9/12/13
Today is my sister's birthday!!! Happy birthday to my beautiful sister, Diana!!! We are "Irish Twins" which means that we are about eighteen months apart. I read that somewhere but I'm not 100% that it's true but I like the way it sounds so I tell everyone that my sister and I are Irish Twins and if it's not true, I don't care! :-) Anyway, happy birthday to my beautiful sister and I hope your day is blessed! I love you very much!
In honor of my sister's birthday and hence our progression into middle and to also to fight the ongoing Battle of the Bulge that is raging around my muffin top region, I hit The Mill again today. I took yesterday off because I was very sore. I was so sore I had a hard time walking. Now, here's what I'm wondering: Prior to Monday, the last time I ran was in June when I ran the Color Run 5k. Before that I had trained some but not strenuously. My son, who is eleven years old, has not set foot in front of the other one other than to walk (which he really didn't do much of this summer if you really want the honest truth) and last Saturday he ran a 5k, something he's never done in his entire life! Okay...so what's up with that? I ran a total of 3 miles in two days and I can barely walk and he runs a full 5k (keep in mind, I couldn't run a 5k distance if I tried right now) without training, without practice, never running one before. I run one mile and I'm dying and it's been less time since I've run (a 5k at that) and I can't do it! What's up with that? My husband (or was it my mother in law?) says it's because my son didn't run very fast. Well, okay, so he's not Speedy Gonzales, that's for sure, but even if I slow it down I still can't pull a full 5k without walking! Granted I'm pretty out of shape, but then again, Matthew hasn't run since end of April, first of May. Shouldn't he be out of shape too? I just don't get it!!!! Oh, well....so the point is, I was sore yesterday and I took the day off. I'm glad I did. I don't think I could've put any miles in yesterday and I'm pretty sure I would've ended up hurting myself if I had. Glad I listened to my body and took the day off.
So, since I knew I was going to run on The Mill this morning I left the truck out of the garage when I got home from taking kids to school. When I got back I almost talked myself out of running. I was rather sleepy; we went to bed a bit late last night, later than I intended and when my husband's alarm went off this morning (at the butt crack of dawn, 5:50 A.M.) I wasn't able to go back to sleep. I usually drift back off until my alarm goes off almost an hour later. This morning I didn't get that little nap. Bummer. At any rate, I was a bit sleepy. I'm actually a bit sleepy now. Maybe I'll take a quick nap before I get out and run some errands. However, I knew if I went back to sleep I'd probably sleep until 11:00 or noon and then it would be really hot and I would really talk myself out of running. I suited up and headed out to The Mill.
Nothing exciting about this run today. Ran a mile and a half at the usual pace. I started out using the usual tricks. I had to use the "how many minutes to half a mile" mind trick to get through the first half mile. I then stopped for a drink. I was feeling a little bit tired. I'm not sure if it's because I'm out of shape or if it's because I was tired today. Maybe it was a little of both. I know on Tuesday I was feeling good and didn't have to use any tricks. Then yesterday I was pretty sore so I'm not sure. I'm feeling pretty good right now, no muscle pain or anything. I did stretch after I ran my miles. After my running I walked again for half a mile. This was partly because I wanted to get in a full two miles. I feel a bit guilty when I only run one mile; I guess I feel like I should be running more miles.
I'm feeling really sleepy now so I'm going to give you the details and post this: Ran 1.5 miles @ 5 MPH for a pace of 12:00. It took eighteen minutes. Did some stretching after the run then put in .5 mile @ 3.6 MPH for a pace of 16:40. It took 8 minutes and twenty seconds.
All in all, it was a good run. I do like running in the garage. It's almost like having The Mill outside with the privacy of being inside (so no one can watch me jiggle....and EVERYTHING is jiggling right now....UGH!!!) Seems like a win-win to me! Satisfied with this run but will be glad to be up to my normal mileage and working on upping my mileage and speed.
Happy Running!
KEA
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Say Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?
9/10/13
Day Two of Operation Get Back In Shape
Today was a much better day than yesterday. Today I set up The Mill in the garage. Actually, The Mill was already in the garage. While our new house has more bedrooms than our old house, it doesn't seem to have as much space so there was no where to put The Mill in the house. So we left it in the garage. I thought it would be better out there anyway. The original plan was to put it in the corner of the garage but it turns out the lady who lived here before left a cabinet (Yay! Thanks, lady who lived here before!) and while I did spend a whole afternoon straightening and rearranging the garage (we pronounce it Guh rah gee because it's funny to say it that way) we still have a bunch of boxes that we have to get rid of so they are kind of strategically piled up and stacked until we can find a way to dispose of them without torking off the garbage people too much. My step mother said we could bring them to their house and burn them so that's probably what we will do. Anyway, so right now The Mill is kind of pushed off to the side and surrounded by stuff (although it's all very neat and tidy and organized, it's still stuff that's not supposed to be there.) I pulled the truck (did I mention my wonderful husband bought me an awesome truck? It's a 2006 Honda Pilot and I LOVE it! Let's hear it for awesome husbands!!! WOOT WOOT!!!) out of the garage and moved The Mill out. It turned out rather well. It was far enough into the garage that I can't really be seen unless you are coming down the street toward our house but out enough that I don't feel claustrophobic.
Since yesterday was such a hard run I decided that I was only going to run a mile and then see how I felt. I started out with the usual pace (5 MPH for a pace of 12:00) and at half a mile I stopped have a drink. It's hotter where we live and I was running in the garage with no air conditioning so I figured I better maintain hydration. I started up again and by the time I hit one mile I felt pretty good. I kept going for another half a mile. I stopped there because I was feeling tired and although I didn't want to stop, I knew if I didn't I would feel sore tomorrow and I would use that as an excuse not to run again. Since I didn't want to stop I went ahead and walked another half a mile so I could burn a few more calories.
Today felt much better than yesterday and I never thought I'd say this but I felt much better on The Mill today than I did on the street yesterday. I'm not sure why that is. I suppose it's because when I'm on the street I set my own pace and yesterday I started out at a pace of 9:32 (I think that's what it was) and burned myself out very quickly. When I get on The Mill I hit the 5 button and it starts me at 5 MPH. It doesn't change unless I change it and it keeps me steady and going. I believe I'm going to continue to run The Mill until I get back in shape. This way I'm sure not to burn myself out. Plus when I'm on The Mill I have easy access to water. I like water. I like ice water with lots of ice in it to keep me hydrated. When running on the street there's that pesky problem of how to carry water. When I'm not on a track I can't set it down somewhere and stop to get a drink when I want it. On The Mill it's in the handy little cup holder all nice and cold and dripping so I can wipe my cold, wet hand across my face when I'm too hot. So, until I'm back in shape I will be on The Mill. Never thought I'd prefer The Mill to the street. Imagine that!
Okay...time for the details: I ran 1.5 miles @ 5 MPH for a pace of 12:00. It took 18 minutes. I then walked .5 mile @ 3.6 MPH for a pace of 16:40. It took 8 minutes and 20 seconds.
Pretty satisfied with today's run. Will do it again tomorrow.
Happy Running!
KEA
Day Two of Operation Get Back In Shape
Today was a much better day than yesterday. Today I set up The Mill in the garage. Actually, The Mill was already in the garage. While our new house has more bedrooms than our old house, it doesn't seem to have as much space so there was no where to put The Mill in the house. So we left it in the garage. I thought it would be better out there anyway. The original plan was to put it in the corner of the garage but it turns out the lady who lived here before left a cabinet (Yay! Thanks, lady who lived here before!) and while I did spend a whole afternoon straightening and rearranging the garage (we pronounce it Guh rah gee because it's funny to say it that way) we still have a bunch of boxes that we have to get rid of so they are kind of strategically piled up and stacked until we can find a way to dispose of them without torking off the garbage people too much. My step mother said we could bring them to their house and burn them so that's probably what we will do. Anyway, so right now The Mill is kind of pushed off to the side and surrounded by stuff (although it's all very neat and tidy and organized, it's still stuff that's not supposed to be there.) I pulled the truck (did I mention my wonderful husband bought me an awesome truck? It's a 2006 Honda Pilot and I LOVE it! Let's hear it for awesome husbands!!! WOOT WOOT!!!) out of the garage and moved The Mill out. It turned out rather well. It was far enough into the garage that I can't really be seen unless you are coming down the street toward our house but out enough that I don't feel claustrophobic.
Since yesterday was such a hard run I decided that I was only going to run a mile and then see how I felt. I started out with the usual pace (5 MPH for a pace of 12:00) and at half a mile I stopped have a drink. It's hotter where we live and I was running in the garage with no air conditioning so I figured I better maintain hydration. I started up again and by the time I hit one mile I felt pretty good. I kept going for another half a mile. I stopped there because I was feeling tired and although I didn't want to stop, I knew if I didn't I would feel sore tomorrow and I would use that as an excuse not to run again. Since I didn't want to stop I went ahead and walked another half a mile so I could burn a few more calories.
Today felt much better than yesterday and I never thought I'd say this but I felt much better on The Mill today than I did on the street yesterday. I'm not sure why that is. I suppose it's because when I'm on the street I set my own pace and yesterday I started out at a pace of 9:32 (I think that's what it was) and burned myself out very quickly. When I get on The Mill I hit the 5 button and it starts me at 5 MPH. It doesn't change unless I change it and it keeps me steady and going. I believe I'm going to continue to run The Mill until I get back in shape. This way I'm sure not to burn myself out. Plus when I'm on The Mill I have easy access to water. I like water. I like ice water with lots of ice in it to keep me hydrated. When running on the street there's that pesky problem of how to carry water. When I'm not on a track I can't set it down somewhere and stop to get a drink when I want it. On The Mill it's in the handy little cup holder all nice and cold and dripping so I can wipe my cold, wet hand across my face when I'm too hot. So, until I'm back in shape I will be on The Mill. Never thought I'd prefer The Mill to the street. Imagine that!
Okay...time for the details: I ran 1.5 miles @ 5 MPH for a pace of 12:00. It took 18 minutes. I then walked .5 mile @ 3.6 MPH for a pace of 16:40. It took 8 minutes and 20 seconds.
Pretty satisfied with today's run. Will do it again tomorrow.
Happy Running!
KEA
Monday, September 9, 2013
Let That Be a Lesson to You
September 9, 2013
I haven't put foot to pavement or treadmill since the Color Blaze in June of this year and that's a real shame. So many things seemed to get in the way. We made a major move when my husband got a job and there was so much that needed to be done. There just didn't seem to be any time to run in there. Then when we finally made the move there always seemed to be something that needed to be done and I was so tired. When things were finally unpacked and organized I had to get kids ready for school. Then there's the going back and forth between this house and the old one to work on getting the old house ready to sell. There's always something going on and it seemed that I couldn't fit a run in. It's also a lot hotter where we are now so my old running schedule won't work. I used to run in the hottest part of the day but now I can't. It's just too hot so I have to run in the morning. I've been telling myself that I will get up with my husband (at the butt crack of dawn) and get a run in then. That way someone will be home with the kids and I won't worry about leaving them alone even if they are sleeping and can't get into any trouble while I'm gone. However, hubby's alarm goes off and I roll over. I just can't seem to get myself up, especially when we are staying up too late again (although now too late is 11:00 or 12:00 not 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning!) Well, Saturday morning I happened to step on the scale and I saw a number that was unacceptable so I told myself no more excuses. Today I laced up the old Marathon 10's and stepped out the door.
Today's route is new territory so I didn't know what to expect although it is pavement so it's not much different than Ye Olde Courthouse Run. The only differences are that the road is smooth, no cracks or bumps and the distance I could go didn't have any hills except for my driveway. The road felt good under my feet. The only problem is that I felt terrible. I am so out of shape it's pathetic. I couldn't breathe and everything hurt. My legs hurt. My arms hurt. My lungs hurt. My shoulder hurt - you know, that pain you get in your shoulder when you are out of breath but you keep running? You probably remember that pain from gym class, right? Well, I felt terrible. I could only do one mile and almost didn't even do that. I felt every bit of my age and then some today. I even felt like I was going to throw up for about fifteen minutes after I got back. UGH!!!!
I'm pretty cranky with myself because I know that I should never have stopped running; I knew this would happen. The only thing I can do is go at it again tomorrow and hope that I get through this quick. So, completely dissatisfied with this run today, especially since my son, who hasn't run since around April or May completed a full 5k on Saturday. What's up with that???? I feel like a wimp and am aggravated that I didn't make the time to keep up with my passion.
So with no further ado, here are the details: I ran one mile. It took me 11 minutes and fifty seconds for a pace of, yup, you guessed it, 11:50.
Completely unhappy with this run but tomorrow's another day. I will leave you with one of my inspirations: "I guarantee that if you give up now, you will give it another shot someday. Maybe in a month. Maybe 6 days. Maybe even 14. But I know you want this and you won't stop until you get it. So don't stop NOW. Because when you start again you're going to look and think "Why the hell didn't I keep going?" It'll be hard now or it'll be hard later. YOU PICK."
Happy Running!
KEA
I haven't put foot to pavement or treadmill since the Color Blaze in June of this year and that's a real shame. So many things seemed to get in the way. We made a major move when my husband got a job and there was so much that needed to be done. There just didn't seem to be any time to run in there. Then when we finally made the move there always seemed to be something that needed to be done and I was so tired. When things were finally unpacked and organized I had to get kids ready for school. Then there's the going back and forth between this house and the old one to work on getting the old house ready to sell. There's always something going on and it seemed that I couldn't fit a run in. It's also a lot hotter where we are now so my old running schedule won't work. I used to run in the hottest part of the day but now I can't. It's just too hot so I have to run in the morning. I've been telling myself that I will get up with my husband (at the butt crack of dawn) and get a run in then. That way someone will be home with the kids and I won't worry about leaving them alone even if they are sleeping and can't get into any trouble while I'm gone. However, hubby's alarm goes off and I roll over. I just can't seem to get myself up, especially when we are staying up too late again (although now too late is 11:00 or 12:00 not 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning!) Well, Saturday morning I happened to step on the scale and I saw a number that was unacceptable so I told myself no more excuses. Today I laced up the old Marathon 10's and stepped out the door.
Today's route is new territory so I didn't know what to expect although it is pavement so it's not much different than Ye Olde Courthouse Run. The only differences are that the road is smooth, no cracks or bumps and the distance I could go didn't have any hills except for my driveway. The road felt good under my feet. The only problem is that I felt terrible. I am so out of shape it's pathetic. I couldn't breathe and everything hurt. My legs hurt. My arms hurt. My lungs hurt. My shoulder hurt - you know, that pain you get in your shoulder when you are out of breath but you keep running? You probably remember that pain from gym class, right? Well, I felt terrible. I could only do one mile and almost didn't even do that. I felt every bit of my age and then some today. I even felt like I was going to throw up for about fifteen minutes after I got back. UGH!!!!
I'm pretty cranky with myself because I know that I should never have stopped running; I knew this would happen. The only thing I can do is go at it again tomorrow and hope that I get through this quick. So, completely dissatisfied with this run today, especially since my son, who hasn't run since around April or May completed a full 5k on Saturday. What's up with that???? I feel like a wimp and am aggravated that I didn't make the time to keep up with my passion.
So with no further ado, here are the details: I ran one mile. It took me 11 minutes and fifty seconds for a pace of, yup, you guessed it, 11:50.
Completely unhappy with this run but tomorrow's another day. I will leave you with one of my inspirations: "I guarantee that if you give up now, you will give it another shot someday. Maybe in a month. Maybe 6 days. Maybe even 14. But I know you want this and you won't stop until you get it. So don't stop NOW. Because when you start again you're going to look and think "Why the hell didn't I keep going?" It'll be hard now or it'll be hard later. YOU PICK."
Happy Running!
KEA
Monday, August 12, 2013
Doing Things the Hard Way
August 12, 2013
This blog has absolutely nothing to do with running. I'm not even going to mention running in this blog, except that I just did....twice and I'm going to make one more comment about it. But it's not about running today. I know I haven't posted in a very long time and that's because I haven't run in a very long time (okay, there, I mentioned running again) and that's due to our move which is partially what I'm going to talk about today.
Several months ago my husband got a new job and we moved from Illinois to Mississippi. Normally I wouldn't mention where I live (I'm kind of protective of my privacy that way) but given the subject of this blog I feel I need to share with the world where I live so people can go into life informed. So, as I was saying several months ago we moved to Mississippi. We kind of like it here. It's quiet in this town and we have a lovely house. The neighborhood has a pool and the kids like that so we're pretty happy in our new life. However, it is time for school and I wanted to take this moment to share with you all what we went through to get our kids registered for school.
About two, maybe three weeks before school started I got online and filled out "paperwork" to enroll my daughter in school. There are several middle schools in our county so I was nervous about signing up online. However, I didn't think the schools were open and I wasn't sure which school my daughter would go to so I started online. There was a link that led to a page that you could put your address in and it would tell you what school your kids would go to. So I clicked there, found the right school and carried on with the "registration" process. After filling out the online forms I felt relieved to have taken care of that and calmly waited to hear back; I assumed I'd be getting a letter in the mail or a phone call or something letting me know the school had received the information about my daughter and letting me know what I needed to do next. Time passed and I didn't hear anything. The school open house occurred the night before school started. My husband went and stated that the kids hadn't been signed up soon enough (he registered his son a week or so later) so they didn't have schedules. We didn't think much of this; we assumed we could go in the next day and sort everything out on the first day. Since we hadn't heard anything from the new school telling us they needed any other information we figured the school had the information they needed and had probably contacted the kids' old school in Illinois, gotten all the records they needed to get the kids started in their new school. Oh, how wrong we were!
The first day of school found us in the counselor's office with several other parents trying to register their children for school. Unfortunately, the school's computer system was down (WHAT? On the first day off school your system is down? SERIOUSLY?) and they couldn't access anyone's information at all. My husband asked if it were better if we just came back later and the lady in the guidance counselor's office said yes, it would be better. We decided to take the kids home and deal with it when things were less hectic.
Side note here: My son had gone to school wearing a pair of athletic shorts and a long t-shirt. He didn't even make it to the gym where the sixth graders were supposed to be meeting before he was stopped and told to tuck in his shirt. Another teacher noticed he was wearing athletic shorts and sent him to the principal's office for violating the dress code. Apparently athletic shorts are not allowed, boys are to tuck in their shirts and they cannot wear pants that do not have belt loops. This is the strictest dress codes the kids have ever experienced and my son was not a happy camper. While I understand the need for a neat and tidy appearance I felt that they could've cut him a little slack on his first day of school in a new school in a new state. It was not a good experience for him to have on his first day at the new school.
Later that day I called the school to see if the school's system was up and running. I got no answer at the school. I left a message. An hour later I still hadn't heard back so I called again. This time I got the office and they informed me the system was up and running then transferred me to the guidance counselor's office. I got no answer there so I left another message. Half an hour to forty-five minutes later I hadn't heard back so we got in the car and headed back to the school. Back in the guidance counselor's office we were told they needed the kids' records from the previous school. I told them what I was told when I tried to get the records before we left: that the previous school didn't "do that" and that the new school would have to call and request the records and they would send them to the new school. WHAT? They are MY KIDS' records. I have a right to have them! Okay, so whatever....just call the school and get them. The guidance counselor's office lady called the old school. Old school says they will send the records but doesn't think they will get to it by the next day (keep in mind, school started that day and the next day was day two of school.) So, the lady in the guidance counselor's office gives me this information and we agree that I will call the school to see if I can't speed things along since the kids were supposed to have started school that day.
Day Two of school. I let the kids sleep in since I've not heard from new school telling me they've received copies of the kids' most important information. I call old school and get the front office. They are sweet as pie to me and agree to fax a copy of my kids' birth certificates, shot records and they latest report cards to the new school and meanwhile will mail the rest. Yay! We are making progress. I call the new school and they connect me to the guidance counselor's office. No one answers so I leave a message again relaying the information and asking to please call me if they need anymore information. My phone is sitting next to me the whole afternoon and I never hear it ring but discover I have missed a call from new school. I assume that this is new school calling to tell me they have received records and the kids are good to go for Day Three of school which will occur on Monday since Day Two was a Friday.
Day Three comes and I decide I better check messages to be sure things are a go before I get kids up and make them get ready for school if they aren't going. Message says new school got records but oh, by the way, did I tell you the shot records have to be on a Mississippi form? You can get those transferred at the health department. I get the kids up because I naively thought that I could run to new school, get shot records, run to the health department, get shot records transferred, run back to new school and viola! kids could go to school today. Silly me!!!! I should've known better. We head to the health department where I am informed at the front desk that it is "appointment day" and those people with appointments will be given priority over me. Normally, I would understand and be content with that, however, I had in my hands two kids' shot records that needed transferred from Illinois Department of Health forms to Mississippi Department of Health forms, a process that should take fifteen minutes tops to do both and I can't understand how they couldn't slip them into a nurse's box, have her do them quickly then move on to other cases that would take more time. Oh, and by the way, there was only one nurse at the Department of Health. And of course, a nurse has to transfer the dates from one form to the other because apparently only a nurse is capable of reading dates and putting them in the right box on the computer. I mean, it does take a degree in medicine to do that, right? Yeah....thought so. So, me and my two sixth graders sit down to patiently wait. We arrived at the Department of Health at a little after 8:00 (my son said it was 8:10 in the morning.) In the car I had told the kids we'd go in, get the forms filled out and they would probably be back and in school by 10:00. I even had planned to get the kids back to school and actually go for a run in the new neighborhood for the first time! Oh, how wrong I was!!!! To make an already long story shorter, we sat in the Department of Health for FIVE HOURS waiting for the nurse (the only nurse who was there) to transfer dates that my kids had received their shots from the form they were faxed to the school on, to a piece of paper that the nurse threw away when she was done then to the computer where she had to enter my son's records twice because she hit the wrong button. The whole process took probably about fifteen minutes even with her doing my son's twice and we were out the door. We waited FIVE HOURS for her to do that....something that I could've done myself in about five minutes at home if given the form. Oh, and while we waited, I called the kids' doctors to see if I could fax the Mississippi form to them if they could fill them out, fax them back and get my kids into school. The doctors were fine with that but when I asked for the forms at the front desk the receptionist said that the school wouldn't accept it because they would know that form came from somewhere that shouldn't have had the Mississippi form. So apparently only a nurse from Mississippi can write the numbers on the sheet of paper because apparently only a nurse with a Mississippi degree/license can do that? So anyway, that was a no go and we had to wait.
We get back to the school (after I rewarded my children for being so patient and well behaved while we waited FIVE HOURS to get the forms filled out with lunch at Wendy's) and we are FINALLY able to begin the process of getting the kids enrolled. Now we just have the problem of my daughter's diabetes to worry about. Guess what! The school doesn't have a full time nurse. So, I'm informed that my daughter is supposed to carry her diabetes kit with her at all times complete with syringes, insulin and all. This I am NOT comfortable with at all but the nurse informs me that she wants my daughter to be able to "have access to her monitor at all times." Something I'm not completely convinced is the truth. While I realize that my daughter is in sixth grade and she is getting to the age where she should be able to administer her insulin herself, I'm not exactly comfortable with her being let go to administer her insulin without supervision which is what she is going to be expected to do at this new school. Furthermore, as I stated before, the nurse didn't seem to be at all bothered with my daughter carrying around syringes where they can be taken by other students. When I expressed my concerns to the nurse she stated "Oh, well, things like that have a way of coming back on the ones who would take them." That very well may be the case but it also puts my daughter in a position where she is vulnerable and might possibly be left without supplies to take care of her illness! Now, some of you may think I'm being an over protective mother and some of you may think that this just means that my daughter needs to be extra vigilant of her supplies and all that may be true, however, school is a place where my daughter should be focusing on learning, not whether someone might take her diabetes bag! I don't think I'm overreacting here. I believe I have a legitimate reason to be concerned. And while I do believe that it is time for my daughter to learn to administer her own medication, I also believe that it should be done with supervision. She is only eleven and while we've known she's had this illness for a year and a half, she is still a child and still needs to be supervised despite her ability to calculate, and draw up her insulin dosage. Even I check her when she does this for herself at home. I believe I'm not overreacting in this situation either.
There are a few things I would like to say here. Now I know this is a running blog and I normally keep mainly keep my opinions to myself - I prefer to blog about running and my thoughts on running in this place but today I'm going to express myself and let it all fly. So, here goes:
I'm a Conservative. I believe in limited government. I believe in the free market and capitalism. I believe that if you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day but if you teach a man to fish, you feed him for life. I believe there are times when people need help and it is our responsibility to help them. Heck, I've needed help and received it before. However, I do not believe in enabling people and allowing them to remain helpless. I believe people need to work for the things they receive and that the government needs to butt out! I believe government is necessary for some things but one of those things is NOT sharing a joint check book. I believe when government steps in, things get muddled up and become much more complicated than they need to be. I believe this is what has happened in this situation. I believe somewhere along the line government has decided that this is the way things need to be and therefore we need to jump through a bunch of hoops to get kids enrolled into school. Take for instance my experience at the Department of Health. No, let's back up even further, let's take the shot records for example. Who decided that the Illinois Department of Health records were not good enough? Seriously? How silly is it that the only difference between the shot records that I now have the shot records that I had previously is that they now are on the Mississippi Department of Health's letterhead? That's the ONLY difference. Why should the letterhead that my kids' shot records are on prevent my kids from starting school? That makes absolutely no sense to me. Furthermore, why should a nurse have to fill out that form? All that nurse did was type the dates into a computer program, hit a button and print the form out. Why is a nurse more capable of doing that then a receptionist....or me for that matter? Okay, I can hear some of you saying, well, the nurse can check to make sure the records are up to date. Sure, okay, I hear you. But then again, why can't a receptionist or secretary have a list of how often shots are to be given and compare it to the records? Is it really that hard to calculate how often a shot should be given? I don't think so. I can do it and I don't think it requires exceptional thinking skills to do that. So why does it have to be a nurse? Because government says that someone in the medical field has to sign the paper. That's only one example of the ineptitude of government. I could go on about many things but I'm tired and I don't want to think about this situation anymore. All I can say is that the bigger government is, the more complicated things become. Something so simple as enrolling my kids in school became an ordeal which sent me on wild goose chase after wild goose chase, took three days to accomplish and could've been prevented by one simple letter sent to me telling me exactly what I needed and when I needed it but I never got a letter and I was left on my own floundering and running around like a dog chasing its tail! So many simple solutions to things that shouldn't have been problematic to start with! My husband says none of this would happen if we were able to pick and choose the schools we wanted our children to attend. If we had that choice, schools would be forced to provide excellent service and make the process as smooth and painless as possible because they would be competing amongst themselves to attract students. That's what the free market is all about. If your service is the best for the best price, you get the customers. Schools and government services should be the same way. With schools and government services, however, you have no choice. You can't get a driver's license anywhere but the DMV (or as it's called in Mississippi the Department of Public Safety - the DPS.) Think about how that would change your experience at the DMV (or the DPS) if you could! The service would be better, prices would be more competitive and maybe, just maybe the lines would be shorter! This, my friends, is something to think about!
I will end my rant now. I'm glad my children are enrolled in school and able to attend but I must say that my experience has been extremely stressful. Oh, and on Day One when we were in the guidance counselor's office we heard the teachers saying that they "lost" about six or seven afternoon buses! This makes me a bit less than confident about letting my kids ride the bus!
Anyway, I know this is supposed to be a blog about running, not ranting (ha, ha) and I'm not usually one to express my political opinions but I feel strongly about my political opinions and I am upset enough from this experience to post about it.
And while I know this blog had nothing to do with running I will still end it with my regular:
Happy Running!
KEA
P.S. Don't even get me started about my experience at the DPS!!!! I STILL don't have a Mississippi driver's license yet! UGH!!!!
This blog has absolutely nothing to do with running. I'm not even going to mention running in this blog, except that I just did....twice and I'm going to make one more comment about it. But it's not about running today. I know I haven't posted in a very long time and that's because I haven't run in a very long time (okay, there, I mentioned running again) and that's due to our move which is partially what I'm going to talk about today.
Several months ago my husband got a new job and we moved from Illinois to Mississippi. Normally I wouldn't mention where I live (I'm kind of protective of my privacy that way) but given the subject of this blog I feel I need to share with the world where I live so people can go into life informed. So, as I was saying several months ago we moved to Mississippi. We kind of like it here. It's quiet in this town and we have a lovely house. The neighborhood has a pool and the kids like that so we're pretty happy in our new life. However, it is time for school and I wanted to take this moment to share with you all what we went through to get our kids registered for school.
About two, maybe three weeks before school started I got online and filled out "paperwork" to enroll my daughter in school. There are several middle schools in our county so I was nervous about signing up online. However, I didn't think the schools were open and I wasn't sure which school my daughter would go to so I started online. There was a link that led to a page that you could put your address in and it would tell you what school your kids would go to. So I clicked there, found the right school and carried on with the "registration" process. After filling out the online forms I felt relieved to have taken care of that and calmly waited to hear back; I assumed I'd be getting a letter in the mail or a phone call or something letting me know the school had received the information about my daughter and letting me know what I needed to do next. Time passed and I didn't hear anything. The school open house occurred the night before school started. My husband went and stated that the kids hadn't been signed up soon enough (he registered his son a week or so later) so they didn't have schedules. We didn't think much of this; we assumed we could go in the next day and sort everything out on the first day. Since we hadn't heard anything from the new school telling us they needed any other information we figured the school had the information they needed and had probably contacted the kids' old school in Illinois, gotten all the records they needed to get the kids started in their new school. Oh, how wrong we were!
The first day of school found us in the counselor's office with several other parents trying to register their children for school. Unfortunately, the school's computer system was down (WHAT? On the first day off school your system is down? SERIOUSLY?) and they couldn't access anyone's information at all. My husband asked if it were better if we just came back later and the lady in the guidance counselor's office said yes, it would be better. We decided to take the kids home and deal with it when things were less hectic.
Side note here: My son had gone to school wearing a pair of athletic shorts and a long t-shirt. He didn't even make it to the gym where the sixth graders were supposed to be meeting before he was stopped and told to tuck in his shirt. Another teacher noticed he was wearing athletic shorts and sent him to the principal's office for violating the dress code. Apparently athletic shorts are not allowed, boys are to tuck in their shirts and they cannot wear pants that do not have belt loops. This is the strictest dress codes the kids have ever experienced and my son was not a happy camper. While I understand the need for a neat and tidy appearance I felt that they could've cut him a little slack on his first day of school in a new school in a new state. It was not a good experience for him to have on his first day at the new school.
Later that day I called the school to see if the school's system was up and running. I got no answer at the school. I left a message. An hour later I still hadn't heard back so I called again. This time I got the office and they informed me the system was up and running then transferred me to the guidance counselor's office. I got no answer there so I left another message. Half an hour to forty-five minutes later I hadn't heard back so we got in the car and headed back to the school. Back in the guidance counselor's office we were told they needed the kids' records from the previous school. I told them what I was told when I tried to get the records before we left: that the previous school didn't "do that" and that the new school would have to call and request the records and they would send them to the new school. WHAT? They are MY KIDS' records. I have a right to have them! Okay, so whatever....just call the school and get them. The guidance counselor's office lady called the old school. Old school says they will send the records but doesn't think they will get to it by the next day (keep in mind, school started that day and the next day was day two of school.) So, the lady in the guidance counselor's office gives me this information and we agree that I will call the school to see if I can't speed things along since the kids were supposed to have started school that day.
Day Two of school. I let the kids sleep in since I've not heard from new school telling me they've received copies of the kids' most important information. I call old school and get the front office. They are sweet as pie to me and agree to fax a copy of my kids' birth certificates, shot records and they latest report cards to the new school and meanwhile will mail the rest. Yay! We are making progress. I call the new school and they connect me to the guidance counselor's office. No one answers so I leave a message again relaying the information and asking to please call me if they need anymore information. My phone is sitting next to me the whole afternoon and I never hear it ring but discover I have missed a call from new school. I assume that this is new school calling to tell me they have received records and the kids are good to go for Day Three of school which will occur on Monday since Day Two was a Friday.
Day Three comes and I decide I better check messages to be sure things are a go before I get kids up and make them get ready for school if they aren't going. Message says new school got records but oh, by the way, did I tell you the shot records have to be on a Mississippi form? You can get those transferred at the health department. I get the kids up because I naively thought that I could run to new school, get shot records, run to the health department, get shot records transferred, run back to new school and viola! kids could go to school today. Silly me!!!! I should've known better. We head to the health department where I am informed at the front desk that it is "appointment day" and those people with appointments will be given priority over me. Normally, I would understand and be content with that, however, I had in my hands two kids' shot records that needed transferred from Illinois Department of Health forms to Mississippi Department of Health forms, a process that should take fifteen minutes tops to do both and I can't understand how they couldn't slip them into a nurse's box, have her do them quickly then move on to other cases that would take more time. Oh, and by the way, there was only one nurse at the Department of Health. And of course, a nurse has to transfer the dates from one form to the other because apparently only a nurse is capable of reading dates and putting them in the right box on the computer. I mean, it does take a degree in medicine to do that, right? Yeah....thought so. So, me and my two sixth graders sit down to patiently wait. We arrived at the Department of Health at a little after 8:00 (my son said it was 8:10 in the morning.) In the car I had told the kids we'd go in, get the forms filled out and they would probably be back and in school by 10:00. I even had planned to get the kids back to school and actually go for a run in the new neighborhood for the first time! Oh, how wrong I was!!!! To make an already long story shorter, we sat in the Department of Health for FIVE HOURS waiting for the nurse (the only nurse who was there) to transfer dates that my kids had received their shots from the form they were faxed to the school on, to a piece of paper that the nurse threw away when she was done then to the computer where she had to enter my son's records twice because she hit the wrong button. The whole process took probably about fifteen minutes even with her doing my son's twice and we were out the door. We waited FIVE HOURS for her to do that....something that I could've done myself in about five minutes at home if given the form. Oh, and while we waited, I called the kids' doctors to see if I could fax the Mississippi form to them if they could fill them out, fax them back and get my kids into school. The doctors were fine with that but when I asked for the forms at the front desk the receptionist said that the school wouldn't accept it because they would know that form came from somewhere that shouldn't have had the Mississippi form. So apparently only a nurse from Mississippi can write the numbers on the sheet of paper because apparently only a nurse with a Mississippi degree/license can do that? So anyway, that was a no go and we had to wait.
We get back to the school (after I rewarded my children for being so patient and well behaved while we waited FIVE HOURS to get the forms filled out with lunch at Wendy's) and we are FINALLY able to begin the process of getting the kids enrolled. Now we just have the problem of my daughter's diabetes to worry about. Guess what! The school doesn't have a full time nurse. So, I'm informed that my daughter is supposed to carry her diabetes kit with her at all times complete with syringes, insulin and all. This I am NOT comfortable with at all but the nurse informs me that she wants my daughter to be able to "have access to her monitor at all times." Something I'm not completely convinced is the truth. While I realize that my daughter is in sixth grade and she is getting to the age where she should be able to administer her insulin herself, I'm not exactly comfortable with her being let go to administer her insulin without supervision which is what she is going to be expected to do at this new school. Furthermore, as I stated before, the nurse didn't seem to be at all bothered with my daughter carrying around syringes where they can be taken by other students. When I expressed my concerns to the nurse she stated "Oh, well, things like that have a way of coming back on the ones who would take them." That very well may be the case but it also puts my daughter in a position where she is vulnerable and might possibly be left without supplies to take care of her illness! Now, some of you may think I'm being an over protective mother and some of you may think that this just means that my daughter needs to be extra vigilant of her supplies and all that may be true, however, school is a place where my daughter should be focusing on learning, not whether someone might take her diabetes bag! I don't think I'm overreacting here. I believe I have a legitimate reason to be concerned. And while I do believe that it is time for my daughter to learn to administer her own medication, I also believe that it should be done with supervision. She is only eleven and while we've known she's had this illness for a year and a half, she is still a child and still needs to be supervised despite her ability to calculate, and draw up her insulin dosage. Even I check her when she does this for herself at home. I believe I'm not overreacting in this situation either.
There are a few things I would like to say here. Now I know this is a running blog and I normally keep mainly keep my opinions to myself - I prefer to blog about running and my thoughts on running in this place but today I'm going to express myself and let it all fly. So, here goes:
I'm a Conservative. I believe in limited government. I believe in the free market and capitalism. I believe that if you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day but if you teach a man to fish, you feed him for life. I believe there are times when people need help and it is our responsibility to help them. Heck, I've needed help and received it before. However, I do not believe in enabling people and allowing them to remain helpless. I believe people need to work for the things they receive and that the government needs to butt out! I believe government is necessary for some things but one of those things is NOT sharing a joint check book. I believe when government steps in, things get muddled up and become much more complicated than they need to be. I believe this is what has happened in this situation. I believe somewhere along the line government has decided that this is the way things need to be and therefore we need to jump through a bunch of hoops to get kids enrolled into school. Take for instance my experience at the Department of Health. No, let's back up even further, let's take the shot records for example. Who decided that the Illinois Department of Health records were not good enough? Seriously? How silly is it that the only difference between the shot records that I now have the shot records that I had previously is that they now are on the Mississippi Department of Health's letterhead? That's the ONLY difference. Why should the letterhead that my kids' shot records are on prevent my kids from starting school? That makes absolutely no sense to me. Furthermore, why should a nurse have to fill out that form? All that nurse did was type the dates into a computer program, hit a button and print the form out. Why is a nurse more capable of doing that then a receptionist....or me for that matter? Okay, I can hear some of you saying, well, the nurse can check to make sure the records are up to date. Sure, okay, I hear you. But then again, why can't a receptionist or secretary have a list of how often shots are to be given and compare it to the records? Is it really that hard to calculate how often a shot should be given? I don't think so. I can do it and I don't think it requires exceptional thinking skills to do that. So why does it have to be a nurse? Because government says that someone in the medical field has to sign the paper. That's only one example of the ineptitude of government. I could go on about many things but I'm tired and I don't want to think about this situation anymore. All I can say is that the bigger government is, the more complicated things become. Something so simple as enrolling my kids in school became an ordeal which sent me on wild goose chase after wild goose chase, took three days to accomplish and could've been prevented by one simple letter sent to me telling me exactly what I needed and when I needed it but I never got a letter and I was left on my own floundering and running around like a dog chasing its tail! So many simple solutions to things that shouldn't have been problematic to start with! My husband says none of this would happen if we were able to pick and choose the schools we wanted our children to attend. If we had that choice, schools would be forced to provide excellent service and make the process as smooth and painless as possible because they would be competing amongst themselves to attract students. That's what the free market is all about. If your service is the best for the best price, you get the customers. Schools and government services should be the same way. With schools and government services, however, you have no choice. You can't get a driver's license anywhere but the DMV (or as it's called in Mississippi the Department of Public Safety - the DPS.) Think about how that would change your experience at the DMV (or the DPS) if you could! The service would be better, prices would be more competitive and maybe, just maybe the lines would be shorter! This, my friends, is something to think about!
I will end my rant now. I'm glad my children are enrolled in school and able to attend but I must say that my experience has been extremely stressful. Oh, and on Day One when we were in the guidance counselor's office we heard the teachers saying that they "lost" about six or seven afternoon buses! This makes me a bit less than confident about letting my kids ride the bus!
Anyway, I know this is supposed to be a blog about running, not ranting (ha, ha) and I'm not usually one to express my political opinions but I feel strongly about my political opinions and I am upset enough from this experience to post about it.
And while I know this blog had nothing to do with running I will still end it with my regular:
Happy Running!
KEA
P.S. Don't even get me started about my experience at the DPS!!!! I STILL don't have a Mississippi driver's license yet! UGH!!!!
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Moving, moving, moving
July 30, 2013
So, you may (or may not) have noticed I haven't posted in a loooooooooooooooooooooong time. I've got a really good reason. We've spent the past couple of months moving. My husband got a job and we've uprooted the entire family and moved to another state. It's been a really rough couple of months and it's hard for me to get back in the saddle again. As a matter of fact, I haven't run since the Color Blaze! That makes me ashamed but I can't seem to get back to it. Part of the problem is that we broke the treadmill when we moved. If you've read me regularly you'll know about my love/hate relationship with my treadmill....we love to hate each other. But, I must say, it was a sad moment. We had put the treadmill in the Uhaul and somehow when we took it back out the whole top part, the plastic part that attaches to the metal hand rails came loose so you can lift the whole top part up. I'm afraid to get on it. It sounds silly and like I'm a little dumb but I don't know if it's safe for me to get on it. Plus there's no where for us to put it in the house so we put it in the garage...I have a garage now. I'm so excited! I've never had a garage before. I'm so excited!!!!! Anyway, so the treadmill is in the garage and the garage is a mess right now and I can't even put the Mill down anyway! :-(
So, we've moved to another state and now I have to find a new route to run. At this point my husband has recommended that I only stay within the neighborhood since the whole Zimmerman/Martin thing. We had an abduction/attack not to far from where we live so my husband has told me not to leave the neighborhood, especially if I'm going to be alone. I think I might carry mace too. I don't want to be a victim. It's really sad that I even have to think about these things. :-( Such is the world we live in these days.
So at any rate, I need to get back to it and I will and I don't know what's stopping me. My husband's job has a program that rewards employees & their spouses for exercise. I told my husband that I will take part in the program but so far I haven't even begun. If anyone has any suggestions as to how to get up off my bum and off to a start let me know. Until then I will keep working to being inspired.
Happy Running,
KEA
So, you may (or may not) have noticed I haven't posted in a loooooooooooooooooooooong time. I've got a really good reason. We've spent the past couple of months moving. My husband got a job and we've uprooted the entire family and moved to another state. It's been a really rough couple of months and it's hard for me to get back in the saddle again. As a matter of fact, I haven't run since the Color Blaze! That makes me ashamed but I can't seem to get back to it. Part of the problem is that we broke the treadmill when we moved. If you've read me regularly you'll know about my love/hate relationship with my treadmill....we love to hate each other. But, I must say, it was a sad moment. We had put the treadmill in the Uhaul and somehow when we took it back out the whole top part, the plastic part that attaches to the metal hand rails came loose so you can lift the whole top part up. I'm afraid to get on it. It sounds silly and like I'm a little dumb but I don't know if it's safe for me to get on it. Plus there's no where for us to put it in the house so we put it in the garage...I have a garage now. I'm so excited! I've never had a garage before. I'm so excited!!!!! Anyway, so the treadmill is in the garage and the garage is a mess right now and I can't even put the Mill down anyway! :-(
So, we've moved to another state and now I have to find a new route to run. At this point my husband has recommended that I only stay within the neighborhood since the whole Zimmerman/Martin thing. We had an abduction/attack not to far from where we live so my husband has told me not to leave the neighborhood, especially if I'm going to be alone. I think I might carry mace too. I don't want to be a victim. It's really sad that I even have to think about these things. :-( Such is the world we live in these days.
So at any rate, I need to get back to it and I will and I don't know what's stopping me. My husband's job has a program that rewards employees & their spouses for exercise. I told my husband that I will take part in the program but so far I haven't even begun. If anyone has any suggestions as to how to get up off my bum and off to a start let me know. Until then I will keep working to being inspired.
Happy Running,
KEA
Sunday, June 9, 2013
Colorize Me!!!!
June 8, 2013
Okay, I realize I've got two posts marked with the same date. With the first post I just wanted to post that I had run the 5k and I was MUCH too tired to give the details. In this post I will talk about the run and give the details.
Before we go any further I would like to just throw out there that if you have not run one of these, DO IT! It is loads of fun. There, having said that, got that out of the way, let's talk about it!
This was not a race so I won't call it a race. This was a 5k run and the whole point of it was to have fun. It was held in my home town so this trip up was a good excuse to see one of my besties too. I got to town around noon and we spent the early afternoon taking pictures of my new inventory to post on my website. (I sell $5 jewelry and accessories; if you want to check that out, go to www.facebook.com/PaparazziByKarley or www.paparazzibykarley.weebly.com.) Around three o'clock I left to go pick up my run packet. The run was being held at a park that had been built near the neighborhood I grew up in. When I got to the park the parking lot was full but I lucked out and found a spot that someone must have just left. :-) The lines for packet pick up were long and it was chilly. I was a little concerned that I hadn't brought warmer running clothes. Then again, running warms you up so I guess it wouldn't have mattered if was chilly as long as it wasn't cold. While in line I chatted with the people around me. The woman behind me was with her daughter. Her daughter is a morning runner and the woman was a burn victim. She had lost several siblings to a fire. She didn't say but I assumed it was the fire that she survived. She had made T-shirts to support burn victims. The organizers of the race were donating to the Memorial Regional Burn Center. We chatted while we waited in line to pick up packets. The wait wasn't THAT bad although I've seen people complaining on the website that the wait was too long. Maybe I'm just naturally patient? Yeah, right....NOT! LOL!!!! Once you got up to the table it was quick and easy, although I do want to point out to the people who made the signs for packet pick up that N comes after M. The signs were labeled A - G, H - N, M - Z. HELLO!!!! Someone needs to go back to school! Anyway, packet pick up was a cinch except for parking and waiting in line. They gave me a T-shirt, a racing bib and a baggie full of pink powder. I wasn't sure if I was meant to start my colorizing early or what but I decided to save it and take it home to let my kids play with it.
My bestie and I had planned on having an early dinner and settling in early but packet pick up took longer than I expected then I had to run to WalMart and pick up a pair of jeans. I had set a pair out to put in my bag but somehow between setting them out and leaving they didn't make it into my bag. So dinner ended up a little later than we had planned. We have two traditions when I visit. We go out for Mexican the night I get there and one morning of my visit we go to IHOP. We have a regular restaurant that we patronize when I come to town. So one order steak fajitas and a strawberry margarita for me and an order of Texas fajitas, a raspberry ice tea, and a peach daquari for my bestie and a shared order of fried ice cream later we headed out to Verizon to have my phone checked out. It's been acting up. It intermittently works and sometimes it won't send/receive texts and then sometimes it says "No mobile network available". Oliver at Verizon said it was the SIM card and gave me a new one. The phone started working again then went back to its old tricks. Don't know what the problem is. I'm going to have to have it looked at again. Anyway....we made some stops, went back to my besties house, hung out then got to bed early. Well, she did anyway. I couldn't sleep so I stayed up and read until 12:30. That was okay though because the run didn't start until 11:00 and I didn't need to be there until 10:00.
Saturday was a bright sun shiny day and it was warm. I was up around 8:00, messed around on the computer and read some more, my bestie was still sleeping, and around 9:00 started getting ready for the run. The odd thing about 5k's is that most of the ones I run aren't really about racing. This is the fourth one I've run and of all of them only one was about racing. So, it seemed really odd that I had a kind of nervousness about me. I went over all my gear: white shirt, check...light colored shorts, check...sport bra, check...iPod charged, check...racing bib, check...shoes & racing socks, check...Garmin, check...water bottle filled half way the previous night and put in freezer, check! I was ready....oh, no, I wasn't! I had forgotten to bring safety pins for the racing bib and I had forgotten to pick some up while I was at WalMart the night before, and I had been there twice the day before! DOH! Luckily I had one from the strap of the cami I wore the day before and my bestie found three others. I was set.
Now, before I go any further, I want to explain something about my bestie. She has a hard time leaving the house in certain situations. For instance, going out to dinner the night before was okay because of the time we went and the restaurant we went to. As I said before it's a tradition and a place she's extremely familiar with and on top of that, it's usually not too crowded so it was easier for her to go. However, this race was a different story. I believe the count of people that were there was at least 3,000 and while I was running my bestie would've had to have been standing alone amidst all the others who were milling about. That would've been too much for her. She said she probably could have done it if she would've had someone to be with her but no one was available. So, for the first time ever I was alone. I've always run alone so that didn't bother me and it didn't bother me that my bestie couldn't go with me. It did bother me to be alone though. All around me everyone had someone with them. Everyone was having fun and enjoying the festivities but I was alone and there was no one to take pictures with, and believe me, if you do a color run of any kind you are going to want to take pictures, and there was no one to visit with while waiting for the run to start. I got there around 10:15. My sister's friend lives in the neighborhood that the run course went through and she graciously allowed me to park in her drive way. Thank you very much, Melissa! Her house was about half the distance of the run so I got a warm up walk in before I ran which I found very nice.
Upon arriving the first thing I had to do was find the bathrooms. I had only had a handful of chocolate almonds to eat so I wasn't heavy and I didn't have to GO TO THE BATHROOM, if you know what I mean, but I did need to pee and I figured if I was going to run I needed to run on an empty bladder or I would be stopping at Melissa's house to use the bathroom and that would cut into my time, LOL!!! Unfortunately, there were no bathrooms but there was a line of lovely Port-A-Potties. I know most of us have had the wonderful experience of the Port-A-Pottie but for those select few who have not.....Port-A-Potties are DISGUSTING! And for those who have had the experience let me reiterate, Port-A-Potties are DISGUSTING!!!!! Also there was no where to wash my hands when I was done. Yuck! So...after waiting in line (again) for the bathroom, I was quick because the potty I was in looked like someone else had some pre-run nerves and they weren't so lucky as me! GROSS!!!!
After using the potty I wandered around for a little bit taking in the scene. Almost everyone was wearing a white shirt. Some were wearing the shirts they provided; others were wearing their own shirts. I made a shirt to wear myself. I wanted to show off my Paparazzi bling so a friend of mine made me a shirt. Thanks, Melanie! Some people were wearing tutus. I don't understand that. Not sure how they could move comfortably in those itchy net skirts in that heat but I'm pretty sure none of the tutu wearers were running. I wandered around for a while to kill time. I thought a couple of friends were supposed to be there so I was sort of looking for them but given the crowd it's no surprise that I didn't find anyone I knew. After wandering aimlessly for a bit; I was hoping I wasn't looking too much like a loser who didn't have any friends, I decided to walk with a purpose and to find a place to do some stretching. It looked like people were lining up on the side walks so I meandered that way, picked a spot and started loosening up and doing some stretching. It was still pretty early but it turns out the lines were actually lines for the starting line so I picked a spot and stayed there. They played some dance music (step to the right...one hop this time....everybody clap your hands) and people were dancing and having fun while waiting for the run to start. Finally eleven o'clock came and it was time to start the run. The sidewalk made a circle with the Starting line at the top of the circle and I had somehow chosen a spot that was at the bottom of the circle. However, people were heading to the Starting line from both side of the circle so I being in the middle, I picked a side and waited. I picked the wrong side. The run started at 11:00. At 11:17 some of the first people, the fast ones, were already crossing the finish line and I was still waiting. While waiting I chatted with people in line with me. We were amazed that we were still waiting and people were already coming in. Long story short....I know, too late....I didn't get out on the course until 11:40, a full forty minutes after the race was supposed to start. AND the other line of the circle was already on the course by the time I even got close to the Starting line. Go figure! LOL! The really sucky thing was that me and the two ladies in front of me I was chatting with had FINALLY gotten to the Starting line and they cut us off into the next group. We had to wait another ten minutes before we could go out on the course. It was pretty warm too.
At 11:40 I finally got to head out onto the course. The first part of the course was fairly easy. The whole course was sidewalk, except when you needed to pass a group of people that was going slower than you. Then you had to go around on the grass which I really don't care for. But, as I said, the first part of the course was easy. I had good strong music blaring in my ears and I was in the zone. Unfortunately, I started the run out too fast and I think I wore myself out. There was a hill about a quarter of a mile in. It wasn't too bad though. Nothing I couldn't handle and it was the only hill in the whole course. But as I said, I started out too fast. I believe I was running at a pace of 9:56 which is too fast for me. I ran a full two miles but I just couldn't go any more. My body was tired and I was hurting. My legs were aching and my muscles were tired. I had to walk. I walked maybe about half a mile of the whole run. However, I was determined to finish the run running so I took off toward the end and I ran the finish.
As I said in a previous blog, I looked over the course to familiarize myself with it before I ran it and there was only one water station. We did run through the area twice so if need be there was another opportunity for water, but it was about a half mile from the finish so I decided that the best way to handle this run was to carry water. I found a bottle that you don't have to unscrew to open at WalMart that was only $1.50 filled it about half way full and put it in the freezer the night before. Right before I left the house I took it out of the freezer and filled it with cold water. The plan was that the ice would cool the water I put in the bottle and melt throughout the run, keep the water cool and keep the bottle replenished throughout the run. Unfortunately, we had to wait so long to start that the ice was melted before we were even close to the Starting line. However, warm water is better than no water so I wasn't complaining. I got pretty hot while running so it was good to have the water to squirt over me too. I only did that twice. I didn't want to run out of water to drink! This worked out pretty well. While I didn't much care for having something in my hand while I was running, I did like having water handy. I'm going to have to think about this. Having water handy is nice.
Now, on to a few comments about the run. There were at least 3,000 people at this event. That's a LOT of people. I want to say that I have never been in the presence of that many people where I didn't see a child throwing a temper tantrum, a teenager being sullen and buttheaded or people behaving badly. I did not see one person acting mean, nasty, gross, selfish or bad in any way. I will even go so far as to say that I did not even see one baby cry! And that's the truth! Everyone at this event was having a good time. It was truly a joy to see. While there was whooping and hollering, there was no unruly screaming and I didn't see one person dressed vulgar. I did see a girl in a wig with rainbow hair but that was just unattractive, not vulgar, LOL!!! It was truly an enjoyable event. People were throwing powder on each other; no one got angry with anyone for throwing powder on them and there was a bit of that going on. There was a guy who had a bag of purple powder who was walking through the crowd throwing powder on people before the run started. He got me with a tiny bit of it but I didn't care. That was what the run was all about! So, a well behaved group of people and it was nice.
While we were waiting for the run to start there was a guy who had a tank of the powder mixed with water, kind of like the tanks that exterminators use for their bug killer gunk, and he was spraying us as we got closer to the Starting line. That was fun. There were two "Color Stations" in the run as well. The first was just shortly after we got on the course. There were several people sitting on the side of the sidewalk with boxes of the powder and they were throwing it on everyone. I didn't expect that. I guess I expected something more like the tanks and having people being squirted. At any rate, you ran by the people and they threw the powder on you. If you wanted both sides colorfied you had to go on both sides of the sidewalk. That would've been pretty hard to do since there were so many people on the course at the same time. However, despite there being only two color stations and it being a little difficult to get to both sides at each station, I did get pretty colorfied.
All in all, this run was a ton of fun. I will say it again: If you get a chance to do one of these runs, DO IT! It's worth the training and the entrant fee. A few words of advice if you plan to do one: 1) Wear white. Wear as much white as you possibly can, white shirt, white shorts, white socks, white shoes....wear WHITE! 2) Wear sunglasses or some sort of eye protection. The powder got in my eyes and was yucky. 3) When you go through the color stations, put your shirt over your nose. The powder makes a big cloud and it's kind of yucky to breathe in, especially if you are running. Bring a handkerchief or put your shirt over your nose or something. 4) Don't run this alone. This would've been soooooooooooooo much more fun if I'd had at least one friend to run it with me. You really need someone along to take pictures with, goof off with and just have a great time with. 5) Don't take this run seriously. I don't mean, don't take your running seriously, for me the goal is always to run a full 5k and not have to walk and to put up my best effort and best time that I can. What I mean is this is an event that is all about having fun and goofing off. That's the whole point of this run so don't get bent when people are walking or dancing or goofing off on the course. That's the whole point of the run. 7) Don't take anything with you that you will be upset if it gets dirty. This run is messy. Put your cell phone in a baggie or some kind of running belt or whatever. Put your iPod in an arm band and keep it covered. Things get messy really quick. (I didn't even take my cell phone with me and left my keys at my car keys at my sister's friend's house for her to keep safe for me.) 8) Finally, have fun!!!!!! Dress up if you want to. Decorate your shirt if you want to. Be goofy but have lots of fun because that's what this type of run is about!
Now for the numbers! As I said, I had to walk some of this. It was hot and I'm out of shape AND I started out too fast. I ran 3.14 miles and my time was 38:24; my running site says my average pace was 12:14. That's a little slower than my pace on The Mill, but I did start out faster and ended up having to walk so this is an average of all the paces I ran through the whole thing.
Overall I'm satisfied with this run. Deep down I knew I was more likely than not going to end up walking some of this, especially since it was in the middle of the day and it was hot. I'm glad I wasn't hard on myself about this run. I am glad I could realize this wasn't about putting up my best time and that it was about having fun. I wish I would've had someone to enjoy this with. Next time I will make sure I have someone to go with me even if I don't have a running partner. Incidentally, I've never had a running partner to start with so that's not even really the issue. I just wish I would've had someone with me to talk with and enjoy the event with. All in all it was a good time!
Finally, there is still one week left to donate to the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure! Please help with this worthy cause. I've heard a rumor that this is the last year they are doing this run because they can't get enough donations. I don't know how true that is and I haven't researched it at all so it could be just a bunch of bunk but if it IS true, please, don't let that happen. Donate today! Here's the link: http://www.komenstlouis.org/site/TR/Race/General?px=1542226&pg=personal&fr_id=1150
Happy Running!
KEA
Okay, I realize I've got two posts marked with the same date. With the first post I just wanted to post that I had run the 5k and I was MUCH too tired to give the details. In this post I will talk about the run and give the details.
Before we go any further I would like to just throw out there that if you have not run one of these, DO IT! It is loads of fun. There, having said that, got that out of the way, let's talk about it!
This was not a race so I won't call it a race. This was a 5k run and the whole point of it was to have fun. It was held in my home town so this trip up was a good excuse to see one of my besties too. I got to town around noon and we spent the early afternoon taking pictures of my new inventory to post on my website. (I sell $5 jewelry and accessories; if you want to check that out, go to www.facebook.com/PaparazziByKarley or www.paparazzibykarley.weebly.com.) Around three o'clock I left to go pick up my run packet. The run was being held at a park that had been built near the neighborhood I grew up in. When I got to the park the parking lot was full but I lucked out and found a spot that someone must have just left. :-) The lines for packet pick up were long and it was chilly. I was a little concerned that I hadn't brought warmer running clothes. Then again, running warms you up so I guess it wouldn't have mattered if was chilly as long as it wasn't cold. While in line I chatted with the people around me. The woman behind me was with her daughter. Her daughter is a morning runner and the woman was a burn victim. She had lost several siblings to a fire. She didn't say but I assumed it was the fire that she survived. She had made T-shirts to support burn victims. The organizers of the race were donating to the Memorial Regional Burn Center. We chatted while we waited in line to pick up packets. The wait wasn't THAT bad although I've seen people complaining on the website that the wait was too long. Maybe I'm just naturally patient? Yeah, right....NOT! LOL!!!! Once you got up to the table it was quick and easy, although I do want to point out to the people who made the signs for packet pick up that N comes after M. The signs were labeled A - G, H - N, M - Z. HELLO!!!! Someone needs to go back to school! Anyway, packet pick up was a cinch except for parking and waiting in line. They gave me a T-shirt, a racing bib and a baggie full of pink powder. I wasn't sure if I was meant to start my colorizing early or what but I decided to save it and take it home to let my kids play with it.
My bestie and I had planned on having an early dinner and settling in early but packet pick up took longer than I expected then I had to run to WalMart and pick up a pair of jeans. I had set a pair out to put in my bag but somehow between setting them out and leaving they didn't make it into my bag. So dinner ended up a little later than we had planned. We have two traditions when I visit. We go out for Mexican the night I get there and one morning of my visit we go to IHOP. We have a regular restaurant that we patronize when I come to town. So one order steak fajitas and a strawberry margarita for me and an order of Texas fajitas, a raspberry ice tea, and a peach daquari for my bestie and a shared order of fried ice cream later we headed out to Verizon to have my phone checked out. It's been acting up. It intermittently works and sometimes it won't send/receive texts and then sometimes it says "No mobile network available". Oliver at Verizon said it was the SIM card and gave me a new one. The phone started working again then went back to its old tricks. Don't know what the problem is. I'm going to have to have it looked at again. Anyway....we made some stops, went back to my besties house, hung out then got to bed early. Well, she did anyway. I couldn't sleep so I stayed up and read until 12:30. That was okay though because the run didn't start until 11:00 and I didn't need to be there until 10:00.
Saturday was a bright sun shiny day and it was warm. I was up around 8:00, messed around on the computer and read some more, my bestie was still sleeping, and around 9:00 started getting ready for the run. The odd thing about 5k's is that most of the ones I run aren't really about racing. This is the fourth one I've run and of all of them only one was about racing. So, it seemed really odd that I had a kind of nervousness about me. I went over all my gear: white shirt, check...light colored shorts, check...sport bra, check...iPod charged, check...racing bib, check...shoes & racing socks, check...Garmin, check...water bottle filled half way the previous night and put in freezer, check! I was ready....oh, no, I wasn't! I had forgotten to bring safety pins for the racing bib and I had forgotten to pick some up while I was at WalMart the night before, and I had been there twice the day before! DOH! Luckily I had one from the strap of the cami I wore the day before and my bestie found three others. I was set.
Now, before I go any further, I want to explain something about my bestie. She has a hard time leaving the house in certain situations. For instance, going out to dinner the night before was okay because of the time we went and the restaurant we went to. As I said before it's a tradition and a place she's extremely familiar with and on top of that, it's usually not too crowded so it was easier for her to go. However, this race was a different story. I believe the count of people that were there was at least 3,000 and while I was running my bestie would've had to have been standing alone amidst all the others who were milling about. That would've been too much for her. She said she probably could have done it if she would've had someone to be with her but no one was available. So, for the first time ever I was alone. I've always run alone so that didn't bother me and it didn't bother me that my bestie couldn't go with me. It did bother me to be alone though. All around me everyone had someone with them. Everyone was having fun and enjoying the festivities but I was alone and there was no one to take pictures with, and believe me, if you do a color run of any kind you are going to want to take pictures, and there was no one to visit with while waiting for the run to start. I got there around 10:15. My sister's friend lives in the neighborhood that the run course went through and she graciously allowed me to park in her drive way. Thank you very much, Melissa! Her house was about half the distance of the run so I got a warm up walk in before I ran which I found very nice.
Upon arriving the first thing I had to do was find the bathrooms. I had only had a handful of chocolate almonds to eat so I wasn't heavy and I didn't have to GO TO THE BATHROOM, if you know what I mean, but I did need to pee and I figured if I was going to run I needed to run on an empty bladder or I would be stopping at Melissa's house to use the bathroom and that would cut into my time, LOL!!! Unfortunately, there were no bathrooms but there was a line of lovely Port-A-Potties. I know most of us have had the wonderful experience of the Port-A-Pottie but for those select few who have not.....Port-A-Potties are DISGUSTING! And for those who have had the experience let me reiterate, Port-A-Potties are DISGUSTING!!!!! Also there was no where to wash my hands when I was done. Yuck! So...after waiting in line (again) for the bathroom, I was quick because the potty I was in looked like someone else had some pre-run nerves and they weren't so lucky as me! GROSS!!!!
After using the potty I wandered around for a little bit taking in the scene. Almost everyone was wearing a white shirt. Some were wearing the shirts they provided; others were wearing their own shirts. I made a shirt to wear myself. I wanted to show off my Paparazzi bling so a friend of mine made me a shirt. Thanks, Melanie! Some people were wearing tutus. I don't understand that. Not sure how they could move comfortably in those itchy net skirts in that heat but I'm pretty sure none of the tutu wearers were running. I wandered around for a while to kill time. I thought a couple of friends were supposed to be there so I was sort of looking for them but given the crowd it's no surprise that I didn't find anyone I knew. After wandering aimlessly for a bit; I was hoping I wasn't looking too much like a loser who didn't have any friends, I decided to walk with a purpose and to find a place to do some stretching. It looked like people were lining up on the side walks so I meandered that way, picked a spot and started loosening up and doing some stretching. It was still pretty early but it turns out the lines were actually lines for the starting line so I picked a spot and stayed there. They played some dance music (step to the right...one hop this time....everybody clap your hands) and people were dancing and having fun while waiting for the run to start. Finally eleven o'clock came and it was time to start the run. The sidewalk made a circle with the Starting line at the top of the circle and I had somehow chosen a spot that was at the bottom of the circle. However, people were heading to the Starting line from both side of the circle so I being in the middle, I picked a side and waited. I picked the wrong side. The run started at 11:00. At 11:17 some of the first people, the fast ones, were already crossing the finish line and I was still waiting. While waiting I chatted with people in line with me. We were amazed that we were still waiting and people were already coming in. Long story short....I know, too late....I didn't get out on the course until 11:40, a full forty minutes after the race was supposed to start. AND the other line of the circle was already on the course by the time I even got close to the Starting line. Go figure! LOL! The really sucky thing was that me and the two ladies in front of me I was chatting with had FINALLY gotten to the Starting line and they cut us off into the next group. We had to wait another ten minutes before we could go out on the course. It was pretty warm too.
At 11:40 I finally got to head out onto the course. The first part of the course was fairly easy. The whole course was sidewalk, except when you needed to pass a group of people that was going slower than you. Then you had to go around on the grass which I really don't care for. But, as I said, the first part of the course was easy. I had good strong music blaring in my ears and I was in the zone. Unfortunately, I started the run out too fast and I think I wore myself out. There was a hill about a quarter of a mile in. It wasn't too bad though. Nothing I couldn't handle and it was the only hill in the whole course. But as I said, I started out too fast. I believe I was running at a pace of 9:56 which is too fast for me. I ran a full two miles but I just couldn't go any more. My body was tired and I was hurting. My legs were aching and my muscles were tired. I had to walk. I walked maybe about half a mile of the whole run. However, I was determined to finish the run running so I took off toward the end and I ran the finish.
As I said in a previous blog, I looked over the course to familiarize myself with it before I ran it and there was only one water station. We did run through the area twice so if need be there was another opportunity for water, but it was about a half mile from the finish so I decided that the best way to handle this run was to carry water. I found a bottle that you don't have to unscrew to open at WalMart that was only $1.50 filled it about half way full and put it in the freezer the night before. Right before I left the house I took it out of the freezer and filled it with cold water. The plan was that the ice would cool the water I put in the bottle and melt throughout the run, keep the water cool and keep the bottle replenished throughout the run. Unfortunately, we had to wait so long to start that the ice was melted before we were even close to the Starting line. However, warm water is better than no water so I wasn't complaining. I got pretty hot while running so it was good to have the water to squirt over me too. I only did that twice. I didn't want to run out of water to drink! This worked out pretty well. While I didn't much care for having something in my hand while I was running, I did like having water handy. I'm going to have to think about this. Having water handy is nice.
Now, on to a few comments about the run. There were at least 3,000 people at this event. That's a LOT of people. I want to say that I have never been in the presence of that many people where I didn't see a child throwing a temper tantrum, a teenager being sullen and buttheaded or people behaving badly. I did not see one person acting mean, nasty, gross, selfish or bad in any way. I will even go so far as to say that I did not even see one baby cry! And that's the truth! Everyone at this event was having a good time. It was truly a joy to see. While there was whooping and hollering, there was no unruly screaming and I didn't see one person dressed vulgar. I did see a girl in a wig with rainbow hair but that was just unattractive, not vulgar, LOL!!! It was truly an enjoyable event. People were throwing powder on each other; no one got angry with anyone for throwing powder on them and there was a bit of that going on. There was a guy who had a bag of purple powder who was walking through the crowd throwing powder on people before the run started. He got me with a tiny bit of it but I didn't care. That was what the run was all about! So, a well behaved group of people and it was nice.
While we were waiting for the run to start there was a guy who had a tank of the powder mixed with water, kind of like the tanks that exterminators use for their bug killer gunk, and he was spraying us as we got closer to the Starting line. That was fun. There were two "Color Stations" in the run as well. The first was just shortly after we got on the course. There were several people sitting on the side of the sidewalk with boxes of the powder and they were throwing it on everyone. I didn't expect that. I guess I expected something more like the tanks and having people being squirted. At any rate, you ran by the people and they threw the powder on you. If you wanted both sides colorfied you had to go on both sides of the sidewalk. That would've been pretty hard to do since there were so many people on the course at the same time. However, despite there being only two color stations and it being a little difficult to get to both sides at each station, I did get pretty colorfied.
All in all, this run was a ton of fun. I will say it again: If you get a chance to do one of these runs, DO IT! It's worth the training and the entrant fee. A few words of advice if you plan to do one: 1) Wear white. Wear as much white as you possibly can, white shirt, white shorts, white socks, white shoes....wear WHITE! 2) Wear sunglasses or some sort of eye protection. The powder got in my eyes and was yucky. 3) When you go through the color stations, put your shirt over your nose. The powder makes a big cloud and it's kind of yucky to breathe in, especially if you are running. Bring a handkerchief or put your shirt over your nose or something. 4) Don't run this alone. This would've been soooooooooooooo much more fun if I'd had at least one friend to run it with me. You really need someone along to take pictures with, goof off with and just have a great time with. 5) Don't take this run seriously. I don't mean, don't take your running seriously, for me the goal is always to run a full 5k and not have to walk and to put up my best effort and best time that I can. What I mean is this is an event that is all about having fun and goofing off. That's the whole point of this run so don't get bent when people are walking or dancing or goofing off on the course. That's the whole point of the run. 7) Don't take anything with you that you will be upset if it gets dirty. This run is messy. Put your cell phone in a baggie or some kind of running belt or whatever. Put your iPod in an arm band and keep it covered. Things get messy really quick. (I didn't even take my cell phone with me and left my keys at my car keys at my sister's friend's house for her to keep safe for me.) 8) Finally, have fun!!!!!! Dress up if you want to. Decorate your shirt if you want to. Be goofy but have lots of fun because that's what this type of run is about!
Now for the numbers! As I said, I had to walk some of this. It was hot and I'm out of shape AND I started out too fast. I ran 3.14 miles and my time was 38:24; my running site says my average pace was 12:14. That's a little slower than my pace on The Mill, but I did start out faster and ended up having to walk so this is an average of all the paces I ran through the whole thing.
Overall I'm satisfied with this run. Deep down I knew I was more likely than not going to end up walking some of this, especially since it was in the middle of the day and it was hot. I'm glad I wasn't hard on myself about this run. I am glad I could realize this wasn't about putting up my best time and that it was about having fun. I wish I would've had someone to enjoy this with. Next time I will make sure I have someone to go with me even if I don't have a running partner. Incidentally, I've never had a running partner to start with so that's not even really the issue. I just wish I would've had someone with me to talk with and enjoy the event with. All in all it was a good time!
Finally, there is still one week left to donate to the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure! Please help with this worthy cause. I've heard a rumor that this is the last year they are doing this run because they can't get enough donations. I don't know how true that is and I haven't researched it at all so it could be just a bunch of bunk but if it IS true, please, don't let that happen. Donate today! Here's the link: http://www.komenstlouis.org/site/TR/Race/General?px=1542226&pg=personal&fr_id=1150
Happy Running!
KEA
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Color Blaze!!!!
June 8, 2013
Ran the Color Blaze 5k today!!! It was fun. Will blog more about it later. I'm just too exhausted; wanted to get it recorded though.
Happy Running!
KEA
Ran the Color Blaze 5k today!!! It was fun. Will blog more about it later. I'm just too exhausted; wanted to get it recorded though.
Happy Running!
KEA
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