I just ate a fun size Snickers while chatting on the phone with Tiffany… 

I’m at a loss with what to do next about my body image.

I’m training for the marathon in January.  Climbing every week because I *love* it.

I am so sore right now from my 11 mile run yesterday.  Ouch. 

Last night I was so stressed from the boys, when I went out, I went *all* out.  We went to Shuga’s after climbing, and I had curry chicken salad, a BOWL of the thai coconut shrimp soup, a mint mango margarita, almond butter cake AND almond kisses hot drink.  It was all so unbelievably delicious and awesome.  I was a *teensy* tipsy when I got home, and Doug benefited from that    Then I passed out instead of working like I intended to.    I feel pretty good today 

I ran 11 miles this morning.  And I’m going climbing tonight.

So no TTapp today.

Maybe tomorrow…

Hmmm… should I admit that I’m at this very moment eating potato chips with ranch sour cream dip with a diet Coke? 

You know, I should do  a 7 day Ttapp bootcamp with just BWO+.  Yes, that’s something I should do, too.  15 minutes, I can do that.   

I’m so irritated. 

I was at our McDonalds (on 30th) with Emmett, Zander and Zevan after swim class.  It’s lunch hour, they only have one register open, and the high school boys are filing in. 

Zander is eating his Taco Bell at the table with Emmett and Zevan.  Zevan steals Zander’s straw, I have to get out of line to go get him because he’s pitching a fit.

I pick him up and get in the back of the line.  I’m holding him, he’s squirming, I’m making him use words to tell me what he wants.  He *FINALLY* says he wants me to put him down.  He goes over to the new toy display and starts punching it.   

The high school boys find it amusing, as does the guy in front of me in line.  I roll my eyes, and I feel some small amount of commiseration.  I know he’s hungry.  I just want to get some food in him.

Zevan starts crying and carrying on – big tantrum.  I’m next to order.    He’s all, “Moooooom-meeeee…  Moooooom-meeeee… Moooooom-meeeee”

It’s *finally* my turn to order.

I’m in the middle of ordering when this b*tch comes up to me all rudely, “You need to control your kid.  He’s running all over the place.  It’s rude.”

 

Oh NO you didn’t.

It was all I could do to NOT say what I was thinking, “Listen you f*t f*ck, you are either not a mom or not a nice one, so back off “

I just looked at her, and said, “Whatever.” and continued ordering.  Inside I was 

I finished ordering, and looked for Zevan.  He was sitting at the table with Emmett and Zander. Tantrum apparently over.

He starts whining when I bring the drinks over, so I tell him, “If you can’t calm down and be nice, I’m going to let that mean lady take you to her house.”   

I just had to vent.  I’m over it now.

I got a PM from Cindi saying she couldn’t make it because DH was ill

May called me and said she would be there.  She asked about Candy, and I told May that Candy was “on the fence” as of last night. 

“Should I call her?  I’ll just pick her up.”  says May

“Go for it!” I say.

I was running SO late today.  I grabbed a couple of eggrolls, and forgot to drink water before I left.  I tried unsuccessfully to look up last year’s time before I left.  I had a granola bar on the way. I made it to the race just 4 minutes before the start.    May had my number picked up and ready with pins, and Mike took my extra gear (car keys, fleece headband and long sleeve running top).  Turned out to be GREAT weather for a run today.

I caught up with May and Candy (wow, May actually got Candy out there!)  In my head, I had this thought of running with Candy through the race.

May tells me, “I’m tired, I’m just going to run with you.”

“But I was going to run with Candy.”

“We’ll just run together.”

Yeah right.

So we all started out together, at the back of the pack, at an easy pace.  Candy was just behind us for a good part of the way.  She caught up with us at the first water station (1.5 miles).  There was a long downhill after that, and I *love* to run the downhills, especially early on.   May encouraged me to “pass just 5 people” and that was easy to do at that point in the race.

I kept my running posture, even with some slight uphills, and tried to keep my pace so that the folks that I passed wouldn’t catch up to me. 

The next downhill, she encouraged me to pass again.  I did.  We passed 10 people this time.  It was a long downhill.  I thought, “Well, that’s good enough – 15 people – I can rest a bit.”

No rest for the weary.  She had me keep a decent pace, never letting the people behind us catch up.  I struggled through a lot of the uphills, but enjoyed the downhills.  I just stumbled a few times on the terrain.

Last year the course was SUPER muddy, and this time it was nice and dry.  Although very sandy.

We passed another 6 people.

After the mid point, I started feeling tired.  May pushed me to keep going.  I was hurting.    She kept encouraging me, “C’mon, you can do it!”  “Keep the pace”  Which was fine for a while.  Right before we got to the 2nd water station, I was really tired.  “I need water,” I gasped.  I was slowing to a walk, and she kept giving me a hard time.

We passed another 5 people.

Then I started getting grumpy with her.  I felt like Zander must feel.  “I don’t want to maintain a run,” I said as I slowed to a walk.  “C’mon, ” she said/nagged 

“No.” 

Up and up and up we went.  The last hill just sucked.  I power walked as much as I could.

  “You’ll feel better with a slow run.”

“No I won’t” 

I trudged up and up.  We were close to the top.  She wanted me to pick it up.  I said, “I’m not running until we are at the very top.” 

FINALLY, we were headed on the final downhill.  I was wrecked.  I was pissed at my coach.  We were *right* behind 2 other runners, and nearly missed the fact that there were haybales to hurdle.

“F*CK” I exclaimed, unceremoniously, jumping over the first 5 (6?) and then just stepping on the last one.

Final yards, back on the track, with this guy with a super boring voice, telling us there was one more hurdle ahead – not a haybale, but cones. 

“Whatever,” I thought to myself, then declaring my intent to May that I would kill her when we were done.

We jumped over the cones, and crossed the finish line at 1:11:41.

It was an angry finish for me.  I was totally wrecked.  I made a beeline for the water table.

Then I dropped to the ground, on my back, exhausted.  Still declaring my murderous intent.

“You can’t kill me until Candy finishes, ” she stalled.

After a few minutes, I got up and we walked over to the hay bale hurdles to wait for Candy.   I was thinking – Candy may want to kill *us*, particularly May, for making her come out today when she had already decided not to.

I saw Candy on the horizon and started cheering loudly, “Candy!  Candy!  Candy!”  She danced over the hurdles, looking VERY strong.

May and I ran alongside her to the finish line.  She finished so strongly – such a contrast to my achingly painful finish.

By this time, I was thanking May for pushing me, but telling her that she wasn’t allowed to run with me on race day anymore

One more to go!

By the by, we passed about 35 people by the end of the race.  And I finished 54 seconds faster than last year (1:12:35).

Wow.  I must have been really fast last year. 

---

Candy’s story:

Yes, I was on the fence about this race. I’ve never ran 6 miles before and I only ran once in the last 6 days, so haven’t trained at all. I was on the fence this morning until Michael’s buddy asked what I was going to do for the day and when I told him I might run a race that I didn’t really want to run, he said, “life’s too short to do things you don’t want to do”. I agreed and was resigned to taking the day off and relaxing. So, I ate three pieces of bacon and had a 2nd cup of coffee (typically, I like to keep nothing to something minimal before a run).

The phone rings and I get the dreaded call from May. She says in a sweet tone, “So, I’m coming to pick you up at 10:45″. I tell her that I don’t think I’m running the race today.

She says, “I’ll run with youuuuuu….”

I say, “May, I just ate bacon and a 2nd cup of coffee!”

She says, “You’ll be fine. The race is an hour away.”

I tell her I’ll get back to her. She wants to be at my house in like 20 minutes! I’m ticked! The nice day I thought I was going to have has now been interrupted by a caring friend trying to get me out of the house for a 6 freakin’ mile run! I decide that I don’t want to be a loser and lame and a quitter, so I angrily concede to go. And, I’m not joking about being mad about going. I know that after the run I will feel great, but at that momment, I’m very very irritated. Just ask my husband.  

So, I call May, tell her I’m in, but she DOESN’T need to run with me. I know how May is. She’s a great coach, but if you’re not in the mood to be coached, not so good. Gotta love May!  

So, I muster up the energy to get my stupid clothes on and try to be in a better mood. May arrives and we’re off to the race.

May tried to run with me, but when I started to walk and she said, “Come on!” and I gave her “The Look”, she ran ahead and caught up with Maida.   <Insert Maida’s experience here>

It wasn’t too bad of a race, but I got cocky again. There’s this 77 year old man, Ed, who keeps beating me and it’s ticking me off! He’s beaten me the last 2 races. This time, I passed him 1/2 mile into the race and kept ahead of him until midway. I then made the error of celebrating my accomplishment of beating him. As carma would have it, he passed me shortly after midway and of course he finished before me. That’s just not right. 

Thanks Maida and May for getting me out there! Just one more race, 7 freakin’ miles! I’ve been promised a massage if I run that race. We’ll see how I feel after I get back from 5 days in NYC.

---

May is totally sweet while she’s coaching you, too.  The whole time I was cursing her and announcing my murderous intent, she just smiled at me, knowingly.

(I did thank her, BTW)

111     18/25     Maida C. Scott           38   Colo Spgs          CO   1:11:41   West Side Moms
112     22/26     May Chan                 40   Colo Springs       CO   1:11:42   West Side Moms
136     25/25     Candice Jackson          36   Colo Springs       CO   1:25:11   West Side Moms

Look, she even let me finish in front of her… 

Birthdays last for days in our house, if you want them to.

Today was Zander’s big family and friend birthday party. Thank goodness we had great weather because about 40 people, mostly kids, were in attendance.

He is so cute!