730.1 AND DONE

Guess what? I DID IT! Today's 6-miler put me one little tiny tenth of a mile over my yearly goal. After all the confusion and re-planning, I can officially say that this year is in the books. DONE. And as proof of this (and proof that I don't post only the nice pictures), here I am the minute that treadmill stopped. And btw, and you can quote me on this, you know you're a runner mom when you wipe sweat off your brow at 4.3 miles and realize that your hands smell like Play-Doh. 

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for all of your support and encouragement, not just here at the end, but throughout the year. It's been a totally crazy year. I liked the list approach RunningFirst took, so I'll do the same. Here's a good/bad recap of the year in roughly chronological order.

1. I got to run a half-marathon with my much-missed Meg
2. I PhinisheD my PhD! And had a great big party. My West Virginians came and everything. 
3. With the Team, I ran my first trail race the morning of my son's second birthday....and had an emergency appendectomy that night. And an open house the next day. 
4. We sold said house. (well, sort of. It's complicated, but is occupied by people other than us)
5. My parents came to help finish packing, moving, and painting the new place. I drove over our mailbox with a 24' Uhaul truck. We had movers pack the truck, but still needed help at the end. Some of our good friends came to our rescue and helped us get the job done. Then I drove all our worldly belongings to our new house in a new city and state. 
6. The Beastie and her husband came to visit. Saying goodbye was really hard, knowing that they were moving many states away. We'd lived nine of the last eleven years within a few miles of each other. Thank goodness for Skype.  
7. Mr. Joanna and I started new jobs, the kiddo started a new daycare.
8. I endured the hottest long run in history (let's assume no one's ever actually run Badwater). 
9. I tripped and ate massive quantities of asphalt while running...twice. Consequently gave up wearing statement tees, such as one that might have said "Kick Asphalt" that I might have been wearing the second time I fell. 
10. RunningFirst came down to run L&C with me, my second marathon. I set a new PR by 27 minutes, which I'm still pretty proud of. 
11. I got to see some of my college girls, meet some of their other friends, tour San Francisco and run a half-marathon there, including going over the Golden Gate bridge! Not my fastest race, but fun. And I got to run it with Frank (and her "passenger"!).
12. Two trips to Detroit, one for the baptism of my newborn niece and the other for Christmas. 
13. After months of repairs and breakdowns, Mr. Joanna finally got a new car that includes such luxuries as a radio and working windows. Then wrecked mine. (I got glared at for that last part, but it's true. Although it was a minor fender bender and it's been fixed). 
14. I met my running goals for the year and did it injury free!!

I hope I'm not forgetting anything. I probably am. There were so many big moments, not just in our lives but in the lives of our friends.  

In conclusion for 2010, here is the monthly mileage report from runningahead. I'm really grateful that RunningFirst introduced me to this site this year. It's been great for helping me track everything. It's no surprise that June was my lowest mileage month, given the appy and the move. What this graph also tells me is that I clearly need to be doing more tempo and interval work. I also know from my incredible (and historically unprecedented) inflexibility that I have to do more cross-training (read: I need to do some, any cross training).  I'm on it. In the next few days I'm going to start putting together, with help from RunningFirst (aka, Coach Mike) my training plan for spring. Here's to high hopes for my spring races!!

Race Report: Lewis & Clark Marathon

The last 24 hours have been such an incredible experience. Marathon #2 is in the books and I cannot wait to tell you all about it!

Pre-race

RunningFirst came into town yesterday afternoon. We picked up our race packets, spent some QT with my boys, and had the traditional pasta dinner. I turned in pretty early in anticipation of the 4:50am alarm.

At 0-dark-fifty I dragged myself out of bed. Attempted to eat some oatmeal. Nervously checked and re-checked my do-not-forget-these-things-under-any-circumstance list. Worried about my back, which was giving me some shooting, pinching pains 'cause I slept on it funny. Took the obligatory pre-race picture. Packed up. Headed out.

At 5:25 we left my sleeping boys behind and left to head to the race.

It was probably 40 degrees at the start line, but warmed up quickly once the sun came up. We pre-Gu'ed (ate runner food), put our bags in the bag drop, and lined up right about 7am.

Miles 1-5

After just a mile I'd warmed up and was just enjoying the sunshine. My strategy was to run the whole race and walk the water stops. So, dutifully, I walked through the first water stop. And then my right shoe was off. You read right. The guy behind me stepped on the back of my shoe. RunningFirst helped shield me from the stream of runners (I was *right* in the middle of the road) while I put it back on. Shoe back on, and we were off again.

9:59

10:31 (shoe incident)

9:43

9:45

9:54

Miles 6-10

Were pretty easy. I Gu'ed at mile 6, as planned. Around mile 7 we hit the bridge over the Missouri River, which was lovely. Shortly thereafter we turned and started running along the river. We talked our own ears off all the way through mile 10 (read: I talked non-stop and RunningFirst responded every now and then), which helped to make the miles pass a little faster.

9:33

10:10

9:56

10:29

10:02

Miles 11-15

Gu'ed again at mile 12. As we approached the half-marathon finish I started scanning the crowd for my boys, since the plan was to see them at the half and at the finish. I looked and looked and looked and didn't see them. I started to fear that I'd missed them. Then we were past the halfers' finish and getting toward the start of the Katy Trail and I still hadn't seen them. I was holding back the tears with everything I had. I hated thinking that they might be out all morning and we missed each other. I worried that they'd gotten lost or run into trouble along the way. Seeing them in a race is always incredibly emotional for me, and the idea of missing them tore me up. And then, just as I was giving up hope, I saw them! My boys! They both yelled "Momma!" and I just beamed. And maybe cried just a little. You would too. Don't lie.

10:20

9:55

10:07

9:32 (this was through the half-marathon finish, and it just pulled me along)

10:02

Miles 16-20

One word: hilly.

9:53

10:17

10:27

10:04

10:38

And in case you were wondering what my boys were doing to pass the time, I give you this:

Miles 21-25

I still hadn't hit the wall. In fact, I kept waiting for it and it kept not coming. Score! At mile 23 I took about half a Gu. I was starting to tire out, but I kept going. Between 23 and 24 I really wanted to walk, but there was no way I was going to run that far and walk when I had less than 3 miles to go. Plus, I knew my time was way under my target and was starting to believe I might hit a 4:30. At mile 22 I told myself to get to 23 so I could Gu. At 23 I told myself to get to 24 and see how I felt. At 24 I told myself I had to wait until 25 to pick up the pace. At 25 I was not fast, but I was determined.

10:06

10:15

10:28

10:32

10:17

The Finish

I saw the finish line from about half a mile out. I just went for it. My Garmin was showing lap time, lap pace and total distance, not total time. I knew from what people around me were saying and a quick mental math estimate of time, that I was close to a 4:30. I didn't know if I was going to do it or not. As I passed my boys, Mr. Joanna yelled "Great time!! It's a great time!" I knew he also thought I might be under 4:30 but also wasn't 100% positive. Neither of us could see the clock on the finish line yet AND I didn't know what it had said when I started. I smiled at him (or tried) and went for it.

When I went over the line, the clock read 4:33:28. I didn't know what the start clock had said, but I knew it was going to be close. Two things that didn't occur to me at this point: 1) to stop The Vengeance (my Garmin), and 2) to check my history for the total time. It turns out that I remembered to stop it 65 seconds later, and didn't think to check the history for about another 5-10 minutes after that. Do you know what it said?

4:28:28

Somehow, beyond my wildest dreams, I'd come in under 4:30. Chip time puts me at 4:27:23. 27:31 faster than my PR. I prayed in thanksgiving. I made a few calls. I gave Mr. Joanna the whole run-down of the race. I beamed.

RunningFirst came in a little over 5 hours. I am super proud of him for toughing it out to finish. And still thankful for his company over the first 13.1. I don't know if he'll blog this or not, but if he does, be sure to stop over and tell him congrats.

What Lies Ahead

The US Half, November 7. Time to get faster and shorter. But for now, a week off!! Thank you all SO much for your encouragement, advice, and friendly support that got me to the finish line!

543.5 + 3.8 + 26.5 = 573.8 miles

Shalalala!

Gorgeous weather

My beloved park

3.8 miles @ 8:59/mi pace*

Black Cherry smoothie at Panera on the way home

Less than 4 days until race day

All during lunch break on my work-from-home day.

Could life get any better than this?!

* I was not trying to run at a sub-9 minute pace 4 days before a marathon. I truly was not. I think I've just gotten faster over time. It was glorious and easy. I promise. Tomorrow will be slooooooow.

My send off

Maybe it's because when I trained with the Team, the last track practice & long run before a race was treated like a big send off. Who knows. But my "long" run (of 6 miles) had the distinct feel of a send off this morning. It was just me and me, preparing myself mentally for the journey ahead. Coming to an end of the marathon training cycle, and giving myself some closure on that. I just breathed it all in, the morning, the sunshine, the cool air, the park, my me time, and savored it.

A six mile "long run" is an oxymoron, by the way. Long runs are meant to be LSD (long slow distance) running. Usually slower than race pace. But at the end of a marathon training cycle, 6 miles feels very short. It's hard to run that distance and not feel like I need to tear through it. But I heard the good angel on my right shoulder (and Coach Paula) telling me to hold back. Good thing there were two voices on that side to reason with me.

For a while now I've been wanting to share a little more of the park I run in. The problem is, I hate running with a camera. Solution: send my boys with a camera when they walk down there to go to the kids' play area during my long run. This is what they came back with (this is one entrance). I seriously love this park. More pictures will come. After the race.

529.6 + 3.5 + 4.0 + 6.4 = 543.5 miles

Just a couple of 3-4 mile runs this week and then RACE DAY!!

Weekend Update

Oh, I miss Norm MacDonald.

I have a heapin' handful of updates for y'all. So, per the unpredictable nature of SNL, here there are in no particular order.

1. More Taper Freak Outs

Taper Freak Out #4: That I'll eat so much between now and the race that my shorts won't fit.

Taper Freak Out #5: That I'll get to the start line and realize that I forgot to Body Glide.

2. Cutting down on miles

Yesterday over lunch I crammed (and I mean *crammed*) in a 3-miler. It felt unnatural. I honestly can't even remember the last time I stopped after 3 miles. Probably right after my appy. This cutting back on miles thing kinda weirds me out. Is that just me? Thought so.

3. I love Dove chocolates just as much as the next girl

...but this is bullshit

4. The collective need to harass RunningFirst

One of my old TNT teammates/coaches has filed two DNS's this year and has registered to run L&C with me in 15 days. To date, his long runs have peaked at something like 15 miles (which he ran-walked once). Injured? Nope. Without running buddies? Not a chance. So what's the deal? I have no idea. I dialed down the harassment for a while. Maybe I shouldn't have.

5. Spring Races

So, a while ago I asked you to stay tuned for a spring race announcement. Well, the decision I thought I'd made got un-made. Hence no update yet. I haven't forgotten. Far from it. I'm just trying to figure out what the crap I'm going to do. I like the pattern I did this year: spring half, fall full, possible second half before or after the full. Smaller races as the desire strikes me.

So here it is: I'm asking you to nominate spring races. I'm generally open to anything in the Midwest, particularly Michigan, Illinois, or Missouri. I need a plan.

6. My totally Type-A son

Is still totally Type A. This CRACKS ME UP. I make a point of not going on ad naseum about my kid, because I get that it's not interesting to most of you. But this cracks me up. This is all him. Oh, and the other day he got a napkin to wipe the liquid off the kitchen floor when he dropped an ice cube. Did I mention he's 2?!?

7. Pain in my rear end

After my fall races are over, I'm going to a sports medicine person. My left hip/butt bone has hurt almost constantly since spring. It is definitely related to running, but doesn't hurt when I actually run (except when I'm starting out it's crazy stiff). But basically every other moment, it hurts. It's like my hammy is ridiculously tight where it inserts at my butt bone. What in the world is going on?? Anyone ever had this happen before? It's getting old.

Mileage: 509.7 + 4.8 + 3.0 + 12.2 = 529.6 miles

Taper Freak Outs--The Beginning

Taper Freak Out #1

That all these slower-than-marathon-race-pace miles I'm running are going to seriously eff with my ability to PR the US Half in November.

Taper Freak Out #2

That I'm going to trip again but actually for real seriously injure myself and be unable to race.

Taper Freak Out #3

I retired my previous "race" sports bra, and I'm terrified that anything else will chafe in unpredictable places after 26.2 miles.

All of that, my friends, within a 4.75 mile tempo run this morning. 18 days and counting.

On your recommendation...

First things first: I thought you would all want to know that I have banned Statement Tees from my running wardrobe until L&C and the US Half are over! A few of you recommended this move and I think it's a good call. :)

I also decided to do more of my mid-week runs in the park, which has neither concrete slab sidewalks to trip on nor traffic. So I headed down there on Wednesday. It was one of those days...I got to the edge of the park and realized I was grinning ear to ear. The weather was gorgeous. The trees were beautiful. The park was calm. And I was just gliding through it. I didn't set out to do a tempo run, but when I realized how comfortable the run was, I turned it up and did a tempo run for the day.

Friday morning I got up super early to run before a hectic day at work, only to find that it was raining just a *smidge* too hard to run. Coach Paula told me to rest up last week anyway, so I figured it was all good.

I'm so anxious to get to this part of my week, I'm sitting here smiling. After work on Friday we packed up and headed back north to C-U to visit friends! We had a baby shower and a birthday party to go to. It was a fantastic weekend. I got to see Ears (& her hubby, who I don't have a nickname for), RunningFirst, The Minnesotans, MJ and a group of people I'll collectively refer to as the World's Biggest Illini Fans. I think this is my favorite pic from the weekend--Ears playing with the babe while I got The Princess of Detroit's birthday present in the mail.

It was a great weekend. It was so comforting and fun to see our friends, laugh, gossip and catch up. *love you all*

So that left me this morning to get my all-important 20-miler done. How to put this positively...I am going to have to trust the logic that a bad dress rehearsal makes for a good race day.

Miles 1-6ish were fine. But the energy just wasn't there after that. I totally hit the wall at mile 12 (scary early, I know) and took 2.5 more miles to snap out of it. Miles 15-20 went easier than the middle chunk at least. The whole thing was slower than I'd have liked. I don't know. I'm nervous now about L&C. I don't know if I'm ready. I don't think I've done enough speed work. I think I had an insufficient base and didn't average enough mid-week miles through this training cycle. On the other hand, I'm WAY more prepared than I was before Detroit. No question about that. I'm just...nervous. That's normal...right?

So stay with me through the taper! It promises to be hilarious. I'll keep a list of all the crazy things I freak out about. We can laugh together. 21 days until L&C!!

485.8 + 4.0 + 19.9 = 509.7 (and YEAH let's hear it for breaking 500 miles!!)

Cut-back week

I think we're all aware at this point that my training for L&C has been a little more uneven than I would really prefer. First there was The Incident, then the Epic Move of 2010, and one weekend lost to illness after that. Despite all this, I've been consistent enough to build up speed and mileage and progress well enough toward race day.

This week I was just wiped. Exhausted. Beat. So I decided, in the name of self-preservation, to take a cut-back week. I hadn't intentionally taken one in some time, and The Team took one last week and I'm a week behind them. I did about half the mileage this week that I've been doing and I think it was a good call. Today's longer run included some fast miles and felt easy.

But the week still had its moments of drama...

#1: Logistics FAIL on Monday morning

As usual, I planned an early Monday morning run before work. On these days, Mr. Joanna takes the babe to school on his way to work and I leave a bit later. I usually try to make it back from my run before they leave, at least, because otherwise I wouldn't see my little boy at all until after 5pm (he's usually still in bed when I leave for the run). So I was thrilled when I turned the corner at the end of our block and saw Mr. Joanna's car still parked in front of the house....until I realized he was in the process of taking the babe back out of the car. Turns out our completely unreliable automobile wouldn't start. Cue panicked rush to get them my car keys and get them re-situated, and then my complete ignorance of how to get myself to work. Should I attempt to navigate the bus system on the fly? Should I call a co-worker? In the end I called a co-worker who was beyond gracious about it. We've since adjusted to life with 1 car...for the time being.

#2: Treadmill time limits

Whaaaaat???? WHO EVER THOUGHT THAT TREADMILL TIME LIMITS WERE REASONABLE?? As I was leaving the gym after my 4.1 mile treadmill-enhanced hill workout on Thursday I saw this polite little sign hanging on the back wall of the cardio area: "Rules...Please limit time on each piece of cardio equipment to 30 minutes, and to 20 minutes during peak periods." What kind of workout is 20 minutes?? I have a completely biased, angry rant on this subject, which you can probably imagine fairly readily. I've decided that the diplomatic solution is to pretend like I didn't see the sign unless there are people waiting for a treadmill. 'Cause this chick ain't voluntarily subjecting her ITB to the 7-laps-per-mile indoor track. What would you do in this situation?

#3: 10, 2A (Narrow)

My Brooks Adrenalines are size 10, width 2A (narrow) (note: my street shoes are NOT a size 10. A fact I feel compelled to point out. My pretty shoes are a more feminine 8.5, thank you). This is, apparently, a size REI does not sell. Although my current shoes still feel fine, they have over 500 miles on them, so I'm cutting them off before they cut me off (right, Stephanie?!). Those of you who order running shoes online, where do you order from? I'm going to try a local running store tomorrow, but if that doesn't work I'm going to turn to the powers of the interwebs to help me find new kicks.

mileage: 410.1 + 4.3 + 4.1 + 6.4 = 424.9 miles

Inspiration

I just finished reading the August issue of Runner's World cover-to-cover. The [Beat the Clock] section has a training plan for breaking a 2:00 half. And I want it. Bad.

It's a 10-week training plan. I have only 5 weeks between L&C and the US Half, and I need to take one week after L&C to rest. So I've decided to do the last 4 weeks of the Runner's World training plan before the US Half. Is that reasonable? Can I PR? The goal is definitely to PR, but can I also finally beat 2 hours?

AND IF THIS DOESN'T WORK, or if it does, I plan to do the whole 10-week plan next spring. I'm close to picking a spring half-marathon (yes, insanely early). Stay tuned for an announcement!

And in the name of full disclosure, I did my long run this past weekend on a hotel treadmill and it was everything I thought it could be. So today I marched myself over to the rec center at work and signed up for a one month membership. I am planning to do hill workouts outdoors and other runs as the weather allows. Otherwise, this chick is headed indoors for a few weeks! You know what that means? Working on a playlist using the fabulous Shuffle my very-much-missed Meg gave me when we graduated.

Mileage: 371.8 + 12 = 383.8

I should clear the 400-mile mark this week!

It had been twelve years

....since I did a hill workout. Until this morning.

Until this morning, my most recent hill workout was from an era in which I didn't know about technical fabric, runner food, or running shoes that didn't come off the clearance rack at Shoe Carnival. With both L&C and the US National Half looming, it was time to bring my hill workouts into the 21st century.

The total workout was 3.8 miles, broken down like this:

warm-up: 0.95 M

interval: 0.23

recovery: 0.23

(repeat interval and recovery 3 more times)

cool-down: 0.95

I need to call in some help. RunningFirst, TNT Coach Ken, I'm looking at you guys. (or others if you know hills!) I'm a little out of practice on hill workouts. How many intervals should I be running? What total distance? What pace, if I'm hoping for a 4:30 marathon? My interval paces were 9:00/mi, 8:52/mi, 8:26/mi, and 8:11/mi. Not exactly speedy, even though it felt fast at the time. What do I need to be doing? Help!! I'm planning to do hills again next Wednesday and need a game plan.

Mileage:

349.3 + 4.5 + 3.8 = 357.7 miles

And it's official--I've covered more miles in July than I did in May and June combined. Which is both sad and fabulous. Go me? Go me!

I thought those were warnings!

"I thought those were warnings!"

"They were warnings"

"No one warned me."

Anyone? Anyone know that movie? Clue: Vaughn and Stiller. And I love it.

But seriously, this heat. I was warned. I was told when I interviewed here that the summers are hotter even than in ATL and other cities you'd expect to be insanely hot. I was warned. But I didn't, truthfully, believe it. I thought, oh sure, I've lived in hot places before. I lived in Phoenix one summer. I can handle this. This is not a big deal.

Wrong. This is a big deal. We were under an "Excessive Heat Warning" for most of last week. The city has set up shelters for people who live without air conditioning. People died. This is serious heat.

What does that mean for yours truly? One.miserable.long.run. Yesterday at 6:30am I headed out for a 10-miler. The first 4.5 or so weren't too bad. I actually kind of enjoyed them. It got miserable after that. I was running through sprinklers and poured water over my head to cool off a few times. What didn't occur to me until I got in the shower (wincing) was that wet fabric (even technical fabric) rubs more...and eventually that becomes problematic. I'm glad I got through the run. It was pretty critical for my training cycle. High five for that.

mileage:

335.2 + 3.9 + 10.2 = 349.3 miles

AND...I promised pictures of the crazy beautiful neighborhood I've been running through. Today I took the babe for a walk through that neighborhood, so I can finally share!

I don't want to over-sell. Not every house in the neighborhood is like these. But enough of them are that when you walk, run, or drive through, you can't help but stare just a little. Welcome to New Running Path #2.

Moving edition part 3: Settling in

I cannot BELIEVE I haven't blogged in over two weeks. I don't really know what to say about the last few weeks. Let me see if I can sum it up quickly: I was so completely over moving, I actually got sick. I even missed a long run. It was super helpful to have my dad here, but by the time he headed out last weekend, I think even he was sick of talking about window treatments. We still have the daily freak-out because we can't find something, but we are gradually starting to feel like we actually live here.

While the boxes got unpacked, daycares interviewed, job-things set up, and window treatments found, I explored running paths near the house. One of my favorites is the HUGE park right down the street from my house. This is a picture of the entrance taken by The Beastie during their 4th of July visit. The park is 289 acres, with many paths through it, the longest being the ~3.5 mile path near the perimeter.

* As a sidenote (I tried to post this last time but for some reason it didn't appear in the post): Some of you have asked why I keep some information out of my blog. Basically, it's just an effort to keep my professional and personal lives separate. I don't actually care if you know what city I live in, as long as you can't Google me and find this blog. So, a big clue: I see a great big arch multiple times every day. Oh, and the Clydesdales are here, which is just friggin' cool.

This morning I dragged myself out of bed for a pre-work run. It was one of the best runs I've had since moving here. It felt easy, the weather wasn't blistering, and I got to explore a GORGEOUS neighborhood. Seriously. I will run it again tomorrow or Friday and take a few pictures. Another plus is that my new neighborhood is all hills, so I am NOT hard-pressed to get hills in. Hills and long runs I should be good for. Speed work I am still working on figuring out. I think I'm close to a solution on that.

In general, I'm feeling a little behind in my training plan. I shouldn't be surprised. It's been a chaotic at best summer. But things are starting to settle down, so my mileage should get more consistent for a while. Keep me in check, guys. 73 days until L&C!! On deck this weekend--10 miler!

mileage: 306.1 + a bunch of stuff = 335.2 miles

Moving edition part 2: the importance of moving truck insurance

Ok, ok. It's been a while. I know. But, I have good news! I've found at least one AWESOME running route here in my new city! But before I get to that, I'm going to give you the blink-and-you'll-miss-it version of our move.

On the 22nd, I drove down with my Dad for the closing. All went smoothly and by evening we were unloading the cars into the new place. Over the next 4ish days we painted 5 rooms. I had to laugh at us when, well after dark, we were both crammed in this little half bath with a ladder trying to paint. The room is so small, it was comically stupid to move either of us or the ladder. And without sunlight, we couldn't reasonably tell if we'd painted well or not. All said, I think the painting projects turned out well. Even if the guy at the paint counter at Home Depot was on a first name basis with us by the end.

Living for 5 days on just the stuff we could fit in our cars (which were mostly full of the things we didn't want to put in the moving truck, like crystal) meant vaguely camping in a house. For instance, this is the extent of our available dishware.

While it was just Dad and me here, I took him to the Botanical Garden and to lunch at my new favorite lunch place, as a belated birthday present (he knew I had something planned, he just didn't know what). We had a nice time, and it was nice to learn a bit of the history of this town when we toured the "country house" at the botanical garden.

Jump to Sunday (6/27). We headed back to the old place to help round up the last of the packing, then pick up the truck on Monday. We had moving helpers come to load the truck. When they were finished I moved the truck out of our driveway and to the curb for the night. In the process of doing this I....

(Photo courtesy of one of The Minnesotans, who outed my driving skillz on Facebook)

Yep. Drove over our mailbox with a 26' moving truck. Tire tracks and everything. *$!@!!

(And a HUGE thank you to our wonderful, wonderful friends for helping us finish up the loading that night!)

The actual drive to the new town was pretty easy. A little slow, but not bad. The guys we hired to unload did a great job. And thus we commenced living in a box village.

With Pepper, my Dad, Mr. Joanna, me, and the babe (who is adorable but the opposite of helpful), we commenced unpacking. And unpacking. And unpacking. And figuring out that the guy who lives behind us can open our garage door with his garage door opener, which is sort of another comical story. All told, we're getting there. One day hopefully soonish, we'll live in something that looks like a home. I'm smiling thinking of how close we really are!

On the training front, I went WAAAAAAY too many days without a run (11 to be exact) during this epic transition. BUT, I got back to training on Friday and found an awesome path. I will post pics soon!! There is a park near my house that is almost 4 miles around, tons of trees, water fountains, non-car paths. Basically the perfect running route. I am one happy Joanna Running. So, re-commence training for Lewis & Clark! The Friday run was a little rough. I mean, 11 days off. It was a little rough. My lungs wanted to know who I thought I was kidding. But the longer run on Saturday was awesome. It felt so good to be back at it. Time to rack up some miles.

mileage: 293.3 + 3.9 + 3.6 + 5.1 = 306.1 miles (I know that doesn't add up...I've given up on reconciling and am just relying on runningahead to keep it right)

And to be clear, even though I haven't elaborated on all my goodbyes, that is not an indication that they were easy. We only moved about 3 hours away, so I'm very hopeful that we will be able to see our friends who are still there from time to time. Today was great but really hard. The Beastie and her husband came to visit for the 4th, and when they left, they left to go home and pack for their huge move back east. I wasn't ready for that.

Just to be clear....we're frenemies

Frenemies

I have a short story to share with you. It's changed my world.

Last Wednesday at the track during our cool-down, I had the following conversation with RunningFirst.

Me: "So, just to be clear, are we competing with each other at Lewis & Clark?"

RunningFirst: "What do you mean? Are we?"

Me: "Well, our goal times are pretty much the same. And we're both a little competitive. And we tend not to race together. So, to be totally clear, are we competing with each other? I'm perfectly happy if we're not, but I want to know it if we are."

RunningFirst: "Maybe on the inside I'm gunning for you. On the outside, we're friends. But that's all surface level. Deep down inside, though..."

Me: "We're what, frenemies now?"

And then, as if in a subliminal bid to solidify this new status, he blogged me out of town. I am in fact, still here. I am here for 8 more days, which includes 2 more Team workouts. Mr. Joanna tells me that I have to accept the apology proffered in the comments section of his post. So, apology accepted, RunningFirst.

Running update

The appy appears to be a thing of the past. I did get to do my short run last Friday, but unfortunately had to do it at 11am...when it was 91 degrees and insanely humid. I had hoped to do 3.7ish, but decided it was unwise and headed home. Then Saturday I did a 6 mile long run with the Team. No pain at all!! It was hot and humid again. Sticky, really. But I just felt tougher for having done the run.

And today--I just came in from a 3.9 mile run. This was officially the first training run for the L&C training cycle!! I am SO excited about training. I think I can blow my standing marathon time out of the water.

mileage:

275.2 + 2.6 + 6.0 + 2.9 = 286.7 miles

Our growing box collection

The house is slowly making its way into boxes. We have packed boxes everywhere. In the kitchen. The hallway. The babe's room. Our room. The basement. And yet I feel like I'm never going to get to the end of the unpacked mountain of stuff. This week is going to be a pack-a-thon/hang-out-with-my-kid-because-I-can-a-thon. My parents arrive Thursday to help finish the packing and I leave next Tuesday morning to go to the closing! (Moving Day itself for the household comes a little later...it's complicated. We started a pool for bets on when my mom will start making flow charts to map out the move) I will keep you all updated with pictures as all this craziness unfolds.