Preparing to age

Welp. 33 cometh. Well not quite yet, it's like next week or something.... thursday to be exact. Lately it's been CRAYCRAY with my schedule. Since I have blogged last I have done a lot, for me at least. It seems like everyday it's crammed with crap to do until I hit the pillow. Errands out the yingyang, but also fun stuff too!

I went to a concert on a Tuesday night with my BFF. It was a birthday gift from hubs. When we decided we were going to the concert around Christmas time we were concentrating on the tickets, just obtaining them, we didn't realize it was a work night/school night. The concert itself was as awesome as I thought it would be, Fall Out Boy. I did, however, notice one thing. A large population of children attending, or at least to me what looks like children. Pssst.....I might be an "old Chick". What's good about being in my thirties as opposed to my 20's is: 1. I have more money. I was poor when I was that young, and 2. I don't give a rats ass what people think about me in that situation. I wear what I want, I dance when I want to, I am not afraid of having a good time. I don't have time for all that appearance scene, like me or don't, no skin off my nose. I must have been a little cranky by the time it was over and we were going home, I cussed out some guy in the parking lot, for disregarding my Vdubs. But, a great time was had by all. But it did make for some extra fatigue last week. Above is a picture. It was hoot. Thanks Hubbs!

Then on the weekend we went camping, a busy time for me, packing, going there, setting up, tearing down, getting home.... We had a great time though. Just being us Finks. It's so worth all the hassle to see their little smiles. I ended up not bringing my running shoes because I felt a little protest in my knee the day before we left and decided it was smarter to just rest. With no sports bra and no sneaks I would have to rest....a likely story until you try and "walk" skippy. I had a pair of old crapster sneaks that were smashed down on all fronts I used to run in. That darn dog has gravitational pull. It was only 20 minutes and I didn't hurt during but the same spot has been hurting me/complaining since.  Here's a picture of me the boys and Skippy dog.

I am still a little tired. Not sure if I am coming down with something or if I just need to sleep a lot more I got a little bit of clicky knee this week too. It could just be a flukey thing, sometimes I end up getting sick when this happens or I end up needing a rest. Not really sure wear that leaves Saturday, it's the  Darlington Derby, and it's my favorite race. I plan to go, but I don't plan to run until then, plans change..hopefully I rest up and it's a memory. I did get out the foam roller, I didn't miss that little torture device at all, but it's a necessary evil. And that perfume I have been wearing....that's Tiger Balm.
It's kinda funny I am not at all worried about 33. I told my friend recently, I am better in my thirties than I have ever been, I am just mad at myself for waiting so long to actually LIVE my life.
Tired? I can take it. :)

Onward.

dreaming big.

So... you all know I have been one pound from my goal weight. Well I am not now. I am 160lbs. I gained. SOOOOO close, and I messed it up. Really I know I did it probably subconciously on purpose with a few extenuating circumstances: a marathon taper and mother natures wrath didn't help.  I force myself to be honest. For the longest time I couldn't find a reason to continue working at something hitting this goal, and keeping this blog. I have been zero-ing in on actually closing this blog to future posts because it didn't make sense to continue. In the meantime I have accepted all of this and backtracked a few ticks.

This will all be okay, I have a plan.

I am first going to bail out the extra poundage from the ship. Second I am going to accept reaching the goal when I reach it. Third I am going to start a new challenge. The new challenge...I am going to run an Ultra. I am looking at at 50k. A long time ago this seemed crazy, now I see this is something to shoot for. The race I have in mind takes place in March pretty close to home, that will give me plenty of time to train, get stronger, and possibly a little smaller(not too much). I think this is the umph I was looking for recently. Just searching for something to really commit to. I haven't worked out all the training yet, but basically it involves a full marathon distance in the training plan at least one run. This is all going to be winter distances too! CHALLENGE! Game on.

I am not closing my blog either, the thought of that bummed me out. Now I have a new reason to share, am an aspiring ultra runner there is going to be new things to learn and plenty of stories to write.

Onward.

Pitt half 5-5-13

The 'big city' was good to me. Overall finish time 2:24:33.
I got there in the city at 5am. Ended up finding my corral pretty early and some unholy portajohns that were useful. It was cold and the giant herd of people and I were all shivering. There was a DJ and music in the air very party like atmosphere. He tried to get us to do the macarena but no one could remember how to do it close proximity to me anyway.Not a surprise.

By the time the gun went off and it was our turn to get across the start it had been 20minutes. As I crossed the start line I must have pushed the wrong button on my garmin and it did not start taking time. I tried frantically while I started to run to fix it but then soon realized if I didn't pay attention I would be stampeded and gave up. At this point my garmin was just an expensive useless piece of jewelry that I could not ditch, I tried to move on and forget it. When they say there is a time clock and a mile marker every mile, they mean it but you don't see them. It really is confusing a huge stampede.

By mile 6 my bladder was starting to give out. I had to pee so badly I started seeing words flash around my head like:  bladder rupture, uremia, visibly peed pants, stinky runner, mandypeepants. I saw portapottys, and when I stopped then I noticed the 10 people deep line. SHITS. I had to wait, I couldn't make it any further. I tried to be a good sport but I was busting my balls for time and now I have to wait. I literally untied my skapris while waiting in line with other people so I could be ready. After I did my deeds it was about 10 minutes total. :( Surprise 1 of the day!

Surprise 2 has to do with the course. I am from Pittsburgh, been in and out of the city my whole life, I have traveled those bridges and areas and I never noticed just how freaking hilly it really was. I mean HILLY. Every one of those awesome bridges represent and uphill and a downhill. You never notice in a car! Also the roads I knew were bad hills were monstrosities at this point. I was not pacing myself. I had no working watch. I wasn't timing my fuels. What planet was I even on????

Suprise 3 The fuel stations. Do you know that they squirt GU on to a toungue depressor and pass it to you that way? UM yeah, me niether until it was too late!!! It occured to me as i ran over the trampled toungue blades, thinking why do all these people need vaseline? DUH.

Suprise 4  the fans. WOW. I felt important. The home stretch was ridiculous. Honestly just thousands of people cheering. I was knee deep in other people but I still felt awesome. I even hammed it up to make up yell louder. I recommend a personalized bib, they know your name!!!So much fun! My superfan, HUBS never saw me once, it was just too crowded!

It was so well organized. I was really shocked to see how quickly in and out it was. Very well orchestrated all around. We were home by 12pm. Sadly by the time we had been home a few hours we heard that a young man of 23 passed away on mile 12. It kinda left the air out of the balloon for us, it went from a buzzy feeling to kind of ominous. As we heard it on the news I reached over and squeezed my boys. My thoughts and prayers are with that young man's family.  It is real that life is short, unscheduled, and sometimes really harsh.

Onward.

expo!!!!

I got my race packet today at the marathon expo! I had so much fun wandering around "shopping" looking at all the great stuff. Also found out about a few fall marathons I may sign up for one of them. I love my race shirt it matches my Vdubbs. I didn't get my hands on the shirt I was searching for but I did order it online. This is it.>

 

I am not exactly thrilled I didn't go for the big 26.2 but there are advantages to doing the half distance in the city, namely if I get lost or have walk a long way I won't be delirious or need carried. I am kinda sad because I want to run with 'full' kids. But, again, big city very nervous clausterphobic freakshow, probably good to just be doing half my potential.

I am going for a PR(personal record) tomorrow. I am also singed up for the Athena challenge. Women over 150 lbs weigh in and compete for their event. I am working on being the BIG fast. :D It cracks me up that the cut off is 5 lbs less than my goal weight! Look for me to post those standings when they become available, I am going to kick the shit out of that!

I have nothing packed for tomorrow yet. My house is still not clean either. So  I guess that's what I shall be doing shortly. It's up a 3a, to the city!

Lets RUN baby.
Onward.