This Is Me

I stole this picture from Heather at Run Faster, Mommy! I'm pretty sure that when I have some extra money laying around I'll get it made into a t-shirt. My family and friends love me, but this is usually how our conversations go!

How Far Will I Have To Drive?

It's only playing for 1 day in the States (1 January 2011). If any one is in Washington and lives north of Seattle - the closer to the border the better - please request that they bring it to your city! I want to come! This relay is definitely going on my "someday when I don't have kids at home" list!

Hood To Coast Movie Trailer from HoodToCoastMovie on Vimeo.

Three Things Thursday

#1. I have run 3 times this week! Yay me! It doesn't sound like a big deal, but two of these runs have been just me and Spud. This is the first time (ever) that I've gone out with him in the stroller and not had Colin with us. I kind of thought that it would be really hard to push the stroller just by myself, but it's not that bad. Colin can't do it anymore anyways since it hurts his knee so I might as well get used to doing it!

#2. I went for an 11km run yesterday. I asked Spud if he was okay to not go out on a run. And in his honest 3 year old way he said, "No." So out we went. I'm glad that we did - it was sunny (today is not) and he had a bit of a nap.

#3. The downside to #2 is that when we got home from our run Spud was really tired and complaining of a headache. He also said that he wasn't hungry/full even though he'd barely eaten. I kind of shrugged it off (stupid!) and paid for it later. I thought maybe he just needed to sleep a little longer, but he was actually sick. He got sick all over our couch/floor/Colin right before we were supposed to sit down for dinner. So dinner got pushed back (chicken was still on turned off barbecue - worst dinner ever 1/2 hour later) while we cleaned up. We had to rinse our cushions in the tub so I had to bathe Spud in the kitchen sink. It made for a very interesting evening and a long night (he wanted to sleep on the couch at 1am - fine, whatever's easiest - and eat at 2am). There will be no run today!

Randomness...

A. Sometimes the whole concept of social media kind of freaks me out. I commented on a question Nathan Hydration posted on facebook today (since I already won a handheld I doubt that I'll win a belt, but I digress). All well and good except that out of about a dozen comments I saw that two were by other runner bloggers. And they were under their real names so what I recognized was their pictures/first names. It makes the world seem like a very small place.*

B. You know you're a runner when:

• Joining Marathon Maniacs seems like a good idea.
• You think that running 2 marathons in 2 days seems like an okay way to get the membership. Not the easiest, but maybe feasible?
• You'd be willing to run 2 in 2 days if you had the money.
• You are trying to figure out how to get said money...
• You ask if anyone wants to fund your quest (hehe) - any one crazy enough for 1 May in Vancouver and 2 May in Eugene? The first run would be a PR, but the second almost a certain PW! That's a long drive...

I'm not that serious about the above list (unless someone really does want to pay!)... it'll go on my bucket list. I'll just aim for a new PR.

* It's definitely one of the reasons all my privacy settings are up to date!

So I Went For A Run...

Thanks to Andrew's very blunt "get off your butt" comment on my earlier post Spud and I went out for a run this afternoon. It was great! Now, obviously, it's in the eye of the beholder. I'm pretty sure all the people in their cars and under their umbrellas were looking at us like we were crazy. There was probably some pity thrown my way as well. That's because it was raining (alternating between downpour and drizzle) and windy. At some points it looked like the stroller was trying to take off.

Things I learned (or remembered) on this run:

• Running in the rain is fine. It's not my favourite, but I trained for my first half marathon at this time last year and it wasn't a problem.
• Running during the day is so nice. I don't have to have lights and reflectors. I can run by myself. I'm 95% sure that drivers see me when I'm crossing the street - though there were a few that looked surprised that I was in the crosswalk.
• Spud likes the stroller. He did his warm-up stretches and run before we left the house.
• Spud likes the rain! As in there was no way the rain cover was going on. We have a water resistant blanket that he'll deign to put on, but that was it. For the first while he didn't even want to have the pull down cover over his head. He's 3 so I pick my battles. If I get to run he can get soaked if he wants to...
• Stroller time = nap time! Yay! I think he only slept for about 20 minutes, but since he was up at 6am that's fine with me.
• One 37lb 3 year old + one 25lb BOB Revolution stroller = 62lbs to push up hills. I felt quite justified in walking up the second half of the hill to the overpass. And then I got a bit of a break so we could watch the trains in the yard underneath.

Rockin' the drowned rat look!

Totals for the run: 6.25km in 44:52. Not a record by any means, but I definitely had a better run than expected. Now I just have to do this 3 more times this week!

Winning Stuff Makes Up For A Running Slump, Right?

So this last week has been a good week for me in the world of blog contests! As posted last Tuesday I won a Road ID certificate. I promptly "spent" it on new wristbands for me and Colin as well as a pair of reflective laces for each of us.

When I posted about that win Zaneta commented to let me know that I had won her contest. Here's what I'm going to be getting in the mail soon! I'm very excited! I have never tried the Tri-berry GU and the chocolate ones look like they'll be fantastic. I actually already have a water bottle like this one, but it's over a year old and is due for replacement. Besides, the blue is far prettier than my black one!

Today's good news was that I checked back on a Facebook contest that I entered and found out that I had won that too! I get a Nathan Hydration Quickdraw Plus water bottle. At 22 oz. it's bigger than the one above (10 oz.). It should be perfect for my runs that are about 10km long. Another reason I like it is that it should fit in the cup holder on Spud's stroller. Right now we just chuck a Nalgene underneath, but it's really inconvenient to stop and take a drink. I've seen lots of other bloggers with this bottle and they all seem to love it so I'm pretty happy. I chose the green because I figured Colin might want to use it too (the teal was getting a little girly).

I'm really hoping that all this new gear is going to get me off my butt and out the door! Since the marathon I've run a whopping two times. Yup, that's twice in two weeks. Bah! I don't know if it's because I don't have the accountability of a clinic right now or if I'm burned out or what. Probably a little bit of both as well as the typical crappy Vancouver rain has shown up again for fall so my motivation is pretty low. I have a lofty goal list of working my way up to 4 days/week and 2-3 days of core work/week before the end of December. So far it's looking like that might start in November instead. Thankfully I have a couple of awesome running friends from my marathon clinic that are interested in fairly regular runs so that should help me out some. We're going for our first run tomorrow night and it'll be nice to have to honour that commitment.

Race Recap - Running Diva Mom's 10/10/10 10K Virtual Race

Running Diva Mom put out a challenge to do a virtual 10K run on 10 October. Now, as you know, I was running my marathon that day. So I said that I would do four 10km runs. Here are the results from my Polar HRM:

10km #1 - 1:01:55

10km #2 - 1:03:54 (20km - 2:05:49)

10km #3 - 1:12:58 (30km - 3:18:47)

10km #4 - 1:23:55 (40km - 4:42:42)

My first 10km was my best! Keep in mind that I wasn't actually going out to do a 10km race... I guess what this challenge shows me is that I have to work really hard next marathon to achieve negative splits! I really need to do a 10km race so that I know how fast I can actually go!