Tag Archives: health

Double, Double Toil and Trouble

Clever title, eh? It’s taken from Song of the Witches/Macbeth, written (of course) by William Shakespeare… you know… trivia.

This is a post I’ve put off writing for about a week now as I have slowly come to grips with the reality of the situation. However, if you follow both me and my husband James at 50 in 50 Marathon Quest, then you know what I’m about to say.

We won’t be going to DC next month to run Marine Corps Marathon, which was to be my very first marathon. We had to defer our entries to next year.

The reason being…

Last week it was discovered that James may have blown a disk. Today was his appointment with the spine physiatrist who confirmed that James does indeed have a herniated disk with a trapped nerve. James will be getting conservative treatment with physical therapy to see if that helps before he goes all out with injections into the back.

This is not a running injury, so please don’t even go there.

This puts an end to James’s race season before it even begins. It throws me a little off track as well, and we are very saddened by these recent developments. However… my family does not wallow in self pity. We adapt and improvise and get the hell over it.

So! New plan people!! I will continue on with my training and racing as scheduled, all except for MCM. I have now chosen to run Rock N Roll San Antonio as a full marathon in December. We are hoping that James will be well enough by then that he can at least participate in some way, but if not, he and AJ will be there to cheer me across the finish line!

And fear not! It’s not all been doom and gloom here in the hot and dry Pacific Northwest! AJ and I attended the PAX Conference in Seattle on Labor Day. For those who don’t know, it’s a huge game convention. As AJ has known since he was 8 that he wants to be a game designer when he grows up, we encourage all development in that aspect, so we were off to the convention. What a great day it was.

We got to watch the Mario Super Smash Brothers Tournament while it was being streamed live on Twitch. These kids were playing for a $10,000 purse:

And we even ran into Jack Septic Eye, a famous gaming YouTuber, of whom I once wrote about here:

And I completely understand that I may be speaking Greek to everyone over 20 in regards to gaming, but when it’s your child’s passion, you try to keep up. KnowwhatImeanVern? Okay, yes, confession time… if you didn’t already know it, James and I are gamers too. I’m in the middle of re-playing the Kingdom Hearts series before the new one is released in December and James just started a new Final Fantasy.

Anyway, my friends, onward I go with my running, with high hopes for a speedy recovery for Jamesy! I will race the Sounders 5K this Saturday, the North County Wine Run Half-Marathon the following week, then it’s on to San Antonio in December! Woo hoo!

Week In Review… with Pictures!

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I’m not feeling very wordy about last week’s training, but I do have some pictures to share!

Skunk lilies! Pretty, but stinky!

Okay, truth be told, marathon training started last week with The Motivator… although that is certainly not what I was calling him by the end of our 5K together. From here on out, until I run my marathon in October, he and I will be running together at least once a week. This is not going to be fun, nor is it going to be pretty. But because of it, I will succeed at crossing the finish line in the allotted time. So I will suck it up, get pissed off, and get over it.

The Motivator’s 5K PR is 23:16, whereas I’ve not even left the chute yet. Training is about to get ugly.

But hey! Good news! Last week I was also able to get outside on the bike for the first time in 2017! Yay! That means we had sunshine! The other good news?! My sit bones didn’t hurt! I’m so pleased about that. The god-awful mind-numbing bike trainer did its job… at least for now. As the weather improves, hopefully my distance and speed improve. Then possibly I will ultimately have a picnic at the barn (my 50-miler)!!

See the above trees? We’ve had lots of rain and wind here, which in turn have resulted in fallen trees as the ground is saturated. It won’t be long before the above fallen tree that is leaning will cause the standing tree to collapse as well. Right across the trail.

And yes, the Easter Bunny made his annual appearance. Probably not good to have all that chocolate in the house, but I’ll try hard not to complain.

I also have to thank Renee from The Revenge Wogger for the beautiful tulips! She visited the Skagit Valley Tulilp Festival in my area and sent some to me as we didn’t get a chance to meet up! So very sweet! Thanks Renee! They’re gorgeous!

I #spottedthe… game: A bunny. He was too quick to get a picture though. Not that a bunny is on the list, but I do challenge anyone to get a good picture of a bunny. 😀

Daryl, above, is not wild, he’s domestic. I bunny-sit him during the day at work. #shakaears #imhisfavoriteauntie

Week in mileage: 20. Keeping track so I can watch the number climb.

Hope everyone had a nice Easter, Passover, and weekend! For those running Boston, may God bless you all! Happy running!

Seahawks 12K At The Landing

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One of the funnest races ever!

We had spirit. We had a rockin’ atmosphere. We had dogs everywhere. We had bagels.

One does not run this for a PR… one runs this for fun. And spirit. Which we had (as stated above).

9 a.m. start time for James and the 12K.

As the race was in Renton, about an hour away from us, we opted to get up at 5 (on a Sunday… so I guess you know what I DIDN’T do last night… like drink). Meep (cat) was none too impressed and didn’t understand why we weren’t following routine… like sleeping until 9. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get through a morning when a half-Siamese cat is following you around and screaming at you the entire time, telling you to go back to bed??

Ignoring the cat and focusing on the task at hand, leaving promptly at 5:58, we arrived in Renton around 7 a.m. Score! No traffic! Empty parking lot! Barely any people! No line to the port-a-loos!!

A fabulously relaxing Sunday morning (#truth) as we sat in the Target Starbucks, warm and cozy, having coffee and tea, until it was time to head to the start line. BTW… this was the line to the portables 20 minutes before my 5K race started at 9:20. Somewhere in the distance you can see the potties (#runnersproblems). Surprisingly, it only took me 15 minutes:

One Seahawks player, three Sea-Gal cheerleaders, and Blitz (the mascot) were on hand to send the runners off, along with the Seahawks Drum Line, Blue Thunder. The energy was high.

Yes, it was cold at about 42 degrees. I had my hoodie on, which I took off for the race, although I did have a warming long-sleeve underneath my Seahawks tee.

And oh yeah… a thermal warming blanket.

The start line looked like this:

And this:

And everywhere in between:

Faux-hawks, puppies, and 12th Man Spirit abound:

Somewhere amongst the 5000+ people out for a little run today, I earned this:

… the coveted 12th Man Bling! The race tee was probably one of the best ever:

A lightweight hoodie. The only shirt that even compares to this is Tulsa’s Route 66 Half-Marathon long-sleeved jacket, which I wear all the time:

Post race was a bagel, banana, and water. Okay, I would’ve loved some chocolate milk AND water, but I won’t complain.

The race was great, the people were awesome, swag amazing, and in the end, I got my chocolate milk once we got home. That, and potato soup, courtesy of Subway.

A really great day!

An Evening Bike Ride

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Being at the beginning of a training cycle, I thought maybe this time I would actually do some kind of cross training to see what benefits I could possibly reap. Rumor has it cycling is good for the quads… ;D … so I suggested to James last night we go for a bike ride for a little XT. I’m just thankful he decided to leave the tri bike at home and take something I could keep up with.

“Beast”; James’s tri bike… mine is not that fast.

This was my first ride of the summer. We only went 10 miles (16 km), but my shoulders and arms are like jello and I won’t even mention how my sit bones feel. My quads hurt the least. Hey, it’s a start.

I have a goal of riding to a cool old barn up at the end of the trail, an overall 50-mile ride (80 km). Who knows… maybe I’ll actually make it this year before the rain begins again.

Missoula Half-Marathon

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Many of you know I just completed the Missoula Half-Marathon this past Sunday and James completed the full. What a great little racecation! It was a whirlwind, but totally worth every moment we spent there and on the road.

To recap, we left the Seattle area on Friday afternoon and drove to Spokane to stay the night, meeting up with fellow blogger Renee on Saturday morning. We then drove the rest of the way to Missoula, just in time for the expo and to see Jeff Galloway. Dinner was at 7 and sleep for me came at midnight.

Rocks! In a river!! Apparently great for fishing!

RACE DAY: We woke up at 3:30 for a 6 a.m. start time… mind you, this was Montana time. In Seattle time, it was only 2:30 a.m. Ack! And we all know sleep doesn’t come easy the night before a race.

Logistics were easy… we walked across the bridge right behind the hotel and there were the shuttle buses hauling people to the start line. Once at the start line, it was port-a-loo heaven! And I’m not kidding. They were everywhere. No one had to suffer or stress. Kudos to the race director on the potties! (For those who don’t race, port-a-loos are a super important part of the start line, which is why every runner will report on them!)

As well, they had fireworks going off about every 6 to 7 minutes. Okay, that was a little unnerving and unnecessary, but it was entertaining.

Then at 6 a.m., the cannon fired (yes, a booming cannon, just in case the fireworks didn’t wake you up) and the finale of the fireworks were set off (for those of us who had to wait a couple of minutes to cross the start line). By the way, Jeff Galloway was running the half with his 90-year-old friend. How’s that for inspiring?!! If I would’ve known they were behind me, I totally would’ve backed up and ran with them.

THE COURSE: Gorgeous. Farms, trees, rivers, historic neighborhoods, and basically flat. Loved it. I ran out of air at about mile 9 or 10, but that’s what happens when you train at sea level. I’m thinking James and I probably need to go hike up one of the mountains here to get some practice with breathing at different elevations.

An entertainer playing a violin on the side while we went past. There were also bands, drums, people with stereos to keep us going.

THE PEOPLE AND VOLUNTEERS: So very nice, so friendly, so helpful. I didn’t run into one single person who wasn’t encouraging and uplifting throughout the race. I wasn’t too impressed at mile 11 when people were saying, “you’re almost there” (because I wasn’t anywhere near the finish line), but that was my emotional breakdown, not theirs, so I really appreciated their support regardless of my state of mind.

THE FINISH LINE: Again, fabulous! For recovery food, they had a lovely quinoa salad, bananas, oranges, watermelon, frozen fruit bars, nuts, bagels, fig newtons… a great spread! At the family meetup area, all racers got a free beer and a free finisher picture, and they were selling fry bread and other things, just in case the food at the finish line didn’t quite get it done for you.

A moose with running shoes on the bling… too cute.

POST-RACE CELEBRATION: I think I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. After sleeping for a couple of hours, we went out and enjoyed. Our eyes were much bigger than our stomachs, but it was nice having a sample of everything.

Chicken strips, quesadilla, and nachos.

James and his father Rick, who came to watch and celebrate, and who also brought AJ back after he spent the previous week in Boise.

This was a fabulous race and a fabulous time, and I felt it was very well organized. Thankfully we didn’t run into even one snafu, and that’s always bonus. This race may actually have moved to the very top of my favorites list, so I highly recommend it if you’re looking to run in Montana!!

I think this bike totally works for the treasure hunt!

Be sure to stay tuned to 50 in 50 Marathon Quest to see his full race report. He had a nasty mountain to climb that forced practically everyone to walk…

Cancercize with Renee

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I totally pilfered this from Renee’s Facebook Page. The ring says “fearless.”

I have a friend who was diagnosed with breast cancer last November. She is also a blogger here on WordPress… The Revenge Wogger. I know and love her as Renee. She started her blog as an anonymous avenue to document her “revenge wogging” as she had plans to overtake a friend in a particular race they do together every year. That race is coming up in May. Cancer has detoured her for a little while… but only for this year.

Renee had a double mastectomy in January. Thankfully she’s starting to recover from that surgery, but now she starts chemotherapy on March 17th. Before cancer got in the way, she was a Zumba instructor. That’s been put on hold as well. However, it has been said that one way to beat the fatigue that chemotherapy sends your way is to exercise. Renee wants to help others who are going through the same thing, so she’s started a YouTube channel called Cancercize with Renee B. Her plans are to post exercise videos on a regular basis while she’s going through the chemotherapy to help herself as well as others dealing with cancer, showing that, yes, it can be done, nice and easy.

Cancer seems to affect everyone. Around the same time that Renee told me she had it, my brother died from it. Chances are, you know someone right now who is going through this or who has gone through this. If you do, share this link with them. Maybe they’ll be grateful just knowing that they are not alone. Maybe they’re looking for some easy-going exercises just to get them through the chemotherapy until they hit it hardcore again. You never know.

As for next year, May 2017, I’m very much looking forward to watching one particular wogger take out her sweet, sweet revenge. Bwahaha…

Never A Dull Bling

The trials and tribulations of a 40-something novice runner

Tag Archives: health

Double, Double Toil and Trouble

Week In Review… with Pictures!

Seahawks 12K At The Landing

An Evening Bike Ride

Missoula Half-Marathon

Cancercize with Renee

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