December 28. 2009

I LOVE reading other family members blogs, but can't seem to keep up with mine... hmmmm....
OK, so here's what's been going on in my life.

December 15, 2009 - that was our 25th wedding anniversary! I have a hard time believing it.... 25 years! Really??? I actually didn't know this until we received a card from Dennis and Sheila. I mean, I knew it was our anniversary, but didn't know it was 25 years. I was really surprised! Nigel and I did our usual "thing"... We took a day off of work, bought Christmas presents (although most of it is done online now, so not much to buy), then went to lunch at Macaroni Grill. mmmmmmm! We love that place! Afterwards, we split up and go buy each others' Christmas presents. At least "stocking stuffers". :-) This year, Dennis and Sheila gave us some money for our anniversary present. We usually buy something together that we really want, so this year was no exception - and we had some extra money too. :-) So, we decided to get some 'silver' for our silver wedding anniversary. We picked out some nice silver flatware and a box to store it in. Oneida has the best stuff ever! We love it! So the next time any of you come to visit, you will get to use it with us! :-)

Christmas, 2009 - Our tradition starts on Christmas Eve. Nigel and I go to the 8:00 service at church, then we come home and watch "A Christmas Carol" - the 1951 version with Alistair Sim. It's Nigel's favorite. :-) The girls go to the 11:00 service, but I can't stay up that late anymore. I'm afraid I would fall asleep during the sermon! hahaha!
We had a wonderful Christmas day with the girls. They were both excited about their presents this year. It's always great fun to watch their expressions when they open their gifts. :-) Chelsea was really surprised to get her new phone. We had convinced her she wouldn't be getting one until the spring. hahahaha! I love when a plan comes together.... hehehehe! Kirsten and Chelseas got tickets to see John Mayer in concert when he comes to Memphis is March - they both REALLY REALLY liked that gift from Santa! I think Kirsten's favorite gift would be her Nintendo DS. She's even shared it with me.... :-0 We have had fun playing the Brain Age game..... it says I have a brain of an 80 year old!!!! I guess I have some work to do!!!!!
I got a really nice watch, some great looking clothes, a Sansa Clip (to listen to music while I run - thanks Kirsten!), a RAZORBACK jacket (thanks Chelsea!) and some new muffin tins for our blueberry muffins. It was a "good haul"!!!
We had a great dinner with our traditional Christmas Crackers, music, Cadbury's chocolate cookies, and general dinner conversation. I think that is my favorite part. Just "real time" family time. It's the best!!! :-)

The rest of the Christmas vacation has been spent on swim practice (1 1/2 hours Mon through Thurs), taking Chelsea places, enjoying our presents, watching movies, and just generally being lazy! Although I have been keeping up with my running... :-)

Looking forward to 2010.... :-)

Decorating our tree....


The final product....


Me and Nigel...


The girls in their Christmas outfits...


Christmas dinner - or what's left of it....

My first Half Marathon

My half marathon story
I woke up at 3:00am and dozed and tossed and turned for a couple of hours…. UGH!!! I wasn’t really nervous, but just excited that I was about to do something I had never tried before. So, I finally just got up at 5:30, ate, got dressed and checked out the weather…COLD. Mark said that is a good thing. :-)

Clothes – this was a major undertaking – what to wear. After reading Mark’s suggestions I decided on tights, a short sleeve “wicking” shirt and my long sleeve dry fit shirt, a head band and gloves. At the last minute I wasn’t sure I would be warm enough so I took my Nike sweats jacket. I also had a trash bag to “snuggle” into at the starting line.

Pre-race – We met up at the Peabody Hotel, I got my packet from Mark (had to walk back to the car to put the extra stuff away), took group pictures and then Mark showed us his “secret weapon”!!! It was awesome!!!! Thanks Mark!

After that I felt kind of lost – not sure where to go or what to do…. But I’m a big girl and can figure things out for myself. :-) I started following my fellow MIMers to the starting line, but they were actually running to warm up. I definitely DID NOT want to run more than I was about to. So I quit following them and figured I could catch up to them at the starting line – HA!!!!! I had no idea….

So many people – There were about 8,000 runners signed up for the half and about 4,000 signed up for the full marathon! I don’t really know how many signed up for the 5K that ran earlier… But let’s just say A LOT of PEOPLE were downtown on Saturday!!! There are these ‘corrals’ down the street from the starting line. Each one “houses” a group of runners according to their pace time. I found mine - #13. I think there was one more after mine. Wow, that made me feel kind of slow, but no matter. I was there to finish my first half marathon! We were so far back from the starting line, I didn’t even hear when the race started! But that was OK. I found Jackie’s group standing just in front of me – whew! Someone I actually recognized!!!! I knew they would help me start off at the right pace. They were going to run 3/1’s but I knew their warm up would be easy for me to follow. I figured I would follow them for as long as possible and then start on my 2/1’s. Slowly each ‘corral’ made its way up to the starting line. They started us off about a minute apart. After 20 minutes, it was our turn to start! YAY!!! The cheering and excitement was AWESOME!!!!!! I decided it was time to start my Garmin…..OK, why is this darn thing not coming on???? Oh No!!!! What the heck is going on???? Obviously, that battery has decided to die… CRAP!!!! Well, I was determined to not let ANYTHING ruin my day, so I said, “OK, now what should I do? I know, I will count in my head…” And that is what I did for the next 3 hours…. 1,2,3,4,5….118,119,120 – ok now walk…. 1,2,3,4,5….58,59,60 – ok now jog. What a way to run a half marathon!!! Hahaha! It worked pretty well for me!!! I followed Jackie and her group for about 2 miles, then they were getting too far ahead of me, so I just started doing my own thing.

The race – I felt really good the whole way. It was so cool to run through downtown and then past St Jude. At mile 7 I heard the crowd ahead cheering and did not know what was going on – it turns out they were cheering for the Kenyans who were on their way back to finish their full marathon!!! OK, now I felt really, really slow, but hey, I’m not here to race – just to finish this thing!! Then in front of Rhodes I saw Nigel. :-) That made me feel really awesome!!! I gave him my “stupid Garmin” and muttered a few things about the watch to him. He took it all in stride, and told me how proud he was of me. :-) He took my picture, gave me some snacks, and then I was off again.
I started to feel a little sore as I was running through the park. I stopped and stretched a couple of times. I saw Mark riding his bike along this stretch of the race. He stopped to check on me, showed me a couple of different stretches to do. He took my picture - :-) - then I was off again to finish the last 4 miles. This seemed to last forever! Running down Poplar Ave is really long…..
I began to pass people who were walking and that gave me some added energy! I stopped and stretched one more time, then found mile 12!!!! I was really pumped then!!!!
The last mile was great!!! My legs felt good and I had a smile on my face, at least most of the time. People kept saying “you’re almost there!” “The finish line is just a couple of blocks away” - that was very encouraging! I saw a big sign that pointed one way for the half and the other way for the full….. I remember thinking “there is NO WAY I could go another 13 miles today!!!” And then I saw the baseball stadium and the finish line. Wooooo Hoooooo!!!!!!
My goal was to finish in under 3 hours. I figured that was an appropriate time for me, knowing how my training had been going the last 3 weeks. Since I didn’t have my watch on I was guessing… the time said 3:23:42… so I assumed I had just missed it by 3 minutes and 42 seconds. I was kind of disappointed, but not really – I had just completed my first half marathon (without my watch)!!!! How could I really be upset with that???? Well, it turns out my OFFICIAL time was 3:00:02 – 2 seconds over!!! Ok, I could have run faster at the end…. That will be my goal for next time. :-) Here are my numbers: 5821 – my place overall out of maybe 7000 finishers (don’t know the exact number),190th in my age group out of 282 women, average pace 13:45.


I had a fantastic experience! I accomplished a goal that I never thought I would, or could in a million years! Thanks, Mark, you are an awesome coach!!! I like your positive outlook and encouragement. There is NO WAY I would ever have done this without you!!!!!

So, now I have two goals for my next half:
1. Under 3 hours
2. Meet some new people to train with so I don’t have to do it on my own next time. :-)

Hey everyone! I am a MIM half marathon STUETTE now!!! WOOOOO HOOOOO!!! :-)