Turkey Trot 2009

We did it!! We did it!! We did it!!

The morning started out with a LOT of nervous energy. Some cereal, a protein drink, and a bit of stretching. In true girly girl fashion, I couldn't decide what the heck to wear. I am a SWEATY Italian woman, and the weather said it was going to be 60 degrees outside, but when we left the house it was close to freezing. I decided on my running pants, a tank top and a long sleeve shirt over it. Liz wore her shorts and an orange running shirt. We left the house at 8:45 to head down to Wash Park.

Liz kept telling me to calm down, that I was making her nervous. I wasn't saying anything so I didn't really know what to change in order to make her less anxious.

We got to the parking lot of South High School and saw what looked like a million people, who were all rearing to go. We got registered, got our t-shirts and decided to walk around the parking lot to warm up. I forgot my camera which I was very upset about, but what can you do?!

There were people dressed like runners, people dressed like turkeys, an elf, an ape, and various other costumes that I can not believe people could run in.

They started the race at 10:15 for the first wave of just runners, and 10:30 if you were going to walk/run. We opted for the second group in case we weren't able to run the whole thing. A decision that I would not make had I known better.

So we get started, and we are amidst mothers, children, strollers, and dogs, and we are trying to dodge and move in and out of people to find a path that we could run at a steady pace. This never happened the entire race.

I ran down the first leg and up the second one before I just had to walk. Then for the last three legs, I did a run/walk combo. It was hot, and there were 9,000 other people and dogs trying to be on the same streets with us.

There were lots of neighborhood folk out on their lawns playing music and cheering everyone on. There was also some jackass cooking bacon, which is cruel and unusual punishment when you are a fat girl trying to run 4 miles.

I finished in 1 hour and 2 minutes, Liz in 1 hour 9 minutes. We finished, which was the most important thing in the world to both of us. 9 weeks ago we couldn't run 1 minute without getting winded, and on Thanksgiving Day we ran our hearts out, and finished our very first race.

We plan on running a 5k next weekend, as well as on New Years Eve (which I am SUPER excited about!)

It was so fitting that we ran a race on Thanksgiving, after we have worked so hard together towards this goal, and on salvaging our relationship. I felt blessed to be in gorgeous Colorado, running with so many other people, and with my love.

'Twas The Night Before Turkey Trot

and all through the house
the dogs were barking at our new little mouse.

It is very loud here. Mostly it's Rufus. He's not really a playful dog, he doesn't "get it." Roxie and Ruby play and tumble together, and he just stands there and barks. He's barking right now -- it's close to impossible for me to form coherent sentences. Where is the mute button on this dog?

So tomorrow is the turkey trot -- what we've all been looking forward to (to an extent). I'm sore from running yesterday, probably because I hadn't run that much in about 4 days. Too bad for me, eh? Tomorrow is four miles. If I can run 3.1 miles, I'll be thrilled beyond belief. I'm going to do my best.

I just saw the race route. Oh, heavens.

Hopefully, tomorrow we'll post something really positive. Maybe a picture or two. We take off at 10:30 MT, so say a little prayer around then for us. Ah! We are almost done with C25K!

Bleh

So today's run SUUUUUUUUUCKED. I can't even begin to emphasize that enough. It was awful. Usually we run at night, in the dark, and the cold. Today, it was hot, and at 1:30 We started at our usual spot, and went about a quarter of the distance we normally do. I had a cramp in my right side that was killing me, and when I stopped to turn around and tell Liz, she was so far behind me and I could tell she was also in pain. Once she got up to where I was, she stopped, dry heaved and sat on the side walk. We decided to go home, and try again tonight.

I have been having a lot of fears about running this race and the fact that it will be taking place during the day has me even more freaked out now. I know how far I can run, and what my body can do now, but I am afraid the fear will set in on Thursday morning, and I will perform like I did today. We have two runs left....two....which is scary, and amazing all at once.

On a light note, baby Ruby is adorable, and having a ball right now playing with her big sister Roxie. They are just running all over the place.

2.5+

We ran 2.5 miles last night (at the very least -- it may have been more). It took me a long time to get going, though, because I was not dressed appropriately for the cold, and my lungs were not doing well at the beginning. Once I warmed up, though, I kept a solid pace and finished strong, never stopping (not even at the beginning when running was difficult).

Today, I fit into my goal pants -- the goal pants I wanted to wear to Thanksgiving at Nicole's mom's house. They fit. They are snug, admittedly, but they FIT. I have them on. I can sit, I can walk ... it's all good. And I have a week to spare (to get rid of this spare, wah wah).

Running 2.5 miles makes me think we can do this next week. 4 miles. We'll run slowly, but we'll do it. We can do it. One step closer to running a half marathon.

15 weeks

I haven't smoked in 15 weeks. 105 days. Wow.

Post-It Notes

Post-it Notes are a major aspect of my teaching, strangely enough.

I tend to jot down details that I need to remember: who walked in late, what I need to cover in class tomorrow, ideas for lesson plans for next semester...there are post-it notes EVERYWHERE.

I'm a Senior Advisor this year, as well, and the post-it notes are a part of advising them -- we have a blackboard filled with our school year goals (some include getting accepted into colleges, enjoying their last year, playing video games...). The post-it notes are specifically for college applications: once a student applies, s/he receives a blank post-it note to write what school s/he applied to. So far, there are 21 post-it notes on the board.

The post-it notes symbolize goals -- what I want to accomplish, or what I want my students to accomplish.

It's not surprising, then, that I have post-it notes taped to my laptop. The one on the left where my left wrist rests as I type this says:
Washington Park
11/26 -
Thanksgiving
5K
Turkey Trot

I wrote it 9 weeks ago and it's been there ever since (with no coffee stains, which is amazing). I wrote it before I knew the race WASN'T a 5K, but instead is a 4 miler.

The right post-it note says:
11/26 - 4 miles
12/5 -- Colder Boulder
12/1 - 12/30 -- 30-45 minute runs
1/1 - 3/1 -- 10K Training
5/31 - Bolder Boulder

I like being able to make goals and ACTUALLY KEEP THEM. It's amazing to me.

I know this blog is about our 101 things together, and we've been focusing on one for a while now (running a half-marathon), but this blog is kind of like one of my post-it notes. It's a reminder.

1. Thank your lucky stars you have someone who loves you.
2. Stop eating like a heifer.
3. Keep moving forward in life.
4. I'm imperfect. That's the way it is. I can only strive to be a better person.

and then there were six

Today was a super fun day. The plan was to get up, and meet our friends Jen and Wyndy for breakfast and then off to shop for Christmas pj's, which we did do. We hit up every single major department store looking for the appropriate attire for the upcoming party. We saw a few things that we liked, made note of them in case we couldn't find anything else. We spent a good four hours walking around the mall. We had decided to leave the mall and head over to Kohl's to see if they had anything we had to have. Auntie Anne's pretzel's called to us on our way out, so we stopped in there, got some pretzels and water and grabbed a table right outside. I ended up in the chair facing the pet store, which had two of the most adorable Yorkie puppies in their front window. We had already spent some time earlier in the day ogling these little babies but kept on our mission of Christmas nighties. I kept joking with Liz about Santa bringing me a Yorkie puppy, a phrase which I have overused for every single holiday that warrants a present. I am sure she is sick to death of hearing it. She affectionately reminded me that puppies are a lot of work, and if we got one, I would have to be the one to get up in the middle of the night, and clean up its messes. She also gave me the "look" that let me know that a puppy was not on the agenda.

So we finish up our pretzels, and the trash can just happened to be located next to the window where said adorable puppies were. So I went over to stare at them some more. They both looked so much like Sam did when he was a baby.

Jen and Wyndy decided to go inside the store, where an older mixed breed was. A dog that they had apparently been eyeing for weeks now, and no one else seemed to want to buy.

Liz and I went into the store and saw them sitting in a meet and greet room with this dog, who they had already named "Rudolph". They kept taunting me and telling me to get one of the Yorkies and go in the room next to them. I told them that I couldn't hold one of these dogs and give it back, that it would have to come home with me. So Liz turns to the pet store girl and tells her to go get one. "WHAAAAAAAAAAT"?

So we go in this room, and this 1 pound ball of fluff gets passed over the half wall to us. She was black and brown and smelled like a puppy and was the cutest thing I had ever seen. I kissed her, and she kissed me and it was just great. Then there was Liz...who just moments earlier was grumpy and complaining she wanted to go home, and ranting about how much work puppies were. Her eyes were now melting into these little pools of love for this little ball of fluff.

She asked me if I wanted her, and then all of a sudden, the four of us were at the front of the store, purchasing dogs. We came to the mall to get pj's and now we are going home with puppies. How did this happen? I have impulse purchased a purse, or a pack of gum...but never in my life would I thought I could add a dog to that list.

So she is home now, after a trip to my Mom's, Petco, and a few spouts of vomiting on my legs in the car. (Oh and apparently I was rude to a guy at Petco because I had vomit on my legs).

She is asleep in Liz's lap in her pink argyle sweater and we are both already head over heels in love with her. She bosses the other two around already and when she growls at them she sounds like Donald Duck speaking. So adorable.

A few thoughts before class

My night class starts in an hour; I have one more paper to grade, Starbuck's to grab, and this blog to write.

I'm a busy person!

First of all, I love being able to look back on my previous entries and smile at how naive I was. I was shocked I could run 5 minutes. Now, I can run 25. It's amazing. This program works miraculously.

I'm applying for a few Master's programs in the upcoming weeks. Cross your fingers for me; I'd really like to move forward in my career, and I think I'm taking the appropriate steps.

Our one year anniversary is coming up! Ah, I sound like such a girl. But it's true, and I'm excited. :)

I told my mom that Nicole and I are engaged...and have been since February. There was a lot of awkward silences on the phone, but at least she knows.

We complete week 7 tomorrow night; next week, we're going to start running for 30 minutes (even though the program says 28, we're going to push to 30 since our race is a 4 miler instead of a 5K).

Is Wash Park my Nemesis?

We decided to run at Wash Park last night as a sort of test to see how race day would go. We don't know exactly where we're running on race day, we just know it's at Wash Park...so we ran on the trail.

Agony.

Complete agony.

Twenty-five minutes of agony, as a matter of fact.

I think we're better off on pavement, strangely enough. I hope Tuesday's run goes a bit better...

Runner chic!

We are half way through week six, which I can not believe. Last Friday we ran our longest run which was a mile and a half. Never in my life have I run even a quarter of a mile without stopping and wanting to die. It was hard, and about three fourths of the way through, I thought I was crazy for ever thinking that I could do it, but when the twenty minutes was up, I felt like I accomplished something. I'm not a very goal oriented person. I am much more of a fly by the seat of my pants kind of girl, so to set out to do something, and to actually do it felt so out of character and so phenomenal. I can see the 5k out there, and while I am still nervous about completing it, I know that I can, and will, we can, and we will.

On a side note , I was looking at myself in the bathroom today, and wasn't disgusted by what I saw. I am starting to recognize my old, "fit" body which I loved, and have missed. I just feel so good!

Thank you Libby and Robert ULLEY for helping me find myself again!