Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Rockin Recap...


Kim and I in the back of the Ford Fusion Hybrid.
So Saturday morning, Kim, Abby and I loaded up with our driver, Brian, and headed down to Dallas for the Rock n Roll half marathon.   After we left Kim's we only stopped four times on the way down there.  The first was the gas station in Norman to get coffee, and water.  Then we stopped off in Ardmore to drop Abby's dog at the groomer's, and then at a gas station in Ardmore for a potty break.  Once we got to Texas we had to take another potty break.  We did get to pick up a bottle of wine for Tommy's parents for letting us crash at their house Saturday night, so it was a win win situation.
Love Abby's look here.
Once we were there, we headed out to the train (Love public transportation!) and we were off to the exp to pick up our bibs and swag.

Abby and Kim on the train.
We had to have someone take our picture.
The best part of riding the train is that you have time to take pictures.  You also get to see a very interesting mix of people on the train.  Sometimes you get to meet new people.  There was a guy from New Orleans on the train back from the exp.

 So we picked up our race packets, and shopped around the expo.  You really should eat before this sort of thing.  It was lunch time and we were starving, so we ended up trying alot of protein snacks. 


 So after we hit the expo, had lunch, there was only one thing left to do while you are in Texas.  We hit the Allen outlet mall.  There were deals to be had.  I picked up a new Coach purse for only $80!

We meet up with Tommy, Brian and Tommy's parents for dinner.  Carrabba's for a little pre race carb loading, the Pasta Sostanza with whole wheat pasta was amazing.   The food was good, and our waitress was very entertaining.  I was asleep by about 10, because we were getting up at 5 am.  Had a little breakfast and we headed to the train.  It was free on Sunday for racers. 

Again, what to do on the train for 45 minutes?  Well take pictures, of course.

A shot of our shoes.
 
Me, Abby and Brian.
Me with my Honor Bib and my new headband.
 




When we got downtown, we were fortunate enough to find real bathrooms in the convention center to use instead of the portable ones.  Apparently, it was not a big secret because there must have been about a 100 women in line.  We also got to do a little stretching inside before we headed out to the starting line and took up a spot in our corral.

Waiting in the corral to start.
The race was good.  The course was not as flat as Tommy would have us believe, but Abby and I were ready.  We had the miles set to notify us on my garmin, and Brian, our man purse, had set the pace settings on her garmin.  For the record, it was highly annoying, but it did keep us on track.  The scenery was nice, and the last four miles of the race were a nice downhill, which was very nice after the uphill start. 

We did see Brian at about mile 7, and handed off our jackets, which turned out to be a big mistake.  This is our action shot that Brian took.  That's Abby in the pink, and if you look real close you can see me behind the guy in the white. 

I did get an action shot that actually doesn't make me look like a huge dork, which is usually the case when I run.  Although I will not be ordering these pics because they are hugely expensive, it's nice to see that I did have a smile on my face during the race.  This must have been really early on.


So it was a great race.  I finished in 1:53, and made it in at 2:00:06 based on the gun time.  We started with corral 5 so we were back a bit.  I still can't imagine how I got here.  Abby picked up her pace in the last half mile, but she was waiting on me at the finish line.  A girl came up to us when we were waiting for our picture to let us know that she and her friend had followed us the whole time, they said they wanted to stick with the girls in pink.  It's nice to know that we might have inspired someone.




Not a bad looking piece of hardware.
I must say that while the race was great, the expo had lots of interesting things, and the course was nice, my only complaint came at the end of the race.  It was freezing, and even though we ran in shorts and short sleeves, by the time we finished it was very cold.  We had given Brian our jackets and he had trouble navigating the trains to the finish line so we were just walking around like popsicles at the end.  I went to the medical tent to see if we could get a couple of Mylar blankets, because we had seen people walking around with them, and we were told that they weren't handing them out.  They only had a limited amount and they were using them for people that were suffering hypothermia and were being transported to the hospital.  The people I saw walking around with them didn't appear to be being transported anywhere.

Me and Kim trying to be warm on the train.
After the five of us all meet back up, we made the trek to the train station.  This was the most painful part of my day.  By then I was so cold, and my quads were killing me.  Kim was in the same boat.  We kept having to stop to stretch, while Abby and Brian power walked it to the train.  Abby is ten years younger than me.  The freezing didn't stop when we got to the train station, we took a bus to the train, and had to wait a little bit, and then we had to switch trains.  We were lucky enough to switch trains underground, but it was still darn cold.  Then Kim had to pee again.  But that's nothing out of the ordinary.

We got back to Tommy's parents house, Brian and Abby left, and I took a nice hot shower.  Seriously, I could have stayed in there all day.  Then we headed back home.  I regret that I didn't get any pics of Kim sleeping in the car, or of Tommy driving, but by then I was worn out.

It was a great race, and now I am hoping to check out the Chicago Rock n Roll, and then there's always Vegas in December (fingers crossed).

***It appears that I have no pictures of Tommy to post.  Not sure how that happened, but he was with us and he did awesome!***

Monday, March 28, 2011

Rock N Roll Results...

I will have pictures to post, once Abby and Kim get them posted on Facebook and I can steal them, but I just saw my official results.  It was a great run, and while I am pretty sore today, it was well worth it.  Abby and I finished about 30 seconds apart, as she took off from me in the last half mile.  I had no gas left, but when I saw that the official time was right at 2 hours I did pick it up right at the finish.  My gun time was 2:00:06. 

Here are my results:
1:53:23
5k--26:05
10k--53:09
10 mile--1:26:19

So I bested my previous half by 23 minutes and 5 seconds.  Seriously, what the heck was I doing in Tulsa?  Clearly I was not running with Abby, my ten years younger than me, bad ass running buddy.

In my age group, I finished 126 out of 1,339.  Nice to be in the top 10%.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Sometimes Things Don't Go As Planned...

So today is a rest day for me, as is tomorrow.  Since we are heading down to Dallas tomorrow for the Rock N Roll Half Marathon.

Instead of heading to the gym this morning, I got up with the intention of decorating the five dozen sugar cookies I whipped up last night before dinner with a couple of friends.  All didn't go as planned.  I don't know what my problem was this morning, but I screwed up two, yes TWO, batches of royal icing for the cookies.

For some reason I thought I should only do half of the recipe, but I put the same amount of powdered sugar in as I would for the whole recipe.  I was hoping to make black and white cookies, but the second batch of frosting that I attempted to make black, didn't turn out so black.  (Note to self, research black icing.)   I tried piping with the first batch, but the consistency seemed all wrong.

Then it hit me, too much powdered sugar!  Duh!  No wonder it wasn't working.  So I pitched the two bad batches, and started all over.  I now have one perfect batch waiting for my in my fridge, so I can get all of the cookies decorated tonight when I get home.

Let's Rock N Roll...

Tomorrow morning, Kim, Abby and I are heading down to Dallas for the Rock N Roll Half Marathon.  Hard to believe it's been three months since I decided that I wanted to register and raise money for Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

$1,710 later, I am ready to go.  I decided to raise money by baking cookies, and it was a huge hit.  I should have kept better track of all the cookies I baked, but I know it's been quite a few chocolate chip and sugar cookies that have been baked for a cure.


The Honor Bib I ordered should be coming in the mail today, and thanks to Abby we have pink race outfits to wear.

So tomorrow morning at 7 am, along with our driver, Brian, we will be headed to the expo to pick up our race packets.  After that, there should be some outlet mall shopping, and maybe some carb loading.

Hopefully, by about 10:30 on Sunday morning I will have finished my second half marathon in under two hours.  We'll see how that goes.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

C & C Cupcakes

I have set up a separate blog for my cupcakes and other goodies.  You can find it here.  It is still in the beginning stages, but feel free to become a follower!

Birthday Cupcakes...

Back in January I made cupcakes for Camy's teacher, her daughter Lillian was celebrating her first birthday.

I made chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting, and vanilla cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. 

Brightly colored cupcake holders, frosting and sprinkles completed the look.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Meatless Monday...

This is something everyone should read.

It's funny the opinions and comments you get when you tell people that you don't eat meat.  It's also funny how people think that I am not allowed to eat meat.  Vegetarianism is a choice, I choose to not eat meat, but I am still allowed to if I choose.  I choose to not eat shellfish also, but I can eat it if I choose to. 

My workout from Saturday:
16 mile long run, 2 hours 33 minutes.  What a great run, after the disaster 16 miles was the last time, this time it was awesome!  Great weather, great route, great friends.

My workout from today:
3 easy miles in 30 minutes.  I love Monday morning easy running!  I'll be trekking tonight for another 5 miles or so.

Happy Monday!

Friday, March 18, 2011

My Grandpa...

Obituary

William Keith Morris
August 3, 1923 – March 8, 2011
 
Mr. William Keith Morris, a native of West Virginia and a resident of Berwick, passed away Tuesday, March 8, 2011 at Teche Regional Medical Center surrounded by his loving family.

William served his country in World War II. He enlisted with the U. S. Air Force in 1943 and was deployed to Saipan in 1944. William was honorably discharged in 1945. He was an engineer for the railroad for forty plus years after leaving the military.

He is survived by his wife of 25 years Betty Wright Morris of Berwick, formerly of Commerce, Missouri; one son Michael Morris and his wife Suzanne of Edmond, Oklahoma, two stepsons Jack Gaddis and his wife Ann of Fort Myers, Florida and Jerry Gaddis and his wife Charlene of Morgan City and a stepdaughter Carla Farland and her husband Craig of Key West, Florida; eight grandchildren, and fifteen great grandchildren.

William is preceded in death by his parents O. W. and Lena Morris.

The family wishes to extend a special thanks to the caregivers Teresa Romero and Susan Molinari for their care and concern.

A time of reflection and remembrance will begin Thursday, March 10, 2011 from 9:00 a.m. until 11:00 a.m. at Hargrave Funeral Home with a Service of Christian Burial at 11:00 a.m.

Mr. Morris will be laid to rest in the Morgan City Cemetery with Military Honors by the East St. Mary Funeral Squad.

You Want Me ToDo What?

First of all, I think I'll start logging my workouts here.  I'd like to be more accountable, so here goes.

Friday workout: nothing, slept in.  In my defense, I have a 16 mile run in the morning and Friday is a rest day.  Also, my shoulders are super sore from the upper body/ab workout I did yesterday.

So on to other things.  Let me start off by saying, that I am a HUGE fan of our local Y.  We have been members since my 10 and a half year olds were about 2.

Before last year, I would just go there, workout and go home.  Last year, I got mixed up in this great group of people, and they made me a better runner, and now going to the Y is as much social as it is about working out.

I am training for the Memorial Marathon, and I have signed on to be a volunteer with the training program.  Essentially that meant that I committed to running the full, and going out each Saturday and training for it.  I am still not sure how it all happened, but here we are.  I am an official volunteer, I had to fill out paperwork and everything.  The plus side is that they did pay my $100 registration fee for the full.

It's spring break this week, well for mostly everyone but me.  Tommy, the guy that leads up our running group and teaches some trekking classes at the Y has been off skiing, and his trekking class on Wednesday didn't have an instructor.  I got an email on Monday asking if I would be interested in filling in.  I'm not gonna lie, the thought of teaching a trekking class scared the crap out of me.  What would we do?  Would I just stand in front of the treadmills and shout at everyone?  I saw it as an opportunity to get an extra workout in, provided the class wasn't too full, and decided to face my fear and go for it.

With some help from Tommy, who sent me a lovely workout that I printed out and followed pretty closely, I took a deep breath and just did it.  I got lucky, there was an open treadmill, so I didn't just have to stand there giving commands, I got to do the workout I was leading.  Let me just say that shouting commands, paying attention to the minutes, intervals, speeds and incline, all while running at a minimum of 6.0 on a treadmill is not so easy.  I did get a good 5.75 miles in, and I don't think the women in the class hated it.  I got some good feedback after it was over.  Maybe they'll let me do it again sometime.

Not sure if it was the trekking class, the easy 3 miles Kendra and I ran that morning, or the cross training class I helped lead after the trekking class, but I was completely worn out on Wednesday.  10.5 miles is alot to fit in on a work day.  I went home, was in bed by 9 and slept until my alarm went off at 5 am on Thursday.

I got a nice shoulder, arm and ab workout in with Abby and Kendra yesterday that I am definitely feeling today.  I slept in this morning, as I mentioned above, and I am going to give 16 miles another to tomorrow.  I want to throw up just thinking about running 16 after the disaster the last 16 mile run was.  But I am thinking positively, we are picking a route full of flatness and sidewalks, and I am considering breaking out the knee brace for my right knee for a little extra support.  Weather should be nice, so it should be a great morning.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Rock N Roll

I have 12 days until my second half marathon.  I love a good road trip, and I, along with a few running friends, will be trekking down to Dallas for the Rock N Roll half marathon on March 27th

I was very excited when I discovered that this race benefited Susan G. Komen for the Cure as part of their Marathon for the Cure race series.  I got a discounted registration fee of $75, and committed to raise atleast $1,000 for Komen for the Cure.  With 12 days to go I have raised $1,555! 

My secret weapon for fundraising has been cookies!  I sent an email out to my co-workers, and posted on Facebook, that if people would donate atleast $25 I would bake them a dozen cookies.  Chocolate chip or sugar cookies, their pick.  The response was fabulous!  I haven't baked as many cookies as I thought, some people have donated and passed on the cookies, but I have baked quite a few in the last month or so.

All that's left to do now is to go out there and run.  I do have a 16 mile training run on Saturday for my marathon training, I am hoping that run doesn't kill me so I can go run in Dallas.  I still have not recovered fully from the last 16 mile run we did, so I am hoping for better conditions and better results this week.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Waiting at the Airport, Again...

I am sitting in the Dallas Love Field Airport right now.  I got here almost three hours ago.  I should have been back in OKC an hour ago...

My grandpa had been pretty sick for a while, and he passed away on Tuesday morning.  So in a whirl wind, we packed up and headed down to Berwick, Louisiana on Wednesday and the funeral was yesterday.  So we are heading back home today.  We were lucky enough to not have to drive the 700 mile trip, and got to fly stand-by on Southwest.  All flights have gone well until the final flight today, it was probably too good to be true to think that we would all get home before 3:30 today, and as we were standing in line to board the flight they called Karen's name out, and were going to bump her to the 5:25 flight.

It must have been a conspiracy, that Jen and Karen and Billy all rode to the airport together.  They must have know that we would be one seat short coming home, because they are all probably home by now and I am still stuck in Dallas.  As the lone occupant of my car, I decided to take one for the team and sit here an extra three hours and wait until the next flight.

I was so looking forward to picking the kiddos up from the rec center this afternoon a little early and getting to have a little mom time with them.  Oh well, such is my luck with airplanes and airports.

I don't have any more grandparents.  It's kinda weird in a feel-like-an-orphan kind of way.  Not that I am an orphan, but it's weird to think that a good amout of my history is gone.  My mom's dad died before I was born, and her mom died almost 15 years ago, but the people on my dad's side of the family live for a long time.  My grandma passed last fall, and how my grandpa is gone.  Even though we weren't close anymore, I miss who he was to me when I was little. 

We traveled to Berwick, Louisiana, which is less than 100 miles from New Orleans for the funeral and burial.  Which, it turns out was the fastest funeral/burial ever.  The service at the funeral home lasted all of 15 minutes and then it took about 15 to drive to the cemetary, and then all of about 15 minutes there with the military portion of the service, including the 21 gun salute (which was not really 21 guns, because there were only six guns, but who's counting), and then it was on to lunch.

My grandpa had been married to his current wife for about 25 years, and it was mostly her family down in Louisiana that we finally meet this week.  Let me just say that they do things very differently down in Louisiana.  Starting with the liquor/wine aisle in CVS.  We sure don't have that in Oklahoma.  Then when we went out for drinks yesterday with our new family members, Jen got to take a to go cup with her margarita in it from the first stop to the second.  Really?  Why can't we have laws like that in Oklahoma?  Oh yeah, I forgot for a second that I live in the buckle of the bible belt, bluest state in the nation.  Oh well, a girl can dream, can't she.

I'll take the good with the bad this week, and I am sure hoping to see some of my newly extended family again soon.  I could go to Louisiana again, my hair didn't really like it much, but I sure had fun.  Fun at a funeral, that sounds so wrong, but I am sure that my grandpa would have liked it.