Running Topless and Breaking Things

So I am a little bit behind on blogging lately, so either I need to do 4 posts in a row or just one big crazy one.  Lucky you- it is going to be one big crazy one!  So here is a run down of the last week, with lots of pictures and not very many words.

The girls had to go a second time- they didn't get soaked enough the first time I guess!

Last Wednesday Devan finally cashed in on her birthday present from her Aunt Jaime (my bff), which was a fun day/night of doing whatever she wanted to do- and she could bring a friend as well.  So Jaime, myself, Devan and her chosen friend (Kara) headed to Wild Waves for an afternoon of BFF fun!  We totally lucked out because the weather forecast was for rain, but we ended up with great weather and a fairly empty water park!  After that we headed to Southcenter for some quick shopping and then to The Cheesecake Factory for some dinner.  Good thing I had run 5 miles that morning and walked around Wild Waves for 6 hours- I think I earned half a piece of cheesecake!  Jaime and I shared the mango key lime and it was fantastic.

The girls LOVED those water slides

Those grins and sparkly eyes say it all- what a fun day!!!

The next morning I was scheduled to run 8 miles, so even though Devan had stayed the night at Jaime's I still had Niko at the house with me.  So off I trudged to the treadmill room- I put it on a 2% incline and proceeded to sweat my butt off for the next 77 minutes.  I actually took my shirt off about 15 minutes into the run just to see how it felt- pretty darn good!  Niko came in at one point and said "oh, you are sweating again" - at least he didn't tell me I should put my shirt back on haha.  Maybe my new goal should be to look good running without a shirt on in public.  I do not have proof that it doesn't look good- I just know that I am not comfortable doing that right now.  Hopefully sometime in the near future though! 

Friday I drove up to Road Runner Sports in Kent.  After searching all over at other stores for the Saucony Kinvara 2's I finally found the exact one's I wanted there.  I also bought Will a pair of New Balance Minimus Road's so he could have a second style of shoe for his running as well (he has been using the Vibram five fingers). 

Meet the newest addition to my running shoe family- the Kinvara 2!  Aren't they cute?

Saturday morning we were in the car and heading down to Eugene at 7:30am to drop the kids off with Will's mom for 8 days!  We were meeting halfway since she lives in Medford, and there are quite a few other relatives down there as well so they are in good hands.  Devan was sad to see us go, but Niko just looked at her and said "what, are you going to miss them?"  Boys and girls- so different!  It was a REALLY long day of being couped up in a car, so we were happy so go for a run when we got back home (11 hours later)! 

We both put on our new running shoes and headed out for an awesome 7 miler over the Narrows Bridge around 6:45pm.  I wanted to run together so I had to slow my pace quite a bit, which felt strange!  I used the time to focus on my form (especially in the new shoes) and also to help Will with his.  He was running on his tip toes and looked like a total goof- and yes, I told him that!  The way he was striding just seemed to be using so much unnecessary energy.  It looked a bit better towards the end of the run.  It is nice having a running partner though, and it was perfect after such a long drive.

This week has been strange without the kids in the house.  I have been able to do all of my runs outside which is nice- and also at whatever time I feel like going!  I ran for the second time in my Kinvara's today (my last training run before Ragnar) and I think they are going to be great shoes.  The heel drop in them is only 4mm so it is exactly the same as the NB Minimus Roads I am used to, the only difference is there is a bit more cushioning in them.  I am hoping this doesn't start to bother my knees, but at the first sign I will definitely stop wearing them.

Our team logo Mandy created.  We are getting tech shirts with this on them to wear!  I think it turned out great, thanks Mandy!

Tomorrow we will head up to Blaine to prepare for the Ragnar Relay on Friday morning!  Our team name is "How the West Was Run" and our assigned start time is 6:30am.  I am really excited- this is going to be such a fun experience!  I made some muffins this morning as well as another batch of pb protein bars.  We have purchased lots of crazy things like cowboy hats, pom poms and noise makers to cheer our teammates on, and aside from packing I think we are READY!  If you are on facebook and would like to track the progress/craziness of our team head to our team page and hit "like"!
How the west was run- ragnar relay northwest passage facebook page

Our Ragnar Van- thanks Ray for letting us borrow it.  Hopefully we won't stink it up too much :)

I made the protein bars in my mini muffin pans this time- 42 of them, each at 150 calories/7 grams of protein/15 grams of carbs- and no cutting required!!!

Oh, and I almost forgot.  Guess what I did on Sunday afternoon????  I broke something rather important- I know I did it because the kids are gone so I can't blame them :)  I set my laptop on the arm of the couch and it slid right over the edge and landed with a thud.  Here is the result: 

That is my Garmin USB ANT plug that transfers data from my Garmin to the computer.  OOPS!  So $36 later Amazon is shipping me a new one.  Lovely.

Three Things Thursday

1.  Last weekend I played in a soccer tournament with Comeback Sports out at Chamber's Bay.  Although technically I have never played outdoor soccer, so that whole "comeback" business doesn't really apply to me.  Anyways...the team was mostly made up of our indoor soccer team, with a few friends added in.  I believe there was 13 or 14 of us.  We played in the "rookie" league- but either we are REALLY bad at soccer or the teams we played against miscalculated their abilities. 

The rules in outdoor soccer are quite different from indoor, so it took me a little while to get the hang of it.  I think I prefer indoor just because it seems to be a more intimate game.  I didn't really like playing with so many people out on the field, and how spread out we all were.  Plus all of the extra rules seemed confusing to me.  Maybe if I played it a few more times I would learn to like it.  For now- indoor please!  I had a lot of fun though, and the weather was beautiful and sunny.   Oh, and I am pretty sure I saw a guy wearing these purple Run Love compression socks on the field.  He looked cute in them :) 

2.  AFTER the two soccer games last Saturday, Will and I were signed up to run the Top to Bottom 5K race through Metro Parks.  The soccer games were at 11am and 3pm, our race was at 7pm- good Ragnar training!  This would be Will's first chip timed event and I thought it would be a fun race that we could do together.  We arrived at Mckinley Park and got our racing bibs and free water bottle, then decided to use the restroom before the race.  There was only 1 functional toilet at the park so that took quite a while!  I noticed people setting up our race course while we were waiting and I remember thinking to myself that seemed odd. 

Ready to race!

Anyways, we lined up and the race announcer told us the course- go up there, turn around, go this way, around here...blah blah blah.  I was glad I wouldn't be in the front because it sounded confusing!  The gun sounded and we set off down the hill, then back up.  It was a REALLY hilly course, but I figured for 3 miles I could keep up a pretty decent pace so I just pushed myself.  It probably would have been much easier to do that if I hadn't played 2 soccer games earlier in the day!  All of a sudden we were running down the hill towards where we started and the people were shouting to just go down around the corner to the finish line.  I checked my garmin and we were only around 2 miles!  So I sprinted towards the finish line (on grass) and I could feel somebody right behind me on my heels.  I didn't want to get passed but then this guy was right next to me (he was about a foot taller than me!) and he says "Let's GO!" and we raced to the finish.  He beat me by a hair, but his legs were twice as long as mine!  Fun race, not a 5K though!  I think it was about 2 miles.  They posted our results and I was the 33rd person in out of 160, and Will was 54th.  The times they posted do not make sense to me at all.  Oh well.  After the race we headed up to the Top of Tacoma bar and had some beer and nachos.  Fun, exhausting day!

Will- DONE!

Me- DONE!

We earned some nachos and tasty beverages for sure!

3.  I made peanut butter protein bars created by Jess from blonde ponytail last week.  They turned out really good, she brought us one at the bloggy dinner last month at the Spaghetti Factory and I knew I would have to make them myself!  There are only 4 ingredients in them!  So easy.  I used chocolate protein powder because that is what we always have at the house, but you could probably use whatever flavor you prefer.  I am a little obsessive about calories and nutrition so I calculated mine out- I cut them into 30 bars and each one has approximately 200 calories, 9.5 grams of protein and 22 carbs.  You can get the recipe here!

Wordless Wednesday

Toenails are for sissies!

I have been waiting for that bad boy to fall off all week.  And yes- I need a pedicure. 
Any volunteers?  haha.

Playing Catch Up

Owen's Beach at Point Defiance Park.  Mt Rainier in the far background.

Life has gotten a tad bit busy lately, so here is a quick run down of a few happenings last week!  Since I had raced on Monday at the mud run, and we had some awesome sunshine on Tuesday (July 5th) I decided to take the kids down to Owen's Beach to run around while I absorbed some Vitamin D.  It was beautiful down there with tons of boats and an awesome view of Mt. Rainier!  I love being so close to parks like these.

Niko doing "boy" things

Fun activities happening out in the water!

Devan taking a stroll down the beach. 

On Thursday I was scheduled to do two separate 3 mile runs.  I really wanted to get one night time run in before the Ragnar Relay next week, so I decided to save one of the runs for after I got off of work at 10pm.  My hubby was a tad nervous about me running alone at night so I invited him along and he took me up on the offer.  His cousin has been staying at our house so he sat home with the kids (who were in bed) and we set off on our "running date".  It was a beautiful, although windy, night- the moon was out and I really enjoyed the dark, quiet of the evening.  And I was also glad he was geared up and ready to go when I got home from work, or else I may have decided to hit those 3 miles the next morning :)

Ready for a night time "run date" with my hubby!

That's all I have time for right now- next up:  a soccer tournament and "5K" report! 

JBLM Down and Dirty 8K Mud Run

Tennis anyone???   

Monday morning we headed out nice and early for the JBLM Down and Dirty 8K Mud Run held on Fort Lewis, which started at 9am.  We met up with Ray, Betsy, their daughter Kara and my BFF Jaime and got to the race starting area really early for a change!  So we were able to wander around, check out the course map, take some photos and use the restrooms.

Our course map- slightly altered from last year

This is a very family friendly event and there were lots of kids running, however I was still a bit nervous about how Devan would do.  She has been running a lot lately, especially when Will and I have been training down on the track.  She probably ran 3 miles at least last Wednesday when I did my 5 miler down there, so I was hoping she had the endurance built up. 

Me, Will, Jaime, Betsy, Kara and Devan.  Ray is the photographer and shadow person.

Either way, she was determined and extremely excited to be running the race, so who was I to discourage her???  Here is an example of her excitement pouring out before the race started-

Once the gun sounded we were off running.  The sun was out and the temperature felt great the entire way.  I ran with Will the whole race- although sometimes I made him chase me a bit!  He had this grand idea he could actually beat me and wanted to place a bet on it.  He finally admitted around mile 3 or so that he definitely would have lost that wager!  The obstacles were fun- we jumped over logs, through tires, climbed fences, army crawled under things and went up and down plenty of steep hills.  Finally with about 1/2 mile to go we hit the first mud pit, then waded through waist deep water.  As soon as we came out of the water I just sprinted towards the finish- I can't help but finish strong!  The very last obstacle is to army crawl through a long pit of mucky mud.  SO FUN!!!  I finished in 54 minutes and Will finished in 55.

After Will finished we walked back to the car to grab our camera so we could take pictures of the others finishing.  On our way we saw Ray, Devan and Kara coming down the hill- they only had about 1 mile left and they were all smiles!  That made me feel better, knowing they were having fun and had the best part of the race still ahead of them.  Will and I snapped a few photos of each other then went to watch the others crawl through the mud pit.

The best part was hearing how much fun everyone had.  Betsy had so much fun she was ready to run it again!  How awesome to have friends come run a race with you and actually enjoy themselves and possibly be inspired to start running and doing races? 

Devan, Ray and Kara in the last mud pit

Jaime sighting!

Love this picture of Betsy- she is having a blast!

And to see my daughters face so happy and proud of herself for such an awesome accomplishment is priceless.  She absolutely amazed me that day- she ran 5 miles of trails, hills and obstacles in 1:10 minutes.  She rocks!

Priceless

Jaime in the last mud pit.  Devan and Kara went through again!

Makes you want to go play in the mud right????  And guess what- my outfit washed up perfectly.  I could not believe my eyes, but that white skirt looks brand new. 

Boop-oop-a-doop!  What mud run???

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!

Hope everyone has a safe and fun 4th of July!  We started off our day with the JBLM Down and Dirty 8K Mud Run out on Fort Lewis.  What a blast!

The crew before:

Me, Will, Jaime, Betsy, Kara and Devan (Ray taking the picture)

The crew after:

Will, Jaime, me, Betsy, Ray.  Devan and Kara in front.

Seattle Rock and Roll Half Marathon Recap

Our beautiful-and heavy-medal!

Wow!  Where to begin?  I guess I will start with Friday- the whole family (myself, the hubby and both kids) headed up to Qwest Field to check out the Seattle RnR race expo and meet up with the lady whose race bib I would be using.  We met Cynthia and Gene up there as well and wandered around in runner's paradise checking out all of the fabulous vendors.  It was honestly the best race expo I have ever been to- I could have stayed there all day long.  I ended up buying a sparkle headband, a tshirt and a spibelt.  We took some fun pictures, I got my race packet from the Craig's list lady and we headed to Pyramid to have some lunch.

Me in runner's paradise.  I will take one of everything please!

Cynthia and I- you know you want our autographs!

Already scoping out our next race!

After lunch Cynthia and I headed back to Tacoma so she could get her shirt from the group "wear blue-run to remember".  Traffic was a nightmare though so we had to immediately head straight back up to The Spaghetti Factory in Tukwila to attend a dinner organized by a local runner/blogger known as Tall Mom.  She invited bloggers near and far to come hang out, carb load and have a chance to get to know one another in person.  I had a really good time and it was nice to meet a lot of new people, especially local runners!  We each had a name tag and a little trading card with our name and blog title on it, and even got some little take home gifts compliments of online shoes, nuun, and Gu!  Thanks for a fun night Mel!

Our fun trading cards Zoe made!

By the time I got back home to Tacoma it was getting pretty late.  I hadn't really put too much thought into my outfit and still needed to organize all the race "stuff" so I ended up getting to bed around 11:30.  Oops!  The race started in Seattle at 7am!  Good training for the Ragnar Relay next month right- running while tired!!  Haha.  Anyways, I woke up at 4:45am and planned to be out the door at 5:45am.  I hopped in the shower, got dressed then ate a Cliff Bar with some peanut butter.  I was going to eat the banana on the way up to the race, and I decided to skip the coffee and just opt for energy chomps/gels with caffeine.  I had no clue what the port o potty situation was going to be and the less bathroom stops I required the better!

Getting my gear ready!

I decided to be colorful! 

I then had the rare yet fantastic opportunity to wake up my children.  Yes, its true- I enjoy waking them up since they so regularly do it to me!  It was extremely early for them but like true early risers it took all of about 60 seconds and they were both wide awake.  The entire household was ready to head out the door by 5:50am, some sort of miracle if you ask me!  I soon discovered that was not nearly enough time!  It takes about 25 minutes to get to Tukwila from our house, however traffic was backed up so badly that I ended up getting out of the car and walking a good mile to the starting line.  I stopped and used the bathroom inside Lucky Casino (they were sooo nice letting tons of runners use the facilities there!) and hustled to the starting line.  I knew that my corral had already been released before I arrived so I did not get a chance to run with Cynthia or even get any pre-race photos.  Bummer!

I walked right up to the starting line and joined the 25th wave of runners to be released (there were 40 corrals).  The only problem was that the pace of this group was quite a bit slower than I prefer and I had to do A LOT of dodging and fancy footwork to get myself into my racing pace!  I was carrying my own water and the only way I was stopping to take a bathroom break was if the alternative was to have an accident.  You know what I am talking about.  Anyways, I was hoping to get somewhere between 2:05 and 2:10 because I know I am more than capable of that if I pushed myself and eliminated the messing around at water stops and port o potties.  Here is the quick and dirty run down of my miles:

Mile 1- 9:42 -It is all a blur, literally, of me dodging around/between/through/on the side of the sea of people in front of me!
Mile 2- 9:07- Finally got through most of the crowds and found a good pace.  Apparently Will and the kids were near here but I had no idea so I didn't see them!  Darn!

I had no clue Will and the kids were here.  I was too focused on passing people on that hill!

Mile 3- 9:21- A bit of a hill here, otherwise I only remember crossing the 5K line!
Mile 4- 9:15- Saw a guy running barefoot.  He had a lot of band aids on his toes and Vibrams hooked onto his waist somehow.  My first official "barefoot" sighting in a race!
Mile 5- 9:34- Started to feel sluggish and like I wanted a gel- but I was trying to hold out for mile 7 where they were handing them out.
Mile 6- 9:29- Just taking in the sights.  And smells.  I have never had to move away from so many stinky people before during a race!  It's called deodorant runner friends.  Please use it!!!  I also was fascinated by the number of people wearing Vibram Five Fingers.  I saw 2 girls running together and the back of their shirts said "Call me a prude, but I am only going half way" and it made me giggle. 

My cheerleaders.  Devan made that sign for me, she is swesome.

Mile 7- 9:57- I couldn't wait any longer so I stepped off into the grass and grabbed my gel out of my spibelt right in the beginning of mile 7.  My phone was also in there so I didn't want to take a chance of it flinging out if I tried to do it while still running.  I need to get faster about taking gels while running!  I felt better after my gel and this was also the area dedicated to the group "wear blue-run to remember" that Cynthia was running with.  There were flags lining the course and a dedication to our fallen soldiers.  It was beautiful and made me tear up a bit.  Cynthia wrote a wonderful blog post with some fantastic pictures, you can read it here if you would like. 
Mile 8- 9:28- I remember thinking to myself "wow, only 5 more miles.  I am almost done!" and being very happy to only be running the half marathon. 
Mile 9- 9:56- I think this is the mile where we went through the tunnel.  I was not a fan of the tunnel, it was stinky, dark, echoey, hot and I could not get out of there fast enough!  My pace was slow because right at the very end of mile 9 I took my second gel and took a cup of accelerade from a station.
Mile 10- 9:19- Just running.  I have no memory of mile 10!
Mile 11- 9:50- I think this is the mile we went up a pretty steep little hill and everyone was all bunched up.  I tagged onto some guy zigzagging his way through and tried my best to keep my pace up.  I believe it was also around this point I realized we were suddenly downtown Seattle!
Mile 12- 9:08- I realized if I pushed it the last couple of miles I would beat my goal of 2:05!  All of a sudden I was surrounded by a sea of people wearing green aprons- Starbucks was volunteering at one water station!  I got really excited and felt like I was surrounded by "my people" for a minute.  I also turned my ipod completely off at this point, I wanted to take in the sounds of the finishing area.
Mile 13- 9:03- As we were running on the overpass suddenly I see a man sitting on the ground and two women are asking people if anyone has any water.  I had maybe an ounce or 2 in my water bottle so I start to slow down (kissing my 2:05 finish good bye) so I can offer it to them, but thankfully a guy right in front of me had a bottle nearly full and he stopped to help.  I hope that he was ok.  Anyways, I just kept pushing myself as fast as I could go.
Mile .1- 7:47- That's pretty fast!  I finally had the presence of mind to do a finish pose with my arms up AND stop my garmin right away.  It was 3 seconds off of my chip time.  Which was 2:04:18 by the way!  9 1/2 minutes faster than my previous PR for a half marathon!!!  

After crossing the finish line I got my awesome medal, grabbed some water, a banana, a bagel and a cytomax and wandered over to the family area.  My hands were completely full so I couldn't grab my phone out.  I stopped really quick to say hi to some of the blogger ladies, then headed to the letter H, assuming the family would be there waiting for me.  Nope.  So I set my stuff down and dug my phone out to give them a call.  They said they would be right there.  I ate my banana and about half of the bagel.  There was not a garbage can to be found- what was that all about?  Finally after about 10 minutes I couldn't stand it any more and go wander around to find a trash so I can free up my hands.  My spibelt turned out to be pretty handy, I fit my ipod in it and hooked my water bottle onto it.  Love that thing!

Done!  Not sure what is up with my hair! 

 BRF's together again!

Finally Will and the kids arrive, about 40 minutes after I crossed the finish line!  We went and sat down and waited for Cynthia to finish the full marathon.  Also they were presenting the awards to the winners and the band Everclear was playing.  It was a pretty cool atmosphere to hang out in.  After we met up with Cynthia we decided to go grab some lunch in Southcenter and headed to The Cheesecake Factory. 

Our tradition- DESSERT! 

Overall, I had a wonderful time at this race.  I don't remember too much of the course, but I think that is because I was too focused on my pace and staying in tune with my body.  I am super happy with my time, I kind of feel a bit of redemption after my marathon time.  I needed that boost, and I also think training for a full marathon makes running a half marathon feel easy.  I am fairly confident that I will be able to run a sub 2 hour half marathon this fall!  After all, a half marathon is just a 5K race with a 10 mile warm up (I saw that on a billboard at the race expo)!  Love it.