I (don't really) want to ride my bicycle.

I don't own a bike. Unless you count my old bike that's still in my parents' garage in Santa Fe. I do, however, still have my helmet with me. Because, you know, a bike might come along and I need to be prepared. And in fact, a bike has come along! Josh's grandma is lending me hers. It's not a "grandma bike" though, don't worry. (Well, except maybe for the side mirror attached to the handle bar, but if that makes it a grandma bike I'm really okay with it.) Tuesday Josh and I went for a bike ride, but I didn't like it too much. Sure, it was fun to ride (he kept saying gleefully "isn't this better than running!"), but it was also very scary. We were riding in town, and therefore on streets and in traffic. I never did that growing up. The only time I've ridden in traffic like that was once on a bike tour in Germany, and when a bus pulled over and I should have stopped but freaked out about losing my tour group and went anyway, a busload of people yelled at me in German. Okay, maybe not a busload, but one guy definitely yelled. Anyway, the point is that riding with cars scares me. And it's bad enough huffing and puffing up a hill on a bike, why add the extra threat that if you don't hurry that car trying to turn might run you over? It's all too much.

tidbits

My mouth is coming along quite nicely! I still have some unsightly sutures in there, but unless I smile quite creepily, no one can see them. Thursday I have my check-up and they'll remove whatever is left.

I'm trying to figure out what I should run next. I need a running goal to help me actually work out regularly. Apparently I was mistaken by a lady at work who thought I was addicted to exercise. I'm not, but I can commit to following a schedule. I'm thinking about another half marathon at the end of August. That would give me the summer to train (at an intermediate level instead of beginners like the last half marathon), and I'd be done with the big time commitment in time for school to start in September.

I don't watch LOST. So I don't care about the series finale! But I'm really loving the new NBC show Parenthood.

I had an African violet back when I lived in Raleigh, but that didn't really work out. I'm trying to have plants again, and so far things are going much better. I was given some little baby spider plants several months ago and after planting them and giving them plenty of sun and water I have lots of baby spider plants of my own! I haven't decided if I want to pot or, uh, "prune" them, so in the meantime I've got some crazy long sprouts going on. I would take a picture to show you but I accidentally vacuumed up a couple of the plant's leaves once and I'm embarrassed to show you their tips. Anyway...I also have a beautiful orchid that Josh gave me for my birthday. I love orchids and have wanted one for a very long time, and I finally have one! He got one with a tag that says all I have to do is give it three ice cubes once a week to water it, and so far so good. Next up, I want a cute little jade plant.

Last week I went on a work field trip to Poplar Forest. That was Jefferson's other house, his Bedford County estate. It's still sort of in the reconstruction faze and isn't completely finished inside and furnished, but it's still pretty cool. The yard was filled with really annoying gnats, but the house was neat and worth the trip to Lynchburg.

gross fest

Friday I took off of work so I could go to Richmond and have some good ole' oral surgery. No biggy really, just a little gum graft. But, you know, surgery. I was awake for the whole thing but the doctor's office was great because they gave me a blanket and an ipod to listen to, plus some dark glasses. So I snuggled up, put the ipod on shuffle, closed my eyes, and tuned out with my mouth wide open. A little over an hour later I was on my way back to my grandparents' house, where I proceeded to take a five and a half hour nap. It hasn't been too bad, and luckily I haven't had any pain at all. But the worst part? Looking in my mouth completely grosses me out. It's disgusting. Grandpa says it looks just fine, but he's a doctor so he can't appreciate how disgusting the whole thing is. And even if I'm not looking at my mouth in the mirror, just the thought of what's in my mouth grosses me out. So it's best if I don't think about it.

Montalto Challenge, WITH PICTURES!

Turns out Josh is a miracle worker and he rescued my deleted photos! I know how disappointed you all were to not see pictures of sweaty runners, so you can thank him when you get a chance. And here we go!

At the bottom of the mountain waiting to start. Notice all the trees. The lower trail part was very woodsy.


By the time we got up to Montalto it wasn't woodsy anymore. If you think this looks like a pleasant hill, just realize those lines are all switchbacks. I think if you zoom in you can see a couple walking.


Josh took this one while still running.


I came in 65th, see?


Bagpipes greeted us at the top.


Swwweeeeeaaaatttttyyyy


TJ was lookin' pretty sweaty, too.


See that white building? That's Monticello.


There I am in my brown race shirt with all the winners. Because I came in second in my age group, remember?


Hooray for a successful Montalto Challenge!

Montalto Challenge

Well I went through with the crazy challenge, and this morning I ran a 5k up a mountain. Josh ran up, too. The race is put on by Monticello here in Charlottesville and starts at the bottom of the Saunders-Monticello trail and continues all the way up Montalto. They say we rose in elevation by almost 900 feet, and when we reached the top we looked out over Charlottesville and the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was beautiful, and definitely challenging. I've run up the Saunders-Monticello trail a few times before and this time I did it in a minute less than I'd ever done it before. But after the trail came the really steep and winding road up Montalto, and unfortunately I had to take several breaks and walk up the extra steep parts. But just about everybody around me was also taking walking breaks. It was intense. I didn't quite make my time goal, but I think my goal was unrealistic. I came in 65th out of 122, but get this...

I came in second in my age group!!! They called my name in the awards ceremony and I got a prize and everything! So that is very exciting.

You know what is decidedly not exciting? The fact that I came home and proceeded to delete all the wonderful photos we'd taken. I thought there were duplicates so I deleted the second ones, but turns out there weren't really duplicates and I deleted all but two. Here they are:





Photos you do not get to see, because they no longer exist, include before and after photos with two co-workers who also ran, a shot up at Montalto to show you how high it is, a shot looking over and down at Monticello, Josh and me extra sweaty at the top, the bagpipe players who provided entertainment atop the mountain, and my Thomas Jefferson temporary tattoo that was bleeding ink down my sweaty arm by the end. Hopefully I can get some of the photos my co-workers took, but in the meantime I suggest you check out the photos from last year's race so you can get an idea about what it was like. And if I run next year you can be sure I'll be extra careful with the pictures I take.

Update: The pictures were recovered and you can see them in this post. You can also read my post about the 2011 challenge here, 2012 here, 2013 (my PR!) here, and 2014 here.

Crabtree Falls

This morning Josh and I went for a hike to Crabtree Falls in Nelson County. We live near mountains now, so we figured we should go check them out. Apparently Crabtree Falls is the tallest waterfall east of the Mississippi. Basically the entire 1.7 mile hike is up the mountain by the falls, so every time I thought we must be at the top of the falls we'd hike some more and find out I was wrong, the falls were still there. It was pretty cool. Then we kept walking another mile or so along the stream at the top. Some hikers passing us said they'd just seen a snake, but luckily it left before I had to see it. We also made sure to talk and sing so as to scare away any potential bear visitors. That might be what caused my nap-time dream about bears this afternoon.

still running

Before I ran the half marathon I started to get worried about what I would do after the half marathon. Would I stop running? Would I sit around all the time and get fat? Would I get depressed because I didn't have a regular running schedule anymore? Or, conversely, would I start training for a full marathon?

Well, running the half marathon let me know that I don't want to start training for a full one. But obviously I will still run. I was silly to worry.

Right now I'm training for a crazy challenge that I don't want to say too much about just yet in case I wimp out and don't do it, but hopefully I will do it and you'll get to hear more later. That also means hopefully whatever feels wrong with my left leg will go away soon. I'm taking a few days off, so hopefully that will fix it.

Also, totally unrelated to running, I meant to blog earlier in the week about what I did last weekend because it was lots of fun, but I'll just say that Josh and I went to the Kiwanis pancake breakfast and then watched the Dogwood Festival Parade, and while the parade was nothing spectacular, it was still lots of fun to watch. So there you go.

13.1

This morning Josh and I ran the Charlottesville Half Marathon! Looking back I think "ahhh, that was awesome!" but there were definitely points when running that I thought "I'm never going to run a full marathon" or "oh dear goodness, I might have to stop and walk." But I didn't stop to walk. And I did way better than I thought I would! My goal was to finish under 2 hours and 10 minutes (basically my usual 10 minute mile), but I finished at 1 hour 57 minutes!!! That is very exciting. Overall I placed 399 (out of 1077).

There were points when I looked around and enjoyed the scenery, struggled with a cramp, had to pee, passed several people at a time, and was passed by several people at a time. There were some serious hills, but Charlottesville is full of hills and I've been training here, so it turned out okay. Josh took off and left me just before the halfway point, but I caught up with him at the end (until he sprinted through the finish line), and he finished 390th.

My legs are sore and I spent the rest of the day lounging about and napping, but I enjoyed it and will probably try to run more half marathons and shorter races in the future.


6:30am and ready to go!


Lookin' good at mile 1. (Notice a similar picture wasn't taken at, say, mile 9.)


Josh running, I think between miles 1 and 2.


See little me waving? About to hit the turnaround point halfway through.


Josh's Grandma came to see us finish! Look how cute they are!


We did it!

thank goodness

Dad got to leave the hospital today! They finally (two weeks later) got all the fluid from outside his lungs drained, and they think he's good to go and the fluid shouldn't build up again. Now he's home, and they say he can even head back to the gym next week!

half marathon countdown

Well, I've trained for thirteen weeks, and tomorrow is the big day! Hopefully it won't rain. Hopefully I won't die. Hopefully I'll feel okay about my time.

Wish me luck!

thanks, friend

Received in the [e]mail today:

thoughts and prayers please

Monday my Dad had surgery to get fluid out of his chest. Three liters of fluid, to be exact. He's still in the hospital, waiting for drainage to stop so they can take out his chest tube and let him go home. We still don't have a diagnosis for why his chest is creating so much fluid in the first place. So keep him in your thoughts and prayers please.

three cheers for warm weather!

Today I ran twelve miles (whew!), slapped on a whale tattoo, bought some books (and books on tape) at the library book sale, and headed to Richmond to hang out on the porch with family and dye eggs.

Pretty good day, I'd say.

bean pie

Today I ate some pinto bean pie at work, but I thought it was pecan pie because that's what I was told.

Happy April Fools Day to me.

(It still tasted pretty good.)

Monument Avenue 10k

Yesterday I ran my first race ever. With only about 37,000 other people. And a temperature in the 30s.

But it was great! I've been around Richmond for a few years now, but I've never even gone to watch the Monument Avenue 10k. So not only was it my first run, but it was my first time seeing all the costumes, bands, cheerleaders, and friendly spectators. I really made an effort to enjoy the race, so I said things to myself like "look at that adorable bulldog on the sidewalk!" or "I'm so happy there is a string band playing on that porch!" or "hello Uncle Stonewall!" when I passed the Stonewall Jackson monument.


Check out the running dinosaur shirts Josh and I painted!


Celebrating with a post-run beer at Capital Ale House

My goal was to finish in less that 60 minutes, which I did (just barely). However, the crowd was so huge in the beginning (I heard there were 1,500 in my wave) that I didn't make a serious effort to zoom around people and get ahead, I just went with the flow. Now that I've seen my results and I know I came in around 10,200th place (which, hey, was still in the top third), I'm itching to try again and do better.

ten miles plus!

Yesterday afternoon Josh and I set out for our ten mile run but it didn't really work out and instead turned into a lovely spring walk. (Not a ten mile walk, however.) This morning I set out on my own, and I succeeded at the ten miles! It's kind of crazy how far you can get in a small city in ten miles. There was an unfortunate period where I made a wrong turn and ran several blocks in the wrong direction and had to double back. I tried to compensate by ending the run sooner, but it still turns out I ran ten and a half miles. Before today the farthest I'd ever run was eight miles, so this is pretty exciting.

It was a disaster!

Yesterday I went to Northern Virginia to visit my new grad school for the first time. I was supposed to be there at 9:30am, so to be on the safe side I left my apartment at 6:30am. Or at least I tried to, before I locked my keys in my car. With the engine on.

It was still dark out. My purse and phone were already in the car. I was stuck. So I found another apartment with lights on and knocked on the stranger's door. Luckily the guy who answered was fully dressed. At 6:30 in the morning. He let me use his phone and he had the AAA number, so that was great. Then he left for work and I waited outside until 7:45 for the AAA guy to show up. Yesterday's high was in the upper 60s, and I was ready for it. But the temperature from 6:30-7:45? Not so high. By the time the AAA guy arrived I was a popsicle. When he handed me a pen to sign on the line I dropped it because my hands were numb. But at least I got into my car (which, by the way, was an inferno because I'd turned the heat up before the door locked).

Then I high-tailed it for NoVa and arrived by 10:10, and the rest of the day turned out much better than the morning.

time flies

Today was my one year anniversary at my (not-new-anymore) job. This is the longest-running full-time position I've held. Not because I can't stay employed, mind you, but because my former jobs were mostly squeezed in around school semesters. And here's some news for you: I'm going back to school again! I've been accepted into a PhD program for history, so that's exciting. But this time I'm going to keep working at my current position full time, so the anniversaries can keep adding up.

more on the Vegas trip

Don't worry, I haven't forgotten to tell you about my Vegas trip.

Last weekend was Nascar weekend in Las Vegas, so naturally my family went and I flew out to join them. (As you may recall, we did the same thing last year.) It was pretty great.

My parents and Ryan drove in Wednesday afternoon and I flew in later that evening. Thursday I went for a two mile run around our hotel, and then we headed to the strip. We ate lunch at Mandalay Bay and visited the aquarium there. Then we went to MGM to see the lions and watch bartenders dance on the bar. We also went to New York New York where Ryan and I rode the roller coaster. Ryan bought me a pair of shoes for Christmas at the Planet Hollywood mall, and we saw the Nascar trucks parade down the strip. That night we saw the Lion King.


Dad with the Crown Royal (Matt Kenseth's) car in Mandalay Bay.

Friday we met up with my aunt and uncle (who also drove from New Mexico for Nascar) for a breakfast buffet, then went to the strip. First we visited Circus Circus and Ryan and I rode more rides, then we watched an acrobat do circus tricks. Next we visited the Bellagio and rode the new tram through City Center. Then it was time for a snack so we went downtown for shrimp cocktails. We may have visited some other stuff in there too, but I can't keep it all straight. We ate dinner at Margaritaville because my aunt and uncle wanted to see the lady slide out of the volcano into a giant beer glass. Crazy stuff happens in Vegas.


Ready to take a ride at Circus Circus.

Later that night Ryan and I went back to the strip (we were all staying at hotels off the strip, same as last time) and ended up hanging out at a bar in the MGM trying to win a signed Matt Kenseth jacket for Dad (Kenseth is his Nascar driver). We filled out lots of (free) drawing tickets and got a free hat and flashing button, but when they finally held the drawing at midnight some Canadian guy next to us won the jacket instead.


Parents at the Bellagio.

Saturday was the first race, which I went to with Dad, Ryan, and my uncle. It was delayed for 1.5 hours due to rain, and once the rain left and the race started it was windy and freezing, so not the best of times. For dinner we had Mexican at my aunt and uncles hotel, then went next door to our hotel and I won eighty bucks on a penny slot machine. I then proceeded to lose thirty of that on the same machine, but I came out with fifty dollar profit!

Sunday the guys and my aunt went to the race, and I went to breakfast with Mom. Then I ran eight miles for my half marathon training. After my shower Mom and I went back to the strip and visited the dolphins and tigers at the Mirage. We also walked around the Venetian, but then my poor feet were sore so we rested at a trendy bar back at the Mirage. We met up with the rest of the gang after their race was over for a steak dinner. Then Ryan and I headed back to the strip to watch the volcano erupt at the Mirage and live it up on our last night in Vegas.


I hope we do it again next year.

still in the snow

I'm more than ready for spring to hurry up and get here, but in the meantime there is still winter fun to be had. Today Josh and I met up with his aunt and cousin at Massanutten for two hours of snow tubing. There was lots of waiting involved (waiting to get up the moving sidewalk to the top of the hill, waiting in line, waiting for slow people to clear the lanes...), but we had a pretty good time. I went down sitting up, laying on my belly, spinning, and attached to Josh's tube. On my last run I spun around so much that when I reached the bottom and got up to walk away I was too dizzy and fell flat on my back. That was embarrassing.