Six on Sunday

Yesterday was another very cold morning, it was 29 degrees pretty much our whole run. I had on capri pants, a short sleeve shirt, long sleeve shirt and a jacket.
When I was driving to the school it dawned on me that it might just be Brenda and Cindy and if there wasn't anyone else running I was going to turn around and go home!! I know that sounds silly but I can't keep up with Brenda and Cindy when they are running together. Lucky for me Joan had arrived home from her trip to North Carolina on Saturday night and was ready to run yesterday morning. When it comes to a race Joan will beat me every time, but she does her training runs at a slower pace. We were perfectly matched yesterday morning, so I had a running partner. It didn't take very long until the girls were off in the distance but that was ok, Joan and I were just fine bringing up the rear! LOL

About 1.5 miles into the run I told Joan that when we got to the gas station I would need to stop, but the good thing was that I was able to run the whole time until just before we got there. Good thing too because just a couple more seconds and I might of had a problem!

The bathroom break was just past the 3 mile mark, at first I thought if I can just make it 5 miles I will be ok with that. Luckily I started feeling better and I really didn't want to leave Joan to run by herself, although she would have been fine. One of the fun things about running with Joan is that she collects money, she has an eagle eye and she spotted 3 dimes and 3 pennies. We would have to stop for each one so that slowed our pace down a little bit but I honestly didn't care. It was a tough run but I was glad that I kept going. We hit our 6 miles right at the gates of the elementary school but we went ahead and jogged it in back to the cars. Brenda and Cindy had already finished but Brenda waited around to see how our run went. It really made me feel good that she did!!

I had warmed up during the run but as soon as we stopped I was freezing... I am so HAPPY to have heated seats now in my new CR-V!! Heated seats and Mountain Mudd coffee are the perfect combination to take the chill off!!

Yesterday afternoon was spent cleaning out the Red truck, grocery shopping and play cooking with Kylie :)

Saturday Fun

Cheryl has a great post on her blog about yesterday's run. She pretty much said it all, freezing cold, hard, miserable. I will add that I was so proud of Kelly she powered up all the hills and was just full of pep yesterday. I almost wanted to trip her!! just kidding Kel, you know I love ya!
I got a couple of pictures yesterday, I really wanted one of the three of us but that never happened.

Top photo is Cheryl and I and the second one is Kelly.

After a delicious Vegan Hummas sandwich at Boulevard Bread Co. in the River Market Cheryl drove me to Russell Honda so I could look at the CR-V's. I had already test driven one last week. I thought I wanted white but the "Glacier Blue" was kind of speaking to me so Arland wanted me to go look and decide before he started cleaning out his truck. The White one's seem hard to come by, when we went last week they said they would have one in on the third. Well it came in yesterday and was sold yesterday and another one wasn't coming in until the 19th. I didn't care I had fallen in love with the glacier blue, but then a sudden dilema. I also really liked the "Green Tea" color. Cheryl also really like the green one as well. I called Arland and told him it was safe to go ahead and clean out his truck because I knew I wanted one of the one's on the lot. I was halfway home when Cheryl called to let me know I had left my purse at her house. I swear I am so absent minded sometimes, especially after a long run!

I showered and changed while Arland finished cleaning out his truck and then we were off, first to Cheryl's to get my purse and then to Saturn. While we were taking a pit stop at the dog park I saw a new White Saturn Vue, they have changed their body style for 08 and I really liked it. I test drove the Vue and while I did like it, I didn't love it especially compared to the Honda CR-V. Next stop Honda to decide which color and get the paper work started. I took pictures of the green and blue and sent them to Livia. Like Cheryl and I she really liked the green too, but like me there was just something about the blue we liked better.
Finally the decision was made and now it was time to start negoiating. Arland's truck had high mileage and they didn't want to give us anything for it. He was stubborn and they did come up a little but still not a great trade in. No matter with the money I will safe in gas it will make up for it in the long run. It is so much easier and faster when you don't have a trade-in. The whole process seemed to take forever and I was really starting to feel fatigued from the early morning long run.
I am so thrilled with my new car/suv? I have felt for a long time that is was just wasteful that Arland and I both had big trucks. And I have been sick to death of paying $70.00 dollars a week for gas. My new vehicle is just so pretty and not too small but small enough to make parking much easier. Plus it is a Honda and Honda's hold their value much better than Ford Trucks!!! Here is a picture of my new little baby :) I don't think this picture does it justice so I will probably take some new one's later today.

After we finished the paperwork we went to dinner and then to see Kylie, we had talked on the phone several times and she was anxious to see "our" new car. We took her for a little ride and she loved it! She had been very resistent to me getting a new car, she love the big red truck and didn't want me to stop driving it. When we finally got home last night I was EXHAUSTED!! I fell asleep on the couch after about 15 minutes!

Sport Specific

Coach Dennis told me last night that to be a better runner I needed to concentrate on "sport specifity". Last night was not the first time I have come to the clinic with trashed legs because of spinning or something else. This time it was because of Body Sculpting. We normally do upper body on Wednesday and we would have normally had our clinic workout on Tuesday night. Wednesday morning we did a full body workout which included a about a million squats and lunges. I knew even as I was doing them I would probably regret it later. Normally I like feeling sore after a workout, it makes me feel like I really worked hard, but when it interfers with my running, not so much!
After watching me trudge up the hill 6 times last night Coach pulled me, he said my upper body form was fine, but that he didn't like the way my legs looked and he was worried about injury. I have so much respect for Dennis that I obeyed I didn't even try to argue with him. Besides my legs hurt so bad it was a relief to not have to go up that hill again.
While everyone else finished their hill repeats I ran back and forth on the "flats" it was boring and I was lonely and feeling like a weiney for not being able to do the hill's with the rest of the group. I did end up going up one more time but this time I walked, it actually felt good kind of stretched my legs out a little bit. On the way down Coach and I talked about the importance of being rested and ready for our Tuesday night workouts. So in order to be able to give it my all on Tuesday nights I have decided I am going to have to quit Spinning on Tuesday mornings. I do believe that the Body Sculping and Spinning are good for me and help my running and make me stronger overall but I just have to tweak my schedule so they don't interfer with our workouts. I really want to become a stronger runner so I need to concentrate on running!

I was very proud of my girls last night!! Cheryl, Kelly and Jennifer got in 9 repeats and Brenda, Rock, & Cindy did 15!!!! they are awesome because that is one humongous hill... very steep!
Reed and Robert also did great I think they got in 12!!
Tracy and Brett had to do 3 and they told me later they did great and even felt like they could do more.
Cheryl has a great post on her blog about last night.

I was bummed not to be able to spend any time with Brett last night, but just knowing he was out there was great! I did get to see them for a few minutes they had just finished their hill repeats when we were starting ours. We had a 2 mile warm up and had to make a pit stop at Tracy's house.

Tomorrow is 16 on the River Trail with Cheryl ... I just hope my legs will cooperate!

Treadmill Run

Yesterday was a pretty miserable day weather wise. Rainy/sleety cold and drab, Brenda and I had decided through e-mail that we probably were not going to be able to run in KK last night. I called Michele and she was pretty bummed. We all were our Monday and Wednesday night runs have become my favorites and I really look forward to them.
When I got home from work I called Brenda just to make sure we weren't going to run outside. It was pretty obvious but you sometimes you just have to make sure! LOL
We both had said that we would run on our treadmill's. More than likely I would have bailed and not done it if I hadn't talked to Brenda. While on the phone she said "so you ARE going to run on the treadmill...right?" That did it, now I was accountable. We both agreed we would report back to each other what our mileage was. Four miles was the minium with 6 being the desired amount. We both knew there was no way we would get eight in.
About 6:30 I changed clothes and headed upstairs, I had my i-pod and the t.v. not the same as running with friends but better than nothing. One HUGE advantage to running on the treadmill is being very close to the bathroom!!! LOL Just before I hit my first mile I had to run downstairs to visit the facilities and then again I think around the 3 mile mark. I guess it was a good thing I had to run inside last night!
I managed to get 5 miles running and then I walked half a mile to cool down. It wasn't such a terrible run... but all I can say is thank goodness for All My Children. I don't know if I could have done 5 miles without it!
I felt really good after the run... I was happy I actually did it, and now I realize that although the Treadmill isn't my favorite it is bearable when you just can't run outside.

Tonight is our Flyer's clinic and as Brenda and Cheryl mentioned in the comment section we have hill repeats tonight. I am not looking forward to it at all!! My legs are so sore from yesterday's body sculpting class and then I had spinning this morning.
Although I might not be looking forward to the hill repeats I am looking foward to seeing everyone and I am especially excited because my son Brett is going to be joining us. I was going to write about this the other day but Arland beat me to it, and he has a great post on his blog about Brett's Christmas present to me.

Catching UP

I was so sore from our 16 miler and the mega shopping on Saturday but I still got up early on Sunday morning to meet the group running in Greystone to welcome Phil back from Iraq. I was so excited to get to run with everyone but then about 1.5 miles into I was done. Maybe if we hadn't started on a hill and then kept going up and down I might have been able to hang longer, but I just felt empty like I didn't have anything left to give. Kerri W. turned around with me and we walked up the first couple of hills but then we started jogging, and I started feeling better so we ended up adding on and i was able to eek out 4.5 miles. I felt like such a failure I was very upset about it but I am better now... kind of! lol
Sweet Heather came by the house after she finished the run just to check on me... of course that made me cry! I'm lucky to have so many people who care about me!

After the failed attempt to run I spent the rest of the day around the house, wrapping presents etc. I really felt drained and didn't feel like doing much.

I decided to make Christmas Eve a rest day I had to go to the grocery store and what a mad house that place was! after that I wrapped presents and cleaned up until time to go to my SIL's house for Christmas Eve dinner. This was our first Christmas without "GaGa" and she was very missed, but everyone seemed to hold up pretty well.

Christmas morning we were meeting for a Christmas Day run...Brenda, Vicki, Jane, David S. and I were the only one's who ran. The morning started off so cold but by 10:00 it was in the low 40's and the sun was shining bright so it felt warm almost too warm, we were all complaining about being hot and when we made it to our 1/2 way point we were dripping sweat. Our desination was the Phillip's 66 gas station by the high school. Christy our favorite massage therapist works there part time and she and her husband volunteered to work on Christmas Day so that others could be off. Vicki had brought along some goodies for us all to give to them.
When we first got there they might have had one or two customers but when we were leaving they were packed. I guess because all the regular stores were closed?
On the way back to SSE we had a bit of wind and that helped keep us cool for the rest of the run. We could have gone back a couple of different ways, one option was to run alongside the high school. Well I said you mean with the huge hill. I don't think I will ever live that down, Brenda and Vicki had a good laugh at that!! of course I don't know what they were laughing at, because that is a pretty steep hill!! But in my defense after our run on Saturday I just didn't want to see any hills!! Not that we didn't have any, hwy 89 is full of inclines so it wasn't exactly flat no matter which way you went.
We had 4.78 miles when we got back to the elementary school so we had to run around the parking lot to get our full 5 miles. Joan would have been proud of us :()

I felt so much better after our run.. it gave me back some of the confidence I had lost on Sunday!

Successful Saturday

I have to start out by saying that when I got up at 4:15 yesterday morning I was having some seriously negative self talk. Such as - why in the hell am I getting up at 4:00am on a Saturday morning to run 16 miles... I don't need 16 miles what is wrong with me etc.
Of course I am always glad when I get the run done, and yesterday was for Cheryl. It was her first 16 miler, and with injuries, illness and travel she has suffered some setbacks and this was an important run for her.
I knew I needed to get gas so I tried to leave early but I just couldn't seem to leave the bathroom, that was a problem that would plague me later on the run too.
I picked Michele up first and then we went to the gas station, I pulled my purse out and was like ut oh... I had just taken out my credit cards, bank card and most of my cash and left them at home. We were going to a bad part of Little Rock and I didn't know if I was going to drive or not. Anyway Michele bless her heart had some cash so we were in good shape. I wish I could describe the look on the old guys face when I went in to pay wearing my running skirt but it was priceless. I guess he doesn't see very many women with short skirts at 5:00 in the morning in Cabot!
We got to Cheryl's right on time and we ended up riding with her. We had hoped that Leann was going to run with us, but I guess it was just too early.
We met with the LR marathon training group just in time, the leader always starts off with a very hearty "good morning crackheads" I've probably mentioned that before, but I just love it for some reason. LOL

The run started off good, an easy pace not too slow not too fast, but within a couple of miles my stomach started hurting. Actually my stomach doesn't hurt I always say that but actually it's not even my stomach it's just plain and simple I needed to use the bathroom!! I knew it was going to be awhile for a bathroom and I was seriously keeping my eye's open for a dark corner to make a pit stop but everything just looked too scary! Because of my poop dilema we had to take some walk breaks and we ended up losing the LR group. During one of the walking parts a man driving a pick up truck slowed down and said "what are you girls doing out here" I think it was Cheryl who said running, so we started running. He seemed like a nice man but it was still kind of scary!
Finally I see the lights of an EZ mart ahead... oh sweet relief. Something about seeing those lights did something to my stomach and the urge became so intense I actually had to stop walking and stand in the middle of the road with my legs crossed for a few seconds before I could move again. I think that happened about 3 times before we made it to the gas station. Cheryl had gone on ahead and just as I approached she said NO PUBLIC RESTROOM! Now I am a shy person and am not very good at asking for things especially when there is a sign saying no. But I was desperate so I went in and said to the very big man, I know the sign say's no, but can I please use your restroom. He said NO I can't let you... it's the rule etc. I said really and I guess I must have looked pretty pathetic and I was kind of doubled over so he finally let me. He said he had something going on back there so he had to go back and do something first before I could go back. In my mind I could see one of those back room poker games going on, or maybe dog fights. I have a very crazy imagination. I don't know what he could have had going on, because it was just a small stock room.
Once I was able to take care of the poop dilema I felt like a brand new person... good thing too since we were about to be heading up Kavanaugh.

Kavanaugh is a very long hill, it must be a couple of miles (Arland just said 3) anyway we ran up the whole thing!! It was kind of scary too because it is a windy road and the traffic flys along pretty fast.
I was very proud of us during the whole run actually because Kavanaugh wasn't the only hill and we ran all of them. The only breaks we took were either potty or water breaks, until towards the end we didn't take walk breaks. Speaking of potty breaks, during one of the hills in Cammack Village my stomach did some kind of flip flop thing and the poop dilema hit me again. It wasn't as intense as the first time and I was able to keep running for the most part, but we had our eye's peeled for a good place to stop. We knew there was a Kroger's up ahead and I thought I could wait for that when all of a sudden there was Starbucks.. it was perfect Michele had been wanting a caffein boost so while Cheryl and I used the facilities Michele had a Starbucks double shot espresson drink. I really wish I could have had one too, but I was afraid of what it might do to my stomach.
The last few miles were pretty tough, the hills had done their damage and poor Cheryl's feet were killing her. We started having to take some walk breaks and everytime we did my hips and quads would just scream when it was time to run again.
We were just about done and there was one more pretty good size hill up ahead of us. I think we were on 3rd street, we were trudging along when all of a sudden I hear my name. Huh some I know is here? Anyway I look over and it was SUSAN... oh wow how cool!!! She was at work and had seen all the runners out so she was watching for us. We yelled at Michele who was ahead of us and then we all ran over to say hi. It was really good to see you Susan!!!
I was at 15 at that point a couple of times I had run ahead and then circled back for Cheryl so I was able to get a little bit more than her... plus when she had to stop to take motrin I kept walking.
Anyway when my Garmin hit 16 I was so ready to stop, but Cheryl still had .4 to go so I just stuck with her and when her Garmin finally hit 16 I stopped mine and ended up walking the rest of the way back to the meeting place. I think we ended up with 17 miles.
Although this run had it's challenges it was AWESOME!! I am so proud of Cheryl she did great!!! and it was so fun having Michele along with us!!

Once I got home I took a hot shower and got ready to tackle the mall and other stores to finish my Christmas shopping.
First though I met Livia at I-Hop for a big breakfast/lunch. When the waiter took our order I told him I just ran 16 miles and I'm hungry so get your pen ready!! LOL
It has been ages since Livia and I have been shopping together and if it weren't for her I would have never been able to do it yesterday. She helped me pick out presents and it was just really nice to spend time with her.

So I would say it was a very successful Saturday... Cheryl, Michele and I completed 16 miles and I finished my Christmas shopping... well except for Livia's present!! LOL

Christmas Present

Here is a picture of the Christmas present John Ed gave me. You will remember John Ed from the temptation post, he was the one forcing me to eat hershey kisses. Well he redeemed himself as he always does, he really is a nice guy.

When Kylie first saw it she said " I thought you were running naked" LOL

Wednesday night 8-miler

Wednesday nights are our 8 mile run. Last night it was Brenda, Michele, Kelly and myself. It was kind of chilly around 48 degrees but breezy. I was wearing a running skirt and my Run for Elijah long sleeve tech shirt. I started off with a really light jacket and gloves but I had to take the jacket off pretty quick.
This was the first time we had all run together in a couple of weeks... it was nice to have Michele back with us.
We started off at a nice pace not too fast not too slow. We weren't too far into the run when Kelly said she really needed a bathroom break, and lucky for her Brenda has a good friend who lives in the neighborhood where we were running. While Kelly and Brenda went to Suzanne's house Michele and I ran up and down the street. Brenda and I found a new street to run on last week, it is a nice gradual downhill but of course that means it's a not so nice gradual uphill on the way back!! I think running in these neighborhoods is going to be really good training for the Nashville Marathon. The whole run is a series of rolling hills. One of the advantages of running in the dark is you don't always see those hills until you are on them and you are usually half way through before you realize you've been running uphill. I know a couple of times last night I would think geez this is hard or I'm tired and then I would realize it was because we were running up.
Just before we got to the 1/2 way point and back to Michele's neighborhood I realized I really needed a bathroom break.
The bathroom break was the only time we stopped, other than once or twice when we were crossing a busy street and we had to wait for traffic.
The last 1/2 of our run was faster than the first which is always a good feeling. The faster we would run the less we would talk though and I missed the chatter, but I myself really couldn't talk.
Michele and I finished our 8 miles before Brenda and Kelly because of their bathroom break but we kept running until they hit 8.
It was a really awesome run and I was so proud of Kelly, she wasn't really planning on running 8 miles, but she hung in there with us and finished strong.
As soon as I got home I jumped in a hot shower and OUCH.. I had chaffed in a lot of places! I don't think I had than much chaffing in the middle of the summer!

Something weird must have happened to my Garmin because my first mile split is messed up.
8.31 miles
1- 6:56 .64 I don't know what this is all about???
2- 10:39
3- 10:22
4- 10:20
5- 10:18
6- 10:02
7- 10:00
8- 10:01
9- 6:32 .67
I show an average pace of 10:16 but I accidentally started it again when I was putting my jacket it on adn I'm not sure how much time that added.
I think Brenda showed an avg of 8:06 and Kelly's was right around there.
It doesn't really matter it was a great run, and we all enjoyed it so who could ask for more?

I missed spinning class this morning... a combination of thunder/lightening and heavy rain plus just plain not feeling well, so I just turned the alarm off after the first or second time.
I'm feeling kind of like a slug for missing, but I think in the long run maybe it will be a good thing... sometimes we need rest even more than a workout.
I'm also really sore from Wednesday's body sculpting class.

Christmas Lights & Flying

It has been a busy couple of days!

Monday night was the annual Cabot Country Cruisers Holiday Light Run. I was able to talk Arland into going, but I had to use Kylie as bait. It was chilly but not too cold, but I knew I would be doing a lot of walking so I dressed warmer than I normally would for a run. I wish I would have gotten some pictures of Kylie in all of her "runner girl" gear. She was just too cute!!
Kylie did really well at the start of the run, we got started a few seconds behind and she was trying to catch up with the main group. She was pretty speedy but I knew it wouldn't last long... although I have to say she was able to run a lot longer than I thought she would. Arland's leg is injured so he was walking and Vicki also walked with us. Vicki knew that Arland needed some company and she stayed with him the whole time. I think as much as Arland misses running he misses the companionship of the Cruiser's even more. So once Kylie ran out of steam it was the four of us.
After Kylie was completely worn out and couldn't walk anymore I put her on my back and then Arland carried her on his shoulder's. Poor thing she was too cute, she kept saying "I don't want to run, I just want to party"!!!
Towards the end the group came running towards us and Kylie was soo excited!! They all looked great and they were singing Christmas songs. At the time I was really wishing I was running with them, but I really enjoyed being with Arland, Vicki and Kylie. I also know that Kylie isn't always going to want to hang out with us so I am happy for every moment I have with her now!
After the run we all gathered at Vicki's house for snacks... it was nice to get to see everyone and spend some non running time together. It was a small group this year and Kylie and Sarah's little boy Austin were the only kids, but they made the most of it. I almost forgot at the end of the run Kylie and Austin sprinted the last little bit and were declared the winners :) Austin by the way is quite the runner, he is 3 years old and he ran the entire time which I think was about 2.5 miles. All the way home Kylie kept asking me "now how many miles did I run" she couldn't wait to tell everyone how far she had run.

Last night was our Tuesday Night Flyer's clinic. For the advanced group the workout was 2 mile warm up, strides and then a 20 minute tempo run at your lactate threshold pace. Intermediate was the same except for 15 minute LT pace. I chose to do the advanced workout. I also was able to talk Baily and Kelly into 20 minutes as well.
Something about the cold air I always have to use the restroom pretty much as soon as we start running. I asked Andrea if I could use her house while we were still at the school and of course she said yes. I ran to her house with Bailey and Cheryl. I had to do a lot "talking into" with Baily last night... LOL When I said I needed to use the bathroom she said she did too but she would just wait, I said that's silly it's right there and you will have a better run if you do. So Bailey, Cheryl and I took advantage of Andrea and Scott's hospitality. Good thing too because I know I wouldn't have had as good a run if I hadn't.
We still had a little over a mile left of our warm up after the break so we just made a big loop around Andrea's neighborhood.
Cheryl and Brenda showed me a few new tricks with my Garmin last night... I really should read the instruction manual!! LOL
I set it so the backlight would stay on for the whole workout... it sure made it easier to be able to keep up with our average pace. And I used a different display window than I normally do.
Kelly ran the LT pace with me, although her's is supposed to be a little slower than mine she has been doing the LT workout's with me for the most part and she has been doing a great job with them too!!!!
As we started running we were chatting a little bit, but as I got us up to our desired avg pace Kelly said I don't think I'm going to be doing much talking during this... I told her same here but it's just nice to have someone running with you regardless if you talk or not.
Because I had my Garmin on a different display window it would start over at each mile, so we didn't know the exact running time. Every time we ran by someone we would yell out how long have we been running. (we all started the workout at the same time) Finally Dennis gave me his watch and said when it get's to 6 minutes you are done. Kelly bless her heart kept asking me how much longer but I could barely see the watch so it was a challenge, I don't know why I didnt' just give the watch to her since she has better eyes than I do!! We ended up with 20:51 instead of 20 minutes but that's ok, we did it and we finished strong.
Instead of doing strides after the workout Dennis told us to incorporate them into our run back to the school. We were all just taking it easy when Bailey suddenley just took off... Brenda said oh yeah we are supposed to be doing strides. I had secretely hoped they would forget!! But no we were good girls and we would stride from mailbox to mailbox and the last one was acutally up hill.
Total mileage was 5.25
LT pace workout
2.15 miles
9:42 avg pace
avg HR for those 2.15 miles
157 max was 164
Does that mean I should have pushed harder???
I did feel like I could have kept running our LT pace for longer than 20 minutes.
Next week will be Hill Repeats... after two weeks of doing the advanced workouts I wonder if Dennis will let me go back to the intermediate!!
Oh almost forgot Tracy and Tamara did their mile time trials and they both did really well!!!

Taking Inventory

3- Jackets

2- pairs of gloves

1-scarf

1-long sleeve techinical running shirt

2-Christmas presents

1- Garmin Heart Rate Monitor strap

3- ear warmers

1- Bondi Band

1- Hydrantion Belt

2- 1/2 empty bottles of water

2- half packets of Luna Moons

1- visor with attatched light

1- headlamp type thingy

1- reflective vest

My vehicle is a mess but at least I'm prepared...all I need are an extra pair of running shoes and a running skirt and I will always be ready for a run.

Weekend Running

The plan for Saturday morning was to meet at SSE at 7:00am. When my alarm went off at 5:50 it was thundering & lightening and pouring down rain.. I rolled over turned the arlarm off and that was the end of that or so I thought. When I finally did get up at about 8:00 it was still raining. A quick check of my e-mail showed that the run had been postponed to 10:00am. I told myself I would just run on the treadmill later. Yeah right the more I thought about it the more I realized how unlikely it was I would end up on the treadmill. I made the decision to get dressed and meet the others at 10:00. I am SO glad I did, it ended up being perfect, sure a bit chilly at the start but with no wind I was warm and taking off my jacket before we even got to our first mile.
I ran with Vicki,Joan & Jane and it was great. We ran a very comfortable pace, the route had a few hills including the big one on Mount Carmel but they were no problem. Vic and Jane stopped at 5.1 miles but Joan and I added on to get in 6.
Saturday
6 miles
1:04
10:47 avg pace

Sunday I was meeting Cheryl and Brenda at the River Trail the weather forcast called for a sunny but very cold day. We had orginally decided on 10:00 but after some discussion decided to move it back to 11:30. This also worked out really well for Brenda. She had a work Christmas Party the night before so she was able to sleep in a bit.
I went to Cheryl's house at 11:30ish, while there I got to see Georgie and my how he has grown and goodness he has the bluest eyes!!!. Soon after we headed out and met Brenda at the Skate Part right around 12:00. It really was a beautiful day but oh so windy and cold. We got started and I thought I'm forgetting something, it only took one gust of wind for me to realize it was my gloves. We ran back to my truck I got my gloves and we were on our way. It was a headwind pretty much the whole way out 4 miles. But even with the wind I warmed up and was comfortable for most of the run. Cheryl is still recovering from her cold and was not feeling well at all!!!! We decided to change from our plan of 12+ miles to 8. There were not very many people out on the River Trail yesterday but most of the people we did see were friendly. We ran into one guy who lived in Hot Springs but came to Little Rock just for the River Trail. He had two doggies and Brenda and Cheryl spent some time visiting with them... LOL

Brenda kept us entertained with stories from the Christmas Party... we also tried to talk Cheryl into changing her Marathon plans. We suggested she run the 1/2 in Little Rock and then run the Country Music Marathon in Nashville with all of us. I couldnt' really tell what she thought of that idea. She was in too much pain from her shoulder to really be able to read her face.

Total for Sunday ended up 8.11 miles.

It was really nice to get to sleep in both Saturday and Sunday and still get in two good runs!

Next weekend Cheryl has 16 on her long run schedule and my plan is to do it with her. We will probably run with the LR marathon training group.

Kylie

Kylie and I had to run errands for Team 1 Friday morning and we made a stop at Starbucks... or as Kylie likes to call it Star Books. She normally doesn't like to go to the one in Jacksonville, she prefers the on at Barnes & Noble in NLR. When we go to the one in NLR we will get our drinks and then go sit in the childrens section and let her read and play.

Weekly Recap

12-8 Sat. 12.5
12-9 Sun. 7
12-10 Mon 4.6
12-11 Tue 4.83
12-12 Wed 0 Rain
12-13 Thur 6
12-14 Fri Rest
Total 34.93

Spinning
Tuesday & Thursday
Body Sculpting
Wednesday

I really wanted more mileage for the week but the rain on Wednesday put a damper on that plan.

Thursday

Wednesday night Brenda, Robert, Kelly and I met at Michele house to run, but unfortuanely right before we were about to get started it strted pouring down rain. It had just been spitting a little bit before that and we would have run in that no problem. funny though how guilty we all felt for not running.

Thursday morning was spinning class and after we got off the bike Stacey had us doing squats... not 10 or 15 but probably more like 50. Wednesday morning was Body sculpting class and we did 50 minutes of core and upper body exercises. Included in that were a ton of "Dead Lifts".

Brenda and I met at Michele's house again last night, we saw Robert's Yukon but never did see him. When we first started the run I felt everyone of those above mentioned exercises. I honestly thought for the first mile that there was no way I was going to be able to run 6 miles. We orginally had 8 on the schedule but we got started late and Kylie was coming to spend the night with me so we didn't have a lot of time.
It took about 3.5 miles before I really started feeling good. We tried to keep it at a comfortable pace and we did a good job of it except for a few times here and there when we would realize we had sped up quite a bit while talking. The weather was perfect about 44 degrees which is chilly but no real wind, we felt perfect the whole time and I was actually pretty sweaty when I got back in my truck. I had worn a visor so I could use my clip on light. Well the stupid battery was dead so I had to wear that thing the whole time for nothing.

6 miles
1:00:35
10:06 avg pace
I don't have the splits with me but I know that the slowest mile was 10:15 and the rest were between 10:03 and 10:06. Not bad considering how hard it was when we first started out.

After the run I went to Magness Creek to pick up Kylie. They were baking brownies so of course i had to stay and wait for them!!
I did get to see Brett for a little bit, now that he doesnt' work for Team 1 I don't get to see him very often. Unfortunately he was playing a video game with the guys so I didn't really get to talk to him... but it was good just to get a hug.

Tuesday Flyer's

Yesterday started out with a 5am Spinning Class. I can't say enough good things about Spinning. It is a great cardio workout, and great for the glute, quad's and hamstrings. We also do upper body stuff on the bike too. I'm lucky too because I LOVE our instructor Stacy. The one disadvantage to spinning is that sometimes on Tuesday's I don't feel like my legs have recovered in time for our Tuesday night Flyer workouts.
Last night when we first started our warm-up jog to our "play ground" I could feel the muscles I had used earlier in the day... but then that was replaced by an intense need to pee. I tried not to think about it, although in the back of my head I kept thinking well if worse comes to worse I can go to Tracy's house. When we got to the playground I noticed that Brenda and Cindy kept on running. I started my strides and then asked where they went as soon as I heard they went to Andrea's to use the facilities I took off in that same direction!!!

I got to see Andrea who had a couple of "surgical procedures" done yesterday. She looked great but I know it's going to be a painful couple of weeks for her!!! Her husband is a really nice guy and he never seems to mind that on Tuesday nights he sometimes has a stream of women going in and out to use the bathroom.

Brenda and Cindy had already left to head back to the group. The workout last night was mile repeats at Lactate Threshold pace. The advanced group had 3 and the intermediate group had 2. I normally do the intermediate workout but decided yesterday I was going to do 3. Of course I am no where near as fast as Brenda and Cindy so when the potty break put me behind I decided to start my first repeat from Andrea's house.
My LT pace is 9:45
1 - 9:28
2 - 9:25
3 - 9:35
You can see that I am not very good at pacing myself. I would look down at my garmin and when it would show me going too fast I would slow down but I could never find that "groove".
Luckily Kelly decided to do 3 repeats as well last night and we ran the last one together. When I was talking her into it I said we'll keept it about 10:00. It's a wonder that girl ever believes anything I tell her ;)
We felt great when we finished, well at least I did.... we waited for Brenda and Cindy to finish their strides and then we all ran back to the school together. I ended up with a total of 4.84, I know that is a weird number but I kept resetting for each mile so I didn't know my total mileage until I got home.
It was really warm last night 68 degrees and very humid.. probably 100%. The roads were wet from the moisture in the air.
Another great night with the Flyer's.

Christmas Party Pictures

I took lot's more pictures but most of them didn't turn out.

Foggy Sunday

Sunday morning I met Kim and several Cruisers at the elementary school for a 7 mile run. It was nice to sleep in a little bit. Kylie spent the night and we didn't get to bed until late so I need the few extra minutes.

It was VERY foggy yesterday morning, the one blinky light I had didn't seem like it did much good. The route chosen had some hilly sections and we were asked if we wanted the hills at the beginning or end. One of the roads we were running on is known to have deer and Tri Lisa was hoping so see some so we chose the hills last option. At the time I didnt' care but it turned out that I was very thankful for getting the hills over with during the first 4 miles.
Kim, Jane, Sara p. and I ran together almost the entire time. Joan and Toni were right there with us until we had to take a bathroom break at mile 4. Brenda, Cindy and Lisa were the lead group.

After the bathroom break I felt a tightening in my ankle, this happened to me back before Tulsa once and I knew i was in trouble. I kept going though thinking this time would be different. I finally had to stop running the pain was getting so bad. I can't really describe the pain but it is the outer ankle and the bend of my foot where it hurts. I am 99 % sure that it is the Sauconny shoes... I had already told myself and I probably wrote about it hear that I was not going to wear them anymore. Well this time I mean it!!! Damn shoes. Actually they are probably great shoes just not the right one's for my feet. I think I am going to just stick with my Asic's Gel Kenyano's.
So the last part of the run was terrible but everyone stuck with me and that was great.. I did try to get them to go on but they wouldn't. At one point when we were back on 321 Jane and Sara did go ahead, but as we got closer to the school they were walking back towards us. They said with the fog they didn't realize they lost us.
I did manage to do some jogging after the pain hit but it was mostly walking. I really appreciate Kim staying with me, especially when we were on 321 with the fog that was very scary!!! It was weird because we were all soaking wet as if we had been running in 90 degree temps. It was fairly warm when we first started about 48-50 degrees and I did work up a sweat but not that much!! LOL

On the way home as I turned off onto Nalley road all of a sudden I saw two people walking, scared the crap out of me. That is what it must have been like for the motorists we encountered on our run.

When I got home the pain in my ankle seemed to get worse and had travelled up my calf. I guess it is a cramp? I iced and took ibuprofren but nothing seemed to help. The fact that I was freezing probably didn't help either. Kylie was still asleep so I finally just got in the bed with her and snuggled up, as I warmed up a little I fell asleep and when I woke up my ankle felt much better. I guess it just needed to relax.

Before I finally took a nap with Kylie I tried to wake her up several times... each time she would stretch and say in her soft little voice... can I please just sleep a little itty big longer. LOL

When she did finally wake up I made her breakfast in bed. She wanted Fettucini Alfredo (lean cuisine) so I set up the Princess tray for her and served her breakfast in bed. A little later in the afternoon "Tio" aired up the tires on her bike for her and the three of us went for a bike ride. She didn't like it when he would get too far ahead and would shout at hime to come back.

It was a great afternoon with Kylie and after I took her home I headed to Chili's for our Jazzercise get together, a small group this year but it was great to see everyone who did make it.

Whirlwind Saturday

Saturday started off eary 4:15am, I was picking up Kim at 5:20 and we were meeting Cheryl in North Little Rock. It's been a while since we've had to get up so early for a run. This time last year Kim and I were doing almost all of our runs at 5:30am, but now she is able to run during the day and I have been getting my runs in after work.
The three of us were meeting the Little Rock Marathon training group at the Rivermarket. It is a huge group and I just love the feeling of being surrounded by lot's of other runners. The leader of the group is a pretty funny guy he always gets us started with a very hearty "good morning crackheads"... I do wonder what the homeless people think when they hear that, not that all homeless people are crackheads!!
Anyway we get started and Cheryl and I both need to use the bathroom we tried to go before the run started but the bathroom was locked. We see the Peabody Hotel just ahead of us and decide we will stop to use their facilities. Before we make it to the Peabody though a young girl crashed right beside us. It looked and sounded awful, she made such a loud thunking sound when she fell. I know that it had to hurt like hell but I can imagine she was pretty embarassed as well. I have had a couple of falls in the past few months and I know that both times my pride hurt almost as much as my physical injuries.
Once we got to the Peabody we tried to look as inconspicious as possible as we were looking for a bathroom. We did eventually find one were able to take care of business and we were off. Thank goodness for the Peabody!!
We had 14 miles planned so we started at a comfortable pace, but it was pretty chilly and breezy and it was hard to get comfortable. I loved running through "town" I loved the way the Christmas lights looked reflected in the Arkansas River... very pretty!!
Soon we were on the River Trail, it didn't take long before the people who were doing 7 miles were headed back towards us. Kind of made you feel really slow!! But it was nice there were a lot of friendly people out and lot's of "good mornings" were exchanged. We were also treated to a little bit of eye candy. At one point there was a very attractive fast young man who passed us, he was very friendly and when he got in front of us I sped up as if I were going to try to catch him... it was good for a laugh but damn if it didn't wear me out!! LOL
It was pretty much an uneventful run, Cheryl had her challenges and we ended up with 12.5 instead of 14 but that was fine by me.
It was after the run that was the best part, we went to Boulevard Bread Co. and had coffee and toast made with 8 grain heart healthy bread. It was all very delicious and it was also nice that there were quite a few other runners in there as well.

Next on the agenda was "High School Musical" I was meeting Livia, Tracy and Kylie, the plan was to go to a Brazillian cafe in the "Heights" for lunch but they are all late nighters so didnt' get up early enough to be able to go to lunch. Instead I headed to Target and then met them at Taco Bell.
The play was at the "Convention Center" it was funny to be driving to it after running by it earlier in the morning. Parking was a hassle and we barely made it inside before it started. It was actually very good and Kylie loved it! I did have one moment that made me feel bad. The little girls in front of us kept standing up, mostly because the people in front of them were. Well me and my big mouth said if everyone would just sit down we could all see. The mom in front of me grabbed her daughter and pulled her into her seat and then shot me such a dirty look. I felt like scum!!!

We had a Christmas party at 6:00 and I thought surely the play would be over by 4:00. Well not quite, I think it was 4:20 when they finally had the last curtain call. We rushed out but it took us over 30 minutes just to get out of the parking garage. Tracy dropped me off at my truck a little after 5:00, I was starting to panic a little bit, I still had bread to heat before the party. Of course I got stopped at every single red light on the way home. But we made it home I got the bread in the oven and we were at the party by 6:10.

It was a great party! Lisa and Bob hosted the party and they were very gracious host's! They have a lovely home and luckily it was big enough to accmodate everyone. Some of the highlights for me were getting to spend time with Gary's wife Julie and also meeting and visiting with Rick's wife Sarah.
The very best parts were the Christmas Carol's with Rick on guitar and the showing of the Picture montage that Arland made.

Kylie went to the party with us and she was such a sweetheart... very well behaved. I was a little worried about her belly when she ate 5 deviled eggs and quite a few grape tomatoes!! LOL

It was an exhausting day but also great I was surrounded by people I love throughout the whole day from start to end!

Weekly Recap

Since my workout week is Saturday thru Thursday I decided I would recap my workouts for the week.

Dec 1 - Dec 6
Saturday - 13.1 miles St. Jude 1/2 marathon
Sunday - Rest
Monday - 2 mile run 1.5 mile walk
Tuesday - Spinning/ Tuesday night flyers 4 miles around about
Wednesday - Body sculpting class/8 mile cold and windy run
Thursday - Spinning
Friday - Rest

Total miles for the week 27.10.. I'm not counting the 1.5 mile walk in that total
2 spinning classes
1 body sculpting class

The future of the Food Network

Temptation

This is what I am surrounded by at work today :( One of the local car dealerships brought us the brownies, and John Ed and Brittney our outside sales people are filling Team 1 coffee cups with candy. John Ed kept opening hershey kisses and trying to force me to eat them!! LOL And all of this is after eating lunch at Chili's with Robert and Arland.

Rest Day

Today is my rest day... I always take Friday's off, at first it just happened that way. When Kylie and Livia came home after being in Brasil for 3.5 months I asked if I could start having Kylie on Thursday nights. It was perfect she comes to Team 1 sometime in the afternoon and then I bring her back on Friday morning and Livia comes to get her sometime late in the morning. It is really nice becaue it extends the amount of time I get to spend with Kylie and it also gives Jeff some extra time with her too. When Livia and Kylie went back to Brasil in the late summer/early fall I started taking swim lesson's and also ran before swimming on Thursday nights.. It helped me to not miss her and Livia as much. Since Kylie has been back we have gone back to the Thursday night slumber pary. I still get in a good Thursday evening workout... have you ever ballroom danced with a 4 year old??? Well let me tell you it is very strenous!! It is a good workout and so much fun!
Yesterday things didn't work out as planned. I realized later in the afternoon I wasn't going to get Kylie this week, other plans were made.
Not only did I really miss my Kylie time but I also missed my Dancing with the Star's workout!! Sure I could have done it alone or I could have even gone out for a run but I just felt like a balloon that had been deflated so instead I rested.
I did workout yesterday I had a great spinning class yesterday morning, Stacy really worked us and for the first time in over a week I really pushed it during the class and felt like I really worked hard. So why do I feel like a slug who didn't workout yesterday??? Is it because it was so early in the morning? Or is it because I didnt' get my follow up workout last night?
Oh well I guess I will just chalk it up to extra rest and I'm sure that can't be a bad thing.... hopefully!! LOL

Windy Wednesday

This morning started off with a Body Sculpting class at 5:00am. I have to admit I'm not loving this getting up at 4:15am crap!!!!! I do love the spinning and the body sculpting though so I guess it's worth it.
Today was upper body which I think it will always be on Wednesday's and that is exactly what I want. It was tough!!! I have a feeling I am going to wake up very sore tomorrow morning.

This evening was a VERY WINDY 8 mile run!! Earlier in the day it had been about 60 degrees but sometime after lunch it started getting colder and by 6:00pm it was really cold. Eight miles were the plan but the first mile or two I kept thinking to myself I really don't think I can do it, luckily I warmed up and was indeed able to finish 8. Although at .75 to go my stomach twisted up on me but I just said NO and slowed down for a minute or so and it behaved and didn't give me anymore problems.
Robert ran the first 4.25 with us, he was great company and it's always nice to have a guy around!! Robert and Arland are a lot alike and I think Robert is starting to get used to running with a bunch of women... he is learning we will talk about just about anything when we are running!!! LOL
Kelly wimped out on us tonight.... but she made the right decision, she was feeling really tired and it's better sometimes to rest than to push when you are not feeling right and risk getting hurt.

8.0
1:23:41
10:27 avg pace
1 - 10:41
2 - 10:19
3 - 10:27
4 - 10:10
5 - 11:17... we had looped back to Michele's house I took off my jacket and we said goodbye to Robert.
6 - 10:21
7 - 10:22
8 - 9:59

Other than the little bit of time when I took off my jacket and we said goodbye to Robert we did not take any walk breaks. We had to stop for just a second at the end of one of the roads as some cars were turning into us.
This is a challenging route plenty of "rolling hills" or inclines and tonight it seemed like we had a fierce headwind at every hill.
Spinning tomorrow morning and then I get to rest until Saturday mornings 14 miler with Cheryl and Kim at the River Trail.

Flying at the track

Due to a meeting Coach Dennis needed to attend our Tuesday night Flyer's group met at the High School Track. When we first got there the parking lot was packed, but I noticed the lights were not on at the track so we realized it must be something at the gymnasium or somewhere else. Kelly told me later it was a Choir performance.
When I left work yesterday I was cold so I dressed fairly warm for the run. I know that I always end up getting hot so I did wear a short sleeve tech shirt under the long sleeve shirt Cheryl and I got from our Bass Pro race in Springfield.
I was also wearing one of my "Bondi Bands" to cover my ears. We started off with a 1 mile warm-up it was me Cheryl and Kelly. Kelly is breaking in new shoes and new inserts so we lost her for a bit, the warm up was going well, it felt comfortable but then the problem that I had on Monday night came back for a visit. Luckily there is a very nice port-a-pottie right by the track and I was able to make a stop and then catch back up with Cheryl. She was already at 1 mile but she ran another loop with me so I could have 1 mile too. After the warm up we did our strides and then time for the work out. 2x800 and then 2x1000 at lactate pace Dennis has been concentrating on the lactate pace to help build our endurance for longer races Marathon, 1/2 marathon's. Cheryl, Kelly and I all started together but we all have different LT pace so split up soon after. As usualy I started too fast, my lactate pace is 9:45 and I did the first 800 at a 8:49 pace. The second one I tried to slow down but still did it just under a nine minute pace. I told Kelly the 1,000 will be slower... and it was but not by much. I felt like I got in a really good workout last night, I was comfortable in my long pants but I did have to take off the long sleeve shirt and I pushed the bondi band back off of my ears. Instead of strides we did 3/4 around the track at an easy jog as a cool down. I haven't added up all the mileage from last night but Cheryl had 4 miles so I probably had 3.75 unless of course she had her automatic pause on and then she probably had more and then so did I. It doesnt' matter it was a good workout.
My sister Tracy and Aunt Tamara were also there, I don't get to see them very much because they are in a different group and usually finish and leave before we do, but I'm so glad they are both running!!

Kelly tried to entice me into Starbuck's afterwards but I felt bad that Arland stayed at the track the whole time even though he could only walk so I didn't want to run off and leave him.

Robert had teased us with thoughts of Chili... wouldn't that be yummy on a cold night!!

It was fun running at the Track last night, I usually don't like running on the Track, something about the soft surface usually bothers my legs but not last night... the only thing was that after a couple of miles of going in one direction my left knee started feeling kind of tight. We did our last 1,000 going in the opposite direction which was very challenging as most everyone else was still going in the orginal direction. At one point Dennis said he could forsee a collision but I was very careful and moved far away when runners were approaching me.

The best part about running at the track is you get to see everyone more...at Magness Creek sometimes we don't cross paths with the faster runners very often. Dennis told Arland he also really liked it because he could really see everyone. He gave me a very nice compliment last night, he said I had great form and that I was quickly becoming the poster child for good form. He also said that I was already the poster child for "stir the pot" our downhill running technique... he said he tells everyone about how well I do it. It is always nice to get positive feed back especially from someone you have so much respect for.

The other really great thing is we got to see other runners... there were several ladies from the Women Can Run clinic, and best of all Jane and Sarah P were there :) I havent' seen Jane since right after the Tulsa marathon when she came to the shop to check on Arland. We didnt' really get to talk last night since they were running one way and we were running the other but it was great to see them.

Monday run

Sheesh it was cold last night. The run started off ok... cold, and a little sluggish but we were just starting to warm up when my stomach decided it didn't want to play nice. I was so dissapointed we ended up having to walk it in and even that was a struggle :( Oh well we did get 2 running miles and 1.5 walking. I guess better than nothing but still a big dissapointment.

The good news the toe didn't hurt.



Here is one last picture from Memphis. I can't believe I didn't post it with the others since it is one of my favorites!

Cheryl relaxing right after the race.

Lazy Sunday

I got up at 6:00 this morning to get ready to go to the school to meet anyone who was running this morning. I had talked to Michele about running this morning and also Kim.
I did my normal pre run routine, and got dressed the last thing of course was my shoes, put them on took two steps and realized I was not going to be running today. I mentioned my raw little toe, well it didn't bother me when I was walking around barefoot but as soon as I put a blister bandaid on it and then socks and shoes it was really painful!
I checked my e-mail and Kim had sent one saying she wasn't going to run this morning. I called Michele and left her a voicemail.. I really hope she slept in and wasn't waiting for me at the school, or if she was I hope there was someone for her to run with.
I promptly took my shoes and socks off, changed out of my running clothes and puttered around a little bit. I didn't want to turn on any lights or make a lot of noise since Arland was still sleeping. I came back into the office and posted the Memphis pictures and checked a few blogs. At about 7:15 after being up for a little over an hour I decided to go back to bed and I ended up sleeping until after 9:00am!! I spent the rest of the day in P.J's and never once left the house. Instead I watched several "Samatha Who" episodes and a couple hours of Grey's Anatomy. I didn't realize how far behind I was on that show. It was really nice to just kind of do nothing today, but now I'm feeling guilty that I didn't get anything accomplished.
I guess we all deserve a day off every now and then.

Race Day Memphis 1/2 marathon

We were a little late getting on the road and then we encountered some construction traffic that had us running behind. I had spoken to Kelly and Heather about where they were, unfortuantely we didn't get to meet up with any of them.
We did get to the race in time to make it to the port a potties and thank goodness!!!
As we were heading to the 10:00 minute pace corral we passed Susan, it was just a brief moment but it was great to see her.
The whole time we were waiting for the start I was scanning the crowd for Kelly and Robert, come to find out later they weren't very far behind us.
They do wave starts at Memphis so it took us around 9:00 minutes to cross the start line. Normally it is at this point that Kim and I say good luck and good bye, today was different we actually ran the whole race together along with Cheryl.
We started off at a very comfortable pace, for me yesterday was all about Cheryl. Kim and I want her to love running as much as we do and she didn't have the greatest experience at the LR 1/2 marathon so we wanted this race to be different.
The race course was VERY crowed much more so than last year. It was kind of hard for us to run together so we had to do a lot of weaving, sometimes I was having to catch up to them and vice versa. One of the many great things about the Memphis marathon is they have water stops at every mile. We skipped the first one, but took water at the second one, this kind of became our pattern for the rest of the race. We would only slow down long enough to take a drink of water and then we were off. I had worn an old denim shirt as a warm up and I finally threw it off about mile three. Before the race I had been worried that the Elijah shirt would be too warm but it was actually perfect, I was comfortable the whole race!
One of the bad things about the Memphis 1/2 is the roads, they are very uneven and slanted you constantly had to be on the lookout for holes and it was a struggle to try to stay in the middle of the road to avoid the slant.
Some of my favorite parts of the early miles were running down Riverside drive and seeing the Mississippi River, soon after that though there is a pretty steep incline before you get to Beale street. Beale street is always fun there are lot's of crowds and music.
I pretty much needed to pee from the start of the race... very frustrating especially since I used the port a potty just before the start. I did ok until mile 4 and then I told the girls I was going to have to stop at the next aid station. Luckily Cheryl needed to as well so I didn't feel like I was holding her back. As I was in the port a potty I heard Kelly calling Cheryl's name, I was so dissapointed I missed her.
That stop was really the first walk break we took, other than just a second or two at the water stations at mile 2 and 4.
I really don't know why I thought this race was flat with only a few inclines... I mean I ran it last year so what happened to my brain??? I've been saying it was runners amnesia, but I also think it was because last year this was our first big race. Also last year I got really sick right after the race so maybe that erased my memory of the course??? But when we were running yesterday I would think oh yeah I remember this hill. I was also thinking of poor Kelly, I had assured her over and over this was a relatively flat course. I was afraid she was hating me and would never trust me again!!
Somewhere around mile 6 I think it was I felt something rubbing my right little toe, I have never had problems there so I think maybe something was in my sock. Finally just as we were approaching the park into the zoo Cheryl needed a walk break so I took that opportunity to take off my shoe and adjust my sock, Cheryl also needed to take off her ankle brace. The potty break and the shoe break really affected our time but both were very necessary! We got started again and I knew that the adjustment hadn't helped my little toe, I just had to live with it. I now have a nice little raw spot on my little toe, not a blister that would be better, no I have a spot on my toe with no skin at all.
We missed the GU station, it was somewhere around the zoo, I did hear someone say something about chocolate gu, but yuck I didn't want that!
I had started my Luna Moons about mile 4 and took one every other mile or so after that.
Oh I can't forget to mention that at mile 4 we saw Chasen and he saw us and he called out my name and said good job. It was so awesome to see him, I have never been at a race where I knew someone in the crowd. Right around mile 10 or just before it Cheryl spotted her Aunt Martha and cousin Grace, we started yelling and waving our arms, at first she didn't see us, but then when she did see Cheryl the smile on her face was priceless... she even ran with Cheryl for a little bit with her arm around her. The smile on Cheryl's face during and afterwards was priceless too!!! It gave us all a jolt of energy that lasted quite a while! It was a little bit after that that I got to see Chasen again, and again he saw me and yelled encourging words to me.
The stretch between the beginning of mile 10 up to about 11.5 were just awesome the crowd support was wonderful kids were lined up for low fives and I was on top of the world. Somewhere around here as I was woo hooing and yelling thanks to everyone in the crowd a man came up beside me and said he wished that some of my energy could rub off on him... so I rubbed his arm and told him he was doing great, that just made my day too :) especially since I remember last year at that time I was really struggling so it was nice to maybe help someone else just a little bit.
The constant hills were starting to wear on us, I don't know what point we were at but I remember the three of us were calling out all of our body parts that were hurting, which were pretty much all of them.
Cheryl really was starting to struggle and at about 12.5 she just suddenly stopped and said she couldn't do it, that everything hurt. Of course Kim and I were right there and didn't let her stop for long, I told her even if we have to walk it in it's ok, but that if she ran it in she would have a huge PR. I don't think Cheryl cares about any of that but I was just trying to think of something to keep her going. Of course she was never really going to stop, she just needed a breather. Right around this point there is one last uphill, and there was a guy there who said " I have to be honest with ya'll, you look like HELL, but you are almost done" it was perfect we all got a good laugh out of it and it helped take our mind off that last hill. Thankfully the last part of the race is downhill into Auto Zone stadium and for the 1/2 marathon runners it is just a short but around the track to the finish line.
There was a man with his son and maybe other family members running together and we had kind of played leap frog through out the race, I thought it was so great that they were running togehter and he was doing such a great job so around mile 12 I ran up to him and told him how awesome he was. We passed him just after that, but as we were approaching the stadium that little guy just zoomed by us I was so happy for him !
I really wanted me Kim and Cheryl to cross the finish line together but there were so many people with us I didnt' know if we would be able to.... but we did :) I can't wait to see the pictures.
I was so proud of Cheryl yesterday she has had a lot of setbacks with her running, she has had to do a lot of travelling and just as she was really starting to build up her mileage and feel good she twisted her ankle while in Seattle. The Dr. told her no running for a least 4 weeks. After she was able to run again it was almost like having to start over, but she did it and she did great yesterday!!! She still doesn't love running but I am not giving up hope!!!

Big shout out to Kelly who had an awesome race yesterday with a huge PR!! Way to go Kelly.

After we got our medals and chips off we went upstairs for food, on the way we ran into Jackie, Ginny and Jamie. I was thrilled to see them!!!! We chatted for a bit but I was starving and ready for some of that yummy McAlister's soup!
Luckily while we were in line for the food Robert found us :) we all got something to eat and then went to the bleachers and sat with Kelly and Robert.

It was an awesome day I wish I could have seen Heather, Sarah S. and Shaylynn they all had great races as well!!
My only regret was that I was not able to be there for Susan when she started struggling during the full marathon.

My very favorite thing about this race is that all the proceeds go the St. Jude's hospital and most of the crowd support is family members who have been touched by St. Jude. All through out the race I would yell thank you's to the people clapping for us and they in turn would say no THANK YOU for running... it's not very often that you have people thanking your for running and it was just and awesome feeling.
I thought of Elijah often yesterday and of my old friend Kathy and her son Brandon Tyler who recently earned his angel wings. I did a lot of praying for healing and hope and peace for Elijah's family and for Kathy.

I plan to run the St. Jude marathon or 1/2 marathon every year for as long as I can run.

St. Jude 1/2 Marathon Memphis TN

Huge shout out to Aunt Martha for graciously allowing us to stay with her, she is such a nice lady!

Arland and I picked Kim up on Friday morning and then he took us to Sherwood to meet Cheryl. Another big thank you to Glen for letting us use the Focus it saved us a ton of money on gas!
We had a few stops to make, the most important one of course was Starbuck's!! I tried a new drink this time. I had a sugar free - fat free Gingerbread latte, have to say not my favorite but not bad I did drink most of it. Next stop was Cheryl's mom's house, Kim and I were dissapointed that she wasn't home, maybe another time.... I hope!!
The drive to Memphis was pretty uneventful we had no problems and drove straight to the Cook Convention center for the Expo. This expo was way better than Tulsa!!!! I was extra happy that the "spibelt" booth was there and I was able to stock up. I also bought a couple of "Bondi Bands" they are super cute but just don't work that great for me, I still need to experiment with the best way to wear them. I borrowed one from Kelly at the Duck race and made it work, but I tried to wear one a different way for the race yesterday and it was falling off before I even made it 1/2 a mile.
We roamed around for a little while, Kim and Cheryl got foot analysis's done and bought new inserts and I got a free 10 minute massage.
We were starting to get really hungry, I honestly don't think I ate breakfast, no I know I didn't I had Kylie that morning and barely had enough time to get the both of us ready to go. Cheryl did share some peanutbutter crackers with me and of course the Starbuck's helped sustain me for a while.
We decided to have lunch near Cheryl's aunt's house and eagle eye Kim found us a great little cafe to try. They had soup and salad's and I had a sandwich, everything was really yummy! I would like to go back sometime when I don't have a race the next day. Kim had a tomato soup that looked so good that I really wanted to try but I knew it wasnt' a good idea.
Aunt Martha's house was very close to the restaurant and we were there in just a few minutes. She has such a nice house, it is in a really nice older neighborhood lot's of trees and not all of the houses look the same!!
Chery's cousin Grace was with Aunt Martha... that girl is something else very boisterous. She was still on a Hannah Montanna high after seeing her the night before. I of course know a lot about Hannah Montanna becasue of Kylie, I have watched hour's of that show and I have the CD in my truck for whenever Kylie is riding with me.

We were able to just relax and visit with Martha for a couple of hours before we all went to dinner. I was excited that Joan, Ginny, Kelly and Robert were also joining us. I was less excited that we couldn't all sit together but they did put us at two boothes next to each other. I was sitting behind Cheryl and Kim and I was constantly hovering over there shoulders, wanting to know what they were going to eat etc.
I had a grilled chicken salad and I split a baked potato with Kelly. All the portions were huge no one could even eat half of their dinner. During dinner of course the conversation turned to the race the next day. Joan was talking about the rolling hills on the course. Kelly said HILL"S with big worried eyes. I told her Kelly no don't worry there aren't really any hills just a couple of inclines but otherwise it is mostly flat. Turns out I am a big fat liar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but more about that later.
Dinner was lot's of fun, I love listening to everyone's stories, I just wish that Aunt Martha could have heard some of them. Next time we will wait longer so we can have one big table.
After splitting a huge piece of Carrot Cake with everyone it was time to go home and get ready for bed.
Aunt Martha the gracious host gave Kim and I her bed and Cheryl slept on a mattress on the floor. We have all travled together before so the sleeping arrangments worked out great.
I can't believe I didn't get any pictures of Martha and Grace. Hopefully maybe Cheryl did.
I will finish the race day report in a little bit.

Memphis Pictures

Test Run

Last night was my last run before the 1/2 marathon in Memphis on Saturday. I needed to test drive my new "Run for Elijah" shirt and I thought the tempature last night was close to what it is supposed to be on Saturday. It was pretty chilly last night so I don't know if it was a good match. I was wearing the Elijah shirt and a black running skirt. It was a bit chilly to start with but when we were running I was fine, actually even got kind of warm. I think I might wear a sleeveless shirt under the Elijah shirt and if I have to I can tie it around my waist. I am hoping I will be able to keep it on for the whole race. The only other problem is a lot of raised stitching on the seams, it was irritating me last night, so I guess I am just going to have to remember to apply lot's of body glide... everywhere!!



It was a good run last night., I was taking it easy both to recover from Tuesday and to save my legs for Saturday. Kelly and Robert came along for the first 3.25 Kelly's knee started giving her problems and she didn't want to take any chances with the race 2 days away.
Thank you Robert for reminding me to pace myself!! LOL

6 miles
1:02:48
Avg. 10:28
1 - 10:35
2 - 10:19
3 - 10:17
4 - 10:37
5 - 10:25
6 - 10:34

This morning was spinning. I literally didnt' feel like I had anything left in my legs, but I made it through class. I didn't give it my normal effort but considering how I felt I thought I did ok. Now it's time to rest and get ready for Saturday.

Tonight Kylie is spending the night with us... we will eat fettucine alfredo, drink chocolate milk and watch Dancing with the Stars :) I can't think of a better way to spend an evening!

Here is a picture from Kylie's visit to Team 1 yesterday




She wasnt' really in the mood to have her picture taken so she was making weird faces. LOL

Hard Tuesday

Tuesday's are usually one of my harder workout days. I have spinning at 5a.m. and then the Tuesday Night Flyer's running clinic Tuesday night.
Yesterday morning Andrea was our instructor, we did the interval training again where we would spin a couple of songs and then get off the bikes and use the weights, push-up's etc. It's good every now and then to shake things up and I love our regular instructor Stacy, but Andrea's class yesterday morning was really good. I wish I would have worn my heart rate monitor, it sure felt like my heart was about to come out of my chest a few times. I knew after that class the hill repeats scheduled for Tuesday night were going to be a challenge. I just didnt' know at the time how much of a challenge!!!!

My stomach was feeling a little iffy yesterday afternoon and I was hoping and praying that it would calm down before the clinic.
It wasn't as cold yesterday as it has been but once the sun went down it cooled off quite a bit. I wore capri running pants and a long sleeve shirt and was a little cold at the start but during the workout I never got too warm so that was good.

I think Coach Dennis is ready to strangle me. He wasn't a bit happy that we raced the Duck 10K last weekend just a week after the Tulsa 1/2 marathon and he is even less happy that I am running a 1/2 marathon this weekend. Three weeks in a row of races.
He told me last night to take it easy on the workout and to back down on the hill repeats. I love that Dennis really does care about us and is worried about injuries.

As soon as we started running I knew it wasn't going to be a good night. Luckily I had Cheryl by myside. We did our strides... kind of slow and then we had 1x 1000 at lactate pace. I ran just a bit slower than lactate pace but not too slow. Sonia and Jennifer had started off behind us and Sonia yelled at me asking if I was "shaking it" for them. I had on a reflective vest and I guess it was pretty jiggly... I yelled back that I was trying to make them dizzy so they couldn't catch up. I love those girls they always crack me up when I need it.

After the 1000 we headed to Outlook for our hill repeats.... Ummmm is Dennis mad at us????? OMG that was a steep hill, nothing like our normal Lila Loop hill. On our first run up Andrea and Brenda were coming down and Andrea called out that it's "really steep keep your pace." Cheryl - THANK YOU!! for getting me up that hill everytime. On the very first one I started to walk during the steepest part but Cheryl wouldn't let me she said come on you can do it. Seriously if it weren't for her I don't know if I would have done more than 3 repeats. The adavanced group had to do between 12-15 and the intermediate group 7-10... except for anyone racing this weekend. Since Cheryl and I were the only one's racing, (well except for Robert. Hey Robert how many repeats did you do??????)
Anyway we finished before everyone else and headed back to the school. We were just taking it easy, and after those hill repeats it actually felt kind of easy, but then my foot cramped up on top and I had to stop and walk. I know it's the new Sauccony shoes I've been wearing. They are hitting me in a weird place on the top of my foot. It has been bothering me for a little while and when I wore them at the race on Saturday and on my run with Brenda and Michele on Monday I loosened up the laces. Loosening the laces helps the pressure on the top of my foot but then after I finish the run my ankle is kind of sore. I think last night might have been the last time I will be wearing those shoes to run in. So it wasn't the best night of running i've ever had but I made it through thanks to a lot of help and support from Cheryl!!! I had a little pity party for myself last night but I'm all better today. I think getting to sleep in this morning helped. Oh and maybe the double shot of espresso, sugar free white chocolate mocha from Mountain Mudd, yeah I bet that helped too.

Yesterday was Kelly's birthday... she is 27 ;) Arland and I had the pleasure of getting to go to lunch with her and Robert for her birthday meal.
Oh and Kelly I told Robert last night to tell you that you should be glad you had to work instead of coming to the clinic. Not that I really mean it, but at that precise moment.. yes I think I did!!!

Happy belated Birthday to Susan.. I hope you had a wonderful time on your special day.

Blah Monday

Yesterday was a gray chilly day add to that it was the first day back at work after a 4 day weekend. I am really lucky to have the job I have, but honestly I don't care how much you like your job it is hard to go back to work after a few days off. Lucky for me I didn't have anything pressing that had to be done. I had an appointment with Christy for a massage at 11:00 and then went home for lunch. It is nice to be able to go home for lunch, it saves me lot's of money and calories, plus I get to stay caught up with "All My Children". Later in the day we got a little visitor. Livia and Tracy were going shopping and Kylie wanted to go to Team 1 to see NaNa and daddy :)



I just love that little girl so much!!! We worked hard coloring and reading ballerina stories and she recovered by lounging on her fold out "bed" eating Doritos and drinking orange crush.





It was hard for me to leave her when it was time to go home at 5:00. Normally I would have stayed but Michele had called me earlier in the day to arrange a run.
Michele lives in a big neighborhood and has another nice big neighborhood across the street, so plenty of safe, fairly well lit and low traffic streets to run on.
It was pretty chilly last night, I had on a sleeveless dri fit shirt and a long sleeve dri fit shirt/jacket and running pants. I forgot my gloves and ear coverup, but I ended up being ok without them...eventually.
Brenda was already there when I arrived and they were outside waiting for me.. no I was not late, they were early!! LOL
We ran 6 and then walked over a mile back to Michele's house. I am loving all the Christmas lights, it really was a nice diversion. The dark helps too, we run through a lot of cul d' sacs, and through the same streets more than once but since it's dark and we are pretty much talking the whole time you don't even notice. The route has some rolling hills/inclines which will be good for our Nashville training.
It was a tough run, I never got that "good" feeling not even close, my legs felt like lead pipes the whole run,
but I got it done and of course I felt great afterwards.
6.06 miles
1:00:51
Avg pace 10:02
1 - 9:40
2 - 10:00
3 - 9:59
4 - 10:29
5 - 9:57
6 - 10:08
Not bad considering we stopped for just a little bit around mile 4 for a water break, and we would sometimes come to a top when we got to a few stop signs.

When Coach Dennis sent us our workout for tonight he had an add on at the end.
Remember to come rested to these workouts so you can get the most out of them.
Hmmm .... after the run last night and spinning class this morning my legs don't feel very rested today :(
We are doing Hill repeats tonight.. Wish me luck!!!!

Running for Elijah and Brandon

I'm ready for Memphis now that I have my Elijah shirt. I love the shirt but I am a little worried that it might be too warm for the race on Saturday. Last year it was 29 degrees at the start and I think it was still 29 at the finish. It is looking quite a bit warmer for this year. Low in the upper 40's and high of 65. Oh well it doesn't matter I am wearing this for Elijah and if he can go through all the pain he has in his young life I can be a little warm for a couple of hours! Elijah has a friend Brandon Tyler who recently lost his battle with cancer. I knew Brandon when he was much younger before he got sick. I worked with his mom at Little Rock Air Force Base. I had Brandon's caring bridge website saved in my favorites and I would check on him every now and then. I saw his Mom Kathy not too long ago and Brandon was feeling pretty good. I was very sad to click on his website this weekend and see that Brandon had earned his "angel wings." This Saturday I will be running for Elijah and in memory of Brandon.

Duck Pictures

Brenda with her 1st place Female Masters Award

Back Row Left to Right

Kelly,Susan, Raquel, Joan, Robert,Toni

Middle Row

Brenda, Jennifer, Annette (me)

Front Row

Sonja

Rainy Sunday

I knew last night I was not going to want to get up in the cold and rain and run this morning. I called Kim to let her know and I sent Brenda an e-mail. It was so nice to sleep in this morning!!!
Brenda called around 7:30 she said she was thinking of going to the Community Center to run on the treadmill. I told her I would meet her there and then I went back to bed for a little while. I never actually fell back asleep but it was nice to just snuggle in the warm bed and listen to the rain knowing I didn't have to run in it.
Brenda called again around 9:00 and we arranged to meet at the Community Center. I called Jane and told her our plan and she said she would meet us there as well.
I have not run on a treadmill in over a year and just the thought of it usually makes me cringe, but knowing I was running with the girls made it much easier. Jane was at the reception desk when I arrived and we went upstairs together. Brenda was already upstairs waiting on us. The CC has three treadmills... very nice one's, much better than what I have here at home. There was a gentleman that we usually see at the pool on one of them, I grabbed the other one and Jane started off on the recumbant bike and the eliptical until he left. I guess all of us running while he was walking got to be too much for him and he told Brenda we were making him feel bad. I think it was all our girl talk! LOL
The worst thing about running on a treadmill or one of the worst is the lack of any kind of breeze, even with a fan on it was pretty miserable. I was able to crank out 4.5 miles the longest I have ever run on a treadmill and then another .25 miles walking on a steep incline. Vicki came just as I was finishing on the treadmill. After the treadmill I got on the recumbent bike for 10 minutes just to stretch out my legs. Brenda finished her run I think she did 6 miles and then we stretched a bit and I got on one of the eliptical machines. I was pretty much just playing on it, I have never really used one of the new ones.

After Jane finished her 5 mile run she said good-bye and Vicki, Brenda and I headed to the pool. We did 100 meters on the kickboard 600 meters freestyle swimming and then another 100 meters on the kickboard. It was a good workout and our reward was about 20 minutes in the arthritis pool. That is always my favorite part of our Sunday morning swim workout. We get out the styrofoam weights and play with those and just chat.
Despite the rainy cold conditions I was able to get in a great workout thanks to Brenda, Jane and Vicki!
Brenda and I had discussed going to Tropical smoothie in Jacksonville but once we changed clothes she had a message from her husband needing her and I had one from mine.
After a quick trip to Kroger to pick up Arland's Pop Tart's and a few other items the rest of the day has been spent relaxing and enjoying the last day of our 4 day weekend.
It has been a great weekend full of time spent with family and friends and I am very thankful for every moment.

The Great Duck Race 10K

This is a fun little race in Stuttgart Arkansas Duck capitol of the World. Kim and I did this race last year and although I struggled through the whole thing it was a good experience and I was looking forward to running it again this year. Cheryl was going to do it with us as well. Turns out that Kim and Cheryl decided against running in the cold.

We did have a nice little group going.

Rock,Brenda,Kelly,Robert,Joan,Toni,Susan,Sonja,Jennifer, and myself. Susan from Benton and her wonderful husband Chasen also came for the race. It is always a pleasure to see the two of them!!

Rock and I rode to Stuttgart with Kelly and Robert. Arland is still injured so he wasn't able to come to the race.

It was a nice ride and the time passed very quickly and before you know it we were there.
It was SO cold this morning 34degrees and cloudy. I wore capri tights a long sleeve technical shirt and my Cabot Cruiser singlet. I was a bit dissapointed to realize I was the only one wearing the Cruiser singlet!!! Oh well I was very comfortable the entire run.

We sat in the car for as long as we could... but then Joan rounded up the troops and we headed out for our warm up run. It wasn't much of a warm up but it was enough for my stomach to warm up and send me to the port-a-potties. Luckily I had a successful visit and was ready to race.

Dennis our running coach was not very happy with us when he found out we were racing today after our 1/2 marathon last weekend. He told me to just be careful!! I told myself I was just going to take it easy this race.

Kelly and I lined up together... she asked what I was planning on running and I told her 10:00min miles. She said she would hang with me for as long as she could.

After the introduction of the Duck Queen we were off
Kelly and I ran together, we started off a little too fast during that first mile,we were both trying to slow each other down. I remember at one point saying slow down lets enjoy this.
Kelly did a great job and I really tried to keep it at a 10:00 minute mile, but when we reached the one mile mark I heard 9:4???? Ooop's too fast. Soon after the first mile Kelly sent me off she said she needed to find her comfort zone. I understand that very well so off I went. I was still trying to keep it slower but I was feeling good and decided to just relax and enjoy and whatever my pace was I usually only glance at my garmin occasionally so I tried not to look at it. I was starting to pass people and that is always a good feeling.


Last year when we did this race I started off way to fast at the beginning and was falling apart by mile 1... I was determined this year to be smarter. To be fair to myself, last year I was a new runner we had only been running for a couple of months when we did the race, we had a few 5k's under our belt but I had no idea how to race 6.2 miles.. heck I could barely run 6.2 miles at that time.

Today was wonderful, I fell into a groove and just ran. When I got to the first water stop I grabbed a cup of water while still running and tried to take a drink, but it was not working so I slowed down just for a second to take a sip. Just before the water stop I had passed a guy in a gray sweatshirt, as I took that one second walk break to drink he passed me. As I started running again I reeled him in and ended up running either just behind or beside him for the next 2.5 or 3 miles. Just after the 4 mile mark I don't know if he slowed down or I sped up but I soon passed him, I really didn't want to it had been nice having him to pace off of and he was kind of a big guy so he helped block the wind too!! Right around the 5 mile mark we came back onto a main road and a police officer was blocking traffic, as usual I had thanked all the volunteers.. I was just about to thank this guy when he says hurry up.. hurry up. Ugh I didn't want to hear that!!! LOL but hurry up I did :)

Soon I was turning the last corner and it was just a little less than a mile to the finish line. I didn't think that road was ever going to end, you can see the finish line for a long time so it can trick you into starting your final kick too soon. Plus I forgot that a 10K is 6.2 miles not 6.1. By the time I did make it to the finish I was DONE!!!.. but I did manage a nice little sprint at the end. I had been hoping for 1:00 I didn't quite make it but I was VERY happy with my time.

6.2 miles (my garmin said 6.3)
1:01:11
avg pace 9:44

1 - 9:41
2 - 9:58
3 - 9:57
4 - 9:52
5 - 9:38
6 - 9:32
.2 -2:36

I ran with my i-pod today and I really enjoyed it... for once it was playing all the good songs. It was funny because one of my favorite running songs is "Push It" the techo version. It came on during the last .2 and it was helping spur me on, and just before the finish line there were Joan, Brenda and Raquel cheering me on and just as I passed Brenda she yelled PUSH IT...how perfect!!!

Susan's husband was taking pictures and he got a couple of shots of me finishing... I like this one of me crossing the finish line and he got my official time in the shot as well. Thank you Chasen!!! :)

After I crossed the finish line I was heading over to the girls when I saw Chasen on the sidewalk, I walked up to him and just kind of grabbed his arm. I was still a little breathless. We talked for a minute and then I kept on walking. Kelly's husband Robert had a great race too and he was with the girls when I got to them, we started walking down the road to cheer in the rest of the girls. Kelly was next looking strong and pretty in pink! Just behind her was Toni. Robert and I kept on walking, and soon we saw Susan.. she was looking very bright and shiny and like she could run forever. She is going to have a great Marathon in Memphis! After Susan was Jennifer and thenSonjaand right behind her was Susan. Everyone did a great job and today was the first 10K for Toni, Susan P., Sonja and Jennifer. It might have been for Kelly too... she went straight from 5k's to 1/2 marathons! lol

After scoring some free coffee drinks we headed back to the car to put on warm clothes and then inside the bank for the award ceremony. There were freshly baked cookies so I snagged a couple and sat down by Brenda. She said you know we are going to breakfast after this. LOL I was just so hungry! I had a 1/2 of a peanut butter sandwich at 5:00am, but just before time for me to leave to meet everyone I got nauseous and threw up a little bit. Gross I know.. sorry. We weren't even to Stuttgart yet and my stomach was growling so after the race I needed something to tide me over until breakfast.
The Cabot group cleaned up at the awards ceremony. Raquel was 3rd female OVER ALL!! Brenda was 1st place female Masters. Robert, Kelly, Joan, Toni, Susan and I all won age group awards. Kelly was FIRST in her age group, I was second in mine and Robert was third in his. Toni was second in our age group and Susan P. was second in her's and of course Joan was first in her age group as well.
Soon it was time to say our good-bye's and head for breakfast. We had seen a little restaurant in Hazen on the way in and apparently that is where the group has stopped during previous races. We walked in the door and the place was wall to wall camo.. it was kind of surreal looking. The whole experience was a big dissapointment, the waitress told us we would not be able to get breakfast and then it took almost an hour for us to get our food. Luckily we were all having so much fun talking it passed pretty quickly. Good thing I had those cookies!!!

Another great race with the Cabot Cruiser's and our honorary Cruiser Susan.