On the Road Again!!!

So this is the view from my driveway as I head out for my first long run, 6  miles, of my official MARATHON TRAINING!  It was beautiful!  Since the move, I've been very un-motivated, to say the least, to run.  It's been such a whirlwind and finding making time has not been a priority of mine (I say as I hang my head in shame.)  BUT, I can't put it off any longer or when November gets here, I will be in a world of hurt...or October for that matter.  I have my first half marathon, in a pack of 4 with the  Florida Halloween-Half  That's ALOT of running this year and into early 2013.  But I'm really looking forward to the races. 

Running in my new hood is not nearly as fun as running in the old hood.  I don't have the beautiful beaches to keep me entertained, and I don't have all of the other runners and bikers to give the much needed, nod of the head or good morning, or even keep it up.  Instead I have dogs running beside me as I pass their chainlink fences.  Not the friendly kinda dogs.  The HUGE growling and barking like they want to eat me kinda dogs.  I miss my aligators!

However, as I was running I heard an odd noise.  As I look over, I see a beautiful swan in her private lake.  My how gorgeous she was.  I had to stop to take a picture, but it didn't turn out very good.  Here it is so you ca get an idea.

So I finished my 6 miler in just over an hour, with more walking than I wanted, but less than I expected,  I'm calling it a SUCCESS!   I did run into an old face.  I used to chase her at the beach...until I caught her.  Now I'm chasing her again...until I catch and pass her.  :)

Feeling strong and nothing's wrong.  Have a GREAT weekend and I'll see you at the races!!!

The day finally arrived!  We moved into our new house!!!  We are still trying to weed through the boxes and find places for everything, but I don't feel like I'm staying in a hotel anymore.  Although building a home and moving is full of challenges on many levels, getting our townhouse ready for the renters, was harder than I EVER imagined it would be. 

Of course things just couldn't go smoothly for me. Don't get me wrong, finding renters was fairly easy.  With a listing on Craigslist, we had it rented within 2 weeks.  However, with the cost of having it professionally cleaned being around $600, I decided to clean it myself.  After all it was our dirt and I have cleaned that too many times to count, so why pay someone to clean it now?  Right?  The jury is still out on that. 

My husband and I split the house and I took the upstairs and he took the down.  Sounds fair.  Not really.  For some reason the upstairs bedrooms and baths ALWAYS take longer than the kitchen and living areas.  Not sure why, but we finished it.  All of it except the trash.  We had 12 bags of trash to set out and in our community, unless it fits into the actual trash can, it doesn't get picked up.  Sooooo, I had about 8 bags of trash to set out, after I called and asked the county to pick them up, which they agreed to. 

The bad part of that was that the electric was shut off a day early...one day before the renters were to take the keys.  Doesn't sound like a big deal, right?  Wrong!  I had a few friends over to swim in our new pool on Thursday morning and got a phone call from my old neighbors letting me know that our alarms were going off.  I know that they weren't set because that was a "discussion" with my husband and I the night before.  When I got to the house I called the alarm company, and they determined it was the fire alarms going off because the electric went off and they automatically went to back-up battery mode...which just meant I couldn't turn them off, unless I removed the batteries from them all.  You can imagine my problem being 5 ft. tall with no ladder, no chair, no...anything in the house.  Unfortunately, the alarm kept sounding until the batteries died.  Luckily you couldn't really hear the alarm from the outside of the house. 

As if that wasn't enough, I had some touch-up painting to do AND I had to set the 8 bags of trash out.  Because I didn't know the electric was off, I wasn't prepared.  I wouldn't have been able to get the garage door back down if I'd manually opened the door, so I had to literally feel my way through a VERY dark garage and drag the BIG black trash bags through my house and around the yard to the driveway in the back of the house.  Not an easy job!  I was able to patch the nail holes in the walls but the paint was in the garage and I had no idea where my husband had left it, so that would have to wait until the next day.  The day the renters were moving in.  UGH!!!

Anyway, it all worked out!  Thank you Lord!!!  BUT after that whole thing and the clogged pipe in our new house the night before, and...well I could go on and on about this experience...I WAS READY TO RUN!!!! 

So I ran on the following Saturday morning!  It felt GREAT!!!  The new Hood is not the beaches, and I don't have the friendly familiar faces running along with me, but I'm sure I was able to find some of my sanity along the way.  I rested on Sunday and Monday...well I didn't run. Today I hit the pavement pushing 60 lbs. of daughter and stroller.  I ran the 3 miles Hal has set up in his training and felt really good.  

After a way too long vacation from running, I have officially started my MARATHON TRAINING!  Did I really just say that?!  Of course I did!  I'm super excited to take this journey!  Thanks for joining the party!!!  See you at the races!!! 



Hollywood Sunglasses + Running = Not So Great

Today was the perfect day to run my favorite causeway.  It was overcast and 75 degrees.  There was a wind, but only on half of the run...In fact I was enjoying the morning so much that I honestly got caught up in my thoughts and the views that I didn't worry about my pace or the fact that I was walking...much more than normal.  I guess when I forget that I'm training and use the time for relaxing and fun, because I live in such a beautiful place, it's easy to do.  With that said, I wish I could blame my fun run for the time I actually finished with, but I just can't.  I ran!  That's all I've got.

About halfway through the run I realized that I forgot to put on my running sunglasses and was running in my huge "Hollywood" sunglasses.  I'm sure I looked silly to the other runners on the bridge this morning.  Appearance is one thing, but these giant glasses caused my face to sweat so much more than normal.  So I definitely recommend investing in a good pair of running glasses. 

One last thing...Does this count as cross-training or upper body strength training?  Just asking...



See you at the races!!!

OMG! Florida Summer Training!!!

I can only hope that I feel this way ALL summer!

So as I'm running my "I have to run a 5k this morning" run, I realized that I was getting a very small taste of what training in Florida for a Fall marathon will be like.  IT WAS 80 DEGREES AT 9:00AM!!!  What was I thinking?!

Oh yeah!  I remember that "before I turn 40" list.  Why is turning 40 such a big deal?  I understand 18, 21, 25, and possibly 30, but 40?  Really? Come on!  Isn't it just another number?  To me it's a reason to celebrate life!  I have LIVED 40 yrs. and feel better and stronger than I have EVER felt before!  I am embracing 40 with all that I have!  50?  Now that might be a different story.  ;) 

BTW, You should all check out my new friends https://realmomsathletics.com/catalog/  It's very cute apparel for all of us running moms.  AND the moms that started it are super sweet!  Support them by going to their Facebook page and liking them or just go shopping at the website.  Either way, it's worth a look!

https://www.facebook.com/RealMomsAthletics

Until next time...I'll see you at the races!!!

Why did I stop running???

  I've been trying to find my inner Runner Girl since November 2011 after the Savannah Rock-n-Roll 1/2 marathon, but I have actually had some legitimate...not good... reasons why I've been MIA from the running world.

Last October 30th my husband and I decided to build our dream home, and I had NO idea how much work that was/is.   So after the RnR "injury" came the holidays.  Of course I needed the extra time to heal because who really trains through the holidays?  Right?!  Plus, we had to get our house designed and pick out of the pretty granite, cabinets, flooring, tiles, colors, etc...

 So January was here before I knew it and we broke ground!  This adventure was getting so exciting as each day something new was happening with our new home.  On the other end of this was that we had to sell our current home.  YUCK!!!  This is definitely not the time to sell, especially if you bought 5 years ago, just before the market started going down.  So after many insulting offers on a home that we had priced low enough to lose our shirts on, we decided that renting it would be a much better plan for us right now.  That worked out MUCH better. 

We had our home rented within 3 days of a Craigslist ad.  Unfortunately, it didn't work out in the end.  BUT we rented it again within 2 weeks from the same ad.  We were truly relieved and could finally breathe again.  So we are so happy to finally have that chapter closed and ready to move in May.  OMG!  That's next month!!!

So now I'm packing and cleaning and making arrangements, the best I can, for things to be transferred and turned on.  WOW!  There's just one big BUT in the equation this time.  I promised myself that I would use the Iron Girl race to be my kick-off to push my Inner Runner-Girl out and truly start running and training again.

I'm still enjoying my runner's high from yesterday and I'm REALLY looking forward to my run tomorrow.  I haven't decided if I'm going to tackle the causeway just yet or run my favorite, peaceful, and much easier route, but either way, I'M RUNNING!

Thanks for joining me and I'll see you at the races!!!

Team To The Moon and Back

So today was the day that my "baby" officially became an Iron Girl.  Today my beautiful, smart, determined, and mostly competitive 4 and 3/4 yr. old little girl finished her first 5k.  She told me a few months ago that she wanted a "big girl" medal, so I signed her up for the Clearwater Beach Iron Girl 5k.  I wasn't sure what to expect other than to finish a fun run with my best girl.

The weather was terrible.  Quite literally, severe for the hours leading up to race day. I was up most of the night watching the weather as it jumped from tornado wacthes to tornado warnings.  The tornado watch expired at 7:00 am, which was good because our race started at 7:30 am.  By the time we got to the starting line, the weather was chilly, 70 degrees for Florida, and overcast.  As all runners know that equals PERFECT running weather.  We stayed to the back of the line because I knew we would be slower than most and I didn't want Sarah to be trampled by the PR driven runners. 

The announcer said go and we were off.  What a GREAT feeling to be sharing this experience with my only baby.  It was almost hard to hold back the tears as she naturally just took off running. 

As we were running through the streets of Clearwater, I reminded Sarah that if she ran up on someone that was going slower than her, she could go safely around them.  This was something that caused a collision for her and another little boy in the Creaky Bones race in October last year.  She did great.  She was weaving in and out of the runners like she had done it before.  And then we got to the Memorial Causeway.  Causeways are Florida's version of hills.  We decided to walk up.

After enjoying our view from the top we decided to run down.  Sarah had become VERY tired by this point and really wanted a drink.  I guess the sugary, gummy snacks I fed her on the way up didn't do anything for her thirst.  Thankfully the water station was at the bottom of the causeway so I used that as motivation and it worked.  :) 
We took our water break and pushed forward.  She decided that she wanted to sit for a bit, but I reminded her of the "turtle and the rabbit" and that we had to keep moving.  So, once again, my mom mind kicked in and challenged her to a "race" to the nearest sign or palm tree.  That kept her fairly focused...until it didn't and then we played tag.  She was ready to see the finish by mile 2, but still in good spirits.  I credit that to the many amazing women running/walking along with us that thought she was cute and kept cheering her on.  I can't thank them enough!

After mile 2, we were practically at the finish and we could hear the cheering and the music.  Once I told Sarah that the finish line was around the corner, she pulled all of her runner girl power out and RAN!!!  I was happy to keep up with her, especially after being sick for a week and still recovering from the cough, but somehow I managed.  We finished our race, her first real race, TOGETHER and it was amazing!!! 
I don't like to brag, BUT I'm so proud of Team To the Moon and Back's time, I just can't help myself.  We finished in 53:16!!! WAHOO!!!!  I was just so happy to share that "nice little run" with my daughter and then something hit me...pretty hard.  Four and a half years ago, when I ran my first 5k, I ran it in about 51 minutes.  I truly thought I was running and I was; just as fast as I could go. 

It appears that I have a runner!  Sarah truly is amazing and I am such a blessed mommy to have such a special little girl to call my own.  I'm looking forward to seeing her grow into her own runner girl. 
Thanks for reading and I'll see you at the races!!!

Running Partner Needed...

Just to remind everyone, my running partner for my "Gator Lake" runs was a 12 ft. alligator.  She was always "somewhere" lurking in the waters around my favorite lake, and sometimes on the shore.  My daughter and I named her Ali, mostly because I'm not that creative. 

Well I learned today that Ali, was taking a walk around the lake when she became curious and decided to cross the street.  As she was crossing the street at 2:30-ish A.M., she was hit by a car.  The driver of the car had no idea what she had hit until she got out of the car and found Ali, who was actually a 10 ft. 8 inch gator, stuck under the car with her head peaking out from under the passenger's side.

Although the car did not kill Ali, when the trapper came to get her, he put her down.  :(   I'm sure what was done was the right thing to do.  I mean, who wants an 11ft. gator showing up at their front door, or making "friends" with the family dog...or worse?  However, after 5 years of having so much fun driving/running/walking by the lake and looking for her, I'm sad that she's gone. 

So this is my official "See you later Ali-Gator!"  We will miss you!!!