Peaks and Valleys

I'm now in my second month of training for the half-marathon with the East Nasty Running Club. I've surprised myself by how far and long I can run. Overall, I feel great. Running has honestly kept me sane in these cold, dreary Winter months. Normally at this time of year I would slip into a depression- not wanting to leave the couch or visit with friends, and just generally feeling blah. Instead, I've made new friends and feel like a part of a close-knit community. I've also improved my physical fitness, can pretty much eat whatever I want, and have a reason to get off the couch the four days a week that I run.

But while I am certainly achieving new "highs", running does come with its lows. Mainly, I've been having a lot of problems w/ asthma and aches and pains in my legs. This causes me to feel mentally and physically weak. I've never been an athlete- as a teenager I was more content to brood alone in my bedroom, playing guitar for hours at a time. However, I am a perfectionist and am disappointed to find that running doesn't come naturally to me and is quite a challenge. I wish I could keep up my friends without huffing and puffing, and without my shins screaming from pain. Everyday I google something new about running, hoping I will find the ultimate key to running faster without pain. Everyday I am disappointed. My impatient, competitive self wants to just be there already, but my body is holding me back.

Regardless of the emotional/physical peaks and valleys I experience in my training, I know its making me a stronger person, teaching me patience, and fostering new friendships.

Resolution Run

Most people spend January 1st nursing hangovers from a raucous night of drinking, partying, and staying up late. Instead, Brian and I spent January 1st running the Resolution Run 5k in 30 degree weather. It wasn't exactly how I imagined spending New Year's Day, but now that my partying days are mostly behind me (I only drank one margarita and went to bed promptly at midnight...yawn), it wasn't a stretch for me to wake up early the next day and run. Besides, it was a pretty fitting start to 2010 considering my plans to train for and run the Country Music half-marathon in April.

We bundled up and drove downtown where we met other like-minded (read: crazy) people at Hall of Fame park. We picked up our packets, and with numb fingers attempted to pin on our racing bibs. I managed to stab myself multiple times, but luckily my fingers were already frozen at that point. Then we followed a mass of people to the start line and several minutes later we here the BANG! of the gun go off.


For the first mile, I was on fire. I took off running past all kinds of people, but by the second mile I was hitting the proverbial "wall." My face was numb from the cold air and my shins cried out in pain. Still- I didn't stop. I kept running to the beat of my iTunes playlist and before I knew it, I was crossing the Shelby Street pedestrian bridge and crossing the finish line with a race time of 30 min. and 50 seconds! Not bad considering it equals out to less than 10 minutes per mile. In the end I placed 23rd out of 68 women in my age group.


Once I crossed the finish line, I realized I was the equivalent of drunk. I stumbled around looking for Brian and managed to randomly lay down my gloves and walk off without them. Good thing they were $0.99 cheapies. I quickly downed some free cornbread and water and then headed for the warmth of my car. On the way home we stopped at the Wendy's drive-thru and splurged on burgers and fries, thus negating any calorie deficit we may have earned that morning.

I didn't inhale....

About 23 years ago, when I was in 2nd grade, I had to stay in the hospital for nearly a week after developing a severe case of pneumonia. What I didn't know at the time was that I was much sicker than I thought and quite possibly could have died. My potassium levels nearly bottomed out and I was stuck with an IV and went through nightmarish breathing treatments where I had to inhale some horrible smoky-tasting treatment followed by a nurse practically beating the shit out of my tiny 7-year old back in order to loosen up the phlegm in my lungs. My mom stayed with me the entire time and I shared a room with some older lady behind a curtain. I have no idea why she was actually there, but as I child I convinced myself that she was in the hospital for eating cigarettes.

I share this because I had to visit the Walgreen's clinic today and was diagnosed with sports-related asthma. I'm pretty sure my bout of childhood pneumonia left me with a somewhat reduced lung capacity. I knew something was wrong when I started riding my bike and running outside earlier this year. At the end (and sometimes during) my exercise, I started coughing and wheezing. I felt like I had the weight of a post-Jenny Craig Kirstie Alley sitting on my chest. So the Walgreen's doc prescribed an albuterol inhaler and I was on my way home to deal with the fact that I will now have to carry an inhaler with me when I run.

In reality its not that much of a setback. Initially I was a little concerned since not one hour earlier, I had signed up for the Resolution Run 5k with expected high temps in the low 30s (cold air aggravates asthma). Could I really do this knowing I would have to rely on an inhaler in order to do something as critical as breathing? As always, I turned to the internet for expert advice. A google search for sports-related asthma revealed that I share this diagnosis with Jackie Kersee Joiner. She was a pretty good runner I guess...... In other words, I think I'll live.

New Year, New Direction

In case you haven't noticed- I haven't posted in a looooong time. As much as I enjoy writing about my travels, I think I would utilize this blog more often if I strayed from my travel theme and just started writing about everyday life, memories, travel, etc. My resolution for 2010 is to write more often so I can look back at the end of the year and see how life has unfolded.

For years I kept a personal journal to sort through the severe anxiety and depression I battled as a teen and early adult. Every once in a while I'll flip to a random entry just to see where I was at that point and how far I've come since those dark days. Sometimes its very difficult to revisit my past like that, but as I age, I've come to realize that I'm the only person who can help myself. As a result, I've really put myself in situations I would normally avoid in order to grow. I hope this year will find me reaching out more to others, adhering to goals rather than dropping them out of fear of failure, and conquering my desire to please everyone (which we all know is impossible), and instead doing what I think is best for me.

Just a few weeks ago I decided to train with a group for the half-marathon in April. I expect to not only push myself physically, but emotionally as well. The hardest part for me was showing up at that first group run. Most people don't know it, but interacting socially with people I don't know can be crippling for me. I ended up forcing myself to join the group on its first run even though I felt my chest tighten and breathing shallow at the thought of meeting new people. My fears were realized: Noone talked to me during that first outing, and I couldn't even keep up with the runners. I felt like such a loser, but rather than walk away feeling hopeless, I returned for a second time. I can't give up this time- I've done that way too many times in the past. I have to see this through.

Stay tuned....

Land Between the Lakes

A few weeks ago, my mom and I got cabin fever and decided do some off-road bike riding. With the sun partially out, we choked down some Egg McMuffins and headed north to Kentucky and entered Land Between the Lakes. Here, there is a 11 mile mountain bike trail called the Canal Loop trail that appropriately borders the canal between Lake Barkley (Cumberland River) and Lake Kentucky (Tennessee River).


Mom had never mountain-biked before and quickly learned that it primarily consists of riding over roots and rocks, thus leading to inevitable scratches and bruises. However, I give the ole' gal props for mountain biking at nearly 60! Neither one of us ever fell, and enjoyed the adventure of riding in a new place. I can't say that I was enamored with the beauty of Land Between the Lakes- maybe it was having an off day, but it did have some good roads for bicycle riding, and was surprisingly hilly.

When we got done, we loaded our muddy bikes into the back of the truck and headed back towards TN. For some reason I got a jones for Arby's curly fries and we refused to stop until we found one- which was an hour later in Clarksville, TN (we were so happy we cheered). It just goes to show you that life's simple pleasures can be found working up a sweat followed by eating greasy curly fries.

Paddle Faster, I Hear Banjos

Brian and I decided to finally brave the rapids of the Hiwassee River over the July 4th weekend. We left at the crack of dawn on Friday and drove all the way to the old town of Reliance, TN in the Cherokee National Forest. As we drove into town, we followed an old rickety farm truck full of people getting ready to run the rapids, and I so hoped we would be riding in a similar vehicle, but our outfitter drove us along a scarily narrow road to the put-in spot in an old short bus instead.

Once the bus let us off, we took our inflatable kayaks and foul-smelling life jackets and hopped in the cold mountain waters and prepared for paddling two hours of Class 1,2, and 3 rapids. I’d like to think of myself as a good paddler, but I was not prepared for some of the sheer drops we had to make, and by some stroke of luck I managed to keep from falling in the river. Brian never fell either, but he did get stuck on a couple of rocks jutting out just below the river’s surface, and I got to laugh as he attempted rather violent body movements to wrench himself free from the rocks.

The last rapid we reached, Devil’s Shoals, was by far the most fun rapid I’ve ever run. Waves of water spilled into my boat as the water bucked me up into the air. Those few seconds of terror were absolutely exhilarating! Oddly enough, you can also go down the Hiwassee in an inflatable tube that offers no protection. I was surprised to not see a mass of floating bodies and abandoned inner tubes as we reached the take-out point.

Kayaking the Hiwassee was so much fun that we were depressed to have to exit the river in order to get a ride back to our car. We were the first ones from our group to finish and waited for our short bus as a nearby group of deaf kids excitedly signed over their river adventure. After we dried off and got back to our car, we snapped a few pics of cool, old buildings in Reliance (such as this old school/church below) and made our way home.

Frozen Head and Brushy Mountain Prison

After departing from Oak Ridge, Brian and I decided to take Highway 62 from Oliver Springs to Clarkrange, where we then opted to drive south towards Crossville and join back up with I-40 so we could grab a bite to eat and get home quickly. However, we made several side trips on the way home in order to see Brushy Mountain prison, Frozen Head State Natural Area, the Obed National Scenic River, and Bee Rock.

Ever since I was a kid, I've had a strange fascination with places associated with deviant behaviors: prisons, abandoned mental hospitals, battlefields, crime scenes, etc. I suppose I feel that these places hold a special energy that always makes me feel uneasy and a bit agitated at the same time. In simpler terms, these places put me on edge and make me really feel alive. That's why I felt so compelled to see Brushy Mountain state Prison located in a remote valley of Morgan County.

Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary first opened in 1896 to house prisoners previously used as convict laborers in the nearby coal mines. It held some of the state's most dangerous prisoners, including James Earl Ray who assasinated Martin Luther King, Jr. He and six other prisoners escaped for four days in 1977, but were eventually found and hauled back. Considering that Brushy Mountain sits in a cove directly surrounded by mountains, its a wonder anyone escaped at all. Just this year, Brushy Mountain closed its doors to prisoners after operating for 113 years.

After Brushy Mountain, we drove on to Frozen Head State Natural Area where we hiked a short stretch of Panther Trail branch to see a waterfall. According to their visitor's brochure, Frozen Head was originally acquired as part of Brushy Mountain State Prison so that convicts could deep mine coal and harvest trees to supply timbers for the mine. The land was then transferred to the State Parks system in 1970 and features several hiking trails.

Next, we drove through historic Wartburg and on to the wild and scenic Obed River where pioneers used to fish and trap game. The Obed is overseen by the National Park Service and features difficult Class II to Class IV rapids. My goal is to kayak the Obed one day, but my ability probably stops around Class II.

Leaving the Obed, we drove through continuous pastures dotted with oil rigs on the Cumberland Plateau. Here we exited Highway 62 and rejoined I-40 where we took one last detour to Bee Rock in Monterey, TN. I went to college near Monterey, and Bee Rock was a favorite spot of local adventurers who repelled off the cliffs overlooking the unspoiled valley carved by the Calfkiller River.


After our day of roadtripping across Eastern and Middle TN, we made one last pit stop to join my parents at a local Mexican restaurant where we consumed massive amounts of chips and salsa and diet coke. Carbs and caffeine, mmmm.........