CORA LEARNS TO BIKE LIKE A BIG KID!

Jay took the training wheels off the little 12" Barbie bike that we got as a hand-me-down today and when I showed Cora at the park earlier, she was furious. Then curious. She walked around on it a bit on the grass, but didn't really try to ride it, and when it was time to go into The Flats she chose her Strider over the pedal bike. Well, James was apparently pretty disappointed. He wants her to learn to ride a pedal bike NOW so that she can go fast and keep up with him (not that she's the least bit slow on the Strider, but pedal bikes are still faster), so after dinner he decided to give her some lessons. First he talked her through the steps and showed her how to walk it, push with one foot, then push off and start pedaling, then he moved on to giving her a push and telling her to grab the pedals and go! And it worked! My bet is that she'll be a pedal bike rider within the week, just like he was. How cool is that? And not even 4-years-old...

PAYBACK IS SWEET!

So, since Jay kept the kids for 24 hours while I camped and ran 31 miles (actually, I still owe him from The Blues too, when I "slept" at the hotel and ran 26.2 miles...), he got his payback today in the form of a day off from kid duty and house cleaning while I kept things in check (mostly). (And yes, he will get another day+ off later this year when Delta Brews heads south for a weekend camping and brewing event.)

First up? Sleeping in. (Well, I slept in. Until 7:10am. The kids woke me up at their normal weekday time. Jay had been up since 5:30am - spending his day off playing a brand new video game that he'd been testing occasionally for months.)

Next up? Breakfast of champions: BACON, chocolate chip pancakes, AND french toast.

I even delivered it upstairs along with his coffee. I win.

 Then the kids played while I did some house cleaning, we Skyped with Grambot and PawPaw, then we headed out to Walmart so James could use his gift card from Jacob and Bridger (and Cora could use her accumulated allowance so she wasn't left out). This is what they picked (both of which happened to fall within their budget). 

After that we got fast food and ate it in the car while singing along to the Frozen soundtrack, then met up with Christina and Will at The Flats for some biking (for the kids) and running (for us - the only way to keep up with them nowadays - though I'm actually planning to buy a bike soon because my legs are not fast enough to stay ahead of them anymore, and that's scary when there's oncoming traffic).

Will rides a big boy bike now - no training wheels! Took him all of 20 minutes to learn the other night. I tell ya, Striders are worth EVERY PENNY!

James and Cora led the way around Grant

Dandelion picking took over. That's when Christina and I knew it was safe to call it done and head back to the cars.

Once home, it was far too late for nap, so we made sugar-filled cookies instead! I followed Christina's recipe for THE BEST chocolate chip cookies ever, but mine looked nothing like hers. They tasted great, but they weren't the same. I know she's holding out on me... The kids LOVED helping me bake, so I measured and they poured, we let the mixer do the mixing, then they scooped and plopped (with very clean hands, I promise), and that was obviously the best part. Other than eating the finished cookies fresh and hot from the oven, of course. And sneaking chocolate chips while the mixer mixed...

 This was followed almost immediately by dinner (yeah, didn't think that one through - it's OK though, I only served them corn dogs anyway, so it's not like it was a highly nutritious day and I had to worry about them finishing their casseroles...), playing outside (where Cora started to learn to ride her big girl bike without training wheels - video to come in the next post!), bath and storytime, then bedtime. 

Overall it was a great day and James was SO well behaved for me. I worried, because by 8:13am I was already feeling like a hypocrite for telling him to be patient with his little sister while I was simultaneously pulling my hair out at her early morning antics, but everything worked out just fine. A little bit of island soap goes a long way ;-)

NEIGHBORHOOD BUDDY

For the past 5 years, there has been only one other child remotely near in age to James and Cora in our neighborhood. (We have a new neighbor now with a 2-year-old too, but they don't seem to be home very often.)

Gracie was born just 5 or 6 months before James (she is the "ghost baby" I saw on James' monitor when we first hooked it up before he was born, as it picked up the signal from her monitor and completely freaked me out), she lives next door to us (the house with the pond), and she is just the sweetest little girl (calm, polite, easy going, willing to play whatever James and Cora are up to). We've met her a few times (mostly while strolling or biking around the neighborhood, as she's often out with her grandpa, who lives just across the street from her - lucky girl!), but we haven't hung out much because her mom is justifiably very protective of her (Gracie has Cystic Fibrosis) and is cautious of her spending time with other kids. We've noticed as she's gotten older though, either they are becoming less protective (she's in school now), or she's becoming more assertive of her wants, because we're starting to find her and her grandpa biking down our driveway more and more often to play with our kiddos. He's a nice guy (and loves to grill us with questions about Striders and ziplines and play sets - which he then produces for Gracie at his house the following week!), and our kids really love Gracie, so we've encouraged this. It's nice for the kids to have a playmate in their neighborhood!

Buster and I at the back of the pack as Grandpa, Gracie, James, and Cora ride on.

ITCHY GLEN GARDEN

After 7 years, I finally convinced Jay that we should try our hand at gardening. A very small, low-key garden. He even sacrificed the best grass in our yard to build the container... (We don't have many full sun areas, and the only other spot is way beyond the reach of even multiple hoses, and is frequented by deer.)

Jay's coworkers generously gifted him with a gift card to Home Depot last month in order to somehow commemorate GG, and rather than planting a tree, we decided to use the money to start our garden. GG was a wonderful gardener, and gardening always brought her a lot of joy and satisfaction (and we all benefited from her efforts throughout the year in the form of pickles and preserves and other goodies that she canned).

Cora looks like she's slamming the brakes, doesn't she?...

The kids helped transport dirt in their buckets and mini wheelbarrow, they helped us choose the plants (we just picked a couple pots each of cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, rosemary, and cilantro to start with), and they (mostly James) helped us plant them properly.

That should have been a "fingers crossed" sign, not a thumbs-up...

Gardening is hard work. Popsicles were earned.

 Fingers crossed our garden bears fruit (and veggies) this summer!

WHO NEEDS PRINCE CHARMING?

Tonight Cinderella happily married a dragon

ELI IS 5!

When I was looking for a picture of Eli to post today for his 5th birthday, I came across this one from last year (that I kept in my phone because he was just TOO CUTE!) and realized it's the same shirt we bought James for his Fossil Expedition party this year. (Our Gymboree outlet here in the 'Burg definitely hangs onto not just last seasons styles, but last years. Too funny!)

BEDTIME BUNCH

SHAKE IT OUT

The kids made shakers (from James' old Cheerio and Puffs daycare containers, pennies/beans, colored duct tape, stickers, and clear packing tape to keep the stickers from falling off) for music class today. Music is Cora's favorite class of the week! I think James prefers PE over music, but he was still pleased to have a VERY loud musical instrument to share with his buddies today. What do you think the chances are that the school will keep the "instruments" and not send the noise back to our house?...

GOOD MORNING!

This is NOT getting ready for school...

BROCCOLI QUEEN

This girl loves broccoli so much that she's willing to cut it, cook it, and eat an entire bunch or two, barely sharing with the rest of the family... I do love my little kitchen helper! And the fact that she loves green veggies!

BUN BUILDING (AND A SNEAK PEEK)

I had to let Cora play with my phone as payment for her letting me slick her hair back into a bun with the Bun Builder Jr. It's going to take me a lot of practice to get it right (so that her baby-fine wisps cover the entire sponge thingy and it doesn't fall off after 10 minutes), and some gel and/or hairspray (which we don't own), but her dance instructor was thrilled that I tried. (A note came home last week about all dancers, even the wee ones, needing their hair in perfect buns for the recital. That's no easy task for the 2- and 3-year-olds, most of whom have never needed so much as a trim and are still rocking their baby hairs. All the moms were asking me where I got the Bun Builder and how it works - made me feel like I finally contributed something other than cute clothes to this whole dance experience - since I obviously have zero dance skills to share!) 

 Love my little tattooed ballerina!

(This chicken tattoo that Christopher sent is her favorite so far. She calls it "Chickaletta", the "purse chicken" from Paw Patrol. People carry tiny dogs in their purses, so why not chickens?...)

Holding hands in the parking lot. But not MY hands. Don't they know mama is still too sore and slow to be chasing after them?

 And guess what? I got to sneak a better peek at Cora's class today. One of the little girls has been having crying episodes lately, so Ms. Bridgett has been leaving the back curtain open so that she can see her mama watching her. Of course, I wanted to watch too, so I peeked in a few times and grabbed a couple photos during the tap session. Their recital has a Dr. Seuss theme, and the 3-year-olds will get to do both a ballet and tap number. The tap number has them acting out animal motions and it was hilarious to watch! I can't wait to see all these cuties in costume!

Do you see the costumes lined up in the front? Those are for the 4-year-old classes. Little Cat in the Hat hats and sparkly skirts. Those 3-year-olds were JEALOUS I tell ya! Bridgett had to remind them over and over not to touch them. I later placated Cora by telling her that her costume will have both shorts AND a tutu/skirt, and she told me "Well good, because I'm going to get dressed up and I'm going to be BEAUTIFUL!"

P.S. Cora chose to wear the black leotard again this week "because Ms. Bridgett wears a black one and I'm a ballerina like Ms. Bridgett!"

STUNT DERBY

James has slowly been going through his birthday presents, opening something new to play with every few days. Sunday he chose the Stunt Derby, which first required painting the car and adding stickers.

Luckily the paint dried quickly (within an hour), because he was super anxious to start knocking stuff over as soon as the box was opened. We didn't fully follow the directions (and by we, I mean James), since the wheels got painted (they were suppose to remain bare wood in order to spin faster), but that car can really fly (especially when daddy launches it)! James is getting the hang of it better every day, and the only issue we're having with it is keeping Cora from "helping" too much (she tends to be clumsy like her mama and is forever pulling on the mat and knocking over James' strategically placed wood planks before he has a chance to send the car after them...)

 

The possibilities are endless as far as how and where to set up the planks (we've built runways, towers, houses, pyramids, etc., both on and off the mat - in an attempt to thwart Cora's destructive tendencies). I think James will be playing with this for a long time, and there are lots of other sets we can add to it when he gets a little older (most are ages 7 and up, probably due to the clumsiness factor).



ON-TRAIL MOTIVATION

Those four yellow signs all in a row? They said: "A vision of a champion is someone drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion, striving to reach their goal, when nobody else is looking." Pretty much perfect for someone running solo through the woods. (Luckily I had my Sophie with me though, so I didn't bust out in tears.)

 Notice their beer of choice for the unicorn tears was Mich ULTRA. Of course.

ULTRA FUN!

Yesterday I ran my first (and perhaps my only) ultra marathon. I did the Spring Equinox 50K Trail Race down at Clear Springs Recreation Area in the Homochitto National Forest. This is the same event that was my first ever trail race last year, when I ran the 10-miler a few weeks after completing RNR NOLA, my first half marathon. Sophie and I had so much fun last year that we knew we had to come back (and we did go back to camp with our families and run shorter sections of the trails last spring), and as we drew near to this years event date and the registration cutoff, we also knew we were capable of finishing the 50K this time around. I wasn't nervous at all... until the Thursday before the race. Not so much worried about finishing, but worried about being out there all day and feeling miserable for hours and hours (I am well aware that trail mileage takes a LOT longer than road mileage to complete, based on past races such as Equinox, Furtive, and Big Dog, and this course is known to be extra tough). In fact, just as folks questioned our sanity for choosing The Blues for our first marathon, people were equally surprised we picked Equinox for our first ultra. Of course, unlike road racers, the trail runners included "that's awesome" and "whoa, badass!" to their surprise. It took our running buddy Mack over eight and a half hours to do the 50K here last year. He is the 69-year-old that I recently strove to match for time in a 10K race, and a guy who has run over 300 races in his life, about half of which have been marathons or ultra marathons. I wanted to do the 50K in 7-8 hours max, and I worried that if it took Mack longer than that, how could I be so sure of myself? It's not as though I set an actual time goal, but I figured "the faster the better" in terms of getting off my feet and out of the heat (it got up to almost 80 degrees by lunch time), sooner rather than later. The biggest challenge (bigger than the mileage and rooty/rocky terrain) was the elevation change: 4550 ft.

(The Equinox website reported 4547ft elevation change for the 50K course. My chart was a little different because I didn't have good satellites throughout the run and my battery was low for the last 2 hours...)

The course was the same as last year, except they traded the 25K for a 50-miler:

I drove down the night before the race with my friend Lee (a 5am running buddy) and we camped at the group campsite (where most of the other runners were also camping, due to the 6:30am start time). Sophie camped with her family, the Lilleyman family camped, there were other kids, and dogs, and trail runners of all ages and calibers. It was a neat group, and I would have happily sat at a campfire, beer in hand, to swap running stories with them all, but even though trail running is far more laid back than road races are, these folks still meant business because they knew what they were up against in the morning - camp closed down at 9:30pm as everyone crawled into their sleeping bags while the race director walked around yelling "Goodnight! Go to sleep!" And then got moving again at 4:30am... 

We started off the day with breakfast (2 hard boiled eggs, an oatmeal bar, a banana, and coffee for me), then headed down to the starting line a half hour before the start to grab our goodie bags and get our race numbers Sharpied onto our arms. (Even though the start/finish pavilion was only a couple hundred yards from the group campsite, I drove Lee and Sophie and myself down there because it was at the bottom of a very long, steep hill that I knew none of us would want to climb after the race when our muscles were wiped out and locked up.)

Amy, Lee, and Mack (the most die-hard of the marathoners/ultra marathoners in the 5am running group) with me and Sophie

A brief intro from the race directors/Forge Racing Ambassadors, and we were off (just 10 minutes past the planned starting time) to the ring of the unicorn bell. 

That's me in bright green, second from the end on the right, eating a Gu as they talked

The thought of running alone in the dark, on trails, like so many ultra runners do in their training and in races (especially when they're out there overnight to complete 100-milers), has always seemed crazy to me and is one reason I know I would never run farther than a 50K (the other reason being that while running this race my body told me that 31 miles was plenty far enough thank you very much). I never want to have to train alone in the dark in the woods! However, running for a half hour in the dark with a group of runners during the race was not at all scary. It was actually really cool to see all the reflective tape on shoes, clothes, and packs in front of me, and to see bobbing headlamps on the people behind me.

The kilt boys. They passed us before mile 2, but we passed them back at mile 20 and didn't see them again until they finished 20 minutes or so after us. When we stopped to talk to them at Aid Station 5 they told us one of them was an ultra marathoner and the other had never run farther than 6 miles at a stretch. If that's really true, that marathon guy is going to owe his buddy a lot more than a cold beer.

Once the sun came out, the cloud cover kept things from getting too hot too quickly (we started the race at 58 degrees and ended about 20 degrees warmer), though that only lasted through mile 14. Then the sun beat down and I was so glad I had my visor and sunblock on. We were sweat soaked from about mile 4 onward, like literally wring the clothes out soaked, and it's only March. Perhaps I won't do all of those other trail races I mentioned last month...



We knew we were getting close to Aid Station 2 (the BEST aid station!) when we saw this sign

So, why was Aid Station 2 the best? Well, they had motivational signs posted to trees along the trail leading up to the station and beyond, unicorn tears (AKA beer, which I am happily sipping in the below photo), homemade carrot cake, volunteers in costume, and everything else I never thought I'd crave while running (rice balls, boiled potatoes, M&Ms, cookies, chips, pretzels, and soda, plus the traditional ultra fuels like Hammer gels, Heed, and Endurolytes). This was the aid station we spent the most time at, especially on our second/final loop - I had seriously been having mirages of it for miles (I was completely spent, out of water, and it was a 4.7 mile stretch between the second to last aid station and this one, in the heat of the day). I have never experienced repeated mirages like that before - I thought I was losing my mind and it was very frustrating. At one point I almost convinced Sophie that they must have moved the aid station (after we'd crossed a road that I was SURE was going to be the place). I was so happy to see them... When we walked up that second time a whole bunch of girls ran up to congratulate us on being almost done (we only had a 5K to go at that point) and asked us what we needed. They refilled our hydration bladders for us and said lots of encouraging things while we ate and drank. If I remember correctly, I drank 3+ liters of water during the run, plus some Coke at the first 5 aid stations. And didn't need to use the bathroom once...

Sipping the unicorn tears on the first loop (nobody could stomach that stuff the second time around)

Still smiling big and not yet hurting at mile 8.3

After the sun came out, our hiking:running ratio increased significantly. We wanted to take a picture at the halfway point and had to guesstimate it since satellites were spotty on the southwestern portion of the trail and our GPS mileage got way off after we passed Aid Station 3. So this is how we felt at mile 15-ish: angry and crazy. OK, not really. OK, maybe a little...

Somewhere after Aid Station 5 (that would be past mile 20, the furthest we'd ever run on a trail!) a unicorn came flying out of the woods and ran me over. Or maybe it was a small rock sticking 2 inches out of the ground that I tripped over... That was the only thing we could find in the vicinity once I finally stood up and looked around for the cause of my ridiculous, slow-motion face-plant. Luckily my belly has a lot of cushioning and that's what hit first, so I survived it without a scratch. Just a lot of dirt. I laid there so long laughing before I got up that Sophie teased me (through her own tears of laughter) that I fell just so I had an excuse to sit down for a while. In reality, I just laid there because I was laughing so hard that I thought I'd pee myself if I tried to stand up. If the camera hadn't been tucked into the front of my vest, I would have let Sophie take a picture of me laying there, face in the dirt (and yes, so happy to be off my feet for a minute). Crazy unicorns.

This place really is gorgeous. I particularly liked the bridges. And the downhills...

Look! It's a picture of me running the trail! Sorry we didn't take more awesome action shots, but in an effort to not be out there all day, we actually took less photos during the run than we usually would. Plus, we were just so tired for over half the run that it seemed like too much effort to unzip the vest pocket and grab the camera.

We saw this rainbow Skittle covered sign in the trail the second time we passed the wonderful Aid Station 3. (We also saw new motivational signs that they'd added, which I read silently as I ran past. When Sophie stopped to read them out loud I had to tell her to stop halfway through because they almost instantly reduced us to tears. Apparently running for longer than 4 hours makes us really emotional...)

A little bit of funny goes a long way when you're exhausted and emotional. Unicorn poo is funny.

Sophie hurt her knee at some point during the last 10 miles of the race, we're not sure when or how exactly. She'd had me lead the entire day because she'd been sick for weeks and hadn't run much and said she needed to play "follow the leader" to get the miles done. Personally, I think she just wanted to stare at my booty for 8 hours... Anyway, I'd occasionally get a little too far ahead and not realize until I stopped to cross a muddy patch or particularly bad root zone (or walk uphill), and the noise of my sloshing water bladder would cease, letting me become concious of the fact that I was no longer hearing her behind me. She would catch up quickly and tell me to go ahead and aim for a better time, but there was no way I was going to do that. For one, I was exhausted and sore (oh my aching feet and hips!) and just going through the motions by that point, no time goal anywhere near my radar - I just wanted to finish! And also, she's my running partner. There was no way I was leaving her, especially when she was hurt. (I had gone through a very bad episode of calf spasms/charlie horses between miles 20-23, and I think she walked with me for at least half a mile straight while I choked down a protein bar she insisted I eat and repeatedly stopped to stretch and massage my calfs, in the hopes that I wouldn't be knocked over by spasms for the next few hours of running. That is friendship! And it seemed to work because the spasms were mostly absent for the last 8 miles.) I ran ahead a bit at the very end so that I could take her finish photo and be standing there to give her a great big hug (I knew we were both going to dissolve into tears at the finish line).

If only my brain had been working though... My going ahead like that scared Alex so badly when I came around the corner and his wife wasn't with me. I'm sorry about that Alex!

So, WE DID IT! We ran a 50K! It was exciting and emotional and mostly fun and left me with an incredible feeling of accomplishment! But it also hurt like hell for about 3 hours and I'm going to be paying for it for a few weeks. My feet, hips, and lower back (pretty sure that's from all the near-fall saves I did when tripping over roots and rocks, tweaking my back to try to stay on my feet) are suffering the most pain and soreness, but I'm honestly hurting everywhere, even places I didn't expect (the outside of my lower legs, my biceps and chest and abs, the tops of my feet... just everywhere below my head...) I made it through without any real injury though (even though I fell twice, and actually landed right on my knee, scraping it enough to bleed the second time), so I'm pretty happy with that! Since I don't have any (important) races coming up anytime soon, I can really take my time recovering and allow myself to ease back into whatever mileage/workout routine I decide to maintain over the spring/summer. It's quite nice to have all the pressure off for the forseeable future.

I ended up with an elapsed Garmin time of 7:45:40, and a moving time of 7:16:04. That means we spent about 30 minutes stopped at the 7 aid stations to refill our hydration bladders and eat, no kidding. Well, maybe 25 minutes at the aid stations and 5 minutes laughing like crazy and unable to move after I got run over by that unicorn...

Here are my splits, which are not entirely accurate, since my total Garmin mileage came in just over 29 miles and the course was definitely a full 50K (31.07 miles), meaning I lost satellites for some of the run. I think it's interesting to see that we kept a pace pretty close to what I was thinking we could do on these trails (12:00-14:30 miles) for a lot of the miles BETWEEN aid stations. Pretty obvious which miles included the aid station stops though! (If you look at moving time instead of elapsed time, you'll see our moving pace stayed around 15:00 or under for the first 18 miles. Then we REALLY got tired and walked more often.) I like seeing our "Best Pace" too - shows how well we moved down some of those hills. And the total calorie burn? That's more than 2 days worth of calories for me... No wonder I started seeing stars at mile 21!

Amy, Lee, and Mack came in about a half hour after Sophie and I (out of 42 runners, I came in 25th, putting me 9th out of 15 female 50K finishers), and only an hour or so later, our friend Tom L. finished the 50-miler in first place out of the 12 who completed it (and there was no other 50-milers anywhere near him - he had almost an hour lead on second place - truly incredible). He's the guy that won the Run Thru History this year, and has been featured on the blog in a turkey costume during ERDC's Turkey Trot. Half the 50-mile racers dropped down to the 50K due to the heat, so it really is a very big deal that Tom did so well, especially on this hilly course (he averaged a 10:40 pace while we averaged a 15:00 pace). Poor guy may never do another 50-miler though! Other friends, or spouses of friends, that raced the 50K included Jacob, who finished an hour and 10 minutes before me, and Lindsey, who finished about 15 minutes ahead of me. And one of my other 5am running buddies, Tom K., did the 10-miler and beat our time from last year by 2 minutes! That distance had 39 runners, so there were a total of 93 runners at Equinox this year! Considering there were 54 total last year, I would say this race is gaining in popularity despite it's reputation of being such a tough course.

 

The race directors are really nice guys, and they have really nice friends. I borrowed this photo from their Facebook page, showing the lovely Forge Racing running shoe, unicorn, and unicorn poop cookies that someone brought to share (seriously - rainbow sprinkled unicorn poop COOKIES), along with their anvil (their company logo) and unicorn head (used for photo ops by many after the race), and the unicorn bell I gave them (sitting on top of the anvil).

I highly recommend running a Forge race if you're even the least bit curious about trail running, or if you already know you love trails. It's an overall great experience, the race directors make it feel personal by congratulating each and every runner as they cross the finish line, and I can guarantee you'll have a good time before, during, and after the race!

I thought for sure the kids would be all over me today after not seeing me for 24 hours, but even though they said they missed me, they were all about the daddy-loving snuggle fest. Better for me to be able to rest, ice, compress, and elevate my sore muscles though, so I couldn't complain!

 Thank you Sophie, for another awesome adventure! And a huge thank you to Jay, for letting me have a "wild and crazy" mom's 24-hours out! ;-)