Herrinfesta Italiana 10K Run

Yup, that was the plan. The race was cancelled. It was storming pretty bad that morning, and after much waiting for the weather to subside- the race was finally cancelled.
Ah well, I wasn't so excited about "racing" yesterday anyhow!

We wound up spending the day on the Southern IL wine trail enjoying the scenery and the company. And the wine.

Excuses, excuses

Isn't it funny how you can always think of a million excuses when you don't want to do something?

It works for anything from working out, to eating right, to projects at work that you don't want to deal with.

This morning, I did NOT want to get up and go for a run. I have put off my morning runs all week (Monday and Tuesday) by convincing myself that I'm tired. When my alarm went off this morning, my thoughts went something like this:

1- I should get up, I feel pretty well rested.
2- Nah, I can hit snooze once and get up in 10 minutes. ~snooze~
3- Dang, has it already been 10 minutes? I can hit snooze again. ~snooze~
4- Wow, now I'm tired. If I get up now, I'll be sleepy all day (excuse) ~snooze~
5- Well, now I'm just staring at the clock. Maybe I'll reset the alarm.
6- Now it's almost 5:30. If I get up now and run, I'll be late to work (excuse)
7- All right Tammy, you are constantly complaining about how fat you are and how you want to lose weight and get back in running shape. Laying here in bed is NOT getting you any closer to that!

Finally! I got out of bed and went for a 4 mile run.
Eventually, I'm hoping to fool myself into believing I'm a morning person...

My Newest Motivation

So, I wasn't going to post this (it's a little embarassing), but this is what FINALLY gave me the kick in the butt I needed to get back on the straight and narrow. Here is one of the pictures of me from the Flying Pig. It doesn't even LOOK like me! I can't believe I've done this to myself. I look like a pink Pillsbury dough girl in the face.

It's even worse than the pic from the St Louis Half, where I was a bandit- which I haven't posted here yet, either:

I just happened to show up in one of my friend Carol's pictures in St Louis. :-)

On the Comeback Trail...

Wow! I haven't posted in a while. I also hadn't been running, so it makes sense that I would avoid posting about how lazy I am, yet again.

That is now OVER! My daughter and I are back in the gym, I am back to eating healthy, and back to running. It's so wonderful that the sun is coming up so early now. It makes it a little easier to get out of bed for a run. I said a little easier- it sure doesn't make me any more of a morning person!

I have now told far too many people of my secret hope, that I can run a quick marathon, and possibly, maybe BQ. Now, I have to follow through with the training, lest everyone know what a slacker I really can be.

I did get up and run this morning, s-l-o-w-l-y. I ran 4.5 miles, and it was my first run since the half on the 4th. The weather was perfect, everything was great. I struggled anyway. That is enough!

Stay tuned, I'm making my glorious comeback... I will be posting more frequently throughout my marathon training.

Feel free to mock and ridicule if I start to slack!

Flying Pig Half Marathon

I know you're all on the edge of your seats waiting to hear about how badly I bombed at the Flying Pig... Well, here it is! I'll start with the blow-by-blow of my entire weekend...

Thursday night- I had some contractors here for work and they invited me to dinner. I accepted, as I was hon-gry and craving Mexican food. As we were finishing up our dinner, some random girls started hitting on one of the contractors. They then joined our table and hung out for a bit. Roughly five margaritas later, we all decided it would be a grand idea to go to a bar. And that's all I have to say about that.

-3 hours of sleep-

Friday morning- I had to be at work at 5am for inventory. Miserable, miserable day. I left work just after 2pm.

Friday evening- We had tickets to the Cardinals game- me, the kids, and my parents. It was a FANTASTIC game, and it went into 11 innings. The Cardinals won with a 2-run homer in the bottom of the 11th. Woohoo!

-3 hours of sleep-

Saturday morning- I had to be at work at 5:30am to help finish the recounts for inventory. This drug on until 1:15pm.

Saturday afternoon- I drove the 3 of us like a bat out of hell to Cinci. We made it at just before 5:30pm. Only, they are an hour ahead of us, so it was really 6:30pm and the expo closed at 7pm. We RAN to the expo, got our race packets, and hurriedly went through what was left, since a lot of vendors were already packing up.
We didn't get dinner until somewhere around 9pm or so, flatbread pizzas that we took back to our hotel and ate. (yum!) Then, we proceeded to stay up until 11:30pm or so talking and laughing. We had a great time!

-4.5 hours of sleep-

Sunday morning- We got up and had trouble getting going. We didn't leave our hotel until around 6:15am (race start time was 6:30am), parked and started RUNNING to the start. Somebody stopped us and told us that the race start time was postponed by about 15 minutes (whew!) Later, we found out that there had been a 3-alarm fire at around mile 22 of the marathon, and the course was diverted. We got lined up and ~bang!~ we were off.

I ran extremely slowly. Of course, with the minimal amount of "training" I have been doing, along with the lack of sleep, what more could I expect? I think my finish time was 2:37, almost 45 minutes slower than my half from last February!
The course was very nice. I really like Cincinnati, and enjoyed running through the city. The support along the course was outstanding. I really can't say enough about how awesome the support was. One of the best races I have ever done. I had a great time, and didn't really care what my time was. I even stood in line at the port-a-potty's at the 2nd water stop for about 5 minutes! I couldn't hold it any more... Even though it was my slowest Half ever, I enjoyed it more than any Half I've ever done.

After I finished, and soaked in as much of the freebies as I could at the finish line, I went and found a position to watch the marathon finishers and saw Barbie and Shanna as they ran in. Shanna finished her first marathon at 20 years old, and Barbie qualified for Boston! Since Barb's hubby doesn't care to go, I get to go with my BFF to Boston next April!

Now, the big question is.... can I get back in shape before next Spring and BQ myself between now and Boston?

I think I'm gonna try...