Andy Smallman

Here’s an extreme close-up of our niece Perrin, who is spending the night with us tonight, the first time. The title of tonight’s entry refers to the fact that she’ll be sleeping in Chloe’s bed. As such, we decided to call her “Little Chloe” and have anointed Ella to be her big sister.

As I write it’s 8:30pm. Big sister Ella and “Little Chloe” are snug under blankets watching the Grinch. For a chilly Friday night in December, it doesn’t get much better than this. That is, unless you add in the fact that after dinner we all ventured to Trophy Cupcakes at U Village to pick up cupcakes for dessert. When the idea was first being bantered about, I’m pretty sure “Little Chloe” didn’t think we were serious. Once we explained that in OUR house we spend every Friday night going out for cupcakes and staying up all night to eat them, I think some confidence in the idea was had.

Apparently in “Little Chloe’s” house, they don’t often go out at night for cupcakes.

A good friend commented on my Facebook page today that I looked young while crossing the finish line in Sunday’s half marathon. What a nice thing to say. Interestingly, I was having just the opposite reaction, especially after seeing this photo of me taken by Melinda moments after I crossed the line. Other than the fact that I’m wearing contacts instead of glasses and therefore look quite a bit different, even to me, don’t I look a bit old? Wrinkles, gray in my beard, dripping water on my forehead…

Hey, I am holding my finisher’s medal, though.

It is a funny thing I’m experiencing at age 48, how I feel younger than I think I appear to other people. For instance, when I’m out in public, say in a grocery store, I see someone and think, “Oh, he’s probably my age.” Thinking about it later and talking to Melinda, I come to conclude that this “he” is probably under 30. Similarly, the people I think now look old are probably my age.

It’s like when I got to the age where all the Seattle Mariners on the team roster were younger than me. Is that some kind of milestone? Or the start of some kind of crisis?

I got an email today with a link to a website containing a couple of professional photos taken of me on Sunday during the half marathon. Truth be told, I snagged this one from that site, of me crossing the finish line. But I’m not too interested in paying what they’re asking for nice copies.

In reviewing the results, as I mentioned on Sunday I came in 751st place. I also learned that a friend and neighbor of ours, the father of one of Ella’s friends, came in 18th. He’s faster than me. He also is a curator at the EMP Museum and once gave an after hours tour of the museum to Elvis Costello and Diana Krall. That makes him much cooler than me, too. So I’m okay with him beating me.

But I also got beat, and by nearly 8 minutes, mind you, by another acquaintance of mine, a man a year older than me who attended the same high school I attended. His name? Rob McKenna. You Washingtonians may have heard of him. He’s the state’s Attorney General and has a good shot at being the next Governor.

Rob, I’ve got my marathon sights set on you and your time.

Today Melinda and I received a wonderful email from Laurent in Nantes. It came under the subject line “Repas Français” (French Meal). The message is so wonderful, I present it here in its entirety:

Hi Andy and Melinda,

We send you three pictures from last weekend during the Saturday dinner where we invited friends. It was just before your half marathon! It was the 26 November about 21h00 at Nantes and 11h00 at Seattle (Not a good meal before run). We eated your favorite french plate Andy! Cuisses de canard confit… And to disgest we drank a little glass of Liqueur de Poire William … Your bottle Andy! It was just to your health to wish you a good race.

More soon.
Sorry for my english!
Laurent

If such a thing is possible, this message makes my heart smile. And I suppose that Laurent might be a little embarrassed that I’ve quoted his entire message, but I hope not. His support and sentiment is unmistakable.

Today’s photo is one of the three photos attached to the email. Indeed, that’s Laurent, drinking to my health the night before my half marathon from the bottle I gave him just before we left France.

Salut, Laurent!

Our refrigerator doubles as a chalkboard. Pretty old school, don’t you think? I mean, just where do you see chalk any more? I’m even a teacher and I haven’t used chalk in several years. I, um, chalk it up to progress.

Chalk it up. That’s priceless.

Anyway, Melinda and I got home yesterday morning from the marathon and found this chalk-written message on our frig. Pretty nice, a thank you note from Andrea and Anna, Chloe’s two friends who spent the Thanksgiving holiday with us.

Truth be told, both girls were exceptionally nice, ideal house guests. Andrea, as I mentioned, is from Bolivia. Her mother even called FROM BOLIVIA to thank us for hosting her daughter. That’s classy.

There I am, at about the 7 or 8 mile mark of the half marathon in today’s Seattle Marathon. The conditions of the race were pretty bad. If this was a horse race, the track would have been labelled sloppy. But I ran my race, finishing in an unofficial chip time of 1h51m13s, a tad faster than my projection. Considering the wind, the sideways rain, and a large blister I developed on the bottom of my right foot because my feet were soaked, and I’m very pleased.

Checking the results, of the nearly 2800 men who participated in the half, I finished in 751st place, meaning I outran over 2000 men! I was 60th out of 293 in my age bracket, something for which I’ll take some pride, especially since this was my first half marathon.

A couple more things to note. First, kudos to Melinda for finding me to take this picture. The blurriness is kind of fun. No doubt, it has to do with my speed. I heard her call my name and looked up and tried to smile just as she snapped it. Second, what a crazy mess the start of the race was, thousands of people trying to get started in a tight spot. Because of that, the first mile was my slowest. 9 minutes! Lastly, you can learn more about the weather and the race by reading this article.

As I ran I was thinking of Laurent, especially the comment he made to me after he had finished the Nantes Marathon in April. As we celebrated his run with a festive meal that afternoon, he explained how a beer was good for your legs after a marathon.

That’s right. I’m about to have half a beer right now.

In exactly 12 hours I’ll be about 60 minutes in to the Seattle Marathon, the half marathon to be precise. The starting gate is set to spring open at 7:30am and I hope to have completed the 13.1 miles in a little less than 2 hours. I’ve estimated my time to be 1 hour and 53 minutes. Averaging an 8 minute mile would have me coming in just under 1 hour and 45 minutes so I’m buying myself a little more time, even though I averaged less than 8 minutes per mile in the 10k I ran in October. I’m just not sure what to expect tomorrow.

Yesterday I picked up my participants’ packet at the Westin Hotel in downtown Seattle. An entire floor of the Westin is dedicated to the marathon. One room is just for people to pick up their packets. In another room I picked up my shirt (that’s it in today’s photo). Vendors literally were stacked wall to wall in another spot. Then there’s the place to buy more gear, including a “finisher’s shirt.” Goodness.

Laurent, I’m thinking of you and will be keeping you in the front of my mind as I run. If you see this in time, start thinking of me at about 16:30 in Nantes and keep thinking until about 18:30. That’s when I’ll be running.

What could be nicer for Melinda and me than a showcase photo like this? Here they are, our daughters, Chloe & Ella. The picture is from last night’s Thanksgiving dinner, just before the food was served. Looking at it carefully, I am quick to note how grown up the girls are. Well, I guess at 18 Chloe is considered a grown-up. But Ella is just 14. Ah, what the heck. They’re both just my girls.

I’ve had a little “alone time” with each girl today. Ella and I watched a couple of episodes of the TV show “Modern Family.” I hadn’t really watched it before but had heard good things about it. I found it quite funny, especially the episode in which a couple decided to go on a juice fast. Given Melinda and I did just that a few weeks back, it was especially timely and funny.

After going shopping with Andrea and Anna this afternoon, Chloe wanted to get some Indian food. Doing this was on her wish list of things to do over the holiday weekend. We ordered a couple of dishes from her favorite Indian food restaurant, Bengal Tiger, and together, she and I went to pick them up to bring home. It was nice having time alone with her in the car.

As the girls have gotten older, I’ve looked forward to having more of these adult interactions with them.

To Chloe’s right (left side of the photo) is Andrea. And on Chloe’s left is Anna. Please meet two of her best friends from college, both of whom are spending the Thanksgiving holiday with us. I took this photo using Anna’s incredible camera just before dinner, wanting a shot of the three young women for today’s entry.

Andrea, I’ve mentioned before. She’s Chloe’s roommate and you may recall that she is from Bolivia. Anna is from Singapore. Both girls have become part of Chloe’s circle of best girlfriends. Watching them interact, I’m reminded of all the stories one hears about the lifetime connections with college friends. Clearly, these three care about each other.

They arrived last night at about 10:45, a little more than two hours later than Chloe had hoped. A big reason for the tardy arrival had to do with getting stopped at the Canada-US border. Apparently, both Andrea and Anna had to explain why they were entering the US, where they were staying, stuff like that. This necessitated a trip inside the immigration office at the border. One part of their border crossing story made me chuckle, though. A good-natured immigration officer apparently told the two that it is a US tradition for Thanksgiving dinner guests to clean the rugs of their host’s home.

As you might expect, I keep asking when they plan to get this job done.

Here’s a photo I took at last Saturday night’s Cystic Fibrosis 2011 Breath of Life Gala in Denver, Colorado. This is the event that Melinda and I attended, present to show our love, support and respect for Bill and Teresa Elder, longtime friends of the Smallman family. As I mentioned a couple of days ago, Bill & Teresa’s son Bill, Jr (Billy) has cystic fibrosis. Born in 1987, Billy was diagnosed, I believe, in the early 1990’s. Since then, Bill and Teresa have worked tirelessly in support of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. On Saturday night they were being honored for their years of service.

At age 24, Billy’s health is very good and thanks in no small part to his parents’ efforts. On Saturday night he was called on stage to make a speech to the several hundred of us who had gathered for the event. He talked about a new drug that has been tested to be very effective in the treatment of CF, one that looks likely headed for FDA approval. This is exciting news.

I snapped this picture as Billy was talking, doing my best to include Bill, his proud father, in the foreground. Truth be told, it was a proud moment for all of us connected to the Elder family.