pineland training week 1

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!

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

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

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!

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

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

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!