all on a sunday

i'm sitting here, watching live updates of the xterra world championships and am about to pass out from the excitement and anticipation of it all. luna pro shonny vanlandingham had an amazing swim and was in the top 3 women into t1 (ok this turned out to not be true - continue). she will kill it on the bike for sure (this turned out to be very true!) and then what will happen on the run? omg, i am going to be glued to this computer until 3pm for sure. ugh. i am sad to not be at the race this year. this week at work was tough, not only because it was just a tough week, but last year I had spent it in maui getting ready to race. after nationals i was pretty burnt out and happy that i didn't have worlds to deal with, but after my week of doing NOTHING i was really kind of sad about not going. i am excited to see how everyone does, super excited for trish who i've been racing with all season - so exciting for all of them!!!

instead of almost 5hrs of xterra racing in tropical paradise today i did the UW Dawgdash in 50 degrees and torrential dowunpour. i did this race last in 2007 and the last stand alone 10k was in january of 2008 when i PR'ed at the Nookachamps Winter Run. i was also super lean back then, right now, not so much, gawddarn, spare tire and all.
after nationals and my 1 second improvement on my run from last year, I was kind of bummed about my whole running situation. granted i had some bad, run hammpering injuries this year that took me out for prolly 2 months of run training right in the middle of the season when i should have been killing it at the track, but still, i was pretty bummed. so decided that i'd start training for the seattle 1/2 marathon in november. i thought about doing it last year because i was so super fit after worlds, but then i realized, i was really tired and wanted to relax. which i did.
this year i found an online plan and have been trying to follow it. not to the letter, but am logging 25 or 26 miles per week and am having fun. i got some new running knickers and new shoes, too. yahoo!
so i shelled over the $105 to enter the dawg dash and the seattle 1/2 and then i was committed.
last night i had the first tsunami dream i'd had in a long long time. apparently i was stressed out. i knew i was a little nervous
(Xterra update - mile 4 of the bike my boy friend Dan Hugo is neck and neck with Conrad Stoltz for the lead!) but i think all the rain i could hear on the sky light all night must have been more powerful than the totally delicious margarita that eric made for me. 630 and the alarm went off. its been a long long time since i had to get up at 630.
and it was raining. :(
we got in the car and it was pouring cats and dogs. i was shivering, whole body convulsions as we walked to the stadium. best part of the race is the stadium start - warm, indoor bathrooms and plenty of them!!! i did a 5 minute warm up, stripped off some clothes and then headed down to the starting line.
i lined up in the 7-8minute range, got a little weepy during the national anthem and then we were off.
first mile was 7:12, omgosh, that was fast. 2nd mile i started thinking the margarita last night wasn't such a good idea, and wow, did i really drink that whole cup of coffee on the way over? wow look, porta potties all over the course - i could really go for one of those right now.
(xterra update - something happened, where is shonny? she is out of the top 5, unless they messed up)
mile 2 was 7:55 and we started heading back against the crowd, and then UP. it wasn't too long but it was sorta steep, and had a roller or two in it. common mistake for me - over dressing. tossed the gloves to the kids, wished i was in shorts. not terribly overdressed but a little on the warmer side of things.
mile 3 was 7:55, then stupid mile 4 which is all UP HILL or something. its terrible. the course weaves all around the UW campus and also weaves in and out of the 5k course. mile 4 was done in a whopping 8:41. mile 5 was better at 7:33 then not sure what the hell happened in mile 6 because it was 8:18 with the last .2 in 1:36, mile 6 was mostly downhill i thought? maybe its the double chin? i've seen this in my photos before, heel striking and putting on the brakes with my face, not attractive and not fast.
there was a lot of dodging around wet leaves, wet man (people?) hole covers and storm drains, and dont' forget about when the course weaved in and out of the 5k race and then all the dogs. for the most part all of that was ok, although i had to fight hard when we mixed with the 5k-ers to not slow down and go with the flow. overall unofficial time was 49:14 which is a PR, not quite what I had hopped for but, it was a really hard course. :) (wow! they have results up already even, 14 in 30-39 and 41 overall Fs. 49:14 is the official time, too!)
after, the sky opened up and the rain really started dumping.
we headed up past our old house to go to top pot donuts. the kids had THE BEST conversation in the car:
Seamus: hey look, its our old house.
Sirus: when we grow up we can live in that brick house again.
Seamus: yeah
Sirus: we can live there together when we get married.
Me: who are you going to marry?
Seamus: Sirus
Sirus: Seamus
Sirus: and we can get some children to live there with us.
Me: where are you going to get the children?
Seamus: from my belly
Sirus: yeah, because when you are a grown up girl you get babies in your belly.

good grief, as long as your brother doesn't put them in there i guess.

the top pot donuts were awesome!! sirus and eric both had pink rainbows, seamus had a chocolate rainbow and i had the pink feather boa! yum!

yesterday we headed to the pumpkin patch right down the road. i actually ran there and eric and the kids followed in the car.






Yeah!!! Xterra Update!! Shonny is in 2nd, 1:40 back, they must have messed up the last update. Boy friend Dan Hugo has fallen off the lead, but I am ok with that. I just hope he isn't too grumpy about it later. :)

ok, so they did mess up the first post after the swim, Shonny was not 3rd into t1, BUT she is totally KILLING it on the bike, in 2nd and gaining! Go Shonny GO!!!!