Dinner & a Run

I have decided to give Katie a Christmas present. Despite my soon-to-be-obvious lack of writing skills and my general dislike of forming coherent sentences, here I am. Making my first ever blog post.

Tonight I ran for 30 minutes. And was happy when the timer beeped. See…For some I reason had this brilliant idea of going for a run AFTER dinner. Because then I wouldn’t have to rush to get there on time, or worry about my wet hair when its 40 degrees outside. I could leisurely eat my Haggar-cafeteria dinner without any of these cares. No problem, right?

Right! I did keep my dinner and I did run well. Which is surprising because I know that you should never eat before activities. Mom and Dad can probably tell everyone exactly why that is, but, nonetheless, everyone knows this. And even though, this very basic, very fundamental rule of exercise slipped my mind tonight, I was not punished for it, thankfully. (although I do not plan on pushing my luck)

As for my life right now, it is largely full of lectures, homework, reading Beowulf, getting whooped up in WordsWithFriends, eating and writing (blogposts, essays, lab reports, etc.). Wishing ever so much that the time I see my brothers wear the wonderful sweaters, eat Nan’s pie, go run with the family, have Cub cry when I hold him, wait on Mom to open up her presents, go shopping with Katie, give Jacob a hard time and hear Dad’s stories (and constant reminder about getting Mom a present) comes quickly. Christmas come fast!

Turkey Trotting and Rule Following

It's Katie reporting from Southern California.

Jacob's Uncle Tom and Aunt Martha make a tradition of turkey trotting at Dana Point on Thanksgiving morning. They've been very unofficial about it in recent years which means we kinda just jump in with the joggers. This is the third year we've done this.

This year I got kicked out by a race official because I wasn't sporting a number.

OF COURSE this would happen to me.

I'm so royally afraid of breaking any and all rules; Jacob teases me incessantly about this. He's no big time rebel, but he has no problem breaking rules in, what he deems, harmless ways. He grew up camping and building fires and swimming where he wasn't supposed to. He listened to contraband Discmans and watched extra contraband TVs while living in the Mennonite community. He's the guy in the car at the airport who comfortably chills out at the "Loading Only" curb until the guard forces him to move along.

I'm a rule follower.

This is probably because most of my stories of breaking rules end up as stories of me getting caught.

So yes...I got kicked out of the Dana Point Turkey Trot.

How did I respond? I moved out of the race area, meandered a ways feeling sorry for myself...and then when the runners doubled back I recklessly jumped in with the pack.

I was quite impressed with myself -- even if I did spend the whole time scanning the crowds for race officials and making sure I was always jogging in the middle of a clump of people and occasionally moving up onto the sidewalk to give an innocuous cheer...

So maybe I USED to be a rule follower...Thanks to my husband I've become a neurotic rule breaker.

In other training news. I have a long run planned for tomorrow on the beach. I'm nervous about it because I'm SUPER sore. Not from my illicit 5K, but from the pre-Thanksgiving-dinner soccer game we played yesterday afternoon.

I'm not a very good soccer player, I wouldn't say I'm a good athlete generally.

No. I'm scrappy and I like to run. That's what I maximize on in organized sports, so yesterday I ran up and down the field after the ball and fell down a lot. Which means that today I can barely walk.

Happy Running, Fams! I'm getting excited! I've also recruited Michael Falconer to run with (but probably out in front) of us!!

230!

Q. How does a high point in your life also become a low point?
A. When that high point, 230 in my case, is followed by three merciless letters "lbs"

Following Dad's excellent introduction to the family's training update blog, it seemed appropriate to review the first holiday run of the journey, namely the Thanksgiving Morning Workout with Dad, Mom, Lily, Rob, and me (Jonathan), to date the largest assembly our expedition's cast of characters.

Though possessing neither the best writing skills of the family nor the best chance of completing our company's goal to run the Seattle Marathon on June 24, 2012 together, I do think it fitting that I break the ice with my first post to Ramsay Rerun, because, well, the ice has the best chance of breaking with me standing on it.

But before I go too far, let me think out loud for a moment and give an appropriate title capturing the sense of yesterday's effort:

Perhaps "The Ramsay Assault on the Seattle Marathon Launches in a Big Way

(Oops, walked right into that one.)

Okay. "The Wait for the Ramsay Clan Training Plan is over!"

(Definitely not.)

How about, "Is it Penguin? Is it a Refrigerator? No, Its Jonathan running an 11 minute mile"

(Sigh)

Seeing that my reduced metabolism is killing my creativity I will relent and begrudgingly entitle this post Robert's favorite new nickname for his eldest brother, "230"

:(

Unbelievable.

Well, though there's plenty, that's enough about me.

Yesterday on a 65 degree and beautiful Thanksgiving morning, we all piled into Mom's Sonata and cruised to the FHS track for a group run and general pump up session. Round and round we "Walk-Ran" the track. Lily, Rob, Dad, and Me while Mom rehabbed her freshly scoped knee.

This is the only picture mom, equipped with IPhone, took from the Run.




(Note: There are by way of comparison approximately 58 pictures of her grandson, Jake, on that same phone, which I will include unashamedly, because apparently that's the best way to get traffic to a blog post in this family.)








In all we spent an hour and a half, plodding around the familiar clay-colored and spongy oval with lots of talking (mostly dad), lots of heavy breathing (mostly me), and lots of fun. We got refreshed in the Dr. John version of marathon training by Jeff Galloway and highlighted the experience with a quick mile...quicker for some than others.

John-7:45
Lily-8:30
Robert-7:01
Jonathan -cough- "230" -7:24

Not too shabby considering only Dad had been consistently running leading up to this morning. Robert nearly eclipsed 7 minutes, and would have, if he had worn a watch, and I had not been holding him back for the first 3 laps. I had felt pretty good about myself, spare tire and all. Here I was keeping up with an NCAA Student-Athlete. I was laboring, but all in all keeping it together. That was, at least, until we entered the back stretch of the third lap. When sweet Robert asked meekly, "do you mind if go faster for this final lap?" My heart sank as I mustered a weak, "sure" and then before the sound had dissipated in the certainly warming Fredericksburg November air, he was gone. My dignity the only thing going with him as he disappeared around the turn.

Well, the gun has gone off and the herd has started. We are westward bound. I am excited and inspired, and not just because I stepped on the scale the day AFTER Thanksgiving and it read...wait for it...225! Rather because this blog affords us the opportunity to share the highs, lows, laughs, tears (?), and mostly, the stories of our journey which may have begun from various places across the country, culminates in Seattle, WA.

See you there!

Reruns

For those of you in the family I suspect you immediately understand the title. For other welcome guests and contributors some explanation is in order.  We love reruns.  Movies of course like Sound of Music, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and more of late the long version of Pride and Prejudice and You've Got Mail and Six Man State Championship Games.  But we also love to rerun restaurants i.e. Mamacitas, Hildas, and Red Lobster (Nana's influence) over and over again.  Rerun vacation destinations--really only Montell.  My kids have informed me though, now that they are out in the world, that not everyone does this.

Now the next Ramsay rerun:  Seattle, June 23, 2012.  Yes, Scott's adopted home and Robert's birthday but I mean a real rerun. This blog starts the countdown to the Ramsay and friends second marathon: Seattle in 258 days.

Most of you know that in April 2008 we had a memorable marathon in Rome which included Jonathan, Kate, Scott, and me and friends Robert Bourquein and Glencora Cowan with logistical help from Nanna June, Suzie, Jacob, and Robbie.  Robert and Lily had unavoidable conflicts and we reassured them there would be another chance. 

Why this blog?  Jonathan made an effort in blogging before Rome but the rest of us did not catch the bug--unfortunately.  This blog is to partly record the journey but also serve as an encouragement.  I hope that family and friends will contribute stories of good runs and bad or even just how long your long run was. 

Let us begin:  Katie and I ran/walked 8 miles today with only one bathroom break.  The rest of the family will be stunned to know that she did most of the talking.  For me it brought back fond memories of our running together in 2003 --  alas,  a failed marathon training attempt.  It was probably the destination -- Amarillo -- what was I thinking?  And, made me look forward to Xmas when Katie returns and we may get in a family run.  I still am not adjusted to her being in California. I know it makes sense, and it's where she and Jacob and Jake need to be, but it still leaves me unsettled and longing for something different.

That's my running story today.