Bullet Points

How's that for an attention-grabbing title?!

I've been running! I've been reading running blogs! I just haven't been keeping mine updated. So many times I've sat down to spill the latest and am just too far behind to even start.

So, it's been decided. Some experiences from the past year will simply need to be shared. Others can be skipped. Posts must happen, though, and I have to start somewhere. Bullet points it shall be, followed by some stories from events passed AND current events.

At least I still look exactly the same. No tattoos, piercings or the like.

Since my last post, there have been crazy and/or awesome developments in my Running Life :

• My first Boston Qualifying time wasn't fast enough to get me into the 2014 race. (oops. That one wasn't awesome or particularly crazy)
• So I signed up for a 50-miler, instead.
• I had a heartbreaking DNS*
• So I signed up for a different 50-miler
• Along the way I did some Pacing/Training*

That guy didn't run. He cheered and drank chocolate milk.

• And secured a faster Boston Qualifier for 2015
• My kids and husband became more than spectators.

 

• I was lucky enough to find a fast, local running buddy. She lets me talk her ear off in exchange for training advice which she uses to beat me at races. It works.

  

Plus she has cute socks

• We ran a beautifully-paced, negatively-split, Personal Best(s) half-marathon, together...up until the last .20 miles where she sprinted off to beat me.
• I finally completed a 50-miler. The same issue that caused the previous DNS, threatened to end my race at mile 8.*

ow

• There was a lot of peer pressure and I signed up for a 100-mile race.
• I ran an even faster Boston Qualifier 3 weeks after my first Ultra. *

PRs make me do funny faces









 

• I sidled out of my comfort zone and successfully paced an even faster marathon.
• Team Shanghaied ran another Ragnar Florida Keys. And beat every. other. Ultra Team. That was a darned good weekend. *

  
• I completed a 100-mile race. Sorry for the bold type. It deserves it. And "completed" is somewhat of an understatement.*
• Three weeks later I ran the 119th Boston Marathon. It was worth the wait. Kind of.*

  

Which brings us all to one week, post-Boston. The *s indicate a juicy story to follow. I'll do my best to keep up with posts if you guys do your best to read my ramblings.

 

Deal? 



 

We Interrupt This Running Blog

To bring you...

 

skiing!!

 

Some of my more intuitive readers may have wisely realized that this activity cannot take place in Florida. Indeed, wise friends, we took the boys for a long weekend to North Carolina. The two youngers have never tried any sort of snowy sports, so we figured it cheapest best to start them out on tiny, East Coast mountains.

 

Never ceasing to amaze, though, they took to skiing and snowboarding like ducks to water...or maybe penguins to ice blocks....whatever. They were naturals.

oh. They were really cute, too.

Bonus: The Oldest is big enough to wear The Husband's gear!

 

Middle-of-the-night road trip, followed by an entire day on the slopes should have led to utter exhaustion followed by complete meltdowns. Our children surprised us, once again, by being totally compliant, sweet and in total enjoyment of every second of the day.

 



snow angels

 

I know you were dying to know what my feet looked like when not clad in running shoes

 

On the off chance you stopped by my blog to get your much-needed fix of my awesome running tales, there was a bit of that on this trip, too. After our free!! hotel breakfast, I hopped out for a short, hilly jaunt. It wasn't quite as cold as it had been the previous day, and the overnight rain had washed away any snow. It was still lovely to be in new surroundings, enjoying the beautiful area and the feeling of the cool air on my cheeks.

one of the pic-worthy spots on my route

 

I spotted an enormous hill, just off the main road, and decided to attack it. First, though, I pulled out my phone to take a picture from the bottom. I've always seen photos of hills with a caption that reads something like this : "This picture doesn't do it justice" or "You can't really tell how tall it was from this picture".

 

Mentally scoffing at those who'd gone before me, I positioned myself just right to photographically capture a true depiction of the mountain I was about to conquer.

Listen, you can't really tell from this picture how high that thing really was

 

I made it just over halfway up before gasping and panting my way (carefully) back down. My poor, sick lungs were just not ready for that sort of challenge. That yet-to-be-recapped Marathon did a number on me!

 

We took our sweet, sight-seeing time back to Florida. The trip was long enough to squeeze in just about everything we wanted to do, but short enough to where we weren't aching for home by the end of it.

 

pausing the rock-skipping to pose for mom

 

How was your weekend?