Half Marathon

I did it!!!

I'm not quite sure how, but I did.

I'm exhausted and hurting. Lots.

I finished around 3:50 ... long time to be outside running/walking.

Will write more later! :)

Whining.

Ok, so in less than 7 hours, I need to be dressed and leaving my house to pickup Jenny and head to Jensen Beach Park to start our "training" half marathon with our Galloway training group. This is will be different though cause this is a real race ... the Martin County Halloween Half Marathon. :) I picked up our packets today at Fleet Feet (they're a big sponsor) and they made the coolest looking shirt, I'll have to get a picture of it.

Normally I would be very excited, and I kinda am .. but I'm sick. I'm still coughing junk up, my eye still itches and is gooey and today my ears started hurting. Can't someone take me out back and shoot me? Geeze. I'm so totally over being sick. And Jenny said today that she wasn't feeling well, I hope she's feeling better tomorrow.

On the other hand ... I'm very excited about our group doing this half. They have worked so very hard for it. Putting in the weekly runs and doing the Saturday training together. They're really a great group of people.

And Bucky is coming to do the race with us, and I don't get to see him very much anymore. I think this is only the second time since Alex was born actually. It'll be nice ot catch up with him in person. So I'm excited, just wish I wasn't feeling this crappy.

Ok, I'm headed to bed ... come cheer us on if you're local and are up that early ... we should finish at the Jensen Beach Park around 9:15-9:30 ish .... we're going over two bridges and my group hasn't done any hill work, so it'll be interesting! :)

Emergency Contact for your FL Driver's License

I got this on one of my mommy e-groups and thought I'd share. I already did it for hubby & I.

You can now go online and enter two (2) emergency contacts on your Florida Driver's License (electronically) which can only be retrieved by a police officer. Each emergency contact has 3 contact numbers, home, cell and work.

This came about as a result of one woman's teenage daughter being killed in a car accident and taking over 5 hours to locate the mother to inform her. This way, if you are in an accident, the police can run your driver's license and have your emergency info ASAP.

This is through the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicle website: https://www6. hsmv.state. fl.us/dlcheck/findcustomer

It's legit ... it's a good safety net, just in case. Feel free to copy/share with family and friends in Florida.

Pink Eye?

I think I have pink eye. :( I don't think I had it even as a kid, and now that I have a kid, I'm getting sick all the time it seems. I'm so over it.

I was suppose to go running this morning, I even had one sock on ... but Jenny called, she was exhausted from the Green Conference she worked yesterday, so she was cancelling. Even though I'm sick, I was still going to go ... afterall, we have a half marathon on Sunday! Eeeks. But I'm not running alone, it's way too dark out there and I don't feel safe.

So I called my parents to let them know I wasn't running this morning, so I wasn't dropping Alex off. Well, my dad must have been having Alex withdrawls, he came over and played with him and they just left, my dad is taking him to daycare. How sweet :)

Last Saturday was our "Magic Mile" with the Galloway group .. I did a 14:28 ... if "real" runners are reading this, they just snickered. But for me, that is just great! I am so happy, I pushed myself hard.

I was just about to brag that I thought that was the fastest time I've done, then I looked back in my myspace blog and found this:

> Saturday, August 19, 2006 - 2:19 AM -
> I am on TOP of the world!!!! Current mood: accomplished

> I am sooooo freeking amazed! The last time I did that magic mile was like 4 weeks ago, and
> trust me, I pushed myself to do it in 16:00 minutes.

> I've been doing most of my "homework" each week, although I wasn't feeling good on
> Thursday, so I didn't get my run/walk in ... and get this, I did the magic mile in 13:36
> minutes!!!! I am sooo happy with my progress! Just totally excited!

Of course, this was pre-Alex and I was also going to a personal trainer twice a week. I'm still happy with my time, but I have to keep pushing myself. :)

Dad should be back any minute, so I'm going to head to work early and pray the girls don't tell me to go home ... pink eye is very contagious ... not good.

Race for the Taste 10k

Yes, I did the Race for the Taste 10k! Want to be impressed? I did 17.2 miles in 2 days. Yes, I'm proud!

Let me back track ... Saturday Jenny and I did 11 miles with our Galloway training group, then she went to work and hubby and I went to April & Geoff's Celebration lunch. We had a great time, but had to leave early (before cake! Pout.), because Jenny and I needed to leave here by 3 and I wasn't even packed yet.

Santiago went to pick Alex up from my parents (he stayed the night with them) so that I could see him before I left. Alex was still running a fever, so I hated to leave him, but knew he would be fine with daddy.

Jenny and I headed for Orlando ... we were both exhausted, but really enjoyed the drive, chit chatting and catching up. With our busy lives, although we see each other 2-3 times a week to run, we don't get one on one time very much. We ate dinner at Carrabba's and headed for the hotel (love that place) ... once there, we both crashed in bed ... and decided that we would, at the very least, go to the race and walk it, if we got picked up (the have a 15 min pace limit), oh well ... at least we tried. That's what our game plan was when we went to bed at 7:30 pm.

We got up early and headed to the race ... once we got there, the loud, fast music woke us up, if the bright lights didn't. We quickly got in our groove ... we were excited about the race! As we were waiting for the start, we decided we would do our best ... my goal was not to be picked up. My training pace is around a 17 min mile ... 2 mins slower per mile than what the race requires, so I was pretty concerned about being picked up. Plus I'd already been picked up at one of Disney's races (not good!!).

Anyways ... we took off ... I could see Jenny until about mile 3, then I lost her. I ended up doing the 6.2 miles in 1:37:02, which is a 15:39 pace. WOW. I was very sore, but very proud. I cried. I was so overwhelmed. Jenny finished in 1:30:31, a 14:36 pace. She was there for me at the finish line, like she always is (what a great friend!). I'm tearing up just trying to type this. I'm not someone that has ever wanted to do a full marathon (26.2 miles) ... I'm happy with the half (13.1 miles) ... so I really never gave it much thought that I'd do more than 13.1 miles. And yes, it was over 2 days, but darnit, I did 17.2 miles, that's a lot for me. :)

Needless to say, we had a great time ... visited Downtown Disney afterwards and ate at Wolfgang Puck Express. I go there every time we're in the area for their mac & cheese. They've remodeled, which was nice .. but they changed the mac & cheese, it was still good, but not "OMG good" like it was before. (Picture is of Jenny showing off her medal while we were waiting on our lunch)

When I got home ... Alex had a fever of 103. :( It got up to 103.4, his cheeks were red and he was hot ... Santiago said he was cranky all night, didn't sleep well and had a fever since I left. I took him to Dr. Punger on Monday. Ya know, I'm not her typical patient, but I try! I'm not nursing (I did try), I don't make my own baby food, I don't co-sleep (we tried), I don't use cloth diapers, I don't EC ... I'm sure the list goes on. But I trust and like her, and she's tolerant of my, umm, not following her way to the "T". :) I do feed Alex organic baby food, and have tried to make better decisions for him ... and she and her intern help me along the way ... grin, I bought carrots for Alex to teethe on, and regular cheerios instead of the gerber puffs. And he eats Yo Baby Yogurt ... even though it's breaking out bank account! I tell ya, Alex eats way better than we do. But that's a whole 'nother post!

I'm thinking that the high fevers is just his way of teething. There is nothing else wrong with him. He's much happier today (Tuesday) .. and he has another tooth on the bottom ... so that's 4 on top and 3 on bottom now! :) And his fever is gone. But I had to make sure there was nothing else wrong, just in case.

(I took these pictures on Monday when we were home together ... it is so hard to get pictures of Alex these days, they turn out blurry cause he's always moving. Well, that and I can't find my "real" camera, so these were taken with my camera phone.)

Oh ... did I say that I brought my medal to Dr. P's office, daycare, work and my mom's school? :) Everyone gets to see it, even strangers! Yes ... I'm happy. :)

11 MILES!!!!

Oh. My. Goodness.

Wow.

I'm a giddy.

I did it. I really did it. I did 11 miles ... Go ME! I'm a little achy, but nothing major. I just emailed our group, here's the numbers from our run:

Total Distance: 11.00 miles
Total Time: 3:11:28
Overall Pace: 17:24 (Previous weeks: 17:16, 17:06, 17:06, 16:58)

Calories Burned: 2,156 (with my weight of 270)

The overall pace is a bit off though ... we don't stop our watches for water/bathroom breaks, so really we were going faster than that during our runs. I'm frustrated with my Garmin. Of course it's not the newest, I bought it in 2006 when Jenny & I started running. But since Jeff Galloway changed our running ratio to 30:30 (seconds) instead of a 1:1 (minute) ... there are only 99 "laps" you can program. Argh. So on the 9 mile run, we didn't get an accurate pace and such because the Garmin stopped after it got to 99 laps. So for this run we set it to 'alert' us every 30 seconds ... which doesn't keep track of your running/walking pace ... which annoys me terribly. I like to know that info! So I'm annoyed with my Garmin. Maybe the newer ones don't have this limit. Who knows.

Anyways ... I'm thrilled ... I'm drinking some gatorade right now and I just had a bagel (I'm sure my gastric bypass readers are cringing at the bagel part!) ... I'm gonna go chill for an hour then time to get ready for April & Geoff's celebration, then off to Orlando with Jenny.

Oh, and I checked on Alex ... he did fine last night, slept till 4:30 am or so ... he was outside playing with my mom when I called. My dad was giving me a play by play of what Alex was doing, it was cute, I could hear the smile on my dad's face as he was telling me. Alex is so lucky to have them so close by.

One last thing ... Go ME!!!!!! :)

It's early!

It's way early in the morning .. and I've already taken a shower, gotten dressed and eaten breakfast. I think I'm crazy.

And I miss Alex. The computer is in his room and it's odd being in here and him not crawling around. :(

I'm outta here .... YAY! :)

Friday Evening

I should be in bed by now ... but I'm excited, nervous, anxious ... all rolled into one. Tomorrow is our 11 mile run. I'm planning on waking up at 3:00am, leaving by 4:00am, to be at Fleet Feet by 5:00am to start our run. I'm guessing it'll take us around 3 hours. 3 hours. Can you picture it? I can. I'm looking forward to it. :)

Jenny watched Alex for a bit today, she said he wasn't his usual self, he had a slight fever. He is staying the night at my parents house ... he's not feeling well though, I think he's teething. He had a fever, 102.1, this afternoon but he's been really happy and playing, so I'm hoping it's nothing serious. My mom called, Alex is already asleep, yay! Santiago is working late tonight, so he won't be home till around midnight.

When I get home from the run, Santiago & I are going to April & Geoff's celebration lunch, they got married a few months ago and are now having a 'reception'. They're also doing the Galloway training, so they're doing 11 miles tomorrow too!

Then Saturday afternoon Jenny and I are leaving for Orlando, we're doing Disney's Race for the Taste 10k on Sunday. A 10k is 6.2 miles ... laugh ... yeah, it's going to be an interesting weekend.

I better get to bed ...

Pictures!

Yes, I know I've been missing ... sorry! I'm sure you're all dying to hear about my 9 mile run :) I'll try to do better about posting.

Here's some long awaited pictures ... you can click on any picture to see it larger. They're a bit out of order.

9/5/08 - Alex fresh out of bed on our new couch.

9/18/08 - Look, you can see my bottom teeth ... eating prunes and happy!

9/24/08 - Daddy and Alex walking towards the swings.

9/24/08 - Our first trip to the playground, Alex had a great time swinging. It's hard to do a 'self' family picture!

9/24/08 - Alex giving daddy kisses at the park.

9/2/08 - My lame attempt at being creative while taking pictures of Alex. He was playing with his toys and could care less that I was taking pictures. See his full lil belly? He just ate dinner. Such perfect little toes. :)

8/24/08 - Grandpa & Alex in the rocker our family friend, Mikey & his sister gave us, it's their family heirloom. We love it.

8/29/08 - Alex showing he's a big boy and can hold on to the side by himself - or so he thought! He loves being in the water and splashing about.

9/3/08 - Jenny bought this backpack at our local Goodwill, what a find! Alex was comfy in it, she can't wait to take him on a hike! He loves the outdoors too, so she can teach him all about it.

8/30/08 - Such a happy lil boy, look at my first tooth!

9/17/08 - Yes, he's normal, he cries. And throws fits now, too. But he's usually smiling like in most of the pictures!

Will try to update soon ... 11 miles on Saturday! Go ME! Then 6.2 on Sunday. Yes, I'm crazy.