a new week, where did that come from?

Monday was a no run day. It's funny how I used to have to make myself run and now I have to make myself NOT run. 9 miles at the loop felt great on Sunday. Thanks for pushin' me Deb! Thanks to Leora, Monika, Amy and Troy for interrupting my great shower to invite me to crackle barrel where I consumed back every calorie I had just ran off! =) Comedy club was greeeeat. Several of the tracksters came with me. Amy I wish you and Troy could have come but our phone conversation made up for it. Too bad either of us can remember what we talked about. Btw- Deb will be doing her CRAZY 40 miles this Sunday at the loop.

A Blessed Day and an awesome run

I have this over flow of emotions I just have to share. At this very moment I am on cloud 9. It's one of those moments where I just have to stop and say ''God, thank you so much for this moment and please let me experience this again''. This mornings race was AMAZING! Over 2,200 runners but the thing that made my day was the fact that my mom showed up. She brought her camera (with dead batteries) =) I can't begin to tell you how much I love and (am starting to appreciate) my mom. To know that we were so close to losing her just a few months ago has really caused me to appreciate her so much more. She's been there for EVERY fight at every tournament. That means all the ambulance rides, broken bones and was even there a few months ago when I majorly got punched in the face and broke my nose (thanks again steven lol).



She's been there for my two surgeries and everything else but something about her being there standing in the cold to watch me finish the race. It was awesome! Ok are you ready for this??? She says today she ''might'' try to do the 10k in Australia when I go do the marathon. I actually cried. Right now she's still recovering from the surgery but she's going to start walking and try to work up to it. If have 2 things to finish with. Live your life to the absolute fullest! You never know what could happen tomorrow. And 2- Live to inspire others. You never know how just a simple smile can change a persons day. I have the greatest friends in the world and for that, I am so very thankful. I just met up with Steven to give him my tomtom. He's on his way to the Foo Fighters concert in SC. He was so excited. Now im headed to Leora Basketball game at Mercer to cheer her on being the best coach ever! Meeting Deb in the morning for 9 miles at the loop and then off to the Comedy Club tomorrow night. I still have 4 tickets left if anyone else wants to go.

By the way, I have a new 5k PR of 32:17... still kinda slow but it gets better at every race. (and yes... that is the polar bear pajamas which were quite a conversation piece during the race) I finished up the race with 3 songs-Dolly Parton's light of a blue clear morning (that's right!), Johnny Cash- Ring of fire and Big & Rich- Save a horse ride a cowboy... true runners music =)

Frozen Polar Bear on the run!

Ok well maybe it's not a real Polar bear. It's actually just me freezing my butt off in the ATL. Weather channel says "light wintery mix"... to me that says "It's freakin' cold"!!!. Last week I had made the comment I wish this were at least a 10k. I now take that back and I will be happy when I am at the finish line and back in my warm car. =) We had so much fun going to watch the Spirit of the marathon movie this past Thursday. You should read Amy's blog for an extended version... www.30yofseeksmarathontorun.blogspot.com I will add more later after the race. (of course I will add a pic of my polar bear pajamas)

Dang Grandma, slow ya roll!

Ok so I got my butt kicked by great grandma! I just opened a new office in Atlanta so I have been going up there Tuesdays nights to work then Wednesday mornings I go run the 5 mile loop around stone mountain. Well this morning im out running my little 9:50-10:20 pace when out comes Grandma. She was walking faster than I was running! The loop up there is ALL rolling hills so she would run down all the hills and speed walk up. I'm thinking to myself "you gotta be kiddin' me I just got passed by an 75- 80 year old... what the hell". THANKFULLY when I got done I mentioned it to some folks that were parked by me and they said "she's a freak of nature and she's here all the time". That made me feel a little better but dang!!! So grandma you better slow down! Don't make me trip you! =) I did my usual stop at the Whole Foods market so this means I have real food for the next 3 days till I go again on Saturday. Wahoo!!!

3 birds, 1 stone...

Ok it's official I have gone race crazy! I just registered for a 5k in Tampa on Feb 9th, haul butt to Orlando for a banquet that night then back to Tampa for the Half Marathon on the 10th. I will be covering some serious miles driving and running.
check out the website www.tampabayrun.com

Aviation race was great!

Oh heck yeah! Aviation race was awesome. Running in the rain was great for the 5k runners. By the time we were about done is when the real rain started. I have so much respect for those marathon runners who were out there bustin' their butt's to finish. Hat's off to everyone who showed up. Might I mention the Macon tracks rocked it! I was so proud of everyone for how well they did. I think everyone on the team came in with a new PR or placed in their age division. It was awesome. Totally to my surprise I cut almost 2 minutes off my time giving me a new PR and got a cute little 2nd place trophy. What does this tell us? It means that there must NOT have been that many in my age division!!! I am getting "faster" but wouldn't use fast and my name in the same sentence. Give me some more time though! 3 things that I thought were pretty great about the race. 1) The rain was awesome, it was perfect if you ask me. 2- Monika was the greatest finish line cheerleader... those polish chicks are crazy! =) and 3-during the race I had an argument with my Garmin... I was randomly saying every 4 letter word I could think of because it kept beeping from not being able to find my heart rate. Problem is at that same time someone I knew went past me and said hello. So Holly if you end up reading this post... I wasn't cussing at you I promise! It was the _____ Garmin!!! Grrr... btw- just to let you all know the Garmin is amazing it's just that im an idiot and forgot to pull up the heart rate monitor. (user malfunction) "gotta love it".

The running club is motivating me to push harder and the people have become family. 1- I let them take over my house 2- fish in my pond and 3-I even cook for them! I don't do that for my own family!!! I love you guys! I think it's about time for another bond fire. I must say that the running club should come with some sort of warning label. "WILL be addictive"... "Will cause you to drink alot" "will cause you to sign up for multiple marathons" and here's the best of all...Will cause you to allow others to persuade you (push you) into signing up for the "bare run". (3 miles of nakedness)... "Forgive me Lord" lol Either way it's going to be one hell of a girls trip and there will have to be alot (I say again) a lot of alcohol involved. What surprises me is how many have already agreed to go run. That will be the week after I get back from running the marathon in Australia. Good thing is all I have to pack is a thong, a sports bra and a cowboy hat lol. This could be bad. Till then... Yeeehhhhaawwww!!! "It's On"!!! and Deb- you are on my Calendar for Feb 2nd, 40 miles it is! I would love to do atleast 15 miles with you for sure! I gotta get ready for the ING and I will just use you to get there! =)

"Dirty runs the City 10k" is tomorrow. Polar bear run in Atlanta is Saturday... I am soooo running in my polar bear pajamas!

My best run so far

This morning I decided to go somewhere new to run. Went down town and parked on a random street, pushed start on the Garmin and started running. I had a really bad day yesterday so I needed some time to clear my head and just chill out. Thankfully I left my ipod at home because it caused me to actually think more instead of jam out. Before I knew it I had already ran over a mile and had not stopped at all to walk. Btw- that's a first for me. I usually have to stop atleast at the 1 mile point and walk for a minute then go again. I was happy, makes me feel like im accomplishing something. Steven and I meet at Outback every Tuesday night and last night I was telling him how I know how our white belt students feel. Starting something new surrounded by a bunch of black belts who make everything look so easy but it's not. It's the same thing in running. I have came into this thing super excited but im realizing it's really a process much like the belts in martial arts. 1-Get down the basics and after a while you start seeing small improvements. 2- Lot's and lot's of repetition 3- as I say about 50 times a day "technique first, speed will follow". The more I run the more I see how it's so similar to martial arts. I guess after a while you will be kickin' ass with the rest of em'. Atleast that's my goal. Kerry, Dave, Sam, Monika, Amy, Troy, Leora, Deb and all those other "black belts" outs there inspire me to keep on pushing and eventually I will move up one step at a time.

Today I learned that running with a bad chest cold is not cool! I also missed the race in Athens because I was sick. However we had an awesome dinner and bond fire at my house. (Dave, Kerry, Amy, Troy, Monika, Leora, Deb, Deb's aunt, Sophie, Noah and Madison). It was a great time. Madison caught a huge catfish out of the pond in my back yard. Dinner was awesome and the bond fire was just perfect. Thanks again for coming. We have lot's of "goods" still left in the frig for next time.

1st race of the year 1 of 50

Check it out... It looks like im running 30 miles an hour! I soooo wasn't! I'm not sure how my hair was doing that. That would take alot of hair spray! Ok so I have this crazy goal to do 50 races in a year. Today was my first of 08'. It was way freakin' cold and all hills. The only flat spot was the last 200 yards to the finish line. Most runners almost missed the finish because they literally had it hidden on a tiny side road. It was odd! The thing that amazed me today was all the kids running. When I say running I mean haulin' butt like there was no tomorrow. Then there was this 10-12 year old slightly heavy set girl that really didn't want to be there. She was crying and looking like she was about to hurl. Her dad was being a total jerk saying things like "I told you you need to work out more". I wanted to trip him or something.. kick him in the face, key his car...something! People like that really tick me off. I guess that's just part of it. I also had my first experience with a really bad side cramp today. Usually when I get those they only last about 20 seconds. This lasted from around 1.2 mile maker to past the 2nd mile. It's really hard to run with those. I'm pretty sure it was because of my breathing. I was so cold that I was taking much shorter breathes. So note to self, don't do that again! Next race is this weekend in Athens and im hoping for a good run. We shall see... Till next time "Live to inspire others and inspire to live your life to the fullest"