havin' some ketchup

So yeah, my 2012 trend of poor blogging habits continues....


It's been tough to find time for blogging, Life, ya know?? And did I mention the weather?  It's been impossibly hot and humid for the majority of Summer.  Crazy weather!  Not that the weather interferes with my blogging but.....

Anywhoo, I've run a few races since Grandma's, for fun and for training.  Thank goodness for the races because my training for Chicago has been less than stellar. I sure hope something magic happens and transforms me into a race-ready marathoning machine come October.  I like to keep my dreams realistic. 

Perfect heart-shaped mud smear post-Warrior Dash.

Let's see - What was first?  Oh yeah, Warrior Dash. June 30th. The husband and I did this one again. Sad to say, it was lots more fun last year.  Maybe because we were in the 2:30 wave this year and the temps were in the high 90's with tropical humidity levels had something to do with the "less fun" perception.  Plus, we did the first obstacle (a leap over walls/crawl under barbed wire mix) and I felt something *pop* in my left quad. Not too painful at the time but then I was all, "What the hell am I doing this for when I'm training for a marathon???" So I decided I was going to make it a 3 mile walk with obstacles thrown in.  Luckily, the husband wasn't too jazzed about running up hills either (did I mention the race was held at a ski resort? Frickin' HUGE hills) so he was totally cool with that. He rocks.

Here are some photos of the day:

The backside of the first climber.  This was scary!  The steps were spaced about 2.5 feet apart - you could easily stip through and fall to the ground. There was a girl laying across the top trying to swing her leg over to climb down. she looked at me with a terrified look in her eyes and said, "This is f*cking intimidating!"  It was!

That's me on the left heading to the most refreshing "obstacle"of the day.  It felt so good I went through it twice.

The husband making his way down a cargo net.

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The next race was supposed to be the Stillwater Log Run 10 mile race.  July 21st. 

Race morning I woke up to a thunderstorm.  I took my time getting ready, hoping the storm would quit.  It didn't. 

I drove to the bus area (runners were bussed the 10 miles to the start) and waited in the car hoping the storm would quit.  it didn't.  

So I got out and asked a race official if the race was still on. Yep.  He told me to hurry and get on the last bus heading out. So I ran through the rain to the bus and climbed aboard.  AND I WAS THE ONLY PERSON ON THE BUS.  I knew it was going to be a small race, but come ON. 

Off we went to the start. The bus driver: "I had no idea the weather was going to be so gnarly out today!" Gnarly??? I liked him already!  He was super nice and we chatted the whole way to the start. I mentioned I wasn't sure running today was such a great idea, and he said, "Well, I have to come back to town anyway so you could always stay on the bus.  I'll bring you back to the parking lot." 

Long story short, there were about 125 runners waiting in a parking lot at a Lake outside of town, watching the fabulous lightning display. No shelter. After about 15-20 minutes they called the race due to lightning. Works for me!  I have no problem running in the rain, but running out in the country in a thunderstorm?  No thank you. So I headed home, changed my clothes and hopped on the treadmill.  I was feeling so good I threw in a few more miles for fun and ended up doing 13.6 miles on the treadmill. I think that's a TM distance PR for me.

Read it and weep.  13.6 miles with Millie!

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On to race #3.  The Boler Dash 5k. July 28th.  According to GarminElectra, I finished in 30:46.

TenacityChris organized this race to benefit one of the trainers at her studio whose house burned down in June. The family lost everything in that fire. TenacityChris did a fantastic job and had a great turnout considering it was pulled together in a month!  In addition to the race, there was a brunch and silent auction, along with drawings for prizes.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend the brunch but I heard it was lots of fun. 

TenacityChris snapped a photo of me heading for the finish!  Don't you just love my awesome blue shoes?

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Catch-up post #4  Minnesota Half Marathon 8/4/12 - 2:25:27

I think my center of gravity it too high to
rollerblade. Plus, I'm super clumsy so I don't
think I'll be doing this any time soon.

I decided the morning of the race that I'd run it. Had I registered for it yet? Nope. But I made sure they had race day registration before I drove the 20 miles to the start. I'm all about the planning, people.
My goal was to use this as a training run. I knew the course was a little bit hilly and that's cool, I like hills. I had a 14 mile run on the ol' training plan and I just wanted to be able to run and not carry my own water or have to plan a route. So I guess it's fair to say I ran the race out of sheer laziness.

Overall, other than a nasty pain in my side, it was a good run. The pain continues to be an issue a week later so I guess I'll have to get that checked out. 

One of the fun things about the race was that it could be done as a duathlon (running and inline skating). I've never seen an inline skating race before so that was really cool. There appears to be strategy and skill involved in that type of racing, however, so I should probably stick to foot races. The weather was FINALLY cool (although humid) so it was still a sweatfest, but a very tolerable sweatfest. The sky was overcast and it started to rain lightly during the last 2 miles. I enjoyed myself!


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Cheesy post-race pose.

Last, but certainly not least, the Gopher to Badger Half Marathon 8/11/12 - 2:21:35 (Garmin) PLUS 3 mile warm-up.

Yet another race-as-training run on my journey to the Chicago Marathon. 
The course is awesome, it starts in Minnesota and finishes in Hudson, Wisconsin (hence the name). Because the start is only a few miles from my house, I decided to run there so that I could get all my training miles in for the day. I was feeling kind of crappy before heading out to the start of the race, but I figured worst case scenario, I'd call the husband and have him come pick me up mid-course. Luckily, the warm up miles seemed to kick out whatever was ailing me - by the time I got to the start of the race, I felt great! 
This was sort of a new race for me (I did the 5k last year) and I loved the course. It was fun to run through my hometown, there were more downhills than uphills, and lots of well-run water stops. The weather cooperated, too. Sunny, no wind, cool temps....heavenly! 
The husband met me at the finish after doing his own run this morning. It's always so nice to see his smiling face in the crowd! He took a couple of pictures for the ol' blog.  He knows me well.  Then to cap the day off, he grilled up some surf & turf for dinner. Tenderloin and king crab legs. Did I mention he rocks?  Yeah, he totally does.

So there you have it. I'm all ketched-up now! Better late than never! 

You know what's strange?  The fact that I RAN THREE MILES TO THE START OF MY HALF MARATHON. I know "real" runners do that kind of thing all the time, but I guess I don't classify myself as a real runner.  And I know I've run longer distances, and that I've tacked on miles AFTER a race to meet the mileage on my training plan, but still, I ran, RAN, to the start of a half marathon.  

Is it just me or is that batshit-crazy-sounding??  (But in a good way!)

slacker town

Holy crap.  Has it really been more than a month since I've written???  Seriously, it seems like it's just been days. This past month has FLOWN by!

So let's see, just what have I been doing?

The Ankle

The diagnosis is in: tendinitis of all three tendons in my right foot.  So I've been taking it easy for what seems like FOREVER and trying to listen to my damn ankle.  I have a bunch of exercises I have to do, and I think they're helping so I'm continuing to do them.  So very boring.  And I've been walking a lot in lieu of running.  Also boring   And I've been doing more core work so hopefully that will pay off at some point, too.

Running

Note the distance - I must have killed the tangents again!
My official time was 30:31.

*see above*  Not so much running but check this out:  I ran a 5K PR!!  Officially a PR this time!  Sadly, not as fast as my virtual 5k PR but I'll take it.  It was in the Gopher to Badger 5K where the course takes us along and over the St. Croix River from Minnesota to Wisconsin (hence the name "Gopher to Badger" - Minnesota is the Gopher state and Wisconsin has badgers.  Not Honey Badgers though, which is both a failing and a blessing.)  I loved the course, part shady street, part trail, over a long bridge.... The ankle didn't hurt at all during the run but it sure complained later in the day and the next day too.  So less running, more rehabbing.  It's on the mend but it sure is taking it's sweet time.

It gets kind of warm in Arizona in August....

Family

Remember last February when darling daughter and I traveled out East in search of the perfect college?  Well, I dropped her off at college last week.  In Arizona.  Did we travel to Arizona to look at schools?  Nope.  Have we ever even BEEN to Arizona?  Nope.  So how did she find this school anyway?  Her boss told her about it during her performance review.  She looked it up on the google, applied, found out that they would be very generous with scholarship money and made her decision.  Ta da!  But it's awful having her that far away.  A three hour plane ride and then a two hour drive...... She'll do great.  I'm the one who needs to adjust.

Other health related issues
As you may or may not know, I am a pasty an alabaster skinned Irish lass who is prone to sunburn.  As I kid, I got sunburned a lot, and as a stupid teen I did the whole "baby oil and reflective blanket" thing to try to fool my skin into thinking it's capable of obtaining a tan.  I also fried myself in those new-fangled tanning beds when they first came out.  The upshot of all that is that I have damaged my skin and as a precautionary measure, I get my skin checked by a dermatologist on a yearly basis.  I'm always inspecting my skin to look for anything new so that my derm can take a look and make sure that any of the more unusual spots and freckles are harmless....  So this year, I'm in for my annual check and she finds a suspicious spot that I had missed.  (Let's just say it was on my naughty bits and required the use of a mirror for me to see it... we'll leave it at that.)  Anywhoo, so she says to me that she's "80% certain that it's benign and we can either do a biopsy today or we can watch it closely, and I can come back in a month and she'll measure it and see if it's changed at all...." and I'm thinking to myself, "Only 80% certain??  I think I want a better percentage than that.  And come back in a month?  She wants me back in that soon for a check??"  So I asked what type of skin cancer it would likely be if it wasn't benign and she said, "Melanoma."  Umm, yeah.  OK. Not interested in watchful waiting.  Take the damn thing off.  NOW.  Long story short, it's benign.  <HUGE  sigh of relief>  I didn't realize how much I was stressing about it until I got the results of the biopsy.  I got the news two days before taking DD to school in Arizona so I was able to relax and enjoy my time with her.  My kids thought I was the sunscreen nazi before, they have no idea what they're in for now.

Work
Busy, busy, busy!  I love my job - it's interesting and I'm always learning something new.  And it keeps me occupied and out of trouble.  More or less!

As promised
Some more Warrior Dash photos!  Such a fun day!!!

Action shot of us running after getting blasted by water from the snow-making machines.  It was such a hot day that running soaking wet felt great.

One of the many lonnnnngggg hills on the course.  It was at a ski resort and they made the most of the hills.

Running through the sand pit.  Up another hill.

At the top of the wall!  See that chick on the lower right?  This was a frickin' tall wall to climb!! And check out the arms on the dude on the right.  Yikes!

Jumping over fire!  
I'm probably the whitest girl you know.

Crossing the finish line after crawling under barbed wire through the mud pit.  Notice how pristine the husband's face is...

My face.....not so pristine.  I don't know how the husband stayed so clean!