Trying to catch up...

Wow. July 1st. It's been a while since I've written here. I've been busy.

July my baby turned 8 years old and I totally should have done a post just with pictures through his life. He's just getting so big! He did a Jr Lifeguard program at the beach this month and LOVED it! He also went to Cub Scout day camp for a week, AND ended up sleeping over on the last night! He took the place of a friend who didn't want to camp overnight after the 1st night. He LOVED that too! He is in 3rd grade now and has started walking home with his buddy that lives around the corner. It's about 3/4 of a mile and over train tracks! But he does great. And last week he  earned his black belt candidate status at taekwondo! He will be testing for his black belt in March.

July races:  I was the runner of an Olympic distance relay. That was amazing! I've never been a part of something so huge. We had tons of women from my tri group doing this race. Some doing the entire thing alone! The only bummer was when all the bikers kept coming in, my biker was the last one into transition. I only beat 2 people. LOL! But that's ok, when I came around the finish line and heard all the women from my club screaming for me and then gave me high fives all down the finish shoot it was totally worth it!
I also did a sprint triathlon the very next weekend. It was my 3rd time doing this same tri, so my goal was to beat my horrible time last year. I got to borrow a road bike from a friend and had a fantastic time. The ocean wasn't too angry this year.
Swim (300 yds): 7:02,  T1: 3:39,  Bike (11 miles): 37:56, T2: 2:03,  Run (3 miles): 31:08,  TOTAL: 1:21:46.   Considering that my 2010 bike was 39:54 on a different course shows I was still pretty bad ass on the hybrid. I still want a road bike. Bad.

August: I did no races. I was gearing up and starting long runs for the Marine Corps Marathon...which I am not doing now. Hubby got some sciatic problems (literally a pain in the ass. lol) and on the last week of MCM transfers he tried to do over 10 miles and he was miserable for the whole 11 that he did. So we got most of our money back and transferred to a nice girl and her dad that lives 2 towns over in our running club (I love Facebook!)
We also had BOTH boys big birthday party in August. Since Ryan is July and Logan is Sept, we rented a huge awesome blow up water slide and had 40+ kids over to play. I strategically set up the 3/4 yr olds 12-3 and the 7/8 yr olds for 3-6. Worked out perfect and we had a fantastic day!

Now we are up to Sept, and oh boy do I have a list of races at least 26.2 miles long I have coming up. The weekend after Labor Day, I did our local 10K. My goal was to get under 1:10. It is a super hilly course and very difficult. This was my 3rd time doing it- the 1st time I did it I had no idea what to expect and I did 1:05! But, it was a perfectly cool morning. This year it was SO hot and humid, there were actually 2 people taken to the hospital before they could even finish the race! I was so happy to finish in 1:10:47.

What I have coming up?
No more races in Sept. I was going to do a 25K on the 30th, but our cub scout pack meeting and camp out is the night before....so I can't let my son down and not camp out. He's been looking forward to this camp out all summer, and I'm the den leader!

Oct: Seaside Half Marathon, as part of my training run...for what? You ask.... Well, since Hubby and I are no longer doing MCM, I have signed up for the Philly FULL on Nov 18th!! So excited since my tri club will also have tons of women doing the half and full. We'll be in the same hotel the night before, it'll be a blast!! The only down side? If there is a down side to going on vacation!! Hubby, me and a few of our friends have already signed up for/got flights/rooms in VEGAS for the Rock and Roll Half just 2 weeks after the full!! Crazy? Sure. But we aren't going for some record breaking times in Vegas. Hell, we'll probably be drunk by the time the race starts at 4pm. hahaa!
I have been doing some fantastic training runs. My furthest so far is 14 miles (longest run ever!) I am planning 15 this weekend, after doing 12 last Sunday. Besides a few blisters and chafe permanent marks I am very lucky to be injury free. *knock wood*

So that's the (very) short version of what we've been up to. Throw in the beach, the pool and just hanging out at the park, we've had a freaking awesome summer. Sad to see it go.

Oh! And Logan started pre-K this year. He goes to Ryan's big school and goes 5 mornings a week...and he will be turning 4 on THIS Sunday!! You know the same day as Bruce Springsteen turns 63, and speaking of Bruuuuuuce, I will be seeing him in concert at Giants Stadium in Saturday night!!! Whooot!!  SO much going on!

Hope some of you are still around to even read this. Hope I didn't bore you to tears. I've got to get some pictures up SOON!

Heat Wave in NJ

June has come and gone. I can't believe it's July 1st. Still have 2 glorious months of summer. We have been spending a lot of time on the beach and at the pool. It's been quite the heat wave here in NJ. Some seriously bad stuff has happened here along with it. A huge water main broke and almost a whole county has a boil water advisory. Thank goodness we weren't a part of that. Then South Jersey got a huge surprise pop up severe thunder/lightning storm a couple nights ago. Lots of damage. Plus the saddest story I read was a 2 and 7 year old cousins were killed when a tree landed on the tent they were camping out with their family. So heartbreaking. The storm wasn't even predicted.

I feel like I have been working out non-stop. For the month of June I filled over 80 miles of running, biking and swimming. The most milage this year! I ran 32.5 miles, biked 45.3 miles and swam 2.45 miles. I am falling in love with swimming laps! And today I kicked off July with an official start to my Marine Corps Marathon training with running 8 HOT miles this morning. It was 80degrees by 9am. Whew. But, I am so grateful for the fantastic group of women that I train with.  If it wasn't for a few of them I'd never get out and do it.

Looking forward to the rest of summer!! Off to the beach tomorrow! My big guy has Jr. Guard. I can't believe he is going to be 8 years old in less than 3 weeks!!

Kevin's 5K Race Recap

I have been swimming a lot lately. Hubby and I joined a local gym that has a pool and it has been amazing! I love heading over there and pushing out 500-750 yds in about 30-40 minutes and then sit in the hot tub. heehee. I ride my bike the 3.5 miles there today and I actually did 1000 yds! Longest swim ever! It took 38 minutes and it's so weird when I see that is just over only a half a mile when I add it to my dailymile!
And the kids LOVE the child care room. They beg to go there. They also have family swim times, so Hubby and I can bring them there and I can get my laps in. It's so nice to have our kids see us so active.

Which brings me to this past weekend's run. I'll start with Ryan. We got up early, so he was acting so tired before the race started. But those little legs blazed into 10th place with 8:35 ! There were over 90 people running/walking the 1 mile. I am SO proud of him!!











Logan and I started out good. His little 3 yr old legs made it about a quarter of a mile until he said he was tired. Instead of him hating it and never doing it again, I offered for him to go on my back. He loved it! I went most of the way like that and at the end he got down and ran through the finish. It took us about 16 min. I was afraid I wouldn't make it back for the 5K if I let him walk the whole thing.



Race photos courtesy of my mom-in-law with my good Canon camera.

Hubby and I lined up for the 5K. He stayed with me for the first half of the race. I felt really good. Then Kevin's brother ran by us and I told Hubby he could go and run with him. They finished together which was really nice.
Last year I ran 32:33 and it was brutal hot! This year I am thrilled with a 30:47 (Garmin time)

Mile 1- 9:55
Mile 2- 10:04
Mile 3- 10:06
Last .1- 7:11 pace! Wish I could keep that up more! HAHA!

At the finish they gave out small subs that were amazing! There was lots of water, bagels, bananas and oranges. It is such a well run race and it was an honor to run the Kevin A Brue Melanoma Awareness Father's Day 5K (and 1 miler!)  xoxox  Plus, Kevin's brother is in a band that was the entertainment for the race, and he wrote a song for Kevin after he passed away and he sang it before the awards were given out. Let's just say there wasn't a dry eye in the field.

Happy Father's Day

Here are just some great pictures of my kids with their grandpas and great grandpas. Can't post the daddy picture because, well, he is police and likes to remain anonymous in my bloggy world.

This is Great Grandpa Bob- aka POP (my mom's dad)

He turned 80 last Jan.

My step-dad, Grandpa Dave

My step-dad's dad, Great Grandpa Bill

This is the picture I took of the boys right before daddy got in there.

This is Great Grandpa George. He will be 86 yrs old this Aug! 

My daddy, Grandpa John

3 generations...well, if I was in the picture it would have been 4. 

Darn, I should have handed off the camera.

We didn't see my father-in-law today because he was on vacation. It was such a nice day...except for the part when hubby had to sleep all morning and we had about an hour with him before he had to go back to work night shift.

Please Protect Your Skin

Tomorrow is a memorial 5K that we ran last year.

Almost 2 years ago my Hubby's very dear friend passed away from Melanoma. He was 39 years old and left behind a wife and 3 children under the age of 10. It was a very sad time. The Rotary that his father is in has a Father's Day 5K every year...and last year it was named the Kevin A Brue Melanoma Awareness Father's Day 5K. And this year they are doing it again. This year Ryan AND Logan are running the 1 mile fun run. Logan saw a little friend of his from school running a 1 mile a few weeks ago that Ryan was running, and has it in his head that he can do it too. He is 3. Hubby will be flying along with Ryan in a 8 min/mile pace and I will be dragging along with our little guy. I hope we can finish in less than a half an hour so I can get to the 5K. LOL!!

It will be a tough day. I still can't believe it's been 2 years since he passed. I am proud to say the wife of another friend of Kevin's will be running her very first 5K tomorrow! I know he'd be proud.

Please please please wear sunblock. Everyday. Drench your kids in sunblock. Any color can damage your skin. Even a 'nice tan' can do damage. Another friend of mine has had cancer cut out of her body a few times this year. But she was lucky, everything that was cut out was early enough. It never made it to another organ. Kevin didn't have that time. By the time he got his spot on his back checked, it was too late. They tried everything.

So, my second please please please, is to get to a dermatologist and get ALL your freckles checked.  A mom of a girls in Ryan's class in Kindergarden had a spot on the back of her leg. She showed it to me right around the time that Kevin was starting hospice. She went and got it checked after I told her his story, and it turned out to be melanoma!! He literally saved her life! One spot removed might just save your life!!!!

I buy my boys UV Skinz every year. They are never outside without a shirt. We pride ourselves and being whiter than white. No child should ever know what a sunburn feels like. It breaks my heart when I hear friends tell me they went to the tanning salon. Because I can promise you, Kevin's family wishes he NEVER got sunburn, always wore a shirt and was still here with them today.

Kevin was an avid runner. The very last big race that he ran was the Marine Corps Marathon. He ran it 7 months before he died. His time was 3:35. He was FAST! He also thought, at that time, he had beat the melanoma. It was a short 4 months after the race that he learned it has spread to his brain and he didn't have much time left. That is why Hubby signed up for it last year and a huge reason he is running it this year. The MCM is Oct 28. That is my Hubby's 40th birthday.
....A birthday that Kevin never got to see.

Kids Triathlon

There was a kids triathlon last Sunday that Ryan has been looking forward to for months.

These last 2 weeks I've been bringing him to the pool to do laps (he got up to 125 yds - with stops at each wall) and we went on bike rides and even did a BRICK workout (bike then run). I told him my mommy hat was off and I put my coach hat on and you aren't allowed to whine to a coach. heehee. He did it all in fun!

The race was AMAZING! I was tearing up watching the bigs kids start. There were 2 age groups. Ryan was in the 8 and under group. They had to swim 75 yds, bike 2.5 miles and run a half a mile. I met up with a girl from my tri group to help her 2 kids (and mine) learn how to do transition from each event. They did a fantastic job!

Here are a few pics waiting for the swim. The let the 9 and over kids completely finish the bike before they let the 8 and under kids start swimming. It was about a 40 min wait. And they waited so patiently in the water most of the time.

And then off they went. It was so shallow they ALL walked the entire swim!! It was hilarious!

In transition. I knew he was having a great time when he stopped to take a sip of his water. He wasn't rushing and got his shoes, shirt and helmet on without a problem.

 Love this one of him getting out on the bike course.

 Coming in...

Speedy heading out for the run.

Flying in for the finish. His feet aren't even touching the ground...AGAIN!

He looked SO calm and like he really had a great time! That made me so happy!

All done! And he can't wait to do another one!!

They even had timing chips on their ankles like the grown ups! The results went online this morning and he did it in 18:50. There were 41 boys in his age group (8 and under) and he came in 21st. There were 20 boys ahead of him and 20 boys behind him. He really thought that this was the coolest thing ever. I am so proud of my 'middle of the pack' baby. xoxo

Spring Lake 5 Race Report, sort of

Not much to report for this 5 miler. It was on May 26, so I am a bit behind on posts. It was hot hot hot. My time sucked. Because it was hot hot hot. 59:10. 

Mile 1 - 11:35

Mile 2 - 11:14

Mile 3 - 11:53

Mile 4 - 12:11

Mile 5 - 12:06

I was pretty happy that I stayed pretty consistent on my miles. I was so thankful for the fire trucks squirting water. I didn't have my iPod so I could get nice and wet and not worry about it.

And the best was that we had a TON of my triathlon group running this too.

Last Sunday my AMAZING 7 year old son did his very first triathlon!! I will share all of that very soon! And this weekend coming up we have a 5K that is in memory of our dear friend Kevin who passed away 2 summers ago from melanoma. Ryan will be running the 1 miler with hubby and our little 3 year old wants to do the 1 mile too!! He saw a friend from his school do the 1 mile at the last race Ryan ran. So I will go with him and walk most of it. heehee. Then Hubby and I will do the 5K. Hoping for nice weather! And not the HEAT that was last year.

Logan is done with his first year of nursery school. My baby is heading to pre-k in Sept. Ryan still has 1 more full day and 3 half days and he is done and will be a 3rd grader! Summer is here at the Jersey Shore. BEACH TIME! Although, we've already been a few times on some nice days. Those are the best before school is out and all the visitors aren't here yet. I LOVE living here!!

Moms Rock!

This weekend was amazing!
I spend some of Friday night reading through some of my old posts from 2008. I can't believe I've actually had this blog that long! If you have a little free time, feel free to head back in time and read some. It's from when the Ryan was 3 and waiting for Logan to be born. (I also used to call them The Kid and The Baby. I'm done with that. btw. Hubby still needs to be anonymous.) Reading back was so amazing. That is one huge reason I started this blog. So I could look back and see what we were doing and what I was feeling during those days.

On Saturday we had a Mom's Rock 5K and 1 mile fun run. Ry ran with hubby in the the one mile race.

 Here he comes at the final turn.

 He's flying! His feet are off the ground!!

 7 years old and a 8:27 finish!!

He is in the orange, just ahead of those 2 bigger boys! YAY!

I am SO proud of him! And he was so excited. 

He can't wait to do another mile run in June that he did last year in 9:02.

Then Hubby & the kids went home and I caught up with my tri group for the 5K. I have NO pictures of me, since my camera went home with Hubby and my phone was in the car. There were pictures taken after the race, but they haven't been posted yet.

I ran my best 5K EVER! One of my goals last year was to run a sub 30 5K. Well, I did it today! My previous PR was 30:32 (with 3.11 miles on the Garmin) in Dec, so close! According to my Garmin, I ran 3.08 miles in 29:43. My 'chip' time was 29:48 (but we had a timing mat at the finish and not the start.) So either way....I'LL TAKE IT!  :)

Then, Logan had a birthday party for a girl in his class that was turning 4...I know he really isn't the Baby anymore since he'll be 4 in Sept. :(

After that, we met my mom and walked from her house to a local Wine/Beer festival that was at the park down the street from her. So fun! Busy day!

 Little Ceasars pizza picnic at the park.

On Mother's Day I had the most wonderful time. First, I took the kids to my mom's for a relaxing morning on her deck. I had the most amazing croissant ever, even better than the ones I had in New Orleans!

Chillin' on at my mom's house Mother's Day morning.

At noon we went to brunch with my in-laws at a new place at the beach. Then we walked up to the beach. Of course, we had no real camera or camcorder with us, so I took this with my cell phone. That is my niece that I watch on Thurs/Fri. The cousins are SO close it's adorable.

Cousins on the beach!  :)

The only picture out of about 6 that I got all 3 faces!

I was going to head back up to the beach for the afternoon with the kids. The temps were in the 80's, it was just gorgeous, but it was a tad bit too windy up there. The sand was whipping like crazy, so we all went back to our house later and I got a lot of weeding done in my yard while the kids played. I love to weed my yard. It's so therapeutic....except that I hurt my lower back pulling a root out. ugh. It's better today after some Advil and an icy/hot patch.

It was just the most perfect fun weekend!!

M.O.T.H.E.R.

I got the CUTEST paper home from school yesterday from my 7 year old....

You think I've been doing anything but eat, sleep and breathe half marathon lately?? hahaha!

Long Branch Half Marathon Race Report

So my Garmin froze on me again today so I had to do this half without. That means no splits. I was so mad at first. :( But, it turned out to be nice. I wasn't obsessed with checking my splits. Then just before mile 8 I realized I had my phone in my belt and I could've started mapmyrun. Whoops! LOL! 

I was very happy with this race overall, parking in the morning could have been done a little different, but it was their first year starting at the race track, so they need to work out some bugs. But we did get to use the bathrooms inside the race track. REAL bathrooms! No porta-pottys. And they were clean and warm, and the line moved very quickly. For anyone that has seen the horror that can be race morning porta-potties knows this was the best blessing ever!

I was supposed to be in corral D, but I hopped into the back of corral C with KC and we started together. After a minute I could barely see her. Until I passed the first porta-potties around mile 3ish. She yelled and waved with a big smile. She gets the tummy issues while running sometimes, that I know a lot of people have to deal with. So I sort of laughed and waved and knew she'd catch up to me. She never did. Poor thing stopped 5 times total. Stuff was coming out both ends. My poor poor friend. I was so sad for her.


Some funny things I saw: a man in a black tutu, a man wearing flip flops (with a strap around the back), a spectator in a full bunny costume and there were so many funny signs. I just wish my brain wasn't so jumbled I could remember them. And at every porta-potty stop on the course, and some spots that didn't have potties, there were many many men using the, uh, woods to do their business. I never understood that. Can't you hold it? I gave birth to 2 children, naturally, and I can hold it for almost 2.5 hours

The spectators were fantastic! (see above: woman in a bunny suit). They were cheering on almost all the streets we ran and just so great. No one said anything inappropriate, like, 'You're almost done' at mile 6. There were even a few bands playing. I even got Lei-ed just before mile 12. ;) (See my pics- it's on my wrist. lol.) 

This finish was great. I saw Hubby and the kids just before the finish and he got some great pictures. 
Unfortunately, it was just too cold to hang out after the race. Wish we had a little sun peak out, but the temp was great for running. Thank goodness my girlfriends who ran, KC, MP, TC (all girls who went to New Orleans and DC with me) and I had Hubby to bring us back to the race track from Long Branch and we didn't have wait on line in the cold to get on a smelly school bus back to their cars. 


I was much better at the end of this one that I was in New Orleans. In NOLA I couldn't walk. I just laid on the grass for almost a half an hour (I think). I kind of lost track of time. This year I was walking around and  playing outside with the kids. Now I feel very stiff. I probably did too much today. Time for bed.

Don't you just love the scenery! BEACH!

 Hurting just a bit at the last stretch.

Just saw the Hubby and kids. They gave me a perfect boost of energy!

I LOVE this shot! 

Hubby did a great job getting pics of me and our friends.

But, because KC was sick, we forgot to get after pictures with our medals 

or any pictures of me and the kids. :(

Half Marathon #2 DONE! :)
2:23:51  PR by about 4 minutes!!!

Intervention

I think I need an intervention.

I am addicted to racing.

I have signed up for 3 races in the next 2 weekends. 4 total for May.

On Saturday 5/5 I am running a 5K, really easy and slow, with a group of girls who just finished 'couch to 5K'.

Then on Sunday morning 5/6 I have my 2nd HALF MARATHON!! I haven't run since last Friday. I accidentally took this taper thing way to literally. Been so busy this week and I have been SO spoiled by this fantastic weather the last few months and it rained here most of the week. Boo.

Today my triathlon group started posting on the book of face about getting together to do a Mom's Rock 5K on Sat 5/12. Well, I jumped right on it! I figured I was going to be there anyway because my very awesome 7 year old is going to do the 1 mile run.

And then on Memorial Day weekend 5/26, I am doing a 5 miler. Luckily, everything is pretty local.  But I have definitely filled my running plate for May.


I also had some scary moments this week that contributed to my lack of running.
Last Saturday my Baby fell (did not hit his head!) and went unconscious for less than 30 seconds. During that time he had a small seizure. He was totally fine within 5 minutes; color back to his face, eating, playing, running, laughing. It was like nothing happened. I called the Dr and she said to watch him very carefully the rest of the day and if there was anything 'off' bring him right to the ER. There wasn't, so I didn't. We went into the pediatrician on Monday and got a script to get an EEG done. We got that test done on Wed morning. He was a rock star!! He laid still, closed his eyes and even fell asleep! Just what the tech wanted him to do.

See. Total rock star. 

This was after it was over and it was munchkin time!

I got the call this afternoon that his EEG was normal. And they had a cancellation in the pediatric neurology office tomorrow (Fri). So I'll be heading there in the morning. We are very lucky to get in. There is usually a 3-4 month wait!
I know there may never be a medical reason that he had that spell. And it may never happen again. But, you just have to do everything you can for your babies...just in case.

Wrong Anniversary

Oh yea, I meant to correct that. My post about my wonderful husband and our anniversary on Monday. I was sorta wrong. Monday was our 12 year anniversary of when we started dating....Wed, April 25 was our 9 year anniversary of our wedding. Whoops. It's all good.  :)

Marathon Relay Recap

This past weekend we had a super fun marathon relay race called Runapalooza. It's 26.2 miles from Seaside, NJ to Asbury Park, NJ. There is also a 5K and a half marathon...hence: Runapalooza.

We were the Honey Badgers. It was such a great time! I ran 5 miles as the 4th runner (out of 5). It ended up being a hot day and my leg didn't start until about 11:30am....I forgot to put sunscreen on and I had a nice farmer tan and sunglass raccoon eyes. Whoops.
We had such a fun day. My stats were amazing for a hot day.
Mile 1- 9:24  What!?!? Wow!
Mile 2- 10:19  still holding strong, for me.
Mile 3- 10:29  I think my goal for 2012 will be a sub 30min 5K
Mile 4- 11:10   Slowed down a bit. It was getting HOT.
Mile 5- 11:05   Having a black shirt on wasn't helping. But I managed a negative split for the last mile (compared to the 4th mile)

Our marathon team total was 4:07. Whoot! Wish I could run that the whole 26.2. LOL!!

 The awesome Honey Badger on the back of my friend's car!

Grrrrrrr!

A great running friend from our Jersey Girls Club right before my run.

You can see the red face starting.....

I got the hand off....

I have no idea why I look like that. LOL!

Team Honey Badger

I actually made the sparkle skirts we all wore. It was pretty easy, once I got the hang of it. It took about 6-7 hours to make 5 skirts...but the last 2 skirts were just 1.5 hrs. I got a good groove going. And it also didn't help that my sewing machine wasn't working and I had to go to my cousin's house.

I have 9 days left until my 2nd half marathon. I am so looking forward to trying to get another PR (my first being the only half I ran in New Orleans Feb '11) My A goal is to beat 2:27. I just have to make sure not to go out sub 10 in my first mile. That's what I have a Garmin for. I went for a quickie run this morning and again I did sub 10 in the 1st mile again.  9:52/10:44/10:22/10:38. And today was super windy.

Busy weekend. The Kid's Soccer. A friend's communion. Zoo trip with my friends from college. Fun fun!

Speaking of The Kid...he started the Black Belt Club a couple weeks ago. They get to practice with weapons. The weapon for the next 3 months is the Eskrima Sticks. Here is a quick pic I took with my phone today. Next time I have to bring the better camera to catch it without the blur.

You do not want to mess with him and sticks. LOL!!

Anniversary

April 23rd is right around the corner. Less than 1 week away. That means my anniversary is coming up. Can it be that I will be married for 9 years?!? Will Hubby remember? LOL! Yes. He will. He is always good with dates like that. He even remembered our very first date in Hoboken. I don't. I'm horrible with dates.

Hubby and I were special police officers on the boardwalk and met at work way back in 1998, yes, back when there was a 19xx in the year. Seems like so long ago. Yet, it still feels like yesterday. Does anyone else feel like we just skipped 2000-2010? It's like a blur to me. There are times that something happened in 2003 and I'll actually say 1993. It's weird.

Anywho, back to Hubby. He is amazing. He's a hard worker. He's a great dad. And occasionally, he can be a pain in the ass. He can't go anywhere without taking a shower first. Going to work? Shower. (well, of course) Going for a run? Shower. Going to mow the lawn? Shower. And then when he is done with those sweaty activities, he showers again. He makes too much laundry. Oh the laundry. I think he still has t-shirts from the '80s. And he doesn't know how to fold a shirt. Or fold his socks! The sock thing drives me crazy. Since he has about 8 bajillion different kinds of white socks. I make him sort them and I fold them. We have a nice system going. We even include the kids. The Baby will go back and forth across the room with the socks. He thinks he is such a huge help. I'm not even going to start on the amount of underwear he owns. I can go for 3 weeks without doing whites, and that's with 2-4 showers a day!

But, in this world of families not making it, I think we are in for the long haul...I pray. He pretty much lets me do what ever I want. And by 'let' I really mean he supports me. Unconditionally. He is so damn supportive. I totally don't deserve him. He let me get my pretty new Canon. He just bought us a new iMac. He has no problem when I am training for any of my upcoming races. He even let me upgrade to the 'fancy' gym last week. One that is about $60 more a month, but includes a pool club. Anything for the kids! He works his ass off for us to be able to enjoy these things. Luckily he can get lots of overtime. It totally sounds like I am happy when he 'buys' things for me. It's really not that. I swear. Its not just the stuff. There so much more support that I just can't put into words. Issues with our house. The car he drives to work. The pride he takes in our 'home.' How he still finds me sexy whether I am 200 lbs or 170 lbs. He really is fabulous.

Don't get me wrong. It's not all peaches and cream over here. When we have a fight. I am a class A bitch. I hate it. I don't know why. We push each others buttons so bad! But we get through it. Somehow.

I guess I was inspired to write this post from another blog I read. Swim.Bike.Mom. is having some trouble at home. And her kids are so much younger than mine. And they have been together so much longer than us. I am praying they can work it out, not just for the kids, but for them! I've only been following her blog and Facebook for a short time, but Mer is awesome. I am pulling for her to be happy. No matter what.

I can't even tell you how many times during a fight with Hubby I have thought the D word...but then I realize how really REALLY good I have it being able to stay home with our boys. And how wonderful my Hubby is. And how much he really loves me and I love him. Our fights are stupid and insignificant in the grand scheme of life. Does it REALLY matter that he only fills the dishwasher halfway and runs it?

My job is basically Mom, Wife, PTO member, Cub Scout Leader, Class Mom, etc. And I am sure I will have many more hats before my boys leave the nest. And my Hubby makes it all possible.

Even though he doesn't read my blog. At all. I think I may have mentioned to him that I started writing again. haha.
Happy 9th Anniversary honey! Even when I am unbearable and we push each other's buttons. I know we are in this marriage for the long haul. 'Love you too much.' xoxoxo

12 MILES

This morning I ran 12.16 miles. It took me about 2 hours & 35 minutes. This was the longest run I have done since I did the New Orleans Half over a year ago. I feel fantastic. I can feel myself getting stronger with every week. Last week I did a 10 mile run with my girlfriends and I was sore for a couple hours, but the next day it didn't feel like I ran at all!

Today I ran with my triathlon group, who are the most awesome women in the world. Three of us stuck together for the whole run around a 5 mile reservoir. I have never ran around that place TWICE! I stuck to my one friends like glue because she had the working Garmin. Mine totally froze at 7:53am when I attempted to locate my satellites. Yes, it is still stuck on 7:53. I am so peeved. I have to call them tomorrow and find out how fast I can get it fixed or a new one. This weekend I have a marathon relay with 4 other friends that goes 26.2 miles up the NJ shore. It is a most beautiful run and SO much fun! I have the same leg as last year (the 4th one) and I think it was short, but if I don't have my Garmin, I'll never know now! Ugh.

This week I have to make 5 silver sparkle skirts for our relay team. We have black t-shirts to wear with a Honey Badger on it and it says 'we don't give a shit'. Love it! So badass.

And 3 weeks from today is my second half marathon. After todays run, I am so excited for it!

At 8am, when I began my run today, it was 60 degrees. At the end it was 70. By the afternoon the temp was in the 80's! Hubby, the kids and I went to the beach! It was gorgeous! I can not wait for summer. I joined a local gym this week that has an outdoor pool club included in the gym membership. (Plus an indoor pool with family swim time year round!) SO worth it with the boys this summer. When ever the ocean is too rough, or the wind is whipping the sand around or the jellys come, we can go play at the pool...and I can have a cocktail in hand. I will be especially excited about this after our long marathon training runs!! :)

Back to school tomorrow for the big Kid! 

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter, Passover and spring break!

Nothing exciting

I have been a busy mother runner. Just not as much of the running part. I am now getting my runs in, after I had a week and a half sinus infection. It was horrible. I couldn't breathe out of my nose for 10 days. And it all started at Great Wolf Lodge. Fun times, but why does someone in my family always get sick. Last year the Baby woke up at 5am with a raging fever.

But, this week I feel great. I have been super busy. Today was the Kid's 2nd grade egg hunt and spring party and I am one of the class moms. Last week the Baby was 'Pal of the week' so I had stuff to do for that. And of course, I am still babysitting my 15 month old niece 2 days a week.

I was able to get out Tues night with my running group. It was an awesome 4.5 miles. Tomorrow my BRF heads to Florida (I am SO jealous!!) so we are doing our 10 miler tomorrow morning. She doesn't leave until later. I am so excited to go at 9:30am, instead of with the running group that is running AT 7am at a place that is about 25 min away from me! Eeek!

This weekend is Easter. We are not a very religious family. My boys do go to Sunday School, when I don't have a long run scheduled. But we do surround ourselves with family every holiday. This year Hubby is working the afternoon/night shift Sunday through Thurs. ugh. So his family is coming over in the morning to our house. Then, after he goes to work we will make our way to my mom's house then over to my Aunt's to see my dad's side. (My mom and dad split when I was a freshman in college.) But the most wonderful thing is they are both re-married and get along better now than they ever did!

That's all for now. No new races coming up. Just the marathon relay on April 21st. My girlfriends and I have a team "Honey Badgers" because we just don't give a shit. LOL!! Hubby is running with his own team of police. And of course, the half marathon, May 6th! It's coming up so fast.

Training run & 5K recap

ACK!! 
I thought this post went already. I thought it was set for last week. My bad.


Written 3/12
So this was a huge week and weekend. Besides the playground, belt ceremony, Scout Sunday and many other fun things I packed into this week, I still had to get my runs in.

Last weekend I ran my 8 mile training run at this beautiful 5 mile trail loop around a reservoir with my fantastic running group. I don't know how I would do these runs with out them and my BRF (best running friend) KC. So glad she joined this group with me!  I was able to get a 5 mile and just a 3 mile in during the week by myself. Gotta take what I can get.

This past weekend I had 9 on my schedule. And a 5K. mmmmm. What to do?
I'll tell you what I did. My training group, The Jersey Girls, also signed up for this fun local race. It was run by my Hubby's fire dept and had a great after party, fun post-race giveaways and a gift auction (which I won none of! boo!) Anyway, all the JG that are also doing the half in May also had to run 9. About 6 of us met early and went on our 6 mile run before the race!! Crazy! Right? And the best part was I did really well in the race! And there were some doozy hills on both the training run and the race. I wish my Garmin was uploading to the new iMac so I could show you the elevation. I know it's not Denver or anything, but for a shore town to have a course that has an elevation gain of 352 feet is pretty amazing, and one of the hills is a HALF mile hill <--that was on our 6 mile training run, not the race.

We did 6.28 miles before the race in 1:14 (11:42 pace) Not too shabby knowing I still had another 3 to go.
The 5K was a tad short. It measured on my Garmin as 2.95 miles, but I did it in just over 31 minutes (10:35 pace!) And that was after doing 6 miles! I couldn't believe my legs were still moving! And I even passed people at the end. There are no pictures of my finish, but I have one of the Kid! I know it was in yesterday's post, but I just had to share again.

He ran (and walked) it in just over 33 minutes!!

I was so proud of my little man. xoxox.

Here are a few of the Jersey Girls and my Jersey Boys after the race. 

(I'm in blue. Hubby was late getting to the race after my training run with my change of shirt. 

Our car had a dead battery because someone left a light on all night....

I had my pink packed and wore it to the bar for the post-race party. LOL)

This weekend is the first 10 miler. Which my BRF, KC, and I have to do together on Saturday morning before we head up to Great Wolf Lodge with the cub scouts. Eeeek. We'll make it work. 8 more weeks until my second half marathon!! :)

Random Thoughts

So I had 2 really good running weeks in a row. 16+ miles for both weeks. 3 weeks ago I did a 4, 4.5 and an 8 miler. The next week I got in a 5, 3, and 9. And that 9 was a split run. I did 6 before that 5K for training. Crazy! Then last week life just got in the way. Hubby has been working like a madman now that he is Sgt. and despite the gorgeous weather we were having in NJ I just couldn't get myself motivated. I had a total of 10 miles last week...in one day.

My new Sweaty Band for St. Patricks Day!!

On St Patricks Day my BRF and I went for a 10 miler and then we headed with the cub scouts to Great Wolf Lodge. If you don't know what that is, well it's a loud indoor water park. I could still hear the water flowing for days after we got home. I was exhausted for 3 days. I was all stuffy and couldn't breathe, but I did get out yesterday! Yay! Hubby had more important meetings this week and was working on days he was supposed to be off.... I *almost* let this week slide...but I stuck the baby in the jogging stroller and headed out yesterday for 4.25. That thing is no joke! I am hoping to get a few miles in tomorrow, and I have 7 on the schedule for Saturday. Last 'shorter' long run until we ramp it up for 3 weeks and then taper!

Just 6 weeks from this Sunday is my second Half Marathon!

I haven't uploaded any new pictures this week. The Baby is 'Pal of the Week' at nursery school next week and I had to try to upload some pictures to Costco from the new iMac and I think that is going to be a massive problem. You can't see the folders or thumbnail pictures on the Costco site. Costco photos has been my go-to photo place since 2005. All my photos are there from years of making calendars for family. I didn't do a 2011 one, but I am planning on making photo albums for the grandmas for Mothers Day...don't know how I am going to accomplish this one.  They don't make it easy.

All week I kept thinking of fun or profound things to blog about. This post sucks. Sorry. But I will leave you with a sweaty foggy picture from mile 3 yesterday on my run to the beach.
I took one of the Baby and the crazy fog, there is actually an inlet there and you can't see the other side! ...and then a nice lady asked if I wanted a picture of us both. Glad I had my phone. :)

Weekly Photos

Today I uploaded all 200+ photos I have taken with my new camera. In a week. I know. But, to be fair we had a couple really nice days this week so I couldn't NOT use the fantastic outdoor light. Plus, we had  the Kid's Taekwondo ceremony and Scout Sunday at the church. Perfect places to play with my new toy!

If I keep this up I may do a weekly photo post of my favorite photos. Please, if you know anything about cameras let me know if you see anything I could have done better. I used the auto focus on all of these, I think. I was playing with the manual focus for a while, but I don't think there were them.

 I know this one has too much sun on the side of his face...but it's oh so cute!

 I think he wants to do Taekwondo like his brother!

 My speedy kid!

 This was a zoom in from across the field. Used the awesome 55-250mm lens.

 Found a feather at the beach. I was up on the boardwalk and used the big lens again.

 My favorite shot. I have to figure out how to stop the blur!

 Yes, that high kicker is MY Kid!

 Last time wearing his Brown Belt.

 NEW RED BELT!

The Kid also ran his first 5K on Saturday! In about 33 minutes!!

This was taken by me with Hubby's iPhone.

 Reading a line at Scout Sunday at the church.

 There were about 13 kids playing in the neighborhood today! We enjoyed the weather so much!

 By far my favorite shot of the Kid so far! He was just walking toward me and I picked up the camera.

FUN!!

This was hard to catch! They were going totally opposite for a while, but they finally started swinging together. Doesn't that mean they are married now?