It was a brisk Oregon afternoon. Temperatures hovered near freezing. The weather forecasts called for a developing snow storm – which in Portland could many anything from a dusting to 1 – 3” inches, all of which guaranteed traffic chaos memes to follow. Any logical or rational person would stay home, make soup, and watch TV. Team Ellen is not that. Team Ellen embarked on its longest training run to date – 9.5 miles!
Now, let me tell you what that means for Team Ellen. That means that Molly and Ellen drive about half an hour to my house. Then Molly begins her routine: layer, upon layer, upon layer of clothing topped by a snowsuit and lovingly made mittens are placed on Ellen. Ellen is walked to the chair. She is placed in the chair and her handmade, waterproof blanket is placed over Ellen and strapped to the chair. Ellen’s puffy and warm hood is adorned. These layers are critically important because Ellen has difficulty regulating her body temperature, so extra care is given to monitoring her temperature as our run proceeds.
“Arthur?” “Arthur?” “Arthur?” Ellen calls out – and Molly dutifully finds the Disney songs Ellen loves so much and places the external BlueTooth speaker in the chair. Hot chocolate and the final items needed for our run are loaded, and we’re off! On this run we transitioned runners about every 1 – 2 miles. Because the combined weight of Ellen and the chair is more than either Molly or I weigh, we are in a testing phase o find the right transition time. We found this transition time to be too long. So, we’ll continue to work on that. Stay tuned for future blog entries about our experiences with our own resident running coach, Charly!
If Ellen’s smiles weren’t enough to convince you that she loved this run, Molly’s post-run text will: “We are an unstoppable team. This year will be hard and awesome. Ellen was in a fabulous mood after our roll.” My heart is so full!