Archive for the ‘Seattle’ Category
Inspired to Run Seattle Half Marathon 2013
Lake Stevens Sprint Triathlon, 2013. Photo credit ML, used with permission, and lovingly appreciated.
I’ve been a movement addict since the age of one.
My mom tells me I always liked music and dancing, skipping, and running about. Still, Running and I have had a love-hate relationship over the years. For a time, I used it to keep my weight low and engage in eating disordered activities. Other times, I used it for stress relief. And at this time in my life, I’ve returned to running as a way to hear my thoughts and challenge myself to doing things I either haven’t done before or simply want to improve upon. And so, here I am, one week away from the Amica Seattle Half Marathon, in some of the best shape of my life, and strangely uncaring about how I look as much as how I feel and what I can accomplish with my running. I feel really good, really strong, and very determined to have a great race.
From my Facebook Wall: November 21, 2013
The following is an adaptation from my Facebook Wall about my preparations and reflections regarding the Dec. 1, 2013 Amica Seattle Half Marathon:
According to my training plan, I am now peaking (which feels like “Go!” and followed by “Zzz”). As an example, I tried running a 3.1 mile run at race pace, and without looking at my watch until after, I was running 8.15, 8:30, and 9:00 (when I used to run 10, 9:45 and 9:30). I’d like to say that 39F weather is to blame. What I am willing to do to get the run to end quickly! And then I was asleep on the bus ride from Redmond to Seattle. Weird! After Sunday, my runs will get shorter and my rest periods longer. I will embrace my inner sleep monster (I slept nearly 10 hours last night!). Iron stores are replenished, thanks to iron pills and orange juice twice a day on an empty stomach. White rice may happen! Woot!
I want to take a moment to thank my friends who have supported me on my running journey. I recognize that the data and the deets are sometimes boring, even to me. I share them the way that others have done — that by doing so, they lock themselves into a pattern that means they MUST follow through, or face the humiliation of not doing what they said they would do or could do, whether that was losing weight and improving health, learning discipline and strengthening their minds, or improving a time or performance. I’ve learned that by sharing a goal, I become accountable to it. To Timothy Ferris fans (The 4-hour Body): I am not at the place of posting a picture of myself before and after in a bathing suit, because this has not been about weight loss for me, but I wouldn’t have a problem posting my Garmin watch analytics. I still managed to lose 15 pounds and build back a couple of pounds of muscle. Woo hoo! Who cares how I look? I feel fantabulous!
RedmondDerbyDays 5 K supporting Pancreatic cancer research. Race photo permission released to runner.
Last year October, I said I wanted to try to run a half marathon in 2 hours or less. In February 2013 at Birch Bay, I missed my goal to run it in 2 hours 10 min by 8 minutes after making the wise decision to walk/jog the last 2.5 miles, due to blinding knee pain (this race was not chip time — you turned in a strip from your bib and handed it to one of the volunteers, who had to hand-record your time; our watches actually said 2:14). I was disappointed, but it taught me some lessons about training, about patience, and about commitment.
For many runners, running with comparison to your age and gendered-compared time is a goal that inspires. For me, I feel down! My time would have to be 1 hour and 12 minutes to be the fastest in my age group! Um, no thanks! I can already hear my hips and knees crying at the pace my body would need to go. No, a half marathon at 2 hours or just under is plenty fine for me, and rates at the 60% mark. I’ll take 60%! Heck, 52% on the first try wasn’t too bad either. Some of us just want to finish! And yet still, why is 2 hours significant, to me, or to anyone? In general, most runners consider a half marathon time of two hours a decent finish time for an amateur runner. It’s where many of us start. It’s just not necessarily where the story on running ends for me.
Another reason I want to get my half marathon time under 2 hours (approx. 9 min/mi pace) is to get a glimpse of my feasible future capability of running a full marathon in four hours, getting the time on the course to a reasonable amount of exposure for a person with kidney disease and hypohydrosis. I don’t think I want to be out on any race course, running or triathlon, without significant support for times longer than four hours. No race is worth losing my kidney over. I kind of like my kidney. It’s really useful for processing waste and getting icky chemicals out of your system. On that matter, livers are pretty cool organs too.
Yet another reason to run is to challenge myself to do things I never thought I could, and to do them at an age where few of my contemporaries even try. I have surrounded myself with athletes who are more experienced, stronger, and faster, and I often forget that I’ve only been racing for 1.5 years. I didn’t think I could do this training and also do off-season swim training at 6:00 am two times a week, but somehow, it’s happening without me falling asleep in the afternoon! Thank God for energizing Yoga and sprints up and down three flights of stairs. Breathwork rawks!
So while next week’s Seattle Half Marathon seems like any other run to the casual observer, I bet it is filled to the brim with all kind of wishes, dreams, commitments, and desires of the individuals who race it, even if they aren’t anywhere near the top 1000 finishers. Behind every runner and walker is a story that would take years to tell. You think I’m long winded about the sport? Try talking to my nieces. Those little runners will talk your ears off your head!
Supportive Friends Make It Better
If you’re in the Seattle area on Dec. 1 and happen to see any part of the race on 5th avenue, the I-90, Seward Park, etc., honk your horn and shout in support, even from a distance. It will help our minds wrap around our goals. Every runner knows that after the training is done, the thing that gets us across the finish line is the mind saying to the body, “You can do this!” and “Go go go!” I know this, after seeing a few racers in 2009 get into the finisher’s chute, tears in their eyes, faces contorted in pain, walking, jogging, limping and willing themselves across the finish line into the arms of their friends and family.
If you aren’t local to Seattle or can’t be in the area, the Seattle Amica Marathon has a portal to track racers by name. You can set up an account and indicate where you’d like to updates to be sent (Facebook, Twitter, email). Check out ChronoTrack on this link: https://register.bazumedia.com/event/tracking/eventID/6068. I don’t believe I’ll be running with Google Glass because in general, I don’t run with any devices on me (it’s good training to just be focused on the road with no distraction).
My Unhired Hips: A Challenge to Inspire
Photo credit 2012 Scott B. Used with permission.
Unlike my triathlon races in 2013, the Amica Seattle Marathon and Half Marathon is a sponsored race that does not directly raise funding for a charitable cause. This is the first race I’ve paid a fee in which no part of my fee is specifically designated to a noted cause or need. As a separate aspect of the race, racers and audience can choose to raise money for the Pancreatic Cancer research as a legitimate and viable 503(b) organization. I did not sign up to do so, having only learned about it recently.
And so, my hips are unhired for this race. Fancy that! Here I am, a sometimes-blogger who wanted to link performance art and movement to charitable giving. Think think think!
Instead, will you join me in making a charitable donation to the Red Cross, designated for relief funds to the Philippines? You wouldn’t be hiring my hips directly — I cannot, and will not, accept any funds. I simply want to inspire you and your friends to give when the world is in need.
Here’s what I am suggesting:
1). Consider a lump sum donation directly to the Red Cross or your favorite organization that delivers at least 85% of money collected (12-15% to administrative costs) to relief efforts after tropical storm Hainan has put the surviving peoples at risk for disease due to exposure, lack of clean water, and pneumonia. A million people have lost their homes, and thousands still remain at risk.
2) Consider an additional donation after Dec. 1, 2013 when I run my race, based on my chip time, which I will post conspicuously.
For example:
a. If I PR (personal record) it (better than 2 hours and 18 minutes) give X dollars to charity
b. If I reach my original goal in Feb. 2o13 of 2 hours and 10 minutes, give Y dollars to charity.
c. If I reach my new goal of 2 hours or under, give Z dollars to charity.
d. If I take a DNF for any reason, give X dollars to charity.
After the race is done, simply come back here, or on Hips for Hire on Facebook (public page), or @hipsforhire on Twitter, and let me know that you made a donation. You don’t even have to say how much if you don’t want to. I understand if you want to keep that anonymous (right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing, got it). Your post can just let me know that you were inspired to give because you read my words. A few businesses have shown interest in this idea to help inspire giving. If you are a small business, please contact me so I can thank you for your donation to the Red Cross and give a shout out on my Twitter, Facebook, and G+ accounts.
My intention is to try to challenge myself while doing something good for someone else. It’s a win-win for us all. I want to make it clear that I know many people are giving and planning to give to these relief efforts. I am honored by your compassion and responsibility, and in no way do I want to interfere with your efforts to give generously. You can give the same amount you were intending, with no reference to my race results. If this post helps you or a friend to consider giving more, I am honored if you would join me in this challenge.
If anything, I want to inspire you to give and feel good about giving. I’m the lucky one here. I get to run. I have a home with heat and clean water. I am not worrying where the next meal will come from, or whether I may become ill with pneumonia. I’ll be asking some of my friends and connections through Social Media to help me get the word out that I’m counting on others to pull together and help. My little contribution is just two hours (or less!) of physical discomfort while I go tearing around Seattle in the cold air, remembering that someone out there may have read this, and is waiting for me finish this race to prompt them to give a little more because I gave it my all.
Seven days left to go.
See you out on the race course, in person or on the Internet through ChronoTrack!
Back To Your Beginning
What is it about traveling back in time to the places we grew up that is so intriguing?
A few years ago, my cousin took me to see one of the many houses I grew up in California during the time my father was working in Silicon Valley. I knocked on the door of this home, still familiar by all appearances: Spanish-style courtyard, fruit trees, and even my mother’s green and white patterned wall paper in the front landing below the staircase. The family living there now thought it fascinating to meet the daughter of the owners who did these improvements. But I know they were scratching their heads.
Why travel back in time to our beginnings? And what does that have to do with living artfully?
1. Remembering how it all began helps us remember where we were headed. The seed inside of us knew what we could become, even if it didn’t know specifically. As young as eight, I knew I would be in healthcare. And here I am. I knew I would be an artist. And here I am! Seeing the earliest traces of that knowledge empowers me to keep going, like the assurance of a map (only an unfinished one).
2. Touching a part of our childhood helps up realize we still know how to play. I still can remember hanging out of that cherry tree, placing those cherries in my mouth, and spitting out the pits on the road. I can feel my skinned knees, tanned skin, and the smell of fresh grass. We caught toads and learned about anatomy (sorry froggies!). We played with a microsoft, slides and slipcovers, and knew what our blood looked like under the biggest “eye” ever. I see myself as I was a child, and I get back in touch with my curiosity, which is the same mindset that drives me to deconstruct music, anatomy of movement, and expression of art in the abstract.
Do you have childlike curiosity? You can re-learn it from kids and kittehs, because both have this built-in!
<—If you can’t remember what curiosity feels like, maybe you should ask this critter, who was at the Old Rainier Brewery artwalk on Jan. 14, 2012. This little guy came right up to my camera to say hello, and looked at me with this face.
3. Seeing where we’ve been (i.e. my family’s humble immigrant beginnings) helps us remember we don’t need much to be happy or to be creative. I learned to play piano not on a shiny new eight-foot Steinway grand, but on a faltering piano painted a hideous green, and untunable in the upper and lower register, with two keys that would get partially stuck when the note was struck. Yet I played several hours every day until my second year of college. No matter what you see around you — people spending money thoughtlessly and aimlessly, banks unaccountable for what they’ve done, hungry people standing outside the doors of restaurants while other gorge themselves past obesity — you do not need much to be happy. You do need yourself: awake, present, focused, hungry to produce art.
4. We’re reminded how we were sometimes shielded from the harsh realities of life in order to focus on the task at hand. I was not aware of my family’s financial struggles as immigrants until I was much older. I could concentrate on being a good student. While I’m not saying we should be ostriches with our heads in the sand, but it’s appropriate to invest in your artistic pursuits with undistracted time, resources, and attention. Unplugging from your TV, Internet, and your job increases your chances of giving that attention to your art projects in a way that a divided, frantic “you” cannot attend.
I sometimes wonder what would happen if I took time off to just concentrate on my art (besides neglecting my own financial commitments!). Other artists wonder this too, which is why we do things like take retreats and sabbaticals, and going offline for weekends to unplug from our response-abilities to the world.
As my locum position for my day job winds up soon, I’ve been thinking about my own artistic travels. How much time do I want to plan to take off from work to free myself to concentrate on my art, and to do these trips responsibly? This is an important question for those of us artists who are not funded by a spouse or partner, or do not have artistic pursuits typically supported through grants.
Somehow, I think the child who was me — and who is me now, just a lot more grown up — has the answer. I’m looking forward to my times in 2012 (particularly mid-February in Santa Fe, NM, April in Vegas, and August in Nevada) to press into more artistic adventures.
What do you think? Can you tap the child who was you, and inspire your own artistic journey? How can you overcome the roadblocks you anticipate from becoming a better artist this year?
Update Innovate Create
At the beginning of the year, I like taking a little time to do the following: update, innovate, and create. Before the holidays, I am usually focused on acknowledging friends and family, purchasing meaningful gifts (such as adding money to my nephew’s college fund!), and looking at donations I’ve made over the year to my favorite charities. But after the holidays pass, I believe it’s the artist’s best time to take inventory of what you have, make needed updates to older technology and/or equipment, think innovatively about new projects while creating a pathway towards your artistic goals in 2012. Here are my tips in getting it done!
Clear Out Your Closets
If you have items that are collecting dust or sitting unused in your closets, you may want to think about selling, regifting, or donating these items to someone else who can use them more. Just in clearing two items in my closet, I banked $235 without having to pay for advertisement [of course, that money will be used to pay off the Las Vegas flight to visit my mum for NYE].
By clearing your closets, you are getting rid of clutter, and making room for things you really could use in your artistic pursuits.
Update
Tired of getting pop-ups on your computer reminding you to get the latest software? Maybe it’s time to update that old software to something that works more efficiently, quickly, and with more features that will make the creative process smooth. Updates may not be costly — some are free! — but they take time. If you have an older computer, maybe it’s time to update the computer itself. See what it might be worth on the market (Craigslist, Ebay, etc), and see if you can purchase what you need with the sale of your old stuff plus the money you collect from clearing out your closets.
I will often crowd source questions about what others use to organize, create, or share my projects. I scan articles to see what themes people use on WordPress, what cool apps are “getting it done”, and what items have seen its day and need to go.
Innovate
My beginning-of-year look at how to innovate my life is more difficult. This involves looking at my calendar for the past year, evaluating what I’ve accomplished, and seeing if anything is lacking. Innovation involves new ideas and new thinking, and most of us know that neither of these are easy to find. Maybe there really is nothing new under the sun, but just new ways of looking at life and art. By looking at my calendar, I can often detect through the bird’s eye view what areas of my life received generous attention. I can see what things were important, yet received too little attention, time, or money. Sometimes innovation can look like changing the way I interact with that area of my life, a relationship, or a project.
For example, since I took a temporary job as a nurse to fill a locum position, my energy has been massively absorbed in the world of healthcare — that is, the health of others. And suddenly, I noticed in my calendar that I had hardly scheduled any health-oriented activities for myself! I began asking, “How can I get smart about how I think about taking care of my health, and think innovatively about how I use my time so I have more of it to attend to my own health?” Innovation involved how I cooked more efficiently, socialized more effectively, and scheduled my activities so I could get the most out of my hours not dedicated to my work. It may not sound like an earth-shattering discovery, but simply making a declaration to friends and family that this otherwise night owl needed to be in bed by 11:00 pm in order to get up at 5:00 am to workout made a difference. Researching the best nutritional food bars to eat on the run and ordering three months’ worth to save money was also a part of thinking innovatively about my health and my time.
Create
I am all about creating. But like many of you, my creations can lay limp and unattended without both tools and motivation to get my creations finished. I learned my lesson recently. After having my Snuggie pinned to turn it into a walking jumpsuit, I left the Snuggie limp and unattended on a table. Returning home from work, I discovered that my newest kitty Lumi had urinated on it, then slept on top of it [Eww]. After washing it with the appropriate enzyme to remove pet urine, the Snuggie is now in my queue of projects, hanging in a place that Lumi can only dream about being able to shoot urine, and I am back on track with my creative projects.
Sometimes creating in your genre requires the motivation and inspiration of a few new tools. If you’re a painter, maybe it’s a book, new paints, or a group class that will help you get back into painting on a regular basis. If you’re a musician, maybe you need a fresh desktop free of project clutter, light, or (drum roll) taking a walk outside to clear your mind. I’m a bit weird about this, but when I clip my nails, I know I’m ready to sit at the keyboard and start playing music [my nails grow exceptionally fast, requiring a clipping every three days to prevent the clicking sound of my nails against the plastic keys].
The ultimate creative booster for me is investing in a big spend on equipment. There is truth to this statement: put your money where your mouth is. If you keep saying you want to make a film, and you have a sub-standard camera and a poor microphone, what does your equipment say about your seriousness to make films while you spend the money you have on stuff you don’t need [and I'm not talking about basic subsistence expenses like food, shelter, insurance, and utilities]?
I’ll be the first to admit, I have enough toys. I have some really good ones. At the end of the year, I’m usually not buying new equipment as much as maintaining what I have to get the most out of it. If I have an extra $300 – $1500 to spend on music-related creation, what would I buy? [choices, choices, choices]
Do you know what you would buy that would enhance your artful life? In my next blogpost, I will share with you what I’d be willing to spend money for — and save up for, because I don’t like debt! — that will enhance my art-filled life. This is BEFORE CES Expo, because I’m not necessarily talking about new items that might not have bwen tested, but items thwt are improved and standing up to good use. Watch for it!
In the meantime, do you have ideas about what you would purchase with that extra budget? How will you make it happen for you this year?
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