Kentucky

This week I am in Hyden, Kentucky for school. I have been away from home for 4 days and have 5 more to go. It is amazing how much you miss your family when you are away. Spokane is really going to be a challenge. On Wednesday I flew into Lexington. I started out in Medford, OR at 6 am then flew to SLC, UT on to Cincinnati, OH and finally Lexington. A very LONG day.

Our hotel in Lexington: very southern

The next morning we drove to Hyden, about 1 1/2 hours away. It was a beautiful drive.

This is the dorm I am staying in

Heading to class

A classroom, AKA "The Barn"

The next days are filled with physical assessments and discussion regarding every aspect of birth you can imagine!

Ride 'em girls!

Today was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and by 11:00 the temperature was almost 70 degrees! We decided it was much to beautiful to be inside and so out we went, I had my 5th day of running to do and David said he would go with me. Mikayla wanted to ride her bike and asked a friend to go with her. This necessitated a ride in the TRUCK to carry the bikes and hopefully the kids in the back along with the dog!

Claire & Mikayla

After a short time we ended up having one more girl join ranks for the bike ride, she arrived in. .

The VW Bus!!!


Anna, Mikayla & Claire

We all headed out down this beautiful county road, taking over both sides on our quest to do a 4 mile run/bike ride!

By the time we arrived back the girls were famished and desperately needed some sustenance!

So we all jumped into the truck

and headed off for . . .

Ice Cream Cones!!!

What a wonderful way to spend a beautiful Spring day!

Pear Blossom

Friday afternoon I jumped in the car with Chelsa and Mikayla and headed to Medford. My first stop was to buy a bike rack for my car. I already had it picked out and just had to go to the store. The man helping us must have felt bad for me and figured I would never be able to put the thing on my roof as he assembled it and put it on the roof for me!

We had come to Medford because I was planning on running the Pear Blossom on Saturday and since it started at 8:00am I used that as an excuse to spend the night before in a hotel with the girls (David was working overnight). We found a hotel that had an indoor water slide and spent the evening playing in the pooling and sliding to our hearts content. The next morning I woke bright and early and left my kids soundly sleeping at the hotel (I know, really responsible mother) and headed to the start. It was a partly cloudy day with temps in the 40's. I had agreed to meet a friend and found that finding her in the mass of people was almost more of a challenge than doing the run!

The run started in Medford and headed out towards Jacksonville (I think) it was a out and back course and just before 1/2 way there was a lovely little hill which I powered over, feeling quite good about myself. Then we did the turn around and there loomed the hill again, which was much more difficult the second time. Right around mile 7 I heard a plink as something hit the road, I turned around to find my car key which had somehow made a hole in the pocket of my new running shorts and fallen out! If I would have had my iPod going I would never have heard it fall and would still be stuck up in Medford, at least they have Starbucks there! The rest of the race went smoothly and I ended up finishing almost exactly in the time I thought I would. Which I am told is simply a starting point and I will only get better from here. Much like a red wine I suppose.

I arrived back at the hotel all hot, sweaty with housekeeping at the door to the room telling my kids it was time to check out! I think I took the quickest shower in history and we headed out of medford for home.

I am looking forward to my next race and think that since I will be in Spokane in less than a month I may look at doing the Rhody Run in Port Townsend.

Spring run

This morning when I woke I was greeted by a beautiful, sunny and cold (25 degrees) day. Today was the "Mile for a Child" 5k and my daughter Mikayla was going to be running with me! The race was scheduled to start at 10:00 however we were almost 1/2 hour late starting. The good thing was that there was extra time for it to warm up and we started the run with 50 degrees and sun! Mikayla quickly realized that it's different to "run" than to do basketball or soccer running and we did the run/walk/run/walk/walk/run/I can't walk anymore! Along the way Mikayla told me that we were running for three kids (well six as there were two of us) since it was a mile for a child and we were doing 3 miles - you have to love it and smile! We were on the last stretch (uphill, very cruel) when Mikayla noticed the 3 mile sign and wanted to know why we had to keep going. I am pretty sure that she now thinks 0.1 mile is a "hecka long way"! However once we got onto the high school track to finish she really kicked it into high gear, it was so fun to watch her finish and feel good about the accomplishment. She is already planning next year!

Our matching shirts.

After the run we had a nice lunch, bought flowers and came home to do some spring time planting and beautification around the house.



While we were out digging in the dirt I happened upon a spider who has a egg sack she is carrying around. Of course we had to save her so we can see all those icky baby spiders.

Her name is Bob - of course, what else would it be.

Tomorrow is an early morning long run that I have not fit into the week yet. Hopefully the weather will be as nice as today.

March madness

I can't believe the month of March is over! Our weather continues to be fickle and cannot decide between spitting rain, sunshine, spitting snow, or freezing wind. Even the decor in our office is trying to tell us that it is springtime and we should be outside planting flowers and working in the garden!

I have actually planned two (organized) runs for April. The first is April 4th and is a 5K to promote awareness regarding child abuse in Siskiyou County. The second is the Pear Blossom 10 miler on April 11th. The last time I ran this was almost 11 years ago! I also plan on doing a "virtual" race, Reese's Run on April 24th supporting Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis Awareness. You can find more information at run-likeagirl.blogspot.com/ if you would like to run or donate to this worthy cause.

This month I have started doing more strength training and sadly have not been on my bike even once! I am hoping to rectify this in the coming months. I did log 63 miles running this month, so I have not be a total slug! Next month will be better.

What! No Cheerios?

This morning was a morning that has been repeating itself a lot lately. I woke up to find that we have received a "dusting of snow" during the night. It is March, officially spring, time to get some warmth! Last night when I went to bed I figured since we were having light rain I would wake and go for a run in the rain. I even went so far as to get out the rain gear, enter snow. So even though I could think of 101 things to do instead of going for a run, I pulled out the gloves, hat and warmer clothes. I headed into the kitchen to let my daughter know I would be leaving and she looks at me and says what about my breakfast. I told her to grab a bowl of cereal, she looks in the cupboard and promptly tells me there are No Cheerios!

My little drama queen!

Finally got out of the house and this was the view from my front yard, how could I not love where I live and run! Sadly, it was still 33 degrees.



The run turned out to be one of the best I have had in years and I even managed to set a new PR! I may have to run out of cheerios more often.

Random Drawings

Yesterday I found out that I made it into the Nike Womens Marathon! Since it is was a random drawing of some 22,000 people (the number amazes me) I am excited to be a part of it. I am now thinking that sometime in the future I am going to have to start bumping up miles, but not yet. In the near future, April 11th, is the "Pear Blossom 10 miler" in Medford Oregon. I am looking forward to running this and putting more than a 10K under my belt in the last 10 years.

Today my 9th grade daughter, Chelsa, had her first tennis game. I have to admit that tennis was not something I played in high school and it was fun to watch her out on the court.

After the game the weather decided to take a turn for the worse and the wind and rain started. Hoping that tomorrow is better as I had hoped to do a run and a ride. May have to drag out rain gear and quit being a fair weather runner, that or use the treadmill. Yuck!

Last night was also the "basketball marathon" for the elementary school. Three hours of b-ball and a walk-a-thon to raise money for school. Mikayla not only played 3 b-ball games but walked 3 1/2 miles! The kid is the energizer bunny. Mom needs a little of that energy.