We are one flight away from Paris!!! Matt and I dodged out of work yesterday to make sure that we had plenty of time and to also make some last minute shopping stops to get things. I know Hef is just a dog, but it’s sad to leave him. He’s in great hands with the grandparents who spoil him rotten but I’m sure I’m going to be in Hef withdrawal in a couple days. Oh boy, what am I going to do when I have a human child!!

When I returned the orange purse w/ an ugly strap yesterday I went to a different store to return and was able to find purse that i REALLY like. I found the one!

Just what I was looking for and it will hold my SLR camera along w/ the necessities. After successful shopping we had dinner and headed to the airport to our hotel. Since we stayed overnight at the hotel we were able to leave our vehicle there for a small fee for up to two weeks. It ended up being cheaper and better than parking in economy and the shuttle arrives every 20 minutes and should be much easier when we return.

Matt is Marriott Gold status so we were able to enjoy a nice little lounge with snacks, drinks and a good breakfast this morning. We arrived in Chicago and are spending our 6 hr layover in the Admiral Lounge which is the AA lounge.

You won’t believe it but I was an AWESOME packer this trip! I had plenty of extra room, which I should have kept my mouth shut because now I’m packing a pair of Matt’s shoes. Even with Matt’s 5lbs of shoes I was only at 37 lbs!!!!!!!! That is simply amazing for me and a 10 day trip!! A couple days business trip is usually 48 lbs for me. I’m going to give credit to my new suitcase and my awesome packing skills.

We ate lunch at Macaroni Grill which was sort of stupid since we will get the real deal soon, but we both like it and haven’t ate there since we moved from St. Louis. I’m sure the real deal will taste much better!

We stopped at the Brookstone store and picked up a few items for our trip. I finally got a Kindle cover which I’ve been needing for well over a year, but never found one I liked. We also bought a keyboard w/ leather case for my iPad! I’m using it as week speak. I’ve never typed up a blog on the iPad, so I may start doing it a lot more now!

Hopefully, I’ll have internet and be able to blog in the next week about our shananagins.

I better get to buying tickets to Versailles and planning out some more site seeing. Sorry, no posting about running for the next few days, I didn’t even bring any running shoes. Tons of walking for me though….lets hope that counteracts all the pasta, baguettes and gelato I’ll be having.

The last couple weeks have been pretty busy. Not on the exercise, but on the getting things ready for VACATION!!!!

The week following the marathon I took completely off. No running, no cross training and hardly any walking Hef. I knew my body needed a rest since I haven’t taken more than a couple days off of exercising since before January 1st when training started. I’m not even sure if I’d taken a week off around Christmas….anyways, I digress. I needed the rest.

Last week this is how it went:

Monday – 3 miles with Hef

Tuesday – 2 mile walk with Hef and Matt

Wednesday – Rest (I FINALLY got my hair done)

Thursday – 30 sweaty minutes on the stair master. That felt good! It was nice to do something different besides run, even though I’d rather run.  But I LOVE the stair master. You can get to sweating big time in a little amount of time, plus the legs burn the next day, good sign I worked out good.

Friday – nothing

Saturday – Walked around shopping from 9:30 am – 7:30 pm. That’s not specific sweating exercise, but I was SOO tired and grouchy at the end of the day.

This week isn’t going to be much better. Sunday I had all intentions to do a long run, but I needed to get laundry and cleaning done. Plus, having dinner with my parents for Mother’s Day sounded better than packing.

However, I did get in a good 5 miles yesterday. 2 with Hef and I had intentions of only making it 4, but decided to go out a half mile more to make it 5. That felt so good and I thought I ‘d be losing my stamina since I haven’t ran much but I haven’t. I hope that keeps up because I won’t be running much at all for the next two weeks.

We are going on VACATION and we can’t wait!!! We are both super excited to be going to Paris for a few days and then to Rome for a few more days. My posting may be non-existent but I’m hoping when I get back I can give you a good rundown of what we did and what we saw.

Eiffel Tower

Colosseum

Tonight is the last night to get to pack and I have absolutely NOTHING in my suitcase. I got to get on it!! Packing for 10 days isn’t fun and trying to decide what to take when you are in two different countries where the temperatures aren’t really the same isn’t fun either. Paris is much cooler than Rome and a 60% chance of rain isn’t good either. I don’t really care though. The rain isn’t gonna get me down!

I’ve also been in huge dilemma on what cross body purse to take. I want something big enough to hold my SLR camera, but something that looks good in pictures.

Saturday’s mission was to find a purse that did that, but instead I bought this….that I’m taking it back.

Ya, can’t you tell I’m thrilled! I like the bag, just not the canvas strap that will stick out in every picture of me. Now to decide on another one.

Sorry, this post is me rambling, so I’ll stop and get to packing!!!

What should we do in Paris and Rome???

I have truly thoughtful friends. I told you all a few weeks ago that I was in Seattle for work all week. The first day we went around the room, introduced ourselves and said something about ourselves so we could get to know each other.

Of course, I said that I was training to run my first marathon. One of my coworkers is also training for a  half marathon to run with her twin daughters and had also ran 2 marathons. Many others were all active and we chatted a lot about it. They all wished me luck and even sent me personal messages Thursday, last week before the marathon.

Just those little good luck emails meant a lot. There are really great people out there that truly care about each other and it made me feel good that they were thinking of me.

Yesterday, I went out to get the mail and had a package from the same lady that has ran marathons before and training for the half with her daughters.

This is what she sent me!

A 26.2 shirt, bath salts, 26.2 sticker!!! and a cute card.

Inside

The card had a sweet note and congratulated me on finishing my first marathon.

This is a lady that I’ve only spent one week in face-to-face in meetings and have talked to numerous times on the phone over the past two months. I immediately sent her an IM saying Thank you! Thank you!

Really…..it just got me and how sweet can someone be. Someone that barely knows me, but takes the extra time and MONEY to send me such a sweet gift.

I am truly grateful.

Anyone ever done a nice gesture for you that made you feel good?

Coming off the excitement of the race we were all starving and ready to fill our bellies. Jenny and Rory had never been to Lambert’s and there is no way you can go to Springfield and NOT eat there!

We quickly showered….well, I probably wasn’t very quick…and went to Lambert’s. Upon driving up to the parking lot and seeing the wait outside for 2 o’clock in the afternoon, it was insane! Luckily the wait was only 15 minutes and we got in fast. This place knows how to get people in and out!!

We of course caught the throwed rolls as soon as they cam out. Those things are delicious!

Our drinks and food came out super fast! Along with your regular meal, they walk around serving other items such as, fried okra, fried potatoes and tomatoes and pasta. You should NEVER eat here if you are on a diet.

I got the hot beef which was very tasty, even though I barely ate half of it.

Some of the meals come out of these huge skillets and you can see that all the drinks come in huge mugs. You shouldn’t have to need too many refills with those things!

Jenny and Rory enjoying their first meal at Lambert’s.

Poor Rory, he was such a trooper Friday and Saturday! The poor guy was originally suppose to run the half as well, but he got injured a few weeks prior and then earlier in the week he, along with their 2 yr old son, got strep! He was still not feeling well Friday, but decided to come and cheer me on. Now that is true friends!!! Thank you so much for coming while still feeling like poo, but I would have forgave you if you didn’t make it 

They left to head home right after eating. Rory was definitely needing some rest and another Dr. We later found out that he had more than just strep! Poor guy!!

Angie’s new man for the night since Rick couldn’t make it.

Marc also headed home after lunch and left Matt, Angie, Janice and I to check out Fantastic Caverns! I was actually pretty excited about seeing the caverns….riding to see the caverns.

The ride was about an hour long and took you through the caverns as the guide talked about different areas and what it was previously used for.

We had to wait about half an hour for the tour and Matt found a jeep just like his only in WAY better shape and a year newer. 

The cave was sort of dark and my point and shoot camera isn’t the best so I don’t have a whole lot of great pictures to show you from the cave. Plus, my battery died.

Entrance

No sleeping allowed!

It was definitely worth the $22 entrance fee an would be great for kids as well. I’d recommend it.

After visiting the cave we headed back to the hotel to relax for a bit and try to make a decision on what we were going to do for the evening.

We were all tired and still full from lunch so we decided to hit up a 7 pm movie. We saw 5 year Engagement which was ok. The beginning and ending was good, but there was a lot in the middle that was really cheesy. Thankfully they had Pretzel’s w/ Cheese so that’s what I had for dinner. I LOVE soft pretzel’s and cheese. MMMM so good.

Since we are such party animals we went straight to the hotel and to bed!

Sunday morning we ate at a place called Aviary Café and Creperie. It was SOOOO delicious! Plus, the café was super quaint with cute decorations.

Janice, this is out there for the world to see now!!

Maybe, that’s better.

I got the Strawberry, Banana and Nutella Crepe and it was awesome.

Along with Frites.

They also have steak and gravy filled crepes and you could order bacon and eggs with it.

The reviews of this place were right on and I would definitely recommend it.

The bathroom was super cute too.

The wall said, “Tell me. What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

People then wrote cute little things on the sticky notes and left them there. I thought it was a great idea.

Angie and Janice headed home and Matt and I did the same. We had about a 3.5 hour drive home, but it wasn’t that bad. I was sure thankful that I wasn’t driving and was able to just relax.

As soon as getting home, Matt and I changed and headed to his work picnic. Here in the Midwest our work picnic’s may be a bit different than most. It involves a LOT of this…..

Yes, I shot some too with my new handgun. They had stations for shotguns, handguns and then also rifles. Some of those guys mean business!!! It was good to get some newbies out there too that have never shot before and gave them the chance to shoot. Some people are so scared of a gun, but they wouldn’t be if they had a little bit of time shooting one. 

We did a little bit of this too. Sorry, I don’t know how to edit videos yet. If anyone knows how please let me know.

Shooting from Jennifer Anderson on Vimeo.

After a long day we finally headed home and I was in bed within 15 minutes of arriving. It was such a fun filled weekend and I’m still trying to recoup!!!

I was able to sleep some the night before the race. It was more of an off and on sleep, but at least I didn’t lay there for hours awake!

Alarm was set for 6 and departure was 6:45 am. The race was less than 10 minutes away and with it being so small I knew that we wouldn’t have any problems finding parking, restrooms and the starting line by the 7:30 am start time for the marathon.

Just after arriving at the race.

The Frisco Railroad Run on the Frisco Highline Trail has multiple races. It included a 50 mile, 50K (31mi), Marathon, Half Marathon and 8K (5 mi). The longest three races started at 7:30 followed by the Half at 8 and the 8K at 8:15.

Once we arrived Janice and I headed to the restrooms located in the Middle School at the starting line. The line was a little long, but we made it through with plenty of time. Thankfully, we had actual restrooms instead of port-a-potties!!!

A few minutes before the start they announced the race would be starting soon and I made my way to the back of the pack. I chatted with a girl running her first ultra, the 50K, which helped ease the nerves knowing people were running way further than I was.

They made a few announcements and then we were off!!!

Me in pink and the girl in white from Mississippi running her first 50K, while only having one marathon under her belt!!! Bravo to her!

I started my Garmin and then my iPod and somehow my iPod started on a radio station instead of my playlist. No big deal, just had to switch it a few times to get the right playlist I spent a few hours making and then I was good to go. I knew the first part was paved, so I made sure to realize how far the paved portion went so on my way back I could look forward to how close I was once I hit the pavement again.

All races were an out and back with little orange cones on the side denoting when you are to turn around for each race. Shortly after the pavement ended the 8Kers turned around, so about 2.5 miles were paved.

I set into my pace and listening to the music. For the first 5 or so miles I was running behind a man with a 26.2 tattoo on his calf which was very motivating since I stared at it for quite some time.

People were around me chatting with their running partners and everyone seemed to be in good spirits. I was trying to keep a good 10:30/mile pace and was doing pretty good at that.

Mile 1 – 10:33

Mile 2 – 10:32

Mile 3 – 10:40

Mile 4 – 10:38

Mile 5 – 10:44

There were people in orange shirts cheering for a girl running by me. I ended up chatting with her and it was her first marathon as well. I said that my family would be cheering as well, on the way back.

I noticed a handful of people wearing these little sleeve things which covered their ankles and the tops of their shoes. I thought it was weird, but by around mile 6 I had gotten a rock in my shoe and new exactly what those things were for!! Hmmm good idea. Luckily the rocks that got in my shoes were never big enough to stop have to remove. They were real small and I didn’t have any issues with them hurting my feet.

I was having a really good time and enjoying myself. I took water or Gatorade at each station along with the water I drank out of my belt and the ones provided by my support crew. I took a Gu at mile 5 and then again at 10. For some stupid reason I thought I only needed 4 Gu’s which is what I brought but Rory brought it to my attention Friday night that I needed one more. Good point. So I took one from one of the stations in case I needed it.

I texted Matt and said I was at mile 8. His response….eating Gravy. Thanks. 

Once we got to about mile 11 the trail got a little more rough with bigger rocks and not as wide. There were already people heading back, whom I assumed were marathoners and not the 50K or 50 mile people. It was fun to tell other runners and them telling you keep it up.

Mile 6 – 10:23

Mile 7 – 10:20

Mile 8 – 10:45

Mile 9 – 10: 25

Mile 10 – 10:33

My pace continued to be steady and I noticed that I was getting a little too fast at times so I backed it off a bit. I definitely didn’t want to burn out by the time I got to mile 20.

Mile 11 – 10:39

Mile 12 – 10:14

Mile 13 – 10:20

I texted again that I just turned around and at the half way point to Matt and he responded Awesome! Glad he wasn’t still eating gravy!

I knew my family would be there for the stops on the way back so I looked forward to seeing them. Janice had made some awesome signs which I didn’t want to see the night before, but she did show me one. I loved it!

Time + Money + bloody toes = Worth the victory at the end

Once I turned around it seemed to be much harder to keep my pace. Later looking at the elevation from mile 13 to mile 15 there was a 100 feet in elevation gain, which isn’t a lot normally, but when the race was so flat you could really tell.

I was so excited to see everyone once I made it to where they were at. They even met me to run a few hundred yards with me along the route to give me pep talks and see how I was doing.

Jenny running with me. FYI – The lady in white is 58 years old and was running the 50K!!! She finished before I did. 

They were all holding signs, yelling and offering water and Gatorade I had packed in a cooler. I was so excited to see them!

Handing me Janice’s Gu

Those cheers and signs really helped my spirits. Plus, the extra water was nice as I didn’t have to rely so much on the water stations.

Cheering runners on

I could definitely tell my pace was really slowing down now. For some reason I couldn’t get my pace to pick back up, but it was also starting to get really warm and the humidity was a killer in the 80% range.

Mile 14 – 11:03

Mile 15 – 10:49

Mile 16 – 10:47

Mile 17 – 10:47

Mile 18 – 10:33

Janice and Angie holding the signs. “Unleash the Kenyan in you! Go Gi” and “Your feet hurt from kicking ass”

About Mile 19 my hips were starting to hurt so I slowed down even more. My support crew was there a gazillion times to help me get through.

Angie running with me

Check out the guy in the white, I was behind him and then I “chicked” him!

I didn’t notice this until Janice pointed it out. Haha

I ran along side a girl from Kansas as well, for quite awhile. She ran a trail marathon about a month ago in central KS which had them run through 3 feet of water! This was only her second marathon. She was running and then walking for a short amount of time so I saw her many times through the last half of the race.

It’s always nice to talk to other runners to get your mind of things and to hear what their story is.

Blaring music and cheering on other runners.

Besides the other girls family and mine they were really the only spectators on the course. There were a few other random people, but not many and I thank heavens I had my support crew!!

Rory had even brought a noise maker!!!! This cracks me up. He was using his 2 yr. old son’s xylophone as a noise maker and it was great.

Miles 20 through 23 weren’t too awful. My wonderful brother-in-law….who never runs!!! Ran with me! I thought he was just going to run with me for a few yards and he kept going. He asked me how I was feeling and I said I felt like I had 80 yr. old hips. He did a good job at keeping my mind off things hurting. He ended up running almost a whole mile with me, I think!!!

Makes me feel so good to have such an awesome support team….as I have tears in my eyes.

Mile 20 – 11:01

Mile 21 – 11:24

Mile 22 – 11:13

Mile 23 – 12:42

It had to be around mile 23 when the heat and sun were belting down on me and I was out in the thick gravel trying my best not to stop and walk. I know I walked about 100 yards and picked it up again. I was starting to feel it, but I still wasn’t that bad. I’ve been in way worse shape for half’s I’ve ran. I was going to PR no matter what and I didn’t want to push myself too hard, so I played it pretty conservatively running this marathon.

At the 5K mark left I knew I was super close. I thought to myself 3 miles left is just an easy run, you did just earlier this week, you can do it. Those are thoughts that go through my mind when I’m running.

Mile 24 – 11:04

Mile 25 – 11:24

I saw my support crew one last time with less than a mile to go and decided to lose the belt, so I took it off and handed it to Janice as she was running along with me giving me a short pep talk on how I was almost there.

Rory still cheering with the Xylophone.

Rory was a couple hundred yards out cheering me on and I took off to sprint the last hundred yards.

Mile 26 – 11:08

Mile 26.2 – 9:39

I did it!!

I finished my first marathon!!

I knew my time per my Garmin was 4:44, so I was lined up with Goal 2 in my plan posted here. 

I was 62 of 105 marathoners and 18 out of 35 females. Much to my surprise I got second in my age group! This is the part where I shouldn’t tell you there were only 5 of us females in my age group, but I’m too honest not to tell you.

I’m pretty bummed about it being over with. I am ready to go out and do another one asap, but lots of things are coming up that I’m excited about, so another marathon will have to wait.

The four long months of training were definitely worth it and I can’t wait to get back out there and do it again!

I can’t thank my support crew enough. My husband Matt, sister’s Angie and Janice, brother-in-law Marc and the best friends a girl could have, Jenny and Rory. THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!! from the bottom of my heart.

I can now say I’m a marathoner.

I DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I ran 26.2 miles!!!

Many of you have probably seen my Facebook, so you already know that, but to those of you that didn’t I’m sorry for not updating you sooner. The weekend was a big blur of busyness…..and tiredness.

I will tell you ALL about it!! You know that I can ramble on about something small, so you better believe there will be multiple posts coming this week with a weekend recap.

The whole weekend was an absolute blast and reminded me that I have a ridiculously amazing husband, family and super friends that are so supportive of me. There is no way anyone’s cheering squad could surpass mine! They were AWESOME!!!!!!!!! and I can’t even express how much it meant to me.

Brother-in-Law Marc doing acrobatics cheering on the runners

Friday morning I was able to sleep in a little bit and then went out for my short 2 mile run. I tested out the new iPod and it was successful once again. (I’m actually SUPER happy that I had to purchase a new one.) I finished packing my bags and checking off my list of items in order not to forget anything. Angie arrived on time and was actually waiting on me because I was running behind. We went to Janice’s and then took off. We made a pit stop for lunch and then had a nice drive to Springfield, MO.

We checked into the hotel rooms and waited for my friends, Rory and Jenny, to arrive. I went ahead and laid my items out in case we got back late after dinner and I was frantic to get to bed…thank goodness I wasn’t.

As soon as they arrived we went to pick up my packet and Janice and Angie signed up for the 8K.

There wasn’t an expo like most big races. This was just a couple tables with a few people to help and there wasn’t a packet. It was your shirt, race bib and timing chip to attached to your shoe. When I said this was a small race, I meant this was a SMALL race!

After getting signed up we drove the course a bit to see how it was laid out. The trail was right along a road and was super easy to get to different stops for cheering to occur from my support team. I was able to see that the chat wasn’t too thick and there was a short distance of the path paved.

Matt and Marc arrived just in time to meet us for dinner at Springfield Brewing Company. We were able to get seated right away and they had quite a variety of items on the menu. Appetizers were a must and I was super duper happy that they had pretzels and cheese for an appetizer! Perfect way to carb up.

The food was good and we had a great time chatting. After dinner we headed back to the hotel. A few people stayed up to chat, but I was headed straight to bed. I’m not sure why, I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep!

I had everything set out for the next morning ready to go.

Yes, I took my toaster. I didn’t want to change anything up that I hadn’t done before so toasted wheat bread with peanut butter and a banana were ready for my pre-race breakfast.

I made it in bed by 10, but of course didn’t get to sleep until much later than that. That’s how the night before races always go.

2 days and I’m starting to get nervous! I went to Facebook for suggestions on songs and I have 78 songs for a total of 5.1 hours of music….finally. That’s a lot of songs to choose from. I have meticulously put them in an order where I get the more pumped up ones towards the end, but hoping I don’t take the whole 5 hours because I have a few on the end that I just threw in there. Either way, I should have some great music to listen to!

Here’s if you’d like to see what I’ll be listening to for hours..

I did get the Pink iPod I wanted last evening and am going to test it out on my 2 mile run today and tomorrow morning. I think it will be great because it’s a lot smaller and I may not use an arm band since I can clip it to my shorts or belt.

****Update*** I started typing this before my run. I ran 2 miles with the new iPod clipped to my shorts and it worked great!!! I think the clippiness…yes, I made that word up…will be great!

My run was so so. I hate tapering. The short little runs that should feel awesome feel horrible and every little pain comes out and you think awful things about how the actual race is going to go. Now 2 miles is not even a warm up, so I’m sure I’m over analyzing every detail.

After my 2 mile run I’ll be am packing my bags. I have always made lists for when I travel, but have got out of the habit and I couldn’t not make a list for this trip because I’m freaked out I will forget something.

This is just some of the list. There are other things I’ll pack, but I haven’t decided on my wardrobe…besides my marathon outfit.

I will be wearing short (tights) and a tank top. The tights are better than loose short because then my belt won’t ride. In a normal road marathon I may not have worn my belt, but since I will be running and there may not be anybody around I feel more comfortable wearing my belt with the water bottles, Gu, cell phone and some toilet paper in case of an emergency. I’m not really worried about having to use the TP, but just in case.

Goals

I haven’t mentioned any real goals on here. Sure I have some in my mind, but I’m trying not to go there. First and foremost I just want to finish and I’m not going out there for time. I just want to go out there, run comfortably and have fun. I’m going to be setting a PR no matter how fast or slow I go, as long as I finish.

Just because I’m pretty competitive with myself I’m going to put my goals in my head out there for you all. Please do NOT hold me to these.

1) I would love to finish in under 4:35. This is the high goal and would have me completing with 10:30/miles average. This is pretty fast considering a lot of my long runs by the end I’m doing 11 min miles.

2) Finishing in 4:45. This would bring my average pace to 10:52. That sounds pretty feasible, but then some days you just have bad runs.

3) Finishing in 5 hours. This would mean that my average pace would be 11:26/mile.

There is a 30% chance of storms, so I may be running in the rain. I’ve checked weather.com about 400000000 times a day this past week and will continue up until 7:30 am on Saturday morning.

I’m off to eat dinner and continue packing. I’m hoping to post tomorrow, but if I don’t get the chance you’ll hear from me after I’m able to get one of these stickers!!

I opened my big fat mouth too soon. Stupid iPod lasted a whole 100 yards of my run yesterday.

This is how I’m feeling about the whole iPod thing

Source

So, this evening I’m off to buy a new iPod and do my last two runs with it before the big run on Saturday. This sort of thing stresses me out! I know it’s just an iPod, but running for 26.2 miles without music freaks me out. Sure…I can go a few miles without it but not 26.2!

I’m going to check out what Wal-Mart has, but I’m planning on buying the iPod Nano 6th Generation.

Hoping I can get it in pink as well. From the research I’ve done, I can still use my Nike + Sensor and not just he Nike + that is already installed on the iPod. The one on the iPod is much less accurate and wouldn’t work for my runs on a treadmill. I was very relieved to read that I could still use the shoe sensor….lets hope they weren’t lying and I can.

Can anyone tell that I’m getting nervous about this whole thing?!?!

My Saturday long run of 8 miles went good!! As usual, I slept in and eventually got up so I could eat my breakfast and get my last long run in. I mimicked my plan for breakfast on the day of the marathon with a piece of toast, spread with peanut butter and sliced bananas on top and also ate the rest of the large banana.

Many people seem to have issues with stomach problems while running…I’m hoping I’m not jinxing myself here, but I usually don’t. In the past for my half marathons I usually ate oatmeal and could easily go to the bathroom (#2) before I even finished my oatmeal. I haven’t been eating much oatmeal at all lately and having that when staying in a hotel isn’t ideal…some rooms don’t have microwaves, even though I have used a coffee maker for hot water before. I’ve ate the toast, pb and banana for other long runs throughout training and I think I will be ok.

Anyways, I took Hef with me for my first 3 miles, dropped him off and set out to do only 5 more miles. It seemed really weird and more like a short run than a long run. I can’t believe I’m evening thinking that. Before I started training for this marathon a long run on the weekends would be 5 or 6 miles and now I’m considering 8 short!! Crazy. 

The weather was great again, sunny with a breeze, but not too breezy. It was really unbelievable how many butterflies I saw on the run. There were a ton of the little yellow ones, white ones and even really pretty monarch butterflies. Butterflies seem to put a smile on my face, so it was nice to see so many.

I kept an easy pace around 10:15/mile and it felt really good. I wasn’t pushing myself too much and it was just an easy run. I LOVE when that happens!!

Also, to make it an even better run I didn’t have any…not ONE…issue with my Nike + on my iPod.

I’m going for a 3 miler tonight and I hope that it continues to work perfect. I think I’m going to load up Matt’s iPod shuffle with my music to have a back up for the race.

Regards to music, I’m making my playlist. Anyone have any favorite running songs I should add??? I only need about 5 hours of songs to get me through

The rest of the weekend was pretty enjoyable. My mother-in-law and I went to the greenhouse and bought flowers. I would normally of had that done a month ago, but marathon training has been keeping me occupied.

Tidbit about me – I worked at a greenhouse from my 8th grade year, through high school and during the summers up until my sophomore year of college. 

I do enjoy to work in the yard and play with flowers, so I’m looking forward to doing that more after this weekend. Actually, that’s pretty much what I’ve done the last three days. I’ll try to get a post on here about that later.

The one picture I have from this weekend. Saturday evening we spent with some friends chatting around a campfire. The night was perfect for a campfire and really relaxing.

4 MORE DAYS!!!!!

Of course the marathon is a week away and my electronics are causing me major issues!!! When I first started running I used the Nike + to keep track of my distance and my average pace. It’s what I used to train for my first 5K and Half Marathon. I have used it ever since I started running three years ago and I’m attached to it!

My first run with the Nike + was June 7, 2009 and since then I have run 1,650 miles!

Not mine, but it looks similar to this

I love the fact that I have all (majority) of the runs I have done on Nike +. The site is really friendly and you can even sign up for challenges. Like running 500 miles in the year 2012.

When I ran my 20 miler a couple weeks ago, after 7 miles my iPod stopped and said “Your run is complete.” Uh no, I have 13 more miles to go! It was then that I knew I was going to have issues. This has happened before so I knew I would just need to buy a new receiver and sensor and I’d be good to go! The last time this happened I tried replacing just the sensor and it didn’t fix the problem, so I bought the whole set and it worked just fine.

So, Monday I bought a whole new Nike +, started using it on Tuesday and again….”Your run is complete.” NOOO!!!! I tried again for both my runs on Wednesday and Thursday and nothing. I’m starting to think it might be my iPod. I’ve had it for a year and a half so you wouldn’t think it would be bad, but I don’t know what else it would be!

No problem, I’ll buy a new iPod and be good. Not so easy. The new generation iPod Nano’s have the Nike + built in already. Sounds great, but will not work for tracking runs on a treadmill…which I run on a lot during the winter months. So, I’m sending Matt to find a 5th generation iPod, so I can relax about my music. Ugh. Like I want anything else to freak out about besides running 26.2 miles!

Along with the iPod my Garmin sometimes has a mind of its own and will decide to go in sleep mode. Last week I couldn’t get it out of sleep mode and was unable to pause my run while I let Hef play with his neighbor friends. I turned off the sleep mode function so hopefully that will fix the problem.

Let’s home tomorrow’s last long run of 8 miles will go electronically smooth and ease my worries a bit.

Anyone else with the Nike + or Garmin have issues?