It's aaaaallllmooooosssst time!!!

EEEEEKKKK! The registration to the Princess Half Marathon opens in, like, 19 days!! The race is 271 days, 7 hours, 54 minutes and 23 seconds away....not that i'm counting :P Gary and I have started discussing what we are going to do about accommodation. And if we are going to fly or drive down. It is looking like we will have Gary's oldest daughter, Fiona, with us!! So that changes things slightly. It also looks like we are going to rent a camper and stay at the wilderness campground in disney. That is what I want to do, anyway :P
 We are looking over what our Disney Visa offers us and what AAA offers us. Hoping to get lots of discounts!! 
  I am also planning out my costume! I am thinking I will be Princess Jasmine.
 I have been back to running more and the ankle seems to be holding up....fingers crossed.

Color Me Excited!

Last fall i started a local chapter of Moms Run This Town. I had no one to run with and I didn't really know what I was doing, so I needed the support. But life got in the way and I hadn't really had time to "grow" my little chapter. And i'm really bad at making decisions, organizing, and talking to new people.  So starting this chapter was a good idea, right?? (sarcasm) Anyway, I finally decided I needed to get my arse in gear and do something useful for the people that joined the group. It's not easy organizing group runs. everyone's schedules are so different. Things come up.....and so on.
 I decided to do something useful and I sent a letter to Color Me Rad (www.colormerad.com) to try to some discounts for our group. We got a few FREE race entries!!! Woooohooooo!! So I will be doing giveaways for our MRTT Cumberland County members. Other Maine chapters will be doing some giveaways too. 
A huge thank you to Color Me Rad, not just for the free entries, but for coming to Maine!! I can not wait to run this race, it looks like sooooo much fun!!!
I hope more races like this come to maine! Big ones!! Like a diva dash!.....i'll get on that next ;)
 I also got into Beach 2 Beacon. Did i say that already??
Happy Running!

Back to normal for a few days!!

 So, hubby is finally home! And, other than one more trip to take care of some personal stuff at our stupid house in Colorado, he is home for a while!! Hoping the ankle holds up....training shall resume! 
  I got into Beach 2 Beacon!! woooohooooo! I am very excited, but also nervous as this will be my longest race. The part that is making me the most nervous is my ankle. Will the pain come back when I start running more regularly again?? 
  The registration for the Princess half marathon is coming up soon! And Disney has added a new race and challenge. Not sure what the price will be on it, but it is intriguing :P They have added a 10k on saturday. The challenge is you run the 10k on saturday then the half on sunday. That means 3 pieces of bling in one weekend! But that also means very tired legs :P Honestly,  the price will be the killer since my fund raising hasn't been raising much funds.
 More fun races coming to Maine this summer! Finally, people are realizing there are actually people living ABOVE Boston!! Both Color Me Rad and The Color Run are coming to Maine this summer. I hope a lot of people run these races so they continue to come back to Maine and other races will follow!!
 The weather is wonderful! Spring is FINALLY here! And I am off to run in the warm sun!!
HAPPY RUNNING EVERYONE!! 

Well, that was not a good week...

Sunday, april 14th, my husband and I briefly talked about me taking a bus down to Boston to go watch the Boston Marathon. I had already had a girls night out that cost us about a $100 all up, so I decided I had spent enough money for the weekend. I stayed home.

 On Monday april 15th, I watched the Elite runners run the Boston Marathon on my computer and iPad while playing with the kids and cooking in the kitchen. I couldn't take my eyes off of it! I got a new book in the mail that morning, Train Like a Mother: How to Get Across Any Finish Line - and Not Lose Your Family, Job, or Sanity. I had borrowed it from the library but found so much useful info in it, i decided to buy it.  Then, that afternoon, I went for the first run in a month as I had been trying to get my ankle/foot healed. I had just finished my very slow/short run when I started getting texts and calls about the Boston bombing. 

 It is 9 days out now so my feelings about what went on have somewhat calmed. I should have written this post when I had thoughts fresh in my head. What I had to say isn't important anymore and probably not even relevant as the details unfurled. I'm just sad that it doesn't seem we are safe any where anymore. But it's not going to stop me from living. Other than that, my thoughts on what happened that day and the following week are just not important anymore. I'm sad at the loss of 3 young lives. I'm sad at the loss of so many limbs. I am SOOO glad I didn't go down. I'm a bit of a groupie....when I go to something, a concert, a race....i like to be front row/ center. I think i'm going to rethink that for the future!

 Anywho...hubby is gone again so no running this week for me. It's also so stinking cold still! if the wind would go away it might be bearable....but for crying out loud....where is spring?!?! I'm ready for summer. And 6 months of it would be nice, thanks!

Yea or Nay

The jury is still out on the Mizuno Elixirs. I have only been able to get in 6-10 miles a week the last few weeks, due to husbands going away, snow storms and illness. But every time I ran in them I seemed to have new pains. Pains in my knee, cramps in the arch of my foot and just general leg unhappiness :( So I talked to the fabulous folks at Maine Running Company and it looks as though I will have to make a trek to Portland to see if we can work something out. They told me that the Elixirs and the Tri Noosas are very similar shoes so I shouldn't have any new problems. But I had used insoles in my Asics because I was told to try them to help with a tendon problem I have in my left leg/foot. A pain that has been really bad since switching to the Elixirs.......but I hadn't put the insoles in the Elixirs. So, I did put them in for my last run, and I think it was better. I will give it another go in a day or so when my tendon has calmed down and try with the insoles in one more time before I drive to Portland to return them.

 A FEW DAYS LATER......

 So, I went back to Maine Running Company and bought new insoles. One run in and it feels better. Hoping this works!

On a sadder and unrelated note....On March 27th I delivered a birthday cake for a little boy with at/rt cancer. I offered to make the cake for the family for free and thankfully they accepted. I had watched the facebook page for nearly a year. I had hoped he would get better. He did not. On March 27th, Adam turned 2. On March 28th he passed away. I'm not sure why this boy, who I did not know, touched me so much. I cried for this boy like i knew him. Maybe it was because he kind of reminded me of my Oliver. Maybe it's the just the mother in me that sees a baby hurting and just feels it too deeply. Whatever it is, it has done something to me. I don't know how to go about doing any of the things that are in my head right now....but I want to do something. Maybe organize a race to raise money for Pediatric cancer research? Try to raise funds by people pledging money per mile I run? I don't know....I have to do something. Cancer is a terrible thing. But it's just so much more cruel and terrible when it takes the life of a baby. 

Anyway......The weather seems to be turning to spring....finally.

New Shoes

 My beloved Asics are at about 300 miles +/-,  and were looking and feeling their age. I bought the Asics Tri Noosas last spring. I bought them because they were beautiful! I am a neon kinda girl, and as soon as I saw them on Pinterest, I knew I had to have them! I didn't get fitted for them first. I didn't do much research on the type of shoe I needed for my foot and gait. I somehow lucked out that, as it turns out, is the type of shoe that works for my foot. I just loved them because they were pretty. And the whole year I ran in them, I didn't have any injuries. Before, I had just gone to the New Balance outlet tent sale and bought whatever was under $30. But now I was serious about running, and I don't want to be sidelined with an injury.
So,when I decided to get knew shoes, I figured i'd go to the experts. The nice people at Maine Running Company fitted me to new shoes and said that what I had been running in were the right type for me. PHEW! This time I went with Mizuno Elixirs. Also neon pink and pretty!

 I have done 2 runs in them, and so far so good!
The weather has been great for running the last couple of days! I hope it keeps up like this! There is a possible forcast for a snow storm next week...ugh.....if one model is right we could get up to 17"?!?! really?!?! that will put me a back a week again. pleh. I hate snow. 
 OH OH OH....and tomorrow is the registration for the Beach to Beacon 10k that I am hoping to get into! I hope it doesn't fill up too fast and that I can wake up early enough to get on as soon as reg opens up. wish me luck ;) I'm not doing many race this year. I need to save up all my money for Princess Half. So the ones I am doing are to #1~keep me moving with a closer goal. #2~ to use as a corral placement time for Princess. This will be my longest race over 4 miles. I have a goal to do it in under an hour. Well, that is my goal right now. If my training keeps up, maybe I can up that goal a bit :P 

Sun!

Oh, beautiful sun!! The weather has really been getting me down lately! I have hardly run since i've been back from Australia. But finally, today the sun came back out and it was "warm". And I got out and ran today. Tomorrow looks good too. I plan on driving into Portland and running around back bay. I feel that if the weather is starting to take an upswing, I might just be ok! Too many more weeks like the past month and I fear I might have never got out to run again. 
  I had a good run today. Not as good as my Nike+ said though....I had it set for "Indoor" and was telling me I was running at a fabulous pace. And, until I realized what had happened, I was pretty impressed with myself :P oh well. I haven't figured out what I actually did today. That is my next task.
 Ugh....so I didn't run as far as I wanted today. Tomorrow I will def get in a 5k. I had my Nike+ set to indoor when I last ran on the treadmill and I forgot to put it on "outdoor" before I ran today. So it said i had done nearly 4 miles but it was a mile ahead of itself :( oh well.....