Back on Board

Well hello!

A month has gone by... seriously I am a slacker.  I have no excuse, I was just neglecting my poor little blog.  Maybe the Oregon rain was depressing me?  Who knows.  The good news is - I am back.  Let's use this time to do a run down with the latest...

I was in Utah in May.  Remember that marathon I signed up for?  Yeah - REALLY wish I wouldn't have announced that!  In February (yep 4 months ago), while training, I strained my hip flexor.  For a couple months I thought nothing of it, the pain wasn't bad enough to completely stop running. So I just would run and ice, convinced it would work itself out.  Turns out I am not 18 anymore and my body doesn't just "work itself out".  The pain moved to my back and about 3 weeks before the marathon I was pretty sure 26 miles wasn't happening since walking across a parking lot took it all out of me.  I broke down - saw a doctor.  He pushed on my tender muscle and showed me the worst pain I have EVER felt.  If I would have been able to breathe, I might have punched him.  The injury is in my psoas muscle. The psoas is a hip flexor muscle that attaches to your lumbar spine and wraps around your pelvic bone and ends at your hip.  It's super deep and almost impossible to touch.  It's really contracted and tight.  Because it's tight it's pulling on my spine, hence the back pain. The doctor moved my back around and I walked out of his office with the most relief I had felt in my back for a long time.  2 hours later the pain was back, I guess this won't be a quick fix.  8 weeks of no aggressive activity was his recommendation for recovery.  Well I don't really have 8 weeks in my schedule.  We were 2 weeks before the marathon and 6 weeks (now less than 2) before the relay I run every year - I told him as much.  He tried to understand - he said a marathon was insane and would probably be a big let down because of the pain.  I took his advice, switched to the half marathon (so much less insane).  I suppose my 8 week recovery begins June 20th (after the relay).  So instead of my A game, I guess I am bringing my B (maybe C) game for a while.... UGH, frustrating!!

The half marathon actually went pretty well.  The pain wasn't terrible until mile 8.  I always say mile 8 is the turning point of a half because 5 more miles isn't intimidating. Plus, I knew my grandparents would be happily waiting at the finish line - seeing how excited they were made it all worth it!  

What else...

Shannon and Dan had a baby!!  CRAZY!  You can see her, Piper, for yourself here.  I can hardly believe it - It's amazing to see them move into parenthood.  They're tired and happy all signs they are doing a great job.  She is adorable, tiny, perfect and I can't help but want to squeeze her.  She looks EXACTLY like Shannon, her feet and eyes are almost spot on, it's amazing.  I know I am going to be the annoying adult in her life that always says, I knew your mom when she was your age... blah blah... but now I know why adults can't help it saying things like that!  It's amazing to see life progress.  Isn't she a doll?

Also....

Over Memorial Day Ben and I went to Bend.  Between crazy work schedules, parties, weddings, wedding showers, travelling and just craziness it was nice to have a weekend away.  We ate, went hiking, bought candy, ate candy, ate ice cream, went running and just hung out, did I mention we ate candy? -  all the ingredients for a perfect weekend away!

Now that I am back on board with blogging I promise to update with pictures and cleverness.  Deneal is getting married in a month and Piper will keep growing and do awesome baby stuff - so if nothing else I will have them to talk about!  :-) 

Stay Tuned! 

Jumping Into A New Age... Literally.

This year, given my feelings as previously posted about getting older, I wanted to do something completely insane for my birthday. My first initial thought was skydiving, then as Deneal and I were talking (she has a birthday 10 days after mine) we decided that maybe the proper way to celebrate our special days would be to jump off a bridge! (To show our true feeling about getting older while attached to a bungee of course). I told Dan and Shannon our plan and they were more than enthusiastic to join. And so it was, we made plans on Labor Day to each jump off a 480 foot bridge, TWICE, in Amboy, WA. This is not something I would normally do, so to save myself from losing my mind I actually just didn't think about it to the days leading up to it. I honestly had no anxiety until I stood on the bridge filling out liability paperwork and had to check yes or no to questions that read "Would you like an open casket?" or "Would you like to be cremated?". Yeah - not funny. But I was already there, I committed and come what may I was doing it.

Because of my shortness I had to use a different bungee than the rest of the group and therefore, had to go last. I wasn't sure if watching everyone first would be a good or bad thing but there wasn't much of a choice. The process goes like this, you climb over a small fence to the platform, you turn around they count down 3...2...1.. and you jump - superman style. They are very particular about this with good reason. They say if you give yourself enough time up there to reason you will have a really hard time jumping. Instead, you just jump as to not let sanity get the best of you! :) The superman style is to make sure that your head is fat enough away from the bungee so you don't get hit in the face. Once you do your first jump they pull you back up and it's time for the second jump... backwards. Let's be honest these are probably the most nervous smiles you have ever seen.

Dan went first, He did awesome and because he had done this once before he got to try a "special" jump where you run and jump off the opposite side and do sort of a sling shot move. Yeah, now that's insane! Next was Shannon. Shannon was nervous and if you know Shannon you know that although she is adventurous and always up something new, bungee jumping was probably not her first choice. But, this was an exciting adventure and something to check off her bucket list. She did get a little bit of a fat lip from her first jump and although she was worried about her teeth she went for jump number 2. Look at her down there, THAT is how far you fall. Whoa...Next up, Deneal. She had to clear her head a little and did not want to hear a word Shannon said as she was coming up. After the bungee was attached, she went for it. She yelled, "I love this" on jump number 1, backwards jump number 2, however, she was not a fan of.Then it was me. I had to take a moment to find my inner strength, peace, insane woman, I don't know what I was trying to find, I think I was just praying my heart out that I would survive. Then after I explained the "rules of jumping" back to the jump instructors and making them promise me again and again that they had double and triple checked my bungee I started the climb over the fence. I have to be honest... climbing this little fence off the side of a bridge in the rain and stepping onto a tiny platform 480 feet above a slow moving creek is TERRIFYING! I went as slow as I could and felt it necessary to tell the instructor that "I am not a strong fence climber". Which is true! Alas I made it to the platform. Looked the guy in the eyes ONE more time and asked if I would be ok. He nodded his head. My legs were visibly shaking and I thought to myself as I turned around, "I better jump when they say 1 or there is NO way I am jumping off this bridge." At that point my body and my brain were saying, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" Well, this is what happened...

Here are some pictures in case you have no interest in watching video of a person flinging themselves off the side of a bridge...

After they hoisted me up, it was time for round 2. BACKWARDS! Oh man, I really had to find some inner strength for this one. No one in their right mind jumps off a bridge forward, LET ALONE backward!

But, with the same technique, I made them promise I would be ok, they counted and I knew jump now, or never.

SUPER happy I survived!

And VERY relieved to be on the other side, not positive that the last 15 minutes really just happened.

Well, that's it - I jumped off a bridge to celebrate my new age and I lived! I think it's going to be an awesome year! Would I do it again? Absolutely, now I get a discount. Was it the scariest thing I have ever done? Yes, without question the scariest thing, but I must also mention that flying through the air at 68mph is an INCREDIBLE feeling. I can honestly say I have never felt anything like it. High fives all around, good job guys!

197 Miles of Pure Running Joy

Hood to Coast. Mount Hood to Seaside, OR equals 12 people sharing 197 miles for 24 hours. Each person runs 3 legs of the race, rain, shine and pitch black. You've read my relay posts before, you know the drill. Team name of choice: Road-Ents of Unusual Size. Classic.This race however, will be one to remember... Shannon decided on a pedicure the week before the race. This meant no more callouses on her feet and A LOT of blisters after running. She wins team rockstar for running with these things. I can't even imagine that kind of pain. Dan decided to dress up for the occasion, mullet, sweat band, belly shirt and all. Notice the road-ent hand drawn on his cut off wife beater. Dan wins best costume, for sure! Please note the mullet hair blowing in the wind.I was super stoked about my first leg. I typically don't talk about my race times, honestly it doesn't usually matter to me. But this first leg I averaged a 7.4 minute mile for the 6 miles I ran. That definitely has never happened before, something was just right that day! This is my tired celebration face.Jon is warming up for his first leg. I can't decide if this is a sumo stance or a monkey, but he wins best way to warm up for an 8 mile run.Mike was joking about giving him Pringles instead of water during his 2nd run. Dan followed through with the request. Mike takes home the prize for eating the most disgusting thing while running.I've learned from Chris Provost (via Wasatch Back Relay) that crazy dance moves are the best way to cheer on your fellow runner. I believe this is the running man in action, I can never be sure what moves I will bust out though. Shannon brought her didgeridoo all the way from Australia to cheer on the runners! She really is getting good at playing it too. I think it was just what we needed for that extra motivation. I really am serious when I say run through the night... this is Angela, Emily and I at about 10pm. Our van was finishing up our legs to pass the slap bracelet on to their van for a few hours. This would be about 3am. I always wanted a picture of me running at night and my wish was granted. I rolled my ankle on this run - ha maybe running at 3am on a forest road with potholes isn't the smartest idea?!After the 3am run, when I thought the running party was over and my legs were completed I did what any normal person would do. I began gorging myself with beef jerky and pretzles. The problem with this was as we went down to meet Dan (the last runner in our van) at the exchange point the next van of teammates were no where to be found. "Oh crap" we all thought standing on the side of the road, as visions of disqualification danced through our heads, we knew Dan would be there to meet the next runner any second. I looked around at all of our feet and realized I was the only idiot (for lack of a better word) with running shoes still on. I looked at Shannon as I started taking off my outer layer of sweats and said, "Well I guess I'm running again." When Dan got to the exchange which wasn't but 30 seconds later he looked at me very confused, but passed the prized slap bracelet onto me and off I went. I only had to run 3 of the 5 miles of the leg as my van hurried to find our team and the next runner. Turns out it was just a little timing miscommunication and I like to believe the 3 extra miles burned up all those calories I ate when I originally thought I was done. Here I am after the 4th leg. Just for clarification, I am flexing NOT attempting to punch my fist through the window. :) After we were really done with our legs we headed to Seaside for the FINISH! Here is our van of runners. And our whole team together. Until next time peeps!

An Australian Story

G'day! How you goin'? I reckon you stopped by to hear about my trip to the land down under. Well let's get to it, but I must warn you that this post may seem out of the ordinary. You see, in Australia they have a different way of speaking. Such a way, in fact, that made me stop many times and say, "what the heck are you talking about?!" No worries though mate, you'll catch on.

Australia is beautiful and Kelley, Hillary, Shannon and I were happy as Larry when we finally arrived after 36 hours of travelling. Unfortunately, the airline left Hilary's kit in New Zealand and she had to wear the same jumper and daks for 2 days. When it finally arrived we were ecstatic and ready to start our adventures!

Our trip started in Brisbane where Kelley has some rellies who welcomed us with open arms. Her granddad fed us brekky every morning with real crumpets and was so sweet to let us use his car. Don't worry we filled it with petrol before returning it. Since I can drive a stick shift, I was lucky enough to be the one who got to drive on the opposite side of the road. It took all of my concentration to give way to oncoming traffic and look both ways before crossing anything since Australia is FULL of roundabouts(my running nemesis).

We saw so many amazing animals up close. We fed kangaroos and elephants and held koala bears and baby crocadiles. We went way out into the woop woop and through the bush to go 4-wheeling on a secluded beach. We saw an Australian footy game and barracked for the Brisbane Broncos. We even went to Mackers for tea once and ordered chips with our hamburgers. And you better believe when we went to the milk bar I bought a ton of lollies and bikkies to bring back to the US as prezzies.

I treated myself to a few dinki-di's and brought home a didgeridoo and boomerang so I wouldn't forget the fun tip. I found the Aussies to be fair dinkum. Definitley a place I would holiday in again!

Alright... I feel like I just filled out a mad libs poem with random words that make no sense. I promise that's really how they speak. They have the funniest words for everyday things. I probably said "what?" more times on this trip then I did in Greece! If you made it this far, good on ya... you will now be treated with some pictures.