One Of Those Days

Yesterday was one of those days. 

Much like September 11th, when I first saw the plane crash into that second tower sitting in Mr. Connell's 1st period class my senior year of high school. Or April 27 2011, when I sat in my office and watched a tornado tear through my hometown of Cullman via live weather stream.

April 15, 2013 will be one of those days. 

An emotional whirlwind of helplessness, despair, fear and anger.

My family and friends are all thankful I wasn't there. 

But honestly? 

Of course I wanted to be there.

All marathon runners hope to be there one day.

The Boston Marathon is the holy grail of marathons. For some runners, qualifying for Boston may not ever happen. For others, it's something that they will work hard for their entire running careers and might get lucky enough to barely squeak by with a qualifying time.

It's an incredible longstanding tradition of celebration and victory, and puts the sport on a national pedestal and glorifies it in a giant media spotlight. 

Yesterday, at the 117th Boston Marathon, the celebration and victory at the last .2 miles was instead clouded with fire and blood soaked sidewalks. 

There were beautiful moments of sportsmanship, like one second after Kara Goucher crossed the finish line and called out for her training partner, asking How'd Shalane do?.... these incredible moments are now tainted by shrapnel and smoke. 

The uplifting last mile of the marathon was dedicated to the Sandy Hook Elementary School victims, yet the inspiration that those victim's families felt sitting in a VIP booth at the finish line quickly turned to total chaos.

When tragedies happen, there are so many questions that may never be answered and emotions that can't be fully tapped into.

Running is primal and the purest of sport, and sport cannot be defeated. 

Runners know how to deal with pain. 

We know how to keep going when the going gets tough, and push ourselves forward with enigmatic strength that only each of us individually knows how to reach from within ourselves.

I know for certain that this too will pass, and that this country and the running community will bound together with relentlessness and come back stronger than ever. We always do.

My main struggle with this entire tragedy right now is that we shouldn't have to.

God grant me the serenity

to accept the things I cannot change;

courage to change the things I can;

and wisdom to know the difference.

Wait, That Wasn't Supposed To Happen...AGAIN!

Someday, the running gods will not look down upon me with adoration and bestow bountiful race day wishes.

Saturday March 2nd in Tuscaloosa, AL was not that day. 

Three weeks ago, I ran the St Pete Half Marathon and PR'd by 4 minutes. I signed up 10 days in advance and hadn't really been training.

That PR wasn't supposed to happen.

Last weekend, I registered for the Tuscaloosa Half Marathon at the very last possible minute.

And PR'd by another 3 minutes off of that.

That REALLY wasn't supposed to happen.

I've never raced back to back, 3 out of 4 weekends, doing two half marathons and a 15K. Would my legs even be strong enough to handle such a ridiculous race schedule? 

There was only one way to find out.

I wasn't certain what to expect out of Tuscaloosa. I was coming to town to visit my friend Jackie and her new baby (who is stubborn and has not been born yet!), and this half marathon just so happened to be on that same weekend. I hadn't been in the city in almost 10 years so I didn't even really remember what it looked like, much less the terrain and elevation.
 All I knew was that it was supposed to be in the low 30's with snow flurries on race morning.

Cue high-anxiety-packing mode. I took 3 different outfits with me to Alabama. 

Florida people just don't know how to dress for sub-50 temps.  

 Rachel was running it too, and it was so nice to have a familiar face out there!

Here we are rocking out our throw-away jackets before the race started
(Photo stolen from Rachel)

The first part of the course was very emotional. I don't know what that Forest Lakes area looked like before the tornado swept through, but I do know what destruction looks like because of seeing the aftermath in my hometown of Cullman (which got hit by an F4 tornado that same day, April 27th 2011). The empty lots, the driveways that lead to nowhere, the mailboxes with no homes behind them, the trees that are stripped of branches but still standing tall like leafless twigs - I recognized it all and felt a huge wave of sorrow. I was running through hallowed ground, where people lost everything including their lives, and I almost flat out cried on the course.

Seeing the empty lots, next to new houses being built, next to houses that were spared, it struck a cord in my soul. 

Course map superimposed onto tornado damage path

The course may as well have been a mini version of San Francisco's elevation chart. 

Hills, hills, hills. Rolling ones. Up, down. Up, down. Just when you think you get some recovery...NOPE! There's another hill waiting for you.

By around the 7th mile I already felt out of steam. I struggled mentally more than I can remember struggling in any race ever, marathons included. I knew I went out fast, and wanted to keep it up, but could feel the fatigue coming over me like a heavy blanket.

I was also all by myself (cue sad music)--- since I've been running, I don't remember ever being alone during a race. There were no strangers to pace with, or draft, or focus on keeping up with to push me a little harder, so the drive to keep going completely fell on my own strength and focus. 

This is where my loner tendencies kinda came in handy, since I almost always run by myself during training. 
 

 These extremely photogenic race shots sum up my feelings of the final 6 miles as a whole.

I was overcome with joy to see that finish line. And even happier to see the time on my Garmin. 

Official Race Results: 

1:41:08 (PR)

7:43/mile

66th overall 

2nd in age group 

After all that struggle, I ended up with a 3 minute and 15 second PR.

I made my way to the finish area to try and catch Rachel as she crossed, and I almost missed her because she was so speedy and crushed her goal with a new 2:02 PR! 

Finish line photo op!

Although Jackie's baby was due THAT DAY, she still came out and supported me at the finish line.

 2nd in my age group meant I got an award.

Cash money! 
Thank you Delane for letting me steal your jacket when my lips turned blue 

So then I was doing some thinking.

The spread on a half marathon and full marathon pace is around 30-40 seconds-ish, right?
Let's theoretically say 30 for this particular demonstration.

If I add 30 seconds to my 7:43 half marathon pace, that is an 8:13 full marathon pace.

(Yay, I can do math.)

But.... 
Do y'all realize what an 8:12 marathon pace would get me? Just one second faster per mile than that?

 A BOSTON QUALIFYING TIME!!

That is, theoretically of course.

Forget the 3:40's, I'm going for a time in the 3:30's this year. You heard it here first, friends.

Now I just have to find a good course.....

Debby Downer

She just came out of nowhere.

When I left work on Friday, the word on the street was that it was supposed to rain all weekend. I don't think any notion of the word "tropical disturbance" was even mentioned.

I spent that rainy Saturday thrift shopping and going to the local tavern with friends to play board games and enjoy a refreshing summer ale.There had still been no conversation or regards to a named tropical system in the gulf, and no warning that it may or may not be wreaking havoc in our county within the next 24 hours.

It didn't stop raining all night.

I woke up Sunday morning to howling winds and sideways rain. I took a look outside and still didn't really think too much of it....in the Florida summers you get kind of used to crazy rain and wind. I did notice the tide was higher than usual and that a few waves were big enough to spray water over the seawall.

Prateek and I went downtown around noon to run a few errands and have some lunch.

After a while, I noticed the wind was a little out of control. . I checked my phone's weather app and there were 5 notifications - a tropical storm watch, a high wind advisory, a high surf advisory, a flash flood watch, and a tornado watch.

WTF?! 

Enter: Debby.

I consider Floridians some of the most prepared in the country when it comes to storms and hurricanes. We have our hurricane preparedness guides posted on our refrigerators. We have storm procedures at work in which everyone is educated on an annual basis. We have a special storm supply of water, food, batteries, and generators. We have hurricane shutters custom made for our windows so that they can be put up to protect our possessions. 

How did we not know about this?? 

My street hadn't flooded in 20 years, according to the neighbors, so I thought that we'd be fine.

Thank the baby Jesus we took Prateek's truck out that afternoon. In the two hours that we were gone, the streets leading up to our neighborhood had turned into rivers about a foot and a half deep..not something my little Civic could have handled without facing it's demise.

This is supposed to be a yard.

We barely got through the estuary that was now our street, and I had an apocalyptic pit in my stomach thinking about what I would face once we got to the house.

The waves were crashing relentlessly against the dock and the seawall at the house, with each crash sending water flying into the yard and rocking the entire dock back and forth.

And it was still two hours until high tide.

Our area is circled above. With the water being pushed into the Bay with no way for it to escape and the 12 inches of rain on top of that, it was no wonder we needed an Ark.

By the time high tide came rolling in, a pylon from the boat lift had broken off and we had lost a few planks. Sea grass was collecting on the seawall from the waves. And the floodwater on my street and the surrounding streets had risen at least another good foot.

Bye-Bye Seawall

What's a resident to do when they're stuck in their home?

Kayak down their street of course!

Making the best of a horrible situation, we set out to explore our now-underwater neighborhood on our kayaks (mine ironically being made by Hurricane.) We saw where water was entering a few houses and lost count on how many flooded-out vehicles there were.

After we got home, our cable and internet went out. We kept track of Debby, street closures, and other storm updates through Twitter (@TBOCom, @TB_Times, @StormTeam8WFLA) and Facebook (Bay News 9, ABC Action News).
I even got a few of my photos uploaded to the news website! I think I may have a future in the press. Call me, Bay News 9.

We got a bit of cabin fever after being stuck in the house for the next 24 hours due to flooding.

We took naps. We cleaned the house. We gave Jadoo a bath. We stared out into the choppy Bay, helplessly watching the waves crash 7-8 feet over the seawall and into our backyard. I taught Prateek how to use Instagram. I ate my feelings in the kitchen.

3 days after the rain had begun falling, the floodwaters finally receded and clean up began.

Besides the lost boat lift pylon, a handful of lost deck planks and beams, sea wall erosion, and certain death of an extensive chunk of the lawn from being saturated in seawater and sitting underneath hundreds of pounds of seagrass, we were fine. 

Silver lining? We had no water in the house, never lost power, and had no downed trees. That's a lot more than I can say for some of our neighbors and other residents of the Tampa Bay area. 

I'm fairly certain at this point with the tornado hitting my hometown and now with Debby, I've had my fair share of mother nature's wrath for a while. 

Thank you to everyone for your concern and phone calls!

Cleanup has begun, so if you're bored and want to come pick up some storm debris and smelly seagrass, head on over to Snell Isle/Shore Acres -- we'll put you to work!

I'll Never Forget

April 27th will never be "just another day" in the minds of Alabamians. It will forever be a feeling in the pit of our stomachs that emerges at the faintest threat of another tornado.

 -Kathleen Davis, weather.com

I'll never forget that Wednesday afternoon. 
Sitting around on my lunch break, checking twitter updates on my phone. 

I'll never forget seeing the tweet about a tornado heading for Cullman.

 I'll never forget being in my office, freaking out, watching James Spann's live report of the tornado ripping through the city.

I'll never forget the pit in my stomach that wouldn't go away. That feeling of hopelessness, sadness, and fear for my loved ones and friends.

I'll never forget calling  my best friend Jackie from Cullman to make sure her family was OK, even though she now lived in Tuscaloosa and was "safe".

I'll never forget  later that afternoon sending Jackie weather updates via text as she sat in a basement in Tuscaloosa, living out the nightmare-ish day first hand.

I'll never forget Prateek and I packing up his truck to take supplies to my ravaged hometown and driving the 11 hours overnight, pulling into Cullman at 6AM. 

I'll never forget seeing Jackie's house for the first time-- half blown down, but her and her family all standing there alive and well, picking up the pieces.

I'll never forget staring at the remnants of my church's Sanctuary. Or trying to remember what once stood on those empty city blocks.

You don't really understand how devastating it is until you're standing in the middle of the rubble.  And you don't really understand the sense of a community pulling together for a common good, until even after going through such tragedy, you can still feel the warmth of a neighbor's good heart.

 

May this day never be forgotten by our community, and may it always remind us how strong of a state we live in.

God Bless Alabama, my Heart of Dixie! 

 

"My" Cullman, "My" State

 Growing up, I thought Cullman was super lame. Nothing to do, no shopping mall, no activities for kids my age – all we had was our 3-movie theater and a bowling alley. Some hung out at the old train depot, some in the high school parking lot, and some chose to “cruise” up and down US 31 on weekends. You would see at least 10 people you knew in the Dairy Queen after church on Sunday nights, or at Denny’s on a Friday after the football game. There wasn’t really anything open past 9:00 (until the Wal Mart super center was built at least). Even though we were bored, we lived in a town with no heavy crime and no heavy drugs or alcohol abuse. We could feel safe leaving our front doors unlocked, and having your kids ride up and down the street on their bikes to a neighbors house without fear of them getting kidnapped. It was a great place to raise a family, and I’m so glad looking back that it’s where my parents decided to raise the Malone brood.

Cullman, being the small town that it was, never got much attention, especially national attention. In the past few years, you may have noticed Cullman in the movie Bruno (where he goes “camping” with some good ole boys), or on youtube for a famous “commercial” spoof that has 2.5 million hits (watch it here, it’s actually pretty funny). It was never on CNN’s breaking news, never trending on Twitter, and videos of Cullman were never shown on news channels around the globe.

On April 27, 2011, that all changed.

Around 3pm, I logged on to twitter (you can follow my random boring tweets at @marymm if you so desire.) An old friend of mine tweeted “Tornado emergency for Cullman. Officially freaking out.” I logged onto James Spann’s TV station on Ustream and watched the Cullman skycam live, which showed a monster tornado ripping through downtown. I watched this thing literally destroy my city, sitting helplessly in my office chair 650 miles away.

*Side note*…. in the words of one of my best friends Kate: “James Spann, I miss you. Part of me is glad you haven't moved to a national outlet when you so obviously deserve it. But I am glad you are still in north Alabama. We love you.”   No truer words ever spoken my friend!

I took a video of my computer screen as it was happening...if you turn the volume way up, you can hear James Spann as he describes the tornado hitting the courthouse and First Baptist Church.

  

What is being reported as of late is 3 tornadoes tore through downtown Cullman. Literally from one end to the other.

 The Cullman regional hospital got hit. The Courthouse basement doors where people took shelter were split from the hinges as the roof was being torn off. The First Baptist Church’s steeple was pulled apart and the back of the building ripped open. My home church, First United Methodist, looks like a haunted house with the windows blown out and the roof gone. A popular local café, the Busy Bee, had its roof cave in, reportedly trapping people inside. Everything within blocks of these structures had all their windows blown out too, and some of the old, historic buildings downtown just crumbled to the ground like a pile of bricks. 

 Before you know it, CNN is reporting Cullman’s tornadic activity on their breaking news feed. Cullman was the 5^th highest trending topic on Twitter. As I watched the local Tampa Bay news last night, videos of MY hometown were being shown. Terrifying videos and photos start to surface on social media outlets of the monster tornado and all it’s damage.

Here is a video of the damage from a local news station:

Here's another video of Cullman destruction from James Spann:

http://wbma.videodownload.worldnow.com/WBMA_20110427201957070AC.mp4

Amazing aerial footage to put it in perspective:

http://youtu.be/hR83MBQNGqw

More aerial footage: 

http://bit.ly/cullmantornadoaerial 

Aerial Photo:

To give you another angle, here are some before/after pictures:

I am pretty sure this was Vincent's furniture...the entire brick top of the building is gone compared to the photo below.

Vincent's Furniture, before the Tornado

First United Methodist Church 

Church after Tornado - windows blown out, roof blown off

A closer view of the church

This store was called "Little Bit of Everthing" - AKA "Little Bit" store. It was in an old Ford Dealer building - they covered the Ford logos with bricks on the upper facade after he store opened.

Little Bit store now - all the bricks were knocked off the top, showing the old Ford signs

Little Bit store again, crumbled to the ground.

Many of my friends and acquaintances have been directly affected, and are stranded without power and gas, and some no longer have homes at all.

And this is only the beginning. A tornado just as big ripped through downtown Tuscaloosa a little over an hour after it hit Cullman, staying on the ground for over 100 miles all the way to metro Birmingham, where it grew to 1 ½ miles wide. It left a trail of destruction that could be compared to the Tokyo earthquake.

 Cullman is a very unique and special town to anyone that lives there or has ever lived there, and I believe that anyone from the area would call it “their” city, or “their” Cullman. These aren’t just buildings and structures to these folks – this is their history, their century-old family businesses, their way of life, their childhood, their homes, their everything. That is MY history and MY childhood, being shown on CNN in ruins. I’ve never felt so unnerved, helpless and just plain heartbroken.

Power and damaged transmission lines could take 7-9 days to repair and restore power to the city. Cell towers and radio towers have been destroyed. The president has called for a state of emergency, and federal help is on the way, however so much needs to be done locally. I’ve seen a few notes already about volunteers being called to help in the area, and seen pages on facebook for donations through Toomers for Tuscaloosa and also sites such as American Red Cross – click on the icon below for more info. 

Keep your eyes peeled as the days go on for updates and other ways to help and volunteer, but I’d be just fine with only a few prayers for my Cullman, and for my State. 

If you have any stories, updates on the city of Cullman or the state of Alabama, links to pictures, videos, or any updates on ways to volunteer, please comment below and share!!  

Here are a few other links I've found that have pictures of other very hard hit areas, including Birmingham and Tuscaloosa:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1381398/US-storms-Death-toll-leaps-85-Obama-declares-state-emergency.html

Here is a link showing a compiled list of videos for the Tuscaloosa tornado:

http://www.reelseo.com/tornado-outbreak-shows-speed-power-social-video/

Here's a link to photos from all the way down in Lake Martin, near Montgomery/Auburn : 

http://kennethboone.smugmug.com/News/Tornado-photos-by-Fred-Dobbs/16816576_rzftNC#1269061139_9BVVRmq