End of a Chapter, MY Birthday and the Delaware Marathon Relay!

The past 2 weeks have seriously come down to crunch time ... the 2014 lacrosse season has come to an end, Mother's Day, My birthday, and the Delaware Marathon ALL happened within the past 6 days!

So here we go:

AWESOME SWAG!

May 11th .... Mother's Day and the Delaware Marathon Festival!  My day started at 5am and thankfully Momma Way ( Jen's mom ) picked me up and I hitched a ride to the start with Jen!  Jen ran the FULL marathon and I was on the 4 person relay team!  I honestly had myself so stressed out about this distance!  I LOVE mileage and distance runs ... something in me craves 20+ milers but the thought of running FAST for shorter distance scares the crap out of me!  I was afraid of failing and letting my teammates down.  I was scheduled to go as the 4th runner and probably should have relaxed and sat down for the 3 hours prior to my leg start BUT I was so nervous I couldn't relax.  By the time I was waiting in the transition area for John I felt like I had already ran and my legs felt heavy and tired ... plus it was VERY hot by this point.  Finally,  I just told myself to run and have fun ... I did!!  3:04:?? and 2nd coed open team.  Not horrible but I definitely felt the heat and fatigue by going 4th!

Jen killed it and finished the 26.2 in 3:36:52 ... she placed 1st in her AG!  YAY!!

THE WAY Crew!!

BOSTON BOUND 2015

Jen B., Jen W., and myself are all Boston Bound for 2015!!!

After the race we enjoyed a few beverages from Frank's Wine:

Champagne Cocktails are a winner!!

I have never ran this 26.2 race because it is a double loop and in my mind that seems awful .. BUT if you are looking for a fast, it is NOT flat, small field size ( 515 full marathoners ) this is the race for you!!  The after party is a BLAST and it is sponsored by my work ... YAY!

Right after the race I had to haul it home, shower, then head to my big guys lacrosse games!!  BEST Mother's Day ever!

My mom is truly a saint and we should celebrate her year round!  I hope my boys know how blessed they are to have her!

My sweaty lacrosse player!  He makes me so proud.

Melt my heart!

I could not have asked for a better day!  We celebrated Mother's Day over a delicious meal at Cantwell's Tavern and just enjoyed each other!

MY LOVES!

Tueday May 13:

MY BIRTHDAY!!!  I decided for my birthday I want to run a 35K and luckily my girls Dawn and Angel joined me in the celebration!

While I was running my first 8.5 miles I was receiving amazing text messages the whole time!!!! BEST EVER!!

IT felt like it was the peak of summer today out on the run!!  80+ degrees and 68% humidity already!
Angel, Dawn and I ran 9 miles together ( forgot to snap a pic of us all ) ... then Angel saddled up while I finished out my miles!  21.7 miles done in 2:55.

Then I went to lunch with Nicole, Lori, and Angel!!!!!!!  There is something SO special about having amazing girlfriends! I feel so loved and luckily to have them in my life!!

Nicole knows me better than myself sometimes and her gifts made me teary!!!  ( I will post pic asap )
AND this card from Angel was perfect ... We actually throw this saying out A LOT when we are struggling on our runs!

I am in LOVE with this Coach clutch from my BFF and my godsons for Mother's Day!!

Lori made me delicious cupcakes that I think we inhaled before I could take a picture!!!!

Then the party continued ... lacrosse practice with these fabulous girls:

Even though we didn't win EVERY game they completely make my heart and soul happy!  I feel honored to be their coach!  They sang Happy Birthday to me and brought me cookies and cupcakes ... Amazing!

Yup the party kept on rolling after practice I finally had my birthday tradition of Kenny's sushi:

MMMMMMM!

My Family!!

THANK YOU to everyone for making my day/week special!

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend!

Happy Running!

Busy Birthday Week!!!

We are in full on celebration mode in our household!!!  Today is this dudes 9th birthday:

9!!!!!

My baby turned 9 today!!  He is becoming such an amazing young man and I just love him to pieces!
And yesterday was my other baby's 6th birthday!!!!!  Yup they are one day apart!

Too cool!!  Fresh new birthday kicks!

Oh My!!!

I feel very blessed that I have two amazing boys that keep me going and I just love them so much!

On Monday I had my longest training run yet....22 miles in 2:48:01....I am very pleased with this run!
Not only was it my longest run since the NJ marathon in May but it was also very VERY hilly...I ran the first 11.6 miles on my own and then Dawn and Angel met me for the second part of my run.  The weather was perfect, my legs felt great, my mind was exactly where I needed it to be and I was focused!  I absolutely love running out in Fairhill and find the long steep hills an exciting challenge.  I finished the final 10.4 miles in 1:19:51 .... This was the run I needed to boost my confidence and really made me excited for MCM next month.  Look at this beautiful view from my run:

I also was super happy to be running with my girls again:

Matchers!

Post run quick change of clothes in the gas station!

This is my cheesy happy grin I couldn't get rid of post run...PERFECT!

After our run we ventured up to Whole Foods and inhaled the salad bar like champs.  I was way to hungry to take any pictures!

Yesterday I ran a few easy recovery miles...3.5 to be exact.  They were a little faster then I expected but it was such a great night for a run.  Mile 1: 7:56, Mile 2: 7:46, Mile 3: 7:29 and .5 in 3:15.

Today I was post work and my birthday boys had a half of day at school which means no sleep for me...My run was less then stellar.  5.6 miles in 43:54...Just wasn't feeling it today and my body told me NOPE!

Oh well time to go continue celebrating my boys birthdays! 

Who is going to Boston 2014??  Finally confirmations went out today!  YAY


Happy Running!

Birthdays, Birthdays Everywhere!

Wow this week has been SO crazy!  Monday was Cam's 5th birthday and Tuesday was Chase's 8th birthday and my hubby got stuck working late so between football practice, celebrating and baking 50+ cupcakes from scratch I lost track of time! 

Tuesday's workout was a Tempo run of 7 miles in 49:23, average pace 7:03.  I felt great and right in the zone on this run.  We had a fun filled day of hanging out with my mom and brother and celebrating Chase's big day:

8!!!!!

Since the older the kids get the more opinionated they become on their birthday present so I decided to let Chase pick out his gift....He chose these:

Sweet New Kicks

Love the orange soles!



My Skater!

I thought that was a pretty awesome gift until my brother gave Chase his gift:

New IPod Touch





Yup!  Best Uncle Ever!!

Wednesday I was having a pretty off/bad day!  I had a ton going on and was reaching my breaking point ... so I went out for a run.  I got to 6.5 miles in 48 mins and called it my "Stress Relief" run!  It helped but I needed a great girlfriend to get me back to reality.  It is amazing what exercise and a great chat will do for you!!  I had to work Wednesday night into Thursday and all these little babies wanted to be born so work went by pretty fast.

Thursday I did 11 miles in 1:26 @ 1% incline.  I did this run on the TM because it decided to get humid again here in Delaware.  Geez!  I felt great and it was going smoothly until the last 2 miles when my left hip flexor got a little tight.  It is shocking how quickly the body wants to compensate and adapt to the source of discomfort.  I followed my run up with my PT exercises and worked my hamstrings and back. 

At 8:55 pm I got a text from my girlfriend Alicia  ( who is 37 wks pregnant ) MY WATER JUST BROKE!!  Of course, this happens when I am not working and my hubby was working late!!  Little Mr. Mason decided to make his arrival on Sept. 28 @ 01:33 am...He is the cutest little man:

We were talking about running!

I am so happy for Rob, Alicia, Big Brother Aiden and Baby Mason...Being a mommy of 2 boys is so much fun and high energy.  Welcome to the gang little buddy!

So today after having a great PT session and getting put back in proper alignment I feel like a new person!   I have a few areas to improve in mobility but all in all is good.  I decided to take today off from running so I did the Expresso bike for 20 miles in 1:15 and it was full of hills. 

We have a weekend full of football, soccer, parties and a 20 miler!

What are your weekend plans?

Happy Running! 

Baby Shower,Delaware Mud Run 2012, and Birthday!

What a fun past 3 days we have had here in Delaware....Saturday it was my dear friend Michelle's baby shower and I had such a great time catching up with all these amazing girls!

We have a tradition of this picture!

AMAZING cake!!
 

 I am so excited to meet and welcome 2 new babies into our close circle of friends..Alicia is due Oct. 13 and Michelle is due Oct. 30.  I love being a Labor and Delivery Nurse!

Sunday we had the Delaware Mud Run to compete in and we were "in it to win it"! Since this run is a 5K I had decided I would run a quick "clean" 5 miles/34 mins before the race.  Haha..I tend to be a little on the competitive side and usually end up frustrated but this event is for such an amazing cause and meant to be fun.  This year the course was AWESOME and filled with 18 obstacles! Our team was named "50 Shades of Dirty" and we got lots of compliments on our shirts:

Many teams come in full costume and they even host a "Best Costume" contest.  This year there were 10 waves/heats of teams with 400 people per wave!!  So there were many fun team names and costumes. This was one of my favorites and I totally thought of EMZ:

 

Also this one:

  

So funny!  We arrived to the race at 8 am for our 10 am start and people watched and used the CLEAN portapots.  Our Fabulous friend Debbie was our "nutritional support" and many other tailgaters were jealous of our spread!  We had fresh fruit, homemade granola, greek yogurt, banana and pumpkin bread! 

For post race she made grilled veggie sandwiches, quinoa salad, tomato and avocado salad, sweet potatoes and Gorgonzola burger sliders!! Oh yeah and crab stuffed deviled eggs!

 

Back to the run!  We started at 10 am and the course was pretty challenging but not dangerous.  There were a lot of rope/muddy hill climbs, mud pits, tunnels to crawl through, balance beams, leaping over fire, and suspension ropes to walk.  My favorite was the ICE pit!!  I am not talking little cubes of ice I am talking chest deep thick ice to trudge through!  Once I hit the ice pit people were shouting "you are the first female"...So at this point I decided I had to turn it up and really start to run! 

Oh so clean!

Mucky ICE!

1st Female!

 This was the big swimming pool size mud pit with fake barbed wire to crawl under close to the finish line!  When I got to the finish the clock said 28:12 and you have to cross the finish line as your 4 person team so my girls were close behind and we were the 1st all female group in the 1st wave to finish!  So proud of my team and I had such a great time with all of them!  Our other group of fantastic Y girls went off in the 11:30 heat ( i think ), so we got to see them come across the finish!  Hilarious:

Sandra, Lori, Michelle, and Donna!

 

My hubby also did the run and this is a huge accomplish in my eyes and makes me so happy!!

Pre-Muddy couple!

I highly recommend doing this race if you are in the area.  This is such a great event and 100% of the proceeds go to Leukemia Research.  They also host a MudRun Jr. in June and my oldest son has done it the past 2 years and LOVES it!  Please support this great event!

 

And the BEST part of the past 3 days is today is my baby's 5th birthday!!

He did his own hair!

New Bike for the bday boy!

I am rocking my Oiselle Runbow shirt above!!  He wanted an bike for his present so we decided to let him pick it out!  Love this little guy so much and he was so excited for his new bike! 

 

And tomorrow we have another AMAZING day...My oldest son's 8th birthday!!! Yup back to back birthdays is how we roll.

 

Anyone doing a mud run/spartan run/ warrior dash/ tough mudder?

 

Happy Running!