Happy Holidays

I'm ton the road to visit the in-laws in Chicago.  And by that I don't mean the actual city, but the northern suburbs.  It's what we've done almost every Christmas Day since we've been married.

Since we always travel on Christmas Day then we have our time with the kids the night before.  First we start with church service.  Last night my daughter Angel reprised her role as Mary

And we lifted candles to celebrate Jesus being the light of the world.

It was so pretty & peaceful!!

Once we were home I usually start with a pair of pjs.  I don't do matching, but they each get a new pair.  And we rip into the presents to end the night.

In my running this holiday season I was able participate in this years Jingle Jog with the Muscatine Running Friends.

We ran to and through various businesses singing songs, handing out candy & spreading holiday cheer.

 It was so much fun!!!

On a day like today I kind of don't have time to run.  But I make the time.  Even though I didn't get to bed until 1:30 a.m. I was up at 5:30 to get a few miles in.  It was dark & the town seemed more deserted than usual.  I ran with no music to just think and enjoy the peace & quiet that surrounded the morning.

I hope that no matter what you are doing during the holiday season that all is well.  With you.  Your health.  Your family.  Your running.

 MERRY CHRISTMAS!!  From me & mine to you & yours!!  😘

Winner, winner chicken dinner!!

Ok, I didn't win a chicken dinner (my son has before though), but I did win a free race entry in to a half marathon next month!!  Woo hoo!

Run With Jess is one of the few blogs that I follow and that is how I came across this free giveaway contest.  I can speak personally that Jess herself is an outstanding & phenomenal person.  Everything about her is wonderful!!  She posted about this giveaway & I glanced at it meaning to enter, but then time slipped away & I almost forgot about it.  When I checked in last night I had just a few hours left to enter & after weighing the pros (too many to list) & cons (ok that list is always short!) I decided to enter & let "fate" decide if I'd be doing this race or not.  The thought of it really excited me because I realized that I've never run a race in Chicago.  Like not even close.  So why not try?!?!

Well, lo & behold, I WON!!!!  I'm so excited & I'm really, really looking forward to this race.  I don't plan to make this a goal race.  I'm already in 13.1 shape & there's too many other factors to try & turn it into a PR or anything.  I'm looking forward to a fun race to just go & enjoy the experience.

If you are interested in registering for this race you can find the details at their home page HERE.  Hurry, the price increases on 12/31.  Maybe I'll see you there!!

Meet me in St. Louis

Earlier in November I traveled to St. Louis for 3 days.  I went down to be a trainer candidate for Foundations of Strength & Conditioning.  After completing this I was granted my trainer status which then allows me to train & certify others in this 2 day, 16 hour Y course.  This was a little hard for me to go to because it fell on the same weekend as my son's 9th birthday.  This is my baby boy here.  I've never spent his birthday away from him.  I know at some point it's going to happen, but he's only 9.  Being my favorite son and such a good  boy he's an Iowa fan all the way.  So I bought him tickets to go see the Iowa vs. Illinois game.  I would've loved to have been there too, but just because I have work that doesn't mean he has to sit home with nothing to do!

I'm a little conflicted when it comes to traveling & being alone.  I'm such a people person that I don't like to do it, but yet it has it's good points to it too. So I make the most of it.  Of course, I can't go somewhere big and not run.  What would be the point of going all that distance & not living up to my #sherunseverywhere standard?

After my training on Friday I set out on a short run to see some main sights near by.  Being a wise conscious runner I made sure to notify the hotel desk that I was going out.  After all I am a young(ish) female traveling alone.   While I always have my phone on me, if anything were to happen would anyone even know I was missing or gone longer than usual?  So I think it makes sense to check in with others around me as I ventured into this big city full of strangers.

(My hotel which was a former YMCA)

My first ever half marathon was run here in St. Louis & I have traveled these for personal reasons before so I wasn't a complete stranger to the downtown area.  I set off wanting to see the "big" sights like the Arch.  It was close to getting dark when I set out & I didn't want to devote a lot of time to running at this point so I only aimed for a few miles.

On the way back I realized I was only a few blocks from Busch stadium so I swung over there to have a look.  I'm NOT a cardinal fan, but was fascinated & taken in by the stadium.  All of my running route was fun & thrilling to me.  I was like a kid all carefree and lackadaisical without any barriers like time or other people to be considerate of.  Just me & my run.  It doesn't happen very often.

(The start of my Sunday run.  Hotel was right outside of the Union Station)

On Saturday I had a full day of training so I purposely grabbed a quick mile on the treadmill so I could have it done & not worry about running later.  Sunday I put more effort into getting a good run in, which meant I couldn't sleep in and had to get out extra early.  I had this magical idea that if I timed it just right I could see the sun rise as I stood at the Arch, which overlooks the Mississippi River.  The weather didn't cooperate and there was no magical sunrise, but I was down in that area anyway and took my time exploring the area.  Without even planning it I found the bridge that lead over the river.  I knew I'd be crunched for time, but could not pass up this opportunity to run across the river.  Even though I grew up in a river town that is something I have never done.

(On the bridge with the Arch in the background)

When I came back off the bridge I realized I was just a block away from the St. Louis Ram's stadium.  I had friends in town for the game.  Their son is head equipment manager & they go to all the games.  So I thought for fun it would be great to circle the stadium.

Then I reasoned that if I circled one stadium I should probably go do the same for the other, Busch Stadium.  I so set off in that direction, only to find out that you can't circle that stadium.  I did the best that I could and got around most if it.

I had completely lost track of time and next thing I realized I had racked up 7 miles.  I really think I could've run all day & all over town.  I had so much fun!  It was a rush, but I made it back to my hotel & to my training on time.  I'm glad I took the time to get these runs done in & around downtown St. Louis.

Tis the season

As usual, life is zooming past me with not enough time to blog about it all.  I plan to pick & choose a few things to blog about, but leave the rest unknown.  It at least unblogged about.  If you want to know/see more things about me on a more regular basis then you catch me on Instagram or Snapchat.  Anyway....

Last week was Thanksgiving.  I hope you all had a great holiday.  Maybe with family & friends.  Hopefully with plenty of food!  I'm not even going to lie, I ate waaaay too much!!  I started out my day with my own little turkey trot.

Then we packed up the family & headed over to Iowa.  Here was my first of many occasions over the holiday weeknd where I ate way too much!!  It was worth it, not to mention being with family.  We didn't do anything special, but for me the simple act of being with family is always enough & very satisfying.

At the end of the day my husband & I headed home WITHOUT any kids in tow. We left them at my parents, something we have rarely ever done.  Don't get me wrong, I live my kids to pieces, but I was REALLY looking forward to doing this!!  Thus began my home alone phase.

I was challenged recently by a friend to stay home for one day.  Stay in my jammies, do whatever I want, but mostly just stay home.  That is actually really hard for me to do.  I can't really say I didn't do anything.  Kids being gone or not, I really needed a day at home to get things done.  My house & it's level of cleanliness/functionality has dropped way below my standard so I wanted to get that turned around.

It was so nice though to do whatever I wanted.  No time frame.   Just whatever I wanted to do in my jammies.  No one to think about, no messes to clean up, no arguing/fighting to listen to, no one to give me weird looks when I break out in song & dance around the kitchen.  It's been 19....NINETEEN years since I've had this big of a break from my kids while still being at home.  I'm not going to lie, I really REALLY enjoyed this time alone.

Eventually though I changed in to running clothes & went for a black friday run.

Afterwards I pulled an all nighter & kept on cleaning the entire time!!  A girl has to do what a girl has to do!!  After getting some sleep (I felt like a party girl crawling in to bed at 6 a.m.) I was back up for even more cleaning and another great & awesome run.

55 degrees at the end of November....I'll take it!!

Even though it wasn't all done I decided to call it quits because the husband was home & we had some celebrating to do.  Our 20 year anniversary was Tuesday, December 2.  Since the actual day was going to be "just a regular day" with work & activities we decided to celebrate early.  We went back to where it all started in Burlington, IA and enjoyed some time as a couple just being together.

Of course, living up to my She Runs Everywhere name, I included a run around downtown Burlington.

Eventually we had to head back to reality and went to go pick up the kids from my parents.  I do love them & my life with them, so of course, I wanted them back.  And they missed me too (even if they don't admit it!) so it all worked out really well.

It was truly a great & wonderful holiday weekend.  One like I've never had before!!  And now I'm all ramped up and ready to head into this holiday season!

How was your Thanksgiving?

Happy Veterans's Day

I looked back through my blog & realized that I never posted about Veteran's Day.  Which, I find odd since, both Jim & I are both veterans.  It does seem so long ago, ok it was so long ago that we were in.  Even though it's just a glimmer of time it's such a huge part of who we are and how we came to where we are now.

Jim was in the Army for 8 years.  4 full time active duty, including a tour in Saudi Arabia during the First Gulf War and 4 years in the Reserves where he met me.  He was an airborne combat engineer.  His list of accomplishments are through the roof.

I was enlisted in the Army for 8 years.  3 years in the Reserves and 5 in the Inactive Ready Reserves.  To best sum up my time in the service I posted this picture last year.

Sometimes I don't feel worthy to say I served.  But I did and on Veteran's Day I hold my head high for my little itty bitty part I did to serve in the United States Military!!

Wildcat 50k

This was my 4th year to run the Wildcat 50k.  I didn't really think I was going to do it this year.  Not from lack of wanting to, more just because of scheduling.  While my running has been ok, I'm far from being trained for this race.  Of course, that has never stopped me in the past.  I don't think I've ever considered myself trained for this course.  Last year I at least had the training miles behind running a 50k, but one could easily argue that I was running so much that I wasn't well rested.  (Am I ever well rested?  I am a mother to 6 kids after all & constantly train without much of a break!!)  Either way I'm never prepared for the hills and terrain that Wildcat Den has to offer.  I did get a good hilly run in last weekend & a stair workout in just a few days prior.  But I know well enough that that is not enough training!  Didn't stop from getting out there & running!!

Even though I'm not logging a lot of miles (really trying to hold off until I start my Boston training) I didn't bat an eye at running 31 miles.  I'm no stranger to this distance or this course.  And lately I seem to have an over abundance of energy.  My runs have full of adrenaline and I just can't wait to go, go, go!  I was hoping that it would hold up through my race & I seemed to be off to a really good start.

(Taken during my first lap.  Thanks for the picture Larry!)

I ran my first loop in 57:58.  Not too shabby and pretty consistent with many other runners.

Loop 2 felt really good with the clock showing 1:57:44.

I finished loop 3 at 3:09:10 and still felt good & strong, but I was starting to slow a little and starting to hurt some too.

On loop 4 at mile 20 my phone, thus my music, died, but I still felt pretty strong until coming back.  The hurt was more intense and I was beginning to struggle.  At least on the inside.  Everyone I saw kept telling me I looked great & strong.  I knew otherwise.  At about mile 24 I had someone come up behind me and strike up a conversation.  I had passed many other runners through out the day and either I zoomed past them or them me with your usually runner banter & encouragement.  This runner though stuck with me and kept chatting.  If ever I thought about stopping or walking I certainly couldn't do it now.  On one hand that's because the conversation was a good distraction.  When it's just me & my mind there's too much thinking about what hurts.  Talking and listening kept my mind off of what was going on & I just moved forward.  On the other hand I wasn't going to totally weenie out when this runner had taken the time to come along side of me.  Yes, we still walked at a few points.  It was almost a must with those steep hills.  But I couldn't let myself straight up walk with a runner right next to me!!  We finished that loop in 4:24 (I'm a little unsure on that time, but it was in that general area).  There was a very big part of me that did not want to go out on that last lap.  The informality of the race makes it so easy to say I'm done & no one bats an eye.  Yet, I knew I'd be so mad at myself if I didn't get it done.

I started loop 5 with some legal pain relieving drugs in my system because there was no way I could do this last lap without it.  At least not without coming to a complete walk.  I had lost track of that runner who finished loop 4 with me.  All that chatting & I never asked what his name was (I found out later that it was Jeremy).  Once I got started I saw him up ahead of me & used that as a focus to try and catch up with him.  Before I could though another running friend caught up with me & we got busy chatting & keeping each other company.  Honestly at this point I would've kept company with a serial killer & I wouldn't have cared.  Anything to keep me distracted from the pain and to keep me from walking.  It worked.  The pain didn't go away and I slowed even more, but I was ok with all of that considering my lack of training.  It wasn't a complete shock that I was running this way.  Eventually with the help of my running friends I finished loop 5 with a new PR of 5:44:45.

(Celebrating my PR)

Overall it turned out to be a really good day.  I was slightly bummed that while I had been the lead female the entire race, I slipped to 3rd within the last mile.  And while I had good pace I slowed with each lap.  Even, consistent pacing has never been something I've been good at.  But looking big picture I ran well (especially with no training), met some new friends, saw some old & got to spend my day doing what I love.

Also worth noting that my husband, Jim & 2 sons, John & Andrew came to run as well.

Before the start of the race.

John (age 13) completed 2 laps, 12.4 miles.  That is the longest distance he has ever ran.  Andrew (a week before his 9th birthday) ran 1 lap, 6.2 miles, the longest distance he has ever ran.  Jim, who rarely ever runs was there to run with the boys as they did their loops.  They are all superstars!!

Trying out the app

I recently upgraded to a nice new fancy smancy phone.  I previously had a smart phone, but it was in fact quite dumb.  I could never add the blogger app like I wanted to.  So I thought I would give it a try.  Especially for those short efficient posts that I'm trying to do every day.  So let's see how this goes.

Since I have you here let me jazz it up with a few pics & some running randomness in my little corner of the world.  I took this one last Saturday on my morning run.

It was such a great morning for a run and as soon as I ran past this my brain screamed "THAT is a sight to remember!!"  So I back tracked a few steps to snap the shot.

After I was home from said run I was checking on my Instragram & saw that I had a new follower.  Look:

I literally stopped dead in my tracks & let out a shreak!!  If you're not a runner you have no clue who Bart Yasso is.  I know the name in a heart beat & was awe struck.  Ok, never mind that he also follows thousands of other bloggers & runners.....it's still gold to me!

Do you have anyone famous that follows you on a social network site?

Anyone else use the blogger app to post?