"If Life Throws you a Lemon - Make Lemonade." ~ Joan Collins

I briefly blogged about my broken lawn mower a week or so ago. This thing has been nothing but a thorn in my side since I acquired it last fall. I aint gettin NO lemonade outta this P.O.S. It was supposed to be this great deal on a riding lawn mower - the owner took SUCH GOOD care of it, supposedly he even waxed it when he washed it! This thing is supposed to ride like a PHAT caddy, big ol grass catcher on the back and all. Not to mention a WHOPPING 52" cut on it! It will mow my yard in less than 30 minutes! Wow - how did I EVER get so lucky? So, it like... mowed my yard once & there were issues with the steering. As in -- the wheels mysteriously felt as if they would wobble right off! So, I think it made it through 1 more mowing for the year & K worked on the steering - 100 more dollars invested. However, the steering still wouldn't cooperate. So over the winter I didn't know you had to periodically start the lawn mower to keep the battery alive. So the battery was dead, 3 tires were flat, the choke cable was broken, the starter was bad, a lower belt on the deck was broken, and the steering was still screwed. Sigh.... what is a single girl to do with a broken lawn mower that won't even start or roll with flat tires. So, my yard got so huge this spring it caused an allergic reaction in my dog when I put her outside for a couple of days. All the weeds were up to my knees. So my dad helps me out and comes to load my _______ lemon lawn mower to his favorite crew of mechanics so they can fix me up. So, after several rounds of parts ordering this crew is finally convinced they have me ready to mow! FINALLY!!!! I can be an independent home owner!!! Who needs a man, right?

So, all week I was looking forward to cruising on my phat mower and making my yard look sweet!!! I change my clothes after work today and get on the mower and I get a "eeeeeeeeeeeekknnnnnnnnyyyyyyyy" this thing won't start. Great. P.O.S! So I call my dad and he comes over to jump it off & we discover it has no gas. Brilliant, Holly. So I make a quick run to the gas station and get 5 gallons of gas. Rush back, we fill 'er up and it finally starts!!! So my dad takes off on it and he gets about 2 rows trimmed and we notice the grass catcher is clogging up and dropping huge mounds of grass. We say to heck with that thing and disconnect it. He mows one more round and I look up and the front wheel is like.... literally 15 yards from the mower. Super.... :-/ So, he rigs it up somehow and gets the wheel back on and off he goes again! We're in business now!

Only until this thing starts sputtering - and eventually dies. We roll it around to my front yard and jump it off again and it starts fine. Ok... well. Whatever. It mows 1 row of grass in my backyard and sputter sputter sputter... there it goes again and it dies and I am just READY to get the baseball bat out and beat the daylights out of this _____________ ___________ _____________ lemon lawn mower.

Excuse me, but GOOD FREAKIN GRIEF!!! I keep waiting for that lemonade......... I disagree with that quote. My version is -- If life throws you a lemon, TRASH IT! Don't try to fix a lawn mower!!!! And my version of that quote should be my new strategy in life. If you are presented with what appears to be a SWEET sitution.... you better just mow with it a few times and see how it works when the going gets tough. The new (or the wax) will wear off. More times than not, it was not a sweet deal to begin with. You keep putting time & money into this thing & it keeps fizzling out on you. It would really just rather you do all the work and stay out of it's way. Don't ask anything of it. Just continue to invest resources into this selfish piece -- after all -- you shouldn't expect anything out of it to begin with. It doesn't answer to YOU! You just hold up your end of the bargain & when it gets ready to mow -- it will mow. Until then - let me take up space in your life -- or your garage -- I'll let you know when I need you. DITCH HIM! Or IT! My post-marathon resolution is - DITCH ALL THE LEMONS IN YOUR LIFE.

Anybody in the market for a lawn mower? ;-)

Sigh.......... the joys of owning a home as a single woman -- trying to keep it together and never making progress. I appreciate the fellow who stiffed me on this crappy lemon lawn mower.

A few more CMM pics...

All of these were taken between miles 20-26. And the porta-potty one says it all!!! :-) LOL

This was my last stop! LOL


Me & Lana


We all thought this was pretty cool!

Lessons Learned, Medal Earned! :-)

I did it!!!! I went the distance. Every step of 26.2 is mine. No one can ever take that away from me. It's here to stay! I got the t-shirt, I got the sticker, I learned a few lesssons, I earned the medal. I am stronger than I've ever been - mentally. It makes me crave more. I really want to do better. I pushed through pain I've never experienced before. I wanted to quit. I suffered - more than I expected. I was SPENT at mile 17 - with 9 to go. I did it - like I said... it was not pretty. I completed the marathon. I'm not pleased with my results, but this will bring me to my knees enough to know I need to train harder, run more often and most of all.... do more semi-longer runs in between long runs. Granted, it was near impossible with 2 knee injuries setting me back on weeks 6 & 9-12. Now I think I realize the importance of those 10 & 12 milers on the weeks you aren't doing a long run. I'd have to say those are building your base. And your base is going to be more important than your long run - at least it is for me. Yesterday my base was not there and it showed. It was somewhat expected, but it's still a bit dissapointing! I carb-loaded the week before, I rested, I stretched, I did everything I could think of to do because I knew I didn't have enough training miles in the bank. Just so ya know, there is NOTHING that can make up for not enough training miles :-) I am honored that God has blessed me with the legs, the drive, the family who supported me, and the 2 guardian angels who pushed me to the finish yesterday.


I got to Nashville, around 2:00 Friday afternoon. Checked into my hotel, made my way down to the convention center around 3:30-ish to the expo. Complete chaos & madness in downtown. No parking, raging traffic - it was a mess. The expo was just as bad as the streets & parking lots. By the time I got out of there I wasn't brave enough to try and find the kids marathon. I made it back to my room and around 6:30 went next door to TGIF's & ordered chicken bruchetta pasta, & an ice cold mich ultra! Shortly after, K made it up & we headed back down tno TGIF's again so that he could eat. Got in bed around 10pm. I think I woke up about every hour from anxiety. Alarm goes off at 4:32am, I order room service. I had oatmeal and a piece of toast with pb & honey. K had eggs, sausage & toast. We got ready and headed to the start line in our ponchos. Yep! It was raining. We found Lana & Mike at the gear check. Then it was 5 minutes till 7am & I couldn't find Lana anymore so K & I rushed to the start line. But 5 min later, Lana popped up! She started with me in coral 4. Yippee!!! I think we took off around 6 minutes after 7 & I felt great. I was keeping around a 9 minute pace and was only focusing on holding back. I just wanted to save my energy for 10-20. 5K time was 28 minutes - yikes... a little fast. I tried to slow it down, but it just seemed like I wasn't even running. Guess who I saw at mile 4! My daddy! :-) He spotted me in his binoculars and snapped a pic of me. He showed me where my mom was standing & I looked over and she was screaming as loud as she could and cheering! I couldn't resist - I was so happy to see them, I had to run over and give her a hug & a kiss on the cheek! After all, this is supposed to be fun, right? I was so proud to see her there! It is amazing that just 4 weeks ago she was undergoing major spinal surgery and she is doing awesome.

Here's me running over to hug my mom!

I was feeling great! Legs felt good & kept an eye on the garmin - it looked like I was hitting below 9 min miles, but to me it felt like I was only running 10 min miles! The support & entertainment on the first 11 miles was awesome. I saw my parents again right after the 10K mark where my overall pace had dropped to an 8:51. I pretty much know at this point I've gone out a little too aggresive. One of the Belmont churches had a choir & band out there singing a beautiful "Halleluia" song at mile 7 that gave me chill bumps and put total perma-grin on my face for a couple of miles! These guys have the right idea!!! Mile 9, I'm scanning the crowd for the yellow "Livestrong" shirt on the sidewalks. K had planned to meet me somewhere between mile 9 & 10 :-) Mile 9.7 he drops in with me. At the 10 mile marker my garmin said 1:28, which was an 8:49 overall pace. By mile 11 I started getting a really fatigued feeling on the back of my legs - like... where the leg meets the buns. Was it the hills? This was where I took my first gel (strawberry banana) & chased with water. Mile 12, I started having lots of pressure. As in - bathroom pressure. K & I stopped at the next porta-potty and I relieved myself with at least 5 min wasted - couldn't help it. It was a really strange poo & I'll just leave it at that :-/ I felt better. But then at mile 15 I started feeling bad again!!! We stopped and walked for a couple of minutes - I was starting to feel like a real loser & I realized my time was shot!! And at this point I saw no end in sight. I could not imagine running 11 more miles. The top back of my legs and hips were SCREAMING at me! We pushed on through 16 and mile 17 presented us with a hill that looked as if it were 3 miles long. However; I think it was probably only about .75 of a mile or so. I did another gel (Tangerine) at mile 17 & ate 2 pretzels & drank a small cup of salt water. Mile 18, there was severe bathroom pressure again & I didn't think I'd make it to find a porta-potty. Finally one showed up & I spent a good 5 or 6 minutes in there. It was never-ending & I can't figure out where all this goofy looking poo was coming from!!! LOL. I would think "goodness that has to be the end of it!" but I was wrong! Surely I've evacuated my system!!! K was holding strong -- continually supporting me & telling me how strong I was. It was REAL REAL good to have him out there with me! I needed it! Miles 19 & 20 turned into a slow shuffle. At the completion of mile 20, you head back into downtown. Thank Goodness because miles 13-19 are completely DEAD and boring!!!! I saw my daddy! He was waiting to get pics!


Mile 20 I'm expecting Lana. She was right when she told me earlier this week she'd push, pull or drag me to the finish. She had a camelbak with my gatorade endurance & anything else I might need. K decided to go ahead and finish out the last 6 with us, which gave him approximately 16.3 miles for the day. WOW! We all 3 got about a half mile & I got a side stitch and had to slow down, breathe out really hard & finally just stop and bend over for about 15 seconds to relieve it. Starting back from walking is like... the most painful thing. It was like my hips and legs were locked and I had to pry them back open everytime. Looking back on it, I should have been rolling it out with a jog instead of thinking I would get relief from walking. There was no relief. It was almost more painful to walk than to jog. And mentally it broke me to pieces. I was disgusted. Mile 21 - pressure - ugh-oh guys... look for a porta-potty. This is a bad one!!!! Oh my! I am not sure if I'm goin to be able to hold it!!!! Lana reminded me to squeeze it in tight! LOL. K finally saw a porta-potty in the distance & sprinted ahead to make sure one was available for me. When I got there, this guy had it set up RIGHT! He had cleaned the seat (as much as possible) and it lined it with toilet paper. It was a good thing. I was in there awhile - still wondering where this bizare stuff is coming from! LOL. And the flow just continued. I finally had nothing left! So we take off and get to around mile 22 & I have to stop AGAIN at a porta-potty. This time... it was just mostly gas but after the other 3 episodes you don't trust gas! Right before stopping we passed Michele & Heather & they were on mile 24! These girls rocked the CMM & sub-4'd!!!! AWESOME!!! Lana convinces me to gel it up! She said if there is anyway I can stand it, right now is the time to take it to push me to the finish. I did a caramel one & chased with water from the medical tent. I do think it may have given me a bit of a push, but that push just don't last long enough. We jogged it out to around mile 24 where I was just in so much pain, 2.2 miles seemed like an eternity. I didn't think I would make it. Then one of the bands started playing the song "Lovin.... is what I GOT! Remember THAT!... Life is too short so love the one ya got or might got run over or you might get SHOT!" and all three of us started singing it! It was a great moment that can never be replaced!!!! K & Lana mentally pushed me & encouraged me to shuffle. I would try but it just wouldn't last too long and I'd be walking again. And I almost just wanted to stop and just lay down in the grass. This HAD to be my most painful run ever! I hurt much much worse at mile 16 than I did on any of my long training runs. Mile 25 there was a final water stop & I walked it & took in as much water as possible. From there on out we shuffled to mile 26 where Lana & K peeled off & I surged to the finish line probably as hard as I could go at the time. The finish chute is awesome!!!! Total time: 4:33. Not exactly what I had hoped for or even feel like I am capable of. It was a finish though & now I am a marathoner! :-)


I must have looked pretty bad at the line because a medical person with gloves approached me & said "Are you ok??? Do you need anything?" And I said "Nah! I think I'm fine. Thanks though!" lol. I got my cape, my medal & as I was trying to find where to get my chip cut off I saw Tim. Who was going for a PR (approximately a 3:45) but suffered from severe cramps in his calf & didn't make his goal. However, he still rocked it out with a 4:07!!! I got my chip cut off, grabbed an apple & took two bites, a small container of pineapple and wanted OUT of there to find my family. I was hurting bad. I found them!!! They were so happy to see me & I was happier to see them! K was feeling fine from his 16 miler & Lana was tickled to death for me even though she put in a total of 18.1 miles for the day including her 1:54 half mary time, plus meeting me at mile 20. What a support crew I had! How did I ever get so lucky? They got me to the finish. I don't think I could have made it without them!
This is me & my proud Momma!
Me with Momma & Daddy!

Me with Lana & my mom.

And me & my proud Daddy!
Me & K

And.... this picture speaks for itself! I love it. It brings tears to my eyes.

Congratulations to Tim, Lee, Heather, Michele, Mary Beth, Amy, Audra, Patricia, Rosiland, and John D, Lisa, Holly J, Karen H, Mike & everyone else!!!

T minus 32 hours!!

Ok, so this is the latest I've stayed up all week! Ahhh.... go to bed Holly. I've slept like a baby all week - haven't felt any stress, pressure or anxiety. What's up with that? Is it all waiting to hit me tomorrow? I don't know. We'll see. I can only feel excitement! Even when I think about the predicted rain - I just feel excited. I'm sure that excitement will die down when I get to mile 11 - the split off between the half and the full!!!

Guys, I have all my stuff packed (except for contact solution and toothbrush). I love being prepared. I love knowing I have done the responsible thing not waiting till the last minute to be stressed and wondering if I've forgotten half of my stuff. Here's the plan - Tomorrow.... going in early to work, and leaving at lunch-time. Coming home to grab my stuff, and tell Hattie goodbye and let her wish me lots of luck :-) lol. Heading to NashVegas to check into my hotel, making my way to the expo, watching my nephews rock the streets in the Kids marathon, eating din-din (pasta-pasta), saying a really deep sincere prayer, and hitting the bed! K has plans to meet me in N'ville later and see me to the start line Sat morning.

Now - for the pre-race week nutrition. I have SO carbed it up!!! I don't think I've ever eaten this many carbs. Every meal. And I've done great by eating no grease. No fries, no potatos. My carbs have consisted of mainly pasta and rice. Protein? Grilled chicken, roasted turkey, meatsauce for spagetti. I've junked it up too! Rice crispy treats, 1/2 of a Wendy's frosty, hot tamales, captain crunch, the list goes on. I cut out cokes on Tuesday and have been saturating my body with around 65 ounces of water plus water with meals each day.

I am looking forward to the marathon experience. I am looking forward to seeing many many friends reach their goals - lots of them finishing a half marathon for the first time. I am looking forward to that finish line too!

Goodluck to everyone doing the half and full! My beloved, supportive, supa-fast sister Lana, Boston marathoner Holly J, Tim, Lee, Michele, Ronnie, Heather, Mary Beth, Amy, Audra, Mike, Lisa, Rosiland, Patricia, Trevor, John D, David & anyone else I may have overlooked. And I will personally miss Kim R! What a bright, warm, and encouraging friend she is!

Hopefully next time I post, you'll see me with a medal around my neck!

I HEART TAPER!

This week is taper-time :-) Finally! 15 weeks down (almost) with 1 to go. I started my plan Jan 12, and before Jan 12 I was preparing by running several 8 milers. Sunday my legs were toast. I wanted to MTB at Lock 4 with Jamie and others but the rain ruined it once again.

Monday my legs were still toast - however I managed to get in a 4-miler on the treadmill that morning before work due to the never-ending rain. Oooh.... legs. They felt like they weighed 80lb each!!! Still broken down from that 20-miler. This run was designed strictly for burning out some lactic acid in those 80lb bad boys. It was a slow one -- like 48 min or something. I didn't care!! It's taper time baby - anything goes :-) So Tuesday was going to be a rest day until I walked out to my car during lunch to discover the weather was bliss! 59 degrees with a slight breeze. Hmm... I've got some old running clothes and shoes in the car. I just started changing in the car and opted for a 5 miler. Still slow - 44:30. So Wed??? Well it was definitely a rest day! For sure! It worked out GREAT!!! By Wed night my legs felt normal again. I'm not sleeping at night though. I think I am worried about the marathon.... as well as some other things going on. Mean people suck. Uncaring people suck. Selfish people suck the worst though. Selfishness is incurable. Granted.... each and everyone of us has selfish tendancies, but some are just over the top "ALL PEOPLE IN THIS WORLD WERE PUT HERE FOR ME." I don't like it. It sickens me. Broken lawn mowers suck. Not being able to sleep at night sucks. I am up every hour. I even tried good ol faithful white zin last night - still didn't work. I keep seeing myself at mile 21 - and it's not a pretty sight.

So, today I rode 19.5 miles on my road bike at lunch. I did the Staggerwing Du course plus about a mile. The wind was brutal - on the way out AND on the way in. But mainly on the way in! Somehow I managed to keep a 17.8mph average. While that's not too hot on that particular course.... it was better than I expected with the winds that made me too uncomfortable to get in my aerobars on the way back! It was supposed to be an easy spin anyways - just a litle cross-training and #1 goal was to preserve legs for the marathon next week. I didn't push a harder gear than I should have. I kept it comfortable.

Tomorrow? My taper plan says "7 miles!" Boy - I can't wait to just run 7!!!! Then it's going to get even better by next week! I'm hoping this taper is going to be the magic I need for a finisher's medal next weekend.

Vingt!

Yep! That's right! Twenty = Vingt in French. I finished off my week and my marathon training (minus taper) with a vingt miler. Ouch. And yes I know it's a little late in the game to try and catch up with a 20-miler. However, I did it for the mental aspect of training more than anything. My body was cursing my mind at mile ten. Ummm... that's a little early. I was only halfway there at mile 10??? My legs were DEAD. I went trail running Thursday evening since the winds were so brutal. I did a 6 mile trail run in 53:30 for a 9:15 pace. I have never trail run that fast. It makes the outside of my calves, shins and ankles really sore from where the trail is sloped and I'm constantly stepping on obstacles. Tuesday I did a 5 mile run during my lunch break. So... I'm just not sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing because this 20-miler hurt me. It sucks to hurt for 10 miles. Here's what I did as far as fluid intake. Mile 5, 4 oz of water. Mile 7, 4 oz of water. Mile 10, 4 oz of gatorade endurance formula & a 1 minute speed walk. Mile 12, 4 oz of water. Mile 12.5, Powerbar Gel caramel flavor chased with 3 oz of water. This was my first gel. I was nervous it would make me sick, but it didn't. Actually right around mile 13, I think it pumped a little bit of life into me. I felt better until I hit mile 15... hmmm... didn't last long. Mile 16 my legs are TOAST!!!! And numb! I guess I can expect to feel this way at mile 16 since my last 3 long runs have felt as if I was in bonk territory at mile 16. Mile 16, 4 oz of water. Mile 18, 4 oz of gatorade endurance formula. Miles 17.5-20 were sheer shuffling/scooting/pain/this garmin WILL NOT hurry up and hit 20. I would be convinced I had run at least a half mile only to find that it was only .20 of a mile. I ended up finishing with a total time of 3:08:50 - which is a lame 9:26 pace.

I'm really not sure if I should be proud of myself for actually doing a vingt-miler or if I should accept the fact that I am obviously NOT trained for this race. I should not be in extreme pain at mile 16, and have 10 more to go on race day. I've always thought extreme pain should not occur until you are within 3-5 miles of your finish. I once again have found an unreal amount of respect for marathon finishers. There have been times when I tried to imagine how they must feel on the last 1/4 of the race. I think I have no idea and can't really imagine how painful it is going to be for me. I wish I were trained better, but guess what. I'm not. And it's past time for my taper.No more long runs allowed. Rest is the only thing on my side at this point (thank God) and I will have to accept the results of an untrained marathon finish. Where I'm at -- is just where I'm at. And it's not pretty. It's not the ideal level I was hoping for. My whole body is sore and tight today and I was a bit sick yesterday afternoon until I ate dinner last night. That same flu/stomach issues/headache/dehydrated feeling. I am better today!!! I am thankful that I completed a 20 miler, even though it did not feel like a strong one. I pushed on when I didn't think I could. So if nothing else.... at least I know what to expect up until mile 20... and I'll kinda know what it's like to shuffle my legs when they are dead. Until Apr 26 - I am ready to soak up that taper :-) And I am all smiles when I say that :-)

Black Betty Hits the Road!

This beautiful 72 degree weather called for my first road ride of the year! And boy did we break it in nicely! :-) Black Betty whispered in my ear the other day and said "Hey Jane... I need some fresh air. Can we get our pedal on?" So today was her day :-) We met Lana & Miss QR at her work parking lot around 11:30 and headed out to do part of the Staggerwing du course, and added a nice couple of climbs (Brinkley and Ledford Mill) to complete a total of 22.4 miles. I think John Brinkley rolled over in his grave when he heard the vulgarities coming from my throat as I GASPED for air climbing his steep 4 letter word hill. Talk about some burning! Lungs and Legs!!!! I even got desperate and tapped my gears to see if another easy one would miraculously kick in. It didn't. So I cranked on... without much choice. The entire ride took just a little less than 1:20. It was a wonderful wonderful wonderful ride!!! I expected to feel bad thinking that Black Betty would be hard on me today... but she cooperated well! I felt a bit stronger than I expected and I was able to get in some good beginner practice for those slick little aerobars I added! Still not hardly able to hammer as often as Lana.... but that's ok. That makes me work harder! Which in turn - makes me a better, stronger rider. Check her out as we cruised down some of the most beautiful rural land ever!!

As I blog, I am icing my hip flexor that's been giving me fits for a couple of weeks. I'm hurting all night long now and even just walking is bothering me. Why so many injuries? Not enough stretching again?

I found this new video for my sidebar. I thought it added a nice kick since I've brought Black Betty out of hybernation and off her trainer for a fun-filled season which hopefully includes a century ride this fall!!! I have to admit this song plays over and over in my head when I ride. LOL.

Catching Up: Mud, Good Samaritans, & 18 miles

Geez... I gotta blog more!!! Ok, so we'll start with my Thursday Mar 27 mountain biking adventure at Chickasaw. Final pre-ride before the big race! I took the day off work and spent the night and next day with my mom until around 1:30. I had a hair appt in the boro at 5:30 so I was really pushing it. It was a beautiful day and I felt like I should slip in a final lap at Chiki before race-day! And boy was it a good ride! I took another 4 minutes off of my lap time for a 55:29, 8.8 avg speed! I was so shocked!!! As I gathered all my stuff up to leave, the first thing I always do is remove the helmet, I sat it on top of my car and said "Don't you leave that!" and then got all my gear together, bike on the rack and OFF to the boro I go to get a hair-do. I was totally pumped!!!

Got my hair done, and went on my merry little way for the rest of the wet rainy weekend just like all week had been :-/ Not good at all for mtn biking especially at Chickasaw. Evidentally... it's like a nightmare trying to ride there if it's the least bit wet. Saturday night I got all of my things together for the race. Let's see....... got my shoes, shorts, gloves, jersey, water bottle, camelbak, helmet in the car - always leave that in there. It started raining again in the middle of the night. I had called Angela earlier that evening to see what her feel of the trail would be -- and she had gotten word it was terrible!!! Sunday morning I am wide awake at 5:30 raring to go and all the sudden I get this awful feeling. After hearing about the damage mud can do to my precious gary fisher, and watching a Youtube video of some dudes mtn biking in the mud..... I had second thoughts. I finally decided my first race did not need to be a miserable one and I chose not to make the trip. I was totally bummed for a couple of days until I saw the results and saw that last year's winner in my class was 17 minutes faster than this year's. Then I heard from Angela and she had some major crashes because of the mud and ended up with a really terrible cut which required 5 stitches! So I am content with my decision now! :-/

So, Monday I ran 4.5 miles in Normandy where 2.5 of those miles are brutal hills. Then Tuesday, nothing - rain. Wednesday I plan to hop on my road bike for the first time off the trainer. I planned an easy spin during my lunch hour. I go out to my car to get my clothes to change and discover the helmet is not in my car. Wait a minute.... it's always in my car. It can't be at home??? When's the last time you saw it Holly "the first thing I always do is remove the helmet, I sat it on top of my car and said 'Don't you leave that!'" Oh no. NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NO!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am devastated. It's gone. What a careless ridiculous stupid freakin mistake!!!! So I thought I'd try one last thing before ordering another Giro Atmos black size small - $185... I emailed Angela with the Columbia Cycling Club to see if there was a chance anyone woulda turned it in IF it was found and not smashed and if so.... is there a place or a person to contact. 1 hour later I receive an email from a man over the club telling me that a good samaritan by the name of Wade Combs had found my helmet -- last Thursday! OMG... you are kidding. There really ARE good people out there! I was ecstatic! Wade -- my HERO! So I call him and describe the helmet and sure enough - it's mine! YAY!!! So it's prob a good thing I didnt make the trip to Columbia Sunday to race withOUT my helmet. I woulda felt like a tool with a capital T! Turned out Jamie works next to his work in Franklin so she delivered it to me yesterday on her way to the big Niota, TN! :-) Thanks Wade. Thanks Angela, Thanks Columbia Cycling Club, Thanks Jamie!

So, Thursday evening after work I did a 6 mile run. I felt pretty darn good the whole time! 53:39 - 8:56 pace. I'll take it! No knee pain. At ALL! This morning my plan was to fill up my fuel belt with sport beans, shot blocks, and fluids. I took off from Rayfields around 8:45 thinkin I MIGHT make it around 12 miles before I fall out and die. I have no idea what I am capable of right now - probably not much! But we'll find out - and this is going to determine if I am going to scale down for the half mary on Apr 26 or if I am going to go with my original plan prior to 2 knee injuries and a deathly stomach virus. Well, it just so happens.... I went freakin 18!!! Total surprise! Here's how it went: Mile 5 - 3 oz of water. Mile 6 - 3 oz of water and a shot block. Mile 7 - 3 oz of gatorade endurance formula. Mile 9 - 3 oz of water. Mile 11 - 3 oz of gatorade EF and a half of a shot block which had to be expelled because I got a bad nausea feeling and couldn't stomach swallowing part of it. Mile 12.25 - I died. I was hurting... and still feeling sick and light-headed. I conceded and speed-walked .25 of a mile - around 2 minutes worth. Starting back hurt like hell! But I tell myself my body will only do as much as my mind allows. So, mile 15 I do 3 oz of water. Mile 17 I do 3 oz of gatorade EF and I ended up seeing that I would only hit 17.1 if I went straight back to my car. So I had to run back and forth on the greenway (I picked a flat section) until I hit 18!!!! I DID IT!!!!! Victory!!!!

So... I don't see that it's possible to add 8 more to that. How in the world will I ever do that in 3 weeks? I can't imagine adding 2 more to be honest. At mile 16.5 I had the dead robot leg feeling - like they wouldn't bend and I was doing all I could do to push out a 10 minute mile. It was not pretty. Total time: 2:49 Pace: 9:23. And guess what - no flu like stomach issues after my run finally!!! Talk about self-fullfillment! Wow! It's been a great week!!!

My mother is improving my leaps and bounds recovering from her surgery. That makes me so happy :-) I got to enjoy about 3 hours of fellowship, wine and dessert with Bethany Friday night. Good times! That was good for the soul! :-)