Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Random Thought - on running alone

In the almost 2 years that I've been a runner, I have run the majority of my runs with my husband, Marc. But in the past couple of months, I've started to run more solo runs: some training runs during my lunch hour, some 5k races that he hasn't wanted to run, etc. And since Marc is dealing with an injury I've had to run my last two runs alone while he's healing up - a 9 miler on the road in KSF on Sunday and a 3 miler this evening in our neighborhood.

The 9 miles in KSF was a refreshing, renewing, great run; even though it was a lot of miles and it rained the whole time. The 3 miles in the neighborhood was lonely, hot, and more work mentally than it should have been.

The interesting conclusion I've drawn from this: I'm perfectly fine with running by myself away from home, but have a really hard time with it in the neighborhood. Which seems a little backwards, but I guess it matters what you're used to.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Random Thought - Snack Time

I think I found my new favorite snacks today.

Took these to work with me to snack on throughout the day:Awesomely delicious.

And then this evening I had these:


Dipped in this:
Again, awesomely delicious.




Snack happy!

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Not so random random pics of the week - In honor of Father's Day

Me & My Daddy


Dancing at my Uncle Phil's wedding - 1984


On the banks of the Mighty Mississippi, Memphis, TN - 1992



At the Pavilion, Myrtle Beach, SC - 1993


Looking for fishies in the creek, Smoky Mountains, TN - 1996



Roasting marshmellows, Canaan Valley, WV - 1999(?)



Trying to figure out where to go next, Boston, MA - 2000



"Giving me away" at my wedding - 2006


Hanging out on the beach, Myrtle Beach, SC - 2009


Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Random Thought - on water bottles

As I sit here sipping from a lovely insulated water bottle, I had an interesting thought on the progression of drinking vessels.

As a baby, we drink from a bottle.
We grow up and as a toddler, graduate to a cup.
We grow up more, become an athlete(runner, bicyclist, etc) and suddenly we're back to a bottle again....

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Random Thought

I hate to keep bringing up the dead squirrels from yesterday's run, but for some reason they're really bothering me.

I mean, seriously people, it's a residential neighborhood... Are you really driving so fast through those streets that you can't slow down for a couple of seconds to let the squirrels run by? What if they had been a kid, or a dog, or cat???

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Run With A Cop 5k - race report

Ran with a cop this morning. Actually, I think I ran with a bunch of cops and some sheriffs. And some regular folks (aka not cops). And some dogs. And quite a few dead squirrels (gross).

Had some health issues this week, so I debated whether or not I was actually going to run this morning right up until this morning. Told myself that if I was feeling tired or crappy when the alarm went off this morning that I'd turn it off and go back to sleep. But I slept well and was feeling fine, so I decided to go for it. My race goals - to start and to finish. Wasn't going to worry about time. If I started to feel bad again, I would walk, or even drop out if I had to.

As I was leaving my neighborhood, there was a lot of traffic. I know why I was up and out at 7:00am, but where were all these other people going at almost the crack of dawn on a Saturday? Don't they know they're supposed to sleep in? (Yard sales. They were going to yard sales. Bunch of them this morning). But I digress...

I got to CAMC Memorial, got signed in, got my lovely t-shirt, but no number. My scrapbooking friends will be proud of me for this thought, but I was quite disappointed in not having a number. I want one for every race to put into the race scrapbook I'm going to start. (Friends scrap, I don't, or didn't, until I had something interesting to show off. But they've rubbed off on me and now I want to give it a try). And yet again, I digress...

As we lined up at the start , it looked like a big ol' storm was coming in. Dark clouds, wind. But the darkest clouds blew over with no storm. Race would start with a countdown of "1... 2... 3... or maybe it'll be 3... 2... 1... and go on the whistle" (race director got a little confused with his counting. hee hee) Whichever way he chose to count, the whistle blew and we were off.

Started off well and feeling pretty good. Started to get tired somewhere in the first mile and decided to break the race up into sections. At some point, it start to rain; a nice cooling easy rain; actually made it nice since I didn't get hot at all.

Section 1: Make it to the water station at Mile 1: still running and feeling ok. Managed to spill most of the water on myself instead of actually drinking it. Made a mental note to walk and drink next time.

Section 2: Make it to the turn around: started to tire out a bit had to walk a bit, but not much;

Section 3: Make it back to the water stop: Ran some, walked a little. Took a water, and actually managed to drink this one instead of spill it. (Water stop question: Anybody else feel guilty just dropping the cup on the ground? Being taught as just little tike that littering is a bad thing, I have a hard time just tossing the cup willy nilly....)

Section 4: Make it to the finish. Yay! I did it! Even ran the whole way from the water to the end. Got my little popsicle stick with my place on it (83) and stopped all my running gadgets.

Interesting sights along the way: A yard sale with shoppers watching us all run by; the looks on their faces made it clear they thought we were nuts. Gross sights along the way: several squished roadkill squirrels. Poor little things... Again, I digress (and not pleasantly)

31:35. Not bad for not feeling my best and having to walk. Ended up being a pretty good race for me. I think it was even a PR (gonna have to start keeping better records.... going to have to research), which is totally awesome.

But after it was over I started hurting and not feeling good, so I turned in my stick (goshdarnit, there went another lovely artifact for my scrapbook...) and headed home to take a little nap. Waiting for official results and pics to be posted.

Run with a Cop 5K
Splits:
Mile 1: 9:50
Mile 2: 10:21
Mile 3: 10:18
Mile .12: 9:16
3.12 miles, 31:35; avg pace 10:08

(and for the record, official Komen 5K results say I ran it in 31:39; So, this was a PR by 4 seconds. YAY!!)

Official Run with a cop results: 82nd 31:31 PR by 8 seconds. woo hoo

Sunday, June 5, 2011