Things have moved in to hyper-speed...and sadly I don't mean my running :) The end of the school year is always crazy, but this year some of our girls who have been around as long as I have are graduating from high school...so add in dance recitals, prom, graduations and getting ready for a jam-packed summer and I have found it pretty hard to hit the road as consistently as I would like. Things should calm down over the next few weeks though, plus I start my official training plan on the 14th of June which means I'll be running 5 days a week, no excuses!

Here's a look at some of the fun distractions the last couple weeks have brought:



Cierra finished her final year of dance by chorographing a really cool bollywood dance piece. It was a great show!

Then we spent the next week running around buying supplies and making prom decoration, since the school had no budget for decorations, then we spent the big day blowing up balloons and turning the hotel into a casino. It was a casino royale theme:



Then, Lucy and I turned our house into a private restaurant for 20 prom goers...It was so much fun!



I even made tuxedo stawberries


The Kids really had a good time...mission accomplished!



Then I headed off to camp for a planning meeting which was a great time and really productive, and when I came home we got the chance to celebrate my friend Elisabeth's graduation from her Master's program! This week we have more graduations and parties and our summer interns roll into town! I can't wait for Monday when we will hopefully take the day off to do absolutely nothing!

Bay to Breakers

I woke up at about 6:30 Sunday morning, and although it was pretty gray outside it seemed like it was going to be a pretty nice day for a run. I grabbed a luna bar and some water and got the rest of my stuff together. I had already attached my timing tag to my shoe and bib number on to my shirt since I was pretty much over excited when I got my race packet from the expo on Friday. When I had everything ready, Lucy drove me down to the start line, which was nice because it meant i got to sleep in a little longer and didn't have to walk about a mile to get there. Here I am at the embarcadero where she dropped me off.


Now Bay to Breakers is not your normal foot race. Its pretty much a mobile party, and is known for its crazy antics especially the costumes (or in some cases lack thereof) As you can see I don't have a costume, but honestly I was still a little nervous about it being my first race let alone trying to run 7.5 miles dressed like a manatee or something. But it was awesome to see everybody all dressed up, it definitely kept things from getting boring. I got to my corral by about 7:00 and then basically waited around for the race to start. I talked with some nice people and threw some tortillas around (another B2B tradition) and finally it was 8:00, time for the start! We counted down....5...4...3...2...1...and just stood there. There were over 30,000 registered runners and I was somewhere in the middle. They send the elite runners first (they finished the course in under 40 minutes) and then the rest of us. So at about 8:15am I crossed the starting line and I was on my way! I had decided not to bring my camera because I really had no where to carry it, and that turned out to be a good idea. I just focused on keeping moving. The first mile was a little difficult simply because the course was still super crowded, there were a ton of people just walking or stopping right in front of me so I did a lot of dodging and weaving. But right after the first mile marker I was at 6th and Howard! My friends were here to cheer me on...Yay! Lucy, Cierra, and Cameron were standing on the corner and we almost got a really good picture until some guy jumped in front of me (Lucy was mad , but oh well...)

See that guy with no shirt on? See that tye-dye sliver behind him? Yeah thats me :0) I even crossed the street and saw a bunch of the kids who were watching the race, they were surprised to see me, but very excited.

I felt really good at this point and tried to keep myself running because I knew the Hayes Street Hill was coming. At about the 2.5 mile mark, the course goes up this pretty steep hill for like 7 blocks. Its really not all that bad until you get the last 3 blocks, which are the steepest, but once I got to the top it was awesome to look over my shoulder and see the street behind me still packed with people. It was so cool to be part of such a huge event. Thankfully the course took a short downhill part and I knew the hardest part was over. I stopped for water a couple times, and by the time I hit Golden Gate Park I had to make a port-o-potty pit stop...which because of lines took at least 10 minutes. That was a little frustrating, but once I got back on the road I appreciated it. The last couple miles seemed to go pretty fast, and the only bummer was the creepy Christians with bullhorns yelling at the runners...definitely not cool, but I won't rant about that now, because this post is long enough! When I came to the finish I was surprised how good my body was feeling, I actually felt like I could have gone more (yay for training!)

Overall my official time was 2 hours and 2 minutes which wasn't exactly what I was hoping for, but not bad either.
My first goal was just to finish, and finish feeling good- Which I definitely did! But my real goal was to try and finish in 1 hour 45 minutes. Which I guess I didn't miss by too much if you subtract my 10 minute potty break. Either way, I was happy I did it, I feel like I got some good experience for the big race and learned a little better how I will have to pace myself in September.

When I finally made it back home we went out to Wing Stop to celebrate...I love their lemon pepper wings!


Can't wait for September!
See You At The Finish Line,
Heather


Here Are Some Pictures of the Festivities that Lucy took:

The Elite Runners


A "Centipede" team


Plenty of nudies (YIKES!) only in San Francisco....


And of course the famous pink gorilla

Getting Ready

I have been gearing up for bay to breakers this weekend, which actually means running less this week. who knew? its called tapering in the running world, so thats what I'm doing, tapering. ha ha. I ran just over 4 miles on Sunday and then today I am just going to do a short 2 mile run. Then the race on sunday, I'm kind of sad to have to miss church, but I know it will be fun. I kind of wish I had someone to do it with, but I guess there will be thousands of other people there :) I think it will be a good trial run for how to keep pace when there are huge crowds to contend with. I'm gonna try to bring a camera and catch some of the craziness so I can post it here for you, but we will see, sometimes (ok, usually) I'm too caught up in what I am doing to take any pictures, but I will try!

See You At The Finish Line,
Heather

Training Update

Today I did some speed work. It was nice to vary my workout a little bit. Instead of running my normal 3 miles, I only ran one mile as fast as I could, and I was excited to finish in just over 13 minutes. I never thought I could run a 12 minute mile, but now it doesn't seem so far away, which is cool. After I ran the mile, I did sprints, they have a funny name for them in the running world--something like fartlek (fart- lick?! lol) but they are supposed to help lengthen your stride and get quicker turnover when you run. so basically I ran the length of the park (about 50 yards) as fast as I possibly could, then walked back to the start. Repeat. I did about 4 sets of these and then my legs were pretty much jello so I called it a day. I'll be back to my 3 miler on thursday but who knows maybe i will be even faster.

So it has been a couple weeks, I had a battle with the internet that kept me from posting, but the comcast repair man finally came last friday and replaced our modem, so we finally have the internet again. You never realize how much you use something until its gone, and believe me, without the internet I was going a little bit crazy :) Then this weekend I headed back to Atwater to see my mom for mother's day (I know its not officially until next sunday, but who is hallmark to tell me what to do?!)so I actually missed my long run on Sunday; but I will pick back up with my run tomorrow.
Last Sunday I ran the first part of the bay to breakers course (I can't believe that it is only about 2 weeks away) i ran from the embarcadero up the hayes street hill and back, all in all it was almost 5 miles. So things are definitely coming along.

Around Crossroads we are getting ready for summer. Its always fun when the kids are out of school because we can do so much more stuff. For our little kids we are going on a field trip EVERY FRIDAY! woo-hoo! with the help of our summer interns we are able to take them to great places like the zoo, the golden gate park, and even the giants stadium--and the best part its all free! For the teenagers we have a week of tent camping planned for June, plus summer camp in July and lots of other trips in between. Hopefully we will do a beach bonfire and maybe even some hiking. I'll keep you posted as the fun begins!

See you at the finish line,
Heather