since i retired...

so seeing as i retired back in marchish, what better way to be retired than to do a bunch of things, ya know, like the hiking and the bare buns fun run, i also went did a few other races. 

like hood to coast!!  a bunch of my friends did it last year or the year before, not sure, but i wasn't able to commit since i was training and had other things going on and just couldn't.  but then kristine posted on the facebooks that her team was looking for some runners, so i said YES!!  so this was all fun and all except the whole part about i stopped training..  yikes.  i was still trying to run every once in a while, and what that actually meant was about once a week, maybe twice, and never more than 10 cumulative miles in a week.  so, i was a tit bit concerned how this whole 3 legs thing was going to work on such low volume.  but ya know what i decided i was going to be ok!  and why?  because back in april, thanks again to the facebooks, i joined a team for the Mt Si Relay. another race i had always wanted to do, but was never able to fit in.  for mt si, we each did two legs.  i was a pro.  i could handle hood to coast, no problem!

i met up with the rest of van 2 on friday morning and we headed down to our first hand off.  all the guys in the van were super cool and i really enjoyed them all.  most of them knew each other through work or many years of family vacations or whatever, but i only sorta knew one since he was kristine's husband.  i was runner #2 in our van, or #8 on the team.  i did legs 8, 20 and 32.  my first leg was listed as flat and easy.  that is bull shirt.  for being flat it sure had a ton of uphill.  it was hot but i was ok.  i was also encouraged because some dude on the side of the road told me i had text book running form.  i *think* that was a compliment?  i took it as one and went with it.  after our van finished our rotation, we boogied over to the next major transition, but not before stopping at the DQ for some frozen goodness, where we all turned in for an early sleep.  i curled up in the van and managed a few hours of sleep.  around midnight we got up and got ready for kelly to head out on his 2nd leg.  once he was off, we drove on up to the next hand off.  i was quite worried since my leg was listed as hard, almost 8 miles, all up hill, 1/2 on gravel road. and yeah, at 1am.  and THEN i re-read it and turns out it was not even 6 miles!!  this was like a gift from the heavens.  all of a sudden everything was going to be ok!! 

running in the dark was pretty fun.  the uphill wasn't that big of a deal, i think maybe since i couldn't see it, it didn't matter as much, i don't know.  the gravel road was dusty and with the headlamp on, the dust coming at me made me feel like i was in hyperdrive on the milenium falcon.  yep.  i also tucked my phone in my little pouch, with the speaker sticking out and played my music out loud.  i think that helped too.
there was a big traffic back up at the hand off, so dessie jumped out of the van as i was passing and ran to the hand off with me.  once we did the exchange, i headed back and got in the van.
there was a HUGE cluster when we got to the end of our rotation.  HUGE!  so huge that one of the best quotes of the entire weekend happened "wow, we have been sitting here for 3 Poison songs"  turned out we sat there for 22 poison songs!!  kudos to our amazing driver for staying on top of it.  when our last runner finished up, he back tracked the 1.5 miles to the van, we did a u turn and drove to the next major transition.  matt finally got the chance to sleep despite it being broad daylight, but he got in a few Zs!

 we each finished up our 3rd legs, mine was hotter than hades, i even threw up a little in my mouth after, and Mat brought it all in!  he got passed by the Nike1 team right at the finish, but he put in a super fast effort, the main collector of road kills for the team.  the whole weekend was a ton of fun.  i was happy to be part of the team, super grateful that they let me join them and super honored that they have invited me to be part of their ragnar team for next year!

AFTER hood to coast came Bike MS.  i did this for the first time last year, unless you call the MS 150 i did in high school.  but last year was so super fun that i HAD to do it again this year!  i didn't ride as many miles but i had fun, we raised a ton of money for MS and i got to spend some time with some of my favorite people.  what is crazy too is that i now have 7 people within my circle of friends who either had MS or have a direct relationship with someone with MS.  that is too many. riding in Bike MS is a small contribution, but one must hope that every little bit will help.

earlier in the summer when it was so nice out, i decided to go swimming in the lake.  aly had done a tri and was thinking about doing another one.  i was feeling like swimming and that is just crazy, but when the urge hits, i had to take it.  i was worried my wetsuit wouldn't fit, but thankfully i hadn't out grown it!  i swam once with janet, lauren and glen for just a tiny bit, and then twice with aly.  or maybe only once with aly, but i went to the lake with her twice.  and then once when eric and the kids were at the lake swimming themselves.  because i decided that this combined swimming effort of 7 minutes made me an awesome swimmer, i caved to peer pressure when aly suggested we do a tri.  i registered for a sprint and then i didn't ever get back in the lake.  hood to coast was my run training, bike ms was a bike training and i was going to rely on my wetsuit to get me through the swim.  the race turned out to be super fun.  the swim went well, the bike was not bad, but the run was terrible!  i walked the first 2 minutes and then every tiny bit that was even the slightest bit up hill.  regardless, i finished and i was 4th in my age group!  i decided i either need to just stop doing them or i need to do more.  

so next up was the Beat the Blerch 1/2 marathon.   !!!  i was so excited for this race!!  so excited!!

lookit!!  nancy and i got our photo with THE Matt Inman from The Oatmeal!!

 the race turned out to be terrible.  i was running how i felt and i felt pretty good for the first 4 miles and then i died.  omg, did i hit the wall?  did i not actually beat the blerch?   but what did work out in my favor was that i had switched to the 10k. 

 after i stood in line for like 2 hours to actually meet mathew inman for reals and he drew this totally fab cat drawling for fuzy and seamus mccat!!

last but not least, janet and i volunteered at the Seattle Brain Cancer Walk.  i first heard about the walk in 2012 when i did the Swedish Hospital Summer Fun 5k Run/Walk
it was my 2nd 5k after surgery, but i was talking to a few of the volunteers about how i had surgery and they told me about the Brain Cancer Walk.  this year i decided to volunteer for it and janet came with me.  we were course monitors which meant we stood at a corner by the start/finish and cheers and held a sign and answered questions.  it was so wonderful to see so many people out there walking!  but man, it also brought me to tears.  survivors and patients wore a special green shirt.  it was inspiring to see them out there.  but then there were the people who were walking in memory of their loved ones.  oh those made me cry.  and then the one that really made me cry was the young girl who walked through the start/finish into her mom's arms.  they stood there hugging for a long time before her mom helped her into her wheel chair, her dad tucked a blanket all around her, and i could see her 1 year survivor pin on her shirt.