Rock n' Roll Seattle - the not running part

First, unrelated, but I love a good deal, I love compression, and I love orange.  Lucky for me, Pro Compression is now launching their Marathon sock in ORANGE. You may recall that Pro Compression was one of our sponsors for Team So Much Cooler Online Ragnar SoCal a few months ago, and their magic baby blue socks saved my legs during the 203.5 mile relay.

You can buy your very own orange compressiony socks HERE, AND, you when you do that, you should also use coupon code SOM610 for 40% off (making the socks $30, with free shipping, I KNOW). Code expires July 10th!

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So, if you missed the recap where I'm a giant quitting whiner, you can read it here.


Friday, I flew into SEA around 1:30, and took the light rail up to the expo. I am freakish, and I LOVE public transportation. It's one of the highlights of any trip for me, and I try to figure it out when I travel. It's like a fun challenge. Also, it's cheap, and way less stressful than renting a car. I hate driving in strange places. And based on all the driving that other people did while I sat in the back seat, I would have REALLY hated driving in Seattle. Awful.

Quick run through the expo, and then it was time for a blogger meetup, hosted and organized by Tall Mom, with John Bingham speaking.

After the expo, Kim and S drove me to Alma's house....

hint: it's not here....

And the three of us got ready to head back into downtown Seattle for the Brooks/Online Shoes Girls Night Out event.

After they (carb) loaded us up...

...we had the opportunity to hear a bit about the Brooks story, the Run Happy philosophy, and dig into some fun shoe design details. Brooks is solely (ha, get it?) a running company - that's their thing, their focus.

They gave us a sneak peek at a new shoe, the Pure Drift, that will be released for sale soon.... 5.1 oz, and only $100 price point.

It has a low drop (I think 4mm?? But don't quote me on that....), but you can ALSO remove the sock liner to make it a total 0 drop shoe. Interesting!

We were all invited to try on the shoes from Brooks Pure Project line, and their Core line...

My picks? The Brooks Glycerine 10 (grey/pink on my right foot) and the Brooks Pure Flow (purple on my left foot)

I'm normally a Saucony girl, but I've been dying to try out the Pure Flow for awhile.

so purple!!

HUGE thanks to OnlineShoes.com and Brooks for a super fun night!

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Saturday evening, I was kind of a disaster. Luckily, Hotel Alma was open, has a couch, and a tv. We watched a Motley Crue documentary, and the track trials, and then I crashed.

Sunday morning, Alma and fam took me to Alki Beach

...and her #1 favorite bakery. Followed by Pikes Place Market, and her #2 favorite bakery. I love anyone with a #1 and a #2 favorite bakery.

And then ice cream.

And then Target, to buy a new bag. I was super stoked on my way in that I fit everything I needed into ONE backpack. And then I got all the things, and....

all the things no longer fit in a backpack.....

After an argument with the TSA chick about her phone scanning device not working meaning I needed to get out of line, print a boarding pass, then get BACK in the line I just spent 25 minutes in, I boarded my flight, with my connection in SLC. Apparently, I only managed to leave myself 28 minutes between flights? And snagged myself a seat in the very back of the plane? Oops. When I fiiiiinally got to the gate, the agent  greeted me with, "Oh, you must be Heather.".

Yep. Sure am.



Wet n' Wild 5k Recap

Last week:
Wednesday: 3 miles, MGP
Saturday: Wet n' Wild 5K, 3.1 mile walk/sometimes run
Sunday: 5 miles easy pace, 1 mile walk

I take my taper super, super serious. I'm all about recovery time.

This week:
Tuesday: 5 miles, MGP
Thursday: 4 miles
Saturday: 26.2 miles, hopefully at MGP.

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Wet n' Wild 5k is a local race benefiting Strong Tower Ministries, a non-profit organization helping feed, cloth, educate, and rescue destitute children living locally in Orange County and Baja California, Mexico.

Last year, the race was held in August, started at 8am, and in Irvine. I ran it (recap here) and wasn't super stoked about it, except for the part where I met Rose. The course was ugly and boring and weird and it was a billion hundred degrees.

So I wasn't planning on running again this year, until Margot forwarded a Schwaggle for $15! Dude, for $15, I'll run almost anything. DONE.

Super long, dumb story short, I didn't ACTUALLY register with the Schwaggle, and had to register last minute, and paid $20 more than I wanted to.

#worthit

This year, the race was moved to Knott's Berry Farm and Knott's Soak City, with a 7:30 start.

Shannon and I carpooled, and quickly found Madison, then headed over to packet pick up. Julie, her friend, and her brother found us shortly after.

It was kind of chaos. The signs were fine, the volunteers were nice. But they ran out of twisty tie things for the timing chips, and safety pins for the bibs. Odd. Also, without anyone being able to pin bibs on, I'm kind of annoyed that I legit registered...

You can tell we race, though, because extra safety pins were located. Crisis averted.

There was also only one bathroom - and we were just getting in line for it when they started the race. oops.

Ooops.

Oh, how quaint. Pace groups.

The course runs through Knott's Berry Farm, through Soak City, and then through 1/3 mile of the lazy river.
We leisurely started the race...

 
We were a little ridiculous.

Ridiculously cute.

.And fun.

We even ran a little.

It was a really, really hard race.

I was a little sad we hadn't thought of this first. But next time....

Then the lazy river.

It was COLD. Also, it was much shallower than last year - like, below waist deep, instead of chest deep - which made it actually NOT EASY. I have a newfound respect for anyone that does water aerobics. Holy cow.

Official time, 56:13.

 

Most of these pictures were stolen from Madison, and her recap is fantastic. Check it out HERE.

If I blog it, does that mean it's over?

I don't even know what to say. This was - no exaggeration - the MOST FUN EVER. Princess was fun. Disneyland was fun. Tink was Stupid Fun. THIS was like ALL of that fun, maintained, for 48 hours.

This is going to be the longest recap you can imagine, so I'm breaking it into a few parts. Part 1 - vans, getting ready, kicking our first runner off. Also, at the end of each, I'm making some notes regarding suggestions, stuff that worked, stuff that didn't, stuff to remember, etc. For you, sure, but also for me. You know. For next time. (Napa what?)

Packing - I managed to pack everything I needed for myself in a backpack. 3 running outfits, packed individually in a gallon ziploc bag, toiletries in a separate ziploc bag, reflective/night gear in another ziploc bag.

Van supplies - we organized each van to host their own supplies. I provided a generic packing list of items that could be community van items (ibuprofen, muscle rub, first aid kit, water, baby wipes, etc), and everyone kind of signed up for what they wanted to bring, and added their own items to the list. It worked pretty well, I think, and each van had a checklist of required items (reflective gear), so everyone was well prepared.

So. I guess start at Thursday evening, picking up two GIANT vans. 

 

We decorated with all the window paint we could find, packed up as much as we could, headed out to dinner at Veggie Grill, and then home, to sleep, since we had the earliest start time in the universe (5:45am) (foreshadowing!).
 

I know. It's really hard to even imagine how early this is, but then Becka and I remembered it's about 36 minutes later than we got up for Princess Half. Madness. Disney and Ragnar, we must love you.

Left at 3:42 to pick up Madison, and then met the rest of our vanmates to head down to the start line.

If you've ever run a Ragnar before, perhaps this is normal. But it was CHAOS, even at the earliest time ever. I'm guessing we didn't really help, since we were REALLY, REALLY hyped, and probably only half-way listening to directions. Oops.

Collected our orange flags (more on these later), attended the safety briefing, picked up our race packets - these contained our shirts, timing chip (for the first and last runner), slap bracelet (foreshadowing), bibs - and.... wandered aimlessly finding coffee, eating pastries, shopping. We probably could have used our time a bit more wisely, and, you know.... gotten our runner ready, maybe? Around 5:42, it occurs to us that Shannon doesn't have bibs, they were in the van, and we don't have her slap bracelet, it wasn't in our packet... No need to panic. We start at our leisure. 6am start, no worries!

Shannon is THE CUTEST EVER.

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Packing:
The ziplocs were GENIUS. I'm not taking credit for this, it's everywhere on the internet machine, anywhere people discuss relay packing. But it's brilliant. Do it.

I forgot to pack an extra set of clothes for AFTER. Because I was in van 1, we finished first, so we had down time after our last runner handed off to van 2. Note: bring ONE extra outfit.

If you're planning on dressing in some sort of theme (we had a vague Nerd theme), save it for your last leg if you're in van 2, or your finish line outfit if you're in van 1.

We brought WAY MORE FOOD than we ever could have eaten. As you'll see later in the recaps, there's just not that much down time, and for ME, fueling was kind of an issue. We definitely went overboard on the consumables.

Organization:
If you can, pack up your van the night before. We didn't do this Thursday night, and ended up throwing almost everything in the back of the van, then spent a bunch of time at our first major exchange reorganizing. That was time that could have been better spent having fun.

 Get your runners ready before you play around. It's no fun to have a stressed out runner cutting things too close. I promise the coffee will be there when she takes off.


Part 2, HERE

"The more elaborate our means of communication, the less we communicate."

1. I watched the Bachelor for the first time in, like, ever last night with Margot, Margot's super fun roommate, Sarah, and Shannon. Holy hell, those people are all terrible. Why is his hair so bad? Why does that chick have so much botox she can't move her face? WHY CAPES? So many questions.

2. Today is Wine and Dine registration day!! Who's in?

3. Speaking of Disney, I ordered a Disney planning DVD, which came in the mail yesterday. The H almost threw it away. It's like he doesn't even know me.

seriously. Why would he do that?

4. And speaking of Disney planning, Gabby's Make a Wish trip is on my brain right now. Not being in Florida anymore, I feel like there needs to be some research done so we don't miss out on anything. I know. I'm a little.... intense with the Disney planning.

5. Things that have led people to finding my blog in the last 30 days:

• i'm sorry i love you iphone text
• why are you here already
• meeeee hot
• my awesome boobs blog
• skinny jeans and platform sandals
• snooki 98 lbs
• sweaty sexy squash player
• african awesome animals

and, best of all.....

• vagina ponytail

6. Oh, look. Crappy weather is in the forecast for the LA Marathon. Again.

Gross. Sure hope mother nature gets her act together next year; LAM2013 is on my radar.

7. Speaking of Mother Nature (it's like a word association game in here today), I can't believe there's been virtually NO snow this year to go play in. LAME.

8. Does anyone else watch The River? I wasn't sure about it at first, but it's grown on me, and now I'm deeply fascinated.

{source}

So damn creepy.

9. I bought some new shoes over the weekend. I plan on testing them out tonight. Sure hope they don't suck, but if they do, I can go back and exchange them. Thank heavens for RoadRunner's 90 day return policy.

10. Hey, did you see how Rose kicked ass at the Pasadena Triathlon!? She's so badass.

One thing you can’t recycle is wasted time.

I really, really suck at time management, apparently.

Yesterday, I was scheduled for 7 miles (easy). Monday night, I had grand plans to wake up at 4:12 am to be running by 4:45 to be done by 6 to shower and leave for work by 6:30.

And then my alarm went off at 4:12, and I remembered, running alone in the dark in the morning really freaks me out. I know, we've had this chat before, I don't know WHY I thought this time would be different.

And WHY did I want to run in the morning? Because I had dinner plans with some friends at this place.

"America's Best Salads" -> not necessarily true.

Anyway, then I decided I would run my 7 miles on WEDNESDAY morning, before the "Conditioning" class (I'm going to keep "" that word until it no longer equals torture and cruel things).

But then I realized, I am not fooling anyone with this morning run business. I'll run what I can before dinner, then run whatever 1-2 miles in the morning before class.

Except, by the time I got home, yapped with the family for a bit, changed, etc etc etc ad nauseum procrastinated lame, I could only fit in FOUR miles.

LOSER.

But whatever. I ran the 4 (42:37, 10:39 pace). Met Skinny Runner, Sarah, Margot, Pam, and Monica for soup and salad...

....and next time, can we do Souplantation? This 5 item topping limit is completely unrealistic.

Margot brought our Nuun stuff - they're supporting Team So Much Cooler Online!

Pretty rad. And, delicious.

And then I skipped FroYo with them after because I promised the kids I'd be home before they went to bed.

And THEN, this morning, my alarm went off at 4:34 (wtf), and I was actually waking up and ready to get out of bed, when Gabby walked face first into my bedroom door and scared the hell out of me. Then she walked in saying, "I'm okay. That really freaked me out.".

That kid cracks me up.

So I hung out quietly waiting for her to stop talking (seriously, she was starting full-blown conversations, and poor H just wanted to snore), before I procrastinated myself long enough into only having time to run 1 mile before "Conditioning" class.

1 mile, 10:45.

So to recap, last night, 4 miles, dinner, no fro yo. This morning, 4:34 heart attack, 1 mile run, 45 minute "conditioning" class.

So this is why, when the Stabucks boy this morning asked if, at 7:28 am, I was ready to start my day now that I had coffee, I laughed at him.

Sorry, it was rude, but I couldn't come up with a more reasonable response.

Anyway. BIC Bands is running a special today - buy 3 bands, get 1 "goof" band FREE! And, since they're donating a portion of February sales, that makes TODAY you're last chance to shop and donate at the same time! SHOP SHOP SHOP!

"Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen."

Team Gab just passed the $2,800 mark...

Last year, we raised $2,370. THANK YOU for helping me top that this year!

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Earlier this week, I posted to facebook a link to a report on a shortage of methotrexate.

Methotrexate is one of the most critical drugs in treating ALL, which is what Gabby has. She takes methotrexate at home, orally, via ELEVEN pills, every Thursday night. She receives an intrathecal dose every 12 weeks at the infusion center.

Remember a few months ago, when I posted the trick with putting the pill in the grapes?

That's the methotrexate. (Lucky for us, now she just takes them - all 11. She's pretty much my hero.)

Anyway. So this drug, it's a low-profit drug for the manufacturers. It's old, it's not doing a lot for their bottom line.

Apparently, their solution is to... stop making it. And then feign ignorance about WHY there is a shortage.

From the report:

"There are couple other drugs that can be injected into the spinal fluid, but none that are as effective," said Link. "As for the high dose version of the drug, there's no workaround for it."

THIS is why research and development of new treatments is so critical.

There is no workaround.

Gabby's hospital currently has a three month supply of methotrexate available. So for her lumbar in 3 weeks, she's fine. But the one following that?

Unless something changes, there could be none left.

"You're always faced with the problem of whether you can use something else that might work," said Link. "You know in your heart that you're compromising on the cure rate."

I've quoted these statistics before, but now seems like an appropriate time to restate them.

• Gabby is being treated with protocols that are DECADES old.
• New treatments have not been made available to treat childhood cancers for TWENTY years.
• Despite very aggressive therapies that approach the limits of tolerability for the child, the overall survival rate for childhood cancer has remained unchanged since 1998.

You can click HERE to donate to support research to find new treatments.


Ignore the broccoli.
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These other fine folks are fundraising, too - shop around for your favorite cause(s), and spread the love.

Jolene at Journey of a Canuck Mom on the Run is raising money for Alex's Lemonade Stand.

Pam is fundraising for Back on my Feet, a nonprofit organization that promotes the self-sufficiency of those experiencing homelessness by engaging them in running.

Lauren is taking the Polar Plunge in March. Proceeds from the Polar Plunge provide FREE year-round sports training and competition for the Special Olympics.

Trinity is running for LINK HERE) and Jana (LINK HERE) are raising money for the 100 Mile Club's Run4Kids. They will be running for 6 hours on a 1/4 mile track, cheering on the kids as they run to add miles towards their 100 mile goal. "Every $10 I raise will sponsor a student for a year, and my goal is to raise enough to sponsor 20 kids."

Lauren is supporting the American Diabetes Association, and riding a Tour de Cure.

Debbie is doing TWO events with Team In Training - America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride and Eleven Oconee Sprint Tri.

The MFDre is running Boston and raising money for Fred's Team, benefiting Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Michel at Baby Weight My Fat Ass is running the Chicago Marathon with Run For Autism.

HLove is and hosting a Virtual Run benefiting the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults.

Elisabeth is running her first FULL Ironman with
Team in Training.

Jana is running the Wine Country Half Marathon for Team Challenge and the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America. "Over 80% of every dollar I raise will directly fund the mission of CCFA" <---- I LOVE THAT STAT. Chelsea is running RnR San Diego Marathon, The Estes Park Half Marathon and the Mayors Marathon in Alaska for Team in Training - holy busy!

Kristi is running the Country Music Marathon for the Project Athena Foundation - their mission "to help women with medical or traumatic setbacks live their athletic and adventurous dreams as part of their recovery."

Caroline is running Race for the Cure for the Susan G Komen Foundation in LA on March 25th - if I'm available, I'm running with her! (as in, I may already be committed to something, not that I'm super high demand)


We runners sure are a giving bunch, eh?

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Check out The Jesse's Team Gab 5K report, and Molly the Sleeper Baker's treadmill 10K!

This week's Team Gab winner.....

My screen capture tool isn't working. That's cute.

Anyway, #36 according to random.org is Elizabeth from Running for Bling!! Elizabeth, check out the Team Gab giveaway page and let me know which prize you'd like!

......and, there are still a BILLION prizes left. I'm going to EXTEND THE VIRTUAL RACE deadline 2 weeks - through March 2nd, while I come up with a creative way to dispense prizes. {Any ideas on raffling these bad boys off?}

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Are YOU fundraising?? Link up in the comments!

Plan for the Week, and weekend round up

Last week:
I did something new-to-me, and ran 4 days last week.

Shockingly, I didn't die. I KNOW, right?

Tuesday: 6 miles, random hill program, 1:05:12, 10:52 avg pace.
Thursday: 5 miles, 3x1600 at 9:21 (actual 9:17, 9:14, 9:10), 800 RI. Skipped my cool down, since someone was eyeballing my treadmill.
Saturday: 9 miles, last 3 at half goal pace (10:41). 1:37:40, avg pace 10:52. Actual splits: 11:23, 11:23, 11:13, 11:19, 10:54, 10:56, 10:32, 10:21, 9:49. Oops.**
Sunday: Had an extra day of 3 easy that I was supposed to do Friday, but I was (a) lazy, and (b) planning to watch Top Chef Saturday, so I pushed this to Sunday and called it recovery. This was my first excursion with my new Garmin, so I learned that I need to push the lap button at each mile to get my actual splits. Lesson, taken. I also learned that I can't pace myself for isht. I'm all over the place crazy. Anyway, 4 miles 43:20, 10:50 avg pace.

DONE.

And this week...

Saturday: Eat pizza, drink beer, and bunk up with internet strangers in Anaheim.
Sunday: Tinker Bell Half

Oh, I'll also run this week too.
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Saturday, after my 9 miler, I took kid #1 to a local bakery, 85*C. The chain originated in Taipei, and has locations all over Asia, and what looks like 2 store fronts in the US. One of these happens to be down the street from me. So the goods are decidedly Asian, and it's all delicious. I don't think I've ever gotten anything there that I don't like.

The set up is kinda weird, because it's insanely popular, and there are fire codes obviously restricting the number of people who are allowed in at one time. So there's a queue, outside, and a dude standing guard at the door, asking how many in your party, and letting you in when they're ready.

It's like Disney, but with no ride.

So you go in, pick up a tray, and some tongs, and walk through the shelves, trays, baskets of baked goodies, and grab what you want, collecting it all on your tray, before heading to the checkout queue.

The checkout line gives you plenty of time to review their cold-case desserts (tons thereof), and drink menu. All of which I didn't take a picture of, sorry. But I promise, they have delicious salted iced coffee. DELICOUS.

This thing was devoured on the way home - some baked ham and cheese stick. So good.

I can't imagine how I don't just drop those 12 lbs...

Next on our agenda, was a failed attempt at making dinner. We don't eat out tons, but unfortunately, what we planned to make for dinner wasn't happening (frozen chicken is remarkably hard to cook, take note). Buuut, lucky for me, The H opens my mail and this had arrived a few days earlier.

Success!

So the Chili's Lighter Choices Menu schtick is that everything is under 750 calories and 25 grams of fat.

The bad thing about this, is the menu is pretty... meh.

I dunno. There are tons of ways to produce healthy choices that aren't boring, but I suppose that's a harder task when you're mass producing food. So, whatever. It is what it is, and at least there are choices to be had.

I tried the 110 calorie skinny margarita...

and holy ishtballs, no WONDER it's 110 calories, I sweartogoodness it's straight Patron.

It's been a lot of years since I drank straight Patron. Lord.

I ordered the chicken wrap, with steamed broccoli.

So, yeah. There's that. I'm not sure what the barbecue sauce is doing there, either.

I asked the dude about my broccoli (I seriously adore french fries, Chili's, why would you make me do this?!), and he says, "Oh. Do you want the broccoli?"

Um.

Also missing was the low-fat ranch, which is an abomination anyway, so good riddance. Full fat, or go home!

Anyway. Unimpressed, and bummed that I wasted a night out on meh food, too much tequila, and wasting french fries. I guess the lesson here is, accept Chili's for what it is, and don't ask it to do something outside of that box. Normally I adore Chili's, so now I know.

Sunday, Kid #2 and I headed down to spectate the Carlsbad Marathon. Of which I took zero pictures. I know, blogger of the week award here.

But, I saw Skinny Runner PR, and ChaCha KILL her previous PR by, like, 35 minutes or something INSANE (which, incidentally, is about equivalent to the amount of time it took me to get out of the parking lot, holy traffic).


{photo lifted from SR}

Afterwards, we headed down to Longboarders in Oceanside and I have no idea why #2 is being a creeper. ChaCha is obviously still riding high.

And, that's a wrap. I ran, I ate, I spectated. The end.

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**of note on my long run - I always do long runs with a run/walk interval - always have. Just for kicks, I tried running without. And I didn't die. I know, I was surprised too. In FACT, dare I say, I felt good. ALSO of note, this is the first long run I've done with sub-11 average pace. Fascinating. And yes, I totally understand this is probably on fascinating to me, so that's cool. I am not offended by your non-interest.

Q&A with Tall African Animals

A collection of random questions asked, and my answers. The excitement abounds, I know.

Deirdre at Oh Well Whatever....

Q: How do you do it all? I just have the one baby and am having the hardest time getting my act together to workout...

A: It sounds overly simplistic, but the simple answer is, I just DO it. More times than not, it definitely crosses my mind to skip a run, push a work out to another day. But after years of putting it off another day, I've accepted that another day, for me, is 99.867% sure not to come. If I don't do it today, I'm not going to do it. So I make the excuses in my head; I might even voice them out loud to The H, but in the end, I just shut up and do it. It sometimes means The H makes dinner, or the kids eat at 7:30, but that seems like a small price to pay when the trade off is lazy schlubby unhappy mother.

Nicole at Becoming a Mother Runner...

Q: When is the last day to sign up for the Team Gab Virtual Run?

A: Last day to run is 2/17/12. BUT. I'll be selecting winners of my GIANT GIANT giveaway starting this Friday. So, your chances of winning something awesome are a billion times higher if you enter earlier rather than later. (A billion is an estimate.). You can CLICK HERE for details and to enter.

Lydia at Running Wilder

Q: Ok if I put Gabby's picture on my shirt?

A: ABSOFREAKINGLUTELY. I have grand plans to create a bib that I intend to send out. However, this is entirely dependent on me figuring out how to do it (because I'm both uncreative and computer challenged). If anyone knows how to do it and WANTS to, knock yourself out. In the meantime, I'll be giving it the ol' college try and will send it out if I piece something together.

Alma, my favorite Average Woman Runner

Q: I'm going to see about trying to organize some ladies up here to do it all together. Maybe the first weekend of Feb?"

A: Yeah, I know that's less of a question, and more of a statement, but if anyone in the Pacific NW is interested in teaming up with Alma, let me know and I'll forward your info along.

Kim at (Just) Trying is for Little Girls

Q: This is awesome, where's my credit card?

A: When you find it, could you buy me these?

ChaCha at Chasing Imperfection

Q: Damn, do you get to work that early?

A: Hell yes I do. 7-4, means I'm on the road at 6:40, and home and ready to run by 5. Bam.

Jess at Run With Jess

Q: Seriously.... what is it with the afternoon?"

A. Heck if I know; I could literally just snack relentlessly from 1pm-3pm, and not be satisfied. It's ridiculous. If anyone discovers the key to placating this afternoon eating melt down, pass it on...

Madison at I'd Rather Be Eating

Q: Can you invite me over to play on the Kinect?

A: Since you know where I live.... could I really stop you? Just come bearing muffins.

Losing Lindy...

Q: Kid #1 is amazing too, does she run for school as well?

A: Nope. Her middle school does not offer any track programs. The high school she will go to has a really great cross country team, though, so I'm hoping she gets involved then.