Showing posts with label Statue to Statue 15k. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Statue to Statue 15k. Show all posts

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Happy Mom's Day!

It's so good being back in Birmingham (briefly) showing the house today and taking my mom to breakfast this morning. My nephew came along as well. I guess it isn't hard to tell who the eaters are in my family! It's the ones who show up for breakfast.

Here I am with my mom and I'm shoving ice or something in my mouth, dumping water down my shirt and being a wrecking ball even back then.


At races I'm still dumping water and ice down my shirt. Some things never change!

I made sure I ran with Little L this morning before the breakfast pig-out fest. We ran our usual 10 mile loop and I have to say, I am going to miss running with her on our familiar loop. I ran yesterday with our little group too. We ran almost 9 miles of every hill we could find in Mountain Brook, except the big one on the Statue to Statue 15k. That one is on the other side of Mountain Brook and we didn't run that long.

One thing I never do on Mother's day anymore is ride my bike. My worst bike crash ever happened on Mother's Day about 15 years ago. I landed right on my head and ended up in the hospital with a concussion and plenty of road rash, not knowing what happened or how old I was or where I was even though I was told a billion times. No short term memory. I fully recovered (my husband would argue that point) except for a scar on one of my shoulders.

I was out of the hospital the next day, but to this day I never bike on Mother's Day. In the past, I would do Gulf Coast triathlon on the Saturday before Mother's day so I was "recovering" on Mother's day, no chance of getting on my bike. I wouldn't have anyway!

The Boy is still at school and plans to stay there and work this summer. He was accepted into a research project with some of his professors and a few other computer students. I knew the Boy wouldn't remember that it's Mother's Day so I of course I called to remind him that he needed to wish me a happy Mother's Day! Lord knows I earned it with that kiddo!

The Boy is taking care of his cat, Phantom, who has heart disease and has to take medication every day. I've called him the last couple of mornings to remind him to give the cat the meds and by the time I call, he's already given them to Phantom. I was worried that he would forget, but it looks like the Boy is taking good care of the cat. He was really glad to see Phantom and Phantom seemed happy too.

Phantom is such a boy's cat. He loves hanging out with the Boy and his friends. He just tolerates me. They both do! That's okay because I'm tolerable.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mom's out there!

Sunday, April 21, 2013

The South's Toughest 15k


I am still recovering from the "little" 15k race I did yesterday. There were a few rolling hills in it. Actually, they were more like rolling mountains, but what can you expect from a race that claims to be the "South's Toughest 15k" and the route is almost entirely in a city south of downtown Birmingham called Mountain Brook.

The race course is a point to point race starting near Vulcan Park and the Vulcan statue and ending near Liberty Park and Birmingham's own version of the Statue of Liberty. My running partner, L and I got to the race start early to meet another friend M and to pick up our race packets. There was a blue and yellow ribbon in all the race packets to wear in support of Boston and the bombing that took place during the Boston Marathon. Also, $1 of all the race entries is being donated to help the victims of the bombing. I think the Red Cross was there to take blood, but I'm not sure and I needed my blood after running those hills so, like I said, I'm really not sure if they were there or not. I didn't look for the blood mobile. I'm kind of a chicken that way!

Image from mRuns.com
Image from mRuns.com
Image from mRuns.com
Images from mRuns.com

The morning started out an usually chilly 40 degrees F, but quickly warmed up and turned out to be a beautiful day. I haven't run this race in about 8 years or more and really didn't remember it being so hilly and tough. The biggest hill is around mile 7 and it was steeper than I remember and I walked more of it this time than I remember doing the past times I've run this race, but that's okay because I'm much older too! I also may have a mental block on the hills.

My goal time was under 1 hour 20 minutes and I made it in 1:19:33 so I was very happy with that time even though it put me fourth in my age group. Since the third place winner did right at 1 hour and 11 minutes, I didn't feel too bad. There are just some freaking fast 45 - 49 year old women here in Birmingham! And it is a tough race! 

I probably won't be living in Birmingham next year to do this race, but I am so glad I got to do it this year before I leave and for those of you who live in Birmingham, I highly recommend it. You will appreciate the pain! I promise! It will make you mentally tough or maybe just mental! Anyway, today my quads are a tiny bit sore and I'm walking around kind of funny, but by tomorrow I'm sure I'll be good as new.

This was my fourth weekend race in a row and I'm not sure what I'll be doing next weekend since I have nothing on the schedule for once. Might be a good weekend to get a long bike ride in or there is a triathlon about an hour away from Birmingham that I could do. We'll see!


Image from David Christy Photography
Image from David Christy Photography




The real statues that the race is named after...

Image from Wikipedia.com

Image from birminghamrealestate.com