I'm in Memphis!!

Last night, four of the five other women and I travelled from Hartford, CT to Memphis. We had a layover in Charlotte. It took us five hours to get here. None of knew about the time change so we gained an hour, needed it I am exhausted.

We get to our hotel at midnight, but one am in my body. The clerk must have been busy in the back because she sure did not want to help us!! First she tells they have no cots and no extra blankets. Luckily one of our travellers is a firefighter and always prepared and brought a sleeping bag.

Then we proceed to rm 227. My friend unlocks the door and says "oh they forgot to make the beds, oh wait a minute, there are people sleeping in them!!!". We opened the door bleary eyed and look in and find PEOPLE sleeping in the room!!!! We quickly apologized and ran back to the lobby in hysterics.

Now we are getting ready to head to Graceland. I am going to find my inner Elvis, I definitely have the hips!

New Look

My son said my old blog design was boring, so we checked out blogger's choices. How do people make their own design? I know Runner Susan makes personal headmasts, maybe I could talk to her.

Nothing new in the world of chocolate loving runner girl except I am already packing for Memphis. WOOHOO!

A week to go...

Only one week from today, I'll be hitting the streets of Memphis to run the marathon. I am totally psyched and getting anxious now.

Like completely overdramatiziing and obsessing over every slight pain or discomfort I might have.

Or not wanting to go near anyone with a cold or runny nose.

Or thinking and freaking out about flying (i hate flying).

Or worrying about my "time", this is the first time I ever cared about time, I used to just care about finishing, but now I know I can run faster than before.

Or worrying about how all the childcare plans are going to work out and not being able to do anything about it from miles away.

Or completely stressing about the weather and what to wear while running.

Or wondering how I can get to Graceland from my hotel!!

Oh the many trials and tribulations a crazy runner woman has to endure!!!!

Spiritual Awakenings

I have had spiritual experiences while running, especially when I am pushing my limits. While running my long run this week on a 25' cold, windy but sunny and crisp Sunday, I was pretty cold. BUT every time the sun would shine on my body for a few minutes, I would experience such a warmth, I just knew there is a God out there somewhere watching over me, making me warm when I need it most.

Sweet faith.

Twenty miler down, I friggin' kicked ass. I can't wait for this marathon, baby. I am soooooooo prepared. Now time to taper, I love tapering. I have a 15 miler scheduled for this weekend. I love when 15 seems so easy.

Does anyone know where my chocolate brother has been lately? I have visited Jon who was in Michigan but now lives in New York, Chocolate Runner's Blog and he hasn't written in a while. What's up? Tell him I miss him if you have his email.

The Breakfast of Champions!?

It has been such a busy week I have not had time to write about a splendid running event that took place last Sunday afternoon. As you all know, I have been trying to make some type of sense of my home and projects have taken precedence over eating and sleeping, notice I did not say over running, never would that happen!!

I woke up Sunday and immedately started working on my projects, but keeping my hydration in mind since I planned on running in a local 5K at 1pm. So I worked my butt off and then realized we lost some pieces to fit our bed back together. Had to run out to the hardware store before it closed at 1:00. The store is right next to a local greasy spoon and it was like 10:30, plenty of time to grab some brunch and have it digested before race time. Right...what I didn't plan for was the hour wait for our food. The boys and I all ordered bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches on texas toast with home fries. I only ate half of my sandwich while my oldest son ate his and my other half. He was planning to run the 5k as well. Bad move.

We ran in the Veteran's Memorial Greenway 5K in Willimantic, Ct. It USED to start behind a gym and that's where I rolled in on two wheels at 12:30. No race there. I hypersped to the other gym in town and realized where the race start was moved to. Tommy and I ran to the registration table, grabbed our numbers and t-shirts (it really pays to preregister!) and then ran them back to the car. We had ten minutes to warm up and then head to the start line.

I felt pretty good during the warm up, no full stomach problems. I got to the first mile in 7:05 and then was passing some people and realized I was doing pretty well. There is a turn around at this race, so I started to look at where I was in terms of women. There was only ONE woman in front of me! And I could see her and pass her I did, baby! I passed her right after the turn around and I mean I really passed her. I was afraid I might not be able to keep the speed up but I figured what the hell, I might as well try, right?

I passed mile two at 14:16, wow pretty consistent.

Then I started to suck wind a little, but I really wanted to win. I passed one my training buddies. Then I saw my teenage totally freaking fast long distance runner son, he usually finishes race in 21:05 or so. I was like, oh my goodness, he is hurting. Later he described me coming up behind him as "oh my god the person behind me is going to die" since I was breathing so hard. When he saw the person was me, his next thought was "oh my god, I knew I was sucking out, but I didn't think I was going that slow" ( I usually finish in 24 min.)

I somehow got the words out to have him look behind us and tell me how close the next woman was to us and he told at least 50 feet. I immediately slowed down since I knew I had it in the bag and I thought my lungs might burst if I kept up that pace. I finished the race in 22:40 and was sooooooo pumped. I was proud for like days. The feeling of crossing the line would just pop into my consciousness at random times and it was just great, stupendous, excellent, grande. My kids started teasing me about my foolish grin just crossing over my face.

BUT that was last week, this week brings me to my 20miler, my last long run before Memphis. I am psyched and sick with nerves at the same time, but that is why we do this, right? Right now I am off to play in a setback tourney with Tommy, his ego and stomach have recovered nicely.

Run hard, play harder!

Happy Long Run

I ran from putting my kids on the bus this afternoon and zipped into my running clothes to run for three hours or whatever miles I can run in that amount of time. My middle son surprised me at school looking for a ride to a skateboard shop, so I got out a little past schedule but still got on the road by 4pm.

I did a longish part of the run first, I took a big loop to get to my house and feed my dog and check on her. The poor girl has been totally neglected this Fall. Too many soccer games and races. I ran ten miles to my house, got my water belt, gu and music. Then I made my way down back into town for another nine miles. I felt great the whole time, except by the last hill I was pooped.

I ate my gu at about mile twelve and oh my goodness, what a jolt it gave me. I have cut WAAAAAYYYYY back on my sugar intake, so when that sugar hit me I was ready and rearing to go, baby!!!

I was pretty psyched about how good I felt since this was my second long run in only five days. My last long run was only last Sunday, but I had to do it tonight since this weekend is filled with yet another soccer tourney, church and a race on Sunday. There are soooo many fun things I want to do this weekend, but I think I have to stay home and complete a project for my boys so they can move their bedrooms. On SAt. night, a bunch on women friends are getting together for a "clothing swap". I don't really need any clothes, but have a bunch to get rid off. So maybe I'll just drop them off. On Sunday afternoon after the race, there is this "hibernation festival" held at this earthy crunchy private school. They sell the BEST soup in the world, I look forward to it every year. So I will have to just go get some even if I am not done with my job at home.

Have a great weekend everybody, run hard!