Reving up for Boston

Last week after work, I shipped my three wild boys to another house full of wild boys and chugged out a 15 miler. It was not real fast, but fast enough for me. I felt awesome, which is very impressive because one I usually run in the morning and two, I am a preschool teacher and work usually kicks my butt. So on Saturday, I am running a 17 miler and then I will taper down. That's pretty funny since I don't have anything to taper down from!!! I feel great, my legs feel fresh and well-oiled. I think the warm weather has really picked up my running spirit!

BTW, not only am I in the middle of speed training for the 2006 Boston Marathon, I am also starting my new athena goddess business. Last week, I attended two full days of training, which was why I had to run after work on a week night. I am officially a sexpert! Ask me any questions about sexuality and how our products could enhance your life!!! Guess what, there are five different types of orgasms, what do you think of that? Guess you'll have to email me or comment to find out what they are!! Book a party too!

Holy Sh**, I'm runnin' Boston!

Yes it is true, my cousin scored me a scrub number to run the Boston Marathon on April 17th! The only problem is my longest run in a long time has been 13 miles! Yikes! So for the next four weeks, I am going to be watching what I eat, running like a machine and fretting every second I get! I am so totally psyched!!! I have run four other marathons and have the muscle memory to get me through the marathon. It won't be any personal best I am sure, but I don't really even care! I am running Boston! WOO HOO!

Pi(es) All Around!

My family and I ran the Pi Race in East Hartford, CT today. It was 3.14 miles long and every finisher received a tabletop pie! Actually they had enough pies for about each participant, volunteer and cheerleader to eat about ten pies each! My six year old son ran today, this was his first race and kicked some butt! I think he finished in under 45 minutes. My ten year old son, that declares he is a thrower not a runner, ran this race in 39 minutes, a personal best for him! Their old mama ran it in just over 25 minutes and took home 2cd place in the submaster division! We had a blast! We were all fighting colds so we used this race to clear all the gunk from our lungs! Sorry to anyone running behind us! Photos to follow!

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!

My son's 7&8th grade basketball team won the division championship game today. The score was 63-62 in overtime. It was tension city, baby. My son had some key plays and I am very proud of him and his teammates. The team was comprised of awesome, generous kids and they really knew how to play like a team. Their coaches were a young couple with no children on the team and that definitely helped keep the kids playing well too. The coaches were more objective and able to see the kids' talents and weaknesses. I am still buzzing from the excitement!

My fervor for basketball has generalized to my running. I ran thirteen miles both Sat. and Sun. I felt great both days. Then I went to a kick-ass yoga class with lots of power moves on Monday night. Today I ran an easy 4 miles and was pretty tired due to a lack of sleep. Yes, my house has been attacked by the barf/fever bug that has been knocking kids out all week. Hopefully I'll get more sleep tonight. Everyone seems to be improving.

Happy Running Week

Pictured above is just some of the northeastern CT running dream team that kicked some booty in the Colchester Half Marathon. They are the only reason I even showed up that day. Thanks to my sweet running buddies, you make my life so much fun!

I have had a great running week. I ran 3miles Monday afternoon, felt great. Then 5 miles on Tuesday and Thursday with an awesome yoga class taking up my time on Wednesday. I think I am happy because the weather has been very end of winter-like. I can feel the end of the storm, can see the light at the end of the tunnel! Yippee!

My family and I are grieving the UCONN Men's basketball team's loss against Syracuse today. I didn't even get to watch them go down in flames because of a very annoying thing called work. Well hopefully, my son's basketball team will play well on Sat. I love this time of year. Once March Madness is all over, I feel lost. I don't know what to do with myself for a while. But for now, turn on the game, baby!

I have given up all sweets for Lent and I am definitely suffering, Jesus would be proud of me;-). I have reduced my candy consumption by 99% (I have snuck a few M&Ms) and I have not lost a freakin' pound. I am so pissed off. I know I am supposed to be sacrificing for Lent, but I really wanted some pay-off for my repention! Oh well, I am hoping to lose 10 pounds to get ready for shorts and bathing suit weather so I have to figure something out. Maybe I should eat less calories or something crazy like that?!

Quick and Dirty Post

I have missed reading everyone's blog's. I have been busy at work with the National Association of Young Children coming to validate that our program should be accredited, they agreed it should! Mucho Stresso for this week at work.

Then I was my niece's godmother at her baptism today. VERY awesome, but lots of work as well to prepare for the party.

Also, I am a HUGE basketball fan and got to watch my son's team advance to the finals today. His team plays at the big dance on Sat., 3/11, can't wait! I also got to cheer on the UCONN Huskies to their regular season Big East Championship game on Sat. Now it is Sunday at 9:40pm and I am waiting for my other son's birthday cupcakes are done baking, I'll will frost them bright and early before work tomorrow morning.

Boring running week, I only ran 20 miles total all week and I kinda sucked at every run. It was miserably cold and then it snowed seven inches on Thursday. In December, I enjoy running in the snow, in March, I hate running in the snow. It is amazing the difference three months make!

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!

My Version of the Goose Attack

Yes, I finally used my mace. I have had many a close call with the dogs on my running routes, but they usually respond to the usual trying-to-hide-my-panic strong yell of "GO HOME" or occasionally I have had to throw a rock or stick at the more persistent barkers. I have only been bit once and it was by one of those "ankle-biter" type breeds and I think it barely broke the skin. That said, I am afraid of dogs on my route. No former papergirl isn't afraid, let me tell you. I was definitely traumatized while delivering the paper to my neighbors when I was growing up. I can't really blame those dogs for barking at me like I was the enemy, I was delivering their owners' favorite discipline weapon.

And anyone that has been reading my blog for awhile knows that I am afraid of farm birds as well. Yes I have been traumatized by poultry as well! When I was about four years old, my sister and I were visiting one of my dad's friends that lived on a farm. My father was a no-nonsense type of guy and he sort of expected us to take care of ourselves right from the get-go... anyway my two year old sister and I were trying to make it into this friend's front door and these freakin' poultry birds were making a huge racket about us coming in the gate to the front door. My hard-ass father yelled from the truck, "Just walk right in there, let em know you're not afraid and they won't bother you." One problem, we were afraid, very, very afraid. I guess we did not show them that we weren't afraid very well, because the next thing I know one those pieces of shit was pecking at my baby sister's eyes!!! Everything after that is a blur. The next thing I remember we were in the emergency room with my mother screaming at my father and my sister with stitches! I have no idea how we got there or how the killer chicken was handled or what. I guess that would be considered a trauma.

So to make a long story longer, when Tommy and I came upon this crazy-ass goose, I was quite nervous. We had just started running on roads after completing about three miles of trails. We were cruising along pretty fast and Tommy was up ahead because he is faster than I am now. There were actually two geese honking at cars as they drove by. One goose smartened up and went honking home, while the other kept chasing the cars. As we approached, the goose was eyeing Tommy up. And then he started to put his head and neck down and twisty and as Tommy put it, "in attack mode". So my maternal instincts kicked in and I started to reach for my mace which I hook onto my pants. Well of course, it had somehow worked itself off my pants and was all tangled up in one of my shirts. So after I wrestled it out, I was trying to figure out which way to point and press. I realized that mace is easy enough to use, but to actually use it effectively takes some skill. The first few squirts ended up on the road and they did not deter mr. goose. I finally hit the little craphead in one of his eyes and ran away really pissed off. We could hear him honking at us for a long time after that. It was scary. Tommy was afraid of where the goose might actually connect his beak/bill. It seemed to be at a rather precarious height, if you know what I mean!
Well, that's all the excitment for this week!

It's A Family Affair

this is a temporary blogger for the vacationing beth (im her son)
i have recently starting running with my mother and what a great mother she is we run trails and streets so its fun (i always have to cirle around for her but itss some good mother son time you know) well today on our run we ran some trail and road it was a bout 4 miles the trail was the Pigeon Swamp Reserve and it was quite fun but while we were on the road we say 2 stray duck or whatefer they were well one was in attack possition and it was running toward us mostly toward me and my mother with her motherly instincts takes out the mace and well we'll say this that poor duck was crying and he honked very loud in ANGER!!!! me and my mom have been running somewhat a lot together only about 2 times to tell the truth but its only the start i am really good at trails so all the saturday people i think i maybe joining you sometime well when im not asleep i hope you enjoyed the story as much as i had fun making it happen
tom

Loving the trails

My new running friends are very informed about the trails in Connecticut and they are exposing me to a whole new running world. At first I was apprehensive about the whole trail thing, but I am a convert. I love the cushy feeling under my feet and the beautiful scenery, although I only get to see the scenery in a two feet radius around myself because I am so scared about falling. My friends tell me the person with the most blood at the end wins, but I haven't bought into that sentiment yet! I plan on racing a half marathon on Soapstone Mountain in Stafford, CT. in early spring. I am so excited, it so fun. I love getting so dirty! It reminds me of when I was a kid and playing out in the rain.

Happy running everyone!

Enjoying the New Year

Here is a photo of our New Year's Day run. We had a lot of fun, ran about seven miles and then toasted the New Year with champagne at 10:00am!! I have never drank alcohol that early in my life. I am not much of a drinker and it was pretty funny. We met at the high school, so we were actually drinking on school grounds. First time for that too. I really was quite a nerd/goody-goody or maybe I was just a scardy-scardy of getting caughty-caughty!

On January 8th, three of our running crazies ran in a 5K road race. It was a beautiful day, about 35-40 degrees with bright sunshine and lots of good runners. One of my resolutions is to enjoy my racing, regardless of my time or place. I approached this race with those two pieces in mind. I only paid attention to my race performance. I did not look at the women passing me trying to decide if they were in their thirties. I did not care about where I was in relation to other people at all. I ran to my potential and focused on my form and breathing. I was thinking about the time a little, c'mon it's not called a race for nothing, people!! I finished feeling very strong and happy. My time was average for me; 24:40. I did not place in my age group, but that was okay with me, because I felt so great about my performance. I stretched and warmed up and down which also felt really good. So for January, I am still on par as far as resolutions are concerned!

I did not run as many miles this week as I would like though. I only ran 14 miles this week. My excuses are being lazy and it was freezing rain and snow this morning therefore I couldn't run the six I would need to fulfill the twenty miles I want to run weekly! I guess another excuse would be procrastination too. While I am complaining and whining, I could also blame my kids because I had to bring them to a puppet ministry performance today at 8:00am and I was the chaperone, so that pretty blew half the day. I have to do laundry the other half of the day! Another person I could blame other than myself is my husband because he keeps my up too late talking to me about his day. I wouldn't mind being kept up for other more fun reasons, but for blabbing, no. Let's see anyone else I could blame? No, I think that is good.

I am reading a very insightful and entertaining book entitled Dry, it's an autobiography about a man who had a crazy childhood and how he is trying take control over his adulthood, in particular his alcoholism. I was raised up with AA as part of my family, so reading his account of getting sober brings me back to my own childhood. The book evokes a lot of emotions for me. The first being gratitude that I am not an alcoholic. I do not struggle with substances, but have had my fair share of issues around food. I guess eating disorders are the good-girls' substance abuse. My issues about food have gotten a lot better with maturity and an increasing self-awareness about what I think is important. My relationship with a higher power or God or whatever you want to call it has helped to heal and grow up as well. The other emotion the book brings up for me is happiness which probably seems weird. But the author, Augusten Burroughs, has done such a great job spinning his tale. He tells about his crazy life with such brutal honesty and responsibility that it actually refreshing. I reccommend this book and his first book, Running With Scissors to anyone. (I know you are supposed to underline book titles, but I can't figure out how to underline in this blog thing, I only see bold and italic. Sorry! Now I can't get the freakin' italic to get off. Aww, just Great!) All for now, see on the roads!

Stone age or sunrise? You be the judge!

Okay my friends, here goes! One of my resolutions is to share more of my art projects with others. I am such an overachiever, I am doing this on Dec. 31st! I call this one "Running At Sunrise on Brown's Road". Hopefully no bad guys are reading this blog and decide to stalk me on this beautiful rural road. But if they do, I am ready with my mace!

Now back to my painting.I really like how I captured the orange with the blue sky and I also meant for the forground to be shades of black, because that is what the ground really looks like when you are running at sunrise on a crisp winter morning. But I realized the trees do not really look like that. The oak tree needs more thin branches branching out and the pine branches grow more up not out like I showed them. I can fix the oak tree's branches, but oh well on the pine tree. My husband doesn't like the blackness of the ground. My older son loves this painting, he even published it on his music blog. I was so touched! Although I had a fleeting thought that maybe he liked so much because his dad didn't, you know how the son-stepdad relationship can be.

I have realized my blog has hardly mentioned running or chocolate lately. Well, I have been running about 20-25 miles per week, but my right hip flexor is sore so I am not going overboard. I am stretching a lot and working out the lactic acid build up. With regards to chocolate, I have been basically mainlining the junk since Christmas. Being home all week stealing the kids' candy from their stockings has been fun, but I am definitely ready for the routine and regularity work brings to my life. Ask me if I still feel that way on Thursday of next week!! Above is a photo of my running club before our Christmas breakfast celebration. We have just finished our Sat. morning run and the photographer's wife was slaving away making us some awesome french toast and bacon while we were running. I couldn't figure how to make the photo be down here at the bottom. I am the one dressed like Mrs. Claus. It was soooo totally great! Tomorrow we are meeting to run at 8:00am to celebrate the new year. I am not sure what to wear! I'll try to remember my camera!

2006 Resolutions

Well it's that time of year again. The 'do-over' of adulthood - New Year's Resolutins. I have decided I am going write all of my resolutions in a positive word. I hope that will help me keep them.
1. Keep perspective about my fitness performance. Run when I feel healthy, walk when something hurts and feel happy with my race times - no matter what they are. I have concluded that my running obsession must be something that fuels me in a nurturing positive way. I can not allow it to bring stress to my life. My job and family already bring enough stress in my life. My fitness program must alleviate, not add, to that stress. I would like to get out and run/walk 4-5 times a week, with a weekly mile total between 20-35 miles. I plan to run a race/month, focusing on the ten mile races. I have had the most fun and success running the ten milers in the past and have decided it would be rewarding to train for them. I also plan to run one marathon this year. I plan to practice yoga at least fifteen minutes a day five days per week and attend one class per week.
2. Nuture myself and others. I believe that in order provide nuturing care to my family, I first have to nuture myself. I plan to schedule regular massages and other female care; ie manicures or cool hairdos! Then I want to make sure I take care of my marriage and children. Give my husband a loving card weekly, do something out of the ordinary for my kids; ie let them have ice cream before dinner or send them an email to say hello. I have to think of more creative ways to stay close with my kids. They are approaching teenagehood and I want to keep the relationship strong. Also in this resolution, I am including eating healthy. I really want to look at the food pyramid and actually try to eat what they reccommend. That will mean cutting down on the candy, but I know I will feel better if I do.
3. Spend at least one hour a week on my art. This seems so sad that I have to make a resolution about my creative expression, but if I don't plan for it, I will not do it nearly enough. I also want to put my art "out there" for others to see. I have been so shy about my art, I am sick of being so shy. I love what I make and it is selfish of me to keep to myself. I want to show people my view of the world. Actually, I was inspired to paint a picture of the sunrise I saw while running the other day with my two girlfriends. I showed the painting to my husband and he said he didn't like it, it looked like the stone age! But that is okay, that is what he saw and I have to start appreciating the feedback from others and realizing that it can help me to become even more accomplished. I plan on giving the painting to my girlfriends. We'll see if I actually have the gutts to give it to them.

Five Random Facts About Beth

1. I am left-handed and think it is really cool to be so!

2. I delivered all three of my boys totally naturally - no pain belief at all. It wasn't even that hard. My first labor was regular eight hours of hard work, but for number two, the time was cut down by half. My third baby was one of those movie delivieries, he was delivered twenty-one minutes after I arrived at the hospital. The weird thing about that delivery was the labor pains after he was delivered were flippin' awful. My midwife friend said it was my uterus trying to get to its original size, I decided the pain was worth it then!

3. I am an artist, but I often think my artwork looks like a ten year old made it! I have decided that is okay with me!

4. When I was little, I loved when my babysitter read me poetry while we drank tea at her kitchen table.

5. I am afraid of chickens, roosters, and geese, but not ducks. My parents divorced when I was four years old and my father lived on a farm afterward. I basically lived on a farm for half the time and those awful poultry birds always scared the bejesus out of me!!! My fear has sorta turned to hate now!

Back in the Saddle Again

I am recovered from my ailments and love running again. I think I am rejuvenated around running because I have found some very supportive running friends. We meet every Sat. and Sun. morning at 6:30am to run between 6-10 miles. My new running friends are much faster than I am, but they include me and never make me feel like I am a burden. I keep up with them as long as possible (usually till the first big hill, I suck on the hills) and thereafter they just keep doubling back at our turns. They keep me motivated to keep running and they also keep me safe. I am sure many of you have already read about the jogger that was killed while running in the rural area of Woodstock, CT. I enjoy running solo, but for right now I prefer running with a group.

I am also excited about running with some runners that are better than I am because I know I will improve while running with them. About three years ago, I joined another bunch of runners that were better than me and I improved a lot. I ran my fastest marathon after training with them. I am planning on training for a spring marathon. I met with my Boston relatives yesterday to celebrate xmas and I have put them on the job of helping me obtain a Boston "scrub" number from a firefighter or police officer. I know its not the appropriate running way to run Boston, but I don't really care!!! My step-dad qualified last week in a marathon in South Carolina, so hot damn, I want to run the Boston Marathon with him or shall I say way behind him!!

Tonight my friend Deb and I are running a Christmas Lights run in our town. We are meeting at the middle school at 6:30 and plan on running through the streets to see all the neighborhood light displays. Our town running club held a similar run last week at our local soup kitchen. All the members meet at the soup kitchen with our donations and then we ran about three miles together looking at the more award-winning displays. Then we had our club meeting and ate pizza. Tonight we are going to run a little longer distance and check out just the regular joe-smoe decorations. Gotta love the Christmas season!

Sick as a dog :(

I have been sick now for a whole week and it totally SUCKS!! First it started out as a flu type thing with chills that actually kinda hurt and a fever. Then after forcing myself to truck my kiddos around to basketball games and puppet ministry shows, I was really really sick. After about two days of taking it easy, I now only have a nasty cold. My lungs are so full of gunk, I can hardly move. I'll be in the middle of a read-aloud at school and just have to stop reading altogether from the fact I might keel over forwards from hacking. You should see those little sweet very terrified faces when I am coughing so hard that I can't talk or tie their shoes. I have run a little though and I plan on running tomorrow morning.

To end, I have another appreciation for running in the frigid cold and ice, I HAVE to run slowly so I don't fall. It is such a great excuse for doggin' it!! I was having a ball on Tuesday morning when I realized there was no way I could possibly go any faster without breaking my neck!