tales of a running mom

mid winter classic

2012-02-10T13:44:00.001-05:00

way back in the fall (ya know, when it was still 60 degrees and sunny out) i signed up for the mid winter classic. a 10 mile race around cape elizabeth, which is a few towns over from me. as soon as i registered i sent a text to the one i blame for getting me into this mess to begin with about how stupid of an idea that was. i mean really, 10 miles in february, in maine? gross! fun fact: im not a fan of winter running.

i ran 10 miles with danielle just before christmas and it was quite possibly one of my worst runs ever. i was all "hey im making so much progress with my speed, come join me for 10 miles i promise i wont hold you back too much" to her. um, yeah, fail. i chalked it up to a bad run and moved on. christmas came and went and i logged minimal miles. plus i was dealing with a freakish sore hip...a little yoga took care of that but its set me back a bit. by the middle of january i had pretty much decided i wasn't going to run the mid winter classic. i hadn't run any thing over 5 miles in a long time and i honestly wasn't sure i could cover 10 miles at that point. last thing i wanted was to get to mile 8 and have to walk the rest of the way in the freezing cold.

however, planet fitness must have heard me trying to bail on the race and offered a membership i couldn't turn down. so i hit the gym. and hard. if you follow me on dailymile, you know that I have been busting out speed work and miles like its my job (really...i wish it was. anyone looking to hire a kinda slow runner who has lots of determination to get speedy?). ive pushed myself harder then i thought possible and in turn speed work has started to get easier. huh, who woulda thought that hard work would pay off. i've been feeling good about the work that im doing in the gym. while i wish it was outside on the track or on the roads, ill settle for the treadmill. its not as bad as i remember it being. i even managed to get in an 8 mile run a week before mid winter classic. ok fiiiiiiiiine. ill run the damn race. not becuase i want to and i think it will be fun but because its gonna make me better.

so i ran. i really wish i had stayed home and slept in....kinda. i know i would have regretted not running but still, it wasn't a pretty day. this wasn't a goal race and so my "coach" aka slave driver (read: my friend who knows a shit ton about marathons/running whos been pushing me to my limits and has a lot of faith in me that offered to help me out via text, free of charge) decided he'd see what my limits are. he wanted me to go out hard and see how long i could maintain an 8:30 pace. HA! it's no surprise that that i blew up. big time. its a hilly course and i was able to maintain an ok pace through mile 5 but after that i lost it. physically and mentally. my heart really wasn't in the race from the beginning but once i couldn't maintain a pace that should ,on any other day, have been easy for me i checked out mentally. i stopped and walked for a little bit and from that point on it was all over. (also to note. slave driver told me after the race that "i intentionally kicked your ass. i just wanted to turn it into a super hard workout that would beat you up and see what your current limits are") mission accomplished.

i was beyond frustrated. i know that this wasn't a goal race and i know that going out hard was going to impact my ability to hold a good pace but i haven't seen 10s on my garmin in a loooooong time. not being able to hold a sub 10 pace was hard on me mentally. i just feel like i had been kicking butt in the gym and doing so well that 9:20s should have been a walk in the park.

im chasing a sub 2 half and i was hoping to go for that at the begining of march but now im not so sure i have that in me quite yet... ugh. we'll see. monday after the race i got right back at it and did 5 recovery miles. tuesday my son was home sick and so i hit the gym at 4:30am with danielle for a good sweat fest. i missed my wednesday & thursday runs and now it's friday and i need to get back at it. i can't let one bad race knock me down.

i know that sundays race is in no way an indicator of where i am with my running right now. we tested my limits. learned a few things and i vote to never do that again. all i could think of for the last 5 miles was my husband and son waiting for me at the finish. when i finally saw them i heard ruddley say "it's mommy! gooo mommy!". i threw my handheld water bottle to him and grabbed ty from his arms and ran with him through the finish line. ty had the biggest grin on his face and that my friends made my day.

the finish line with ty!

18 months

2012-01-30T19:51:00.003-05:00

I can't believe Ty is 18 months old. I wish I had thought of this idea sooner but oh well. I'm going to recap his growth every few months. I think it will be fun to go back and look at and see how he changes over the months/years.

Age: 18 months
Weight: 29.4 pounds
Height: 31 1/2 inches
Food: veggies ( its pretty normal for ty to eat 2 huge bowls of peas and carrots in one sitting), fruit of any kind, grilled cheese. at daycare he will eat meat (turkey, chicken, pastrami) ...at home, he feeds it to the dog. go figure
Words: everyday his constant babble sounds more and more like actual words. so far he has mastered mama, dada, stop (in a very whining and raised voice, awesome), up, and please (which sounds more like peeeezzz). There's a lot more that he is trying hard to say but hasn't quite mastered, like banana.
Toys: hes still a big fan of balls (soccer, baseball, football, tennis) he will even roll up the washcloth in the bath tub to the shape of a ball and then throw it (ruddley is still has high hopes of him becoming a left handed pitcher) apparently at daycare he spends hours on the rocking horse and gets annoyed when any other kids stand next to him so they can have a turn.
Teeth: 12 with 4 more coming in
Sleep: YES! knock on wood but he sleeps a solid 12 hours a night. he normally goes to bed between 7-7:30 and if we don't have to get up or anything in the morning he will sleep until 8.
Favorite Song: he enjoys listening to his suzuki cello cds as well as the little mermaid cd i play for him now and then (hes going to kill me when he finds out i made him listen to the little mermaid!) . he really loves any kind of music.
Favorite Book: he likes his First 100 Words book along with his First Colors book. he likes to hold his own book now while we read a different one to him.
Favorite Game: soccer
Bad Habbits: hitting....mom and dad....and then laughing about it.
Potty Trained: HA! i could only wish
Friends: just the ones i make him play with and the kids at daycare
Favorite memory of the last month: just watching him start to learn and discover new things. he has become so independent over the last month and even though it's a pain sometimes, i love watching him do things for himself. of course having him come running to me and give me a hug when i walk in the door after being gone for a run is pretty cool.

she gave me crap for not giving her credit for these photos

a slice of heaven!

2012-01-18T20:24:00.002-05:00

i've never blogged about my kitchen creations. there is one reason for that. i cant cook...or bake. well, scratch that, i make a killer mac and cheese and one specific chicken dish (which i have lost the recipe for. humph). other then that, i avoid cooking. my husband is an amazing cook and so i don't mind leaving most of it to him. he can whip up an kick butt meal pretty quickly with the most random ingredients. i on the other hand need hours to prep my dinners. today however, i am blogging about my amazing kitchen goodness.

back story:
my husband rides to work (35 minutes) with one of his co workers that lives down the road. it saves on gas, time, yadda yadda... the last few weeks he has been starting my car before ty and i leave so that its nice and toasty when we head out in the morning (insert collective "awww how sweet"). well this morning he had to get a few things out of my car before he left so i gave him the keys. when he came in we started talking about something and next thing he knew his ride was here. so off he went.

ty and i continued to get ready and 15 minutes or so later we left. only, not really. i went out and saw that my car hadn't been started so i looked around for the keys inside. nope. no keys to be found. i called ruddley and asked where he put them to which i heard "ohhhhhh f*&k" come from the other end of the phone. yup, he left for work with my keys in his pocket. it wouldn't have been such a big deal except they were on the interstate and the next exit wasn't for another 10 miles which puts them about 30 minutes from our house. his ride kindly turned around and drove back so i could get to work.

i sent ruddley an email later on in the day and said i was thinking about making some stuffed strawberries i had seen on pinterest a few weeks ago. an hour or so later i had an email exchange with his co worker/ ride to work...

J: "Let's go with those cream cheese filled strawberries!!!!"

Me: "I owe you big time too. I'll make some tonight"

J: "Your husband owes me big time!!"

Me: "Which means tonight will go something like this. 'Hey sarah, can you make some of those strawberry things tonight so i can pay back Jeff for driving me home since I screwed up this morning' "

J: "That's too funny Sarah"

oh crap...now im committed to making those damn things. sigh.

they seriously were the easiest thing to make ever and oh so good! i got the idea from natalie's blog.

i'm waiting to add the graham cracker topping until the morning. figured it would get soggy. so here's the deal on how to make these gems. the only thing i would do next time is drizzle chocolate over them...or maybe dip them in chocolate if i was really brave.

Ingredients:
-1 lb large strawberries
-8 oz. cream cheese, softened (can use 1/3 less fat)
-3-4 tbsp powdered sugar (4 tbsp for a sweeter filling)
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-graham cracker crumbs

Directions:
1. Rinse strawberries and cut around the top of the strawberry. Remove the top and clean out with a paring knife, if necessary (some may already be hollow inside). Prep all strawberries and set aside.
2. In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla until creamy. Add cream cheese mix to a piping bag or ziploc with the corner snipped off. Fill strawberries with cheesecake mixture. Once strawberries are filled, dip the top in graham cracker crumbs. If not serving immediately, refrigerate until serving.

ENJOY!

more then just a runner

2012-01-16T11:26:00.000-05:00

The idea for this blog started a few years ago as I was knocking out some miles on the treadmill at the gym. We all know how painfully boring that can be and how we think of all kinds of crazy ideas. This blog was one of them. I was training, and say that loosely, more like running x miles when the schedule told me to, for my very first half marathon. There was no tempo, no track, no LSD runs... I just ran miles. I wanted a place to record my training and my running and my thoughts on said training and running. I had no idea how big the blogging world was at that point. I mean, yea I had read a few running blogs but really had no idea.

As I got into it, I started following and reading more blogs, all running related. My focus on this blog up until now has been running with a few random posts thrown in here and there. I've learned alot about running over the last few years. I've learned a lot of "unspoken rules" in the running world, followed people's training plans that have led to an amazing PR. I've read about how every runner has their bad runs and how to recover from that. However, the name of my blog is not "Tales of a Runner". Yea, there's more to me then just a runner. This blog is supposed to be about one mom's adventure in running. So, I've got the running part down around here but I'm missing out on the mom part. While I love running, I'm really quite ok with skipping my run on any given day to spend more time with my family (unless I'm training for something big....like, oh, say my first marathon! yikes!).

From awesome blog #1

When I had Ty I started a separate blog for him. I wasn't sure I wanted to connect my two worlds. I've been a bad mommy blogger and I haven't posted anything on his blog in a long time. I know I'm going to regret this down the road when I wonder at what age he started walking, or when he reached other various milestones. It's just that maintaining two different blogs takes a lot of time. I'm hoping it will be different when I combine them all onto one. I've been thinking about this for some time now but the real push came when browsing around on my new love, pinterest. I came across all kinds of crazy mommy DIY blogs. Seriously, how can you not fall in love with blogs that teach you how to make this...

I'm already planning these for Ty's July birthday! I'm also thinking I'm gonna ~~tell~~ ask Ruddley oh so nicely to paint this for T when he grows out of his current infant decorated room...

Stolen from here

Ohhh and of course I want to make these for the kids at daycare next month...

Amazing DIY mommy blog

Ohhhhh pinterest you are sooo amazing! Now that Ty is getting older we can do more fun things for/with him. It may sound weird but I'm really starting to feel like a mom now. I mean, I know I have been one for the last 18 months but now he's at the age where we can do things with other kids and he actually runs off and plays. In fact, he has his first real play date this afternoon. I'm in no way a crafty person, but for my kid? I think I'll try. So if you read this because you like reading about my running (which I highly doubt cause it's nothing special) then you're gonna have to get used to a few "isn't my kid so cute" posts in the near future. I promise you'll love them :)

Streak 100

2012-01-02T17:30:00.000-05:00

When I got my tattoo, I became a lifetime member of Crow Athletics (getting a crow inked on your body gets you far in the running world!). At the end of December I got an email from them about Streak-100. Crow was offering members of the club a chance to participate in a friendly competition. Here are the rules...

STREAK-100 Decree:
1. There is no entry fee to take on the STREAK-100 challenge.
2. The STREAK-100 will start at midnight on January 1st and conclude at 11:59PM on April 9th.
3. Official participants must be members of Crow Athletics in good standing during the entire 100 days of the challenge. (Thru April 9th.)

STEAK-100 Scoring:
"Honesty is the best policy." Please be honest about your daily running.
1. Official participants must run or walk one mile every day starting on January 1st and finishing on April 9th.
2. Participants may join the STREAK-100 after January 1, 2012 ONLY if they have run every day since January 1st.
3. All participants who complete the STREAK-100 will receive an award. Additional awards will go to the top male and female competitors with the highest mileage.
4. After the completion of the STREAK-100, competitors will be contacted by email. Please be honest. Competitors are encouraged to keep track of their mileage, but are not required to. (Note: Only participants who track their mileage will be eligible for mileage awards.)

I'm not a big sucker for running streaks as I'm a huge fan and believer in rest days. I'm not saying that running streaks are bad or people that do them are not smart runners but my body NEEDS time off and I like to respect that. However, when I saw that you can run OR walk I decided that I could probably do that and it's only for 100 days. So even on my rest days, I could get out and at least walk a mile. Then when I saw there were awards for everyone that completed the challenge I was totally in. I love free things :) I'm not going to attempt to have the highest mileage because I know some of the people running are big time runners and there is no way I could keep up with them and not get injured. This will be a nice way to keep me going for the rest of the winter though.

So I'm 2 days in. On the first day I ran.... one whole mile! Hey, it counts. Today I ran 5 miles which turned into the biggest pacing fail EVER! 9:06, 8:23, 8:44, 10:30 and 9:53. oooooops! I should add that I hit some serious wind on my way home.... but yea, that's no excuse. Sigh, lesson learned. I'd rather learn it now and not in the middle of a race. I felt pretty good during those first 3 miles and I kept thinking what if I had a sub 8 average for 5 miles! I will be so happy!. I should know by now that every time I think something crazy like that I always end up crashing.

We'll see if I can make it until April 9.

Do you have a running streak?

2012 goals?

2011-12-30T18:34:00.000-05:00

apparently the thing to do at the end of the year is recap it in pictures, make some goals and wish everyone a happy new year. so...i'll jump on the bandwagon. why not? get ready, sit back, have a glass of wine and enjoy my 2012 goals.

run...

...injury free

....and happy

...however fast or slow i want

and...

...enjoy every step

no more of this...

or that....

but a lot more of this...

and that!

hope you threw back that glass of wine cause im done.

yup, short a simple. im not going crazy. yea, ive got a few things in mind but if they don't happen, im quite ok with that.

so ive got goals. a few pictures and now ill wish you all a happy new year! peace out 2011...

how the grinch stole christmas & $$ money from autism

2011-12-29T06:30:00.000-05:00

When Sam Felsenfeld started the Operation Jack Marathon last year, it was to fulfill his goal of running 61 marathons a year to raise awareness and funds to fight autism.

(also, he’s crazy)

((there are 52 weeks in a year, for your reference))

That was last year. This year they brought it back because people loved it. And they’re doing it again next year. And probably the year after that, and after that, and after that. The event, the cause, and the faces behind it have been swallowed up in an outpouring of support from the running community.

Everybody is Team OJ.

Except in Houston, apparently.

If you don't already know, the OJ Marathon raised about $40,000 to fight autism the day after Christmas. It would have raised about $500 more if not for two Grinches residing in the Longhorn State.

On the same day as the race in Southern California, runners across the country participated in Satellite runs that contribute to the cause. From a group of girlfriends running off their Christmas cookie binge with a 10K to a hardcore athlete going out to tackle 26.2, participants completed the run at a location and time of their choice and received a bib, shirt, and medal, for their efforts.

John Strohmeyer offered to coordinate a satellite run in Houston, guessing he’d have about 10 people. With at least five starters and three finishers, it would be an official marathon according to Marathon Maniacs.

So in theory 10 people show up, run 9 laps around a three-mile loop in a park, one guy sits at a table pouring water and Gatorade and money gets raised for charity. Perfect, right? Yeah, so much so that 29 people signed up! Basically, a fun run that counted as an official race and raised more than $1,500 — everybody's happy!

Well, everybody except Michelle Wolpert and Ron Morgan of Houston Area Road Runners Association — Mrs. and Mr. Grinch.

Michelle and Ron caught wind of the charity event and got pissed. If they weren’t allowed to host a big race in the park, well damnit neither can this grassroots foundation raising money for a good cause! 30 people running laps around the park? Absolutely unacceptable. Nuh uh, not fair.

Temper tantrum, party of two.

They went to the park director and got the event shut down. PERFECT! Congratulations, throwing sand in the sandbox and tattling can still get you what you want as adults.

Except shutting down the event wasn’t enough. Shortly after, Ron sent out an email blast to every running club member in Houston planting seeds of doubt about all the good Operation Jack does.

John (OJ Houston) worked with the parks department and eventually did find a new location for the race. Four days before the event. A lot of runners ran at the new location, but a lot of them didn't. The debacle ended up costing the charity about $500 in refunds.

Congrats Grinches, you sure showed 'em. Merry Christmas.

Why am I telling you this? Not only because I’m a supporter of Operation Jack. Or that I really enjoyed the event. Or that I think(thought?) the running community is a loving and supportive group of people that band together to do great things both individually and together, and share a mutual love of RUNNING.

Mostly, I want you to hear the story of how two spoiled Texans with delusional senses of entitlement fought to shut down a charity event that brought funds and awareness to a worthy cause.
And I want to call them out for it. Because it angers me that there are people like that in the world.
(probably the same ones that leave their shopping carts in the parking lot and don’t wave when you let them out in traffic)

Feel free to let them know how you feel about it. Or congratulate them – I’m sure autism research really didn’t need that $500+ anyways… Michelle can be reached at michelle_wolpert@hotmail.com and Ron would love to hear from you at ronmorgan9@yahoo.com.

More importantly, SPREAD THE WORD. Repost, link back, email, Twitter, Facebook. Buy a billboard. Pass out flyers on the bus. Print it out and mail it to 10 people and insist they have to do the same or the chain will be broken and they’ll never meet their true love.

And then ask your cootie catcher if JTT will ever ask you out. (he’s still hot, did you know?)

Whatever you choose to do, thanks for your support.

Operation Jack Satellite 10K: Hometown Style

2011-12-27T21:40:00.001-05:00

December 26, 2011, time for the annual Operation Jack Satellite 10K. For those of you who are not familiar with it...you should be! I am feeling super lazy tonight so I'm stealing right from the Operation Jack Marathon website.

"In 2010, more than 200 runners in 45 states and five countries participated in Operation Jack Satellite runs on December 26. To commemorate the 61 full marathons Sam Felsenfeld ran in 2010 as part of Operation Jack, participants ran 6.1 miles in their hometown. Due to initial demand, the Satellite Run option will be available again.

Participants will receive the Operation Jack Marathon t-shirt and medal. This year, the suggested distance is 10K, 6.2 miles. All proceeds will benefit the Operation Jack Autism Foundation, a 501(c)3 charity. The primary beneficiary of the Operation Jack Autism Foundation is Train 4 Autism, also a 501(c)3 charity"

Truth be told. I did not want to run this. Last year we had a killer crew running with Team Maine and it was AWESOME! I had promised (first mistake) that this year would be bigger and better. For whatever reason I was unable to pull together a group of runners this year. I know it wasn't for lack of interest. Several friends had family obligations with Christmas and all plus a few that just didn't have the funds to spare so close to Christmas. I know, I get it. I was feeling kinda bummed about not being able to pull anything together. However, I wasn't going to bail. Not on this run! Instead of rushing home from my family Christmas 2.5 hours north to run with my crew....or lack there of, I decided to do the run in my hometown and spend another day with my family.

Last week I blogged about how warm and snow free this winter has been and how excited I was about that. Well Santa brought a nice gift Christmas morning....SNOW!!! I woke up early and wanted to get my run done so I could be utterly lazy for the rest of the day. I bundled up and headed out. Get ready for a 6 mile tour of my hometown.

the top of my parents driveway.

As I started running, I started thinking. A lot. It was very quiet on the streets and the only cars that were on the roads were snowplows. I was looking in the windows of various houses as I ran by and saw families eating breakfast and playing with Christmas toys. It was pretty cool.

I didn't become a runner until after I moved away from home and so I haven't actually run around my hometown much. I started thinking about my childhood and growing up in this town. How nice it was to live in a small town where everyone knows everyone. I ran by houses and wondered if my friends grandma still lived there (I'm pretty sure she doesn't). I remembered the sleep overs I used to have there and we would sneak into the freezer and steel ice cream sandwiches.

I thought about the 2 buildings at the bottom of this hill. The one on the left used to be a frame shop owned by friends of my parents. They also sold fudge. This is where my love for chocolate mint fudge was born. I remember going into the store as a kid with my parents and sitting at the counter, swinging my legs and eating fudge. I'm not sure what is in the building now. The building on the right used to be a mom and pop video store. I remember going in with my mom and being so excited because she would let me "sign" for our movies. Now it's one of probably 6 Real Estate offices in our small town. (John, The Gagnes live directly to my left in this picture :) )

Then I ran past the Fish Net. Mmmmmmm....it's a take out joint with over priced burgers, fries and ice cream. Oh, and seafood but I don't like seafood so that doesn't count. It's only open in the summer and employs all kinds of high schoolers. I used to know everyone that worked there. I'm afraid I wouldn't know anyone there now. As a kid I used to invite friends over and then we would walk to the Fish Net for lunch. Ya know....what all the cool kids did.

New Cargoes...my first real job. A nice retail store in the center of town. I worked here during college. This place has also been a mom and pop pharmacy, Rite Aid, an empty building and now this. I would have stopped in but they were closed. Booo.

On my way to the back roads I ran through the hospital parking lot....where I was born almost 28 years ago to the date (January 5 in case you were wondering. Feel free to send presents).

Then I took a turn onto a road thats pretty quiet. Lots of summer people live on this road and so theres not a ton of traffic during the winter but a lot of real pretty, big, fancy houses. You really can't find a flat route to run in my town. This road is no exception...full of lots of hills. I was having a hard time with my footing and the snow was stuck to the bottom of my sneakers. I felt like I was skating half the time. Winter running, I've already had enough of you!!

Soooo pretty...at the top of this hill I looked to my left and there was this...

and this...

I'm so lucky to have grown up in such a beautiful town. Of course at the time I didn't realize it but moving away to "the city" I appreciate it when I come back to visit.

#onlyinmaine

I ran down this road for a while before turning around and heading home. As much as I didn't want to get out of my comfy, warm bed I was so grateful to be out there running and supporting a cause so close to me. I thought of Zach who was at home designing car washes with pipe cleaners, cable ties and straws that he got for christmas from Santa. Yes, at 14 he still believes in Santa. I thought of Jack who I've never met, who had no clue hundreds of people were out there running for him that day. As always, I was pleased I got out and went for my run but I was especially pleased about this one. Even though I was running alone, I really did feel like I was running with a large group. I knew there were lots of people running Satellite 10Ks all over the US and Afghanistan as well as the OJ Marathon & Half in California. The best part? We were all running for the same cause: Autism.

And seriously, for a 35 dollar donation where else can you get a kick ass shirt an even better medal AND a bib for the collection? Well done Sam. Next year I'll get my act and a team together.

oh, hello winter running!

2011-12-19T20:06:00.000-05:00

As I'm sure most of you know we've had a crazy warm winter so far (and since I'm writing that I know we will be punched in the face with sub zero temps for the next month...It's just how things work). Once we get dumped with snow and the sidewalks are covered in ice I will no longer be running outside. You see, there is no law about having to shovel sidewalks (or maybe there is but it doesn't get followed) and so once winter hits my outside runs become much more dangerous. I am jumping snow banks, skidding across patches of black ice and spending more time concentrating on not breaking and ankle or getting hit by a car then I am on my running. Really, I'll use any excuse to not run outside in the winter if I can help it. Infact, I probably would have resorted to the gym several weeks ago buuuuuut I kinda canceled my gym membership when I was injured up this summer. I am waiting for the "Hey! It's the new year, everyone come to the gym and get fit for a month and then give up that resolution and start eating like crap and sitting on the couch all day" deal to hit Planet Fitness. If I sign up now it's 29 bucks and then 15/mo. If I can wait just one more week it will go down to a 1 dollar sign up and 10/mo. I WILL hold out!

Mother nature has been very kind to me though and provided me with 40-50 temps to run in after work. I really have no excuse to not run outside. Warm temps, clear sidewalks and a college track 3/10 mile from work. Last wednesday I had a great 8 mile run. I haven't done many long runs since MDI but focusing more on track workouts and tempo runs. I was eager to get a few long runs under my belt before the Mid Winter Classic 10 miler in February. I texted Danielle after my run and asked if she would be up for a 10 miler on Sunday. She agreed....until we discovered that it would not be 50 degrees....or even 40. Nope, in fact we were going to be running more miles then it was degrees outside. Sweet, whos idea was this!?

We were lucky enough that the temps reached 15 before we set out. The run was ok and by ok I mean, my legs felt like lead pipes and my butt was so frozen I was pretty sure it had fallen off and at one point as we were running into the wind I couldn't feel my face. I must have apologized to Daneille 101 times for my slow pace. I keep telling her I am rocking my runs and kicking butt and then we run together and I suck. Haha. Luckily shes a great friend and said "We can't always have a good run". Ahhhhh....true friendship right there. It felt really nice to get out there and log the miles, despite the pace. 10 miles is better then 0 miles, correct? While on our run she assured me that "I don't think it's ever been this cold for the mid winter classic". Thanks, cause I was seriously thinking of bailing on it. Who signs up for a 10 mile race in February in Maine? Oh wait, me. Oy!

Danielle and I post 10 miler in our stylin' MDI Marathon jackets!

So thank you winter for punching me in the face. Can we make up and be friends now? I really didn't mind the 50 degree temps.

coming back with a bang...

2011-12-14T09:48:00.000-05:00

One of the things I've been itching to do since being laid up after surgery is to get another tattoo. I wanted something that symbolizes and represents all that I went through. The highs, the lows, the strength and patience I needed to get through tough days. Tough days when I was popping vicodin every 2 hours so that I could stand up straight. Tough days when I was getting in trouble at work for forgetting things (maaaaybe all those pain meds didn't help in that department). Tough days when I burst out crying for no reason except that I was tired of living like this. Yeah, I know this whole ordeal only totaled 6 months of my entire life but it was a difficult 6 months for me.

This summer I spent many hours watching NY Ink....oh, Ami please open a shop in Maine, k thanks. Every time I watched it my idea for my tattoo got bigger and a little crazier. Of course twitter didn't help "just go for it Sarah", "go big!". I designed and redesigned for several weeks. I had pretty much figured out what I wanted to get.

A few days after the MDI Marathon relay a new idea popped into my head. MDI was a killer race for me. It's where I grew up. It's a tough course that going into I just hoped I could finish. It's a race I felt so strong, so happy and so blessed. It wasn't easy but I did it. I've never really been emotional during races but the last mile of that race is one I will always remember. My relay buddy Ally met me 1 mile out from the finish and I remember saying "I'm on my way to a killer PR, just get me there!". I came into the finish and heard the announcer say something about a strong women (Or in my mind thats what I heard. Really, I have no clue what exactly she said). At that point I threw my hands up over my head and had a huge smile plastered over my face. As soon as I crossed the finish line I pumped my fists my friend and one of the race directors came up and gave me the biggest hug ever. We twirled around for a while and she told me how proud she was of me. Then I saw Jamie who finished the race hours before (still not quite sure why he was still hanging around) and I gave him a huge hug and yelled "Jamie! 6 minute PR!". He later told me he saw me coming into the finish and saw the look on my face that he had no choice but to be equally as excited for me.

Annnnnnyway, you get the idea. MDI was huge for me. I was supposed to be running my first full that day. I probably shouldn't have been out there running as hard as I was but I busted my butt to get back in shape and I was not going to miss it. The course is absolutely beautiful....

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Exhibit C

I swear...these are all views along the course taken the day after the race. It's hard to pick a favorite spot on the course but one of them would have to be the couple mile stretch along Sargent Drive. No cars and you literally run along side the water. Sargent Drive is also home to THE tree.

My original idea for my tattoo involved a Celtic Tree of Life. Symbolizing a new life and strength. A few days after the race though I decided to scratch that idea and use this tree. A tree thats a long a course that means so much to me. After countless drafts and various ideas of how to make it work we came up with this...

Live Life Full Throttle is a motto I really like, but also means a lot to me. I added the crow because A. I like it and B. Crow Athletics is the host running club of the MDI Marathon (among a ton of other kick butt races) and anyone that gets a crow tattoo becomes a lifetime member...so naturally I had to do it. I'm a lifer! Caw! Caw!

So in the spirit of living life full throttle I'm thinking about my 2012 plans. It's going to be awesome. I just don't want to plan/announce too much too soon.... last time I did that I was out of commission for 6 months. No more of that! I'm taking it day by day but be prepared for some exciting things!

What's 2012 looking like for you? Anything you think I should add to my list?

I'm baaaaaack!

2011-12-12T11:40:00.000-05:00

Yeah, I know....it's been a while....a long while. HEY! It's my blog, I'm allowed a break. I needed a break. I needed to step away from social media and spend time with my amazing family. We've been super busy this fall...

We've been to baseball games...

camping...

apple picking...

to the fair...

to the top of cadillac mountain...

and trick or treating!

I've had an amazing fall, setting PR's like it's my job and falling in love with running....speed work....hard work and sweat. I'm refreshed and ready to come back. This fall I ran a half marathon and PRd by 3 minutes, in the pouring rain, heavy winds and a nutrition bonk at mile 10. Then 2 weeks later I ran a 2 person marathon relay on a difficult course and PRd my half again, this time by 6 minutes. I also ran a couple 5ks this fall. The first one was on a Sunday and I PRd by 10ish seconds?? Then I ran one the following Thursday and set another PR, this time by 50 seconds! I tried to write race reports but I couldn't. I wanted to share with you how excited I tell you about the highs and lows of every mile. It just wasn't coming to me, believe me I tried. I have several drafts but nothing was working. I couldn't accurately express how blessed I was to be able to run, to run well, and to love every minute of it . Instead of trying to write them now, I'll just share a few photos. I think they say it all...

ally just completed her 13.1 mile leg and im about to take off on mine

the top of some hill (hence the "i wanna die right now" face)

the finish line after a kick ass 13.1 mile leg and a 6 minute PR on a tough course

ally my relay buddy, danielle who just became a maniac and me!

So don't fear. I'm still here and I'm defiantly still running. I just needed a bit of a break. I'm ready to kick some butt in 2012!

who is this girl!?

2011-08-16T19:58:00.000-04:00

who is this girl...

...that has been getting up at 4:30am to get her run in before work?
...that is excited to run again and wants to add 5.6 extra miles into her schedule this week?
...that looks at a massive hill ahead and says "sweet, this will make me stronger"
...that has a craptastic run and gets back out the next day to try again instead of taking a rest day?
...that doesn't make excuses to not run (the rain, the early morning, too tired)?
...that is knocking off massive amounts of time to her average mile pace each time she goes out for a run?
...that is doing regular core work!?
...that is bummed that tomorrow is a rest day?

yeah... i have no clue because it's certainly not the girl that was running in march i can tell ya that much! whoever it is though, i like it!

since getting back to running things have been going so well. i have absolutely zero expectations for myself . right now it's all about building my mileage up safely so that i can be ready for the mdi marathon relay that i'll be running with ally in october. last week i started getting up before work and getting my runs out of the way. as much as i love my sleep, i am reallllly loving these pre dawn runs. it's cooler outside, no traffic and it feels amazing to be done with my run by 6:00am. so good in fact that when i get home in the afternoons i contemplate running again but i ~~usually~~ always opt for a nap instead!

sam has helped me with a schedule to build my mileage up safely but also in time to run 13.1 in mid october. today i asked him if i could run an extra 5.6 miles this week...he squashed that idea and said i could only add in an extra 2. fine, fine, fine...

when i was out with my injury i gained a lot of motivation to hit my training hard when i came back. i promise you all that i am taking it slow and in no way am i pushing myself. im just running what feels good and the faster pace has just been happening. i guess im just more motivated to get out there and put in some good miles and have solid runs. if im going to run the relay in october i want to be as prepared as i can be. i dont want to be running the hills of somesville and say "damn i wish i had put a little more effort into my runs".

so tomorrow is a rest day, thursday will be a 5 miler, friday a rest day and saturday will be my first big test of 7 miles. thinking about calling my neighbor to see if he will run it with me (hey mark! are you reading this from your vacation? wanna join me?... i did clean up cat poop in your house today ;) )

Beach 2 Beacon

2011-08-13T10:08:00.000-04:00

gksarahj5 sarah

8 1/2 weeks ago I was having back surgery. Right now I'm lined up at the starting line of Beach 2 Beacon 10k ready to start a new chapter.

I had gone back and forth for a while about whether or not I was going to run this race or not...and by run I mean, line up with the walkers and see if I could cover the distance before they shut down the bag pick up at the finish and made you get it later in the week at the town office.

If this was any other race I would have skipped it all together and been a spectator, yet again. This was not just any other race though. The Beach to Beacon is Maine's largest road race. 11 countries and 41 states were represented. The race is head up by Joan Benoit Samuelson and brings in a lot of elites....like, ya know, Deena Kastor! (Although she made it to town and to the finish, she didn't run the race due to the flu. booo). This year the race sold out in 10 minutes.

Up until the race I had only run 2.5 miles at the most at one time since coming back from injury. I had logged 10 miles total since coming back from injury. Clearly running the Beach to Beacon was a smart choice. Right? I talked to my neighbor the night before and he asked what my plan was. I really had no idea. Run the first 2, walk 1, run 1, walk 1/2 and run the last 1/2??? I dunno...that sounded like a good idea. Just before we hung up he says "Just go out and have fun. Be glad you can move again. Enjoy it Sarah". Although I knew these things, and I had no expectations. I took his words to heart and really set out to have fun!

My super speedy friend Maddy who is coming back from injury offered to run along with me. I warned her that it was going to be a slogfest and will include walk breaks. She was totally cool with that and really helped me along the way.

Danielle, Maddy and I at the start

I met up with everyone at the start and we all chit chatted for a bit before all the super speedy runners set off to find their place in the mass of runners. We said our goodbyes and Maddy and I hung out at the back of the pack. Since we were planning on having fun we both brought our phones to take pictures, tweet and text while we were running!

Photo by Kevin Morris

The National Anthem was sung and we were off....well....kinda. It took us 5-6 minutes to actually cross the starting line. As we were walking up to it I was busy creating a new album on Facebook from my phone called "Beach 2 Beacon 2011". I joked with Maddy and said "as if I'm making a new album right now as we are about to cross the start!".

Mile 1

gksarahj5 sarah

Hey I'm passing people! #beachtobeacon10k

I guess this is what happens when you start at the back of the pack- you pass people. A concept I'm not quite used to :). I was feeling good, chattin it up with Maddy and taking pictures!

Mile 2.

gksarahj5 sarah

Born this way baby!!! @AndreaDuke15

I had one ear bud in so I could still listen to tunes and chat with Maddy. Lady Gaga's Born This Way came on and got me all pumped up! I thought of my Gaga loving friend Andrea and sent her a text to tell her how I was doing :)

Fun Fact: you see a lot of interesting outfits/styles from the back of the back! It was somewhere around here that we saw a lady wearing sunglasses that took up half her face and cost more then my car! Another women was wearing a camelbak big enough to hold water for an all day hike. Not sure if she got the memo that there were water stops every 2ish miles.

then we decided that this might be a fun place to stop since I was busy tweeting through the first water stop and didn't grab anything.

Mile 3

gksarahj5 sarah

Some lady just yells "hey she cell phoning" #whatwedo #beachtobeacon10k

Yes lady, I was also using my cell phone. Haha. Maddy and I got a kick out of that. Not much to say abut this mile. I was just surprised how good I felt despite just having back surgery 8 weeks prior.

Mile 4

@gksarahj5 sarah
Feeling so ghgooooood!!!!b!!b! #beachtobeacon10k mile 4

Clearly I was crusing along and my typing went all to hell! :) This course is lined with spectators from the start all the way to the finish. Many of them playing music in their yards. I told Maddy it was Maine's version of a Rock n Roll race. Somewhere along mile 4 my current obsession OneRepublic's The Good Life was blasting and I decided it was a good idea to bust out some moves including a complete spin in the middle of the road. I really was living the Good Life at that moment (helps that mile 4 is downhill!:))

Mile 4 was fun.

I saw Danielle's mom...

ran along side a Lighthouse on wheels...

stopped to take a picture with the best sign ever...

also got to run under this awesome flag...

Mile 5.

Apparently I didn't tweet during mile 5...I was starting to struggle a bit here. Even though it sucked, we were still having fun. In fact, at no point during this race did I feel like death or wish that I hadn't run the race. I knew were close to entering the park which helped power me through. It was also along this mile that I thought of two friends that just had the same back surgery that I did and dug deep for them.

Maine Running Photos. Mile 5

Mile 6

gksarahj5 sarah struggling through the last mile but im gonna do it! #beachtobeacon10k

This last mile sucks. alot. It has a series of 3 rolling hills that are not so much fun. I walked the hills and ran down them cause by this time I wasn't feeling so hot. As I got closer to the park I was excited to cross the finish line. While I was struggling a bit on the hills, my back felt great and I was so happy with that.

Mile 6.2

gksarahj5 sarah

I finished that bitch!!!! I feel great!!! #beachtobeacon10k #8weekspostbacksurgery

Maine Running Photos. Finish Line

Photo by Kevin Morris

Overall, I was so pleased with the race. I ran it super slow but I had so. much. fun. Not being stressed out about my time or pace was a good feeling. Like I mentioned, this course has so much crowd support it felt nice to be able to take it all in and enjoy it. I can't thank Maddy enough for slogging through it with me. I know I would have stopped to walk much earlier if it hadn't been for her.

Maddy, Brendan, Danielle and I

Once at the finish we met up with tons of running friends, took pictures, talked about future races and watched the awards ceremony.

Runner Army

T

2011-07-25T21:11:00.002-04:00

One year ago today this happened.

and it feels like over night he turned into this...

Dear Ty,

You are the most amazing thing to ever happen to me. You have brought so much joy and laugher into my life. The days when I was at my worst you just looked at me, smiled and started laughing...I can't help but smile from ear to ear every time I hear that. You love life more then anyone I know and I can't wait to see you grow. One year ago today at 8:00pm you entered this world full of life. Tonight, at 8:00pm I quietly walked into your room where you were peacefully sleeping after a fun day at daycare celebrating with your friends and then a yummy dinner at Friendly's with your dad and I. I told you how much I love you and gave you a kiss. I wondered what you were dreaming about, and I hope all your dreams come true. From the day you were born everyone has called you smiley. You are so happy all the time and I couldn't be more blessed. I love you Ty.

Love,
Mama

patience? i haz none

2011-07-15T15:00:00.000-04:00

....true story. i might be the most inpatient person ever. not like, oh hey it's taken you 45 minutes to bring me my cheeseburger and fries you suck, inpatient. more like, i've been killing myself at the gym for a whole week, why am i not buff and have abs of steal by now, inpatient.

this whole injury thing has tested my patience a time or two. i hate sitting around and waiting for things to happen..like all these doctors appointments. i can't tell you how many times i was referred to an office and then told it would be 3-4 weeks before i could get in.

excuse me, i dont have 3-4 weeks. i have a marathon to start training for. i need to get fixed now!

clearly my urgency wasn't enough for them to fit me in any earlier. sigh. as it got later and later in the spring i slowly realized that my fall marathon was out the window (good news: i can write about it and not cry anymore! progress my friends!).

having 6 weeks off in the summer and being told to "wake up, take your meds, eat breakfast, go for a walk, take a nap, take your meds, eat lunch, go for a walk, take a nap, take your meds, eat dinner, go for a walk and then go to bed" sounds pretty sweet and im sure many people would be jealous of such a thing. i enjoyed it for a while but after a week, i was bored, restless and itching to get back to life.

anyone that knows me, knows that i don't slow down for much. i had a lot of time to think which i always have told my patients is not a good idea. too much thinking is never good. i had minor freak out moments where i felt like i would never get better and days when i felt so good i wanted to put my running shoes on and take off. i talked to two different running friends that i have a lot of respect for and they both told me i need to be patient.

but you knooooooow im not patient

you'll get back and you'll be fine. but you must be patient. if you're not, that's how you'll injure yourself. just know the more patient you are now, the better it will be later.

ok. fine.

so here i sit. trying to be patient, a week left to go in my recovery and feeling pretty good. i take my daily 3ish mile walk once or twice a day and then rest. i spend way too much time on twitter (im sure the twitterverse will be happy when i return to work) and watching tv. i read trashy books and think about what it will be like to get back to life again. im so thankful i have the unlimited texting plan (is 8,000 a month too much?) and have designed my next tattoo. i've also refocused myself. i know what i want and im so excited to go get it. like jumping out of my skin excited!

i know that im going to need to carry all this patience over into my training. before i got injured, 26.2 was going to be a challenge. running doesn't come easy or naturally to me. it's something i have to put a lot of work into. now that i have to start from scratch, its going to be even more of a challenge. im going to need patience, trust, and strength to get through it...all things ive needed and had to get through the last 5 months. i know ive got 'em....just need to put them to use!

things are looking up!

2011-07-12T14:54:00.000-04:00

oh hi! it's me...the one who hasn't blessed this blog with her ~~im so depressed posts~~ love in a good month or so. breaking news folks: IM BACK!!! last time i updated you was a week post surgery, im now 4 1/2 weeks out. to be honest, it hasn't been all rainbows and unicorns...which is kinda why you haven't heard from me. i was sick of having nothing good today say, or pretending i had good things to say. i don't wanna get too excited but i think i am finally making some progress. there was some concern that i had reherniated my disc and had a follow up CT scan which showed "post op abnormalities". oy, thats a phrase i dislike. so they had to order an mri to confirm or deny a reherniation. i got the results of that today and to quote my doc "your mri looks fine, no disc issues at all".

for real!? im good to go!?

he says the pain im feeling in my leg could be some nerve damage or some scar tissue. to be honest, the pain isn't that bad compared to what i was feeling before my surgery. hell, i havent taken any pain meds since 3 days post op. that says something, especially when i was taking 8 vicodin a day just to get through the day before surgery. what i feel is a pinch right behind my right knee and its worse when im not active. doc said that getting in the pool is A OK and thinks that will be the best thing for me right now.

to say the last 4+ weeks has been an emotional roller coaster is an understatement. i can remember 2 days specifically that i just wanted to jump off the ledge. i was mentally done. the first day i sent my dear friend an email asking him all my "what if" questions. he wrote back, answered every last one of my "what if" questions and talked me off the ledge. then, i got two care packages that day from two amazing friends.

then a few weeks later when my leg was really getting wonky and worse this gem of a package showed up at my parents doorstep from my royal sister...

another thing that has kept me from freaking out is going through all this with someone. i remember getting back to my room from surgery and seeing a tweet from eric. he was going to have the same surgery as i just had a week later. we've been chatting since and it's been so nice to have someone to talk to about different pains or things that are going on in our recovery. i have had amazing support from all my friends and family but it's nice to talk to someone who understands and knows the exact things im talking about.

sooooo that's the injury update. just because my leg has been all wonky doesn't mean it has slowed me down any....

ive been watching hours of whale wars with zachie at night...

reading lots of trash magazines...

taking boat rides to islands off the coast of maine...

watching joanie kick butt at the ll bean 4th of july 10k...

enjoying parades with my little man...

eating lots of strawberry shortcake...

taking t on lots of walks...up lots of hills...

and of course watching lots of world cup soccer!!

i've also been swooning over all things tattoo and hope solo related...but that's all for a different day! :-)

ive got another week and a half or so of recovery left before i am cleared to go back to work. im finally feeling good. ive got some spunk back and im not letting it get away from me again!

the good, the bad and the ugly

2011-06-15T11:20:00.009-04:00

so it's been a freakin week since my surgery! ya, the one i have been ~~oh so patiently waiting for~~ freaking out about for the last bunch of weeks. well folks, i lived! :-) this last week has been a roller coaster of emotions. but here ya have it. the good, the bad and the ugly.

***** WARNING! IF YOU HAVE A WEAK STOMACH, SKIP THE UGLY PART OF THIS POST*******

the good I HAVE NO MORE LEG PAIN!!!! im not living on pain meds every 3 hours! this is probably the most exciting news ever. going back to last wednesday though. i had to be at the hospital at 7:00 for my 8:30 surgery. when i checked in they told me my surgery had been moved up to 8:00 so they hurried through the admission process. i was a ok with that. one thing i am learning through all of this is that i am not in any way shape or form a patient person and so waiting around was not at the top of my list. it was pretty smooth sailing. routine questions that i had been asked a million and one times already so my answers were pretty automatic at this point. they also had to do a routine pregnancy test even though i ~~prayed to God~~ told them i wasn't. while waiting for those results they asked the "are you depressed or suicidal" questions. i told them that my answer was contingent on the results of my pregnancy test. they laughed. thankfully, im not. win.

i spent most of the morning being a smart ass with the nurses. shocker, i know. however, my surgeon got me back when his pale skinned, red headed self walked in to sign my back (always comforting when the surgeon has to autograph the correct side of my back to make sure he operates in the correct place). He lifted up my shirt and took one look at my nasty sunburn and told me i was more red then he was and he's not used to seeing such things. yeah, smart sarah spent 4 hours in the 93* sun over memorial day weekend. burnt to a crisp!. then, someone tells me they are giving me a nice little morning cocktail and the next thing i remember i was waking up in the recovery room, crying and them yelling my name.

details are a little fuzzy at this point. i know they pumped in some morphine but i also remember at that time not feeling any leg pain at all.

is this really over? has the last 4 months of pain finally come to an end?

so they wheeled me up to my room and i promptly asked for my phone. does this really surprise anyone??? i needed to send out a quick email to my amazing friends who have been such huge supports to me. then i of course had to have my mom snap this gem of a picture so that i could let my twitter peeps know i was alive!

it wasn't an hour later before i was up an walking around. since i had surgery at the same hospital that i work at (only slightly awkward) i had lots of visitors all day. however, this was the best visitor i had!

i settled in to bed and caught up on some reading.

5 hours after surgery i took this picture.

so the rest of the night was pretty uneventful. my husband and mom left, so i was left to entertain myself for a while. this was about the time i thought that being a pole dancer with my IV pole would be a fun career.

the bad if i didn't think i was sleeping before surgery, im realllllly am not sleeping now. oy. i think the night i spent in the hospital i slept 3 hours or so. although i did have a sweet chat with my nurse at midnight about how we think the hospital is haunted with nuns. seriously, its true. i can't shower for another week (mind you, it's been a week already since my last shower). mmmmm sponge baths you are not fun. aren't you jealous that you don't get to hang out with me for the next week??? i can't work, drive, lift, bend, twist etc for 6 weeks making a very independent person completely dependent on everyone else. ill have a checkup at 6 weeks and as long as things are going well, i should be able to ease back into running at 8 weeks. withdrawing off of vicodin is not fun. not fun at all. i stopped taking it saturday after my surgery and was living in the land of the dead until tuesday morning.

***** WARNING! IT'S TIME FOR THE UGLY*******

the ugly 18 fantastic staples later. i did say i wanted another tattoo! :-)

***** THE UGLY IS OVER :-)*******

so there you have it folks. the basics of what i hope is a changing point in my life. ive got so much more to say...but, ive got 6 weeks of doing nothing ahead of me, so ill save that for another post or 7. i just want to thank all my amazing friends and family who have been there with me every step of the way. picking up the pieces at home, being on the other end of phone calls when i was beyond frustrated and crying, and celebrating my recovery. THANK YOU! I honestly couldn't do it without you.

peace out st.marys. you've been great!

129 days later.

2011-06-07T10:15:00.000-04:00

I've thought alot about what I wanted to say in this post. you know, the "last blog before surgery" post. i thought it would be a lot of reflecting on the last 4 months and how much pain ive been in. how i've taken camp on the pity pot with several attempts to get off with no luck. i think ive done enough of that though.

it's been 129 days today since my initial injury in january. a simple thing i had done countless times finally got the best of me.

74 days since my last run (really? only 74? apparently 74 days feels like a lifetime!). clearly i tried to power through my injury and thought that it would go away. for awhile my back felt better when i ran and then just like that, one day i couldn't run anymore.

ive spent enough time feeling sorry for myself, being jealous of everyone else who could run, and crying. im over it and im tired of it and ive let it impact my life in more ways then i care for.

all this time away from life has given me a lot of time to think. everyone has said "maybe this happened for a reason". ugh really? not what i wanted to hear thank you. buuuuuut i think they were right. 3 weeks ago i got hungry. hungry to be a better runner. to be faster & stronger. i've had lots of time to read and i've figured out that my "ill run when i can find time and maybe do some x-training and core work if i feel like it" attitude is not going to help me reach my goals.

i'm blessed that running has not been taken away from me for good and im going to take full advantage of that when i return. many of you have told me you are thinking and praying for me. it means so much to me to know that there are so many people out there rooting for me. here's what i want you to do for me though. i want you to go out for a run today or tomorrow, naked. no watch, no tunes, no expected pace, no pre determined distance. just go out and run because you can! enjoy the world around you. celebrate the fact that today you can run! theeeen, tell me about how awesome it was!

with that, i am going to enjoy today. ill grab a few beers and some french fries at my favorite bar with one of my best friends and simply relax. thank you all who have been there for me. i think i am finally at the end of this long road.

3 dollar therapy session!

2011-05-26T23:03:00.000-04:00

im a mess. a big. fat. hot. mess. ive got a lot going on in the little brain of mine of mine one of which being that in a week and a half im having back surgery. yea, you know....like they cut me open, push away some muscles, shave (really? shave?) off part of my disc, put the muscle back and close me up again. yea- im kinda scared. ok, i lied...alot scared. reach the beach was one of the best and most emotional times ive had in a while. by the time we reached the beach i couldn't hold on anymore. i let my teammates stuff their faces with some well deserved food while i took a walk and cried for a while.

that was supposed to be me running up that ski slope.

i was supposed to be making a fashion statement in the headlamp and vest at 3:30am

danielle powered through her last leg and we all joined her and crossed the finish line together. they even gave me a medal. but i didn't deserve it.

one of the things that ive been missing in all this is exercise. sweat. hardwork. ive thought about going to the pool on several occasions. it scares me. im not a great swimmer by any means. technically im pretty funny to watch. i got talking to morgan about aqua jogging and decided i could probably manage that. the monday after rtb i decided that i was going to hit the pool and give it a whirl.

im not going to lie, i googled "how to aqua jog" before i went. trrrrue story. the first night was all about figuring it out. i think i jogged 1600 meters that night. i felt good, my hip was starting to bother me at the end so i stopped before anything got bad. after i called morgan so she could give me some more tips. i figured out how to keep track of my laps but i learned that when i zone out i forget. focus sarah focus!

i went back again the next night and busted out 2700 meters in about 55 minutes. i have no idea what this means but it was probably one of the best workouts ive had in a long time, both mentally and physically. i started off a bit slow but about 8 laps in i got in to a groove. its kinda like how i really hate the first 3ish miles of my runs. i usually want to turn around and go home and just as i am about to stop and start walking something clicks in and i settle in to my run. this was the same kind of thing. i slogged for a while before something kicked in and i powered through the rest.

tonight i went back for my third workout. 3000 meters in 60 minutes. again, no idea if this is "good" or "bad" but i honestly don't care. i paid 3 bucks for a 60 minute therapy session. i thought about alot of things tonight. each time i got to the end and turned to head back i looked at the wall ahead of me and focused all my energy there. i saw a lot of numbers on that wall. 4:06:23, 59:59, 1:57, 8:30, 26.2. i saw myself running through the finish line of MY marathon (oh, and i looked gooood incase you were wondering). i thought of luau and sam who were both battling autism today- my problems were nothing compared to theirs. i thought of zach, who inspires me in more ways then he will ever know. i cursed at runners who can bq on a regular basis but then i thought that maybe i have a quality that they wished they had. there were times when i felt like i wasn't moving at all, it was these times when i literally talked to myself out loud and said "don't stop now sarah, finish this". i also finally figured out what my 26.2 tattoo is going to look like. epic.

the first two nights they had music playing but tonight there was nothing. all i heard was my breathing, and the sound of the water. i wondered if this is what it was like to run without music, something i have a hard time doing. i don't like hearing my feet hit the pavement or my breath completely out of control. i started to think about the things i need/want/am going to do to be a better runner. im mentally ready to put in the time, effort, and hard work needed to be stronger and faster.

im sorry for all the debby downer posts lately but tonight i feel good. im excited for the future, for my plans, to use this experience to make me stronger. hang in there with me cause im going to need all the support i can get while i get cut open. im still scared.

happy sarah leving the pool!

the art of spectating

2011-05-24T06:00:00.007-04:00

during my adventures in boston, i met red and spike. since red and i are both broken we were forced to spectate the 5k rather then run it. as we were walking to our spectating spots red asked me if i had heard of spikes spectating abilities, which i had not. simply put, out. of. control. i kindly asked spike if he would write a guest post for you. he agreed....without further adieu, i present spike and the art of spectating.

I love to spectate. I’d like to tell you I do it because, as a runner, I appreciate how awesome it is to have a positive spectating experience; but that would be a huge lie. Whilst running I am almost completely oblivious of most spectators, what they are yelling, or the signs they may have made. So, that altruistic motive is right out.

I do it because it amuses me. Seriously. Sad...yep. But honest. I just blurt out things I think are funny. And, because some people who have spectated with me find the things I blurt out humorous, I’ve been asked to do a guest post about it. I hope I don’t fail. There is nothing worse than being introduced as ‘this hilarious person’ only to be asked on the spot to be funny—and then fail.

So, with failure to be funny looming, I’ll begin.

How does one describe the process of being a witty idiot? Well, just think about things runners think about, and then say something somewhat related and somewhat absurd. Example: most runners are trying to P.R. their race, so anything that has to do with obtaining a P.R. is excellent fodder. I like: “Beat your P.R. like it was a piñata!” Or, perhaps: “Break your P.R. the way old men break wind…recklessly!” As you can see, the trend here is to use an exclamation point at the end. So, tip one; say it with meaning.

Each race provides an opportunity to customize your cheers. The first thing one could ponder is the name or theme of the race and poke fun at that. At the Martian Series of Races I was fond of: “There are aliens behind you and they have probes…run faster!” After finishing Boston and meeting back up with the Redhead, I told runners: “You are not hallucinating, there is a unicorn ahead! Go get your unicorn!” During the Cleveland Marathon (and half) I yelled: “At least you are not running the Detroit Marathon (or half).” I can do this because I’m from Detroit. Had anybody else shouted that and not been from Detroit, they would have found themselves in a fistfight. Therefore, tip two; make fun of Detroit, aliens, or unicorns.

An important footnote (man do I wish blogger allowed real footnotes): the surroundings of where you are spectating are also great places to find inspiration. At Martian there were cones along the last .1M of the route. So, I suggested runners “Help the city save money by picking up a cone and carrying it to the finish line!” While in Cleveland, we were directly across from the Carol B. Stokes Federal Court House. I used a bullhorn to go all ‘Mr. Tour Guide’ on them; informing participants they were running past the Carol B. Stokes Federal Court House. I would then elaborate by shouting “Court was not in session” and that “Judges are nude under their robes.” What is important here is that you should lie if you are uncertain of the accuracy of your statements. Telling runners “there are 3,612 bathrooms in the CBS building” is perfectly acceptable even if you are off by two or three restrooms. This leads us to tip three; lie like a rug.

When you see the runner(s) you are there to spectate you can cheer wildly. But I prefer to yell: “That is my friend Beth! Hey, my friend Beth is in front of you! Go pass her!” Then I let Beth know: “Beth, they are coming for you!” However, perhaps you could go with something more encouraging like: “You look better than a new pair of snow tires!” These things will undoubtedly lift your runner’s spirits. Therefore, tip four; talk about something you would like.

Every runner knows that finishing is the hardest part. So, a good spectator should recognize this fact and provide helpful information to motivate the runner. And I’m not talking about yelling: “You are almost there!” Please, this information is useless and vague at best. I like to tell runners there is “Free water at the finish! Literally, almost unlimited amounts of free water! All you can carry just ahead!” Near the finish line, this really gets the racers going. I also encourage runners to finish by letting them know there are also “Free bananas at the finish.” And, even though it is cruel (see tip # 3), I’m not above telling runners: “There is almost no water left! Run faster to get the last cup!” This leads us to tip five; provide helpful information.

Signage. The Redhead is better at this than I am. She comes up with amazing phrase that are short but effective (example: “Light it Up!). She then writes it in large easy-to-read-as-you-run-past letters. I prefer to put something more longwinded on the sign, cramming letters in like Japanese subway riders. Example: “It’s about glory and points for the Playmakers race series. If they look like they might be in your age group, pass them.” Or, for a women’s only race: “The Jingle Bell 5K lacks balls, and that is a good thing.” As discussed above, you can incorporate parts of the race into your signage. At the Mason State Bank 5K a hill comprises the last .2M of the race. This resulted in: “Welcome to Heartburn Hill. The younger cousin of Heartbreak Hill.” Soooo, around the bend ends up at tip six; use a pencil to write in your slogan before you begin with a marker to ensure proper spacing.

Lastly, make up random things. I’m fond of telling runners: “You are so close to finishing you can practically make out with it! Go make out with your marathon!” Or perhaps: “The people behind you are slower than you!” Plus, the old: “Kittens are faster than tomatoes! Are you!?!” And thus, my last tip; make parents with children around feel a little uncomfortable.

I hope you find this helpful. And remember, there are kittens in hot pursuit.

reach the beach

2011-05-22T21:15:00.000-04:00

i cant wrap my mind around the weekend i just had. it will be a few days before i get a full recap up...but we REACHED THE BEACH!!!

three things thursday

2011-05-19T06:06:00.000-04:00

reach the beach edition

1. even though im on the injured list, im still going along with my dirty little freaks (yeah, thats our team name. i know youre jealous) to reach the beach this weekend. im going to be the dd....or something like that. really, i am just going to be the super peppy annoying chick who has all kinds of energy cause she isn't running at all hours of the night on no sleep. all said and done, i think we have had 16 +/- different people on our team. we are now down to 10 1/2 runners for a 12 person relay. we lost 3 1/2 of the runners in the last 3 weeks (me included). awesome.

2. we might just have the best shirts ever.

3. our team captain danielle has been such a trooper. finding runners, designing shirts, ordering shirts, assigning legs, reassigning legs, turning a 12 person run into an 11 person run, to a 10 person run, to a 10 1/2 person run, organizing vans, food and tweet-ups! she rocks and i dont think she is ever going to be in charge of a relay team again! thanks d. xoxo.

follow us on twitter #dirtylittlefreaks
@gksarahj5
@rtdanielle09
@fiftyforbilly
@kissing_frogs
@swimrjul

and the verdict is...

2011-05-18T08:49:00.002-04:00

just when i thought i had shed all the tears physically possible regarding my injury, my lack of running and my pain....i shed a few more yesterday. ok, i lied, a lot more. some of you know, many do not, but i had a meeting with a neurosurgeon yesterday to discuss my options for my herniated disc. whenever i mentioned back surgery to anyone, they freaked.

back surgery is risky

i've heard so many horror stories

you're too young for that

my friend had that, it didn't help

yeah, i heard it all. if you had asked me 4 months ago if i would consider back surgery, my answer would have been hell no!. but this is wearing on me. mentally and physically. big time. i can't begin to explain to you the kind of pain i am in so that you would understand. im not asking you to understand. what i want you to know is that i have tried everything. ok, maybe not everything but i've tried a lot of other alternative types of therapies. this is not a decision i made quickly. unfortunately, due to my insurance, i have paid for many of these alternative therapies out of pocket. well, my pockets are just about empty now. i literally cant afford to keep trying things and have them not work for me. so im having surgery. you may or may not agree with my choice but i had to do what was best for me and my family.

june 8. 3 weeks from today. it should last about an hour and ill spend a night in the hospital, being taken care of by the very people i work with. yea, that awesome insurance i have also requires me to get my care at the hospital i work at. sweet. it's a 6 week recovery and i should be able to run 8 weeks after surgery.

this throws my whole fall racing plan out the window and ill start from scratch. i won't be running my first marathon (insert tears) but i will make the best of it. im still going to be at MDI because i can't miss the epic weekend with an amazing group of people. shabby ally is going to run the relay with me and we are going to have fun! im still going to raise money for train 4 autism and springy pond farms. (click here to donate *wink wink*)

you hear that running Gods!? im going to have fun and im going to run again!!!

im also planning on getting some revenge at the chilly half marathon in newton which was my first half. i wasnt sure if i would be able to run this after running MDI but since im not running the full, i will absolutely be there. everything else is up in the air.

getting better is my first priority and ill put all my energy into a healthy recovery. red and i have been tossing emails back and forth about our injuries and how they have sidelined us from what we had hoped would be an epic 2011 racing season. we have decided that 2012 will be ours and in the meantime we will motivate each other to stay positive and focus on what is important.

God, grant me the serenity to accept when i cannot run

the courage to run when i can

and the wisdom to know the difference

three things thursday, take 2

2011-05-16T20:10:00.000-04:00

blogger kindly removed this post when they went down last thursday. ugh. here it is again!

train 4 autism update!! wooooot woooooot! i finally was able to nail down a charity that i am going to be raising money for while i train for mdi (yes, i WILL be training for mdi...positive thoughts my friends, positive thoughts!). i decided to go with a place called springy pond farm. this is a place where my brother takes horseback riding lessons in the summer. its run by an amazing women named jennifer cammack who is an occupational therapist. she was actually the one who suggested to my folks that zach see a developmental optometrist (they seriously have those things!?) because she said the reason zach isnt reading yet (13 years old) is because he doesn't track left to right and top to bottom, his eyes wonder all over. annnnnnyway, she rocks but like alot of businesses these days she needs monitary help to stay open. insurance companies don't pay for these lessons and it can be expensive on top of all the other bills that my family, and so many other familes who have autisitic children have. i've set a lofty goal of raising 5,000 over the spring and summer to help her out. i'll be running for train 4 autism and im putting together a team to run with me on oct 16. im going to have a post telling you more about jennifer and springy pong farm soon but in the meantime, i wanted to share this with you! i have a donation page set up and you can go here to donate if you would like to help out.

a new piece of art is in the process of being made at my house! ruddley and ty took a trip to the craft store and picked up some supplies. then ruddley stripped ty naked, squirted some paint on the canvus and set him on it. it was fun and messy and awesome. this is only the first step. he is planning on adding to it, ill post a picture of the finnished project.

im a crew member? uhhh yeah, so a few weeks ago i volunteered to crew for some of my NERT friends who are running the vermont 50 miler in september. then i realized i have no idea what that means. what am i supposed to do or how i do it? i know being a crew member is super, duper, uber important and i don't wanna mess it up. im sure there is nothing like being at mile 40 and hurting, tired, feeling like death and you really need your crew to help you out and they have no idea what they are doing. so i was chatting with someone on twitter about it and he told me i really need to know my runners and what they will need. he also told me not to ask stupid questions (like, are you tired? do you hurt? do you want to quit?). i don't really know the runners needs as far as running is concerned. i do know what kind of beer they like, does that count? i figured i should probably fix that problem. an opportunity came up to crew for some of the same NERTS at a ultra marathon relay in july. i figured this was a little less intense and i could practice my ~~drinking~~ crew skills here and get to know what these runners will need before i crew for the vt50. i really have no idea how this is going to work..like, do i really have to be awake for this whole thing? will they be nice and let me sleep? i mean, i know they are running the entire time are they aren't going to be able to sleep but crewing takes a lot of effort (ummm, i think), i should probably get a nap:-) haha, clearly im going to be an awesome crew member, duh. hopefully i don't get fired before race day!

do you have any brilliant tips for me?

happy thursday/ monday

a little help from my patients...

2011-05-11T11:59:00.001-04:00

i dont talk about my work on here and i try to keep that private. but today i wanted to share something with you. each day i run a group for my patients at work. today's topic was gratitude. something i think that we could all take a lesson in from time to time. for me, my lesson came today. i won't go into details but we had a good discussion and one of my patients said something that really hit home to me and brought me back to reality. i like to wrap up my groups by reading a reflection or a poem of some kind. today we read one of my favorite poems that i have on file and i wanted to share it with you.

be thankful

-anonymous

be thankful that you don't already have everything you desire,

if you did, what would there to be to look forward to?

be thankful when you don't know something,

for it gives you the opportunity to learn.

be thankful for the difficult time.

during those times you grow.

be thankful for your limitations

becuase they give you opportunities for improvement.

be thankful for each new challenge

becuase it will build your strength and character.

be thankful for your mistakes

they will teach you valuable lessons.

be thankful when you're tired and weary

because it means you've made a difference.

it is easy to be thankful for the good things.

a life of rich fulfillment come to those who are also thankful for the setbacks.

gratitude can turn a negative into a positive.

find a way to be thankful for your troubles

and they can become your blessings.

no matter how healthy or unhealthy we are. how rich or poor. how educated or uneducated we are....we all have setbacks from time to time. it's how we deal with them that seperates us from each other.

there are a lot of things in life i am grateful for. my friends, family, and my health are among the most important things for me. right now i can't run, but i sure am grateful that i can walk. i may not be able to play with T like i want, but i can still still his beautiful smile and hear his contagious laugh. im grateful that i have bloggy friends who are out there and follow my ups and downs, that care enough to text me, email me or send me a message on twitter when they notice i haven't been around or having a bad day. you don't know it, but i really appreciate it. thank you.

what are you grateful for?

im a mom first.

2011-05-09T10:40:00.001-04:00

ive struggled with this post for the last week. i didnt (and still dont) know what i wanted to say or how i wanted to say it. i dont want to spend this entire post complaining- but im frustrated and hurting. i spent last week on the pity pot and feeling pretty sorry for myself. i didn't think you needed to join me there.

if you've been following you know im injured. you can read a little more about that here. since then things have gotten a little worse each day. at this point im on a crap load of pain meds which make it bearable to get through the day. i still walk all funny. ive been told my my super awesome and nice coworkers that i look like i have a load in my pants, mego preggo and an abnormal gate. now thats hot.

ive tried everything. heat, ice, chiropractor, core strengthening exercises, 2 steroid shots (they lasted 2 days each), exercise and rest. ive seen 4 different doctors and nothing is making this any better. i finally called my pcp to come up with a plan c. he ordered another mri and set up an appointment with a neurosurgeon. he thinks that part of my disc has broken off and is pressing against my nerve. this may explain why the steriod shots have not been working.

im frustrated

im hurt

im not running.

the thing i do to cope with life is not there when i need it. i have been in denial about how bad this injury might be. i was convinced that id be better in time to run the reach the beach relay next week with my dirty little freaks. i mean really- this injury happend in january, 4 months later i thought id be ok. sadly, i had to make the decision to back out of the race. i cried for a while. then the realization that i might not be better in time to start training for the mdi marathon set in. this is the race i have been looking forward to for over a year. i spent last summer super mego preggo and unable to run. i spent the summer looking forward to start running again. this was going to be the summer that i made progress as a runner. i was going to get stronger, faster and i was going to get a killer PR at beach 2 beacon. as im laying in bed, crying and feeling sorry for myself something happened...

ty was playing on the floor and he started fussing. i got out of bed to pick him up. i couldn't. i couldn't get down on the ground to play with him, to pick him up, to comfort him, to be a mom to him. i realized at that point that i was being totally selfish. yeah, i want to get back to running but i need to get better so i can be a mom first. this is his first summer. we having camping trips planned, days at the beach, hikes, baseball games to go to, dirt to play in. i need to be better so i can enjoy all those things...then, once im a mom again, i can be a runner. ty needs me. my husband needs me.

so that's whats going on in sarah's world. i'll keep you posted as things progress. im going to get off the pity pot and focus on the better things in life. i woke up to a beautiful sunny day. things will get better and i will be ok.

"falling down doesn't make you a failure, but staying down does" -anonymous

three things thursday

2011-04-28T07:00:00.002-04:00

1. the royal wedding is the last thing on earth i would wake up at 4:00am to watch. im so over it, and it hasnt even happened. with that said, i have friday off from work since i am working this weekend (booo) and im suuuuure im going to get sucked in to watching coverage of the wedding. that's what i do, i spend my days off watching useless stuff on tv. especially if im still gimped up.

2. steroid shot # 2 happened yesterday. im pretty sure its not a good sign when you are able to walk in to the appointment and have to leave the appointment in a wheelchair in tears unable to put weight on your right leg. backing up a bit, the wednesday before boston i had my first shot. i spent wednesday night, all day thursday, friday and saturday with tingling and numbness in my right leg. i got the ok to go to boston and walk around, in fact was told that walking is good for it. saturday night my leg hurt real bad and everyday since then it has gotten worse. i was scheduled for a follow up on may 4th and i called last week and told them i couldn't wait and i needed to get in asap. after getting the run around, you know the "well im not sure what we can do for you", they finally called and said the doctor wanted to see me asap. gee thanks cause i cry everyday and walk around all hunched over like an idoit. they suggested another steroid shot from a different angle and put me on some pain meds (after i suggested they put me some. ugh). their first available appointment was this coming friday but they said they would put me on a cancellation list to try and get me in eariler. on tuesday i was in so much pain i called them to find out if they had openings...come to find out they had one yesterday. im a little annoyed that it took me calling them to get in sooner. oh well. i went in yesterday and got my shot, went home, slept for a while and felt very frustrated. ive got a marathon to trail for. i need to get better so i can have a good, solid training! praying it works this time.

3. T turned 9 months on monday! hes called "smiley" by everyone that comes in contact with him. its actually kind of funny. i bring him to the doctors, work, my parents, my friends and everyones first reaction is "hi smiley"! hes 22lbs and 28in and the best thing to ever come into my life! i can't believe he is 9 months already...where does time go?? hes got 4 teeth and has started eating real people food...you know, like ice cream and french fries!:-)

opening day of the red sox

daddy and T

'cause this is what we do at easter egg hunts....

...eat the eggs!

i love this kid!

Marathon Monday

2011-04-26T22:57:00.001-04:00

i've spent the last two boston recaps talking about all the fun/crazy/silly things that happened over the course of the weekend. now that we are a week +1 day removed from the boston marathon you all know about the amazing world record finish, you know about the debate over the world record finish. i'm sure you heard about how the early women's leader kim smith had to drop out due to injury. this recap will talk about none of that (aside from what i just said!:) ). spectating any marathon at mile 26 (ive had my fair share of that in the past year) you see a lot. the good, the bad and the ugly. boston is no different. i spent a long time trying to figure out how i wanted to capture the awesomeness of this day and describe to those who weren't there, or who were running and only spent a brief time at mile 26, what it was like standing in front of TJ's on boylston that day. i'll do my best.

so many emotions unfold at mile 26. excitement and fist pumps from knowing a PR is in the bag. disappointment, knowing that heartbreak hill really was a heartbreak and a 3:10 wasn't possible that day. feeling powerless because your legs just wouldn't carry you that final stretch to the finish. joy in knowing that you are moments away from completing the boston marathon, and a mixed bag of emotions knowing that boston is your 50th state and you are a member of an elite club.

i must preface this with the fact that i have never run a marathon. i don't know what it's like be on the other side of those barricades at mile 26. i don't know what its like to train for 18 weeks or go for those 20 mile training runs. with that said, i do know what its like to train hard, have a goal time and want nothing more then to cross the finish line with a smile on my face and feel good about my run. sometimes it happens and sometimes its just not my day.

the boston marathon is what everyone, or shall i say, most people work towards. there are some runners who have no desire to run boston but my guess is that there are a lot more that do. boston is that carrot in front of your nose on those 90 degree days when you don't wanna get out there and run. boston is a race that sold out in 8 hours to some 20,000 qualified runners (not counting charity). simply put, boston is a big deal.

what i was most impressed by was even though this was the boston marathon- there were runners out there who were sacrificing their own run, their boston, for a fellow runner. i wasn't able to get pictures of every runner who did this but i think this pictures below sum it up.

2 things i love about this. 1 a runner that wont quit and 2. a runner who stopped to help and sacrificed his boston time.

then there was this guy. being held up by an EMT on a bike long enough for him to regain strength and finish on his own.

these are just two examples of runners who had a rough day but gave it their all to finish. i won't forget the imagine of a women who's face was all banged up and bleeding. my guess is she may have fallen...and then gotten back up to complete her run. i loved the runners who put their name on their shirt or arms so that we could cheer for them as if they were our best friend. like the quote on the niketown photo says "never run alone again". none of these runners were running alone. they had thousands of people cheering them on from hopkinton to boylston. we didn't care if we knew them or not, they were one of us. a runner. a runner who needed any kind of support possible during that final stretch.

while boston is a big race and everyone wants to do well, it was so awesome to see so many runners having fun. the costumes, the smiles and the high fives. even though i was at mile 26 and i saw a lot of walls being hit and a lot of people having a rough day, i also saw some fantastic runners with outstanding attitudes.

take luau for example. i had been stalking him for a long time on twitter, don't worry, he knows and he's totally cool with it. he had a killer run at smuttynose and got his first BQ. he trained like crazy for boston. i would often swear at him when i saw on twitter that he had logged some crazy amount of miles before i even woke up. he was feeling ready, he was having an awesome run....until heartbreak hill. i'll let you read his recap here, because i want him to tell you his story. from mile 20 on he knew that his goal time was out of reach. after a few miles of feeling sorry he picked his chin up and decided to make the best out of the last 6.2 miles. danielle saw him run by and we all started screaming "luau! luau!" he was past us when he heard us screaming. he turned to looked and we jumped up and down and waved like 13 year-olds at a justin bieber concert. to our ~~surprise~~ shock, he turned around, dodged several runners and ran over to us. we promptly said "what are you doing, keep going!?" to which he smiled and replied "my 3:10 is out the window, i'm having fun!". i gave him a big sweaty hug and he snapped this gem of a photo.

i remember looking at the cop who was looking at him like "whhhat is he doing!". i know this sounds like such a simple, little thing but we loved his whole attitude about boston not being his day. there are a few ways you can go about having a crappy run, lets face it, we alllll have them. you can feel sorry for yourself, be angry, or have fun! i urge you all to go stalk luau's blog. he has such an amazing attitude towards running and life. plus he raises money for autism, which obviously i love. granted he was disappointed about his run, but he didn't let it stop him from finishing the race and having fun while he was at it. he also won't let it slow him down.

ok brief pause for some more pictures before i continue.

joan benoit samuelson- representing maine!
(ms.v, this pic was for you!)

kara!
mark: "hey sarah, how long ago did you have your baby!?"
me: "shut it!"

a pickle in boston. really?

ok, back to mile 26.

and then there's sam. sam also had a killer training for boston coming off of 61 marathons a 2 ultras in 2010. again, ill let you read his 2011 boston recap here. i first met sam at boston in 2010. it was at the post race lunch in 2010 that i got the ass kicking i needed to a) run a marathon and b) make a difference while doing it. i followed sam and his crazy race schedule for the rest of 2010 and was eager to see him back in boston in 2011. boston is a course that sam runs well on and he has been chasing a sub 3 marathon since his 8th marathon. boston was his 92nd. sam is one of the most humble men i know. he doesn't gloat about his speed. he doesn't brag about 2010. he just goes out there and does it. however, ask him about train 4 autism or why he is running the san francisco marathon and he will tell you everything you need to know! it would have been easy for him to put a sign on his back last year and said "this is my X marathon this year" but that's not what he, and 2010 was about. if i were running a crazy number of marathons a year id be sure to tell everyone i came in contact with about it:-) not sam. i started off as a supporter of operation jack, i look up to sam and admire his work ethic and attitude. a roll model for all runners out there. an inspiration to me. i may have met sam because of operation jack, but im pleased and honored to call him a friend today. he is the reason i am running the mdi marathon in october for train 4 autism. 2010 wasn't about 61 marathons, it was about bringing awareness to train 4 autism and thats what he did. without sam, the maine chapter of train 4 autism wouldn't exist. he has even agreed to slog it out with me and pace me at mdi. he says if i can go 4:06:23 i can forever hold it over his head that i ran my first marathon faster then him (4:06:24). now thats a good friend, a sub 3 runner agreeing to run a 4+ hour marathon. i hope he knows what he's in for.

so sam was gunning for a sub 3 on april 18. he had his cheering squad standing in front of TJs waiting for him. i will never forget the moment when i spotted sam running down boylston knowing he had a sub 3 in the bag. i was jumping up and down on the fence, screaming, waving my hands, anything i could do to get his attention. he knew we were there and i know he was looking for us. i saw him put his hands out and shurg his shoulders as if to say "hello! where are you girls!?", right after that he saw us and gave us the biggest fist pump he could muster. there were a whole lot of teary eyed girls at this moment.

danielle with the sign she made.

so these are just some of the sights from boylston st, mile 26, boston 2011. these are the stories that you didn't read in the paper the next day, or on the live streaming of the race. these are the real heros of boston. the ones with an amazing attitude and determination like none other. these are the normal people. the ones who don't make a living off of running, but run because it means something to them.

spike and redhead

OJ girls at TJs

rockin boylston st

and this my friends is how you celebrate a sub 3.
"tonight, tonight there's a party on the rooftop top of the world!"

"never run alone again"

boston awesomeness part 2: c.r.a.z.y

2011-04-24T22:38:00.004-04:00

after our bloggy brunch, danielle and i headed back to the apartment to get ready for the red sox game. back when i started planning this boston weekend i knew it had to include the red sox! sadly i was working the day tickets went on sale and i wasn't able to snag any that day. luckily for me, sam was on it and got 8 tickets! wooot woooot! im always excited to go to fenway, it's one of my favorite places ever. this time, i was even more excited, i got to share fenway with my friends, fenway virgins, and out of town runners. i got to show 'em how the red sox celebrate.

pre game on yawkey way (danielle and i snagged a beer before heading in)

the crowd roar of "yoooooooooooouk". (no we are no booing our teammate)

the drunks in the bleacher seats

sweet caroline in the middle of the 8th. (sam may have been to fenway before, but i bet he's never seen it sung with as much awesomeness as danielle and i put into it!)

and papelbon and the dropkick murphy's in the top of the 9th. (sadly he was not needed this day)

thanks sam!

despite the whether it was an awesome game. the sox pulled out of their loosing streak and gave us a nice win. i met some more cool peeps and listen to jennifer and danielle talk about how we are going to push D to BQ!

danielle: "do i need to lift weights during my training?"
jennifer: "do you stop and lift weights during a marathon? No"

ally, danielle, jennifer, sam and i

jennifer, sam and josh

:-)

this is where the night gets real funky. this probably won't be very funny to you (unless you are danielle or ally) it's one of those "you had to be there" moments, but i have to write about it. one of the best nights ive had in a long time.

ally had made reservations at a restaurant for her and one of our friends. sadly, she was not able to make it to boston due to medical compilations. im happy to report that she is on the mend and doing very well. boston will be her's someday. danielle and i did our best to take her place. our first challenge was getting from fenway to harvard square. id like to think that the three of us are pretty smart but we had a hell of time time getting there.

our first problem came trying to get T tickets. danielle had an interesting conversation with some cop looking dudes at the T station. it started of with danielle asking if they worked there (no they are just dressed in bright yellow official looking jackets for fun) and they ended up having a Who's on First kind of discussion about how to get T tickets. Finally the dude just told us to put our cash in a bucket and go through the gate. im sure they had a good laugh about us after we left.

so we trot along and danielle tells us she spent a semester at tufts (an exchange program, she didnt fail out :-) ) and that she knows how to get around on the T. my details are a little fuzzy now but at some point we ended up on the wrong T going the wrong way. we were sure we were headed to CT. i know this isn't really possible, but we would have made it happen. it was that kind of night.

fiiiiiiiiinally we made it to the restaurant. super cute place i might add.

we sit down and jesse, our waiter asks if we would like some water.

"why yes, we would love some"
"we have 3 options of water for you this evening. we have pellegrino sparkling water, still bottled water or cambridge's finest tap water"
"haha, you're funny, we''ll take the tap water thanks"

when he said he had 3 options for water, i thought he was being funny. i apparently don't go to enough fancy restaurants to know that there are options for water. he was dead serious.

i'm really not even sure how to describe the rest of the night. we are pretty sure our water was spiked. we were the most sober girls ever, and i know we were acting as if we had been drinking for days. everything was funny...we were crying we were laughing so hard. our waiter got weirder and weirder as the night went on.

"what do you have for dessert?"
he proceeds to tell us.... "now i'll let that marinade with you for a bit. i'll be back to take your order"

REALLY!? wow.

i asked him if he would mind taking a picture with us (i think ally just about died, something like "oh no you did not just ask that" came flying out of her mouth). somehow it came out that we all write blogs and he says "oh, do you tweet about your blogs?" and theeeeeen, he gives us his twitter name and facebook info. i was about to tweet him when i realized i had been making fun of him on twitter all night. ha. i passed.

meet jesse

our reservations were for 5:30, i don't think we left until 8:30. we were there entirely too long. before we left we had one pit stop to make...in the bathroom.

poor ally

as if the toilet was on a pedestal...ally couldnt touch the ground

we decided we wanted to hit up niketown before we called it a night. we booked it to the store hoping they were still open. we had heard that they had a photo booth and given the mood we were in, we needed to take advantage of that.

they were open. we ~~took ove~~r owned that photo booth. we even decided to run it for a while and showed other people how it worked and what to do. (dear niketown, you can hire us if you like).

we finally were ready to call it a night. it was one of the best nights i have had in a long time. although i just met ally, we all got a long like we had been bff's since 2nd grade. im sooooo glad she got her texas ass to beantown!

so there you have it, part 2 of my boston awesomeness. next up, marathon monday: things you see at mile 26. this will be a little more serious, but just as awesome.

boston awesomeness part 1...

2011-04-22T07:30:00.003-04:00

i felt like boston 2011 was never going to come. i think i may have been the most excited person for boston, the only one with a boston countdown who wasn't actually running boston. i was excited to finally meet up with runners that i had been stalking...um, following over the last year. i followed their training, was real excited when the BQ'd, prayed they made it through the registration madness, and then made plans to meet up in beantown. i think it's fair to say, my weekend was packed with awesomeness.

danielle and i headed south saturday morning. we had plans to go straight to the expo to pick up our 5k stuff and try not to spend lots of money! despite the red sox traffic we made it to town pretty quickly. we wasted no time and met morgan, katie and lauren as they were leaving the expo. we then waited for sam and headed in.

wooooah. it was huge and overwhelming. i was pretty excited to finally meet dave and his family. he is wicked awesome and we would later harass (fun fact: harass is sarah spelled backwards with an extra s, thats me!) him at the red sox game. it was also pretty cool to listen to sam, his speedy friend justin and some others talk about their training plans etc. we are all runnners, but they run in a whoooooole different world then i do. in fact i spent a lot of the weekend listening about running. i learned a lot!

danielle, dave, sam and i

After browsing the expo for a while danielle and i headed to the first of many blogger meet ups. i met the awesome and super speedy susan there. we are trying to convince her to come run maine marathon...she wants a 3:10. i won a 100.00 gift card to city sports and danielle won a super sweet pair of running shoes. overall win! sam, susan, danielle and i headed to our next meet up, happy hour at champions.

we hadn't been there 2 minutes when i heard a high pitched scream coming at us. you know, the kind you might hear if you were with a bunch of middle school girls at a justin bieber concert. i turn around and there was the shabby princess! i had never met ally before but there was no awkward "hi, my name is ally. hi, i'm sarah. now should we shake hands or hug?" moment. she gave me the biggest texas sized hug that a tiny girl can give.

some good looking bloggers

i was too caught up in meeting all kinds of awesome people like luau and doug to realize what was going on. i heard some rumor that the bar had no idea there were 50 bloggers waiting to drink and there wasn't room for us. we decided to split up and we all went our own ways. not really sure how it happened but ally, danielle sam and i ended up eating at bowling alley inside a parking garage. later on sam's brother and friend showed up. we spent a long time sharing some funny stories before calling it a night and heading back to the apartment we were calling home for the weekend. it didn't take long to fall asleep.

i woke up sunday not sure if i wanted to walk the 5k or not. i went back and forth but my leg was not feeling so hot so i decided to spectate with morgan and spike instead. a decision i am very happy i made. if you ever get the chance to spectate a race with spike, i highly recommend it. he's got some fantastic one liners...but that's a whole separate post.

danielle in the grey operation jack shirt

ally and i before the 5k

after the race we made our way to city sports so i could use that 100.00 gift card. i spent forever browsing the store to spend my money. i finally picked out what i wanted (they have some sweeeet running shorts there!) and went to the counter to check out. I opened up the gift card to find that there was noooo card inside. just a managers card. the lady looked at me like i was trying to pull some scam. long story short, the manager has to send me the card in the mail. bogus.

after my major fail at city sports we were staaarrrrving and headed to our last bloggy meet up of the day. damn its hard to be so loved:) we had an awesome brunch and it was nice to sit down and chat with these crazy runners.

bloggy chicas and spike

so that's it for round 1 of boston madness. next up...fenway park, almost taking the T to CT, spiked water and niketown. you know you wanna come back for more! happy friday!

three things thursday

2011-04-21T10:57:00.000-04:00

this is my first edition of three things thursday.

SO GOOD, SO GOOD, SO GOOD!- i spent the weekend in boston and i can't quite put into words how much fun i had. i met up with some super sweet blogger peeps and we took over boston. rest assured, ill have a few recaps to post in the next few days. but really, the most important detail is that sam ran a 2:57:53 on monday.

dear coworkers, no i did not run the boston marathon on monday. infact, i've yet to ever run a marathon. the reason i am walking all hunched over and i have the look of death on my face all day is because my leg is killing me. since saturday night i've had the worst leg pains from my herniated disc. you see, the disc is rubbing against the nerve that runs straight down my leg all the way to my feet. i have good moments and bad moments. the good moments come when i am standing and the bad moments come...the rest of the day. after getting the run around at the doctors office yesterday, i was able to move up my follow up apointment from may 4 to today. it's real hard to get excited about running my first marathon when i can hardly walk. i'll get there though. i know it.

mlb park update: i'm almost 100% i've got this summers stadiums lined up. for a while i have been stalking christy and finally met her in boston. she is also going to visit every mlb park and is a gianormous mets fan. she offered to take me to citi field this summer so we can cross that off our list. i firmly believe it's much better to visit a ballpark when you are with a true fan of that stadium (which i why i had ooohhh so much fun with ally and sam at fenway. im pretty sure ally had never heard sweet caroline sung like danielle and i sung it that day). if ya'll (i know, im from maine, but i reallllly like saying ya'll and so deal with it) have a stadium that you want to bring me to, let me know! ruddley, T and i are also going to ohio in july for a indians game. any indians fans out there?!?

shabby ally, danielle and i rockin' niketown

so thats it for today. ill be back with a boston recap....or 10.

I'm shipping up to BOSTON!!!!

2011-04-15T09:28:00.002-04:00

It's that time again!!! Last year was my first time attending the Boston Marathon! You can read my recap here! I only went down for one day and had SUCH a blast! I vowed to go back every year. It's only a 2 hour drive from my house, no brainer, right?! Since the 2010 Boston Marathon, I have been much more active in the social media world. Twitter, blogging etc...Throughout the year I have talked to so many awesome runners and have even met some of them! haha.. Over the spring and fall so many of them BQ and were luckily enough to beat the Boston registration craziness and made it in to the race. I am so excited to finally meet them all. Most are running and some are spectating. This year Danielle and I are going down for the weekend. We'll make our way through the expo which I hear is awesomeness for a runner. We'll go to several blogger/twitter meet ups. Happy hour, dinner, brunch, 5k. You name it, we are there. We're throwing in a Boston Red Sox game---don't get me wrong I am BEYOND excited for this. Fenway is one of my favorite places ever, but COME ON sox....get your ass in gear please. I've got out of town guests to impress.

Then Marathon Monday. We'll set up shop with our signs at mile 26.1, on the runners left across from Copley Plaza. This is right by the finish line, duh, and a very coveted spot. We get there early, meet other spectators, make friends with the cops and wait for the wheelchair race to start coming down Boyslton. Even though we are there 2-3 hours before anyone starts crossing the finish line, it's such a blast. Everyone is in the spirit. Once the runners start coming down Boylston I completely lose track of time and get my cheer on. Next thing I know, I have missed lunch, running on fuel from the coffee I had 7 hours earlier and my eyes hurt from watching all those speedy runners. I cant wait! Stay tuned, I'll have multiple recaps in the next week or so.

In other news. Injury update. On Wednesday I had my steroid shot. It seriously was one of the most uncomfortable feelings I've had in a while. I was told it was going to hurt a lot. I don't know if hurt was the word. My leg felt paralyzed for a while. After about 10 minutes of standing up my foot felt completely asleep. Lots of pins and needles. I was told it would take 2 days to 2 weeks to find out if it is going to work. I have a follow up in 2 weeks. Today, I still feel a lot of numbness in the back of my leg down to behind my knee. Periodic tingling in my foot. This morning I have another appointment with my sports injury doc. We'll see what he says.

Safe travels to everyone making their way to Boston this weekend!!!

Injuries suck!

2011-04-08T09:28:00.000-04:00

That back pain I mentioned ohhhhhh a month ago in my last blog? Yeah, after several doctors visits and an MRI it turns out to be a herniated disc in the L5 S1 region. Awesome. I've been beyond frustrated with my medical care. I know they see these kinds of injuries all the time, and it's not life threatening, but HELLO people! I am in a lot of pain and making me wait 4 weeks to get any kind of treatment really sucks! My toes go numb and I have shooting pains down my leg. I'm pretty sure this isn't normal. I feel like I was left to fix the problem myself and if I didn't advocate for myself I would have slipped through the cracks.

My PCP referred me to a pain doctor. I left his office and was told they would call me to set up an appointment. A week passed and I still hadn't heard from them and I was on the verge of tears everyday with the amount of pain and discomfort I was in. I finally made a call to them and they were able to get me an appointment for the following day! Go figure.

The next day I woke up to a nice blanket of snow on the ground and everything was shutting down! It's the end of March in Maine, I guess I had hoped we were past all this. So I ventured into the appointment to find out the doctor wasn't in that day and there was a miscommunication so they would have to reschedule! I was ok until they told me their next available appointment wasn't for another 6 weeks! It was at this point that I burst into tears. I took the appointment and left. I had no energy to fight or argue with them right there.

I got back to work and got on the phone. I called my PCP to see if they could help....wouldn't you know, he was on vacation for the next 2 weeks. More tears. The poor secretary got an ear full from me and said that she would call to see if there was anything she could do. About an hour later I got a call back from the pain docs telling me they were able to fit me in the following week.

Then Jamie and Kate told me about a Sports Injury Chiropractor that they have seen and he treats a lot of runners! I had come to the realization that my training would probably have to slow down, but I'd like to see someone that understands my need to be pain free and to run again. Up until this point I have been getting "well, maybe you need to find a new hobby".

I called my insurance to find out if they would cover this particular chiropractor, which of course they didn't. The out of pocket costs weren't so bad, so I decided to set up an appointment with him. He was able to get me in right away! YAY!

So I've now been to the pain doc and come to find out my visit with him was just an evaluation. UGH! I need some relief. He recommended a steroid shot which I am scheduled to get next week. Yesterday was my visit with the chiropractor. We spent a while talking and he was less then thrilled with my current treatment. He says "you don't need a pain doctor. those are for people who are 50 years old and have old back injuries! you're young, we need to get you healthy again!" ahhh so refreshing. he put a stop to my running for now, gave me an order for no bending AT ALL and gave me a series of core exercises I need to do daily. I am going back to see him next week after my shot. ANNNNND when I got out of the appointment, his super sweet secretary told me that my insurance WILL cover it and I just need to get a referral from my PCP! major win!

So maybe things are starting to look up. I'm bummed that I will have to watch the BAA 5K next weekend. I was really looking forward to that. I've got 2 big races at the end of May that I really want to be healthy for so I know I need to rest.

Speaking of Boston though, I can't tell you how pumped I am!!! Danielle and I are going to spend the weekend there. I finally get to meet Ally, Erin and Morgan plus a whooooole bunch of other sweet running/blogging/tweeting peeps! Sam got Red Sox tickets and ever so kindly invited us to go with him...let's just hope they can pull themselves out of this 0-6 start.

ugh! major pain...

2011-03-13T22:11:00.001-04:00

I mentioned that last week my running was pretty much non existent due to my back pain. Well...it's still there. ugh! I was going to call the doc this week but ~~hoped~~ prayed to every God out there that it would go away in time. Here I am, 9 days after hurting my back still unable to pick up my son without it hurting, I can't bend over, sitting up hurts like hell, and rolling over in bed takes about 2 minutes to do. Yea, that whole "going away" thing is not working. Looks like I'll be making a call to the docs next week.

I didn't want to let another week go by without logging any miles. I took it easy this week so that I didn't injure my back anymore then I already had...although, I'm not exactly sure what my injury is. I was pleasantly surprised that my back feels it's best when I am running, phew! I did a few speed workouts on the treadmill and remembered why I don't like doing speed workouts inside. When I push myself running, I'm known to toss my cookies. Mmmm, such an awesome time. As I was pushing myself on the treadmill I started to feel that awesome ohmygodithinkimgoingtopuke feeling in my throat. I started looking around for the closest place to throw up. There was a trash can not far from me...however, it had a top on it, not making it puke friendly. I was lucky enough to finish my workout and kept all fluids down!:-)

This weekend I went out for 2 runs. Saturday was a 4 mile run while pushing T in the stroller. Ruddley and I went out for the run together and took turns with the stroller. Oh boy that's hard! Today I went out on my own for a 6 mile run. Both days it took me a mile or so to get my back to loosen up and agree with my run. Today I stopped around mile 4 to stretch and as soon as I stopped my back tightened up and said "sorry sarah, no more running for you today!". I walked it out for a little bit and then finished up my run.I took things easy this week and didn't push things too hard, I was pleased with the fact that I felt pretty good. Looking forward to seeing what week 3 training brings.

In other news, my Syracuse boys are ranked 3rd in the East Region! I loooooove, looooooove, looooooove March Madness. I wish I had 2 weeks off from work to camp out on the couch and watch all the games. Sigh, I'm a big working girl now and that won't be happening anytime soon.

And finally, the cupcake marathon starts tomorrow! Some seriously awesome prizes available, including......you guessed it....CUPCAKES!! yum.

dear back,
please don't let me down during the cupcake marathon.
love, sarah

have a great week! go 'cuse!

live life full throttle

2011-03-09T21:54:00.000-05:00

working in a hospital i am usually aware when people are trying to bring awareness to a cause of some kind. they are passing out their respective color ribbons, posters are hung on the walls, emails are sent out or flowers being sold in the lobby. i can't keep straight what month honors what illness or disability or what color represents what. the one i always remember is april. it's autism awareness month and we wear blue. actually i wear 2 blue bracelets year round, i never take them off. another month that i have recently started to pay attention to is march. march is brain injury awareness month. one of my very close high school friend's father passed away after suffering a brain injury during a motorcycle accident in may 2006.

ill never forget that night. i had just gotten out of a rehearsal and i had a missed call from alisha. i was busy humming the songs we had been working on when i called her back. it had been a few weeks since we had talked and i was looking forward to catching up with her.

"hello?"
"hey 'lish...."
"sarah! my dad, he's dead"
"WHAT!?"
"sarah! what am i going to do, who is going to walk me down the aisle"

she was sobbing and i couldn't believe what she had to say. the next bunch of days were a blur. it was at the end of the semester at college and i couldn't leave to go be with her. i called her everyday. alish was a week or 2 away from graduating from nursing school and 3 months away from getting married. despite everything she graduated from the university of maine with a degree in nursing and danced the night away at her wedding reception, dedicating my humps to her dad. claude was a crazy man and he loved that song.

alisha and her mom dancing to my humps at her wedding

2 years later i got married and alisha was one of my bridesmaids. i got married at the same church my parents were married in. at the beginning of the rehearsal alisha asked me what the big bird hanging from the ceiling of the church was. i had no idea and so we asked the minister. he said "oh, that's claude. the kids in the sunday school made it". he offered to take it down for the wedding but there was no way i was going to let him do that. i really felt like claude was watching over us. seriously? who names a bird claude? it was meant to be. so he stayed.

at my wedding, with claude the bird watching overhead.

every spring i remember claude. i think of him when i see all the motorcycles out on the road. i think about what an amazing dad he was to one of my best friends. i know he would be so proud of her day. live life full throttle. it was claudes motto on life and since may 2006, i've adapted that philosophy.

alisha wrote a guest post for her college roommate and i wanted to share that with you today....

It started out as a beautiful spring day. My mom picked me up at my apartment early that morning and we headed north for a bridal shower. The sun was shining and although my mom was happy to be spending time with me I knew she was also thinking about how much she would have liked to be with my dad. He was headed out for the day on his motorcycle with their closest friends. My mom usually joins them and rides on the back of his bike, something they enjoyed doing as often as possible. When the bridal shower was over my mom dropped me off and headed home. It had been not even an hour since my mom left when I received a phone call from a close friend of our family, Sherri. It was a phone call I will NEVER forget. I could tell from the minute she said “hello” that something was wrong. “You need to get to the hospital,” I heard, “it’s your dad.” At that moment I felt my body go numb. Tears were pouring from my eyes, and I couldn’t stop my body from shaking. I was sitting there alone in my apartment (my husband, which was my fiancé at that time, was out golfing with his friends). Alone, at a time when I needed someone more than ever. I don’t know how I managed to make it there, but I grabbed my keys and ran out the front door. Tears still pouring from my eyes, I drove to the hospital. I ran into the Emergency Department, still dressed in my skirt from the bridal shower. I was the first one to the hospital, living only five minutes down the road. The lady in registration brought me to the “family room.” That was the moment when I knew it wasn’t good, because usually when you are visiting someone in the ED they allow you in to see him or her. Instead she brought me to a room where I was again, alone. It seemed like an eternity, although only ten minutes had gone by before my mom, my husband, and my close friend Emma arrived. I was so thankful at that moment to have them there. One of the doctors came into the room where we were sitting to tell us that my dad had sustained a traumatic brain injury and that the prognosis was not good. My dad had crashed his bike (thank God my mom was not with him), hitting his head with such force that it was causing his brain to swell. At that moment a million thoughts came rushing to my head. It was ironic because I was in my last semester of nursing school and in my class we were learning about brain injuries. Everything the doctor was telling us, I understood, probably more than I wanted at that time. I knew that we were either facing a long road of recovery, or death. We were brought into a procedure room where they had just implanted a monitor in my dad’s skull that would measure his intracranial pressure. We were allowed to see him for a brief moment before they took him into the Intensive care unit (ICU). He was unconscious, hooked up to a ventilator and laying there motionless. I stood there looking over him and told him that I loved him before we were brought to the ICU waiting room. It was a while before they let us in to see him again. He was hooked up to monitors, IV’s, tubes everywhere. I sat down in a chair beside his bed and laid my head on his chest. I could still hear his heart beating, but I knew that the only thing keeping him alive at that moment were the machines. We spent the most horrifying 26 hours in the ICU hanging on to any ounce of hope we could find. The doctors told us that my dad had so much swelling in his brain that it caused “brain death,” meaning that the brain ceases to function, he was unable to breathe on his own and the only thing keeping his heart pumping was the ventilator that was breathing for him. Without the ventilator he would die. My mom and I knew we had to say goodbye, as hard as it was. They asked us if he was an organ donor, and we said “yes.” We watched as they turned off the ventilator and pronounced the time of death. The man I knew to be my father was gone. My life would be forever changed from that moment on.

It will be five years this May since his death and not a day goes by where I don’t think about him. Things are definitely different without him in our lives. He was the joy that held our family so close together. He brought smiles to everyone he had contact with. Everyone knew and loved my dad. I am so thankful for the time that I got to spend with him and will forever cherish those memories.

Since the death of my dad, I have graduated from nursing school and have become a rehabilitation nurse. I work daily with patients who have sustained brain injuries, those who have been lucky enough to survive. I am reminded daily of what it could have been. Not all brain injuries result in death. In fact, of the 1.7 million brain injuries that occur each year 52,000 die, 275,000 are hospitalized and 1.365 million are treated and released. Those patients that are hospitalized usually end up needing rehab, where they re-learn basic skills, such as walking or talking. The goal of rehab is to improve their abilities so they can function at home and in the community as independently as possible. Even though I have lost someone so important to me, I thank God everyday that I get to help others who are going through such life changing events. I see the joy that family members have when their loved one walks or talks for the first time. The joy the patient has when they are able to eat their first meal and not have to be fed through a tube, when they can go to the bathroom and not be incontinent, when they take their first steps, and when they can finally return home. I am blessed!

R.I.P Daddy 5/1/06, forever in my heart!

pineland training week 1

2011-03-06T00:06:00.001-05:00

i have 2 words to describe my first week of pineland training... EPIC FAIL!

monday we happened to get dumped with stupid snow but after work i went out for a run around town before going to pick ty up from daycare. i think i spent more of the run dodging patches of ice, piles of slush and crap that the cars were flinging at me as they drove by. since the town thinks its perfectly fine to not plow any sidewalks i had to jump into gianormous snow banks several times to avoid being hit. not really how i wanted day 1 to go.

wednesday i decided i would play it safe and did my run on the treadmill. gahhh i hate the treadmill. when i first got into running i loooove it and was scared to hit the road...what the eff was i thinking? i slogged my way through and checked off another run in the book.

thursday morning as i was getting ready for work i bent over to put my sock on and i felt a nasty shooting pain in my back and it shot down all the way to my ankle. i knew exactly what i had done because LAST FREAKING MONTH i did the same thing...except last time i was picking up a 20 pound baby in a ridiculously heavy carseat. eff eff eff...i couldn't move. i was on all fours for a while before i was finally able to pull myself up on to the bed. i laid on the bed for a while trying to stretch it out. seriously?? after about 15 minutes i was finally able to stand up. i kinda looked like the leaning tower of pisa though because i couldn't stand up straight. i hobbled my way through the day. it hurt 100 times more when i was sitting down then when i was standing up. needless to say i skipped thursdays run.

friday was a rest day and i went to see my doctor who is a DO so he tried adjusting things as best he could. however the part of my back he really needed to adjust wouldn't relax enough for him to do it. i was hoping to make up thursdays run on friday but still wasn't able to run.

friday night i drove to CT with my dad and was pretty stiff from riding in the car. i was hoping to get a short run in today but shap, shooting and sometimes throbbing pains down my leg kept me from yet another run!! this is not a good way to start my training.

tomorrow im signed up to run the irish road rover 5k... it will be a game time decision, not sure im going to run it.

on another and a lot more exciting note, i registered for the BAA 5K!!! whooo hoooo! im so pumped to be running it and crossing the boston marathon finish line. the 5k is about as close as i will ever get to taking part in the marathon. i know, i know im sure some of you are saying "dont ever say that". but lets be real, boston is not in my cards, especially with the new qualifying times. maybe someday ill raise a crap load of money and run for charity. im pumped to meet some of my blogging friends like erin, ally and morgan. im looking forward to seeing sam and jill again and the sunday red sox game....yeah, ill be there! i couldn't ask for a better weekend.

a hero needs your help!

2011-02-17T22:00:00.002-05:00

according to dictionary.com, the definition of a hero is as follows...

he·ro

[heer-oh]

–noun, plural -roes; for 5 also -ros.

1. a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities.

2. a person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal: He was a local hero when he saved the drowning child.

3. the principal male character in a story, play, film, etc.

4. Classical Mythology .

a. a being of godlike prowess and beneficence who often came to be honored as a divinity.

b. (in the Homeric period) a warrior-chieftain of special strength, courage, or ability.

c. (in later antiquity) an immortal being; demigod.

5. hero sandwich.

6. the bread or roll used in making a hero sandwich.

....so you can imagine why i was so stunned when i was contacted by the maine red claws asking me to be honored as a home court hero. umm....i don't really fit any of the above definitions. the closest i come to a hero is that i love to eat hero sandwiches.

however, a few weeks ago i received this email....

Hello Sarah,

My name is Courtney and I'm an intern for the Maine Red Claws. As part of my internship, I'm in charge of finding a TD Bank Home Court Hero for every home game throughout the season. I read your story from the Portland Press Herald and as an organization, we would like to honor you at one of our games. What you are doing for your brother and for autism awareness is amazing.

As a Home Court Hero, we'd call you to center court during one of our time-outs and honor you in front of everyone at the game. We would do a write-up on your story that will be announced and if you have a video to go along with it, we'd play that as well. Also, you get two court side silver seat tickets. If you'd like more of your family to attend, we may be able to work something out and get more tickets for you.

I really look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you so much.
Best Regards
Courtney

while i don't consider myself a hero or the work i am doing heroic, i gladly accepted their offer (you can read the newspaper article here). last friday ruddley, ty and i went to our first red claws game. we had such a blast. the seats were amazing...court side, second row. i was initially a little worried about how close we were to the court and the possibility of ty getting hit with a ball or a player crashing into us. i decided to let it play out and see how it went. the players came out for their pre-game stuff and ty was sooo fascinated with them. we tried to take a few pictures and we couldn't get him to look away from the court and at the camera for a picture.

exhibit a

exhibit b

haha....how cute is he?? ok. ok....back to the game:-) so somewhere in the middle of the first quarter a ball came flying out of bound and whizzed by ruddley's head. one of the springfield players saw ty sitting with us and started yelling at us for bringing a baby so close to the court. he then tried to tell the ref...not really sure what he wanted the ref to do about it. then a bunch of people in the front row started giving us dirty looks as if to say "i can't believe you brought a baby here. you bad parents". yea...they were that dirty. it kinda ruined my night. i knew we were close to the action, but i was also paying attention and making sure ty was ok. ruddley told me that maybe we should have gotten a babysitter for the night. NO! i refuse. this was a family outing and im not going to leave my son at home because of what other people thought of us. ruddley took ty away from the action for a while and went and bought some goodies at the team store. you know, goodies like a bib that says "maine red claws. it's ok to dribble" and a small stuffed lobster. can you say first time parents!? so i sat in the court side seats...by myself. ruddley and ty found seats in the bleachers and as soon as i got my award i went and sat with them.

while i was sitting there by myself i started to think about how i don't feel like i truly deserve this award and if i was going to accept it, i need to start doing things that are more hero like:-) i need to do more. sure, i have started the maine chapter of train 4 autism, but now i need to do something with it. im not 100% sure how though. i've sent a few emails out to other successful chapter presidents to find out things that they have done with their chapter.

i know there are a few of us running the mdi marathon and i think id like to do more with that. i have a few fundraisers in mind that i need to put into place and one other thing that im not going to share yet...i really hope it happens but it's taking a little longer to put into place then i had hoped. i'll be sure to let you know as soon as i can though:-)

overall, it was an awesome night and i was honored to receive the award. what? you want to know what it looks like? ok, ok....here it is:-)

i need your help though!! how can i build my train 4 autism chapter? any ideas??? i want to feel like i deserve this award.

dirty little freaks

2011-02-06T14:48:00.000-05:00

today i got an email with my pineland 25k training schedule in it...ahhh yes, thank you jamie! this only means 1 thing. it's time to get serious about my running. i haven't been running as often as i would like (read: super slacker). i have a million and one excuses for that but if i want to enjoy my spring/summer races and not feel like death while running them, i need to kick it up a notch.

while i am super excited for pineland (my longest distance so far is a half) i am even more excited for reach the beach. it took a while, but we danielle was able to nail down a 12 person, all womens team for the 1st ever spring reach the beach! the group is made up of 12 women who run sometimes and always have a good time! after finally getting a team put together our next job was coming up with a name. on one of my many drives home from my parents house a few weeks ago i heard ke$ha's song, we r who we r and felt that the name "hot and dangerous" fit our team perfectly....until danielle came back with the name dirty little freaks from pink's raise your glass. Ahhhhh yes...even more perfect. so dirty little freaks it is! ashley says no other team name has fit her better:-).

danielle quickly came up with his design for our team shirts:

front

back

(you can now be jealous of us!). we have split our vans and our legs. i am going to be kicking off the race with leg #1. i had hoped to either start the race or finnish it so i'm pretty pumped.

im really not sure what to expect spending a full 24+ hours with 12 crazy and amazing women. i've heard the middle of the night tends to be more like a flashback to middle school sleepovers. elizabeth mentioned something about jello shots and there was rumor about some beer somewhere along the way. may 20th can't come fast enough!!

do you have any good relay stories??

kettlebell hell

2011-01-23T09:24:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago I got a brochure in the mail for the winter session of Adult Ed. I was just about to throw it away when I decided to flip through it to see if there was anything interesting being offered. Most of it was bleh but I did see that there was a 5 week kettlebell class. Hmmm....i had kind of heard about kettle bells before. I mean, I know what they looked like. Whatever, it sounded fun and I need something to whip me back into pre-baby shape. I added it to my list of 28 before 28.

I was of course a few minutes late to the first class and when I got lost looking for the class at the community center I almost said screw it (I hate walking in late to the first day of anything). I was on my way out the door to go home when I decided to ask some stranger in the hallway if they knew where the class was. Sure enough, "down the ramp, last room on the right". Ok fine...I decided I would suck it up and be late.

I shouldn't be surprised at the kind of people who were in the class. I live in the ghetto. There was the middle aged man who was front and center with his skin tight pants that unzip at the knees to make shorts (which he did halfway through the class) that had clearly taken this class before and wanted us all to know it. There was classic pair of old lady friends who could beat me in a push up contest any day, one semi-athletic looking dude, and the guy who showed up in jeans with his tshirt tucked in and his wallet in his back pocket. Oh! and the instructor...yeah, he was wearing his own skin tight pants, only his were camouflage with a black (also skin tight) tech shirt tucked in and his sneakers looked like they had seen better days.

Regardless, I was there...time to whip my ass into shape. I should have had some idea how difficult it was going to be when squats and lunges were part of our warm up. That was fun. Time to grab our kettle bells. Mind you, we were told they would be provided so I didn't have my own. They did provide them but not many choices of different weights. I wanted the 10lb kettlebell but by the time I had gotten over to the rack, they were all gone. Awesome. So I grabbed the 15lb. Oi...this was going to be a long class. As Danielle kindly said "well that was your first mistake".

I won't bore you with all the details of the class...but we were just getting used to using the kettle bell. Lots of what I presume are basic kettlebell moves. Then we were told once we are comfortable using the kettlebell we will start doing more advanced things like throwing them in the air and catching them again. Say whhaaat???? *note to self, if I am going to be throwing these things and expected to catch them, I need a lighter weight!!* It was at this point that I thought maybe I should have googled "what is a kettlebell class" before I signed up.

Maybe it would be more fun if I did my workout on the beach in my bikini?? These are the types of basic moves we did.

It's been 3 days since class and I am just starting to be able to walk again. Yeah, that class kicked my butt!! I was debating if I liked enough to go back...but I think I do and I will! Should make for a few good stories.

blog makeover!

2011-01-19T11:30:00.000-05:00

What girl doesn't love a good makeover!?? Oh heck ya. Thanks to erica sara my two blogs (Tales of a Running Mom & A New Adventure) have had a full new years makeover and I have added a third blog for your reading pleasure (Emerson Family MLB Park Tour) !:-) Erica is starting a new template design business in addition to her fantastic and amazing jewlery company.

When I finish the MDI Marathon I will be getting myself this gem

I want to get one of these with Ty's name and birthday on it

Clearly I need to add this beauty to my collection!

I can't remember if I stumbled on Erica's blog first, or found her through Twitter...either way she totally rocks! She is an amazing photographer hence this beautiful picture she took at our tweet up lunch at the Philadelphia Marathon. She gives me some sweet fashion advice since "Sarah" and "Fashion" are not words I would put together in the same sentence. She also blogs about some yummmmmy recipies. I'm dying to try her lemon blueberry muffins, lemon hummus, and banana bread. She really is so sweet and I can't wait to go visit her! We are going to take Sampson and Oscar out for a run together, dress up and have a photo shoot and who knows what else:-) I really wish I lived in the city because we would be in Central Park every snowstorm sledding and then enjoying a cup of hot coco together (see I told you she rocks!).

Look around-- I'm blogging about my running, marathon training, life as a new mom, baby T stories, baseball parks and whatever else I feel like!:-) Stay tuned for stories, adventures and lots of FUN!

hood to coast

2011-01-12T18:35:00.002-05:00

last night danielle and i went to brunswick to watch the premier of hood to coast. im a relatively new runner and i live on the east coast so i hadn't heard about the hood to coast race until a few months ago when i read an article written by ryan hall about the races on his wish list. hood to coast was one of them. clearly i looked it up and loved what i saw.

for those of you living under a rock (like i had been), the hood to coast is a 197 mile relay from the top of mt. hood to the coast of seaside, oregon. a team consists of anywhere from 8-12 team members. but seriously, if you run with 8, you're crazy!! you run all day and all night until your team completes the 197 miles. you sleep in vans, schools, parking lots or not at all. annnnnd you pay lots of money for this experience. sounds fun, huh? i had heard about these kinds of relays before. danielle has run the fall reach the beach relay the last two years and i am finally at a point where i can run it with her. this year reach the beach is adding a spring relay and danielle is the team captain for our all womens team. its sure to be a ~~blast~~ shit show. i. cant. wait!

ok back to the movie. it follows four completely different teams as they prepare and run the hood to coast. the dead jocks in a box, the heart ‘n’ soul, the thunder and laikaning and team r. bowe.

the dead jocks in a box are a group of older yet talented and experienced runners who usually finish in the top 6 of their age group. while they may be older, their maturity is about that of a 12 year olds. good fun.

the heart 'n' soul team highlights a 67 year old runner who has run 70 lifetime marathons. in the 2007 hood to coast she suffered a heart attack just as she was about to head out on to her 3rd leg of the race. in the movie she fights to keep her heart rate down so she can run her 3rd leg, the same one she collapsed on the year before.

thunder and laikaning might have been my favorite team. their training plan consisted of drinking as much beer as possible and not running. teammate rachel had no idea she was going to have to run past midnight and swore like a pirate through her legs. jason becomes my hero and eats a huge, greasy cheeseburger instead of oatmeal before his final leg... but fought all the way to the end.

team r. bowe was run in honor of ryan bowe who passed away at the age of 30 from a heart attack just one month before he was to run the 2007 hood to coast leaving behind his family and wife who was 9 months pregnant. his family and college buddies got together to run this relay in his honor.

it was such a great movie. it got me even more excited to run reach the beach in 4 months. will i have what it takes to run alone in the country at night? can i run without the comfort of my music (im seriously worried about this!), will i get lost? how many memories and new friends will i make along the trip??

did you see hood to coast?

28 before 28

2011-01-05T05:00:00.005-05:00

Holy crap! I'm old. ok, not really...but today is my birthday and im one year older. 27 BABY! What the hell? 27? What does that mean? I can already buy lotto tickets, drink, and rent a car. I'm not entering a new decade, joining a new age group or going over the hill. soooo what do i have to look forward to in my 28th year of life? a whole bunch of things actually!

my twitter/blogging friend erin has these lists. each year she comes up with things she wants to accomplish by her next birthday. so i stole this idea from her (dont worry, i already told her about it!). it also happens that my birthday is at the beginning of the new year so its a birthday list/new years resolution list. although i really don't like the term "new years resolution"...but whatever.

here goes. 28 things i want to do before my 28th birthday.

1. host a dinner party
2. dress up and have a photo shoot with erica miss america
3. blog more. a lot more.
4. go camping
5. spend more time with my family
6. visit 2 more baseball parks. we are going to each MLB park. 5 down 26 to go.
7. attempt nordic skiing (jamie if i hate this, it's your fault!)
8. get in the pool. start using swimming as a form of cross training
9. run the pineland 25k
10. meet some twitter peeps
11. build the train 4 autism maine chapter
12. try 3 new foods (im kinda scared about this one)
13. go for a hikes in acadia
14. have a girls night (no husbands! no babies!)
15. run the mdi marathon
16. stay up late having on the deck sitting by the fire making smores and chatting with friends
17. go to the top of mt. washington
18. take a polar bear plunge
19. get a tattoo
20. organize my closet
21. read a book (haha. yup, just one)
22. spend some time with old friends
23. get to the track and do some speed work
24. PR in a 10K.
25. pay off a credit card
26. take a day trip to peaks island
27. take a kettlebell class
28. *a secret to be revealed at a later date!*

So here's to another year- I have no doubt 27 is going to be a blast!

what's behind the ipod???

2011-01-03T21:19:00.000-05:00

ever wonder what the runner next to you is listening to? or heard a song while you were at the grocery store that brought you right back to a specific time in a specific race?? i do...all the time. i have quite an interesting mix of songs on my ipod and i thought id share a few memorable ones with you here.

turn your speakers up and enjoy!

#1. best days of your life- kellie pickler
every time i hear this song it brings me back to my very first race ever. the ll bean 4th of july 10k. it was the first song to play on my ipod and it was the best day of my life...kinda:) i was pretty proud of myself for being there that day.

#2. amazing grace- dropkick murphys
this was the first song on my ipod at the 2009 beach 2 beacon 10k. don't ask me why i remember, but i do. and now whenever i hear it, it brings me back to the starting line with the other 5,999 people that were there. getting to the top of that first hill and looking behind you at the sea of runners is pretty cool!

#3 poker face- lady gaga
mile 10 of my first half marathon.

#4 thunderstruck-acdc
this was at the starting line of the mdi marathon & relay. this was my first race back from being preggo and i was pretty nervous. i had the first leg of the relay 8.x miles. once this played i got pumped up!! i'm going to request they play it again next year when i will be running my first full marathon!

#5 somebody to love- cast of glee
this played around mile 4 of mdi. i remember we had just climbed a massive hill (duh! it's mdi, what do you expect) and we were on a nice downhill stretch. i was feeling surprisingly good and was proud of myself for making it up the hill. i decided to bless the rest of the runners with my lovely voice, pretended i was on american idol and sang the song out loud. my friend kate that was running with me loved every minute of my ~~singing~~ screeching.

#6 airplanes- b.o.b featuring hayley williams
for a while when i was training for mdi my ipod was set to play the playlist alphabetically and of course this was the first song that played every time i went out for a run. so naturally it reminds me of my mdi training.

#7 hey, soul sister- train
i love this song and i have since it came out. it will always remind me of 2010. sam also loves this song and he used to tweet a lot about how he and his wife loved listening to it. now when i hear it, it reminds me of him. sam is THE reason why i have started a train 4 autism chapter in maine and why i am running my first marathon. he indirectly gave me the ass kicking that i needed at a time when i really needed it. not sure he knows that...oh well, he does now!:-) fun fact: this song came on my ipod just as i was crossing the finish line for the operation jack 6.1 mile satellite run. weird.

#8 i do not hook up- kelly clarkson
this is for my dear, amazing, funny, fantastic, thoughtful, inspirational, beautiful, best friend danielle. we attended this concert together. i'm pretty sure we were the oldest peeps there. that's ok, at least we could buy beer...and we did, lots of it!!! xoxo d.

#9 sweet caroline- neil diamond
what red sox fan doesn't have this on their playlist?? it's fun when im running with my husband and randomly shout out "so good! so good! so good!". of course it's better singing it at fenway!

#10 o holy night- nsync
haha, yup! you read that right! i love acapella music, i have since i was in middle school and we had a group come sing at our school. D put this on a cd she made me a few years ago and it's now on my running mix. there is nothing like christmas in july!

so there you have it, 10 songs from my ipod. every time i hear each of these it brings me back somewhere!

what's on your playlist???

operation jack satellite run

2010-12-29T18:59:00.001-05:00

i hope you all had a fantastic christmas!:-)

mine was awesome, thanks for asking. i went to my parents house, spent time with my family and T enjoyed his very first christmas. this christmas was a little different though. instead of spending the entire christmas weekend at my parents house, we drove back home christmas night. i had an important run in the morning. it wasn't a race. it wasn't timed. there weren't a lot of people running. it was 18 degrees out with a nasty wind chill. but it was for autism. ill do just about anything for that.

you see, back in april i met sam at the boston marathon. he ran 61 marathons in 2010 to raise awareness and money for an organization called train 4 autism. somehow in the last 8 months i have become chapter president of the maine train 4 autism, signed up for my first marathon and met some pretty sweet people, all because of sam.

on december 26, 2010 sam ran his 61st marathon of the year in california. if there was a way i could have been there, i would have. it just wasn't possible though. i wasn't the only one who wanted to be there to support sam so the idea was born to have satellite runs. it's quite simple. run 6.1 miles, where ever you are in the world anytime on december 26 in honor of sam and his accomplishment.

in the weeks leading up to the run danielle, sam and i had an interview with jake from run like health, and i had an interview with the portland press herald (you can see a copy of that story here). the press herald story ran on christmas eve and my inbox was flooded with people who had never heard about train 4 autism and were moved by the story or knew someone with autism that they wanted to support. i must say, it was pretty cool. even if they didn't come out and run with us, i know that i was able to get the word out to some more people.

ok, to the run. 16 of us met sunday morning. it was c-c-c-c-ooooooold! i ran the run with elizabeth and monica. normally i like running alone. i like being able to go my own speed and not worry about holding others back. these two lovely ladies ran my pace and we had a blast. the miles ticked by and we chatted about all kinds of things from elizabeths quest to run marathons in all 50 states in memory of her dad to monica's list of 5 stupid things to do at 50. we had fun taking pictures of random things along our run, singing ke$ha to the town of south portland and talking autism. cause that's why we were all there right? the entire time i thought of sam, his quest, his accomplishments and what he was about to do later in the day. i thought about my brother and how the money i am raising is going to help him, and every time i hit a hill that i didn't want to run i thought of the mdi marathon and how i want to own those hills.

elizabeth and i with a penguin on someone front yard. welcome to maine.

representing the other portland

danielle, melissa, elizabeth and i were the only ones running that day who have actually met sam. everyone else was just there because they dig what he is doing, they support the cause and want to help. that meant a lot to me. it meant more then christmas presents i got or the birthday presents ill be getting next week (you can still send yours though, its ok). it meant a lot because most of the runners drove 30+ minutes to get there on a very cold day. this wasn't something they had to do, it wasn't something they were doing for someone they know. i am just very grateful to those who came out and ran. so thank you to mark, christine, jim, dawn, elizabeth, misty, jen, sandra, monica, andy, brendan, eric, bj, melissa and of course my right hand women, danielle. there was also a group that ran in auburn and my mom and her friend spent 2 hours walking it!!

i thought about running with the train 4 autism banner to help keep me warm:-)

danielle and i after the run

GO MAINE GO!

sam, this fist pump is for you! thank you!

Think Different

2010-12-08T22:16:00.005-05:00

I have a lot of different ideas running through my head right now. I hope that I can get them out of my head and convey the jumbled mess I've been thinking about today.

If you don't know, my 13 year old brother has autism. he was adopted by my family when i was in high school and he was 3 years old. he is the one of the best things in my life and has really changed my view on the world. you can read all about him here.

zach is now in the 7th grade and a full blown teenager. think back to when you were in 7th grade. all the emotions that come along with being 13. you probably had friends that you talked to about things. you asked them about girls/boys, you wrote notes and passed them during class, you started being more independent, you had feelings. well, zach has all of these things too. he just doesn't know how to handle it. he has a crush on a girl in his class who enjoys him as a person, but does not like him back. he.is.crushed!! seriously! he was at a week long camp with his class this fall when he found out that this girl did not like him. he was so upset he got angry (which is often how he shows his emotions, through anger. it's scary the older he gets). so angry i had to go pick him up from camp and have him spend the night at my house and i brought him back in the morning (it was closer for me to go pick him up then my parents). on the way home he told me "my heart was broken today". UGH...talk about making me melt. my husband talked to him about how there are lots of fish in the sea..yadda, yadda, yadda. but he doesn't really get it.

zach isn't one of the classic examples of autism. he displays certain traits but then there are other things he can do that we are simply blown away by that technically he "shouldn't be able to do". he is officially diagnosed with autism because that's how we can get him the services he needs. 1:1 ed tech at school, hippo therapy, and summer programming. zach knows he is different. he knows he isn't like the rest of the kids in his class. he truly thinks in a different way. his teachers are pleased with him during class discussions because his brings a different view of whatever they are discussing to the table that the rest of the kids don't think about. he overlooks the obvious answers and digs deeper. he truly is a different thinker.

for my baby shower, my sister asked him to draw me a picture that could be hung in the baby's room. he opened up a tiny notebook that my mom's work sells and drew 4 pictures. each picture was a pea pod and they were put in a frame and i now have 4 peas in a pod hanging up in tyler's room. of course peas in a pod is a very appropriate thing for a babies room. would you have thought to draw that?

he loves to invent things. his classroom has tank with crabs and other assorted things from the bay in it. his teacher was talking one day about having difficulty feeding the crabs. zach took a piece of wire and bent one end of it and attached the food to it (like bait on a fishing hook) and then bent the other end to hang over the side of the tank so that you could leave it there and didn't have to hang on to it. duh. simple and easy. totally zach.

there are several students at his school who have much more "typical" autism. he knows the word. he knows he has it. but he doesn't get what it means. like i mentioned a lot of zachs emotions are displayed through anger whether it's hurt, rejection, feeling scared, lonely, or tired. apparently he got in some kind of mini argument with another kid at school who has some kind of difficulty and this kid got angry. zach thinks that because the kid was angry, he is autistic.

this morning i got this email from my mom. the subject was titled "remind you of someone you know?"

This is the text from the original Apple ad.

"Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers.

The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create.
They inspire. They push the human race forward.
Maybe they have to be crazy.
How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?
While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

of course. it's zach! i asked her about it and she said that it was one of apple computer's first ad campaigns in the 90's. she said she googled "think different" and came across this. why on earth was my mom googling the words "think different"?

then i got this email from her.

s,

I had a great talk with school this morning. I think we're going to "graduate" Zach from being autistic, which in some respects he never has been. But he is starting to identify with it, so we thought we'd have a ceremony on the last day of school in December, let him rip up his autism "certificate," (we'll make one), and give him a new "diagnosis" of, I don't know, "Different Thinker," or "Outside the Box Thinker," or something along those lines. He is so concrete, he might just buy it. And in fact, it's true. He is wired for accomplishing much greater things than his classmates, but his road will be rockier because of it.
We're trying to give him a new identity to help him have a more positive attitude toward his differences.
Kind of like the Wizard giving the Tin Woodman a heart, or the Scarecrow a brain, we will give him a new "Certificate" that reinforces the good things he's already doing.
I'm actually pretty excited about it. It has certainly made my day better at least.

ma

so i dont know where i am going with this. but i've been thinking. how can we uses zach's different way of thinking to his benefit? let's not let the fact that he can't read or write well get in his way. that math problems are not the thing he excels at. let's celebrate the fact that he has brilliant ideas that are different then yours and mine. out of the box. original.

with each new day comes a new surprise with zach. we work hard to get him what he needs. he works twice as hard to try and fit in and be normal. maybe being normal isn't all it's cracked up to be. maybe if he is different, he can make a change in the world that you or i would have never thought to do.

zach and i at the mdi marathon. oct 2010

i'll leave you with this video that sam sent to me today.

Operation Jack Satellite Run

2010-12-06T22:08:00.000-05:00

For those of you who have followed along with my blog you know about Sam and Operation Jack. In case you are a new reader Sam is running 61 marathons this year to raise money and awareness for an organization called Train 4 Autism. Sam has named this endeavor Operation Jack in honor of his son Jack who is autistic.

I first met Sam in Boston this year when he was running the Boston Marathon and Danielle and I were there spectating (I will return every year to watch. We had a blast!). Sam was kind enough to meet up with us after the race for lunch. We chatted for a while and long story short we have now built a Train 4 Autism chapter in Maine.

On December 26, 2010 Sam is running his 61st marathon of the year in California, the Operation Jack Marathon. Unfortunately I can't make it out there to run. I truly believe in everything Sam is doing and what he represents but logistically it's just not possible. The idea was born to create a satellite run for people who are unable to run the Operation Jack Marathon. The satellite run will be a 6.1 mile run (a play off of 61 marathons) where ever you are on December 26. The idea is to get all 50 states represented and as many countries as possible. Registration is 25.00 or you can create a fundraising page and if you raise 30.00 the registration fee is waived. Participants will receive an Operation Jack finishers medal and race tshirt.

Here in Maine we have a good size group running in South Portland. If you are in the area and want to join us, just drop me a line and I'd be happy to get you all the info. The competitive side of me wants Maine to have the largest number of participants...let's make it happen! You can register here and become part of this amazing event.

Tonight Danielle, Sam and I joined Jake's podcast Run Like Health to talk about Operation Jack, the Maine Chapter of Train 4 Autism and the satellite run. Stay tuned for a link to it soon.

Philly Marathon Weekend

2010-11-23T21:09:00.008-05:00

We crammed about as much as one could into this weekend. I have lots to share and not enough energy or time to write it all out. So you are going to get the highlights! Enjoy...

Friday November 19, 2010

*we wanted to leave ME for PA at 3:00am . We woke up at 3:30. Fail. On the road at 4.

* met some guy at a rest stop along the way. He saw my Syracuse sweatpants and Maine plates. He said he is a big fan of Coach Boeheim and that he lives in Maine. I liked this guy.

*arrived at my Aunt and Uncles at 1:00pm ate a turkey dinner at 2:30

*had the most AMAZING 6 mile run. Beautiful farm land. I felt quick. Only stopped because it was flippin cold and dark.

*apple pie and mint chocolate chip ice cream for dessert.

*in bed by 9:00pm

Saturday November 20, 2010

*up at 7:30.

*out the door at 9:30 to go into the city. or "downtown" as my aunt and uncle call it. its an hour away.

*10:30 arrived in the city and walked around the town for a bit and did some shopping

*met up with some super awesome twitter peeps for lunch at the marathon grill. thanks to erica for organizing the lunch.

would someone tell sam it's not all about him?

the gang. minus a few.

*sam ask the waitress her opinion on what he should get for lunch and named 3 things he was thinking about. she said they were all good so he told her to pick one and surprise him. when it came ,a different waitress asked "who had the chocolate chip cookie dough pancakes" sam said "um, i might have. i don't know". she looked confused.

*walked around the italian market and got some super yummy cheese. like...really, really good cheese

*chatted with a man and his wife who were in line behind us at the italian market. they had their 8 month old baby with them. he then handed me his kid and said "here, hold him and see what 24 pounds feels like". so i did.

*met the campbell crew at franklin fountain for ice cream. mmmm. saw it on man vs. food and we knew we needed to go. this is what we got.

*got a call from my aunt saying my uncle was in the hospital after being unresponsive from his blood donation. hes ok now.

*went back to my aunts and went to bed.

Sunday November 21, 2010

*woke up way too early.

*made it into the city by 6:40 and got to the philly marathon start line in time to see some of the later corrals start.

*i love the philly marathon, they had a tent set up just for me

*my husband says tyler will appreciate this photo when he is older:-)

*made our way down kelly drive to mile 14 and waited for the runners. ruddley wanted coffee and i told him we didn't have time. (ummm we probably did but i didn't want to go).

*saw sam. he said he felt like death. i told him he looked good in pink

*saw mark. he didn't say anything.

*made our way back towards mile 25. ruddley still wanted coffee but i didn't want to miss all the people i knew running. after all, that is why we were there.

*we didn't get coffee

*saw erica go by at mile 13. i jumped up and down and screamed for her. she had on an awesome outfit.

*saw elizabeth go by at mile 13. she gave me a thumbs up and said she was having fun. i told her that her dad would be proud of her.

*saw sam again at mile 25ish. he was in the zone. he didn't say anything, but i got a point.

*saw mark at mile 25ish. he said he was cramping. i told him to push it!

* walked to the finish and saw team mark! he went 3:31. his second marathon ever. his first one was in oct 2010.

*met sam and peggy at the finish and snapped some pics.

i wonder what he'll wear for 2000.00. if 1000.00 got him pink arm warmers.

*met sam and peggy for lunch for pizza and philly cheese steaks. i had pizza the boys had cheese steaks.

*tried to convince peggy to run the mdi marathon. i hope she's thinking about it.

* said goodbye to sam and peggy and told sam i'd see him in boston. good times never seem so good. so good! so good! so good!

*walked back to the car and passed the eastern state penitentiary, they were giving tours. we did not take one.

*plugged in home on the gps and followed the directions.....

*until ruddley decided not to follow the directions....

*had a 40 minute detour through NYC. not my idea of fun.

*we were craving five guys for dinner. guess what we had. five guys

*tyler slept the entire way home. he was a trooper.

*11:15pm pulled into our driveway

*11:30pm lights out at the emerson house.

phew. we had such an awesome weekend. i am so glad i got to see mark run. it was great to see sam again. love that my aunt and uncle got to meet tyler. a nice long weekend with my family. success.

a whole lot of nothing

2010-11-14T18:43:00.003-05:00

yup... thats what my running has been this week...errrr the last two weeks....a whole lot of nothing. i had hopes of running a half marathon last weekend but after my run 2 weekends ago i just wasn't feeling it. i don't have any races scheduled and have a hard time motivating myself to run when i don't have anything to work towards. im also a wimp when it comes to running outside in the cold. i suppose that doesn't look good for my winter training.

im pretty excited about things i have coming up in the spring though. jamie, who i met through twitter suggested that i run the pineland races over memorial day weekend. ive never run trails before but what the hell...im always up for something new. at first i was just going to run the 10k on saturday but when i took a closer look at the swag you get for finishing i wasn't real pumped about the water bottle. however, if i ran the 25k on sunday i get a cowbell. come on, what runner doesn't love a cowbell. not to mention the free beer and bbq afterwards!! i haven't signed up for it yet but im looking forward to it. the weekend before pineland i am running my first relay. this is the reach the beach 200 mile relay in MA. my friend danielle has run the NH one twice and this spring will be the first rtb in MA. we are forming an all womens team but are still a few ladies short (we need 12). i was chatting with another twitter friend ashley last week and it didn't take long to convince her to join our team. p.s- she's in missouri and we are in maine. we've never met and she's agreed to spend 24 hours with me in a van. i hope she's cool! haha. and not only is she running rtb with us she is crashing with a friend in boston for the week and then joining jamie and i at pineland the following weekend. apparently she has a hard time saying no:-)

what's hard is finding time to work out. i know ive said this before but now that im a mom i can't just go to the gym whenever or go for a run whenever. i have to squeeze it in between work and picking him up from daycare. i don't like going for a run after dark alone so doing anything when i get home from work is out of the picture. im sure ill figure it all out soon....i hope. in the meantime, anyone want to whip together a 25k training program for me? im much better at running when i have a schedule to follow.

this weekend im off with my family to PA!!!! we are going to visit my aunt and uncle, they haven't tyler yet. they live about an hour outside philadelphia so we are also going to watch sam, elizabeth and my neighbor mark run the philly marathon. im excited to meet a bunch of twitter peeps at lunch on saturday too:-) and speaking of sam...what are you doing December 26,2010??

sam is closing in on his 61 marathon of the year to raise money and awareness for train 4 autism! while we can't all be crazy like him, we can help in his celebration! on december 26 sam is running the operation jack marathon #61 for him in southern california. several of us mainers have been following sam on his journey since we met him at the boston marathon in april. sam has so many people who "dig what he is doing" that live all over the US but can't make it to ca to run. he has created a satellite option where we can run 6.1 miles (a play off of 61 marathons) wherever we are in the US. for a suggested donation of 25.00 you can run the race, get a operation jack tshirt and finishers medal. you can also bypass the 25.00 donation if you create a fundraising page and raise 30.00 annnnnnd you still get the shirt and medal. all the details can be found right here. if you live in the portland me area and want to join us in the run just let me know!! im thinking we'll run the 6.1 miles in the portland area and then meet up for a post run lunch and celebrate sam's craziness!! this cause is near and dear to my heart so i hope you will think about running!

leaving you with a few pictures! i borrowed my neighbors jogging stroller a few weeks ago. i think i would have rather been bundled up then pushing it!

my mdi relay teammate and amazing friend kate ran the new york city marathon last weekend! she kicked ass and im so proud of her!!

Photos from MDI

2010-10-28T21:05:00.008-04:00

I mentioned in my race recap of MDI that I wish I had my camera while I was running! The views along the course were stunning and I really wanted to share them with you. I came across Dana's blog (she's running 52 marathons in 52 weeks. Check her out!) and her recap from MDI. Dana was the smart one who did bring her camera and stopped to take lots of pictures along the way...or continued running and took lots of pictures, I'm not sure which. Either way, she was able to capture many awesome sights along the course. With her permission I am sharing them with you here! Enjoy! They are in no specific order

The rest of the photos were taken by Kate's mom! We were having so much fun...can't you tell!?

MDI Marathon Relay

2010-10-21T12:43:00.001-04:00

Sometime over the summer, while super pregnant and not running, I thought it would be a good idea to sign up for the MDI Marathon Relay. I called my friend Kate and asked if she wanted to do the 2 person relay with me meaning we would each run 13.1 miles. After a few weeks of thinking about it, I decided I may not be ready for 13.1 miles 12 weeks after delivering my baby boy. I called her in a panic wondering if she could find another runner and do the 3 person relay. She recruited her cousin Jen and we registered!

Attending MDI High School and growing up in the area, I knew it was a difficult and hilly course. In the weeks leading up to the race I started to freak out a little. Was I really up for this? Was I trying to do too much too soon?? At this point it was really too late and I just needed to do it.

I spent the first 2 days fielding questions about Train 4 Autism at the expo.

At the expo I got to meet some DM people Jamie, Jill, Jim and his wife Patti. That was pretty sweet. I went home Saturday night and had to switch gears from train 4 autism to race mode. Of course my 3 month old is just starting to teeth and he was not having a good night. I was pretty concerned about getting enough sleep that night. I was finally able to get Tyler to bed and I laid in bed staring at the ceiling. It was one of those things where I was so tired but could not sleep. Awesome. While laying there though, I remembered I hadn’t done my football picks yet and certainly wouldn’t have time in the morning to do them so I got up to make my picks (not like it really matters because I missed a week and so I’m not going to win…booo). I got back into bed and visualized myself powering up the hills I was going to be running the following day.

Race Day. My alarm went off at 5:00am. I was surprisingly wide awake and ready for the day. I got myself ready, exchanged a few tweets with Jaime, got Tyler ready and hurried my slow family out the door. If there’s one thing I hate, it’s rushing to the start line. I like to have plenty of time to get there.

Heading onto the island race morning.

Team Project Zach. Kate Jen and I before the start. Brrrrr

My brother Zach and I

I ran into Jim and Patti and then we found Jill. Patti was able to snap this gem of a photo before we all lined up.

I stood next to Jill who flew in from Montana for this race. I asked her why she picked MDI and she said that since it was the runner up for the best overall marathon, she had to check it out! She also said she wants to come back and run Beach 2 Beacon and I told her this was a very good idea (Jill—registering for B2B is like registering for Boston 2011. You must be at the computer the minute it opens!!!). The star spangled banner was played (Danielle, I still thought of you!) and then ACDC’s Thunderstruck was played over the loud speaker. Everyone was getting pumped and jumping up and down (I was doing it just to stay warm. Did I mention it was cold?!). With that, the gun went off and so were we!

My teammate Kate who is running NYC in 3 weeks wanted to get a long run in so she ran my leg with me before running hers. I have never been one that enjoys running with other people. I like to be able to just focus on my run and not worry about holding my running partner up. Even though Kate is a faster runner then I am she hung with me and never left…well except when she had to pee. I’m pretty sure that without Kate with me that day I would not have done as well as I did. MDI is known to be a tough course. It’s got some killer hills and I knew that it wasn’t going to be long before they came. I don’t actually remember where the hills started but I felt as if I was running up hill for a long time. The one I was most proud of for conquering was the long hill that took up much of mile 2. Yea, that was not so much fun. It was while I was running up this hill that I was super pumped that I was only running 8.5 miles and not the whole thing. I think it was also at this time that I swore I would never run the MDI full. I was feeling great and during miles 4&5 and I even sang to Kate. Yea, you read that right. Glee came on to my ipod (I know Danielle and Jeri will love this) and I couldn’t help but sing. Outloud. Kate loved it…I’m not so sure the other runners around me did. Oops:-)

Somewhere around mile 6 I was feeling like I wanted to stop and walk but then I saw our cheering squad (My mom, dad, brother and son along with Kate’s mom, aunt and cousin Jen) at the top of the hill and I knew I couldn’t stop. Kate stopped in to use the bathroom at her friend’s house (advantages of being a local) and I kept going. When Kate caught back up to me I remember telling her how good I was feeling. I seriously couldn’t believe my legs. 4 weeks prior I had “run” a 10k on a very flat course and I struggled with it…a lot! Here we were at the 10k mark of the MDI Marathon and I felt awesome. Go figure. The next 2 miles I we didn’t talk much (might have had something to do with the fact I sang for 2 miles earlier…I was getting tired) but I just took in the scenery. Even though I grew up here, the views were just breathtaking. I really wish I had my camera. There was one point on Cooksey Drive where we came around a corner and looked over a cliff and out to the ocean. It was just amazing. I am a little disappointed though that Martha Stewart was not at the bottom of her driveway with cupcakes cheering for us when we ran by. Fail Martha Fail!

There were a lot of killer up hills but there were some awesome your quads will hate you for life down hills too. I had the pleasure of ending my leg with a nasty downhill. We came into Seal Cover beach at the 8.5 mile mark. This is where my leg ended and Kate’s began. She had the next 10.1 miles.

We jumped in the car and drove to Northeast Harbor where we watched Kate run by. Damn she looked good for being on her 12th mile. We had a pit stop at Kate’s parents house before heading to the exchange for the 3rd leg. It was here I got to see Jill and Jim run by! I also saw my friend from high school Emma fly through here. Kate came in and picked up Jen and the 2 of them continued on.

We ended up picking Kate up 2 miles later. I saw Jim and Emma run by again and I gave them my best cheer! The last 5 miles or so of this course is pretty much up hill. No joke. Why do you think I picked the first leg?? I’m no dummy. I knew that runners were going to need as much support on this stretch as they could get. I remember one guy who was walking down the last major hill of the course. He looked like he was in a lot of pain. We started cheering for him as loud as we could and gave him some words of encouragement (like there are no more hills, it's flat from here on out, 1.2 miles to the end!) He started running again and looked at us, waved and yelled "Thank you". :-). Our last stop was at mile 25 which also happened to be right where Jen lived. We parked in her driveway and waited for her and then ran the last 1.2 miles as a team. Emma drove by and gave us a nice little honk as we entered the home stretch.

Patti and Jim were waiting for us at the finish line and she got this sweet picture of us!

I had such a blast during this race. I felt great running, I enjoyed cheering on runners when they didn't think they could go any farther and it was nice to do it all in my old stomping grounds. I know that somewhere around mile 2-3 I said I would never run MDI as a full. Ok I lied. Or I already forgot about the hills. Either way, this week I signed up for the MDI Marathon 2011. I am beyond excited. It's going to take some serious training, but heck, I've got a full year to do it. I've enlisted Jamie to help me with a training plan (did I mention he BQ and I'm going to get to watch him run in Boston along with Jill!) and I'm so pumped to make MDI my first. I grew up here and it will be pretty special for me. I already know several people who are going to be running it as well. It's going to be an epic weekend!

MDI Marathon preview

2010-10-10T14:33:00.006-04:00

I'll be the first to tell you I was probably a little overzealous in signing up for the MDI Marathon relay 12 weeks after I had my baby. (you can now say "I told you so"). Maybe if I had been working out all through my pregnancy it wouldn't be such a problem. But no, I quit exercising about 3 or 4 months in. Sigh. So as soon as I was physically able after I had my baby I started running again. I put together an 8 week training plan to get me ready for MDI. Things were going well with the training until I went back to work 3 weeks ago. At that point my training got put on the back burner while I tried to figure out my new daily routine.

So here I am, 1 week away from the relay. 26.2 miles split up into 3 legs. I have chosen the first leg which is 8.5 miles. Kate, who is training for the NYC Marathon is running the first leg with me and then will continue on to run the second leg which is 10.1 miles and then hand off to her cousin Jen who will finish out with a 7.6 mile leg. Kate and I will join her somewhere around mile 25 and finish with her. This sounds all well and good until you take a look at the course. Yeah. It's all hills.

It goes from one side of Mount Desert Island and winds it's way around to the other side. There isn't much of a flat spot on the course.

Looks like fun, huh!? However, the views almost make up for the stupid hills. I drove the course yesterday, even though I grew up in the area. It is so pretty this time of year. The leaves are changing, and the lakes and mountains are stunning. Even though these views are nothing new to me, I hope they distract me from how much fun I will not be having. After all Runners World didn't vote it North America's most scenic marathon for nothing. Check out this YouTube video. For your reading pleasure, mile by mile descriptions

I went out for a run this afternoon after watching the Iron Man Kona last night and the Chicago Marathon today. I had high hopes of a good run. Nope. I wouldn't be so worried if I was running this race on my own. Sure, it still wouldn't be a good race but I would only be letting down myself. Next weekend I have 2 other people counting on me to run well. I would feel bad about letting them down.

I'm just going to cross my fingers and pray next Sunday! Ugh. I'm going to be at the expo again with my Train 4 Autism booth. That will be fun!