Thirteen.One

First and foremost, I must take my hat off to all those who have run a marathon.  You should get a medal (if didn't  - you got cheated...go ask for one)!  After running a half, I can't imagine what running another 13.1 miles would feel like.

Now that I have that out of the way and off my chest, in January, my sister called me and asked me if I wanted to run a half marathon with her in April.  At the time, I didn't have a job and so of course thought it was a great idea!  I had all the time in the world to train - what else was I going to do besides look for a job.  Thus the training began.

I was pretty disciplined in my training and even spent a week training in Colorado to do some altitude training.  Just kidding, that isn't the real reason I went to Colorado.  I was there visiting my sister and still needed to train.  That weekend was a 9 mile run - the hardest run of my life.  My 10 mile run the next week was a piece of cake compared to that. 

I want go give a shout out to Hubbie for a few things regarding the half:

• taking the photos 
• driving us to the start on Sunday morning at 6:45am, when he could have been snoozing
• running the last few miles with me on some of my longer training runs
• And the BIGGEST SACRIFICE OF ALL...missing some of the Masters on Sunday.  We drove back Sunday afternoon and so he missed some of the Masters...you know the tradition unlike any other or whatever their slogan is.  We couldn't even get it on the radio so I was giving him leaderboard updates every ten minutes via my snaz phone.     I do have the best Hubbie!

Here are the photos... 

Yes, the name was the Flying Pirate Half Marathon and was in the Outer Banks, NC.  They even shot off a canon when the race began.  Hubbie was fascinated with that.  Arrrghh you ready to run???

One of the fun things about running in a race are all the people.  I am a huge people watcher and so lots of excitement for me.  A lot of people were dressed as pirates, patch and all.  Some women were wearing black and red tutu's.  Not my preferred running attire, but whatever gets you to the finish line.  

Here we are before the race, walking to the starting line.  Note to all you who want to run a race: the port a potty line will be long...make sure you arrive early if you need to go.  Props again to Hubbie for finding a set of porties without a line.  You da best!!  It was maybe 50 degrees when we began the race.  Chilly...
I think we are wondering what have we gotten ourselves into at this point.  It was too late to back out...they had our money!

Right before the race.  Off went the fleece...go time!!  We were in Corral #2, the black bibs.  I felt like a bunch of cattle in those corrals.  Couldn't they have given it another name.  There were 4 corrals total, so we felt good being in the second one.  Each Corral started a few minutes behind the other, I guess this helps spread out the runners and allows the fasties (what I called anyone wearing a red bib since they were in the first group) room so they wouldn't have to pass so many people.  Don't we look so excited to run 13.1 miles!!!

There we are in the pink!  I have my hands raised.  This is between mile 8 and 9.  My sister now has shed her yellow shirt and has on a pink one too.  We didn't even plan it!  Hubbie and my parents were here to cheer us at this spectator point.

There I am in the pink behind the lady with the blue/turquoise shorts on.  Hubbie said she got in the way at the last second.  The last 3/4 mile was up and down hills on mulch (horrible running surface).  But I really felt great.  On my training runs, there was a hill at the end and so I think that helped prepare me. 

Hey, there'z my peeps!!!  Confession time:  You may be wondering why sister is not in the finish photos with me.  Fact: I am still competitive.  Just when I thought I was doing so well.  The story is there was this lady wearing a pink jacket and earlier on the race, I made my sister speed up so we could pass her...I really wanted to pass her.  Then she passed us later in the race.  She was slowing on the hills and so saw my chance to take her.  I took it and in the meantime left my sister (whose knees were hurting her) so I could beat her.  I did this after I told her I that it was okay that she passed us and I would stay with her.  Horrible sister am I to leave her.  Well, good news is our time difference was only seconds and so way to stay with it SIS and still pleading for forgiveness for leaving.  I just had to beat her....

Yay!!! We are done and have our medals and others goods they give you after the race.  I must confess what I was really looking for was a donut.  I ran a 10 mile race several years ago and they had this big tent full of food at the end and they had Krispy Kreme donuts.  Yummm!!    

Couldn't resist this photo with the pirates. They were the greeters into the after race party.  
We are just missing our bandana and patch!  That one pirate might want to be careful that he doesn't do any drastic moves or he might pop one of 
those buttons.

 Little fact, there were over 2000 runners and i think something like 65% were women.  GO LADIES!!

Well, it was fun!  Thanks again to SIS, Hubbie and my parents!!!  We'll do it again soon!!!!

One more Hunter Quote

Just one more Hunter quote that came to me today as I was driving...

One day it snowed.  There were a couple of inches of snow on the road and so as I was taking Hunter to the bus stop I was traveling slow.  They live on a mountain and you have to go down the mountain to the bus stop.

Hunter:  "We are going human speed slow.  I think you can go faster."

Thanks Hunter for your wise counsel on driving in the snow...And just for the record, I wasn't going that slow, but that hill is steep.

Colorado

I've just spent that last 10 days in Colorado with my sister and her boys. What fun!!

While I was there, I spent a lot of time with Hunter (my oldest

nephew who is 6). These are some of the funny things he said to me. Warning: they may not be that funny to you, but they were funny to me so context may be important.

Here are some quotes from my time there (in no particular order).

1. "Heather, why do you look younger than Mom?"

(for those of you that don't know, my sister that lives in Colorado is older than I am.)

2. "Don't forget to pick me up at the bus stop today."

(One of my duties while there was to pick Hunter up fro

m the bus stop each day. He would say this numerous times as we are driving our short distance to the bus stop.)

3. "I was afraid you had forgot to pick me up."

(This is what he said as he got off the bus.)

4. "It's okay this time, but Mommy and Daddy usually get out of the car when I get off the bus." (Oh, I didn't know there was a proper way to pick up kids from the bus stop.)

5. "Schmeather"

(What he calls me sometimes. To which I respond, Schmunte

r.)

6. "Can I keep this dough in my room?"

(We made cookies and were making shapes out of the dough - kind of like playdough, but with cookie dough. He wanted to make one that looked like a fire truck. After he made it, he wanted to keep it in his room. You forget kids don't understand that some things have to be refrigerated and can't just "sit" in your room and rot and have bugs crawl on it.)

7. From Hunter's friend as I'm picking him up from school, "Can Hunter and I battle? I taught myself karate and I want to try it out on someone who kno

ws karate?"

(Ummm, no - you can't just beat up on someone who is 2 years younger than you just because you want to try out your karate moves. Hunter does take Tae Kwon Do lessons, but not sure if after school is the place to try out your moves. I did respond in a nicer way for those of you thinking I said this to a 2nd grader.)

8. I went to Hunter's class for show and tell one day. As he is introducing me, he is patting my head like a dog, "This is my Mom's younger sister." His introduction wasn't the funny part, the fact that he was stroking my head like a dog was funny. He must have had this thing with me being the younger sibling. Maybe since he has a younger sibli

ng he was making a strange connection, but nonetheless...younger sister who I pet like a dog and comes when commanded.

9. During his show and tell, kids from his class are allowed to ask questions about the show and tell. One of the kids asked a question that Hunter had answered in his presentation, so when this girl asked it, this was his response, "Actually I already answered that. Do you have another question.?" So business like.

10. "While you put Colton (his younger brother) in his car seat, is it

okay if a do booty and head slides in the bank?"

(It snowed while I was there and we went sledding. Not sure why I think this is funny. Maybe because I was like, sure go ahead...Do a booty and head slide into the snow bank. Or maybe it was because he used the word booty. It could also be that I just let him do head dives into a snow bank. He had on a helmet so I guess I didn't think he could do that much harm to himself. Guess you had to be there.)

Picture of the nephews who I will miss until I get to hang out with them again...Until then, I need to brush up on my monster truck tricks and jumps...

Note: this picture was not taken while I was there. Come on, would I remember to bring a camera and take a picture. You must not know me...

Welcome 2011 and Welcome to Raleigh!

Hello! Happy New Year!! (even though we have been in the new year for a couple of weeks!)

Here is a little update on us:

1. Where did we spend December:

• In Raleigh (in a hotel for a week as we got a few things settled).
• Went to the mountains of Western North Carolina and stayed in a friend's cabin for a couple of days. It snowed!! Yeah! We almost lost our car (okay almost might be an exaggeration), but as I watched it slide down the hill with a sharp drop off to the left I kept yelling for Hubbie to bail. All I could picture was the car sliding off the road down the steep hill. Good news! We made it down!
• Went to see Hubbie's Dad in Charlotte.
• Went to see my family in Virginia. While we were there it snowed 13 inches. Hello, we never get snow in VA much less 13 inches. We actually stay with my sister who lives 30 minutes away and then come to my parents house each day. Well, we drove in the snow twice before staying at my parents house. Testing out the 4 wheel drive on the Ford I guess. I don't think VA owns a snow plow. We drove in some nasty weather. Again...as Hubbie drove, I would sit in the passenger seat, heart beating fast, wondering if we would ever see a plow and hoping someone wouldn't hit us! Puppy loved running in the field and even caught some kind of animal while we were walking.
• My sister and her family came from Colorado and stayed at my parents house, so we got in some great family time, especially with the snow. Not to mention, there were 6 dogs at my parents house (including puppy). It was crazy at times, but a good time.

2. We are finally in Raleigh in our apartment in the beginning of January! Love our apartment, don't love having to keep puppy on a leash every time we take him outside.

2. Watched Auburn win the National Championship with some other Auburn fans in the area!! War Eagle. "It's great to be an Auburn Tiger (even if I married in!). It is amazing that everywhere we go we find Auburn friends. It is a bitter sweet now that the season is over. Bitter because it was so fun to watch Auburn win, Sweet because now I will no longer have that feeling like I'm going to have a heart attack watching them play games. I swear years have been taken off my life being a fan.

3. I read 3 books in December. That is what happens when you don't have a job! I read, count sheep, read more, count more sheep.

• My life in France: an autobiography of Julia Childs. Love that woman! What spunk!!
• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society: This book is a collection of letters between folks post World War II. They talk about life during the German invasion of the island and its effect on people. (Okay so that is not a great summary, but it was a great book.) I learned that in the English Channel there are islands. Didn't know that before. Guess I need to brush up on my geography.
• The Forgotten Garden: Since I'm so good at giving book reviews, the one is about a grandmother and granddaughter's search for where the grandmother was born. She was put on a ship in the 1913 and landed in Australia by herself. So the book tells of how the grandmother searched for her past and how her granddaughter helped. Fascinating book. Can't wait to read another book by this author.

4. Now we are looking for jobs and learning about the area we live in. This past weekend we drove through the Duke Campus. Bea-u-ti-ful!! Hello, can you say prestige!! Don't love looking for a job, but that comes with the territory of moving to a new area!

That's a brief update on us! I'll send pictures....maybe!

On the Road Again

We are on the road again! We sold our cute little house in Memphis and loaded the Penske and headed out to Raleigh, NC. What an adventure the last few months have been!! Our move was motivated to be closer to our family. So here we are in Raleigh, well kind of. We can't move into our apartment until January so we are a bit nomadic these days.

The trip to Raleigh was pretty uneventful. Andy drove the big Penske truck and pulled out car behind it. Amazing that they just let you drive those things without any questions or driving classes. I think when all said and done with the car trailer attached he was longer than an 18 wheeler. I drove the explorer and had puppy as my faithful companion. This drive was a bit similar to the drive we did when we drove from New York to Memphis, but this time we had cell phones. A bit different to be able to communicate. I have two funny stories from the trip:

1. We drove to Knoxville the first day and then spent the night to break up the driving and so we could watch the SEC Championship (War Eagle!). We woke up early the next day to get a jump on driving. After I showered and was getting ready, the electricity went out. It was 6:00 in the morning! What a weird feeling! All those thrilling movies come to your head and you think someone is going to bust into your room and kill you. Hubbie and I just sat there for a moment. What just happened! After we got over the shock and realized that no one was going to break in and attack us, we tried to gather our things and get ready to leave. I mean you want to get out of those places. Hubbie still needed to shower and so it was quite the challenge to gather our things, have Hubbie shower without light. So with our cell phones and the light of the computer screen we gathered our things. It really was quite comical! We come downstairs to find out that the electricity was out on the whole area. We sat down to have some breakfast and while eating the electricity came on. Yeah!! The front desk staff didn't know what happened, but I didn't care. I just glad to get out of that place!

2. When we came out of the hotel in Knoxville, it was flurry. Not a big deal at all. It was actually quite nice to see some flurries. As we drove toward the Smokies, it started to snow a little bit. As we traveled through the mountains of western Carolina, there was snow on the highway. I getting a little nervous. Not necessarily for me, as we have had practice driving in the snow in New York and I was in the explorer that had 4 wheel drive if I needed to use it. My main concern was for Hubbie in that big truck. We are slowly making our way through the curvy road and going through tunnels. It was really pretty. To see the mountains and the snow. Oh how we have missed them both! Then craziness starts to happen. Hubbie pulls into the totally covered snow lane and starts to pass some cars that were traveling a little too slow for him. I guess he was feeling confident and maybe driving such a big truck like that gives you the "I can conquer anything" complex. Meanwhile, I am freaked out and start yelling, "What are you doing?!?!? Get out of that lane! What are you thinking?!?." I was astonished! In my mind I see flashes of the Penske truck with all our belongings sliding off the road and crashing. As I'm hysterical in my car (I only know so because all the carrying on aroused puppy to sit up and move around), I follow him over. What am I doing?? Needless to say, we both passed the slow cars safely and moved back over. Don't worry, I made a phone call to the driver of the Penske to tell him I just had a heart attack and to stop killing me!!

After we arrived in Raleigh, we moved our stuff from the Penske to a storage unit in our apartment complex until we can move in. What are we doing now? Well, great question. We stayed in a hotel for a couple of days to take care of a couple of odds and ends here and then we went to Western Carolina back to the mountains to stay in a friend's cabin. What a treat! While there, we went on a hike. Another treat as we haven't hiked anything in 3 years. We passed by a couple of waterfalls, pictured below. Aren't they pretty!

I love the ice on the walkway below. We weren't able to venture down due to ice.

This was our first hiking experience with puppy. He was so cute! It was funny to see him navigate ice. The first couple of times, he just pranced right on and then would do the trying to catch my balance dance. Which was hilarious! While on top of the mountain, we kept puppy on the leash as I didn't trust him to not wander off the cliff. For the rest of it, we let him go. He was in his element and loved it! Sniffed everything! It was really refreshing to be out in nature again. This is a picture of me and the pup. He didn't want cooperate taking the picture. Too much to see and sniff!

I'll keep everyone updated on our travels this month. We are now back in Raleigh as Hubbie has an interview.

The Silence has ended

How do you begin blogging again after a 5 month silence? Does anyone even check this anymore?

Well, I think I have found the answer. I found this on a friend's blog (even though I don't blog I still do read others). Hubbie thought it was hilarious, genius and I think he loved it because it is a song/advertisement about a minivan. He doesn't talk about minivans as much as when we first were married. Now he is more interested in a truck - not that we are in the hunt for a new auto, this is just in his "if I could have any car I want" world.

Anyways, I loved it and think it's an appropriate way to join the blog world again. Enjoy!

Bring the beat back....

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year Everyone!  With the coming New Year, I have made a resolution to actually blog (this does come with some kind and loving encouragement (prodding) from family and friends).  So, you have my word.  You will hear more from me soon.  Until then, I will leave you with a cute picture of puppy.  Isn't he just the cutest...