Monday, November 5, 2007

Make every shot count: The Marine Corps Marathon




More than 30,000 runners registered for the Marine Corps Marathon last Sunday, 21,226 started the race and 20,642 finished.



My friend Lynn Campbell and I were among them.



Lynn and I run together 6:30 a.m. every Friday morning before we head to our respective workplaces. Signing up for this race last spring gave us a reason to split Sonny’s breakfast special each week.



Her plan for the race had been to prevent injury by running with me at my slower pace. Once into the race, she realized the difficulty of that well-meaning promise and loped ahead to finish nearly 45 minutes ahead of me. It was the right thing to do.



The Marine Corps course on the DC and Virginia sides of the Potomac River was revised from previous years. Long parts of the run were on concrete highways and on-ramps, and the monuments were fairly distant.



It was described as “circular”, but was actually quadrants in and out, forward and back, until it finally ended at the Iwo Jima Memorial in Arlington, where race photographers took photos of finishers, the Marines gave out pretzels and pineapple juice, and a long line of runners snaked up to buy “finishers’ gear from Brooks.



The “M” could stand for “Merchandise” not Marine; the logowear was for purchase and purchased everywhere. There may not have been the pre-advertised shuttle buses to the start line, but there sure were to the race expo to facilitate shopping.



We gave our Powerade and other expo food and drink samples to the homeless man who lives under a plastic tarp near our hotel.



The race atmosphere was pretty serious rather than a party atmosphere. There were few costumes, lots of 5+ hour marathoners, and many wore shirts in memory of the dead and ill. A number of participants carried huge American flags the whole distance.



Many runners stopped to pose and take cellphone photos and chatted over and over about where they were and where to find them. Many ignored the headphone ban.



In spots the ground was extremely slippery with the residue of jelly beans, orange peels, gel wrappers, sticky cups and water.



The day before the race, to save our feet, we took a Washington trolley tour. “Clang, clang went the bell” etc when someone boarded. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream!” speech blared forth when we passed Freedom Plaza.



Before 9/11 you could tour the White House. Now to get tickets to the White House you need to go through your Congressman and it can take over six months.



Lots of self-centred trivia about the tallest president, the shortest president, the oldest president, the youngest president etc.



D.C. itself is beautiful. Washington has more trees than any other city in the U.S. Also very apparently more monuments and statues. Definitely the most Starbucks.



We visited the bedroom where Lincoln died, and had lunch in Georgetown.



The weekend was a funny mix of security and non-security. We were scanned with wands before going into the race expo, and our bags were examined by a Marine at the race start, but in the hotel we could walk into the health club without even using a room card and there was no security from elevator to room. Yet the race hotel locator map cautioned: “Be aware of your surroundings at all times and keep alert. The hotel accepts no responsibility for any guest who chooses to jog.”



On Friday we awoke at 3:30 a.m., met at the Ottawa airport at 4:30 and by 8 a.m. we were on the shuttle van from Dulles Airport for the hour-long ride to Capitol Hill.



By 10 a.m. we were at the Expo, in the nearby all-day outdoor pasta tent, ready for ‘lunch.’ We ate in the near-empty outdoor tent with a dozen big-shouldered slim-waisted soooo polite – “Yes, M’aam” - Marines who put their caps on the table and were eager to tuck into the pasta too.



Thousands of uniformed Marines were everywhere at the weekend, handing out water and gels on course, giving out finishers’ medals, and manning the extremely efficient UPS bag check-in and pick-up.



Dozens of brown UPS trucks took the more than 20,000 clear bags from the start to the finish, and lined up by the first two numbers of bib numbers so they were easy to find.



Things you get at the Marine Corps Marathon that you don’t get at the Ottawa Marathon:



- Miss Utah, a member of the National Guard and a marathoner, as guest speaker at the pasta dinner. To sum up her advice for marathoning: “Make every shot count.” “Load and lock” and “Aim for target and hit the target.”



- The trooping of the colors and the pledge of allegiance to open the dinner



- A pre-race prayer service. (Maybe it worked. The weather was a bit breezy, but perfect.) There was also a lot of praying during the race, thanking Jesus on back signs for getting them through it.



- A long walk to the race site and to the start line, and then returning from the finish line, which wasn’t the same as the start.



If you want to do an Ultra, sign up for the Marine Corps Marathon. Even though we were at the official race hotel, we had to leave by 5:45 a.m. and got to the race site at 7 a.m., shuffling in the moonlight, jets from Ronald Reagan Airport overhead, with a crowd of bewildered fellow-Metro runner travelers. We marched like Marines in a line from the Metro, finally reaching the Pentagon parking lot ringed by Portapotties.



The race was certainly worth doing, because Washington is worth seeing. The museums are free and amazing. Highlight of our trip was the panda couple and their baby at the national zoo.



Shaking off the rain at the race expo in the Armories, we identified with the t-shirts for sale that said, “This seemed like a good idea three months ago.” Heading home the day after the race, we agreed it had still been a good idea.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Beach to Beach the Queen of Meech




It was Saturday morning, 10 degrees Centigrade, windy, and the water was choppy.

Not ideal conditions, but this was the window of opportunity. Sandwiched between commitments last weekend in New York City and the next weekend in Toronto, I was here and Kristin was helping me fulfil this summer’s goal to swim Beach to Beach at Meech.

We drove separately to the deserted O’Brien Beach parking lot, put some clothes in my car and then drove in her car to Blanchette Beach parking lot. On the way to the other beach, we left water, Gatorade and cheese strings in a bag near the boat dock we’d pass at 1,000 metres. We figured we’d be taking a long time, and we’d be hungry.

I had my car key pinned to my bathing suit.

At 9:10 a.m. we entered the water at Blanchette and began swimming. Kristin pulled "floatie buoy", the red flotation device she’d given me for my birthday a few years ago, to enable me to even consider swimming in a lake. (Actually, in the waves, floatie buoy appeared to be pulling her.) I could wear it and hang on and rest if necessary – to save her having to rescue me. And I was wearing my other great support – without whom none of this would be possible – my thick, tattered, pink and black wetsuit purchased from the TriRudy rental collection after my first Try a Tri.

Through the waves we chugged along to the boat dock, and then kept going, to keep warm. The amazing thing about that swim was the variety – the waves got higher, the sun came out and then hid, the water was clear and then cloudy, we saw the fronts of all the cottages we’d driven past on the road.

It was so exciting to see the lifeguard chair of O’Brien Beach in the distance, and then the lifeguards huddled in fleece on the picnic table. There were no swimmers in the water or on the sand either. The lifeguards asked where we came from.

When I’d considered doing this, I’d envisaged a restful swim in glass-like water, on a sweltering hot day, with lots of rest stops. That’s the way Kristin had done it a few years earlier, and the way she’s proposed it to me. It had to be a weekend day, because in any case, I’d be too slow to do it before work.

But the way it actually happened turned out to be an even more wonderful challenge. I get motion sick in cars, but when I began to get woozy and throw up a bit from the waves, I felt like Marilyn Bell and Vickie Keith, not the swimmer wannabe that I was. What an amazing feeling to have progressed to this.

I was over the moon the first time I was able to swim around the island from Blanchette last year. I couldn’t imagine swimming any further.

I think Kristin was even more excited than I was for me, because she remembers the quivering, hyperventilating, bowl of jelly I was the first time I dipped my timid toes in Meech Lake and panted my way to the birch trees a hundred metres along the shore. Then I had to rest on a rock before the swim back. She remembers when my swimming to the red boathouse was an impossible goal.

And I remember her accomplishing a Try a Tri and thinking that was the pinnacle. Yet this summer she did an Olympic Tri and I did Meech Beach to Beach.

Time to make goals for next year! This is so much fun.

Monday, August 13, 2007

Weeeee love New Yawkkkkkk!








"I’ll have to turn off the engine," said the bus driver. "New York City has very stiff anti-idling laws."

We had already heard about the "no-talking-on-cellphones" law for when you’re crossing the street. Nevertheless, everyone crosses on red lights, including blind people with canes and parents with children!

It was exactly 4 p.m. Thursday; and we were waiting for our escort to return to the Travac Tours bus with our Sheraton Manhattan room keys.

The trip from Ottawa to New York City on our mother-daughter trip had taken exactly nine hours from our 7 a.m. departure, including an hour for lunch at Denny’s at noon.

The bus was full, with a surprising age range of men, women and children.

En route Travac escort Elaine Hickey doled out home-made muffins, bottles of water, and offered candies – and a steady banter about what to see and New York trivia. She handed out pamphlets, booklets and discount coupons, and showed a New York tourism movie, as well as a regular Hollywood movie.

Once in the city, we were on our own, and Naomi and I headed right to the discount same-day theatre ticket kiosk on Broadway and bought the last two tickets to Tony Award-winning "Avenue Q", described as "Sesame Street on crack".

The second day we lined up again for tickets to the "Drowsy Chaperone". It’s an experience to be in those long, snaking ticket lines.

Avenue Q is an adult puppet show, where the actors hold the puppets but are visible themselves.

We didn’t get seats together, so we switched seats at intermission to see the view from opposite sides. The show contains such memorable songs as:

"You’re a little bit racist"
"The Internet is for porn"
"There’s a fine fine line between love and a waste of time"
and "It sucks to be me."


In the evening street hawker/comedians promote late night comedy clubs for after theatre; but we didn’t try any.


So many food options. We had dinner the first night at Zen Palace, a vegan, vegetarian chain, but we both couldn’t stomach the zenmaki, a combination of string bean, carrot and soy ham wrapped sushi style in sesame nori.

Blossom, an upscale vegan restaurant in Chelsea was much better.

We had breakfast at Ellen’s Stardust Diner down the street from our hotel, where the singing waitstaff perform on an ear-shattering sound system and the wall has photos of the "Miss Subways" beauty queens from the 1940s.

Walking down the street, we saw a truck parked with a giant blow-up rat in the back of it. We found out later that the rat is placed where "undocumented" workers are doing construction work.

Then in the pouring rain we took a city tour Friday of all of Manhattan, included with our package, and learned a lot about the city.

When we stopped at Trump Tower for a bathroom break, we actually encountered The Donald himself with his bodyguards in the lobby. We took his photo and added it to our celebrity collection, with Angela Lansbury from the sidewalk on Broadway.

Saturday morning the rain finally stopped and we spent a breathtaking morning in beautiful Central Park, a few blocks walk from the hotel. So European-like, with rowboats on the pond, violinists playing underneath historic carved archways, and runners, dog walkers and strollers enjoying this natural paradise. We liked it so much, we returned Sunday morning as well and hated to leave.


Saturday afternoon and evening visits with Naomi’s friends working four jobs and living in tiny accommodations gave us a look at what it’s really like to live and work in New York City and pursue a career in theatre.

There is competition for everything in New York, not just for theatre roles. If you don’t like the prices at a restaurant or store, you can usually find what you’re looking for at the price you want to pay.

Early in the trip we had walked out of an overpriced diner, and then found Pick a Bagel down the street on 7th Avenue that offered twice as much food for half the price. We returned to Pick a Bagel a second time on our way to Central Park.

The bus left New York City at 1 p.m., Sunday, with a rest stop three hours later, and a buffet dinner stop at Plainsville Farms turkey restaurant in Cicero, N.Y., followed by a stop at the Duty Free. We arrived back in Ottawa at exactly 10 p.m. as promised.

As laden-down tour members assembled their purchase receipts and shopping bags for Customs, I realized that what we were bringing back was intangible. We had spent all our money on theatre tickets, and food, and the memories and digital photos were our carry-on.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

a congratulations and a non-race report





Last week, my friend Kristin Goff completed the Olympic Distance triathlon at Carleton Place.

It was the culmination of many months of dedicated training and perseverance, and I want to congratulate her on this spectacular accomplishment. If anyone knows how hard it has been, it’s me, because I have been following in her dust. I hope she’ll write her own race report.

As many of you know, because we have big mouths, more than two years ago, Kristin and I made a pact to do an Olympic Distance triathlon together when we both turned 60.

It seemed like such a noble goal, turning a negative into a positive, and it was so very far away, that of course it was easy to laughingly commit.

We continued to do Sprint Distance Triathlons - the Early Bird, Smiths Falls, Brockville, the Canadian, etc. plus myriad running races - and this past year I joined her to diligently train evenings with the Ottawa Triathlon Club.

In the early days of our triathlon career - a few years ago - she was already beating me on the swim and the bike, but I was able to demoralize her by passing at the last minute on the run. Then, her times improved so much that I couldn’t catch up and reel her in.

It didn’t make a lot of difference at awards time, because we were usually either first in the age category or second in the age category, since we were frequently the only two.

And then in the past few months, Kristin really took off, swimming powerfully, biking confidently with her aerobars and clip-in bike shoes, and running faster and with confidence.

By the Riverkeeper, she had time to socialize before I arrived at the finish line.

When we did long swims in Meech Lake on a choppy day, she plowed confidently through the waves, while even in a wetsuit I felt like a bobbing cork and considered climbing up the rocks to the road and walking back.

I was doing the training with her, but I was feeling so bad about becoming the Eddie the Eagle of Triathlon that I broke out in hives and lay sleepless at night as I contemplated what lay ahead.

And then, like a sign from above, I read a book review in the Saturday paper of “The Dip - A Little Book that Teaches You When to Quit.” The book said quitting can be a good strategy.

A dip is the long slog between starting and mastery, the difference between the beginner technique and the more useful “expert” approach, the book says. Winners quit fast and quit often and only stick when they find the right dip to conquer.

I am regularly practically last in the Sprint Distance; if there were cut-off times for the Olympic, I wouldn’t even have been able to consider it. So I chose my own cut-off time, and decided this isn’t my dip.

Despite having done the long slog through the swim and bike and run distances over the past few months, two weeks before the Big Day, I decided that in spite of the happy fairy tale ending it would have created, the Olympic Distance wasn’t for me, for now. I switched my registration to the Sprint.

I suppose it’s actually amazing that I consider a Sprint Tri a letdown, when in my Try a Tri days I figured I’d never be able to do one at all. And I found out when I did the Sprint, that while I wasn't faster than I used to be, it was certainly way more comfortable - so there is value in training for an Olympic and actually doing a Sprint.

Thanks, Kristin, and congratulations! It has been - and will continue to be - great fun.

Friday, July 6, 2007

Sorry I can't hear you: My experience with and treatment for acoustic neuroma






Ever since I was diagnosed with acoustic neuroma, I’ve been trying to get an article on the condition published so that there would be more awareness. The response from the media has been nil. Since I’m trying to use my blog for things I’m interested in, I decided to put some acoustic neuroma stuff here for those who have asked about it.

Louise

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I didn’t do very well on the bird watching walk.

I couldn’t tell the leader’s bird call imitations from the real thing; I’d think it was real birds when he was just whistling. I couldn’t tell where the sounds were coming from.

And background music makes it impossible for me to make out the words when people are talking in restaurants, aerobics or spinning classes, anywhere.

Hearing loss sneaks up on you. Is everyone whispering or mumbling on purpose?

I write this as an explanation for those of you who may think I have on occasion been rude to you. I wasn’t ignoring you or intentionally giving an inappropriate response; I just couldn’t hear you properly or tell which direction the sound was coming from. And usually I was too embarrassed to tell you.

In fall 2003, I finally told Dr. Johnson, my family doctor, that I seemed to be having trouble hearing.

She referred me to Dr. Gregory Antoniak, ENT, for testing, which led to a CAT scan and an MRI.

That led to a referral to Dr. Brien Benoit, neurosurgeon. Months evolved in between all these appointments, and each one led to several phone calls to arrange an appointment for the next.

Finally, Dr. Benoit’s diagnosis was “acoustic neuroma.”

With MRIs more readily available, acoustic neuromas are being diagnosed more easily now, but their incidence is still very rare - about 2,500 people being diagnosed each year in the U.S.

Symptoms include decreased hearing, ringing in the ears and a change in balance. While acoustic neuromas can affect either ear and sometimes both ears, most often it is unilateral. The vast majority have asymmetric loss in hearing, most commonly high frequency hearing loss. An early sign is avoiding one ear while using a telephone.

My acoustic neuroma was slow growing, about 1 cm.

It’s nothing I did or didn’t do, and it’s not hereditary.

Three choices:

I-1. Do nothing, observe. 2. Do another scan in a year and see if it’s growing.
(If I were 20, he’d say do the surgery for sure. If I were 70 or had a serious illness, he’d say don’t do it. At my point in life, he says it’s up to me. “How long are you going to live?” he asks. “If it’s another 25 years, well, it’s easier to do the operation while the growth is small.”)

II- Operation

Through the ear.
Lose hearing on the right side, but less chance to lose facial nerve. Tail on tumour makes hearing-saving operation through brain chances not good.
10 per cent chance of facial nerve loss.
Surgery in hospital a week, off balance and off work about a month or two.


III - Stereotactic radiosurgery.
Same as cancer radiology. It stops growth but doesn’t take it out. Some side effects. Done by neuro otologist.
I am leaning towards number II. There is at least a six-month to year wait anyway, so I’m thinking of reserving now for a year July.

Wednesday June 30th, 2004.

Hearing test appointment 20 min. then Dr. David Schramm, who says, have another MRI in October to monitor the growth rate. If it is slow, we can wait a bit more. Otherwise schedule an operation for spring, three or four months later.

Nov. 2/04 2nd MRI

Nov. 24 10 a.m. follow-up hearing test and appt. with Dr. Schramm. That showed no growth in tumour in the important area, but hearing worse. He said surgery not necessary yet.

June 12/05 3rd MRI Civic Campus.

Wednesday August 31 10:45 a.m. Follow-up appointment Dr. Schramm. He says the MRI shows size of tumour is the same. However he says it’s usual for hearing to continue to deteriorate as mine has; he doesn’t know why.
If I have any numbness or weakness on the right side of my face, I am to call him right away. Otherwise I will have another MRI in May, with follow-up in June 06. Radiation wouldn’t be a good choice, because there’s not much hearing to save, and the tumour could grow back, and necessitate surgery anyway, he said.

With surgery, any attempt to save the hearing would cause more risk to the facial nerve, so once I have surgery, there will be no hearing on my right side. I would have the surgery within six months of being scheduled. He says some of his patients don’t like the ongoing uncertainty and opt for surgery. He recommends waiting, since there’s nothing to gain, and there are surgical risks. I wait.

December /05

My hearing continues to get worse. At any round table event or party, or skiing, running or driving with someone on my right, which is my ‘wrong’ side, I miss totally or misinterpret what is being said. It is very frustrating and makes me hesitate to attend large gatherings. I can understand why some people become hermits.

May 9 /06

Another MRI at the Civic Campus, a few weeks after my application for long term disability insurance has been rejected by the insurance company. Apparently they are spooked by the possibility of surgery in my future. My sedentary husband was approved.

June 26/06

The neuroma has grown to 2 cm, and it is time for an appointment with Dr. Benoit the neurosurgeon.

Dr. Benoit says again, three choices:

- Surgery in Ottawa done by Dr. Schramm and Dr. Benoit.
- Linac radiation done in Ottawa.
- Gamma knife radiation done in Toronto at the Joey & Toby Tanenbaum Gamma Knife Centre at Toronto Western Hospital.

He won’t make the decision for me, and sends me off to the Internet to do my own research. I am surprised that radiation is now considered a viable option, when I had been told previously it wasn’t.

Radiation gives minimal risk right now, but possible long term difficulty later, as opposed to invasive surgery now. I opt for radiation, grateful to have an option to surgery. I will lose the little hearing I have left in my right ear.

And I wait for a call-back from Dr. Benoit’s office about a time for gamma knife radiosurgery in Toronto.

Early September

I finally get a voicemail call at home late Friday from Toronto Western Hospital.

A week goes by, and I finally make contact. The appointment is set for an assessment on Tuesday October 24, and gamma knife the following morning.

A few weeks before the radiation, I receive a call from the University Health Network about taking part in a pilot study “Exploring the Role of 3T MRI in Gamma Knife Radiosurgery.”

It requires undergoing a research MRI test prior to treatment, using a stronger magnet than standard MRI scanners, and use of a breathing device with oxygen and carbon dioxide. “It is possible that 3T MRI will give us additional information that will help plan and assess your treatment more accurately,” said the consent form. “Information learned from this study may also benefit other patients in the future with your disease.”

I decide to consent to the second MRI which was right after the one that was party of my treatment. It turned out to be very difficult because it doubled the time I was flat on my back in the machine. I am not claustrophobic, but I am a fuss budget, and there’s no room to fidget in an MRI machine.

I am also a Pollyanna, and had underestimated the demands of the treatment, thinking I’d be back on the train to Ottawa the same afternoon.

Gamma Knife day began at 6 a.m. and ended late in the day. It’s not actually a knife, it’s using very precise beams of radiation to treat affected areas of the brain (the target). At the target, the concentrated radiation destroys the tumor. Because the beams are precisely pinpointed on the target, damage from radiation to surrounding brain tissue is small.

The four steps to gamma knife treatment are putting on the frame, imaging, treatment planning, and treatment.

The stereotactic head frame is attached to my head with four pins, two on the forehead and two in the back of my head. The frame stays on my head for the entire procedure, to keep me in a stable position during imaging and treatment. A transparent box is is placed on top of the frame to measure the depth of my skull.

After the images are taken, I wait back in my room while the neurosurgeon, radiation oncologist, radiologist, neurologist and medical physicist treatment planning team decides which areas to treat, how much radiation to give, and how they will target the radiation. That takes several hours.

After treatment the neurosurgeon removed the head frame, and bandages were put on the pin sites on my forehead. Symptoms afterward included mild headache, some bleeding, and swelling around my eyes caused by the local anesthetic.

I was back at work two days later.

My hearing will continue to decline, but hopefully the growth of the tumor has been stopped.

Six month follow-up

Toronto Western Hospital April 25, 2007. Dr. Menard said size of the tumour is the same, so that’s good; no growth.

Another six-month appointment has been made for October 31st.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

The last thing I'll say about being 60




About 10 months ago, I had the idea that I would start recording what it was like to approach age 60 and beyond. I was sure that it would be monumental.

Here is some of what I wrote:

August 10th 2006

On this hot summer day, I realize that six months from now, on a surely cold and snowy day, I will turn 60 years old.
I want to celebrate that. My daughters Diana and Naomi think a girlie winter vacation getaway is a good idea, and so does Lorne, who hates to sit on a beach anyway. That’s something down the road.

Meanwhile, as February approaches, I will add thoughts that come to me so other women turning 60 will feel hopeful and possibly I will feel hopeful too.

August 11

I mention to my friend Cynthia my goal to record the next six months. I’ve created the folder, I say. It’s empty.
“You’ll have more to say looking back,” says she who has already passed this milestone. “Six months after, instead of six months before.”

August 12
Daughter Diana and I volunteered at a triathlon supervising the bike turnaround on Colonel By Drive near our house. When the last cyclist had passed, the two motorcycle officials offered us rides to the finish line on their bikes, and we each hopped on.
“You’re pretty cool,” Diana said to me in disbelief.

August 13
Two fisherman beside the Canal showed me the wide mouthed bass one had caught with a plastic worm, and then they threw the fish back in the water.
That’s what I want for 60. You can catch me, show me 60, and then throw me back in the pre-60 water.


August 20
The Battle of Brockville

As I ran across the finish line at the Thousand Islands triathlon, Mike the announcer pointed out to everyone that my friend Kristin had already beaten me, finishing the race 4 minutes ahead.

Rubbing it in, he announced that the two of us have an ongoing rivalry to avoid last place, and this time she had won.

Indeed she had, improving on her swim and bike, so that it was impossible for me as usual to “reel her in” on the run.

And even though I was last, for me it was a huge accomplishment just to be there when only a few years ago I was quivering in the Try a Tri in the Carleton pool, and never envisioning I would actually be smiling in the choppy waters of the St. Lawrence River.

I thank the kayaks circling me like sharks at the swim for not just hooking me into the boat and heading for shore. As usual, I had trouble sighting, complicated by waves that blew up on the return swim, enhanced by a nearby large boat. I couldn’t see the furthest buoy; one kayak told me to keep left or I’d be caught in the current, another told me to keep right, and I flopped around like Flipper until I ultimately reached the three powerful “pullers’ who yanked me over the very slippery boat launch exit.

It was not hard to find my bike.

And it’s funny, I was afraid of not being able to see because of water in my swim goggles, but in fact they were fine. It was the raindrops on and in my glasses as I biked that were a minor annoyance.

I didn’t know until after the Brockville Triathlon whether I’d want to do a race report. That’s because my training for this event was even more bizarre than usual.

I had spent the first three weeks of July walking around Europe in 40-degree heat, and doing no running or aerobic exercise at all. And then I spent two weeks before the triathlon enrolled in CycleFit Boot Camp trying to force my unused muscles back into shape.

Hence on Saturday when Kristin and I headed to Brockville (great accommodation at St. Lawrence College for $34 each, including breakfast), I was even more sore and creaky than usual. I had read Rick Hellard’s advice to athletes that there’s nothing they can do to improve themselves in that last week before a race, only make things worse. I wondered if I would become a negative example of that philosophy. He was obviously a positive example of his own advice – he won the Olympic Tri.

And when you’re last, it’s hard to know what makes any difference.

The reason we had even entered Brockville was as step one of a pact we’ve made to do an Olympic distance Tri when we both turn 60 in six months. The Sprint Tri swim at Brockville is one 750 loop, and the Olympic there is two. This was to be an information reconnaissance to see if Brockville merits our symbolic efforts next year.

We’re still working on that decision, but we were pleased that the variety of races meant company most of the time (except when I was swimming). It buoys the spirits to feel you’re not alone, and many of the Olympic Tri people were very friendly and supportive as they passed by on bike or run.

Meanwhile, rematch to avoid last place at The Canadian on Labour Day Weekend!

August 22
I report to a younger colleague that a former freelancer of ours has a letter in the Citizen complaining about sidewalk cyclists in Stittsville. “Is he a cranky senior?” he inquires. My first reaction is, ‘no, he’s my age.’ My second reaction is, ‘I better not be cranky any more.’

More recently, a Citizen news editor announces at a meeting that the Ottawa Senators are so popular that when they were put on the front page, the paper didn’t receive the usual letters from “little old ladies” complaining about sports being given major coverage.

---------

And you know what, that clinched it. I didn’t want to be focussed on age any more. I am who I am, and that’s more important than chronological age. This blog will contain things I like or have written, book reports and bits and pieces that haven’t appeared anywhere else. I have seen 60, and it’s no big deal.

The Real Oliver Twist - a moving book


I spent the holidays reading a book that has continued to haunt me, The Real Oliver Twist/Robert Blincoe: A life that illuminates an age, by John Waller (Icon Books, 2005).

The author is a historian who lectures in the department of history and philosophy of science at Melbourne University.
In 1832, John Brown, a British campaigner to release young children from the servitude of the textile mills, wrote a memoir of workhouse orphan Robert Blincoe in a popular pamphlet.

The author of The Real Oliver Twist uses that memoir and a 22-page bibliography to re-create the times of poor Robert Blincoe, born in 1792 in rural St. Pancras Parish and abandoned at four to a “work’us” (workhouse) never to see his family again. At seven he was sent 200 miles north to work in the horrendous and unrelenting abuse of the cotton mills.
“The Memoir details the cruelty of masters and overseers, the weakness of the law, and the harsh realities of a child’s life dictated by the relentless rhythm of machines and the clanging of the work-place bell…He was remembered, if at all, as somebody who fought bravely against the cruel vicissitudes of life. But his own hard work and his devotion to his family eventually achieved for them a degree of respectability beyond the wildest imaginings of anybody who had known him,” writes John Waller. “as a bruised, lonely and desperately unhappy parish apprentice.”

According to Waller, there is strong textual evidence that Charles Dickens read Blincoe’s Memoir shortly before writing Oliver Twist, and the parallels are striking. “Blincoe’s Memoir must have had a deep impact on a man who had been sent to work in a bleaching factory aged twelve and never reconciled himself to his family’s loss of gentility,” he says. “And it would also have yielded rich background material that Charles Dickens’ own life didn’t provide but which the plot of Oliver Twist required.”
He writes that “making children like Blincoe work was almost universally agreed to be a good thing. Schooling, on the other hand, was seen to have its dangers. Juvenile, sweated labour inured poor children to their ‘inferior offices in life’, but education threatened to give them ideas above their stations. This was a real concern in the highly-stratified world of 18th –century England, in which everyone was meant to have their place upon a vast hierarchical chain stretching from the most degraded humans – beggars, actors and minstrels – on to artisans, shopkeepers and tenant farmers; next to bankers and merchants; and finally arriving at the dizzy heights of squires, barons, earls, dukes, archbishops and, at the very top, monarchs.”

And as bad as the work’us was, apprenticeship as a ‘sweep’s boy’ and indentured work in the mills, was worse.
“When Parliament set up a committee in 1816 to inquire into the ‘State of Children Employed in the Manufactories of The United Kingdom’, it was revealed that few mills worked their child apprentices for less than eleven-and-a-half hours. Many forced them to labour for fifteen hours, with minimal breaks for refreshment …Lunch eaten next to the machines.”

As the book continues, “only at nine or ten o’clock at night, after more than sixteen hours of work, and with less than half an hour to rest, did the wheel finally come to a stand. The absence of milk in the diet, combined with near-constant standing during the day and the awkward motions required to operate the machines, took a heavy toll on Blincoe. At the age of fifteen, as he entered puberty and needed proper nutrition to build up healthy bones, his legs began to bow… Continuous standing and monotonous movements ensured that for the remainder of his life Blincoe would walk with difficulty on buckled legs.”
It would be nice to think that the world has changed, but in so many ways it is evident that it hasn’t, as the children suffering throughout the world in child labour, the sex trade, orphans of AIDS in Africa attests.

This book, about a time hundreds of years past, is a reminder and an impetus to care about children still in need of advocacy now.

The Orange Juggler


The following story I wrote won first prize winner in the City of Ottawa 55 Plus Fiction Writing Contest in 2002:



The Orange Juggler

“... May I reach
That purest heaven; be to other souls
The cup of strength to some great agony,
.. So shall I join the choir invisible
whose music is the gladness of the world.”
• George Eliot

He loved that she quoted poetry all the time. When it wasn’t her own poetry it was George Eliot, or it was Elizabeth Barrett Browning... “How do I love thee...I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life! - and if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.”

Like a massive ballet troupe, hundreds of runners were stretching against trees and walls and lying waiting on the grass. Music from a radio station trailer clashed with loudspeaker announcements. He wondered how she would have described the chaos.

Grabbing his left running shoe in his right hand, he stretched lightly and alone, alternately bending each long leg behind him.

He managed a wan half smile, a soft little ‘hmph’, sort of a laugh, his closed lips curling up at the corners, straight into his prominent cheekbones.

A beautiful big grin, she described it. Like punctuation between his ears.

She loved his smile. He loved her poetry.

He loved the wavy bangs she was always brushing out of her round, sad eyes. He loved her favorite lemon yellow sweater that smelled of her perfume. He loved her laugh. He would laugh for her.

He leaned against the tree to steady himself.

“Sorry about your wife.” A runner in a red jacket, a staff member he knew from the Y, stopped in front of him. He nodded back, his heart pounding. What could you say. He’d only decided to enter the race last week, because it supported the Breast Health Centre. The running would be no problem, he was certain of that, but he was so afraid he’d be paralyzed by thinking about her.

The ‘five minutes to start’ warning startled him.

Bending down, he pinned the race number on his white singlet. 404. Daniel Allan Stone. Male. 36. Then he hurried back outside and waited for 9 o’clock.

The air was a damp combination of spring mud and wet grass. He shivered and shifted his weight to keep warm.
He glanced at the timing chip on his shoelace, then at his watch. At 12:30 he’d be done.

An instant later, he was gone, swept away in a sea of runners. A huge quiet mass of arms and legs, heading down the road.
The grass was so green, shockingly green.

There were few spectators, just the beat of a solitary boom box under a little gray tent at the side of the course.
11 a.m. He stared ahead, already battling tension and fatigue. Perspiration and sporadic drizzle matted the thick brown hair around the nape of his neck. His chest heaved, his lean arms and fingers were too heavy to lift. His salmon shorts clung in wet wrinkles to his body. The runners had long ago strung out, and he had his own space.

11:45. Ten kilometers to go. “Just 10 kilometers. Just 10 kilometers.” Shaking his head, his dry lips shifted to mouth her words instead, as his aching legs churned along, fighting the urge to stop:

A moment in time

Drifting. Drifting.
A bittersweet interlude
Hanging in the air
In the damp heat of summer
suspended in time.
A perfect note of music,
a red canoe
going nowhere.
No future, only memories.
Knowing it will never end.
Knowing it will never be the same.
• Emily Stone, 1999

“Knowing it will never be the same,” he repeated, picturing their last perfect weekend on the lake. “Knowing it will never be the same.” He had memorized so many of the poems she had written just for him. She taught English, and wrote for others, but the poems were just for him, and he knew them all by heart. One good thing about being an actor. Just a year ago she had come back stage to meet him, and they were together ever after. Noon. Grateful for the distraction, he continued reciting her poetry, reliving their time together...

Bike Path

Bike path
Life path
Through the woods
with the yellow line.
You slow to lead me
Then you’re gone.
Down the road
Round the corner
Up the mountain
Out of sight.
To bike with you
To run with you.
I never dreamed
and now I do.
What better gift
Can ever be
Than you have shared
your path with me.
• Emily Stone, 1999

He blinked back tears. He felt she was with him, and she understood what was in his head. Always. “You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to,” she’d say when he was filled with worries. “It’s okay, it’s okay.” And he knew it was. He knew she would be saying that now, gazing into his pale blue eyes and gently touching his lips. He marvelled that someone could be so serene and yet never waste a minute. She was always planning a trip, always thinking of some great adventure they could share together. She hated being stuck in the city on a long weekend. She wouldn’t have wanted to be in town now, and would have persuaded him to skip the race.

Urban tumbleweed

Scrub grass lapping unevenly
at the old metal legs
of a scratched park bench
placed optimistically
under a sparse, struggling tree.
A small circle of nature
in a mall of asphalt
ending abruptly
as a torn plastic grocery bag
blows saucily by.
Urban tumbleweed.
A blunt reminder
of where we are
and where we want to be.
• Emily Stone, 1999

She’d been sick so long, they both knew from the beginning their relationship had no future. They knew they could do nothing about it; and knew the pain of goodbye was the price they would have to pay for being truly, wildly in love.
He had imagined over and over how it would be to part from her - like visualizing a race - hoping that by creating her leaving in his mind he could somehow alleviate the leaden lump in his chest. Home for the last time, she had asked to put on his socks, closing her eyes as he rubbed her feet.

He was wearing the same socks now, the way she had wanted him to. They were keeping him going - through the blur of mile markers, drink stations, sweat and pain.

The mantra of poetry was a link with Emily, propelling him on.

It was the second time around. The home stretch. Then why was it so hard.

He plugged along.

Eyes downward as he came around the corner, he saw a piece of orange peel on the asphalt.

She always loved oranges.

He willed his throbbing legs to keep moving as the orange imagery flooded his mind. He was 12 years old, back in the bedroom of his parents’ house, light-hearted and light-headed, knowing what he wanted to do. He had seen jugglers at the circus every year, and he yearned to be like them. Maybe that’s what made him become an actor.

He had stayed in his room all day, practicing juggling three Mineolas. He was the smallest in his class back then. Though he’d been over six feet tall for so many years now, he was still that little boy inside. “I picture you tall and strong your whole life,” she said in disbelief when he told her, rubbing her fingers up and down his long arms for emphasis. His mind went back to the juggling as his legs strained on.

There had been so much to learn. He had wanted to quit. Who needs to juggle.

Who need to love. The oranges fell to the floor. Over and over. He was feeling a little better now. Everything seemed a little brighter, sounds a little louder. . .

He concentrated on finishing the race, juggling the oranges. The little boy had skipped supper to continue juggling the oranges... Daniel thought of the food at the finish line. He wondered if there would be oranges. One kilometer to go...Don’t move forward as you juggle...Don’t stumble as you run...His arms felt lighter as he imagined the three oranges tossing through the air, but he could barely breath. Focus. Focus... She’d always loved his juggling. She’d laugh and clap and say it was one more thing that made her love him.
He felt dizzy.


As you leave

I ache with envy
future dreams
Your strength
When I have none.
And see the world
Through your bright eyes.
Too late.
You show the joy
That all should taste.
Embrace the world.
Don’t cry. Just live.
I’ll know. I’ll feel.
I’ll be the same
And care as much.
I won’t be gone.
• Emily Stone, 1999

He gasped over the finish, ignoring the numbers on the large black time clock. He stumbled to the grass. He’d done it. He’d done it. For her. He had thought he couldn’t live without her, and now he knew he wouldn’t have to.

Monday, May 28, 2007

Ottawa Marathon






“There is no Try. There is Only Do or Not Do.”
- Yoda, Jedi Master.

This is the first year since 1999 that I haven’t written a public marathon report in the Ottawa Citizen. For longer than that, I’d been running on the race weekend, and then coming into the Citizen on Sunday afternoon to put out the race results section for the next day.

The run-publish ‘duathlon’ was fun to do, with runner and graphic designer Chris Macknie and the small group working that evening.

At a suitable break, we’d eat takeout pizza and chat about the day, and get the section to pre-press just in time. This year that didn’t happen. The paper decided that with electronic race results so accessible, it wasn’t prudent to devote about a dozen newsprint pages to names and race times.

It was also good timing, because Chris is in Africa for three months and not here to do that painstaking design task. If you think it’s not important, just try taking phone calls from relatives the next day bemoaning the fact that someone is missing from the results. (It usually turned out that they really were there, just slower than originally thought.)

So here is my less public report on yesterday’s marathon, my 14th:

First of all, I will never again criticize the “dumb” drivers who don’t know about road closures. I was sitting on my front porch Saturday at 5:15 waiting to be picked up by a friend, when the lead group of 5k runners passed by my door, followed quickly by everybody else. It’s a good idea to check the routes of all races, not just the one we’re in.


In spite of the long bleak stretches where I felt I was running alone, I met so many interesting people along the way. There was a woman who said she quit last year in the heat at km 37 and was mad at herself all year, and came back to redeem herself. I was there when she passed 37 this time. There was a bike store owner from Windsor who started running at 57, and was back to the Ottawa Marathon for the second time. In just a few short kilometers he told me what bike I should really be riding. There were excited first timers from Markham, and repeat visitors from Peterborough, and everyone thought Ottawa was great, and they like the new course.

Thanks to my friend Larry McCloskey who kept up the tradition of watching for me on Colonel By and running beside me until Carleton. The distraction is so appreciated. And unlike the other people who dropped in and out of race life, he stayed at my pace.

Congratulations to my friend Anna Shannette who did the 10k Saturday night and then the marathon Sunday. I turned her down when she invited me to join her in what I deemed a crazy pursuit, and then went back and forth to City Hall so many times Saturday, that I ended up doing more than a 10 k anyway, with no bragging rights.

The rain over the second half was much better than heat; I thought the weather was perfect for running; though unfortunately less so for spectators and volunteers.

There were certainly times during this long marathon when I questioned why I was doing it. I’m tired, my feet hurt, my race times get slower and slower, so why bother. Nothing is ever as exciting as your first marathon, so why keep doing it if you aren’t getting faster.

Sure, I’ve got some health problems that could be used as an excuse, but I continue to be in awe of people for whom nothing is an excuse.

It takes a particular brand of courage for the back of the pack marathon participants to keep going for so long, and without the crowds, the validation of those with faster times, or Pace Bunnies.

And even though I force myself to run along, I am aware that walkers are walking faster than I am running. Lots faster.

I guess it’s about continuing to meet the challenge. I’m a different age, so it’s a different race. As Yoda says, “There is No Try. There is only Do or Not Do.”

I’m already signed up for the Marine Corps Marathon for the fall.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Still Tri-ing after all these years








My triathlon ‘career’ began with an e-mail in 2001.

“To a ‘budding triathlete’”, he wrote, alluding to an overly flattering tag line about me on an article I’d written about him ... On September 19th, 2000, my colleague and Ironman athlete Chris Macknie forwarded me an e-mail he had received about the Ottawa Triathlon/Duathlon 2001.

The e-mail thanked him for attending “the inaugural Ottawa Tri/Du last May.” It said the event would be on Somersault Promotions’ 2001 Triathlon/Duathlon schedule - on Saturday May 26th, 2001. It was a 500 metre swim/ 20 k bike/ 5k run.

I laughed.
Nevertheless, that April my friend Kristin and I mailed in (those were the old days) our applications instead for the shorter Try a Tri. She pushed me to do it. I was absolutely terrified.

I wrote at the time: “Well, we have done it! We have swam (swum?) - two laps in a 50 metre pool - and biked 12k and run 5k. I am delighted to have done the swimming; Kristin was particularly proud to have done the running. And we organized our clothes and equipment, and made the transitions! If the marathon is 95 per cent mental and 5 per cent physical, then the triathlon is at least 50 per cent organization and 50 per cent physical.”

Well, it’s seven years later, and I can’t believe I’m still doing this. Coming almost last in the race but first in my age category - 1 out of 2 for women 60 plus - on the 500 metre swim, 22 k bike and 5 k run on May 19th.

And I’ve figured out why the wait for the Sprint Tri swim at the Early Bird seemed so eternably long.

It wasn’t just that more swimmers were added because of the extended Carleton University pool time - and so the slowest swimmers didn’t get into the pool until after 10 a.m.

It was because the weather was so perfect. Last year when hypothermia hovered outside, we were happy to stay in as long as we could. This year, it was great to finally get outside, and then not to have to hassle with additional clothing for cold, wet temperatures.

It was like the Teddy Bears’ Picnic to finally reach the water station the woods for the run turn-around.

Since becoming a faster swimmer doesn’t seem to be an option for me, I think next year I’ll bring a pillow and a sandwich, or go to Tim Hortons for two hours in my body marking and bathing suit. Although it was nice to have time to really get to know the people near me in line.

It’s amazing how interest in triathlon continues to grow, and now the number of nifty triathlon suits in the pool.

It’s great that Somersault now has the competitors’ names large on the race numbers for all the races, so cyclists can bike by me and say, “almost there - Louise”, and I can say, for instance, “Thanks - Barry” as I read their behinds.

And nice shirts!

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Cuba 2007



Cuba Diary: One Week in the Varadero Sunshine

January 12-20, 2007


Short Version:

Louise highlight: The square in Old Havana that was suddenly a piece of Europe, with fountain and outdoor café.

Naomi: Getting out of touristy Varadero and getting a glimpse of everyday life in Matanzas, school girls in their uniforms, stray dogs, and the history and excitement of Havana. It is all so colorful.

Diana: Participating in Aqua Gym - "Aqua Jeeem!!!" in the pool; dancing in the finale of the evening show when audience members are called up; group stretching on the beach.

----------------

Long Version:

Once upon a time, on the day that David Beckham revolutionized U.S. professional soccer, another revolution was taking place.

The three Rachlis women were traveling together for the first time on a family intergenerational bonding excursion to Varadero Beach in Cuba. Each had arranged a week off work, taken cigar orders from co-workers, and done her research - Louise on the architecture of Havana and the history of the revolution; Naomi on the swim-up bar at Hotel Tuxpan, and Diana on the most flattering bikinis. All research proved useful!

As research for an upcoming Health and Beauty feature article, Louise had had a laser skin tightening treatment last week, necessitating 45 SPF sunscreen on her face and neck, and a Havana Club safari hat at the first souvenir market.

Lorne was able to ditch a Minister of Education conference call to return home and drive his women to the airport. The new hybrid is able to transport three wild women and their luggage containing besides the bikinis, dozens of old unused Ottawa running race t-shirts which apparently are “like gold” in Cuba. Similarly baggies-full of Mary Kay cosmetics from Naomi’s friend. The plan is to give out the t-shirts and the makeup if we actually manage to see any “real” Cubans.

As I said, it’s an internal journey. Go Travel All Inclusive. Zoom Airlines.

Waiting to board, after all her care to move Diana’s magnesium liquid medication out of carry-on, Naomi forgot she had a corkscrew from work in her purse, so it was confiscated.

Chatted with Marcia and Dick Zuker leaving Barrhaven for Australia for three months via London in their zip-off pants, then with Dave McPherson from the Citizen and his daughter who was running the Arizona Rock and Roll Marathon. They were leaving the airport because their flight via Chicago was cancelled because of weather and they had to go home and try again the next day. We were sooo lucky with weather, avoiding the storms here and enjoying a full week of sunshine there.

In flight, we very carefully filled out the Cuban Visa forms, because the attendant announced their price was included in our ticket price, and if we needed another form we’d have to buy it. Because we didn’t order far enough ahead, there was no gluten free meal available for Diana - choices were pasta or meat with gravy, both of which had wheat.

Anyway, she was still full from her airport Aero bar, much more tempting than the 12-vegetable bars from Rainbow Foods.

In flight, Diana read Cosmopolitan, as it seemed, did half the plane. Naomi read “How to Be A Starving Artist” and they took breaks together working on “Learn Spanish in 10 Minutes a Day.”

I was across the aisle beside a hefty man in a baseball cap who sighed the way Lorne does when he got in and out of his seat.

The free food and free wine was generous, but between the lactose intolerant, the celiac and the vegetarian, we ate less than one total meal among us.

Naomi remembered to bring her headphones, so Diana didn’t have to pay $5 for headphones to watch the Jimmy Smits prisoner with a heart of golf football movie.

Arrival

When I was 11, the last year for paying half price children’s fare, my parents flew the family from Ottawa winter to Florida in the middle of the night. My whole life I have remembered the surprise warmth and humidity getting off a plane at 4 a.m. and engulfed in tropical smells.

As we disembarked in Cuba at midnight in 22 C it felt the same, and the girls were so excited about palm trees waving in the night.

No problem changing the money or getting the shuttle bus. Note for next trip: Pain in acrylics on the luggage. So many black or red suitcases, but the black one painted with a butterfly really stood out. Did Leonardo da Vinci paint luggage with wheels? Birds of Paradise coming up.

Day 1

We walked in the sand down the beach to the town of Varadero, and stopped for lunch in a thatched roof restaurant, El Rancho. The girls wanted chicken, and the waiter said it would be 40 minutes. While waiting and sipping lemonade, we looked behind the window shade and noted the chickens wandering around the backyard. “Agh,” screamed Naomi, realizing where lunch was coming from. “I’ve just become vegetarian. Again.”

We snap like chickens at each other whenever one of us gets hot, hungry or tired, but we were able to laugh about whose turn it was to become one of the three dwarfs, “Cranky”, “Hungry” or “Moody”. Having two hotel rooms for three is good, so the one good night’s sleep can be rotated.

Had my first Mojito cocktail in Cuba at the hotel bar, sugar, lemon juice, fresh mint, soda water and rum. Mmmm.

Smoking everywhere in the hotel and in the country, cigarettes and the unpleasant famous cigars.

“Where did you three meet?” asked an Ottawa English-speaking man who became Naomi’s friend as she ended up as translator between him and the almost entirely French-speaking other Hotel Tuxpan guests.

Hotel Tuxpan is large - 211 rooms - and the lobby and eating areas are tropically spacious with high ceilings and glass, and large plants hanging down several storeys. At the bread display at the buffet, little birds swoop about inside, and hover to peck at crumbs.

The small guest rooms lean more towards summer camp, hard mattresses, skinny pillows and thin walls through which you hear every sound next door. But in this beautiful weather, who wants to be in a room anyway. A pleasant touch is that our maid, Maritza, folds the clean towels in a different shape every day, like a swan or a bird, and centers them on the bed, with pajamas or nightgown similarly shaped aesthetically.

It was a four-star hotel and still the meager toilet paper roll was empty by end of day, and the sliver of soap was used by three for a week. It’s a good idea to bring your own.

We booked the Sunday bus to Havana because the city would be quieter, with more regular people out. Our guide, Ismya, wore long corn row braids, and spoke French, English and Spanish. Havana is 234 k along Via Blanca from Varadero. We had asked for a wakeup call, which was done in Spanish, and we continued to get unasked for wakeup calls for the rest of the week.


As became the norm, chicken for lunch, omelette for the vegetarian, and a band playing once again Guantonamera.

As we walked around Plaza de la Cathedral, Naomi took photos of all the skinny stray dogs sleeping on the pavement in the sun. A stilt dancing little parade played Guantonamera, and women in multi-colored flower headdresses kissed tourist men for photos.

After lunch, among the sites was Necropolis Cristobal Colon which has one million graves, many with a story, and the world’s largest cemetery. After three years, bones have to be exhumed, because there’s no room in the cemetery, and no cremation permitted in Cuba. There was a large empty space in the “people’s” area of the cemetery, which our guide said is rumoured to be reserved for Fidel.

Gave our first bunch of t-shirts to Ismya, who was very excited about them and said she’d give them to people herself rather than have us accosted. However, later on we found it was a pleasure to give out the shirts individually, and there was never any problem.

Back at the hotel, we attended the free evening show at the Tropicale, outdoor stage near the pool. It’s very loud and directly under our windows - so it’s attend on the ground or “attend” in the room incapable of sleep. My fault, I think, for requesting an “ocean view.”

That night it was a musical quiz with audience members running up if they thought they knew the answer. Each right answer got you a ticket and most tickets at the end got you a bottle of rum. It was like reality television to see the people who had been drinking and smoking 24 hours a day since they got off the plane, hopping around vying for the spotlight, and the rum bottle, in French, English and Italian.

The pool area is uncrowded and beautiful, likewise the turquoise beach, with thatched huts, coconut palms and soft breezes.

The buffet is bland as predicted, and frequently quirky. For instance, there are devilled eggs, yolks dyed bright green, and flat beige cake with the coco puff style cereal from breakfast sprinkled into the pink icing. Dessert is always what we dubbed “Cuban Baklava” - it’s flaky pastry like baklava, but there’s nothing in it, just sugar sprinkled on top.

The 9:30 p.m. free show is different every night, usually dancing from different countries, and at the end, audience members are invited onstage to join in and learn the moves. Diana did that every night, and did a great job, thanks to her aerobics experience. She also took part in the pool “gymnastica” aquafit in the morning, and went for pre-breakfast run with me along the sidewalk, not the beach, past the bushes laden with red, pink and purple blossoms, to the statue of Don Quixote.

Naomi watched CNN in the room every night, and came running in one night to announce that CNN says Fidel hasn’t been seen since July 31st and is near death. Funny, our guide in Havana told us he’s getting better, but no one knows where he is. The guide said Castro would regularly give four to five hour speeches to one million Cubans assembled in the July heat in the small empty plaza where we were standing.

There are no foreign or local newspapers around, and nothing of news elsewhere except occasionally the state paper Granma which has a French, English and German edition that was free in our hotel.

While we debated the merits of bus trips to other Cuban cities, the days in Varadero are so beautiful that we couldn’t give it up for four hours each way on the bus for a few hours in Santa Clara or Trinidad. Another time.

We walked into the town via the beach most days, spending time in old Parque Josone where there are ostriches, a camel, and wandering chickens. We gave t-shirts to the friendly park security guard who chatted with us, the old man on a bicycle who chops coconuts with his machete for drinks, and the female driver of our coco-taxi or Coquitos or Huevitos who drove us around.

William, the bartender at the swim up bar, told us about his friend in Toronto, and charmed all the women, and sold cigars under the table as a sideline.

There is Cuban music everywhere, a band every night at dinner - same guys, different colored shirts, every day - at the hotel, in restaurants, and the loud, colorful singing and dancing on the outdoor stage.

A bus loaded with staff returning home stopped and offered us a ride when we were walking at the side of the road. A horse and wagon did the same another day, offering to take us back to the hotel for one pesos.

Diana added “group stretching on the beach” to her participation activities. I painted a half dozen watercolors.

On the beach, the safety flags - red, yellow and green - have rarely been green. We really enjoyed the green day when the waves weren’t as choppy and we could swim along parallel to the shore without getting swamped by waves. On green days, rental boats and hang gliders are allowed in the water, making it more picturesque.

On the last day, we had to check out at noon despite a 2:30 a.m. departure flight. We stored our luggage and took a bus to Matanzas, and the 2,500 m. long Bellamar Caves discovered in 1861.

Lonely Planet Cuba says of Matanzas: “Straddled with humdrum ration shops, a painfully dismal restaurant scene, and a decrepit and scruffy central park that is crying out for an architectural version of the ‘extreme makeover’ , the local buzz in Matanzas’ dilapidated streets is as downbeat as it is elusive. If it’s five star comforts you’re after, hop on a Viazul bus straight back to Planet Varadero ... Otherwise, welcome to the real Cuba.” Exactly!

The caves were worth seeing, but our reason for going was to spend time in dusty, crumbly Matanzas, and it was just as we had hoped. Our guide who looked like Mr. Bean was named Castro, and besides giving us a walking tour of Matanzas, he told us about his daughter and her husband, who had moved out of his house, and his son and grandson who live there still, but the son is now building an extra room. You can get government permission to add a room, but you can’t sell your house or buy another.

It is quite a country, and despite the ever present rules, the Cuban people we met were friendly and proud of their country. (More so than the drunk tourists running on the stage in their underwear and jumping in the closed pool in the dark. (No, that wasn’t us! But Diana now loves pina colada with cinnamon, and Louise and Naomi are hooked on mojitos.)

Until next year!

Love from

Louise, Diana and Naomi

Turning 50 (1997)

Onward and upward: Some thoughts on hitting 50


It was when we were both talking casually about 1964 that it hit me.

We were discussing the Beatles, or something like that.

"I started university in 1964," I said.

He paused. "I was born in 1964."

And until then, I had felt we were the same age.

I may be 50, but I feel as if I fit in with those who are 20 or 30 or 40, even though I know that that’s not how younger people may perceive me.

What is 50?

For me, it’s not a lot different than 40 - although there is certainly a heightened sense of making the most of time available.

I find myself wishing I hadn’t wasted so much of it when I thought my options went on forever. In the past couple of years I’ve pierced my ears ( at least it’s not any other part of me), studied watercolour painting, taken a workshop on Romance Writing - and not written the novel - and become more regimented about keeping fit.

There’s a particular joy in discovering late blooming pursuits, even if you can’t help thinking if you’d started sooner, maybe now you’d be Picasso or an Olympic athlete. I take strength from a quote by author George Eliot (1819-1880): "It is never too late to be what you might have been."

Anticipating an "empty nest", my husband and I moved downtown from the suburbs. Our downsized dwelling bulged for a year with three adult children - and then they left again.

Because we’re generally healthy, active and involved, we in our 50’s tend to be an invisible age. Alike and yet different.

And yet I know from discussing this category with the 20-somethings and 30-somethings at my office, it’s easy for them to group together everyone between 50 and 100 as 50- plus, separating them into them and us.

As with any age group, it’s hard for someone who’s not in the category to really understand it. And it’s hard for us to know our place.

I suddenly find myself asking, "do I look silly doing this?", or "am I too old to do that?" It’s an odd place to be, and it happens in an instant.

I think the message that this generation wants to get out about ourselves is the same as that for any other - don’t generalize about us; we’re all different, and don’t judge us by our appearance; there’s a lot going on in our heads.

Newfoundland 2002

LORNE IS BACK IN UPPER CASE ITALICS!

Note: This letter is a reconstruction; not the original. (just like all the historic sites we’ve seen). Lorne clicked on ‘options’ in hotmail on Louise’s finished draft and it all disappeared. We have attempted to re-create it, doing the best we can, under the circumstances. LOUISE SAID IT WASN’T A BIG DEAL – SAID SHE COULD EASILY RE-CREATE THE LETTER FROM HER NOTES. HER NOTE ABOVE EXPLAINS WHY SHE DIDN’T TALK TO ME TODAY.

June 29

On the way to the Ottawa airport, Louise says to Lorne "The house we're staying at for a week in Salvage, Newfoundland, doesn't have a house number. It doesn't have a street name either. Edythe, the landlady, told me it’s between the fish plant and the church. It’s the house with yellow doors. Doesn’t that sound exotic?"

"At least it has a door," says Lorne, still a whiner (despite his best efforts), even after surviving I LIKE TO THINK OF IT AS ‘OVERCOMING’ the Cotswold walk, the PEI bike, and the Banff hike. NEXT YEAR, SEPARATE VACATION. I THINK I SAID THAT LAST YEAR, TOO.
The journey begins.

July 1, 8 a.m.

Lorne walks past three airport billboards saying, in big red letters: ‘Do you have any sharp objects ?' He knows it doesn't apply to him, so pays no attention. Goes through security. Gets pulled to one side. "Do you have scissors in your carry on bag, sir?" says the nice security guard. "No", says Lorne. "Yes, you do" says the formerly nice guard, motioning another guard over. "Do you have a shaving kit in this bag?" asks the guard, knowing that the answer is yes. "Oh, yes. I do," remembers Lorne. "And I have nail scissors in it".

After 10 minutes, Lorne is cleared through security, sans nail scissors. Says to Louise, "We’ll buy new ones. Did you know they have a big pile of them in back?" After a moment’s reflection he says, "Remember when you said that travelling with me is stressful for you? Like that time I lost my passport? Well, I just do this kind of thing to get you to lighten up."

Flights are otherwise uneventful. LOUISE SAYS I SHOULDN’T MENTION THE CUTE 9-MONTH OLD BOY IN HIS GRANDPA’S LAP RIGHT BESIDE ME. TWO MINUTES INTO THE FLIGHT HE MADE A NOISE LIKE A GARBAGE TRUCK BACKING UP AND DIDN’T STOP UNTIL JUST BEFORE WE LANDED. OTHERWISE UNEVENTFUL. EXCEPT FOR THE TURBULENCE..

4 pm

Drive rental car into downtown St. John’s and find house Jamie Allister is kindly letting us stay in for the week, 15 Victoria Street, a maroon-coloured townhouse on a very steep street lined both sides by colourful rowhouses, most renovated or under construction. BEGINNING AT 6 AM EVERY MORNING, RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET. HAMMERING, TEARING OF NAILS. It is walking distance to everything downtown, as we soon found out. ENGLAND IS WALKING DISTANCE FROM HERE, TOO, ACCORDING TO LOUISE. It is completely refurbished and renovated. We have won the accommodation lottery!

As we got here first (our friends the Winqvists will join us on Thursday), we chose the top (third) floor bedroom which has a functional fireplace and a whirlpool tub. When we enter, it is hot in the room, as the house has been closed up. Lorne sees a portable air conditioner unit on floor. I refuse to help install it and instead open a window. After 20 minutes of grunting and mumbling, Lorne has the unit in place in another window. It works. Room has cooled down by now, except for Lorne, who is sweating from work (unaccustomed as he is). Lorne admits we don’t need it (cross breeze on a July night in St. John’s makes room a sleep-able 15 C) and puts unit back in its place on the floor.

We walk along Water Street (main downtown street) and go for a traditional Newfoundland dinner in a small diner. (For some reason Louise had been eating roast beef sandwiches for the past two days.) Louise gives cod tongues a thumbs up. Lorne prefers the traditional part of the cod. FRIED. WITH FRENCH FRIES. Maybe eating fish every day will improve Louise’s swimming.

July 2

Went for a short early morning run along the harbour, beside a big red Russian ship and an orange Coast Guard vessel tied to the wharf. Couldn’t manage to run back up the huge hill to the house. If I ever say I’m going to do the Newfoundland marathon, tell me to go to ‘hill’. OK. GO TO HILL.

Walked around old St. John’s. There are 30 pubs within walking distance of the house. Drove back to the airport to have the insurance surcharge deleted because we are in fact covered on our personal auto policy. We have this debate EVERY trip. Fish and chips for lunch.

p.m.
Climbed Signal Hill, used for signalling since 1704. Flags from the top were used for military defence and to let merchants prepare for ships coming in. Marconi received the first trans Atlantic wireless signal here in 1901.

Then, just warmed up from that upward climb, we drove to Cape Spear, the most easterly point in North America and climbed some more. The views were spectacular at both. Lorne surprised even himself that he wasn’t complaining as much as usual. I DIDN’T COMPLAIN AT ALL. THOSE EARLY MORNING WALKS/JOGS IN STRATFORD HAVE PUT ME INTO TERRIFIC SHAPE. ON THE INSIDE.
Checking out all the local crafts, but saving my business for the craftspeople of Salvage next week. The population of St. John’s is about 100,000 but there must be double that in the population of little wooden men in yellow raincoats. If any of you want one, let me know.

As is common knowledge, everyone here is friendly. How friendly? Cars stop in the middle of a block if they even think you want to cross the street. AND THEY WON’T MOVE UNTIL YOU CROSS. SOMETIMES WE DIDN’T WANT TO.

Everyone says hello on the trails. Shop people are willing to help with advice or information even if it is clear you aren’t buying anything. A friend of Jamie’s (the out of town owner of the house we’re staying in), who is himself a friend of a friend, calls to make sure everything is fine with us and to say we should call him if we need anything.

July 3, 2002

This morning we drove to Quidi Vidi Village and climbed the Cuckold Cove Trail DON’T ASK up to the Ladies Lookout, the highest point in the area, where sailors’ wives used to go to wait for their return. It is a 25 minute uphill climb (15 minutes coming down). Lorne’s legs are still functioning. NOT MUCH GOOD FOR WALKING ANYMORE, THOUGH

Like Marconi, further communications to follow. (if we don’t accidently delete them.)

Love to all

Louise and LORNE

Learning to swim


Memoirs of a little girl who cannot swim

My black bathing suit with ‘Carleton’ across the front doesn’t really say ‘Carleton’.
What it says in neon letters 12 feet high is, ‘I can swim!’ I don’t really believe it yet, but it’s a start.

For almost a year now, I have been a member of the Carleton University Masters Early Birds. I am easily identified as by far the slowest of the slow in the slow lane. I provide passing practice to others.

"After the first couple of weeks, I thought you’d leave for sure," a member of the group told me last fall. She was giving me a compliment. "So did I," I replied.

I have never felt so intimidated, scared and out of my depth in my life, as I feel in the Masters’ swim group.

I wear my waterproof watch and obsessively sneak peeks underwater to see if it’s over yet.

So why am I there?

Because for the first time in my 57 years I could dream of it. Terrible swimmer that I am, I could be close enough to try.

Until I watched the Varsity swimmers training in the morning before our Masters group started, I hadn’t even known what "real" swimming looked like.

It is not a part of my heritage. Among my early memories is a jerky black and white home movie of my family and me at the concrete swimming pool at the Di Lido Hotel in Miami Beach. I am splashing and dogpaddling, head above the water pretending to swim. My parents are nearby, my mother in the same padded and boned blue Esther Williams-type bathing suit I remember her wearing for 25 years. The same for my father’s beige bathing shorts. They never wore out, because they never went in the water. I never saw my parents in the water.

When I was old enough to go to the beach myself, I walked with a friend to Brighton Beach on the Rideau River, and we’d lie on towels, read junk and fantasize about the lifeguards.

At summer camp, I flunked my Junior Red Cross, as well as the "lengths" test to be allowed to swim in the deep end at general swim. More lying on towels in the sand.
And for years onward, swimming just wasn’t something I did; it was something I pretended to do - until May, 2000.

As her Mother’s Day gift to me, my then 20-year-old daughter agreed to take me into the pool at the Y and teach me. I had never worn swim goggles or swum a lap before. I didn’t then. I’d collapse, hugging the wall, half way down a lap.

Shortly after, I went to the pool for the first time myself. Avoiding the lifeguard’s sympathetic gaze, I swam a pathetic lap and then while panting at the side, noticed those floaty belts in a bin. Aha! I figured if I wore a floatation device, I wouldn’t worry so much and would be able to work on strengthening my arms and legs. I didn’t even know how to keep track of how far I’d gone.

I signed up for Learn to Swim adult classes at the Y.

It was a milestone day for me when I did a whole swim lesson without putting on the floatie belt.

Fresh with enthusiasm - or oxygen deprivation - I signed up for a Try a Tri Triathlon that May.

On May 26th, 2001, I finished the Somersault Early Bird Try a Tri Triathlon. After two laps in a 50-metre pool, the biking and running was just an afterthought. Totally spent from the pool, I couldn’t believe that other people swam further.

That winter, I also took a triathlon training course at the Y - lots more laps, but little improvement. I still remained stationary while kicking a flutterboard, and went backward while attempting the breaststroke.

The training began easily enough, but like cakes on a conveyer belt, it kept coming faster and faster and soon I couldn’t keep up at all.

During that year’s Early Bird Sprint Triathlon, when I exited the 100 metre Carleton University swimming pool after my 500 metre swim, there was no one else in the pool area at all. I was a sea creature crawling onto a barren land. When I hurried in the pouring rain to my bike, it stood out in the transition area all alone. But no more "Try-ing", I had done it.

On to the next step, a terrifying Carleton Place Triathlon in "open" albeit shallow, water in July. Unimaginable, and once again last, but once again I did it. Just.
It was time to get better.

And that brings me back to my Master’s group, 7:30 a.m. Monday, Wednesday and Fridays, and optional Saturdays. On my first day in the pool, what I didn’t know could fill an encyclopedia. The daily workouts on the blackboard were from a foreign country.
For instance, I didn’t know that IM was individual medley - fly, back, breast, free; I thought it was Ironman. As I bumbled along, I said "sorry" so many times it blended into one long apology to my fellow swimmers.

I would arrive at work afterward, late, frazzled and famished.

As for the bathing suits, last fall, coach Lynn Marshall asked who wanted to participate in the order. Well, for such a badge of honor, I decided to hang on in class at least until the suits arrived. I waited.

The man who had taken the original order died. A re-order went in.

Waterpolo suits came by mistake, and were sent back.

While I waited, my flutterboard and my breaststroke actually began to move forward.

And as this fall’s swim season begins, I’m still in the group, hanging in as tough as the Polyester in those bathing suits.