Fashion and Fro-yo

I’m working on getting my RNR Seattle Marathon post done, but it will probably take me a while. Check back in a few months 😉 Here is a picture I took of Mt. Rainier during the race to hold you over. Maybe my time would have been better if I wasn’t texting my mom while running that Mt. Rainier was out. 

I’ve been extremely busy lately, which has been a nice way to pass time during this deployment. The only downside is that I am spread a little thin and will have to figure out how my husband will fit in once he returns home.

I’m running a 1/2 on July 20th with a friend. I thought I wouldn’t want to run for weeks after the marathon, but I have full on runner’s high in a bad way. Another friend and I are already working on BQ training plans.

I am starting to teach cycling once a week at our local Y. My first class is next week!

 

I’ve started getting more request for pictures, which is amazing. I had a shoot today for my friend’s new boutique – I even had a few pictures of me snapped! [See my muscles? I think R.I.P.P.E.D is paying off.]

You would not believe how hot it is here! We had to be in the 90’s today. I know that doesn’t sound like much to my Southern peeps, but Washington didn’t invest in AC. We were so hot after the shoot that we were forced to have fro-yo to cool down. It’s a tough life.

Seeing as it is after 1am, I should probably go to bed now.

Gone Running

See ya in 26.2! 

1 day left…

Tomorrow is the big day!!! [I have a pit in my stomach as I type this] I am so excited and nervous. Can my body really run 26.2 miles? Guess we are about to find out 🙂 Here goes nothing…

 

20 miles is hard

My view this afternoon: Ben & Jerry sure know what they are doing. Ben, Jerry and I had a date because I was celebrating my longest run of this training plan, my longest run E.V.E.R and my last long run before the RNR Seattle Marathon!!!! I still can’t believe I ran 20 miles. I am blessed with great friends who each took an hour of my run so I would have company for all 20 miles. Mile 20 was actually my fast mile, so I guess that is a good sign. May was a pretty good running month for me considering I didn’t feel like I was running that frequently.

My only concern one of my many concerns going into RNR is that I didn’t complete any runs alone. Even those short ones were with Boomer.

Other than running, I was gifted a monogramming machine. So now I am a monogramming machine. I’m Southern, what can I say?

I’m thinking about selling these monogorammed workout tanks. Would anyone be interested?

Run Happy

 

I had just come home from babysitting when I flipped the TV on from the comfort of my bed. I was planning on watching a little Boston Marathon coverage before taking a nap. However, something was wrong with Comcast (shocker) and all of channels were “not available” so I resorted to flipping through basic cable. That is when I saw the breaking news “Explosions at Boston Marathon”. It took me a minute to realize it was real; it couldn’t be true. I texted my mom to turn the news on and we both texted each other in shock. There was an explosion at the Super Bowl of running.

As I watched the news coverage, I cried. I think about how many races I’ve run and how many races my mom and husband have stood at the finish line waiting on me. The people affected were there in support of loved ones; there to watch someone else accomplish a goal.

For many runners, Boston is a goal. Since last year, I have started thinking more and more about running the Boston Marathon. I had literally just had a conversation with some friends about my chances of qualifying as we researched qualifying times and what pace that meant.  I had already decided that after finishing my first marathon in June, I would start training to qualify. Plans have not changed and if anything, I am more motivated than ever.

Yesterday, I set out for a run as many other runners did. In fact, I have never seen so many runners in Bremerton. I ran 14 miles, my longest run ever and I couldn’t help but think about the Boston Marathon every step of the way. It was the first beautiful day in a while and I was grateful for the ability to get out and do what I love.

“It may not be Boston-fast, but it [was] Boston-felt.” -Kate Markert

 

I did it!

Honestly, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. The beginning was a little rough…

I checked the weather before leaving and it said 50 degrees with a high of 65, but it felt cool. I decided on pants and a long sleeve. Luckily I threw a short sleeve shirt in my bag as I headed out the door because 3 miles in I was in the backseat of my car changing. I headed back to the main road on base but quickly realized I was either going to find a bathroom or wet my pants. After awkwardly running around base trying to find a bathroom (note: no bathroom at the gas station or mini mart) I went back to where I parked and used the Commissary bathroom. I thought I saw a different way to get back to the main road, but there wasn’t a sidewalk and I like to abide by the rules when on base (correction – my husband has me scared to do anything “wrong”). Back I went up towards the Commissary (by this point I’ve awkwardly walked around looking for a sidewalk while pouring sweat) when a group of Marines walked by.

“Good Afternoon, ma’am”

I wanted to respond “I know I look like an idiot, but all I need is a sidewalk so I can run… 10 miles by the way!”

I settled for “hello” and kept walking.

Finally I got back on the road and finished out my run. The entire run I thought I wasn’t doing that great, but I finished my last mile pretty strong. That has to be a good sign that I still had something left in the tank.

 

The big 1-0

I should be getting ready for my run, but instead I’m sitting here writing a blog post about my run 🙂 Today is a big milestone for me – double digits. I’ve run this distance plenty of times, but I have not hit double digits since September 16, 2012 (death day of the IT band). I’m scared and don’t feel like I’m ready, but if I’m going to run a marathon in June I’ve got to run 10 miles… and then some.

To continue my procrastination, here are some pictures of our furbabies…

Boomer’s running is going great! He is up to 8.25 miles (total) for the year. On Monday he ran 1.25 miles at once which was his longest run yet. I LOVES to run and this little boy is fast! We ran 1.25 miles in less than 10 minutes.

He also really loves tennis balls. I was rolling my feet out this morning/trying to prevent Boomer from stealing it from me. He caught me off guard when he pounced on my foot and took off running with my tennis ball. Got to love this dog.

Millie just really loves to sleep.

I’ll leave you with my view from last night. I was too lazy to get my good camera out, so an iPhone picture will suffice.

 

A little bit of dog’s breakfast

My dad used to travel to England often for work when I was younger. “Dog’s breakfast” was an expression I remember him telling us about – meaning a bit of a mess; all over the place. This post is a bit of dog’s breakfast.

To add to that, I wrote this two days ago and forgot to publish it. So pretend it is Thursday…

After running the 10k last weekend, I was refocused and ready to tackle my week of running. Then I got sick. I’ve never be the type of person to get sick that often, but this makes #2 since moving to Washington. They tell me it’s the mold here and that just makes me cringe. On Tuesday I was feeling okay enough to try to run and I enjoyed the mountain views for 7 miles.
I still can’t get over the mountains here. Some days it’s hard to believe they are real and not just painted in the sky.

I’m loving getting to run near the water again, but I do wish it was on warm Charleston roads. I also think my running while taking a picture multitasking skills are getting pretty good 🙂

I’m getting into my longer long runs now – today was 8 miles and I have 10 to run next week – so fueling is starting to become more important. I realized we don’t have a sporting good store close by so I hit up Amazon for energy gel. Two days later, 2,400 calories arrived at my door step. I’m a little sad because after I ordered the vanilla flavor I tried a chocolate one left over from my last 1/2 marathon. I knew I should never doubt good ol’ chocolate.
 The weather today was crazy! I ran around 10am and it was sunny and 50 degrees. On my way home it started to hail. Then it was sleet. And then the sun came back out. It hailed again while I was at bible study. I maintain that Washington is the weirdest state of them all. I had to take a picture of the hail because I knew my husband would never believe me. 

To end the most random post of all time… I wanted to share my fruit rainbow. Note to self: kids went crazy for fruit sticks and ate 99% of them before the adults had a chance.

St. Patty’s Day Run

This weekend was bitter-sweet. On one hand, I had a really fun weekend. On the other hand, I really wish the hubby could have been here to have fun with me.

Saturday started bright and early driving down to Tacoma to run in the Bud Light St. Patty’s Day Run. We ended up getting to the starting line just as the 10k runners took off, but we all needed to go to the bathroom. We decided that the bathroom was more important. As we all finished up we heard “last call for 10k runners” and we took off… just our little group starting in our own little race. We even got cheered for since it was just us running. Kara and I decided to push ourselves just to see what happened. Neither of us had really trained nor had any real goals for the race.
We ended up finishing in 53:39 with a 8:39 pace. I came in 4 in my age group. Not bad for a race with no expectations.