Getting ready for a Duathlon

In preparation for possibly doing a duathlon, I decided to try riding our mountain bike last night and man was it hard! It was hot, high 80's or more, and the tire was getting low before I got home so that didn't help, but I did 12 miles. There were a lot of hills and it took me over 1 hour 15 minutes. I was wore out before I got back!! Man, I guess it gets easier! Then I rested a minute or so and ran a mile which took 12 minutes, slower than normal but it still felt better than the bike ride! It's a start, I suppose.

Canada/Montana Trip

We had a wonderful trip. The flight on 7/4/08 was a bit bumpy on the way into Calgary which gave me motion sickness but I survived. We stayed in Calgary the first couple days, went to the Marathon Expo. We drove over and took a look at the Oylmpic Center in Calgary and the boys climbed on the ski jumps and we did a few geocaches, then did the marathon on Sunday and drove down into USA and Glacier National park which is just amazing! What beautiful creation God placed there. We took tons of pictures of course and by the time we went over Logan Pass and got to the hotel in Whitefish, Montana it was lake. We stayed at Grouse Mountain Lodge and I had my seminar there all week. The guys did stuff while I was in classes and we played in the afternoon. On Tuesday we rented mountain bikes and rode up the lifts at Big Sky resort and rode bikes down. I did it twice, just the afternoon but the boys did it 6 times and Gary 4 times! My hind end was sore! It was fun but kinda scary because the cliffs were steep and you are going fast downhill, just hoping you don't go over the side! The guys did whitewater rafting on Thursday. I got sick and wasn't able to go. That was a bummer. They had a great time. The water was super high in the river from all the late snow so they had to do the raft and weren't able to do the individual kayaks like the original plan was. We went back into Glacier a few more times to see the sights and hiked around Logan Pass on the snow. Timothy ran a quarter mile or so in the snow. That was a hard workout. Saw tons of mountain goats and Ram up there. One even got spooked and knocked the mirror off of a car running through the parking lot trying to get away from all the crazy people with cameras. Poor owner of that car! A storm came through Thursday night around 8 p.m. and the electricity went out in the hotel until 2 a.m. But you could see by opening the blinds since the sun doesn't go down up there until 10:30 p.m. Yep, that's right and it comes up at 5 a.m. You never see darkness! But the temps were 70's in the day and 50's at night with almost zero humidity. Very nice. Drove back up to Canada a different route and went through Kootenay National Park and then into Banff National Park. Only saw a small part of Bnaff NP but still was cool to see and climb on the moutains and the Limestone hoodoos, see the hot springs and visit Bankhead, an old mining ghost town. We spent one night in Banff and then drove back for out last night in Calgary before heading home on Tuesday 7/15/08. It was a long trip and we were all ready to be home and see our puppies but it was a great trip also. More pictures at myspace/pics but you have to log into myspace.

The Calgary Marathon

I did my second half marathon on July 6th in Calgary, Alberta, Canada! http://www.calgarymarathon.com/ I did with a time of 2:09:25. A couple minutes slower than my first half marathon but I'm happy enough with it. I would have liked to done it a bit faster but I just couldn't get all the training runs in ahead of time and didn't really push hard enough, I don't think, now looking back on it. Plus there wasn't any crowd support like in the Dallas race. Hardly any people cheering you along and going through the stampede area, there were a ton of folks but they just looked irritated that they couldn't cross the road. I guess that support really helps. The elevation in Calgary is 3,000 feet higher than in Texas but the humidity is almost nill and the weather was in the high 50's so it was nice. Not as big as the last marathon but still about 6,000 folks overall for all the races. We only gained 900' elevation during the whole race but most was in the first mile where we went up 600'. We ran downtown, through the Calgary stampede area, through the zoo and then out along the Bow river. I did pretty well until I hit mile 10 and I could just feel myself slow down. My longest long run prior to this one was 9 miles so that pretty much explains it but also, at that point in the race was where we got to a part where you could see all the other folks in front of you coming back. We went almost 2 miles that way and I don't know, but if was just like, where is that turn around and I let that get to me, seeing all those folks coming towards me - in front of me and it seemed like forever! Once I hit the turn around, I had a little over 2 miles to go and it just felt better knowing it was the end so I sped up a bit there. My splits - mile 1 8:54, 2 - 8:33, 3 - 10:05 (long water stop?), 4 - 9:37, 5 - 9:54, 6 - 9:54, 7 - 9:51, 8 - 9:40, 9 - 9:35, 10 - 10:11, 11 - 10:17, 12 - 10:11, 13 - 9:36 last .37 - 8:32 - total 2:09:25. Garmin showed it at 13.37 miles.

I'm proud of Timo. He did his first full Marathon. He was shooting for 3:40. I figured it would be closer to 3:45-3:50. He did it in under 4 hours. 3:56. 26.2 miles. I can't even imagine. He was beat but did it. I never ran any super long runs so he did pretty good. He got 2nd in the under 19 age division! We got him Texas running shorts just for the occasion.
They gave out very nice technical running shirts to everyone and we got finisher's medals. Timothy's was a nice belt buckle and he got a 2nd place medal too. We are both international runners!!

9 more Project Linus Blankets

I got a sweet thank you card in the mail from the Children's Advocacy Center where a 12 year old girl received one of the blankets I donated. That made me feel good. Inspired me to do more last weekend and I'm turning them into today. 8 are baby blankets from fleece I bought cheap and 1 from fleece the Local chapter coordinator of Project linus gave me. I was in the mood to sew and last weekend I spent most of the day Saturday working on them.

3 days 15 hours 14 minutes and 18 seconds...

That's right. Says so right on the website for the Calgary Marathon. We are going. Gonna do it! Leaving on USA birthday and will have Saturday to get accustomed to weather and elevation. Supposed to be in low 50's for race Sunday morning! Awesome compared to the 80's we've been training in here. Wow. Nervous, excited, anxious. Timo is running the full marathon. His first full. I'll do my second half. I don't really feel ready but we will see. Gonna be great to get a finishers medal from another country!! Then down into Montana for the rest of our trip and to see Glacier National Park! Wahoo.

10 more blankets to Project Linus

I dropped of another donation to Project Linus yesterday of 10 more blankets. Several fleece blankets, a Thomas the Tank Engine blankets, and a few flannel baby blankets. Terri and I picked up several yards of fleece at Hancock's for $1 a yard - super cheap. So I was able to get a bunch done and still have more fabric to do more blankets.

Quilt for Auction

I started these blocks for this quilt eons ago and when I decided to make a quilt for the Theater UK Troupe 2009 (kids in the Troupe which includes Timothy below) auction, I found them so I finished a few more blocks, bought material for the back and finished the puppy! Now I have two 8x8 scrapbooks, several dozen sets of cards, this quilt, a baby size quilt (Winnie the Pooh) and a couple other things to donate to the auction which will take place in July, 2008.

UM Army 2008 - Don't Worry, Be Happy!

Jeremy, Timothy and I along with about 60 other youth and adults attending UM Army Richmond Camp for a week - June 8-14th. It was a hot, tiring week where we worked on several folks houses. Putting up sheetrock, building wheelchair ramps, putting up siding on houses, painting, bunch of stuff. Worship every night and great food. It was my 15th year, Jeremy's 5th (He got to be a college assistant) and Timothy's 2nd year. You have to have completed 9th grade to go. We were blessed as we sent help and blessings out to others.

Texas Motor Speedways Truck Races

Gary and I and Mike and Debbie went to the Texas Motor speedways Learjet 550 Truck series races on Friday June 6th. We made pretty good time through the Dallas traffic and got there 30 minutes or so before the race. The first 100 or so laps was really boring with no crashes or cautions. Then the pace picked up and we saw several wrecks and a good races. I'm glad it got better! No one got hurt but it's kinda boring if there aren't a few good wrecks. The weather wasn't too bad either since there was a really nice breeze blowing. We won the tickets from KYKX radio station.

AlleyFest 10K Run June 7

Timothy and I and his friend Adam drove over to Longview early Saturday morning to run in the Alleyrun. I didn't sleep well the night before since we had gone to the truck races and came back home but I decided to run anyway. I ran it in 1:01:20 which was good enough for first place in my age division. I was shooting for under 1 hour but it was hot and humid and I just couldn't do it. Timothy ran it in 41:12 and was 3rd in the 15-19 age division and 7th place overall. Adam was 2nd in their age group and 5th overall. They ran together the whole race until the end. This was the first time Adam has beat Timothy in a race.

Memorial Day weekend Trip

I took a weekend trip with my friends Patsy and Susan to see a couple, Sheri and Stewart Wallace, for their 25th wedding anniversary surprise celebration, hosted by their son, Jeremy, in Bastrop, Texas. It was great and they were surprised! I gave them the mini album (in post below). She scrapbooks and I know she will be able to use it. I got to see Marci and baby Wyatt and the rest of the clan. Great time!

Weekend Texas Scrap get Together

May 15-18 we had our Texas get together at the Lake's Ranch. (Me, Natalia, Francine & her sis Krissi, Jeannie, Brandi, Darcy) Small group but it was great. I did two complete 8x8 mini albums to go in the auction for the theater group, one mini envelope album for a friend's 25th wedding anniversary celebration, a ton of cards and about a dozen layouts. I did get out and exercise while there and did an 8 1/2 mile run on Saturday morning. Natalia and I rode horses on Friday. Made the hind end sore but was fun too! Waiting on a group photo from the other gals since I left my camera for Gary and Jeremy to take on the cruise that same weekend. Here are a few of the layouts.

Mother's day card

Fast card for MIL for Mother's Day using sketch at PoeticArtistry.blogspot.com

Simple, but pretty.

A quick digital layout using the sketch at Backporchmemories for the June Guest Designer contest.

Race for the Cure 5-10

This morning we ran in the 5K Race for the Cure. Approx. 5,500 folks. I ran it in 26.53, best for this course, but not a pr. It was so hot and humid!! I wanted to run it in less than 27 so I was happy but I didn't place, I got 6th in the 45-49 age group. Timothy had a lot of competition. Guys from UTT, Lee and Marshall cross country teams. He placed 5th in the 15-19 age bracket, 12th overall. He had to stop about 400 feet from the finish line and throw up unfortunately, and when he did two guys in his age bracket passed him. He would have gotten 3rd. But when it has to come up, it's gotta come up! Pictures: Guys from Whitehouse xc team: Ricardo, Timothy, Taylor and Adam. Me and Coral.

Visit from California.

My Aunt and Uncle from California, both in their 80's, came for a visit along with their son Tim. We had a great visit. I cooked dinner for them on Monday night, then on Tuesday we took them to the Kilgore Oil Museum and on over to Lake Caddo to ride the steamboat Graceful Ghost, boat tour. They loved it. I did too. My second time to do it. I highly recommend it! We took the pictures on Monday, I did a digital layout, had it printed at Walgreens for free, bought a frame and gave it to them to take back home with them on Thursday. Sure was great to see them.