you get out of it what you put into it

Oh, I love your blog already! Another clumsy runner like me who idolizes the ultra runners and aspires to one day be brave enough to try it! Maybe you can teach me to fall gracefully, i am not sure how you pulled that off with frozen ham legs!!

Best of luck to you with your running and school and getting that better job and welcome to the blog! Thanks for volunteering!!!

Do you know the rest of the Alabama crew on the blog, Nevels, Jelmo, Mike, Eric, etc?

Ha. The last time I tripped on a log I ended up face down in the dirt, literally. Anyone who knows me will attest to the fact that I fall a lot and am never graceful. Welcome to the club.

Good luck with your running goals. I'm sure you'll meet every one of them if you'll listen to the people here (not me, I'm a running dummy).

Wow! I can't believe people commented. I just made this as a way to keep up with my miles b/c I don't like plugging my Garmin into the computer. I'm not crazy about it's tracking system... too fancy? I like how simple this is.

I know of some of the Bama guys: Elmore, Schotz. They are friends with some of my buddies. They did Run Across Alabama last summer.

welcome to the Blog. keep up the great work.

Many of us tracked the Run Across Alabama last year, that was very cool!

Well, we're kinda like family here on the blog. Of course, if you're not actively making comments on other people's blogs, you'll probably be left alone, but usually we always try and welcome the new bloggers. I also like how easy it is to track my workouts here. I recently started tracking them on MapMyRun and Spark People, but it's kind of a hassle.

Congratulations on your longest run ever! And, I'm betting you get quicker fast - you'll probably knock that 10 minutes off your time before summer arrives.

You must do some laundry, and soon! If you lived here, I would tell you to go to Target, all of their winter running gear is 50% off! Then you would not have to do the pesky laundry.

Oh man... I love a good sale! I don't even think our Target really caries "winter" running stuff. It ordinarily doesn't get cold and stay cold like this. I did decide that I am going to need to invest in another pain of full length tights. I have 2 and I think I need another. I have tons of capris and enough Nike tempo shorts to outfit and entire running store. It is the pants department where I am lacking...

Take a trip to Utah, our stores are full of clearanced winter running pants for ya! It gets COLD, too cold.

hahahaha!!! I'm laughing with you of course. Mostly because you read the Twilight series. JK. I was wearing my headlamp last night, too. Even still it was hard to see, and I didn't like it. I stepped in a pothole once, and that jarred me pretty good.

Welcome to the blog, KP. I don't like the dark much either, but I do it anyway, just like you. North Alabama sounds colder than Houston, which is plenty cold right now. Good luck with your running.

Oh Burt, I resisted Twilight for sooooo long. I finally started it around Christmas and am on the 3rd book. I am ashamed to admit that I am actually enjoying it; easy read.

I couldn't find my iPod last night so I had the pleasure of hearing the woods. I didn't enjoy it too much being out there alone. I mean, a vampire or a werewolf could've jumped out at me! Although, if you read Twilight, you know that the werewolves don't have any interest in eating people ;)

Thanks Flatlander! I am enjoying the blog so far. It's a fun bunch.

Ha! This was back when I still thought you were a man. I guess it's not as funny anymore that you read the Twilight Series.

hahaha. You thought I was a dude? Do I write like a guy? I don't think so. And, I am definitely too slow to be a guy. And, a guy reading Twilight? WOW! Shhhhh... I didn't tell you this, but Nevels is a fan as well.

Apparently my peripheral (wait while I run a spell check on that because I have to with you now. Okay, good.) is not good enough to glance over at the female listing under gender. I assumed you were a guy like everyone else from Alabama on the blog. (That last statement is not 100% accurate.)

So, Nevels is a fan? His stock is going down. Luckily he's a civil engineer.

I'm not a good speller so don't worry about me. Spell check is my BFF and I think that FRB needs to have it installed somehow. I have no clue how, btw.

What other females are on here from AL? I didn't know that. From what I can tell, 99.99% of the FRB users are from Utah!

Nevels is team Jacob which makes his stock go down even more. He only likes Jake because he's cute. Me too, so that's okay. But, I am totally team Edward. Totally.

If you use Firefox when blogging, which I recommend, it will automatically spell check for you. Unfortunately, I can't install Firefox at work.

There are 21 Alabaman bloggers, 7 of which are female. Right now, you're the only active one. If you go to Find Blogs, you can search for them there. Also, there are 23 Arizonans. With 99.99% of the bloggers being from Utah, I'm surprised that Alabama has almost the same amount as Arizona. At least all the Utah bloggers aren't Mormon. I hate Utah Mormons. Arizona Mormons are the best. LOL!

I'm a Utah non-mormon, so that means you don't hate me Burt. Whew! My day is made!

I switched to firefox a couple of months ago. It only takes a few minutes and is well worth the time.

I absolutely love you JD. And what's not to love?

I have to use IE at work too; arghhh.... At home I have a Mac and it spell checks for me. YAY!

Mormon? What's that? 'Round these parts we only have Baptists and Southern Baptists.

LOL KristEn!

You think I'm playing? I once saw a Methodist church in the big city, but not a single soul attends. They had closed their doors forever. My mama made me close my eyes because we don't look at sinful things like that!

Darn young guy, what was he thinking????

Speedwork is great for you, I hope you now see how tough you are. Those are some great paces for someone who is saying that they are not fast. And a 10 incline??? I would have to hold on to the darn machine!

Great job, I am glad to have "inspired" you. I got that workout from Rhett and Smooth on this blog and I think they got it from Runner's World. Speedwork is torture, but it makes us stronger!

Have a great weekend and happy running to you (steer clear of the snow!!)

At least he was young guy... all I get is old men talking to me when I'm at the gym. Maybe because I'm old LOL

I feel your pain with this miserable cold weather; we Southerners aren't used to this stuff.

If you're intrigued by the ultra stuff, you could always go watch/volunteer at the Mountain Mist 50k in Huntsville on Jan 23. I don't know what part of AL you're in, but if you want to see what one of the more popular ultras in the area is like, it's well worth the drive. (plus, you get to see crazies like me freeze our rear ends out there for hours and call it fun...)

oh, and i, too, was glad to keep the national title in the SEC...

An Auburn fan glad to see Bama win?!?!? Well you're the first!

MSU grad, actually... I wouldn't exactly call myself an Auburn fan, which meant that I was definitely in the minority last night (pulling for Bama in an apartment full of folks pulling for Texas)

If you are attending the school then you are a fan! I'm even an Auburn fan as long as they aren't playing Bama. I'm not a very die-hard fan either. I felt so bad for McCoy and Gilbert and the situation that they were put into. I wanted TX to score. But not so quickly... twice... while Bama seemed to be struggling! I got a little nervous! And then when they interviewed Colt at the end I cried b/c I felt sorry for him. So basically I am a pathetic "fan"

Oh, don't get me wrong, any school that will hand me a paycheck and let me get a graduate degree for free will have my support (unless, of course, they play State...), but I'm a much bigger SEC fan (I'll even pull for ... LSU ... over a non-SEC school) than I am an Auburn fan.

I also felt pretty bad for Gilbert. He probably didn't get any playing time all season and was suddenly thrust into the highest-pressure scenario possible. But he did finally get comfortable and began playing pretty well during the second half. I'm still wondering how the game would have unfolded if McCoy hadn't gotten hurt...

Well, I think that Bama would've played better had Colt played. I know that they sucked the first few times they had the ball. They just needed to find their rythm. I am a firm believe in playing up to/down to your opponents potential from years of experiencing it in volleyball games. So TX would've obviously played better with Colt and Bama would've played better with TX playing better. I'm sure you can do some engineering equation to confirm my theory.

Oh yea... I am from HSV and will be at Mountain Mist!

I agree that Bama would have played better had Colt been a factor, and (as I mentioned to whomever was around last night) I'm not sure that Saban wasn't scheming during those first few plays to see how TX's defense would try to play. Saban all season has struck me as being one who sits back and watches for a quarter or two before adapting to his opponent, thereby pulling ahead. Clever coaching... (or at least as close to an engineering eqn as i can come up with to describe it...)

Defense came out playing well considering they held TX to two field goals rather than getting TD's. For most teams it would've been a 14-0 start. I'm actually getting to talk football with someone! The people in my dept (bunch of old women) could care less about the game and didn't even know it was on yesterday! Apparently they have been living under a rock...

I agree. Bama's defense did a good job of stopping the opening drive(s) that would have crippled most other teams. Of course, then they got a free quarter to beat up on the freshman QB, but Gilbert proved his mettle during the second half, actually making it a decent game...

The old ladies in your dept. ought to thank you for telling them about the game; now they know why all of their husbands disappeared for a few hours last night...

I would go volunteer to meet and cheer on Nevels! he is on my list of bloggers that would be very cool to meet!

Well just hop on down here to AL and cheer him on! Leaving 5 children at home should be easy. Mtn. Mist is an awesome race!

yeah, kelli, come on down. we've got extra beds, couches, and all sorts of other places for you, hubby, and your progeny to sleep for a night or two. you could even run some of the course...

(i'm flattered, by the way)

You do not know what you are getting yourself into with that one...my kids are SCARY!!!! But they are used to camping out on the floor (not that they do not have beds, they just refuse to sleep in them).

I do need to run an ultra one of these days, people are soon going to think I am all talk...but, it is in the works, I promise!!!!

Nevels, let me flatter you some more---you are on the top of my list!

Sounds like a cool run (no pun intended...okay, pun intended...)

I feel your pain with the wet feet, although it can be kind of refreshing in a weird way during a long run.

To insert pictures, I set up a blogspot account (I know some use flickr or picasa accounts) as simply a place to post pictures online from those saved on my computer. Then just right-click on a picture from a website and choose "copy image location", then paste it into the "Image URL" line.

Wahoo! I think I got the pic to work. Or, it is working on my end. I made a Picasa thingy but don't think I need it because I just copied/pasted the pic. We'll see if is shows up for other people. It should.

Incline speedwork on a treadmill is no joke. Some of the hardest workouts I've ever done have been treadmill workouts. Learning how to walk uphill quickly and efficiently comes in handy in trail ultras...just sayin...

As far as the picture, I'm just seeing the text: "downsized_0110001443-1.jpg"

Dangit! Yep, I'm getting the same error with the pic that you are. I'll have to do the link thing this evening as my job blocks Picasa. Aren't they lovely!?!?

Well, my "quick" incline workout would be more like a leisurely, Sunday stroll for you. I enjoyed it though. And what are you doing posting at 2AM - SLEEP! SLEEP! SLEEP!

How's the knee feeling?

Can't go wrong with Journey, the Eagles, or Simon and Garfunkel...what was the playlist?

Oh gosh... Well, Simon and Garfunkel seemed to be the favorite last night.

Sound of Silence

Bridge over Troubled Water

Cecilia

Boxer

Journey's Don't Stop Belivin' was a fun one. The Eagles "Seven Bridges Road" is always a favorite. I like the way they harmonize in it. I'm pretty sure "Peaceful Easy Feeling" played too. That's probably about the extent of it. Short, very mellow run. None of those songs are real upbeat. Kinda how I felt last night; I was dragging.

I feel your pain. I copped out last night and hit the treadmill. After facing the cold most days for the last two weeks, I really wanted some mindless running.

In their own way, the mellowed out runs can be some of the best...

The dreadmill. Ugh. I generally don't like going to the gym simply because so many people are around. I always see about 46.3 people I know and I don't want to deal with that when I'm working up a sweat. I understand wanting to get out of the cold though. I think that was part of my problem last night. I'm tired of the frigid temps. The fat on my legs and my running tights didn't do a very good job of keeping my lower extremities warm. My upper body was hot though; what a combination!

I just hate treadmills in general. Although I particularly loathe going to the gym right after New Years and right before spring break due to the resolution crowd and the "i've got to get a six pack in the next week and a half to look good at the beach" crowd.

Oddly enough, my legs are rarely the issue when I run (at least, as far as being cold is concerned...). I think the blood flow is heavy enough in my legs to keep them warm, but my upper body freezes without layers and layers. I'm just ready for warm weather to get back; I'm tired of these windy 20 degree runs...

How is your knee??

Okay, here is what to do with dogs: carry a big rock and learn to yell really loud and deep. That usually does the trick. There are certain parts of my run where I break into a sweat because I know a dog will come after me, and those are the country parts of the run. Darn country!!!

Glad you had some nice running weather, the smell of BBQ would have driven me nuts! That sounds so good!!!!

Have a good rest of the week and i hope you are feeling okay!

Knee is feeling a bit better but I can still feel a bit of tightness in it. It's behind my knee cap. I can poke and prod my knee all day with no problem but when I try to walk/run it is a sharp pain. I've decided to take it easy for a few days. So I'll start back with my trail run on Saturday and hopefully it will be good as new. I've got a lot going on this week with classes starting back (I can already tell it will be a LONG semester) and pure mayhem at work so a few days off will be good for me mentally.

You seriously run with a rock? The whole time? I think I'd just take the chance of getting bit. It'll probably happen one day and I'll be ruined for life. Until then I'll just run with no protection.

You seriously run with a rock? The whole time? I think I'd just take the chance of getting bit. It'll probably happen one day and I'll be ruined for life. Until then I'll just run with no protection.

No, I just pick up a rack when I see a dog or in the few areas that there is ALWAYS a dog!!

Take care this week, I hope you get some rest from the mayhem and that the weekend run goes well.

Oh KP. With that name, I forgot you were a girl. So I'm reading through feeling sorry for you because you want to go running with a girl and she has a boyfriend. LOL! I'm so glad you're a girl.

Haha. The K is for Kristen! So I'm not too jealous other than I didn't want to run alone. Darn her! I told her that it was a lame excuse :)

I LOVE that song! Queen ROCKS! KP is what I called my best friend growing up. Her name was Kristin too.

You are doing great! (I wish my gpa in college had been a 4.0 too :P No such luck, I liked having fun too much :)

well, much to my chagrin, i am familiar with the song.

i can't figure out lady gaga. i saw her on snl, and it appears that she actually has some real musical talent (as demonstrated by her piano playing abilities in the middle of one of the songs on snl and some occasional quality singing i've heard from her), but she has sold out to the current trend of...... um ...... less than stellar over-produced music.

by the way, love the formula; the unique method of giving lyrics does a surprisingly good job.

my vote still goes to yesterday's queen, though. i've been a fan of FBG since i first heard it around the age of 4 or 5....

oh, and just so i don't fail the quiz, isn't the title something like "bad romance"

ding, ding, ding... We have a winner! Congrats sir! Your reward will be me not tripping you during Mist or a cookie. Whichever you prefer. If you chose 1 you're a pansy. If you chose 2 I'll laugh when you fall :)

You guys are talking way over my head, but that woman is odd!! There are parts of her songs that I love and she has an amazing voice when not being obnoxious! My kids love her, though, so she plays at our house constantly.

Nice incline of 10!!! That does suck for sure. Very well done. Have a marvelous weekend.

Kelli - does it surprise you that I've heard of Lady Gaga?

How come she wasn't on your playlist from the other day? I think she'd fit in nicely with all your oldies; just shuffle her right in there.

Ummm...I'd rather stick my engineer scale in my eye socket.

Nope, Burt, I think everyone has heard of her. She is NUTS. We watched her on some awards show dangling from a rope all covered and dripping in blood. She was singing "Paparazzi." She is CRAZY. Is she American???

Hahahahahaha!!! Oh Kristin, those are the best stories!

You have to build up callouses on your butt before it stops hurting.

Grammar Nazi! Spelling Nazi!

Oh, Kelli...

You spelled that W-R-O-N-G!

It should be calluses. And, thanks for the tip. I will keep that in mind next time I want to torture myself for 10 minutes.

Whatever. I'll callus YOUR butt. Get a switch!

okay..... OLD MAN!

I mean, Dad.

Are you wearing bike shorts... they really do help.

Love the quote!

Lori, don't talk to Kristin right now. She's in time out. Keep your nose in the corner Kristin.

Bike shorts = spandex. I went to school with too many people that use that gym to wear spandex. It would mortify them. Last night I saw 8 people that I knew... that was a light night too! I have a love/hate relationship with my gym.

Love: convenience, pretty nice, free tanning (yea!), cheap.

Hate: people, crowded, people, high school reunion social hour, people, crowded

Ummmm... DAD - you are spelling my name wrong. What kind of Grammar Nazi are you if you can't even spell your daughters name right? I'm ashamed of you.

I absolutely love the quote at the top of this blog! It made my day to read it, thanks. Keep on runnin'!

KristEn. Sorrrrrryyyyy.

I spelled my wife's name wrong once. Once. I don't recommend that.

Thanks, JD and Metcalf! I love the quote as well.

And, Burt - hahahahahaha. hahahahahahahaha. Once is all it takes, right? I let you slide with it for quite a while but had to call you out when you put me in time out!

See, I warned you....

Burt, how do you find out everyone's name????

OH---and very good quote!!! And nice work out, too.

Well, at first I thought KP stood for James Derum (say what?), but a little on-line investigation revealed that it was kitchen patrol or KristEn. Also she told me, because I thought she was a dude.

And Kelli is the queen of quotes. She always knows the right thing to say.

Kelli,

He thought I was a dude that read Twilight! haha. hahahahaha.

KP has been my nickname for about 10 years. If I see people I went to high school with they still yell out "KP" and say hey. My mother even calls me KP some of the time. It is what it is. I am no longer Kristen. Except for Burt. He apparently likes to use people's real names.

By the way, do you guys sleep? You left those comments at like 11:45. I wasn't sleeping; but I was at least in bed.

I do not sleep, however, I was in bed by 10----time difference I guess!!

My nickname is Kelli. I wonder if Burt knows my real name?

Without using my computer hacking skills I seem to remember it being Mckella or mikella or something like that.

I just hacked you Mikelle! But seriously, if I was that good of a hacker, we'd be FB friends by now KristEn.

You'll have to do some pretty good hacking. I'm curious if you can find me. By the way, don't think I haven't looked you up, Burt McCumber.

y'all let me know if you can find me on facebook...

Nevels, we will leave that to Burt.

I was pretty sure I had mentioned what my name was, but you even spelled it write so that says I must have typed it somewhere out there.

Haha. Good challenge Nevels. Too bad I said your first name like 30 minutes ago. Burt has been quiet for a few minutes... he must be searching.

Ooh, I think I found you Nevels. Do you go by the name of Paige?

Nevels? It got awfully quiet in here. Is that a cricket I hear chirping?

Burt, I uploaded my picture. I think we were talking about that somewhere else... not sure where.

Oh, you're so cute. I swear I've seen you before.

Yet another gorgeous blogger! And the first red head I think (aside from Sasha).

Unfortunately I've gained a few pounds since that picture was taken...

I can't say that I do. Let the search continue...

My bad. Must be someone else.

what kind of chinese restaurants are you visiting?

The China Buffet in Madison. Right in front of Old Time Pottery. I'm sure you know where it is, even if you are thinking right now that you don't. I went with Michael Gravel who is running Mist Saturday and he was cracking up.

Glad your back! During your absence, I let Burt in on your little secret... you know, that you're a Twilight fan. Sorry. The topic came up and you weren't here to defend yourself.

Oh no! My secret's out; just don't tell whether I'm a Team Steve or Team Bobby guy (those are the teams, right?)

John Nevels - DO NOT act like you don't know their names. I know I embarrassed you. Just suck it up and admit that you are team Jacob. I told Burt that too. I, personally, am for team Edward. Vampires all the way! YEA!

Yep, it's all out Nevels. Luckily we can still be friends thanks to your career choice.

Okay, you're supposed to add "in bed" after your fortune. So I guess it should read - A pleasant surprise is in store for you soon in bed in bed.

I hope you didn't go to the massage parlor in the back, too.

so Burt, you must be a Team Edward guy, huh?

I can't catch a break; just because a full moon turns me into a flesh-eating wolf-man (werewolf is sooooo last century...) that steals vampires' girlfriends, everyone assumes that I'm Team Jacob...

Whichever one was Cedric Diggory on Harry Potter 4. And aren't werwolves called lycans now?

I thought the term you wolf-men used was "bloodsucker"

Guess I was wrong...

By the way, where I am in the book she is now married to the vampire. And, I think she is pregnant. Although I haven't gotten far enough to confirm this yet. Last night was the honeymoon. Am I done with this series yet??? It really is starting to get a bit drawn out...

Burt: lycan is the politically correct term, but when have we engineers (especially undead, monstrous engineers) been politically correct?

KP: I was trying to be nice to all the bloodsuckers around here...

Oh sorry about the knee Paige. Wait, who's that? Sorry KristEn. I think stories about Lady Gaga would make me sick, too.

Always interesting to see how far behind the Charette entourage I was at each aid station.

And that guy did have some pretty stinkin awesome tattoos. He practically doesn't even need pants any more...

Hey, I was pretty impressed with Jesus! I didn't realize that is who y'all were following until like the 4th aide station. He had an excellent race as well. If you had ran it like you should've you would have been right with him. Nevels and Jesus finishing side by side. That sounds pretty awesome to me!

Eric (Gilbertson) was the one I was really looking forward to racing this year. He and I beat up on each other every now and then in runs down here in Auburn, so it would have been a fun race. It was pretty cool to see him put his "game face" on late in the race. If you come with the Charettes down to the Cheaha 50k, you might get to see the two of us duke it out... you know you want to...

Cheaha... I'm sure you'll have some other illness plaguing you from running that one too. We can compare more notes on tattoos if that is the case.

Are you kidding? I learned a valuable lesson this weekend: watching one of these while sick is a whole heck of a lot easier than running one of them. I think you spectators are onto something...

I know! Being a cheerleader (aka crew - yea right) really is a lot of fun! I enjoy it greatly. I think I will give up my dreams of a marathon and eventually an ultra now and just work on my "crewing" skills. You get to enjoy all of the socializing part without getting tired and sweaty and muddy and yucky.

I just checked my calendar and I will be on my 1st of 5 girls weekend trips for the year. Darn! I actually want to go. Do you think they will move the race just for me? My crewing abilities ARE that important.

Punctuation nazi! I think you forgot an apostrophe.

Somehow I think it would be somewhat difficult to convince Todd to move the race, but good luck trying.

There's always the Delano 12 over in Decatur. You could even enter it and be guaranteed a finish. I've got a scheme in the works for it, and if everything works out, I'll look more like walking death by the end than anyone else out there (sounds like fun, huh...)

Darn you, Burt! I am greatly dissapointed in myself. This is unacceptable. That is what I get for multi-tasking. FRB should come first. I shouldn't also try to work and IM with my BFF in Birmingham (2 hours South) at the same time.

Nevels, I have thought about walking Delano. The whole thing - no running. It would be an interesting challenge as walking is a lot harder on your body than running when it comes to hours on end. Do you think walking is allowed? Or is it only for you serious guys that actually run? I will probably come out and put my awesome "crewing" skills to use. I know I can't walk for 12 hours.

Walking is definitely cool at Delano. I specifically remember several people who have come out and not run a step the whole 12 hours, and they end up walking some pretty solid distances.

Not to mention, even the fast guys that go the entire 12 hours will walk a fair amount late in the day (and, for what it's worth, if my scheme comes to fruition, I'll already be walking a decent amount by the time y'all start...)

Take the plunge...sign up...peer pressure...

You know that I am good at NOT giving in to peer pressure. I seem to remember a certain party where you sang karaoke and I didn't. Peer pressure, schmere pressure.

There's a difference. No one needed to convince me; I volunteered. Clearly, we simply didn't sing the right songs to get you up there...

Your song selection was quite good. I just don't willingly embarrass myself. The highlight of the night for me was singing "Party in the USA" by the one and only Miley Cyrus. The fact that that wasn't on karaoke is hilarious to me. After you left when it was just a few of us remaining, I selected "Strawberry Wine" by Deena Carter. We all belted it out, and let me tell you, Blake has got some nice vocals when you get into those girly songs. Haha!

see, you were singing, we just weren't quick enough to get a mic on you...

Oh yea. I sang ALL NIGHT. Just never with a mic in hand.

now we know to be on the lookout, ready to sneak the mic in front of you at the first sign of a hum or musing thought...

You know, now that I think about it, I also didn't give into the funnel peer pressure like someone else I know. Next thing I know you'll be silly-stringing some stranger and getting held at gunpoint! Peer pressure is a bad thing. You must be strong!

Blake and Eric tried the sneaky mic thing. I may be a slow runner but I'm quick at shutting my mouth. BTW - After you left Linda even sang! She swore up and down that she would never do karaoke. As far as I know, I am the only one that stuck to my guns. Good for me!

Linda also did another couple of things she was saying she wouldn't do. She just needed to get to that...point....

Hey, taking advantage of the 12-footer just looked like fun.

Blake and Eric just weren't discrete enough. We'll catch you, don't worry...

Yes, good ol' Linda made some wise decisions that night. Haha. I personally think that the two of you would make lovely tie-dye babies. And, fast runners! But hey, that is coming from the girl that wore pink. So just ignore me.

don't hate on my blue tie dye; all the hip romans were wearing it. only the shy upper class romans wore pink...

We had all classes there:

Silk was King and Queen (Eric and Laura)

Paint covered was the working class (Rob and Kathy)

Half a toga was the homeless (Blakey)

I suppose that pink was the princess. Hmmmm... I like that a lot!

What a good combination of people...

Tie-dye folks were the hippies who thought they were cool but really aren't!

I don't know... I think the tie-dye wearers were the trendsetters of their ancient day. The princesses had to get their new fashion statement ideas from somewhere...

Don't be jealous because my toga was cuter than yours!

Crazy Alabamans!

You're just jealous too, Burt! Nevels looked quite dashing in his tie-dye toga.

And, I could be wrong on this - Nevels, please correct me if I am wrong - I think it should be Alabamians. I'm just sayin'...

According to Wikipedia, Alabamians is correct (but I'm a native Mississippian, so what do I know...)

Dashing. Digging the pun for a party full of runners...

You are supposed to take my side. Not throw in some stupid Miss State fact. Hotty Toddy!

there you go with the obscenities again...

Huh? I thought that was your cheer. Hotty Toddy. Go to Hell Mississippi State isn't it? Y'all sing that at the end of the National Anthem, right?

blasphemous distortions of glorious realities

I'm dumb. What?

Did you say Roll Tide? That's what I thought... Dis MSU even win a football game this year? We both know that is all that matters in the SEC.

still waiting to see if Dan Mullen can put together some of his magic that produced the likes of Tim Tebow. You may have heard of him?

Oh, you mean the guy we beat? Yea, I heard about him crying or something like that. I'm not sure if you heard about that since you don't participate in the wonderful world of facebook.

true, the entire Alabama team did manage to beat Tim Tebow, but I put Timmy up against McElroy any day. Clearly there's only one way to settle this: a karaoke contest!

Who's battling it out?

Two man teams.

Timmy and me versus McElroy and you.

You are going DOWN!

Especially since you are not even a Timmy fan.

And, tell Timmy to keep the Bible versus' at home. That would be an unfair advantage.

are you saying that we aren't allowed to sing a psalm?

Nothing biblical allowed. When McElroy and I bust out with some hard-core rock (I'm thinking Aerosmith "Dude Looks Like a Lady") that will give y'all a clear lead. NOT FAIR.

Well when Timmy and I first utter the all-too-classical words, you and greg won't know what to do.

P- P- P- Poker Face

P- P- Poker Face

It's supposed to be Bad Romance! Come on. Poker Face is SOOOOOO last year.

Alright then, by request. Bad Romance it is...

Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah-ah!

Roma-roma-mamaa!

Ga-go-ooh-la-la!

Well, to trump you, I am going to totally sing the KP theme song. That's it. You lose; I win. Sorry Timmy... cry some more tears please.

This is the operator. Please deposit another quarter into the coin slot, otherwise your call will be disconnected in: 30 seconds.

John, I think your next song should be "Dancing Queen" by Abba. It is so you. SO YOU.

Poor Burt (and now JD) on getting about 37.46 million e-mails from this thread today. Sorry. We like to bicker.

I'm not hearing a dial tone...

Crap! I'll have to use my cell now rather than the darn pay phone.

It's a vicious cycle.

I don't think you're fat.

Ha! My picture is a bit deceiving. Ask Nevels; I'm comparable with a whale. Sad, but true...

Just played my weekly volleyball game. Bad decision; knee is killing me. I'm so smart...

Don't let her fool you. You think that her profile pic is just a cartoon character. Wrong; it's actually a live-action photo of KP at a really misty race recently. The loose belt tried to slow her down a bit, but as you can see from the pic, she just decked the competition...

That's why you didn't race, right? I decked ya; the "sick" thing was just an excuse.

well i was trying to be discrete about it....

RICE

I already told you that I don't really like to eat rice. Why do you keep bringing it up. Silly...

a short term memory

a short term memory

Put some butter on it. RICE with butter.

Butter - now that is something that I, as a southern belle, know all about. That is the base of the food pyramid around here...

I'll vouch for that...

John - for Abby's birthday I got her a cookbook from a lesser-known Paula Dean type cook (but better). BUTTER... Abby has made a ton of stuff from the book. (4 recipies from it last night; will tell you about that later...) The food is soooooo good. That would be a way to pack a few pounds on you... Do you think you can substitute your PB&J's and Chefy B for steak and potatoes? The only recipe I’ve made from the book is lasagna and it is seriously the best I’ve ever had…. Yummy! I’m hungry now..

You guys are funny.

there you go putting ideas in my head. i know i'm already fat and slow, but why do you have to go and exacerbate the problem while simultaneously causing me to go broke... what a diabolical scheme...

That steak and potatoes still doesn't compare to my hamburger helper. You'll see....

Burt, I don't know what you're talking about.

prove it...

you already know my reply to this. are you gonna make me put it on the interwebs?

sloppy, muddy, long trail runs are the best...

well come home and run one with me...

Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor.

Good call.

Good to see you back running...

all you needed was a little PT...

That sounds nice; know any good therapists?

I know a dentist.

Can you get me the hook up from all the way in Arizona, Burt?

Is it Alabama or Tennessee where they don't have dentists because, well, what would be the point? No one would go. Oh, that's right. Tennesseee. Shwehh!

You know, I live literally 10 minutes from the TN state line. Thank goodness I'm on the right side of the line; otherwise I'd have some jacked up teeth..

USA! USA!

what can i say... i guess i'm a trend setter...

well, if there's anything worth fighting for in this world, it's free pancakes.

I thought it was a bit odd that they had a security guard on duty until the fight broke out. Then I was very glad he was there.

Interesting night, to say the least.

Nice job sticking it out on the TM.

Lol! about the married man. The problem with guys like that is they don't know how disgusting their lameness appears to others.

i totally had this last week for lunch. you should try it. way tasty.

http://www.competitiveeaters.com/images/IMG_1134.JPG

Rats... I had Chef Boyardee. I'll have to go for that tomorrow. Thanks for the suggestion; looks delicious! I'll warn you though... I tend to have a big appetite, so I'm not sure if it will be filling...

allie, i see you've been snapping photos of my standard mid-afternoon snack...

First of all, no grammar OR punctuation errors. Very nice. Second, how's the statistics going? Third, never give up on the dream. Never give up.

Thanks, Burt!

It's going to be a long semester with stats. And, I have stats 2 next semester. Oh well. I seriously have like the nicest teacher ever. But, he is also a freakin' genius and he just does not dumb it down enough for me (or pretty much every person in the class). I've had a friend give me some pointers which is helpful. We'll see how it goes... Math just isn't my thing. AT ALL.

Sounds neat! What a great report! Congrats!

Wow. What an amazing experience! Thanks for the awesome race report!

KristEn! I am so proud of you! And you didn't finish last! I like how John did 68 more miles than you in only 11 more hours. What a freak!

Great report.

WOW, what a day you had!!! That is an amazing race report, I am so glad that you were able to make it, you were not bored (i envy you on this one, I think i would have gone nuts!), you could stomach the food (love what you ate, especially the pizza), and just that you survived!!! Gives the rest of us mere mortals hope!!!

Now you're a crazy ultra runner!

Hey, you put a real picture up. You're so pretty. But of course I already knew that. LOL!

Haha... this is a horrid picture of me too! I was only smiling because I was relieved to know that it was my last lap. I'm still weighing my fb request decision. Nevels doesn't have a FB so his opinion on the matter doesn't count ;)

By the way, thanks for the nice comments guys. It was such an awesome experience. I really did enjoy every step I took. I might've complained about my hands being cold in the beginning (I think Nevels heard that one - and he was probably 70 miles in at that time and didn't have a complaint back for me. What a trooper!) and my feet hurting at the end. But, overall, it was a fantastic day and I'd do it again tomorrow in the same exact conditions (if my feet would quit being so tender...).

I promise to keep your identity concealed. I don't promise to modify any of your pictures. I can't make a promise I won't keep.

Watch out, now Burt has pictures!!!!

wow. i wish my report was this coherent.

you kept on plugging all day, smiling and looking positive the whole time; it helped those of us that might have been having a tough time with motivation at various points in the day. you'll be hammering the trail ultras before you know it.

(and, for what it's worth, i wish my feet would stop being so tender, too...)

way to get back out there!

pretty sure I pulled a muscle in my inner thigh yesterday. dang.

That's very nice of you to help coach a running group.

Nice that you found someone to run with!! So, if you are helping to coach maybe you could volunteer to speed up the program a little for those who are ready? I am sure there were others who could have run!! Sounds like fun though. I told my husband yesterday that I want to coach HS track, I think it would be fun to coach.

It really is a great program. It has 100 participants and about 20 coaches (it's social hour for us too). One group did run the whole time and I told her that next week she definitely needed to be running with them as she was way over-qualified for the run/walk already. So, I'm losing my running partner already as I'll probably hang back and try to help some of the others. Oh well... we can still stretch together.

Oh, and I put my stalking skills to work last night (Burt would be proud) and found her on facebook. I knew her hubby signed up too but didn't run last night as he was sick. So I looked at the list of participants and found the people with the same last name. I looked at her pics but didn't friend request her - that would seem stalkerish ;)

I am proud KP. Move over Amy. I think KP's found a new BFF.

I too have good stalking skills. I'll check out what I can on a profile, but rarely friend request :)

So, are you coaching a particular group and can't increase your run time either? Maybe you should move up too...if there are 20 coaches you can simply become your new friend's 'personal' coach and move up with her :) Maybe that's a little stalkerish too....

stalker!

sounds like a cool program. have fun with it!

I think we all are stalker's in our own way, although Burt mat take the cake!

I think your running and helping others sounds GREAT! Way to be, it is way more fun to run a race and help someone out then to run alone.

We'll start running longer now that the first 2 weeks are over. And, I could've definitely logged a few more miles before or after the program as different coaches did each. I am somewhat doing a taper (from what - I don't run much) as I have a tough trail race this weekend. So, I'm kinda taking it easy this week.

FB Stalking is seriously like my favorite hobby. Sooooo much fun.

Have you stalked me on FB?

KP and kelli - i am FB stalking you BOTH right now. (from burt's bushes)

Tell me if you find anything interesting!

yep - I stalked both of you earlier. You are both so pretty!!! Finding the FastRunningBloggers Unite group helped out a bit :)

hmmm...now I'm going to have to start doing some FB stalking. Where is this fastrunningblog group???

OH, I forgot about that group. Pretty, huh??? You must not have seen any of the pictures posted by Walter.

hahaha...just checked my FB, I guess I AM a member already of that group. Ooopps, sorry :)

Profile not set to private? 536 pictures? Don't mind if I do.

Who are ya talking about??? Not me, right? I am PRIVATE, I think.

Hahaha. I know EXACTLY what you mean. Even if I have NO clue who the person is. If I just like the little thumbnail I see when I'm looking at someone else's FB I'll try to check it out.

Kelli,

I can see your pictures.

You too Alli.

I'm private, right?

Kelli and allie are pretty. And RAD. And Carolyn.

I know my pics aren't private, but I figure if you REALLY want them - you deserve what you get :) Besides, if it saves me having to confirm/ignore friend requests from people from HS I don't care about - so be it. Stalk me, don't 'friend' me :)

most people tell me i look like a grumpy old pirate. RAD just stalked me.

yup! That FRB group really DOES help the stalking skills :) Found a couple new friends!

Oh, and Allie - my sister is the Quiet Pirate on FRB, you two may get along!

We are all KNOCKOUTS!

I need to go check Facebook.

Thanks for the welcome KP! I'm glad to hear that I am not the only one struggling through pigeon pose :) Great job on your (almost) 5k run! I'm not half as fast as I like to think I am so I can relate to the little "speedy" victories as well!

from one dirt clod at the bottom of the pole to another...Hello!

I'm slow too, and living in NC, so we're southern neighbors, sort of.

Enjoyed reading your entry & wish you luck on your running goals. You'll be there before you know it.

Hey, never underestimate the power of a calf muscle, especially in a short skirt and heels!

Had I been wearing a skirt and heels, I would've expected that comment. Maybe.

I had on my nike tempos and a cute shirt. He should've complimented the shirt. I guess he's gotta work up to that. Haha. Awkward.

Then he made fun of me for being slow. My pace was in the 7's on the downhill portion which is unheard of for me. I was really trying to open up my legs and take nice long strides. And, then I had to walk because I was exhausted and am not that type of runner!

Well, then, kick his butt literally!

I'm with Kelli - show him what those calf muscles can do!! (to his teeth that is!)

Hahaha. He's a nice guy. We've been friends for a long time. We do tend to argue like brothers and sisters sometimes. So maybe a nice, swift kick to the jaw would be good for him!

Y'all don't have to innocently flirt... You married women!

I never innocently flirt, ever...

so Kelli....

hahaha.

married.

5 kids.

ENJOY!

How you doin'?

ha ha ha Burt thats my line stop stealing it I am the one and only female Joey LMAO ;)

Yes, indeed, 5 kids. Seriously, no one flirts with that.

Good luck on the race, er... feet shuffle!

Thanks Carolyn!

It's a very tough course... Should be interesting as I'm not prepared for it in any way, shape, or form. It'll be painful. But, FUN! And, that's what it is all about. (for me anyways...)

It's great you're having fun running. Sometimes too much training takes the fun away for me.

Hooray for zero days. I enjoyed mine yesterday.

Good luck on your shuffle-race tomorrow.

Happy shuffling tomorrow! :)

Kristen! You are SO CUTE!!! HAPPY running er feet shuffling tomorrow! :)

Good luck with your race, I hope it is not too painful for you. Thanks for the Garth Brooks reminder. I need to remember that!

Great job beating your dream time! Sounds like you had a good adventure out there.

KristEn! Way to not finish last! I agree with having to run more miles. I need to do the same. Just got to committ to it. I really like the begging of your report.

Wow. That really sounds like one tough race course. I don't have much experience with mud. I'm scared of it.

Great job achieving your goal!

Good job! And cute skirt!

I love the pictures! And the summary at the top. :o) Sounds like a tough race.

Congrats on meeting your goal. The race sounds fabulous & fun.

Nice pix...I love the muddy legs. When I get like that on a run, I feel like it makes me look legit.

Fun blog to read. Thanks for sharing!

Congrats Kristen! Sounds like a fun run!

YUCKY mud running! At least you never fell face first into it, right?????

Trail running just seems so tough. I am not sure I could handle it. So, I am proud of you. Great job!

And you are as cute as a button.

Great report and great pictures! Congratulations on your race!

Wow...holy impressive run!! I LOVED reading the re-cap and seeing the pictures. That is one stinkin' tough 14 miles!! I can't even imagine that hill - yuck, and at the end? How brutal.

Sounds like you had a wonderful evening and all the craziness and shuffling was worth it! You are a VERY nice person, I'd probably shove someone out of my way in a race if they were going slow and wouldn't let me by :) I wouldn't walk behind them for a while then politely ask them to move!

GREAT race!!!

Wow, what a tough race! I don't have experience running through mud, but I bet it would be tough. Way to go getting it done and beating your goal time.

DIMPLES!

(oh, and congrats on a solid finish; you looked like you had just been for a jog, albeit a muddy jog, in the park; it sounds like you had a good time - i know we all did marking the course, and rob and i had fun traversing the first half in the dark before y'all started... congrats again...)

Thanks for the kind words, guys! The race really was a blast and I'd do it again this weekend if I could. I love trail running sooooooo much more than road running.

I was going to add the elevation profile for y'all to see from my friends Garmin. He forgot to turn it off though... so it shows the elevation of him driving back down the mountain going home - not quite accurate... I've been told that it's a little over 4,000 feet of elevation change though. That's pretty intense for me!

Also, I added my finishing picture. Haha. It's soooo bad that I had to share. Hopefully it gives you a good laugh because it certainly did me.

Nevs! Did you seriously just say that word? It's a bad word! You know this. I'm going to kick you in your shin next time I see you. BAD WORD!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYLTqJMxmTY

maybe watching this couple stress will help you to de-stress. good luck with your busy-ness!

You left it at the hotel. You go back and you get her busy bee. Go to the hotel and GET BUSY BEE! RUN! RUN! Go.

Wow. Thank you, Allie. My life now feels so unimportant that I think I'll take a nap.

it's in the CRATE! in the CRATE!

Try Xanax... works for me. :)

Hahaha that made me feel better,too! Thanks for the condolences about my grandfather, KP. It means a lot.

another puke hall-of-fame story! nicely done.

I hate mosquito bites. That would not be a fun part of living in AL. Eating KFC and then running doesn't sound very fun. Great job sticking it out.

want to trade? i woke up to a foot of snow, frigid wind AND the power was out. i'm moving to alabama.

The cold is okay; that's what layers are for. The snow is not okay. Seriously, if we get a 1/2 inch the entire town shuts down. It's hilarious. The weather was beautiful during the day but very hot for my run.

Hope your power returns soon! That stinks!

KP - yea I definitely like winter training better. It's getting up in the 80's here. I usually never run w/ water on my runs under 2 hours but I might have to soon.

spring/fall training is my favorite. Cool weather in the early morning, but good temps for fun in the afternoon. Aside from running, I'd much rather be hot than cold.

Nice job on the miles and fun run with friends.

yeah, driving over there saturday morning was a bit ominous; i'm glad it cleared out in time for the race.

Signifi-what?

Did you get that paper done the other night?

Dang. I think I was typing this as I should've been working on the paper. I got like zero sleep over the weekend... that will be my excuse. I'm not the world's greatest speller, but that is one word that I definitely know how to spell.

Paper got submitted at 11:55 last night; just in time! We'll see what kind of grade I get...

I was going to do an Easter post about my snake encounter but my Nazi work blocks Picassa so I'll have to do it later. You know I have to include a picture!

Aren't you glad I'm not your work checking on you :)

yuck, I hate yucky weather! Volunteering at races is SO fun!!

Good luck on the paper...SO glad school is behind me!!

The non running posts are the BEST!!!!

Okay, that snake scares me, it look mighty mean!

I have to say the weather looks beautiful! Should I take a picture of our Easter snow for you?

Oh man!!!! Those pictures are awesome!!! :)

What a fun Easter! :)

KP - calling me out hey, like your style, I love mashmellows, don't like coddling them. Sweat and marshmellows go well together. What is your take on Trialing Aristotle - marshmellows and not so marashmellowees would do well to follow his trail.

Stay Kool, Stay Away from Bon Fires, B of BS rools out

I'm not so sure I would be so calm about a snake, but at least he wasn't too huge. They sent a 16 year old boy to deal with it? That must have been some boy.

The flower is beautiful.

Thanks for sharing your story.

Just so everyone knows, the flowers aren't "for" me, although I'd be flattered if they were. The "picture" of the flower is being posted because I saw them on her facebook and commented on how good her photography skills are.

No Burt, the flower is for you. I have about 107 million more where that came from too. I only posted a few on FB.

My photo skillz are not what I wish they were.

Oh, how sweet.

Nice pics KP! Was that you holding the snake?! If you were, you are brave! I wouldn't lol. What kind of flower is that?

Me, holding the snake?!?! HA! I am a total country girl and have held many a snake in my time. But I no longer partake in that lovely activity. That would be the 16-year old volunteer at the Gardens holding the snake. I told him after I took the picture that he needed a raise (that was a joke (a bad one, I know) as he gets paid nothing being a volunteer).

The flower... ummmmm... a pretty purple one? Is that right?

Looks like the snake didn't get any Easter eggs! Poor snake :(

Wow, I couldn't have sat and watched...I'm deathly afraid of snakes!!! Like seriously, if I see one even 30 feet away I scream like a little girl and feel panicked inside like I'm going to die!

Thanks for ending with the Hyacinth - I'm calm now.

what an adventure!

Everyone has days when we don't run (well, almost everyone) and walking is cross training, so post away!

Love the story and the pix.

Are you getting hammered by the heat yet? We've been almost up to 90 the last few days. Spring lasted 2 weeks, and it's over :-(

First, calm down. That may be hard to do with all that coffee in you. Second, open the picture with Microsoft Paint. Third, save it as a jpeg. Even if it is already a jpeg, sometimes it will take the file size way down. Fourth, try trimming out the fat. Crop the image so that just the important stuff is showing. Fifth, resize the image starting at maybe 90% or 95% in both the vertical and horizontal until the file meets the minimum size requirement.

Aren't you glad I'm here?

you mean that it was the first cup o' coffee in 47 days (Lent = 40 days + Sundays...)

oh, and what burt said...

Did you just call me fat?

"trim away all the fat"

I think you did.

I was on my mac last night and didn't have Microsoft Paint. All I have on it is iPhoto. I'll try and play with the picture today at work and see if I have any luck.

Excuse me for not going back and counting the days... I'm no engineer.

I don't know anything about coffee or running in the heat. I do know something about resizing pictures, but Burt already covered that.

Y'ALL! I'm trying to do the picture and it's like the size of my pinky toe and Sasha still says it is too big. Argh... Looks like it's going to stay Kim Possible for now.

KP - very nice picture, great smile - Now, will be jousting with a real super hero rather than a cartoon superhero, keep up the good work, you will show big improvements with consistency - are the leaves on the trees in AL? Now you didn't suck the leaves off the trees? have a running buddy, his favorite saying when working hard.

Stay Kool, B of BS Rools out

Nice work on the heat run! Wish I knew something about computers, but I don't know the first thing. Something goes wrong and I go crying to my husband - he is a BIG computer nerd :) Then he fixes it and I can go on with life.

I gave up sobriety for lent...I'm not sure I feel any better now :)

85 degrees already? I don't think I can imagine that. HMMM, I might need to come and visit Alabama to remember what it feels like to be warm. 8 cups of coffee? You must be buzzin! Thank you for the comments that you leave on my blog!

8 cups of coffee???? Good luck getting any sleep tonight!

I am sorry it is that hot, I am NOT looking forward to that. when I hear that, I think this winter stuff is not so bad. UGHHH....

Great job on the "boring" group run.

Oh, and great new picture. I had to post and then refresh to see it. But you are cuter than Kim Possible!!!!

And, i will gladly be your 26 year old mom---who buys their mom an entire new room of furniture??? What a good daughter.

My mom and I have an interesting relationship. We definitely "spoil" each other. I'm not gonna lie... It's nice and I take FULL advantage of it. I guess she does too since I just got her a new LR furniture. It started out as a recliner because she really did need a new one. But then I couldn't stand for it to not match and I preferred the chairs over the recliners. So we ended up ordering a little more than I had originally planned.

Glad you figured out the new pic. :)

Darling picture! I lived in Ga growing up and visited AL lots. Are the azalea bushes starting to bloom? I love those and when the Magnolia trees bloom - so beautiful!

Nice run!

KP -- for your test ...I won't give you the answers but I will give you a couple of hints:

1. E(X) is the mean ...

2. the equation for P(X) = lambda^X * exp(-lambda)/X! where lambda is the mean

3. Is the sum of all P(X) within the specified interval ...

great new pic!

I love Bonnie. I'm not afraid to say it.

Hello KP! Thanks for dropping by to say hi!!!! Good luck with your running group. I should do that, maybe the peer pressure would make me go faster!! I am a pokey pants!

Burt is seeing through "geek goggles" ;-)

"Geek goggles" Haha!

My geek senses are tingling.

Oh Bonnie... I think you just confused me even more!

I took the stats test. I *think* I did okay. Whew! That was hard. We shall see what my grade is next week. I have a difficult professor, but he is very nice. I was supposed to also have an accounting 2 test tonight. We got to class and it was like an icebox in the classroom.... soooooo cold! My professor said she wasn't going to sit there and freeze and made the test a take home exam. YAY! YAY! YAY! So, that should be one A for the night and *hopefully* a passing grade for the other class.

Are you an accounting major? I majored in accounting many moons ago. I don't think I could remember any of now.

I am so confused. Us elementary school teachers are lost with those hints.

I am a business major. Accounting 1&2 and Stats 1&2 are both required. I don't like stats, period. (Sorry, Bonnie!) Accounting is okay. I made an A in 1 and I should make an A in 2. It isn't something I want to go into though. I'm more of a marketing person. I want to create and design things. Really, I don't know what I want to do. I'd love to be a photographer, I think. That is just an impossible field to get into. So, business it is.

My husband just graduated last summer with a business degree and a minor in accounting. He says accountants are weird, so he changed his mind half way through and made it his minor. ;o)

Hope I did not offend any weird accountants out there. I think he just could not hack it!

Good thing you had the headlamp. Maybe get yourself some pepper spray and then you'll feel safer.

I run in the dark in the morning not at night. I figure all the rapists were up late and are hung over and sleeping in.

I've seen a lot of movies about the crazy inbreds in Alabama that rape and eat people. Okay, I haven't seen any, but I bet there are a bunch of them, and I bet they are based off of trues stories.

I knew Kelli wasn't her real name!

Scott isn't her hubby's name either; it's Jim Bob. And, they live in the South; Arkansas to be exact.

Did you know that Kelli has a grandchild that is older than her youngest child? Sheesh... she's a busy woman!

lol! That is too funny!!

I also live in the boonies, but we don't have just deer, we have mtn lions that come and attack horses that live near me. I'm always afraid of becoming mtn lion breakfast when I run, and yes! It is DARK!! When starlight is the brightest thing around, you know it's bad.

I've been around QP's 'hood in the south and it's crazy, because the roads are narrow and there is NO shoulder to run on. Other than the dark, deer, and crazies, that would put me over the edge and onto a TM! You are one brave girl!!!

I can't believe Kelli hasn't commented on this! She must be tending to all those kids of hers...

I know that mtn lions are around; I just try not to think about them. Sometimes I hear them crying out (horrid sound) in the middle of the night. I have 2 horses and would hate to think about something happening to them. We have lots of coyotes too. Oh, and bob cats. Those suckers are mean. A guy on Jonathan's street has had a *PET* bob cat for years. He caught it as a baby. I've seen it in its pen. From what I hear it has attacked him, etc. Why does he have that thing as a pet? Strange man...

This roads here are very narrow. No streets out here anywhere have sidewalks, even the neighborhoods. I live on a VERY busy road and run to my different destinations on it. Running from home is stressful. I guess that's why I don't run by myself from home much. The treadmill is a 15-minute drive to town. I'd rather wrestle with the rapist than drive back to town after I got home for the day. I know, I'm so responsible...

Someone keeps a bobcat as a pet? YIKES!

I must say, your 'hood/city sounds just like QP's. The TM is a drive away for her too, she has a loop in the 'hood that isn't too busy and that is what she runs - nearly as mind numbing after a bit as a TM :)

Maybe I'll drop Kelli a line that she needs to check out your blog, she really needs to see this!!

Wouldn't you know it, I get down and busy (not what you are thinking there, I already have enough kids) and people post my famous picture!

Thursday was super busy, I was only home for about 30 minutes all day. Today, because I did not do my normal running routine, I actually had to help my husband clean the house. I will not make that mistake AGAIN! You would be amazed at what a mess 19 kids can make (seriously, can you imagine? Course you have a lot of built in slave labor!!!)

OH----and, I forgot to say, since I live by Rachel, we have the deer and the mountain lions!! I have encountered deer on a run a few times and they scared me in the light, it would really scare me in the dark!!!

DO NOT RUN IN THE WILDERNESS ALONE!!!!

I do not agree with Kelli's advice here. I love running in the wilderness alone, although I do prefer having company. :)

Oh, and that picture looks nothing like Kelli... haha!

Maybe the picture you think is REALLY me is not!

Kristen ~ You are too FUNNY!

That's the best pic I could find of Michelle Duggar where she wasn't knocked up (I'm so P.C.) or didn't look Amish. Actually, she is pregnant in this pic, I just cut her belly off. I really do think they look alike though. I think it is just the side swoop bangs and curly hair. I don't pay attention to the rest of the facial features; just the hair!

1. I almost got killed by a deer running a marathon in Georgia

2. I run in Arizona, sometimes in the mountains, I keep waiting for a bear to tackle me. Kinda spoils the nature running, but encourages speed. :)

Jeff, I laughed at your comment and thought about my 'bear country' training (I was a youth counselor in bear country for a summer - amazing!). Since running with a 'bear stick' wouldn't be safe, just put bells on your shoes and they'll stay away. Or, just run with someone - you don't have to run faster than a bear, just faster than the person you're with! Those are my 2 best pieces of advice for bear country :)

Haha, Jeff. I do think my speed was a bit quicker on one particular section of road. It's probably .75 long and not a single house or light anywhere around it. It's also on a gradual uphill! I have this thing about not looking at my Garmin while I run (don't want to be obsessive about it) but I should've on that section. I bet I was going a pretty good pace (for me). I was booking it, as I was n-e-r-v-o-u-s... Not so much for rapists, more for wild animals. I saw the deer after that; near a house.

Mental Note: Put bells on shoes.

Put alarms on shoes, and lights, and carry a big stick!!!!

I think we both have BEAUTIFUL smiles, as well as side swooped bangs and curly hair. Plus, I have spent "almost" as much time as her being knocked up! Almost!

Bells bring out the rapists.

What a great workout KP! I love that you did all of your miles in twos! Way to get a ton done in the early day!

and next time, 3 miles, then 3 miles then 3 miles etc.

Merri mowed her lawn too. allie said she could count it towards her miles.

oh really??

I have a HUGE yard (remember, I live in the country). I think it is at least 2 miles if not more just because of effort of having to go up and down hills. It was a good workout, that is why I did it. Oh, and maybe because I wanted to work on my tan.... nope... that had nothing to do with it.

KP - different dualthlon 2 by 2 by 4? Nice workout(s) Al - humid? Adds to the workouts.

Stay Kool, B of BS Rools out

We're normally VERY humid. This weekend actually wasn't too bad, surprisingly. We'll have a few weeks of "spring" weather before the blazing heat kicks in and stays for months. I got a nice little tan/burn yesterday on my shoulders from being outside. It was the perfect weather to be outside; hence all of my extra-curricular activities that I don't normally do (mowing yard and washing car). It was too nice to pass up.

I took a nap outside today after church... perfect weather to be out on the back porch!

That's an interesting way to get 8 miles in. I'm sure you had quite a workout by the time you were done. Be careful about the sun. I'm all for absorbing vitamin D, but sunburns are dangerous.

Nice job KP! Busy day but you got a lot accomplished!

Only 2 hours?!? YIKES. You need some kids to help you out on the lawn :) Maybe Kelli can spare a few for the summer, I don't think she'd even realize they were gone.

Hi KP! Thanks for the comments. It's nice to meet you. I didn't know there was a marshmallow club. But I think I've been an honorary member for many years now. Your commandment is duly noted :) I'll try not to supercede the weight of my refridgerator in the years to come. At least it's a reasonable goal!

I think I need a little clarification on the commandment: does that include the weight of the food in the fridge, or just the weight of the empty fridge?

These things DO matter!

Hahahaha, QP!

Good point. I think it should be the fridge WITH the food in it. After days like today I'm pretty sure I'm just about even with the empty fridge as far as weight goes.

breakfast: cornbread

snack: cheezits

lunch: firehouse sub, chips, coke

dinner: lasagna, bread, 3 mini cupcakes

post dinner: pizza, salad, chocolate.

No wonder I only weigh 100 lbs, right???

that looks like a good start to a day's food, although i would generally go for more snacks and a larger breakfast, but maybe that's why i'm fat...

Your food log made me hungry!

I think I'll toss a big frozen turkey in the freezer just to keep the weight thing on the safe side.

Ah, a kindred spirit in the eating department!!!

I say "Thou shalt eat whatever the heck thou wants, as long is it makes thou happy!"

Is that too many THOUs??

hahaha!

Kelli, I like your commandment.

Don't let me fool you with the late night salad. It was NOT healthy... It had more Ranch than lettuce and more cheese than ranch; plus some croutons... my kinda salad :)

You forgot the BACON!

dos

at least you got a couple in! Amen on the picture thing, it's why I haven't changed my pic in a year!

Cute profle pic! Is that recent? The tulips are beautiful. Too bad my yard is covered in snow from the freak blizzard this am :(

haha. it's 85* here today.

the pic is from Easter Sunday. don't be too jealous; with the heat comes the unwelcome humidity.

Two at too easy does sound better than nada!

No tulips at my place, just cherry blossoms that got wind-whipped!

Is that a scatological reference?

Yay!

Hooray for the conquered challenges!

Stats tests, golf balls on tees, and running too. You'll get the marathon one day. If you can conquer stats, you can conquer a marathon!

What kind of event did your Fleet Feet have? My closest store is over an hour away, so I miss all the cool things they do.

Right now I'm not really determined with marathon training. I just run (not enough...). I need to be more focused, but right now it's not really my top concern. I guess I'd like to build my base a bit more before I really start to train.

Oh gosh... my FF is like 30 minutes away, but I practically live there! Last night was "Diva Night" which they do twice a year. After the store closes at 7pm they open it to a ladies-only shopping night. All apparel is 20% off and they have a fashion show where the female employees wear the latest and greatest running clothes. Food, wine, and chocolate samples are provided. It's just a fun girl's night out, basically. They have a TON of events though. I was there Monday night too for a "coaches social" for the group I help coach. They always have fun runs and stuff. I absolutely love the store! (if you can't tell...)

You're doing great on all of your challenges. I think you're smart to build your base for a while before doing a marathon.

I just go to the running store occasionally for shoes. I didn't know that there were other things. Of course, we don't have a Fleet Feet store. Maybe they're special.

I forgot to mention the best part of Diva Night... A new addition this year: our local Dixie Derby Girls came out and did a meet and greet and skate demonstration. Ummmmm..... WOW. I am not a small girl, but these women were NOT small if you catch my drift. They were wearing spandex too! Oh my. I know its mean, but my friends and I laughed. It takes a confident woman to wear what they were wearing. I would n-e-v-e-r, and I weigh 150 lbs less than some of them! Okay... just wanted to share.

OOhhh...Derby Girls. They're fascinating, but very intimidating to me. Kudos to them for dressing as they please for their sport.

It took me from 1997-2009 to build up to my marathon....and you said you were slow!

They did good with the PR thing because we want to go watch them now! They were definitely entertaining... and very nice!

congrats on your stats test. Stats was without question, the worst class I ever had in college. Bad memories. HA!

Stats class is like watching the paint on the wall dry...so boring! CONGRATS on the great test score!

AND that golf ball on the T is a GOOD sign/omen that you're gonna achieve your goal...yes be persistent and determinant...good quality of a runner! :)

I got a B in stats. But it was one of those things where it was like I learned it just enough for the test, then it was gone. When I told you that problem was really basic the other day, I was just kidding. I had no idea how to do it. My worst memory about stats though was someone stealing my book. I left it on the table in the library while I went to blow my nose. I was afraid someone might steal my calculator so I hid it under my book. When I came out of the bathroom moments later I could see my calculator. Wait, why can I see my calculator? Oh crumb! Someone stole my book. Other than the fact that I couldn't sell it back, it turned out to be a blessing because I borrowed a more advanced book from an industrial engineer major, and I was able to use it for the open book final exam. She had it all marked up, and I aced it!

I hated stats too. And I was a math major!

KP - I expect to read your blog, 2 years from now, you will be training for your first marathon. You have the focus, focus on running and the physical and mental benefits will follow.

Stay Kool, B of BS Rools out

Love the post. I'm impressed at your dedication to the golf tee - and life in general. You're doing a great job simply getting in all that you do on a daily basis!! Trust me, you do SO much more than I do - I'll carry some miles for you until life slows down for you and you're ready to tackle the marathon monster!! :) (I'm good at carrying a little extra).

I must be a glutton for punishment or just had a super easy class, but stats was one of my favorite classes. My teacher did a great job of teaching and presenting all the concepts and just kept us captivated, the math...well, that's another story :)

great post and thanks for the visual aid. nicely done. i had no idea fleet feet put on such parties. and as for stats - i am with RAD, i really liked my stats class. mostly because the very first day we played "let's make a deal" for an hour. anyway, nice job on your test!!

oh and burt... i have your stats book if you want it back

Great job on the exam KP.

Statistics is not boring, teachers of statistics are boring.

That golf ball on the tee is very impressive!

allie! I promised myself if I ever found out who did that I would kick them right in the baby maker! (to steal a line from Ron Burgundy. (which movie wasn't even around when my book was stolen (so clearly I'm lying.))) I am going to kick you, though.

i am terrified of dogs for this exact reason. i never know what to do(i get chased quite often, twice yesterday). i am just as scared of the dog owners as the dogs, and not a huge fan of talking to random people...so i don't know. carry big rocks and/or pepper spray as weapons?

i see you have a rapist loop. i had one of those when i lived in salt lake city...hence my tally of "shopping cart man encounters"

be careful out there.

the owners make me nervous too as i really don't talk to people much. i don't mind saying hi, but that is about the extent of it for me.

my mom has suggested getting me pepper spray in the past. i can't imagine that i could ever spray it at a dog even if i'm being attacked; i'm a total animal lover. but, i guess i'll never know unless the situation arises. hopefully it never will.

you don't have to worry about pepper spray because you can outrun all the dogs and rapists. lucky you.

i carry pepper spray when i run in the dark, but have never even come close to using it. i don't know if i would have the guts to actually spray someone. it would probably end up backfiring into my own face anyway. this is where jiu jitsu comes in...

pu-pu-su. pu-si-pu. It's all good, y'all.

Glad the dog didn't rape you.

hahaha... Burt, I just changed it because I realized I had it wrong. Go check again!

I'm with you on the whole dog thing. I used to be a dog lover but I've been chased, lunged at, and otherwise harrased by dogs not under the control of their owners. I have broke down and bought/carry pepper spray. I've only had to use it once....and ended up spraying myself. Can we say goob?

So....I see you want to do a marathon. Got a race in mind??

The Quiet Pirate carries pepper spray because she was bitten one morning by a "nice dog" (according to the owner) while the owner was in his yard and his 3 dogs ran out into the road to attack her.

The hassle of having to go to the ER twice and waiting for animal control to verify if the dog had rabies shots (owner couldn't provide proof), and then waiting to see how quarantine worked out was TOO STRESSFUL!

I tried stopping when the dogs approached, and waiting for owner to call them off. Dogs don't always listen to their owners.

I have had to spray a dog once, and I hated to do it, but my health (mental and physical) is worth making a dog a little uncomfortable for a few minutes.

When it comes down to it, I really felt like it was the irresponsible owner who should have been sprayed, and not the dog.

Running out in the country, I often see farm dogs. They don't usually come out in the road, they just bark at me as I past their property. My rule is: if the dog comes out in the road at me, I get the pepper spray ready.

I think it gets a little muddled when you're on the dogs property, because the dog is just doing his job protecting his property.

It's a tricky situation. Good luck with it!

And yes...I got some pepper spray on my hand once and wiped it across my nose. Oh mercy, that burned! But not enough to stop me from carrying it when I run.

just my 2 cents worth.

It all reminds me of Michael Scott's Dunder Mifflin's Race for The Cure For Rabies.

KP - zap the yapper with pepper spray, the owners may get the message. I do not trust dogs, have had many no so pleasant experiences with dogs over the years. Nice three mile run. Project runway - hum - comments - project this, project that, look like you tired, happy, sad, playful, stupid - look like a donkey - Slyvie watchs that show, chick thing.

Stay Kool, B of BS Rools out

oh my goodness. y'all have scared me! i think i'll definitely be getting some pepper spray to carry with me now. yikes! the dog last night did NOT come when the owners were screaming and yelling at him. i bet he chased me for at least another 30 seconds once they realized what was going on. i was not a happy camper. i normally don't have dog issues, and i would like to keep it that way. so i'm thinking a pepper spray purchase is in my future.

the only other time a dog has really bothered me i was in the neighborhood by my house and the dog charged at me so i stopped in the middle of the road and kinda stuck my leg out to stop the dog. i wasn't going to kick it... just get it to bounce off my foot. this woman swings open the front door and screams at the top of her lungs "don't kick him, he doesn't bite!!!" well, woman, for a non-biter he sure does have a mean charge. he went back to her when she called, but that scared me too.

i don't really have a specific marathon in mind right now. i'd just like to do one. well, really i'd like to do lots... i just have to start with one. i need to start training for one. i printed off a plan the other day that i liked. now i just need to buckle down and start it. it's going to suck in this southern summer heat. whew!

brent, i'm not really a tv watcher at all. i'd rather read than watch tv. it happened to be on last night, so i did watch the last 20 minutes of it or so. i like to hear heidi's accent!!

Thankfully, I've never had encounters with dogs (except when one followed me and Lucy, my dog, home. I put him in the backyard and called animal control - she knew him, he was a repeat offender/wanderer). I do however, carry pepper spray - I worry more about Mountain lions than dogs :)

I think the tricky thing with your situation is that you are in the dog's/owners area. I'd just avoid it if you can - run the extra bit around the field.

Okay I love your challenge KP. I am exactly the same with pull-ups...NO WAY!!! I can do around 100 pushups in 4 sets but when it comes to pull ups I can almost manage one. I want to know more about this challenge.

Here is the challenge several people are doing, Bec.

http://Samantha.fastrunningblog.com/blog--No-run-day-I-am-seeing-my-physio-early/04-07-2010.html

I'm not officially entered because I'm a sore loser and will be mad if Burt beats me. So, I'm just the cheerleader. You should do it though! I'll give you some commando points (Brent, can I do that??) if you beat Burt!!

Woah, woah, woah! First of all, let's get one thing straight. Of course you're going to lose to me. That's a given. Second of all, I made it clear that everyone should not worry about me beating them. Do your best to ignore my gloating after my victory.

woah, woah, woah, burt! first of all, let's get one thing straight. of course you are going to lose to nan. that's a given. second of all, you made it clear that you were worried about losing to a female competitor in a strength competition. KP, do your best to ignore the gagging sounds he makes after eating a few pairs of PAS shorts.

Hold on here. If I do 200 sit-ups and Nan does 200 sit-ups, I still win because I was ranked higher than her to begin with. You don't get extra points for going over. This is the 200 sit-ups, 100 push-ups, and 20 pull-ups contest.

*blink blink* speechless. you make a great point here. no further insults. i am defeated.

nope. i'm a southerner. 'round these parts we believe in the old saying, "ladies first." therefore, nan wins on principle. my blog, my rules.

sorry burt. eat nan's shorts.

I'm taking my ball and going home. BTW, Nan can bury her PAS shorts with my statistics book.

LOL!

WHOA ... You are burying your statistics book Burt?

By the way KP, I hear you on the hot, it is hot here too, I am tired of it already.

I would never Bonnie. As the story goes, allie stole it, gave it to Nan who then proceeded to bury it in a leach field of human excrement.

it's in a time capsule. it's protected from all forms of excrement. burt always blows things out of proportion. like chrisM's legs.

I meant to ask...what kind of work do you do? You mentioned it was stressful because of the volcano. Just curious.

I deal with people that are traveling for my company all day long. 70% of Europe's airports are still shut down today (Monday), so we're having fun in here again this morning!

that is one amazing shot. i love it. you need more zzzzzzzs! wow. 41 hours is impressive. i would be dead for sure.

You must be young. I couldn't pull that off.

That's a beautiful picture. Good luck with the paper.

I'm not sure I could walk a straight line sober after being awake for 41 hours, let alone run - so kudos to you.

That picture is glorious. What a beautiful place to be to see the sunrise. Lucky you!

Good luck on that paper.

You are hardcore! :) Very nice. I enjoyed the pic, thanks for posting.

Ha. I'm about the last thing from hardcore. I guess the sleep deprivation is ultra training. I think I'd need that full 41 hours to run a 50-miler.

The picture was taken with my cell phone. Not the best quality, but the sunrise was absolutely beautiful. The paper is submitted. Done. Finished. Over. Now I just have to present it on Wednesday and I'm completely done with that class. Hallelujah!

You should go to med school with those kind of sleep deprivation skills. Hope you're good at power napping!

Such a pretty picture! I LooooooovvvVVEeeE the sunrise and sunsets!

any chance you want to come write my paper? nine hours and counting. progress is -2.

allie, i knew i liked you for some reason. at midnight last night i still only had one paragraph written. i submitted it with about 4 minutes to spare this morning. i was coming up with every excuse in the book to not work on it last night, including watching the academy of country music awards. i average about 5 minutes of the news per week and that's about it for my tv watching. i was desperate to get out of this paper to watch that for hours on end!!

go for a run. eat some gnats. swat some flies. it'll clear your head. the protein from the gnats will improve your prouctivity to atleast a -1.

I've been meaning to ask you if the gnats are out in force for you yet.

I ran into a couple patches of them Saturday, and remembered how much I hate them.

Bug spray doesn't seem to keep them away, either.

How stinkin' beautiful is that?!? You are one amazing woman - I can't go 12 hours w/out a nap, let alone 41!!

Glad you got the run, girls weekend, paper and some protein in! You are truly amazing. I hope work is better (even with the volcano) today!

Glad you got your paper and your run done. Not a student any more, but I haven't lost the procrastination skills I learned in those days. Nice picture there in Alabama.

LOL! I was going to tell you to help allie with her paper now.

Good job KP! Thanks for sharing the beautiful picture! Although the lack of sleep is worrisome - wow!

maybe a 'kick' isn't the right word to use :) I'm sure it would've been a bit more than that!

Nice job on the run. I agree with you on the 'coaching' aspect of running! I've run a couple 1/2 marathon's with friends doing it for the first time and it was one of the best times of my life!

You don't have that far to go. Once you have the love of running - it's all downhill from there!

Will you "coach" me at Marion's pink race thingy in July? I hope you like LOTS of walking!

You betcha! You show up, and I'll get you through it (even if that's in the jogging stroller) :)

Nice pu pu su.

KP can I join your running group? Seems like you are doing an awesome job coaching =) Nice workout. I was hurting on my push ups last night for some reason. Maybe b/c I did them right after I swam? or maybe I'm getting soft...

How great that you're helping others fall in love with running. A coach would be great to have to motivate me.

Nice job on the su & pu. I need to work on those things. Got to avoid that flappy under-arm thing & muffin top.

I like what you did for the pull-ups. That's just what I would do.

I'd love to arm wrestle, but I'm sure you'd beat me. I've been neglecting the upper body exercises lately.

Great job with the running coaching.

Glad you felt so good running - those are the types of runs I love!! I also seriously need to start that pupusu challenge!

Woah, thats a ton-o-push ups. You did sit-ups in a running skirt with men watching? Brave. Or something.

Or something implies you need to buy a gas range.

oh no no no.

i am about as modest as they come.

the skirt had shorts underneath it for one thing.

the guys weren't in the living room much, they were in the back.

and, if they ever did come to the living room i stopped immideately and acted like i was just hanging out in the floor staring at the celing.

i know... i'm real smooth. this was the best place to do them though.

Okay, you're creeping me out. Be careful out there. I think I'll stick to my busy roads with Walgreens.

That sounds kinda scary! Can't say I've ever know anyone who ran with a pocket knife but I have one friend who keeps one in her bra(not a runner). Anyways enjoy running with weaponry!

A pocket knife in the bra? That can't be comfy.

'Parking' is almost as fun as running. :)

Hope you take your friends advice and avoid the area at night. Be careful out there.

seriously - i'm not going to buy a pocket knife

seriously - i do need to buy some pepper spray

thanks for the concern guys. i guess it's back to the ol' neighborhood for my night runs. i wasn't comfortable up there the one time i went at night, anyways. it was SO dark. i just really like the loop.

I've had weird stuff happen to me too out running--and I know all about that seculuded country running through Cotton/Soy fields (in South CArolina). The isolated solitude can be very creepy. Army Navy stores are great for pepper spray (which you should replace every 2 years). I never run without one (I mean ever). I have a really great velcro/elastic hand strap so I don't even have to hold it on. If I run in the dark-ish-ness, I also carry a little knife. I've even thought about how I could tape the knife with ducttape on the opposite side of the spray part: Spray/slash. I know it sounds terrible to talk that way, but that's the reality for women runners if you can't always bring a partner for saftey. Also-- just being aware is helpful (like not listening to iPod so you can hear). Sorry, being a little freaked can ruin your run. Make sure you tell people where you are running out in the country before you go & when you are expected back! Be careful out there!

YIKES! For a couple reasons...first you carry a 7;20 pace in a 5K and this guy is running circles around you? Is JP really Usain Bolt? Then your running past 'parking' alley in the dark, by yourself? That's it - I'm going to come down there and blister your bottom!!! (But not for running fast...I'll blister JP's for that!).

Go get some pepper spray, the stuff Luz speaks of is fantastic, I can't stand to carry stuff when I run, but I don't mind the strap ones.

brass knuckles.

The strap pepper spray..it's good. Practice spraying something with it once, so you can see how the stream works & how far it goes.

http://www.sabrered.com/servlet/the-113/JOGGER--Self-dsh-Defense-Pepper/Detail

This is link for the one I use. I buy mine at Gander Mountain.

Your friend jp sounds like good people. And 7:20 is a freakin' awesome pace! Nice workout :-)

Yikes! Running alone in the dark can be scary. I was followed/chased once on an early morning in a little town. Luckily there was a store open and I went inside. Since then, I don't like running alone especially in the dark. Pepper spray sounds like a good idea!

You can see why I endorse treadmills. :0

Quite a story. Be careful out there.

Rapist hill route.... You be careful KP!!! Maybe you should consider pepper spray and a pocket knife. Come to think of it all runners should. I love the drama of your run. Sounds like you will be on your toes if you go running there again.

The pu-pu-su. Lovin' it lady and I might have to copy you on this one. It sounds like the Navy Seal workout minus the swim :). That is why we run right? When I did that challenge I did notice a great difference in my strength and definition. Keep it up!

You crack me up (except for the rapist part - you need a machine gun with rounds crossing your arms)! Way to stick with it!

Buy some pepper spray, for the dogs and the rapists!

KP -- are you ok there?? I was thinking about you yesterday, I know that lots of emergency personnel from Huntsville left this morning for Mississippi, but I also know you got some wild weather too ....

Spring in the South is always rough, hot, cold, hot, tornado's, hot ... yuck!

If the car's a rockin'...

thanks for the concern, bonnie! i'm fine. the storms were ROUGH! i was actually in birmingham; about 2 hours south of my hometown for the weekend. i had planned to run a 5k, but it was canceled... so we went shopping instead! we had torrential rains all day. the storm hit mississippi pretty bad where nevels grandparents are from. i need to check with him to see if they are okay.

If you can't run------SHOP!

Nice workout KP! Maybe only do the rapist loop when you wanna do sprints/tempo?

Wow, look at you, you little workout machine!!!

Congrats on the 8:50's, that is awesome! It took me years to get there, literally!!! And way to get out of bed before the sun, it is not so bad as long as you do not have to do it every day.

And, lastly, I will never be able to do a pull-up so do not feel bad. The trainer at my gym says only 2% of the female population can do them ( not sure if that is true, but I choose to believe it!)

That sounds like an amazing run and morning. I used to hate mornings, but the more I get out, the more I actually enjoy it. Running mountain trails while the sun comes up is just about as good as it gets.

Hope you have a great week.

Glad you enjoyed the run.

Good job on the early morning! I kind of like running in the dark of an early morning, but I'm not crazy about getting up. Maybe it would be easier if I had warm weather like you do.

great morning run and great morning nap. on days like this, i also like to include "second breakfast"

sub 6 am run, lol. Great for you for reaching a whole new dimension of running : D Rapist loop sounds eerie...that is partly why I decided to run around where I know the terrain instead of up an canyon for 10 miles alone....mainly I was worried about wild life. I think I can out run any one else if need be. But I do and you too need to buy pepper spray.

Thanks guys! I just ran 5 more tonight. I'm tired from that 5am wake-up. Now I see why I don't normally do that as I have many hours of homework ahead of me.

Hey! You're member of the sub-6 club now, jun is the prez and Carolyn is the vp. GOOD JOB doing 2-a-day! With that kinda dedication, you should have no problem doing the 18 weeks marathon training! LOVE reading your morning run, so peaceful! Have a GREAT week, cutie!

Welcome to the sub-6am group!

YAY KP! That's awesome!! Welcome to the club :) I just decided to register for a full marathon in October - this will be my first. I'm scared & excited but I'm going to do it. I hope you start the 18 week program. You can do it!!

Wow! Nice miles. I think you should do the training program. You can do it!

You are so adorable! . . . just had to get that out there first! Fun write up of a great run and congrats on your great pace and on getting up early! I have to exercise early or it doesn't happen but the thing I'm NOT good at is getting in bed at a decent hour! I have come to love naps, sounds like your mid-morning nap was heaven!

I say for SURE go for the 18 week program. I know you can do it, your body will love you and you will be so proud of your accomplishment! You have such great positive energy, there is no way you will fail, even if you do, you'll get a lot out of the 'trying'! Good Luck Girlie!!!!

You can do it! Start training! Glad that you enjoyed the 5am run--I struggle mightily with those. Lots of miles today--awesome!

What a GREAT day! LOVE days like that, keeps us willing to get out of bed the day after a crappy one!

Good luck with the marathon program, you can totally do it! Just stick with it, there will be ups and downs, but you can do it!!

Great workouts today KP! Impressive mileage! Any particular marathons you had in mind?

I really have no idea which marathon I'd like to do. Deciding on one would probably help in my training as I'd have a goal I'm working towards. I am pretty positive that I do not want it to be my hometown one in December. I like to do things a bit differently and don't really want to run the local race as my first one. I know... odd... as I'm sure I would have a ton of friends there to cheer me on. Who knows?!?! If I get one in before Rocket City (Huntsville's marathon) maybe I will do it. Or, maybe I'm destined to be a "cheerleader" all my life and just continue on the 5k-snail-pace path.

It's over-due, but congrats on your sub 5 club initiation. You ran really good paces in the afternoon after doing a nice morning run, and then finished it off with your helping the others train.

Completing a marathon is so empowering and awesome - it will be a great experience when you do it. Training for one isn't as great as finishing it, but it's worth it.

I got talked into running a marathon by bloggers once. I hate them.

JK. Make sure you pick a good one with few hills.

Totally wacky weather! Its happening here too. I leave my house with a backpack of spare clothes, for different events and different climate conditions.

Congratulations on the 2 lbs! Where is the vaca?

You lost 2 lbs AND ate 3 cupcakes? SO not fair! :)

Congrats on the 2 pounds!!! If you can lose 2 pounds and eat cupcakes, your life is GOOD!!! best of luck to you on the 10, you can do it!

I can only get up early every other day, i sucks the life out of me. AND it snowed in Utah today, the weather is whacked!

I am on a lose some pounds, too.

I bet if you went over and attempted the pull up you would have had 5 serious body-builder guys helping you out. Giving advice encouragement etc. :-)

I think someone put x-lax in your cupcake batter!

You crack me up! I wish I could be on the "eat cupcake - loose weight" diet. My 3 Krispy Kreme donuts and Cherry Coke diet is going so hot :)

Thanks guys! No way will I lose all 10 lbs. I will seriously cry if I do. I think the scale was broken today; that is the only logical explanation. I was happy, nonetheless. I don't weigh myself often at all, so I was pleased today!

Auntieem - I'm going to Washington DC for the first time ever and am really looking forward to it!

Keep eating cupcakes :) Now I am craving one of those Hostess chocolate cupcakes with a tall glass of milk. I haven't had one of those in ages.

You don't suck. I think that pull-ups are not meant to be.

And the weather is whacked.

Scott, I have some at my house. Come on over.

I agree on the pull-ups!!! 98% of us women can not do them and should not even bother.

Will we ever be in situation where will have to save our own life by doing a pull-up? I'm guessing not unless we're Dangling off the side of a building in some action film..... so save them for the stunt women.

DC is such an interesting place- with so much to see...and it's all free! We used to live just south of there and I always enjoyed my trips to the city to explore. There are nice jogging trails too- just be sure and go with someone and bring your pepper spray.

I'm going to try and find 3 cupcakes to eat today in hopes that I'll lose a couple pounds...your diet is amazing!

You don't suck. It is intimidating working out next to muscle men. I had one guy tell me I was doing my pull-ups wrong and he'd be happy to help me hold me legs more straight next time. Um no thanks. My favorite place to do pull-ups is at a playground when no one else is there.

The Yoga teacher and I waited until late yesterday afternoon, when all the muscle men (and women) had vacated the gym. Then we tried the pull-ups, so no one could see and laugh or critique. It still just sucks that she could do one and I could not.

I find it funny how those muscle heads think they are all bad at the gym and can't even do proper pull ups. Just ignore them KP and get your work out on or else you'll be eating Burt's shorts =P Great job on the run. I'm trying to lose some weight too! Hopefully 5 lbs by the end of May.

And you don't want to be eating MY shorts!

pepper spray? nah... you just need to bring a saddle for that guy...

is it bad that i was realllllllly tempted to tell him to hop in the back of my car? really tempted. i think he and my horses would get along great. i bet he and i stared at each other in the middle of the road for at least 5 minutes. he was absolutely adorable.

the pepper spray would be for my rapist loop. i worry about rapists on it, but have been followed by an aggressive dog on that loop before too. i guess it is better to be safe than sorry as my mama likes to say.

Wow that's a really big dog. I'm glad he was friendly. I would die running in 80 degrees with humidity but I am getting tired of running in snow. During our Friday run it snowed the whole time.

I'm not sure I could walk in 80 degrees plus humidity, let alone run. I guess I'm spoiled here in Colorado.

The dog is huge. Are his ears tied together?

I saw a lot of dogs (all on leash) on the trail today. One was big and black and hairy and looked like a bear.

Nice or not, if I saw that dog loose in the road, I'm not sure I'd keep running toward him..even with pepper spray. He looks gi-normous.

Congrats on some good miles, I feel you on the heat & humidity. I want the spring from 3 weeks ago back, not this one.

Marmaduke!

His ears look like they are tied in a knot or something. We have TWO of those bests in our neighborhood, but they must be the nicest dogs. They just watch me run by, they do not even so much as move or bark.

You are my HERO!! I admire anyone who can value the Awful Waffle over a run. You got both in...awesome!

I have a button that reads: So many Waffle Houses, So Little Time.... my setiments exactly.

you did the right thing

I don't know about waffles, but moms are definitely important. Can you please tell my kids that?

oh carolyn... i value my mother VERY much. she is my best friend and we are extremely close. we had our somewhat rough teenage years, but we have always been annoyingly close. your kids will grow out of it and will learn to appreciate you. although she and i have always been close, i never really appreciated all she did until recent years. it astonishes me the sacrifices that all parents make when i think about it at this point in my life. thus, no kiddies for quite a while. for now, i'm selfish. i still like being spoiled by her toooooooo much. if i had my own monster to deal with, she would forget all about me! ;)

You are so cute! LUCKY you to have a Waffle House date with your wonderful mother. Yep, you did the right thing! GOOD LUCK with finals!

mmmm...awful waffle! I tried to run with QP once after eating there...running first is definitely a good choice :)

Glad you got some sleep in! VERY well rounded today, sleep, run, eat, mom - what more could you ask for in a day before noon?!?

Sleep is a beautiful thing! It can be more important than food. Glad ya had a date w/ your mom. I love it when my kids tell me I'm the best mom! I ignore them when they tell me I'm the meanest mom!

BUT waffles sound so good!

I haven't been to a WH since I lived in Atlanta. Mmmmm....that was always our late night place to go to get grub.

I did Yoga once about 3 months ago and it was really a killer. I would die running in 80 degree weather with any humidity.

Yoga is always more of a workout then I expect it to be. 2 miles at 8:37 is a great pace! I hope it cools down a bit for you.

I'm impressed that you're able to run in that heat and humidity. When I've been in conditions like that, I could barely walk.

It's always fun to meet other bloggers. I believe you without the photographic evidence.

If Burt had photographic evidence who knows what he'd do with that. . . . :)

My feet fall asleep, too!! When you figure it out, let me know!

Nice workouts today, way to push your little group through it. You are a motivator.

Who says I don't have photographic evidence? Bwahahahaha!

not that i'm qualified to give advice, but i've had the foot numbness occur to me as well, and it is typically the first (and gentlest) indicator of overuse (i.e., that i'm bumping up my training too much too fast). whenever it happens, i try to back off a little to let the training take effect, which means resting a little more than i would typically like.

i don't know if it's relevant, but i had a friend who ran into this very problem as a symptom of what the doctors called "compartment syndrome," which, as it was explained to me, is where your calf muscles are growing more quickly than your legs can expand to accommodate them, thus reducing bloodflow, cutting of nerves, etc etc.

or maybe it's just the heat...

Nice job KP! Such a little motivator you are. I used to love running in the heat. I lived in Mexico for 2 years & had no choice. It took awhile for me to be able to run in the cold again. I tried running in the heat last summer & ended up jumping in the lake at the end, I thought I was going to fall over & die. Heat = no bueno!

Hmmmm....I hope that is not the case! My feet go numb when I run a lot of downhill, when I get new shoes, when I tie my shoes too tight, and then sometimes just randomly for no reason. Interesting.....

What a great run! Nice paces on the miles yourself, and then takin' to the group and pushing them as well!!

I LOVE meeting fellow bloggers - always a good time, small world that you work for the same company!

I was going to suggest talking to Kelli about the foot thing, but she beat me to it :) I'm VERY lucky (knock on wood) that I don't get foot problems. Now if you have ITB issues I feel like the resident expert!!

kelli: (purely conjecture here), but i think that there might be a correlation between numb feet when overtraining and when running downhill. both are subjecting your feet to a level of pounding that they aren't quite adapted to or comfortable with yet.

from what i can see, both you and kp have been significantly increasing the volume of your training over the last couple of months, percentage-wise, which is great, but it might be worth it to closely examine your routine to ensure that you're getting enough rest and recovery. often the hardest part of intense training is having the discipline to allow yourself to recover from (read: adapt to) the training load.

Now that Nevels has caused a severe case of depression to set in, I did a little research. I found this article on active.com.

http://www.active.com/running/Articles/What_causes_foot_numbness_in_runners_.htm

My numbness is the whole bottom of my foot which it addresses about halfway through the article. It says I likely have compressed nerve in my ankle area. Super! That is JUST what I wanted to hear (errr... read).

That was an interesting article indeed. It does make it sound quite worrisome. I have been t the doctor and he believes that I have very sensitive nerves in my feet that will get bugged and fall asleep easily if "provoked" (that was how he put it). The problem is that strange things provoke it. I know downhill does it for a fact, I know that tying my shoe too tight does it, and I also think that the inserts in my shoes might sometimes bug me. Who knows.

Now, Nevels, you know I am going to do everything in my power to say I am NOT doing too much!!!! That is just the stupid runner in me. BUT I do have to say that I have had this issue for a very long time, even when I only ran 10-15 miles a week. SO, I am hoping I am not doing too much. I do have an appt to go back to the doc in three weeks to check on stuff, so we will see what he says.

I haven't been to the doc as I avoid them like the plague. I've thought for a while that my shoes might be causing my problem, but I haven't broke down and bought any new ones yet. (I'm a poor college student!) I've been running 15ish miles per week since the New Year. I do plan on upping that this summer. So, Dr. Nevels better hope that it isn't an overuse issue and just a kp-has-weird-feet-issue. I wish it would go away though.

That is kind of scary about your feet. Fingers crossed for you. Nice miles.

Rad- What can you tell me about ITB issues? I have them and I can't seem to get over the problem. I stretch and roll, but it doesn't help much. Rest is not an option. :)

Scott doesn't know the meaning of the word rest.

Scott----YOGA hip openers every time you sit down to watch TV (and if that is not enough time, do them while you eat and read and SLEEP), avoid downhill, run slower for a while.

That is all I know, but it worked for me.

I'm a professional rester. I can give you lots of pointers, Scott!

I also had an ITB twinge earlier in the year. For that injury, Dr. Nevels prescribed RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation). I took one week off and iced it a time or two. I bought a foam roller and did it diligently for a few weeks. It caused me to cry the first few times the pain was so bad. Now, I do it about every other day and it doesn't really bother me at all. Thankfully. It isn't a fun injury! It seems to be a common one among runners though.

KP - jumping to a marathon this year in the fall seems doable if you can build up slowly and stay injury free. I would suggest some good uphill biking to augment your running during the buildup and buildup your quads. running puts a beating on the quads, really need those strong to handle the stress of a marathon.

Be Kool, B of BS RooOls out

The numbness in your foot could be a nerve. You mentioned that you are tight in the hammies. The nerve that runs all the way down your leg (through ham and calf muscle), could cause foot numbness. If you are tight, the nerve may be compressed. STRETCHING! So your instinct to stop and stretch was good.

Scott, I wish I had a good 'it will never come back' answer for you, but I don't! Mine seems to plague me every marathon. I can run 1/2's and training runs of 22 with no problem, but you get me in a marathon and I can't get past 16 miles w/out ITB pain. I've been to MANY PT's, doc's and websites about it. The best thing that helps me when it's inflamed is stretching and rolling. Like Kelli said - the hip openers while you sit and watch TV or whatever, and roll, roll and get a monthly massage to work on the area to smooth out the scar tissue. I don't see as much of a result with icing as many suggest - but that may just be me. One doc had me do 2 sets of cortizone shots and I honestly think it made it SO much worse for about 3-4 months. Also, do strengthening for your inner thigh muscles and hip stabilizers. A band around your feet and walking side to side is the best thing! Plus doing balancing exercises on a bosu ball (like one legged squats) and oblique work. It all comes from hip stability, too much side to side motion. I've actually noticed that spinning has increased my inner thigh strength and subsequently stability as well. Being prego I haven't done a ton of miles, but haven't had any ITB issues to speak of for a while.

So, a long story longer...stretch, stretch, stretch, roll, and strengthen the supporting muscles. Check back with me in September/October when I'm back to marathon miles and maybe I'll have some more tips :)

I agree with RAD on the strengthening your inner thigh muscles. I went to a PT about my ITB once and she told me that I needed to work on that. Apparently my inner thigh muscles are very week (it's allllllll fat in that area).

Thanks for all of the ITB tips everyone. For me going downhill seems to aggravate it more than anything. After I did a marathon last year it was my left knee and now it is my right. Frustrating. I guess I will just keep stretching and rolling and I'll probably have to add strengthening as well.

KP! My fellow buddy from the South! Nice runs! I feel you on the humidity thing. It's not too bad here right now since I'm by the beach but already reaching temps in the high 80's. I haven't even been to the beach this year yet...

OKAY, how are you feeling 3 days post Yoga?

My muscles are still tight... Not sure why. That reminds me, I need to stretch. No running because I am SUPER busy. Finals will be over this week. Hallelujah! Then I'll have a 20 day break until summer semester starts. Ugh.

Good luck on your finals and getting un-sore from yoga.

Your humidity %-age was funny. I can relate.

Your friends at fleet-feet might have some suggestions for ways to help with the numb feet problems. They're masters of fixing feet problems.

What will you do for those 20 days with so much spare time?

I'd first check the shoes. Almost every time I get new shoes My feet go numb in places (especially on the bottom). Also when I tie them too tight. Whenever I tie my shoes I curl my toes and arch my foot a little while I'm cranking down on the laces and they come out just perfect. If it's not that, I don't know what to tell you. I've never had a foot go numb prior to injury, but that's probably one of those things that depends on the person.

Ick. Finals. How much longer do you have before finishing school?

Good luck with the last test! And enjoy your 20 day break. My summer semester starts (drum roll please) TONIGHT! Ick.

Yeah for almost being done with finals! I love that feeling. The hill you ran sounds intense, definitely a good workout but a bit intimidating. Good luck with your last test.

It's great that you have a hill like that nearby, to run when you want to, but that you also have not so hilly places to run.

I like your painting.

KP - hills are great, speed work in disguise and build those quads, good luck getting ready for the Tri in August.

Stay Kool, B of BS Rools out

I really like the painting - it's better than anything I could do!

Running has got to be one of the best stress relievers out there. Make sure you celebrate when everything is over!

Glad finals are almost over. NICE run to relief stress! LOVE your painting! You're multi-talented!

Just wanted to let you know that my daughter and I both like your picture!

Tracy - I have about 2 VERY long years left. I took some time off which I deeply regret now. At the time I didn't care though.

The painting is horrible. It made me laugh. I went with my mom and brother and they told me my flowers look like pink cotton balls... not how the original was. And what is up with those massive tree trunks?!??

Deborah, your daugter is about 6, right? I'm sure she could do a better job painting!! Your MIBM Marathon looks like a lot of fun! Hot (July in the South - are you nuts?), but FUN!!!

Actually my daughters first comment when I got to your blog was, "Wow mom that lady is pretty". She like the picture of you and the tulips.

The MIBM is hot. Looking back I've always had fun doing it. I'm sure at the time I probably had other choice words.

Great job on your race! I am excited about your bike. I want to buy one but it just isn't in the budget right now. I have dreams of doing triathlons some day. I hope you have a great weekend!

Oooh, nice looking bike - have fun with it this summer! AWESOME job running this morning!!! And that is a very sweet story about the Garden of Hope and little Sydney - she has an adorable smile and I hope her treatment goes well. You are quite nice to participate in the program!

Cool bike. Sydney is a very cute girl.

I'm glad you're having a good day.

I am completely jealous of that amazing beautiful bike. That is a real nice one. Treat it well and it must have a name. I have two bikes one is Gary and the other Wolfman(he is an outdoorsy type! :) I always joke that if my bike was a man I would totally marry him! I do those hand signals when I feel they are necessary and here where I live, they are totally necessary. Left arm in at 90 degrees, with fingers pointing to sky, is a right turn signal.(although just pointing right gets your point across too!) Left arm straight is for a left turn. To signal a stop, you put your left arm at 90 degrees again, with the fingers pointing down. Good luck with the training for the 10k. That is my goal for next spring...and maybe a half in the fall. Seems a far way away now but anything is possible! :)

what an awesome adventure day you had! Congrats on your best run ever :-) Your sprint-tri goal sounds like a good one.

Ride your bike on the same side of the road you drive on. Signaling is a good idea when there's a car around.

Love the pix of your sweet ride. Have you tried any banana seats yet?

Nice bike, is the 4-wheel ride yours too? Good post, you had pretty much a perfect day today. If you get a chance, say hi to Sydney for everybody on the blog.

QP and her sister blister agree - same side of the road as driving, not against traffic when on a bike. And use signals when cars are round.

Now, you get a BIG YEEEEE-HAAAWW! From me for a great 10K and making it through the hill. The best part about a hill is the down hill part :) I love your bike - does it have clips for shoes or do/can you use normal shoes with it. Using the clips scares me - I wouldn't be able to unclip before falling over most times!

Can't wait to hear about the sprint tri! If I had a bike that didn't have an unmovable baby seat on it...and that wasn't a mtn bike...I may consider doing a tri as well.

You'll have to post pics of Sydney's garden as it blooms!

Thanks guys! It was a fantastic day. I appreciate all the advice about the bike. It does not have clips. I can order them, but the thought of that makes me very nervous. I am extremely clumsy and can't imagine being able to unclip. So, for now, it is tennis shoes. I am having trouble finding a comfortable seat. I think I'll take that one back Monday and try out another yellow one. Those are test ones. It is so nice of the bike shop to let me take it home for the weekend, no questions asked.

Flatlander, that is my car. It is a 4-runner. I absolutely LOVE it. Prior to it I had a Honda Accord (still do actually) and going to an SUV was a nice and welcome change for me. I've had it nearly a year.

Good choice on the clips :)

I hope you find a seat that 'agrees' with you soon!

What a sweet bike. but if you ever ride it off road again, I will come over there and kick you right between the eyes. not a roundhouse kick. a straight high kick.

LOVE the PICS, LOVE the BIKE, LOVE sweet Sydney, LOVE the HILL you ran up and down!!! LOVE IT ALL (except the homework).

Hope your day continued to be fantastic and carried over to today! :)

I'm so jealous! I so want a new bike! Nice workout!

Sounds like you had an awesome day KP! =)

What a great day! That was nice of you to cook breakfast for your mom.

I am sure your mom appreciated the breakfast! I always love that part of mother's day. I always do yoga after running, because my trainer says its bad to do it before. It does make the yoga really hard, though! I'm usually pretty tired and need FOOD!

Eric's adventure sounds awesome. It would take me a long time to run that kind of distance, but what a cool thing to do! I'll bet his stories were great.

Your day sounds marvelous. B-fast for mom, run, yoga, family time, and cake!

I think the book might be a good story, and I might read it sometime, but I'm with you and have no desire to watch the movie.

That sounds like the perfect day to me (minus the Miley movie) :)

Nice work all around, for you mom and Eric! What an amazing adventure he must have had.

I'm with you on the movie, but I work with a girl that wants to see it SO bad...so when it's in the dollar theater I'll probably have to live through it *sigh* I guess getting paid to watch it can't be that bad, right?

Nice workout. Have you run today yet? :)

The game sounds so fun! I need to run more just for fun...no watch, no goal just run!

don't think we don't all know what you're doing... getting a fartlek workout in without telling anyone under the guise of "hide and seek."

sneaky training...

Nice sub 8!

Did I just pay KP a nice compliment? Wow!

wanna know a secret?

that words makes me giggle...

(no, i'm not immature. why do you ask?)

KP fartlekked!

LOVE the hide and seek game :) That's why I'm such a bad mom lately - I have energy to run or play, not both! Video games are starting to take over my kids lives.

Nice work on that sub 8 - you'd better give me at least 3 months to try and beat you at the .2 race, I don't think I could hit that!!

Good work with the running group, it's fun to see people that you run with grow into their miles and succeed! Unless they get cocky, rude and competitive with you...then you just grow to resent them and must constantly prove to them that they'll never beat you. (No, I've never had experience with this...why do you ask?)

Sorry about the no sleeping thing! I hate that! But the rest of the day sounds great!

I love that you are helping people with their first 5K! I've helped a few but usually people just say they want to do one but won't put forth the effort when I offer to help them!

Nice sub-8! More to come--especially with your child-induced speedwork.

Sleep is over-rated! See, you ran a sub-8 right off the bat. So nice of you to play mama to those older than your mama and have fun along the way. The *hide-n-seek-fartlekking* is sooooo fun!

Keep up the good progress.

You had quite a busy day. I hope you're able to get some sleep.

Nice run and game playin' today. It's fun when I take the time to read your blog. Very entertaining.

Bummer about no sleep, but great job on a 7:53! Your running group sounds like such a great thing. I like to run with people just starting and watch their improvement. The problem is that most people don't stick with it long enough to see improvement.

Good day for you. My motto is that if you can run one of them you can eventually run 26 of them. I think you will be faster than you expected.

Good workout! That's great that you did a sub 8! And, you are probably right, you got some benefit out of the hide and seek. Freeze tag with my third graders always TRASHES me.

Great mile tempo, KP! I think you should have added the hide-n-seek sprints as part of your workout. Let's see 15X30sec @ 7min pace...

"1 mile - 7:53 pace. I was pretty excited that I went sub-8. Now, I just need to hold that pace for 26.2 miles. Yea right! Keep dreaming, KP."

I don't see why not! Six years ago I ran my first 5k at 7:51 pace. Last fall I ran a marathon at 6:56 pace. I bet you can slowly build up to a sub-8 paced marathon!

7:53! Great job.... you can do it!

Cold

WET

Windy

Sucky!!!

But, I will take that over humidity I am pretty sure!

that's more or less how mine went today, too.

but...something to keep in mind: every run is enjoyable; sometimes the joy just doesn't come until the end of the run.

muddy.

sticky.

chilly.

dirty.

wise.

words.

from.

nevels.

I actually did have good company on the run. I asked one of the girls in my training group to join me. She wanted to walk for a second and the next thing you know, we had walked a half mile and were just chatting away! Still not a good run, but I did enjoy the company very much.

I hate how much harder it is to run in hot and humid weather. I agree with Kelli! Although I'm a wimp and plan my rest days around those weathery things.

Boo.

At least you did it.

It really is harder to run in humid weather. BUT..you got out there and did it without any excuses. So kudos to you.

I tried to run in humidity once with QP - I've never felt so YUCK in my life! Humid is NASTY, so I think you get bonus points for just getting it done! Good company to boot makes it even better. I'll take cold rainy weather over sticky humid any day!!!

When its that bad outside consider giving the treadmill a try. Trust me, it kind of grows on you after a while.

wow! that is quite an adventure. i am so glad you didn't get hit.

your bike is most excellent. it makes me long for my road bike i sold a few months ago. sorry about the allergies...definitely can relate.

Look at that hottie! So, did you lock your bikes up when you went running?

you think jonathan is a hottie? i really don't. maybe it is because we have more of a brotherly/sisterly relationship.

did we lock our bikes up? ha! this is the country. people don't steal things around here. (and we might've parked at a friends house that is way off the road...) seriously though, people don't steal around here. everyone has guns and knows how to use them; with the exception of me.

Awesome workout KP! Look at you cheesing in the pic lol. Hey that river looks like a nice fishing spot!

Exercise is supposed to be a stress reliever. You always seem to add a little danger to all of your workouts. Great job on the biking and running.

scary bike riding into the ditch

I am very afraid of riding my bike on the busy highways out in my neck of the woods, and your story just re-affirms my fears... but the country hilly road sounds great. You've just got to get to the country roads before you can enjoy them.

You & Jonathan both look like a couple of hard core hotties...your smile is cute! I've felt that way after finishing a tough workout too.

Congrats on a great workout & keeping safe.

So is Jonathan just a friend? Sorry to pry. He looks very tall.

You had quite the scary bike ride. Be careful out there!

Vinh - I've definitely been fishing on that river. I don't think I've caught anything, but have seen lots of snakes. ICK!

Andy - It's a stressful stress reliever.

CiC - Jonathan is definitely JUST a friend. He's a good guy, but he gets on my nerves toooooooo much for me to ever date him. He is just my designated workout buddy. He is tall... I'd say 6'4" or so, and not an ounce of fat on him. Darn him!

This sounds like such a fun workout! (minus the near death experience & stress buildup due to the potential of having a near death experience). You just opened up a can of worms posting that pic :) Too cute!!

What a great workout! You both look great!

we did a 2 day canoe trip down the Green river in Kentucky, it was a BLAST. We camped out on a sand bar. The only down side was that the green river does not have ANY current, so we had to work really hard to get anywhere, my back and arms were so tired at the end of this trip! I tried open ocean kayaking in Florida, I sucked bad ;-). You rock KP!

What an adventure! That is one gorgeous kayak spot also. I hate busy roads on my bike too, but I've just learned to deal with it when I have to.

wow...you are one CRAZY girl! I get so paranoid about busy roads, the older I get and the more kids I have the crazier I get about stuff like that. When I read that you fell into a ditch I literally gasped and my daughter asked "what happened?" You be careful out there, or I'll blister your bottom!!!

However, you did have a wonderful duathalon and it seems like a good time with a good FRIEND :) The scenery looks beautiful, but your stories always remind me how grateful I am to live in Utah where there is nearly always a whole extra lane on the shoulder! Don't know if it's the bad drivers or big cars hauling the wads of people in our families...but we usually get nice big shoulders to run and bike on.

Good report and good pictures.

Do you see how we are both glistening?? Ahhhhh... the LOVELY humidity...

Rachel Decker Moody! Don't you be starting something. If he were more than a friend, I would say so. I'm not Bec! haha... For real, he is just a friend. You know how you have "friends" that you flirt with (or, well, before you were married), well, he and I don't even do that. It is such a platonic relationship.

Very nice report and pics. It looks like you guys worked up a nice sweat. Excellent!

I agree with Burt about the hottie :)

That is one thing I DON'T miss about growing up in GA is the humidity! AND those southern boys sure are cute :)

I told you he was a hotty, Toby.

Wow! I love adventures, but not nearly getting killed adventures! Glad you are ok! Thanks for the fun read!

Anyday spent outside running with friends is a victory :) Way to get out there and try to run fast. It's good for you, last or not. You ran faster than I would have (unless a bona-fide rapist was after me, that might make me speed it up). Way to spend a Saturday with friends! That's a good day.

You got 12 friends to show up? That's great. I'm afraid of tough hilly courses myself.

My brother is here from Huntsville, and he just told me about the shooting by a Biology faculty member that happened at UAH. I hadn't heard about it before. Congratulations to your sister-in-law.

Nice work lady! RD's don't usually get to run their own races, so you should get bonus points for that! :) Oh, and hills are of the devil - unless I'm running DOWN!

Congrats to your sister-in-law!!

nice job on directing AND running the race...and a new PR as well! great day. congrats to your SIL as well.

I never heard about that shooting, either. Odd.

Great job on your race! I love what LUZ says about only running faster if a rapist were actually chasing her. Maybe we can get someone to dress up in a ski mask and chase us all in a race and see how fast we can be!?!

KP - every race, first or last, gives something back - keep after it.

Stay Kool, B of BS Rools out

Great job KP! I'm sure you can run a sub 27 or faster this year. Keep up the great work! Congrats to your sis!

Thanks guys! I've ran around a 27ish in a training run before so I was a bit disappointed in my time. Oh well. I told everyone from the beginning that I was the "official sweeper" because I knew I would come in last. Jonathan is quite fast for the little bit he runs and he came in 5th. This obviously wasn't an official race. It was just a bunch of friends that ran together. I'll have to see if any pics are posted on FB yet. It was hilarious. Jonathan's mom kept time and was also sitting at the "registration table" where everyone signed in and we even got race bibs! His dad was the "mobile aid station" and went and parked his truck at about 1.25 into the race with cups of water. I did enjoy being able to run a race I was "directing" and really liked the organizing aspect of it. I just hope next time to not come in last! Note to KP: Invite slower people next time. 2nd note to KP: Don't host a race in the middle of the summer... The heat and humidity were killer when we started at 8:30AM.

Here is a little info on the shooting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_University_of_Alabama_in_Huntsville_shooting

My SIL already has a biology degree, the department the shooting was in, so she knew all of the professor's very well and had even had Amy Bishop (the shooter) for 2 semesters. She just got her nursing degree on Saturday, so she spent a lot of time in the bio department. She was very upset when it happened since she knew them all so well.

Your race sounds like fun! I'm not sure I could get 4 people together to run, let alone 12.

Hills and heat...they'll suck your energy, but they're great training. You'll break that training PR with all of thetraining you've been putting in!

I love the registration table/ bibs/ and water-aid station. Sounds like a real race to me :-)

Fun race! Congratulations on a PR. I had not heard about the shooting either, crazy.

KP -- I just think you are incredibly awesome!!!! :) :) :)

I say if you come in the top 20 ... no matter how many participants, you are a ROCKSTAR!!!!

Top 20 baby!!!! :) :) :)

Nice job KristEn. I heard about the shooting when it happened on Bonnie's blog. Since she's a college faculty member herself, it really hit home to her. I think some day she may go on a rampage, too. I'm just glad it wasn't when I met her.

Jeeze Burt, can you get it right? you heard about it on my facebook page, I hardly ever talk about non-running issues on my blog (unless it relates to my not having enough time to run ;-)). Don't get me mad ... I am warning you. I already told you that this is why academics and guns do not mix - I don't like guns, so you don't have to worry about a deadly rampage with me -- but you better watch out Burt for just the wrathful rampages anyway.

On a serious note, this is not the first instance of something just like this, it happens almost every year. Academics is a tough field. The one at UAH happened at a faculty meeting, and the person in question (Amy Bishop) had just been denied tenure. I can't tell you how many people this happens to every year, and it basically ruins your career. So, if you are unstable to begin with (which she obviously was) it is a disaster waiting to happen.

KP -- Great job getting out there and not letting a hilly course scare you away. You are a star!!

Congratulations to your sister-in-law on her graduation, sorry it was marred by the tragedy of the shootings.

Bonnie-- I read about that, and not to make light of how devistating getting denied tenure could be--but for weeks afterwards, anytime I had a dissapointment at home I'd yell "But I Am Dr. AMY BISHOP!!!" That's what happens when you're too smart for your own good....It's kind of scary how hard and deflating academics can be though when it's your career choice.

devastating...

Yikes Bonnie. You could have told me you were kidding before I peed my pants.

eeewwww! yuck Burt, now I am even more mad because I have a not-so-pretty image etched on my brain!

Nice race! Please share your tips for successful race directing.

I hate hilly 5K courses, especially when the hills come at the end. It just doesn't seem fair, somehow!

Auntie, my tips would be to limit the race to 20 people or less and don't charge a fee! Then it is sure to be a hit! It really was a lot of fun and I wouldn't mind helping out with the organizational side of more in the future. I already help with some locally with packet stuffing, etc.

I think you did awesome in your 5k - and you achieved one of your goals! Kudos for that, and you also deserve brownie points for helping organize the event!!

I don't think a person can have too many dreams/goals/aspirations. Nice job running & biking. And have fun on that vacation!!

Cool super big turtle. Looks like a snapper, but I'm not a professional turtle identifier, so don't quote me on that.

Have a fun vacation and enjoy the big city!

Love the pic! I know nothing about turtles, but that guy looks mean...

Just because you said you wanted to do a century, doesn't mean you have to do it tomorrow. Keep it in the back of your mind and decide when you're ready to train for it!

Nice double run! I'm a non-hill runner, too. I prefer it that way :)

That turtle sure has a long tail. I have no idea what kind of turtle it is.

I think it's good to have dreams and aspirations. Just be patient and keep work towards them at a reasonable pace and don't get discouraged if they're still far away.

Why are you walking 10 miles every day in flip flops? Maybe if you're walking that much, you should wear shoes.

Nah, skip the shoes, just get really good flip flops!

Love the tortoise picture; the wildlife is sometimes the best part of running. Funny about the toe clips on the bike. I was really afraid of them at first, and people made fun of me for not having them. It took awhile, but now they are second nature.

Yeah. I was thinking what Carolyn's thinking on the first read but I got distracted by my own brilliant comments.

Pack some gym shoes. I don't even wear flip flops much anymore. They are so bad for your feet because they have no arch support...

Have fun on your vacation! I can't believe that 80 is a cool temperature for you. I would not enjoy running in 80, too hot!

I love turtles!

Hate Seinfeld.

Love turtles.

Remember that.

Have fun on your vacation. I don't think I caught where you were going. Hey, nice miles today.

Burt- You're a great American.

No way can you have too many goals or aspirations! Just put both of them together and you can do an ironman!

Oh, and that tortoise/turtle does have an awfully long tail!

As a note on that ITB, downhill is great and we have a TON of dowhill races here in Utah. They bus you to the top of the canyon and then you run down, they are GREAT and FAST! However, if you have ITB issues it will wreak HAVOC on them! THIS is why I've never gotten past mile 14 in a marathon w/out pain. Even the one uphill one I did I didn't get past mile 20, because the downhill started @ 18 and after the distance my ITB just fell out after a couple good downhill. MISERY I tell you...just do the flat ones, downhill isn't worth the pain!

You are pulling in some nice mileage. Be careful as you increase and take care of that IT daily. I think that you should look into purchasing a running dress. It is my favorite piece of running clothing I own! So dang cool and comfortable. Plus it's kinda cute.

bonnie gets gila monsters (and scorpions).

burt gets prairie dogs.

sam gets bunnies.

you get turtles (and scorpions).

i get chased by three-legged dogs.

the circle of life.

you know you are a runner (and by default, a dork) when you pack your roller for a trip.

nice mileage today.

Great workout session KP! It was 89F last night @ 6:30PM during my run!

The picture reminded me of this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMNry4PE93Y

That zombie loves turtles.

Checked on the turtle. The jagged back edge makes it look like a snapping turtle to me. Maybe an alligator snapping turtle. I read that they mostly eat carion...yum.

http://www.holoweb.com/cannon/snapping.htm