June 28, 2010

a week alone...

so the kids took their own vacation last week, which meant that hubby and i got a little vacation of our own. we headed up to Boston (only because someone had to be there for work anyway) for a few days, but it seems most of the pictures look like this one...notice Mr. Flat Stanley?
i did a ton of walking around the city, where i found myself attracted to the old burial sites and churches. this is one of my favorite shots of the week, but notice how much fun i had with my photo editing (the original is below). the finished product just looks more like an old cemetery.
other than walking around a bunch of really really old things, i managed to eat...a lot! everyone knows that Boston is known for their seafood, so i did my best on stuffing myself with said seafood. but don't confuse popular with cheap, just because they have a lot of it doesn't make it cheaper. i had lunch by myself one day and it cost me $16, and that was the kind of place with no waiter and even no tables! my Nana always told me about the famous Lobstah Rolls and Chowdah, so i finally had the chance to try them....uhh can we say "wicked good"?!
after a few days of shmoozing with the computer nerds, we headed home for a few days of nothing. it's amazing how much you can get done when you don't have to drag around 3 kids! we had time to go out to dinner (that didn't involve plastic wrapped toys or cups with lids), catch a movie (in an actual theater), and even go to happy hour (proof in the photo below).
(me, Courtney (Jess' neighbor), and Jess)

i am so thankful to my in-laws for taking the boys on their own vacation. i only wish we could do this more often. wonder if they would be up for doing this again next month....

June 10, 2010

the worst pain ever...

someone should have told me that this was going to be so painful. wait a minute, i'm pretty sure everyone told me and i just flat out ignored them. running 26 miles sucks!! i've been through childbirth 3 times and it wasn't this bad! i may be all smiles in the pictures, but don't let it fool you, i'm in serious pain. the first picture is pretty crazy to look at, but it actually best represents how i felt the last 8 miles of the race...a complete blur.


i was so hoping for a better outcome that day. really, i trained for months and thought i was prepared for this, but apparently my old body was not ready or able to do what i wanted it to do. i had a goal of finishing this thing in about 4 1/2 hours...HA! my time was an entire HOUR after my goal time...REDONKULOUS!! i will never forget this image...

it was at this point that i realized i was defeated and couldn't run anymore. for the next hour and a half i was cussing San Diego for their slanted pot hole roads and damn beachy island i had to run on. i don't even remember what music i had on, i couldn't hear it over my whimpering and complaining. it was miserable, just miserable. it felt like some angry spectator had hit me in the shin with a baseball bat! i don't want to be reminded that it took me 5 hours 23 minutes 48 seconds to cross that damn finish line (i should have finished with my friend Brooke at 4:24:35). i guess the only thing that makes me feel better is that i wasn't last. out of the 10,643 people who actually finished the race, i was the 7,524th person to finish. there were almost that many people who didn't even finish at all, so, i have to feel some kind of accomplishment in the fact that i sucked it up and hobbled myself to the end.
in the future, if i ever mention the idea of running another marathon, please just slap me!
suck it San Diego!

June 2, 2010

4 more days...

after 4 months of training (which was not nearly long enough), the time has almost come to prove if i'm woman enough to conquer 26.2 miles of pavement. think about it, 26.2 miles will probably take me 4 1/2 hours (if i'm lucky)! 4 1/2 hours of non-stop exercising, constant motion, aching muscles and joints, chaffing of places that should not see the light of day, blisters in between my toes, salty sweat caked to my face, but i keep reminding myself that this is something that i chose to do. 4 1/2 hours of sweating and heavy breathing, and months training...kind of sounds like having a baby, and probably just as painful. so, when i cross that finish line on sunday and they hand me that shiny medal, you can bet i'll be swaddling and cuddling that thing like it's my newest born child!

my boys husband gave me a good luck gift today. i've been hinting for about a month now that i needed something smaller than what i had. don't get me wrong, the ipod is pretty damn small, but the shuffle...holy crap it's tiny! no more giant stinky armband for me. (and no, that is not my man hand in the picture)


i can't believe i'm going to be running a marathon!!