Running? Not so much

Since the marathon I've run twice. TWICE. Once that week after the marathon, a short and easy 3 mile recovery run that felt really good. I did have some knee pain but nothing too serious but I decided to not push it and take a full week of not running to recover. So then my next run was two weeks after the marathon. I ran a 6 mile loop and ended up limp-walking about 3 miles of it.

BOOO.

My knee hurt for two days after that. It sucked.

Lucky me, I had a doctor's appointment that week anyway and she advised me to not run for the next 4 weeks, ice my knee and take Aleve. Then try an easy run. If I still have knee pain then she'll set me up with an orthopedic doctor. I honestly don't think it's anything serious. I think I just ran through an already injured, tired knee and it's letting me know it needs a break.

I know that rest is a good thing and the only way any healing will happen. I don't want to end up one of those stupid people who runs through pain and ends up really doing some real damage. Hopefully I haven't already been one of those stupid people. So, I'm following doctor's orders. I really shouldn't complain, this isn't that bad.

Still, it kinda sucks. I miss running.

We are going to be friends

I can't get this song out of my head as I post these.

*After spending the afternoon playing in leaf piles, yelling "Surprise!" while throwing leaves in the air or when jumping out of a pile, Ethan now points to leaves on the ground and calls them "surprise".

Random sweetness

Tonight as I was reading to the boys Ethan got up to play some football.

"Oofball, please? Play oofball please?"

Sure Ethan, anything when you say it like that. I would lasso the moon if you asked for it.

I kept reading, Rian and I were so into the story.

After a few minutes Ethan stops playing, leans over Rian and says something to make them both giggle and then gives him a kiss. Then leans over and gives me one.

He looks back and forth between Rian and I.

"I wuv you guys."

Quite possibly one of my favorite moments ever.

Marathon (FINALLY!!)

26.2 in 4:35:17

Rocked it. Well, slowly rocked it. I DID IT. I finished. I ran a freaking marathon. Yay!

Marathon morning dawned dark and rainy. NO PROBLEM, SO EXCITED. Months of training lead up to this day. A little rain wasn't going to dampen my excitement. I was also pretty much over the top excited because of my outfit: new shorts, awesome new running top and my new-ish shoes. (Umm, went a little crazy and got a whole new running outfit. Thank you mom and dad!)

About two hours before the race I ate a bowl of cereal, banana, biscuit with jelly and drank a cup of tea and half a cup of coffee. I was drinking as much water as I could and then about an hour before the race I drank about 12 ounces of Accelerade. It totally worked and I felt hydrated and fueled. :)

My amazing husband drove me out to Hood River. We had a hard time finding the start, the idiot who made the map of where to go apparently had never been to Hood River and didn't actually follow his own directions, which were ALL WRONG. Talk about stressful. I could practically feel my body burning off my breakfast fuel just from those stressful 15 min. And then I started stressing that I'd get hungry during the race and feel weak and have to eat something, which I don't usually do, so I'd end up with a stomachache and have to walk and it would take forever and AHHHH!! I think my brain nearly exploded.

We ended up following some group that looked like they knew where they were going, found the start, went pee, stretched a little. It stopped raining, the sun peeked through the clouds and a beautiful rainbow made an appearance.

Starting line!!

(You can stop staring at the neon-stripe bums now.

Dang, I should have turned around and asked for posing pointers)

I had a few minutes before the race was to start so I kissed Eric, grabbed some water, stretched, hugged Eric, deep breath, walked to the starting line, stretched some more, ran back and got one last encouraging hug from Eric and then, finally, I was ready (and the announcer started counting down). Hopeful. Excited. Ready. HA!

My sis-in-law Jessie had hooked me up with a friend of hers that was running the marathon as well so while we hadn't run together in training we planned to run at least some of the marathon together. She was awesome. Such an amazing, incredible woman. She was so, so encouraging. Plus it was super fun running with someone. I really do like running alone. I get lost in my own head, listen to my music, escape. But running with someone is really fun, especially when running that long of a distance.

It's so hard to run slow when that gun goes off. Everything in you wants to leap forward and just take off. I make that mistake every race I have run (haven't been many) and didn't, couldn't make that mistake for this one. My first hour of songs were selected specially because of their zen-calming, chill effect. A little Jack Johnson, Portishead, Hooverphonic, Alexi Murdoch, Modest Mouse to start things off. It helped. Then I picked it up with some M.I.A., Blakes, Snoop, La Roux, T.I., Fratellis, Zox etc, etc, etc. Oh man, my marathon playlist was KICK-BOOTY. Seriously, it totally rocked. I totally want to just sit here and type it all out so that everyone knows and appreciates how great it was but don't worry, I won't. So worth the hours of my life it took to put it together. Such sweet tunes. Ahh, I get goosebumps just thinking about it. SO. FREAKING. GOOD.

The first three miles were immediately uphill. I was really worried that I might die at the top but I actually felt really good and it didn't hurt that I was running it at a slower pace than I have ever run a hill before. But then it started raining. We're talking torrential downpour. It was awesome. We were all immediately soaked. I was so thankful that I wore a hat (not at all part of my original ensemble but so thankful for it!). It poured on us for a couple miles.

This is when my knee started hurting. Well it started hinting to me about mile 3 but I ignored it because it wasn't too bad and I just couldn't even entertain the idea of walking that early. I figured that would happen but thought it would be later on.

Check it out: a nearly 900 ft elevation gain from mile 1 to 14. 800 ft of which are between mile 8 and 14. Ouch! Actually, I swear those downhills nearly killed me. I was run-limping (yes, there is such a thing) downhill at mile 15. I'm sure that was attractive.

Grace and I ran the first 18 miles or so together and then hit (another) steep uphill and she had some foot trouble and wanted to walk up. I thought she would end up catching up to me but something came over me at about mile 19 and I just couldn't stop running. I was on autopilot. I thought I would hit the "wall" but instead I couldn't stop. Weird. My body just took over and my legs kept moving. Plus whenever I slowed to walk through the aide stations to grab Gatorade my legs started SCREAMING and my knee hurt like hell when I started running again so it was just better to keep going.

When I hit mile 24 I texted Eric so that he would know when to meet me at the finish. I started heading down the dreaded last couple miles of downhill, turned a corner and heard some shouting, looked up and there was my family cheering me on. I think I may have actually skipped a bit, swung both arms up in an attempt at a wave and managed a loud shriek of excitement (it really was excitement guys!). Seeing Eric, Rian, Tom, Carol and Ethan gave me a huge second (or maybe eighth) wind and I ran the last 2 miles.

I'm such a lucky girl. Not only did some family surprise me at the race and meet me at the finish line but they planned a celebration afterwards with yummy food and made complete with a Costco cake (yum). A huge, HUGE THANK YOU!! I'm truly blessed. Thank you!!

OH, I did do the whole ice bath thing afterwards and thought I was going to die. Literally. I thought running for over 4 hours was bad, but soaking my feet and legs in ice might have been worse. I felt so much better after that though. I shiver now just thinking about it.

I feel a little silly talking about how proud I am but I'm going to talk about it anyway. This is my biggest accomplishment (duh, besides having two amazing boys and keeping them alive) in the past 7 years. I haven't felt totally proud of me but haven't given myself anything to be completely proud of for the past so many years so feeling pretty proud of this. Anyway...

I finished this. I trained, I struggled, I did it. I ran a marathon.

And I had FUN!! And I'm going to run another one someday. I'm totally hooked. :)

Good Day Sunshine

Pumpkin Patch

Ethan and I got to go to the pumpkin patch yesterday with our little discovery class. He was so freaking adorable. He keeps talking about wanting to go back to the "punkins patch."

"Dis one for mommy"

"Dis one for Etan"

All Shook Up

Yesterday I ran what was supposed to be an easy, short, slow run. It ended up being a discouraging, short and slow walk. My knee started hurting at the beginning of the second mile so I ended up walking the rest of the way. Not really a good sign. Urrgghhh.

Enough about that though!! A few weeks ago the boys and I went to a sock-hop put on by Rian's school. It was super fun! They danced their little legs off and we were having too much fun to take pictures of it. But at least we got a few...

Couple of cute daddy-o's

BIG NEWS!

No, it's not that. Sorry.

I am going back to school!!

And this time I'm pretty sure I know what I want to do. It only took 7+ years to figure it out. (Oh, and if you count the three years of different schools and different plans before that we're looking at 10 years. Nice)

I have decided to go into nursing.

I had applied and been accepted to the local community college in August and I just got an email stating that I have been ACCEPTED TO OSU!!! I am enrolled in a degree partnership program where I can go to both schools and my credits will carry over. That way I can take all my general classes at the (way cheaper) community college and then take the more important ones at OSU. Then I'll apply to nursing schools.

It'll be crazy I'm sure. It's a bit frightening and I'm not sure how everything will all work out but I'm really, really excited!!

The countdown begins

These babies and I are going to be running a marathon in less than a week!

I went and got new running shoes a week ago and I LOVE them. I took a chance and switched from my trusty, beloved Asics to Brooks. So far so good. I have about 20 miles on these and I am loving the fit. I LOVE my Asics and actually planned on getting the newer model of what I have but tried these on and fell in love. Aren't they CUTE?!?

I ran last Saturday and my knee started hurting around mile 4 so that was a little discouraging. I am mostly resting this week and plan on doing a couple short, easy runs so hopefully that will take care of it. Hopefully!

Some randomness...

Ethan and I have been going to a parent/child "discovery" class at the community college that a friend teaches. The class is in a preschool classroom at the college so the kids have free range to all the learning toys and great stuff in there. This class is basically a time where the kids (ranging from 2 to 5) can play together, work on simple craft projects, listen to a story, have snack and sing songs during circle time. It is sort of an introduction to preschool. It's cute. Ethan LOVES it.

Listening to the story (Ethan is in the brown shirt and jeans)

Ethan's friend Lucy is in the class with him.

I adore this little girl. She is just too freaking cute.

SOO HAPPY!

I know, he doesn't exactly look happy but trust me, he is.

This is his favorite picture face lately.

Not sure why.

I love this boy.

LOVE LOVE LOVE.

Before I forget...

This week:

- Rian is a foot taller than Ethan.

- Rian learned how to tie his shoes!

(Again. I'm feeling like I should defend him. He learned how to tie his shoes two years ago but has forgotten because his silly, silly mom kept buying him shoes with velcro.)

A few Ethan stories...

We were playing at the playground after school and Ethan was on one of the swings. A boy who looked about the same age wanted a turn so Ethan got off and stood to the side of the swing. After a few minutes of sizing the other boy up, Ethan cocked his head to the side and asked, "You a dinosaur?"

We hit the library at least once a week and every single time there is some sort of drama. Usually Ethan drama. We have never made it out of the library without him screaming about something. Last week when we went Ethan decided to look for books himself by pulling them off the shelf one by one, looking at the cover and deciding "not dis one" and depositing the book on the floor. He then realized that a more efficient and fun way of finding books was to just pull as many books off the shelf at one time as he could. His squeal of delight caught my attention and by the time I reached him, he had proudly cleared an entire shelf of books. Fun.

Anyway, this time he had just finished an especially loud protest about us leaving when I scooped him up and we rushed to the nearest exit. We reached it at the same time as this other man and in the confusion of getting Rian, our bag of 25 books slung over my shoulder, an unhappy Ethan, and the other man out of the door, Ethan fell and hit his head. I had set him down and he had somehow tripped backwards out of the door and his head (of course) hit first. Poor baby. I felt awful.

Later that same day I took the boys to ride bikes and Ethan fell again hitting his forehead this time. It wasn't a bad fall and he just whimpered and said, "I do it again to the head." (Rian and I shared a secret giggle when he said this and after we hugged him)

Last night we were going through some clothes that my sister-in-law handed down and Ethan just had to wear this "new" spiderman shirt. He took off immediately, flying around the apartment, blasting his web at all the baddies we have around here.

"Mommy, I want to fly?"

"Sure bud, go for it."

Puts his arms up, looks disappointed, tries again this time stretching his arms up as high as he can while grunting and making silly faces. He slumps over, his arms fall to his sides.

"Is not working."

Nothing like a sad spiderman....

He ended up settling for me flying him around. :)

22 miles

(Sorry for the ultra lame title....)

Yesterday I woke up, ate a little breakfast, drank some advanced sports drink (Thank you, Carol!!) and headed out in the cool, crisp morning to run 22 miles.

I DID IT!

I felt really good until mile 17 when I headed down a hill and my knee started screaming. It was pretty bad. I was doing the whole limp, jog a little, ouch-that-hurts-have-to-walk, then repeat thing. But after about two miles of that I found a slow jog rhythm that worked and I made it. WHEW.

My calves and knees hurt like hell last night but icing them helped. I'm feeling better today and relieved that I don't have to run that far again for 3 weeks!! HOLY CRAP, 3 weeks! Just realized that this marathon is 3 weeks from today....yikes.

Rian came home from school with this, which, of course, I think is too cute:

I went to a curriculum overview night given by his teacher (who I LOVE!!!) and she brought this up, pointing out how sweet that he states that the most important thing about him is that he is special. Maybe we're doing something right after all.....

This makes me want to just bundle him up and keep him at this age forever.

Ethan loves bugs. Loves. After a run the other day I let him out of the stroller to run around and he found a new friend.

(We find new friends all the time but this one was special and lived long enough for me to get a picture, which is longer than most....)

And then he ran with his new friend...

Scoping out new friends (after he squished ant-friend).

My little outdoorsman explorer.