Disturbing

Last week I went on a crazy hike, to Vesper Lake. I mean, crazy, on all fours, up steep rocky cliffs, about 3 hours of straight up, hanging out by a gorgeous blue lake, then about 3 hours of hard down. Got back late at night, showered, went to bed and was fast asleep in about 3 minutes. 

Next morning I woke up, could barely get out of bed, flipped on the morning news and saw a news story about an apartment fire. I curiously looked at the images and had an eerie feeling that I had seen this building before. Yup, it was the building across the street from my building. Witness interviews talked about glass explosions, fire trucks, and scorched apartments. I heard none of it! And, my windows were all wide open. 

Disturbing! Good thing it wasn't my building! Ah! 

I am a Published Author

Adventures NW Magazine and Team in Training asked me to write an article about what it means to run for a charity.

Click here to see the article and what it looks like with pics and all!

Here is the text of the article:

The Unselfish Selfish Runner


Running by its very definition is a selfish pursuit. People run to stay in shape, to stay sane, to lose weight, to be able to consume mass quantities of calories, for the medals and t-shirts, to just feel good, or for a myriad of other self-centered reasons. More often than not a runner runs by him or herself and pursues his or her own personal goals. But, what happens when the selfish runner has an unselfish purpose? I attempted to answer that question when I signed up for a season with Team in Training (TnT), raising funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Feeling helpless after my father had gone through lengthy treatment for Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma I signed up for TnT. As a self-certified couch potato, overweight by about 70 pounds, I signed up for the Anchorage half-marathon thinking even I could probably drag myself through 13 miles.

Our first week of training we were to run 40 minutes, starting at Redhook Brewery (which I took as a good sign, running and drinking, I could handle this). While the coaches introduced themselves I found myself shivering, from both the cold dark morning and anticipation. The most I had ever run was from the fridge back to the couch so I wouldn’t miss the next episode of ER. We started out and I quickly gravitated to the nicest woman, who was exactly my slow pace. I had visions of the coaches having to wait for me to finish, checking their watches, annoyed at my slowness. So I was thrilled when I found out I was not the slowest one and there were other beginners like me. We finished the run and went out for breakfast. I could handle this. Well, the next morning I could barely walk. But, training for a marathon does not happen in one run.

Over the next several weeks I discovered a few things. First, how fast the body adapts to new challenges. I had been given the full marathon training schedule even though I was suppsoed to be training for the half. By the third or fourth week I was surprised I was running 8 or 9 miles, and I had optimistically figured if I could do that I could do 26.2 so I dove right in and committed to running the full marathon. Second, I realized how many places in the Northwest I had never visited, despite being born and raised here. Our team met at places like Centennial Trail near Snohomish; Lincoln Park in West Seattle; Pioneer Park on Mercer Island; Seward Park in south Seattle and Discovery Park in Magnolia.

We trained through the winter and spring, and being able to—first-hand, through all the elements-- experience that change in seasons gave me a deeper connection to this region. I was no longer just looking out the window during the commercial breaks. Third, how hills in this area can be a good thing despite the pain they inflict. Running up Queen Anne Avenue trained me well for my first marathon. When I encountered runners from Ohio struggling on some slight inclines in the marathon I had to smile as I passed them and thought, “hill, what hill!?” Fourth, how generous people are when they discover that you are doing something as unselfish as running a marathon for charity, and what a selfishly good feeling all that support garners. My fundraising was completed within two months, people kept on checking on my progress and telling all their friends and family what I was doing and on the training runs people would shout out words of encourgament and the national team cheer “go team!”

That selfishly unselfish feeling came to a head for me as I was on mile 25 of my very first marathon a few short months and many training days later. A woman twenty-or-so yards ahead of me on the side of the course held up a sign that read, “Leukemia survivor, thank you!” Realizing that she had been out there for well over 5 hours in the chill rain of an Anchorage June to say thank you to me and to support me and my team was almost unbearable in my emotional and physically exhausted state. I lost it. I started to cry. And as I passed her, she called out a powerful “thank you!” I told her she had to stop or I wasn’t going to finish that race.

Then, as I saw my TnT mentor coming around the corner to run me up that last hill, I started to cry again, this time at the sheer magnificence of what I had accomplished over the previous four months. I was within one mile of finishing a full marathon, had lost about 20 pounds, raised over $5,000 for the Society, inspired so many around me, made a ton of new friends, and made my father that much prouder of me.

I have run five other marathons and one ultra marathon since then. Not all have been with Team in Training. One or two were to get a personal record, a few for fun, some to just stay in shape. While each race is an amazing accomplishment, the ones run with an altruistic element—runs to give support to a fellow runner, runs for a good organization, run to raise money for those in need— always feel a whole lot more significant.

So, what happens when the self-interested pursuit of running collides with the desire to change the world? For me I gained a new-found passion for running and for the amazing weather and trails we have in the Northwest; I became part of an instant community of runners and athletes (and now friends); I scored access to top-notch coaches who have helped me to best my marathon times by over two hours; and I have experienced the unique human knack for turning something innately selfish into a pursuit that benefits so many.

Ilana Balint has been running with Team in Training for the last four years and has acted as participant, mentor and team captain and is currently training for Big Sur Marathon with Team in Training. Aside from running four marathons with the Team she has completed an ultra marathon, two other marathons and countless half marathons. She is organizing a 5K race to benefit The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society on October 31 at Seattle’s Seward Park.

Who is William Arnone?

Who is William Arnone and why is he in my dreams!? Have you ever dreamt about someone you have never met or heard of? I just have.

In my dream I had chosen to write a thesis paper about ghost stories of a small town (don't know where). I traveled to this town with a friend of mine who was taking care of a young child in search of ghost stories to fill my thesis paper. After speaking with several people in the town we could not find any ghost stories so we headed to the local library. The librarian did not know of any such stories but showed me to the old fashioned card catalog. As I was browsing the library caught fire. I panicked as this was the only chance I would have to write this thesis. I grabbed a bunch of cards and tried to find my friend and the small child. I found them playing in the bath tub (why there was a bath tub in the library I do not know) and she refused to get out of the building until they had found some sort of face recognition toy. Finally we found the toy and got out of the burning building.

As we were outside I started to look through the cards and noticed a huge chunk of cards under the name William Arnone, whose name, in my dream, rang a bell. When asked, the librarian told us that yes, Arnone was a well known author and hailed from this small town. I thought, ah, this is the ticket, he must have written a ghost story.

So I tried to track down this William Arnone, without much luck.

This was my dream.

And, when I awoke I found that I had written down Arnone's at some point during the night. I googled this mysterious dream like figure and found he is a left wing activist or a lawyer. Now, why would I have dreamed of someone I had never heard of, never met as being this famous author when he is not even an author at all. Very strange indeed. I sort of feel like the woman in Medium. Scary! If you are William Arnone reading this, perhaps you can explain?

Sleeping with Giants

There is something about large trees that calm me and at the same time make me hopeful about the world. Perhaps they are a testament to human beings that in a small part of the world we have been smart enough not to mess with nature, the result of which is a magnificent swath of giant trees. I of course am speaking of the Redwoods in California, which I had the privilege of visiting this past weekend.



The drive down was rainy and long but gorgeous nonetheless. I picked up a friend in Portland, where I spent the night and was taken out on the town and treated to a Voodoo Doughnut (I chose the Bubble Yum flavor) and some classic Portland nightlife spots.



Woke up at the crack of dawn to start the 9 hour trek down the coast. Among the highlights were finding a drive through espresso in Rice Hill, Oregon, arriving at a tulip festival too early to be let in and taking a picture by a tulip planter with 5 tulips in it, getting checked for produce at the Oregon/California border while eating an orange, the giant Paul Bunyan statue on the side of the road, spending awesome catch up time with a friend and just driving in those trees.



Got to the Avenue of the Giants just in time to pick up our race packets (yes, of course I went for a race, why else would I go!?). Our friends from Sacramento had arrived just then and we headed for the spaghetti feed put on at the community center to benefit the local fire department. Such a great community feel, all these runners sitting at long tables with plastic tablecloths chowing on homemade spaghetti in the middle of nowhere in a run down community hall. Who needs a fancy restaurant to create a special atmosphere?



Unfortunately it was raining as we set up camp but managed to keep the inside of the tent dry and hung out amongst the giants around a campfire. I had such a sense of peace, just being there. I am one lucky girl.



Slept like a log, with the rain pelting our tent the whole night. I had a dream, a dream where it was raining all night but then we were walking to the race start and the clouds parted and it was sunny. I woke up, with cold damp feet and told my friend about this dream, she told me to keep dreaming. Managed to break down camp and stuff all the wet stuff in the trunk of the rental car (so glad I rented a car cause it was stinky in there) and headed over to the race start, in the rain.



Found a super secret parking spot where there was actual private, locking bathrooms that had just been cleaned, within two minutes walk to the start. As we arrived the clouds parted and the sun came out. I felt like a prophet!



The race was amazing, a half marathon through the trees, giant, loping trees, no cars and lots of sunshine filtering through the oversized branches. We even got a medal. Who could ask for anything better?



Found a great cafe in the woods and had an amazingly tasty breakfast of huevos rancheros and took off back up to Portland. Some highlights of that drive include having to roll down the window when we could cause we were slightly stinky, coming up with some great, steeping-too-long-in-a-car business ideas, trying to find a mom and pop burger place to get a strawberry milkshake, stopping at the Jerkey drive up stand to buy elk jerkey from a guy with no teeth, passing an RV with the name "Flair" and one with the name "Beaver" several times, stopping at the beach to feel the warm sand and cold Pacific waters on our toes, seeing several elk in the park and again, spending time with a friend and just driving in those trees.



The visit was too short but I feel better about the world just knowing those trees are out there.

Frolicking in the tulips

This is the current scene up in Skagit Valley:

I got a chance to go frolic in the tulips yesterday and it was well worth the drive. I went last year, on a busy sunny weekend day only to find that there were no tulips and just lots of stinky cars. Not so this year. We found this amazing field with vibrant rows of flowers, which we practically had to ourselves due to the fact that it was a Wednesday (god, I love my life).

My only question is this, these flowers are in full bloom, huge fields of them. They even have a Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. But, these flowers are clearly in the later stages of their life. Are they here just for our viewing pleasure? Do they not get harvested and sold? If so, why hasn't that happened yet? If not, do they just sit there until they die?

I think I need to read a book about the secret underworld of the flower business called Flower Confidential to get the answers I need!

What a weekend!

So this past weekend I did several things, went to Nashville, stayed in a hostel, ran a full marathon on a 90 degree day, saw Dave Matthews Band, flew home.

About Nashville: Nashville was cool, I mean, it was hot, but its a fun city. It was different than I expecting. I went to the honky tonks, sure but I thought it would be more country than it was. Was not expecting such a big downtown, or such a vibrant college scene or such beautiful amenities like Centennial Park. I thought it would feel a little more Southern that it did. I didn't even get a chance to eat any grits or collard greens or fried okra. I did have great pizza though!

About the hostel: It was fantastic. I have never really stayed in a hostel before so I had no idea what to expect, I just thought it would be a cheap place to lay my head each night but it was so much more than that. It was cleaner than I thought, the staff were great and the people I met were so much fun, for the most part. I stayed in an all girls room with two cute teenagers and one of their mom's. The teens were doing the half marathon and they were adorable, and had such a cool mom too. I met an Australian guy traveling for several months, a couple of too cool for school Danes, another Australian in Music City hoping to break into the music scene by singing in local competitions, two German girls on vacation from their banking jobs in New York, a few Americans just tooling around the country, and one American guy who came to Nashville to visit and ended up staying for three months and is now trying to develop his southern accent. It was great because it was an instant group of friends and travel buddies.

About the marathon: It was hot hot hot hot. There was a reader board at a bank near the start, it read 84 at 7:00am and it only got hotter from there. The problem was that there was almost no shade out on the course so there was just the pounding, unrelenting sun. Did not make for a pleasant day. I started out next to the 4 hour 15 minute pacer, yeah right. They passed me within the first mile, then the 4:30 group passed, then the 5:00 passed me. I knew within the first two miles that it was going to be a brutal day. I ended up walking the majority of the race. I had some serious doubts about mile 6 or 7 when I was already dying and nauseous. The half marathoners started out on the same course as the full and I had more than a few thoughts of just peeling off at mile 11 with them and calling it quits, but I stuck it out, mostly thanks to a Team in Training coach that helped me through. And I am really proud of myself for sticking with it. The half way mark took forever to come. I kept on thinking, I am not even half way yet. When the halfers went on their merry way the course became a lot lonelier, and a lot hotter. We did an out and back with no shade, no spectators, and just a lot of sun and heat, some of which was along the banks of a river that I just wanted to stop and swim in. At this point almost everyone was brought to a walk, even some fast looking, experienced marathoners, at least I was not alone in my suffering. When we finally finished that out and back we ran past the damn finish line, on our way to another out and back. I hate that! Why do races do that? I then saw my Team coach again and she remembered me and was proud that I stuck with it. At this point I was just trying to take it one mile at a time, figuring that I just wanted to survive this thing. All the while hearing ambulances coming and going, seeing people being pulled off the course and just feeling like it was a death march of sorts. The out and back was brutal because on the way out we saw the 25 mile marker but we knew we had several miles to go before getting back to that spot. Around the park we went and finally headed back to the finish. 5 hours and 46 minutes later I crossed that damn finish line. I felt great about my effort, despite the fact that it was my slowest marathon in years. I had my medal and my flip flops and was happy. At each aid station I had grabbed a chunk of ice to rub over myself, the result of which is a huge sunburn that hurts more than my tired legs.

About DMB: So, I managed to catch a free ride back to the hostel, took a cold shower, ate some easy mac and was then picked up by my friends going to the show. We hung out at a friend's house who was not going to the show and offered to drop us off and pick us back up from the show, awesome!!!! No more walking for me! They played in a football stadium on Vanderbilt campus and it was a great venue, so much energy, which reflected in the show. Jason Mraz opened and he walked out and I commented that he looked a bit tired. He played a rocking few songs and then gave a shout out to all the marathoners in the house, for which I yelled and screamed and held out my medal I was still wearing. He then told us that yes, in fact he ran his very first ever half marathon that morning. I could have run with Jason Mraz, if I had only known!!! DMB came on stage and I was so excited. They played a high energy show, with a few new songs I had never heard before and some old songs that they haven't played in about a dozen years. I love the feeling that you get when you would not prefer to be anywhere else in the world.

After the show I was ravenous, as were the people I was with. We got picked up and ordered some pizzas. Let me tell you, that pizza was he best pizza I have ever had. So we hung out for a bit, they dropped me back off at my hostel about 2:00 or so. There were people hanging out and my airport shuttle was coming to pick me up in mere hours. So I decided it would be better just to stay up rather than to try and get one hour of sleep. That is what I did, stayed up all night after running a hot marathon and going to a show. By the time I got on the plane I was virtually delirious, I passed out on the plane, don't even remember any of it.

I ended up landing in Seattle and getting home around 1:00 and fell right asleep, slept for about 6 hours, went over to a friend's for a cupcake and a meeting about a relay we are running, then back home and fell asleep at about 9:00 and slept for 11 hours!

Talk about a weekend warrior!!

P.S. I just had cheesecake for breakfast, I love running!

One More Reason to Love Obama and My Life

I have always maintained that the worst part of getting laid off was the lack of health insurance. I of course was offered Cobra, but at an insane rate, something that any unemployed person would not be able to afford.

I got a mysterious package in the mail yesterday, looked like junk mail from some insurance company. But it was a notice from my Cobra company! Because of the newly enacted stimulus plan I now get the option to re-enroll at only 35% of the cost!

I now can break something without worry of paying through the nose! I might just go run some trails today, or next week after my next marathon!

Thank you Mr. Obama!