Guilt can be a wonderful thing......

If you remember from my last post I wasn't gonna go run out in the cold and snow. Well as the day wore on guilt got the better of me. There was just no way i could enjoy my day off from work if i didn't bundle up and go. All i had to do was think of Lori or Carol running in the snow and cold and my excuse at 38 degrees just wasn't good enough. So i threw on under armor, fleece, gloves and my head band. I even left the ipod at home and just enjoyed the silence. Which really wasn't silence. I could hear the birds chirping and the melting snow dripping off the rooftops. I was so glad i went. I went about noonish and the roads were clear and even dry in some spots. By mid afternoon you could hardly tell we had three inches of snow. But thats the way it is in Texas.

See look at me ! No guilt on me! I then treated myself to a matinee movie called the Blindside. Absolutely wonderful movie. Sandra Bullock does herself proud again. Theres a very fine line to where her character could have been just cheesy and really over done but i think she did a good job of keeping it believable as it is based on a true story. Worth your time and $$ to see in my opinion.

Yesterday i had another choice to make as far as my winter running. It was 35 degrees and a very fine misty drizzle. A little breezy out of the north. Had everybody from coworker to hubby telling me maybe i shouldn't go. I got dressed for the party though and after work drove out to the state park away from cars etc.... and said to myself i would step out of the car, stretch, start out and if it just felt too bad i would turn around and go back to the car......i left my options open and if you've been reading my blog awhile you know i just don't do that. Exercise and choosing the right foods to eat are just not options to me . They just are. Cause if i make it optional in anyway i will not stay on the right path. I know this about myself. Anyway so i got out there and for the first mile and a half i had the drizzle and wind right in my face. Miserable. But not miserable enough to make me turn around. Hugged the stopsign at the turn around point to catch my breath( okay State Park noone around to laugh at me hugging a stopsign except maybe the deer) wiped the drizzle off my glasses as i could barely make out the road at this point and headed back. Its always the weirdest thing that the wind is so awful when your running into it but put your back to it and you can barely feel it. It was a beautiful run back to the car. I'll tell you winter running is the best! I go thru so many hot, humid days during our LONG Texas summer that i do my best not to complain too much about winter running.

The next few weeks are going to be very challenging for my running. And i hope you all will give me a kick in the pants if you find me slipping and coming up with just plain silly excuses not to run. My work environment which has been stable for the last 14 years is a changing. A friend who i thought was a friend turned out to not be a friend. .......And the fact that i give very few if anyone that 'status' is very hurtful. For the last 14 years i have worked early morning shift at my job. Either 5-2 or 6-3pm. Which leaves my evenings to spend with my husband . 3/4ths of our marriage is based on spending evenings at home together as we have been married 20 years. Out of the blue this person has decided that this is not fair and has gone to Human Resourses (HR) to make it fair. So my schedule will rotate with everyone elses mid shift, late, early....etc....... Ofcourse some people may not sympathize with me and see this as only fair. As their are only maybe 5 people in our 150 employee store who has been there as long as i , i feel as though longivity and seniority should count for something. I've been so grateful all these years for them seeing fit to give early shift ( as i know they didn't have to) that i feel as though i worked extra hard for them because of it. To make myself 'worthy' of that extra consideration. I have tons of excellent customer comments in my files, excellent yearly reviews and raises but its a corporation with tons of more flexible people ready to take your spot. I've built my life around this schedule. I go in Thursday at 1pm and i feel like i've lost an epic 14 year battle. I guarded my early shift like it was the crown jewels or something.Anyway just wanted to vent. My life is a changing. As i am looking for a new job in this terrible economy. Ofcourse i will not leave the one i have till i have a new one. This woman could have taken $$ out of my paycheck and i would not be as upset as i 'am over her taking time away from hubby and me. So i'm stressed and pissed what ever you want to call it or both. And i'm trying not to let that interfere with my eating and exercising. Keep me in your thoughts during this transition. I'll need it!

Wrapping It Up!

Some of you may be saying FINALLY....! But this is the wrap up of the trip to San Antonio Half Marathon. We spent one more night at the hotel (two nites total) and stopped one place on the way home . My husband has wanted to show me this place for a long time so we dragged our weary butts out of the truck. Its called 'Outdoor World ' or something like that. Not one of us can remember the name of the darn place! But was i ever glad we stopped. Its incredible! I have lots more pictures of it but didn't want to bore you with more. Kinda funny walking around a store taking pictures...LOL! Its a sporting /hunting store etc... everything from clothes to bow and arrows, guns, christmas stuff.

This fireplace was HUGE . The picture does it no justice. Its a two story store. They had an elevator (thank goodness) that we all rode up. I made myself walk down the stairs. Gotta loosen up! I probably should have walked up too but rode with everyone else. They had a glass fronted elevator so you could see everything as you went up .....very cool. Hey i'm from a small town....i'm easily impressed! Ha!

Equally cool was the xmas tree made out of horns. They also had a humongous fish tank with glass walls several inches thick that had game fish in it like bass, and catfish, carp oh! and a very scary looking gar with a snout full of teeth! I guess they keep them well fed to keep him from eating the other fish.

They had animals all over the place. I don't know if these were real and then stuffed or just completely fake but they sure looked real enough. Everything from ducks in flight up near the ceiling to these elk and bobcats, wolves, buffalo, lions, zebra. They also had and indoor shooting gallery that we all had fun with. You shoot at animals and jars and vases and cactus . They all had a little target on them and if you hit it they would do something like the bear would climb the tree if you hit his target. Hubby of course got the best score but daughter gave him a run for his money me?? Well lets say i at least got on the score board! LOL!

Ms Carol this is the post you've been waiting for .......i won't make you wait anymore!LOL! My daughter..........what can i say.........she can talk me into most anything. ........LOL! Actually i've been wanting to try highlights in my hair for a while now just too chicken to do it and then have to go to work the next day! And if it was just me i would have gone to a professional to have it done. But my daughter is about as close to one as you can be without being one. She's been coloring her hair since she was a teenager. I used to call her my little chameleon. I would never let her color her hair off colors like blue or purple etc.....she had to stay with natural colors.......ie......blonde, brunette, red. ......and believe you me she tested them all. The fact she was involved in sports in high school and they required natural hair colors helped me with that. Funny thing is she's a natural dirty blond. Who wouldn't want to keep that? I always thought she was crazy for coloring that beautiful hair. But i had to let her be herself as much as i could. Wouldn't let her get a tattoo till she was 18 and now guess how many she has???? To give you a hint her dad calls her a billboard...... My thoughts on tattoos ( read on if you really want to know :)) is one or two that perhaps have special meaning to you in places that you can easily cover up if you want to dress up and not let it show. ......but thats just me.......Anyway we are off topic!

Let me tell you getting your hair pulled through this cap is mighty painful! Either that or i have a VERY tender head . Its probably a combination of both. I had tears running down my face while she was doing this. I wanted to keep it to myself but i ended up telling her the real reason i was crying was not from the pain but happiness that i was there doing this with her. My mother, .............was one of those mothers you could never talk her into anything she didn't want to do. If she didn't want to go for a walk there was no talking her into it...And you know how there are things you say you would do differently if you were a mom? Well this was one of those moments. I think loved ones should be able to sway you, maybe get you to try something your not completely comfortable doing. Especially if it causes no harm. They can sway you cause they have your heart. And seeing how happy it made her to actually talk me into doing this against my misgivings was worth all of it, the pain and even if i ended up not liking i could always change it and it will grow and i could cut it out. It wasn't permanent, like a tattoo, and the memory it created she will carry forever.

I think it came out pretty good. Now at least i kind of match my silly blond eyebrows. So weird to have your eyebrows turn blond but not the rest of your hair.... I used to be able to pluck out the occasionally blond but no more! And it is blond and not white! Or so everyone assures me.

Look what happened here today! Actually last night after midnight. Probably three inches. Very unusual for us. Today is a run day.........but i'm chickening out.........I'm gonna pull out my Ripped video and do that instead.........All i can say is i work out in the weather every day at my job in the Garden Center. Rain , snow , boiling hot temps, freezing. .......and its been bitterly cold the last several days and i'm out there throwing around xmas trees, cutting and bagging them, sweeping up needles putting new trees in their places and i'm just tired of being cold. My last two runs this week were freezing too and as this is not a good enough excuse i'm feeling a little guilty. But there it is . I made up my mind to just stay warm today. Look at the pretty snow and stay warm as a bug in a rug. I may venture out later when the roads are better and get my hair cut but we'll see. I'm pretty happy right here right now.

Lets see Monday was a three mile hill run with a cold cold wind. And Wed was a 4 mile flat run with a cold cold wind. If that wind would just die down it would be beautiful! Take care everybody. Back to normal blogging my next entry.

San Antonio trip is OVER! I keep getting asked what the next Half will be and i just don't know. Have stepson and wife coming for a visit in Jan and daughter California wedding to go to in Feb. So lots of expense coming out soon and so it may be a while. I say probably in the fall. Maybe Las Vegas..........Anybody doing a Jingle Bell Run or some such thing for xmas???

Celebration!

You know that half marathon called for some CELEBRATION!!! Daughter treated mom and dad out for Mexican food. It was delish! Hubby and i shared fajitas while daughter had a quesadilla.

But most importantly and celebratory was the margarita! I absolutely love these things on the rocks but NEVER have them because of the calories and salt. So believe you me this one tasted Ssoooo GOoood! Half the glass and it went straight to this nondrinkers head!

Then on still sore feet we dragged ourselves to the 'RainForest Cafe' (which is a pretty neat restaurant if you've never been there) Where we had ANOTHER drink. Think daughter was trying to get her mom tipsy. I thought this picture of me looking at my 'new' legs was pretty funny!

Had a nice Thanksgiving. The usual trimmings and some cake and apple pie. One holiday done. One more looming in the distance .

Need to dig out my cold weather clothes for this next week. Tomorrow(Mon) is a run day for me and the high is in the 40's. Probably my coldest run yet this season. Maybe i'll get to use that new head band of mine. :) Tuesday they are forecasting 1-2 inches of snow. But i will be snug as a bug in a rug doing my weightlifting video in the living room. :) Can't remember have i told you about my new video??? Anyway its a Ripped video . This one is called Slim and Lean. ALOT of reps. I use a 10 pound weight. And i'am SORE afterwards! I'm going to try to do it twice a week. You know i don't even do all the reps and i'am incredibly sore. I think it really shows me why i didn't see much results at the gym except for my belly 'lifting'. I never felt sore from the gym. I think i was just going thru the motions. Trying to follow her on the video is keeping me challenged. I have another Ripped video called Ripped 1000 i think. I like it to so i can switch back and forth when i get bored. Anybody else know of some good weightlifting videos? No aerobic ones as i cannot jump around in my house as its a pier and beam structure and everything would fall off the shelves ! :)

I'm soo excited i get a little taste of cold weather running. I faithfully read 'Lori' and 'Carol's' blogs and i shudder to think of the cold they choose to run in. Way colder than anything you will find in Texas. So you KNOW this little 'thin blooded' runner is gonna be COLD! You know what though??? If it snows like predicted i might just go run in it. Wouldn't that be beautiful? Catch ya later!

Last of the Half Pictures....

If i knew my daughter was going to object to having her picture on my blog i would have been certain to take more without her in the picture! But as she is the love of my life most of the pictures are of her or at least have her somewhere in the photo......geesh!.......... So these are the last of the 'Half ' pictures ( I have ordered a picture of us crossing the finishline hand in hand from the professional people that were there taking pics so i will no doubt post that when it comes in ) though not the last of our trip to San Antonio pictures..... Above picture is of my daughter in front of the Alamo.....she will not be happy i put this in here but she is the only one of us that took the picture in front of the Alamo and i wanted to show you the Alamo......so don't look at the girl in the pink shirt just the ALAMO! I've been to the Alamo before but it was nice to see it again in passing.

There was a gorilla and a banana running around and about 20 people dressed in banana yellow tshirts that set up a 'high five' line that i HAD to be apart of. So i squashed down that 'fear of embarrassment' gene i have and ran over there on purpose to get my high fives! I try very hard to live in the moment these days. And i would have regretted not doing this. So many times we can just let life pass us by. Its so easy to let it happen. Its safer. My fear of embarrassment and being in the spotlight and my need to live my life to the fullest and to end my life with few regrets are constantly at war with each other. On this day i lived my life to the fullest and gave a high five to a banana.

I do regret not running up and giving Elmo a hug myself. Not only would it have been fun then too i would have a picture of me and Elmo and not the one of my daughter and Elmo that will make her unhappy i posted.Buzz Lightyear was also there but i don't want to push my luck posting her picture again.......:) Next time i promise i will run up and hug any and all cute cuddly people dressed up as cartoon characters for your viewing pleasure! LOL!

Thats hubby and i in our blue and green shirts. As you can see tons and tons of walkers. It does my heart good to see all these people concerned about their health and to see marathons and half marathons are still going strong and still have alot of people interested in them.

What you haven't seen pictured is several of the nursing homes along the route had their patients line the sidewalk in wheel chairs cheering us on and waving at us. They all had these big smiles on their faces.It was so wonderful. Nor do you see all the beautiful old Victorian houses we passed. In various states of decay and repair. Beautiful.

Even though the course description states flat and fast their were a few hills but not bad. We even managed to break into a jog going down some of the hills and downgrades. The last 5k was hard on all of us. The water station from mile 9 - 11 was missing and we really missed it. I can't express to you how wonderful it was to 'SHARE' this experience with my husband and daughter. To hold hands crossing the finish line together. In the past one or more of us was always on the sideline cheering the other on. But now we've created a memory and i will treasure it always.

During the walk hubby said that this was his first and last half marathon. But now that the pain and discomfort has faded he wants to know when we are doing the next one! A little part of my heart hopes that this will become a family tradition of doing at least one half marathon a year. Hopefully a new one each time.

***** I know its been all about the "HALF" here lately on my blog but i wanted you to know i'm doing good otherwise..... Got on the scale for the first time this month and i saw a beautiful number. 177.2! Thats down 2 pounds from last month. I'll take it! Its been a little difficult to get back into my running routine after the Half. First i was sore from the half then i started having tooth problems and its just been one thing after another. But i think things are fixing to settle down again and i can get back to the business of taking care of ME! The fact that it gets dark so early is not helping either.

I probably have two more posts on San Antonio.........one the after party and two the Outdoor Pro Shop we stopped at on the way home. Then its back to my life as usual......LOL! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving if i don't talk to you before then. I have some pies i need to bake.... 'Chess Pie' and 'Shoo Fly Pie' and theres not one healthy thing i can say about them . But they're yummy!

Getting Closer!!!!!

Well we are up to the night before the big event. We decided to go down on the Riverwalk to Joe's Crab Shack. Probably not the best fodder before the race but i had a hankering for steamed clams. MMMmmm! Ate way to much but it was waaaaaay yummy. The waitress put these silly bibs on us that came off right after the photo op! :)

Hubby meditating race morning. We had to get up really early. After it was all said and done we probably got up too early as we had a long wait before the start. We had a few options on how to get ourselves to the starting line. We were not close enough to walk. We were closer to the finish line and they were not one in the same. It was nerve wracking trying to decide on the best option as i did not want race morning to be crazy. We decided on going to the Gonzales Center to ride a bus to the start. It was only a few blocks from the hotel. The line for the buses snaked in row after row after row......we thought we must be really late. People were still coming form all directions and soon the line behind us was way longer than the line in front of us so we weren't late we were early!LOL!

This is me on the bus. Actually the whole transportation thing to the start went quickly and smoothly. They loaded and sent off 2 buses at a time. The only down side was they did not drop us off very close to where we needed to be. By the time we got there we felt we had walked quite a distance before the race even started.

It was very encouraging to see rank after rank of porta potties! :) If you look close in the pic above thats them in the distance. Thats a row of about 120 . We guesstimated there were about 400 at the start. Surely you would think that was sufficient. But we decided about 30 min before the start to make one last potty break and we spent the last 28 min before the start in line for the potty. Guess everyone had the same idea. LOL! I do have a question though......why don't they pass out more toilet paper??? Have someone go around handing out more paper.Geesh! Maybe they are afraid they will get attacked?! :) I mean there was even someone picking up some paper off the ground to use....(sorry TMI) With every thing else they provide...i don't think its too much to ask for toilet paper.

We were in Corral #33. Way way at the back. I estimated our time at 4 hours to finish to be on the safe side. One thing i LOVE about these races is the eclectic bunch of people that surround you from every walk of life. All with a common goal. Cross that finish line. Tall, heavy, short,round,skinny,old , young,beginners,
experienced,friendly, quiet, serious, joking. And you can find all of that just in your immediate vicinity.

Aaahhh finally the start! If you look closely at that podium thats 'The Penquin" . You already know how cool i thought that was! They let us go one corral at a time about 1 1/2 minutes apart. While we were waiting they started batting a beach ball around and doing 'the wave'. That was alot of fun. And were off!

Wuzzles and Goodies at the Expo!

This is a Wuzzle.....(the creature i created for my daughter's lunch boxes years ago. Normally he's this big hairy thing but for this pic i pulled all his hair up into a bandanna gave him sunglasses,running shoes (normally he has big feet with a big toe) and a guitar for the Rock and Roll Race. My daughter colored all three of ours and we printed it out on transfer paper and put it on our tshirts. Let me tell you this was almost a disaster. The darn transfer paper would not stick! I was so frustrated. I got them on there but they did not hold up well. Oh well i have the original pictures and i will keep them for the scrap book. The best thing i did was put our first names on the front of the shirt, not a mile went by that someone wasn't calling out one or all of our names cheering us on. I think the spectators liked being able to call out our names as much as we liked hearing it. It started lots of wonderful interactions with people we didn't know and will no doubt never see again. My daughter got a kick out of when i guy called out "Go Amber with the backwards 'B'!" And sure enough i had put her 'B' on backwards....Geesh! Told you i was frazzled trying to pull it all together!

Look what i treated myself to at the Expo!!! It was pricey but i've been saving my money for months for this trip and i really wanted a piece of running jewelry. Listen to me still trying to justify spending the $$ . Geesh! But i love it! I told my daughter (as she wanted one too) if your still running by the next Expo i'd get her one too.

They were selling subscriptions to a new running magazine.....'Women's Running'. I wasn't ready to sign up for a subscription though after looking through the issue they were handing out it looks pretty good. But i sure wanted the tshirt they were handing out with subscriptions. So i bought my daughter and i each one for $10 each. ...........okay thats it with the expo. Next post will be the night before the race and maybe the morning of.......... tune in. LOL!

Saturday at the Expo!

We drove 4 hours to the Expo at the Alamo dome Saturday morning the day before the Race. It seemed to be very well organized. Packet pick up went smoothly, very helpful , friendly ,patient people. If you look you'll notice the new disposable timing chips. When i did the Austin Half in 2008 i had to turn the chip back in at the finish line. So that was pretty cool. We each took a pic picking up our packet. :)

The Expo was packed! Quite the open floor plan where the packet pick up was but then it was wall to wall with vendors handing out and selling their wares. As far as free giveaways in the form of bars, and drinks, gu, vitamins you name it San Antonio beat out Austin hands down. Bought myself a couple of gifts there i will show you next posting....And yes San Antonio is a Rock and Roll Race.However this is only San Antonios second year. We spent a total of about 2 hours there and honestly i could have stayed longer. Hubby's feet bother him when he stands around alot and with the race the next day did not even want to tempt fate. I did stand in line to stand on a Garmin scale. It would register your body fat percentage, BMI and just a bunch of stuff. Just good stuff i thought to know as i'm struggling to get any lower on the scale. Well i stood in line for 20 minutes for nothing as when i stepped on the scale it said i was dehydrated and none of the numbers would be accurate. I was so bummed. But then the scale said my age was 63 so something was up. I'd had 2 cups of coffee and a bottle of water by that time but still not good enough. The guy said my cells were not absorbing the water...??? He said there are things on the market that can help with that but did not enlighten me... can anyone?? Are we talking like gatorade with electrolites?? I don't drink that normally cause i don't like to drink my calories....Well i had the brainstorm that it was gatorade so i bought a bottle of the G2 lower calorie one and the interesting thing is water usually goes right thru me...(TMI...sorry) but the Gatorade stayed with me longer.....mean anything???..On the way out you will never, NEVER guess who we saw! If you read Runner's World magazine you'll know the name right away. He is like my running hero. His quote of 'The Miracle is not that i finished but that i had the courage to start' carried me through lots of my early running. You guessed it! John 'The Penguin' Bingham! He was giving a lecture( talk,....speech whatever.....) . We were on our way out and like i said we needed to leave so i didn't hang around to catch his speech. We did snap a photo but wouldn't you know it was one of the few that didn't come out. He had something shiny on his shirt that ruined it. But boy i was on cloud 9! Not only that but he was the announcer as your corral came up to the starting line he sent you off down the road. Great great experience.

Here is some of the goody bag take. I'll tell you what i'am not a bar fan. Uuugh. The best tasting had to be the Cascadian Farm bars and the Larabar gets my vote for worst. And really Gingerbread flavored GU ......blahhhkk........Anyway though it was fun trying everything and finding things i did like and those to stay away from. Got to try Muscle Milk (thumbs down ) and Honey Milk( thumbs down) In the picture is some little tiny bottles of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Know i'll use those. Spent an hour going through everything back in the hotel room. :) Our Saturday did not end here but I'll tell you more next post. "Waddle on Friends"