I did it!

So much to tell....

No time to tell it today....

I LOVED Disney! It was a great experience and I had a blast! I finished in 5:24. I was not happy with my time but I stopped for more than a few pictures which naturally ate away at my pace (I was hoping for somewhere in the 4:45 range). I had 124 pictures on my camera, easily 90 of them were during the race. I also walked much more than I normally would allow myself which didn't help the time either. Either way, I finisehd. I loved it. Full report later!

so this is it...

I leave tomorrow for the Happiest Place on Earth. I.Can't.Wait! I guess I am ready to run 26.2 miles. It seems like so long since I ran any distances but am following the plan which seems to work for the rest of the world so it will have to work for me too. :)

Today was my last day at work before vaca. I got peppered with the usual comments and questions... "oh wow, I can't even run a mile" (me either a year ago), "are you going to win" (ummmmm BIG FAT NO), "were you athletic in high-school" (I was a cheerleader before they required cheerleaders to be able to do anything other than smile, clap and jump), "what does it feel like to run that far" (I will let you know). You know, the usuals. Some just wanted to go with me so they can go to the parks. I promised to bring in the Mickey Mouse medal for show and tell when I returned.

I can't wait to go to the expo and get a 26.2 sticker (is that lame?).

The weather is supposed to be great, 72 and sunny. I don't have big plans other than a meet up with friends one or two nights for dinner. I am working on that socialization thing :) Hopefully, will get in some parks, some swimming, some studying or reading (I am ready Burt Yasso's book, "My Life on the Run" - love it!) and relaxation.

I can't help but think what will I do after this? The scheduler in me is freaking out a bit with the blank spots on the calendar. I'll have to worry about that one later...

Have a great week!
K

Look at all the people at the gym...

It is pretty amazing how many people there really are at the gym post-New Years. I am the early morning workout crowd so the parking lot has maybe 30 cars in it when I pull in around 6 AM. There were easily 100+ cars this time. Faces you have never seen before trying to stick to a new year's resolution to lose weight or get fit or both. I can't imagine what it must be like trying to work out at night with the influx of the resolution crowd. I heard someone say that 70% will drop out after the first week or never even workout at all after joining the gym. It is definitely something that involves a lot of personal willpower to stick with it but 70% can't even stick it out past a week? wow....

At LFT, I got my boot camp out of the way and then did a quick 1 mile run. Not sure why, just felt the need to run. I didn't run over the weekend which was against the plan so maybe I was feeling a little guilty. I have the slightest pain in that stress fracture area which has shown up since boot camp so I am kind of nervous about pushing it right now. I might just rest between now and Sunday. Still mulling over the Swim Atlanta thing, I might just jockey for a lane at my own pool this week and then decide after Sunday. I could come up with swim workouts on my own, I think mostly I just miss the workout buddies and having someone to push me beyond my comfort zone.

Last night, we had birthday gathering #2 with my fam. Dad, my sister and her crew and RW. We went to a local Japanese Hibachi type place. After a brief freak out over the fire on the hibachi grill, the kids enjoyed the onion volcano (what is not to love there?) and the ice cream post-meal. My niece and nephew are the cutest!

I may try to go to a Saucony test run at the Big Peach tomorrow night if it isn't raining for one last run. I do love my Sauconys! I am trying to get things organized for my trip the next day or so. The plan is to either leave Wednesday or Thursday. I am looking forward to some time away from my routine and seeing Disney! When I ran the ING in March I remember feeling like such a freshman at the expo "only" running the half. It will be cool to go to the expo knowing I am running with the big kids this time :)

And the gifts start rolling in....

I would like to publicly thank Hanes Outlet for my generous birthday gift. I received an e-mail from them last week. To "celebrate my birthday, they are giving me $1.99 shipping". Ummmmmmm, thanks Hanes. Don't spoil me. I have been wanting to get RW a nice 3 pack of tees. Or not. Aveda, on the other hand, sent me a card for a free full size purefume something or other with no strings attached. Now there is an offer I can get into.

Now that I am in full on taper mode for Disney, I am starting to think beyond Disney to Augusta. I found a training plan online that I think will work for me. (Thanks, Sarah for the recommendation to check out Beginner Triathlete!). I had been to the site many times before but it never occured to me that they had training plans. I usually just use my great google skills to find anything. I had seen several plans that you had to buy but I think for my first one, this one will do just fine and the price is right. The plan I found is 20 weeks so sometime in May I should kick into full gear which means I will really have to limit myself to almost nothing but the training. I decided yesterday to cut even further back on tennis. I am down to being an occasional player on one team now (quite the cutback since at the height of the tennis frenzy there were 8 leagues going on at one time for me!). I don't miss it much now but don't want to get out of it completely so might try to work in a once-in-awhile match just to keep the skills up.

So... to revisit the goals for the year:
1. Nutrition. Lets just say that has already been a problem. I am going to wait until after bday to get on the wagon.

2. Being social. Nothing new to report. I have two meetups in Disney planned. One with a couple of friends, the other with a group I really don't know as well (I met one of the ladies through LFT - they are a TNT group so am kind of wondering if they are trying to recruit me - clearly they don't know how bad I am at fundraising). I also am thinking of going to Big Peach on Tuesday for the Saucony run event. There are giveaways!

Lastly, to give every one a little bit of hope, check out this story: Man's Last Lotto Ticket Wins $10M for Widow

Off to make soup...

Toenails and Running

Gross toenail talk, read at your own risk... :)

It seems to be a topic that comes up a lot when you get into running. Almost every book, article or google search contains something referencing toenails. I remember the first time I even heard of this I was walking around Stone Mountain a few years back and this man was telling me about his daughter who runs the NYC Marathon and how she always loses her toenails. How strange I thought. I never heard of such a thing. Of course, I had pictured every last one of her nails popping off during the race itself. Like she would pull her socks off and every nail would be in there, HA HA - DUH... These are the thoughts of someone who never even contemplating running a mile back then. Little did I know, it happens all the time. It seems that everyone's experience, as with most things, is different. Will you lose them? Will it be horrifying? Here is my two cents if anyone cares.

Here I am EIGHT DAYS from my marathon (you knew I had to get the countdown in there somewhere...) and my experience is yes, you will lose a nail or two. Technically, I lost three but I am attributing one to inadvertantly kicking a rolling ice cooler (not a picnic sized one but an industrial sized, 3 foot high cooler full of ice and bottled water and I say inadvertantly because God knows, I would NOT have kicked that thing as hard as I did on purpose) as I was rolling it downhill. Yes, volunteering can hurt you and there is no worker's comp :) Anyhoo... that accounts for one of them.

So for the other two. Not particularly horrifying and, honestly, pretty easy to disguise (or at least if you are a girly girl/guy and paint your nails). My first loss just kind of came off as one grew in behind it. Perfect scenario! The other running related one is my second toe (you know, the one next to the big one - a sign of intelligence if your second toe is bigger than the "big one" - or so I am told... as it turns out, it might just be a sign that the second toe is going to take the brunt of the banging against the shoe if you do any amount of running). It hasn't let go yet but is black. It is just a matter of time. The "cooler incident" nail (a little toe) happened this way too. Eventually, it let go. I just painted the nailbed as if there was a nail there. You really can't tell. There was no pain. I won't lie, the nails don't look great but not as bad as you think they will and under a coat of polish, you can't tell. Luckily, it is winter and I can hide the babies inside boots :)

Now you know. A little too much info? Maybe....

Nine days!

Nine days from now I will have run my first marathon! Can you note the excitement? Are you sick of this yet? Will you be sick of this in oh, I don't know, 9 days???? I promise if I do another one, I won't put you through the daily countdown ;)

Lately, I have not had anything particularly profound to say and I guess today is not different. (Note that I assume at some point, I must have written something halfway profound on this blog...). It seems that every blogger has goals. We are a bunch of overachievers in my estimation although my goals seem lame in comparison. One blogger's goal was to run 25 marathons this year. WOW. I have no words fot that one... Others want to get faster, do longer distance races, that sort of thing. I guess you never really reach the pinnacle of where you think you should be or so it seems.

For me, I didn't do all that great with my goal of nutrition today but we can call it a work in progress. Perhaps starting on a Monday or post-birthday would be better! (There I go making excuses already...) I did avoid all candy today which is difficult seeing as my candy dish is the office go-to for snacks. My friend, Tahreesa, gave me an article on how having a candy dish is supposed to get you better raises, promotions, etc. I am not sure if it is working out that way but I do certainly have more visitors. I was more conscious of what I was eating today even I didn't make great choices. I will do better after my birthday season is over on the 17th (or thereabouts)!

Boot camp as usual this morning. Still LOVING it. I am debating on whether to get back to Swim Atlanta on Tues/Thurs for masters swim team. RW is having an employment crisis of sorts right now so I am trying to cut back. He has been self employed for quite some time now; however, it was in the auto industry which basically has dwindled to nothing. He got into a partnership with another guy to start a new business but the start up capital just became entangled in the housing market and is now unavailable. SIGH. He is in the process of coming up with plan B (or would that be C?). Yes, I know, I can do my own swim workout but it really was nice doing it with others. I probably just need to hold off on doing it until we see what happens... I did cut my Disney vacation down by a day in an effort to save so I am trying :)

I did buy myself one very inexpensive gift today. I got a Road ID anklet so if my body does collapse from the sheer exhaustion of running more miles than God intended, someone will know who to call. I have listed my home, RW and Dad as contacts so one of you better not be screening calls :)


On tap for the weekend: Getting a quick 8-mile run in before tennis at 1:00 tomorrow! ("quick 8-miles" - ha... who would have thought that phrase might creep in my vocabulary?). Tennis will be followed by studying (I mean it this time...) and then my 2nd birthday party of the season Sunday @ 6:30 with Dad and Sis.

GOALS. There I said it...

I have some for the year. I had planned on doing some big monumental discussion of them but that ain't gonna happen so the brief rundown is this (and I really only have a couple at this point...)

1. Nutrition. It could be better. It needs to be better. Mostly, making better snacking choices. Less sugar in my diet. Don't get me wrong, there will still be sugar in my diet just less of it.

2. Participating in groups. Mostly for running, triathlon, etc. I tend to be a loner in certain aspects and I want to work on doing more things with people. I am not really into just hanging out and conversating because I am an introvert (thus the need to force myself into group situations - a conundrum to be sure..) but working out as a group and having a shared experience at these races would be great!

3. There was a third and maybe even a fourth, can't remember it right now. We can talk about them later, I know it is written down in my notebook....

Of course, I have other goals things I plan on achieving like the marathon then the Ironman 70.3. These are more internal goals or lifestyle changes.

I started off the year working on one of the goals. I went out for a New Year's Day run with Peachtree Tri Club at Piedmont Park. Loved it. Met lots of nice people and got a run in at the same time. Sadly, I have lived in Atlanta for oh, 39.9 years now, and think that might have been the first time I can recall going to Piedmont Park. True story. It is adjacent to the Atlanta Botanical Garden that had the bridge collapse a couple weeks back. I think I went there once in elementary school. Must try to go back there too at some point. Funny how there are so many things in the city you just forget about going to see. You get so wrapped up in your own area of town.

I hope everyone had a good start to the new year! Let the countdown to Disney begin. 10 days!