The class is over (and I got an A!!!) ...BUT, this project continues!

This is a post that I wrote a few years ago, about this blog project. It began to die off but I think it has a lot of potential to keep it going. Please read on and consider contributing your story, artwork, poems, or other works...
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Hey, I just wanted to let everybody know that the class for which I began this project has ended, and I really appreciate all of the wonderful contributions that people have submitted, BUT... I am continuing this project and hope to continue getting some contributions of more people's stories... stories of overcoming adversity, ups and downs, surgeries, medical trials, running for research to cure NF, and more!  

Tell your story here, please! To get access to post here, please message me or send me an e-mail at anne.s.noble@gmail.com to tell me your name and your e-mail address, and I will send you an invite to gain permission to post in this blog.  The reason that I am continuing this project is because I really like what I have so far, and my professor even said that he thinks it could have potential to become a book. (If you would NOT want to be included in this future book idea, that I hope to become a reality, you MUST let me know.  I will respect all privacy rights but for publishing purposes, I think that the screen names MIGHT need to be switched to real names, but I am not sure, yet.) 

2011... __________________________________________________________________________

ALSO, I recently switch the automatic view on the blog to be "Dynamic Views" - Please let me know if this setting is causing you trouble or technical difficulties.  I'm just getting used to it myself, and kind of considering switching back to one of the older views.  If you prefer this, please let me know!

I am home for the week, and really missing my fiance, Steve!!! <3

I am having surgery in a few days for the NF2 tumor that is on my right femoral nerve in my upper thigh, so I would appreciate if you pray for me, if you do that sort of thing. The hopes of myself and my doctors is that the muscle in that area will be able to regain some strength after surgery. Thank you! God Bless!  My surgery will be at 8am in Boston, on Nov. 25th. (of course the day after running a half marathon!)

My first 50k = 31 Miles ... Mendon Ponds Park on Nov. 5, 2011

‎"I never feel more alive than when I'm in great pain, struggling against insurmountable odds and untold adversity. Hardship? Suffering? Bring it! I've said it before and I've come to believe it: There's magic in misery." - Dean Karnazes 
(I liked this quote, but honestly he is just talking, since Dean can't feel any pain!)
 Mendon Ponds Park, Rochester, NY
November 5, 2011

The Mendon Ponds 50k race...
50k runners had to do the 10k loop- 5 times!  There was also races here the same day that began at 9:30 for a 5k, 10k, and 20k. 50k race began at 8:00am.


(A photo essay... There were a lot more pictures but I only selected a few of them.)


I did the 20k at this race in 2009 and figured I'll do it again (last year, I was at NYC Marathon, the same weekend.) I was filling out the registration and saw there is ALSO a 50k race! I thought to myself "I can do that... hmm, what if it snows? ...I don't want to run THAT far in bad weather! ... What if I'd rather sleep in that morning?  What if..."  RIT Running Club informed me that I needed to sign up a couple of weeks in advance, to credit it towards club donations, so I agreed and signed up. I paid the $20 entry fee, still thinking if it snows or cold rain, I can switch to the 20k and just lose $5.... The weather was basically perfect, although I can admit the longest training run I'd done in the month prior to it was 18 miles...

This was the START line for the race... amusing because start line signs for races are generally a good bit larger. Western NY Ultras wanted to do it differently! 

A view of a couple of people on top of the hill, from the starting line...

55 people came out for the start of this race... 49  people finished this race...

Near the end of first loop, sporting my awesome sweatshirt from Sehgahunda Trail Marathon, from May 2011. It was 26 degrees at 8:00am but warmed to about 48 by the time I finished, and the sun was out through the day. 

...This was when I started telling the photographer that there was a golden back that a way. (turns out it was his dog.) ...I'm used to seeing deer along a trail, but I had just been getting into my runner high, when a gold retriever with came dashing through the woods and across the trail!

 Blazing a hill on the course during my 2nd or 3rd loop... that hill is a LOT tougher than it appears to be, due to being loose small rocks and dried dirt.

  

Thank goodness... my ankles are still attached...

A pretty photo of some of the race trail. It was some wide carriage like trails and some very narrow single-track trails. 

This is me finishing my 3rd loop, when I decided  I had warmed up enough to ditch the wind-breaker.

This is me finishing my 4th loop...

This man is asking if I am done and I said I still have ONE more loop!

Beginning my 5th loop... ouch :o)

Wow, there's so few people there that 

the birds became the main attraction.

More birds...

There were benches sort of like these scattered in random places, along the trails of the race course (as well as equestrian horses and couples young and old- enjoying walks) ... When you are running ALONE for 98% of that 31.5 miles, these benches can play mind games... wanna rest or will you keep running? (I never touched any of them, but I'm just saying it was tempting, on 4th and 5th loop.)

Striking a "Prefontaine pose" as my friend referred to it as, while I finish for last place, which is the hardest place. (I did however win my age group though and I was the youngest female finisher, only female finisher under 30!)

I finished in 8 hours, 24 minutes, and 9 seconds.  My legs were just totally killing me, especially the way that my left leg was getting mad at me, for my mind making it do double the work, after my right leg decided to basically go into fail-mode, by the 2nd loop.  (I'm having surgery in 3 weeks for a tumor on my right femoral nerve, and it has been causing great deal of weakness to that leg.  It is the hope of me and my doctor that the muscle there will be able to regain some strength, with work of course, after the tumor is removed.) 

Time for a 6th loop, eh?

Getting my finisher's medal

<-- Food that way (the little sign says "soup & bagels"!)

Daddy said it was a space shuttle...

Been there done that

at least once per year

since I was seven

Dad first told me

it was a space shuttle

I got excited-

A ride to the moon

Mommy drove me 

to visit the shuttle

clouds and animals-

tucans, tigers, monkeys-

covered walls and ceilings.

There it was in a room,

the big space shuttle.

I kept coming back

every single year-

used to put me to sleep

They pricked my hand

I used to cry, cry, cry

It used to have stickers

Lion King stickers, inside

It is just plain white, now.

I am older and I know

it is not a space shuttle

They still prick my hand

I learned to lay still

It's really hard to not-

wiggle, wiggle, wiggle

I still come back

every single year

It used to be very loud

but now the tube is silent.

I used to get a toy-

Now I just get a CD,

and schedule another.