Its like Grease Lightening....

Monday for Memorial Day I ran 8 miles!  It was hot and humid..just the weather I love to run in (insert sarcasm!)  I went running with Becky and around 5 miles or so I knew I was running out of water.  Which didn't worry me because the first part of our run we passed a few people washing their cars and kids watering the garden.  So I figured that I could just ask some nice people to fill up my water bottle.  I am a drinker when I run.  I think it is because I am a crazy sweater too.  So as luck would have it nobody was out watering gardens or washing cars when I wanted water!  Go figure!  Finally towards the end of our run (we had maybe a bit more than a mile to go) I saw a wonderful family washing their car.  So we asked for a fill up.  The man asked his wife not to turn off the hose so we could fill up.  He was our water angel!  He told us that he saw us a while ago running, were we running the entire time?  Why yes we were!  So we thanked them for some water and we were off.  Glad I got out there and ran some miles before next weeks half marathon.  I am going to try and get in a long run on Sunday or Monday depending on my schedule.

Tuesday was run club.  We were supposed to have some storms move through, but my house looked nice and clear.  So I figured no problem with running at run club.  It was a bit sticky outside, but nothing too horrible.  As I was driving up the sky was not looking great.  I saw some lightening.  I knew I wasn't running at run club.  I do not run with lightening.  Rain never killed anyone, but lightening can do some damage.  I got to the bar that we start from and saw some lightening and heard some thunder.  Yep no running for me!  My friend KP was trying to convince me to run.  He said he would run with me and since he is taller the lightening would strike him and not me.  Yeah I'm not falling for that one!

I wouldn't even run with lightening if I was in Paris!  I don't run with lightening!

So everyone went out for their run and I was left with Bill and Liana at the table waiting for runners to return.  While we are sitting there chatting, Bill points us to the window.  Torrential Downpours!  Yep I would say that I made the right decision!  When people came back they were all looking like drowned rats!  So glad I was dry!

What are your "I'm not running in that" weather limits?

Happy Memorial Day!

Just want to take the time to say Happy Memorial Day to all!  Happy Memorial Day to all who are serving or have served in our Military.

Hard to believe that we are at the end of May.  Especially since the temps have been soo chilly this weekend!  I can't remember the last time I've worn a hoodie and jeans at the end of May before.  brrr...One day 80 degrees the next two 45 degrees.

I went to the gym yesterday to say hi to all of my friends..like the bike, the treadmill, the elliptical.  They missed me terribly.  I wish I could say the same.  I did like reading while biking..got caught up on some of my book.  I stepped on the scale and my weight is slowly creeping back up..so I need to put a stop to that before I gain everything that I've lost.  So I guess I need to visit the gym more often.  Sometimes I just don't want to visit my friends.  I am also going to try and take Riley for more walks (I know you all have heard that before.)  May has not been the best for running.  I think it is just the end of the year craziness at school and I am tutoring a kid twice a week after school, which means after tutoring I just don't have the energy to head out to the gym.  I'm hungry and so I eat and not workout (Hey I wonder how that weight is creeping back up?!)  Fifteen more days of school and then the excuses stop and marathon training starts.

I'm heading out for a long run in a bit...even though I just don't feel like it.  But sometimes we have to do things that we don't want to do.  I know I will feel better after the run.  I know I will feel like I accomplished something other than just dreading work tomorrow.  Ok, I'm off to take Riley on a walk and then head out for run. I've just talked myself into it!

Marine Corps Historic Half

I always think that I will get to sleep in a bit when I have a race as close to me as the Historic Half.  I live maybe 20 mins away.  Well I guess I did get to sleep in for a total of 10 mins longer than if I was headed to a race in DC.

It was a very dreary morning.  The rain was supposed to hold off, but it was drizzling a bit, nothing too bad.  You could feel humidity in the air.  I was originally going to wear my new Half Fanatics visor that Megan got me, but with the lack of sun and the possibility of rain I put my Army ten miler hat on.  That way if it rains I won't look like a complete drowned rat.   I now realize that I may want to invest in a real hat..even though I hate wearing hats while running (really anytime I think I look stupid in hats.)

I headed to the race and parked at Walmart and then headed over to the start.  I noticed that people were lined up waiting for a bus..so I headed over thinking I could just catch the bus.  Thankfully someone was nice and saved me because it was the bus for the 5K and 10K which had a different start.  Disaster averted!

I wanted to meet up with the Half Fanatic Group for a picture before the race, but between the traffic and standing in line I didn't make it in time for the picture.  I checked my bag with little problems.  I was standing in the wrong line for my bag, but I had time to move over a line.  (seems like I am line challenged with this race!)

I headed to my spot to start the race and after Sean Astin and local weather man Chuck Bell spoke we were off.  I was sort of hoping that I would meet up with Chuck Bell to talk snow storms, but it just didn't happen.
It is amazing how much easier a race seems when you know what is coming up.  I wouldn't say this course was easy..it is nothing but hills and lord knows I do not like hills.  But it didn't seem as miserable since I knew when some hills were coming up and where I was on the course.

Look how happy I look here!  Yeah I know how to ham it up for the photos!  I think the thing that sticks out in my mind was the larger runner who was plugging along and his friend/coach was running ahead of him and encouraging him to keep going.  He kept yelling at the guy (in a friendly coach like way) to keep up a good stride!  Do you want Gatorade?  No?  Great then why are you slowing down!  I'm guessing that it was either his first half or he was trying to improve his speed.  I told him if he caught up to his friend he was allowed to beat him up!  He was tired because I didn't even get a chuckle for that one!  I also saw some guys that ironed on the phrase "Can I have your beer coupons?" to both the front and back of their shirts.  I saw them at the beginning and the end. I asked if they got a lot of tickets and they said that they could get me a few beers with no problem.  Too funny!  As they said, it wasn't their first rodeo!

After Hospital Hill (the dreaded mountain that lasts two miles!) I ran into my friend Susan from run club!  Always fun to run into someone you know!  We chatted a bit and she ended up passing me the last half mile.  The last bit always gets me. I am blaming that stupid non-stop hill that they put at the end of the race!  Who does that??

As always the race was well ran.  The Marines know what they are doing when they put on a race.  The weather wasn't too bad.  I have decided that this race was the last race with capris.  I felt a bit over dressed.  

After the race I tried to find Susan and her friend..no luck.  I tried to find Alanna and Mark (I met them last Historic Half) no luck.  I grabbed some beer and then sat down to see if I could see anyone I knew.  Turned out I didn't see anyone so I decided to head home.  When I made it home Alanna let me know that her and Mark were out celebrating his PR.  So I took a quick shower and headed down to meet them.  That is a great perk about living so close..I get to shower before heading out.  I am sure that the waitress enjoyed the fact that we didn't stink! :) 

Next up Hatfield and McCoy!  I have a feeling that will be a very warm race!

Marine Corps Historic Half expo

Well tomorrow is the Marine Corps Historic Half.  It really is not my favorite half because of all of the hills.  If you haven't figured it out yet I hate hills!  I ran it last  year and hated all of the running up up up!  So hopefully this year since I know what to expect I will not be as crabby to those hills!  The nice thing is that the Marines always put on a great race, so I'm not expecting any horrid things to happen (like long lines for bag check, portapotties or anything of the like)  I do love the people dressed up in ye' old days and doing some colonial dancing in Historic Fredericksburg.   I mean who doesn't love a good colonial dance?  I'm hoping to finish this race with a smile on my face..that is my only goal.  I haven't been the greatest on my running this month...so I will take what I can get out of those hills.  I still have to look up my time from last year but if I recall it was horrible,so I guess I am hoping to beat that time too..we will see..

I headed down to Fredericksburg this morning to pick up my packet.

Drove in under the Finish Line!  

Drove out under the Starting Line!

Packet pickup was super easy and pretty quick.  I purchased a glass since I also got a glass last year and it has turned out to be the favorite for all of my drinks!  I did get some new body glide and some shot blocks.  Can't go wrong with those purchases.  The expo had many charities to see and some races to sign up for.  

I headed out of the expo and went to the mall to look around to see what they had.  Didn't really end up with much.  I got back in my car and headed home.  I before actually getting home I decided to stop at Five Guys to grab a burger.  I love protein the night before a race.  I normally will get a burger or steak for dinner.  Not sure how smart the Five Guys burger was but I guess I will see tomorrow.  I am not normally a greasy Five Guys kinda gal, but I wanted a burger.  

Hopefully the rain holds off for tomorrow and I get to run in semi dry clothes.

Color Me Rad

I have not fallen off of the end of the world..I'm still alive..I'm breathing..and all of that good stuff.  I have not posted or checked on blogs for two weeks..I'm going through withdrawal !!  It is rolling up to the end of the school year, which means busy, busy, busy!  Between trying to get stuff done and home..gardening and work..I've been coming home just exhausted.  Hopefully I'm now over it..we will see.  I'm back now though!

Two weeks ago I went down to see Kristi, Shawn and the nieces to run The Color Me Rad..it is a family tradition (who knew when we ran it for the first time last year it would then become a tradition!) I headed down on Saturday and enjoyed a fun filled day hanging out with everyone.  Kristi made lots of yummy food over the weekend.  We had some yummy baked ziti and some sangria to go with it.

After dinner we headed to packet pickup, which to my surprise was super easy this year!  Last year Shawn and I waited for over an hour to pick up our packet, Kristi and I walked right up and out this year.  I should have known from the ease of packet pick up that it was going to be a great run!

Last year I ran with Ali.  I ran with her because she just took off and I figured someone should keep up with the second grader..so we ran it together.  This year Ali was  bit disappointed to learn that everyone was going to run together..which meant that everyone also got to run with Aunt Pam!

Tori and Aunt Pam can't wait to start to run Color Me Rad

All clean

This year the kids wore goggles..no devil eyes for them!

If you remember from last year, I had the color get in my eye and my contact soaked it up...

Yep a bit of devil eyes..  Well the good news is that I did not get any color in my eyes.  I did run through the color with my hands covering the side of my sunglasses.  Because I did that I must have looked like I was a bit frightened of the color so I don't think that the volunteers put very much color on me..I'm sure they were thinking look at the crazy girl scared of some corn starch!  Although to be fair, they didn't get any of us as color soaked as last year.  Last year it was crazy how much color we came home with.  We were just a mess.  This year it seemed like the perfect amount of mess.  

We ended up all staying pretty much together.  I did realize that if I wanted to do sprints I need to take those little girls with me on a run.  It was like a bunch of jack rabbits!  Walk then sprint ahead..then walk and sprint ahead.  At one point Kate went flying past me and I commented to the five year old..your sister is fast..well Tori felt that was an invitation to see how fast she could run and yep..I was off on a sprint.  

Shawn and Kristi enjoying all of the color

Everyone had fun running!

Music, color cornstarch flying..time to dance!

 It was a great day for Color Me Rad!  We had no parking problems..it was a bit chilly to start with, but turned out to be perfect running weather.  No devil eyes.  Everyone ran together and had fun and lots of color on everyone.  Couldn't ask for a better running day!

After the run Kristi, Tori and myself headed over to the strawberry patch to pick some fresh strawberries.  Nothing beats some fresh picked strawberries!

It was a bit chilly but once you started to pick you were fine.  And the lovely donkey in the background didn't mind us picking strawberries either!

Next up Marine Corps Historic Half

April..glad you are gone and randomness

So looking at my running totals for April, it was not a great running month.  I ran the least amount during April.  Why?  Not really sure.  Could be because I was not feeling great for a week and my parents were here over a weekend which always throws off my running.  Who knows, but hopefully May will look a lot better.

I ran Sunday at Burke Lake with Becky.  It was a beautiful day for a run.  While we were running we past a girl and she ended up running with us most of the time.  The funny thing was that I know that Becky was hoping that she wouldn't pass us.  I knew Becky wanted to slow up a bit, but didn't want this girl to pass us so she kept up the faster pace.  Oh Becky!  Turns out that she was using us to help keep her pace.  We ended up chatting with her a bit and then dropped her off near where she started since she was a bit confused where she started out at the lake.  She was there with some friends who were walkers and she decided that she wanted to run some.  I guess it turned out that we were good for her and she was good for us too!  Great when you meet new people while running!

Tuesday was run club as usual.  I got there and figured I was the only one from our table running in the rain.  Yes I said rain, I was running in the rain.  I did tell Gary that I could easily be talked out of running since it was such a crappy night.  But I sucked it up and went for the run.  Turned out I had a pretty decent run.  Jen showed up as we were taking off, but she wasn't running since she banged up her knee at work that day.  Looks like I was on my own.  Well not really there were other runners, just nobody really running with me.

We took off and yikes!  One of the guys (I'm assuming it was the guys) really stunk!  Is it bad to say that?  I know we are runners and sometimes we are a bit nasty.  (Hello!  My group runs in 100 degree weather, sweats and heads into a bar to stink up the joint! ha!)  But really no reason for that kind of stank that was wafting towards me at the beginning of the run.  I can understand afterwards, but really we haven't run more than 50 feet.  So I decided to try and pass some people to get away from the odor.  The problem was that the two guys that I was convinced that one was the problem started passing people too.  Ugh!  Finally they went ahead and I had some fresh air.

I had a pretty good run.  I did realize that I run faster than a 6 month pregnant girl but also the same pace as some 80 year old men.  Yeah I have some serious speed!  Although I will say that normally the 6 month prego girl is usually super fast when she is not carrying around another life.

Got back to the bar and found out that I wasn't the only one from our table, people just decided to show up later.  Glad I wasn't sitting solo at the table. :)

This weekend I have Color Me Rad with the nieces and Kristi and Shawn.  Should be fun as long as I don't get the red eye like I did last year.  I am sure that I will have a great time!  Kristi has deemed it a new family tradition to run the Color Me Rad race.  How can you not when people are throwing color at you and you are surrounded by crazy people!