Outing #3 & 4 with the Shoes

Friday night is date night. We were planning to go running together last Friday. My husband and I are both training for the Seattle Rock 'n' Roll Marathon, in June. We rarely get to run together, and since I'm also training for the Ragnar Relay Del Sol, this coming weekend, I thought it would be fun to run our scheduled 10 1/2 miles together. We can only do that when we have a baby sitter.

Earlier that afternoon, my sister-in-law asked us if we wanted to go to see the movie, The Lightning Thief. Originally I said no, because we were running. When I told my husband, hours later, he said, "I think we could go, and run later. Maybe Saturday." So that's what we did.

I wore the shoes (and the same, matching shirt) to Cafe Rio and the movie theater. The movie was great! That's about the perfect level of scary/suspense for me. I was even tense enough through the whole thing, that my husband's hand hurt and my neck could've seriously used a massage after wards. My 9 y-o saw it a week ago (before me) and he LOVED it. My 7 y-o would have had nightmares for the next year, had she seen it. It was my second time at Cafe Rio (I can't believe I've lived here for 5 years, and never went until a few weeks ago)! I am in LOVE with Cafe Rio! (I'm so grateful to some friends who introduced us to it!)

The fourth time I wore the shoes was two days ago, to church. I didn't take any pictures, but my friend, Amy, gave my ugly toes a beautiful paint job. (Thanks so much, Amy!) (I should still take pictures of them, soon.)

Friday Fun

Here's what I did today:

Sick kids, home from school. Watched many movies...

Sick baby, in my arms all day (my back hurts now).

I cut out felt hearts to make a valentine garland like this, only with pinks, reds, and whites (and lots more than the picture shows). I hope my 7 year-old and I will find time to sew it soon (like before Valentine's day). It shouldn't take more than a few minutes.

I also spent time catching up on blogs in my Google reader. Carrie at This Mama Makes Stuff had a great post about what gear she uses while running, most specifically while training for her upcoming marathon (and of course I'm interested in that). I use the same water bottle belt as her (I LOVE it) and I just recently got a garmin forerunner (which I also LOVE)!

I should have been reading this today, while I was holding my sick baby... Book Club is Tuesday and I have quite a bit left.

I was also hoping to get a chance to paint my toenails today so I could wear those cute shoes. But that didn't happen. :-( Maybe tomorrow.

Kids Rock Marathon

Okay... Well. I just was in the middle of this big, long post about our whole kids rock marathon experience when Firefox crashed and I hadn't save a thing on my post. Lost it all. So... I think I'll just bullet-point the highlights of the weekend.

• Friday night expo was fun. in conjunction with the rock n' roll arizona marathon
  
• We rode the light rail to down town and back. kids first time.
• We made it back really late from the expo. late to pick up our babysitter. late to the activity at our church. :-(
• I signed up to run the Rock n' Roll Seattle Marathon on June 26th, 2010 (first marathon for me!) and my husband signed up for the R 'n' R Seattle 1/2 marathon (first 1/2 for him)!
• The kids ran the whole mile and had tons of fun!
• There were like 4,000 kids participating, from K-6th grade.
• We went out to In 'n' Out Burger on the way home. (yeah, good, healthy example. uh huh.)
• happy that my kids had a good experience with a running event for them
• (I almost forgot) At the expo we were on the escalator and the guy behind us was Gene DeFronzo. He's an elderly man who's ran more than 400 marathons. Amazing. My husband recognized him from watching some videos about him online. What an inspiration. I think that's what pushed my husband to register for a half marathon a few minutes later! ;-)
  

If he can do it (400+ times), I can. Right?! Now I just have to figure out how I am going to train and get my body ready for the marathon in June. Any advice??

High fives. It's so nice to see a familiar face when you're on the course.

I was lucky enough to get to run with my 1st grade daughter.

High fives close to the finish line.

Thanksgiving weekend

Thanksgiving morning we met some out-of-state friends at the zoo and had a little "turkey trot" of our own. We ran a few times around the paths of the zoo "before normal zoo hours" (it's a member benefit)! Some of our kids rode bikes and the little ones sat in jogging strollers. It was so fun. I am really bummed that we didn't actually get any pictures of us all together there.

While everyone else was off looking at the new Komodo Dragon exhibit, I snapped a few photos of this cheesy ham.

At the Turkey Trot at my kids school.

I pushed my little kids in my neighbor's jogger (mine was in repair) while I ran with my other two around the school a few times. I ran with each of them separately. I think it came out to be about 3 miles total. Not bad for an elementary school. It was a very fun event.

Of course we ate very yummy food on Thursday. I was sooo stuffed. It actually hurt! We got together with a few of my husband's brothers and their families and my mother-in-law was in town. My family made broccoli salad, spiral sliced ham, mashed potatoes, and rolls. Oh, YUMMY! Everything was so stuff-your-face-good!! Darn, no pictures of the food either. I thought I got more pictures of everyone during the meal. I guess my brother-in-law probably did, but that doesn't help me right now. Anyway...

I did a little crafting over the weekend, too. I'll post about that tomorrow, I think. :-)

Run from the Sun 1/2 marathon

I'm not in love with this picture of me... but I wanted one of me with my race shirt, bib, and medallion on.

This is quite a long post. I don't expect you to be interested in it at all. I wrote the long version for me. Kind of a journal entry, so to speak.
But here are the highlights for everyone else:

• Expo was smaller than I expected. Food was a little lame. (But it was their first year doing this race. You're thinking, 'Take it easy on them!' , aren't you?)
  
• I beat my 2:20 goal by 10 minutes!
• I got sick the night before the race and gargled w/ salt water. It helped. I was okay for the race.
• My wonderful family was there to cheer me on!
• My kids loved the kids party and junk food that was provided
• I got a free massage! (only my legs. I'll take what I can get.)
• It was cloudy and rained for a bit.
• It was a fun race and fun family event.
  

Now, to skip the long version, scroll down. There are pictures at the end of this boring, long post. :-) The pictures are more interesting. (I think)

The long version:
The Run from the Sun event was fun, today! The expo was last night and I hate to sound ungrateful, but I expected more. More booths, more freebies, more food! There was a free pasta dinner provided by BJ's (okay, really I paid for the race, so... ya know. I guess it really was pretty nice of them, though). I guess I just expected a little more from BJ's. I was a little disappointed because it was rotini with spaghetti sauce, a caesar salad, and a little crust of garlic bread. I could have easily made it at home. I also went away still hungry. (Grant and I went on our date after this and we ended up going through the drive through at Panda Express, for rice, right before we went home.)

Last night I started feeling really sick with a sore throat, headache, and stuffy nose. Man, that scared me! I was so worried about how I would feel while running. I had some vitamin C and throat lozenges before jumping in bed. Throughout the night it got worse. I woke up at 2:30am and gargled with salt water a few times. Yuck! I've never tried that before. {I TOTALLY SWEAR IT WORKED!} My throat felt quite a bit better immediately. I then took Umcka cold medicine. That helped too! When I woke up at 5:30 to get ready, my throat felt a bit better. I gargled with salt water again. Took more Umcka, then put some Ricola's in my pouch for the race.

I was feeling only a bit sick by the time we started the race. I wished I had taken some Tylenol right before the race, because I had a headache for the first half of the race.

This race I only stopped once at a water station to grab a sip of some electrolyte drink. I was so grateful to have my water bottle belt (I know... I had that on my Christmas wish list... I'll probably still wrap it and put it under the tree when it gets to be a day or so before Christmas. Just to remind me that it was for Christmas). I think that helped me with my time and helped me not lose momentum (or whatever... you know what I mean).

I was getting really tired and sore by the 1oth mile. I had to make it into a mental game at this point. Really I was breathing fine and not too exhausted. Just my legs were tired and telling me to stop. I told them to keep going. I even felt like I was going faster at that point. I may not have been going faster but it just seemed like that because I was starting to pass quite a few people in the last three miles. That was really enjoyable. Such a motivation, for sure! At abut the half way point I came up on a guy that I could never really seem to pass. After awhile I decided to just keep up with him. I did that until about the last mile, when he started going much faster and I lost sight of him when we got to the stadium at the finish line.

Pacing myself was hard. I knew I should start out slow so I wouldn't get worn out too early and end up slowing down during the second half. I didn't pay much attention to the time until I realized I was at the 4-mile marker. I looked at my watch and it had been 40 minutes exactly. I was excited at the prospect of finishing with a 10-minute-mile. I know that's slow for most people. But for me, it's something I have to work hard for (at this point in my running career). I had originally made a goal of finishing in 2 hours and 20 minutes. When I saw myself running a 10-minute-mile mid-way through the race, I changed my goal to 2 hours and 10 minutes, with always trying go faster, to try and beat that goal too.

I thought there were advantages and disadvantages to running a 1/2 marathon that is a two loop course. By the time I got around the first loop, I was tired and didn't know if I could finish the whole thing. I also thought it was hard when I was running the 2nd lap and I would see things for the 2nd time but remembering how much farther I still had to go. It was helpful when I was getting to the last few miles and I would see things repeating and it felt like I was so close. Kind of weird...

It was a fun race. A flat course. I passed the temple twice (that was fun). It rained a bit. My kids had fun. They loved the kids party and junk food. I loved the massage after the race. I was happy with my finish. Not too many participants, not too few. I ALMOST got hit by a car, twice. I bought two new pairs of running shoes ($50 each - Road Runner Sports was there selling all shoes for $50). We got lots of free stuff. Great volunteers. Fairly well organized (besides the fact that they didn't have a place to keep your purses and bags). All in all - Very fun time!

My sweet husband cooked a very yummy Pad Thai dinner for me tonight. I was in heaven!

I wasn't with my family when they were driving to the race, but they snapped this nice picture on the way. Are there really two rainbows?? Isn't it beautiful?

My awesome kids waited for me at the corner where we started our second lap of the race. That was such a great motivator, to see them there, cheering me on! I am so grateful for them!

I believe this is me right before I saw my family at the start of the second lap.

My kids, enjoying very non-healthy snacks at the event. (Why are they feeding our kids junk? Aren't they supposed to be promoting health??)

My kids had a blast at the kids events. They had bounce houses, bracelet making, face painting, junk food, etc. (They were going to participate in the Family Fun Run, but I had just finished my race and ... it just didn't work out.)

Minutes after I finished... drinking a protein enhanced chocolate milk. It looks my kids enjoyed these, as well!

I liked this photo because it's my awesome, supportive husband, my messy-faced (red licorice) baby, and the gray, cloudy sky!

This little guy was so cute. He just came up to me and hugged my legs, looking up and smiling at me. He said, "Hi, Mom. I love you." Then, we lost him for a few minutes. What a scary feeling! After we found him again, we moved the GPS tracker from my water belt pouch, into his shorts pocket! When we lost him (that first time), I also was separated from my friend whom I went with and whom I run with a few times a week. I never ended up finding her again and therefore have no pictures of us together at the race. :-(

Getting ready to leave the race.

It was a good race, good event! I hope they do it again next year!

My First 1/2 Marathon!

I'm kind of embarrassed to even post this. But, I am so excited that I reached my goal of running a half-marathon that I couldn't resist sharing my joy. When I started my training I didn't have a specific race in mind. Then the soonest I could find one was in November (which I registered for a long time ago). I felt like registering for a race was my only way of keeping myself really committed. Since I had started my training in the summer I knew I would be ready by the end of September, which would leave about 6 weeks to improve my speed before the November 1/2. Well, about two or three weeks ago I was searching for races again and I found a small race a couple hours away from my house. I decided to go for it, since I would be ready for it that very weekend.

It was so much fun and SOO hard. While I was running, I was telling myself I would never run this course again. I will definitely run another half marathon, but never that course. I have now changed my mind. I think I wouldn't mind trying that course again next year, if they have it there. The course was on a gravel/dirt road with a five-mile-long hill that increased in 1000 feet of elevation. It was crazy. I ran the whole thing, just to say I did... but I was wondering (as I was babystep running up the hill) if it would've been faster to walk with big hiking steps instead. I think I would do that next time. But, for my first half-marathon I really wanted to run the whole thing.

It was fun. I ran slow and my finishing time showed that. But, at least there will be a definite time to improve on - it will be easy to accomplish that. I wasn't the last one to finish! I had to pee so bad during the race and knew there was a bathroom somewhere along the way. I ran for at least four miles, having to pee. I finally asked someone and they said I had already passed it. When I got to the turnaround point, I headed up into the woods for a minute and went behind a tree. Hopefully no one was camping close by...

This is at the starting line.

Here I am, finishing.

I wore a skort that I had been thinking about getting for months. I am not as impressed with it, now that I have it. In fact, after seeing the race pictures, I wish I hadn't worn it for the race. Oh well. Running skorts aren't all they're cracked up to be. But maybe that's just with me and my legs... ;-)

I can hardly wait for the next half-marathon and I plan to train for a full marathon early next year! Woohoo!