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Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do

By DragonLady on September 10, 2013

I got up Sunday morning ready to run. That is a lie. I was not ready, but I knew I had to, and kept telling myself, “It’s only 14 miles.” Right. That said, I started off slow and tapered off. lol But seriously, I was ok from about mile 3 to mile 8. I wasn’t enjoying it, but I felt confident I could finish. Then I hit mile 9.

Mile 9 was about where my lower back really started hurting. When I got to my last turnaround, I stopped briefly and dropped to one knee to see if that eased the pain. It did, and I took back off. The pain came back and about a quarter mile later (when I got back to a shady spot), I laid down on the side of the road on my back and pulled my knees up to stretch out. I made it about 3/4 of a mile and then laid down in the church driveway. Another half mile later, there I was in the road again and just a little over a quarter mile from the house. At this point, I was thinking about how I was going to get in the last 3 miles. But about the time I got to my driveway, I said “Screw the full. I’m doing the half instead.”

So there it is. I feel pretty confident that I can do the half because I’ve done halves before. I’m sure the back pain is my body telling me it’s time to buy new shoes. They are almost a year old. But I can’t afford a $120 pair of shoes right now and don’t want to break in new shoes right before a race.

Therefore, the half it is.

This entry is filed under Exercise, Fail, Running. | 2 Comments

Adventures in marathon training

By DragonLady on September 3, 2013

Or maybe that should be misadventures. 🙂 Saturday was an 18 miler. I did get 18 miles in, just not all Saturday. And my knees are yelling at me today.

I have discovered something over the past few weeks that really sunk in this weekend. I cannot do a long run with my husband. And that is why I did a little over 6 miles (about a 10k) Saturday morning, 5.4 miles Saturday evening, and 7.3 miles Sunday morning. 3 runs to get that 18 miles. Those first 2 runs were fantastic. I felt awesome. The Sunday morning run, not so much.

We had the oldest daughter of a couple of friends with us Saturday morning. I knew she wasn’t running 18 miles. I didn’t expect her to be able to and was not going to try to get her to run that much. She did a good 3. She needed to go to the bathroom and everything was closed at CCCC so the hubby took her to someplace with a bathroom and got them something to eat while I kept running. About mile 6 I decided I wasn’t going to make them sit and wait for another 2 or 3 hours on me to finish.

So I went and did 5 more that evening, or rather 5.4 because even though I was telling myself through the last 2 miles that I only had to make it back to my road, I went ahead and ran that last .4 miles because I was trying to beat the storms. Which is were I will back up and say that I looked at the radar and saw a line of storms around High Point and figured it would take them about an hour to get to us. I also thought I could finish 5 miles in about an hour. It was a little over an hour, and when I got back home and checked the radar again, that line had mostly dissipated.

The 7? Oh, man. I knew it was about 7 miles from my driveway to the other end of Lydia Perry Road and back. I ran Lydia Perry before. It sucked because it’s uphill the whole way back, but doable. Uh, nope. Not when I’ve run about 11.5 the day before. I was tired when I started, and even that whole downhill run was rough. And then the sun was beating on me for much of the way back, and I just had to suck it up and do the walk of shame. Although, there was a sprint in the middle of that walk thanks to a horsefly that decided it needed to bite my calves. I couldn’t outrun it so I decided to kill it. I failed, but I did manage to catch it twice and after the second time it eluded my foot when I threw it down on the pavement, it left me alone.

So, I now need to make myself do the weekday runs this week, and do 14 this weekend. In less than 5 weeks, this will all be over. No more long runs. Until the Tar Heel 10 Miler.

This entry is filed under Exercise, Family, Life, Running, Training Tuesday. | 8 Comments

“You have to do the weekday runs!”

By DragonLady on August 27, 2013

I decided to revive my themed posting days. Mainly I am just trying to force myself to post every day again and do so in ways that aren’t snarky criticisms. Because I have a load of those I could write. But anyway, this is kind of a “long story” version of how my marathon training is going. And it isn’t going well. With Karyn gone, I really don’t have that same accountability to git ‘er dun, and plus I spent a few Saturday morning in Al-Anon meetings. It’s just so much harder to get up and run on a Sunday morning.

So, Brenda called me Sunday and started off asking me about how my training was going. I was honest with her, and so she let me have it. Hence the title of this post plus she added “You have got to get your full long runs in. At least 18.” *sigh* Well, this past weekend, I only ran a 10k. And it hurt because I slept in all weekend the previous weekend and didn’t get a single run in during the week. Brenda decided that while she can’t run with me here, she can run when I run and I gotta run when she runs. Well, she ran yesterday but I told her up front that’s a rest day. Or it was. I will get back into the Monday runs. But I will run with the Tribe this evening. And, I will run either tomorrow or Thursday evening. Or maybe both since she made sure to tell me that it is better to do 3 runs during the week.

And I HAVE to do 18 this weekend.

Now, all that said, the hubster is willing to run with me, and has come on most of my long runs since Karyn moved. There is a big difference though. Karyn is a speed demon who would run off and leave me (and I am ok with that), but that would keep me running because I knew the faster I finished, the less time she had to wait on me to finish. I don’t really have that with James. Yes, he will push me and encourage me, but he will also let me drop to a walk. I’m not yet to the point that I can run again once I walk. BUT. I always have a but to put in any excuse. lol I told Brenda about how if I start walking I am done and can’t run again. She said, “You know that’s mental too, right?” Ugh. Well, yeah. I hadn’t really thought about that, but it is. She said she used to be the same way, but now she can walk for a little bit and then be able to run again.

She didn’t get on me about this, but she also mentioned eating and drinking right. I have not been drinking water like I should ever since I started taking the “happy pills.” So I have to force myself to drink more water. I know my diet could be better, and I have been cutting out the junk food I was eating.

Overall, my training thus far has been a big epic fail. With 5 1/2 weeks left, I may or may not be able to run 26.2 miles, but I will give it a go. Because I paid for it already. 😉

This entry is filed under Diet, Exercise, Fail, Running, Training Tuesday. | 2 Comments

Maniacal Monday #20

By DragonLady on August 26, 2013

I got busy last week and never did finish the post I started. So, perhaps I will finish it today.

1. Counseling: “I don’t want to vomit on her.” But I did. Not literally. It was a verbal vomit starting with “I’m not sure where to even start…” and then it all just spewed out like it was 4am after a night of playing quarters with mezcal which I just learned is not tequila. It was all disjointed and jumped around (like this post will be), but it did feel good to hear someone confirm that I had a lot fall on me at one time. And confirmed depression or at least that I like/want to sleep…a lot…and eat.

2. Running: I have not completed a long run since the 7 mile one. A week ago Sunday morning ended up as 10 instead of the 15 it was supposed to be, and my back got to hurting so bad the last 3 miles that I would lay down every time we came to a bench. The benches were about a half mile apart. Anyway, the last half mile I told the hubby that I had to lay down one last time if I was going to make it back. He started fighting with a wasp right away, which I just kind of ignored until he started yelling, “GET UP!” There was a definite urgency to it, so I did, and looked behind as I got up and there were a bunch of wasps swirling in front of the bench. I then took off running fast as I yelled “Oh, shit!” I don’t know how we didn’t get stung, nor the couple that ran through the middle of our episode.

I ran the CARA 10k Saturday, and in a way it didn’t suck as bad as last year and in a way it sucked worse. The event was/is great, but the course is a bit hilly. Granted, the last half is the part of the course I run nearly every week with the Tribe, so there was that familiarity. But I could tell I hadn’t run in a week or 2. It HURT. I am still sore. But I felt great when it was over (after I recovered). And one of the ladies volunteering ran me in the last half mile which really really helped take my mind off the pain and the urge to give up and walk. And then there was this:

Yes, that is a llama. Blurry llama because I took that post race.

3. The yard: I broke the riding mower.

Ugh. I considered JBWeld, but I don’t think it would really work. So I’ll be ordering a replacement part. :sigh:

4. Homeschool: Starting the day after Labor Day. With not all of the material. But enough to start, and so it will be a little bit odd scheduling. I got school supplies this weekend, and let me tell you it is so nice just getting 2 5-subject notebooks and 2 packs of mechanical pencils. So easy!

5. Music: I took my daughter with me shopping Saturday. I needed gluten free bread, and I like Whole Foods’ brand of sandwich bread. So since I also needed dog food, motor oil, and school supplies which I was going to get from Walmart, I decided to head to Chapel Hill instead of Cary. I haven’t really decided which is closer, but Jamie was begging for sushi, and since she likes it from the Harris Teeter heading up to Chapel Hill, that was 3 birds with one stone. Only thing, I took the truck since my car needed the oil change, and just had AM/FM radio instead of Sirius. She put it on 105.1 which is pop, and I then had to endure a lot of crap music. Like Macklemore. And Miley. In fact, I decided I hate Achy Breaky Heart that much more because without that “hit” from her daddy, Miley might not have become a celeb herself.

6. Pets: Buster has been way too barky lately. KitKat has retreated back to Jamie’s room and won’t come out. Tiger and Sushi don’t yet understand that my legs are not to be climbed especially when I am wearing shorts. Tiger doesn’t understand personal space things like “Keep your butt out of my face!” But he does rub my face with his so I guess he considers me part of his family. He is very social. Sushi, not so much. She is Spot, Jr. Looks like her. Acts like her.

7. Wrap up: I went to the dentist this morning. No cavities. On the way back to work, I got behind a chicken truck. I relayed that bit of info to my co-workers for a reason I won’t share, but one said, “Wasn’t there a song called ‘Chicken Truck’?” There was:

This entry is filed under Life, Maniacal Monday, Ramble, Running, Video. | 4 Comments

Maniacal Monday #19

By DragonLady on August 12, 2013

So, I haven’t blogged in a few days and I guess I should write something given the dark nature of 2 of the 3 last posts.

1. I feel a whole lot better. I went to my doctor and asked for something to help me function. I’m really grateful that our doctor is a family doctor who knows me and my husband pretty well, and so I really didn’t have to go into too great a detail of what all was going on. I did let him know I was going to Al-Anon and wanted counseling for the additional issue(s) that got dredged up. He understood, and just asked if I needed something for the mental or mental and physical. I told him just mental, and he gave me an antidepressant which had me feeling stoned out of my mind for about 5 days before my body adjusted to it. He also told me to absolutely keep running and why. And he gave me referrals for counseling, and I have an appointment with a psychologist Wednesday.

2. Al-Anon. Now that I am “drugged up,” I can attend meetings without crying the whole time. Granted, it is ok to sit and cry through a whole meeting, but I prefer to have my meltdowns in the privacy of my shower. I’ve gone to a 3 different groups: a beginner’s group, and 2 regular groups. I really like the beginner’s group because of it’s focus on newcomers. Of the other 2 groups, one is pretty big, and one pretty small. I like the smaller group even though they spent a lot more time on me than my social anxiety was comfortable with. Regardless, I should have gone to Al-Anon years ago.

3. Running. Ugh. The marathon training is kicking my butt. I do fine with the short runs, but the long runs are a succession of fails. Quite discouraging. And I miss my running partner Karyn. 🙁

4. I am now officially chief administrator of a homeschool. And my daughter is a lot closer to having enough credits to graduate than I thought so that should be able to graduate at the end of this school year. The only thing my son passed last year was gym. :sigh: Looks like it will take summer school to ever get him back on track.

5. We have electricity again in the master bedroom & bathroom! After replacing all the switches and outlets, the culprit had to be a wire. There is a light in the attic, and I told the hubby that we need to check that before we start tearing out walls. That light was ok, but he traced the wire he could see on the attic side of our bedroom and found this:

The mouse tried to fit through the same hole as the wire through the 2×4 in the corner, got stuck, and proceeded to chew through the wire…and got fried. So we just had to replace a few feet of wire between outlets that (unfortunately) went around a corner, but yet (fortunately) was half in the attic so there was minimal wall damage around one outlet. This is the damaged wire that was inside the stud:

I cannot tell you how nice it was to sleep in my bed again. And have bright light in the bathroom. Because the lantern just wasn’t cutting it.

6. Mice. They are everywhere. KitKat will not stay in my daughter’s room anymore because she is stalking. I sat in the living room the other evening and watched a mouse running back and forth through the kitchen, but KitKat was perched in the laundry room where she couldn’t see it, and Gizmo wasn’t anywhere to be seen. :sigh: And the kittens keep themselves to the back of the house when they are let out.

7. Fleas. I don’t know which is worse. The mice or the fleas. It’s almost as if Gizmo is producing fleas. Winter can’t come quick enough. Just sayin’.

8. All our lawn equipment is back and fixed, and the hubby mowed the front before it got way too far out of control. The back is way out of control though.

9. The hubby finally got paid, and bought the boy a moped. (The blue one.)

And less than 24 hours later, I got a call from my son telling me “I crashed! I need help!” He got pretty scuffed up, but it could have been so much worse.

Elbow

Knee from top

Knee from front

The faceplate is why his face didn’t look like his knee. One of his hands was pretty scuffed up too.

10. Diet. I really need to stop eating tater tots. Also, I found some gluten free wasabi peas at Harris Teeter. Only thing, some of the peas are so hard that it is like chewing up gravel.

And I think that is pretty much it.

This entry is filed under Diet, Exercise, Family, Life, Maniacal Monday, Photos, Running, Video. | 8 Comments

Back from vacation

By DragonLady on July 9, 2013

I started this yesterday, but it just didn’t get finished.

Oh, man. What a week it was! But my kids survived the lack of internet at Granny’s house. 😉 I’m not sure I survived the flights. But I didn’t seem to get badly glutened even though I ate a small piece of Aunt Becky’s black eyed pea cornbread knowing it had wheat flour. I had to know, and it was good!

I tried to keep it on the down low that I was going home to Arkansas because there were issues I didn’t want to address. It only partially worked as they popped up in a way that I had to address them after I got back. But in a way that I’ve avoided any public meltdowns. So far.

I was supposed to run 9 miles the weekend I traveled to AR, but there was no run happening on flight day, and I wasn’t running 9 before church, and wasn’t running that evening. So I attempted it Monday morning. I made it 4.73 miles (according to MapMyRun). Around mile 4 I realized I had stopped sweating, and decided not to push it. I walked into the house and exploded in sweat. After I cooled down and cleaned up, I took the kids to Petit Jean Mountain. We did the obligatory trip to “the point”, and were going to do the Museum of Automobiles, but there was no one there but us and the kids were all “Uh, no.” So we went to the petting zoo.

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Oh hai

We went to the visitor center, and then went on to the Cedar Falls Overlook area.

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One word. Creepy.

Jamie wanted to hike down to the falls, and I was game. However, we couldn’t figure out how, and so then she decided we should go to some cave. We didn’t make it to the cave, and only made it as far as the Davies bridge on the creek above the falls. It was down there that I used what little service I had on my phone to text Karyn and let her know that having come down that trail, the Campbell Creek Trail at Raven Rock is an easy moderate trail. And we had to climb back up out of there. 1.17 miles down and back. I added that to what we walked on the other side to the overlooks, and decided 3 miles of trail on the mountain made up for the 4.2 miles I didn’t run that morning.

Cedar Falls

Davies Bridge

Tuesday, we went to the zoo. It’s a mile around the zoo, and we did enough looping and backtracking that I think I got in a couple of miles.

He likes penguins. And making that face.

I was amused by the cat sleeping sprawled out on it’s back.

I think we wandered around downtown Conway on Wednesday.

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The kids wanted to go to Toadsuck…until we got there.

Thursday was the annual family reunion for my dad’s side of the family. There was a low turnout, but I was glad to see those who were able to come. In an effort to prevent glutening, I fried chicken to take. As I was opening the package before I fried it, I thought, “Oh, man. 18 pieces was too much. I hope people eat this!” We only brought back 4 pieces.

3 of my cousins…with red solo cup…

We went by the old homeplace when we left. :sigh: It sure doesn’t look anything like it did when I lived there.

This is where the house was.

I spent Friday wrapping up remaining loose ends, and hopefully all of them for the time being. I got caught up on my reading, and my planks. But I didn’t do any planks over the weekend. I arrived to too much drama. But that is a story in itself that I started to blog, but then I saved it to drafts and decided to leave it alone for now.

First dorm at college. Short Hall

My second dorm. Denney Hall.

Common area between Short and Denney. Only dorms that still look exactly like when I went to UCA.

Old Main at UCA. It seems bigger than it was.

Brenda was on vacation at the beach when I was home so I didn’t get to see her. Which means she has to come out here to visit me. lol Anyway, when I talked to her last, she told me I should go by and see Kevin’s headstone. So I did, and probably would have melted down if Jamie hadn’t been with me.

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There are a few more photos on my Instagram.

This entry is filed under Family, Life, Maniacal Monday, Photos, Running, Video. | 4 Comments

Funday Friday #14

By DragonLady on June 28, 2013

This was supposed to be last Friday’s post, but it didn’t even get started. That’s how I roll. 😉

What was supposed to be a cake/skate week for me was anything but. So this will be a rambling recap.

1. The hubster got back Wednesday after nearly a week working in the boonies of TN.

2. My youngest teen finished up one of the steps of his diversion plan. I may or may not have posted about him pulling the fire alarm a school about a month before school ended for the summer. It wasn’t entirely an accident, but not entirely on purpose. And because it happened before school started for the day, and he immediately told the principal he did it, he got off easy with a 5 day rather than 10 day suspension, and given a diversion plan rather than going to court. Fun times.

3. Tuesday, the youngest went to spend the night at his friend’s house. Wasn’t long before I get a call from him where he says, “Um, the police are on their way and they are going to want to talk to you.” So I went down there and he and his friend filled me in on the details which essentially amounted to them along with friend F2 (who due to this incident wasn’t at friend F1’s house) being accused of stealing stuff from someone’s car Saturday night. Mine was at home all day and night Saturday with me, F1 was with his mom all day and night and not even in the county, and F2 is as unlikely to be involved in that sort of thing as the other 2. F1 did say to my son “You do have a record…” That was the only humorous part of the whole situation. Anyway, police never showed, F1’s mom offered me wine that I almost took. For a brief moment I considered bumming a cigarette from her too. 😉 Like how I used no names in that? F1 & F2 were originally #1 & #2, but then I started giggling over that naming convention and decided it probably isn’t an appropriate method for referring to my son’s friends.

4. Planks. They still look easy. They are still ridiculously hard.

5. Sat on the front porch with the hubby while a big line of severe thunderstorms headed for us. Of course they split and went around us like they do. It made for a nice peaceful time though. And a couple of good pictures. The sky above . As the storm rolls in…

6. Karyn and I ran the EspirtdeShe 5k in Cary last night. Rather she ran the 5k, and I ran until the first hill, and with the humidity being so stinking high, I couldn’t breathe any more that I could see the top of the hill. The was a lot of walking and wheezing done the last half of that 5k.

Sweat running before we even started running.

That’s a lot of women…

We were going to meet Eva (who ran the 10k) after we all finished, but there was an emergency that popped up and we had to leave right away. Nothing like a situation like that to make it seem like it is taking forever to drive from Cary to Sanford. And everything is fine. 🙂

Oh, and Karyn came in 65th overall out of 471. How cool is that! I finished in less time (even walking up the hills) that the Rabbit Run that I ran entirely. Go figure.

7. I have a card just like this posted up on my desk at work:

I don’t think my son believed I would do it. And no one has pointed out that I have a My Little Pony card displayed on my desk.

8. I have nothing else, and this is hilarious!

This entry is filed under Funday Friday, Photos, Ramble, Running, Video. | 4 Comments

“Good luck getting out of your car.”

By DragonLady on June 22, 2013

Here’s a rarely seen weekend post.

I just had another one of my brilliant ideas. Ok, I didn’t just have it, but I couldn’t say that without the correct quote. Anyway, so 5 miles was on the schedule for today, and since the marathon we’re running is a trail, we thought we should do some trail running. Campbell Creek Trail at Raven Rock is 5 miles. Perfect. So I proposed it to Karyn, who was up for it, and we took off to Raven Rock this morning to get our trail running on.

My 8am start time didn’t happen because 1) Evie and Precious decided to disappear right around the time I was set to leave and 2) I forgot to get chocolate milk the night before. It was closer to 8:30 when we got there, and then we had to figure out where the Campbell Creek trail was relative to where we parked. And then make pre-run photos which I shamelessly stole from Karyn’s Instagram via Facebook. :cheesy:

We decided it would be a good idea to run together. Karyn said she would slow down and I would have to speed up. LOL! Now I should note that the trail is listed as “moderate.” We weren’t too far into the trail when I said “Moderate my ass!” We got a light sprinkle, and it was welcome because we were hot. And then a little farther in I realized the rain sounded a lot louder than a sprinkle.

10% chance of rain this morning at Sanford. 100% at Raven Rock. #gotsoaked

— Martha Nemec (@dragonlady38) June 22, 2013

By this time I had also said “Screw this!” to running up the hills, and just tried not to fall too far behind Karyn. She also stopped running up the hills which made me feel way better. We stopped and took pictures when we reached the river.

The loop was blocked there so we had to go back the way we came in. Oh, man. It was a lot worse with mud and puddles and slick roots and rocks. But this was cool.

And then it quit raining, and some kind of horsefly-bee attacked me for like a quarter of a mile or so before we finally made it back to a parking lot. Throughout the entire trek we made accusing comments at the voice of her app that was telling us our time, distance, and pace due to the distance she kept telling us.

On the other hand, when it said at the end we had done 5.8 miles, I chose to believe. 😉

Overall the run was no joke hard as crap, but we had a blast! Going downhill (with gravity dictating our speed) was like being a kid again running around in the woods. It called for a celebratory trip to Starbucks of which the nearest one was in Fuquay Varina. As Karyn said, “Why does Fuquay have a Starbucks and Sanford doesn’t?” The title of this post is the last thing she said to me when I got her back to her house. Surprisingly, I really didn’t hurt that bad when I got home, though I wince every time I walk down the stairs.

And I leave you with this:

This entry is filed under Photos, Running, Video. | 3 Comments

The best laid plans…

By DragonLady on June 20, 2013

…and goals. And who gets a cold on the eve of the beginning of summer? Oh, me. But I’m getting better (said in a bad English accent attempting to quote The Holy Grail). Anyway, I’m going to do a quick recap of the previous linked goals from January.

1. It took a couple of months, but I figured out what my lack of rest problem was. It wasn’t so much a work issue, but a stress issue. I got out of the one stressful situation I could, and it’s been easier to deal with the others. Way easier. And no, I will not go public with what that thing was.

2. I have done 7 races so far. I am registered for a half next month, and a full in October, and plan on doing the CARA 10k in August. I may even do the labor day 8k I did last year just to redeem myself from all the wrong things I did last year before that race. Bottom line, I am still on track with this one.

3. I decided I liked knitting better. Go figure.

4. :sigh: I did do a couple of pushups a couple months ago. I may not have broken the plane, but whatever. It was better than falling on my face on the way down. 😉

5. This has been so tough. That’s all I have to say about that.

6. Yeah, this hasn’t happened since like March.

7. I’ve had a lot of hotdogs and tater tots the last couple of months. And cider. And wine. And Starbucks. :-/

Speaking of Starbucks, this is kind of an aside, but I got about a half mile from the front gate and realized I left my purse at home. And this is the first morning I have deliberately speeded to work in forever because I pittle-farted around the house for way too long and wanted to limit how late I was going to be. First, I was both thankful and sad that I had enough change in the car to pay for a tall blonde. Sad because I wanted a triple venti vanilla latte and my Starbucks card is in my purse. However, in the parking lot I remembered that I have the Starbucks app on my phone. SCORE! So I was able to use that to pay for my fru-fru coffee.

Also, I gave up my semi-anonymity on Twitter and put my real name up on it. Figured I would make it less of an effort for NSA. 😉 The DragonLady pseudonym/alter-ego still stands in the blogsphere though. That said, I was forced to use my real name commenting on some blog last week because I had to use my Google profile. Eh.

I ran across this by accident on Twitter yesterday morning and decided I’m going to give the 21-Day Plank Challenge #plankwithbex & Delta Labs a go. Did my first plank last night, and shook like crazy for the last 15 or 30 seconds or so of my 36 second plank. I’m feeling it today. Just sayin’.

This entry is filed under Diet, Exercise, Fail, Life, Ramble, Running, Semi-confessional, Video. | 2 Comments

Maniacal Monday #17

By DragonLady on June 17, 2013

It’s been a while. I put off writing something I wanted to write about, and now I’ve decided that if I do write about it, it will be all snarky and end up with me being exactly what I want to rail against. So now you get a list post of catch up material. You know, for the 2 or 3 of you who still keep up. 😉

1. Rather than doing a recap (way after the fact), you will get the Reader’s Digest version of the last race. The Wednesday (I think) following the Ninja Challenge, Karyn dropped a link to a race on my Facebook wall for that Saturday. Thinking “It’s only a 5K,” I signed up for it (and the hubby too). Who knew that on May 25 we would wake up to temp in the low/mid-40s(F)?

It was a trail, not real rough, but not real smooth and way more hills than I wanted to do. I struggled. Bad. Then as we were coming in to the finish line, a chick who had walked much of the course (ok, maybe she didn’t, but every time I had seen her prior she was walking) passed us running to the finish. I decided that she was NOT going to beat me, and busted out into a sprint to the finish line. Karyn was shocked to see that kind of speed come out of me though I am sure I wasn’t going near as fast as I felt. LOL

2. The first weekend in June, the hubby went to a small music festival that a friend of his hosts every year. He came back and told me “I brought you something.” I got all excited thinking he got me some of that fantastic homemade wine, but it was a small (roughly half-pint) jar of moonshine. :-/ If you like sourmash, it was good. I don’t, but I drank it anyway ’cause that’s how I roll. And not in one day either.

Then 2 or 3 days after the festival I come home, and he opens up the front door, and this ran out:

Yes, he brought home another dog under the reasoning that someone else wanted a dog like that. Her name is Precious, and yes, we still have her. :sigh:

KitKat is not amused.

3. Tiger and Sushi are doing really well. They got totally eaten up with fleas, and we undertook chemical warfare this weekend to rid them and the dogs of the flea menace. KitKat kept herself well hidden and managed to (so far) escape bath time and/or dusting. She isn’t likely to get a bath because despite her fat, she is quite nimble and not afraid to sink her claws to the bone.

4. Friday night I sent Karyn a text asking her if she was up for 10 miles on the American Tobacco Trail (ATT) in the morning. She said no, but that she needed to. So I asked her if it would help that we only had to run 7. 🙂 So we go out there, and if she hadn’t been going, I would have gone back to bed. But, it turned out to be a much better run than I was expecting. Just after the 3 mile marker I met Karyn on her way back, and told her I had improved my 3 mile time. I was feeling great and kicking it. And then I hit a stretch of trail that wasn’t shaded and nearly died. And had to run back through that stretch after the turnaround. But I got my third wind around mile 5, and even after sprinting the last tenth of a mile, I felt like I could keep going. However, I was very glad I didn’t have to! Twice during the run I had to stop and rake pea gravel out of my shoes, only the second time when I did the rake, I nearly cried when I realized that was NOT a rock, but was a blister. Evidently I can no longer wear the really short running socks.

5. Father’s Day was rough this year. For me. I might write specifically about why at some point.

6. June 9 I had to take Chad to pick up a game we preordered on his birthday. This year his birthday gift was one that just keeps on taking, and I’ll have some more pain in August or September when the other one comes in that I preordered for him. Anyway, since Starbucks was right there I “needed” to stop. Now Saturday morning when I picked up Karyn, I told her that we would be going to Starbucks after the run. And when I ordered (at the drive through) the dude who took my order was very friendly and Karyn made note of it. So I then told her about the stop with Chad because that dude was just as wacky friendly. Which is fine. It’s entertaining. What wasn’t entertaining on the 9th was when the dude handed me my coffee and hesitated over the handoff as our hands were (awkwardly) touching.