Weekend Palooza

Happy new week everyone! I hope everyone is doing well after the weekend...

WOW! What a weekend I had!

I volunteered to run gear check at the Pittsburgh Marathon since I am not allowed to run anymore.  It was an amazing experience and it felt so good to get to give back to the Marathon that I have loved for so may years!

Here is my vest and radio!!! HA!

Friday night I was invited (I won the invite at a work raffle) to a VIP dinner for the Pittsburgh Marathon.

It was held at the Westin William Penn hotel and it was phenomenal.  They had amazing food stations everywhere...here is what I selected to eat...

Tri-colored pasta with veggies...




and, of course (it was in Pittsburgh), cheese pierogies with bacon and mushrooms!!! YUM!




This amazing woman, Patrice Matamoros, re-invested and ran this marathon for the past 11 years!! She is incredible. She has decided to move on to other thinks so this will be her last marathon to coordinate. There was a surprise celebration for her during the dinner as well!! You can read all about her HERE! The mayor gave her her own DAY!!! So cool!


This is a frame with all the Marathon finisher medals since she took over in 2008!!!



And this is a quilt that they made her with a shirt from every year!! So awesome! Her team loves her sooo much! What a leader!



Yummy Bethel Bakery cookies were given out on our way out! YUM!



I had agreed to run gear check months ago before finding out that it was  my nephews First Communion that weekend. I rarely miss nieces and nephews events and I felt horrible but I had already committed so I could not bail. The rest of the family represented well I heard. Here is the sweet little man!!!




The sweet little man and his sweet family - this is my little brother's family...what a cutie in his suit!



Here are all the cousins together!!!! Such cuties~



This is my parents with the little cutie!!



Also, Saturday was this little (big now-HA!) guys birthday! He turned 20?!?!?!? What!?!?! Crazy how fast time goes! Happy birthday sweet nephew Matthew-I love you soooooo very much!



Here is my outfit for gear check - the quarter zip is so cute - I love it!


Vest and radio again...



Here is one of the many FedEx volunteers (15 to be exact) that dedicated their time all day and one of my three volunteers! I work with her and she did an amazing job too!!!  We got rained on all day (from 3AM to 3PM) but no one complained AT ALL!



Terri and I - she is a great person and so fun to hang out with!


It was a whirlwind weekend full of so much fun! Thank you so much P3R for allowing me to volunteer and give back! It was so rewarding! They are always looking for help and I am sure they are already planning for next years marathon - so, if you live near Pittsburgh and you want to help contact them HERE.

I enjoyed a few hours sleep and then ran off to the airport for a work trip.

I hope everyone has a phenomenal week - HUGS to every one of you!

Ever run a marathon? Ever run/walk a race? Do you do volunteer work? What did you do this weekend?

5 on Friday

YEA!! Time for Five On Friday with the four lovely co-hostesses Liz, Christina, Darci, and Natasha.

:-)

 My favorite day of the week both due to Five on Friday and the fact that I do not have to work for two days!!!

HEE :-)

Here we go!!!!!!!

ONE: This is my quote from the "Why Do You Run" board at the Marathon Expo in Pittsburgh. Thinking on the fly...HA HA!

TWO:  This is my bib and medal and also car sticker! You know I stuck that on the car within 1 hour of crossing that finish line for the Marathon last weekend!!!

THREE: I was amazing last week at work! I usually do not ever see the lobby as I use the side steps to get to my floor of the office. This week I used the elevator (sore legs from the race) and realized that we have a Foosball Table in our Lobby!!! I foresee a lot of lunches down there!!!!!

FOUR:  Speaking of work...I have these little cuties in my bluebird box at work!!! Five babies about 3-4 days old!!! Sooo adorable!!!

FIVE:  Below is a shot of my patio from the parking lot! I love Spring/Summer/Fall and flowers and more flowers and more flowers!!! Can you tell??!

Thanks for letting me join in! I have yinz have an amazing weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I AM A MARATHONER

Happy Wednesday yinz!! This is going to be a SERIOUS random post!

Below is my "cleaned-up" Marathoner picture!!  I got my co-worker to take my photo wearing my 2014 Pittsburgh Marathon Finishers medal!!! Whot!  I think I am going to milk the finishers thing for a long time!!! :-)

And this is a close-up of the bling!!!! Soooooooooo  worth it!! Yea!!!

 This is the field at work where my bluebird boxes are located! We participate in Wildlife Sustainability where I work and I have the pleasure of monitoring four bluebird nesting boxes!

I am happy to report - I had five eggs last week...this week I have five baby chicks!!!! YEA!!!!

The little bit of grossness pictured below was in my expensive salad from Panera yesterday!!! YUCK!! I NORMALLY love the fuji apple salad and got one for lunch. Apparently my Panera was out of RIPE tomatoes so they had these all throughout my salad - I think I picked out at least ten! They were hard and sour!! YUCK!!! Just leave them out next time for goodness sake Panera!!! Total grossness!!

Tonight I am going out to dinner downtown with two friends from work. We made reservations a month ago at Meat and Potatoes. It is supposed to be amazing! I am definitely getting the fried pickles and then not sure what else yet. The menu looks amazing! I promise to have photos!!!

Also, I am finally able to walk normal (still a little soreness but not much) after completing the marathon on Sunday so I am planning to go to HipHip tomorrow night (Thursday) for the first time in months literally!! I am sooooo excited!!! I will have pics from that too!

Hope yinz all have a great HUMP day!!!!

Pittsburgh Marathon Update

This is going to be a very emotional post for me. I ran the half marathon last year just to try it and to see if I could finish.
I did no training other then the cardio I did normally - which consisted of a zumba or hiphop class a few times a week and of course a run here and there but no FORMAL training schedule. I finished the half and aside from feeling really tired it was not TOO horribly painful. Here is my proof from the finish.

This year I was getting ready to register for the half again and started questioning myself. I am 45 years old and have the onset of psoriasis. Chances are pretty good that I am slowly going to have the painful part of this disease which is arthritis (pain in the joints). When this occurs, I will no longer be able to run.  This helped me change my decision and I decided that now is the time and I should try the full marathon before I am no longer able.

I downloaded the below training schedule from the internet and set off on my training (The check marks indicate completed runs to date). For the first two months I would run four days a week (according to the schedule) and also still do my zumba, hiphop and bodypump classes about 6 a week total.

After those first two months, I got a really sore knee and had trouble bending it. I decided that it is probably due to over use (I was working out over four hours a day on some days) so I stopped everything except the running and of course stretching.

I am sooo looking forward to getting back to my favorite place on this planet, StudioFit, after the marathon is over on Sunday! I MISS MY CLASSES SOOO MUCH!!

So, all of this to say...I am not one of those people that has been bit by the marathon bug. I am proud of all that I have done....I will do my best to cross the finish line on Sunday...I will never DO this again. It will be checked off my bucket list as completed and that will be that. I LOVE running, don't get me wrong, but after Sunday I will stick to 5Ks and 10Ks with an occasional half - HEE!
I have missed a lot of family functions for this training, including my niece and nephews birthday parties. I can never get that back and those are the things that I cherish today.

I am in this weird place because I just found out that pretty much my entire family is coming in from out of town for this marathon! This is them below!!!

WOWSA!!!
I am sooooooooooooo blessed! I never expected that!
My Mom and Dad, sister and brother-in-law and their three kids and brother and sister-in-law and their two kids! AMAZING!!! I do not know what to say! I am humbled by the support that my family gives me constantly!! They have been through soooo much because of me and now, today, still support me SOOOOOOO much!!!
I am beyond blessed!! I also have many relatives and friends that are cheering me on from afar! Again, WOWSA!

As for Sunday, I keep having dreams that I do not finish!!! Scary, however, I know I will never do this again and this Sunday I will cross that finish if it KILLS me!! I have trained....I am strong...I am capable....I am worthy....and most of all I am blessed!!!!! I have the best family on the PLANET!!!!!

God, give me strength!!!

Fingers crossed that I cross on Sunday!

Marathon Update and Countdown - 10 days away

Just wanted to check in and keep yinz all updated with my Pittsburgh Marathon status.

The marathon is exactly 10 days away!!

Wow! AMAZING!! After these past few months of training it almost seems like it is coming wayyyyyyy too fast. I am getting nervous!! This is my first marathon. I ran the half last year and decided that I need to do the full this year.

I M SOOO SCARED!  My family is going to come out for support and I am SOOOO worried that I will not keep up with the time constraints and will have to be scooped up on that bus. How embarrasing to have to ride the bus to the finish!!!

Actually, I am more worried that after these MONTHS of training - I will not finish?!?! No medal?!?!?!

Oh well, relax is all I can keep telling myself...it will be what it will be!!!

Here is the completed training so far....

So far since my training has started 15 weeks ago, I have logged a total of 375 miles of running (really jogging and walking - hee hee).

WOW!!! Please, Lord, let me finish!!! I NEED that Runner of Steel medal!!!!!

Marathon Anytime Soon?

Wowsa - I have not posted in a while.

Sorry about that - things have gotten busy and crazy!

I am sponsoring a new girl and as anyone that is a FOB knows, that takes A LOT of time! She is amazing and I am sooo blessed to have her in my life right now though!

Also, work has been awesome! BUT along with the awesome, downright busy and stressful!! Be careful what you wish for; you just might have all your dreams come true at once! HA HA! Thats all I can say on that subject!

I wanted to check in as marathon training is going really well. I am scheduled to run at the beginning of May and we are just a few short weeks out.

So far I have been able to train on my running days and still keep doing my "fun" exercises like Zumba and strength training like BodyPump.

• Monday: Tanning and training run (now up to five miles) right after work and then home for and off for two classes at StudioFit (Zumba and BodyPump)

• Tuesday: Day of rest in training and all together!

• Wednesday:   Tanning and training run (now up to 8 miles this week) right after work and then home for dinner and off for two classes at StudioFit (HipHop and BodyPump)

• Thursday: Tanning and training run (now up to five miles) right after work and then home for dinner and off for two classes at StudioFit (HipHop and Zumba)

• Friday:  Day of rest in training and all together!

• Saturday:  Long run day (up to 16 miles this week!) Soak in the tub!!!!

• Sunday:  Day of rest in training but off to StudioFit for BodyPump and Zumba.

Here is my daily averages from recently (past two weeks)...my sleep still sucks!

 

And here is the training schedule.  I am in week 10 on my DAY OF REST! YEA

Just wanted to check in and say I am definitely keeping up with everyone elses blog - please forgive my bloggy laziness. It is everything in me to type this post - hee!

XO - Hope yinz have a great week!

Running Products and More Recap from Half Marathon

More about the marathon...ha ha!!

Can you tell I am having a proud few days - LOL!

I honestly was not sure I would finish let alone do as well as I did (for my level that is).

I felt great the whole race...and no blisters thanks to prep!!!

I will give you my low down on my new running products...they ALL worked!!!

I LOVED my fanny pack!!! It did not get in my way at all and I was able to put my car key and inhaler and sport beans in it and also have the water I needed to get the sports beans down.

The sport beans were great too!!!! I ate six about 1/2 hour before the race with some Nunn water (also great)!!!  Then ate three ever four miles after that and I never felt tired!!! AMAZING!!! My legs got tight at the end but I was not tired at all!!!

At the end of the race my feet felt amazing!!! Not a single blister on them which I contribute to the use of bodyglide...that stuff works! I smeared it all over my feet and not one single blister!!! I swear I usually get blisters when I only run two miles so this stuff works!!!!  The only issue I had with my feet was the following...take this as a warning...

I went the day before the marathon to get my pedicure.  I heard you should make sure your toenails are short.  I went to Annies where I always go and asked to have them shorter than usual that I was running the next day.  They gave me a new girl and she cut my big toe sooooo short it bled!!!!!!!!!!! I was really upset but did not say anything.  I will never go back!!!!! The only thing that hurt the ENTIRE race was my big toe!!!! Dont ever do this...just cut your own this close to a race LOL!!!! LESSON LEARNED THE HARD WAY!!!!

Anyway.... here is more race pics, etc.

My lovely photo after I crossed the finish with my medal and Gatorade!

This is my official time/pace/etc.  It is good for me...LOL~!

This is the photo I ordered to put in my shadow box with my bib and medal. The official "crossing the finish line" moment!!!

http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/video/8844792-2013-marathon-finish-line-31000-32000/

I run across the finish at 3:11:06 on the right side of the screen under the Dicks sign. I am wearing black capris, grey t shirt and fanny pack.

Top Two Tuesday

The Undomestic Momma is hosting Top Two Tuesday!!!


It is top two things you want to do before you die!!!


I am soooooooo excited to see what others pick for this - great topic!!!!

Here we go....My top two are......



1. Skydiving - anywhere - anytime!!!




2. Run and Finish the Pittsburgh Marathon