some math for you

New quote today that I read on another blog that I just love and wanted to share with you.  It's  kinda math-like so bear with me and I'll translate for those of you who haven't looked at a math book in 25 years....

DFL>DNF>DNS

Dead F**kin Last is greater than Did Not Finish is greater than Did Not Start

Love that!  What are you waiting for?  Go start something new!

Oh Yah--don't forget to enter my Nike sunglasses giveaway!

Warrior Dash Race Report!

What a crazy super fun weekend this was!  Hubs and I were signed up to do the Warrior Dash New England on Saturday.  We drove down to his mother's house, which was conveniently about 15 minutes away from the location of the WD.  Sat. am we woke at 5:45 ish to the most God-awful loud thunder and lightning storms.  It was like a monsoon out there!  I was a little worried about whether they would call off the race because of the lightning or not.  Fortunately, we were signed up for the 6:00 p.m. wave and the weather report indicated that it was supposed to stop raining and clear out. 

We arrived and got front row parking because both of my sister-in-laws are disabled and have handicapped parking passes.  That worked out nicely for us because we didn't have to park a mile away and take the bus.  My SIL's were there to watch us, take pictures and watch the kids for us while we ran. 

What a great atmosphere!  Around 9000 people were scheduled to run on Saturday in 1/2 hour waves.  There were people everywhere!  Everyone was friendly, and in a party-have-a-good-time-mood.  It was great!  Mud was everywhere!  Muddy sneaker piles were everywhere!  People were encouraged to leave their muddy sneakers and the event coordinators would collect them, clean them (I hope!!) and distribute them to needy countries.  Nice idea, huh?  Here's what the pile looked like.

B and I met up with some friends of mine from high school.  H (in front the sneakers) is 3 years younger than me and the last time I saw her (when I graduated), she was much shorter too.  She was at least 4 inches taller than me now!

B and I got a few pictures before the race, while we were still clean!

Then it was off to the start line.  I think there were around 300 people or so in each wave.  We jumped in on the earlier wave so we wouldn't have to wait around another half hour.  Who was going to notice 2 more?  Not sure if you can find us in the start....I couldn't.

Craziness!  The start was slow going.  Most were walking as we couldn't really go any faster than the people in front of us.  We tried to get to the edge to get around some people, but as you entered the woods, the path narrowed right down and we were back to walking.  I believe the trail was supposed to just be a rocky, root covered trail through the woods, but due to the monsoon rains that morning and the 4000 or so people who ran it before us, it was 4-5" of mud.  With roots, rocks and holes that were filled with water.  We were able to get around the slower folks, the ones who weren't interested in running.  B went ahead of me on this part, I was having a hard time maintaining my balance on the slippery, muddy path.  It was almost like being on a balance ball, you were constantly fighting for your balance.  After 1.5 miles of going downhill, it was time to go back uphill.  This part was much easier for me, I was able to get better footing and B and I were able to pass a lot of people here.  We had a few obstacles to go over, but they were pretty easy.  Ropes to pass through, a balance beam to walk on, hanging tires to run through.  We also had to rope climb a wall, jump over a small fire, and two more rope obstacles.  My daughter was able to get a pic of us going over the final wall.

We are the two on the top to the far right.  Here's another of us sliding down the hill.  Me on my ass and B on his belly.

Once we made it down that hill, it was just small rope obstacle and then a short run to the finish!  My ass took a beating on that slide though.  Humungous deep purple bruise on my upper ass cheek and lots of small scratches and scrapes all over my butt.  It kinda looks like someone threw me down the stairs, stairs that were covered with blackberry bushes.  Sorry, no picture of that... :)

Finish time 47:40.  We crossed the finish line holding hands.  Awww. 

I'll bore you with just a few more photos.  My friend from high school at the finish line--he finished in 30 minutes!!  Freakin' fast!

Warriors!

I finished 66 in my age group out of 606.  Not too bad.  It wasn't all about going fast, but I definately could have done it faster, especially at the beginning when everyone was walking.  If you can get around the crowd, you could make some good time. 

This was the hubs first race ever and he did great!  We both had such a great time, we're thinking of coming back for the Spartan Sprint in August.  They also have a kids race so our kids can try it out too.  I'll leave you with one parting shot--just to give you an idea of how muddy it really was.

Happy Monday Warriors!



Warrior Weekend!

Here we are at Friday again.  Yay!  Per usual, I'm heading to swim when I get out of work, I hope to leave work early enough that I can get a mile swim in before lap time ends.  We'll see, it's looking to be a pretty busy morning here. 

We are heading out to Massachusetts later this afternoon to stay with my in-laws.  They live just outside of Boston.  If we get there early enough, we may head in to the city to walk around Faneuil Hall.  Tomorrow evening the hubs and I are both racing in the Warrior Dash!  Woot!  I am so excited!  With your registration, you get a t-shirt, a viking helmet and a beer!  What more could you want??  Click HERE if you want to see what it's all about.  Basically, a 5K obstacle course in the mud and such.  I don't have a clue what to wear because it's not about being cute at this race!  I need to find something that I don't really care about so if the mud never comes out, I won't be mad.  Unfortunately, it's supposed to rain/thundershower so I hope it's not cancelled.  Rain I don't mind, especially since we are getting all muddy!  I hope to have some photos to post on Monday--stay tuned!  Is there anyone else doing this race?  If so, hubs and I run at 6:00!

Welcome, welcome to all my new pretend friends!  Thank you for following and entering my giveaway!  I hope to not bore you to tears with all my mindless babble here.  What giveaway, you ask?  Well, the Nike Sunglasses giveaway that I just announced the other day!  Make sure you scroll down and enter!  They are pretty cool glasses and you know you want a pair!  Don't forget, you get an extra entry if you refer someone to my blog!Have a great weekend!

WTF Wednesday/Nike Sunglass Giveaway!!

It's time for another rousing edition of WTF Wednesday. 

1.  I ran 6 miles for the first time last week.  57:47 It's the longest distance I have ever gone.  I did it again last night.  57:33 Although I am very happy that I can do it, it was hard.  And long.  And sweaty.  (that's what she said....)  It is a perfect 6 mile loop that starts right at my house.  I cannot even begin to imagine going around that loop almost 4 times for a marathon distance.  I was spent with one loop.  How in the world do you people do 26.2 miles??  Kudos to you all, but WTF.

2.  I dumped on my bike for the first time the other day.  While standing still.  In front of a car.  I am still learning the shifting on my bike so I am not very good at it and I came to a rather steep hill and didn't shift in time, so I had to jump off and walk my bike up the last part of the hill.  I was standing at the top waiting for passing cars to go by so that I had a safe time to get back on and re-clip and not be in the sandy shoulder.  I clipped on my left foot and the started moving slowly to get my right foot clipped, but couldn't and then by the time I knew I wasn't going to get my right foot in, I was not moving at all and couldn't get my left foot out fast enough to catch myself.  Nice.  Toppled over and bruised my hip/ass and also my calf on the other leg.  This is kinda what I looked like:

Of course, a car was coming from the other direction and saw the whole thing.  I was wanting to die of embarrassment.  That's when you jump up as fast as possible, trying to look perfectly fine so that the car doesn't stop to help you.  Thank God they just kept driving.  WTF.

3.  I have some super sweet Nike Sunglasses to giveaway today.  They aren't the one I showed you the other day--my husband stole those ones...  Thankfully, I had two so these are what I'll be giving away:

Pretty cool huh?  This is a women's sunglass for running, tennis and other outdoor sports.  It provides 100% UVA and UVB protection.  Since they did not provide these for me for free, I'm not going to make a big deal about Nike and it's products. 

So to enter here's what you need to do:
1.  Follow my blog. +1 mandatory
2.  Tweet/FB/blog whatever about my giveaway. +1 for each
3.   Get someone else to enter +1 for each referral

That's it!  Deadline is 7/8.  So WTF are you waiting for??  Enter already!

parent's night out

What a fabulous weekend I have had!  The weather here is FINALLY summerish and just wonderful.  This is why we live in Maine.  Friday I finished work at 11 a.m. and headed to the pool to get my swim workout in.  I swam 2000 yds and was on my way.  I had to rush up to Kohl's to pick up the hubs father's day gift from the kids.  The oldest offspring thought we needed new knives since we are always complaining about how shitty dull they are.  We've had that set about 4 years and they have just bit the dust.  The built in sharpener doesn't seem to do anything at all.  So, I found the knife set and also grabbed a 2011 Bruins Stanley Cup shirt!  Oh yah!  Of course, he wants that!  Then over to Dick's to find a catcher's face mask.  No such luck though.  I didn't really want to spend $80 on a full helmet/mask for hubby to catch for the kids.  I really just wanted the old metal face thing to protect his nose/eyes.  I'll have to keep looking around.  We'll take a used one if anyone wants to be rid of a catcher's mask.  We need extra large melon head size, please. :)

Friday night we had deemed as date night.  This would be our first date night ever.  We never go anywhere without the kids unless it's someone's wedding or something like that.  B made reservations at Suzuki, a sushi restaurant in Rockland.  It was fabulous!  We talked, there was no fighting, there was no complaining about how hungry they are, there were no spilled glasses.  Oh, wait.  Yes, there was.  Let's paint the picture:  nice, quiet adult restaurant, people enjoying wine and maki rolls.  I order a lemonade (yes, that's it, no vodka....) and I'm trying to wrangle the chop sticks to grab a dumpling.  Somehow my elbow hits the lemonade glass and it doesn't just tip over and go 'tink' and break.  Oh no.  It catapultes off the wall, like it was thrown, and shatters into a million pieces.  Nice.  The guy dining behind me trying to get lucky on his first date, spins around "ARE YOU OK?"  Um, yah,  just mortally embarrassed.  The waitress comes over to help clean up and when I bend over to pick up the glass I smash (think really smash!) my head into the window planter.  Who the hell has window planters on the freakin' inside of the window anyway???  Ouch.  Large lump on the head. 

You can't see it all that well, but it's the growing egg on my forehead in/on the hairline.  Just above the giant volcano-like zit.  Good stuff.

The sushi was super though, I did manage to keep myself together for the rest of the dinner.  No more accidents.  (I'm such a big girl.)  Here's a pic of the things we ordered:

Sooooo freakin' good.  If you ever get to Rockland, make sure you make reservations and enjoy some really good sushi.  Best $100 dinner ever.

Father's Day was great as well.  Excellent weather: 70's, low humidity.  You can't ask for any more.  Maine at it's best.  Got my run done in the morning and everyone went for a mile run together after I got back.

Even the dog came!  Love that.  We did 1.5 miles with some side shuffles, skipping and jumping jacks inbetween.  It was a good day.

Keep on the lookout later this week for my giveaway!  Some sweet sunglasses...tell all your bloggy, running, biking friends!  Happy Monday!

Nothing to report Friday

Finally Friday.  Phew.  Unfortunately, I don't have anything exciting to report about this Friday other than--It's Friday!!  Hubs and I are going to try to have a date night tonight and go out to eat without kids!  Imagine--a dinner without kids.  We are thinking of doing sushi or this excellent restaurant called "Primo".  I believe Anthony Bourdain ate there when he came to Maine.  Should be pretty good. 

Tomorrow is going to rain.  Of course it is, because we had planned an end-of-the-year outing with our Girl Scout troop to visit a zoo/amusement park.  Ugh.  Looks like we may have to bag that one.  Poor girls, the weather has seemed to play a role in cancelling so many of our activities this year.  We will try to make it up at the end of the summer.

Today, however, is beautiful and I'm T-15 minutes to getting out of work!  I'm heading to the pool to get my swim on and then Father's Day shopping for my hubs. 

Be on the lookout next week for a super great giveaway that just may involve some Nike sunglasses like these:

hell, yah!  You know you want these!  You'd better check back next week and see what I have in store. :)
Have a great weekend everyone!  Happy school vacation to all the kiddos who are finishing up this week!

WTF Wednesday

1.  Quarterly tax payments are due today for those of us who are stupid enough lucky enough to be self-employed.  This is my second least favorite time of the year behind April 15.  (Oh and Christmas.  I hate Christmas).  Somehow, the government expects you to save up 3 months worth of tax payments in only two months.  Usually after being screwed and OWING extra on 4/15.  Hate it. Hate it.  Nuff said.  WTF. 

2.  The new airbus 'invisible' plane concept for 2050.  Cool or scary?  I'm not sure.

No class divisions though, so that's kinda cool.  Still deserves a WTF.

3.  Poor Hugh Hefner is not getting married to his 25 year old blondie.  She called off the marriage because, "His lifestyle is not the most normal lifestyle".  Um. Duh.  Like she didn't know that ahead of time?  But seriously, what the heck is a 25 year old even doing with an 85 year old?  Why does anyone ever pretend it's about anything other than money and/or power.  (I will say that he does look really great for 85.)  All of that deserves a WTF.

extreme pain in the ass?

It's the show that everyone is talking about lately--Extreme Couponing on TLC.  Have you seen it?  If not, it's basically a show about women (mostly and the rare man) who buy outrageous amounts of products from their grocery store and use coupons to get them for practically nothing.   I'm talking $800 worth of stuff for $1.50.  Sounds great, right?  I mean like, Let me have a piece of that coupon pie!  I want to get stuff for nothing too!

Would I go this far?  Ummm.. Not likely.



So after watching an episode or two, I think--I'm intelligent, I can do this too.  I mean, it's not rocket science, right?  Basically it's just a matter of clipping the coupons and then waiting for the store to put the product on sale and then buying a large quantity of the item for little to nothing.  Okay, so I begin my coupon clipping--well, I've always used coupons so I just continue clipping them.  But this time, I watch the flyer for the sales and then try to match the items up!  Ha!  I should save hundreds now!

Flyer and coupons in hand we march to the grocery store yesterday to get my cheap stuff!  I buy the quantities needed for the coupon and the sale and pile them into my cart.  By the time we are done getting the stuff we need my cart is completely full.  I mean, full.  Like more full than usual.  (Did we really need all this stuff?  We didn't even buy any meat as we have plenty in the freezer....)  I'm beginning to wonder if this is really going to work or not.  I will say there is stuff we needed that I didn't have a coupon for so that may throw off my master plan. 

I go through the check out.  Beep, beep, beep.  After the store took out it's sale prices and then my coupons were taken off I had saved a grand total of.......wait for it..........$65.00!!!  Yay for me!  Then I look at the balance due.  $301.00.  Um, excuse me?  I still owe $300???  Really?  Oh boy.  This is about $100 more than my usual shopping adventure, (we are a family of five)  (who eat a lot).  I'm not sure this is going to work out for me.

On the other side of that, we did need to buy dog food, Iams, for our dog whom our husband deems worthy of $30/bag dog food.  I needed my Propel water packets in grape which I can never find anywhere that were $4/each  and I cleaned out their shelf.  Oh and the expensive olive oil, which I DID have coupons for but still cost $3 each and I got four of those.  And we are now the proud owners of 4 boxes of cereal and 10 cans of light tuna fish (which the hubs uses for fishing bait).  So maybe it wasn't sooo bad considering all the stuff I got and now won't need to buy for months!  right?  months, right?  um yah, sure.

As I ponder my *failure* at extreme couponing on the ride home, I think maybe I didn't do too badly after all.  I mean, you never see those folks on the show buying $50 worth of fruits and vegetables (I'm not talking frozen--I mean fresh!), which is about what I spend weekly on those products.  You do see them 'buying' 100 boxes of instant pad thai in a box or 50 bottles of hot sauce.  Really, what I am going to do with 50 bottles of hot sauce?  I still need to buy grapes, bananas, watermelon and pears!  They do manage to get out with 60 bottles of soda or gatorade sugar drink, but do you see them buy milk or yogurt?

There's the Asian boxed food--upper right.  I mean is there anything there worth eating anyway?  15 bottles of ketchup?  really?



So, I suppose I did have some measure of success.  I bought the products we actually use for less money by using coupons when they were on sale.  I don't have a million cans of things that we don't like in a brand that is gross just because they were free.  My kids will be able to eat an apple, a real apple, not some canned and sweetened thing in a package.  I probably can't quit my job just yet though.



boys

My boy is going to be the death of me.  Seriously.  If not me, then him.  This kid is about as active and athletic as a kid can be.  He can shoot hoops (and make them!) on a regular sized hoop with a small basketball and he's been doing this since he was 3.  He can ride a bike, he can shoot bull-eyes with a bow and arrow, he's been swimming without assistance since 3 1/2ish.  He learned to dive at the same time.  He can do many (more than 20) real push-ups and can throw a football, he can hit a baseball (not off the T) thrown at him consistently. 

With all this activeness and althleticism, comes a price.  He gets hurt.  A lot.  Most of the time he gets up, cries a bit, gets mad and then gets back to whatever he was doing.  Sometimes, it's not like that.  Here is a list of his injuries to date (ones that required medical attention):

1.  Stitches in the back of his head.  Age 2
2.  Hot chocolate burn down the front his face and chest that blistered.  Age 4
3.  Tooth almost (!) knocked out but somehow the tooth didn't die and is still intact.  Age 3
4.  Broken arm.  Age 5. 
5.  Ambulance ride after falling off a climbing structure at day care.  Age 3.

So yesterday, I get a call from the school saying that D had fallen on his head/neck off the monkeybars and that he was alert and responsive but they were bringing him to the hospital by ambulance to have him checked out.  Holy Christ.  All I could think of in my head was that hit on the Bruins guy the other night when he fell on his head/neck. 

I arrived at the ER to find my 5 yo son in a cervical collar and on a flat bed waiting for x-rays.  That is a scary feeling, to see your baby in that brace.  He was talking and moving all extremities so I wasn't super worried about really bad things when I saw that.  5-6 x-rays later and he was cleared and the collar was removed. 

His greatest concern when I arrived and the first thing he said to me--Mom, can I still go fishing with Dad?  Um, sure, if you don't have a broken neck....

I don't know how this kid is going to make it to adulthood in one piece.  Any crazy boy stories to share?  I sure hope I don't have any more for a long time.

What's up Wednesday

Here we are at hump day again.  Well, actually, it's a bit past my hump day since I have Friday off!  Yay!  I promised my daughter that I would go on her field trip with her and finally, there is a trip that is on a day that I can go!  It's supposed to be beautiful out and we are visiting an island just off the harbor.  Should be a great day.

I have a few things I wanted to share with you today.

1.  Our former house is officially for sale today.  The ad will be out in today's paper.  I am glad and sad all at once.  It was our first home and I really liked that house, but it became too small for us.  Now, we are renting it, and that is kinda a pain in the ass more work than we want.  We've decided that we would like to sell the house and take the cash and reduce our current mortgage.  Someone, please buy our house.  Quickly. 

2.  I got a new Garmin Forerunner 405 and it arrived in the mail yesterday.  (Just a queer side note--the box was found inside my closed garage.  I thought my hubby had placed it there after finding it on the deck, but no.  He did not.  How in the world the box ended up INSIDE our garage in our locked house, I do not know.  I can only hope that the garage door didn't close all the way when I was leaving in the morning and the delivery guy just placed it there.  Otherwise--mystery.)  Anyhoo--new Garmin = happy me!  My other bought-used-off-ebay-garmin was telling me incorrect milage so that was getting irritating.  Here is a generic pic of my pretty (green!) new Garmin.

Isn't it pretty? :) Now I just need to figure out how to use it..... It came with a heart monitor so that will be something new for me.  I will be thrilled to have accurate milage counts with this watch, my other one was saying I ran 5-6 miles no matter how far I ran.  The pace feature will be nice too.  I love how it has this clip-on charger thing that plugs into an outlet! 

3.  I have my first black toenail from running.  Apparantly, my mutant third toe rubs against my sneaker on my longer runs (5 miles is my longest).  I guess because it is freakishly longer than all my other toes?  Maybe I need larger sneakers if I decide that I want to do longer runs. 

It's not as bad as some other black toe nails that I have seen.  But it does explain why it was hurting on the longer run last week. 
4.  I feeling a little bit lost and let down now that my race is over with.  That sprint tri was my goal for the past 9 months and it's a little weird not having a specific goal in mind with regards to my exercise.  I guess I need to find another goal/race to set my sights on.  I don't think I'm ready to sign up (this year) for a olympic tri.  I could finish for sure, but mentally, it would be a lot of stress to get ready for in just 3 months.  I do have a husband and kids that would like to do other things than follow me around doing races.  So, I should find one more sprint tri to do in the fall and maybe a couple of short road races here and there. 

Does anyone else have that lost feeling after reaching a goal?  Do you need to have a specific goal in order to exercise effectively?  Please share.  Oh--and I know a great house in Boothbay if anyone needs a second home.....

Bath YMCA sprint tri race report

Well, that was quite the weekend!  Saturday was busy, busy.  I spent the morning cleaning the house.  I mean CLEANING.  I took a good couple of hours and cleaned out cabinets, under beds, counters and all those places were stuff just accumulates and with each busy day, you just ignore it.  The trash can was full!  I went to the bank and the dump and brought clothes to the second-hand store.  My son had a birthday party to go to, so I dropped two kids off there and the rest of us went to pick up my race packet for the Bath tri and get groceries.  Race packet and groceries in hand, we picked up the kids and then went home to change and head to a grown-up birthday party. 

The whole family was super tired and we considered just skipping pig roast party so our game plan was to stay only until 8:00 p.m.  That way we could get home and kids to bed and I would still have time to get my stuff ready for the race in the morning.  Well, 8:00 came and it was still light out, karaoke and music were just beginning and everyone was having a great time.  So then we were shooting for 9:00.  At 9:00, there was a photo tribute on a outdoor projection screen (interrupting the Bruins game).  That was pretty funny.  Then there were rumors of fireworks.  By then, I just wanted to get home and my 5 yo started having a meltdown because he wanted to see the fireworks.  ugh.  Thankfully, they shot them off as we were getting in the car so we watched them from the car.  Finally home around 10.

I managed to get my things all together so that I could just get up at 6 and head out.  B and the kids were going to meet me later as my swim wave was the last one.  I ended up having a poor night of sleep.  I just couldn't get into a good sleep--I kept thinking I was going to oversleep and miss my race. 

I left around 6:20 and headed out.  I got there nice and early and set up my transition area and got marked.    I was wearing a tri shirt and shorts so I wouldn't have to change at all during transitions, but I didn't know how I was going to attach my race number to my shirt without having to wear it in the pool too.  A nice racer offered me her race belt that she wasn't using so that was great!  Problem solved.  It was the one thing I didn't think of.  Now it was time for sit around and wait.

BD showed up to sign up that morning for the duathalon, but unfortunately, they had closed registration but didn't update their website to indicate that.  :(  But on the bright side, I did get to visit with her while I waited for my start.  Hubby and the kids showed up just as I was heading down to get ready for my swim.  We took a quick picture--of course I messed it up.  ugh.

Why do I always close my eyes during a photo?  Like I don't know the picture is being taken....

Here we are lining up and getting lane assignments.

That big girl in the front in the black full suit kicked my ass in the swim.  At least according to my kids.  "Momma--that really big girl swam ALOT faster than you."  Great, thanks guys.  I think she was part of a relay cause I didn't see her on the bike or the run.  I finished the swim in 11ish minutes.  I about drowned myself on the last length.  I'm not sure how, but somehow, I swallowed/breathed a bunch of water as I was making the touch.  I gaked and coughed and spat the final length and somehow managed to not drown.  Off to the transition area.

I managed to do pretty well in the first transition.  I no problems at all and I really liked not needing to change my clothes.  Putting socks on wet feet is a little tricky but I got it.  I'm not one of those that could bike/run without socks.  No freakin' way.  So the extra 15 seconds spent fiddling with socks is well worth it. 

off I go!

The bike portion of this race totally and completely sucked ass was challenging.  It was very hilly and I was shifting all the time to find the right gear.  I'd get going fast and then there would be a corner so I'd slow down to make the turn, only to find a hill right around that corner!  It was really hard.  After about mile 3 ish, my front derailleur would not shift down into the smaller gear on the front wheel!  It was stuck on the big one.  So I had to work those hills with only moving the back gears.  Talk about hard!  I actually had to walk the bike for one part of a steeper hill.  I did manage to pass 3 people on the bike which was nice.  I don't think they were in my swim wave so that gave me a boost in confidence.  My lower back was killing me about half way through and this happened last time I rode my bike.  I'm wondering if this is not the right size for me.  I'm going to have them double check it when I take it in to get the gears fixed.  Finally finished the bike part:

Bike time: 41:51

Now to the run.  I wasted a few seconds messing with my bike shoes.  I would unvelcro it and it would fall back down and revelcro.  Finally managed to get my running shoes on and off I went.  I forgot to take off  my sunglasses.  Thankfully, my hubby was right around the corner getting a photo so I flung them at him.  I don't care for running in sunglasses, I sweat too much and they fall down.  You'd think I might have an in for some decent sunglasses to run with.....  I'll have to work on that.

ditching the glasses

Once I got my legs back, the run was easy for me.  There were hills but I'm used to running hills at home so they didn't bother me at all.  It was an out and back run.  I passed a couple of people on the way out and then managed to pass two more on the final stretch. 

Heading toward the finish line.

Finished and then plopped down to die rest.  Run time:  26:20.  My friend and former co-worker, Kay, saw me finish and headed over to say hi.  She had swum in a wave a half hour ahead of me so that's why she looks so relaxed and happy.

Despite what this picture shows, I really wasn't being rude to her.  Really. 

Here is a much happier photo of Kay and I after I found my lung regained my breath.

What a perfect day for the race.  The temperature was perfect, the sun was perfect and I had a great time and a decent finish.  11th woman overall.  Kay was 8th woman overall.  Yay us!  My total race time was: 1:19:21.  I was 6th in my age group.  Can you guess which age group was the biggest.... of course, the 40-49 age group.  Of the top 12 women, 1/2 of them were in my age group.  So, no award for me this time.  But I did get a great sense of accomplishment and the spirit of the race was just great.  Everyone was cheering everyone else on.  Each runner I passed on the out and back had something positive and encouraging to say, which in turn, made me do the same.  I will definately do this race again next year.  Oh!  And now I have my first medal! :)

Three Things Friday

Ok, ok.  I know it's supposed to be Three Things Thursday, however, it's Friday and I only have three things to talk about.

1.  Bath YMCA Sprint Tri this Sunday.  This was the tri that I was training for.  It was supposed to be my first one, until the reverse tri came along.  Now, because I have done one already, I'm not that excited/nervous about it.  Which maybe is a good thing.  I have the last swim wave, which sucks cause it's last, but may be good because I might not have to share a lane.

2.  This is kinda funny--a few months ago I won a Road ID from milesmusclesmommyhood and that was awesome.  When I got it in the mail my daughter wondered what it was.  So I explained that if I got hurt while out running or biking, the EMT's would know who to call and who I was etc.  Now whenever I go out running she asks, "Mom, do you have your death bracelet on?".  Death bracelet.   Probably not the logo Road ID was going for but.....  appropriate none the less.

3.  I'm doing the Warrior Dash later in the month with my hubs and they sent me an email this morning looking for volunteers.  HERE is the link.  If you and 24 of your friends volunteer for this event, they will pay $1000 to your club or organization or organization of your choice!  What a great thing!  Is anyone in a running/tri club that can volunteer?  Anyone want to raise money for a charity?

That's it.  That's all I have today.  I hope everyone has a great weekend and I hope to have some nice tri pics to post on Monday!

May in Review

I have recently joined Daily Mile and use it as a record to keep track of how many miles/minutes/whatever I have exercised.  I am kinda interested to see what my year-end totals will be.  I am not so good at logging in my workouts, however, so often I am logging a bunch at the end of the week, trying to catch up.  Hopefully, as I do it more, it will become more routine and I will not forget record my workouts.  So here is my May in review:

Minutes Spinning--550 minutes  (our spin bikes don't have those fancy cadance/mile counter things so we just have to go by minutes)

Miles Ran--37 miles

Yards Swimming--6200 yds

Cardio tennis--8 hours

Total Hours of Exercise--26.2  Yay me!

Races Ran--I only did one race this month and it was our local YMCA's annual race.  I did get a PR in it however, so that was nice. 

Books Read--Unbroken, Vegas Moon. 
Two completely different story types.  Unbroken is about a man who found running, was on track to become the first man to break the 4 min mile mark in the Olympics and then was drafted for the war.  His plane crashed and he and his pilot drifted at sea for 42 days.  They were found by the Japanese and then were kept as POW's for 3.5 years until the war ended.  Remarkable story about how this man survived after so many things that would have killed 99% of everyone else.  He is still alive--Louis Zamperini.  Definately read it if you have a chance to.

Vegas Moon is a fluff story about a hit man.  There are a few books by this author about this same character that are all easy, fun reads.

Wish List--I currently wish for (and have already purchased--it just needs to arrive in the mail) a new Garmin Forerunner 405.  My current Forerunner 50 is not working right lately.  Any distance that I run, it tells me I ran 5 miles.  I bought it used on ebay so haha on me.  This new one better work better or I am going to be pissed!

Goals--I am racing in the Bath YMCA's sprint tri on Sunday.  I would like to place in my age group.

Current Excitement--for the first time ever, I am excited for the kids to get out of school!  I can't wait to be able to let them sleep in, no rushing around in the morning, making lunches, fighting with tired kids.  There will be at least 2 blissful weeks of a sitter at the house so I don't have to make the kids do anything in the morning.  :)

Dislikes--spin class that gets cancelled.  Which leads me to this picture:

Me spinning with all my friends!

More dislikes--I just found out my swim wave for the tri on Sunday.  Ugh.  I'm in the very last frickin wave.  They placed me in the 'unknown' time wave.   How much does that suck?  I need to be there for the mandatory meeting at 7:45, but then I don't get to swim until 10:00!  WTF?!  Oh well, if I'd gotten my time in before last Friday it wouldn't have been too much better.  The 10 min swim group starts at 9:30.  

New Additions to the Family--this won't happen too often, unless we continue to go through cats at our previous rate, but here is a photo of the newest members of our family.  Prepare yourself for cuteness!!

Cutest freakin thing ever!!

Happy Hump Day to you all!!