Tuesday, December 24, 2013

All I Want For Christmas Is You

It’s Christmas Eve. I don’t know why you people are hanging around on my blog when you needs to be wrapping up the last of the gifts, drinking spiked egg nog and wondering which family member will be getting the cops called on them this year but I still appreciate it.

IMG_2947 The Nog.

I won’t be around much over the next couple of weeks but I’ll be hanging on twitter, Instagram and facebook so if you’re interested in gems like these, feel free to add me!

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In the meantime, I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and here’s to 2014!

Monday, December 23, 2013

Jingle Bun Run Race Recap

On December 14th, 2014 I participated in a Half-Marathon put on by Schlotzky’s in Temple, Texas and I’m pretty sure my legs fell off at some point.

I was not as prepared for this race as I had thought I was going to be – which is, actually all my fault seeing as I didn’t get off my ass and put in the miles for it like I should have. Luckily, I was not alone in my faults – as my friend Courtney was in the same predicament!

IMG_2868 This was the first race I’ve ever run with someone and y’all, it was pretty awesome. We talked prior to the race about our plan of attack and when realizing we had roughly the same pace, figured we’d stick together. It helped me through some of the later miles when my legs were like, “YOU DID THIS TO YOURSELF I SHALL CRAMP NOW! HAHA.” We chatted, talked, complained, and tried to keep moving as the wind was shoveling his skanky face down our, uh, face.

Temperatures were in the high 30s, with wind gusts up to 20 mph – so it wasn’t exactly pleasant but I managed to finish in 3:01:30. That’s about average for me, so despite not really putting in the time on my feet I still got-r-done.

Bun Run Splits We were pretty much all over the place with our mile times, there was stretching, walking & talking going on so we figured as much. The course was a loop we did twice (turns out I’m not a fan of loop races), so when we hit the 10k point I was like man, I’m feeling better than I thought – let’s do this thing! And uh then, mile 10 happened and yeah, well I was fucking done. I tried to just focus on pumping my arms, so my feet would move and telling myself that “I get to do this.” It helped just enough to cross the finish line.

11431306073_9e1369d643_bI knew I was going to be pretty miserable and sore the second I crossed the finish line, so I was really looking forward to grabbing some food and taking a shower. Unfortunately, the daughter had other plans and we ended up going to the Urgent Care for a serious ear infection situation. I love that she can talk now, but hearing a kid scream “MAMA I NEED MEDICINE” for 45 minutes on the way to the doctor is no way to celebrate 13.1 miles.

We finally made it home with medicine and I hit the shower around 5pm that evening.  It was a long, cold day but really was a great race. Schlotzky’s & Temple Parks & Recreation did a great job organizing the run, and all the volunteers kicked ass motivating us to keep on trucking. I wouldn’t mind running this one again next year (better prepared of course) simply because the medal is pretty adorable. And incredibly tasty looking.

IMG_2985 Mmm..medal.

My next race isn’t scheduled until the end of January (unless of course I get suckered into one – which happens) where I’ll be double medaling. Yeah, that’s right. DOUBLE MEDALING. Basically I’ll run the 5k portion on Saturday and the half on Sunday. In the meantime, the soreness I felt after this race and my mental attitude really has cemented the fact that I need to get fucking serious about this marathon training and stop letting excuses make my long weekend runs fall to the wayside.

Here’s to running over Christmas break and not dying!

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Until we run again!

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Lillie Lately v.1

Did you know this blog started out as a way to recap my adventure into mommyhood? I wanted a place to talk about/share my life as a triumphant mother. I had high, lofty goals as to how I thought things would turn out. Unfortunately, that first year didn’t go exactly as I envisioned and it was less about being triumphant and more about keeping my head above water.

So, I just didn’t really talk about being a mom. I couldn’t let people know I felt like a failure. I mean, clearly everyone else did such a great job at it per social media! One thing led to another and I somehow began this #runtamrun adventure and well, my blog became what it is today. Mostly training plans, high-fives, and talking about my fear of pooping myself.

God bless the internet.

And while I’m in a much, much better place than I was two years ago I still don’t post much about being a mom. But this time it comes from a different place. A place of privacy. Sometimes, I just want to keep our memories to ourselves. No need to blast them into the universe despite what social media tells us. When we had Lillie I purposefully did not post a picture on Facebook for, like, days. I wanted family and close friends to be witness to our blessing first. I was fairly hormonal and with not taking to motherhood like I thought I should have, odds were I would break down and tell you all to fuck off and never have kids. I was protecting you guys. I swear.

[Fact: That actually did happen. Ask Emilie.]

That is to say, I don’t judge any of you who do this – I’m a sucker for an adorable new born baby picture just like any ovary-laden woman is – this was just how we felt at the time. (If when we get pregnant again, I probably will post a picture much quicker this go-around. I’m in a different place now.)

I’m writing all this to basically say, every so often I will write about Lillie and I won’t judge you if you don’t read. Most of you have stuck around to cheer me on in my training (you guys are the bestest!) but y’all, she’s 3 now and fucking hilarious. I don’t want to forget these moments, so, I give to you Lillie Lately.

Lillie Lately


[Walking down the hallway, Lillie comes up from behind & pulls my sweatpants to the ground]

Me: What the…?
Lillie: I SEE YOUR BOOTY. I SEEEEE IIIIITTTTTT!

She runs away laughing maniacally, I sigh loudly.


Putting away laundry, I walk by the restroom where Lillie is “dooty”-fully sitting on the toilet. She’s unrolling the toilet paper while singing, “I’m getting paper for my booootyy. BOOOTYYY.”


If you have asked her at any point in the past two months what she’s going to ask Santa for you would have gotten this answer, “A biiig yogurt.”

I know you’re probably thinking that we’re just not hearing her correctly, but I assure that is not the case. Perhaps she’s saying “Yogi Bear?” like one of our church members suggested, but no, she literally means a huge bowl of yogurt.

And yes, Santa assured her that was possible with a slight nod from mom when his eyes met mine at the request.

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A few weeks ago I set out early Saturday morning to get some miles in, I had hoped to be finished by the time she woke up – she wasn’t and with about 1 mile left in me, she & Alfred surprised me by driving up beside me. It was a nice little morale booster as I finished up and man, I felt good thinking about what a wonderful example I must be setting for her.

A couple hours later, she walked up to me and said, “Mama, you were running like dis! [arms moving back & forth beside her] but it was lot slower, like dis. [arms moving at a snail’s pace] I like to run faasssstt. Why you don’t run fast?”

Basically, my kid just called me out on being slow. And I couldn’t even argue with her because well, 1. It’s kind of true and 2. She’s three. You can’t out argue a 3 year old, it’s next to impossible. And if you somehow manage to find a winning argument, it won’t fucking matter because by that time they won’t care. They’ll be too wrapped up in putting shoes on Barbie or flicking a bug across the kitchen floor.

Anyone else have kid stories to share?
Please, for the love of sweet baby Jesus, let me know I’m not alone.

Friday, December 13, 2013

Underprepared 2.0

A few weeks ago I had written how I felt underprepared for a 10k I participated in. I didn’t think I was (obviously not, I mean I did PR – yahoo!) but I sure felt that way. Even though I had been following my training plan, I guess I was just nervous because it was the longest distance I had covered in months.

And tomorrow, I’ll be throwing down twice that with a half-marathon I signed up for on a whim.

But where I felt underprepared for that 10k, for this half – I actually am underprepared.

I haven’t ran anything in over a week (I have done a few other workouts though) and my longest run so far has been an 8 miler (done about 3 weeks ago). If you’ll look over most training plans circulating the internets they have you run at least one 10-miler and yeah, uh, oops.

I thought about bailing. (I couldn’t really since I have a friend running with me. Hi Courtney!) And who knows, I may get to mile 8 and just can’t go anymore, but I’m still going to go for it. If I didn’t, I think I’d really just be disappointed in myself. But I have no intention of trying to push the hell out of myself to PR. When I said I was going to run a marathon I planned on killing my training schedule, just knocking that shit right out of the park but other things have taken priority (one of the reasons I’ve been fairly absent around here) and like I said, the past couple weeks have been a struggle for me emotionally & physically. All of the races I’m participating in up until the big 26.2 are on my schedule with the understanding that they should be handled as a training run. (Just, like one with 300 other people.) Even though when I step up to that starting line the little bit of competitiveness I do have surges forward and I want to smash any of my old times.

This time last year I had just finished my first half in Vegas and completely stoked about it. Crazy where a year can take you. It almost feels like I’ve been lazy with my training simply because I know my body is capable of running 13.1 miles already.

I feel like this race tomorrow is going to be a massive failure on my running ego, but I’m still excited for it. Weird, right? It’s supposed to be in the 40s but with the wind chill, low 30s and for this Texas girl, that’s going to be um, interesting. Hopefully the rain will stay far, far away but even if doesn’t - been there, done that.

So, here’s to me – admitting my faults as a runner and saying, “Fucking shit. Sometimes I suck at running…and pig & cow shaped pancakes. Definitely suck at those.”

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