We Rocked the Colchester Half Marathon!

We, our town running group, rocked the half marathon in Colchester,CT today. One of our members won the race and we had nine finishers from our club. It was about 20' with a little wind and some breaks of sun. This course was very hilly and at the top of some of the hills, it got very cold.

I started the race strong and continued to feel strong the whole race through. My longest run for awhile has been ten miles, so I was nervous about sputtering out by about nine miles. I kept an even pace for the whole race, I was concentrating extremely hard about my form and keeping everything regular. At about mile four, my left foot was bothering me in the big toe area. I tried to use mind over matter, but by mile six I knew I had to adjust my shoe. By then I had to adjust both shoes. I had tied them too tight, my feet are narrow and I can never seem to find shoes that are tight enough. Well, I had tied these so tight that I caused a blister on my left ankle and my sock had bunched up on my toe. I was very happy after I adjusted and just flew for the next seven miles. My finishing time was 2:05, which I was happy with considering my lack of proper training, the weather conditions, and the major hills. I think this was a greating training race for my next big endeavor: a fourteen mile trail race on Soapstone Mountain, Stafford CT. I can't wait!

Oh another interesting thing happened during this race that had never occured for me before. I bought these cute running socks and wanted to show them off, so I wore my socks on the outside of my awesome winter running pants. Well, now my ankles are rubbed raw from the sticky elastic bottoms. Note to self: do NOT succumb to fashion slavery, dress smart for the conditions;)

Oh one more thing, I am not trying to toot my own horn, but I am not even sore today either:)

Mental Preparation for Colchester Half-Marathon

Tomorrow my running buddies and I are running the Colchester 1/2 marathon and I am totally freaking out. My longest run since forever has been ten miles and my hip has been whining lately anytime I run over about six miles. If I was not an obsessive runner, I would definitely not run this race. My body is telling me no, but my head is telling me yes- isn't that the opposite of some silly song about taking the plunge in another area of our lives?!?

I ran the Hyannis 1/2 marathon about three years ago in Feb. and I definitely regretted it. I had just fell on some ice about a week before the race and was just starting to heal and that marathon kicked my butt. I was very upset with my finishing time of 2:10 and now I am only hoping to finish that fast. Oh well, in any event, I should have fun hanging out with my friends before and after the race! Report to follow the race.

Fate or Random?

I was reading CJ's blog at www.froggy61.blogspot.com and she was talking about how her music gave her inspiration on her long run. Last week while I was running after we received 18 inches of the white stuff, I had a similar music experience. My children were sledding at our town golf course while I ran an easy three in the same vacinity. Right across the street from the golf course is our Catholic cemetery, the same cemetery where my first husband is sorta buried. He is not really buried there, but does have a footstone(is that even what it is called, i dont even know) on his family's plot. He died suddenly in a car accident and we weren't sure what his wishes would have been so we cremated him and his brother and mother spread his ashes in the ocean in North Carolina, a special place for him and the boys. But I also thought the boys would need a place to visit, so we put a stone with his name and dates up on his family's plot. As it turns out, they never want to go there, but I noticed other people do go there because there are always little momentos left on his stone.

On Monday, while running near the cemetery, I decided to go run in the cemetery. I, of course, was sad and feeling sorry for myself and my boys and the song that just randomly came on was "Am I The Only One to Ever Love This Way", by the Dixie Chicks. I was chuckling to myself about that song, because not only did I lose my first husband to an early death, but the only other man I loved and was still close with after we broke up, my first love, died six months earlier of cancer. All of the men I have ever loved died when I was 31 years old. It was very weird, my current husband is always teased that he is a brave man to stick with me, the black widow. The upside of it all is that he never has to deal with those uncomfortable chance meetings of seeing your partner's past lovers.

I finally reached my first husband's plot and stopped to think/pray/just stand there thinking about him. And, of course, his stone was buried under the snow. So I furiously started digging through the snow trying to see his stone. It was very surreal, digging like that. Some of our actions as humans are very basic, instinctual. I am not sure of the right word, oh maybe primal is the right way to describe those needs that don't make a lot of sense. Once I found the stone and saw his name and was once again assured or reminded that yes he was gone, I fixed up the little candles and cars and fake flowers that were left by others that loved him and continued on my run with blurred vision from my tears. Luckily it is okay to cry in a cemetery so I didn't feel weird. As I was running away from his stone, the song "Angel From Montgomery" by Bonnie Raitt came on. Again, I chuckled and questioned all my beliefs about fate, God, love etc. All in all, a very intense run for my sometimes intense life.

Chocolate Cake Saturday

My boys and I furiously baked our three cakes afterschool on Friday night. I made a "Death by Chocolate" cake, my ten year old son made a Milk Chocolate Queen's cake and my six year old son made a Fudge cake. We stirred and beat our little hearts out all evening. Then we frosted and they decorated their cakes on Sat. am. I was too busy looking for basketball uniforms and running with my buddies to decorate my cake with any creativity. It was my demise because they both won "Best in Age" for their cakes and I went home empty-handed. I was soooo proud of two little bakers though. We had to get our entries to the restaurant by 10:00am and it was a mad dash to get everything done. All the stress was so worth the moment of watching my boys ever so carefully walking their chocolate creations up the steps of the cafe. I was near tears, they had worked so hard searching for good recipes, shopping for the ingredients, and then actually making the cakes. They really did most of it by themselves. I helped with the really hard stuff, like taking the cakes out of the pans. We used parchment for two of the three cakes which make the job a lot easier, but for the my youngest son we forgot to line the pan. But that is what frosting is for, to cover up any cake imperfections.

You can imagine the pride I felt when at 3:00pm they were anounced as the winners in their age brackets.... the ten year old was the only entry but we're not focusing on that!;) The adult contest was really fun too. I did not win, but the judges did provide some great feedback and ideas for improvment for next year. The only complaint I had about the contest was that they gave the woman who baked the best cake overall all of the other awards as well. She won best taste, best presentation, and best texture on top of winning the best overall. I always think of contests as giving a top prize to the best entry, but then spreading the cheer when it comes to the sub-categories. Maybe I am wrong. I always sort of wonder about races that don't count the top male and female in age group winner. Am I making sense?

I was a winner in one competetion this week. We have a race series in our town and I am the winner for my age group!! Not because I am the speediest, but I ran the most races and accumulated the most points! Yeah for me!

I have to go eat some cake! Bye!

Ouch, my hip hurts again

I have been running on the trails for the past two weeks and today I ventured out to run a challenging hilly nine mile course on the road. By mile four my hip was tight, by six it plain hurt, by the end I think my endorphins kicked in and the pain was bearable. That was until I tried to stretch it out. Holy cow, my right hip was soooo tight and I think I would describe it as localized agony. There was so much pain but really only in my hip flexor, the rest of my leg is fine. I was able to work out some the build up with stretching and then took a nice hot shower and it definitely feels better now, much looser. I hate pain while I am running. Do you think the hot fudge sundae I ate before bed could have aggravated my joints?!? I guess I will take it easy Monday and Tuesday and see how it feels with a little rest. I am trying to remember when I bought my running shoes, I may need a new pair already. I think I wrote about my new sneakers when I bought them, so perhaps I will peruse my previous posts and find out if it's time to make another flippin' $100.00 investment.

I had a very fun Friday night, not as much fun as Jon's Chocolate Friday, but close! I hosted an Athena's Goddess party and let me tell you we had some FUN! For those in the dark, Athena Goddess is a company that sells products for couples, singles, or triples for that matter to bring more sensuality into your life! The party made $1000, so I received $125 worth of free merchandise! My husband can't wait for my next party! I am actually "toying" with the idea of becoming an athena goddess. I think I would enjoy bringing this joy to people! The trouble I have is coupling my daytime persona as preschool teacher/soccer mom with vampy sex toy dealer by night! I have to work on wording the night time persona with a little more sophistication and I think I could "pull it off" (oh wait a minute, I don't want to do that!)

Well, please send healing thoughts to my hip and tell you how it helped next week!