Christmas Buzz.......

I was tagged by Claire http://chocolatey-clairebear.blogspot.com/ for this Christmas craziness.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bag? I always like the gift bag because you don’t have to tear it and you can reuse it next year.

2. Real tree or artificial? Artificial is way easier. It requires no watering, our cat doesn’t eat it, and you can put it up anytime you want. Plus, you don’t have to go out and purchase it every year.

3. When do you put up your tree? If you are in my mom’s house, then you start right after Thanksgiving and finish the day before Christmas. At our house Claire normally busts it out near Thanksgiving. She is on top of the seasonal décor.

4. When do you take down your tree? Once again if you are at my mom’s house, then you leave everything up for as long as you can because it takes so long to put up. We generally used to have everything up by Easter. At our house Claire gets it down with the quickness.

5. Do you like eggnog? I like the bourbon portion of eggnog.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? I don’t have one that jumps out at me. I did love my huffy, rollerblades were cool, and one time I got a box set of baseball cards.

7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yup, my mom got it for us.

8. Hardest person to buy for? I don’t really buy presents for people. Claire normally takes care of everything.

9. Easiest person to buy for? Claire, she always lets me know what she wants and loves everything chocolate

10. Worst Christmas gift you’ve ever received? I got a lot of crazy clothes.

11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Once again, Claire normally takes care of this area. Last year we made our own. They turned out pretty good but took a long time to craft.

12. Favorite Christmas movie? Christmas Vacation!!! Holy S@#%!!! Where’s the Tylenol?

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Claire starts after Christmas is over and goes throughout the whole year.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Not to my recollection.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? I like Chex Mix, Puppy Chow, Pies and I just love the ability to be able to pick from all the different dishes.

16. White or colored lights? I like small white lights and big colored lights.
17. Favorite Christmas song? Infant Holy, Infant Lowly. The choral arrangement is the best. All Christmas songs sound the best with mass choirs.

18. Traveling for Christmas or stay home? This year we are staying home because we are waiting on the babies arrival.
19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer's? Most of the time, but sometimes Donner escapes me.
20. Angel or Star on top of tree? Big shiny Christmas Star

21. Open presents Christmas Eve or Morning? We used to open up one present Christmas Eve which was always new PJ’s. Now we just open everything up on Christmas Day.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? I don’t like the crazy, hardcore shoppers or the crowded parking lots. I especially don’t like the parking lot Nazi’s who stalk you while you’re walking to your car.

23. What I love most about Christmas? I like all the food and the time off work.

Marathon Debut!!!

Well, I have finally completed my first road marathon (St. Jude). Going into the race, I knew that I had not prepared enough. My running has been suffering from lack of attention. As talked about in my previous posts, I have a lot going on outside the running section of my life. For instance, there are only 17 days until the due date for the birth of me and Claire's first child Ella Kate. That's a whole different blog, back to the marathon. As I said, I was stringing together runs here and there on the weekends and barely training during the week. I was not sure how I was going to do in the marathon. My plan was to go slow and avoid injury. I started out running with John, Patrick and Vinnie. After about 2, 9:00 minute miles Vinnie and I turned around, and Patrick and John were lost in the crowd. I was a little hesitant running with Vinnie for three reasons. One, he was running the half marathon and I was doing the full. Two, we were running within sight of the 3:30 pacer. That seemed really fast. Three, I did not want to BONK! One thing that kept my thoughts positive was that Vinnie and I were talking the whole time. Neither of us were breathing heavy and everyone around us was sounding like they were breathing with one lung. We continued to run a pace of around 8:10 until Vinnie left me at mile 10 or so to finish up his race with authority. At this point I was alone for the rest of the race. I did see Holly at mile 12ish. Who by the way had a completely surprised look on her face. She almost missed getting my picture because I snuck up on her. As you can see below.

I also saw John Dodd at several aid stations along the way. Other than those two, Vinnie was my last contact with anyone until I made it to the finish line. My brain began to rationalize the miles left in front of me. I would think, "Okay half way finished", "Only ten miles to go". For the first part of the race we had stayed close to the 3:30 pacer and now some other pace groups were beginning to catch and pass me. I ended up following the 3:40 pace group for several miles until they started their push to the finish. The voice in my head kept telling me to walk and the other voice in my head would say, "You only have 6 miles left, just keep running". I was able to keep a decent speed until around mile 22, when I had to walk several hills. I did get passed by several people on these hills but I eventually passed them back before the end of the race. So I think this might have saved me a little. I had been eyeballing my watch for the second half of the race and was anticipating coming in at about 3:55ish. When I came down to the last 1.2 I looked at my watch and saw that I could come in under 3:50. I tried to make my legs turn over faster but they just kept the same beat they had been drumming for the past couple of miles. When I rounded the corner into the stadium, I was so excited to see the finish line because I was ready to stop. I ended up coming in at 3:47:42. That is 485th out of right under 2,000 runners. I am pretty pleased with my first marathon time. It makes me wonder how long it would have taken if I actually was able to devote a decent amount of time to training for the race. Hmmmm.......

Either way, I am excited for my time as well as the rest of the Memphis Ultra Running Group times. Holly ran in the 5K that morning and snagged 3rd Place in her age group with a 25:29. Vinnie busted out a Half Marathon Personal Best at 1:48:12. John and Patrick came running in at 4:08:ish to set the Personal Best for Patrick. Overall, it was a great experience.

On another note, soon I will be posting my race schedule for the up coming year. I think that I will be concentrating on more trail running and longer distances in year two of my running experience.

Anyway, yall have fun this weekend, maybe I will see some of you on the trails.

Memphis Ultra

We decided to start a new running group called Memphis Ultra. Currently we have seven members. This all came about after five of us took a trip to Chatanooga to participate in the Stumpjump 50K. We had such a good time and saw so many people from Memphis, that we decided we should start a running group. Right now, we are looking for anyone in the Memphis area who like to run long distances. We are going to try to set up a group run every weekend. Eventually we would like to show up at races all over the place and represent Memphis running. We are not hardcore. Our times range all over the board. We are more excited about finishing races than finishing them fast. If anyone is interested, you should definitely join us for a run and some cold frosty beverages. If anything you will get a cool running jersey.

Run Rabbit Run

Sorry its taken me so long to respond, but this is one of my most busy times of year at work and this year at home as well.

I am not really sure why I run? I have always been kinda sporty. I like the idea of sports minus the intense competitiveness some sports carry. I originally started training to surprise Drew and Holly by showing up at one of their 5K races. After I completed my first 5K and told them that I had started running, I decided to try and go a little bit farther. I decided my next race would be the Nashville half marathon. After I completed that, I decided I wanted to see if I could go farther. By the end of my first summer running I have completed 2 ultra marathons. As you can tell, my running has kind of snowballed into a mental & physical competition with myself to see how far I can go. I will be attempting a 50 mile race this march. Right now, I am running to see how far I can go.

There are a lot of things that keep me running. I like the look I get when I tell people, " I am only doing an 18 mile race this weekend".
I like to be the one who cleans the spider webs off the trails in the morning.
I like to run with a head lamp until the sun comes up and shines through the trees.
I like the solitude of running alone and I also like the camaraderie of running with a group of people.
I like the way my body feels when I am about to fall out after 26 miles (Its kinda euphoric).
I like the way everyone on the trail is so friendly. You can meet a person during a race and find out things about them that some of their closest friends don't know.
I like to see the occasional wildlife on the trail.
I also like to observe the subtle changes on the trail through out the different seasons. For instance, the mushroom that's been sitting there for two weeks or the tree that takes longer to loose its leaves, or the one area that is always boggy, or the area where its always foggy in the mornings. I love nature.
Most of all, I like the feeling of accomplishment when I cross the finish line.

I guess its really a combination of multiple factors that make me run. One day I might be able to give you a solid answer but for now its a little bit of everything above and some other stuff too.

Stumpjump !!!!

Well that was an experience. This was by far the toughest race I have ever entered. It should definitely be called the Rockjump instead of the Stumpjump. The course was probably around 25% runnable. I kept telling everyone I was running with that this was not like a run but an extreme nature hike. I'll give you a brief run down of the race from my point of view. Me, Patrick, Drew, Holly, Elle, Lauren and the "Mandingo" all started out at the back of the pack. As soon as they said go, we were off. I looked around a hundred yards into the race and I had lost half of the group. I slowed and ended up running with Drew, Holly, Elle and Lauren. Patrick and the "Mandingo" were no where in site. On the way to the first aid station, Drew and I stretched the distance between us and Holly, Lauren and Elle. We waited on them at the first aid station and took there pictures as they came in cheering. (Side note: These pictures did not turn out. Booo crappy disposable cameras) We left this aid station in a herd of Memphis runners. It was at this point that we made our huge decent down the trail. One step and you could fall off of the mountain. Somewhere between the first and second aid station Drew decided it was his time to go ahead. This was the last time I would see him until the finish line. Me, Holly, Elle and Lauren went ahead to the next aid station which was at a road crossing. After we crossed the road, we began a climb to a large runnable section of the course. At this point, Lauren and I started running in a pack with several other racers and got separated from our group. When we reached the next aid station at mile eleven it was starting to get hot and my body was getting a little bit tired. Lauren and I waited there until Holly arrived and we decided to keep our forward motion. The sign said 2.2 miles to the next aid station. My thoughts at this time were, this is great for me because I know that I can drink my water faster and get a little bit more hydrated on this stretch. What great planning by the race directors on the positioning of the aid stations. As Lauren, Holly and I pressed on, we began to hear the bellowing laugh of Patrick coming up behind us. He and the Mandingo had managed to catch and pass us. At this point I jumped in to run to the next aid station with them. We pressed on for what turned out to be 3.5 miles instead of the 2.2 they had posted on their sign. When we arrived the people at the aid station told us that they were out of water. How can that happen? We are in the middle of no where and we have run 16 miles. They told us that the next aid station is at mile 21. As Holly, Lauren, and Jackie arrived, we told them the situation and discussed our options. We all had about an inch of water left in our bottles and decided that there was nothing left to do but think positive and move toward the next watering hole. At this point we were told that about 60 people dropped out of the race. While we were blinded by the mental jab from the last aid station, we missed the turn for the trail. After about ten or fifteen minutes, we turned around and got back on course. Me, Patrick, Jackie, and the Mandingo left the group and moved quickly to the next aid station. They had plenty of water for us to drink. However, the dehydration was already taking its effect on me. I was feeling weak and I had stopped talking all together. When Patrick asked me how I felt, my exact words were, "I feel like crap". We proceeded on until we came to the start of the huge uphill climb to the finish line. At this point, Patrick and the Mandingo stopped to take a break and I decided that I did not need to stop moving. Me a Jackie, a woman that I met from North Carolina, pushed on to the end of the race. When we crossed the finish line, my parents and my sister were there to congratulate me. Overall it was a great experience. All of the crew from Memphis finished the race, despite the lack of water, the heat of the day, and the ridiculous terrain.

After finishing a race of that difficulty, I still feel like I could run longer.

I will keep you posted!!!!

Is There Anybody Out There?

Hello once again to the three people who actually check out this page. I have not had time to do anything with my blog because I have been running crazy. I have way too much going on. Work is starting to pick up again for the fall. That means going ten different directions at once. Meet people, look at their yard, draw a design, do an estimate, meet with them again to sell the job, round up all the materials, make sure the crew completes the job correctly, and complete this cycle with ten to twelve other customers at the same time. On another note, I also am drawing closer to my deadline for finishing out the room in our upstairs. I hope to complete all of the plumbing, install the trim and the doors, and paint as much as possible this weekend. After that its time to install cabinets, sinks, toilet, tile, carpet, baseboards, crown molding, electrical outlets, and anything else that I left out. I also have been preparing for the 32 mile run happening next weekend. I have slacked off in the past two weeks trying to juggle all of this stuff. However, I will be doing a long run with Drew & Patrick on Saturday morning. BOOM!!!!! That was the sound of my head exploding. I can't wait until I get to do nothing for a minute. Maybe play the guitar or sit on the back porch. Anything but .... anything.

Yall have fun.

Go Bulldogs!!!!!

Feels Like the First Time

Yeah!!!! My very first blog. This is sorta crazy yall. I finally got time to do some stuff since I don't have to work for the week. Currently I am at my wifes parent house in Cleveland, MS. Tomorrow morning we will head for Orange Beach, Alabama. It’s been so long since I’ve seen the ocean…I guess I should. I can’t wait to lie around on the beach with no responsibilities. It will be great.