Urban Adventure - Boston 2009

Oh my goodness What A Blast!!!!

Travis, Jabez and I started our adventure with a 8am departure, stopping first for bagels of course! We made it to Boston in about an hour and half and got to the packet pickup at 11 almost the first ones there. What fun, we perched ourselves close to the entrance and watched all the crazy costumes! There were two teams of bees, a team of ducks, Dr Spock and that other guy from Star Trek oh yeah Captain Kirk, sharks, angels and demons, just plain angels, and on and on.

At noon, the race organizers handed out our 12 clues. We had to wait till everyone got an envelope before we could open them. Holy toledo, the questions/tasks were so hard. Luckily my oldest son was home and googled us the answers to most of the problems but some were tasks we had to do like find people with red socks and a Red Sox jersey on or shake hands with a dog. It was legal to have a phone a friend and to ride the T or public buses. You couldn't ride a bike or hire a taxi.

Some of the tasks were so obscure, I just don't understand them. Like one was to find something that holds 230 gallons, 2 quarts, 1 pint and three gills. It was this random huge teapot at Starbucks and we only got it because we saw other teams there and Travis spotted the words on the kettle.

But some tasks were really fun. At KO Prime, this fancy restaurant they set up a "Who dunnit?" type problem with 15 clues all over the restaurant. It was really funny, all these people running around looking for clues.

The race has a 5 hour limit and I thought oh no problem we will make it in about 3 hours. Well we had to book to the finish line for the last few miles to make it in at 4 hours 55 minutes!!! I was so happy we made it in the 5 hours.

We probably ran about 8 to 10 miles over the 5 hours and we were soooooo pooped! I would recommend the Great Urban Race to anyone looking to see a city and have lots of fun. I would definitely do this again. Maybe we will go to NYC or Philadelphia for the next time we give it a go.

Oh my goodness pics will have to follow I can't find my stupid usb cord AGAIN!

Crazy Crazy Day

Today I woke to a nice trail run with two really awesome friends. That's where the fun stopped.

I came home to help my son do his paper route at about 8. At one house, a kinda weird house, there was a man waiting at the door, sorta weird a 8 am on Sat. When I gave him his paper, I heard a woman yell, "Help, his just threw me!"

It didn't register in my head. I even picked up his other morning paper and gave it to him. She yelled for help again when he opened the door the second time.

That time it registered. I became alarmed and hurried back into my car. I quickly called 911 and gave them my complaint. The dispatcher asked that I wait in my car outside the home until the police arrived. I did what she requested but wow it freaked me out. What was I supposed to do, bear witness to whatever violence might happen next?

The police came within a few minutes and we finished the route, both shaky and freaked out.

Then I had to go about my day wondering what happened to this couple. I am concerned also for my son when he has to deliver the paper on Monday. Ugh.

But that is not where the craziness ends...

After a baseball game and work commitment, I ran home to clean my house before another baseball game at 3. I just started cleaning when my middle son went outside in his barefeet and stepped on a dang roofing nail. Now I have fixed two flat tires from those damn roofing nails and now my son gets punctured as well!

My oldest son and his friend carry him to the car where he proceeds to throw up. It was a pretty gross injury to look at and as long as he kept it covered he was ok.

But guess what? I got pulled over by a friggin cop on the way to the hospital. He saw me talking on my cell phone. Of course he was taking his sweet time getting out of the cruiser and I was beeping my horn and yelling out my window to no avail! So I called 911 for the second time that day! When I finally got my hysterical story out, he managed to get out of his cruiser and I frantically told him what was going on, he took one look at my kids foot and said, "Ok, that works, see ya" I was about half a mile from the hospital. The hospital staff was fabulous and luck for Nick, it was an old roofing nail and about half the size of the nails that punctured my car tires.

What a day.

Holy Recovery Baby

Wow it took three days to be able to walk normally after Soapstone. There were tons of hills and even by mile 11 I was tensing going down hill. I took a couple days off, went swimming and finally ran this morning almost a week later! My legs felt great and the new trail I ran was very fun!

Tomorrow: Bike Ride!

Soapstone Mountain Trail 24K

Well my day started with a big brown doggie nose in my face at 5:15! I went to pee the same time as he did and what do I discover? Well lets just say that if I was living during bible times I would be sitting in a red tent with other women drinking wine and gossiping celebrating my women-ness but no such luck...time to grab supplies and fuel up with a bagel and banana.

My brother, girlfriend, Cindy, and eldest son left at 7:30 with no problem finding the race start- a horseback riding camp in Stafford, CT. Check in was easy and well organized. The Bare Naked granola guys were handing out samples. Yum I had fruit and nut granola, yogurt with blackberries. Delish.

The race started at 9am about a half mile from registration site and continued on a dirt road for about a mile. I was exhausted right from the start! I knew that with all the pms bitching I did over the past three days, I would have little fire left once my period started and boy was I pooped right from the beginning.

We reached the four mile mark at exactly 1 hour. The most impressive climb of the race was so cool. I will try to get you pics from my friend's camera phone. It was straight up, no lie. I think that was at mile 3 or so. At the top was a fire stand, I think.

I basically just trudged along for the next ten miles, my two friends encouraging me all the way. I have great friends. We finished at 3:35. The race volunteers had burgers, three bean salad and soda left for us and made us feel as special as those finishing in an hour and half. This was a great race. Very technical trails, lots of mud, wet rocks and leaves, and interesting terrain to keep you entertained. Oh yeah the t-shirt was cute too.

After we gobbled up our burgers, we had to get home to other children but not before we grabbed some hot cocoa and toasted bagels. Its amazing how cold you get after running long.

After a long hot shower, I zipped over to celebrate my little sister's 20th birthday! More burgers, ice cream cake and mojitos!

I need a weekend from my weekend! How am I going to get up and go to work tomorrow?

Excited!

Tomorrow my brother, son and a few friends are heading north about 25 miles to run a trail half marathon. I am so psyched! Got an email about the race yesterday that asked we bring our own plate and fork for the post race party...gotta love those trail runners.

Will let you know how it all went down. My only goal is to finish I have no clue about time since I hear it is a challenging course. Would love to finish around three hours though but no biggie if I don't.

I finally found the usb cord for my camera. This pic is from Christmas but I like it. So share...

Happy Mother's Day

Yesterday I successfully and painlessly ran ten miles in preparation for Soapstone Trail half marathon! I am so psyched. I didn't think I would be able to run Soapstone after aggrevating my hip/inner thigh a couple of weeks ago but cross training and stretching and resting have all really helped.

We are getting ready to head out for breakfast!

Is anyone else tired?

I have been so pooped lately. I am able to work out well in the am but by dinner I just want to go to bed and I can't because we have baseball for three hours...in the cold and rain!

Running, swimming and biking now. I love the warm weather.

Rail Trails

Today was the first day I ran since last Sunday since I am nursing my sore psoas. We ran on the rail trail, it was so nice. The trails are wide and cushy and very easy to manage. But best of all they are flat! I read that hills are hard on your psoas so I choose to keep it simple today. My hip was sore but I was able to stretch out the soreness. I think I might stick with rail trails for my long runs for Chicago.

Happy Running!

Healing Power of Laughter

A group of us went out for a half trail/half road 8 miler this morning. It was great, but at about mile 5 the same sore muscle in my right hip started to rear its ugly head. I struggled on and the most amazing thing happened....

My friend Warren told us about his tall friend named Rich. Rich decided he wanted to get lots of encouragement during a marathon and wore a shirt with his name on the back but instead of Rich he wrote BIG DICK!!! The other runners and I this morning had so much fun coming up with funny things we would yell out to him:

FINISH STRONG, BIG DICK!!
LOOKING GOOD, BIG DICK!!
YOU'RE ALMOST THERE, BIG DICK!!

I was laughing so hard the pain in my hip went away...temporarily. It is killing me right now. I have to discipline myself enough to stretch 3x a day while I increase my mileage for Chicago.

Good luck in Boston all you fast marathoners!!

I love April vacation!

Today I woke up later and met a friend at 6am rather than the typical 5:15 to run on trails. It was great. Yesterday I received a hour and half long massage, she killed my hips. It was a hurt so good kinda pain, knowing that it was going to help in the long run. My hips are still sore this morning.

While running today I was trying to convince my friend to sign up for the Chicago Marathon. She pointed out that we would need to start training in June! That's only a few months away! The last marathons I did were late Fall. I am sorta psyched about the timing of Chicago, since the training will be winding down by the time school starts in Sept.

Now I have to remember to stretch those darn hips...

Our new doggie!

My boys and I were waiting till spring vacation to adopt a dog and this huge guy fell into our laps after one day of phone calls to different rescue shelters. His name is Hunter and he is a very loving happy 5 year old chocolate lab, how appropriate!!! His previous owner was having some chronic back pain and couldn't keep up with his needs. He only lives about a mile away so he can visit anytime.

Dogs are the best. They are the sweetest companions.

Finding your own way...

I have been running the trails a lot more lately. It feels good and cushiony on my joints and it is great being in the woods. One thing I notice that I like to be the follower and its because I like to see where my running friends are stepping and I usually copy, but I have been running with a friend that takes longer strides than I do and I always get tripped up in the water jumps. Its a reminder that we all need to carve our own path...

Running is so cool.

Scary

Today my friend and I went running on trails mostly, but we decided to take roads back to our starting point because we were both late for our babysitters. We were running on a pretty busy road but not like an interstate or anything but cars go about 45 or so. We had been running single file for about 3/4 of a mile with me in the lead. And my friend was teasing me because I had dirt all on the back of my pants from the trails and that's when it happened...

This freakin' volvo heads right for us!!! I only had time and flexibility enough to scream and squish up against the guardrails while my friend hopped the rails after he heard me scream. I have had run ins with asshole runner haters before but this guy kept the game of chicken going a little too long for my comfort.

The adrenaline was good for getting us back to our cars at least. But whoa, I think about it every time I feel the scrap from the guardrails on my shin.

I wonder what goes through these nutjobs minds...

First Race of 09

Well for the last three years, I tried to race once per month, but after the Philadelphia Marathon I felt really over cooked! Totally burnt.

I took a nice break this winter, not running any distances longer than 6 miles. I worked out in the gym a lot more.

There is a nice local 5k race to celebrate Easter in our town. There is a egg hunt and kids race before the big race. It is a very nice community event.

It is a hard race with a big hill on mile one. I decided to push myself but to have realistic expectations since I haven't run very much and am still nursing my sore hip. At mile one, I came upon my son's best friend, Will, a totally phenomenal athlete. I pulled a head of him just a little and I knew his competitive spirit would win and he would stay with me. We continued to run sub 8s for the next mile. At mile two, I told him we have one more to go and he just kicked it in and by 2.75 miles into the race, he was completely in the zone and blew me away!!! He is only 8 years old by the way!

He finished third in his age group with a time of 24:20 and I finished second in my age group with a time of 25:15. That time is a little slower than I like but I will be back in race form before I know it!!!

There were four massage therapists donating their services for only about 150 runners. I got stretched and massaged for about 20 minutes for free. It was awesome.

I JUST SIGNED UP FOR THE CHICAGO MARATHON!!!!!

Cold=Bad, Warm=Good

Today I planned a 9 mile "long" run. I have struggled to run more than 6 miles pain free all winter. Well yippee for me, today was about 48' balmy and no wind and I ran pain free for 12 miles !!!!!!

I felt so good I could have kept going! I am so thrilled and relieved. I will continue to stretch and I plan to hit some yoga classes too. I am just so happy to realize that it was the cold that brought on so much discomfort.

Well gotta run to church, bye !!!

New Goal

Well these darn kids of mine are always getting in the way of my fun! I have to set my sights on the Soapstone Mountain 24k this spring rather than Seven Sisters. My middle son (of course I didn't know the date of his confirmation, it's true what they say about middles!!) has his confirmation ceremony the same day at seven sisters race. But that's okay now I have two more weeks to get ready for Soapstone...

I have been religious about stretching and only running 5 days. I felt a difference in this morning's ten mile run. My hip hurt but not as much as before. I feel pretty confident that if I am smart and follow directions, I will be ready for Chicago in the fall.

Happy Trails!

Instincts Correct

So I have been having this tightening pain in my hips when I run further than 6 miles in the cold. So my doctor sent me to a "sports" doctor. They took an x ray, x ray showed no bone problems, so the doctor sent me to physical therapy. The physical therapist was kinda pissy to me. When I told her I have no daily pain, just when I run further than 6 miles, she rolled her eyes and said, "Ugh. One of those."

I always felt like I never wanted to get any help with my running aches and pains because I have always been able to run about 4 miles pain free. I was embarrassed and felt like I was definitely wasting her time.

BUT I want to run pain free for longer distances than 6 miles!!!!

She gave me some stretches to try while running and then some I am to do three times of day. I have been doing them probably twice a day. I don't run more than four a day usually so I wont know whether they make a difference till the weekend.

Oh yeah, she said I also have to take two rest days instead of one. Yeah right.

Nine miles!

Today I hit nine miles! It was tough but I stretched my hips every time I felt them tightening up and it helped me to stay loose.

The weather is starting to become nicer and today it was sunny and 55'. Almost all of the 12 inches of snow we got this past Monday melted! Tomorrow I am running in the woods to practice trails for the 7 sisters. I think I convinced my 16 year old son to run the race too! I hope so, its more fun when there are other people you know out there too.

Well have to get back to report cards...enough procrastinating!

Visit to the doctor

After the Philadelphia Marathon, my hip was sore so I decided to take a nice break from a distances longer than 5 miles to help rest my aching body. My hip felt much better. I was very psyched. Well about three weeks ago I decided to run 6.5 miles and the same awful pain showed up in the hip area. I really want to run the Chicago Marathon so I decided I to visit the doctor. Good news: no arthritis just need to strengthen and stretch my hip area! WooHoo!