Spring Fling 5k

The Spring Fling 5k is the 5th Grand Prix race of the year and is put on by the best running club in the state, the Cabot Cruisers! The club did an awesome job of organizing (I didn't do anything to help unfortunately, just showed up and ran) and I think everything went great.

The only downside was the weather, the day started out stormy and warmish (60F at sunrise) but the temp started dropping quickly and it got WINDY! and COLD! I think this is a bit of a challenging course and the pic above is the only time I smiled during the race and that's just because it was Arland taking the picture. I had to really think about waving too, wasn't sure I had the energy to raise the hand and run.

Here's what I looked like just before, I'm grimacing just as bad as the guys around me, LOL

Hmm, I look little next to all the guys. Didn't even notice that I was in a group of men at the time, I was focused on Cindy ahead of me and trying to catch her (didn't happen by the way!). I knew Jackie was coming up hard behind me because I could hear people behind me yelling "Go Jackie" so I knew it was inevitable that she was going to pass me yesterday, just a matter of when, lol! She ended up passing me and Cindy, good strong finish for her. The results have us listed as 25:03.11 (Jackie), 25:03.54 (Cindy), and 25:03.93 (me).

5ks have been my favorite race distance but I'm getting frustrated with my performances lately. It seems like I have stalled at the 25ish minute finish times for the past year. I actually found myself in the middle of the race yesterday asking myself why I was doing this, I wasn't having fun. Blech, maybe I'll work through it. It's just frustrating to have these great training runs then can't seem to pull through on race day. Ugh, I'm whining.

Ended up cancelling on the group long run this morning, James forgot to turn his cell phone off last night and he got a text message at 11:18 pm. I was sleeping soooooo good prior to that but it seemed like I kept waking up every 30 minutes after. Reset my alarm so I could send Brenda a message just after 6 am to let her know I wasn't going to be there and went back to sleep for a couple of hours after that. I feel somewhat better but still not great, going to get myself out the door for a short run with James and Elsie just as soon as I get done updating this.

Tired, tired, tired

This week's training schedule got shot to Hades, was okay until Thursday morning, then the hard weekend of training (Sat, Sun, and Mon.), Elsie feeling bad (allergic reaction to some oil I'd put in her ears-so no sleep) and fighting the steering wheel for 2 straight days all caught up to me. We've been experiencing some severe storms in the south-central area of the U.S. and driving in it for 10-10.5 hours per day is VERY stressful and tiring, especially in a high-profile vehicle.

I did get to see a double rainbow and a fantastic sunset Tuesday evening in Arkansas between the bouts of storms. Wish I could have been able to get a photo of it but by the time I got stopped, parked, and raced for the bathroom it was gone.

Thursday and Friday were rest days (HA!) but only Friday was scheduled to be one, blech. The trailer I picked up in Laredo is (was) equipped with the very cool, tiny, l.e.d. lights. Needless to say the ones on the rear of the trailer that were within reach were all missing so that meant a couple of hours waiting in line at the shop to have them replaced. By the time I got rolling there was a severe thunderstorm moving through so no afternoon run, didn't want to get struck by lightning. That's what I get for not setting the alarm to get up at the crack of dawn. Needed the extra 2 hours sleep though.

Friday, both James and I had to make a stop at the International dealer to get recall work done on our tractors. The airlines installed at the factory were just a tad too short and quite a few of them had been pulling loose. These ProStars have just been 1 recall after another it seems like. Oh well, at least International is making an effort to fix things instead of doing like Volvo a few years ago and denying that there's any problem while the truck is falling apart around you.

OH, the new rest areas between Jarrell and Salado on I35 have a fitness area outside with a bench to do crunches, chin-up bars, etc. I try to stop at one of them once a week to check my pull-up progress and I can do TEN pull-ups now! Chin-ups, well I'm still working on those :-). I can get myself up in the chin-up position but can't lower myself, then pull back up--I can hang there a good bit though, lol.

Friday was an ABC-Searcy (Arkansas Bicycle Club) meeting. Good presentation although a little preachy about helmets. I wear mine but it doesn't mean I like hearing lectures about it. I was so tired though, I'd been up since 4:45 am and was ready to get out of there and get to bed because I had a 5k Saturday morning. Race report will be later.

Workouts
Monday: Brick! 12.75 mile ride with James (easy spin, high-cadence day), 2.1 mile run
Tuesday: 4 mile run with Elsie, then 2.35 mile run/walk with James (windy, warm, and humid)
Wed: 3.9 mile run with Elsie (interupted by tummy issues)
Thurs: 7 pull-ups
Fri: 10 pull-ups, 10 chin-ups on low bar with legs extended in front and feet on ground (kind of like a reverse pushup), several seconds of hanging in chin-up position
Saturday: 5k race

Meet the newest member of my family

Ok ignore the trash in the back, we're attempting some around the house cleaning and that's where some of the junk ended up temporarily and if I'd ever quit buying bicycles we're going to have a privacy fence put in. With the economy the way it is I think this baby is worth more than

our pickup is--ouch!

The pictures do not do it justice. It's flat black with shadow striping on some sections and shadow diamond tread pattern on others with gorgeous pink accents. It's just the right mix of tough and girly to suit me. And it rides like a dream!!!!!!! I will have to change out the stock seat, it wasn't too comfortable for the girly bits yesterday and I'm still trying to adjust to the new clipless pedals. I have been using SPD-SLs and made the switch to Speed Play Lightactions--James loves his and supposedly they're easier to use. Just not for me, I'm having trouble trying not to toe in like I did with my spd-sls. Did my first stop and flop on this bike sitting still at a stop sign Saturday evening while practicing clipping and unclipping.

Another new thing for me with the Xenith is a compact double chain ring. I was VERY nervous about this because I've been using a triple and still have to use the granny ring quite a bit but I had absolutely no trouble at all yesterday with the compact double. As a matter of fact I didn't have to use the little ring up front on Foster's Chapel yesterday, YAY! I did going up Sawmill and a couple of other places but not on the endless hill of F.C. Couldn't get up out of the saddle very much to power up because I had ran 10 miles that morning and my quads were burning. Not used to the double workouts yet.

Last week's workouts

Monday--8 miles cycling to run errands, 1.8 mile walk with Elsie, and 4 x 15 pushups

Tuesday--5.12 miles around Lebanon outlet mall, 5k of it with James and Elsie

Wednesday--5.26 miles at Prescott, AR frontage road loop, very foggy.

Thursday--5 miles at the mall in Laredo, 4 x 15 pushups at Pearsall

Saturday--6.25 miles, combined a tempo run with 2 monster hills (Hitler Hill)

Sunday--10 mile long run in the morning, 4.5 miles of it with Elsie, 23.47 miles cycling in the afternoon

Totals for the week--31.63 miles run and 31.47 miles cycle

There was also some yard work this weekend, our whiskey barrel of flowers around the mailbox fell apart so we replaced it with pavestone. Lots of shoveling and hauling 50 chunks of concrete around.

The run with Elsie was a lot of fun yesterday, there was nobody else on the bike path so I took her off the leash so she could bounce around. Startled up a beautiful blue crane at one point and we had to stop and watch it fly away. Another time she ran down to a spot along the creek where she stops to drink and had up so much momentum that she went 3-4 bounds into the water before she realized what she was doing. The expression on her face was hilarious, it was like "What just happened?". Yes, I'm turning into one of those people that attribute's human characteristics to their pets.

I love, love, love my new road bike!!!!!!! I'm still impressed with how tough my Marin Portofina is but it's an entry-level, natural-fit bicycle and they don't make a more aggressive female fit road bike. If they did I would've gone with another Marin but I am very happy with the Jamis Xenith. And the color scheme is perfect!!!!!!!!!!

James and Jason were laughing at me Friday when I told them I named my bikes, guess it's a female thing. Anyway I have a Buffy the Vampire Slayer theme going. My Marin is Cordelia because of it's girly appearance but is steely on the inside, the Jamis mountain bike is Willow, and my new Jamis is Buffy because it's tough with girly accents.

I need words.........

of enlightenment, encouragement, edification, etc...........Not asking for much am I?

Anyway during last Sunday's 1/2 marathon I found myself reading the backs of peoples' t-shirts in order to take my mind off of the stomach cramps and the miles. I've decided that I need MY t-shirt to have something on it, maybe entertain somebody else and help them through the miles. My problem is that what little creativity and imagination I have has completely fled my brain, I have a couple of ideas but if y'all want to throw some suggestions this way, please do so. It would be an added bonus if it was trucking-related. Thanks!

what a downer

Just got off the phone with my biological father who called to ask if I ran the Little Rock Marathon last week. I explained to him that I ran the half and he said that he read about it in Monday's paper but didn't see my name--they only listed the first 100 male and female 1/2 finishers I think. Told him my time and where I finished and got back "Well, as long as YOU are happy with your time and placement that's all that matters." WTF?!?! I'm sure he didn't mean it the way it sounded but man it just came across kind of wrong.

Forgetful

I'm so tired I forgot to list my times. Gun time was around 2:03:9, garmin time was 2:02:29. No idea on chip time yet. Last year's time was 2:16:01 chip and 2:19:38 gun (I was way in the back last year!). A huge p.r. but I was coming down sick during last year's race. Didn't quite hit my goal of 2 hours or just under but considering how I was feeling today I am VERY pleased with the time.

Next month's 1/2 will definitely NOT be a p.r. because I've heard it's much hillier than Little Rock and I hope to be home to do a 10k race on Saturday. The Grand Prix has the 10k and 1/2 back to back so I'll have to choose one to race and use the other as a training run. Since I'm probably not going to get significantly faster I will have to hit as many of the G.P.races as possible to keep my points standing close to where it is now.

Ok, editing this post

Official times are 2:03:22 gun, 2:02:22 chip
20/187 age division
225/1470 females
728/2563
10k time 56:12
9:21 pace

Little Rock 1/2 Marathon

Okay, it's done! Whew! Umm, why have I already signed up for another 1/2 marathon in less than a month? I think it's going to take me that long to recover from this one.

Should I start with last night? I was very, very, very, cranky. Mood swings and nerves galore. I'd like to blame it on the fact that I was completing our state taxes last night but alas, it was just plain old horrific pms. Found out that I stress Elsie when I start cussing at the computer screen
(discovered that you have to e-file Arkansas state taxes at the exact same moment you e-file federal, wtf?!). Anyway I caused her to go and hide under the couch, sorry baby.

Finally forced myself into bed at 10 pm only to get awakened by Elsie sitting on my legs and grooming herself (nice way to say she was licking her privates, ewwww) at 3:23 am, little over an hour before the alarm was supposed to shake us out. Tried to go back to sleep but after 15 minutes decided it was a lost cause.

More grumbling at James ensued because he was-in my humble opinion-dragging ass. He really didn't want to be awake but neither did I, so there. Well, yes I know I was the crazy person who signed up for this but I still didn't want to be up.

Rolling south (finally) but I had to make an emergency pit stop at a McDonald's--the only place open with a decent bathroom. We lucked out and nabbed a great FREE parking spot just a short distance from the start line, YAY. I wanted to avoid the parking garage that reeked of piss that we had to pay $5 to park at Saturday when we went to the expo.

This is the closest I'll ever get to an elite spot!

The downside to leaving early to get that great spot? Almost 2 hrs of standing and/or sitting around while it's chilly.

Finally it's time to line up in the corrals, I'm kind of frantically searching around for Brenda because I wanted to chat with her for a few minutes beforehand. There was no way I was going to be able to keep up with her once the race started so I was very happy to see Vicki (I ran the route with her a couple of weeks ago) but they were kind of scaring me with the pace they were talking about keeping. I still haven't gotten accustomed to starting out as fast as they can and maintain it. It seems like it takes me forever to get my muscles warmed up and loosened.

Same old story, started out too fast at least once we got moving. James shot video of the start and it took approx. 8 minutes for everybody to get across the start line. My garmin decided to act up and while the timer ran ok, the satellite signal went all wonky so I only have mile split times for the last 3 or 4. The garmin was so screwy that it showed me doing 41.84 miles, LOL.

Vicki got me through the first 7-8 miles, if it hadn't been for her my time would have been significantly slower. It was great having somebody to talk to but we were both getting quieter and quieter as the miles added up. I apologized, explained to her that I was tiring and cramping (pms again), told her that I usually get very quiet or very cranky. Unfortunately her legs started cramping on her and I went on ahead. I feel very guilty about this by the way, wanted to stay and walk with her but at the same time could keep running so after the 2nd break I continued what was starting to feel like a slog.

I'd brought my mp3 player with me so fired it up to try and keep my pace steady for the final 5k. Also there were groups of kids that were cheering the runners on so I made it a point to high-five as many of them as possible, it made me feel better and they seemed to think it was cool. Couldn't seem to find anybody else to talk to during this section, everybody was focused on getting through it.

My fingers were fat little sausages almost from mile 3-4, yuck. I wasn't getting enough electrolytes into my system I guess although I was alternating water and gatorade at the water stations. Oh yeah, I only skipped 3. Even though I wouldn't take more than 2-3 sips of fluid I was trying to stay somewhat hydrated and the last 6 miles I would dump part of the water on my neck and upper back to try and stay cool.

Ah, the weather. Started out cool, but didn't stay quite cool enough to be comfortable at race pace. It would've been great if it could have stayed around 45F. Even so it was not near as warm as last year and it did stay overcast today so wasn't having to deal with the sun sapping my energy.

Finish line finally!!! By the time James realized it was me he could only get a picture of my backside.

James and I forgot to arrange a meeting place for afterwards so I think I wandered around for 20-30 minutes before Annette and Michelle found me. Annette was sweet enough to let me use her phone to call. He had been standing around waiting for me in the only place I hadn't looked.

Annette, Jane, me, and Michelle

Hope to get those front teeth fixed sometime this summer. If you can't rollerskate already don't attempt it in your late 30s, LOL.

Fuzzy picture of the medal

The aftermath. Dozing in James' truck while he did his pretrip and paperwork. I originally had the Pulaski load for Monday but he called our dispatcher Friday afternoon and swapped our appointments. He ended up only having one day at home so it was very sweet of him to do this.

Why the heck am I so nervous?

It's not like I've never ran a half-marathon before (well, one anyway), my training has been okay overall, and it's not like I'm going to win an age-group award. BUT I am so twitchy right now it's ridiculous, lol. Okay, calm blue ocean, calm blue ocean--how the hell am I going to get to sleep tonight?!

Arggh!!!!!!! Time to pin the race number on and attach the chip to my shoe. Try not to think about the achy knee and sore shin, where did they come from anyway?

Elsie's adventures

New friend just north of Athens, TX.

Windy day in Laredo

Awwww!

It's been Friday the 13th ALL week

Am I ever glad to be home! It seems like a ton of little bitty but very annoying things went wrong all week. First off, my load cancelled out Monday at Pulaski but thankfully my dispatcher came up with Tuesday reload out of Mt. Juliet--I think somebody else that isn't a regular got bumped back to Wednesday. At M.J. you have to slide and lock your tandems to the rear while at the gate and the trailer that I had absolutely no problem with the previous day decided to be most uncooperative. Couldn't get the release for the tandems to turn loose at all, even went out and banged on the pins with my hammer--which is a VERY good stress reliever if you're not rushed. Didn't budge, rocked the trailer back and forth, wouldn't budge, this by the way was an empty trailer so shouldn't have had that much trouble and it wasn't like I was rough with it the day before before when sliding the darn thing. Finally the yard driver noticed my predicament and gave me a hand. When a trailer is cranky like that it's so much easier if you have two people but even with his help I still had to rock the trailer back and forth a couple of times. Normally it would bother me having to get help but I've been in there often enough that he knows I'm not one of these female drivers that bats their eyes in order to get somebody to do the dirty work.

Paperwork was delayed for 20 minutes but that wasn't a problem at all, it gave Nashville traffic a little extra time to clear up but then I hooked up to my new trailer and had trouble with the tandems again. This time the pins pulled easily but I couldn't get the trailer to move! Got out looked on the other side to make sure everything was where it was supposed to be and by this time the yard driver came back around when I was getting back in my truck to see if I needed a 2nd pair of hands again. Everything went ok then, he didn't even have to get out of his tractor. I told him that I had scared the trailer by cussing at it when I walked back the last time, lol.

Tuesday afternoon I stopped at NLR to grab an early supper with James then went on my merry way with dreams of making it to the Mt. Vernon area before 10 p.m. Yeah right! Had a truck pass me with shiny doors and I noticed that I only had one headlight. Shouldn't have been a problem, I carry extra bulbs with me. Well, I get to Prescott and pulled into a parking spot after fueling to change it out and the new bulb wouldn't work. Thought it had maybe gotten banged around or maybe had touched the glass part so drove on down to Hope to grab a new one at Wal-Mart. Changed it again, still not working. Checked the wiring to make sure I didn't have anything loose, cut, melting, etc. Nothing. So call Road rescue and get sent back to Prescott TA. James fortunately had told me to drop my trailer so that I would have a parking spot in case I got held up and I'm glad that he did. I was very frustrated and don't think I would have remembered to do it otherwise. What should have been a 15 minute job turned into 4+ hours because the guy that initially started working on it didn't have a clue as to what he was doing and was preoccupied with the fact that his shift ended in 30 minutes. I noticed he was having trouble with the electrical testing tool but when he took off I thought he was going to ask somebody for help not leave without letting anybody know what was going on.

At this point all the remaining technicians are busy with other trucks so it was almost 2 a.m. before one got free to work on my headlight again. Took him less than 2 minutes to find the problem and under 15 to fix it and shut the hood. He apologized for the other guy and gave me a voucher for $15 to use in the restaurant later in the morning. Next problem, computers were down for updating at the service desk so had to wait around for over 30 minutes to complete the paperwork while listening to a driver with an overactive imagination embellish a tale of 2 women in a Mustang on I-45 in Texas that were driving around nude and evading the highway patrol. He went on and on and on and the story kept getting wilder as he got wound up. When he finally left, the service desk guy told me that I might ought to park as far away from that driver as possible, LOL!

So now it's Wednesday, it's cold, it's raining and I'm sleep-deprived. No matter how late I get to bed I can't sleep past 7-7:30 am. I had a 3 mile run scheduled that just didn't get done (see the cold, rainy, and sleep-deprived part), so that made me even more cranky and traffic was a mess all the way down the I35 corridor. I'm thinking something else went wrong but can't remember what it is right now. Anyway, I ended up getting to the rest area just north of Laredo and went to bed instead of making my delivery early.

Thurs. up before dawn because I want to beat the morning traffic and get out to the mall to get my 5 mile tempo run done. Got dropped ok, although I had to wake the guard up at Penske, he was kicked back in his chair, mouth wide open. Had to knock on the window 3 times before I got his butt up. It's somebody I like so just gave him a hard time about if I couldn't sleep then neither could he.

Tempo run didn't go quite as well as I would've liked, supposed to have been 3 miles at 8:28 but didn't quite hit the mark.
Mile 1: 10:29 (warm-up)
Mile 2: 9:25
Mile 3: 8:56
Mile 4: 8:58
Mile 5: 10:07 (cool-down)
Again, it was cold, rainy, very windy and I was tired. It really shows in my mile splits. I think Laredo was around 38-41F that morning so I was the only crazy person out running around the mall that morning. On the upside, Elsie ran the entire distance with me which is unusual because if it's raining I have a hard time getting her outside. Actually when I stopped to stretch I took her off the leash and she was grabbing it and growling at me to go again. I had to tell her "no mas" I was DONE.

Picked up my trailer after lunch and found a low tire. Most of our trailers have the auto air system and I was hoping that it wasn't anything major and would air itself up. Well it did but when I pulled around the opposite side of the yard and did a 2nd walkaround I found a nail that started hissing air when I pulled at it. Grrr, had to pull around to the shop and get in line. I was the only one that needed trailer work so I actually didn't have to wait very long, my luck was starting to look up finally.

Got headed north, San Antonio was ok. Stopped at Buda to visit with James and let Austin ease up a tad. I was starting to drag again at this point, 2 short nights in a row was getting to me so just called it quits at Salado and was in bed by 8 pm last night. I slept GOOD, at least until 6:30 am when Elsie decided it was bathroom time. Walked her and went back to sleep for another hour when James called me. I think I must have twisted around funny when I was fumbling for the phone because I got this horrible muscle spasm in my left hamstring. It's been sore all day, I hope it'll be ok by Sunday.

Now that I'm writing everything down, it just hit me that Friday the 13th was the only day that almost everything went ok on. If it wasn't for the sore hammy and the cold wet weather everthing would have been good. Huh, that's odd.

Oh, I remember what else went awry! I broke my cell phone (again), the one I've had less than 3 months and I think I forgot to add insurance for. Because I'm so klutzy when it comes to phones I always carry a spare but I heard 2 text messages come through on my broken one that I can't read because the screen is black.

Last week's workouts

Tuesday--3.99 mile run and 1.06 mile walk with Elsie and James at Palestine, AR. We got to see an old friend from Atlas afterwards. Very nice surprise!

Wednesday--5.13 miles at Mt. Vernon, TX solo. Explored part of the town proper and enjoyed it very much, this is on my list of repeat runs now. I did find out about a place earlier that morning that I'd been wondering about in Arkansas. Was told it was safe, no meth labs around, lol.

Thursday-brutal 8 mile run at Laredo around the mall again, included 3 x 1600 intervals, yuck. Warm, humid, and sunny. James ran too but we were going to be running at different paces so we took Elsie out for the warmup then put her back in my truck. She didn't want to be there so was crying very loudly. No exageration, you could hear her a 1/2 mile away. The maintenance guys kept circling my truck trying to figure out what was wrong so James cut his run short to stay with her so we wouldn't get the cops called on us.

Saturday--approx. .5 mile warmup (not enough), Chase Race 2 mile, 1.3 miles with Melisha, then the 1 mile fun run with Elsie. short ride around town on the mountain bike that afternoon (4.31 miles).

Sunday--couldn't get motivated to run early and boy did I pay for it! I was grumpy, couldn't remember anything, had to walk back for my water bottle, then the sports beans, etc. It was humid, windy, and hot. I was ok until the sun came out but once it did I was miserable. Did try out a new route, followed Collins (dirt road) out to a new subdivision then climbed a huge ridge to look at some McMansions. Gorgeous view and at the last house on the ridge we were greeted by these humongous dogs, one of which was carrying its food dish out to the road to beg some food off of us (James rode along on his mountain bike). I swear that food dish could have held 5 gallons of stuff. I was pleased that I ran all the way up the ridge without stopping to walk, did the Rocky thing at the crest, lol. The sun came out when I had about 5 miles left and like I said it just sapped what little go I had out of me. It got so bad that I stopped at a creek, took off my tank and wet it down so I could cool down a little. 13 miles scheduled, did 12.59 and I don't feel a bit bad about not getting the full mileage in. I was happy to have managed what I did.

34.51 miles for the week

This week's schedule is easy. 3, 3, 5 and then the 1/2 marathon on Sunday. I will be so glad to get it over with but I'm at a loss at where to go now with my training plans. Need to start adding in the cycling because the Tour de Rock is not that far off and I want to do the 1/2 Iron Duathlon in Conway this summer so I don't need to lolly-gag on getting a new schedule going.

Goal for Sunday-- 2 hours (or under). I did it in 2:16 and change last year when I was coming down with the flu and I've done 13 miles in 2 hours in a training run last fall so hopefully I can do it again. Getting very, very nervous though. It doesn't help that my work schedule is already thrown off this week.

"Use of Unapproved Compression Brakes Prohibited"

Sign on 840 south of Nashville. My question--How do you know if your compression (engine) brake is one of the ones that are approved? I'm assuming that ALL engine brakes are prohibited and this is just another example of convoluted bureaucracy and legalese. Sigh, I wanna be on the approved list.

Chase Race and PAWS

I suck at taking pictures, lol. Anyhoo, this is the hardware I came home with yesterday from a very cool race, the ChaseRace and PAWS. It's a 2 mile race that's also on the Grand Prix and has a 1 mile fun run with your pets afterwards.

Despite myself I managed to have a great time. I'm not sure what's going on but I've been having some excellent training runs but falling flat when it comes to the races. Don't get me wrong, I'm having some decent times but it's not what I should be doing. I thought I was doing a decent job of hiding my weird sucky mood but Annette noticed right off that I seemed, well, "off".

Back to the race--this is the first time I've ran a 2-miler and I'm not so sure I liked it. Line up and wait for the start then it's balls to the wall. This is not a distance where you pace yourself and I'm not a fast-twitch muscle type. Still working on my pacing for the longer distances but not fast enough for the super-short races, sigh. After the 1/2 I'm going to try and work on my speed a bit more but I also want to keep my long runs at the slightly higher mileage.

I didn't line up right at the front, learned my lesson from the elbowing at the Valentine's Day 5k but I wasn't quite in the middle either. I did manage to get lined up behind a small group of women that wanted to run 3-4 abreast and just could not get around them in the beginning. This was after the several speeches we got about not doing that before the race start. Guess I'm just not aggressive enough. Looking back it's kind of funny but it wasn't at the time. I'd go to the right and try to pass and got blocked, tried to squeeze between them (didn't work), move to the left, same thing.

Was feeling dehydrated so grabbed a water at the stop for one quick sip (just enough to wet my mouth and throat). Should not have needed it for that distance and the conditions but was miserable. Forgot to mention that I was having tummy troubles that morning, THREE trips to the bathroom, ugh.

Finish time was 15:11, a 7:36 per mile pace. Placed 25th (again) out of 202 females. Won my first ever Masters award--3rd place. It's the mantel clock pictured above. Didn't expect it at all, as a matter of fact I was standing there gabbing at someone while they were announcing the master's division so didn't hear them call my name. James had to nudge me and say "hey, that's you". Complete surprise. The clock, by the way is very nice, good heavy weight and even has an alarm feature.

Between the 2 mile and the 1 mile pet run I ran around the shopping area with Melisha (who placed 6th overall, I hope some of that speed will rub off on me, lol) for 1.3 miles then rushed back to change out my race numbers. Found out that Elsie was nipped by a huskie while I was gone. Prior to that she was acting all happy checking out the other dogs and letting them check her out. She just doesn't like her butt sniffed, she has no clue about proper doggie greeting behavior. After the nip she was very leery of all the other dogs, even the yorkies and chihuahas so we couldn't line up near the front for the 1 mile fun run. There were way too many people that were using the retractable leashes and letting their pets take it to the end so there were quite a few stumbles. Me and a little boy about tripped over each other because he couldn't properly control his dog on the leash--I think his parents should have been running with him.

Elsie was great once the run started, we had several people comment on how well and fast she was going. My baby can RUN for a little dog. We ended up being the 20th across the line and we got an extremely cute bulldog trophy for 5th place female with leashed pet. And the husky? Yeah, we smoked them, LOL!

Interesting sights during the fun run. 1) A llama--yes, you read that right, somebody brought a llama to the fun run. 2) A raccoon in a baby stroller, James was wondering how many drugs they had to give it so it would stay still during all the commotion 3)Service dogs, there was one pulling a little red wagon with puppies in it AND carrying a basket in its mouth for the entire mile. Sign on the wagon "Puppy Party Wagon", very, very adorable.

Unfortunately after the race, a couple of guys in my running club had an accident on a training ride. Both had road rash, Russ broke his arm and James broke a clavicle and at least one rib. Both were wearing helmets and Arland was riding with them (he's a fireman and trained for emergencies) thank goodness. Sorry guys, I know from personal experience how bad it sucks to have that happen.

Snow

Elsie's first snow! We didn't get very much in central Arkansas last weekend so imagine my surprise when I started seeing snow accumulation on Hwy 64 in the eastern part of the state when I left out for Mt. Juliet last Monday. Memphis to Jackson really got hammered, as of Tuesday around lunchtime it was still ankle-deep. Soooooo glad I didn't have to drive through it while it was falling, most of us southerners have no clue how to drive in the white stuff, LOL. The picture was taken at the rest area just west of Jackson on I-40 Tuesday.

How did Elsie handle it? Well, she didn't want to do her business on it so we had to find a non-snowy area (meaning I had to kick a spot clear). As far as playing in it, she was ok on the crunchy stuff but had no clue how to handle the soft snow.