Warmer....

Hey guy!! It's almost FRIDAY!! Woo hoo!! Can't wait for the weekend! We're supposed to go indoor rock climbing tomorrow night with some peeps, so hopefully that won't end up canceled/postponed. It's been TOO long!

So, I think I'm going to make it through the rest of the work week. Yesterday maintenance came to hang a white board in my boss's office and the guy smelled so bad that my boss's office smelled like body odor. Seriously, it was unbelievable. The guy was only in there 5 minutes and you could smell his "scent" from my boss's doorway. He wasn't even visibly sweaty, so it was just pure stank. Can you imagine working with this guy all day?? My boss found some Lysol and sprayed all afternoon. He was so incredibly worried that he might smell like that too that he kept hinting for me to smell him. Finally I just had to tell him that smelling him was not part of my job description, but that if he did smell bad I would certainly tell him. In other work related news the blue light has not gone off. I have been informed by HR that the blue light is part of a panic button the receptionist can push if we're being attacked. Shouldn't I have to sign some sort of something saying I am willing to sit under this important light?? There's no way I'm going to make sure everyone else gets out. I'm getting myself and Brent out, and that's it. Should I have some sort of backup person watching this light when I'm at lunch. It's just too much pressure. There was someone different (a temp) at the receptionist station yesterday and I found that to be a bit alarming. I think I've been watching too much 24 because it just felt a little uncomfortable to have some stranger on the front lines.

It's been warm the past few days, perfect actually!!! Today was 70-something and Brent and I ate lunch outside. So nice!! Yesterday was an off day from running so I did my Crunch Burn & Firm Pilates DVD. It's nowhere near as tough as Killer Butt, but you will definitely break a sweat. The instructor is really good and does lots of repeats for each set and is not overly perky. You'll definitely get a good workout but you won't be sore the next day! The mat workout portion is also really good.

Tonight we did a 6.3 mile run. My 6 mile Tues/Thurs run has now become 6.3 as I've traded one portion of the neighborhood for a different hillier portion. Neither of us really wanted to run tonight, but the weather was too incredible not to enjoy and I knew I'd feel really guilty if I didn't run. We started out a little too fast (8.30 first mile). My shoe was driving me nuts during the second mile and totally throwing my form off. Around 2.5 Brent's arch was hurting him so I stopped to adjust my shoe and he stopped to walk. There were TONS of people out tonight walking, running and biking. It's nice when there are more people to look at, but I wish the sidewalk was so busy all year. I saw the same girl I saw Sun and Tues running tonight. She TOTALLY checked out my legs to see how muscular they are! HA! Sister, these legs see some mileage. They are real and they are SPECTACULAR! We got honked at twice. Once by carload of happy people stuck in traffic (the hospital loop we run is right below a very busy road) and later by a construction truck full of workers. Woo hoo! Around mile 4 I was finally in my groove and really started to fly. I met back up with Brent around there and his foot was feeling better so he started running again. We made it back to the house around 55 minutes for 6.3 miles, my avg pace was 8:50/mile which is better than Tues when my average was 8:59/mile. Yeah!!

I hope everyone has an awesome weekend!! Good luck to everyone racing this weekend!! It seems there are a ton of big races this weekend. Susie is running the Monument Av 10K, Audrey and Jeanne will be running the Cherry Blossom, Running Jayhawk and Simba's Mom will be doing the Shamrock Shuffle and Shore Turtle & Redhead Fangirl will be at the Canal 5K. Good luck!

Rae

Exercise-
Wed- 1 mile am walk, Crunch Burn & Firm Pilates DVD (1 hr)
Thurs - 1 mile am walk, 6.3 mile run

A day in the circus

Hey guys! I PROMISE this post will be shorter than my last one!!

Anyway, it is FINALLY starting to feel like spring! Sat & Sun were chilly and overcast, but Pippin and I still went for a nice 3 mile walk Sunday afternoon. He loved it and we even did some run-walk intervals. A lady runner went by and he wanted to chase after her so once she got far enough that she wouldn't realize we were actually chasing HER we ran for a bit. Until he would suddenly stop to pee on a pole, tree, limb, leaf, etc and nearly send my flying over him! Crazy dog!!

It was 24 degrees for our Monday am walk. UGH! Not the way to start the week out. But the day warmed up pretty nicely and this morning it was 54 degrees for our walk!! We saw the same lady jogger as Sunday and another woman walking. I've forgotten how many more walkers there are when it's not pitch black and freezing. It's been so much easier to walk every morning when it's daylight. I think it will still be daylight next week once the time changes, too. Tonight after work I went out for my regular 6-miler, it was an awesome 59 degrees, perfect! There were quite a few walkers and several of the usual joggers. This time of year you see so many more runners out getting ready for the big CMM at the end of April. Last year there were 17,000 runners and this year 23,000 are expected. Where do all these ppl go the rest of the year??? I did the hospital, one of the small park and one of the smaller hills to end up with 6.3 mile with an avg 8.59 pace. For some reason I never quite found my form tonight, my feet sounded way too loud but I still managed to scare a few walkers. When I ran past the cows tonight (there is one farm stuck in the middle of all this suburbia! They could make some serious $$ if they sold that land!) they really stank. I guess warmer weather makes the poo smell drift a bit more. Anyway, it was a great run and warmer weather is predicted for the rest of the week. YAY!!

So, work is still work. It's bizarre at best. I thought I'd share some of the absolute insanity that goes on in our office. I swear they should hire me to write on the staff of the Office sitcom. So, if you only read for running info skip ahead to the bottom and leave a running related comment. Otherwise, keep reading and I SWEAR this is all true!

**Our receptionist - remember her, from the Justin Guarini "scandal"? Anyway, we have a British subsidiary and the prez of that division has been over for the past week and a half. He was walking through the lobby with one of my coworkers and they stopped to talk to the Recep. Once they were about to leave she said to him "Alright, Good Day Mate." My coworker looked at him and said "Huh?" And he said "Yes, I know. That's Australian. And she says it to me every day and I just can't tell her the British don't say that".
**Another coworker in Cash Apps told me yesterday about a series of emails she was having with one of our customers. Our line of business makes something and we ship it out. She had contacted him about which invoice to apply his payment to. He emailed her back and asked her for a listing of his open invoices and also asked how much additional $$ it would be to add a Ford Ranger to his policy. She told him his open invoices and explained to him that she really didn't know much about insurance since we are in the business of manufacturing something that has nothing to do with cars or car insurance. He wrote back and told her which invoice to apply his payment to, and also asked why we could not add his Ford Ranger, and it would it be cheaper if he was also adding an additional person to his coverage. Once again she had to respond to him and explain we manufacture things and he really might want to contact his insurance company. People like that make me feel like ANYONE can own their own business.
**Another coworker in Credit/Collections has a customer on the phone who has to stop her and have an enormous laugh about my coworkers Southern Accent. She said she couldn't understand a word she says. Then she starts repeating everything my coworker has said in her Northern Accent. She finally asks to be forwarded to her customer service rep - who happens to be Hispanic. I wonder if that went any better!! Needless to say every time this coworker has said ANYTHING to me over the past two days I tell her I can't possibly understand a word she says. Sad thing is I really don't think she has much of an accent!!
**We got new chairs today. A coworker and I managed to break hers within 5 minutes by seeing exactly how pimp we could get it! That has to be a record. Also, the blue light above my desk (see previous post) went off today. I was so excited I wasn't exactly sure what to do!! Some security guys were working on something involving wires from the ceiling and they cut it off pretty soon. Next time I plan to be better prepared.

Have a great Wednesday!

Rachel

Exercise-
Mon - 1 mile am walk with Pips, 60 minutes toning/stretching (Focus: abs/butt)
Tues - 1 mile am walk with Pips, 6.3 mile run

Oink Oink!

So much to blog about so little time!!

So, when I left you on Tuesday it was cold and wet. I don't know where spring went! Two weeks ago I was wearing tank tops and we had the top down on the Jeep, and now it's back to our winter coats. Pippin and I had very chilly am walks all week - Tues was 27, Wed was 30, Thurs was 32 and Fri was something in the low 30's as well. What's up with this???

Wed was a non-running day and I did my Killer Butt DVD. This time she didn't kill me quite so much, but that DVD still kicks my butt. I think I'm going to go ahead and buy the Killer Abs one from the same series, I know it would do me some good! If anyone has any good abs focused DVDs let me know! My thighs were a little sore Thurs but not too bad.

This week was "moving week" at work. They've acquired and renovated extra space within our facility that formerly belonged to a sister company. It's two stories and quite large. My department (Finance) along with the Execs, HR and Sales & Marketing were selected to move into it. The Execs are up on the 2nd floor, and the rest of us are on the first floor - I guess they figured they might as well make the glass ceiling quite literal. There's one woman on that floor, and she is the secretary. Personally I wouldn't want to be up there with them anyway. I would greatly prefer to still be where I was, I now have a 90 second walk through the bowels of our warehouse to get back to Brent. Before it was maybe a 15 second walk. I could easily disappear in all this crap and no one would know for quite a while. Our new cubes are rather large and posh for our company. Really all I need is my heater. I may have to get a second heater to keep the new space warm, it's got a much larger area to heat. I also sit underneath this strange new blue light. I don't know what it is, but when it comes on I am going to DANCE. And then probably evacuate.

The new space has actually made us a lot less productive though. Before we were all crammed into adjoining cubicles and you could easily talk while working. So, as ppl arrived in the morning you could chat while working and still stay on task. Now we're all spread apart with lots of empty cubes inbetween. So, as each person arrives you travel around and spread your good morning cheer individually. I think it was around 9.30 Friday morning before anyone started doing any real work. The bathrooms are also "flipped". In the front the women's is on the left and the men's on the right. It's just the opposite in this new space. Friday afternoon I was in a stall and heard a very unwomanly like person enter the bathroom. It was just TOO cumbersome sounding to be a girl. Then, all of a sudden I heard "him" say "F$$K" and run out. HA!

T
Thursday night I did yet another run on the treadmill. For some reason I've lost all motivation to run outside in the cooler temps. While I was training for the Miami Marathon I felt obligated to get out there and get all my miles in, now I feel like they're more optional. I ended up doing my run while watching some of the NCAA games. I started out watching Memphis vs Bradley but then noticed the Duke vs LSU score wasn't moving as it should be. I flipped over to the other CBS station to watch it. Man, the time on the treadmill flew by as I was busy watching the Blue Devils stink it up. I really hadn't wanted to run that night but watching the terrible game just made me want to work harder and harder. Duke really didn't deserve to win that game. Memphis played well though (that night anyway!) Somehow Pippin has managed to do quite well in the NCAA brackets. He actually picked LSU to beat Duke, and has LSU and Florida in the final game. I'm pretty sure he's going to end up with more point me than, how embarrassing!!

After all the moving and cold weather in the week we were zonked Friday night. We ended up eating some fajitas and watching Failure to Launch. It was really cute! I'd highly recommend it if you like cute little (predictable) romantic comedies.

Saturday morning we got to sleep in - sort of. As much as I love competing going to bed early on Friday and getting up early on Saturdays gets old. The past two weeks we've had races so we both really looked forward to sleeping in. Pippin had other ideas. Right at 7 am two little paws were scratching ME on my side. Then I got a lick in the face. Nice. So I took him out and climbed back in bed for another hour and a half. I knew I should have kept our bedroom door shut!

Once we finally got up we headed out for a run. The plan was 8 miles, and to do hill repeats. We don't do hills very often, but it's something we need to build in. We started out from our house and headed through one subdivision and over to a really hilly one. The whole path up to the top and then back down is one mile, so we ended up doing it twice for 2 miles of main hills. The first time was pretty tough but the second time we picked up quite a bit more speed. While we were up there we noticed a new subdivision that already had sidewalks. We headed that direction. It was really nice, the subdivision starts about .5 mile off the main road and there's even a little pond back there. From there we headed through the park and back up a different .5 mile hill. We talked about different ways to head back home since the mileage had already gone by very quickly and we knew we'd be over 8 miles. It was no big deal and we ended up with 8.6 miles, avg pace of 9.30. I'm really happy with the pace considering we worked hills into most of the run. It was 41 degrees but there was a ton of wind so it felt much cooler. We only saw two other runners, one of them was fluorescent guy! He wears bright neon yellow & neon green from head to toe! If he gets hits by a car it will be some sort of miracle. After all that successful hill running we came home and signed up for the Flying Pig Half Marathon in Cincinnati in early May! My brother lives there and is doing part of the relay with some friends. So, free lodging helps! I'm really excited. It's a tough course and it's one week after the Country Music Half marathon so we'll be running this one for total fun. I'm even planning to run in costume, so I'll keep you posted on that!

Well, this post is getting too long so I'll post about the rest of our weekend tomorrow! Have you all heard about the preacher's wife here in TN who shot her husband and took the kids and headed for the beach? I'm sure you have because it's been on CNN and GMA and everything else. In some sort of 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon we actually have a connection to this story. We went to the same small, Christian University they did. Based on their ages they should have graduated two years before us, but strangely he graduated a year after us (she did not graduate, instead they got married and started having kids). I found his name in a couple of our yearbooks, but he never had his picture made in anything other than his social club group pic, which has over 100 ppl in it and isn't labeled in rows or anything. I'm not sure what her maiden name was. I think it's very strange he never had his pic made, esp as a Bible major. Usually those guys were very outgoing and in lots of various clubs. I wasn't especially outgoing but my pic was in there numerous times for social clubs, professional clubs and academic recognition stuff. I think this story is very strange and I have a ton of theories on what happened. I don't normally discuss religion or politics here because this is my running blog and it just doesn't apply. The college we went to was huge on marriage and babies. Most of our classmates were already married before we were juniors, Brent and I were quite the anomaly. Even now most of our classmates have a minimum of two kids who are most likely already potty trained - I'm confident we would be an embarrassment to our university since we don't have children already and have focused on other areas of our life. This was a really strict university - guys were definitely not allowed in girls dorms and you were kicked out if you were caught drinking or doing anything inappropriate. We couldn't even wear shorts to class - only after 4 pm or gym class! I was constantly in trouble with my dorm mom - playing soccer in the hallways, duct taping people in their rooms, sneaking animals into the dorm, and the "pyramid of moons" never went over well. Guys got away with SO much more than us girls could. Some people love that sort of strictness, others at some point will flip out. One of my coworker's brothers went to school with us and he mentioned on Friday that his brother had actually dated her and was suitemates with Matthew Winkler. Very strange! He said his brother said she was always a nice girl, nothing strange or crazy. Bet he's glad he didn't marry her now! We've also been to some marriage & the family seminars his dad (also a preacher) has taught here in Nashville. My theory? She felt trapped and wanted a way out of all this responsibility - she wanted to just get out and be free, and not be under the preacher's wife microscope forever. But that's just my theory. She never even got the chance to finish college and enjoy life before she was wife and then immediately mommy. We'll see, I'm sure all the details will be out in the media soon.

Anyway, have a great week everyone!

Exercise-
Wed - 1 mile am walk with Pips, Killer Butt DVD
Thurs - 1 mile am walk with Pips, 6 mile run
Fri - 1 mile am walk with Pips
Sat - 8.6 mile run
Sun - 4 mile run, 3 mile walk with Pips

Good luck runners!!

I'm a little slow with my well wishes for people running big events this weekend, but better late than never! Good luck to Bex and Jay T who are running the Capital City Marathon in DC this weekend, Cliff and Chocolate Jon who are running Around the Bay 30K in MI/Canada, and Planeterry who is running the Knoxville Marathon across the state here in TN this weekend. And good luck to anyone else who may be running a race that I overlooked! Run hard!

The First Day of Huh???

Hey guys!! What is up with this crazy weather??? Sat afternoon after the race was really nice. Even though the day had started out chilly, by the middle of the race it was a PERFECT day! After we came home and showered up we rested for a bit and then drove over to the local park to take Pips for a walk. It was really strange to be walking there instead of running there! We noticed all sorts of things we never get to see and stopped to read some of the signs. All in all we probably walked about two miles. Pippin had a great time except for the couple of low hanging branches that got him in the face.




Afterwards we went to Target. They have some REALLY cute Easter stuff. I managed somehow not to buy any candy, but I did get a really cute Easter shirt for Pippin. They were out of Large so I had to get Medium - which is for dogs up to 20 pounds. Pippin is 27 pounds but since the breeder told us he would be 10 pounds doesn't that average to 20? They've got cute blue shirts that say "Somebunny loves me" and pink ones (for the chicks) that say Chicks Rule. Needless to say it's going back. But I tried my best to stuff him in there. Brent suggested breaking an arm, but I think I would have had to break a couple of ribs, too. Maybe we'll try some of the other Targets and see if they have his size!

Sunday was back to dreary and cold. It wasn't a great day for a variety of reasons but I don't want to talk about that. In the grand scheme of things a series of small events all before 9 am in the morning really set me off. That plus a return of cold weather left me in a ticked off mood. We did some various things around the house and did enjoy a tiramisu as a reward for a great race! Mmmmm, that is my fave dessert!

Sunday's events left me motivated to try to start the work week with a positive attitude. That can always be a little tough on Monday and it was pouring down cold rain when I got up. We arrived at work and had to park waaaay out (we have really limited parking). Brent got out and came over to my side so we could share an umbrella. Problem - the umbrella is totally screwed and flipped in a very strange contortion. We're standing in the pouring rain, two smart college grads, trying to figure the damn thing out. No such luck, it was totally screwed. We're dying laughing by this point and I'm already starting to cry, snort and wheeze in fits of laughter. The really funny thing? This umbrella was given to Brent at work for "going above and beyond" as one of the items in our company freebie closet. So, our crappy company has given us an equally crappy umbrella that has now made us late to work!!!! We're wet & soaked but absolutely dying in laughter. People start to gather to see what's going on (of course I'm taking pics). Through wheezing fits we explain what happened only to have another coworker explain hers did the same thing. HA! Brent took his umbrella back to HR and got a new one. I laughed and cried so much my mascara was shot to hell and one coworker (stripper wife) told me I looked tired. Ummm, nope. Just started my day out with a good laugh.

Monday just got wetter and colder. By lunch you could see your breath outside, and Pippin's too. What's up with this?? I thought it was supposed to be the first day of spring? We went to the gym after work and I got a treadmill run in. Blah, boring. Today is more of the same! Raining, cold, wet. I ended up doing my run on the treadmill to avoid the gross conditions. I am so ready for spring!!

Have a great week and stay warm!

Rachel

Exercise-
Sat - 13.1 mile race, 2 mile walk
Sun - Rest Day
Mon - 4 mile run (treadmill)
Tues - 1 mile am walk with Pippin, 6 mile treadmill run

I like Tom!

Hey guys! I hope you all had great weekends full of great running or resting.

Yesterday was the 12th Annual Tom King Half Marathon (and 5K and Mayor's Walk). It's a fairly large local race that really kicks off the racing season around here. And if most Nashvillians read that sentence they would think Nascar, but I'm talking about the foot kind of racing. I think Tom King was one of the originals founders of our local running club, and responsible for marking a lot of trails w/mileage around here. The race has moved around town several times but for the past few years it's started at the Titans Coliseum and been and out and back course through Shelby Park.

Friday night after work we drove the 19 miles from our house to the Coliseum for packet pick-up. You'd think heading from the burbs to the city would be the opposite direction of evening rush hour traffic but since we have the 8th worst traffic in the nation there is no opposite direction. A little after 6 we finally made it to pick-up. There wasn't much of a crowd so we quickly picked up our packets, got really nice looking long sleeve shirts (in our sizes!! YAY!) and picked up race pamphlets for some of the upcoming races. We chatted with the running club president who was bundled up. True to form the weather had turned friggin cold again! Friday's high was at midnight Thurs night and it had gotten colder ALL DAY! Back to the 30's. Blah. There had already been a thread posted on the running club boards from a first time runner wondering if they would move the race because of the temps. HA! They also wondered if they should wear jeans instead to stay warm. The responses were pretty funny.

From there we went on a hunt for some Italian food. The night before a half or longer I like to have some sort of pasta with a red sauce. No meat in it, just pasta + tomato based sauce. We picked out a place in East Nashville from our entertainment book but it looked more like a pizzeria, so then we headed to a different place that was now out of business. Grrrr. Just when we were about to abandon mission and head to a place near our house I spotted Tangredi's Italian Kitchen, over on Elliston Place near Centennial Park. Perfect! We went it, were immediately seated and proceeded to pig out. The food was SO good! I got penne pasta in a tomato vodka sauce and it was TO DIE FOR! Excellent stuff. Brent loved his too so this was a great find. From there we headed home, gathered all our running gear, charged all the electronic gadgets we require and laid out half the running clothes we own because of our crappy temps!

Saturday am the alarm went off at an ungodly hour. We got up, chugged down some oatmeal and a banana and for once headed out the door at the time we planned to! The race started at 8, the 5K was at 7 and the Mayor's Walk was at 7:50. We got to the Coliseum right at 7:25 or so. It was hella cold. The temp was 37, but you could tell it was going to be a nice day. There was a slight breeze but the sun was there and starting to burn the overcast clouds off. I ended up wearing a long sleeve tech shirt, tights, and some cheap gloves I could toss. Brent went with a long sleeve tech shirt and shorts. There were lots of people there and we watched some of the 5K finishers before we got in place.

They were circling word around that the twisties for the chips were defective. We had noticed that the night before when we were putting them on our shoes, and had used some other ties we have to fasten them securely. I happened to use black ones, which blended with the black chip. I was so amazed at how many nice people stopped me to tell me I needed to go and have my chip fastened with the replacement orange ones they had gotten in that morning. Runners are the nicest people! On our way over to the start line a young guy, probably 20 or so, stopped us to ask us about our Fuel Belts. He had some other running related questions, and I noticed he had a 5K bib on. I wonder if that was his first race? He was so excited, and you could tell he had just had a great experience. He wished us luck and we were on our way.

We meshed into the middle of the pack and David spotted us instantly. Yeah for running bloggers!! The bagpipes kicked off soon thereafter and we were on our way! Some minor crowding at the start and we were off. I hit 'play' and the Dixie Chicks reminded me I was Ready to Run. From the stadium we headed down some industrial roads and past a big trash heap. I looked at it and hoped it didn't stink. It appears to mostly be metal, so that worked. We turned and headed towards Shelby Park. Song #2 on this half mix was Summer Girl by Beck. It's normally a little further down my list, but I thought it might help me warm up a bit. The temps were getting nicer, but we were heading into a slight wind. Blooms from Bradford Pear trees were swirling in the air. We headed into the park, which I knew was right around mile 2. I never saw the 1 marker, so I was happy to be further along than I thought! My Garmin was right on with the markers, that never happens! I know with weaving I'll never end up with the right distance, but usually I'm NEVER dead on!

We head into the park, and this was the portion I was slightly worried about. The path isn't narrow, but this is an out and back course, so you only have half the path. As we narrowed from the road to the trail the crowd wasn't too bad. I started watching for the fast people as we passed, and we were around mile 4.5 before we ever saw the first two runners! YEAH! Normally I would meet them much sooner. One thing I like about out and backs is seeing the fast guys and gals. It just gives me some extra oomph. We kept passing and then we hit the most wretched bridge in all of Shelby Park. It's wooden and has some serious bounce. It's bad enough when it's just Brent and I, but with all our friends that day I got AIR! It took me a little while just for my shins to really shake that bounce. We kept trudging on, at great pace, and the crowd on the right was starting to be equal in size to our crowd on the right. We reached the halfway turn around point and back towards the Coliseum we headed!! The sun was out and it felt GREAT! The temps were basically ideal at this point and I pitched my gloves.

Normally Brent and I do not run together. We had said for this race we would stay together until one of us wanted to push faster or pull back. In some races we don't even start next to each other. It can really be a lot of pressure to run together, and it especially hurts if you know the other one is struggling or in some sort of pain. A little past the turn around Brent starting pulling back a little. I knew we were going a little faster than planned, and I also knew I had paced us so that unless Brent stopped at some point he would break two hours, easy.

I pushed on, and in short order we were at the branch out spot of the course. Yeah!! I passed a coworker at this point, he must have stopped for a bio break or to stretch. I kept going and played back and forth for a couple of miles with a girl whose hair smelled really bad. She'd pass me, I'd pass her. In both cases I'd get a whiff of her hair and it was gross. Finally around 10.5 she ran to the side to get a Gu from a friend and I was done with her. At this point we were also leaving the park and I knew we were getting SO close! My Garmin was a little ahead of the markers now, but I knew I was going to easily break two again and the question was by how much! I was starting to get tired and I just wanted to keep pushing. Around 11.5 my coworker passed me, but I vowed to keep him in my sights. We were heading back into the industrial portions of town, and the view of the skyline was really pretty. I thought about how glad I was to be running, that I SHOULD be running, because I CAN. I thought about how I really want to do another marathon, but maybe not "today".

Mile 12 brought a group of people tailgating who had set up their own beer stop. I didn't see any takers, but I instantly thought of David and how the beer stop at mile 20-something in Miami helped him! Memories!!! On we went, and finally I could see the massive stadium! I knew this was a tricky ending, that we weren't headed straight into the stadium, and also that we would run a good portion of the field. But man, this was CRUEL! We did a full running tour of the stadium block, I never thought we'd turn in! Then I noticed the runners seemed to be "disappearing". Where were they headed??? If this was the rapture I really wanted my finisher's medal and a good finish line pic first, please! We were directed to a loading ramp, a sharp up the ramp (UGH!) and then a much longer down into the belly of the stadium. Too cool!! Around this time I got my big guy. What is it about me that attracts people three times my size in competitive events?? He was in rough shape. He was a very large/broad guy. The typical football player physique. A million feet tall, a million feet wide. But there really is no "typical runner shape", is there? He had the hit the wall, and it had run over him and spit him back out. He'd run for 5 seconds, and then walk. Repeat. I wanted to shout out "you're almost there", but at that point sometimes you just want to be left alone. I passed him and headed onto the field.

Wow! The field at the Titan's Coliseum! I doubt I will ever be down there again (except for this race, next year), so it was a major treat. The turf was a little bumpy, and after 13 miles of asphalt it felt so foreign. You had to run around the perimeter of roughly half the field to the finish line. I picked up my pace and looked up at the thousands of empty seats. The finish line was being broadcast on the Jumbotron, and the officiant was calling out the numbers of the finishers. I rounded the last corned and the stupid big guy bumped into me! HELLO!!! Look down, I'm short but not invisible! He knocked me off my form and I lost a bit of my sprint as he lumbered ahead. Across the finish line I went and smiled for the cameras. My coworker had finished about 10 seconds ahead of me, so we talked about the race for a minute before he headed on to see some other friends.

I waited for Brent and a few minutes later here he came! He had an excellent finishing sprint, as always! He's a great sprinter, he gets me on the final sprint we do to practice sprinting up our street at the end of every run. We shared our exciting times and watched some of the other finishers on what turned out to be a beautiful day.

We headed out and picked up some water. Then we headed upstairs to the pasta party. They had sandwiches and two different kinds of pasta. I couldn't eat any of it, I have a very weak after race stomach. The only things that work for me are a small soda (about the only time I EVER drink soda, how strange!!) and pizza. Go figure. We met up with our other coworkers on our corporate team and grabbed a table. I looked around for David but never spotted him.

They starting posting the results and the coworkers I mentioned previously beat me by TWO seconds, chip time. MAN!!! If it wasn't for Big Guy I think I could've taken him. GRRR! So close! My official time was 1:52.54, an 8:38 pace. Unbelievable! I was 17th in my division of 61, and 406th overall out of about 1100. Not bad!! Then it was awards time. We had enough runners for the corporate division, and we ended up with second place in our division - and get this - I was #1 for our company!!!! It's based on how you do within your division, and as the only female on our team of 5 (including Brent) my place was highest! WOO HOO! (You can see the corp results here). It's a very complicated scoring system, but they take the top 3 division placers of your team of 5. If we gotten two more points we would've been first! Oh well, next year! We got an additional medal for placing in the corporate portion.

We headed back out, jingling our two medals all the way back to the car. And then jingling them up and down the driveway to get the mail, and then back again taking Pippin to the bathroom. It was a great day and a great race for both of us! We both improved our previous PRs by roughly 7 minutes, and what more can you ask for than that?

It seems like all the local/Mid TN running bloggers had great races. Be sure to check out David's report, Lance's report, Michele's report and Lana's report (to come)!

Have a great week! (Special thanks to Brent for all the race pics! I wore my 6-bottle belt which doesn't have any spare space for a camera so all the running pics are from Brent's camera phone!)

Yeah baby!

1:52.58 (unofficial)!!!! YES!!! My goal was 1:55-1:59 and I smashed it!!!! My last half in December (Memphis) was 1:59.45, I can't believe I beat it by so much!!! I love post marathon recovery legs!!

We had an awesome race but for now it is definitely time to hit the showers and clean up! Race report to come later! Pippin is very proud of his mommy and daddy right now!

Well, that was a little difficult!

We just finished filling out Pippin's brackets for NCAA hoops. He lost interest pretty quickly, but then we put a treat in each hand to keep his interest. Whichever hand he picked was the team he went with. He's really predicting some upsets, for some reason he is huge on Monmouth. Anyway, read my previous post if you'd like to sign up and play! It's just for fun, I think we watched a total of 15 minutes of bball this year! Games start sometime tomorrow so hurry and sign up!

Last Sunday was gorgeous!! Both Sat and Sun were 80 degree days. After our racing we helped Brent's brother's family move into their new house all day and then went home exhausted. Somehow I woke up REALLY early on Sunday and took Pippin with me to pick up some breakfast. It was a beautiful day and we cruised down the road, sunroof open, soaking up the sun. Sunday afternoon we cleaned out the garage and took the top off the Jeep and went for a spin. I loved the feeling of the sun on my skin!! I miss spring and summer! It was so great to wear tank tops and shorts again! Our garage was a total mess. How do so many leaves and junk get in there when the door is down 99% of the time? I also scrubbed the fridge we have out there. A couple of weeks ago we thought an animal had died out there. I had made a banana pudding at Christmas that turned out REALLY bad and we stuck it out there because we didn't have any room in our main fridge. Well, we forgot about that one. It was disgusting. We threw the pan away, but it could have made a very good science project if you had a strong stomach. I got most of the smell out, which is a very good thing.

Monday we got more storms and the temperatures cooled back down. Mine and Pippin's Tues morning walk was in 37 degree temps and today it was 32 for our walk and frost was on the ground again. What's the deal!!

This Saturday is our next half marathon! Yeah!! It's a local half limited to 2,000 runners. Pretty much the opposite of the half we have coming up at the end of April - the Country Music Marathon and Half Marathon. It's part of the same series as San Diego, Phoenix, etc. They already have 23,000 registered runners! YIKES! Last year there were 17,000 and it was CROWDED! Parts of the course are fairly narrow (where you meet the leaders coming back) and are really tough for midpackers like myself. But there is a ton of energy at the race!

My goal for Saturday's half is 1.55-1.59. I think I can do it! As of right now Brent and I are planning to run it together. That should be fun!

Speaking of racing, Kiki finished her very first 5K Sunday. Nothing beats your first race, and that awesome feeling of accomplishment! In my first I hoped to come in less than 30 minutes (which I barely made) and I didn't want to die! 3 miles felt like forever. I did the same race last year and was able to place second in my age group, the first time I ever placed. I think that particular 5K will always be my favorite just because it was my first, and the first time I ever placed. It's a nice small race (maybe 100 runners), no chip or anything fancy. The volunteers are great and the kids the charity is for are the nicest around. Last year one of them thanked me for participating and that nearly sent me into tears! (The charity is an inner city group that provides mentors for boys without fathers.) So what do you remember about your first race???

Have a great night!
Go Duke & Go Memphis!!!
P.S. I didn't know there were so many Duke haters out there! Oh well, it wouldn't be a competition if we all like the same teams!

Rae

Anyone wanna play hoops?

Hey guys! I have my own group on Yahoo to pick the NCAA men's tournament. Click here if you want to play. All you need is a Yahoo User ID and you can be in more than one group at a time. My team # is: 120918 and the team password is: nashvegas. Runners, nonrunners, friends, family, kids and pets are welcome to play!

Go Duke and go Memphis!!! Always bet on Blue!

Two Short Stories

Hey guys! Two short stories for tonight and then I'm off to get some sleep!

Last night I had a very strange dream. Somehow I was on two simultaneous seasons of Survivor (I have no idea how). I was really kickin' butt and leading my teams to tons of wins. We finally lost one and they ended up voting me out because I was "too much of a physical threat"! HA! ME! I thought that was hilarious. I shared with Brent this morning and he said "Yeah, only in your dreams." Hmmm. It still cracks me up though. (This is the first season of Survivor we haven't watched. I'm burnt out on the whole concept. It's become the same season over and over and over.)

Secondly, I went into my boss's office this afternoon to ask him a question. He looked at me and said "Hey, can you work from home?" I said "Yeah" and kind of stared at him thinking 'oh geez, what stupid project has been dumped on us now!'. He followed it up by saying he was reading up on bird flu and had already decided that this will be the new pandemic affecting the US and when it hits he will not be working from the office and decided there's no reason he and I can't work from home. (We both have laptops, etc.) He also informed me it is most likely to kill young healthy people such as myself. What a strange conversation. At least he's already let me know I am not required to come in when bird flu starts killing us all. (Actually my boss has been much better lately, he's started taking an attitude that work really isn't that important. I think he's looking for a new job.)

We had more storms today, but nothing as bad as last week or as bad as what the Midwest had last weekend. I ran two miles tonight on the treadmill while watching part of Supernanny. Every time I watch one of those shows I think Pippin looks better and better!

Have a great Tuesday!

Rachel

Exercise-
Sat-26 flight stair challenge, 8 miles running, hours and hours of moving Brent's brother & family (Gross calorie burn on Sat: 10 million)
Sun - rest day!! lots of garage cleaning though
Mon - 1 mile am walk with Pippin, 2 miles treadmill, 20 mins toning/stretching

Our First Tri!

Hey guys! I CAN NOT believe it's already Sunday night and the weekend is almost over. It's totally flown by. We had a gorgeous weekend, temps in the upper 70's all weekend and it feels SO nice!

So Saturday was our stair climbing challenge. The event was hosted by Junior League of Nashville and was in the William Snodgrass (government building) downtown. Friday night we just beat. I'm not sure why, but we were veggies and hung out at home. We got our "racing" stuff ready and went to bed at a respectable hour. The race started at 8 so we had to get up at 6.15, which is really just wrong for a Saturday morning. We ate our usual long run breakfast of oatmeal and headed out the door. The weather forecast was for scattered showers and highs of nearly 80 degrees!! Crazy! Three weeks ago we ran in snow, and now flowers are blooming and one insane neighbor has already mowed his grass. We arrived downtown around 7.30 and the race organizers had arranged for free parking for participants in the adjacent government lots. SWEET! We signed in and got our race swag. They were already out of small shirts, which is always annoying. We got the two last Medium shirts. I really don't get that since there was a long printout of preregistered participants AND I heard someone say half the people didn't even show up. The family half-way event was set to start an hour after our event, so I hope they were all big people!

They made some announcements and told everyone to head inside and for competitive people to head to the front. There were no finisher awards or official race time keeping for this event. This was the first event of its kind here in Nashville, so it was really more of a fun "fundraiser". There was a large timing clock at the beginning and at the end, with a 6 second stagger between participants (but if you had a partner you could go together). About 5 or 6 times they told slower people to move to the back. Brent and I headed closer to the front and heard the women in front of us mention they were track coaches at a local U so we figured we were fine. The first set of stairs was actually an escalator (turned off) and then 25 more flights of actual stairs. We watched the people in front of us go, and about 4 teams in front of us an overweight couple started out walking - slowly. We looked at each other and said "Oh no". Why do some people REALLY think they're competitive when it's so obvious they're not!! I'm not being elitist - I'm being REALIST! If you're extremely overweight in a t-shirt and sweatpants you should really not line up in front of tons of people wearing moisture wicking fabrics. Common sense. Finally it was our turn and off we went! I started out fairly quickly and Brent started right behind me. We went up the two layers of escalators and then ran to the stairwell. GEEZ! This was a narrow stairwell and a cluster had already formed thanks to previously mentioned "competitive" overweight guy (COG). This stairwell was so incredibly narrow that it was difficult for two people to go side by side, much less maneuver around COG. There were 3 or 4 teams between him and us, and we were all trying to pass. Several people (including me!) were loudly saying "EXCUSE ME! PASSING ON THE LEFT!" His equally impaired wife was right next to his large ass, blocking the whole stairwell. Finally she found a clue and said "Huh! A lot of people are really trying to go fast!" No duh Sherlock. She got out of the way but getting around him seemed to be more of an issue. There was no landing, so passing was an art form of sliding in and around. His equally large pride moved halfway across the width of the stairwell so after a few polite "excuse me"s from me I just elbowed him (which he probably did not even feel) and made it around. Other people would stop at waterstops (yes, there were FOUR for a 26 flight climb) and then walk out right in front of you. All the passing and weaving took a lot of energy. We passed quite a few people (including two of the four track coaches in front of us) and ended up finishing in 6 minutes and 3 seconds. I have no idea if that's good or bad since this is our first stair event and there was no recording of people's times. We passed quite a few people and weren't passed by anyone, so that has to be good. I heard the fastest guys finished in 3 mins 31 seconds. They were also wearing some track uniforms straight out of Chariots of Fire, so I knew they would be fast.

I was SO glad to get out of that stairwell! I could've kept going but was more than happy to stop. The narrow stairwell was SO hot. With temps during the week in the 70's it was toasty warm in the stairwell. (Friday was so warm the temp in our house was up to 76 when we got home!) A few nice volunteers had the door for their floor open for a slight breeze but you really didn't get to stop and enjoy it! We were handed a bottle of water and I started chugging and enjoying the view. The water wasn't cool so I tried a small glass of Tab Energy drink, which was on ice. I was sweating like a pig and coughing like a smoker - so funny after just a 6 minute workout! Stairs kick your ass! Finally I got it all under control and found a spot to sit down. There were no awards, just door prizes. Brent ended up winning a Sara Lee gift basket which they didn't actually have at the race so they have to send it to us. Yum!

All in all it was a great event. I had no idea what Junior League was about, some guards at the parking lot asked us what we were doing the event for and we looked at each other and said "Kids? Cancer? Sorry, we're just not sure but we know it's a great cause!" They actually promote women in leadership throughout the city and in turn do a lot of the things for the community, which of course can (at times) include both kids and cancer. All the volunteers were REALLY friendly and excited about the event. I'm sure in time they'll grow it for timed prizes and stuff like that. I have no desire to race stairs every weekend but I'm really glad we did it and I'd certainly do this event again. On a side not - previously mentioned COG took SIX bananas with him as he left! What a jerk! The family event hadn't even started yet. I gave him lots of evil looks.

From there we were off to complete our tri. We substituted stairs for swimming (they both start with S) then drove (instead of biking - for the two of us it was still 4 wheels!) over to Shelby Park and ran 8 miles. Our half next weekend runs through a lot of Shelby so I wanted one good run through there just to get my mind around it again. It had rained while we were indoors and as soon as we pulled into the lot it started up again. It was light at first, which really felt refreshing. Then as we were gearing up it started pouring and thundering. Hmmm. We sat in the car for 10 minutes and had just pulled out to head home and try again there when it completely stopped! So we turned around again and headed off for our run.

Our legs were really tired for the stair race. We started out slow and I could hear all the water I had downed sloshing in my stomach. GROSS! The rain had made everything so incredibly muggy. It was strange how I've forgotten what muggy even feels like! We met a lot of runners headed back who had obviously gotten caught in the rain! Frogs and birds were singing everywhere as we plodded along. The first couple of miles seemed so incredibly long as we were trying to get into the groove. Around Mile 3 a turtle was sitting next to the path so we stopped and took his picture. We gradually started picking up the pace and saw quite a few cyclists, runners and walkers. We did the big loop and then headed back. From time to time we'd feel a sprinkle or two and then right around mile 6 the wind picked back up. Brent slowed down a little and I kept on. I was finally starting to feel strong when one massive gust nearly blew the hat off my head and knocked me off my course. And then...it was over! Overall pace was 9.30 which is OK considering we'd already run stairs and were pretty tired, plus that includes our intermission with the turtle. I'll take it!

This post is long enough as is so I'll post more tomorrow! Hope u all had a great weekend!

Rachel

Not a good hair day!!

Hey guys! How's the weather in your hood? We've had some major storms this afternoon. Spring has obviously arrived by all the flowers and trees blooming, and nice mild temps we've had. But along with that comes all the strong spring storms, which often mean hail and tornadoes down here in the South. Do you guys up in New England/Northeast even have tornadoes? I don't think I've ever heard of a tornado raking across Connecticut, but there's probably not as many mobile home parks to demolish up there. I have so many memories of huddling in hallways in schools growing up, and even in the basement in college. Brent and I were talking about a particular storm in May 1995 today. It was about 5 months before he and I ever met. I was a senior in high school and was enjoying a nice senior half day at my fave Mexican restaurant with my two best friends when the storm hit. We were eating outside on the patio when the storm suddenly hit blowing all the plastic tables and chairs through the parking lot and the staff rushed everyone behind the bar and declared a party! We thought it was a blast. Of course my parents weren't so amused! Brent had his own story about that afternoon, and it's so strange to think that even though we were a couple hundred miles apart and had yet to meet that we both have memories of that same day.

Today we have the same memories though! All week long they've been talking about expecting strong storms on Thursday. When Pippin and I walked this morning you just knew it was coming. It was seriously windy and all the animals were nutty. Pippin hid all his treats today and wouldn't eat them until after we got home this evening. Sometimes he saves them for when we come home for lunch, but today he was stockpiling. I guess that's his contingency plan if we never come back. (occasionally he forgets about them all together and I find them in the strangest places.) We work 7.30-4.30, but it's usually closer to 5 when we leave. Around 4.45 as I was winding down a coworker's hubby called and said it was already starting to storm and power was out in a lot of the city. Brent and I had brought our gym clothes since an outdoor run seemed a bit out of the question, but we decided to go home instead. There was just something about being stranded, trapped or otherwise swept away in a twister at the corporate gym that just didn't sound like the best way to wrap up our time here on Earth. Sneaky Brent had already moved our car closer to the front at the office. I tried to take some pictures of the wind and rain, but they just didn't come out that well. I took some video Brent's going to upload through YouTube. Just as we got close to our subdivision the bottom fell out. You could see the black clouds moving across the road and you couldn't see further than two feet. I don't think the intensity really came out in my video. We were in the Jeep Wrangler, and you couldn't hear anything except the pounding rain and the 45 mph winds. Luckily our power was still on so we could drive right into the garage. Car and house alarms were going off up and down the street! Pippin seemed a bit freaked about the whole thing and once it calmed down a little I took him outside. He wasn't happy about the rain (which we also have on video). The storms calmed down and so far it looks like we don't have any trees down, just a ton more mulch displaced by the strong rains. Another line is supposed to move through in a few hours. I ended up doing my 6 miles tonight on our treadmill while watching a few more episodes of the Office we've downloaded.

It seems like the worst ones always come through as we're sleeping. A few years ago practically every night we had tornado warnings. And it was all just a couple of days before the CPA exam. I got where I slept with my exam admittance card on my nightstand and took it with me into the closet every time we had to find a "safe interior room" to bunker down in. If the house came down around me by God I would still be able to take the exam. Screw the wedding photos, vacation mementos, birth certificates - that exam pass was #1.

Saturday we have our stair climbing challenge. Have we practiced lately? Nope. That's TOTALLY unlike me - I am the queen of being overprepared. We don't have a good place to practice and doing our up-down repeats in our house aggravated my foot. (The down is the problem, not the up so the competition should be fine.) We're just doing it for fun and chalking it up as another athletic adventure. Audrey did hers last weekend (which ours doesn't even begin to compare to!) so I'm all pumped.

Oh, and Portland, OR is tops in my list of great cities to live in. We visited there in 2002 and I think it's awesome. Close to the mountains and the ocean, and it's full of so much artistic personality without being TOO enormous or crowded. Everyone just LOOKED athletic. We went to a great Farmer's Market and traveled throughout Oregon. I love it. We watched people windsurfing in the Columbia Gorge and were completely amazed. (It was perfect except for our Crater Lake experience which is a very long story that will have to wait for another day!!) Portland was also tops in a list of the best cities to walk in I saw this week.

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend and especially Jack! He's running a marathon near his home in Germany. I'm still waiting for my airline e-tickets so I can fly over and head up his support crew, I'm sure he MUST have sent them to the wrong email address. You know I'd be more than happy to jump in and run the last few with you!! His race is Sunday am, with the time change it starts at 4 am EST. YIKES! He'll have certainly accomplished a lot by the time I wake up Sunday!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Happy Birthday ST!

Hey guys! Today is Shore Turtle's birthday, so in his honor we dressed Pippin up in his birthday hat and scarf to wish him a very special day. Happy Birthday!!!!

Mean Pippin

Hey guys! I know, I'm still being a bad blogger but we are getting SO much accomplished around the house. A ton of crap was disposed of this weekend and we got several important projects underway. I need some sort of motto for our "downsizing" - something like "Crap Free in 93" just for 2006. The year is already 15% over and I'm really happy with all we've gotten accomplished so far. Any good motto ideas??

Last night I also did our taxes!! (Sorry, I don't give two cents about the Oscars! I did have it on but it was raining pretty hard and the sound of the rain on the roof was too pretty not to enjoy.) We have several investment type things that make our taxes a bit more complicated than normal, so it takes a while plus we ALWAYS have to pay so I usually put it off until the last minute. Not this year baby!!! For the first time in SEVEN years we are getting a refund and I didn't even have to claim Pippin as a dependent (which he IS! what a rip off)! Yee haw! Now, I did increase my filing deduction from Married to Single to have more withheld from my check and I did increase our 401K withholdings this year, so it's not that we're paying less in taxes (for the most part). Those changes made us close to break-even on the whole pay or play scheme, and with some other special things we did last year it pushed us into a nice refund. Finally, justice! Every other year I have printed the forms and waited until the last day to mail them in along with our check as my form of silent protest. Not this year! I filed electronically but the internet connection must have dropped out while the data was transferring, because it hung up all night. I ended up rebooting the program and everything went peachy today.

Is Nashville/TN having the best week ever?? First there's the whole Bachelor hook-up thing from last week, where the Bachelor is from Nashville and he ended up picking the person from Nashville. I didn't watch the show, but it was the LEAD STORY on our news all week last week. Apparently they're pretty much in hiding so no one knows if they're still together. Who cares, Brent and I are still the cutest super duo in N-town! They can't handle this. Secondly, Reese wins the Oscar and mentions she is from TN. Then, TRIPLE 6 MAFIA wins an Oscar (they're from Memphis) beating Dolly who is all about East Tennessee (Dollywood anyone??). I am from Memphis and was WAYYYY familiar with 666 Mafia WAAAYYY before they were anywhere near famous. Yeah, that probably makes me ghetto. We downloaded their performance so we could see it once we heard about all the hub bub. Then on today's Oprah - Reese and Oprah talk about their Nashville origins. (BTW, Oprah is so jealous of me. First, my marathon time is faster than hers. Secondly, on one of last week's episodes she talks about a trenchcoat she bought for her dogs from Target - Pippin has had the SAME coat (as featured in his Pippin in Boots video) for months and months. She is such a copycat. I deserve my own show.) And now AT&T is buying Bellsouth. Calling the big building downtown the "AT&T Bat Building" just doesn't sound the same as the "Bellsouth Bat Building" (it just looks like a batman type thing.)

So, exercise. Saturday am we ran 13.1 miles! My original plan was to do 14 but we ended up pretty close to the car and we were both ready to stop. Get this - we ran it in 1:54!!! Is that insane or what? My fastest half time is 1:59, so that is a huge improvement. I know it's 13.1 because we're run the paths along the Greenway a million times, but it's still hard to believe. We both had a tough run. Even though it was 42 degrees, it was still a chilly wind and the earlier parts of the week had been SO much nicer. I think I am ready for spring to be here permanently!! My foot felt great 98% of the time, so I'm very happy with that! Both of us had a mentally tough run, but we were thrilled with the results and are looking forward to the half in two weeks. It didn't feel like we were going that fast, but since I wasn't having a great run I wouldn't let myself look at the watch often.

It really warmed up that afternoon (50's) and was SO sunny. We asked Pippin if he wanted to walk to the park and of course he did. It's 1.5 miles there and 1.5 back. When we got there we played on the swings for a little while and just watched the tons of people out enjoying the day. We saw a ton of walkers, runners, and people walking their dogs. We've got some great swing pics I need to post of me and Pippin. I'm on my work laptop now so I'll have to do that tomorrow. On the way back we saw Diddy. Diddy is a little white fluffy dog that doesn't get along with any of the neighborhood dogs. He is typically left sitting in his front yard, free to chase anyone who dares to run by. His owners will typically come out once he is "on you" and apologize. You'd think they'd get a clue, but no. We'd already been chased by him once last week already. So, deja vu, he's outside, unattended, and once we come walking by he speeds out to us. We yell at him to stop, by name, and he gets in Pippin's face. Pippin really didn't see him coming (he's pretty oblivious and was pretty tired by then. I'd already had to carry him quite a bit on our way back from the park). All of the sudden we hear a whimper - Pippin bit him STRAIGHT ON HIS FACE! Diddy was shocked and pretty much in disbelief, sort of like Brent and I. Out come Diddy's owners, late to the party as always, and carried him away. No apologies this time and they had the nerve to give us a mean leak!! We told Pippin how proud we were and what a good dog he was. I even carried him for a little while again because he was pretty much all walked out. I've always wondered if Pippin would defend himself if he felt any of us were in danger. And he did it all without a bark or growl - just one good chomp across Diddy's face. Brent saw Diddy being walked later (on a LEASH even!) and I asked if it looked like he still had all of his nose! =) I doubt they will learn from this episode, but you never know. Next time I hope to get a good shot of pepper spray on him. We love Pippin so much, I just don't get these other dog owners who take no responsibility! Anyway, moral of the story, Pippin DOES have a mean side, just like Brent & I!

That's all I have time for tonight, hopefully I can get some pics up tomorrow!

Rachel

Exercise-
Mon - 1 mile am walk with Pippin, 40 mins toning
Tues - 1 mile am walk with Pippin, 5 mile run
Wed - 1 mile am walk with Pippin, 2 mile evening walk with B&P, 40 mins toning/yoga
Thurs - 1 mile am walk with P, 6 mile evening run w/B
Fri - 1 mile am walk with P, 1 mile evening walk at the lake w/B&P
Sat - 13.1 mile run w/B, 3 mile walk w/B&P
Sun - 4 mile run, 20 mins yoga
Mon - 1 mile am walk w/P, 40 mins toning (abs/thighs)

TGIF!

Hey guys! Today is a GREAT day! Today is Bonus Day at work. The one day a year where you don't mind and even look forward to going to work. Yippeee! And since Brent and I work in the same place that's double the cha-ching. Financially we had a great year last year, so the bonuses ere extra special. I'm the person who calculates them, so it's been tough knowing since early January and not telling anyone. Yay bonuses!!!

Anyway, I have not had much time to blog or read blogs this week. Brent and I have a lot of big stuff we're working on personally, so we've been staying focused in the evening and getting a LOT accomplished. Yay for getting stuff done!

Thanks for all the top cities comments. I'll tell you what mine is later - and it's actually one someone mentioned! (and it's NOT Nashville, by a long shot!!)

The beautiful temps of Tuesday continued through Wednesday and most of Thursday. Wed we met a friend for lunch at the only place around here that has outdoor seating. I couldn't believe how many morons were eating indoors - it was 74F with a beautiful light breeze. That morning we volunteered to help sweep the parking lot, but of course no one thought we were serious! Since I had run Tues night and I am (sort-of) trying to take it easy on my foot we ended up walking Pippin. We did a little over 2 miles. He loved it!! We saw a couple of his doggy friends out walking and he just soaked up every minute of the nice evening. It was just TOO pretty not to make the most of it. Anyone who didn't should be shot! It felt so strange to be walking in just a T-shirt & jeans!

The weather guy had said temps were going to drop rapidly on Thursday, and I think he had originally they would start dropping in the morning. We had a nice "balmy" walk in the 65 degree morning and it was still perfect at lunch so we ate out on our deck. It's so funny to just watch Pippin "absorb" the nice breeze and wind. It was still 62F when we got home from work so we laced up our sneakers and went for a run. We did our usual 6 mile route through the neighborhood. Quite a few people were out walking, but nearly as many as there should have been. We didn't scare anyone but one two-some of ladies must have been British. When we run we stay towards the right, and when we meet people one of us will file behind the other, on the right. These two women saw us do that, and then moved over to the left - right in our way! My foot behaved itself for the most part. A couple of times I got a sharp pain, right when I picked up some speed on a slight hill. I slowed it down and focused on my form and was able to get rid of it. Hopefully no one else picked it up! We ran neg splits and ended up with a 9.08/mile average for the 6 miles. Lately I have been taking the first couple of miles slow and then picking it up for the last couple to see how the stupid foot feels about it.

It got colder as the night went on and this morning it was 31F. UGH! Back to coats, hats, gloves, etc. Pippin was less than thrilled about the change during our AM walk. Tomorrow we have 14 miles on our half marathon training plan. This will be my longest run since Miami!! It will be strange to return to the world of having some Clif Blocks and planning a 2 hour run. Next weekend we have the stairs challenge and the following weekend we have our local (small) half marathon. I ended up with 67 miles for February, and I lost 16 miles due to my injury. That's a huge drop from January's 146 and December's 169 during all the marathon training! I'd like to keep my mileage around 100 a month, until we start training for a fall marathon.

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend! I know there are several of you competing in marathons, ultras and some shorter races but all my links are saved at home! I've also got some great pics to post from this week so I'll add all that stuff later.

TGIF!