Weekend Roundup

Friday:  We ran in a 13.1 relay on base.  We each ran a mile.  I actually got my time down to 9:30--I usually run about a 12 minute mile, so this was a huge accomplishment for me!

Saturday: One marathon of a day. It began with sleeping in. :) Then I ran and we got ready for our day. We had lunch at IKEA--a rather inexpensive and great lunch. After all of that, we headed to Clearwater to the "Festival of Trees" held at their rec center. It was darling. Each tree was decorated with a different theme--they were then auctioned off by Sunday to raise funds for various organizations. The most clever, in my opinion, was game themed. The mom and daughter team had made garland out of SCRABBLE pieces, made stars out of decks of cards or TRIVIA cards, and had filled clear glass balls with the houses from MONOPOLY and TRIVIA.

 There was also a great tree dedicated to Mardi Gras that I thought was wonderful!

 From there we stopped by the Hixon park, which is right next to the Tampa Art Museum.  It has this great installation of pinwheels made out of license plates, which are attached to bases in the shapes of states.  It's done by Michael Kallish and it's just great.

From Clearwater we headed back to Tampa for the Auto Show, which was located just down the street from us.  I've never spent five hours at an auto show.  It was enlightening and humbling because I had no idea what a brand new Lexus or BMW cost and now I do...and now I know I will probably never own one.  :)

The end of the night was lovely.  We had dinner at Columbia Cafe and walked back home.  This is a view from the bridge that takes us over to our "island".  It was a gorgeous night.

Sunday:  Church and rest  :)

Dad: "Who's idea was this?"

Me:  YOU wanted to run one more marathon before you turn 60 in December.

Dad:  Why did you let me do this?

True conversation between miles 19 and 20 of the IMT Des Moines marathon on October 16th.

We finished.  Kelly finished in 3:55.  Dad and I finished in 6:41.  Neither of us is particularly overjoyed with our times, but for crash marathon training, they are amazing.  Finishing is amazing. 

I can't complain.  I can walk without pain after just a week.  Dad can too.  We're all happy to be done with 3 and 4 hour training runs on the weekends.  But we're happier we did it together. 

Here are the highlights:

• Praying with Dad and Kelly before the race.
• Seeing Mom, Ben (Kelly's husband), and his family cheering us on at mile 8.
• Running through the Drake University stadium. 

• Having the previous conversation with my Dad.
• Kelly joining us at mile 23 and walking the rest of the way with us.




• Crossing the finish line with Dad and Kelly while the announcer is telling everyone about Dad doing this before turning 60. 

I think we're all up for a half-marathon down the line...but not this month.  :-)

Back in training

This was me a couple of weeks ago.  I stubbed my little toe on a box in my office.  It hurt...more than the usual stubbed toe.  That night I thought I had popped it back into place.  However, 1 1/2 weeeks later, it still hurt and was swollen.  After an x-ray, by technitions young enough for me to have recently taught, my Dr. determined I had a fracture...a healing fracture...but a fracture nontheless. 

Ah!  This meant no running for a week...or two.  Ah! 

I made it little over a week just doing yoga and some stationary bike work.  It no longer hurts all the time, but I still keep it taped, especially when exercising. 

I'm so torn because obviously I want it to heal.  But I need to begin training for the October marathon my Dad, sister and I are going to run.  So, slowly we will go till it is healed.  I've done just 2 1/2 miles runs on the treadmill this week, plus a little beach biking. 

Hoping to do more soon!

Ready, ready to run....all I want to do is have some fun!

On the shuttle at 4 am!Porta pottys before they're out of TP.

Almost ready to go!

With Bethany, former roomie and now half-marathoner!

Wow, I can't believe the race has come and gone already! We trained for so long, but not well. I'd say this was the worst training I've ever done. Trying to train with Jason, but then work around his work schedule and my work schedule was difficult. We did manage to get in all of our long runs, but I wish we'd gotten in more running during the week.

Oh well, we kept our pace steady the entire race and ended in 2:45. The last mile was hard. Jason had more adrenaline in the end than I did, but I managed to stay with him. We survived the torturous incline at the very end and got our sparkly medals!

It was fun to see a former student running and then to meet up with Bethany and her family in the end. She swore she'd never run, and then poof! She's run three half-marathons now!

We saw the boys Friday night and Saturday during the day. It's never enough time, but it was still good.

Training: Week 4

Monday: 60 min. run
Tuesday: 60 min. cross-training
Wednesday: 45 min. run/Yoga
Thursday: 45 run/strength training
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 6 miles