I Got In!!!!

So excited today!!! Today everyone was notified as to whether or not they got into the Nike Women's 1/2 Marathon in San Francisco.  At 5:46 am I received my email!! I am in!!!!!  I can't wait for the Tiffany pendent that is handed out at the end of the race, and by a firefighter!!!  Shaun booked our hotel for the night before, and he was able to get us a room at the Hotel Nikko!!! 

April 25, 2012, 3.22 miles, 28:28 (average per mile 8:50). Year to date 138.96miles, average time per mile 9:51.

GREAT WEEKEND!

This past weekend may have been the best one yet!

Saturday Jaylee had a gymnastics meet in Cameron Park. Her team placed 2nd, there was definitely some improvement noticed. After the meet, we went and met up with Rita and my nephew Nik, so we could get some pictures of the 3 kids together in hopes of giving my Mom a cool birthday gift. I am trying to figure out a way to give her a great birthday gift, a picture of all the grand kids together. The picture will take a lot of photoshop, and will require me to contact my step dad's kids to get pictures. This will be a chore, but I am semi up for the challenge. The pictures are also including a lot of Jacob and Nik pictures. Jacob wants a picture of him and his baseball playing cousin for his wall. Both kids were dressed in full uniform for the pictures. After pictures, Jaylee and I went to Stacey's baby shower. I had a great time chatting with people I haven't seen for awhile, and talking with Stacey, and seeing her cute little baby bump!

We came home after that for a quick minute, giving me just enough time to clean and vacuum the inside of the car, then it was off to a birthday party the kids were invited to. The party was a skating party, and I realized my kids have NEVER skated. They fell a lot, but by the end of the night Jaylee was doing really well, and Jacob was enjoying the wall, but kept on trying. I was so afraid they would break and arm, and be out of baseball or gymnastics, we decided, no skating, or trampoline parties for the kids! :) After the party, the kids were worn out, so bedtime for them, and Shaun and I were able to relax together for awhile.

Sunday morning bright and early, we were off to the Rocklin Run! I picked up Kara and Kristin, and the families met us there. The run was so great! I had a 14 second PR, and came in 3rd for my age group!!! I even received a granite rock trophy, I was thrilled! The kids ran the 1 mile kids run, and did really really good. Jacob did it in 9:11, and was so excited about beating Jaylee. Jaylee ran it with her friend Layla, and they had a decent pace, finished around the 11 minute mark. Jacob is itching to do a 5k, and I think he can probably pull it off. Next year, he will definitely do the Rocklin Run, and depending on our schedules he may do one before that also.

After the run, we had ice cream, and came home. I cleaned the house, and the kids played, and played and played! The weather was so nice, all the kids and the court were out, and they had a blast. At one point the girls were playing jump rope with the water house, then all the kids got a dodge ball game going. I felt bad making the kids come in at 7, they were having so much fun. Both of the kids told me this was the best weekend EVER!

April 15, 2012, 3.10 miles, 28:06 (average per mile 9:03). Year to date 135.74miles, average time per mile 9:52.

Preparing for the Rocklin Run

Wednesday night, Roshell and I were supposed to go for an 8 mile run. Last week I got out of running a long run with her because she got sick after dinner, this week, I was hoping for the same. My shins were killing me after running the previous 3 nights. Throughout the day Wednesday rain was coming down off and on, and she kept texting me saying, "It's not raining here" or "I've got sunshine on a cloudy day", "maybe you should try a rain dance". I replied with, I WILL be flaking on you tonight, she refused to take that. Well, my big rain dance worked, she messaged me at 6:30 saying she was at Walmart and slipped in the parking lot and hit her head on the cement. I felt really bad for her, but really happy at the same time, NO LONG RUN FOR ME! So, my rain dance gave her a bruise on her head, she is still alive though. I know her pride wasn't ruined by her fall, after all she was at Walmart :)

After her text, I felt a little bad for not running, so I set out to do a super quick run. Well quick it was, I went 3 miles with a pace of under 9 minutes! I ran the scary route that I did a few nights before, the one with the empty field that I could see myself getting hacked up in...Yep, that one. The sun had not gone down yet, so it wasn't as scary, but it did start to rain HUGE drops on me! I lived though, and added 3 more miles to my total miles!

April 11, 2012, 3.28 miles, 28:54 (average per mile 8:47). Year to date 132.64 miles, average time per mile 9:54.

Stupid Shins

Shin splints, really? I am guessing this horrific shin pain has to do with the IT Band thing, I must be running differently to compensate.

Last night Kara and I ran, we chatted away. Actually, Kara chatted away, which is kind of funny. When we first started running together she was frustrated because she couldn't find her headphones that night. I asked why she was looking for them, after all we were running together, so there was a lot of chatting that could be done, not music listening. She told me that she can't talk and run. I told her she could and she should, that way she can regulate her breathing. She didn't think she could do it, and now a few months later, she is the one chatting away, I love it! As we got closer to her house, she said, hey lets take this trail up, lets see how far we can go, I have never been able to run to the 4 mile mark. Oh, heck yes, lets do this, we will most definitely go 4 miles. It was a good thing it was dark outside, so she couldn't see how much pain I was in. My shins were burning! My shin pain was so bad that I actually ran with my compression leggings, which I never do, I usually put them on after a run. Last night it felt like they were the only thing holding my legs together.

Anyway we ran 4.11, and she was so excited, and I was thrilled for her, thrilled for us!!

Rocklin Run on Sunday!!!

April 10, 2012, 4.11 miles, 40:53 (average per mile 9:56). Year to date 129.36 miles, average time per mile 9:55.

I Registered!!!

This Sunday is the Rocklin Run, I am hoping for a PR like I had last year. I am a little concerned because of some slight shin pain, but oh well, I will get over it.

Yesterday I received an email that he Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco, opened up registration for the random draw. I had not considered running it at all, because I hate hills. Yesterday the email was nagging at me, and I decided to check to see if they had a half option. I have run 2 marathons, and I don't really feel like running another one, especially not one in San Francisco. In my research, I found that, yes there is a half option. I then decided 13.1 miles for a Tiffany Necklace, and have it handed to me by a fire fighter in a tux....YES PLEASE!! Now I am anxiously waiting to see if my name is among the 25,000 names that will be drawn after April 20th. Please please please!!

Last night I sweetly asked Shaun, "hey want to go on a short run....I will go slow for you" He answered, yes! We ran, sort of, he was super slow and wanted to walk a lot, so I walked with him. At least we were getting out, and I didn't have to run alone. We ran 2.65 miles, and walked about 1.5 miles more, but I only counted the 2.65. We completed it in 26.01, not too bad, it's a 10:34 mile. My friend Leah on Facebook, commented, oh, man, I can't imagine what you would say if I ran with you, "not pretty, because I look like I am being murdered while running" HAHA, I told her to fly out here and run with me!

The night before I ran alone, so sad, no one wanted to go with me :(. I ran a short 3.22, in 30:06, averaging 9:21 per mile time. It was a good run, nice to get out. I did make the mistake of taking a new route, part of it was on a road with nothing on it but street lights and 2 huge open fields. I got scared and pictured articles of my clothing strung out through the field after getting murdered, I won't take that route again. :)

April 8, and 9, 2012, 3.22 and 2.65 miles, 30:06 and 26:01 (average per mile 9:21, and 10:34). Year to date 125.25 miles, average time per mile 9:55.

Nice Tuesday Run

Last night Kara and I did our nice comfortable 3.1 loop. At the .25 mile mark, I noticed that we were going at a faster pace than we usually do. I can usually chat with her during a run, and not have an issue, but last night my breathing was definitely labored.

When we got back, we were still chatting away, and decided to do a half mile cool down walk. When we were done with that, we continued to chat on the porch for a few minutes. I love my Kara chat time!!!

Tonight I was supposed to do a long run with Roshelle, but something came up, so she had to cancel. Have decided yet if I will run anyway, or take a night off. We will see.

On the home front, all 3 kids left last night. The little ones went to their Dads, and Marina went to her friends house in preparation for an end of the week Tahoe trip the 2 are taking. I kind of miss those guys, but I will enjoy my kid free time while I have it!

I am missing Jacob's baseball...........I can't believe they have only had 1 of the 5 games they have had scheduled. Rain rain, stay away on Jacob's baseball game day :)

April 3, 2012, 3.10 miles, 28.53 (average per mile 9.18). Year to date 119.58 miles, average time per mile 9:55.

Anyone....Please....Someone....

Last night, I needed to run, but could not get motivated to get out there. I decided on the way home from work, to text Kara and see if she wanted to go, since we talked about getting some runs in this week, earlier in the day. She replied with saying that she couldn't go early because of the kids, so she didn't want to hold me up. I replied that I needed to go later, closer to 8, so let's do it. As the evening went on, she texted saying that she had a crazy day, and her husband would be home late, so not tonight. Ok, I though, maybe I can just sit on my comfy couch and not run as well.........but I still had the nagging I need to run feeling. I then messaged Kristin, and asked her, she very quickly replied, "can't tonight". Dang it, I need to get a run, but am WAY to lazy to do this by myself. That's when I looked up at Shaun, and he knew what I was going to ask, he sweetly said, "want me to go with you?" YES YES YES, please.

As we were getting ready to go, he remember that we forgot to return the redbox movies. I jokingly told him, hey, it's only 2.75 miles away, I can totally make it in time.......He grabbed the movies and said ok go! I went, he was somewhere behind me, but I was jamming trying to make it there before 9. Well, I didn't make it in time, I was 3 minutes late, and running by myself :). Quickly on the way back, I found Shaun, running a lot farther than I thought he would, I figured he would be sitting on the sidewalk somewhere waiting for me. We ran another 1.75 miles; he made up "a running game for slow people". It was a fun game that involved counting and running and earning points, it was fun, and it kept us going. When we got to Cheveron, he asked if I wanted an icy, I said yes, so we got icy's and walked the last mile home. I didn't count that mile in my run.

All in all it was a great run, good company on the way back and a yummy treat.
Thanks for running Shaun!!

April 2, 2012, 4.65 miles, 48:12 (average per mile 10:21). Year to date 116.48 miles, average time per mile 9:57.