Massage at Grandma's Marathon

This last weekend was Grandma's Marathon in Duluth. Grandma's marathon is always huge every year. Tons of people from all of the country (and the world for that matter) come to Duluth for the event and there are tourists galore down in Duluth's beautiful Canal Park to cheer their friends and family members on. I've known people that have run the full and half marathon before but I have avoided the whole scene every year due to how crazy and hectic it is there. This year was even more so because along with the regular three races (full marathon, half, and wheelchair) there was also two races for olympic qualifiers for the summer olympics this year.

This year, though, was a whole new story. See I've been going to school for massage therapy at DBU in Duluth. I'll be done in September (can't wait!)! One of my teachers sponsors Grandma's Marathon every year and sets up a huge tent down in Canal Park and after the runners are done with their races they can come in to get a massage. I know, you might think that it sounds a little crazy, but if a runner gets a massage after their runs, it can cut their recovery time in half.

Well, because of the school switching around our class schedules this next quarter for Practicum (where we work on clients that come to the school for massage), we now need to make up some hours that we are losing, outside of class at events. Therefore, this is one of the events that we could get massage hours for.

So four of my other classmates and myself did massage at Grandma's marathon this year with about 30-35 other therapists in the massage tent. There was about 40ish therapists there total. Our tent was crazy packed! Literally, the saying 'packed in like sardenes' was very appropriate here.

There was about a foot of space in between the tables for us to work. Talk about figuring out different ways to give massage and running into each other all day long! Thankfully, as you can see, we had covers to put over our tables (which you will probably understand why I was so thankful about that in a minute!).

Myself and three of my classmates woke up before the crack of dawn (literally!) to meet at school at 4AM and carpool down to canal park. I was up before 3AM and only had, at most, 4 hours of semi-sleep in me. You know when you have to get up early, so you cannot sleep? Yeah, that was me. It was 4 hours of half sleeping and/or getting up constantly to look at the clock. Anyway, we met at school at 4AM and everyone hopped in my van and we made it down to canal.

The only people down there that early were the people setting up for the marathon. We had to be there before 6AM anyway because the area that we were in was secured and only volunteers and runners were allowed in. We helped set up massage tables, fill our baskets with supplies and set them out, filled ice packs, ate breakfast, and practiced massage on each other. We had some time to spare so my classmates and I ended up doing Yoga shortly after sunrise.

I was, ahem, not the best yoga person ever. I laughed a lot, fell over a couple of times, and laughed some more. My classmates can be hilarious and it was quite impossible to hold hard yoga poses while you are trying not to laugh! Haha!

Finally the runners started coming in. I had no idea what to expect! Some runners literally cross the finish line and walk straight for the massage tent. They come in sweating profusely, completely exhausted, and lie on your table. Needless to say, the first guy I had on my table, I was pretty grossed out as, well, you don't really need oil to work on them if they are sweating that badly and it gets in every crevice of your hands and nails... Yuck. Hence being thankful for the cover on my table. After about the 2-3rd runner was on my table I got over the grossed out, sweaty part of if and worked away.

The runners mostly complained about their legs hurting. Some about their bums or groins, and some about their lower backs. Some had muscle cramps or had injuries before even running and were in a lot of pain.

Right before my lunch break the full marathon runners came in. I got to work on one of the elite runners, one of the Kenyan guys. It was kind of cool because the body between a half marathon runner, a full marathon runner, and an elite runner are all so different. I had never worked on anyone with that kind of body before and it was pretty cool and interesting!

Lunch came and one of my friends and I took out break together... we had a hard time putting our lunches down our tummies. You go from working on sweaty, and sorry, but honestly smelly people, whose some of their skin comes off while you work on them because hey, we all shed, some worse then others, with only hand sanitizer to clean your hands with, and then you have to go touch your food and eat. *Shudder* I don't have a strong stomach in the first place, that about pushed me over the edge to be completely honest.

The weather started to change drastically and it started to get cold. From that point on all I had was full marathon runners on my table. The first guy I had after lunch started to get hypothermic on my table. I wasn't prepared at all for this. I mean, we had been trained about it, talked about it a lot, but when you are actually faced with it, well it's kinda scary.

From that runner on, almost every single one of my runners got hypothermic. I seemed to get 'lucky' with that because right at the next tables they had zero for the longest time.

It's amazing how fast a runner can turn hypothermic on you. Literally they lay down/ you are working on the for 5 minutes or however long and all the sudden, within 30 seconds, their faces and hands turn completely blue, they start shivering on you uncontrollably, some of them, their eyes almost seem to glaze over, they have no idea what is happening, and you have to start working quick. First I had to throw a towel on them, then the plastic blanket and tuck it in under them so no heat escapes. Then come the hot packs on their major arteries and then it's a waiting game almost. I would still massage them over their cocoon, and especially the areas that weren't covered, and watch them closely. Sometimes I would get super worried if they seemed to be asleep so I would ask them questions about their run or where they were from. Slowly they would stop shivering, and get color back in their faces and hands and most of the time it was like you had a whole new person on your table because they would get talkative and lively again.

By 2PM, when we were done, we were all completely exhausted! We had to carry our massage tables back to my car, load them up and get back to school. My energy level had been pretty good all day. I had felt exhausted at times but not really tired... until half way home. My goodness, I had a hard time staying awake on the way home! When I got home I walked like an old lady up to the house because I was sore and tired, cleaned my hands (like DEEP CLEANED!), took a shower, and fell into bed!

I can honestly say that no matter how gross it was, frightening it was at times, busy, or overwhelming, it was worth going. I learned a ton about the human body, learned some new techniques, met some amazing people, and all the runners that came through were so thankful! It's an amazing feeling knowing that you helped someone!

It was kind of funny a few times. Some of the runners would say 'wow! I don't know who had the harder job today. No part of my (26 mile) run was fun but I sure wouldn't want to be you.' Lol! Then they would go on to thank us profusely. It wasn't that bad but it was still good to know we were appreciated!

Kidney Walk

I had a very interesting and emotional day. A few weeks ago my massage teacher notified my class of the Kidney Walk in Duluth. The walk was looking for massage therapist students to volunteer their time for the walkers and volunteers on walk day. I had originally not signed up to give massages that day but after some fellow students cancelled I volunteered to take their place.

Now I didn't think too much about the walk. I didn't really know too much about what it was about and for whatever the reason I didn't think it was that important. Not because kidney disease or failure isn't serious, I just didn't understand. But, I was very, very wrong. It was very important to so many people.

This morning my friend Melissa, a fellow student, and I met up and DBU and carpooled down to Bayfront for the walk. We set up our chairs and waited for the first people to show up for complimentary massages. Within minutes I found out why this walk was so important and so emotional for so many people. There were two young girls there, maybe 6 and 7, holding a sign that said 'We Walk for Our Brother' and there was a picture of a little toddler boy on the picture. My friend and I were almost in tears when we saw them.

There were also people there with shirt that read 'In honor of Bill, 05/05/12'. Their fellow friend and family member had died less then two weeks ago from a kidney condition.

The hardest one for me was this young boy. His brother and him were maybe 2 years old and they were running around playing. He kept walking by us and I noticed right away that he had blotches and scabby areas all over his face. He walked a tiny bit slower and had a look to his face that I just couldn't forget. I soon noticed that his picture was on the back of quiet a few peoples shirts. It turned out he was sick with a kidney disease. Broke my heart.

I also gave a massage to a lady with a kidney disease. And there was another lady who was being worked on who had just had a funeral the day before for a family member and friend.

It was a hard day and very emotional. I had to keep from crying so many times. But, it was amazing because although it was emotional, everyone had such a light hearted attitude. Everyone was laughing, joking around, and over all just having a good time. I completely salute the families and friends that were there walking for their loved ones.

Congratulations Kidney Walkers for raising over $70,000 today!

so many babies

There are so many babies in my family. I love each and every one of my nieces and nephews! 

From left to right: Tyvan (4), Liam (2), Kyeson (almost 1), Trynica (almost 6), Brendyn (6), Wyatt (1), Berlin (4), Vienna (2), Elizek (almost 2), and Gabriel (3). 

There are 10 children so far ages 6 and under. One more on the way, my sister Kristy's baby is due in June! 

I love these little munchkins!

How to make a cake...

If you have ever made a big fancy cake before, you know that it is a lot of work. It is fun work and it's rewarding and the look on peoples faces when you give them their cake is priceless and enough payment in itself. I love making cakes for people and I love it when people give me free reign when designing the cakes because then I feel free to be as creative as possible. It's awesome!

Some people don't get why it takes so long to make the cakes that I do. I completely understand where they are coming from. I didn't think it took that long either... until I made one and then I understood. So here are some of the steps to making a cake, and, I didn't even take pictures of it all, but what can I say, I'm forgetful! :)

First you must make the cake of course :)

Now you can make your cake from scratch or from a box. It all depends on what you prefer! Making the cake actually takes forever. Well, if you had lots of pans and a double oven it wouldn't take that long, but I only have two pans of the big sizes and one 6 inch pan, so that's 12 minutes per layer times however many layers there are. This particular cake had lots of layers because it was an orange creamsicle devil chocolate cake and it needs lots of layers... the more layers the yummier it tastes!

You want all your layers to be the same so you may want to measure how much you put into each pan...

YUM!!!! Then the cakes must cool down :)

For this cake I had to make the delicious orange cream filling. 

Then we fill the layers! Oh yes! Come to Mama :) In the middle is the orange filling, then a ring of cool whip, and then chocolate frosting! The orange filling melts if it's next to the chocolate frosting, so there must be a barrier in between them. 

Continue stacking...

You could just leave the cake like this if you wanted too... but what fun would that be? :)

Then we dirty ice the tier. I covered the whole thing in chocolate icing and it needs to be as smooth as possible, though it doesn't have to be perfect because you are going to cover it in fondant... Then you stick it in the fridge to settle and get the frosting to harden a bit. 

Then, bad me I didn't take pictures of it, but you cover the tier in fondant. This takes practice and more practice. This cake had some ripples in it that in some cakes I would have normally smoothed out but the theme was a cowboy cake. That meant that I got to do a bandana pattern on the cake and I thought the ripples added character to the bandana/cloth idea. Anyway, I made a fondant rope, scratched it to make it look more real and put it around the bottom of both tiers. Then I hand painted the bandana pattern on both tiers as well. 

For whatever cake you make, and if you want figures on the cake, this is when you would put them on.  You can cut out fondant figures by hand or with cookie cutters. You attach them to the cake with either water or frosting, both act as a glue. 

Then stack the tiers and put on any final touches. And there you have it! A cowboy themed birthday cake! 

brotherly love