Almost three months...

... since I last posted!

Well during that fateful 5-miler on August 10th, it appears that I managed to injure myself. My doctor at the Campbell Clinic sent me for an X-Ray, MRI and bone scan and I got diagnosed with a pelvic stress fracture. When the doctor initially talked about 6 weeks off, I looked at him like he had three heads and I started to negotiate with him "Are we talking about 6 weeks from today or 6 weeks form the injury?". Poor guy was shacking his head. Then at my check-up, when I told him I ran a mile at 6 weeks because I felt good, I thought he would strangle me. Thankfully his daughter is a runner so he seems to understand what a bunch of lunatics we are.

Long story somewhat short, after seeing a nutritionist, my ob, had a bone density scan at an endocrinology clinic, I was prescribed both Ensure and Depends. Just kidding! However, it was discovered that my vitamin D levels were very low so I am on a high dosage vitamin D regiment for 8 weeks and I'll see my doctor again at the end of December. Still not allowed to run though.

I've had to miss the Ragnar Relay Race in Texas, running from San Antonio to Austin. I was really bummed and I felt like I was letting my team down. Thankfully, they were able to find another sucker to take my spot. I also have to skip the St. Jude Marathon here in Memphis at the beginning of December. I already had signed up to run the 1/2 marathon as a St. Jude Hero, raising money for Team Thomas. That's another big bummer.

The good news is that during the month of October I completed a Lazyman Ironman. Basically, I had a month to complete an Ironman. It was great because it forced me to diversify my cardio workouts. I was forced to bike more consistently and horror, I even had to jump in the pool twice and do a never ending amount of lapses. Now if I could find something that would force me to strength train...

Slacker

I completely slacked off last week and didn't make it to the race on Friday night. The race was scheduled at 7 p.m. It had been hot and humid all day (we were just finishing week 2 of heat advisories!) and I was exhausted. I didn't think it was a good/smart combo for a race so I skipped it.

This past week, I've logged a lot of miles, including a 6 mile run on Thursday outside, a 7 mile trail run on Saturday morning and on Saturday night I decided to register for a 5-miler race this morning (Sunday). The race is part of the local runner's club road race series. It's a series of several races: 2 x 5k - 2 x 5 miles - 2 x 10k - 2 x 10 miles - 2 x 1/2 marathons. I obviously missed the first two 5k's.

I raced the 5 miles in 37 minutes and 50 seconds. Not too shaby. I can't say that I enjoyed running the race though, as usual, I considered walking or even stopping and I cursed a good amount of the way and had the never ending internal non-sense dialogue/struggle... but I made it! :)

Another 5k...

What's wrong with me? I keep swearing 5k's off, yet I just found myself agreeing to running another one. Somebody please knock some sense into me!

Apparently, I'll be running the "Run from the Sun" 5k, benefiting the Melanoma Research Foundation. The race is being put together Scarlet Lawrence Atkins Foundation. Scarlet lost her battle to Melanoma two years ago, a day before her 28th birthday and three months after giving birth to her daughter. Her mom came and spoke at the running program I currently am part of.

This morning, I was supposed to do a long run... on the treadmill. Sounds exciting, ugh? NOT! I wanted to see where I stood training wise and how fast I should/could run the 5k on Friday. I ran the 3+ miles at a 7:30 pace. It wasn't too bad but I fear that there is no way I can sustain the pace given that we've been under constant heat advisory for the last week or so, it's humid as heck, the race is at 7 p.m. and that there are a few hills on the course. I'll be running the exact same route as my first 5k, which was the Youth Villages 5k. Should be interesting!

Firecracker 5k

Another terrible 5k. Last night, Anthony, our friend Elizabeth and I ran the Firecracker 5k for St. Jude. I am just not cut for running 5k's. The first mile was OK, jumping over bodies, sticking my elbows out to make sure no one would trip me: it was crowded. I looked down at my Garmin a few times and I was around the 7 min/mile mark, even went sub-7 a couple of times. It all went downhill from there! I finished in 23:47, not stellar, 18 seconds slower than my last (and first ever!) 5k. I suppose that being two weeks back into training after a month off just didn't work in my favor! I ended up 12th in my age group out of 152, so that's not too bad.









Before and after the race pictures!

Team Thomas

... and I am also now a member of "Team Thomas". As you already know, I'll be running the St. Jude 1/2 marathon on December 6th. I also signed up to be a St. Jude Hero to hopefully raise lots of money for St. Jude! One of my neighbor and my friend Debbie, I've been running with, told me about Team Thomas. They raised over $24,000 for St. Jude last year. Since it seems such a great group, I had to join in the fun. I have all the info about the St. Jude Heroes and Thomas, of course, on my very own St. Jude page.

On other St. Jude news, Anthony and I are both registered to run the St. Jude Firecracker 5k on Thursday night, July 3rd. It's supposed to be a very fun race, very crowded, but fun! It will be Anthony's very first 5k and only my second! I'll probably take it much slower this time around...

I got dragged...

I am officially a member of M.I.L.F - Mothers In Lifelong Fitness, the team I'll be running the Ragnar Relay race with from San Antonio to Austin, TX. The twelve of us will be covering 196 miles, running 3-legs each over a 24+ hour period. Our team captain is my friend Ardis. We met in the New Moms Group at the local hospital were we both delivered our daughters almost 5 years ago. Time flies!

It's really exciting but it's serious training! I started running again after a month off. I took my running shoes to Europe but they never made it out of the suitcase. I started my training program again last week when I got back in town and it was rough. This week is a little better and hopefully next week will be a breeze... yeah, right! The race isn't until October though. Somewhere at the mid point of the training, we have several runs scheduled on our long run day. At one point, we (and I say "we" but it will be "I" since the rest of the team is in Dallas) will be running 3 5-milers in a day. Not looking forward to that, especially with the nasty heat/humidity combo we're dealing with here.

In other race news, my husband, signed up for the Mightymite Triathlon in AR on July 19th. He will be swimming 1/3 mile, biking 13 miles and running 3 miles. He started exercising again a few months ago and decided to enter this race with our friend Elizabeth, who ran the Germantown 1/2 marathon with me. I am very excited for him!

Another 1/2 marathon in my future and possibly a relay race in my cards...

I have committed to running the St. Jude 1/2 Marathon here in Memphis on December 6th. I've also signed up to be a St. Jude Hero, to raise money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. At St. Jude, children are treated regardless of a family’s ability to pay so fundraising is essential to continuing the life-saving research and treatment that is done there. I am really excited about it.

A friend of mine from Dallas is also trying to drag me into the Ragner Relay race. It's a 196 mile adventure, 36 legs ran by a team of 12 on October 24 & 25 in Austin, TX. Each runner runs 3 legs ranging from 3 to 8 miles each over a period of 24-hours. Should be fun! I have to make sure that it's doable logistically since I'd have to leave Memphis on Thursday to be ready to race at the crack of dawn on Friday, all the way through Saturday and catch up on some serious sleep on Sunday. And of course my husband would have to be available to watch the kids all weekend.