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?