Running Army Wife

On Saturday morning , James and I went to the Wear Blue: Run to Remember running club. I had actually first heard of this club in an article in Runner's World , back in February. It started off as a club for Army wives and widows and now has expanded to anyone that wants to be a part of their mission to run to remember soldiers that have fallen for our country.  Photo by Ingrid Barrentine, source We gathered together and were each given a slip of paper with name of a soldier that had died on the dates of this week over the last couple years. We each said the name of our soldier and then were invited to call out the name of any other solider that you were running to remember. We ended with a prayer of protection for the soldiers and their families that are currently deployed and for those preparing for deployment. I found a friend to run 9 miles with me and we got a really great run in. There were several water and Gatorade stops that someone in the group had set ...

Join a running club once I move back to IL Finish Chicago Marathon (my first!) Finish at least 6 Half Marathons  1:50 Half Marathon PR Train Mocha to run with me Moka as a puppy.  What's that? You thought I had a cat? Well, that's correct. I have a cat. Mocha is actually my parent's dog. But since I'll be living with my parents while James is deployed, I decided I would try to train her to run with me. She is about three years old now, so now is a good time to train her (according to Runner's World anyway).  Perhaps it's a little soon to be thinking about New Year's resolutions, but since I know I'll be on my own, I figure it would be a good time to start thinking about what I would be doing with my time that year.   I'm thinking about an Olympic-distance triathlon too.. which is about twice the distance of a sprint. But training for a triathlon is a lot trickier since you have to fit in good swimming workouts and biking as wel...

Well, I've got some good news and some bad.. Bad news first? Okay. Well, hubby's battalion is going over for a 12-month deployment, starting in December. You may have heard in the news that they are starting to switch over to 9-month deployments. Well they are.. in January. So another battalion in James's unit is leaving in January and they will be there 9 months. James is leaving a month earlier and he will be there for 12. Dang it. I really hope something changes while they are over there. The good news? James almost got sent over mid-November to go with a team that goes over before everyone else. The only reason why he didn't is because his vaccines weren't ready yet. He's in the middle of the small pox vaccine (which takes 30 days) and he has to wait to get the TB test until the 30 days is over. So that's the only reason why he's not going sooner. Also, if he had left sooner, he wouldn't have gotten back sooner. It would have been a 12 1/2 mont...

Well, I would love to tell you that things are going smoothly, but it's been a little rough. Here are a few changes/notes about it so far: I totally forgot that we had the Zombie Dash 5k on Saturday. So I didn't do my long run. Zombies don't run long. They only run short, fast distances. I'm trying to keep Sundays totally free to relax with hubby and have a sort of Sabbath. Because of points 1 and 2, I did my long run on Monday (yesterday). It went well, except that I miscalculated on distance so I didn't get the full 8 miles in. My achilles has been acting up again. So I'm biking today instead of running 6 miles.. then getting back on schedule. Gah. Not really a good report of the first week. I'm running with a club at Fort Lewis on Saturday, which is their long run day. So I shouldn't have a problem getting that run in this week.

James and I did the Zombie Dash 5k in downtown Olympia this afternoon! Runners could register as either a human or zombie. Humans got a 2 minute head-start. Humans had these tails like in flag football and if a zombie got it, the human was then "infected." There was a prize for the first uninfected human to finish, the first zombie, and for the zombie to infect the most humans. So of course, we registered as zombies. I'm proud to say that James caught to most humans (26 total) and won a voucher for free running shoes! Yay!! I'm such a proud zombie wife. There was actually only 4 humans that finished uninfected I think. There was also a protest going on in Olympia (this happens a lot, since it's the capital) and the race route went right by them. I think we were the most entertainment of their whole day. Scary faces! James, that's not scary enough. One more. Okay in that one, I look like tired zombie. Oh well. Anyone else doing a fun halloween/thanksgiving rac...

I found this Carrot Muffin with Cream Cheese recipe a little while ago online. It's probably the most amazing recipe that I've discovered to date. I'll never be able to appreciate carrot cake from a box again. So I started thinking.. why not try this with a pumpkin muffin? Pumpkin and cream cheese? Yes, one of the best combinations ever. A visual of what you need: This recipe has three acts. Act 1: The Muffin (courtesy of Will Run for Food ) 1 package (18.25 oz.) spice cake mix 1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin 3 large eggs 1/3 cup vegetable oil 1/3 cup water 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Paper-line or grease 24 muffin cups. Blend cake mix, pumpkin, eggs, oil, water, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice. I decided NOT to beat with a beater because I wanted them to be a little denser and moister, a little more like a muffin and little less like a cake. Pour batter into prepared muffin cups, about 3/4 full. Act 2: The Cream Cheese Filling (courtes...

I was recently re-inspired to run in the morning by Runner's World "Rise & Run" article in the October issue. In college cross country, we had to get up a couple times a week and be at the track by 6am. Thankfully, I never had to run 400s around the track for being late, probably because my roommate was also on the team and didn't seem to have as much trouble getting up as me (thanks Bekah!). But I did love running in the morning once we started. The getting out of bed and the shivering bike ride on the way out to the track were not fun. But once I warmed up after the half mile or so, the morning runs were bliss. I still remember doing an out-and-back run with another girl from the team. We ran out in the dark, chattering along. When we turned around at the half-way point toward the sunrise, we both gasped at how beautiful it was. But holy cow, it's hard to wake up without that accountability. I told myself I would get up at 7:30 this morning to go running. Hu...