Race

Race recap from Saturday:
I arrived about 30 minutes before the start – quite a long time to stand around when its 40 degrees and you’re not wearing a jacket or sweats! Brrr. I jogged around a bit and tried to keep limber. The gun went off at 7:30 – I felt great and ran my first mile in 8:25. At that point I thought about speeding up, since I was feeling good and not huffing and puffing as much as those around me, but I kept it reeled in since I thought the course got hillier as we went. I was wrong – it was nice and flat pretty much the whole route. I missed my second mile marker and looked down at my watch around 20 minutes in – hm. How far in am I? I thought I had kept pretty good pace. What to do? Do I speed up since I’m still feeling pretty fresh? I decided to keep my pace and kick it in when I saw we were getting close. Unfortunately, I waited too long. We came around a corner, and bang, there’s the finish line 100 yards down. I sprinted it, and made it across in 26:58. I have mixed emotions about this. One, it is my PR for a 5K and I came in 7th of 82 in my age group. Not bad! However, I KNOW I could’ve shaved off a lot of that time. Dang! I guess that is what will keep me coming back for races. As they say, running doesn’t get easier, you just go faster. I suppose I learned some lessons during this race. First, warm up! – I tried as much as I could, but my knee was cashed due to the cold for the rest of the day. Second, know your course. I should’ve driven it so I knew it was that flat. Lastly, keep an eye on your mile markers and wristwatch. When I got to 20 minutes, I should’ve turned my jets on. I don’t think sprinting the last 100 yards upped my time much. Live and learn, right? Anyway, I am very happy I got to race and will start looking forward to my next! For now, I am going to snuggle up with my book and enjoy this cold and rainy vacation day!

Hamburger by Train

It’s Friday. It’s Friday before I leave for a weeklong vacation. Hooray! I chose to take next week off because 2 girls are pregnant in my department and due to leave on maternity next month, so we’ll be short-staffed for awhile. One of those girls was set to do all my testing next week while I’m out (there are only 3 of us that know this particular testing). Her water broke on Tuesday and she delivered her son Wednesday morning- 3 weeks early. Uh, what do I do? Well, I go on vacation anyway and hope they don’t call me in overwhelmed. Hopefully it will be a slow week! I will think of them while I’m sipping my coffee, snuggling with my family in my jammies at 9:00am. Actually, maybe I won’t.

Tomorrow is my race, for which I don’t expect a great time since I’ve lost all my motivation. I’ve only run 2 or 3 times a week the last month. The half marathon was more about endurance than time; the 5K is all about time. And I’m no jackrabbit. Oh well, we’ll see. It should be a fun morning regardless. Yesterday Hattie and I went down to Crown Center to pick up my race packet and timing chip. I parked on the wrong side of the complex, and we had about a 10-15 minute walk over to the expo hall. It was a nice stroll- we raced part of the way (Hattie loves ‘fast’. Every time we go for a walk she runs and tells me, ‘Mama, fast’, so we have to jog together.). We got our packet, walked around the expo and then went back to the shops. There’s a cute toy store we walked through, and a Crayola store where we drew pictures. By the time I checked the time it was 5:30, and we were 20 minutes from home without rush hour traffic. So we decided to have dinner at Fritz’. It’s a burger joint where the food comes delivered by a train overhead. Hattie’s eyes were huge when that first train came! It was so cute, she was craning her neck to see where it was going and kept telling me ‘choo choo!’ We sat, ate our burgers and enjoyed the trains. With as terrible as the food was (really, the burgers there are NOT great), it was probably one of the best meals I’ve ever had. I truly loved sitting side by side with my daughter, enjoying each other’s company and relaxing - just the two of us. I love that she will sit and enjoy things and not have to be running full-tilt at all times. I love that she offered me one of her fries. I love that it took her a few minutes to get the hang of her straw and the look of joy on her face when she did. I love that she donned the engineer’s hat for a bit before offering it to me. Mostly, I just love her. More than anyone else knows.

Three Things

1. I am officially out of the half marathon. My knee just won’t let me. I’ll be doing the lowly, godforsaken 5K with the other idiots that can’t manage the half or full, damn it.
2. My sweet tooth has been uncontrollable lately. If I hadn’t just had my blood checked, I would have thought I was diabetic. Seriously, I could eat sweet baked goods 24-7. I’ve had a pudding and a Twix today and its not even 2pm. My weight loss is going to come screaming back if I don’t watch it.
3. I am taking off work the week after next. Just planning some piddly little things (storytime at the library, a trip to Lawrence with Mom, a night in a lake cabin with Brian and Hattie…)and I really couldn’t be more excited. A vacation is much needed and long overdue. Hooray!

Sidelined

I think my half marathon race may be out. CR*P!!!! Three weeks ago (right when I upped my hill training and speed)I developed Iliotibial Band Syndrome aka "Runner's Knee". Basically anywhere from 4-6 miles into my runs my left knee starts to tighten and lock up on me. Its very common in distance runners and probably started due to quitting my cross training/strengthening days in favor of all running (weak hip flexors and glutes are an underlining cause). I've missed my last 4 big mileage weekend runs. I've been trying to strengthen, stretch my IT band, ice whenever possible, eat ibuprofen and wear a strap on my knee when running. So far, I've seen no positive changes. I am soooooooooooooo utterly disappointed - my training was going really well and I was hoping to finish in under 2 hours (initially I was looking at 2 1/2). I've already paid my entrance fee, so I am going to go and run as long as I can and probably walk a few (or several) miles at the end. Totally sucks. There is another race (the last one of the season) the week before Thanksgiving. Hopefully I can get back on track and run that one before winter comes and I have to wait until next year. I've worked too damn hard not to have at least ONE good race this year! Stupid competitive nature...
Keep your fingers crossed, and if you have any magic solutions let me know.
Sigh.

Sunny Days

We woke up today and headed out to the pumpkin patch/cider festival. I don't know what it is about sunny autumn days but they are so vibrant. I love how vivid the pictures turned out. Hattie had fun, although there wasn't quite as much to do there as I had thought. Still a nice morning. We came home, played in her car (as you can see in the "Cheese!" picture) and she's now down for the count. Good times.
I'm trying to think of new things she's doing these days--let's see...
She can count to 10.
Knows all her letters.
She's still completely obsessed with the cartoon "Oswald" (on Noggin) - she wants to watch it all the time. He's been relegated to 1 episode before bedtime. But if you have a pen/pencil/crayon in your hand, you are asked to draw Oswald and all his friends. I think we have about 3,000 poorly drawn pictures of Oswald and Daisy floating around our house at the moment.
We're also into opposites right now. When she gets in her car, she says 'in' - then steps out, says 'out' - etc. That's for everything, on/off, up/down, in/out, etc.
She's saying more and more everyday and pretty much continuously cracks Brian and me up. I LOVE this age! People are so right - it only gets more and more fun!
Enjoy the beautiful weather!!!