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 us (it's a little shy of 3 miles to the race) and of course had a great time. Marty ran the 1 mile race and stomped on all the little kiddies with a smokin' 5:25.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving! There sure is a lot to be thankful for!

Read More

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 and myself to Maggie Valley to spend some time with some of my family. We had a great time and lots of good food. Marty and I made our way into Asheville on Saturday night (one of our favorite little cities).

And here’s a picture of Tassie drinking the last few drops of some Tasmanian beer the other night (her namesake).

Read More

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 bathroom. One of those post-running workout issues all runners have experienced. Time to go potty.

Bri: “I have to go potty,” she tells her husband, Marty. “You know.”

Marty: Nods his head. He has been there.

Bri gets up from the table and walks inside. It is dim and smoky. There are people sitting in groups, laughing, chatting, having fun. She proceeds to the bathroom. As far as bar / pub bathrooms go it is not bad. Not too clean, not too dirty. About what you’d expect. She walks to the stalls. There are three. One of them is taken. Bri takes the stall farthest from the door and enters.

Bri gets prepared to do her business. There are a few loud, pre-emptive strikes.

Three year old little boy in the stall next door: “HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!”

Little boy’s Mother: “No, Timmy, be quiet!”

Bri shakes her head and continues onward. The bathroom fills with the terrible smell of a post-hard run poop.

Little boy: “STINK!”

Little boy’s Mother: “No!”

Little boy: “STINK!”

Little boy’s Mother: “No!”

Bri tries to hide her head but no one is looking. She is not sure if she should laugh or cry. Perhaps she’ll just hide in the stall until they are gone.

Little boy: “STINK!”

Little boy’s Mother: “No!”

Little boy: “STINK!”

Little boy’s Mother: “Timmy! If you don’t stop I’m going to wash your mouth at with soap!”

Little boy: “Why? STINK!”

Little boy’s Mother: “Because you’re not being nice!”

Time passes. Bri has to wait them out because she clearly can’t face the little boy so immediately. The little boy finishes his doodies. The mother helps him wash his hands and they leave.

Bri waits some more. She washes her hands. She exits the bathroom. She tries not to look at the little boy she can see out of the corner of her eye. Is he waving and pointing? Is he holding his nose? Is that mom smiling at her?

Bri sits back down with her husband. “You won’t believe what just happened in there.”

Marty: “Tell me.”

Read More

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 Sunday on here, but I won’t because then you all would think I’m even more demented and gross.

Oh yeah, training talk. So last night was track night at the oh so lovely cement lit track. I purposely did not say well lit – it’s not, but at least it’s not pitch black. I wasn’t feeling super motivated for the track but that’s why you run with a group because the work still gets done. The workout was 2x2mile with a ¼ jog in between. Lovely. Goal pace was somewhere between 10K and half marathon pace. I decided 6:20 per mile would be good and tried to settle into an even cadence.

1st 2 mile – mile one: 6:20, mile two: 6:16
2nd 2 mile – mile one: 6:19, mile two: 6:18

I was able to click off pretty much even laps the entire time without too much difficulty. I mean, it certainly wasn’t easy but I got into that rhythm and stayed there – you all know what I’m talking about. That place where you don’t even have to think you just click the laps off.

Afterwards Tim and Angela went with us to the Fox and Hound Pub & Grill making it a very fun school night.

Oops, forgot to get up and swim again this morning ;)

Read More

Nov 20th! New Moon!

hahaha, just a joke, people :)

Read More

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 in my step, but I was able to keep all my miles within about 8 seconds of each other which I think is a good sign of strength right now. I ran a 19:06 for 2nd place female.

Afterwards, we cheered for the 10K runners then headed to our favorite bar, The Flying Saucer. We scored a table outside and had a fun time with some other runners that decided to partake in the frosty beverages.

It was a great Sunday.

Read More

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 up with the Little Uno for the 1 mile option.

The remnants of Hurricane Ida have been swirling here for the past 3 days making our weather super crappy. It’s been windy and cold and raining non stop – this is like no hurricane I’ve been in (and I’ve been in several, thank you Florida summer of 2004). We got in a good track workout on Tuesday night before the rain got too heavy. There is one middle school track in the county that turns on its lights, so at least we have an option. It’s not a nice track but I’m not a beggar. Last night, though, I had to resort to the treadmill at work with my trusty i-pod.

This Sunday we’re running the Old Reliable 5K – hoping for a good time there! The forecast is for 75 degrees – crazy weather!

Read More

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. Our friend Michelle stayed with us and it was nice to catch up with her after not seeing her for over a year.
• We also screamed for Tim, Angela (who totally gave me the stink-eye upon my very exuberant "YOU DID AWESOME!!" when she finished. Hey, a 33 min pr IS awesome!), Kathy (nicest lady in the world), Ashley (who we yelled for from our car - she yelled back AND was booking it), Karen (full finisher!) along with numerous other peeps.
• Sunday was Marty's 38th birthday! We started the day off right with an 11 mile long run around Wrightsville Beach.
• Speaking of running, I logged over 30 miles last week which is huge for me. I looked back at my log during the summer and I avg about 21 miles during the tri season. I'm feeling like a runner again - I love it :)
• Sunday night we met some of our friends out at the Flying Saucer for some birthday fun. Then Marty and I went to see Dane Cook at the RBC Center. Not bad for a school night.
• Work week has started off better - positive attitude!
  

Read More

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 undergrad, Michigan, is hardly football worthy right now :) Katy and I have known each other since we were 7 years old and we both laughed/grimaced when we realized that we had pictures together from over 20 years ago. We can’t possibly be that old! She is a stud runner and we met each other doing youth triathlons – she has finally decided she will do some tri’s next year after a very long break from them. I’m sure she’ll tear it up if she can remember how to ride a bike.

We got to the game nice and early for some tailgating which entailed lots of food and beer. And sweat. Did I mention it was really hot on Saturday? Funniest shirt I saw from a Georgia fan: T-bag Tebow. Hahaha.

I’ll skip the game. Blah blah blah, Florida won again.

We were all sweaty, tired messes after the game. Marty and I had a nice run on the beach Sunday morning, though – it was much, much nicer on Sunday than the previous day.

I have a deep love for doritos.

2 Harrington's and 1 Radkewich - missing the other Rad (although she's an even bigger Gator fan, ugh). We were all coated in a nice sheen of sweat already.

Read More