The race took place on the Cottonwood Valley Trails, near Blue Diamond, Nevada. This means it took me about 40 minutes to drive to the start line. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to find the start, but it was very obvious where things were going on. I pulled into the lot, got my race packet, used the nasty pit toilet and was ready to go with 15 minutes to spare!

The race was the Ride the Wind 100M/100K/50K/Marathon/Half Marathon/10K. Lots of distances. The ultra distances and marathon started at 6 and 6:30 AM. As the runners for the half and 10K lined up to listen to instructions, I noticed a little girl all dressed in pink.

When we lined up at the start, she was standing near me with her dad. I asked her how old she was and she told me she’s six. Can you believe that? 6-years-old and doing a technical trail run! Her dad then said that her 12-year-old brother was out doing the 100-miler. Uh… WHAT?!

We were sent off and started to run. The pre-race instructions told us the trails were very technical with lots of rocks and that was the truth. The first stretch I was starting to wonder why I thought this was a good idea, I kept rolling my ankles on loose rocks.

But after a while, we got to go downhill. And the trails even seemed a little clearer at times! Whew!

I got a little lost at one point. It wasn’t just me though, there was a good sized group of us that got lost. I figure I added nearly a mile to the race distance. Plus the official measured distance of the race wasn’t a traditional 6.2 like a 10K should be, but 6.67 miles or something like that. I’m totally okay with that too… it’s TRAILS! Glorious TRAILS!

I loved this race so much. It was really pretty out there, very exposed open desert but still stunning. We had great weather for the weekend, a sudden “cool-down” meant the race was 58 at the start and 69 when I was leaving to go home.

I wore:

• JackRabbit cap
• TheRUNiverse shirt
• Athleta Hana Run short
• Nabee compression socks
• Saucony Peregrine (seriously… I gotta get new trail shoes!)

I carried:

• CleanBottle Runner
• iFitness armband for my phone
• Island Boost

The race shirt is a tech-T, fairly simple. Not covered in sponsor logos and has the race logo on the front along with a photo on the back.

The medal was two-sided. Cool concept, it’s a little fuzzy visually though.

The gear bag was one of the nicer canvas drawstring bags I’ve received at a race. It has smaller pockets on the front and back that velcro shut. One even contained a poncho! We got a sample packet of Hammer Recoverite, a buff with the race logo on it, an On the Go towelette, a bottle opener, coupon for a discount at RecoFit and some literature from Hammer. I thought there was supposed to be something from Energy Bits in there too, but maybe I just missed getting that in my bag.

I really wish there was a bigger turnout for this race, it’s a great location. Granted, it’s BLM land so there can’t be a lot of people. But probably more than this. I hope they can continue to hold it!

My hubby has come down with (yet another) cold though, so we’ll see if I can actually go. It’s been a rough year for him, it seems like he’s had about 8000 colds this year and a few different stomach viruses.

Beyond that, my weekend will probably consist of the same-old-same-old; doing laundry, cleaning stuff, making menus for the week, going grocery shopping, making baby food puree… It’s weird that we look forward to weekends all week, but then spend it all doing a different kind of work. I don’t sleep in, I don’t spend much time outside during the summer, I don’t get to go to movies ever anymore… life is weird as you grow up. There’s gotta be a way to balance being a responsible adult and still having fun without working yourself into an early grave for a job, right?

Perhaps I’ll try to do a modification of this workout that I received from Tribesports:

This thing looks seriously tough. For example, I might be able to do a dead hang, but I couldn’t follow it up with pull-ups. Or I could hold the push-up position plank, but I doubt that I’d be able to follow it up with push-ups. But I’m sure I can do the chair hold and squats… my glutes are strong! What do you think, can you do this workout?

Today’s #BlogEveryDayInMay prompt: A favorite photo of yourself and why

Do I really need to explain why this is a favorite? I just find everything about this picture magical. I can’t look at it and find anything wrong with myself. All I see is love and happiness and accomplishment. I see beautiful red rocks in the background. I see a race environment. I see my sweet baby girl, obviously happy to see me. It’s just a rockin’ photo.

#BlogEveryDayInMay

Sigh… I almost decided I didn’t want to do this post. Today I’m feeling somewhat overwhelmed. Not as overwhelmed as yesterday. Last night I took the time to do a hatha yoga practice on YogaDownload.com and that helped immensely. I really need to find/make time to do yoga more regularly. I have a subscription to YogaDownload, so that’s to encourage myself to keep a yoga practice in my life. So the yoga last night helped, then this morning my boss canceled our 8am meeting and I literally jumped out of my desk chair and yelled “Woo hoo!” and took my lunch hour at 8am to go run; another thing that helped me feel better.

So I guess those reactions are things that kind of refer to difficulties in my life. Depression, anxiety and emotional distress… things that have all gotten worse the older I get.

As a kid I was very high-strung and things would stress me out so much I would get sick. In elementary we had to do timed times table tests (that’s a lot of T’s), even though I knew my times tables having a clock ticking terrified me. One time my dad’s truck rolled down the hill in the night (parking brake issue, I believe) and after it was repaired, for about a week I would wake up in the night and go look to make sure it hadn’t rolled away. Weird little things that a kid shouldn’t have to worry about caused me anxiety.

As I’ve gotten older it’s gone to a new level. I feel stress and anxiety over nearly everything in life. I can over-analyze a situation to death. For example, I am registered for a race this weekend. I spent hours with thoughts rattling around in my head about how stupid I was for signing up to do it. I started to talk to my husband last night, “I’m signed up for a race this weekend. It starts at 7 AM. It’s about 40 minutes away from home. So to get my packet and stuff before the race, I need to leave around 5:45 AM at the latest.”

“Okay.”

“But that means I will have to pump so you can feed the baby. I won’t be able to feed her her first meal of the day.”

“Okay.”

“And I hope I can be home in time for her next feeding, but I may be late for that.”

“Okay.”

Somehow these things become monumental issues in my brain and he doesn’t see them as issues at all. Hell, maybe he’s looking forward to spending a few hours with the baby. Even if he says stuff about how the baby has to sleep in because it’s the weekend and she can’t interrupt his sleep; which adds to my guilty feelings!

My work has been busy busy busy lately and that adds to my stress levels. Sometimes I feel like I spend so much time with multiple IM windows open answering a multitude of random questions from multiple people, I can’t focus anymore. So I’ll set my status to “Busy” so I can just focus on a single task for a while, yet that makes me feel guilty!

I used to go see a therapist regularly to help cope, but since having the baby I haven’t been to see her. Her office is too far away, on the opposite side of town. It takes nearly an hour to drive there, thus I’d be out about 3 hours just to chat with her for an hour. “Ain’t Nobody Got Time For that!”

I think trying to do yoga regularly will help me. Trying to remember to take deep breaths and relax might help. And the running equivalent of a Finding Nemo line…

#BlogEveryDayInMay

So here is my day yesterday… fairly representative of normal.

Wake up at 5:45. Wash my face, get dressed. Go downstairs, let Jade The Boxer out to do her business and feed her breakfast. While she’s eating, prepare the baby’s food for the day at school. Eat some breakfast myself while logging into my work computer, responding to a few emails, etc.

6:40ish: Go get the baby. She’s usually been awake for about 15 minutes, just playing in her crib. She’s always smiling and happy when she wakes up. I feed her, get her dressed for school and bring her downstairs.

7:00: Entertain the baby while trying to do some work until my hubby can take her to school around 7:15 to 7:30.

7:30-4:00 PM: Sit at my desk and work. I try to take periodic breaks to stand up and shake out.

I usually start the day with my “co-worker” Jimmy Fallon, listening to last night’s episode of Late Night. Telecommuting is pretty lonely, I tend to play TV or podcasts in the background. Most of the time I don’t even get anything out of them (the story or information) as much as I just get noise to keep me company.

Sometime mid-morning I eat a snack, usually a bar of some kind while at my desk. This is usually right after I’ve pumped for the first time of the day.

At about 1:00 remember that I need to eat some lunch. This day I decided to nuke a frozen meal. I had a few coupons for these meals from Evol. This one had good flavor, but the steak was chewy and rubbery. I wouldn’t get it again. But the ingredient list is impressive on this brand! I also have to pump again at this time.

Try to convince Jade to go outside to take care of business. When it gets hotter, she doesn’t like going out!

4:00: My work day is over. I used to work way too long, but now I’m eager to sign off the second the day is over so I can go pick up Alex.

When we get home, I nurse Alex and she usually dozes off for about 20 minutes on me.

5:00: Jade gets her dinner. She’s got an internal clock, always at 4:50-5:00 she goes and hovers near her bowl.

5:15: Make Alex a puree of some sort and feed it to her. I usually make big batches of fruit and veggie purees and keep them in the freezer. Then I choose a few of them to combine for her. Lately we’ve been eating them out of pouches. She likes that she kind of gets to control it and feed herself, but I still have to be careful else she’ll pick up the pouch, place it on her head and squeeze. I’ve been using the reusable pouches from the Squooshi brand.

5:45: Fortunately, tonight’s dinner menu was to get sandwiches from Subway. We had a buy-one-get-one coupon and I knew I was going running later in the evening, so that would be good fuel that wouldn’t bug my stomach too much.

6:00-7:00: Entertain and/or follow the active baby around the house, making sure she doesn’t pull DVD players on her head or eat cords. Try to type a blog post while keeping an eye on her.

7:00-7:50: Bath the baby, get her dressed in jammies and nurse her. She usually falls asleep on me during this feeding. I marvel at how sweet and beautiful she is before transferring her to the crib.

8:00-8:35: Quick evening run. Decided this was the only time I had to run now that it’s getting hot. It was still 89 degrees, but at least it was dark.

8:35-9:15: Do some prep work on the baby’s food for the next day, labeling it and getting some items out to defrost. Go take a shower and eat a post-run snack.

9:15-10:15: Watch TV with my hubby (this evening we watched Tosh.O) while I respond to a couple work emails and blog emails. Try to be in bed by 10, listen to a little bit of the news, usually up through the weather before falling asleep.

#BlogEveryDayInMay

Clean sheets and a made bed.

Most of the time, our bed is unmade. Well… my side of the bed is pulled up neatly and my husband’s side looks like it went through a tornado. He just doesn’t have the same appreciation for freshly washed sheets and getting into a bed that is neatly made as I do. But at least he gives me the luxury of being the first one into bed on the days when the sheets are all clean and the bed is made. Even better is we recently got new sheets. Freshly washed, brand new sheets with no frayed edges are awesome!

Running

I write a whole blog about it… I guess it’s pretty obvious that I enjoy running. I enjoy going to races and being around others too. I enjoy running with friends, but I haven’t done that in so long I’m not sure I really remember the activity.

Sushi

I love sushi. Not those weird crazy kind that are smothered in mayonaise based sauces. Those are gross. Just give me a simple roll with some vegetables in it, maybe some tuna or shrimp for good measure. Or a nice piece of nigiri. Yum…

Inbox zero

My inboxes are so rarely empty, but I love it when I can clear it out. Sometimes it makes me sad when I immediately get another email after emptying them out. It’s like tracking mud across freshly mopped floors.

Days off from work to do whatever I want all day

When I take a day off work and I can just sit around for a while… go on a run… clean out my inbox… go get a frozen yogurt… do some yoga… whatever, those days are kind of blissful.

Blogging, social media, etc.

I have been blogging since 2001. It has introduced me to so many people and I really enjoy it. Lately I feel like I’m getting so many requests to review products or to take guests posts, it’s starting to get overwhelming. I almost spend more time trying to sort through those than I get to spend on my blog. I’ve made friends through blogs and social media that are people I now treasure in my life. It’s pretty cool.

My family (parents, brother, in-laws, extended family…)

I’ve got good relatives. We used to do “Friday Night Loser’s” where my brother and I wanted to spend Friday nights hanging out with my parents, bringing in our significant others as we got older. Now we live too far apart and I don’t have any family here in Vegas. That would be nice, but it makes me appreciate seeing them all the more.

My dog

Jade the Boxer was so essential for me when she came into our lives. She helped me through a rough time of depression and she’s really such a loving dog. I feel bad that she is a little displaced since having the baby, but I guess that’s the natural order of things.

My baby girl

Alexis is the bright shiny spot in my life that I never knew I needed until she was here. Sure, she’s hard at times, but she’s also amazing and she fills my heart with more love than I ever knew was possible.

My husband

Kevin is the first guy I dated and didn’t get bored with after two weeks. After 4 years of dating and (nearly) 12 years of marriage… I’m still not bored with him. He makes me feel like I’m the most beautiful woman in the world, he makes me laugh and he works his ass off to take care of us. I’m grateful to his efforts every day, even when those efforts result in him swearing at a project in his shop or in the yard.

#BlogEveryDayInMay

Blog Readers: I’m sorry if I turned you off from commenting when I enabled Livefyre a few months ago. The lure of pulling in Facebook & Twitter discussions on posts was so appealing, but it never panned out the way I hoped and confused some in the process.

Mom: I’m sorry for snapping at you and being hormonal and angst-y during teenage years. I’m scared that my sweet baby girl will go through that someday, and I now recognize that once upon a time, I was also a “sweet baby girl.”

Baby Jill

Kevin: I’m sorry I can’t cook meals like you get when going out to eat on your employer’s dime. But I don’t have the time, skill or desire. I’m also sorry you hate your running program I made, but you asked for it and it’s so you can be with Alex and me for a long time! (And to balance eating at Hash House A Go Go so much without me!)

Chili Crusted Indiana Maple Leaf Farm Duck Breasts from Hash House A Go Go

Alex: I’m sorry that I spent my whole pregnancy terrified of your arrival and unaware how awesome you would be! I’m sorry I wipe your nose when it runs, even when I know how much you hate it. And I’m sorry for all the parenting mistakes I am bound to make over your life, I’m trying my best!

#BlogEveryDayInMay

I quickly ate a Larabar while getting dressed and lathering on sunblock. Around 6:30 I heard the baby waking up, so I went into her room to feed her, get her dressed and covered in sunblock. We loaded the BOB into the car and left the house about 7:15.

Alex started to cry in the car on the way there, which made me worry a little. But when I got her situated in the BOB, she was fine. She was very quiet and observant the whole morning, few smiles… just taking everything in.

She pulled the sunglasses off about 5 minutes after I put them on her. She much prefers chewing on Daddy’s sunglasses over wearing her own.

Before the race started, they had raffles; they had a pot of general raffles for all participants and then some mom-specific ones. My bib number was drawn in the mom-specific raffle for a bottle of wine. But that wouldn’t get much use in my household, so I told them to re-draw for that prize. The next prize was a massage certificate. They should have just given me that, right?

The race went well, it was at a park and was two laps around a water retention basin. I was originally registered for the 10K but decided to drop to the 5K since this was my first time taking the stroller to a race. I’m really glad I did that because it was warm, I was concerned about Alex out there. But she was good and even babbled a little in the stroller while we ran.

All finishers got a mug.

Moms also got a candle.

We hung out for a while to chat with friends and consume doughnuts from Pinkbox!

Chocolate cake doughnut with cocoa krispies!

We hung out for the awards ceremony, I was thinking I would get in a picture with Charlene but I was starting to push the limits of Alex’s tolerance. We were fast approaching her next feeding time and it was really warm out. So we bailed almost immediately after the awards. No… I didn’t win anything! Wasn’t expecting to, but it is a little bit of a bummer when someone asks you specifically what ribbon you got and you have to say “I didn’t.” I was happy with my performance pushing a stroller without my watch up until that question!

Addendum: I found out later in the evening that I was 4th in my AG with a time of 29:08. I’m happy with that!

Tech shirts were given to all participants with a cute little koala bear illustration.

I enjoyed the race and hope to do it each year. However, I don’t think I’m going to be doing another race with the stroller for a while. It’s just getting warmer now. Alex was so uncomfortable and she cried the whole drive home. She was hungry, hot and tired. I’m glad my husband was at home waiting for us so he could feed her some applesauce while I rinsed off in the shower really quickly before nursing her.

Today’s #BlogEveryDayInMay prompt: What do you miss? (a person, a thing, a place, a time of your life…)

I miss the carefree nature of my husband’s and my relationship post-college. We were dating at this time, but we went to movies frequently, late late showings that we couldn’t stay awake for now (nor would we have child care for them.) the last movie we went to was so long ago! Plus this was before the era of smartphones, so when we went out to eat we actually spoke to each other instead of playing Angry Birds or checking-in at locations or reading our email. As much as I love my iPhone, I do feel that in some ways the smartphones have made for a decline in human connections. I miss feeling like someone is paying attention to me and like I’m paying attention to someone else. We’re both too distracted now.

#BlogEveryDayInMay

I don’t care if you have children with two feet or four, if you have “children” you have mommy guilt.

Not only was I relying on someone else to watch my babies while I went out and did something that I wanted to do, but I also had to shell out the precious cash to do so.

My husband was the one who really pushed me to look past the money and the guilt, telling me the money was inconsequential – my well-being and physical fitness were more important. I resisted for a really long time

I realized that I needed that time away, especially when my husband was deployed or out of town with his job

You truly are a better mom when you take the time to exercise.

Oh boy… this is something I struggle with! I feel guilt if I want to take time for myself all the time. In fact, when my husband’s busy season wrapped up I told him that I wanted to run every Saturday morning on my own. And I did just that last Saturday… but this week, nope. I didn’t want to “burden” him with baby care so I loaded Alex into the stroller and took her out for 3 miles instead of the 6 I had originally planned.

Handprint craft made in Alex’s school for Mother’s Day

Part of that was due to being tired, we were both awake with her from 10:30 – 1:30 while she was sobbing last night. (Tears and wails of pain. She obviously didn’t feel well. It was rough.) But part of it was that my hubby looked so miserable for not having gotten much sleep. Did it matter that I was in that same boat? No… I take on all the burdens in the household! If someone is stressed, I’m stressed too.

After our run, Alex and I went grocery shopping. This is how she kept adjusting herself to sit in the cart. Chillaxin’ at the store.

Right now I’m struggling feeling okay with taking time for myself to run. I hate taking my “lunch hour” to run because I feel like that makes me a crappier employee. (Plus it will be increasingly harder to do that as it gets warmer and warmer. We’re supposed to hit 100 this week.) I hate going out to run in the evening hours because I feel like I should be spending quality time with my husband, although usually we just end up sitting on the couch watching TV while each of us are on our computers. Not super high-quality!

From what everyone tells me and what I keep reading, it’s important important important to take that. So in honor of Mother’s Day being tomorrow I am going to work on feeling okay about taking time for myself.

However, I really do want to spend my Mother’s Day with Kevin and Alex. I don’t even care if she comes into the bathroom with me at this point in life!

Today’s #BlogEveryDayInMay prompt: Sell yourself in 10 words or less

Um… that’s too hard. I really am not good at selling myself. One of the myriad reasons why I wouldn’t want to go looking for a new job! So if you know me personally or just know me from this site… help me out. What words should I use to “sell” myself!

#BlogEveryDayInMay

This one is hard for me! I get embarrassed very easily (which then makes me blush very easily too… and when I blush/flush I stay red for hours. It totally sucks!) but I think I block these moments from my memory. I’m seriously having trouble thinking of something to call my most embarrassing moment.

So here are things that have been kind of embarrassing in my life:

• In college I was talking to a guy when the elastic band in my skirt suddenly broke. The skirt’s waist then tripled in size and nearly fell down. I just grabbed the waist, excused myself and left. I was fortunate that I didn’t actually end up showing anything and I don’t think the guy ever caught on. (He was pretty dumb, he was in my Geology class. While he was super hot, he was also super dumb and it was really hard to have conversations with him.)
• I went to the movies with my friend and at the end I slipped and fell down the entire flight of aisle stairs. That’s not the embarrassing part, I was hurt too much to feel embarrassed. I ended up with a fractured coccyx (butt) and a giant bruise that covered my entire rear end. The embarrassing part came when I had to go back to the theater a few days later and fill out an incident report for their insurance. The manager filled out a questionnaire about what happened, part of it included a little diagram of a person and we were supposed to indicate with an X on the diagram where the injury was. I had to instruct him to draw an X over my butt. For some reason, that just felt really awkward and uncomfortable.
• I got pulled over for speeding in high school. During lunch break. Right in front of my high school. Everybody knew about it within about 30 minutes.

#BlogEveryDayInMay

Alright… I’m sharing two moments!

Clouds threatening rain on my morning “lunch hour” run.

Alex eating her quinoa, sweet potato and apple puree from a Squooshi pouch for the first time. (Reusable pouch – FTW!)

#BlogEveryDayInMay