School lunch, hydrating and some happy

I keep forgetting to get all the photos from Saturday's race off Scott's phone whenever he is home (which isn't much lately), so my race report will have to wait. Instead, here is what you'll find in the pictures on my phone.

One of the best things about Chic-fil-a.

 

 

My lunch buddies. Grace's recess is at the same time as my lunch. And a little extra happy is that these two are friends. And in the same class. Some things are just meant to be; their friendship is one of them.

 

How I hydrated the day before the marathon.

 

Because I just thought this needed to be captured. This was the second time I had to run home after dropping off my girls to get Ellie's green bunny for Teddy Bear Picnic Day.

Sundays mean yummy food around our house lately. Taco soup for dinner and then Chex Scotheroos for dessert. Yes, that is a half inch thick glob of chocolate/butterscotch goodness.

 

Our kitchen is the first room you come into from the garage. And this is as far as their shoes ever make it.

 

One countdown finished. Let the next two begin.

 

School lunch isn't what it used to be. The pumpkin muffin was DELICIOUS.

 

And just because when your girl gets new horse riding boots, it's a big deal. Photo bomber and all.

 

What was your favorite school lunch food? I liked the pizza, but these days the pizza at my girls' school is delivered from Dominos. Yummy, but not the same.

 

 

Big Cottonwood Marathon: Still my favorite

I ran Big Cottonwood Marathon today! It was a completely different experience than last year, but it was still a good one. I had my moments of doubt, like when I passed the half marathon starting line and thought "I should really be running that!" and when I was six miles in and had to turn up my music to drown out my thoughts about how tired my legs were already.

Some of the highlights though:

• Coming out of the canyon after almost 15 miles and seeing my little family!
• Running over seven miles with Janae. She got me through the toughest part!
• The downhill at mile 24. Felt. Like. Heaven.
• Not caring what my time was, so I strolled sloooowwwwly through every aid station. And took my time getting hugs and kisses whenever I saw Scott and my girls.
• Seeing all my favorite people in one place at the finish line.

I'll post a more thorough recap later with pictures. All the pictures are on Scott's phone and he had to go to work as soon as we got home from the race, so the only picture I have right now is this one the incredible Megan (one of those favorite people I was talking about) sent me. But I really like it because it shows how happy it makes me, even when I'm trying not to puke at mile 26.1, to see the people I love.

What were some of your Saturday highlights?

You gotta know when to walk away...

Last week was a crazy week. As much as I love birthdays, I'm happy it's Monday and the craziness of last week is behind me. I was up late almost every night last week, trying to get things done. Things I would normally do during the day while my girls are at school. But now that I'm at school all day too, I've been trying to figure out how and when to get everything done.

Friday was Ellie Bean's birthday! After giving her a list of dozens of options, she chose to have her birthday dinner at McDonald's. Hey, the heart wants what the heart wants. And her heart belongs to McDonald's.

Saturday she had her friend party with a Frozen theme. Of course there was a sub-theme...horses. Almost all her gifts fell into one of those two categories.

 

And because I'm human, and because I actually handled it surprisingly well, I will tell you about my cake fail.

The Elsa doll that was supposed to be in the center of Ellie's cake was abnormally tall compared to traditional Barbies, so Friday night I ended up baking two additional layers to make her skirt. After I hollowed out the center and began to insert Elza, I turned the cake and realized there was a large section falling apart. There were so many layers that it was hard to have a hole in the middle without the cake having structural problems. I learned that without getting an engineering degree. Impressive, huh? I repaired it and began the first layer of frosting. Then I stopped and stared at the cake for a few minutes. I had three hours to finish the cake and get ready for the party, which included showering so I wasn't still in my running clothes when the party started.

So I asked Ellie if she would be super sad if we went and got cupcakes instead and got Frozen figures to decorate around the cupcakes. She's a pretty easy going kid and didn't seem to care too much either way, so we pulled the Elsa doll out of the cake and headed out to purchase the necessary items. (She did later tell Grace that she was a little sad and disappointed about her cake, which kind of broke my heart. But sometimes you have to know your limits.)

 

For the record, I have been running. I've still been getting in at least four runs each week, which I've been able to be ok with because technically I'm tapering. Saturday the incredible Janae joined me for most of my 10 miles. For normally being a solitary runner, I couldn't love my runs more than I do when I'm running with Janae.

And then there's this. Kind of sums things up for me.

 

How do you celebrate birthdays?

What is your favorite Disney movie?

 

I'm bad at making decisions about my life

Being gone all day is taking some adjustment. Depending on what we have going on after school, I have to figure out when will be the best time to run. I'm finding that early morning will probably be the easiest, but I have yet to get up with my alarm at 5:30 am. So my run on Thursday happened in the evening, and I cross trained on the bike Friday because I was doing my long run the next morning.

My alarm went off at 5:30 again this morning, but I reset it for an hour later and got up with my girls. I'm trying to remember how I managed to get up that early, morning after morning for almost two months, to go pool running at the beginning of the summer!

So tonight I ended up doing a T25 workout, then an upper body strength workout, and THIS core/lower body workout, which was kind of a fun change. And I got to use my new weights that were a surprise from the hubs.

Saturday's long run ended up being 12 miles. Ellie Bean went to piano with her cousins and my incredible friend Megan, now an official Team I Have Run member, offered to have Princess Grace over to play with her daughter so I could run while Scott had to work. I planned on running until Ellie was back from piano, so I knew I had a little less than two hours. I felt strong for all 12 miles and my pace was right where I wanted it to be.

Yesterday I ran seven miles. My girls spent the night with their cousins, so after sleeping in until 9 that morning, Scott dropped me off about 10 miles from home and then had water for me every few miles and chocolate mik for me when he picked me up where I finished.

I spent yesterday's run trying to decide if I should run the full or drop down to the half in my marathon next weekend. I am not where I was physically before this marathon last year. Coming back after my stress fracture hasn't been easy. I still feel like I have to work harder than I did a year ago to hit my paces and I don't have very many runs where I feel like I can just get lost in the run. Today is the deadline to change to the half, and the day is almost over....!

Besides running, the weekend was full of food, family and outdoor fun. Sunday we had a family dinner with 52 members of my dad's side of the family together! Which of course means lots of yummy food!!

What was the highlight of your Labor Day weekend?

When is your next race?