May Mileage and Memorial Pics

103.36 Not bad except that 26.2 of those happened on the same day….HA!


After my 6 mile run yesterday…I think I reached a decision about Lighthouse…and that is to do the 4 mile race and do it barefoot. And maybe…just maybe…I’ll have an enjoyable race.  Here are a couple of pics from my early morning Memorial Day run...I really need to get back into morning running....soo peaceful.

First 4 miles on these.

Pike River Path greening up for summer.

Last two miles in these.

My 7 dollar Walmart water shoes...not bad at all for running.

Gorgeous right?  I think I want to buy the place.

So Dom and I ran 2 miles down by the lake tonight. I got a text from him at work today asking me if we could run together tonight. How could I pass that up? My boys are both coming to the point where spending time with their parents is a requirement…not something they WANT to do. So needless to say I jumped at the chance.   It was hot but he held up like a trooper and we both ran without shoes.  Brian also came with us and I think his tongue was hanging almost to the ground.

In yoga news…I have my second class tomorrow night. Skip and I are ditching date night for golf and yoga respectively. If I like this class, they do offer it on Monday night and that’s when I’ll take it. I’m going to bring my new purple mat…love that thing.

What's your favorite time of day to run?  Do you mind the heat?

In Regards to Lighthouse

Today…I don’t even want to do it. I still haven’t signed up…..I wanted to wait and see how yesterdays 10 mile run turned out but instead of lacing up and doing that 10….I went out and ran 3.6 barefoot instead.


This morning I lay in bed trying to find any excuse NOT to get my lazy ass out of bed and do this run. And if I had to do it….I wanted it to be a good one. Long story short…it wasn’t. I called Skip at 3.5 miles to come get me…I don’t do that. But if he’d answered….I would have totally had him come. My shins were cramping and I was just tired. I wore my Mizunos….I haven’t even had them on since my marathon. I hated this run. I was on pace for 3 miles…and then dropped by over a minute a mile. No juice.

So where does this leave me? Lighthouse has a 10 mile run and a 4 mile. I know I could be ready to do the 4 mile run barefoot by then…I have several weeks. I want that 10 mile run bad….especially after last years bonk…but I’m wondering if it’s not too close to my marathon to be able to pull a decent time. And lord knows I don’t want a repeat of last year.

Maybe I can’t be a hybrid runner…because it seems like the only time I enjoy running is when it’s with nothing on my feet. And who the hell says I HAVE to do the 10 mile at Lighthouse? Why am I killing myself with these 10 mile runs when they’re not FUN right now? Is someone holding a gun to my head? No one but myself. Am I elite runner who has sponsors that will string me up if I don’t perform up to snuff…..ha ha ha ….hell no.

Enough with this bullshit…I decide to decide another day. That 10 mile run is done…my only job now is to enjoy my weekend. I hope you are as well.

First Yoga Class

So in order to avoid doing a 10 mile run in the rain I decided to try that yoga studio that Skip got me a gift certificate to downtown. I got online to check the class schedule and saw that they had Yoga 1 at 9 and Yoga 2-3 at 10:30. I had no idea what to take and ended up calling and speaking with the owner who suggested I take the 9 o’clock class and see what I thought. I told her I’d been doing it for a few months at home but like gym rats…she didn’t seem to put much stock in ‘at home’ stuff. Of course I could be wrong but that’s how it seemed. So I pack my gym bag because I still planned to run when I was done…and headed downtown.



The studio is gorgeous..and the owner was totally friendly as was everyone else. A lovely lady showed me where to put my things and took me into a big room and got me my ‘stuff’. Now at home..I’d never even used a mat..let alone a block, pillow, blanket and some kind of belt thing. I didn’t end up using anything but the mat and the block. I sat down on my mat and waited. I have NEVER taken a class before…and didn’t really know what to expect….but was pleasantly surprised. It was peaceful…no where near challenging enough…but perfect for getting my feet wet…she told me that I definitely needed to be in at least Yoga 1-2 which I am going to try this coming Wednesday night. It was sort of strange to be in a room full of people doing exactly what I was doing…..but not in a bad way. I’m going to purchase a summer pass and try to go once a week. Today I was totally sore but I don’t know if that was from the yoga…or the killer hill repeats I treated myself to after doing yoga for 1.5 hours. Probably a little of both.


Now I want to address something that’s been bothering me a bit and that I’m sure my parents will start on shortly…and that is the spiritual part of the Yoga practice. Yoga is ancient and no one really knows how it began…and the spirituality of yoga is all fine and good and should be respected and taken seriously…but that has nothing to do with me and what I am getting out of it. I am a Christian…I have no interest in being one with anyone or anything except God and occasionally Skip. It’s like my running in that I am exercising…in a fashion that I find palatable..and even like sometimes. But when it comes down to it…all it is is my feet hitting the ground. But it is incredible to take a step down..and relax..and enjoy something different.


Now instead of sleeping in on a Saturday morning…I plan on hammering out the 10 miler I avoided on Thursday. I have yet to sign up for Lighthouse…not sure what is up with that. I have the filled out registration form with check sitting on the counter waiting to be mailed. Maybe I will tomorrow.

Turtles, Trails and Birthdays

Sunday Lori and I drove down to the Des Plains River Path in Illinois. Lori had spotted it at some time or another and really wanted to check it out and I’m always game for a change of scenery. She wanted to do 10 and that sounded fine even though I’d already done a 10 that week. I got that tattoo on Thursday and wasn’t even supposed to have shoes on but I covered it with A*D ointment and some no-stick gauze and off we went. I decided to attempt to do this run in the Frees trying to keep in moving to the straight minimal/barefoot running…and I did. My calves and feet are getting less sore and I feel like this is going smoothly.

It was a beautiful trail and the sun was out…perfect. The miles clicked away and we did an out and back of 5 miles and crossed one road…awesome! On the way back we saw this guy…who after showing the pics to Dr. Foster he informed me that he was probably a she and she was looking for a place to nest.

I wasn't getting my foot much closer then that.

It was covered in moss slime and had a snail attached to it's shell!

Yesterday was yoga and also my 35th birthday…both were good. I am only 5 years away from 40…and though that sounds weird…I’m excited to be that age…..looking forward to it the same way I did to 30. Today I got off early and headed over to Lake Andrea for 5 miles. I did the first 2.25 in a pair of MaryJane looking water shoes that I bought at Wal-Mart for 7 bucks. I wanted to try what a truly minimal shoe may feel like before dropping bones on something I hate like the Frees. They were really good..I could feel the ground and my heels were flat to it with there still being something between me and the earth. I will keep using them till I can do my entire shorter runs…6 miles or less…truly barefoot. Right now I’m back up to 3 miles completely nekkid. Good stuff. My feet feel strong but even with the gravel marching I did all winter..my soles need more toughening I guess. I am undecided what to wear for my long run this Thursday….stick with the Frees….go with the water shoes…or with my trusty Mizunos.


Anywho….Vincent has his last concert of the year tonight…ohh…I never mentioned he is a musical genius as well as a running prodigy? Football…ugg.

Ruud Rush 5K

~Spectator Style ~

The boys both decided to do this one. After missing his race he’d trained for the end of April Dom had sort of lost steam with his training. He had not run in almost a week and was trying to get out of it Friday night. I knew it was just nerves so I told him we would head over there in the morning…and if he felt like running…do it…if he didn’t…I wasn’t going to make him. I also told him that I would NEVER set him up to fail…and I wouldn’t let him race if I didn’t KNOW he was ready.



So we got up and headed over on the all of 5 minute drive. It was cool…just the three of us….like it was BEFORE Skip and BEFORE Tate. Like it would have been if Skip and I had never met…that part I don’t like.

We got there and I was amazed how big a set up they had. I knew T was going to be BUMMIN because they had tons of kids activities including but not limited to…a bounce house, cookie decorating, coloring, planting sunflowers. How cool. Lori my running buddy and her husband Mike were also running this one and we ran into them right away. Gave Lori the massage coupons out of the boys goodie bag. Dom thought he could use a massage but I told him he had a good 10 years before he needed a massage. So they got their bags…got bibbed…and were ready. Dom was nervous…Vincent didn’t really have any expectations. V had done NO training and this race was like triple the size of his last couple. Why did I let him run it? Dunno….I kinda blow like the wind sometimes….and I was morbidly curious to see what would happen to him and his time….sick…I know.

So we head over to the start. I had Dom go over by Lori and told V to get up front. They sang the national anthem and I was so pleased to see V with his hand over his heart when NO one around him did it. I went over in front of the start line….interesting to be on the other side…the gun went off and they were gone. I saw Vincent pass…but never did see Dom again till he was almost done.


The cool thing about watching a 5K that you know a number of people participating in, is that there’s not a whole lot of waiting around…especially when you have a fairly fast kid out there. I went to the bathroom….walked around a little bit…and before I knew it 14 minutes had went by and I headed out towards the 3 mile mark. Much to my surprise…..like you could have knocked me over with a feather surprise…the first runner was coming. He finished in a little over 15 minutes….Holy shit.

Sixteen minutes ticked by..and 17…and 18…and 19…and 20. Now I was kind of starting to worry. I didn’t even see Vincent. His last 5K was 21 minutes flat…and that was with some training….but I also know he’d gotten his mile time down around 5 minutes…but then again that’s gym class….and 1 mile is way different then 3.1 miles. Finally I spot him…my heart is in my throat. It’s what he’s meant for and it emotionally crushes me to watch him run….breaks my heart in the very best and worst ways. He hit’s the 3 miles mark and just GOES…passes every other runner on that stretch and crosses in 21:52.  His best? Heck no. But the only running that kid has done in the last year is 2 miles with me at my marathon two weeks ago….and a handful of little runs since this time LAST year. And he talks to me about football…ugg. He ended up taking 3rd for his age group of 15-19 year olds. And I realized something today..every race he’s done in the last 2.5 years he has either WON or placed in his age group. Makes me want to beat my head against a wall.


My neighbor Mike came in next followed closely by Lori who missed her goal time by 3 seconds but still a PR for this distance.

And now I wait. I wasn’t really sure what kind of time Dominic would run. From looking at his training runs on my Garmin I figured he’d be right around 12 minute miles…which would put him coming in around 36 minutes…plus change…maybe. So V and I headed back to the 3 mile marker again and watched for him. When we saw him I told V to stay and run him in…but to stay off the course…and I waited near the finish. So he runs in…RED as a freakin Tomato!! Looking like he is about to TOSS some cookies….crosses the finish at 36:02 and HURLS! Outstanding!! By the time I make it over to him he hurls AGAIN and the first aid people are huddling around him and he’s sitting on the ground. My boy…I always tell them it’s not a race till somebody pukes..and Dominic helped me out by doing just that.

We stayed for the awards. I figured V had placed but not taken his age group and I wanted him to have his medal. It was an awesome race for an awesome cause and VERY well put together. I could not have been more proud of my boys….they both put their BEST out there….one very prepared…one completely unprepared…which shows you the unfairness of running..LOL. Dominic crossed his first finish line as an official race participant and I knew I’d done the right thing when I see this posted on Facebook later….

• Dominic **cs
Ran my fist 5k today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i got 36 min which was my exact goal so i am very happy got a shirt and band and me and Vincent the cleptos we are stole a bunch of the freee stuff lol

Please ignore my child’s atrocious grammar….Dom…you can’t steal stuff that’s free.


And for your viewing pleasure…since I gave my marathon medal away…I got a little something to keep for my marathon.

Have a great weekend! and Yeah...it hurt

Let’s Talk Ex’s and a Few Pics

Because my run really sucked today….HA!

As many of you know…Sunday was my parents 40th anniversary party. It went off without a hitch…good time was had by all…..including my ex-husband who had a very special personal invitation by my mother. Adam and I have known each other for almost 20 years…and since we divorced many many moons ago….we have become good friends as well as parents to our two boys. This was not always the case…..but we always managed to present a united front to our kids….never let them play one against the other…and managed to never say bad things about the other. This took A LOT of doing…especially on my part due to this and that. But he is like my dad in many ways…I don’t necessarily want him in the day to day business….but he’s always got my back and is really good at the bad stuff.

How does Skip feel about this you ask? Or not? He could give a shit less. He talks to Adam more then I do. They have wayyy more in common then a wife/ex-wife and kids/step kids…they both love the Green Bay Packers, sports, smoking, camping…etc. They watched the Super Bowl together and countless other games over the years. They respect each other…and are friends.


Which goes to show….even when things end badly….you can act like grown-ups…and come out way better for it.

Isn't this a riot?  If I photo shopped Kid Rock in I could have husbands Past, Present and Future!

On another completely unrelated note…my wonderful husband (current)…surprised me with a gift certificate to the yoga studio downtown for my birthday next week. See? He reads my blog….how cool is that? Thank you baby…I am the luckiest girl in the world.

Lazy Days

So my parents have been married 40 years today..can you imagine? Some days I don’t want to see Skip for the next 40 minutes..let alone 40 years. In a little bit I am heading out to pick up the cake and then down to the church for their party. It’s funny….I had a 30th anniversary party for them…mom wanted to have one because she didn’t think Dad would live to see a 40th….and here it is…10 years later. Go Dad!



On the running front..there hasn’t been a whole lot of it going on. I’m reverse tapering I like to think…HA! I ran on Tuesday..and then again on Thursday….and not a step since. I’ve got another week or so till I have to settle down and start thinking about Lighthouse. I have been cross training plenty…getting back to Tae-Bo and still with the yoga. I am becoming a yogawhore. I freaking LOVE it!! I think for my birthday…which is like next week I think..I’m going to actually ask for something and have Skip get me a package at the yoga studio thingy downtown. Now here’s the secret…for all the years I’ve worked out….going on 14 years now…I have NEVER took an actual class. I have DVD’s up the wazoo and all the yoga I do is off the T.V…..but never an actual class…with actual people. I’ve just never really felt the need…and as I’m not overly fond of people…I figured it would just irritate me. Why the change? Who knows…I am constantly changing…maybe at 35 I will finally grow up.


On the barefoot front. Of the two times I did run…one was completely barefoot and the other was 3 miles barefoot and two in the Free’s. I don’t think I even want to go back to the Mizunos…I think now is the perfect time to truly transition. This may mean that I am screwed at Lighthouse…and I may change my mind next week…but for now…that is the plan.

And the questions of the day....are you a joiner?  Do you take classes of any sort?  Why?  Why not?

Marathon Recovery

The good thing about doing five 20plus mile runs is that a marathon doesn’t feel like that big of a deal. My ankle that tweeked on me during the race was sore for the next day…but other than that…it was kinda business as usual. I did yoga and walked on Sunday….I did yoga and walked on Monday…and now Tuesday….3 days post marathon…I got off of work early and went over to Lake Andrea and ran 2.6 beautiful barefoot miles…and came home and did yoga….and feel fantastic. It’s wonderful to find the joy and peace in running instead of worrying about time and distance. I will ease myself back into a routine over the next couple weeks but now that the marathon is over…I can work on my barefoot running for the most part. Lighthouse is my last big race I have on my schedule and although I had hoped to be up to doing at least the 4 mile race barefoot I don’t think that will be the case. And that’s ok I suppose. I have a score to settle with Lighthouse after last year and I suppose that will have to be shod. I want to try to get myself back to doing all runs except my long one barefoot…but I don’t want to set anything in stone…just kind of see what the summer brings me.

I have read plenty about getting kind of depressed after your marathon and I keep waiting for it to come but it hasn’t. I just feel relieved that it’s over. Am I happy with how it happened and my time? No….but I’m not going after it again any time soon. It served it’s purpose…I did what I wanted to do with my dad. I have other fish to fry right now…the marathon rematch can wait.


Tomorrow is a rest day…I still plan to keep my 6 day a week schedule…I’m too obsessed with yoga right now to do otherwise. I’ll lay off the long run till next week when I will probably start with my weekly 10 mile maintenance long run. Lighthouse is mid-June…and I need to do the dishes.


So how long is your weekly long run when you’re not training for anything specific?

Wisconsin Marathon 2011 -How it all Went Down

I never really got nervous…even that morning my calm never really left. I had run a quick 3 miler on Thursday and was just sort of resting…mind and body. There was nothing I could do about having a cold that was lingering…and if I lost pace during the race….there was really nothing I could do about that either. Your first marathon isn’t supposed to be about time…but I work well with a goal in mind.

I woke at 3 A.M. to Skip screaming to ‘Get OUT of the way!!!!!” at the top of his lungs. This is really not that unusual and only reason I even wake him up is to shut him up…because if I don’t…he’ll keep screaming stuff. I was able to get back to sleep and up for good around 4. I got myself together slowly. Drank coffee, ate a cliff bar and half a banana and made sure I had my junk. I woke Skip around 5:30 and he drove me to the start where I was to meet up with Amy and this wonderful lady Ginesa…a sweet gal that reads my blog that I was meeting for the first time. The weather was gorgeous with the sun coming up and the lake…sooo pretty. I had big hopes that the rain would hold off and it did. I found Amy who was running it with two other ladies. We talked some and it was lovely to see her…but it made me realize that Amy had found her OWN running path. I may have put her feet on it…but she was a full blown grown up runner now…and that is amazing. I had called her husband and told him to have their girls make signs and meet her on the course…I hope he did that. She and her friends finished a few minutes earier then her predicted and she was delighted with her time. Sooo proud of that girl.


Now Ginesa….Ginesa I found after my last portapottie stop. She had come down from Milwaukee with her adorable husband and meeting her was an instaclick. The first thing that struck me was how tall she was! And gorgeous! It’s funny how we have these preconceived notions of what we think people would look like….and for whatever reason….I just figured she’d be a shortie like me. Not the case.


So there are no corrals…just signs that gave rough mile times to line up by…so we tucked in near the 10 minute mile sign and waited. She had asked my running pace and we just kinda decided to run together till one of us wanted to change it and that’s what we did. I’m not a mile by mile girl….they all kind of lump together for me. I will say that the first few just flew by and we gabbed like we’d known each other for years. Commenting on the interesting choice of clothing on some of the people including one woman we saw that had her shorts crammed up her ass and you could seriously see peeks of her cheeks when she ran. I don’t know if she was running the full or the half but you have to wonder how she didn’t chafe within an inch of her life. And not that anyone is…but she really didn’t have the right ‘shape’ if you will…to be wearing that sort of thing….ick. Saw a dude dressed as a cow..a few broads dressed as bar maids with inflatable beer steins.
So we ran together till mile six..and it was wonderful…to meet her..to share something like that with her…and to have her with me till I ONLY had a 20 miler left. She did an amazing job!

It was going wonderfully. I was hitting my pace….walking only when I fueled…everything was going as planned. I felt good..mentally….physically…everything was lining up and I was delighted. Around mile 12 I guess it would have been…I felt something in my left ankle or Achilles start to kind of wig. I just looked down kinda like WTF? Of everything that has bothered me on and off in this training cycle…that part of my body never has. I just shook it off and kept going. The day was still beautiful…and although the clouds were starting to roll in…I was pretty sure it would hold off.

By mile 13 I sent Skip this text…Something’s wrong with my ankle”. This is NOT a good thing to be sending to your husband half way through the race. And something was wrong….very wrong. By the time I saw my family at mile 15 I could barely run. I didn’t know what the hell was wrong but I kissed the kids and whispered to Skip that I didn’t think I was going to be able to finish. He just told me to relax and try to hold on as long as I could. About a half a mile later I called him and told him he needed to get some Advil to me or I would NOT be able to finish the race. He told me he was already on it and met me at mile 18 with my family including my mom this time. He juiced me with 3 Advil….something I’ve never done for a long run, during a long run..or even after a long run….but I really didn’t give a shit by that point. Pulling up my splits I was dead on till mile 11…hitting every split and even banking a little time. But it just goes to show how everything can be going according plan….and then there’s race day.

So after popping my drugs I just trudged on. It dulled the pain but my go was gone. I finally got to the point where I was walking for 1 or 2 minutes and then running for 9. All I kept telling myself was…3 miles to Vincent…then 2 mile to Vincent….and finally…..Thank Freaking God there’s Vincent. He was waiting well before the 24 mile mark…with a big smile on his face. The boy was a godsend…motivational without being a pain about it. Fine with whatever I wanted to do as long as it didn’t involve stopping. It was funny….because the song he picked for me was The King of Rock by RunDMC….and that’s what was playing when I rolled up on him…my boy.

At mile 25 I was so over this race…and I made a comment to V about how the whole damn thing had been measuring at least .4 of a mile long. Like I’d be almost a half mile away from a marker and my Garmin was beeping….and there was a number of people running near us and they started saying the same thing…so it wasn’t just me. So I couldn’t even see the finish line and my Garmin was beeping 26 miles. I stopped it at 26.3…I had run my marathon…I just hadn’t crossed their finish line. At that point I could see my family….everyone but Skip anyways….I had no idea where he was. But there they all were….my mom, Dominic, Tate, my brother Paul and my Dad…who was up out of his chair waving his cane around….shaking cans, blowing an air horn…screaming their heads off. And right as I was coming up on them…my Dad shuffles out into the street and attempted to run a few steps with me. I patted him on the back and told him I’d be back in a minute. So V and I turn the corner…finally see the finish…and haul ass into the finish..where I finally see Skip. V and I grab hands…because I wasn’t going to let him jump off…and we finish. Clock time was 05:01:36. Garmin time 04:58:33. Chip time…somewhere in the middle.

We finish…get space blankets and my medal. I never even put it on…didn’t want to get it all sweaty on it’s way to it’s final destination. We grabbed water and a banana…the beer and brats would have to wait. Met up with my amazing husband who was soooo very proud of me…and made our way over to the rest of the family. We get over there…and they have 4 DOZEN roses for me….I couldn’t even hold them all. I hugged everyone….and then went over to my dad. I hung my medal around his neck and told him it was for him….all of it…and that I wanted him to have it. He cried a little….in my almost 35 years I have never seen that man shed a tear…but there it was.

So that’s it…we went home..I showered and didn’t move much the rest of the day. My ankle is pretty jacked up…I’ve been icing it on and off since yesterday. Today is mother’s day and I got up and did a 25 minute yoga to get things moving again….and then Skip and I walked the dogs for about a mile. Will I do another marathon? Maybe…but not anytime soon. I didn’t really enjoy this one…and it just takes up so damn much time. But at least now…I can concentrate on my barefoot running again…and find some of the joy that gets lost in the shuffle of training.


Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers out there. Ginesa it was amazing to meet you.


It’s gonna be a beautiful day!

The Thank Yous

When Skip and I got married we didn’t really have a wedding. Being horrified that I did this for the SECOND time my mother decided that we would have a reception at the church to at least prove to the family that I did in fact marry again…and that I wasn’t knocked up.

When we learned that we were going to be forced to do this, we had to try to figure out a way to make people not buy us shit. We’re of the like mind that it being both of our second marriages and the fact that I already owned a house and he was 34 years old, that people should not be buying us things or giving us money. I know that people still ask for shit and do registries when they’ve been shacked up for years..but both of us think that sort of thing is just lame. So we sat around and thought and thought of something to do…and I don’t remember if it was him or me…but we thought…dude..it’s almost Thanksgiving….lets ask for non-perishable food donations in lieu of gifts. Long story short…we filled the pantry at the church with plenty of leftovers…it RAWKED. So instead of personal thank you cards…we did one…mass copied it..and handed it out to people as they left.


Anywaysss…really long story short..it said something to the effect of…


We are not people unto ourselves…You each have contributed…either in huge ways or in small ones…to making us who we are today….and for that…we wanted to thank you.


That’s not it exactly…but that’s the jist. So here are the thank you’s…to the people that make the total…that is me.


Skip- My love…my support…the consistent, steadfast man that always understands and loves me…in spite..or maybe because…of my crazy antics. If it wasn’t for you…I would NOT have been able to do this. Thank you for believing in me…even when I didn’t.


Dominic and Tate- Yes…Tate is the name of the artist formally known as lil T. My beautiful babies. Thank you…for understanding when Mo had to be gone…or when we couldn’t go somewhere until Mo got home…or because Mo was too tired from running.


Vincent- You get your own thank you…for helping me finish this thing that I started so long ago. For being my first born and good, bad or otherwise…the child that is most like me. For finishing SouthShore with me and telling me I looked strong…we both knew you were full of shit.


Mom and Dad- Thank you. For loving me…for teaching me to finish what I start…and for trying to understand something that is so foreign to you.


My Work People- For listening to me go on and on about training for the last 4 months…or 10 years.


My very small Blogger network- It’s amazing to read stories about people that DO get it…that DO understand…that HAVE been exactly where you are at this time. Awesome!


And last but not least…God. For tossing me down here into the care of so many wonderful people. For listening to me cry and carry on so many times over the years. For giving me the able, strong body and mind to complete this race.


That’s it…the very last of all I’ve got. See ya on the flipside of 26.2. Night all


Xoxo


0 days

Want some Cheesse with that Whine?

Better….sort of…on the mend anyways. I’ve decided..with the guidance and advice of both Dr. F and Lori…to stop freaking the hell out. In the words of…well…both of them really…you’ve done the work..take it easy this week and you’re body will remember what to do come Saturday.” Good nuff. The weather is threatening to suck..but I can deal with anything except hot and it’s not supposed to be that. A high of less then 50 and thunderstorms….HA! Mother Nature can bite the big one. I’ve done sub-zero…you can’t do shit to me.



So I have Dom tweeking my play list. I had each of the kids pick a song to put on there for me. They didn’t tell me what they picked and I had Dom just put the on there. There are people in my life that are with me on most of my runs…my kids are among these people..and I wanted them to be able to pick something THEY liked for me to listen to on THIS run.


Baring him being in the hospital…my Dad will be there when I finish this race. Good thing too because he is 100 percent of the reason behind the timing of my doing my first marathon. Even if he doesn’t ‘get’ why I do it…he is so very proud of my running. Which moves me to tears because lord knows I haven’t given him much reason to be proud..and in spite of that..he has been. His faith in me is much like Skips…blind. Me being unable to do something doesn’t even come into the equation. When I question….he has no doubts. When I say maybe..he says ‘of course’. How refreshing to have that kind of backing in my corner…how could I possibly fail?


2 days