The Cycle Of Life

On Wednesday morning, one of my neighbors mentioned at the local bagel place, that she is preganant. She told me that related to my having a chopped liver sandwich on a bagel. She commented that even smelling it would likely make her sick. That afternoon, I arrived home and saw police at my next door neighbor's house.On stopping in, I found that my neighbor passed away. I've spent a fair amount of time trying to make sure that his wife is coping OK. When I had arrived, the son of a family friend was there. His mother, who no longer lives in the area, arrived with her daughter, who she was visiting, a few hours later. The memorial service will be on Sunday.
I had written about this neighbor before. He was trained as an engineer, and had been battling emphysema for about 30 years. He took an active role in its management, and exercised when possible to keep his lung function the best it could be. For the last 2 years or so, he'd been also doing battle with prostate cancer. The big problem for the last half-year seemed to be keeping medications in balance. His quality of life was pretty compromised.
He passed while dozing in the afternoon, without a sound. By the time I arrived, the first aid squad had gone. It took a few hours for the funeral home to arrive to take away the body. It was a bit surreal, having nis body lying there on the living room floor. While he had been covered, at one point, the cop who was there uncovered him to remove the defibrillator and EKG pads and left him uncovered.
Regardless, I was struck by the coincidence of learning of a new life coming onto our block and another leaving it. It drove home the concept of the cycle of life.

On a whole other topic, I got to the gym this morning. I did 30 minutes of walking at 4.5 mph and leg presses @ 190, pull-ups at 100, and 15 push-ups.

A Few Photos from Footlocker NE

These were a few pix I took of non-racing stuff.

More Exercise

On Wednesday morning, I repeated my exercise of Monday, adding just a bit. On Friday, I racewalked about 2 miles in the early AM. On Satrday, I jogged perhaps a half-mile several times as I watched the Footlocker Northeast Cross Country Meet. I also wound up meeting and having (a very late) lunch with one of Dyestat's people. The upshot is that I may wind up having a few pictures published by them.

The Fat Slob Confesses

In the last several days, I've been asked by several people about my conditioning. I've had to confess that I've been lazy and not running or doing other fitness work. I'm getting tired of that. I went to the gym this morning and walked! for 20 minutes at 4.4 mph, and also did leg presses 190 lb x 10 and pull-ups (with assist) so I weighed about 100 lbs x 10.

Dropping My Salami

One day last week, I went to one of the local stores to buy a few things. When I went to check out, I had a salami, a piece of cheddar cheese, and some oriental noodles. During checkout, the checker asked, "Plastic OK?" My response was, "Yes, ordinarily, I'd say, "No bag," but I have some other stuff to be taking into my house." She said, "You might drop your salami." Laughing, I said, "That sounded kind of inappropriate." Her response was, "I realized that as soon as I'd said it." I figured that was the end of it, but she kept apologizing, but in the process, apparently ratcheting up her discomfort. Finally, after she said she hoped I'd still come back to the store, I realized that she was really nervous about things. (I think she was new at the market, and perhaps her job might be in jeopardy.) I said, "I come in here a few times a week, I'm laughing, you're laughing, there's no problem" and headed for the door. It's kind of funny how something inoocent can both be very funny, yet also create such discomfort.

A Lesson On Hyponatremia

Working at the New York City Marathon on Sunday, I did some learning. I wound up helping a bit (more as brawn than brains) with some runners who were in trouble. Some had taken only water on their journey around New York City.
At one point, while we were walking a man who had just finished, I grabbed a bottle of Gatorade. My intent was to give it to him to replace salts in his system. I was emphatically told, "No" by the medical people. "Salt only," they said. The problem with hyponatrmia is that salt has been washed out of the athlete's body by sweating and urination, and the concentration of salt in and around their cells is too low. [Breaking the word down - hypo means low, nat comes from the Latin for sodium (remember salt in high school chemistry was NaCl?), and emia is standard ending for a condition in the medical world.]
So, the key is to get salt in AND not get any fluids in. It's a lasson that I'll remember.
Meantime, if YOU are running a marathon, take ADE!

Our Men's Olympic Marathon Team

The Men's Olympic Marathon Trials were held on Saturday in New York City. The race was won by twenty-five year-old Ryan Hall who made winning the trials look easy. I had one person say that his 2:09:02 finish would have been faster had he not spent much of the last three miles waving to the crowd. Hall's move came somewhere between 16 and 21, for when he passed me at about mile 21, he'd broken free of the lead pack and seemed to be running comfortably.

Dathan "Ritz" Ritzenhein, who's 24, placed second, clocking a 2:11:07.

Brian Sell of the Hanson's - Brooks Distance Project placed third in 2:11:40, giving Keith and Kevin Hanson their first Olympian (I think). Sell had a TON of crowd support, being seen as a "regular Joe" making good.

Fourth place was captured by Khalid Khannouchi, a 35 year-old Morroccan born U.S. citizen in 2:12:34. His fourth makes him the first alternate, so if one of the others suffers an injury or elects to run another race and NOT race the marathon, Khannouchi will get to race for an Olympic medal.
Unfortunately, this great race will likely be most remembered for the untimely death of Ryan Shay, who collapsed and died around the 5 1/2 mile mark. Most of the racers were unaware of Shay's death until after the race.

Olympic Trials Marathon

It happens this AM, and I'll be watching.