Teşekkür Ederim

I'm writing this from Turkey, and that's how you say "thank you" here (pronounced, according to my phrasebook, "te-shek-kewr e-de-reem"). I have surpassed my marathon fundraising goal of £1500 and am currently at £1576 and counting. I wanted to say a final thank you to all the generous people, organizations, and businesses whose contributions--both monetary and material, in the form of auction donations--are helping Sense make a difference in the lives of people affected by multisensory disabilities. And so...here they are:

Caroline and Al Turkus
Lila Matlin
Alex and Karin Krasavin
Deny Soto
Hannah Gersen and Mike Arauz
Gideon Kendall
Davina Pardo
Ches and Irine Rykasov
Jason Lindberg and Nicole Niebisch
Nikki Mondschein
Irene Rosenthal
David Grossman
Joshua Sanders
Frank Samperi
Christine Hung
Mary Jensen-Thackery
Molly Miners
Anne Wedemeyer
Jason and Leanne Greif
Zack Hample
Michael Fay and Victoria Lang
Buffy Stoll
Annie Lok
Laura Campbell
Jen Kipley
Jak Eskinazi and Family
Mindy Adnot
Susan Currie
Betsy and Brian Kelder
Heather Glotzer
Willa Cochran
Susanna Styron
Jennifer and Dan Green
David Golaner
Kim Kahn
Jen Clarke
Lee and Susey Burgunder
Carol and Sheldon Sandler
Jean and Jonathan Sandler
Steve and Maggie Greif
Geoffrey Greif and Maureen Lefton-Greif
Tom and Phoebe Styron
Rose Styron
Mike Sullivan
Margo Wallasch
Terry and Wendy Halle
Jackie and Roger Norden
Amelie and Bernei Burgunder
Alexandra Styron and Ed Beason
Sue and Rick Rizzo
Allan Hillman
Kay and Gary Stevens
Patrick Mulryan
Semper Fido
Argosy Bookstore
Vassar Haiti Project
Folio Fine Wine Partners
Jessica Bruder
Lion in the Sun
Two Boots Brooklyn
Kee Fitness
ChipShop
Cakes by Tony
Fatty Crab
Jess Desserts
Nick Gorevic Photography
JackRabbit
Noah Turkus
Wine Lite Imports

Thank you all!

Well, Well, Well...

I did it. I completed a marathon. The Flora London Marathon, to be exact, last Sunday, April 13, 2008. My time, in the interest of full disclosure, was 7:16:21, which is a wicked, wicked long time to be walking around London. I made two bathroom stops, each of which took around 15 minutes (blast those toilet lines!), the knowledge of which does make me feel a little less slow. My dad and I were together for the first six miles or so, but he kept going when I made my first pit stop, because the longer he's on his feet, the more his back starts hurting. Even so, the dude finished in 6:21:02, which, given that he mostly walked (with periodic spells of jogging), is pretty darn good for a guy five days before his 62nd birthday on his first marathon. On your right, a picture of Dad in action. Do I find it embarrassing that a guy twice my age beat me to the finish line by almost an hour? Maybe a little bit, but here's what I may not have told you: my dad's a hardcore exerciser. Not some big, bulging weightlifter guy, but a consistent, from-the-dawn-of-time fit fella. I mean, look at 'im: he walked a freakin' marathon in khakis and lived to tell about it. Okay, that part's unrelated, but I wanted to stick it in there to give him a little elbow in the ribs. But really, he's been active, as I described it to a friend, since before he was a glimmer in his mama's eye. I simply have not. Sure, some dance and gymnastics when I was wee, dashes of field hockey, lacrosse, and cheerleading, but on the whole, as you may recall my mentioning, I haven't historically been a major mover-around. Here's what I am bummed about: as the race went on, there were parts of the course that were being dismantled as I walked through them. Signs were being taken down, water bottles swept up, and for the most part, it was clear that the rest of London had more or less moved on while I was...moving on. There were terrific supporters almost all along the way, and bless their smiles, applause, and kind words (and an extra big hooray for my mom and Nick, who--on the plus side of very few people's still being on the course with me at the end--walked the last 3+ miles with me), but the marathon just isn't designed as much of a walking event. I'm not the slowest kid out there--heck, this lady on the left took over an hour longer than I did to finish--but during the last couple miles, when I was diverted to the sidewalk instead of the street because they had open the roads up to cars and basically closed the course, it made me feel pretty lousy. I'd come just as far as everyone else had! I am proud of myself, but it's hard to remember what a huge accomplishment this was for me and not to feel as though I'd let someone down when all the visuals indicated that the city had given up on me. Poo on you, Londontown and your endless waits for the loo. Nonetheless, I did it. Got my finisher's medal and everything. I'm not going to do it again tomorrow, but this adventure has opened up a realm of possibility that I had always thought of as everyone else's. Me go, girl.

Brussels-Niedermorschwihr-Colmar-Strasbourg

That's right, folks, I've been walking in Europe. Here, my ratings for the four walks I've done so far:

Brussels: starting at Brussels Welcome Hotel (23 Quai au bois à Brûler, on the Place Ste. Catherine), went to the left of the church, made another left, walked along for a bit, and a left again onto a long street along the train tracks
+ fairly straightforward and easy not to get lost, so long as you remember a landmark (in my case, a construction crane) from the corner you turned at
- lots of people, which meant more people looking at me funny for moving my arms à la marathon-walker
- not the prettiest, visually speaking
- uptight police officer who made me step back onto the sidewalk when I started to cross a street before I saw him coming. I backed up, but he actually made me get back on the sidewalk. So not New York!

Niedermorschwihr: drive into the town (this is considerably easier with GPS), park in the first lot on your right, and head out, following the green hiker signs until you get up into the hills
+ lovely scenery: green and flowery at the beginning, with a stream running alongside, and the hills overlook sweet little towns
+ almost nobody around, and so no one makes fun of how I walk
+/- parts of this walk are quite hilly. As someone who has been training on mostly flat surfaces for a marathon that is going to be mostly flat, I consider this a minus, but you might not.
- if you decide to go a ways and then turn around and come back, it is easy to accidentally take a different route on your return...bring breadcrumbs.

Colmar: starting at Hôtel Colombier (7 rue de Turenne), crossed the street, wound around past Caveau St. Pierre, then up the stairs and to the right, made a left at some pretty purple flowers, followed by some more left turns, including one onto a car-free footpath...ah, forget it--you probably won't be following my exact route.
+ great little path back along a stream in a residential area at the end...which is actually only for residents, but I didn't know that until I looked up the word "riverains" ("residents") after I got back
- somewhat circuitous, and so you have to pay close attention to where you're turning so that you can find your way back

Strasbourg: took stairs down to the banks of the Ill River at Quai Koch, followed the path until it ended at Pont St-Martin (I think?), then wound around twists and turns, trying to follow the river, but not always finding a place to walk alongside
+ the parts along the river were perfectly delightful: right next to nature, not too many people
- difficult to figure out where to go--I wish there were a connected network of riverside walks
- sometimes cobblestoney

.8496 Marathon

I did do the 22 miles...I just didn't write about it. I'm actually writing this on April 1, although the date stamp will probably say it's from sometime in March, because that's when I found and posted the picture. Anyway...here are a couple conclusions I've drawn after walking 20 and 22 miles in successive weeks:

• If you're walking 20 miles, it's a good idea to know where you're going ahead of time. Not planning your route, and instead tooling around the park for a few miles, then starting down toward Coney Island...not the greatest idea.
• Bedford Avenue is one loooong street. I knew it was supposedly the longest one that's entirely in Brooklyn (only possibly rivaled by Flatbush Ave), but man...that puppy doesn't end. Actually, it does end--at McCarren Park. I was there.
• That said, I recommend that if you're plotting a lengthy walk, you either avoid being on the same street for six miles or choose a pretty six-mile stretch for that portion of your journey.
• Rain is a pain in the butt.

However, I did it. And I never would have thought I could. In fact, thinking about it, I still don't think I could. And yet I did. The next walk I do that's that long will be the marathon.

Here Goes Sumpin'

Alrighty, folks, I have mapped out a route among routes, which you can check out here. Think of me on Wednesday in the forecasted rain and wind as I tour Brooklyn on my *22*-mile walk, Tom Wolfe's mega-novel, I Am Charlotte Simmons, providing a veritable literary hootenanny for the ears.

Wonders, Having Frequently Ceased in the Past, Recommence in Earnest

My, I am behind in my posting. Here, then, are some highlights:

- I walked 18 miles about a week-and-a-half ago, down to Coney Island, along the boardwalk, and back home. The walk down was a little boring, but the walk back was an improvement--not only because I was more than halfway through the walk, but also because the houses on the east side of Ocean Parkway are much prettier than the houses and buildings on the west side.

- South Beach has a lovely boardwalk, perfect for a five-mile walk, unless...

- My nano flat-out stopped working when we were in South beach a couple weeks ago. I would start listening, and after about 30 seconds, it would reboot itself. This then happened over and over, whether or not I was listening to it.

- This began happening at the very beginning of a five-miler, and the walk just seemed endless without a soundtrack, so...I started running. Never thought I'd be saying that. It was just for a few minutes, but I was interested to notice that I didn't keel over or anything like that. Maybe running's not so bad after all. But maybe it is.

- Finally, we reloaded the iPod software from iTunes onto the nano. And since then, you won't believe it, but...my Nike+ sensor has been working perfectly. Absolutely flawless (knocking on my wooden bedside table). Was that the trouble all along?

- Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides, is a terrific listen. I still have a few hours to go, but I'd better find something good to follow it, because it's going to be a letdown to get to the end. Plus...

- I'm doing 20 miles for my next long walk. Wow! Trying to map out an interesting route for that one, and have been consulting write-ups of Brooklyn neighborhood house tours to see where I could see some pretty stuff as I go. I thought of doing a walking tour of all the major private schools in Brooklyn, but I don't know if I'll go with that.

- For some reason, this week's scheduled "long" walk was only eight miles. Odd.

Sweet Sixteen and Never Been So Unexpectedly Soaked on a Walk

It rained this morning. I was expecting this; I intentionally waited to walk until after noon, because by that time, the weather was supposed to have cleared up. And clear up it did, with the exception of a few moments' sprinkle...until my last lap through Center Drive in Prospect Park (I'd calculated that 16 miles was three laps all the way around the park, two through Center Dr, and the trip to and from my house). Then it started to rain lightly...and then it poured. I hear that's what it does when it rains...At any rate, I walked my 16 miles, and I'm feeling pretty good now, five hours later. And now, for some truths:

Resolved:

- Marathon training on a treadmill is laaame, and even doing it for just four miles last week made me feel like this little dude on the right.

- My new Nike+ sensor is even worse than the first one, and is already acting up. I'm done with these pieces of rubbish, and am planning to get a better piece of equipment of some sort.

- Something funky is going on with one of my toenails. The nail of the longest toe of my longer foot must be clunking into the front of my walking shoes on my long walks (and probably the short ones as well, but without the same impact), and, well, it's funky. And that's all I'm going to say about that.