The Hills are Alive.........With the Sounds of Me Wheezing!

Saturday was a BLAST for many reasons:

1)  I beat my previous 5k time!  The official time for me in my one and only previous 5k was 36:22.  My official time for this one was 34:08!  http://www.arkansasrunner.com/misc/results2010/wrw5k10.htm

2)  I feel very good about this because I ran/jogged the whole time and did not walk.  And the entire 3 miles went over hills!!!  Argh.  It was horrible.  The first mile was decently flat, but after that they just kept getting bigger.

3)  It was super fun hanging out with Dianna, Mike, and Kyle before the race.  Those boys are seriously funny (and super fast......Kyle ran in 20:21 and Mike ran in 25:25).

So we left Conway at 6:30 and drove to the start of the race.  It ended up being a smaller race pool, and a lot of the people seemed to be pretty hardcore, running warm-up laps and stuff.  Dianna and I just stretched a lot.  We were saving our energy.  I got sucked into the run really fast with the pack at the beginning, but after a couple of minutes I slowed down to the pace I needed.  Sure there were 60 year old men and people pushing strollers literally sprinting past me, but I just kept my own pace (while feeling a bit ashamed.....I mean seriously, little old men were running right past me like it was no big deal.....).  The first mile went by before I knew it.  But then the hills started getting bigger.  And I started getting inside my own head.  And then I started getting tired, and started feeling sick.  This was around the 2.5 miles completed mark.  I really almost stopped.  I felt horrible.  And then what happened?  I am dead serious about this, I didn't rig anything.  The song on my iPod ends.  I'm stumbling up a big hill.  And the new song starts.  It was Journey's "Don't Stop Believing."  Seriously.  So with my last breath, I start laughing because it is just ridiculous, and then I pick up the pace.  Once I crest the hill it is downhill all the way to the finish line.  And just like magic, I feel better, and finish out the race without walking.  This is so cheesy that I am rolling my eyes as I'm typing, but it sure makes for a good TRUE story about the race!!

5k Finishers!---Kyle, Mike, Dianna, and Kelsey

This is how hardcore I am.  My running shoe now has a hole at the pinkie toe!

On Sunday I decided to do some sewing (after sleeping until 11am, which was great).  After a lot of sewing things, and ripping out seams, and sewing again, I actually finished the quilt top!  Here it is!!!!!



We start training for our November 10k tomorrow morning!  Let the second leg of making me into a half-marathoner begin!!  Gulp.........

Tomorrow...........

Tomorrow will mark the end of the first quarter of the training plan!  Running a 5k at 8am (we have to leave town at 6:30 to get there.....ew).  I'll post my time on Monday if I am proud of myself.

I'm really worried because this week has been totally off kilter, and I've really only run twice-ish, so we will see.  Cross your fingers for me!!

Tomorrow is also the library used book sale and a home football game, and the usual post-home game football gathering at Casa de Smyth, so it should be an epic day!!

It is now Wednesday, and I am sorely behind again.  So here is another really long post!

Saturday:  I.  RAN.  THREE.  MILES.  WITHOUT.  STOPPING.  I am awesome.  That's really all I have to say.

(I do realize that there are a lot of people out there who can do this too, but for me, and those who new me when I was in high school, this is kind of unfathomable).

I also went to go see Easy A on Saturday.  It was super cute and it confirmed my loves of Emma Stone and Stanley Tucci!

Monday:  We wussed out.  Two of us couldn't run, so I used that as license to not run myself.  I went to sleep planning to get up and go, but when push came to shove, I just couldn't do it.  In my defense, we slept with the windows open, so the house was nice and cold and felt like fall, and snuggling into bed just seemed like the better idea.  That afternoon I did take Lauren Joy (aka Monkey) on an hour long walk around campus while I was watching her during band, so I did at least exercise.

Today:  We actually went running, and it was just a weird day.  It was super cold---40 degrees when we ran, but I warmed up way faster than I thought I would.  Really the only part of me that was too cold was my mouth.  The run itself was great, and I felt great except for one thing.  And it is kind of major.  My pants kept falling down.  I had on pants that were between capri length lounge pants and tights, and the waist is super stretched out compared to the rest of the pants, and it has been this way since I bought them.  The legs are fine, but the waist is oddly huge.  I was really worried, and constantly tugging at the beginning, but I finally got things arranged so that I didn't feel an inadvertent self-depantsing would happen.  So I had that going for me.  We went the usual distance in a bit faster than the usual time.  Bring on my Wednesday afternoon mile run with Clara!!

------------------------------------------------------------

I have also gotten more done on the quilt!  I bought some printed fabric, and here is the block I came up with.

I have 22 of the other blocks, so I decided to mix them up.  I could have made this way cooler if I had planned ahead at all, but hey, this works for a first try!

Here is Pattern 1.

Here is Pattern 2.

Here is Pattern 3.

Here is Pattern 3 with a possible border.

I did a really bad job planning and having enough of everything, so this will probably end up being a smallish quilt.  I still have a lot of the solid red and black, so I'll try to make a cool wider border with that.

Let me know what you think, and which pattern you like the best!  I am kicking myself for not doing it all in the print, but hey, live and learn.



Great run! Huzzah!

Friday morning:  55 degrees.  Pitch black.  Some tunes.  Awesome run.  Today felt great!  I finally did a better job keeping up with Dianna and Amanda, which I was very proud of.  And I ran for 28 minutes without stopping, which a year ago I would never have thought I could do.  Total mileage was 2.72 and total time (including warm up) was 33 minutes, so I feel pretty good about that, especially since I'm pretty sure that the five minutes of walking at the beginning covered at least a quarter of a mile, which would have meant we ran 2.5 miles in 28 minutes.  Still not super fast, but not too shabby either.

Registered for the 5k for October 9th today!  Yippee!

I'm not going to do the extra-after-work-mile today because we are running 3 miles at 7:30 tomorrow morning!

Dirty Dozen Brass Band and the UCA Marching Band are playing a concert downtown tonight, and then the run, and hopefully sewing and going to see Easy A tomorrow, and then sleeping in on Sunday.......sounds like a great weekend to me!!