Imagine Out Loud

Richmond Marathon Race Re-Cap

2016-11-14T19:59:00.000-05:00

Ok y'all. It's been.....well, a really long time since I have written here. I have been trying to process running my first marathon, the Anthem Richmond Marathon, this past weekend and I've decided I have just too much to say for a Facebook post. I decided to come back to Blogland for a brief moment to re-cap this AMAZING race experience.

It all started about 8 months ago when the Marine Corps Marathon lottery opened. I determined this was going to be the year - I was going to put in for the MCM lottery and, if I got in, great - I would start training. If not, then I'd likely pick a half I wanted to do and aim for that. What I didn't count on was the feeling of EXTREME disappointment of not getting selected in the MCM lottery. I decided to ride that wave ambition straight through to the registration page of the Richmond Marathon (no lottery) and guarantee myself a marathon entry for the Fall. About 1 second after I hit submit, panic ensued. I knew there was no way I was running a marathon without going back to my good friends at Resolute Running Training Center and begging Coach Alex to get me to the finish line ... ok, START line.

Here is where I insert my shameless plug of Resolute Running. What an amazing group of runners. This is a group I lucked into finding when I lived in Birmingham comprised of runners in every stage of running goals - from elite Boston qualifiers, insane Ultra Marathoners to folks who are working on their very first 5K. Every goal is important at RR and you'll never be able to beat the support from the fellow runners and the coaches. No running snobs here!

But, I digress. Since this is meant to be race re-cap and not about my journey (which I sort of posted about here already), I'll skip to what you really want to know about - the race!

Suffice it to say the 2.5 weeks of taper were miserable and terrifying. I fell during my 20 miler and something jostled around in my lower back. I was experiencing so much sharp pain I saw 2 chiros, a massage therapist and an ortho trying to work out my issue before race day. I was feeling restless and panicked that I had just trained 8 months and I may not even be able to run on race day. Under suspicion of a possible stress fracture and with a prescription of a super anti-inflammatory I did the only thing I could do - rest and hope for the best. I was going to Richmond no matter what.

I did not run a step until Friday's 3 mile shake out run. When I laced up my shoes Friday morning, I was in between being a cat on a hot tin roof dying to run off the nerves and being paralyzed in fear that I would be in too much pain to race Saturday. Luckily the latter did not prove to be true. Thank the baby Jesus and all that is holy, I was able to run 3 miles with only the mild sensation that something could potentially go horribly wrong by mile 18. I decided I would just take that as it came and hope for the best.

I have never been to Richmond and I was seriously impressed! Such a great place to run. The concierge recommended running to Belle Isle. It was a great suggestion! The scenery was awesome - fall leaves, sunshiny day and the gorgeous James River. I took it as the universe saying to me, hey - it's all going to be fine.

Richmond organizers were doing tours of the course via shuttle bus, but you had to sign up and I had not, so Omar and I utilized dueling cell phones to follow the course map (via the AWESOME app Richmond has for the event) and GPS via the Google. We had a rental car and nothing but time, so we enjoying exploring a bit and I must say that driving the course alleviated a lot of fear. It was fairly flat and I knew what to mentally prepare for, so I was pleased with myself for figuring that one out!

I picked up my number at the expo (squeeeaaaalllll!), excitedly picked out some 26.2 gear and forked out a great sum of cash. The selection was fantastic and they had all sizes of everything so I was thrilled with the expo. Well organized, easy to shop, lots of selection and friendly people to help. I joked with Coach Alex when he called to run through the race plan that I was planning on finishing solely for the purpose of wearing all the shit I just purchased.

Omar and I had dinner reservations at Max's on Broad - a Belgian restaurant. I hate Italian food - I'm sorry, but I do. The idea of eating pasta drenched in sauce before running 26 miles makes me physically ill. I chose Max's because it had a large menu with plenty of selection of things I normally eat. Best not to upset the apple cart, amiright? Omar and I split the poutine app (aka french fries smothered in cheese, gravy and bacon), but it was so large I forwent my original selection and chose a salad and French Onion soup instead. We split the Lavender Creme Brûlée for dessert and I was full, but not overly. I did have 1 glass of wine to chill me the F out - I was a basket case on the inside.

Predictably, I did not sleep well. I never do. I tried a soothing sleep app and hit replay about 10 times until I gave up. I think I slept for about 4 hours, awakened before the alarm, so I just got up and got dressed. I went to the restaurant downstairs in search of my usual pre-long run fare - a bagel with peanut butter and Honey Stinger gel (the only one that doesn't make me vomit on runs). I ended up forking out $13 for the continental buffet - most expensive bagel I ever ate, but I didn't care. I dilly dallied for bit stretching and whatnot and roused Omar to head to the start line with me. It was a cold start, but I knew it would be perfect for running. I had a Goodwill ready shirt and gloves to ditch as I warmed up.

Honestly, as I stood out there shivering to death in the butt ass cold with Omar as they sang the National Anthem, I teared up. I tried to just absorb the feeling of being about to run a marathon - the excitement, the fear, the hope, the pain - all of it. I wanted to remember exactly how I felt at that moment. I kissed Omar goodbye and I was off - all the waves more or less begin at the same time. It's not a ginormous race - part of it's charm!

I was VERY conscious of doing exactly what Alex said - use the first 5K as a warm up and slowly increase the pace. My first mile was very slow, and I was just fine with that. I found a groove and stayed there for a good long time. I remember seeing the Half turn right / Full turn left sign about 3 miles in and thinking "Shit, I'm really doing this." I really can't rave about this course enough. If you wonder if you should run Richmond - DO IT. It's well thought out and gorgeous. You see all the monuments, historic neighborhoods and the beautiful James river as well. Also the crowd support is spectacular - so many GREAT signs. My favorite was, "If the Cubs can do it, so can YOU!" and I also loved "Love your Run AND your neighbor."

Course scenes - trees

Course scenes - river

The other benefit of driving the course beforehand is that I knew when I could afford to clip off a faster mile and when I would probably be struggling. I just relied on my knowledge and the terrain to guide me through a good long distance of the race. I drank at every water stop knowing that even though I wasn't thirsty, I needed to drink every single time water was available. I was timing gels with water about every 45 mins.

At about the half mark (one of the hillier sections) I was having some really sharp pains in my lower back and was thinking here we go - the beginning of the end. It was never quite enough pain to force me to alter my stride so I just keep telling myself, focus on form, focus on form. It became a mantra as I crossed the bridge from hell - a killer headwind and uphill for a long while. I knew Omar was waiting somewhere on the other side with my Red Bull and potato chips. I always had "real food" in training around this time in the run because gels started to make me feel gross, so I was looking forward to it! Omar met me about mile 17 and walked along with me for a bit while I ate and drank. It was a nice mental break and re-energized me enough to continue on.

I had to use the bathroom for like the last 5 miles so I decided I would go at the 20 mile stop. There was only one bathroom and a spectator went in just before I arrived and TOOK FOREVER. I waited for what seemed like ages before I gave up and continued on. I was really worried about arriving at 20 - 1. Because I had never run longer than 20 miles and 2. Because I fully expected to hit the dreaded WALL. They say the marathon is run in the last 6 miles!

I was indeed in a rather significant amount of pain by this point but I spent the better part of 20-21 being annoyed about the bathroom. From 21-22 was a junk food stop (SKITTLES!) and another wait for the bathroom that I FINALLY used. The final miles are all run in the Northside and let me tell you this 'hood SHOWS UP. The people were AMAZING. Mile 23 I had a mimosa and a shot of bourbon (I figured it would cure me or kill me and I was fully committed to vomiting in front of everyone if it went south - it didn't). 24 I was just excited to have 2 left and when I got to mile 25 and saw the 1 mile to go sign I think I smiled so hard it hurt.my face I knew I slowed down significantly due to the pain in my back but I also knew I was going to make it.

Northside!

Mile 25!!

From here through to the end is the other best part of Richmond - all downhill baby!!! I can honestly say I never even felt the wall. Pain, yes. Tired, yes. But I truly never felt like I couldn't go on. I don't know if it was proper nutrition, excitement of finishing or - let's face it - the bourbon. I really don't care, all I know is that Richmond was everything I wanted it to be - the weather, the course, the people, the swag(!) - it was a PERFECT first Marathon. No lie, I cried the entire last quarter mile and I sobbed when the lady hugged me at the end and handed me my medal. She said, "You did it Lindsey!" and I don't think I can ever explain that feeling to anyone who hasn't experienced the months of sacrifice, the pain, the blood, sweat, tears and hundreds of miles for a single moment of exhilaration.

The post - race festivities were great. The food was even better. Yes, we got a free banana. But they also had PIZZA! I scarfed two slices of pepperoni and collapsed on the fleece blanket (no foil!) until I could manage to move myself again.

Another high five to Richmond organizers for having a shuttle to take you back up the big ass hill you just ran down back to the start line (where we were staying at the Hilton Richmond Downtown - highly recommend for location to start!!).

I showered and laid upside down on the bed dreaming about the beer I was going to drink once I could revive myself, while we watched some football. I ended up finding a reservation at Tarrant's Cafe and we headed over to drink a couple of beers before dinner. It was the best beer I think I've ever tasted. I literally had 2 beers and was drunk. I have no idea how that happened. I ordered a bubbly drink with my pizza (yes, more pizza), which I promptly had 2 sips of and shattered the glass everywhere. My motor skills were a tragedy by this point - Oooooops!

The beer that got me drunk!

Death to Champagne :(

I couldn't wait to fall into the bed. Warm and full and happy, I fell fast asleep. Until 4am when the hotel fire alarm went off. No lie. I was in a groggy fit, stiff as a board and faced with having to dress myself and hike down stairs (STAIRS!) after running a marathon. Hilton. What. The. Fuck. If it had been a real emergency, I would have just burned to death. It would have been less painful that taking the stairs at 4am. No lie.

Luckily, we were both able to go back to sleep and I slept long and hard until 9:30am, at which point I awakened starving and ready for brunch. I asked the Google which yielded a place called LuLu's for brunch that we planned to hit before heading to the airport. I ordered the Chicken and Red Velvet Waffle and a Smokehouse Bloody Mary and it was EVERYTHING. I ate every last bite without hesitation.

Richmond - you were the best. From the great running trails, to the expo, to the marathon, to the people, to the food - YOU WIN. Richmond has my heart for 2016 - thank you for making me a marathoner. What an amazing journey, with the best ending possible. With that, I think I'll stop yammering on and just say, "Cheers Richmond, until next time!"

Swag pic!

Cheers!

Living in the Moment

2015-05-01T14:50:00.000-04:00

What's it been? 3 months? 4? Once again, I have become wrapped up in the business of day to day life, with little time for much else. I told O that I believe this is really, truly the first time in my 34 years here on Earth where I have existed solely in the moment. I do not think about past occurrences or about what may happen in the future (mostly). I have been living each moment as it comes, for what it is, with little thought of much else. This obviously has it's pros and cons and, for me at least, originated out of a survival mode as I became entrenched in my new job.

In the beginning there were days (or months?) where the overriding emotion in my life was overwhelmed. It is never easy to start anew, but I had an exceptionally difficult time adapting to my new environment. The only way to "survive" was to enter this short scenario frame of mind where I took my focus from the big picture into the focus of making it through each second, each hour, each day, each week. And somehow, nearly 1 year later, I write to you from a place of contentment and peace, albeit still insanely busy.

The journey of this job has been both a personal and professional growth experience fraught with landmines, "secrets and surprises" (as my friend Gary says), and - gasp - even joys. This is not to say that every aspect of my job has become simple. It hasn't. It won't. But overall, I am finding that all of the things I was seeking in a new job seem to be coming together over here. Co-worker friends (I am no longer on an island), Less Travel/Routine (well, maybe not that - but at least I am not driving everywhere?), Less Boredom/Challenge (Um, ya think?), A Company that Cares (great bonus, great 401K, great boss - check), Expanded Skill Set (150,000%), New Opportunities (Working at Lloyd's of London anyone?). You see where I am going. Once I stopped dwelling on all of the things that weren't working for me, I started to realize the benefits I was receiving. I had a really honest conversation with my boss back in December, which also helped me get to this place. He said some great things in that conversation but the two that stuck with me were:

You need to relax and stop trying to be perfect, you're doing fine
I hired you because you said you were comfortable with being uncomfortable (I did??) and because you were the best person for the job - you still are.

Anyone who knows me will tell you that when I say I am done with something, my mind is made up. I am done. No changing it. It has taken some time to get here, but I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks.

Even cooler? Being featured by College of Charleston Alumni Association. Read Here.

*Amazingly enough, I actually started this post not even knowing what I was going to write about. #deepthoughts

2014: Year In Review

2014-12-28T12:38:00.000-05:00

Well, folks. I have been a woefully neglectful blogger in 2014. This year was full of many changes for our little family and not only did the year just fly right by, but I was so overwhelmed much of the time that blogging was the last thing I had any energy for at the end of each day. From our tiny readership base, I'm sure you all know that we moved and started new jobs this year. We have been incredibly successful this year in work, love and life - but it was not always an easy path to walk. So...resolutions for the new year? Maybe. I'm not big on resolutions necessarily but there are some things I would like to accomplish in 2015.

Blog more (I know, I know...)
Be more balanced in fitness - Running is wonderful, but I need to diversify my fitness portfolio.
Focus on small house projects with big impacts
Actually invite people over to see the new house
International Travel (check - London and Ireland trips are booked!)
Try a new race distance at least once

That is sort of a sad list, but the truth is - it's just nice to be settled and enjoying it. I don't feel the need to cram a bunch of useless goals into a new year. My biggest hope for 2015 is to just slow it down and enjoy all of the hard work we have put in this year. That being said, let's take a look back at the defining moments of the year (at least according to iPhoto):

January 2014

For Sale. We put our little Helena home on the market and prepared for the big move back to ATL.

And .... A 10K PR

February 2014

Amazing trip to San Francisco to see our favorite cruise buddies!

March 2014

First Trail race - so a sort of PR. Bonus - got to run it with my big bro and make some great memories. Lil Sis + Big Bro Road Trip!

April 2014

We sold our house!

And found a new one!

May 2014

We moved in with Mom and Dad and spent lots of time here on the porch in May while we patiently waited for our new house to be done.

June 2014

We finally closed on the new house! By the way if you had asked me how long this whole process was I would have said at least 6 months. Based on these photos, we probably sold and bought in record time comparatively to the rest of the world. Perspective - wow.

July 2014

I quit my job. And got a new one. I had weeks off to unpack and chill out so I spent time with this beauty.

August 2014

A work trip to Boston and Keith Urban Concert were big highlights.

September 2014

Family beach trip! A highlight every year. Especially as these kids grow up. I cherish the time with them so much.

October 2014

Who could possibly forget camping in sub-freezing temps and wandering around Oktoberfest with a chicken on your head?

November 2014

Thanksgiving Half Marathon with my favorite twinkies. And ANOTHER race PR.

December 2014

Glass blowing ornaments in Chattanooga and Christmas festivities galore!

It was a fantastic year. We made it. We are settled. We adore spending so much more time with all of our beloved family members. And we sincerely hope that our prosperity continues into the upcoming year. Happy 2015 everyone!

Reality Check

2014-07-27T14:04:00.000-04:00

Well folks, I have survived two whole weeks back in the regular work force. There have been a few very tough days along the way. It's always hard to change jobs and enter an entirely new environment, but I really threw myself waaaaaay out of my comfort zone with this one. Don't get me wrong, it's exciting and new and different but the learning curve has been huge. It's an entirely different type of work than I was doing before and I have a lot to learn. Not least of all is brushing up on my math and Excel skills. I realized that I now need a calculator that calculates in the billions - yeah, iPhone doesn't go that high (I tried). Basically I came home everyday last week with a migraine from focusing SO HARD on absorbing everything. Poor Omar had to deal with more than one evening of me drip dropping alligator tears into my wine glass. I think the biggest stress of all is wanting to make an immediate good impression. This job is very visible and I know they are counting on me and, more than anything, I want to show them that they made the right choice in picking me. I also have zero patience for not being good at something immediately. Yeah, I need to work on that one.

Let's also talk about how for the first time in, oh, 10 years or so that I am actually working in an office everyday. Like waking up in the pre-dawn hours and joining the rest of Atlanta in the slow slog Southbound on GA-400. The commute has probably been the easiest part so far though. I really don't mind the drive. In the morning, it gives me time to wake up and prepare my mind for the day ahead. I also enjoy listening to the Bert Show, which always makes me laugh and lightens my mood. On the way home, the commute is actually pretty great for winding down. I roll down my windows, turn up the music, eat a granola bar snack and zone out my brain a bit. Half the battle is mental preparation for the traffic and trek ahead. I've found that if I approach it with the wake up / wind down mentality that things are much more pleasant.

Everyone at the new office seems very nice and welcoming. Several people have checked in on me daily as I get settled in and my next door cubicle neighbor is very sweet and has really helped me out with a few things - including which cafeteria is the good one and which one to avoid. They are a fun bunch with summer parties and happy hours already planned and they were quick to make sure I was included as well. The only tough part about the office is getting used to working around people again! At home, I was isolated and able to focus 100% on getting the job done. There is a lot more miscellaneous noise and chatter in the office environment. This week I finally instituted the use of headphones. I hope they don't portray rudeness, but I just have to tune out the tapping pencils, typing keyboards, phone conversations, and the singing and snacking of my neighbors. But really, people get things done in this environment? Yikes. The headphones have been a lifesaver. And some good jams always help to pass the time as well.

The other big adjustment has been the food / working out / home life situation. I guess I never realized how much housework I got done during the day when I would work from home. It was easy to unload the dishwasher, put up a load of clothes, or sweep the floors on a 10 minute break from the computer. I was also pretty much a champ at getting dinner squared away on most nights. This week our house sort of looked like an atomic bomb went off and our food situation was nearing desperation. But neither O nor myself has much energy left to muster up at the end of the day. Which made me realize that our life is now going to require focused preparation and planning if we want to continue to eat healthy and have time for things we enjoy. And can I just say, how in the HELL do working parents get all of this shit done AND have time to spend with their kids? It is beyond me. Which brings me then to working out / running - of which I have done ZERO in the past two weeks. I know one thing for sure - it ain't happening after work. Insert some more preparation and planning. As much as I would love to sleep a little later and come home and sit on my arse every evening, I really do believe that working out is an essential stress reliever and is vitally important in the big picture. In the little picture, I'm working on how to stuff that into the frame as well. I've been completely routine-less lately.

I think we made some good steps this weekend on the preparation and routine thing. We spent a couple of hours cleaning up our hot mess house from the week, bought tons of groceries, planned menus, visited Lifetime Sandy Springs about upgrading our membership (since it's closer to work), washed all the clothes, bought a Roomba to do the daily vacuuming for us, and I'm currently hunting a housekeeper for the bigger cleaning jobs around the house. I feel like I now know what it will take for me to get everything in and I just need to be intentional about planning and having things ready so when things get hectic we don't fall into bad food, fitness or cleanliness choices.

I know, from all of the bellyaching above you would never believe that I have, in fact, been a productive member of the workforce for over a decade. It's just been that in all of that time, I have really never had a "normal" schedule. I have traveled and worked from home for most of my career. It is different now, so I'm sorry if I need one hot minute to adjust!

As with all things, adjustment takes time I suppose. So if you need me, I will be here penciling in every part of my day from here until the zombie apocalypse.

The Hobby Lobby debate....I'm sorry I just have to

2014-07-03T09:30:00.000-04:00

It's quite rare that I have such a strong political/social opinion on things. I feel like I am a super moderate person and I can usually put myself in the shoes of both sides. And I can here too - sort of. I mean, I get it. I even applaud the Green family for standing up for what they believe in. Hobby Lobby does pay their employees better than most and they do still provide coverage for most birth control options. I think anyone should have a hard time arguing that Hobby Lobby is a "bad" company. They aren't. However, I feel like this case is much bigger and wide spread than just Hobby Lobby. I don't even care about the birth control debate or all of the crazy women's lib people yakking their heads of about women's rights - blah, blah, blah. I think if you take the subject matter out of the debate and apply the decision to ANY subject for ANY closely held company, things get a little scary. Justice Ginsberg said it best:

“And where is the stopping point to the ‘let the government pay’ alternative? Suppose an employer’s sincerely held religious belief is offended by health coverage of vaccines, or paying the minimum wage or according women equal pay for substantially similar work. Does it rank as a less restrictive alternative to require the government to provide the money or benefit to which the employer has a religion-based objection?”

Where does it end? What if this was a Muslim run company? Would we still be yelling so loudly about religious freedom? What if this was a company run by Jehovah's Witness and your child desperately needed a blood transfusion, but due to "closely held religious beliefs" cost-sharing coverage was not provided for the procedure? I don't even think $14/hr could afford that. (And, make no mistake, there are women who medically need IUD's.)

What's good for the goose must be good for the gander, right? This case sets a dangerous precedent wherein ANYTHING could be hung on the hat of religious belief. Yes, one of our most cherished rights in this great country is freedom of religion. But that also means freedom from religion. People shouldn't be forced to choose another (possibly lower paying) job because they don't agree with a company's religious views. I mean, isn't that the point of America? You are free to have your own view and your own belief system so as long as it isn't forced upon others?

Adventures in Eating Cleaner

2014-06-29T13:23:00.000-04:00

Since I have a good two weeks of thumb twiddling left. I thought there is no time like when you actually have time to try something new. Since I both have the time to grocery shop and to experimentally cook some things, I picked up a Clean Eating magazine and decided to go to town. I would love to nail down some easy, go to favorites for when my schedule takes a turn for the real (i.e. the first time in 10 years I've had a normal 9-5 job at an actual office in an actual cube). Also we bought a Nissan Leaf so I now feel obligated to be one with the earth.

Part of the down side to my prior job was always being on the road. More often than not, I would find myself in some Podunk town in East BFE middle of nowhere and I would be starving. Sometimes the only thing in town would be a McDonalds or other grand fast food establishment. And while I tried to always make a somewhat reasonable choice at these places, I don't think anything helps as much as just making another choice entirely. Now, if I was queen of time and organization, I suppose I could have packed my own cooler of goodies. But since we live in the real world where I would be stretched for time (always) and needed something quick and on the go, I became a fast food eater. It's really pretty miraculous that I didn't wind up weighing 50 pounds more over time. I guess I will just attribute that to the amount of running / exercise keeping most of the major pounds at bay.

I'm pretty excited about not having to always eat out and I feel like I'm doing a science experiment on myself to see how the change in food really affects me. Some things this side project this is not:

1. A dreaded diet. Diets don't work. Neither does food group elimination. The older I get the more I realize I do not want to waste my life in diet land. I love running and being active and I want to learn to fuel my body better not less.

2. All encompassing. Sure, there are people who go vegan, vegetarian, etc. and never go back. They become rabid veggie eaters with no exceptions. That person is not me. I am seeking to increase my overall average of clean vs. crappy foods. Does that mean I will never enjoy a big pile of biscuits and gravy again? Uh, no. I probably will next Saturday after my long run. And that's ok!

These are a couple of the things I tried this week. One turned out great and the other tasted great but was a ridiculous amount of steps.

I started with this recipe I found online. I love chickpeas and I always wanted to find a way to make an actual meal out of them. Anything involving 10 ingredients or less and a crock pot usually catches my attention. Super Easy Chickpea, Brown Rice and Broccoli - she had me at "super easy." And it really was - as most crock pot meals are. I basically dumped a bunch of things in a pot and let it go. The bonus to this recipe is also that it is fast by crock pot standards - only 3 hours to done. This one turned out fantastic and I would totally sub this for traditional broccoli and cheese casserole at a holiday event. It was just as cheesy and delicious. I may have used a tad more cheese than advised - sue me.

Step One: Dump it all in

Step Two: Cook it up. Done.

Step Three: Eat!

The next recipe I tried was for Cheesy (yeah, I like cheese) Chicken and Kale Quesadillas. It's on page 86 of the new Clean Eating magazine. I couldn't find a link online, which is probably all the better. If you really have a lot of time, this recipe was pretty tasty. If you are a normal working person, it took me about an hour to do everything. I used 4 cutting boards, a couple of mixing bowls three pots and a lot of other kitchen tools to get all the "fresh" ingredients chopped up and cooked. Oh, and it also involved a homemade guacamole. It's a good thing O was taking a nap, because I was busy destroying the kitchen. I would never see myself coming home from a long day at work and spending an hour doing all of this. Maybe if I prepped the day before or something. I don't know. It was good, it was just very involved.

Sooooo much chopping of all the things.

Decent looking guacamole.

Boil chicken

Sauteeing all the things together....

Finally time to eat!

It's a start! There will be more trial and error experiments I feel sure. I do feel great eating all the fresh, natural ingredients. I feel like I am doing my body a favor in the nutrient department. I hope to at least find a few things that are easy, that O will eat and that will work well as quick left-overs too. So, if you need me, I will probably be destroying my brand new kitchen. If you have any easy, clean eats you love send them my way!

Where I catch you up on the last 3 months of my life....

2014-06-23T21:43:00.001-04:00

Wow. So my last blog post was a race recap? Eeek. I knew I hadn't blogged in awhile, but I had honestly not even logged in to look. The truth is that I just could not find the energy to blog about everything life has ushered our way lately. So many HUGE things seem to have been happening that they probably all deserve their own dedicated blog but, frankly, you'd all be bored to tears and I would have carpal tunnel by the time I wrote it all down. So, here is the somewhat more brief version of happenings.

1. We sold our Helena, AL house on April 7. Not without some drama including crazy cash buyers and the Great Helena Flood of 2014. I couldn't have been more relieved to cash that check when it was all over.

2. We moved in with Ma and Pa Holcombe. I had planned on about 6 weeks and we ended up there for 9 weeks. Not a terrible overage considering that buying a house was seemingly more difficult than selling one. For the entire time we kept the cats with us and Ripley was boarded with with our regular boarding place in Montevallo, AL. Those sweet people are angels here on earth and I could not have been more thankful for them. Aside from having limited possessions, I thought boomeranging was pretty seamless. I really enjoyed the extra time spent seeing my parents and front porch chats (and wine). It felt a little like a tiny vacation. If you have to boomerang, we really could not have a better set of parents to boomerang back to. Cue more extreme gratefulness for even having this option. We are very thankful for all of the help we received during this time.

3. We bought a house (finally)! After being beat out for a few offers on resales we decided to take a look at the new construction in Woodmont again. We really lucked out that the day we drove by, we discovered a house with everything we wanted and no contract on it. It was about 60 days out from completion and we practically ran to the sales office to tell them we wanted it. The downside was that we couldn't pick a lot of things since it was pretty far along in construction, but honestly I did not even care. It had all of the major checklist items: big kitchen, wooded lot / yard, HUGE master suite, semi-far apart neighbors, cul de sac, great floor plan, awesome basement potential and slightly more than 2 car garage. I can also probably run about 10 miles in this ginormous neighborhood - pretty excited about that! We have already enjoyed being close enough to family to drop in or have dinner anytime, which we love. We also loved when all of the same said family members dropped in on moving day over here with lunch, dinner and various other eats and drinks which kept us going.

4. And because right when you are in the middle of buying a house and moving, getting a new job also seems like a good idea. No? Well, I came across a position with another insurance company that seemed really interesting to me and so I threw my name in the proverbial hat. The process moved really quickly and one week I was an applicant and about 5 weeks later I was getting offered the job. I am SUPER excited about the opportunity. It will be less travel for me and a different side of the insurance industry altogether, which will be great for me. I resigned from my job on Friday and, as expected, it was not easy. I really did love all of the people I worked with, but I was just bored and unhappy. I also didn't see any place for my career to go in the long term. It was just feeling like a good time to move on. When I was offered the job, it seemed like total confirmation of the direction I should be going in. I gave two weeks notice but the company elected to cut me off immediately. I kind of figured they would. I was really fine. It did, however, mean that we had to acquire another car pretty quickly - like this weekend (which is a whole other story). I don't start the new job until July 14 so I have three weeks to be a stay at home wife and get this new house in order. I'm pretty excited about it actually. Omar is already giving me honey-do lists - I think he is excited as well. I'm quite sure after three weeks I will be bored stiff though and more than ready to head back to work. For now, we are just going to roll with it and pretend unemployment is fun.

5. Running has suffered a little over the past two weeks. But, hey, now that I have all this free time on my hands I should be able to get it back together. I was in a pretty good routine again before moving blew up my life. I'm ready to get it back. I have a few races planned. The Peachtree is in a couple of weeks and it's time to get back in the shoes!

Now that all of the big things are out of the way (I hope!) I can focus on the little daily routine things getting back to normal. Doing things like, you know, blogging perhaps. You would like that wouldn't you?

MS50 Race Recap! 20K Version.

2014-03-04T20:50:00.000-05:00

So. From my bajillion Facebook posts over the past few days, I'm sure you have gathered that my brother and I ran some kind of insane trail race this past weekend. That is a fact jack. I have officially been inducted into the trail racing family (most definitely not the trail racing hall of fame). It all started a few months back when several Resolute Running team members began chattering about signing up for the Carl Touchstone Memorial Mississippi 50 Trail Race in Laurel, Mississippi. I, being extremely susceptible to peer pressure, thought this would be a good mid-winter goal race to keep me training. And, bonus, my brother decided he wanted to sign up for the 50K to have a winter goal as well. I was super excited to have a fun adventure with my brother. Life is busy for both of us and it is rare that we do anything with just the two of us.

If I'm being perfectly honest, my training has definitely suffered this winter. I haven't been a total waste of space but I haven't been very consistent either. Typically having a race on my calendar keeps me pretty honest but something about the cold days, erratic weather and business around selling our house just had me super overwhelmed about getting things in. Actually overwhelmed is putting it nicely - I have downright hated running many a day this winter. (Or every day). But I digress.

Months turned to weeks, weeks turned to days and days turned to hours until race time. I sent a semi-panicky e-mail to Coach Alex early in the week confessing that I wasn't sure if I was ready and he assured me that it was only 12.5 miles and to just have some fun and not worry too much about the rest. After all, this race self advertises to be a "relatively easy course and a good first 20K/50K/50 miler with a course featuring soft dirt trails and pine needle paths" (straight from the horses mouth).

Friday rolled around and my crazy brother had been in DC for work and was flying back to ATL to drive to me in Birmingham and then we left together for Laurel, MS. I really don't even know how he did all of that in one day - I assured him he was bonkers about 700 times on the 2.5 hour drive. We stopped in Meridian at some super random pizza place he Yelped that was part of a Subway?? I was a little suspect at first, but the pizza was literally hand-tossed and, I thought, super delicious. We ate way too much as we laughed about where we were and what we were doing. We finally arrived at the hotel and promptly crashed with our alarms set for 4am to pick up some RR teammates to head for the forest bright and early. I, not surprisingly, barely slept. Curse of the race day nerves. I can't do it. I always toss and turn all night. Sigh.

The very dark, early morning drive out into the middle of the Desoto National Forest was a bit unnerving. There is nothing - and I mean nothing - out there. Except probably bears. And werewolves. Against all odds, we actually did successfully find the start, manage to park in the woods without hitting a tree and get all checked in. The 50K and 50 milers went off at 6am so I had two hours to kill until the 20K went off at 8am. I stood at the start and sent CWH off with a hug and a wave and then went back to the car to hang out. And by hang out I mean eat a Cliff bar and chug a Red Bull. Oh, and take picture of the very beautiful empty forest at first light.

Around 7:45 I ambled over to the start line where I met up with the other RR ladies who were running the 20K with me. Here is where the obligatory "We're so tough, we run trails" photo was taken.

From left to Right: Yours Truly, Amy, Carrie, Becca and Lara

Around this time some of the 50K and 50 mile runners were making their first loop and we noticed a disturbing trend: muddy shoes. And by muddy shoes I mean mud up to their knees. And I, in my infinite naivety, still thought "I'm sure most of that is avoidable." Ha. I decided not to take a change of socks - mostly because I couldn't figure out where to put them. It wouldn't have mattered.

Mile 1 was great - and fast for me - under 12 minutes. Around mile 2 I started to realize that, yes, there really is going to be mud. Lots of mud. I began by following the runners who were tip toeing their way around the worst parts but there was a traffic jam at every mud pit and it became tiresome and time consuming. It became evident that this was not going to work and so I said screw it and tried to make a pass and go straight through the mud. Except my shoe got sucked off. Sucked OFF people. Like shoeless in a pit of mud. Helpless. For a few frightening moments I wondered if I could even find my shoe again. Thankfully, I dug it out. I liken it to this memorable scene from The Neverending Story.

If you don't believe me about the mud, here is a picture of Carrie on the course (I can't believe I didn't take photos of this stuff!) Carrie looks thrilled, no?

This pic makes me laugh out loud every. time.

Aside from the mud pits there were also creek crossings. Yes, I said creek crossings. The deepest was maybe knee high and I got to where I kind of enjoyed those. At least my shoes got washed off and I got cooled off every now and then. Most of the course looked like this though. It's not that I minded getting dirty, I just was sorely unprepared to expend so much energy slogging through this stuff. Were people actually running through that? I guess so. After the first shoe incident though I was much more wary of trying to run through the unknown. I did my best to expeditiously navigate but basically it just really slowed me down and I tried to make up some time where I could on the service roads and "nice" trail.

Despite the challenges and my less than stellar winter training, I didn't really have many problems until mile 9. I just died. The gel didn't take. I was thirsty and accidentally grabbed HEED instead of water at the turnaround aid station. I can't say it was the HEED for sure, but about halfway through the out and back portion of the race my stomach had some pretty severe cramps and even when I was walking I just could not get a very good breath. Some days you got it and some days you don't I guess!

I can absolutely say that my favorite part of this race was sharing the course with some AMAZING runners. Everyone was so encouraging. Several RR people passed me on their 50K or 50 mile loops and really helped me along with their smiles and kind words. I can't even wrap my brain around running that course 2 or 3 times (!!!) like they were all doing. AH-Mazing people.

My least favorite part was never seeing my brother out on the course. I thought for sure he would loop me but he never did! He finished in the top 10. TOP 10. His first 50K - 32 miles in the mud and he absolutely KILLED it. But he did confess that it was the hardest thing he's ever done - Ironman included. That should give you some indication of the effort required to complete this race.

I was super happy to just finish. I'll just say that for my first trail run I was very proud. I know I could do it faster next time. I ended up finishing in 3:12ish. Considering that my half marathon PR is 2:45 I feel like I put forth a worthy effort for sure. It was all worth it for this.

I know I should wrap this up, but it's my blog and I'll say what I want to. I must add that I am continually shocked at what I am capable of doing. And not just this race. After my Las Vegas half marathon, I was so poorly trained that I could not walk for days. I have already, this week, put in a 4 mile recovery run and a 5 miler - with relative ease. It should also be noted that I have PR'd a half marathon, PR'd a 10K, run my first 15K and my first 20K all in the past 5 months. So while, yes, I have hated running at times, I'm so glad I have these moments to look back on. I sincerely could not have done it without the inspiration and training of Coach Alex and the great people of Resolute Running.

I encourage you all to step outside of your comfort zone, push past the moments of self-doubt, set aside the excuses we all have, and Just Do It (in the words of Nike)! Go out and do something you never thought you would, or could, and I promise you - that even if you fail - you will have made a great memory and learned how strong you really are.

The Controversial Olympics: My Thoughts

2014-02-05T20:57:00.001-05:00

The Olympics are my favorite. Really, I love them. I get super involved in all of the sappy stories and cry like a baby when one of them wins Gold and hears the National Anthem for the first time as an Olympian. I get goose bumps at the parade of nations. I genuinely adore what the Olympics stand for. It's a crying shame that these games are marred by the threat of terrorist activity and, frankly, the wacky views of Putin. From the mass genocide of stray dogs, to corruption, to gross hotel rooms, to vehement anti-gay sentiments, let's face it - Sochi maybe wasn't the best choice. Just saying, IOC, just saying.

But that is neither here nor there at this point because what's done is done and the Olympics are here and they are happening in Sochi. I have seen many people on Facebook and other media outlets expressing that they will boycott watching the games because of what Sochi stands for. I would like to offer these thoughts to boycotters. These are young American athletes fulfilling their biggest dreams in just a few days. Many athletes may never get to do this again. Many athletes have done it before and it could be their last time. But all athletes have sacrificed a lifetime of money, time, and family to be in Sochi. The athletes did not choose Sochi. The athletes do not necessarily agree with Russian politics and many have asked that their families stay behind in the US so as not to be endangered with the threat of terrorism.

Imagine working your whole life for this moment and not being able to have your family share it with you because of extremist whack jobs. Just, for one moment, imagine the disappointment. I would offer up that by boycotting the Olympics, you are adding to the disappointment for young American athletes, many of whom are already alone in Sochi.

I will not boycott watching the Olympics, because I support our American athletes. I will watch and cheer and cry and be proud of those who have accomplished what I never will. I think of the athletes as soldiers of sport. I may disagree with the war, but the soldiers deserve our support, respect and admiration (assuming they have clean drug tests of course).

Snowpocalypse 2014 Update

2014-01-30T20:18:00.000-05:00

There was quite a bit of excitement here in the South the past few days, no? I was much luckier (and happier) than like 99.9 % of the Birmingham/Atlanta metro area population because I was, thankfully, working from home this week with no scheduled appointments. O however, was working in Atlanta on Tuesday. Once I realized that it was really snowing hard and sticking here, I turned on the news. They had previously forecasted just a dusting that would be moved out of the area by lunch time.

It was about 10:30 here and 11:30 est when I started to obsessively call, text, and email Omar begging him to leave the office and head home. There were already reports of ice on GA-400 and accidents were starting to happen. It was clear this was not "just a dusting". O, unbeknownst to me, was at a lunch meeting and did not have his phone with him. I, of course, was envisioning him already on his way up 400 and involved in a car accident or something equally as traumatizing and so I just kept calling and calling and calling. Crickets. Finally I left a very sobby voicemail that was probably really hard to understand. I don't even really know what I said except for begging him to just tell me he was alive and if he was alive then to leave.

Finally my phone rang and I was so relieved to hear O's voice I could have melted into a puddle on my hardwood floors. O thinks he can manage any situation just fine so he nonchalantly says he's going to finish up a couple of things and leave. Meanwhile, I know from watching the live ATL stream and checking online, that hotels are already booked, traffic is already a nightmare and the bridge going to my parents house is already closed so I am like "No! You do not understand! You must leave and you cannot make it to my parents, I am texting Caroline for you right now!" I feel sure that O thought that I was overreacting but, alas, all of my insistence and investigative reporting skills did pay off. He was able to, finally, get to my friend Caroline's house (8 miles from his office) about 7 hours later. Which seems absurd, but after watching the news all night, his story of success was far more rare than common. As for me, I spent the better part of Tuesday in a state of apprehension about his well being and finally breathed a huge sigh of relief when my friend texted me a photo of his shoes with the caption, "Proof of Life." A big sigh of relief and a teary smile, I texted her my huge thanks and promptly poured a glass of wine.

Since we expected only a dusting (ha!) I still had not been to the store after being back for just 24 hours before this happened. I laugh at the bread and milk hoarders. Now, I laugh no more. I have basically eaten chicken nuggets and soup for 3 days at this point. Snowpocalypse has been an exercise in creativity and cleaning out the pantry and fridge. But, hey, I'm a survivalist and I am doing pretty well for myself. Other than the lack of human company we have been doing well for ourselves over here. Here, in pictures, is a summary of our snowed in-ness:

The beginning.

Winter Wonderland

Fun in the snow ... not so much.

That's better.

I built myself a fire. No man needed.

Watching movies and begging for popcorn.

Beautiful Sunset!

I hope you and yours are all safe, sound and warm as well!

For Sale.

2014-01-23T17:15:00.000-05:00

Well, readers, all of our hard work is (mostly) over. Our house is officially listed and we are well on our way to moving to Atlanta. Any readers with friends, family, folks moving to the Birmingham area please, please, please share our listing and help us get started on our move!

BUY ME!

21 Honeysuckle Road
Helena, AL 35080
$229,450

Hoka One Love

2014-01-15T18:38:00.002-05:00

Y'all. It's been a running revolution around here lately. Some of you know I've been seriously pondering a switch to the very expensive Hoka One One shoe. I mean it's like a car payment investment type shoe, which is why I have been holding off. They get rave reviews from trail runners and road runners alike, but I was wary to dive into such a pricey shoe. And, not for nothing, they are not anything special to look at either. Some of the models are more aesthetically pleasing than others, but in general they are pretty goofy looking. O calls them my space shoes.

Last weekend when we were out running errands, O asked me if I wanted to go check them out. I had some Christmas money to burn so I relented. We drove over to see the good people at Alabama Outdoors - the only authorized retailer here - to give them a whirl. The salespeople were super helpful and patient answering all 500 of my questions about the shoe and what I was looking for. I do mostly run on the road but I have been wanting to run more trails since my first trail run this summer, and I am also signed up for my first 20K Trail Race in Mississippi on March 1. I know there are benefits to having a road shoe and a trail shoe, but for the price I really wanted to use the Hoka to crossover for both and I was assured by the salesperson that many people do this and do it successfully with the Hoka. I tried on a few pairs and jogged a few hundred laps around the canoes in the store before deciding on the Hoka Stinson Trail shoe. They really felt amazing, but I have a pretty bad track record with shoes so I still felt a little nervous. I decided to just trust my gut and get them!

Here we are on the way home. I liked them so much I just wore them out of the store:

You wouldn't know from looking at them, but these shoes are mega light - no heavier than my Brooks. I am, however, about 2-3" taller but I wouldn't consider that a downside unless I take a branch to my head on the trails. I couldn't wait to try them out on my long run this past weekend and I wasn't disappointed! Despite a budding blister on my big toe around mile 8, it was still the most comfy 10 miles I've had in a long time. I apparently have blister prone feet anyway so I wouldn't attribute that to this shoe - they are a touch large so I think tightening up the laces and lubing up my toe will work for future runs.

If I thought these shoes were great on the road, I had no clue how amazing they would be on the trail. Since I'm signed up for this trail race, I have started trying to get in some trail practice on my longer weekly run. Also, I have just plain been dreading that long weekly run on the road lately. The trail makes things a bit more interesting.

I am a complete trail newbie so this has been a bit of trial and error. Last week I hit the White Trail at Oak Mountain State Park and failed to realize that there is a, mostly, vertical climb to the highest point in the park on this trail. Whoops. Needless to say, I dejectedly called it quits at 1.5 miles in, afraid that if I went any farther that I wouldn't make it out before sunset. My 6 mile plan quickly became 3 miles. I was disappointed and a little frightened that I really had no business being out on the trails. Also, I did that run pre-Hoka in my Brooks. I don't know if I was just tired or have very bad foot placement or what but I kept turning my ankles on every. single. thing. out there. And believe me when I tell you that I could have run a marathon for how sore I was after that run. Yikes.

Today was a totally different story. First, I was armed with the knowledge of an easier trail in the park. Second, I was armed with my super marshmallowy shoes. It was a completely different experience. Hoka's tag line is "Time to Fly" and now I understand why! Ok, so I wasn't setting any land speed records out there, but I sure felt like I was! Instead of every little thing jarring my body, I really felt like I could throw my whole weight into this shoe and bounce right back. I did still have to take a few hike breaks but every time I picked running back up I felt like squealing "Wheeeee!" as I pounced through the woods. Boingy, Boingy, Boingy, Wheeeee!

Hoka One Love!

Beautiful Single Track Scenery!

I feel like a completely different person after running in these today. I added 2 miles to my trail outing and all with fewer aches and pains a LOT more fun. As an added bonus, and for your viewing pleasure, here are a few more photos of the shoes styled by yours truly in none other than my bathroom:

Time to Fly!

Zero Gravity Technology - AKA "Boingy Boingy-ness"

Killer Tread!

And just because I can't resist taking pictures of them on my feet:

Could I have FINALLY found the shoe for me?? For the price of a monthly car payment, I sure hope so!

Moving On. Moving Up.

2014-01-04T16:42:00.000-05:00

Moving is both sad and wonderful. One the one hand you are forced to re-examine your whole life before it gets packed away in boxes and on the other hand it's a great way to start fresh and new. For the past week or so, O and I have been neck deep in preparing for our move. It has been both exhausting and satisfying. We spent all day in the basement one day and were able to narrow down about 7 boxes of "stuff" into 2 boxes. O and I both have pack-rat tendencies. Mine have been slowly decreasing throughout the years, but I still see things and get a touch of the "Oh that has sentimental value, who the hell knows what I'll do with it, but I must keep it" syndrome. O gets the "Oh that is a nail, tool, screw, cord, I might need that one day" syndrome. I joked that we were playing hoarders. You know - where every item gets labeled: keep, trash, or donate.

I'm proud of us both this week. It has been easier than ever to let go of things that we have both been carting around for nearly 7 years together. I'm not sure why I haven't felt as emotionally attached to "things" lately. Maybe I just have everything I already want and need and de-cluttering the miscellaneous from my life has been refreshingly simple. Don't get me wrong, there are things I have come across - like my old guitar - that I can't just give away or sell. No, I don't play anymore but I feel like I owe it to that part of my life to find it a fitting home. Or, the headband I wore at my wedding. You can't just throw those things out. They are memories. A part of you. Something you would give/show your kids (or nieces...should you choose to have no kids). The task for those items is finding them a place. This presents a much larger challenge than finding the trash can. For the time being we went and bought some rubber containers and anything that got labeled "memory" got placed into one of those. We managed to condense our "memories" down to one bin. Eventually, O will build me a hope chest and perhaps one day I'll find a real place for those things, but for now I'm just content enough that they are contained.

Today's project was the closet. Well, my project. O has been outside slaving away at making our plant beds have better "curb appeal". We have a punch list of items that we need to do before listing the house. Since the septic disaster our plant beds essentially look like land mines went off in there. O is installing a stone border and then we are loading it full of mulch. First impressions are everything.

But, I digress.

The closet. This is another area where I have historically struggled in letting go. You know how it is. Thoughts like this take over: Well, I might wear that one day...I might lose 10 more pounds and that could fit again...I wore that for a special occasion that I really want to remember but I will never wear said thing again...I have nothing else to wear, better hang on to that in case...and so on and so forth. Typically I try for the rule that if I haven't worn it the past year it is a goner. Sometimes I get creative though and hang on to things. And that's what they are - things, just things. So today I just freed my mind of emotional attachments, hopes and memories and started chucking clothes on the floor. Don't wear it? Out. Doesn't fit? Out. Where did that come from? Out. Didn't I wear that in college? Out. I mean, check out this pile.

Mount "Donate this Shit"

I mean seriously. I am 32 years old and have a real job. I should stop holding on to the sports bra I hate because all the other ones may be dirty and I may have to wear it sometime. Really? No. How about I just go buy a new one I like? How about the running shorts that I hate but hold onto because one day I'm miraculously going to pull them out of the drawer and they got longer? No. How about I just go buy ones I like? I'm pretty proud of this pile. Lots of letting go in there.

I will admit that knowing myself and my sentimental tendencies I did allow for a "t-shirt quilt" pile of shirts that have memories of events or places. Shirts I don't wear anymore, but can't imagine getting rid of. Mom promises me she is going to make me one. Someday. Mom, are you reading this?? These are coming your way!

These have earned a nice retirement party.

I didn't just stop with the clothes. I decided that there are plenty of shoes that are taking up too much useless space as well. Hooker heels I thought I would actually wear in Las Vegas? Out. Brooks Pure Cadence running shoes I hated to begin with and haven't worn in 2 years? Out.

I really thought I would wear those hooker heels?!

Someone at Goodwill is going to be very happy with this donation. AG jeans that don't fit anymore. A sparkly LBD. What more could you want? Well, I actually want less - so this works out well for both parties.

Anyway, the closet kind of still doesn't look like I made a dent. But I do feel better. Cleaner. Happier. And ready to move on to the next project! We are both moving on. And I am moving up. As in, upgrading my wardrobe. Eventually. Everyone has to start somewhere, right?

2013: A Year in Review

2014-01-01T14:13:00.000-05:00

Cheers readers! Another year has passed and here we all are on New Year's Day nursing hangovers, making goals and reflecting on the year's happenings. I have been absent from the blog for some time (once again!) and I hope that I will find more time in 2014 to keep writing (start writing?). I know my last blog appearance left you hanging and probably wondering if we ever returned from Spain.

The truth is, so many wonderful things happened on that trip, I just couldn't keep up with writing them all down. We also lost wifi the day our cruise left and that was pretty much the death of my travel blog idea. It really was a missed opportunity on the writing front, but I did thoroughly enjoy being completely disconnected from the world and living in each moment with new friends in new places. We are so absorbed in technology these days, that we forget to stop and take in the moments happening all around us each day. Life is slowly passing us by as we scroll through our Facebook news feeds, upload to Instagram and Google life's every little question. I'm just a guilty as the next guy. It's nice to take a big time out once in a while to have a real conversation, see a sunset outside the filter of the i-Phone, and bury your nose in a real book. There are many stories to tell from that trip, but for today I will keep with the New Year theme.

I love i-Photo because it separates all of your photos by date. It was fun scrolling back through this morning and re-living 2013. Here are some of the highlights of the year:

JANUARY 2013

It snowed in Alabama! Anyone remember that? I didn't until I found this picture.

FEBRUARY 2013

After 3 years, I finally got a new company car. The 'Bu has been wonderful and has kept me safe all year long. We've spent 31,000 miles together thus far...

MARCH 2013

I turned 32. Got a great bonus. Bought myself my favorite new toy in the Mac Air and....I became a first time gun owner.

APRIL 2013

I ran the Color Run with my family and got inspired to start running again. Then when the Boston Marathon was bombed I was even more inspired to become a bigger part of the running community. I made the best decision of the year by joining Resolute Running and getting a running Coach. I am fitter, faster and happier than ever this year (despite my current holiday dip in activity).

MAY 2013

We made a last minute decision to pack up the car, invite some friends and tow our boat over to my grandmother's lake house in Smith's Station, AL. We "camped" because there was no furniture and we had a blast with long sunny days on the lake and easy conversations over beers at night. And, since my Dad has decided to sell the house, I'm even more happy that I got one more chance to re-live my childhood and enjoy this view:

JUNE 2013

I spent a lot of time running and training for the Peachtree Road Race. There is not much notable about this month based on my photo log. But I can tell you that I got tendinitis in my foot and spent most of June in a funk over being injured and freaking out about running my first Peachtree. Here is where I spent most of my time in the June humidity:

JULY 2013

My first Peachtree Road Race! I was so excited to go to Atlanta and spend the weekend with Omar and enjoy my first big "race" of 2013 and my first 10K distance.

AUGUST 2013

I did my first trail run! Soaking wet, dirty, sweaty and gross and I loved every minute of it. So much so that I am signed up for a Trail Race in 2014. Better hit the trails soon though or it's going to sneak up on me!

SEPTEMBER 2013

The annual family beach trip! One of my favorite times of the year! I love getting to spend time with my family and, particularly, my nieces. Life is short and moments are precious. I love building memories that will last a lifetime.

OCTOBER 2013

My comeback half marathon! Omar and I enjoyed a trip up to Chattanooga for the 4 Bridges Half. I loved the course, I loved the city and I especially enjoyed smashing my old PR by 15 minutes.

NOVEMBER 2013

The trip of a lifetime. Omar and I enjoyed running through the streets of Spain, eating too much, meeting new friends and floating on a boat for 16 days.

DECEMBER 2013

A wonderful Christmas and New Year's spent with family and friends. Omar also accepted and job in Atlanta so I have been too busy with planning our next move to upload any photos from this month, but I will leave you with a couple of Omar's favorites. We had a blast in 2013 and we know that 2014 will bring new challenges, new friends and new adventures for us to experience together. I hope to keep writing, keep running and keep traveling. Don't forget to put down your technology every now and then and have moments like these:

Welcome 2014!!

Day Two - Adventures in Running and Eating

2013-10-30T16:33:00.000-04:00

I knew that I wanted to book a running tour of Barcelona before we got here but, as per usual, I dilly dallied and waited until the last minute. I wanted to do the sunrise 10K around the city on Wednesday thinking that Tuesday would be too soon after arriving, but the Wednesday morning tour time was taken up. Omar and I discussed it and just decided that we would suck it up and get up early on Tuesday. I thought this may be a bit challenging, what with jet lag and the nearly two liters of wine we downed at Casa Alfonso the night before. Before going to bed on Monday night we set an alarm on just about every device we have (which is like 20).

Surprisingly, Tuesday morning came around and we both popped out of bed pretty easily. Don't you just love quality wine that doesn't giving you a raging, day long headache? Phew. Our guide, Robin, met us outside out hotel at 7:15 and we did all of the standard introductions and off we went. Robin was clearly an elite runner. I mean, the guy runs all day for his job! He quit his job in Germany and started Go! Running Tours Barcelona when he moved here with his wife. In fact, he leads almost every tour himself. He's like the Forrest Gump of Barcelona.

Would you even believe that I forgot my Garmin!? Ugh. I really wanted to have some cool GPS data to share, but jet lag beat out brain cells. Robin was really fantastic. He ran at our pace (which looked like a nice lope/semi walk for him) and he was extremely knowledgeable about the route and all of the important "big" highlights of the city. In retrospect this was the perfect was to start our trip here. We got a broad overview of most of the barrios and discovered things we needed to come back for and things we could check off the list.

He also stopped several times to take the obligatory photos. He was very intuitive to when we seemed to be getting tired and he would stop and give us a lengthy explanation of something important or neat about Barcelona.

Sunrise over the Med!

Our running tour took us by the beach and the marina, the Old Town, Gothic and Born districts (my favorite!!). It was a wonderful way to see all of the highlights! Robin ran us back to our hotel entry and then gave us several recommendations on must-dos/eats in the area. Once he left, O and I picked up two big waters and a ham and cheese bocadillo from the little store below our apartment. It was the perfect breakfast to cap off a wonderful run (and cheap!). While I would have loved to have had the GPS data, I'm glad I wasn't tied to my watch for this experience. It was liberating and fun to just take in everything around us. If you are ever planning to visit Barcelona - please, please, please take advantage of this wonderful way to see the sights!

After we both showered and realized - oh, yeah we are really jet lagged - we both laid down for about a 3 hour "nap". Ooops. Feeling recharged though we set off again around 2 pm to find some lunch. We headed back towards the Born district, because we both fell in love with it while running through it. There we found a great Argentine restaurant, El Foro. We discovered here the wondrous thing that is the men del dia (menu of the day). Most restaurants around the area have one and it is the cheapest way to eat - you get a starter, main course, dessert and wine or beer inclusive. We both had a big churrasco style steak and papas fritas, which really hit the spot! Oh - and more wine of course!

We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening strolling the narrow and beautiful streets of the Born district. We loved the quaint streets, old buildings, and Spanish guitarists and musicians we came across along the way. We also visited a couple of museums and archaeological sites which were really cool!

Some how or another we wound up hungry again late in the evening and strolled into a fun tapas bar where tried a couple of weird things (like deep friend anchovies).

We wandered a bit more - right back to Casa Alfonso for some (more!) wine and snacks. I swear we are eating our way through Barcelona! But it is all small things and we snack mostly. Here we enjoyed another couple of carafes of vino, a glass of cava (champagne) and these tasty little chorizo sausages (I like to call them the lil smokies of Spain).

Finally, around 11 pm after too much food, wine and being on our feet, we retired back to our cozy home and called it a night! What a fantastic day!

Thanks for a great start to our trip in Spain, Robin!

Travel Adventures - Day One

2013-10-30T04:17:00.001-04:00

Well, my goal while traveling the next few weeks was to try, at minimum, to blog a few times about the experiences we are having over here. I thought it would be fun to have sort of a journal about the memories being made while we are immersed into another culture. Hopefully I will be able to keep it together! We have had an easy time thus far with having access to wifi. I'm not sure how that may go in the future.

Day one of this adventure began with waking up in Hilton Head Island early after a long night out celebrating our dear friends, Chris and Laura's, wedding. I figured if I was sufficiently exhausted that I may actually have a chance at sleeping on Sunday's long overnight flight to London. We drove back to my parents house to leave our car for three weeks and also did some last minute laundry since I, apparently, can't eat without getting things all over myself. We had planned on getting dropped at North Springs to take MARTA to the airport, but my parents decided that they would taxi us all the way down there. We had a great, yummy dinner at Manuel's Tavern on the way down and then we were off!

It was our first time getting to see Atlanta's new international terminal and we were really impressed! We checked in and breezed through security with no problems. I should also mention that despite several math equations between us and our scale at home, both of our bags were overweight...ooops. Thankfully, the very nice German woman checking us in took pity. She let us slide with no charge and we were very thankful! Airport scales are rigged.

Unfortunately, we we still squashed into coach seats for 7 hours. After being fortunate enough to have flown First Class from Germany last time, I think we are spoiled for life. In fact, O vowed to never again fly to Europe in coach after this trip. He said that even if we have to spend an extra six months saving, it's worth it. I am definitely inclined to agree! It's been 25 years since I last flew British Airways and I was 7 years old, so I had no real idea how they would be. It was fine for the most part, but I was really, really surprised at the volume of Indian nationals on our flight. British Airways even served chicken curry as the main dinner on the flight. And let me tell you, our stomachs did not enjoy any part of that dish. Gross. I'm pretty sure an airline should most definitely not make any attempt at a curry. Ever. I seriously wondered if I was bound for London or Mumbai.

My neighbor on the flight (I took the middle seat) was extremely helpful to us getting our backpacks placed in the overhead, but that was right about where things ended with our relationship. Things started going downhill big time when he started picking his nose and eating the findings. (O looked this up later and apparently it is a cultural thing?) I don't know, but I was having a really hard time dealing with the constant - and I mean constant - gold digging. If it is even possible, things got worse when he traded in digging in his nose for digging in his nether regions. The near hour long bugger mission was replaced by constant scratching of parts that should really not be itching like that. I elbowed O black and blue on that flight and when he finally caught on to what I was dealing with, he was also looking pretty green at the gills. We decided to hit the wine and hope for being able to pass out.

That was a nice idea, but my neighbor there then took to very loud snoring. I guess, all things considered, that was better than the digging and scratching, but I basically did not sleep. Go figure.

We arrived in London on time and had about a 6 hour layover. We decided not to chance leaving through customs to try to see something with only 6 hours to spare. We were also exhausted. We wandered around a bit since Heathrow is really like a giant mall. And we were able to grab a bite to eat at Gordon Ramsay's place, Plane Food, which was enjoyable, if not pricey. We then found some seats and entered what I would like to refer to as the Twilight Zone of this trip. Neither of us could keep our eyes open. We tried multiple different combos of positions to rest our heads - none were comfortable. We briefly contemplated forking out an absurd amount of Euros for one of those airport rooms where we could snooze. Eventually we hauled it over to the Starbucks for a big caffeine injection which took us through the next 4-ish hours of the layover. We also saw a pretty awesome rainbow (excuse my crappy photo).

Our flight to Barcelona was on time, but I can tell you that we both conked out during taxi and when I woke up, seemingly a very long time later, we were still taxiing. Woof. Due to the loooooong taxi, our short flight to Barcelona felt endless. Once again British Airways came through with a nice Indian wrap complete with Bombay paste. Nope, nope, nope. I took one bite of that thing and decided that was a no go. Why, British Airways, why?? Why not a turkey wrap?

Arriving in Barcelona was easy - thankfully. Our bags came fairly quickly and we figured out where and how to catch the Aerobus to Plaza Catalunya and for the low, low price of 5 euros per person. Once arriving at Plaza Catalunya there was some delirious confusion over which way to walk to the hotel. Hey - when you are awake for 36 hours, the unicorns are looking pretty good. We did, finally, figure it out. Ok. We asked the policia. And they very nicely told us. Once we figured it out, it was not a bad walk to our new home away from home: Violeta Boutique and it is everything I was hoping for and more. It is located in a a traditional old apartment building with marble floors and giant solid wood doors. And I fell in love instantly. Reception was quick and efficient and the poor guy dragged my overweight bag up 3 flights of stairs to our quaint, small room with an amazing shower, comfy bed and adorable private balcony. Also he gave us an wonder recommendation for a close place to grab some food.

Lucky for us, the Spaniards like to eat late. Arriving at 10:30 pm at a restaurant was no big deal. Our wonderful host at Violeta pointed us to a place about a block away called Casa Alfonso. It is lovely, off the beaten path, and they sell red wine by the liter at the low, low price of less than 10 euro. Say what?? We were really in heaven. O, of course, speaks fluent Spanish so we got the Catalan menu (they apparently think we know what we are doing!). This is the really hilarious part of this story. I ended up ordering a churrascco style steak and he ended up with what he thought (in his Puerto Rican Spanish) amounted to grilled pork. Nope. They definitely brought out a big old plate of pig's feet. The look on O's face was too classic. We were so hungry and I swear I thought he was going to die right then and there. What else would a good, easy going wife do, but switch plates with her husband? Luckily I am "whatever" enough to pretty much eat anything (especially after I have been subject to weird airline curry all day). And so I did. And in case you were wondering, the pig's feet were delicious! If not ridiculously fatty. Explain to me how the native Spanish speaker ends up with pig's feet. I have no idea. I saw O's Grinch heart grow three sizes last night though. His adoration rivaled his disgust as I washed down pig's feet with a liter of red wine. I think he was both in awe and in complete astonishment that I put that meal down. But hey, as I always like to say: "When in Rome, be a Roman!". There is no better way in this world than to dive in, with no prior knowledge, and experience what you can only experience with no plans or pre-conceived ideas.

When you travel you realize you are part of the human race. And when you allow yourself to experience travel fully, in true, un-edited technicolor, you become someone you never knew you could (or wanted) to be. Despite long days and weird travel neighbors, you become a part of the world community in a way that you never could before. And who could ask for more?

4 Bridges Half Marathon Race Recap!

2013-10-23T20:45:00.001-04:00

First, let me start by saying how much I LOVED this race. I think there were a lot of contributing factors to my adoration and I will try to highlight them all here without becoming to long winded (highly unlikely)!

When researching my next half earlier this year I needed something that not only fit into my crazy fall schedule, but that also would hopefully be a good "comeback" race for me. My criteria weren't very many, just that it was well supported, somewhat close by and a good PR candidate. I came across Chattanooga and it seemed to fit. As they say on their website blurb about the race: "The course is "fast" and would not be considered "hilly" for East Tennessee, but it would certainly not be considered flat." The only word my eyeballs went to was fast and I decided 4 Bridges would be the one. I'm not generally a fan of flat anyway. Some hills mix things up and give different muscles a chance to work throughout the run. Plus, here in Birmingham, my training runs are positively loaded with hills so I wasn't very worried about that.

So, back to the many reasons why I loved this race:

1. Preparation. I went into this race knowing that I had done everything Coach Alex had asked me to do. I skipped ZERO runs and ZERO speed work sessions. I did not make excuses on vacations or work trips. I worked through nutrition problems, many pair of shoes, terrible blisters and aches and pains throughout the past 6 months, but I never gave up. I just focused on each day as it came and didn't think much further than that. This truly allowed me to feel ready and, more importantly, excited! I felt no trepidation about completing 13.1 miles. Was I nervous? Of course. But once I was out there running my nerves just went away and I was really able to enjoy myself. This is the first half marathon I wasn't focused on just finishing - but finishing faster. And I felt comfortable with the plan that Coach Alex laid out for me. We decided that I was going to aim for 13:15 for the first 6 miles, 12:55-ish for 6-10, and 12:45 for the last 3.1. But he cut me a deal that if I finished in 2:45 that I could take a week off on the cruise. Here were my actual splits:

Obviously I took him very seriously at his promise to give me a week off. A wrong turn and a killer hill at mile 12 saw to it that I was exactly 25 seconds from hitting that goal. Boo. However, it was still a 15 minute PR. YAY!

2. The Weather: I obsessed all week about whether the cold front and showers moving in were going to hit on race day. I was happy it was moving through quicker than expected, except then I realized it was going to be 38 degrees at the start. I am all for cold weather running, but I started to think I needed one step up on my attire. I assumed that I could snag some arm warmers at the expo. Wrong. It was the tiniest expo I have ever been to. I was slightly disappointed that there was nothing to be found there, so Omar and I went on a little hunt around town. Nada. Nothing. Oh well. I knew I would warm up and didn't want to overdress so I just decided to wear my sweater to the start line and hand it to Omar. I only minimally froze for about 30 minutes before I warmed up. The rest of the race was PERFECT. I don't even think it hit 50 degrees. I was never hot. There was a tiny headwind on those bridges though...

Packet pick up! See the expo back there? Me neither.

Just freezing away!

3. The Course: I loved this course! Yes, there were some industrial areas, but there was a lot of beautiful running by the river and the views were spectacular from atop all of the bridges. Since I was running for time and not for fun, I didn't take very many photos, but I did get one snapped while running the first bridge as the sun was coming up. Gorgeous - this just put me in a happy mood. And, bonus, I was at mile 5 and feeling great.

Bridge 1 - Mile 5

Elevation Profile - Damn that mile 12 hill!

I am a "back of the pack" runner so another important course detail for me are the aid stations. This is not a huge race, so I wasn't sure how the resources would be. But I can tell you that each and every station I came to (about every 2 miles) was fantastic! They were full of volunteers, water, Powerade, gels, Skittles, Reece's Pieces, peanut butter crackers, etc. I got everything I needed at all the important moments. Omar managed to be high atop a bridge himself and got some fun shots of me running by:

4. The Finish! It was downhill and who doesn't love a good downhill finish?! Omar also got some great shots of me coming through the chute. This down hill helped me not to pass out while sprinting for the finish. Again, yay for downhills! Let's also talk about how much Danger Zone helped out (a lot).

5. The City: Omar and I had a blast really getting to see Chattanooga. I had been several times as a kid, but never really recently. We stayed at the Marriott downtown which was super nice. We had a great cabbie take us to the start line before dawn. We had an incredible dinner at The Public House - highly recommended! - we loved Warehouse Row, the decor, the service and the dessert! We also found out that Chattanooga recently got a Tupelo Honey Cafe and I knew as soon as I saw that we would be doing our post race dining here! We had a bit of a wait but it was worth it for the amazing biscuits and black raspberry jam and the best Bloody Mary I have had in a while:

As Alex said before the race - sometimes the stars just align and the day is truly yours out there. It was everything I wanted it to be and more.

I would offer only a couple of small "negative" observations about the race. If you like crowd support - this race is not for you. The spectators that were out were funny and friendly but they were very few and far between. I was alone a lot. If big expos are your thing - don't expect much here. It was very tiny. It did not hinder my race experience, I was just a little surprised. There were a couple of spots on the race where the course was not well marked. I, in fact, took a wrong turn. Omar said a pack of at least 40 runners came by him asking if he had seen other runners. The miles markers were waaaaaay off. Like maybe 1/3 of a mile off. I was constantly doing a little math in my head to try not to speed up to soon....or too late. Nothing major, just a few things that could be improved. I would most definitely run this one again.

My only BIG regret? There is no photo of Omar and I together on race day. Boo on that.

Otherwise, Great weekend! HUGE PR!! Happy smiles all around!

Big PR! Big Smile!

High Five from Chattanoga's Great Dane

Because I haven't blogged in a really long time and you probably think I don't blog anymore...

2013-10-05T14:46:00.000-04:00

Ok, so I know I have sinfully neglected this blog for way too long now. Isn't that like the worst thing you can do when you aspire to awesome readership and literary fame? Pretty much, but it can't be helped. I always know I am in a crazy spot when I can't think of even one topic that would be suitable for blogging. Normally, my day consists of endless things I think I could over-share about. In fact, my last blog post was August 18th - yikes. What has kept me so busy for practically two months you ask? Well, I'm not sure I can account for all of the nonsense, but I can tell you that most of my precious time has been eaten up by work travel. There has still been a lot of running and a very nice vacation thrown in the mix.

Fall is both my favorite time of year and the most hectic for us. We always take a pretty big vacation around our anniversary and this year we are fortunate enough to be headed to Barcelona in late October. I feel like I have been killing myself every month trying to be ahead of my year end work goals so I can take off for three weeks and enjoy myself. It's almost not worth it, truth be told. I love taking a big long trip - who doesn't love big long trips? But, I don't love all of the torture I put myself through for the entire year. I've already told O that next year I would like to take a bunch of smaller trips strategically placed throughout the year so that I don't, again, feel on the edge of sanity by the time Fall rolls around.

The family beach vacay was great in September. It was a little mini break that came at exactly the right moment (the one before O checked me into a loony bin). I wasn't sure how I was going to handle running on vacation. Seaside is great for getting some runs in, but I have a definite tendency to feel like when I am on vacation, that I am on vacation from everything (calories included). I must be a changed person because I managed to get in all of the big, important runs that week - 10, 3, 5 and 12 miles. I was also pleasantly surprised that each and every one of those runs were the best I have had in months. Maybe it was because it was flat, maybe because I didn't have 8,000 other things going on while trying to get in running - but I didn't care. It felt wonderful to just run and enjoy the scenery and not feel tired or in pain. Oh - and I didn't gain a single pound (but I don't really weigh that often so who knows).

Those vacation runs stand out to me as the time I feel like I really turned a corner as well. The next two weeks following vacation ramped up to the most mileage I have ever, ever run in preparation for my race on October 20th. The past two weeks felt so, so unbelievably strong. I have hit all of my mileage and all of my speed-work paces and I was thrilled to see an unofficial PR on my 13 miler last weekend. It makes me super excited about race day! It makes me hopeful for a really big PR. Fingers crossed.

If I can just make it through the next two weeks of back to back work trips, I will feel so much relief. I never take back to back trips - ever. Because it is utter misery. I get behind on everything, have to double up on the hours to stay on top of my reports and, in general, being away from home for that long is just not ideal. I have to find a way to do all of this work, do all of these runs and enjoy myself on race day. PS - that only leaves one more week for preparing my house/pets/etc. to be left for 3 weeks. Oh - I'd love to throw in that we are also going to 2 weddings in this time period also.

I ran a terrible 11 miler this morning, probably because I can't stop thinking about all that has to be accomplished in the next 21 days. Mind blown. The best I can do it take it one day at a time. I know one thing for sure - I really don't want to let the hectic state of my reality dictate my performance on race day. I am ready to run my best half marathon yet.

So anyway - sars I haven't been around much lately. Keep running folks! For the things you really love/care about/want: It's not about having time, it's about making time!

Alabama the Beautiful

2013-08-18T18:32:00.001-04:00

Two posts in two days? I know, it's like a Christmas miracle.

I've been posting a lot about running lately - mostly because it keeps me accountable, but also because I really love it. I really love a lot of things - like reading and wine and movies - but I almost never post about that sort of thing. So anyway, I thought I would take a break from the running commentary (get it?) and post about a few things I love about living here in Alabama.

I'm sure most of the country, maybe even the world, thinks of Alabama as a backwoods, unrefined, redneck kind of place. I mean, I do have a blue flame mailbox so I can see how that impression gets made. But there is so much more to this beautiful state. The longer I live here, the more I find to discover and love.

We have gorgeous Fall scenery and fall weather:

Great places to run:

A cool history in iron (basically, how Birmingham got put on the map at all) If you ever visit us you really must go to Sloss Furnaces - an amazing National Historic Landmark:

Sloss Furnaces

Small town festivals and tight knit communities:

Helena, AL Duck Races

Mountains make for seeing a gorgeous skyline:

Downtown Birmingham from Vulcan Park

Amazing sunrises over the hills:

The best boiled peanuts in the world. They have been roasting and boiling for over 100 years and this is a MUST visit for peanut lovers:

Photo courtesy of The Peanut Depot

Great food! Some of our favorites include:

Slice - delicious and unique pizza in downtown Birmingham.
Gianmarcos - authentic Italian.
The Depot - small town diner eats in an old rail station.
Tony's Hot Dogs - Family run. Best burgers in town.
Donut Joe's - These guys get up and starting baking them fresh at 3am. Family run. The best.
The Cajun Steamer - if you love N'awlins, you'll love this.
Al's - a great place to grab a gyro. (especially when hungover)
Backyard crawfish boils:

Farmer's markets! We love visiting Pepper Place.

Photo courtesy of Pepper Place

Incredible outdoor playgrounds:

We are only:

2.5 hours from Atlanta, GA (Braves, Falcons, Aquariums and Foodie heaven)
4 hours from beautiful 30-A beaches
3 hours from Nashville, TN

I could keep going, but you get the idea. We are no longer the Birmingham of the 1950's. We are a newer, modern, unique and fun Birmingham still with the Southern charm that drew us here. Get out there and explore your own cities. Fall in love. Have fun and share it with others!

TNT - My Foray into the Alabama Wild

2013-08-16T19:54:00.000-04:00

TNT - also known as Tuesday Night Trails - also known (by me) as Try Not to Trip. It is a weekly outing hosted here in Birmingham at Red Mountain Park by Alabama Outdoors which includes a lively frolic through the beautiful Alabama wilderness. I guess you could say I was, literally, baptized this past Tuesday when I set out to discover what trail running is really all about.

I have always loved being outside in the woods. It probably stems from childhood when there were no i-Phones, Facebook, or Amber Alerts and you - gasp! - actually had to go play outside. In the summer my mom essentially told us don't come back inside until you hear the dinner bell. Yes the dinner bell. You know, the iron triangle hanging from the front porch, can be heard for miles? What? You didn't have one? Anyway, we were schooled in what plants and what snakes to avoid and what to do if we ever encountered those things and then off we would go. I spent hours playing in the woods as a kid. I loved it. I still love it. Hence the intrigue of trail running I suppose.

There is not only a huge running community here in Birmingham, but there is also a huge trail running set of groupies. Trail running is like the new cool thing to do. Or maybe it always was - I'm not very up on those kinds of things. Regardless, I had been itching for a change of scenery and away from the monotonous and lonely road miles of late. This lead to me inquiring with my fellow Resolute Running teammate and blogger at All In Stride - Tanya - for some advice about trying out trail running. She introduced me to this little Tuesday night group and, sort of, twisted my arm into going. I told her that I was worried I wouldn't be able to keep up, that I didn't have the right shoes, etc. etc. (I'm really good at making excuses - if you haven't figured that out by now). She sort of pish-poshed all of that so I eventually agreed to come try it out. She promised me "No runner left behind!" and it's kind of hard to present an effective argument against that, right?

So Tuesday I, once again, found myself exiting right out of my comfort zone and into the unknown. It had sort of been raining on and off all day, but they were just pop up showers and I wasn't too worried about storms thwarting the plan. I was actually kind of hoping for some rain to quell the stifling heat and humidity we've had all summer. When I arrived and parked the bottom immediately fell out of the sky - typical of a true deep South thunderstorm. I still wasn't worried. I just waited it out for about 10 minutes until it let up and then set off for the sign in tent.

Ominous Clouds?

They have four groups that go out - Advanced, Intermediate 1, Intermediate 2, and the Fun Group. Can you guess which one I joined? Everyone signs up for their group primarily so that if you don't come back and cross your name off the list they know *roughly* where to look for your dead body, but I was still not too worried. Greg, the head of trail shenanigans, sends off the groups with a warning to get off the trail into a spot as low as possible to avoid lightning - but not so low so as to be caught in a flash flood. Even with that - I'm still not too worried.

The first 3/4 of a mile or so is on a gravel road back towards the trails. My GPS wasn't picking up and, frankly, I was not even looking at my watch. I was just trying to keep up. The pace was really too fast for me so I dropped back a bit knowing I would never hang for 4 miles at this rate. In case you were wondering when I would start to get worried, this is the point that happens. The torrential rain begins, my feet are unsteady on the gravel and I am running a 10:40 (at least that is what Tanya's Garmin said when I checked up on it later). Oh boy. I can barely keep a 10:40 on the track, much less in this nonsense. I told Tanya I was going to have to slow it down, but by the time we hit the trail we kind of had to anyway so I was grateful for that.

{By the way - I had grand plans to be documenting this whole trip in photos for you guys, but the rain made that impossible. As it was, my i-Phone was drowning in my pocket - I sure wasn't risking full on exposure to the elements. I can only present to you the less scenic (read: gross) pictures I have of the occasion - just wait}

The "trail" part of the trail is where I really started having a lot of fun. It was flooded in a lot of places and there was a lot of aqua jogging involved. We hiked the hills - well, I sort of had too so I could breathe again - and the downhills were slippery and rocky and fun (a controlled fall as the trail folk call it). I enjoyed the challenge and I really felt like I was pretty decent and steady on my feet. I'm sure an epic fall is inevitable, but miraculously it did not occur on this outing. I don't know if it is because the paced slowed or I just started having more fun, but I feel like I settled into a pretty comfortable pace and could really enjoy the experience.

And it was an experience - let me tell you. About halfway in, maybe less, we were basically smack in the middle of a crazy thunderstorm with all the rain and thunder and lightning you could ever dream up. Call me crazy, but I loved every second of it. Well, ok, there was a crack or two of lightning that kind of made my hair stand up, but the only way out is through as the saying goes!

Here is the elevation profile of the run (minus about .75 miles or so):

It only took us about 50 minutes, which I thought was pretty respectable for a first-timer. Maybe not, but let's pretend it is anyway.

I could not have done it without two fantastic trail buddies who were encouraging, energetic and cheery in the midst of a literal shit storm. Mary Ann, another Resolute Running teammate, was also a trail newbie and it was great to have someone else to talk to and experience something new with. Tanya was an AWESOME guide with tons of great advice and experience. And she was true to her word and never left me behind. Thanks ladies!

Mary Ann, Tanya and I

Here is what it looked like at the end of the run. Yeah. We ran in that.

Can you see anything? I can't. Neither could my Garmin.

Here is what your socks look like after 4 miles in the mud:

They were white, I think.

And if you don't have trail shoes that drain, here is what your feet look like after 4 miles in the mud:{*Warning* look away now if you don't like feet, blisters or TMI in general}

At least my toes are painted?

It was awesome. I can't wait to go again! This is not to say that I didn't wake up at 2 am and pop 4 ibuprofen for my already bad back and all those random muscles I have never used before (there are muscles in your ankles??) Worth it? Totally.

Presumably not all trail runs are this eventful, but it sure makes a good story right?

There is Always Someone Faster...

2013-08-08T21:25:00.000-04:00

Since starting with Coach Alex and Resolute Running, the hardest thing for me to come to terms with is calling myself a "runner", especially since training with such an amazing group of people. These are the people who continuously win their age groups, complete ultra-marathons, and qualify for Boston. I am not that person. I may never become that person. But I'm slowly working on identifying myself as a runner - as part of the same family who wakes up before the sun, gives a friendly wave or a word of encouragement to a passerby, and nods knowingly at your labored breathing or grimace of pain.

The very best thing I have discovered about having a coach is that there is someone there to point things out about you (good or bad) that you may not see about yourself. Because when your husband, friend, parent, insert someone close to you does it all you want to do is rip their head off right? For instance, recently I was called out on calling myself slow. Apparently I did that a lot more than I realized. And while I am comfortable joking about my "turtle" status, I was reminded that others who are slower than even me (I know - they are out there) may, themselves, feel "double slow". Lord knows, I would never try to make someone feel bad about being a slow runner. It never even crossed my mind that what I said could be interpreted that way. Coach reminded me that there is always someone faster so, in effect, you are always going to be slower than someone. He told me to drop the adjective and to just be a runner - instead of a slow runner. I know - smart guy right?

I went further than that, though, and tried to examine why I refer to myself as slow and I talked to O about it as well. I determined after some self-examination that I think I have developed my self-deprecating humor as a defense mechanism. I guess everyone probably does. I come from a family of fast people and over-achievers. Ok - really one very fast person. My brother is an Ironman and held the mile record at my high school for as long as I can remember. As much as he has inspired my fitness, he has also intimidated me. It's as if by saying upfront "I am not that good, I am slow" - I ward off any comparison to others or expectation to be something I'm not sure I could be anyway. Then no one expects very much of you so, if you fail, it goes unnoticed. Deep huh...? So anyway, I am trying to identify myself as simply a runner, though I have found it far more challenging than I would have anticipated.

Another embarrassing example of this recently was this past weekend running the Woodstock 5K with the team. It would be a lot easier to never say any of this "out loud" but since we (you're with me right?) are on the road of self-discovery this blog would not be complete without another example of complete self-doubt and inequity creeping in. See paragraph one. These people are the real deal. They are fast. Their warm-up pace is my speed work pace. After the race nearly every one out there placed in their age group or got a PR. I didn't and I let it get inside my head. I let myself feel defeated and sorry and tired. Never mind that I just knocked 4 minutes off my last time, it wasn't enough. And on the heels of an already exhausting week at work I let myself go down the rabbit hole mentally.

I have a tendency to dive into everything, go 100 mph without stopping, and then smash head long into a brick wall exploding into a million pieces. For the past 3.5 months I have been motivated, determined and excited. This past weekend was the brick wall and I finally hit it in spectacular fashion. I was more tired than normal after Saturday's race (no doubt that was 50% mental) and I - *gasp* - skipped the remaining 3 miles of the weekend.

Monday rolled around and I had to drive to the Panhandle for work again. I was just feeling so, so tired and burnt out - with work, with running, you name it. Everything felt like a Herculean task and I felt like I may burst into tears at any moment. (O will tell you this is not all that strange - ha. I seriously cry about anything anyway - so maybe this wasn't all that odd after all.) However, the thought of putting on my running shoes and starting up on Monday just seemed impossible. Each time I considered it after arriving at the hotel, I just buried my face in the pillow and wished I could click my heels back home.

So I thought - well, hell - I have a coach right? Coaches give pep talks right? So, I shot Coach Alex a message and basically said "Dude, help." I am posting this response because I think everyone needs to hear this at some point. I know I did. I needed something, anything to get me to leave the pity party and join back up with the real world. Anytime this week I have felt myself getting tired or discouraged, I re-read this and sucked it up. And you know what? I survived and I may have even enjoyed putting on my running shoes again. Lesson learned.

So...here is his response (which he kindly gave permission for me to post to the public) and I will leave you with this to ponder for yourself and your own challenges.

So what's the issue? You don't want to run your race? Are you tired of improving yourself? Tired of turning yourself into am amazing runner and athlete? Tired of looking better in your clothes? Tired of having that sense of accomplishment after you complete a run?

Do you like feeling sorry for yourself? Do you enjoy how easy it is to be lazy and then that feeling of regret later when you didn't do your workout? Do you enjoy watching others run faster than you? Enjoy sitting on the sidelines while everyone else is having fun?

If the answer is yes, why bother with running. Go sit on the couch and get old with the rest of America.

If the answer is no, get off your ass and do the workouts! They won't get done on their own! 

The beginning of anything worth doing is hard, and make no mistake, you are in the beginning. But if you will stick with it the payoff will be truly amazing. 

THAT, is my promise to you.

Weekend Things...

2013-08-04T22:02:00.001-04:00

On heels of maybe the most hellish work week in awhile (not to mention the running schedule), all I really wanted to do was bury myself in fluffy blankets and sleep through the last three days. Of course, I am incapable of slowing down for even a nano second lately so this weekend was full of activities - naturally.

First up on Saturday I trekked out to Anniston with the Resolute Running Team for the Woodstock 5K. This is also the RRCA National Championship race - meaning there are some really fast mother truckers out there. Not the least of whom are 100% of the people that I was there with. We were entered in the co-ed team competition where the top 5 fastest scores are averaged from each team to determine the winner. Though I had absolutely no part in contributing to the top times, it was still great to be on the winning team. If you know me at all, you know I am also gung-ho about signing up for everything and then the closer the day is to arriving, the more I want to back out of things. I am trying to get better at that - I think I am getting better at that. Waking up at 4am on a Saturday should be a sign that I am turning a corner, maybe?

I had an ok race. It was hot and I was really, really tired form a long week at work and sore from Friday's personal training session. The course had more hills than I thought it would, and I let my already tired body and mind convince me to walk a couple of times. I know. I don't know what happened. Regardless, I still shaved 4 minutes off my last 5K time. Even better than that, I was able to keep the goal pace set for me, which is basically an accomplishment all it's own for me these days. On a better day, with a less tired body I may have had a PR. Here is a look at what #1 looks like:

Bunch of goofballs. Very fast goofballs.

I was back home by about 10:30 and walked in to find O taping off the stairwell and prepping it for paint. Oh boy. When we first bought this house, we knew we would have some small projects on our hands. Admittedly, the stairs have been neglected for two years. Whoever lived here previously either had a destructive and disgusting child or was destructive and disgusting themselves. But you know how it is - time passes, big projects take priority and the barely lived in upstairs step-child remains neglected. O said he walked upstairs that morning and decided he just couldn't take it anymore and so, today, we are painting. I really, really, really need to mentally prepare for these types of projects. I am a terrible painter - meaning, I hate painting. Needless to say, I was not the happiest camper about this unplanned Saturday plan.

We trekked to Home Depot for paint and supplies and I knew things would be done faster if I pitched in. Not to mention how guilty I would feel just sitting there reading my book while O slaved away in the hallway. It was on, and I was in. We were actually able to get things done pretty quickly, and semi-neatly. The major success of the day was that O did not die or break his face falling off the crazy stair ladder he bought to reach the impossibly high ceilings. By about 4pm though I was cashed in, done. The week had taken it's toll on both my mind and my body and all I wanted to do was get off my aching feet and drink a beer. Here is sort of a look at the finished product:

In addition, Sunday lunch took us fortuitously by World Market. I love going in to browse, but I'll be damned if they don't try to make me leave with something every time. We saw a great desk on sale for under $200 and, with a shared look between O and I, we agreed it was going home with us. The other step-child has been the "cat room" / my "office". It's basically the place where everything landed that kind of sort of didn't have a home. It always looks like a disaster and it is not the least bit appealing to work in. I generally work from my reclining chair - which I'm sure is fantastic for the lower back and hip problems I already have. I really, really, really need to be sitting in a real chair with good posture when I work from home. I am already wrecked from spending countless hours in the car traveling. Also unplanned, we ended up cleaning this whole room and setting up a real workspace with a real desk and a real chair. I promised O that he would find me here everyday from here on out working - with good posture no less:

In a sort of brilliant, last minute idea we also set him up a "man" space in the giant closet of the guest room/game room. He has lots of computer "toys" and things that I didn't really want cluttering my new zen space. I think he likes it because while I was setting up a few last things, I found him blasting music from his new hidey-hole:

So, this week/weekend officially kicked my ass in an unexpected and productive way. I'm nowhere near ready to be taking off for work this week, but I'm hoping that I can at least be rejuvenated. Only 5 more weeks until beach vacay. But who's counting?

Is it Fall Yet? And other ramblings.

2013-07-18T15:50:00.000-04:00

Who in their right mind wishes away the warm, long, lazy dog days of summer? The answer? Runners do. As July begins to fade into August, I generally have two things very much on my mind these days: our family beach vacay in September and a longing for that first crisp morning run that signifies that Fall has arrived. I guess those two kind of don't really go together if you think about it, but in my mind they are both signs that Fall has arrived.

I love hitting the beach in September after schools are back in. Granted, the week we go is Fall break for many but the beach always seems so much less crowded. Like our own personal blue water, white sand haven of relaxation. As you may recall from past posts, I typically wind up with the task of finding a beach house for all 14-ish of us down in Seaside. I always think the house I have found will be perfect, but I am always nervous we will arrive and it will be a total disaster. It hasn't ever happened, but it doesn't stop me from worrying that I will ruin the family vacation somehow!

I adore going to Seaside in general, but the best part is the amazing 30-A running paths (Wait, that's a lie - the best part is the Meltdown on 30-A...). Last year I only went out for one run but I was in a far less dedicated state than I currently am. Plus, I had no races and no coach to prompt me to get my lazy ass out of the bed on vacation. This year I am actually looking forward to some good long runs around town. I mean, I have to burn off the beer somehow right? Last year between myself, my brother, O and The Single Gal, we drank an absurd amount of Coors Light - like we were at the store everyday buying more - what? We always thought it would be plenty. It just never was. This year The Housewife will be able to join in the fun too since she isn't home to two mini-life forms. Not to mention at the time vacation rolls around, I will be a mere 4 weeks from the Chattanooga 4 Bridges Half-Marathon. Crunch time. Coors Light consumption and all - you will find me wearing out the pavement. Since joining Resolute Running, I have become accustomed to the sunrise hour. In fact, I have seen more sunrises in 12 weeks than I have in 32 years thus far. I think my body and mind are finally adjusting. Needing to run, in fact. So, no, it is not in the plan to miss even a single planned run or speed work during vacation. Hangovers be damned.

Which brings me back to Fall (again). Running in the summer is not my favorite. Not at all. But the payoff will hopefully reveal itself on race day October 20th when the morning dawns crisp and clear and I am suddenly transformed into a running beast. I have never been one to care much about time in races. My only goal was to finish and have fun. That is still the plan, but y'all - I am getting so much better. And for the first time ever, I feel like crushing my old half-marathon time is within reach. Well, it will be within reach if I can quit with the aches and pains and hobbling about of late. And for maybe the first time ever, I really, really, really want this.

It has been 12 weeks of aches, pains, travel, late nights, long days, lost skirts, new shoes, steroid packs, blood pressure meds, 100% humidity, Holiday weekends and hills. And somehow or another I have managed not to concoct one single excuse yet to miss a scheduled run. It has not been easy or fun sometimes. It has yielded doctor copays, equipment purchases, hours on ice, Epsom salt baths and, yes, even some tears of frustration and exhaustion. Even some moments of "Why am I even doing this?" Even some moments of "I give up." But I am still here. Still going. And constantly reminding myself of how far I have come so I don't think about how far I still have to go.

So, if you need me I will just be here longing away for a vacation and cool day to run!

Fall Day on the Helena Trail

Peachtree Road Race Re-Cap (hereinafter known as the longest blog ever)

2013-07-05T20:09:00.000-04:00

PRE-RACE

Whew! What a whirlwind two days O and and I have had in the great Peach State! As we sat in a tucked away booth at the infamous Flying Biscuit Cafe in Midtown this morning, O pointed out an interesting looking guy in a strange headscarf with his shirt half un-buttoned and I joked that we were Country-Mouse turned City-Mouse for two days. Because my family lives north of the city in suburbia and I basically grew up down the street from a cow pasture, O never really gets to experience the "city" side of Atlanta. I thought being in town for the race would give us a good opportunity to stay in the city and see and do some things he never gets to experience. I ended up with a great Priceline deal for the Renaissance Midtown and I thought it would be a more prudent choice to stay near to the finish rather than the start (yay for thinking ahead!). It was the perfect location for everything we wanted to do and - big bonus - complimentary wine hour from 5-6!

Before we finally made it to the hotel though, we first had to conquer I-20 in torrential rains. I drove over because I ended up having to look at a last minute house for work, plus the whole trip was kind of for me anyway - I mean if we are being honest right? At one point in my semi-hyperventilated and tearful state about not being able to see a thing on the road, I'm sure O wished he could just shove me out of the driver's seat. I'm really terrible in bad rain. And if you've read my Travel Blues post, you know I have an extreme fear of death or dismemberment from a car accident. What? I live in my car - give me a break.

At any rate - I needed a Xanax by the time we finally got to Atlanta. O kindly took over driving duty after we stopped for lunch and headed down to the GWCC for the expo and number pick up. I didn't think to have my number mailed to me so we had to go to the expo and do the whole dog and pony show. I don't always mind expos and sometimes you can get some good deals on other things you need too. I snagged a pair of actual running sunglasses that are much lighter than my Ray-Bans (and O can now stop hiding his Costas from me). I also got an armband for my phone. How I have made it this long carrying my i-phone while running without smashing it into a million pieces is really kind of a miracle. Number pick-up was well organized and a breeze. We were really in and out - shopping and all - in about 45 minutes or so. Success! Then I had the bright idea as we were meandering back to our parking garage that I needed to go ahead and buy my MARTA pass for the morning. I knew I didn't want to be trying to wait in line with 60,000 of my closest running friends to get train fare in the morning. That was a bit of a hike from where we were - and it was raining of course - but I was happy to go ahead and get it out of the way even though it is safe to say that we were completely waterlogged after all of it was said and done. (Have I said before that I married a saint? I did).

After a couple of confusing passes by the Renaissance with no obvious valet area we finally got it figured out, got checked in and promptly changed clothes to take full advantage of the free wine for an hour before dinner. Yes, yes, yes I know I said I was on a booze hiatus in preparation for race day. But, seriously, what is a race without a little fun? I was also insanely excited to stuff my face with pretzels and beer cheese dip at HOBNOB Tavern in Vinings - which I have been wanting to try. I also have a major thing for soft pretzels right now. I waited 32 years to get on that train and now it is sort of more like a train wreck. I can't stop eating them.

This blog should really be in two parts one about the race and one about the food, but I digress...

We had an amazing pre-race nosh at this cool, local little spot and - yes - I also enjoyed a tall, cold Georgia brewed Sweetwater Waterkeeper (ok, two of those). Sweetwater is a Georgia institution and the Waterkeeper Hef was AMAZING. I mean, God, so good. Thanks for the carbs brew folks! In addition to the beer and pretzel carbs, I also had a really tasty prosciutto and arugula pizza. I would say I definitely covered my carb bases Wednesday night. I was a little worried I may have overdone the whole eating thing, but it ended up working out because I think I was just so full and happy that I ended up sleeping great that night.

Before I move on to the race, here is a little photo collage I did of the "before" moments along the way (the top photo is the 4 designs up for official selection for the coveted Peachtree Road Race T-Shirt).

RACE DAY

Both in fear of not sleeping at all and over sleeping, I literally set three different alarms Wednesday night. I was really in a food coma - no lie. I set out everything I could potentially forget knowing that I would still awake and a streaming chorus of "Where is my...." would be flowing from my mouth anyway. It's me, it's inevitable. I am incapable of operating properly in high stress situations and early morning hours. I needed none of the alarms since I actually awoke about 30 minutes before any of them started going off (yay!). Here is where I tell you again that I married a saint. O, with minimal grumbling, smiled while I threw open the curtains to see how bad the weather looked, turned on the morning news and stumbled about in my getting ready frenzy. He even documented the occasion with a race day photo. After much fretting over how drenched I was going to be by the time I hauled myself to and from the MARTA station, O declared that I should just leave already. I scarfed down a Luna Bar and a coconut water and declared also that I should probably be on my way.

I was a little worried about doing the whole trek to the start by myself, hence my dilly dallying. Once I got to the street and started walking to MARTA, I realized that I needn't have worried. Plenty of other crazy people wrapped up in trash bags, ponchos and running gear were making the wet walk with me as well. No waiting in lines at MARTA (because my forethought did, indeed, payoff), the trains were packed but I got on the first one with no problem. Basically I just followed the human mass and wound up where I was supposed to. I probably walked 2 miles from the station to my start wave though. Can you say warm-up?

I will hand it to the Atlanta Track Club, this circus was incredibly organized. There were signs and volunteers everywhere. Volunteers handing out safety pins, water, checking numbers and the whole nine yards (is that a pun? I feel like it could be...). I found my wave with no problem and with really not all that much time to spare actually. I only walked with my wave for about 30 minutes before we got set off. I even got to see my old friend Erin - how she spotted me in that craze I will never know but it sure was nice to see a friendly face!

Running in general is a lonely endeavor for me. I feel like nearly no one runs my pace - I'm slow and I can rarely talk anyone into joining me for a race. It's one reason why I joined Resolute Running. Can I even remotely keep up with those people? Hell no. But it is incredibly nice to have a support system. And here I will vouch for how they ALL have the right to be running snobs since they are so darn fast and yet, incredibly, they are not. Like at all. And I'm so thankful that I feel encouraged to reach my own goals with no comparisons with them. Yes, my training got me to this race on this day - but it would not have happened without the plan, the support and the care of a coach and a team that really cares about YOU as a person. Love those guys (shout out if you are reading dudes!)

Ok sorry - race day. Rainy and wet. Cloudy and humid. Overall, it was actually a great morning to run. The rain was really nothing more than a steady drizzle at times and it served to keep me fairly cool along the way. Well, that may be a stretch. I was still tossing water on myself at every water stop. Humidity and the "wet blanket" air has a way of suffocating you regardless of temperature. I knew I wanted to go out slow and hit my first mile at about 12:30. My GPS seemed really wacked out. I don't know if it was the cloudy day messing with the sats but my pace was jumping all over the place and I decided I would just ignore it for at least a mile. It must have evened out at some point because things started to make a little more sense. I really planned to be very conservative the first 3-4 miles but I quickly picked up on the fact that there was basically like a two mile down hill stretch in the beginning and I decided that maybe I should be taking advantage of that and not worry about fighting the big hills later.

Kind of looks like the top of a Peach? Coincidence?

Turns out that seemed to be a pretty good plan. Although I must admit I felt like I was running faster in that down hill stretch. Weird. I guess it was deceiving. And since my longest run to date had only been 4 miles due to the injury, I wasn't really trying to kill myself early. Oddly, I had plenty of running room for a while. Oh, there was no shortage of dodging and weaving but I wound up sticking to the middle which seemed to pay off. Well it paid off for running but not experiencing the awesome spectator generosity. I missed the drunk guys throwing cheese puffs (my favorite) and I missed the other drunk people handing out beers and Lime-A-Ritas. I tried a nearly catastrophic swerve for the Lime-A-Rita, but I just couldn't make it. Damn.

I did enjoy getting the Holy Water Blessing (holy and cool - yay!), the USA speedos, dancing Chick-Fil-A cows and running through the hydrant sprayers. I planned to take one cup at each mile water station drink at least half and wear at least half and that played out well for the most part. I somehow totally missed mile two - guess I was in the "downhill" zone. I kept waiting and wondering about the mythic "Cardiac Hill" and when the crowd slowed down, I realized I must be upon it. Oddly, I didn't think it was that terrible and I ended up running the whole thing anyway and picking off lots of people. Me! Picking people off - wow! Guess running in Birmingham pays off on occasion! I did decide to walk through water stop/mile 4-5ish. Well, not the whole mile, but I gave it a good chunk of walking. I just felt like my heart rate was so high and that I should aim to get it back under control before my planned speed-work session at the end. I'm glad I did. I felt much more in control and ready to run again after that little break. Looking back - my time did not suffer as much as I would have anticipated and it certainly gave me the extra lungs to push through the end.

Taking that final turn on 10th street was awesome. The crowd was really big by this point and I felt like I still had plenty of energy. I'm completely impressed that I managed to run an - almost - entire negative split race. I must be learning something after all. There is nothing quite like approaching the finish line of a race! The cowbells, the screaming, the cameras and the smiles. It's everything you need to give it a good kick into high gear and ignore the fact that your heart may explode and/or you may vomit at any second. Adrenaline is a wonderful thing right?! I was, honestly, thrilled. I knew my goal time was close (I had hoped for 1:10-1:15) and I was at 1:15 on the nose. Given all of my trials and tribulations lately, I basically could not believe that I had such a great run. I never felt super crowded, my water plan worked out and I had plenty left in the gas tank - remarkably. I have, indeed, come a very long way. Thank you, thank you, thank you Coach Alex!

POST-RACE (it's really all about the food)

After finishing, I slogged through the muddiest mess Piedmont Park has probably ever seen to get the coveted finisher's t-shirt. Gross. God bless every single volunteer posted out there in rain boots handing out water, shirts and high fives. You are special, special people to us runners! I did pick up a bottle of water, but I really could not even handle the slip n' slide mud pit to navigate towards whatever else was being offered. I probably missed great snacks and music, etc. but I wanted to find O and take a shower and drink a beer and revel in the fact that I accomplished a goal. Ah, victory.

Finding O was a challenge. He couldn't get past spectator barricades in some spots and I was like a caged zoo animal in the park with no idea how to get out. Eventually we decided to just each keep walking down 10th on opposite sides until I could cross to meet up (a near death experience all it's own). We walked the mile or two back to the hotel and I'm sure the staff was horrified at the muddy state of my shoes, body, etc. I kind of looked like it was a Tough Mudder race and not the Peachtree and I was ravenous. We quickly showered and headed to an old favorite in the Virginia Highlands for lunch - Atkins Park. We had a delicious appetizer of boiled peanuts and Guinness dipped soft pretzels (I mean, come on) along with a big cold Fat Tire on draft. I killed the confit wings fried in duck fat and they were perfectly perfect - Cloud 9 perfection. We ended up deciding at lunch to go to the Cinebistro in Brookhaven for some more beer and a cold, dark movie - it was pouring again after all. It was a great, relaxing end to a perfect morning. We laughed out loud watching The Heat while sipping on Sweetwater and eating chocolate cake in the dark while the rain poured down outside. Can you imagine a more perfect mid-day date?

I wish I could tell you this is the end of this way too long story, but I can NOT leave out our amazing dinner at TWO Urban Licks. It was our first time and it has such incredible reviews that I couldn't wait to go. There are basically no words to describe the whole experience. We were greeted and sat promptly (with reservations) and our server took the time to explain each detail on the menu and offer some incredible selections. We opted to start with the smoked salmon potato chips and I know O was feeling a little worried about that choice but we both devoured them. I have NEVER seen O willingly pick up a large strange potato chip stacked with salmon and look like he was going to die and go to heaven. I could have eaten 45 of those things. O opted for the steak with chimichurri and I got the seared scallops on gouda grits - both were amazing choices and we both ate every. single. bite. We were going to bypass dessert, but suddenly it came out that we were celebrating a late anniversary (well, like two months late - that counts right?) and they comped us a dessert. How do you refuse free dessert?? We ended up with the English Toffee Bread Pudding and we polished that off as well. By then end of dinner and the day all I wanted to do was un-button my pants, sprawl in the cool hotel AC and die of happiness. I definitely run so that I can eat, but I'm pretty sure 6.2 miles does NOT add up to the 50,000 calories I consumed that day. But it was perfect. I will, most definitely, be going back to see the fine folks at TWO as soon as possible. In O's words, "If I saw Todd Stein (exec chef), I would hug him right now." It was definitely true love.

We saw nary a firework and could have cared less. I was asleep by 10 pm and completely stuffed and thankful for such a great trip, day and race. It was a truly wonderful weekend away with a pretty great race outcome. I have come a long way and I'm so excited to see what I can do next.

Now that you are officially blind and bored, I will sign off and leave you with good tidings of envy and joy. Happy 4th of July!

Claiming My Blog or Something Like That...

2013-06-30T10:27:00.002-04:00

Ok, what the hell is up with this Google Reader thing? My friends over at The Single Gal and the Housewife have me thinking I better do this too - you guys are too techy. How does this even work? What does this even mean? I just want to post and read and live my life.

But apparently since Google reader is dying we have to chose another "reader" option. I really have no idea how this is going to be affecting my blog, but what the heck. Apparently, you have to post this to claim your blog and import from Google Reader. So if you want to keep reading I guess find me here?