I'm back.

I know its Wednesday and I’ve been back since Saturday night, but it took some serious recovery to get over the long week with 6 kids under 10. It got a little ugly, they almost took me down, but I won. We spent the first half of the trip at Lake Anna in Bumpass, Va. In case you couldn’t tell from the name of the town, there was no internet, no tv, and you had to drive a half hour just to buy food. If I stood on one leg, half way up the driveway and held my breath, I could almost get one bar on my cell phone. It was actually really nice to be so far away from the rest of the world. Every day was spent on the beach and the boat in the freakishly hot water. Lake Anna is a man made lake, something to do with the nuclear reactor, hence the hot tub water. I was diligent with the SPF but I still got a sexy cocoa butter tan.

The second half of the week was spent at our friends main house in Vienna, VA, just outside of D.C. Lots of museums and sight seeing. My uncle came down from Annapolis on Friday to have dinner with Steve and I (our only 3 hours without any kids, thanks Nana and Papa). Dinner with my favorite uncle was definitely a highlight of the trip.

Uncle Mike is a marathoner, like the real kind. As in Boston. He did two of them this spring, and then hurt his foot, so he’s been laying low on the miles since then. He met us at the entrance of the zoo all decked out in his Boston 2007 shirt, and bayshore marathon hat, coolest guy ever. I’m pretty sure. It was fun to talk to him about running.

I did run twice when we were at the Lake. One 3 mile and then a 7 mile. And then my right foot decided bending was going to be crazy painful, and my shin splints started creeping back. I took the rest of the week off to let everything feel better. I’m going to get back at it tonight. 5 miles. Woo!In other news, my sister and I have decided to do the half marathon in October. We aren’t quitting, I’m not changing my goal, we are just extending the training plan. May will be the finish, either the Bayshore in Traverse City, or the Green Bay race.

I'm slowly catching up with my Google reader, happy running.

2 weeks later....

I didn't drop off the face of the earth. I haven't even been dreading running. I think I just don't have a lot to say for some reason. I have my first 10 mile run this weekend. Luckily, we are leaving for VA on Friday night to go to handsome Steve's friend's lake house. Hopefully the new environment will entertain me enough to not stress over the double digits. Not that I'm stressing, its just a new level for me.

14 weeks to marathon.

I got tagged!

Julie tagged me, so here are 6 random things about me!
1. I used to shoot target rifles and went to college on a full ride courtesy of it.
2. Steve and I live on sugar free Popsicles. We will even get up in the middle of the night to eat a bunch of them. Its 2am and I just ate 4!
3. The only foods I won't eat are anything that involve jerk seasoning and eel sushi.
4. My little Persian baby, Ashley, was a stray cat that I snatched.
5. I lived in Germany for a summer in high school. I can still hear the radio yelling "Guten morgan, Hessen!!!" every single morning.
6. My parents bought my first car at a garage sale and then told me to figure out how to drive it. My dad gave me a quick run through, but then I had to teach myself how to drive a stick.

I have to tag 6 people : Tanushree, Holly, Chris, Karen, Kitzzy, and Terri.
here are the rules:

• link to the person who tagged you.
• post the rules on your blog.
• write six random things about yourself.
• tag six people at the end of your post.
• let each person know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog
• let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Great run!!

I had an awesome run last night! Seriously, it was the kind of run that made me think I might actually be a runner one of these days. It was going to be a 7 miler. I headed out towards the park, did the main loop and then since it was the blazing sun of 4pm, I did the creepy loop too. To get to the second loop you go down a path, through a little pathway and then you are completely surrounded by a wall of trees. Completely. It’s like there isn’t any other world except in this clearing. And being that I watch WAY too many Lifetime Channel movies, it really creeps me out. After I headed out of the loop and out of the park I kept going down the path along the road. I got all the way to the end of the path and then turned around to head back.

All this way, my only walk breaks were to get some water out of my bottle. They were short, and few. I’m pretty amazed at myself actually for walking as little as I did. Whenever I though I needed to walk I would pull my shoulders back and straighten up and also slow down. Typically at these times the nike+ had me at a 12:30 pace; I can comfortably keep a 13:30 pace. I would also pause the nike+ whenever I did walk, just so that my final count was completely the distance that I ran. So, back to when I said it was going to be 7….handsome Steve drove up behind me on his way home when I had just completed 6 miles of running. He offered me a lift. My feet were really hurting. I hopped in. Call me a quitter, but that was by far my best, most satisfying run to date. 14 weeks of 4 runs a week, and that was #1!!!

New Progress

For the first time ever, and probably my hundredth attempt, I actually dragged my tookus out of bed to run before work this morning. I did come up with a million reasons not to get out there. Snooze button once. Eyebrow grooming. Hit the trail and came back for bug spray. In the end I had time for a mile and a half. Sad distance, I know. But I did it instead of snuggling in my warm, comfy bed. That's pretty huge for me!

After I hit the trail for a second time, I almost turned around a tenth of a mile down....without guilt. I heard the freakiest animal fight? just behind the first row of trees and growth. I heard turkey gobbling (we have a crazy amount of wild turkeys out here) and growling and snarling. Not like dog growling and snarling. And I don't think turkeys growl and snarl. I don't know who was attacking who. But it got worse and worse and then it stopped. I wanted so bad to turn around and go home before the winner got me, but I kept going. And lived to type about it :)

Still trucking along...

I’m really starting to lean towards the half in October, and then do the full in May next year. First of all, it seems the most intelligent decision. Second, what if I hate the marathon, and never want to do it again? I would like my possible one and only try to be at my favorite place. The Bayshore Marathon is in May, so I think I’ll train for that one. If I don’t keel over and die after the half. Jill and I decided to keep training for the 26.2, and then on August 1st we’ll decide which to sign up for. So we’ll see. Thanks for everyone’s encouragement and support for both choices.

That being said, enough about my inability to make a decision simply. Last night I did 3 miles with my very own support group. Yup, I had no less than 10 mosquitoes on the back of my arms at any moment. Today I have the welts to prove it. I thought by taking the route that doesn’t go along the river I would be good. Silly me for thinking. I guess even at little Emma’s softball practice the kids were getting eating alive.

I haven’t mentioned our new virtual running group. If you need some teammates to cheer you on or call you out when you aren’t running, come on over to the dark side with us. www.virtualrunclub.com We even get a discount at Running Warehouse because we are official.

Lastly, due to peer pressure, I’m doing the hundred pushup challenge. Yesterday was day one. Monday was supposed to be, but after my initial test on Sunday, there was no pushups to be had the next day. But last night I cranked them out like a champ. Day 1 of 18 down! Seriously, you can all bust out some pushups 3 days a week for 6 weeks. Get started!

Ramblings

I have ALWAYS been jealous of runners. You see them outside, doing their thing. Exerting their bodies. Destressing. And running in itself sure as heck doesn’t get you any fatter. Plus, when you get asked “so, what do you do for fun” runners have an answer. They run.

It may have started with my doctor that I’ve been going to for the past 16 years. Every appt includes him telling you when the next nearest marathon is and asking if you’re planning on it. The décor in the exam rooms and down the hall are posters from the marathons he has run in all over the country and pictures of him crossing the finish line. A requirement for his staff is taking part in the 5/3 River Bank Run every spring, either by walking the 5k, or running the 25k. It is a running office all the way around. Well, until you look at the patients in the waiting room. I think he only sees little kids and very old people. And me.

Every time he asks me if I ready to run the 26.2, I laugh, say of course not, and secretly wish I was. Lucky for my, this spring I thought it would be a good idea, and low and behold I had that though 7 months before the local marathon, not 2 weeks. I emailed little Jill, and she thought it was a killer idea too. Our plan was to follow the training plan, and then on 4th of July weekend, evaluate where we were, decide if our 26.2 goal was a little too lofty to begin with, and decide between the half and full marathon. At that point we would officially sign up.

And all logical signs point me to the half. We all know my sister ran the Green Bay half marathon after 8 weeks of running/training, and she ran it strong. 2:12, give or take a minute.

So now I’ve got a decision to make. And I’ll tell you the silly thing that is probably going to be the deal breaker. It’s called a HALF marathon. You mean you want me to completely change my life? I’m supposed to be out there running and sweating 4 days a week when I have NEVER stuck to any kind of activity longer than one week in my life? All for HALF of something?? Why can’t they call the 13.1 mile distance something else? The thirteenathon perhaps? There is nothing unimpressive about 13 miles. And if I could get my head around the fact that it is its own distance, and not half of something else, I probably wouldn’t even consider 26.2. I’m pretty sure with 17 more weeks of training, I could probably run a half in a time that I would be proud of. As it is, the marathon would be just to finish. And if I can run most of it, high five to me. In my mind, I see the full as such a huge, monstrous achievement. I’m not going to get an MBA anytime soon, but I could move my self 26.2 miles down the road. Without my car.

Then throw in Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt Judy’s. We’ll all be sitting there, Sarah will tell us how she did at the Chicago marathon, Uncle Mike will tell us which ones he ran in this year, and I’ll pipe up with my half. No, that’s not going to fly. I want to say that I ran a marathon too. I'm already the only chubby person in a family of the freakishly thin. I want to do what they do.

If you’re still with me after all that rambling, I’m not asking anyone to tell me that the half is the better decision. Or that it is something to be proud of, I know it is. But I’m going to do the full. And those are all the reasons why.
Next year I’m going to do all halves and work on times, and then the next year I’ll maybe throw in another full. This is all of course provided I don’t die at mile 18 in October or hate all things running.