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Check one off my bucket list

This weekend was one of those really good weekends - we didn't have much planned, the weather was great, and we enjoyed good friends and good times all around.


Friday nights Ashley has dance class with a few other girls on our street, so right after dance we all headed to our local watering hole in the downtown part of our town. We were able to get tables outside so we enjoyed relaxing and eating and the kids didn't have to be on their best behavior since we were outside.


Saturday mornings are my long run mornings and I got to run with Carmen and another new-ish neighbor to our street. I was doing 10 and they hung with me for 6 miles which was great. And the new neighbor has twins (a boy and a girl) who are Audrey's age, so we set up a playdate for later that day. After the run and eating lunch at home, Ray headed out with Audrey and I headed out with Ashley. Since Ray had been on two weekend camping trips recently with Ashley, we figured some bonding time with the girls was in order, so he took Audrey to a park and I took Ashley ice skating (I had purchased a groupon months ago that was about to expire for ice skating). We headed back home in time for Audrey to have a playdate, and for Ashley to have a friend from school over as well.


The other local bar/restaurant in our town was having "Rocking at the Crossing", with bands playing, bounce houses and such. After dinner we headed there and Ashley's friend's parents met us there. We hung out until after 9:00 at night. On the way home, Audrey looked like this:

But I have saved the best for last! Ray's company helps with marketing and selling houses in a neighboring golf community in town, and they were having a family festival on Sunday with a 5K race. Ray, myself and Ray's brother Sean were all signed up to run. Sean had been mouthing off for the past month that he was going to beat me and that he was in better shape than me. Ha!


I won 1st place in my age group (35-39), was 4th female overall AND I beat Ray and Sean.


Yes, it was a very small race. I would have never won in my age group otherwise. There was only about 150 registered, and I think less than that finished. It was hot (92 degrees at the 2pm start time) and crazy hilly. I saw one lady taken away on a stretcher. Not good.


But it still counts as an award. And not just any award, $20 to a local running store. Yippee!

Audrey's dance recital

Conversation with Audrey

Last night while tucking Audrey into bed:

"Mommy, let's talk about when I'm a teenager."

"Okay, what are we going to be doing when you are a teenager?"

"You might die. And if your hand is bigger than your face, you will get cancer."

I want this shirt....

Running 5 days a week with my new training plan has been a huge adjustment. You wouldn't think going from 4 to 5 days would be, but it is.

Mother's Day and Birthdays

Mother's Day weekend started off on Friday at Audrey's preschool where I enjoyed Muffins for Moms for the last time there. I am very happy not to be paying $1,000 a month for preschool and Audrey is ecstatic about not wearing uniforms any more, but it was sad to be the last event like that. She has been at that school since she was 4 months old, and what it really means is she is almost a kindergartner. Very scary.

So anyway, she had to answer some questions about me...see the picture.
And let me just clarify #7. It says my favorite thing to do for fun is to "have a party Friday nights". Which is partly true. Ashley and 3 other girls on our street have dance class Friday nights (which yes in fact that does suck and I will never sign up for a dance class on Friday night again). So while they are in dance, the rest of us get together for a happy hour of sorts. And since Audrey isn't in dance class, she hangs out with us.

In other exciting news, Ray got some new shoes. Specifically these:

Yes, he is going to try vibrams to see if that helps his knee pain. He spent all weekend walking around the house in them.

So I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day and Happy Birthday to my Dad today!

This is the beginning of a crazy month...

I finally bit the bullet and got a real running coach to do a training plan (it's in plain sight at my desk at work) for me (versus finding random training plans online that weren't customized to my paces). And it is awesome (although running 7 and 8 milers during the week scares me). Go check Tonia out and give her some words of encouragement, she crashed her bike this weekend and is out of commission for a bit.


So running is back full force and for the first time, I am going to try and keep up with strength training as well. We shall see how that goes.


Audrey's dance recital is on May 14th; Ashley's dance and piano recital is on June 4th. Between Mother's day, birthdays, and in general craziness, we have started on a crazy month. I am looking forward to getting away to the beach Memorial Day weekend.

Few minutes...

I only have a few minutes to post as I have to go pick up Ray at a Starbucks near our office since he took the hard top off his Jeep without putting the soft top back on AND without looking at the weather today. So he is parking it in a parking garage a couple of blocks away and getting Starbucks.

Just an excuse really for me to get a Venti Iced Black Tea.

Easter was good - Ashley fought off a slight stomach bug, but was okay otherwise. It was warm enough on Easter for the girls to enjoy a slip and slide at a neighbor's house. I went all of Lent without drinking one soda, and I still haven't had a soda. And I don't think I will. No more diet cokes at bedtime for me.

The pool opens Mother's Day weekend here...I really need to order a bathing suit. I need to update everyone on my boot camp adventure these last two weeks, next time. Need to go get my Starbucks...

Updates

Ray's parents are moving near us, and so this past weekend we were moving Ray's brother out of our house into their house about 4 miles from our house. We knew there would be storms in the area, so we were keeping an eye on the weather. We had just returned home from taking a load of stuff when the storm hit.

I have never heard thunder as loud as I did on Saturday. And then it got dark, like middle of the night dark. And silent, which was weird.

But our street was lucky. No damage at all. Two streets away? Houses with trees on them, shopping carts from a Lowes Food store a mile down the road in their yards, insulation from a bank a mile away in trees. All the power lines down the main street in our town were taken down by trees as well. Not sure how well you can see the power lines in the above picture... And trees on cars. The kids weren't scared of the storm, but seeing the damage it did scared them. Ashley's school was closed today due to lack of power. Probably the first time in the school's 15 years it was closed due to a tornado.

Let's hope we don't have any more storms like this again....

2 races in 2 weekends

That was me last weekend at the Cherry Blossom 10 miler. Great course, sort of great weather (I was really cold because I am a wuss in 30 degree weather) and great company during the race. I went down with Carmen and another neighbor and I ran most of the race with each of them. I actually crossed the finish line with Carmen which was really cool. My official time was 1:40:37 which gives me an 8 minute PR from my last 10 miler almost 2 years ago. The course was pretty crowded for most of the race, but nothing unbearable. I did see a man juggling 4 balls, a blind runner, and 2 girls dressed as the statue of liberty.

And now my ride is waiting for me...off to Kitty Hawk for the Flying Pirate half marathon!

I realize I need to post about the Cherry Blossom 10 miler, but first a picture

Audrey waiting to go into dance class...

Slightly obsessed with the Instagram app on my iPhone...

Grandma bought Ashley high top Converse shoes last week....and yesterday Ray bought her pink shoe laces to go with them.

Running and running and running

I have 2 races the next 2 weekends, this weekend is the Cherry Blossom 10 miler in DC and next weekend is the Flying Pirate half marathon in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. For Saturday's race, I will be driving up with two running buddies in my neighborhood for the race (can't wait to see how well Carmen does!) and the following Saturday with another running buddy and her neighbor. Running has been sort of sporadic since the marathon. Last week I only ran twice, one really crappy run where I thought I was going to die (ran right before dinner so I hadn't eaten in 6 hours and it was in the 80s temperature-wise) and another fabulous run (9 miles in 50 degree weather and it was perfect). I don't know what I will do this week. I am definitely hitting the gym tonight since it is sleeting outside (yes, we had 80s last week, 40 as a high today...where did spring go?). But I have been doing cross training and core work. Ashley is still tracked out of school and after a week at Grandma's house and two sleepovers this past weekend, she was toast last night. Seriously, I thought her head was going to spin around. She crashed hard. She is hanging out with her Dad today and with me tomorrow. The end of the week is questionable as she might be heading to Virginia with Ray to help his parents paint or she might ride up with me on Saturday morning. Who knows. Audrey did enjoy her week without her sister last week. Those two seem to constantly fight lately and it drives me nuts. Here's hoping it warms up later this week for good.

Like how I haven't posted in forever?

I finally got off my butt and ran last week. It was a measly 11 miles total for the week, but it's a start. I am going to try and hit all my planned runs this week and with the temps in the 80s by Friday, I think that's looking pretty good.

But has anyone else been bulldozed by the time change? I can't go to bed at night and then when the alarm goes off, I can't get up. It's a vicious cycle I am hoping to break up tonight by going to the gym and crashing into bed.

Ashley is tracked out of school right now (year round schools here), and she has 4 weeks off instead of the normal 3. She did a camp at Lifetime Fitness last week (our old camp standby that she loves) and she is at a gymnastics camp this week. If only I could find a running camp for her :). Next week she is going to Camp Grandma and Grandpa Fuzzy (my Dad and Stepmom) and we haven't figured out the last week yet. I think she may just hang with Ray and I at work. She loves camps, but unfortunately they are expensive. Lifetime isn't that bad, but the gymnastics camp is expensive and it's hours are short, but she begged to go with her friends to this one.

Audrey is counting down the days until her last day in Pre-K. Soon I will be finding camps for both of them to do (how scary is that). June 17th is her last day and she starts kindergarten July 11th.

And no, I am not going to discuss Virginia Tech being left out of the NCAA tournament. I assume you all know how I feel about that.

Recap of my marathon experience...

Melinda Hinson Neely has been a great resource for me while embarking on my first marathon. Not only is her website full of information, but she left me encouraging words on both my blog and facebook.

And I forgive her that she is a Boise State fan...

She wrote a post about my experience here as she is working on a book and collecting stories about first time marathoners.

Wow, is it really Thursday already

This week has literally flown by. I can't believe it's March already.

Ashley is getting ready to track out of school for 4 weeks. I have her signed up for camp for the first two weeks, nothing yet for the second two. Still trying to figure out if she can go stay with the Grandparents for a few days. It's hard because even though she is out of school, we still have all of our activities. She does Girl Scouts every other Monday, tumbling Tuesdays (to get better at tumbling for cheerleading in the fall), piano practice on Wednesdays and dance on Fridays. She can't miss dance since they are gearing up for their recital on June 4th. Same with piano. I guess tumbling she can miss as well as Girl Scouts (I am the troop leader, I think I could fill her in on what she misses!). And yes, having dance on Friday nights sucks, but it was the only time we could get for the class she wanted.

Oh, and I still haven't run yet. I need to since I have a 10 mile race and half marathon in April!

Shabby Apple - Giveaway

We are finally getting warmer and warmer (Raleigh had 80 degree weather days earlier this week...). With warm weather come thoughts of wearing dresses instead of jeans and jackets. And I am totally excited about that.

So enter in Shabby Apple - beautiful dresses that are vintage inspired, stylish and affordable for women and little girls. And not only cute dresses to wear, their fitness line is perfect for yoga or running.

Check out this perfect dress, the Azure Coast Dress:

It's the perfect faux-wrap styling that fits all body types. And cute little girls' dresses? Check out this one:

If you want to win the Azure Coast dress, just leave a comment on this post! I will pick a winner on Friday, March 11. Winners must be US residents. And be sure to hop onto Facebook and like Shabby Apple there, click here.

Good luck!

Turbo Tax - Giveaway!

As most everyone knows, I am accountant by trade. I now work for Ray's company, Dream Living Realty as their accountant and office manager. Best decision ever by the way. As an accountant, most people assume I can do taxes. Um, yea, no. Yes, I took the required tax classes in college, but that's it.

At work, we use a great Intuit product, Quickbooks, to manage all the accounting for Dream Living Realty. Another great Intuit product this time of year? TurboTax.

TurboTax 2010 is the #1-rated, best-selling tax software from Intuit. Below are some highlights of what's new this year:

Greater Ease and Accuracy: Automatically transfer essential tax information from last year's return and from hundreds of thousands of employers and financial institutions. Instantly transfer data and simply confirm it's correct.

Customized Guidance and Recommendations: Unique GPS feature provides additional guidance and recommendations, based on each customer's individual tax situation. TurboTax recommends the deductions and credits that will help customers get their maximum refund.

Better, Faster Answers: Customers have easy ways to get answers to their questions, when and how they need them, including instant answers from other TurboTax users and tax experts online via the TurboTax Live Community.

And I have three (3) TurboTax online codes to file your taxes for free this year. The codes are redeemable at TurboTax.com and good for one free federal + state preparation and e-file with TurboTax Premier Online 2010. The codes are only valid through the 2010 tax season.

So if you want one, leave a comment. I will post the winners on Monday, March 7th. Good luck!

Getting better...

I ended up at the doctor's on Tuesday. I was sick of hacking up a lung and blowing my nose every 5 seconds. Diagnosis? Ear infection and sinus infection. Good times.

But I finally feel better and my legs finally feel fine. I actually might even try to exercise in the morning. Note I didn't say run (I am giving myself a week off of running). On a much brighter note, today is mix-match day at school for Ashley. She has been planning her outfit for a week!

Austin Marathon 2011 - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

I really don't know where to start. But I want to preface this whole post with this: my performance at the marathon was no one's doing but my own. What I am trying to say is that I am not about making excuses. I didn't run the race I had trained for, and that sucked. I could sit here a write a post about how the weather was very different than what I trained for, I ate different foods, I traveled, I had a head cold, but in the end, all of those things were still my fault. I chose a race in Texas. I chose to eat food the night before I hadn't eaten before. But at least now I know my mistakes, and I won't make them next time! And yes, there will be another marathon (just don't tell my husband...).

So, onto the race.

I traveled to Austin last Friday and arrived to warm weather. Highs in the upper 70s/low 80s, lows in the upper 60s. High humidity. Weather that I love, just not the weather I had trained for the last few months. I didn't even pack my gloves to run in. I was in heaven. Saturday we hit the expo where I picked up some Yurbuds and a really cool shirt that says "Run, Live, Sleep, Repeat". My friend got her legs all taped up with k-tape and people were staring where ever we went. It was pretty funny. We finally made it home about dinner time and my friend's mom had made some homemade spaghetti sauce. I should have said no and just eaten plain pasta, but it was yummy and I had two servings. My friend smartly passed and just ate plain pasta. I crashed pretty early that night since I had been up early.

Race day my alarm went off at 4:00am. I took my time getting ready, but already had a nervous stomach and by the time we left at 5:00am, I had visited the bathroom 4 times. Not a good sign, but I figured I was just really nervous. I was in a tank top and running skirt, and was fine outside since it was already 65 degrees and 75% humidity. We made it to the start in plenty of time, and lined up between the 4:30 and the 4:45 pace groups.

And we were off onto the HILLIEST COURSE I HAVE EVER RUN. Seriously. I would not recommend this race to even my worst enemy. I run hills all the time in Holly Springs, but these hills were relentless. The first 6 miles were uphill out of downtown Austin. Then a little bit of a downhill, and then all I remember are uphills. I freaked out my husband and friends who were tracking me because I missed the 5K timing mat. It didn't go all the way across the road, and I never stepped on it. We did hit it at about 33 minutes. My 10 mile split was 1:48, and soon after that things started going downhill.

It was hot. By mile 3, I was pouring water on my head. I had been taking extra vitamin C and zicam to head off my head cold, and that was a stupid idea because it didn't work and I think it just made my stomach worse. I stuck with my friend and her running friends until about mile 12 (the half marathoners split from us at mile 11), but I ended up puking on the side of the course at that point. It was a lovely mix of orange Gu and yellow Gatorade, but I instantly felt better. I was still running 100% of the time through all this. And then BAM, my stomach just completely cramped up. Who knows what it was - the heat, the food I ate, the medicine I was taking, the Gatorade, dehydration - but whatever it was, it SUCKED. My stomach hurt so bad at points I had to completely stop and was doubled over. I threw up again somewhere about mile 15ish in a portable restroom (which was lovely, let me tell you). Again, I felt better instantly but that feeling went away quickly.

At that point, I had nothing left in the tank, and taking another Gu or drinking any Gatorade was not an option for my stomach. I tried some pretzels someone was handing out, and I could get it in my mouth, but I just couldn't swallow them. I was drinking water but I was still so freaking thirsty. I remember somewhere about mile 19 I saw a girl throwing up and a policeman took her off the course and I thought there was no way in Hell they were taking me off the course. I was going to finish no matter what. All I really wanted was a diet Coke. I even almost asked some spectators, but honestly the energy that would have taken to ask was too much. So I kept trudging along. I walked when my stomach protested too much and the hills were too steep, and ran when I could. Even walking though, I was passing people running. I remember around mile 23/24 walking up a hill and looking around me and everyone was walking. I remember the 5:00 pace group passing me, and I didn't even care. I knew I would finish, but I knew any hopes of a "good" time were over.

Finally I was at the end. At 800 meters to go, you have to climb a hill and I saw my friend's husband. He was a huge help throughout the day on the course. He talked to me and told me when I rounded the corner to start running, but instead I started running then. I remember seeing the finish line and I was so freaking happy.

5:25:24

A couple days post marathon, and my quads are still sore from all the hills. My head cold is worse, but my stomach is finally better. I will be honest, I am hugely disappointed and sad about my time. I really thought I would have done better. I know that if my stomach had felt better I would have done better, I just don't know by how much. I am still proud of my accomplishment and am going to wear my finisher's shirt every chance I get, but still. Hence why there has to be marathon #2. My friend didn't do as she expected either, and we both want our redemption race. Any ideas?

Huge, huge thanks to momof3 for her kind words and helpful wisdom, and for Tall Mom for the shout out. And thanks to my husband for putting up with me and all my running the past 6 months, and taking care of the home front while I flew to Austin. And a huge thanks to my friends who supported me from afar in Holly Springs with cards and love and good thoughts - Wendy for the arm warmers and cards, Nancy for the brownies, and Shelley for my week of gifts, poster on my front door when I got home, and the champagne. I couldn't have done this without any of you.