November Adventures

November has been a busy month.  Lots of new adventures and many moments of laughter.  Many of the adventures and laughter revolved around events.  I have to say I love that!

It was a lovely rainy day in the Pacific Northwest.  I don't know if we could handle a dry Silver Falls race weekend.  It wouldn't seem right somehow.  This year we stayed in cabins at the Silver Falls park and went up on Friday evening to pick up our packets and settle in.  The cabin was cozy, had a heater and its own bathroom!  The thing I like least about camping is having to get up and use the restroom in a distant location.  Having one in the cabin was awesome.  The warm shower was especially nice later in the weekend.

As usual, lots of people we know were doing various races over the course of the two day event.  It's very fun to see people before the races start and even meet new people!

This year my friend Beth was doing the 7 miler for the first time.  She has gotten into trail running this year and LOVES it!!  So fun to see her enjoying it so much.  We have talked in the past about how important it is for everyone to find their thing.  She found hers on the trails.  She hates running on the road but loves every moment in the forest.  So cool!!

We found a spot in the middle of the pack at the start and got ready to have some rainy day, muddle puddle splashing fun.  We took off together and ran for about a mile together.  We lost each other after that.  I had some tightness once I got to the stairs which slowed me down so the last couple of miles I had to really push.  I finished about two minutes faster than last year.  I was hoping for a bigger margin but was actually pretty happy considering how tight I got.  Beth had an amazing race!  Without me realizing it, she found me at the finish line.

Beth has on the white hat!  Nice work lady! 

BIG SMILE.  That pretty much says it all.  

I'm super proud of Beth!  And so glad she found her thing that she enjoys and keeps her motivated to keep moving.

The last month or so I have really dealing with feeling fat and frumpy.  I've done all this work and it's been so slow and sometimes I forget how far I've come.  I forget that while it is slow it's been movement in the right direction.

Joe always takes pictures of me at the finish line when he's at my races.  After we got home I pulled up my finish line pictures from the last four years at Silver Falls.

The first picture is when I did the half marathon in 2013.  Next is the first year they had the 7 miler and I walked most of it that year, 2014.  Next is last years picture where I had been really working at my trail running and keeping up with my workouts even with the start of the school year, 2015.  Last picture is this year.  Almost a year of working with a coach and adding swimming, biking and strength training to the normal routine.  😊

Joe did the half marathon on Sunday.  It was nice to be in the cabin and not have to get up super early two days in a row to drive to Silver Falls.  The weather was gorgeous for him.  The trails, however, were a lot muddier and a lot wetter from the full day of rain and runners the day before.

He rocked his race and was really happy with how he did.

Sun is shining and he's ready to run!

We got home from Silver Falls on Sunday evening.  I worked Monday and then Tuesday morning we left bright an early for a trip to Disneyland to celebrate our youngest daughter's 16th birthday.  

We had been planning a trip sometime during this school year.  I was looking at when to go and realized that if we went the week of Meighan's birthday we could also participate in the Captain America 5k.  Meighan thought that was a fantastic idea.  lol  

What she didn't know is that we also invited her three best friends and one of the girls parents to come along and join in the fun.  They surprised her at the airport.  Those girls kept it a secret for six months!!  So impressive! All eight of us participated in the run.  

We started at 5:30 a.m. so we were up and heading to the start early!  Oh dark thirty!  Joe took off for his corral and then Mark and I got into ours while the girls and Jodie went to theirs.  

Ha!  Mark looks like the light is part of his head.  lol 

Party at the start line!

The Fearsome Foursome heading to the race.

We got to run through California Adventure and then through Disneyland.  They had all the different Avenger super heroes along the route where people could stop and get their picture taken.  I saw Hawkeye, Thor, Spiderman, Captain America (of course!), Black Widow and a few others.  So much fun!  

We all found each other at the finish area.  A good time was had by all.  Awesome medals and more fun memories added to the collection!  

Got me some Run Disney bling!

My favorite running guy!

Love these two!!  

The whole gang!  What a great time!

I didn't do as well as I wanted to do.  I had been fighting a cold and cough ever since the weekend of the Silver Falls trail run and it hadn't let up at all while we were at Disneyland.  All the walking and standing on concrete had made my legs sore and tired.  But I just decided to do my best and be fine with however it turned out.  It actually wasn't a terrible time for me in general.  I finished in 38:08 with an average pace of 12:08.  Not too shabby considering I was sick and everything was complaining.  Mostly I just had a lot of fun and enjoyed being able to run in the parks.  

Once we got home it was back to work and working out. A little hard to get in the groove again after any trip.  Trying to get back in the groove when you are sick is even harder.  This cough will just not let go.  

Turkey Trot 2016

Joe had to work on Thanksgiving this year so he wouldn't be able to run with me Thanksgiving morning.  Taylor had to work as well and neither of the girls wanted to run.  😢  So I decided to go to Corvallis and run with my coach and his son.  😊  

The weather was supposed to be miserable.  Pouring down rain and blowing hard.  It wasn't too bad before the race.  I got to see lots of friends and meet some new ones.  That is one of the fun things I love about events.  Hanging with people I love and expanding my circle of awesome people all while getting ready to go be a little healthier.  

My coach/friend Jon and his son (my running buddy during track workouts) Logan.  

I got pretty soaked during the run so it was nice to put on some dry clothes before heading home. 

Lucky number!

I'm still not feeling 100%.  Seriously this cough will not go away.  Every day it's a teeny bit better but it's taking forever.  Before you start thinking that I should have gone to the doctor, I did last week.  No bronchitis or pneumonia, just irritated lungs.  

This makes breathing while running a bit challenging, especially if I'm trying to go fast.  But just like the Captain America race I decided I would just do the best I could and enjoy the fact that I get to be out there doing crazy stuff like run in the rain on Thanksgiving morning.  

I ended up with an official time of 35:10 which is an 11:20 average pace per mile (my Garmin had me at 34:49 lol)  I also was 9th in my age group out of 37 which was kind of cool.  

Not too shabby considering how wheezy I still am.  I'll take it!  

Next week my son and I will be doing the Shellburg Falls trail run.  I did that one for the first time last year and it was a lot of fun and a beautiful trail.  I'm looking forward to doing it again.  

Joe and I have decided to not do any big events (aka Ironman, out of state events, big registration fees, etc.)  So we are planning on doing the same triathlons as last year (that I did, Joe will do them too) and CLR (of course!) Joe has to pick his vacation days for next year and I had to give him all the dates of the races.  It still makes me smile when we plan trips and vacations around runs and events.  One of my co-workers commented on our Captain America 5k pictures.  She said, "Leave it to you to find a way to get to do a race while you are on a vacation."  I love it!!  If that's our normal it's a pretty fantastic way to be in my opinion.  

Three race reports in one blog!  It's been a busy month!! 😊👍