Crawl, Carol, CRAWL!!!

Now is the Time on Sprockets When We Whine

2012-01-29T09:05:00.004-05:00

I think we may all hit this point at some time during our fundraising and training efforts. I woke up yesterday having some serious doubts about this whole NJ Half Marathon thing. My fundraising's not going as well as planned, I'm worried about the finishing time limit for the race, and lately, I'm just not that into pushing it for some reason.

My final fundraising amount of $2,150.00 isn't due until mid-April. BUT... I need to commit to raising the full amount by mid-February. Once I re-commit, what a lot of people don't realize is that it's then on my head to either raise $2,150.00 in donations, or have any shortfall come out of my pocket. I think that's the part that I'm really not sure about at this point. I really can't take on another financial obligation, even a potential one.

According to the official info, there's also a strict 3:15 (that's 3 hours and 15 minutes for you non-runners) time limit on the half, otherwise you do not qualify as a finisher and do not get a medal. My current finishing time on a half is 3:31.

If I really run/walk the whole thing, the 3:15 shouldn't be a problem, but I'm just in a funky "I'm sick of asking people for money and getting up and out of the house before 7:30 on a Saturday morning in the cold" kind of a place.

Feelin' Groovy

I did manage to get off the pity pot long enough to get to Astoria Park for our 8 mile Queensboro Bridge Run/Walk/Whatever, which was followed by a group brunch at Sparrow Tavern. Walking across the bridge and back with my mentor, Susan, and team mate Nikki helped put things into a better perpective, but the jury's still out for me on this one.

Yesterday was definitely one of those "dark days of training". I'm seriously hoping it will pass. Now, if this had been Disney, it might've been a whole 'nother story.

Holiday Shop & Help the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

2011-12-13T09:40:00.000-05:00

Now through Saturday, December 17th.

Thanks to a generous offer, a portion of sales from this online Scentsy party will be donated to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Scentsy products make your world smell real good, and include wickless alternatives to scented candles, room sprays and more! Order between now and December 17th, and not only will your order arrive in time for Christmas, but a portion of the proceeds will be donated to Team in Training on my behalf.

https://carlamccrory.scentsy.us/Buy?partyId=64642877

I've Made the "BIG TIME"

2011-11-22T13:55:00.001-05:00

A picture of me in my nun's habit as "Sister Mary Incognito" during Sunday's "Race to Deliver" is featured on the New York Road Runners web site here: Race to Deliver - Faces of the Race

"Race to Deliver - Faces of the Race
November 20, 2011

With a sendoff from the Broadway cast of Sister Act and an emotional tribute from Food Network star Sandra Lee, runners in Sunday's 4-mile Race to Deliver had plenty of inspiration to spur them on. Many got in on the act, so to speak, running in nuns' habits for a chance to win tickets to the hit Broadway show."

This picture was taken before the start of the race. Gotta love my halo, no?:-)

It was a fantastic race, and lots of fun! I highly recommend it!

Nike+Women's Half Marathon January 2012

2011-11-12T19:30:00.000-05:00

I'm thinking of signing up for this. It benefits the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, the registration fee is $40.00, and you can run it anywhere, as long as you synch with your Nike+

Nike+Women's Half Marathon January 15, 2012 Registration
(https://www.signmeup.com/site/online-event-registration/79166#.Tr8OjUEsl18.blogger)

"Description: Want more NWM? You got it, sister. Lace up and sync up for the Nike+ Women’s Half Marathon!

When: January 15, 2012.

Where: Run where you are, anywhere in the world. Plot the course of your choice with Nike+ and join us in crossing a virtual finish line on the big day.

Distance: Minimum of a Half Marathon (13.1 miles or more).

Reward: Sync with a Nike+ device to nikeplus.com and get an exclusive finisher bracelet designed by Hurley (mailed 4-6 weeks after the run).*"

UPDATE: I've decided that I'm going to sign up for this instead of torturing myself next month with the Ted Corbitt 15K in Central Park. The Nike+ Women's Half Marathon will benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, a cause I'm very involved with (http://pages.teamintraining.org/nyc/nj12/crawlcarolcrawl). Some of my Team in Training team mates may also be doing this as a group thing and I can join them. Or,if the weather sucks, I can always choose a route that starts and ends at home. Can't beat the flexibility!

A VERY Belated Update and More...

2011-11-03T07:59:00.003-04:00

For some of you who follow me on facebook, this is old news. I've been neglecting the blog, so for some of you, it's new news. Plus, there's some new news at the end.

The Hamptons Half - It was hot, it was disgustingly humid, and overall, it was an interesting race. But, I finished and now my 13.1 is over and done!

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, you can see me as I walk across the finish line of the Hamptons Half Marathon! You can also see some good and bad pictures of me taken during the race here:

http://www2.brightroom.com/87977/2899

Now for the new news. I just signed up this week to train for the New Jersey Marathon with Team in Training. If you would like to help blood cancer research and patient support programs, you can do so by making a donation to my fundraising campaign at http://pages.teamintraining.org/nyc/nj12/crawlcarolcrawl

Each donation helps accelerate finding a cure for leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. Nearly 958,000 Americans are battling these blood cancers. I am hoping that my participation in Team In Training will help bring them hope and support.

On behalf of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, thank you very much for your support. I greatly appreciate your generosity.

Round, and around, and around we go

2011-09-14T06:55:00.001-04:00

What a Tuesday night workout at the Astoria Park track looks like:-)

Pictures from My "Other Life"

2011-09-12T09:50:00.000-04:00

9/11 10th Anniversary Weekend 9/2011

In addition to training for marathons and half marathons and raising funds for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training, I'm also a 9/11 WTC area survivor, and member of the Ground Zero Worker and Volunteer Community. This past weekend marked the 10th anniversary of 9/11, and I was once again honored and privileged to spend it in the company of the most incredible people on the planet.

As some of you know, many WTC first responders are now getting sick with various types of cancers, including leukemia and lymphoma. Some are going through treatments for which they have no medical coverage. Cancer is not, surprisingly, considered one of the 9/11 related medical conditions covered under the recently passed James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act (http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/report-no-benefits-for-9-11-cancer-victims-20110726). They are also now broadening the scope of 9/11 related health issues, and cancers like leukemia to those in the Wall Street area and beyond (http://www.911healthnow.org/911healthnow/Not_Just_Responders.html). Some have, sadly, lost their battles with cancer.

My two worlds are now joined.

http://pages.teamintraining.org/nyc/hampton11/cmartzinek

The Weather Carol: Hurricane Irene Weekend #2

2011-08-28T10:47:00.000-04:00

Why I Run/Walk to Save Lives

2011-08-06T09:28:00.004-04:00

Run, Carol, RUN!!!

I’m doing it AGAIN!!!

I’ve walked 26.2 miles in the Walt Disney World Marathon in January 2010 and run-walked 15 out of 23.5 miles in the Walt Disney World Marathon in January 2011. Now it’s time to up the ante a bit and Run, Carol, RUN!!! not one, but TWO half marathons this year!

In order to do so, I need to raise at least $2,000.00 before August 31st for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to help people facing blood cancers like leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s lymphoma and myeloma.

THIS YEAR: I've signed up as a Team in Training Mentor for the Hamptons Half Marathon, and will also be signing up for another half marathon later this year! I’ll be training to run/walk not one, but TWO half marathons to support The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training, AND helping new team members get the most out of their Team in Training experience. That’s a combined total of 32 weeks of training, and at least 26.2 miles of racing!

Why do I do this, you ask? For starters, I've lost way too many friends and family members to various forms of cancer, including leukemia & lymphoma. I also do it so that I can hear GREAT news - like my friend who just got her scan results back and is STILL CANCER-FREE over a year after her last chemo treatment. I do it for the cancer survivors on my team, and for people like my team mate Andrew, who has been training during chemo, and just finished his last chemo treatment a few weeks ago.

Please visit my website to donate

http://pages.teamintraining.org/nyc/hampton11/cmartzinek

If you would like to send a check instead, please contact me for the mailing address. Checks should be made out to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Please include: Carol Martzinek – Hamptons 09-2011 in the memo section of your check.

Donate $50 or more, and I will prominently display your name or your company’s name in multi-colored Sharpie ink on one of my arms or legs during the marathon. Your donation can make such a huge difference. It funds research, assists patients with small reimbursements for treatment expenses, provides training for peer support programs, and most important- it brings hope to so many. Please donate what you can. I know the economy is tough on us all, but please think as big and dig as deep as you're able.

Every dollar counts, and at least 75% of your donation goes directly into cancer research and patient support programs. Also, your donation is 100% tax deductible.

Every single dollar makes a difference! Here's a breakdown of where your money could go:

•$25 could pay the taxi fare for a patient's ride home from the hospital after treatment
•$50 could register one person to be a bone marrow donor
•$100 could pay the cost of 4 patient's chemotherapy drug prescription co-pays
•$300 could train 25 peer volunteers to provide emotional support to newly diagnosed patients
•$1,000 could allow a patient to meet with health care specialists to design and discuss their disease and treatment plan
•$3,000 could provide a patient with a one month supply of Gleevec (a life-saving drug, developed through LLS research funding, used to treat chronic myelogenous leukemia)

***PLUS, if your company offers matching gifts, your donation can be DOUBLED, or even TRIPLED! Be sure to check the “matching gift” box on the web site or donor form.***

Did you know that discoveries originally made in the treatment of leukemia are now also being used successfully in the treatment other cancers?

Thanks for taking the time to read and for anything you can do to help me
Run, Carol, RUN!!!

It Was a Hot One - Like Seven Ninjas in the Midday Sun

2011-07-24T11:57:00.000-04:00

RELAX! I know those aren't the lyrics!

All I can say is that I am amazed that we not only survived our originally-scheduled 5+ mile run/walk to the Roosevelt Island lighthouse and back in the oppressive NYC heatwave, but we upped the ante! When we got to the lighthouse someone who shall remain nameless, for reasons totally beyond comprehension (including her own) asked the rest of the run/walk group if they wanted to try doing the rest of the way around the island. For reasons equally beyond comprehension, they agreed. So, we did, for a total of somewhere between 7.2 and 8.2 miles, depending on which gadget was doing the tracking.

Given both the record temperatures and the totally suckazoidal air quality, I opted to skip the "run" part of "run/walk" yesterday, and focus instead on race walking it. Very. Wise. Decision. It not only kept me from being totally miserable to be around in the heat, it also helped shift my mental focus. I've been struggling a bit with run/walking in the hot weather, not so much in terms of my legs or feet, but in terms of my breathing. It's also become a bit of a mental struggle, since I don't feel I'm doing as well as I "should" be doing. Focusing on race walking yesterday helped remind me that I'm a very good, strong, fast walker. It felt really good to be able to put in the extra mileage and still feel reasonably human while doing it. Yes, there were some torturously hot stretches (I've re-named Vernon Blvd to BURNIN' Blvd), but there were also several people out there with garden hoses who were very willing to hose us down upon request. The added bonus is that now we know where the sprinklers are on Roosevelt Island!

We also had a chance to see some interesting and cool stuff, like these three pieces:

Overall, it went much better than I had imagined it while I was getting ready the night before! I'm also really glad I brought some non-sweaty clothes to change into afterwards!

Things that make training sessions worth it.

2011-07-13T21:54:00.002-04:00

The rainbow during our training session tonight. Made doing laps around the track much more interesting.

In addition to the beautiful rainbow, a few other things kept me going around the track tonight. One was the sight of my team mate Andrew ahead of me. I figured if Andrew was out there running, there was no way I could wimp out. I had to keep my rear in gear! The other was reminding myself that I was dedicating tonight's training to honor Leibby Kletzky, the 8 year old boy who was missing, and later found murdered in Brooklyn this week. These are the kind of things that keep me going some days.

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Things That Make it All Worthwhile

2011-06-25T14:29:00.002-04:00

Today ended up being a non-running, bag-watching kind of a morning, as I am among the slightly-injured. Nothing major - I must've turned my foot wrong yesterday or something. One minute, I was in the pet store paying for my cat food, and then when I turned to walk away from the register, I felt a pain in my left foot when I put weight on it. This is probably at least partially shoe-related, because the minute I got home, I took off the shoes I was wearing (which were running shoes, not heels) and that seemed to improve matters. It wasn't swollen or anything, so I wasn't too concerned. This morning when I woke up, it was a little sensitive, but I could walk on it. I decided not to push it any further than showing up at practice this morning. Based on past experience, that's when I end up making it worse. So, I decided to swap bag-watching duties with my Mentor Buddy, Jenna.

While we were waiting to get started, we saw what can only be described as one great, big, giant "EWWWWWWWWW!!!" - the woman below giving her pocketbook dog a bath, IN THE DRINKING FOUNTAIN. Of course, within minutes of her departure, a runner came up to the fountain to get a drink. About a dozen of us watched in horror as she ignored our frantic shouts of "NOOOOOOO!!! DON'T DRINK THE WATER!!!" It reminded me of when people watching a horror movie yell "DON'T OPEN THE DOOR!!!", and the person on-screen opens the door anyway.

One clean dog = one really gross drinking fountain

While I was bag-watching (which for you non-running folks means I sat on the bleachers and watched everyone else's stuff), I decided to play around with some of the camera apps on my phone and take a few pictures. Below is a shot of the Astoria Park track taken with my phone using the Toy Camera effect:

After practice, I met with two of my mentees, Yvonne and Andrea (who are both doing really awesome so far) to talk about fundraising, and go over a few things, since this is all new to them. The fundraising is possibly the most intimidating part of this whole journey, especially if you've never done it before (at least it was for me). A few other folks chimed in with ideas, suggestions, etc. which was very helpful! One of the things I'm finding so great about mentoring with the Team in Training group in Queens is that we have so many incredible people, and a really nice sense of camraderie fairly early on. When you consider that we officially started our training season two Saturdays ago, we're bonding really quickly.

On the way out of the park, I spotted this gentleman. I'm not quite sure why he was dressed this way, but from the front, it looked like he was carrying some sort of notebook or sketch pad.

While waiting for the train back, Jenna and I had this fantastic view:

The view from the Astoria Blvd subway platform this morning - how awesome is THIS???

No sooner had we put away the camera phones, than a female NYPD officer came up to thank us for all of the work and effort we put into what we do, as she put it, "in case nobody else has". Then she went back down the stairs to the station entrance. I'm guessing from the way she said, that she, or someone she knew had a connection to some form of leukemia, lymphoma or other cancer. It was a goosebump moment, and I'm glad Jenna was there with me to share in both the officer's thank you, AND witness the goosebumps that showed up on my arms within seconds.

The same view, using the Toy Camera effect

My New "Home Away from Home"

2011-06-18T08:48:00.001-04:00

Welcome to Astoria Park, where I'll be spending most of my Tuesday nights and Saturday mornings for the next 16 weeks. It has a nice local neighborhood feel, and some nice views!

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7+ Miles, 2 Dead Camera Batteries, 1 Almost-Dead Cell Phone and 200+ Pictures Later...

2011-06-04T20:06:00.002-04:00

I'm exhausted!

It was a great day on Governors Island! The weather was a little overcast, but otherwise great. If you click on the album link below, you can view the rest of the pictures in my online photo album. If you select the "view full screen" option, you can watch it as a slideshow. As you can see from the pictures, there was a lot going on today, including the Big Apple Circus Family Fun Day - which included some trapeze work (not me, although I was sorely tempted).

Governors Island 2011 - click to view online album

One of the really cool things I did on the island today was take a tour of New York Harbor School. I remember when the building that now houses it was vacant and being restored, so seeing it transformed into a specialized public high school was pretty amazing.

New York Harbor School from Governors Island 2011

There are more pictures of the interior of the school in the album, including the marine lab. The school is also involved in the attempts to revitalize the oyster population in the Hudson. It's really very impressive.

I also had some time to stop and smell the roses, and indulge myself in a bit of floral photography, too! Click the images below to view larger versions.

From Governors Island 2011

It was a fantastic day on the island all-around, and I managed to log 7.25 miles by the time I got home! Governors Island is a great place to get a walk or a run in! For starters, if you walk/run around the perimeter of the island, it's flat! One of these days, I'm going to bring my inline skates and roll around the island. There are bikes for rent as well, including tandem bikes and 2-6 person surrey bikes. I might try a bike rental one of these days. At least I won't have to worry about looking any more spastic than some of the other people I've seen riding bikes on the island!

Greetings from Governors Island

2011-06-04T11:45:00.001-04:00

Aside from Disney World, my happiest place on Earth. Looking forward to spending the day here, walking around the island and taking pictures.

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Beating the Heat

2011-05-30T10:12:00.004-04:00

Getting a walk in after the storm, and before it hits 90 today.

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A Very Grassroots TNT Tabling Event

2011-05-29T17:52:00.000-04:00

In fact, it was so grassroots, it even had grass!

In the hopes of possibly recruiting some local Queens Team in Training participants, I put together a very impromptu tabling during our local Memorial Day Parade. Unfortunately, it was also very windy on my corner, and I had to make use of some rocks and purple duct tape to hold everything down.

No one signed up to request more info, but I tried:-)

Happening NOW: Online Scentsy Party to Benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

2011-05-29T10:16:00.000-04:00

https://carlamccrory.scentsy.us/Buy?partyId=38625907

I'm hosting a FABULOUS online Scentsy party to raise funds for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training from now until TUESDAY. This is an ONLINE party, and you do not have to BE anywhere. You can shop from the convenience of your computer.

Scentsy warmers use a low-watt bulb to slowly melt specially formulated wax. With no flame, smoke, or soot, the Scentsy wickless candle system is a safe way to enjoy Scentsy fragrances.

Scentsy also has room sprays, antibacterial fragrance foam, travel tins, and scent circles to hang in cars, lockers, and closets.

So far, my favorite summery scents are Cranberry Mango and Coconut Lemongrass, but there are TONS more, including MANLY scents for the guys out there.

If you wish to make a donation to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society on my behalf, without making a purchase, you may do so at
http://pages.teamintraining.org/nyc/hampton11/cmartzinek

Thanks!

A Great Day for a Walk Across the Bridge

2011-05-02T21:03:00.001-04:00

This past Saturday, I participated in this year's Walk MS New York to raise funds for multiple sclerosis. The walk route was 6 miles, starting at the South Street Seaport, walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, around Brooklyn Heights and then back over the Brooklyn Bridge to the Seaport. This is a walk I've been participating in almost every year since April 2001, and I really enjoy it.

(Click to enlarge photo)

The weather for Saturday's walk started off a bit ominously with grey skies and lots of clouds. Anyone who knows me (especially my Team in Training friends) knows that I don't "do" rain, although last month I not only "did" rain, I finished the Coogan's Salsa, Blues and Shamrocks race in better time than I've ever done before. I'm guessing this was at least partly because I wanted to get out of the rain and into some dry clothes, so I moved a bit faster than usual. While the walk may have started off on a chilly and cloudy note, fortunately, it didn't stay that way. By the time I was halfway across, the sun had started to come out, and the grey skies had turned to blue.

Now, I'm not sure if you know what it's like to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge on a Saturday morning, but it's a bit like bedlam on a normal weekend, due to the oh-so-well delineated and never adhered to pedestrian and bike lanes. There is only one lane for bike traffic and one lane for pedestrian traffic. So, you have people on wheels in one lane, going in both directions, and people on two feet going in both directions in the other lane. And then, you have the people that STOP - right - in - the - middle to take pictures. I don't know what genius granted a permit for not one, but two large charity walk groups to be crossing the bridge in opposite directions at the same time, but forget bedlam - it was chaos. Add to that a bit of bridge construction, and some very potent chemical fumes which smelled like a meth lab exploded over the East River, and it gives "taking a trip across the bridge" a whole new meaning.

(Click to enlarge photo)

At any rate, I was most of the way across the bridge, when I spotted a familiar purple shirt of the Team in Training variety. It was a woman named Monica who is training for the San Diego Half Marathon, and she was meeting one of my favorite Team in Training people, Alison, on the Brooklyn side. So, we walked the remainder of the way across the bridge together, and we were talking so much that before we knew it, we were at Tillary Street. That's one of the really cool things about being part of Team in Training - you run into your fellow "purple people" at other races and events all over the city.

The walk then proceeded into the heart of Brooklyn Heights, which is an area I spent a lot of time in during the late 1980's doing community theatre with The Heights Players. It's a beautiful neighborhood, with some gorgeous gardens and views like this one:

(Click to enlarge photo)

Then, it was time to head back towards the bridge, but not before I stopped several times to take pictures. (I had to keep reminding myself that this was a walk, and not race, and that I could, if I chose to do so, stop along the way.) One of the really cool things I saw was this old Chevy:

(Click to enlarge photo)

The view on the return trip across the bridge was incredible:

(Click to enlarge photo)

I made it back across the bridge, and back towards the walk finish at the Seaport. On the way back to the subway, I spotted this:

(Click to enlarge photo)

Can someone please explain to me why someone would crochet a cover for their bicycle??? Are they afraid it's going to get cold??? It had this huge chain and lock on it, too. I don't know what they're worried about - no one is going to steal a bike with that thing on it! Then again, maybe that's the point.

After the walk, I had a very nice afternoon. I met up with a special friend that I haven't seen in years, had the most delicious Irish Farmhouse Breakfast I've had in a long time (aka "Cholesterol on a Plate"), a Bloody Mary to DIE for, and had an absolutely fabulous time! I can't wait to do it again!

For Those of You Just Tuning in

2011-04-27T21:01:00.002-04:00

Since many of my Team in Training friends and future mentees do not know "the old me", I figured I'd post a bit of back-story. If this doesn't prove that yes, you can finish a full or half marathon, I'm not sure what will.

Seriously, I am not the poster child for endurance athlete. On 9/11/2001, I weighed in at roughly 305 lbs. As you can see from the picture below, hill repeats and strength training weren't even part of my vocabulary, much less a part of my life.

Fast-forward to late November, 2007 when, after having quit smoking just a few weeks before, I decided to further tort... improve my health and physical well-being, by joining Weight Watchers. Less than 2 years and over 70 lbs lost later, I received a mailing from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training about their upcoming Winter Season events, which included the Walt Disney World Marathon. What better way to celebrate "the new me" than by challenging myself even further by attempting to train and race walk a full 26.2 mile marathon in my happiest place on earth?

Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time... Actually, it was not only a good idea, it turned out to be a great idea. I had all sorts of fun - training sessions in sub-freezing temperatures, long distance walks in torrential rain, developing an acquired taste for GU Espresso Love - the list goes on and on. I learned about proper endurance sport nutrition (which I still suck at), boot camp workouts (which I suck at even worse) and all sorts of cool running gear and gadgets. I've become really good at finding stuff for dirt cheap, too! Most importantly, I've come to know an absolutely fantastic and wonderful group of people, dedicated to a great cause. Many of them have become friends for life and like it or not, they're stuck with me.

And yes, I finished my first marathon, at the ripe old age of 46, and somehow managed to raise over $3,700.00 for cancer research and patient support programs. I managed to get through 23.5 miles of this past year's Walt Disney World Marathon, and all 13.1 miles of the MORE/Fitness Magazine Women's Half Marathon a few weeks ago.

I look pretty good, considering it's 5:30am.

In another few weeks, I'll begin training for the Hamptons Half Marathon as a mentor with Team in Training. In another few months, I'll be 48 years old. If I can do this, anyone can. Really! Plus, you get a medal when you finish - what's cooler than that?

If you're thinking about joining the NYC Chapter of Team in Training as a run/walker or walker, feel free to request me as a mentor if you'd like!

13.1 Miles Later...

2011-04-04T09:01:00.003-04:00

Another medal to add to my slowly growing collection! (Notice how nicely the ribbon colors match my jacket.)

Yesterday, I participated in, and finished, the MORE + fitness Women's Half Marathon in Central Park. The weather this year was much better than it was last year, when I bailed out after 2 miles of race walking in the pouring rain. The sun was out, and the temperatures were in the high 40s/low 50s throughout the race. Plus, I found a fantastic place for a pre-race pit stop - the third floor restroom of the Time Warner building in Columbus Circle. It was so much nicer and warmer than the porta-potties in the park! Plenty of room to remove extra layers before the race, make sure everything was pinned properly, in my race belt, etc.

This was also my first experience fully participating in a half marathon. (Last year's soaking wet 2 mile torture sess... I mean adventure does not count.) It was also my first half marathon/marathon experience without the benefit of 16 weeks of pre-race training offered by Team in Training. So, I really wasn't going into it with too many expectations other than finishing it this year. I managed to hold down a solid 15 minute/mile pace for most of the race (which was a feat in itself). I had to slow it down for the last 2-3 miles because my right calf muscle felt like it was going to cramp up. I really had to push myself, but I did it, and I did it in about the time I figured I would - 3:30:57. Not my greatest, but I wasn't third or fourth from last, this time, either. I was more like three hundred something from last.

There were some definite highlights and lowlights. Highlights included seeing my wonderful Team in Training friends out there cheering for me, including, but not limited to my "Team Words with Friends" friends Carolyn Brafman and Rachel Masterman, coaches Pam Wille, Dari Passarello and Ellen O'Shaughnessy, Noah Santorello, who manned Harlem Hill and stayed up there throughout the entire race all by himself to cheer us. Seeing my training buddy Norma Jennings briefly on our approach to Harlem Hill, after which point she left me in the dust. I really owe my cheerleading friends out there on the course. Knowing that I would be seeing their faces again was a big part of what kept me going during that second loop around the park!

Which brings me to the lowlights, the main one being two loops around Central Park. Who invented that torture??? Having to do Cat Hill and Harlem Hill once is bad enough - twice is just horrid. I have now made a new promise to myself (the first one being NO MORE TED CORBITT 15K ever again - EVER). that new promise is: No more Central Park races over 10K - PERIOD! One loop around the park is enough for me, and 10K should pretty much cover that. Now that I have done the MORE + fitness Women's Half Marathon and finished it, I think I may be done with it. Time will tell.

Next up on my schedule are two charity walks - Walk MS New York and AIDS Walk New York, both of which are roughly 10K. Then the fun begins - 16 weeks of training for the Hamptons Half Marathon with Team in Training!

I'm Walking in Walk MS New York

2011-03-28T13:39:00.000-04:00

I'll be walking in Walk MS New York on Saturday, April 30th.

I've registered for Walk MS because I want to put my marathon-walking legs to more good use, and do something for several of my friends who have been diagnosed with MS.

I walk because I can, and because I want to do everything to prevent more people from learning what it means to live with this disease.

Today, there is no cure for multiple sclerosis, and with a diagnosis occurring most frequently between the ages of 20 and 50, many individuals face a lifetime filled with unpredictability.

I walk for those who are not able to walk.

I Made it Through the Rain

2011-03-06T15:35:00.002-05:00

Today was the day of the Coogan's Salsa, Blues and Shamrocks 5K in Washington Heights. This is a race that I have been looking forward to ever since I first read about it on the NYRR web site right after the Disney marathon What could possibly be more fun than a 5K race with a bunch of live bands along the route? Granted, getting there from Queens took a bit of time, but it was a pretty straight shot once I got on the subway. The key was making the early (as in 6:40AM early) bus from my neighborhood to the subway station. Fortunately, the rain that was predicted in the forecast held out until after I left my house. Otherwise, I might not have made it out my front door. But, it did, and I did.

The commute was surprisingly hassle-free for a Sunday morning, even with MTA weekend service changes. I left my house around 6:30AM, was on a bus by 6:45AM, made it all the way to Times Square by 7:35AM, and up to 168th Street and Broadway well before 8:30AM. There was plenty of time to hang around outside in the rain, waiting for the race to start! Thankfully, it wasn't raining hard at that hour, but it was just enough to warrant whipping out the TOTES rain poncho I had decided to toss in my bag on my way out the door. That was probably the best decision I made today. Seriously, it saved me from being completely soaked and miserable later on, when it started to really rain - hard. And boy, did it rain in spots!

Despite the rain, this was still a really fun race for me! There was lots of crowd support, I got to see a bunch of my fellow Team in Training folks before and after the race, and the bands were pretty good. There were lots of children, not just those participating in the kids' race later on, but cheering in the crowd and (and this is the part that totally blew me away) volunteering at the race! They were out there working the food and water stations, in the rain, and smiling! I just thought that was so totally awesome and amazing! The course was hilly, but I didn't think the hills were as intense as either Cat Hill or Harlem Hill in Central Park. I managed to run-walk a good portion of the race, and somehow, amidst getting soaked and enjoying my run-walk, I also managed to beat my previous time, for a PR (personal record) of 5K in 44:39, with an official pace of :::drumroll please::: 14:24/mile!!! That's 28 seconds/mile off my previous best official time. Not bad, considering that my only goal for this race was to do it and have fun with it.

The worst of the rain though, was still waiting for me. It was pouring for the walk home from my bus stop! That was worse than the entire race! The only thing that kept me from being completely miserable was mentally chanting a two-word mantra during that final five blocks: "Dry clothes! Dry clothes! Dry clothes!" Next thing I knew, I was home!

What Is Your Favorite Volunteer Organization In New York City?

2011-01-25T16:22:00.001-05:00

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training is my favorite! They made a marathoner out of me last January at the age of 46. The people involved are all firmly committed to the cause of blood cancer research and patient support. It's an AMAZING organization and I can't say enough good things about them! They've become my second family:-)
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

23.5 Out of 26.2 Ain't Bad...

2011-01-17T08:57:00.001-05:00

The MEDAL!!!
I like this year's medal better than last year's.

Even though Disney closed the course in my face at 23.5 miles after only 6.5 hours, I got a MEDAL!!! That's the important thing, right???

Still trying to figure out what happened. I was ahead of my pace for last year, and I finished that in 7:23:03 - I crossed the starting line around 6:00-6:05AM, and there were about 1,200 people behind me at least. So the last person didn't cross the starting line until well after me. They closed the course at the boardwalk (23.5 miles) at 12:35pm, which would be about 7 hours from when the FIRST person crossed the starting line, not the LAST.

I would've dragged myself the last 2.7 miles (or my coaches would've taken turns kicking my ass to keep me going). I was still moving, still able to walk - just not as fast as they were pushing us to get to the next point. So, I ended up having a nice semi-private van ride back to the parking lot. I got my medal, AND didn't have to walk the 6,0001 miles to the Team in Training tent and THEN another 6,001 miles back to the resort bus.

My legs for the race with my honorees on one, family on the other.
Writing on your own legs is not easy. I'm surprised it came out this legible!

I really am more curious about the timing of the course closing than anything. I mean seriously, I didn't stop to pee, take pictures, OR update facebook! Apparently, I had a major rock star moment throughout the main street of Disney Hollywood Studios that I was a bit oblivious to, and I got on the JUMBO BOARD at mile 20.6. Thanks to coaches Tom, Bethany and Pam for putting up with me during what was, to quote John "The Penguin" Bingham, my "BITE ME" mode. It wasn't pretty, and whoever decided to put an on-ramp HILL at mile 22 needs to be fired. That's all I have to say.

However, what I did do was very a solid run-walk for 15 full miles. This was something I had never done before, so I'm really thrilled. I'm also not used to racing in less than 4 layers of clothing, so that took a little getting used to. Oh, and as an added bonus, I was up and on the dance floor at our victory party quite a bit later in the day.

It's also an AWESOME testament to the training of my Team In Training - NYC Chapter coaches that I was able to spend almost an hour shoveling snow less than 72 hours after run-walking/race walking 23.5 miles.

Shortly after the day of the race, this appeared in my e-mail:

“Whenever something doesn’t work out the way you thought it would,instead of thinking that something went wrong, see it as something that went unexpectedly well, but for reasons that are not yet apparent. Everything plays to your favor. Score!

The Universe”

So, we shall see:-)

You Gotta Know When to Hold, and Sometimes...

2010-12-19T14:24:00.001-05:00

You gotta know when to fold 'em. As in after mile 4 of this morning's Ted Corbitt 15K race of death. I went into this with high hopes, after surviving the brutal weather conditions of last year's race. I really wanted to show Ted who was boss this year. Alas, finishing was not meant to be.

Last year, I was healthy on race day. Not so this week. I've been dealing with a major respiratory cold/bug/whatever since Tuesday. Yesterday morning in Central Park, I did a 4.04 mile run-walk in 1.01 hours, and didn't feel particularly bad afterwards. My warning sign should have been when I started losing my voice on the phone last night. It should also have been when I woke up wheezing and coughing a few times during the night. My body was trying to tell me something, but did I listen??? NOOOOOOOO!!! I was very intent on kicking Ted's ass. My plan was, at least according to whatever I wrote on my facebook page at somewhere around 5:30 this morning, to show up, attempt the first 4-mile loop, and then quit if I felt like death. At least I can say I stuck to my plan!

While it was not as brutally cold as last year's race, it's still December in New York City, and it was still cold. Maybe not, as my father would've said, "snot-freezing weather", but still cold enough at somewhere around 32 degrees (that's Fahrenheit, not Celsius, for those who weren't sure). Somewhere between the corral and the starting line, I lost my left glove. Fortunately, I had stashed my pair of dollar store gloves in my pocket, so I didn't have to do the race looking like a Michael Jackson impersonator. Then, somewhere before mile one, my left groin muscle started to hurt. Not horribly, but eventually enough to make the "run" part of "run-walk" pretty much out of the question. Special thanks go to my friend Liz and Coach Dari for hanging with me up until around the 4 mile mark. I was not a particularly happy camper, and was probably WAY not fun to walk with. (Note to Liz: Next race, if I'm not feeling 100%, RUN FAR AWAY and SAVE YOURSELF!!! Seriously, I won't be upset, nor do I want to inflict my pain on others - it may be in everyone's best interest to just leave me alone with my misery:-)

So, I get to around the 4 mile mark and just know it's time for "Plan B" to go into effect. I wasn't feeling well, and the thought of having to survive another 5 miles was just too much. So, I decided to stop. Not quit. Stop. There's a difference, and what happened next made that distinction very clear. There comes a time when, as Coach Dari put it, you have to listen to your body. Your body gives you signs and you really should listen to them. The way I see it now is that it's kind of like those cheesy horror movies I watch all the time. You know, when the young couple with the two kids gets a great deal on a house that is generally way, way, way out of their price range. That would be sign number one. Then they ask the realtor why the house is so cheap, and they get some lame-ass story that only people in a horror movie would believe. That's sign number two. Sign number three is when they go into town to do some food shopping, and get all sorts of funny looks when they tell people that they've just bought the old "Bates" place up the road. They still don't realize that something is wrong with that house. Usually, they don't realize it until the walls start dripping blood and the house starts yelling at them to "GET OUT!!!" That's a really BIG sign that they really SHOULD listen to, but DO they??? NOOOOO!!! They decide to fight whatever's possessing the house, which usually involves it having been built over a sealed portal to hell that's been re-opened or some old sacred burial ground. That's when it gets really messy.

So, what happened next that made me realize the difference between quitting and stopping? When I started barking. Yes, you read that correctly. I had just passed our head coach Michael and told him I was done and leaving. I got about 10-15 feet away, and I started making these very strange barking noises when trying to breathe in. It sounded like a barking seal. Now, I'm totally used to wheezing, and an occasional barking cough at some point during my semi-annual cold. But this was happening when I was inhaling, not exhaling, and I was having trouble breathing air in. Pardon my French, but that scared the fucking crap out of me! I have never, ever, even with my mild asthma, had problems getting air into my lungs, much less made strange barking sounds while trying to do so. Definitely my body telling me to "GET OUT!!!" So, I stopped, and, after a few more barking incidents, they eventually stopped, too. This was not about quitting or giving up, as much as it felt that way at the time. This was about stopping because I could not breathe. I even started crying at one point while I was changing into my warm clothes, which definitely didn't help matters any. Bad enough to be barking like a seal, but having a snotted-up nose from crying was just the icing on the cake!

(Edited to clarify, because someone expressed concern about this being something potentially more serious: The barking was not coming from my lungs, but from my throat, which, if this makes sense, felt like it was closing up. Don't know if it was due to over-exerting myself or some sort of emotional/stress-related thing, but it stopped once I stopped the race, and hasn't happened again since.)

Interestingly enough, once I got out of the race and out of the park and onto Fifth Avenue, I started to feel more human. I decided to try to walk down Fifth Avenue from East 102nd Street to 86th and Lexington to catch the subway. I started to relax, and made it down to the Metropolitan Museum, and a coffee vendor, at East 82nd Street. With hot coffee in hand, I decided to keep walking down Fifth Avenue for as long as I continued to enjoy the walk. I made it down to East 57th Street and still felt good. I stopped at Rockefeller Center both to see the tree and to use the restroom, and kept going. I made it all the way down to the #7 subway station at East 42nd Street, where I got on my train back to Queens.

Ice Baths: A New Form of Torture

2010-12-04T18:54:00.001-05:00

Picture yourself running, run-walking or walking for two and a half hours in the freezing cold. Then picture immersing the lower half of yourself in a tub full of ice cubes and cold water for 10-15 minutes (or just plain ice cold tap water, if you're a weenie like me), while wearing a sweatshirt on your upper half to keep warm. Doesn't sound very fun, does it? Supposedly, it helps with your recovery after a long run.

The last time I attempted anything remotely like this was after I finished my first marathon, at Walt Disney World in January 2010, and that was only lukewarm water. I just attempted it a few minutes ago with ice cold tap water. Interestingly (and fortunately), I didn't freeze my ass off. However, my upper leg muscles would not stop shivering and quivering like a bowl of flesh-colored Jell-O. It also helps if you set the timer on your watch for 10 minutes instead of 10 hours. Fortunately, I checked the clock on my bathroom wall before I got in!

Whether it helps with my recovery remains to be seen. I'll have to see how I feel when I wake up tomorrow morning. Right now, though,I think I'll go and sit on my radiator for a while.

(I can't believe they actually sell a greeting card featuring an ice bath on Amazon!)

A Lovely Stroll Along the West Side Highway

2010-12-04T17:29:00.002-05:00

If you would like to make a donation to support my Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training fund raising efforts, please go to http://pages.teamintraining.org/nyc/wdw11/cmartzinek

Today, our training session consisted of a lovely stroll along the West Side Highway. For those of you who do not live in the New York City area, the West Side Highway runs along the Hudson River, and there's a very nice, scenic and most importantly, FLAT running and biking path that extends pretty much along the entire west side of Manhattan. It's a really great place to get out and go for a walk, run or run-walk. It is also right on the water, making it really cold out there on days like today, when the high temperature is 40 degrees or below. (NOT to be confused with 40 below - I think I'd kind of have to draw the line and say "NO WAY, José!" if that was the case!)

I went through this particular form of torture last winter season during training, so I had a pretty good idea of what I had to look forward to today. I started trying to get myself psyched into it around 7:00 PM last night. I made myself get my clothes, sports drinks, a change of warm clothes for afterwards, etc. ready, so that all I would need to do when the alarm went off at 5:30 AM would be to get dressed, wash my face, brush my teeth, throw some make up on my face (yes, I try to spare my team mates from seeing me without makeup), have some coffee and spend some quality time on facebook before I have to leave the house to catch the 7:20 AM bus to the Main Street Flushing subway station (more on that later). So, everything was all ready to rock-'n'-roll before "Judge Judy" time.

Fast-forward to when my alarm went off this morning. Now, any other morning, when I don't have to wake up at the butt-crack of dawn, I am up, semi-alert and half-caffeinated usually before 6:00 AM. For some reason, whenever I have to be up at that hour, I need to set both alarms on my dual-alarm clock, and hit the snooze button several times before I actually get out of bed. This morning was no exception. The only difference this morning was that I allowed myself to chant "I hate this part, I HATE this part!" about twenty times OUT LOUD before getting out of bed. I scared the crap out of my cats, Tigger and Gateway! They just looked at me and ran out of the bedroom at about 90 mph. For some reason, it worked. I got out of bed, put the coffee on, fed Tigger and Gateway (not necessarily in that order), and turned on my computer and my cell phone. Sometime after I shut my phone off for the night, I had received a message from one of my coaches in response to something else and part of it said:

"...for what it's worth, you are earning a hell of a lot of respect this season. Well deserved, too, I might add. Keep up the good work."

I quote that text message not to pat myself on the back, but to illustrate the difference between how I see my training efforts vs. how others see them. That, and to show how, whenever I need an extra shot in the arm to keep going, one magically seems to appear at just the right time. How could I possibly not show up for this morning's tort... I mean trainining session after that???

The NYC Mass-Transit Gods were with me again this morning. Not that he reads this or anything, but I have to give a huge shout-out to the driver of the 7:20 AM Q65 bus on Saturday mornings. The man is always on time. He's like clockwork (and yes, I've thanked him for it!) Ditto for the MTA #7 train crews for keeping those running amazingly well on Saturday mornings. I can honestly say that mass-transit issues are not a regular part of my Saturday mornings. Everything runs like clockwork on Saturdays.

So, I made it to Central Park on time, and with a bit of trepidation, took off the fleece vest I had been wearing under my jacket and left it with the rest of my warm clothes at bag watch. Did I mention it was COLD outside??? At any rate, it all worked out amazingly well. I had basically decided that my goal this morning was to show up, and that anything else was a bonus. I had planned on walking this morning instead of run-walking, so I had two walking buddies, one of which was my fellow blog-buddy, Joanne. Having walking buddies really helped all of us keep our minds off of how cold it was and how much further we had to go. Surprisingly, it wasn't as cold as I thought it would be, and didn't get that cold until we were on the way back and got near Chelsea Piers. I also surprised myself by run-walking a good portion of it, although my "run" was more like a slow jog today. I started run-walking it when I started feeling my hamstrings getting a bit tight, and it really helped. I'm still not sure what my goal is going to be in terms of run-walking for the Walt Disney World Marathon. Am I going to try to run-walk the entire thing, or just use it as a tool when I need it to keep me going? I may not know until that morning, and that's okay. I'll pack my Gymboss either way.

The end result was that we did it. Two and a half hours and 8.75 miles later, we were DONE!!! Now, I just have to decide if I want to attempt a 10K race tomorrow morning in Central Park, or be a total slug. Stay tuned...

I Survived My First Race as a Run-Walker, and Other Amazing Feats

2010-11-22T18:32:00.001-05:00

I'm not quite sure how I managed to do it, but I survived my first race as a run-walker yesterday. I also, apparently, had a sex-change operation and moved in the process, based on the official results above. Not only was it my first race as a run-walker, it was also my very first race where my official pace was under 15 minutes/mile! Not bad for a 47 year old man from Colorado!

Now I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to manage that for an entire 26.2 mile marathon. (The run-walking, not the sex-change!) The running felt good, up to a point. I still feel like an elephant when I run, and I'm not sure why. I don't feel graceful at all! My legs feel like lead. I don't know if it's a physical thing, a mental thing after weighing over 300 pounds for 15+ years, or a combination of both. I'm still not sure that the running thing is for me. The one thing I do know, though, is that I feel a lot more flexible after a run-walk than I have after any of my long walks. I'm nowhere near as stiff afterwards, and I don't walk around looking like my mother before she had both of her hips replaced. Today, I'm a little stiff, but I'm guessing that's because between yesterday and Saturday, I put over 15 miles on my pedometer. I think I'm entitled to be a little stiff.

On another note entirely, I've made an interesting discovery the past few weeks about how some runners view race walkers. Twice in the past three weeks, I've had runners mention how they don't know how race walkers manage stay on their feet as long as we do. It's interesting, because while I know it takes me longer to finish a marathon as a walker, I never thought that runners would see that as an accomplishment. I've always viewed it in terms of me being older and slower and somehow inferior to runners. I never really looked at it as an advantage. I certainly never thought runners saw it that way. Interesting.

I have also, and I may seriously need to have my head examined for this decision, signed up for the annual Ted Corbitt 15K in Central Park on December 19th. Last year, we had temperatures of 10 degrees with a wind-chill of something like 4-below, followed by a snowstorm. For some of my fellow Team In Training friends and I, surviving it last year has become a sort of sick and twisted badge of honor. I still have my shirt from last year's race as a token of my survival. We hated that race so much, that participating this year has become sort of mandatory for the members of what we've begun referring to as the "Cult of TED". If you're anywhere near Central Park on December 19th, come and cheer for us! We will definitely need all the cheering we can get. Last year, my friend Norma and I came in third and fourth from last. We took a twisted pleasure at the thought of being the last ones to finish. We were actually disappointed that we weren't THE back of the pack! We're moving up though. Yesterday we were 112th and 114th from last!

Have I Mentioned That I HATE Blisters?

2010-11-10T19:37:00.003-05:00

So, last Wednesday I attempted run/walking for the first time. Not bad! I not only survived it, I felt GREAT the next day. Saturday, I did it again for a total of an hour and forty minutes - one minute of running for every two minutes of walking. Somewhere during my 6.42 miles, I developed a blister. By the time I got home, I had not only logged 11.25 miles, I had rubbed the skin on my one toe raw. Seems the band aid I had put on my other toe rubbed the one next to it in a very wrong way. Lovely! Note to self: Don't use non-latex fabric band aids on your feet - EVER!

So, here I sit on a #7 train on my way home instead of training for my marathon. It's frustrating. I'm crabby and cranky, and writing this blog on my new DROID X using Blogger-droid. If there are no typos, I'll be amazed.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Poland Springs 5-miler, New Shoes and O.M.G. I Actually RAN!

2010-11-04T22:12:00.002-04:00

If you would like to make a donation to support my Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training fund raising efforts, please go to http://pages.teamintraining.org/nyc/wdw11/cmartzinek

Yup, you read that right, I actually RAN last night! We had a speed training workout in Central Park, consisting of three sets of a hard speed workout half mile, followed by a "recovery" half mile. My coach Dari has been encouraging me to try run/walking, and last night, coach Bethany succeeded in getting me to actually do it. For my hard speed workout half miles, I did intervals of one minute of running and two minutes of walking.

Also this week, we did the Poland Springs NYC Marathon Kickoff 5 mile race in Central Park on Sunday. Fortunately, my friend Liz was walking with me, or I would've slacked off a bit. It was a pretty intense workout, but the weather was gorgeous and most of my team mates were there at the finish line (which is the SAME finish line that will be crossed by those running the NYC Marathon on Sunday) to cheer for us. I had this GREAT finish line "TA-DA!" pose, but for some reason, it never made it to the race photo site. I wasn't the only one minus a finish line photo, so I guess it's nothing personal. I finished in 1:17:48, with an average pace of 15:33 according to the NYRR official results. Not too shabby!

The race was an excellent opportunity to put my new asics 2150s to the test. These were suggested to me by the staff at Urban Athletics, as a lighter version of the asics Gel Kahana 3s that got me through last year's marathon. They are PERFECT! Even more perfect, is that they were on sale for 50% off for Team in Training members!

Your Chance to Win an MP3 Player!

2010-10-30T10:42:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow, I will be racing 5 miles in the Poland Spring Marathon Kick-off in Central Park. Everyone who donates $25 or more via my fundraising page between today and tomorrow will be entered for a chance to win a 1GB Creative Zen MP3 player.

http://pages.teamintraining.org/nyc/wdw11/cmartzinek

My Walk This Morning

2010-10-25T08:33:00.002-04:00

Courtesy of Runkeeper.com http://runkeeper.com/user/MsCarolM/profile

And the Nike+ version:
http://nikerunning.nike.com/nikeos/p/nikeplus/en_US/plus/#//runs/detail/336410385/1974970699/all/allRuns/

I Think I May Be the Oldest Person on Our Team

2010-10-25T06:28:00.003-04:00

For real. Seriously. Unless there's someone else on the Team in Training NYC Chapter Winter Season team who's over 47, I may very well be the oldest person on our team. I could possibly be old enough to be the mother of pretty much most members of our team. Actually, far from the age thing bothering me, I think it's pretty cool. I guess it kind of makes me a mascot of sorts.

The thing that I have to remember is that, especially after being 100+ lbs heavier for almost 20 years of my life, I am not 27 years old anymore. My body is not in the same shape as it was, and it will probably never be in the same shape as my much younger team mates. I sort of forget that occasionally, and have a habit of beating myself up over it. For example, as part of my Team in Training Fast Track mentor duties, I took a spin class back in the spring. I had to bail after about 40 minutes. I beat myself up over not finishing for a while. Then I realized something. Let's face it - taking your first spin class at the ripe old age of 46, after weighing over 300 lbs for a good part of your adult life is a lot different than taking your first spin class at 27, when you're in reasonably good shape. The fact that I survived 40 minutes of it is quite an achievement in itself! Three years ago, when I weighed in at somewhere around 275 lbs I don't think I would've lasted 5 minutes, let alone 40!

My recent training sessions have also proven that I'm in better shape this year than I was last year. I've had this feeling for the past few weeks that I'm nowhere near where I should be at this point in my training. Two weekends or so ago, I took Harlem Hill in Central Park uphill at under 14:45/mile, mostly around 14:30/mile. Last year when I did Harlem Hill for the first time, I was somewhere around 16:30/mile. I'm also not wimping out on hill repeats. This past week, thanks to some great motivation from a couple of mentees, I pushed it for an extra repeat up the hill, and it felt great!

I just have to watch that I don't start getting too cocky about my ability to finish the marathon because I've done it already. I think that's going to be the biggest mental challenge. Last year it was the fear and panic that I wouldn't finish. But I've been there, done that and know that I can do it now - even at the ripe old age of 47!

Crawl, Carol, CRAWL!!! - The Sequel: I'm Doing it AGAIN!!!

2010-08-19T18:25:00.000-04:00

Forget “Run, Forrest, RUN!” I’m doing it AGAIN!!!

LAST YEAR: I DID IT!!! I walked all 26.2 miles in the Walt Disney World Marathon on 1/10/2010. It only took me 7:23:03 (that's 7 hours, 23 minutes and 3 seconds) to do it, too!

YOU DID IT!!! You helped me cross that finish line! Your generous donations and moral support were what kept me going after around mile 18, when things got a bit tough. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

THIS YEAR: Not only am I doing it again, I've also signed up as a Team Disney Mentor! I’ll be training to race walk the full marathon in Walt Disney World to support The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training, AND helping new team members get the most out of their Team in Training experience. I'm committing to walking 26.2 miles in this event, and beating last year's time. I may even attempt the “Goofy Challenge” – a 13.1 mile half marathon on Saturday, followed by a full 26.2 mile marathon on Sunday.

In doing so, my goal is to raise $3,000 for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society by November 15th to help bring hope and at least some ease of mind to people facing blood cancers like leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s lymphoma and myeloma.

Your donation can make such a huge difference. It funds research, assists patients with small reimbursements for treatment expenses, provides training for peer support programs, and most important- it brings hope to so many. Please donate what you can. I know the economy is tough on us all, but please think as big and dig as deep as you're able. Every dollar counts, and at least 75% of your donation goes directly into cancer research and patient support programs. Also, your donation is 100% tax deductible.

Every single dollar makes a difference!

Please visit my website to donate:
http://pages.teamintraining.org/nyc/wdw11/cmartzinek

If you're not able to donate, there are loads of other ways you can help me make this happen. I've listed them below. They're equally important and greatly appreciated.

Some other ways you can help me Crawl, Carol, CRAWL!!!:

If you have a blog or website, if you could post a link to my Team in Training website with a small blurb like the one below, it will help tremendously:

Crawl, Carol, CRAWL!!! - Please support Carol as she trains to walk in her first marathon to raise funds for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training. http://pages.teamintraining.org/nyc/wdw11/cmartzinek

Visit the Crawl, Carol, CRAWL!!! Shop at http://www.cafepress.com/crawlcarolcrawl - all profits benefit The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society!

Thanks for taking the time to read and for anything you can do to help me
Crawl, Carol, CRAWL!!!

AIDS Walk a Success!

2010-05-21T16:58:00.001-04:00

Just a quick update before I forget. The AIDS Walk last weekend in Central Park was a huge success! The weather was great (which makes up for the miserable More/Fitness Magazine Half Marathon weather), and I finished the 10K walk in under two hours. By the end of the day, I had 9.89 miles on my pedometer, and a nice bag of free food! Total raised so far is $125.00 (there's still time to donate).

Oh Well, I Tried

2010-04-27T21:30:00.000-04:00

Had to call it quits after about 2 miles of the More Magazine/Fitness Magazine Half Marathon on Sunday. It was pouring rain, and I was soaked before I got to the starting line. Had my feet not been squishing around inside 2 pairs of absolutely soaking wet socks, I might have hung in there. However, one thing I don't mess with is my feet. (Okay, that's two things:). Long story short, three years ago, I ended up in the hospital not once, but twice with cellulitis, which apparently entered through cracks in my heels. My heels were severely cracked and it took over a year before they fully healed. So, call me over-cautious, but once I felt my feet start giving me grief, I called it quits.

I know I made the right decision, but I'm really disappointed that the weather was so bad that I had to make that decision. I know I wouldn't have lasted 13.1 miles in the downpour. Not without head-to-toe waterproof attire, anyway! I'm already looking for water-wear for the next rainy race:

I'll Be Walking For MS

2010-04-17T17:53:00.000-04:00

If you would like to help support the National MS Society, I will be walking in Walk MS NY tomorrow. You can make a donation at
http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/carolm2010

I've registered for Walk MS because I want to put my marathon-walking legs to more good use, and do something for several of my friends who have been diagnosed with MS. I walk because I can, and because I want to do everything to prevent more people from learning what it means to live with this disease.

Over 7 Miles Before Noon Today

2010-04-03T21:00:00.000-04:00

Today, we had our training session up at the Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir in Central Park. It was nice seeing it in daylight. I was really focused on my race walking, so I didn't stop to take any pictures, unfortunately. It was a great day for it, too! The sun was shining and the temps were in the 60s.

Since I was running early this morning, I got off the subway at my usual 59th and Fifth Avenue station, and walked up to East 91st and Madison to meet up with my team, did my training session, and then walked back down to 59th and Fifth Avenue. By the time noon rolled around, I had put 7.28 miles on my pedometer. Right now, at the end of the day, I'm up to 8 miles. Show you how lazy I was after I got home, doesn't it? :-)

On another note, in less than 3 weeks, I will be walking in Walk MS New York to raise funds for The National MS Society. I'm planning to walk the full 6 mile route, weather permitting. The following weekend, I'll be race walking in the More/Fitness Magazine Half Marathon. These will be followed by AIDS Walk in May, and Walk Now for Autism in June. Then, a much-needed rest until I start gearing up for Walt Disney World 2011!

I Got My Butt Kicked at Bootcamp!

2010-03-30T18:45:00.002-04:00

I'm now mentoring a group of participants in the New York City chapter of Team in Training's Fast Track program, which culminates in a 4 mile "Run for the Parks" race in April.

As part of my mentoring, I get to endure the same tortu... I mean enjoy the same workouts and training sessions as my mentees! Sunday's was a bootcamp workout with Jasmine Graham of Pace4Success.com Jasmine does a GREAT workout with fantastic music. She really gets you working hard (and you really find out "how LOW can you GO?") I wimped out after about 36 minutes, but I managed to survive and felt all the muscles I had worked when I woke up Monday morning. However, I realized that I was probably the oldest person in the room, so I didn't beat myself up too badly for wimping out.

This week, I get to enjoy a fun spin class. I've never been to one, and I haven't been on an exercise bike in years, so this should be quite an experience!

The marathon may be over, but the blog (and fund raising) continue...

2010-02-23T08:49:00.001-05:00

While this blog was initially started to record my training and other "adventures" leading up to my first marathon, I've decided to continue the blog to include my current and future race walking efforts, as well as updates on my fund raising walks between now and next year's Walt Disney World Marathon for The Leukemia &Lymphoma Society's Team in Training.

Next up on my charity walk schedule is Walk MS New York 2010, to take place at the South Street Seaport in Manhattan on Sunday, April 18th. I have a choice of a 3 or 6 mile route. Since I'll be race walking in the More/Fitness Magazine Half Marathon in Central Park the following Sunday, I may opt for the 3 mile route instead of the full 6 miles. I'll see how I feel that morning. If you would like to make a donation to help my fund raising efforts for those with MS, you may do so at
http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/carolm2010

We Need MORE COWBELL!

2010-02-10T16:25:00.000-05:00

This is a must-have for all my fellow Team in Training friends.

Bell Canada is offering a free cowbell app for your iPhone, Blackberry or Samsung Omnia. I've downloaded it on my Blackberry and it really works! While they created it mainly for Team Canada in the Olympics, it's a great way to show support for our fellow TNTers when carrying a cowbell isn't possible:-)

GO TEAM!!!

26.2 Miles Later...

2010-01-12T06:58:00.001-05:00

I did it! I crossed the finish line of my first (and possibly last) full marathon. (Yeah, I know - I say that now.)

I think one of the most amazing things (besides actually being able to see and cross the finish line) was that I did it all with only one pit stop during the race at Mile 9, without another one until I got back to my hotel room after the marathon. We're talking almost 6 hours without a pee break. Considering the amount of water and Power Ade that I drank at each station, and the fact that it was freezing-ass COLD out there, that's nothing short of miraculous!

All in all, I held up pretty well physically. Some minor annoyances like a small blister at the bottom of my little toe that started at around Mile 23, and my left knee started to bother me a little bit after Mile 10, probably due to the pitch in the road. Mentally was another story altogether. There were some long stretches of highway walking - particularly between the starting line at EpCot and the Magic Kingdom. On the plus side, they were flat. On the minus side, they were B-O-R-I-N-G! They were also just a bit windy in spots. Just a bit. I think my worst stretch mentally and physically was between miles 18-24, especially between miles 20-21! (Those of you who were there know what I mean:-) My best miles pace-wise were miles 1-10.

My best miles mentally were miles 24-26.2, when one of my coaches met me and walked through EpCot's World Showcase with me as far as mile 26. It was like strolling through my "home away from home" at Disney. The best part (aside from crossing the Finish Line) was having an unplanned cheering section made up of my friends, the fabulous and wonderful World Showcase Players, who were starting a show right as I passed the United Kingdom pavillion. That was AWESOME!!! Talk about perfect timing!

More to follow a bit later (because there's SO MUCH more great stuff to tell), but I wanted to write at least this much down before I forgot it all. It was a great experience!

I DID IT!!!

2010-01-10T13:08:00.001-05:00

I DID IT!!!

Less Than 10 Days to Go!

2010-01-01T11:13:00.001-05:00

I can't believe it's almost here! After all this training and fund raising, the day of reckoning is quickly approaching.

I've already started packing for the trip, although I'll probably re-pack and re-organize my stuff several times between now and when I actually leave for the airport. My race day clothes are picked out and ready to put in my carry-on, along with a backup outfit just in case. My Disney park pass "will call" confirmation is printed out in triplicate, and with copies stored in my wallet, my carry-on and my suitcase, again "just in case". I've printed out two copies of my marathon waiver, packed my iPod charger and Blackberry charger, and am charging up my camera batteries as I type this. My plan is to take both my iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle with my Nike+ Sportband as my "Plan B".

I know I've over-packed some clothes, and I'll be narrowing them down within the next few days, so that I have two outfits for each day of my trip - one warm weather outfit, and one for chillier weather. I have a set of "dispose-a-clothes" to wear in the chillier early-morning temps on race day while I wait for the race to start. I have a checklist a half a mile long to make sure I don't forget anything. I think I'll relax once I'm actually in the airport with the rest of my team!

I'm Not a WIMP!!! I'm a ...

2009-12-12T16:15:00.005-05:00

SERIOUS BAD-ASS!!!
(and quite modest about it, too, as you can see:-)

Things I learned today:

AccuWeather is definitely less-than-Accu-Weather! It was nowhere a "real feel" of 9 degrees this morning! Fortunately, it actually felt warmer than it did last night!
If you do the absolutely most hated, "I can't deal with this" part of your training workout first, everything else is downhill - in some cases quite literally!
One reverse upper loop up the West Side of Central Park in the freezing cold makes you a bad-ass. Two reverse upper loops up the West Side of Central Park in the freezing cold makes you a SERIOUS BAD-ASS! The added bonus is that nothing else in the park is anywhere near as torturous and the rest of the workout is a piece of cake!
Even after walking over 14 miles, I am still faster than half the tourists on Fifth Avenue! Holy crap, those people walk SLOW! Amazingly, I did not mow anyone down, although I came close on more than one occasion.

My walk coach, Barb, was very helpful during my "meltdown moment" yesterday. The "staying in the park instead of going up Riverside to the Little Red Lighthouse" idea was a good one and it really worked out well for me. It went so well, that instead of my usual walk to the subway station at Fifth Avenue and West 59th, I walked all the way down to Fifth Avenue and West 42nd Street! Total miles on my pedometer at the end of it all was...

17.25 miles!!!

Another interesting by-product of all this is that "The Great Broccoli Mystery", which I originally wrote about here has been SOLVED!!! It grows on the trees in the area! No joke! If you look at the picture below, you can see round objects on the tree branches in the lower left, and upper middle sections. (They're a bit larger up close - about the size of a tennis ball.)

Those aren't nuts or apples or cherries. They are broccoli-like things that are look like the thing in the center of this picture:

Had we not been doing a reverse loop this morning, we might never have solved the mystery!

I'm Being a Wimp, Not a Bad-ass

2009-12-11T16:35:00.003-05:00

I think I've probably hit the worst part of my training, at least mentally.

I am freaking out, in tears and panicking about doing a 16-17 mile walk tomorrow in the freezing cold. I don't think it's about the weather or the distance, though. I think it's more of a mental thing. I've e-mailed one of my coaches for suggestions. In the meanwhile, I'll write about it here so that at least I can get it out of my head and onto "paper".

I am scared to death about getting through tomorrow's long walk. We're supposed to walk up Riverside to the Little Red Lighthouse and back, and then some. It's supposed to be 26 degrees out at 8:00 AM, with a "real feel" of 9 degrees! After my 9/11 volunteering, and my more recent trip down the West Side Highway and back last week, I know it feels about 10 degrees colder along the water and it's usually really windy. But, at least walking down the West Side Highway is familiar. I know where things like clean restrooms are. I have no familiarity with walking up Riverside. I also know that, as a walker, chances are I'll be walking at least part of the way back alone. So, the thought of being in unfamiliar territory, in the freezing cold all by myself is kind of scary. I don't think the thought of doing it would bother me as much if the weather was warmer. The combination of the two, though, is more than a bit intimidating and overwhelming. We have the option of doing our miles in the park, which may be what I'll end up doing if no one else is going to be walking up Riverside and back with me.

The other thing that's overwhelming me a bit is the thought of then having to commute back home in the cold. I have a change of clothes packed, so I have something warm and dry to change into once I'm done, but I think I'm having flashbacks from last weekend, when I was wet and chilled to the bone and waiting for a bus in the rain. I didn't get really warm and dry for over 2 hours after the actual walk was over. I really don't want to go through that again. I think being chilled and cold on the trip home is worrying me more than being cold during the actual 16 mile walk, if that makes any sense.

Like I said, I'm being a wimp, not a bad-ass right now:-) I'll survive, I'm sure. Nothing I could possibly face in the Walt Disney World Marathon next month could ever be this bad weather-wise!

I Made it Through the Rain...

2009-12-06T10:03:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was a 15-miler from West 72nd Street in Central Park, down the West Side Highway to Chambers Street, across Chambers Street to the Brooklyn Bridge, over the Brooklyn Bridge, and then back. Everything was fine up until the return trip over the Brooklyn Bridge. That's when the rain started.

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate walking in the rain? Especially so when it's only around 45 degrees out or less, along the windy West Side Highway with the rain blowing my face! We're not talking a sprinkle or a bit of drizzle, either! It was pouring! So much so, that I was soaked even with my hat, GoreTex jacket and "Emergency Rain Poncho" on! My pants were so wet that they started to stretch out at the bottom, and they were dragging along the pavement. Both pairs of socks were completely soaked through, as were my shoes. Amazingly, I was still more or less a happy camper as I trudged up the West Side Highway towards my pit stop goal of Christopher Street, which would be about the 10.5 mile mark. I felt like George Clooney in "The Perfect Storm". But, I made it to the wonderful restroom at Christopher Street, and decided to check my Blackberry while I was there. I had a voice mail from one of my coaches, who was walking down the West Side Highway, looking for me, in the hopes of meeting me to walk back with me.

We met up at 14th Street, and continued uptown until we hit West 34th Street, which was about the 13 mile mark. At that point, it had started to turn into pouring freezing rain, and my coach decided it was time to detour off the windy West Side Highway, and head over to Penn Station to take the C train the rest of the way to West 72nd Street. The walk to Penn Station was easily at least another quarter mile, and by the time we made it back to bag watch, changed into dry clothes and got to the subway at 68th and Lexington Avenue, walked from the bus stop to my apartment, etc. I figure I hit the 15 miles easily.

You can see some pictures of yesterday's training walk at http://www.flickr.com/photos/mscarolm/sets/72157622769299271/ Be sure to check out the one of me in my oh-so-fashionable "Emergency Rain Poncho"!

Aside from feeling like I wanted to go to bed at 7 o'clock, I felt pretty good once I got into warm, dry clothes and put my big fluffy robe on.

Tonight Will Be Our Last Hill Workout - YAY!!!

2009-12-02T07:05:00.002-05:00

Great news! Tonight will be our last hill workout in Central Park!!! We're going to be tackling Northern Hill tonight, but then the hills are DONE!!! WOOHOO!!!

Of course, our long walks are going to get even longer on the weekends to make up for that. This weekend, we're looking at 15 miles. YIKES! If past experience is any indication, this will mean about 4 hours of walking. I'm thinking I may need to switch my shoes, and have ordered a pair of New Balance 768 to try out this week. The ASICS are a bit heavy after 10-13 miles, and I may have a slight issue with the arch support in them on longer distances. But, other than that, they're fine. I can definitely use them for walks of 10 miles or under. Hopefully, the New Balance pair will arrive today, so I can try them out during tonight's training session.

On a related note, I've sent in my info to be a shoe tester for FitnessMagazine.com during December, and am waiting to hear back from them. Wish me luck, as this would give me a few new pairs of shoes to test-drive during my December miles!

I Walked the Equivalent of a Half Marathon Today

2009-11-21T17:55:00.003-05:00

With only one pit stop, no less!

I walked 13.15 miles in just about 3 hours and 20 minutes. Everything seemed to work well once I managed to kick inertia to the curb and leave the house. The hardest part was walking past my house at the 10.5 mile mark, to finish the last 2.6 miles. The funniest part must've been seeing me walk up and down my block about 5 times to finish the last .16 mile.

My clothes worked out fine. I had enough water bottles and Gu to keep me going, no chafing, and I had no blisters after walking over 13 miles. So, something I'm doing must be working really well on that end! The only thing that continues to be a minor issue is my one toenail, even with shoes a size larger than my street size and band-aids on it to protect it. It's nothing that hurts while I'm walking, and it doesn't really bother me to sacrifice a toenail or two to the cause, especially since it's neither gross nor painful. I just can't figure out why it still takes some damage even though I've got way more than enough room for it in the toe box.

On the fundraising front, I am DELIRIOUSLY happy to report that I received an extremely generous donation check that now puts me within less than $500.00 of my fundraising commitment. WOOHOO!!! We're talking a major miracle, here, and I am still in shock! I'm almost there!!! My aim is to meet my minimum commitment amount by November 30th, but I will be accepting donations up until the day of the marathon at http://tinyurl.com/crawlcarolcrawl Every dollar helps, and no donation is too small! One thing that has really amazed me is the generosity and support of complete strangers. It is truly miraculous!

What's Broccoli Got to Do With It?

2009-11-15T09:19:00.003-05:00

Yesterday's training walk was a 12-miler... in the rain! Last week, I had a very rough time finishing 10 miles, so I wasn't too sure that I'd make it the full 12 miles. But, I did, and with energy to spare, surprisingly! (I promise I'll get to the the broccoli part eventually.) So, what was different this week from last week? What worked this time around? This is what I did differently:

Wore my "Emergency Rain Poncho" to keep dry. This had little or no effect on my actual walk, other than to make me a real fashion statement. Also, if you ever need to rely on an "Emergency Rain Poncho" in an actual weather emergency, by the time you got the thing opened and on, the storm would've passed six times over. Seriously, they're like trying to un-stick Saran Wrap. Do yourself a favor, and use a large trash bag or recycling bag instead. I've since bid on, and won, a GoreTex jacket on eBay.
Ate my whole wheat bagel with peanut butter about a half hour before walking. This worked! Last week, I ate my whole wheat Arnold Sandwich Thin with peanut butter before I left the house, which I guess was way too early. On previous walks, I'd get a bagel at the cart on my way out of the subway, and that has worked as well. So, now I know to have my bagel and coffee about a half hour before I walk.
Brought two different types of sports drink, one high in carbs and one high in potassium and with bit more sodium - both from PowerBar. This worked! I alternated between the two, and it seems to have worked out fine.
Brought a second whole wheat bagel with peanut butter and ate half after about 5 miles, and half after about 8 miles. This worked! I wasn't lightheaded after my walk at all, nor was my stomach growling. I think I need to have some sort of solid food in my belly after a while.
Walked at a slower pace. This worked, but I'm not sure I'm all that happy about it. I started off slower (still under a 16 minute mile) and didn't really push myself too hard to go faster. However, by the time we finished 12 miles, I still felt good enough to walk about another half mile to the subway station, and then walked another half mile from the bus to my mother's house afterwards. I did not feel like I wanted to die or kill my coaches. This is a good thing!
I walked with someone else. This really worked well for me mentally. It was nice to focus on a conversation, rather than how far I still had to walk. Plus, I got to learn a bit more about one of my team mates.

Now, I promised I'd get to where the broccoli fits in eventually. Maybe one of you can solve this mystery. For the past three Saturdays, right before we get to Harlem Hill in Central Park, there has been broccoli on the jogging path. There are no horses or anything in sight, just heads of broccoli, sometimes whole and sometimes squished all over the path. I haven't been able to find a reason for this. I've asked my coaches, and I've Googled "Central Park broccoli" to no avail. Does anyone know why there is always broccoli on the jogging path just past East 105th Street in Central Park? Enquiring mind wants to know!

The Hills Are Alive

2009-11-12T18:40:00.003-05:00

with the sound of grunting...

Last night we did a speed workout on... you guessed it... HILLS!!! Or hill I should say! We did repeats up and down the west side bridle path hill in Central Park. We focused on speeding up the hill hard, and then recovering down the hill easily. As a beginner, I was only supposed to do 4 sets. However, when you spend part of the morning and afternoon dissing your head coach via e-mail... well, you know what they say about payback:-) I ended up doing 5.

The real challenge though wasn't the uphill speed workout. It was dodging dung-filled landmines in the dark. Amazingly, I somehow managed to out-maneuver the manure and made it home with totally horse poop-free shoes.

We could have a real adventure during this weekend's training session weather-wise. Supposedly, we're due for a Nor'easter. It's one of our long walk days, too! As in 12 miles long! That could be real fun in the wind and rain, not to mention having to deal with weekend mass-transit in bad weather. My $10 says that there will be at least one delay due to a "signal problem" on the #7 line at either Willets Point or Hunters Point. The #7 train always has "signal problems" in bad weather. I swear, it must be the MTA's version of PMS!

Google Wave Invite for First 5 Donations of $20 or More

2009-11-11T12:22:00.002-05:00

I have a supply of Google Wave invites available.

I am giving FIVE (5) of them away to the first five people to make a donation of $20 or more via my Team in Training web page at http://tinyurl.com/crawlcarolcrawl

You MUST be in the first five today to receive a Google Wave invite. I receive timestamped notifications of online donations, and will base the winners on these. First come, first served. I may hold another giveaway tomorrow, but it depends on how many I need for my personal use.

A very brief update...

2009-11-07T16:23:00.003-05:00

Today we hit the DOUBLE-DIGITS! Official training walk today was 10 miles. I not only survived, I walked a bit extra thanks to losing my sense of direction entirely and starting of walking the wrong way on the last 4 mile loop:-) By the time I got home at 2:30pm, my pedometer read 14.01 miles!

On another note entirely, special thanks to my friend Mary Anne Gruen, of Starlight Blog who has given me two very nice awards for this blog, which I will eventually get around to putting up at some point this weekend - I PROMISE!

Also in the works - I will be adding a Twitter gadget so that my tweets and pictures from my training sessions, etc. will show up in the sidebar of this blog. I hope to get this done tonight.

On the fundraising front... I am past the halfway point!!! Any and all donations are still being very gratefully and cheerfully accepted at http://tinyurl.com/crawlcarolcrawl, which is a shortened web address for my Team In Training fundraising page. Seriously, every dollar helps! Those $5 donations really do add up! I'm halfway there, can you help me cross the finish line? Heck, if you want to give me $5 just to get me to shut up about my fundraising, that's cool too - I'll take it! :-)

Why Training for a Marathon is a REALLY BIG Deal for Me

2009-11-03T19:10:00.004-05:00

Aside from the obvious reason of raising funds for much-needed cancer research and patient support programs sponsored by The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training, that is.

Training for a marathon represents a HUGE symbol of my progress physically. On 9/11, I weighed just over 300 lbs. In October, 2006 I weighed roughly 289 lbs, and in April/May 2007, I was hospitalized for the first time in my life with cellulitis. After never spending a night in a hospital for over forty years, I was hospitalized twice in one month! I got cellulitis first in one leg, and then a few weeks later in the other. Real fun - NOT!

Long story short, I apparently got it due to severe cracks in both my heels, thanks to working in a job where I was on my feet for about five hours straight each day. I worked for an all-natural vitamin & nutritional supplement company (funny, huh?:-) and part of my job involved packing all of the previous day's orders and getting them ready for shipping. Another fun side effect of the job was severely cracked fingers and palms of both my hands. All of this was later diagnosed as eczema, but I felt like I had the plague. Some of you reading this will remember those fun days.

At any rate, thanks to a wonderful dermatologist, an equally wonderful podiatrist and getting fired via FedEx (another first) from the job at the nutritional supplement company due to my "recent and planned extended absences" (umm... I was sick and in the hospital - I was not out having the time of my life in Disney World), my hands and feet slowly began to heal. I have been completely "crack-free" for just over a year now.

Fast-forward to November 2007, when I walked into my first Weight Watchers meeting. I weighed in at 271 lbs. While I had done charity walks before, the possibility of me actually walking in a marathon never entered my mind. The end of this month will mark my 2-year anniversary with Weight Watchers, and I currently weigh in at 186 lbs - 85 lbs less than when I started, and about 120 lbs down from my heaviest weight.

Training for this marathon represents all of the progress I've made over the past 2 years. The fact that I can walk a 10K in under 2 hours and not need an oxygen tank or CPR afterwards feels pretty good. The fact that my feet can handle all this walking without having to deal with painful cracking and splitting is amazing. The fact that I can now walk a mile in under 15 minutes is pretty miraculous! (Hallelujah! She can WALK!:-)

So for me, in addition to the importance of raising much-needed funds, this marathon also represents a celebration of my new life, because I never would've been able to do I of this 2 years ago.

Map of Saturday's Training Walk

2009-11-01T08:45:00.000-05:00

This is more or less a map of yesterday's training walk. It's not exact, but it's close enough to give everyone an idea of the torture our coaches put us through:-)

Central Park Walk Route 10/31/2009
Find more Walks in New York, New York

WOW! This was pretty AMAZING!

2009-10-30T09:33:00.003-04:00

As one of the winners of a recent Team in Training fundraising contest, I received an exclusive invitation to tour the cancer research lab of Dr. Chen-Kiang, a recipient of Leukemia & Lymphoma Society funding. She is currently researching a new treatment for myeloma aimed at halting cancerous cell division to more effectively treat the cancer. If successful, these treatment methods could eventually be applied to many other types of cancer.

First of all, I have to admit that at first, I wasn't exactly sure just how interesting a lab tour would be. I thought it might be highly and possibly boringly over-scientific. Boy, was I wrong! First of all, they fed us! They had ordered these absolutely delicious organic sandwiches, bottled water, and best of all, coffee!!! (Thank you, Deidra!) Not only that, but at several points during her presentation, Dr. Chen-Kiang stopped and made us feel guilty about the number of sandwiches still on the trays, so we had to eat some more!

If there is one thing Dr. Chen-Kiang is not, it is boring! Her enthusiasm and the joy that she finds in her work was obvious. You could tell that she totally loves what she's doing by the way her face completely lit up as she told us about some of the important discoveries they've made in blood cancer research. This was second only to the way her face lit up when she talked about her daughter, who is currently attending medical school there. Her passion for her work is infectious. Far from being overly-technical, Dr. Chen-Kiang has an amazing gift of explaining very complex cancer research and biology to a room full of total non-scientists (seriously, we weren't even close!) To top it all off, she is funny! She has a great sense of humor, particularly when it comes to stereotypes about scientists being a bit like Dr. Frankenstein.

The lab tour was really incredible. We were able to see actual living myeloma cells that are being used to test various treatments, and to see the effects on cells that were treated. What I found really amazing, other than how well some of these treatments are doing what they're supposed to do, was how tiny cancer cells are. Under a microscope, they were about the size of the head of a pin. It's really hard to imagine how something so small can kill a person, but they do.

The research that Dr. Chen-Kiang is doing is aimed at a combination of targeting only the cancer cells, stopping their growth and cell division, and then killing them before they start another growth and division cycle. Dr. Chen-Kiang started working on this back in 1997, and they are on a very encouraging path. One of their treatments is now also being used successfully with breast cancer patients. So, the work her team is doing benefits not only those with leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma, but with other types of cancer as well.

It is really amazing, and it definitely added something very concrete and very personal to my mission to raise funds for blood cancer research. This is where my fundraising dollars are going, to support the research of cancer biologists like Dr. Cheng-Kiang. To be able to see my fundraising dollars at work was really pretty incredible!

I Joined The Human Race!!!

2009-10-26T16:49:00.005-04:00

I finished my first 10K race!!!

On Sunday, 10/24, I was up at 4:30AM and out the door before 6AM to participate in the Nike+ Human Race in Prospect Park, Brooklyn.

My official time was 1:40' 54" - not bad, considering I was walking and not running it. I came in 3,448th out of 3,464 - at least I wasn't LAST!!! Then a bunch of us from Team in Training went to Flipster's for some post-race food and libations. Flipster's makes some really good Bloody Marys and burgers!!!

At the finish line

This is what happens to slow-moving people:

(Not really, but it was rather funny seeing the bulldozer behind us at the starting line.)

Coming This Saturday: My First "Real" Race as a "Grown-up"!

2009-10-22T21:52:00.002-04:00

I picked up my race packet and shirt earlier tonight. So now, it's official. I've entered my first "real" race as a "grown-up". On Saturday, I will be participating in the Nike+ Human Race 10K.

I'm not going for any speed records, but it should be interesting to see how I do time-wise. I know I can walk 10K easily, since I completed the AIDS Walk back in May in about 2 1/2 hours, and that on streets and with stopping to take pictures of a bazillion things along the way. I've been averaging between 14.5-15 minutes per mile, so I figure I'll finish somewhere around the hour and a half mark, give or take a few.

This should be interesting...

Now THIS is Dangerous!

2009-10-17T19:42:00.002-04:00

Do not give a geek Nike + gadgets. It is like giving crack to an addict! I will end up walking my "inner geek" to death just to play with the software!

I've not only had to go out and "test" how well it tracks my walk once, I went out for a second, longer walk. Then I spent the better part of an hour playing around with all the cool stuff on the Nike + web site, and created a Nike + Mini for my facebook page. I've also set some goals for myself on the Nike + site, and entered The Human Race 10K for next Saturday.

Now I want to go out and play with it some more!

I think my sister has created a monster...

FREE House Cleaning for Women Undergoing Chemo

2009-10-15T13:49:00.001-04:00

Cleaning for a Reason
http://www.cleaningforareason.org

If you know any woman currently undergoing chemo, please pass the word to her that there is a cleaning service that provides FREE house cleaning - 1 time per month for 4 months while she is in treatment.

All she has to do is sign up and have her doctor fax a note confirming the treatment. Cleaning for a Reason will have a participating maid service in her zip code area arrange for the service.

There May be Hope for Me Yet

2009-10-11T13:49:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, we did a 6 mile walk. Through some sort of bizarre miracle, I managed to walk the first 4 miles in just under an hour, make a pit stop, and do the remaining 2 miles in just under a half hour. Afterwards, we had a very fun brunch, where we talked about everything from sex to serial killers. We're definitely a very interesting and entertaining bunch!

I walked to 86th and Lexington Avenue to catch the subway, and by the time I got home, I had logged over 9 miles on my pedometer. This was followed by some serious dancing at my high school reunion, which brought my total mileage up to 13.8 miles for the day. Not too shabby!

Bootcamp Torture and Other Updates...

2009-10-09T18:24:00.003-04:00

I've been a bit lax about updates lately, and for that, I apologize.

For starters - my big news is that at last Saturday's Group Training Session (aka GTS) I walked 4 miles in just under an hour. That's less than 15 minutes per mile! Go me!!!

Next up - I'm now up to $1,491.00 in donations!!! Thank you all for your generosity and support of my efforts!

At this past Wednesday's GTS, we had the pleasure of a bootcamp workout. Actually, it was more like a Group Torture Session than a Group Training Session, and I'm really surprised that I was able to move when I woke up on Thursday! If you want to get an idea of what Jasmine Graham put us through, have a look at her web site here:
http://www.pace4success.com/bootcamp.html

Tomorrow, we're scheduled to do 5-6 miles in Central Park, which means by the time I get home, I'll probably have logged about 9 miles on my pedometer when all is said and done. We also have a team brunch after our training session, which I'm looking forward to.

On the fund raising front, I am hosting an online Tastefully Simple party. Now through the end of the month, you can order delicious Tastefully Simple foods for yourself or for holiday gifts and the consultant has generously offered to donate 20% of the total sales to my Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Team in Training efforts! If you would like to be added to the invite list, please e-mail me with "TNT Tastefully Simple" in the subject line, and I'll send you an invitation with the link!

This is What I'm Getting Myself Into

2009-10-01T11:23:00.003-04:00

Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend|Endurance|Amateur Sports|Disney's Wide World of Sports
I'm going to be doing the full marathon. Be sure to click on the "Event Details" link.

Below is a link to the 2009 marathon map:
2009 Walt Disney World Marathon Course - PDF file link

If I'm reading this correctly, I will need to maintain at least a 16 minute per mile pace, which translates into 3.75 miles per hour, or 26.2 miles in just under 7 hours.

Map of My Walk Route Today

2009-09-26T16:56:00.000-04:00

It includes my walk to/from the 59th & 5th Subway station.

09/26/2009 Route
Find more Walks in New York, New York

You Are NOT Allowed to Laugh!

2009-09-26T13:47:00.005-04:00

That's me, stretching after a 5 mile training walk in Central Park this morning, in what I refer to as my "Karate Kid" pose. I try to do this one near some sort of bench, fence or other steady object, as I have a tendency to start doing my Leaning Tower of Pisa impersonation, and one of these days, I'm gonna land right smack on my ass!

I'm wearing my new "Crawl, Carol, CRAWL!!!" t-shirt. If you would like a supporter version of the shirt, or other items, you can find them in the "Crawl, Carol, CRAWL!!!" store:
http://www.cafepress.com/crawlcarolcrawl.407870037

Doing really well with both the training and fund raising so far. I even won a pair of socks!!!

Today's training consisted of:

1 - 4-mile loop up to around 104th Street and back to 72nd
1 - 1 mile lower loop of the park, down to 59th Street and back

In addition to the training walk, I walked up to 72nd Street and back to/from the subway station, making a total of 7.54 miles by the time I got on the 7 train at Queensboro Plaza. By noon, I was up to 8 miles.

On the fund raising front, I came home to find two envelopes waiting for me - one with a check for $50 and one with a check for $100! Tonight, I'll be providing music during my local VFW Post's "Night at the Races" and will have my donation jar ready, along with some handouts and business cards to place on the tables before the event starts. I'm hoping that it's well-attended, and that I bring home at least $50.

Stay tuned...

Today's Training Adventures

2009-09-23T23:08:00.003-04:00

Tonight, we did two trips around the reservoir in Central Park for a total "official" training session mileage of 3.2 miles. By the time I got home tonight, my pedometer read 6.19 miles for the day. About 5 of those were from training, walking to/from training and the subway stairs,etc., because when I left my Weight Watchers meeting, my pedometer read somewhere around the 1.2 mile mark.

I also, apparently, have become popular with the insect world. I got chewed up by a mosquito who decided my lower leg was "the other white meat". Then a bit later, I walked through the same spider web twice! Across my face - ICK!

But, I averaged about a 16 minute mile, which is very encouraging!

Push-ups and Other Training Tortures

2009-09-22T19:42:00.003-04:00

I just attempted 15 push-ups as part of my strength training routine. Good thing there wasn't a camera around, because that would've made some really funny YouTube video! I totally suck at push-ups! The last few were more like drag-my-butt-off-the-floor-ups. Really, it was that bad! Static lunges weren't too bad, and eventually I have to attempt some planks. Yippee!!!

But, on a very positive note, I received two checks in the mail today in response to the fund raising letters I mailed out last weekend. One was for a hundred dollars!!! WOOHOO!!! Go me!!! I also thought of a really cool company to approach for a corporate sponsorship, and have the letter all written and ready to go. If they go for it, it will be awesome!

So far, I have over $700.00 in combined pledges and donations, of which I've actually I collected just over $400.00!!! If this keeps up, I will be very happy and able to put the fundraising worry behind me, so I can focus more fully on actual training.

How Your Donations Help

2009-09-21T11:22:00.004-04:00

In case you're wondering how the money you donate helps those facing blood cancers, here's an idea of where your donation money could go:

$25 could pay the taxi fare for a patient's ride home from the hospital after treatment
$50 could register one person to be a bone marrow donor
$75 could provide HLA (bone marrow) typing for a family member of a patient with leukemia
$100 could pay the cost of 4 patients' chemotherapy drug prescription co-pays
$300 could train 25 peer volunteers to provide emotional support to newly diagnosed patients
$1,000 could allow a patient to meet with health care specialists to design and discuss their disease and treatment plan
$3,000 could provide a patient with a one month supply of Gleevec (a life-saving drug, developed through LLS research funding, used to treat chronic myelogenous leukemia)

Every dollar helps! No donation is too small! Please visit my Team in Training web page at http://tinyurl.com/marathonwoman to donate or find other ways you can help.

I'm Selling My Body

2009-09-19T18:42:00.002-04:00

Well, not literally selling it. I'm accepting donations in return for putting your name, or your company's name on various parts of my anatomy during the marathon. An example of this can be seen here.

Be advised, though, that 2 areas of "prime real estate" have already been claimed. However, the front, sides and backs of my calves, arms, and possibly my thighs, are still available.

On another fund raising note, today I turned in 48 donation letters to be mailed. That leaves me at least 52 more to turn in to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society office for mailing. I found some really cute computer paper in the dollar store. One kind thatI bought has multi-colored polka dots at the top and bottom, and the other has multi-colored stars. I also picked up about $10 in donations after a local softball game that I went to after my training session.

Lastly, I set up a new online store through cafepress.com - Crawl, Carol, CRAWL!!! - The Store!

Today's Training

2009-09-19T10:33:00.000-04:00

Training session in Central Park-3.5 miles

Walk to/from bus & subway-2 miles.

Total walked as of 10:15am-5.5 miles!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Not sure if this will work or not...

2009-09-18T07:47:00.000-04:00

For some reason this isn't showing up in my sidebar, but it will show up in a post.

I Bought Myself Some New Toys...

2009-09-17T21:26:00.001-04:00

I knew I was going to need a much smaller fanny pack, so I bought a really nice one at Urban Athletics on Madison Avenue between East 91st and East 92nd Streets after practice last night. It's just big enough to hold my Blackberry, keys, MetroCard, money and ID. The people at Urban Athletics are very nice, and they were offering all Team in Training members a 15% discount this week!

It's not exactly the same one, but this will give you an idea.

My other new toy is a "used - like new" Silver 8GB iPod Nano 3rd Generation, that I got for a steal on Amazon.com. It was originally listed as $75.00 plus shipping, but I had a CoinStar voucher for $16.22, which brought it down to a total of about 63 bucks, shipping included. Not bad! It cost me less than a brand-new iPod Shuffle 2nd Generation with less than half the storage space! It arrived in the mail today, and I love it! Next up is going to be a Nike + iPod Sport Kit to track my time, distance, pace and calories.

Today's Major Treadmill Victory

2009-09-15T21:52:00.000-04:00

This morning I went to the gym and did 2 miles in 29 minutes and 45 seconds - that's less than 15 minutes a mile! That's with 2 short slow-down periods at 1.2 mph to wipe the sweat off my face and guzzle down some water.

This is the first time I've done 2 miles in less than a half hour! Go ME!!!

Today's Notes

2009-09-13T18:51:00.000-04:00

This is a test of e-mail blogging by phone.

Miles walked today: 2.70
Where walked: To Target and back

Fund raising efforts:
Printed out 30 copies of my revised fund raising letter and got 15 copies ready to be mailed.

Spoke with one of the cashiers I know from my local Walgreens to find out who I should talk to about a donation.

Made my first donation can, to use at next weekend's VFW softball game.

How You Can Help Me Crawl, Carol, CRAWL!!!

2009-09-12T17:42:00.000-04:00

Crawl, Carol, CRAWL!!!
(Because that's what I'll probably be doing towards the end!)

I may need my head examined... I have signed up to walk in my very first marathon on January 10th in Walt Disney World to support The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team In Training. I'm committing to walking 26.2 miles in this event. In doing so, my goal is to raise $3,700 for LLS to help bring hope and at least some ease of mind to people facing blood cancers like leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's lymphoma and myeloma.

This is, without a doubt, the biggest thing I've undertaken in my life so far. It's also one of the scariest - what if I fail??? I've never tried to raise this much money before in my whole entire LIFE! To say the prospect of doing so is a bit intimidating is an understatement! I'm more afraid of that than of the prospect of walking 26.2 miles!

If I fail, for starters, it means no marathon for me, but more importantly...

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is projected to fall a staggering $25 million short of their national budget this year. So what does that mean? That means that for some, the LLS co-pay fund that once helped cover the costs of medications and doctor visits is now depleted. That also means that research funding is being scaled back, slowing advancements in treatments and towards a cure.

Your donation can make such a huge difference. It funds research, assists patients with small reimbursements for treatment expenses, and most important- it brings hope to so many. Please donate what you can. I know the economy is tough on us all, but please think as big and dig as deep as you're able. Every dollar counts.

If you're not able to donate, there are loads of other ways you can help me make this happen. I've listed them below, and they're equally important and greatly appreciated.

Please visit my website to donate: http://tinyurl.com/marathonwoman
(And feel free to forward along to friends and family!)

To donate by check, you can make checks payable to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and mail them to me at the following address:

Carol Martzinek
Courtroom Connect
75 Maiden Lane - Suite 804
New York, NY 10038

Some other ways you can help me Crawl, Carol, CRAWL!!!:

If you have a facebook page, please share the following link on your profile every week or so:
http://tinyurl.com/marathonwoman and encourage your friends to donate and share it as well.
If you have a blog or website, if you could post a link to my Team in Training website with a small blurb like the one below, it will help tremendously:

Crawl, Carol, CRAWL!!! - Please support Carol as she trains to walk in her first marathon to raise funds for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training.
http://pages.teamintraining.org/nyc/wdw10/cmartzinek

If you know of anyone who would be interested buying an arm or a leg, and having their company name prominently displayed in multi-colored Sharpie ink, please have them contact me at mscarolm@ gmail.com

If you know of any local media that might be interested in including a short story about this, please let me know and I will e-mail them.

Thanks for taking the time to read and for anything you can do to help me
Crawl, Carol, CRAWL!!!

Today is Kick-off Day

2009-09-12T15:29:00.000-04:00

Or should I say, today was kick-off day. What a great experience! While I'm still a bit nervous about the fundraising part, I'm feeling more comfortable about my ability to eventually walk a full marathon.

Today, we met our mentors, coaches, honored team members (who are a very inspiring group), including one woman who was just diagnosed, came to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society on Wednesday, I think, and said she now feels a lot less alone and like she's found a "home".

The meeting was followed by a quick group training session, or GTS as it's referred to. I felt really good about being in the front end of the walking group. It lasted about a half hour, and it was roughly 2 miles . I should start keeping better track of this stuff on my pedometer. I do know that, when I got off the subway in Manhattan, my pedometer read .72 miles, and when we got back to the 92nd Street Y, it was up to 3.65 miles. Now, after I've returned home and run to the store twice, it's up to a total of 5.38 miles as of 5:20pm ET. Not bad!