Come run with me!

Next Sunday (June 1) is my 35th birthday and way back in January I decided for my birthday I wanted to run 35 miles. I mentioned my plan to Bad Ben and it's kinda morphed into a real run complete with food & drinks. So please, if you're in the area (or even NOT in the area) and want to get in a good trail run, please join me at Clinton Lake in Lawrence at about 7:00am on June 1. You don't have to run the whole thing if you don't want to, it's a very well marked trail with plenty of places to turn around. My husband is planning on coming out and hiking a portion of it if that's more your thing. If it's forecast to be really stinking hot I may start earlier but I'll post if there's any changes. And for the record I'm planning on taking it slow since my highest distance to date is a marathon. C'mon you know you wanna!

Night hike

Friday night the husband & I went for a night hike at Wyco park. Left about 15 minutes before sunset and did a quick 4 miles. We saw a bunch of raccoons, deer and millions of bugs. We also heard lots of rustling and "scary"noises. I wanted to try out a headlamp and figured rather then sitting on our butts all evening this was a good way to get out. I enjoyed showing husband some of the trails that I run regularly and next time we do it, we'll start at a different spot so he can see yet another section. We had a really good time and he got a great introduction to Wyco mud. Saturday morning I just did 5 miles but for some reason I went really fast (well, fast for me anyway), my fruit smoothie must have been turbocharged! I went fast and felt GREAT. All runs should be like that! I skipped the group run at Clinton Lake this morning... husbands band played last night and by the time I got home it was close to 3 am and to make it to the run on time I have to be up by 5:30am... I decided to sleep instead. After a good sleep in, I ran to the City Market and husband rode down on his bike.. did a bit of shopping and ran home. Unfortunately, it was hot and humid, humid, humid. When I left the house the humidity was about 65%... yuk! It's going to take awhile to acclimate to the heat & gross again. Some ice cold watermelon when I got home sure hit the spot... couple slices and your core temp drops real quick. Now it's off to Costco to pick up some fans so we can put off turning on the A/C as long as possible.

I had a fun day off on Thursday... I finally packed up my winter clothes and got my summer ones out of storage... I fully expected to wake up to snow on Friday.. but I guess I waited long enough! I also painted my toes... notice I said toes... I painted the toenails I have left & my nail-less toes and made it look like I still have all 10! I can wear flipflops now! My life is so exciting.

Busy

It's been a busy couple of weeks, I feel like I've not gotten a chance to breathe, much less rest or run! But it looks like things are back to normal, no more weddings, which also means none of the bullshiat that goes along with being in weddings. Don't get me wrong, both weddings were beautiful, but I don't deal well with my own family tensions, I don't like to be shoved in the middle of someone else's.

Sundays run at Clinton Lake was great.. a lot of the Trail Nerds were racing at Berryman, so it was just Sophia, Gary, Mark & I for 20 miles. The weather was beautiful and the trails are in good shape.. which means not very muddy, which means the Mud Babes might have to switch to their summer name of the Dirt Dolls (thanks Gary!). One of the things I love most about the group runs with the Trail Nerds is the vast amount of information available...everyone comes from such varied backgrounds and have done so much with their lives. I feel like I'm getting the best education in ultra-running & nature every time I do a group run. This week I got an education in identifying poison ivy (not personally thank goodness), a lesson in identifying copperhead snakes (Gary jumped over the snake, the rest of us took a bit of a detour around it) and a personal brush with bonking.
For some reason I forgot to start my garmin at the beginning of the run, and when I remembered we were already 20 or so minutes in, which threw off my eating, drinking, s-capping cycle. I usually start eating & s-capping at mile 5, but everything was off and so I didn't eat enough and I probably didn't drink enough for the heat either. At about 15 miles I started feeling pretty rough and ended up having to walk quite a bit of the last 2 miles after Sophia put the hammer down and everyone took off. I'm going to chalk some of the problem up to the stress of the last 2 weeks, and standing around in heels all day on Saturday, but I know that mostly it was my fault for not paying closer attention. Live and learn....at least it wasn't during a race!
I am digging all the animals I've been seeing on my runs, there have been countless deer, 2 turtles, 5 snakes, the cutest fuzzy yellow duckling that I almost jumped on at Wyco Park (it was an accident!), millions of colorful birds... I just love spring!

nope...

... nope, I promise, that's not wedding cake in my mouth..... ok, maybe I had just a few bites... but it's good luck right??

I want my $200 back!

So we saw Elvis Costello & the Police at the $print Center on Tuesday night... and it kinda blew ass. It was our first time at the $print Center and we were completely underwhelmed. Why, oh Why, when they are building these new arenas do they not consider that bands will be playing these places and do something with the acoustics? The sound was so bad for Elvis that at times I was wondering just what the hell he was playing! It was better for the Police but not fabulous... the sound guy should be dragged out in the street and shot, that's for sure. The Police seemed to be just going through the motions, played all the hits but they did do some great versions and some of Andy Summers solos were amazing. I wish I could say something about the Elvis set, but other than Sting coming out and singing with him on Allison, I couldn't hear shit so nothing to say, which sucks 'cause I LOVE that man! We forked out $100 a seat and our seats were pretty crappy, I can't imagine how bad the nosebleed seats are! I give the evening a B.... hanging out with good friends always makes things better and even if the sound wasn't up to par, live music is great! I probably won't go see another show at the $print Center anytime soon though.. unless the tickets are free!

People are dumb!

So this morning on my run as I'm coming up a hill on 9th street and a guy is coming down the hill... in the middle of the road on his cell phone. He's dressed like he should be running or doing something athletic, but he's strolling down the middle of the road, talking... make that yelling, into his cellphone. I'm watching as a car gets closer and closer to him and finally I yell out CAR! No response, keeps strolling down the hill.... some people are just fucking hopeless.

This week and last week have been silly busy... too many weddings and shows and just general crap to do. The older I get, the less I like going out every day of the week. Tonight we're going to see the Police & Elvis Costello at the Sprint Center... I'm so excited I could pee! Elvis puts on the best show and I can't wait to see the Police. Husband is really excited since he had tix to see the Police on the Synchronicity tour, drove 10 hours to Sydney and ended up getting in a fight with his girlfriend on the way and didn't go. He's kicked himself ever since. I'll try not to fight with him on the way there.. luckily it's only a 10 minute drive.
The picture is from my friend Heather's wedding, there was a big window in the 2nd floor ladies room and we were all hanging out the window catcalling scantily clad women on their way to a party across the street... cheap entertainment... a little bit of booze, a bunch of girls and a window. Who knew it could be so much fun...even the bride was doing it! Thanks to my friend Toast for playing paparazzi!

On Friday night I went to a bachelorette party for yet another friend getting married... I had never been to one before... all my other friends either hadn't had one or just had co-ed parties. It was really interesting to be part of that "girl zoo" as my friend Kaite puts it. I'm going to start keeping a white feather boa and tiara in my car permanently, because guys will give up their table at a crowded bar for a bachelorette party... who knew! We even got kicked out of a bar! It was fun but I much prefer the kind of last fling party I had... husband & I and our 4 closest friends in the presidential suite of a swanky hotel, drinking and eating pizza all night. Perfect.