Letter to a First Grade Class

My cousin asked if I would send a note to her son's class talking a little about our life in Colorado.  They live in Pennsylvania and this is a way to make geography a little more relevant for first graders.  So I sent the following note to my little cousin's first grade class last week... with some items changed to protect identities.  ;-)

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Dear Class –

My name is Kathryn and I live on a small farm near Loveland, Colorado with my husband.

We live at the base of the Rocky Mountains between Denver, CO and Cheyenne, WY in an area called The Front Range.   We are close to Rocky Mountain National Park and can see the Continental Divide from our house.

There is a ski area called Loveland also, but that is about 2 hours away.

We raise Huacaya Alpaca and Tibetan Mastiff Dogs.  Our dogs are Livestock Guardian Dogs and protect our alpaca from predators like coyote, mountain lion, black bear and neighborhood dogs.

I shear the alpacas in the spring and spin their fleece into yarn for knitting and weaving.

My husband is a professional wheelchair racer.  He just completed his 6^th Boston Marathon which makes 79 marathons total.  He travels around the US and internationally for races.  He was on the US Paralympic National Team for the ParaPanAmerican Games in Guadalajara, Mexico in 2011.  His fastest time is 1 hour and 36 minutes.

Photo ©Reporter-Herald

I also have a day job managing Information Technology (IT) projects for a company that makes medical devices in Minnesota.  Sometimes I have to travel to Minnesota and Texas for my job, but mostly I work remotely from home which means I am on the computer and telephone all day long.

We like living here because the weather is really nice.  The sun shines almost every day, even in the winter.  We like going to the mountains and walking along the river.

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My cousin said that her son felt special knowing that he has such cool relatives.  ;-)

It was fun to write this letter and take an objective view of our life.

Enjoying the Paralympics

Hubba and I have been enjoying the Paralympic coverage on paralympic.org.

Aside from one morning where I messed up on the timezone math and missed the event I wanted to see by an hour, we've been getting up early to see some events.

After the live coverage, the Paralympic Broadcast is posted to YouTube on the ParalympicSportTV channel.

There have been so many amazing things put forth, but one in particular is the men's T54 (wheelchair) 5000m Final.  This is Hubba's class, so we know something about most of these guys.

The race starts at about 3:16 into this video.



The 5000m on the track is a chess game.  It's all about knocking the others off balance and being in the right place at the right time.

One of my favorite athletes to watch is Kurt Fearnley of Australia.  He is so relaxed and patient while he's racing and hometown boy, David Weir, won gold in front of a packed house.  Definitely an event to watch.

If you scroll back to 2:37 then you can also see the amazing Oscar Pistorius be surprised by the young Brazilian athlete, Alan Oliveira, in the 200m.

In my mind, there is little better for the Paralympic Movement than seeing the brilliant Blade Runner, who did so well at the Olympics, have real competition at the Paralympics.

London

Well, we're not going to London.  :-(

Hubba had good performances at the Trials this past weekend, but it was tough competition.


The full Paralympic Track and Field Team Roster is here and includes Hubba's training partner, Christina Schwab.  Christina (then Ripp) was a member of the Gold Medal Women's Basketball Team at the Beijing Paralympics in 2008.

So when the Olympics are over, I hope you will spend some time on Paralympic.org to see what the Paralympians are doing... August 29 - September 9.

And, if you're so inclined send a note to NBC Sports and the US Olympic and Paralympic Committees.  Ask them to give the Paralympic Team the coverage they deserve.  These people have worked as hard and made the same sacrifices as the Olympians and have equally inspiring stories.  :-)

In Pursuit of London

I dropped Hubba off at the airport today.

He's on his way to the USA Track and Field Trials for the London Paralympic Games.

If you happen to see or talk to me over the next several days, don't be too concerned if I seem to be pre-occupied.

Bolder Boulder - 2011

Monday, Memorial Day was the 33rd Bolder Boulder.  It's one of the largest races in the US and I believe the largest Memorial Day celebration in this country.

It was humid and overcast, but did not rain.

The race starts in waves beginning with the wheelchair race.  Then every 5-10 minutes a wave of runners are started.  The race winds through the city of Boulder, Colorado.  The final athletic event of the day is the International Team Challenge.  Where 3 members from various national teams compete.

The race finishes at Folsom Field, where the CU Buffalos play football.

Since the wheelchair race is first, the stadium is relatively empty but by the time the team challenge starts the stadium is full with people who raced and their families and friends.

Like many other races, there are bands along the course to keep it fun and entertaining for everyone.

Yes, that's a statue of Frank Shorter in a kilt.

Hubba did well.  He finished 3rd. :-)

The Bolder Boulder is a great event.

Los Angeles Marathon - Results

This morning was the 25 annual Los Angeles Marathon.

The wheelchair start was supposed to be 5 minutes before the broadcast began, but due to traffic delays the wheelchair start was shown during the broadcast.  So I was able to see my husband start the race.  Which of course made me very happy.

The broadcast included the starts of the wheelchairs, elite women runners, elite men runners and the citizen's race.  It did not include the hand-cycle start nor the wheelchair or hand-cycle finish.  In fact, I did not witness any wheelchair coverage after the elite women's start.

While I am thrilled to have been able to watch a US road race during a live national broadcast.  I am disappointed that the coverage was so poor for the wheeled athletes.

Krige Schabort won the wheelchair race in 1:39:15
Hubba finished 6th at 1:58:07

Edna Kipligat won the gender challenge today in her second marathon ever.

You can watch the entire broadcast on demand at Universal Sports.

Oita International Wheelchair Marathon

The Oita International Wheelchair Marathon is one of the largest wheelchair only races in the world. This race draws the best racers from across the globe, including 51 year old world record holder Heinz Frei of Switzerland as well as everyday folks and everyone in between.

This year, more than 500 racers will compete in the either marathon or half-marathon.

The people at the Oita Marathon host an amazing event. As a foreigner, the logistics of travelling in Japan are taken care of. They assemble an amazing group of volunteers who are paired up with racers to help them get to where they need to be.

This truly is an international event. When I travelled with hubba last year we met racers from Japan, China, Korea, Switzerland, Spain, South Africa, Bahrain, Australia, Canada and the US.

The race organization publishes a book with pictures of each and every racer with their stats. This is all of the racers, not just the professionals or the likely to be winners. Some of the fans come around the staging area prior to the race to have their picture taken with their favorite racers and gather autographs.

The world record for the marathon in a wheelchair is 1:20:14 and was set by Heinz Frei on this course in 1999. For comparison, the current world record on foot is 2:04:26 and was set by Haile Gebrselassie in 2007 at the Berlin Marathon.

In case you're wondering, a marathon is 26.2 miles. It does not matter if you walk, run or push. A marathon is a marathon. Period.

Today will be the 3rd year hubba has entered this race. There is a live feed here if you're interested in what wheelchair racing looks and sounds like. If you're in the Mountain Time Zone, the feed opens at 7:45 Saturday night (that's today) and the race begins at 8pm.

Results are now posted

The wheelchair race results are now posted for Sunday's Rock 'n Roll Arizona Marathon.

Thank you for your support.

Credit Due

The Rock 'n Roll Arizona Marathon results were posted on line Monday. The Wheelchair results are still not there.


If you had just raced 26.2 miles, wouldn't you at least want your name in print with everyone else?


I talked a little about our experience at this race this year in How would you feel?


Does this bother you? If so, please let them know here.

How would you feel?

The Rock 'n' Roll Race Organization puts on several annual marathon and half-marathon events in the US with huge able-bodied participation.

We have been working with them for some time to increase wheelchair participation. After today though, we're not sure why.

First a little history:

My husband, Bradley Ray, is a top US Wheelchair Marathoner. A marathon is 26.2 miles, regardless of how you do it.

He has finished in the top 10 of most big US marathons. He competes well internationally. He was the top American in Boston in 2008 and the 3rd American at the 2008 US Paralympic Marathon trials. He has completed over 30 marathons and I support him in these endeavors.

As a general rule, race organizers collect participants' belongings at the start, keep them safe and deliver them to the finish. Some organizations do this very well. And some, well here's what happened today...

Today:

Today, my husband won the wheelchair division of the Rock'nRoll Arizona Marathon by 8 minutes. After being congratulated for wining the race, he asked where his chair and bag were so he could get out of his sweaty clothes and call his wife.

They could not find it.

Finally, a contractor said he saw the chair and bag of personal effects at the start about an hour after they had packed up and moved everything to the finish, but he left it there.

Somehow a race staff member learned the chair was at a homeless shelter and told Brad to go get it. Brad politely told her it was their mistake and they should fetch the chair because it had been left in their care. This was their opportunity to correct the situation.

The race organization refused.

The race organization refused to collect my husbands everyday chair and bag of personal effects which they already admitted to leaving behind!

There's was a fair amount of discussion and voices being raised. Finally, the police agreed to pick it up and deliver the chair to Brad's hotel.

In the meantime, we learn the bag of personal effects is not with the chair. So working from home in New Mexico, I cancel our credit card and cell phone. Learning that with the holidays it could be a week before these are replaced... but I digress.

A Ranger finally came with the chair. The Ranger was very upset to be waisting her time delivering wheelchairs to paraplegics. I don't disagree with her, it was RnR's mistake.

Total time without mobility today = 5 hours and 45 minutes.

Future:

As for continuing to work with this organization, I don't think we will. There is a laundry list that needs to be addressed, but basic customer service is basic. Clearly increasing wheelchair participation in not a priority.

Honestly! How would you feel if your legs had been stolen for nearly 6 hours?

picture credit: Brad after the 2008 Oita International Wheelchair Marathon, Kathryn Ray