Foggy Bottoms Milk Run

The Foggy Bottoms Milk Run was Sunday, March 11th. This year, I ran the 10 mile, Justin and the Boys ran the 2 mile and my parents came up to run the 4 mile.  I have been nursing a running injury, so I wasn't sure if I would make my goal time -- which was 2 hours even. After not doing more than a 5 mile run for 2 weeks prior, and resting for 4 days, I managed to do the 10 miles in 2 hours 4 min. Xavier did the 2 mile in a little over 17 minutes, and Justin and Quinn came in at around 22 minutes.  Mom and Dad did their goals - Mom wanted under an hour for the 4 miles, and came in close to 52 or 53 minutes, and Dad did it in 46 minutes! Here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasure. Because of when I came in, they were not able to get my picture. :( but that's OK.

Fun with the Cousins

This is a bit late, but I finally am getting to a few pictures. This was back in February, during president's break where I took my niece and nephews to the fish hatchery to see the Stealhead come home to spawn.

A few accomplishments

On February 15th, Xavier entered his first Science Fair. He did not qualify for county, but it was a learning experience, and I am extremely proud of his efforts.  

On February 26th, both boys went to Baseball tryouts... Quinn qualified for B2 just like his brother (don't say anything yet, it's still a secret to him). We were pleasantly surprised, as we thought Quinn would need to do another year in B1.  Quinn has a good arm!!

On February 28th, Xavier was a finalist in his classroom spelling be. He would then compete at the school level with the 5th and 6th grade finalists on March 2nd.

On February 29th, Quinn lost another tooth! Always an accomplishment!!

On March 2nd, Xavier competed in the School wide spelling bee... he got 3rd place!! Those who were in 1st and 2nd place were both 6th graders! Way to go Xavier!!

On March 2nd, Quinn earned his Wolf Badge in Cub Scouts. He was very proud of himself. :)

Sorry that I have no pictures for all these great accomplishments, but I had to post them before I forgot them! I have amazing boys!!

A budding bass drummer...

Tonight we went to the Jacks game v. San Diego. Whew, first of all, what a game! For both the women & the men! Women won by only 1 point and the men by 2 points! When we got to the band room to get ready for the game, found out that the band was short on people (being a Wednesday game, and School is in session, it's hard for people to get to the game) so.....Xavier was recruited!! He played bass drum for the entire women's game. Someone finally came to relieve him for the men's game, but he did GREAT! Quinn played some wicked cow bell and symbols too!! Perhaps its time to get them some formal lessons. :)

Running

I never thought I'd actually get addicted to this thing called running. It started off about 5 years ago with a desire to loose weight. Xavier was in kindergarten and Quinn in preschool. I had a job in Blue Lake, so I began walking EVERYWHERE! Then we decided to do the Foggy Bottom's Milk Run in March of that same school year as a family (We had done it one other year the year before too, but kids were so little, I walked that!) I did my first stab at running that year - it was 2008. After that, I still didn't have much of a desire to run. I remember I could barely make it down the street without huffing and puffing. A couple years later I decided to go for it. A few of my other friends had just recently gotten into running. I decided to do more then just a 2 mile run, once a year. In 2010 I did my first 5 mile run with my friend Susanne. I think I ran about 2 miles total, perhaps I ran 2.5 miles, but I walk so fast that my time was only 7 mins longer then hers. In 2011 I got REAL serious. I ran the Foggy Bottoms 4 mile run (it's really more like 4.1 or 4.3 miles - there were different opinions on the length) and then in June I did the Atalanta 5 mile run again, this time with my mom. I not only wanted to run that whole time (which I KNEW I could do since I had just done the 4 mile in March and ran all of that!), but I also wanted to run it in about the same time I did the 4 miles at Foggy Bottoms (which was around 56 mins) Well, I crushed that time and did the full 5 miles in about 52 mins!! Time to go on to something more. I decided to do my first 1/2 marathon. Wow... 13.1 miles. It wasn't until October, so I thought I had plenty of time to train, but once school started and kid activities took hold, I found that my time was highly compromised. Though my training wasn't as complete as it could have been, I still ran the entire 13.1 miles of the Humboldt Redwoods 1/2 Marathon in about 2 hours 51 mins. It was an accomplishment that I thought once complete, I'd never do again.

Well, It's a new year, and I have decided that running 1/2 marathons aren't that bad. In fact, having that goal makes me work harder for it. It gives me something to really strive for. This year I have decided to do the 10 mile run at Foggy Bottoms - March 11th. And I will do "The Avenue" - 1/2 marathon in May and I will do the Humboldt Redwoods 1/2 again in October.  I already have next year's runs all mapped out as well. Since I'm on this kick, I might as well explore some other places that offer these longer distance runs. So, next year I want to do a 1/2 marathon through Bidwell Park in Chico - that is held every year in March. Then the Hippie Chick women's only 1/2 marathon in Hillsboro, OR - an annual event held on Mother's Day, and then the Disneyland 1/2 marathon. Seem a bit ambitious? Well, it may be, but I am enjoying my training and looking forward to these races!

I won't bore everyone with my training schedule or my runs, like I do on Facebook, but I'm most definitely right on track - getting a 7 mile and 5 mile run in this week. One of the things I learned about my training was that I needed to do more longer distance runs in a week - not necessarily back to back, but I would run 4-5 days out of the week, and only one of those would be more then 4 miles in length. Because of this, my legs were not as strong as I had hoped. So, I still run 4-5 days a week, however, only 1 run during that time is under 4 miles, 1 run is between 4-5 and the other 2 are the longer runs... whatever the goal length is that week. So, for example, this coming week's goal length is a 7 mile run. So one run will be 2-3 miles, one at 4-5, one at 6 and one at 7. But as I get closer to say my 9 mile week, it'll be more like 1 at 2-3 miles, 1 at 4-5 miles one at 7 miles on at 9 miles.... etc.  And I've been lucky to have the weather currently on my side - giving me plenty of non-raining days for me to train outside.

Well, I will keep you all updated on how the Foggy Bottom's Run goes - this year my parents are also coming out for the event. :) As long as it doesn't down pour on us like last year, it'll be a blast!

This picture is from the Atalanta Victory Run June 2011.