Archive for February 2013

“It’s raining again…”

Karyn and I did our 2nd race of the 13 in 2013 Saturday, and it was one of those where we were so glad it was just a 5k. It was cold, and it rained. We sat in the parking lot for about half an hour trying to either force ourselves out or take a nap.

Pre-race:

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We are always all smiles before the race, and she said we should start taking pictures after the races when the smiles are gone. You can check out the Miles for Missions race photos on Facebook and find photos of us crossing the finish line and see for yourself the absence of smile and the grimace of beat the clock.

Anyway, that whole race sucked because the combination of rain and cold. It would have been a great race otherwise because while there were a couple long hills, they weren’t steep. Right away I picked out someone and determined that she was not going to beat me. I was going to catch up, and pass. Only she was smoking me, and I wanted to quit. But then this young girl who I estimate was about 10, started pushing me, and pacing me. Now when I say pacing, I mean she would sprint for a while and then walk. Hills, you know. 😉 She was very encouraging, and kept me going. And then the lady I said wasn’t going to beat me, dropped to a walk, and as I passed her, I took the time to say, “Come on, you got this!” That was Molly speaking through me. 🙂 I did end up beating her by a few seconds, but I waited in the rain at the finish line for her to high-five her because she was a trooper. And I picked up one of her gloves that she dropped, and wanted to return it to her. lol And after we made it inside I made sure to find that little girl and thank her for keeping me going. Yeah, she took off and left me during the last stretch. 😉

We were so soaked. Despite my efforts to avoid big puddles, my feet still got soaked. My torso stayed dry(ish) because of the poncho, but that was all that was dry. I didn’t have a chipped bib (registration fail on my part), so my only “official” time was me eyeballing the clock as I crossed the finish line at exactly 37 minutes, which I was trying to beat from the time I got close enough to focus on the clock and see that it was 36:20. I guess my push wasn’t all that. But I had soggy feet. Yeah, that’s it. 😉

2 weeks in a row it has rained on Saturday. I hope we get a dry Saturday this weekend for our 11 miler.

Funday Friday #12

1. I have a race tomorrow morning and thank goodness it is only a 5k. Why? Because I haven’t run at all in 2 weeks. And it is supposed to be rainy and cold. :-/

2. Karyn and I are running a half marathon in 4 weeks. We have 2 long runs left. I do not feel at all ready or prepared.

3. Will be rethinking this whole running in winter thing. See #1 and #2.

4. After not touching my guitar for a month, I started playing it for fun again. I forgot how much I love to play. Yes, there has been much Fleetwood Mac. 😉

Looking for that I saw this remake and it’s not bad.

Petra, this may help towards me actually liking Florence + the Machine. Maybe. And mainly because I have hated most Fleetwood Mac remakes. lol

5. Speaking of Fleetwood Mac remakes, I think I had once said that Santana did the only good remake of a Fleetwood Mac song with Black Magic Woman. In fact, I like Santana’s remake better than the original. Maybe because I heard it first, but whatever. I found 2 (so far) other FM remakes in my music library over the weekend. First was NOFX (whom I had never heard of) doing Go Your Own Way. It would be better if the singer would consistently sing. The other was Judas Priest doing The Green Manalishi. Leave it to Judas Priest to take a British blues-rock song and make it sound like, well, Judas Priest. 😉

6. Repairs and remodeling are proceeding like mad at the house. While we have always had a door between the kitchen and laundry room, there was no door between the laundry room and the den/family room. There is now.

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That’s 24 8ft 2x4s. Very heavy. And sound masking so that when the family room/den remodeling is complete and the tv is moved down there, the sound of laundry will not affect watching of the tv.

7. That’s all I got. This was playing at the Commissary this morning when I walked out of Starbucks.

You’re welcome. 🙂

“Bad hills!”

A few days ago I had a dream that my friend Brenda came to visit me. Now, as an aside, she has been planning a trip out here for months, and we even plan on running a race together while she’s here. That’s reality. In the dream, she had signed us up for a marathon. And when she told me what it was I flipped out! She said it was the RunRaleigh marathon, which in reality is just a half, but in the dream it was the Raleigh City of Oaks full marathon. And this is why I flipped out because I only did the Rex Heathcare half, and would have died if I’d had to run another 13.1 of that route. So I told her, “Heck no! Hills, Brenda. Bad hills!” I told her of this dream the other night and she was quick to point out that she would not ever sign us up for a marathon because she has no plans to ever run another marathon.

Saturday was a 9 miler on the training plan Karyn did for us, and between the cold and errands, we decided to each do 9 on our own this week, do our 10 at CCCC, and then do the 11 & 12 on the American Tobacco Trail which will be part of the actual route for next month’s half. I must point out that this whole time we have been training, I have been avoiding both CCCC and Kiwanis because I haven’t been able to bring myself to do those hills over and over for multiple laps. I decided I would do the 3.4 mile loop by my house in enough laps to equal 9 miles. But then I got up Saturday morning, and changed my mind about that route, and did what is typically my 4 mile route but added on another road which was an out and back 5 miler. I knew it was hilly, but I really did not understand what it would be like running 2.5 miles of uphill. Oh, man, that was rough! I kept reminding myself that I did a hilly 10k the week before, and therefore, I could make it back to the 6 mile point and, if necessary, walk the last 3 miles.

I made it back, and was hoofing it slowly up a light grade, and finally decided I was done. So I walked a little bit until my legs felt a little better then tried to start running again. I made it about a block, and gave up the run and dropped to a walk. After the turnaround with less than 2 miles left, I noticed a burning near my right ankle. So, the last mile and a half was more of a limp. Apparently my sock had dropped and my shoe rubbed a killer chafe just under my ankle. Anyway, I spent that last mile and a half forcing myself NOT to call the hubster to come and get me. Just as I got back to our driveway he called and instead of saying “Hello” I answered with “COME AND GET ME!” If I hadn’t answered, he was going to come look for me because I had been gone over 2 hours.

So, I will just say that my quest to avoid hills was folly, and I have paid with sore knees, hips, and back.

And this was my run for Sherry only I forgot my bib until after I was half way down the driveway, and I knew if I went back for it, I would never run at all.

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No smile. Only a grimace because I was hurtin’! 😉

Maniacal Monday #14

1. I did the 2nd Annual Virtual Run for Sherry Saturday in conjunction with the 9 miler training run. More on that tomorrow.

2. I had an emotional meltdown on one of the school administrators last week over my daughter’s absences last semester. They are being totally supportive so I guess crying does work even if it was virtual via email. But, I made a deal with Jamie that if she will finish out the school year and comply with the attendance contract, we will start homeschooling her starting this summer since she is constantly asking to drop out. :sigh: It’s purely social, and I totally understand where she is coming from.

3. Our oven went out last weekend. Superbowl Sunday specifically. The igniter went out, but it didn’t just go out, it burned out. And after attempting to get a replacement part, and discussing the big hole burned in the bottom of the oven that is probably why the temp was never right, we opted to just buy a whole new stove. And James picked out a “fancy” one.

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4. #2 above apparently ushered in the return of the migraines. The weather is not helping. :-/

5. Now that the roof is done, and all the completely busted out windows are repaired, James and Rick started working on the suite bathroom upstairs. They pulled out the outdated vanity, and pulled up the old tile, and have laid down new.

Out with the old...

Out with the old…

...in with the new.

…in with the new.

Plans are to repaint the avocado green tub, and to apparently replace the old plumbing fixtures with new since the cold water handle is a vice grip as the old handle stripped and the fittings are so old that they don’t make that size anymore. Fun times.

Also, they took the top off the old vanity pulled out of the bathroom, and made a cabinet in the laundry room and are going to install a sink.

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6. Jamie makes me listen to Alt Nation when she is in the car with me. It’s starting to grow on me.

Tuesday randomness

1. I had the flu a couple of weeks ago. The last time I remember being that sick for that long was when I was 16 and had a ruptured appendix. It was the flu my parents used to get when I was a kid that would put them each down for a week while I managed to avoid it, or just have a 24 hour episode of it. The 4th day, I stood in the shower praying for death. Then I went back to bed, had a meltdown on the hubby, started coughing, and nearly puked on him. He ordered me to stay in bed the rest of the day, and I didn’t argue. And he made me potato soup for 2 days. He also twice picked up food from La Dolce Vita for me.

2. The weekend prior to getting the flu, I made a spontaneous decision to get the kids up and go to Wilmington for the weekend. Since Karyn and I are running the Bay Six Half Marathon, and are in training for it, I had a long run that was supposed to take place that weekend. 7 miles to be precise. So I got up that Sunday morning and headed down to the fitness room in the hotel confident that I could easily do 7 treadmill miles. I did about 4.25 miles and fast walked nearly another mile in a futile attempt to get the full 7 in. However, it was at least 200 degrees in that room. Celcius. That may be an exaggeration. 😉 Later I went back down and noted that the thermostat was turned off which explained why it got so flippin’ hot in there.

3. This past weekend, Karyn and I ran a 10k. It was 17 degrees (fahrenheit) when I left my house. It was 22F when we left Karyn’s house. After the race, and after we had gone into Fayetteville to get me a vanilla spice latte from Starbucks, the temp got up to 34F. Yeah, it was cold. I hadn’t run in 2 weeks, and I was done at mile 2. I don’t know how I kept going, and I sure don’t know how I managed to run the full 6.2 miles especially going up that last hill. But I did, and Karyn got to see me have an asthma attack from the finish line through the shuttle ride back to the high school where we parked. She says I am a machine for being able to run like that. I really cannot fathom how I am able to do a long run after not running at all for 2 weeks and the previous run being a DNF. I should not be able to do it. And Anderson Creek should be renamed Anderson Hills. Just sayin’. 😉

4. The hubby and his friends finally got the roof done, and all the broken out windows have been replaced/repaired. They are nearly done with Chad’s bedroom, and are working on the suite bathroom upstairs.

5. I am almost finished with the scarf I have been knitting for Chad. He may or may not ever wear it, but it’s the same shade of blue as his beloved hoodies.

6. I am going to try crocheting some doilies after Opal said she tackled round crochet before getting squares down. And anyway, doilies are what I want to crochet anyway.

7. I need to do another food detox. :sigh: I also have to accept that I have to give up cheese. :wail: And I got glutened again, probably while I had the flu and was too sick to do the dishes resulting in cross-contamination. But, it could also be the Harris Teeter sushi. So I have to lay off of that for a while because even though I get the ones that do not contain wheat on the label, I am sure cross-contamination still occurs.

8. Jamie is taking guitar this semester, and so she demanded an acoustic that doesn’t buzz. While I was sick she talked me into giving her mine. So I went and bought a new acoustic last week, which was no easy task for me to choose. However, I picked one with a cutaway rather than the one with the better tone, and then ended up regretting my decision all the way home. But then Jamie saw the new one and wanted it, so it was a win since I got my Alvarez back from her.

9. Somehow we ended up with a house full of teenage boys Sunday. It really wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Connor came home from church with us, and at some point Jamie was out of the house, and when she came back, Aaron and Alex were there and she started yelling, “Get out of my house!” Of course no one left. lol

10. Did not watch the Superbowl.