Chug-along-chica!

Three in the wee hours of too-early-to-truly-be-called morning. One with Holly, one alone, and one with the dog.

2 A couple of hours later with my sons in tow.

Happy Veteran's Day!

Since I'm sure you are all dying to know the ridiculous everyday adventures of my life, I will include an embarrassing story....

I have 2 rings that I wear on my left ring finger.  First, I have my beautiful wedding set, which is pretty, but not overly practical. After scratching my babies with the diamond a couple of times I decided I really wanted something less dangerous to show my marital status.  James kindly gave me a very nice ring with the center stone set down in a pressure setting for our 6th anniversary.  Very nice.  This is the ring I use for everyday.  It has 2 colors of gold and is so smooth and practical.  After missing this ring for a couple of days, I finally located it...in the VACUUM cleaner!!! To say that it is smooshed is an understatement!  Completely crumpled, broken, and missing the center stone is more like it.  I cried.  I don't think I have a single possession that means as much to me as that ring--except my wedding ring.  For Christmas I have asked Santa to get my ring fixed--even if they have to melt it down and start from scratch!   So I have been wearing my fancy wedding ring since then. 

On my run today, I stopped to let the kids play in the park.  While I was watching them, I noticed some really strong sprinklers.  I had this FABULOUS idea to hold my beloved ring in its spray for a few seconds and let the water blast it sparkly-clean.   Who wants to wait for it to soak in one of those ring-cleaning thingies?   Well, my plan worked famously for about 1 second, after which I suddenly found myself...not...holding...onto a ring anymore.  It had shot off somewhere into the deep grass.  DOH!  I win the prize for stupidest way to dispatched several of my prized possessions within a 3 day time frame.  Don't be too alarmed, though.  I located my wedding set within 5 min., but I had to get pretty wet to do it.  Ha ha.

Ran 3 this morning with Christine after a HORRIBLE night's sleep. I was in bed by 10, but I didn't get to sleep until around 2:30 am. (My kids are sick.) But my respect for Christine is such that I bounded out of bed at 5:30 to run with her. I have never ever missed a run with her. That's pretty good for me!

Now I am dragging badly...but I finally got those last 2 in.  Goodnight!

5K in the morning at 9:59 pace on average.  (Much better than 10:00 pace, doncha think?)

1.9 more miles this evening with my boys.  Sssslow!

My little 5 year old is having oral surgery tomorrow.  Nothing serious or dangerous, but I always feel a little scared when he has to be anesthisized.  Ug.  Here we go again.... Prayers appreciated.

2.85 miles in the morning with Christine in 27:52.   Felt a bit brisk. 

2.2 miles tonight alone.

Harrowing day--Joey's oral surgery went well.  He really is a stinker when he is coming out of anesthesia, though.  Croaking and screaming.  What a nightmare!  I was so frazzled tonight I REALLY wanted to skip my evening run.  So I was so surprised to see how much better it made me feel.  It is a cool night--fresh from a recent rain and so invigorating.  Why is it that we (I) tend to resist what really will help us (me) feel better?

Register for the Canyonlands Half! 

Here is a link: https://secure.marathonguide.com/register/moabhalfmarathon/Canyonlands/index.cfm?EID=362

• Click on "search for your group"
• Search for "fastrunning bloggers anonymous" 
• Click on "join group"
• Accept the release
• Enter all your info, and you're done! 

6 people per group, so there are only 2 more spots in the 1st group.  If you want to join and it is all filled up, comment on Michelle's blog.  She'll create another group just for bloggers if we need one. 

Yea!  I cashed in most of my commando points today for my BEST running high ever: my first 6 miler since I've started running again. 

I took it out nice and slow.  I never really looked at my pace--just tried to run easy.  I haven't run over 3 miles at once by myself for a long time, so I thought it would be hard.  Here's the wierd part-it was hard and slightly aggravating the first 3 or 4 miles, but it just seemed to get better from there.  I was still feeling really fresh around 4.7 miles so I decided to pick it up a little.  It felt soooo good.  Up until today, I don't think I've EVER understood why Sasha says sometimes says that he just didn't want to slow down.  How could you not want to slow down?  That's like saying you don't want to open your birthday presents or something--or so I thought.  So I was bopping along at a slightly faster pace, but when I looked down at my Garmin, it said I was going 2:00 a mile faster.  Wow!  I wasn't even breathing faster or anything.  It didn't even FEEL harder.  It just felt good!  I've felt like I was on death's door  going slower than that in races!  I could've gone another 2 miles, I know it!  But I promised James that I wouldn't be gone longer than an hour, so I brought her in.  But this helped to revive my enthusiasm for running, so I am happy.

59:19 for 6 miles.  Splits of 10:02, 10:14, 10:20, 10:29, 9:50, 8:21.

Oh yeah, and I had someone yell a swear word at me out the window of a car.  That's a first.  Plus, I almost got creamed by a motorcycle.  Don't pedestrians have the right of way when the sidewalk crosses a parking lot entrance?

And one other thing...I met Abdi Abdirahman today at James' race.  (Remember he is based in Tuscon.  He wasn't running--he was just there for publicity.)  He looked just like he did on TV only skinnier.  It would take a whole passle of scientists to figure out how in the heck that man keeps his jeans from falling to his feet.  But he was really nice, and confirmed that he does, in fact, eat liver for breakfast every morning.  Now THAT is dedication.  (Urp.)   I thought about asking him to join the fastrunning blog, but I lost my nerve.  Ha ha. :)