Prunes, T##t and GOOBER!

Yah, your probably want to know what all that means, right?  Yah...I figured!  Can I just say I LOVE TO LAUGH?  Well, I LOVE TO LAUGH.  Not just the small chuckle either...but actual laughing...the kind that makes your belly ache, your bladder can barely keep anything contained and your cheek's hurt!  You know what I'm talking about now!  Well all of that plus the title of this post...totally sum up our Bloggy dinner. 

Chelsea, Kerrie, Mel, Zoë and I totally laughed it up at an awesome GREEK place! Small, kind of hole in the wall kind of place...but is so YUMMY!  Isn't that how most of the great, authentic places are.  I love just hanging with my buddies catching up.  I think was our first time just meeting for meeting sake.  Most of the times it's at a carbo loading dinner, passing each other as we are running at the races or chatting in the port-a-pottie lines...so this was nice to just simply HANG!  It was also great to meet Goober aka Isla!  She is such a precious little thing. 

Thanks Zoë  for sacrificing your night out so we can meet Isla...love her.  We ate, talked, ate some more and laughed the whole time.  I so enjoy nights out with girlfriends...they are so important to do, so you can unwind, relax and enjoy the company of others.  Thanks Chelsea for the prunes, Zoë for bringing sweet Isla, Kerrie for showing me how fun MALIBU BARBIE really is and Mel for giving me the Medium Brooks jacket...I hope you can get it to me any day...It will totally be HUGE on me...but I will deal with it! (HA HA)!

Totally bringing our friend Amanda into our converasation!

I guess without realizing it, Chels and I had a mini photo shoot...

Next time we really hope some of you will fly in to join us!  It's totally worth it and I'm sure Chelsea will bring some prunes to share!  Right Chelsea?  Get out...enjoy some friend...just because...you will totally not regret taking the time to do so!  Thanks ladies for a fun evening!  What's next?

3 Things Thursday! You're totally excited, huh?

1.  I AM TIRED!  Utterly fatigued!  The kind of sleep where you think you will totally be able to sleep but your almost too tired to do it.  All this strength training is making my sleepy and tired.  Yesterday I totally felt like I was in a fog until...STARBUCKS at 4pm...perfect.  Hadn't had one all week and it totally woke me up and got me excited for my functional fitness class.  I am so excited to see how this is going to change my body and also improve my running.  I did nothing but running last year...I know, not good...but it was hard to fit it all in.  This is a new year and new adventures to try!  I'm really enjoying everything I am doing and I'm totally burning some major calories...CAN I GET A HOLLA, HOLLA?

A couple of these gals will be there, wish they all could!

2.  TONIGHT is dinner with my friends, my running, bloggie buddies.  Looking forward to catching up and seeing what everyone has been up to.  Face-to-face is always so much nicer than texting, blog comments...you get the idea!  Also excited to have some GREEK food, yummy.  Ladies, let's remember to get some pictures!  If anyone else wants to come...let us know.  What's a quick flight to Seattle?  It's just dinner, you don't even need to stay over night...just fly in and then catch a RED eye home?  Just an idea!

3.  I AM TIRED!...Oh wait...I already said that!  Max is FIVE!  And I have to say...so far, so good, actually SOOO GREAT.  He is such a great kid.  He is growing up and I never thought that I would be a sappy "my child is getting older" kind of mom.  I thought I would love it...and I do, but it's also so bitter sweet to think he is starting Kindergarten next fall.  I remember when he was born it seemed like a lifetime away until school.  Now I'm asking myself, did I do it right, should I have done more things in his years before school.  I worry about kids being nice to him, and him having hurt feelings.  Before grade school, I chose what teacher he would have, I knew most of the parents, the kids...and all that is going to change next fall.  I'm sure these are all normal thoughts, but it's scary being a mom and sending your 1st child off to BIG BOY school.  But the other part is he has calmed down so much, is so sweet, so helpful and I really enjoy being around him.  I'm going to miss him.  Gosh you would think he was leaving for college or something!  Who knew I would feel this way?  Not me!  I still have some time left and I'm just enjoying the time between now and then.

Wordless Wednesday!

Who is excited?  I am, I am!

Let's just hope it sticks...at least this is a start!

So INSPIRED!

Erin and I before our run!

I love to be INSPIRED!  Who doesn't, RIGHT?  I love hearing peoples success stories, whatever it may be.  There is a beautiful young lady who lost 70 pounds in the last 6 months.  It has been amazing to see the transformation!  She is in the gym all the time working very hard. 

The other day I texted her to tell her how proud I am of her and to keep up the great work.  Her reply mentioned running together sometime...SOLD!  So we decided to run Friday morning.  I was so excited to get some time to chat with her and catch up and see how she has been doing and also to hear about the weight loss journey.  We ran the turkey trot route, with is a 5k.  She have never ran a 5k without walking.  She recently ran the Santa Run that I did last month but walked towards the end.  We took it nice and slow and just enjoyed chatting.  She was doing so great the whole way and then we came to the major hill at the end of our run.  I had told her before we got to it...Decide now that you are going to run up it...don't decide on the hill...that is never good.  (Making any major running decisions on a HILL will never end well). 

We took it easy, but kept running.  I coached her all the way up it!  She did AMAZING!  It was so exciting.  I never know if I am driving people crazy by talking to them and coaching them through the hard parts of runs...but she seemed OK with it!  We pushed it at the end and she ran her first 5K without stopping and it was NOT a FLAT route...the HILL at the end is forever and gets worse at the end. 

It was so inspiring to be a part of.  I love runs like those!  It makes me so happy to be a runner and to help people do something they wouldn't otherwise do.  I was bragging about her amazing accomplishment at the gym...so, so proud.  I was so sad to hear later that day that she hurt her ankle playing racquetball.  I saw her last night and she said her ankle is getting better and she is hoping we can run again on Friday!  Hope it works out.  So great...SO GREAT!

Happy after our 5k!

What inspires you?

Brrr...Cold RUN in Pic's!

Headed out on a cold run...it was BEAUTIFUL!



Don't you love cool camera settings?



How pretty...the sun, the snow...LOVE IT!

What a JOY to run in weather like this!

Mid-run...feeling good!

That's where Amanda used to live...over on the other side!  Hello T-Town!

I was so happy to go on this run!  It was a beautiful sunny day!   It's one of those days that you can't help, but to RUN...and those days don't always happen!  I haven't been taking my camera with me, but on this day...since it was so nice out I decided I would take it easy and stop for pictures!  So glad I did!  I love cool, crisp running days.  BondiBANDS rock in the cold weather!  They are perfect!  Not much more to say, just had to share my beautiful run with my bloggy friends!

Max's first RACE...How could I forget?

This is MAX at his very FIRST race on THANKSGIVING day at our local TURKEY TROT!  I can't believe I have not posted these pictures until now!  The story goes like this...I registered for the race for the first time, since it has never worked out in prevoius years...I was totally stoked.  Then I realized they had a kids run...sweet, Max can run!  Awesome...totally stoked for us to both run.  Then I was un-stoked...because the kids run happens at the exact same time as the 5k that I would be running...totally not awesome!  This was his first race and I would not, could not miss it...though it did take me a while to realize I wasn't going to run it...like until the night before!  On a total personal note...it really sucked walking up to the race seeing all the other runners and knowing I couldn't run...who knew it would bother me that much...I sure didn't!  Ok, back to MAX!  He did way BETTER than I ever would have expected.  I was so proud of him and lucky for you ...you can re-live it through pictures!  He RAN his heart out the entire way and I was such a proud MOM!  Loved every second of it! 



And here are the pictures that got him to win that awesome blue ribbon above!



Headed to the START

Here we go!

And we're off!

I guess the sidewalk sounded like a good idea!

Coming down the hill for a STRONG finish!

Running his heart out the whole way!

And there he goes...his FIRST FINISH line, but not the last!



Couldn't be PROUDER!



Three Things Thursday - REFLECTION edition!

1.  The HOOD to COAST aka HTC was A-MAZING!  So glad I risked my life and my friends life by adventuring out through the snow!  It was fun to have done a RELAY and then be able to watch another one...knowing what it was like first hand.  I HIGHLY...no I DEMAND you all RUN a RELAY at some point.  Don't ever turn down the offer...it will be life changing and you will make friends for life! 

2.  Wow, I have a lot of body fat!  Really, jumping rope in front of mirrors shows you just how much.  Running outside I always have the vision of myself in my head of what I look like running...and then that vision is totally ruined once I run by a window or see a picture of myself running, not the most flattering!  Lately I have been doing classes at the gym to change it up a bit and these are in front of mirrors...HOLY COW!  I can't believe how much FAT I have on my body.  It's a wonderful thing to see and a terrifying thing to see, all at the same time.  Wonderful because it reminds me why I'm doing what I'm doing....Terrifying because I'm sure no one in that room would ever GUESS that I once ran a marathon...6 months ago!  So sad!  Running alone does now make you skinny...Running with cross training, weights and eating RIGHT get your body fat down!  Problem when you train and run a marathon, but don't change your eating habits?  You stop running long distances and are still eating what you ate when you were training...can we SAY WEIGHT GAIN!  Lovely!  So now I'm trying to get the food thing under control and so far it's going well.  Amazing how much you actually have to think about food if you want to make good decisions, and the less I think about it, the worse I do.

3.  Blogging, running!  Where am I at?  I feel distant from both right now and am trying to figure out where to go!  In one hand I love blogging and all the friends I have made and I love reading where everyone is at on a daily basis, plus it's so encouraging!  The reality...I seem to have lost the time and the content.  I have had  written posts for a month or so and have logged on numerous times to write and/or finish a post and I totally draw a blank.  When I started this blog in December 2009 I had a goal...to run a marathon and since I ran my marathon I have seemed to loose my gusto for blogging!  Not sure why?  Maybe I will incorporate more of my life instead of just running...which leads me to running!  I knew it...I knew it...I knew it!  Winter time always throws a curve ball, even when I see the curve ball coming!  I have barely ran?  Cold weather, dark nights...what's up.  In good news...I have been switching it up, which has been so fun.  I have a plan (already registered) to run the RnR Seattle Full, but there is a chance I might just do the half.  Here is the truth...fulls and I aren't the best of friends...tons of training and they are not easy!  I have done one...not sure if the need to do another one is there.  Halfs...so much fun, not near as much training and 13.1 miles are enjoyable for the most part!  Hearing that Zoe, Kerrie, Jamie and my mom are doing the full...might have helped me stay with the FULL...TIME WILL TELL!

2010...The YEAR of the MARATHON!

Do you know what shirt that is? 
Looking pretty in the morning before my run!  Don't be jealous...you too could have sweet fly aways!

 

Wow, it's 2011.  It was so fun reading 2010 recaps of every ones goals and all that they accomplished and all the new goals for 2011.  So encouraging and exciting, so thank you for sharing! 

 

I used to not be someone who set goals until a few years ago when a group of friends and I started getting together to share our goals for the upcoming year.  Since then I have put a lot of time, thought and prayer into my resolutions.  I have journaled through out the year and always enjoy reading what has happened the last couple of years...all the ups...and downs.  It also helps me decide on the upcoming year and what I will do.

 

Some major HIGHLIGHTS from 2010...

 

*Take a guess...MY MARATHON!  I did what I set out to...I ran my first MARATHON!


*I PR'd my HALF MARATHON by 8 minutes with TALL-MOM beside me.


*Max "Prayed Jesus into his HEART"...those are his words.  Very SWEET moment.


*I ran with FRIENDS all year long.  Not sure how I could have trained for a Marathon without all of them.


*Did more organic and natural food shopping by visiting my Trader Joe's more often.

 

There is more I'm sure but since I have had this sitting in my Post box for a couple weeks...figured I should publish it.  I had really wanted to share pictures and more exciting stuff...but finding the time right now...now as easy as it once was...long-long ago...you know...before my MARATHON days! 

 

Enjoy the pictures...they are all from my last run of 2010!  Great day for a run and I picked the perfect outfit to close out 2010...THE YEAR OF THE MARATHON!  (I was wearing my MARATHON shirt...if you didn't notice, which I never run in)

 

Max make a silly face...obviously my face didn't get the memo...

 



And because you always need a self portrait...you do, right?  RIGHT!



Peace out 2010!

 

What does 2011 hold...We will shall see!  I'm excited for what is to come, I have made my 2011 resolutions...or should I say resolution!  I only made one and it's not running related, but I hope it leads me to some great races!  Kind of making life a little simpler and more focused with the resolution this year.