Mercedes Marathon Madams

As always the night before a race, I didn't sleep very well.  Nerves about the race and fear that my alarm clock wouldn't go off are the two main reasons.  A third reason is all the G2 I'd been guzzling down all day and night had me up at least twice.  I like to make sure I'm fully hydrated before a race and I probably overdo it just a little sometimes.

As it turned out, I didn't need the alarm clock to wake me up any way.  I was up before it went off.  Since the Murph wasn't going to be up at 5am and he's the one who usually makes the coffee in the morning, he got the coffee maker all ready so all I had to do was push the "on" button so I would have my caffeine race morning.  He was concerned that I wouldn't know where the "on" button was so he put a sticky note on the coffee maker pointing to it.  He was so sweet to idiot proof everything for me.   I think he was more concerned about what kind of damage this wrecking ball could do to the coffee maker.

It was going to be 29F at the start and sunny so I knew I wouldn't be cold after I got started running.  I actually wore too much.  I could have worn capri pants or even shorts instead of the long pants because I had on knee high compression socks that covered most of my leg.  I didn't need the arm warmers I had on under my long sleeve shirt either.  I was glad I had them on after the run though.  That's when I got cold!

I wanted to cross the finish line faster than I did at Mobile Half in January which was 1:56:49 something ( I don't remember the exact seconds, but it was right under 1:57 min).  I started off a little slower than I did in Mobile, but picked it up the last 5 miles thanks to a quick stop at the port a let.  My legs felt much better the last few miles than they did in Mobile.  I finished in 1:56:11 which was only seconds faster, but I'll take it.  Next year I'm going to train harder to go faster and maybe start doing speed work again and running more days than I do now.  I keep up with my training on my daily mile app that's to the left on my blog.  I don't have to look back through the weeks to know I don't run enough miles during the week.

Mel, the gal in the top picture wearing the tutu with the red sunglasses and head thingy, was the only one of us that did the full marathon and she did great!  She placed fourth in her age group.  Ken, aka Morgan Freeman, did the full as well, but you can only see his glove up there in that picture.  We took a picture of our group a couple of weeks ago when we did a trial run of the course and Ken, L and I were all leaning in so we would all be in the picture and realized afterwards that we didn't have to lean in and we looked pretty goofy.

This time Ken should have leaned in!

Here's the matching tech shirt, baseball cap and bling for the half marathoners.  I almost missed getting the cap at the finish line.  The shirt was in the race packet at the expo.  They also gave out gloves from The Trak Shak at the expo.

Photo from the Facebook page of Mercedes-Benz Marathon Weekend

I love the color of the shirt!  One of my favorite colors besides black, white or pink.

Overall it was a great race and a beautiful day!  And as usual, after the race there was Jim n Nick's barbecue sandwiches and plenty of beer.  I passed on the beer, but grabbed a barbecue to go so I could eat it later for lunch.  It smelled so good in the car that I ate it on the way home.  It became breakfast instead of lunch.  Delicious!

Mental note:  Next race don't hydrate quite so much before the race.

Snow In Alabama!

For a few hours yesterday, we had one of those rare Alabama snow storms.  This was about it for us and most was melted as soon as the snow flurries stopped, but it was very pretty while it was happening.  I'm ready for some sunshine and warmer weather now.

The Boy called several times yesterday as he added another class to his spring schedule.  This one had to have approval from the instructor.  The Boy has been taking the minimum he can and still be a full time student, which is 12 hours, 4 classes.  Now he has 15 hours, 5 classes.  He was excited, but nervous and wanted me to tell him he was doing the right thing.  I told him if he feels like he can handle this extra class then he should since he did so well last semester.

The new class is a 400 level class with only 3 or 4 students who will be coming up with computer solutions for different problems that the instructor gives them.  The Boy thinks he will do good in this class and I agree, he probably will do great since it's computer related.

 I just hope he does as well in history.

Mobile First Light Marathon

This time last year when we took the Boy back to college after the holidays, we went to the beach for a few days (you can find that post Here) and I ran in the Pensacola Beach half marathon.  It is a very fun, scenic half marathon that starts at the public beach in front of Crabs restaurant and runs out parallel to the beach and back.  If you aren't up for the full half marathon, there is turn a around for the 5K and 10K so you can decide during the run how far you want to go.  

My plan was to do that race again this year when we dropped the Boy off at school.  Unfortunately, someone (and I'm not naming names) forgot to reserve our condo for us for this weekend.  It's rented all of January and February, probably with some snow birds trying to escape the cold from up north.  This is good and bad.  Good because it's rented for two entire months, bad because we can't stay there until March.

Mobile First Light Half Marathon

Lucky for me, there was a race in Mobile, Alabama this weekend.  The Mobile First Light Marathon and Half Marathon.  I've done the half marathon before and really love the course.  I would love to do the entire marathon one day.  The half marathon is flat and runs through some very quaint, old neighborhoods and then along Government Street, Spring Hill Avenue and back in on Dauphin Street. I've heard the full marathon has some hills.

It was overcast, warm and humid, but not overwhelming.  I prefer warm to cold any day!  It was fun and everybody out there was friendly and seemed to be in good spirits.  Even The Murph made a comment about how everyone seemed to be having a good time.  I think it was because it wasn't freezing cold like Chickamauga Marathon and Mercedes Half was last year.  Maybe people are in a better mood when they aren't freezing.  I know I'm happier.

We dropped the Boy off at school on Saturday evening and tried to purchase his books, but the bookstore was closed.  I hope the Boy doesn't have any trouble getting them Monday.  This is the first time he will have to do it himself and sign up for a meal plan.  He didn't want to do it by himself and I am worried too, of course.  At some point he needs to get out of his comfort zone and do it himself.  It's not like he doesn't know where to go or how to do it.  This will be the fourth semester he's had to do it.

I started worrying about it on the way home today.  The Murph says I do way to much for him and he needs to do things for himself.  I have to agree on this one thing.  It would be different if the Boy did not know where to go or how to do it.  He knows what he's suppose to do, he just feels more comfortable when I'm there helping him.

I can't really blame him.  That little old lady at the bookstore can be very intimidating, but he has to deal with her because she's in charge of the financial aid distribution.  She doesn't take crap from him.  He didn't have his class schedule printed out when he went to get the books and she made him print it out so she could make sure the books were for those particular approved classes.  She wouldn't except just looking at them from his phone.  We had to find a printer and print it out.  I had already told him before we left the house to print it out, but he didn't listen to me.

I guess I need to text him and remind him to print that thing out before he goes to the book store.  Yes, helicopter parent I am!

More First Light Marathon/Half Marathon pictures below.  A short, but fun trip!

Roll Tide! With Only 1 Exclamation Point Because I'm Trying Not to Be Obnoxious

This is not a real post, but just wanted to say way to go Alabama!!  National Champions!  I'm really proud to be an alumni.  Sorry for the Murph who was rooting for the fighting Irish.  He felt he had to root for them since he's Irish and Catholic and all.

I will say I have absolutely avoided getting on Facebook the past 4 hours because 90% of my feed was probably a run down of the entire game, play by play with lots of exclamation points and Rollllll Tide and crap.   It can get rather obnoxious.

Ed agrees!  He knows which team to root for and he looks really cute doing it too.  Final score 42-14.

Way to go Bama!

Update!

Correction!  I was wrong.  I just ventured onto Facebook and I found that I was wrong.  90% of my feed is not about the game and Alabama's win.  It's more like 100% of my feed!  The game has been over for at least 45 minutes, but the fans are still going strong.  Apparently, there's even a line at Academy Sports for the new Championship t-shirts.  You can't get more obnoxious than some of these posts.  Even my mom is in on the Facebook action.  Isn't this past her bedtime?

The new t-shirt design that everyone is waiting in line for at Academy Sports... maybe.... only with the final score, of course.

One More Update!

This is the last update, I promise!  On Facebook this morning the Bama fans are still going strong.  I wonder if they got any sleep last night.   A few of my Facebook friends shared this photo from James Spann, our local weather guy.  He not only warns us when tornadoes are approaching so we can take cover, but he also shows us where to stand in line to get the latest National Championship t-shirts.  He's a multi-purpose kind of guy!

I wasn't joking.  See the line!

There's a lot of happy people in Alabama right now.  I may have to stay off Facebook for the rest of the week!

I Hate Telling People This...

Back about four years ago, when The Boy was a sophomore in high school, I decided we were getting the heck out of here and moving to Florida to be near the beach.  It was surprisingly easy to get The Boy to buy into the idea, even though he despises the beach.  It's too sandy and sunny and windy for him.  I think we were just both ready for a new start back then beach or not.

Because of the custody arrangement and the fact The Boy's dad lives here in Birmingham, I expected a battle of some sort.  In keeping with the demands of the divorce decree, I wrote The Boy's dad a long letter telling him we were moving and I would provide him with our new address as soon as we had one.  I sat back and waited, expecting a dispute.

I was shocked when there wasn't much of battle from his dad.  I don't even remember what the response was, but I do remember it wasn't much.  The Boy and I were good to go.

I informed my mom and she, of course, said no.  She said I didn't need to move.  Every once in a while I would get some sort of email card from her telling me to "listen to my mother!"  She sent a singing monkey card once that said I needed to listen to her and I was NOT moving to Florida.

During that time, I got a Florida real estate license so I was licensed in Florida and Alabama, I put my house on the market and I started looking for jobs in Pensacola since I didn't think I could make it on real estate alone down there.

Months went by.  My house sat on the market.  I couldn't find a job.  My mom sent me death threats (just joking! Only singing monkeys).

I got an offer on my house, finally, but it fell through.  Then, The Boy found out about a technology school that he could go to his Junior and Senior year to learn about computers/information technology. In the mornings he would be at his normal high school, but after lunch he would take the bus 30 minutes down the road to the tech school.  He really wanted to do it, so I took the house off the market and we stayed.

Unfortunately, for some time after that (and even now) people think I've moved.  For a while I would show up for local races and they would say things like, "Hey, I thought you moved to Florida." or "Didn't you move to Florida?"

For years I have had to explain that, "No, I'm still here.  Haven't moved. "  Sometimes I would give explanations, sometimes not.  It really got to be a pain.

Now The Murph and I have been planning on moving after Christmas and Florida and Georgia are on our short list, but we are open.  Wherever there are job opportunities,  since we both need real jobs at some point.  Which brings me to why I am writing this post.

Today I was in my car dodging traffic trying to keep up with The Running Nazi, when my cell phone rang.  It was B from my stock broker's office calling to tell me they can't direct deposit into my checking account.  I hadn't talked to her in a while so we started catching up.  I helped her purchase her house a few years back and my son and her daughter went to the same high school.

She needed my address and asked me if that was where The Murph and I were going to live after we were married.  I knew it was probably a bad idea to say anything, but at that point I told her we were moving.  I knew as the words came out of my mouth, where B was going to go with it.  Sure enough she said what 20 million people (I'm exaggerating) have said to me during the past four years, "Weren't you moving to Florida a few years ago???" And there's always this tone they have in their voice when the say it.  Or is that just my imagination?

I know!  I hate to even tell people we are moving.  The Murph and I have "been moving" now for at least 4 or 5 years.  We were moving before we even knew each other.  And we were both moving to Florida.  That's part of what makes us a good match, isn't it?  Wanting to move to Florida and all...

What makes it even worse is that we really do kind of live in both places now since there's the condo down there.  It just adds to the confusion.

We really have to move now or I'm going to have to stop telling people that we are moving.  Believe me, no body's more confused about what I'm doing and where I am than I am!  What if The Murph gets a job here and we stay?  Then for the next 5 years I will have to explain to people that we're still here.  Didn't move.  Why?  Why not?  Because...

I'm still here... damn it!

Triathlon Race Photos And The Beach Trip

Last Saturday The Murph and I drove over to Orange Beach, Alabama from Pensacola Beach, Florida so I could do the Alabama Coastal Triathlon.  We got up at 4:30 am to make the hour and 1/2 drive.  It doesn't seem like it would be that far, but we had to go up and over and stop and go through some small towns to get there.

There were two distances offered.  One was a full Olympic distance and the other was a very short sprint distance.  I did the very short sprint since I haven't been bike and swim training very much this year.

Okay, I confess!  I have done zero swim training since Ironman Canada 2010 and most of the biking I've been doing has been on the exercise bike at the gym instead of my road bike.  The Murph is my true, very loyal athletic supporter!

This is us right before the race start.  You can see from the waves behind us that the ocean was not very calm that day.  I was a little worried, but I have had to swim in much rougher water and this was a very, very short 300 yd swim.  No Ironman distance swim here!  Thank God!

It was cloudy in the beginning, but by the time I crossed the finish line the sun was out and it was clearing up.  Also, it was getting hot.  I was glad to be finished in less than an hour.  I love short triathlons right now.

This is me coming out of transition after getting off the bike.  Now it was time to do the run which was very, very short.   Only two miles.  That's it!

I'm thinking that my butt looks fat here in these shorts.  I doubt I will wear them again.  I may need to cut back on all those cookies I've been eating too.

Despite the lack of swim training and the big butt, I place third in the masters category and was the 10th overall woman.  I was very happy with that!

The night before the race, The Murph and I went to eat dinner at Jackson's in Pensacola, Florida.  I ate tons of bread with fresh butter and the most delicious steak and crab cake ever.  

This probably contributed to the bigness of my butt the next morning....

Oh well, it was worth it!

This is The Murph about to go in the water the other day.  He didn't know I was taking pictures of him.

I added our baby pictures to our wedding website last night.  This is The Murph's baby picture.   He's such a cutie!

I tried to scan this picture in and post it on his birthday post in July, but I couldn't get the scanner to work.  I have been trying to scan things and print for two months now and couldn't get the dang printer to work.  Then right out of the blue it just decided to start working last night.

Go figure!

Ambiguities From The Boy

Yesterday evening I was sitting outside on the porch swing talking to the Boy on the phone and watching the sunset through the trees in our neighborhood.  It caught my attention because it was striking and looked like the trees were on fire.  I mentioned this amazing sunset to the Boy and he said the sun had already set where he was, which is only about 240 miles south of where I am.  I always thought that since he's directly south of me that it would get dark about the same time.

Now I didn't realize there was such a difference in sunset times between Birmingham and the coast.  I questioned him.

"Was he SURE it had set already?"

He said it was probably because he's at sea level and I'm at a higher elevation.  I had trouble believing him and questioned him again about just how dark it was there.  He said again that it was almost dark, but not totally dark.  Doubtful, I asked him again if the the sun had gone down.

He said  "YES! It had!!"

Perplexed and curious about this sunset mystery (I just got back from spending a week at the coast and didn't think the sunset times were any different there than here), I decided to google sunrise/sunset times in Alabama today just to see the exact sunset time here and the exact sunset time where The Boy lives.  I would have expected from my conversation with him last night that his sunset would be a few minutes before mine.  Imagine my surprise when I see that my sunset time is actually 5 minutes earlier than his sunset time.

 Now, he told me the sun had already set where he was, but mine had not.  I have to ask, Was it cloudy there and he was just incorrect in his sunset assessment?  Was he just not paying much attention to the position of the sun and wanted me to shut up about sunsets in general?  Are the charts on the internet just all wrong??

 Or is he on a road trip somewhere east of here (where the sun would have already set) and just making me think he's at school studying hard.

I haven't had time to question him on this discrepancy, but it probably won't do any good if I do...