Meb is my hero

After the Seattle race, we were hanging out in the Safeco Field parking lot with all the finishers. 50,000 people and 9 chairs. Guess which family brought chairs to stick around for the Tonic concert? Just ours. Everyone else was sitting on the asphalt watching the band and recovering from their races.

We noticed a sign that said that Meb Keflezighi was going to be signing autographs at the Sony tent in the finish area. We went over, and sure enough, there was my hero talking to people, and a line of people waiting to talk to him. We rushed over to wait for our turn.

Meb is only my hero!!! He made me cry like a baby when he won the New York Marathon last year. He was the first american in 28 years to do it, and as he proudly pointed to the USA on his shirt and praised God as he finished, I fell in love with him.

In 2004, Meb won the silver medal in the Olympics in the marathon event. He was poised to win it gold in 2008, but fractured his pelvis during the Olympic trials. He didn't drop out at mile 20 when the pain became great--he finished the race and still came in 8th place! After a year of recovery, he came back to win NY in 2009.

When we were talking to him, I told him how I had planned to run that day, but had a stress fracture. He asked me where, and I hit my left hip. The empathy showed on his face and he told me to be grateful, because I will be stronger and faster because of it. Coming from Meb, that means a lot.

He has the best smile. It melts me. And he IS the nicest and humblest guy on the planet. He is our family's hero, and the kids were so excited to meet him. We all watched the NY Marathon last fall on TV, and re-watched it. And watched his finish at least 20 times. He signed pictures for us, and personalized each one, with mine telling me to not give up because my injury will only make me become stronger. He took about 15 minutes with us, as the line to see him got longer.

I didn't think I could love Meb any more than I already did. He's running NY again this fall, and I can't wait to watch him. I want him to kick that Haile Gebrselassie to the curb.

Gait deformity

I know that I have always been a very uncoordinated person. I was never good at any sport, I cannot dance, I cannot do anything well that requires me to move my muscles in a certain way. Remember, I'm the girl who kicked the soccer ball over her head and into my own goal? I just knew my inability to move my body was a fact of life, and instead of spending my school years playing sports, I focused on getting a 4.0 and practicing the piano everyday. I wasn't upset about my innate lack of coordination; I simply did things I was good at and left those things I am not good at alone.

And then I started running last year. I knew my running form was not ideal. I read many books and articles about proper running biomechanics, and I tried to implement what I had learned. But I still had problems. Every race I've been in my IT band started hurting around mile 10. Last year I had a stress fracture in my right tibia right before my race in Las Vegas. This year I thought my training was going really well for the Seattle Rock N Roll 1/2 Marathon. I knew this was my time to do a sub-2-hour half marathon. And then about a month ago, I learned I had problems. Big problems.

When we were in Newport for Mark's race, I was having some pain in my left hip area that I attributed to possibly a strained hip flexor muscle. I took the following week off of running and the pain progressively got worse. By Saturday, I went to the Urgent Care because I could not even walk or lift that leg. I knew it was not a muscle issue, but rather a skeletal issue.

An MRI determined that indeed I had a skeletal issue. A stress fracture/injury on the left femoral neck. Not only was there this issue, but also another stress injury on the pubic bone, moderate bursitis of the greater trochanters, sacroiliitis, and muscle tears to the hamstrings and gluteus medius at their attachment to the ilium, all greater on the left than the right.

Pretty much, the way I run is beating up the left side of my body. And it's all because I am completely uncoordinated. Or as the physical therapist nicely says it, I have a "gait deformity." My left hip had no muscular strength, and there was nothing to take the pounding of running except for my poor femur. I underuse my quads (which normally power any runner) and overuse my hamstrings and gluteus medius. I had virtually no quad strength. Basically, I run backward. I use the wrong muscles at the wrong time. I also do this when I walk. I also learned I use the wrong muscles to breathe. I use the breathe-in muscles to breathe out, and vice versa.

I had to sit out the Seattle race, of course. I found a great physical therapist who is doing a fabulous job of putting together all the pieces of my puzzle and figuring out exactly what I was doing to cause my troubles, and what muscles I need to strengthen to make sure it doesn't happen again. Lunges, squats and the Bosu ball are my new best friends. In two weeks, he will get me on the treadmill and try to help me get over my gait deformity and start engaging the muscles God intended for me to use while running.

Last weekend in Seattle I thought I would be really sad to see Mark, Abram and Jacob running the race without me. But I was fine. The rest of that story will be in the next post.

Mint Brownies

These brownies are always a hit. You will be everyone's friend when you make these. Best of all, it takes no time, and it looks like you really care. They are perfect for parties, showers, and I even made them for a wedding reception a couple of months ago.

The hardest part of these brownies is finding the magic ingredient.

No buttery, creamy inner mint layer . Just a bag of these. You don't even have to get a bowl messy melting them. Sprinkle them on top of the hot-from-the-oven brownies, wait 5 minutes, and spread them around with a spatula.

As for the brownies, why go to the trouble of actually mixing something, when at your local grocery store, you can find Betty Crocker mixes for around $1? I use 2 boxes of Betty Crocker brownie mix, follow package instructions, and pour the batter into a large rimmed baking sheet. Bake for 25 minutes at 350. Then sprinkle the green mint chips onto the hot brownies and spread.

The green mint layer must cool until hardened before you frost. To make the frosting, I use 1/3 cup of softened butter, 1/2 cup cocoa powder, 1 pound of powdered sugar, a tsp of vanilla, a dash of salt, and 1/3 cup of boiling water. Mix it all together and add more powdered sugar or water as necessary to get a good consistency. Spread it quickly over the brownies, because the frosting sets up fast!