Catching up..

So, oh my goodness its been long..My husband stumbled upon my blog the other night and reminded me I even had one!

So where did I leave off, oh yes, the tarheel 10 miler...3 years ago!?  Wow slacking, well really its been busy.  So in the meantime since the 10 mile race, I discovered a new love...ULTRA races!

Technically an Ultra is any race distance further than 26 miles (a marathon) but most of them start around 50k, and go up from there.  I ran my first 50k to celebrate the new year, 2012 and placed 2nd overall, of course this was a fat ass race so out of the 60+ runners that started only a dozen actually ran the whole distance.  It was mostly friends and friends-of-friends getting together to eat, run, and hang out.  This was really just a training run for the Uwharrie Mt Race in February.

Signing up for a 40 mile race I though, 'OHH what have I gotten myself into." I can get quite competitive with myself, and am barely ever able to just go out and run a race for fun, so I knew I had to train hard in order to finish and be proud (and still walking)  Fortunately, the Trailheads, offered up plenty of support, tips, and running buddies to get me to the starting line feeling good.

There was a bit of a mix up at the start, and so it was delayed just long enough for the sun to come up.  Which was pretty nice considering that the start (and finish) is straight up (or down when you finish) a very rocky, rooty hill.  I kept telling myself to take it slow, I wanted to average a 9:30 min pace..On a side note, as I found when I transitioned from running road races to trail races, just because I can run a sub 7 min/mile marathon does NOT mean I can or should do the same on trails.

So I started out conservatively, losing all my Trailhead friends who were also running the race, and as I got to the top of that first climb, all of the adrenaline that was sitting like a rock in my stomach shot out into my legs, and I bolted down the hill about a 7 min pace..oops.  On the plus side I finally caught up to two other Trailheads Wackus, and Willow (obviously not their real names, but they are their real Trailhead names!)  Anyway, it was really great getting pushed along with the two people I had been spending most of my training runs with.  For the first 30ish miles it was pretty thrilling to switch off with Willow as the first female runner.  Uwharrie is an out and back course, 20(ish) miles out and then back, so when you turn around, the 20 mile racers who started an hour after are all finishing their races.  Its a trade off, good and bad, since you are running at all these people now, but thrilling to cheer and be cheered for by each trail runner.

As I said, I was upfront for 30 miles, and then superstar Marie Ange just flew past Willow and I.  At one point I was ahead and was just leaving an aid station and Willow was getting to it, she looked at me and said "go, there is a girl right on my tail..."  Needless to say at that point there was no holding Marie Ange off, shes an incredible runner and I was just happy to run in front of her at all.

The last 10 miles went by in a blur of nasty gu's, boiled potatoes and flat cola.  Though it was a hard race, I actually didn't feel as bad as I thought I would.  No hitting a wall, no puking, crying or even really stopping along the way.  I was thrilled to come in second, followed very closely by Willow in third.

Since the race in Feb I have been battling achillies tendonitis, so the only race I have run since was the local 4 (miles) on the 4th (of july) Strangely enough I placed 3rd overall for women.  It did actually help to buoy my spirits since running has been so sparse, I have been on the bike and swimming/aqua jogging while my PT and I try to fix my achillies problems.

Anyway, that about sums up my running to date.  My DH, DK, has signed up for his first marathon.  I think he curses the day he signed up for it...distance running is, shall we say, not his bag.  I have been going along with him for his long runs, and he has been doing great, even though he's not really loving any part of the training.  I think he'll do well if he sticks to the plan and keeps it up.

ta-ta for now...

Tarheel 10 miler surprise

Well what a surprise, I actually did so much better than expected. Last week my husband and I were talking about how we should have probably trained for the race, we were reading an article in the paper about how there is a mile uphill challenge at mile 8.5?! what?! I know Chapel Hill, is, well a HILL, but didn't realize it was going to be thrown in as a challenge at the end!

I should clarify, I am a dog runner, my furry running buddies keep me active but their paces are all around a 10 min mile. I do run by myself some days, but lately have been anywhere from a 7min/mi-8:30 min/mi pace. The last race and the last time I actually trained was nearly 3 years ago, and as age 31 is fast approaching I never wanted to race assuming that my fitness level would have dropped enormously.

As usual, I had my prerace jitters, though we left the house at 6:40 for a 7:30 race so there wasn't too much time to get nervous (thats the great thing about living 15 min from the starting line)

Anyway, so I came in 2nd in my age group, 10th female overall with a time of 1:09 and as for that mile uphill I was so scared of...I ran a 6:28 split!

Guess I should sign up for some more races, there is some life left in these leggies :)

Dog walkings in the rain..

Ahh yes, dogs and the rain. Its a funny thing, dogs who lick their privates, roll in mud, makes huge messes, are sometimes afraid of a little rain.
My dog, Emmitt, is one of those dogs...well almost. He is not quite "afraid" of the rain, but he doesn't love it. He spins with excitement every time I walk towards the front door...sits and wags his tail as I reach for the knob, and then out the door.....pause at the steps..blah its wet out. He usually turns and gives me his sad face, as if to say, "oh man, I was so excited to go WALK! but its raining...ugh" He will slog through a walk, but he won't like it, and he will usually shiver and try to turn around at every opportunity.

Now on the other hand, there was Ellie who I used to walk...rain, snow, hail, she loved it all, and the wetter and colder the better! (she was a chocolate lab, a true water dog through and through!)

Today I walked Charlie, who is a fox red lab puppy, about 9 mo or so. I assumed he would be fine. I have walked him when there was snow on the ground before, and he loved it, rolled around in in...ate it..

He excitedly greeted me, brought me his bone to say hi, and got ready for his walk...got off the porch, and SAT down! Ha, apparently much like my Emmitt, he's not impressed by the weather today. We slowly walked our route, me urging him on, Charlie pausing for lots more sniffs than usual. Finally we got to the end of the walk...phew...back inside for a towel rub down and some peanut butter!

Its one of those things, the evils of walking in the rain. Sometimes it seems that its more our attitude towards the rain that really gives these dogs the perception that its bad, sometimes they truly are cold, sometimes its the towel, lots of dogs don't like their paws wiped off...whatever the reason, life must goes on, and dogs continue to walk in the rain :)
Happy tailwagging!

Its been a little while

Ok, so its been a little while since I last posted.
Since I last wrote, lets see what has happened...we had snow, Susie visited...unfortunately when we HAD snow and our plans were foiled...drat! :)
I started a dog walking business, and it seems to be growing, slowly but steadily. For now I have a few regular dogs, and some, once and a while-ers..
My two fav regulars are Charlie and Henry.

Charlie is an adorable fox-red Lab, hes about 9 mo old. Now you ask what is fox red...its EMMITTS cousin! He is that golden color of Emmitt's back stripe, but he is that color all over. Hes smaller than most Labs I know, but much larger than Emmitt and built like a regular lab. Hes funny, his personality reminds me of a mix of Emmitt and Ellie...Hes great, we jog together, and play with his favorite stuffed animal several days a week.


Henry is the exact opposite of Charlie, he is a 3 mo old King Charles Spaniel! He is absolutely adorable! Full of puppy energy and enthusiasm! We have a pretty regular schedule, I see him 4-5 days a week for about an hour. I swear, he must be only 4-5 pounds. Hes at an apartment, and is so small I have to carry him down the steps to walk. He squeaks and squeals every time I arrive, and he is happy to go out and run around for 20 min or so...then he always wants to go back in to play fetch (can't really play outside since the grass is almost too deep for him)
I have never met a spaniel so ready to play fetch...he'll play fetch and tug of war for hours if he could! He's great.





In between walkings, I have been repainting the trim in the house, it seems as though they replaced some, or took out rugs or something, and added new trim and didnt repaint it, so I am doing that for my house project for the week.

Finally a good weekend is coming up! 50s and sunny! Not that we haven't had good weekends, but somehow we always seem to get some rain or snow either friday night into saturday or sunday evening...this one is finally 2 clear days of sun and warmth! Looks good for dog walks and hikes outside!

Yeah for Friday Night date nights

Yeah for Weaver St market!
Its Friday, that means its time for our little walk to dinner date. Drew started asking me last night if I was excited "for tomorrow"..."Whats tomorrow, I asked? " "Weaver St date night" he sighed.

Its a bit warmer than it was last time we walked to our place for friday night dinner. Its 5:40 and still light out, and at least in the mid 50s as the sun sets. Nice night for a walk with someone you love :)

Its been really nice the last few days here, the mornings have reminded me of walking to school in Arizona in Jan/Feb. Below freezing at sunrise, but by midday we were taking off our layers and quite comfortable in pants and a light shirt.

Its so funny how certain sounds or smells (like college kids barely getting the sleepys out of their eyes walking and biking to school) will take you to a place that really only exists in your head anymore. Not that Tucson doesn't exists, but that time in my life is not longer actually there. Our apartment is lived in by someone else...wonder who got our bed? hahaha!! Sometimes college is another lifetime ago, and then sometimes it seems like just yesterday. My roommate hasn't changed, we sleep on different sides of the bed now, but we still have the same habits. I always went to bed earlier, he was always up later watching tv, studying, or visiting with my other roommates...and I always got up earlier in the mornings. Though morning and night have changed a bit,..a late night is no longer 4am, and an early morning isnt 9am anymore either!

Well that was a nice little walk down memory lane. No longer on nightly walks and rambling talks with Drew in Tucson as barely 20somethings...they have grown as we have, into a special time we get to spend with one another. It used to be that we needed to walk to get off campus because neither of us had a car, we would walk down to 4th av to Bisonwich's and get a soup and 1/2 sandwich. Now in our 30s (well almost for me) we walk because we like to, no more Bisonwich's, but now Weaver St Market...I am in whole food/coop heaven, its like a little piece of my favorite parts of Tuscon, right here in NC for me.