Three Great Reasons to Run...

1) Chocolate!
2) Champagne!
3) Sister-Bonding Time!

A half-marathon that weaves these three wonderful incentives together beautifully is the See Jane Run Half-Marathon Series.

The See Jane Run races are amazing events where women get a high quality race designed just for them in four fabulous cities across the country...this year, the Alameda, CA race is on June 3rd, the Boise, ID race is on June 16th, the Seattle, WA race is on July 15th, and the Austin, TX race is on October 7th.  And along with getting to run the race with a bunch of other amazing ladies, each finisher gets a sweet finisher's shirt...

...an awesome medal...

and probably most important of all, a champagne glass with the race logo inscribed on it, that gets to be filled with lots of yummy champagne at the post-race expo...

...where there will also be plenty of yummy chocolate to sample, and other tasty post-race food as well.  I can't think of better swag after a race than chocolate and champagne, can you?

I'm looking forward to the Boise race in particular this year because, for all the races I've completed in my running career, I haven't as yet been able to run one with my sister.  She's a nurse and has an extremely busy schedule, so this is the perfect solution since I'd be coming to her neck of the woods for the race.  So not only would she not have to worry about traveling to get to the race in Seattle, but she'd only have to get one day off for the actual race, as opposed to trying to get multiple days off for the race and travel time.  And after the race, did I mention that we'd get to celebrate over champagne and chocolate?!?!  Because I believe that warrants being mentioned again!

As if all the incentives to run these races weren't enough, the wonderful ladies at See Jane Run are sponsoring a 5 Days, 5 Ways to WIN! contest and are giving away 2 free slots in one of their races.  One of the 5 ways to win is through mentioning See Jane Run in your own running blog...so I'm hoping after reading my post, they'll agree that my sister and I are the perfect candidates for those two slots!

I'd like to end the post today with a little running poem to my sister (I'm coming up with this on the fly people, and I'm a math teacher, not an English teacher, so don't judge my rhyming skills too much!):

Ode to Running Sisters
As the race draws near, we'll all toe the line,
many sisters to run with, one of them mine.

When the gun goes off, away we will run,
giggling, singing, laughing, and just having fun!

Now 13.1 miles is a long way to race,
but with my sister by my side, I'll keep up the pace.

We may face some hills, and be tired a bit,
but with her running with me, I won't want to quit.

For a sister's the best friend one could be,
and the only one I want crossing the finish line with me!

Well, look at that, I'm a poet and I didn't know it!

Have you ever run a race with your sister?

Good Times Baking Holiday Sweets!

While in Boise with the fam, my sister decided that I could learn a few tricks of the baking trade from her so that when I got my Kitchenaid Mixer for Christmas, I'd be an old pro at the making of the baked goods!

So a few days before Christmas, we set to work...there was flour, sugar and butter galore, with some chopped nuts, mashed bananas, nutella, cream cheese, and red food coloring thrown in for fun effects.  The results were some of the most delicious concoctions that I've ever had the pleasure of saying that I helped create!  First on the list of baked delicacies were a couple batches of my sister's famous Nut Roll...

...we made six rolls in all (each batch produces 3 loaves) and I'm proud to say that I made pretty much the entire second batch by myself, though my sister did aid with the nut filling and my father was a whiz with the rolling pin!

The next order of business was finding a use for a couple uber-ripe bananas that my mother had been holding onto for who knows what reason.  I was thinking just regular old banana bread, but that's because, unlike my sister, I'm not a member of Pinterest yet.  She went looking through her pinned recipes and came up with Nutella Banana Bread...

...which I have to say is much more decadent than plain ol' banana bread.

Our third baking endeavor involved combining cream cheese, chocolate and red food coloring into another glorious Pinterest find, the Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies...

...which I might add that my sister and I managed to polish off in the matter of only a couple days, they are THAT good!

The next day, the baking goodness continued when my father got his bake on and made my absolute, all-time favorite Greek cookies in the entire world...Koulourakia!

These buttery little rings of awesomeness are by far the best cookies on earth, and no one can make them better than my dad...which is why my sister and I did not help with the baking process...I did partake fully in the eating process however!  I'm pretty sure I almost single-handedly polished off the entire batch he made, and there is a sad spot in my heart now that they are gone and that another batch will probably not be made until next Christmas...definitely an argument for keeping Christmas alive in your hearts (and kitchens) all year long in my opinion!

Now, I don't know any of the recipes by heart, but if you like what you see and would like one of the recipes, leave me a comment and I'll see if I can get the recipes from my sister.  Like I said before, the banana bread and brownie recipes are somewhere on Pinterest, but the Nut Roll is a family recipe, so I would definitely have to get her approval before giving it out.  I may not be able to pry the koulourakia recipe away from my father though, sorry, grandfather's recipe.

What wonderful goodies does your family make for the holidays?

Day Off for the Reindeer...

I was driving home from work on Friday when I saw the most bizzare sight...

...Santa cruzin' down I-5 North on a Harley!  The reindeer must have had the day off! :)

Sorry I've been so MIA from posting lately, but the last couple weeks before Winter Break were kind of crazy, with all the grading, test creating, test correcting, paper grading stuff I had to do for school.  But now, it's two weeks free from students, lesson planning, testing, and work in general!  Super excited about that, I'm not going to lie.  I get to spend the next week in Boise with the fam for the holidays, but right before I left, I got to take part in one of the main events of the basketball season for a Gonzaga Bulldog fan...the Battle in Seattle!

Every year for the past several years now, Gonzaga plays one of their regular season games at Key Arena in Seattle.  It's a big draw for Zag Alums for a couple reasons: 1) most of us relocate to the greater Seattle/Tacoma area after graduation, so the location is ideal, and 2) we tend to draw a big name school to this particular game, making it a very fun one to watch in person.  Some of our past match-ups have been Illinois, Davidson, UConn, and Tennessee.  This year, for the 9th Annual Battle, we were playing host to none other than the Arizona Wildcats!

My friends and I got tickets together in the second level at half court, and anxiously awaited the start of the game.  We started out really well, and Gonzaga was up 14-0 before Arizona even got their first basket...we were on a roll!

We went into the half up by 19, and so I was convinced we had the game in the bag.  Arizona had different plans however.  They came back strong in the second half, and at one point even brought it back to within 6 points (which, let me tell you, did not have the crowd very pleased).  But thankfully, the Zags pulled it together and rallied one last time, and Gonzaga ended up beating Arizona 71-60!

What a great way to leave the Seattle area for the holidays...with a victory under our belts!  Now let's just hope the Boise State Broncos can handle Arizona State just as well in the Maaco Las Vegas Bowl!

What Bowl Game are you looking forward to this season?

Finding Motivation

There are times for every runner when, for unexpected reasons, you go on a little hiatus from running.  After only a couple days, it's pretty easy to get back on the horse (as it were) and get back into a regular running routine.  However, if that couple of days turns into several days...a week...two weeks...it gets harder and harder to get back out there and go for a run.

That's kind of what I'm experiencing right now, and it's definitely having an upsetting affect on me.  During Cross Country season, I had an automatic run built into my day.  But now that the season is over, I'm finding it harder to get my runs in for two reasons:
1) there was an extra motivation to run because I was running with a group and didn't have to try to motivate myself, and
2) now that the season is over, my students have been staying after school to utilize me for extra help with math, and so by the time I leave school every night, it's already dark...and it's one thing to run alone as a woman during the day, it's a completely different thing to run alone as a woman after dark.

So, I've decided that what I need to get myself back into running (granted, it's only been 2 and a half weeks since my last run, but still, for me, that seems like a long time) is to get back into a regular running group.  And after doing a little research, I found just the thing I was looking for...and along with it, my N.Y.R. (New Year's Resolution) for 2012!   The Fleet Feet Store in Bonney Lake is having a Marathon and Half Marathon Training group starting in January.

Included in your registration fee are USATF Certified coaches to train you, biweekly runs with the group, online daily interactive training and coaching, clinics on good form running, nutrition and fitlosophy, a technical running shirt, and the best part of all...(drum roll please)...entrance into the Tacoma City Marathon!

For a while now, I've been intrigued by the idea of running another marathon (I ran the Portland Marathon back in 2007), but I wasn't sure if I could train for another one on my own like I did the last time.  But with a group, I know that I'd have the motivation to train because I'd feel like if I skipped a workout, I wouldn't just be letting myself down, but I'd also be letting the group down.  So since I was considering running the TCM with the Training Group, I started looking around their website for course map, elevation chart, things like that, and came across the fact that this particular marathon is a USATF Certified course...and therefore a Boston Marathon Qualifier!

Ever since I got into running, it's been a dream of mine to someday qualify for Boston.  When I started running with the cross country kids this season and my mile time started significantly dropping toward the end of the season, it occurred to me that this was probably the perfect year to attempt this goal.  I'm in the best running shape I've ever been in, and if I diligently stick with this training program, I can only get better.  Plus, with coaches there to help me learn how to keep a consistent pace, I'll stand an even better chance of getting myself prepared enough to qualify.  Now I'm not saying this isn't going to be an extremely huge challenge...there's a reason that not every runner out there can run Boston...it's friggin' hard as hell to qualify for.  In fact for my age group (females 18-34) the qualifying time is 3 hours 35 minutes, which averages out to just under 8:30 pace.  Now, just a couple weeks ago, I was averaging 7:53 pace...but that was only for 3 miles.  I need to somehow learn to maintain that for another 23.2 miles in order to reach my goal, but hey, at least it's a start.

So, it's official, my 2012 N.Y.R. is to train for and run the Tacoma City Marathon in a time that will qualify me for the 2013 Boston Marathon!

Have you ever gone on a hiatus from running and lost your motivation to get back out there?  What eventually lured you back?

Black Friday Success!!!!

This past Friday was a day that shoppers across the country know and love...Black Friday!

It's that ever amazing day where, as long as you are willing to get up at ungodly hours of the night and morning, you can stand outside in the cold and the dark with hundreds of other (insane) people...

...to await that time when you will finally all be let into the store, only to stampede over the top of each other in a race to get inside...

...to all rush to grab the same 17 items that everyone "absolutely has to have because they are SUCH a good deal", but nobody actually needs!

Normally, people in a civilized society would ridicule anyone who was acting so idiotically...however, since almost every American seems to subscribe to the Black Friday philosophy of "get the deals while they last", no one seems to mind that we turn into a bunch of greedy, neurotic, selfish, a$$holes every Friday after Thanksgiving!

Now, it would be hypocritical of me to completely and utterly berate all Black Friday shoppers, because I've been known to go out an partake in the wonderful shopping festivities myself from year to year...I am proud to say, however, that I have never waited more than half an hour in a line to get into a store (what could possibly be SO great that I would need to stand outside freezing my keister off for multiple hours just to make sure I got one, when I could simply wait for it to go on sale again the following week?!) and I have NEVER pushed, shoved, punched, man-handled, or otherwise harmed one of my fellow shoppers in my quest to get the thing I was shopping for.

This year, my sister really wanted to go Black Friday shopping, so Thursday evening, after all the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and pies were comfortably stowed in our tummies, we curled up on the sofa with all the store ads and mapped out our "plan of attack".  I didn't really have anything that I desperately needed to get (nor did I have any money to purchase anything with anyway) so I was just perusing the ads when I came across the one thing I had told my parents that I wanted for Christmas...a Garmin Forerunner 405 Running Watch.

This baby does it all...because there is a GPS system built into the watch, not only can it keep track of your total time and your mileage, but it can calculate your pace per mile, track your elevation gain/loss, and even monitor your heart rate.  Then, when your workout is done, it can wirelessly send the data from your run directly to your computer so that you can keep track of your workouts and how you are progressing.  In other words, what avid runner wouldn't want one of these watches?!?!?!

The prices on Garmin watches stay fairly consistent, so much so that up until last Thursday, I had only had my eye on the Forerunner 110 because it was the cheapest model available (amazing watches they are, but reasonably priced they aren't!).  It still tracks distance, time and pace, but obviously isn't nearly as cool and can't do nearly as many things as the 405.  So imagine my surprise when the Black Friday ad for Sports Authority was listing the amazing Garmin Forerunner 405 for $150 cheaper than it normally sells for, making it less expensive than the most basic model!  Being the economically savvy daughter that I am, and not wanting my parents to have to spend more money than needed on my Christmas gift (like how I tried to make myself look totally selfless there?!  Yeah, I did too!) I immediately showed my mother the ad.  She apparently thought it was too good of a deal to pass up as well, and before I knew it, Sports Authority had been named our first stop on our Black Friday extravaganza!  The store was opening Friday morning at 5am, but seeing as how it wasn't one of the huge departments stores with all the "can't pass up" deals on tvs and other electronics, we figured that as long as we showed up a couple minutes early, we wouldn't have any problems getting in and getting what we wanted.  So we unwittingly showed up to the store at 4:45am, only to find a huge line of people down the side of the building, down the side of the Barnes & Noble next door, and around the corner of the bookseller.  At this point, I started to panic because, let's face it, I'd kind of gotten my hopes up that I was finally going to get a Garmin running watch.  But my mom, ever the logical shopper, said we might as well wait the 15 minutes until the store opened and go in to see if we could get one.  So we waited, and eventually the crowd started to slowly but surely surge through the door and into the store...and much to my delight, everyone started to disperse to all different areas.  My mom, sister and I headed to the back of the store where the watches were kept, and low and behold, there were still a few Garmins left!  I happily picked one up, and didn't even have to fight off any other shoppers to get it.  We got in line to check out, and after only a few minutes waiting, we had my watch and were out the door.

After the high of the Garmin watch success, I was fading fast, energy wise, so a well timed stop at Starbucks was just what the doctor ordered to keep us going strong!

We literally shopped until we dropped, and my mother also generously purchased me a Kitchenaid Mixer as a second Christmas gift (mainly because it was freakishly on sale, but also as part of her ever vigilant quest to turn me into a domesticated woman).

The one quasi-bummer about these amazing gifts is that, since they are my Christmas presents, they are still at my parents' house to get wrapped and put under the tree...so I don't get to use them for another month.  But it's a small price to pay for two of the most awesome gifts ever...I have to say that I have the most generous, loving, selfless mother imaginable!!!  All in all, Black Friday shopping was a huge success!

What awesome Black Friday deals did you manage to snag this year?

Resolution 2010: Race 4--Easter

My Easter run presented the biggest challenge of the N.Y.R. for me for one very simple fact...there aren't really any Easter weekend races out there.  For that matter, I was having trouble finding any races the weekend before or after that were anywhere close to me.  I finally lucked out and located the Skagit Valley Tulip Run, which is part of the Annual Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.

I was excited about the possibility of running among all the beautiful flowers, but I was a little apprehensive about the fact that I was going to have a 2 hour drive that Sunday morning in order to get to the race, then run 5 miles, then drive 2 hours home.  In the end however, I had to get a run in, so I decided to suck it up and do what I had to do in order to run the race.  So I woke up bright and ugly at 6am on my day off, got into my running gear, hopped in my car, and drove the 2 hours up to Burlington.  I was tired for sure, but I got more and more excited about the prospect of running through vast fields of tulips as I drove past all the beautiful scenery.

The gorgeous flowers were calling to me, and I was ready to answer with a great run...

..because, the silly, logical, math-minded person that I am, I assumed (and yes I know what they say about what happens when you assume) that a "Tulip Run" meant that you would run near the tulips...

...however, I quickly found out as I got my number and timing chip at the packet pick-up table that not only wouldn't we be running through the tulip fields, but we wouldn't even get the slightest glimpse of them on the ENTIRE run!!!

The run instead took us around the tiny airport and through the woods for a portion of the race...not exactly what I would call a scenic, tulip run (they really shouldn't be allowed to advertise this as a 'tulip run' in my opinion if you don't get to see a single friggin' tulip along the entire course...but what do I know?!).  But hey, I was there, I was registered, it was a gorgeous day, and most importantly, I was getting my "Easter Race" done.  So I got up to the starting area with the rest of the 5-milers, the gun went off, and away we went.  This was my first encounter with "trail racing" for part of a run, as a portion of the course meandered through the woods around the airport, which I actually ended up enjoying.  It took a little getting used to, as I was used to running on even ground, and I pretty much had to stare at my feet the entire time to make sure that I didn't trip and fall on my face or break an ankle, but otherwise, the experience wasn't all that bad.  I crossed the finish line with a time of 47:34 (which averages out to be around a 9:30 mile pace) and ended up right in the middle of the pack, placing 355th out of the total 669 people who ran.

For my first ever partial trail race, I didn't do too bad, so even though I didn't get to see any tulips along the run, I was pretty happy.  And I ended up with a very colorful shirt out of the deal...

...although, again, I'm going to mention one more time that you shouldn't get to put a tulip on the shirt if the runners don't see any freaking tulips along the course! (Wow, you'd have thought I'd have gotten over that by now...apparently not!)  On the way home, I thought about stopping by the actual Tulip Festival so that I could at least claim to have seen some tulips that day, but with a 2 hour drive ahead of me, and a 5 mile run behind me, all I really wanted to do was get home so I could take a much deserved nap!

Have you ever experienced a big disappointment at/during a race?

Three So Far...

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I'm a big fan of making and keeping New Year's Resolutions.  For a while, I was toying with the idea of making my resolution for 2012 to run one half marathon every month.  But then I made the mistake of starting to ask other people what they thought...and it seemed like everyone I talked to came up with pretty rational reasons to steer clear of this goal, including but not limited to...

1) The huge toll it would take on my body

2) The fact that I would have to endlessly train for a year straight

3) Each half marathon has an entry fee, most of which cost anywhere between $70-$130, depending on the cost to put on the half marathon and the amount of swag you get as a runner

4) Most of the half marathons I have my eye on are out of state, so I would need to factor in travel/food/hotel costs

...so it was seeming like it wasn't going to happen for me.  However, this morning I realized that I've already signed up for three different half marathons in three different months in 2012!  So much for keeping away from that N.Y.R.!  This morning, I signed up for the third half marathon for next year, the Napa-to-Sonoma Wine Country Half Marathon!

The course starts at the Cuvaison Carneros Estate Winery, weaves its way through multiple vineyards and wineries in Napa Valley, and end in Sonoma Plaza right in front of City Hall, where there will be a huge Wine & Music Festival for the finishers and their guests!

I'm extremely excited for this race...not only is it the weekend before my 29th birthday and therefore a PERFECT way to celebrate the kickoff of the last year of my 20's, but the run promises amazing views and one hell of an after party!

I'm also signed up for the Inaugural Rock 'n' Roll Portland Half Marathon on May 20, 2012

...and the Rock 'n' Roll Seattle Half Marathon on June 23, 2012!

So who knows, I may still keep the one half marathon per month New Year's Resolution yet!

Are you signed up for any half marathons?

Resolution 2010: Race 3--St. Patrick's Day

For the third race of my N.Y.R. (New Year's Resolution), I decided to switch it up a little bit and headed down to Portland to visit my wonderful friend Amy so that she and I could run the Shamrock Run together.

Since it was a holiday run, and we knew that everyone else was going to be running in all of their green splendor, Amy decided that we needed to rock as much green as possible as well.  She got us amazing matching green Nike running shirts...

...and I added my own flair with the shamrock Boston Red Sox hat, the green jacket I had from coaching track, the shamrock tights from my St. Patrick's Day girls' weekend the previous year with my wonderful friend Kristine, and my striped green and white Christmas socks with the white fluffy trim that only my mother would find adorable and therefore put in my stocking for Christmas.  I'd say I had done my job on the obnoxious green outfit well!

Amy and I before the race, ready and raring to go! (Not really sure who the creeper is in the back of our picture, but I'm very weirded out right now!) And I must say that Amy did a great job rocking her green ensemble as well!

We got up to the starting line with the rest of the 6400 other runners on that crisp Sunday morning in March, and as we heard the gun go off, we started our slow procession toward the starting line (we were pretty far back in the crowd) where we were hoping to get a little more breathing room to run...not so much.  I don't know what the planners of the streets of downtown Portland were thinking, but they were clearly not designed with hugely attended races in mind.  6400 people is a lot of people to cram onto a regular old city street, so we spent the majority of the first half mile trying to find a break in the crowd so that we could increase our pace from painstakingly slow to simply moderately slow.  We finally found an opening and were able to start running at a normal pace, and even though we spent the first half mile of the race basically walking, we were still able to cross the finish line in the fairly decent time of 34:03 (which works out to an average of 10:57 per mile).

Normally this time might upset me, but the average female time was 33:59, so it seems as if everyone else had as much trouble getting out at a good pace as we did.  As far as my other stats go, I finished 472nd out of the 884 people in my age group (females 25 to 29), 2005th out of 3951 females, and 3813th overall out of the 6400 runners in attendance...so for the most part, in every single category I was right in the middle, which isn't all that bad.  And to top it off, I got a great finisher's shirt out of the deal...

...the very first Dry-Fit Technical Shirt of the N.Y.R.!  I could not have been more excited about that, or about the fact that I got to run the race with a very dear friend...running with someone always makes the race more fun, especially when you dress for the occasion!

Do you prefer running races solo or with a running buddy?

Resolution 2010: Race 2--Valentine's Day

With my New Year's Day race under my belt, it was time to start looking for a Valentine's Day run.  There were several in the greater Seattle/Tacoma area to choose from, but eventually I decided to go with the Love 'em or Leave 'em Valentine's Day Dash up at Green Lake Park in Seattle.

I've always loved Green Lake, it's so beautiful, and one of my favorite things about running outside is having gorgeous scenery to look at...and it doesn't get much prettier than Green Lake.  Another one of my favorite things about running races (particularly holiday races) is ALL THE COSTUMES!!!!  There were people dressed like Cupid, others in pink and red galore, and some people had even brought their four-legged friends in costumes to participate in the day's festivities.  Humans and dogs alike got up to the start line, the gun went off, and we were gone on our mission to finish this 'lovely' 5K.

I took off, and the energy and electricity of everything and everyone around me pushed me around the lake.  I crossed the finish line at 27:43, which averaged out to just under 9 minutes per mile (the average of everyone who ran was 33:58, so I was extremely happy to have finished faster than average) and I ended up placing 619th overall out of the 2,338 runners who participated.  No real idea how many dogs beat me, but let's not think about that!  In addition, out of the 1,577 females that ran, I placed 288th, and in my division (females 20-29) I was 117th out of 524.  Overall, I did pretty well for the second holiday race of the year, and I got a pretty great shirt out of it...

...so I was a pretty happy camper...er, I mean runner!

Have you ever run a Valentine's Day race?

Resolution 2010: Race 1--New Year's Day

In the last several years, I've been obsessed with making New Year's Resolutions...

...and if I do say so myself, I've been pretty fantastic about keeping them.  Back in 2007, my N.Y.R. was to run a marathon, so I found a training plan, and on October 7, 2007, I ran the Portland Marathon (my very first 'long distance' race) in around 5 and a half hours.

In 2008, I hit the heaviest weight I had ever been in my life (bad eating habits mainly, as I was still exercising on a fairly consistent basis), so my 2009 N.Y.R. was to get serious about my health and lose weight the healthy way.  So I joined Weight Watchers, and over the course of the year I dropped 40 pounds.  The program really worked for me, and I'm happy to say that, thanks to the amazing lessons in portion control, I'm still in my "skinny clothes" and snuggled happily in my healthy weight range!

At the end of 2009, once I had lost all my weight, I decided to devote myself to running again.  Therefore, my 2010 N.Y.R. was to run a race for every major holiday that year.  No easy feat considering that if I was going to truly stick to the plan, I needed to do my very first run on New Year's Day, after celebrating the night before.  But I figured, if I could get myself up at 8am on January 1st to go run 3.1 miles, the rest of the holiday runs that year would be a snap!  I was in Boise that year for the Christmas holiday visiting my family, so on New Year's Day, I got up bright and early, drove to downtown Boise, and in the parking lot of the Ram Restaurant and Brewery toed the start line with hundreds of other avid runners for the New Year's Day 5K.

It was cold and raining that morning, which would have bothered some people, but I was just so excited that I had started my 2010 resolution off the right way, there could have been a blizzard out and I wouldn't have cared one bit.  I don't quite remember what my actual time was, but I know that it was just over 30 minutes.  And the best part of the whole experience was that I started my 2010 N.Y.R. Racing T-Shirt Collection with this little beauty...

So that was Race #1...I promise to keep the N.Y.R. race stories coming in the next several posts until you get to see all of my awesome 2010 running shirts.

What's the most memorable N.Y.R. (New Year's Resolution) you've ever kept?