MCM Mama Runs

This Tuesday was my day to work at Shoo's preschool, so instead of a blissful five hours to myself, I got to change diapers and clean up messes for 12 2 year olds. (Boy am I glad my kids potty trained early, I so don't miss the diapers.) Then, today was Jones' field trip at school. They were short volunteers for his class, plus he really wanted me there, so I ended up going. My babysitter for Shoo fell through at the last minute, so I had him with me as well. It was just a walk to a local park to practice creating and using a map, so it wasn't a huge deal. However, I was assigned four boys, plus I had Shoo. Needless to say, I employed my usual method of dealing with boys - wear them out. I used an extremely inefficient method of … [Read more...]

but it really didn't feel like it. I ran 12 miles in 2:01:37. It was extremely hilly and various body parts were not playing nicely. I had tummy issues that were bad enough that I considered asking a homeless guy where the nearest bathroom was. I figured he'd know where the public ones were (gotta love urban running). I managed to just deal and keep running back towards my house, figuring I could swing by home if I really needed to. Then at about the 8 mile point, after 2 miles of hills, my foot started bothering me. I've had the pain a couple of times in the past, but never quite that early in a run and I haven't had it at all in a while. I think I may need to check the mileage on the shoes I was wearing.I think the biggest … [Read more...]

Yesterday, I woke up at 5:30am, planning to hit the road just before 7 for a 12 mile run. Unfortunately, Shoo woke up at 6:00am and took a while to get back to sleep. By the time I was free to go, it was close to 7:00am and I still hadn't had my coffee. And I can't run without my coffee.Since it was Jones' birthday, I decided that I had too much else going on in the day and moved my long run to Monday. We took the boys to a local "farm day" where they got to do a petting zoo, ride some ponies, and go on a hayride. After a yummy lunch, we headed back to our house, where Jones was met by 8 of his closest friends. A few fishing games, a lot of running around, and a starfish cake later, I was done. LOL I was too tired to even have a … [Read more...]

Today was a crazy busy day and tomorrow and Saturday will not be much better. Shoo and I walked Jones to school, walked to the Courthouse to vote, walked to the bookstore to pick up the "favors" for Jones' birthday party, and then walked home - about 5 miles total. Then we jumped in the car and went to the fabric store, a craft store, and the library. After a little time chilling at the house, we headed to pick up Jones from school. Shoo had apparently reached the end of his rope and totally lost it while we were waiting outside for Jones. After 15 minutes of holding a screaming boy (with lots of comments from other moms that they'd never seen him not happy), I was pretty well done myself.After we got home, the tantrum continued. By … [Read more...]

Today was a crazy busy day and tomorrow and Saturday will not be much better. Shoo and I walked Jones to school, walked to the Courthouse to vote, walked to the bookstore to pick up the "favors" for Jones' birthday party, and then walked home - about 5 miles total. Then we jumped in the car and went to the fabric store, a craft store, and the library. After a little time chilling at the house, we headed to pick up Jones from school. Shoo had apparently reached the end of his rope and totally lost it while we were waiting outside for Jones. After 15 minutes of holding a screaming boy (with lots of comments from other moms that they'd never seen him not happy), I was pretty well done myself.After we got home, the tantrum continued. By … [Read more...]

The MCM ends with a run up the hill to Iwo Jima. One of my IRL runner friends has been hounding me to run it, just so I know the hill and so it doesn't intimidate me at the end. Iwo Jima is almost exactly three miles from my house, so I figured it would be a good way to get in my planned 6 miles. I'm obviously not very bright.My legs were a bit sore and tired from yesterday afternoon's run, so I decided to aim for 10-10:30 for my pace. This worked out great on the way there. Because, you know, Iwo Jima is three miles DOWNHILL from my house. The run up Iwo Jima wasn't bad at all. Compared to the hills I've been running for training, it was pretty small. Now, I know I'll be in considerably more pain at the end of 26 than I was today, … [Read more...]

Today was a really good running day. It was beautiful. Cool with absolutely no humidity and a very light breeze. I headed out of my house around 1, knowing I needed to pick up Shoo at 2:30. I started out going downhill and did the first mile in 8:57. I figured I'd be slowing down after that, but I ended up doing the next 3 in 8:45, 8:47, and 8:49 respectively. Whoosh! I pushed myself a bit on the last mile to finish it in 8:58, so I managed to pull off 5 sub-9 minute miles. Go me! It felt awesome and leads me to believe that at some point in the next year, I may actually pull off a 2 hour half marathon. (Yeah, I'm already focusing on my next goal even though I haven't actually finished the marathon yet LOL).It was also a really … [Read more...]

Tonight I went to an information session at a LRS about the Marine Corps Marathon. The director of the race was there and I learned a few useful things about the race. The director was pretty interesting and most of the questions were of interest to me. There were a couple of people there that proved that "survival of the fittest" obviously has nothing to do with intelligence. One woman prefaced her question with "I know I'm kind of stupid..." and then proved that she was. I know I tend to research things to death (it's the librarian in me), but man, you'd have thought she had read nothing. Oy!The cool part was at the end though. They had a drawing and five winners got some cool stuff. You guessed it... I won! I never win. LOL … [Read more...]

Yesterday, after Jones' soccer game (where he totally rocked!), we headed over to our usual Oktoberfest/beer festival. It quickly became apparent it was going to be packed (because the weather was awesome) and that most of the attendees were considerably younger than us old farts. Despite having seen some info on "kid activities", we didn't actually see any of those. So, what does an old couple with two kids in tow do? Go to a brewpub for lunch, of course. We had a great lunch, complete with a few beers and then wandered through the fest, rather than actually participating. We took the boys to get ice cream and then made our annual stop at the local toy store that is in the same location as the fest. It's become a bit of a … [Read more...]

I ran my 3rd 20 mile run today. It took me 3 hours and about 32 minutes with no bathroom stop. It felt really good until about mile 17 and then it was a bit of a struggle, but I did manage to do the last mile in under 11 minutes. I am so glad that is done.Tomorrow is our favorite beer festival. We've been going for a long time (at either the first or the second, I was 5 days away from delivering Jones). I haven't always had much to drink (note: I have two October babies, so that's definitely played a part), but it's still a blast to hang out and listen to the Oompah band and drink microbrewery beer and eat sausages and just enjoy the fall weather. Oh, and did I mention the beer? This festival is a big part of why I will likely … [Read more...]

Call your mommy.Yesterday, Beer Geek informed that his annual fall conference would start (you guessed it) the day of the MCM. Yeah, just what I wanted to hear. He normally leaves around 2 pm to get to it, but I'm not even sure I'll be done running by then. Thankfully, he is willing to go a bit later than normal. Also, I called my mom (who was coming for the weekend, but also leaving a few hours after the run) and whined and we were able to change her plane ticket, so she's staying until Tuesday now. Thank God for mommy!To add to the fun in our household, Jones woke up last night, screaming from a sore throat. A trip to the doctor confirmed that he has strep for the second time in three weeks. Now we are trying to figure out if it's … [Read more...]

On the schedule this morning was a 12 mile run. I was so not in the mood for it. With only 29 days until the marathon, apparently I'm just done right now. Not exactly a good time to be tired of running LOL. It stormed a lot last night and was still raining a bit when I got up, but by the time I was actually ready to hit the road at 6:45am, it was just humid. Really humid. As in, can it be 100% humidity and not actually be raining? Whatever, I got going. The first five miles went really well as I ran a huge downhill and then ran up the first hill of the MCM. (I'll run that baby one more time before the race, but it already doesn't intimidate me like it did before. I think the bridge run I did the other day conquered that issue). At … [Read more...]