I'm a ray of sunshine: Marine Corps Marathon recap

You know how you wake up some days and you're like "Today is going to be a WONDERFUL day!" and other days you wake up and think "This is the last time I'm going to feel warm for hours"? Today was the second option and since the morning started with my ride having to scrape ice off his windshield, I knew it was going to be a fun morning to stand around and wait for a race to start.

I had stayed with my friend and her fiance the night before the race, so it only took 20 minutes for him to drive me close to the start. I thought I'd have more than enough time to get to my meeting point by 6:45 when he dropped me off at 6:20, but I grossly underestimated the clusterfuck of 30,000 people running a race. I shuffled along with the large crowd of people dressed in trash bags or huddled with raggedy blankets and I had a fleeting feeling of being a refugee.

I got into the main start area around 7am and hit the portapotty as soon as I got there. I couldn't see the Charity Village (where I was hoping to drop my bag), but I assumed the tent labeled "Information" would help me. Nope. Actually, no one know what the hell I was talking about when I said Charity Village and before I knew it, the time was 7:30 and everyone was running to the start and I still hadn't found Alyssa. I waited and waited and watched everyone else leave and finally at 7:55, I found her. My happiness level was like Christmas and a birthday combined.

We had to pull a Dukes of Hazzard move over a jersey wall and book it to the start area (meanwhile, I still hadn't seen the fucking Charity Village). We tried to push as far forward in the corrals as possible, but still ended up back behind the 4:30 pace groups. By 4:30, I think it more accurately meant "people who hope to one day run a 4:30 marathon".

This is how crowded it was until mile 20

We spent the first 10 miles weaving endlessly and trying to avoid ice patches. We saw people fall on the bridges, so it was a real concern. It took just 6 miles for me to be able to feel my feet again, but it was kind of cool to see the massive herds of people blowing puffs of steam as they ran. The first 8 miles had the only noteworthy hills of the race. The hills were short, but pretty steep. They wouldn't have been so bad if the people in front of us hadn't slowed to a achingly slow pace. Hill running is painful, but hill running at a really slow pace is really painful.

After we got through Georgetown, we hit a long flat stretch. Around this time my left ankle started to hurt. It's happened twice before and I've had to cut long runs short because of it. It's a muscle strain type of pain on the inside of my ankle that even extends up to my calf. It's pretty painful and it was very unwelcome on a race day. Also around this time I started to get the sinking feeling that I had to pee and I wasn't going to be able to wait until the finish.

Every single portapotty on the race course had a line and I wasn't trying to PR at this race, but the thought of standing on line just seemed reprehensible to me. I held it and then I held it some more. I was even thinking, "Maybe I'll just spring a slow leak and this problem will solve itself!". Alyssa was super cool about my inability to force my body to reabsorb my own urine and we finally had to stop at mile 17.5 so I could pee. It was literally the most wonderful pee I've ever taken, and that's saying a lot because that portapotty was rank.

At mile 20 we hit the 14th Street bridge and entered one of the most miserable 2 miles I've ever run. It was long, boring and everyone just seemed miserable and it also seemed like everyone was walking. Alyssa and I trudged along and finally got back in neighborhood areas. The last 2 miles were back on the highway and were not high on the "fun" scale, but the last 2 miles of a marathon rarely are giggles and sunshine. I will point out that I restrained myself from shanking the 88th person who told me "You're almost there!" at mile 23.

We hit mile 26 and I thought "NOW we're almost done" and then I saw the last .2 was a steep uphill. It was steep enough that I'm not even sure I would enjoy running down the hill. It didn't matter because we were done! My Garmin said 26.5 miles in 4:01, but I had auto pause on, so the chip time of 4:05 is way more accurate. Stupid bathroom break.

The guy who took this picture ran the marathon barefoot in a full tux

Once we crossed over the finish, we entered a Marine-run assembly line where we were handing a space blanket, gatorade, water, and a box of snacks. We shuffled long for about half a mile until we got to the UPS bag check. Those guys are good at what they do, I've never seen anything faster (and accurate!) than that. I didn't even get a chance to open my mouth and my bag was placed in my arms. We put our warm layers back on and then I started my quest to find my ride.

My friend's fiance was at the finish and he said he was at the Pacer's tent. Here's the problem: I could not find the tent to save my life. My marathon-addled brain could not follow the simple instructions of where the tent was located, so I ended up wandering like a refugee dragging my belongings in a plastic bag for over an hour. Finally, he changed his position to a tent that I could actually find, so I didn't have to end up sleeping there at the finish line and starting a new life with my space blanket and squeeze tube of nutritionally sound "hummus dip" provided to me in my rations box.

Once I found him, it was still a long walk back to his car and over 30 minutes later, I was finally able to sit down. He did show me the Pacer's tent and I had actually walked right past it. Running 26 miles makes me mentally incompetent.

After the most wonderful hot shower ever and 2 slices of pizza, I left my friend's place and made it home in time to give Faith her bath and put her to bed. She was very glad to see me, not just because I brought home rice crispie treats. I've been icing my ankle and I think it's fine, it just hurt like a bitch today.

Good things about the Marine Corps Marathon:

• Marines are the best water stop helpers ever. My water bottle has never been refilled so quickly before.
• I got to see the new Martin Luther King Jr. memorial and it was breathtaking. The race saved me the trouble of traveling downtown just to see it. :)

Bad things about the Marine Corps Marathon:

• Charity Village: why do you send me endless emails about premier bag checks and special portapotties if you are NOT CLOSE to the start line?
• Portapotty lines. Listen, I get that spectators need to pee too, but they shouldn't be making the lines longer at the runner portapotties. 
• People. I have never attend an event that made me hate people as much as this race. The race never opened up and I was smelling someone's body odor the whole time or tripping over someone's foot. 

Will I run MCM again? No, absolutely not. I get that some people really like this race, but for me, I'm going to stick to smaller races where it's not such a clusterfuck and I can actually run my own pace instead of the pace dictated by the herd of people boxing me in. 

Ideally, I'll run tomorrow but I'll see how my ankle feels. Also, when I took my shoes off, one of my socks was all bloody and my little toe is to blame. Hopefully I can limp through 4 miles but I might take a day off instead.

It's 3 weeks until the JFK 50 and I ran 65 miles this week. Now it's taper time!

Never again

Even when I signed up for the Marine Corps Marathon, I knew I didn't like big races, but I wanted to experience this race. I'm still excited to run, but a hellish afternoon of getting to and from the expo has solidified my resolve to stick to trail races and local races with race day packet pick up (or a mail option, that could work too).

Initially, I was just going to go myself with Faith, but at the last minute I begged  asked nicely for my husband to come along. Thank goodness he did, because city driving isn't my forte and the fussing kid in the back was a huge distraction. Luckily, my husband has nerves of steel.

It took SIX HOURS round trip to get my packet. The expo itself was fine, it was crowded, but it was well run and organized. I got what I needed and we headed home as soon as possible because it had already taken us longer than we thought to get there and we needed to get home for Faith's bed time and to feed Peanut.

Faith isn't a good traveler. Honestly, she doesn't even like being contained in a booster seat for a meal, let alone a car seat for hours. I had to resort to a drastic measure: Ring Pop.

I get whatever I want when I scream

In retrospect, it wasn't worth it. Sure, she was quiet for like 20 minutes, but it made such a sticky mess of everything.

I'm not going to keep these teeth anyway

On our way home, we hit horrible traffic and ended up having to take a long detour through Amish country to finally get home and poor Faith ended up passing out (it was past her bed time) with occasional moans to let us know she wasn't pleased.

Ok, I'll talk. Just release me from this confinement chair.

Overall, it was a soul sucking afternoon. After that scream-filled drive, running for 4 hours is going to be a breeze!

We did have brief moments of toddler happiness, but they were fleeting. Mostly she's happy if Blake Shelton or Brad Paisley is playing:




On Sunday, Kari is hosting a bake sale for a great charity and I'm contributing some cookies, so make sure to check it out and bid on some great desserts!

Marathon preparation

Most of the time, the period before a marathon is filled with careful eating and hydration and a lessening of activity to get yourself ready to tackle 26.2 miles. My approach to the Marine Corps Marathon falls into the "I don't recommend it" realm of preparation. Here's a list of things I've done "wrong" in terms of what most marathon literature will tell you:

• Taper: Yeah, I didn't. This is technically a training run and I don't taper for my long runs normally, so I didn't for this either. I did end up tapering for Baltimore because I had the stomach flu the week before (hey, I figure my legs don't know the difference), and this time I'm coming to the race with a full week of mileage behind me.

• Hydration: Normally I try to drink extra fluids, but I've been failing at that this week. Mostly this is due to the fact that Faith throws a shit fit if she sees me drinking because she wants what I have, no matter what. 

• Sleep: I haven't been sleeping well this week, mostly because I get really hot at night and then cold and then my husband is snoring and then the dog is snoring and then the baby is giggling in her crib at 4am....see how this ends up with me not sleeping well?

I have done a few things right:

• Nutrition: I've been eating really well this week. Just last night I made linguine carbonara and for once, I didn't scramble the egg and I actually made a creamy sauce. This made me happier than it probably should have. 

• Avoiding fiber: Fiber is the devil. Some people can handle it and not have issues when racing, but I'm not one of those people.

My colon brushing can wait

• Staying relaxed: I don't know if a relaxed attitude actually helps, but if it does, I'm nailing this.

Race day weather is looking good so far: High of 54 and sunny. It might SNOW tomorrow, which is nuts, but it should be good running weather on Sunday. I may have to change my mind about wearing shorts, but in general I'd rather be chilly when I run than hot. 

My general plan for the race is to run the first 20 miles at a pace that feels comfortable and not worry about time. If we hit 20 miles at a time faster than 3 hours, we'll race that last 10K. If it takes longer than 3 hours to run the first 20, then we'll just cruise in to the finish and not kick it at the end. This is all assuming nothing goes wrong during the race (like GI issues, cramping, etc). However relaxed I may feel, I still have a healthy respect for the distance and I know that a lot can happen during the race. 

More than one person wanted to know what a $350 dog smile looked like, so I took some pictures. I didn't take before pictures, but I did find one that looks remarkably similar to how Peanut's teeth used to look:

It also had a rank smell

She wasn't really thrilled, but I did get pictures of her shiny teeth. I swear they feel sharper too (I feel them when I give her pills). 

The dog loves it when I harass her

No more mouth stank!

She's such  a tolerant dog

There is a huge difference in how her teeth look (and smell), so that helps me feel better about the cost. Now we just need to get her to use chew toys in a normal manner. In the past, she gets so excited about Nylabones that she flings them up into the air and it once almost hit the TV, so we took them away. We have learned that she obviously needs to chew on something, or we're going to have to pay!

Do you have any special pre-race ritual? My "must do" ritual is having a regular Coke before I run, mostly because I love Coke.

What's your dog's favorite chew toy?

Just a year ago...

Yesterday was a pretty "busy" day for me. I use quotes because really, as a stay at home mom, my "busy" doesn't compare those who work. I think a day is busy if I have to be at certain places at set times. :) The dog got her teeth cleaned at the vet, so I had to drop her off at 8am and sign a bunch of paperwork promising that I understood that she may never wake up from surgery (I wasn't worried about that, so thanks for that thought doc). The initial estimate for the dog's teeth cleaning was $538 and I ended up actually paying $347 (plus a free nail trim), so there's some proof that haggling is awesome.

After I got back home, Faith and I went for a run where she proceeded to try every ounce of my patience. Some days she loves to go for a run and she's always excited to start, but there are days when she decides about 2 miles from the house that she's done. Yesterday was one of those days. When we first started running together, she used to always fall asleep from the motion. I miss those days. :)

Speaking of missing those days, when I got the mail, I had received a disc of a photo shoot from last year and it was so fun to see how little and cute Faith was at this time last year.

The time before teeth!

She used to be so easily amused

Mommy, I just sharted

Mommy, being a model is SO HARD

The funniest part of the photo shoot was how much Peanut wanted to be involved. When we finally let her pose, she was a pro:

Geez kid, smile! This is why I hate working with children...

If money was no object, I'd get a professional photo shoot every year, if only to have more pictures of the 3 of us:

Daddy, is Mommy squishing you?

All of these photos were taken by my friend's sister (her website is here!) and I'd recommend her to anyone in the DC area for a wedding or baby photo shoot. No, she didn't pay me to say that or give me a discount, but that doesn't mean I'm not open to selling out in the future.

With a baby, a year makes such a difference. She wasn't sleeping through the night when these pictures were taken and for me, lack of sleep makes my memory foggy. It's too bad I didn't have a blog back then so I could just pull up posts for reference!


What were you doing a year ago?


Have you ever gotten professional photos done for something other than a wedding? I had professional pictures taken of Peanut at a Petco event. I even have them framed on the wall next to the baby's pictures. :)

Toddlers are little dictators

When you have a baby, your life changes. It's not too bad because you have 9 months to get used to the idea (unless you pooped out a kid in a toilet a la "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant"). Newborns are demanding, but in a helpless "I don't know if it's day or night!" kind of way. After about a year, you end up with a walking, not yet talking, little person...and that little person will RULE your life.

I know some people, usually those who don't have kids yet, think that aspect is optional, but it's really not. I'm not talking about giving in to her every demand, I'm saying that you have a small dictator in your house and negotiations don't always go smoothly. Toddlers are like groupies (or stalkers) and you can't do anything without them inserting themselves. Here's an incomplete list of things I can no longer do without toddler "help":

• Dishes: Her favorite thing is to empty the dishwasher, which is fine, but it means that if you try to stack the dishwasher with dirty plates, she will busy herself UNstacking the dishwasher. 
• Laundry: Again, she likes taking clothes out of the basket and there are few things more frustrating than folding clothes, putting them in a basket to carry upstairs and having a rogue toddler snatch up handfuls and throw them on the dirty floor.
• Eating. Even if we're eating the same thing, which we usually are, she wants mine. There is no sneaking food around this kid. She hears the rustle of a package or the creak of the pantry door and she is there. 

After a morning of having a little sparsely haired dictator point and whine for various things, I took her to the park to get some fresh air.

I own all that I survey

Who left all of this mulch here?

I say it belongs here!

Because everything around this town is either plane or boat themed, the playground even has planes and boats. Faith gets very angry about the plane's lack of flight:

This throttle is busted!

I demand an air-worthy plane!

My husband and I were actually discussing her dictatorial ways the other day and we decided that she most resembles this guy:

Yes, we actually have discussions like this in our house

Fun contest: The first person to correctly identify that dictator will get a prize (valued at 40 dollars with free shipping!) Make sure you leave your email if you think I don't already know it. :)

Can you eat in peace in your house, or do you have a small child or animal that comes running when they hear you open the pantry?

50 mile training might kill my husband

Don't worry, I don't mean my training might actually kill my husband. Well, at least not quickly.

When my husband and I got married and starting living together, I only ate healthy food and didn't even eat red meat. My husband had lived on fast food and pizza and he had to adjust to whole wheat everything and no butter in the house because I never baked anything or cooked with it.

The first changes happened when I got pregnant. I started wanting burgers and butter cream frosting, so he was a supportive guy and made sure I didn't have to eat alone. I still cooked primarily healthy food, but the emphasis had started to shift to eating what I craved versus what I thought would be a well balanced meal.

After I had Faith, my cravings and appetite actually got a lot worse. Nursing made me ravenous all the time and I wanted the strangest things, like a roast beef and pepperoni sandwich with sharp cheddar cheese...for breakfast. In addition to being crazy hungry, I was also pretty busy so I relied on 3 large meals instead of snacking. As a consequence, I ate 3 large meals and started to think half a box of pasta sounded like one serving.

Why am I stuck with this whole wheat crap then?

I never reverted back to eating boneless, skinless chicken breasts with a side of nasty quinoa, even after I stopped nursing. Enter 50 mile training and the large appetite that comes with it and things got even more crazy.

Here's an unpopular confession: even with all of my eating: I've lost weight during 50 mile training. I don't know how much because I don't own of those "scale" things, but it's enough that some of my clothes don't fit anymore. It's only bad when I need to dress up because using a belt on my jeans works fine. I did have to buy a new pair of shorts because my old pair would fall down if Faith pulled at them, which means she wanted to pull at them all the time.

I just wanted to show off my Mommy's goods

It's not just the quantity of food I consume, it's also the strange (for me) types of food I want to eat. I'm the cook in the family and I'm also in charge of food procurement, so my husband has to suffer my cravings for calorie dense food. Here are some examples (just from the past week):

• I made fettuccine alfredo and then wished I could add bacon, but we didn't have any. As a replacement, I fried sliced pepperoni and added that to my pasta. It was amazing and my husband was actually speechless for a second when he saw me frying pepperoni.
• I had sliced flank steak for fajitas and I cooked it in butter. Again, my husband was like "What.Are.You.Doing??" and I had to explain that it tasted so much better cooked in butter than oil.
• I had a glazed donut and Ruffles to tide me over because dinner was 40 minutes late and it didn't affect my ability to polish off a foot long sub and 2 cookies.

My husband is actually looking forward to me going back to a more normal level of eating, mostly because he can't keep up anymore. Faith, on the other hand, really likes things cooked in butter. If you cook onions and chickpeas in butter, she is a happy kid. 

I'd even eat the dog if she was sauteed in butter

Personally, I don't think I'll go back to butter-less living. I'll probably reduce my serving size, but I'd rather have a small portion of something that tastes AWESOME than a bigger portion of something that's just "eh". 

How do the eating habits of your spouse or roommate effect you?

Are you pro-butter?

Zebras and hoe cakes

Before I had a kid, I never realized how much fun I was missing out on for seasonal activities. Last year, Faith was too little for most holiday-related stuff, but this year we're going all out. Last weekend was the pumpkin patch and this weekend was a Halloween event at a local sculpture garden. It was perfect weather for Faith to wear her costume because it was cool and overcast. Zebras get hot!

My costume is actually not wearing workout clothes

Faith really loves her costume, which is surprising considering that she only occasionally tolerates hats. As soon as she saw the zebra, she squealed in delight and after she had it on, she loved the attention of "Oh, look at the cute little zebra!"

I'm cute and I know it

Which one of you adults is going to give me CANDY??

The only downside of this event was how many people crammed onto this little path:

Babies just have so much patience for waiting in line...yeah

We tried to get a cute picture, but Faith won't look at the camera if there is anything more interesting going on:

Mommy, those kids are getting all the candy!

I don't think this is a natural habitat for a zebra

The only problem we ran into was Faith is a candy hog. The park had local businesses all set up along a path and they each handed out candy to the kids, but Faith refused to leave each one because she saw that they had a whole bowl, but only gave her one piece. I had to pick her up and carry her to the next person because she was just going to camp out until she was given all the candy in that bowl!

This pixie stick is great, but what else is in that bowl?

By the time we got back to our car, my husband and I were exhausted and Faith just wanted some of her candy. I did let her have a Dum-Dum lollipop for the first time and now I know what I'm bringing for her on the airplane next month. Sweet silence! Of course, it is soon followed by screaming for another, haha.

Also, if you can tell from that last picture, I'm an idiot. I ran 18 miles on Saturday morning and then somehow decided wearing heels to a walking event that afternoon was a good idea. I honestly don't know how women who have to dress up for work can wear heels after a hard morning run!

My 18 mile run was really great. I ran the first half with neighbor friends and Peanut came along too. After 9 miles, I dropped Peanut back off at home and headed back out for the last 9. My goal had been to hold back to an easy pace, which I did for the first 9, but the second half I just kept speeding up. It felt good, so I went for it. It was one of those perfect fall mornings that has warm sunshine and a cold breeze and minimal roadkill.

The only odd thing about my run was that I was starving at about mile 11. My stomach was growling and all I could think about was food. If there had been a McDonald's on my route, I would have stopped and had a second breakfast (and that's saying a lot because McDonald's has an awful breakfast). I couldn't figure it out because I had a Clif bar and a Coke before I left (pretty typical) and I had a Gu, but I was still dreaming of eating metric ass ton of pasta. Normally, I'm not hungry for a few hours after a long run, but this time I was eating a large plate of leftover pasta within 20 minutes of returning home. Running is so funny: some runs feel great, some feel awful, some leave you nauseous for hours and apparently some make you ravenous!

Yesterday was a rest day from running, so instead of gearing up for a post-church run, I made some Paula Deen hoe cakes and bacon for breakfast.  Hoe cakes are fun to eat and it's fun to say "hoe cake" so it was a win all around. I give hoe cakes 4 stars. :)

The rest of Sunday was filled with a little shopping and a family walk around the neighborhood. Peanut loves our weekend walks because the neighborhood kids are always out playing and when they see her, they scream "PEANUT!! CAN WE PET YOUR DOG??" Yes, they are that excited. If it sounds like I live in "Leave it to Beaver"-ville, it's ok because I do. If the school bus drives by as I'm walking or running, I can hear the kids saying "There's Peanut!" and I'm pretty sure Faith will one day make friends by hanging out with Peanut.

I haz fans

Is your pet well known in your neighborhood? For good or bad reasons? :)


What's your favorite Halloween candy? I've been eating the candy Faith got and I have to say, I really enjoy Almond Joy bars. I never eat them any other time of the year and they remind me of Samoa cookies!

It is 4 weeks until the JFK 50 and I ran 54 miles this past week. I have the Marine Corps Marathon on Sunday and since I found out Alyssa is running it too, I'm super excited!!

When the cat is away, the mice...live like pigs?

This week has been different from most because my husband has been away on work travel. He travels fairly often, so you'd think I'd be good at not descending to a feral state while he's away, but you'd be wrong.

How you can tell I'm the only "adult" in the house:

• Instead of emptying the dishwasher, I treat it like a cabinet and get all of my plates out as needed. No more plates? Well then, it's time to eat toast out of a bowl.
• I go to bed at 8:30pm and then sleep sideways, just because I can. I alternate between going to be really early and staying awake for hours because I heard some noise that is probably someone breaking into my house to kill me.
• I eat dinner at 5pm with Faith and then end up eating dinner again at 7:30pm because I'm hungry again. Normally, I wait and eat with my husband and I've realized that eating at 5pm only works if you go to bed at 6:30pm.
• I force the dog to spend time with me. When my husband is home, she wants to be downstairs, but when it's just me, she's so not interested. I use a baby gate to force her to keep me company. 

I imagine if my husband was gone for more than 5 days that I might start acting like a responsible adult and actually do the dishes, but his trips are hardly ever that long, so we may never know. 

Yesterday was day 4 of him being gone (he comes home today!) and after a very windy stroller run:

I'm sexy and I know it

Followed by a very windy trip to the park, I decided to treat Faith and I to take-out for surviving the week together (shut up, I just wanted dumplings). Even though we live in the middle of nowhere, we have this great little family-run Chinese place that makes amazing food:

Flat noodles with shrimp

No pictures of the dumplings because Faith and I killed those pretty quickly, but if you ever come to southern MD, check out Teariffic and get their pork dumplings....it's pretty life changing. 

On an unrelated note, you may have heard on the news that Qaddafi was killed in Libya. You may not be aware, but I did my master's thesis on charismatic leadership and political Islam and I used Qaddafi as my main case study. I spent a year doing research on the details of his biography and political vision and I have to admit, I almost felt like I "knew" him. I know better than most people what atrocities he committed, but I'll still miss his hilarious eccentric ways.

The female body guards:

I wouldn't mess with her

Such fashionable belts

I adored the way he'd bring his Bedouin tents when he went on official travel:

I mean, who does this?

You can't blame Libya for initially liking him. I mean, he used to be pretty dreamy:

Rawr

Good ol' Wacky Qaddafi will always be my favorite crazy dictator. We can pretend that this means Libya will have a brighter future filled with democracy and fluffy bunnies, and monkeys might fly out of my ass. My time of studying the Middle East and North Africa has not left me with an optimistic viewpoint on that front. We can however, enjoy this:

You have no idea what a pain in the ass it is to do research on someone with 15 name spellings

Who is your favorite crazy world leader (past or present)? 

How do you do things differently when you're home alone?

Hump day is also hat day!

Yesterday's weather was just awful here in MD. It was stormy and pouring rain when we got up, so that meant we were stuck inside and I couldn't run outside. I have a rule that I run in the rain with the stroller, but if there is any suggestion of a storm, I keep everyone inside. That falls into the "just not worth the risk" category.

We hung out in our PJs for a while until Faith's nap time. I wanted to get as many miles done during her nap time as possible, so I immediately hopped on the treadmill instead of my usual pre-run snack time. I think this was a bad plan because she wouldn't go to sleep! I have a baby monitor that has lights to indicate noise and I could see that she was making little noises, which is normal when she's falling asleep, but then she got really upset. I hopped off the treadmill and calmed her down and she did end up falling asleep. After that, I hurried and got back on the treadmill and managed to get 8 miles done before she started stirring again. Phew, sometimes the element of "Will I have enough time?!" is a good motivator for a workout and other times, like yesterday, it's just stressful.

After lunch, we went to the new Dick's that just opened near base. This is a big deal for this area (we have very limited shopping) and I had a $10 off a $25 purchase coupon for the grand opening. I love store openings because the staff still wants to help you, unlike other places that have been open a long time and the staff just try to avoid eye contact.

I wanted to get a new winter running hat, especially considering it will be critical for the JFK50. I have ear bands that I normally wear for winter running, but hats are warmer and this will be a chilly race. I found a cute pink Columbia hat with a pony tail hole and decided that I must have it. I wanted one with a ponytail hole so I don't have wet, sweaty hair mashed against my head (doesn't that just sound awful?).

Faith thinks the hat belongs to her, as you can see here:

This picture pretty much sums up a normal day for me

It is ridiculously hard to take a picture of the back of your head, so this is the best I could do:

It's like a baseball hat and a winter cap had a baby

At first, Faith was mad that she didn't get a new hat too.

I need a hat with a hole for MY ponytail!

But then I reminded her that she got a new hat yesterday morning! How cute is this hat?

How many licks does it take...

I had no luck in getting her to hold still for a picture:

You can't contain me!

I took a video of what happens when Faith gets excited, but the camera angles at the end are little funky, so I apologize:



Luckily, the weather today is just supposed to be super windy, but not raining, so we can go out and about! Faith hasn't been to the playground all week and I know she'll enjoy a trip there this afternoon.

Would you ever wear an animal hat? 


How do you amuse yourself for long(ish) runs on the treadmill?


I got the owl hat from a friend's Etsy shop. If you're interested in one, she does them in whatever color you want. I wish that I was crafty. (cue Beastie Boys song...)

There is no such thing as a free dog

Yesterday was pretty much back to normal around here. Faith woke me up at a reasonable hour (7am!) and we ate breakfast together. I really enjoy that she sits in her booster seat now instead of her high chair. It makes it feel like we're eating "together", even if I'm the only one eating and she's just giving herself a facial with whatever I made for her to eat.

You eat your food your way, I'll eat mine MY WAY

After breakfast, I usually let Faith play for about 15 minutes and then we hit the road for a run. Step one in the run is preparing snacks:

Ideal for eating and taunting the dog

When I pull the stroller out, Faith gets really excited and actually crawls up in the seat by herself while I'm getting stuff ready to go. Once she's in there, she gets really relaxed and just sits back and enjoys the ride:

I'm ready for my chariot ride now Mommy

After our run, she and I play for about an hour and then she has yet another snack before her nap time. When she naps, I run on the treadmill. I did a total of 9 miles yesterday and it felt pretty good considering how I felt the day after the marathon.

After she wakes up from her nap, she usually plays while I make lunch. Yesterday she decided to lounge around with Peanut and watch country music videos while I cooked:

Taylor Swift like totally gets me

After our very nutritious lunch of chicken nuggets (there are few things as tasty as a chicken nugget dipped in honey), we had to take Peanut to the vet. She needed blood work for her seizure medication and vaccine boosters. The vet informed me that Peanut has bad teeth and needs a cleaning...to the tune of $500! I wasn't completely shocked because I'd noticed a foul stench coming from her mouth and when I brush her teeth, her gums have been bleeding. It's still really painful to consider the cost, especially since yesterday's visit already cost over $200. (The reason her teeth cleaning is so expensive is because she needs to be put under anesthesia for the procedure.)

Peanut has been a relatively cheap dog up until this point and even her daily seizure medication isn't more than 5 dollars a month. Even with her lack of sickness, dog health care is still really expensive. When are they going to start letting us include the dog on our health care plan? :)

Is your pet expensive? 


Do you like country music? (the right answer is yes)