Smoke Free in NC

Come Saturday, all restaurants and bars will be smoke free in North Carolina. This is a huge deal since tobacco has always been such a big part of this state's economy - and I am SO happy that the no smoking law was passed! Florida passed it several years ago when we were living down there, and it was weird to move to a state where smoking was still allowed. We forgot that when you walked into a restaurant they still needed to ask, "Smoking or non?"...

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Christmas Catchup

I had to work Monday through Wednesday of last week, and it was surprisingly busy, even with a lot of people taking PTO. It went fast at least. Marty and I saw Avatar in 3-D and you can ready Mr. Cynical's review on his website. Thursday we drove to Virginia where we would be spending the holiday at my sister's house.Christmas Eve we had our now traditional dinner at Outback.I'm on the nice list and Shana's on the naughty list:Christmas morning was...

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Longest Run Ever?

I think I may have just set a new pr for myself in running for my longest run. I realize most of you readers out there are triathletes and runners so this is not going to be too impressive to you all, but for me it's pretty big. 14.1 miles in 1:46 - it had some warmup, some tempo, and some cooldown. We ran on the American Tobacco Trail which is about as flat as you can get around here and still run on a soft surface. It does have some net downhill/uphill but the uphill is only noticable when you're nearing the end of the run and you're tired, then...

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We Just Can't Help Ourselves

They were calling for a wintry mix here today, and we're getting it! So of course we had to video and document the snow - I know, I know, we can't ever get over the novelty of it. We are such Floridio...

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Tassie & Running

Tassie has been putting in some good miles so far this winter. Yesterday she did a double! Sometimes in the morning I'll do a short little wake-up jog (like 15min) and Tassie loves coming along. It's good because Marty likes to roll over and go back to sleep. Although I can't complain too much because I've been very guilty of this same act with morning swims the past couple of months.Anyways, Tassie also ran with us last night which consisted of some 1min pickups. We didn't end up doing them all because she got a little too tired. I tried to do...

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Jolly Elf Trail Run 5k

This past Saturday Marty and I did a local 5k in Bond Park. If I’m being honest, I need to admit that I totally tried to talk Marty out of doing this race. And only because it was going to be hella cold in the morning. I really have no problem racing – I think doing road races is an excellent way to get feedback on how the training is going as well as get in a great effort for a hard workout. I don’t get all tied up in pr’ing or any of that. I know some people only want to race if they’re going to race well, but I can compartmentalize and race...

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I Know I Know

I know I'm slacking when I get an email from Marty telling me "your blog is lonely for updates." You'd think my own husband would know what's going on with me and not have to resort to reading my blog, but what do I know. So here are some random thoughts for Friday:We did a track workout this past Tuesday and it was dark, cold and rainy. There were only a few other brave souls out there. The traffic was horrendous and we may just have to cut the...

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Weekend in Virginia

I drove up to Virginia to my older sister's house to do a little pre-Christmas festivities with some of the fam, as well as celebrate my nieces 11th birthday. She is a huge Twilight fan so we had tons to talk about ;) No one wanted to take her to New Moon so I sacrificed myself and went to see it again with her yesterday afternoon. She LOVED it.After the movie we watched the Gators fall to Alabama - now I know it's sacrilegious for me to cheer for...

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Feeling Off

Did you know that there are bowling alleys that don't sell beer? Because I sure didn't. We met the Lovgren's out for some bowling fun on Friday night and we were all WTF when we realized that no beer was to be had. But we don't need beer to have a good time! It would have just been a nice little addition to the beverage selection. I bowled a 71 and a 109. Did I mention I am awesome at bowling?On Saturday I woke up not feeling so great. I was tired, sour stomach and all around blah. Lots of lying on the couch watching football while Marty and Tassie...

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Happy Thanksgiving!

It's just Marty, Tassie and me for Thanksgiving this year. We're going to be doing our own dinner tonight, although we bought a baked chicken instead of a turkey...same difference, right?I got in a good 11 miler this morning, the middle of it being the Inside Out Sports 8k Turkey Trot. I averaged 6:23 so a good effort for the long run! I felt ok, nothing special, but I wasn't exactly trying to target this race. Tassie ran to the race and back with...

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Mountain Weekend

Gotta love abbreviated work weeks! And it’s so dead at the office that I’ll be working from home tomorrow :)As many of you won’t be surprised to find out, I saw New Moon Friday night. My friend Brooke is a big fan of Twilight/RPattz too, so we met for dinner and then braved our way into the theatre full of shrieking 15 year olds. Okay, maybe we shrieked once or twice, too. Haha, I’m totally kidding on that one.Saturday after a long run I drove Tassie...

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Dangling the Carrot

Nothing like a cliff hanger. I wasn't going to tell this but I'm easily swayed by peer pressure. Anyways, Marty wrote it --- as a play. It's not really as funny as you are probably hoping for, but at least you can all get on with your lives ;)I'm going to go hide now.The Scene: The Flying Saucer Pub in downtown Raleigh. It is 3 PM. Sunny. Cool. A nice Autumn day. Bri is relaxing on the outside deck with a pint of Sea Dog Blueberry. She just finished 2nd in a 5k running race. She is enjoying pretzels and beer.Her tummy hurts. She has to go to the...

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Spot On

And now for a little training talk. A lot of times I don’t like to go into specifics because then that gets people to compare one another, and that is not always a good thing. I also don’t want any readers to think, “oh she just thinks she’s so fast” or “god she’s self involved.” But you know what…my blog! :-)I’m a little disappointed I didn’t get any other comments about my dirty comic below (except from Bella Swan herself). I guess sometimes my humor is out there. Marty keeps begging me to tell the story of what happened to me after the 5K on...

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Nov 20th! New Moon!

hahaha, just a joke, people...

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End of another weekend

Just a quick weekend wrap-up. We ran a swim clinic yesterday and everything went smooth and we had another good turnout. Marty is so good at these and everyone seemed to get a lot out of the information we provided. Although I don't really like getting up and speaking in front of people, Marty has me doing one of the presentations so he can have a little break. I know it's good for me, but I still don't like it!This afternoon we ran the Old Reliable 5K. It was warm out and they changed the course so it was quite hilly. I didn't have very good spring...

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Dropping the Kids Off

As Marty mentioned on his blog, we’re adding another swim to our Open Water Series next year – it will have a 1 mile and a 2 mile option. We were talking about this on our drive down to Jacksonville the other weekend and we were trying to come up with names. I am proud to announce that I was the one who came up with The Big Deuce for the 2 mile. Marty laughed and probably called me gross or something and then we dismissed it saying it might not be a good idea, but after running it by some friends we said screw it – The Big Deuce it is! Marty came...

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Slacking in Blog World

I've been a slacker here. I know. And since this is how my family keeps track of me (hi mom!) I figured I'd better write something. But since I'm lazy, I'm going to do a Kari and bullet list this awesome.Last week ranks in the bottom 5% of bad work weeks for me. Friday culminated into one of my worst days ever.BUT the weekend was great! We drove to Wilmington Friday evening to watch the Beach 2 Battleship full and half iron-distances races.Watching the races was very, very fun. I love cheering for people and seeing them accomplish their goals....

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Weekend in Florida

Marty and I drove down to Jacksonville, FL to visit my sister and her husband who moved there in August. She scored us some tickets to the Florida/Georgia game which has been held in Jacksonville for quite awhile. It’s a big party and even though it was hotter than Hades on gameday we still had a fun time.My oldest friend also came up and stayed with us – she is getting her MBA at Florida so is now a stinkin’ Gator fan, but that’s more because her...

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Answering Some Questions

Dawn, an occasional commenter asked what the heck is a bunhugger? It's the name given to the tighty little shorts collegiate and fast runners wear in races. Here I am in a track meet in college in some bunhugger glory.I drew the arrow lest you think I'm the tiny little blonde thing. I do remember outsprinting her at the end - giant versus the petite girl.Truth be told, bunhuggers aren't a whole lot different than what a lot of people wear in triathlons,...

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5K

Marty and I were planning on doing a 5k on Sunday afternoon called the Monster Dash and people supposedly dressed up in Halloween costumes. I was pretty excited and was going to wear a genie costume I’ve had for years since it seemed like it had enough flow to run in. Although I would have to come up with something to keep the little headdress/handkerchief thingy in place. Marty has superman pajamas so that would be his costume. Don’t think too much on why a soon to be 38 year old man has superman pajamas.Unfortunately, or fortunately depending...

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State Fair

It's that time again when people all across North Carolina flock to the fairgrounds in Raleigh in search of the grossest fried creations imaginable. Besides the very typical fried candy bars, ho ho's, pb & j's and mac n cheese, this year they also had chicken fried bacon and fried butter. Disgusting.Here are some pictures I stole from Kari's fb. Thanks, Kari!We paid $1 to see spider girl, but they wanted another to take her picture. Kari tried...

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Goings On

Into another week already! October is flying by and we actually had to turn the heat on this morning (a little different from my Florida readers I suppose - after hearing the grumbling from my family about how HOT it’s been down there).Marty and I drove down to Pinehurst on Saturday to cheer fellow athletes and clients on. It was extremely humid and both of us were very glad we weren’t racing after just doing the run course. This is a nice race, but it’s very challenging and the elements didn’t help much. Every single person I talked to after the...

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Ironman Hawaii

It seems like these days almost everyone is talking about the Ironman World Championships taking place in Hawaii this Saturday. I was lucky enough to accompany Marty out there in 2005 and it was quite an experience. For those interested, here’s his race report. I always enjoy reading Marty’s race reports and I realize I may be a bit biased, but they’re not full of flowery language and “oh I learned so much about myself out there”, but more “this is what happened” with a mild sarcastic drip. I wrote a novel detailing our entire trip but it doesn’t...

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Lake Royale Spectator Report

I'm the proud wifey :)This morning, Tassie and I cheered Marty on at the Lake Royale sprint triathlon. Truthfully, I cheered and Tassie whined when she saw Marty, apparently wanting to run and bike with him.So Marty kind of sucked pretty bad at Wilmington and it was totally not indicative of his current fitness. He just had a bad day and really didn't taper which didn't help him at all. I knew he was going to do better at this race - way better,...

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My Lucky Day

TrackLast night, Marty and I hit the track group. Angela and Tim come out now and it's nice to chat with Angela on the warmup and cooldown. We even got a few hi's and smiles from some of the other members which is a big step - this is not the Downtown Orlando Y Runners Club!I stupidly left my sunglasses hooked to the fence and completely forgot about them until very late that night. Cue stomach drop. No no no! Those were my prescription sunglasses and those things aren't cheap! The track is not close to our house and I wasn't going to drive back...

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Blah Blah Blog

The Gaal’s enjoyed a nice weekend at home – finally! Training has taken a backseat to everything in my life right now…ahh the off season. I don’t feel the need for a big break (I only did sprints since June, which is I think a big part of it), so I just kind of slept in and did whatever I wanted. This included nothing, an easy 30min run, more nothing, a short bike with a friend tapering for Kona and a lot more nothing.We had some houseguests for the Duke Half and went out to dinner with them on Saturday night. Tassie got all sorts of loving from...

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