Overcoming

I ran in a 4 mile St. Patrick's Day race yesterday. I woke up with dread about the race for a few reasons. My runs had been lacking for the week. I had been feeling discouraged about running for days. Elliott's birthday was the day before and I was stressed from that. I had a nightmare about the race. I saw on Katie's blog the other day that she had 4 (A B C D) goals for her race and I decided I would do the same.
A) 44:44- I thought it would be cool to finish a 4 mile race in 44:44, but I wasn't holding out hope because that would be an 11:11 min/mile average and that is pretty fast for me.
B) 46:00- An 11:30 min/mile average. Tough, but doable.
C) <47:17- PR
D) Finish

My friend Kim had said that she wanted to run the whole thing without walking, so I made that a goal as well.

Before I get into the race report, I'll talk about the feelings of discouragement I have been feeling this last week. A girl that Kim and I work with started running in January. She has been doing a couch to 5k program. Kim went to run with her the other day, and Kim said she was surprised that she was able to keep up with her. It made me feel completely discouraged, because I can barely keep up with Kim, and I've been running for over a year. Kim was talking about it with another woman we work with and she said that the girl has a "runners body" and is a "natural." This kind of offended me. The way I took it was this: I'm not a "natural." I don't have a "runners body" so why do I even bother. I felt really badly about this for days and even thought about quitting running.

I talked to Paul about it and he said that, yes, some people are just more athletically inclined than others. Then I started crying. I've worked SO hard for this! I want this SO bad! I spent the first 28 years of my life believing that I was not athletic, when I obviously am because I am a runner! And the message I was taking from all of this is that I wasn't athletic after all.  Then Paul said this "Carrie, there are some people who are going to start out better than you, but you can be just as good or better than those people, you are just going to have to work harder for it."

Then every where I looked, instead of seeing reasons to quit, I saw reasons to keep going.

The start of the race. #197

Now onto the race. The race started at 10am. Kim texted me and said that she was planning on getting there at 930a and I said that I was too. I ended up running a little late. Paul had to work that day, so I had to take Elliott over to my brothers fiance, Mary's, house so she could watch her for me. I got there at about 945a and Kim had got my packet for me. We went and lined up at the starting line. We wished each other good luck and we were off. The first quarter mile was very crowded and I had to dodge a lot of people. I vowed not to be a slave to the Garmin and just ran. I also had my run keeper going and set to alert me at each mile. I heard the RunKeeper come on at mile one and it said I had run the first mile in 10:25! I was shocked! My fastest mile ever is a 10:20 and that was going all out!
Just after the first mile there was a little hill and going up I told myself 'You don't get better at running hills by walking them!' and got up it. I saw Kim ahead of me and I was thinking 'She is flying! I bet she did that first mile in under 10!'
On the way down the hill, I saw this guy with fake tattoo sleeves with shamrocks on them. I made it my mission to pass him. I did and kept going. Then he passed me. Then I passed him again for the last time. Then I came up to the water stop and grabbed a cup, poured most of it out, took a little drink, and poured out the rest, all while still running. Then I passes mile 2 and my RunKeeper told me I'd ran the 2 miles in 21 minutes! My fastest previous 2 mile was 24! I felt great and was making great time, so I kept going!
At 2.5 mile or so, I saw Kim ahead of me. It looked like she was kind of leap frogging this lady in a hat, but then she eventually passed her. Then I passed the hat lady.

At almost mile 3 I was really close to catching up with Kim and made it my mission to get up to her. I finally got up to her just over 3 miles and said "Finish this!" We chatted for a bit and then I went ahead, she was right behind me the whole rest of the way, but I was just in awe that I even caught up to her! At the 5k point it was about 33 minutes and I was blown away by that. My current 5k PR is from November and its 38:01! When we got to the finish line, the clock said 42! I had a huge smile! I couldn't believe it!

Finish Line! Both me and Kim

My official finish time was 42:27! I crushed ALL of my goals! And I PR'd by 3:40 from the 4 mile I did the beginning of February! I couldn't believe it! I CAN do it! I am a RUNNER! Even if I'm not a "natural!"

When I went to pick up Elliott, I saw my reflection in Mary's glass door and I couldn't believe how small I looked! That blew me away too!

It's Official!

I'm registered for the Prairie Fire Half Marathon on October 14, 2012! There is no turning back now!

So the resumed Half training is going well! I ran 2 miles on the treadmill last Tuesday, early morning. Then Wednesday Kim and I did 4 miles at SCP. We did the 4 miles with intentional walking intervals. One of us would pick a landmark to run to, then we would walk for 60 seconds, and the other one of us would pick the next landmark, followed by 60 seconds of walking and so on and so forth. We had never done timed walking breaks before and it ended up working out really well! It was a VERY consistent run! Our first two miles were the exact same pace!

After my 7 miles!

I'd had 7 miles scheduled for my long run on Saturday. Kim had 10 miles and we were planning on running them together at SCP, and then I was going to bike the last 3 with her. She ended up going to Great Bend with her boyfriend on Friday night, so I was going to be doing it alone. Eek! I was very sad and felt like I wasn't going to be able to do it. I decided to go to the group run out East for my 7 miles. I started out with the 60 second walking intervals. I would run for 2 minutes and walk for 1 minute. I did this for probably the first 2 miles. Then I was able to go for much longer between walking breaks. GoRun had mapped out 6.5 miles, and I was just going to do that. They had water set out at 3 miles, so I stopped and filled up my water bottle and had a Gu (I also had one before I started. This was my first experience with Gu, and I think it helped... Hard to tell...) Then I decided that instead of doing the 6.5 mile loop, I was going to run another half mile, and then turn around for an out and back of 7 miles. The second half of the run was so much better than the first. When I passed the water again, I topped off my water bottle and continued on.

At about 5 miles in, I saw a bunch of kids running and two guys on bikes. One of the guys on the bike was in the middle of the path and I was thinking "Why is this dude biking in the middle" and was kind of annoyed. Then he saw me and did a fist pump in the air and started riding toward me with his hand out to give me a high five. When I gave him the high five, I realized that it was Randy, one of the co-owners of GoRun and one of our coaches! It made me feel really good that he acknowledged me and I felt so inspired and glad that I didn't quit my training!  I finished strong and was happy with my longest run yet!

I think these longer runs are good! I've gotten to the point where I can lose a couple of miles by just thinking about stuff, and I was never able to do that before!

 I also signed up for a 15k on September 9th. My long runs are supposed to be 5 miles next week, followed by 7 miles, and 8 miles, but I think I'm going to do 6 next week, followed by 8 and then the 15k... We will see how this goes!

Right now I'm on a workout streak! It started with the Glow Run last Saturday. It's looked like this:
Aug 11: Glow Run 5k
Aug 12: 35 minutes on the Precor Elliptical and Muscle Pump class
Aug 13: 4 mile run
Aug 14: Hip Hop Hustle
Aug 15: 2 mile run and 2 mile bike ride
Aug 16: 2 mile bike ride and 4 mile run
Aug 17: 5.5 mile bike ride
Aug 18: 7 mile run
Aug 19: 6 mile bike ride

Biking this morning with Elliott

I've been riding my bike a lot since I got it back and fixed! I got a baby seat for it last week and Elliott has loved going on the bike with me! Paul even rode with us a few times!

This week I have scheduled:
Mon: 2 mile run and Zumba?
Tue: 2 mile run and Hip Hop Hustle
Wed: 3 mile run
Thur: Biking
Fri: Biking
Sat: 5-6 mile run
Sun: Muscle Pump and Turbokick

I'll probably do some more biking in there as well, because I'm really enjoying it! I think it is helping with my running also!

Today is Paul's little brothers birthday. He is turning 24! I've known him since he was about 12! We went to eat with other family and a bunch of his friends to a Mexican restaurant that he works at. I had some chips and salsa. I ordered the fish tacos and ate half of it, plus my rice and pinto beans. Afterward, we went with Paul's other younger brother, Mark, and his wife (my BSILF (best sister in law forever)) Jennifer and their daughter Sarah to Orange Leaf. It's a frozen yogurt place. I got a little portion of peanut butter, brownie batter, and banana topped with blueberries and kiwi. I also tasted the watermelon and pineapple! They were all very good!

I also got my Foodie Penpal package in the mail yesterday from Alexandra and can't wait to write about it!!!

Creep!

Friday night I ran my fastest mile ever! I went to the YMCA and intended to do 2.5 miles. I got on a treadmill and only lasted 0.6 because the treadmill was acting funky. I got off and got onto another one and decided that I was just going to run a mile as fast as I could. I did it in 11:54!

Saturdays long "run" was horrible. I did 3.5 miles and had to walk a LOT. At first I was stopping my Garmin when I would walk, but eventually stopped that. When I ran, it was much faster than usual. I did my 3.5 in 51 minutes... Not impressive...

I woke up this morning and intended to go for my 3 mile run. It took me an hour to talk myself into going. I looked at the forecast and the temp was 72, but the humidity was 90%! I finally decided to get my butt out of bed to go. I was going to drive the new, old Toyota that I just bought from my brothers girlfriend, but my new Bondi Band arm band that I won in Karen's giveaway was in my Saturn, so I went to grab it out. I couldn't find it, then I realized that things looked awry and I realized that someone had "broken" (the doors weren't locked) into my car. They took my Zune, my daughters diaper bag, my daughters travel DVD player, her Nickelodeon DVDs, and my brand new Bondi Band arm holder with my ear buds in it that I hadn't even been able to take on a test run yet! I was SO mad! By the time I finished looking through to see if I could figure out anything else that was taken, it was too late to go run, because Paul needed to go to work. It makes me so mad! Why didn't I lock my doors? And why the HELL did they take that arm band! That is no value to anyone! They left the two other crappy chaffing arm bands that were in there! Why did they take my brand new one! The arm band is what made me the most mad, that and the diaper bag. What are you going to do with my arm band and my 2 year old daughters books and toys. You can sell the Zune, the DVD player and DVDs, but the other stuff... WTH? Stupid creeps!

I decided that I wasn't going to let that ruin my day. When Elliott got up, I asked her if she wanted to go to the park or the zoo, and she said that she wanted to go see the animals. So we went to the zoo. We didn't stay very long. It was so freaking humid! I wore jeans that are too big and I was sweating a lot and my thighs were chaffing on the seams of the jeans.

Caution: the next paragraph may be considered TMI...We were in the chimpanzee exhibit and they have a baby (2 year old) chimp that we have seen many times. He's very cute and getting big. At one point, we were watching him and he grabbed his penis and started... you know... pleasuring himself! Do chimps do that?! Right when that happened, me and the rest of the parents standing there were like "Okay, time to go!" It was really weird! I think the zoo is going to be a source of some very awkward conversations as my daughter gets older.

We got home and Elliott starting acting like a crazy child! I feel so frustrated for her sometimes, because she will be trying to tell me something, but I just do not understand her! She fell asleep shortly after her meltdown and is soundly sleeping still, on the couch! Maybe we will go check out the park later...

I got a new old car this weekend. From March until June we just had my Saturn because Paul's old car had finally quit. In June he bought a truck from one of his buddies. Before that happened, my brothers girlfriend was telling us that she was going to Massachusetts (where she is from) in July to buy a car from her parents. I asked her what she was doing with her old car. She said she wasn't sure, but then messaged me on facebook saying that I could check it out if I wanted to. So we finally bought it from her this weekend. We don't need it right now, but in the last two years, we have had to go with one car for an extended period of time, 3 times, so it will be nice to have a back up. It's a 1998 Toyota Avalon, so nothing fancy, though she took good care of it. I'm going to drive it and check out how the gas mileage is compared to my Saturn...

A Long, Colorful Post

I am on vacation from work until July 11 and I couldn't be happier! My mom and one of my little brothers, Leon, are coming up from Oklahoma today! I can't wait to see them!

I got up early this morning and went to the Y to get my 2 miles in. I got there and decided that I was going to do my mobilefit strength workout. I was on my last work out, which is a machine for your back, on my last set and I did something to tweak my back. I had felt like the weight (75lbs) was a little much the previous set, but still continued. Stupid move. I didn't finish that set, and went over to the treadmill. I had to think twice about whether or not I could run, but decided to try anyway. The run actually went pretty well considering the sore back.

I got home and iced my back and had Paul rub it a little bit. Then I took an 800 Ibuprofen. I feel much better now.

We had S2F group run on Saturday at 630am. I was really dreading it. I didn't want to get out of bed, but I did. Then I was driving there and I really wanted to turn around and go home, but I didn't. I got there and the run was awesome! The best run I've ever had! It's so weird how you never know how a run is going to go until you get out there! I think there is something magical about Saturday morning group runs! I suffer through my runs all week, then Saturday is awesome!

Saturday was the first time Kim and I didn't run together in a group run. She ran with Brandi, her boyfriends' SIL. They are MUCH faster than I am! I ran at a good pace for myself, listening to some good music, and had a super good run! When I was done, I sat and had some water, talked to a couple of people new to the program, then went back for Kim and Brandi. They did 5 miles, I did three. Kim was dying on the way back. I ran back with them, then we saw Parrish and talked to her a bit.

Tony Clark, the local guy doing the Badwater is trying to get some media coverage and Parrish is a reporter for one of the news stations, so I told her about it. Here is a video of Tony, you should check it out and donate to Gallant Few if you can! It's a great cause!

After Saturday's run, Elliott had pictures and they turned out super cute! I'll share the sneak peeks I got!

After pictures, Kim, Stephanie and I left for Kansas City for the Color Run on Sunday! When we got to KC, we checked into our hotel, then went to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. I had a Mexican salad from their Skinnylicious menu and a piece of cheesecake that probably had 1000 calories! I was going to look it up, but Kim and Stephanie wouldn't let me! lol!

Before

After

Sunday morning was the day of the run. We got to Arrowhead Stadium at 6am for packet pick up. I'm glad we got there early, because there was a ton of people! They said it was the biggest Color Run yet and there were 15,000 people on our day. Since we got there early, we got in the first wave. Thank goodness, because it would've been torture waiting any longer than we had to! It was pretty fun, but it should've been set up differently. We walked 90% of it because it was almost impossible to run. There were a TON of walkers, which is fine, but they were walking 7 people across and between getting around the big groups, plus dodging the other people trying to get around them, made for not a fun run. So we walked it. It was supposed to be a color at each kilometer, but it wasn't measured out accurately. I decided before hand that I was going to run it for fun since it was untimed anyway. I almost wore my Garmin, but I'm glad I didn't. The first color was yellow, then orange, so it looked like everyone had rolled in Cheeto dust, lol! Then it was blue, then pink. The finish line was the best part. They have color throws every 5 minutes and it was really cool and fun. It was horrible after it was over though. We couldn't find the station that you are supposed to get blown off at. We were SO colorful! We sat on towels to get back to the hotel, then showered and went home.
 

Weigh In

197.4

I've really been concentrating on what I've been eating this week, and it has paid off! I'm almost at my next goal! I really hope to never see a 2 at the beginning of my weight ever again!

Elliott and Paul

Also, Happy Father's Day to the best guy I know! We went for breakfast this morning at this little Mom and Pop place called Dianne's. We used to go there a LOT, but we don't much anymore. Paul got his gift yesterday- a new old truck! We have been a one car family since Paul's car broke down in March. I'm SO incredibly excited to have my car back! That is going to make life so much easier! Especially with Half Marathon training starting next week!

We have 3 miles on the schedule for Monday. Kim and I are going to meet at the park at 6am. I haven't run in over a week! It feels weird!

We have to go to St. Louis this week, because Paul's grandma died yesterday. Her funeral is going to be on Wednesday. I'm not sure when we are leaving or getting back... She was very old. She would've turned 96 in August, so she had a very long life! I didn't know her very well, because we lived so far away. I only met her 3 times, but she is going to be missed! I'm glad that Elliott got to meet her last year!

Since Paul's mom is in St. Louis right now, our 2 nephews spent the night with us last night. It's weird to see Elliott play with other kids. She likes it, but she doesn't really like them touching her stuff. She is SO an only child!

I'm getting ready to go to TurboKick at 2pm. After that, I'm going to lift some weights and stuff and then go to Zumba at 4pm. That should burn off the calorie laden breakfast I had this morning!

Hope everyone is doing well!

Weigh In and Get Your Rear In Gear 5k Race Report

ONEderland!

Down 4.4lbs this week! Holy Moley! Finally! I made it to ONEderland! I didn't think this day would ever come! I guess working out 5 out of 7 days really paid off!

Stephanie and I went to the Y on Monday night to lift weights and we did some elliptical also. Tuesday night me and Steph did a Turbokick class at the Y. I ran walked 3 miles on Wednesday with Kim at group run. Thursday night Steph and I did Zumba. Last night Kim and I did a 5k. And then this morning I weighed less than 200lbs for the first time in 2 years!

Kim and I pre race

Our race last night sucked so bad. It was SO hot. When I had signed up I thought that since it was going to start at 730p that it would be cooler! Boy was I wrong. The race was in downtown Wichita and part of the race went on this stupid brick road that was so hard to run on! When we we coming off the first mile, we could see a further part of the course and we saw the race leaders and it was really cool! We had never ran a race and been able to see the leaders ahead before. Thomas (one of our...mentors, coaches...I don't know) was one of the leaders, which he always is. I knew that he was going to be overall winner as soon as I saw him before the race started. He always is! The course was 2 loops and when we were about 2.5 miles in, Thomas lapped us. He was going so fast and it all just seemed effortless for him. I hope to be there someday.

This is what my 100% looks like! Final Stretch

My brother and his girlfriend, Mary, came out to cheer us on with Paul and Elliott. When we looped back around and saw them, I wanted to stop so bad! It really was a tough race! We kept going. When we finally looped around to the final stretch, Kim sounded like she was having trouble breathing. She said that she was trying not to cry. See the race was for colon cancer and her grandpa has been in the hospital this past week and they found a tumor in his colon, so it meant so much more for her.

My finishing time was 43:06, so no PR. I didn't have a PR in mind, I just wanted to finish. I felt completely unprepared for the race! Kim did text me later and tell me that her mapmyrun showed a long course at 3.24 miles...

Me and Kim post race

After the race, Paul, Elliott, and I walked and had Gelato with my brother and Mary. I'd never had Gelato before. I first chose Blood Orange flavor, but decided on Mint. It was really good!

5 days until the 10k. I'm super nervous!

Stephanie at her bachlorette party

We played LIFE at the Bridal Shower

Today Paul , Elle, and I went to the zoo with my mother-in-law and niece and nephews. It was fun. We were there for about 5 hours! It has been a busy weekend! I had Stephanie's bacherloette party on Friday night, Elliott had pictures on Saturday morning, Sunday was Stephanies Bridal Shower which I had completely forgotten about, so I was super late, and today we went to the zoo. Next weekend is the RiverRun 10k on Saturday and Stepahnie's wedding on Sunday.

Elliott is normally TERRIFIED of these statues, but she has started to warm up to them!

Long Runs

In our running group, we always do our long runs on Saturday mornings. I've attended every single one up until last weekend. I had the GOTR race last Saturday. I was going to do both when I thought the race started at 9am, but it started at 830a and I wouldn't have had time to make it their in time. Then I also missed yesterday.

Kate, Kara, and I at the concert

Kate's AWESOME photo of Mr. Church

Friday night we (Kara, Kate, and Kate's husband) went to Topeka to see Eric Church in concert. It was originally going to be Kim and her boyfriend Kevin instead of Kara and I, but Kevin couldn't go, so Kim invited me to go, then Kim got sick and we asked Kara to go. It was kind of a big fiasco because we all work together and we were needing to leave work early and then Stephanie called in sick. But we ended up making it work. Well, we didn't get home until about 2am and I didn't get to bed until even later. So, waking up to be running at 7am then working after wasn't going to happen.

On a side note, the expo center the concert was in had a bunch of stairs that we had to go up. In my old life, I would've looked at those stairs with dread, but now, I looked at them with excitement! I ran up those stairs and I wasn't even out of breath when I got to the top!

Anyway... When Kim got to work on Saturday, I asked her if she had run with the group and she said that she hadn't, so I asked her if she wanted to run tomorrow (which is now, today) and she said she did. So we made plans to meet Sunday at 7am. We met up for our 60 minute run and we ran the outside perimeter of the park, which we never do. I really liked it! We started our run next to the zoo and you could hear the animals in there going crazy! It must have been breakfast time! When we got about half way, I needed to walk for about 10 seconds, and then we were back to running.

At one point in the middle of the path we saw a turtle! It was so cute! Kim said "There, now it feels like we're going fast!" We also saw a beautiful butterfly fluttering around! I love seeing stuff like that while running! We got back around and crossed the wooden bridge to get back to the park and we realized we were not at 60 minutes yet, so we did the small loop and ended at 62:35 and we did 4.49 miles! It felt great! It really gave me confidence in our 10k that is now less than 2 weeks away!

It was also my first run with my Garmin and I loooove it!

Paul is changing the brakes on my car right now and afterwards I think I'm going to take Elliott to the zoo! It's so nice out and we need to renew our membership anyway. She is finally at an age where she will really enjoy it! She loves looking at her animal flash cards and making all the animal sounds!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

A shout out to Karen who ran her first 5k yesterday, Jen who is also doing a 5k today, and Katie who is running her first marathon today! You ladies are great!

Running Purchases!

I got a phone call from my babysitter at work yesterday afternoon saying that Elliott had a 101 degree temperature. She asked if she could give her some ibuprofen and I said that was fine and asked if I needed to come get her. She told me that she would give her the medicine and see how she did. She called back and hour later and said that her fever hadn't gone down at all. I called Paul and told him to go pick her up. I stayed home from work today and took her to the doctor and she has a double ear infection. We got some amoxi (and a new doll) and she seems to be feeling better.  

Kim and I went to the group run last night. It was horrible! I started out with my legs feeling like lead and ended with me trying not to vomit! And it was super hot! We decided to start running in the mornings since it has gotten so hot! We also decided yesterday that we are going to run TWO half marathons this fall! We were already going to do Prairie Fire, but I heard about one called See Jane Run. It's a woman's' half and it supports breast cancer. There is champagne and chocolate at the finish line! Prairie Fire is October 14 and See Jane Run is September 15. We think we are crazy, but I think it's going to be fun!

Also, I'm finally getting a GARMIN! I'm so excited! That had been my reward for my 50lb weight loss, which I achieved a while ago, but I was slow to pull the trigger on buying one since they are pretty expensive. It dawned on me one day to look on Ebay. I had been trying to get one, but kept getting outbid, and then I won one this week! I hope to get it early next week! I think it will help my training a lot! I also bought some CEP compression calf sleeves and a Nathan hand held water bottle from amazon! I'm so excited!

Compression Sleeves

Hand Held Water Bottle

Kim had a bigger hand held water bottle, but it was kind of weird to carry (she let me try it out) and then she got this one yesterday and it is so much better! So I bought one too! Since it is getting hotter, we are going to need more water!

Wesley 5k Race Report

So, I ran the Wesley 5k with Paul on Wednesday. We both left work early to get to the expo by 5pm. We had Elliott with us. Kim said that she didn't have class that night, so she offered to watch Elliott and cheer us on while we ran! She even made a sign!

Paul and I. This is the M shirt!

We were on a "team" with some other people from sister companys of his company. They had made t-shirts for the event and I had told Paul to get me a size M when we registered. I had been wishing I had gotten a L. I was right! The shirt was pretty snug!

Elliott and Kim

After we took a group picture, I took the company shirt off and wore the race shirt, which I really liked! I saw that Elliott was getting along well with Kim, so we didn't go back over to her. I had told Kim to bring M&M's with her, and they worked like a charm!

We got up to the starting line, and there was a news anchor from the morning show that I watch not to far ahead of us!

The gun went off and Paul and I ran together for approximately 90 seconds before he started going way too fast for me to keep up! I saw him realize I was gone, and he was looking back for me, but I kind of wanted to run it by myself! Plus I didn't want him badgering me the whole time to run faster than I was comfortable!

The race started and immediately went up a hill to go over a bridge! Ah! I ran the first mile dying of thirst! It was SUPER hot and humid! When I finally saw the water station about 1.5 miles in I was so excited! Except for the water was warm! Ew! I walked through the water station. Then I walked a LOT the next 1.6 miles. I was running at about 2 miles in, and I saw some girls with a cooler holding out a bottle of water! Once I realized it was water they were waving at me, my face lit up and I ran fast over to them and thanked them profusely! I downed 1/2 the bottle immediately, and then felt like I was going to vomit! Then I wished I hadn't taken it, because I hated running with it! I finally saw a trash can at about 2.5 miles and threw it away!

Getting close to the finish!

I pretty much felt miserable the whole time because it was so hot! At one point while I was walking I had resolved that I wasn't going to PR. When I was close to the 3 mile marker, I could hear a crowd cheering and I got really excited and picked up my pace! I passed the 3 mile mark and I knew I was almost there! There were a bunch of high school kids cheering as we ran passed and then I saw my stroller, then Kim and Elliott, then I saw the finish line! I was close to the finish line and I heard Paul cheering "Come on Carrie!" and I started running HARD for the finish line! I crossed the finish line with a time of 43:07! I was completely shocked that I PR'd! My time 6 weeks ago was 44:54 and I ran the whole time!

Me and Paul post race

Paul and I went and got a banana and some water and went to find Kim and Elliott. We talked about the race and Paul told me that he wanted to stop right after the bridge, less than 1/2 a mile in! He did really well though! 37:19 was his time. We wore each others numbers on accident! Oops!

I'm really glad that Paul ran this with me! I feel like it's brought us closer in a new way! He has been hurting bad the past two days since though! He asked me if I hurt at all, and I do not!

I realized at this race how much I love crossing that finish line! There is nothing like being so close to the finish line and just giving it your all! Leaving it all on the course and then you are done!

Oh, The Horror!

I woke up this morning and was laying in bed savoring the morning before I had to get up! I have Tuesdays off, but I have had to work the last 2, due to someone being on vacation. That resulted in me working about 50 hours a week, for the last two and being extremely tired! So I have been looking forward to today for some time.

I heard Elliott talking on the baby monitor so I got up to go get her. I got to her room and looked in in horror. She had taken off her diaper and peed and pooped (loose stools! Blah!) on the floor! I could not believe this was happening! I took her to the bathroom and cleaned her up and then went to re-access the damage in her room. I cleaned up the poop first and then the pee. Then I could still smell poop, so I turned and looked at her bed and there was poop all over the bed! So I stripped off her sheets and started the laundry right away! There was a tiny bit of poop on her froggy, so I cleaned her up too. Then I went and told Paul about the horror! When he got to the living room, he saw her potty chair sitting there and he took it into her room. "Maybe she will use this next time!" Lol! I have to laugh in order not to cry!

The Big Ditch Run

OMG, I'm glad this week is over (almost! I still have to work 3 hours tomorrow.) It had been a strange week!

Stephanie and I were going to go swimming tonight, but Paul wanted to enjoy the nice evening. He flies RC airplanes and he wanted to go tonight. So I canceled with Stephanie and went with him. Elliott and I took a long walk on this trail that was called "The Big Ditch Run". I carried her on my shoulders for most of the walk, which had me sweating! I can't believe I used to carry around almost 2 of her all day ever day in extra body fat!

Tomorrow is a S2F run in morning. Then I work for 3 hours. Then tomorrow night Stephanie and I are going to the drive-in movie to see the Hunger Games with two other girls we work with, Kara and Bekki. I'm really excited to see it!

Here is a funny picture of Elliott on the way home today! She is so silly!

That's all for now!

4 Years

Today is Paul and I's 4th wedding anniversary. I'm almost back down to the weight I was when we got married. I was around 190 when we got married... I started at 210 and had a year to lose, but I didn't take it seriously and only lost 20lbs. We don't have any huge plans to celebrate... I made some baked tilapia for dinner and then he went to a meeting of a club he is in... For our 1st anniversary we went to a Bed & Breakfast. Our 2nd anniversary, we had a 12 day old baby, so we just had a casual dinner at Red Robin. Last year we got into a huge fight, so we didn't even really talk... I'm completely exhausted, so I don't feel like making a huge deal of in anyway. Elliott got out of bed and was crying last night, so Paul brought her into our bed. I never sleep very well if she sleeps with us. Which is weird, because she slept with us until she was about 18 months old.

Today was Monday Part 4! I'm usually off on Tuesdays, but this week and next I have to work because someone is on vacation. I'm so ready for a day off, but I'll love my paycheck!

I did really good counting my points again today! I was supposed to go to boot camp tonight, but I really did not feel like going.

Stephanie and I are going to go swimming tomorrow night at the Y.