Hello and Welcome!

I'm running again to help raise money for research and a cure for melanoma, and I hope you can help me reach my fundraising goal of $1800 this year.  Last year our team was able to raise enough money to completely fund a new melanoma research study, and we're hoping that this year will be even more successful!

This time around, I'm going to run the half marathon in Richmond, Virginia on November 14th with the team.  I hear Richmond's course is flat like a pancake (thank you, thank you, thank you) and has a good chance of being a bit warmer than the 17 degrees F we began the race at last year in Philly.   M4M dynamo and melanoma survivor Coach Stenny is back, as is Coach Don "Rabbit" Cline and new Coach Kevin "Slow Guy" Thuillier.  So we're in good hands and....we're off!

If you would like to support my fundraising efforts, please consider donating to melanoma research through this website.  Or, if you prefer, you can send a check to me at 9510 Evergreen Street, Silver Spring, MD 20901, and I'll forward it on to MRF.  If you have any questions about MRF or this fundraiser, or just want to catch up and say hello, please email me at howenowratkow@starpower.net  I'll keep you posted as to how the training's going, which running technique tips from Coach Stenny actually don't hurt too badly and which mid-race nutritional supplement will take the place of the dreaded Gu gel.  Thank you for visiting my fundraising page and many thanks for your support!

 Warm wishes,

Pat

 

6/27

No collapsing, no gasping for breath - a good day!  Our team is clicking, and Stenny's done an outstanding job a bulking us up.  We're up to 45 team members, already more than double last year's final, sturdy crew of 18.  I was just reading about the increase in melanoma in women 15 to 39 years old - it's up something like 50% in the last 30 years.  Researchers aren't seeing a similar increase for men that age.  No one's sure why this is, but some researchers suspect time logged in tanning beds may be involved.   Our family's off to Park City, Utah next week for some R&R (and high altitude running) on the Frontier, where tumbleweeds roam and Starbuck's serves sasparilla.  Adios!

 

7/18

Ran the Crescent Trail (old rail bed) from Bethesda toward the Potomac today.  Hundreds of runners from Team In Training - which raises money for Leukemia/Lymphoma research - were there with us, plus about half the black labs in Montgomery County.  Cool, still, perfect morning.  It was my first day back with the team at sea level.  Thank God!  Park City's about 7000 feet in elevation, and we found ridges, hills and inclines everywhere for biking and running.  You do feel it the first 2 or 3 days.  We found the most beautiful kickball and wiffleball field stolen right from the set of The Sound of Music.  Half way up one of the blue slopes at Snow Park ski resort, there's a flat drainage field about 100 yards long and 50 yards wide, with the mountain serviing as our bleachers/ground rule double back wall.  We played for hours up there with the kids, and almost burst into "Doe, a Deer" several times.  Almost :)   Anyway, the team's looking really good - getting stronger, a touch faster, and still smiling most of the way.  Hope everyone's summer is a beauty, and please drop a line if you get a chance!

 

7/25

Eight miles today in Rock Creek Park.  Not bad!!!  We start uphill and end down, which makes the beginning feel slightly daunting and the end completely cheating.  Cool and misty morning, humid as can be, but the trees shade everything and the creek running beside you almost the whole way brings cool air along with it.  It's amazing how many people are up and running or biking or walking their dogs or walking together at 6:45 AM on a Saturday morning.  I kind of wonder how many people are there at 5 AM.  Not enough to get up that early, mind you, but curious none the less.  Next week, out to the frying pan (Vienna, VA), the former Washington and Old Dominion rail bed, where there's not a shred of greenery taller than 2 feet and shade is something "over there," about 2 blocks from where you are. 

 

8/1

Missed the frying pan.  Oh, no....my favorite run!  Too bad.  Tough night - waking up at 3 AM and feeling rather peaked by dawn.  Slept through the alarm.  Atoned by running seven miles instead of six along Sligo Creek here in Silver Spring.  It's a great trail, taking you past oaks and catalpas and sycamores on your way to a wonderful poplar grove.  All the trees there seem to be at least 60 feet tall, straight as rails and free of branchs until they've almost reached the sky.  The run felt pretty good, though the humidity at 11 AM was kind of unpleasant.  Sticky, even.  Tomorrow's the team recommitment party out near Annapolis, so it'll be a chance to spend time with the team when we're not all sleepy, out of breath or all sweaty.  That will be weird.  Off to make cupcakes for the shindig on the shore.  Have a great week, everyone!

 

8/8

Well that was kind of nice!  Despite never truly waking up, I ran my fastest 8 miles ever.  It was a cool, still morning and it was one of those days when everything was just clicking, and you feel like you can just run pretty much all day.  A little like being 10 again :)  I'm going to miss the next three weeks on the team runs, as I'm up to New Hampshire to bring our daughter Ally up to see my mom and her husband, and then we're all off to Rhode Island for a week of vacation before school begins again.  I hope everyone's enjoying summer and keeping cool. A bien tot!

 

8/15

This one was not so great - probably b/c last week was.  I REALLY need to find my water belt.  Running in August, even at 7 AM, without water belt is....not so bright.   

8/22

We're up in Rhode Island for vacation, so today I got to do my training running past a beach, 26 Holsteins (no, I didn't count) who are outstanding in their field (ha, ha), a breakfast diner (pigs in a blanket!) and a winery (cheers).   Learned another thing today.  While a coastal breeze is often wonderfully wet and cool, once you get about a mile away from the beach it's more along the lines of awfully humid and warm.  Tough run.  Thank God for the winery!   Am I allowed to write that?


8/31

Missed Saturday b/c we were on I-95 driving back from Rhode Island.  Got out early and ran hills in the neighborhood and then down to Sligo Creek to get in the shade.  As Coach Stenny says....start slowly, finish strongly.  Hills are supposed to be great for endurance, so hopefully I bought some today.  And will feel its benefits soon :)


9/12

Take off!  We ran along the Potomac's lower region today, by National Airport and up almost to TR (Bully for Teddy!) Island and back.  Something I learned today: jet airplanes are very loud, especially when taking off about 80 feet above your head.  Calf injuries, shin splints and assorted other nasties are circulating through the team, but Stenny is on the case, and rest plus Utlima (way better than Gatorade) will hopefully heal all.  My run felt great today - finished strong, steady through the entire run, never out of steam.  This is the fun stuff!


9/26

Out in the flats of the Washington and Old Dominion trail today - reasonbly cool, thankfully, as this one can really heat up if it wants to.  Everyone's running well, and Barbara and Jim and Ram et al. are really hitting their stride.  Not feeling 100% today, but pushed through, getting escort pep talks from Stenny and Kevin T on the way back.  Because it's an old rail bed, I always think of this trail as flat.  It's not!

10/3
Whoops.  It was rather too light out for 6:15 AM.  That’s because it was 7:45 AM, and I was 30 minutes away from the training run.  Which started at 7 AM.  But wow, that sleep felt GOOD.  I ended up mapping out my own 12-mile course using our most excellent local Sligo Creek trail.  Though it’s fall, it ended up in the 70s in the afternoon when I actually ran.   Thankfully the trail is mostly shaded and there were a couple of water fountains along the way.  A sprinkler too, though that takes much better timing than I have.  Team fundraising is coming along, though not at the same pace as last year.  Some are branching out and trying party nights with restaurants, or wine tastings or art sales, with mixed results.  The Marine Corps Marathon folks only have about a month to go, so they’re already starting their taper!  Some plantar fascitis (sp?) is cropping up among the team, and unfortunately all you can do for that injury is rest, working in some recline bike and swimming when you can.


10/10
Owwww.  Time for whining!  That one hurt.  Done with the whining (mostly).  It’s always odd to me that one week you surprise yourself with how easy a run feels, and then the next week – usually at a shorter distance – you never quite get in sync, or you just don’t feel like you’ve got the juice in your legs.  Whether it’s the psychology of coming off the easier-than-expected or random events or just the perception that it plays out that way, I don’t know.  But I do know it needs to get easier than this week.  Soon 


10/17
Hard news in the team, with two members’ grandmothers passing away, and a former team member just diagnosed with a recurrence of her cancer.  And in our neighborhood, a mom in her 40's just passed away from melanoma a couple of weeks ago.  It all reminded us that we are working hard to help push the medicine forward and to win full lives for so many people fighting melanoma and other cancers.  On the running front, this was a tough run.  Cold, steady rain the entire way, and today was 13.1 miles.  Great turnout anyway, with most people getting a jump on our usual start time.  I think everyone completed the run today – lots of grit out there.

 

10/24

And....page space is maxed out!  We're still out there training and getting ready for MCM and Richmond -- thanks for reading and please consider donating if you can.  Best wishes!!