Happy Labor Day!!!!

Sweaty me after the 5k










Me, my niece, sis, and b.i.l.












James, nephew, niece











Awww, sleepy girl!


Whew, James and I have had one busy weekend but I'm not ready to go back to work.

Saturday morning was the Arkansas Clear Mountain 5k and boy did we get a much earlier wakeup call than we expected. Elsie decided that she absolutely had to go to the bathroom just after 3 a.m. James took her out so I could go back to sleep until the alarm went off at 4:45 a.m. The only problem was that he couldn't fall back asleep himself, poor guy. I'm still trying to figure out how we can get up with plenty of time and still run late for these races. Most everything was packed up already or laying on the table so we could grab it on the way out the door but we still ended up rushing to get to N.L.R.

We finally made it there and after getting my race bib and t-shirt and a quick rest room stop I found Annette, Brenda, Bailey and a few other cruisers and stopped to say hello (they were also in the rest room line, can't believe there wasn't any additional portapotties set up!). Only had time for a quick warm-up then lined up. I wasn't expecting to do great--tummy issues and cramps, yuck. I did the first mile in 7:45 then Brenda caught up with me at around mile 1.5. It was great having her right there but neither of us were able to talk very much! Did grab water at the first water stop and was actually able to do a slow jog while grabbing a couple of small sips, first time ever--usually it ends up everywhere but my mouth when I don't walk thru. I started to feel my stomach rebelling against me before the second water stop so I did grab another cup and walked a few steps before dumping the remainder down my back. Didn't feel great but was able to run again with no problems. Finished right behind Brenda in 25:22 (she finished in 25:20 or 21) which is now my 3rd best time.



I didn't expect to get an age group award but I did get the 35-39 3rd place trophy which Annette was sweet enough to grab for me. I think quite a few of the lady Cruisers went home with either hardware or p.r.'s Saturday, YAY!!!!!

After the race we were riding our bicycles to Mayflower to celebrate Vicki's birthday and this was James' longest ride ever. He did great!! He stayed up with me until we started hitting the hills and then we both started slowing down. There are some very strong cyclists in the Cabot group and I knew I wouldn't be able to hang on to them but my plan was to try to for as long as possible. I wanted to push as hard as I could just to see what I was capable of right now but at the same time I didn't want to leave James so I hung back a couple of times with him and then pushed ahead to catch the tail end of the lead group. That really hurt me later on, I started losing steam on the hills sooner than normal. Gary joined us for the ride and he enjoyed himself immensely, he was able to hold onto the lead group all the way to Mayflower then on the return trip Lisa and him powered through the hills and left everybody that was in the second group leaving Sonic.

I was struggling on the return trip and kept falling farther behind Rock, Arland, Lisa and her husband and Gary. James, Bailey, Annette, and Brenda was coming up behind us. When Arland, Rock, and Duane pulled over to check on them I kept going because I knew I was going to be in trouble if I didn't but all the redlights were conspiring against me. I could see Lisa and Gary at the next light ahead of me but the first one I got stopped at never would change and they were getting further and further from me and I knew there wasn't a chance in hell of catching them after that. I pulled over at an intersection to wait on the others at that point and it scared me when Brenda, Annette, and Bailey rode up without James. Come to find out Bailey had dropped her water bottle on the road and James rode back to get it and used up all of his energy riding back as fast he could to catch up with her because he thought it was her only water bottle. It was HOT by then and he didn't want her to not have anything to drink for that long of a time. He looked rough and I decided at that point to ride back to the Rivertrail as fast as possible to get the pickup and drive back for him but when I got there and called him to find out where he was he told me he was going to ride in all the way. He did have leg cramps near the end that were so severe he had to stop and get off the bicycle. When he did his legs tried to lock up on him, he was ok with bent legs but when he straightened up they would cramp, ouch.......I am so proud of him though, a lot of people would have called it quits but he made it the entire way. I shouldn't be surprised, he's as stubborn as I am!!

We raced back home to walk Elsie and get showered and then it was back to N. Little Rock to watch a Travelers game with my family. We were exhausted by the end of the day, I actually thought we were both going to fall asleep during the game. Finally made it back home around 11 p.m., James had an extra long day with getting up just after 3 a.m., a 50 mile bicycle ride, and then nephew and niece time!!

Sunday was a 2 mile easy recovery run then we went and helped Duane and Becky with the new bicycle shop location for a few hours. They still have a lot to do but everything is starting to look great.

Today was a 9.13 mile long run that I waited too long to start this morning. Didn't get going until after 8 a.m. so made plans just to meet James at the Searcy sports center instead of doing an out and back run. He was meeting Jason and Bill at 10 a.m. for a disc golf game there anyway. Overall it was a decent run, did have to make one emergency pitstop at the Citgo at the corner of Benton and Park for the bathroom. Drank a little water and took back off, got to the sports complex at 9:30 with 7.78 miles. James brought me some gatorade and water so after a quick stop to hydrate I finished up by running around the soccer fields for the remainder of my mileage. He also brought me a banana and a peach to eat after my run, I'm so glad he thought of it because I was hungry after I got cooled down.

I did play the full 18 holes of disc golf with the guys, I'm not sure how far the walking distance is on the course, guess I should have kept my garmin on. James won the game, Bill was 2nd, Jason 3rd, and I was last as usual. Jason made one birdie and James made 2, they were happy with those!! Oh, there's this one hole that is right next to a parking area and one of my throws landed on the asphalt and rolled the opposite direction of the goal across the entire parking lot. I was so mad, the guys thought it was funny hearing me cuss out the disc though!!

Monthly totals:
93.3 miles running
246.2 miles cycling
3 races