Seriously, There Was a Trail Race…

I think the statute of limitations is about to run out on my January trail race. I have been thinking about this recap for weeks, but it seems like most of my free time has been occupied by sugar cookies or sleep lately. We will have to talk about the sugar cookies later.

First, let’s talk about my first race of 2014! I use the term race loosely here because there was definitely no racing going on. I think I have mentioned before that I am not an outdoors person, although there is evidence to the contrary the last five years or so. I’m not going to lie, I was glad to be doing this particular race in the winter where I wouldn’t have to worry about running into any unfriendly critters out on the trail.

About 24 hours after I decided to sign up for the Sooner State Games Trail Race, Sarah, Rochelle, Anne and I headed out to Draper for our first official (read: they gave us timing chips) trail race. We had no trouble picking up our bibs and had plenty of time to get some pictures.



Me, Sarah, Anne and Rochelle.

Ben & I

 

We had signed up for the 12 mile race. The course was a four mile loop, and the 12-milers started first. I tried to settle into a comfortable and sustainable pace and not slow anyone behind me down. The 8-milers started five minutes later and it felt like the Hunger Games when we heard their gun go off and knew that they were going to be chasing slow pokes like me down. The third gun for the 4-miles went off five minutes after that.

My speedy friends headed off and after settling in I made it through the first loop with only a stubbed toe. It turned out to be much warmer than I expected and I had to shed my long sleeve shirt and gloves in the first loop. As I started the second loop, I was wondering why I hadn’t signed up for the 8 mile race, or the 4 mile race. Oh the things your friends will convince you to do.

The best thing about this race was the water stop that was half way through the loop. My friend Julie was out there and it was so nice to see a friendly face! By the third loop I could have sworn that I was the last person out on the trail. With all the 4 and 8 milers pretty much done, there was no one ahead of me or behind me that I could see. Julie promised me that I was not last.

Julie and I

 

As I came to the end of the last loop, Ben was waiting and ran the rest of the way to the finish line with me. I think he wanted to make sure I was still alive. I am not going to lie, I was ready to be done. My official time was 2:21. This was the longest run, time wise, for me since the marathon last February. Oh were my legs tired. Trail running is hard.

We waited around for my three speedy friends to collect their medals for their top three finishes in their age groups. As we were getting ready to leave they called my name. Last time I checked, Rochelle and I were in the same age group, but it turned out they had my age listed as 56! Unofficially, I won the 55-59 age group. They were nice enough to let me keep the medal for winning that age group. Not bad for a 56 year old!

It was a great day, and I definitely want to do another trail race. I just love the laid back feel of the trails, and enjoyed just running to run, and not have any self-inflicted pressure to run fast or get a certain time. There was an added bonus this day of not falling on my face, the avoidance of which is what slows me down the most on the trails. I enjoyed the Draper trails.

Not a bad start to racing in 2014.

WIAW, What Did I Take Pictures Of...

I haven't done a WIAW post in ages. I usually have trouble taking pictures of everything I eat in one day. But I do eat the same thing a lot.

I have eaten a few cookies lately, but I have bakes a ton of sugar cookies lately. Based on the number I have made I have eaten only a few. More on the cookies later, but here is one picture of some that I made last night.

I did a little post half marathon carb loading on Sunday night, mostly because spaghetti is so easy to make and I was able to talk Josh into making the garlic bread. Mush to the disappointment of the teenagers. I threw in some steamed Brussels sprouts with mine.

Tonight the family had steak for dinner so I opted for a baked sweet potato with black beans, cheese and salsa. Steamed broccoli and Brussels sprouts on the side.

This has been one of my favorite meals lately. Let's call it a BBQ ranch veggie burger wrap with cheese and lettuce. A side of baked curly fries to go with it.

I have been making a pot of soup watch week for the past few months. Makes packing my lunch extremely simple. I have taken to just starting with a good soup base and then throwing in whatever sounds good that week. I decided on this soup during our half marathon Sunday morning. Navy bean and potato. Yum! I used my immersion blender on part of ot and the beans and potatoes thickened the soup quite nicely.

So there you have it, finally a WIAW post. It's been a little crazy with all the cookie making, but I have still had some yummy eats.

 

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Hello There...

I don't know about you, but my life has been a little crazy so fat this year. Between family, work, running and baking I feel like I never sit down anymore. Although, technically I am sitting almost the entire time I am at work, but you get the idea.

So how about a little summary that I will go into more detail on in the next few days? Okay, good. 

• Number of weeks left until my girls are officially high schoolers? 9.5

• Number of times the Service Engine Soon light has been texted to Josh because it has made another appearance? At least 3. 

I have been told that this is nothing to worry about.

 

• Number of miles logged in 2014. 242

• Number of miles logged in my latest pair of Brooks Ravenna 4s. 204 (I am very sad to be about 2/3 of the way through these shoes. Not sure if the 5s are for me. 

If you can believe it, I am actually stretching here, not just showing off my awesome shoes.

• Number of races so far in 2014. 2 (Number of recaps, none so far, I will be getting to this.)

• Number of sock cookies made in 2014. About 8 dozen, with another 2.5 dozen to make this weekend. 

I am sad I didn't make these when my girls were small. Carson loved her sock monkeys.

It's been a pretty eventful year so far. I am going to try to get better at keeping track of it all. More later!

How About a Trail Run...

I have been thinking about what my first race of 2014 would be.  I think maybe I haven't really wanted to jinx myself my actually planning a race, and when I woke up this morning I had no races scheduled.

What a difference a day makes.

I have been saying that I would like to run an actual trail race.  One with registration fees, race t-shirts, timing chips and aid stations.  Looks like I'm going to get my wish.

Tomorrow at 9 am, I will be participating in the Sooner State Games trail race.  I actually registered for this event in 2011, but I believe it got snowy/icy and we opted to run our planned long run for marathon training instead.  There is no backing out now.

What's even better is three of my favorite running peeps will be joining me on the trails, and I will get so see some of my favorite trail runners too.  It should make for a very interesting day.

Oh yeah, and did I mention that we are doing the long race?  It's only 12 miles, and I know that the "only" portion of that statement is purely subjective, but up until now, the farthest I have ever run/walked on trails is six miles.  Peer pressure from my running friends sure makes my life more interesting!

Of course, now the big question is: What do we wear?  Guess I need to work on a little carb loading and hydration.

January is Almost Over...

My goal of spending more time with my blog has already been a huge failure.  Three weeks into the new year and I have blogged about a whole lot of nothing.  Maybe I need to get a life.

So what's been going on?  Running.  Work.  Family.  Food.  (Not necessarily in that particular order.)  Basically a whole lot of boring, everyday, regular life sort of things.  You could probably add a big dose of Race Envy to that list.  Apparently, I have friends that do plan races every now and again.  Maybe I should be hanging out with those friends more.

We are three weeks into January and I have logged 78 miles so far.  I should be on track to start the new year with a 100 mile month.  Don't get too excited because the universe has a way of wrecking my plans when I get too excited.  One day at a time, right?

So let's talk about today.




 

We don't usually run on Wednesdays, but Mother Nature has scheduled a bit of cold weather for tomorrow, so we opted to run our Thursday hilly route today.  After yesterday's 6, very cold, very windy miles, my legs were a little bummed to be asked to run again. I did everything I could to push them up and down the new, hilly route we have added from Rochelle's house for the last couple of weeks.  Let's just say I am glad that is over.

 

I did get a new pair of my beloved Brooks Ravenna 4s earlier this month and I am loving them.  I am sad that the 5s are so different, and my local shoe expert thinks the new version is not a good choice for me.  Apparently it's too much shoe for my narrow feet.  There is even talk of my second shoe being a brand other than Brooks.

 

Here's hoping they will change their minds and go back to the 4s when the 6s come out at the end of the year.  Although, I don't think this one pair will last me that long. 

 

I do need to do some serious thinking about what race I want to run next.  As always I feel a little lost and without direction.  I like to have a plan, but sometimes it's hard to come up with one.

 

One non-running relating bit of news, Camy has her audition for the high school orchestra tomorrow.  Seriously, high school!  I don't know if I'm more nervous for her to do well, which I am confident she will, or freaked out over the fact that she is auditioning for HIGH SCHOOL.  I am no where ready for that. 

 

This cannot be good for my mid-life crisis. 

 

I'm going to go sit in the corner and take some deep cleansing breaths.  

WIAW, It’s a New Year…

I have not done a WIAW post in a long time, so I thought I would just see what kinds of food pictures I’ve taken recently.

Could be really boring, so here goes.

The last couple of weeks seem to have had a number of these.  I love being able to pick up a bottle of wine at CVS in other states that don’t have stupid liquor laws.  We drank a little red and white while we were in Chicago for Christmas.

We found the cutest little Italian restaurant while we were in Chicago, compliments of yelp.  I had to go with the house sangria, and I was not disappointed.

My sister-in-law’s boyfriend, Ryan, told us we had to check out Potbelly Sandwich Shop before we made our way back to Oklahoma.  We waited until almost the last minute, we had lunch in the airport before we caught our flight home.  I had the Mediterranean, with hummus, feta, cucumbers, roasted red peppers and artichoke hearts.  I am only sad that we don’t have these in Oklahoma.

Lots of cookies were baked this year, sugar cookies go with pumpkin beer, right?  Of course they do.  Sugar cookies go with everything.

I took the girls to Blu on Friday for lunch.  We had my favorite blue cheese truffle chips, and they were big fans.  We will be going back for these.

I have been making lots of soup lately.  It has become my favorite thing to pack for weekday lunches.  Sweet potato with roasted cauliflower and barley.  It was really good.  The recipe didn’t call for barley, but it just needed something, and it turns out that barley was just the thing.

Veggie pot pie soup, one of my favorites.  It’s just comfort in a bowl.

So there you have it, my most recent eats.  Or the ones that have been documented most recently.  We will see if we can get back on track with the WIAW posts in the new year.

Let’s Wrap it Up…

It is no secret that 2013 has been a less than fabulous year for me.  I have had personal and professional challenges that have not been, and will not be discussed on the blog, but let’s just say it has been difficult on all fronts.

I thought I would talk about some other bad parts of the year, and then focus a little on the good parts of my year.

First of all, there were two injuries, an accident, and an appendectomy.  I went from training for the Redman half ironman triathlon, to training for the Kansas City half marathon, to just going along as a spectator as my friends ran the marathon.  I know that in the big picture these setbacks are pretty minor in relation to some of the challenges others faced this year, The fact that I kept taking one step forward and two steps back all year, on top of the previously mentioned, but not discussed, personal and professional difficulties of the year just seemed to make it all that much harder.

I did have some good pictures though…

My lovely sprained ankle.

My chin is still scarred.

My shoulder had a little scarring, but I got lucky with not so much road rash.  Guess when you fall straight down and don’t slide it means fewer scars.

Don’t worry, I won’t show you my surgery scars.  No one needs to see them.  I think this picture was right before they gave me medicine that gave me a nice allergic reaction.  Oh, what an adventure.

So there were the lower points of 2013, so let’s talk about the good things.

First of all, I ran my second marathon this year.

It wasn’t as strong a race as I had hoped, but I did it.  It was hard, but it is 26.2 miles, how can that not be hard?

I spent a lot of time on my yoga mat this year.  While I didn’t get my first headstand in in 2013, I learned a lot and will carry what I have learned into 2014.  I have learned to accept the small victories of yoga, and have embraced the progress I have made this year.

I ran two unofficial trail runs this year.  One in the spring, one in the fall.  Although, the one in the spring is probably not a highlight of Josh’s year.  He managed to dislocate his ankle.  Cheaters never win…

Josh and I took the girls to the beach in North Carolina this summer.  We made pit stop in Nashville to see one of my favorite bands, Wilco on the way.  It was a fantastic vacation with plenty of time spent laying on the beach and wave jumping.

My girls became teenagers in August.  Not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing.

In September, I scored cheap tickets and took them and my niece Paige to see Mumford and Sons in Guthrie.  So cool!  It was such a fun day with three of my favorite teenagers.

Can you tell we spent the day sweating our butts off in the Oklahoma sun?  Teenagers love to have their pictures taken.

Traveling to Kansas City to watch some of my favorite people run a marathon was also a positive thing that happened this year.

It was such a fun trip, even if I didn’t get to run.  Marathon stalking is an art and I think I did a pretty good job.

I did have a good half marathon in November at the Route 66.

Finally, we finished off the year by spending Christmas in Chicago.  I will get to that recap soon, it was a fantastic trip.

Here’s the running breakdown:

• 902.88 miles logged
• 1 marathon
• 2 half marathons
• 4 5k’s
• 1 run in Chicago
• 2 runs at the beach

I think the good did outweigh the bad, but I am sure looking forward to starting fresh in 2014. 

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