Ellicott City Labor Day Running Classic

Somehow, I manage to keep running. This year I began running in the early months of the year and then cut my running down to once a week during the 7-week semester. When that was over, I slowly added runs back into my week, running about 1.5 miles with a generous walk/run ratio. Then I built up to 2 miles at a time for weekday runs with 3 miles on the weekend.

At this point in life, I had no desire to increase my base miles or increase the number of times a week I run. My whole goal has been to maintain a very small base. Instead, I've experimented with longer ratios to increase my endurance and added speedwork to the mix. I was trilled that I was able to keep running throughout the buildup to our summer conference and after.

Running add so much to my quality of life, and I believe that I feel better, think better and function better on the days that I run. This is no longer simply a personal belief or a fuzzy notion that I've encapsulated in my personal philosophy of "yin and yang" in which I seek to counterbalance the mental activity and stress of work and school with the opposing physical activity of running (and swimming and biking). It is now backed by scientific evidence in the book "Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain" by John Ratey and Eric Hagerman that suggests that exercise affects the brain cells in specific ways that boost our mood and improve our focus.

I've put aside racing because my mileage is so low...but of course, I couldn't resist a 5K and scheduled the "race of the year" for the end of summer, when I had time to prepare and establish a small, but consist base.

Ellicott City Labor Day Running Classic

I'd known about this race for a long time, but somehow never ran it because I was in the midst of preparing for other races and it didn't fit into my mileage or schedule. This year, they offered a new 5K route in effort to attract runners interested in a shorter distance.

The fluorescent yellow race shirt left something to be desired. Although wearing the race shirt on race day is supposed to be bad juju and one shouldn't wear a shirt unless it is earned by running the race, I decided to eschew these traditions and wear the shirt that I probably wouldn't wear anywhere else.

The race is held at the Shrine of St. Anthony, which is located on the IronGirl bike route. I'd ridden past this many times in training and racing and even driving along the route always brings back IronGirl memories.

The entire race was well run, from the volunteers that guided our parking on the grass surrounding the monastery, to the abundant and helpful announcements, to the well-positioned course marshals and the post-race food.

The event organizers made clear in the race materials and at packet pickup that half of the route was on paved roads and half was on paths. However, it was much more of a trail run than originally described and was very different than the wide, smooth paths through the woods that I'm accustomed to running on. The trail that winds through the woods on the property is narrow and the ground ranges from spongy material to a solid dirt path with tree roots emerging. The volunteers had done a wonderful job of spray painting the roots so that people like me would not trip over their own feet and there was plastic tape so that people would not wander off the path.

The trail run provided interesting mental and physical challenges that kept me focused as I navigated the uneven and changing terrain and avoided the spraypainted roots. It a nice diversion that kept me externally focused and prevented me from thinking about myself and my fatigue during the race.

I did an 2/8 ratio throughout the race and from the beginning, I found myself in competition with another middle-aged portly man who seemed older than me. I would run forward and then he would catch up and pass me. He also was using a walk/run strategy, although his walks were shorter and did not seem to fall according to any pattern. During the middle of the race on the trail he charged ahead and was a good distance in front of me as I focused on navigating the trail.

Normally, I follow the ratio strictly, with a rule that I must run when the walk interval ends, even if that is a hill...but the hills on the trail and the grassy portions were unexpectedly steep and I found myself walking up a few. I was glad to be out of the woods, but knew I would encounter one last hill as we climbed toward the finish. It was there that I passed the older man who was my personal competitor. I still had energy in my tank as I charged toward the finish and conquered the final hill. Due to the terrain and the hills, my time was much slower than it ordinarily would have been, but I was satisfied all the same.

Running into the Future

Will I be able to keep running into the fall? I don't know. I'm headed into a very busy fall with work and school. I'm strategizing ways that I can keep my momentum, rather than continue the cycle of stopping and starting as I've done over the past several years. I am anxious to complete the grad school marathon, and to move on to other things in life...but I worry that my running ambitions could be eclipsed by age and injury. We'll see what the future holds.

Run for Your Life, Part II

It was the end of the academic semester and three months before our major convention. In addition to part-time staff, I had an intern last summer, but this time I didn't. And there are only so many hours in the day. The stress wrapped itself around me like a vise. I felt tense all of the time. I developed problems sleeping and would wake up before my alarm went off and start thinking about work. Getting back to sleep was impossible, so I just went to work. I developed problems with eating.

Out of all this...a really great thing happened. I once again decided to get on the treadmill at 4:30 a.m. to run and walk. Just 1.5 miles at first. Then 2 miles with a generous walk/run ratio. Just two weekdays. My "long" runs on the weekends were at most just one more mile. Running is always hard at first because there are a lot of aches and pains. It was the only time when the stress melted away. I felt like a million and sometimes the effect lasted for the rest of the day. And sooner - or later - running gets easier and 2 miles isn't so hard. I still have a tiny base, and I have no plans to do anything except increase my base little by little. Consistency is still a challenge. I've run two 5Ks this summer and I hope to find another one. I hope to continue.

Run For Your Life

Not long ago, I left a staff position at a large association that I’d held for 13 years and took a management position at a small nonprofit. I had stayed in my previous position due to many externalities related to being a married working mother and longed for a change. The new position was one that I’d said I’d hoped one day to hold on my graduate school applications. The career move changed my entire life, but left me wondering if it was for the better.

I’d previously worked about 40 hours a week, commuted two hours daily, and completed two graduate classes a semester. I ascribed to a philosophy of yin and yang—as I understood it—and counterbalanced work and studying by the equal and opposing physical activity of training for and running my third half marathon. However, my training plan and fitness level were modest. In my new position, I worked about 50 hours a week, commuted up to 3 hours daily, and completed a single graduate class a semester. As the pace of the job sped up and the months flew by, life got out of balance as I found it difficult to get back into a fitness routine and fended off minor stress-related physical problems. At my lowest point, after a difficult day at the office, I sprained my ankle getting up from the couch, and after sitting on the couch another month to recuperate, I could barely walk two blocks without getting winded.

I've greatly enjoyed the ups and downs of running and multisport. I originally started running to lose weight. Then I ran for various other reasons...

Reasons Why….

• I run because it’s a back-to-nature experience and I enjoy seeing the local ecosystems change with the seasons
• I run for the endorphins
• I run because I want to give it another season
• I run because it allows me to run away from my stress at the end of the day
• I run because it wakes me up in the morning (if I can get up to run!)
• I run because it allows me to review my class material
• I run because I think it might reduce migraines (of course, there’s no proof, but it’s motivating!)
• I run because I want to tri

But now, I'm not running to race or to have a racing season. I'm running for my life. I want to run because it's the only way that I can relieve stress.

I'm ready to ponder the central theme of Joanne Ciulla’s book, The Working Life: The Promise and Betrayal of Modern Work (2000), which focuses on the meaning of work, it's place in our lives, and leisure. Send your muse my way because that's the topic of my next paper.

Grad School Math

I take that back. I don't think I have the grad school blues. School is actually the easiest way to feel successful right now. It is unbelieveably easy. I barely study. I get good grades. I wrote 4 papers in 4 weeks, and then just showed up to present. The only thing that mattered was whether I cited peer-reviewed journals, and for the most part, I did.

I am surrounded by students who have easier lives. They have a short commute to school and home. They get off at 3-4 p.m. in the afternoon and then they go home to refresh themselves before coming to school. I commute 3 hours a day - on non-school days. I don't want to think about how much time I spend in a car on schooldays.

I work 8-12 hours a day and I still feel that I am drowining in the deep water. And then I contemplate trying to take 2 classes next semester and trying to add a 4 hours of studying every night to that schedule, with more on the weekends. Everyday, I wake up and think about how I'm going to finish and everyday it's the one question I can't answer. To be fair, next semester I'm taking an online class and a Saturday class, but I'll still need to actually study, unlike this semester. I also know I'll need to take at least 2 more semesters of 2 classes to gradute in the next 1.5-2 years. I try to balance and accommodate eveyone else's needs and then I wonder how I'm ever going to meet my own.

Let's do the grad school math:

10 hours work - and I still feel as though I'm drowning
3 hours commute on a non-school day. 4.5 hours on a school day.
3-4 hours of studying each night for 2 classes. No weekend work despite the work buildup!!
2 hours get up and care for son
1 hour eat/talk to spouse
= 19-20 hour day

So Much Change

My entire multisport life has been a complete wash. In the past, I've been able to get back to multisport during the summer and use the time away from grad school to get back into shape. But this year, I've been swept away with a busy new job, grad school, and then a work-related summer conference. I signed up for three races - two before I took the position - and I think I'm going to forego all of them.

There have been some highlights. My husband and I and our youngest son took a weekend trip to Snow Hill, Maryland. The highlight was cycling from Snow Hill to Berlin. It was 50 miles roundtrip, but for the most part, the miles were easy because the terrain was flat. We followed parts of the Seagull Century route, which made me want to do the Seagull Century. The only difficult part was heading back at the end of the day when we were tired and facing a strong headwind.

Our kid and a friend cycled to Ocean City, accompanyed by a girl who asked if they needed "a partner in crime." She was an experienced cyclist who took a water pack and had clipless pedals, so I though she was a good match. Their journey was longer, and they also faced the headwind. It was an awesome, enjoyable trip--something that I put together at the spur of the moment, and thoroughly enjoyed. Sometimes the weekend trips are the best.

For the most part, I spent the summer trying to get back into running, but never quite doing it. I'd eat an ice cream cone and read the latest issue of Runners World. But I'm still trying to get back into running, and I hope to succeed, even as the school year begins. I have no vision of racing....right now. I simply want to stay in shape, enjoy the stress relief, and get some semblance of worklife balance. I actually feel grumpy if I can't get a bike ride in during the weekend. And there's never a time when I see a cyclist pass me in D.C. that I don't wish that I was riding my bike. This effect is only intensified when I see someone riding clipless.

It doesn't help that my husband has an ankle injury. He's been to an othopod, PT and had xrays and an MRI. But he's still experiencing pain and injury that affect his everyday life. We have another appointment coming up, and I'm crossing my fingers that we'll get some better answers.

A New Kind of Pain at the Pump: Credit Card Fraud

I am by nature a very routine person.

Today, I left for work. As soon as I got in the car, I remembered that I was down to a quarter tank and needed to fill my tank up. So I made the trip over to my favorite gas station at the local village center. I've been going to this gas station for years because it's easy to get into--not like the other gas station closer to my house where you need to squeeze past parked trucks and perform some complicated driving maneuvers to get into an open space at the pump. At my favorite station, I drove right up to the same pump I always go to and then swiped my credit card into the machine.

And that's how I became a victim of credit card fraud.

As I was driving to work, my husband received an automated phone call from the bank saying that my credit card account had been flagged for fraudulent purchases. He sent me an e-mail asking me to go online and check my account, saying that there was a problem with it. When I went online, I had trouble getting into the account to check it, so I wrote down the number and called the bank.

I was asked if I made any Internet purchases that morning, and I said no. I was asked if I'd used the card, and I was prompted to recalled the gas purchase on the way to work. I was told that several small purchases were made on the card to test it, and then Internet purchases were made. The fraud was detected and the card was shut down within an hour of the purchase. I'll receive paperwork to erase the fraudulent purchases, and I hope it will not be too much of a hassle to rectify this.

I couldn't believe that the gas station had stolen my credit card information. I've been going to this gas station for years, and I plan to take this up with the gas station manager tomorrow.

Card Skimming
Out of curiosity, I did a search on Google and found out that what happened to me is part of a growing problem. The majority of credit card fraud occurs at gas stations (61.6%) and drug stores (14.3%), according to a Google summary of a Science Direct pay-per-view article.

At gas stations, thieves can install small skimming devices at the gas pump that are hard to detect which steal credit card and debit card data, According to an article in USA Today. The skimmed credit card data is then used to create duplicate credit cards that are used at the victim's expense. The theives will "test" the card with several small charges, and if the account holder doesn't shut off the card, much larger purchases are made, according to David Loshin's blog. Banks and credit card companies use algorithms to flag cards with suspicious purchases and card activity.

Some police departments are trying to place sticker seals on the pumps that gas station employees check daily...that's if the gas station employees aren't the cause of the problem. Other gas stations now require customers to enter their ZIP code, according to a story in The Boston Globe, because a thief is not likely to know the ZIP code for the card. This may be an especially effective deterrent in suburban locations where there are several ZIP codes in close proximity. I recall being asked to enter my ZIP code at another local gas station, but not this one.

This I Believe

Someone posted a link to NPR's show, This I Believe, on their Facebook page. I found the essay, "I Am Still the Greatest" by Muhammad Ali so inspiring and I wanted to share. It's also available on podcast--and we'll see if I can get the hang of downloading and listening to a podcast.

There seems to be a theme here of posting inspirational videos and web sites, and maybe its a reflection that I need inspiration and hope. I keep running, but now it seems that I'm just running to keep up, and running to stay in place.

An Inspiring Video

An extraodinary Thai commercial from Pantene about a musician, who happens to be deaf.

Enjoy and be inspired!

Waiting on the World to Change

I used to tease my son about John Mayer's song, "Waiting on the World to Change." I believed that the song is symbolic of the passiveness of his generation--a generation that is passively waiting on the world to change, rather than taking action to change the world as our generation did. We didn't wait for the world to change, we protested the war. When it came to this war, our generation protested again, while the younger generation waited for the world to change.

But with the economy, I can totally relate to the lyrics. I feel powerless to change the world in the face of a global recession. I am simply waiting on the world to change...waiting for the stock market to rebound...waiting for people to get jobs--and waiting for my husband to get a job.

Here's a link to the Deaf interpretation of the song by the Deaf Performing Artists Network. Yeah, D/deaf people have been waiting for the world to change for a long time and while we've taken action, such as Deaf President Now, and there are the obvious accomplishments of D/deaf people, which are pictured in the video, we're still waiting on societal attitudinal change which is long overdue.

Despite the overt bias against cochlear implants and the omission of oral deaf people in portraying our collective heritage, it's still a great video with a powerful message.

Watch it now!!!

Slowly, But Surely

The thing I'm most thankful for is just staying upbeat. I finally got back into a training routine at the end of January. Training is going along slowly, but surely, which is a good way for things to go. I'm training with fingers crossed as I build up for my spring races. I signed up for a long ride in effort to improve my cycling skills. I wanted to sign up for a spring half marathon, but I knew I didn't have a good base from which to train, so I scrapped that idea in favor of a slightly shorter summer race. I'm looking forward to both, and I have my eyes on several other summer races, but I'm trying to cut back on my multisport expenses so I'm limiting myself to nearby races that don't require travel.

My mornings alternate between spinning with Troy or running. Cycling and running seem to go together like peas and carrots in the way that they complement one another. One midweek run is a slow and easy run-walk and the other spicy speedwork.

On the weekends, I'm slowly building up my long run by 1/2 mile at a time. I feel stronger now, and I've abandoned the run-walk strategy for now. Instead, I try to run slow and keep on running. I have a new Garmin--a Christmas gift from my husband and something I never thought I'd have in real life--which is set to show the average pace. This is a wonderful tool for helping me maintain a particular pace during a long run, such as a 12 or 13 minute mile. I'm gradually trying to incorporate an itty bitty core workout, as I really notice that my core muscles are weaker now than last fall when I did core workouts once or twice a week. The biggest loss is my husband as my running partner. I miss him running alongside me on longer runs, even if he did wear an iPod and start singing along.

In the evenings, I'm going to trade swimming for studying as I'm working toward an academic goal. Right now, I'm not at all sure about the outcome. The more I study, the worse I seem to do. The only thing that keeps me going is the thought that this is the last shot at pursuing an academic goal--and even if I fail, I want to go down trying.

My older son is having a rebuilding semester. He likes his apartment and his friends come to visit. He's spending every last dime on the slopes, although I wish he would stay out of Teocalli Bowl and the double-black diamond runs. My youngest is very popular and thinks about Woodward all of the time.

"Your journey began from a single point. You travel in a straight line; sometimes the slope may be steep and the distance seems far, but you you are at midpoint. The endpoint is in sight."

---Bob Miller

Maybe someday I'll be able to calculate the slope of this line.

But for now, I had a really nice Saturday morning run twice around Elkhorn and into the woods. It's an unseasonally warm spring day that started out cool in the morning when I ran, and then got up into the 50s! The lake was mostly frozen and there were about three flocks of birds in various parts of the lake that had patches of open water. I always think of winter as a dormant, silent time, but there was a lot more bird call than I thought. At one point, people stood watching an entire flock of birds fly noisily overhead. Then, I saw a blue jay in a bush. The run went well and I ran the whole 4.5 miles without walk breaks, keeping pace by listening to my breathing.

On Sunday, it was 61 degrees--a breath of spring in February!!!! I took my bike off the trainer and went for a 19.5 mile ride. There was a really strong blow-me-over 22 mph wind, especially at the beginning of the ride. To avoid the combination of a strong wind and big hills, I began to do the route out of order and backwards, first heading over into the Clemens Crossing and Hickory Ridge neighborhoods and expanding my route a bit. Then I headed down onto the hilly, scenic part of the route. Except for one long steep incline hill, I could swear the route is easier in this direction and that's why I see so many cyclists heading in the opposite way when I go down this route. I saw probably half a dozen cyclists and two dozen motorcyclists as well as people in cars, just getting out and enjoying the beautiful unseasonably warm afternoon. At the end of the ride, I felt like I could have gone further but I headed back. I was sore yesterday after the run and I'm anticipating a case of Monday morning DOMS, but I don't care.

Graduation

This is a blast from the past. I came across my older son's high school graduation photos on my computer, and I wanted to post them for the memories.

Informal shots after graduation. Ryan saw his grandmother for the second, or maybe third, time in his life. Probably won't see her again for a long time.

I did the tourist thing and took Grandma down to the mall in Washington, DC where we went to the Museum of Natural History. There was a wonderful exhibit of tropical butterflies. The exhibit is a glass enclosure that people can enter to spend time looking at the butterflies and plants.

There was fruit on posts for the butterflies, and information cards that so that people could identify the butterfly and its native country.

Grandma looks at the butterflies.

We watched my youngest son play a lacross game, although the game was rained out shortly after the photo was taken.

Baltimore Examiner Closing

Less than three years after its launch as the city's second daily newspaper, The Baltimore Examiner is shutting down, a victim of slower-than-expected ad sales.

Employees of the free tabloid were informed of the closure Thursday morning. The Examiner will publish its last issue on Sunday, Feb. 15. About 90 people will lose their jobs, said Jim Monaghan, a spokesman for Clarity Media Group, the paper's Denver-based parent company.

"We had good people there. We thought we had a good paper," Monaghan said. "It's a disappointment that it didn't work out."

Clarity, owned by Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz, also publishes Examiner papers in Washington and San Francisco. Ryan McKibben, Clarity's CEO, told Baltimore staffers that the company expected "strong revenue synergies" between the Baltimore and Washington papers, but those did not materialize.

Clarity had been searching for a buyer for the Baltimore paper for months, McKibben said.
"We didn't get the depth of national advertising that we would have liked. We thought, with the combination of two markets, we would have been able to do that," Monaghan said. "After 30 months of trying, it became clear during the current recession that advertising is not increasing."

The announcement "came as a complete surprise" in the newsroom.

Skiing The Butte

My son took these awesome photos! Part of me worries about my son doing intermediate runs on his third or fourth time skiing. After all, I am his mom and it's my job to worry about everything. But another part of me admires his bravery in tryng new things. Before he moved out to Colorado, my son never went downhill skiing or rock climbing. Now, he's trying all of these things, and last I heard, he was contemplating ice climbing.

The photo above was taken at the top of the Silver Queen express lift--the highest place on the mountain where you can take photos.

This photo looks over the town of Mt. Creseted Butte at the base of the mountain in the foreground, and then the town of Crested Butte. There are a few scattered homes that are not a part of the town...they're actually mansions.

He keeps telling me that the sky is very blue in Colorado because there's less pollution, and you can see a lot of stars at night. Before he moved out there, he never talked about the color of the sky.

There are a lot of warning signs for black diamond trails. My son assures me that he hasn't tried those yet!! He also plans to get a helmet.

He went down the Silver Queen Road to Forest Queen, both intermediate trails.

I know these pictures are his invitation to me.

Musings for the New Year

For anyone who wants to know what I do at master's swimming, just take a look! The group is temporarily crowded into a very small pool, so we're focusing on stroke and the coach is videotaping team members and critiquing our stokes. It was really neat. I have a hard time finding myself on the video--despite watching it several times!! I'm the one with the great stroke, right? Nope, I need to work on keeping my head level with the water at my hairline, which should help me breathe more efficiently. (There may have been complaints about posting the video to YouTube, and if that happens, it will disappear from this blog.)




It's a new year and it's time for some goal setting. After my half marathon, I fell off the bandwagon with all three sports. I worked out periodically during the week, always trying to get back into a routine, but never achieving my goal. At night, I just wanted to go to bed and pull the covers over my head, and there were days I did that. I came to realize the value of going to swim practice and engaging in an endorphin-producing activity with people that seemed happy. Sometimes the good mood even rubbed off on me, even if just for a little while.

My son came back from college for winter break and with both kids home, I took the last two weeks of the year off for a blissful time of relaxing with family, sleeping, eating, watching R-rated movies (I could have lived without) and playing Monopoly (my oldest son became very strategic with the game). My husband and I ran together down our favorite trail, taking our first steps to getting our base back...




Hubby decided that a marathon is on his Bucket List (although I think he's too young to have one). Maybe it was watching me to a half marathon....maybe it was watching the marathoners, run, walk, and crawl to the finish line...or maybe it was the movie and the New Year...but he says that he needs to do the marathon this year.

He's been running for two years; however, he isn't consistent in the days/miles he runs per week and the most he's ever run is 15 miles per week. The longest race he's ever done is a 10K. When I posted his background info to an e-mail discussion group, wondering if perhaps a marathon was a crazy proposition, all I received were words of encouragement. The marathoners who responded said that if he trains consistently and builds a decent base, he can do it. Of course, if he gets serious, I'll be thinking about it too.

I have a lot of big goals this year with sports and studying. And as I try to regroup and rebuild, I hope my son does too. This should be an interesting year, and we'll see how it goes!

Crested Butte Cross Country Skiing

One of the neat things about Western State College is that they have a Wilderness Pursuits program that lets students do various types of outdoor activities like rock climbing, mountain biking, hiking, and camping -- for very little cost. This Saturday, they have cross country skiing for $15, which includes all equipment, lunch, instruction, and transportation. What a deal!

Of course, this is the time of year that my xc ski dreams begin. I've gone cross country skiing only once or twice, but every year I wish I could go again. One of my favorite vacations was a trip to Devil's Thumb Ranch. From looking at the web site, the resort seems to be expanded and upgraded from what I remember years ago. I don't remember any of the cabins as being that fancy and I certainly don't remember any spa. But the food was excellent and very natural, with brown eggs included in the breakfast buffet. Of course, I always order the most exotic thing on the menu. We went on a sleigh ride one afternoon where the hosts cooked s'mores and hot chocolate over a fire. Our kids would pet the horses in the field outside the cabin. I remember ice scating at night.

The first time we went cross country skiing, my husband and younger kid kept falling down and didn't enjoy it (although I dont' understand how you can possibly fall while cross country skiing because you just glide along), but my older son and I got the hang of it easily. My older son wanted to go skiing one night, but it was dark and there was snow falling and I was afraid we wouldn't find our way back, so we agreed to go out one more time on our last day there. My kids think it's lame, I still have the ski tag from that trip on my winter jacket.

Wish you were there!

Gunnison, Colorado

Here's to wishing I was there, and knowing that I probably won't be. I think I finally understand what's so great about this place.

Inspiration

Created with Inspiration, one of my favorite programs for note-taking. SLP Barbara Ehren uses Inspiration to create diagrams to tell her audience what she's going to talk about before launching into a presentation, which I think is a great way to teach and present. This vision was inspired by her closing keynote address at the 2003 Schools Conference.

Swimming in the Fridge

It seems like whenever something really good happens to me, then something really bad happens. I am now in the middle of a family crisis that won't be resolved for a while. Of course I've developed stress-related back pain and a slobbery cold. I went to a swim meet on Saturday in effort to get my mind off of the entire situation, as if I could think of anything else. But when I came back, it took a turn for the worse. Please say a prayer for the entire family.

I was so very much on the fence about whether to go to this meet at all, but my husband encouraged me to do so. About a half-hour before the online registration system closed, I signed up. Because I'd signed up so late, I thought for sure that I wouldn't get picked for a relay, which didn't bother me this time. Wrong! The coach must have put the relay teams together immediately after the registration system closed and found my name there. The relay was actually the highlight of the day. If I'm reading the results right, I swam a very fast 100 free. Because I have not been swimming regularly and because of my life events, I chose two shorter events, thinking that it would be easier. I swam a 50 breast for the first time which turned out reasonable, but then I swam a 50 free after the relay and was 4 seconds slower than my previous time. I'm not sure why. My entry and turn was pretty good, my stroke was better, and I didn't breathe too much.

Several other things worked out well at this meet and I achieved my goal of being more independent. The online entry system generated a meet program that was e-mailed to all participants in advance of the meet. The PA system and room acoustics were good and with the printed program, it was easy to follow along and know when I needed to be on deck. I walked up to the starters before the meet, introduced myself and explained that I'm deaf and requested a visual signal, which was no problem. They made a note of my events and my request and the visual signal helped me dive right in! Another highlight was when my coach teased me about my hearing loss. When we were lined up for the relay, he was there encouraging the two teams. "Did you hear what they said?" he asked me. I said no -- and realized the joke was on me. Of course he knew that I couldn't hear anything at all.

One of the best things about being on the swim team is the inspirational people I meet. Before the meet, I began chatting with a women who mentioned that she was swimming "unattached," meaning that she wasn't affiliated with a particular team. She'd swum years ago when she was in college, and now that here children were off in college themselves, she was taking up swimming again at two local pools. I was amazed. I wouldn't have been brave enough to navigate through an entire swim meet unless I had a team to be with. I hope she joins up to a team.

The meet was held at a pool with the room temperature of a refrigerator. Before long, I realized that everyone was cold, not just me. One team member came prepared with a fleece jacket to wear in between events, but noted that he's been to other meets at this location. The locker rooms had cold, clammy concrete floors and the only saving grace was the steamy, hot showers.

Off To College, All Too Soon

Photos courtesy of Western State College of Colorado

My son left for college at Western State College of Colorado on August 12. With the high cost of gas, it was prohibitive in time and expense to drive out there, so he took just one duffel bag of clothes, a guitar, and a carryon and flew out to spend a few days with his grandparents in Denver. Afterwards, my son and his cousin drove up to Gunnison where he has a house that his parents bought him which he shares with roommates. Then my son moved into the dorms and started college life.

My son spent the entire summer loafing and complaining that he couldn't get a job because he'd have to ride his bike to work and he'd "get all sweaty." But when he got to Gunnison, he borrowed his cousin's bike to explore the town, and then went to the used sporting goods store and bought his own bike for $25, which he rides everywhere. After sitting on the couch all summer, he started hiking and fishing and seems to enjoy the outdoors and the Colorado mountains.

The first few days after he left went by quickly. All to soon, my husband decided to clean and re-arrange my son's room. After all, the dog kept sniffing for crumbs and food wrappers under the bed. Then, hubby hung up his diploma and other certificates of accomplishment. The room is cleaner than it;s ever been in years...and the door stays closed. My younger son is thrilled that the bathroom is clean and he is the only child in the house.

Not a day goes by when I don't miss him or think about him ... or not-so-surreptitiously check his campus e-mail. I text him ... and wait for his calls. During the first week or two in college, he said "I love you" more than he'd said in the past four years. But as his college life picks up pace, the calls are a bit less frequent. Yesterday, he said he was thrilled to get an A on his first English paper. After not studying during his entire senior year in high school, his study habits are shocking. Of course, he wants us to send money.

I can't believe my son went off to college already!