RunFolio

Doug and I collect a lot of things from our runs:

*Beer Glasses from the race itself or from a local brewery

*Medals

*Race Numbers

And we have **way** too many of each considering there are two of everything.

Beer glasses are stored away downstairs in the bar.

Medals are displayed nicely downstairs.

Race numbers are stored in a messy drawer.

Until Now!

I made a nice little RunFolio to display our bibs.

Now...I am not a crafty winch.

At All.

In any way shape or form.

But...I honestly think I did a pretty darn good job considering I suck at any kind of crafts.

The hardest part was sorting the bibs...Doug's from mine. Then sorting out when/where/what race the bib was from. Some are easy cuz they have your name/race/date. Some have zilcho-just a number. We have a few stragglers but for the most part they are properly in place.

Take a look at my masterpieces:

This is mine...

This is Amanda's. She is the one that started me thinking about this...

This is Doug's...
These are the bib numbers inside...

So now when we come home for a race, we just need to add each bib to it's proper RunFolio. Easy!

I'm so proud of myself. I'm such a big dork!

Miami Half Marathon...Warming the Soul

As I look outside my window today at blizzard conditions while sitting in my flannel p.j.'s and enjoying my warm coffee as I take a snow day from work, I look back at where I was just yesterday.

Ahhhh...

I met Amanda at KCI before the butt crack of dawn Friday morning as we boarded a plane to Miami. Once there, we rolled down the windows in the car, wind blowing through our hair as we headed to the expo to pick up our packets and peruse the goodies.

Below we are working on our form for race day.

There was no clubbing this trip. But we did party it up by laying at the pool several times, practicing outdoor yoga, headed to bed by 9pm every night, stopping off at the beach and my favorite...seeing a couple manatees!

Amanda striking a pose at our outdoor yoga class. Absolutely amazing. The weather could not have been more perfect. The blue sky, a slight breeze and 72 degrees.

I've never been to a yoga class where they played anything but zen type music. Here they played music from 'Let's Get It On' by Marvin Gaye to 'Rock With You' by Michael Jackson. It was so so so so awesome, especially since 'Rock with You' is one of my all time favorite songs.

Besides the fact that I haven't practiced yoga in like, ummm...ummm...three months...I knew I was in a world of hurt. But the pain didn't set in until they told us we were going to do 108...YES...108 Sun Salutations! OMG! Hello! I am supposed to be running a half marathon the next day. Well, at least I have something to blame my time on, eh?

After yoga, we replenished ourselves with some coconut water and headed upstairs for a nice view where we saw, yet, another manatee.

Now...for race day. It was the perfect morning. Low 50's, low hummidity. The sun. The ocean. Not sure what more I could have asked for!
I took my camera this year, hoping to see my tranvestite friends cheering me on again this year. But no luck with that.

However, I did have some luck.

I finished!

Oh...and I found a $20 bill in the middle of the race course! Whoot! With airlines miles to get to and fro, with a free place to stay AND a free race entry, I MADE money on this baby!

Post race. With our awesome spinning race medals and my lucky $20.

Again...working on form...

After the race, we headed to brunch where I had the best O.J ever. So fresh. So orange. So delish. Then again...to the pool to soak up some warm rays.
What a great weekend!
Great friends. Thanks Amanda and David! You two are too kind!

As this blizzard continues to rage, I'm going to go grab a blanket, curl up with the pup and my coffee, close my eyes and dream of the sun, fun and friends that warmed my soul to the core.

2010 Year in Review

Might as well...
I don't see any further races in the next month, so without further ado...

Below is a list of events I completed in 2010. It was a much slower year with an ankle injury the first half of the year and IM training the second half. I did complete a long list of bike rides but since they were not timed, did not keep track of them and now would have to scavange to track them down, I did not consider them an 'event', so they are not listed below.

The races with links have a race report attached.

01.15-17.10 Bermuda Triangle Challenge
One Mile Friday Night
10K Saturday
Half Marathon Sunday

01.31.10 Miami Half Marathon

05.09.10 Mother's Day 5K

05.30.10 Coeur d' Alene Marathon

08.28.10 Swimming in Moonshine 2 Mile Swim

09.11.10 Patriot's Run (Marathon distance)

10.09.10 Jared Coones Pumpkin Run 5K

10.17.10 Kansas City Half Marathon

10.31.10 05.30.10 Athens Marathon

11.14.10 Outer Banks Marathon

It seems, compared to last year, that there isn't a whole lot to write home about. However, there is. Doug and I were lucky enough to travel to Bermuda AND Athens this year. In addition, we made it to Miami, Coeur d' Alene and the Outer Banks. Each trip was such an amazing experience.

And...
I met new a new blogger friend in the flesh... Stacey
Had the pleasure of staying with a dear friend... Amanda
And meeting new friends in Athens (that live locally in town)

Also...
Accomplished two new firsts for me in the mileage area:
Swimming 2.4 miles
Biking 97 miles

One disappointment for the year was not finishing the IM. However, the journey of training for IM was quite the experience. Training with friends, hitting several new mileage firsts-several times over, the mental toughness I didn't think I had. I learned A LOT. And will take those lessons going forward. I may not be an Ironman (yet), but I am stronger for taking the journey to tri. And for that, I am grateful.

2010 brought crazy new adventures and wondrous new places. I'm so lucky to have been able to travel to as many places as we did. I'm so fortunate to have physically been able to complete 4 marathons, 3 half marathons, swimming 2.4 miles and who knows how many miles on the bike.

I'm ready to see what 2011 will bring!
That is...after a couple birthday celebrations, Christmas and the New Year.

OBX Marathon

Doug and I ran the OBX Marathon a couple of weeks ago. I LURVE the Outer Banks of North Carolina. I am a water baby and there is water everywhere.

The marathon was a well oiled event where everything went off without a hitch. It started with great 'booty bags' along with our race tshirts that on the back read...Get Your Arrrrrrgh On!

The first half of the marathon, by far, was the best. It ran on some hard packed sand dunes and then through some dirt trails. It was beautiful, but my legs let me know I haven't run trails in a very long time. Anyone who has run trails knows that trails will kick your tail! And that it did.

As most of you know, we usually don't travel unless there is a marathon involved. However, we always seem to have some fun before and after the 'real' fun.

Some Sightseeing

Some Seafood Eating
Some Wave Action
Some Splashin' Around
Some Sun Setting
Somebody's Hubba Hubba

Marathon Morning
Trail Running on Packed Sand
Two Happy Finishers After Warming My Belly with Crab Bisque at the Finish Line
More Sightseeing
Searching for Sea Glass...a Favorite of Mine
Marking Our Territory

What a fun marathon and a great destination. You should put this one on your to do list!

Athens Marathon

The 2500 anniversary of the Marathon

From Marathon to Athens

Greece

10.31.10

Below are some pictures of marathon day

The course...hilly

The temperatures...warm

My legs...shot from walking the city for days

Running the modern Olympic marathon course...amazing

Spectators...young and old...they were the best

Hearing 'BRAVO...BRAVO...' a million times...

I could hear it a million times over again

The Olympic Flame (to the left) with the Greek flags

The Olympic Flame

At the starting line of the 2500 anniversary of the Marathon


Ready to Run




I've almost caught him

Burial site for the Spartan Soldiers

I was handed an olive branch by these two boys. We had never seen so many young people and so many old people out on the course cheering everyone on.

Cheering from their homes

Doug and the blue line.

They had the entire course marked with a blue line that showed the shortest route from Marathon to Athens via the marathon course. The blue line showed us the way to the Olympic Stadium.

Another young one out cheering everyone on.

Olympic Rings at the Stadium

Doug and his great photography

Receiving our medals

Finishing at the Olympic Stadium

Side Note:

Doug and I wore our Jared Coones Pumpkin Run shirts because the marathon was run on Halloween. They do not observe Halloween in Greece. However, there were some on the course that knew of Halloween. We had our picture taken more times by spectators (and runners alike) wanting to get a photo of our shirts. It was so fun listening to people yell, "Happy Holloween" as we ran by. I felt like a rock star!

Taper Time

It's taper time...already. Already?! I knew with me deciding way late in the game to train for Iron would go fast. But...for real?! This is craziness.

Last weekend was my big training weekend. I traveled to Table Rock Lake and swam 2 miles in the open water Saturday morning then beat feet back home to wake up Sunday morning to ride 100 miles. The 100 miles ended up being 97, but hey...who is counting? I was supposed to run 15 after, but ran that on Monday night after work. Everything went really well. For my swim, I was dead last out of the water, but I knew that would be the case. All I want to do on the swim is survive. And that, I'm pretty confident I may be able to do. The bike was hot and hilly and crazy windy, but had a GREAT ride. I felt very strong. And the run Monday night...got 12 miles covered.

Yesterday consisted of a 1 mile swim/50 mile bike/10 mile run of which I got in a swim/47 mile bike/9 mile run. The bike was awesome! I seem to be totally rocking the bike...that is...for me. The endless flat tires I've been having lately has GOTTA GO though. I have NO IDEA what the heck I did to the rubber tube God, but he does not like me one iota. He's gotta get over it sometime. Hopefully within the next three weeks. However, for almost completing a HIM yesterday, I felt awesome. And still do today. It makes me laugh to think what I did was a training day, let alone a TAPER.

So...last night I sat down with my schedule and got a tinge nervous. These past two weekends were 'it'. Like the big training weekends. The pinnacle before the big event. Now it's just taper from here. I say taper. Ha. If a marathon next weekend is considered tapering. But really, it's all downhill from here. The rest of my training, I feel I can do in my sleep. I certainly hope what I've done this far will transfer well to the big day.

Here's to taper time and hoping to keep the nerves somewhat at bay for a while!
Wow...in three weeks, at this time 4:54 pm...I'm going to hopefully be starting the run portion! Wee!!