Barkley Book Fair

This is what happens when I attempt trail running... It's a good thing I didn't wear my brand new shoes!! For more info check out the blog at www.trailzombie.blogspot.com

Updates

Well... I suppose I should take a few minutes out of my busy schedule to update the last few days. Between reading, napping, and watching Lifetime, I just can't seem to find any spare time!!

Monday's qualifier was pretty hard on Randy. The weather caused a lot of delays and it was a very long day for him - mentally and physically. He played well and was well in position to qualify until the last few holes. A 30 minute wait to tee off on one hole and pure exhaustion took him from a score of 3-under to 2-over. Generally in this tournament a par-72 would qualify but several of the tour pros dropped out, so 73 qualified. Randy missed qualifying by one lousy stroke! Hopefully there will other opportunities for him in the near future!

The rest of this week has been pretty ordinary - ortho appointment, new running shoes, laundry. Nothing real special. We did have my parents over last night in honor of Father's day and my mom's birthday. Mostly just relaxing and being lazy... That's what vacation is for, right?!?!

Chasing Dreams

As I sit here, listening to the hum of the dryer, I can't help but wonder how Randy's round of golf is going - or if the weather has even cooperated enough for him to tee off. You see, my husband's dream in life is to play professional golf, and his dream has become my dream. I too would love to see him play golf professionally. And today is his shot. Today is a Monday Qualifier for a Hooter's Tour event. A good score today will allow him to play in a professional tournament this weekend, and a good finish will let him continue on to the next tournament and hopefully some sponsorship opportunities. I haven't heard from him in 7 hours and it's driving me crazy!! I wish I knew something, anything, about how his day is going...

I got tagged....

Thanks to my friend TZ, I’ve been tagged!!! I’ll answer the 5 questions he gave me, and then tag 5 people who I want to know how THEY will answer the same questions. I think it’s a pretty fun way to learn a bit about people you run with (or runners that you know, but don’t run with). We all have a motivation behind our running… What’s yours??

1. How would you describe your running 10 years ago?
Well, a few years before that, I ran cross-country and loved it. I then moved to a small school that didn’t have cross-country (or track for that matter). Then my senior year our school started a track team. I’m a distance runner, not a fast runner so I opted for 3200 meter, which equates to about 2 miles. Friends, let me tell you, running 8 laps around a track is NOT FUN. So after the season, I stopped running until a year-and-a-half ago.

2. What was you best and worst run/race experience?
My best race experience was my first ½ marathon. OKC Memorial Marathon in April 2007. It was a beautiful day, I really felt like I accomplished something, I finished strong, and I knew I was hooked! OKC puts on an amazing event for a great cause, and I plan on doing the full marathon in 2010 when they have the 10th anniversary of the race. My worst race experience was my first (and so far only) marathon in November 2007. You can read my previous blog about it here... Marathon Blog

3. Why do you run?
For my health. More for my mental health than my physical health, but it’s all the same in the end! This may sound totally corny, but I feel alive when I run. I feel so at peace with myself, and I am never more aware of my 5 senses than when I run - the rotten egg smell, seeing rollerbladeguy (and wishing I hadn't), the intersting taste of sunscreen and sweat...
I am practically a different person when I run consistently. When I’m not running, I am moody and cranky. I recently took some time off to recover from an injury and general burn-out, and I wouldn’t say that I was depressed, but I was definitely in a funk. Now that I’m running again, I feel much better!

4. What is the best or worst piece of advice you’ve been given about running?
I don’t know that this is necessarily the “best” advice, but it’s definitely my favorite! We have a sports dietician that comes and talks to us about the foods we should be eating during training, and she told us that ½ of our plate at each meal should be carbs. Woohoo!!!! I could live on bread and pasta!!! Another great bit of advice that actually pertains to running is from my fabulous coach, Kathy… You can run a lot farther without getting tired if you run slower. This was hard for me to grasp because I always thought you had to be practically sprinting to consider it a run. Nope – by making yourself slow down and building a good base, you will eventually start running faster.
5. Tell us something surprising about yourself that not many people would know.
I am a distant relative of Laura Ingalls Wilder! I don’t remember exactly, but I believe her Great-Grandfather was my Great (x 4 or 5) Grandfather.

And now that I've done my part, these are the 5 people that I am tagging...

Joye (AKA Mom)
Christa
Susan
Deana
Christin

Weekend Update

Well, now that the week is just about over, I figure I should probably update my very long weekend!

If you'll recall, I left work early Friday so that I could go see Sex and the City - LOVED IT!!! I want to see it again, and again, and again! It's been a long time since I've seen a movie that made me laugh, and then cry, and then laugh, and then cry some more - over and over throughout the whole movie - sometimes they were happy tears, sometimes not. I'm not going to give anything away, in case someone hasn't seen it yet, but it is well worth it! I even went by myself (which I have NEVER done) and it really didn't matter that I was alone, because once the movie started, I wouldn't have even noticed if Paul Walker strolled into the movie theater. Mmm... Paul Walker...

Anyway, after that I went and got my hair cut, picked Randy up from work, went home, took a nap, and then went to my boss' house for a cookout. Nothing special really - just hanging out, eating burgers, and having some beers. Around 10 we all drove over to Riverlanes for Glo-Bowling, which I haven't done since high school. I must say, Riverlanes is much nicer than it used to be! We had a good time, bowled for a couple hours and left a little after 1am. I wonder if Paul Walker likes to bowl...

Saturday morning, I got up bright and early (after about 4 hours of sleep) and met my running group at 6:45. We had our fall training kick-off, and while the group I am leading wasn't starting until 8, I wanted to be there to help out. I thought about getting my own miles in while I waited, but opted to just wait and greet people who were coming back from their runs and greet new people arriving for the 8am run. I ended up seeing a girl that I hadn't seen in about 9 or 10 years. We went to the same church for a few months and she also dated my best friend's boyfriend's best friend, who I worked with. It was good to see her, and I'm looking forward to catching up with her! After I led my little troop on a 2 mile run/walk, I went and did a few more miles with my friend Ken (AKA Trail Zombie) and his wife, Dana. It was the first time I'd gone more than 3 miles since the marathon back in November, and it felt great!

After my run, I went and took a nap in my car while I waited for Randy to finish his round of golf at Page Belcher, and then took him to get his hair cut. While I waited on him, I checked out a fairly new store called The Frugal Bookworm. It is a used book store, but it seems pretty pricey. I prefer The Book Place. Then we stopped for some lunch and headed home. After cleaning up, a quick nap, and a trip to the store, I made some mint brownies for another cookout. Another member of our running group was having a little get-together so we can all meet each other's families. It was fun and I got to meet some new people!

Sunday was our new pastor's first day at Church. Technically he'd been there all week, but it was his first sermon for us. So far, I like him. I'm going to miss our old pastor (and one of our associate pastors is leaving as well) but I'm looking forward to having something new!

Nothing special on Monday...

Tuesday I went and met my group. I started out slow and easy with the new run/walk group and then went ahead to learn some names and make sure the faster new people knew where to turn around, then went back to meet/finish up with the run/walkers but there were nowhere to be found. I finally found Coach Kathy, who told me that she had them turn around at 2 miles instead of 3 and that there were already done and resting. So I turned back around and found the last person from the group of newbies and finished the last miles with her. After our group stretch and some resting, a couple of new girls showed up. Kathy went to go run with them, and I decided to go along too. So all-in-all Tuesday I had more than 6 miles, but less than 8. A little farther than I went on Saturday, and it still felt good! Maybe I will train for another marathon after all....

This is the song that never ends...

Anybody remember Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop?

It's only 10am and I already feel like this is the day that never ends!

I went and met my running group last night, and passed the bunnies off to Stacy and Faith, a mother-daughter running team in the making. I am inspired by Stacy because not only does she get out run with the group, she brings her adorable baby girl and pushes her in a full-size stroller. Sometimes, it's hard enough to get myself out there to run, and right now, I can't even imagine doing it with a stroller. I do hope to, though, someday!

The run was pretty rough - if you weren't outside at all yesterday, you are pretty lucky. The wind was BRUTAL!! At times, I felt like I was running in place. But all-in-all it was a pretty good run. Afterward, I met some other members of our group at Mazzio's to sign-up and discuss being group leaders for the new session of training runs starting on Saturday. I'm going to be helping the beginners who are working up to a 5K, and I'm really excited about it!

So I get home, get cleaned up , and go to bed - only to be woken up by my husband wanting to know if our neighbors gave us a key to their house (for emergencies) - no, not yet. Apparently Kelly (the dad) locked himself out while he was talking to Randy; and his wife and girls are out of town on a Girl Scout trip. I go back to sleep, just to be interrupted again, because Randy can't find a flashlight. I tell him where to find one (and contemplate telling him where he can put it) and then go back to sleep. I vaguely remember him coming back home and telling me that they finally had to call a locksmith before the tornado sirens went off. After watching the news for an hour or so and determining the danger had passed (around 1 or so) I again went back to sleep - until my alarm went off at 5:10.

So now, here I am, working away - I've been at work since about 6:45, and noon cannot come fast enough. I'm taking a 1/2 vacation day and going to see Sex and the City at 12:40, then getting a haircut at 3:30, picking Randy up from work, going home (hopefully with enough time for a nap, heading to my boss' house around 7 for an employee appreciation cookout until we all leave to go glow bowling from 12 - 2. And then I get to get up and start training at 6:30.

So you see... this really is the day that will never end!


"This is the song that never ends,
Yes it goes on and on my friend.
Some people started singing it, not knowing what it was,
And they'll continue singing it forever just because —> "

And now you can have the song stuck in your head too!

Update #2

Target just called and my pictures are finally ready. How annoying...

Picture Update

So, here it is, 3pm and my pictures are still not ready. For the record, I will never again use Kodak Gallery for in-store pickup. After spending nearly 2 hours at Target waiting for my pictures, I was informed by the girl (who had Kodak Tech Support on the phone) that my pictures had been cleared out of the system and needed to be resumbitted by Kodak. And then she proceeded to restart the computer, again, for probably the 3rd time. It would have taken at least 20 minutes for it to reboot again, and I HAD to get back to work. So I told her to call me as soon as they were ready. That was an hour ago. I'm curious to see just how long it actually takes them to call me. I won't be holding my breath...

Target Photo

Well... I'm at Target right now and I am NOT happy. I sent in some photos online for 1 hour printing at 10:45 this morning and 3 hours later they are not ready yet. I've spent my whole lunch hour (and then some) waiting for these pictures because the girl that works here keeps telling me it should just be a few more minutes. And I haven't even had any lunch yet... I need the pictures before I leave work, or else I would just come back later and pick them up. GRRR......

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kids do the darndest things

We had some friends over for dinner tonight, and their 2 daughters (6 & 9) decided to play dress up with my dog. He was very patient as they tied bandanas around his waist, neck, and each of his feet. How they got him to sit still for that i'll never know!

Mobile blogging

just testing my settings to see if i set this up right!