing around!), walked around hyde park, and now, found an internet cafe.

Ahhhh....here are the nerves! Eeeeep! This may be the last time I post until after the race, depending on computer availability. Ack! Everything from here on out will be written down in my (gasp!) paper journal, which I'll type in when I get home. So I won't miss anything.

Ha ha! I just read Ian's diary entry for yesterday. I hope my hair can live up to his expectations! It's definitely red. tee hee!

Leaving in 24 hours. Plane takes off in 24 hours and 5 minutes, to be exact. Well, is supposed to. Am all packed, basically. Just need to do some rearranging so it all fits. I woke up at 6 a.m. this morning, for no reason except to make sure I'm sleepy enough to go to sleep at 7 p.m. tonight. Of course, the two Tylenol PM I plan to take should ensure that anyway, but if I'm not at least a little tired, I'll just be awake and zombie-like. Going to wake up at 3 a.m., watch some TV (will probably rent a movie), eat a snack, get everything together. Then we're leaving for the airport around 6, going to check in early to get my seat assignments (if I end up with a window seat, I'm going to be very upset) and then we're going to Denny's for breakfast. Yum! Last night I ran around the park just once. I was upset when I left work yesterday, for work-related reasons, so going to the park and running in the beautiful weather cheered me up. Fortunately, it cleared up sometime yesterday afternoon, so the gloom of the past two days is gone. I actually went around in under 20 minutes, which may be a new record for me. Since I went so fast, I didn't go around again. Don't want to hurt anything or wear myself out. Now, just need to get through work today, and I'm home freeeeee!

Five days...five days...five days...eeep! Last night I packed. Tomorrow night before I go to bed at 7 p.m., I have to do some laundry and pack last-minute things, but that'll be it. I feel ready. Strangely, though, I don't feel all that nervous. Or excited. What's wrong with me? I think it may be the weather, actually. Rainy and dreary. (Yes, that makes me a little sad. And yes, I still want to move to England. I assure you, rainy and dreary in New Orleans is not at all charming.) Anyway, I guess it's not such a bad thing that I'm not extremely nervous or excited, because I'm getting enough sleep at least now, which I wouldn't be getting if I was nervous/excited. If the weather clears up, I'll probably go for a three miler this evening, but to be honest, I'm not all that concerned about getting in these little three milers this week. We'll go for a short walk/jog on Friday when I meet Chris at the hotel, hopefully that will get us on track, jetlag-wise.

Oooohhhhh....getting closer! Now the marathon is less than a week away! I really never thought this day would come. Yeeeeeps! I think I've got everything I need, now I just need to pack it in my suitcase. I'm determined to only bring one there, but I'll pack an empty one for all my books I'm bringing back. As usual. Ran 8 miles on Saturday. Weather was gorgeous, just a beautiful day for a run. The park was full of family reunions, picnics, etc, so every quarter mile or so, I'd pass a big group of people barbecuing, and the smell would be torturously good. Then a while later...a crawfish boil. Then another barbecue. Yummmmy. Anyway, even though it was a relatively short run, it was my long run for the week, so I practiced the walking 2 minutes every mile, and I felt great at the end. I think it's really going to work well for me. Woo hoo!

I am a bad, bad friend! I didn't even mention that we hung out with my lovely friend Ann last night. (A different Ann. I know way too many Ann(e)s.) This one was my freshman roommate in college. Wow, the fun we had. Mostly involving drinking, annoying our male friends in the dorm next door, drinking cans of diet iced tea and smoking a lot. Ahhh, youth. We were placed together, we didn't know each other ahead of time, but we bonded immediately when we discovered we wore the same type of contact lenses. Dorks! ha ha. Love her, and got to hang out with her at the show last night, which was a treat! And now she's engaged and just bought a house with her fiancee. She's a grown up. But thankfully doesn't act like one. :)

Sleepy, soooooo sleepy. Want to take a long nap. But still have 7.5 hours left of work. How on earth am I going to survive? Have not had coffee this morning. May have to go treat myself to good coffee. A walk to the coffee shop and a coffee. That should wake me up. We left Baton Rouge at 6:30 this morning, which wouldn't be so bad if had gotten in last night before 12:30, but we didn't. So I'm (barely) functioning on very little sleep (for me. I know there are people who are fine with 5.5 hours of sleep, but I am not one of them!) Regardless of how tired I am today, though, it was worth it. Got my hair done (shorter, shiny, stripey, red) and then had dinner with my mom and Jack and then Kristina and I went on to the Bayou to see Mike's band play. It was really strange, we talked to the bassist for a while before they started playing. I had never really had a conversation with him before, and he always seemed scary and not sociable, but he's actually quite chatty and friendly. Funny, having a lighthearted conversation with a guy in leather trousers. And, since I designed the band's website, I got mentioned twice by the lead singer. I was cool. Except there were only about 30 people in the bar. Ha ha. It'll be more exciting when they play Madison Square Garden. Oh yeah, and then when we got home, my mom gave me my Easter present - a (not very) crisp $100 bill! Woo hoo! For my trip! Yay! I was stressing a little about having enough spending money, so it'll definitely come in handy. Yay! Of course, now I'll have no excuse not to go to Harrod's to get her favorite bath stuff. Must not forget or I will be in big trouble. I wonder if Stansted has a Harrod's duty-free shop like Heathrow and Gatwick. Hmmm. Must check on that. This weekend I have to get all the little odds & ends I need for my trip. Toiletries, books to read on the plane(s), presents for Marianne and Michael (I'm staying with Marianne and Michael wants me to bring him some cigarettes. Feels a little like I'm visiting someone in prison.) etc, etc.

Curses to the blog! I've written about my anniversary run twice, and twice it's been deleted. Grrr. Ran 3.5 miles. One loop alone, one loop with Kristina (first with Kristina, second alone.) Was good. Ran 1/2 mile in 5:19. Fast! I can't believe people can run entire miles at that pace. This morning ran one loop around the park. Hey, I'm tapering! I can run as little as I want! (so I say.) A fast (20:20) 1.77 miles. Hmm. That's an 11:30 pace. Whew! Going to Baton Rouge after work today to get my hair done (yay! yay! yay!)...dyed dark red with lighter red highlights. And a haircut. So I'll look nice for the race. :) And then Mike's band is playing at the Bayou, this horrible, dank, grungy bar that we used to hang out in during college. Blecch. The worst part is, an ex-boyfriend and his evil friend used to work there. I hope they don't still. Ew.

Happy 1 Year Anniversary to meeeee!!!! One year ago today, I started running. Or started building up to being able to run. Wow! I'm running 5 miles this afternoon. I suppose that will be my new running anniversary tradition. Hmmm. Yay!

got my number! got my number! i'm #26104. red start. woo hoooooo! yay! :D must...calm...down!!!

Crescent City Classic 10K Race Report - March 30, 2002 I suppose it wouldn't be completely fair to call this a race report, because I really only treated it like a leisurely 6.2 mile run with Kristina. It was too hot and humid, not to mention crowded, to really run it like a race. Plus, I'm tapering! Don't want to hurt myself! It was a really fun race, and in spite of the weather, a world record was set. That's kind of cool, being in a race where a world record was set. Our time was about 3x the world record setter's. ha ha! We finished in 1:25:42 by my watch. Splits: 1: 13:11 2: 13:18 3: 14:21 (ahh, here's when we started to walk a bit more than just the water stops) 4: 13:55 5: 15:50 (huh? surely that mile was mismarked! ha ha, okay, maybe not) 6.2: 15:04 (yeah, we sped up a lot at the end) So, overall, not bad. I mean, I can only get better now! I liked the distance, though. I'd like to do another 10K after the marathon. Unfortunately, there aren't many in New Orleans. I'll have to find one. After the race Sarah had a crawfish boil. That was fun, but I still have heartburn from the spices. I'm such a wuss, I don't have the constitution to eat spicy Louisiana food. Yesterday morning, Kristina and I had an Easter egg hunt in each other's rooms. It was fun. I got Pez. Then we went to brunch (it was my mom's treat since she couldn't come see me.) Yesterday evening I went for my 3 mile run, really scheduled for today, but I needed to get out of the house and the weather was gorgeous. Chris got his confirmation stuff on Saturday. I got my travel documents. We each need what the other has received. I hope I get my race confirmation stuff today. Woo hoo! Chris's number is 26108. :D Oh no, it's April Fool's Day. I must remember not to listen to anything anyone says. Very important. I am not gullible!