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!
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??
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!
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!
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:-)
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.
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.
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