The (Mis)Adventures of a Jogging Stroller Mom

Holy Highwater, Batman!

2012-01-24T09:44:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I finally sucked up enough motivation to get out the door for my run. I'm glad that I didn't wait until the evening to do it. As it was, we didn't leave until a little after 11am, which meant that both kids were ready for their naps and were asleep within the first mile. I only had 5 miles planned, which wouldn't make for very long naps and since both Leona and Jonny are in a one nap a day mode (if that) I figured I needed to draw it out as long as possible. I considered adding mileage onto my run... maybe turn it into an 8 mile loop, but after contemplating that momentarily I opted to make it a really slow, sight seeing kind of 5 mile run instead. My first stop (if you don't count the Honey Bucket by the lacrosse fields, which was surprisingly clean by the way... gotta love pregnancy bladder) was EWEB plaza. There is no question that the Willamette River was looking a bit higher and dirtier than usual but I was shocked to see how high it really was. I ran this exact route on Saturday and the water was no where near as high as it was yesterday. I as truly amazed because (not withstanding today) it has hardly rained the past few days.

The river viewpoint at EWEB plaza was totally flooded:

Here is the same spot, last summer:

I was quite surprised to see the water so high, but continued on my run. As I was crossing the DeFazio bridge, I was amazed to see how high the river really was.

My intended route was completely submerged.

The ducks were sure enjoying swimming down it though:

Luckily there are plenty of places to run through Alton Baker Park, so I didn't have to alter my route too much. It's dumping buckets again today though, so I would imagine that the path won't be draining out anytime soon. Probably a good thing that I didn't try and run it in the dark... I would have been in for a very wet surprise.

In kid news, Jonny likes to escape from his bed several times every night. Usually I'm pretty good about catching him and quickly sending him back to it. Last night, however, I was talking on the phone to my mom when both he and Leona came down the stairs. I sent them back to bed but then neglected to check up on them. When Dan got home from studying and we were headed to bed we went up to tuck everyone in and neither Leona or Jonny were in their beds. After a little bit of searching we found them... tucked neatly in with the few stuffed animals that hadn't been rendered homeless. Crazy kids!!

Jonny, after we had extricated Leona off of him.

Speaking of Jonny, earlier in the evening, Calvin had been unloading his clothes from the dryer and left the door open... Guess where we found Jonny after dinner?

Monday Mumblings

2012-01-23T10:18:00.000-08:00

I'm not a big fan of Monday. I don't know why... I should be excited, Emme and Calvin go back to school, Dan goes back to work and I have the whole brand new week ahead of me. Plenty of time to do some cleaning and laundry and baking and since it just started I'm not yet behind on anything. However, as the day is slowly ticking away all grey and drizzly outside, I'm having a hard time getting motivated to do much of anything. There is lots of stuff I want to do, but I guess I just don't know where to start. Do you ever have those days?

Leona really wants to go running. I need to go running and I will go running at some point today, I'm just not sure if it is on the top of my priorities right now. I suggested that maybe I go running tonight after she is in bed, but she is insisting that she and Princess Cinderella and Princess Aurora and Princess Tina and Jonny and some graham crackers would really, really, really like to ride in the stroller for a while. It's kind of hard to argue with that. I think that girl will be genuinely sad when the new baby comes and she loses out on stroller time. Maybe I need to look into a triple jogger?! ha ha. I'm sure that I'll be happier later tonight if I've already gone running so most likely we'll head out in the next half hour or so... buuuuut I'm still not really feeling it. Decisions, decisions.

The weekend was mostly uneventful. Emme had her first ever sleep over and surprisingly made it the whole night at her friend's house. She felt pretty grown up, I think, doing so. I woke up sort of early to do my long run on Saturday. The plan had been to leave by 6am, but I ended up sleeping in a bit and not getting out the door until 7. The later time, coupled with the figure 8 loop I planned that brought me past my house a little over half way through the route, wasn't a good combination. It was too warm for my coat, but my hands were freezing so I stopped off at home, after the first 6 miles, to pick up my gloves. Everyone was happy to see me and it should have been the time I was done, but with the later start, I still had close to an hour left. I suggested to Dan that maybe I was tempted to be good at 6 but then told him I'd stick it out for the remaining 5... he was very encouraging and of course I didn't regret doing the whole 11 miles.

No real plans for the week. It's actually somewhat of a step back week as far as training goes, so no double digit runs. The kids don't have school on Friday, so I'm thinking possibly about some big plans for the weekend, but we'll have to see how it all works out. Hope you are enjoying your Monday... I'll try to get a bit more chipper about mine. Ugh, I don't like Monday.

We love our Timbers...

2012-01-20T06:30:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday, while I was off running 12 miles with Leona and Jonny, Dan took Emme and Calvin to a free soccer clinic put on by the Portland Timbers, "Dribble Oregon".

source

The Timbers, are without a doubt our favorite soccer team, so it was super exciting for the kids to go and meet up with a couple of the players as well as Timber Joey. They had an awesome time at the clinic where Emme managed to get a couple of goals on keeper Jake Gleeson and even managed to get her picture in Sunday's paper:

Source

Both kids were also able to score some airtime on the local news, no speaking parts, but some nice kicking ones:

both images, I lifted via screen shots from here (which is also where you can watch the clip if you want)

While the Timbers players, Jake Gleeson and Eric Brunner, were in town they planted a few trees, held the soccer clinic and then met up with the Echo Squadron, Eugene's subgroup of the Timber's Army. They also had similar adventures in Klamath Falls, Bend, and Salem. I think it's pretty cool that they are traveling around the state getting kids excited about Oregon's very own MLS soccer team.

Here are a few pics that I didn't have to steal:

Calvin (in green) passing with Eric Brunner

Emme (tie dye and braids) waiting to get autographs

Last spring, Emme and Calvin also had the opportunity to go to a Timber's match and escort players out on the pitch (if you missed that post, you can check it out HERE). I think our plan to make sure the kids are obsessed about the Timbers as Dan and I are (mostly Dan, although I'm coming around too) is working out quite well.

Never regret a run...

2012-01-19T08:17:00.000-08:00

After a little bit of whining about no motivation and slightly miserable weather (windy & rainy) yesterday, I loaded the kids up in the stroller and we headed out for our lovely 6 mile adventure. I'm really glad I did. In fact, I don't think I've ever gone for a run that I haven't been glad I did. It was pouring, but it wasn't too cold. Jonny fell asleep before we were 1/2 mile in and Leona had a snack and two princess barbies "Cinderella" and "Tina" (what you haven't hear of Princess Tina?!) to keep her entertained. When we got off the sidewalk and onto the bike path the amount of rain was much more evident... the path was flooded. You probably can't tell, but there is water literally pouring off the grassy area onto the path before headed downhill towards Amazon Creek.

Amazon Creek, by the way, was looking much less creek-like and much more like it's big, big Amazonian sister... the real Amazon River. I was impressed. With 100% chance of rain over the next, oh, I don't know, 4 months (it is winter in the PacNW after all) it might really make a name for itself.

The ducks however were having a lovely time swimming in the lake formerly known as Amazon Park.

For the most part the run was pretty uneventful. There were some occasional wind gusts that were pretty strong and for the mile that I was pushing the stroller directly into the wind it was pretty miserable, but I knew that as soon as I hit 3 miles I'd find my cross street that would turn us around for a mile with the wind completely at my back... better believe that was my fastest mile of the run.

As far as pregnant running goes, I think I've kind of gotten into a groove. I'm pretty uncomfortable for the first little bit, maybe a mile or so, then either I get used to it or I stop being uncomfortable, either way works for me. My paces have dropped considerably, but I'm really okay with that. I still every once in a while hit a groove where I see numbers that I'm little more used to and they make me smile but, again, I'm not overly concerned with getting progressively slower... it's going to happen. I've found that I'm much hungrier and definitely can't head out without having a quick snack first. Yesterday, I ate a banana and a handful of Craisins and managed to make the whole 6 miles without a grumbling tummy. I've been trying to increase my water intake during the day, but really struggle during the winter... it's a lot easier to drink water when it's hot outside. Anytime I'm running 6 miles or more I'm also taking water with me. On the other hand I try not to drink too much right before I head out because in the winter time, bathrooms on my routes are mostly closed for the season.

I need some motivation...

2012-01-18T08:45:00.000-08:00

Lately I have been lacking a whole lot of motivation... for running, blogging, parenting... really just about everything. (Well, everything except finishing books 2 and 3 of the Hunger Games series, I did manage to get that done over the past few days, thanks to a good friend who loaned me her copies.) Last night I went to a girls' night where we played "Just Dance 3" until the wee hours of the morning (11pm... trust me, that's late for me.) Before I left I got my running stuff ready so that I could get up this morning and get my run in sans stroller. I knew it would be hard to pull myself out of bed after only a few hours of sleep (it was well after midnight when I finally "wound down" enough to fall asleep) but I also knew that it was important as today's weather forecast called for lots of rain and high winds... which is not very conducive for stroller running. However, when 4:40am rolled around and I was rudely awakened from my dream about dancing camels and I heard nothing but pounding rain and blowing trees, sleep won out.

Now, here I sit trying to convince myself that this run is important and I need to get out and do it. Here's a glance at the current weather situation:

I have no idea where it got the idea of "light rain", trust me with water cascading down the sidewalk outside of my house and a nice puddle building at the storm drain on the street corner there is absolutely nothing "light" about what the rain is doing right now. It's the kind of rain where one would get absolutely drenched walking from their front door to the street and back. I live in Eugene though, the rain I can deal with. Yes, I'll get soaked but I'll eventually dry out again, it's the wind that really gives me hesitation. Have you ever pushed a double jogging stroller into a 27mph wind gust... not a pleasant thing to do... it makes for some really slow going. (No joke, I seriously just saw a huge plastic garbage can be blown out into the road.) At what point does it stop becoming a question of motivation and start becoming a question of sanity... would it be crazy to take my kids out there right now or myself for that matter? Where is my treadmill when I really need it?!

Just some random things...

2012-01-12T11:31:00.000-08:00

1. I started and finished The Hunger Games yesterday. I have a really hard time putting books down once I start them, especially if they're good books. I knew this would happen and tried to put off reading it as long as I could. I've been on hold for it at the library for close to 6 months and when my name finally came up I was super excited but waited 4 days (there is a 7 day hold limit) before picking it up. Then, once I got it home I knew once I started reading it I wouldn't be able to put it down, so I made myself wait 3 more days and several batches of laundry before finally picking it up. Now it's over and I'm #38 on the hold list for the second book in the series. Even though I can keep the first book for another 2 1/2 weeks, I'm hoping that by taking it back to the library today I will get some good library karma and maybe the wait list for book 2 will move along a little bit faster.

2. I ran 6 miles yesterday. This is the longest I've gone since my ultra and since I started really feeling (and looking) pregnant. It started off pretty slowly but it was a beautifully sunny, although freezing cold morning. I bundled the kids up and by waiting until 11:30 to go (I had to finish Hunger Games first) they were both asleep within the first mile. I felt a lot better on the return trip then I did on the way out and even though 3 miles about killed me on Monday, I'm feeling good after the 6 yesterday. This gives me hope that maybe taking 3 weeks off was taking a toll on me and I'll be able to get back into a nice running groove pretty easily as I continue to build my mileage back up.

3. Tomorrow is my ultrasound appointment for my pregnancy. Normally this is the appointment that I am super excited for... getting to find out the sex of the baby. We've decided this time though, to go with the whole "surprise" theme and not determine the baby's gender. I'm still excited for the appointment it's always cool to get to see the baby, but somehow not finding out the gender takes a little of the thrill out of it.

4. I'm tired of changing diapers. I've been changing diapers for the past 8 years, pretty much daily... although there was a small reprieve between Calvin and Leona. I suppose one would think, "You've been doing it for 8 years, aren't you used to it?!" Well, I suppose I am used to it and I'm quite proficient and really pretty quick at it, but it surely doesn't mean that I enjoy it. I don't even want to know how many poopy diapers I have changed since Emme was born... tooooooo many. With the addition of the new baby, I have probably another 3 years of diaper changing to go. I told Dan the other day that if at any point in our old age he needs to be put in diapers I will be hiring a nurse to take care of him. He assured me that if he gets to that point I won't need to be calling a nurse but someone with a little more "lethal ability".

5. I suppose that's about it, but I hate to sign off while talking about poop. Instead, I'll leave you with a super cheesy running joke about two things near and dear to my heart... running & blondes:

A blonde goes out for a run. She comes to a river and cannot see a bridge anywhere nearby. She spots another blonde on the opposite bank. "Yoohoo doll!" she shouts, "How can I get to the other side?" The second blonde looks up the river then down the river then shouts back, "You're already on the other side!"

Hope you all have a super sunny, poopy diaper free, day.

My evil plan... it's working, muah ha ha.

2012-01-10T08:57:00.000-08:00

I'm slowly but surely turning my mom into a running fanatic like myself. I am so proud. :)

Yesterday afternoon, after talking about the benefits of doing speed workouts on a treadmill vs a track or just her regular running route, I introduced my mom to the wonderful gem (in my opinion, at least) that is Runningwarehouse.com. See, my mom has been running in the same exact shoes for a very, very, very long time... we're talking years here. Not only does she run in them, for the most part when she's not at work, I think she wears them for everyday shoes too. Needless to say, they have a lot, a lot of miles on them. As she has been running more steadily and picking up her mileage those worn down shoes are starting to be more noticeably uncomfortable and most likely causing some of the extra aches and pains that she is experiencing. For probably the last 6 months, I've been trying to convince her that she needs to invest in some new running shoes. Some shoes that she can train in and will take her to her first half marathon in May.

Let me give you a little background on my mom. She is the most unselfish and practical person I've ever known. Without a doubt she's of the philosophy "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without." She never, and I really mean never, splurges on herself. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but there are times where it's a good thing to pamper oneself even if only ever so slightly. So anyway, the thought of purchasing brand new running shoes, even though her other ones mostly seemed fine, took a lot of getting used to for her. I like a good challenge though, so I've been working on her and last night she finally caved.

Enter runningwarehouse.com. Yesterday afternoon, I was checking out their site and found some great running shoes on their sale page that I thought would work for my mom. So, after I knew my mom was back from her 3+ mile run I called her up and dangled the bait in front of her nose.
"Hey mom, I found some really pretty Nike Pegasus shoes on sale online."
"But I don't know what size I need."
"Well, that's the awesome thing, with free shipping and free returns if you order a size that doesn't work out for you, you aren't out anything, just exchange it for the size you need. They even send the return postage with your package so you don't have to go to any extra trouble to return them."
"Ooh, I like it when companies do that."
So, I told her where she could find the shoes.
"Oh, those are really bright, I kind of like them."
"Plus, with a 15% off deal they are offering to their Facebook fans on all sale items, they would be even cheaper."
Just like that, she was ready to get them. But wait there's more. Once she added the shoes into her basket then all the cool deals came up. Get a free reusable shopping bag with purchase and a free decal. Also, get some arm sleeves for only $5 and some running socks for only $3. Thinking about running socks made her realize how much she really likes her pair of compression socks.
"Do they have compression socks on here?"
"Absolutely!"
Done and done.
Now in just two days (assuming the fit works well), my mom is going to be sporting her brand new running shoes:

aren't the purty?! Source

some arm sleeves:

and some really high quality compression socks

source

that she can tote around in her Running Warehouse shopping bag

she went with the green one... Go Ducks!

... all of which she got a great deal and free two day shipping on! Yep, pretty sure I've created a monster.

I realize I probably sound like a paid solicitor for runninwarehouse.com, but I've been meaning to post my love for their company for a long time. I've ordered many, many, many things (read too many, probably) from them and have never been disappointed. They usually have amazing deals and on the rare occasion that I had to speak with customer service I have been very pleased with their knowledge and compassion.

I know it's probably better to support one's local specialty running store, which I do when I can (I love, love, love Eugene Running Company... trust me, they've received their fair share of my money too), but sometimes a good deal is a good deal and it can't be passed up. In addition, not everyone (like my mom for example) has a running store that they can frequent.

It should be noted that although on several different occasions I had a few items in my virtual shopping basket I did not purchase a thing (even though there was a skirt that is absolutely perfect for the Hippie Chick Half in May and some nice Brooks arm sleeves and, a top that was on sale and a sports bra...). I'm very proud of myself, I remained very strong. This time I'm just going to have to live vicariously through my mom and be super excited about her new goodies... which I honestly am.

20 Weeks and a Plan

2012-01-09T07:42:00.000-08:00

According to the magic numbers on the calendar, today marks the "official" halfway point of my pregnancy. It's all downhill from here... ha ha. To celebrate, last night, I sat down and figured out a training plan and wrote it all down with renewed desire to get out the door and get running. It's an 18 week plan... I have 20 weeks until my due date on May 28th. Hopefully it will keep me going & motivated throughout the rest of my pregnancy.

It's been a long time (over a year) since I trained for anything shorter than a marathon. Although I ran a half marathon last year, it was between two other marathons and Hood to Coast, which was basically a marathon itself so my mileage was still pretty high. I've never trained for anything while pregnant. Okay, that isn't entirely true, when I was pregnant with Jonny, I quasi-trained for a couple of 5Ks, but I'm not really counting that. Outside of the weekly long runs between 10-14 miles (which could be dicey), I really think I'll be able to handle training through this pregnancy. I went into creating the plan with a much different outlook than I normally would. Basically lower weekly mileage, topping out at 36 miles (coincidentally at 36 weeks) but most weeks mid 20 mile weeks and no paces. I did include a little bit of speed and tempo work but it isn't there with set paces or any real expectations on my part. My goal is basically to maintain fitness levels and stay in half marathon shape. I know that I won't be getting any faster... most likely only slower.

My real goal is to be able to run the entire 40 weeks but especially to be able to complete the Hippie Chick Half at almost 38 weeks, with my mom. I didn't run much with Emme. I ran a little bit more with Calvin. With Leona I ran up until 8 months when the pool opened then went to lap swim right up until two days before I had her. With Jonny, my last run was 4 miles on January 5th, two months to the day before I had him. I've never run past the 8 month mark. I know it can be done. I just haven't done it. I'm hoping that I can do it too. I know with Leona I stopped running because the pool opened and I preferred lap swim. With Jonny, I think I stopped because it was January and February and rainy and cold. The best I can ask for is to just keep going... even if it is at a much slower pace and occasionally (or more than that) involves a fair amount of walking.

To prove to myself that I am serious about my new plan, I got up early this morning to get my run in. 3 easy miles at just before 5:30am. I feel good for having gone. The run felt okay. I'm definitely already slowing a great deal... my easy effort is definitely not what it was a month ago and I can feel myself shuffling my feet a bit more. I wore my Gabrialla maternity fitness belt that I got when running while pregnant with Jonny and I think it helped a bit and will definitely help as I get even bigger. Even at only 20 weeks, I'm already discovering that Body Glide and I will be becoming much more intimate, my shoes are starting to feel too small and running first thing in the morning means that I am much less likely to pee myself. All good things to know when venturing into the world of pregnant running. :)

My mom is starting her training for the Hippie Chick Half today too. I am so excited for her. She is hesitant in her abilities to run a half marathon, but I know she'll be able to do it. She's already doing long runs of 6 miles and with 18 weeks to work up the distance she'll be there in no time. I'm sending her a training log with her workouts already written out in it as well as inspirational quotes... but don't tell her, it's supposed to be a surprise. :)

Anyway, that's about it for today. Since I've come to such a big pregnancy milestone I'll leave you with a belly shot. Don't worry, these pics will be very few and far between. I've never documented a pregnancy in pictures before and I'm not sure I'm planning to start now. It is just my belly because even though it is now closing in on 10am and I have been up since 5, run and showered, I'm still in my jammies and haven't done a thing with hair and makeup... such is the life of a mom with 4 kids and a healthy blogging addiction. Hope your week is off to a happy start.

Obviously that blur in the background hasn't bothered to get himself dressed yet today either. :)

Update: Okay, I lied... you're getting two pics. I did finally manage to get myself dressed and such, which I think makes a much better picture and if I'm going to be posting belly pictures I should at least feel somewhat okay with them.

8 is Great!

2012-01-06T14:48:00.000-08:00

Somewhere in the midst of winter vacation, my ultramarathon, Christmas and our 10th anniversary, Miss Emmeline had a birthday (it was the 26th). She turned 8, which is a very big deal!

This year to celebrate, we had planned to have a big party at a local gymnastics place and invite a bunch of her friends but as the time grew nearer something about it kind of lost its allure. Still planning to go forward with the big shindig if that was what she wanted I pitched a new idea just for fun. The plan, a Mommy Daughter birthday date to see the Nutcracker Ballet and go out to dinner. It would be just the two of us and we would get all glammed up and have a marvelous time. I must have been a pretty good salesperson because she went for it. So this year, instead of a traditional or even over the top birthday party, Emme and I kept it simple and enjoyed some quality time just the two of us.
First we got dressed up and headed to the Hult Center to watch the final performance of The Nutcracker, one of Emme's favorite stories.

During intermission, we spent some time in the lobby looking at all the fun "treasures" to buy. After a little deliberation and puppy dog eyes, Emme decided on a very pretty snow globe that had Clara inside holding up the nutcracker. She love, love loved it.

(Sad story: two days after our outing, while "cleaning the globe" with a paintbrush, she managed to drop her prized treasure on our hardwood floors where it of course shattered all over the place leaving her in tears. Even sadder story: after searching all of Eugene for a "replacement" globe Santa finally found one that was nowhere near the original but had hummingbirds and played "Fur Elise" to put in her stocking. This became the new prized possession and favorite Christmas treasure until late Christmas Day (less than 6 hours after receiving it), Jonny managed to send it shattering all over our yurt floor. That left both Emme and me in tears and Dan laughing at the irony of it all. I think we'll hold off on snow globes for a bit.)

After the play was over, which I'll admit I had a hard time staying awake for... in my defense, I did run 31 miles the day previously... we headed to Denny's for breakfast & milkshakes (Emme's choice).

On Emme's real birthday (which occurred the morning of our return trip from the yurt) we celebrated with candles in a donut then a quick trip back to Eugene were we opened Christmas presents from grandparents. Once Christmas was out of the way, we cleaned up a bit and got ready for Emme's birthday. Normally we would have done Emme's presents at the yurt but this year's gift was a group gift that wouldn't fit in the car.

Dan was sneakily putting the bike together while we cleaned up.

We made Emme close her eyes so it would be a surprise and plug her ears (because I knew the first thing Leona would say is "A NEW BIKE!!!" which she did). She opened her eyes but was so excited she forgot to unplug her ears.

Then of course it was immediately outside to test it out. It's much bigger than her old bike (which was way, way, way to small) and took a bit to get used to but she's got it down now.

All she needs is a basket and a bell thingy and she'll be set to cruise the streets of Eugene in style.

A week after Emme's birthday, we were lucky to have most of our families in town to celebrate Emme's baptism with her (which is something in our church we do at 8 years old). This was a super special day for Emmeline and brought what was close to 3 weeks of birthday celebrating to a nice close.

It was pretty mean of me to wear heels while Dan was standing there barefoot. :)

Just some randomness...

2012-01-04T10:23:00.000-08:00

Emmeline and Calvin went back to school today. This is a great thing. This is something everyone and I mean everyone needed. In all honesty, I probably needed them to go back more than anyone else but it is a good thing for everyone that school is back in. Now I have the ability to get a bit done during the day. The bad thing is, today is an early release day so my time to catch up today is limited... buuuuuut there is always tomorrow and Friday. :) Yay school!!

I really enjoyed Christmas break, it was a lot of fun but it was also really stressful. I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that I didn't run a single day of it. Running keeps the stress out of my life. Instead, I took a full two week recovery period from my 50K. I did go for a run on Monday because Dan had the day off and it felt good. Actually it kind of hurt, it kind of felt like I hadn't run in two weeks, that in that time my pregnancy had progressed two weeks, therefore my belly had grown two weeks worth oh and that I had spent that entire two weeks eating all kinds of garbage. Other than that though, it did feel good to be running. :)

Over the break I learned that it is absolutely futile to try and deep clean a house while 4 children are cooped up inside of it. I also discovered that if the deep cleaning doesn't quite get done the way one wants it to, company probably won't notice and if they do they will probably be kind enough to not call you out on it. I guess that's the good thing about only having family over for company, when it all comes down to it, do I really care what they think of my housekeeping skills? I lived with my parents for 17 straight years and then a bit more here and there, they know I'm not a cleaner.

With the new year, lots of people are talking resolutions and goals for the year. My running is kind of taking a back burner this year and that is normally what I would focus my goals around. I have a friend that adopted from another friend a one word theme for the year. I think this is a great idea and have decided to do the same. My word is CALM. I wrote it on the chalkboard in our kitchen to help me focus on it for a while.

I think it is a great word that I can apply to so many different aspects of my life. I think it will help me to be a better mom and a more patient person overall. I think it will also help me with my running. It will remind me that what little bit of running I am able to accomplish over the next year is as a way to bring peace to my mind and strength to my body without necessarily training for anything. I'm having a hard time letting go of my paces and constantly trying to push myself to be a better runner but I know that right now training isn't something that I can do. I will enjoy my running. I will run what and when I can and it will have to be enough.

Do you have a word that you'd like to focus on this year? My strength, change, purpose, desire, succeed... the options are limitless.

A Year of Races

2011-12-30T06:11:00.000-08:00

Since it's the end of the year, I feel the ~~pressure~~ need to do some sort of "let's look back over the year" kind of post. A lot has happened this year, Jonny turned 1 and started walking, Calvin learned to tie his shoes and ride a bike, Emme turned 8, Leona discovered that it's okay to play with other kids... really I could go on all day, but since this is mostly a running blog and ~~it's all about me~~ I've talked very little bit about running lately (probably because I haven't been doing it) I think I'll look back on my races.

2011 was a big racing year for me. I kind of caught the racing bug at the end of 2010 with the Eugene Women's Half Marathon (my 1st half), followed up by the EWEB half. Those two races led me to sign up for the 2011 Eugene Marathon and a whole slew of other races this year. Let's start at the beginning...

My first official (I did do a virtual 5K in January) race of 2011 was a 20 miler in February, The Fall Creek Run Around.

age group medal at Fall Creek Run Around

I signed up for this race last minute, as an opportunity to get in another long training run for the Eugene Marathon. I figured it would be a good way for me to do a run without a stroller and see how I compared to other people. The week of the race, Eugene had a pretty big cold spell which left ice and snow on the ground and made for a very small and somewhat precarious event. It was the first time I had ever driven to a race all by myself, run it and then come home without much fanfare. Although it wasn't my fastest 20 miler, finish time 3:03:39, I'm glad I ran it and felt pretty tough for doing so.

In April, my parent's sponsored me in the Pear Blossom 10 mile run. I first ran the 5K with them as a sort of warm up (and to get in a few extra miles). This was another new racing distance for me, therefore an automatic PR. My main goal for it was to treat it as a progression run and for the most part it went according to plan. I started out in the low 8's and finished off at 7:30 pace. My finish time was 1:15:11. It was a lot of fun to be with my parents and cheer them on for their races and then have them surprise me by being at the halfway turn around for mine.

halfway at the Pear Blossom

May 1st brought the Eugene Marathon, my first. I felt pretty good going into the race and had a ton of support from my local friends. It was awesome! For the most part, I felt that the race went pretty well although I started slowing quite a bit at mile 18 and had some pretty bad calf cramping issues from about 22 on. I had been hoping for closer to a 3:45 finish but was still very pleased with my official time of 3:52:41.

finishing the Eugene Marathon

I think I felt slightly like I had to prove something to myself after finishing Eugene, so with less than a week's recovery in the books, I signed up and started training for the Ridgeline Ramble Trail Marathon on May 28th. Since I had a nice base built up for Eugene, a bunch of trail running and a couple more longer runs was all I needed to feel super ready for Ridgeline. I kept the race kind of a secret and felt good about doing it just for me. My mom came up to cheer me on and watched the kids so that Dan could meet my on the course at the halfway point. I had no real goals for the race other than to finish it (within the course limit of 6 hours) and have a good fueling plan, including more sodium to help with cramps. I stuck to my fueling and really felt pretty great the whole race. Trail running makes me happy and I really did enjoy every bit of the run. It was a very small race, only 22 finishers and being an out and back course we had the opportunity to cheer each other on at various points. With a few miles to go, I passed a girl who said, "great job, I think you'll be the first woman". I didn't think she was right but finished strong & happy nonetheless.

finishing the Ridgeline Ramble

Shortly after crossing the line, sure enough they announced my name as the first female finisher, which was absolutely awesome!! Official time: 4:03:31.

In complete shock with my championship trophy and age group medal from the Ridgeline Ramble.

After May, I took a fairly long break, running as much as I could during the summer and getting ready for my adventures at Hood to Coast. Hood to Coast was my next official race. August 27-28th. I was runner #9 which gave me the most mileage of the weekend at just over 20 miles in less than 24 hours. I was very please with the splits for my legs and had a lot of fun. I didn't know any of the ladies I was running with before the race but felt comfortable with them and would definitely be happy to race with them again in the future.

Our team, "Blister Sisters" at the finish. I'm 3rd from the right in the back row.

We finished a disappointing 7th in our category (Women's Submasters, the top 6 get automatic entry into the following year, we would've been 6th in the Open Women's category) with a time of 27:12:58 and ended up 198th overall... which out of 1267 finishing teams isn't too shabby I suppose.

The week after Hood to Coast I had the Eugene Women's Half. I was not at all looking forward to that race and didn't really have any great expectations for it. I was still really tired from Hood to Coast, that was a lot of running with very little sleep and I was whining a lot. The night before the race though, I told myself to stop whining and suck it up. Race day morning, I looked up the splits for a 1:39 finish and decided I was going to go for a decent PR. My best blogging buddy, Kim, was also running the race and picked me up for a nice, hassle and kid free race start. We ended up having a nice little 8 minute delay, about a mile into the race while waiting for a train (seriously... it was pretty funny). As soon as it passed we were off and it was really a great race from then on out. I finished with a 1:37:39 (a 5 minute PR) and ended up 22nd overall. Part of the greatness of this race came from wearing the Traveling Sparkle Skirt from Team Sparkle, which really did have some magic in it!

Coming into a happy finish at the EWH in my sparkle skirt.

In October, I ran the Columbia River Power Marathon with my friend Heather. It was my 3rd marathon and my 3rd on the year. I had some ITB issues while training for it but managed to get them mostly worked out before race day. I also discovered that I was pregnant the day before our last long training run and although I was fighting a bit with nausea I managed to feel pretty good (and energized) for the race. Heather and I sported tutus from Glam Runner which was a lot of fun. We had lots of extra crowd support because of them and it made for some pretty cool pictures. I didn't really expect to PR as it was a fairly difficult course and I was coming off an injury but still managed to pull off a 3:49:23 finish, which was a 3 minute PR and 3rd overall woman... I'll take it.

Powering up the last big hill at mile 24ish of the Columbia River Power Marathon.

My 2011 racing season ended just a couple of weeks ago at the Frozen Trail Run Fest 50K. My first ultramarathon and a very muddy, hilly course. Heather, again, was my partner in crime. Running that far at almost 17 weeks pregnant probably wasn't the best idea but I really have been wanting to do an ultra and with this pregnancy I knew that it will be a while before I have my endurance built up to run that far again. When I presented the idea to Heather and explained that we were already in marathon shape and it wouldn't take too much to train for an extra 5 miles she was all for it. It was a tough race and I didn't enjoy every moment of it but I'm really glad I did it. My finish time was 6:49:37, which was much slower than the 6 to 6:30 finish I was hoping for but I really can't complain.

Happily finishing 31 miles at the Frozen Trail Run Fest

There was a lot about each race that I really enjoyed. I don't regret having run any of the races. I don't know that I could pick a favorite, but if I had to it would probably be a toss up between the Eugene Women's Half (that I really didn't want to run) and the Ridgeline Ramble Trail Marathon (I really never, ever, ever expected to win a marathon).

I know that with a baby coming in May next year's racing will be pretty sparse but hopefully I'll get a chance to work a bit on my speed and get a few 5Ks in. I'd love to do the Eugene Women's Half again but I'm not sure how ready I'll be 3 months postpartum... we'll have to see. Hope your year of racing was as enjoyable as mine. Best of luck to all your new year running adventures. Run happy & run strong!

Christmas Recap Pt.3 - Christmas Day (and the day after)

2011-12-29T09:44:00.000-08:00

Let's go ahead and wrap up this Christmas story with a bunch of pictures. We didn't take any presents to the yurt (outside of the pajamas & board games) which made Santa's gifts a lot of fun.

Calvin, last minute, decided he wanted a football helmet and football. Santa got pretty lucky with this awesome Buffalo Bills helmet, which Calvin absolutely loves and has barely taken off. He even slept with it... not on, but with it nonetheless.

Emme, wanted books... wish granted, with a couple of bookmarks thrown in for good measure.

Jonny is pretty easy, trucks, balls... kid doesn't complain much. He even got his own softer version (aka a frog beanie) of a football helmet... although as much as that kid crashes, he could probably have used a real one. (He only had one nose dive off the bunk bed... a couple of really close calls though.)

He was also a big fan of the candy in his stocking...

In fact, it got bad enough that he tried to smuggle

and eventually hide it.

Leona was very happy with her Barbie, fairy, ballerina, princess... just what she had asked for

although, maybe not quite as thrilled with the traditional orange.

When we got home from yurting, the kids were very helpful in quickly unloading the car so they could open Christmas presents from their grandparents. Leona was especially excited about the huge package from Great-Grammy.

She tried...

and tried...

and tried to open it.

Meanwhile, everyone else was opening their loot...

Leona eventually gave up and moved on to other presents too.

Finally, after a little help from Daddy, Leona's long awaited prize was delivered... a new pillow!!

We had a very happy Christmas. It was especially nice having Dan home for a few extra days before and after Christmas. Sometimes it's hard doing things as a "bigger" family, but for the most part it is very rewarding. I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas holiday. Happy belated Christmas wishes from us.

Christmas Recap Pt.2 - Yurting & Christmas Eve

2011-12-29T08:17:00.001-08:00

Last year for Christmas we decided that we would enjoy Christmas in a laid back sort of way with just us and the kids. To make it more fun, we thought it would be an adventure to head to the coast and stay in a yurt. Long story, short, we had an amazing time and were happy to repeat the tradition this year.

This year Dan didn't have to work for a couple of days before Christmas, so we headed to the coast midday on the 23rd and stayed until lunchtime on the 26th. We didn't get the same yurt this year, but instead ended up with a yurt closer to the lake path and with a huge "side yard" where the kids could run around. It was great. I was really bad about taking pictures (if you click on the above link, you can get a general idea of what the yurt looked like) but did manage a few with my phone when we went on a nice walk around the lake.

The path itself is a mile, however with all the stepping off the path and zig zagging to see this and that, I'm pretty sure the kids walked almost twice as far.

The 23rd and 24th were perfect weather days. Nice and dry and not too cold. We had a lot of fun being outside and enjoying our time together.

Christmas eve brought another walk/exploring adventure for Dan and the older two while I stayed behind to make sure Leona and Jonny got their much needed naps... okay, I took a nap too. It was lovely. :) We came better prepared with food this time and had a super tasty Christmas Eve dinner of soup and crackers... which, trust me, beat last year by leaps and bounds. Then it was on to opening up the traditional Christmas Eve present of jammies.

Jonny was late coming to the picture

Apparently he had something in his eye... and slime all over his face. Gross.

This year, I threw the kids a surprise and gave them two presents to open....

a new tradition of a board game to open too... it was a huge hit!!

Jonny wanted to put on his jammies right away....

he got really mad, when I merely kept taking pictures instead of helping him change.

After getting ready for bed we attempted to play a few games. We went with Chutes and Ladders as it was the most completely family friendly game, it didn't go very well though because Jonny wouldn't leave the playing pieces were they went and kept running away with the spinner.

The kids fell asleep pretty quickly and easily which was good, because the one downside of staying in a one room circle with a radius of 20 feet, at Christmas, is Santa's ability to bring his presents without waking everyone up. :)

Christmas Recap pt. 1 - Tree Decorating

2011-12-28T13:18:00.000-08:00

It's been a crazy couple of weeks with Christmas, Birthday, Anniversary and being outnumbered 4 to 1 while Dan is at work and the kids are out of school so this whole blogging thing has kind of taken a back burner. That being said, I really want to document Christmas 2011 before the year is over. I think I'll be able to do it in three parts... Here goes part 1, decorating the tree:

Last year we didn't get a Christmas tree. It was very sad, but Jonny was at that super troublesome age where he got into everything and broke everything he touched (oh, wait, that hasn't changed) and since we were going to be gone to the yurt for Christmas anyway we decided to pass on one. This year I thought we'd probably pass again since we had the same yurting plans and it would save a bit of money. However, when offered a free tree left over from our church Christmas party I couldn't refuse.

I'm really, really picky when it comes to Christmas trees. I want a perfect top and I prefer it to be a Noble Fir... I love the spaced out branches and sometimes "Charlie Brown" look. I really, really don't care for Douglas Firs. Buuuuuuuut, beggars can't be choosers and when faced with a free Douglas Fir that looked much more like a bush than a tree I couldn't say no. Let me just say this was the oddest tree I have ever seen. It had branches that curved back in on themselves and were all twisted and weird (I wish I had some pictures). I actually kind of grew to love our Christmas bush.

Anyway, we set up to decorating it and had a lot of fun doing so.

Dan was happy to hang his handmade ornament from 2nd (maybe 3rd?) grade.
I'm sure he'll be happy I posted this. :)

What tree would be complete without Oregon decorations...

yellow with a green O

green with a yellow O

or a Santa Claus Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle

Jonny enjoyed putting on the ornaments almost as much as taking them off.

Since we were gone on Christmas, our kids wore their Christmas best to church the week before Christmas and posed for the requisite tree photo.

The girls...

The girls with Calvin... blurry and silly, but the best I got.

Finally, Jonny... who had to have his picture taken, even though he was sick and in his jammies.

10

2011-12-27T03:32:00.000-08:00

Ten years ago today, Dan and I were married. It hasn't been the perfect 10 years but there isn't a moment of it that I would change. I couldn't be happier with where we are in life and I couldn't be more excited about what the future has to offer us. Although we might not ("might not"... ha ha, who am I kidding, I meant "definitely won't") get to celebrate 10 years the way we had planned to when we got married (on some exotic island or backpacking through Europe maybe?) as cheesy at it sounds, just being together works for me. Dan, I love you... thanks for making me happy and always believing in me, you make me feel invincible. I look forward to many more years of 10s.

Also, we need to get more pictures taken together... the kind where I'm not the one holding the camera.

5

2011-12-20T09:51:00.000-08:00

So, yesterday I finally came out with the big secret that I've been hiding since I found out on Oct. 9th... I'm pregnant. I've had a good couple of months to come to terms with this fact but I think I shocked quite a few people... like all those close friends and family members that we had assured we were done after having Jonny. I honestly always wanted five kids... something about odd numbers... but after we had Jonny and our numbers were all evened up (2 boys, 2 girls) things kind of seemed good. I continued to talk myself into being okay with 4 kids (honestly that's a lot of kids) even though somewhere in the back of my mind I felt like we should have another one. To prove that I was good with things I got rid of all my maternity clothes and most of our baby clothes, which, according to my mom will basically guarantee a "surprise" child... unless of course one takes more permanent actions, which we didn't.

Finally, I was excited to be done having kids. I thought about how wonderful it was that I wouldn't get all big and flabby again, no more nursing, no more midnight feedings... I was ready to have my body back. I spent the year working my butt off. I worked hard to get in the best shape I've ever been in. I ran 3 marathons (although I was pregnant for the last one), I got a decent PR in the half, I had a fantastic time running over 20 miles at Hood to Coast... it was a good year for racing.

I'll be the first to admit I was completely shocked and a little upset to find out that I was pregnant. Outside of having another living being that of course we will love to pieces, it sounds terrible, but I couldn't come up with anything to be happy about. So much for my spring marathon. So much for that early summer relay that I had put together (and told all my friends that they couldn't get pregnant and back out of... ha ha) so much for the fit and trim body that I had worked so hard to get. Yeah, I was pretty much having a huge poor me, pity party. Luckily I had Dan to see the bright side for me. When I asked him if there was anything that he could think of, in the short term, to be happy about he paused for a moment, got a big smile and said, "Well, your boobs will get bigger!" That is true... I've gone from the nice little no-boobs that enabled me to run in tops with the built in shelf bras to the nice big (for me at least) pregnant lady boobs that require double duty sports bras. I guess there is always a silver lining... :) ha ha

Anyway, my kids couldn't be more excited and now that I've overcome the shock of it all, I'm getting there to. One of the major reasons that I chose to run the Frozen Trail Run Fest 50K is because I know that it will be a long time before I'm in a position to run that far again. I was pretty sick for the first 14 weeks or so if this pregnancy which made training and eating properly a little difficult but having races on the schedule kept me motivated. I honestly think that I felt better on the days that I ran than I did on my rest days. Now that I'm well into my 2nd trimester I'm starting to feel a lot better and have much more energy... I can actually stay up past 8pm.

I plan to keep running as much as I can over the next few months. I signed up to run the Hippie Chick Half in May, knowing full well that it is only 2 weeks before my due date. I'm running it with friends and with my mom. It will be her first and I can't wait to be a part of her accomplishing it. I know it won't be fast and there is a very good chance that my mom will have to take off without me, but I'm excited to have something to work towards and it will definitely keep me motivated as I continue to get bigger and bigger.

Since this has been nothing but a lot of words... here is a bonus pic of Emme and me, almost 8 years ago. We were both soooooo young!

Frozen Trail Run Fest 50K (and Jingle Bell Hell Virtual Race)

2011-12-19T10:22:00.000-08:00

Saturday, I participated in (notice I didn't say "raced") the Frozen Trail Run Fest 50K. My first attempt at an ultramarathon and I've since been told, a pretty tough pick for a first one. Heather was friend enough (and perhaps just crazy enough) to join me on my adventure. She has since told me that any race I suggest she's game for so maybe I should be more selective in my suggestions. Anyway, pre race actually began Friday night when, as I was getting things ready to go I realized I couldn't find the charger for my Garmin anywhere. Finally after looking until 11:30pm with no luck, I gave up. How long will a Garmin last with 3 bars... can it make it 31 miles... 6+ hours? I was hoping.

Saturday morning I woke up and got ready, took a picture of my pretty toes (because I figured they wouldn't be so pretty at the end)

and ate what I could of a Clif Bar, the nerves were really setting in at that point. As soon as the clock turned to 7:10am (Heather was picking me up at 7:15am) the reality of the situation really set it. I was about to go and run 31 miles oh and at 16 1/2 weeks pregnant too (no, really... surprise!... more on that later). Yikes!!!

We got to Mt. Pisgah without trouble. Picked up our packets, where I was given bib #17 which made my day. For one thing it's an odd number, which I love but mostly because out of all the trails we would be running on, #17 was my favorite... I figured it was a good sign.

Heather and me.
Looking a little hesitant and my ear warmer headband is totally on sideways... I can't believe I ran 31 miles that way! Note to self... look in the mirror next time!

Without much more ado we headed down to the start line

and were given a little bit of instruction, "Do base loop 1, then base loop 2, then base loop 1 again, then the summit loop... you're welcome." In case you don't remember from my previous post, here is a glance at the course elevation profile:

Then we were off.
Base loop 1. 8.2 miles total. Elevation gain 889 feet. For the most part loop 1 was pretty uneventful. Heather and I settled into a nice pace. We checked in at the aid stations but didn't stop, walked a bit up the bigger inclines, passed a few people, were passed by a few people, passed a few people again and overall, dare I say, enjoyed ourselves. I had a Razz Clif Shot at mile 5. Before I knew it, we were up and over my least favorite trail, #7 and headed down #17 towards the start/finish for loop #2.

"Should we do it again?" "Let's do it again."

Base loop 2. 8.2 miles. 889 feet elevation gain. Although the stats for base loop 2 are identical to base loop 1, that increase in elevation comes at a much more rapid pace... I really think Summit loop 2 would be more fitting. Anyway... I had some Margarita Clif Bloks at mile 10 and stopped to use the facilities at the 12 mile aid station. After stopping, it took me a loooooooong time to catch back up to Heather but I finally did and we ran together for the remainder of loop 2. Once we were on the back side of the mountain on our second loop the trail began getting pretty sloppy. I had a Strawberry Clif Shot at 15 and welcomed the caffeine... I think it was a nice boost. We stopped for water at 16.6 (which by the way was manned by a very very nice and encouraging man) then headed up #7 again to #17 and back by the start/finish. For loop #3.

"Hey, let's run it again" "Okay"

Base loop 1 (2nd time) 8.2 miles. 889 foot gain. (spoiler alert... this was my least favorite loop.) I was starting to feel it at that point. We were 16.6 miles in when we passed the start/finish. We began being passed by runners doing the shorter distances (they had started racing at 10am). It was good to be running with Heather, she kept me going. Somewhere along there, I had a handful of Jelly Bellies and also quite a few PowerBar Energy Blasts... which I looooove. At the 19.6 mile aid station I stopped and ate a chocolate chip cookie (at the time it was the best chocolate chip cookie I had ever had... it tasted sooooooo good, even though it more resembled cardboard) and had two glasses of water. Heather stayed behind to use the Honey Bucket but caught back up to me in no time. We also had quite a few other people catch up to us over the next little bit. I slowed considerably as we began up the hills and pretty soon everyone was gone. I lost Heather and also another lady that I consider my running nemesis (she's my kids' music teacher and we've battled a few other times... here specifically). I tried not to lose hope at that point but I knew there wasn't going to be much chance of catching back up with them. My pace dropped even more and as I slopped up the hills I stopped several times to stretch out. My right hamstring from my groin to my knee was on the verge of cramping up and my lower back was killing me. As I was coming around the other side of the mountain I decided to try and enjoy myself a little bit more and stopped to take a few pictures of the muddy mess that we were ~~running~~ sliding through.

As I was headed towards the aid station at 23.8, my tummy was grumbling. About that time, I remembered that I had cut up a Clif Bar and stashed it in my hydration belt. It was just what I needed. It stopped my stomach from grumbling and tasted so good. I chatted with the nice aid station man for a bit and had 2 more glasses of water. I did not however fill up my water bottles... bad move. I then ran over #7 for the third time, then onto #17 and to the start/finish.

Summit Loop. 6.4 miles. 1023' elevation gain. (Also, my contribution to the Jingle Bell Hell Virtual Race put on by XLMIC) (It should also be noted that as tribute to the Jingle Bell Hell race, I had composed a song in my head during the first loop that went to the tune of Jingle Bell Rock (my least favorite Christmas song of all time). The song was completely lame* and made it so I had the tune of Jingle Bell Rock in my head for 31 miles... not a good thing.)

As I came by the start/finish to begin my final loop of the course the officials stopped me. I was secretly hoping they were going to tell me that I wasn't going to be able to complete the race but apparently someone had merely removed one of the summit signs and they didn't want me to get lost. Whew... I could keep running. :S Shortly after leaving the start/finish I realized I was basically out of water except for a few drops. Ugh... this was going to be hellish. It took me a bit to decide what to do. I knew I didn't want to return to the start to fill up... it wasn't quite 4 miles to the aid station at the summit, I could survive that long without water. I had planned to have a Chocoalte Cherry Clif Shot but wasn't sure that was the best idea without anything to chase it with. Ultimately I decided to take it... I really needed that double shot of caffeine. About that same time, my Garmin gave the beep of death and I was completely alone. No pace. No other runners. No water. Just me.

It wasn't long before I was heading up the summit. Here's another reminder of the elevation in case you were wondering.

Yes... it doesn't get more hellish than that. Not having my Garmin to tell me how slow I was going was nice I guess, but it also couldn't tell me how far I had gone, which meant I had no idea how long until I was to the top. Just when I thought I was getting closer I came to a sign. ".6 miles to Summit." Are you kidding me?! I still had over 1/2 a mile to go!!! I admit, I cried a bit at that point. I tried to laugh (as was requisite in the Jingle Bell Hell rules) but it just wasn't happening. Shortly after passing the sign I heard this huffing, puffing and clicking coming up behind me. It sounded like some old person with a walker... Great, I was about to be passed by a handicapped person on a hill. Nope, turns out it was actually another racer with trekking poles... but yes, he passed me quite easily.

Finally though, the clouds parted, literally, and I reached the summit. Maybe it's because I was already out of breath, but it was the most breathtaking thing I have ever seen. It looked like you could just walk out onto the clouds... so cool.

It was absolutely gorgeous on top. I was so glad that I had my phone and could capture it on camera. At that point I had run right around 28 miles and the view completely made it worth it. After catching my breath and taking a self portrait (for proof that I really was doing this) I said out loud, "Alright Laurie, let's finish this thing."

Yep, still have that crooked headband... what a dork!

I knew that the next aid station was just down from the summit and I was quite anxious for some water. When I stopped at the aid station though, ha ha, joke was on me, she was out of water!!! What?!!! I will admit, I did actually laugh at that point as in, you've got to be kidding me, you're out of water?! I did notice a nice bag of potato chips... think that would quench my thirst?! The volunteer was of course quite apologetic and assured me that the next station was only 1.6 miles away, which isn't too bad... unless of course you've just run over 4 miles without anything to drink except a sticky clif shot! Anyway, I survived. I actually was feeling pretty good. I think being less than 3 miles from the finish helped lift my spirits. I stopped again to take a picture of the mud... which at that point was just a mess. Then I laughed when I could barley lift my foot because I kept it still in the mud too long.

Finally, I was to the last aid station, where the super nice man helped me to a couple glasses of water and some very encouraging words. After a high five, I was on my way and headed towards the finish. Up and over trail #7 for the last time... that felt good... and there it was, trail #17 and my path to the finish!!!

I was so happy to see the finish line and Heather there cheering for me. I knew that I was no where near 6 hours and well over 6 1/2 but was very pleased to have come in under 7.

Final stats:
31.07 miles
6:49:37 pace 13:12
20th finisher overall out of 27... at least I wasn't dead last, I had my concerns for a bit
6th out of 9 for the women
2nd of 3 in my age group

Aaaaaaand, my toes came out okay... just a little bit of mud and only one small blister.

Heather absolutely rocked it!! She finished 3rd woman overall with a time of 6:29:18 and did manage to beat my running nemesis for me... so there is some consolation in that. I felt really bad that she had to wait around so long for me to finish though. They had heaters but it was soooooo cold... she was shaking and her lips were seriously purple. There was a pretty decent spread of post race treats. I had some potato chips, a bagel with peanut butter, several orange slices, a couple cookies also covered in peanutbutter, and two glasses of hot chocolate. There was also some sort of hot vegetable soup and chili but I wasn't having any part of that.

All in all I'm really glad I did this race. I went into it knowing it wasn't going to be the best race for me. It was hard, but I told myself that no matter what I would be happy with just finishing it... I didn't intend to try and race it. I have a hard time "not racing things" and it's still disappointing to me to see my name so close to the bottom of the results but I really am happy with my effort. I definitely want to do it again... maybe sometime when I'm not pregnant. I've definitely caught the ultrarunning bug and can't wait to try some longer events... although I will wait, quite a while. :)

*Jingle Bell Hell (to the tune of Jingle Bell Rock)
jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell hell
we've run three loops and we've run them well
now onto the summit we go
we won't run too fast, nope we'll run real slow, ooohh
jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell hell...

Disclaimer: for anyone that is concerned... I did consult with my doctor before running this event and was given permission. I feel that I did a good job listening to my body and doing what was smart for me.

6 Hours (probably more)

2011-12-16T09:06:00.000-08:00

Soooo, tomorrow, at this time, I'll be about an hour into my 6+ hour run. Six. Hour. Run. That is a long time to be running. It's a good 2 hours longer than I've ever run before. I think I'm starting to get a bit nervous. I've been thinking about all the things that I could do in 6 hours... there's a lot of stuff.

I could drive to my parent's house in Klamath Falls, circle their cul de sac, blow them a kiss and make it back to Eugene in 6 hours. In 6 1/2 hours, I could actually get out of the car and give them hugs.

I could go for a really nice, leisurely, long run, come home, take a long, hot shower, have lunch and take a nap in 6 hours.

I could skip out on the run all together, sleep in, take a nice long hot shower, have lunch and take an even longer nap in 6 hours.

I could wash, dry, fold and put away every dirty piece of laundry in my house (that's 6 people's worth) in 6 hours. (Who am I kidding, though, that would never happen!!)

I could bake, decorate and eat several dozen cupcakes in 6 hours... probably some cookies too.

I could go on an amazing shopping spree, come home, try everything on, get buyers remorse and then return everything in 6 hours.

I could probably read a pretty decent sized novel... or two.

I could watch an entire season of Arrested Development.

I could even make, wrap and stand in line at the post office to mail that last Christmas gift that I've been putting off...

There is a lot of stuff I could do in 6+ hours. Instead, I've chosen to run around and around and around and over the muddy, slippery, probably not so frozen trails of Mt. Pisgah. Sometimes I think I need to reconsider my priorities....

What could you do in 6+ hours??

Let's do some mountain climbing...

2011-12-14T06:56:00.000-08:00

Why is it that when things get put on paper they always seem a lot worse? For example, I've run just about every inch of the upcoming Frozen Trail Run Fest 50K and I know that it is pretty hilly but for some reason seeing those hills in print makes them seem soooooo much worse.

Looks fun doesn't it?! The silliest part is it really isn't the big hills that will reduce me to tears. Do you see that after every big hill there is a little tiny (in comparison) blip on the chart? That little mound is known as trail #7. Let me just tell you that 7 is not my lucky number. 7 will make me cry. One would think that after scaling, repeatedly, those Mt. Everest wannabe hills it would be no big deal to tackle that barely even noticeable bump of a hill but that isn't so. That little mound, trail #7, I detest. I loathe. I downright hate it. Aaaaand, trust me, I notice it. I think it might be because after finally conquering the real elevation and coming down the other side, the last thing I want to run into and over is another hill... no matter how small. It's just mean. The fact that we have to do it on every. single. loop. is even worse. I don't even think it is a mile in length and it might not even be quite 100 feet gain but it is just enough to put the nail in my coffin.

If trail #7 doesn't finish me off, attempting the summit at mile 27 surely will. Who had the brilliant idea to do this race anyway?! Good new is, there is supposed to be 90% chance of rain tomorrow with temperatures not dropping below freezing again before Saturday so there will be plenty of mud. Frozen trail... ha ha.

I want world peace too...

2011-12-13T16:35:00.000-08:00

Last night when I finally took off for my run it was 8:19pm. Dan got home from work a little before 7pm, we had the kids in bed (and asleep) by 7:30 but then I sat on the couch thinking about getting ready to go running while just hanging out with Dan. I wasn't necessarily putting off my run and I knew that I was going to go no matter what but I wasn't in the biggest hurry to head out the door. Maybe it had a little to do with the temperature

and the fact that it was dark and the cars were all already iced over. I never know how to dress for running in the cold and dark. I sit (okay, that is a relative term, I really don't do much sitting) all day in my house freezing, so when it does come time for me to head out into the cold dark world I tend to overdress. I think this stems from growing up when my mom would bundle us up to go out and play in the snow. We would pile on layer upon layer of socks and jammies and sweatpants and sweaters under our coats and jeans before adding hats and gloves. It of course never failed that once we were all bundled up we then had to go to the bathroom. Last night was no different. I had on knee length compression socks, under full length tights under a skirt with a long sleeved shirt and my favorite, warmest running jacket. I also had on an ear warmer headband, a reflective running vest, gloves and my headlamp. As soon as I was bundled up and ready to head out the door, for old times sake, I decided I better get back unbundled and go to the bathroom again. I realize 30 (even feels like 23) isn't all that cold to most of you cold weather folks but to us warmer weather Willamette Valley types it was quite brisk.

For the most part I warm without overheating. I ended up losing the gloves about 2 1/2 miles in (I don't know why my hands always get so hot while running) but the rest of me stayed fairly comfortable. It was cold and dark and I didn't see a single other runner, which for Eugene, no matter what time of the day, is very rare. I love running at night during the holidays because I get to look at all the pretty Christmas lights and when people have their blinds open their Christmas trees too. Their were some pretty colorful house and one house that had all red, white and blue lights and their tree was completely covered in red. I saw 4 different houses with peace signs within a 6 block radius. Each one was a different color but one house went above and beyond by including a huge inflatable globe. They don't just want generic peace, they want world peace this holiday.

The world is the blurry spot in the middle.

I'm glad that I went last night, it was a great way to end my day. Now only one measly 3 mile run left before race day. Crazy thing is, even running only 3 times this week I will still finish the week with just over 40 miles!! Running a 50K will do that I guess.

Well...

2011-12-12T08:49:00.000-08:00

All of a sudden I'm feeling really under prepared and nervous for my big race on Saturday. I think this stems from missing the last long run of my training schedule. Heather and I had planned, on Saturday, to go to Mt. Pisgah to give one of the loops of the race another go around and get 10-12 miles in. Instead, I spent most of Friday night "worshiping the porcelain throne". We went to a church Christmas party Friday evening that was "Christmas Around the World" where there were all kinds of tasty things to eat, from Japan and the Netherlands and Germany and Mexico and either the combination of all those things didn't sit well with me or someone spiked the hot chocolate, or maybe it was just something else entirely... either way I was sick, sick, sick. When I finally peeled myself off the bathroom floor and climbed back into bed I texted Heather to let her know I wouldn't be waiting outside for her at 6:15. Then of course I woke up at 5:45am feeling somewhat better and wanting to go after all but came to my senses and decided it wouldn't be the best idea.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I was thinking I would be able to make up the run Saturday afternoon or evening but it ended up being a pretty horrid day all around and it never happened. The thought crossed my mind to head out yesterday to get the mileage in but it's really a rare occasion that I do any training on Sunday. I could've have done it and it would have been fine, but I rationalized that spending the afternoon watching Anne of Green Gables with Emmeline, making a nice and tasty dinner for us to eat and then decorating the Christmas tree would have a more lasting effect on my family then me traipsing off to run 12 miles by myself. I don't regret it either. I just feel slightly underprepared. I shouldn't though, we've put in the miles, we know the course (except that one little part that I'm still not sure about) and in the end it will all be great (remind me I said that when I can't get out of bed Sunday morning and am unable to use stairs for a week).

Today, I'm already behind on my running. Leona has a terrible cough and just "really doesn't feel very well" "wants to stay in her jammies all. day. long." for the second day in a row so I will not be dragging her out in the stroller( I will drag her to the store though as we desperately need food). I had planned to get up early and do an easy 4 miles without the stroller but instead snoozed until it was after 6am and too late to go. Now is when I really wish I had a treadmill. I will get it done tonight after the kids are in bed I just hate it when I get all my stuff ready the night before, tell myself that no matter what I will get up and go and then still flake out.

Anyway, that's enough rambling for this Monday morning. As a bonus, here's a pic for you. I made a bunch of cookies to take to the Christmas party on Friday. When I had my back turned Jonny kept sneaking them. He's smart though, instead of just taking bites of the same cookie, each time he got a chance, he sneaked a different cookie. He had snagged three different cookies before I caught him in the act. I then put the rest of the cookies away and was going to take a picture of the cookies he attacked. I lined them up but before I could snap the picture he was at it again...

Oh, and just for fun, here he is trying to kill himself again...

Never a dull moment with that kid in the house.

It's official...

2011-12-09T08:26:00.001-08:00

I just might need to be institutionalized. I've apparently completely lost my mind. Good news is, Heather is right there with me. A week from tomorrow, we will both be running our first 50K at the Frozen Trail Runfest right here in Eugene. Yeah, that's right we are paying to run 31 miles around and around and around and finally over the muddy trails of Mt. Pisgah.

This is the second year the event has been offered, so it must have gone okay last year with no one dying or getting lost in the mud. Don't let the "frozen trail" part fool you, very little if any of this trail run will be frozen but there is guaranteed to be some pretty decent ankle (at least) deep mud. You know, the kind that if your shoes aren't tied on quite tightly enough the mud will take them away and only give them back with a great deal of effort on your part. Doesn't it sound fun?!

I managed to find a few race reports from people that ran the race last year, if you're interested, here is what they had to say: Dan Olmstead won the men's division of the 50K in 4:34:33(his report HERE) and Pam Smith received top honors for the women with a time of 4:58:39 (her report HERE). There are several other race options provided: 5K, 6.4M, 8.2M, and 14.6M. When searching for reports, I also came across Jeff McKay's, a local runner who participated last year in the 14.6 miler. He had a lot to say about it HERE.

Heather and I, fortunately or maybe unfortunately, know exactly what we are getting ourselves into. So far we've done 22 and 24 miles at Mt. Pisgah and plan to head back this weekend for another 10 to 12. It won't be easy and it might not always be fun but we promise to try to enjoy ourselves as much as possible (sorry no tutus this time though). We have a main goal of finishing (which on some days I think might be a bit overambitious) and of course we have some time goals... hopefully to come in somewhere between 6 and 6 1/2 hours but well below the course time limit of 8 hours.

I don't think that it has quite sunk in yet that I'm actually racing next weekend. I had all sorts of plans for running a bunch of miles this week then finally realized that I should probably be tapering and completely cut out one of my runs. I maxed out last week at just under 50 miles, which definitely won't get me a winning time but should give me enough mileage to adequately handle the distance. I really don't have any plans to "race" this race and maybe that is why the nerves and true apprehension haven't set in. I plan to merely go for a nice long, long, long run while enjoying the company of a good running friend and if I manage to finish in front of a few other people in the process then I'll consider that a bonus.

In case you were wondering, it isn't too late to register if you'd like to join in on the fun. :)

The views are worth it...

unless of course it's foggy. :)

Is it... snowing?!

2011-12-07T13:06:00.001-08:00

It was coooooold today when we headed out for our run. 32 "feels like 27" cold. Which I know really isn't that cold for most people, but for Eugene standards it's considered pretty brisk. I bundled the kids up in layer after layer after layer. Undershirts, followed by tights, then footie jammies, then fleece lined pants, long sleeved shirts, more socks, sweatshirts, coats, hats, gloves, a quilt a piece, a fleece blanket to share and topped off with the wind/rain cover. It only took us around 30 minutes to get out the door too... new record! The gloves of course came off before we were even out of the driveway, but I think the fact that both kids were asleep within the first 2 miles of our run attested to the fact that as Noni put it they were "snug as bugs in rugs".

With no real agenda and nice peaceful sleeping kids, I stopped several times to admire the flora and fauna of the area. :)

Basically the frozen spider webs....

and the foggy river.

While stopped taking pictures though, I noticed a bit of flaking on the stroller and some definite precipitation of a frozen variety.

Is it snowing? I looked up at the trees, and although you can't tell from this picture, they seemed a bit white on the top. Is it snowing though... or is it merely freezing fog?

It became my big quest to figure out if it was actually snowing (which it rarely if ever does in Eugene) or if I was merely running through a patch of freezing fog. I passed another runner coming at me and I almost asked him if he thought it was snowing but figured this might be a question best pondered to myself (and subsequently out loud on my blog for anyone to read). I finally decided that it was in fact snowing.

Can you see the build up of 1/4 centimeter on this bench?!

Maybe this shot will give you a better view... definitely some snow.

Okay, so maybe it was simply a touch of freezing fog. Either way, it was pretty cool and very cold. Even after a very long hot, hot, hot shower and lunch of oatmeal, I'm still trying to warm up and I've finally resorted to cranking up the heater for a bit. Luckily though both of my little munchkins and all 10 of their "little piggies" made it home nice and toasty.

Little things I love...

2011-12-05T08:32:00.001-08:00

1. Starting the day with a clean kitchen.
2. Chocolate pudding.
3. Sunday afternoon naps.
4. Snuggly toddlers in footie jammies.
5. Clean sheets right out of the dryer.
6. Brand new socks.
7. Chocolate covered gummy bears.

8. Christmas cookies.
9. Christmas lights.
10. Bubble baths.
11. The number 11.
12. Mom & daughter birthday dates instead of parties.
13. Cards in the mail.
14. Having proof that my long run was hard.

15. Knowing that my next long run is a few weeks away.

16. Feeling like there is nothing that I have to do this morning.

What are you loving today? Happy Monday!!

I ♥ Oregon.

2011-12-02T08:43:00.001-08:00

I happened across this really cool time lapse video on Fast Enough (formerly "(Long) Road to Paradise" from Teri, a great Oregon running blogger - Thanks!!) and just had to ~~steal~~ borrow it for my blog too. Doesn't it make you want to get outside and enjoy everything around you? I so love the state I live in. We have the best combination of everything here in Oregon.
Finding Oregon from Uncage the Soul Productions on Vimeo.

Speaking of our great state, we have a great football team that will be playing tonight, right here in Eugene for the Pac 12 Championship game. Go Ducks!!! It should be a great game and in all reality UCLA doesn't stand a chance... Rose Bowl here we come!!!!!!! (Need some more exclamation points?!)

As for running, it's amazing the difference a day makes. Wednesday's run was terrible but when I headed out yesterday it was a completely different run. It might have something to do with the fact that both Leona and Jonny fell asleep within the first mile and stayed that way for the remaining 6 1/2. Something about not being serenaded "Old MacDonald" the entire time made the run a lot more pleasurable.

Tomorrow morning, Heather and I are headed back to Mt. Pisgah, this time for a 24 mile tour. If everything goes well, I think I'll finish filling out my entry form for the Frozen Trail Fest 50K and actually get it turned in. We talked about waiting a few days until we had recovered from the run to see how recovery went, but I think it will be best to drop off the entry on the way home before the mud on my legs dries and the stiff muscles have a chance to set in. It's probably a good idea to register for the race before I start tapering for it.

Good luck to all the Las Vegas runners this weekend and everyone else. Run Happy & Run Strong!

5 miles of "Old MacDonald"...

2011-12-01T08:38:00.001-08:00

Although it can be a pretty entertaining song, after 5 miles, even "Old MacDonald" sung repeatedly by an ~~ever more annoying~~ amazing 3 year old can start wearing on one's nerves. "Mommy, what sound does a worm make?" And on his farm he had a worm... e i e i o. "How about a snail?" I do know that a snail makes a nice crunching sound when being squished beneath the tires of the jogging stroller.

The good news is we ran for 10 miles, so at least I didn't have to listen to it the entire time. The bad news is, Leona didn't start singing until the last 5 miles (the first 5 miles she just talked nonstop...what happened to naps in the stroller?!). There were also a few reprieves where she substituted in a few verses of "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ya" from Drop Kick Murphy's and "Ganja Smuggling" from Eek-A-Mouse... only the best of songs for our kids :P Needless to say when we passed people, we got a few interesting looks.

I'd tell you that the rest of my run went well, but that would be a complete lie. It was a terrible run. I just wasn't into it. My legs seemed heavy and I just couldn't go. I had planned to maybe do 8 miles but for some reason ended up with 10. I think subconsciously I was trying to run until I was enjoying it or maybe I was running further as a punishment for not enjoying it. (I really can't explain the twisted ways my mind works.) Either way, when all was said and done I had 10 miles which I guess was a good thing for a middle of the week run.

We did manage to run by Autzen Stadium. Tomorrow night is the big Pac 12 Championship game (go Ducks!!), so they are getting things all geared up for that. I love to see Autzen, however, I'm not sure I like to see it with a big UCLA sign on it.

Today Leona has a really bad hacking cough. I'd like to believe me taking her out in the stroller doesn't have anything to do with it. You should see how I bundle them up with extra socks and blankets and beanies... not to mention the rain cover because no matter the weather we almost run into some rain, plus it keeps the wind off. However, by the time we got back to our house, she had managed to take off not only her coat but her shoes and socks as well. Jonny on the other hand was nice and toasty as she had merely piled everything up on him.

Running in the clouds...

2011-11-30T08:31:00.001-08:00

Monday, poor Dan stayed home sick from work. For some reason when he's home, I kind of just want to lounge around all day and not accomplish anything. Monday is usually a running day for me, but I thought with him home, it would be a good day for me to take a rest day. Dan thought differently. He thought that since he was home it would be a good opportunity for me to go running, without the kids. It didn't take much persuasion before I was dressed and headed out the door towards Mt. Pisgah for another attempt to tackle the summit. At the bottom of the route, the weather was overcast but nothing out of the ordinary for a late November day in Eugene. As I began the ascent, however, I realized I would soon be running in the clouds. It was really pretty cool.

Here is the path in front of me:

and here is what it looked like behind me:

When I finally got to the top (and yes, there was a fair amount of walking, that hill is brutal... I have a hard time picturing myself tackling it at mile 28 or so of a run... but I'm trying to) there was absolutely no view of Eugene.

Here is a picture of the same view the last time I ran it, so you can get an idea:

It was pretty cool to literally have my head in the clouds (instead of just the figurative sense that I am usually in). I'm super lucky to have such an awesome husband to constantly keep me motivated and encouraged. I was a much happier person for going running. It's too bad he isn't here now to get me out the door....

In other news, Calvin managed to finally (with a little help from Dan) pull out his super wiggly, barely hanging by a thread tooth.

Luckily the tooth fairy even remembered to come... she has been known to be a bit forgetful.

Can you believe that today is the last day of November?! Where did the year go?!

Please curb your cow...

2011-11-28T09:25:00.001-08:00

We had a great Thanksgiving holiday. I managed to get in a soaking wet run before we left on Wednesday, which helped me to learn that not only is my waterproof running jacket not waterproof, neither is the console pocket on my stroller that I keep my phone in when I'm running. When I got back to the house, I opened the pocket to find my phone submerged in an inch of water. I though for sure it was lost forever, but it seems to be hearty and by the end of the weekend it was working again. Whew, lucky me.

Thanksgiving was awesome. I went for a lovely 2 mile run with Dan then ran a mile to my grandma's house where I met up with my mom for an additional 5 1/2 miles. It was a lot of fun running with both my mom and with Dan and between the two of them I almost doubled the miles I had originally planned to run. This made it possible for me to absolutely overindulge on yummy food and way too much pie at Thanksgiving.

Friday I hit up Fred Meyer for their super awesome 50% off sock sale. I really, really wanted to sleep in, but it's kind of become a tradition for my mom and I and we are in desperate need of socks in our house so early bird shopping I went. I also hit up the new Twilight movie with my mom and grandma (my grandma, being an enormous Taylor Latuner fan exclaimed when we pulled into the parking lot and she saw his picture, "There's my man!") which was actually a little better than I anticipated it being. Friday night we also had a lot of fun at my Grandma's Christmas Party although poor Dan and Calvin couldn't make it because they were both sick, sick, sick. :(

Saturday, I headed out for a nice easy long run by myself. I hit up my go to running route when I'm visiting Klamath Falls, the OC&E trail, 100 miles of train route turned pedestrian/equestrian/bike path that runs from Klamath Falls to the Sycan Marsh.

Most of the trail that runs through Klamath is now paved and is the only part that I've ever run on. It's a nice straight shot with cows and farmland and lovely mountain views.

You should've seen the looks this cow was giving me.

Of course, with the cows come occasional "cow droppings". I think I'll have a hard time complaining about people not curbing their dogs from now on.

When I got to my originally planned turn around point I decided to keep going and run on the non-paved portion of the trail. The awesome thing about an out and back run is how easy it is to add mileage on. You only have to go one more mile to add two onto your route.

It was cold and the trail was frozen. There was absolutely no one around and I really enjoyed running somewhere that I had never run before. Although it wasn't the beautiful green and tree filled paths I am used to, it was a different kind of beauty that I enjoyed just the same. I'd love to go back sometime and completely skip the paved portion and do some real distance on the dirt trails. All-in-all, it was a great run and a great weekend. And what picture heavy post wouldn't be complete without a less than flattering self-portrait of me?! Hope you all had a great holiday weekend. Now on to the week...

Thanksgiving is my favorite...

2011-11-23T08:38:00.001-08:00

I love Thanksgiving. I love to eat, I love to hang out and visit with people, I love to watch football, I love to make yummy pies and other goodies... there really isn't anything that I don't love about Thanksgiving. This year, I'm especially excited because the court decided to take on of its budget required furlough days the day after Thanksgiving, so Dan has a 4 day weekend! As soon as he gets off work (fingers crossed that it is a little bit earlier than normal) we are heading down to Klamath Falls where we will enjoy Thanksgiving with our families.

Every year, my grandma hosts a pretty big Thanksgiving feast. My parents come, Dan's parents come, whatever siblings I have in town come, several aunts and uncles, a few cousins and sometimes friends and roommates too. My grandma is the ultimate host and loves to have dinner parties. She gets a couple of long tables and sets them up in the living room stretched out from the dining room and everyone crowds in. There is always too much food and it is always amazing. We follow up Thanksgiving with another grandma hosted party the evening after... kind of a let's kick of the Christmas season party usually filled with fun crafts and games, a homemade gift exchange and of course more food and yummy treats. It's a good time. This year, Dan and I made some really awesome gifts to give away. I'm really excited about them. I can't tell you what they are because I never know who might read my blog, but I can tell you all about it next week.

I'm also excited because Dan and I are going to go running tomorrow morning to get in the turkey eating mood. It probably won't be very far or even very fast but it will be the first time we've gone running together in almost 10 years. In fact, I'm pretty sure the last time we went running together was on Martin Luther King Day in 2002. Neither of us were very hardcore runners at the time and we were still enough in the newlywed stage of our life that when we woke up to a rain and snow mix (in Eugene, which is pretty rare) and I said, let's go running Dan wasn't brave enough to say, "You crazy woman, what are you talking about, let's sleep in instead"... so we went.

Speaking of the rain, I'm about to go run in it now. It is absolutely pouring, but I know this day and the trip this evening will be a lot better for me (an in turn my kids) if I've gotten a little bit of outside the house running time.

I hope everyone has a super wonderful Thanksgiving holiday filled with lots of yummy food, a little bit of running and quality time with friends and loved ones. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, here's a quick & short list of the things I'm thankful for:

1. Dan - couldn't do any of what I do without him.
2. My crazy kids - love them to pieces even when they're tearing my house apart (which 3 & 4 are doing right now, of course).
3. The rest of our families - they keep life interesting and are always there to help us out.
4. Close friends - the kind that bring awesome cards & terrariums and that I know I could call on for anything.
5. Unexpected surprises that although are super scary and unplanned are really blessings in disguise.
6. BOB - I love that stroller... I must if it made #6. Definitely wouldn't do as much running without him.
7. Rain - although at times I hate it, I love living in such a green place.
8. Running and the ability to do it. It makes me happy & keeps me healthy... better get on that.

What are you thankful for?

Calvin's turkey... ignore the penguin, he came with the paper.

42-22-32

2011-11-21T16:43:00.001-08:00

No, those aren't my measurements. Not even close... well one of them might be close, but not really. They are actually pretty close to Barbie's measurements if she were life sized... she's hugely disproportionate. Anyway, I digress...

42 - the number of miles I ran last week. Although it isn't super crazy, it is definitely the most mileage I've done in a while. I just might be training for something. In fact, Heather and I just might be training for something together... again. We haven't made anything official yet, but there could be a pretty big race looming ahead for us.

22 - the number of miles Heather and I ran on Saturday. Outside of my 3 marathons, that was only the second time I've run that far. Without a doubt, it was the hardest 22 miles I've ever done. I really, really, (as in if Heather hadn't been there and said, "what are we going to do to get our final 6?") really wanted to quit after 16. I've never cut a training run short just because I didn't feel like doing more. Thank goodness Heather was there. It was a terribly awful run that left me feeling defeated and questioning my ability to continue in the direction of that race and at the same time left me feeling incredibly wonderful that we accomplished what we did and with a desire to try again. It was also a lot of fun. We stopped a lot to check the map. We took the wrong routes several times, once leading us to a nice swing:

and of course, when confronted by a swing in the middle of nowhere on a mountain, one must swing:

Heather swung too, but I don't know that I have "rights" to that picture, so I won't post it. It's hard to tell, but that swing was very, very high off the ground and it was a little bit precarious getting onto it.
We also managed to make it to the summit. Just so you can get an idea, here's the elevation profile:

Yeah, that bigger mountain was at mile 14 of our run... it will be at mile 27 or so of the race. Why yes, that is almost 1,000 straight up. Needless to say we walked ~~a lot~~ all of it, and not at a nice brisk hiking pace... it was more of a I don't think I'm making much progress shuffle. The view, however was very rewarding.

Look, our tiny little mountains got some snow!

Although, we left feeling a little bit defeated and woke up the next day feeling pretty sore, we've already decided to give it another go. In 2 weeks we'll head back for 24 miles, tackle that summit again and a few other smaller hills that we may have neglected.

32 - the number in years I turned yesterday. I celebrated by rolling out of bed then crawling up the stairs because I was that sore. Then we went to church where a surprising amount of people knew it was my birthday (probably because it was printed on the back of the bulletin) and was even serenaded after Sunday School by an older, somewhat goofy, but super nice man. After church, I had another church meeting but when I got home Dan had the kids all fed, 2 of them napping and a nice warm lunch waiting for me. I only changed 1 diaper all day long, got an incredible massage that did wonders on my poor tired legs and finished the day off with angel food cake, strawberries and whipped cream.

Yes, I had more than one serving.

Yummy!! All in all, it was a wonderful birthday. I think I'll even claim next years birthday... I'll probably stop after that though 33 seems like a decent age to stop getting older. :)

Competing with Olympians

2011-11-17T14:24:00.001-08:00

I have a little competition problem... as in, I am constantly competing with everyone... at everything... including myself. I don't even mean to do it but it just happens. I cannot play the Wii with my kids... especially Calvin. That kid is amazing and I know better than to compete with him at Super Mario Bros., but when it comes to Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games or Wii Sports I can't help but put him in his place. Yeah, he's 6... I'm ruthless.

Today on my run, I was minding my own business, just running along... me, a little old lady, running in the rain while pushing my kids in the stroller. I had already gone 6 miles at a decent pace and was just a touch over a mile from home. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, a whole grip of OTC Elites (and maybe some UO runners too?) came charging at me down the path. As the first two guys went by, I overheard them talking about how so and so "will most likely medal in the 800, although it is kind of going to be a crap shoot". I got caught up in wondering if they were talking about the trials and how cool it is to run along with Olympic hopefuls. As more and more of them kept coming, I could fell my pace begin to quicken. Before I knew it, I looked down and was alarmed to see my pace much closer to 7 minutes than the mid 8s I had been doing before hand. Who on earth was I competing with? I'm sure they didn't even glance twice in my direction, nor where they even headed the same way, yet somewhere in the back of my mind I had something to prove... to who? To them? To me? Yep, I probably have close to 10 years on most of those kids, not to mention kids of my own and am in a completely different place in my life yet for those few moments where our paths crossed I was competing with them... even if they didn't realize it.

Now, next summer, when I'm watching the 800 trials, I can say, "Hey, I competed against those guys once"... even if it was just in my head. :)

Best day in the history of the world...

2011-11-11T17:40:00.001-08:00

Okay, so that is probably a bit dramatic for a title but it is my favorite day ever. 11/11/11... doesn't get much better than that. I couldn't let it slip away without getting some sort of a post in. 11 is my favorite number, always has been. I'm not really sure why, probably because November (the 11th month) is my birth month. Or maybe it's because two ones are better than just one. It's like being number one twice. :)

It has actually been a pretty good day. Last night, when Dan got home from work, I found my lost running motivation. It came in the form of, "So, are you ready to get out there and run now, because you should." Me, "So, you read my blog?" D - "Yep, you need to go running." So, after a little bit... off I went. It was of course a fantastic run as it seems runs usually are when I don't really think I want to take them. Because I ran last night, I felt better today and was able to enjoy a true rest day today.

Because of the holiday, the kids were out of school and the courts were closed, so Dan was out of work. Calvin had a birthday party that lasted most of the day, so Emme and I decided to make it a girls day out. First off she hung out at the salon with me while I got my hair cut, then we hit up a nice bagel place for lunch before heading to a local pottery place to paint some pottery. We had a lot of fun. Miss Emmeline and I don't take the opportunity to enjoy each other's company enough, it was very good for both of us.

Now, we're waiting for dinner to come knocking on our door (mmmm, yummy pizza!!) and then I'm going to head out for a big girl's night out. I'm going to a "favorite things party" which I think is going to be awesome. I've never been to one before, but basically you take one of your favorite items (in triplicate) and come home with the favorite items of three other people. I'm taking black and grey stripey bamboo knee socks along with a package of Starbucks' salted caramel hot chocolate. Not too much I like more than wearing warm socks and drinking yummy hot chocolate.

So, that's it. After having my pity party yesterday, I went for a run and all was right in the world again. Heather and I are going to hit up the trails tomorrow morning for a nice 12+ miles, which should get me through the rest of the weekend. We (Oregon Duck Football) have a big game tomorrow night against Stanford so if you need something fun to do turn on the game and cheer for the ducks!! Hope everyone has a great weekend. Happy Running!!

It's lost...

2011-11-10T12:07:00.001-08:00

my motivation is lost. I can't remember the last time that I had to actually talk myself into going for a run. Okay, that isn't entirely true... it was last Saturday (and it ended up being a fantastic run), however before that (which is really when this started) I was always more than eager to step out the door.

Monday I had all my clothes laid out and ready to go so that I could get up early and get my run in before the day started. That used to be my favorite time of day to run... when most of the world was still sleeping. I would load up on all of my reflective gear, put on my head lamp and slip away into the darkness for some beautiful solitude. When I'd get home, no one would even be up yet and it would be like this little secret that I had. Ha ha, I ran 8 miles while you were all still asleep. When my alarm went off on Monday, though, I just laid there in bed. I tried to talk myself into getting up, but I couldn't do it. Eventually I gave in and went back to sleep. Feeling bad for skipping my planned early morning run, after I took my day care kids home (I'm watching 2 kids, 3 times a week now) I gave Jonny and Leona a snack and we headed out for a quick 6 miles. When all was said and done, it was a great run. They both fell asleep and stayed asleep when we got home, which allowed me to take a shower (for as long as I wanted) without wondering if anyone (Jonny) was trying to burn the house down.

Tuesday was a planned rest day. I accomplished that quite easily. :)

Yesterday, Wednesday, was a tricky one. Wednesday's are early release for my grade school kids. They get home a little after 1pm instead of 3pm. Wednesday, I also desperately needed to go to a department type store. If I went for a run, there wouldn't be enough time to also go to a store while Emme and Calvin were at school (and I really, really didn't want to take all 4 of them). However, if I went to the store then I wouldn't get a run in. Dan suggested that I run in the evening after dinner. Although a very decent option, I just wasn't feeling it either. Yesterday, I managed to use up the last little bit of motivation I had. I found motivation in multitasking. There is a store exactly 4.5 miles from my doorstep that would work for my shopping and also give me a nice 9 miles on the day. With the storage under my stroller I was able to get the items I needed, get Leona and Jonny a decent nap and get my run in. Even though it isn't one of my more favorite routes (lots of downtown lights and heavy traffic running) it turned out to be a good run.

However, that brings us to today. I had planned 6 miles. I thought about getting up early to do it. I didn't even get my clothes ready. I had to take Emme and Jonny in to get their flu vaccines at 9:40, so I couldn't run right after breakfast. The plan was to go after we took Emme back to school. Instead, we came home and had an early lunch. I thought maybe we would go after lunch so the kids could nap in the stroller but nope I put them in their beds. They are upstairs napping and here I sit. I don't feel like running. It's my favorite time of year to run. The sun is actually out, the leaves are beautiful, it is crisp but not cold, yet here I sit. Again, I don't feel like running.

I don't think I'm burned out. I know that running makes me happy and I know that I'll feel better if I just go for a run but I don't want to. I even have a race (a fairly big one - for me at least) I'm kind of sort of training for (we'll see... how's that for commitment?!) so you'd think that would give me the motivation I need. For whatever reason, I just don't feel like running today. I'm not especially tired and nothing even hurts... I'm just not motivated. I guess that is okay... as long as it is just today that I give in to it... there is always tomorrow and Saturday. The week isn't over yet.

Now to find some motivation to do some dishes and laundry and cleaning... ugh.

Rain+Leaves+Trails=Best Therapy Ever

2011-11-07T06:26:00.000-08:00

I had a hard time talking myself into heading out for my run on Saturday. I was freezing cold inside my house and I assumed (it isn't always the case) that it was even colder outside. It was raining. I was tired. I needed to go grocery shopping. I had tons of excuses. Ultimately though, I convinced myself to go with the promise of a run on the trails where I could get away from everything else. I am so glad I did. I haven't been on the trails for quite a while and it felt so great.

It was pretty much pouring by the time I got to the trail, but with the heavy tree coverage it didn't seem quite as rainy on the trail. I did manage my first fall though. There were a couple walking down the trail that I was running up. To be courteous (and partly because they didn't really scoot over much) I stepped off the trail as I went around them. Right after I passed them though, while attempting to get back on the trail, I slipped and ate it pretty hard. Somehow I managed to scrape up both sides of my left hand and my left knee and thigh pretty badly. I also landed on my left shoulder hard enough to make my arm tingle for the next 1/2 mile. Unfortunately I was only a half mile into my run, but when I got to the top of that trail section I stopped to assess the damage. Only minimal blood and the tingling had stopped so I decided to keep going instead of calling it a day at 2 miles. (I knew it was only time before I had a trail running spill so now I feel like I'm official. It did help me come up with a rescue plan for if I ever managed to fall off one of the steeper parts of the trail, which is good to have just in case.) Today my arm is still pretty stiff but no other real damage. I think I need to learn how to fall a little bit more gracefully. :)

Anyway, back to my run... I decided to keep going and am very glad I did. It ended up being just the run I needed. Because of the rain there where only a few people out hiking and I only came across 2 other runners... which for an early Saturday afternoon, is pretty rare. When I headed out I was in a bad mood and had a lot of stuff on my mind but by the time I got back to my car I had all but solved all the problems in the world. I guess 9 1/2 miles on beautifully quite trails in the rain does something for stress relief. Next time I won't be so hesitant to go. I love trail running... nothing like it.

As a side note... lately I've been running in the Brooks Green Silence shoes, which I absolutely love, so when I put on my trail shoes (Puma Nightfox) they felt so incredibly heavy. I seriously felt like I had strapped cement blocks to my feet. It took a bit to get used to them again and I think I'd like to look into a more minimal trail shoe... sometime in the future. Any good suggestions?

BTB Sunglasses Product Review: You won't shoot your eye out!

2011-11-04T06:37:00.000-07:00

I don't usually run in sunglasses. I actually used to always run in sunglasses but then I had an unfortunate incident where I put my glasses on the top of the stroller while I ~~reprimanded~~ tended to the kiddos, then promptly forgot about them (the glasses, not my kids) while crossing the street quickly. It just so happened they fell off in front of the stroller somehow and I managed to gracefully (ha ha) run over them. RIP light blue Oakley's that predated my marriage and subsequently my kids. For some reason, I never replaced them. Many, many times I have been out for a run and wished I had sunglasses, most recently this summer when I was running in St. George, yet I never broke down and bought any.

Enter BTB Sunglasses. They generously offered me a pair of glasses to try out and thus ended my several year sunglasses drought. It took me a few days to decide which pair I wanted to try (me indecisive, no, really?!). They have some great looking ladies sunglasses as well as some pretty cool running sunglasses. I almost got a bitchin' pair that had bright blue lenses, from the 800 series, but ultimately went with the BTB 200, "A traditional "full frame" glass known for it's style and fit".

Aren't they puuuurty and oh so stylish?!

Before I get more into my experience, let me school you a bit on BTB sunglasses in general. Straight from their website:

They are simply what they say... well made glasses, that look sharp and don't cost a fortune. Which to people like me (with 4 crazy kids always stealing and breaking my stuff) is a huge selling point. I want to look good, I want to have something durable, but if, heaven forbid, some freak accident (hit & run jogging stroller incident perhaps?) befalls my beloved glasses I don't want to spend the next several months mourning the month's rent I forked out and in turn lost on them. I'd rather respond with, "Well, that sucks but at $34.95 I can probably spring for another pair."

In addition, BTB sunglasses are the only glasses I know of that boast lenses that can withstand being shot with a 12-gauge shot gun. You'll never have to worry about bugs in your eyes again when wearing those babies... nothing will get through. Maybe if Ralphie had been wearing a pair of BTB glasses his Christmas wish would've been better received... less talk of shooting his eye out. :)

So, BTB, in case you're wondering stands for "Be the Ball". Basically, BTB Sunglasses were, "started in part to help fund the BTB Foundation", which is designed to help combat childhood obesity by encouraging kids to get out of the house and play sports. A portion of each sale from a pair of BTB sunglasses goes directly to the BTB foundation, which I think is awesome! I'm a big fan of kids playing sports and being active. (If you'd like to grab a badge for your blog in support of the program, you can get one HERE.)

Anyway, back to me and my experience (because that's really what it's all about right?! ME. ME. ME) with BTB sunglasses. When I first received my pair, I was pretty happy to find them in a nice little box:

and inside that, a nice little optic-fiber pouch:

I put them on and wore them around the house for a bit. I first noticed that they seemed fairly light, fit my face well without squishing my head, and most importantly, weren't so close to my eyes that my eyelashes batted against the lens... I hate it when that happens. I wanted to take them for a test run but alas it rained for about the next week straight and, I know it will be hard to believe, but even I can't look cool wearing sunglasses in the rain. Then all of my running happened before the sun came up, which was then followed by a week of rest, followed by more early morning running, followed by a marathon, followed by another week of rest, which finally brought us to this week. The week were I finally managed to get in a few runs, in the sunshiny light of day and give the glasses a real go. (Here come the awesome self-portraits you've been waiting for.)

Run #1: An easy 3 miler with all 4 kids (2 on bikes) and a layover at the park. 100% sunshine.

best thing about wearing glasses - you can look directly into the sun for a self-portrait and not have to squint

I had absolutely no issues with the glasses. I wore them for the entire 3 miles and was glad to have them as it was super sunny. It was nice to wear them at the park while my kids ran around. When I got home I didn't have any funny lines are marks on my face to giveaway the fact that I'd been wearing sunglasses for the last few hours (we were at the park for quite a while... I don't quite run that slowly.)

Run #2: A slightly longer 5 miler, this time with just the stroller. Mix of clouds and sun.

I think the glasses look a lot more hardcore when paired with a black shirt.

It was quite a bit cooler on the 5 mile run and at first I had some issues with the lenses fogging up but they seemed to clear off fairly quickly. The nose piece is a very soft material that fits comfortably on my nose and I never once got annoyed with them. On this run, I noticed that even when the clouds covered up the sun I could still see really clearly with the glasses on. They don't seem to distort images at all, and if possible, almost made my surroundings more vivid.

Overall, I was very pleased with my two test runs in the BTB glasses and look forward to wearing them more in the future... assuming the sun can hold out, this is fall in the Willamette Valley after all. They really do seem to be quality glasses that are well worth the price. I'm happy with the pair I got but I think I might like to invest in another, more colorful pair too.

If you're in the market for a new pair of sunglasses or just feel like treating yourself, you should check out BTB Sunglasses. Just tell them I sent you... or rather input the code LAURIE25 and you'll get 25% off any one pair of glasses! I'm not a super math genius but last time I checked 25% off of less than $50 = a really great deal... what are you waiting for go check them out now!!

Fine print: I received a pair of BTB Sunglasses to test out and review. The opinions expressed on this blog are entirely my own.

Had to share...

2011-11-03T13:13:00.000-07:00

My 5 mile run today in pictures: (Ruth Bascom Riverbank Trail along the Willamette River in Eugene, OR)

How can one not enjoy life when getting to be surrounded by all of that?! I love where I live and I love, love, love the fall. Happy Running!!

Columbia River Power Marathon Race Report

2011-11-02T14:22:00.000-07:00

Since we're working on two weeks since I ran the Columbia River Power Marathon in Umatilla, OR, it's about time I finally got the race report up.

This race came about, because a friend of mine, Heather, had put in to run the St. George Marathon with her husband. When they didn't get picked to run it I told her that if she couldn't get her husband to run another marathon with her I'd be happy to step in. I was still coming off my high from winning Ridgeline and since we had never really done anything together, let alone run, I wasn't really sure if she would take me up on it. She did though, so the task became to find a marathon in late fall (long enough to train for it) and on a Saturday, preferably within a reasonable driving distance from Eugene. We narrowed it down to two (actually there might have only been 2 that fit the bill), the Bend Marathon on October 1st and the Columbia River Power Marathon on October 22nd. Since Columbia River in Umatilla gave us 3 extra weeks of training and didn't start at over 3000 feet elevation and finish close to 4000 (like Bend did) we decided to go with it.

The day before the race, my mom came up (don't have a single picture of her, how terrible is that?!) and, after dumping off my kids that weren't in school with a friend (Thanks Lindsey!!) we headed to Umatilla where we stayed in the motel that housed packet pick up, a pasta feed and also boasted the start and finish of the race. We got there in time to tour what we could drive of the course and check out the gravelly path that we would be running on for 10 miles. The hills were a bit alarming... they were rolling and kind of big but we didn't let them scare us. The pasta feed, on the other hand was a little scary... okay, not really but it left a lot to be desired, so we decided to take our chances with the local fare. Umatilla is a tiny town so we headed into the "big city" of Hermiston where we were turned away from our first two choices to eat, no reservations, followed by a private party to which we weren't privy. Our 3rd choice smelled a bit too fishy, so we settled for choice #4, a pizza parlor that boasted pizza, pasta and something else. The only pasta they had on their menu was lasagna so we opted for bread sticks and pizza. So much for our huge night of carb loading.

The rest of the evening was uneventful. I painted my fingernails (which has become a racing prerequisite for me... this time I went with black), wrote out my fueling plan (another prerequisite), read for a bit and went to bed. We woke with plenty of time to check out the breakfast where I grabbed a banana to go with my Clif Bar and snagged some yogurt for my mom. I washed down breakfast with some water and ibuprofen and then chased it with 3 margarita clif shots as we headed out the door less than 10 minutes before the race started... sleeping at the start line was awesome!

Thanks to Barefoot Angie Bee & the ladies at Glam Runner, I was able to rock the awesome green & yellow sparkle tutu. Heather, being the good sport that she is, joined in on the fun and ordered a tutu of her own, "the punk rock girl". As soon as we made it two the crowd, the comments began (all positive) and we were dubbed the two tutu girls.

There was a lot of waiting at the start. They talked about the course, the security cautions for going over the dam and then ran through all the sponsors. Then a local band played a song and encouraged everyone to sing along. At this point I was kind of glad that I hadn't warmed up because I surely would've gotten cold.

The racers look a little bored... blue bibs are marathoners, pink the halfers.

Finally, after about 7 minutes, we were off:

the guy in the half fanatics shirt ran Ridgeline with me... I referred to him as "maniac boy" in that write up... turns out he's a pretty hardcore runner doing crazy racing all over the place.

I think mostly to separate the half from the full, the marathoners ran around a grass median in the road 1 1/2 times before heading off on the course. Although it was a bit monotonous, it gave my mom plenty of opportunities to play paparazzi. We're pretty easy to spot in our two tutus. :)

finally, we're headed out to the course...

Towards the end of the first mile, there was a pretty decent downhill and then we headed across the McNary Dam, which isn't usually open to civilians, and into Washington state. Crossing the dam and running in two separate states are pretty big advertising points for this race. Our plan for the race was to run the first 15 miles at an 8:34 average and allow a fade of almost 30 seconds per mile over the last 11 to finish under 3:50. Miles 1-3 splits 8:02, 8:07, 8:20. We were going a bit fast, but after crossing the dam we began the "rolling hills" section, where we knew we would fade a bit. We settled into a nice rhythm though and stayed pretty steady with 8:34 and 8:32 for miles 4 and 5. At mile 5 I had my first fuel, a Chocolate Cherry (super charged) Clif Shot, which when combined with almost a mile straight downhill and an awesome story about genetics from Heather, resulted in a 7:55 average pace for mile 6, definitely our fastest for the race. Miles 7 and 8 were pretty uneventful and mostly flat. We got to run through a tunnel, which was pretty cool and kind of dark

and just after we crossed the bridge back into Oregon, shortly after mile 8, my mom was waiting to cheer us on.

we found that running side by side while crossing the bridge on the narrow pedestrian path was a little troublesome... especially when trying to pass people. I'm sure we made quite the road block. :)

Mile 9 was a nice flat stretch and took us through a park just pass the dam, up a little hill and on a stretch of gravel before saying hello to the 10 mile marker and goodbye to the half marathoners who went up the big, big hill towards their finish. (Don't feel too badly for them, we get to run up it at mile 24 of our race.) Also, at mile 10 I took the rest of my Margarita Clif shots. They are really tough for me to get down, but I know the extra sodium is a huge help as I am very prone to leg cramps. I don't think there is any way I could choke them down later in the race though.

Just past mile 11 is where we hopped on the Lewis and Clark Trail for 5 miles of trail running. Here is what the course outline had to say (I have to give it to you word for word... it is that awesome):

"Aside from crossing the McNary Dam, running in two states, and returning along the bridge, this trail is one of the the hallmarks of this marathon. Though challenging and rugged this gives you a chance to get away from the fast-paced world of everyday life and enjoy the beauty of the River, the sage, the basalt bluffs, and the divers flora and fauna unique to our region. We hope you enjoy this u-close-and-personal-view of our region in its rawest form."

I'm not afraid of trail running, in fact I prefer it to road running, however, there are is a huge difference between running on dirt/rock trails in the hills and running on sandy/gravelly rolling trails along the river. It was hard. Our pace dropped considerably, which wasn't something we had accounted for. Miles 12-16: 8:38, 8:42, 8:53, 8:49, 8:54. While running on the trail though, we hooked up with Miranda and Jay who would stick with us for most of the next 10 miles. At mile 15, I had some more caffeine, in the form of a Razz Clif shot. Towards the beginning of the trail, we joked about the "flora and fauna", towards the middle, we looked forward to seeing the leaders as they passed us on the way back (this is also where we learned there were only 2 women in front of us) and towards the end of the trail we looked forward to hitting paved ground again. Finally, at mile marker 16, we saw the end of the gravel (for the time being) as we headed for a two mile out and back through Hat Rock State Park. My mom was also a welcome sight.

Me... still all smiles, Miranda, Jay... a first time marathoner & Heather

The out and back felt good and when we turned around there was a slight breeze, which felt awesome. Before we knew it though, we were back to my mom and in turn back to the trail, which we really, really did not want to go on again. Not only did we have 5 miles of hilly gravel running to do but at the end of it we had the dreaded "hill" to look forward to.

There was an aid station at mile 18 just before getting back on the trail. Heather stopped for water and I didn't. Had I stopped I really don't think I would have gotten going again. Meredith stopped with Heather and Jay went on with me. Unfortunately Heather and I didn't manage to meet back up but she was surely reeling me in. Jay was quite the conversationalist and the cheer leader. It was his first marathon and he was super excited. He was also a local cross country coach and seemed to know everyone that was running in the race and had positive remarks for every single person that we passed as we went back along the trail. His enthusiasm definitely kept me going, but I secretly wondered when his energy might taper off. At mile 19, he mentioned that he was now in new territory, not having run over 18 miles in training. At mile 20 he was super excited but not saying quite as much. I took another Clif Shot, strawberry, and bypassed the aid station at 21 since I had my own water. Jay skipped out too, mostly because I think he didn't want to lose me. I could still see Heather and Miranda not too far behind us running together. I worried about not being with Heather, but we had talked about splitting up if we needed to and since she was at least running with someone I didn't feel too badly. Although at every aid station they would give me a bad time about not being with my other tutu friend. I told them to cheer extra loud for her.

Finally, at mile 23, we saw an end to the trail. I was so excited. I was happy enough to be off it that I was almost looking forward to the hill. Jay ran on ahead to get a drink from his wife and high fives from his 6(!) kids. Then we headed up the hill and up some more. The miles finally caught up to poor Jay and he slowed to a walk but still had very encouraging things to say as I went on ahead of him. Somewhere between mile 24 and 25, I ran into (no, not literally) my mom. I though she was going to be at the top of the hill but she had come down a bit to meet us. She was a very welcome sight. I also ran into my slowest pace of the race 10:13! Yikes, that hill was brutal!

You can see Jay just behind me and Heather only a small distance off.

My mom ran a bit up the hill with me while trying to keep me from talking to her, even though all I wanted to do was tell her how brutal the hill was. I think she wanted me to conserve my energy. I tried to figure out if I really was in 3rd place for the women and she thought I was. There were a few people not too far ahead of me and she thought maybe I could catch them. I didn't think I could, but told her I'd try. I didn't. Well, I did try, but didn't come close to catching anyone. :)

She also got some nice shots of Heather as she rounded the hill and headed into the home stretch.

Miles 25-26 were good because I knew I was almost done. I tried to have a couple sport beans at mile 25 but I couldn't choke them down... I merely sucked on a couple and spit them out. There was a little bit more gravel, as if we hadn't had enough and some more (really gentle this time) rolling hills. As I was running along the final stretches I said to myself, "you never have to do this again if you don't want to". Then finally the finish line. I could see the clock had just turned over to 3:49 and I gave it everything I had left (really not much) to ensure I came in under 3:50. Official time 3:49:23, a 3 minute PR for me... I'll take it!

Seriously who puts the finish line at the top of a hill? That is just mean!

Heather finished shortly after me in 3:50:11, a 35 minute marathon PR!! I think she was a bit bummed to come in over 3:50, but she did awesome on a really tough course.

(Since I posted a picture of Heather drinking, I figure it was only fair to post one of me too.)

After I did a bit of dry heaving in the bushes and drank copious amounts of water (the only thing available at the finish line) we headed in to check out the awards and the potato bar. The potatoes and chili did not seem appealing to either one of us and they had given out all the chocolate milk to the half marathoners so we hit up the hotel's restaurant for our own chocolate milk.... which they were kind enough to charge to the room for us. The awards ceremony was long and kind of boring, they announced the winners of the half marathon and the top two places for the marathon, then gave out some random prizes to people based on age, ie. oldest guy, youngest guy. Probably only because I placed third, but I thought it would have at least been good to mention the top 3 for each event.

Overall, it was a tough, tough course. It was hilly and the gravel was difficult, but it is a race I would consider running again. There were long sections without any crowd support but the people that were out were great at cheering. Also, the aid stations were well placed and well stocked. Their were local cross country kids and other families handing out shot blocks and other forms of aid and all the stations were set up the same way with Gatorade followed by water. It seemed to be a very well organized race.

I loved wearing the tutu. It didn't get in my way at all and we got tons and tons of positive cheering attention for wearing them... I would definitely wear it again! I used KT tape on my hip and knee portion of my IT band as well as the IT Compression Wrap and didn't have a bit of knee pain. I was super duper happy about that!!

Here are a few more looks at the numbers (in case you hadn't read enough already);

Our splits:

and another look at the elevation profile in case you're having trouble picturing the hills. :)

A huge thanks to my mom for shuttling us around and playing paparazzi. It was so awesome to see her popping up all over the course. Also an enormous thanks to Heather who really kept me going throughout our training plan and during the race. I learned that running can be fun with other people. :) Also, thanks to all of you and your encouraging and kind comments... they really keep me motivated! Runners are awesome!!

I ♥ Halloween

2011-10-31T15:58:00.000-07:00

What is better than a day where you get to dress however you want and then go knock on random doors to receive bucket loads of candy?! Absolutely love it. Originally I planned to finally write up my race report today, but it isn't going to happen. I am planning to stay up until midnight to register for Hippie Chick though... so maybe I'll get it done then. Anyway, back to Halloween.

I think some of my love for the holiday has rubbed off on my kids. They start planning their costumes the day after Halloween for the next year. Granted, they then change their minds about a billion times and I still don't start making the costumes until about a week before they need to be done, but at least the creative juices are flowing. This year Leona opted to be a pumpkin, Jonny a dalmatian, Calvin "Super Hero Calvin" and Miss Emmeline is Princess Leia. Last Wednesday, we went to a Halloween party at church.

Jonny, the now headless dalmatian, enjoyed the cake walk... he would run around and around the numbers stopping to dance every time he passed the music player then as soon as the music stopped he would head straight for the cupcake table and try to steal some treats. Luckily he finally won one.

Leona had a good time getting her face painted and as for the other two, they had friends there and I didn't see too much of them the rest of the evening. (In fact, I didn't even manage to see Emme long enough to get a picture of her the entire night.)

We followed the church party up with a party at a friend's house on Saturday evening. The boys decided they had had enough parties, so we made it a girls' night out.

notice the cool "dalmatian head handbag" ?!

Check out these awesome "witch's fingers" I took as my side dish.

The girls had a lot of fun at the party, there was a ton of food and a piñata and all went well until they decided to put the Thriller video up on the TV for the dance party. Having not seen it in quite a while, I forgot how creepy it was (and would be to a 7 year old with an overactive imagination and a 3 year old who is terrified of dogs). Needless to say, they were quite ready to go before it was over and we had a long talk on the drive home about silly costume make up and playing pretend for TV. Luckily, though, we made it through the night with no bad dreams.

Yesterday we carved pumpkins...

Leona had fun taking out the guts.

Calvin wasn't a big fan of the guts... in fact he didn't even touch them.

Emme carved her pumpkin entirely by herself.

And Jonny mostly enjoyed getting away with sitting on the table.

Today, I sent the daring duo off to school, where they enjoyed a costume parade this morning, PE, lunch and a couple recesses followed by a Halloween party this afternoon... of course, I'm sure they squeezed in some math and science too, it is "school" after all.

Tonight we will pick up Dan from work and take the kids trick or treating to "Leona's Fairy Godmother" (Dan's Judge's Assistant... did you follow that?), then a quick dinner before meeting up with a couple of Emme & Calvin's friends for real trick or treating. Luckily (for the teachers) there is no school tomorrow or the next day (parent/teacher conferences) so we can all sleep in tomorrow... ha ha ha.

As for running, I haven't been doing it... like at all. I made myself take a full week off after the marathon and had planned to start back up today, but it just didn't happen. I hope to get back into it this week (maybe as early as tomorrow or later tonight? since I'll be up waiting for Hippie Chick Registration to open... although running in the night time dark on Halloween might not be the smartest thing to do.)

Hope everyone has a safe and fun Halloween... even if you are merely hiding out in your house with all the lights off (like my parents do to avoid trick or treaters).

Race report coming soon... really, really soon... I promise. :)

Official race report coming soon...

2011-10-24T15:48:00.000-07:00

but until then, you'll have to be happy with this quick, quick version. Columbia River Power Marathon. 26.2 miles (10 of which were on sandy gravely river rocky trail). Official time 3:49:32 (new PR!!). 15th overall. 3rd woman. 1st in age group. Absolutely no knee/IT pain. Happy, happy me.

Guess we're ready...

2011-10-21T20:41:00.000-07:00

Well, we drove what we could of the course....

then drove around and after striking out in several restaurants, finally found a pizza parlor to eat in. Now we're "carb" loaded (pizza crust counts right?) and the tutu's are hanging up and ready to go.

26.2... Bring it on. "Run or Die."

Did I really just hear that?

2011-10-17T21:10:00.000-07:00

So, Dan, my husband, just got back from running. Before he left, he said, I really don't want to go running. He had a long day at work, followed by Emme's soccer practice, it was dark and cold, he could have used any one of those excuses but he didn't. He put on his shoes and headed out the door. I'm so proud of him for going and sticking with it, especially on days were he really doesn't want to. It makes me so happy in my heart every time he heads out for a run. I love that something that brings me so much joy and happiness is becoming something that he enjoys as well. Anyway, today after his run, he said, "I realize I've only been running 2 to 3 times per week for a little less than a month, but I think someday I'd really like to run a marathon." Be still my heart! I remained calm and simply nodded and smiled, offering my encouragement, while inside my mind was moving a hundred miles a minute with all sorts of plans for the race we are going to do, when it is going to be... our long training runs together... you name it, I thought about it. Happy, happy, me.

Also, happy, happy me because my 8 miles went great on Saturday! I had absolutely no knee pain. I followed that up with a quick 3 miles this evening and am feeling great. Only 2 small runs left and then it's race day. I think I'm ready and I'm actually getting pretty excited.

Long Live the Pumpkin Fairy

2011-10-14T21:07:00.000-07:00

I just had a visit from the Pumpkin Fairy. She came bearing pumpkin cookies laced with white chocolate goodness:

She pretty much rocks! Luckily she also texts, otherwise those poor pumpkin cookies might have sat on my doorstep all night with no one to eat them... that would have been a huge shame.

Here's the back story:

When I was pregnant with Jonny I discovered Ben & Jerry's Pumpkin Cheesecake Ice Cream, which set in motion an extreme craving for all things pumpkin flavored. Pumpkin cookies, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cake... you name it and I craved it. (I thought I blogged about it, but alas I cannot find it in the archives... oh well.) Well, eventually the pregnancy (and pumpkin season) came to an end but this time of year, it never seems to fail, the craving returns in full force. Unfortunately, the Ben & Jerry's is hard to come by, last year I only found it at one store and only twice and this year I haven't seen it anywhere. Luckily, though, the Pumpkin Fairy knows of my need and is kind and generous enough to brave the dark and dreary Eugene night to deliver fresh baked and super tasty pumpkin cookies right to my door step. I don't think it gets much better than that. Thank you great and wonderful Pumpkin Fairy. I ♥ you.

In running news, I ran 5 miles yesterday at a much more realistic pace and without all the stops as the day before and although the IT Wrap might not be quite as magical as I had originally hoped I do think it is helpful. Heather and I are headed out for 8 in the morning which will be the real test. Hopefully it will leave me with renewed hope and optimism for next week's race. If nothing else, I plan to fuel with and indulge post run with magical pumpkin cookies... maybe they will help. :) Did I mention that the Pumpkin Fairy runs too... that has to come into play somewhere. Hope you all have a great and happy weekend filled with running and yummy pumpkin flavored treats.

A Week

2011-10-13T09:57:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been almost a complete week since I last blogged, so I figure I'm quite due for a post. I've been feeling a little bit blah lately and have been trying to stay on top of things at home and have hardly even opened my computer. Right now, however, I'm sandwiched on the couch between my two favorite cuddlebugs

and happen to have computer in hand so it seems like a good time to blog. Although, now all they want to do is take more pictures. :)

Anyway, here is some randomness:

This is the next to last week of soccer for Emme and Calvin. They both have practice tonight, Emme has a game on Saturday then next week involves three practices between the two of them, a Tuesday night game for Emme and then of course on Saturday, the day I'll be running the Columbia River Marathon, both kids have their last game at exactly the same time... at different locations. Should be fun for Dan to handle while simultaneously caring for the other two kids. I have a feeling I might be slightly missed at that point. :)

Speaking of my race, it's almost surreal how soon it is... just over a week. I've been riding a roller coaster of feelings with regards to it. I go from being super excited about running it with visions of PRs and top age group placings to doubts about my abilities to finish it at all. I took all of last week off from running in an attempt to rest and heal my knee/IT band after our last long training run. Monday, I headed out for an easy 6 and made it just over 5 before alternating a walk/jog/limp for the last 1/2 mile home. I've been doing better with icing and foam rolling though and yesterday I picked up an "IT Band Wrap" and wore it on a 5 miler. It was a completely pain free run. I'm trying not to get too excited though with it being just one run. I have to factor in the fact that Emme and Calvin were along on their bikes... this made for a pretty slow pace with lots and lots of breaks. I plan to take the wrap out again for a "real" 5 miler today and see if it can repeat it's magical powers. (It's got to have magical powers, the insert has a picture of Scott Jurek wearing it... I know he has special powers.) I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I'll keep you posted.

Ouch.

2011-10-07T09:53:00.000-07:00

I got a flu shot yesterday. After the great Halloween flu monster struck our family last year, we decided this year we would try and ward that bug off. It didn't hurt at all when I got it but within an hour my arm felt like someone hit it with a sledge hammer. I felt like a wimp all day but could hardly lift my arm. I felt a little bit better when Dan got home from work and said that his arm was killing him too (he got a flu shot at work)... at least we could be wimps together. I got poked in my left arm so that I would still be able to accomplish tasks (like brush my teeth, spank my children soundly... you know all the important things) with my dominant arm. Unfortunately though, I usually sleep on my left side and every time I rolled over on my left shoulder last night it woke me up because it was throbbing. Ouch.

Last night my Duck's beat up on Cal. It wasn't quite the slaughtering I had hoped, but it was still a pounding at 43-15. Cal didn't even get a chance to score in the second half. Unfortunately though, our phenom running back, LaMichael James went down early in the 3rd Quarter with an arm injury. It looked absolutely awful on the replay.

EUGENE, Ore. -- When Oregon running back LaMichael James hit the turf early in the fourth quarter against California, he knew right away his right elbow was dislocated.
So he took a painful but effective course of action.
"I panicked," he said. "It was out so I popped it back in real quick." (from HERE)

Yeah, that "ouch" definitely beats my flu shot. OUCH!

In some non-ouch news I think my knee is feeling a lot better. It really only gives me issues when I first wake up in the morning or if I'm going down stairs. Since I'll hopefully wake up race day in time to stretch out pretty well and I'm 99.99% sure there aren't any stairs in our race, I think I'll be ready to go come race day. Although, some of these "rolling hills" might be a little more maneagable if they did have stairs. I don't care how small a "hill" is, when placed at mile 23, it isn't going to feel good.

Although, maybe this marathon is only 25.8 miles? That'd be okay. :)

Completely unrelated to anything else I've been talking about, I had a lot of cleaning planned for today. I wanted to have our house spic and span going into the weekend so that we could just hang out and relax. I made myself get the kitchen all in order before getting on the computer and then I had big plans to "help" the kids straighten up their rooms after blogging for a bit. Although that might be a bit delayed as I've had a couple of "cuddle bugs" feel the need to help me blog. Guess it wasn't exciting enough for Jonny. It would be a shame to wake him up. Is 10am too early for me to take a nap too?!

It's fall, which means it's too early to turn on the heater in our house but it is cold enough to warrant beanies and blankets in the morning. That and I'm always freezing.

Happy Friday!! Enjoy your weekend. Good luck to all the racers... especially those running in Portland on Sunday. Run Happy & Run Strong!

Little bit of sunshine...

2011-10-06T13:45:00.000-07:00

This post is about why I think my husband is the best... so feel free to skip it if you don't want any mushiness in your day.

Yesterday, despite my post about being in love with Wednesdays kind of sucked. I had great plans for it to be a wonderful day but nothing worked out the way I wanted it to.

First off, my kids have a ton of books that we keep on a bookshelf in Jonny's closet in the boys' room. Several months ago, Miss Emmeline thought that the "not made of real wood, cheap flimsy bookshelf" would be a great ladder to getting the toys that had been stored in the top of the closet. Needless to say, it didn't work for her and she and the shelves came crashing down. We did a "quick fix" which lasted until she must have thought she had lost some weight or the bookshelf had magically become a real ladder and tried to climb it again... this time doing permanent damage to the shelves and hopefully knocking a little sense into herself. Well, like I said, that was several months ago and up until yesterday, the broken book shelf and all of the books that used to be on the shelves were a huge pile on the closet floor that would come avalanching out anytime you opened the door. I finally decided I'd had enough of the poor abuse the books were getting and got a replacement bookshelf to fix he problem. Yesterday was the day that I finally got around to putting it together. I thought it would be "easy peasy lemon squeezey" and it probably should've been but almost 2 hours later and with enough curses and swears being uttered to wake Jonny from his nap and tear Leona away from Tangled and I still didn't have anything resembling a bookshelf. Then with the help of Leona and Jonny my job didn't get any easier. I would have to keep retrieving the screw driver and save the windows from the hammer. Eventually, I scrapped the instructions and just went by the way I thought it should be and it was done. So, what should have been 20 minutes max ended up taking up the majority of my morning. But doesn't it look nice? Now, I won't let the kids touch the books though.

Shortly after finishing the bookshelf and shelving it, Emmeline and Calvin arrived home from school. Since it was early release day and I was playing architect, Leona didn't have a nap. Even though I knew she might be a little bit grumpy, we headed to the library as previously promised. I couldn't find anywhere within a 2 block radius to park so we settled on the 10 minute parking directly in front of the library. The library motto for the trip was, "Calm, Quiet & Quick". Having just received a bogus parking ticket the other day (that's a whole other post) I was not about to overstay the 10 minute limit. We were quick. We were far from calm and quiet though. Leona had a complete meltdown. First of all, I turned in her puppet that she wanted to keep longer. Then we couldn't check out a new puppet because the original one hadn't been through the circulation desk yet. Then someone had checked out every last Dora book in the library and we didn't have time to look for any more. As she was on the verge of spontaneous combustion, the lady in the checkout line next to me said, "Oh, will you not let her check out the book she really wants to?" Implying that I'm a bad mom for bringing my 4 children to the library to get books but not getting them the exact books they want. Mind your own business old lady.

After the library (luckily no parking ticket) we were headed to do some shoe shopping for Calvin. The goal was Ross, then Target, then Payless then Famous Footwear to find the perfect pair of shoes at the perfect price for us. Ross was first. It was a fiasco. Jonny was mad because he had to be in the basket. Leona was mad because I wouldn't let her ride on the tricycle. I don't know what Emme was mad about but I'm sure it was something. Calvin was mad because I was making him try on shoes and walk around in them. I was mad because it was taking forever and I had virtually lost control. Needless to say, when we found a nice pair of Jordan's, in Calvin's size and at a price I was willing to go for we snatched them up, stood in line (foreeeeeever) then I corralled my brood into the car. As we drove past Target and the other stores I heard little sounds of, "I thought we were going to stop there and look at more shoes." To which I silently screamed in my head, "Are you kidding me?!"

Then as we were driving home, Leona started crying about the library books again. Calvin and Emme were fighting over Calvin's new shoes and Jonny was yelling just to not be outdone. About when I thought I'd had all I could handle, we passed a school with a nice playground. Thinking we could all use a little fresh air and some run around space, I flipped a quick u-turn and headed to the school.

There isn't too much that a good swing can't cure. Unless you go super high super fast and it leaves you feeling nauseous.

After we had had as much cold air as we could manage without turning into ice cubes, we loaded back up into the car for a much quieter trip home.

(Here's where my sweet husband comes in.) Shortly after we got home, Dan walked in the door with a beautiful bouquet of flowers. "I thought you could use a little sunshine today." The man is a mind reader.

There was not a better day in the world for me to get a bouquet of "just because" flowers. Day, absolutely made.

I ♥ Wednesday

2011-10-05T09:48:00.000-07:00

Wednesday is a pretty great day. It's half way through the week... there's still time to get things done around the house before the weekend and at the same time it is almost the weekend... which IS my favorite part of the week. Emme and Calvin have early release on Wednesdays which I've come to appreciate. They are still gone long enough that we can have a break from each other but they get home early enough in the day that we have time to do some fun stuff in the afternoon. (Today, the library is on the agenda.) Also, because they get home not too long after eating lunch, they aren't quite as likely to clean out the cupboards down to the tiniest crumb.

Another thing I love about Wednesdays is it is Survivor night. I think the reason I love the show so much is because it is the one TV show that Dan and I actually watch during the week. It's a mini date night of sorts and I look forward to it all day. We get our kids to bed and sometimes make some popcorn and just enjoy and hour of mindless TV together. It's great and is just enough to get me through the rest of the week.

From a running standpoint, Wednesdays are normally my speedwork day. It's probably a bit sadistic, but I really love speed days. In my opinion, nothing beats a good set of intervals around the track or a tempo run that makes you feel like you're going to puke. It goes quickly and when you're done the sense of accomplishment at what you've completed is second to none. That being said, I skipped my speedwork today. We had mile repeats on the schedule, our last long set of them before the marathon and I was really looking forward to it. However, my knee isn't really looking forward to any running right now. I'm trying to be good and patient and listen to it. I've taken all the runs off my schedule this week. I'm hoping that a week of no running won't be too detrimental to my overall fitness level but be enough to help my knee recover. The little bit of confidence my 22 miler instilled in me is quickly evaporating as each day passes and my knee continues to be bothersome. But since this was supposed to be a positive post about how much I enjoy this day of the week, I'll leave it at that.

Happy Wednesday everyone... do something wacky to celebrate!

22 miles of renewed confidence.

2011-10-03T09:46:00.000-07:00

Saturday, Heather and I headed out to do our last long training run of this training session. Friday night I was feeling pretty optimistic and trying to visualize myself finishing the entire run, without any knee pain. I picked up some KT Tape at Dick's sporting goods and had Dan tape my IT band and also my knee. I then slept in the tape and was ready to go bright and early (well, not so bright, but definitely early) Saturday morning. I went outside to wait for Heather and was met with some guy passed out on the lawn by my driveway, so I promptly went back in for my pepper spray.

Heather showed up, we whispered a bit about the man on my lawn and then we were off just after 5:20am. The first 6 miles passed relatively easily. I tried the new Chocoalte Cherry Clif Shot at mile 5. At first I didn't like, but after the initial taste, it grew on me and I think ultimately it is a flavor that I could go for on race day. It was dark and kind of misty/rainy. Around mile 7 my knee started feeling kind of wonky and I told Heather that I wasn't sure that I'd be able to complete the entire 22. We were running more or less the first 8 miles of the Eugene Marathon course, which I could do with my eyes closed. I knew we were coming up to a decent hill and so I decided it would be good to stop and stretch before ascending it. We spent a few moments doing that, then took off, up and over it. I don't know if it was the stretching or the fact that the 100mg of caffeine! that was in the Clif Shot finally kicked in, but as we headed down the other side of the hill I started to feel pretty recharged and my knee wasn't bothering me any more at all.

As we headed down towards the river and away from my house (we were kind of running a figure 8 loop, with my house in the center) we passed my first point of no return, which excited me, because it meant no matter what happened on the run, I would at least be achieving double digit mileage. As we ran along the river it finally started getting lighter outside and before I knew it, we were more than half way into our run. We stopped for a bathroom break and to refill out water a little before mile 13. I took that opportunity to stretch again.

For the next few miles, my knee let me know that it was there and kind of uncomfortable with the running we were doing, but it definitely wasn't screaming at me to stop. The miles ticked by and soon enough we were at the furthest point from my house and it didn't matter if I walked, crawled or ran the only way home at that point would be to complete the entire 22 miles. Maybe that should have scared me a bit, but it didn't it made me feel good and confident that I will be able to do the marathon in 3 weeks.

With just under a 5K left, we stopped at Alton Baker Park for the bathrooms and more water. We could've just kept going but decided it would be a much more pleasant 3 miles if we stopped for a bit first. After that stop, it was hard for me to get going again, my knee was pretty stiff, but after about 1/2 of a mile I was feeling pretty good again. A couple of quick miles back to my house and we were done. 22 miles. Our longest and last long training run completed. I think we both felt pretty good about the run. I know it helped build my confidence. Now we are excited to taper!

Here are the stats:

22 miles
total time: 3:15:21.9
avg pace: 8:52.7
our fastest splits came between miles 9 and 16 where we averaged closer to 8:45

Before this run, I sat down and figured out a fueling plan that I made myself stick to. I think it is pretty close to what I will do on race day.
mile 5: choc cherry clif shot
mile 10: 2 margarita clif shot blocks
mile 15: razz clif shot
mile 20: handful of sport beans

About every 5 miles seems to work pretty well for me. It's a little more than I would normally do on a training run, but I wanted to simulate race day as much as possible. I liked having the super caffeinated shot early in the run, I think it really helped me keep my energy up for the rest of the run. I struggled getting the margarita blocks down but I know that their extra sodium will help keep the cramps away that I experienced in my first marathon. I could have gone without the sport beans at mile 20 and probably been okay since we were only going 22, but we stopped so I could stretch my IT band again and I decided just to pop a few in since I had them. I think on race day at mile 20 I will add in another caffeinated fuel source, probably either a vanilla bean Gu or a strawberry Clif Shot, then save the beans for if I need them within the last few miles.

As for my knee after the run: it was pretty stiff most of Saturday afternoon and a little bit sore yesterday. If it weren't for my knee (and a little bit of bruising I got on my back from my hydration belt) I would have felt really pretty great. Last night, though I did something funky too it somehow and now this morning it really hurts. I think mostly though it is just really stiff. We only have 3 miles on the schedule for today so I will probably either run them tonight to give myself a little more recovery time or move tomorrow's rest day to today.

Overall though, I am feeling pretty good going into this taper. I'm going to rest really well and keep foam rolling. We're formulating our racing strategy and I think we're going to have a lot of fun at this race. Heather got her tutu from Glam Runner the other day and if nothing else we are going to at least look pretty awesome while we are running!

You asked for it...

2011-09-30T06:30:00.000-07:00

Okay, so really only a few of you actually asked for it, but here for you viewing pleasure and amusement (it's okay to laugh at me... I do it all the time) my Survivor audition video:

Hope that gives you enough of me to get you through the weekend. Tomorrow I'm off to run 22. Fingers crossed that all goes well. Happy Weekend!! Run Happy & Run Strong!

We should have had a puppy...

2011-09-29T09:21:00.000-07:00

While I was getting ready this morning I could hear Leona and Jonny playing nicely together in the living room. She was throwing a toy across the room then she would yell "go fetch Jonny!" and I would hear him squeal with laughter as he scampered across the hardwood floor, apparently retrieved the toy and brought it back to her. This went on for a good five minutes. Every so often, she would praise him, "You're such a good boy Jonny, now do it again." I could totally picture her rubbing his head while she said it. Then after one particularly hard throw, it sounded like the toy broke into several pieces to which I heard, "Uh, oh Jonny, Mommy isn't going to be happy." Turns out the toy was the remote control to the TV and those pieces that went scattering where the batteries and the back to the remote.

In running news, I haven't been talking about my training too much. Dan went for another run last night and then I introduced him to the wonderful world of "the stick". I think he was in love. As for my running, I'm very frustrated with it. I've been fighting with me knee (and now my hip to an extent) for the past few months. I thought things were getting better but then I went on a run last week that left me hobbling home after stopping repeatedly to stretch. I'm trying to be smart about it. Last week was a step back week in our training run and I really stepped back, completely scrapping a 9 mile run to give myself some extra rest and recovery. I jumped back into running on Monday and felt great for the first 4 miles but was barely able to complete the last 5. Tuesday was a rest day and then yesterday I headed out for another 9, this time loaded up on ibuprofen. It was supposed to be a tempo run, but I knew better than to attempt that and I ended up cutting the entire run short at 5 1/2. I'm supposed to do another 7 today but I'm scrapping it in hopes that if I continue to RICE for the next two days I'll be able to get in the last long run of our training session... 22 on Saturday.

I haven't said too much about it largely in part because my training partner reads my blog on occasion and I don't want her to think I'm going to bail on her (and I really don't plan to Heather) and also, somewhere in the back recesses of my mind I think if I don't admit the troubles I'm having they will go away. I think that I have a lot resting on this long run on Saturday. I'm going to go into it with high hopes and will either come out of it confident that I will be able to run the marathon the way I'm hoping to or completely discouraged and left questioning my abilities. I will also be realistic. I won't do any more damage on Saturday. If I'm in a lot of pain after only a short distance, it will end up not being a long run. I am willing to sacrifice this one last long run if it means doing the complete distance in 3 weeks.

So, that's it. I'm grumpy and frustrated. I'm grumpy because I'm not running and I'm frustrated because when I am running I'm not enjoying it. Basically it's a lose lose situation.

In non-running, slightly happier news I did finally send in an audition tape to Survivor... now all I have to do is wait until November and then realize when that month is over and I haven't heard from them that I'm not going to and my Survivor hopes and dreams are over. :) Does anyone have any connections that they could put in a good word for me with? I've thought about sharing my video with you... do you have any desire to see it? It's pretty silly.

Happy Thursday... it's almost the weekend!!

A girl can dream...

2011-09-27T09:27:00.000-07:00

source

I tend to get a little bit carried away with my ideas. More often than not, what starts as a mere suggestion sends me dreaming into the possible outcomes while overlooking the steps that will be required to take in order to even come close to beginning the path in the direction of the said outcome. Did I lose you? For example: I have my dream house all picked out. I know how many bedrooms it has, how big the backyard is and even where it is located. I like to spend my time in it making goodies in the open and sunny kitchen with a nice ocean view while my kiddos are in the playroom that is far enough away that their fighting merely sounds like beautiful strains of kids playing peacefully together to me. When in reality we are so far from buying our own home that we may as well still be living with our parents. Need another example? I have my Survivor winnings already spent (student loans paid off, college educations saved for, a few new pair of running shoes.... like the Green Silence in every color and the PureConnect ones too... have you seen them?) never mind that I haven't even applied yet. (I will this year though, I really, really will.)

With my visions of grandeur, it's no surprise that Dan going for a run last night... all of his own accord... had me daydreaming about us running ultramarathons together. I could see us working as a team and encouraging each other along as we traversed the Cascade Mountains in the Where's Waldo 100K. I pictured us getting up early on Saturday mornings and spending hours upon hours training for our adventures (I guess while our kiddos were left to fend for themselves? they didn't factor into my dreams). Yes, in my mind, him running a mile turned into us running 10s maybe even 100s of miles. I know that nowhere in his wildest dreams (maybe his nightmares?) does he think about running for hours and hours upon end so for right now I will happily encourage him to continue his goal of running 3 times a week (because I am super proud of him), while I secretly plan out the rest of our running/racing lives together.

September 26th

2011-09-26T09:13:00.000-07:00

This seems to happen every year. The 26th of September. Yes it happens every year. But more specifically it seems to sneak up on me every year. Every year I have some grandiose plans that involve cupcakes in the mail, handmade cards or even a surprise visit. Yet every year I seem to flake out or procrastinate it too much so that those lovely heartfelt plans never come to fruition. Sadly, this year is no different. Today is the 26th of September. Today is my Grammy's birthday and she won't be getting anything in the mail from me. This is sad because I love birthday's, I love to celebrate birthdays and I love my grandma... so naturally I should go all out for her. My grandma is the most amazingly generous, selfless, thoughtfully wonderful person one could ever meet and she deserves the world on her special day.

Unfortunately, today, from me, her oldest (and favorite) grandchild, she will have to make do with this blog post (and a phone call... don't worry I'm not that lame). She'll be mad at me for posting a picture of her, but, oh well.

Here are 79 (Random number?! Don't think so.) reasons why my grandma is the aweseomest (yes that is a word) ever:

1. She reads my blog... every day.
2. She gets after me if I don't keep it updated.
3. She always has a house full of treats (this is good and bad).
4. She is kind.
5. She is generous.
6. She would do anything for family.
7. She would do anything for her friends.
8. She has the biggest movie collection of anyone I know.
9. She rarely watches any of those movies and hasn't even seen most of them.
10. She has a crush on Taylor Lautner.
11. She went to the midnight showing of Twilight with my mom and me.
12. I'm pretty sure she has watched all of the Twilight series.
13. I think she has more books than she has movies.
14. She has read all of her books.
15. She is always reading a new book.
16. She just bought a new car.
17. She brought it to Eugene and took me out to dinner. (well me and others, but me too)
18. She likes to stay up way later than I ever can.
19. She still gets up super early.
20. She loves her silly overweight dog.
21. She would do anything for that dog.
22. She misses her dog when she goes on trips.
23. I think she secretly would much rather hang out with her dog than go on trips with us.
24. She continues to go on long trips with her kids/grandkids/greatgrandkids.
25. She does this because we ask her too and she loves us.
26. She was on the infamous trip to St. George this summer and didn't complain once.
27. She rarely gets sick.
28. When she gets sick because of some funk my kids gave her, she never will admit it was them.
29. She will avoid doctors at all costs.
30. She is a cancer survivor.
31. Most people don't know that.
32. She is very humble.
33. She loves to host parties.
34. She throws the best Thanksgiving dinner parties.
35. She then hosts amazing Christmas parties.
36. Every year she has friends over to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.
37. She makes amazing Irish Soda Bread.
38. She makes awesome Gingersnaps.
39. She will cook anything you request.
40. If we come to visit, she calls ahead of time to plan the menu.
41. She'd feed us anything we asked for.
42. She has a freezer full of all kinds of yummy things.
43. When I visit, she lets me "shop" in her pantry.
44. She likes to call people names.
45. One of her favorite is "stoop" or "dummy" as in "Laurie, you big dummy"
46. I don't think she gets angry.
47. She likes to pretend to be angry at people when they are helping her out.
48. She never asks for help.
49. I had to sneak outside to shovel her driveway last winter.
50. She hates to talk on the phone.
51. Sometimes she'll call my mom half a dozen times at work.
52. She hates to have her picture taken.
53. She will either hide her face or look away.
54. She was super smoking as a young lady.
55. She is still one fine looking "mature" lady.
56. She doesn't swim.
57. We always go on vacations to the ocean or a place with water.
58. Did I mention she is the most generous person I know?
59. She loves my kids.
60. She claims to love the messes they make too.
61. She will read books to them for hours.
62. She keeps journals.
63. She can tell amazing stories.
64. She is an excellent writer.
65. She encourages me to write.
66. She basically raised her siblings.
67. She is strong.
68. She is beautiful.
69. She is loving.
70. She is caring.
71. She is thoughtful.
72. She is compassionate.
73. She is understanding.
74. She is patient.
75. She rarely makes decisions because she tries to please everyone else.
76. Her house is covered in pictures of her family.
77. She has amazing Christmas decorations.
78. She collects bells and displays them proudly.
79. She is the neatest person I know and deserves to be celebrated.

Happy Birthday Grammy! We love you! You better believe we'll be going all out next year for 80!!

Happy 1st Day of Fall!!!

2011-09-23T13:35:00.000-07:00

Fall is my favorite season. I love the weather... cool in the morning, cool in the evening and very pleasant (although at the moment a little hot) during the day. Usually there isn't too much rain and the leaves start changing and falling off the trees. I love to run by the river through all the leaves on the path. I could stay outside all day.

fall, last year... look at those eyes and goofy smile

I also love the holidays... Halloween, Thanksgiving and my birthday... fun, fun, fun! I think that everyone in my family is actually going to dress up for Halloween this year. Only Jonny and I will coordinate but it is still going to be awesome.... assuming everything works out as envisioned... maybe I should start working on the costumes?! Thanks to mandatory court closure days, Dan has the day after Thanksgiving off which means we will have the entire weekend to enjoy together. Eating lots of yummy food, watching football and being LAZY!!! And of course my birthday... what isn't there to love about that?! (Well except maybe getting older, but I still have 8 more birthdays (after this one) before I'm really going to worry about that.)

I really enjoy dressing for fall too. Jeans, layered shirts, sweaters, knee high socks, converse, cool hats... bring it on!

Fall is also soccer time. Tomorrow is the opening jamboree for both Emmeline and Calvin and then we'll have the next few weeks packed full of games and practices. Soccer in the spring can get kind of old because we stand around in the mud bog getting soaked. Fall soccer, however, is a lot of fun because usually the rain hasn't started yet and the fields are dry and the weather is great.

Look at Calvin's humility...

Finally, you can't forget college football. Specifically Oregon Ducks football. Fall is college football. Want to know what we're doing for the next few months of Saturdays... getting dressed in our favorite duck gear and watching the ducks ~~play~~ beat up on the other teams. Awesome.

also from last year... I can't believe how much they've grown in a year!

Do you have a favorite season? To be honest, I love the beginning of every new season. I think I'm pretty fickle that way. It's almost always my favorite season when it is just starting out. Check back in with me, when we're on the crossover to winter, and I'll let you know how much I'm still loving "fall". :P

Happy Falls & Happy, Happy Weekend!!

Adventures in Multitasking...

2011-09-22T06:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had a few errands to run as well as a run to run, which is one thing I love about running with a jogging stroller... it makes multitasking possible. On the agenda... drop a package at the UPS store, return some almost overdue library books and pick up some books on hold, while getting in 9 easy miles.

Stop #1: I've been searching, rather unsuccessfully for a while now, for my next "go to" pair of running shoes. Luckily, Runningwarehouse.com (which I love, love, love by the way) has a great free shipping and free returns policy. So, first up on the route was the UPS Store. With all the library books stuffed in the cargo area underneath the stroller, the only place for the box to go was on Leona's lap.

This worked pretty well and she was actually quite excited about helping out with the box...up until the novelty of it wore off and the cumbersomeness of it set in. That lasted almost a mile... then she wanted me to hold it. We compromised and on top it went.

Luckily it wasn't quite another mile before we reached our first stop. The UPS Store.

With task #1 complete, it was on to:

Stop #2: The Eugene Public Library. I've run to the library a couple of times. It isn't one of my favorite places to run to because it involves running downtown. Eugene actually has pretty wide sidewalks, but still a double jogger takes up a fair amount of room and I'm constantly having to swerve around people. Luckily I made most of the lights and didn't have to stop too much, however I did have to play chicken with a couple of bike riders who were riding on the sidewalk. Eugene is a very bike friendly place with tons of bike lanes. There is no reason for grown up sized people to be riding down the sidewalk when they could be in the bike lane. Okay, rant over. After almost another mile and a half we made it to the library.

I was hoping that after dropping off our books the stroller would feel lighter, but Leona talked me into checking out just a few more and I think we ran away with more than we had dropped off. Since the library was our last "official" stop, it was just a wide sweeping arc along the river to bring the total mileage to 9.

Stop #3: The infamous Eugene Women's Half train stop. I stopped to take a picture of how I didn't have to stop.... ha ha, what a dork I am.

Finally we were onto the river with just around 4 miles to go, which brought up stops #4 a potty break for Leona... I swear this girl has an obsession with Honey Buckets... anytime she sees one she thinks she has to go, luckily I held her off until we could access the flush variety

and #5 which involved Leona pushing by herself for a bit. She wanted to run and get "yucky & sweaty too."

With less than 2 miles to go, we encountered our last stop #6, another unplanned stop but not necessarily unexpected. Apparently we had a suicidal water bottle that was tired of riding up front with the kids and wasn't content to just fall out but felt the need to throw itself directly in the path of the stroller where it could then be run over and roll behind us down the path.

luckily it survived the attempt unscathed and finished out the run safe and secure in it's holder

9 miles, 2 planned stops 4 "extra" stops, 2 tired kids and 1 exhausted mom... mission accomplished.

I ♥ Duck Football!!

2011-09-21T09:02:00.000-07:00

Autzen Stadium during an early morning run... most of my runs take me by there... love that place!

Last Saturday, Dan and I had the opportunity to go watch the Ducks beat up on Missouri State (56-7). I had such a great time! My good friend Kimberly was ~~crazy~~ kind enough to watch all 4 of our children which gave Dan and I a very rare day away together... just the two of us. Well, the two of us and 65,000 other "O" yelling Duck fans.

Our seats were basically up as high as you can get, but really, there are no bad seats at Autzen...

except for maybe right under the JumboTron (the largest in the Pac 12, by the way) I wouldn't want to sit there... you'd miss all the cool replays.

We spent way too much money on a bunch of food that ~~made us sick for the rest of the weekend~~ was super, duper tasty and oh soooo bad for us.

We had an absolutely amazing time! One of the best days ever!

A first... and a last.

2011-09-16T22:35:00.000-07:00

Today I ran 20 miles. Despite the fact that I've done that half a dozen times (at least) in my marathoning career (all of 9 months) it still feels pretty amazing to me to have run that far. Today I ran that 20 miles with the double jogger... that was a first... that part didn't feel so amazing. I have to be honest, I didn't push the stroller the entire 20 miles. Heather, my marathon training buddy, jumped in a couple times to give me a break (thanks Heather!! you saved me!) but I did push it for a good 18 or so... that is also a first. In fact, before today, I think my double jogger mileage pr was around 12 or 13 miles. (Just looked it up... 12.25 miles back in February, when Jonny wasn't yet a year old and Leona was barely 2 1/2... i.e. both several pounds lighter.)

Anyway, today I set a new mileage PR with the double jogger. It was a first and a last. I'm pretty sure (99.99%) that there aren't any scenarios that would make me do that again. Today's run came about because tomorrow, Saturday, our normal long run day, is too busy and starting too early to fit in 20 miles without leaving before 4am and we just weren't feeling up to the early, dark start. When we talked about it, 20 miles with the double didn't seem unreasonable. At the end of our run today though, we both decided that next time we'd rather leave at 3:30 than take the stroller.

In all actuality, it really wasn't that bad. Leona and Jonny (in my opinion... Heather might tell you differently) were pretty tame. Jonny napped for about an hour. Leona watched most of Tangled (we only had to stop once mid run to fix it after she "accidentally" turned it off) and the rest of the time, she talked our ears off and would randomly ask Heather if houses we passed were hers. She did manage to lose a book overboard that we had to retrieve, but there really wasn't any complaining (on the kids' part, now me on the other hand...). I even set a 20 mile pace PR, 8:44. It was just hard though... harder than a normal 20miler and I don't care to do it again.

When we got home, I let Leona out to run down the sidewalk while "helping" push Jonny in the stroller. Then I thanked her for going on such a long, long run with me and she thanked me for bringing her snacks and a movie and pushing her that long, long way. I tried to give her a hug thinking we were having some special moment but she pushed me away and said I was "all wet and gross"... fair enough.

I really don't mind taking my kids running with me... I just think in the future it will be the best for both of us if we keep it under 20 miles... like way under 20... maybe 10 at the most.

Bonus pic... we got a puppy. :)

Sorry Jim.

2011-09-14T09:39:00.000-07:00

Let me tell you a little bit about the house we live in. First off, we are renting... I think it's best I just throw that out there. I tend to complain a fair amount about our house, but when all is said and done I know we couldn't find a better deal as close to the university as we are with as much room as we have. Anyway, we've learned the hard way that our landlord fancies himself a fix it man, which usually involves a sort of "exploratory surgery" approach to fixing things and the belief that there isn't much of anything that duct tape can't become a permanent fix for even self-inflicted (as in the landlord, not us) holes in the wall. Today's rant though is not about the hole behind our kitchen sink that exposes the back patio and has been there since November 2009 or the trench that was dug in our front yard to alleviate the flooding in our basement... nope, today's complaint has to do with the water. Now I realize this has nothing to do with our landlord or his fix it man abilities... however since his father and uncle built the house many moons ago, I can imagine that they shared the same building/fixing creativity.

Our upstairs bathroom, the main bathroom with the full size shower, the shower that does not have a sink in it (that's a whole separate post of its own) is the last place in the entire house to receive water from the hot water heater. Specifically the shower is the last place to get hot water. It took us a few months to figure out that you can not shower with the laundry or dishwasher going and if anyone turns on any faucet or flushes any toilet anywhere in the house prepare to be blasted with freezing cold water. It took us a little bit longer to realize that we must share a water heater with the studio apartment that is attached to our house. Sometimes someone would be in the shower and all of a sudden yell out, "Please turn off the water, you're freezing me!!" (yes, we're always that polite when upset.. ha ha) and would be surprised to find out that no one was running water, in our house at least... which finally led to our "aha moment", as in "Aha, Jim (our attached neighbor) must share our water but not have gotten notice of our shower schedule".

Well yesterday afternoon, after what seemed like a particularly grueling tempo run with the double jogger, I was standing in a very hot and very needed shower trying to soothe my aching muscles and pride when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, the water became icy. Since the only ones home with me were Leona and Jonny I figured Jim must have taken this great time to start running all the water in his house. When the water stayed freezing I started to get a little irritated and began cursing him in my mind. Just as my thoughts were getting pretty colorful, I heard this gurgling/gulping/semi-choking sound, which led me to stick my head out the shower door. And what, you ask, did I see? Well, Jonathan the Destroyer himself sprawled out across the bathroom counter slurping water out of the faucet of course. You might remember back when he learned that "new trick"... well apparently he's still up to his old tricks. So, I'm sorry Jim (not that you read my blog... let's keep it that way), for being mad at you for ruining my recovery shower. Jonny, I'm not sorry that I called you a little monster... you are in fact a little monster.

In other news, I'm making plum butter, thanks to an enormous box of plums we acquired from Dan's parents. The recipe I found is super easy... simply pit the plums and put them with sugar, in a slow cooker for 16 hours before canning. Easy peasy. HOWEVER... our house smells like the Sugar Plum Fairy took a wrong turn on her way to Chrismtasland (yes that is a place) and in an attempt to be discovered by the rescue fairies (we've been reading a few too many fairy books lately) doused our house in her sickeningly sweet stench. Long story short... if I EVER smell plums again it will be too soon.

Return of the 'Jogging Stroller Mom'

2011-09-13T08:32:00.000-07:00

With Emmeline and Calvin back in school and Dan's homecation all wrapped up, I have the option to get my running done during the day if I'm willing to take the double jogger. Yesterday, I opted for just that.

On the plan was 9 miles at a moderately easy pace. I was hoping to get out of the house by about 10am so that Jonny could enjoy a nice nap and we could be home in plenty of time for lunch. By 10:30, after a quick diaper change and another potty break and a search for the "polka dot sunglasses and my new Dora book", I had both kids loaded into the stroller.

By 10:40, I had even managed to round up extra snacks, extra diapers, extra water, extra books and some blankets "just in case" and we were finally ready to head out.

Then of course (because we were way behind schedule) we had to wait what seemed like another 10 minutes while Ol' Gertie the Garmin found a satellite. All the while, Princess Leona kept saying, "What are we waiting for... let's get going!"

Finally though, we were on our way. As soon as we got going Jonny was asleep. I thought maybe Leona would like to take a little nap too, but when I suggested we recline her seat she knew what I was up to and didn't want to have anything to do with it. Since she wasn't at all about napping, we stopped at the EWEB plaza to run around the fountain and look at the river for a bit.

Then we ran through the park where not only were we met with fall foliage

but a nice big path closed sign & a detour.

They've been doing work on the path all summer but this is the first time I've run during the day, during the week with the stroller. Normally I've been able to just kind of go around the construction butyesterday, I had to use the detour... which turned into a quasi scavenger huntfor the detour signs. Just when I thought I must have missed one, we'd spot one and realize we were still headed in the right direction.

The red part of the map is the section that wasclosed... the dotted green line is the detour:

At first I was a little bit irritated because if I wanted torun through neighborhoods, I would've stayed near home and at least run throughneighborhoods I like but when all was said and done it added just enoughmileage to my 8.5 mile loop to make it an even 9 miles without having to add onmore distance once we got home.

One of the problems with jogging stroller running tends tobe the cargo. Leona, lately, is into sticking her hands and feet out theside of the stroller. Although I've warned her repeatedly that she isgoing to get hurt, she tends to not listen very well. I specificallytold her to keep her feet in while we were running by a fenced area by theriver. She listened until we had to be right next to the fence due to bikespassing us from both directions. At that point I think the temptation wasjust too high because the fence was just too close... next thing I knew therewas this odd clunky sound which turned out to be her foot running along thefence.

Luckily she wasn't seriously hurt... just a slightlysmooshed toe and she had her thumb and "security blanket" i.e.Jonny's head to console herself.

Her injury was just what she needed, though to finallyhelp her give into that nap she so desperately needed.

Towards the end of our run, I decided to take a path thatwould take us by Autzen stadium (I love to run by my Duck's home). Whenwe were almost there, I smiled at a runner who was stopped on the side of theroad. She smiled back and said, "Are you Laura?"
Me: "Laurie"
"Oh, well Laura from Run Momma Run told me to read yourblog." "I've seen you before and it was like seeing acelebrity". "You kicked ass in that half!"
Me: (in total shock, that in less than 2 seconds I'vebeen recognized by a complete stranger and called a celebrity) "Wow,Thanks!"
So, Wendy, nice, awesome runner on the side of the road...you absolutely made my week! Thanks for saying hi!!!

Anyway, a short while later we were home. Leona wokeup and was in tears again because I had told her she could get out and run the lastlittle bit with me but she fell asleep. So we made up for it by letting her run up and downthe sidewalk in front of our house.

Although it took us almost 2 hours to do less than 1 1/2hours of running, life is sure more ~~fun~~ adventurous when running with a joggingstroller!

Eugene Women's Half Marathon Race Report

2011-09-12T06:11:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been over a week since I ran the race, so it's just about time for me to finally write about it. I don't really know what has taken me so long... I did go camping for a couple days and then school started and then Dan had some time off from work... but those things didn't necessarily keep me from blogging. I actually started a report a couple of times, but just couldn't get into the groove of it. Anyway... here goes:

This was the 2nd year of the Eugene Women's Half Marathon. It's predominately a women's only race, although guys are not discouraged from running. This year there were 30 males that ran with or "in support" of their woman counterparts. All, I know is that the few guys I saw on the course were nowhere near any women they were supporting. I have no problems with guys running an event geared towards women, but don't tell me that you're running with your girl and then run off and leave her in your dust. Okay, mini rant over... back to the report.

So, it wasn't a very big secret that I didn't really want to run this race. I just wasn't feeling it. I was deep in the middle of marathon training, I had just run Hood to Coast... I was tired and full of excuses. I had been dreading the race for about a month prior to the actual event. In an effort to bring some optimistic magic to my running, I had applied to wear the Traveling Sparkle Skirt and was approved. It came right before I left for Hood to Coast but unfortunately didn't change my attitude much. The whole weekend of Hood to Coast I was trying to figure out a way to tell the Sparkle Skirt girls that their skirt wasn't going to work out for me. Luckily I didn't flake out, on the race or the skirt.

The day before the race we had a mini blogger meet up at packet pickup. I met up with my buddy Kim of (Just) Trying is for Little Girls and we had the chance to meet up with Julie from Running on Purpose and Jenn from My Quest for a Smaller Chest.

Julie, Kim, Jenn & Me at packet pick-up

I was in a rush to get to dinner before watching the duck game, so I just missed out on meeting up with Julie D., Meredith & Ashley, but... spoiler alert... I did get to meet up with them before the race on Saturday.

Julie D., Me, Kim, Meredith

Also, at the race expo, I did something I never do, which was buy something from a vendor. After being slightly disappointed with the race shirt, Kim and I happened across Run Pretty Far,

where we both scored what might be my new favorite race shirt.

It's a nice gray, v-neck tech tee with a picture of 5th Street Market and says "Run to the Market"

After the expo, I loaded up on pasta at Olive Garden with my two youngest kids, my mom, grandma, two aunts and an uncle then hurried home to watch the second half of the fairly disappointing duck game. :( I was still feeling hesitant and unsure of what I wanted to do with the race. It wasn't until later that night when I was laying in bed that I finally told myself to stop coming up with excuses as to why I wouldn't do very well and just pick a goal. I wanted to PR but more than that, I wanted to go under 1:40. I pulled up the splits for a 1:39 finish (7:33 pace) and went to sleep.

Race day morning started off well enough. Jonny woke up just after 5am so I brought him into bed with Dan and I... he then tossed and turned until 5:30 when he finally fell asleep just in time for my alarm to go off at 5:45. I quietly slipped out of bed, took a bath to shave my legs, put on a bunch of Body Glide (just in case), checked the temperature half a dozen times, tried to eat a Cliff Bar, drank some water, wrote the splits on my hand for 7:33 pace and then convinced my mom (who was the only one up) to take the obligatory prerace photo:

I was feeling really antsy and since no one was awake in my house, I went outside to wait for Kim who was kind enough to offer to pick me up for the start. She came right around 7am and we were at the start and in a great parking spot before 7:10. This gave us plenty of time to hang out in the car for a while where I loaded up on Margarita Cliff Shots (3 of them) and Ibuprofen (4 of them) followed with a few swallows of water. We then headed to the 5th Street Market, where Kim was smart enough to direct us to the inside flushable toilets... where there was no line!! We still had time before the start, so we then got in line for the Honey Buckets of course because one can never go too many times before a race. After hanging around for a little bit, we ran into Kim's personal race photographer, took a few more pictures and then headed to the start.

I really think it's time I invested in a Handful Bra... ha ha.

My plan was to line up with the 1:40 pacer and not go out too fast. I don't know that the 1:40 pacer was very into running the race though because she had to be paged to the start twice and even then went back to the sideline before coming back and asking if anyone around her would like to hold the balloons. There was a nice National Anthem rendition and then we were off. Then less than 3/4 of a mile in we were stopped. Hello train!

Thanks for the picture, Kim!

This was especially humorous to Kim and I as we had run into the exact same problem on our preview run. I don't think most people thought it was very funny though. I wasn't very far from the lead runners and the girl that went onto win it (along with her pacer on his bike) were visibly distraught. A few people started to run across the overpass but the lead copper used his magical speaker phone (yes, that is the technical term) to call them back. Most listened. After the copper radioed back and forth with the race officials and the possibility of a restart was squelched we learned that they were timing the train and would automatically deduct our waiting time from our official time. Although this wasn't the best way to start a race it helped me to get some of my jitters out as well as get another nice stretch in. I didn't stop my watch though and didn't realize until we started going again that my splits were going to be way off. All I knew was that I'd have to keep each mile to 7:33 or below to be on target.

8 minutes 40 seconds after the train stopped us in our tracks, we were off again. The first 4 miles were kind of a blur. I felt pretty good. I got water at every stop and decided to have a Clif Shot right before mile 4 because I thought there was water coming up. Here's proof:

there was a guy in front of me blocking the camera man that moved right about the time I put the gel to my mouth
ha ha, nice race shot

Between miles 4 and 5 there was a little out and back loopy section where the runners paths cross and even though I knew quite a few runners I didn't get to see anyone I knew. Somewhere between miles 6 and 7 there was a man that was counting off the runners as they passed. When I went by he said "#30". 30?! Seriously?! That seemed awfully close to the front. It definitely gave me a little charge.

About mile 7.5 a girl that had been staying behind me all of a sudden kind of turboed in front of me as we rounded a corner. Almost simultaneously we came across a group of people that were cheering specifically for her and got a picture of her passing me. They may have gotten a family picture of her passing me, but not quite a mile later, I got some professional pictures of me passing her:

ha ha, sucker :) just kidding... mostly

I had another Clif Shot just before mile 9. I wasn't sure that I really needed it but thought it would be better to be over fueled than to run out of juice at the end. Plus, is was raspberry flavored, my favorite... a flavor that I had scoured Eugene for prior to the race and couldn't come up with... turns out it was because they were all on the course. We ran past Autzen and I was still feeling pretty good although my knee was starting to give me a bit of grief. Mostly just little twinges and the way it usually feels before it starts really hurting. I told myself that I had worked too hard in the race (and taken too much ibuprofen) to let my knee stop me at mile 10. I had been watching my splits and only once saw my pace be at 7:33. I didn't bother looking at my overall time because I didn't want to try and do the math but I knew I had a pretty good shot of reaching my goal. Between miles 10 and 11 two girls passed me and took off. I had thought I'd try to go with them, but they really took off and it just wasn't going to happen. I did notice two guys though not too far ahead from me and made it my goal to pass them.

The first guy I passed with no problem. He was fading fast. He was also wearing a nice sports bra and a blonde wig. I passed him going up a hill. It felt good. The second guy took a little bit of time to catch up to, but I finally did just before mile 12 and shortly after these pictures were taken:

I really can't complain with being all smiles at mile 12... a huge difference from last year.

With only a mile to go, I knew that unless I pretty much stopped running all together I was going to at the very least PR. I wasn't exactly sure how much time we were going to be given for the train stop but I was counting on around 8 minutes. During the last mile, my photo passing friend from miles 7 and 8 caught back up to me. I thought in my head that there was no way she was going to pass me again to look good for her family. We went back and forth for about a quarter of a mile until I pulled enough ahead of her to stay ahead for good. (Although, looking at the results, she only finished a second behind me and must have been literally breathing down my neck.)

As we rounded the corner for the last little bit into the finish line I tried to see my family and at the same time tried to catch a girl that was just in front of me. I did see Dan (thank you for wearing your bright orange Netherlands shirt!!) but didn't see my mom and kids or manage to catch the girl right in front of me. They apparently weren't expecting me quite as soon as I came in. My mom only got a picture of me from behind and Dan managed a quick shot with his phone as I flashed into view

I was trying to catch the girl in the white shirt.

I did however see the clock as I crossed the finish line.... 1:37:xx!! I was soooo excited!

Final stats:

Time - 1:37:39 (5 minute PR!!)

Place - 22nd out of 976 (women) overall and 7th out of 187 in my age group (30-34)

Out of the 30 men that ran the race, I only finished behind 3 of them... so I guess that is good too. :)

I was very happy and slightly surprised with my time. I guess I should have realized that I was well under goal pace since I hadn't seen sight of the 1:40 pacer since the train stop but for some reason I just didn't think I had it in me to run that fast. After the race, I met up with my family and cheered Kim in. There was a band playing in the finish area as well as some pretty nice post race snacks. It would have been fun to hang around for a bit but we were anxious to get to camping so we didn't stay for very long. I don't have a picture of the finishers charm, but I think it is a lot better than last years. Overall I really enjoyed the race. I loved wearing the traveling sparkle skirt... I got so many positive comments from spectators and people at the aid stations. It definitely had some great mojo that went along with it.

Although I don't know that I'll be able to top this years experience, this is definitely a race that I will keep coming back to run.

Thanks again for the photo Kim and hanging out with me!

Summer break is officially over...

2011-09-07T09:01:00.000-07:00

which means BACK TO SCHOOL!!!!

Today marked the first day of 1st grade for Calvin and 3rd grade for Emmeline. They were super excited... almost as much as Dan and I were for them to go. :) Luckily school starts and goes 10 minutes later this year... yet somehow we still managed to start the year off with a tardy for both kids. Guess we can only go up from here. :) Dan has the rest of the week off from work and with only 2 kids at home instead of the normal 4 we're going to do all sorts of crazy things.

Happy Wednesday, hope it's a great one!

(race report coming soon... probably tomorrow)

Life is good...

2011-09-05T09:11:00.000-07:00

Right now I'm chilling by a campfire next to a lake in the beautiful Oregon mountains. As soon as I got out of the shower upon completing my race yesterday, we loaded up and headed camping. Dan's parents were already at the campsite with Emme and Calvin and had our tent set up and food just waiting to be eaten... that's the way to camp! Dan has some extra time off work after the holiday and the kids don't start school until Wednesday so will be here through tomorrow. So far it's been fun and since we're looking to head out on the lake in not too long it's bound to be a great day. Although after sleeping on the ground last night, Dan and I will be pulling rank and stealing the cots that our oldest two kidlings scored by coming early with Nana & Papa.
As for my race yesterday, I couldn't be happier. I'll do a full report later this week but the super short version is everything turned out better than expected and despite all my whining about not being ready for this race, I managed a pretty decent PR! No more race report spoilers though. :)

I hope everone had a great weekend. Enjoy the holiday. Happy running!

I guess I'm ready...

2011-09-02T09:44:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been almost a year since I ran my first half marathon, the inaugural Eugene Women's Half Marathon, last year. I remember being super nervous the Friday before the race and even more so at packet pickup on Saturday. I had stuck to my training plan and felt confident that I would be able to handle the distance without problem but still fear of the unknown lingered heavily in my mind. I had never run in a race longer than a 5k nor a race of that size with so many participants. Most of my training had been with my jogging stroller, it was only 6 months (to the day) since I had given birth to Jonny and I was still nursing. I had no idea what I was going to do about fueling during the race and I kept going back and forth about carrying my own water. I remember on race morning I was a jittery ball of nerves. Luckily I had to nurse Jonny before I took off for the start because that gave me a few moments to sit and try to compose myself before immediately returning to freak out mode. Once I actually got to the race, the music was playing, I got my bag checked without problem and before long we were off. (You can read my full report HERE if you'd like.) I struggled at points but when it was over I was super excited and proud for having worked so hard and accomplishing my goal.

Now, a year later I should feel a lot more prepared. Since that race, really the race that planted the racing bug deep inside of me, I have done another half marathon, 2 full marathons, a few 5ks, a 10 miler and also a 20 miler, in addition to the Hood to Coast relay. I, however, don't feel very prepared. I think, in part it is because I haven't been training for this half. I have a marathon coming up towards the end of October and we are deep in marathon training. I know that I can conquer the distance, I know that I can run a half marathon and do a decent job but the question I can't seem to answer right now is can I race a half and be happy with my time? I know I shouldn't put so much pressure on myself and just go out and have a great time since I haven't really trained for this race, but I think I'm just a tad too competitive for that. Not necessarily competitive with other people but in a constant competition with myself. I want to PR. Of course, there is also the fact that there is a pretty large group of women from my church that are running this race and maybe it's vain, but I want to look good in front of all of them (and, not so secretly anymore, want to beat them all too).

Even a year later, I'm still super nervous about racing. I know that I can cover the distance and I know how I want to fuel. I also know that I do not want to carry water. I still have the fear of the unknown though because come race day, anything is possible.

If nothing else, I do have my race outfit ready to go. I'm lucky to be wearing the turquoise traveling sparkle skirt... hopefully it will provide me with a little bit of extra running mojo:

I shouldn't be hard to spot... say hello if you see me. :)

Also, Kim of (Just) Trying is for Little Girls and I will be getting together at packet pickup. If you'll be in town we'd love to meet up with you. Meet us at the 5th Street Public Market fountain at 3pm on Saturday during packet pickup. I shouldn't be too hard to miss there either... I'll be wearing the exact same thing as last year... it is a duck game day after all.

me with SBS last year

Run happy & run strong! Go Ducks!!!

"Best day of my life ever... in August"

2011-09-01T15:37:00.000-07:00

That's a pretty impressive quote considering that Calvin has enjoyed all of 7 Augusts in his long life. Even if it was only the best day of his life ever, "in August", we did have a pretty fun day yesterday. We were getting pretty stir crazy in our house and I needed to go running so I did what any runner with 4 small kids, desperate to get a run in would do... loaded up the youngest two in the stroller and put Emme and Calvin on their bikes.

The goal was 6 miles, give or take, with a nice layover halfway at Skinner Butte Park for a picnic and some play time. Calvin has only been riding sans training wheels for about a month and the longest Emme has ever gone on a bike was 4 miles, so I was a little bit leary starting out but tried to remain confident in their abilities. After some last minute scrambling for the right crown to wear (Leona) and the best book to bring along (Emme), we were loaded up and ready to go.

Sweatshirts & blankets at 11am in August?! Crazy, I know.

The first half of the trip was pretty uneventful. The route we picked was fairly flat and scenic with lots of water and rest stops.

We stopped to look at the river

and ride/run around the EWEB fountain.

Before, inevitably going through it too.

After a couple more "hills" that Calvin conquered like a champ we made our destination... just in time too, because Calvin thought for sure he was going to starve to death before we ever set foot in the park.

Lunch was quickly inhaled so that the playing could begin.

It was only a matter of time before Jonny discovered and immersed himself fully in the water

and then the REAL fun began... did someone say mud puddles?!

Yes, even I got in on a little of the fun.

I think the thing that made this particular day "the best day ever, in August" was the surprise stop at Prince Puckler's when we were almost home.

When all was said and done, we biked/ran 6.29miles in 55:56 which averages out to about 8:54 pace. I was really impressed with my kiddos and although Calvin swears he will never, ever, ever do it again (despite it being the best day in August ever), I think I might look into more great adventures like this. I sure liked the way they slept last night. ☺