Busy Bee

It's the time of year when there is so much to see and so much to do! Another one of my BFF's ,MH, came home from NYC for the week. We decided to call up our gal, DJ, and meet up for a class at the gym then grab dinner. I'm liking that much better than just meeting friends up for drinks. Although, the three of us were hating life in that class last night. I've never done so many push-ups! We definitely got a good workout in before heading over to Mongolian BBQ for dinner.

Twas the Weekend before X-mas, Part 2

I was in bed by 10:30pm on Friday which meant for a productive morning on Saturday. I got up at a decent time and took Brady on a mile long walk. I put some laundry in, then went to the gym. I managed to get 4.5 miles in on the treadmill and felt pretty good during & afterwards. I relaxed the rest of the day until 5, when FB came over. Around 6, we headed over to PB's for the big party. It was a blast! Her house looked so cute all decorated!

Country Music Marathon

Just signed up for the half!

Twas the weekend before X-mas, Part 1

Oh, man did I have a good weekend! I'm certainly feeling it today too, I woke up late and still am feeling exhausted! It all started on Friday at lunch. Well kind of. My friends Tern and Lego drove up from Tennessee to visit for the weekend. Big Red was hanging with them for the day on Friday so I talked her into bringing them to Ann Arbor for lunch. We went to Teriyaki Time so BR could experience the Bi Bim Bop that I love. The boys were quite entertaining.

After work I headed over to PB's house to hang with the gang for a while. Since I've been sick I wanted to take it easy and have a relatively early night. BR, Tern, Lego, & I grabbed dinner from Qdoba, ran a few errands for PB's party, then got working on more jello shots. Sample a jello shot, make a batch, repeat. I was bummed to have to leave an miss out on a trip to the D but thankful that I got to get some good sleep.

Blah!

It's been one of those weeks or two. I had an awesome time with FB in Chicago but the morning that we were heading home I wasn't feeling so hot. I ended up missing 2 1/2 days of work last week and I'm still dragging. Definitely better but I have a lingering cough and a lack in stamina to get through the day. Today is date night so I'm hoping that once I see FB, I'll be perked back up a bit. We have plans to enjoy the season today...we are going to look at a Christmas tree display and then some holiday lights.

And my workouts have been non-exsistent since I came down with whatever it is that is attacking my immune system. Which is not good since the Goofy Challenge starts three weeks from Saturday! I'm in total panic mode about that!

Pear Obsessed

A while back I stumbled upon SoBe's Fuji Apple Pear Lifewater. This stuff tastes amazing!
Then last night I stopped by my parents house and my Mom was raving over a new flavor of Yoplait yogurt she bought...Pear.

Then today at lunch I stopped by the co-op and found Wallaby Pear yogurt.

I'm loving this stuff!

Poor little puppy!

This poor little guy puts up with all kinds of abuse from me. He tolerates it when I put him in his little backpack. Just look at that expression on his face! And then he tolerates it when I have mornings like this morning where I'm just not awake yet and I accidentally dump his food into his water bowl and not the empty food bowl. A soggy breakfast for him and he never complained once!

Lack of Training

I think it was last February when I actually had signed up for the Disney Goofy Challenge. For those of you who don't know what that is, it consists of running the Disney half marathon on Saturday, followed by running the Disney Full marathon on Sunday. You get a medal and shirt for each of the two races, plus an additional medal & shirt for doing the two together. I love a challenge and when two of my friends signed up to do it, I just couldn't resist. Out of curiosity I googled "39.3 training" and found this site: http://www.runvie.com/Articles/Disney%20Goofy%20Training%202010.pdf. According to the schedule, I should have ran 11 miles last night. Instead I made myself some dinner and spent the evening on the couch snuggling with Brady and watching the Vampire Diaries. After having just ran 2 marathons, I'm finding it hard to muster up the motivation to start getting more long runs in again. However, I know that if I can get them in, I will be much happier at mile 20 of the marathon.

Struggle

A year later, I still have days where I struggle. I'm still friends with my ex-husband on facebook. I can't help sometimes but to look on his page to see what he is up to. Sometimes, it makes me fell better about the decision I had made a little over a year ago to leave. Sometimes, I long to see him. I'll start to miss him, then I feel all sad and empty inside. In someways life was easier then...I had a house that was a mile from work, there was a fenced yard for the dog, he took care of paying our bills, our combined salaries permitted us to travel regularly, I didn't have to worry when I went to the mall if I could afford the new pair of pants that I needed since I somehow manged to eat a few too many pieces of pizza and my old ones got tight. Maybe if I saw him just one more time the past would fade and life would be just how I dreamed...a happy couple living together and compromising with one another when disagreements came about. And then I take a step back and start to think about how completely miserable I was. How every time we had a family vacation planned with my family, he somehow found a need for us to leave a day early. How he hated my friends for no reason. How I would ask politely if he could mow the lawn since I just cleaned the kitchen, only to be cussing and swearing a week later while I was stuck cutting through the jungle that become the front yard. How I was constantly criticized for eating something, doing something, saying something, that just wasn't within his views. I think of how much fun I had with my family last year over the holidays when he wasn't around. I think of how proud I am of myself for staying true to my beliefs and surviving the first year. I think of how the dog is thriving and now getting the love & attention he needs. Oh, that little dog, I just think of him now and it puts a big smile on my face. I know I made the right decision and I know that I am better off, but sometimes I just need to remind myself of that.

Delicious.

Oikos yogurt - I love this stuff. Yogurt & honey is just bliss.

I've been trying to give my body a rest from running since I ran two marathons in 20 days and I've got another one coming up in less than two months. Last night I decided to hit up the Latin Fusion class at Lifetime Fitness. I was a little unsure at first since I'm no JLo, but I loved it! We did a lot of hip shaking and salsa steps. It was so nice to get a workout without pounding the pavement.

Tonight's workout is a fun run, the Wayne County Lightfest 8K. It's a nice little race with little perks, other than getting to view the holiday light show before it's open to cars. I'm not looking forward to standing around in 45 degree weather waiting for the race to start, but I'm definitely looking forward to the warm food afterwards!

Marathon #7 - DONE!

The Rockhead trail marathon was #7 for me. And by far the toughest. I came in at 5:29:32. The winner came in at 4:12:49. We ran hills, over rocks, on sand, and through two water crossings. It was definitely an adventure!

Halloween Fun!

Weekend Recap - Sunday aka Race Day

Finally, the Detroit Marathon recap! I couldn't have asked for things to go more perfectly that day! FB & I woke up at 5am and quickly got dressed and got in the car. We headed over to BR's house to pick her up. I ate a mini Cinnamon raisin bagel from Trader Joe's. We got downtown without any problems. We were planning on parking on the Cobo roof, but we saw traffic backed up at the exit. Luckily BR had worked downtown and could direct us around. We ended up finding street parking not too far from the start line. We cranked the heat in the car to stay warm and stayed there until just about 20 minutes until the start time. There were port-a-johns near where we parked that hardly had anyone in line. After the pit stop we headed over to our corrals. We sent FB off to his, then BR & I went to ours. It was nice and warm in the pack. Then before we knew it we were off. It was a great course that went up over the Ambassador bridge into Canada, along the waterfront there, back through the tunnel until Detroit. BR & I stayed together this whole time. We stuck together until mile 12 where I sent her off to PR in the half marathon. I was really worried about seeing her head to the finish while I still had 13.1 to go. It ended up being fine. I keep focusing on two mile increments when I got to mile 14. Somehow the next 6 miles through Indian Village and onto Belle Isle went by so quick. I was really starting to struggle just after mile 20. Luckily I ran into my friend S and we finished the race out together. My chip time was 4:17:53. It felt SO good to finish. I think I have to say that this was my favorite race yet!

Weekend Recap - Saturday

FB works the door at a bar on Friday night so he doesn't get home until 3am. I don't know how he does it because that is WAY past my bed time! I often crash at his place and take advantage of sleeping in. We usually end up sleeping in until 10am on these days which is really a rarity for me. Last Saturday, I was up at 8 so I could a shower in and get ready for the day. It was a long one. About 9am, FB got up and we set off to run some errands....getting gas, going to the bank, and the oh-so important quest of getting food. I like to eat. We went to the local donut shop and got coffee & bagels, and donuts too. Donuts are another rarity for me but I figured I was going to burn off all the calories from it running the next day. When we got back to FB's, J was there waiting for us to head off to the Michigan game. It had been over a year since I had last been in the big house and I was looking forward to going back. We had awesome seats on the 50-yard line. The game was a complete blow-out with UofM beating Delaware State 63-6. Oh, well! After the game we headed back downtown so the guys could pick up their packets for the race. Both guys ended up having some issues getting their packets and had to go talk to customs to get them. J because he failed to get a passport or enhanced license, FB was just a random screening. I was hoping to head back to Greektown for another yummy dinner. I managed to talk them into going and we hopped on the people mover. However, when we got to Greektown all the guys had their eyes (or stomach) on was the Buffet at the Greektown Casino. Not my favorite way to eat a meal but I figured that it would make them happy so I agreed. I stuck mostly to the pasta and salad. After dinner we made our way home and started to prep for the race the next day. Then it was an early night since we had to be up at 5am.

Weekend Recap - Friday

I had an absoultely fabulous weekend!

FRIDAY:

One of my BFF's and I headed down to the Marathon expo to get our race packets. Detroit was my 6th marathon, it was the 3rd half-marathon for Big Red (BR). We had to walk through a maze to get to the packets which were all the way at the back of the expo. We got our packets & shirts without any flaws. On the way out I stopped at one of the vendors and picked up a hunter-orange running shirt to wear on my next marathon, since it's required. After the expo we decided to hop on the people mover and head over to Greektown for dinner.

We went to the New Parthanon restaurant. It was delish! We shared an order of saganki, then we each got Greek Salads. We decided that we need to chase our dinner down with a sweet so we stopped next door at Astoria bakery and got some treats.

We finished the night off with a trip to our favorite Detroit bar, The Baltimore. We said hello to some of our friends there, had one drink then we were off to call it a night. I was home by 11pm!

Detroit Marathon Results

I managed to run my second fastest marathon with a time of 4:17:53. More details to follow...

46 hours to go....

In approximately 46 hours I'll be lined up and ready to go.

Love. this. guy!

Isn't he just the cutest?

Crazy Runner

It's been almost 2 years since my last marathon (http://www.usafmarathon.com/) and now I'm looking at 3.5 in 3 months. I think I've officially lost my mind! This is what I have lined up:

Oct 18 - Detroit Free Press/Flagstar Marathon http://www.freepmarathon.com/
Nov 7 - Rockhead Marathon http://www.rockheadrace.com/
Jan 9 - Disney 1/2 Marathon
Jan 10 - Disney Marathon http://disneyworldsports.disney.go.com/dwws/en_US/events/eventDetail/detail?name=WdwMarathonDetailPage&bhcp=1

Trail Weekend

Last weekend was Trail weekend (http://www.trailmarathon.com/). Saturday was the 5 Miles Road Ends Trail run and Sunday was my first 1/2 marathon of the year. I couldn't have picked a more challenging course! I loved every minute of it, except for the bugs! I managed 45:46.6 for the 5 miles and 2:23:52.2 for the half.

Random Five Favorites of the Day

1. The Sun Shinning!
2. People's Food Co-Op
3. My iPhone
4. Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Creme
5. My two running buddies, Brady & Megan!!!

The Name Game

It's been a hard decision deciding what name I will continue on with. Everyone now knows me by my married name and it's quite convienient. It's at the beginning of the alphabet so it's easy to spot on lists. But I feel that moving forward deserves a new old name. So back to my Maiden name it is. It's sort of like wiping the slate clean and starting all over fresh. Along with that comes the long list of documents that will need the name changed on. It's a pain in the butt, but in the end I think it will be worth it!

Picking up the pieces

2008 was a rough year and I'm ready to pick up the pieces of my life after a divorce and move on. 2009 can only be better. I wanted a place to record my thoughts & goals as I move towards a happier life!