Run, Marion & Astrid, Run!

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Hi there & welcome back!

Funny how you can be looking forward to / training for / dreading the big day for so long and then *snap* before you know it it’s over!  Well, not to say those 4hrs and 23minutes didn’t seem pretty long, but it was also one big party!!  So, a week later, time for a quick recap, pics (or it didn’t happen!), and some fun links related to the marathon (:.

The last post left off before going to the Alzheimer’s Association’s Team Run 2 Remember team dinner, so let’s pick it up from there.  We had a big group of runners + family & friends @ Sambuca where we ate quite some yummy pasta.  It was announced that Team Run 2 Remember has raised over $1M over the past 3 years, and we’ve gone over $350K for this year’s team in this past week!  Also, and this is unusual for a charity, the runners will be asked to give their input which programs, etc. the money raised should be used for, which is really great if you ask me (:.  There were a couple speeches and 1 of them by ’08 Olympian Kara Lawson.  Her college basketball coach Pat Summit was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s earlier this year, and Kara’s husband ran on the team in Pat’s honor.  Kara drew some comparisons between basketball and running, and was quite funny.  There were thank yous for our 4 coaches and then the coaches had a present for the runners too: a nice purple hat with “Run 2 Remember” and the Alzheimer’s Association’s logo on it, cool!  Dinner ended at 7 sharp and everyone went home for an early night.  We had the lights off by 10 (9 “new” time), Marion slept pretty well, but I was tossing and turning a lot and woke up several times, ah well, the 2 nights before had been really good, so nothing to worry about too much.

4:10 AM Race Day: getting up, ugh!  We were out the door before 5, went to Union Square by metro without problems and also found the S-bux that opened at 5.30 there according to plan.  We got our chai and coffee and then boarded one of the 2 Alzheimer’s Association buses to be transported to Staten Island.  I typed a work e-mail on the way as a form of distraction and most people were trying to get some last little rest/nap while on the bus.  We got off the bus around 7:30AM on Staten Island and saw someone puking while walking over to the runners’ village, now that’s a good start before even starting the marathon, yikes!  The team found a spot to put some tarps down and we hung around for a bit, weather was nice ‘n sunny, not too cold at all.  Between getting ready (headband, sunglasses, watch, arm warmers, heartrate strap, loading GUs, etc, etc), waiting in line for restrooms, finding the green and orange bag drop off and being in the start corral 30 minutes before the start of our wave (10:10AM), time actually flew by.  Met someone while waiting for the start who was sort of in a rush, needed to catch a plane at 4PM, good luck to you, buddy!  Marion and I located the balloons of the 4:00hr pace team and started in the vicinity of this group.  The national anthem, hug and kiss for the sis, and then we were off!  Once started it was really crowded and congested (it pretty much stayed crowded throughout, since we run a pretty average pace), lost Marion for a little bit, but we found each other again.  Of course we felt great in the beginning, although we let the 4hr pace team go after about mile 2.  But we stayed on almost 4hr course for quite some time (2hr2mins at the 13.1 mile mark).  We saw Tina a little after mile 8, she was so kind to take my arm warmers from me and snap a picture:

A little after mile 8, still feeling great :)

A little after mile 8, still feeling great :)

We had fun looking at people running in weird/cool/crazy costumes, seeing lots of people from all over the world (lots of Dutchies too, I did a couple of “hup Holland Hup”s), enjoying the music along the course, and of course the crowds and their (often) funny signs.  One I saw multiple times was “worst parade ever”, well, thanks…  One that I found quite funny: “run, Name, run, run, run; Run like you have the runs!”.  Just found a forum where people posted some pics of funny signs, looking at it I remember seeing the “chafed nipples turn me on” one, oi!

We were hydrating and eating pretty well, all according to plan, but however had to slow the pace a bit, that’s what going out too fast will do to you…  I was very happy once the Queensboro bridge was behind us, but miles 16-19 weren’t all that.  Then starting again after a restroom (well, port-a-john) quick break at mile 19 was definitely the part that was the most painful.  From then we shuffled through the last 7 miles, taking turns telling each other how we’re almost there and how proud we are of each other.  Those last few miles feel like they’re mainly uphill (and I think they really are), so mean!  I did think quite a bit about how grateful I was to be running here and kept my grandparents, family, and friends who had told me about their loved ones with Alzheimer’s in my thoughts, which made me a tad emotional, but also kept me going!  Mile marker 25, only 1 more to go!  Mile marker 26, only .2 more (even though they were uphill…)!!  We finished hand-in-hand, big smiles ((:.  Thanks for running this together Marion!!!

Of course we needed to get a picture of the 2 of us and our medals taken, received some mylar heat-sheets, devoured an apple like it was the best thing on the planet (it may have been at the time), and very slowly moved through Central Park with ~10,000 of our closest friends.  Stroke up another couple of random conversations (usually with old guys it seems), always fun.  Finally, we picked up our bags, put on some extra layers of clothes and made it out of Central Park onto 81st.  We bought ourselves some coke (coca-cola, don’t get me wrong), and waited on a little bench for Tina to come find us; this is what she found:

2 happy finishers!

2 happy finishers!

Marion, Tina, and I went over to Columbus Circle for the Alzheimer’s Association’s after party.  We took the metro which was not super-pleasant on our painful legs and all the stairs…  Taking 1 little step at a time (putting right with left onto the same step, not taking one step with each leg alternating) or going backwards were the somewhat less painful options.  Jon joined us at the after-party, like Tina he’d tried to see us in those last couple miles, but with so many runners and the live tracker probably lagging behind it didn’t work out.  But the effort is definitely much appreciated!  We took some pictures from the patio with Columbus Circle in the background:

Tina, Marion and Astrid; Columbus Circle in the background

Tina, Marion and Astrid; Columbus Circle in the background

After some food, thank yous and byes to the team we went into the metro station at 59th St and 8th Ave where we’d heard of this Asics add that contains (almost) all names of the marathon participants; with increasing levels of zoom:

The add from a distance, people looking for their/other's names

The add from a distance, people looking for their/other's names

The add from a bit closer up

The add from a bit closer up

YAY, we're on it!

YAY, we're on it!

We picked up some Thai food on our way home and were quite happy to be back at Tina’s ~14hrs after we had left there!  I almost killed Marion and Tina when I took off my shoes, so a nice shower was definitely just what the Dr. called for (like some Vaseline for Marion on some bad bad chafing as well…).  Then for some (restless) sleep, and we didn’t even get up superlate on Monday.  Wandered around SoHo, NoHo, West Village, and Greenwich Village a bit (in typical post-marathon fashion with knees almost straight while walking…), then back to Brooklyn for some chillin’, food, and beer, perfect!  I was already flying out Mon eve unfortunately, so time for hugs and good-byes…  Saw tons of people with the marathon-shirt and/or medal at the airport, cool!

Aftermath: muscle aches through Wednesday, but not thinking about how to walk anymore on Thursday definitely signified the end of the muscle pain.  Felt like I was coming down with a cold pretty much since Monday and by Friday it finally caught me.  Sneezed at least 10 times while writing this and judging from the pile of used Kleenex next to time, must have blown my nose close to 25 times, yikes!  All worth it though, so no more complaining!  Of course with such a big marathon (over 47,000 people started), there’s a lot of fun stuff going on and no lack of media attention, so I gathered up some fun stuff for you (mainly stealing from Facebook-friends, so thank you guys!):

  • A bit dizzying towards the end, but very cool: taking a pic every second and then making a video of it!
  • We actually saw this guy who was making cartoons while running (:
  • Time-lapse on the Verrazano-Narrows bridge of all 3 starts
  • Coach Brian of Team Run 2 Remember ran as Captain America.  We saw the yellow bird in the beginning for quite a while as well, and I think I’ll opt for a sumo wrestler suite next time I run a marathon (:
  • Inspirational: Zoe has MS and has finished the NYC marathon in last place for the last 23 years
  • Celebs: from Oprah to Lance Armstrong, the NYC marathon has seen quite some celebs running and finishing the marathon.  This year’s celebs are mentioned in this article, who knew Edwin van der Sar ran it too, and only 4 minutes faster than Marion and me??

One more time: THANK you all for following me, and for supporting me and the Alzheimer’s Association, it wouldn’t have been the same without you!!

Current Astrid-stats:
  • Funds raised: $4,950, thank you Mike, Diane, Niels, and Marion’s friend!!!  Who’s gonna push me up to $5K??  Donations can still be made (:.
  • Spirits: 8/10 – very happy and grateful to have run for this cause and with Marion!!
  • Fitness: 7/10 – with this cold and no training whatsoever, I don’t expect much…
  • Training: 1/10 – haven’t done anything since the marathon, which is OK, although it would’ve been better to do some easy swimming, biking or running I’m sure
  • Hydration: 8/10 – drinking tons of tea and smoothies to fight off this cold, ugh!
  • Nutrition: 6/10 – been eating a ton of chocolate, mmm (:
  • Sleep: 8/10 – not too bad, especially a lot this weekend, but could still use more…
  • Alzheimer’s: 0/10 – I’ll keep running and living a generally healthy life + planning to keep raising funds for Alzheimer’s, so hopefully I can contribute a little to a cure being found one day in the not too-distant future

T-20 hrs!

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Aloha dear reader,

Crazy, the big day is almost here!  Last big fundraising push has been very successful: am up to $4,775 currently, hope to make it to $5K!!  BIG thank you to all who have donated, see the list in the stats at the bottom of this post as well :) .

I barely made it to the airport on time last Thursday, but once I got on the plane everything went pretty smooth from there on out and I joined my sis Marion and Tina the Great Dane around 9PM in Brooklyn.  Got a REAL good night of sleep (~12 hrs), which was definitely needed.  Ran for 30mins on Friday, felt OK, right leg still a bit iffy, but the longer I run, the better it starts to feel, so I think it’ll be ok.  Then Marion and I set off for the marathon Expo to get our race packets and spend (too much) time looking at all sorts of running related gear and gadgets.

Marion and Astrid @ the Expo

Marion and Astrid @ the Expo

Met a good friend for dinner and then it was off to home again for an early night (oh, how I love sleeping :) ).  Took some pictures of what we’ll most likely look like during the race tomorrow, so all you spectators can recognize us:

Garden sisters in race outfits

Garden sisters in race outfits

We’ve been taking it really easy today, sleeping in once again, had a good filling brunch at a local diner, walked around a bit and soaked up some sun.  Now we’re preparing our bags for tomorrow before heading out to the Alzheimer’s Association’s Team Run 2 Remember team dinner tonight.  I can’t wait to meet all fellow team-members!

Once again, thank you all for your support & donations, I can’t put in words how much it means to me!

For the last time before the marathon, here are the Astrid-stats:
  • Funds raised: $4,775, thank you Geja, Diana, Indra, Niels, Dean, Gary B, Christof, Jan, Esther, Joanna, René, Kuikie, Ab, John T, Nicha, Johan, Evert-Jan, Craig, Elien, Toby, and LLamasoft!!!
  • Spirits: 9/10 – looking forward to tonight and the big day tomorrow!!
  • Fitness: 9/10 – I’ve put in the training, so it should be pretty good, we’ll find out soon!
  • Training: 6/10 – skipped almost all runs this week after struggling through 7 miles last Sunday, but at this point rest is more important, so it’s alright
  • Hydration: 9/10 – need to eat some more salt I think, don’t want to get over-hydrated either!
  • Nutrition: 8/10 – been afraid of getting sick, so been eating lots of fruit :)
  • Sleep: 8/10 – about 20-22 hrs in the last 2 nights, great!  Don’t expect to be able to sleep tonight though, but it’s definitely nice we’re getting an extra hour…
  • Alzheimer’s: It’ll be very special tomorrow to run for this cause.  I’ll be thinking of my grandparents and of everyone’s loved ones affected by the disease that I’ve come to know of while raising awareness and funds for the Alzheimer’s Association.  Thanks for sharing your stories with me!

Only 1 week to go: Donate, Donate, Donate!!

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Hey there, welcome back, dear blog-reader,

You, yes you, how about making a donation?!?  Time’s running out with only 1 week left until the marathon, and we all know you’ve been meaning to (:.

Yes, you read that right, only 1 week until ‘D-day’, how time has flown once again.  And I clearly haven’t kept up with the blog, but I do like it, so considering keeping it for after the marathon; we’ll see how that goes.  I can’t wait to meet my fellow Team Run to Remember team-members next week, to spend time with Marion (before, during, and after the marathon!), catch up with the great Dane (Tina, who’ll host both Marion and me, thanks hun!!), see J & T and kids, soak in the craziness of the NYC marathon, and then of course run the darn thing!!  If you’re curious about the course, here’s a map (yes, it’s pretty much sight-seeing NY).  And you’ll be able to track all >40,000 of us online or through an app (modern technology…).

So, I’ll catch you up on the latest quickly and will remind you to donate to support the Alzheimer’s Association throughout this post!  (Is it getting obnoxious yet?).

Training has been going alright, but I have a feeling I’m close to falling apart at the moment, quite some little aches and pains in my legs.  As the massage lady put it: “It took me an hour to make your body feel like it’s not a rock”.  Right-e-o…  It has been quite a long season of training and racing, so I suppose it’s not really unexpected.  And there’s nothing majorly wrong, just need to take some rest after NY (which I plan on doing!).  Maybe I shouldn’t have done the full 26mi of the Detroit marathon 2 weeks ago (yes, Diana, I know you told me), but I promise I just stuck with the 21mi training plan and took the last 5mi easy.  I still ran a PB (yay!), but that wasn’t so hard with the only ever open marathon I had done until then being the NY one in ’09, for which I wasn’t so well-trained…

As most fellow runners / triathletes know, there’s always the risk of falling into a “black hole” after the A-race of the season is over.  So, it’s important to have the next thing lined up before even starting the A-race.  I’m very excited I got a great one on the calendar for June 2012 already: the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon!!  I was lucky enough to get in through the lottery ((:.

What’s so fun about racing?  Of course it’s nice to test yourself: did you train right, can you put everything together to break that PB, can you make it into the top X / top Y% of your age group?  But that’s not all, the cheers from the crowds spectating, the funny signs, the bands/dancers, the great volunteers, they all contribute to the experience.  And last but not least, the other participants: from their comments (“atta-girl”, “your butt looks great”) to hearing their (sometimes amazing & always inspiring) stories, to seeing their emotional finishes.  I was watching for a bit after I finished Detroit and it’s just great to see a couple finish hand-in-hand, the wife so overcome with emotion of her great, maybe once in a lifetime, achievement.  I think I mentioned D and I volunteered at IMWI a while back.  This happened to be on the 10-year anniversary of 9/11, so there were a lot of people racing in honor of everyone who lost/gave their lives on that day 10 years ago.  We decided to go be at the finish line for the last hour of the race to see the 16-17hr finishers.  One participant was a fireman, who, after having swum and biked for ~9-10hrs total already, was walking the marathon in complete fireman gear (including oxygen tank), we saw him finish and it was definitely one of the highlights of the day, SO inspiring!

So yes, racing is fun, and for me it’s needed to have goals to prevent me from becoming a couch potato.  Next Sunday won’t be a race like any others though.  It’ll be special for many reasons, running it to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer’s being the main one.  A cause close to my heart!  I’ve raised close to $4K at this point; I’m going to try hard to push it over $5K in this last week of fundraising before the the marathon.  Please help if you can by either donating or spreading the word or both.  Thank you all for your support; during the marathon, I’ll be thinking of everyone of you and also any of your loved ones who are suffering or have suffered from Alzheimer’s.  It’ll motivate me to not give up and keep running when the going gets tough.

So, then the most important part of the blog, some pics!  (-;.  I’ve been wanting to put some IMWI pics on here to give you a little impression of the fun and craziness of Ironman events, so here’s a small compilation before I wrap up with the “current Astrid-stats”.

Poodles with the IM "tattoo", crazy!

Transition area with couple $M in bikes the day before

Active parents...

D & I being creative and making some cheering signs

Kayaks getting into the water before the race

And off they go! 140.6 miles ahead of them...

People coming into transition (right) and people in transition (left)

Now that's a cute sign (:

D pointing runners in the right direction

Finish line with Capitol building in the background

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Per usual, here are the latest stats on me:

  • Funds raised: $3,858, thank you Jay & his company for donating $500(!!), thank you Alice, thank you Jan Willem, thank you Nejat, thank you Sara, thank you Desiree, thank you Jan & Jeanne, thank you Spiros, thank you Norm, and thank you Janneke for all your generous donations!!
  • Spirits: 9/10 – As = happy
  • Fitness: 9/10 – I definitely think the fitness is there, just hoping the legs will hold up!
  • Training: 8/10 – I’ve pretty much done all the run workouts, and have been biking about once a week.  Feel like I should’ve done more stretching and swimming to prevent some of the current issues
  • Hydration: 8/10 – lots of chocolate milk + milk after workouts and generally enough chai tea & water/cranberry juice as well
  • Nutrition: 7/10 – not eating badly, but could probably be a bit healthier
  • Sleep: 7/10 – been getting 7-8 hrs during the week and more on the weekend; I like naps on the weekends, just don’t always have/make the time for them!
  • Alzheimer’s: I’ve heard many stories from people who have family-members with Alzheimer’s that I never would have known of had I not been raising money for the Alzheimer’s Association.  It’s sad to think so many people’s lives are affected by this disease.  I really hope all the money team R2R is raising (over 285K so far!!) will help in the search for a cure

A Sister’s Perspective

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Howdy everyone!

First things first: I know you all have been meaning to, just didn’t get to it yet, forgot the link, etc.  Today, however is the perfect day to do what you’ve been meaning to: make your donation to support the Alzheimer’s Association on World Alzheimer’s Day!  Just click on the blue words “make your donation” in the previous sentence or click on following link or copy-paste this link into your browser: http://2011teamr2r.kintera.org/astrid.

As far as the blog goes, it’s been too long again, and I have many topics I’d like to write about, including the interesting conclusions of the Nun Study book that I wrote about in earlier posts and recently finished reading; several interesting articles on Alzheimer’s, the aging brain, and how insulin inhalers may delay onset of the disease; volunteering at IMWI 2 weekends ago; racing an oly last weekend (mind you, I’m talking about the third definition here (-;), and much more.  But all of that will have to wait for just a little bit, this post today will be a special one with my sister Marion as the guest author!

Sister Marion

Here she is, on the Mall in DC even!

This is what Marion would like to share with you all:

Yes! I am going to run the New York marathon with my sister Astrid! Iʼm totally thrilled about the fact that we are going to run the 26.21875 miles together!  For almost a year now, November 6th has a special spot in my agenda.

In 2009 my sister ran the marathon for the first time and by then I did not think of ever running a marathon, and especially this one, too.  After a while I started to think about running and I thought: ʻWell, Iʼm just going to run one marathon in my life, and then I pick the New York city marathon because thatʼs the greatest marathon of the whole world and I never have to run one againʼ. (Astrid’s comment: oh, how wrong she’ll find herself to be on this after completing NY…)

Unfortunately, my sister didn’t manage to get in through the lottery and was not going to be one of the participants of the New York city marathon this year. Later on this did not turn out bad, but rather well because she found a great goal to run for: The Alzheimerʼs Association!

My sister and I both know what a huge impact Alzheimer’s Disease can have on a person’s health and how heavy it is for the family and friends of the affected person.  Our grandmother was one of the people that got Alzheimer’s Disease and from a close-up we could see the different stages she got into and how these different stages affected the life of our grandmother, but also that of our grandfather, our parents and friends of our grandparents.

The amount of people with Alzheimer’s Disease is growing rapidly. People are getting older and more and more of our population will get this disease.  This is why research is so important and this is why a lot of money is needed to keep the research on Alzheimer’s Disease going. So please donate, and help with making this research possible!

Thanks Marion!  It’s Astrid again from here on out…  So, I’m going to put up a poll after this post to see how the “general public” thinks this is going to pan out: a highly-competitive sister (Marion) running a marathon with her quite competitive sister (me).  I know some of my friends would qualify me a bit different, but hey, this is my blog (-;.  For those of you who don’t know us that well, a quick comparison would be as follows: Marion has a strong background in rowing, has gotten into road-cycling about 2 years ago and into ice speed-skating more recently.  Has done several 10k running races, but none longer than that I think.  She’s been having some shin-splint issues, which (of course) is totally sucky.  But, her main strength is that she has an enormous willpower.  So, with regard to experience in longer running races, and built-up running endurance, I should probably be “the favorite”, but mentally, I feel she has the better hand…  Anyhow, see for yourself and vote on the poll!

Quick stats on Astrid for the last 2 weeks:

  • Funds raised: $2,918, no real movement here, thank you swimming student for making your donation, now we’ll have to plan that lesson sometime…
  • Spirits: 8/10 – been a bit up and down due to some personal things (both good and bad), but no complaints at this time!
  • Fitness: 8/10 – was very happy with swim & run on the oly last Sunday, not so sure about the bike, but it was quite windy, so I think I did OK, since I didn’t blow up on the run.  And oh, not really part of fitness, but transition practice is badly needed, I lost about 2 minutes in T-2 (look up what T-2 is here) looking for my running shoes, argh!
  • Training: 7/10 – have been keeping up with all running work-outs, and with the cooler weather it has been great.  Slacked on the biking, but did drag myself to the pool once (:
  • Hydration: 9/10 – maybe I’ve just been eating salty stuff, but have been drinking lots of water (and cranberry juice), just a little “sinning” with some Sofia now and again
  • Nutrition: 6/10 – today I cooked for the first time in a long time it seems…
  • Sleep: 7/10 – really bad last week, but then got somewhat caught up over the weekend; if only I could make sleeping my hobby… (*dream*)
  • Alzheimer’s: wear PURPLE (which happens to be my favorite color in case you didn’t know yet) in honor of World Alzheimer’s Day.  And, I will give you a (purple) “Reason to Hope” bracelet if you donate $10 or more (even if you don’t wear purple)!

Fundraising – YAY!!

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We raised over $2,000 for the Alzheimer’s Association last week, super awesome!  And what better way than do it through a party (:.  Big THANK YOU’s to everyone who helped, came out, and donated.  Diane was, as per usual on her annual summer party, the hostess with the mostess, and outdid herself by single-handedly catering the >100 people there.  Yummy eggplant, baked potatoes with garlic butter, caprese salad, schicht salad, quiche, tiramisu, raspberry cream pie, the list goes on!  And if that wasn’t enough, she also agreed to auction off her services to take the highest bidder on a bike ride to Detroit, sweet!  Then there was the great jazz band, hopefully they’ll stay together now they’re off to college, they really play some good jazz!  While DJ Andrew was setting up after the band to start spinning some dancy music, Daniel auctioned off the various “items” that were up for grabs for the highest bidder.  He did a great job and we raised a substantial amount through this auction.  Besides Diane, Kate, Julie, Ravindra, and Sarah were also kind (and brave) enough to offer up some of their specialty services for the auction, thanks guys!  Without bidders, no successful auction obviously, so thanks Jay, Olivier, Bobby, Nicolas, Diana, and Ying for “buying”!  Diana did a great job as the woman in charge of “the hat”, paldies!  After the auction, more good food was brought out, DJ Andrew started spinning his tunes, and we partied into the wee hours (:.  I’m probably going to forget to mention some people here (so sorry, please let me know, and I’ll add you!); thanks SO much for joining the party and helping us raise funds: Paul, Scott, Linda, Larry, Becky, Christian, Susana, Guy, Mohana, Aneel, Smidta, Lior, Ana, Alex, Thomas, Yi-Miau, Michael, Lilian, Iris, Debora, Anaïs, Don, Neelima, Harsha, Alice, Karl, Christof, Ted, Monica, Andrea, Kelly, Alain, Jon, Alain, Luis, Ling-Ju, Luis, Jill, Adrian, Jose, Josh, Sharlene, Christian, Eva, Nina, Eric, Ulli, Russ, Bettina, Sara, Kendra, Sangeetha, Kal, Kris, Jen, Giorgi, Kakha, Oxana, Jens, Anuli, Kathryn, Elliott, Kat, James, Maike, Toshiko, Fred, Vinay, Quentin, Philippe, Carlos, Vero, Alex, Matt, Jörg, Andy, Johanna, Jay, Stubbs, Claudia, Sonia, Chetan, Olga, Oleg, Todd, Yimin, Patrick, Hiro, Becky, Scott, John, and Dan!!

Auction Fundraiser / Summer Party

The auction is in full swing!

With help of friends I’m contemplating and discussing some more fundraising ideas, including organizing a 5k run/walk event, a baked goods (/generally homemade yummy foods) sale, an event with some live music and cheap cover charge at a local bar, etc.  If you have any fun, original, and/or high “ROI” fundraising ideas, please let me know!

I’m still making good headway with the Nun Study book.  Some of the findings are very interesting, like for example the ability to predict (in ~80% of the cases I believe) if someone will develop Alzheimer’s Disease based on idea density and grammatical complexity of autobiographies in early life (around age 18-20).  Based on this, one piece of advice that should be given to all parents (in order to reduce their kids’ chances of developing Alzheimer’s) is to read to their children from early on, this is very important while the brain is developing fast.  The book has short stories about different nuns, and many of these are quite inspiring and uplifting like achieving a lifelong dream of working in Africa at age 55+, obtaining a Master’s degree at age 70, reading the whole newspaper and completing the crossword puzzle in it every day at age 90, and this list goes on and on.  The reason this study is so useful and interesting is that all nuns participating have agreed to brain autopsies after they pass.  The brain is weighed and the number of tangles and plaques are being counted in the different brain areas (hippocampus, neocortex).  This way, annual tests and exams performed in the years before a nun’s passing which are used to qualify if she has Alzheimer’s Disease symptoms and if so, what scale they fall into, can be compared and contrasted with the state of the brain after death.  This has helped in for example identifying that even if a brain shows characteristics normally associated with later stages of Alzheimer’s, this doesn’t necessarily mean the person was showing late stage Alzheimer’s symptoms; rather, the idea density and grammatical complexity are correlated more strongly with the development of Alzheimer’s Disease symptoms.  More on this book in the next post I’m sure, it is quite fascinating, so I’m sure I’ll have finished it by then!

Lastly, just letting you know training has been fun these past weeks.  I like the EN “marathon hack” plan I’m following with the 2 shorter interval runs, the one long run which also has some pace/heart rate variations, and then a little biking and swimming added to it.  The different pace & heart rate parts of each run give me something to do while running (check if I’m doing OK, is it time to change gears yet, etc), and even though sometimes tough, I really enjoy the intervals at the fast (Z4/Z5) pace (well, for me fast…).  I’ve gotten into the habit of mostly running the same couple of routes starting from home, since that’s easiest and with the least amount of overhead time added, but it was great to switch it up for the last 2 long runs: the previous weekend I finally ran on the “Poto” again, great trails in a beautiful state park where you can pretty much find a way to run any distance you want.  And then this last weekend on our girls’ trip to Chicago, some of us went for a run along the lake, very pretty, and great to be running with friends for a change (it had been too long!).  It was pretty crowded with runners, skaters, cyclists, and what have you; some nice eye-candy among them definitely helped make the 16mi run in ~90F more enjoyable (:.

Current state stats:

  • Funds raised: $2,983!! ($1,565 online + $1,233 checks from party cash/checks on the way to the Alzheimer’s Association + $185 outstanding from the party, I think I need to remind some people (: ).  THANKS everyone who made it to the party (see above), Jeff B, Tony, Serena, Carrie, Ryan C, Endurance Nation / Coach P, sis Marion (guest blog post coming up…), and pap & mam!
  • Spirits: 10/10 – great party, fundraising success, fun training, and an awesome weekend in Chicago with the girls, need I say more?
  • Fitness: 7/10 – could be better, could be a lot worse too
  • Training: 7/10 – bit hard to also get the bike rides in, and haven’t swum once since Lake Placid, but at least the running is going alright!
  • Hydration: 6/10 – not doing too badly, but could be better for sure (see also next point on the C2H5OH).  I make sure I get my chai tea everyday, that should count for something, right?
  • Nutrition: 7/10 – had lots of delicious (and wholesome?) food in Chi-town, may have had a bit much dessert and a tad more alcohol than good for me though…
  • Sleep: 5/10 – too much to do, not enough time to sleep!
  • Alzheimer’s: while raising awareness/funds for this disease you get to learn about friends’ and co-worker’s loved ones who suffer/have suffered from it as well; touching stories indeed, thank you for sharing these with me
Dessert in Chicago!

To illustrate the dessert & nutrition point... ;-)

Alzheimer’s Disease

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The beauty of having a blog is that you need to make sure you do the homework you give yourself, since the whole world (well… I guess my handful of followers) can call you on it.  I’m happy to report that I have worked on and continue to work on all 3 points that needed immediate attention (fundraising, reading up on Alzheimer’s, and getting a training plan figured out).  Today I’ll tell you a bit more about Alzheimer’s, and the Alzheimer’s Association which is the organization I’m raising funds for.

I won’t rehash all the facts and details here (the internet is after all also the source I get most of this info from), but I think a quick overview of the disease is in order:

  • Affected population: generally people over 65, although there is a smaller percentage of people who start showing symptoms in their 40′s and 50′s (early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease)
  • Causes: 1) age – people over 85 have a nearly 50% chance of developing Alzheimer’s.  2) genetics – three genes (“risk genes”) have been identified so far that give one an increased chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease; one gene (a “deterministic gene”) has been identified that leads to guaranteed early-onset Alzheimer’s disease (it’s estimated that less than 5% of Alzheimer’s cases are caused by this gene)
  • Symptoms: memory loss (especially short-term), being disoriented, having difficulty with speaking and writing, changes in mood and personality, decreased/poor judgment.  These symptoms worsen over time to the point (“late-stage”) where patients lose the ability to respond to their environment, to carry on a conversation and, eventually, to control movement.
  • Biochemistry: how everything works is not fully known yet, but there are 2 main observations: 1) a protein essential for neuron growth, survival and repair (APP) gets broken up in smaller pieces (beta-amyloid) that clump together around neurons in the brain, forming plaques.  2) the tau protein that plays a role in transport of nutrients and molecules to and from a neuron’s cell body becomes hyperphosphorylated, forming tangles which cause this transport system to break down.  This brain-tour gives a good visual overview of what happens in the brain.
  • Plaques and TanglesTreatment: there is currently no cure for Alzheimer’s.  There are 2 types of drugs that can slow down the progression of the disease somewhat (~6-12 monthts).  Mental stimulation, exercise, and a balanced diet are mentioned as life-style habits that can potentially prevent and slow down progression of the disease, but rigorous scientific proof of the effects of these is lacking at this time.
  • Research: numerous phase II and phase III clinical trials have been conducted and are currently underway to find drugs that can halt and maybe even reverse the progression of Alzheimer’s Disease.  Hot off the press, I *just* got tipped on this article about scientists supposedly having found a common cause of all forms of ALS, which could potentially also impact the study of Alzheimer’s Disease

As I’m sure you’ll agree after reading this, Alzheimer’s Disease is a terrible disease that one wouldn’t even wish upon their worst enemy.  A disease for which a cure needs to be found to prevent current predictions of 1 in 85 people being afflicted with Alzheimer’s by 2050.  I’m grateful to be part of team Run 2 Remember, so I can try and make a difference to bring us a bit closer to this cure.  Needless to say, of all the running & triathlon races I’ve done so far, this year’s NYC marathon will the most meaningful and important one!  The Alzheimer’s Association spends close to three-quarters of its revenues on programs and services to accomplish their mission, which is stated as follows:

“… to create and promote comprehensive and humane care for persons with Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders, to provide support for their families and professional caregivers, and to eliminate Alzheimer’s disease through the advancement of research…”

Per the advice of one my team-members I picked up the book “Still Alice“.  Even though it’s a novel, the Alzheimer’s Association endorses this book as being a representative first person account of developing Alzheimer’s.  I read it in 2 days (it’s been a long time since I was so engrossed in a book…).  It’s about a Harvard professor in cognitive linguistics who gets diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease when she’s 50.  Though often not uplifting, it was eye-opening.  Now I’m onto something that seems like it might be a bit more uplifting: “Aging with Grace, what the Nun Study teaches Us...”, which was brought to my attention by my good friend Kate.  This is about (one of) the largest studies focusing primarily on Alzheimer’s Disease.  The subjects represent a large and fairly homogeneous group of people: the writer (& researcher) has been tracking 678 nuns of the School Sisters of Notre Dame for over 25 years.  I’ll be sure to share the book’s findings with you after I’m done reading it!

So then, the usual wrap up with the latest on me:

  • Funds raised: $350, thanks Anaïs, Eva, and Daniel!  Please go here if you’d like to contribute, I know you want to (:
  • Spirits: 8/10 – looking forward to the fundraising party this coming Friday, just a lot to accomplish beforehand still!
  • Fitness: 7/10 – feel good on the bike, not so much running (see next)
  • Training: 6/10 – per my homework I now have a marathon training plan (thanks EN & Coach P), but messed up my 5k test run last Saturday ):
  • Hydration: 7/10 – keeping the good habit of drinking quite some water up better than expected
  • Nutrition: 8/10 – been eating pretty well (except for those *bleep* M&M’s at the office again!)
  • Sleep: 7/10 – not setting an alarm or just turning it off and going back to sleep (both have happened unintentionally recently…) works wonders
  • Alzheimer’s: 0/10 (I think/hope ;-) ) – am considering if I want to find out if the 23 & me DNA kit checks for the increased risk / deterministic Alzheimer’s genes, to be continued…