My First Travel Race

When I moved to Virginia Beach, I started running races because there were more than enough to fill a runner's calendar in the immediate area. All of my big races have been right here. Traveling to run never really crossed my mind. I had heard lots of good things about Richmond's race, mostly the presence of a junk food table on course. When my running partner's husband registered, we decided we would try it also. That's when we began speed training with a goal of breaking 2 hours.

My best half time was 2:15. To cut 15 minutes off would be quite a feat. As the race approached, I decided it best to be more realistic. I decided that I would try to hit 2:05. Still a lofty goal, but something to shoot for.

This race was very different for two reasons. First, our hotel was about 2 blocks from the start. That means no stress in finding a parking spot and more sleep time. Second, it was a new place to run. I'm not at all familiar with Richmond, so I was excited to "see the sights" as we ran.

For the first 8 miles I felt great and kept my pace just where I wanted. However, at mile 8 I hit an unusual wall. Perhaps it was the unexpected number of hills the first half of the race presented or just a mental block but I have no idea what happened. I began to slow down for the next 2-3 miles. I had to completely get in my head and talk myself out of going slow. Around mile 11 I started to get a little faster and finally came back to my target pace for the 13th mile. I finished at 2:11:19. To cut off 4 minutes is pretty substantial and has only fueled me to find another one and try again. Thanks to Coach Tim, I'm getting faster and I know if I can get myself together mile 8-11, I can reach my goal.

Karen and I after the race. Shortly after this picture, we saw the Marathon winner cross the finish. His time was 2:18. He took 7 more minutes than I to run twice the distance. It just makes me sick. Kenyans....

This is my friend from work, Christa. I have this habit of convincing people that they can run long distances and twisting their arms to register for a race. This was my most recent victim. Not only had she never run a Half Marathon before, she had never run A RACE EVER. She was on a definite runner's high when I saw her. So proud of you, Christa!!

Believe it or not, I ran into a college friend at the finish line! It truly is a small world.

I'm taking a bit of a break this week on running but I'm aggressively searching the internet for a new half. Send me your suggestions. I'm willing to travel. :o)

Flood of 2010

If you knew me in 2003, you may recall the Flood of 2003. It went something like this: Woke up on a December morning with my entire home flooded by a burst pipe. Fast forward to Saturday night when I arrived home from my Mecca trip. This time it goes like this: Neighbor's hot water heater overflowed and flooded half of my home. Ugh!

We are well on our way to restoration. Carpet is probably salvageable although the padding has been removed. Linoleum was removed this morning, so that's a loss. I have obnoxiously loud industrial fans blowing hopefully for the last night to dry the concrete slab. Just waiting on the insurance adjuster so we can get this renovation started!

I'm handling this flood much better. After sulking over the inconvenience and frustration that goes with ALL of my belongings residing in the dry areas of my bedrooms and living room, I have changed my attitude. For the last year, I've been rather anxious to purchase a new home. I resolved a few months ago that I cannot afford what I want right now so I should make the most of what I do own. This morning, the Lord reminding me that although this situation is a bit of a nuisance, it is His way of helping make this dwelling place even better. So, three cheers for new floors! Hip! Hip! Hip!

Homecoming 2010

I made a last minute decision to make the trek home for Lee University's Homecoming weekend. It seemed that most of my girlfriends were making the trip and once all of my transportation woes were solved, I bought a plane ticket to the ATL. The surprising part: Chip decided he wanted to see what the kids were talking and check out TN. So, he joined me and learned first hand the awesomeness of all things Cleveland.

We boarded the big white bird on Thursday night and headed for ATL. Whatup and her new beau, Kit (who is awesome, by the way), scooped us up from the airport to transport us to Joanna. We met up with her at a very "classy" Waffle House and decided to just go in and make a memory of it. We were the only patrons at 10:00pm, so we convinced Joanna we had reserved the place for us. Once we finished stuffing our faces with smothered and covered hashbrowns, we headed to Jo's place. Let the fun begin!

We woke up Friday morning and headed straight over to my college roommate's house, Amberly. Berly just gave birth to her 3rd daughter, so she is a for real FULL TIME mommy. We went over for breakfast and to spend some time with her kiddos. Her oldest is quite a character. She speaks in full monologues at the age of 3 and a half. Her middle girl is adorable with her scratchy voice. We had a blast eating waffles and fruit with her fam and then began to make our way North to TN.

After running a few errands, we made it to TN at lunchtime. If anyone has ever spent time in Cleveland, TN you know exactly where to go for lunch: JENKINS! We met Sarah Bragg and her 2 girls and Kelly Denbow's family. It was so nice to see everyone and their little ladies. We finally finished our chicken salad sammies and wound down before the Class of 2000 evening event. We joked at lunch, "What if we are the only people that show to the reunion?" Of course that wouldn't happen, right?




We arrived fashionably late to a very empty gathering place. Other than a handful of folks that we didn't know, our crew was the only group there! Can you believe it? We didn't care though. We intended to spend time together and we did. So, Brittany, Willis, Mac, and baby-to-be joined the lunch crew plus Sarah's husband. We hung out until the babies had to go home and sleep. Then Jo, the Jepson's minus Mac, and Chip and I met up with Whatup and Kit at Jenkins for an evening of chocolate cake and offensive conversation. I haven't laughed that hard in a long, long time. I think we have decided to get a group together to head to the Kentucky Derby next year. You in?

Saturday morning, Joanna and I ran the Homecoming 5k and then did an additional 5 miles. Once that was said and done, we went to our respective lodging facilities and cleaned up for the day. Chip and I took Keri to the Rebel for brunch, my first place of employment. Man, those biscuits and gravy are still awesome! Then we met up with the previous night's crowd with the addition of Joel and hung out for a bit at Gardner's Market. After getting a full commentary tour of the Bragg's historic home renovation, we headed to ATL to fly home.


If you are worn out by reading all of that, imagine how spent we were when we got home. I needed that trip so badly and loved seeing everyone. It's funny because many of those ladies I only see once a year and conversations are spread out in between mostly through email and Facebook with a handful of phone calls. But the friendships we developed at Lee were relationships of substance. They are still near and dear to me even if it is just once a year visiting.

I think Chip enjoyed himself in the land of Mayfield's and Jenkins. I know he was a hit with the age 3 and under crew. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he goes back to just visit Sinclair. He assured me he would send me a postcard if he did.


Ladies, glad I saw each of you and looking forward to Berly's Girls Weekend. Hopefully we can add Cybil and Mur to that one!

(Me, Britt, Kelly, and Sarah. We couldn't resist getting a picture here. Photographed by Jo.)

Little Chicken

I have a friend at work that grew up on a farm way up north. His way of introducing his family to farmlife and bringing a little bit of home to VA is raising chickens. Yes. I said chickens. He raised 12 chickens to lay eggs for his family. He told me all about it a few weeks ago and I was just excited about the thought of fresh eggs on a Sunday morning. Unfortunately, I have no space for chickens in my condo and I'm pet averse. So, I'm not a good candidate for chicken raising right now. He informed me that his chickens were laying eggs like crazy and much more than his family could enjoy. If I brought in an egg carton, he agreed to fill it up. How exciting is that?!?! So, I brought one in for my little share of farm freshness.

My co-worker bought 8 more chicks and we agreed that I could "sponsor" one. He brought in a video of them all chirping away and let me pick out "my" new chicken. I asked if I was going to get pictures as my little chick grew up to be an egg laying chicken and if I would receive letters that I could display on my refrigerator. He said he will work on both. Then he showed me what my little adorable yellow chick will look like as an adult.

Here is what she looks like right now:

And this little ball of feathery fun is what she will look like in a few months:

She is a White Cochin. I'm sure mine will be much more adorable than this interweb picture, but you get the idea. Here's the problem. I have to name her! Give me some suggestions, people! The sooner we name her, the sooner she can mature and lay eggs. Well, that last part may be a bit of an exaggeration but I do not want her to be nameless. She needs an identity other than egg provider.

Oh! And I'm sure you are dying to know what culinary delight I'm going to attempt this weekend with my fresh eggs? Cheese Souffle! Bon Apetit!

Snuggle Buddy

As you may recall, I decided to make the 6 years of employment with Starbucks Coffee a gift that keeps on giving. I had so many t-shirts from my years with the company and knew that I wouldn't wear them again. So, I pulled them all out and started cutting them up. I kept one intact since I already had the 4x4 panels and, as any good barista would do, I opted NOT to use the Vivanno shirt. (There are so many reasons baristas hate Vivannos.)

This little project taught me a few more sewing skills even though the finished product isn't perfect. T-shirts creep even with interface. If I were to do it over again, then I would have used a stiffer interface. I was pretty far into the project when I realized there were numerous mistakes. I finally resolved that I was making something to curl up on the couch with and not something to enter into a quilt show. I pressed on and thought I would finish it last night. However, due to a number of wrong stitches and the need to remove entire quilt length seams, I ran out of thread with one side left to bind. I was so frustrated! I only had 5-10 minutes worth of work left and out of thread. It is times like that I wish I knew more neighbors, preferably ones that sew and wouldn't mind loaning out spools of thread. I made a stop on the way home from work and finished my new snuggle buddy up.

I'm happy to announce that I am typing this right now with said quilt on my lap and it is mighty comfy. I think I'll try to make another one really soon. Next time, I'll shoot closer to perfection...maybe.

Fall Celebrated

Can you think of a better way to spend a Saturday evening to kick off fall than pumpkin carving?

I didn't think so. So, that is exactly what we did last weekend. To celebrate the cool weather, Kirsten and Jesse came over with pumpkin in tow for an evening of carving.

The boys had not carved pumpkins before and I had no experience with it either other than watching my parents as a kid. As a result, I didn't have proper carving tools. The fellas ran to the store to purchase the proper instruments and found a fun pumpkin carving book with an assortment of patterns for us to choose from. And here are the products of our loverly evening:

My pumpkin was the "easiest" and so it doesn't look as cool as everyone else's pumpkin. Plus, I was the last one finished. It is suppose to be an owl in a tree. I'm just not good at artistic projects but I had fun anyways.

I think Jesse's was considered the hardest according to the book. He did a really good job, but that is to be expected. He is good at everything.

Kirsten chose the fun white pumpkin and freehanded her carving. She's an artist with blantanly obvious talent.

Chip wanted to find a Thundercat pattern but settled for the howling wolf included in the book. I think he was pleased with the wolf.

I love fall!! Are you carving pumpkins this year?

Prescription To Read

Today I participated in my first ever physical. (Don't judge me.) I figured 32 was a good age to get some baselines for future preventative care. I had bloodwork taken last week and today was the "inspection."



Doc had a med student shadowing him. He went through the assumably usual questions and, of course, my answers were pretty boring. Sometimes you want to just make stuff up so you don't seem so ridiculously boring, but I figured medical visits and FBI investigations are moments that you don't want to try the story telling. Sort of makes the lying less entertaining.


As you may recall, I sliced my finger Memorial Day Weekend. Doc had removed the sutures, so he asked me about the healing. I showed him the finger and commented about the nail that was sliced below the cuticle in the accident. I was curious about where the nail started since it was split under the skin and was now growing out. He took a look and remarked about how quickly it is growing. Without thinking much, I responded, "I drink a lot of milk." I said it partly because it was the first thing I thought of and partly in attempt to entertain the obviously bored med student. Cricket. Cricket. No response but a glaring look from both. Seriously? Lighten up, people!



So, we continued with the physical. Doc asked about my feet, "Do you have any pains in your feet?" I went on to explain my Plantar Fasciitis issue during Marathon training but I assured him I haven't hurt in the last 6 months. This must have sparked his interest and he asked how much I run during the week.



I had brought a book in with me since we all know appointment times mean zilch in the land of medicine. I recently picked up a mindless chick lit book to read from the Shopaholic series. He looked at the book and started asking me questions about it. At that moment, I thought "I should have been reading something more intellectual or classical." Oh well, I admit it. I read mindless books on occasion.



The results of the physical were pretty good. I am pretty proud of my 142 cholesterol number with 57 HDL (good kind). Looks like my good eating habits (Monday-Friday) and my running have paid off. They are concerned about my B12, though. He asked if I was a vegetarian which I laughed and said "No, I love animal products." I had to get more bloodwork done today so they can look specifically at my B12. I hope that is just something I can add to my diet. I'm horrible at remembering pills.



So, I'm waiting at the lab area and Doc comes over and hands me this:




He told me "If you like to read and you are a runner, you should read this book." I told him thank you. I thought it was nice of him to try and connect with me. Most doctors don't. A few minutes later, he comes back with the book and says, "You can't take this home with you, but read the first chapter before you leave." I thought that was really cool of him. And you know what? I want to finish the book now.


So, physical went well. I'm pretty healthy and Doc has prescribed that I read about the Tarahumura Indians to improve my running. The real question here is: Does MedCo cover Barnes and Noble?