playing catch up yet again

I have such good intentions of writing a blog post at least once a week but I'm so easily distracted that those intentions pave the way to.......well, not getting blog posts done for sure.  So what have I managed to be distracted by?

The Chase Race 2 miler, my all time favorite short distance race.  This year I didn't get a personal record but still managed to snag 3rd in my age group--mostly due to everyone being sore and tired from having ran the Little Rock half or full marathons the weekend prior.  Due to extenuating circumstances I wasn't able to run with Elsie in the one mile pet race afterwards.

I also had a last-minute but VERY welcome house-guest from the UK in the form of Dr. Sue Black who had unfortunately gotten stranded by Delta Airlines in Atlanta (there were approximately 15 people that missed the connecting flight to Austin for SXSW)--after some searching by TWBrit for alternative ways to get her where she needed to be that didn't involve a greyhound bus trip out of Houston in the middle of the night, I asked him if she was ok with a road trip from Little Rock to Austin. Yes, there were flights from Atlanta to Houston, Dallas, and Little Rock that night but no more to Austin until Sunday (this was Friday night!).  I managed to help get her where she needed to be and hopefully didn't terrify her too much with my driving.   

The next weekend was the Big Rock Mystery Run, the awesome blog Arkansas Outside has a great write-up explaining what it is and also provided fantastic photos of the event for FREE!  I ran this with Brenda and Maria, had no intentions of racing it from the beginning, this was a fun run for us to get out and play on some trails with other like-minded (read: insane!) people.  Saw some gorgeous parts of the trail that I didn't know existed and a tunnel with knee-deep, icky water that I never hope to see again, lol.  Some parts were so steep we had to use our hands to clamber up.  Brenda ended up falling on her butt twice in the same spot on a creek crossing (sorry Bren! It was funny after we figured out you were all right).  I demonstrated some of my cursing skills on a climb that was killing my calves.  All in all, great fun, can't wait to do something like that again!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here's a link to an Arkansas Outside photo of me, yes I'm the one with the crazy hair and dorky grin :D.  

Finally this past weekend was the Spring Fling 5k, again no personal records or even course records set but I did manage to shave a minute off from the Valentine's Day 5k so there's some progress being made to being somewhat faster(ish).  Felt like I was gonna puke from mile 2 all the way to the finish line so that means I gave it my all, which on this day was a 24:14 (chip time), enough for 15th female overall and first in my age group.  Afterwards, way afterwards--too much stuffing my face with homemade goodies kind of afterwards--7 of us went out to run another 10 miles.  Yes, we ARE insane.

My medal was being held by Julie for this pic, her hands are much prettier than mine!

There's a lot more to talk about but it's mostly centered around the women can run clinic that I'm attending and that's gonna be very long-winded so I want to write about that in its own post (just not tonight). 

Oh and there's been a lot of this going on! Puppy cuddles and naps rock :-)

I did NOT run a marathon.......

.............but I did volunteer at the Little Rock Marathon expo on Saturday.

My first time ever doing so and I think I was as nervous about volunteering as I am about racing, lol.  It was very cool getting to see so many people I know while they were picking up their race packets but at the same time a bit odd explaining that I wasn't racing the next day because I didn't get signed up for the half-marathon before it sold out (I wasn't kidding about no more full marathons for me!).

I even wore a pair of deely-boppers! Even funnier, I wore them out of the expo center and on the entire hike to my pickup.  Yes, there were stares and comments from drunk guys and I think I might have even ended up on one of the local channel's live feed glaring at the camera with purple alien antennae on my head, lol!!!!!!!

I seem to have discovered a little bit of a silly streak in my mid-40's

A huge congrats to all who did run the various distances this past weekend.  You all ROCK!!! 

Tuesday Tune

Since I don't drive through Austin on a bi-weekly basis I now actually have to go searching for my new to me tunes--oh the horror of having to actually do my own research eh?  Anyway, whinging aside, I wasn't looking for music when I stumbled across Dirty Beaches--what was even cooler than the awesome sound was to find out that he's a one-man band and has an active blog.  Yes, I realize his sound and technique won't be to everyone's liking but it is a change from the ever-increasingly monotonous sound of what's being played over the radio waves (wow, did that term date me or what?).

Smiley things

I've had a few things make me smile this week that weren't dog or running related.  There's definitely a boot in the mix though.

Chocwasabi

Yes, chocolate covered wasabi peas. Oh. My. Gosh.  These aren't what you would expect at all from something with wasabi in the name, they are NOT set your mouth and sinuses on fire hot.  Yeah, yeah, I know to quite a few people that's a flaw but these are more along the vein of spicy chocolate kinda yummy.  Enough of a bite to make things interesting rather than unbearable. Light, crunchy, yummy, addictive.  Excellent customer service too, I received my order within 2 days of placing it although I would recommend ordering them quick before it heats up anymore here in the south (the whole melting in the mailbox issue).

I became aware of the "Style Me Vintage" series of books courtesy of the amazing Tuppence Ha'penny, a blog that I frequently peruse.  This copy made its way to me from the UK, complete with the Royal Mail postmark and all (yes, I geek out over that) as an amazingly awesome birthday present from a very good friend :-).  

This is on my bedroom wall as of this week--love, love, love this.  As far as philosophies or personal mantras, this isn't a bad one to have all ;-)

Mauve suede boots..........kinda loving these even with the lower heel

Monsters

Every now and then you stumble upon a gem of a movie......imagine my surprise when I clicked on my Netflix suggestion list looking for something to play in the background and was instantly engrossed by "Monsters" within the first couple of scenes.  Here I was expecting a low budget, turn it off after 15-20 minutes, cheesy, gross to the nth degree sci-fi flick (not that there's anything wrong with that on occasion) and I get this fascinating film that I never was once tempted to glance away from.  And anyone who knows my television/movie watching habit will realize that is saying quite a bit.  Apparently it was filmed on a next to nothing budget but it never feels like it. The acting is fantastic, the scenery even more so and while there are some scenes that are hard to watch it's not because of blood and gore. Yes, this one definitely got 5 stars on the netflix rating system.