She's Her Mother's Daughter

Preface: This is a pic of Rylie with a bottle of Sparkling Grape Juice on NYE....NOT wine! It was taken this year. The pic of me was taken on NYE 2 years ago. Uncanny, isn't it? She's definitely MY kid!


Anyway, Rylie (who is in kindergarten, mind you) came home from school on Monday and informed me that she ran a mile in PE. At first I didn't even believe her - I mean, a mile is a long ways for those little legs! I don't remember running the mile in PE until middle school and I was shocked that kg'ers were running a mile! But then she started telling me all the details, like how they had to run 7 laps around the playground, and how afterwards they got a stamp - "smile for the mile." After hearing all this, I knew she wasn't making it up!

She then proceeded to tell me and she and her friend Victoria were the first ones to finish. She said they beat everyone in her class of 23 students, even all the BOYS! Can I tell you that I was bursting with pride?? :) I think it may be time for her to start running with Mom. I mean, if she can bike 13 miles and run a mile, I this she can do more than I give her credit for! She told me awhile back that she wanted to start running with me, but at the time I really thought the only reason she was saying that was so I would buy her a running skirt like mine. *She's a girlie girl.* But it just may be time to take her out and see what she's made of! ;)

As a side note, she was sore yesterday. She came home saying her legs hurt really bad. So bad, in fact, that she was not able to go to dance last night. She must get that from me as well. :\ I gave her some Motrin and a banana. Hopefully she'll be good to go tonight.


In other news, I'm still trying to raise funds for my upcoming triathlon with proceeds going to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. If anyone is interested in donating, you can do so here: http://pages.teamintraining.org/mid/HyveeTri09/arobbins

Weekend In St Louis

Randy and I left bright and early Saturday morning (6am) for our trip to St Louis. The reason for the trip was for my half marathon, but we had a little fun while we were there too.

As soon as we got into town, we checked into our hotel and then went over to the expo to pick up my race packet. They had all kinds of cool stuff at the expo - t-shirts, hats, visors, and all kinds of gear. I ended up getting a fuel belt, which I had looked for at Dick's Friday night and couldn't find. After that, we all went to lunch. "We" included the 2 of us and the 4 friends that went with us. After lunch, Randy and I went and toured Busch Stadium. That was a lot of fun and we got some really cool pics. Saturday night we all went to dinner and met up with our other 2 friends that were in town for the race too, so there was a total of 8 of us at dinner. We ate at a really yummy Italian place - had to get in some pasta before the race!

Saturday was the race. I'm just going to copy and paste my post from my running blog below:

I've been putting this off so that I could add race pics to my post...but the GO! St Louis site still doesn't have the pics up and I'm at work where I can't access my personal photos, so........you'll just have to wait for the pics. Sorry. ;)

Anyway, I DID IT!!!!! I RAN A HALF MARATHON!!!! WOOT!

I still have so much going through my mind, I don't even know if I can form complete sentences to describe the experience, so I think I'll just have to give the high(and low)lights:

**Standing at the starting line was one of the most overwhelming and exhilerating feelings I've ever felt in my life! There were 15,000 runners in this race and looking up and just seeing BLOCKS of mass people was just incredible. We were facing the Arch at the starting line and it was just such a surreal moment. Hearing the national anthem gave me goosebumbs and it is a moment I will never EVER forget!

**Right when the race started, they played Eye of the Tiger over the loud speakers, which totally made me LOL!

**I randomly saw a girl I went to high school with on my way to the starting line, which was odd since we were 6 hours away from our home town.

**It rained for the ENTIRE duration of the race. Luckily, it was in the 50's with no wind, so it wasn't cold...well, at least not until after the race was over. The 8 block walk back to the hotel afterwards was pretty miserable.

**The first few miles we were running near the interstate and all these cars and semis kept honking at us. That was really cool.

**There were porta potties at the starting line, but then not again until mile 4. We stopped to pee and since it was the first area along the race with bathrooms, the lines were HUGE. That added a good 10+ minutes to our time.

**The first 5 miles FLEW by! We saw our boys along the sidelines right around the 5th mile, so that made our day. They got some pics of us as we ran by.

**I saw a guy on my team at work in the crowd between mile 5 and 6.

**Mile 6 is where things started to get ugly. I had some power gel stuck in my throat that wanted to come up. I had to go behind a bush to make myself puke. We started to hit some hills that went on forever at this point.

**Between mile 9 and 10 we saw one of the Budweiser Clydesdales. It was so HUGE and pretty!**At mile 10 they were giving out free GU.

**The crowds of people cheering everyone on was so amazing! Everyone was just so positive and full of energy - truly amazing!

**Right after the 10th mile, we all decided it was time to pull out our MP3 players....but none of them would play since they were all wet from the rain. :(

**After the MP3 player incident, we started to split up. One of the girls ran ahead, leaving just 2 of us.

**At mile 11 I had to drop an emergency shadoobie. Damn power gel... LOL*

*At mile 12 I stopped and walked a bit with my girl friend as she was hurting really bad. That's when all the pain from my knees hit me - with full force! I gave her a pep talk and reminded her that we had only 1 mile to go and we needed to just power through.

**Just a few minutes later, we passed a guy on the side of the road with a boom box playing Eye of the Tiger - LOL again!

**At about 12 1/2 miles, there were 3 people along the course handing out cups of BEER - sa-weet!!! I grabbed me a beer and cracked up at the fact that I was running down the street in a damn marathon with a cup of beer! Hahahaha!!!!

**I spotted Randy in the crowd right before I crossed the finish line.

**I finished in under 3 hours, which I realize is a ridiculously slow time, but I did what I went there to do - FINISH! Official race time: 2:48:42.

**Did I mention that this was my first RACE ever?? Not just my first half marathon...but my first RACE! *unless you count "field day" in grade school* ;)

**I have a pretty medal that makes me feel like a bad ass.

So, there ya have it! In 5 weeks, I went from running 3 miles to running a half marathon. And I'm already thinking of what I want to run next.....BUT, I need to get back to my tri training first! I have just a little over 2 months until my tri and I've hardly swam at all lately.

Anyway, that's it for my first official race report. Pics to come soon!!! :)

I was glad to get back home Sunday night and see my girls! That was the longest I've EVER been away from Harper! I'm pretty sore today. I took yesterday off to go to PT, get a deep tissue massage, and see my chiropractor. I'm still having some trouble walking, but I'm still high on life from completing the half marathon. So it's all good. I'll post pics when I get the chance.

Weekend Recap

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Friday was pretty uneventful. Randy and I went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant that didn't serve margaritas - what kind of crap is that?? Don't think I'll be eating there again. We had a pitcher of beer insead though. We caught up on a few shows Friday night and I was in bed by 10:00. I know, crazy night right.

Saturday Rylie had gymnastics at 9am. She had stayed the night with Grandma Dorothy Friday night, so Randy had to go get her from grandma's and take her to the gym. We picked her up at 10:30 and headed to an Easter Egg Hunt at our friend's house. It was a lot of fun. They had all kinds of goodies for the kids and all kinds of snacks and lunch too.

Saturday was such a beautiful day out and I decided late in the afternoon to take a bike ride. Rylie asked if she could go too. Mind you, Rylie is 6 years old and just got her training wheels off about a month ago. I thought about it for a minute and figured it wouldn't be a rigorous ride for me, given the condition of my poor, aching muscles...so I figured why not? I loaded our bikes onto the bike rack and we headed for the downtown airport.

I have to tell you, I was soooo impressed with Ry! It was her first time to ride in an actual street with other vehicles (there's not that much traffic out there, and for the little traffic we did deal with, I explained how she needed to stay all the way over and let me get in front of her rather than beside her when cars were coming). She never crashed and she kept up and a pretty decent pace, considering she's only six and on a child's bike. Can you believe she rode 13 miles with me??!! And in fact, I finally had to call it a day when it was getting close to dinner time. SHE wanted to keep going! She's gonna grow up to be just like her mama, I tell you!

Here are some pics from the airport:

Here's a pic of the adorable Rylie - don't ya love the tassles on her bike? :) And a pic she took of me. Oh yeah, we have matching sunglasses. :)




Here's a pic of Rylie with the Broadway Bridge in the background and then a pic of downtown from the airport.



And here's a pic of the runway and a pic of some small planes. (The downtown airport is not a commercial airport, it's for small, private planes only. It's pretty teeny.)

Sunday, of course, was Easter. The girls got Easter baskets:

and Rylie got to find all of the eggs. Randy and I also got the girls matching outfits - this is difficult considering they are 6 years apart! But I found something *similar* so I bought them:

Randy made a yummy breakfast of bacon, eggs, and hashbrowns and we all just hung around the house for another traditional lazy Sunday. :) Rylie and I watched Miley Cyrus's E! True Hollywood Story and Randy and I watched Seven Pounds. Last night we grilled steaks for dinner. Nothing too exciting.

Now it's Monday. I hope everyone has a great week! :)

Peep Show!!

This pic gave me a good LOL!!!

How is everyone out there in blogland? I've pretty much neglected this blog this week. But in all honestly, not much exciting has really happened in my life, other than training which I blog about at JourneyToABetterMe. But if you wanna skip reading through all of that, I can basically sum it up for you by letting you know that I ran 11.4 miles on Wednesday and have pretty much been barely able to walk ever since. The St Louis Half Marathon is 9 days away!! So...my last long run before the race is officially over. Now I'm just babying my muscles and trying to prepare them for the big day.

Things on the home front are pretty good other than the girls are both kind of sick. Randy is taking Harper to the doctor today cuz she's been sounding really hoarse lately. It's kind of hard to tell since she's not really talking yet....but you can hear it when she cries and when she babbles. She just doesn't sound like herself at all. I'm sure it's nothing major...but better safe than sorry. I think Rylie just has a cold or allergies. Oh by the way, she won first place in the Easter coloring contest at Randy's work. She won a $15 gift card to Target, which she is super excited about using this weekend. :)

Randy and I are supposed to go to dinner tonight, which I am very much looking forward to. Tomorrow we're taking the girls to an Easter Egg Hunt at a family friend's house. They live out in the country and go all out with this HUGE event. Should be fun!

I hope everyone has a great weekend and wonderful Easter!! :)

Weekend Recap:

First off, whoever invented 2 day weekends was crazy. 2 days is just not enough time off.... I hope everyone in blog land had a super weekend. Mine was pretty great. Nothing too exciting happened...but it was still enjoyable.

Friday night was my 10 mile run. For more details, check out JourneyToABetterMe. After the run, I pretty much didn't feel like doing anything else. I took a hot shower and then laid around on the couch, massaging icy hot and aspercreme into my tired muscles. I finally headed up to bed around 8:30 - I know, right - crazy night! I tossed and turned most of the night. I never do sleep that well after a long run. I was pretty sore the rest of the weekend...and even today.

Saturday we took the girls to an Easter Egg Hunt at Randy's work. Rylie got a lot of eggs and goodies and they both got their picture taken with the Easter Bunny.

That evening I ran some errands. I got the girls their Easter stuff at Target (mostly candy and spring clothes) and then I hit up Bath & Body Works and GNC at the mall. It's gold card week at GNC, so I went and loaded up on powerbars and GU.

Saturday night Randy and I watched Milk. What a powerful movie. I also created a new, tasty adult beverage: white grape smirnoff, sprite zero, and grape powerade. LOL, I know....powerade in a mixed drink doesn't sound that great. But it was actually pretty good.

Yesterday Randy was gone all day at the Wizards game, so it was just me and the girls. It was a pretty lazy day of just hanging out at home and catching up on the dvr.

Looks like I won't be going home for Easter this weekend. I have an 11 mile run on Friday and a 20 mile bike ride on Saturday that I can't miss. Plus, we're taking the girls to another Easter Egg Hunt at my friend's house on Saturday. It's going to be another busy week....but only 13 days left until the St Louis Half Marathon. I just need to get through the next 13 days!

I hope everyone has a great week!

Another Busy Week

I can't believe it's already Thursday! This week is just flying by!

Monday night we all went to the chiropractor again. Rylie is pretty much back to normal from the wreck. Randy and I are still being treated, but we're only going twice a week now. I also ran Monday night - 4 miles.

Tuesday was another chiro visit. Then Rylie had dance and I hit the pool after I dropped her off.

Last night I ran again and then we all headed to Kemper for the annual Disney on Ice show. This year just wasn't nearly as cool as last year. For one, last year's show was at the Sprint Center. This year they moved it back to Kemper. I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that Britney Spears is in town tonight at the Sprint Center and Disney on Ice is here all weekend too. I dunno...just not as spectacular as last year. Last year's show had the most special effects of any of the shows we've seen (4 total). The skating last year was amazing with lots of stunts. I'm not saying this year was bad. It just wasn't amazing. But Rylie had fun and that's what's important. Oh, and did I mention that her snowcone cost $12?!?! Yeah....

Tonight my friend Kristen and I are going to a stride workshop in Olathe. I'm really excited to get some tips on how to improve my running - from posture to stride, arm placement, etc. I think it will be really beneficial. We have our first 10 mile run tomorrow, so it will be great to get those tips tonight and actually implement them tomorrow.

Tomorrow I'm going to lunch with my old boss. I totally adore her and can't wait to get out of the office and actually be able to talk without other people around. I'm hoping to eventually transfer to her department and it will be great to sit down and pick her brain. Plus, she's just so much fun!

I hope everyone else is having a great week. It's almost Friday!! :)