My company does a thing similar to habitat for humanity but it's called rebuild together. I signed up to help! I don't like to paint so I did yard work. Nevermind that I borrowed a pair of Eric's pants and he was all like, you are going to need a belt for those pants and then I didn't because they for fine, but I spent the day raking, pulling weeds, clearing brush, all kinds of stuff. It was quite fun and I felt very productive. I was beat when I came home and all I could think was, yeah, prolly not the best choice in activities for like 2 days before my first 50k..
I had registered for this 50k because my exercise coordinator thought I should have a goal. I felt like I wAs being foolish but whatever. I was able to break the race into three legs, the first 10 miles from the start to the turn around, where Eric and the kids would meet me. I knew I could manage this.
Once at that turn around I could access how I was feeling and decide if I wanted to do the return 10 miles. A week or so earlier we had gone out to hike the first few miles of this return trip, so like miles 11-14 or so. On that hike I started to feel good so Eric suggested that I just do the whole 10 miles and they would pick me up at the other end. This turned out to be a great idea. So when I got to that turn around on race day I totally knew what to expect for those middle 10 miles.
The race was at a very popular hiking trail, but really only about miles 18-20 are the high traffic areas. I was able to navigate around the crowds pretty easily.
When I got to the bottom I saw Janet! She agreed to come out to run the last 7 miles with me. The joke was on her though because it was actually like 10 miles. It was a "flat" out and back on a gravel trail. I say "flat" because it was actually a slight downgrade on the way out but then uphill on the way back. We started with 10 min running 5 min walking but that quickly changed to 5 and 5 and then sun and shade.
I was pretty excited to cross the finish line and even more excited since it was like 90 minutes earlier than I expected!
I felt so good that I was able to drive myself home and even tho I laid in bed when I got home I wasn't able to fall asleep. That I assume had more to do with the fact that I had like 7 clif shots, most with caffiene. I was hopped up!
The next day I felt so good that Seamus and I went on a bike ride!!
Eric is a good guy! Someone posted on the community Facebook page that their cat had crawled through a hole in their bathroom and into the crawl space under their house. Eric, not knowing the cat or the people, volunteered, despite it being 90 degrees, to get under the house and try to get the cat out!!
Every year since we have moved out here we have gone to the 4th of July fireworks. I think only once was their rain. This year neither Eric nor I were very interested on going. The 4 mile round trip walk, the crowds, the whining kids... So we kind of did it half assed. We stayed up on the busy road, but it was still a great show and I'm glad we went!
Matt came to visit! Rememebr Matt from when we went to Ogden when Eric raced at nationals with my boyfriend dan Hugo and Lance Armstrong raced too?
Well, Matt met me for lunch downtown. While we were hanging out waiting for Shorty's to open, a bird flew by and took a giant shit which resulted in two plops right before me, one giant plop in my hair and then another one right after. Matt grabbed a twig and flicked it out of my hair. We then enjoyed Chicago style hotdogs at Shortys and I went back to work with bird shit remnants in my hair. Awesome. Waiting for the alleged good luck to make itself known.
Way back in like October I bought tickets to see One Direction. Janet and I were planning to take our daughters. When Janet told her daughter, she cried and said how Janet was the best mom ever. When I told my daughter she shrunk down under the covers of her bed, cowering in fear. She didn't want to do, even tho one of her BFFs was going to be there too. So I asked Sirus if he wanted to go. He hadn't ever been to a concert so I thot he might like to. He half heatedly said yes, he would go, but when I asked if he actually wanted to go, he said no, he just agreed because I asked him. So i asked Eric and he agreed to go with me!!
Then there was this one day when it was like Saturday and at dinner I asked Seamus if she wanted to run a 1/2 marathon with me the next morning and she said yes. I asked her to do things with me all the time and sometimes she will do them but lately she has said no. I try not to cry about it, but wow, I was super surprised she agreed. But also a little scared because it was 13 miles on the trail and all. But we woke up early and headed out to the race site. Got there about an hour early and got her all registered. They were all whoa! When I put her in for the 1/2!
The race started up hill. I think she was trying to act tough at first because she was just breathing out of her nose, I was like, girl you are going to pass out- breathe through your mouth!! But once we got to the top of the giant hill, it was great. We came up with a plan to run for 5 minutes and then walk for one. Sometimes we ran for longer intervals and we walked the uphills of they were long or too steep. Only twice did she ask to stop to walk other than our scheduled breaks and I am pretty sure her favorite part was finding the gummy bears at the aide stations. She did a great job staying hydrated and she stayed well fueled. At about mile 10, we were just running along with her behind me and all of a sudden I heard her declare "I am awesome!" My heart melted and I was so happy to hear her say that about herself! She is awesome! She also told me her plan for after the race when we got home: lunch, shower, video games. I don't think she has ever volunteered to take a shower!
When we got close to the finish and we could see the finish line I was so excited for her! She went straight for the pie, super happy to see they had pumpkin, her favorite and downed two pieces and a ton of water right away. Later, I layed in bed for 4 hours, but she showered, played games, ran errands with Eric and played with Sirus. Her quads were a little sore the next two days but then was as good as knew, even saying she'd like to do more with me!
Oh look! Tiny blister on my toe!!
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