DNS.....

DNS

Not a runner favorite 3 letters put together.

It's happening this weekend for me.

No RnR San Diego.  I had to pull out.

I am not injured.  I am not trained but that is not the reason for the DNS.

Reason : husband crazy job schedule.

He is once again in a crappy overworked situation working an average of 16 hrs per day and getting paid for half of these:(

The last few months have been difficult.

I have been doing everything alone...house, kids, puppy...working...

Time for me and for running has been limited.  It is not a priority and I have to sacrifice for now.

I am grateful he does have a job yes...of course...but we have zero quality of family life.

We are both exhausted and stressed out.  So time to look for a better situation, much easier to look for another job while having one.

I feel lost without running.  No balance and pretty frustrated.  That DNS is hard to take.

I won't be in the best of mood come Sunday I know that for sure.

So now I am not training for anything.  It's weird.  I don't like it.  I run when I can even if it's just 3 miles. I take all the miles I can get in.

I will go in summer racing mode: 5 and 10k only.  The 5k with the kids and the 10k for me.

Hopefully things will get better at home over the summer and we will have some "normal" back in our lives soon.

School has been out for a week now.

I could not be more proud of my two sons.

They both had excellent school year again.

My older son had a really hard and demanding year..way too much work and a very strict teacher..it was hard...and he got straight As all 3 trimesters, one of only 3 kids in his class who achieved that out of 34 kids.  I am amazed and relieved that he still loves school :). Both my kids were very sad on the last day of school....they both love school and that makes me so happy and hopeful for their future.

End of school means no working for me until at least August 4th.  I am not sure what will happen with work...I am hoping that I will continue to work at the school, I really like it a lot.  I was sad to see the 6th graders leave...some of them are really great interesting cool kids.

Because of Bill's work situation we cannot go back to visit my family this year....2 years in a row of not going back..that is not easy... We have decided to stay in California and take a short vacation next week.  The days were approved for Bill so we are going to San Francisco and Yosemite for 5 days.  Road trip!  I am looking forward to just be together and making new happy memories.  I have been to SF only once and it was 14 years ago and I have never been to Yosemite so it will be great. 

The boys are vey excited, Will learned all about the gold rush so he is looking forward to this trip!

I read blogs still....I am there even if I don't comment much....still following your adventures and your steps ....

Thanks for sticking around and for reading...

What are your summer plans?

Cheers!

OC Half Marathon Race Recap

I ran the OC half marathon Sunday morning.

It was my third time running this race.

This year was the 10th anniversary of the race.

I was so not prepared for a half marathon...the training has been mediocre at best.

I went to the Expo Saturday with the whole family.

Nothing special to report about the Expo...same old same old....

I think that this year shirt is really ugly.  The colors are aweful and for a blonde well it is the worst ..

Cantaloupe and very light green

We made a stop at the NUUN booth to say hello.  Lots of people were trying the new NUUN ENERGY. Have you tried it ?

The kids and my husband were supposed to come and support me like they always do but with a 6:15 am start and the guarantee that this would be a slow time I thought it'd be selfish of me to let them come.

I got maybe 4 hrs of sleep....we are dealing with a barking dog right now....not fun....very frustrating...I can tolerate the puppy biting and jumping..but barking no.

So anyway I got up at 3:45 am and went to Newport alone.  This is a point to point course so we needed to take a shuttle to get to the start.  I got there just in time.  Got to the starting line and waited 30 min for porta potty...the race started I was still in line.....I ended up not going....it was so nasty..I could not get in.

I jumped in my coral and we were off.

I felt ok for the first 6 miles.  Because I was not trained for this and I did not want to spend the summer at PT like I did last summer I decided to do run/walk right from the start 2:1.  I skipped the walking part on the downhill sections and I did not run any of the uphill parts.

Beautiful parts do the course

At mile 7 I felt sharp pain in my knee and I knew that walking was the smartest choice so I did that for most of the rest of the race.  It sucks but I kept telling myself that it's better that than go back to being injured.  I also kept telling myself "there's no barking here, enjoy this moment" :)

I knew I would see one of my hood to coast teammate at mile 11.5 and I focused on that "just get to Sarah".  Eventually I saw this:

I tried to think of the last time I ran 10 miles.....way too long ago obviously.

The course is mean to the runners....yes MEAN....

At mile 11 comes the longest hill of the course.....yikes.....

I knew it was coming I just did not remember how long it was...at the top I starred to run because well I do have some pride and I was. to going to walk pass Sarah...no no.

Mile 11.5 no Sarah.....I thought I had missed her and she left her cheering spot.

I kept running and soon I saw her....was nice to see someone I knew. :) 

I find it hard mentally to not have my family there...knowing I will see them at certain mile markers helps.

So I finished.  I did better than last year but still very crappy.

It's ok.

I got this nice bling 

I am happy that I did it.  I almost talked myself into a DNS.  I would have regreted not going I know it.

So it's still necessary to train for a half marathon because well it is not easy.

I need to figure out a way to move up on the priority list in my family because right now this is the order 

Kids

Husband

Dog

Cleaning, cooking

Caroline

My next race is the RnR San Diego half marathon June 1st.

I need to train a lot better.

I have about 2 more weeks of working and then it's summer vacation.

We cannot take a long trip this year so we will go on a road trip: San Francisco and Yosemite! 

Kids 4 kids run race recap

Last weekend I ran another 5k with my kids.

We ran the Kids 4 kids run that benefits cancer researchi.

This race is in Los Angeles, at LA Live where Staples Center is. ( GO KINGS!)

Start of the race is pretty late at 8:30 am..for a 5k that is ok only if it's not too hot.

Race offered free parking and that is pretty good for an event at LA LIVE.

They also offer race day packet pick up.

Website for the race could use some improvement...information about road closure would have been helpful.  We were not late so that was good.  Here's something that was not good: being pre-registered, being on time and getting 4 adults XL shirts! That is way too big for me ..imagine for my kids! I was not happy with that at all.  Normally I don't complain for shirt size but this was ridiculous.  The person handing out bibs and shirts said "sorry that's all we have!"  I get that it's not her fault so I did to get mad at her of course but I did tell her that I thought this was not OK and asked to speak to someone because well we paid and we filled out the forms with the sizes and the boys should not end up with adult XL.  I found someone and explained my problem, she was holding a kids shirt in her hands and gave that one to me...and some super nice lady heard what I said and had gone on the hunt for a kid shirt returned with another one !  This was the 9th year that they have this race, you'd think they would have the shirt situation under control after that many years.

Anyway the race was fun.  Several families were running, it was great to see so many kids on the course.  The course is out snd back...going slightly downhill on the way out and up to finish. We were chasing the kids' PR and they crushed their previous time by almost 2 minutes! 

I am very proud of them.

They improved a lot and with no training....I know they can do even better.  

Will near the finish line...he finished ahead of Jonathan this time.

Jonathan was about 12 sec behind

At the finish line they had several activities set up for the kids but we needed to buy tickets for these and I never carry any cash on me during a race so we did not stay.  Another info that could be added to the race website.:)

Next up is supposed to be the OC half marathon this weekend.

I am not ready.

Completely out of shape.

Long run was skipped again last weekend.  Saturday I coached the track team at the track meet all day and I was very tired at the end of that day so I did not run 10 miles like I should have and Sunday was race day and homework.

So my longest run leading up to the OC half is 8 miles.

That is not enough.

That is making me very worried.

I don't know what to do.

Switch to the 5K? Run and mostly walk the half? Get a DNS... I really don't want to do that....

I have just a couple days to decide.....

Track team!