Tag Archives: healthy-living

that’s what friends are for

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You gotta love social media. Yes, I know some days you can’t help but hate it…the drama, the “vague-booking”, the time suck. But some days you just have to love social media. The last couple of days I have loved it.

My friend, Tracey, was running her very first marathon back home in Pittsburgh. She trained well for it and, thanks to Facebook, I was able to follow her in her training all along the way. I was so excited for her…her very first marathon!!! I was also a little nervous for her too…a worrisome foot injury late in her training schedule and the typical race-eve freak out…I couldn’t help but be worried a little…it’s what I do. More than anything, I wanted to be there…to cheer for her at the start, along the route and at the finish…because I know how much fun it can be…but more importantly, because Tracey is my friend and I wanted to be there just as I have felt like I have been throughout her training that she has shared. I set my alarm to remind me while at work early, early Sunday morning, west coast time, to send out a shout out wishing her luck and I began to follow her posted split times as well as #PittsburghMarathon live tweet updates.

Okay, fine. It wasn’t like I was there but then again it was…kind of sort of.

It was then on my Instagram feed I saw my friend Kim had posted an amazing shot of one of the elite runners running past her. It was a great capture indeed…air under the guy’s feet as if he was running through the air rather than on the pavement…you know, like us mere mortals who try to run. I KNOW that it had to be exciting as I once got to see running greatness run past me…in the opposite direction…while running in the San Jose Rock and Roll Half Marathon. Excited I messaged Kim and told her how Tracey was running in the same event and just might be running by her soon…okay, later…still Tracey was headed her way! Kim messaged me back asking, “How can I spot her? I’m at mile 16. Would love to cheer her on.” Kim and I send back and forth messages with me trying to describe Tracey and then I send her a screen shot of Tracey with her running bib. An hour later I receive another message, “We just saw Tracey! I think we gave her a nice boost at mile 16!“, followed by, “Wish I could have lined up a few more folks to cheer for her.“

Oh yeah, Kim is good people. She even came to my aid during BlogHer 11 with a dose of Tylenol…yes, it was part of her calling card but it helped me out and how can one ever forget that…oh, and I enjoyed sitting with her and sharing during a session or two. Even better, thanks to social media, I get to enjoy Kim’s company a lot and get to remind myself of the wonderful things that I miss about back home in Pittsburgh and that which makes Pittsburgh Someplace Special. Some pretty good people live there…like Tracey…like Kim.

It was after the race that I saw a posting on her Facebook wall from Tracey:

I’m home, icing every part of my body, reflecting on the day. A marathon isn’t fun or easy but parts of it did rock…My teammates, friends, fellow athletes! Laura Scarborough Setting up a surprise cheering section from 3000 miles away! The band at mile 9.29 playing Take the Skin Heads Bowling! Getting hosed down by a hot fireman in E Liberty! Knowing my Dad was with me every step of the way! My coaches Phil Thompson & Drew McCabe crossing the finish line with me! Best running partner Kathie O’Donnell finishing the last mile together!

Reading that made me cry…cry happy tears because although we can’t be face to face every day and we can’t just hop in a car and drive on over to be there for one another, I have some pretty amazing friends out there and thanks to the interwebs and a whole lot of social media I know that we can and are there for each other to support and encourage each other…to cry together…to pray together…to laugh together…tell me how and where to bury a body, you know, if I had to…to just be there for each other. It’s a small circle still it is a circle that has expanded my world in a way that I could never imagine…even when I am feeling alone here in Manteca. I have some pretty awesome friends…friends like Tracey, like Ann, like Kim, like Kari, like Kale, like Jenn, like Bill…I am so lucky…even if you all aren’t physically just around the corner.

Love you Tracey! Love you Kim! I hope that someday I can hook you two up…perhaps while taking in a game at PNC Park.

And one more time, congratulations Tracey!!! I am thrilled and honored to have cheered you on this weekend. You. Are. Awesome.

community of mud

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If you aren’t a friend of mine on Facebook, you might be wondering “how did the mud run go for Laura?…did she survive?”

Well…

I was ready and especially inspired when I received my race packet.

Beer! There would be beer at the finish line. Knowing that I was even able to forgive the fact that they got my age wrong. Oh well, I will be 51 soon enough…next year.

Come Sunday I was properly hydrated and ready, really ready for this event. It had been an especially stressful week juggling life here and this run was going to be a much needed outlet of a lot of that stress and frustrations…plus there would be beer. My planned strategy was to not die of course and to blind everyone with my camouflage RunTeamSparkle running skirt (what else would a lady wear to a mud run?) and my blinding white legs. Some friends wondered if I was wearing shorts under the skirt and even dared to ask. Um, yes! My husband is the Scotsman, not I. Blinding white legs was more than enough to share.

Coated and layered up in waterproof sunscreen from head to toe, I was hoping to at least not burn out there at Dell Osso Farms. I might die from heat exhaustion but I would not burn…hopefully.

With just a little bit more stretching, warming up, hydrating and applying of sunscreen and eye black my team (Ben, his lovely mother and his sweet and super-athletic sister) was ready for our 12:30 PM start time. According to the weather app on my smart phone, it was 93° when we lined up at the start line. Ready or not for the race, we were definitely ready for the first muddy obstacle. By the time we reached the third obstacle, it was clear that this was going to be a pretty tough muddy hot run. All of us found the heat and some of the obstacles challenging but we stayed together, helped each other out, cheered each other on and promised that what happens on the mud run stays on the mud run. We were determined to finish together the four of us…even if we had to drag the body of one or two of us across the finish line. Yeah, we joked about that making comparisons to Harry Potter bringing a dead Cedric back from the maze…you know, so that he could become a sparkly vampire named Edward.

Yeah, the heat was getting to us.

Onward through the mud and obstacles we pushed through. I was really impressed with the community of people running around us. There was a lot of helping hands if you couldn’t get out of the thick mud or struggled scaling the rope ladder and there was a lot of slipping, sliding and tangling of limbs in the mud. Thank goodness we all got along and laughed…laughed a lot. It was definitely good, muddy fun.

Crossing the finish line we were covered, caked, coated with mud…everywhere…yes, everywhere…but we all were very much alive. Yes, we were survivors of the Survivor Mud Run.

Surprisingly, no one wanted to hug any of us. We were offered a banana and a bottle of near-boiling hot water along with a pretty cool medal. All of it soon became covered in mud because we all were covered in mud. It was definitely time for a shower which consisted of lots and lots of muddy people lined up on a platform standing under pipes of water flowing freely and water trucks driving by and hosing us all down. Yes, there were more helping hands and community. We are bonded…all of us…for life…I think…we were all that close!

Thank goodness my medal and racing bib washed clean. More for my collection. I really need something to hang all my race medals on…ahem…Mother’s Day is coming!!!

Nevertheless, it was a great day spent with family…covered in mud.