Week in Review (Jan. 14 - Jan. 20)

Tuesday - 2 miles in the basement inferno, 17 minutes of strength (arms, 8:00 of planks - 1:00, 1:00, 3:00, 1:00, 2:00).
Wednesday - Still spirit week at the gym, and today was superhero day! A wanted to join in the fun, so I let her borrow the Incredibles tank I wore for Tink 2012. 2 miles on the treadmill and then BodyPump with L. Holy crap, I'm still soooo weak.

Thursday - Got up early and ran a mile in the basement inferno before work. Because AFTER work, I was on my way to the airport for Tink!! My flight actually landed early and Heather picked me up around 10. In bed shortly after.
Friday - Heather's kids had school, so to get my run out of the way before we melted, we ran a mile after walking the youngest to school. You can't tell, but it's pretty much a million degrees already. 1.25 easy-ish miles.

 

Next stop was heading over to INKnBURN. I have only been there for the warehouse sale that I went to last September, but it was insanely busy and crowded. I wanted to stop by and see the operations and meet Nicole, who now heads up the ambassador program. They have some REALLY awesome products in the works that I can't wait to share with all of you!! I picked up a few of the new pullovers (pretty much a staple for me in winter here).

I believe we spent the remainder of the day watching "educational" tv, which included the "World's Fattest Man" and a few episodes of Hoarders. I think I ate all the things, but I cannot remember. Again, in bed fairly early.
Saturday - Up early again. Heather and I headed to Disneyland to volunteer for the kids races. We were lucky enough to be in charge of handing out medals, which was the funnest EVER. Other people's kids that I only have to see for a few seconds are the most adorable. Also volunteering with us was Sheila, and she is hilarious. Glad I got to do this!

 

Since we were already at Disney, we walked over to the expo to pick up our packets. It was still PACKED. We were in and out in just a few minutes as neither of us saw anything we wanted to buy.

I believe the afternoon was again spent watching tv. I had to get my mile in, but waited until dusk for it to cool down a bit. Pretty nice sunset!

 

Delicious enchiladas for dinner. The early part of the evening was spent getting Heather's oldest ready for her formal dance. I hope Heather posts a picture or two, she looked so pretty!! We were in bed early-ish.
Sunday - TINK HALF!!

We finished much earlier than expected, so we sat at Starbucks for about 40 minutes before heading to Souplantation where we met up with Julie and her new (well, 8 month old) baby for brunch!! So great to see her and catch up. Before I knew it, it was time to head back to the airport. Womp. Where did the weekend go???
Monday - I probably could have done more, but this was easy-ish, so I stopped after 3.25 miles. Somewhat of a progressive run (1 @ 5.5, 1 @ 5.6, .25 @ 5.7, .25 @ 5.8, .25 @ 5.9, .25 @ 6.0, .25 @ 6.1). I finally finished "Orange is the New Black" so now I'll need to find a new show to watch at the gym. I had fleeting aspirations of doing some strength training when I got home, but yeah, that didn't happen.

Weekly Miles Run - 24.23 (13.68 racing, 2.3 outside, 6 treadmill)
Weekly Cross Training - ZERO
Minutes of Strength Training - 77 (only thanks to going to BodyPump)

Weekly Gain - 1.4 pounds

• Let's be real. I didn't try this week. At all. And that's fine. I was on vacation for 3 days in SoCal, and I ate pretty much everything. It's not my fault that Heather is the best cook ever, that there were donuts and cinnamon rolls and Halloween candy. Personally, I think I did her a FAVOR by eating it all. (No really, thanks Heather, you're the best hostess EVER!)

• Beer was completely in check this week. I had only ONE beer all week, and that was Saturday night.

Everything Else

• So, we are in week three of me being the only secretary. The really great news is that we have ANOTHER attorney joining our firm, so really, this is MORE WORK FOR ME. Hip hip hooray!!!
• Related: I did finally hear back from the place I interviewed in December, they were still finishing up interviews and thought they would be contacting people to return for additional interviews in the next week. MAAAAYBE.
• OK, so I'm in week 2 (?) of being back on the online "dating" thing. I say "dating" because for REAL, I seem to attract the weirdest and creepiest people ever. I have gone on zero dates. I am likely giving this up soon (again), as I'm not really into it and I appear to be the only normal person online.
• For example (there are messages before AND after this, including asking if I want to go hiking). I have never, not even one time, responded to this guy. But, it's a good example of who I'm attracting:

Tinker Bell Half Marathon (Race Recap)

Sunday, January 19
Anaheim, CA
Half Marathon #99 (!!)
California Half #6
Tinker Bell Half #3
Weather - PERFECT

Thanks to the blog, I knew that we were going to have to wake up ridiculously early to get to the 5:00 am start. Like last year, we were up at 3:13 am. (!!) We left just after 3:30 and made a stop at Donut Star for a donut and coffee (for real, I might as well just copy the first part of last year's recap).

We parked at 4:11 and started the long trek to the start line. We stopped at the first set of port-o-potties we saw since there was virtually no line. We were in our corral about 10 minutes before the start. A MIRACLE!!

We actually DID go into the race with some goals:

A - Faster than I ran the Baker's Dozen this year (sub 2:48:57)
B - Sub 3:00
C - Disney PR (sub 3:08ish)

Now, it's interesting that we were looking to take SO MUCH time off our Heather and Becka Disney PR. HOWEVER, for the first time, it was just going to be the two of us running Disney without either of us being injured. So.... we started in corral A (where we belong, obviously).

I haven't had a really great run since I got back from Texas. I was thinking MAYBE we could hit our B goal, but our A goal seemed impossible. It was a bit chilly at the start and Heather had given me a throwaway shirt that I actually kept on for the first mile, which went by decently fast. We hit the first aid station around 1.5 miles in and then, we were in the park, MY FAVORITE.

We planned on stopping for ALMOST every picture, deciding not to stop only for those with crazy long lines or those characters we don't especially love (Country Bears, I'm looking at you). We had the most fun EVER EVER EVER EVER:

There were a few character pictures that didn't really come out, which was sort of a bummer, but we got a lot of great pictures anyway! I had finished a decent sized coffee before the race and really had to pee and wanted to use a real bathroom, so we stopped near Pirates of the Caribbean. Everything in the park was fun and magical. We managed to catch our friend Julia in Downtown Disney although SOMEHOW she didn't see us. Not sure how she missed us, we are the most fun and loud people ever during Disney races.

Like all Disneyland races, one of the highlights for me is the Red Hat ladies. They took up pretty much the whole section of street near the Disneyland hotel. THEY ARE THE GREATEST. Aid station just past mile 6, and then we were headed into Anaheim. And shockingly, it was still dark outside. We were well on our way to having a super speedy and great race.

Heather hasn't been running much, so she warned me that her brain might break at any moment. SPOILER: It did NOT!! I didn't especially feel wonderful, but the pace seemed ok and we were still able to hold a conversation, so that was nice. There were donuts on the course again around mile 8. The Clif station at the mile 8.5 had plenty of gels left and I grabbed a raspberry and espresso one, although I didn't actually take either one.

It's amazing how much less crowded the course seemed than in previous years. Maybe, it was because we were actually running, and we were mostly with OTHER people that were running. The sun finally started to come up somewhere between miles 10 and 11, and I put my sunglasses on around mile 12. Although, to be honest, I could have skipped them altogether.

The last mile went on FOREVER, although this course has always run long for me.

We for REAL killed our goal.

Official Time - 2:41:23
Official 5k - 38:20
Official 10k - 1:29:27
Official 15k - 2:02:29
Garmin Time - 2:41:23
Garmin Pace - 11:48
Garmin Moving Time - 2:19:58
Garmin Moving Pace - 10:14
Mile 1 - 10:21
Mile 2 - 12:43
Mile 3 - 13:01
Mile 4 - 21:39 (This obviously, was the bulk of the pictures)
Mile 5 - 13:37
Mile 6 - 11:15
Mile 7 - 10:47
Mile 8 - 10:35
Mile 9 - 10:33
Mile 10 - 10:37
Mile 11 - 10:25
Mile 12 - 10:19
Mile 13 - 8:57 (!!?!)
Mile 13.68 - 9:39

Thoughts:

• Holy cow, I love Run Disney so much!!!
• Well stocked aid stations with water and Powerade at all. Friendly volunteers! The aid stations were spaced perfectly, no issues.
• Plenty of bathrooms on the course.
• Heather and I picked The Best costumes this year, Mike and Scully might be our most successful costumes yet!
• The course changed in the park a bit this year and some of the turns seemed more narrow, sharp and awkward. However, since we were the FASTEST EVER we missed a lot of the congestion that might have otherwise made this more frustrating.
• Starting in A really seems to make all the difference. I'm hoping/thinking that next year we may be able to take off another 10 minutes or so off our PR, especially if we can continue to get more efficient in our picture taking!
• The race shirt is great this year - dark pink, and fits better than any other Disney race shirt I have. Should have a picture, but I don't. Womp.
• Heather and I are legacy Tink runners, so I will be back to run next year, of course, on the new date, mid May!

Tinker Bell Half Marathon (Race Recap)

Sunday, January 20
Anaheim, CA
Half Marathon #75 (!!)
California Half #4
Weather - Chilly at start, mild, sunny

Friday

Because I'm weird about not missing work if I don't have to (I KNOW), I scheduled the latest flight out. Which meant I did NOT leave work early. I picked A up at gymnastics, stopped and picked up Subway, and met my dad at my house, who then drove us to the airport. The terminal was the craziest EVER. Like 6 flights leaving all at the same time, billions of people, and all the agents talking over each other. Flight uneventful, A passed out.

Our flight landed around 10:30. I think we pretty much went right to bed? Well, after watching some bizarre show called "Lost Girl" - has anyone seen it? WEIRD.

Saturday

The kids actually let us sleep until like 7:45. CRAZY. Lounged around, had delicious waffles and coffee for breakfast. We decided to expo early, maybe around 10. Only Heather's oldest wanted to go with us, everyone else stayed home. Parking wasn't too bad and expo wasn't too crowded. There was nothing I saw to buy (a first).

Headed back to the house after a stop at Trader Joe's (can you believe I had never been to one?) We watched Catfish (BEST SHOW ON TV) and then had Chili's for lunch. We had to head back to the expo/Downtown Disney area so that I could pick up my bib for Team AFSP.

While waiting for the kids to eat cupcakes, I spotted Dave!

Downtown Disney was a zoo, and after a quick trip to Build-A-Bear, we headed back to Heather's. She made delicious mac and cheese and BACON. Then we finally decided to tackle our race outfits. After you see it, I know you will be STUNNED to know that we didn't really do so great in the planning department.

So I bet you are wondering...

1. DID YOU REALLY WEAR LONG SLEEVES? Yes.
2. DID YOU REALLY WEAR LONG PANTS? Yes.
3. DID YOU REALLY WEAR A SKI HAT? Yes.
4. WHAT ARE YOU??? Um. I was Adorabeezle and Heather was Swizzle. We did the best we could. (We ran with our friend Krissy, who was Vanellope)

So lights were out... early-ish. I think we had plans to be in bed by 9 or something, but I think I was still awake at 10:30.

Sunday

Alarm goes off at 3:13. 3:13!! Disney fun started at 5:00, and we still had to drive to Anaheim, park the car and get to the start. I think we were out the door just after 3:30. We made a very important stop at Donut Star, where we picked up donut holes, coffee and diet coke. Yep. 

Parked the car... um, around 4:10? Then walked (FOREVER) to the start area. We used the bathroom. Well, we had to wait a bit longer than we needed to because a girl CUT IN FRONT OF US. After Heather confronted her, she said "but my line wasn't moving." WHAT.

We saw Skinny Runner and Sandy on our way to the start line. Pretty much walked into A corral right as the gun was going off.

Goal? Fun. All of the pictures. Possibly go for a Disney PR??? Heather and I joint running Disney PR was currently 3:20ish at Tink 2012. We had warned Krissy that we were SLOW and "FUN" (her marathon PR is something insane like 3:42 - which is practically what we ran WDW half in...)

Neither Heather nor I wore a watch, so I have no clue what we ran pace-wise or where the pictures were on the course. We stopped for every single one.

MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE RACE PICTURE.

We had been leapfrogging with Dave - and we finally got a picture with him (and Nadia - who is ALSO a speedy fast runner):

Heather suggests we do yoga poses... and then only I do... 

It's a Small World LOOKED AMAZING

And then the magic stopped. I think we left the Magic Kingdom around mile 6. We had a quick run through Downtown Disney, where I had to stop and use the bathroom again. We ran past the red hats - who were the CUTEST AND MOST FUN EVER.

Then it was ALL running until we finished. Boo. Other than having to stop and stretch my calves somewhere around mile 7, we actually ran the whole course. Arguably, faster than I wanted to. The second half of the course runs through Anaheim and is under-whelming. Somewhere around mile 8 or 9 I was sure I was going to spontaneously combust or burst into flames. Why on earth I was wearing so much clothes, I will never understand.

The finish this year was WEIRD, we had a weird out and back through the parking lot. LAZY COURSE PLANNING, DISNEY. And then high fiving (Daisy?) at the finish with a finish line jump that I do not think was caught on camera. (Edit: See below)

I DIE.

We collected our food boxes and then headed back to the car.

My 100th race of 13.1 or longer (and 75th half marathon) - was a success.

Run in memory of Bob (1974-2012)

Bib #2102
Overall Place - 7225
Division Place - 1381
Official Time - 3:11:22 (Disney PR for Heather/Becka!)
5K Split - 44:17
10K Split - 1:52:20
15K Split - 2:28:35

Tink and Coast to Coast Medal

• FUN FUN FUN
• Costumes are the best, but man, I need to plan accordingly. I have never even worn that much clothes to race in Colorado. I was the sweatiest human ever.
• So glad Krissy ran with us and didn't give us a hard time for being slow. She was FUN!
• The course is... just ok. The first half, in the park, is GREAT. The part not in the park? BORING.
• Fueled on gummy bears and one Clif at mile 9ish. I think I'll continue to fuel with candy, although I haven't tried it in races where I actually have to RUN.
• Disney races are really organized, we didn't run out of water, powerade and there were potties at all the aid stations. 
• Did not have the over-crowding issue we had at WDW. Even though we were SLOW, the course is not as narrow and it was not as frustrating to navigate.
• Donuts as pre-race food is great. Again, I think we will continue to do this.
• Not wearing a watch is pretty great. I kinda wish I had used mapmyrun just to see my splits though.
• Our pictures are The Best.
• Final fundraising amount - $651.00. THANK YOU EVERYONE.

After the race, we stopped at Souplantation for breakfast. Wearing bibs and medals and everything. We are hilarious. We got back to Heather's, showered, and took the kids to the pool. Then we picked up Krissy and her mom and sister and met up with #vanawesome (minus Sandy) for Heather's first trip to Pho.

It was so nice to see all my friends out there. Food and company was GREAT! We stayed a few hours, then dropped Krissy and family back at the hotel. Dinner was ordering in pizza. I can't remember the rest of the night, but I think we went to bed early, like 9:00.

Monday

Up stupid early for 7:05 flight out of Orange County. The end.

Random lessons learned:

• I don't want to fly out late Friday night for these races. It is worth taking that whole day off and coming in late Thursday.
• I also do not like flying OUT early. That was stupid. 
• I have not slept in weeks. I'm exhausted and I should sleep more.
• I'm sure there are more lessons, like not wearing ALL OF THE CLOTHES, but I can't remember what they are.

I'm totally running this one again.

TGIF and Preparing for Tink!

I know that I just got back from Disney, but I'm headed back! Tonight, A and I head to Orange County for the TinkerBell half!

I wanted to thank everyone that donated for Team AFSP, I ended up raising $551.00!

Also, I realized just the other day that Tink will be my 100th race of 13.1 miles or longer. Say what??

Three Things Thursday

1.Did you know it was A's birthday yesterday? 7 years old!

She was lucky enough to have an early release day at school, so I took a half day off from work to hang out with her. We went to lunch (I ate all the salad, but only 1/2 of everything else):

We went shopping to spend the gift cards from my ex in-laws (she got 4 books and a unicorn figurine), and then we saw "Wreck-It Ralph," which was really cute. Pizza and cake with the grandparents rounded out the evening. Gifts included new Hello Kitty vans, animal socks and more books.

2. Route 66 is this weekend. My knee felt wonky on Tuesday, so I lacrosse-balled my knee last night and today it is FREAKIN' SORE AND ACHY. I hope everything is ok. Guess I will find out during my run on the treadmill tonight.

Related: I cannot officially drop distance since the half is sold out, but the split is at mile 13, and if I'm hurting, I guess I'll run the half again.

Also related: I think I will wear the Newtons. It can't be any worse/better than MCM, although I think I wore my old ones at MCM and have a newer pair that I probably wore for Denver that might be better? I'm probably over thinking this.

Also related: I still have NO CLUE what to wear. Relieved the weather looks EXPONENTIALLY better than last year (low is mid 40's and high is low 60's). I guess I could wear my Maniac shirt, but that doesn't seem fun.

3. HECK YEAH!!! Thanks everyone!!!

After a Few Tantrums...

I appear to be back to my normal cheery obnoxious and bitchy self. I ran a trail un-paved half marathon on Saturday. It wasn't fast, it wasn't especially fun. But what's important, is that even though the course was ugly, I was slow, and the weather was lame, I did NOT threaten to quit running for all eternity when I got done. This shows me that even a crappy trail un-paved run is exponentially better than road running.

So... With that said, here is a random post about nothing.

 Running... what's next:

•  I am running Route 66 marathon this weekend. I hope it sucks less than MCM, and I hope that it is warmer than last year.
• Should I wear my Brooks Glycerin (I have been running in them since MCM, but nothing longer than 5 miles) or should I stick with my Newtons?
• I have no one to be matchy matchy with this weekend. (WHAT, WHAT??) I think I may wear an Ink N' Burn shirt. Leaning toward my Zombie shirt or Hollywood Dragon
• I am running CIM next month with Heather. We are leaning towards a super obnoxious Christmas-y theme with red sparkles, a green top and either Pro Compression neon yellow or some undecided pair of festive socks. After planning all the ridiculous-ness of a point-to-point race, let's hope the running is the easy part.
• Dare I say two months to GOOFY?? Yes, yes, I do. Also, my flights FINALLY got squared away last night. Frontier is pretty awesome on the Twitter. I arrive around noon on Friday and will leave Monday morning. More importantly, we think we have themes for BOTH DAYS. That MIGHT be because Heather is the brains of the operation.
• Heather and I (are you sensing a theme here?) are wishy washy on this Arizona race. It seemed like such a great idea when I loved all of the running. Now, a point-to-point super boring scenery (yet flat) race doesn't seem that appealing... I could either flake (but have bought airfare - only $130ish RT), run just the 1/2 OR Lost Dutchman is that same day... decisions...

Black Friday, Shopping, Christmas, etc (aka, my "wish" list)

•  I sent a check to GMAA for a sweatshirt to commemorate our 50th state (VT, if you are new). This was a funny correspondence between the race director and I - after she read my blog:  I am the one who gets to take home all of the clothing left at aid stations that is not picked up to wash and donate to good will-I folded your super stylish fur rimmed hooded sweater today. I even considered keeping it to use as a throw away.

 

Is this NOT the most awesome sweater ever?

• Related: I want to buy this race picture. We could hang above/near the Map of Awesome.

Out of 9 successive shots, the only one we both look normal in

•  Mofo LULU!!! (The Pace Setter is the best skirt ever in the history of the universe)

Source

•  A red Keurig. I don't know why it has to be red. It just seems pretty. And I'm freakin' obsessed with my one at work. The Gingerbread (Green Mountain brand) coffee is so tasty!

•  A gift card for Ink N' Burn. I love all of their stuff (except the skirts didn't work for me, which is probably a blessing in disguise). I am obsessed with wanting a pair of the "jeans" yoga pants. MY DREAM is to live in a pair of those. I'm over the whole "fancy" clothes crap for work. YOGA PANTS ALL THE WAY.

•  And last... but NOT least.... I am only $50 $25 away from meeting my fundraising goal, raising money for the AFSP to run Tinker Bell in January... so if you have a buck (seriously, even a dollar donation would be AWESOME) to spare, you can donate here.