My heart is "beeping" fast!

Yesterday, the baby, you know, the one who just turned 6....he ran up (and down) a half mile hill.  We live at the bottom of this hill and walk/jog/run it quite often but Kimber has never run the whole way.  Yesterday HE DID IT.  Of course this morning, there was much complaining about his legs hurting.  Lactic acid discussion ensued. 

I will fully admit that I don't do baby talk, I take this job of raising self sufficient humans seriously and have tried hard to talk to these kids like the people they are....BUT......I just can't fix K's term for his heart beating.....beeping.  While laying on the driveway after his sprint he just had to let me feel his "heart beeping".

This is probably my favorite incorrect word usage of his....it also allows me to keep savoring one of the few morsels of his littleness for a little while longer,  he is so independent and aware and OLDER than his 6 years in so many ways, I will keep "heart beeping" for a little while longer.

Within 10 minutes of our arrival back home from our run, Matthew took his first over the handlebar dismount....with minimal drama I might add.  I think he was pretty close to crying but my well disguised worry masquerading as AWE tricked him.  He got a little banged up and sported some bruises on his ribs for a few days but was back on his bike within 15 minutes or so.

2014 Miles = 194.68

A fairly slow running year, this crazy life doesn't leave a lot of time for running, but it's better than no miles, right?

Knee Years

They have dog years, and I think for runners they should have knee years.

For example, after today's NOT FAST 8 miles these knees feel at least 10, possibly 20 years older than their almost 37 years.....not that I really know what 47 year old knees feel like, but I can speculate right?

13.1 Date

It is that time again, last Saturday was my third and William's first running of the local little half marathon I have come to love.  It is the perfect little race with just the right amount of people, support, cheering and the weather, once again, was pretty perfect.

The last 13.1 was did together was in 2004, in Dallas, before our world was turned upside down by little people.  After the race we ate and literally went home and did nothing the rest of the day.  IN case you were wondering, that is NOT the post-race agenda of a 3 and 5 year old.  Movies, carousel riding, dinner out and lots of walking was their plan, apparently.

This year I actually got to run it with the hubs...well this might be a bit of a stretch as you can imagine 6 foot man and not quite 5 foot girl are not exactly the same pace, but we were together for the first 7 miles and together in spirit after that!  I struggled A LOT, especially the first 5 or so miles, the coughy junk I have been fighting for close to a month tried to stop me over and over but once I got through about the 5th mile it got a bit easier.

My sweet friend Lisa, who made it through 90% of our training...all while growing a tiny human in her uterus had to drop out at the last minute per doctors orders.  She so graciously gave her packet to Willie and took charge on my little men and came and cheered us on with gusto.  She rocks in SO SO SO many ways.

Anyways, we did it, it's over and I always have mixed emotions after a race.  I am relieved to not be in training for anything, but I love working towards a goal.  I am thinking P90x over the next couple of months.....onward and upward baby!!

And if you see me limping, don't laugh, these are 36 year old knees...that feel at least 60 right now.

DONE DONE DONE with 13.1

This race was at the end of April. and yes I realize it is nearly August.....
 
So, late last year my sweet-crazy-adorable friend expressed an interest in running a half-marathon.  I was thrilled, someone to train with, laugh with, moan about my aching muscles/joints with, why yes please, sign me up!  We set about finding a spring race and decided on the Country Music Half Marathon in Nashville.  It is a big race, of which I am not usually a fan, but thought would be a good experience for her/me.

We started training in January and I thought we did awesome.  We built mileage slowly, avoiding injuries and had a great time learning what worked for us.  We even did a decent (or so we thought) amount of hill work.

Well, race day was last weekend and holy smokes, that was by far the hilliest run I have ever done. Literally, at the crest of EVERY SINGLE HILL you could see the valley as well as the crest of the next one.....for 13.1 looooong miles.  It was a little disheartening...and challenging but nonetheless we got it done.  Seeing our smiling families at mile 7 helped tremendously.  A potty break around mile 10 gave us a much needed push to the finish.  I cannot say we finished as strong as I would have liked, we DID cross that finish line a little over 2 and a half hours after we started.

The crawl back through the hot, sweaty port-a-potty lined crowd to our shuttle was absolutely BRUTAL, the smell, the exhaustion, the cramping muscles, the smoking (yes people who just ran 13.1 miles were smoking), the puking, it all got to be a bit much and we finally found a softish patch of grass to collapse upon and stretch our very tight muscles.  Eventually we limped to the worlds coldest shuttle bus and shivered our way back to our car.

Not a race I am in any hurry to do again but I (we) will 13.1 again in November, God willing.

13.1

I did it..or should I say we did it?

As the culmination of 4+ months of training I completed my third half marathon with a somewhat decent time.  I had a goal of 2:20 and overshot that goal by a bit but did cut 10 minutes off last years pace on the same course so I am pretty satisfied...though there is A LOT of room for improvement!!

Race morning was GORGEOUS if a bit cold.  A fellow faster runner friend chugged along beside me for the first 6 miles and I was actually on target to make my goal.  Unfortunately I didn't maintain that pace once she split.  Overall, it was a good race.  I was better conditioned this year than last but still not as conditioned as I would have liked to be.  Once again, the anticipation of seeing my 3 boys...and the finish line got me through!!

A little celebratory hug with my little fans.

More than just a finisher...

I started running "for fun" in 2003 and though it has taken some time and a few breaks here and there I finally feel like I am more than just a finisher.  See I used to sign up for races (5K's, half marathons and even several full marathons) with the thought that I just wanted to finish...and lord willing not be last.  I am finally getting more confident~motivated~competitive with my running and am looking at beating previous times.  I doubt I will ever be competitive in the winning my age group sense but would love to get an under 30 minute 5K under my belt as well as an under 2 hour half marathon.  We shall see, we shall see.