The Anthem Richmond Marathon

So, since I can barely walk today I may as well get to blogging about this weekend! Aarik took off Friday so that we could leave early in the morning. We got started a little later than planned, but I had decided after the ridiculous week we had that we were going to avoid stress, and any outside responsibilities as much as possible. As worried as I was about the race we just didn't need any negativity or aggravation. The way that Sprint GPS took us was absolutely gorgeous. Mostly back roads & small highways. The first half of the trip we got to see lots of farm land, relax & listen to country music while Parker slept & the rest of us got to chat. Then Parker woke up & screamed the rest of the way, everyone had to go potty every 5 seconds & I got a barrage of poorly timed, non marathon weekend text messages. By the time we got to the expo we were all worn out, over being in the car and a little grumpy. Because of that, we were in and out of the expo very quickly and I never even got to see the medal I was hoping to earn the next day. I did however purchase a 26.2 magnet for the Jeep and said a quick prayer it wasn't a waste of money and we bumped into a new friend made on the Richmond marathon Facebook page who we had lots in common with. The expo was crazy crowded but looked to be very well organized, and had more than enough gear for anyone interested in spending money to help remember the event. There was ample parking outside of the convention center. They had booths specifically to answer questions for out of towners and had plenty of free maps on hand. The Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield booth even gave the kids all free cowbells to ring to help cheer the next day. Other than those things it was your typical race expo.
Our hotel was located in a pretty central spot, but let me say I was not impressed with it at all. The shower looked to have never been cleaned and the front desk girl that was there during check in & check out was one of the most rude people ever. I was thrilled, however, that there was a Denny's in the adjoining parking lot and we were happy to be able to walk over to dinner and be the only people there when we ate at 5:00. The kids, of course, love any excuse to have pancakes for dinner! Jennifer and Ray were kind enough to offer me a ride down the next morning which took a big stress off of Aarik,would let the kids get more sleep in the morning, and allow us to spend time together as a group. So Aarik and I tried to plan his route to get to the finish and signed him up to get live updates while I was running. Navigating Richmond and paying tolls every five minutes was another not so fun thing to plan around. When Aimee and I talked I found out we had broken $4000.00 and doubled out fundraising goal!! Inspiration and motivation!! We got the monkeys ready for bed, I laid out all of my race gear, we prayed & went to bed. The kids all slept great, thankfully, and I woke up every hour thinking I had overslept. At five I got up, ate a small bowl of Captain Crunch, got dressed and went downstairs to meet up with the Riska family. We spent less time than I expected looking for parking (not to say it was easy finding a place, just not as hard as anticipated). We got to watch the start of the half, go for a quick jog, found a nice warm place to go to the bathroom (if I run this race again we will stay at the host hotel. Complete opposite of where we stayed), and made it down just in time to have Ray snap a few pics, give hugs to Josh, Aimee & Callie & get in line for the start.

Jennifer and I started the race together and stayed together almost 16 miles.

I wore my hydration pack because I was concerned with all of the NY marathoners coming in at the last minute the race would run out of water & Powerade, especially if my leg gave me a fit and I was at the very back of the pack. {Sidenote: they never ran out of anything as long as I was on the course.} It was nice to be able to chat with Callie's grandma about running, our training, Callie, the course, books and anything else that came up along the way. As we ran together in our Team GSF jerseys we had lots of people yell out to us "That's right! Never Give Up!!" We were even called "The Never Give Ups" a few times. It was such an awesome reminder to us of why we were there. There was ton of course support, signs everywhere, people out with their kids & dogs. People sitting on their lawns with signs, shop owners doing their own water stops, people giving out Twizzlers, cheering... You name it! It was obvious why they call this "America's Friendliest Marathon". The most beautiful part was when we ran along the James River for a while. It was almost silent other than the sound of the water. After the water stop that we got seperated I decided to listen to music. I was really nervous about the Robert E. Lee bridge because I'd heard terrifying things about it, but it gave me no trouble at all. The wind that people talk about must have taken pity on us that day. It was where I saw people start to drop off though, some walking, hobbling, limping, some sitting down on the side. From then on out the race thinned out a good bit. When I came off the bridge one of the race volunteers said, "You've got this, if you did the bridge your fine, it's the hardest part!" How silly of me to believe her!  Truthfully, I did myself in because when I tried to walk through a water stop at mile 11 I realized if I tried to walk anymore I'd be in big trouble. For some reason at mile 20 I went against my decision from just nine miles before and decided to walk through a water stop so that I could call Aarik and let him know to start heading down to the finish area with the kids. Being the amazing man that he is, he was already in the car with them. But when I started running again it was SO painful that it slowed me down A LOT. I kept thinking about all of the people I love who I wanted to do this for, the support they had given me, and I would tell myself that I WAS going to finish this and it would end faster if I kept running and that in only "X" amount of miles I was going to finally be a marathoner. It worked, I kept running. Not running fast, but running. At mile 24 I picked up my pace again, but couldn't maintain it for the last two miles after going up an unexpected hill. When I got down to mile 26 I was searching for my family- people who knew me and loved me and would be cheering me on.

I was so happy to see Josh, Aimee, Callie and Aimee's two sisters off to the side.

Then I saw Ray, Callie's grandpa who was awesome enough to be cameraman &course support Team Callie for the weekend.

I kept looking for Aarik & the kids and then I spotted two Never Give Up shirts in the crowd and realized it was Hannah and David. Those shirts on on my two teammates gave me a little more fuel and I finished the race at the bottom of the hill. I stopped my Garmin and looked down to see 26.32 miles in 5:03:08. I'm not going to lie, over 5 hours was hard to swallow. I've always been a middle of the pack runner, but usually toward the front end, not the back end. But I reminded myself of all the trials I had overcome to get to the finish line, and how blessed I am to be able to run at all, and that at mile 21 when my legs felt like someone had set them on fire I had decided this was such an incredibly hard thing to finish this race I would be proud of my time no matter what it was. I also found comfort in the fact that I beat Katie Holmes' marathon time ;). Called Aarik, they had gotten lost and then couldn't find parking, but they were out of the car now and heading to the finish area. They found Josh and Aimee. We could meet there. Another few minutes of walking and I was given my medal. I saw bananas and bagels, but they made me gag even though I was starving. Picked up a piece of pizza and a Powerade nibbled the pizza, but then decided it wasn't a good idea and tossed it, made my way through a ton of people laying on the ground, asked a cop how to get back to the finish line, followed his directions, climbed entirely too many stairs to get to the bridge off of the island, realized the fence in the way would make it impossible for me to get back to where I'd seen everyone before, went up to the next street,walked up another big hill and finally got to see my family! My sweet kiddos started yelling "Go mommy go! Go mommy go!" And I made a controlled collapse to the curb. I found out Jennifer had crossed the finish line shortly after me & was so excited & proud for her. As we sat & waited for her to make the same confusing journey back to the family, Ray offered to take a picture of me with the family. It's my favorite one from the day.

I'm so grateful he was so thoughtful & helped preserve memories from the weekend, otherwise I wouldn't have a single picture. Unfortunately, there were tons of people with dogs around so within just a few minutes Mckenzie was screaming like a lunatic and even knocked Parker down causing him to slam his head on the road. I decided (in my not so coherent mind) that I couldn't handle anymore of the dog induced spasms, and we left. I wish that I'd been thinking more clearly for photo purposes, because I left before we'd gotten a picture of all four of us with our medals. But here are the others with theirs

They all did awesome!

I learned a lot from this race that I'd like to share. It was so much easier and harder then I thought it would be; and I definitely want to talk about the aftermath of it all, but this post is too long already, so... Next time!

It's Here

So I've been trying to figure out what to post for my "last post before the big weekend" post. I had decided not to do one because I'm not thinking clearly and wanted it to be meaningful. Then Aimee said something to me that made me really think and I woke up to an article written by Victoria Strong, and I realized what I would like to write about.
As part of my fundraising I've spent the past several months describing how this disease works. Telling everyone about all of the things these kids can NOT do because of SMA. Truth is that these kids, and their parents, are told every day what they can't, and won't and shouldn't do; then these amazing children, along with their courageous and supportive parents, go out and they DO. Their parents become innovators, inventors, and activists. They make friends with their physical therapist, neurologist & pediatrician and as a team they make things happen.  These kids DO. Some live past 6 months, some go to Kindergarten, or ballet classes, and they run distances that most adults  "can't". They teach. They are inspirations for those of us who say we can't to get up and do. Their bodies fail them daily but they don't write a blog post to complain about it, they find a way to work around it. They don't ask for pity, they ask for support. When they reach the finish line of their life, no matter what the distance they traveled, they have given it their all. They run the perfect race, finishing with nothing left in the tank because they leave it all on the course.  I hope if I happen to meet "the wall" tomorrow (it's more likely than not) that I can remember the lessons I've learned from observing these amazing people this year and push through it, keep running because I'm blessed to have a body that can run.
For tonight, we're in Richmond, exhausted from the crazy trip, pancakes in belly, wrestling a teething 1 year old  & hoping we can figure out a way to get to the start line through all of the closed, most direct roads! Prayers appreciated ;)

Forced Taper

This morning I had plans to run somewhere between 16 and 20, depending on how I was feeling, and despite being advised strongly not to. My training plan called for 12, but last week had gone so well...
After some hard core jumping in the leaves last night my right leg had started to bother me so I decided it would be better to hang out near 16. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) I had to cut out at 13 because I was having so much pain in my right shin, a weird burning in my ankle and some other odd thing in my left foot. I figure it's better to gut it out in two weeks in Richmond, walk if I have to and finish than it is to gut it out now when I don't technically have to and not be able to run any of the race. Goes to show you should listen to those who are more experienced than you.

I also have seen so very many posts recently about children with SMA passing away. My heart aches for their families and my passion is ignited to continue to try to raise funds and awareness of this terrible disease. Remember, the fundraising page is here. The donation is tax deductible and for such an amazing cause. Really, this race isn't about me, or my time, or my medal. It's about why I'm running and I'm grateful that the good Lord reminds me of this frequently.

Trying to Catch Up

I need to. I need to try to catch up on blogging AND training. The month of September was so completely overwhelming that I chose not to blog about it and share all of the negativity I felt during that month. Suffice it to say we had way too much going on and I was also dealing with an injury. Between life and limb (the right leg to be exact) I missed three crucial weeks of running. Like, completely missed them. No running at all. For three weeks. When I started back just a couple of weeks ago I wasn't sure if I'd be able to run on my bum leg to catch up, or be able to make up the mileage since it would require finding my way back to the 13 I'd built up to AND adding on enough mileage to get in a few decent long runs before taper and race. My first week back I subbed for two classes at the Y, and since I taught four days of cycle in a row I couldn't get in any mid week runs. Frustrated, I went out for my long run that weekend not knowing if I'd run two or ten. Luckily, it went great and I ran nine with no problems. I stopped at nine to make sure it wasn't overkill leading to re injury after my time off. I was thrilled and renewed. I came up with a make shift training plan for the last few weeks to build up to what I feel will be an ok mileage and was looking forward to twelve the next week. The twelve went horribly. After only five miles my injured leg was screaming at me, and whatever bug my family had been passing around was nagging at me, so I decided to try the walk run method so many of the ladies in my FB Women's Marathoner group recommended. So I ran 20 minutes, walked 5, ran 15, walked 5... It was brutal, but I finished having run more than I walked. I felt defeated, and beat up and frustrated that so many things have gone wrong with this training period.  I decided to try my hardest to stay positive, any finish at any time was better than not doing this at all. I've always said I just wanted to finish. Run or walk, it's still 26.2 miles. I did a lot of praying and reminding myself that my husband has been very supportive and helpful. He totally thinks I can do this (insert nervous laughter here). So many people have contributed to the fundraising end of this deal. I thought about Callie, and her family. Again and again GSF's  "Never Give Up" on my wrist, my jeep, my t-shirt, running jersey, water bottle. After a few days I wasn't as sore, we had another busy week with no time for mid week mileage, sigh, and Friday morning I went out for my first ever fifteen mile run, worried that this type of crazy, thrown together training plan would back fire. While I was aware of my Achilles, it never went into full on pain. My knee did something weird the first mile, but eventually settled in. I spent most of the run praying in gratitude for each mile completed and asking for a few more. At mile eleven I had kept an easy, even pace the entire time and was feeling strong. At mile twelve I decided to take a quick walk break to check for pain, and was surprised that the worst pain I had was when I started running again. My pace did slow after the walk break, but I still managed to finish my 15 in just over two and a half hours. Not the pace I had envisioned a few months back, but one I'm happy with now. One i hope to be able to muster for as long as possible on November 10th. When hobbling home I had a few thoughts: a. It sucks not getting a medal for this. b. ouch and c. I hope I can add 11.2 more miles to this :-! My last long training run (18 unless i can magically bust out a 20) is this next weekend, then two weeks of taper and the race. I'm crazy nervous and terrified by the idea of being forced to walk 8-10 miles after running 16-18. Just starting to realize what I'm supposed to be doing in 26 days. I probably won't find much time to blog between now and then, but hope to at least once. I would appreciate any prayers on my behalf, or good running vibes sent out. Or donations! ;) this post is already super long & wordy so, I'll TRY to update after next week's run.

Tomorrow (and a few other days)

Tomorrow I will run 14 miles. That is the farthest I've ever run, and it's been almost two years since I've run that far. If it weren't for my mean right shin I would be so excited to have finally made it to this point. Well, I'm excited either way because,with all of the injuries so far, I never thought I'd get to this point. Last weekend I went out to run 12 and in my attempt to not be a hood runner (** see note) I added too many extra roads in and wound up running 13. While this shin has me running MUCH slower than I would like, the pace was such that I could have kept going a while longer and been fine. I also had to cut out one of my short runs this week in hopes it would help my leg, or help it not get worse. So I'm accepting that this time around with training I'm very injury prone, which means the best case scenario for November 10th is that I'll be in Richmond and toe the line very undertrained because of the time  I'll probably continue to take off to nurse these things. It's so frustrating to be physically capable, in every way but one, of doing something you want terribly to do. It really makes me think about what it would be like to have SMA and be fully mentally functioning and know how to do things, but not be able to do them. Which then makes me grateful to just have injuries from doing too much, or doing something wrong. I'm just hoping to go up there and run, walk, crawl or roll 26.2 miles in less than seven hours. We'll see how tomorrow goes.

Things are starting to come together for our rummage sale, "Cookies for Callie", that's one week from today. This is going to be one heck of a crazy week. All of the last minute preparations for what looks to be a huge event, Aarik is switching to second shift Monday, I'm required to start going to the Y two mornings a week for training until my classes start the first week of September, adjusting to putting the kids to bed by myslef when it's really been a two person job so far,  it's supposed to be a 30 mile week (4, 7, 4 and my first ever 15), getting ready to have some major work done on our house, then add in the normal cooking, cleaning and preventing disasters, and the rummage sale itself. A week full of great things that, combined, are a little overwhelming. But, come Saturday night we'll hopefully be in rest/celebration/happy mode. If there aren't any updates until then, I'm sure I'll be excited to update after Cookies for Callie.

If you're wondering, we DO still have our three kids. They still do funny, busy things every day, and they are still wonderful. Right now it's just easier to shoot a picture onto Facebook or Instagram to update family about how Parker, who is barely one year old, is climbing EVERYTHING in sight. Like things that adults and monkeys can't climb. Or to quickly type a status update about how my 6 year old Konnor figured out how to crack the family lock code on Netflix. I can let everyone know at the same time that if they see us out in public Mckenzie picked out what she's wearing, bless her sweet heart. It certainly was not my idea. But, to hold you over until we start school the first week in September and Mckenzie starts soccer, and Konnor starts swim lessons and Parker starts... whatever craziness he starts next, here are a few random pics from lately.

**This is my own made up term for running only in neighborhoods. Every other time I have trained for a race I have been a hood runner. This time I am slowly venturing farther out with each run and am determined not to be a hood runner. The most I stay in the neighborhood anymore is about 2.4 miles, then it is out on main roads to stretch my legs and avoid most dog traffic... MOST. You can expect to see this term used in the future on this blog.

A Sweet Reminder

Of why I'm running to help me on my 7 miles tonight.and the 14 Sunday. 

Junk food, a new job and a Yard sale

Last night I had a great run. Didn't think it would go well with the way my shin and ankle were hurting, but in one of those miracles of running the pain went away about a quarter of a mile in and hasn't come back yet. Sweet! Tonight, however, after a full and very long day, I skipped my run. I'm completely exhausted and just needed a night to be home with the kids and Aarik. To make matters worse (or, maybe better) I just sat down and ate the biggest bowl of ice cream I've ever had in my life while I watched Crime 360 on Netflix. Hey, we all need to relax sometimes!

Two more things:

I'm really excited to have been presented the opportunity to teach group cycling (spin) classes at the YMCA right by our house a couple of times a week. It will be great for my mental health and, while the pay is almost laughable, the benefits make it well worth the effort. It is one of my passions to help people work toward healthy goals, and I have worked at both Gold's Gym and Peak Fitness in the past. It will be fun to do something new in a positive atmosphere and everyone there seems wonderful. I'm hoping that the cross training will be good for my marathon training and not make me more prone to injury than I already am. While the timing is a bit tricky, this will be a great thing for me, and the rest of our crew. I'll be posting more in the near future on how it's going and how the kids are doing in the programs we are signing them up for there.

Also, on August 25th, here in Winston Salem on Jonestown Road, a few of my wonderful, giving and inspiring friends and I will be having a rummage/yard sale and bake sale with all proceeds being donated to our fundraiser for the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation. I'm so blessed to be surrounded by such amazing and charitable people. We are working to finalize plans and strategizing ways to make it as succesful as possible. If anyone out there has lots of experience in this area, buying or selling, please share tips! I am excited to be running this marathon but the reason behind all of this is to raise as much money as possible for this charity. Hitting the goal would be great, but going above and beyond that would be even greater. With a 1 in 40 chance of being a carrier of the SMA gene, I can't think of anyone it wouldn't benefit to donate a few dollars to this cause. Any locals please stop by and say hello, shop for a cause, grab some cookies, or just drop off a donation! I'll keep you posted on this and let you know how it all turns out!

Be Careful What You Wish For & Lots of Thanks

So last week I posted about how cool it looked to barefoot run and that I'd like to try it some time. Technically, we've probably all done the bare foot thing, as kids. But for some reason, as adults, it becomes an odd thing to do. Well, we have had complete insanity in our house the past couple of weeks. Aarik is now working six days a week, and his new schedule has been quite the adjustment for all of us. We've also had tons of people in and out of our home, which means lots of cleaning for me, and my niece has been staying with us for a week now, which means more cleaning for me. :) With all that's going on I'm quite tired and kind of out of it, and finding the need to rearrange my training days- not a good combination. Friday night, after another insanely busy day, I pulled the treadmill down for the first time in months and was running around the house trying to hurry up and get dressed to do a "quick three miles". Somehow during what should have been a simple task, I slammed my last two toes on my left foot into the bottom of the toilet. After the temporary black out that comes from doing something stupid and painful, I gathered my emotions and called a friend who's husband graduated from med school recently and got his opinion over the phone. After deciding not to go to the ER on a Friday night, I tried to put my tennis shoes on and was writhing in agony. So I took off my shoes and ran 1.5 miles on the treadmill. Barefoot. My toe only bothered me when it would jut out to the side (shudddder) and I stopped at 1.5 miles because I've always heard you have to be careful to ease into barefooting. By the time I got in bed a few hours later my little toe was very swollen and all sorts of fun colors and it kept me up all night. I just didn't feel good about taking Ibuprofen while I'm still nursing. I spent several hours at PrimeCare the next day and was told that "while it was hard to know for sure because of all of the other issues (breaks) I've had" they are pretty sure it's not broken. Take a little time off for the swelling and bruising to go down, ice it, cross train and get back on the horse. So I did the time equivalent of eleven miles on the elliptical (not fun btw)  and will just repeat this last week's mileage, running, this week. SIGH. Aarik and I just keep shaking our heads in disbelief that one person's feet could be under attack constantly. It's really becoming frustrating not knowing from one day to the next if I'll even complete training for the marathon, much less show up to run it. Just trying to remember the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation's "Never Give Up" motto.

Last week we reached 50% of our fundraising goal!!! Thanks to all of you wonderful, caring people who have donated so far and to Victoria Strong who has been so supportive and helpful. Thank you for helping me reach a personal goal to be half way before the half way point.  This fundraising is SO important for many reasons, but the thing that keeps coming to my mind is that with this disease parents are told there is nothing they can do to fight it. By raising this money we are doing something! This is really the only way these families can fight back. By funding projects that give their children better quality of life and research that will one day find a cure we are doing something. I'm so grateful to all of you who have given that to Callie's family by donating in her name. You're all so wonderful & you can't know how much the support means to us all. I can only imagine how it feels to Josh, Aimee and Callie to see how many people love & support them in all they're doing as well. Thank you all again!

One last thing, Laura over at mommyrunfast.com, is a wonderful running and health food blogger. I've gotten some great advice from her blog and have been keeping up with her for a little while now. A while back she asked if I would be interested in doing a short guest post for a segment she does on Sunday's called Purposeful Running to talk a little bit about why I'm doing what I'm doing. She worked as a social worker before she became a SAHM, and being aware of what SMA is/was, wanted to help get the word out and help with the fight. Of course I jumped at the chance! She has a wonderful blog and lots of wonderful followers and this is one great way to spread awareness about Spinal Muscular Atrophy and our fundraising efforts for GSF. The post is supposed to be up this coming Sunday, July 22nd, for any of you who are interested. In the mean time, if any of you are runner's or looking to be more healthy with your eating, go check out her blog! BIG thank you to Laura!!

Go Team GSF!!!!!

Just wanted to share this blog post!  Go Team GSF! GO TEAM CALLIE!!!

26.2 miles

OK, I may throw up. It's official, if all goes well with training, I will be running The 2012 Anthem Richmond Marathon on November 10th. "America's friendliest marathon". I signed up tonight. It was a last minute change from the marathon I've been planning to run for the last several months, (Callie's Uncle and Grandma had some things change on their end & we can all run this one together) but it looks awesome! If it's anything like the website makes it look and sound, then I know this was the best choice for my first marathon. It will be wonderful to share this experience with both my family and Callie's. They have all been so supportive, both the ones who are local and the ones across the country. Now I can start getting excited... right?!?!

This week, as I've been anticipating signing up for this, I've been a ball of nerves. The anxiety has been manifesting itself in every facet of my life from motherhood & being a wife, to cleaning, to running and back again. I'm hoping that since I now know for sure which race I'm signed up to run, and have already taken the plunge, that the nerves will ease up and the training can begin. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out, with Aarik's work schedule due to change twice between now and then, and the usual life with kids thing. It's comforting that this race is two weeks further away than the other, also. Two more weeks to train and save money for the trip. Anyone who likes to pray for others, feel free to add me to your list. I'm lacking the confidence I'd hoped to have at this point in the year, and hoping that the donations, and my running ability (and excitement) will pick up again. I'm so honored to be able to join "Team GSF" and help raise money for this wonderful charity that does SO much to help improve the lives of families living and dealing with SMA.

Thank you to all that have supported me in both my fundraising and running efforts. I'll try to post as often as possible about how training is going, and keep you updated on the kiddos and Aarik too! I'm excited to share this fun and physically demanding journey with whoever cares to read about it, but hope to always keep in mind the reason that I'm doing this in such a public way. I'd be perfectly happy keeping my shortcomings as a runner to myself, especially with such a big commitment, but it's worth putting it all on the line for people to learn a little about Spinal Muscular Atrophy and maybe support the cause too! Well, here we go...

The Divas Half

So this past weekend was the Divas Half Marathon in North Myrtle Beach.  Originally this was supposed to be a fun girls weekend getaway and race with my mom and a close friend. Then we found a few more girls to invite and one of them had a great place to stay close by on the cheap. It was a fun group of girls and sure to be a good time, PERFECT! I was thinking I'd be able to leave Parker by now and, just in case he wasn't ready, had made a back up plan to have my sister come along to help out on race day. Well, as plans some times will, our plans changed. Several times. All of them. My sister was asked to do a house sitting job and needed to take it, so I decided to bring the whole family along, mom and I found another place to stay, not as close, but just as cheap, the original friend who had planned the trip with me had lots of things pop up last minute and wasn't able to make it down.  The night before the trip I got an email changing something important to me, that I have worked hard on and put lots of effort into and I was feeling pretty crummy about that. By the time Friday rolled around I was feeling overwhelmed by packing for five and buying and planning food for five and... well you can imagine. But we all loaded up and drove down to North Myrtle ( a place I don't personally believe to be the most family friendly beach, especially during bike week, which it was). The kids rode down great, Aarik was a champ like always, we had a great time, everyone behaved. It actually turned into a much needed, fairly peaceful family mini vacation. While we were there mom was awesome enough to take some family pictures for us. You may have noticed some of them already plastered on here.  I'm SO excited about finally having pictures with all of us in them. Especially because I actually got to shower and get ready before we took them! So here are a few pics from the trip.

Now onto the race :) I've made it no secret that training for this race has been a struggle. This was my third half but my first time not being able to stick to a training schedule. It was frustrating and made me lose a lot of the excitement I normally feel looking forward to a race, but two things kept me plugging away (as best I could anyway) #1- I needed to build a base again after not running during the end of my pregnancy and before I start training for my full and #2- my mom. This year my mom will turn 50, she won't look it, but she will be it. Last year was a very hard year for her, which isn't unusual, but it was really hard. So several months back I suggested she do this race as a way to celebrate her 50th year. Honestly, running is my thing. The thing One of the things that makes my family think I'm crazy. I was able to get my husband to do it, there was no way I could convince anyone else, right?!? Well, bless my mama's heart, she signed up for the race, and then she started training. I gave her a training plan, and a little advice, we found her some good shoes (insert ASICS plug here :), and a few cute outfits and she hit the pavement. Early on the plan was for us to do it together, like, all of it. Training, fueling, and the race. Then we got busy and had to do our training separately. She would ask a question here and there, we would talk about what our mileage would be on Saturdays, but she was on her own a lot. It was up to her to be accountable for her training, and she was. She would get up earlier than I would on weekends and get in her long mileage. She would come home from work and juggling other people's schedules during the week and get her mid-weekers in.  She worked her rear off. Since I was running all of my mileage, I decided I would just run the half and then go back and meet her. But the closer it got to race day, the more that plan just didn't feel good. So a few weeks before I decided to go back to the original plan and do the race with my mom. This race was a blast! From the expo

All the way to the finish

I enjoyed it all. Being an all women's race made it a whole different experience. The expo was full of women dying to spend money on stuff they would only use once. Pink and sparkles and crazy costumes were everywhere on the morning of the race. I have to tell you it was so refreshing to approach a race differently. Instead of spending two hours pushing myself and freaking out about my time, I spent 3 hours and 15 minutes encouraging my mom and other ladies who had never done a half before, enjoying all the support and funny signs on the course, thanking the volunteers, laughing and chatting, posting pics of mom on Facebook, and yes, texting Aarik to see if Parker was screaming (he wasn't, in case you care :) It was my favorite half marathon experience. I stayed with her all the way until a quarter mile before the finish and then ran ahead to make sure she had at least one picture of herself crossing the finish line. I am SO proud of my mom. She walked and jogged that race like a champ. She didn't stop once. She was determined, and motivated, and she finished strong and got her blingin' medal. My mom is an inspiration.

I'm so grateful for this experience, and the memories we'll always share from it. Way to go mom!

In 10 days registration for the marathon will open. Every time I think about it my stomach knots up. I'm praying everything goes smoothly, the registration, the training, my foot, the race and most importantly the fundraising. Thank you to everyone who has been so supportive so far. I was hoping to be at least half way to the goal by the time I registered for the full. There's still a little time to hope, right? If you haven't yet, please share the fundraising page. If you haven't yet, PLEASE donate or make plans to before the end of October! Every single dollar counts! Every donation will help us reach our fundraising goal and every single dollar will get us closer to a treatment and eventually a cure for Spinal Muscular Atrophy. We can help make sure that this disease doesn't continue to torture children and their families. That it doesn't continue to take children away from their families. With 1 in 40 people being a carrier of the SMA gene, you can't think you'll spend the rest of your life with out being affected by it. I am so proud to be raising money for The Gwendolyn Strong Foundation and I know that they will use every dollar to fight this terrible disease. 

If life is too crazy for blogging until then, I will definitely be letting you know once I am officially registered for the big race! Hope everyone has a great week!!

Quick Post

Aarik and the big kids are gone for a few minutes and Parker is sleeping so I thought I'd do a quick update.

First off, Mckenzie (4) lost her first tooth. It took forever because she literally waited until it fell out on it's own. But she was super proud afterward.

Last week I wasted two hours of my life waiting for a four minute (not joking unfortunately) appointment with foot and ankle surgeon, who did nothing but look at an x-ray that at least five other people had already looked at, and touch my foot in a few places, and send me out the door with inserts for plantar fasciitis (just started bugging me this past week), some stretches I already do, and an order to call him if the pain localizes again. Oh, yeah, and his permission to run. We also bought a membership to Sci Works last week and spent the day there with a good friend (and running buddy) and her cute boys. The place is wonderful! It's like the best of lots of kids worlds all combined in an organized way and only a mile away from home.

 The picture quality is terrible because it's from a cell, and the kids were all over the place, so I only got this picture of them. As a home school family we should have bought this at the beginning of the school year, but it's great we have it now. Maybe next time there will be more pictures to share!

In other running news: I realized this week that two weeks from tomorrow is my half marathon. Lots of things have changed from the original "girls weekend, girls race" that was planned. I'll spare you all of the changes, but as of right now, Aarik and the kids, mom and I are going down to North Myrtle for the weekend. Mom and I are hoping to meet up with the girls we were originally staying with for some Girls weekend fun and it will be nice to have time away from every day life with the family too. I'm accepting the fact that I'm going into this race very under trained. In the past I've gone into my half's over trained. It will we be interesting to see what the outcome of this race will be. I was planning to run 11 this morning but, not surprisingly, I was up all night with Parker last night and (yet another) trip to the pediatrician this morning revealed (yet another) ear infection. This is frustrating and confusing to a mother of going on seven years and three kids, who has previously had no experience with ear infections and antibiotics for kids. This is exactly why I choose to nurse my children. Isn't it supposed to prevent this kind of crud?! Hopefully tonight there will be enough sleep that I can get up and run my eleven before church tomorrow, and it would be great to get in a twelve next weekend. Here's hoping.

Last, I want to take a minute short paragraph, to thank everyone who has donated money, liked and shared our fundraising page, my blog and any other SMA fighting blogs/charities or pages. It's wonderful that awareness of this fairly rare disease is beginning to share. Social media is a wonderful partner in this type of fight. It was a blog and Facebook & Twitter followers that helped get Ellen involved in spreading SMA awareness. Please continue to share with your friends & family & neighbors. Feel free to ask me any questions you might have and I'll do my best to find answers, or find someone who can find your answers. We are getting close to the half way mark for our fundraising goal. I know that by the end of October we will  be able to look at the money we've raised, and the information we've shared, and be proud of all that we've accomplished!

This is SMA

Some of you guys have been following the story of little Avery, who was diagnosed with SMA type 1. My heart was broken today to see this. She was here for such a short time but made such a huge impact by making SO many people aware of this condition. This is what SMA does and this is why it is SO important to beat this disease. Prayers for her family and gratitude for what they've done. Please be a part of helping us raise money to find a cure!

The Hospice 10k

This seems to be the year of glitches and frustrations. You guys know we've had lots going on so I won't go into all of that, but let's just say as of Friday night I was pretty sure there was no way I'd be running Saturday morning. But, when the alarm went off Saturday I got up and got ready and Aarik did the same and we headed over to the Hospice Run. Neither of us felt well, or well prepared, but we figured the distances we were running were short enough we could walk back if we needed to. They had a record turn out which is great for them and their fundraising efforts, a bit frustrating for some of the runners. Apparently, record turn out means they give your t shirt away to someone who registers the day of, and they start the race 45 minutes late, and they are "looking into" posting the results online so people who paid for timing can hopefully find out what their finishing times were.

Okay, to the positives- it was gorgeous weather! Couldn't have been more perfect for the distances we were running! Since they started the 5k thirty minutes before the 10k (???) Aarik was finished and rested enough to think about taking a picture with his cell phone when I finished. He never runs with his phone, so it's fun he did this time!

Hopefully the Hospice people got one of Aarik. We both ran the whole time, and finished somewhere around what our average times are for racing these distances( 54:33 for my 10k and Aarik said he thought his time was 25 something), nothing too shiny. The course was crazy hilly and so it always makes you feel good to finish something challenging; my legs are paying the price today. There wasn't enough time for the extra 3 miles we had planned on running after, so we went straight home. Sorry, not much of a race update. Hopefully the next two will be more positive experiences, with more pictures, and more to talk about!

There were two more donations this week! Aimee, Callie's mom, and I usually do a little text message "high five" of sorts when we see a new donation. It helps get us closer to our goal, but more importantly it's another donation closer to finding a treatment, or cure, for Spinal Muscular Atrophy.  EVERY donation is special. EVERY donation makes my heart happy. EVERY donation counts. A donation can't be too big or too small. I want to share a story of one of the donations because it is awesome to have the opportunity to do that. There is a story behind every donation. This is such an amazing opportunity to be an important drop in the bucket that has to be filled to beat this disease. It's exciting to be getting closer to the half marathon next month, and then to be able to officially register for the big show, the 26.2 miles, just a few days later. We are all really looking forward to seeing the support roll in as we approach the goal race. We are grateful to everyone who has donated so far and gotten us on the path to exceeding our goal, and to all of the people that will donate along the way too. Each donation is a little morale boost for me when I'm struggling with getting out the door and putting in the mileage. It holds me accountable :) I imagine it's also a morale boost to Callie's family. I know it means so much to the people at GSF.  Feel free to share anything I post here. Please feel free to share the fundraising page and the marathon effort, tell people about the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation, and help us spread the word, and make people aware, that this disease is out there and it's something that can be beaten! Thanks for all y'all are doing to get us where we want to go!

*** Update 4/16/12*** Results were posted here are mine. Nothing to be proud of, but I finished. Aarik's are here.

If You're Wondering Why

it's important to me to raise awareness and money for Gwendolyn Strong Foundation in honor of Callie to fight SMA, this is EXACTLY why.

I've seen this exact thing happen to people I love. It can happen to anyone, anywhere, without warning. Please consider clicking on the "Donate" link on the side of the blog to make a donation to help end SMA.

Running and Not Running

This last week I had to put myself on the "I think I'm injured list". My left foot, which has been broken twice now, has been really bothering me since late last Saturday night. I did a couple of miles on the treadmill Tuesday night and it felt fine until a few hours later. Then, pain for two days that went away for me to run Thursday. Thursday I decided to try to run outside for a couple of slow, easy miles. Note to self: if you haven't been running your normal mileage it is almost impossible to "take it easy" when you do get out again. I ran the fastest two miles I've run in a good long while. Maybe because I had only run two miles all week, or maybe because I ran with music for the first time since I broke my foot last time, or maybe just because; it didn't matter that it was hot and muggy either. It felt nice to finish with a good pace, but I worried I had overdone it. Luckily my foot never did hurt (until today).

Friday night Parker got pretty sick, the sickest he's been so far. What seemed to be teething mixed with allergies turned into something crazy in the middle of the night with a high fever, runny nose and coughing. Since I didn't get to sleep until 7:00 Saturday morning, when I was supposed to be running, I didn't run Saturday. Instead Aarik, sick Parker, and I  drove down to Concord to do packet pick up for Aarik's half marathon, while Konnor and Mckenzie spent the day with Nana at home. They only had one day pick up (kind of inconvenient for out of towners) and we had made plans to stay overnight with close friends who live close by. The same people that did our last half and the one I'm doing In May with my mom and a few girlfriends. Honestly, I was disappointed in their "expo" which consisted of maybe two vendors and a few tables from the other races they do. The race itself was an awesome idea, and the medal was enough to make me want to run it, but luckily I didn't sign up to run with my hubby this time because it just wouldn't have worked out. Since we had to bring our sick, angry baby back home last night Aarik drove back up to Concord at 5 am to do his race. With all of the insanity of the weekend, changed plans, sick folks and the fact that he got bored training half way through and hadn't done much since, he STILL managed to pull a 1:48:18! How he does it I'll never know, but he is my running hero.I'm so proud of him and SO grateful to be married to a man that doesn't think twice about changing his plans when something pops up with kids or family life. It may be a little silly, but things like this make me love and appreciate him more. He has decided to concentrate on 5k's for awhile, partly because he doesn't really care for longer distances regardless of the fact that he runs them well, and probably partly because I have a plate full of training until November.

I've decided this week to start fresh with my training, take my mileage down and stick to a new training plan. We'll see how it goes. Hopefully we'll get some sleep tonight so that running this week will feel like something I love and not a chore. 10k is only 3 weeks away and then we'll be closing in on the half and registration and training for the main event! Any locals out there looking for a 5 or 10k soon should sign up for the Hospice Run in Winston. It definitely supports a good cause, is fairly small and was a fun event last time we ran it. This year it means a little more to me to support Hospice after seeing how well they treated my Grandma last year when she was dying and how great they were to the family after she had passed. I'm grateful there are organizations out there to ease the pain of a situation no one wants to go through but we all experience at some point.
Speaking of running for a cause, it's been a little while since we've seen any donations. The fundraising effort started out super strong and I'm so grateful to those who got us on track to meet our goal by the end of October. We purposely shared our fundraising efforts early on so that everyone could have time to find $5, or $15 or $50, and I feel like by Marathon day we will have exceeded our fundraising goal.  I LOVE running but would never take the time to share all of this with everyone in the world if it weren't going to be beneficial to someone else somehow. It's easy to share my training and little unimportant struggles along the way but, hopefully, the money we will raise will help people whose stories are of real struggles and aren't so easy to read about, or share. Spinal Muscular Atrophy is considered fairly rare, but it is far too common to be a disease that never has a happy ending. Please help me spread the word about Running for Callie and fighting SMA.

A Really Quick Note

This was a crazy busy week, Aarik's birthday, our anniversary, new job, time change, Aarik's last week of training before his race and the usual life stuff added to that. This morning is just as crazy but I wanted to quickly share two things: training with three small kids and crazy busy life is looking to be a bit more of a challenge than I had anticipated. This is why I start training a few weeks before I'm supposed to so that when everything collides on a long run day (as happened this Saturday) I can try to make it up the next week. I did get in ten miles Saturday but it was 6.5 outside in the morning and then almost 4 on the treadmill Saturday night. That's the only way I could do it, and I'm hoping it was effective enough not to throw training off too bad. If I don't have to do that again I won't though, by the time I got off the treadmill I had a crazy pain in my right calf muscle and my left foot. Hopefully when I run again tonight they won't still hurt. Fingers crossed.

The other thing is I just wanted to share a link to the blog that Jennifer, Callie's grandma, started. Please check it out and let her know you are supporting her, we can see that you are reading our blog, but it can be tough when you get nothing but crickets in return. Callie has been blessed with amazing parents, two sets of wonderful Grandparents, not to mention aunts and uncles and extended family who ALL adore her and want the very best for her. They've all been very involved in her  life since before it began, they have all loved her and supported her before this trial even came to light.  Each of them are trying to find ways to participate in and contribute to Callie's life and, now, in her fight against Spinal Muscular Atrophy.

As a side note, we still can't register until June 1st and so I'm not going to make an announcement about which race exactly we are doing, but the date for the marathon that we are planning to do is set for October 27th. We are excited and picking training plans and gearing up for some serious time on our feet.

Last Night's Race

So last night was the 5k in Mount Airy. I've been waiting to get official results before I blogged about it, but I'm not sure when that will happen, so for now: I ran it in 26:35 (according to my Garmin) not super fast, but decent. From what I understand I placed first in my age division, which is exciting because that has never happened to me and probably never will again (my info came from a source very close to one of the directors).This only happened because it was a smallish race, but every little victory feels good. I had to leave as soon as I crossed the finish line to get home to Parker and make sure Aarik didn't miss his plans.   No, I didn't pee myself :) I did, however, have to take two quick walk breaks due to the crazy stitch I got in my side. Never had that experience before, and hope to never have it again. It was insanely painful and still hurts today. Not sure exactly what caused it but Runners World suggests this to fix it (for anyone out there who may have this experience in the future). So technically the 5k beat me again. What can ya do? Other than this dreadful pain in my side, the race was really fun. I got to run with a great friend who helped me run through the pain when she could have left me, the decorations on the course were super cute and it was fun to run at night. Callie's grandparents and aunts were there too. Some participating in the race, some taking pictures and some cheering. If I can get my hands on any pics (and don't look crazy in them) I'll post those and if and when official results are posted I'll update again. Please remember to pass on the fundraising page for SMA in honor of Callie. It's been exciting the past few weeks to see some of the advances in research. Just a reminder of how close they are to finding a treatment and how important it is that we continue to fund those doing the research. It would be great if those newly diagnosed with SMA never had to see the worst effects of this disease. My next race is a 10k on April 14th. OK, bedtime for the kids; we have all kinds of new schedules starting tomorrow!

The 5k and an update on our TEAM effort :)

My first race since having Parker is this coming Saturday, it's a 5k. 3.1 miles. The funny thing is that, for some reason, this distance continues to defeat me. No, seriously. It's not that I can't run 3.1 miles, I ran nine this past Sunday and five the Wednesday before that. I can't race it. I have raced two 10k's and two half marathons. I ran 14 miles every Saturday for several months before I got pregnant with Parker. Every 5k I have attempted has been a bust. The last one I attempted was especially bad though. The several that I had done before I wound up walking at some point (??)-frustrating, so the last one I signed up for was to be greatness. I had been running 8, 9, 10, 11 miles every Saturday building up to my first half. My shortest run during the week was four miles and I just knew I was going to kick this 5k to the curb. Well, it didn't happen that way. Aarik and I got to the race early, too early, and walked around for awhile, eventually sitting down to wait at the starting line. A little while before the race I decided I needed to pee and walked down to the port a potty's (ugh just typing the word makes me want to vomit), where we found probably a hundred people, if not more, waiting in line. Being the germ-a-phobe I am, and lacking the patience it would take to stand in a line that long, I decided "Hey, it's only three miles! I'll knock it out real quick then find a place to pee." Right. Let me give you some advice: it might "only be three miles" but you WILL NOT be knocking it out with a full bladder! Of course they started much later than the given start time, at which point I had been holding it for well over an hour. The gun went off and I took off, determined to get a great time and get to a toilet. That first half mile was amazing, it was the fastest I'd ever run, and then.... I peed myself. No, I'm not kidding. For real. In front of like 10,000 people. Who does that?!?! It brought me back to preschool days. Luckily it was very close to the one set of porta potty's on the course and I ducked into one and called my sister to pick me up on the closest street she could meet me at (moral of the story: ALWAYS run with your phone). Her, her boyfriend (now husband), and best friend left the finishing area, had a cop stop traffic (AND the race) because they had a "family emergency" and picked me up somewhere downtown with wet shorts and dropped me off where we had parked to wait on my husband. Talk about humiliation. I'm sharing this because if I fail at a much longer distance it won't be nearly as humiliating as telling everyone that cares to read about it this failure, at this mileage. Also to make you laugh because it's pretty funny. I'm hoping this Saturday I will be able to run the whole time and not pee myself. I don't even care what my time is.Well, not that much anyway...

Now that I have your attention, I wanted to give you a little update on the fundraising effort! Callie's Grandma, Jennifer, and Uncle David are also going to be training for the marathon that I'm doing. We are excited to be doing the fundraising as a small team effort this year in hopes to make it bigger by next year. It has been wonderful to see the outpouring of love through donations so far and we are really hoping to meet exceed our goal by the day of the marathon. Remember you can click on the "Donate" link on the side of my blog or just click here.  You can also keep up with the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation and all that they are doing to fight SMA. My little mileage ticker girl is on her way and I'll try to keep her up to date too. I'll let you know how Saturday goes when I get a chance. Hopefully it will be an uneventful night. ;)  Any runners out there feel free to share any of your "funny" running stories too!

Race Dates SO Far

In an effort to have some accountability, while I'm waiting to register for the Marathon and for them to announce the actual day in October, I am registered for every race I intend to do between now and then as "build up" races to help me gauge how my training is going. So I told you guys about my 5k in March, I'll also be doing a 10k in April and a half marathon  in May. If any of y'all are close by and feel like coming out to cheer me on I'd love to see you!  June 1st I should be able to tell you that I am registered for the Full Marathon and what the actual date is. So you can expect at least one big update a month on how training is going. After I'm actually registered for the full there may be one or two more build up races thrown in. I'm hoping that we will see continued support in our fundraising efforts for SMA on Callie's behalf. You can click on that link any time between now and race day and donate and your donation will go to GSF on behalf of Callie, which makes it a little more special than just donating. Right now we are at 5% of our goal, which is awesome but we still have a long way to go. I want you guys to realize that while there is currently no treatment, they are SO close to finding one. That's why it is so important that we do what we can to help them.

The little ticker to the right on this page is keeping track of where we are with our fundraising. It's a little droopy for some reason (I'm trying to figure that out) but it will help keep you guys up to date. I'm trying to find a ticker that I can update to let you guys know how many miles I've run for Callie since we announced our efforts. Until I find one I'll just share that info with you guys once a week after the longest run of the week (usually Saturdays). I want to show that this is a sincere effort with work going into it & hopefully people will match the work efforts with donations! Thanks for all  you are doing to help this effort along!