Houston Half Marathon Lottery

I am hoping that the below email and the credit card charge means I got a spot in the Houston Half Marathon. They do a lottery system now so I wasn't sure if it would work out. I am excited about running in Houston and extending our Christmas vacation so I can do the race. As for training....I am just going to have to wait until it is not 117 plus outside!

MarathonGuide.com Registrations to me

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Merchant:	MARATHONGUIDE COM / Web Marketing Associates
Description:	Chevron Houston Marathon Aramco Houston Half Marathon Registration - Che Acord

Anyone want to run with me?

OFFER TAKEN BY MY FRIEND LAURA! I AM SO EXCITED!

So I want to RUN!

There is a Half Marathon/Marathon coming up March 20-21 in Seabrook which is down the road from us. On the 20th there is the option of running the Half Marathon (which is probably too much for me) or doing a relay (which is perfect). There is a 10k the weekend before but honestly, they don't give out cool stuff like shirts and my favorite thing...a medal!

The event is the Seabrook Lucky Trails Marathon and I need a partner! Let me know if you are interested or else John might have to do it and when I brought it up last night he looked less than interested!

The start of a new decade...January 2010

So far this month has been full of good things!

I ran the Houston Half Marathon on the 17th! And although I did not do an amazing time by far, I finished! The last time I ran a half marathon was two years ago shortly after finding out I was pregnant. This time I wanted to prove to myself that being a mom didn't mean I could do it again. I did not have the time I wanted to train properly but I went out there and finished! It was so emotional seeing Peyton on the side line cheering for me. I couldn't believe that two years ago I was pregnant with her and now here she is a strong and vibrant little girl! I actually had essentially the same time as I did two years ago so far from a PR but a good start and a great experience! Also, this was the completion of my 7th half marathon (plus multiple other races) in 3.5 years! Pretty sweet! Here are some pictures from the day and also you can check out a video here of me running across.

I got the running bug for sure and one of my goals pre- baby #2 is to run an additional 4-5 half marathons by this time next year....but I am not able to keep on the running band wagon for now because....I started training with a personal trainer!

I have been frustrated with getting stronger and healthier since having Peyton and instead of continuing to be frustrated I have decided to train with Fitt Life Fitness who came highly recommended by a fellow mom. I have had an assessment and one session as well as a nutrition consult and am excited about it all! I am really looking forward to learning how to be healthy, how to work out, and how to eat. I am also excited about seeing my body tone up and build muscle. I will be running soon but for now I need to focus on this which I really feel will bring the most important long term success for me!

Other happenings this month was the completion of a Kindermusik class that Peyton and I have been taking for several months now. She didn't enjoy it as much as I thought she would until just the end so maybe now that she is older it is more fun. I don't know. It was fun doing something together and I can see how much she has learned from it. We are going to take a break from classes right now but are looking at doing swimming in the Spring together. So stay tuned!

Finally, John and I decided to take a marriage seminar/class with our church called Dynamic Marriage. It is a eight (or nine) week class and they meet once a week. My parents offered to watch Peyton for us every week on the Monday (and they are actually doing it on Thursday) so it works out great. We are in week 2 and already learning some good tools for strengthening our marriage. It is always good to take every opportunity to grow in marriage so we are blessed that we can do this together. Please pray for continued growth through that!

Phew...I think I am caught up so now on Monday I will post about our amazing weekend and we should be good!

Time to get serious

I have been fortunate to have been able to lose all of my pregnancy weight by watching what I have been eating (cutting out dairy really helped...thanks Peyton), breast feeding, walking, carrying around a 17 lb baby and all of her stuff and honestly....luck. But as any woman who has had a baby will tell you...even though the scale says I am the same weight pre-baby...things do not look the same at all. I am not sure where this weight has come off from because there are some areas that still have some significant weight in my opinion.

Anyways...my hope was to start running again and that would help tone things up. I got a jogging stroller for my birthday in October and so far it has become a nice walking stroller and another object to clutter up our garage. I don't know why it has been so hard to run but it has. Every time I start I feel like my chest is about to explode and my legs are going to fall off. So...it is a little discouraging and I tend to stop pretty early on.

Then I looked into Yoga classes. I figured this would be a great way to get a low impact work out in and also help me relax. I took one class at a studio I found and it was good but it was $15 a class. Well, take a class a week and you are paying around $60...there has to be a cheaper option (besides the free running).

So, I went to LA Fitness (a gym by us) and looked into memberships. It was only $29.99 a month with no contract! Great thing about this is that they have Yoga, other classes, weights and typical gym equipment and even better....A POOL! I love swimming and used to swim at least once a week or so for exercises/fun when I was at the University of Texas! So on Tuesday night for the first time in my life...I joined a gym. When you sign up they offer a free health assessment/training program set up with a trainer so I have that tonight. I am a little nervous because I know I am out of shape and also because I really hate gyms. Yes, I joined a gym and I hate gyms...makes no sense. Well, I don't hate all of the gym...I like classes, swimming, some of the cardio equipment...what I hate is the weights. I don't know how to use them, I feel self conscious and I hate all of the macho muscle guys that are all around them. I know it is bad to stereotype but you know what I am talking about. Anyways, I am meeting with the personal trainer tonight and am going to emphatically state that I do some weights but if he makes a plan that is weight heavy I will quit!

Overall I am excited and nervous. I want to get back to exercising and have more energy, feel stronger and just feel healthy. I have always told John, I would be happy with they way by body is right now if I knew that I was working out and in shape. I don't care how I look if I know that I am strong and healthy. My goal is to make it to the gym at a minimum 3 times a week and start running or walking twice a week. Ultimately I would like to do another half marathon either in October (Koala/Lukes Locker) or November (San Antonio...never done that one before) or December (White Rock...would like to beat my time) or finally January (Houston).

Watching..not running...the Houston Marathon

Today was the Houston Marathon and Half Marathon! Last year at this time, about three days after we found out we were expecting, John ran the full marathon and I ran the half marathon. So, Peyton kind of already ran a half marathon (not too many kids in daycare can say that). This year we have not run at all and went to be spectators. I have never been a spectator at a race (John has watched me at two different half marathons) and it was so much fun!

We headed out of the house around 6:00 AM, made a Starbucks run and then camped out around mile 7 on the course. Peyton was all bundled up and ready to cheer on the runners. She only lasted a little bit in her stroller before she wanted to be held and see what all the commotion was all about. Her eyes were huge! She just kept watching and watching all of the runners come by! She eventually had a nice long nap and as always was a trooper on our crazy adventures. She must wonder where she goes half the time.

We mainly went out to the race because we had so many friends running. Here are some pictures of the front runners who were amazing! The men and women both set course marathon course records. I am always amazed at elite runners and their strength. It is pretty cool to see how God has designed the human body to be able to take on such a tough venture.

We were able to see all of our friends besides Jared and Carissa (I don't know how we missed you guys) and it was so much fun to cheer and support everyone. I am so incredibly proud of them as many were running their first half marathon! You guys did amazing! I only got pictures of Bryce and Laura! It was Laura's first half marathon and she rocked!

Congrats Bryce, Laura, Jared, Carissa, Sarah on finishing the half marathon and congrats Clint on finishing your second full marathon! And congrats to all the other 25,000 runners!

It was a great day and it gave me the running bug (of course)! So, when we got home I went for a two mile run and have decided that I will be training for the Rodeo 10k the end of February and my ultimate goal is the Angie's Half Crazy Half Marathon the end of March! Kind of ambitous goals but I will be going for completion instead of a personal record.

Balancing it all...

I haven't written anything since Monday (gasp) because I no longer have time to think let alone sit down at a computer and blog about our life and also everything has become so routine and scheduled so there really isn't anyhing exciting going on (like newborn poop was all that exciting). Also, pictures of Peyton will have to wait until this weekend but pretty much all I see now is grumpy face and that is not worth the uploading hassle.

So, it is the middle of the week and I almost through day 3 of work and it has been a week of very mixed feelings. It isn't difficult to get everyone out the door, it isn't hard for me to say good bye to Peyton in the morning (it helps that she is with Grandma this week), and it isn't hard being away from her during the work day. It is hard to drive a total of 150 minutes each day to get to and from work, it is hard to balance working and breastfeeding (if you are a new/working mom and want some tips you can email me) and it is even harder to go from seeing your little girl all day long to only spending about 3.5- 4 hours with her each day, and it is hard to not know the basic things about your child anymore (how many poopy diapers etc), and finally it is hard to have energy at night and be cheerful when all you want to do is sleep.

Anyways, things we have learned these past couple of days are:

• We don't have enough bottles resulting in us always have to hand wash some in order to make four for the next day. In January (start of daycare) we will be purchasing a ton of bottles to prevent this.
• Mommy will never make it home for Peyton's 6:00 PM feeding so that kind of threw a kink in some things and needs some fine tuning
• Our evenings feel like a mini marathon (home, shove food in mouth, play with Peyton, Peyton to bed, clean up kitchen, make bottles, make lunches, prep work for next nights dinner, pack diaper bag, pick out everyone's cloths, crash)

I know it has only been a couple of days and honestly it has gone relatively well with only minor hiccups but nevertheless, it is still difficult and will be for a little while. Two and a half more days and then I am off for two weeks!!!

Another update...John has lost his mind. He decided on Sunday that he would join the majority of our small group in running the Houston Half Marathon in about five weeks. That is 13.2 miles in five weeks! Yes, John ran the Full Marathon in January but he has not run in a good seven months! So, since we don't have enough on our plate he decided to pursue this aggressive goal and has started training this week. His training will consist of running Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. I have many comments about this but for now I will put on the supportive wife hat and encourage him through his insanity...

RUNNING AGAIN!!

Yesterday was my six week postpartum checkup and I got the all clear! Everything has healed great and I was told I start running again! I made sure Peyton was feed and happy when John got home so I could take off. 

Titus and I headed out with great expectations to at least run to my mom's house and back (about 1.5 miles) and when I got to the lake by our house I quickly realized that since my legs felt like Jello and my heart felt like it was about to explode I needed to set a different goal so we ran about a 1/4 of the way around the lake (all the way around is a mile) and headed home. I figured I probably did 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile. Titus felt great and was so happy to be running with me but I felt worse than I did after the Houston 1/2 marathon (did I really run 13.1 miles less than a year ago?). At first I was a little discouraged but John help me reminded myself that I did just have a baby and just had major surgery six weeks ago and just by heading out there was a huge success. My goal is to get back to running four times a week and slowly build up time and distance and hopefully get in shape to run a half marathon on Valentine's Day (either the Austin 1/2 marathon or Surfside). 

I want to RUN!

About two years ago I fell in love with running. After graduating from college I decided to try something new and something that I always thought I couldn't do and started running with a group. Since then I have done six half marathons and a bunch of other races and love how it challenges me and how great I feel afterwards. When I got pregnant I ran the Houston half marathon (at four weeks) and then ran off and on until it got too uncomfortable. Well, now that I am no longer pregnant I am dying to run and am counting down the days until my six week postpartum visit on October 16 and the go ahead to start exercising. I will be heading over to On the Run sometime this week or next to get fitted for new shoes so I will be all ready once I get the doctor's go ahead.

Also, we ordered my birthday present the other day, a running stroller. I decided to go ahead

with the Schwinn Free Runner LT which has an onboard computer to track your workouts and an audio hook up with speakers so both mommy and baby can jam out to music while running. It will be a little while until Peyton is big enough to go running in it with me but having it here will give me incentive to get started on running so I am in shape to use it with her when she is old enough. I love our walks together now and am looking forward to many hours running with her!