Brookhaven Run

On Saturday Josh and I went and ran the Brookhaven Run.  I just love this race, not only because it’s so close to home, it’s a great route and they always have a great turn out.  I was especially excited to have Josh and Rochelle running it this year.

Of course there were pre race pictures.  Kim came out and ran after a late night out on Friday. 

This is me, Kelli, Rochelle and Kim, before the start of the race.

I don’t think Josh has experienced the pre race pictures that happen when we run with Kim.

Josh, Kim, Rochelle and I having a pre race drink.  Not sure what the energy drink was they had out there but it was not good.

For me it was a great race.  I was pretty nervous since the last 5k I ran was the Heart for Haiti run where I had my PR.  Rochelle and I talked about it before the race and our plan was to just give it all we had.  At the start it got a little away from us as we were trying to get out of the pack, I looked down at about the mile mark and we were at about a 7 minute mile pace.  I knew we had to slow down, and we did.  I hadn’t planned on using the water stops but I had to have a little water at the first one, I was trying to calm myself down and settle into the run.

At every kilometer marker our pace was around 5 minutes, and when we hit the 4k mark we were at 19:30, after that point it was back into the neighborhood and Rochelle dropped back just a little bit.  I was very glad to see the finish line.

My official chip time was 24:29, I was 3rd out of 68 in my age group and 47th out of 417 women overall.  Not a bad race for me, and it was nice to know that the Heart for Haiti run wasn’t a fluke.

Josh did great too, finishing in 25:46, and 23rd out of 58 in his age group.

After the race the girls and I hit the outlet mall, and I ended up sleeping in and being lazy all day yesterday.  21 mile bike ride this morning with the girls and then a nice lazy day.  What a great holiday weekend.

Falling, and Not On My Bike…

Last Wednesday I meet some friends for a run.  We started early, like 5:05 am early.  Although, really we usually meet at 5:15 am, so it’s not that early for me.  I really should just sleep in my running clothes, it would make it even faster for me.
So we had planned to do about 5 miles.  It was very dark and pretty hot and humid when we started.  We got about 200 yards, if that much, down the sidewalk on a route that is not our usual one.  All of the sudden, it was like I was in slow motion, I was not running forward but headed for the sidewalk.  I came very close to taking one of the girls I was running with down with me, but luckily I think she sensed I was falling and got out of my way.
Here’s the damage…

I happened to have been running with my hand held water bottle, which was in the hand pictured above.  My hand and arm were very sore until the weekend from falling on the water bottle. 
As for my knee, which is the one I most recently had surgery on, it felt pretty banged up.  I still have a little road rash on the side of my leg as well.  I think I will have a couple of mean looking scars when it’s all said and done.
I had quite a few people that asked if I stopped running, and while I stopped momentarily to pick myself up and dust myself off, I continued on and we ran about 5.6 miles total.  I must say, when sweat mixes with injuries like this it stings quite a bit.

Rock n Roll Chicago

Two weekends ago I headed up to Chicago to run the Rock n Roll 1/2 marathon with one of my favorite people.  I have known Jana since 1993 when we worked as hostesses at Outback Steakhouse.  My how things have changed since then.

Jana picked me up from the airport, after a hassle free flight from OKC.  (Flying standby, as usual, and I left when I wanted to and got there when I wanted to)  We headed straight to the race expo, where we picked up our bibs and swag.  And got our picture taken. And since our guest photographer, some random guy that we asked to take our picture, was so through, he took two pics of us in front of the Rock n Roll sign.  Do I look like I got up at 4am tat morning?  I think I do.

I must say that if this tank top wasn’t so crappy and cheap looking I so would have bought it.

So then we headed to Jana’s to hang out with these cuties.  I had one glass of wine and was in bed by 8:15.  Exciting times in the windy city.

Then we were up at 5 am and headed downtown to find a parking spot that cost us $28, and head to the starting line.  It was beautiful out, it was about 65 degrees and cloudy.  It was about as close to heaven as I’ve been after running at 5 am all summer in 85 degree heat and humidity off the charts.

The race was awesome.  Jana did awesome on her first half, and we finished in 2:17.  Running through downtown Chicago was so fun, and the crowds and race support were great.

It was straight back to the airport, where I was a little smelly going through security, to catch a flight home.  I got back about 4 hours later than I would have liked, but I was back in the heat and humidity of OKC by 9 pm.  It was a whirl wind trip but a good one.

Vacation…

Oh how I miss being on vacation.  Tomorrow is the first day of August and I am stunned that the last two months have just flown by.  How I would love to be back at the beach in Ocean Isle, North Carolina.  What fun we had. 
Here’s some of the pics…
I could seriously get used to seeing this on a regular basis.  I wonder if you live close to the beach if you just take it for granted after a while.  Makes me sad to think that that might happen.


We were so happy this year that the kids loved the beach.  When we went a few years ago, we spent a lot of time at the pool.  This year the kids went to the pool that was in our neighborhood a little bit but the rest of the time they were out jumping waves or building sand castles.
It is amazing how much of the beach ends up in your bathing suit when you sit at the edge and let the waves just hit you as they come in.  Jen and I spent one afternoon being pummeled by waves.  The sand is very exfoliating when you are thrown around in it all day.
Paige and Caeli, they look a little worn out here.  Jumping waves is hard work.
Jenna, Hailey and Carson just laying around on the beach.
I can’t wait to go back.  What a great trip.

Frosting for the Cause…

On June 10th I guest posted on the Frosting for the Cause website.  I cannot say enough about how wonderful I think this project is.  It is a little late coming, but you can see my guest post here.
Go by and check out the wonderful baking that has been going on all year and the wonderful difference the women of this site have been making.

Summer Baking…

It has been pretty slow on the baking front around here.  I did whip up some cinnamon rolls while we were at the beach earlier this month for the family, but other than the usual chocolate chip cookies it’s been too hot to be in the kitchen.  I do have some cinnamon bread rising in the kitchen as I type, and I am looking forward to that.
In June, I made some cupcakes for the sweetest birthday boy.  My friend Angie’s son, Cooper, celebrated his 5th birthday and I got to make the cupcakes.  Kids and cupcakes just go together.  Chocolate with chocolate butter cream, and vanilla with vanilla butter cream.

---

Also in June I got to make cupcakes for a birthday girl.  More friends from high school, Ben and Suzan’s daughter, Hannah, celebrated her 6th birthday.  The birthday girl wanted chocolate chip with chocolate butter cream, and confetti cupcakes with green butter cream.

Flat Tires...

We got back from our trip to the beach yesterday morning at 4 am.  Traveling without the kiddos coming back made it possible for Josh and I and the in-laws to drive straight through.  We left at about 6:15 am Oklahoma time, so that's about 22 hours on the road.  It was a long day but it was so nice waking up in my own sand free bed yesterday morning at about 10.

On the way out we had a little bit of this:

That headless red shirt is Josh, the headless gray one is Jeff, Dan or Papa Dan as the kids like to call him is supervising in the white shirt, and my father-in-law aka Pop is in the green.  The car is my sister's husband's car and that would be a flat tire.  Fortunately we were close to civilization and a Sam's Club and two tires for $350.  We took all the kids from their car and headed on, and they were not the first ones to the beach house.

Then we got to have alot of this sort of thing.  Caeli, Paige, Torie, Parker, Jenna, Zoey, Cameron, Hailey, Zach, Carson and Hannah all at the beach one evening we were there.  Heaven.  These kids were FANTASTIC, it was such a fun week with all of them.

And then our trip home Saturday, we had a little of the above, a flat tire in Memphis.  I blame Josh and the scary looking gas station he stopped at.  We ran over something that put a big ole hole in one of the tires of the mini van.  The totally awesome mini van.  I am not a huge fan of Chrysler, but the Town & Country van we rented was loaded.  It had about 80 miles on it when it was picked up and had satellite radio, DVD player, leather seats and about every option you could get in a mini van except a bathroom and a refrigerator.

Luckily we were in Memphis not far from the airport when we got the flat tire and the wonderful people at Alamo switched it out for us.  We had to ride the last 500 miles without leather seats, but we suffered through.  It was quite a pain to unload all our crap, and all the extra crap we were transporting due to the lack of children, but it was worth it.  We only added a little more than an hour to our time.

So the kiddos are in Virginia at Auntie Linda's house for the week, Josh is going to pick up the doggies in Grove tonight, and my house is still clean from our cleaning lady that came the Thursday before we left.  Life is good.

I even got my baking on yesterday, a fresh loaf of bread, batch of granola, homemade biscuits for brunch, and homemade brownies for Josh and I to munch on this week.  (I didn't have enough butter for cookies and we are going to see how long we can survive without going to the store.  The dwindling supply of toilet paper might make that sooner rather than later.)