First Walk/Run and here we go...

Yesterday was my first attempt at running since surgery. Kay has been on injury reserve as well so we were going to start back together. She got a little head start on me though because she was released a few weeks ago. What day do I pick to start back though? Yes the hottest day of the year. Oh well - no crying in running! We got started we did it and it went great. We did a total of 4 miles. No I did not run 4 miles but I did run 2 of those. YAY for me. I am so happy today. Funny how a nice sweaty run can help the mood. I am not doing anything today as I am easing back into this. Plus my Dr. cancelled my appointment this week until next week so I really haven't been released to run. Shhhh...don't tell anyone. I am just going off of "you can start running 6 weeks from the surgery". Well it has been six weeks so I am running. Good news came today on my little friend Evelyn. Best case scenerio was Stage 1 Wilms Cancer and that is what it was. She will do 19 weeks of chemo and then we will see from there. Keep this family in your prayers. Cancer is cancer, and no 4 year old should have to go through this. Well until the next run... take care blog family!

Where the heck have I been.....

Why have I been MIA on blogging? I could say that I didn't have anything to say for the last year or that I have been too busy. Neither of those would be true. Most of you wouldn't care and if you do, you already know what the last year has been like for me and if you know me you know I am an open book. So I didn't feel a need to vent here on what I started as a journel of my training history. So why did I come to the blog site again? I loved blogging as an outlet and again as a journel of my journey in training. Now I need an outlet for what is hopefully the beginning of a training season and an outlet of some really crappy stuff going on around me in the lives of people I love! Training should start very soon (yes only if my Dr. releases me) and my hope is to train for a half marathon. That is the plan right now. But you all know the best laid plans are sometimes not seen to frutition. If you have followed this blog for any amount of time then you also know for me that is totally true so I am just going with flow. The Dr. did I say I may never run any long distance ever again. I am stubborn so I am hoping that plays a part in that. As for the crap going on around me - well one of my besties found out on Sunday her 4 year old daughter has cancer. That sucks and it is unfair and me as a believing christian, well lets just say God has alot of explaining to do. I will tell you like I told Him, make me sick. Me, the mean, bitter, cynical bitch - not the beautiful, sweet, loving, caring, full of life Evelyn who has not even begun to live. I will take this for her!!!!!!! Oh and I also told Him that I am not sure what he needs to teach us adults through a wonderful child being sick - but I don't like it and I hope to see a teaching lesson soon. I am quickly reminded though that I am to have faith that He is a miracle worker and can heal. So God here is my prayer, heal Evelyn's little body, make her whole, ease the pain that her loving parents feel, help them to understand something they cannot control with their child. Ease the pain of her friends and family members, especially those that the memeroies of losing their own child haunt. Wrap us with love and understanding that only comes from You. Dear Lord I pray these things in the precious name of Your son Jesus Christ. I am a praying woman, I ask that you do the same thing for my sweet friends. To follow Evelyn's progress and treatment - check out this website. http://ourjourneyevelyn.blogspot.com/

Another Year Behind Us

2010 is officially over and during the last few weeks instead of being obesseed with how bad it was and wishing it would end, I decided to reflect on it, pray on it, and be happy for the lessons I have learned. There is a song, "I will praise you in the storm" and that is what I am trying to do. Trying I said.

The loss has been much, the heartache more and the lessons plenty. So with all of that, we move forward and start fresh. I find peace and comfort in knowing that yesterday to my God is as far as the East is from the West.

Training will continue because it is my therapy. We have muddled over what races we will do and thought of ones we would only wish to do. Trainging and time will dictate that.

I didn't set any resolutions. I think I have said this before, why put the pressure on myself just to fail. I have started making changes to be more organized and accountable. For me, if I accomplish those two things, I did alot.
Here is hoping that each of you have a prospersous and blessed 2011. I wish you good health, good frienships, lots of love and no regrets!

Love and God's Blessings to all.

Kiawah Island 2010 Marathon

Maybe I should of titled this post "I am alive, I just haven't been blogging" or something super clever. I honestly can't think of anything at the moment to write that would sound witty or clever. The reason I am writing is to share my race report.

This all begins oh I don't even know how long go. Let's just say around May or June. I come up with the big bright idea of running the 2010 Kiawah Island Marathon. The reason I chose this one was I have time to train through furniture market. I show up at master swim one day and say "hey, Dan, Fred, Steve, Scott and Wendy - lets all run the marathon at Kiawah Island. They think for a moment or two and being the super athletes that they are, they all agree. Great! Fred or someone sends out a training plan and it looks easy enough to follow, and we all get started. Except about 6 weeks into training, I tear a calf muscle. There goes my training for two months! Dr. Fields tells me no way I am running a marathon this year. Won't happen, you might be able to run a half but that would be pushing it so just plan on a spring 2011 race. Bummer!

I am a very impatient woman (shocker) and I never gave "you won't be running a marathon this year" soak into my brain. I take the time off that I am supposed to on the calf and cross train. In cross training, I mean spin and some swimming, mainly spin class though. Which never really bothered the calf just taxied the lungs to the max in some classes. I would say I won't complain about Corey Dixon as an instructor again, but I am sure he has some new tricks up his sleeve for 2011 that will kick me into a new level (or secretly I am hoping it will) of fitness. When, I am finally able to run, it is not really long distances. I ran 5 miles a couple of days a week and I think my longest run was 9 miles about a month ago. I had thought that I would switch from the full marathon to the half but when I tried online there were no spots. Oh well... I will go and if I have to pick the cones up and be followed in by the van, well by golly I will finish. I have 7 hours to accomplish this and I am not going to Kiawah with any expectation other than to finish this race. Not to mention I am dragging my husband along to run the half and over the year he may have ran 8 or 9 miles! I only asked where the life insurance policy was in case something bad happened. He can write his own story but I am super proud of him. He finished that darn half marathon. OK Ok back to my story......

There are 10 of us going from my group, so we found a nice big house and off we go! The weather looked good earlier in the week. As good as the weather for fall/winter can look anyway. We all start arriving on the island around 5:30 get our race packets. Well our bibs and shirts. Everyone is going green this year so no fun stuff. We have a huge pasta dinner, our group and my friend Steve Price from Charlotte and his wife Cindy. We had a lovely dinner and then off to bed we went. While dinner is being prepared though we check the weather forecast. Slight chance of rain in the morning. I mean it says like 20%. OK what does slight mean to the weather forecaster? It does not mean that it will pour down rain most of the morning then turn into a steady rain for 13 out of 26 miles. Oh well thank goodness it was not bitter cold. But weather forecasters you are all fired!

Off to bed we all. I slept just o.k. I worried about my limited training and how bad of a time I would have. The other runners in my group are FAST! So I knew they would be well rested by the time I got there. So the joke became that I would be picking the cones up and van following me in to finish. I will have to admit the thought of that made me sad. I hate being last and I hate being the slowest. I should just be happy with that I am there and I am able to run I know. But I am not but I am not willing to put in the time it takes to become faster.

5:30 a.m. and it is pouring rain! Time for breakfast and to start worrying. Breakfast is a bagel, peanut butter, a banana and coffee. I could not decide what I wanted to wear so I brought enough clothes for three ladies. I dress in what I think will be plenty to keep me warm and grab a trash bag to keep me dry. Shuttle is called and we are off to the start line! We get there and now the nerves have kicked in. I honestly feel like I am going to toss my breakfast and just not run at all. Not really that bad but I don't really know how this is going to turn out. Plus I couldn't find Steve and I was getting sad. Not that running with Scott was going to be bad. I just had talked to Steve into this so I wanted to run with him. We live 2 hours from each other so we don't get to run together unless we meet at races. He finds me in the 12 minute pace group! That was a pace I thought I could keep and so did Scott. Scott is as He is as unprepared as I am. They call for the race to start in 2 min, last minute run to the porta john and then it is time. Horn blows!

We start running and we decide we are going walk the water stops. I know that at some point, I have to walk instead of run, due to training limitations but I am determined to give it my all. No shame in walking in my book. The shame comes in not starting. We are running right along, having a great time and then here comes John Barrett. WTF is what I say. How did the guy catch up? Are we running that slow, or he is running that fast? Probably both but I can't let this happen. He can't have a better time on the half than me. Then I have to be reminded that I also have 13 more to go! LOL! Oh how did I forget that? I was having so much fun that it just crept up on me. John has a great race and I am so proud of him. Now maybe he will train for the next race he has.

13 miles down and I feel great. I was soaking wet though. I tossed my long sleeve shirt hoping that would help. But not really, I was cold! Funny stories come from being cold. I won't share them with you, but poor Scott and Steve. They now know more about me than they care to I am sure. I was very thankful when two ladies walked by with a handful of clothes they had picked up and she had a sweatshirt type jacket. I asked her if I could have it and she was so kind to give it to me. Warmth finally! It was a little damp but way better than that cold t-shirt. The rain diminished and and even a glimmer of the sun comes out for a bit. I am shocked by how good I feel. It is still me, Steve and Scott plugging right along. Knocking out one mile at a time. The water stops are great. I made sure to hydrate well. I tell them, if you have it and you can leave me go ahead. I will see you at the finish. At the potty stop, Scott whose one step equals three of mine is gone. Steve though is still hanging in there with me. We had already though made a deal that if he could leave he will when he is ready. What great friends I have. Finally about mile 18 (I think, maybe 16) it catches up with me. My feet are hurting, my knee hurts, the legs are sore but never do I think I have to quit and I can't do it. Steve and I are running and there are two women that obviously have the greatest friend in the world who is meeting them and rubbing their legs out. So jokingly I ask her to rub my knee and she does. Magic hands. It was wonderful and I wished the rest of the race that she was my friend. Then low and behold, there is mile 20! Steve and I have caught back up with Scott. It was a plan we had. We were going to run past him and laugh but as soon as we got there, he started running with us. Darn it, foiled my plan! At mile 22 Steve takes off. I put my ipod on and I leave Scott. Ally fixed my music so you know I am listening to music of today's youth! That gave me a little extra jolt to my step for a bit anyway. I did have to stop and walk a few minutes but then I was down to my last 5k. I wanted to dance in the street I was so happy. Funny how good it feels when you get down to single miles needed to finish.

When I got to mile 25, honestly I got emotional. My prayer had been before this race was safety for the runners, for my race to be good eand let this be the beginning of lots of good things to come. So when I was 25 miles into the race my body was not prepared for, I was ven more thankful. Then a lady says "you have less than 1/3 of a mile to go" , the smile that came across my face made my cheeks hurt. I had done it. I had completed another marathon and wow only 22 minutes longer than a marathon I was trained for. I was happy. First face I see is my friend Steve, without him and Scott I would never have made it, I would be picking up the cones. Mile 26.2 and all of my friends where there screaming my name and my husband there when I crossed the final finish line. Thankful is all I can say about that.

I will not write about how sore I am or the other aches and pains I have. Nothing rest and darvacet won't cure. But what I will finish this with is how thankful I am for a husband and a group of friends who never doubted (outloud) that I couldn't do this. They laughed with me, they trained with me, encouraged me, they cheered for me and more than all of that, they believe in me. Thank you, you know who you are! I always am looking forward to the next year, for good things, but I am going to take the next few weeks of 2010 and be thankful for the journey and the lessons I have learned about life and people.

To those that ran this weekend, great job! It was so much fun, where are we going next?

I found a new running buddy

I am on vacation this week and Lucy is with us. John took Macy home with him so I get stuck with the one year old let me destroy everything that I know you love yellow lab. She is a very sweet girl most of the time but boy if you don't have her occupied she really does love to eat precious items. Like my new running shoes a few weeks ago.

Today is Lucy's one year old birthday and I thought what better way to start it off then to let her run with me. I wasn't really worried about running much today because after being thrown off the golf cart yesterday (by accident) my ankle was hurting so I really just was trying it out to make sure it was just tight and not really hurt. The majority of the swelling is in my arch so I thought it would be fine to walk on. So off Lucy and I are. She is not much of a leash walker so I had no grand hopes of her running far. Well my little girl has surprised the heck out of me and she actually ran the entire 2.5 miles with me. At first she couldn't decide which side she wanted to be on but after the first mile she chose my right side and just trotted right along. I am still in shock over how focused she was. Nothing bothered her. Passing cars, people and little dogs did not effect her at all. She just kept going. Lucy was totally ready for her water bowl when we got back and now is napping.

Then when I opened my email, there is an article from Runner's World on training your dog to run with you! Guess what I am going to be reading this afternoon? Lucy is officially my new training partner. I sure hope Rod and Jess don't mind her coming along in the mornings to run with us!

If anyone else runs with their dog and you have any words of wisdom, please share them with me. I want this to be a good experience for me and Lucy.

How it feels

To those of us who run regularly, you know what it is like to be sidelined and not able to do what you love and that is running for me. I will never be a winner of any age group, but I love to put one foot in front of the other and go. Therefore the last seven weeks have been very hard physically as well as emotionally.

I have missed my running friends, my early morning therapy sessions as I refer to them and several events that I would normally have signed up for. But mainly I have missed the feeling of getting the miles in and what it does for me mentally. Oh and being able to eat whatever I really wanted to was missed as well and my scale shows that more than anything.

With that said, yesterday I ran 2.5 miles. I don't care that it was 96 degrees when I started and stopped. I ran the whole thing. That doesn't included the almost half of mile I walked to warm up or the quarter of a mile I walked to cool down. I ran 2.5miles without stopping or feeling like I would die from anything other than heat! YAY!

It feels indescribable to me to be running again. I had no idea how much I truly missed it until yesterday. Now let the training begin...slowly that is!

Getting Back

I know I haven't posted anything in a long time. Haven't had anything to really post. I have an injury that I have been and am still nursing. I was finally given the thumbs up to start running again last week. Don't think that I have just been sitting around doing nothing for the past 7 weeks. I used this time to focus on swimming!

I will not bore you with how poor of a swimmer I am. If you read this blog you know that already. Well that has changed. I have turned into super swimmer and have the gold stars from my coach to prove it! Cherri Kennedy at the Hartley YMCA Masters Program has spent two days a week with me for the last 7 weeks. We both are excited when the class is over that I made and could complete the entire workout. Yesterday we even marveled that she hasn't had to adjust a workout for me in weeks! I don't mind showing up twice a week now. Before, any excuse to get me out of it worked just fine for me. Not that you care but I have also been doing spin class to keep the legs moving. As hard of a workout that I get from that class (2-3 times/week), it did nothing to keep the weight gain at bay!

So now that I can run, the plan he gave me has me starting out at 2.5 miles 4 times a week, then building on that. That seemed like way too much so I decided to run 1 mile and see how it went. Not so well the first time. My leg started hurting again and I got scared. So I took a few days off and my leg still hurt. Gun shy or just crazy I guess you could say. I emailed the PA and asked what he thought. I am sure he laughed the entire time he was typing the response. I was told to just run and follow the plan. Unless it hurt severely, then I was fine. The muscle group was not use to being used so it would hurt and that was expected. Yeah I am not buying that but I don't have DR. or PA in my title, so that is what I am doing, just running. I tried again this week and it went fine. So hopefully I really am back in the sport of running. This truly is the first time that I have ever followed Dr.'s orders so they better be right!

I do feel like a slug with the weight I have gained so I decided to let someone (I will not mention your name, but I am rethinking our friendship) talk me into trying a new class. Athletic Conditioning...Yes it sounded like something that I would be able to do when reading the class description with no problem. Well that was Monday, and John had to help me wash my hair this morning (Wed)! I can't lift my arms over my head. How sad is that? I wasn't going to do the class again but now I feel like I have too. I obviously am not very strong and need to work on some muscle conditioning. So after I come back from vacation, I am going to try it again (unnamed friend your going back with me)!

So here is to happy running times and getting back out there. The IPod is charged and I will hit the pavement or the track at the Y tonight!