Run Log: May 2012

I ran one race in May ~ the Red Bird Run 5K~ where I placed FIRST in my age group.  Run Club was hit-or-miss.  Bill and I were the only ones to make the promised Dairy Queen run last Tuesday.  I couldn't talk him into running the long way there (didn't try real hard), so we ran maybe a mile and I ate a oreo & banana blizzard on the mile walk back.  (I was wearing a very sassy running skirt).
I'm hoping run club continues throughout the summer.  Cheryl and I have discussed it; we'll see what works out.
Running itself was good this month.  A little twinge in the ankle...and the IT band started to act up, but that ROLLER is AMAZING.  I should use it more to prevent...but it still rather makes me want to say, "@&*!", so I put it off until I have to use it.


May's totals:
69 miles for the month 
356.5 miles for the year
0 biking miles for the month
52 biking miles for the year
183 miles in my red & blue Asics so it's ok that they don't look shiny & new anymore
and 1 mile swimming for the year...


Some interesting facts:

Longest run this month: 7.5 miles
Favorite place to run this month: have to be the DQ run club run.  How do you not love a short run with ice cream @ the end?# of bags of Candy Cane Kisses left in my cabinet: 1 (which means I didn't eat any in May...I think I'm holding on because once I open them I have to wait 'til December for more.)
# of boxes of Girl Scout cookies left in the cabinet: 1&1/2  AND I didn't eat any of those this month either...time for those to go, they'll just go bad.
# of books I read this month: a pitiful 1 (I CAN NOT stay away for more than 2 pages...and it's not a bad book!)
Biggest YMCA pet peeve this month: As the weather is BEAUTIFUL, I have only been to the Y to pick up our GOLD Ironman t's...so I'm quite happy with the Y (maybe I should be peeved that I continue to spend $70 a month for something I don't use)

Monthly mileage record: 80.5 miles March 2012 
Highest mileage ever-at-one-time:  13.1 miles ~ May 16, 2010 (Cleveland 1/2)


PR's:
5K: 22:45 (Rabbit Run 10/30/11~ but I think it was a short course)
10K: 52:02 (Cleveland 5/15/11)
10-miler: 1:21:29 (Hermes Cleveland 10-miler 4/28/12)
half-marathon: 1:55:04 (Cleveland 5/16/10)
marathon: 3:50:05 (Akron relay {team run} 9/24/11)

frog pond

My fish pond has become a frog pond, and I'm not very excited about it.  Today, when I went out to feed my last two fish, I see unspeakable things happening between two toads in my pond.  {I know they are toads and not frogs because the eggs were laid in strings and not bunches ~ and they are now all over my pond.}  I really just wanted to clean out my pond and get rid of the eggs, like I did the last time I saw toad eggs in my pond.  But, since I KNOW these are fertilized {because I witnessed the deed with my own two eyes} I decided to let nature take it course.  I went online and found out that toad eggs will 'hatch' into tadpoles in 6 to 21 days.  Very few will actually make it into toad-dom, but maybe one will.  Meanwhile, I'll see how my fish do...

Run Gear

I used to be the girl who ran in crappy old sweatpants and a non-matching t-shirt because, I reasoned, I was RUNNING...I should be allowed to wear whatever I wanted.  I don't know what happened to that girl, because now I believe that I'm RUNNING ~ I should look AMAZING.  I started buying running skirts at Target a couple of years ago.  I found them for $24 or so, and love running in them.  I feel like such a girl, not a stinky smelly sweaty boy!
Just a few weeks ago I finally gave myself a treat ~ I bought some 'expensive' running skirts from Athleta.com.  Yea, I spent over $100 on two skirts.  BUT I LOVE THEM.  Here they are:
The Swagger Skort.  and the Tennis Flirt Skirt.  I look just like the model, by the way, except I hide my tummy under some fat, so as not to make those around me feel inferior.  Thoughtful, no?


I've also been looking for a GPS watch that doesn't cost 200 bucks.  I found a couple, but they don't get very good reviews on line.  I was ready to buy one, and Mike surprised me with a Garmin Forerunner 110.  It is perfect for what I want. (except it didn't meet my $100 limit)  I ran 7.5 miles today with a 8:51 pace.  And I just kind of ran where I wanted to.  No longer do I need to plan out my route ahead of time.  Now I can go where the running wind takes me & still be able to track my miles.  Oh the freedom this gives my OCD soul.
I am cute and timely.
Now I really do need to run another half.

more poppies

I just can't help myself.  Every morning I've gone outside & taken pictures of my poppies.  They are SO BEAUTIFUL.  How RED and how BIG and how DELICATE they are.  The petals are like fine linen paper with intricate folds and ruffles.  My pictures are much more descriptive than my words.

Seeing RED

It's happy POPPY day in my garden.  I've been walking by my poppy buds for days and days.  And today was the day.  This morning {I don't even know why I looked at the side garden...maybe it was that stupid dog chasing something} I looked by the side of my house and I saw RED.   A bloomed poppy.  When I walked around to look at the flower, there wasn't just one bloomed poppy, there were FIVE bloomed poppies!






Once again, I wish I were a poet & could use words to express the feeling these beautiful flowers bring to my soul.  It's almost a hymn how magnificent they are at the top of their long stem.  How strong that stem has to bee to hold the bloom.  How red the petals are.  How intricate the black center of the flower.  How they just come into being.

Not two months ago there was nothing but dirt.  Then little green leaves pushed through & became taller and wider & shot a tall stem with a large flower bud waiting for the time to spring forth.

They will last but a short time and I will enjoy each day.

dirty day

A glorious day to play in the dirt.
Sunny, warm to hot, flowers in bloom, Middle Ridge Gardens crowded & filled with plants.

I saw a tipsy plant tower on Pinterest not too long ago and wanted to recreate it in my garden.  I asked Mike where I could get some rebar & explained to him what I wanted to do.  He looked around and found two old faucets attached to copper pipe about 3 feet long.  "What about these?" he asks.
"Where did you get those?"
"Right here," and he points to the ground on the side of the garage.  We have cool crap everywhere!
So we went from my Pinterest version to this:

Not the greatest picture, but you get the idea.  I'm pretty excited to see what they look like as the plants grow.  I filled them with pansies & some other beautiful flowers.  I put the ones that will grow the tallest on the bottom.  We'll see how it turns out.  Now to plant the bed they are in...without over doing it (which I'm quite good at!)

I also planted my garden today.  Here it is, all freshly planted, staked & watered.  I took a picture before I lost the battle with the weeds.

What are they thinking?

Went out for my run this afternoon.  Sunny, a little breezy, in the 60's.  Nice day to go my 4½ loop.  I turn onto Bates only to see a train stopped on the tracks. "Great," I think, "I've got to run back...my least favorite way to run. {Bates is a sucky road...It's SOOO arched that you either have to run in the middle of the road or in the grass...which is bumpy and lumpy and lined with mailboxes & Middle Ridge just goes on and on, my friend.}  I'm thinking that maybe, just maybe, the train will start to move and be gone by the time I get there.

A little white car passes me...can't they see the stopped train?  They go past the place that is easy to turn around in and go over the the first set of tracks.  "Surely," I think, "they will turn around in the metal shop drive."  No, they go right by it and pull up as close as they can to the tracks.  "Maybe they'll back up?"  No, they put the car in park and sit there, nose into the stopped train.  I run up to the gate, high five it (thought about high fiving the train), run around the parked car and head back down Bates.  The car still sits there.  I was a quarter mile back down the road before they passed me, heading back down Bates. 

What were they thinking?

Why would you sit for a stopped train?

I think America has lost the ability to problem solve efficiently.
***update***
When I told my husband this story, he mentioned that maybe people just have more patience than I do.
Things that make you go hummmmmmm.  Well, maybe he's right.

people

Last tennis match of the season (yeah) today.  At Chardon, home of the three tennis courts.  Patrick's playing third singles ~ I figure he's one of the first three matches...oh no, first singles, second singles, first doubles...and when first doubles ended...there went second doubles.  Patrick started playing just as the second doubles was ending!  But it was a beautiful day to stand around watching tennis!  I'll take 70 & sunny all day :)

During the first singles match the Chardon kid lost his cool and shot the tennis ball into the side fence.  Coach called it a penalty point.  And the Chardon fans disagreed.  The kid's dad got rather snotty with Coach.  The Chardon Coach didn't know the rule and questioned Coach.  I was sitting on the bench next to coach when she marched over with the rule book, "Show me.  Show me where it's at."  I kind of turn away from their conversation; I want no part of it.  Right then one of the kids hits a really high lob shot that almost makes it over the fence.  I say, to Bill, "touchdown."  

The Chardon coach asks, "Is she talking to me?  Is she talking to me?"  

Coach doesn't know what she's talking about and the third time she says it, I realize she means my comment.  So I say, "No, the kids almost hit it over the fence, like a touchdown."

"Oh, so she was talking to me."

"NO, I was commenting on the game."

"Why is she talking about me?"

HUH?  The woman was looking for a fight, so I was mature and walked away.

How about we teach our kids respect for the game?

UGH.

Red Bird Run

May 12, 2012 ~ my first Red Bird Run.  Joined by Patrick Barton & Honey Badger Team Racing members Rob Holland and Kirsten Handler.  A beautiful day along Lake Erie.  In the 60's and bright sunshine.  The run was put on by the Track and Cross Country teams, and a deal was put before the kids.  "Hey middle school kids, do you think you can run faster than a girl?  Any boy who beats Coach K and any girl who beats Coach Barton will win a donut party for their first period class."  WHAT?  That's some serious pressure.  Audrey came up to me and said, "Mrs. Barton, I can't beat you, but Emily can.  And she's in my first period class."
At the start, the middle school kids lined up right behind the high school kids...and I told them, "Don't run with the high school girls.  They are going to shoot out of here and we will run out of gas if we follow them."  Well, Emily goes out with them and I don't follow my own advice.  I was at 7:04 @ the first mile.  Had to slow it down some then.  I could see Emily, but I knew, unless she fell down and stayed there I had no chance.  And no chance had I.  She beat me by a couple of minutes.  AND Peter beat Coach K...so we each gave up one donut party.  (Jacob's happy because Peter's in his first period class.)
BUT, BUT, BUT.  Even though I did not break 23 minutes (24:16 to be precise), I placed 55th ~ AND I WON MY AGE GROUP.  NUMBER 1.  BEST OF THE 40 YEAR OLD WOMEN.  It really took all I could not to jump up and down and dance when they called my name.  I handled it, but I was jumping up and down on the inside.
Patrick ran 22:36...with all those cross country kids he didn't place, but he beat his champion mother!  He did win a door prize...two movie tickets!
And Rob won his age group too!  We were two victors eating breakfast & drinking beer at Cornerstone after the race.
Exciting day.

Love & marriage

Mike and I were at Jacob's soccer game yesterday morning waiting for the other team to show up so we could play...(really?)...Mike taps me, pointing to a couple running down the road and says, "Hey, it's us!"   To which I reply, "Except that they're not yelling at each other."  We laugh, because it's true.  We are not relaxed when we run together...we yell at each other, about pace, about not keeping up, about running ahead...
About halfway through the game the father of a friend of Jacob's comes over and asks us if we ever fight.  Right out of the blue.  Mike & I laugh, because we've just talked about this running couple.  I tell him that story & he still questions how we get along so well.
I thought about that all day.  I don't think we are an exceptional couple or anything; we just really like each other.  We aren't afraid to tell each other to knock off any bad attitudes or behaviors.  We really want to be happy in our home and our marriage.  I do think that is a choice.
There are times when I've felt how tenuous the relationship can be, but we're both in this for the long haul.  I love that guy like I love myself.  I am very blessed.

#10

Double Digit Time!  Book #10 for 2012 is The Year the Swallows Came Early by Kathryn Fitzmaurice.  It's a YA novel about a girl whose father stole her inheritance and a boy whose mother left for a weekend and never came back.  It's a story about forgiveness and understanding.  It's about seeing things from another point of view.  And it's about choosing your future instead of letting hatred choose it for you.  Aimed at teens, it's a sweet tale.  I liked the chapter titles...don't see those much.
fl: We lived in a perfect stucco house, just off the sparkly Pacific, with a lime tree in the backyard and pink and yellow roses gone wild around a picket fence. ll: Frankie just smiled.